Seconds from Disaster
Posted on Sat Sep 19th, 2026 @ 5:38pm by Captain Marc Steyn & Lieutenant JG Ikan Seidel & Lieutenant JG Luke Beaumont & Ensign Kristian Hale & Lieutenant Commander Maximo (Max) Vero & Lieutenant Vireya Talvaren & Lieutenant Syvar MD & Lieutenant Reruk & Lieutenant JG Charlie Johnson & Ensign Rayus Hawke Mr & Lieutenant S'Kai & Lieutenant JG T'Chiara MD & David Steyn & Leia Beaumont
4,459 words; about a 22 minute read
Mission:
Season 1 Episode 2: The Garden at the Edge of Night
Location: Main Engineering
ON
Main Bridge
The day had started much like any other aboard Genesis. Coffee, breakfast, the familiar ride in the turbolift to the bridge, and then an hour or so catching up on paperwork in the ready room before he had planned to spend some time down in Science Two, indulging in one of the things he had been neglecting since assuming command—simply looking at the stars. It had been far too long since Marc had been able to sit at a science console without a command decision attached to it, and he had no qualms about invading Lieutenant Reruk's workspace for a little harmless star-gazing.
The only difference came as he pushed himself away from his desk and stepped through the doors onto the bridge. At first, the vibration beneath his boot was so subtle he almost dismissed it. Genesis had been experiencing minor systems irregularities since leaving Earth, and a faint tremor through the deck plates was hardly enough to concern him. Then it came again. A little stronger this time. Marc stopped, his brow furrowing as he felt the vibration travel through the soles of his boots.
He glanced instinctively towards the engineering displays. Nothing immediately presented itself as abnormal, but the bridge seemed to have fallen strangely quiet. The usual background rhythm of the ship was still there—the muted hum of the warp engines, the soft chatter between stations, the gentle electronic tones of consoles—but underneath it was something else. A deeper vibration. Irregular. Almost like a pulse.
"Anyone else feeling that?" Marc asked.
Before anyone could answer, the entire bridge shuddered.
The movement was violent enough to throw Marc sideways, his hand catching the back of the command chair as he fought to remain upright. Warning tones erupted across the bridge, consoles flashing from green to amber and then red in rapid succession. Somewhere beneath them came a deep metallic groan as though Genesis herself had suddenly been placed under impossible strain.
Then the engineering station on the far side of the bridge exploded.
There was no warning. One instant the officer was seated at the console; the next, the station erupted in a shower of sparks and flame, the force of the explosion throwing debris across the bridge. Marc dropped instinctively, raising an arm against the blast as emergency lighting flooded the room. The sound was deafening.
And then everything stopped.
The familiar sensation of warp vanished.
Stars that had been stretched into brilliant lines across the viewscreen suddenly snapped back into points of light as Genesis dropped violently out of warp. The ship lurched again, throwing anyone who had not already found something to hold onto against their restraints or the deck. Then, one by one, the systems began to die.
The main displays went black. Consoles shut down. The bridge lighting vanished, leaving only the dim red glow of emergency illumination. The hum of the warp core disappeared entirely, replaced by an unsettling silence that Marc had never heard aboard a starship.
Main Engineering
The ship lurched out of warp hard, and everyone in engineering was thrown to the floor. Charlie picked herself up and looked with horror at the warp core, which was starting to cycle faster and faster. Alarms were blaring. She called out over the din.
“Report!”
“The Warp field collapsed when we came out of warp. The warp coils are stuck in a feedback loop and pressure in the core is rising. If we can’t stop the reaction, the core is going to breach!”
“That makes no sense, everything was operating within normal parameters. Charlie staggered over to where Ensign Peters was working, her head still spinning.
“Re initialise the primary deuterium flow and shunt the overload though the secondary plasma conduit, that should stabilise the core.”
Peters frowned but followed her instruction. “No affect Lieutenant, Antimatter flow is increasing, Core pressure is still building.
Despite herself, Charlie could feel the panic starting to rise in the pit of her stomach. “That should have worked, that ‘s what the manual…”
Unable to contain himself any longer, he turned to her, getting right in her face and yelling at the top of his voice. “Lieutenant! To Hell with the manual, we need to figure out a way to stop the warp reaction, or there is going to be a ship in a few minutes…Sir.” He then remembered he was addressing the chief engineer and backed off slightly. The Rest of the engineering crew were trying not to make it obvious they were listening intently at the same time as trying to save the ship.
