USS Penumbra Sim Narrative, SD 202109.03

 

Introduction:

The Penumbra had been on its way back to the Breen Confederacy to conduct another covert mission to gather intelligence. Their plan was to make a short Slipstream jump across a corner of the Cardassian Union, but ... things didn't go according to plan.

Their two former Borg senior officers, Denovan and Katarina Hawke (both LtCmdrs.) had begun suffering auditory and visual hallucinations. The Reconaissance A.I., MAX, had deduced it started during their last mission into Breen space at Lampros Three, around the time the Breen Heavy Cruiser showed up. But, we can't figure out what the correlation would be.

The Hawkes were relieved of duty and sent to Sickbay. The Chief Engineer, LtCmdr. Bevin MacArdry-Tibris was sent with them to help, in case their problem was of a more technical nature than physical, and in the absence of any other highly trained senior engineering officer, Col. Travis Patterson had taken command of the ship and assigned Cdre. Zak Taylor to take care of Main Engineering for the jump.

Only, the Commodore's experience and training in engineering was out-dated by more than a decade and he was ill-prepared for a Slipstream jump. A few phase invariances and an inopportune failure in the port-ventral nacelle caused the jump to go ... a little off ... and the Penumbra popped out of the Slipstream Corridor right in the middle of the nasty Badlands!

During the rough ride getting there, both Kat and Den had suffered seizures. Den ended up falling off of his biobed and breaking his cybernetic right arm clean off of its biological stump. Kat was caught by Dr. Shadow K'Trevala and was placed gently back on the bed, unconscious but otherwise unharmed.

 

Bridge:

Maneuvering the Badlands

The yellow lights of the Yellow Alert still blinked around the roof as Col. Travis Patterson sat in the Command Chair drumming his fingers on the armrest.

Finally, Patterson asked, "Carter, at impulse, how long will it take us to get out of these storms?"

LtCmdr. Jason Carter, Chief of Flight Operations, who usually manned the Helm station, mumbled to himself before answering, "It would be a while, Colonel. We're basically in a thick sludge right now. Storms all around us, though ...," he trailed off.

Cmdr. Relok, while also Acting Executive Officer while Patterson was in command, found himself the only science officer on the Bridge. LtCmdr. T'Lin, his Assistant Chief, was in Stellar Cartography mapping the wild vortices of the plasma storm and gravitational anomalies that was the Badlands, and Lt. Jackson Carshel, the third senior member of the Sciences Department, had been sent with the Hawkes to Sickbay to see if he could help with scanning and processing data for either Dr. Shadow K'Trevala or LtCmdr. Bevin MacArdry-Tibris. And so, Relok had moved back to the Primary Science Station to coordinate sensor scans with T'Lin in Cartography.

With their Chief of Security and Tactical Operations, LtCmdr. Denovan Hawke, relieved of duty in Sickbay, the Tactical Station was being manned by the stoic Vulcan, Lt. Re'Libel Standin, who reported, "Shields are stable at this moment, but these storms do not look safe." Then he asked, "Shall I continue to maintain Yellow Alert, sir? or go to Red?"

Patterson didn't say anything, just gave Standin a slight shake of his head to tell him not to advance to the Red Alert. The Vulcan gave a curt nod back and continued monitoring the situation.

Then Relok called out, "Mr. Carter, do you see that gravimetric distortion, 035 mark 15? It looks to be moving our direction."

Carter checked his navigation sensors. "Yeah, I see it." He glanced to his left, "Tabby, give me auxiliary power to port stabilizers in 30 seconds."

The Chief of Operations, LtCmdr. Tabeshk Tibris, responded, "Understood. Working on it now, Carter." He switched a couple of things and gave the helmsman a nod to let him know his power was available.

 

Plasma Strike

But, just as Tabby nodded and Carter prepared to make the adjustment, a bolt of high-energy plasma arced out from a nearby storm cell and rippled along the starboard-dorsal nacelle's shielding! The ship shuddered from the impact.

"Holy crap!" Tabby cursed. "That didn't feel too nice!"

"Plasma strike!" Relok reported as he rattled in his chair as the force cascaded along the ship's shields.

Patterson stood from the Command Chair, mumbling to himself. He cleared his throat and began barking orders.  He glanced to his near right at Sciences and said, "Relok, course corrections."

