Calm before the storm

Posted on 24 Feb 2026 @ 3:25am by Lieutenant JG Ryan Collingway
Edited on on 24 Feb 2026 @ 4:06pm

349 words; about a 2 minute read

Mission: Silent Inheritance
Location: Engineering

///Engineering////

The diagnostic computer on Deck 10 had been replaced, and the remnants of the old terminal was on the table for damaged parts, marked for disposal. Ryan tried to unscrew the casing, before giving up. The metal was too warped. He used a laser instead.

One of the rogue engineers, Jacob, studied what he was doing. "You're kidding yourself if you think you can save the hard drive. That terminal is fried."

"Never know unless you try," Ryan said.

"Why do you want to, anyway? It's a low-priority terminal. No one usually uses it."

Ryan shrugged, non-commital. "Side project."

"You don't have enough to do?" Jacob asked.

Ryan carefully took out the hard drive, which definitely looked damaged, and connected it into the computer. It would take a while for it to attempt a repair. "Actually, plenty. We need to do a diagnostic on the warp core. We can start with the magnetic containment fields."

"Ugh..that's going to take hours," Jacob said. "Would go faster if we have more people."

"I know." They started to work together in the very quiet engineering.

"Hey, Commander Harlan's going to release us, right? From double-shifts once everyone comes back?"

Ryan frowned. "What? No, probably not. He said for the foreseeable future. It wasn't dependant on everyone coming back."

"Yeah, but come on. We didn't screw up *that* badly. And we kept things together in the meantime."

Ryan pictured Harlan's tired, irritated face the last time he had talked to him. The situation with Lieutenant Flammia probably didn't improve things between them. "I don't know," he said honestly. "There was a lot thrown at him at once. I wouldn't bring it up."

"Work till we drop, essentially?"

"At least the others will be back," Ryan said. "That's something." That was the one good thing. The tactical repairs would be complete. The ship was finally healing. And after everything that happened to him, maybe a bit of himself was too.

At the same time, unknown to him, the fractures on the colony were just starting.

Lieutenant (JG) Ryan Collingway
Engineering Officer
USS Arawyn

 

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