All compartments cleaned out...

Posted on 25 Jan 2026 @ 5:38pm by Commander Suzanna Batenburg

1,570 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Lathira Shoreleave
Location: USS Arawyn

Suzanna let the heat of the Vulcan sun envelop her now that her meditation was complete. She finally felt balanced again, with that overdue task completed. She had learned many of the meditation techniques from the Kolinahr on her home planet, yet also realizing that she was half human, also had studied meditation on Earth and found her own unique blend of the two.

Where the Kolinahr suppressed emotion completely, knowing that as a half-Vulcan she would not be able to achieve that, nor want to, since it would mean denying half of her heritage, Suzanna used the Kolinahr techniques to use logic to integrate and have a distance from the emotions. The Kolinahr techniques had also helped her be able to compartmentalise, if sudden emotions came up and it was not the time or place, she was able to put them away for a period of time. Not forever; at some point she had to deal with them, but at a crucial time, logic would dictate her actions, not emotion.

She finally felt grounded again, herself. All the compartments had been touched upon and dealt with, and in the few weeks that she had been on the Arawyn, she had filled several. Sorting through them over the last several hours had revealed several things; the first and most important one was that she had made the right decision and that she was grateful to Admiral Blokpoel for having recommended her for this position. The timing had been right to take that step, to stop hiding behind the illogical fear.

"Computer, end program." Suzanna stated, and in the space of a second, the warm, red images of the planet Vulcan around her disappeared to show the black and yellow grid of the holodeck. She took a deep breath and let the shiver of the sudden temperature difference run over her back; it helped bring her back to the here and now.

Instead of taking shore leave on the planet, Suzanna had decided to take a few days off on the ship and had spent it playing with Mittens and Bailey, as well as several long stints in the holodeck. With most people not on duty on the planet, it had been possible to book six- and eight-hour slots for personal use. Now it was time to return to reality and catch up on the reports and messages that had, no doubt, piled up. If there had been anything urgent, she would, of course, have been notified. Above all, Suzanna had wanted to make sure that the Captain had enjoyed some days off, without the burden of command, as far as that is possible, of course.

//// XO Quarters ////

"Hello, Mittens," Suzanna greeted the black and white bundle that came running over as soon as she stepped in. She bent down to scoop her in her arm; Mittens immediately nuzzled in her neck and half on her shoulder. "I needed some time to myself, but I am back now." She walked over towards the large viewport where the food and water bowl were and saw that she had eaten, but not everything. Mittens tended to keep some for when her nighttime kitty crazies made her hungry. For a kitten, a logical thing to do.

She put Mittens on the desk and sat down behind it. Time to catch up on everything, she thought and activated the view screen and started reading the reports for the last 24 hours. Rostering and personnel items were usually her job; of course, the Captain was always informed and knew what was going on. Their daily meetings were for that, among others.

Any changes would also be flagged by her system, and Suzanna raised an eyebrow: Security was instructed to begin randomized transporter biometric overlays for senior staff and bridge-qualified officers. No announcement. No single schedule. Operations received a short note to stagger duty rotations for the next seventy-two hours. No justification was given beyond “command discretion.”

The only person who would have done this would be the Captain. Why? The changes were very subtle, a variance in routines; it looked like some housekeeping. She checked her chrono and then the shore leave schedule; Suzanna didn't want to bother the Captain during shore leave, but it did make her wonder why and what happened for her to do this while she was on shore leave.

Suzanna thought for a moment; logic dictated that something had arrived from fleet level. Nothing else made sense. She tapped on her console and pulled up the incoming transmissions, scanning the list. "There it is," she mumbled to herself, an incoming transmission from fleet command, confidential, captain's eyes only. Merrick had forwarded it to the Captain. She made a mental note to talk to the Captain as soon as she was back from shore leave; since she hadn't interrupted her shore leave, this was deemed enough for now, and she would be the last one to interrupt the Captain if it was not necessary.

Next, she tackled incoming messages for her, and she found one from the new CEO, LtCmdr Elias Harlan, had arrived. Suzanna made a note to meet him in the morning.

An hour later, Suzanna completed her work for the evening and turned off the console. The rest could wait till the morning, She stood by the viewport for a long moment, staring into the darkness of space and toward the planet below before she called out to Mittens and headed to bed.

//// later that night /////

"Mittens, what is wrong with you?" Suzanna asked as she moved her arm to hold down Mittens, who was running around the bed and using her as a jumping board. This was not normal behaviour for her; then she noticed the chirping sound of her comm badge. "It's ok, girl. Thank you for waking me." She petted the small feline, barely 4 months old, and still had some growing to do. Reaching out to her comm badge on the nightstand next to her bed, she tapped it. "Batenburg here."

"Commander Harlan wanted you to know he is down at the surface with a security team and engineers. There was a situation with some Ensigns, and part of the grid went down. He is handling it personally, but they will have a long night, are his words."

"Understood, you can give me the details when I get to the bridge; I'll be right there. Batenburg out." She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath; this was not how she had intended to end her shore leave, several hours earlier than intended. It did sound like Harlan was on top of it. And based on what she had read in his profile, he was just the person to deal with it on the surface.

/// Bridge /////

Suzanna was carrying the largest mug she had and had the replicator fill it with hot, steaming tea. Just what she needed to start her day when she stepped out of the turbolift. "Report," she called out.

"Approximately eight to ten of our junior engineers—and it looks like a couple of bridge ensigns tagged along—decided to 'fix' a public mag-lift at the beachside resort. They said it was ‘wobbly.’ Their repair attempt… didn’t work. Caused a localized power outage across half the resort’s beachfront grid. Moderate intensity, lights out, replicators dead, and a few hovercarts crashed into each other. No injuries were reported, but the local constabulary found them on the beach. They’re currently in custody. Charges are public intoxication, tampering with public infrastructure, and… one of them may have tried to explain subspace field dynamics to the arresting officer while holding a piece of driftwood like a hyper spanner. Commander Harlan beamed to the surface to deal with the Constabulary, with also engineering teams to fix the damage."

"Understood, ensure Commander Harlan has all the support he needs," Suzanna stated and sat down in the command chair. She took a sip of her tea. It was not uncommon for the younger crew to let their hair down on shore leave, and drinking was part of that, even though she had never indulged. And now they had caused her to be on the bridge in the middle of the night; she knew that Harlan would manage it on the surface; some people would read his file and think he was trouble, but Suzanna had seen it before, in some of the best engineers and some scientists. In principle she could have stayed in her quarter and gotten more sleep, but she also realised that this could have serious diplomatic consequences if not handled properly, and she wanted to make sure that Harlan got what he needed to fix the mess.

It was not long before 0600 that the report from ops came that the work was all but completed; a final sweep would be made at 0600 to confirm all was good. In between, the culprits had been beamed up and escorted to their quarters. Again, a logical decision; they needed to sleep and become sober before anything else happened.

"Commander, all the repair personnel and Commander Harlan have returned to the ship." Ops reported

"Thank you, Lieutenant. Make sure Commander Harlan has my gratitude for handling the situation; he should rest before making a report."

OOC: Ok… I'm here again :D

Cmdr Suzanna Batenburg
XO USS Arawyn
Everything fits; otherwise, we'll make it fit!

 

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