STF

Main sim - Away Team

Posted April 25, 2023, 7:30 p.m. by Lieutenant Commander Liam Madison (Chief Science Officer) (Janice B.)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Daggum Hammor (Chief Operations Officer) in Main sim - Away Team

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Serena Stone (Executive Officer) in Main sim - Away Team

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Liam Madison (Chief Science Officer) in Main sim - Away Team
Posted by… suppressed (51) by the Post Ghost! 👻
The transporter chief received coordinates for an away team transport. He looked over what they needed from him, and it seemed perfectly doable. Though he couldn’t help but wonder what the interest in an empty ship was.

-GM

Seemingly first in, Ros stepped through the doors and nodded to the transporter chief. “Any problem with the co-ordinates?” He asked as he turned for the pad. “Residual radiation, ionization of the hull from the anomaly? Loose chronitons about to turn half the away team back into children?” Stepping onto the pad he turned around and looked to see if anyone else was arriving, the green in his eyes then turning to the transporter chief in case there was any of those things present.

Lt Cmdr Akirel, CE

“Not that I can tell, sir.” The chief smiled. “Don’t quite understand the layout of this ship, but I should be dropping you on the bridge.”

-GM

The door opened and the Ops Chief walked in. He looked at Ros and nodded. “Hey, Chief. You ready to go say to our new friend over there?” he said with a half smile.

Hammor, Ops Chief

Behind him was the redhead XO, outfitted with a duty belt with a type II phaser, tricorder, a few other odds and ends, and a rifle in hand. No hazard suit or armor though. It was doubtful they’d run into anything hostile anyway. “They should have that ship tractored away from the anomaly by now. I’d be more worried about hard radiation we weren’t picking up through the hull. But the bridge should be sufficiently far enough away from any major sources.”

Stepping up to the pad, she set herself, legs bent giving a little bounce, muzzle aimed at the deck in a low ready and waited for the rest of the team to take the pad. Tilting her head to one side and then the other there were a few pops each way.

“Let’s get this show on the road. Energize.”

Lt Cmdr Stone, XO

“Aye.” The chief replied. He slid his fingers up the console and the USS Athena vanished from view. It was swiftly replaced by the clear signs of a Starfleet ship’s bridge. It had the right layout to be Federation make. As the life signs and movement of the away team were detected, the consoles awoke and projected holographic controls. There was no sign of anyone on the ship’s bridge, living or dead, who hadn’t just come from the Athena.

-GM

Hammor moved immediately to the Ops console and looked, but didn’t touch, at the readouts. He also looked to see if any any security lockdowns were in place or if the life pods has been jettisoned.

Hammor, Ops

The ship was at a yellow alert, but no lockdowns were in place, no life pods had been jettisoned.

-GM

When Liam finished materializing, his eyes glanced around the empty bridge. Seeing such a sight set him on edge as he felt the symbiotic creature react to his discomfort. Thankfully it won’t do anything, but knowledge the rise in his adrenaline.

“I’m going to try to access the logs and see what comes up. Hopefully the data is not corrupted.” Liam promptly stepped toward the nearest station. His hand reached out to the holographic controls, seeing if they responded to his touch.

-CSO, Liam J. Madison, Sci.

The controls did react to Liam’s touch.

“Wait!” Hammor said. “The ship is at yellow alert. Anyone not registered as crew trying to access the computer will cause an alert. If the ship has any defense systems, that may trigger them. Try just inputting your ID verification first.” Hammor turned to the Ope station and did the same.

Hammor, Ops

When Hammor shouted, Liam froze in place until the CE finished. The fact the console reacted to his touch told him the ship wasn’t stuck in time or disabled in some fashion. If it had been, he might’ve suspected sabotage.

“Right,” Liam said as he entered his ID code.

Entry of Hammor’s ID code seemed to flummox the ship’s computer for just a second, and then the ops station was usable.

-GM

Hammor began running a diagnostic on all systems, as well as internal scans of the entire ship.

