J-78’s Little Tantrum

Posted on 15 Aug 2026 @ 9:17pm by Lieutenant Commander Leland Hawksley & Lieutenant Thex sh'Zoarhi

2,447 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: S04 Episode 02 The Hackers Backdoor (Incidentals)
Location: Jefferies Tubes, Deck 17, J-78
Timeline: Current

[ON]

Leland was crammed into the jefferies tube his big frame making it hard too move around much. At junction J-78 his left okular implant glowed blue over the EPS lines. The plasma had these strange edys in it causing spikes that where mesing up the sensor feeds.

"Quit your fightin you old conduit," he grumbled with a low chuckle. "Ive fixed worse after breen attacks these harmomics are gonna cause real trouble if we dont sort it soon or the whole section might brown out on us."

He wiped his forhead then tapped the commbadge. "Hawksley to Thex. Come on down here with that portable multi-phasic scanner and the resonance calaberation kit from locker three. This ones a two enginer job and your good at the fine adjustments before it gets worse."

Thex was in her office when she got the call. " On my way boss don't do anything daft until I'm there." She replied with the same energy she always carried. It took her no timet to collect the gear and some fresh power cells

Hawksley sat in the Jeffries tube and scoffed. "Daft?" He replied. "Dear Thex. I would never do anything 'daft', where have you gotten such thoughts?" He snickered. He waited, keeping the com open just for shop talk.

" First time for everything boss." came her reply as she made her way into the Jeffries tube. it wasn't long before she was at her boss location. " Where do you need me?" she inquired.

Leland looked up from the open panel as Thex arrived, a faint smirk still lingering from their banter. He wiped his forehead again with the back of his wrist, the Jeffries tube warm and close around them.

“Careful, Lieutenant,” he replied with dry amusement, “that almost sounded like insubordination. But you’re probably right… first time for everything.”

He shifted to give her a bit more room and gestured toward the exposed conduit array.

“The primary phase inverter’s throwing resonance spikes again every time we push past seventy percent. I’ve isolated the main power feed here,” he tapped the panel beside him, “but the secondary node needs precise calibration before it cascades. That’s where I need you. Run the multi-phasic scanner on the forward array while I hold the resonance kit steady. Your hands are steadier than mine on the fine adjustments.”

He gave her a quick, appreciative nod, already positioning himself to start.

“Whenever you’re ready.”

Thex nodded as she began running the scanner over the forward array. " Doing so now. "

"And what does it say to you?" Leland moved to ease himself out of the cramped position in which he was seated. "Don't tell me. L7-911 Error? So help me god if it states that..." He gruffed, watching Thex.

Thex gave an apologetic look as she looked over at her boss. " L7-911. What's eating you, boss?" She enquired.

Hawksley paused for a long moment, his fingers pressing hard against his brow as though he could physically push the tension back. “I think it’s hot in here…” He pulled his tricorder free, the familiar weight of it a momentary anchor. He studied the readings longer than necessary. “It’s hot in here, isn’t it?”

He powered the device down and set it aside, then shrugged out of his engineering jacket with deliberate care. He laid it across the metal clad flooring, the fabric settling with a soft rustle that seemed too loud in the quiet compartment. The motion gave him another few seconds he wasn’t sure he wanted.

“I…” The word caught. He tried again and failed. Thex was his DCEO, a steady officer and one of the few people aboard he trusted enough to call a confidant. Still, the thought of saying it aloud felt like stepping off a ledge. He cleared his throat, the sound low and rough. “This stays between you and me.”

He swallowed, jaw tight, gaze fixed on the deck plating between them. “Lilliana and I have finalized a divorce.”

The words left him feeling strangely hollow, as though he’d handed over something he could never quite get back. Only Dodd and Cass had known until now—and Cass was light-years away aboard the USS Churchill.

Thex blinked a few times. Even after living among humans for such a long time, the word divorce still sounded odd for a species that mated for life with its quad. Yet her friend was suffering from it. " I'm sorry. What happened? I thought you were doing well." she said with the concern bleeding into her voice.