Relok nodded, grim faced. He said, "Aye, I'll get course corrections as quickly as T'Lin get's them charted out."

Patterson made a slight turn toward the Tactical station, "Standin, full shields. Power down weapons and transfer power to the regenerative matrix. Keep them up at all costs."

The stoic Vulcan at the Tactical console just nodded as his fingers adjusted power from weapons to shields.

Patterson turned back to the front towards Operations, "Tabby, charge the Bug Zapper ... I have an idea that may work for it ... if we discharge the Zapper, it may cause us to create an opposed polarity to the storms, and that might work to either propel us out of here, or at least keep any further strikes from occurring."

Tabby didn't turn but gave a nod. "Understood. Prepping Zapper." He transferred the necessary power for that system.

Patterson turned just his head this time towards the Helm, "Carter, full impulse ... fly her apart if you have to, but get us out of here, best speed."

The Helmsman did his usual thing, disabling the automated helm operations and switching to manual. Carter just preferred to "feel" the ship's movements and make the necessary adjustments manually. His experience as a top-gun pilot had transferred well to the larger craft. He muttered, "This is gonna be a violent ride."

 

Brace for a Rough Ride

Patterson turned again to face Relok. "Thoughts on the Zapper, Relok?"

The Vulcan Science Officer responded, "We may be able to utilize the reversed polarity to 'bounce around' the strongest storms using the magnetic repulsion, but ... we might also attract even more, and stronger, plasma arcs due to the variance in charges."

Patterson nodded and glanced up at Standin. "Shield modularity and harmonics. How quickly can we alternate?"

The Tactical Officer answered, "While I am swift at calculating variations, I believe if we turned that function over to MAX he may be more efficient at it."

Patterson nodded, then said, "MAX, take over remodulation of shield harmonics. Alternate by nanosecond intervals and begin as soon as the Bug Zapper activates."

The A.I.'s holographic face appeared hovering above the secondary Tactical console and he nodded as he set to work.

Patterson turned to the front again, "Tabby, ready the Bug Zapper."

Tabby nodded, "You got it." He transferred the necessary power and readied to activate.

Relok interjected, "Mr. Carter, that gravimetric distortion is drawing closer, and it looks to be dragging a plasma storm along with it. We will need to get moving pretty quickly to get out of the danger zone, don't you think?"

Patterson glanced at the Helm, "Carter, as soon as that gravitational shear begins to pull us ... set a course 3 degrees off its edge, and engage maximum warp for 3 seconds."

Carter blinked, then cracked his neck and tightened his grip on the control sticks. " Bringing us about, 033 mark 14."

That done, Patterson tapped his commbadge. "All Hands, Brace for a rough ride! We're gonna be pushing ship systems to their maximum thresholds, and inertial dampeners are on manual!"

 

The Rough Ride

Just as he finished this announcement, the communications system chirped with a call from the Commodore down in Engineering, "Engineering to Bridge. Bevin has an idea for us, Colonel." He paused only a moment before continuing, "Her idea is to discharge some of our super-heated warp plasma out into the nearest plasma storm. It will cool our engines and hopefully even 'burn out' that cell and maybe even give us a little propulsion boost as well."

A moment later, while hanging on to his console, Relok announced, "Best guess on best route is sent to your console, Mr. Carter."

Carter nodded as the course appeared on his monitor. "I've got the course, Relok. Countdown to the impact of that storm, please?"

Relok checked the progress of the storm and reported, "Aye, twenty seconds, Mr. Carter."

The Turbolift doors slid open as Lt. Jackson Carshel arrived, having been released from Sickbay. He made his way over to the Secondary Science Console logged in and braced himself.

Patterson returned to the Command Chair and took his seat, bracing himself with his feet on the floor. He nodded, "Tabby, activate the Bug Zapper."

Tabby triggered the Zapper and the charged particle field that Tabby and his wife had created to help fight off the Kyrathian Swarm's Energy-Siphoning Pods crackled to life around the outside layers of their normal shields.

MAX reported, "Shield modularity activated. Point defense systems active for anti-debris protocols. Rotating harmonics."

