Posted by Lieutenant Commander Kastarak (Commanding Officer) in Main Sim: Calling Vice Admiral Thalor Ren – Ready Room
The doors to the captain’s ready room swooshed open. Kastarak stepped inside. The tank – where Taggart would store his leg, arm and his best friend Kane’s hand – was gone. The photographs, the cubes, the Hellraiser memorabilia were all gone. All that remained were the desk and chairs, but nothing remained in this room of the man who once sat here did. The air was colder than it should have been. The emptiness in the room was like the experience of pressure of a deafening silence.

He remembered the story that Taggart had told him once. Taggart had mentioned the Cenobites and gifted Kastarak the puzzle box. The story was one of pain mistaken for desire, about humanity turning monstrous by longing. Taggart had told it with laughter, but Kastarak had seen the layers below this, being reminded of Vulcan, and of how Romulans – once Vulcans – had turned monstrous and destroyed the Vulcan planet and killed its people.

But Taggart had not been killed. He had not died. And yet he was gone.

Kastarak took a deep breath. He would now ask Vice Admiral Ren directly what Starfleet intended with regard to the command of the Chernov now at this crossroads of a high-priority mission. He would ask whether Maddox’s condition, still unexplained and unchanging, warranted transfer or investigation beyond what they could do aboard. Kastarak needed to speak to Vice Admiral Ren – not as the physician Kastarak deep down was – but as the person temporarily charged with holding this ship together, barely.

The crew had lost a beloved captain with no goodbye, without any warning or communicated cause, and the next had collapsed in front of them before he’d even taken the chair properly. The crew had no closure, and no resolution. The sixteen-day non-stop warp trip under these circumstances had made people restless and drift. The crew couldn’t keep living in limbo. They needed direction. And Kastarak couldn’t keep waiting to be told whether he was permitted to lead.

“Computer, call Vice Admiral Thalor Ren, priority, through the necessary subspace frequencies.”

Kastarak, Lt Cdr
Acting Commanding Officer; First Officer and Navigations Officer

Kastarak’s computer lit up at the command, the soft blue glow of the interface casting pale reflections across his face as the system confirmed the outgoing call. The familiar Starfleet emblem shimmered into view, rotating slowly on the screen while the subspace link established its handshake with Starbase 257.

It was almost two full minutes before the emblem dissolved, replaced by the image of a craggy-faced Andorian whose age had etched faint ridges into his otherwise disciplined features. Vice Admiral Thalor Ren wore the formal grey-shouldered Starfleet uniform with the understated precision of someone long accustomed to authority. His antennae twitched once as the channel stabilized, then angled forward in sharp, deliberate focus.

Behind him, through the wide viewport of his office, Starbase 257’s curved docking arms arched away into the starfield like great metal crescents. The cold blue-white gleam of the station’s running lights reflected off the hulls of nearby ships—one Excelsior-class cruiser sliding gracefully into berth, a pair of shuttles crossing paths in the distance.

Part of the Vice Admiral’s desk was visible in the frame—sleek black alloy overlaid with scattered padds, most glowing faintly with mission orders or reports. Ren held one of them loosely in his left hand as he looked up from it, eyes sharp, assessing.

“Lt. Commander Kastarak. Good to hear from you,” he said, voice steady and resonant with the quiet authority of a seasoned flag officer. His antennae tilted slightly forward, signaling full attention. “I was going to contact you once all the preparations were finalized. I apologize for the delay—had to find a shuttle or ship transiting your sector that could handle the assignment. I have your reports here concerning Captain Maddox.”

Ren paused, glancing briefly at the padd before meeting Kastarak’s eyes again. “Has there been any change in his condition? Do you still believe he requires Starfleet Medical intervention?”

Nosferatu
Your Darkest Nightmare