Enter Sandman

Posted on Sunday, 27 September 2020 - 2:02pm by Captain Barret Stillwater & Lieutenant Talarn Zilth & Lieutenant T'Lanna Vali & Lieutenant Alex Kingsley

Mission: Operation: Dreamweaver
Location: Lieutenant Vali's Quarters
Timeline: MD 6

Commander Barret Stillwater had been up for more hours than he cared to admit, crippled by fear and worry as his crew complement slowly yet steadily diminished. He had already lost several members of his ship's Senior Staff. His First Officer had been taken. His Chief Operations Officer and Chief Engineer were taken as well. His Chief Medical Officer had now been taken, and he watched along with several other witnesses as his ship's Security Investigations Officer was ripped from Stillwater's Ready Room by some sort of transporter of sorts, a technology that was still unclear to him.

T’Lanna was sitting on her sofa pouring over files of the missing trying to find something, anything that could help. She hadn’t slept properly in days and she was fighting a loosing battle against the need to sleep. Her eyelids slowly closed as she succumbed to the need to rest as she lay down on the sofa. It wasn’t long before she was jerked awake by the same sensation that she’d sensed in the torpedo bay, she screamed trying to get help as she found herself being pulled away from her sofa.

At first, Stillwater thought he was dreaming, nodding off, and that leaving his quarters for a stroll had been a dream. Had he been taken? He was already on high alert, but when the sounds of blood-curdling screaming continued, it snapped him to attention. This was not a dream. This was not a nightmare. This was reality and he was awake, at least awake enough to realize that someone was in danger. He immediately picked up the pace, throwing the PaDD he had been carrying aside and sprinting down the corridor.

What the Commanding Officer quickly realized as the screaming drew closer, was that he recognized the voice. He stumbled a bit, tripping over his own feet as he reached the location where the screaming was coming from. It was Lieutenant Vali's quarters. "Lieutenant!" he shouted. "Lieutenant, hang on! I'm coming in!" he shouted, but her quarters were secure, locked, and required his command override to enter the woman's quarters.

It almost sounded as though a small tornado was ripping through the quarters from the other side of the door, but Vali's screaming was as loud, if not louder than the spacial tearing that had occurred. Stillwater had no idea what he was about to walk in on, but he did not have time to waste by calling for security and he did not have time to race to the nearest armory and arm himself. "Computer, command access override to these quarters... authorization Stillwater-Omicron-Red-Zero-Six-Nine" Stillwater said in a quick and stern sequence. He heard the locking mechanism release and the door began to part ways.

No sooner did it begin to open, did he make himself as thin as he could, rushing through the opening with a side step and coming about in the woman's living quarters, finding the woman in question, the Ship's Psychologist levitating up off the sofa and her feet and most of her legs being swallowed up into a glowing white swirling vortex, a spatial rift of some sort that was taking her... pulling her in like a Borg holding beam, and tractoring her forcefully as she fought to grab the arm of the sofa.

He tapped him comm badge as he lept over a small glass coffee table. "Stillwater to Kinglsey, it's happening! Internal sensors on Vali's quarters now!" he shouted over the comm. It felt like a terrible thing to have done as an immediate reaction, but if she and he were going to be taken, this was a rare chance for science to get a scan of an abduction occurring in real time.

There was a slight pause, given the urgent call woke the science chief who had fallen asleep reading through old mission reports in the database. With a harried acknowledgement she made adjustments from her workstation to focus all internal sensors on T’Lanna’s quarters before rushing out of her quarters to try and help her friend.

Stillwater grabbed onto Vali's wrist. "Hold on, Lieutenant... just hold on," he said groaning and grunting as he played tug of war with the spatial rift.

“I’m trying!!” T’Lanna’s gaze was filled with the fear of the unknown as she hung partially in and partially out of the rift. She could feel it pulling her, it’s grip was like a vice and it was slowly tearing her apart. “I can’t... take it... much longer!” She looked at Stillwater. “The pull... it’s so strong! it hurts!”

