USS Penumbra Sim Narrative, SD 202203.04

 

 

Introduction:

No official Mission Briefing was prepared for this sim. Instead, a quick update was posted at sim time, as follows:

Briefly, to set the stage, we have Delta One and Two, and the shuttle, Ahrele, outside the Penumbra, but at least they're on THIS side of the anomaly.

All four craft have experienced a shockwave and EMP pulse, all systems are offline.

We managed a Medical Emergency Beam Out of the Hawkes and Carshel just before losing power. They are in Sickbay and the Ahrele is empty.

 

Sickbay:

Cold and Dark

Just before power went out on the Penumbra, they'd managed an emergency transport of the Away Team on the shuttle, Ahrele: LtCmdr. Katarina Hawke, the Penumbra's Assistant Chief Medical Officer; her brother, LtCmdr. Denovan Hawke, the Chief of Security and Tactical Operations; and Lt. Jackson Carshel, one of the Science Officers.

They were met there by LtCmdr. T'Lin, technically the Chief of Sciences and not a medical officer but trained as a medic by the D'Vir, who had quickly assisted the medical staff in getting Kat into a hypothermia chamber to restore her body temperature.

As soon as they'd materialized, Den shoved his EVA helmet off and tossed it aside. He rushed to Kat's side to check on her. Shortly after securing Kat, the shockwave hit and they lost power. Through it all, Kat had remained unconscious. Den muttered, "She needs warming. Don't worry about my arm." His Borg-installed artificial arm was still slow to move and covered with a thin layer of frost from when he'd first touched the Demon. He tapped his commbadge to call the Bridge, "We figured out what is going on."

Only there was no reply. With the power out, internal communications were down as well. "Great," he muttered. "That's not working. Get her under control from the frost damage. I've got to get to the Bridge." Knowing it would be easier to move in the Jefferies tubes and emergency ladders without the rest of the EVA suit, he quickly donned the suit before heading out.

T'Lin stood over Kat in the darkened Sickbay. She was scribbling in her notepad with an archaic pencil using a tiny book lamp clamped to her notepad. Beside her, Carshel motioned for pen and paper as well, gesturing to his ears. He was still stone deaf since the batteries in his hearing aids had been drained by the Shadow Demon on the shuttle beyond the anomaly and he didn't trust his own voice since he wouldn't be able to hear himself speak. But T'Lin was too focused on Kat to notice. He grumbled slightly and began searching the various drawers to find new batteries.

Eventually, Sickbay's emergency generator kicked on and the place lit back up. The heater in the hypothermic chamber kicked back on. Inside it, Kat remained unconscious and her breathing was labored. Though her brother had used a dermal regenerator on her face, there was still some frost damage to the muscles of her chin and neck from being held by the freezing hands of the Shadow Demon for so long.

T'Lin reached out and placed a hand gently on the hypothermia chamber. She asked softly, "What did you see that made you so emotional? How did you reach out to me?" She knew Kat could not respond, but still, she spoke aloud to the air around her. Inside the chamber, Kat seemed to wince and inside T'Lin's sensitive head she could still feel the pulse of Kat's fear.

 

Cold Fear

Carshel found the batteries for his hearing aid and quickly switched them out and turned them on. He turned around and said, "Well, I can see, and hey, now I can hear!" His face fell as he stepped over to the hypothermia chamber. "How's Kat?" he asked.

T'Lin answered simply, "She is afraid."

"Afraid of what?" Carshel asked, then added, "and why?"

"I ... do not know," T'Lin answered. "All I know is that she screamed to me, freezing and scared. Desperate to fix ... something, I am not sure."

As main power slowly came back and lights and other systems within Sickbay rebooted, they could finally see clearly through the hypothermia chamber. Kat's face showed significant frostbite damage to her cheeks, her jaw, and her neck.

Carshel reached through the access panel into the warming chamber where Kat lay and took one of her hands in his. He spoke softly, "I know you're afraid. I don't know why or from what. But I know now that having someone who's willing to be with you in your times of need is important in ways that cannot be described. I am here Katarina. I am right here."

T'Lin stiffened slightly. "I ... I must inform the captain of this." She hesitated a moment, staring at Kat, feeling her fear and cold, and a bit of Carshel's genuine concern, then turned and headed to the exit.

