Crash and Not Burn [Backpost]

Posted on Thu Oct 1st, 2026 @ 11:58am by Lieutenant JG Dario Munro

2,369 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: The Last Space Station on the Left
Location: M-Class Planet Solo-21Q
Timeline: March 2388

::ON::

It has started as less than a great day. Being sent out with the Chief Intelligence Office to pick up a probe was one thing…encountering a subspace disturbance that had sent them into the gravitational field of a planet? Even less great. No power except emergency thrusters had made the crash inevitable.

The shuttle had come down badly, although considering what the last few minutes of the flight had looked like, Lt. Dario Munro supposed they could both be grateful it had come down at all rather than simply becoming another piece of debris somewhere in the upper atmosphere. It was mostly luck and training that saved them, with the Chief Intelligence Officer being an accomplished pilot. Even so, the shuttle had clipped the tops of several trees on the way in, losing part of the port nacelle before it hit the ground and tore through a stretch of scrub, eventually coming to rest against a low ridge of dark rock. The port side of the hull had buckled on impact and the rear compartment was still giving off the occasional curl of smoke, although the fire suppression system had done its job before either of them had managed to get the hatch open. Around them the clearing was littered with broken branches, torn earth and pieces of the shuttle that Dario had no intention of trying to identify unless he had to.

They had been lucky to walk out with cuts, scrapes and mild headaches. Nothing that the medical kit couldn’t fix up for them. Nothing life threatening. Just two men in their 40s who could wake up with an achy back just from a nap now having to deal with the strain on their bodies from a crash landing.

Munro stood beside the open hatch with one hand resting against the hull, looking over what they had managed to recover. Two emergency packs, a medical kit, enough ration bars to last several days, water purification tablets, thermal blankets and a portable shelter. The emergency beacon had taken some damage but was still transmitting intermittently, and while Dario would have preferred something a little more reliable, it was enough that the Gannet should in theory be able to pick them up once she was close. The planet itself was temperate, heavily wooded and, according to the shuttle's last sensor sweep, devoid of intelligent life. There was water within walking distance and enough plant and animal life around them that surviving for a few days should not be difficult.

Lieutenant Dylan Lucani had spent most of the last ten minutes studying the surviving tricorder, moving several metres away from the shuttle before stopping near the edge of the clearing. Dario had worked with him often enough to know that the Intelligence officer was already thinking beyond where they were. Lucani was good at his job, something Dario had never questioned, but he also knew it and had a tendency to expect everyone around him to operate at the same pace he did. It wasn’t…narrow-mindedness. Truth was…

They were similar. And it really annoyed Dario to see the traits he disliked in himself displayed so arrogantly in the other man.

Lucani finally turned the tricorder towards him, pointing out the rise in the terrain to the north. “There is higher ground about eight kilometres from here, and a valley beyond it. If we can get up there we may be able to strengthen the distress signal.”

Dario looked towards the trees rather than the tricorder, watching the upper branches shift as the wind moved through them. The sun was still high enough to give them several hours of light, but the temperature had already started to fall and they had no idea what conditions would be like after dark. “We already have a beacon transmitting, we have water nearby and enough supplies to make ourselves comfortable until the Gannet gets here. We stay close to the crash site unless something makes that not a viable option.”

Lucani lowered the tricorder, his expression making it clear that he had expected the answer and disagreed with it before Dario had even spoken. “We do not know how long it will take them to locate that signal. From higher ground we may be able to improve it, and if there is any sign of civilisation beyond the ridge, we would be foolish not to look.”

Dario folded his arms, glancing briefly towards the damaged shuttle before looking back at him. “Civilisation? There was no sign of intelligence here before we landed, and I don’t think we’ve improved things much by popping down…”

Lucani huffed out a breath of annoyance and clipped the tricorder back onto his belt and reached for one of the emergency packs. “It is a better plan than sitting beside a wreck and waiting,” he said with annoyance.

Dario watched him secure the pack across his shoulders, already feeling the argument becoming less useful. They held the same rank, which removed the simplest solution, but that did not mean Dario was prepared to pretend the decision had nothing to do with his department. “I am responsible for our security. At the moment that includes making sure neither of us gets lost wandering across a planet we know almost nothing about.”

Lucani looked across at him as he adjusted one of the straps. “You are responsible for security aboard the ship, Lieutenant Munro. At the moment, this is not a ship...but a planet.”

Dario considered that for a moment, mostly because there was very little he could say to it that would not turn the conversation into an argument about authority neither of them actually had. Lucani was a grown man, a senior officer and more than capable of making his own decisions, even when Dario thought those decisions were poor ones. He watched him start towards the trees before looking back at the shuttle and the supplies they had already gathered. For perhaps three seconds he considered staying exactly where he was.

Sorry Captain, I let him wander off alone and get himself killed... sounded unnecessarily harsh on a report. So he really didn’t have much choice. Dario picked up the second pack and followed the Commander with the aura of someone who knew this was all a very, very bad idea.

The ground north of the clearing rose gradually at first, the forest thick enough that they rarely had a clear view more than a few dozen metres ahead. Recent rain had left the soil damp beneath their boots and in places the undergrowth grew high enough that Lucani had to alter their route, checking the tricorder every so often before continuing. Dario let him navigate without comment, keeping an eye instead on the ground they were crossing and the sky visible through breaks in the canopy. The wind had shifted since they left the shuttle and the temperature was dropping more quickly than he liked, although neither was enough on its own to justify turning back yet.

