Post 449: My Family

Stardate:70921.2330
Title: My Family
Author: Ensign Simon Biggs
Scene :Indy/Earth
Time: Concurrent with "Citizens of Troy, Beware."
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Simon Biggs was sitting at his desk when the intercom signaled.

[Bridge to Ensign Biggs, you have a call coming in from a Captain James Edward Biggs, from the cargo ship Spitfire. Shall I patch him through?]

Simon smiled and said "Go ahead." The intercom chimed again.

[Hey, Simon! How ya doin' bro?]

"Nice to hear from you, Captain. Still flying the old bucket of bolts?"

[Yep, how 'bout you come see us? Mum and cousins are onboard, they are looking forward to seeing you.]

"I've been looking forward to seeing you too. I'll see what I can do, James. See you soon I hope. Simon out."

Simon was relieved to see his brother was OK. He hadn't seen him in almost a year. He was looking forward to seeing him in person and hopefully the family would all be there, too.

He was near the end of his shift anyway, so he went to see Lt. Commander N'Dura, who was in her office. The commander looked up as she heard his footsteps.

"Yes, Ensign can I help you?" N'Dura said in the usual, aggressive Klingon way.

"My brother's ship will be warping in soon, I was wondering if I could take a day's leave?"

"What does your brother do, Biggs?"

"He's the captain of the cargo ship Spitfire," Simon replied, surprised at the curiosity of the Klingon.

"It is acceptable. You may take 12 hours shore leave to visit your family. Of course, if our orders change, you will have to return sooner. Keep your combadge on."

Simon thanked N'Dura and promised a birthday present for her as thanks, (whenever her birthday may be) and headed for his quarters to get changed.

He made his way to transporter room two, then transported to Earth, rematerializing at the Starfleet transport facility just outside Sheffield, England.

He wanted to take the scenic route, he hadn't been home in a long while and seeing England on the holodeck was one thing- seeing it for real from the air above- that was something else entirely.

He entered the hoverbus stop and programmed the computer to reroute a bus to pick him up and take him to his home town of Portsmouth. He looked at the bus time-table and the next one was due in 15 minutes.

Sure enough, after fifteen minutes had elapsed the noise of the hover bus startled Simon, showing just how long he had been away. Simon got on board and said "Portsmouth, please".

"Certainly sir please take a seat." the android driver replied. The bus lifted off and headed for the next stop.

It seemed that before he knew it, they had reached his destination.

Simon exited the bus and then took the tram the rest of the way to Clanfield. He was on his way to his parent's home when he spotted- instead of a nice twentieth-century house- a twenty-fourth century cargo depot office and a very large cargo ship on a very large landing platform; presumably his brother's depot and ship. Simon walked to the holophone booth outside the security barrier.

"Simon Biggs to Captain James Edward Biggs"

[Yes Simon you are expected, and welcome! Come in, bro.] A massive door opened to reveal a nice surprise; seeing his brother standing at the controls.

Simon walked toward his brother, smiling, and hugged him. "Nice to see you James,"

"It's good to see you too, Si."

"Nice place but the last time a saw it, things were so different. What happened?"

"Our business was destroyed, in an attack by an alien vessel on the station Silver; so Starfleet gave us a grant and helped us change a few things including building a cargo depot over the house, so its still there, just underneath."

Simon was relieved about the house still being there, but then he realized something else and blurted, "Any casualties?"

James' expression transformed instantly from one of happiness to sadness. He walked away a moment, almost crying, then finally spoke. "I suppose you have a right to know."

James led Simon into his office. He activated the computer, displaying the black box films. . .

____recording______

:Stardate 060921 19:00 hrs Cargo Station Silver:

Captain Keith Biggs was sitting in his office, watching a cargo ship departing and then entering warp.

[Lieutenant Jenny Biggs to Captain;] He was hailed from Ops, just outside his door. [We have an unidentified ship- it just appeared out of nowhere and I don't think it's a cargo ship.]

Biggs exited his office and approached. "On screen," The view screen before him blinked to life.

The vessel was huge, almost the size of a galaxy class starship but a completely different shape. It looked more like a triangle.

The captain walked to the tactical station and pressed the hail button. "Cargo station Silver to unidentified vessel,"

No response.

The captain repeated the hail, but received no replies. Jenny spotted something glowing and then checked the sensors.

"Sir, they are rerouting energy to weapons!"

