The two police officers dropped Karen and Carolyn at the Waikiki location of the United Nations Space Fleet on Seaside Avenue. To most of the members of the United Nations Space Fleet who had ground assignments being posted at this location, which was called Seaside HQ by the ones who worked here is a good thing.
The weather was nice year round, with a lot of things to do on ones’ free time and the local people were pretty tolerate of the United Nations Space Fleet personnel in general. For the United Nations Space Fleet the Seaside Avenue location was the headquarters for the science fleet, which consisted of the five Research Vessels and the five Survey Vessels. While those vessels orbited the Earth either at Alpha or Gamma stations, the headquarters here had communication facilities, links to the outer marker network via the tachyon pulse relay station, control over the United Nations Space Fleet assets located at the nearby Hickam Air Force Base which normally had four transport vessels and a squadron of the F-14S Spacecats. They also had control over a facility codenamed “Clarity” that was located on the neighboring island of Kauai a few miles away between the towns of Lihue and Koloa, while almost the entire world knew about the significance of the “Clarity” site, very few people knew the reason why “Clarity” was significant and Karen Baxter and Carolyn Oshiro were ones of those few people that knew.
“You seem to have a tendency to rob the cradle don’t you.” said Carolyn
“I beg your pardon?” asked Karen
“That cop the way he was asking you all those questions on the way here, I mean he should have asked you out on a date by now.” said Carolyn
“Carolyn?” asked Karen
“Come on, spill the beans, what is your secret?” asked Carolyn “Is it your collection of leather, latex and boots. I hear that turns on the guys.”
“Which I made no mention of it to him.” said Karen
“He knows.” said Carolyn.
A person in an United Nations Space Fleet uniform approached Karen and Carolyn and said “Excuse me Commander Baxter, Doctor Oshiro, I am Lieutenant Bill Philips, Admiral Garret’s Assistant Chief of Staff.”
“Admiral Garret? Never heard of him.” said Karen
“He heads the UNSF combat fleet.” said Bill “And he wishes to see you and Doctor Oshiro over the latest incursion. Now ladies shall we go inside?”
“Lead the way Lieutenant.” said Karen.
As Lieutenant Philips lead the way inside of Seaside HQ, with Karen and Carolyn following. Carolyn then said “Got your tickets handy Lieutenant?”
“Excuse me?” asked Lieutenant Philips
“You can call me Carolyn.” said Carolyn while pointing to Karen “And you can call her granny. So make sure you got two general admissions and one senior citizens ticket.”
“Hey I am not fifty five yet.” said Karen
“I am still do not know what the two of you are talking about.” said Lieutenant Philips.
“First time here Lieutenant?” asked Karen
“Yes sir.” replied Lieutenant Philips
Karen was not to happy with the Lieutenant, Carolyn on her part said “Oh oh.” and Karen said to the Lieutenant Philips “Lieutenant, you never, ever address me in the masculine form again. You got that!”
“Yes sir, I mean, I mean madam.” said Lieutenant Philips.
“Look, can I call you Bill?” asked Karen “We in the science fleet are kind of informal, we tend to go on first name basis, even while on duty. So if you want to call me Karen that is fine with me.”
“Not a problem.” said Lieutenant Philips, “But I do not have any tickets that Doctor Oshiro, I mean Carolyn was talking about.”
“How long have you been at Seaside HQ Bill?” asked Karen
“This is my second day here.” replied Lieutenant Philips
“So no one told you that Seaside HQ used to be a movie theatre before.” said Karen
“It was?” asked the Lieutenant Philips
“Yeah, it closed down back in oh two.” replied Karen “And it sat unused for a few years and when the United Nations Space Fleet wanted to open up shop in Hawaii for the science fleet, this was the place to do it. Took about a year to convert it but I think they did a good job in doing it.”
“I did not now that.” said Lieutenant Philips
“I am surprised none of the usual staff pulled that ticket stunt on you that Carolyn just did on you just a while ago.” said Karen
“The usual staff?” asked Lieutenant Philips
“Yeah, there is normally around one hundred twenty or so odd people working here not to mention the rest of the members of the science fleet who live at other parts of the world who come here to visit from time to time before they head on to missions.” said Karen
“No one was here when Admiral Garret and his staff arrived here two days ago.” said Lieutenant Philips.
“What?” asked Karen
“We lost contact with Seaside HQ four days ago.” explained Lieutenant Philips “At first we thought the facility had some sort of local problem that prevented it from contacting other United Nations Space Fleet units and facilities, but after twelve hours of no contact from it or other members that are normally assigned to this facility we contacted the local authorities to check on it. They found the front entrance to Seaside HQ open but no one was inside of it. They posted some officers to guard the place until a special team arrived from the West Coast of the United States to secure it. When they arrived they found all power systems working, the computers and communications systems were on but some of them were not connected to the main UNSF network. No evidence of what happen to the staff or what they did before they disappeared.”
“That is pretty strange.” said Karen
“It is, that is one of the reasons why Admiral Garret wishes to speak to you. Right now you are the senior ranking member of the science fleet available to us.” said Lieutenant Philips
“I do not know what to say, I have been out of contact with the rest of the fleet for the past five days.” said Karen.
“Right now madam, you are all that we have available to us.” said Lieutenant Philips.
Posted by Helen at November 26, 2002 11:24 PM