“That was YOUR doing?!” Prias snapped, glaring upwards at the group. “Are you serious?? Our Captain could have been killed!” Outcry from the non-commanding officers continued on for the next minute or so as Sylvester and Amira looked at each other. Once the XO raised his hand, the rest of the crew fell silent.

“Surely there’s an explanation for this.” Sylvester looked at Basquar. “Right?”

“There is.” The man gave a solemn look. “We’ll send people over to aide your ship and people. I’ll have my best engineer with you as our dearest apologies.”

“Good.” Amira spoke, helping a now coming-to Jetta to her feet. “After the Captain is up on her feet again, we can all have a little chat.”

–

As the crew settled in to a nearby docking port by one of the Drekarian system’s planets, Jetta called all her commanding officers into the meeting room with Basquar and his people. It had been roughly five hours since the wormhole event, and the moment sensors came back on, the whole crew was relieved to see they had not been thrown across the galaxy. But now came the difficult part.

“So.” Captain Dowe cleared her throat as the rest of the senior staff filtered their way in. “You all are the Kaelthri, is what you told me. Are you the leader, Overseer?”

“Heavens no.” Basquar rolled his eyes. “We all wish, but no. Us Kaelthri are run by a pillar like system. I am at the bottom.”

“A ‘pillar-like-system’?” Plimmitt spoke up as he looked from his PADD. “How does that work?”

“Think of it like sections.” A woman spoke up. She was next to Basquar and had been introduced as Vice Overseer Nillë. “We control the Drekar space. The Lunar Squadron.”

“…Right.” Jetta furrowed her brow. “Why have they not come down here, then?”

“We still have a plethora of power and influence over diplomatic situations.” Basquar cleared his throat, shooting a look at his XO. “Now, onto more pressing matters..”

“The wormhole.” Sylvester’s eyes narrowed. Each passing moment was inching his suspicions closer and closer to distrust. “How are you responsible??”

“Well…” Basquar took a deep inhale. “As I’m sure you’ve picked up on your sensors, our sun is at risk of dying.”

“Not at risk. It will.” Plimmitt corrected. “But you already know that.”

“Right. Well, as you also know, we’ve been recently experimenting with using a condensed form of anti-matter to essentially re-create the same wormhole over and over again. When they all stabilize within one another, you have a significantly stronger wormhole.”

“What??” Jetta’s surprise was not well hidden–alongside the rest of the crew. Basquar and Nillë looked equally as puzzled.

“Apologies, did you. . . .not know? The fur coveredi one with the clipped ear got this data from us. We assumed you knew by default.” Basquar motioned for one of his men to hand a small device to him. He handed it to Plimmitt right after.

“God damnit, M’Hark.” Sylvester muttered under his breath.

“This is obscenely dangerous.” Jetta narrowed her eyes as Plimmitt input the data into one of the monitors. “Do you know how many potential wormholes that could open around the galaxy?”

“Dangerous but nessecary, it seems.” Plimmitt glanced at Jetta, who shot him a look in response.

“We. . . .do.” Basquar looked to the side. “It’s an unfortunate side affect of escaping our dying star. Most of the planets cannot inhabit people as is, and Drekar II is becoming increasingly annoyed with how quickly we are progressing.”

“With all due respect, Overseer.” Amira spoke up, arms crossed and leaning against her chair. “There must be a better solution in the…what, frankly, seems like years of research. This could slaughter entire ships.”

“We understand those risks.” Nillë stood upwards, which in returned earned Sylvester standing upwards as well. “But there are risks we are willing to take to save the billions of Kaelthri from a promised demise.”

“Even at the ensured demise of others?” Amira asked.

A heavy silence hung in the air after that question.

“…What if we helped you?” Jetta stood upwards, finally speaking. “We have some brilliant minds on the Morro Bay. Surely there’s an alternative.”

“Alternative?” Plimmitt sounded almost offended.

“What would you need in return?” Basquar asked, his voice laced with uncertainty.

