Frowns and worries

All oculars of Kheren followed the movement of the fleet captain towards the podium. The crucial meeting for Operation Horizon was about to be called to order.

And that started to worry the Andorian.

The meeting was already late; yet, his chief science officer, on who's research a lot had been based on for this venture, had yet to report. Vulcans were well known for their exactness and Lieutenant Syntron had never been any exception... until now. Something was wrong.

He tapped his combadge after getting a direct link to the Artemis.

''Captain Kheren to Lieutenant Syntron, please report at once to the main conference hall of Starbase 10.''

As he spoke, he looked at Tyvya. She understood and made herself ready to start looking for the missing Vulcan on his next signal.

As he waited for his science officer to respond, Kheren then noticed that other people were notably missing; there seemed to be no medical officer present for any of the other ships except for the Lotus... who's only senior officer in the room so far was the CMO, Doctor Bindo. The Spectre seemed also to lack a tactical officer, the Alsea her captain... Even this veteran captain V'Rell Gould he had heard in command of the flagship, and thus all of them in the field, was nowhere to be seen.

His few facial muscles nevertheless managed to convey a very definite frown as he took all of it in.

And then, the access door sighed as well; but it was to admit a medium-szed vulcanoid male with four pips on the red collar of his standard black and grey-shouldered uniform.

Captain Gould, at last... Kheren's mind identified with relief; a very brief sense of relief. Now... where in the deep waters of Hell is MY Vulcan?''

During a pause in his conversation with the science officer of the McKenzie, his four eyes conveyed his feeling to his acting security chief. With a slight nod, Tyvya straightened up her towering frame and strode out of the room to go in search of their missing science officer.