Lieutenant Eshrevi Sh’shiqil had very mixed feelings about the sudden opportunity to lead an away team, and as she made her way to the transporter room, she wondered if feeling so conflicted was something she was willing to do. 

Her boots clicked against the floor, each step falling into the marching rhythm that had once been second nature to her. Despite not having been given the opportunity to serve on away teams ever since she had followed Brennan to the Callisto, those new orders quickly had her settle into the familiar comfort of routine.

To say that she was looking forward to it was perhaps a little much, she was itching to prove that years of service in the Imperial Guard had her more than prepared for anything Starfleet could possibly face. It was something she deemed the best way to gain the trust of her fellow officers, and prove her skill – which begged the question why it had been months since she had last done what she did best. 

Eshrevi‘s antennae quivered in annoyance. More than once she had felt grounded like a disobedient child, locked up on board the Callisto, given a comfortable cage to spend her days far away from danger. 

Among the crew, she knew, was the rumor that her relationship with Brennan had something to do with it, which had earned her equal parts of envy and pity. 

It was something she had meant to address with Brennan, but never quite found the right time or right words to do. 

I guess I can’t afford as much as a broken nail during this mission, or I’ll never see the outside of my quarters again, she sighed, and then shook her head to clear her mind and allow herself to focus on the objective. 

The doors to the main transport room slid open. Inside, Lieutenant Una and her own team had already assembled and stood on the transporter pad, ready to depart. Their destination was the civilian vessel, which, just like the Givens, had not reacted to communications attempts and didn’t register any lifesigns. Eshrevi offered a nod and the approximation of a smile, before climbing into her hazard suit. 

“You think they are dead?”, asked Anderson, a human in his mid-forties who appeared to be the default choice for away teams. 

Eshrevi considered the question for a moment, buying time as she checked, and re-checked, the suit’s seals and systems.

“I don’t know.”, she admitted eventually and turned to Anderson. “I want us to be prepared for the possibility that we might not find anyone alive. And I want us to be prepared for the possibility that we will face whatever the Givens encountered.”

Anderson nodded quietly, and Eshrevi looked at the rest of her team that had gathered around her. Daseks expression was unreadable, while Karev and Jackson furrowed their brows and crossed their arms in a gesture that Eshrevi interpreted as something between spite and defiance.
She was unsure if those feelings were directed at her, or at what she had just said. Humans were weird. Even after years in Starfleet, she didn‘t quite know why they felt and reacted that way.

“But we don’t give up hope.”, she added, a little too quickly, which made it sound like an afterthought when it really just was something she forgot people needed to hear.

“You were part of Search and Rescue teams, right Lieutenant?”, asked Karev. Eshrevi was surprised he knew that about her – they had never really spoken. “Did you just… hope?” 

This time, Eshrevi answered without hesitation. “Yes. I’ve seen situations that seemed beyond dire, but we still did our best. I’ve learned that chances of survival might be slim, but they are never zero.”

Karev seemed to approve, and Eshrevi led the way onto the transporter pad. Once the others had joined her, she raised her weapon. Experience had taught her to rather be prepared and look slightly stupid, than to be unprepared and look dead. 

And Brennan would kill her if she ended up dead.

When Eshrevi once again felt solid ground beneath her feet, she found herself on the only faintly illuminated bridge of the Givens. It was eerily empty, save for the away team.

“Scan for lifesigns,” she said calmly, keeping her weapon raised. Her eyes swept over the unnervingly pristine bridge. The silence was oppressive, the stillness almost suffocating. Many of the polished consoles were powered down, their surfaces reflecting the faint glow of the overhead panels. The familiar hum of ship engines and console activity was conspicuously absent, leaving the room unsettlingly quiet.

“Nothing,” Anderson said, taking a deep breath. “No bio-markers indicating any bodies, either. But I am picking up interference- it might explain the readings.”

“What kind of interference?”, Dasek asked. 

“The interference seems to be linked to an unusual spike in gamma-wave activity,” Anderson said. His brow furrowed as he studied the readings. “We would typically associate them with advanced neural activity in telepathic species, but…” He looked at the deserted bridge.  “There’s no one here.” 