Charlie was confronted with a problem that was rapidly spiralling out of control. He was right, and she knew it, but she couldn’t bring herself to admit it.
“We’re going to have to try and vent some warp plasma to bring the pressure down.” Peters called out over the rising din.”
“You vent plasma that hot it’s going to fry the warp coils,” Charlie replied, not keeping the panic out of her voice.
The computer then interrupted, “Warning, warp core pressure exceeding upper safety limits. Warp Core breach in sixty seconds.”
Peter was just about reaching his limit. “To hell with it. Computer, initiate plasma venting.”
The computer replied, “Unable to comply. The automatic venting system is offline.”
“We’re going to have to do this manually. Watch the warp core pressure.”
“This is completely improper procedure ensign…” Charlie started.
Peters snapped back without stopping working. “Look! We don’t have time to argue; you can court-martial me if we live!”
The computer then beeped. “Plasma venting initiated, warp core pressure stabilising.”
“Right, that’s bought us some time, but it’s only a temporary solution.” Peters said, “His mind working. “We need to stop the warp reaction. If we can force an small overload of the magnetic containment segments in the core, it will cut off the matter/antimatter supply and warp drive will shutdown.”
“Are you crazy?” Charlie looked at him as if he had gone mad. “That procedure is not in the manual. You could collapse the magnetic containment field altogether; the ship would explode.”
“Lieutenant, if you have a better suggestion, I’d love to hear it.”
Charlie’s mind was racing. Nothing was making sense to her. Her hands were trembling, her mouth was dry. She looked at him, and he could tell by her face she was completely lost.
He turned and called to the other engineering staff. “Ok, we going to do a controlled overload of the magnetic field segments. Watch the antimatter containment system; keep the power flow to that separated. If it cascades, we’ll have seconds to correct it.
The rest of the staff stood ready; all eyes were on him. “Ok, on 3….2….1…. Now.”
The lights flickered momentarily, and there was a strange noise before the light on the warp core slowed to idle, before going dark completely.
There were shouts of joy going around the room and Peters allowed himself a small smile before he turned back to Charlie to report. “Lieutenant, warp drive is offline. Magnetic containment is holding. Antimatter containment positive. Orders?” He straightened himself, ready to receive any punishment she would give.
Charlie was getting her breathing under control; she was balling her fists so tightly to stop them shaking that her knuckles were white. She was about to give him a dressing down, but he had just saved the ship, and she was aware that all eyes were now on her. This was not the place to reprimand him.
Eventually, she took a deep breath and said quietly. “Get a full damage report."
Main Bridge
Across the bridge, systems continued dropping offline until only emergency power remained. Life-support indicators flickered into existence on the surviving displays, followed by the cold confirmation that Genesis was now operating on emergency life support and auxiliary power alone.
Marc slowly rose, staring at the dead consoles around him.
Whatever had been happening to Genesis's systems was no longer a collection of minor faults.
Something had just gone catastrophically wrong. "Report!" he shouted.
Reruk pulled himself off the deck, wiping a trace of blood from his lip as the harsh emergency lighting painted the ruined Bridge in red. He ignored the burning smell of fried relays and pushed past a smoking console toward the science station.
"What happened is that someone just ripped us out of warp like a child snapping a twig, Captain," Reruk drawled, his voice laced with his signature biting sarcasm despite the chaos. His long fingers flew across his flickering display, bypassing damaged sub-processors to force a manual sensor sweep. "Subspace shockwave, spatial shear, or utter incompetence... take your pick," he muttered, eyes narrowing as the preliminary telemetry trickled in. "The warp core didn't just fail; the space-time metric around our hull literally collapsed. I'm isolating the spatial signature now."
Vi had just enough warning to turn towards the engineering station before it exploded.
Heat and debris tore across the left side of the bridge. Something struck her upper arm, another fragment catching her cheek as she dropped behind the tactical rail, but there was barely time for the pain to register before Genesis was ripped out of warp. The sudden lurch threw her sideways into the console hard enough to knock the breath from her lungs, one hand catching the edge before she went down completely.
Then came the silence.
Emergency lighting washed the bridge in red as Vi pulled herself upright, wiping at the thin line of blood on her cheek without giving it much thought. Tactical was still answering on auxiliary power, although what remained on her display told its own story.
Her hands moved quickly across the surviving controls, checking the defensive systems and trying twice to coax anything useful from them before looking towards Marc.
