USS Penumbra Sim Narrative, SD 202201.28

 

 

Introduction:

The Penumbra was back in Breen space searching for the one Breen Battlecruiser that had been fitted with reverse-engineered Borg technology intended to create Transwarp Conduits. They did not have LtCol. Patterson with them since he was serving a jail term in solitary confinement.

But before they could even begin looking, as soon as they exited from the Slipstream Corridor, a strange shadow swept across the Bridge and some kind of spacial anomaly was creating a "drag" on the ship, pulling navigation slightly off course, and there was a slight "imbalance" going on within the Warp Core. The anomaly, the imbalance, and the navigational drag all shifted from port to starboard as the shadow moved.

When the ship seemed to be affected by some unknown problem, Cmdr. Relok recommended Yellow Alert and the Commodore agreed.

But, LtCmdrs. Denovan and Katarina Hawke, the former Borg siblings, saw more than just a shadow. They saw some kind of Shadow Demon. And it, apparently, saw them, or at least Den, since it stared at him for a couple of seconds before disappearing again.

Den was stunned by it, saying, "Did that ... really just ...? It just ... stared ... right at me, and then went to the starboard!"

But the Commodore just wanted to know, "OK, now, what the hell is that?"

 

Around the Ship

Main Engineering

In Main Engineering, Ens. Al Thums was elbows-deep in adjusting the pads to correct an imbalance in the warp core. Nearby, MstSgt. Khal'Gon, an enormous half-Klingon, half-Nausicaan Marine, scowled, his arms crossed over his Warp-Accelerated-Railgun (WAR) Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW).

Thums muttered, "I know Ms. Bevin said there was an imbalance, but I can't find anything out of whack."

 Khal'Gon let out a grunted "Hmph."

Thums flinched at the Marine's grunt then cried out, "Ow! Dang it, banged my knuckles!" Thums was known to be afflicted with uncommonly bad luck. Rumor had it he was under some kind of Voodoo curse.

He slid out from under the warp core, wiping his hands on a cloth rag. "Well," he said, "I didn't see anything."

Khal'Gon stepped over and gave the man a hand up. Thums accepted the huge paw and moved to a monitor. "But this shows a 1% imbalance to the starboard."

Khal'Gon looked at the monitor, grunted, and said, "Maybe it's something outside the ship, then."

Thums whined, "I just know Ms. Bevin is gonna blame me for something, but I didn't do anything to the core, I swear!"

He tapped his commbadge, "Engineering to Bridge. I checked the warp core, it's mounted right. I can't explain the imbalance. Is it something outside the ship?"

 

Computer Core & Astrometrics

In the Computer Core, SgtMaj. Derek Hines, now in command of the Marine Detachment of the Penumbra in Patterson's absence, was standing guard over one of the highest priority areas of the ship. He grumbled to himself about having a bad feeling about that shadow thing. He ordered, "Computer, begin a full-spectrum scan. Everything inside the vessel and within 10 kilometers."

The computer trilled it's acknowledgement and in a moment reported, "Sensors are detecting a spatial anomaly, starboard-aft. There are no foreign signatures aboard the vessel."

Hines rubbed a palm over his bald pate, feeling the stubble of hair growing in. "Why didn't we detect any sort of an anomaly sooner?" He mumbled to himself a few more phrases, then tapped his commbadge, "Will, take over my post at the Core. I need to get to Astrometrics."

A few minutes later, SSgt. Will Davies, another of the Marines under his command, arrived and Hines left to go use the advanced sensors and 3-D holographic display dome of Astrometrics.

Once he'd arrived there, Hines called out, "Dim the lights and display the Penumbra and the anomaly, three-dimensional display."

 

Transporter Room One

In Transporter Room One, Cpl. Homer Kyle was doing much the same thing, standing guard at a priority area. As he paced, his WAR rifle slung across his chest, he spoke with his Carolina drawl to the Transporter Technician at the control console, "I's don't know whut Hineys thanks might be a-comin' through the transporter, but ... well, my hackles is up, y'know?"

 

Bridge

"We haven't blown anything up yet."

