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 Chief Warrant Officer Kodek Vonn (RTF Commander) in MPT - ST Proximity Alert on the bridge (Augustine Chronicles thread 2)
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻
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.

As the remains of the ship appeared before them, the Leviathan’s CIC sprung to life. At the tactical station, MacReady was already taking readings - chemical configurations, debris composition, average fragment sizes, identification markers.
“Captain,” he called out after a moment, Cobb responding with determined step across the CIC. “Sir, it’s the USS Augustine.”
“The Augustine?”
Like all Federation captains, Cobb had heard of the ship. Heard too how it disappeared without a trace in the midst of a five-year mission. He had always presumed it destroyed. But to be faced with the evidence before him…

“Well what the hell is it…”

Zachariah stopped. Words dissolved on his tongue with equal urgency to his steps across the carpeted floor. Around him, an uneasy silence cocooned the room. Echoing. Uncomfortable. But then came a different sound, one that made them beg for the silence to return…

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.

“Are our shields up?” Cobb attempted to confirm, voice hesitant and restrained, as if his words could take physical form and collide with the hail of debris outside.
“Aye, Sir,” came reassurance from the helm.
“Good. Maintain our course. Slow and steady now. Be prepared to stop at any…”

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

He dared not to move. Dared not to breathe. Arctic eyes scanning the room and finding each face around him suspended as he. Was it over? Had a blink of the eye triggered this final disintegration, until the Augustine was no more than a breath upon the wind?

“Run a scan of our local area,” he whispered.
“Aye Sir. Nothing. It’s as if…wait!”

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

The comms alert tore like a missile through the sarcophagal silence of the room, Cobb emitting a roar of alarm as he visibly jumped at the sound.
=^= Ah, Mr Vonn =^= he replied on a tremulous exhale, =^= I…bodies, you say? Ah…=^=

Dammit, pull yourself together man! You’re a bloody starship captain!

He cleared his throat.
=^= I am reading no external breaches. Secure the area and follow standard containment procedures. I will issue an evacuation of non-RTF personnel from the surrounding decks. =^=

Then once more descending on MacReady, Zachariah pounded the neighbouring terminal with his fist.
“That ship can not just have disappeared. Find it!”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

Apparently, the Augustine could just disappear, and it did.

The latest chunk of the ship visible soon disappeared, just as the hulk itself had.

They didn’t have to wait long though… Seventy seconds later more debris appeared visibly around them. Some of it seemed to warp and shift as if twisted by some unseen force, or like something seen on a screen with interference distorting the signal.

However, the oddity of oddities was that the debris seemed attracted to Leviathan.

---

After Cobb’s demand, as if on a cue… There was a distant rumble in the deck plates. Whether they knew it or not, this was the piece of wreckage that had become physically restored while passing through Deck 11. Instantly, damaged systems began to send error reports to the CIC.

Power flow was disrupted in C Corridor, Deck 11, between Cargo Bay 2 and RTF quarters.

Structural Integrity Field taking damage in sections 7 and 8.

Coolant leak detected in C Corridor, sections 7 and 8, Deck 11.

Internal Sensors reporting damage, in Sections 7 and 8, Deck 11.

Life Support losing power in C Corridor… The list went on.

The last report was chilling.

Internal Sensors detected Weapons Fire, C Corridor, Deck 11.

-Franklin, Anomalous Individual

Raauhl wasn’t accustomed to prying doors open but that’s what he just did to find himself on the CIC, lights were flickering and the CIC had certainly seen its better days. He managed to make his way to the centre table, “Computer display a 3D schematic of the ships overlaying the ships damages and internal sensor readings. Straight on queue, the table lit up the Leviathan in an array of different colours Green, Red and dauntingly… black which meant structural breaches. Their image also showed every living being on the ship and on Deck 11 weapons fire. =^=Red alert, possible intruders onboard lockdown deck 11 corridors A though D. Security to Deck 11.=^=

He turned to however was able to answer, “What’s the bloody hell is happening?”

• Cmdr Raauhl, XO