Delays, Delays
Posted on Sat Jan 24, 2026 @ 1:40am by Lieutenant Commander Jason Haines
Edited on on Sat Jan 24, 2026 @ 1:40am
665 words; about a 3 minute read
Mission:
Chicken Run
Location: Jason Haines' Quarters
Timeline: 1 Minute Before the Ball Starts
Jason looked in the mirror and straightened his uniform. He hadn’t worn his dress uniform since Academy graduation. He wanted to make sure to look his best for Alanna. They hadn’t been out together for some time.
As he was getting ready to walk out the door, his communicator chimed.
“Go ahead”, Jason said, thinking it was Alanna telling him she was ready.
“Ensign Karok here sir. Sorry to bother you as I know you have plans”, the voice said.
Jason was glad that his third crewmate had arrived, but he was not so happy to be interrupted tonight.
“Go ahead”, he replied.
“You know that temporal alert you showed me?”
“Yeah”, Jason said.
“It just activated sir”, was the response.
“Crap”, Jason exclaimed.
“If I might ask sir, what is it for. Can I help with anything sir?”
“Not unless you have a deep understanding of temporal and dimensional physics”, Jason said scowling.
“Can’t say that I do sir", the Ensign replied
“Then get your dress whites on and go to the ball. If anyone gives you grief, send them to me. Stay close to the Commodore, without standing out.”
“Aye, sir, I’m on my way.”
Jason went to his terminal and reviewed the data. Indeed, a temporal distortion on Risa. Without the portals on both ends it would have been hard for anyone from any version of Risa to get here. That said, if his theory was right, anyone in an alternate Risa would be able to get to this dimension’s Risa. And if it was, who he thought it was, there could be trouble here.
“Computer, start capturing images of Vulcans coming on board the station. Disregard vetted Starfleet crew and assigned Science team members. Send all images and information to my system account until I tell you to stop, encryption level goodwin black, authorization code Haines alpha delta charlie 21.”
For really important things, he didn’t use regular Starfleet encryption. His god father had created a code when he and his father worked together. To this date it had never been broken or discovered in Starfleet encryption banks.”
“Affirmative”, the computer replied.
“Go n-ithe an tochas thú!”, he cursed in Gaelic as he closed his terminal and started to get up when there was a ‘shoomp’ sound. He shook his head; he knew that sound.
“What’s up George”, he said knowing who it was before looking.
“You are getting good at that”, his friend ‘George’ replied. His real name was too hard for Jason to pronounce.
“Sorry to bother you kid, but I needed to tell you that something is up in my neck of the woods”, George continued.
“What’s happening?”, Jason asked.
“I don’t know”, George replied with a shrug.
“You don’t know”, Jason asked with a glare.
George shook his head.
‘Alanna’s going to kill me’, Jason thought.
“Ok, do you know who might be doing whatever it is you don’t know?” Jason asked.
“No, it’s sort of one of those intuition, gut feeling things”, George said. “Sorry, I know it’s not much to go on.”
“It’s not anything to go on, my friend”, Jason replied.
George’s muddy, brown face blushed yellow.
Jason felt a bit bad for being so sarcastic to his friend.
“Look, you’ve been a big help in that past, so I trust you implicitly”, Jason said. “I really appreciate you popping in. I’ll keep an eye on my side and let you know if I see anything odd.”
“Good idea”, George said and disappeared with another ‘shoomp’.
Jason banged his head on the wall a couple of times. Two potential problems with not enough proof to go to the Commodore, but dangerous enough to keep him on edge.
Straightening his jacket he left his room muttering, “Maybe Alanna won’t notice me getting drunk in the corner.”
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Lieutenant Commander Jason Haines
Commodore’s Bodyguard
Deep Space 5
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