Elyra's Message
Posted on Wed Aug 13, 2025 @ 12:15am by Civilian Nyla Thane
Edited on on Wed Oct 8, 2025 @ 12:17am
779 words; about a 4 minute read
Mission:
Time After Time
Location: Deep Space Five
Timeline: MD13 - late afternoon
Nyla stepped out from the bedroom. After Liam's departure, she's taken the chance to freshen up and now planned to check her messages before venturing out to explore the station. Dressed in a loose slate-gray shirt that draped off one shoulder and a pair of black panties, she grabbed a computer device from her bag. It resembled a Starfleet PADD, though its design was distinctly civilian.
Next she picked up the cup of tea from earlier. It was now lukewarm and half-empty, but still comforting. She settled onto the sofa, took an unhurried sip, and waited for the screen to flicker to life.
She tapped the familiar icon for AstroMail. The application opened with its split layout...navigation pane on the left, reading pane on the right. Next to the Inbox menu, a small, glaring number glowed in brackets...(75).
Nyla frowned. Once again, the rules she’d set to manage her inbox had failed. Maybe it’s time to find a better application, she thought, before setting the idea aside. With a practiced hand, she began clearing the clutter. Status updates, automated notices, and the usual spam...including one from a self-proclaimed planetary governor promising to share his vast inheritance with “a carefully chosen few.”
Once she was done, the inbox showed just seven new messages remaining.
The first message was titled “Hazardous Flora & Fauna Safety Protocols – 2396 Update (Overdue) – Second Notice.” She didn’t bother opening it. She tagged it for later and moved on.
The next was another training notice “Mandatory Annual Ethics & Conduct Refresher – Due in 7 days.” She opened it just long enough to skim the brief description and read the last line...Estimated Completion Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes.
Nyla sighed, closed it, and tagged it for later as well.
The next message was a Survey Data Packet from the T’Rane Cluster. Without opening it, Nyla dragged it into her Review folder. That could wait. Definitely not something she was tackling right now.
The next message was from a familiar name. Someone she’d gone to school with and later worked alongside. Dr. Elyra Norwood. The subject line read "You still owe me that Aldebaran whiskey, Thane."
Nyla paused. The weight of those words settling in instantly. Elyra had never once invokved the whiskey in all the year's they have known each other. Not when she need a favor, a data review, and not even when she outright needed resuce from a professional mess. If Elyra was using it now, it wasn't for something trivial. Nyla took another sip of her tea. She finished the cup. She then leaned forward placing it on the floor near the sofa. She settled back in her seat. And opened the message.
The message was short. Elyra had been working a survey when she stumbled across something that looked like a vault. Ancient, alien, and sealed tight. No known language matched the symbols carved into its surface. She wasn’t even sure it was meant to open, but if it did, brute force wouldn’t be the way. She wanted Nyla’s eyes on it.
The message closed with a promise...she’d be sending over every image, scan, video, and scrap of documentation she’d collected so far.
Nyla immediately glanced at the timestamp. The message had come in just over two hours ago. She backed out to her inbox, scanning for the promised files, but there was nothing. She frowned.
She stared at the screen for another moment, the other unread messages now little more than background noise. Her mind was already on Elyra's discovery. Finishing the inbox could wait.
She set the device down on the coffee table. She stood up from the sofa and made her way into the bedroom. A loose shirt and underwear were fine for lounging, but not for going out. She put on a comfrotable set of dark trousters and a fitted jacket. She tied her hair back into a neater ponytail. She glanced in the mirror. Not for vanity, but habit.
She stepped back into the living area. Her satchel waited by the sofa. She slipped the strap over her in one smooth motion. Her eyes drifted towards her computer device on the coffee table. For a moment, her hand started to reach for it. An instinct to check once more for the promised files. She stopped herself. It has only been a few minutes. The station would still be there when she came back, and so would the messages. At least she hoped.
She turned, and headed out of the quarters.
A post by
Dr. Nyla Thane
Deputy Director of Science, Exploration, and Archaeology
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