So, with Bug Zapper on, and plumes of Warp Plasma jetting out, surrounded by plasma storms, and sling-shotting around a gravimetric anomaly, the Penumbra was bristling and crackling with energy, skipping, lurching, and bouncing on a rough-ride!

 

Everything We've Got

Moments after the shaking began, Relok, hanging on to his console for dear life, said, "Carter, course correction in ten seconds, 4 degrees port!"

"Got it!" Carter barked back, fighting the sticks to make a gradual bank. "Zero-two-nine mark eleven."

Patterson said, "Relok, soon as we've got another clear shot, I need to know the time that straightaway will hold. Carter, max warp jump soon as we have a course and time!"

Relok retorted, "You're asking a lot of an old Vulcan, Colonel! Um ... not yet, Carter, another course correction coming up ... fifteen seconds, 5 degrees ventral."

Carter responded, "Fifteen seconds, down 029 mark 16." He paused then asked, "You mean that little valley on the nav chart?"

"Yeah," Relok answered, "that's it. It's straight for several thousand kilometers."

Carter nodded. "All right, we're dipping in ... 029 mark 16."

Patterson leaned forward. "Soon as we're straight, Carter ... burn it. Everything we've got."

Relok murmured, "Hold her steady, Jason." He'd used Carter's first name for a change.

Carter responded, "Steady as she's gonna get! Warp 9.99!" Then he added, "She's only rated for 9.95, sir!"

Patterson nodded, "She'll hold together."

Carter punched it to Warp 9.99, pushing the engines beyond their safety ratings. The ship shimmied violently. The engines began to overheat. The Bug Zapper and maximum shields began to overload power circuits. Power outages started to cascade throughout the ship.

A moment later the ship dropped out of warp. Most systems went offline and the engines were steaming! But, they were out of the Badlands in clear space, only ... dead drifting. And that inside the borders of the Breen Confederacy.

 

Main Engineering:

Priorities

Cdre. Zak Taylor was still in charge in Main Engineering waiting for LtCmdr. Bevin MacArdry-Tibris to relieve him. He studied the readings on one of the monitors and cursed, "Damn, we're running hot and we're not even running anything! Those plasma storms out there are going to mess with everything down here!"

His commbadge chirped as the ship's computer rerouted a call to him. It was LtCmdr. Denovan Hawke in Sickbay. "I could use an Engineer in Sickbay to maybe expedite my arm being reattached." He asked even though it was possible that the Borg nanites remaining in his bloodstream could fix it if the cybernetic arm was reattached to the broken connections on his biological stump.

Zak tapped his commbadge to answer, "Sorry, Den, but at the moment, your arm is secondary priority. Bevin's gotta get back down here and set things right, and ... you don't want ME trying to fix your arm!"

About that time Bevin came jogging into Main Engineering. She ignored everything and everyone and rushed straight up to the main "pool table" central monitoring station to see just where "the Brass" had screwed up her beautifully efficient engines.

Even as she took in the overheating systems and phase imbalances, a bolt of high-energy plasma from a nearby storm cell struck the starboard-dorsal nacelle. It rippled along the shields covering the nacelle sending shivers through the ship. Red warning lights started flashing on several screens. Zak reported, "Starboard-dorsal nacelle is overheating! Thums, redirect coolant, quick!"

Ens. Al Thums, the one rumored to be under a "Voodoo Curse", answered, "Aye, sir!" He figured, ~What the heck, can't get much worse than it is!~ and moved to a panel and started sliding his fingers all over it.

 

Back Where She Belonged

Bevin spoke, her thick Scottish Brogue difficult to decipher to those not yet used to it, "Cammadaur, came ivvir hair, ye're aiboot tae gae baik tae skule." She started pulling up on a console the optimal accounts of how Slipstream SHOULD appear and pointed out the differences between those and the current settings side by side, taking him back to school!

Zak smiled at her, trying to at least catch a glimpse of the differences, even as he said, "Well, I'd like to learn it, but ... maybe later. Right now, figure out how to keep the engines cool through these damned plasma storms! And ... looks like Carter's firing up impulse even now! It's getting hot down here!"

Bevin quickly adjusted the settings to try to get the ship into the best possible mode for travel in the hellhole of the Badlands. "Weel," she said, "we caeld saind a bault o plaisma tae tha fair side o tha Baidlainds an say iffin we kin cool tha shaip awff wi tha while gaittin is same braithin rawm iffin we kin gait tha daischairis fallawin tha bault."

