When It Rains...
Posted on Thu Mar 31, 2022 @ 3:52pm by Captain Larisna Koralova & Lieutenant Rei Yamashi & Lieutenant Penny Mc Taggard & Lieutenant Calista Aereen MD & Lieutenant Commander Kaedon Draesni
Mission:
Mission 2 - A World With A Bluer Sun
Location: USS Hornet
The Away Team and their guest were beamed back up to the ship in short order. Just as soon as they did however, the ship shuddered and rocked as if it was now caught in a violent storm.
"Draesni, Yamashi, McTaggard, report to the bridge now," Larisna's voice came over comms, "The situation just changed."
"Aye, captain," Draesni replied, "We're on our way."
Rei heard the call, and gave her reply, "This is Yamashi, on my way." the rabbitess turned to her assistant and gave a nod, "You're in charge until I get back." and with that handoff, she headed towards the bridge.
Meanwhile, medical personnel were quickly arriving to help Doctor Aereen with the unconscious arrival, including an anti-grav stretcher to load him onto and get him to sickbay.
"He's stable from what I can tell, tricorders aren't giving me anything." She said as she followed the team out. "Prep a microcellular scan. He's stunned and pulse is stable."
On the Bridge, the viewscreen told the story before the Captain could. The wormhole was now all the ship could see, somehow the Hornet was caught in it where the ship had been a safe distance away previously.
Larisna turned away from the viewscreen to the returning Away Team. "Give me the short version, please. Because the wormhole suddenly expanded and we're caught in it."
Momentarily caught up in the view of swirling energies visible on the forward screen, Draesni couldn't help but feel there was a certain beauty to the display. He quickly put the thought aside, however, and returned his focus to the matter at hand. "Yes, captain," he said, starting toward Koralova, "We found what appears to have been a Romulan debris field. There was also a damaged shuttlepod from the Atlantis..."
Draesni managed to reach his seat and lower himself into it just as another wave buffeted the ship. With one hand, he reached out and steadied himself against the console. With the other, he held onto his chair. "Three of the shuttlepod's crew were dead," he continued, "but one of them was still alive. Dr. Aereen is seeing to them, now."
"DTI is just going to love this." Larisna shook her head.
Rei braced herself against the back of a chair as the disturbance shook the ship. "You wanted simple, so I guess the best way to go is that's a hole... and something keeps tugging at the edges of the hole. My best guess is the gravity well of the planet. How long that tear in space will exist, that sounds like a sciences question. All I know is being here is bad, but being here when it eventually collapses is worse." she paused, looking away for a moment. She hoped that wasn't too 'talking down'. "At the moment, though, we're dead in the water as they used to say. We have power, we have full impulse, we just don't have momentum. Top theory is that our forward momentum is equal to the wormhole's pull. Hence, stuck. I'll get you something more ferrocrete as soon as I can. What I *can* tell you now is forming a warp field in this proximity to a wormhole is ill advised. The sheering of the wormhole's edge would distort our field, and either cause it to fail in formation, or cause only half of the Hornet to go to warp."
"There's never been a documented success of a warp field of any form between the Dalacari or my people either. Dalacari use similar methods to the Federation for their faster than light travel, while we don't. So, across the board, warp from this close to the hole is a no."
Despite the floor below her feet swaying worse. Then a boat caught in a bad ocean storm Penny made her way to the bridge. She managed to say.
“ Lieutenant McTaggard reporting as……ordered.” She said as Penny stumbled towards the science station.
The science station confirmed what she saw on the main view screen. The Hornet was a lot closer to the wormhole. Then it should safely be. Her hands ran over the console.
The readings that came back added a few creases to her forehead.
“ Sensors are picking up two objects. One looks to be a ship…shape looks like NX class. As for the other…..having problems getting a fix on it. It seems to be in the epicentre of the wormhole…. Getting a lot of interference though. EM possibly temporal plus a few others……but from the limited information I’d say whatever that ship at the epicentre is….. it is the source of the wormhole.” Penny reported
Larisna looked to Rei, "So. In short, our engines can't give us more than the current and warp isn't possible here. Talk about a fine mess. Alright, Helm, bring us back to one half impulse."
