The Night Shift

Posted on 02 Sep 2025 @ 9:24pm by Ensign Mira Quinn

617 words; about a 3 minute read

=/\= Science Lab =/\=

Mira was sitting in the science lab, by one of the workstations. She wasn't doing much, but as a brand-new junior officer in the department, she drew the night shift this week, and with it the task of babysitting the buoys.

The night shift consisted of a skeleton crew, assigned tasks that required 24-hour surveillance.

She glanced at the monitor, which was.. monitoring - and wondered, not for the first time, why they needed a warm body to sit and monitor, when the computer could do a very good job on its own.

Stealing a yawn, she checked how long she still had to go. Not long. Her first shift as a newly minted Ensign was drawing to a close.

She wondered what her roommate Vel was doing. Probably getting up and wishing they really had a bath in their quarters.

Another quick look at the monitor. The buoys were in exactly the same spot as the last time she looked, doing exactly the same thing. Buoying.

She'd have to grab something to eat before she went to sleep. Though she was so tired, she could skip it.

The monitor beeped and Mira's attention snapped back to it. One of the buoys registered a spike in gravimetric readings.

Mira straightened up in her chair. The buoys emitted constant readings, but this was different. She was about to ask the computer for more details, but - in the split second it took her to comprehend what she was seeing and start thinking about what it could mean and what she should be doing - the buoy blew up.

One minute it was there, the next it was in pieces and her monitor was beeping like crazy.

"Brace-" she started shouting, but it was too late. The explosion wave hit the Arawyn. The deck swayed beneath her, and she grabbed onto the console to steady herself. A second later, she felt the ship drop out of warp.

"Everybody alright?" She asked, and received a few "Yeah"s.

She hit her badge. "Quinn to Sorvak." She waited a second for her Chief to answer her. "Sir, one of the buoys just blew up."

Around her the wall panels started blinking red.

"I'll be right there," her Chief said.

"Science." This was the bridge. "Give me a read on that debris field, top priority.”
"Aye, Captain."

The debris field. Where were the convoy ships when the explosion hit? She had been concentrating on the buoy line. She knew the Arawyn had been far enough from the explosion to stay in one piece, but were any of the other ships hit?

Officers were now streaming into the lab, and soon the debris field analysis was divided amongst the available crew.

Mira was assigned to go over sensor data for a what was now termed Field E.
Based on material composition, she tagged the fragments she could see came from the buoy and those she now knew came from the Newton.

That still left a lot of fragments and debris. She started going over them one by one. Twisted chunks of metal, some of them just a few centimeters thick.

A few drew get attention and she tagged them for further analysis.

"Ensign."

Mira almost jumped from her seat. She had been concentrating so fully, she hadn't noticed Commander Sorvak come up behind her.

"Sir?"

"You're relieved."

"But, sir-"

"You've been up all night. Get some rest."

Mira couldn't remember now why she'd felt so tired and hungry. "Sir, I think I'm on to something."

"And that's excellent news. You'll update the day shift about your findings, and then you're dismissed." He added softly, "That's an order."

Mira sighed. "Aye, sir".

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