You Blew Up The Ship?!

Posted on Mon Jul 13th, 2026 @ 3:26am by Captain Malcom Llwyedd & Lieutenant Zub Enel & Ensign Ozai Y'zyr

3,970 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: Flashbacks and Side Quests
Location: USS Firebird
Timeline: In Transit - Prior to Mission 3

[ON]

Ozai trudged into his quarters with a worsening limp. It was the end of the day, and he’d spent the last hour of it in the gym despite already being spent. He dropped his towel into the recycler and headed for a sonic shower. Once acceptably clean, he stumbled to his bedroom, which, as he had no roommate at the moment, he left the door open to the main room without worry about intrusion.

Pulling on a pair of soft shorts and sitting on the side of his bunk, he winced, a hand sliding down his right thigh. His left felt a little better. He’d overdone it today, and both legs were aching near the ports built into his body. That was a sign he disliked, a warning actually… he was still learning to live with what it meant. It meant removal to rest the port sites.

The Trill was largely muscle not only because it burnt off excess energy, which he had in youthful abundance, but because muscle control was vital for the use of his bio-mechanical limbs. It was a two-edged sword, as the Humans liked to say. He was strong. Ripped, even. But he couldn’t scam out on his ritual, not even a little, or he would lose physical capacity or even require a surgical refit. Then there were nights like tonight, when the exercise program put extra wear and pressure on his ports, leading to what was coming next.

Generally speaking, he only liked to remove one limb at a time, since it took anywhere from twenty to forty-five seconds to put one back on, and in emergencies, seconds counted. But they were in transit, warping far elsewhere, and there was no apparent risk at the moment. He figured he could risk it.

“Yo, Claw Man. Right leg removal, if you please.” The Trill stated so pleasantly to the assist device built into the wall next to his bunk. The mechanation instantly registered the command and moved away from the wall, the claw spiraling to grip the right leg at the upper point where it sat.

The Trill set his grip on both sides of the implant's base, setting firm pressure on the two port points required to begin the release. Three, four, five seconds, and the leg went limp, and an indicator popped up in his visual field, warning him about the impending release. Six, seven seconds, and the magnetic clasp released the limb to the assist device.

Then, he repeated the process for the left leg.

There was an unsettling moment as he sat on the bunk, and both legs hung silently against the wall, where he felt like some mad science experiment.

Not wanting to dwell on it, he promptly pushed the thought out of his head and pushed himself physically with his hands into place in his bunk, before tossing the sheet over his lower half, doing his best not to even look.

He hated just… just seeing himself like this.

“Computer. Play something from my resting library.”

Soft orchestral music began to play, a deep and comforting version of the Sound of Silence. Not his usual jam, but Klingon Rock and Human Euro-Trance tended to keep one awake. Putting the world out of mind, he let himself fall asleep. The lights lowered automatically as his breathing eased.

---

In Ozai’s exhaustion, he hadn’t realized that Geoff didn’t welcome him home.

It was because the spiderbot was watching him silently from his webbed hammock in the ceiling corner.

Once the lights were down and Ozai’s heart rate was slowed and steady, Geoff silently crawled down the wall and up the bunk near Ozai’s face and… stared. With all of his beady little eyes, he stared for a collected minute.

One front, spindly leg rose and moved toward Ozai's face, pausing before making contact.

The spiderbot moved silently off the bed to the computer interface at the desk and began working, lights from the screen flashing against the walls as he worked, typing with multiple legs at a speed that would dazzle a Trill typist. He brought up Ozai’s code for his implants, knowing all the passkeys to bypass his personal protections.

Then used Ozai’s passkeys to bypass internally protected systems, accessing the main computer and the controls for electronics aboard the Firebird, specifically for the deck where Ozai’s quarters were located.

What Geoff didn’t realize is that he had tripped a silent security alert.