Stillwater did his best to hold on. "I have you, T'Lanna. I have you," he said trying his best to keep her from being completely swallowed by the vortex, the spatial rift; however, he was genuinely concerned that even his vice grip on her wrist was not going to be enough. She was going to be taken. Stillwater knew it. He knew it was a losing battle, but he was relentless. It was coming down to a decision either he was going to have to let her go or he was going to be taken along with her.

T'Lanna knew what would happen if Stillwater didn't let go. She looked him in the eyes as she spoke. "Let me go, Commander! You don't have any other choice!"

He heard the proximity alert, the door chime. Someone was there. Kingsley... Security... somebody, he did not care who. "Computer, disengage lock and open Lieutenant Vali's quarters," he said quickly.

Outside, Lieutenant Kingsley wasted no time as the door began to open, slipping inside and rushing over to Stillwater's side. While he seemed desperate to keep a hold of her, her friend seemed in genuine pain. "You have to let go," she urged Stillwater, certain he had zero intentions of it. "Doing this could hurt her - or the baby. We will get her back, I promise!"

Stillwater contemplated just going through with Lieutenant Vali; however, it would mean leaving Talarn, and it would mean forcing Kingsley to assume command of the Standing Bear. "I'm sorry. We won't give up... I won't give up," he said as he let go of Lieutenant Vali. He watched as she was quickly swallowed into the Vortex.

He reached to his waist, found that he had a tricorder holstered with him and tossed the tricorder to Lieutenant Kingsley. "Scan it. Scan it before it disappears," he said of the spatial rifts which already looked to be imploding in upon itself.

Alex caught his with one hand, already having her own open and scanning. "I carry one everywhere now," she admitted, as she scanned before frowning, opening his and her fingertips manipulating the controls before tossing it back. "If you have a good throwing arm, Sir... I suggest you send it in after her."

"Varsity quarterback in High School," replied Stillwater. He gave the tricorder a good smooth throw through the buckling vortex, making it through and watching it eventually close up completely. The room became silent, a return to normalcy. "What the hell was that, Lieutenant?"

"A spatial rift, to exactly where, it is hard to say without data from the other side of it, which is why I hope the tricorder survives," the science officer informed him. "I saw another one yesterday, in my quarters just after speaking to Soral's daughter. Grol was there and took readings with a tricorder but we are seeing one part of the picture and how people are being taken seems to vary. Mac, for example, wasn't taken this way."

Commander Stillwater crouched down by the sofa and picked up a PaDD. Lieutenant Vali must have been reading it before all of this had occurred. He tapped his comm badge. "Stillwater to Chief Eyelaya," he said taking a deep breath. "Chief, they are diversifying their tactics. I'm in Lieutenant Vali's quarters with Lieutenant Kingsley. They took Vali... some sort of spatial rift this time."

"On my way, Sir." She grabbed her engineering kit and headed towards Vali's quarters.

Security had undoubtedly been tipped off by now. He knew Talarn as the most recently appointed Chief Tactical Officer would be charging down the corridors on his way. "Stillwater to Zilth, I'm fine. I'm safe, but get your Cardassian ass here pronto."

The door slid open just as Barrett finished his message and Talarn was there, breathless from running, with two other security officers. His eyes met Stillwater's and he breathed a sigh of relief, knowing his husband was alright. His gaze shifted from Barrett to the quickly shrinking portal. "That! What is that? Is that how they're taking people?"

"Sometimes, it would seem," Alex confirmed as she circled around the closing aperture, scanning the entire time. She glanced at Stillwater, "we are starting to get some data back from the other tricorder but that will only last until -"

Behind her the rift closed as if right on cue. "Until that," Alex sighed, seeming all but ready to launch her own tricorder off the nearest bulkhead out of sheer frustration, fuelled in part by exhaustion.

Eyelaya arrived just as the rift was closing. Scanner in hand she began to take readings from the room.

Commander Stillwater shook his head. Another one gone. "Talarn, Eyelaya, continue investigating the quarters. See if you can find anything else. Kingsley, whatever you got from that tricorder reading, take it to a lab and analyze it. I want to know the results as they come in."

“Of course,” Alex nodded as she turned and headed for the door.

Eyelaya gave a nod. "Aye sir."