On the Reduction of Light Pollution

Posted on 21 Jan 2026 @ 5:46pm by Lieutenant JG Mira Quinn & Lieutenant JG Ryan Collingway

1,197 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Lathira Shoreleave
Location: Lathira IV

//// Bar, Lathira IV ////

Ryan had barely started on his second drink when Corin dropped in the chair just vacated by Gemma.

"You know that it's illegal to drink alone on shore leave," he said, as he motioned to a server to bring another one.

It was a bit of wisdom Corin heard barely an hour before, and was glad to dispense onwards.
"What did you think of the new chief?"

Despite this being his first posting, and barely two months in, this was Corin's third CEO. By now he thought himself an expert in Starfleet Chief Engineers.

Ryan had blanked out for the past minute or so. He glanced at Corin in surprise as he talked. He had no idea when he had come in. "Oh hey!" he said.. "I...don't know," he confessed. "He kind of gave me a speech after everyone left. But hey, he didn't have me scrubbing a toilet for a week, so I guess I'm coming out ahead in this. What about you?" 

Corin grinned. "Well, he certainly knows how to make an entrance, ordering us all on shore leave. Though I have a feeling the fun's gonna end 48 hours from now."

"So," he continued, "I suggest we make the best of it."

The server came back with his drink, and Corin downed half of it.

"Not bad. Vel's doing a tour of the bars and said she'll be coming here next."

"Vel is doing a bar crawl?" Ryan smiled in spite of himself. "I'm not sure any of us can keep up." He sipped his drink. "So what was going on with the schedules? Did you notice that?"

"What I'm noticing is that you're thinking about work," Corin said. "I'm pretty sure that's also not allowed. When was the last time you were on a real planet?" Corin gestured towards the front-facing windows. The street outside was lit up, chasing away the darkness.

"Tavrik III was planet-like," Ryan said weakly. 

"I wasn't on the Arawyn," Corin said, wistfully. "In fact, I haven't really- Oh, there's Vel."

Indeed, a group had just come in. All seven were out of uniform, but they were very clearly both Starfleet and already drunk.

Vel saw them and her face lit up. She stopped by their table. "Hey, guys, we're going to the beach. Want to join us?"

Ryan nodded. He didn't have any other plans. "Sure." He signalled the server for the bill.
Corin finished his drink before joining as well.

The group went down the street, towards the cliffs. Closer to the ocean, there was a lift to go down, and they all crowded in.   

The lift started its descent towards the sea. It was a beautiful, cloudless night, and the sea reflected the light from the planet's moons.

"You feel that?" Vel asked.

"Feel what?" somebody said.

"The lift, it's wobbling."

Someone joked that they were all a little wobbly.

"No, she's right," Corin frowned. "Must be the inertial dampeners."

Vel was already opening the control panel. "Well, we could fix that."

Ryan frowned a little. "Hey, are you sure you should be messing with that? You have two engineers right here," he added with a light chuckle.

Vel removed an isolinear chip. "I'm a shuttle pilot, I know how to fix inertial dampeners."
Ryan glanced at Corin and gave a light shrug as the lift continued to move and wobble. He gave up. 

Vel took out another chip and slotted both into different ports. She closed the access panel. "There, see? Smoother ride."

A few seconds passed.

Then the lights went out across Kestrel Reach, and the lift ground to a halt.

Everyone managed to stay on their feet. "That could *not* have possibly come from us," Ryan said. "Anyone got a light?"

Corin sheepishly pulled a tricorder from his pocket. "Don't leave home without it."  

He flicked on the small attached light. "Now, let's see." He nudged Vel aside and opened the control panel.

"Ah.." he mumbled. His tricorder chirped. "Hm. Aha." 

He finally turned to the assembled group. "I don't know who installed this, but they did a really bad job of it."

Vel straightened. “What do you mean?”  

Corin gestured at the panel. "The lift's tied directly to the main power grid, it should have had a buffer here."   

Someone in the back pulled out a bottle of...something, and continued to drink it. Ryan glanced at him. "Yeah, that seems like a good idea right now."

"Tellarite whiskey. Got plenty if you want some," the Ensign returned.

Ryan moved his way to the front of the box. "There's no call button either," he said and took an annoyed breath. "Okay, well, we are hardly trapped either. All we have to do is contact the ship, then have them beam us out of here. Then they can beam us to the beach. Or wherever we want."

Vel produced a combadge. "Zodeil to the Arawyn... we need a beamout."

There was no response.

Ryan thought about it. Then he groaned. "What was about a block away? A communications tower?"

"Yeah, but a power loss wouldn't jam our equipment like that," someone said. 

"Unless the circuits fried to a point where it is blanketing the whole area with static. It should only be temporary interference," Ryan said, sounding more confident than he felt.

The ensign shook the bottle at Ryan.

///One hour later////

By this point, all of them were sitting down and sharing the bottle. 

Vel was looking out of the lift. "We could just jump down," she said thoughtfully. "Anybody has a rope?"

No one answered.

"We could just jump, like you said. We could probably make it without any significant injuries," Ryan agreed, getting drunker by the minute. What percentage was Tellarite Whiskey anyway? Automatically he tried the ship again. Still no response. 

Corin checked on his tricorder. "It's 2.3 meters down. But it looks rocky."  

He looked at the glass walls, then glanced up to the access hatch on the ceiling. 

"Okay... Who wants to try first?"

Ryan took another swig of the bottle. Logically they should have all stayed where they were. But his need to control the situation, fueled by alcohol, quickly overrode that. Besides, he had faced way worse than this of late. How bad could it be? "Boost me up."

With some work, he managed to open the hatch and climb to the top. "If anyone doesn't want to try this...sit tight and we'll let people know that you're here."

The lift wobbled as he peered over the edge. It looked way farther than it actually was.
"This is fine. It's fine," Ryan repeated, taking a deep breath. "Okay."

He jumped off.

Vel and Corin quickly joined him. Apparently there was more beach than they thought, and the sand broke their fall.

"Did you bring the bottle?"

A few more people made the jump. One of them lifted the bottle triumphantly. 


/////

In Memoriam of Leslie Fish
Her song "Banned from Argo" inspired many logs
including this one

/////

Ens Vel Zodeil
Helm Officer
USS Arawyn (apb Mira)

Ens Corin Ardel
Engineering Officer
USS Arawyn (apb Mira)

Lt Jg Ryan Collingway
Engineering Officer
USS Arawyn

 

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