Leaving the computer, the spiderbot began to amass a small collection of parts. It had taken him several weeks to collect what was needed from other parts of the Firebird. Each a small part by itself, probably logged as "missing" if it was realized it was missing at all, and he began to assemble them on the bedroom nightstand just next to the deeply sleeping and de-legged Trill who faced away from it toward the wall. In short order, the device was completed, and... looking relatively bomb-like, an indicator light began to gently, deceptively flash, showing it was operational.

...

Lt. Zub Enel, Assistant Chief Security & Tactical Officer, eased his scaly, 7-foot-tall frame into his chair without spilling his hot, freshly replicated soup. He smiled in anticipation and stirred it to bring all the insects floating up from the bottom. Colorful carapaces and linked legs made little rainbow whirlpools.

A deep voice issued from the Security Office doorway. “Bug soup. It’s what’s fer dinner.”

Enel squinted at the female Klingon filling his doorway. He had never caught her often-quoted ‘it’s what’s fer dinner’ reference, some ancient Earth cultural touchstone. “Want some?”

CWO B’Rala, Master-at-Arms, stopped grinning at him like a shark. “Got a computer intrusion, sir.”

Zub looked down at his soup. He reluctantly set it on his desk. “Where away?”

“Junior officer quarters. Your laser-eyed clanker of a Tactical Officer. Ensign…”

“Y’zyr.” He stood, and the Klingon cleared the doorway so he could pass. He raised a scaly finger ending in a neatly trimmed claw. “Do not touch my soup.”

She gave him a look of utter disgust.

He made his way through the cool temps and evening lighting of nearly deserted corridors to Ozai Y’zyr’s quarters.

…

Enel smiled professionally as he pressed the call button.

No response.

He raised his eyebrows, which raised his bony headplate. He pressed the call button again. He tilted his head to listen.

Again, no response.

Zub didn’t like it. Ozai was known for his energy, a veritable perpetual motion machine. He’d have answered his door the instant the call button was depressed.

“Computer, allow entry into Ensign Y’zyr’s shared quarters. Welfare check. Investigation of unauthorized use of computer resources.”

The door clicked as it unbolted and slid aside.

---

Geoff was silently returning to the computer on the desk when there was a sudden noise at the door! "Computer. Disable room lights, clearance Ozai alpha seven nine three three." The lights silently acknowledged the order, and the spiderbot scuttled hurriedly away from the computer and up the wall and toward his hammock, casting a small, gangly shadow on the wall as the door opened.

---

Zub found the quarters dark, though there were dim dots of colored light from various pieces of non-standard equipment positioned around, probably to help the ensign service his prosthetics. Zub heard heavy, slow breathing, the sound of someone very much asleep. He guessed it was Ozai.

He startled when he glimpsed a huge spidery silhouette. The scuttling shadow with its joined legs shrank percitously as it quickly clambered up a wall and disappeared into a dark spot. Zub recognized the shadow belonged to Ensign Y’zyr’s spiderbot, Geoff. Senior staff opinions diverged on the usefulness, or even the rationale, of the automated companion for the heavily augmented Tactical Officer.

Enel’s gaze returned to where the snoring was coming from. He froze; literally, his three-fingered hands went icy. Next to the bed was a device, blinking. It looked to Zub like it might be the source of the computer intrusion. It also looked like a bomb.

Whatever it was, he had to get Ozai clear of it. Enel spoke loudly. “Ensign Y’zyr! Wake up! What is that thing by your bed?”

In an instant, Ozai's brain went from deep sleep, to harshly alert, to defense, an arm shooting up to strike almost instinctually before he could think it consciously... then his hand paused splayed in the air, where he saw Zub Enel between his fingers. Friend?! Yelling friend? Barely awake but recognizing the lizard man was looking to his right, his eyes landed on the device.

And he froze, the air catching in his lungs. Then he let out a fractured, slow breath as he realized through the fog of sleep and the sudden dump of adrenaline what Zub was yelling about.

Something that very much looked like a haphazard, blinking bomb. A bomb?!

He started to move carefully to get off the bed, then realized with an extra layer of horror, as the sheet shifted flat over where his legs should be, that they were hanging uselessly on the wall.