“Captain, shields are down. Phasers have no available power and both torpedo launchers are non-responsive.” She glanced back to the flickering tactical display as the remaining sensor returns struggled to resolve. “Targeting is gone as well. I’ve got limited passive sensors, but not enough range or resolution to tell us much beyond the immediate area.”
Vi steadied herself against the console as another ache made itself known along her side.
“Whatever did this, right now we’ve got no way to defend ourselves.”
Max had been thrown from his seat also, narrowly missing plasma sparks. He turned to the Captain. "I fear the chief engineer is relying solely on 'the book' again sir." He looked round pulling himself up. "Is anyone hurt?" he asked moving to help up the nearest person also thrown to the deck to him.
"Sensors confirm the warp field collapsed instantaneously, Captain," Reruk reported, paring back his sharp edge as he read the incoming telemetry. "There are no unknown vessels or weapons signatures in passive range. We weren't fired upon."
He tapped a sequence on his board, routing power to clear the distortion on his main display. "We might have encountered a severe subspace displacement wave—a naturally occurring graviton shearing event. It could have caused an immediate collapse of the warp field and overloaded our plasma relays, but there's nothing on sensors. I'm mapping the local spatial geometry now to ensure the area is stable."
Marc slowly pushed himself upright, brushing fragments of debris from the front of his uniform. A high-pitched ringing filled his ears, making the bridge around him seem strangely distant and muffled. He reached instinctively towards his face when he felt something warm trickling from his hairline. His fingers came away wet, and when he looked at them beneath the dim red emergency lighting, they were streaked with blood.
For one terrifying heartbeat, panic threatened to take hold.
Wolf 359.
The memory came unbidden—the explosions, the screams, the helplessness of watching ships disappear from his displays one after another. His breathing quickened, but he forced it back under control, pushing the rising fear down into the deepest recesses of his mind. This wasn't Wolf 359. The ship was still here. His crew were still alive. He could see them, hear them moving, hear the voices of officers beginning to assess the damage.
Focus.
He wiped the blood from his cheek with the back of his hand and straightened, forcing himself to become the captain his crew needed him to be.
"Captain to Engineering. Report."
Only static answered him.
Marc's eyes narrowed.
"Engineering, report."
Again, nothing.
The silence that followed was somehow worse than the explosion. Marc stared towards the communications console, his jaw tightening as the implications began to settle in. The ship was running on emergency power, the warp core was no longer producing its familiar vibration beneath his feet, and now Engineering wasn't answering.
"Engineering," he repeated, louder this time. "This is the Captain. Report."
Nothing.
For the first time since Genesis had left Earth, Marc felt genuine fear settle into the pit of his stomach.
Security Office
Rayus had only just started to settle and was in the security office getting grips with with his new surroundings and his fellow officers. A big part of this stage was the new officer stage as new as he was the stranger he still felt in his new surroundings.
Only moments after finally being freed from the turbolift, Luke found himself wishing he'd stayed put. He and Commander Vero had been trapped for long enough that he'd already missed the start of his next duty shift—and, more importantly, the orientation for the new Security Officer. He hurried onto the deck, making his way toward the waiting Ensign.
"Sorry I'm late, but I..." Luke began, only for the deck to give a sudden, violent lurch beneath his feet. Both men were thrown off balance and went sprawling onto the deck.
Luke stared at the floor for a moment, utterly exasperated. After the turbolift, the power fluctuations in Sickbay, and now this, he was beginning to wonder if the ship itself had developed a personal grudge against him. It was starting to feel like he was trapped in some kind of never-ending loop of malfunctions.
With a groan, Luke pushed himself back to his feet and brushed himself off. Thankfully, he appeared no worse for wear. He turned immediately toward the Ensign, concern replacing his irritation.
"Are you hurt, Ensign?"
The sudden drop had jolted him but as he sat up he checked himself over " No Sir all present and correct" he gave him self a few more moments before standing up. When he finally managed to steady him self " what about you sir, are you ok".
He seemed concerned even though he did not actually know the man. "Ensign Rayus Hawke" he extended his hand out to the man. He had one question on his mind "what in the gods name is happening".
He wasn't sure if he would like the answer it had been hours since he had come on bored the Genesis and already it was falling to bits. His face showed concern but also he remained calm and professional.
Main Sickbay
Things were quiet, there were no patients at present which she Syvar the chance to help bring his medical staff up to speed. He was just going over the use of a modern medical tricorder with T'Chiara, his time displaced doctor. Syvar had seared himself on one of the beds and was patiently waiting for the young hybrid woman to complete his scans.
