The Three Days

[WxMurray 0]

Day 1

Murray stood on the bridge with Flek. “Yeah...so, how have the last few weeks on Reae…” Flek stopped midsentence.

 

“Sir?” Murray raised an eyebrow, confused. A thought or two flickered through his head. Wow…he's sure acting crazy…staring into nowhere like that…

 

“WIMBLEY!” Flek shouted. “DON’T THINK SO LOUD!!”

 

As the senior staff left the captain’s ready room, Flek got a deranged look on his face. Murray ignored him and instead turned his attention to the senior staff. He didn’t quite know what was going on but he could tell the they were worried. The question was, what is it they are worried about? Could it be the asteroid not being fully collapsed? Could it be the Romulan saboteur? Perhaps the captain got new orders. Were they worried about our new assignment? Murray wanted to know. He’d have to check the rumor mill later.

 

The captain called to the bridge. He had coordinates for the new assignment. Murray laid in the coordinates and engaged the warp engines. He could tell from the coordinates that they were headed for Federation space. It seemed likely that whatever it was the senior staff looked worried about, the new assignment wasn’t it.

 

When Murray reached the end of his shift, he went to his quarters. On the way, he overheard three crewmen discussing the current state of affairs aboard the Reaent. One of those affairs seemed to be Captain Michaels himself. The rumor was that he had gotten pretty frazzled towards the end of the Pegasus/Portland assignment. Perhaps that was what the staff was worried about. If so, he hoped that the captain would get some rest and relaxation. One doesn’t want a captain with a diminished decision-making capacity.

 

Day 2

Murray had some free time after his shift. He decided to use it in Holodeck 2. The only thing was that it didn’t have any of his programs yet. At least he had downloaded them to isolinear chips.

 

He pulled out a chip and inserted it into the ODN port. “Computer, download and run program Murray W-2.”

 

The computer beeped, booped, and replied. “Program downloaded. You may enter when ready.”

 

Murray stepped into the holodeck and smiled. “Computer, create an orchestra and chorus appropriate to the early 17th century, but without the bass singer.” Murray nodded in approval as his command was carried out. He stepped into the bass’s position and opened his music book.

 

Murray intoned the opening. “Deus in adiutorium meum intende.” As the chorus moved into the responsorium “Domine ad adiuvandum me festina”, Murray began to relax. The mission in the Devolin system had been a little rough, especially with the malfunction in the torpedo bay. Singing Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespro Della Beata Virgine of 1610 was exactly what he needed.

 

“Gloria patri et filio et spiritui sancto. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen. Alleluia.”

 

Murray was feeling great.

 

Day 3

Murray woke up feeling quite refreshed. He wasn’t quite sure why; he hadn’t done anything strenuous or tiring the previous day. Nonetheless, he felt refreshed, and it felt good. After a sonic shower, he sat down to breakfast: two eggs over easy, bacon, and home fries, just the way Mom replicated it. He reached for a padd and checked to see if he had any messages waiting for him. He had two.

 

One was from his girlfriend, Sheila Simmons, a cadet at Starfleet Academy. She wrote that her current interest was in engineering. Murray knew, however, that her interest would change by the weekend and at least once more by month’s end. Sheila’s calling was as an operations management officer. Juggling a schedule of power and system’s allocation was what she could do best. She would completely, and successfully, rearrange both of their schedules so that they could be together on the weekends.

 

Sheila’s letter went on to complain about the enormous workload, her roommate’s annoying boyfriend, and the extremely boring classes, especially the one taught by a Vulcan.

 

Murray opened the other message. “Congratulations, Mr. Murray, you are already a grand prize winner…” Murray rolled his eyes and groaned.

Edited February 11, 2005 by WxMurray