Lucani glanced over his shoulder after catching Dario looking behind them for what was probably the fourth or fifth time. “You do realise the shuttle is still going to be there when we get back,” he said lightly, but there was an undertow of mild amusement and irritation happily mingling there.

Dario stepped around the exposed roots of a fallen tree, taking a moment to look at the slope behind them before continuing. “I am keeping track of the route. Unless you have suddenly found a transporter in that pack, we will need to walk back the same way…and I am all out of breadcrumbs.”

Lucani gave a small shake of his head before turning forwards again. “We could always keep going,” he said and held up his tricorder. “And I’ve marked out route.”

Dario adjusted the strap digging into his shoulder and followed. “That does seem to be your answer to most things. Keep going, and also yes we have the escape route planned. Go us…” the last he said almost under his breath as he shook his head.

They continued for another hour before the forest finally began to thin. The ground beneath them had become steeper and more uneven, broken by stretches of exposed stone that slowed them down enough that Dario had started checking the light more often than the route. Lucani remained convinced they were close to the ridge and Dario had no reason to doubt him; the problem was that reaching it had stopped being the only thing they needed to consider.

When they finally emerged from the trees, the view opened around them almost without warning. The ridge ran east to west in a long stretch of dark stone, and beyond it Dario could see the valley Lucani had been aiming for, broad and green beneath the late afternoon light. For a few seconds he could understand why the Intelligence officer had wanted to reach it. The land beyond looked flatter, easier to cross and open enough that anything artificial would have been easier to spot.

Unfortunately, the ground immediately ahead of them dropped away. Dario moved closer this time, stopping far enough back from the edge to study the rock face properly. It was climbable, or at least he thought it was, but not with two emergency packs, no ropes and whatever they could improvise from the contents of a crashed shuttle. In daylight and with the right equipment he might even have enjoyed finding a route down. With the temperature already dropping and the sun disappearing behind them, he had considerably less enthusiasm for it.

Lucani moved closer to the edge, studying the tricorder for a while before turning slightly towards the east. “There may be a route around it. The ridge drops about five kilometres that way, possibly less depending on the terrain.”

Dario remained where he was, looking at the sun already beginning to disappear behind the hills they had crossed. The wind was stronger up here and considerably colder, enough that standing still for more than a few minutes had started to become uncomfortable. “And then we still have to get down into the valley, find whatever it is you think might be there and somehow make it back before dark.”

Lucani looked over at him, irritation beginning to show in a way it had not at the shuttle. “You have made your point.”

Dario shook his head, looking back towards the route they had taken. “No, I made my point before we left. Now I am telling you we have maybe an hour and a half of useful light left and a temperature that is going to keep falling. We have a shelter, blankets and food sitting two hours behind us. If we keep going, we are spending the night out here with whatever is in those packs.”

Lucani looked along the ridge towards the east, clearly weighing the distance against the remaining light. For once he did not immediately have an answer, and Dario left him to it rather than pushing. There was nothing to be gained from forcing the decision if Lucani could reach the same conclusion himself.

Eventually Lucani put the tricorder away and turned from the cliff. “Fine. We go back.”

Dario nodded once and started walking without saying anything else. But oh it was tempting. Just a tiny I told you so. But that was petty and honestly Dario was a touch too tired and bruised to really put effort in for that.

They reached the shuttle after dark, both of them tired enough that the argument had lost most of its energy by then. The temperature had dropped sharply over the last hour and the wind had begun to push colder air through the clearing, making the decision about shelter considerably easier than the earlier one about whether to stay. Dario found a relatively level patch of ground close to the rock face and started setting up the emergency shelter while Lucani checked the beacon and sorted through the remaining supplies. They worked around one another without much conversation, neither man apparently willing to give the other an excuse to start again.

Once the shelter was secure, Dario sat inside with his back against one of the supports and a thermal blanket wrapped around his shoulders. The small heater between them was never going to make the space warm, but it took enough of the edge off the cold that he stopped noticing it every few seconds. Lucani sat opposite him with one of the ration packs open across his knee, looking at its contents with the same expression he had used earlier for the crash site. They sat in uncomfortable silence.

Which unfortunately it became the trend for the rest of the cold evening and night, even as they both lay there shivered, back to back. They were still awake some time later when Lucani shifted opposite him, pulling the blanket more tightly around his shoulders. “You could have argued more for staying. Made your point better. Instead of just following me.”

Dario turned sharply, looked across at him, eyes narrowing slightly. “Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t realise I had to submit a thesis on why leaving shelter, food and warmth with a distress signal was a bad idea,” he said, his accent thickening with the sarcasm.

For the first time that day, Lucani looked genuinely amused. It did not last long, but Dario took it as an improvement and left it there.

The ship found them the following morning. Dario heard the rescue shuttle before he saw it, the sound of the engines carrying through the trees as it approached the clearing. He stepped out of the shelter into air still cold enough to make him pull his uniform jacket closer, watching as the familiar Starfleet hull appeared above the broken treeline and began its descent towards them. And as far as he was concerned, as he heard the snoring of the Chief Intelligence Officer? Not a second too soon.

::OFF::

Lt. Dario Munro
Chief Security Officer
USS Gannet

 

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