Away in a Mission

Posted on Wed Aug 5th, 2026 @ 4:19am by Lieutenant Darla Kennings & Ensign Emily Bowman & Lieutenant Alice Durant & Ensign Zoey Armstrong & Petty Officer 1st Class Celes Fara

1,124 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Episode 2: Mine of Taurus
Location: Shuttle Keplar

With the delay in reaching the planet, Darla had had a chance to have something eat, spent time petting Granger and centering herself, then arrived in the shuttlebay before the others. "Hello, Celes," she said. "Is everything ready?"

Celes stood at attention, hands behind her back. "Yes, Ma'am," she said, crisply. "All provisions are ready, despite the Quartermaster's attitude." She gave a slight eye roll. "If anything goes sideways, we'll be well-provisioned."

From behind them, just coming out of the shuttle, Bianca didn’t make any attempts at stealth, “Diagnostics say the shuttle is ready to go, no issues with the engines or deflectors that they could detect.”

"Obviously," Celes said, turning to face the engineer, her voice getting hard and icy, "or we wouldn't be about to board it."

"Thank you for your diligence," Darla said to Celes, then looked at Bianca. "And thank you for being extra sure. I know sometimes we need to see things for ourselves." She turned at the sound of footsteps and saw Emily and Zoey approaching.

Emily had a medkit in hand and a tricorder already in a holster on her belt. "Are we late?" she said.

"No, right on time. We should be arriving in orbit shortly," Darla said. "Once we get word from the bridge it's safe to set out, we'll go."

"I'll start the pre-flight checklist and get us warmed up," Celes said, nodding to Darla and heading for the shuttle door. "Move," she said to Bianca who was still standing in the doorway.

Bianca backed into the shuttle, "Sorry." She muttered to Celes, "I got bored."

"Looks like I am late for the party." Zoey said, feeling a little guilty for being the last one to arrive. She was caught up, telling her replacement in the lab, what she needed to do.

"Fashionably," Emily stage whispered. "You always say 'fashionably late', that way it looks classy." She straightened up and smiled at Darla. "But we're here and ready to go."

"That's what matters," Darla said. "And you're perfectly fine and on time, Zoey," she reassured her. "All right, let's get on board and get settled. I want to be able to take off at a moment's notice." She gestured for them to follow her and walked into the shuttle.

Emily looked at Zoey and shrugged, giving her a pat on the shoulder and walking into the shuttle after Darla.

"Thanks Doc." Zoey said but the big warm smirk on her face. Then she leaned over to Emily and she started to whisper. "How did it go last night with Sebastian?" She asked curiously. She continued on to say. "Mil is nice, but I couldn't shake the feeling that the chemistry wasn't there so we ended up talking for a few hours." Zoey knew they had a few moments to kill, so she decided to see how her date with Sebastian went last night that she was obviously nosy and a little bit curious. She hoped her date with him, went better than her own did with Mil.

"Turns out he's as fun sober as he is when I'm tipsy," Emily said quietly as they approached the shuttle. "Shame your date didn't work out. Next time? Trust me next time when tell you you'll have more fun at my place." She gave Zoey a teasing swat on the rear and giggled as she rushed ahead onto the shuttle.

Bianca rolled her eyes as she returned inside the shuttle, generally following them but not interacting. The fewer people she did that with, the better. She settled into one of the seats in the main cabin and strapped herself in. Who knew what this flight was going to entail, she wasn't going to get thrown around if she could help it.

"What's your story Bianca?" Zoey asked, as she noticed the young lady trying to stay under the radar.

Bianca gave a hesitant smile to Zoey, blushing a light pink as she did, "There really isn't much to me..." She said softly, "I grew up in Earth's asteroid belt, my parents were miners that emigrated there from the east coast of the North American continent and well... I didn't want to stay there and do what they did, so I jumped at the chance to join Starfleet. I know they say that education is equal throughout the Federation, but it was a bit um... Lacking where I was at, so I really got lucky."

"Lucky is one way to look at, maybe you were destined to be here with us. I like to think, we are at the right place, at the right time for some unknown reason." Zoey suggested to Bianca, but then noticing that Darla was trying to get their attention.

Darla turned as the last of them entered and sat down, ignoring conversations. She was in the copilot's chair, letting Celes handle the main piloting.

With the shuttle powered and ready, the comm system came to life. "Bridge to Doctor Kennings, Status report?" came the voice of the Captain.

Darla took a breath and steadied herself. "Sir, we are all aboard the shuttle and prepared to launch," she said, her voice relatively steady. "With your permission, Sir."

"You have a go Doctor." Adrian said.

"Aye, Sir," Darla said, closing the channel. She nodded to Celes. "Launch."

"Aye, Ma'am," Celes said. The engines were already initialized and the shuttle was free to lift off, so she brought them up and moved into position to leave the bay.

As the shuttle picked up and sped through the forcefield toward the planet, Darla let out a breath. She wished she could have brought Granger with her, if for no other reason than giving her some comfort, but knew he wouldn't be of much use on the planet, and she'd never risk him there.

The shuttle banked towards the atmosphere and trembled slightly before the inertial dampeners kicked in. The clouds appeared in the distance below them, and as they passed through, the terrain opened up in front of them. The planet was just the way her mother described it: light green forests, flowers in various shades of lilac, blue and purple, and spires of sharp mountain ranges in the distance.

Darla pulled up the shuttle's sensors and watched for any signs of ships. She tapped her console quickly. "Head for these coordinates," she said. "We should examine the original settlement compound first."

Celes looked at the coordinates and veered to port. "Understood. We'll be there in approximately eight and a half minutes."

Darla sat back again and hummed to herself, trying to stay focused. A few minutes of travel wasn't the end of the world, but she knew the wait was going to drive her nuts.

 

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