Under the Skin

Posted on Tue Nov 3rd, 2026 @ 4:44am by Lieutenant Bartholomew Hale & Lieutenant Juliette Barnes & Senior Chief Petty Officer Kotyar Ral Avran

924 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: The Invisible Hand
Location: USS Thunderbird, Shuttle Maintenance Bay
Timeline: Mission Day 5, 1400 Hours

The Maquis shuttle sat like a carcass in a butcher shop. The Thunderbird's engineers had picked the craft over, crawled through it and found exactly what they expected; it was a stolen Federation craft, modified to be nearly undetectable. That much they already knew, between Barnes' analysis and what they'd managed to extract from Starfleet Intelligence. There was something that felt dirty about poring through their secret craft, and in the back of Hale's mind, he wondered if it would only be safety in numbers that would save them from the wrath of Starfleet's community of spooks.

The helmsman sat his holoimager on a tripod and lined it up with the craft. He watched Barnes and one of her engineers walking around the vessel like zoologists studying an undiscovered species. He joined them.

"Have you found anything new?" Hale asked the engineers curiously.

Seda looked over at Barnes, having tied her hair firmly back into a high ponytail. Even so, some strands stuck to the sweat on her face and her clothes were...well...the overalls that she wore showed just about what sort of work Seda mostly did. "Apart from the vague feeling that we're examining something haunted?" she asked, moving her arms above her head to stretch her spine out.

"Agreed. It doesn't make it any better that someone died in there," Hale nodded. His gaze drifted to the blood that was still sprayed about the cockpit. Thinking better of it, he looked to the engine housings. "Have you examined the engine configuration of the craft? I had an interesting theory."

Seda made a gesture towards Barnes, but one with no anger or annoyance in. More...bowing out for superior knowledge. "To me it looks like a burnt lump of pain...but the Lieutenant has some thoughts."

“Thoughts is putting it mildly,” said Julie. “I suspect they were attempting to destroy the ship. It should have caused more damage than it did, but it never would have destroyed us. Still, I think that was their intention. They must not have very good engineers or they wouldn’t have overcharged the plasma injector. We found it in the impulse drive,” she added, nodding towards the offending item.

Hale approached a pile of parts from the dismantled engine and picked up the injector. His eyes roamed over the unremarkable metallic component as he turned it over in his hand. He glanced towards the charred shuttle, then to Barnes and Seda. "Did I hear they packed this ship with explosives that failed to detonate as well?"

"They did...it's why I got called in," Seda said with a small shrug and crouched down, perfectly balanced. "It's still as volatile as a Vulcan on Pon Farr, so we had to remove it carefully and dispose of it. Can't beam out stuff like that, it might blow." She looked up and met his eyes, giving him a smile. "But we're all still here so clearly...mission successful."

"Mmm, indeed." Hale nodded. He continued to examine the injector. "Have either of you seen the baseline specs on one of these ships? I can't see this being part of the standard fitout. An injector that can provide an overcharge like this would only be useful for a brief burst of acceleration, wouldn't it?"

“Exactly,” answered Julie. “This sort of thing is usually only used on racing or pleasure crafts. It’s definitely jot standard. If anything, a slight undercharge is preferable.”

"Sounds like those ships we had back on the Jovian run. Those engines were so undercharged they wouldn't have pulled the skin off a custard tart," Hale mused. He placed the component down on the deck and grabbed his imager. He took a few snaps of the injector for their database. "Y'know, the hardened front end, the injectors, the explosives. If I wanted to plunge a shuttle into the side of a Federation starship, this would be exactly the craft I'd use. Line it up, close in on your impact zone, hit the boost, smash your way in and... boom."

Hale's communicator chirped. "I'll be right back."

"Exactly this is just...not making much sense full stop, unless you wanted it as a one-way ticket," Seda muttered to herself and shook her head, crossing her arms.

“Given how they used it, I’d say that’s likely,” Julie replied grimly. “I’d bet credits to crepes they built it especially for this.”

Hale returned with the grizzled Chief Bilz in tow. Hale looked between the pair of engineers. "The Captain wants me back on the bridge. I'll leave you to continue your investigation, however, if you need anything, Chief Bilz will be able to help you. How are you with a holoscanner, Chief?"

"I've taken a few happy snaps in my time," Bilz replied. "You should see my Risa '47 album."

"I think I'll be right, Chief," Hale muttered. The helmsman started for the door. "Good luck, folks."

"Thanks," Seda said before she shook her head. "This shuttle is an absolute Sehlat and I sort of hate it."

“I don’t sort of hate it,” Julie replied, giving the shuttle a side eye. “I fully hate it. And I’m really glad we get o dismantle it,” she added, tossing a screwdriver in the air and catching it. “Let’s get to work.”

---

Lieutenant Bartholomew Hale
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Thunderbird

Lieutenant Juliette Barnes
Chief Engineer
USS Thunderbird

Chief Petty Officer Seda
Damage Control Specialist
USS Thunderbird
(Played by Senior Chief Petty Officer Kotyar Ral Avran)

 

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