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Static
Pike’s voice came over the comms, “Number One, you’re good to go. We’re making our descent now.”
Una looked at the viewscreen from command, as if she could somehow see through the clouds to the shuttles, “We’ll monitor your approach.”
Pike replied, “That’s a negative. Once we enter the upper atmosphere we’re going to be out of contact either way…make haste t…K-7…” The signal crackled into static.
Una turned to Ensign Hui at conns, she shook her head.
She didn’t like breaking up the crew like this, but there was no other good option, "Lieutenant Ortegas, set a course to K-7, top speed.”
“Aye, Sir.”
Her worry continued, but she pushed it down. The mission had to come first.
Quiet
Half of the Alpha shift was back on the planet, out of communication. The bridge felt small and quiet.
Jenna silently monitored navigation and operations.
Una had stopped asking Ensign Hui to check the conn, just in case.
Erica had not said a word since they left orbit.
They all just quietly worked and worried. Engulfed by a tension that endured.
Command
“Lietuenants Ortegas and Mitchell. I want you both to go off duty and rest for now. You will return to duty when we approach the planet.”
Erica wanted to say something, hesitated a moment. She knew Una would be sitting at command the whole time. But she held it in, nodding in confirmation, and turning to leave the bridge. Feeling the weight of the decisions that rested entirely on Una’s shoulders.
Sometimes command was quiet. A lack of action. Sometimes it was endurance, waiting alone, while it seemed like the whole universe held its breath.
Vacuum
Erica tried and failed to relax in her darkened quarters. Counting breaths calm herself transitioned without thought to worries.
She plotted timelines in her head, how long until the crew would be whole again, until the vacuum of worry would break.
The landing party had some of their best people on it. There was no reason to worry.
She tried to convince herself, but for the moment she felt the reality of worry that comes from being in a ship shooting through the vacuum of space.
She watched the lights of the stars going by at warp.
Standby
“Commander, we are standby for docking,” Ensign Hsi reported from the comms.
Una felt a small relief. Docking meant offloading. Offloading meant that the station and its people would have the power to support them. It meant being able to return to her crew.
Still, holding steady for the moment, was a test in patience.
Relief
The power cells were offloaded. Una felt nothing, but relief. The station had what it needed.
Now she could go back to the planet and her crew.
She didn’t let herself think about the crew down on the planet. Any relief was temporary, and she’d learned not to trust it.
Watch
Una stood. Just standing by the chair, watching the viewscreen as the stars streamed by.
Command was about decisions. Hard ones sometimes. It was about following the mission.
Today, command just felt like endurance.
No battle, not fight, nothing to even monitor. Just the long, patient act of keeping watch.
Pulse
Flying usually centered Erica. She could focus on the actions, on the moment, on the motion of the ship and think about nothing else.
As they approached Valeo Beta Prime, Erica could feel her heartbeat in her chest, feel the pulse of her blood through her hands.
Flying was not making her calm today.
Orbit
Erica held the conn. Enterprise was steady in orbit around the planet and Una had left her in command while taking the shuttle down.
Una wanted Erica up here, just in case they needed the ship. Erica wished she wasn’t just in orbit, an observer.
She hated waiting while other people risked their lives. She’d done too much of that already.
Transmission
The shuttle descended through the clouds, skimming along the surface until it reached the crashed ship.
They tried to reach the landing party over the communicator, flying over the shuttles, over the crashed ship.
Silence stretched on for too long.
Then, a transmission, “We’re here…” Pike began.