Returning to the Arawyn

Posted on 29 Sep 2025 @ 9:04pm by Lieutenant Commander Sandra Boren

860 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Fractured Accord
Location: USS Arawyn
Timeline: Finishes after the briefing

~~~ On the Newton ~~~~

"Boren here, good work, Ensign, I recommend we push the shuttle out of the cargo bay, so the nanobots will follow there before we go dark on the Newton. Captain, when we are ready to activate the lure, we should go dark, I will also try to throw us out of warp by flooding the reaction chamber with coolant fluid."

"Bridge here, Commander Boren, I don't want to lose the shuttle unless it cannot be helped. Triple containment fields, if one breaches, that we can always still jettison the shuttle."

"Understood Captain, containment fields it is. We need a few minutes to get those sorted, and then we can set the lure active. Boren out."

Sandra nodded to Collingway who stood next to her. Ensign, you heard the Captain." The young man left to do his assignment, and Boren had to admit to herself she was impressed with this work so far. She moved to the main console in engineering and ran some double checks, she had programmed the sequence such that the lure would go live, followed by 0.1-second delay the going dark on all the decks, minimal power for life support and critical systems only, and at the same time the warp core reactor chamber would be flooded with coolant fluid, which would stop the reaction, and venting warp plasma.

All power to the shuttle bay, except for the force fields would be cut so that the nanobots could not hang about anywhere or hide somewhere, to return to the ship and as soon as they were all there, a stasis field would also be activated in the shuttle to put them to sleep. The program was ready, she could on the console the Collingway was doing to add additional containment fields to the shuttle bay. Normal operation had one, plus a backup. There was no taking chances with these little bastards. If they did have to jettison the shuttle bay, they would decompress it and drop the force field at the shuttle entrance of the bay.



~~~~ Later back on the Arawyn ~~~

"Get some rest, Ensign, excellent work back on the Newton. You have earned the rest. " Sandra said to Collingway, they had just been released from sickbay and cleared for normal duty as per roster, she nodded to the young man and then headed to her quarters. Even if she did not want to admit it, she, too, was tired. Events on the Newton had been a rollercoaster of improvisation, but they had achieved success, and that was the main thing. The Newton's Chief Engineer was on the mend, and the first assistant had taken over for now.

Sandra also knew that they had resumed a course to Tarvik III, and there would be plenty of work there too. The doors to her quarters swooshed open as she approached them, and a little fur ball came running at her, climbing up her leg with a few jump steps to settle in her arm, purring loudly.

"Hello Luna, I have missed you too!" Sandra said quietly. She quickly got some wet food out of the replicator and was glad she had actually set up a large container with dry food, so even if she was running late, her little kitten would not go hungry. She put her down at the small dish and stroked her fur as she ate.

~~~~ Next day in Engineering ~~~

Sandra walked into main engineering after the briefing with the Captain, "All engineering officers to our meeting room in 5 minutes. Just long enough to gather her thoughts and get a hot tea from the replicator.

It didn't take long for the group to assemble. Only the night shift officers were not there, but both Alpha and Beta shift were present, some 20 officers in total, and it included Collingway.

"As you know, we have now arrived in orbit of Tarvik III for the terraforming mission," Sandra paused a moment, then decided to repeat the Captain's orders word for word. “Engineering holds the spine of this operation. Ops will stage, Science will calibrate, but integration falls to you. Every terraforming module must be verified and humming before colonists bring them online.” She paused again, to let the orders land. "We will be working closely with the Science department since they have to calibrate all the equipment. Ops will ensure all the module make it to the surface.

"Ensign Collingway, please do a pre-departure inspection on the module to make sure they are ready and can be shipped, then work with ops on the sequence of delivery. I will be working with the Science department on how they want to get started on the calibration."

"The Captain's words were clear here, people: “Our mandate is simple, but not easy. We deliver the upgrades. We support the Federation settlement. We keep this convoy intact. We do not chase ghosts in asteroid fields, but we do not ignore the storm on the horizon either. If someone else lights the fire, we will already have the hose in hand.” Let's get to work!"

LtCmdr Sandra Boren
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Arawyn
"Everything fits; otherwise, we'll make it fit!"

 

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