The ship’s systems seemed intact, but there were engine and weapon designs incorporated that were totally unfamiliar to Hammor.

Serena moved to check each hatch to see if it was responsive. Seeing that the ships’ systems were responsive was welcome but also a little unsettling. “Give a shout if you find something.” Assuming the security team would settle into a defensive posture while assisting, she made her way to the ready room.

If the hatch opened, she would proceed inside and begin checking the terminal access there, looking for any logs left by any of the senior officers or commanding officer, as much as her authorization codes would allow, looking for the most recent information and working backward.

Lt Cmdr Stone, XO

The hatch to the ready room did open. The terminal there had an unfinished Captain’s log on it. Dated July 21, 2761, the log read
The mission has carried us farther than we could have anticipated. The crew is getting antsy. I feel somewhat responsible, it could’ve ended six months ago. Yet I refused to act. If I cannot bring myself to act again-

Hammor, Ops

Upon catching the XO’s words, Liam nodded his understanding. His attention began looking for the logs. More specifically, the ones around the time of the yellow alert.

-CSO, Liam J. Madison, Sci.

As Liam called up the logs surrounding the alert, a spectral figure of a commanding officer, in a uniform unrecognizable to any of the party, he said “Full reverse, take us away from the-“ and then he vanished.

And then the comms cut in. =/\=Athena to Away Team, did you just scan us?=/\=

-GM

Hammor replied =/\= Negative, Athena. But there was something… weird. Stand by. =/\= and he pulled his tricorder and scanned the area the figure had appeared in. “Madison, did you see that?” he asked as he watched the readings.

Hammor, Ops

=/\=Acknowledged, standing by.=/\= came Orvos’s reply.

-Captain Orvos Legen, CO

Liam took a moment to process what he had seen until Hammor’s voice reached him.

“Yeah, I did. I’m just not sure what it is.” His hand already reached for his scanner, but Hammor beat him to it.

Instead he called out to the XO, “Commander Stone, we had something happen on the bridge.”

Liam decided to share his findings with the CE and the XO when she arrived.

“I found an unfinished Captain’s log. It was dated July 21, 2761.” His head scanned the area, hoping nothing else sudden appeared.

“It mentions the mission carrying them farther than expected. From the sounds of it, the mission could’ve ended six months ago if the Captain had acted. Then he speaks about what might happen if he can’t bring himself to act again before the log cuts off.”

Liam took a moment to analyze the readings.

“Based on how the log sounds, I wonder if they are in a loop of sorts and are aware of it.”

-CSO, Liam J. Madison, Sci.

“You seem to have found the same log I did,” Serena replied as she looked it over, having approached quickly. “Not sure I concur.” Turning she focused on Hammor. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“To turn a phrase…” Hammor said as he concentrated on the readings.

“At this point, we’ve had two unexplained events.” Liam spoke, informing the XO with missing pieces.

“First was witnessing a transparent figure of a commanding officer. He told someone to take the ship full reverse then cut off. He abruptly vanished. Next, the Athena contacted us about having being scanned.”

Turning back to Liam she tilted her head. “Is your tricorder sophisticated enough to pick up chronometric particles and fields, Mister Madison?”

Stone, XO

Scans would show chronitons inside the ship as well. Whatever phenomenon had brought them was gone.

-GM

Hammor looked at the XO and said “I think the Athena should pull us away from the anomaly. Chronitons on and in the ship, but no source.”

Hammor, Ops

“They were supposed to be doing exactly that,” Serena said.

At her mention of the particles, Liam’s head nodded. Though his scans weren’t needed when Hammor spoke up. The Chief Operation Officer’s suggestion was wise, but Liam’s desire to get more information was stronger.

“Mister Hammor, can we determined if this ship was the source of the scan mentioned earlier? If it was, can we trace the location of where the command came from?”

