We're Off To Never Never-Land

Posted on Friday, 9 October 2020 - 6:36am by Captain Barret Stillwater & Commander Soral & Lieutenant Talarn Zilth & Lieutenant Alex Kingsley & Lieutenant JG Adrianna Eberhardt

Mission: Operation: Dreamweaver
Location: USS Standing Bear | Deck 01 | Bridge
Timeline: MD 9

How many have been taken in this region of space and how many were not as fortunate as those who were able to escape or be returned intact from the USS Standing Bear? It was an unsettling thought, but the Standing Bear was not without fatalities from this unethical experience and the Vomnin were in the same boat. Lieutenant Yolen was slain by these Solanogen-based lifeforms, a subspace species who abducted lifeforms from ‘normal’ space, performing experiments on them, some of which were deadly. The removal of organs, the collecting of Borg nanoprobes, and the severance of limbs. Science, surmised Stillwater, but science without the same ethics that the Federation and even species as barbaric as the Klingons adhered to.

Stillwater’s background had been an illustrious Starfleet career in the tactical department, some time in intelligence, and ultimately the years of graying hair had been spent switching over onto the command track. Sciences were never his strong suit. Though he had always held them in high regard and had a lot of respect for science officers; Lieutenant Alex Kingsley had increased Stillwater’s respect and admiration for the sciences tenfold. Had it not been for her scientific prowess, Chief Eyelaya’s ingenuity, and Petty Officer Baciami’s hours spent mulling over Federation reports spanning decades, they would not have come this far.

“Lieutenant Kingsley,” Stillwater said standing from his Captain’s chair. He turned to look over at the woman who had been his Acting First Officer while her husband, Soral, had been missing. She was back behind the science console of the Standing Bear’s Bridge. It had been her research and theories that had led them to the here ad now. “Make it so,” he added with a nod. “Arm your subspace sensor probe with chion particles and launch at will.”

"Aye sir," Alex acknowledged, her back to him as she made the final adjustments and initiated the launch sequence. With one final check of the systems readouts, she initiated the launch sequence. "Probe launch successful, sensors show it is on course..."

It had been determined that the chion particles in the ‘warhead’ of the sensor probe would ignite when struck by the well-targeted quantum torpedo which Stillwater was about to order his husband, the freshly reinstated Lieutenant Talarn Zilth to fire. The reaction would flood a small parcel of space, a safe distance ahead of the starship’s bow with chion radiation. Solanoge-based life forms were in theory, highly vulnerable to chion radiation. The radiation itself would punch small holes into space, creating tiny tears into subspace. This was intended to get the lifeforms’ attention.

“Lieutenant, Talarn… target sensor probe and fire a quantum torpedo at the targeted probe,” ordered Stillwater. His attention was on the viewscreen as he watched the sensor probe.

It was odd to be back in the seat of an official position aboard a starship. Talarn still had mixed feelings, but he wasn't about to refuse the reinstatement. "Aye, Captain. Probe is targeted," Talarn responded, his fingertips clicking softly on the surface of his console. "Torpedo is ready to fire." There was a short pause. "And firing torpedo." He tapped the button that sent the torpedo straight for the probe.

The Commanding Officer felt a smirk tug at the corner of his mouth as he watched the destruction of the probe, this time intended. Only a few moments later, a pocket of light… the size of a small orb appeared, and a beam of light shot from it and encased the starship. The USS Standing Bear began to shake violently much like a moderate Earthquake. It had knocked Stillwater off balance and onto the deck floor, but he was quick to stand up and take a seat in his chair.

He watched the viewscreen go from the flash of light to a completely static fuzz which intensified the illumination of the darkened starship bridge. The haunting sound of clicking noises reverberated throughout the bridge. It was as though being in an Academy auditorium full of crabs, snapping their pincers together in unison at first, then there was a sort of rhythmic chant to it, no words at least not in the Humanoid sense. What the hell is that, thought Commander Stillwater.

"Barrett..." Talarn said softly, forgetting for a moment that he should be calling Barrett "captain" on the bridge. He was looking around as if the sound would bring intruders as well. He even pulled a phaser, the hair standing up on the back of his neck. "Barrett... They're heeere..."

Stillwater arose from his seat once more. It was evident that either these beings were present, or they had hijacked their way through the comm system which given the static fuzz of the viewscreen, Commander Stillwater was inclined to suspect the latter. They were up to something...Communications probably; but was it threatening or something else. That, he did not know. "I don't speak crustacean," he said looking around the bridge of the Standing Bear. "But I suspect we have their attention now. That chion radiation should have been like tossing a lobster into some boiling water, and right now I'm in the mood to get my bib."

