A Hairbreadth Away
Posted on 11 Dec 2025 @ 1:13pm by Lieutenant Commander Adrian Sorvak
325 words; about a 2 minute read
Mission:
The Displaced
Location: USS Arawyn
=/\= Engineering =/\=
Corin sat at his console, watching the displaced-space telemetry stream in from the Arawyn’s scanners.
He wished he could be onboard the Eirian ship. First-contact was rare these days, and yet here he was—only a hairbreadth away from it—and stuck on the ship. He hadn't even gotten to meet any of the aliens.
Why couldn’t this have happened two years from now? By then he wouldn’t be a green ensign anymore. He’d probably make lieutenant (junior grade). And maybe then he'd have a real chance of being right in the middle of things during a historic first-contact mission.
But instead, the Eirians showed up two weeks after he’d started his first assignment, and he was stuck doing the most boring job aboard.
He was daydreaming about what the inside of the Eirian ship must look like—and how incredible it would be to get his hands dirty (so to speak) with their technology—when the console sounded a warning tone.
For a moment it fit perfectly into his imaginings, and it took him a couple of seconds to realize it wasn’t part of a daydream.
He sat bolt upright, glancing around to be sure nobody had noticed his lapse in attention. No one had.
A sharp spike had appeared on the telemetry: an energy buildup right next to the displaced space.
Corin tapped his combadge. “Arlen to Collingway.”
No response.
“Collingway?” After a short pause, he tried again. “Um… Arlen to anybody on the Away Team, please respond.”
Again, silence.
Corin stared at the console for a moment, uncertain. He waited a full minute—long enough that he began to second-guess himself—then tried once more.
Nothing.
He swallowed, then tapped his badge once more. “Arlen to Lieutenant Evans. We’ve lost contact with the Away Team, and there’s an energy buildup aboard the Eirian ship.”
=/\=
Ens Corin Arlen
Engineering Officer
USS Arawyn
apb Mira
RSS Feed