Shran vs the Volcano Pt. 2

Posted on Wed May 13th, 2026 @ 11:38am by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Lieutenant JG Kate Kono & Lieutenant JG James Phoenix

2,198 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: The Shuttle Incident
Location: Planet

The sky was becoming dark and darker, looking like dark sackcloth with flashes of electricity pulsing through it as volcanic lightning streaked down into the heart of the volcano, churning the magma. The once dense jungle that they had explored only a few hours ago had been obliterated, the remnants lying broken beneath his feet splintered and split from the pyroclastic explosion that had nearly killed them a few minutes ago. Shran pushed forward through the debris and the through the heat radiating from the rivers of lava as he made his way towards the volcano. He couldn't help but wonder if Shon might appear with and help him travel up Mt. Doom. But he didn't have time to fantasize, the volcano could cause another eruption wave at any moment, and the tsunami wave was coming to flood everything; he only hoped that Phoenix and Kate got systems up and running before the tsunami hit.

The Andorian could feel the heat despite the suit. Every step closer to the volcano brought him closer to massive lakes of lava, steam jets, pyroclastic flows, and lahars. The only thing he didn't have to worry about was the toxic gases, but only so long as his suit held up. What he was doing was crazy, not something he would order anyone to do, but he had to do this to protect his crew. Then he suddenly was knocked prone by something he had forgotten about, an antimatter shockwave. He looked around and shook off the effects, "Damn, forgot this isn't a normal planet."

He hit him comm badge, =^=Shran to runabout, approaching the volcano, forgot about the antimatter shockwaves. Hope you got the shields up so they don't cause damage. My chronometer indicates 7 minutes before splash down of the tsunami. =^=

Viviana answered, =^= Shields are up. the lieutenants are working on increasing power to systems and dealing with the other issues. We felt that shockwave just now. Be careful captain. =^=

Shran smiled as he thought of something the admiral used to say when he was working intelligence, =^= No worries doctor. Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast. =^=

Shran made his way up the side of the volcano until he found an entry point into the side near the lava dome. He quickly activated the device he had brought with him, a cryonic bomb of sorts. "Time for you to experience my world. The iceman cometh" he said deadpan as he tossed the device and then sprinted towards the exit.

He hit his comm badge, =^=I hope you got that transporter working Mr. Phoenix. Energize! =^=

An explosion erupted Bluish white light exploded outward from every opening of the volcano, followed quickly by a huge wave of frost that was freezing everything, including turning the air in the area into snow and frost. As the cryonic wave neared him, Shran dematerialized.

****************

At the runabout, Kate paused at the locker. The isochip sat in its paper bag, which sat in its plastic bag, which sat in her hand. Kevin had touched this. She set it back in the locker and shut the door harder than she needed to.

The cockpit was a mess of hanging panels and exposed conduit. She dropped to her knees at the power relay and started pulling. Anything drawing current that didn’t need to be drawing current—gone. She worked across the floor on her elbows, using a strip torn from her uniform sleeve to drag herself over the carpet to the power-cell input. The small display read lower than she wanted. She yanked the pack, slapped in a new one, and watched the number climb.

“Better.” She pushed her hands through her short spikey hair with relief evident in her shoulders. “Much better.”

The systems she needed blinked on one by one. She let out a sound that wasn’t quite a word and dropped flat onto her back, arms thrown wide, laughing at the ceiling. Still on her back, she reached up and found the circuit integrator by feel, craning her neck to trace the reroute from memory; bypassing the main computer entirely, threading regulation out to a PaDD on the damaged helm console. It flickered, then steadied. Shield readouts filled the screen: power levels, distribution, modulation options. She stared at it for a moment, chest still heaving.

Kate got to her feet in stages; one hand braced on the console. “Phoenix.” She pulled in a breath and let it out. “How’s it looking?”

Viviana gingerly stood up, trying to not put much weight on her recently repaired leg. Slowly she made her way up to the front of the runabout, "Captain reports he is making progress. Anyone know what he might have meant with his last comment? He said, 'Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.' Is that some sort of code phrase?"

James first answered Kate. "Power is still coming up slowly. It's going to be close" he turned to look at Viviana. "It's a quote from an old science fiction television series from Earth, called Red Dwarf. He means it more literally; that he's going to be make a quick return."

James first answered Kate. "Power is still coming up slowly. It's going to be close" he turned to look at Viviana. "It's a quote from an old science fiction television series from Earth, called Red Dwarf. He means it more literally; that he's going to be make a quick return."

“Okay, first of all, what is a ‘Kipper’? And second of all—“ Kate dropped into the seat like her bones had dissolved, snagged a water bottle off the console, and took a long pull from it. She stared at the ceiling. “—what is Shran even doing out there right now.” It wasn’t really a question. She took another swig. “Like. The volcano. He’s going toward the volcano?”

Kate set the water bottle down with a clunk and turned to look at the others with an expression of profound bewilderment. “—he’s going toward the volcano. While the wave is coming. That’s the plan.” She waited. “I’m not saying it’s a bad plan. I’m just…“ She picked the water bottle back up. “I’m logging this. Officially. For the record.” Kate raised both hands, held them at console height, and began tapping out an elaborate sequence on the air in front of her—index fingers leading, thumbs hovering, the whole performance executed with the crisp, deliberate authority of someone filing an official report just for show. “Stardate whatever, Kate and Phoenix is extremely confused right now.”