Zak just stared at her a moment, deciphering the thick accent before he finally figured out she'd said something about sending a bolt of plasma that might cool the ship even while giving them breathing room from the storm. Finally, he nodded, "OK, I think I get it. Discharge warp plasma to help cool the engines, and then even use it as a type of propulsion against the plasma storm discharges. Huh, might work. Let's tell Patterson."

But before he made the call, Thums interjected. "Miss Bevin, I've rerouted secondary coolant to the starboard-dorsal nacelle, looks like we had a plasma strike there. I don't see any damage but ... it's really hot."

Bevin slipped off her jacket, stripping down to the grey T-shirt underneath (it really was getting hot in Main Engineering). She nodded at Thums, "Gae fer ait."

Relieved that Bevin was back where she belonged, Zak tapped his commbadge, "Engineering to Bridge. Bevin has an idea for us, Colonel." He paused only a moment before continuing, "Her idea is to discharge some of our super-heated warp plasma out into the nearest plasma storm. It will cool our engines and hopefully even 'burn out' that cell and maybe even give us a little propulsion boost as well."

 

Dead Drifting

Bevin quickly got back to her "grease monkey" roots dealing with the engines and the plasma and coolant problem. She rigged the venting of the super-heated plasma and had it going in minutes.

Thums was watching the monitors. He called out, "It's helping, Miss Bev! Temperatures are coming back to normal levels."

Then a call came through the comm system, "All Hands, Brace for a rough ride! We're gonna be pushing ship systems to their maximum thresholds, and inertial dampeners are on manual!"

 Zak glanced at Bevin and with a smirk said, "I should've never given him the keys to the car. Hang on!"

She chuckled and answered, "I kin ailways kaink ip tha fawil saystim iffin ye naid!" It was something about kinking up the fuel system if needed.

Then there was a crackle as the Bug Zapper system drew on the power reserves and then, with Bug Zapper on, and plumes of Warp Plasma jetting out, surrounded by plasma storms, and sling-shotting around a gravimetric anomaly, the Penumbra was bristling and crackling with energy, skipping, lurching, and bouncing on a rough-ride through the Badlands!

Zak was holding on to the "pool table" with both hands even while Bevin moved around Engineering without any seeming difficulty. She did always keep one hand on either a guardrail or a console as she tried to keep everything at normal efficiency. Zak glanced around and said, "We've got warning lights everywhere, Bevin!"

Thums was hanging on to a console himself. He joked, "Nah, those lights aren't really warnings! Miss Bevin does her hair to those lights!"

Still, Bevin did answer the Commodore, "Aye, I ken tha', an aim awn ait." She was telling him she knew it and that she was "on it". She was doing what she could to hold the ship together with "bailing wire, chewing gum, and ... worry beads"!

Zak noticed another coolant spike and that was something he did know how to fix. He carefully adjusted a coolant control and sent flow to the hot spots.

And then, LtCmdr. Jason Carter at the Helm up on the Bridge, punched the warp drives to Warp 9.99. Not the usual 9.95 for which the Penumbra was rated, but 9.99, well beyond their safety ratings! The ship shimmied violently and the engines began to overheat quickly.

On top of that, Bug Zapper and maximum shield settings were draining power at an alarming rate ... that is, until they overloaded the system and circuits began to fail in a cascade throughout the ship.

Mere seconds later, the engines went completely offline and the ship dropped out of warp. Most systems were offline with only emergency batteries providing dim lighting. They were dead drifting.

 

Sickbay

Broken Arm

LtCmdrs. Denovan and Katarina Hawke, both former Borg, had been relieved of duty and sent to Sickbay until they could figure out (and somehow stop, or at least suppress) the hallucinations their Borg implants were apparently causing.

Dr. Shadow K'Trevala was there with them, doing what he could to tend to the unconscious Kat, even while Den pushed himself up to a sitting position from where he'd fallen to the deck, using his left arm, because his right arm, the cybernetic one, had "broken off" in the fall. He looked at the stump and muttered, "Well that's great."

LtCmdr. Bevin MacArdry-Tibris, the Chief Engineer, had been with them in Sickbay at first, trying to see if she could do anything for their Borg implant overload, but had been called back to Main Engineering when they'd found themselves in the Badlands' hellish region.