T'Chiara studied her readings carefully. "Vulcan male," she srarted, "no anom-" she broke off when she felt the shudder in the deck plates, the braced one hand against the bed and the other pushed her 'patient' back down on the bed in the hope of keeping him in place as well.
A violent tremor threw both clear of the bed, a sickening crunch was audible as the medical bay was plunged into darkness. T'Chiara managed to keep hold of her tricorder, using it as a faint source of illumination as she crawled back to her feet. "Headcount!" She called out, easily slipping back into chief mode even though she clearly wasn't the boss.
Syvar gave a pained response as he tried to crawl to his feet, then yelped in pain as he tried to put weight on his arms. He didn't know what exactly happened and he hasn't realised that the crunch was his own bones being snapped like a twig as he had slammed into something solid. "Here," he managed through gritted teeth.
School Room
The lights went before the shaking. No one was expecting it. The kids started screaming both in her class and she could hear the rest down the corridors.
When the emergency lights kicked in Leia called out. "Is everyone okay? Don't panic I am sure there will be an announcement. Lets make sure everyone's in one piece. David can you ask Mr Howard to bring through the younger class to here. I think its best if we are all in one place. Grok, tell Azuiak the same for the middle class,"
David staggered to his feet, feeling dizzy. "Sure," he drawled, "once I stop seeing two of everything..." As he stood, he felt his stomach heave and he turned away just in time before he spilled his breakfast .
Leia stepped forward and placed a hand on his shoulder the smell of the vomit hitting everyone in the room, "No David you come sit down. Durak can you get David some water please. Sizzon you go to Mr Howard."
She knelt down next to David. "Deep breaths. Do you need a doctor?"
"I don't know," the teenager managed, "I don't know what happened, I just feel very dizzy and sick. A headache maybe." He sipped the water that was thrust into his hands. "What happened?"
Main Engineering
Engineering was now a frenzy of activity. Everyone was hurrying around, compiling the damage report and trying tofind the cause of the rouble in the first place.
Over the Din, Peters heard the comm system:
"Captain to Engineering. Report."
Everyone was so preoccupied with their jobs that no one heard it. A few moments later, he heard it again. Slightly louder this time.
"Engineering, report."
The Chief Engineer should really respond this time, he thought to himself as he looked over at Lieutenant Johnson. She was sitting at the master control interface, but her face was blank, her shoulders were hunched over, she looked like her entire body had just stopped working, like her brain had shut down to protect itself from the truth... Because the truth was horrifying.
"Engineering! This is the Captain. Report."
The engineering staff were compiling the damage report. Peters went over to Charlie and gently put his hand on her shoulder. Charlie, who still looked frozen in shock, not quite comprehending what had happened, looked up into his eyes as if she didn't quite recognise him.
He cleared his throat. "Lieutenant, don't you think we'd better respond to the bridge?" He asked, trying to nudge her out of her shell-shocked state. She looked back at him with a vacant stare, and he could tell she wasn't firing on all thrusters. He tapped his comm badge.
"Bridge, this is engineering. The chief is..... busy at the moment. This is Ensign Peters reporting. We're picking up the pieces down here, trying to get you answers. We'll have a full damage report momentarily."
“Acknowledged, Ensign,” came the curt reply from the Captain, the frustration in his voice unmistakable. He kept his tone controlled, but the strain beneath it was palpable—a clear indication that his patience was beginning to wear thin.
Main Bridge
On the bridge Max scrunched his eyes together for a moment, having a gut feeling that their young prodigy had ended up being whacked with the 'book'.
"Lieutenant. You need that cut looked on your face," he said to Vi. "Anyone first aid trained, please look over everyone. Engineering, any idea what's caused this and where is the chief?"
Vi lifted a hand to her cheek at Max’s reminder and looked at the smear of blood left across her fingertips. She had almost forgotten about it beneath everything else going wrong around them.
“I will,” she said, already turning back to the surviving tactical display. “But I’m not leaving this station while we’ve got no shields and barely enough sensors to see past the hull.”
Her fingers moved across the controls again, trying to coax something more useful out of the auxiliary systems. “If somebody with a medkit has a free hand, they can come to me. Otherwise it can wait a few minutes.”
The cut stung now that he had drawn her attention to it, but Vi ignored the temptation to touch it again and kept working.
Main Engineering
Before he responded, Peters looked at Charlie again. Her mouth was moving, but no sound was coming out. "The Chief's got her hands full at the moment...." at this point, a crewman approached with a PADD. He took one look at Charlie and then handed he PADD to Peters.
