USS Penumbra Sim Narrative, SD 202108.20

 

Introduction:

The Penumbra had left Vulcan on its way back to the Breen Confederacy by way of a short trip through a portion of the Cardassian Union and was approaching the near edge of Cardassian space. They'd been flying at high-warp to get to this location and were planning to use a Slipstream jump to get through Cardassian space without attracting any attention.

During a previous Senior Staff Briefing, two of the Senior Staff began exhibiting odd behavior. LtCmdrs. Denovan and Katarina Hawke, both former Borg, were apparently hallucinating the presence of Borg drones. They were even having conversations with these illusory Borg!

The two were relieved of duty to undergo evaluation in Sickbay. Due to the possibility that their problems could be related to their remaining Borg implants, LtCmdr. Bevin MacArdry-Tibris, the Chief Engineer (who also had extensive knowledge and experience with various cybernetic prostheses) was sent to assist. Lt. Jackson Carshel of the Sciences Department was also sent to assist with scans and analysis.

But, with the long high-warp flight and the pending Slipstream jump, the ship had need of an experienced engineer. Considering their needs and their upcoming mission, Col. Travis Patterson made the following announcement: "Respectfully, Commodore, we do need competent engineers ... and right now, you're the only one available. We need Bevin in Sickbay working on those interlinks. By order of Admiral Sulyk, I hereby relieve you of command, temporarily, sir. Please report to Main Engineering."

 

Bridge:

Ready for Slipstream

Col. Travis Patterson sat in the Command Chair on the Bridge, an as-yet unlit cigar between his lips. Beside him, Cmdr. Relok sat in Patterson's usual seat as the Acting XO. To Patterson's right, Lt. Re'Libel Standin stood stoically at the Tactical Station while LtCmdr. Denovan Hawke was in Sickbay. Across from Standin, SgtMaj. Derek Hines sat in his usual spot at the Recon Station. In the front of the Bridge, LtCmdr. Jason Carter was at his usual place at Helm and beside him was LtCmdr. Tabeshk Tibris at the Operations Console.

Patterson asked, "Carter, how far out are we?"

Carter checked his navigation screen and reported, "Entering the near edge in about 3 minutes, Colonel... recommend we get the slipstream ready."

Hines added, "Nothing on recon sensors yet."

Standin reported, "There are no ships on long range tactical sensors, sir."

Patterson gave a nod then tapped his commbadge. "Bridge to Engineering. We're approaching Cardassian space in 2 minutes. Is the Slipstream gonna be available?"

In Main Engineering, Cdre. Zak Taylor responded, "Yeah, I'm ready for it. Good timing too 'cause I think the main warp engines need a break."

Relok glanced over at Patterson and said, "You are aware that the Slipstream technology was developed long after the Commodore had transferred out of Engineering, right, Colonel?"

Patterson nodded at the Vulcan and replied, "Yeah. Should be a piece of cake, though, right?"

Relok just raised an eyebrow at the Colonel but said nothing.

Patterson turned back to the front. "Mr. Carter, how's our vector?"

Carter checked the nav sensors one more time. "Vector for Slipstream is good. Velocity is optimal."

Patterson turned back to his Acting First Officer. "It's either we punch the Slipstream, or we drop down to Warp 5 in Cardassian space." He paused and then added, "Personally, I don't want to stick around for very long."

Relok dipped his jaw in a curt nod and said, "Point taken, Colonel."

Patterson turned back to the front, adjusting his jacket as he did so. "Alright, let's do it. Tabby, initiate the Slipstream generators. Carter ... take us in."

 

Phase Invariance

The Slipstream Drive engaged with a rather rough lurch and the ship began vibrating violently. Carter's fingers flew over the console as he quickly compensated for the vibration, but ... the ride remained quite turbulent.

Carter cursed, "Christ, did he not adjust for the phase variance?!" He fought against the inertial dampeners, struggling with the helm controls to maintain attitude.

The ship was skipping along the Slipstream corridor. It managed to stay on vector and not bounce around against the walls of the corridor, too bad anyway, but it was a really rough ride!

Relok gripped the arms of his seat as he rattled around in it. "This is quite unusual, Mr. Carter!"

Patterson was also gripping the arms of his chair. He glanced to the right and called, "Standin, damage report!"

