Chapter Text
As soon as the bridge announced that the Cerritos had docked at Starbase 80, Rutherford began making his way to the airlock. After stepping off the turbolift and turning left at the intersection, he spotted Ransom and T’Lyn approaching from the other direction.
“Hey Captain, T’Lyn,” he greeted the duo as all three of them turned again to pass through the airlock.
“Lieutenant,” Ransom greeted in reply, then gave him a knowing smile. “On your way to meet Lieutenant Tendi?”
The Cerritos had just returned from an exploratory mission to an alternate universe. They’d only spent a week on the other side of the rift, but D’Vana had left two weeks before that to visit her family on Orion. It was the longest he’d been separated from her since they’d started dating, and he’d felt her absence keenly. Those three weeks had seemed more like three months, and he’d been counting down the days until she returned. That number was now at zero, and the transport she’d booked passage on was scheduled to dock at Starbase 80 shortly after the Cerritos.
“Yup!” Rutherford cheerfully confirmed as the trio entered the connector tube. “Where are you guys off to?”
T’Lyn answered his question as they continued walking. “Commodore Freeman has already read the summary of my preliminary report on the universe we visited. Evidently, she found it intriguing enough to request an in-person briefing.”
“Huh,” Rutherford thought aloud. “I wonder why. I mean, sure, the differences were interesting, but I don’t think we have anything to worry about from those guys.”
“Me neither,” Ransom concurred. “Just between the three of us, I don’t think the commodore is worried about security. I think she misses the adventure, and talking to someone who actually went to the other side brings her a little closer to the action.”
The trio reached the other end of the connector tube and crossed through the airlock into Starbase 80. The starbase had become a major priority for Starfleet after it became the gateway to the multiverse, and Starfleet had invested heavily in giving the starbase the overhaul it desperately needed. The increased tachyon density around the rift prevented the installation of any brand new, state-of-the-art technology. But Starfleet had still been able to modernize many of the starbase’s systems and address the starbase’s enormous maintenance backlog. Gone were the days of dim lighting, leaky pipes, and rusty panels falling off walls.
So were the days of needing to use decon gel before entering or exiting the Starbase. That system had been replaced with a newer biofilter field that you simply walked through as if it wasn’t even there, which Rutherford was thankful for. As eager as he was to tear off D’Vana’s clothes and run his hands over every square centimeter of her skin, he didn’t really want an audience for that.
The trio parted ways as they entered the starbase, with Ransom and T’Lyn headed to the upper levels where Freeman’s office was located, and Rutherford headed to the other side of the docking ring where D’Vana’s transport would be arriving. He walked through the corridors with a spring in his step and a smile on his face. As he neared the transport’s docking port, he could see through the windows that the ship was already floating nearby to the starbase, waiting in position while the connector tube extended out to it.
He came to a stop near the airlock, joining a small crowd of other people who were waiting for their friends or family just like he was. After a few moments, the airlock slid open and the transport’s passengers began pouring through. He stood there for several minutes, watching as other people reunited with their loved ones. The area around the airlock steadily emptied out. The flow of people disembarking the transport slowed to a trickle. Eventually, a quartet of bolians wearing matching outfits stepped through the airlock, and the door slid shut behind them.
Rutherford’s smile turned into a concerned frown. The bolians were presumably the flight crew, and if they had left the ship, that meant there was nobody left on board. They turned to leave the area, but he quickly moved forward and intercepted them.
“Hi,” he greeted them. “Are you the flight crew for that transport? My fiancée was supposed to be on board, but I didn’t see her get off the ship.”
One of the bolians gave him a friendly smile and pulled a datapad from her pocket. “What’s your fiancée’s name?”
“D’Vana Tendi,” he replied.
A few moments passed as the bolian woman typed D’Vana’s name into the datapad and ran a search.
“I’m sorry,” she said apologetically as she put the datapad back in her pocket. “Her name isn’t on the passenger manifest.”
One of the other bolians spoke up. “There were some maintenance problems going on at our last stop. A bunch of their docking bays were down and they had a ton of ships waiting for a berth. Your fiancée probably just missed her connection.”
“Yeah, probably,” Rutherford agreed. “Thanks for the help.”
Rutherford felt silly as he turned and began walking back the way he’d come from to return to the Cerritos. He’d been so eager to see D’Vana that he hadn’t even checked the status of her itinerary before coming to meet her. And since subspace communication through the multiverse rift was impossible without a special relay in the alternate universe, he hadn’t even been able to talk to her for the last week.
She probably just got delayed somewhere, exactly like that bolian said.
Meanwhile, Ransom and T’Lyn arrived in the lobby outside Freeman’s office. Freeman’s assistant informed them that the commodore was wrapping up another meeting, so they sat down to wait. After a few minutes, the door to Freeman’s office slid open and several officers departed. Freeman herself appeared in the doorway a moment later, and a smile spread across her face.
“Captain, lieutenant,” she greeted the duo and gestured for them to follow her into her office. “Come on in. I want to hear all about your latest mission.”
Rutherford stepped inside the quarters he shared with D’Vana and crossed the room to sit down at the LCARS terminal on his desk. He tapped some buttons to bring the terminal out of sleep mode and then opened his personal inbox.
Zero new messages.
He frowned thoughtfully and a moment passed in silence.
“Computer,” he called out. “Load the itinerary for D’Vana’s return trip to the Cerritos.”
The computer gave him a negative bleep in response. “Unable to comply.”
“Why not?” he demanded.
“The specified itinerary does not exist.”
A bad feeling settled in the pit of his stomach.
So… she canceled her return trip, but also didn’t send me any messages? Something’s not right here.
“Computer,” he called out again. “Open a subspace channel to the Tendi estate on Orion.”
The computer gave him another negative bleep. “Unable to comply.”
“Because?” he snapped.
“The specified subspace network address is not valid.”
“What?!” he exclaimed in a stunned voice. “That address hasn’t changed in two hundred years! How is that even possible?!”
“Unknown.”
“Incredible,” Freeman breathed. “A universe where everyone is an empath.”
“Almost everyone,” Ransom corrected. “There’s a small minority of people who are born without empathic abilities.”
“That minority is so small that a lack of empathic ability is considered to be a disability in their Federation,” T’Lyn added. “There have been several attempts to create an exception to the ban on genetic engineering, in order to provide better treatment options for this perceived defect.”
“A visit by a crew with almost no empaths must’ve been quite a shock for them,” Freeman inferred.
“That’s putting it mildly,” Ransom confirmed. “We left them with a lot to think about.”
“It sounds like they gave us just as much to think about,” Freeman noted.
“Indeed,” T’Lyn agreed. “The sociological impacts are quite fascinating. It is unfortunate that Lieutenant Tendi was not present for this mission. Her grasp of sociology exceeds my own, and I believe she would have had additional insights.”
A slightly confused look appeared on Freeman’s face. “Lieutenant Tendi?”
A moment passed in silence as T’Lyn and Ransom shared a confused look of their own.
“Yeah,” Ransom replied in a puzzled tone. “The Cerritos’s co-senior science officer.”
“Oh!” Freeman reacted, looking mildly surprised. “I didn’t realize you’d decided to promote someone else.”
T’Lyn and Ransom’s confusion turned into concern.
“He did not,” T’Lyn clarified.
“That was the last personnel change you made before your transfer,” Ransom added.
“Jack, I have no idea who you’re talking about,” Freeman informed him in an earnest voice.
T’Lyn and Ransom shared another bewildered look. Then Ransom tapped his commbadge.
“Ransom to Boimler. Gather the senior staff. And Lieutenant Rutherford. We have a big problem.”