One Year Earlier - The Distress Call

Posted on Fri Feb 6th, 2026 @ 7:48am by Captain Steven Jenkins

628 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: One Year Later…
Location: USS Yorktown Bridge
Timeline: T-28 Hours Until Frontier Day

Steven sat in the centre seat on the Bridge of Yorktown. The Bridge bustled with activity. Steven rose from the seat, moving over to the front of the Bridge, where Lieutenant Malcolm Peters sat, manipulating the controls.

"What's our ETA to Earth?" Steven asked with a small smile "I'm looking forward to seeing the old girl."

"We'll be there in 18 hours." Malcolm replied with a smile of his own "I'm just looking forward to seeing Janey and the kids again."

"You know you could have brought them with you, Lieutenant." Steven remarked simply.

"I could," Malcolm said "But we both know sometimes taking the kids on the ship isn't the best thing. Sometimes they need to be left back home for their own safety. I don't think it would have been good to have them around for that little incident with the Pakleds last week."

Steven stifled a laugh. The younger man at the helm was referring to a confrontation Yorktown had gotten into. It hadn't been the worst skirmish; it had barely scratched the paint. That said, the computer virus the Pakleds had uploaded to try to trigger a core breach had required a full system restart to purge. Doing that had meant shutting off life support through most of the ship briefly. Thankfully, the lack of civilians onboard had meant congregating everyone into specific areas had been easy.

"Point taken." Steven finally replied "Still, I didn't turn out too bad for someone raised on a Starship."

"You were raised on Mars, sir." Malcolm corrected "You were only born on a Starship."

Steven rolled his eyes. Malcolm was a good man, and a trusted confidante, but sometimes the evenings spent drinking and reminiscing about their respective youths had a tendency to come back to bite Steven. That damned eidetic memory of Malcolm's meant he always remembered every little detail, and he loved to show it off.

Before Steven could make a rebuttal, there was a beeping from the tactical console. Steven stood up straight, moving straight over to the tactical station where Lieutenant Dhanc, the Deltan Chief of Security stood. The man looked at his console exclusively, barely glancing up at Steven.

"Commander, we're getting a distress call." Dhanc said, manipulating the controls "It's coming from the Kurlyakin, a civilian freighter. They've encountered an ion storm. Class four."

"Captain Shrak to the Bridge!" Steven called as he tapped his comm badge, before moving back towards the centre of the room "Lieutenant Peters, set an intercept course for that freighter. Maximum warp."

"Commander, need I remind you that general order 47 prohibits vessels exceeding warp five without express permission from Starfleet Command." Lieutenant Commander T'Lek looked back from the Ops station.

"Commander T'Lek, that same order stipulates that in the event of an emergency, the speed limit can be ignored." Steven remarked with a small grin as he made his way to the centre of the seat "Code one Alpha Zero requires we respond to any and all distress calls, and a class four Ion storm makes this an emergency."

"What are you two arguing about now?" Captain Shrak spoke as he stepped onto the Bridge, walking round and standing just ahead of Steven.

"Distress call. Class four Ion storm." Steven said simply "I gave an order and our lovely second officer decided to quote regulations at me."

"I see." Shrak said, before turning and making his way to the centre seat, sitting down "Mr. Peterson, set an intercept course. Maximum warp."

"Yes sir." Malcolm said, keying in the Command "Ready on your order, sir."

"Engage." Shrak said as Steven took his seat to the Captain's right, watching as the stars outside began to streak by as Yorktown leapt to warp.

 

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