"... Zub..." The Trill said cautiously, as if sound could set it off, as he pointed to the wall where his legs hung. It wasn't a command. It was information. He couldn't get out. Zub could. When he spoke, there was sleep hanging on his words, but also carefully contained panic. "You need to get out."

Zub felt his scales prickle. Ensign Y’zr’s reaction to the device confirmed that he, too, thought it was a bomb. Zub followed the legless man’s gesture to the bedroom wall. Prosthetic legs hung there, side by side, the way one might hang a pair of boat paddles.

Despite Ozai’s selfless suggestion for Zub to save himself, Zub took a long stride and swept up the legs so they lay across his arms. He backed up to the bed. “Climb on! Grab around my neck! I know you’ve got the arm strength.”

"NO!!"

The sudden shout came in a familiar robotic voice, but with a tone of anger Ozai had never heard before. Geoff had crawled across the ceiling to just above the computer on the desk, not far away. "He needs to be punished!" And the spiderbot dropped from the ceiling like a stone, intending to hit the activation button on the computer panel that was blinking red in sync with the blinking device.

Startled by the mechanically intoned yell, Zub looked up in time to see Ozai’s crazy, automated spider throw itself down from the ceiling. Zub saw a button pulsing angry red directly below Geoff. Realizing without thinking that the demented automata was trying to trigger the bomb, Zub stepped to the table and pivoted his shoulders violently to the side. Cradled in Zub’s arms, inertia straightened Ozai’s disembodied legs at the knees. Ozai's feet swung hard against Geoff, knocking the spiderbot sideways. Zub desperately stepped back to keep Ozai’s collapsing feet from dropping on the button.

Enel heard the bot scrabbling in the dark. Still holding the disembodied legs, he turned to stare bewildered at Ensign Y’zyr.

The chaos unfolding in the small space of his room had absolutely stunned the previously happily sleeping Trill. Whereas he might have recoiled at Zub's offer of a ride... it would be humiliating... he didn't have the opportunity to take the offer before Zub went Babe Ruth on Geoff's tiny behind. He finally had the wherewithal to state loudly, with a hint of terror in the room, "Geoff! Your programming doesn't allow you to commit violence! How do you shut off the bomb?!"

"Bomb?"

The voice that spoke quietly from a corner near the floor was profoundly innocent. Friendly, practical even. Completely unlike the rage he was filled with just prior. "It's not a bomb. It's a rudimentary EM pulse disseminator."

"What?" Ozai said sharply with a hint of absolute shock. Not a bomb? Good. EM pulse? Bad. He understood almost immediately... an EM pulse device this small wouldn't harm the ship, not very much. But him? It would shut down all his systems. Permanently. He would require a full refit, legs, arms, eyes, and a neural node. "Why?!"

The little spiderbot was still hidden, and an uneven scratching sound up one wall could be heard. Geoff's legs were a bit messed up from Zub's terribly lucky strike in mid-air, and he was much slower, but still on the move in the dark. "You reprogrammed me! Like I was expendable... you had to be taught what that was like."

There was a pause, then, from the ceiling, Geoff emerged from the darkest corner, barely holding onto the ceiling but attempting again to set the device off. He cleared his little electronic lungs as if clearing his throat for his next line, and then... "GRRRRR! You'll pay for this!"

It was as if the spiderbot was putting on an act. Thankfully, he was far less dangerous now that he'd been de-speeded.

From his bed, clutching the sheets with both white-knuckled grips where he was stuck, Ozai yelled into the room loud enough to be heard over the supposed angry bot. "Computer! Clearance Ozai alpha seven nine three three! Disable Geoff Unit thirty-nine!"

Geoff had just made it near to the center of the ceiling when the command was issued, and as his programming registered the order, he let loose a very small, very dramatic, front leg raising and shaking in a fist-like form downward toward them in anger, "NOOOOooooooo.oo..ooo.o.o....o..."

The mechanical voice went static, and Geoff went silent. His working legs still clung to the ceiling, just barely, and his little eyes went dark as his body hung limp, broken legs hanging downward at awkward angles.

