To Shuttle Or Not To Shuttle
Posted on Sat Feb 28th, 2026 @ 5:20pm by Commander Rhupert Tyree & Lieutenant Katya Davi & Senior Chief Petty Officer Harriet Hastings
Edited on on Sat Feb 28th, 2026 @ 5:20pm
2,047 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Operation Kakori
Location: Mess Hall - Deck 2 - USS Valiant
Timeline: While En Route To The Badlands
The Valiant’s galley continued to emit the smell of fresh pastries, coffee and spices as Harriet updated her tastings. It hadn’t been a herculean effort to add nearly a dozen people to Valiant’s life support index or even feeding them. Finding a (reasonably) comfortable place for everyone to sleep was a bit more challenging. Still, this was going to be a short mission (one way or the other) and people could put with anything for a few minutes.
Once she’d gotten the Pioneers junior officer, ratings and enlisted sorted and sent off with members of the crew to handle berthing, she turned to the Colonel. Colonel, there is a couple of more things to go over if you and Lieutenant Mira have a moment?
Neil looked up from the table he’d commandeered in the Valiant’s galley, enjoying his second mug of coffee and trying to ignore the plate of fresh pastries that were calling his name. “What can we do for you, Senior?” he asked, closing down his HUD.
"Sure," Jayna added, enjoying one more pastry while Neil drank his coffee.
"The command idea had a couple of suggestions for getting personnel onto Breyet Nor," Harriet said, waiting for the two to follow her. Aboard the Valiant, no distances were really far and she led them to what was officially described as the Main Shuttle Bay. When the doors cycled, they found what was probably the largest open space within Valiant. Taking up spaces on both decks three and four, the launch bay currently held one upgraded Type Ten shuttle.
"This shuttle previously was assigned to Ambassador Telford who unfortunately was murdered aboard the Valiant by a former member of the crew. Commander's Thibideaux and Tyree have made sure it stayed lost from inventory when the diplomatic corps didn't ask about it," Harriet informed them, taking them closer. As they approached, the internal lighting on the shuttle came up and the side hatch cycled.
"It's been sitting here, waiting to be used for one thing or another. Captain Tyree claims it's been lost in service, officially. Since it's an ambassadorial grade craft, it has some older information that can fall into enemy hands without too much of an issue, and other information can be doctored. At least our Intel specialist thought something like that could be done."
Neil stuck his head into the shuttle, noting it looked more or less standard, though nicely kitted out with leathers and hard wood surfaces. Then he moved to walk around the shuttle, though it was cramped on the far bulkhead side. "Jayna, what do you think," he asked.
"I think it's a shame we have to lose this to the Cardassians," she replied. "You don't see many ships with leather and wood anymore. But it shouldn't be a problem to make sure the data is too old to be useful. We could also add a few things to keep track of it, if you want."
"Tell's a good story so it's probably worth it, but I'm not the one riding it in," Neil commented. "Start the modifications you and your team will want. Dragoon any of the Marines, most likely Shy at least since he's heavy into the Ops side." Turning to Harriot, he said, "Think your engineer and ops can shake loose a small team to help make the shuttle look somewhat worse for wear."
Nodding, Harriet said, "Ops, Intel and myself for Engineering are happy to help however you need. We can start by scavenging off just about anything except what's needed to make it fly and keep someone alive. I think we have a stand-alone Ferengi replicator in the Cargo area we can make parts from as well."
Stopping ducking back from under the nose of the craft, Neil glanced at the COB in surprise. "That's...unusual."
Shrugging, Harriet said, "Well sir...we're a small ship. Have to make use of what we can," she hedged, though there was amusement in her tone. "There's an old saying that goes If it isn't nailed down, it's ours. If we pry it loose, it wasn't nailed down. Kinda goes along with keeping people guessing, Colonel sir."
"You're something of a wise ass," Neil remarked with a smirk. "I like you Senior Chief."
"That makes me very much relieved, sir," Harriet said straight faced. "I like you too, for a one legged Marine who's been corrupted by the Fleet and once was a walking billboard."
Neil eyed her, leaning a shoulder against the hull of the craft and said, "Corrupted you say? Sounds like someone has been telling stories, Senior Chief."
"I'd like to hear some of those stories," Jayna interjected, grinning at Neil.
Then she turned to Harriet. "I think we should remove the leather and wood. Nicely, so we can repurpose it. But if this is supposed to be stolen, that would be the first thing they scavenge for parts. I like the idea of replacing the leather with something cheap and worn. I'll leave that to you and your team. I can work with intel and ops to alter the computer codes and data. It's been a while since I got to play with codes." She paused, then added. "Suggestions are always welcome."
"It's your call Jayna," Neil said. "We can get a few tools and ham hand it. I'm going to have time on my hands this mission."
Harriet listened making some mental notes and stepped close to the shuttle's hatch to get a look inside and said, "Cheap and worn...only thing I can think that describes are some marines..."
Neil let that one go and moved to inspect the nacelles and bring up a list of the how much could be salvaged and still keep the thing space-worthy.
