Windows and Doors Part 1

Posted on Tue Mar 19th, 2024 @ 3:25am by Captain Malcom Llwyedd & Lieutenant JG Randolf Forst & Lieutenant JG Hopkins Cobb & Ensign Helle Leed & Ensign Winston Hubblestone

1,513 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: A Long Hard Road Ahead
Location: USS Firebird, Captain's Ready Room, Deck 1
Timeline: 23 August, 2396 - 2100 Hours

[ON]

Malcom sat at his desk, his uniform crisp and clean, having changed just a few moments earlier. The ship was finally in decent order, split into three teams in order to meet the three demands that he'd identified. He knew that Commander Rees would do well in a difficult environment on DS18. He also knew that Lieutenant Forst, having fought hard to stay on the ship, would do well with his examination of the wormhole. But he still had asked the young scientist to meet him in his ready room for a brief chat. The door chimed.

"Come in," Malcom said.

Randolf entered the office and saluted in the now slightly casual way that seemed to be common on the Firebird.

"Captain, what do we know about the Wormhole here? Some of the scuttlebutt is rather severe."

Malcom gestured for the Lieutenant to sit down. "'I'm assuming that you know the general background of the wormhole. I've read a lot about it over the years because the Iowa spent a lot of time out here during the war and the Firebird has also been here for most of our active duty time. Preliminary reports indicate that the wormhole is closed. Nothing is coming or going," Malcom said.

“Any signature of its previous location, or has it completely disappeared off scanners?” Randolf did take the offered seat and started to pull up the available information on the wormhole on his PADD as he did.

Malcom shook his head. "That's what's strange. Look at the data. The wormhole is still there. We can tell by the residual tachyon readings. But it is somehow blocked from opening. That's where you and your team come in," Malcom said.

Randolf nodded and flipped through the readings that the Captain had indicated.

"This is very strange. And look at the isometric spikes in the EM-K band." This last was not specifically aimed at the Captain but more at Randolf himself.

It was at that moment that Hopkins Cobb began to approach the door from the hall. He was nervous. Yes, he'd interacted with the captain a time or two, but never after an event of the magnitude that occurred recently. Gosh, he'd been asked to find something that did a very good job of not wanting to be found. What would the captain say about his performance starting at numbers and trying to translate that to something their eyes could try processing?

Either way, I've got to just get in there and see what is next He thought.

Cobb signaled the captain that he'd arrived.

Malcom glanced at the door. "That will be the beginning of the rest of your team arriving. I thought that we should all discuss the mission," he said and then called out. "Come in."

Winston was right behind Lieutenant Cobb as they shuffled into the Captain's Ready Room. He'd never been near the Captain before, let alone in his Ready Room. So of course he managed to trip on the doorway and as a result, stumbled into Lieutenant Cobb. He saved himself from falling by grabbing the door. It was not his finest hour.

"Sorry, Lieutenant," Winston said and then looked up to see that Captain Llwyedd was smiling at him.

"Come in, gentlemen," Malcom said and motioned for the two newly arrived officers to have a seat on the couch.

Helle contemplated the Ready Room door. Deep breaths. Years before she had stood before a black curtain, waiting for her entrance for a performance of Hamlet. She'd memorized the lines, nailed her staging, and totally knew her character. Suddenly, her hands started to shake. The stage on the other side of the curtain seemed like a distant galaxy. This mission had morphed into a strange likeness. She could still lecture on quantum biology but for what lay ahead she could barely imagine. Deep breaths.

The door chimed.

Malcom was ushering Lieutenant Forst towards the couches when the door chimed again.

"Ah, the last member," he said with a smile. "Come in, Ensign." He sat down in one of the chairs. Lieutenant Forst sat in ther other chair, while Cobb and Hubblestone sat on the couch, The remaining open seat waited for the last person.

"Thank you, sir," said Helle. She glanced around the room while she went to the open spot. All science but no Lieutenant Baxter. "Well, this should be interesting."

"Now that we are all assembled, I'd like to get straight to the assignment. I know that you're probably wondering why Lieutenant Forst is leading this team rather than Lieutenant Baxter. The answer is, Lieutenant Baxter volunteered to lead the away team that would make their way to the main DS18 sickbay. We believe Commander Kataxes is going to be there helping. She also wanted to be the first one to get access to the main science array. The hope is she will be able to bring them online and gather data that she can share with you all on the Runabout. Any questions on that?" Malcom asked.

Randolf looked up from the PADD with a question, then his brain caught up with the conversation that was taking place, and he took a second to view the other members of the team now assembled. He had obviously known that he would be leading this mission before he came into the office, but something about seeing the other crew that he would be working with made it settle in, in a less than comfortable way.

“I think that most of my questions are better answered aboard the Runabout…” He trailed off imagining that maybe he was supposed to say something else, but couldn’t quite remember if there was a procedure that he was missing at the moment.

"I have a question, sir," Winston said. "I've done a bit of reading on this kind of thing, I love stargazing so sometimes it gets me thinking. Anyways, what we are going to do might take quite a while. How aggressive do you want us to be with this?"

Malcom nodded. "Right now, I want you to do a thorough analysis. We need to know what they've done before we can fix it. Step by step. Don't skip anything.

Cobb decided that he could comment first. "Well, captain, we are still trying to figure it out. It's some kind of blocking, but a type of blocking that seems way beyond our garden-variety stuff at first glance. It took some intense scanning and high-level math to even get an idea that there was anything in the void at all. This is the stuff command's science teams would want on their desk yesterday if we could get it."

Malcom nodded at the young scientist. "It's the kind of stuff I would want, immediately as well, lieutenant," Malcom said. "Ensign Leed? Anything from you?"

Starting from her thoughts, Helle nodded quickly. She took a deep breath to let her mind flow back to the present moment. Please don't let me talk too much, she pleaded silently. "If we had their equipment we might reverse-engineer what they did to the wormhole. That's like the fastest way. I don't think they had nearly enough stuff in place to destroy it permanently but there is a theory--and this is just theory because we don't have many wormholes for testing--the theory is quantum entanglement disruption.

"Basically, you untie the knots, or entanglement, that holds the wormhole open and boom. It closes." Helle looked around the room. "Without the boom. There wouldn't be sound. A huge antimatter dump might do a similar thing but would need a totally different solution. Same thing if you tried gravitational field manipulation--but you'd need an advanced ship with a huge deflector system and plenty of time." Shavak! Helle cursed herself with her favorite Bajoran epithet. Why was she still talking? She nodded and looked from the captain to Forst and back, her eyes urging one of them to save her.

"It sounds like you all need to get out there and find the answers we need," Malcom said, standing up.

Randolf looked up from the PADD again. He was still getting used to the idea that he was in charge.

"I think that does it, Captain, we will get to the shuttle and we will find out what has happened." They look like a good group. He thought as he turned for the door.

[OFF]

Lieutenant JG Randolf Forst
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298

Lieutenant JG Hopkins Cobb (NPC by Harlan)
Science Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298
Ensign Winston Hubblestone (NPC by Llwyedd)
Science Officer
USS Firebird NCC-88298
Ensign Helle Leed (NPC by Leed)
Biologist
USS Firebird NCC-88298

 

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