Unofficial Literary Challenge #23: Battle Scars

Your captain's been picked for one of those uglier details - post battle analysis, Is it an ancient battlefield long-ago, between two empires whose names have been long-forgotten (though sometimes the weapons are still active!) or is it search and rescue following the latest strike against the enemies of your captain's government? Are there survivors? Did the captain have relationship with the combatants (friends, rivals, even an old enemy that someone else got the killing blow on). Or will the captain have to give testimony at a board of inquiry?

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It might be the starboard latch that keeps the Captain's Gig snug against the primary hull, a tractor beam that shorts out every time the target is at 4.3 km from the ship, or a sensor pallet that just won't stop sending feedback into the primary deflector array. It could be the torpedo launcher's exhaust drives the internal temperature up 10 degrees on Deck 7, or perhaps the phaser array's coolant keeps leaking into crew quarters, ruining the carpet.

Or maybe the replicators just can't make a good pie.

Something keeps breaking down, over and over and over...

What aspect of your ship has your Chief Engineer cursing the day they put on the gold? What component does your captain not rely on because it keeps breaking down? What makes the Science Division create a backup repair tool made of tricorders, duct tape, and 30 year old Romulan Ale?

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After being severely wounded on an away mission you will never be the same, you lost use of your right arm, a deep gash in your forehead stares at you in the mirror everyday. You are grateful to be alive, through the nightmares and horrors of your memories you contemplate "is it all worth it?" Sometime afterword on a First Contact mission you encounter a race with remarkable healing abilities which could heal your wounds fully. However you thinking back you weigh the pros and cons of asking for help, Do the scars define you or are you above them? Does this solve your trauma or only mask it?

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The Tholians, one of Star Trek's most mysterious species. One minute they're trading peacefully with the Romulans, the next they're kidnapping Constitution-class starships into alternate realities. And what we know about them could be written on one sheet of paper with space remaining: they live on Class Y planets and they like spinning webs.

But what's their deal, really? Let's see what happens when your captain gets embroiled in Tholian matters.