This is a short filler segment, part of a much larger set of fiction stories I'm working on. Many of these character appear in other segments.


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Setting: Police Station Cygnus, Year-155


A three-vehicle convoy pulled up to a shopping center about two kilometers outside the spaceport. A police woman moved a barricade and pointed for them to park next to the SWAT van. Crewman Richard Moss parked the truck and shut the engine off. Petty Officer Second Class Shannon Kennedy looked over her shoulder. “Grab the gear,” she ordered, “you know what to do.” She exited the truck and looked for the officer in charge. Another policemen pointed her to Lieutenant-junior grade Douglas Costello.

She walked up to him and stopped herself from saluting. One does not salute in a tactical environment, she remembered at the last second. The SWAT team leader was a stickler for such things. “Sir, what’s the situation?”

“In there, the pharmacy, fourth business on the right,” Costello pointed at the two-story mall. “There was a break in this morning. One of the employees was in early to accept a routine shipment, and surprised two men taking medical supplies and drugs off the shelf. She fought them off.” He laughed. “She’s in my self-defense class.”

“Good for her, sir. I hope she’s okay.” Kennedy took Costello’s military hand-to-hand combat class, of course. The civilian version was, if anything, more brutal. He taught women to fight to survive at all costs. Kennedy almost felt sorry for the suspects. Almost.

“She’s fine, but they took her to the hospital just to be sure. Anyhow, the suspects escaped. My guys have secured the area, and no they didn’t contaminate scene. I need your forensics team to find something, anything, that might identify who the perps are. We still have fugitives on the loose, as I’m sure you’re aware. I want to know if they did this or not. If it turns out these aren’t our guys, hand everything over to the local police.”

“Understood, sir,” Kennedy replied. She led her team into the mall. More police had roped the area off to keep gawkers back. Fortunately, Cygnans were not a very curious people; most simply went about their day’s business as if nothing was wrong. Petty Officers Jorge Rios and Derrick Hall were standing guard at the pharmacy’s main entrance. She looked inside. Oh, this was going to be fun; the aisles were littered with merchandise knocked off the shelves during the fight.

Rios gave her the body cameras that belonged to Costello and his SWAT team. He said they were the only ones to enter the pharmacy, to make sure it was clear of suspects. Rios had already bagged and tagged them. She initialed the evidence log and put them in a case.

Her team got to work. First, they suited up in coveralls, gloves, and shoe covers. Crewman Moss helped Petty Officers Paul Pashranni and Eleanor Ortega set up the equipment, staging it on folding tables near the door. Kennedy pulled the hood over her head and put a mask on. “I’m going to do a walk through. McGregor, with me.”

Crewman Earl McGregor also covered his head and put a mask on, and picked up a tricorder. He followed his supervisor as she walked carefully down one aisle and back up the next. She pointed to items that the team would need to collect. McGregor made a video record of her every movement; there could be no suggestion later in court of ‘planted evidence’. She walked down a third aisle and were halfway back up the last when she saw someone walking towards her.

“Get out of my crime scene,” she yelled at Lieutenant Commander Atta Jamar. He wasn’t wearing any protective coveralls. At least he put the booties over his shoes, but still. Really? What was he thinking?

He stopped. “I need to speak with you, Petty Officer.”

“OUT! Now!” She pointed. He turned to leave. “Carefully, sir. Do try to walk back out in your own foot prints.” She told McGregor to record the officer’s departure, in case he disturbed any evidence. The pair finished their initial inspection and exited the pharmacy.

Kennedy pulled her mask down. “Where’s the Exec?”

“He left,” Rios answered. “He said for you to report to the commander when you’re done here.” He read her face. “He came in and asked where you were. When we told him, he just slipped the boots on and away he went. What was I supposed to do? Tackle him?”

Kennedy glared at him. “Next time, shoot him.” The others were not at sure she wasn’t serious. “Okay, let’s get to work. Standard tricorder sweeps. There’s blood at the end of aisle two; take multiple samples. It looks like someone had their face pushed up against the glass, so try to pull the print. This is a public store, so it’s probably a waste of time lifting fingerprints, but let’s see what we can pull on the shelves where items were stolen.”

Over next two hours, Pashranni and Ortega painstakingly collected evidence. McGregor and Moss recorded their every move. Kennedy logged each item as it was bagged and tagged. She had Pashranni check the restrooms for evidence because, hey, criminals are stupid and leave traces of themselves everywhere they go. Once she was satisfied they had collected everything possible, Kennedy notified the store’s manager. She requested that he take an inventory and provide the police with a list of everything he believed to have been stolen.

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Petty Officer Kennedy and her team returned to the police station, along with the two escort vehicles. That was standard procedure, to send a protective detail with the forensics team, least someone try to steal the evidence before it could be processed. Kennedy supervised the transfer of everything they collected to the lab techs. She prioritized which items should be examined first, which had the best odd of identifying the suspects.

