Bravely Forward Towards the Unknown
Posted on Sat Dec 10th, 2016 @ 1:28am by Commander Isabella dei`Silvisi & Captain Alistar McKeon & Lieutenant Jera'turak Ros & Lieutenant Commander Akira-Ri Sato & Lieutenant Kev Walker & Lieutenant JG Fe'cia Niatra & Ensign Matt Connor & Lieutenant T'lon & Lieutenant Élan Val & Civilian Specialist Kaylyn Wolfe & Lieutenant JG Abigail Eidan
1,597 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission: Singularity
Alistar could feel the quiet of the bridge as he walked out of his ready room and towards his command chair. The eyes of the crew were on him, and he knew that the decisions he made today would define the future of the ship and her crew. Sitting down in his chair, Alistar leaned back and sighed. “Report,” he called.
Isabella followed the captain out of his ready room and quietly took her seat. Reaching out between her and Captain McKeon, she activated the command console and frowned thoughtfully as she studied the readings from the sensors. Being a trained in advanced sciences, she had a slightly better idea than the captain on what the anomaly was actually doing, even though like the science department specialists she still had no idea what the thing actually was. Her biggest fear was that the Endeavour would never be able to escape, or worse, they would only to find that the universe around them had changed.
“Shields holding, weapons are on full standby, awaiting your orders, Captain,” Akira reported from her station at security and tactical.
“All science department stations are ready and standing by,” Élan reported from the science station.
“Captain, I feel that I must inform you that since we entered the immediate vicinity of the anomaly, we have not been in contact with Starfleet Command, nor have we been able to access the subspace communications network,” T’lon reported from operations. “My guess is that we are either caught in a bubble created by the anomaly, or the anomaly is interfering with communications.”
“Roger,” Alistar said with a nod. Turning to his XO, he raised his eyebrows. “Any ideas?”
“Going by the readings from the sensors, I’d say that we’re most likely caught within the anomaly itself. Think of it as an egg. The yolk is the main anomaly itself, but there is space between the yolk and the outside of the anomaly, a shell, that separates the anomaly from the outside universe. Sometimes, tiny holes in the shell can form in these types of anomalies and it’s possible that we entered the anomaly itself,” Isabella offered in way of an explanation.
“Similar to one of the anomalies that Voyager encountered when they first entered the Delta Quadrant,” Alistar observed with a grimace.
“Similar, but there are noticeable differences between that situation and our own,” Isabella said. “For instance, there may not even be an escape for us that are possible to identify.”
“Well, it’s going to be interesting, either way,” Alistar said. “Helm, plot a course towards the yolk of this anomaly. Let’s see if we can’t figure out what kind of disturbance we’re dealing with.”
The Endeavour broke from its relative safe parking orbit and slowly banked towards the center of the anomaly. Within minutes, the ship began to shudder under the stress of the ever increasing waves that the anomaly core was sending out.
“Shields holding, but they’re taking a beating. At this rate, the primary shield matrix grid will overload and shut down in less than twenty minutes. The auxiliary matrix will last for an additional seven minutes after that,” Akira reported.
“Sir, I’m having trouble maintaining course and speed. It’s like steering a toy ship in hurricane level waters,” the helmsman added.
“Reroute auxiliary power to engines and shields,” Alistar ordered.
Down in engineering, Jera had been keeping half an eye on the growing situation that the bridge crew had gotten them into. She was an engineer, and for that reason alone she had been staying out of the way. However, this was beginning to be a bit too much for even her to handle. The captain had just ordered the ship to go even closer to the core of an unknown anomaly. “What’s he trying to do, get us all killed?” Jera half muttered.
“Beats me, boss, but I’d feel better if someone was at secondary control just in case something happens,” Kev suggested.
“Are you kidding me, something always happens,” Jera snapped. “Walker, get to the damage control command bay. Miss Wolfe, I’m going down to the control rooms on deck twelve. You’re in charge of engineering until myself or Lieutenant Walker return.”
“Aye, Lieutenant,” Kaylyn responded, trying to hide her nervousness as she slid into the chief engineer’s chair and keyed in her login codes.
