The Pioneer Paradox
Posted on Mon May 20th, 2024 @ 12:44pm by Lieutenant Commander Alyssa Maren & Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Tremble
Edited on on Mon May 20th, 2024 @ 9:11pm
0 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
Episode 15 - The Evil That Lies Beneath
Location: Whereabouts Unknown
Timeline: MD005 0600 hrs
Alyssa wasn't finding the answers she wanted from her office. She needed to get to the bridge and run some scans to see if she could pick up anything to let her figure out what was going on. The ship was eerily empty, but she could sense Neil was somewhere on the ship, but she wanted to have something concrete before looking for him.
She grabbed her away bag and headed for the bridge.
Neil blinked. In between the blink and the lights cycling he felt what best could be described as a brain freeze.
Like eating too much really cold ice cream when he was a kid.
Or not a kid, like that time on Proxima. With the twins.
Then he was falling and landed on the deck in a random hallway. He rolled slowly over and pushed himself up into a sitting position. The pain faded and he felt at his nose as his lips tasted blood and his fingertips came away with stained red. Ignoring that he blinked and his contact attempted to reset and link to the ships network. For some reason it was having problems. Closing his eyes, he leaned his head back against the bulkhead and gave his own system a few beats to reset.
He was bleeding, so he was still alive. Everything else could shake out from there.
Right?
Neil listened to the ship as his heartbeat (and the throbbing in his head) quieted. He could smell the slight whiff of cleaning fluids and ozone from the atmospheric refresher. Climbing to his feet he opened his eyes. His contact was still unable to link to the computer's net and he frowned. He wasn't sure what had happened or how he'd gotten wherever he was. But if he was aboard the Pioneer, his contact should be linking into the network. It was hardened to take almost any kind of shock save him losing the eye. But any piece of equipment can fail. Looking around he found himself outside of Marine Country and made his way toward the blast doors, but they were sealed.
"Computer," he said, "Why is Marine Country sealed?"
"Blast door's X22, sealed per order of Major Cornelius Tremble. Marine Country is under level one lockdown do to power-core leakage in the weapons locker. The area has been evacuated and containment protocols in place." Frowning, Neil looked around. There should be personnel here, turning he said, "Computer where the hell are my Marines." Idly, he checked and his nose had quit bleeding. "All Cure Personnel are currently aboard the Pioneer." The computer told him.
Swearing Neil glanced around again and turned for the turbolift.
Alyssa hadn't felt this alone in a long while and she didn't like it. She could almost hear whispers where there were none. What happened to everyone, and why was her computer not working? She pushed the button for the turbolift and bounced on her toes, eager to start scanning. If she couldn't find what she wanted on the bridge, she'd head to astrometrics and use the long-range sensors.
Then the door to the turbolift opened. "Major Tremble?" He didn't look good. His face and the front of his uniform were bloody. She quickly stepped in. "Are you okay?" Then she shook her head. "Obviously not. What happened?" She pulled out a handkerchief from her bag and handed it to him.
Taking the proffered handkerchief, Neil said, "Thanks. Apparently my nose got too close and I got thumped. But I'm fine." With his contact continuing to not be able to connect, he dismissed that from his HUD. "Somehow, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. Seen anyone. Or anything else, for that matter?"
"At the moment, I only sense the two of us. One of the perks of being a telepath, if you can call it that. I was talking with Rowena and made a comment about the number of legends and myths that refer to non-corporeal entities possessing someone and she started to say something about being right, but disappeared before she completed what she was saying. I'm heading to the bridge to do some scans of the area. My computer isn't working right."
Side-glancing Pioneer's CSO, Neil glanced at the handkerchief and gave up, tucking it away in a sleeve. He was used to being bloody. "I was talking to Rowena in Marine Country when the deck dropped out from under me. So, I believe she's the common denominator. Either she's a bad actor that slipped past fleet screenings and fit tests. Or something is encouraging bad behavior.
He ran his fingers through his hair as he thought and tapped his comm badge. The comm made a crinkling noise, indicating it wasn't picking up the ships network either. "Something is definitely messing with the ship systems. So. Yeah. Good call. The bridge. The Commodore's been a few bubbles off true lately too. Maybe he and Rowena got some bad fish."
Alyssa shook her head. "I haven't seen the captain recently. I've been spending most of my time in science. I don't think the lieutenant has been like this the whole time she's been in Starfleet. There's something...off...about her. I didn't notice it before. To be honest, I didn't really notice it until that last conversation before she disappeared." She hesitated a moment and looked around. "Or I did. It's odd that we're the only two here. I'm hoping the sensors can give us some clues." She again focused on Neil. "Do you need any help before we go to the bridge?"