“I’m sorry. I am crossing over into TMI territory.” He felt bad for bringing this up to Thex. But now he had opened the gates, and secretly, he did want to speak about it.

“It hasn’t been the greatest between us for a while now. Truth be told.” He looked a bit adrift at the comment. “Lack of communication. Lack of feelings between us. It’s not that I didn’t try to steer things back to our relationship multiple times… Just. It really fell apart after our last quarter's get-together, rather, my get-together... When Lilliana couldn’t interact with anyone, on behalf of our hosting. It was as if she were indifferent. It became the last warning sign, at least for me. We’ve been on this course now for over a year… It's become exhausting and too concerning. We barely make love, if you can call it that. No feelings.”

Hawksley looked exhausted physically and mentally. “So much time into finding where she was at in our relationship, or marriage… It didn’t seem fair to bring a child into our world. Suffice it to say, bringing a child in… I won’t go on… it’s…” Hawksley didn’t want to go further. “We have no child coming any longer. " It's painful to speak of it.” His eyes had glossed over, the pain evident.

“We had to… I had to break it off. So, if you hear of anything, not that it's huge news on the Tomcat. Everyone is busy with their own business. I just had to speak my truth to you, Thex. Thank you for listening.” Leland spoke with a hint of sadness, a hint of extreme fatigue.

Thex racked her brain trying to think of something that could help in this situation, but the girl's brain turned up nothing. Eventually she replied with the most honest thing she could think off. "Boss, I'm sorry, but I don't know what to say. I've never been hurt as badaly as you've been. If you need someone to talk to i'll do my best to help."

Leland felt a bit embaressed now... He just spilt his whole relationship to Thex. It wasn't fair to Thex...

"I... Damn it. I am sorry. The last you want is to hear about your bosses break up story... I am a bit of a fool. Thats why I need you to finish this for me. I need to go have a drink... Join me? When your finished. I'll be in my office." He was embaressed. He needed to get out of the J-tube now!

" Sure i'll see you later. " Thex said, feeling her heartbreak for her friend.

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Main Engineering
CEO, Office

The door slid open to a wall of sound. Thunderstruck blasted at full volume, Angus Young’s riff tearing through the space. The lights were low and flashing hard... Electric blue and sharp white strobes pulsing in perfect time with the drums and every guitar strike, turning the usually sterile office into something that felt like a rock club tucked inside Main Engineering.

Leland sat kicked back at his desk, one boot propped on the corner, a cold can of beer in his hand. Another can waited on the desktop in front of the empty chair across from him. His fingers tapped out the beat on the surface. On the low side table sat a proper spread of junk food: bowls of Andorian spiced crisps, loaded nachos with a sharp pepper kick, battered protein bites, and a scatter of Terran candy.

He looked up as she stepped inside, a tired but genuine grin on his face.

“Thex! Door’s open... My Main Engineer! Come on in, girl, grab a seat,” he called over the music, nodding toward the spare beer. “Figured you earned a cold one after finishing that tube work for me. And yeah… I may have gone a little overboard on the replicator.” Hawksley gestured at the spread with his can. “Andorian crisps, nachos, the works.”

Leland took a drink, let the music roll over them for a couple bars, then leaned forward slightly. The tapping on the desk slowed but didn’t stop.

“Look… about earlier in the tube. I dumped a lot on you. That wasn’t fair. So new plan... We change the tone! Loud music, cold beer, bad food. No more heavy stuff!” Hawksley gave her a small, almost sheepish smile. “You in, or you wanna bail? No hard feelings either way.”

" Never pass up a chance to get a drink. " Thex said with a smile as she took a beer. " How are you finding the andorian chips?"

"They are... Spicy." Leland looked at the chip, noting its texture and colour. "Red. It figures. The inter-species warning for hot." He munched it down and then took a drink from his beer.

"You should try the Doritos! Have you tried them before at the ship's parties?" Leland pushed the bowl near Thex. "I really like them. They taste like cheese, but they're like a taco chip. Very high-brow cuisine from Earth's early history."