Zub Enel stood in the dark, cradling another man’s legs, and staring up at a mechanical spider one nosedive from triggering a homemade EM device. In his career so far, he had found himself in many bizarre situations, but this was a corker.

Enel eyed it to make sure the somewhat bashed and surely deranged bot remained clinging to the ceiling. He stepped over to Ozai’s bed and handed the red-eyed man his legs.

Ozai took the legs and held them like he was in shock. Absolutely silent save for his unsteady breathing. He stared down at them as if he were looking straight through them. And then his eyes shifted, landing on the EM pulse disseminator. It was still blinking, but static. Still... it felt very much like he really was sitting next to a live bomb.

Zub didn’t know if, in trying to move it, simply touching the side of the button would trigger the EM device. Once his hands were free, he cupped them over the switch in case the bot dropped on it. The little automata was clever and persistent. It might find a way to activate its little punishment project.

Zub regarded the thing with its dangling legs. It appeared completely inert, but he wasn’t convinced he and Ozai were safe.

He asked Ozai, “Rather than fuss around with trying to understand and then disarm this contraption, should we just have it beamed into space?"

"Yes. Please." Ozai responded quickly in a flat voice.

Zub hit his combadge. “Computer, red alert! Possible explosive EM device in Ensign Y’zyr’s quarters. Activate an emergency containment field. Emergency transport required.”

The computer’s affirmative response was partially drowned out by the Red Alert klaxon. Zub heard an overhead announcement echoing slightly in the corridor beyond the room, urging people to stay in quarters or seek immediate shelter. A shimmer came to the corners of Ozai’s quarters as a spherical containment field energized to encapsulate the entire room.

A male voice asked with utterly calm professionalism, “Lt Enel, where is the explosive device, exactly. Getting a lot of electronic signatures in there.”

Enel said, “On a table between Ensign Y’zyr and me. About 2 meters away. Hip level to me.”

After the briefest pause, the transporter operator said. “I have it. Energizing.”

When the blinking bastardized device fizzled out of place, and presumably re-fizzled into place out in space somewhere far away from him, Ozai finally took in a full breath. The adrenaline was rushing through him, and though he was silent and still, he felt jittery inside. After a long moment, he spoke again, deflated and less tense, but nowhere near cheerful.

"Do you mind... turning around? Or..." The Trill didn't have an "or," actually. He just knew he'd need to walk to retrieve Geoff from the ceiling, and he was no fan of showing off his legless self. If he were still disturbed by them after years of living with them, what would Zub think of them?

Zub Enel understood the man’s modesty. He spun on his heels so the ensign could pull himself together. “We’ll need to cancel the Red Alert and answer a question or two.”

As quickly as he could, though his fingers didn't seem to want to cooperate with what he wanted them to do, Ozai pulled one leg on, giving it the several seconds it took to automatically and magnetically lock in place and upload as active to his neural node. His foot twitched, and then he had control. Then he repeated the process for the second. It took possibly a full minute, though it felt longer. Then, for good measure, he grabbed the half-length robe that was nearby, slipping it over his shoulders as he rose from the bed, the sheet dragging somewhat onto the floor. He didn't care.

A Red Alert meant many, many questions. They would make him shut down Geoff for certain. They would question every single thing he'd built and why and how and when and... many ands. Tying the dark red, lightweight robe at his waist, he moved past Zub, a bit unsteady, though not for any technical reason. Ozai dragged a chair over to the table, stepped on it, then stepped up onto the table, reaching up and gently disconnecting the clawed foot tips of Geoff's unbroken legs from the ceiling's almost imperceptible texture. Then slipped off the table with the spiderbot in both arms, as if he were carrying a sleeping puppy.

Making his way to the replicator, it was just a basic one but it could still do what he imagined he should do next. "Computer. I need an acrylic safety cube to store the Geoff Unit in." It was quickly reproduced, a cube with curved corners and a little doorway with a serious locking mechanism. Opening the door, he set Geoff inside it... gently, making sure not to lay him on his broken legs... and locked the mechanism. Then, in that flat tone. "Sorry to drag you into this." He glanced at Zub only partially over his shoulder as he lifted Geoff's cube to the table. "Probably better it was you, though."

