Wartime-Mantime

Posted on Mon Jul 27th, 2026 @ 10:33am by Lieutenant JG Benjamin "Ben" Dalton & Ensign Aidan "A.J." Reid

2,207 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Sins of the Empire
Location: Jefferies Tubes - USS Washington
Timeline: current

Ensign A.J. Reid had patched the torpedo room, thrown himself against a bulkhead seal before the hull breach could outrun the forcefield, and hauled two crewmen down to medical on his back. Now Romulans on Deck Seven and Fourteen, if the chatter on the open channel was right. The Jefferies tube was narrow and smelled like burnt conduit. He sat with his spine wedged into the corner of a T-intersection, the ship shuddering around him in long rolling jolts, and drank from the Camelback reservoir he’d had the foresight to replicate before everything went sideways. His thighs were shaking. Sweat ran freely down the back of his neck, and he thanked Shran silently for the fourth time that hour for making him cut the dreadlocks. He kept one ear tuned to the combadge for Na’Riss’s voice in the noise.

Then the drinking tube went taut and something coarse and whiskered pressed against his neck from behind the corner.

He threw himself forward and put his head directly into the ceiling of the tube.

A Husky rounded the corner at a leisurely pace, the rubber tube still clamped in his teeth, and regarded AJ with calm blue eyes before stepping forward to lick the welt already forming on his skull.

“Kodie!” AJ grabbed the dog by the cheeks, wincing and laughing at once. “Wha di bloodclaat, man! Yuh nearly kill mi, yuh know! Whe yuh even come from?”

He scratched him under the chin anyway.

His boss came around the corner after the dog, ducking under a low conduit, and AJ let out a breath he had not realized he was holding.

“Yuh reach, sir. Mi did a wonder.” He pulled Kodie back by the collar before the dog could plant both paws on his boss’s chest. “Yuh have anyting from Kate dun a di planet? Na’Riss, she still a move. Mi hear her pon di comm not even six minute gone.”

Ben shook his head, "Nothing from Kate, com black out. I'm sure she's okay, She's with Grayson after all." He pointed at AJ's welt. "How'd you get that? And Kodie come here." He told the husky who promptly moved to his side. He continued, "We just came from the Intel Office, part of the ceiling collapsed on us. Jammed the door as well. "I used a phaser to cut the door open so we could get out.'

"How did I get di welt?" AJ laughed. He looked over at Kodie, whose head was tilted to one side with an expression that seemed to say snitches get stitches. AJ grinned at the dog and decided to keep to himself that it was Kodie's fault for sneaking up on him in the tube and drinking out of his own water supply. "Why, doing sometin heroic, of course! Is just a likkle bump, nothin to worry yourself about. You phasered di door open?!" AJ's laughter filled the room. "Oh, our poor office. Is a good ting Hathaway never made Kate take out dose phasers, or you'd have been stuck in dere and I wouldn't have dis great company right now."

Ben nodded, "I'm sure Na'Riss will be glad to kiss it and make it all better." He joked. "As far as Hathaway, Kate was never going to let take our phasers, she would have hidden them all if he tried," he looked at AJ again, "You're sure you are okay?" Then to Kodie, "Kodie let AJ have his water tube back."

Kodie didn't let his mouth off the tube until the water bladder made an empty slurping sound. His icy blue eyes moved between the both of them before he dropped it. AJ unslung the bag and left it on the floor like trash.

"Dis is what dey call bachelor time, yeah?" AJ said. "Our women, dey worry about us more dan we worry about dem. We got our status updates, but dey out dere wondering if we still breathing. Kate, she would fret. Vulcans, dey just bury it down deep. But we cyan help but love dem, you know? Tree men waiting on our women." He laughed at that. Kodie sat still and seemed to understand everything. AJ looked over at him. "You come a long way from your wolf ancestors, space-dog."

"Yes definitely bachelor time." Ben agreed. "You know we're lucky to have two wonderful, special women who love us and aren't afraid to show it. Even Na'Riss shows it through little signs and you are very lucky to have her in your life and by your side. Like Kate has captured my heart, she has captured yours and my friend, don't you ever let go of her."

"Mi tell yuh sometin," AJ said, stretching one leg out along the floor of the tube and wincing as his knee popped. "Back when mi did a work di beat pon di island, before all dis," he tapped the Starfleet insignia on his chest, "dey teach yuh quick dat yuh partner is everyting. Not yuh superior officer, not di manual. Yuh partner. Di person who find yuh in di tube." He looked at Ben. "Yuh, Kate, Na'Riss, di whole Intelligence crew, is dat same ting. Chosen family." The ship rolled hard around them and a loose panel somewhere above them rang out like a bell. AJ did not move. "And look. Here we are."

Ben nodded at AJ's words. "I couldn't agree more. Kate is my best friend in addition to being my girlfriend. She stuck right by my side when I lost my legs and then got new ones. You and Na'Riss are right there with her. I trust you all of you completely. We're the Four Musketeers." He joked as the ship rolled and dipped. In the distance he could hear conduits popping and blowing out. Kodie whined at the sound. "It's okay Kodie, your safe, we're all safe. Just hope are ladies are safe as well." He glanced at AJ, "When this over we're all going out to dinner."

