Rounds and Reckonings
Posted on Thu Sep 24th, 2026 @ 4:20am by Petty Officer 1st Class Kael Draven & Commander Alexander Espersen & Petty Officer 2nd Class Sakura Tanikawa
3,167 words; about a 16 minute read
Mission:
Interim 3: Subspace Drift
Location: Main Engineering
With the Chimera finally settling back into something resembling normal operations, Kael had decided to make a few rounds. Nothing overly formal. Just checking systems, seeing what had been affected during the attempted hijacking, and making sure the ship wasn't hiding any more surprises.
Engineering was one of those places Kael knew well enough to respect, but not well enough to pretend he belonged there.
Naturally, he walked through the doors like he absolutely belonged there.
PADD tucked under one arm, shoulders squared, Kael entered with the confident stride of someone who had spent his entire career around warp cores.
His boot immediately caught the corner of a maintenance case.
“Whoa...”
Kael stumbled forward two steps, threw out a hand, caught himself against the bulkhead, and somehow managed to keep hold of the PADD.
He straightened immediately and glanced around.
“That's a terrible place for that.”
Never mind that it was probably exactly where it was supposed to be.
Kael adjusted his uniform and continued deeper into Engineering with exactly the same confidence he'd entered with, although now paying considerably more attention to the floor.
Truthfully, he hadn't spent much time down here. His duties occasionally brought him into Engineering, but usually just long enough to find someone who actually knew what they were doing and politely make whatever problem he'd brought with him their problem.
After several seconds, his confident stride slowed.
He had absolutely no idea where he was going.
Kael stopped beside the first Engineering crewman he came across.
“Hey, quick question.”
He held up the PADD like it somehow made him look more official.
“I'm looking for Petty Officer Tanikawa. Sakura Tanikawa, communications specialist.”
Kael glanced around Engineering before looking back at the crewman.
“I'd normally pretend I know where I'm going, but I already almost lost a fight with a toolbox, so I think we've moved beyond maintaining appearances.”
A small grin crossed his face.
“Point me toward comms?”
Once directed where he needed to go, Kael made his way through Engineering, this time with considerably less swagger and a much healthier respect for anything sitting on the deck.
Eventually, he found the communications section and spotted the person he'd been looking for.
“Tanikawa?”
Sakura paused the tests she'd been running to look up from her console at the gentleman asking for her. "That's me, sir!" she said with a grin.
Kael stopped a comfortable distance from her workstation and raised the PADD slightly.
“Petty Officer Draven. Boatswain.”
"Good morning Petty Officer Draven Bosun!" Sakura said cheerfully. Before he could react she held up her hands. "Sorry, sir, force of habit. I know what a Boatswain is. What can I do for you?"
He gestured loosely around Engineering.
“I'm doing a quick check on a few things after our little grand theft starship situation. Wanted to see where we stand with comms. Internal, external, emergency channels. Anything damaged, tampered with, acting weird, making noises it shouldn't be making.”
Kael glanced over the communications equipment as though he understood at least thirty percent more of it than he actually did.
“Full disclosure, my expertise down here ends somewhere around 'don't touch the warp core.' So if you start speaking fluent engineer, I'm going to smile, nod, and write down whatever you tell me.”
Kael readied the PADD, an easy grin crossing his face.
“How are we looking?”
Sakura minimized the window she'd been using to open a diagram showing the current and historical status of all communications systems. "Come around here and I'll explain."
“All right, but fair warning,” he said, studying the screen with perhaps a little too much determination. “You have about thirty seconds before I start pretending I understand everything I'm looking at.”
He shifted the PADD under his arm and focused on the communications status display.
“I know enough to be dangerous, which, after recent events, probably isn't the most reassuring phrase I could've picked.”
A small grin crossed his face before he nodded toward the diagram.
“Go ahead. Walk me through it. What's working, what's not, and what do we still need to worry about?”
