Get Lost

Posted on Sun Sep 29th, 2019 @ 9:36pm by Captain Gary Alexander & Lieutenant Commander Nicholas Kincaid & Lieutenant Ciara Perlit & Lieutenant Fiona Stanzel & Lieutenant JG Alexandra Campa & Lieutenant JG Serenity Hayes & Lieutenant JG Jennifer Bullock & Karina Tell

3,100 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Mission 1 - Leaving Sigma Iotia II
Location: Horizon Bridge
Timeline: 2168/07/25 1715

The Horizon crew, safely back aboard, Gary strode up to the bridge, expecting his senior officers to take their appropriate stations. He dismissed the covering bridge officer and sat back down in the Captain's Chair.

As the first string crew arrived, Talia Flowers stood from the Comms and nodded at her Captain and her direct supervisor before leaving the Bridge.

Smugly, he smiled at the crew, his libido having been sated but not his quest for exploration. He hit the comm button on his chair and told his crew, =^= All stations please check in and confirm that all personnel are aboard and ready for departure. =^=

KAT stood near the entry point of the Bridge, observing and logging actions as she ensured all details were captured for posterity. She remained silent and attentive as the Bridge Crew performed their duties.

Jenn made her way to her station and quickly reviewed the information. She did a quick test and confirmed what she already read, that all was green. Bullock then looked up from the console and spoke, "Weapons and shields are ready at your command, Captain."

Alex seated herself once more at the helm and readied her hands on the controls. "Helm is ready at your order, Captain."

“All personnel have checked in,” Nick answered in his role as XO. “Engineering reports that impulse and warp engines are online and ready for your orders, sir.”

"Sickbay is ready." Fiona reported in.

tags - Hayes

Once everyone had checked in, Gary said, "Lieutenant Hayes, please transmit to Starfleet and open internal comms." He then started, "Captain's Log, July 25, 2168. We are currently leaving Sigma Iota II on our continuing mission to explore the galaxy. The Iotians are currently in what would be the equivalent of the Earth's Industrial Age. They are highly intelligent and inquisitive people. They take great interest in us and seem to imitate much of what we do here. If imitation is the highest form of flattery, we certainly have had plenty. The stay has been pleasant but now we shall head towards the edge of the galaxy. I am anxious to see what else awaits us." With that, Gary gave a nod at Serenity to end the transmission and he closed the ship wide comms.

Serenity did as ordered, recording the transmission and sending it back to Earth via the nearest transmission buoy. Ordinarily, the buoy would give a positive response back, indicating that the message was sent, and when that didn't happen she frowned and tried again. With two negative responses indicating a problem, she sent the recorded message via radio transmission and then spoke up. "Captain," she said, "I'm not receiving a response from the transmission buoy. Message sent via radio but Starfleet won't receive that for something like ... a hundred years?"

Gary turned to his communications officer. "What do you mean that you are not receiving a response from the buoy?"

"The buoy isn't responding the way it's supposed to, Sir," Serenity said. "Usually there's an acknowledgement when a message goes through. So, maybe it went through and just didn't answer or maybe there's a problem with buoy. It's unclear at the moment."

Looking at his science officer, Gary asked, "Can you diagnose the subspace buoy? Do we need to send out a repair team?"

“Captain,” Nick added, “in twenty minutes I can have a team ready to repair the buoy. It might take us a few hours once we’re there though, depending on what’s wrong, exactly.”

Ci turned and looked over the diagnosis, but took an extra moment to re-run them before looking back to Gary. "Ze subspace buoy...is not there. It is gone."

Gary looked over at Nick and asked, "If it is gone, how can you repair it?" He then turned his head towards Ci and asked, "Are you certain that your equipment is not malfunctioning? Run a diagnostic."

Nodding, Ci rand the diagnostic. "I wish my equipment was malfunctioning, but ze buoy is just gone..."

“I probably can’t,” Nick answered with a smirk. “Tactical, can you get a fix on where the buoy should be?”

Fiona rubbed her hands as she walked off the Bridge Turbolift and onto the Bridge. She noticed the flurry of activity around her, and elected to stand back for a moment to see if she could get a sense or what was going on.

"I can get a fix on where the buoy should be... but it's clearly not there, and I am not picking up any signs of debris", Jenn replied carefully reviewing her tactical scans.

KAT wondered if it was the buoy or the ship that had gone missing. She looked at the viewscreen trying to get a fix on some recognizable stars or a star system, wondering what, if anything, had happened to displace them.

Or the buoy.

But the Crew seemed to have a fix on things, so perhaps it was her eyes playing tricks on her as she moved quietly forward towards the Helm.

The buoy had been place on the far side of Sigma Iota's solar system from Earth. The idea was that it would be a booster between Horizon and wherever near the galaxy wall that it ended up. The Captain's easy speech fell away, as his business voice took over ordered his crew. Though the Captain might have a playboy mentality, nothing interfered with the safety of his crew. "Very well. We need to investigate this. Campa, get us over to where the buoy was. Perlit, look for any clues as to what might have happened to the buoy. Any unusual readings of any kind. KAT, I want you to record everything that we are doing right now and have it immediately transmitted to Hayes. I am aware that the signal will take something like a century to get back home but if there's anything unusual, hopefully someone will be informed about it before they get here, if we do not manage to survive. Kincaid, I want you down in Engineering, now. If there's anything that requires a miracle, I'm going to need you down there to perform it. Bullock, place us on yellow alert."

