USS Penumbra Sim Narrative, SD 202109.10

 

Introduction:

The Penumbra was at Yellow Alert, having survived their experience in the Badlands and managing to warp out and make it back to the Breen Confederacy.

Only, they had arrived in empty interplanetary space with engines overheated and offline, most of their secondary systems offline, and many primary systems on "reduced power mode". They were "dead drifting" at the moment.

Navigation sensors had confirmed they were in Breen territory, and while long-range sensors were offline due to power issues, there was certainly nothing on short-range scans. They could only hope they hadn't been noticed by anyone they couldn't currently see.

In Sickbay, the Hawke siblings had "stabilized" for the moment, as far as hallucinations went. LtCmdr. Katarina Hawke had transitioned from "unconscious" to "sleeping" a short while ago (she needed it!) and her brother, LtCmdr. Denovan Hawke, had managed to reattach his re-created cybernetic arm (though it still hurt like hell). They had not yet been returned to duty.

Col. Travis Patterson was still technically "in command" on the Bridge, even though Cdre. ZakTaylor had rejoined him on the Bridge.

 

Bridge:

What DOES work?

Cdre. Zak Taylor stood near the Turbolift doors having just arrived on the Bridge from Main Engineering. Cmdr. Relok, their Vulcan Chief of Sciences, was back at the Primary Science Station but was looking quite frustrated with most of the sensors currently offline. Lt. Re'Libel Standin, the Vulcan currently filling in for LtCmdr. Denovan Hawke at the Tactical station was also stoically trying to avoid frowning as he stared down at an almost dark Tactical board.

Col. Travis Patterson still stood in the center of the Bridge, his arms crossed behind his back in a Parade Rest stance. He spoke, "Someone give me a rundown of what we have the DOES work."

Ens. Proximus Filler had taken over for LtCmdr. Tabeshk Tibris at the Operations console. Tabby had gone to assist the Damage Control Teams somewhere on the ship. He responded, "Um ... I'm checking, Colonel." He glanced around and then said, "Uh ... emergency Bridge lighting is on."

LtCmdr. Jason Carter was at his usual place at the Helm. He glanced over his console and said, "Well ... maneuvering thrusters still function."

LtCmdr. T'Lin stepped up and nearly pushed Relok away from "her" Primary Science Station. She clicked a few buttons and reported, "Not much. Engineering ... blueprints ... manuals ...," she muttered. Then she added, "I always have loved learning new things." She was skimming documents at an alarming rate.

Relok obediently slid over to the Secondary Science Station, murmuring as he did, "Was it too dark for you in Stellar Cartography, T'Lin?"

She raised an eyebrow and showed the tiniest of smirks. "Just a little, Relok."

 

On The List

Zak stepped down from his spot by the Turbolift to stand next to Patterson. "What'd you do to my ship, Colonel?" he asked.

T'Lin retorted, "I do believe that that was YOUR fault, Commodore." She continued her reading as if she hadn't said anything.

Patterson glanced at Zak and answered, "Keeping her alive through a series of unfortunate events." He paused and then said, "I could've asked you the same thing with you down there in Engineering."

Zak raised an eyebrow at his First Officer and answered softly, "Let's not send me down there again. I very nearly embarrassed myself down there."

T'Lin muttered again, "Commodore, remember that you have not been an acting engineer in a long time." She sat back in her chair and in a thoughtful voice added, "Like how the Hawkes have not been Borg in a long time."

Patterson turned to the Helm with a gentle sigh. "Mr. Carter, report to the Flight Deck and get every Delta we have on defensive protocols. I want you personally leading the element."

Carter turned and raised an eyebrow, then nodded and stood. "Aye, Colonel." He paused, then turned to Filler at Ops, "Are the Turbolifts working from the Bridge?"

Filler shook his head, "Uh ... no, Carter, you'll have to use the gangways and ladders. I'm working on getting some emergency systems in place."

Standin at the Tactical console added, "Mr. Filler, if you could manage it, I would feel much more confident if we had at least medium-range tactical sensors."

Filler grunted back, "Yeah, Lieutenant, they're on the list!"

 

Red Alert!

Carter nodded and moved to the Jeffries Tube access. He looked back at Patterson and said, "Might take a bit to get all hands airborne, then." He tapped his commbadge, "Sandoval, scramble all Delta Flyers for defensive protocols."

The voice of CfWrnt. "Sandy" Sandoval came back over the comms, "Acknowledged. We're moving."

