And then there was

Posted on Fri Aug 8th, 2025 @ 8:10pm by Captain Mira Rodale Lance & Commander Kevin Lance & Lieutenant Commander Awal Kronnelti & Lieutenant Betaras K'ner

2,561 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Hide and seek
Location: USS Chuck Norris
Timeline: Present

On:

{USS Chuck Norris, Bridge}

Standing just out side the Bridge door Mira frown at the device she knelt down picking up both mugs and smelled them “they smell like Raktajino and coffee."

The Ensign standing next to her took his tricorder out and scanned them. “They are what they appear to be Captain. I am guessing this is some kind of replicator."

Mira nodded “but how does it keep moving around the ship?” Once that was said the device changed shape and formed some kind of wheels. “Oh! Ensign take that to walker and make sure it is safe."

Chin walked up to her “Captain good day.”

She was about to answer him when she heard “Captain it's gone.”

Looking back Mira frowned “son of a targ “ she shook her head walking into the bridge “We have some kind of machine walking around my ship ….. making coffee. We need to find out if it’s dangerous or not. “ she sipped the Raktajino “it does make amazing Raktajino.”

“Captain should you be drinking that."

“I believe I have already drank 2 cups of Raktajino from it already. Where did it come from?” Mira asked.

Chin pulled out a PADD “the note that had been originally attached to it said ‘to the couple that has everything. I hope you enjoy it.’ “ he looked up at her “Captain Toreck.”

Mira frowned “that’s one of my father’s friends. Odd.”

Chin turned back to his console, “We are receiving an emergency message from the outpost we had set course for.”

“On screen .” Mira told him

“Its Audio only.” Chin told her before static and a garbled message played.

“it…….. came out …..nowhere….. . thought we cou……. But it’s…..worsening. need.” Then it cut out.

“Hail the colony," Mira told him.

“no response.” Chin answered “I’ll keep trying.”

Mira frowned “the planet has frequent storms. Perhaps this was a bad one. Max speed get us there as soon as possible. Hail the IKS Slivin and have them follow best speed. “

“Aye Captain. “ Mira handed the cup of coffee to Montgomery and went to the missions table in the back of the bridge. She waved her hand to activate it. Calling up what ever information she could on the colony. Seeing they needed more power she ordered “yellow alert.” Protocols would drop all the holo rooms and extras in each room but keep the ones on the bridge.

Awal pulls up the ships status. "Captain, I can bring down the Holo decks as needed, shall I proceed?" asked Awal.

“Aye we need to give the ship as much power as we can. Fun time will have to wait," she told him as she looked over the information about the colony.

Montgomery joined her “Captain that colony has a nickname “it’s Roanoke.”

“and that information helps us how?” she asked.

Montgomery shrugged “only that it was very poor taste seeing as the Roanoke colony on earth completely disappeared. “

Mira frowned but kept studying the colony “looks like the weather is very cold. They are terraforming the planet. The main colony is a larger bunker design to handle the weather...”

Montgomery nodded “hopefully is just a bad storm and not the Gorn.”

That would be truly horrifying Mira thought. “activate long range scanners . I don’t want any surprises.”

Awal proceeds to shut down the holodecks to give the ship more power.

"Captain, holodecks have successfully been shut down." Said Awal

Kevin entered the bridge through the bridge door. He was pulling on his tunic over a black tank that clung to his well-muscled chest but exposed his broad shoulders and arms. He was uncharacteristically sweaty and disheveled. Mira looked up at him with a curious expression. "I was overseeing Ensign Rodriguez's extra training," he replied to the unspoken enquiry, "although I am beginning to wonder who it is more punishing to."

Mira smirked at the comment as Kevin continued, "I checked in on the kids. Zimia has them with Venus in our quarters, all safe and sound." He leaned over the mission table across from Mira. "What are we looking at?"

Montgomery provided a brief synopsis of the distress call and the colony. Kevin stroked his beard. It hadn't completely grown back in from shaving it for the last mission but at least it was more respectful than stubble. "Could the terraforming cause an environmental backlash?"

"Unlikely," the science officer replied, "The colony is using a marginal modification approach. Most climate changes wouldn't be visible for a decade."