"So during the takeover, the hostiles used advanced electronic countermeasure systems to block communications on the ship, as well as on the orbital station and the ground terminal," she explained. "Essentially they used subspace radio waves to block any incoming or outgoing signals from our own transceivers. These waves carried enough energy to blow out six external and four internal communications relays." The console's top-right quadrant showed an image of the ship with ten points flashing red. "We've replaced the four of the six damaged external ones, and half the internal ones. I'm waiting for the support lab to machine me some replacement parts so I can finish the job. With me so far?"
Kael followed the flashing points on the diagram, his expression shifting from casual amusement to genuine attention.
“Yeah, I'm with you.” He pointed at the remaining red indicators. “So the short version is they didn't just jam us. They hit us hard enough to actually cook parts of the communications system.”
Kael gave a low whistle. “That's... annoyingly impressive.” He tapped a few notes into his PADD before looking back at the display. “Four external replaced, two still down. Two internal replaced, two still down, and you're waiting on fabricated parts for the rest.”
He glanced toward Sakura with a slight grin. “See? I was paying attention. Boatswain occasionally understands things that don't involve cargo.” His eyes returned to the diagram.
“With those four relays still out, what does that actually mean for us right now? Reduced coverage? Dead zones? Or are we mostly functional with less redundancy than you'd like?”
"Until internal comms relays are at one hundred percent, communicator badges work fine," Sakura further explained. "There's no more active jamming, so there's nothing stopping us from using those aside from energy efficiency. Now, we also prioritized getting access to emergency subspace bands, so in a pinch can we issue a long-range distress call without any problems. The one thing we don't have fully restored yet is complete bandwidth access to Starfleet networks. Downloads will be a bit slow and uploads will be atrocious until we get the entire system back online. My hope is that it's finished a day before we reach Deep Space Sixteen."
Kael nodded as he entered the last few details into his PADD. “Okay, that's actually better than I was expecting. Combadges work, emergency subspace is available, and if the universe decides to kick us again before we reach Deep Space Sixteen, we can at least scream for help.”
He glanced at the diagram again. “Starfleet network access being slow isn't ideal, but considering somebody tried to turn our communications system into an expensive collection of burnt-out relays, I'll take it.”
Kael finished the note and lowered the PADD. “I'll make sure the remaining repairs and those parts from the support lab stay on the radar. If anything starts holding you up, especially anything you need from another department, let me know.”
A crooked smile appeared. “I'd prefer our next emergency not involve communicating through transporter-delivered pieces of paper.”
Sakura grinned. "Erika told me about that. Gotta admit it was brilliant."
Kael's grin widened.
“Brilliant is a generous word for it. I think we were somewhere around desperate, mildly confused, and making things up as we went.”
He shook his head, remembering the whole thing.
“The really impressive part was everybody somehow understanding what everybody else was trying to do. When your communications plan involves pieces of paper materializing out of thin air and ‘Shave and a Haircut,’ you're officially operating outside the manual.”
Kael tapped the edge of his PADD against his palm. “But it worked. So naturally, when I tell the story later, it was all carefully planned and executed flawlessly.”
He gave Sakura a playful look.
"I'll advise if we have any problems, sir," Sakura said. "Oh! Hang on one moment!"
She scurried off toward a storage locker and started rummaging in the back for something. She came out with a piece of blue plastic, half of which was charred black.
"A souvenir," she told him as she put it in his palm. "One of the isolinear chips from the forward internal comms relay. I've got one too. I think of it as a reminder of what we survived." She grinned. "I was thinking of picking the best ones and mounting them on plaques to give to everyone who helped save the ship, yourself included."
Kael accepted the charred isolinear chip and turned it over in his hand, studying the blackened edge for a moment. “Okay, this is actually pretty cool. Not exactly the kind of souvenir you want to earn, but definitely one you remember.” His grin softened as he looked back at Sakura. “And the plaque idea? I like that. Gives everyone who was here something real to hold onto from all this besides reports, repairs, and one hell of a story.” He carefully slipped the chip into his pocket. “I appreciate it, Tanikawa. Seriously.” The familiar grin quickly returned. “Just make sure mine doesn't say ‘guy who almost vented the shuttlebay.’ I'm trying to build a distinguished Starfleet career here, and that really doesn't have the ring I'm looking for.”