Patterson glanced back at Zak, who still stood beside him in the center of the Bridge as if waiting for something. He gestured to the Helm, "No harm having you babysit the Helm with us adrift, is there?"

Zak glanced at his First Officer. "Hmm ... I guess I couldn't do us any more damage, could I?" He moved and took the Helm.

Suddenly, T'Lin squinted her eyes slightly, then quickly grabbed her archaic pen-and-paper notebook and darted towards the Jeffries Tube behind Carter, mumbling strange words in obscure languages.

Zak watched her leave, then turned to Patterson and said, "She's getting to where she goes where she wants when she wants, isn't she?"

Relok called out, "MAX? You still with us?" He was calling for the Reconnaissance Artificial Intelligence, though he wondered whether a groggy, low-power-mode A.I. would actually be very helpful. He added, "Didn't MAX say he'd narrowed the interference of the Hawkes to something around that Lampros System? Could the Breen have Borg technology?"

Zak turned to the Chief Science Officer. "That'd be a switch. The Breen assimilating Borg technology?"

Suddenly, Standin interrupted. "Sirs! Delta Flight reporting bogeys at the edge of their perimeter! And ... I can't see them at all from here."

"Red Alert!" Patterson barked. "Shields to best ability, Mr. Standin." He returned to the Command Chair. "Battlestations!" The klaxon sounded and red lights flickered around the Bridge.

 

Tactical Strategy

With the Red Alert sounding, Standin reported, "Shields up! They're at only half-strength, though, sirs. I wouldn't want to depend on them. And targeting sensors will only work at close range."

Zak turned his attention to the console at his fingertips. He accessed the sensor feed from the Delta Flyers that had taken up a wide defensive perimeter around the Penumbra, trying desperately to do what Carter did as Chief of Flight Operations. He reported, "I've got Delta ... they're spread to form a wide perimeter. We should be getting some remote sensor feeds. Relok?"

Relok answered, "Remote sensors data coming in. I'll relay it through Tactical as well. Standin?"

Standin answered, "Receiving telemetry. Stand by." On the sensor feeds he saw some sensor "shadows" that were similar in size to medium-sized freighters, but they were utilizing some variety of cloaking that resembled what they knew of Breen technology. He reported, "Sirs, there are at least two sensor anomalies being detected by Delta Flight. They could be Breen, but ... the ships are small for Breen craft.

Patterson asked, "Standin, weapon status?"

Standin double-checked and said, "I could pull off a few phaser shots, and perhaps a dozen torpedoes if the launchers hold up. Point Defense is offline, and no contact with MAX yet. He may be offline with the power shortage."

Patterson drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair, or rather, the Commodore's chair. "How quickly can we receive target info from Delta Flight to engage beyond our own range?"

Standin answered, "Colonel, I believe our best tactical strategy might be to engage with Delta Flight rather than with the Penumbra herself. They can see and respond much quicker than relying on their remote sensor feed for targeting scanners."

The Commodore, sitting at a nearly inert Helm station, turned and said, "And they can't see the ships either, just the sensor shadows. And who knows if there are more out there just beyond their range?"

 

Pirates

Suddenly, lights flickered around the Bridge. Filler announced, "Hey! We've got power back!" He tapped his commbadge and called, "Great timing, Miss Bev!"

The strong Scottish Brogue of LtCmdr. Bevin MacArdry-Tibris came back over the comms, "Tapadh leit, thainks! Bit we staill hae a lang way tae gae." The first phrase was clearly her native Gaelic, but she was thanking Filler for the praise and reminding him "we still have a long way to go".

Zak checked his awakening navigational controls, then said, "Uh ... still no engines though. They'll take time to restart."

Standin reported, "Tactical sensors rebooting. I'm starting to pick up those sensor shadows on long-range scans. Analyzing. It'd be nice to have MAX's help."

Patterson continued drumming his fingers, then he stood and walked over to the Reconnaissance sector of the Bridge and glanced over the sensor feeds that were coming back online. "I don't want the Penumbra looking like easy prey." He glanced up at Standin, "Load Torpedo Bays 1 and 2." Then he raised his head and called, "MAX, are you alive?"

A disembodied voice came through the comm speakers, "Initialization protocol activated. Establishing interlink." The voice was MAX, but not quite their MAX ... yet.

Standin reported, "Torpedoes loaded, Colonel. Shall I launch one towards the nearest shadow?" Even as he said it, the two sensor shadows quickly darted towards the Penumbra through a gap between two of the Delta Flyers.

