Fading Light

Posted on Sat Dec 11th, 2021 @ 8:29pm by Captain Osegan Trenna & Lieutenant Evaad Hessen & Lieutenant Praxalin Chromis & Chief Petty Officer Juliana Nuñez

Mission: Beacon
Timeline: Mission Day 4 at 1200

Commander Talbot had been taken to Sickbay after the strange figure had blown the helm console. Lieutenant OZiah was in Sickbay after she had been attacked. And the initial victim, Petty Officer Siosifa, was still in Sickbay.

Ensign T'Kuva had arrived to replace Martinsen and, due to the damage to the Flight Control station, was positioned at the small console on the railing behind the command area. An Engineer was working on repairing the helm, but it seemed like it was going to take a bit of time.

"Ensign, get us out of the system," Osegan ordered. "We need to figure out what's happened onboard before we tackle anything out there."

The Vulcan nodded and got the ship turned around and moving at low impulse.

"Osegan to Nuñez. Any luck finding whoever is onboard?"

“Negative, Captain.” Juliana Nuñez answered from the main security office, from where she was coordinating the search. “We have teams on each deck, searching comprehensively, but we’ve found nothing.”

"Let me know as soon as you have anything, Lieutenant." Trenna looked down at the floor. What was going to go wrong next? She down an Executive Officer and two security officers, not to mention the best pilot onboard had been removed from duty.

"Mister Hessen, prepare a comm buoy. Upload a log of our mission status. Once we're clear of the system, launch it towards Gamma Command. At best, we might get some support. At worst, it's a warning to whatever ship is assigned to complete this mission after we can't."

“Aye, Captain,” replied Evaad. He had begun typing on his console even before the Captain had finished her order; the thought had been fully formed and legible before she spoke. “Logs uploaded. Buoy ready for launch. Awaiting word from Helm.”

"We will be clear of the system in approximately two minutes," T'Kuva intoned.

Trenna stood and turned to look at the Ensign. Time crawled along, the two minutes seeming more like twenty.

Finally, T'Kuva spoke again. "We are leaving the system now, Captain."

"Launch the buoy, Lieutenant. Ensign, hold us here for the time being."

T'Kuva nodded.

"Buoy launched," Evaad reported. "It's on track for Gamma Command. Entering warp...now. It's clear."

"Lieutenant Chromis, anything you can do to aid Security in finding the intruder? Some internal sensor modification maybe?"

"I have a few ideas," Prax said with a nod. "If there is an intruder on board, then it must have mass to interact with our physical reality. As we have quantifiable measurements for all shipboard structures, we might be able to detect it as an aberrant density measurement. It would not be pin point, but it would narrow down the search to a few square meters if we are fortunate.'

"I'll take whatever you can give me. Get started. Touch base with Chief Nuñez."

"We might be able to also detect subtle things like abnormal air pressure changes," Evaad added. "As the intruders move, they must necessarily displace the air around them. We can modify environmental monitors to detect this. We would get a lot of false positives, but it's something."

Trenna nodded. "Let's give it a shot too. Until we find it, or them, we can't get on with our mission. For all we know, though, this intruder could be what the message was warning us about. If so, we're not fairing well so far."

"See what you both can find," she said after a brief pause. "The sooner we can stop the attacks, the better."

Evaad got to work on the environmental sensors. They were designed to detect any abnormalities in the ship’s internal environment and compensate appropriately. Normally they weren’t sensitive enough to detect such minute changes, else they would be going off whenever someone walked past them. It took some effort to reprogram their sensitivity, but after a few moments, he looked back up from his console.

“I’m also programming the system to ignore any disruptions caused within ten centimetres of a person wearing a commbadge,” he reported. “That should cut down on false positives.” His console began to beep. “Possible contact!”