"Kodie, he's a Musketeer too, y'know, man's too smart to let himself get left out," AJ said, his laugh rolling down the corridor like a wave. He dug into his bag and produced a fistful of zipties, cuff-width, and held them out. "Dese are for you. Word reach me dat dey boarded us already." He shook his head slowly, teeth showing in something between a grin and a grimace. "Me nah want it to come to anyting crazy… nah want to be killing nobody. Dat's why a man keeps someting like dis close. For emergencies, seen?"

"The Four Musketeers plus one." Ben replied as he took the sip ties from AJ. he looked at Kodie and then to AJ. "Your right about Kodie he is too smart." he stuffed the zipties into his pocket. "Sometimes you don't have a choice in killing someone or not. But thanks for the ties, that at least gives me another option and sometimes that's all we need is another option." He replied solemnly.

"Dem green-blood Romulans gon' get a taste of dis stunner, seen?" AJ held his phaser between his finger and thumb, arm extended, like he was carrying a dead rat by the tail. Obviously, he didn’t care for weapons despite being an ex-police officer from Earth. "Gonna truss dem up like bush hogs for de feast. Security can come collect dere present from AJ, Ben, and Kodie… All nicely wrapped up wid love!" The laughter that followed rolled out of him and filled the corridor end to end. He pointed at each of them in turn as he remembered something. "But listen, don't go tellin' Na'Riss I say 'green-blood.' Me don't need no racism complaint pon me record." He doubled over at that, and Kodie howled in response.

Ben grinned at AJ and Kodie's antics. "Fifty thousand unemployed comedians and i get you two for free. I'll just turn you both loose on the Romulans that will teach them to mess with the Federation and it's allies and while the Romulans are laughing at the two of you, I'll phaser them into next week." He stated. "As for telling Na'Riss, mum's the word. She'll never hear anything from me that her boyfriend is a racist." He joked.

AJ laughed a little more before crawling toward the hatch that opened onto one of the main decks. He ran his fingers along the seals, checking for any sign of a breach, then stepped out cautiously. Kodie trotted out on all four paws without hesitation, and AJ held the hatch for Ben.

"Look, all I was doin was waitin to hear which calls were most urgent and seein what I could sort out quick, ya know? But you are de boss, sir. So tell me what you want us to do, because dis ship shakin like it vex and we got Romulans somewhere on board lookin for people..." AJ said, as Kodie settled onto his haunches beside them as they decided their next moves.

Ben didn't rush an answer and when he spoke, it was in a calm even tone. "We stop the Romulans from hurting out people. We'll go back to the Intel office and grab some more phasers or phaser rifles. I think we managed to have a couple of those and we tap into the coms and here where the Roomies are and take the fight to them. We defend this ship and crew,"

**

AJ, Ben, and Kodie made it back to the Intelligence Office. AJ ducked under the gap where the door had been cut open and stepped inside to find the room in ruins.

"Bloodclaat, Ben, you and Kodie were in here when dis happened?" he asked, picking his way through the debris to the locker. He punched in the code, 8675309, and the door swung open to reveal the weapons cache. Two phaser rifles were gone. Ben had used one to cut through the door, and Kate had taken the other down to the planet. AJ lifted the remaining rifle from its mount and strapped it across his back.

He dug through a shelf until he found a bag of dog treats and held a few out for Kodie.

"Kate ago love di remodeling, mon," AJ said.

Ben chuckled as AJ gave Kodie some dog treats. "You have made a friend for life and Kate is going to just love the new remodeling."

AJ clipped the combadge onto Kodie's collar. Kodie's tail swept the floor in wide, lazy arcs, and he twisted around to sniff at the little device before AJ gently redirected his snout.

"Easy, easy. Dere you go, boy," AJ said, scratching behind both of Kodie's ears until the dog's back leg started going. "Now we always know where you are, wherever you run off to in dis ship. I been workin on dis for you. You get yourself into trouble, we beam you somewhere safe, just like dat." Kodie licked his hand. AJ laughed and wiped it on his pants.

AJ stood and powered his phaser rifle to medium stun.

"Alright, boy. Let's go find some Romulans to poke."

"Kodie you stay with us, no running ahead of us." Ben spoke to the husky. He double checked his setting on the rifle. "Time to do some pest control and the ship of Romulans." he looked to AJ, "Let's do this."



They came around the corner to find Na'Riss flat on her back beneath a burst conduit, her legs sticking out from under a low panel, her uniform dark with grease and split at the knee. She rolled out at the sound of their footsteps and got to her feet, and that was when Kodie saw her and made his decision. He crossed the distance in two bounds and hit her square in the chest with both paws.



Na'Riss raised both arms out to her sides like a person who has just been pushed into a pool. She looked down at the dog. The dog looked up at her. After a moment of what appeared to be internal deliberation, she lowered one hand and patted him twice, firmly, on the top of the head.

"Your presence is noted and not unwelcome," she said to Kodie. She straightened up and looked at the two of them, taking in the rifles, the general state of their uniforms, the look on their faces. "You have arrived armed for a conflict which does not appear to exist. This is consistent with what I have observed of the Intelligence department's operational awareness."

AJ looked over at Ben with a grin wide enough to split his face in two.

"Ah, well, ya know, a man like to be ready, seen? Better to have de rifle and not need it dan need de rifle and not have it." He spread his hands out in a gesture of total innocence. Na'Riss regarded him the way a person regards a weather forecast that has already been proven wrong. "Is good to see you safe, my girl. Now me can go fix up dis ship in peace widout frettin over you."

"Right. Let's go Romeo, Come on Kodie leave Na'Riss alone." ben said with a grin.

 

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