Aboard the Phoenix during the away mission

Aboard the USS Phoenix, operations officer Adalia Valerous continued examining resources throughout the ship when she noted the sudden loss of contact with the Wildfire shuttle.

"Captain, we just lost communication with the shuttle."

Looking over the data stream, Adalia added "It would appeared that this occurred at approximately the same distance from the surface as when signals were lost from the planetary probe."

Syntron leaning calmly in the center seat was undaunted by this revelation. It was what they had expected to occur.

"Acknowledged Ensign" he stoically responded as he transferred the information into his Command PADD.

With the Wildfire now beyond the threshold of communication, it would be up to his away team to initiate contact once they were situated on the planetoid's surface. He had a fully qualified team assembled for this undertaking and therefore at this juncture there was no cause for concern.

Yet just sitting there in the center seat, Syntron ignored an emerging  pang of longing that had surreptitiously manifested itself in his subconscious to be a part of this away team mission. It was the scientific curiosity that was ingrained within him throughout his professional life that seemed to want to beckon him back into some level of action or involvement. In response, he merely squirmed subtly in the chair as if to reposition his thoughts along with his posture.

Engaging his comm, he called down to engineering.

"Commander Rogers, what is the current status of repairs to the Sagan?"

Receiving the captain’s query in his office, Rogers replied forthwith with a possibly disappointing reply.

“Captain, we’re well on track to complete repairs within another forty eight hours. The last ten warp coils are being cast now, and will be installed into the new nacelles, but we will then have to polarize all the coils.”

"Acknowledged Commander. That will be quite sufficient" the Vulcan confirmed.

Syntron then noted to the chief engineer.

"The planetary probe is set to automatically re-launch into orbit around this planetoid from the surface in approximately four hours and twenty-seven minutes, unless reprogrammed by the away team. Be prepared to retrieve the probe if needed at that time Commander."

Having spent a few hours in his office going over all aspects of the repairs completed on the Sagan, David decided to get out into main engineering and check on the main console as to the current status of the Phoenix. Glancing over the display, he noted that the hourly level 4 diagnostic on the systems had not been logged. Frowning slightly, he tapped his comm badge.

"Rogers to Andrews. Sean, where's my hourly diagnostic?"

 After a few seconds of no reply, David addressed the main computer this time.

"Computer, run hourly diagnostic of ship's status."

'Compliance,' stated the computer nominally. 'Estimated time of completion; six minutes.'

Satisfied, David again directed a query to the ship's computer.

"Computer, locate Lieutenant Andrews."

The response was completely unexpected to teh commander.

'Lieutenant Sean Andrews is not on board the Phoenix.'

 Taken aback, David questioned the computer again, with arising tension in his voice.

"Clarify! When did Andrews leave the ship?"

'Lieutenant Andrews boarded the shuttle Wildfire at zero nine fifty hours.'

"Son of a ..."

David quickly left main engineering and proceeded to deck twenty-one, the main flight deck, while pressing his comm badge once again.

"Rogers to Captain. Sir, I believe I have an AWOL officer."

 'This is not going to reflect nicely on my department,' David thought angrily.