“They must hand out commands like candy in the regular fleet these days.” Akinola paced up and down his small bridge.
Commander McBride watched him carefully. Akinola was not a man to become impatient easily or to make snide remarks, an unmistakable sign then that the veteran officer was boiling with frustration. After all it wasn’t bad enough that Starfleet had decided to take over a carefully planned mission to apprehend a dangerous criminal mere hours before it had been due to commence. And it wasn’t just that now a seemingly rouge Starfleet officer had commandeered a well-prepared vessel and taken off to do God knew what. No, to add to the mounting woes the very same man who had taken over his operation had blindly stormed after the rouge officer, seemingly more determined to hunt down those who had dared to defy him than trying to save what could be saved from this entire mess of a mission.
Thirty minutes had passed since the Heracles had departed for Eteron. McBride knew that it would take Schwarzkopf about half that time to get there. Not quickly enough to catch up with the freighter but more than enough time to make an even greater mess of things.
Akinola froze and looked at the screen. “Hail them again.”
McBride did. For the third time. And for the third time he gave the same reply. “They are not responding.” He stood away from the comm station. “Either they don’t want to talk or they can’t.”
The skipper frowned. “It's a direct violation of Starfleet regulations to ignore a hail from a friendly vessel. I'm sure they teach that in the regular fleet just as much as in the Border Service.”
McBride nodded. Schwarzkopf did strike him as a man who would defy regs lightly. He turned towards ops. “Mister T’Ser, can you get a fix on the Heracles?”
The Vulcan operations officer checked her instruments. “She’s definitely in the Eteron system but we are too far to get more detailed readings.”
“We’re going after her.
The first officer looked at Akinola. “Is that wise, sir?”
“You think I’m worried of what Schwarzkopf might do if I ignore his so-called orders?”
McBride shook his head. “Oh no, sir, I know for a fact that you don’t care what that man thinks of us.”
A tiny smile twisted Akinola’s lips. It vanished quite quickly. “I don’t like this one bit. And I can’t shake that feeling that something has gone wrong.”
“With that pompous head of hot air calling the shots that wouldn’t be a surprise at all.” Solly Brin hadn't looked up from his station, apparently having intended to keep the remark under his breath and yet everyone on the bridge had caught it. Nobody disagreed.
“Hail the Sacajawea.”
It took longer than usual for the other ship to answer and when it finally did, it took Akinola by such surprise, he needed a moment to remember what he had wanted to say. The man on the screen looked absolutely awful. All the color had drained from his face and he had a slick film of sweat covering his forehead. His eyes were bloodshot and he generally appeared as if he should have been in sickbay instead of the bridge. His condition did not help to improve Akinola’s currently low regard for the officers serving in the regular fleet.
“This is Captain Akinola of the Bluefin, who am I speaking to?”
“Commander Mahoney. How can I help you, Captain?” His voices sounded off-balance as if he had problems composing his speech.
“Excuse me for saying this, Commander, but you do not look well. Should you be on duty?”
Sacajawea’s first officer looked more embarrassed than anything else. He quickly adjusted his hair which was a grave mistake as it had been the only part of his head in decent shape. “I just had a bad night, sir. Nothing to worry about.” He managed to sound slightly more confident on his second try. It wasn't much of an improvement. “Is there something we can do for you, Bluefin?”
Akinola decided to honor his request and did his upmost to ignore the man’s apparently sickly condition. “We will be heading for Eteron to investigate the situation. The Heracles has failed to reply to our hails. We could use some help.”
“I’m afraid I do not understand, Captain.”
The older man forced himself not to roll his eyes at Mahoney. He couldn’t be sure if he was naturally dense or if it had been brought on by whatever it was he was suffering from. “I would like you to accompany us to Eteron in case the Heracles has run into more trouble than she can handle.”
Mahoney’s face looked as if he was torn as to how to respond. “Well, you see the problem is, we have been given strict orders by Captain Schwarzkopf to maintain our position and I cannot in good conscience disregard those orders.”
“Have you attempted to make contact with Schwarzkopf?”
“Uh, no.”
“Perhaps you should try, don’t you think?” Akinola was beginning to lose his patience with the acting captain of the Sacajawea. He didn’t dare raise his voice however. The man looked so fragile at the moment, he might have fallen apart right in front of his eyes if he had tried to pressure him.
“Given the circumstances I’d be more comfortable to hold our position until I get new orders.”
Akinola had enough. “Very well, Commander. Akinola out.”
Mahoney disappeared from the view screen.
Solly Bin opened his mouth for another observation but Akinola beat him to it. “Don’t say it, Chief.”
The Orion nodded and kept the comment to himself.
The captain turned to his first officer. “Get Gralt on the line. Tell him I need those warp engines yesterday. I don’t care how much as long as we can get there within the decade or so.”
McBride nodded sharply and opened a channel to engineering.
While Akinola took his seat again he noticed a peculiar event taking place a mere few meters in front of him. Ensign Lennox Okonedo - his nephew - had entered the bridge, hesitantly, and very slowly approached the helm station to speak with Lieutenant Bralus in a hushed tone.
When the young ensign caught Akinola’s disapproving glance he quickly stopped, ready to make for a quick departure.
The captain of the Bluefin never gave him the chance. “Ensign, what do you think you’re doing?”
The man swallowed but eventually found enough of his voice to reply. “Sir, I had previously agreed with the lieutenant to swap shifts with him.” He spoke in a subdued voice and didn’t appear sure on how to finish and so he added a, “sir.”
“And you really think this is a good time for playing loose with ship operations, Ensign?” Akinola’s powerful baritone voice was a stark contrast to Okonedo’s. The young man tried to look to Bralus at the helm for help but he had no intention to coming to his rescue. He tried McBride instead.
“Don’t look at the first officer when I talk to you, Ensign. I’m your commanding officer and you will have to answer to me.”
McBride leaned slightly into Akinola. “Sir, Gralt has cleared the engines for a maximum speed of warp three.” He gave the young African a sympathetic look. “As for Lennox, he received top marks at the Academy for flight control so I thought it be a good idea to give him more experience at the helm. That was before the current situation developed, that is.”
Akinola eyes continued to pierce his young nephew.
“I understand this is not a good time, sir.” He began to paddle backwards towards the turbolift.
“Ensign Okonedo.” Akinola spoke so forcefully he stopped him in his tracks. “Speak up when you address a senior officer.”
“Yes, sir,” he replied hesitantly but with a lot more volume this time.
“Good. Now if you’d be so kind as to plant your backside into the seat at the helm station and relief Mister Bralus. Set a course for Eteron and engage at warp three.”
Okonedo was momentarily stunned.
“Whenever your schedule allows for it.”
The ensign nodded sharply. “Aye, sir.” Spurred into action he quickly took over the helm station from a grinning Bralus. To his credit it took him no time at all to find the right controls. “Course set and engaging.”
McBride smiled at the captain but Akinola’s grim expression quickly caused him to drop it. He was not going to let the crew enjoy the fact that he had decided to take it easier on his nephew. In fact he had no intention to do so at all. And now that he was on the bridge he could keep a much closer eye on the recent graduate.
As Bluefin jumped to warp Akinola pondered that perhaps he had been too quick to judge the officer’s serving in the regular fleet for their shortcomings. Perhaps it was the Academy who didn’t turn them out like they used to, not that a mustang officer like Akinola had ever held high regards for the institution in the first place.