-CSO, Liam J. Madison, Sci

Hammor thought for a moment and then a kind of theory began to form. “What if…” and he went to the Ops station. He first looked to see if the scan had come from the empty vessel. He then went and looked at the system logs to see when the last scan was performed, and of what, and who ordered it.

Hammor, Ops

Sensor logs did show a detailed scan of the Athena. Performed minutes earlier, by it seemed the ship’s operations officer. One Lieutenant Dahlia, who were she present, would have been standing exactly at the station Hammor was using.

“Scan came from here… but minutes ago. There has to be a time distortion at play here.” Hammor said.

Serena set her jaw. The idea that someone was on the ship besides them, when it was supposed to be empty was unnerving. But they were dealing with wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey business here. She turned toward Liam. “What you’re describing sounds like a temporal echo or distortion. Maybe this ship did scan the Athena but, but that doesn’t mean it was in our ‘when’.” She considered for a moment. “Madison, see if you can pull up the research logs for this vessel. Find out what they were working on. I’ll see if I can tackle it from the Command angle. If there’s another event, record as much data as you can. We may have future friends in some real trouble. And if we’re not careful we’re caught up in it too already.”

Reaching up she tapped her combadge. =^=Away Team to Athena. How we doin’ on that tractor beam?=^=

Lt Cmdr Stnoe, XO

“Yes, of course.” Liam stated, taking note of what the XO said.

She was correct about the ‘when’ part, but the CSO knew they had to start somewhere. Location instead of time just happened to come to his thoughts first. He immediately began

“I hope we’re not, I prefer things not get too complicated.”

-CSO, Liam J. Madison, Sci.

After a brief pause, the ship lurched into motion, being pulled toward the Athena. Among the research logs were mostly weapons tests and the stray data picked up on a bizarre path through the sector. The ship’s general logs suggested that the Federation was at war, and for 10 months this vessel had been a serving as a warship.

-GM

Serena immediately began diving into what she could of the war records, looking for who and why, as well as what their capabilities were like. If this ship had been part of some new experimental weapons test, or subjected to an enemy experimental weapon, they needed to know about it. As for the stray data, she quickly highlighted it, and sent it to the boys, Madison and Hammor. “What do you two make of that,” she said. Her tone was almost casual. They were her team, as much as she was theirs. And sure, there was rank at play but so far she’d not needed it and simply chose to operate as colleagues and friends.

Stone, XO

As often happens with war, the why was murky at best. The who, however, was crystal clear. Within the Federation itself, several member systems had formed a more successful iteration of the maquis. The Federation was at war with itself.

-GM

=/\=Athena to Away Team, your ship is in tow now. Any updates?=/\=

-Captain Orvos Legen, CO

Hammor looked at the course data. “Well, without knowing what was specifically going on at that time, I would say they were either looking for something… or trying to hide from someone.” He had a thought. “Commander, I’m gonna try something. Don’t know if it will work.” He opened the Ops station logs. He chose the last entry from Lieutenant Dahlia, flagged it for priority review, and added a note: Lt. Cmdr. Hammor, USS Athena Ops Chief, currently on board your vessel. Can you see this? “If they are on board but in a time-shift, the image we saw and the scan from here would seem to suggest there may be some kind of quantum-entanglement. If we change something in the ship now, it may change it then… whenever ‘then’ is.”

Hammor, Ops

Serena mentally kicked herself. Her mother had been a scientist. She had a solid background there. And her dad was an engineer. She’d spent many hours tinkering withhim. Both should have been avenues of thought that came to mind. Getting set in one mode of thinking wasn’t good. “Good thinking,” she said.

=^=Athena, this ship comes from a time period where the Federation and Maquis are at war again. We’re seeing possible temporal distortions. Nothing crazy. Logs are spotty. Commander Hammor has an idea to make contact with the ship’s crew and we’re trying it now. Standby.=^=

=/\=Understood. Keep us apprised.=/\= came the voice of Orvos Legen.

-Captain Orvos Legen, CO

The words of Hammor’s message re-ordered themselves, the screen flickering a bit as they did. Can you see this, Lt Cmdr Hammor, USS Athena Ops Chief?

