Posted Feb. 27, 2021, 5:36 p.m. by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) (Sharon Miller)
Posted by Joseph Franklin (Anomalous Individual) in MPT - ST Proximity Alert on the bridge (Augustine Chronicles thread 2)
Existence was fragmented. Only the fragments blended together into an endless blur of shattered moments, pictures, emotions…
The disparate parts of what once was a human mind wondered if this was death? Is this what happens to us? It was so cold now that he’d (They? us?) been…
what, knocked out of his body? Killed?The cold numbed everything and enhanced the dreamlike quality of perception. The endless cycle of blackness, stars, memories continued.
Time did not exist here. Or if it did, he was unable to be aware of it.He saw nothing.
He saw himself as a boy, baling hay with his brothers.
He saw the stars.
He saw engine parts strewn over the garage floor as he struggled to repair a vintage manual transmission when he was 19 years old.
He saw Randall and Jack at their consoles on the bridge of the Augustine, the view from his command chair.
He saw blackness that reached infinity.
He saw James’s graduation ceremony, where he’d pinned the Crewman pips on his brother’s uniform himself.
He saw Jenny smile at him in the sunlight, at the lakehouse. He felt her squeeze his hand.
His head impacted the Bulkhead in his quarters on the Augustine, a blinding flash of pain.
Blackness.
Then… Lights, moving toward him. Running lights.
He saw the Baler machine’s innards, stained with oil and rust.
He saw the running lights again, the lines of her prow… Mjolnir class? He couldn’t make out the NCC numbers…
The Blackness again.
Bridge, USS Leviathan, after midnight.
Second watch sounded. All was well. Course and Speed remained as last instructed. Second Watch bridge crew began to relieve the First Watch crew.
Then, Proximity Alarms sounded.
Immediately after that, Emergency Collision Alarms sounded.
The Computer recommended an immediate course change, but scanners showed nothing before or abaft of Leviathan…
(Unsure of how I’m supposed to Sign off here…)
-Dave Eads/Joseph Franklin, Anomalous Individual
OOC: Another amazing post, Dave! I love the little flashes of his former life.
IC: Zachariah Cobb could not sleep. He’d tried reading some technical journals to exhaust his ceaseless mind, he’d drunk a strange, milky drink from Quinn called an ‘Ovaltine’, he’d even walked an entire circuit of his current deck to invoke physical exhaustion to counter the lack of mental. But none of it had worked.
And so, he had found himself drifting, on autopilot, to his favourite place on the ship. The Jörmungandr Lounge. Laid out on his favourite seat by the fish tank, a tumbler of whiskey in hand, the captain was almost content.
But the brief sanctuary was destroyed by the chirp of his commbadge and the voice of NE MacReady.
=^=Captain=^= came the familiar, gruff tones of Cobb’s favourite night shift officer. =^=Sorry for waking you but…well…something strange is happening, Sir.=^=
Cobb chuckled a reply as he drained the whiskey and promptly clambered to his feet.
=^=I wasn’t sleeping anyway, lad. On my way.=^=
Moments later and he stepped into the CIC, to find several officers gathered around the helm control station.
“What’s the issue here?” Cobb used the question to announce his arrival as he parted officers like a wave to gain his own view of the helm. His question was answered visually before any had a chance to speak.
“Do we have any readings?” he demanded of the room. “Just because we can’t see anything…”
“All scans are clear, Sir,” MacReady insisted.
Zachariah shrugged. “Can we try drifting closer into it? Very slowly.”
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