Posted by Lieutenant Miriam Cross (Chief Medical Officer) in Main Sim - Bridge - Setting Out

Posted by Lieutenant Maximilien Mullins (Chief Engineer) in Main Sim - Bridge - Setting Out

Posted by Captain John Tiberius Glen (Captain) in Main Sim - Bridge - Setting Out
[snip]
Finally the CSO replied to the earlier helm NE’s suggestion, =/\= Highly unlikely, though not impossible. Given we do not know what type of missing ship this could be, nor did this colony report any missing sublight system craft. It could be we are looking for a minor blackmarket trading vessel within the system that is unregistered. Perhaps they had the materials to rig such an explosion to–=/\= The Vulcan CSO said before being interrupted by a warning beep usually used by science to tactical of a possible danger/anomaly, =/\=..Captain I am..=/\= But he was suddenly cut off by a sudden discharge of some kind in the background. Shouts and sounds of tumbles were heard as well as warning alarms.

=/\=..REPORT!=/\= Came the captain’s voice, sounding as if injured/in pain.

A burst of static corrupted the log for a moment before it cleared again, =/\= …trical discharge!=/\= Someone said, the audio match could not be identified properly but the computer gave it a 64% chance of being the ship’s XO/Chief Engineer. =/\= Showing ruptures in EPS lines on =/\= another burst and static filled series of alarms cut him off, followed by more shouts, =/\=....trying to sustain pod integrity. Plasma lighting output is increasing, I’m also picking up a gravity well like.....like some kind of whirlpool. Its pulling us in, no response to engine control, nor from main eng…=/\= Another burst of audio cut off.

=/\= …bandon ship! Repeat all hands abandon ship!=/\= then came the Captain’s final orders.

The final audio log for the bridge cut out. But through this processing they lucked upon a bit more data! It seems the bridge’s external sensors normally used for short range communication and visuals had picked up a bit of imagery. Showing this showed a plasma/ion storm mixture to the port side of the Trudgrad, likely making a course correction to avoid it. Much like the Merrimack had done to their own brush to this only a few minutes ago. The difference though was the Merrimack had taken precautions to polorzaive the ship’s hull and Rodium armor plating. A chill would run down everyone’s mind recalling how mere moments ago one of those lighting bolts had struck the rear port nacelle and only lightly scarred the ship as a result of their preparations. Had they not done this the mixture of the energies hitting them would likely have back fed through their nacelle and pylon directly into their intermix chamber.........they had barely avoided the same fate as the Trudograd

When the audio log finished abruptly Glen was silent for a while as he considered its implications and connotations. After some time he spoke again. “Let’s not focus on what could have happened to us if Lt. Mullins hadn’t polarised the Hull plating. We still have a mission to complete…”

”…but there are still several possibilities we should consider here, since they all seem equally unlikely… There is the slightly stronger possibility that a unregistered Risan sub-light ship, no bigger than one of our shuttles, on an unlogged flight plan, was caught within a previously unknown spatial anomaly and transported 2-3 light years into this nebula. Then there is also Lance’s earlier suggestion that there is no ship at all, but simply deep faked messages and ghost signals, designed as some kind a honey pot trap to capture and destroy civilian mining vessels and Starfleet starships for some unknown but nefarious reasons. However, there is also another possibility, given that we know nothing about this whirlpool phenomenon, that the message and signals are coming from inside the whirlpool; because of some kind of natural reflection or refraction, and that the Risan ship in distress is somewhere else entirely…”

“For the present time, we will continue with the first scenario as it seems most likely. Hopefully we can reach this Risan ship and get close enough to it to use our tractor beam, without getting too close to the gravity whirlpool and its dangerous effects, by taking another route to navigate around the eddies. And hopefully we find nothing on the other side in the opposite direction.”

Cross stood silent yet paying attention to every word ,she had to admit there were instances were as a doctor she found some detailed facts and specifications difficult to understand though now had a more clear picture .