“Nothing. It’s Starfleet’s motto. We’ll do everything in our power to help you.” Captain Dowe gave a soft smile. “Share cultural traditions, artifacts–this is a whole new part of space for us. A chance to learn and grow us as people.”

“Captain. An alternative?” Plimmitt looked up at her. “No, surely we can figure out how to fix this.”

“Not now, Lieutenant.” Jetta whispered.

The Overseer and his small squadron turned to each other shortly after the offer, and as they conversed, Jetta glanced down at Plimmitt. The Saurian was looking back up at her in a way that she’s never seen before–anger. Something she had said or done had clearly upset him, but what?”

“It seems we’ve come to an agreement.” Basquar smiled, holding out a hand. “We will contact the high council and discuss further. You came at a pretty decent time to discuss changing our methods–in three weeks, they are hearing a case about diverting the wormhole tactic.”

“Oh, good! I was worried we’d be butting heads.” Jetta grabbed his hand firmly and shook it. “We will dock down at Drekar IV later today.” As the rest of the crew got up to say their goodbyes and escort the Overseer and his squadron out, Jetta turned to Plimmitt–who was staring right back at her.

“Captain.”

“Lieutenant.”

“..What the hell were you thinking?”

“I’m sorry??” Jetta straightened her posture, glaring at Plimmitt.

“These people need to escape! Leave! They don’t have the time or resources to try and come up with a new system to protect them from a dying star.” The engineering officer snapped, walking over to the monitor. “It could go at any given moment–they need our help leaving, not coming up with a new idea!”

“Lieutenant.”

“You don’t know what it’s like to be denied the freedom to escape a potential disaster–to have someone tell you you can’t leave something you know will kill people!” Plimmitt thrusted an accusing finger in Jetta’s direction. “I thought you of all people would understand, Captain–stop heading to the potential dangers and learn to fix them. We could fix the wormhole and test it!”

“Lieutenant Ruuvon.”

“We can fix this. We can do more than make them abandon their plans, and save a whole system. I know what their feeling, and I cannot believe you’d simply ask them to take an alternative! I know you think that just because you’re a Captain who hasn’t been in starfleet long you’re new, and have these ideas, but you are still so inexp–”

“Plimmitt Ruuvon.” Jetta snapped, walking forward. She had never seemed this serious before–especially to Plimmitt. “First and foremost, where in any galaxy do you think you have the right to speak to me in such a matter?”

“I-” Plimmitt quickly sunk back into himself, realizing a little too quickly how fast he had acted.

“I will keep the answer simple; you. don’t. You are not yet a commander, you are not yet a fellow Captain, and you are sure as hell not Sylvester Mikhailov.” She grabbed the PADD from the table and dropped it into his hands. “Before I continue this conversation any further, you will never speak to your Captain in such an immature and abhorrently disrespectful way. We are adults, and you will treat me with the respect and level of tone that comes with. Am I clear?”

“Yes, Captain.” Plimmitt frowned as he tightly held the PADD.

“..I understand how upsetting this can be for you.” Jetta spoke after a moment of silence, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I truly, truly do, Lieutenant. Come light or come day, we will help these people. But that wormhole nearly tore the ship apart–you saw that first hand.”

“Right.” Plimmitt didn’t say much as he looked to the side. Internally, he was still mad as can be; she didn’t understand. Jetta Dowe didn’t understand anything about the nuances of this situation–she had never been in one.

“We will help them. We will make sure they live. But I cannot in my right mind turn a blind eye to something that could harm and kill others.” Jetta gave a sigh. “I’ll come to Engineering in a few hours to try and figure out what we can find out about the wormholes affects on the warp core. Until then, I want you to go see Amira and take it easy for a few hours.”

“Sure.” Plimmitt glared back down at the ground as he clutched the PADD closer to his chest. “Am I dismissed?”

“Dismissed.” Jetta let out a sigh as the Saurian skittered out almost instantly after. If this was how her Chief Engineering Officer was going to act throughout all of this, it was going to be a long next few days. A long next few days indeed.