Commander Jo Marshall - So Much for the Twofer (Part II)
Jo Marshall
((Observation Bay, near Engineering Annex, Gibaria Outpost))
Stepping somewhat away from her colleagues, Jo tapped her combadge, and braced herself for what she imagined to be a delightful conversation about priority allocation while Gibaria Outpost fell apart around everyone's ears. The response was about as encouraging as expected. Explosions, combined with further damage, a climbing casualty count, and a power grid holding together with hope and recalibrated plasma conduits. Jo listened, and tried hard not to think how 'dimensional cascade event' would look in the incident report.
She turned back to her team, weighing all the options that seemed to involve some combination of impossible, dangerous, impossibly dangerous, or catastrophically stupid, when she noticed Kovar with an idea that didn't seem to be encouraging.
Marshall: There's loads of power, they don't know why it's not getting to us, they're trying to stop the reactor from blowing up. ::She glanced to Kovar.:: You've got a look. Let's hear it.
Kovar: I will say upfront that I am open to suggestions. However, knowing that we are working against an imprecise timeline, we may have a means to attempt manual access to the shuttle. ::He closed his eyes and furrowed his brow.:: Now, though I am unversed as to the minute particularities of dimensional physics, on a macro level we are dealing with an issue of frequency, correct?
Marshall: Broadly speaking, yes. ::Caution laced through her voice.:: The shuttle's phasing in and out of our dimension at a specific frequency.
Fenn: Response
Kovar: So, hypothetically speaking, if we were able to measure the phase frequency of the shuttle’s cockpit, we could theoretically match it with the subspace generator we have been carrying with us, and thereby create a bubble to access it. The only issue, other than viability or safety, would be that the generator is one of our main means of protection if the vines should locate us.
Jo looked at the subspace generator sitting next to the harmonic resonance device. It had kept the vines at bay in the Engineering Annex, and had so far been their insurance policy against being strangled by interdimensional flora. As good a day as any. Her gaze travelled to the shuttle phasing in and out of reality, counting down to field collapse.
Marshall: Let me see if I've got this right. ::Slowly, she repeated it.:: You want to repurpose our homicidal plant life defence machine to create a frequency bubble so someone can board the shuttle that's existing in four dimensions at once, while we're on a deadline to not be crushed into a singularity, and we'd be doing this without knowing if it's viable or safe.
She exhaled a breath, the hum and drone of the shuttlecraft echoing in the background as it fizzed through one dimension to the next. One eyebrow swept upwards.
Marshall: That may just be the most Starfleet solution to a problem I've heard all week.
Fenn: Response
Kovar: To echo the commander, none of this is ideal. However, unless we can produce an alternative way forward, this may be the only logical means of preventing yet another mass casualty event.
Rubbing her forehead, feeling a headache building in waves, Jo glanced at Maezel. The shuttle phased again behind them, a reminder that their window for having this conversation was shrinking by the minute.
Marshall: Fenn, what's your take on this? Can we make Kovar's plan work?
Fenn: Response
The mental image of being scraped off the bulkheads in several dimensions at once was unpleasant enough that Jo immediately shoved it into the same mental compartment where she kept all the other things she didn't want to think about. They had something of a plan that wasn't necessarily bad, if dimensional travel wasn't so fraught with being spread across it. Command training covered a lot of scenarios, yet Jo wasn't sure interdimensional transit equipment was on the syllabus.
Marshall: So, laying it out there. If we can match the frequency, we may be able to maintain a stable enough bubble, to enable us to time the entry to coincide with the phase cycle, get inside, initialise the computer, and get back out before either the field collapses, the generator fails, or the vines return.
Fenn / Kovar: Response
Marshall: Then let's do it. ::She moved quickly to the main monitoring console, and pulled up the power distribution grid.:: We need to map the phase variance and predict the cycle pattern. Our window of opportunity will be in there somewhere. Then that's our cue to work out how we reconfigure the generator to match whatever frequency that is.
Fenn / Kovar: Response