Give me a body to dissect any time the CMO thought to herself.

“It doesn’t make any sense that a sub-light Risian shuttlecraft would be transported via some kind of anomaly to a location where other Risian mining ships are not far away,” Xavier reasoned out loud. “It’s a big universe, it could just has easily been sent to the other side of the galaxy, why here? It would seem more likely it was transported here in the hold of a larger ship. If it was black market, they would use it for handing over or receiving goods but in that case, where is the bigger ship?”

Bending over a console, he looked over various readings. “Considering the technology level of the Trudograd and that we have already been struck by what destroyed it very quickly after arriving here, it would seem the shuttle wouldn’t stand a chance if we look at how long it has apparently been here, I don’t need to be Vulcan to work the logic of that out. Unless the shuttle does exist and has found a way, despite being severely outclassed, out-tech’d and outskilled by the Federation ships sent to rescue it, I would suggest Captain that whatever wormhole or gravity well is out there is indeed relaying a message from somewhere else. Even though would be weird as well, why a Risian sub-light shuttle message near a Risian mining op?”

“I’d agree with you,” Glen replied, “apart from the mining ships being from Risa. Sorry, if I gave you that impression, I was confused about that from the briefing too, but I’ve since been able to analyse the logs better… But yes, it probably is more likely that the small Risan ship isn’t really there, or else it shouldn’t have survived… the thing is, we can’t be certain unless we do check!”

“The Trudograd was apparently only around 100 meters away from the origin of the signal when it was destroyed. I think we need to find the rest of the Trudograd and see if we can salvage anything from the sensors, and see what happens when we get close to that origin point. We seemed to survive the ‘lightning strike’ pretty well already, but that report of a gravity well could be, trouble. If we find that point, we find the rest of the Trudograd and, probably, what remains of the shuttle if it exists.”

“Agreed, but I’d still like to try to reach it from a different direction,” Glen said. “And I’m not really sure that we could find anything more of the Trudograd that we could use. If we do find the Risan ship that’s good! If we don’t, and it’s only a relayed message from the other side of the wormhole, well we haven’t lost anything! We weren’t hit by any ‘lightning strike’ at all until we reached this point, and following the same course as the Trudograd just feels like repeating their mistake. As long as we keep a 200 metre distance away from the wormhole we should be clear. We can see if the signal origin correlates with the wormhole centre that way? There is the other tried and tested option of sending in some science probes, but my guess would be that those would get quickly destroyed, and they do take some time to prepare, but then I’d rather probes that the Merrimack!”

’’ Its a far shot to find anything with regards to the Trudograd ,haven’t we seen what has been left of that ship, it had been completely blown off ‘’ Cross then turned facing the others ‘’ The ship was blown from the inside that we know but how and what could have caused it ? I think its about time we look at this from a different perspective ‘’ Cross finished off.

“Captain, I agree with Doctor Cross. We’ve got to look at the situation from more angles Sir,” said Andor.

Glen wasn’t sure what Andor was asking for. Glen had already agreed with him that they should find the wormhole location, but to follow in the exact same course taken by the Trudograd seemed like suicide, so he was trying to look from a different perspective.

“I’m sorry, but what are you suggesting that we try to do differently?” Glen asked either of them. “Won’t circling the wormhole’s possible location provide a different perspective?”

’’ Captain now that we might have found a more secure route to enter we’ll try to figure out what happened’’ Cross replied ‘’What I’m trying to say is , how did the Trudograd explode from the inside when what we are seeing is that it would have made more sense if it had exploded by some other force from outside? Guess the crew had not thought of protecting the ship as our CE did .This whirlpool phenomenon,wormholes its was all disturbing ,unsettling and distressing to say the least .Cross did wonder if the present gases also played a part in all of this .

Cross CMO.

