The Afterparty
Posted on Sat May 16th, 2026 @ 3:36am by Lieutenant Bartholomew Hale & Lieutenant Juliette Barnes
970 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
Friends and Traitors
Location: USS Thunderbird, Shuttlebay
Timeline: Mission Day 2, 1910 Hours
The smoke had settled on the chaos of the shuttle explosion. Hale was standing with Chief Bilz, arms folded, as technicians flowed from the shuttle, their investigation already beginning.
Hale had noticed that Bilz's hand was trembling. He worried that under that composure, what they'd seen only an hour ago had affected them more than either would admit.
Fumes hung in the air as the damage control crew cleared away the last of the charred debris. The acrid smoke had been trapped in Hale's windpipe since the explosion, forcing a throaty cough every few minutes.
Bilz gave Hale a nudge, prompting him to notice that Lieutenant Barnes had stepped into the shuttlebay. The helm officer gave her a cordial nod, "Thank you for coming down, Lieutenant. I'm sorry about your technician, Ensign Jolley. Have you heard anything about his condition?"
“Nothing, yet,” replied Julie. “And I’m sure I’d have heard bad news by now if there was any, so here’s hoping.” She nodded towards the wreck that used to be a shuttle. “Can you tell me what happened? I mean, what you saw? I’d like to hear from anybody who actually saw it.”
"Chief Bilz and I were both nearby when it happened," Hale said, moving toward the craft. "There was a plasma fire inside the cabin. Your technicians have already been inside and had a look, it would appear that it began in the port EPS conduit."
Julie peered at the craft suspiciously. Recent events had everyone on edge and the idea that this could be deliberate tickled the back of her mind annoyingly. She reminded herself to be objective and not to try to fit the evidence into her ideas. “And from there, it would have spread quickly,” she muttered. “Did the shuttle’s emergency suppression systems put it out?” she asked, “or did Shuttlebay Personnel do it?”
"The suppression systems failed," Bilz piped up. "Our damage control team put it out."
"As you technicians would have informed you, Lieutenant, there are some irregularities in the damage. With those fire suppression safeties failing, we wanted your opinion before we escalated this any further." Hale began, making his way into the singed interior of the vessel where a pair of Barnes' technicians were poking around. He gestured toward the blown open access hatch in the interior, and the shattered conduit within. "See what you think."
Julie carefully inspected the hatch first, and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. It just looked like a standard exploded hatch. Nothing special. The conduit didn’t provide much else in the way of evidence. “It’s hard to say just from looking at it,” she concluded. “But I expected as much.” She turned to her technicians. “Did you get photos? And samples of everything?”
“We did,” one of them replied.
“Good,” muttered Julie. “We‘ll have to analyze them. I’m going to see if I can get anything from the computer- any coding or memory or anything. I hope it wasn’t too damaged.”
"Hopefully not," Hale nodded. "Lieutenant Barnes, take your time with the shuttle. However, we will need to move it to a storage bay soon so we can reopen the shuttlebay. Chief Bilz will advise you where it has been relocated to."
"We might be jumping the gun there," Bilz called, rounding the shuttle and standing at the ramp. He was scanning his PADD as he entered the cockpit and showed a flight schedule to the two officers. "The Captain was meant to fly out later this evening on this shuttle for a hull inspection."
"And it's just gone up in flames," Hale muttered.
Bilz pursed his lips. "That would make this a crime scene."
Hale raised a cautionary hand, "Let's not rush to conclusions. Either way, a thorough investigation needs to occur. Lieutenant Barnes, is there anything that leaps out to suggest this damage could be deliberate?"
“Not overtly,” Julie admitted with a sigh. “Although, it could be done and made to look like an accident on the surface. We’ll have to look a bit deeper to figure that out.”
"Very well. I'll let you keep digging, in the meanwhile, I'll prepare an incident report and alert the Executive Officer to our suspicions. I'd like to bring some answers to them later this evening if you could gather some preliminary evidence." Hale stepped out of the shuttle and looked at the charring on the ground. "Chief, can we cordon off this area and reopen the shuttle bay?"
"Yeah, it shouldn't be an issue. We can put a partition in to protect the scene. I'll reschedule the incoming craft immediately," Bilz was already furiously tapping away at his PADD as he continued, "In the meanwhile, our techs and shuttle crews have checked all the shuttles. The Starbase have done the same. Everything is good to go."
"Grand. Lets contain the area and then--" Hale stopped dead. From a catwalk on the upper level, a figure watched them from the shadows. Hale turned slightly to Barnes and Bilz. Quietly he whispered, "Lieutenant. Chief. Without being too obvious... is someone up there?"
Julie rolled her shoulders and arched her neck in an approximation of stretching. Then, she twisted her torso a bit and arched her back, twisting her head back and forth enough to see the figure. She finished her “stretch” by pushing har arms forward to stretch her back. “Sure looks like it,” she muttered, adding a yawn for good measure.
"Lieutenant, I'll see you when we meet with the XO," Hale said. The figure started to move away. He moved to go after him. "I'm going to find out who the hell that is."
Lieutenant Bartholomew Hale
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Thunderbird
Lieutenant Juliette Barnes
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Thunderbird
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