The Adventures Of The Night Shift By Rob Versteegt
It was a quiet night aboard Starbase 311. Ensign Alan Jameson, who was in command of the nightshift, sat in the Captain's chair, and stared at the viewscreen. ~Man, I'm bored.~ He thought. He looked around Main Operations. There weren't a lot of people. All the senior officers were fast asleep. Only the most important stations were occupied. "Crewman Mulkahey." Jameson said. "How’s everything at Ops?" Crewman Mulkahey sighed. "Alan, that must be the 20th time you asked me. You know everything is fine, so why bother me?" "Jane, I’m sorry." Alan said. "But I'm bored. There's nothing to do." Jane smiled. "So why did you accept command at the nightshift then?" Alan sighed again. "I thought I would be a step closer to a promotion... But if I had known that it would be this 'interesting', I wouldn't have done..."
Alan was interrupted by the chirping of his communicator. =/= Crewman Ba'a'an to OPS, please respond! =/= The crewman sounded distressed, so Alan answered immediately. "Ensign Alan Jameson here." He said. "What's the problem?" =/= I'm not sure...=/= the crewman replied. =/= But I'm sure I heard something, and... AAAAAAAHHHH!!!=/= "Hello?" Alan tried to get the crewman back on the commbagde, but he didn't answer. He looked at Ops. "Jane..." he said. He didn't really know what to do. Should he inform the senior staff? No, he knew this was his chance to impress everybody. He knew if he would wake the Captain and the others, he would be known as 'the ensign who could, but didn't dare'. ~I must solve this myself.~ "Jane." He said again. "Can you trace that signal?" Jane started tapping her console. "I got it." she said. "Deck 95, section 47. It
came from Crewman Ba'a'an's quarters." Alan stood up from the Captain's chair. "Jane," he said, while he moved towards the turbolift. "You have Ops. I'm going to check it out." Before Jane could stop him, Alan stood in the turbolift, and the doors closed. ~Let's see what's going to happen...~
At deck 95, section 47, the turbolift opened, and Alan walked out. He looked at a bulkhead nearby, and saw there was a phaserlocker. He tapped at the console, which caused the locker to open. Alan got a phaser from it, and closed it again. ~Maybe I'll be needing this...~
There it was. The quarters of Crewman Ba'a'an. He walked towards it, and was about to open the door, when he heard a child's voice behind him. "Hey mister, have you seen my Talarian hook spider? It has escaped from his cage again!" Alan turned towards the child. "Did you say a Talarian hook spider?" The child nodded. "I kinda collect them. I already have 5 of them, and I want to have more, but my mommy doesn't like that!" Alan smiled. "I can believe that." He knew that those spiders could be as long as 1 meter and 20 centimeters. "I will keep an eye out for it." Alan said. "But now I have to go. See ya later..." He hoped the child would go away, but he didn't. He was still searching for his spider. ~Ah well... Better concentrate at the task at hand.~ Alan tapped the console next to the door of crewman Ba'a'an, to let him know he was here. But there was no response.
~What has happened to him?~ Alan thought. Suddenly he thought about something: Ba'a'an could be shot, or murdered. Alan closed his eyes, and decided to go in. "Computer." He said. "Override securitylock on this door, security code Jameson Alpha 1." The doors opened, and there Alan saw Ba'a'an lie down in his bed, next to a huge spider. "Ehm, kid?" Alan said. The child ran towards the spider, picked it up, and hugged it. The spider didn't seem to like it, but he had no choice. As the spider was carried away by the child, who was about as tall as the spider, the child said: "Thanks for finding my spider!" Then he ran away, shouting: "Mom, I have found him!"
Alan sat down next to Ba'a'an, and gave him a slight push. "Crewman, wake up..." Ba'a'an started to blink with his eyes, and sat straight up. "Where is that spider?" he shouted. "The spider is gone." Alan said, calming the crewman. "But why did you call Ops? We heard you scream." Ba'a'an looked away from the ensign. "Well, you see..." he sighed. "I'm a bit... scared, when it comes to spiders. I heard something, and I thought it was a spider from that horrible little boy from next door. Well, it seems I was right..." He sighed again. "I really hate spiders... I must have fainted when that big creature walked in... I'm sorry ensign..."
The next morning the first officer came to Ops. Ensign Jameson stood up. "Transferring command to you Sir." He said. "At ease ensign." The FO said. "Did anything interesting happened last night?" Jeff grinned a bit. "No Sir." He said. "Nothing out of the ordinary..."