"I've got a full damage report now bridge." Peters changed the subject quickly as he skimmed the contents of the PADD. It was bad, and his face blanched slightly.
"Main power is offline. We're running on auxiliary and batteries only. Warp and impulse are offline but we've got manoeuvring thrusters. Warp coils in both nacelles have fused and are inoperative; they're going to have to be rebuilt. It looks like we blew out the plasma relays on deck 20. The dilithium crystals have fractured due to stress and there are 150 microfractures throughout the hull, including the nacelle pylons. Re-initiating the warp reaction is going to require some... creative thinking. Repairs are already underway, but we're looking at." He paused as he did some quick mental calculations and then multiplied the answer by four
"Twenty days at least to repair everything."
Main Bridge
Max's eyebrows practically raised up to his hairline. He looked at the Captain knowing how disappointing this would be .They had literally just got going after weeks of getting ready. "I am on the way down Ensign," he informed the man. "With your leave Captain I will see if I can help. I have a background in Engineering."
Marc rubbed the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger, pressing firmly as he tried to stave off the headache beginning to build behind his eyes.
He glanced towards his First Officer and gave a small, almost imperceptible nod.
“Go,” he mouthed.
With Max moving off to carry out the order, Marc returned his attention to the communications channel, his expression hardening as he prepared to deal with whatever came next.
Main Engineering
“Commander Vero is on his way to supervise the situation. And, Ensign, we don’t have twenty days. You have twelve hours to restore whatever systems you can—propulsion is our primary concern. We need at least enough power to get this ship moving again. Is that understood?”
Marc's voice remained controlled, but there was an unmistakable edge to it now. He wasn't shouting; he didn't need to. The urgency in his words made the order perfectly clear.
As if a switch was flipped in her head, Charlie suddenly stood. She spoke in a quiet voice. "I'm not feeling well. Ensign, you are in charge." And with that, he watched, open-mouthed, as she walked unsteadily out of Engineering.
"Aren't you going to stop her?" the young crewman asked.
"One crisis at a time, Mr Collins." Peters replied, "Let's worry about the ship first. It's the XO's job to worry about the Chief." He added, "Don't worry, she'll be back..."
He wasn't entirely sure of that himself.
Max walked in a few minutes later and could see plenty of activity. "Which one of you is Ensign Peters?" Max asked. He looked round and certainly could not spot the chief.
Peters raised his hand to identify himself to the first officer. "That would be me Sir. Repairs are underway; we would appreciate any and all assistance." He then hesitated slightly and then said, "Sir, could we speak privately?"
"Si of course," he replied following the man as he indicated to walk somewhere.
He led the first officer to a quiet part of the engine room and lowered his voice. "Sir, permission to speak freely?"
Max nodded.
Off his permission, Peters continued, "It's the Chief Engineer, sir. I think.... we have a problem. Don't get me wrong, her engineering knowledge is first class; she could strip down and rebuild a warp core in her sleep, and I'm sure we wouldn't have made it out of space dock without her, but... I don't know if you've noticed, but she tends to...." He paused as he tried to put this as diplomatically as he could "Treat the manual as gospel. If it's not in the manual, she won't entertain it, and it's a... very dangerous position for an engineer to be in.
Whatever just happened now with the warp drive hit her pretty hard, and since what the manual was telling her didn't make sense with what was happening, plus the only solution being something that no engineer in their right mind would try if they had any other options, I think it short-circuited her brain. She's not here. I don't know where she is; she's removed her comm badge, but I don't think she's going to back be here any time soon."
He took a breath "Look, I'm not a counsellor; I'm an engineer, but I know when something needs fixing, and I know fear paralysis when I see it. If we hadn't pulled that Hail Mary out of our back pockets, in another 30 seconds the ship would have exploded, and she blames herself. It's like her whole world has fallen apart, and she's not sure how she's going to fix it now that she's starting to realise that the manual and reality don't always fit perfectly together in perfect harmony. I'm sorry, Commander, I don't know if I'm making sense here..."
Max nodded. "I have noticed. I have had words with her about this exact thing. You did good Ensign. Everyone owes you their lives. Be proud of yourself. Do not worry about reporting it. Get as much done as you can, as quickly as you can, draft in anyone you need. Half hour reports please. I will go find the chief," he informed him.
Peters nodded. "Aye Sir and, thank you."
END
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