[snip]

”..Clearly there is some kind of temporal anomaly going on here. But is not one that is giving off normal chroniton or other expected particles or signatures that we know of. The only constant seems to be these old echoing radio signals that have a slightly higher variance frequency then we might be expecting for most sublight natural or artificial radio traffic in space..” She said. “..There is also the issue that the Volgograd was up till the cut out seeming safe and in our own sense of temporal alignment, this to me implies that up to that moment we were within sync with them. So up till that moment the Volgograd was not effected by the rapid evolutions of the Forseth inside J17. There’s also the fact that whatever happened to the Volgograd shortly after say within 10 years also effected J17 but yet all this has happened several thousands of years ago..” She went on.

“Intriguing.” Sifeda commented as she thoughtfully gazed at the Commodore.

”..So we must ask, was originally the Volgograd outside the influence of a temporal echo that was showing normal development for the Forseth but only to our unaffected perceptions and sensors seemed vastly sped up, meaning that what we were seeing was in fact events happening in the past thousands of years ago which then the Volgograd somehow got caught within transporting them into the past where they were ripped up and destroyed before roughly 10 years later the same event befell the Forseth and J17? Personally I have not heard of any exact temporal anomaly that comes close to this. There are some things similar in our databanks but nothing quite like this. We must also consider that if the event did somehow expand or has a radius of effect is it expanding further and how far could it spread? Not to mention its source and what sort of creature or anomaly could rip apart a ship like that and whole planets.” She said returning to her seat.

”..Comments or thoughts?” Drudoc asked.

Drudoc Andone CO / GM CockRoach

“Surely a life form of that size could be no match for a Federation starship, we need the combined efforts of a fleet. As for the temporal anomaly question, I’m afraid I’m stumped.” Kyle adopted his typical ‘lost in thought’ pose, leaning across the tactical console with one arm on either side.

-Lieutenant Kyle Anders: Chief of Security-

Drudoc considered Ander’s comments. “..It is true if such a large organism is present and ‘ate’ the probe and tore up the Volgrad and the Forseth ships and is hostile for some reason like feeding or being territorial it would be a threat for sure. But this would mean it can transition somehow fluidly through time. Or perhaps its presence effects the local temporal patterns in this case the creature WAS present thousands of years ago within the J17 system, and then took notice of the Volgrad and when it came from say the past to our present its destruction of the Volgrad or attack dragged the remains back into the past, by which point in theory the creature’s return to the J17 system’s interior where it could lair caught the attention of the Forseth, or they it, resulting in their destruction that we now see.” Drudoc said.

”..Of course proceeding further without support is a dangerous attempt either way, even with a fleet of ships if this creature could say attack and pull a ship into the past it would just pick off such a fleet one by one..” Drudoc said leaning on her CO chair thoughtfully. Then her eyes seemed to light up with a spark of an idea. Turning then back to Anders she said, “..Lieutenant, open a wide band subspace channel, all bandwidths, flood the local area out as far as you can go. Our long range comms without using subspace buoys should reach J17..” She said.

Once the channel was open, Drudoc spoke up to the wide open channel. =/\= This is Commodore Drudoc Andone of the USS Ark Angel. Attempting to contact the USS Volgrad. Please respond…=/\= She said then hitting the mute function on her CO chair. “..Everyone here monitor that wide band hail and pattern. Look for any matching patterns in sending or receiving however slight that could match any of the background echo traffic we and the Volgrad had picked up previously before all this came present..” She said.

GM Cockroach / Drudoc Andone CO

Gavin excitedly tapped his comm, “Bridge, this is Doctor Stacey,” The CMO announced as he paused momentarily to catch his breath, “I’m sending up data, as well as a probable response from the Volgrad, from our previous hail.” While not too familiar with the comms system, the Doctor tried his best to transfer the visual and audio data that was available to the CO and XO’s panels. “Science should have a field day with this…” He stated.

Dr. Stacey

“Acknowledged, Dr. Stacey.” Sifeda invited Demil with tilting motion of her head to review the transmission with her on the panel. “I am intrigued to learn what Dr. Stacey has discovered.”

Itri, XO

Demil walked over to the console, beginning to analyze the transmission.

Then a moment later from that, the probe that had been sent to gather samples of the space borne helium life forms made a blip on the sensor logs it was sending back. It seems that while gathering the last of the tiny space organisms, the Ark Angel’s wide band hail had reached the nebula’s location. Like a drop of ripple in the water when the hail had come in the helium based life forms had moved away as if reacting to its presence, signaling that they could indeed pick up subspace variances. While certainly interesting on its own for later study, it was the signal of the return probe coming back to the Ark Angel and passing by the J17 system that was even more of note.

