What in the World?

Posted on Mon Jun 30th, 2025 @ 3:15am by Captain Mira Rodale & Commander Kevin Lance & Lieutenant Commander Awal Kronnelti & Lieutenant Tracey Walker Jr & Lieutenant Betaras K'ner

1,629 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Starbase 364
Location: USS Chuck Norris
Timeline: After the Wedding of Mira and Kevin

:ON:

{Cargo Bay 3, USS Chuck Norris}

Kevin had never felt so tired in all of his life. And sore. And nauseous.

True to Shen’s word, the Andorian battle stimulant had kept him awake and alert for the past forty-eight hours. Through the wedding and the post-ceremony celebrations, through a wonderful night with his bride, through the arrival and outfitting of the newly refurbished Norris. He hadn’t been able to sleep so he had invested his time in spot checking the ship’s systems and physically inventorying the cargo manifest.

Now that the stimulant had run its course, the crash that Shen predicted was rapidly approaching.

Kevin yawned and shook his head, willing his eyes to focus on the words on the PADD in his hand. He was almost done. He just needed to power through for another hour until he could hand off the rest of the preparations to Lieutenant Commander Montgomery.

Blinking, he focused in on an entry at the end of the manifest. Something called a dual-axis generator. It was listed under the spare parts inventory but without any indication of what it was intended to be a spare for. Kevin hadn’t been very adept in the Engineering disciplines but doubted that even Mira would know, off the top of her head, what the part was for.

“Where is this item?” Kevin asked the space station’s cargo technician.

The technician looked at Kevin’s PADD then consulted his own. “We loaded it with the self-sealing stembots,” the technician answered, “in position 13-C-5.”

Kevin nodded and proceeded to the indicated position with the cargo bay’s shelving. There, next to a large transfer case stenciled with the word “STEMBOTS” was an odd looking device. Four cylindrical units, two on either end, with two red crystalline rods connecting each between two of the cylindrical elements. There wasn’t an interface panel and no apparent connectors to attach to. Perhaps it was a “pop-and-drop” component that fit inside of whatever device it was intended to be part of, connecting by contact or proximity. Kevin shrugged and turned to walk away.

What I could really do with right now, he thought, is a hot cup of Kona blend. He doubted that the caffeine would keep him from finally falling asleep but it might keep him from collapsing in the hallway. He looked down to finish the manifest when he smelled coffee.

The pleasant odor drifted to his nose and he looked up. There on the shelf next to him was a ceramic mug with a steaming liquid inside. Perplexed, Kevin took the mug and sniffed the contents. It did indeed smell like coffee.

He raised his PADD to the cup and scanned it. The liquid was coffee, with no trace of any type of poison. Not even sugar.

Kevin to a tentative taste. It was Kona blend.

“Anyone know where this coffee came from?” he asked, but the cargo technicians, their task complete, had departed, leaving Kevin alone in the cargo bay.

Kevin took another sip as he ponder the cup’s sudden appearance but he was too tired to come to any rational conclusion. “Must be someone pulling a prank on me,” he muttered to himself.

Behind Kevin, and unseen by him, the device named a dual-axis generator had disappeared.


{Deck One}

“I can’t believe you punched him.”

Mira frowned at Zimia “He had it coming. Drunk or not, no one puts my son in danger.” That was it. “Have you unpacked all my clothing?” Mira asked her as they walked.

“Yes and has soon as the kids take their naps ill get theirs done.“ Seeing the frown on Mira’s face she had to ask “ why, don’t you like it?”

Mira waved that question off “no you always put things back just as I had it but I can’t find my soft soled leather boots. You know the black ankle ones?”

There was a little flash of light behind them. Mira turned around and there was her boots. She frowned, now how on earth did they get in the corridor she thought as she picked them up “There not wet and chewed on so it wasn’t Vaytoc.”

Zimia frowned because now she had remembered they had been damaged. “yea that’s weird.”

Mira tapped her commbadge “Captain to Ensign Chin please send someone to remove a piece of equipment left in the corridor.” what an odd place to leave something.

=/\= Aye Captain =/\=


{Shuttle bay}

It was her normal ship walkabout to check out the changes that had been made to the ship. She lifted her eyes to see that same piece of equipment she had seen in the corridor. How had it gotten here so quickly? Was it supposed too be here?



