Perilous Planet Pt. 3

Posted on Fri Mar 27th, 2026 @ 9:25am by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Lieutenant JG Kate Kono & Lieutenant JG James Phoenix & Ensign Janelle Barett

2,040 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: The Shuttle Incident
Location: Planet

The sun was on the horizon, twilight was taking hold, and Shran stood on the beach looking out over the water, the waves from the tide pushing into the lagoon where they were parked. While not a perfect locale, he knew that many of his crew might find this locale a nice respite. The wind began to blow gently, in the distance a group of sea creatures leapt from the water in acrobatic fashion, looking like dolphins, only twice the size and a shade of teal. "Interesting" Shran stated as he turned and made his way back towards the runabout.

It had been several hours, and he hoped that Viviana had completed the treatment of Kate. He needed to speak with her, even though he knew she was going to likely be tight lipped. He walked back into the runabout, the temperature much more relaxing to him, especially compared to outside. Phoenix had managed to get the sensors partially online, and shields were available, though only at 39% at the moment. Still, it was progress. Janelle had been working diligently on communications, but it was likely that they would need an engineer to replace the transceiver.

"Time for a break everyone. I believe a little late supper is in order" he said, knowing full well that the ration packs were not something most cared much for.

Janelle hesitated before stepping out of the runabout. The air had cooled slightly with the setting sun, the heat no longer pressing quite as hard. Just beyond the hatch, she paused letting her eyes adjust to the fading light. The sound of the water was… different. Not the controlled hum of a starship, or the distant noise of a station.

She just stood there for a moment, her gaze drifting toward the horizon, catching the movement of the distant creatures breaking the surface. Larger than expected yet just as graceful. “…not the worst place to be stranded,” she murmured, almost to herself. exhaling slightly, “Comms are still limited,” she added, more casually now. “I’ll take another pass after we eat. See if I can get anything to stick.”

Soon after, James finally got to a point to where he could pause his work. As he exited, he picked up his PADD, which thankfully had a loose bit of power attached to it. He had been multitasking by readying it at the same time he was working; the specific file contained information that could potentially help them get off the tropical rock they were on.

He hopped out of the runabout while scrolling through the remaining bits of information of the file. He walked slowly to his colleagues. Once he sat down he set the device down. "I've managed to squeeze an few extra ounces of power out of the systems we don't need right now, and into the ones we do. The bad news is that I've squeezed everything out of the reserves as well" James started. "The good news is that I might have found a way to accumulate more power."

Kate's almond eyes snapped open, her small frame rigid with fury as consciousness returned. The events crystallized in her mind immediately. She pushed herself up on slender arms, spotting her uniform beneath a makeshift tarp that acted as her unconscious shelter. The sun's dying rays painted the sky crimson matching the rage coursing through her veins.

Her final memory burned white-hot: Viviana—someone she'd trusted, pressing a hypospray against her neck. Kate's fingers twitched with lethal precision. One calculated strike to Viviana's larynx would leave the woman gasping for two full minutes; a measured response for such betrayal.

As Kate's petite figure disappeared into her Starfleet uniform, retying the sleeves at her narrow waist, the emblem caught the fading light. The insignia reminded her what she'd sacrificed to earn her rank—too valuable to throw away, despite nine months of training that had transformed her into someone who could end a life seventeen different ways without making a sound.

She retrieved her phaser, her dark eyes never leaving Viviana. Kate methodically secured the weapon, her silence more terrifying than any threat could be. Her jaw clenched tight, she drove her boot into the container's lid until it cracked open. Her fingers found the water pack by touch alone, her gaze never leaving the face of the woman whose hypo had sent her world into darkness hours before.

Kate's throat worked silently as she drained the water pack, never blinking, never shifting her gaze from Viviana's face. Something ancient lurked behind those obsidian eyes—something that could make anyone's skin prickle with goosebumps. The plastic crinkled as Kate's fingers tightened, the last drops disappearing between lips that didn't quite close properly over her teeth. When she finally tossed the empty container back into the box, the soft thud echoed in the silence between them. The corner of Kate's mouth twitched upward, just once, like the involuntary spasm of someone that could decide fate on a whim.

"She isn't the one that you need to concentrate on lieutenant" came the familiar voice of the captain from behind. "And you should know, as good as you are, I am better. The doctor follows orders, time to see if you do as well." The Andorian came into Kate's vision threshold, looking at the rations that sat in the box. He turned to her, his face solid like marble, his voice heavy with equal measures of anger and restraint, "Tell me about Section 31 being on my ship. No keeping me in the dark. Everything...now."

Viviana came out and looked at Janelle and Phoenix, "I've prepared something simple. Come in and eat, doctor's orders."

“You don’t know what I’m thinking, sir,” Kate said, shifting her gaze back to Shran now that he’d broken her line of sight with Viviana. “Might want to find a log to sit on, sir.” She cast Viviana one last hard look before moving to a suitable spot. “This is going to take a while, but it’s all in my logs and reports. I never left anything out—except my assumptions, which Starfleet Academy warns us never to include. So you can blame the training.”

