S1E5 Brain Games

[Martin Jackson]

[Bridge]

Jackson nodded, setting up controls on the console.  "Alright," he answered, "I'll launch a physical probe first.  If it launches successfully, it'll give us a bit more information before we launch the pulse."

"Launching probe," Jackson announced after setting up the controls. 

[Lawrence Klaustrin]

[Bridge]

Jackson nodded, setting up controls on the console.  "Alright," he answered, "I'll launch a physical probe first.  If it launches successfully, it'll give us a bit more information before we launch the pulse."

"Launching probe," Jackson announced after setting up the controls.

[bridge]

Lawrence was glued to the readings. The science station had just spit out volumes of information at once, and every bit of it could be important. Instead of trying to prioritize, he opted for a chronological approach.

"First, the probe launched. For the milliseconds of data I have, it showed no gravitational interference. This anomaly is targeting the Challenger specifically. Second, the probe failed to clear. The hatch failed to open, despite having power, giving the probe a total distance of the probe's chamber. Third, the probe broke, which also damaged the chamber, which damaged everything connected to it. Probes from adjacent chambers show increased thermal activity, which means we have an electrical fire."

[Lek]

[bridge]

Lawrence was glued to the readings. The science station had just spit out volumes of information at once, and every bit of it could be important. Instead of trying to prioritize, he opted for a chronological approach.

"First, the probe launched. For the milliseconds of data I have, it showed no gravitational interference. This anomaly is targeting the Challenger specifically. Second, the probe failed to clear. The hatch failed to open, despite having power, giving the probe a total distance of the probe's chamber. Third, the probe broke, which also damaged the chamber, which damaged everything connected to it. Probes from adjacent chambers show increased thermal activity, which means we have an electrical fire."

[Bridge]

Lek hissed as he heard about fire, he immediately tapped his commbadge.

Lek to damage control team four. Fire deck 10. Forward torpedo room. Evacuate the compartment, then vent. Reestablish life support. Report damage and implement repairs.

Lek then turned to face Jackson and Klaustrin.

"No more launching physical objects. Looks like the graviton pulse or scanning lasers might work, but solid objects are out."

[Rhymus Cleroux]

[Bridge]

Lek hissed as he heard about fire, he immediately tapped his commbadge.

Lek to damage control team four. Fire deck 10. Forward torpedo room. Evacuate the compartment, then vent. Reestablish life support. Report damage and implement repairs.

Lek then turned to face Jackson and Klaustrin.

"No more launching physical objects. Looks like the graviton pulse or scanning lasers might work, but solid objects are out."

Rhymus tapped away at his console. "I suppose Fore Torpedo bays are out as well. We're running out of weapons and we haven't even seen what we're fighting."

The man sat for a moment, thinking. "What if it isn't a gravity well, but... some sort of bubble? Or shield? Are there any artificial bodies in the area?" Rhymus continued thinking aloud, he was no Science officer, but a bad idea was better than none.

[Dylan Torngate]

[Deck 01 - Bridge]

Rhymus almost leapt out of the turbolift, making his way to the Tactical console and logging into it. The feeds for the various weapons of the Excelsior class cruiser and not all of it was good.

"Captain, damage to the bow end of the saucer section has rendered the bow dorsal phaser array offline. We still have the ventral array and fore photon torpedos, but for now, we'll have to keep any targets above us to our sides and rear. Other than that, weapons are fully charged and operational."

[Bridge]

Dylan hadn't heard any better options presented, and the Crewman had the needed training. "Mister Cleroux, you have the authorization to fire. Lowest possible power setting, zero degrees spread. Find whatever it is." Dylan ordered as he stood by the Tactical station. It seemed the other half of the bridge was cooking up their own science if you could call it that. The only difference between screwing around and science was writing it down. "Do your best to get as complete coverage as you can- don't break the ship more."

He knew the ship wasn't especially powerful on a good day, but they were just trying to find the person or persons responsible, not destroy their chance of getting loose.

He listened as Lek spoke.

[Bridge]

Lek felt deflated that he wasn't living up to his promotion and that he was letting the captain down.

"Sir, I wish that I had more information to give you, but whatever is going on is not an engineering malfunction, the cause is in the realm of the science department. Once they can figure out the what, we'll figure out the how and the way to get out."

"Don't worry, Lieutenant. This isn't your fault. We'll find one way out, one way or the other." he said with a smile, trying to raise the man's spirits somewhat. "Just focus on fixing my ship."

[Rhymus Cleroux]

[Bridge]

Dylan hadn't heard any better options presented, and the Crewman had the needed training. "Mister Cleroux, you have the authorization to fire. Lowest possible power setting, zero degrees spread. Find whatever it is." Dylan ordered as he stood by the Tactical station. It seemed the other half of the bridge was cooking up their own science if you could call it that. The only difference between screwing around and science was writing it down. "Do your best to get as complete coverage as you can- don't break the ship more."

He knew the ship wasn't especially powerful on a good day, but they were just trying to find the person or persons responsible, not destroy their chance of getting loose.

He listened as Lek spoke.

"Aye, Captain. Firing all available phasers, wide spread, low setting... Firing."