In the chamber, even though she didn't regain consciousness, Kat's hand closed around Carshel's. She still shivered from both cold and fear.

Carshel sat alone with Kat now, holding her cold hand in his warm ones. "Rest, Kat. You're safe. You're not alone. I wish I understood. I wish I could help more than this. We're doing everything we can, but you need to rest and get better so we can stop whatever is scaring you. But I'll stay here with you if this helps. I hope it helps."

In the chamber, Kat shivered and remembered. Unknown to anyone else yet, she'd learned something from the Shadow Demon. While Den had been distracted trying to get the thing's icy hands off his sister's face, the Demon had told her that their two dimensions could not co-exist. If the opening between them wasn't closed, it could cause some kind of instability in the universe ... or whatever. That was where Kat's fear stemmed from. And she couldn't tell anyone!

Inside her mind she cried out, ~Close the anomaly, we have to close it! We have to close the anomaly before it's too late!~

 

Reaching Out

There were five psionically capable people on the Penumbra. Dr. Shadow K'Trevala, the Tayledrian Chief Medical Officer, was their most powerful telepath and empath, but he'd been in his own quarters for some time dealing with his own illness, and wasn't on duty (though he undoubtedly heard her cry).

Next was LtCmdr. Bevin MacArdry-Tibris, their Deryni Chief Engineer, who was also confined to her quarters with an illness. Bevin was a strong telepath but usually only if she focused on it. She might not have been listening. She didn't respond.

Then there was LtCmdr. Jason Carter, the Human Chief of Flight Operations. He'd only come into his psionic abilities not that long ago and had little control over them. He often wasn't sure he'd heard something and might not know how to respond. And, he was in Delta One at the moment trying to keep from crashing into the Penumbra!

LtCmdr. T'Lin, the Vulcan Chief of Sciences while Cmdr. Relok was Executive Officer, was a powerful empath, able to detect and project emotions over considerable distances, but her abilities were only emotions, not true communication. She'd been feeling Kat's distress for a while now, but couldn't discover why she felt the way she did.

And then there was Cmdr. Relok, the older Vulcan former Chief of Sciences and now Executive Officer until Col. Travis Patterson returned. Normally he was what was called a "touch telepath" like most trained Vulcans, able to perform a mind-meld to join with another person's mind. But, after forcing a mind-meld on a possessed Shadow some time back when they were still on the Darmok, the Vulcan and Tayledrian had merged their minds, become bonded as one another's Shayana, Oath-Brothers. And while this bond was deep and allowed the two to share thoughts and emotions, it wasn't an "always on" connection. It required attention and intention. Relok simply wasn't paying attention to Kat's call and missed it. He did flinch, feeling ... something ... but didn't recognize what it might have been.

Carshel continued sitting beside the hypothermia chamber, holding Kat's hand. After a few moments, one hand drifted up and brushed Kat's hair soothingly. He muttered, "Rest. I'm not going anywhere. Control your breathing. You're weak and you need to take care of yourself."

The chamber was doing its job. Kat was thawing though she hadn't yet awakened. But even unconscious, her mind wasn't "off". She heard Carshel's urgings. She latched onto them, but not for soothing. Instead, she recognized something deeper, a mental link. Something similar to what the Shadow Demon had done. Tentatively she reached with that inner voice, calling, ~T'Lin! The Borg implants ... our ... we ... did this! Our implants caused the anomaly. We have to close it!~

But it wasn't T'Lin who responded. Up on the Bridge, Relok flinched again as if he'd been struck. He reached out mentally to his Shayana, Shadow, and Shadow forward his thoughts with his advanced telepathic abilities. ~Who's there?~ Relok asked. ~What's wrong?~

Kat felt, no ... heard, Relok's response. Frantic to relay her important warning she thought back to him, ~The Borg implants! Our ... we did this! Our implants caused the anomaly. We have to close it!~

Strangely, Relok heard her voice inside his head directly, not Shadow repeating the message, but directly from Kat. He responded, ~Kat, I hear you! I don't know how or why, but I hear you. The Demon said your implants caused the anomaly? Any idea how to close it? ~

~No,~ she replied, ~connection lost before I learned how.~ Though speaking telepathically to Relok was a surprise, Kat found she wasn't as surprised as she was when the Shadow Demon was speaking into her mind.