“Aye, sir,” Nick said as he vacated his station and went into the turbolift. The door closed behind him and he made his way to engineering.

'Aye, sir," Alex said just as quickly as she worked her controls. She guided the ship to where the buoy should be and yet wasn't. Still a young officer, she couldn't completely keep the worry from her face but her focus remained on her duty.

Talia was in the mess hall when the alert sounded. Grabbing all of her paperwork and pushing her hair back into a fluffy ball of wispy goodness, she moved quickly to her quarters.

She was off shift, and clearing the corridor unless specifically called for would keep everyone out of the way for rapid responses from the correct personnel. Which was not her... unless of course, they needed something translated...

Gary stared out the Horizon's window, practically daring whatever intercepted the buoy to show itself.

With a heavy sigh, Ciara went back through the previous sensor logs, trying to see if anything odd appeared that she or her team may not have caught previously.

Bullock had tapped the controls on her panel and a dim yellow light started flashing throughout the ship while the typical lighting was still on. The ships shields also activated and auxiliary power also built up to transfer to weapons upon the shift to red alert. She refrained from saying anything since it was obvious to everyone that the ship had gone to yellow alert.

"The Medical Bay is good to go Captain." Fiona stated as she tried to be reassuring.

"Thank you, Doctor. Hopefully we won't need you," Gary replied, waiting for something to happen. Anything....

“Engineering to bridge,” came Nick’s voice through the intercom. “Kincaid here. Engines are primed and ready to go upon your orders. Additional power for defensive systems can be made available on your orders.”

Tilting her head to the side, "Captain, the sensors show a radiation spike from beyond the buoy. Almost as if..." Ciara stopped for a moment before turning to him, "Time and space distorted, badly, for a few moments..."

Alex was waiting for the captain's orders but she made a few adjustments to ensure she could give him full reverse immediately if he needed it.

KAT's eyes widened slightly at the reports she was recording, her own thoughts overshadowed by the happenings on the ship. Time and space? Distorted? How... what... who? KAT's legs felt a little shaky as she leaned on the console to steady herself.

Slowing her breathing and flexing her fingers, she concentrated on the present and stopped trying to outguess the future. They were all in this together and working exactly that way to figure out what was happening.

She wrote. Not just for the ship but also to keep herself focused. And her state of mind poured out into her observations while keeping her face as serene and calm as possible.

Gary considered the possibilities and came up empty. "We are here on a mission of exploration and discovery. Campa, take us in at half impulse. Perlit, I want you to keep scanning in that area. If anything so much as whispers from there, I want to know about it. That goes double for you, Bullock. Keep a wider scan to see if there's any other ships or hostiles. Hayes, was there a particular signature or frequency on that buoy? Should there not be a way to trace it?"

Nodding, Ciara kicked up the scans of the area. Something was off here, and she didn't like it. She frowned at the scans. "I'm reading a small bit of the distortion, but it iz gone again. I'm not sure why it iz doing zat."

"Perhaps if we get closer, we can get better readings," Gary offered. He then ordered, "Helm, take us closer, three quarters impulse."

"Three quarters impulse," Alex said as she took the ship forward slowly.

"The buoy is completely offline," Serenity said after a moment. "Ordinarily, it transmits a passive signal to vessels in range. Its side of the handshake." She frowned and shook her head. "Its not doing that which means ... its either offline for some reason or no longer there."

Though not liking that they were moving closer, Ciara kept an eye on the readings. As they moved closer, the readings started to increase. "I..don't think we should be doing this."

"Give me a basis for that, Perlit," Gary ordered. "What are you seeing?"

"I'm showing an increase in my distortions as we get closer. I suggest we back off!"

"Is the increase in the distortions because we're getting better readings closer or because of something that we are doing?" he wondered aloud. Considering the matter for a split second, Gary decided, "Campa full stop."

"Full stop," Alex said as she worked her controls, cutting all acceleration and then using perfectly calibrated reverse thrusters to stop the ship's forward momentum.

The moment that Horizon stopped, a faint pink cloud appeared just outside one AU of the ship. The swirls of the cloud seemed to be disappearing inside a point. That point seemed to be the source of the time and space distortions. Despite Horizon having stopped, the distortions became harsher.

“Bridge!” came Nick’s voice over comms. “A strange pressure is being applied to our structural integrity field. It’s as if an extraordinary force is pulling us somewhere, but it’s...different. It’s as if the layer of space below ours is tugging at us. The actual hull isn’t being affected. Just the SIF.”

Jennifer tapped away at her panel, "I'm re-calibrating the deflector screens to try to repel any thing that may be repel-able." She tapped feverishly at the console and then spoke up again, "Ok that's not working. We could try firing a torpedo ahead of us and see if the antimatter explosion frees us from whatever this is?"

