[Snip]

“Oh man,” Kahu’s accent came through stronger than it usually did “Look mate, I’m concerned with the well being of my patients here. Anything more than that you might want to be speaking to our Captain about who is seeking what. I’m just a simple country doctor.” It felt completely ridiculous conversing with this Silent One when he couldn’t see it or even know where to direct his voice to.

He tilted his head towards a nurse, “There is definitely a spike in the neural readings when this, uh, Silent One, is using them to speak. It’s creepy but there doesn’t seem to be any negative impact on the patients coming through my readings anymore. Yet there seems to be more of an effect each time. There wasn’t any of this misty stuff when this all first happened. Can you do a number’s check for me? I want to know it is affecting more patients than it was earlier. I know when haven’t had any alerts but I’m wondering if Mister Silent One is adapting.”

Turning his attention back to the patient in front of him he asked, “Exactly, who, what, when, where, why, how is this ‘Silent One’?”

Lt. Kahu Grahams, CMO

The patient remained motionless for several seconds after Grahams finished speaking.

Around the biobed, the faint mist continued to drift through Sickbay. Tiny droplets of moisture gathered along instrument housings and handrails before fading away moments later. The scent of rain lingered in the otherwise sterile air.

Nearby monitors continued their steady rhythm. Neural activity remained elevated but stable.

The nurse working the adjacent console looked up from the requested analysis. “Doctor…” Her voice carried a hint of uncertainty. “The phenomenon is spreading.”

Said doctors head shot up at the nurse’s words and looked to see what she was seeing.

Fresh data appeared across several displays. “It isn’t limited to the original patients anymore.” The numbers were unmistakable.

Earlier, only those directly affected by the synchronization event had exhibited the unusual neural patterns.

Now traces were appearing in individuals who had never lost consciousness. Nurses, medical technicians, recently treated patients awaiting discharge. Even a pair of orderlies working in a distant section of Sickbay.

The signatures remained extremely faint, but they were there. A growing web of harmonic resonance connecting more minds aboard the Merrimack.

It caused no injuries, degeneration, or signs of neurological damage. Only a connection.

Then a nearby biobed chimed softly.

One of the recovered crewmen—a young operations specialist who had only moments before been resting quietly with a mild headache—opened his eyes. For a moment he looked confused.

Then his expression became strangely calm. His gaze focused somewhere beyond the bulkheads.

When he spoke, the voice that emerged was layered with a faint harmonic undertone that did not belong to him. “You seek definitions.” Several monitors flickered, but it was not a malfunction but a response.

“Your species finds comfort in names.” The mist stirred gently around the bed. “The one you call Silent One is not a name.”There was a pause before the voice continued. “It is a function.”

“Well yes, names are nice, gives me something to refer to easier” Grahams responded.

The crewman’s eyes never blinked. “I am Caretaker.”

“Witness.”

“Keeper of memory.”

Neural readings rose sharply, higher than before.

Yet every medical indicator remained well within survivable limits. There was no sign of distress, no damage, only activity.

The voice continued. “I have watched Vey’lan sleep.”

A series of geometric patterns briefly appeared across several inactive display screens. Impossible structures, with layered realities.

Rivers of crimson light flowing through a city that existed across multiple states at once. Then the images vanished. “I remained when the others departed.”

For a brief instant, an emotion washed through those nearby. Loneliness. Not pain or sorrow. Simply the weight of an unimaginable span of time.

“Now Vey’lan awakens.” The operations specialist inhaled slowly. “And your people have answered its call.” The harmonic undertone deepened.
“The Captain seeks understanding. Soon he will stand where no living traveler has stood for ages beyond counting.” The patient’s eyes closed as the connection vanished instantly.

Neural readings dropped back toward their previous levels. The mist slowly thinned while normal sounds returned to Sickbay.

Then a new notification appeared across multiple medical workstations.

HARMONIC RESONANCE NETWORK EXPANDING

AFFECTED PERSONNEL: 52

NO DETECTABLE PATHOLOGY

COGNITIVE SYNCHRONIZATION INCREASING

STATUS: MONITOR

The young operations specialist reopened his eyes and looked around in confusion. “…Doctor?” He rubbed his forehead. “Why is everybody staring at me?”

