Shipwreck

Posted on Thu Jul 16th, 2026 @ 5:20am by Captain Maddox Greene & Commander Saul Whitford & Lieutenant Varkl Brukh & Lieutenant T'Vei & Lieutenant Jane Belanger Dr & Ensign Bruce Marcus & Ensign Sung-jin Um & Ensign Ash Ridley

2,285 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Lines in the Vacuum
Location: Shuttlepod Two on Approach to Skagaran Vessel
Timeline: Following "Signs of Skagaran"

No corona of fire crowned the shuttle's descent. Only the wisps of stringy clouds and the looming presence of rock formations gave any indication that the landing party was on approach to a planet.

T'Vei's eyes were locked on her sensor panel, attempting to glean every iota of information as they made their approach. She was no stranger to being in charge of a landing party's safety, but to be in command of it was something new. She was aware of the familiar creep of anxiety, seeking a foothold on her psyche, but kept it shut out. Emotion was dangerous, emotion would make her unpredictable. Only logic would allow her to command her team to success and unravel the mystery before them.

Ensign Marcus from Engineering nervously sat in one of the rear seats watching wide-eyed at the orange hued clouds streaking by the front window. This was his first away mission ever, let alone being the sole engineer on the team. When the call came in, followed by curt dismissal of his objections by Brukh over the comm, he had turned the Frontier's Engineering dept. over to CPO Jacobs, grabbed a tool kit and went to find an environmental suit. Now he sat opposite Ridley half-listening to the scientist's tale.

"No, seriously. The whole colony was like something out of the 19th century. Saloons, horses, six-shooters," Ridley explained, miming a pistol with index finger and thumb. "Like a pocket of human civilization out of time." They sighed wistfully. "Now that would be something to see."

"The colony isn't too far away, you may get your chance to see it yourself eventually." Marcus suggested.

Ridley grinned. "Fingers crossed."

Ensign Sung-jin Um sat with his back straight more from habit than from comfort, the harness snug across his chest as the shuttle continued its descent through the amber cloud deck. The vibration coming from the deck of the shuttle made its way into his boots and up his calves--it was a nice reminder that thousands of moving parts were working together to keep them all alive.

Fresh from the Academy, he had imagined his first deployment would involve more inventory reports and maintenance logs, but an away mission this soon? He'd sure as heck take that.

Ridley's story drew a quiet smile from him.

"A frontier town?" he asked. Sung-jin's voice was soft and velvety--even for a human man--but it was often proof that he spoke far less than he listened. "My grandfather loved old Earth westerns. He told me once that every problem could be solved if someone was willing to build a railroad."

He chanced a look through the forward viewport, craning his neck.

'Or a hab,' chuckled Raveendran Yates as he tried looking out the viewport as well. Travelling up and down a gravity well was old hat for the Lunan. The journey to the mother planet had been a regular one when he was growing up - back to London and Portland to visit the grandparents on frequent whirlwind family vacations. 'Best thing we did was get off the original rock,' the Armory Officer said with a laugh.

Ridley stared out at the alien world below. "You'll get no argument from me."

Ensign Curtis Underwood looked over at the half-constructed colony. Whatever happened here took place before things were completed. Sentinel Station had been his second posting over his last three years in Starfleet. The armory officer was curious to what they would find.

"Approaching landing zone," T'Vei reported as she slowed the shuttlepod's descent. The Skagaran craft was smaller than even the Frontier. While the craft was mostly intact there was considerable damage to the dorsal section, which wouldn't have been caused by a crash. She carefully brought the craft down into the outcropping of rocks a short distance from the crash site.

The Vulcan swiveled her chair to face the assembled landing party. "After securing our EV suits, we will approach the Skagaran vessel from the west, and will investigate its starboard side airlock first for potential entry. Ensign Um will take point. Ensign Marcus, we will require your knowledge to gain entry since the chloromethane discourages breaching charges. Once inside, Ensigns Marcus, Yates, and I will investigate the chloromethane production. Ensigns Um and Ridley will go to the bridge and see if the ship's logs provide any relevant information. If we detect life forms at any point, we will regroup and decide our next course of action. Any questions?"

