Recall
Posted on Wed Jul 8th, 2026 @ 10:39am by Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Lieutenant Sarah Wilson & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Commander Jenna Ramthorne & Commander Dean House & Lieutenant Commander Thriss Kla'ren & Lieutenant Commander Aurora Vali & Lieutenant JG Jacob Rosen & Lieutenant JG T'Lar & Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell
2,768 words; about a 14 minute read
Mission:
Pirates!
Location: USS Sunfire
Timeline: Current
The Fijian islands and people had worked its magic, unwinding months of tension in a short week. Routine of meetings and crisis had been replaced with sunrise and sunset, the ebb and flow of the ocean, and the gentle caress of the sea breeze. Duty had called though, they were needed back out there, making the quadrant a safer place for everyone. Command wanted them ready to ship out in 24 hours. Completely doable with the current technology yet she hesitated, not wanting to break the spell.
She sat at the small console and connected to the Starfleet system, sending out the recall herself rather than asking a Yeoman to do it. They had 1 day.
T'Lar was just entering her quarters when the recall notice from the captain came in notifying her that shore leave would end in twenty four hours. She placed her bags on her bed and set her helmet on the small dinette. She stepped to the window looking out to the stars, taking in the dark sky view. She could feel the subtle difference in G between the Earth and the ship, but it was hardly noticeable.
She peeled out of her vegan leather riding suit which had served her well the past several days and took a shower, then changed into a Starfleet issue track suit and joggers as she began collecting her laundry. She made the quick trip to the officer's laundering facility, dropping off her riding suit with the dry cleaner. Returning to her quarters she placed the western vignette picture of herself and Jacob as denizens of the Old West on the shelf.
She reflected on the previous six days. The affinity for Jacob Rosen had grown exponentially in those few precious days, and she found herself firmly committed to the relationship. She looked at her bed and felt an acute pang as she realized that she would be back to sleeping alone. She found it curious how bonded she felt with Jacob already. With a start, she suddenly realized that what she was experiencing could be considered in a human the early stages of "falling in love".
She picked up her camera and hit the display button. As she scrolled through the holo's she noted the number of times she smiled for the camera. While this was a habit that she had cultivated as an encouragement, she noted that smiling had come surprisingly easy. Yes, her affinity for Jacob was definitely on a different level than it had been before the trip. Now that shore leave was coming to an end, their time was going to be severely impacted by their jobs, but T'Lar was confident that both were committed to making it work. For now, though she needed to adjust to the reality of schedules and obligations, because in less than 24 hours it was time to get back to work.
Bonnie glanced up when the familiar chime of an incoming priority message sounded from the terminal beside her desk, smiled softly, she set her PADD aside.
Priority Fleet Transmission. USS Sunfire. All hands. Captain Kaylen's face appeared on the display. "Vacation's over." The message lasted less than a minute. Twenty four hours. Return to duty. Preparations were already underway.
Bonnie listened quietly until the screen returned to the ship's emblem. For a moment she remained seated, her eyes drifting back across the desk. The scarab from Cairo. The charm from Kyoto. The owl from Athens. The woven bracelet from Cusco. The book from Dublin. Her mother's notebook. Her father's journal. Together they marked where she had been.
She reached for the blank journal once more and wrote a single sentence beneath the first page. The journey ended exactly where it needed to. She closed the cover, slipped it beside the others, and rose from her chair.
Tomorrow she would help guide a starship toward places none of those journals had ever described. She found herself smiling as she headed for the door.
The notification chimed softly across the cockpit while Jenna sat beneath the canopy, watching Earth drift beyond the transparent projection. The message unfolded across the display in Captain Kaylen's unmistakably concise style. Shore leave had come to an end. The crew had twenty four hours to return to duty.
Jenna read it once, then closed the message without ceremony. For several quiet moments she remained exactly where she was, fingers resting lightly against the controls she had shaped over the previous week. The Firebird hummed patiently beneath her, content simply to exist. So was she.
Her hand brushed across the edge of the pilot's console before she climbed from the seat and looked back over the cockpit one last time. Five days earlier she had come here carrying ghosts she could not outrun. Today she left behind a shuttle that carried them for her, along with a reminder that even the longest flights eventually found a heading home.
She keyed the bay doors open, gathered her toolkit beneath one arm, and switched off the work lights as she stepped onto the deck. Somewhere aboard the Sunfire, engineers would soon be preparing systems, pilots would begin reviewing flight plans, and officers would start gathering reports. The familiar rhythm of a starship awakening to purpose had already begun.
Jenna smiled to herself as she headed for the lift. "Let's go to work."
