Posted by Ensign Elemirre Serinde (Engineer) in El - Dear Zeffie
Tucked in her small bunk, El pulled out her rather battered diary from under her pillow. Getting herself comfortable she opened it up to a blank page, uncapped her pen and mused. What does one say about these things that happened to them all? She peered through the small port hole to the stars flashing past her in the warp effect. The sound of the ship still didn’t really sound ‘right’ to her ears. There were still things to fix but they were moving and in one piece. She had pulled extra time on the way back to help fix what she broke. With the Chief staying behind on the world and Lt Green down on light duties with his concussion from his fall it fell to El to arrange these things. Bekele was a great help but she could feel Green’s eyes assessing her every choice she made. But that was for another time. Closing her eyes for a moment she began writing, hoping to get it done before her bunkmate got back from her shift.

Dear Zeffie,

My what an adventure we had! And somehow I was in the thick of it. The Chief was sent down to the planet. I still don’t know what happened there exactly. A machine, some cryogenic pods, some daring do by the sounds of it. But I got to the planet too! I wish I knew what you would have done. We got caught in some subspace soup that a machine on a world at war had created – and just appeared out of thin space from – and they were at war! Yes, I’m using too many exclamation marks but this was all so exciting! There I go again.

The world was blowing itself up. North against South. They’d gone not just nuclear but plasma from orbiting platforms. We beamed down – yes, beamed. It was kinda like ants crawling on you for a few seconds and made one want to itch but was caught in the confinement beam. When we got there it was like Earth but not. The language was English like but with another language there too. The people looked like us. We came across two women shot from the ‘enemy’ forces and helped one – a girl named Elm, but her mother died from it.

She wove this tale of a ship named the Greyhound and it’s crew fighting off these others called the Serpents, but in one battle they died trying. The thing was, Zeffie, is that the Greyhound is a ship that was still being built when we launched and they had done this over a century ago their time. What was more, we learned that some of the people on the planet, a MacArm force group was originated from the MACO’s left behind from the Greyhound and the other group from the Science and other groups.

But after we returned back to the Bonnie here everything happened. The team on the planet did something and the subspace soup just melted off. I was heling with a calibration when I saw this big black ship rising from the pole and starting to flash lights. Oh Ziffie it was wild what they were doing. They were using your warp theorems combined in a comms wave to generate a subspace field wave that was burrowing into subspace to who knows where and to who knows who. And it was only a short time before they succeeded.

The team managed to work out a counter plan to pit wave vs wave to nullify it. Basic wave theory combined with trying to flicker the warp bubble and pulse out through the nacelles in the same frequencies. Zeffie, I think I broke the ship doing it. Not bad but enough. Lt Green tried to stop me. Sheesh I’m sounding like some kind of mad scientist out of control girl here now. But he fell and got a concussion. Petty Officer Seifu helped me. But we stopped it from happening! But I don’t know what we stopped and if it was even bad. I think I’m going to be in trouble, but I still think I’m right.

But you know, Zeffie, there is more. The carrier wave, the programming language they used in the formulas, it had power in them. I’m sure they could be used even on our hardware. For what I don’t know yet but I want to see, if I’m not tossed in the brig. Well, if I am I’ll have more time to think about it. Who knows, processing ability maybe, but I’m thinking it could amplify the power outputs from the Cochranes too. All these ideas. What’s a girl to do, Zeffie? We’re heading back to Earth, maybe. Perhaps Vulcan. I don’t really get them. Just my luck we’ll get some on board who are engineers. Shouldn’t curse it, should I? Well, until next time. Night Zeffi!

El

July 2149 .. Dear Zeffie,

I had the strangest dream last night. I woke up when Liz came in from her shift and I’m still trying to wrap my mind around it. It was an impossible dream but oh so dreamy! But you know me Zeffie. I dreamed that we had detected an old radio signal from over a century ago from a crashed old space shuttle. We found it having made a daring landing on a plain and the crew had improvised a power plant with an old mill wheel to run their radio to send out their distress call. It was old. A century and a half ago and what is more, the whole crew there was still alive! They hadn’t aged! It was like they all had the One Ring or something . One by one they came out of the surrounding woods to greet us. Total Robinson Caruso. They had these bugs on the world - big ones with razor like stingers or tails. I’m not sure quite what I ate the night before to have them in the dream!

But it was impossible. Something like an old science fiction story come alive. The crew was from the old Columbia shuttle - the crew alive 150 years later crash landed on another world. But they could not have been because even in the dream we knew that that shuttle crashed and everyone had died, but there they were! An impossible people on an impossible world living an impossible 150 years later. We had just started to try to figure this out when Liz came back. It was one of those dreams that felt so real. I can still smell the air and feel the texture of the side of the shuttle against my fingertips, and hear the roar of the Bonnie as she came down into the atmosphere and surprised these impossible castaways. I never did find out why that would have happened, but then, like the bugs, strange things happen in dreams.

But Zeffie, we’re at Earth again and not getting a refit but a whole new ship! Seven decks! And it can crack Warp 5 even! Isn’t that dreamy!? I hear I may even get my own cabin, but I don’t know yet if this extends to mere Ensigns. Lt Green will be happy though. I’m not sure of the name they gave it. Sojourner. Makes me feel like some kind of wandering salesman or drifter or vagabond. But that can be a dreamy thing too, can’t it, Zeffie? A not so dreamy thing is that I need to take a shuttle down and look for you know who. I’ll let you know what I find out. I’m off now, so until next time, Zeffie.

El