Zak spun his chair again, "Do we shoot first or open a hailing frequency? Your call, Colonel, you're in command." Zak was the Acting First Officer until Patterson returned command of the ship to him. He was reminding the Commanding Officer of "ordinary protocol", but also reminding him that it was Patterson in command at the moment.

Patterson was watching the Recon sensors and saw the two shadows closing in rapidly. He said, "Those are not Breen ships ... those are pirates." He lifted his head and ordered, "Standin, set torpedoes to maximum yield. Prepare to fire 2 kilometers in front of their path."

 

Flanked

But before Standin could fire, a stream of rapid-fire (but low-intensity) phaser bursts streaked out of the lead shadow. Standin called out, "Phaser fire! Launching Torpedo One!"

Patterson turned back to the front of the Bridge, facing the Commodore at the Helm. "Full impulse. Circle around them best you can."

"Aye, Colonel!" Zak barked back and did as ordered. The impulse engines fired and they banked hard ... for three seconds ... and then impulse went out. "Damn it!" Zak cursed. "That's all she's got right now. Using maneuvering thrusters!"

Standin interrupted, "I'm picking up a third sensor shadow, Colonel! Opposite vector from the others! We're being flanked!"

Patterson gave a nod. "Reroute power from all non-essential systems to shields." He tapped his commbadge, "I need those engines and shields, Bevin!"

Filler called back, "Transferring available power! Standin, that's all I've got right now, make it work for you!"

Relok reported, "Sirs, I've analyzed the cloaking systems of the vessels. It was Breen ... from a decade ago. But there's also some Romulan signature in it. I think the Colonel is right, these are likely Zhenkarian Corsaires with pirated technology."

Standin received power from Filler's juggling. "Shields up to 75%, I have phaser capability and targeting sensors are ... reasonably reliable."

The leading shadow fired again, but then ... the new shadow fired ... at the first shadow!

As the phasers skimmed along the shields Standin reported, "Shields holding! I don't think their phasers are strong enough to hurt us. If that's all they've got, we stand a good chance, sirs."

 

Hailing Frequencies

Patterson straightened, raising an eyebrow. "Standin, hold fire for the moment. One of those Corsaires is an ally, apparently. Just keep the shields online, and transfer all power to Point Defense systems just in case they try torpedoes on us."

"Aye, sir," Standin said. "Shields holding ... and strengthening as power comes back. We're up to 85% now."

Bevin's voice came over the comm. "I'm gi'in ye aill shay's gawt, sair, cawttin Laife Sappairt fer 5 min fer mainewviribility." That was all she could give them, and she was cutting Life Support for 5 minutes to provide manueverability.

And then the first two shadows zipped past them and jumped to warp!

Patterson gave a nod and moved back to the Command Chair. He spoke to Filler at Ops, "Hail the remaining Corsaire."

"Hail them?" Filler asked. "After they shot at us? Oh ... um ... aye, Colonel. Hailing frequencies open."

Patterson towards the Tactical station, "Standin, keep weapons and shields active, and establish a lock on their ship. Keep all weapons on standby."

Patterson stepped to the center of the Bridge and spoke to the open frequency, "I am Patterson, of the Warship Penumbra. Lower your shields, deactivate your cloak, and power down your weapons. You have 10 seconds to comply." He signaled Filler to cut the channel.

 

Main Engineering:

Great Timing ... But Long Way To Go

LtCmdr. Bevin MacArdry-Tibris, the Penumbra's Chief Engineer, was in Main Engineering, coordinating the Damage Control Teams to get the engines, as well as the rest of the ship, back into optimal order after the Commodore had ... FUBARed ... it dealing with the Slipstream.

She was going through the power generation systems by the numbers, working to restart the Warp Core (their main power generator), and then she could reboot the engines themselves. She needed to maintain Life Support, and then shields, sensors, weapons, and all their "special toys" like the MIRAGE system, the rotating anti-material shields affectionately known as BEVIN, the Bug Zapper, and even Grabby Hands.

But, while she was working to restore power, a klaxon wailed and the lights that had been yellow turned to bright red ... they'd gone to Red Alert! That put Bevin on high alert to get critical systems back to full working potential.

Eventually, Bevin and her team got the Warp Core restarted and power began flowing throughout the ship once again. A call came over the comm system from Ens. Proximus Filler at the Operations Console on the Bridge, "Great timing, Miss Bev!"

Bevin tapped her commbadge and answered in her thick Brogue, "Tapadh leit, thainks! Bit we staill hae a lang way tae gae." The first phrase was clearly her native Gaelic, but she was thanking Filler for the praise and reminding him "we still have a long way to go".