"No, I'm good to go," Neil replied as he mulled over her report. "First things first. We check the bridge, find out if there's a reason we're only getting partial access and various systems aren't working. We need a picture of what's actually happening before we can fix it. And make sure what we're seeing is actually what's there."
"Agreed." She felt better, knowing she wasn't alone in this...whatever it was. She glanced at him again to be sure he was really okay, then told the computer to take them to the bridge. "We'll find something. There have to be answers, right?"
She mentally reviewed everything she could remember from the conversation with Rowena as the turbolift continued to the bridge. When the door opened, she stepped off and headed for the science station. "I'll run some scans and see if the ship ran into any anomalies that would explain the computer malfunctions." She hoped there would be some quick answers, but, in her experience, the solution would be far more complicated.
Neil trailed after Alyssa, tracking the empty bridge stations, He sniffed the air again and scowled. "Smells like too much ion in the air exchangers. That usually only happens when there aren't as many crew aboard as the computer thinks there's going to be and it takes a few hours to compensate as it cycles. He made his way to the Operations console and began running a self-diagnostic on it. Nav controls have us we're roughly where supposed to be, in the Acom Nebula. Readouts all nominally normal. Just no crew and I'm getting an odd feedback from the sensors."
"Yeah. It's all a bit...odd. I'm going to start with a general sensor sweep to see if there are any spatial anomalies or unusual radiation signatures that could account for..." She paused. "I'm not sure what. There has to be a scientific reason for what's going on." She watched the sensor data scrolling across the science console. "There are an unusually large number of tachyon particles."
She ran an analysis of the data to look for any comparisons. There was one, but when she tried to get more information, she got an error. "The computer appears to be affected by whatever anomaly caused the abundance of tachyon particles." She turned her full attention to Neil. "What sort of odd feedback are you getting?"
Neil had moved to the Cure's mission station and had sat at the pull out chair. "Power around the nacelles is typically a constant, and is modified by damping fields to sluff it out past a ships shielding. Right now, however, it's fluctuating past what's typically normally and we should be getting an alert that somethings out of whack. Op's is saying everything is good but he Engineering repeater I'm looking at through Damage Control is showing the fluctuation."
"Comm's continually track everyone aboard and adjust life support backups accordingly. If, say crew were to congregate in a particular corridor, that space becomes a haven and the computer marks it as a Safe Haven in the advent of an emergency. There are some odd ghost readings that come and go too fast for the computer to feel like it has to compensate." Sitting back on the saddle type chair, Neil crossed his arms and looked over at Alyssa. "No idea what that means though."
That's definitely concerning. Could the ship have fallen through a temporal or dimensional rift or anomaly? that would account for the tachyon particles, the database errors and the power fluctuations. Only, wouldn't there be something else to indicate what happened?" She began another sensor sweep, this time to ascertain their location and if the ship had moved from its previous flight path.
"There just isn't enough information. Yet. Astrometrics might be able to give us more information on our location." But first, Alyssa wanted to check a few more things on the bridge. She went to the communications station and began a search for anything in the most recent transmissions. "Is there anything else you want to check while we're here?" She wondered if they could get any more information from the backup computer.
Neil folded his arms and scowled at the empty bridge. "This is feeling like a bad dream. But, there is one thing to try..." Neil stepped over to helm control and began putting in commands, leaning over the console as he brought up coordinates. It only took him a few seconds and he tapped at the helm control.
Nothing happened. "Well, even though the helm controls aren't locked, they're not accepting my override to take us back to Empok Nor. That shouldn't happen." He straightened and turned to Alyssa, "Whatever's going on. We won't find a solution here. At least not any solutions I can think of."
"No. The tachyon particles are concerning, but I need to see what Astrometrics picked up from the long range sensors. I'm hoping that, in addition to the tachyon particles, will give us some idea of where everyone went--and why the ship isn't responding as it should."
She looked at him a moment. "And we should stop by sickbay to get you fixed up."
"I'll find a fresher station along the way," Neil told her as he stepped toward the lift doors. "Probably wouldn't hurt to make sure the ship's plumbing is online as well."
A Joint Post By
Major Cornelius Tremble
Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Commanding Officer, The Cure
Lieutenant Commander Alyssa Maren
Chief Science Officer, USS Pioneer
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