Into the Breach

Posted on Sun Aug 16th, 2026 @ 3:33pm by Captain Tristan Faust & Lieutenant JG Peter Novak & Chief Petty Officer Meredith Corden

965 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Mission 6: Echoes of the Interphase
Location: Briefing Room 1
Timeline: M6 MD07 (2268.10.10) 2000

Meredith had to have hurried here from Darrod's in a minute or two with very little notice. Still, not a hair was out of place. There were no runs in her stockings. No wrinkles in her uniform. A yeoman was trained to be careful about such things, small as they might seen. She was one of the senior noncoms on the ship. Image mattered for morale. She pressed the chime.

The door opened and Meredith was greeted by Peter Novak. The young newly minted Lieutent Junior Grade gave a curt node before ushering Meredith inside.

The Captain was sitting behind the expansive table. Its walnut veneered surface was almost completely covered with papers, clipboards and bound official reports. Tristan tried to smile, "Good evening yeoman," he said, looking up through his new black rimmed eyeglasses, "I hope you had a pleasant, albeit brief shore leave."

"Mr. Novak, please take your post," Tristan added, turning to look briefly at the young security officer.

The young man nodded and stepped outside of the room, the lock of the door clicked after him.

"Good evening, captain," Meredith answered him. "I did. I got to introduce Darrod my parents." She smiled briefly at that thought but then her face was serious again. She glanced towards the door, where Novak had just stepped out, and then back to the captain.

"I visited my parents, then took a brief vacation," the Captain commented, "Too brief..." He stood up and looked down at the expanse of reports, "This one is the big one," he said before looking back up Meredith, "And we've had some whoppers before..." He sighed trying to find the words, "First for the time being no one enters this room without my direct orders... It is under lock and key... Second, nothing discussed can leave this room for the time being," he said, "We are to observe strict discretion until underway under explicit orders from Admiral Nogura, understood?"

"Understood, captain," Meredith said without hesitation. She wouldn't have been a very good yeoman if she didn't know how to be discrete.

The Captain nodded and then looked up, "Sorry Chief, I am required to relay the order," he said, knowing full well Meredith could be trusted, "Have a seat..." He sat back down and sighed looking at the stacks, "The words are starting to blur together..." He added before taking his glasses off and dropped them onto the pile, "Dr. Kitchner made me get these," he added.

Meredith sat down and watched the captain sympathetically. She turned her PADD off and set it to the side. Not leave the room meant not leave the room. "That's very thoughtful of him, sir," she said. "How can I help? It's my job to go blind doing paperwork so you don't have to." She said it like a joke but there was an element of truth to it. He was making her worry a little.

"Star Fleet is dispatching us to UFC 611 Beta 5, where the Defiant was lost," Tristan responded, laying out the situation in a matter of fact tone, "With orders to seal the Interphase." He looked around the table, "These are all the reports from the survey ships and other Star Fleet vessels that have been in the area since Defiant's disapearence and since our last excursion into the area, which of course has heated up significantly." He pulled over one of the bound journals, "This is the survey report from the Osaka, the last survey ship in the area... It barely made it back thanks to the Tholians... But the rift is getting bigger and it threatens to destroy the surrounding star systems."

"That's certainly alarming, sir," Meredith said.

The Captain handed the journal over to Meredith and then surveyed the piles of seemingly random clutter. "There is almost too much to sift through," he admitted and then sat back the chair, "Even then I doubt the answer is buried somewhere in an old report..." He paused for a moment, "Frankly the impression I'm getting is Star Fleet doesn't know for sure if the Interphase can be sealed. They have several working theories on how to do it, which is in a collection of tapes now in the possession of the Sciences and Engineering divisions. Or what closing it could do to the surrounding subspace." He took the pair of eyeglasses off and set them down onto the conference room table, "Damn these things," he said.

Meredith took the journal and looked at it carefully. "I'm not a scientist, sir," Meredith admitted, "but, if there is something buried in these old tapes, I might be able to find it. Sometimes, when people are first making their reports, they don't know what matters and what doesn't." She looked to the glasses. Her concern only grew. "I can try to organize the information and summarize it for you. That might be easier on the eyes?"

The Captain thought for a moment, "Start by mapping events chronologically. We need to know what the Interphase and the Tholians have been doing. Look for patterns," he said before picking up the glasses and put them back on. "Commanders Heartfilia, Hanous and their departments can figure out the scientific nuances and hopefully how to seal it," he added, "The Defiant went in with no idea what she was entering. We've already been there, so we don't have that excuse."

Meredith couldn't help a small, soft smile when the captain mentioned Darrod, but her words were professional. "Yes, sir. I'll see to it."

"Report back when you have something," Tristan responded before picking up the report on the Defiant and the classified report from their last mission through the Interphase. This time they would not be going through... And no one would again.

 

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