Viviana looked at Kate, "I don't think we have time for log entries" pointing out towards the beach where the surf was rapidly receding.

Suddenly, the comm activated again. =^=I hope you got that transporter working Mr. Phoenix. Energize! =^=

James was about to respond to Kate when the call came. =^=Energizing! =^= He called out seeing the transporter progress move up slower than usual. He hit his fist on the console twice like he would have in an old component on a car. Things seemed to speed up. The captain slowly appeared in a blue hue.

The blue hue subsided and Shran materialized, his exterior covered in frost. He slowly removed his helmet, cold steam erupting. "Well, that was exciting. That volcano is nice and frosty now. Starting to feel a bit like summer on Andoria. So, just need to survive a tsunami."

Kate stared at Shran for a long moment—frost-covered, helmet off, steam rising off him like he’d just stepped out of a freezer—and decided that question could wait.

She turned back to the PaDD. At some point while listening to the surf pull back from the beach, she had stopped adjusting shield geometry and started just—drawing. The shape on the screen was unmistakably a surfboard: tapered nose, clean rails, a slight pintail. She had done it without really deciding to. She left it there on the console.

“Anyone have options?” Kate didn’t look up. “Because I’m running low.”

Outside, the horizon had changed. The waterline was still retreating, the exposed seafloor dark and glistening.

“I’m just tired of this planet.” Kate leaned forward in the helm chair, elbows on her knees, head hanging. “If that wave doesn’t kill us, something else is going to try. I can feel it.” Kate tapped the PaDD toward whoever wanted it without looking up. The shield geometry readout still had the surfboard on it. “Might want to fix that before the wave hits.” Feeling dumb for using the shield geometry to turn the shields into a surfboard — her morbid humor at work.

Phoenix had a muse. "Kate you're a friggen genius" He tapped a button at the console before swiveling his chair around to face Kate and the Captain. "I think we can turn the shield geometry into a raft. I think we could also do a version of Kate's original raft idea as a contingency to the shields if they fail. We could try and make a raft around the shuttle, similar to the ones used to stabilize the capsules used on the Artemis and Apollo missions to the moon."

Kate looked at Phoenix the way someone looks at a word they’ve spelled correctly but no longer believe in. “I had an—“ She glanced at the PaDD. The surfboard was still there. She looked back at Phoenix. Back at the surfboard. Something clicked. She straightened up with the slow, deliberate dignity of someone who had absolutely intended this all along. “Right. Yeah. That.” She picked up the water bottle, took a sip, and set it back down with great ceremony. A quick scan of the room confirmed that nobody was watching her; they were already moving, already building the thing. She turned back to her own PaDD to devise the physical raft-portion of the ship with the quiet efficiency of someone who had never once drawn a surfboard on accident.

“How much longer until the splash gets here?” Kate asked, not looking up, her fingers moving through the replication pattern program with the focused economy of someone defusing a bomb they had mostly invented themselves.

"That was frosty" Shran finally said, shaking off some of the think sheets of frost and ice. "Prime the thrusters. We can use them as a motor if necessary. They won't give us a lot of kick, but any propulsion beats being left at the mercy of the currents."

Suddenly a beep sounded and Shran looked at his wrist. It was his chronometer, "Times up. Let's move!"

Viviana's eyes widened, "¡Mierda! Dios nos ayude" she said as she pointed at the tsunami wave as it crashed upon the shore and the waters pushed up like a massive rising tide.

The runabout shifted in a bit of a jerk as the water impacted the shields. They were lucky that they were on the edge of the wave and flood zone. They began to be pushed up into the interior of the island. Walls of steam shot up as the water collided with the pyroclastic flows.

"Surf's up" Shran quipped deadpan.

"The shields are holding in their current configuration" James reported as he briefly held onto the back of the console with one hand and did his work on it with the other.

"Thrusters. Guide us to safety, if such a thing exists" Shran ordered. "The beach to starboard should be safe."

Kate's knuckles went white against the shoulder rest as the runabout lurched and groaned beneath her in ways no vessel should. Her dark almond eyes darted to the viewport.

"Suddenly I know how Gus Grissom felt," she breathed. The weight of the thing pressed down around her. All that dense, cold metal and yet here they were, floating. It made her stomach turn in a way she couldn't quite name. She forced a short laugh. "Bright side: those hell creatures probably didn't make it through that."

The runabout drifted on its shields, slow and strange as a dream.

"Nothing survived the pyroclastic blast. Nothing except us. This tsunami will wash away much of the evidence, as it is with nature" he said as water and shattered trees smashed against the shields. The Andorian looked towards the volcano, the fiery giant now capped in a frozen crown of blue and white that seemed to flow down it as if had melted and refroze. The threat from the volcano had been calmed, though Shran wondered if Command might have Prime Directive questions, though he knew of no sentient species on this planet.

The runabout slowly cruised on the water like an old fishing troller until it finally beached itself once more. "All ashore" Shran announced as they deactivated the thrusters and dropped the shields. "Now we just have to hope the Washington can find us."

"I think this simple three-hour tour has run long enough. I think we've all earned several merit badges, and I am prescribing us all a few days of R&R once we get back" Viviana quipped.

"A prescription I wholeheartedly concur with doctor. Just don't tell Sam" Shrean replied with a smile.

 

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