GM Nosferatu
Your Darkest Nightmare

“I’m not sure it’s because some people forgot they have a job to do,” Grahams fixed his staff with a pointed look, and a few turned away and suddenly found the task in front of them very interesting. “Or perhaps it’s because you just claimed that you watch Vey’lan sleep” Grahams tried to joke and re-create a normal atmosphere and feeling like it fell short.

A nurse next to him laughed but it felt more polite than genuine. Nobody, including himself, seemed to really know what to do or say. It was beyond anything he’d ever seen or heard of before. Brain neurons synchronizing harmoniously that seemed to be related to this entity’s whims, for a lack of a better work. It was like a heading dog, and they were all sheep to be gathered up and harmonised.

He didn’t like it.

And yet there was an odd feeling of sympathy for the Caretaker, that touch of loneliness he had seen on the faces of the affected. Perhaps it was only a non-corporeal being that and merely a function, but it could communicate emotion. Even if it was only in the same way as nerves might tell the brain there was pain, a conduit for an expression.

Thinking of conduits reminded him that there was a patient in front of him that had been a conduit.

“Your neural patterns were spiking, and you started talking, relaying a message that comes from off of this ship.” The doctor said, “Short of it being, You or whatever that was channelling itself through you named itself a few things but mainly the Caretaker that has been watching Vey’lan sleep, who is now apparently waking and we’re answering it’s call.”

“Can you really not remember anything?” he asked, “There was mention of the Captain standing somewhere no living traveller has stood for a long time. Anything you could think of? Is the Captain safe? Are you feeling any side effects from the experience?”

He looked back up at the display reading the latest statistics. Giving the young operations specialist time to think. This effect was slowly claiming more and more crew members, was this what had been meant about ‘answered the call’? Was this synchronisation the call they were answering?

Lt. Kahu Grahams, CMO

The young operations specialist frowned as he tried to follow everything Lieutenant Grahams was telling him.

For several seconds he simply stared at the doctor before slowly shaking his head. “I… don’t remember saying any of that.” His voice was quiet.

“The last thing I remember was the headache. Then it felt like I was dreaming.” He paused, brow furrowing.
“Not a normal dream. More like… standing somewhere very large.”

The biobed monitors registered a brief increase in neural activity before settling again.

“There were lights. Far away. Moving through darkness.” He closed his eyes for a moment, trying to grasp something that seemed to be slipping away. “I remember feeling that someone was waiting for something. Waiting for a very long time.”

The memory dissolved almost immediately. “That’s all I’ve got, Doctor.”

A nearby nurse glanced toward the neurological displays. The synchronized activity that had dominated the patient’s scans earlier was continuing to decrease. The ordered resonance patterns were still present, but they were weakening steadily as the young officer regained full awareness.

More interesting was what the scans were no longer showing. The subtle harmonic fluctuations that had been spreading through Sickbay during the episode had stabilized. The background synchronization affecting other crew members remained detectable, but it was no longer increasing.

As the latest telemetry arrived from across the ship, the medical computer quietly flagged a new observation: Neural coherence levels throughout the crew had plateaued. Whatever process had been building appeared to have reached a temporary equilibrium.

The operations specialist looked between Grahams and the surrounding staff. “Is the Captain really all right?” The concern in his voice was genuine. “I don’t know why, but it felt important that he reached wherever he was going.”

Around Sickbay, the atmosphere felt subtly different than it had only minutes before. The pressure of anticipation remained.

But the growing sense that something was actively searching through the crew had faded, replaced by the unmistakable impression that something, somewhere beyond the ship, was now waiting.

GM Nosferatu
Your Darkest Nightmare

=/\= All Decks. This is Captain Glen. We have arrived at the Vey’lan Dock… if arrived is even applicable here. Could I have status reports from each deck on casualties and repairs please? We are organising a landing party to meet with the Shiarians. =/\=

• Glen, CO