The ship suddenly lit up like a Christmas Tree on the Fourth of July as every available phaser opened fire, streaming across the void searching at random for targets.

[Lek]

[Bridge]

He listened as Lek spoke.

"Don't worry, Lieutenant. This isn't your fault. We'll find one way out, one way or the other." he said with a smile, trying to raise the man's spirits somewhat. "Just focus on fixing my ship."

[Bridge]

Lek brightened as the captain showed faith in him, holding as he replied.

"Aye sir! The fire is already out and I'm waiting for damage control to report on the the extent of the damage in the torpedo bay. I may not know what's holding us in place, but damage control I can do!"

[Lawrence Klaustrin]

[Bridge]

Lek hissed as he heard about fire, he immediately tapped his commbadge.

Lek to damage control team four. Fire deck 10. Forward torpedo room. Evacuate the compartment, then vent. Reestablish life support. Report damage and implement repairs.

Lek then turned to face Jackson and Klaustrin.

"No more launching physical objects. Looks like the graviton pulse or scanning lasers might work, but solid objects are out."

[Bridge]

"Understood"

While he was secretly pleased that his hunch was right, this was not a natural anomaly, it was mortifying that he inadvertently damaged the ship to find out. At least they had found out before they fired a torpedo. There wasn't any time to do anything about the embarrassment except move on. Hopefully Jackson's idea for the graviton pulse would fare better. Lawrence set it up and fired.

The feedback this time was much slower, and much more useful.

"The anomaly is being fed by a streams of subspace distortions. It works like our warp drive, except instead of folding space forward, it's all folded up around the ship itself."

Lawrence tried to explain.

"The bridge is out, from point A to point B. There's a thin layer all around the ship where physical matter can't occupy. I can also tell you this had to be purposeful. It's a giant, perfect net that we flew straight into."

[Martin Jackson]

"The anomaly is being fed by a streams of subspace distortions. It works like our warp drive, except instead of folding space forward, it's all folded up around the ship itself."

Lawrence tried to explain.

"The bridge is out, from point A to point B. There's a thin layer all around the ship where physical matter can't occupy. I can also tell you this had to be purposeful. It's a giant, perfect net that we flew straight into."

[Bridge]
Jackson smiled at the data.  He felt a little bad about launching a probe causing a fire, but there was nothing to be done now.  "Well," he said, "maybe we could just turn on the warp drive in reverse to un-fold space!"  It was a joke, of course, but the answer had to be something along the lines of finding a way to either un-bend space, or interfere with the dubspace distortion streams.

Pausing, he thought about who, or what, could have a reason to trap the Challenger.  Thinking about that, he realized something else.  As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he voiced it immediately.  "I wonder if the reason we got trapped is related to that quarantine order we just got?  I know 'correlation does not imply causality' and all, but it sure seems like a steep coincidence..."

[Lek]

[Bridge]

"Understood"

While he was secretly pleased that his hunch was right, this was not a natural anomaly, it was mortifying that he inadvertently damaged the ship to find out. At least they had found out before they fired a torpedo. There wasn't any time to do anything about the embarrassment except move on. Hopefully Jackson's idea for the graviton pulse would fare better. Lawrence set it up and fired.

The feedback this time was much slower, and much more useful.

"The anomaly is being fed by a streams of subspace distortions. It works like our warp drive, except instead of folding space forward, it's all folded up around the ship itself."

Lawrence tried to explain.

"The bridge is out, from point A to point B. There's a thin layer all around the ship where physical matter can't occupy. I can also tell you this had to be purposeful. It's a giant, perfect net that we flew straight into."

[Bridge]

Lek frowned as he replied. "Even though the 208th rule of acquisition applies, sometimes the only thing more dangerous than a question is an answer, it appears we know the how, I suppose we now need to know the who and the why?"

Lek sighed as he continued.

"However, the only critical thing we absolutely have to know is how to break this net. Mister Klaustrin, see if the data you have will lead us to the answer of that last question first. The who and the why are currently immaterial."

[Rhymus Cleroux]

[Bridge]

"Understood"

While he was secretly pleased that his hunch was right, this was not a natural anomaly, it was mortifying that he inadvertently damaged the ship to find out. At least they had found out before they fired a torpedo. There wasn't any time to do anything about the embarrassment except move on. Hopefully Jackson's idea for the graviton pulse would fare better. Lawrence set it up and fired.

The feedback this time was much slower, and much more useful.

"The anomaly is being fed by a streams of subspace distortions. It works like our warp drive, except instead of folding space forward, it's all folded up around the ship itself."

Lawrence tried to explain.

"The bridge is out, from point A to point B. There's a thin layer all around the ship where physical matter can't occupy. I can also tell you this had to be purposeful. It's a giant, perfect net that we flew straight into."

"Called it." The crewman raised his hand in the air slightly, smirking to himself. The humor was useful, even in such a tense situation. Now that they knew why they were stuck, they just needed to find out how to unstuck themselves. And that was something for the Science Department to mull over. Guess Sec-Tac can't have all the fun.

