Night Shift Part I of III
Posted on Fri Dec 5th, 2025 @ 7:24pm by Vice Admiral Sidra MacLaren & Rear Admiral Indi Hawk
Edited on on Fri Dec 5th, 2025 @ 7:32pm
1,263 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission: Second Light
//Fleet Command Offices//
The soft hum of the artificial surroundings of the Starbase were an ever lasting presence. Everyone could hear it, but for somebody with excellent hearing like Indi, it could sound deafening. It was the middle of the night, other sounds were at a minimum. Nobody was messaging her or trying to get her attention or getting to get office time. Her Yeoman wasn't there to bother her. Only the hum throbbed and drilled into her skull.
Indi was going through the reports she had waiting for her. It wasn't very exciting. She sent a few reports of her own, sipping the coke that was standing on one side of her desk. It was quiet work, just the way she liked it. For the past weeks, she had managed to avoid most people, getting the work done, not getting over or under excited by the few things that seemed to be going on. Nothing major enough to get her out of her comfort zone, just the way she liked it.
One report caught her eye. Tarvik Sector Military Build Up.
That didn't suit her. At all. She would be asleep at that time, or at least in no condition to meet her superior officer. Let alone her friend, though she was sure the friendship had cooled down s lot, to the point of non existence. None of which changed the fact she couldn't attend.
"Respectfully, Admiral, but that time doesn't line up with my schedule. I respectfully have to inform you that I won't be able to make it."
Signing her official credentials, Indi sent off the reply. And with that, she could also sign off her terminal and call it a night. Dawn was around the corner, people were going to start waking up.
//MacLaren’s Quarters//
The pre-dawn cycle on Starbase 369 always felt like the station was holding its breath, dim, still, the corridors not yet claimed by the day shift. Sidra liked that liminal hour. It was the one time she could reliably get a workout in with Will before the galaxy started throwing problems at her.
She was tightening her ponytail, stretching out her shoulders before heading to the holodeck, when her terminal chirped with an incoming message.
Rear Admiral Indi Hawk.
Fleet Security.
Sidra expected a straightforward acknowledgment of the briefing time, nothing unusual, especially with the Tarvik Sector teetering on the edge of a military escalation. She opened it absentmindedly, already mapping out which training program Will might talk her into this morning.
Then she read it.
Her shoulders froze mid-roll.
Respectfully, Admiral, but that time doesn’t line up with my schedule. I respectfully have to inform you that I won’t be able to make it.
Sidra squinted at the message like her eyes were deceiving her.
They weren’t.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
The words tasted sharp.
This wasn’t a suggestion. This wasn’t a casual departmental sync. This was a mandatory briefing on an emerging military buildup in a volatile sector. And Indi, Fleet Security, was trying to bow out like it was an optional luncheon.
Her pulse kicked.
Her blood pressure rose.
Her morning serenity evaporated.
Will appeared in the doorway of his room, hair rumpled, blinking sleep from his eyes. “Everything okay?”
“No,” Sidra said automatically, grabbing her uniform jacket off the back of a chair.
Then she caught the look on his face, concern edging into full alertness, and forced herself to stop, inhale, and smooth her tone. She turned just enough to give him a smile, the kind that curved her mouth but never reached her eyes.
“Workout’s canceled,” she said, lighter, almost sing-song. “Lucky you… go grab a couple extra hours. You earned it.”
Will relaxed a fraction, nodding, and she was already shrugging into her jacket again, the steel sliding back into her spine as soon as he turned away.
She didn’t bother smoothing her hair again, she kicked her trainers off and pulled on a pair of pants and slipped her feet into some boots. Sidra shrugged into the uniform jacket even as she strode for the door, the fabric settling against the tension coiled through her shoulders.
Indi Hawk was not avoiding this briefing. Not under Sidra’s watch. Not with Tarvik heating up, and certainly not when Fleet Security needed to be aligned, not running from responsibility.
The command corridors were quiet as she entered them, night-cycle lights still low, amplifying the sharp echo of her footsteps. Good. Fewer witnesses.
She held the padd with Indi’s message tightly in her hand, her stride cutting straight toward the Fleet Security offices.
If Indi planned to slip away into the morning—
Sidra fully intended to intercept her before she ever reached the door.
The door to her office just closed behind Indi's back when she heard footsteps coming her way. She could feel the vibrations of the movement in the deckplates as much as she could actually hear the feet hitting the deck. She knew those footsteps. She knew that rhythm and cadence. Considering whether or not to step into her office again, she realized it didn't matter much.
So, she kept her ground and nodded as soon as the other woman rounded the last corner. "Admiral."
Admiral my ass, Sidra thought, heat flashing under her sternum.
She didn’t break stride.
Sidra brushed past her without slowing, boots cutting a sharp line across the threshold as she stepped fully into the office. She stopped only once she reached the center of the room, turning on her heel with the padd in hand, posture rigid and waiting.
Indi entered behind her, the doors whispering shut.
Sidra lifted the padd slightly, just enough to make its presence pointed.
“What is this?” she said, voice low but edged. “What are these hours you’re keeping, Indi? Make it make sense.”
She didn’t sit.
She didn’t soften.
She stood there, shoulders squared, every line of her body coiled with the kind of authority that came from decades of leading people who didn’t have the luxury of excuses.
The question wasn’t rhetorical.
It was an opening statement.
A warning.
And a line in the sand.
Sidra kept her gaze locked on Indi, waiting—demanding—an explanation worthy of the situation.
With a small sigh, Indi had followed Sidra back into the office. She wasn't feeling up to this right now. Instead, the image of the cartridge with Dreamdust that was waiting in her quarters, came clearly to her mind. For once, she had already replicated it, so it would be waiting for her when she got home. It was nice to have something waiting for you at home. It was better than the empty quarters she'd been coming home to. She didn't mind so much that nobody in particular was waiting for her (or did she?), but that she had nothing to look forward to, that had been hard.
And so her mind wandered to the last high the Dreamdust had given her. She'd found herself on top of a mountain, with a beautiful view in all directions. A smile appeared on her face as she thought of the deep blue lake she could see on one side, the ice covered tops on the other side in the distance. Green pastures, way above the tree line. A small winding dirt path leading up to the place where she was standing now. A bird above her-
TBC in part II
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