The Rescue

Posted on Sun May 17th, 2026 @ 10:54pm by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Commander Jonathan Grayson & Lieutenant Commander Callie Raven-Grayson & Lieutenant Imik S'Niohun & Lieutenant JG Kate Kono & Lieutenant JG James Phoenix & Chief Petty Officer Aaron Geiger

3,188 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: The Shuttle Incident
Location: USS Washington/Planet

Several hours had passed, though it felt like days with the stress of the situation. The arrival of the Fleming had allowed Sam and her medical teams a needed respite, but not until she had briefed Capt. Livingston about her work. Deanna had to also brief the Fleming's captain regarding the work that had been done to deal with the animal and plant life in the affected zone. The Washington was now free to join the search for the missing runabout with Capt Shran and others.

The Washington had moved to the runabout's last known position. Jon glanced over to Imik. "Imik, bring the sensors to maximum and scan the surrounding planets." To Callie he said "Callie, I know we may still too far away for you to pick up anything from the away team but if you get anything no matter how faint, sing out.'

He tapped his comm badge to speak to Aaron, "Chief, how are the repairs coming along?"

Aaron had been dialing in the freshly replicated switch gear for the intra-nacelle exchange module. "Alright Medina, try it now." He said after closing the access panel and stowing his wrench in the leather pouch on his belt. Immediately a bright flash, followed by a crack and the smell of ozone. Crewman Medina began to scream, his hair had caught flame, and the Chief was there in an instant with the fire extinguisher. Looking to Crewman Rodriguez he directed "Get him to sickbay." As his comm badge beeped and he heard the question from the XO.

"We're green on sensors, weapons, and Impulse Commander." Aaron replied, hands on his hips as he looked over the module again. "Transporters are still shot, ETA at least another 6 hours. We can give you Warp in a pinch but until I've got the exchange module back up; I would caution against trying to set any speed records." Aaron opened the access panel again and began making adjustments with his hyperspanner with a grunt. "I'm almost there though, give me another hour and you'll be able to give 'er full beans."

Jon listened as Aaron gave him the latest update on repairs. "Very good work on getting sensors weapons and impulse back in the green Chief. Very good as well. An hour you need, an hour you shall have." Jon replied.

"Sensors are now at 100 percent, I am attempting to find the plasma trail from earlier. As of yet I have failed to locate it, we may have to go deeper into the system." Imik's hands danced across her console as she spoke, that trail could be the link to finding Shran. Suddenly a faint trail registered, "Commander, plasma trail on heading 323.6, it is dissipating and therefore is extremally faint."

"Good work Imik." Jon answered. He looked at L'Rissa, "L'Rissa alter course to follow that plasma trail. With any luck it will lead us to the captain and the others."

L'Rissa offered a soft growl as she altered the course.

Callie was keeping her senses alert for any sense of Shran and the rest of the away team, if they were on a planet she’d hopefully sense something. “If there’s indigenous life on the planets around here, I won’t be able to separate our people from them. If anything, it’ll make it more difficult for me.”

"I'm sorry Callie, I'm not trying to make your job harder. If you pick anything, could you send a message that only the captain and others would understand and reply to?"

Deanna was back at Ops. "Detecting an ion trail. It is decayed, definitely several days old. Definitely from a smaller vessel, something the size of a runabout or large shuttle."

"Good. Follow that rail. Hopefully it will lead us at least closer to our missing people, and we can do a more detailed and thorough search for them." Jon answered.

"Sending coordinates to the helm" Deanna replied.

Jon sat and listened as the rest of the bridge crew went about doing their jobs. He didn't need to saying, they all knew what was expected of them as well as what was at stake..

Working silently at her station, Imik began to scan the closest planets. Nothing registered but the trail they were following appeared to be getting stronger, "I believe we maybe on the correct course Commander, the trail is becoming stronger and is progressing towards an M class planet some 200,000 miles distant. Ops do you concur?"

