Old and Older Ships
Posted on Sun Oct 26th, 2025 @ 12:41pm by Treon Brevor
Edited on on Sun Oct 26th, 2025 @ 12:46pm
1,007 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
Second Light
Location: Starbase 369
=/\= The SS Starburst, docked at Starbase 369 =/\=
Treon stood in the engine room, beside the warp core, arms crossed, watching the diagnostic lights cycle through their sequence. Waiting. She could just barely contain the urge to pace. This did not look good.
"You really chose a bad time for this," she told the bulkheads.
Treon didn't notice Venn, a burly Bajoran, emerge from beneath the housing until he spoke up. "Starburst's got to you too?"
She jumped, caught off guard, like a cadet on inspection. Clearing her throat, she forced her expression back to neutral. “So, the situation?”
“We're looking at five more days, at least.”
Treon frowned at the core, as if sheer willpower could bring it back online. “You told me that three days ago.”
Venn shrugged. “I didn't know then what I know now. Some of the plasma manifolds are fried. We'll need to replace them, and if we're lucky, we won't find anything else that needs fixing."
Treon took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “We’ve got a shipment order in two weeks. I’m not sure we’ll make it.” She looked at the warp core again. “Any chance of a miracle?" she asked hopefully. They could certainly use one.
Venn smirked. “Hey, you’re the one who ignored your engineer when he begged you to stop pushing the engines. I distinctly remember that conversation.”
“If I remember correctly, we were in the middle of a firefight at the time," Treon replied dryly.
“Details,” Venn said with another shrug. "Anyway, this is going to cost us."
As if this couldn't get any worse. Treon opened her mouth to reply, but the intercom chirped first.
“Boss, you there?”
It was Lerik. “Go ahead,” Treon answered.
“You’re not going to believe this,” Lerik said, excitement creeping into her normally crisp Andorian tone. “I was reviewing the docking manifests — the Destiny’s due here tomorrow.” Treon might have mentioned her old posting once or twice. Or more.
"The Destiny?" Treon repeated.
"Oh-seven-hundred."
A pause stretched until Treon realized everyone was waiting for her. "Thanks, Lerik." Another slight pause. "I- Once I’m finished here, do you have time to go over our next shipment?”
"I'm not going anywhere," Lerik said.
Venn’s voice dragged her back to reality. "Go. Let me take care of the core, I'll update you when I know what we're facing."
"You want to get me out of your hair?"
The engineer smiled. "Whatever's left of it."
Treon nodded. "Okay, let me know how much this is going to set us back."
"Will do. But just remember - we're still here, we're still alive, Starburst's in one piece. That's worth the next few shipments." The engineer was already crawling back into the core housing before she could answer.
Treon stayed for a moment, listening to the faint sounds of Venn explaining to the ship exactly what he's about to do.
The Starburst’s crew and operations spaces were forward; the cargo bays stretched aft, with the warp core at the center. Skipping the turbolift, Treon made her way forward from engineering. Lerik had marked a running course along the cargo hold, and Treon followed it, thinking.
The problem with a small ship was that there was never far to walk. But by the time she stepped into the control room a few minutes later, she’d already made up her mind. The rest of her crew was there — Lerik, the navigator, and Marken, the operations officer — poring over starcharts.
Lerik started talking the minute she noticed Treon coming in. "I have a few suggested routes for our next shipment and depending on the shipment after that..." she fell silent, seeing Treon's face. "What?"
Treon once again took a deep breath. "Venn says we still don't have warp, and he doesn't know when that will happen. Since our next shipment is medical supplies and time-sensitive, we're going to cancel it."
Marken looked up. "But-"
"Talk to our clients, explain the situation, I'm sure they'll understand."
Marken grumbled to himself. "I'm sure they won't."
Treon gave him a look. "We don't really have a choice. We’ll also need to ask for an extended docking slot." She straightened slightly. "Anything else?"
The two shook their heads.
“Great, I’ll see you both later, then.” She could have made more of an effort to lift morale but right now she didn’t have it in her.
The crew section on the Starburst was small - quarters, rec hall, a few work areas and a compact flight deck. Treon reached her quarters seconds later.
Unlike most cramped spaces aboard cargo ships, Treon had taken space from the cargo hold to make sure the crew quarters were comfortable. Each crewmember could configure their quarters however they liked. Hers had a bedroom, a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom -- and an actual bath. That last one was the result of offering her crew bonuses a few years back, and their unanimous request had been baths instead of more money. They got both.
The upshot of all this was that she now preferred to stay aboard, even when the ship was docked.
Going to the "viewport" in her quarters she looked out at the stars. The Starburst didn’t have true viewports, but the wall screen was set to display the station’s exterior view.
The Destiny. It had been years since she’d last seen that ship. She wondered whether anyone she knew was still serving aboard that ship.
Back when she was a Starfleet captain, she could have easily pulled up any ship's manifest with a few taps. But now... She frowned as a thought occurred to her. "Computer, contact Lerik."
The comm chirped and Lerik's voice came online. "Yes, Boss?"
"How *did* you get the docking manifests?"
"Well, I asked for them. Unofficially. I kind of know one of the ops officers on the base, and I wanted to know-"
Treon cut in. "Could you make another request?"
=/\=
Treon Brevor
Owner/Operator
SS Starburst
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