Perplexing Complexities

LC 19 - Perplexing Complexities

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Kathryn gripped her chair’s armrest as Solaris suddenly decelerated from warp. Inertial dampeners strained as the ship came to a full stop.

The alarm claxon was silenced, yet the red warning lights still flashed.
“Whomever did that thank you for reading my mind.”

First officer Anthi Ythysi did not look up from her console and replied while tapping at various screens. “You’re welcome, sir.”

Looking around, Kathryn could see everyone frantically reviewing data at their stations. “Status report.”

Per standard procedure for an unknown event, Helmsman Ian McKinnon responded first. “Involuntary full stop from warp, engines offline.”

From the Tactical station, Anthi spoke next, frustration easily heard in her voice. “Weapons systems are functional but offline. Shields are also offline.”

Chief Science Officer Omazei quickly turned to Kathyrn to report, her short brown hair rested to the sides of her face as she calmly responded. “Short-range sensors do not detect any ships or stellar phenomena nearby. Log-range sensors are offline.”

Kathryn nodded then spoke into the air. “Engineering, what’s going on?”

Thel Ythysi, Solaris’ Chief Engineer spoke through quick breaths. “Port outboard impulse engine - has sustained massive - structural damage. Port nacelle structural - integrity down ten percent. Warp core – stable but – offline. Batteries operating – at one-hundred percent.”

What happened, Kathryn whispered. She looked around the bridge again and the crew was calming down as the emergency settled into the new phase of recovery. Sitting in her command chair, she activated an armrest console and started reviewing high-clearance reports about the current situation and followed-up on information shared between stations. She noticed everyone was silent as they worked through their duties to assess Solaris’ status.

The Vulcan Chief of Operations, S’Rel broke the relative silence, her calm voice further reducing the excitement. “Captain, repair crews have been routed to the affected areas, we have a visual of the damage from Work Bee Three.”

Kathryn almost dreaded to see the damage, yet it was necessary. “On screen.” The screen flickered to an image of the ship’s primary hull. The Work Bee pilot was still maneuvering into position from the launch bay in the secondary hull, yet the damage seen caused Kathryn to gasp.

A cylindrical trench was dug from the exhaust into the impulse engine housing. It was clean-cut and reminded Kathryn of how a Borg cutting beam could slice through any structure with ease and minimal peripheral damage.

The Work Bee then turned on its x-axis to review the port-side nacelle. Along its length, it looks as if a large ball rolled down the structure, warping metal inward. Electric discharge flashed from random points along the photonic spill-port while green-colored gas vented from various plate joints around the lower half of the subspace field coil system.

Three other Work Bees arrived and started repairs on the nacelle. Kathryn waved a hand to her neck in a chopping motion and turned to Anthi.

“Senior staff meeting in one hour.”

Anthi nodded, “aye, Captain.”

+++

The Chief Engineer was the last to enter the room. His uniform was dotted with dark smoke or stains as he arrived directly from Main Engineering with no time to clean-up. The Andorian wore a stern look on his face, more than normal. “Pardon me.”

Kathryn nodded with understanding. She looked to her staff one-at-a-time before speaking. “So, something happened out there. We’ve all seen the result, now let’s find a cause. First, what can Solaris do … S’Rel?”

The female Vulcan laced her fingers together. “In the time we have had to assess the situation, it is clear the ship is debilitated. Every primary system is offline, yet the batteries are keeping the ship functional. Unless we can get the Warp Core online, then the batteries have thirty-hours to sustain us. Naturally, reducing to minimal service levels will extend their capacity.”

Thel tapped fingers on the table and then added, “about the Warp Core; I can’t explain it, but it and the primary capacitors were fully drained of power. The Dilithium crystals are intact and we are still working to rebalance the matter/anti-matter matrix. The Core was cold-started and when I left Engineering, it was estimated full functionality will be restored within ten hours.”

“What about engines,” Kathryn queried.

“The damaged impulse engine is utterly inoperable. We will need dry-dock to replace it. The port nacelle can be repaired, but I wouldn’t go past warp two.”

Omazei grabbed a PADD on the table and started calculating.

Kathryn waited for a few seconds before turning to her First officer. “Anthi, are we vulnerable sitting out here?”

The Andorian sat straighter in her chair. “Sensor logs put us in the middle of nowhere. Without main shields, it’s the surface defense grid is keeping us safe from any micro-projectiles and radiation. Once the Warp Core power levels reach the minimum threshold, then shields and weapons will be available.”

“Annika, any casualties?”

The Chief Medical Officer brushed a lock of dark blonde hair from her face. “Only a few bruises from the sudden change in speed have been reported.”

The Science Chief had finished her calculations and looked up to join the conversation. “The nearest dry-dock is at Arcturus. Travelling at warp two will get us there in three weeks.”

Everyone in the room seemed to sit into their chairs deeper at the idea of a relatively long journey.

Kathryn let it sink in for a few heartbeats longer before attempting to lighten the mood. “We’ve been in worse situations, so that doesn’t sound so bad. Now that we have an idea where we are, let’s get to what happened. Analysis?”

Ian stood and pressed a key on the table. The wall monitor activated showing a rear-view video from the bridge tower. The scene was motionless and showed all four impulse engines in the fore-ground, with the nacelles pointing to the dark horizon. “Wait ‘till you see this.” Pressing another key the scene showed the stars whizzing past the ship; typical when travelling at warp speed.

Suddenly, the outer port impulse engine and nacelle was damaged. Green gas started leaking from the nacelle, the ship clearly slowed down to stop.

Ian looked from the monitor with a grin. “Catch that?”

Everyone looked to each other and Kathryn spoke for the rest of the officers, “catch what? I didn’t see anything to cause the destruction of the engines.”

“Exactly. There is nothing. I’ve poured over the records and what you saw was unaltered, unfiltered video of the incident. In one microsecond, the ship is fully operational, the next microsecond, [/]boom[/i].” To make his point, Ian looped the video in two second intervals: one second before, then after the event and slowed the playback to take ten seconds total. He stopped the video just before the transition from ‘normal’.

A stream of light in the background was circled. “This is a passing star. THR-KD08 to be exact.” The video moved forward one frame and the damage appeared to the ship, while the streak continued its path. “As you can see, that star, along with the other stars we passed, moved as expected.”

Kathryn was incredulous. “Ian, are you saying the event was instantaneous?”

Ian nodded, “based on the evidence available, yes.”

Omazei added, “Sensor logs do not find a trace of a power source or intervening object along our path.”

Thel continued, “Repair teams did not detect any residual signatures at the contact surface along the nacelles or in the impulse engine.

Kathryn looked at the officers with skepticism. “So … this just … happened?”

Everyone else in the room looked at each other, and then nodded silently.

+++

Cast for crew:
Kathryn Beringer - Rachel Nichols
Anthi Ythysi - Katheryn Winnick
Thel Ythysi - Kevin Sorbo
Ian McKinnon - Ben Browder
Omazei - Gemma Arterton
S'Rel - Morena Baccarin
Annika Kramer - Abbie Cornish