"Tactical alert! All personnel to the evacuation areas!" Captain Biggs ordered. The massive ship fired a polaron burst. The cargo station's shields had no effect at all. They were completely unprotected from this weapon.

"Sir damage to decks 1,2,3,4! Emergency shields in place!"

The station's weapons returned fire, but were no match.

Another polaron burst was heading their way. Jenny was trying to adjust the shield harmonics, still the station shook under the intense fire. The console exploded right in front of her, and she flew across Ops and landed in a heap on the floor, unconscious.

The Captain addressed his crew over the com "All personnel to escape pods."

The station's hull integrity was starting to fail, and the facility was not going to survive another hit. Keith saw the escape pods going into space, and then the station shook and shuddered again, and he was caught in the explosion.

Cargo Station Silver erupted in a spectacular and horrifying way.

________ end recording__________

The black box tape fuzzed out, and suddenly all Simon saw on the screen before him was darkness.

"I was in escape pod one when the station exploded," James explained softly. "The Klingon cruiser was more than match for the alien ship, and it retreated." He stood in silence a moment, letting Simon process what he was saying. "Everyone but Dad, and our sister survived. I'm. . .sorry we didn't tell you sooner."

Simon was obviously sad, but would mourn later, in his own time and way. "That's all right, we were probably out of communications range anyway."

A figure approached, and watched her two sons for a moment before proceeding. It was so good to see them together again. Almost like old times. Finally, Sheila Biggs rang the door bell and said to James, "The load is ready to be shipped to Terra Nova. That's us."

Simon left James and met up with his mother, who led him towards the house. James headed back toward his ship, to get ready to depart.

Simon and his mother walked on until they reached Simon's old room, where nothing had changed despite all the other changes around the house.

He looked at the proto-type experimental hand weapons his father and himself had created together. A plasma bow that could be used in melee combat; and a plasma sword.

Simon wanted to test these out at the firing range, to see if they still worked. He gathered them up and headed off towards the firing range with his mum walking alongside him.

"It's very good to see you again, Mum."

"You too son. I'm sorry about you sister and father. . ." she whispered. "We'll stop by their graves later on."

The two stood at the firing range and Simon loaded the plasma bow, (no arrows just pure energy) pulled at the mechanism, and a bright yellow beam of light appeared. He aimed at the target and then let go. The yellow bolt raced across the range, smashing the target into bits.

"Wow!"

"It can get a lot more powerful than that," Sheila Biggs replied casually. "I would love to test this out in melee combat but there is no facility here to do that." Sheila handed him the plasma sword and added, "Be careful it's very dangerous,"

Simon knew it would be, and moved to the next target. It was actually a cluster of targets.

He pressed the button to activate the plasma. It glowed along the blade, and Simon swung the blade at the targets and the plasma left the sword in a wave of energy, disappeared into the target and nothing happened until a minute later.

A very loud booming noise occurred, and all the targets were destroyed in a single stroke.

Suddenly, Simon's combadge chimed.

[Independence to Ensign Biggs, the ship will be leaving orbit of Earth shortly. Report back immediately.]

Simon tapped his combadge reluctantly, "On my way, Biggs out." He turned to his mother once again. "I imagine the Indy will be leaving soon, Mum. We should get to the. . ." he paused, "graves quickly."

Simon and his mother left the firing range and traveled to the local church.

There lie father and sister together, side by side. Simon put a single rose beside each of the graves, and then left for the shuttle hangar.

James had already gone, probably en route to Terra Nova with the Spitfire, so Simon thought he should go too.

----------In the shuttle hangar ------------

"Would you like to come aboard the Indy and see me off?" Simon asked hopefully.

"I was hoping you'd say that," his mother replied warmly.

She led him to her personal shuttle craft The Hawk, which is warp capable. The two entered the shuttle and began take off procedures, and the hangar bay doors opened to reveal blue sky. Away the shuttle went, with Sheila Biggs at the helm.

The shuttle left the atmosphere of Earth and headed for the Independence. Sheila was surprised by the sheer size of the ship. Simon tapped the comm "Shuttlecraft Hawk to Independence, this is Ensign Simon Biggs, requesting permission to dock."

[Independence to Hawk, your request is granted. Dock at Runabout Bay two. Welcome home, Simon. Independence out.]

The shuttle landed at Runabout Bay two and Simon and his mother said their farewells.

The Hawk left for Earth, and Simon headed for his quarters.

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Ensign Simon Biggs
Security Officer
USS Independence NCC-90791