Lines of Communication

Chapter 2
Lines of Communications

March 26^th, 2157

William leaned against the chair in his ready room, enjoying his second cup of coffee of the morning. "Captain McRea." William's eyes opened at the sound of the comm. "You have a priority one message from Admiral Cayson." Sitting up William pressed the comm button, "Patch it through." Putting his coffee down he turned and faced the console as the Admiral's image appeared on the screen, "Admiral Cayson, sir."

"Captain Mcrea," Admiral Cayson aknowledged. The admiral was not an officer that William had any prior dealings with; the Captain honestly didn't know what to expect. "Anything interesting going on in your sector besides the obvious war?"

It was not a question that McRea had expected. "Well sir, we've been following, and have been followed by a sensor shadow since we reported from the Epsilon Eridani system. Other then that sir, there hasn't been any signs of telecapture activity in the area."

"Good. Intelligence suggests the Romulans are bringing in those Birds of Prey the Enterprise ran into two years back."

William had heard of the Birds of Prey. Ships with sweeping, bird-like designs, capable of becoming invisible. William had actually suspected the sensor shadow they had encountered might have been one.

"Mcrea, I have a favor to ask. I need you to play spotter for the Phoenix." Admiral Cayson added, changing the subject.

"Spotter sir?" Williams asked, rhetorically. "Frankly sir, I'd be all for it. We're not really doing much good running around in circles out here between Earth and Andoria."

"Good. I will transmit the location to you. Your fleet commander will be Captain Iliana Rya. I can't be in contact with the fleet after it's launched so orders will come from her."

"Very good sir," William plugged his pad into the console to store the coordinates of the main computer. "Standing by to receive coordinates."

"Transmitting," the admiral said. As the coordinates began to come through, the admirals image flickered and the audio started to cut out. "Codes through but," the transmission cut out was replaced by static on the screen. "Damn!," William exclaimed, his shout echoing through the room. Rising from his chair the Captain moved through the door onto the bridge. "Birnberg, why did I just lose communication with the Admiral?"

Maria looked up from her consoles and brushed her black hair from her eyes, "We lost contact with Echo 14 sir." She looked over at the comm station where Ensign Fairweather, a former student of the Enterprise's Hoshi Sato, stood. "Last readings from Echo 14 included its sensors picking up a large amount of electromagnetic energy before it cut out," Fairweather said.

"Perhaps an Ion storm sir." Birnberg speculated.

"Perhaps. Set a course for Echo 14--maximum warp. Bring hull plating online, I don't want to take any chances." The Memento Mori's engines flaired to life as she arced through space before streaking off into warp.