And then the communication panel chirped and they heard Den's voice, "Sickbay, we could use an answer. Kat, we need something. Get Lucifer here." He obviously had given the Shadow Demon that nickname. He continued, "Cut your link with me, and in general, after you do." He paused and then added, "We have an incoming Borg ship."

 

Bridge (and other locations):

Rebooting

The Penumbra's Bridge was dark since the power had been knocked out by the EMP and the shockwave from the four heavy antimatter torpedoes SgtMaj. Derek Hines had used to try to close the anomaly. Cmdr. Relok, the Executive Officer while Col. Travis Patterson was incarcerated, sat in the XO seat. Beside him sat Cdre. Zak Taylor in the Command Chair. Zak called out, "Alright, get our power back. Tabby!"

LtCmdr. Tabeshk Tibris, the half-Romulan, half-Klingon Chief of Operations grunted in frustration, "Working on the damn power. Give me a minute, I'm a little busy at the moment!"

Relok said, "Commodore, the EMP is likely the cause of our power loss. It will take a moment or two to reboot."

Outside the ship, two Delta Flyers and the shuttle, Ahrele, were careening without power away from the anomaly ... and towards the Penumbra. On Delta One, LtCmdr. Jason Carter grunted, trying to get power back. Failing, he cursed, "Dammit!"

On Delta Two, CWO2 Antonio Sandoval, known affectionately as "Sandy", was doing the same thing, with similar results.

But, the smaller craft with less energy demands and computer systems protected by various battle-hardened bulkheads and shields, recovered more quickly than the much larger Penumbra. In a few short moments, both had rebooted their systems and corrected their headlong plunge towards the main ship. But ... there was nobody on the Ahrele to reboot and alter trajectory!

Back on the Bridge, Tabby finally managed to get emergency lighting back online. He announced triumphantly, "It's ALIIIIVE! I have unlimited power!!!" But the main computer system was still booting up and few of the systems dependent on the computer were functioning. Tabby quickly added, "I'm kidding. But we have power, to some degree."

With the lights coming on, Relok glanced around, taking stock, then noticed his former assistant, now serving as Chief of Sciences, was missing. "Where's T'Lin?" He must have forgotten she took off for Sickbay the moment they'd activated the Emergency Beam Out of the Hawkes and Carshel from the Ahrele.

But Zak was more interested in the crew still outside the ship. "Where the hell is Delta Flight? Can we see anything?"

At the Tactical Station, Hines was trying to get enough tactical sensors working so he could at least see. It wasn't working. "Tabby," he finally called, "where's the Flyers? Where's the shuttle?!"

Relok said, "Get us some sensors or something, Tabby! Where's the Ahrele, it's empty and drifting. I wouldn't want it to come crashing into us!"

 

Out of the Way

Scrambling to get systems back online, Tabby answered, "Uhh, let me look, hang on." His fingers flew across the Ops panel trying to get any kind of sensors back up. "Well, poop," he complained when nothing came on right away. He continued working at it, muttering, "Come on, baby, come on, give me life."

Zak ordered, "Filler, move us out of the way!"

Ens. Proxy Filler, operating the Helm while Carter was away, responded, "Um, sir, uh, engines are offline still, sir."

Zak retorted, "Well, vent the damn Hangar Bay or something, get us some thrust, man!"

Filler looked slightly confused as he replied, "Uh, yeah, OK, we could maybe do that, sir, um, if we had comms to tell them to."

Zak rolled his eyes, but just then, more systems rebooted. Internal communications and corridor and room lighting were early in the process, followed by turbolifts and other services, each in turn. A flicker occurred in one corner of the Master Systems Display on the aft wall of the Bridge and a barely recognizable voice said, "Establishing interface." The Artificial Intelligence known as MAX was waking up from being "knocked unconscious".

In the emergency ladder well, LtCmdr. Denovan Hawke was climbing his way up from Deck 5, where Sickbay was, to Deck 1 for the Bridge. He heard through the walls as the turbolifts came online and one went rattling past him. He paused in his climb and grumbled, "Really? Coming on now again, while I'm half way up there?" He shook his head and kept climbing.

