Star Trek Discovery: Penitent's Walk

XI: Reentry

"Acknowledged, Hazarian Station. We have Environmental Containment and Repair teams standing by to clean up the bay." the comms officer at the Office of Emergency Management said. "Open your coolant vents once you touch down to prevent a meltdown."

"Will do, OEM," Lucero said as she watched the view of the ocean speeding beneath them. "Linus, did you follow that? Will you be able to get out of there?"

"Affirmative, Commander. The blast seals are watertight—at least enough for me to get out."

"I'm sending you an evacuation route topside. Hate to leave you down there."

"Evac route received. See you soon."

The water rushed toward them. "Bring internal stabilizers to full, Ensign EunLim."

"Yes sir."

"I'm locking down my controls," Detmer announced over the comm system. "Touchdown in ninety seconds! I'll meet you all topside."

"Good work, Detmer, see you in the sunlight." Lucero looked over at Nilsson. "Can we maintain the airfoil shape?"

"There's no reason we shouldn't," she answered.

"All right," Lucero grabbed both sides of the Systems console. "Everyone brace for impact..."

In the end, it was actually rather anti-climactic. The shields split the water before the great, vast bulk of the station touched down, and by the time they cut out, the sheer weight of the station kept it more or less stable. Its lower hull scraped a great furrow into the floor of the bay and buried itself there, leaving the station standing at a slight angle up through the water with its top observation deck standing above the waves. The water around it boiled and hissed with the superheated temperatures of the reactor, which was currently flooding.

Less than two minutes after they touched down, Lucero led her crew out through the emergency escape hatch on the observation deck and into the warm afternoon daylight.

"I don't believe it," Owosekun laughed, shielding her eyes from the sun and looking around.

"What? That you're standing in the roof of space station stuck in the middle of a bay?" Lucero said with a smile. "You didn't know that's where you'd end up when you started your day?"

"I hope I don't burn," Nilsson said.

"You will," EunLim assured her. "You don't have the complexion for sunlight."

"Hey!" Someone called from the far end of the deck. Lucero squinted through the brightness and saw Detmer and the still-unclothed Linus walked toward them from a far side access hatch. The pilot carried a leather object of some sort as well as a datapad, and her strawberry-blonde hair fluttered in the breeze like the heroine from a romance movie. "Check out who I found along the way," she said and cocked a thumb at Linus.

"Vents open to the sea, Commander," Linus reported. "The core temperature should be well below critical temperature."

Lucero smiled and nodded. "Nice to hear, Lieutenant. And it's good you're dressed appropriate to the circumstances."

"The weather's lovely," he said.

"Sure is," she answered.

"Know what we need?" Detmer said, holding up the datapad. It was presently keyed to Entertainment Mode. "A beach party."

"You just had that with you?" EunLim asked.

"Um, yeah."

Lucero held up her palms in a why not gesture. "Well, we just successfully landed an outer space building. I'd say a beach party is in order."

"Awesome!" Detmer said, keying the datapad and resting it on a sensor vane. A moment later, a twangy, bubbly song played.

"Classical music?" Owosekun asked.

"Best music to dance to," Detmer said as she moved hips to the rhythm.

"Who is this?" Lucero asked.

"It's a twentieth century Earth band that shares a name with a tactical bomber aircraft or a hairstyle of excessive height and mass," Linus answered.

"It seemed appropriate for the occasion to cue up the B-52s," Detmer explained.

"Catchy," Lucero admitted, nodding along with the song.

Wanna be the ruler of the galaxy?

Wanna be the king of the Universe?

Let's meet and have a baby now!

And then, as the day's stress and anxiety and despair gave way to euphoria they all danced. They basked in the warm light of the sun, inhaled the sweet, salty ocean breeze, and moved to the music. Nilsson and Owosekun synchronized their movements, while EunLim flailed in an Osnullian cultural dance step, while Linus tried some 20th century moves he'd recently picked up called "the robot" and "the moonwalk."

Lucero waited until the rest of the crew's attention was focused elsewhere before pulling Lieutenant Detmer in close and kissing her hard. It wasn't the kind of thing a captain should do, she knew, but god, the woman was beautiful!

********

The shuttlecraft Copernicus banked and circled the grey-black spire that pointed skyward from the sea. "I have visual on the crew," Spock reported and pointed through the viewport at the figures on the station's top deck.

"Thank you, Mister Spock. Now let's take this thing in pick them up before that thing shifts and sends them in the water."

"It would be most disappointing to manually navigate a falling starbase to a safe landing only to then drown," Spock observed.

"Nice to see you have sense of the ironic, Spock."

"Captain," Spock asked. "Are they...dancing?"

Pike twisted in his seat and looked out the starboard viewport. Yes, they were indeed dancing. The shuttle was close enough that he could recognize Lynne Lucero dancing with rest, and then dipping a red-haired female officer and kissing her in an imitation of the famous photo of the soldier kissing the nurse on V-E Day.

I guess you earned it, Lynne, he thought with a smile. "Mister Spock, maybe you should circle a few more times."

"Sir?"

"Just do it, Spock."