The notification arrived without ceremony, a concise communiqué from Captain Kaylen restoring the crew to active duty within twenty-four hours. S'thenosis regarded the message in silence, reading it only once before closing the display with measured precision. Leave had served its intended purpose, offering distance enough to restore clarity, yet she had never mistaken respite for permanence. Service remained the constant around which every other aspect of life arranged itself.
She rose from her chair with the same composed grace that marked every deliberate movement, smoothing the front of her formal attire before gathering the PADDs that had accumulated during her absence. Several contained unfinished legal analyses, another outlined revisions to Starfleet arbitration doctrine, and a final report awaited her review before transmission to the Judge Advocate General's office. They would accompany her back aboard the Sunfire, where unfinished work invariably found its proper conclusion.
Beyond the viewport, Earth continued its quiet rotation beneath a veil of scattered clouds, unchanged by the brief interval she had spent upon its surface. S'thenosis inclined her head ever so slightly toward the familiar world before turning away. Recreation had concluded. Purpose had resumed. For her, the distinction had always been remarkably small.
The familiar Starfleet recall tone echoed through Main Engineering, briefly competing with the steady hum of diagnostic equipment. Leo never looked up. One soot-blackened hand remained buried elbow deep inside an open plasma manifold while the other reached blindly for a hyperspanner he knew was lying somewhere to his left.
The computer repeated Captain Kaylen's orders, granting the crew twenty four hours to return to duty. Leo snorted without lifting his head from the machinery. "Return?" he muttered. "Hard t'return when ye never had the sense t'leave."
He tightened the final coupling until it seated with a satisfying metallic click, then withdrew his hands and wiped them across an already grease-stained engineering towel. Around him, Engineering looked a workshop midway through an ambitious overhaul. Panels lay open. Components rested neatly across worktables. Half the warp efficiency improvements he'd promised himself during leave were already installed.
A crooked tusked grin tugged at the corner of his mouth as he glanced toward the humming warp core. "Well then, lass," he said, giving the casing an affectionate pat. "Looks like the family's comin' home. Let's have ye dressed proper before they start findin' new ways t'break ye."
Without another thought, Leo tossed the towel onto a console, picked up his scanner, and moved deeper into Engineering. For him, shore leave had simply been seven uninterrupted days of honest work. Tomorrow, there would simply be more hands around to make interesting mistakes.
Savar along with Aurora and their infant daughter returned to the Sunfire after spending time at Niagara Falls and the surrounding countryside. It had been a much need time to relax and to 'recharge their batteries' when they returned to the ship. One thing continued to puzzle him and that was why after a period of time spent relaxing, he was more tired than when he left.
Jacob was cleaning up his beard after a well spent shore leave with T'Lar, preparing to return to his post. His routine was muscle memory at this point after many years, allowing his mind to reflect on the events of the past few days. Jacob found himself more refreshed and renewed for ship duty than he had in years. He wished he could have just one more moment with her by the ocean, but remembered they had time, all the time they would need. Maybe if her schedule permitted they could have dinner at the end of their shifts. Jacob measured the proper distance from the zipper on his tunic in order to place his pips exactly right, using the old boot camp rank ruler he'd kept for his entire career.
Minutes later he was dressed, commbadge affixed to his jacket. Jacob stopped to look at his copy of the sepia toned western photo he and T'Lar took on their trip, lingering for a long moment, eyes softening before he nodded and strode from his quarters towards the Ops Office.
"COOOOOOO!" Came the cacophonous greeting of gold tunic'd Ops staff as he walked in.
"Settle down settle down." Jacob replied, motioning with his hands for everyone to get back to work. "What's the skinny Gonzo?"
Ensign Gonzalez handed him his PaDD. "The last of the resupply is beaming over now. Quartermaster has already begun sending them throughout the ship to their respective departments. Yard dogs are sending their reports to the Engineers for final approval. Duty roster is set, departments are still getting their personnel reports in but we're trending in the right direction."
"Excellent," Jacob replied, flicking through the reports and sending relevant data to Commanders Savar and House. "I'm heading to the Bridge. Ping me if you need me."
Dr Sarah Wilson returned to the Sunfire to find a few Doctor, Olivia had been promoted, and an apparent duplicate of Commander Baldric in the brig being treated for being stunned - amongst other things. Her brows furrowed as she read through the security report, and then the fact that the proper Baldric was apparently on the Bristol, warping back from the Badlands to DS9 where they were to rendezvous. She checked in with the rest of the medical staff and found them ready and eager to get back to work before heading off to find Olivia and the new Dr Chase.
Exacty 23 hours after the recall had been issued, Captain Kaylen strode onto the bridge, uniform crisp, hair neat and boots polished. Her skin had a healthy light tan only achieved by adequate sun protection in the tropical sun. She appeared refreshed and ready.