Den tapped his commbadge with his remaining hand and called, "I could use an Engineer in Sickbay to maybe expedite my arm being reattached." He asked even though it was possible that the Borg nanites remaining in his bloodstream could fix it if the cybernetic arm was reattached to the broken connections on his biological stump.

The Commodore's voice answered him, "Sorry, Den, but at the moment, your arm is secondary priority. Bevin's gotta get back down here and set things right, and ... you don't want ME trying to fix your arm!"

Lt. Jackson Carshel, the third senior member of the Science Department, had been sent with the Hawkes to Sickbay when they'd begun hallucinating, with hopes he could assist with scans and analysis. But he'd been coming up empty. He glanced at Shadow and asked, "If I am not needed here, Shadow, I'll head to the bridge. I'd be more useful there."

Shadow turned to Den and said, "I'll see about getting you a new one, Den." He turned to Carshel and said, "Jackson, do you think you could help with Den's arm?"

Carshel stared at him. "Uhh ... I have no idea how to do that."

Den searched around and found the cast-off arm. He grabbed it in his remaining hand and then levered himself to his feet.

 

"That's Fused"

At that moment there was a flash in the lights as the ship shivered. They didn't know exactly what had happened, but a high-energy bolt of plasma from the nearby storm cell had struck the shields protecting the starboard-dorsal nacelle and sent shockwaves through the ship.

"Whoa!" Carshel said. "What was that?"

Den braced himself against the biobed, best he could with one hand. Shadow gestured to Carshel, "OK, Jackson, go ahead." He was dismissing him back to his place on the Bridge.

"Thank you, sir," Carshel said as he headed for the exit. As it stepped out he called back, "Also, you can just call me 'Jack'!"

Den looked around for an engineering kit. Surely Bevin had left one there somewhere. He'd do what he could with his one arm, but ... he knew it would be easier done with two.

Shadow found the engineer's kit and placed it on the empty biobed. "Tell me what you need," he said, "and I'll act as your other hand." His innate empathic and telepathic abilities had picked up on Den's thoughts subconsciously.

"Ah!" Den leaned down, setting the cybernetic arm to the side and rummaging through the engineer's kit. "I guess Bevin will want this back later." He grabbed a tricorder and scanned the broken-off arm to see if it was damaged.

"Okay," he said, reading the tricorder, "So, the socket link connections are torn." He narrowed his eyes, reaching into the arm to pull out a coupling, or "tendon". "Well," he grunted, "that's fused." He tossed the useless thing over his shoulder.

Shadow took the damaged parts to a replicator to have them scanned and re-created, and possibly even improved upon.

 

"Could you keep the ship still?"

About that time the communication system activated and they heard the voice of Col. Travis Patterson. "All Hands, Brace for a rough ride! We're gonna be pushing ship systems to their maximum thresholds, and inertial dampeners are on manual!"

Den knew that would NOT be good. He erected a force field around the biobed he was working on, just as a precaution. Shadow brought him the rebuilt arm and he placed it on his stump and began poking and prodding the other implants there to activate the nanites to begin knitting the pieces back together.

And then, with Bug Zapper on, and plumes of Warp Plasma jetting out, surrounded by plasma storms, and sling-shotting around a gravimetric anomaly, the Penumbra was bristling and crackling with energy, skipping, lurching, and bouncing on a rough-ride through the Badlands!

Den grumbled, "Could you keep the ship still?!?" He braced himself against the jarring but pain was beginning to happen as the arm was being reattached to his nervous system by the Borg nanites. Even though the arm being attached was cybernetic, the nanites had connected the technological parts directly to the biological parts at nearly the cellular level. It really did hurt!

And then, LtCmdr. Jason Carter at the Helm up on the Bridge, punched the warp drives to Warp 9.99, well beyond their safety ratings! The ship shimmied violently as a result.

And the Bug Zapper along with the maximum shield settings were draining power at an alarming rate until they finally overloaded the system. Circuits began to fail in a cascade throughout the ship.

The main lights in Sickbay flickered out before the emergency generator for Sickbay kicked it and restored them. They could feel the ship's usual low pulsing had gone quiet. They were dead in space, drifting.