-GM

Hammor snapped his fingers. “Bingo! I think we can communicate.

Serena had followed, and as the screen shifted, she blinked. “Talk about ‘spooky action’.” Of course, referencing one of the forefathers of quantum physics was rather appropriate at the moment.

Lt Cmdr Stone, XO

Hammor tapped into the log Yes, I see it. Can you tell me what happened here? Are you still on board the ship? He also added the current stardate. He looked at Stone and said “I don’t know for sure they are writing. And they may only be able to use the words we give them to reply, judging from the response. Might have something to do with the nature of the time differences.”

Hammor, Ops Chief

The words once again flickered and rearranged. Some did not remain. Yes, I am on the ship. It still happen. the stardate also rearranged, and was July 21st 2761. Beyond that, what Hammor would observe is that it seemed only to reuse what he sent.

-GM

Liam’s eyes snapped to Hammor when he heard the sudden exclamation. He took a deep breath and moved over to observe the Operations Chief’s progress.

Something felt off about the replies. He stared for a moment longer before it clicked. Wanting confirmation over what he suspected, Liam asked a question.

“Is it me, or does it seem like Lieutenant Dahlia is using your communication to form a response? If so, they can reuse words from prior replies?”

-CSO, Liam J. Madison, Sci.

Serena nodded. “Seems you and Commander Hammor are both right,” she mused. “See what you can find out about how they got here. Was it accident or with purpose? Why they are here is pretty important.” She frowned then. She recalled the prevailing theories about time travel, paradoxes, and the like. It was a lot to consider, and it made her head hurt. Best they could do was navigate the situation to the best of their ability.

Stone, XO

Hammor looked at Stone. “Ok. What I would recommend here is sending a crap ton of words at once. Maybe the hundred or so most common used words in Federation Standard. Preface it with a statement saying ‘Try to help us help you. What can we do?’ or something clear and concise. We can even send the next hundred words if we need to.”

Hammor, Ops

The redhead nodded. “That was pretty much my thinking too. Well that and a scrabble board worth of letters they could rearrange too.” She gave the Ops Chief a brief smile. this was still a rough situation, but at least they had communication established. Better than stabbing in the dark.

“I wonder if we left a padd and stylus, could they use that to write us messages more directly instead of trying to deal with our word salad?”

Stone, XO

Hammor shrugged and began the message. As he did so, he said “I don’t know. What I did was change the logs they created. I thought they existed in their time, maybe changing it would be possible. Thankfully it was.”He thought for a moment and then said “Maybe we download their logs to the PaDD, change the logs only on the device, and see what happens? I honestly don’t know.” He tapped a few final commands and then said “Ok, done. They have a much bigger word base to use now.”
Hammor, Ops

Liam listened to the ideas passed about and staying silent to avoid interrupting. Once he saw an opening, the scientist officer spoke.

“I’ll start to download the data into the PaDD then and we can try your other idea next.”

He hadn’t wasted much time as he began to hook up his device and start the download. Liam’s eyes watched the process for an oddities. If anything odd did happen, he was ready to pause it and get the others’ attention. The lack of information had heightened his paranoia making him wary over the details.

-CSO, Liam J. Madison, Sci.

It took a while to deal with the larger word base. Long enough for the database to download to Liam’s PaDD. We were investigating a weird thing. Where and when are you? Appeared on the console and PaDD simultaneously.

-GM

Serena frowned. There was no reason not to give them that information, at least that they could discern. Even if they were Maquis having taken over the vessel. Which she doubted, but the possibility was there. “Go ahead and feed them stardate and coordinates,” she murmured. That particular war was superseded by the humanitarian mission at hand. Helping people stuck in a bad situation. And exploring this new circumstance.

Stone, XO

((Sorry for the delay folks.

