Red Shirt

Somewhere aboard the starship Meridian, a battle is being fought that has nothing to do with weapons, warp drives, or alien civilizations. It is being fought in a briefing room, over a table, between a captain who needs someone to go to a planet and a crew member who has done the math and would very much prefer not to.Karyna Tesla is a Security and Engineering specialist who is extremely good at her job, has perfect performance reviews, and has not left this ship in three years. This is not a coincidence. This is a system. She has a spreadsheet, a snack drawer, seven sensor windows, a laminated survival protocol currently on version nine, and a small battery operated candle that she will not apologize for. She has looked at the data, drawn the conclusions, and arrived at a position she intends to defend with everything she has, including a working knowledge of Starfleet detention facility accommodations.Her captain thinks she is being difficult. Her colleagues think she worries too much. The new ensign with the permanent grin and seven successful missions thinks the whole thing is genuinely funny.Nobody is entirely wrong. Nobody is entirely right either.What unfolds is an argument about orders, about statistics, about what it means to do your job when your job might kill you, and about whether being the only person paying attention to something makes you the smartest person in the room or just the loneliest one.Funny, sharp, and moving faster than any shuttle headed for a planet surface, this is a story about the one crew member who decided the best survival strategy was simply refusing to play along.