A few minutes later, Bevin noticed that the Helm had performed a maneuver using the impulse engines. She knew the engines hadn't really had the chance to "warm up" and sure enough, the pulse lasted only a short three seconds before shutting down again. Before she could call and fuss at them for overworking her engines, she got a call from Col. Travis Patterson, "I need those engines and shields, Bevin!"

Bevin tapped her commbadge and replied, "I'm gi'in ye aill shay's gawt, sair, cawttin Laife Sappairt fer 5 min fer mainewviribility." That was all she could give them, and as she said it, she cut power from Life Support to provide manueverability. They'd be fine for the five minutes she needed.

She and her teams continued to make repairs and eventually managed to restore full impulse engines. The warp drive engines still needed another 15-20 minutes, minimum, before they'd be ready to form a stable warp field.

 

Sickbay:

Reconnections

LtCmdr. Denovan Hawke, the ship's Chief of Security and Tactical Operations, and his sister, LtCmdr. Katarina Hawke, the Assistant Chief Medical Officer, were patients in Sickbay under the care of the empathic LtCmdr. Dr. Shadow K'Trevala.

The siblings were former Borg and had begun having both audio and visual hallucinations. The crew had suspected their hallucinations had been related to their Borg implants and scans had shown that their residual Borg interlink was "over stimulated" by something.

The Reconnaissance Artificial Intelligence known as MAX had deduced it began at the same time as their recent mission to Lampros Three in the Breen Confederacy (about the time the Breen Heavy Cruiser had shown up).

But during their passage through a poorly configured Slipstream Corridor and subsequent ordeal in the Badlands, Kat had fallen from the biobed. But Shadow had protected her from injury and put her back on the bed. Now, finally, she seemed to be resting comfortably.

Den had also fallen off a biobed, but no-one got to him in time and he landed pretty hard. The impact broke his arm ... off. His right arm was a cybernetic device of Borg origin and the impact with the floor had broken its connection to the stump of his biological arm.

The original arm had been damaged but with Shadow's help they'd had it scanned by the medical replicator and made a replacement. Between Den and Shadow, they'd managed to reattach it. But the final connections required Den activate his Borg nanites, and for that, Den, as Security Chief, had contained himself within a force field. He couldn't risk Borg nanites getting loose and into the ship!

But the nanites had almost completed the final reconnections between the biological nerves and muscles and the cybernetic tubules. It hurt like hell but should be over soon.

 

Hallucinations ... Again

Shadow had left them to rest and was at a medical computer monitor trying to figure out a way to filter the input from their Borg interlinks to cut down on the hallucinations they were having.

 Den poked at the force field with the cybernetic arm, making sure it was still in place, then called, "How's Kat, Shadow?"

"Asleep," Shadow answered, "and that seems to be possibly the best for her right now. I'm still trying to figure out a filter for that interface of y'all's so that they won't be getting through again."

Den waved his cybernetic arm. "Maybe once this finishes I can help with that, unless I start hearing voices again. You might could check for perhaps a link between those and our cortical nodes."

A call came over the comm system from LtCmdr. T'Lin, Assistant Chief of Sciences, "Shadow, what can you tell me about the Hawkes' hallucinations?" She sounded strange, as if she was breathing heavily and inside an echo chamber. In fact, she was climbing the ladders in the Jeffries Tubes down from the Bridge five decks up on her way to Sickbay.

Shadow tapped his commbadge and answered, "They seemed to start back when we were dealing with the Piggies on Lampros, whatever it was, possibly from one of the Breen transports. And the hallucinations have been slowly growing in intensity since then."

Within his force field, Den swatted at ... something ... no-one else could see. Shadow asked, "Den, what do you see?"

He answered, "Either the nanites are acting up or I'm hallucinating again. Some kind of flying bug, like a ... I guess the best example would be a yellow jacket."

Beside him on the next biobed, Kat began tossing and turning again as her dreams were disturbed.

 

Responding to Stimuli

Then, a klaxon sounded and the yellow lights that had surrounded Sickbay changed to red as the ship went to Red Alert. A moment later T'Lin came hurrying into Sickbay. Without pausing she said, "Do we have scans of their brains and implants? I was looking through the engineering manual and it got me thinking about the connection between the implants and the brain." She sat down her archaic pen-and-paper notebook and began flipping through the pages until she found the one she wanted.

