Posted by Captain John Tiberius Glen (Captain) in Main Sim - Bridge
[Snip]

There it was. Some sort of glowing multi -colored thing. Some sort of wreck of geometric bits just hanging there. Taking a deep breath then as he looked at the thing Rana spoke to the captain. ” Well, we have engineers complaining that things are running too smoothly in engineering and now we have a, he paused.” What is that captain do we know yet?”

“A city… a nexus… a focal point? …but I think they are waiting for me to say something… Lt. Gagnon, please open a channel… or whatever! I expect they will hear me anyway.”

=/\= Greetings. This is Captain John Glen of the U.S.S. Merrimack. We come to you on a peaceful mission. We mean no harm to you or any life-forms. We only wish to initiate ongoing communications between our civilisations. We came seeking only friendship and to demonstrate goodwill. =/\=

Stella who had been sitting quietly staring in the direction of the thing had been busy trying to pick up anything that might be construed as communication and separate it from background noise. At the captains’ orders she opened up a nearly clear channel for his message.

Veh’Ruun dimmed until only the corridor ahead of the Merrimack remained illuminated.

Across the bridge, consoles stabilized abruptly. At Helm, every branching probability path vanished except one narrow transit corridor leading directly into the heart of the nexus. Science readings clarified just enough to become more unsettling—the massive structure beneath the city now dominated passive scans despite still being only partially visible.

Deep through the ship, the harmonic vibration strengthened beneath the deck plating.

Engineering status updates rolled steadily across displays:

EXTERNAL CONTINUITY STABILIZATION ACTIVE
DISENGAGEMENT RISK — UNKNOWN

Then a new line appeared.

EXTERNAL SYSTEM ACKNOWLEDGEMENT RECEIVED

At Tactical, contact counts climbed rapidly as hundreds upon hundreds of Shiarian vessels slowly turned toward the Merrimack. No weapons powered. No targeting locks formed.

But the entire city was watching.

On the bridge itself, the Shiarians standing among the Federation crew reacted immediately to the shift within Veh’Ruun.

The bioluminescent lines along Taruun’s armor brightened in unison with the nexus outside. Nearby Shiarian officers straightened subtly, their attention no longer on the Merrimack’s systems, but outward toward the glowing corridor ahead.

One inclined his head slightly as if listening to something only they could perceive.

Another’s posture visibly eased for the first time since boarding.

Then every display aboard the ship flickered once as copper-red symbols cascaded across the screens before MAJEL 2.0 resolved the incoming construct into translated speech.

The voice came not from speakers, but through the synchronized state itself. It was layered as if a collection of voices were speaking.

“Federation vessel Merrimack. You enter Veh’Ruun under guided continuity.”

The harmonic resonance deepened. “Your passage has been observed.”

Beyond the viewer, the colossal entity beneath the nexus shifted slowly in the darkness, vast luminous apertures opening across its impossible surface.

Then the voice spoke once more. “Your continuity remains coherent.”

At that, several of the Shiarian officers visibly reacted.
Not in surprise but perhaps in approval. They were so alien it was a bit hard to decipher.

One exchanged a brief glance with another before lowering his head fractionally toward Taruun in acknowledgment. Even the Over-Captain himself seemed to relax by the barest measurable degree, the rigid tension in his posture easing as the illuminated corridor widened further ahead of the Merrimack.

The city had accepted them.

At least for now.

M’Mera’s ears remained pinned halfway back as streams of impossible engineering telemetry continued racing across her console faster than MAJEL could comfortably categorize them. The copper-red reflections from the viewer danced across the Caitian’s fur while her claws moved carefully over the controls, almost afraid to disturb whatever balance now held the Merrimack together.

The moment the nexus voice faded, another wave of harmonic resonance rolled through the deck beneath her boots.It was not pressure but maybe…recognition.

Her tail lashed once behind her before going rigid again.

“Ssir…” she said carefully, eyes narrowing at the engineering data. “The stabilization field iss no longer extternal only. The Merrrimack iss beginning to… adapt to it.” She hated how uncertain that sounded.

Several more lines populated her display.

Warp field harmonics. Structural integrity resonance. EPS synchronization. None of them were behaving according to known physics anymore—and yet all of them were operating more efficiently than they ever had inside the Expanse.

Her claws flexed unconsciously as she studied her board and tried to make sense of it. Engineering was factual data…not this nebulous, whatever it was. It was making her grumpy.

“Their continuity field iss interfacing directly with ourr warp geometry,” she growled, her frustration apparent. “Not overriding it… morre like… teaching it how to exist herrre.” The idea made the fur along her arms rise.

Another warning refused to clear from the lower corner of her panel:

STATE SEPARATION CONSEQUENCES — UNDEFINED

M’Mera stared at it a long moment before looking toward the viewer again where the vast glowing corridor stretched deeper into Veh’Ruun.

“Whatever that thing underr the city iss…” she said quietly, “…it’ss touching every system aboard thiss ship.”

Her golden eyes flicked briefly toward Captain Glen.

“And it knowss we arre herrre.”

“Thank you for the update, Lt. M’Mera,” the Captain replied. “If we can’t go back… yet, then I suggest we go forward. I don’t know if there is any malevolent forces active here or not. I’m not feeling it but my gut feelings only take us so far…”

Sitting at her station, scanning and observing—watching the other bridge crew respond to their circumstances, Elyss felt anxious again. She was the one with the science background, but she couldn’t explain how the situation outside the ship, the Veh R’hun, was still influencing them. What would happen when/if the influence was suddenly pulled away? Destruction of the Merrimack? Would they be given any warning? How perilous was their situation, really? Should they continue trying to contact the city, even though the danger aspect was high?

Glen couldn’t tell if they were being influenced by the Veh R’hun either. Maybe his gut feeling that everything would be okay was a falsehood; a suggestion deliberately put there by the Veh R’hun so that they wouldn’t question. Being inquisitive was what they did. Questioning everything was in their very nature. One way that he could obtain some hard facts would be to get an update from Sickbay. Earlier Sickbay had been filling up with crew feeling nauseous. Had that improved since they had achieved full synchronisation or was it worse now?

=/\= Sickbay. Bridge here. Captain Glen speaking. Can I have a status report please? What is your mix of casualties and patient numbers currently? =/\=

Lieutenant Elyss Zavey
Chief Science Officer USS Merrimack

• Glen, CO

The answer came back =/\= Captain, Lieutenant Grahams here. I’ll put it this way, one more patient into Sickbay and I think the walls will just about burst but there’s no casualties here, sir, just a lot of headaches. I’ll your timing is impeccable though, sir, we’ve just started to release treated officers, not many are going to be able to resume duties this shift though. I’d say a few more are a bound to replace them yet though. =/\=

There was a brief pause, and then. =/\= I recommend all essential staff get checked out too, sir. Whatever has been going on up there has tried turning a few brains to mush. Anyone feeling even slightly off should come down here now. Otherwise, once this rainfall is over, I’ll be sending an available staff member up to do those checks.=/\=

Lt. Kahu Grahams, CMO