The ship stopped rocking quite as much but it was still going against the flow for the moment.
"We're probably too far back from the cause of this, but we need to figure out how to either get it to recede or if we can traverse it. And from where we are, we're not exactly in the best position to answer these questions. Recommendations?" She asked the bridge crew.
"Rig probes with gravimetric charges to try to compress the edge of the wormhole away from us, and then slip away before the edge can reform?" Rei offered. "I'd have to crunch the numbers to know if that's even an option, but it's a thought off the tip of the ears." she offered.
Penny turned to her.
“ If you like I can help you with the calculations. Just to make sure we can do this without decimating not only the Hornet but the planet as well.” Penny suggested
Rei gave a nod, "I'd welcome any help."
Penny gave Rei the thumbs up sign and moved towards her.
“ So where do we start?” She asked Rei
Rei turned to regard Penny. Those eyes, those deep deep eyes. No shine, no reflection, just pools of color as deep as the ocean. They took everything, and gave nothing back. "Well, like a father eager to see their newest son succeed, a little patience for the newborn should be provided." and at that, Rei motioned to the others, "We're still in the midst of a debrief. Though, I can appreciate the enthusiasm."
"Though, to answer your question, we start where all good journeys start: The Beginning. We'd need to find if the solution is even viable. Testing, simulations, perhaps a low scale practical test, but none of that can happen now."
Penny had only been trying to help. Plus the situation could get worse for them. They could end up being pulled in further. All she wanted to do was help to get them to safety as quickly as possible.
=/\= "Sickbay to bridge, our guest is in stable condition, has not regained consciousness and our initial scans are showing some odd blood chemistry. Not a biological threat but I'm trying to determine the cause and if it's impacting their health." =/\= Calista reported from sickbay. She stood by the bio bed checking the readings again. Whatever was in the man's blood had changed the chemistry and was interacting with neurotransmitters in their brain.
Draesni listened as the Hornet's chief medical officer gave her report. The note about 'odd blood chemistry' seemed the most likely explanation why the man had behaved so strangely, though it sounded as if further testing was needed before drawing a final conclusion. Still, the man's situation was stabilized, and with any luck, they might soon be able to learn from him what had transpired.
Unfortunately, it was entirely possible that it wouldn't be soon enough. Draesni braced himself as another wave of energy rumbled through the ship. On the workstation in front of him, the readings from the ship's sensors was not looking promising.
=/\= "Understood, Doctor." =/\= Larisna paused for a moment, =/\= "I'll be by in a few minutes. Koralova out." =/\=
"Okay. Commander, come with me, let's see if maybe we can talk to our guest if the Doctor can help him. Lieutenant Yamashi, you have the bridge. Get to work with your plan, Lieutenant McTaggard, help out however you can." Larisna said as she headed for the turbolift, "And try to get some scans of the ships in front of us. Maybe there's a clue or two there."
The moment Koralova addressed him, Draesni was moving. He secured his workstation, rose to his feet, and followed her toward the turbolift.
"Aye, the bridge is mine." Rei confirmed. After a moment, "I need all instrument data on the wormhole anomaly over the past hour. All scans, all deflector array readings, everything. Miss McTaggard, your help will be very much appreciated in this." she offered, "And, I knew you were eager to help before. I apologize, I'm still a little trapped between the protocol of home and the ... enthusiasm of the Federation. i welcome your help." she said, motioning to the science station near her.
Penny gave her a nod and moved back to the science console.
“ I will give you as much as I can. But we have a major problem there is quite a large amount of interference. Em , also some temporal shifts. A lot of energy waves and gravimetric eddies. Not even the wormhole near Bajor gives off readings like these. This is not going to be an easy task.” Penny warned.