"We're not pulling away. We're being pulled in!" Ciara looked back over to the view screen, "Zat cloud...that iz what iz giving off ze readings!"

Gary called out, "Full reverse! Engineering, time to earn your money! Give us everything that you've got! Lieutenant Bullock, fire a torpedo into that thing. I want to break its grip!"

"Full reverse!" Alex called out, glad that she had kept that programmed in. It was a single flip of a switch.

“Full power to reverse thrust, aye!” Nick closed the channel and looked to his team. “You heard the man! Increase matter and antimatter flows to one hundred and ten percent allowable!”

“But sir!” replied one engineer. “At those flow rates the risk of loss of antimatter containment is—”

“Tripled, I know, Petty Officer,” Nick said. “But if we don’t break free we’re dead anyway. Possible death is better than certain death. Now move!”

The warp core hummed more loudly and at a higher pitch than normal. Its whine was almost deafening. “Bridge! You have everything I can give you!” He had to yell to hear himself.

"Red alert!" Gary barked at his crew, maintaining his control. "Status on that torpedo?"

"I just figured configuring the war head captain", Bullock replied, "Firing now." She tapped at her controls and the torpedo erupted from the tube like rage and hate it self wrapped in a small metal projectile.

The crew of Horizon watched as the torpedo interacted with the thing. There was no earth shattering kaboom or reaction of any kind. In fact, it just looked as if the torpedo was sucked in.

"Kincaid, if you're holding a miracle, I need it now!"

Nick took a deep breath. “I’m sorry Captain. This is everything the ship has and then some. There’s no more miracles to spare.”

"Ms. Hayes, send a message to Starfleet. Let them know that we are trapped and are not likely to survive. Warn them against this anomaly so that future ships have no issues."

"Aye, Sir," Serenity said. She sent the message, part report and part warning, and felt the finality of the act reverberate through her being.

Gary looked at his crew and took the comm, =^= Crew, this is Captain Alexander. We are trapped within some sort of anomaly. Pulling against it is not saving us and we are ripping apart the ship by continuing. I want you to know that there is not a lot of hope of survival. Our torpedo was ineffective and we cannot blast free. Therefore, I am going to order the ship to fly into this anomaly. I know we would not survive continuing to pull against it but there is the slimmest of hopes that we will if we fly through. Before I give that order, though, you have sixty seconds to say whatever prayer or other words that you might. If we do not survive, I want you to know that it has been a pleasure serving with you all. Perhaps we will suffer a better fate wherever we end after all of this.=^=

Serenity closed her eyes against the pain and willed away the tears that threatened to spill. She thought about all the people she was leaving behind. Her sisters. Her mothers. She thought about the dream she and her sisters had shared -- of buying back their ship, traveling again. And felt it all slipping away. She had little faith in this Captain or in his ability to see them through. She felt the pain settle in, warp around her heart, as she watched her console. "Message is away, Sir," she said after a moment.

Ciara tried to watch the readings on her sensors, but they were just making her heart fall. How were they going to get out of this? Everything seemed impossible. Her mind wandered, back to Earth, back to France. She just shut her eyes and shook her head.

Out of ideas Jennifer started converting weapon power to shields, "Captain, I'm dumping our weapons power into shields. It's clear we can't shoot our way out of this, but maybe the shields can keep us alive long enough to think our way out."

Nick looked at his team in the engine room, all of whom stopped their work to look at him. “Ladies and gentlemen, in case we don’t make it out of this, I want you to know it’s been an honour serving with you all. And I’d we fall, let’s fall at our posts, like professionals.” He spared a thought to his parents and siblings. Family he would probably never see again, before he returned to the master engineering terminal and kept engine power stable as they steered directly into the anomaly.

The Engineering department, like elsewhere on the ship, was tense. The crew stayed at their posts but may were holding their breath.

Gary turned his attention to his helm officer, "Good anticipation, Bullock. Do what you can to keep them up. Let's take every non-critical system and dump it into the shields." Gary called out to engineering over the comm, =^= Give all non-critical systems over to the shields. =^=

Fiona gripped the console as the ship started to vibrate, seemingly uncontrollably. "Well this is fun" She grumbled as the ship lurched some more.

"That's seems to be helping some, and it's definitely keeping the hull from collapsing. As long as the weapons are online we can continue to dump that power into shields", Jenn explained.

"Good, Bullock. I want everything sacrificed to keep us in one piece if necessary." Gary left the comm open as he insisted on it. "Did you hear that Kincaid?"

“Yes, sir,” Nick replied, though the signal was getting choppy. “You might feel a bit light on your feet. If I’m leeching power from everything, that will include grav plating and possibly air recyclers. Hold your breath if things get stuf—” The comm signal to engineering cut abruptly as power was drained from internal comms.

"Hold on to your seats, folks," Gary told his bridge officers. "We're going to become Jonah," making reference to the large fish that swallowed the man in the Biblical story.

Horizon started to dart into the anomaly. Time stretched out. Words seemed to elongate and were spoken like sap dripping from a tree in winter. White light surrounded all areas of the ship. Horizon shook angrily but seemed to be holding, against all odds.

 

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