"Still, have Lieutenant Walker weigh in on the possible repercussions," Kevin directed, then he turned to Chin, "Play back the distress call."

Chin nodded and turned to his console and the words played out again.

"They said 'it' and 'it's"," Kevin mused, his brow furrowed in concentration, "Not 'they'. That would indicate an individual source rather than a group. And 'it's worsening' suggests that the threat is growing in strength. I would lean towards something environmental but we can't rule out a predatory species just yet. And nothing to indicate if the threat is terrestrial or extraplanetary. How long until we are in sensor range?"

"Four hours, Commander," the science officer replied.

Kevin nodded, then looked towards Mira. "Do you want to take the ship into orbit or send out a reconnaissance shuttle?"

Awal says: "if we do send a recon team, should I send a security team along and should I lead said team?"

Frowning as she looked over the base's blueprints Mira gave their options some thought on the best way to proceed. “that facility is huge. It even goes down 12 levels and 18 levels up." Placing her fingertips on the screen she flipped the whole image around for Kevin and Montgomery to get a better view.

Kevin gave a low whistle. "That is going to be a lot of territory to cover if sensors are compromised," he remarked.

“If it’s a storm. The transporter will not be safe to use. Shuttles I believe are our best option. That is If they can fly in the weather once we get there. “ Her eyes meet Kevin’s eyes “ I’ll let you decide that. If not safe then I may move our guest off the IKS Slivin and take that down. It is designed to handle almost any kind of weather and storm but I would rather not have that Klingon group on my ship."

She gave a little shrug the governess and her hadn’t hit it off well. Mira had let her know she didn’t believe she was fit to raise a daughter in the house Rasmehlier and she would be sending others in sure the little girl had the best of everything .

Getting her mind back on the problem for right now she said.
“it’s possible that a direct blast from the Electrical storm knocked out the shields but once the computer came back on line all the safety Protocols would too.” Her own codes would get them in but they would need to be down there to enter them. “but it doesn’t explain why they aren’t answering hails. We will need a full team going down engineering, medical, science and security. "

Kevin started putting together the away team in his head. A Type-8 Shuttlecraft could hold eight-personnel which included the pilot and co-pilot. Walker and Thorne could handle the technical portions and K'ner could do double-duty as medical and security. He made a note to see if any of the science personnel had more than the rudimentary medical training. One of the Haz Team could take co-pilot duties but Kevin wanted someone with more experience as the pilot-in-charge.

Two. Three. Four. Seven. It wasn't a very robust roster and Kevin would need to convince K'ner to cut down on the Haz Team's members but it would have to do.

He looked across the table at Mira, anxiously. "Who do you plan to be in charge of the away team?" he asked.

"We could take two shuttles if you're worried about space. I’ll be needed to get us into the building. With lacked of personnel the computer will recognize my command codes. Of course this could all be something simple like systems overload but if all their systems are fried then not even my codes will get us in and the computer could be fried." Flipping through images Mira stopped and enlarged the image “this could be a secondary entrance. It’s an flight hanger they store shuttles. It’s connected to the main colony underground." Her eyes meet Kevin’s it dawned on her he had asked who was taking lead “Do you want to take lead on this?”

The truth was he did want to take lead and keep Mira back on the Norris. It harkened back centuries to a less progressive era but he felt the instinctual need to keep his mate safe from all harm. "I would rather keep the away team to no more than ten personnel and one shuttle. With the modifications to the ship our crew capacity is reduced to 40. Three are children and taking a full ten for the away team leaves less than 70% manning. Even with additional automation, that is cutting it fine if the Norris gets into trouble. And a second shuttle would compromise evacuation of the crew..." and children "...if that becomes necessary."

"I'll make it work," Montgomery groused as he stood at the mission table looked back and forth between the Captain and Executive Officer, "I know there isn't a snowball's chance in hell that both of you aren't going on this mission."

Kevin nodded. If he couldn't keep Mira on the ship he was Cochrane damned certain the he wasn't staying behind. He thought about the industrial-grade replicator that was installed in Cargo Bay 2. Perhaps Walker could modify a shuttle to fit in a couple more seats.

Add in my shuttle I can fit another 4 people or if needed you and Mira. Said Awal

Kevin shook his head. "A civilian flyer won't stand up to the stresses that storm is putting out," he decided.