Jon nodded in approval of Imik's announcement. "Excellent. L'Rissa continue on course toward the planet Imik just mentioned. Deanna as we get closer, start sending messages to the runabout. Hopefully they are able to receive them and reply."

Deanna looked at her readouts and then opened her mind. "Negative. Detecting a Class-P planet which I believe is the location of the captain and others." She looked back at Jon and then to Callie, "Do you sense it?"

Kuzma had taken up residence in the back of the bridge with Ibarra recovering in sickbay. "Commander, they could survive on a Class-P world, though it would be rough. The amount of antimatter and deuterium in the atmosphere would mean that we would have to make alterations to the transporters to beam anyone up. We'd need to narrow the annular confinement and reinforce the pattern buffers."

Jon spoke to Kuzma, "Get to work on figuring out how long it will take to make the needed specifications to transport people up from the surface. They have been on that planet long enough."

"Notifying Engineering. They should be able to make the modifications in roughly an hour" Kuzma replied.

In Engineering, Aidan got the word regarding the transporters. He was worn to the bone, but a triple shift would do that. "Chief, you've been playing with the transporters the last couple days, so you are the right person for this. Take Kapowski with you. They want annular confinement narrowed and the pattern buffers reinforced for transport through a P-class atmosphere. We will start with the alterations to the Bussard collectors since they'll want us to collect some of the antimatter and deuterium." He looked over at Lawrence, "Lawrence, grab Al'oa and Taki and start preparing antimatter containment pods."

Aaron slung his faded pack over his shoulder and began to head towards Transporter Room 2, Kapowski following close behind. This had been not quite the longest hours he had ever done but it was getting up there. Still, the only thing he could do is press forward.

"Ma'am most of what we need to do will be software configuration oriented. The transporters should take the new config without issue but we'll need to run some tests to make sure." Aaron said, stepping to a console to begin loading the commands.

"I'll start making the necessary alterations to the isolinear chips" Kapowski replied to the Chief. The young female officer moved over to the alcove and pulled open the relays and began working, wondering what was coming next. It had been an eventful last couple of days, even for an engineer.

On the bridge, Deanna continued to scan the planet and the space around. "I think this is it. Detecting a signal buoy in orbit, definitely left here by the captain. It is offering an intermittent signal originating from the planet surface. I can't make contact with anyone yet, but cutting through the signal interference, definitely reading land, lifeforms, and I believe I have found the runabout. It is on a tropical island. Based on these readings, I would say the island, much like the planet, is volcanically active and may have recently dealt with an eruption of high magnitude. We'll need to get into a low orbit for a clearer reading."

Jon didn't waste a moment, "L'Rissa, get us in a low orbit. Deanna send the following song,
"Save Me. with these lyrics,
Somebody save me
Let your warm hands break right through it
Somebody save me
I don't care how you do it, just stay, stay
C'mon, I've been waiting for you " hopefully it will get through and the captain and others will know we're here."

Imik once again realigned her sensors as she swept the planet for any trace of the shuttle or life signs, then quite suddenly she got a hit. "Commander, I'm reading something down there, but it appears to be floating on water." She turned to Deanna, "Op's I've sent you the co-ordinates, can you refine them and confirm my readings?" Looking at Jon, she waited for either confirmation or rejection of her findings.

Callie turned to look at Imik, then at Jon. “I think she’s right; I’m definitely sensing familiar presences down there, Deanna should be able to confirm that.”

"I am definitely getting a sense that they are down there" Deanna confirmed. "As for the runabout itself, there is some sensor echoing which is why I think Imik believed them to be on the water. They are near the water on the shore. The runabout is intact, and I am reading five bio signs. Sending coordinates to the transporter room."


***********

Shran and the others had been marooned on this planet far longer than anyone wished. They had survived sabotage that landed them here, dealt with indigenous beasts, volcanic blasts, and tsunami, and now they were holding out hoping for a rescue.