The stoic Vulcan was hanging on to the Tactical console but was portraying that usual Vulcan calmness. He answered, "The ship is taking no structural damage. I can raise shields if you think it would help."

Tabby cursed too. "Holy crap! That sucked! The hell is the Captain doing down there?"

And with that, a commlink call came from the Commodore. "Bridge, what the hell are you doing up there?"

Carter transferred helm control to the manual sticks. He always felt more in control when he could "feel" how the ship was moving. As he struggled with them he called to the open commlink, "Did you adjust the phase variance algorithms for slipstream velocity?!"

Zak responded, "Phase variance? Crap! Right, phase variance at the subspace threshold! Yeah, gimme a sec!" The commlink closed.

But, suddenly, the bouncing actually got worse!

Patterson was grunting now against the bouncing. He nodded over at Standin, "Yellow Alert!"

The klaxon wailed once and yellow lights flashed all over the ship.

Patterson turned to the front again. "Mr. Carter?!"

 

Get Help from Thums?

Carter was really fighting the sticks now. "All right, the Commodore doesn't know a damn thing about slipstream!"

Zak's voice came over the comms, "Damn, she's bucking like you stuck her with a hot poker!"

Carter barked out, "Zak, don't just randomly mess with the settings!" He grumbled under his breath, "I'm gonna regret this, but ...," then he raised his voice to normal again and continued, "ask Thums where the Quantum Field Regulators are!"

There was a pause before Zak asked, "Thums? Right, hang on."

Ens. Al Thums had gained quite the reputation around the ship already. He was a Cajun from south Louisiana in the North American Continent of Earth. He'd already explained to everyone who'd listen that he and his family had been cursed by some Voodoo Queen. Whether a voodoo curse or not, Thums was well known as being one of the unluckiest persons anyone should have the displeasure to meet! That Carter had felt the Commodore should seek out his assistance said a lot for their current predicament.

As if on cue, the Computer announced, "WARNING! At current velocity, Slipstream corridor failure in 42 seconds."

Patterson glanced at Relok, then back to the Helmsman. "Carter! How far are we to the Breen border?!"

Carter glanced at the nav sensors even as he fought the sticks. "One minute, 34 seconds. But ... I doubt I can keep her stable for much longer!"

Zak's voice came back over the commlink, "OK, see if this eases it up!" Suddenly, the wild bucking went back to the moderate "skipping". Better than it was, but not ideal.

The Computer announced, "Slipstream corridor stabilized." But almost immediately it added, "Quantum Field destabilization in 2 minutes."

And then a warning buzzed on Carter's console. Before he'd had a chance to check what it was, Zak called from Engineering again, "Bridge, we'd better drop from Slipstream like ... now!"

Carter didn't get to say it, but his readings showed that the port-ventral nacelle was beginning to destabilize. That could cause the Slipstream corridor to bend, changing their vector, and ultimately their departure point!

Patterson glanced at Relok again and then back to Carter, "Disengage, and tell me where the hell we're at!"

 

Out of the Frying Pan ...

Carter nodded and disengaged the Slipstream drive, just as the vessel careened in a violent corkscrew counter-clockwise. They dropped out of Slipstream into regular space right into the dense plasma storms and gravitational shear of the Badlands!

Carter announced, "Colonel, we're in trouble!"

Zak called back, "Slipstream is in cool-down. I can probably get us Warp 5 by leaving the ventral nacelles offline."

Patterson slowly stood from his chair and took a step forward. He spoke, calmly, "Carter ... all stop. Standin, shields to maximum."

Carter nodded, "Aye, All Stop. At least ... best we can manage. Inertial dampeners at maximum."

Standin adjusted the shield intensity but said not a word.

Patterson turned to Relok and gave a wordless point at the vacant Primary Science Station. The Vulcan silently nodded and moved to the station and began scanning the area.

The Colonel tapped his commbadge. "Commodore ... you're not gonna like this, but ... we dropped out in the Badlands."

Zak's voice came back, "The Badlands? Damn it! OK, I've done all the damage I can do down here, we gotta get Bevin back on these engines. I don't think they like me."

Patterson tapped his commbadge to change the channel. "Bridge to Sickbay. Bevin, I need you to Engineering ... now."