Cmdr. Relok was working at the Secondary Science Station, trying to figure out what that anomaly was. Beside him, at the Primary Science Station, Lt. Jackson Carshel was also studying the sensor readings on the anomaly.

Cdre. Zak Taylor stood in the center of the Bridge, looking a bit tense. LtCmdr. Tabeshk Tibris was at his usual post at the Operations Console, and beside him LtCmdr. Jason Carter sat at the Helm, even though the ship was now at All Stop. LtCmdr. Denovan Hawke stood at the Tactical Console just starboard of the central command area.

Back on the Bridge, the Turbolift doors slid open and LtCmdr. Katarina Hawke, the Assistant Chief Medical Officer, rushed out, once again a few minutes late. She hadn't been sleeping well lately. She quickly logged into the Auxiliary Medical Station near the Science Stations.

The holographic face of the Artificial Intelligence known as MAX was still displayed at the lower right corner of the main viewscreen. He seemed confused and said, "I'm still not aware of what's going on, outside of the spatial anomaly that's shifted to our starboard aft."

Carter turned his chair to face the Commodore and asked simply, "Sir?"

Zak glared at his Helmsman, or rather, the Chief of Flight Operations, and grunted out, "Well ... what?" The Commodore's nervous tension was translating into irritability.

Carter responded, "Well, we need to figure out what the hell that ... thing ... was, right?"

Zak said, "What the hell what was? Some shadow flicks across my Bridge, my Chief Tactical Officer says he saw a demon, and some kind of space anomaly is dragging my ship out of line. What the hell isn't going wrong?"

Tabby interjected, "I'm not sure, sir. I didn't see anything, power-wise."

Carter gave a shrug, "Well ... we haven't blown anything up yet."

"Carter!" Tabby snapped at him, "That's not funny!"

Carter chuckled a bit, then gave a sigh. "I didn't mean US blowing up, Tabby ... I mean we haven't brought the ship into a firefight. I heard a few Marines talking about it in the Lounge. They say it's bad luck for a ship to go so long without getting shot at."

 

"Definitely an anomaly."

Relok turned from his monitor and reported, "Sir, there is definitely an anomaly." The Vulcan penchant for stating the obvious applied to Relok. He glanced at Carshel and continued, "But, our sensors are showing some really ... odd ... readings. I guess that's what an anomaly is, right?"

Carshel rolled his eyes, "Well ... duh!"

Zak stared at Relok, now his First Officer (having replaced Patterson for the time being) but formerly the Chief of Sciences. "No, you don't say?" His voiced dripped with sarcasm. Then he barked, "Find me something, Commander."

But it was Carshel who responded, "The anomaly looks like some kind of ... hole ... in space, and our readings show some heavy gravity, but I can't seem to detect what's causing it exactly."

Relok turned back to Carshel, then returned his attention to his monitor and said, "I think you're right; it is a hole. And the gravimetric readings are detecting a massive gravity source, a Jupiter-sized planet maybe? But ... there's nothing there."

Back on the Bridge, Zak turned to face his Operations Manager and said, "All right, then. Tabby, send a probe into the hole. Maybe we can see what's over there when we get over there."

"Yes, sir," Tabby answered. "Sending probe now." The telemetry of the probe's trajectory streamed onto their monitors and the sensor feed looked good.

Carter commented, "Whatever that anomaly is ...," he double-checked their course and rubbed his chin a bit, then continued, "It stuck to us for several minutes at high warp."

Relok turned to look at Carter. "A spacial anomaly that stuck with us for several minutes at high warp? That's not possible."

Carter turned to face the older former Chief of Sciences and reminded him, "Improbable, Commander ... but the basic understanding of any anomaly is that we don't know what it is, right?"

Relok stared at him a moment, then gave a silent shrug and returned to his monitor. Suddenly he stiffened and said, "Wait ... where's our probe? We did launch a probe, didn't we?"

Tabby nodded, "Yes, we did."

Den scanned his tactical board and announced, "I think it broke?"

 

"Aren't you folks supposed to be the cream of the crop?"

Carshel speculated, "Black hole?"