"Kate, how goes getting communication back up and running? We need to reconnect to the communication relay to let people know where we are."

Kate didn't move. Every muscle in her body had staged a quiet mutiny. Then, with a grunt that came from somewhere deep and involuntary. Kate feigned getting shot by a phaser in faux drama as she tipped herself sideways out of the chair and dropped to the floor with a dull thud, arms already reaching before the rest of her caught up. Her fingers found the connector tool by feel alone, scraping it across the grated floor toward the open panel where a tangle of rerouted shield emitter cables disappeared into the dark. She pushed her head in after them, the smell of scorched conduit filling her nose.

"I just want to go home!"

The words came back to her warped and hollow from inside the wall. On the console above, the PaDD flickered once, then flooded with light as the communications array came back online, a column of incoming transmissions already scrolling upward across the screen.

"Very well" Shran replied. He looked to Phoenix, "How is the work on the power system's going?"

James worked as swiftly as he could, bypassing anything within reason to get the power up faster. "The shields and thrusters did some draining to the power. We're back up to 55 percent" he turned to Kate. "I hope some of those transmissions is some sort of help?"

Viviana came in and began scanning Kate. "You are having an anxiety attack." She checked her medkit. She pulled out a vial and placed it in the hypospray. "This will calm you down."

Kate spun on her knees and was on her feet in an instant, snatching the hypospray out of Viviana's hand and dropping it back into the medkit with a decisive click.

"I'm not having an anxiety attack," Kate said. "I'm being dramatic. My Husky taught me! He's very gifted." She planted her hands on her hips. "Do you have a hypospray for that? Chronic over-dramatization?" She tilted her head. "You're like that doctor in 'Dracula: Dead and Loving It.' Somebody stubs their toe, he's already reaching for the enema."

Kate rolled her shoulders back and exhaled.

"Look—if I were actually spiraling, could I do this?" She gestured broadly at herself. "I'm fine. I'm completely fine. We were floating across an ocean on what are essentially very confident EM Shielding, after being personally exploded by a volcano, on an island populated entirely by seven-foot murder-chickens." She paused. "A little anxiety would be the normal response. I'm practically thriving. I'll be fine, doctor."

Shran's eyes squinted narrowly as he watched Kate flip out. This wasn't normal behavior. Viviana wasn't a mental health practitioner, that was Callie, and she wasn't around. He needed to try and get this situation under control. He placed his hand on his phaser, "Kate, you are acting, I believe the term is loopy. Now, you will allow the doctor to treat you, or I'll sedate you in my own way."

Kate sighed and held out her arm. The hypospray hissed against her neck instead of where she offered. She guessed it was Viviana’s way of saying F-U, and Kate went back to work, blinking slowly against the creeping fog at the edges of her thoughts. It was doing something, she'd give it that. ...The sharp edges of everything had gone slightly soft, like someone had turned down the contrast on the world. She finished rerouting the last of the power and shielding relays, sealed the panel, and dragged a heavy equipment case in front of it so nobody would disappear into the gap she'd made in the floor. The communications array was live, its column of transmissions still scrolling. And the subspace antenna; she glanced at it once, then again. Somehow intact. She pulled up its diagnostics and stared at them. The volcanic shockwave must have jarred something back into alignment that she hadn't been able to coax into place herself. She didn't fully understand it. She decided to accept it anyway.

Viviana scanned Kate, "Things are looking better." She looked to the captain, "I'm going to get back to Janelle."

Shran nodded as he began working on the power systems with Phoenix.

"Power is now up to 70 percent. I'm going to try and see if there is any power left from the engines that I can re-route" James reported. He had already been doing that, but he wanted to see if there was any remaining power that he missed the first time, that he could sop up now.

Phoenix had the look of a man mentally rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, except the deck chairs were power relays and the Titanic was currently also on fire. Kate watched him for a moment, then looked down at the box sitting by her left boot—the box she had mentioned no fewer than twice and which had apparently been received both times with the same energy as a tree falling in an empty forest. She picked it up, held it out at arm's length, and waited.