On the screen they saw the destroyed system like before, yet the probe’s sensors were also picking up tell tale signs of faint subspace eddies consistent with those from temporal and dimensional shifts! In essence they could see on the probe’s scans that the Volgrad was currently ‘hiding’ within the ‘shifted’ comet fragment they had gone into previously! They could also see that a ‘shifted’ form of a quite large space borne organism, like that of a huge two headed snake spanning as 1km long and almost 200 meters wide was ‘slithering’ out of the system at about 1/6th the speed of light towards the shifted Volgrad which due to the cometary interreference probably couldn’t detect it unless they were looking for it.....

Then as the ‘echo’ effect of the Ark Angel’s hail reached J17, the Volgrad replied, though its return hail was corrupted and out of phase with the normal space time continuum. =/\= USS Volgograd to USS Ark Angel, we read you. =/\= the CO of the ship said

“Ma’am, permission to send a transmission?” Demil requested.

Drudoc nodded to Demil....

=/\= Volograd, there is a space borne organism approaching you from the J17 system which could potentially be a threat. I recommend you avoid it.”=/\=

Turning back to the Ark Angel’s bridge, he mused “This could be the thing that devastated the Forseth. These eddies are also intriguing, I would like to investigate them further.”
Ens. Lis, Science

Thank God! Anders thought to himself, “Well, any response is a good one at this point!”

-Lieutenant Kyle Anders: Chief of Security-

A second later Drudoc’s original wide band hail got a response, =/\= USS Volgograd to USS Ark Angel. Good to hear from you all again. We figured our descent into the comet might cause comms problems. I guess that....=/\= There was a pause in the reply.

=/\= There’s a what? =/\= The Captain’s voice said obviously hearing a few seconds later Demil’s reply. =/\= Red Alert! Battle Stations! =/\= Came the CO’s cry.

On screen they could see the phase shifted Volgograd raise shields. And quickly make to move out of the comet and away from the fast closing giant two headed snake like creature. As they watched they saw phaser strikes lance out followed by a burst of torpedoes. They seemed to be connecting to the giant snake creature but only did little damage clearly ticking it off. Inside the J17 system a delay of about 10 seconds was recorded where it seems the energy bursts from the fight had reached the early space flight Forseth. Signs of primitive scans were already shown looking that way and the three possibly warp capable ships in orbit already powered up showed signs of moving out of their docking berths at low impulse speeds to investigate it seems. Whether they had any weapons or defenses seemed unclear.

Drudoc shook her head, conflicted. “..Helm, warp 8, bring is within range of the Volgograd, but hold us off station by 500,000km..” She said, nodding the helm officer did so the Ark Angel’s ETA now was 3 minutes to arrival. Hitting a ship wide comms she said, =/\= All hands red alert, man battle stations! =/\= She said.

Turning quickly she looked to Anders, “..Lieutenant, it seems possible we’re dealing with an unknown type of anomaly dimensionally shifted and/or temporally. Quickly, in the databanks under Angel Defense-1 you should find a file for temporal shielding adjustments. Bring them online at my order..” she said. “..We used them in the past few years for different temporal events like this, they may again be useful here..”

Turning back on the screen the quickly closing Ark Angel could see that the Volgograd had moved further out from the system, the giant twin headed snake in hot pursuit. Once in a while a lashing tail would whip around from behind as it would turn itself broadside trying to get a grapple on the Federation ship. The tail split showing sharp razor like hooks on either end, probably what it would use to grapple such ‘food’ if caught. On screen another lancing of phaser fire and torpedoes struck the creature along its flanks and head, the left head looked singed but fine, while the right one that had taken the blow of torpedoes oozed a greenish ichor probably some kind of blood.

With a hum the Ark Angel dropped from warp, about 500,000km away from the fight. The Forseth ships, the giant snake creature, and Volograd were all now clearly seen as being out of phase with the Ark Angel and the rest of the J17 system ahead, from there view the wrecked Federation ship was in evidence as were the several Forseth ships. =/\= Ark Angel! This creature just is not giving up, shields are down to 72% and we’re also picking up three Forseth ships closing, ETA 2 minutes. Our scans are showing you out of temporal phase with us! Can you assist?=/\= The CO’s voice inquired.

=/\= Commodore Andone here, we read you Captain, we’re moving to assist now. However, our own scans seem to show you, the Forseth, and the snake creature are the ones out of phase. Attempting to interdict now! =/\= She said. “..Lieutenant, target phasers on the creature, full spread on all arrays. We need to see what we can do and right quick! ” she said.

GM CockRoach / Drudoc Andone CO