“Can you see where the gamme-wave activity originates from?”, Eshrevi asked. 

Anderson shook his head. “Not a chance with this thing.” He raised his tricorder. “I could utilize the Given’s internal scanners to find out more.”

Eshrevi nodded. “Do it. Karev, you stay with him. I will take Anderson and see if we can find anything in the ready room.”

Or anyone. 

Dasek moved over to the powered-down science station while Eshrevi turned and led the way towards the ready room, which greeted them in the same fashion as the bridge – quiet and deserted. 

There were no scuff marks on the floor, no signs of hurried movement, no discarded PADDs or forgotten coffee cups, nothing to suggest life had ever existed here. If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought the Givens had freshly come out of the shipyards.

Anderson walked over to the Captain’s desk, and moved the chair to the side as he leaned in to assay the readout before typing a few commands. 

“The escape pods have not been launched, but two shuttles are missing.”, he said. His eyes flicked up to Eshrevi before he continued. “I-… he started, then he frowned.” 

“What?”

“I checked the crew manifest. It’s empty.”

“Empty?”, Eshrevi said incredulously, and joined Anderson at the desk – not because she didn’t trust him, but because what he had discovered seemed so utterly absurd. 

“Check Commander Shivni’s service record.”, she prompted, not sure what she was expecting. She knew that the Commander had recently assumed the centre chair for her first assignment as commanding officer, and had an excellent reputation as a reliable officer and capable leader. 

But there it was. 

Eshrevi leaned in closer, as if that would change what she was seeing. According to her service record, Commander Shivni had resigned from Starfleet ten days ago. 

“That can’t be right…”, Anderson frowned, and looked up Lieutenant Commander Ryan Malkovich, the Given’s First Officer, only to get the same result. 

“Ten days ago…”, Eshrevi frowned. “Pull up the crew manifest from before that date, and check the rest of the crew.”

Anderson’s eyes widened as he input the query and received the corresponding results. According to this, every single crewmember had resigned within a period of three days. 

“That…”, Eshrevi started, was interrupted by a chirp of her badge. 

“Lieutenant.”, Dasek said, with some urgency in his voice. “The gamma-waves seem to come from somewhere outside this vessel, so I recalibrated the shields to mitigate it. It doesn’t change anything however. Still no lifesigns, still no bio-markers.”

“Thank you.”, Eshrevi answered. “We accessed the crew manifest – it’s empty. And it looks like the whole crew retired from Starfleet around the same time.”

“When?”, asked Dasek. 

“Around ten days ago.”

“Let me check something.”, said Karev in the background. A few moments of silence followed. Then… 

“I’ve checked the transporter logs. It looks like the crew beamed down to Asada’s surface.”

Eshrevi froze. So they had collectively left Starfleet, abandoned their ship, and sought refuge on a pre-warp planet?

“Can you access… anything? Mission logs, person logs, I don’t care about privacy.”, she said eventually. 

“I can, but I need a moment.”

“Understood.”, Eshrevi answered, then turned to Anderson. “Let’s head back to the bridge. I have the feeling we want to get out of here as soon as possible. Captain Ceix will want to know about this.”

The way back to the bridge seemed longer than it had any right to be. Eshrevi was still learning to care about things such as the Prime Directive, and the implications the crew’s arrival would have on the development of the native species. But the idea of a whole crew abandoning their ship had something unsettling about it. 

What had forced them to take such drastic measures?

At the same time, she felt relief wash over her. They weren’t dead. Not dead was very good. It was fixable.

“Lieutenant, you’ll want to see this. Or rather, hear this.”, said Karev, before asking the computer to replay the selected segment of Commander Shivni’s last personal log.

I am excited, more than I have ever been before. When I took command of the Givens, I was certainly happy – but nothing compares to this. 

This new life is perhaps not what I envisioned, but what I need. I know Starfleet will quickly have me replaced, and I can only hope that my family will understand. 

I’ve always struggled to find my place in Starfleet, and in the galaxy as a whole. Now, I understand that every setback and every success has led me here, where I am meant to be.