"Phoenix."

She shook it once. It rattled with the dense, satisfying clunk of five fully charged emergency power cells, each one untouched, each one absolutely bursting with the will to live.

"I talked about these. Earlier. When I mentioned them about one Volcano explosion ago." She set the box down on the console in front of him with a decisive thud. "Full charge, all five. With the shields drawing what they're drawing I wouldn't promise them a long and happy life, but they should keep us breathing until rescue gets here." She paused, then broke into a grin that had no business being that wide given the circumstances. "Also!!! We're transmitting ELT to the Washington." She spread her hands like a magician at the end of a trick.

He looked down at the box and back up at Kate. Phoenix slapped himself mentally for overlooking that. "Thanks Kate" he slid out of his chair and began unpacking the box. "Did any of the transmissions you receive come from the Washington? Or from anyone else for that matter?" He asked Kate.

Kate dropped into a crouch beside Phoenix, watching his hands move through the installation with the focused economy of someone who had done this before, or was at least very committed to looking like he had. "Hey," she said. "We're all running on fumes. Don't sweat it." She glanced sideways at Viviana, who was repacking her medkit with the quiet efficiency of someone who had already mentally filed Kate under 'difficult patients.' "At least she's not hovering over you every time you blink funny." She threw Viviana a wink, got nothing back, and turned to Phoenix. "No replies yet. But the signal's out there—ELT, loud and proud, bouncing off whatever's left of the ionosphere." She watched him seat the second power cell with a satisfying click. "Someone'll pick it up." She paused. "Hopefully a species who doesn't open with a pricing structure."

James replaced one of the fried power cells with it's emergency counterpart. "To be fair, I would take negotiating with a Ferengi over being stranded" he quipped.

Kate let out a long breath through her nose and pressed the back of her wrist against her forehead, dragging it across a sheen of sweat. The sleeves of her Starfleet uniform were still knotted around her waist, the legs of it hanging damp against her thighs, and her tank top was clinging to her in ways that suggested the volcano had gotten its money's worth. A short spike of wet hair drooped sideways over her temple. She pushed it back. It flopped forward again.

"Yeah," she said, the corner of her mouth pulling crooked. "My track record with problem species on away missions?" She held up a finger, then pointed it directly at herself. "Hide me in a locker. Slide some water under the door. Come get me when the Humans have sorted it." She scrunched her nose, eyes squinting shut as a small, helpless laugh escaped through her teeth; the kind that had nothing left of adrenaline in it and everything of relief. She wasn't being sarcastic. Mostly.

Shran was glad that systems were still working. They had managed to get things back up and working about as well as could be expected, all things considered. He activated the sensors, everything looked good for the time being. He reinitiated the signal with the communication buoy, sensors indicated a vessel in orbit. "This is Capt Shran. My runabout has crashed on this planet. We are alive but require immediate assistance. If you are receiving this message, please respond."

Suddenly a song came on across the comm. Shran looked around, "Assuming that isn't you Kate, then I would say the Washington has found us."

"I hope you are correct sir, because I have exhausted what I can do for Janelle here. If she is to have any chance to wake from the coma, she needs to be treated at a proper facility immediately" Viviana responded somewhat grimly.

"Everything will be fine" Shran replied.

As if by magic everyone suddenly dematerialized and moments later materialized in the transporter room, everyone looking at the Chief who was at the controls. Shran tried to lighten the mood, "Permission to come aboard" he said with a smile. "Chief, notify the bridge that I want the runabout brought aboard. It will need extensive repairs, but it is still serviceable. Keep it intact Chief, it has evidence of sabotage that I want."

"Captain, we need to get Janelle to sickbay" Viviana noted.

Shran nodded. "Very well. Chief, transport the doctor and Ens Janelle to sickbay."

 

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