"You don't want me on the science part?" Ridley questioned.

"Of the personnel here, you are the most capable at deciphering Skagaran written language and comprehending any 'science' detailed in those logs," T'Vei coldly explained. "Ensign Marcus is more than capable of examining their equipment. Any findings should be reported to the other. Any other questions?"

Um raised a hand with two fingers splayed. "And should we encounter anybody?"

"And myself?" Underwood inquired.

"Underwood, you will join Ridley and Um," T'Vei said. "If anyone is encountered, report it in immediately. Survivors would be invaluable in determining what happened here. Pistols should remain on stun."

Ensign Um acknowledged the assignment with a small nod. "Understood."

Crewman Brooks rolled his shoulders to dissipate some tension. With Dr Belanger still on the Gatlin, the finger of fate had fallen upon him to assist the Away Team should any medical care be needed. A short brief and a look at readings were enough to figure out, they were in the soup. His storied past had a way of landing him such last minute assignments... So far, so good. He cleared his throat, hoping to hear more about what was expected from him.

"Brooks, you will join my team. If there are no other questions, prepare yourselves." The Vulcan easily lifted the helmet to her suit and secured it.

Ravi threw a smile and a thumbs up at his superior officer as he donned his own EV suit, wrestling with the neck ring until the helmet caught with a dull thunk and it formed the airtight seal he would need to survive the coming environmental challenges. Well used to EV suits from growing up in the Luna colonies, Ravi moved with practiced ease, slipping his phase rifle out of the holster attached to his leg and checking the power levels to his satisfaction. No sense being unprepared, he thought.

Brooks was responsible for the crew surviving the dire conditions out there. No matter what amount of self checking and peer checking took place, he did the last round to verify that all EV suits were fully functional. Finally he got help to clear himself and raised a thumb up. "All green. I need to remind everyone that any malfunction, any dizziness, the smallest breach in the integrity of our EV suits needs to be reported immediately."

Marcus was well familiar with the EV suits, he'd been assigned to the team that patched the Sentinel pylon not long ago. He double-checked the seals and slung his engineering toolkit over his left shoulder, with the right he pulled out the scanner to be ready when they reached the derelict ship.

Um slipped into his EV suit the exact way he'd been taught at the Academy. The neck ring locked home with its reassuring click, followed by the soft hiss of the suit's pressurization system. The display inside his visor blinked green across every line. Oxygen reserves nominal. Pressure stable. Temperature regulation active.

"Comms check. Um."

Satisfied at the sound of his own voice returning a second later, he nodded to himself.

Once everyone's EV suits were secure, T'Vei depressurized the cabin and opened the hatch. After clearing the shuttlepod, the planet's heavier gravity asserted itself, feeling like an old friend to the Vulcan but causing some stumbles and grumbling from the humans. She waited for Ensign Um to take his place as point but followed shortly behind, splitting her attention between the looming ruins of their objective and each of her charges.

Ensign Ridley struggled, between the sensation of their body suddenly gaining 10 kg, the suit's cumbersome nature, and the rocky terrain. They kept looking up at the Skagaran vessel only to stub their toe or step on a particularly uneven rock, bringing their helmeted gaze back their feet again. The young scientist frowned. Was terrain this uneven caused by erosion or something else? They took a few scans for comparison later.

Much like the others Marcus concentrated on keeping his feet, the higher gravity was far different than the zero-g he was used to while wearing these suits. While keeping his head down he started noticing odd features... many of the rocks seemed highly eroded, and the scant plant life was white, dead and decaying.

Bringing up the rear of the group, Ravi was impatient for them to move faster. The suits limitations bothered him little, but the heightened atmosphere and uneven terrain made the going tougher than he would have liked. Controlling his breathing, he reminded himself he only had a limited supply of oxygen being hauled along with him. As the ship hoved into sight, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Brooks dragged himself along with the rest of them, wondering what lay ahead. There had been no readings indicating active lifesigns. Then again, in such an environment, faint lifesigns could be masked. He yearned for the relative protection the damaged craft may offer and, like all of them he supposed, for answers.