Relok responded, "Theoretically possible, I guess. It does have a significant gravitational component, but ... the gravity is way too low for a true black hole of the size of the anomaly."

Carter stood from the Helm and strode to the rear wall of the Bridge and accessed the Master Systems Display there. While Carter's post on the Penumbra was that of Chief of Flight Operations, and he was highly skilled as a pilot, even gifted, he'd once served as a Science Officer on the Darmok, and was reasonably competent in scientific analysis. As he pulled up the sensor feeds, he also answered Carshel, agreeing with Relok, "Not possible. A black hole in this close of proximity would've been detected far sooner on nav sensors, and ... well ... we would've been sucked in rapidly, even for a ship this fast."

MAX, still projecting on the main viewscreen, manifested his face in a corner of the MSD as well. He asked, "Black hole? Anomaly at warp? Shadow demon? Has the crew all lost their minds?"

Carshel said, "Well, we know the Hawkes lost their minds, and Relok is already old as dirt so ...," he trailed off with a smirk. His comment brought a soft chuckle from Carter but little else.

Relok moved from the Secondary Science Station to the MSD beside Carter. He continued their discussion without comment on his age. "Agreed, and a black hole wouldn't have followed us at warp. In fact, I suspect this thing is somehow anchored to us."

Kat looked around, wondering if the mysterious Shadow Demon was still there. She said, "If you ask me it looked like some kind of shadow or demon and it was staring right at Den. I'm not sure our sensors could detect it or not."

Zak turned to Kat, still irritable, and asked, "So, you're both hallucinating again? Could we be close to that Breen Battlecruiser? The one with the Borg tech? Did they do something to spacetime here?"

Kat shook her head. "I don't think this was a hallucination, Captain." Like many of the crew, she still referred to the commander of the ship with the traditional title of Captain, in spite of Zak's true rank. She continued, "Yes, Den and I saw it more clearly, but you guys saw something shift too, even if you didn't see a shape. You saw a shadow move didn't you?"

Den nodded, "That's the same thing I saw weeks ago in Sickbay."

Zak still looked at Kat. Finally he said, "Well ... I saw ... something. So ...," he gave a sigh then snapped, "What the hell is going on? Aren't you folks supposed to be the cream of the crop? Tell me something useful!"

Kat thought for a moment, then suggested, "What about using ionized particles to light up the anomaly? Maybe if we light it up we can see it?"

Relok turned to Kat and replied, "Or we could ignite something and cause a massive tear in the fabric of spacetime. Until we know more, I wouldn't recommend shooting anything at it just yet."

Kat scowled at Relok's scathing remarks, responding, "It was a thought. If ionized particles are too strong there's tachyon particles, there's warp particles, I mean ... something's already dragging on our warp engines."

But Carter clued into a similar idea, "MAX, can you generate an anti-proton pulse towards the anomaly and begin a multi-spectrum analysis of spacetime?"

Relok straightened. "Tachyon particles?" He turned towards Carshel and asked, "Aren't they what the Borg used to open a Transwarp Conduit? Could it be ...?"

"It is possible," Carshel answered.

MAX said, "An anti-proton pulse would indeed allow sensors to analyze any displacement in spacetime, but only for a moment."

"Or," Den cut in, "I could just try to grab it." He shrugged.

 

"What do you want?"

Zak flicked his attention to his Chief Tactical Officer, "Grab it? With ... Grabby Hands? What's there to grab?"

Tabby shrugged, "I mean ... it does attach itself to things, so it does have a form."

Den shrugged again, "It's worth a shot. Now what to do with it once or if I did, I have no idea."

Zak's scowl deepened. He turned to his Tactical Officer, "Den, if there's some ... incorporeal intruder on my ship, figure out how to get hold of it, or ... get it the hell off my ship!"

Relok spoke to his assistant, "Carshel, work with MAX and see if we can chart the edge of that hole. Den, give them some targeting info. Let's cast a wide net and slowly draw it in until we get a good look."

Carshel nodded, "Understood, sir." His fingers flicked on his console as he ordered, "MAX, need your ass over here."

MAX manifested a third image of his face on the monitor next to Carshel. "Hines is in Astrometrics doing a thorough analysis of the anomaly. It may actually be beneficial for you to head down there."