She sat down and nodded toward another PADD. “The Captain’s log is over there,” she added with a sad chuckle, relief evident now that Viviana was no longer at the forefront of her mind.

“I suspected we were chasing a shuttle from the USS Revenant, commanded by Emily Braddock. Section 31 has tried recruiting me multiple times over the past year, and I’ve always refused. Apparently some admirals want me to help steer the section, others want me kept out of it—and then there’s her.” Kate’s voice grew colder. “Admiral Whitfield told me there are people inside Section 31 who just want to make my life miserable. When I still wouldn’t join, Emily stepped in. She blames me for Captain Eman Braddock’s death.”

Kate pulled a PADD from her pocket, crusted with wet sand but still functioning. The screen glowed with Emily Braddock’s personal log:

‘I’ve never trusted Ensign Kono, and I never will. I’ll never forgive her for my brother’s death... Ensign Kono’s log painted Eman as a coward who buckled under pressure and suggested some dark entity infected the ship. It reads like a twentieth-century zombie fantasy dreamed up by a child. The only thing I believe is that she murdered everyone onboard, including my brother. And that staged fight she recorded—where she supposedly beat Eman in hand-to-hand combat to reach the shuttle before the explosion? I’ll believe that when hell freezes over. Now that Admiral Latham has promoted me to Captain of the Revenant, I’ll nominate that bitch for Section 31 recruitment—under my command. She had her fantasy; now it’s my turn to craft one of my own: a suitably plausible accident.’

Kate handed the PADD to Shran. After he finished reading, she tapped the next button, and a video log began.

The footage opened on a potted plant hurtling across the captain’s quarters of the Revenant, smashing into the bulkhead. The shot cut to Captain Emily Braddock, hair askew, knuckles raw as if she’d been striking the wall.


“That bitch! She turns down Section 31! How do you refuse the most sought-after authority in all of Starfleet? She’d rather gallivant around with that Andorian parasite on a ship named for a goddamned British expat, defying the rule of law in the name of Freedom and Sovereignty...” Emily jabbed a finger at the camera. “I’ll find my way. That Asian prick won’t kill my brother and walk away happily ever after! I want blood—and blood I will have. Computer: end personal log!”

Kate looked away for a moment at the twin moons reflecting off the sparkling water, her fingers tracing patterns in the warm sand beside the twisted hull of the runabout. "I hacked into secured channels to get these logs, Captain," she admitted, lowering her voice despite their isolation on the beach. "Starfleet would court-martial me faster than they'd punish her for what's in them." She leaned over and brushed salt spray from the PADD's screen while Shran held it in his hand, the waves crashing rhythmically behind them. "There's an entire archive I've only begun to decrypt. But if we look at what happened during the shuttle incident..."

She flicked to Na’Riss’s log.


"Our investigation into the Runabout's power failures has yielded no evidence of deliberate interference. Based on the available data, Lieutenant Junior Grade Kono and I have determined the most logical explanation to be a quantum bit-flip error induced by stellar radiation. While the probability of such an occurrence is merely 0.037, it remains within the realm of statistical possibility. All other hypotheses—sabotage, operational error, or maintenance negligence—have been systematically eliminated through rigorous analysis of the evidence."

Kate leaned back on the driftwood log, its bark rough against her palms as the salty night breeze tugged at her ponytail, loosening strands that whipped across her flushed cheeks.

"The official reports are sanitized," Kate said, her voice low at first. "Ask AJ or even Cockburn from Security—Kevin was off that night. Sweating bullets in perfectly regulated seventy-five-degree environmental systems." She dug her boot heel into the sand. "After the Runabout's diagnostic came back clean, I felt like an idiot for suspecting one of my own team." Her volume rose with each word. "That's why I've been on edge all evening! It's not this damn heat—" She slapped the log. "I'm furious with myself! ME—the Intelligence Officer—I followed protocol instead of my instincts!" She stood abruptly, pacing before her captain as waves crashed behind them. "I did everything by the Starfleet Reporting Guidelines, and what did it get me? Betrayed by my own officer and SPRAYED IN THE NECK!" Her voice cracked as she pointed to the welt. "I can't prove it was Kevin yet, but those odds are climbing by the second, Captain!" Kate tried to hold back tears as she sat back down and covered her eyes. “… more than freakin’ zero point zero zero three seven percent…”

Her face contorted in a dance between fury and heartbreak, nostrils flaring with each sniffle as she fought to maintain composure.

"If I discover Kevin orchestrated this travesty, sir, I swear on my grandmother's artificial gravity boots, I'm going to jam a portable plasma injector so far up his ass that his cranium will illuminate with such magnificent brilliance that passing starships will mistake him for a navigation beacon.”

Kate's shoulders heaved as she pressed her palms against her face, her fingertips digging into her hairline. She dragged her trembling hands down her cheeks, leaving glistening trails that caught the light. Her mouth contorted, but she swallowed the sounds, her body quaking with the effort of containing her grief and anger.

Shran remained silent. "We will discuss this matter further. Right now, Viviana treated you and got you back to proper working order, so I should let you eat so you can stay that way. Go get something."


TBC

 

RSS Feed