Sakura grinned and giggled. “I’ll do my best to come up with something wittier than that, sir.” She adjusted her stance and straightened her uniform. “Anything else I can help you with?”
Kael gave her an amused look at the formality. “Remember, I'm not a sir. I'm just a Petty Officer, same as you. I've just got one more chevron and apparently enough bad judgment to keep getting additional responsibilities.”
Before he could say anything else, his combadge chirped.
“Petty Officer Draven,” said Espersen over comms, “report to the First Officer’s office immediately.”
Kael tapped his combadge. “Draven here. Acknowledged. I'm on my way.” He closed the channel and gave Sakura a quick nod. “Looks like duty calls. Thanks for the rundown, Tanikawa. And keep me posted if anything changes with those relays.”
With that, Kael tucked the PADD under his arm and headed out of Engineering, this time making absolutely certain he didn't trip over anything on the way out.
“At ease, Boatswain,” Commander Espersen said after Draven came to see him. “I’d like a status report, namely with regards to everything returning to normal, and then I have a request of you.”
Kael relaxed his posture and brought the PADD up. “Aye, Commander. From the enlisted side, we’re getting back on our feet. Ops is sorting through the usual post-emergency mess. Inventories, equipment, cargo, duty assignments. Nothing particularly exciting, which after the last few days I’m considering a feature.”
He glanced down at the PADD. “Science is getting their equipment and specimens back where they belong. I’ve developed a newfound respect for the word ‘specimen,’ so I’m personally hoping everything stays in its container this time. Engineering is still working through repairs. Comms took a beating, but Tanikawa says combadges and emergency subspace are operational. They’re waiting on fabricated parts for the remaining damaged relays.”
Kael hesitated when he reached the next item. “Medical is functioning normally. Enlisted support is getting their supplies and emergency equipment squared away.” His eyes remained on the PADD a second longer than necessary. “Senior Chief Enor is… still unconscious.” There was a noticeable shift in Kael’s voice before he cleared his throat and continued. “So I’m keeping an eye on things from our side until he wakes up.”
“Security is accounting for weapons and equipment and getting their people back into normal rotations. Flight Control and the small craft crews are doing the same with the shuttles and flight equipment.” Kael lowered the PADD. “Overall, Commander, we’re operational. There’s cleanup left to do, but the enlisted crews are getting Chimera back to normal.”
A little of his usual grin returned. “Or whatever passes for normal around here.”
“That’s good to hear,” the XO said with an approving nod.
Kael tucked the PADD against his side. “You said you had a request for me, Commander?”
“Yes,” he said. “You know that I’ve taken it upon myself to work with some of our enlisted crew that came to us under more dubious circumstances,” he began. “Where the explanations in their personnel files were more…shall we say, interesting.”
Kael's eyebrows lifted slightly. He had a feeling he knew the kind of personnel files Espersen meant.
“Interesting,” Kael repeated, a faint grin appearing. “That's a very diplomatic word for it, Commander.”
He shifted the PADD under his arm. “Yeah, I'm familiar with a few of them. Good people don't always arrive in Starfleet with clean, boring stories attached to their names.”
Kael tilted his head slightly, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“I’ve had good success instructing them on ship operations outside their normal departments,” Alex explained. “It seems that devoting some attention to their training and motivating them properly is actually working.”
Kael nodded slowly. “Makes sense. Give somebody a reason to care about what they're learning instead of just handing them another qualification checklist, and you'd be surprised what you get out of them.”
A slight grin crossed his face. “And getting them outside their departments isn't a bad idea either. First time something goes sideways on a starship, nobody stops to ask whether the emergency is technically in their job description.”
He shifted the PADD beneath his arm. “I'm starting to get the feeling you're about to volunteer me for something, Commander.”
“I’d like to apply this training technique a bit more widely,” the XO said. “Identifying those enlisted personnel, and possibly later junior officers, whose performance might be improved with additional, focussed training, and start them on a curriculum. You can see what I’ve done already in the training logs, I’d like you to use that to develop a draft training program and identify personnel you think you would benefit most from it. I’ll review both documents before implementation.”