"I'd settle for headphones and a very loud playlist," Lieutenant Kingsley countered as she made a slight adjustment to the comms system to try and dampen the noise. Not only was it loud it was... creepy. The kind of noise you could never unhear. She glanced at the sensor readings, "but yes, we have their attention - there is a build up of Tetryon particles around the ship but no readings inside the ship."

She hoped it would stay that way.

Baciami frowned at her stomach rumbling, suddenly feeling the desire to devour a crate of calamari or better yet, crab ravioli. Coming to her senses she smiled as she picked up a rhythm and starting humming along to the clicks. It was a familiar tune to her.

"Lieutenant," Stillwater said to Kingsley. "You had something about graviton particles being able to seal rifts that these...things cause, the spatial tears they use to cross into our space from their layer of subspace" he said uncertain about the science behind it, but going with it. "Could we reverse that process? Could we emit antigravitons and create a spatial tear?"

“You want us to tear a hole in subspace?” Alex clarified, clearly unsure she had heard him properly. His expression told her she had understood perfectly. “I can make adjustments to the main deflector to give us the power we would need... but yes, in theory. Especially now there is a rift from the torpedo... I need five maybe ten minutes max in deflector control...”

Stillwater grunted and nodded. "Hop to it," he said swiftly. "Take anyone you may need from Ops or Engineering to assist. I want to open up a hole large enough for the Standing Bear. They tore holes into our space to take our people, and they killed Yolen. It's time we pay them a visit. 'Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences' and right now it's time to lay out the spread."

“I can do it,” Deeson piped up from Ops. While new aboard she brought a wealth of engineering experience.

“Then you are with me,” Alex nodded as she led the way towards the turbolift. As the doors began to close she called back. “One starship sized tear in subspace coming right up.” For Yolen.

Soral had oddly been quiet during this time. He was still dealing with many things. The doctors had patched him up yes but with the promise that he would return. He understood Stillwater's actions, but there were some crew that were still there and that would never be retrieved. He saw this as a personal failure. "Sir, they are very resourceful. I recommend when we're done we launch a warning marker."

"I can guarantee you, Commander Soral, that I will ensure this area has a dozen buoys spanning a few sectors" replied Stillwater. "Between us and the Vomnin, we will have the Federation update the star charts and place heightened warning for this region."

A few minutes later and the comm system activated, "Kingsley to Bridge, we are ready to initiate the deflector on your order, Sir."

"Understood. Activate the modifications made to the deflector," he instructed to Kingsley. "Helm, prepare to take us in."

Within the confines of Deflector Control, Lieutenant Kingsley glanced across at Petty Officer Deeson. The Trill cast an eye over the readings on final time before nodding, signalling they were still good to proceed. In truth, while she could have navigated the safety overrides and adjustments, Alex had been grateful to have the extra pair of eyes and someone to bounce her calculations off of, as well as the computer. They wanted a rift big enough for a ship to traverse, not to create a chain reaction that would be catastrophic.

Now that would be a sure fire way to a court martial if ever she heard it.

"Here goes," she said under her breath as she initiated the programme, the noise in the small space on the verve of painful as power built up before a beam seemed to lance out from the deflector dish into the region of space directly ahead which had already been subjected to the detonation of the probe a short time before. As a weakened point, it was a logical and easier target.

"It's working," Deeson observed from the workstation beside her, "the rift is expanding..."

"Deeson, there is a power drop off -"

The Operations officer's hands flew over her console, quickly tracing the problem. "An EPS relay is failing, re-routing now, but we can't maintain this without losing some more."

"We are almost there..." Alex watched as the output from the deflector stabilised and then gradually increased, monitoring the resultant tear they had made. She hoped whoever was at the helm wasn't having an off day. "Kinsley to the Bridge, it may be a tight squeeze but we wont get much more out of the deflector without risking a burn out."

"Understood," Stillwater replied. "We can't risk losing the deflector. Proceed," he added. "Talarn, red alert. Auxiliary power to shields... reinforce them."

Talarn tapped at his control panel and the lighting all around them dimmed, turning a red hue and blinking, along with the lighting came the general red alert announcement from the computer. "Red alert activated, Captain. Transferring auxiliary power to shields now." There was a short pause. "It should effectively strengthen our shields by 45 percent."

"Excellent," replied Stillwater. "Time for us to pay our neighbors a visit "