OOC: Sorry, but I don’t know what you both mean here:
Marthese - “to enter” what exactly? We are light-years inside the nebula already, and we are not going inside the wormhole! What do you mean about finding “a more secure route to enter”?
The Trudograd exploded internally because it had ruptures in it’s EPS lines. That was explained in the audio logs. We have been spared that only because of our hull polarisation. The lightning that hit us could have caused the same fate.
AJ - you say that Andor agrees with Cross, but he contradicted her?
You want to look at “different angles”, but you want to follow the same course as the Trudograd? Is that not doing the same thing over again?
I see only three possible scenarios here, which Captain Glen has already laid out. Can you think of any other? Please tell me in character if you do?
I also don’t think the hull polarisation will continue to work if we get any closer. The Roach never throws a “death no save” dice roll, but he also doesn’t allow stupidness either. If we do something stupid we will surely all die.

• Dave

OOC: My bad sorry Dave ,yes I suggested we should try another route but did not know you had already given the orders ..silly me!.
As for Cross wondering how the ship had exploded from the inside ,guess she did not really understood what the CE had done to protect the Merrimack,anyway I rearranged my previous post.
marthese.

OOC: You’re right i dont nor mostly ever roll a ‘you done stupid now you all die’ :P STF gm rules kinda prevent that unless everyone would agree to it. But I would cause alot of problems like what I did in a previous sim where you all got your warp coils burned out stranding you to sublight to that planet you found an old Enterprise era ship for the aliens. In this case had you not done say polarizing the hull, you’d still had the rodium armor, so id just have had major damage ripple through the ship and knocking out comms etc which you would have had to overcome (not to mention making you look bad post sim lol but that didnt happen!) anyhow on with the sim while you all sort this out.

The Merrimack guided by the helm NE moved wide of the storm and whirlpool like anomaly. Their wide swing to come in from the opposite direction took almost 15 minutes. During this time the Risan comm signal remained constant. Scans were still murky like before as well. But as the Merrimack cleared the final nebula cloud of gas they came in from the opposite end of where they had been before. There ahead they could see the whirlpool like formation again, charged lighting present within its depths now more clearly. Bits of smaller fragments of all sizes of the Trudograd’s remains stuck in its grasp were also present, but nothing showed life. As they got within about 80 meters, sensors picked up something different.

Closing in on scans they found the origin of the Risan signal! It was indeed a sublight system transport barely bigger then a runabout or so near the front, with a lager three deck high/wide open cargo module. A deep gouge of some kind like that of a lighting/plasma strike was on the aft port quarter of the cargo module, exposing the entire bit to space. Scans though not entirely clear showed the module contained a few canisters of deuterium. This was likely the matter/antimatter explosion that had been picked up originally. The explosion they could see had sheered off 3/4ths of the main body of the ship’s impulse reactor leaving it crippled by any measure.

Life signs scans showed 2 maybe 3 individuals, one was in a critical state the other were ‘moderately unstable’. Life support seemed at low levels though. It also seems that while trapped in the whirlpool anomaly someone aboard the ship had been skilled enough to rig up some some ion collection arrays. These normally were used within certain solar systems to collect stray particles and ionic energies to store for collection into a colonial battery storage unit say on a station or the like. Something likely that this ship had been used in the past to do, and was in the process of shipping deuterium to a depot in the system it came from when it wound up here. These arrays are likely what kept it able to keep life support and the distress call going as long as it has and with such critical damage the ship had suffered.

The problem as they could see it was the anomaly which did indeed seem to be some kind of wormhole or maybe a subspace rift or eddy held the crippled vessel in what might be termed ‘the eye of the storm’. It was safe in this small area but outside it the turbulence would no doubt shred what remained of the ship in its damaged state. Due to the anomaly and nebula interference, transporters were out of the question, a tractor beam could be used, but the anomaly as they pulled it free would likely destroy the ship outright. The one brighter point while they tried to figure out how to rescue these people one way or another was that now that they were within range they could attempt short range comms through the distress signal.