Kael's eyebrows lifted as he considered exactly what Espersen was asking him to take on. He shifted the PADD beneath his arm but didn't immediately agree.
“Commander, isn't that normally something Senior Chief Enor would be handling?” Kael asked. “I know he's down right now, and I understand we can't exactly put everything on hold waiting for him to wake up, but...” He hesitated. “Hell, I'm not even a Chief.”
There was no protest in his voice, just genuine uncertainty about where the lines were.
“It's not that I don't think I can do it. I think I can. Reviewing the training logs, building a program, working with the department Chiefs and identifying people who might benefit from it, that's all doable.” Kael paused, brow furrowing slightly. “I'm just trying to understand where I fit into this.”
He gestured lightly with the PADD. “Do I have the authority to go to the department Chiefs and start asking them about their people? Am I coordinating this through them? Am I making recommendations to you and letting you handle the rest?”
Kael gave Espersen a questioning look.
“I guess what I'm asking, Commander, is how much of Senior Chief Enor's lane are you asking me to step into here?”
“You raise some good points, Mr. Draven,” Alex said. “And I respect your desire not to step on anyone else’s toes. Consider it this way: if Chief Enor were conscious, this request would still go to you, as Boatswain, but channeled through him. In the absence of a Chief of the Boat, I’m going straight to the person responsible for the job being done.”
He leaned back in his seat. “At this stage, begin putting things together. You are authorized to speak with department heads. Make recommendations to me, in writing, with Chief Enor copied. Document everything. When he returns to duty, he’ll be able to jump in with the necessary authorities and will have all the information you’ve already assembled.”
Kael nodded along, shifting his PADD from one hand to the other until it slipped straight through his fingers and clattered onto the deck.
“Yep. Meant to do that.”
He quickly scooped it up, straightened, and pointed at Espersen with the PADD as the pieces came together. “Sooo... I'm technically doing my job, but also doing part of Senior Chief's job. I get the word, per se, just not the power or the rank.”
Kael stared thoughtfully at the ceiling for a second. “Hmm. And you mean to tell me ‘Provisional Chief Draven’ isn't even on the paperwork?”
A grin crept across his face. “Seems like an oversight, Commander. I'm just saying, if I've gotta go all-in and do the job of my best friend, who's been training me for the job I want anyway, I feel like I should at least get some of the perks.”
He paused, suddenly looking genuinely curious.
“Actually, I keep hearing about this Senior Officers' Mess. I know Chief Enor isn't an officer, but they say COB has its privileges, right? Is that one of them? Better food? Real coffee? Because I feel like that's important information before I agree to anything.”
Kael blinked, realizing he'd wandered completely off course.
“Sorry. Training program. Right.”
He tucked the PADD securely under his arm this time. “I'll start with your logs and see what's already working. Then I'll talk to the department heads, figure out where their people could use some development, and build something around actual shipboard skills. Cross-training, emergency response, leadership, getting people comfortable working outside their normal departments. Not just throwing coursework at them and calling it development.”
Kael gave a firm nod.
“I can get the job done, Commander.”
He paused, and for a moment the joking confidence faded into something more sincere.
“And I guarantee when the Chief comes back, he'll be proud of the work I've done.”
Alex waited for the Boatswain to conclude before chuckling quietly. “It sounds like you have it all in hand, Acting Chief Draven. Now, dismissed. Before you accidentally talk me out of it. There’s still a lot to do.”
Kael had already started toward the door when two words stopped him cold.
Acting Chief.
He slowly turned back toward Espersen. “...Acting Chief?” For once, Kael had absolutely nothing clever ready. Then the grin started, and no amount of professionalism was going to hide it. “Aye, Commander. Definitely heard that. Not asking questions, not requesting clarification, and absolutely leaving before you reconsider.”
He straightened his uniform and headed for the door with noticeably more swagger than he'd had coming in. Just before stepping through, he glanced back. “And for the record, you said it. I'll make sure that gets properly documented.”
Then Kael disappeared into the corridor before Espersen could take it back.
RSS Feed