"Worn, maybe, but rarely cheap," Jayna replied to Harriet as she flashed Neil a smile. Part of her wanted to keep the shuttle intact, but if it looked too rough or too clean, it would raise flags. "Yeah, let's be prudent about it, though. It should look like it was stripped of what it didn't need. But it'll have to match the story Gage and Makeba use."
Harriet was making mental notes and said, "It's going to need to look like it's been field stripped. Put back together. Badly. And have run into a few meteorites and some weapons fire, probably. We can probably make up most of that."
Neil looked at Jayna for a few calculating seconds then at Harriet and said, "Senior. What else do you have for us. We'll get the Intel crowd to make up their collective minds on it."
Jayna nodded. "Yes. I'm sure they will have other ideas and talking them over will give us a better feel for what we can and should do."
"Just one more thing, really," Harriet said. "If you'll follow me??"
Their next stop took them, from Neil's calculation very near to the Valiant's bridge and Harriet cycled a hatch into what looked like the CO's cabin. It was empty from what Neil could tell, though it looked empty. He raised an eye toward the Valiant's COB.
"Compliments of the Captain," Harriet said with a knowing smile. "Congratulations on your wedding on behalf of the crew of the Valiant. He's assigned you both to his cabin for the duration."
Jayna was surprised they even knew. "Thank you. We appreciate the courtesy." Although if she were honest, she didn't want it to become a distraction during the mission. She also wasn't sure how much time they'd have to spend together with all the pieces that still needed to be put in place.
"You're welcome," Harriet said, turning toward the bridge. "I'll get some people started on pulling off access plating and removing the fittings.
Neil watched the Valiant's COB walk away and he said, "Should be interesting when the Senior Chief runs into Lachlan. She has a thing for marines I hear."
"That could be interesting. I wish him luck if she does." She turned back to Neil. "Although I'm not sure if he should run and hide or not, though."
"The Senior would have made a good marine," he said as he looked into the quarters, noting the fresh flowers and plate of still more pastries and a bottle of something or other in a warming sleeve. "Well. We can either go lend the others a hand or..."
"I think we can safely leave that to the COB," she replied, smiling. "I'd rather take advantage of the time we have before we'll both be too busy to do more than fall asleep. Besides, we can't let the food sit for too long or it'll go to waste..."
Peering, closed behind Jayna and guided her into the quarters, the hatch cycling behind him as he said, "Commander Tyree might give Ed a run for his money: he’s included strawberries, whipped cream peanut butter and chocolate. And the warming sleeve on the bottle reads Mulled Wine... Betazoids..."
"Lovely. We'll have to thank him later," she said, looking around.
"I like the later part," Neil agreed amiably. "And I'm still kind of on doctor's orders for rest when I can." He tossed the shoulder bag he'd been carrying into a corner and poured two of the intricate stemmed glasses with wine. A pop up notation in his HUD surprised him, but he followed the suggestion from Tyree to add fruit to the glasses as well. Offering Jayna one of the glasses, which were hand painted with some sort of flowers he assumed were from Betazed, he moved to sit on the bed, which was in couch mode.
"Seems Tyree likes his comforts and likes to share," he touched the skin near his eye and said, "Soon as I got near the glasses, instructions popped up on how to indulge. Care to indulge with me?"
Jayna took the proffered glass and sat next to him. "With you? Always." She tapped her glass to his and smiled. "We can call this our honeymoon--technically."
She took a sip of the drink and raised an eyebrow. "Nice. I wonder how often he entertains in here."
Chuckling, Neil said, "Could be a lot. I checked the manifest. All of his senior staff are women and from what little I could find, he likes them. Enough to have a revolving door rather than a hatch." Sipping at his wine, he said "Not bad...but if this is a honeymoon, we have way too many clothes on."
"How long until we have to meet the others?" she asked. "I'd rather not have anyone come looking for us at an inopportune moment. Otherwise..."
Arching an eyebrow comically and sliding an arm around her shoulders, Neil said "Computer. Seal that hatch. Block all comms l for Mrs. Tremble and I until I tell you not to unless it's a command priority authorization. Anyone looking for us... well you can tell them we're in conference for at least...."
He gave Jayna another arch look and said, "Three hours?"
She liked the sound of Mrs. Tremble. "I think we can fill the time admirably." This was likely the calm before the storm and she wanted to take advantage of every moment they had together.
'"Computer," make that three hours. Lights to one third and play some mood music from Captain Tyree's playlist?"
"Acknowledged," the computer said and the lights dimmed as Neil leaned in to kiss Jayna below her ear.
Then the song, I'm sexy and I know it began its heavy beat that could be felt through the frame of the couch.
Snickering, Neil said, "Now that's a choice," then he leaned into her embrace.
"Mmm." She was far too distracted to make any other comment. She just hoped the next song didn't make her laugh out loud.
Unfortunately, it was I'm Too Sexy and she had to pull away and laugh. "Computer, play smooth jazz." Once the music started, she wrapped her arms around Neil's neck and kissed him again.
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Tremble
Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Battalion Commander, The Cure
Lieutenant Mira Jayna
Intelligence Officer, The Cure
USS Pioneer
Senior Chief Petty Officer Harriet Hastings
Chief of the Boat, USS Valiant
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