Well This is Interesting
Posted on Tue May 19th, 2026 @ 10:06am by Lieutenant JG Abrasax & Commander Peter Horn & Commander Hiro Sommers-Yoshida & Lieutenant Alena Alessa & Glinn Vaaet Pazon
1,387 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Episode 9: Across Time
Location: Docking Ring, Section 1C, Tube 4A
Timeline: Current
ON:
Petty Officer Dalen Rourke shifted carefully through the narrow maintenance tube that curved along the inner structure of Deep Space 21’s docking ring. The junction space was clean, Starfleet engineering standards saw to that, but it carried the quiet stillness of places rarely visited. His tricorder chirped softly as he completed the routine diagnostic sweep of the environmental regulators. Another uneventful maintenance cycle, he assumed.
As Rourke reached a small access junction when his eyes caught something wedged against the inner lip of a conduit bracket. It was small, metallic, and out of place in a corridor that had likely not seen regular traffic for years. He reached out and dislodged the object carefully.
The Starfleet combadge rested in his palm, its surface slightly dulled but otherwise intact. In the steady, muted lighting of the maintenance tube he turned it over, studying it with a puzzled expression. Nothing in this quiet stretch of conduit suggested how something like this could have ended up wedged behind a structural bracket. Curious, he opened his Tricorder and ran a quick scan. The display flickered briefly before settling on the device’s metadata, and Rourke frowned. “Twenty years?” he murmured.
He tapped his own combadge almost immediately. “Rourke to Engineering.” A brief crackle of static followed before the duty officer answered. Rourke shifted slightly in the narrow tube, still looking at the badge resting in his hand. “I’ve found something in a junction conduit on Docking Ring C, about thirty meters from Science Lab One. It’s a Starfleet combadge… and according to my Tricorder it’s been here for roughly twenty years.”
A young Cardassian male worked on some of the computer coding that seemed to not accept an update, it made Gil Orlin mad as he hit the console for a fourth time. He registered that Rourke's voice was on the intercom. 20 years old Starfleet combadge? Orlin mused. As far as he knew Starfleet didn't have possession of Deep Space 21 back then.
"Rourke, its Orlin, I'll be right there." He best thought that they leave it where it is. Orlin quickly made his way there and joined Delan. He had a Cardassian scanner in hand grinned at the Starfleet engineer. "Well let's do a scan?"
“Alright.” Dalen said. “I already used my own Tricorder to scan it, but it won’t hurt to do a second scan. This is an odd find, so it’s best to be sure it really is a 20 years old combadge.”
"I'm not calling you a liar, just want to make sure you are correct." Orlin agreed and scanned it with his Cardassian version of the tricorder, not quite as advanced compare to Starfleets but still did the job. "Yeah it is definitely a Starfleet combadge, but why is it 20 years old and how'd it get here are probably the questions that are important."
He frowned. "Probably should get the senior staff on this," Orlin said several moments later after the identity of the combadge's assigned owner's name came up on both their tricorders' displays: Ilyas Horn." Orlin wasn't sure why the name took this long to register, maybe the age of the combadge.
“That’s Commander Horn’s son! How…” Dalen started, but stopped himself from going further. First priority was to inform Command of their find. Speculating wouldn’t help them much. He tapped his commbadge. “Dalen to Commander Horn.”
"Horn here," came the almost immediate response, though the Vulcan's voice had an odd tone to it. He sounded tired, almost defeated.
“Sir, we found something that you need to see. Tricorder scans indicate it’s connected to your son.” Dalen turned the commbadge in his hand around once more and looked at the backside of it. “And I think Commander Sommers-Yoshida would also be interested.”
"Ilyas?" The pitch in his voice changed as he replied. "Captain Yoshida, please join me in the Docking ring, lock on to my commbadge." Within seconds he ordered a site to site transport for himself and he appeared before the two crewmen as if out of thin air. "Report."
Hiro was in his office at Ops when he received the call, just about to contact Abrasax to see how his research of the beacon was coming along. Without asking his XO why he simply said, “On my way.”. The site to site transport was swift and accurate as Hiro materialized a mere meter from Peter.
“What’s the hurry, Commander?”
Emotions plain in his usually fairly controlled features, the Vulcan hybrid turned towards Hiro. "They found something, connected to my son." His voice shook with unbridled concern. "Do you know where he is?" He asked, turning back to Orlin.
Orlin held his hand out to the Starfleet engineer and then motioned for Dalen to give the combadge in his hand to Horn. "If you would do the honours?" Orlin said at Dalen with a smile.
“Here it is, sir.” Dalen said as he offered the XO the combadge. He wondered how the Vulcan Commander would react. The average Vulcan wouldn’t show any emotion, but Mr. Horn was no ordinary Vulcan.
"That combadge belongs to your son Commander," Orlin explained. "The interesting part is it is 20 years old."
Peter reached out with a trembling hand, unable to fathom what he was told. "You are certain of the dating? How did he end up there?"
Alena had been roaming the starbase when she sensed people nearby. She recognized commander Horn's voice. She heard some of the talk. Deciding to check it out, she headed their way. By the time she reached the group, she found a group of worried people and a Commander Horn who was clearly distressed. "What's going on?", she asked as she noticed the
combadge. "Ilyas?" she asked as her newest mystery trinket, a pair of earrings, shaped as wings and carved in pearls, reacted.
Not by a lot, but significant enough for her to notice. She hadn't put them on yet. She pulled the earrings out of her pocket. "They are reacting to this", she said with a frown. "It's the newest mystery trinket I've been given. The other trinkets reacted to the beacon. What if the beacon and this combadge are connected?", she asked no one in particular.
"I don't have that answer Commander, I'm sorry," Orlin's words held sadness. He had heard about the Beacon but nothing about the details. "Perhaps Sciences can better accommodate you, and your question as well Counselor?" Orlin glanced over at Dalen before turning back to Horn.
Orlin deactivated his Union tricorder and stepped back. "Please excuse us as we have duties to complete sirs, ma'am."
"I'll bring these to Abrasax then. He has the other mystery trinkets I've been gifted lately", Alena said. She looked at Commander Horn. "We'll get him back. One way or the other. No man is going to be left behind. Not as long as there is a choice to save them", she said to the man. "I'll get going. Please keep me in the loop", with that she left, heading straight to the Science lab. She had plenty to tell Abrasax. Especially the earrings' reaction to Ilya's 20-year-old combadge. She hoped that there would be a connection between the 2 items, which they could use to bring Ilyas to safety. Because right now? It felt like a ticking time bomb.
"We better join our Counselor." Hiro said is he turned his head slightly to his left to look at Peter. "There's a chance Abrasax made some headway with analyzing the beacon and Alena's pendant and other trinkets. If we're lucky then Ilyas' combadge might help speed up his research."
Peter nodded solemly, making a mental note to write some for of commendation for the duo that had found his son's commbadge. But how had that ended up twenty years into the past. And if time has passed, why hadn't the boy left some kind of message? "I agree," he finally spoke, "the sooner we have him back, the better it is."
Gil Orlin played by Abrasax
Cardassian Union Engineer
Deep Space 21
Lieutenant Alena Alessa
Chief Counselor
Chief Diplomat
Deep Space 21
Commander Hiro Sommers-Yoshida
Commanding Officer
Deep Space 21
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