The Sky's the Limit - Marco Palmieri [10]
For more than eight years, Kevin Dilmore was a contributing writer to Star Trek Communicator, penning news stories and personality profiles for the bimonthly publication of the Official Star Trek Fan Club. On the storytelling side of things, his story “The Road to Edos” was published as part of the Star Trek: New Frontier anthology No Limits. With Dayton Ward, his work includes stories for the anthology Star Trek: Tales of the Dominion War, the Star Trek: The Next Generation novels A Time to Sow and A Time to Harvest, the Star Trek: Vanguard novel Summon the Thunder, the Star Trek: Enterprise novel Age of the Empress, and ten installments of the original eBook series Star Trek: S.C.E. and Star Trek: Corps of Engineers. A graduate of the University of Kansas, Kevin lives in Prairie Village, Kansas, with his wife, Michelle, and their three daughters, and works as a senior writer for Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, Missouri.
“YOU HAVE THE BRIDGE,” ORDERED WILLIAM RIKER AS HE rose from the captain’s chair and nodded to the officer assigned to oversee the evening duty shift.
“Thank you, Commander,” replied Doctor Beverly Crusher, who stood between the forward conn and ops position while bridge personnel transitioned their duties to the officers relieving them. As Riker moved out of the command well, Crusher took her place in the center seat. “Computer, begin night watch,” she said, and the bridge’s overhead lighting dimmed in response to her command.
Standing at the tactical console situated above and behind the captain’s chair, Lieutenant Natasha Yar forced her expression to remain neutral, focusing her attention on her workstation.
Here we go.
“Have fun,” Riker said over his shoulder as he ascended the ramp leading to the turbolift at the rear of the bridge. Looking toward Yar, he offered one of his trademark smiles that conspired with the smooth lines of his face to give him more the appearance of a mischievous adolescent than second-in-command of the Federation’s flagship. “That means you, too, Lieutenant.”
He’s really enjoying this, Yar thought as she watched him step into the turbolift. “I’ll wait until I conduct my next aikido class to have fun, sir,” she said, offering a respectful nod and a smile of her own. “See you there?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for anything,” Riker replied before the doors closed, his expression conveying that he looked forward to any revenge she might plot in response to this new bit of chaos he had tossed into what should have been an uneventful duty shift.
Putting aside thoughts of good-natured retaliation, Yar began the watch as she always did, moving between the tactical console and the aft engineering station to execute a series of diagnostics against the ship’s weapons and defensive systems. It took little time for her to ease into her routine, dividing her attention between the workstations. While the process normally was little more than an exercise, on this occasion she paid strict attention to the results of the different scans and comparisons. Given the unexpected adventure that had accompanied the upgrades applied to the Enterprise’s main computer during its recent layover at Starbase 74, Yar wanted to be sure everything was operating as expected.
Who knows what else those Bynar computer techs left behind?
“You don’t usually take the night shift, do you, Lieutenant?” Crusher asked from almost directly behind her.
Startled and somewhat annoyed that she had not detected the doctor’s approach, Yar replied, “Not usually, but I like to rotate my people’s duty assignments to keep things fresh, and I got caught up in my own master plan.”
Crusher smiled, crossing her arms as she leaned against the tactical console. “It’s all right, Lieutenant. Commander Riker told me you had your doubts about me taking Mister Data’s place tonight.” Shrugging, she added, “Even though he doesn’t sleep, I figure he’d like to spend his off hours doing something