"How are we tracking Commander?" She asked the ship's XO as she settled into her commamd chair.
Savar turned to look at Rhenora, he noticed her crisp uniform, polished boots, her light tan and more importantly an energized step and attitude. "Crew has reported in, all systems show green and are at your command Captain. I have also received all pertinent reports from Lieutenant Rosen. We are good to depart."
Thriss entered Main Engineering with his usual stride while wearing a fresh uniform for once.
"Where are we folks?" He called out to his people.
"All systems are at peak efficiency, Commander" Rynn said from the center console. "Including the trans-warp drive" she added with a smirk.
Thriss returned the look. "Y'all are a bunch of miracle workers, I swear."
"Who do you think we get it from" she retorted.
Thriss chuckled. "Fair enough" he tapped his badge. "Kla'ren to bridge."
"Go ahead Chief" the Captain's voice echoed through engineering.
"All engineering systems, including the transwarp drive, are at maximum readiness, Captain" the Andorian reported.
"Splendid Chief, please thank your team for their exceptional work getting us back operational again in such a short time" The Captain smiled - the Engineering team along with Starbase repair crews had indeed worked miracles.
"Thank you ma'am" Thriss said with a smile as he looked at his engineers who shared the same look after hearing that. "They heard you."
"We head out in 30 minutes Chief, prep the transwarp drive" The Captain ordered, determined to make best speed to their first stop in their new mission.
"Aye Captain. We'll get right to it. Kla'ren out" he turned to face his people only to see that they were already on the job. They didn't need to be told twice. He shared a humorous look with Rynn before performing his own duties to get the drive online.
All the crew were accounted for, bar one. Commander Baldric was on DS9 in a bad way, they would stop by to retrieve her on the way to the Badlands. The mirror Baldric had been transferred to Starfleet security on Earth for debriefing and interrogation.
Bonnie stepped onto the bridge carrying a mug of tea, with a lid, and an unmistakably cheerful expression. The familiar rhythm of the Sunfire greeted her like an old friend. Consoles hummed softly. Stations reported readiness. Crew members settled into the practiced choreography that always accompanied departure.
She offered an easy smile to those already on duty before sliding into her station. Her fingers moved with the ease of long habit, bringing each subsystem online in quick succession. Green indicators blossomed across the display.
She gave the diagnostics one final glance, nodded to herself, and looked toward the center of the bridge. "Computer systems operational and ready." Her hands rested lightly on the console as the stars outside shifted with the station's slow movement. Bonnie smiled to herself. It was a very good morning to be back aboard the Sunfire.
Jenna stepped onto the bridge with the easy confidence of someone returning to a room that felt as familiar as her own quarters. The low murmur of pre-departure checklists and status reports blended into the steady heartbeat of a starship preparing to leave port. She offered the duty helmsman a small nod as they rose from the flight control station, exchanging places with practiced efficiency born from countless watch changes.
Sliding into the helm, her fingers danced across the LCARS interface, reviewing departure vectors, thruster readiness, inertial compensator status, and traffic control updates in one fluid sequence. Every system answered exactly as expected. Satisfied, she rested her hands lightly on the controls, the faintest hint of a smile crossing her face as the familiar responsiveness of the console greeted her.
She looked toward Captain Kaylen. "Helm control ready, Captain. Starbase Operations has cleared us for departure. Moorings and gantries have released all points of contact. Departure corridor is clear, and flight control stands by to execute undocking on your command."
Her eyes returned to the stars waiting beyond the viewscreen, posture relaxed, focused, and entirely at home. "We're ready to fly."
"Set a course for Deep Space Nine - best cruising speed. " Rhenora ordered from the command chair.
At precisely 1800 hours, exactly 24 hours after the recall had been issued, the Sunfire departed the Starbase and headed on their next mission.
Given Dean had done more than work while they were there, there wasn't much in line he did for himself. Which, really didn't but him that much.
He stepped out of the Turbolift and on to the Bridge. Dean gave a long stretch along with a loud and unhindered yawn. "I'm here, I'm here."
"Glad you could join us Commander" Rhenora replied without missing a beat, she knew he had been interrogating the prisoner before they left and was most likely compiling his report.
"That report will be on your desk when I get to it," Dean smirked as he walked over to take his station. Logging in quickly and looking things over. "All tactical and defensive systems ready. The Bouncing Betty is active and functional as well."
"I feel we may need it when we take on the Mirror ship or ships as it seems to be. The Bristol has provided some intel which I will be sharing in a briefing shortly" Rhenora replied.
"Gotcha boss." Dean simply nodded.
TBC
Can't remember what they named the CRPW - Dean , wasnt it bouncing betty?? -- Yus!
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