Looking back and forth at Kevin and Montgomery she felt like she might have missed something. Looking back at the plans she lowered her voice so only the few people standing around her would hear . “We will be using the new environmental suits. It will protect us from the weather and any environmental issues we might run into. I am adding quarantine procedures as well, until K’ner clears that off the list of possible causes of problems on the planet. I am not expecting this to be a dangerous away trip. But I am guessing there will be missions that will be…. “

Mira frowned, trying to think of the right words. Her eyes meet Montgomery’s to judge his thoughts on all this. The man had an amazing poker face. So She changed what she was about to say. “My mother was sent to a lot of places my father wasn’t to happy with. She gave him what she called the husband card?” Mira chuckled. “She knew he had a limit of how much danger he could deal with her being in and he always went with her. I remember one time she was in the middle of a heated negotiation and my father had reach his limit. He leaned in to my mom and whispered ‘the card is now in play.’ My mom raised an eyebrow, but smiled as she stood up and excused her herself from the meeting. The 3 of us went back to the ship,” Mira bit her lip. “things went really bad after we left. My dad said neither side was serious about the meeting and his family wasn’t going to play the price” She took a sip of her Raktajino.

“You have that card Kevin . Use it when you really are serious. Until that time, as Captain, there are things I need to do."

Montgomery was trying his best not to laugh “So, when is the is the next kid coming?”

Mira rolled her eyes. “Yeah, we have 2 already. Bite your tongue.” She grinned. “weapons” she pointed to Awal, “crew. Protective gear. Am I missing anything.?”








{ Engineering }

Walker looked at the device. "Touch it."

Chbet's head went back and forth, the soft Aquelian skin a bit moist and flappy. "I'm not gonna touch it. You touch it."

Walker's eyebrows scrunched up. "Not me, you touch it, before it disappears again." He readied yet another tricorder and holo-scanner.

Chbet stared from the side. "Nope, you touch it. You're engineering, you're the expert."

Walker shook his head again. "Uh uh... you touch it. You're a red shirt, you're expendable."

The debate continued until the device started to fade subtly, then suddenly disappeared completely, as if it had never been there.

"Told you."


{ Shuttle Bay... }

Deena looked back from the front console, as K'ner prepped next to the side access. "She's prepped and ready to depart as soon as they're ready sir. The other shuttle is also staged if called out." K'ner nodded and sent the status update up to command.

Nod stood just outside and handed K'ner a crate. Once handed off, he tapped his PADD, sending data to K'ners. "Here's the specs on the facilities... The primary one you're headed for, plus the ancillary sites as the terraforming has extended out. I've broken down the stages overall, and where they are in the sequence. Relatively speaking they've only been at it for a few years. That planet is very inhospitable, but it is resource-rich and ticks all the boxes for sustaining life, crops, etc., at least once they reach that point. That'll be a ways down the line, of course, but big picture, it's quite exciting."

K'ner nodded, already scanning the data while locking the crate into place under her seat. "Looks like when we're in most of the planet's open spaces, we'll need protection to travel. How dependable are the storm trackers so far?"

Nod smiled. "I wouldn't have guessed the forces were so predictable the way they're raging, but turns out they're not as chaotic as they would appear and the scientists on the ground have been able to be quite efficient with a working schedule. There's a slight ebb in the weather window coming up that will be beneficial to your arrival, not that it'll be smooth necessarily. Deena has a flight path set, along with alerts if conditions shift."

K'ner took a centering breath as she sat and buckled in securely. A 'smooth ride' for this trip would be closer to the Ankrorah Chicane race on Zanko IV, with plenty of hoops and dips and shear forces to keep it interesting. Deena and the XO would both be busy keeping them on course and in the air until they reached their planned destination.

Leaning into her harness, K'ner looks over at the Klingon. "Take care of our new ride. Try not to get any scratches on it while we're gone!"

Nod saluted and exited, heading back to his regular duties.




OFF:

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

&

Lieutenant Commander Awal Kronnelti
Chief of security and tac
USS Chuck Norris

&

Captain Mira Rodale Lance
CO USS Chuck Norris

&
Commander Kevin Lance
XO
USS Chuck Norris

 

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