<USS Avalon> Message Received

  
Message  Received
by Lieutenant Second Class  Joshua Garrity, Lieutenant First Class Patrick 
McEntire, Junior Lieutenant  Phillipa Waterson and Captain Keith Ketchum
 
The air aboard the unseen  shuttle was virtually unbreathable. It's lone 
inhabitant sat cross legged upon  the floor, leaning back against the center 
console, his eyes closed, resigned to  his fate.
 
He startled slightly  as the comm beeped and Ketchum's voice came over, 
followed shortly afterward by  a transmission from the Banshee...He struggled 
to 
attend to their words and  comprehend but found following it hard...so very 
hard...
 
Gods, but he was  tired...
 
He considered whether or  not to answer for less than a heartbeat then rose 
shakily and unsteadily to  his feet and, leaning heavily upon the console for 
support, initiating the auto  response to the Avalon - "Message Received" - 
before the blackness won  out.
 
Phillipa had sat on  through her shift and into the next, she knew that she 
could stand-down when  Lyta arrived, but instead of retiring for the night, she 
moved to the Ops  console.  
 
She had watched Captain  Ketchum walk by no more than ten minutes before, 
obviously tired and  turning in himself, after the discussion with whomever was 
in the  conference room. That's when it happened, the console beeped, she  
pulled up the message, 'Message Received'.  
 
She looked around at the  bridge, "What message?"  Absently, she typed in 
trying to find  out where they came from, her head tilted, "There is nothing 
there."   She fine-tuned the scanners for life-signs. There was one, very 
faint, 
but  nothing was there from what she could tell.  Then it dawned on her.   "Of 
course, it has to be."  "She hated to do this, he just left for the  night, 
but he would want to know.  "Captain Ketchum, this  is Lieutenant Waterson, I 
think we got a response from Garrity,  Sir."
 
Keith looked over at  Pacey, they were just finishing the talk when the comm 
erupted in their  quarters, "Beam him aboard, then Lieutenant."
 
"I can't sir, there are  shields blocking any chance of beaming from his 
shuttle.  Also  life-signs are very weak."
 
"Standby, Ms  Waterson.  Ketchum to Patrick McEntire.  We have a response 
from the  shuttle, but shields are up, we need to get Garrity out of there  
now."
 
Mac was still manning the  search from ME, long after he'd sent both Li and 
Belle home, when  Ketchum's voice came over the comm. The whoop that sounded 
throughout  engineering Ketchum's news almost drowned out Mac's reply. 
"Acknowledged sir.  Send me what we've got on his location. We'll get him." He 
almost 
ran to Josh's  office, pulling up his private messages, having been his 
roommate too long to  miss his codes when it struck him. That's it. His codes. 
He'd 
worked with Josh  on that shuttle long enough to realize where they'd be. 
Dashing out of ME toward  the quarters Josh and Annabelle shared, he called 
back. 
"Get those  transporters fired up and ready on my mark...I'll be right back  
with what we need to bring him home..."
 
He reached their quarters  and entered without hesitation, knowing Belle was 
with Anna tonight.  Shuffling through is friends PADDs, he realized that one 
wasn't there. Looking  around, he spied it across the room, next to his 
computer console. Out of place.  Unlike his friend, unless he wanted it noticed 
and 
read. He grabbed it and ran  back to ME, certain it would have the information 
they needed. He skidded to a  halt before engineering's main console as he 
found it. The codes. Command codes  for the Galileo. 
 
Josh's  codes.
 
He entered them quickly,  shouting a loud "Amen!" as the ship materialized 
out of nothingness, her cloak  and shields down.  It was then he noticed her 
environmental controls were  down as well. Lifesigns aboard her were so faint 
as 
to be nearly negligible as  Mac called out, "Beam him straight to sickbay, 
now!" contacted the on duty  Medical officer in sickbay he was coming in, then 
notified Ketchum as he  initiated the tractor beam to bring the shuttle in. 
"We've got him, sir. Mr.  Garrity is home."
 
"Good work,  Lieutenant.  I want to be kept apprised of his condition.  
Inform  medical of such also."  Keith walked to a terminal and entered his code 
to  
contact the Banshee, "Captain, our lost engineer is home.  Please inform  the 
necessary party's and good luck."  He turned off the terminal and  returned 
to Pacey for the last night together for a  while.

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