Lt Korras - Muddy waters

[piet...@gmail.com]

((Bridge, Deck 1, USS Khitomer, - near the Ceram Archipelago))

Naxell: Let’s work our way backwards. Either the ship moved out of the cloud, or the cloud moved away from the ship, or by some other means dissipated.

Expecting to have to move the ship backwards as well, Korras noticed something perturbing.

Korras: I am looking at the course we just took, and it overlaps the nebula now.

That caused a flurry of activity.

Stros: Mr. Korras. ::Looking towards the Klingon:: You confirmed we were holding 20,000 kilometers from the cloud before we continued moving again, correct?

Naxell: Confirm current distance?

Korras: We are currently at 2.000 distance to the front, but it is also behind us now, at 9.000 kilometers.

He went back over the course they took. It did not take long.

Stros: And the distance we have travelled since we continued motion?

Korras: We had to take a circuitous course, we traveled 85.000 Kilometers.

The captain moved from his seat, and stood next to him. Korras felt like he was being scrutinized like he was back at the academy, but refused to be put off-balance by that.

Naxell: That’s about seventy-thousand kilometers too many.

Stros: ::Sending the data to the viewscreen:: The cloud appears to be changing its relative position. ::Two points appeared on the screen on a rough overlaid map of the cloud:: We have been focusing on the drifting vessel, and the cloud… ::The right-most point shifted roughly 500 kilometers along their starboard side:: …appears to be attempting to flank us, Captain. Albeit slowly.

He worked the controls, taking the new data, and looking for options.

Korras: We can still move out of here, I have a course plotted and ready.

The captain sat back down again.

C. Dewitt: ::nodding:: It’s not a drift. It’s a reacting. ::towards Naxell:: Sir, I suggest we get to a safe distance..

Naxell: We’ll have our backs to Lattice space, but I agree. Lieutenant, maneuver us to keep the derelict between us and that cloud.

Korras: Yes sir.

He executed the course he plotted, and made adjustments as they went.

Stros: Response

C. Dewitt: It’s trying to surround us, Sir.

Naxell: That’s our cue. Get us out of here.

They were not going to make it at impulse speed.

Korras: I suggest we go to warp, sir. We will not make it out in time on impulse speed. The nebula is.. changing too much.

Stros: Response

Naxell: Any direction but in, Mr. Korras, warp one!

He engaged the warp engines, and within a moment the shift to warp was felt.

Korras: We are at warp.

He had switched the flight controls to manual. With the nebula shifting, he did not want to risk getting too close to it, especially now they were at warp.

Stros: Response

The nebula shifted around them, and closing around them. They were not going to make it, and they were now grazing the nebula as it moved in around them. He prepared to feed more power to the warp engines, and hopefully go through before it got too bad for them.

C. Dewitt: Power levels are fluctuating.

All around them, lights began to flicker and dim. It became clear that even at a higher warp they would not make it out in time.

Naxell: All stop. We’re in the mud. There’s no use wearing ourselves out over it.

Korras: Full stop, yes sir.

The ship shifted back out of warp.

C. Dewitt / Stros / A. Dewitt: Response

Naxell: I don’t suppose sensors are any more useful from inside the cloud?

Looking at his console, Korras shook his head.

Korras: Navigational sensors are barely registering anything.

C. Dewitt / Stros / A. Dewitt: Response

Naxell: =/\= Attention all hands, this is the captain. We are, currently, trapped by some unknown force. But we won’t stay that way. Keep your heads, keep working, and we’ll get out of this together. =/\=

((Brief Timeskip, Bridge, Deck 1, USS Khitomer, - inside the Ceram Archipelago))

Korras was busy reconfiguring the navigational sensors, trying to find a frequency at which they provided more useful information then the equivalent of looking into a mouldy aquarium. He was annoyed with himself, he felt like he had flown them right into this trap, even if there was nothing to indicate that it would react to them like this, and envelop them.

 

He was about to get down on the ground and reset some of the isolinear chips in his console, to see if that would stop it from randomly flickering, when a new voice spoke up.

 

Semara: I suggest comms.

 

Korras: Comms?

 

He did not think that the Alliance ship would be interested in talking.

 

C. Dewitt / Stros / A. Dewitt: Response

 

Semara: We've only got a power drain from the nebula so far, right?  Those ships out there ain't got hull breaches from a power drain. :: Beat :: Tryin' comms, worst case we talk to a cloud.  But if there's a ship hidden out there, we gotta convince her we ain't prey and we ain't rivals and quickly.  If we open comms, we might make her wonder who we are and if we see her.  Or she'll talk, if we're lucky.  If she's there, she won't spend long puzzlin' us out.

 

Of course. Not the Alliance forces, but perhaps the cloud was not just a cloud. It definitely displayed some form of intelligence.

 

Korras: It will not hurt to try, I agree.

C. Dewitt / Stros / A. Dewitt: Response

 

He got to work. With the power fluctuating, it was not as simple as pressing a button.

 

Korras: It will take a moment, I need to reroute power manually to the communication array.

 

C. Dewitt / Stros / A. Dewitt / Semara: Response

 

Korras: Channel is open, sir. We are broadcasting on as many frequencies as we can at the moment.

 

C. Dewitt / Stros / A. Dewitt / Semara: Response

 

 

TBC

 

 

*****

Lieutenant Korras
Helm Officer
USS Khitomer
O240010K12