Relok actually flinched when the computer panel in the arm of the XO's chair came on, flashing and blinking as it rebooted. Seeing systems come alive, Zak called out, "Hines! Where's the Ahrele?"

Hines was struggling with the sensor feeds. He answered, "Fuzzy, Commodore, especially since the Ahrele is completely offline. I see Delta 1 and 2. They're slowing."

But as the sensors recalibrated themselves and the imagery coalesced, suddenly the computer spoke out, "Warning! Proximity Alert. Unidentified craft on collision course. Thirty seconds to impact."

Tabby cursed, "Oh, sh-! Look out!"

Quickly Filler accessed the helm functions. He called out, "Manuevering thrusters online! Moving forward, sirs!"

 

"Destroy ... the entire galaxy?"

As Filler moved the ship, Zak said, "Tabby, as soon as we have the system restored, Tractor Beam the Ahrele and get it under control." He turned to the younger Ensign. "Filler, nicely done, now, move us sideways to avoid another collision, please."

"Aye, sir," Filler said, "ten degrees starboard."

Hines checked his sensors, finally coming back to life and said, "Filler, 15 degrees starboard yaw, 5 degree roll, now, or the shuttle's gonna hit our nacelles!"

Filler quickly adjusted and said, "Correction as ordered, um, Sergeant." The young officer still wasn't sure exactly how to address the non-commissioned officer with so much more knowledge, experience, and authority than he had.

Suddenly, one of the access panels flew open, a boot having kicked it out. A moment later, Den crawled out and stood up. "Well, that was fun," he said, wiping dust from his shoulder.

Hines gave him a grin and said, "Good to see you made it."

Relok said, "Welcome back, Mr. Hawke! I'll let you get settled before expecting a full report of your little excursion."

But Den responded, "I'm not particularly sure we have time for that. We made full contact with the Demon. While we thought that it wanted in there. It doesn't at all. It wants away. Also, according to it, what is happening, if not stopped, he says that the event will not only kill them, but us. As in the entire galaxy. We also have another problem as well."

"Destroy ... the entire galaxy?" Zak asked. "And that's not problem enough?"

Relok moved to the Science area to get a better look at the sensors, now that they were all coming back online.

Den answered, "I didn't link with it, it did Kat, but in the process it nearly killed her. I only got part of the information from her. So, we need her."

Relok interrupted, "Um, folks, we might want to look out the window. The anomaly is still there." Then he asked, "Kat's in Sickbay, right? What happened? All I know is T'Lin triggered some medical emergency and disappeared."

Just as he said this, the Turbolift doors slid open and T'Lin stepped out. She seemed slightly shaken and paused just outside the Turbolift and just stood there silently.

 

"Red light of doom?"

Suddenly a loud beep began to sound, and a red light was flashing on one of the Reconaissance monitor screens. Hines, at the Tactical station, perked up and raised an eyebrow. Tabby also saw it duplicated on his Ops panel. Tabby said, "Uhh ... red light of doom? Hello?"

Hines stepped away from Tactical over to Recon to see what it was. Zak, tense and frustrated followed Hines with his eyes. "What now?" he asked.

But it was MAX who answered. The Artificial Intelligence began his life as an advanced Reconnaissance analyst program on the USS Darmok many years ago. When the Darmok was decommissioned and sent off as a museum piece and training vessel for Starfleet Cadets, MAX was downloaded and transferred to the Penumbra. His holographic face appeared on a corner of the Recon station and a corner of the main viewscreen simultaneously. He said, "I am intercepting long-range communications from a Breen Battlecruiser in the Lampros System."

Relok reminded them, "That's where we encountered that Cruiser with the Borg technology."

Tabby grumbled, "Ohh ... the Breen can go fudge themselves."

Hines worked on deciphering the encryptions, then he stiffened, his eyes wide, but he didn't say anything, not yet, anyway. He had to confirm his findings.

T'Lin swayed slightly next to Hines. She felt Kat's rising panic even five decks away. "Oh," she muttered, "How do -?" but she didn't finish that. Instead, she stepped forward to stand next to the Commodore. "Captain, we must find a way to close the anomaly." She envisioned a tendril reaching out to Kat to send a wave of peacefulness to her, hoping to fend off her fear, even if for just one moment.