Bevin's Scottish Brogue came back, "Aye, I faiggerd tha. Bay thair ain a few." She'd felt the shaking too, and saw the Yellow Alert lights. She figured she'd be needed back in Engineering and we be there in a few minutes. She took off at a hurried jog towards a Turbolift.

Relok turned to Patterson and said, "Colonel, with Mr. Carter's help, I can try to plot us a course out of here, but ... it won't be easy and it will take time. Warp fields are notoriously unstable in the Badlands."

Patterson gave a nod. "Just know any courses we plot are gonna have to be adaptable. These gravitational variances and storms are ... violent." He paused and lowered his voice a notch as he added, "I've seen them before."

The face of the Reconnaissace Artificial Intelligence known as MAX appeared on one of the Science screens. He said, "I will try to see if I can predict the changes before they occur." The AI was always aware of everything that went on anywhere on the ship, seeing as how his senses, as they were, were connected with every sensor and computer on the ship, even though he was separate from the Main Computer and the functions of that computer.

Relok nodded at MAX. "That will be extremely helpful, MAX. Your predictive algorithms are much faster than mine would be."

 

Main Engineering:

Experienced Engineer?

Cdre. Zak Taylor had been temporarily reassigned to Main Engineering. He wandered around a few minutes, checking various monitors and readouts to "get a feel for her". It had been a while since he'd actively worked in Engineering. He'd majored in Engineering when he entered Starfleet Academy, and his first posting way back then was as an Engineering Technician on the USS Sirocco, a small patrol ship doing runs within the Alpha Quadrant, where he'd served for five years. Only ... that ended 15 years ago when he transferred to Operations on the USS Nautilus.

As he checked the main engines he commented to no-one in particular, "That looks like she's starting to run a little hot. We pushed the engines a bit to get here." He glanced over at another console and remarked, "That's got to be the Slipstream drive there ... since I have no idea what the heck it's doing!"

A call came over the comms from Col. Travis Patterson up on the Bridge. "Bridge to Engineering. We're approaching Cardassian space in 2 minutes. Is the Slipstream gonna be available?"

Zak tapped his commbadge and answered, "Yeah, I'm ready for it. Good timing too 'cause I think the main warp engines need a break."

A moment later and the Slipstream Drive engaged with a rather rough lurch and the ship began vibrating violently.

"Oh, sh!t, what the ---," the Commodore cursed as the ship lurched. He grabbed the "pool table" central console with both hands. He mumbled, "It doesn't do that normally!"

The ship was skipping along the Slipstream corridor. It managed to stay on vector and not bounce around against the walls of the corridor, too bad anyway, but it was a really rough ride!

He tapped his commbadge again. "Bridge, what the hell are you doing up there?"

It was LtCmdr. Jason Carter's voice that came back. "Did you adjust the phase variance algorithms for slipstream velocity?!"

Zak responded, "Phase variance? Crap! Right, phase variance at the subspace threshold! Yeah, gimme a sec!" He began frantically massaging various setting. Only ... the bouncing actually got worse!

A klaxon sounded as the Bridge signaled Yellow Alert.

 

Help from Thums

Zak called the Bridge, "Damn, she's bucking like you stuck her with a hot poker!"

Carter called again, "Don't just randomly mess with the settings!" His voice went muffled for a moment. It sounded as if he'd mumbled, "I'm gonna regret this." But then his voice came back full. "Ask Thums where the Quantum Field Regulators are!"

Zak hesitated and then asked, "Thums? Right, hang on." He called, "Thums! Where's the damn Quantum Field Regulators?"

Ens. Al Thums was the Cajun who claimed he had been cursed by some Voodoo Queen. He was struggling to get back to his feet. He held one hand to his head after banging it on a console when the ship lurched. "The QF?" he asked, possibly slightly dazed. He shook his head and said, "Here, on this panel!" He moved over and pointed to it, careful not to actually touch the console.

As if on cue, the Computer announced, "WARNING! At current velocity, Slipstream corridor failure in 42 seconds."

Zak studied the regulators, "Got it! Yeah, they're way out of whack." He called the Bridge, "OK, see if this eases it up!" He made some adjustments and the wild bucking went back to just the moderate skipping they'd had at first. Better than it was, but not yet ideal.