Odd she thought. Well it was out of the way right now. Her PADD didn't say anything about it. Perhaps Kevin knew about it . "darn I need a cup of Raktajino." She yawned Kevin had been up for a few days now.

Starting to walk again she smelled Raktajino. Turning her head she raised an eyebrow. Someone had left her mug with raktajino in on the equipment? Frowning she picked it up. Had it been here when she walked in? Darn was she that tried or was Zimia getting that good at her job? Sipping it she walked to the next area to inspect.


{Engineering}

Walker grunted as he stretched as far as his arm would reach, but it was just an inch or two short to reach the valve. Dammit, he thought, he didn't relish the thought of making would should be a five minute job several hours long because he had to dismantle the console to reach the blasted valve.

What we needed was a spanner wrench. A flash of light illuminated the chamber. He turned and found a spanner wrench laying on top of a strange device with cylindrical units. He took the wrench and turned the valve, then turned back toward the device and frowned. That hadn't been there a moment ago. What was it?


[ Medical ]

K'ner rolled her head around to ease the tension in her neck. The isometrics earlier hadn't relaxed her as usual, she was anticipating something, she just hadn't quite identified what it was, nor had the other shoe dropped, so-to-speak.

She pushed the PADDs that had required her sign-off and stepped around the small desk to look out into the bay. Lt Tela was speaking with one of the PAs, while others attended to last-minute details with the final calibration of one of the new installs.

Taking a centering breath, she felt like she was awash in a sea of calm, ripples inexorably moving outward to form around and past her. Something would make itself apparent in due time, she just had to wait, and be prepared... as usual...

Commander Lance walked into the sick bay, looking a little worse for the wear. "I am not feeling well," he told the duty nurse.

"Well, let's get you onto the examination bed," she replied.

Kevin laid down on the hard surface and closed his eyes. Sleep was not far off.

"Dehydration, malnutrition, subdermal hematomas, increased white blood cell counts," the nurse recited, "What have you been doing Commander?"

"Just got married," Kevin answered without opening his eyes.

"That was day's ago," the nurse pointed out.

"I haven't been sleeping much," Kevin confessed. In truth, he hadn't slept a wink in three days, thanks to the Andorian stimulant that Shen had given him. "Remind me to thank him," he muttered sleepily."

"Who?" the nurse asked.

"Nevermind," he replied, "I just want something for this headache."

The nurse pursed her lips. "I suppose that I can give you a mild pain reliever...." her voice trailed off, "That's odd."

"What?"

"This hypospray injector," the nurse continued, "I am certain it wasn't here when you laid on the bed. Usually, these are kept in the storage cabinets." She applied the injector to Kevin's arm.

"Hmmm," Kevin responded noncommittally. He turned his head to the side and open his eyes slightly. There on a nearby crash cart was a curious device with two glowing red tube suspended between four cylindrical units. It looked familiar but Kevin was too sleepy to recall where he had seen it.

"All done, Commander," the nurse told him as she went to return the hypospray to the storage cabinet, "You can leave when you are ready."

"Okay," Kevin answered dreamily, "Maybe I will lay here for just a little while."

{Security}

Awal sitting at his desk trying to figure out why things keep appearing.

{ Cargo Bay }

K'ner paused running with the gravity turned up and listened to yet another report. She pulled up the running list she already had and added the new details. She wondered what was up, another "Q" escapade? A rip in time and space? Too much raktajino? Stems in the water? She scheduled a test of the water system and the programming on the replicators.

She formatted the report and cleaned up each entry, dispatching it to the CO and XO, plus CC'ing Kronnelti and Walker for their review. Once or twice would be coincidence, but they were all rested and should be clear-minded, and 27 incidents, that were reported, went well beyond that. She wondered just how many occurrences had been ignored or overlooked.

OFF:

Lt Betaras K'ner
Hazard Team Combat Medic TL-B / CMO
USS Chuck Norris

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Captain Mira Rodale
CO USS Chuck Norris

&

Lieutenant commander Awal Kronnelti
Chief of security & tac
USS Chuck Norris
TAG anyone

&

Lieutenant Tracey Walker
Chief Engineer
USS Chuck Norris

&

Commander Kevin Lance
Executive Officer USS Chuck Norris

 

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