Posted by Joseph Franklin (Anomalous Individual) in MPT - ST Proximity Alert on the bridge (Augustine Chronicles thread 2)

Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in MPT - ST Proximity Alert on the bridge (Augustine Chronicles thread 2)

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.”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

OOC: (Thank you! I appreciate you indulging me.. :D )
IC:
An NE replied: “Aye Sir, ahead slow…”

The Leviathan moved ahead slowly, drifting closer to the readings.

The readings from the sensors all seemed to contradict one another. Multiple scans in a hand full of spectrums all said Leviathan was dangerously close to colliding with something smaller than itself, but large enough to be a ship or a large chunk of a ship… Energy readings showed a warp signature, ion particles from a ship trail though the course was incoherent and seemed to jump around instead of chart a path. Radiation readings showed what may have been explosions nearby.

Visually, there was nothing outside the viewport.

Until there was.

Without warning or grandeur, there was suddenly a large shape in the Leviathan’s direct path, not a hundred kilometers away. Not just a large shape, but hundreds or maybe thousands of smaller shapes formed into a tail and being pulled along by the gravity of the larger shape. The large shape was slowly rolling and spinning as it moved; like an asteroid might move. However, when it turned on its axis, what was clearly a matched pair of upper and lower nacelles came into view, the running lights still blinking. She was a dead ship. The battered and twisted stardrive section and half the torn open saucer section of a Discovery Class starship. Parts of the superstructure were still on fire and oxygen, coolant, plasma and radiation were all leaking out from various damaged parts of the wreck.

The debris cloud around her was comprised of bits of hull, glass, and refuse. Also, if one looked closely, one could see bodies frozen into stillness, orbiting along with the rest of the cloud of death and destruction. Another Nacelle drifted along behind the main wreck, the NCC number painted on the side reading: NCC - 87126.

While the dead ship was visible, a sound became apparent as well. A soft tinkling sound like rain against the Leviathan’s hull. Any crew members who’d ever been in a space battle would recognize that sound as tiny bits of debris clattering against the outside skin of the Leviathan.

Then, as if a switch were flipped, she was gone. Winked out of existence in an instant. Also gone was the tinkling rain sound.

Forty seconds later, another chunk of debris appeared, only this part of the dead ship was lazily spinning about a thousand kilometers off to Leviathan’s Starboard bow. Then that too winked out and was gone.

-Dave/Joseph Franklin, anomalous Individual

The comms on the bridge activated and a computer-like voice, but not the ship’s computer, said =/\= Vonn to Bridge. I am on Deck eleven near the RTF Barracks. There are… many bodies… fused into the walls. As well as what appears to be parts of another ship. However, they are only visible in wavelengths approaching Gamma Rays. Please advise. =/\=

Vonn, RTF CO