“The Word Gets Back”

Posted on Thu Mar 5th, 2026 @ 7:34pm by Petty Officer 1st Class Kara DeSotto & Chief Petty Officer Rheanna Yates [Admin NPC] & Petty Officer 2nd Class Rennik Tol [Admin NPC]

Mission: Below Decks
Location: Maintenance Crawl-Space Junction, Deck 14
Timeline: The morning after Kara’s talk with Phoenix
365 words - 0.7 OF Standard Post Measure

“The Word Gets Back”

Location: Maintenance Crawl-Space Junction, Deck 14
Time: The morning after Kara’s talk with Phoenix

The hiss of a plasma torch drowned out most conversation until Petty Officer Rennik Tol killed the power and set the tool aside. Sweat streaked the blue skin around his temples.

“Seal’s good,” he said. “Let’s call it for the morning.”

Chief Mate Rheanna Yates glanced over the readings, nodded once, then leaned closer. “You hear what’s floating around yet?”

Rennik’s antennae flicked. “If it’s about the coolant leak, I fixed it.”

“Not that.” She dropped her voice. “The Commodore knows.”

That stopped every motion in the crawl space. Crewman Kara Loran froze mid-wipe of a conduit. “Knows what, exactly?”

“About the meeting. Cargo Bay Three.” Yates’ eyes narrowed. “Someone talked—or sensors caught something.”

A long, thin silence followed.

Rennik finally exhaled. “Figures. Took a week.”

“What’s she going to do?” Loran asked, whisper barely audible over the hum of the deck plating.

“Nothing yet,” Yates said. “Not officially. Word is she’s… walking the decks again. Talking to people. Like she’s trying to calm things before Security gets involved.”

Rennik laughed once, no humor in it. “So now we’re a morale project.”

“Careful,” Yates warned. “This ship doesn’t need martyrs.”

Loran chewed her lip. “Maybe it’s not a bad thing. Maybe she heard what we meant—not the gossip version.”

Rennik shook his head. “Doesn’t matter what we meant. Once Command thinks you’re plotting, meaning’s over.”

The young technician Jani Reth crawled out from under a junction, grease on her cheek. “So what now? We stop meeting?”

Yates sighed. “For now, yes. Keep your heads down. Do your jobs. Let this blow over.”

Rennik stared at the deck beneath his boots. “And when it doesn’t?”

No one answered.

Through the grating above them, the faint vibration of footsteps echoed down the corridor—steady, measured, unmistakably confident. The Commodore’s patrol, maybe. The sound faded, leaving only the thrum of engines and the weight of too much unsaid.

Loran finally murmured, “Guess the void isn’t the only thing watching us anymore.”