Darla's Side Quest

Posted on Fri Jun 12th, 2026 @ 10:29pm by Lieutenant Darla Kennings

1,510 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 2: Mine of Taurus
Location: Scharnhorst/Herophilos

Darla was never a fan of waiting, but the past ten minutes had been the longest of her life. Things had moved swiftly after that. Darla watched as Robert sailed them into the field again, and braced herself for the jolt. When it didn't come, she looked around with relief. They might actually pull this off. "Kennings to Sickbay: All medical teams, report to transporter rooms. She nodded to the Captain and ran into a turbolift, heading for the transporter room as well.

When she arrived, she was relieved to see her primary team ready to go. "Good timing," she said.

"Thank you, Doctor," Emily said, smiling. "Easy to do when we've been ready to run for almost fifteen minutes," she added quietly.

"Ready for transport," Darla said as they stepped onto the padd.

"Ma'am, Lieutenant Casey is reporting several sets of shields inside the ship," the transporter tech said.

Darla's hope flared. "Where?" she said, quickly.

"Decks eleven, twelve and fifteen," he said. "What appears to be the shuttle bays, along with individual rooms on deck fifteen."

"The isolation wards," Darla said, with realization. Engineering must have figured out a way to expand the shuttle's shields, and use the isolation ward's quarantine shielding to block the radiation. "Any life signs outside of those areas?"

"Two, both in Engineering," he said, with shock. "How are they alive?"

"Let's just be thankful they are," Darla cut in, stopping his speculation. She stepped down off the transporter padd and hit her combadge. "Attention transporter rooms: medical teams Alpha and Beta are to be beamed to the Herophilos on deck fifteen, near the shielded areas. Team Gamma to deck eleven, and team Delta to deck twelve, near the shuttle bays. All teams be on the lookout for an open door that will let you get someone's attention and tell them they're safe. Do not try to enter those locations until you have confirmation their shields are down."

She turned and looked at the Alpha team standing on the pad, ready to go. "I'll be in Engineering." She turned to the transporter chief. "Energize."

Emily's look of confusion vanished as the transporter beam took them.

Darla hopped up onto the pad. "Engineering. Energize."

She waited as the cool tingle of the transporter beam washed over her and a moment later, she was standing in the cavernous Engineering Bay. The warp core was barely functioning, and with the ship powered down, the bay was almost completely dark, save for the core's slight glow, and the glow of the jewel in her headband. Just as she saw her shadow from from a golden glow appearing behind her, she heard the sound of a phaser rifle powering up.

"Do. Not. Move," a voice said from behind, the buttery British lilt in the voice doing nothing to distract from it being low, steady, and dangerous.

"Aunt Nicole, it's Darla," Darla said, keeping her hands visible.

There was a pause then a wrist beacon activated, aimed directly at her from another vantage point, illuminating her hair.

"Designation?" Nicole demanded.

"Polychrome," Darla said. She heard the rifle power down and turned around, shielding her eyes from the wrist beacon. "Hey, Penny," she said.

"Hey, kid!" Penelope Naroot, the ship's First Officer said, happily. She turned off the light and leaped over the railing, landing down on the primary deck and walking over. "How'd you wind up here?"

"She heard our distress call," Nicole said, stating the obvious. "Who else is here? The Castelnaudary? Admiral Markus?" She frowned. "Wait, I thought you were on assignment with Robert."

"I am," Darla said. "The Scharnhorst is here. We managed to tow you out, and we've got medical teams heading to the crew as we speak."

"That explains the jolt," Nicole said, looking at Penny. "Get us some power."

"Aye, Captain," Penny said, rushing over to a console. A moment later, the MARC began to hum with renewed power, and the lights came back on. Penny's blonde head whirled around in triumph, her royal blue eyes sparkling. "We're back!"

Darla looked over, grinning at her Godmother. "Is that one of the old life-support belts?"

