Hyperdrive, Part I
[After this.]
"Stellar chronometer: 76D1L-eE $a3P~X"
Agent K rolls his eyes, mashes the backspace a couple of times, and retypes "$a3P~G."
Normally K hates to give the Federation credit (professional, trans-dimensional rivalry and all that), but Stardates would be a hell of a lot easier.
He punches in equally complex commands for trajectory and velocity, then taps a large button on the console in front of him. The guidance stalk, with its controls for setting the ship's course, slides back into the console. With a click, a slim panel slides across it, cutting off all access to its input controls. A cautionary measure, ensuring no one makes an abrupt or unauthorized mid-flight adjustment--because when you're hurtling through time and space at hyperdrive speeds, bumping the steering wheel can be messy.
K settles back in the pilot's chair. That protective panel sliding across the guidance stalk would be the most exciting thing to happen until the hyperdrive dropped them into the Regula Cluster. Agents N and F planned to sleep through most of the trip. They wouldn't be getting much rest once they got to the Rimiran colony. K knows he should be doing the same thing and for the same reason.
Besides, he hates interstellar space travel. Dullest way there is to spend a couple of days--or worse, a week--especially when the only media conduit onboard is a creaky old Z-Max 38F-gamma6~alpha Q7J Feedblaster. K would bet a six-month bar tab that its library doesn't have a thing from Earth after 1903, and what with cosmic background radiation and the hyperdrive's resonance field, only the most expensive, emergency-protocol, data streams could get through to them anyway.
Which means K will be getting his share of sleep too.
But this time Zed is sending them out on a Xuran ship. K's seen Xuran ships in spacedock, but he's never been inside one, much less piloted one, and except for the jury-rigged navigation console and that damn Z-Max, the rest of the ship is completely new to him. Might as well kill a couple of hours exploring the decks.
It takes him four minutes to translate the Xuran signs and find the galley down on Deck Qartle.
It takes him another fraction of a second to see the hooded figure standing ominously in the center of the room.
K goes for his blaster.
He wonders if he'll even have a chance to aim.
[ Next.]