"Hmmm..." the rabbitess struck a thoughtful pose. "Give me a spread of eight probes, have each of their internal clocks synced to the Hornet's internal clock, and outfit two of each of them to scan for one specific type of energy. Two for the Elmag spectrum, two for temporal... this way we can compare the results of each against the other." she outlined, "We'll get a better idea of what's going on once we get a good set of scans from those probes and our own sensors. Once we have a great picture of everything in that wormhole and the wormhole itself, we can plan our next move."
“ Agreed sorting that out now.” Penny replied.
Penny left the bridge to carry out the task.Which did not take very long. Soon she was back on the bridge.
“ All ready to go.” She told Rei.
Everyone had a catchphrase for when their directions were to start. Some said 'Engage' other said 'Make it so'. Rei gave a nod to Penny, "Begin."
Giving Rei the thumbs up Penny pressed a button. Underneath the Hornet a group of probes made their way towards the wormhole.
“ Their away.” Penny informed her.
McTaggard moved over to Rei. With the Hornets proximity to the wormhole. Data started to come on quite quickly. She looked at Rei.
“ So what do yer think?” Penny asked her.
Rei took a look at all the data as it started to pour in. At the core of the readings, at the core of the wormhole there was... "What in jigoku is that?" she motioned to the reading at the core of the wo... and then it was gone. "Hmm, run a diagnostic on the reading. Though, what do you make of that?" Rei motioned to the readings of the other craft in the mix. Between them, and the mysterious disappearing, reappearing craft there was another ship. Far more substantial and far more reliable of a signal.
"Looks like an older class, but these readings don't look that old, do they?" she asked Penny for a consult.
Penny looked at the readings. She ran her hands over the surface of the console.
“ I have never seen temporal disturbances this bad before. That’s probably why the ship appears old but does not scan as. This canna be correct….that ship keeps flitting in and out of our time line. This could be the cause of the wormhole….but I am not sure….readings very sketchy even now. We need the work out a way of getting out of here and soon.” Penny warned
Rei gave a nod, "That older Federation ship there has a positive lifesign reading. Now we have two objectives: See if we can save them, and then save ourselves." she gave a nod to Penny, "Excellent work getting the probes ready."
At the academy Penny was always being warned over the way she showed emotion. Being the voice of doom and gloom may be a family trait. That ran back through the Mores and McTaggards families since the days of the clans. Who ran amok in kilts across the highlands of Scotland. But for a Starfleet cadet that had aspirations of one day being a department head. It was a trait that had to be subdued.
“ Yes. I just wished this wormhole did not seem to be doing it’s best to entrap us forever. These readings are all over the place. It could take weeks just to get a clear reading.” Penny warned
"As you no doubt have guessed, we don't have weeks." Rei countered Penny's doom and gloom with a little of her own, delivered with the formality and precious that comes from centuries of Ts'usugi diplomacy and politics. "Assemble what you can, and prepare to deliver a report to the captain. I want you to become an expert on this phenomenon in the next hour."
"Once we know how it works, we'll know how to overcome it."
Penny looked at Rei and just nodded. Would an hour be long enough?
"Sickbay." Larisna said as soon as the doors shut for the turbolift. There was a chime and the lift started moving.
"Alright. So we have ourselves a guest whom I assume is a member of Atlantis' crew. And the ship itself is right in front of us." Larisna said, "So, Commander, what are you thinking about the situation?"
Draesni considered the information carefully, along what he'd managed to glean from the readouts on his display before they left. At first glance, it wasn't a lot to go off of, but that didn't mean they couldn't work out something from the information they did have. "Definitely some sort of temporal distortion at work," he observed as the lift continued its descent, "The question is...did they come upon it and decide to investigate? Or did it come upon them?"
"Agreed. I'm starting to think we might need to investigate more closely than we think." Larisna replied, "And unless this wormhole gets a lot more stable, we might have a Bozeman situation here..."