"Alexis has been tinkering with them, seeing if we can once again avoid donning bulky suits for spacewalks," Captain Anderson said, nodding. "Thankfully, I knew where she kept her prototype." She deactivated the belt and the glow around her vanished.

Darla took a closer look at her Godmother and immediately felt concerned. Nicole's normal complexion was extremely pale for a human, but in that moment she was looking even more so, somehow. Her ice blue eyes had dark circles around them, and her hair was looking more grey than usual. She looked exhausted and rather sickly. "How long has it been since you've had any nourishment?" Darla said.

"Too bloody long. And I'm relatively sure the radiation tainted our supply. Plus, what I've had got used healing myself from the initial burst of radiation," Nicole said, weakly. "But, I have a little strength left." She walked over and pulled her favorite niece in for a hug. "It's so good to see you," she said.

Darla smiled, leaning down to hug the older woman and gave her a gentle squeeze. "You too," she said. "Let's get you to my ship and get you a pint or two, and we'll get you back to full strength as well."

"As soon as I know the status of my crew," Nicole said. "When I know everyone's still safe, I'll...rest..." Darla grabbed Nicole as the older woman stumbled and held her carefully. "But maybe I could do with a sit," Nicole said, coughing.

Darla helped her towards a chair as Penny tapped her combadge. "Naroot to Price, we're out of the field and power is restored. Medical teams are on their way. I'll stay here until you get to Engineering."

"Understood," Alexis said. "We've already met them. They said they're from the USS Scharnhorst?"

"That's correct," Penny said. "Any fatalities?"

"None here. I'll check with the other locations and report back, but I think we made it through," Alexis said, sounding relieved. "Just some people feeling sick."

"Good to hear. See you soon. Naroot out." Penny said, closing the channel.

While they listened to the Chief Engineer's report on the crew, Darla opened her medkit and pulled out a tricorder, scanning Nicole as the captain sat down.

Nicole immediately reached into her jacket flap, pulling out a flask. She uncapped it and drank it dry, then recapped it and returned it to her breast pocket with practiced ease. "All right, that should last me a bit," she said, her voice already steadying.

"What happened to you all?" Darla said, watching the scans.

"We were responding to a distress call when it went silent," Nicole said. "We encountered an unknown ship and it turned hostile. Before we could do much damage to each other, we got hit with something and power dropped. Radiation levels spiked and we had to scramble to protect the crew."

"We think you hit a mine," Darla said.

"Grand," Nicole sighed.

"How bad was it?" Darla said.

Nicole shook her head. "Those most affected are in the isolation wards with some of the medical staff. We got everyone else and what supplies we could gather to the shuttle bays as quickly as we could once Alexis came up with a plan." She let out a long sigh. "I'm just thankful Camille isn't here."

Darla nodded. Captain Anderson cared about her crew, but her wife always came first for her. "We can get the wounded transported to the Scharnhorst if you need," she said.

"I think now that we have power back, our own facilities will be more than adequate," Nicole said. "No offense to your team."

"None taken," Darla said, smiling. "But you should come with. I can get you some fresh supply, and I'm sure Captain Kellan would like to know what we're up against."

Nicole sighed and stood up, her complexion back to merely very pale, and the circles under her eyes lessening. "All right." She gave Darla a look. "Is he going to annoy me?"

Darla shrugged and gave her an amused but loving smile. "No more so than every other captain you deal with," she said.

"Nicole," Penny said, her voice suddenly grave. "We have a situation."

"Another one?" Nicole muttered, standing up. "It must be Thursday. Never could get the hang of Thursdays." She walked over to her XO, looking at the monitor. She stood up a bit straighter and they conversed slightly, then Nicole turned back to Darla. "All right, let's go meet this new captain of yours."

Darla raised an eyebrow, but knew better than to ask. If it was something her Aunt would want to inform her about, she'd inform her. She put it aside and tapped her combadge. "Kennings to Scharnhorst, two to beam directly to Sickbay, and ask the Captain to report there when he's able."

A moment later, they vanished.

 

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