Opportunity of a lifetime

Posted on 23 Aug 2017 @ 12:40pm by Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant JG Olivia Matthews

1,231 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: Earth - San Francisco
Timeline: MD 39: 1300

ON:

HG was looking down the manifest. She had managed to fill in most spots but there were still a couple of holes and considering they were expected to leave like tomorrow in the morning it was coming down to pucker time. She hated this aspect of the work, dealing with administrative stuff. It was just so much easier to just isolate herself and push numbers around in a computer.

One glaring hole was that they did not have anyone really versed in anthropology or archaeology and from what she had read on the Akkadians there were ruins or evidence of their presence elsewhere though most indicated they no longer had much space faring. That was interesting to her, as why would a people slide backwards, they had not even colonized their own considerable potential worlds. The system itself held four, FOUR places that supported life. A gem of a system. There was some sort of riddle that itched to be answered and the Akkadians themselves were not much forthcoming since almost no information on the culture or the history.

Every contact in the civilian side were busy or too far away to make it in time. That left what was available here on Earth and in Fleet. Even there most were busy but one name had popped up and she had sent a message to one Lieutenant Matthews to swing on by her office. The message had been her typical curt style, "Got a project you might be interested in, perhaps opportunity of a lifetime. Have clearance from Fleet to recruit Fleet personnel. Star Fleet sciences building, office 4345G, 1300." HG had only sent that out this morning and then had been busy since and barely made it back in time. In fact, she was running a little bit late and was heading down the hallway to the office.

Olivia pondered the message she had received earlier that morning. It was curt and almost cryptic; an opportunity of a lifetime could mean a lot of things to a lot of people. Either way, she was intrigued enough to make her way to the Star Fleet sciences building.

She checked her watch as she arrived at the office mentioned in the note. It looked empty and dark. She was a little early; she hated being late so it didn't bother her to wait. She resisted the urge to pull out the book she was reading. She doubted she'd have to wait long and disliked leaving off in the middle of a paragraph as so often seemed to happen. Shortly thereafter, she was glad she had waited as she saw a woman moving hurriedly down the corridor. Olivia smiled a bit to herself; her gut said this was who she was supposed to meet with.

HG's current interest was the nature of time, what it really was. There were some ideas and some that dealt with the movement of space. As she strode down the hallway she was pretty convinced that she knew how the universe would end. It would all implode in a big suck from the trillons upon trillions amount of paperwork. One day there would be a critical mass of the stuff and then *POOF*, that would be it. She was still thinking on that when she spied a woman, good looking, blonde haired, blue eyed with lieutenant junior grade on her Fleet uniform. She had that perky almost surf girl look. HG smiled, she could spend some time in bed with that. Her smiled grew wide and she stuck out a hand. Of course her half wrinkled blouse and creased old leather jacket was a stark contrast to the neat uniform.


"Lieutenant Matthews I presume? Helena Wells thank you for coming and please pardon me for being late. I detest late, but I am convinced the universe will one day wink out of existence being sucked into a big black hole composed of bureaucratic paperwork. Please come on in and have a seat."

Olivia chuckled. "That sounds about right," she said as she followed Helena inside. "I was intrigued by your message," she continued, "it sounds like quite an opportunity." She assumed she was one of many people the commander was talking to based on her slightly wrinkled clothes and harried walk. She continued through to the Helena's office and took a seat, her back ramrod straight, hands clasped in her lap.

HG could not help but note the way the woman sat. She had done that since boarding school and had vowed not to have to do that again if possible. Oh she could be formal as heck when the occasion arose but she tended to avoid those occasions.

"We have permission to go the the Akkadia system. There is some preliminary work for the siting of an observation post on a M class moon there which the Akkadians call Ryn. The Akkadians seem to be a closed mouthed lot and not much is known. There have been indications they had colonies elsewhere but abandoned for a long time. Not sure if there is anything on Ryn, but it would seem logical if considering the stellar colony ruins that we have found. So.....a chance to maybe discover something or it maybe nothing. Completely unknown. We have one Akkadian going with us but not sure how much you might get out of them, nor could I guarantee that you might make it to Akkadia either. Still interested?"

Olivia raised her eyebrows in surprise. If they actually found something, this would be a discovery that people talked about for years to come. She would be a fool to turn something like this down. "Absolutely," she said, trying to not let her excitement overwhelm her. She desperately wanted to be part of a group that found something on that Akkadian moon.

"Very good. Well then consider you have the job. I will of course have to get your official orders but I have been given quite a bit of leeway so that will not be a problem. The big problem is we are leaving tomorrow morning. So not much time to get your things together......oh and please travel light, and say any goodbyes. If that is acceptable?" HG peered at the woman.

Olivia shrugged slightly. She hadn't even unpacked from arriving the other day and she couldn't remember the last time she saw her father in person. She doubted he would even see a message from her for weeks. She would send a short note to her best friends, Alex and Jaime, but otherwise she didn't have many people in her life. This type of assignment suited her perfectly. "Perfectly acceptable," she said. "I will look forward to leaving tomorrow."

"Very good," HG stood and put a hand out, "welcome aboard and en es loci arcanum tu*," HG said.

"Thank you," replied Olivia as she shook HG's hand. "Good day." She turned to leave as she pondered the commander's interesting choice of parting words. She was quite looking forward to this opportunity.

HG took the hand and then sat watching the pert backside walk away. She had to mentally smack herself a moment to get her thoughts back to what she needed to do.

OFF:

--
HG Wells
Civilian scientist
[NPC Allyndra illm Warraquim]

Lt. JG Olivia Matthews
Anthropologist/Archeologist


*take us to your mysterious or secret place roughly

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