Thums stared at him. "I swear, I didn't touch the QF settings, boss!" He paused and then added, "But, usually, before we go to Slipstream, Bevin would have played with them a bit. She never let me see what she was doing though."

And then, a warning buzzer sounded and red lights flashed on several monitors. "What the hell now?" Zak blurted as he rushed to see what was going off. "Sheesh," he groaned, "the port-ventral nacelle is giving out!" He tapped his commbadge again, "Bridge, we'd better drop from Slipstream like ... now!" Even he knew that a destabilized warp nacelle could cause the Slipstream corridor to bend, changing their vector, and ultimately their departure point!

"But," Thums tried to explain, "I only hit my head on the auxiliary coolant monitor! I didn't touch anything related to the nacelles or quantum field or anything!"

They felt the ship drop out of Slipstream, then suddenly go into a violent corkscrew counter-clockwise. Zak called the Bridge again, "Slipstream is in cool-down. I can probably get us Warp 5 by leaving the ventral nacelles offline."

But Thums intervened, "Negative, Commodore!"

Zak turned and glared at him, "What do you mean, Ensign?" There was a slight stress on the extreme differences in ranks.

Thums gulped and said, "Check that monitor, sir. We can't go creating warp fields in here!"

Then Patterson's voice came over the comms, "Commodore ... you're not gonna like this, but ... we dropped out in the Badlands."

Zak answered, "The Badlands? Damn it! OK, I've done all the damage I can do down here, we gotta get Bevin back on these engines. I don't think they like me."

Thums mumbled, "Commodore, I'll start a diagnostic on that nacelle, figure out why it destabilized. Don't worry, I won't make any adjustments without clearing it with Bevin."

 

Sickbay:

Scanning the Hawkes

The Hawke siblings, both LtCmdrs. now, Denovan and Katarina Hawke, had been sent to Sickbay after having strange hallucinations of Borg drones during the Senior Staff meeting.

Dr. Shadow K'Trevala and LtCmdr. Bevin MacArdry, the Chief Engineer, were both there trying to figure out what the heck was going on with our former Borg. Lt. Jackson Carshel was with them to assist with scans and interpretation of data, but he'd just as soon not be confined to Sickbay with "the two crazy people".

Kat was sitting on one of the biobeds, her eyes closed to avoid seeing the hallucinations, though that didn't help against the voices in her head.

Bevin ran an engineering tricorder she'd linked into the medical sensors over Den, hoping she could pick up some Electromagnetic Pulse or something that might be disrupting their implants.

Den snorted and waved a hand, almost like dismissing someone ... or swatting at an annoying fly. But ... he didn't seem to be aiming at Bevin, but rather ... someone Bevin couldn't see.

Shadow was probing with his considerable telepathic and empathic abilities, trying to detect the Borg interlink between the siblings. It was debatable whether such an interlink was even detectable by other telepaths, but at the very least, Shadow might pick up on their emotional states.

As Shadow hovered over Kat, she grunted without opening her eyes, "Go away. Shush! You're hurting my head." Her voice faded to a whimper, "I need to sleep. Sergeant Major said I could sleep." Shadow could tell she wasn't speaking to him.

Carshel was nearby, scanning with a standard science tricorder. His was the first to give a little trill as he detected something. He called Bevin, "Commander, I am detecting some kind of feedback resonance between the Hawke siblings Borg interlinks."

Bevin glanced over and then adjusted her own tricorder to detect the possible carrier wave. She turned towards Kat and moved it gently to hone in on the strongest signal. It was obvious to Bevin that such a signal would clearly affect Kat's Borg implants to stimulate her such that she couldn't sleep. She knew that would make the woman as irritable as an old wet biddy-hen with a brood of chicks!

Kat suddenly reached up and covered her ears, as if that could stop the voices that were inside her head!

Den snapped, "Can we get on with it? We're fine! Well ... mostly. And Si'vearg says we just need to head off and find the rum!"

Kat opened her eyes and looked at her brother. "Rum? 'Why's the rum always gone?' I could use some rum right now!"

Den frowned, "Si'vearg said they took it."

 

Mommy!