Thex smiled. " Oh i know Doritos, my friend." she said pickinh one up and dipping it in the chesse sauce.

Leland leaned back in his chair, and he looked at his office. He pondered as he turned, looking back through his window alcove to see the flushing blue rhythmics of the warp core... it was soothing to him. "If you could create one new technology. What would it be?" He narrowed his eyes at the thought of what Thex's answer might be. "Don't say a new type of Andorian Dancing knife. That doesn't count."

Thex chuckled. " Orion and no. It would have to be some kind of starship. One that would keep on being useful long after I'm gone. One for engineers far into the future to curse to when there assigned to one and not the brand new flagship."

“A ship that future engineers will curse for the next two hundred years… now that’s a legacy.” Hawksley tipped his glass toward her.

He smirked. “Just promise me... It has at least one system that makes no sense whatsoever and somehow still works!”

"How is your dude? That Doctor... Erm, Doc Ross is it?" Leland didn't want to go home right away.

"We're doing fine. He's an excellent playmate, and I hope I'm making him as happy as he is making me." replied the Andorian with a smile. She clearly cared for Ross.

"Playmate?" Leland was interested. "That what Andorian's call a relationship. I can see how playfulness would be involved, indeed." Hawksley chuckled. The next song played and it was the latest Klingon Metal Rock sounding music...

"I love this stuff. Have you been following Kil'Eek T'Teck?" Hawksley played his fingers rhythmically to the tune. "Not everyone enjoys the vocals of such a raw klingon in rage, very passionate."

Leland remarked after a moment. "I've seen Ross around. He definately looks a lot more... I would say, chipper, than usual for him. Before he was all business... I am glad you are seeing that he gets played with." Hawksley winked.

" A playmate is a relationship for an Andorian that isn't a relationship in an Andorian quad. " Thex explained.

"Now this is where it gets interesting. Explain to me a quad." Leland had awareness that Andorians regarded sexual partners in a very fluid fashion. He wanted to better understand from Thex.

" A quad is an Andorian marriage group. One of each of the four sexes the thaan, chan, zhen and shen. When we form a quad, it becomes a very permanent bond. The thaan and the chan each have half of the male chromosomes needed for Andorian reproduction. The shen carries the egg, which is then transferred to the zhen's pouch. " She replied

Leland paused. His mind had just exploded. "So... It takes more than one partner to create newborn in your species. That is fascinating. The gene pool needs more than one chromosome to populate a babys chromosomes to create a whole." He had missed the inter-species sexual reproduction lectures in Starfleet Academy. Then again, he wasn't in the medical stream.

"That blows me away... In a way. That ensures that each new born Andorian has a much larger gene pool to draw off of. Kind of like..." He thought... "How our systems in engineering has various levels of redundancy to compensate externally linked failures. Is that the thought?" Intriguing!

" You'd think we would, but several hundred years ago a genetic error entered the gene pool. We went from having six to eight children per quad to one or two if we were lucky. If you want to start a quad, you have to send off genetic scanning to hopefully prevent as little damage to the gene pool as possible." Thex added with a slight sigh.

Leland sat quiet a moment, turning the can in his hand.

“Genetic bottleneck for centuries. Single-point failure written in DNA instead of circuitry.” He shook his head. “Scanning makes sense. No one wants to make it worse.”

He reached over and dialed the volume down.

“Appreciate the lesson, Thex. But I’ve taken enough of your night with my own mess and interspecies biology.” He finished the beer and set it aside. “Finish yours if you want. After that I’m shutting this down and getting some sleep. Thanks for the company. Meant more than the beer.”

" Boss. If you need someone to talk to call me. Your not alone in this." Thex said with the reassuring voice of a friend who deeply cared for him.

"I understand. I appreciate Thex. You're a very good friend." Hawksley then relaxed. He waved off, casually. "I will be good. Have a good evening, my Friend." He truely smiled relaxed. Now... What else would he play? More Klingon Rock..?

[OFF]

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