Power Struggles [✱8]

Posted on Sun Nov 23rd, 2025 @ 9:03am by Frater Maat'n & Lieutenant Commander Intharia T'Zor & SubCommander Saa Ni-Eng & Master Chief Petty Officer Gaz

1,384 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: UnderMind [4]
Location: Hall of Focus, Basement
Timeline: After 'Repair Crew [✱5]

For her part, Saa, following behind Gaz and their guide, found herself agreeing with the security chief’s actions, and as the sound of the kerfluffle receded behind them, she’d almost stopped in her tracks, amazed, at hearing the more senior kolinahr adept threaten to disembowel a peace officer.

She caught herself and glanced inquiringly to T’Zor, wondering if either of her colleagues had enough Vulcan exposure to be as alarmed by that display as she was.

Vulcans had a culture of high standards that all too often left other species feeling rough and uncouth in their presence, a feeling she’d struggled with as much as any Terran during her first years as a diagnostic technician on Hepath’s project.

But part of that struggle was learning, even sometimes from Hepath himself, just how much pure wrongness a Vulcan’s self-suredness could mask, and how buying too fully into their projections can leave you robbed of your own agency, until you start learning to push back.

Saa felt the need to push this one a little.

“These solar collectors are active, but I read no activity in the generator,” she reported to Gaz, through her suit’s speakers. After a pause, she added to their guide, “No thermal signature. I take it this happened yesterday?”

"It went out the day before, in the early predawn hours. We discovered it yesterday morning. We spent some time attempting to reactivate it before we requested assistance. We have been running on available power without storage since. It suffices." Maat'n explained.

"Noted," Saa said, scanning.

Intharia felt somewhat unprofessional for it, but Atna had experienced many such places with near-identical features, and they bored her terribly, something that carried over into Intharia's own response to the surroundings. She found her attention wandering as the discussion went on.

It didn't take them long to reach the Hall, within it looked more dojo than research facility or house of worship. Maat'n led the team through the empty space to a rear hallway that had a stairwell leading down. Maat'n went ahead to the lower level to clear the way for their passage.

Maat'n waited for the Federation team to fully enter the basement before closing the double-doors to the landing at the bottom of the stairwell. "These are our key systems. The reactor. The central replicator mainframe. Computer core. Storage tanks run under the floors." He pointed at each of them, thinking this was sufficiently helpful. It was a very square, symmetrical, efficient room. Even if it was slightly boring visually, one couldn't deny that everything in the Hall of had been expertly crafted.

"Yeah, I recognise all this stuff. Where's the fella I showed it to when we did the install? Storak? Stilok?" Gaz said, moving with the team towards the reactor. He began a preliminary scan with his tricorder, assuming Saa was probably already doing so with her in-built kit.

"Frater Storlok. He is in seclusion." Maat'n responded as though that answered the question definitively.

"Can we get him out of seclusion? It took the better part of an afternoon to go through everything with him, I don't think any of us want to do that again if someone already knows it." Gaz asked, wondering more and more why this was the best possible use of any of their time.

"We can not. His location is uncertain. Such seclusions are a private matter for the individual. If the reactor cannot be repaired, we would ask that you replace it." Maat'n said, trying to shift the subject indecorously.

"How long have you been unaware of his location for?" Intharia asked, knowing that Atna would have tried to work the definition of the term missing into any response.

"He went into seclusion several days ago. It is not irregular for our Order, for centuries we have sought seclusion in the Vulcan deserts for inspiration and clarity." Maat'n explained.

"Did he tell you he was doing that, or is that an assumption?" T'Zor asked.

"It is not our way to discuss such trivialities." Maat'n deflected.

"What about the triviality of when he'll be back?" T'Zor queried. She didn't know squat about the reactor beyond a basic theoretical understanding of its design, so she was happy to have a thread to pull, even if it was one that created increasing concern.

"Our Order trusts one another more than to keep such tabs on private events, Commander." Maat'n responded. "Now, might we please focus on the issue at hand, the reason you were summoned here?"

"Of course, I apologise. I'm from another universe you see, your ways are still strange to me." Intharia said, apologising with an obvious smarmy insincerity that she felt the Vulcan might not pick up on as she gestured back to her colleagues.

Before he could reply, Maat'n was forestalled by a metallic clang as Saa pulled open an access panel. Setting it down, she shrugged off the toolkit she'd brought and opened it up.

"I don't see anything wrong from the outside," she explained as she began connecting a diagnostic tool, "But our tricorders aren't that reliable in all this geomagnetic soup. You know," she added for their guide, "I'd give a lot for a Vulcan multiscanner if you could find us one."

"I will get one from upstairs." Maat'n said with the certainty of a well-organised man, turning immediately for the door and vanishing up the stairs.

Saa waited until he'd almost vanished from her acoustic field before relaxing somewhat. "I thought we might want to be alone for this part," she suggested, turning to the main computer to find out what its diagnostic subroutines had to say.

"You'll get no arguments from me to sending them away. What have we got?" T'Zor asked.

"These people are objectively assholes no matter how nice their leader smiles, but I don't think they'd waste our time on purpose." Gaz said, hoping Saa would save him the trouble of troubleshooting.

"No, but something's up," the engineer replied. "You saw how antsy they got about having a Betazoid around." In a moment, the main computer was displaying the latest diagnostic report from the microfusion reactor. Graceful lines of Vulcan calligraphy assembled themselves in neat chains of logic around a schematic of the reactor itself.

"They don't seem like the sort of people who get guests. Ever. Let alone telepathic ones." Intharia observed.

"Here," she said, isolating an entry in the diagnostic log. "The generator shut down because it detected a variance in the load distribution it couldn't correct."

"What?" Gaz said, squinting and looking closer. "Solar wouldn't put out enough energy to do that, even at 100% efficiency." He observed. "Any variance big enough to brick the reactor would need a whole lot more juice than they should be able to put out." He didn't have any answers which would usually bother him, but he was very glad Saa's cetacean brain was also here to riddle it, and T'Zor too.

"Some natural phenomenon?" Saa asked the science officer. But even before she asked, she knew it was impossible.

"Anything that would knock out a generator would surely have other flow-on effects." T'Zor suggested. "Unless they've found a fuel source they're keeping secret, any power source would have to be renewable. Hydro is out, so for a level of power that's going to trouble a fusion reactor that leaves... geothermal." T'Zor said it like she'd realised something important. "Which we wouldn't be able to detect, given the difficulties we've had with the soil. Hm."

Frater Maat'n's quiet footsteps were audible for all by the time he reached the middle of the stairs, he crossed the floor swiftly to them and presented the multi-scanner.

"Thanks. Listen, we're going to need some time to pull this apart and take a look. We'll call out if we need anything?" Gaz suggested, hoping to get rid of the man so they could work in peace, even if they had already figured out the scheme.

"Very well. The panel on the wall can be activated if you require anything." Maat'n gestured to the panel in question, and left the room. Whether he was oblivious or aware of the swirling suspicion around him and his order wasn't clear, but he didn't waste any time in leaving.

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