[Bridge]
Jackson smiled at the data.  He felt a little bad about launching a probe causing a fire, but there was nothing to be done now.  "Well," he said, "maybe we could just turn on the warp drive in reverse to un-fold space!"  It was a joke, of course, but the answer had to be something along the lines of finding a way to either un-bend space, or interfere with the dubspace distortion streams.

Pausing, he thought about who, or what, could have a reason to trap the Challenger.  Thinking about that, he realized something else.  As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he voiced it immediately.  "I wonder if the reason we got trapped is related to that quarantine order we just got?  I know 'correlation does not imply causality' and all, but it sure seems like a steep coincidence..."

Rhymus started to think about it. The crew, trapped in the middle of nowhere, under threat of a virus that has only just now appeared... That could mean... "Captain," The man said suddenly. "if this is artificial, and the biohazard has something to do with this, we can not rule out the possibility that there is a rogue crew member aboard the ship."

[Dylan Torngate]

"Aye, Captain. Firing all available phasers, wide spread, low setting... Firing."

The ship suddenly lit up like a Christmas Tree on the Fourth of July as every available phaser opened fire, streaming across the void searching at random for targets.

[Space]

As the phaser bolts lanced across space, two small shield contacts could be detected by the sensors, which in turn alerted Rhymus's console. The rest of the shots went wide. The ship was located just off the stern, port side, and just high of the ship. It was a small craft, about the size of a Federation Yellowstone-class Runabout.

Rhymus started to think about it. The crew, trapped in the middle of nowhere, under threat of a virus that has only just now appeared... That could mean... "Captain," The man said suddenly. "if this is artificial, and the biohazard has something to do with this, we can not rule out the possibility that there is a rogue crew member aboard the ship."

[Bridge]

Dylan nodded as he heard the man. "Very well, begin a sweep of all decks. If there's an intruder I want to know about it," he said, as he thought. He walked over to Jettis, tapping his commbadge as he spoke.  Doctor Vaughan, this is the Captain. Any progress on your end? he asked, hoping it hadn't gotten worse. Unbeknownst to him, however, it had gotten worse, with people sick from pretty much every deck.

"Any news on your front?" he asked, approaching the Commander. "I'll take anything you got, even theories at this point."

[Lek]

[Bridge]

Lek snarled at the report if an intruder and an unknown ship, livid, but an external threat he could wrap his head around. He started tapping furiously at the primary engineering console.

"If there is field, it can be reversed or we can set up a feedback. All we have to do is figure out the frequency, then we can turn their net back on them! Science, please analyze the data you got from the graviton pulse and see if you can give me a frequency."

[Rhymus Cleroux]

[Space]

As the phaser bolts lanced across space, two small shield contacts could be detected by the sensors, which in turn alerted Rhymus's console. The rest of the shots went wide. The ship was located just off the stern, port side, and just high of the ship. It was a small craft, about the size of a Federation Yellowstone-class Runabout.

[Bridge]

Dylan nodded as he heard the man. "Very well, begin a sweep of all decks. If there's an intruder I want to know about it," he said, as he thought. He walked over to Jettis, tapping his commbadge as he spoke.  Doctor Vaughan, this is the Captain. Any progress on your end? he asked, hoping it hadn't gotten worse. Unbeknownst to him, however, it had gotten worse, with people sick from pretty much every deck.

"Any news on your front?" he asked, approaching the Commander. "I'll take anything you got, even theories at this point."

"Sir! Two direct hits on enemy shuttlecraft! Just off the stern, port side! They're above us, Captain! Ready to fire to disable on your command."

As he called out the unknown vessel, he sent a message to the Security teams.
"All Security teams, priority one alert. There is a possible security breach aboard the ship. Report all suspicious activity to the Bridge immediately." 

[Lizzie Vaughan]

[Space]

As the phaser bolts lanced across space, two small shield contacts could be detected by the sensors, which in turn alerted Rhymus's console. The rest of the shots went wide. The ship was located just off the stern, port side, and just high of the ship. It was a small craft, about the size of a Federation Yellowstone-class Runabout.

[Bridge]

Doctor Vaughan, this is the Captain. Any progress on your end?

Sickbay

Lizzie and the rest of the Sickbay staff were being run off their feet. More and more of the crew, some conscious and able to speak, but most were unconscious and in need of treatment. They had no idea what the mystery drug was for, all they had was it's chemical breakdown. They had so many casualties that they had started using the isolation ward, but that was nearly full. She had been about to call the Captain when he call her first.

Vaughan to Torngate. It's mayhem down here Captain! I have nearly a quarter of the crew reporting symptoms with a good portion of those needing treatment. We have not been able to identify the drug, only it's constituent chemicals. And according to my college chemistry, it should not be possible to mix these particular chemicals together. We need more space. Permission to convert one of the Cargo bays into an emergency ward? Also, if at all possible, I would recommend that we head to the nearest Starbase to treat the sick as we are being slowly over-run. If too many more get stricken we will be in no position to even operate the ship properly. If things get much worse, I will be forced to declare this ship a quarantine zone!

Lizzie replied as the door opened, admitting more sick crew. Motioning one of the nurses to asses the sick, she waited for Dylan's reply.