She went to the locker room and changed into a fresh uniform, and then went to the commander’s officer. The door was open. Four people were in the room. She knocked on the jamb. “You wanted to see me, sir?”

Chief Petty Officer Charles Baumann turned and said, “Petty Officer, I believe you were told to report to the commander. Try again.”

Kennedy was taken aback. Was she in trouble? Well, yes, she did yell at a commissioned officer. She took a breath, composed herself, knocked once loudly on the jamb, and waited for the commander to say “Enter.” She marched to his desk and stopped one-halve meter in front of it. She snapped to attention and saluted. “Sir, Petty Officer Shannon Kennedy reporting as ordered.”

Commander Miguel Hernandez stood up and returned her salute. He did not tell her to stand easy. He picked up a PADD, looked at it intently, look at her and back at the PADD. “So, Forensics Technician Second Class Kennedy, I was informed that you yelled at Lieutenant Commander Jamar today.”

“Sir, yes, sir. I did yell at the Exec. He was in my crime scene, sir.”

Hernandez’s eyebrows shot up. He looked over at his second-in-command. “A.J., you left that part out. What were you thinking?”

A short laugh escaped from Forensics Technician First Class Steven Peacock. “Good for you,” he told Kennedy. He, too, stood in front of the commander’s desk, but somehow was allowed to stand easy.

Chief Baumann shook his head. “I hope you were polite about it.”

“Ah, no, Chief, I can’t say I was,” Kennedy admitted. She looked over at Jamar. “I apologize for that, sir.”

Hernandez looked the PADD again for a long moment. “Well, putting that aside, Petty Officer Second Class Kennedy, you have caused me a bit of a problem.”

Kennedy, still standing at attention, had no idea what else she might have done. “I’m sorry, sir. If I knew what the problem is, maybe I could explain.”

Hernandez looked at her and then back at the PADD. “Petty Officer First Class Peacock, I asked you here today because I’d like to hear your assessment of Petty Officer Second Class Kennedy’s performance. How do you rate her technical abilities? What do you think of her leadership skills? I need an honest answer, your candid opinion.”

Peacock glanced over at his compatriot. “Her technical skills are first rate, sir.” He paused. “If there’s a problem with some piece of evidence, sir,” he pointed to the PADD, trying to guess what the commander was reading, “I would be very surprised if she, or anyone on her team, made a mistake in the collection process.”

A small smile crept, very briefly, onto Hernandez’s face. “No, I must commend you both. This station has never had a single piece of evidence compromised under your watch. In fact, the Inspector General just gave the entire forensics shop a laudatory rating.” That was their highest rating. “Petty Officer First Class Peacock, please continue. What else can you say about Petty Officer Second Class Kennedy?”

Peacock took a breath. “Well, sir, her team looks up to her. As a leader, ah, Chief Baumann and I have talked about her. He thinks she’s ‘too nice’ to her troops. I thought she lacked backbone; that is, until today when I heard she yelled as the Exec.” Everyone except Kennedy chuckled at that; she simply blushed. “Also, the way she handled Swanson and Graham when they had their misunderstanding a few days ago, well” he looked at Baumann. “I heard that after you left the room Chief, she really lit them up.” He looked back at the commander. “Lastly, sir, I believe she deserves a Letter of Commendation for how she handled the tactical situation over at the warehouses the other day.”

“Thank you for that, Petty Officer First Class Peacock.” Hernandez didn’t tell them, but he had just signed such a document earlier that morning. He looked at the PADD again. “Petty Officer Second Class Kennedy, you have given me a problem. I now have to figure out how to resolve a personnel issue. A very serious issue, indeed.”

“I’m sorry, sir, I don’t understand,” she replied.

“I shall explain to you, Petty Officer Second Class Kennedy, and to you as well, Petty Officer First Class Peacock, because this may involve you, too.” The two petty officers looked at each other in confusion. “I don’t know if you know this,” Hernandez continued, “but this station’s manning authorization only allows us to have one Forensics Technician First Class on the roster. So, which one of you wants to transfer out?” He smiled and handed Kennedy the PADD with the newly-released promotion list.


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And yes, they do things like that in the real life military. I had something like it happen to me twice, once for SSgt and again for MSgt.


Garth L. Getgen

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Tuesday, August 13, 2019 - 08:14 pm: Edit

Possibly relevant to Star Trek fans: Viacom (IE., since 1994 the owner of Paramount Pictures, who owns the various Star Trek film franchises) and CBS (which owns the various Star Trek TV show franchises including 'Discovery', the upcoming 'Picard', etc, alongside all the previous series) are getting the band back together, again.

They'd been separate companies since 2006, when CBS was dumped by Viacom in an effort to be more profitable...although since then, CBS has done far better than Viacom had, and so the two companies are now re-uniting.

…although as many news articles covering the merger point out - the combined company would still be vastly smaller than Comcast (NBC and Universal pictures, etc), AT&T (CNN and Time Warner films, etc), or Disney (ummm...Disney).