Sam H. ))

Daggum nodded and sent the information, along with another hundred words. He then added I am sitting at the OPs Console. Our CSO is at the science station. Our XO is next to me. Where are you? Did you scan our vessel? And why was your course so sporadic?

Hammor, Ops

=/\=Athena to Away Team, the ship has changed position to completely face us. Any info to help us figure out why?=/\=

-Captain Orvos Legen, CO

A reply came through to Hammor and Liam that read I am sitting at the OPS console… but that anomaly was spitting time particles and then we detected some kind of subspace thing on the other side as we got pulled in.

-GM

Hammor didn’t wait, he tapped his commbadge and said =/\= Ops to Athena. Sir, it appears the ship is in some kind of time-flux. We have established communications with what we believe is the crew, but in a different 0hase of time. We are modifying their ship logs and flagging them for review, and they respond by utilizing the vocabulary available within the logs. I mean, it could be an artificial intelligence of some kind, but we did see some kind of… apparition… for a moment. It all seems to track. As far as the ship changing position? We aren’t seeing that here. =/\=

He then typed into the logs How can we assist?

Hammor, Ops

We need to put everything back, but we don’t know how.

-GM

Hammor looked at Madison and said “You wouldn’t be hiding the fact that you a secret expert on temporal anomalies and chroniton radiation, would you?” with a slight grin.

Hammor, Ops

Liam looked at Hammor when he caught the mention of chroniton radiation. His head gave a small shake.

“That would be the easy solution, but I don’t think such an expert exists.” Liam commented, returning the joke with a fact.

Serena frowned. “Keep ‘em talking. Let’s see if we can walk backward what they did. Madison, you’re our scientist, see if you can make heads or tails of things from their readings.”

XO

Upon examination, the science logs showed that the ship had gone to investigate the anomaly from which it emerged. They had discovered that the anomaly was spewing chronitons when it began expressing a gravitational force upon the ship. According to their sensor data they were still in the 28th century, having arrested their progress towards the anomaly.

-GM

“On it,” the CSO answered promptly and dove back into the science logs. His eyes flickered over the data before relaying to the others.

“They went to investigate the anomaly from which it emerged. It started to spew chronitons when it began expressing a gravitational force upon the ship. According to the date, they were still in the 28th century before their progress stopped toward it.”

-CSO, Liam J. Madison, Sci.

Serena frowned. An image flashed in her mind. Space and time were interconnected. Gravity of course could distort time, but they knew these days that chronitons could be expressed as particles, which means they could be waves. Which meant they could be a field. And space was a field. But rather than a wormhole through space, this seemed more like a temporal wormhole. A time hole, in a standing wave. But it seemed that each point in time and space overlapped. Like a tunnel that twisted like a wrapper around a piece of candy. The ship, it’s crew, and her people, in the same space, in different times, overlapping. Grabbing a Padd, she went to sketching a diagram as best she could.

Her mother was a scientist, her father an engineer. She grasped a lot of what she’d learned from them, along with her primary education, and initial education at the Academy. Basic Warp Design and Warp Field Theory were required reading, and there was a lot of spatial and quantum mechanics. Throw in particle physics primers from tactical and security training, and it was all a heady mix of information from all sorts of eclectic sorts.

She sent the diagram to Madison and Hammor. “So this is some sort of .. time bubble? Like a twisted-off piece of space time? They’re caught in their space, and we’re still in ours, but they’re overlapped. Like a bubble in the throat of a… I dunno, a temporal wormhole? Also kind of a Venn Diagram? Is that what you’re saying?”

Stone, XO

“I think the Venn Diagram is the most accurate description. This means the longer they are overlapping, the more they will physically interact.” Liam replied. He suspected the longer they took to resolve this problem, the more likely those ‘ghosts’ were going to be able to interact with them. That was something he wasn’t sure how to feel about.

-CSO, Liam J. Madison, Sci.

The diagram gave Hammor an idea. He pulled the ship’s navigational logs and plotted their current position with the last known location of the ship prior to encountering the anomaly.

Hammor, OPS


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