Shadow accessed the scans of the Hawkes brains and implants and pulled them up on a nearby monitor, including EEGs and their current readings. As he noticed Kat's movements, he left the data on screen for T'Lin and moved over to her.

He sent calming emotions through his telepathic and empathic abilities, even as he protectively restrained Kat, especially since they were now at Red Alert and could be getting into a firefight. T'Lin glanced over at Kat as well, and using her own empathic abilities sent waves of peacefulness towards her. Kat's face calmed and a soft smile replaced her tension as she settled back to peaceful slumber.

Then T'Lin turned back to the scans and said, "Every biological being responds to stimuli, and if we can target where their brains are responding and how, we may be able to figure the implants out based on their connections."

Den's nanites completed the reattachment of his arm. He announced, "Process complete," and wriggled his fingers, then clenching and unclenching his fist to prove everything was working. He picked up a nearby tool and poked in a couple of spots. The access panel on the side closed. He announced, "Recalling the nanites to stop activity." In a second he requested, "Computer, scan inside this bay for stray nanites."

The computer trilled and then reported, "Medical Bay Three has two Borg nanites idle within the biobed."

"Great," Den groaned, "I'm stuck in here 'til I can find them and kill them."

Shadow responded, "Or we catch them and bottle them for later use."

"At least they're idle," Den said, "but we can produce nanites all the time." He waved towards his sister sleeping in the bed beside them. "They are literally floating around in our bodies," he explained that both of the former Borg still had nanites active in their systems.

 

"So, what? I'm dying?"

T'Lin had ignored them and was thinking out loud. "When the cells in the body detect a stimulus, an electrical impulse is sent to the brain in order for the body to respond." She pointed to a section on the brain scan, following the fibers into the implant. She continued, her speech picking up speed as she grew excited and began rambling, "And if those fibers there are not transporting the impulse, it will bounce around in the brain, hitting frontal lobe and sensory cortex, which could cause the hallucinations that we are seeing in them."

Den was straining to see from inside his force field. "Well, this isn't going to be good if it’s a problem with our cortical nodes. We don't exactly have replacements!" He gave a slight smirk, "You should know where we would have to get new ones." Meaning the Borg hive, or at least a large Cube ship.

T'Lin continued, pointing at the display, "I think it is these fibers, many of them are actually biological, not mechanical. Which means we should, theoretically, be able to help minimize the hallucinations by targeting the sections we CAN fix."

Den had picked up a scanner, going over the biobed searching for the escaped nanites. As he scanned he asked, "Biological? Why would we both have the same mental issue in our brain pans? It's not genetic, that would have been fixed when we were assimilated."

T'Lin answered without looking away from her work on the monitor, "It could be a natural degradation caused by the implants, Den. The human brain is not meant to be mechanized, and the stress we have all been under lately could accelerate the process."

She finally stopped and turned to look at him. "It is similar to a seizure or a stroke. The brain receives too many impulses so it attempts to reboot itself, only your nanites will not let it shut down. And, in this particular case, it is not too many impulses, it is a few impulses bouncing around because they are not contained properly."

Den stopped his scan and stared at her. "So, what? I'm dying? My sister is over there dying?" He waved at Kat, sleeping peacefully for now. He wasn't happy now, and his tone showed that. "And she's worse than me, even though I'm the one that's been 'human' again for years longer than her."

 

Lurking Shadows

The ship rumbled and Den, the Chief of Tactical Operations, knew it was the sound of phaser fire rippling across the shields. "And now what?" he barked. "I need to be up there!" But instead, he resumed scanning for the missing nanites, obviously frustrated.

T'Lin tried to soothe him. "This will not kill you anytime soon, Den. What this is, is a treatable condition that we did not find until now. Now that we can see it, we can start the process of fixing it. Please, just rest."

Den glanced up at her. He saw some kind of ominous shadow demon lurking behind T'Lin. He averted his gaze, narrowing his eyes, trying to ignore what he could only hope was another hallucination and continued scanning for the nanites. He muttered, "I can't just rest."

Finally, the scanner beeped, indicating it had found the nanites. He grabbed a jar and a pair of tweezers and carefully collected the tiny machines, sealing them within the jar. He shut down the force field once the nanites were secure.

Not knowing what Den had seen, T'Lin said, "But you must, Den. Until we can 100% confirm what exactly is happening, you cannot afford to overload your brain. Please, stay here with your sister."

"Here, they're contained." He handed Shadow the jar and turned to T'Lin's monitor showing the brain scans. He said, "That is creepy and kind of cool at the same time." He sighed, even as the shadow-demon hovered over both of them.