By Will McCammon (Djdood) on Wednesday, August 14, 2019 - 05:07 pm: Edit

It will be interesting to see if the "must be 20% different" requirements put on ST Discovery will remain, now that all the bits and pieces are all under one roof.

By Xander Fulton (Dderidex) on Thursday, August 15, 2019 - 12:43 pm: Edit

Most interesting possible result of this: Discovery keeps on keeping on with its own story "on TV", but their Pike/Number One/Spock...get a series of movies.

By Mike Dowd (Mike_Dowd) on Sunday, September 22, 2019 - 11:54 am: Edit

RIP Aron Eisenberg, who died yesterday from (likely) kidney failure at 50.

He played Rom on DS9.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/star-trek-deep-space-nine-actor-aron-eisenberg-dies-at-age-50-1.4604763

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Sunday, October 06, 2019 - 01:48 pm: Edit

New trailers have been posted for season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery and for season 1 of Star Trek: Picard.

On a side note, in Canada, the channel formerly known as Space has been re-branded to CTV Sci-Fi Channel.

By A. David Merritt (Adm) on Sunday, October 06, 2019 - 02:25 pm: Edit

Gary, both videos are unavailable in the US.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Sunday, October 06, 2019 - 02:55 pm: Edit

Do these links work for you instead? (They don't work here in Canada, at any rate.)

By A. David Merritt (Adm) on Sunday, October 06, 2019 - 03:38 pm: Edit

Yes they do, thank you.

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Monday, October 07, 2019 - 12:50 am: Edit

So the Romulans are using War Eagles again, with forward beam like weapons near were the SFB version has them

By Glenn Hoepfner (Ikabar) on Monday, October 07, 2019 - 11:58 am: Edit

Never understood why the warbird design of TOS had been ignored. Lack of fancy pomptails? Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to seeing the new series (Picard) when it comes out on DVD at the library if I'm still alive.
Kinda less impressed with Discovery (though, again, haven't seen season 2 yet. I need to get a laptop or something to play episodes after I find them at the library (I was successful with season 1 last year and was impressed on how many major characters were killed off but getting a little tired of the alternate universe approach. Getting overdone )).

By Mark Hutton (Trynda1701) on Wednesday, October 09, 2019 - 05:40 pm: Edit

Got to admit, when I watched that second trailer, I got goosebumps when I saw the original TOS style Romulan War Eagle style ship.

Definitely a WTF moment!

By Michael Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Thursday, December 05, 2019 - 06:06 pm: Edit

I heard on NPR that DC Fontana passed away.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._C._Fontana

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Sunday, December 08, 2019 - 05:53 pm: Edit

It's being reported that Rene Auberjonois (Odo from DS9) has passed away.


Garth L. Getgen

By Michael Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Sunday, December 08, 2019 - 07:07 pm: Edit

https://boingboing.net/2019/12/08/rip-rene-auberjonois.html

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Monday, December 09, 2019 - 12:23 am: Edit

Startrek.com has posted its own marking of René Auberjonois' passing.

I thought it might be apt to make a mention of What We Left Behind: the recently-released documentary on Deep Space Nine which, among many other things, notes how Odo's evolution as a character helped shape the distinctiveness of this entry in the on-screen Franchise.

Hopefully there might be an opportunity for Star Trek: Picard to consider one or more of the potential story threads "left behind" by DS9, as it seems set to do with both The Next Generation and with Voyager.

By Gary Carney (Nerroth) on Tuesday, December 31, 2019 - 11:55 am: Edit

Star Trek: Picard has already been renewed for a second season.

Also, for anyone keeping tabs on this latest batch of Short Treks, the upcoming Children of Mars episode will act as a lead-in to the Picard series.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Friday, January 10, 2020 - 05:27 pm: Edit

This is incredible: DS-9 made out of Lego bricks.


Garth L. Getgen

By Glenn H. Hoepfner (Glenn) on Saturday, January 11, 2020 - 04:07 pm: Edit

Re: Short Treks

Of course its on CBS All Access.
Sigh.

By Gregory S Flusche (Vandar) on Saturday, January 11, 2020 - 07:37 pm: Edit

wow Garth

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Friday, January 24, 2020 - 07:47 am: Edit

Just watched Episode 1 of Star Trek Picard.

Interesting!!

By Nick Samaras (Koogie) on Friday, January 24, 2020 - 12:26 pm: Edit

Yup, better than I expected. Some fans upset because its not TNG 2.0 even though the trailers were clear it wasn't going to be.

By Garth L. Getgen (Sgt_G) on Friday, January 24, 2020 - 04:48 pm: Edit

They wouldn't be real Trek fans if they weren't upset about something Trek.


Garth L. Getgen

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Friday, January 24, 2020 - 07:46 pm: Edit

Leanna liked it. I haven't decided yet, but I'm not really that interested in the quest story line meme. I think it might have been better to send Picard out as the captain of an undercover prime team ship.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Sunday, January 26, 2020 - 05:04 pm: Edit

I'm enjoying it.