Jera paused for a moment to place a reassuring hand on the young cadet’s shoulder before she turned and headed towards the doors. Most people would question her choice to place a fairly new cadet in charge, but Jera knew that the rest of her staff knew their duties, and she had high hopes for the young cadet.
The doors to sickbay opened as Fe’cia hurried through them. She wasn’t sure where else she should be, but there was a high chance that quiet soon there would be more of a need for medics than science personnel and in the event of a medical emergency situation, the Caitian’s secondary specialty was automatically activated. Hurrying over to the chief medical officer, she gripped the edge of a bulkhead railing and growled. “Where do you need me?” Fe’cia asked.
Abigail frowned and almost shrugged. “Honestly, I’m going to need help in here, so I’m putting you on support duty in sickbay,” the medical officer said.
“Understood,” Fe’cia said before she headed over to grab what she needed from the supply closet.
Matt wasn’t sure what he should be doing in such a situation, as a security officer he first priority was the internal security of the ship. There wasn’t an internal security problem, and no special orders were being issued from the bridge. He did the only thing he knew to do: Fall back on the basics and training. “Report to your assigned decks and action stations. I’m heading to deck five to keep an eye on sickbay,” he told the security staff that was present. With that being said, everyone scattered and headed to their assigned stations.
Meanwhile, on the bridge, a fresh bank of alarms rang out across the entire bridge as the ship seemed to hit something solid while cruising at full speed. The force of the impact was enough to throw several people from their seats and onto the floor. A few managed to keep their seats.
“Captain, sensors are detecting an increase of sub-space disruption coming from the anomaly. The wave strength is increasing as well,” Élan reported.
“Confirmed, Captain,” T’lon added.
“Shields are currently holding at seventy two percent, but it won’t take but a few more hits like that to knock them down completely,” Akira warned.
“Divert power from everything except critical shipboard systems to engines and shields,” Alistar ordered. “Are we in weapons range of the anomaly core?”
“Just barely, but yes sir,” Akira replied.
Another wave rocked the Endeavour wildly, throwing the crew about even more. Alistar’s grip on the arms of his chair slipped and he was thrown sideways into the bridge support railing. The impact wasn’t enough to do any damage, but it was enough to knock him out cold.
Isabella felt her eyes widen as she leapt out of her seat and managed to half charge, half stagger to her fallen captain and friend. Falling back on her medical training, she quickly took his critical vitals and released a sigh of relief when she discovered that Captain McKeon was alive. Most likely, he would have a mild concussion and definitely a headache, but he would live. At least, the Endeavour would survive if she could direct the ship to survive over the next several minutes. Standing, she managed to make her way to the captain’s seat and sat down. “Lieutenant Sato, lock quantum torpedoes on specialized setting Alpha Lambda Five and fire a full volley,” Isabella ordered.
The forward torpedo launchers fired, each sending a full volley of four quantum torpedoes. The eight torpedoes had been configured with a specialized setting to detonate in a manner that would hopefully reverse that polarity of the anomaly when they detonated and nullify the anomaly. The projectiles reached their targeted coordinates and detonated, the joint explosion ripping a hole into the forming bubble that somehow existed in both normal space and subspace. The bubble imploded and exploded at the same time, sending out dual shockwaves that were both instant forming and fast moving.
On the bridge of the Endeavour, Isabella’s eyes widened as her brain registered what the view screen displayed for her eyes. “Shields!” she started to shout, but just as soon as she formed the word the shockwaves reached the Endeavour and slammed into the ship with a full furious force that threatened to rip the ship apart. Bulkheads gave way, consoles exploded as power conduits and power lines both overloaded, showering crewmen in sparks. Systems ship wide began to fail as they either overloaded or lost power. Isabella clung to the arms of the command chair as the ship seemed to spin at an excessive speed. A second, bone jarring wave of force seemed to strike the ship and suddenly the Endeavour seemed to be rolling, although it seemed at last as if the effects subsided. Finally, the Endeavour came to settle still, the silence throughout her decks only broken by the occasional bank of alarms that still functioned or the sizzle of sparks as something else overloaded.
To be continued…
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