Chaos Erupts

Posted on Thu May 7th, 2026 @ 12:53pm by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Lieutenant JG Kate Kono & Lieutenant JG James Phoenix

1,364 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Shuttle Incident
Location: Planet

Viviana had been working on Janelle for over an hour before she completed her work and was able to declare her stable, although she remained in a coma. "Nothing more I can do here. But as long as we are rescued within the next 48 hours, there is still hope for a full recovery."

Shran nodded his understanding. "You've done well doctor. Sam would be proud. I think you deserve to take a rest."

Viviana swept the hair from her field of vision. "I'd like to argue, but I won't. But just a short rest, a siesta."

"Sounds good doctor" Shran replied. As he watched her slowly walk to a bunk, he made his way over to Phoenix, "Keep an eye on her. We will be in a bad situation if anything happens to her." He glanced over at Kate and motioned for her to join them, "What is the status of our power reserves? Have you discovered why things are draining so quickly suddenly? Don't tell me this is move of the same sabotage that caused us to crash."

"I will sir" He turned his attention to Kate. "Is there any other way to conserve power, especially the power allocations to the defense systems?" James added.

Kate's eyes moved slowly between Shran and James, her brow furrowing as though she were trying to solve a puzzle neither of them had handed her correctly.

"I — think you both have some wires crossed." She set the PaDD down on the console with a deliberate click. "We don't have a problem with the battery systems. As I already explained to Shran…" she shot him a sideways glance, "…the 'BATTERY' backups are draining at a rate of a percent every nine minutes, with seven fully charged cells still in reserve. That's…" she paused, rubbing the bridge of her nose, "…forgive me, I don't have Na'Riss here to rattle off the Vulcan spiel on demand." A short, dry laugh escaped her. "Fifteen hours per backup, seven backups. Four days of power. Total." She picked the PaDD back up and held it out to Shran... the same one she'd already handed him once; with the particular patience of someone explaining something for the third time. "It's the phasers that need charging. Not the backup cells. Charging the phasers will eat through about sixty percent of the current backup pack we have, but it won't touch those four days." She looked between them again, one eyebrow arching. "Unless you're planning on staying here nearly a week, power is covered."

Kate filed the miscommunication away somewhere quiet in the back of her mind; fatigue, probably, maybe dehydration. Shran was still standing, still sharp enough where it counted. She wasn't going to make a thing of it. Instead, she reached over and gave his arm a brief pat, the kind that meant nothing and everything at once. "I really do miss Na'Riss," she said, mostly to the room. "She could give you the full breakdown in about four seconds flat, and you'd feel good about it." She picked the PaDD back up and turned toward the console, letting the moment pass.

Shran gave a stern glance at Kate and then offered a look to Phoenix. "Lt Phoenix, you have your sidearm. Place Lt Kono under arrest. She is charged with insubordination, striking a superior officer, and conduct unbecoming, as well of some other charges I will divine later. I'm sure you can lock her up somewhere for the time being."

Phoenix put his hand on his phaser and then stopped. This was rather sudden. "Sir did I hear that order right?" he did a double take. He was not refusing the order, in fact he was going to follow it, he just wanted to make sure he wasn't going insane and heard it correctly.

Kate's eyes cut to Shran, searching his face. Being placed under arrest for filing a situation report—and for trying to soften the blow of a miscommunication, no less—made no sense to her. She looked to Phoenix, giving him a small, firm shake of her head. Whatever this was, it wasn't worth a confrontation.

She raised her hands so Phoenix could lift the phaser from her waistband. She shook her head at him to let him know not to protest.

"It needs to be charged," she said to him, her voice even. "Swap out the battery banks when you're done—it keeps the power cycling. Should take about twenty minutes." She paused. "After that, it's just waiting."

She turned to Shran. "You shouldn't go out there alone. There's nothing out there worth the risk to you." She held his gaze a moment longer than necessary, then looked away. She didn't agree with this. She didn't understand it. But he was her commanding officer, and that wasn't something she took lightly; not even now.

Whether dehydration or something else had gotten to Shran, it didn't change what she needed from him right now—just enough clarity to get them out of this. She could work around the rest. What she couldn't afford to do was let it show that she'd noticed. Kate turned the problem over quietly in her mind: a report to Starfleet that told the truth of what happened without quite telling all of it—Shran's call to arrest her folded neatly beneath the more defensible facts of the rescue, smoothed over until it was just another decision made under pressure in bad conditions. It was possible. It would take some careful architecture, but it was possible. The harder problem was Phoenix. They would need to be standing on the same ground before either of them put a word to PaDD. In the field, the mission was the only thing that mattered—not the frayed edges of every call made under fire, not the moments where someone's judgment slipped. You protected the outcome. You protected your people. The rest had a way of taking care of itself.

Seeing as Kate accepted her fate, he didn't wait for a response from the Captain. James disarmed her and put the phaser on his own belt for safe keeping. James sighed and guided her to the aft compartment. "You have the right to remain silent" he quipped as he secured her in there. James moved back to the Captain after securing Kate in the lame excuse for a brig.

"Permission to speak freely sir?"

Shran looked at Phoenix with his usual stern face, then a smile began to crack the otherwise icy facade. "It would seem that neither you nor Kate picked up on the joke. I suppose junior officers don't have the same sense of humor that they used to." He began to walk away and then stopped and looked back at Phoenix, "You had something you wanted to say lieutenant?"

"Well sir, I think I may be sleep deprived" he chuckled. "I thought you were doing this because of Kate not disclosing her concerns for the sabotage, which I'll admit, would have been overkill in my eyes..." he trailed off.

James moved without word and released Kate. He was miffed at himself for being so dense. He gave an apologetic look to Kate and handed her back her things. He now had other grievances, but he opted to remain quiet for the time being.

Shran just looked at the two junior officers. They needed to learn how to keep things light in these tense situations. Suddenly, something far more dangerous shook everything and shifted attention. Shran went to the sensors to take a look and saw what he was afraid of, the volcano had entered an eruption period. It was billowing out massive amounts of pyroclastic debris as lava spurt out of it and flowed like a massive menacing river of liquid fiery death. He looked at the flow trajectory. It was flowing in the direction of the runabout, but barring something catastrophic, it wouldn't cause them a problem. That said, he needed to deal with this situation before things did indeed become catastrophic.

"New plan. Kate, keep an eye on the sensors, and Phoenix, prep for an excursion. I need to build something before we go."


TBC

 

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