Posted by Commodore Drudoc Andone (Commanding Officer) in Main Sim - Science Labs - Combat Observations
[snip]

Ensign Baptiste sat back, Okay how in the hell am I supposed to help with that. I am not an engineer. he thought to himself. Then suddenly he had an inspirational spark from an old twentieth century movie called Ghostbusters. “Hey Kaden ever see an old twentieth century movie called Ghostbusters? I know that their so called ‘proton packs’ were fictional, but couldn’t we design something like it, perhaps modify a photon torpedo and use its energy source for the hologram? We then launch it and allow momentum to carry it to the system. Once there the hologram and or sensor packages can start doing research. If anything threatens the Hologram or torpedo instrument package it could self-destruct like a normal photon torpedo.” Enquired Johnathan.

-Ensign Johnathan Baptiste, medical

Once the group would turn their attention 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 their view the wrecked Federation ship was in evidence as were the several Forseth ships. On the scans they could see the Federation ship’s shields were down to 72%, and that the creature did not seem intent on giving up anytime soon.

Kaden thought for just a second as he felt the ship coming out of warp, it was the same feeling on every ship and being an engineer, he could always feel it and hear it. He then tapped on his chest to activate his communicator =/\=Ensign Buchanan to Bridge, Do we know if the giant snake creature is potentially going after the power coming from the ship? There have been reports of other vessels seeing creature who thrive on energy. Is this a scenario or something we could communicate over to quickly try? Any thoughts?=/\=

Kaden was hoping his thoughts might work on this. Might be something the creature is living on. Just a thought based on items which he had read.

Ensign Buchanan Engineering Officer

“The creature is causing a temporal phase shift; we are going to need to adjust our weapons and shielding to match that.” Replied Johnathan. He began running some biological scans using a temporal and phase shift equation to learn the creature’s wavelength of temporal phasing. “Any idea how long that will take?” he asked Ensign Buchanan.

-Ensign Johnathan Baptiste, Medical

The Red Alert Klaxon came on and hit Ensign Johnathan like a bolt of lightning. “You’ll have to excuse me, sounds like we will need my services in sickbay and surgery. Best of luck to you Ensign Buchanan, try not to end up a patient.” With that statement Johnathan got up and made a beeline towards sickbay.

-Ensign Johnathan Baptiste, Medical

=/\=We have precious little information on this “space snake” Ensign Buchanan,” Katie said to her communicator. She shook her head. Such a creature shouldn’t be possible but if there was one thing she had learned it was that you never won the arguments that reality was impossible. “It’s a safe conjecture that the other ships have or had comparable shields and weaponry to ours… and at the moment that doesn’t seem to be doing them a lot of good. Confirm that operating status of all our shield emitters. =/\=

Just after Katie commented, an NE on the bridge also added to things, =/\= Analysis unclear at this point Ensign. We’re still assessing what we can and can not do. =/\= He said. =/\= As for the Forseth ships they are at best barely warp capable, unknown what defensive or offensive measures they even have at present due to the shifting =/\= He said

=/\=Ensign Buchanan here. I will confirm the status of the shields and report back. I am also going to do a few simulations to see if I can come up with a way to subdue the creature. Maybe firing at it is not the best way to handle the situation. I will report back with my findings. Buchanan out=/\=

Kaden then started doing a search through the computer to check the status of all the shield emitters. He punched a few buttons on the computer station and said to the computer, “Computer, can you confirm the shield emitters for the ship? I need to confirm they are all working within expected parameters.” He then waited for a response fro the computer.

A quick result came up on the screen, the shields were operating at 100% efficiency at present, and we’re currently running a modification routine program to provide temporal shielding protections, though it was unclear if such shielding would make a difference here or not given the creature was focused on the Volgograd at present.

On the screen it showed the Ark Angel open fire with several phaser arrays, all hit the creature but passed through it due to the out of phase nature the creature and area had.

He also started typing some things on the other part of his station to begin doing some simulations on what the best plan to move forward with what appeared to be a flying creature that is causing alterations to space-time. He waited for a respond to his first simulation from the computer.

Ensign Buchanan Engineering Officer

Going off the scans the creature did indeed seem to be the source of the out of phase nature being found here, there was evidence though not confirmed that it was also somehow connected to the strange opposing dual stars in the system as well through a small tie by subspace. This also had the rippling effect of explaining now how and why the who stellar region outside the J17 system had multitudes of space traffic giving off louder ‘echo’ effects for far longer then it normally would. For the moment though they were still at a loss of how to either phase into the creature’s effect or bring it and by extension the J17 area back into phase with them. Maybe if the Volgograd could kill the creature was one idea? The other was somehow interfering or severing its connection to one or both stellar solar bodies, the question again there though was how did one ‘snip the cord’ to a giant space creature tying itself to two stellar bodies?

After Kaden read the output, he thought for a second and then said, “Computer, can you run a simulation on what might happen if we attempted to remove the small tie between the system and the creature? I am curious what might or might not happen based on probability and data available.” Kaden knew a few things which might happen, including but not limited to absolutely nothing but he still wanted to see what the computer would predict based on the available data.

Ensign Buchanan
Engineering Officer