Going home

Posted on Tue Oct 14th, 2025 @ 6:39pm by Captain Mira Rodale Lance & Commander Kevin Lance & Lieutenant Betaras K'ner

1,965 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Hide and seek
Location: Planet surface
Timeline: Present

On:

{Computer Core, Roanoke colony}

They had been there all night. The storm had gotten worse and Mira was sure that it must have damaged the upper decks. They had cut back the power to only the computer and a very low life support to keep the air breathable. Mira had dozed off with her head resting on Kevin’s arm.

Her commbadge went off. =/\= “Captain, this is the USS Chuck Norris. Are you there?”=/\= The voice was Chin, and it sounded like he had been trying to reach them for awhile.

Half asleep, she tapped her commbadge. “That would depend on your definition of there. Is it morning?”

There was a chuckle over the line. A moment of relief. “It is Captain, and the storm has changed course. But we don’t know for how long. You have a small window to leave.”=/\=

Her hand went to her forehead. She had a headache. Her eyes moved around the dark room. “Awal, see if you can gather our people together, and we will try and make our way above ground.” From the sounds, she hoped it wasn’t all blocked or collapsed.

It had been a long, cold night. Now her body felt stiff. Looking up, she smiled at the hand Kevin held out for and she let him pull her up.

“Think there is anything left of our shuttle?” she asked him.

“Void, I hope so.” Kevin told her, taking her hand and pulling her out the door. “Sergeant Deena, you’re with me.”

Mira activated her helmet at seeing K’ner. “There was coffee.” She answered the doctors unspoken question and raised eyebrow. Mira gave a little shrug, then looked up the jefferies tube. “Looks like we might need to dig are way up.”

K’ner nodded. “Ah, and thus the need for the coffee.” She knew the captain would consider most coffees quite benign compared to what she normally drank and a temptation to break the safety protocols. It was a little like betting a Ferengi and expecting him not to place a bet.

Mira started up, only to feel strong hands take hold of her waist lifting her up then back down to the floor.

“Hey I thought lady’s go first?” Mira joked.

“Yes, but not where there is possible dangers.” Kevin told her as he and Awal went up first.

K’ner gave her a slight nod and looked about. Hostiles were unlikely, but the crew had taken pains to avoid the ghostly sprites whenever possible.

Mira sighed. There was so many things she was going to need to get use to.

Going up was slow going but, they made it to the top. Mira was fairly certain that the storm had taken out a few decks of the colony stronghold.

“I think the underground tunnel should be secured enough to use.” Mira told them, it would be a lot safer trip if it was.

The plan was simple, get to the ship. Get it out of the hanger and leave. Was it going to be that simple? Probably not. Nothing ever did go simple for her.

At the vehicle bay, Kevin said a silent prayer of thanks. The structure had clearly taken a beating from the storm's intensity, but it was intact. More importantly, the shuttle was untouched.

“McFarlan, get in the shuttle and start prepping for launch.” Kevin ordered, “But don’t start the engines or the APU, batteries only.”

Deena gave a perplexed look, but nodded in acknowledgement. “Awal, I need you to look to manually opening the clam shell,” Kevin instructed.

“There doesn’t seem to be any damage to the retractor motors,” the Klingon pointed out.

“Yes, but I don’t want to alert the storm to our intentions yet.” Kevin answered as he looked around for a vehicle to tug the shuttle into position with.

The vehicle tug’s battery seemed to be fully charged. Kevin’s theory was battery power wasn’t enough to draw the attention of the sentients in the storm. Which is why he had told Deena not to start the shuttle’s engines. Launch from a cold start of the shuttle’s matter-antimatter reactor was a risk, but as soon as it started generating power, it would attract the attention of the sentients.

Kevin pulled the tug slowly around to the front of the shuttle and attached the tow bar. The wind was whistling along the outside of the enclosure but didn’t sound like it was increasing in intensity.

With the shuttle lined up for a straight shot out of the vehicle bay, Kevin detached the tow bar and moved the tug away. “Sergeant Deena, how is the pre-flight coming along?” he asked.

“There isn’t much,” Deena admitted, “but everything is nominal so far.”

Kevin gave her a thumbs up, then turned to where Awal was prepared to open the clamshell doors.

K’ner gave the Chief of Security a nod that she was ready on her side. The recent damage notwithstanding, the sheer weight of the doors should push themselves aside once the clamps were released. She kept a side eye on the outside trid-cam she’d set outside earlier.

Mira felt tense. She kept looking over her shoulder, feeling like something was there. They hadn’t heard any of those creepy voices or seen the floating wisps since she woke up. She checked her suit again. All systems were back to 100%.

The shell opened slowly as Kevin, Awal and K’ner cranked on the handle. Mira watched the exposing landscape in its beautiful, frozen glory. She could see why the colony had thought this would make them a wonderful home.

“We won’t have inertial dampeners active,” Deena relayed, “Everyone will need to strap in.”