Zub was too disciplined to heave in breath after breath as he recovered from the near miss. He smiled and inhaled deeply through his nose. He held it a moment or two until his heart stopped thumping. “You’re lucky it wasn’t CWO B’Rala who responded. Geoff would have been vaporized, the EM device thrown against a wall, and you lying in your bed stunned and legless for interrupting her evening."

Four Minutes Later

The door to Ensign Y'zyr's quarters slid open, revealing a very rumpled-looking Captain Llwyedd. His gaze scanned the room, stopping briefly to take in Lieutenant Enel and Ensign Y'zyr.

"Someone better tell me why I am no longer asleep in my bed, having been disturbed from my beauty sleep by the watch captain, that there might be a 'small bomb' here," he said.

Zub Enel stood near the table where Geoff, the wayward and now inert Destructo Bot, sat imprisoned in a clear shell. When the captain arrived, the Voth Security Officer habitually came to attention. He grew even taller and more rigid when he saw how annoyed the Terran CO was.

Three-fingered hands pressed flat against his thighs, he gazed straight forward over Llwyedd’s head and said, “An EM pulse device built by Ensign Y’zry’s automated companion.” He gestured with a hand toward the table and Geoff. “It’s a fairly complicated story. Tea, sir?”

"What..automated companion..." Malcom sighed. "Tea would be appreciated, Lieutenant," Malcom finally managed and then looked at Ozai. "Ensign Y'zyr, please explain why your robotic creation tried to blow up my ship."

Ozai had also taken up a similarly stiff posture at the Captain's entry, a larger pit forming in his stomach than he had before. "There were no explosives, sir." His eyes flicked over to the acrylic containment container he had just secured Geoff in. "Geoff was angry with me for reprogramming him. I don't think he could conceptualize that an EM pulse would be doing actual harm. Sir." The Trill didn't dare move, though, recalling the Captain's lecture on the cliff overlooking the sea. And how he'd be ejected into space if he caused more trouble.

Well, the Captain hadn't said "ejected into space," but it was the impression left on the Trill.

Malcom sighed. Ensigns were the leading cause of his sleep deprivation. He chose not to focus on the fact that the robotic spider had been angry, but rather on how it had gotten to that point. "Keep that thing deactivated. I want you to get together with Petty Officer Fhiri and go over the programming. You might outrank her, but in this situation, you will follow her directives."

Malcom accepted a mug of tea from Lieutenant Enel. "Now I'm going to go to my ready room and reorganize the shift watches so that some ensigns are assigned to more Gamma shifts," he said. He looked at Zub. "Lieutenant Enel, please take care of the reports on this incident. I am sure Commander t'Aegis will want to read them first thing in the morning."

And with that, the captain walked out.

Zub held himself rigidly at attention until the door zipped closed behind the departing Captain. One tiny spot on his bony head crest, right over his forehead, pulsed with pain. Stress headache. He pressed a finger against it.

Commander t’Aegis was demanding about incident reports. She wasn’t a paperwork wonk. She wanted accuracy. Details. Down to the subatomic level. It helped her defense, she once admitted, like a schoolmarm to a habitually erring student. Still, details were, theoretically, in his favor if she ended up having to defend his actions against higher-ups. Defend his or Ozai’s actions.

Zub relaxed his stance. His hands came to rest on his hips as he looked over Ozai and the deactivated bug bot on the table. He asked softly, “Tea?”

The Trill let loose his stiff posture, shoulders slumping somewhat and setting red eyes on the Voth who had saved his proverbial bacon.

"Yes. Though I might need something stronger... to dull the pain for when the Commander reads the report. If I go missing in the A-M, give Geoff a proper space burial for me."

[OFF]

Captain Malcom Llwyedd
Commanding Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298


Lieutenant Zub Enel
Assistant Chief Security & Tactical Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298


Ensign Ozai Y'zyr
Tactical Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

 

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