Old Fashioned Horse Trading

Posted on Tue Dec 26th, 2017 @ 8:26pm by Captain Alistar McKeon

833 words; about a 4 minute read

Alistar could tell that the science station known as D5 had taken a back seat to the Federation Science Council’s funding as soon as he walked through the airlock and onto the station proper. The smell wasn’t as crisp as it should be, and signs of wear and age were apparent on the walls. Then there was the crew. As Federation science stations were civilian run facilities, funding came from the Federation civil treasury instead of the Starfleet budget. The station looked to be somewhat understaffed, and it wasn’t hard for a trained officer like Alistar to tell. A single security guard at the airlock took one look at Alistar’s Starfleet uniform and out the view port to the Endeavour and waved him on through the security gate.

Giving the guard a nod, Alistar simply did as he was bid. There was no point in arguing against protocol when it wasn’t his command and he wasn’t even formally invited onto the station yet. From what he could tell, D5 seemed to be built along the original Bravo Alpha class specifications, which were based on out dated layout designs. From the airlock, Alistar was met and led by a slim Andorian female who had a really bad dye job on her hair. Whatever color she had intended for her hair, it had come out to a tie dye of pink, purple, and green and it looked fried and faded. Keeping his mouth wisely closed, he simply followed her to the station director’s office and was herded in without ceremony. Inside, he came face to face with the station director.

“Captain McKeon, I presume?” Director Sharon Harding asked as she stood and waved the Andorian out before offering her hand.

“Guilty as charged,” Alistar said as the door slid shut. Taking a step forward, he shook the woman’s hand quickly. “I take it you don’t get many Starfleet ships out here very often.”

“Not of your caliber, Captain. Most of what we get may be the occasional long term science or survey ship. Mostly we get civilian ships in and out,” Sharon said. “The last time we had anything bigger than a Nova was before I got the director’s chair, and that’s been five years now.”

“Well, I was hoping we could use your station facilities for a day or two for some R&R before we head out into deep space,” Alistar said.

“Oh, I’m sure we can work something out,” the director said with a smile.

“Why do I get the feeling this is one of those quid pro quo deals?” Alistar asked.

“Because it is,” Sharon said. “I’m sure you noticed that we don’t get much of a budget for station operations, and as much as our shop and bar owners would love a few new customers, I’m more concerned about our engineering concerns.”

“Ah, so you want to borrow some of my personnel to take a look at some overdue engineering concerns,” Alistar said, understanding where this was going.

“Engineering and operations concerns are my top priority, yes, but I was hoping you had a security officer who could take a look at our armory and check out our defense systems as well.”

“You’re that low on the budget priority list?” Alistar asked in disbelief.

Sharon nodded. “D5 has been a low priority since we are supposed to get income from the ships that come and go, however, we really don’t much traffic so we have to use higher docking and cargo rates, which leads to a lot of people avoiding us. Then there’s the fact that we’re kind of out of the way.”

“Alright. I’ll get with my officers and see what we can do. Naturally we can’t give you any weaponry, but we can take a look at everything and possibly leave you some spare parts if they’re compatible. Keep in mind that our systems are brand new designs,” Alistar said, frowning. He highly doubted that anything on the Endeavour would work with the station systems, and he could tell from the director’s expression that she felt the same way.

“Just having a trained professional look at the systems and give my people a few pointers would be helpful, captain. If you can arrange that, then I have no problem with your people coming over for some R&R. How long were you planning on staying?”

“A day, maybe two, but no more than that,” Alistar answered. “My officers will get with your people when they can. I don’t want to upset our own shift rotation.”

“I think we have a deal, then, Captain,” Sharon said with a smile. “I’ll warn my people that we’re about to be invaded.”

“Thank you for your hospitality, Director,” Alistar said. Giving the station director a nod, he turned and retraced his way back to the Endeavour.

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