The wind outside of the open clamshell whipped by in fury. Kevin judged that the opening was wide enough and he ordered the others back to the shuttle.

As quickly as possible, Mira entered, taking her seat with the others and buckling in.

K’ner stepped through into the shuttle, backing in behind the last crew member. The flurries had left flakes on her sheer helmet, as if perched in orbit around her head.

Kevin took his place at the pilot’s console. “Sergeant, you will fly us out,” he informed Deena as he tightened his restraints, “I will be handling power distribution. Just be careful of the crosswinds.

“Aye, sir,” was her response.

K’ner palmed the hatch closed and watched for the green light to illuminate as the seal secured but took a step back as a faint mist formed just inside. She held out her arms, as if to corral it, just as the green light began to glow.

“Commander…” She wasn’t sure whether the XO or Kronnelti would respond but the others would know something was amiss by her tone alone, even if they couldn’t see past her. She also wasn’t sure just how she could stop it, but it had ceased any forward motion, so K’ner considered that a positive.

“Get to your seat, Doctor,” Kevin ordered without turning towards her, “Starting powerplant.” K’ner grunted as she locked her boots to the floor.

A gentle vibration resonated through the shuttle’s structure as the matter and antimatter interacted in the intermix chamber. Kevin watched his console intently as the power levels rose. When they reached minimal levels, he ordered, “Launch!”

Mira braced herself for a sudden acceleration but the shuttle gently lifted off and slowly accelerated forward. “What’s wrong?” she asked anxiously.

Kevin did not look up from his console. “Nothing,” he said, “I am limiting the power generation until we are clear of the vehicle bay.”

The force of the storm severely buffeted the shuttle as it exited through the open calm shell, throwing the passengers in their seats to the right. ”eena pushed the craft against the wind shear, keeping the shuttle’s nose inline with the launch way. The sound of the wind howling could be heard through the environmental suits.

“Increasing power,” Kevin announced, “Put us into a climb.”

“Aye, sir.”

The passengers were pressed back into their seats as Deena pulled the shuttle into a vertical climb that felt like it was straight up. Mira felt her stomach try to rip its way out of her back and she was momentarily happy that they hadn’t eaten this morning. Kevin and Deena was concentrating intently on their tasks as the shuttle climbed away from the colony.

Then there was a dip of pressure from the gee forces before they pushed down on their bodies again. “Losing power,” Deena announced.

“Affirmative,” Kevin replied as his hands danced across the flight console.

The suspension of gee forces was longer the second time as Deena fought to keep the shuttlecraft in a climb. Mira wondered if the shuttle was going to fall back to the colony…and whether or not they would survive the landing. Then she had the sensation of falling.

“Commander!” Deena shouted.

“I know,” Kevin shouted back, “Two more seconds!”

It seemed like an eternity but the ship’s gravitic thrusters roared back to life and Mira was once again pressed against her seat as the shuttlecraft resumed its climb into the atmosphere. This time, there wasn’t a loss of thrust and as they went higher, the sounds of the storm grew quieter and quieter. The grey of the cloud filled viewscreen gave way to the inky blackness of space before Kevin settled back in his seat. He looked to the Haz Team operator and asked, “How are you doing Mcfarlan?”

“I could use a drink,” she admitted, “but I am good to make it back to the ship."

“Roger, lay in a course and execute,” Kevin acknowledged. He turned his pilot’s chair towards Mira. “We’re safe now.”

“I thought that we were dead for certain,” she answered, “What happened?”

“I put the colony’s reactor into a thermal runaway,” Kevin smiled through the lens of his environmental suit, “Gave them something more interesting to look at than our little shuttle.”

“Won’t that destroy the colony?”

“No, the XO had me only delay the automatic shutdown protocol,” Trace injected, “not completely disable it.”



Locked into place just inside the hatch, K’ner continued to watch the cloudy form, data streaming along the corner of her HUD. On a wild hunch, she formed the glyphs and runes from the hidden wall as a holo, watching the wispy flow change… in reaction or coincidentally something else?

“Captain, what’s the chance that if those individuals were converted as you suggested, we could use light signals to communicate? Could they still retain enough consciousness to recognize it? To conduct an interchange?”

Mira raised an eyebrow, “you mean if one of the Entities was able to separate itself from the storm? Would we be able to Interact with it?” Mira gave it some thought “If it was strong enough to break the control of the Storm deity then it would be possible but I don’t plan to go back down to the surface to try that “

Finally she look a deep breath now she could concentrate on the challenge she had been dragging in. Mira unbuckled the straps then turned to look back at K’ner wondering why she had asked that question.

"Captain," K'ner said, unlocking one boot and turning sideways to reveal tendrils of smoke seemingly hovering in the air next to her small holo of symbols. "Meet Entity Six-Zed-Zero."



OFF:

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

&

Commander Kevin Lance
Executive Officer
USS Chuck Norris

&

Captain Mira Rodale Lance
CO USS Chuck Norris

 

RSS Feed