Relativity

Posted on Fri Jun 5th, 2020 @ 3:23am by

Mission: Cruel Meridian
Location: USS Majestic
Timeline: MD 07
689 words - 1.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Two men stood in the corridor than connected most of the senior officers' quarters on deck three. A passerby would have easily spotted the engineering jackets worn by both of them, but in the small hours of the morning, there were no passersby to notice them or the flickering display mounted in the wall between them. Its state of repair seemed to be the source of a dispute, one that was carried out in hushed voices owing to the concentration of sleeping officers nearby.

"No, that can't be right. I'm telling you, I fixed this panel yesterday!"

"Yeah, right, sure you did. You know I'd be more inclined to believe you if you had completed literally any of the other assignments that have been given to you since we left the starbase. You're a real piece of work, Malone, you know that?"

The pugnacious sounds of disagreement exchanged between crew members began to rise towards the boundary of accusation and hearsay. Just as the their debate began to bubble over, both engineers dropped the issue when the unmistakable sound of boots walking on deck plating echoed from somewhere out of view. Judging by the increasing volume, whoever was in those boots was quickly approaching from around the corner.

"Shhh, keep it down," said one engineer to the other. "People are sleeping, and not just any people. This is where the senior officers have their quarters."

"Don't tell me what to do. Just help me finish this repair and then we can both go and join them. In being asleep that is, don't read too much into that statement. Shhh, yourself!"

No sooner had the sibilant left the lips of the taller man than the sound of the footsteps stopped before the person making them came into view. With a puzzled look, one of the engineers carefully placed his tools down on the floor and walked off in the direction where the sounds had been coming from a moment before. There had been no tell-tale pneumatic hiss of the doors opening into someone's quarters, no hum of the site to site transporters whizzing someone's molecules away to who knows where. Whoever it was must have simply...stopped.

Which is why it was all the more curious to the engineer when he rounded the corner and saw nobody standing there. He took a few extra steps ahead, but apart from the empty corridor, the only thing he saw was the double doors leading to the turbolift. Looking back the other direction resulted in more of the same emptiness. Shaking off his incredulous look, he shrugged and walked back to where his partner was still working on re-soldering connections to the display panel. Clearly, his look of disbelief still lingered, because just one glance by the other engineer was enough to provoke a question.

"Seen a ghost?"

"No, nothing as antiquated. I saw. . .well, I saw nothing."

"Oh, weird. Commander Hanover just walked by with a guitar case a moment ago. You couldn't have missed him. Apparently, he didn't hear us earlier, cause I tried to apologize about the noise, but he was the one apologizing about making a racket earlier. Dunno what he was talking about, do you?"

"You saw Commander Hanover?"

"...well, yeah, I did. You couldn't have missed him, he walked right by here when you disappeared around the corner."

"That's it, I'm calling out fatigued. I must be seeing things. Or not seeing them, as the case might be. Look, I'm sorry man, but I'm clearly not any help right now. You can finish this by yourself, right?"

"It'll probably take an hour, but yeah, don't worry about it. These things are so easy they basically fix themselves, you know?"

Simultaneously, both engineers looked back towards the panel, only to see that the display was illuminated and functioning properly with the Majestic's crest rotating slowly on the screen. They exchanged a blank stare, asking each other the same question without actually saying it.

WIthout a word, both men picked up their tools and went their separate ways.