When the Lights Go Out

[Tachyon 0]

“When the Lights Go Out”

Stardate 0602.23

Lieutenant Tandaris Admiran

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Tandaris felt like a drunk Nausicaan had brought a metre-by-metre ceiling plate down on his head. His entire skull felt two sizes too small, and he could hear his heartbeat pounding through his ears. It took him several moments to realise that the low groaning noise he could hear was his own feeble voice.

 

In the chaos of the epic battle, Tandaris' memories were few and far between. He remembered power overloads from the tactical systems, EPS ruptures, and eventually shouting. Tandaris remembered getting up from his console and running across engineering. An explosive force knocked him flat on his back, and a ceiling plate fell and knocked him out.

 

Now he was lying in his quarters on Excalibur, safe and sound.

 

Not critically injured, but having only a broken arm which was easily repaired and a splitting headache, Tandaris had been discharged relatively quickly. While everyone else took care of the battle's aftermath, he had to slowly ease back into regular life—this time aboard Excalibur, it seemed. Tandaris had only recently learned the details of the actual battle, and his mind was still having a hard time processing everything.

 

Chen's death, for instance. He'd only known the chief of science for a short amount of time, but he had respected Lieutenant Commander Chen. Now, to have him ripped away from them because of a stupid thing like a plasma rupture—well, Admiran had seen a lot of people die in a lot of ways over the last three centuries, some of them uglier than that. But none of them less deserved.

 

Tandaris looked out his window at the stars outside. The other piece of news that he had received was just as disturbing. Unknowns attacking Dominion outposts? The Dominion has an enemy in addition to the Hundred? What sort of quadrant is this? He hoped to have those questions answered, but he had a gut feeling that he wouldn't like the answers when they found him.

 

It felt good to be back on Excalibur. From an engineering viewpoint, the Morningstar had been a sort of fast-paced dream. Every engineer desired to work on a prototype, refining and testing it. However, using that prototype in the field could be a technical nightmare. Excalibur, fresh from a refit, felt like an old friend and a new acquaintance. And Tandaris was still a new guy to the Excalibur. He could only imagine what any of the senior officers were feeling now.

 

It was definitely a time of mixed feelings for everyone. Mourn the deaths of friends, the loss of starships. Celebrate the defeat of the Hundred, the return of the Excalibur, and the restoration of hope. Wonder over the accumulation of questions that continued to brim, unanswered, as mysteries became riddles lost amongst political squabbles that were ultimately meaningless.

 

Tandaris looked over at the possessions which had been salvaged from Morningstar. On his table, the contents of one box had been unpacked and tossed around. Umb, his stuffed animal from his loving brother. A random PADD that seemed to have no value—he wondered who had even bothered packing it into his stuff anyway. The piece of alien technology that he had picked up from that Al-Ucardian shop but hadn't had time to analyse. A set of 12-dimensional algebraic puzzles that his mother had sent as a birthday present.

 

He did a sort of half-turn and faced the doors of his quarters. Now, he supposed, would be as good a time to see engineering again as ever. He'd step out of those doors, Starfleet badge at his chest, and out into a corridor. One foot in front of the other. One heartbeat a time. The stars over his head, shining brightly.

 

Winking out one by one.