=/\= Lt. Mullins please report to the Bridge ASAP =/\= Glen needed the CE. The questions about use of the tractor beam, transporters, and whether or not the deuterium canisters could result in secondary matter/antimatter explosions required an engineer to answer.

Max heard the comm request go off and he hit the comm location on the station and responded, =/\=Lt Mullins to Captain, I am on my way up. I have been listening to the conversation up on the bridge and it can be confusing. Give me 5 minutes and I will be there. Might be best to not move or do anything else until we get this discussed.=/\= Mullins then got up from his station and left Main Engineering. After a few minutes of walking and riding in the turbolift, Max arrived at the Bridge. When the doors opened, he walked in and said, “Lt Mullins reporting to the bridge as requested. How can I help?” He waited for a response from the Commander and Captain

“NE Coals”, Glen asked the Comms officer, “Now that we are within range can you attempt short range comms through the distress signal?”

‘’Captain?’’ Cross asked ‘’Ships have been coming inside the nebula without any danger ,so the Whirlpool must have formed recently. The Federation would not have exposed the Trudguard under such dangerous and destructive conditions ,jeopardizing the lives of the crew ‘’.

“Yes Doctor,” Glen replied, “I guess we all assumed that it happened at the same time that the SS Space Bug, or whatever it was called, detected the massive energy event ripping open spacetime. I mean, we have no proof they were linked together, but if I were a betting man…”

‘’We know that Whirlpools are a phenomena that form when water moving in two different directions comes into contact with each other and interact in an unusual way. They can’t continue to travel at the same speed and direction through each other, so they are forced to turn and swirl around each other, its theoretical physics.”

”…it’s only a theoretical whirlpool too!” Glen added. Was it the pregnancy addling her brain? Glen wondered, Surely it’s too early for that? “This isn’t a whirlpool on the surface of an ocean, it’s in the spacetime continuum, and it’s also in 3D. It’s just easier for everyone to visualise it as a whirlpool.”

“In this case it could be the gases that the wormhole might have changed their direction and created the whirlpool ? ‘’ she scratched her head wondering if Glen was about to throw her off the bridge ‘’ Captain we know we cannot go through knowing it will shred our ship to pieces and its not an option can we instead save that ship by going under the Whirlpool since its is caught in the middle ,swirling around with no way out ‘’.

Hopefully someone ,anyone will came up with a solution, thought Cross.

“Doctor Cross, we aren’t going to enter the ‘whirlpool like phenomenon’. Please don’t worry yourself on that account. However, if safe to do so, I do want to rescue survivors and investigate further. No one else has ever seen this before, and that’s our basic mission statement right there!”

• Glen, CO

Lt. Mullins
Chief Engineer

’’ Did I mention going inside the Whirlpool Captain? Correct me if I’m wrong!’’ Cross retorted back ‘’ I’m merely suggesting if you take the ship deeper and see if its tunnel shaped, would it give you and Lt Mullins a better approach and assessment to save that darn ship and if its the wormhole that created it and its the gases that has formed it, ,someone with a higher IQ then me may have a more advantageous understanding at how it was formed and maybe some thing may click’’ the CMO retorted back at this point she gave a quick glance at the CE.

She waited for his response before deciding to leave the bridge .
OOC: David no one knows about the pregnancy except Joe .not even Hunter.

Cross CMO.

Lance was mostly happy with what he’d gotten of the data recordings of course he would h have liked more but it was an imperfect universe. Data clean up want his specialty if it has been biological well that works have been different.

The signal form the Risian ship had been a surprise but it didn’t look like it had faired much better than the ship that went in after it.

Then the Captain and the CMO seemed to be having a differing opinion, quite a heated differing opinion. Lance decided he would keep his head down Junior officers don’t want into those sorts of discussions.

He looked over at the CSO, “Sir, of question but do you have any idea how ancient earth sailing vessels dealt with reviews from whirlpools?” Sometimes going backwards and looking at someone else’s work would often help Lance figure out a problem he wondered if the same could be true here.

-Lt Malone