The ship began to vibrate and shimmer. Apparently the Slipstream ride wasn't going as smoothly as it normally would. Bevin ignored it and turned her attention to adjusting the SQUELSH rheostat to focus on the incoming wave carrier, trying to cancel it out. Shadow reached for some meshara, the drug that would reduce or even cancel psionic activity temporarily, along with a few others just for standard sedation, if needed.

Suddenly, Kat's eyes widened as if in fear. She called out, "Mommy! no don't hurt Mommy!" Her voice sounded like a little girl, perhaps seven years old. She jumped off the biobed and took a swing at Shadow's arm, knocking the medicines out of his hand.

Shadow abandoned the medicine and went for the "old fashioned method", grabbing Kat and hugging her close to him. He allowed her to beat on his back with fists as much as she'd need. Behind her back as he held her, he gestured for a nurse to prepare a hypo with an antipsychotic and antiseizure cocktail, just in case.

"No!" Kat blinked, coming back to herself. She looked at Shadow and backed off a step. "I'm going to sit back down."

Shadow soothed her, "Easy, KittenKat, I'm not here to hurt you."

"Shush! Go away!" Kat said to somebody nobody else could see.

The bouncing of the ship suddenly got way worse! Kat fell to her knees and Den rolled off his biobed, but with all the commotion, nobody even noticed! Bevin gripped the console where she was still working with the SQUELCH rheostat trying to cancel the wave signal.

A klaxon sounded and the lights around the ceiling went yellow as the ship went to Yellow Alert.

Shadow reached and helped Kat back up onto the biobed. As she did she mumbled, "No, no, don't say that. Why are you still whining about being assimilated?"

 

Lampros Three?

Suddenly, the Reconnaissance Artificial Intelligence known as MAX manifested his face on one of the monitors in Sickbay. "I've figured out the time of the issue!" he blurted out. "Somewhere around Lampros Three, the botched Away Mission ...," he trailed off.

Shadow turned to the face on the screen. "OK, MAX, so, what the heck is going on?"

The AI replied, "If I were to speculate, Doctor ... somewhere during our involvement on Lampros Three, we encountered some sort of Borg technology, though the sensor datalogs indicate no Borg presence in the sector during our mission."

Suddenly, Kat stiffened and began convulsing wildly! As she did, she fell off the biobed. A thin foam filled her mouth even as a new Borg implant sprouted on one of her cheeks, and another one appeared on her upper arm!

Shadow quickly turned to the convulsing woman, trying to ease the seizure best he could with his empathic abilities, leaving off any medications at the moment. A couple of nurses quickly joined him, rolling Kat onto her side so she wouldn't swallow her tongue. Eventually, the convulsions played themselves out and Kat lay unconscious on the floor.

Meanwhile, Bevin tried to erect a sort of Farraday cage around the two former Borg, hoping it might prevent whatever the carrier wave was that was over-stimulating their Borg implants.

The bucking ship finally settled back to just the light vibrations from earlier as Shadow and the nurses lifted Kat and placed her back onto the biobed. The doctor began studying the new Borg implants that had appeared on his patient, trying to ascertain their purpose, but from what he could tell, they were "failed" implants.

Shadow began trying to remove the "failed" implants so they wouldn't bother Kat, but as he did, Kat started to convulse again! Quickly Shadow stopped messing with the implants and Kat settled back to a still unconsciousness.

Bevin tried once more to adjust the SQUELCH along with her Farraday cage, trying to cancel the unusual carrier wave, but just as she started her commbadge chirped with a call from Patterson up on the Bridge. "Bridge to Sickbay. Bevin, I need you to Engineering ... now."

Bevin answered in her Scottish Brogue, "Aye, I faiggerd tha. Bay thair ain a few." She'd felt the ship shaking and figured she'd be needed back in Engineering sooner or later. She looked over at Shadow and said, "I'll bay baik ais sane ais pawsibbil," telling him that as soon as possible she'd come back to Sickbay. She hurried at a quick jog towards the Turbolift.

On the floor, Den slowly came out of his catatonic state. He was surprised to find himself on the floor and blinked a few times, looking around. He tried to push himself up, only to find his right arm, the cybernetic one, had become detached. He couldn't even see it. During the bouncing, it had rolled around Sickbay and was probably lodged under a cabinet somewhere.