"Well," Den said, "it's obviously very interested in me, so ... perhaps I'd be the best target source."

Relok's gaze flicked to Den. "Are you offering yourself as some kind of ... hostage, Commander?"

"I meant for the targeting," Den explained. "I don't know why it's so interested in me, but apparently is."

Relok asked, "Are you the anchor, Commander? Is that anomaly somehow ... attached to you? Or ...," he turned towards Kat, "... your sister?"

Den responded, "We could set up something for me to wear so it will try to detect at all times." He glanced towards his sister as Relok turned her direction. "I have no idea. I thought we were just hallucinating from what the Breen did."

Suddenly Carter gripped his head and cried out, "Aaah!" He dropped to one knee, clutching his head with both hands. Kat immediately grabbed her med-kit and rushed to Carter, scanning him with a medical tricorder. Carter stammered with the intense pain in his head but asked, "W-what ... do you ... want?"

 

"Do we have any other options currently?"

Kat looked up from her scan towards the Commodore and said, "Captain, the neurons in the telepathic region of Carter's brain are lighting up like ... um ... ohm Christmas. Is it possible that the shadow thingy is trying to communicate?"

Kat reached into her kit and produced a neurocortical monitor and placed it on Carter's temple. She hoped it would help with the pain.

Zak grumbled, "Great, a telepathic demon shadow thingie is trying to talk to my Helmsman."

Carter was still on one knee near the MSD. "I don't ... understand," he groaned. "What?"

Kat smiled a friendly smile at Carter as she dialed up something on the cortical monitor. "This should help. I don't know what it wants either, but hopefully we can figure it out. Until then, this will help."

It was helping, a little. Carter released his clutch on his head and took a deep breath, trying to relax and open his mind. He repositioned himself to sit with his back against the bulkhead then said, "Kat, that thing," he tapped the cortical monitor, "is impeding my ability to understand whatever it's trying to say. Just ... give me a sedative, please, and get that thing off my face."

Kat looked him over, concerned, and asked, "Are you sure, Carter? He/she/it could do more damage than harm if it doesn't know how to communicate with us."

Carter gave her a nod, then said, "Do we have any other options currently? I didn't think so."

Kat returned the nod and removed the cortical device, then gave Carter a hypospray of a mild sedative.

Relok turned to Zak, "Commodore, perhaps we should try to back off from the anomaly." He gestured at the empty helm seat.

Zak stared at him a moment, then gave a nod and quickly moved to take the helm. "Backing off, one-quarter impulse!" After a second he slammed his hands on the console. "Damn it! It moved with us! What the hell is going on?"

Relok walked over from the MSD to stand next to Zak at the helm. He spoke softly, for the Commodore's ears only, "If it's doing that to Carter, what is it doing to Shadow, Bevin, and T'Lin? They're our other psionics ...," he trailed off.

Carshel flinched, looking up from his monitor. "Wait a second! The Hawkes saw it, and it focused on Den, and now ... it's moving with the ship? Is it connected to them? Relok, doesn't the Borg have some sort of interlink thing? What if that is what this thing is connected to and following?"

 

"You two off my ship."

Kat looked over from where she knelt next to Carter. "We do, but ... normally only with ourselves, not ... shadow demon ... thingies."

Den agreed. "That's how we talk to each other. Though, not right now so much because of what we were given."

Relok turned towards Carshel, then to Den. "The interlink? Between the two of you? It could be detectable, right?"

Carshel continued, "Anything nanite-related is detectable in some shape or form, you just have to know where to look. It's a good theory. It's dangerous, yeah, but, if my theory is proven correct ... then what?"

Zak stood from the helm and turned towards the Hawke siblings. "I hate to say this, but I need you two off my ship. Take a shuttle and head away from us. We'll see if the anomaly follows you or stays with us."

Kat's eyes went wide as she stared at the Commodore, then turned to her brother. Den just tilted his head slightly in acknowledgment.

Relok scowled, "Commodore, maybe Carshel should go with them? Get some scientific data?"

"What?" Carshel exclaimed.