Underwood found himself in the middle of the group as they approached the ship. It was clearly a scout ship, not too big. Not really used for setting up a colony. The Skagarans were likely trying to set up some sort of claim before leaving. Considering that this world wasn't claimed. Things went wrong rather quickly.

Marcus started scanning as they approached the damaged ship, visually he noted that the ship must have hit the ground hard. There were evident cracks and buckling of the hull plates, and what looked like corrosion on the upper portions. 'that's consistent with the erosion' he thought.

The landing party was in luck. The outer airlock had sustained some damage. T'Vei directed Um and Yates to assist her and a good shove pushed the ruined doors open enough to gain entry one by one. The inner airlock remained sealed.

"Ensign Marcus," T'Vei called for the engineer.

Marcus plodded forward in the higher gravity while examining his scanner. "Reading no atmosphere beyond the hatch, there should be a manual override somewhere..." He directed the scanner to the airlock edges and discovered the apparent control mechanism, with his free hand he managed to open the cover and pull the lever with no result. "It must be jammed," he considered while placing his scanner in the kit and rummaging for another tool. He extracted two circular disks and placed both on the door center, one high and one low and activated the internal electromagnets. "Yates, can you give me a hand with this?" Both held either disk and pulled steadily, the door slowly crept open enough for the others to find handholds in the gap and assist. Soon the airlock was wide enough for the team to enter.

'Nice work,' Ravi said with a wave as he watched the crew enter through the airlock. 'Handy kit you've got there. Does it make any coffee by any chance? Bit parched here you know.'

"Not sure you'd want to remove your helmet for it." Marcus retorted while returning the magnetic grips to the kit and retrieving the scanner again.

Sun-jin swept the beam of his helmet lamp across the narrow compartment while Marcus worked, letting the light linger on the warped bulkheads, noting the frost stubbornly clinging to the seams.

Marcus looked up after retrieving his scanner in time to see the Sun-jin's light pause on the damaged bulkhead, "Hold the light on that area Sung-jin." he requested while aiming his scanner at the site, "... that's a sub-compound of sulfur trioxide, but it can only form in the presence of a sulfur ester," he explained, "if there's trioxide and it's found a water source it can make sulfuric acid; that would account for the erosion outside and corrosion of the outer hull... Trioxide has industrial uses, if they were also carrying some form of alcohol... methanol for example, that would form these white deposits," he rambled while thinking quickly, "Lt. T'Vei, can you scan for salt deposits around the site? If so that explains why the ship is venting chloromethane!"

"Considerable amounts are present," T'Vei confirmed. So, the chloromethane is a byproduct, not produced by design. As an afterthought she added. "Well deduced, Ensign."

"Given the lack of atmosphere, we are unlikely to find survivors," T'Vei said. "We still need to ascertain what this ship's mission was, why it crashed here, and the state of the environment. You have your assignments. Move out."

"If I may interrupt," Underwood spoke up. "Judging from the area around the ship, there are no signs of it crashing. But perhaps it was on the ground already when fired upon. No one is here, which means whoever was here never saw it coming."

"That would explain why the vessel is intact and the dorsal side damage," T'Vei considered. "If so, then it raises the question, why did the vessel land here?"

=====

Lieutenant T'Vei
Chief Armory Officer
Sentinel Station

Ensign Ash Ridley (apb T'Vei)
Science Officer
Sentinel Station

Ensign Underwood (apb Maddox Greene)
Armory Officer
Sentinel Station

Ensign Sung-jin Um (apb Kytolos)
Armoury Officer
Sentinel Station

Ensign Bruce Marcus
Asst. Chief Engineer
Sentinel Station

Ensign Raveendran 'Ravi' Yates (apb Whitford)
Armoury Officer
Sentinel Station

 

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