| Date & Time: | Day 01, 0759 |
| Location: | Promenade Replimat |
| Written By: | Charlotte Preston Katelynn Bancroft |
| Post Date: | 02/08/2026 |
| Episode: | Ep. 1 – Fool’s Errand |
For Charlotte it was strange, strange because everything the twelve-year-old understood about the way Starfleet seemed to work, her mother should have been sent to a starship instead of another station. The child now found herself sitting in what would soon become the replimat of the station. Charlotte, the daughter of the station’s Executive Officer, sat there watching as the engineers and operations personnel worked.
She watched as another child, Charlotte assumed to be close to her age, walked through the promenade from one of the cross walkways and boarded the turbolift. Charlotte stared until the girl disappeared along with the officer in his red uniform. Part of her wanted to get up from where she sat, however, Charlotte remained seated. Then she heard footsteps and turned assuming one of the officers was about to tell her to move.
Katelynn Bancroft had managed to slip out of the quarters where she going to be living with her mother and father. After a great deal of exploration, the twelve-year-old made her way into the promenade when she noticed the girl sitting alone at one of the tables. Katelynn took a deep breath and approached the other girl.
It took a moment for Katelynn to actually speak to the other girl, and there was some indications that nerves had gotten the best of her. But eventually she managed to weakly wave, “Hello there,” She said and pointed at the chair. “I’m Katelynn, may I join you?”
Charlotte spun around and saw the other girl standing there, the twelve-year-old didn’t recognize her and began to wonder how many kids were on the station. “Sure,” Charlotte said, “I’m Charlotte the Executive Officer’s daughter.” Charlotte tried her best to smile, she didn’t recognize this other girl, but knew it wasn’t the same one that had just walked through the promenade.
Katelynn smiled warmly, “Thanks,” She replied. Katelynn sat down at the table and leaned forward before cupping her hands together. “I’m the Chief Operations Officer’s daughter,” She said. “My Mom is also on board, but she’s going to be something in science. Not part of Starfleet though,” The twelve-year-old told the other girl.
“I’m twelve,” Katelynn added, “How old are you?”
Charlotte’s eyes lit up, “Same age,” She answered. Charlotte then looked over her shoulder toward the turbolift where the other girl had disappeared from. “There’s another girl on the station too,” Charlotte told Katelynn then looked at her. “I think she was with the Captain,” Charlotte turned and looked back toward Katelynn once again.
Katelynn nodded, “I think her name is Paige,” Katelynn shrugged. “My Dad was telling me there are going to be three other girls on board around the same age as me.” She looked at the turbolift, then toward the group of officers that were trying to patch the bulkhead near it. “They’ve been working on this station for eight years,” Katelynn told Charlotte.
“My Dad’s been here for six months,” Katelynn found herself adding as well. “I’ve only been on the station for two though.” Katelynn remembered coming aboard and seeing how bad things were, and how she couldn’t really leave the quarters where she lived with her parents. “They just got the artificial air going.”
Charlotte tilted her head, “How did everyone breathe?”
“Oh,” Katelynn shrugged, “I think the artificial air worked in some parts of the station. We had air in the quarters where some of the engineers and operations people were staying. There was also a ship in orbit of the station for a long time. I didn’t get here until after the ship had left though,” She added.
==Nearby an unseen entity observed the two girls, noticing how small and young they both appeared. It could hear their voices as they spoke even over the sounds of the equipment that was being used by the larger beings that had taken up occupation of the station. The entity had been on board the station for about a month. Originally it had taken up refuge in the planetary system near the fourth planet, but the arrival of the strange object caught its attention.
The sounds of the childish voices was quite alluring to the entity, though as it squirmed around unseen it knew it had to remain hidden. So far, in the time since the entity had started to observe the station it had only recently noticed the smaller versions of the mortal lifeforms on the station. It found their innocent nature to be quite interesting. Fearing that getting too close to the two young girls would result in its discovery, the entity remained far away, simply observing for now…==
Charlotte had sat in silence for a moment, assessing the answer she’d received before smiling warmly. “I guess that makes sense,” Charlotte had only just come onto the station less than a week ago. Based on this being the first time she’d seen the Captain’s daughter, they must have only come on board recently.
Charlotte knew there was a ship docked at one of the docking pylons bringing more personnel including the Captain of the station. “I’ve been aboard for a week, and Mom didn’t want me wandering around too much.” She did understand the reasoning behind that, but Charlotte really needed to get out and stretch her legs.
“Those quarters were getting kind of cramped,” Charlotte concluded. The child looked over at the turbolift once more. More personnel began appearing, and she noticed a couple people who weren’t dressed in uniforms at all.
Katelynn listened to what Charlotte had to say, “We could go see if we could find this other girl?” She suggested, “Probably not the Captain’s daughter because she’s up in operations and I don’t know if I want to try and go there. If our parents are up there they may get upset.” Katelynn shrugged as she stood up, “If the other girl is even on board yet that is.”
“I haven’t seen her,” Charlotte commented and stood up. She stretched her arms above her head, “We probably shouldn’t stay here much longer anyway. If my Mom finds me here she won’t be too happy.” Charlotte reached out and took the other girl by the hand, “C’mon.”
==The entity continued to watch the interaction between the two girls even as they got up. It found it’s curiosity growing stronger as the physical touch between them happened. It wondered what the significance was of that. For now, however, it didn’t want to risk attempting to physically touch the beings on the station.
Rather, the entity slipped backwards as its gelatinous body merged into the bulkhead that had it’s interior exposed. The two girls got closer to it and it slipped deeper into the inner workings of the bulkhead. The entity then cautiously followed them keeping some distance so that its nearly invisible form wouldn’t be noticed. It managed to camouflage itself, not wishing to be noticed. Then it worked its way through the bulkhead to find someone else to monitor. It made a mental note to keep observing these smaller versions though…==
Charlotte thought she heard a noise and came to a stop before turning around and noticing that two engineers had caught sight of them. She tugged on Katelynn’s hand, “I think we’ve been noticed.” She pointed out. Charlotte hadn’t noticed anything else monitoring them, though she was looking in the general direction of something that had been watching them.
Katelynn nodded, “Yep,” She answered. “Maybe we won’t try to find that other girl, but we can go to my room. I think the computer might be working.” The twelve-year-old suggested then slipped into one of the crossover bridges back toward the inner docking ring.