Zak looked at T'Lin, then gestured towards Den, "Yeah, that's what he said. We have to close the anomaly, but ... how? We just bombed the hell out of it and it's still there!"

Den said, "The only thing I know of is probe my sister's brain. Since it linked with her that long, she may have the way hidden in there. Or ... I can try it." He flinched then said, "Wait!" He gave a sigh, putting a hand to his head for a moment, then said, "The shuttle and our suits. Those were scanning the entire time. The sensor records should have the dimensional information. At least ... to help with the theory. If we can peg it down, we might be able to contact him again or put him into our phase. Or, we can try to get Kat to get him to."

 

Connection

Across the Bridge in the Sciences area, Relok flinched, almost as if someone had slapped him. He muttered, "What ...?"

Hines interrupted, "Commodore ... we have another problem ...," he trailed off.

Relok turned to him, "You want to ... summon ... that Shadow Demon? Here?"

T'Lin retorted, "No. Absolutely not."

Den explained, "It didn't actually want to hurt us. Not exactly. It just wants to go home, but the Borg, it said, what part I did catch from her link, is actually part of the problem. Hence, our implants. That I still don't get why they would be the cause." He shrugged and tapped the exterior part of his cortical node, "All they do is keep us alive."

Suddenly, Relok flinched again as if he'd been struck. Like he'd received a mental slap in the face.

T'Lin also felt that mental itch. She shut her eyes, silently panicking at the connection, confused at what Kat wanted. All she could feel was the intense feeling of urgency, with no true communication.

Relok reached out mentally to his Shayana, Dr. Shadow K'Trevala, and Shadow forwarded his thoughts with his advanced telepathic abilities. He began a telepathic conversation with Kat. ~Who's there?~ Relok asked. ~What's wrong?~

When Kat "heard" Relok she replied, ~The Borg implants! Our ... we did this! Our implants caused the anomaly. We have to close it!~

It seemed odd to Relok that he heard her voice inside his head directly, not Shadow repeating the message. He turned to T'Lin, a strange expression of confusion on his face. "I'm hearing ... Kat ... in my mind, through Shadow! How?"

But he didn't wait for a response. Instead, he simply responded, ~Kat, I hear you! I don't know how or why, but I hear you. The Demon said your implants caused the anomaly? Any idea how to close it? ~

~No,~ she replied, ~connection lost before I learned how.~

 

Condition Orange

Suddenly, a klaxon wailed once, and the alert lights along the roof lit up ... orange? Several monitors around the bridge displayed the Condition Orange warning.

MAX said, "Condition Orange activated. A Borg signature has been identified on long-range sensors."

Tabby groaned, "First Breen, now Borg? What the hell?"

Den grumbled, "Oh, now what?" He moved over to the empty Tactical station, then stopped and turned to Hines, now at the Reconnaissance station. "If I may?"

Hines gave him a nod and a smile. "Didn't change the layout too much, Den. All yours."

"No worries, I can adapt." He gave a smirk about the inside joke of the Borg adapting. He quickly tapped a few buttons and his smirk turned into a frown. "Definitely a Borg signature. Trying to pin down what type."

Zak cursed, "Shi-zat! OK, so ... Borg detected, an anomaly that could destroy the whole galaxy, and some kind of Demon wanting our help. Just another day on the Penumbra, right?"

And to add to it all, Den said, "And it's even worse. Now another ship decloaking. No identification yet." He tapped his commbadge and called, "Sickbay, we could use an answer. Kat, we need something. Get Lucifer here." He'd apparently given the Shadow Demon that nickname. He continued, "Cut your link with me, and in general, after you do." He paused and then added, "We have an incoming Borg ship."

Near the center of the Bridge, T'Lin began to walk backwards, slowly. Her eyes darted around the Bridge until she suddenly whirled and ran for the Turbolift in a panic. But, as she did, her powerful empathic mind sent out an intense wave of fear to everyone on the Bridge!

Zak felt a sudden "fight or flight" impulse surge through him. He gripped the arms of the Command Seat as his eyes darted back and forth. "OK, activate MIRAGE! Hide, quick!"

But then their comm system cut in and they heard Col. Travis Patterson, "Looks like you're in a bit of a pickle there, Zak. Miss me?" He grinned at them from the pilot's seat of his modified Raven fighter, the Cerberus.