Ensign Richard Matthews - Seeing Ghosts
Matthew Gough
((Deck 16, Science Lab, USS Khitomer))
Something they didn’t tell you when you joined the science department. It was basically people playing with fun toys. Sure the situations you found yourself in could be harrowing. Plain ol life threatening even. But at the end of the day you got to break out big prototype lasers. Or wave around the newest tricorder. Or in this case remote pilot a probe into the unknown and pretend for a moment to be a pilot.
A science officer could have dreams outside of the labs okay!
C. Dewitt: =/\= Bridge to El’Heem. Tell me we got eyes on what’s inside that nebula, Ras. =/\=
El’Heem: =/\= Negative, commander. Our scans aren’t giving us anything useful. We’re sending a probe to get a closer look. I’ll keep you posted. =/\=
Melville-Kilpatrick: Guess that's as good a sign as any.
Matthews: Imagine if the commander had called in a few seconds later to say ‘don’t send in a probe.
El’Heem: Do it.
Melville-Kilpatrick: Good luck.
Hitting the launch button and watching the mapped flight path of the probe. Richard only waited long enough for the probe to be a safe enough distance from the Khitomer before taking over remotely.
Matthews: ::singing quietly to himself as he piloted the probe:: Matthews is at the helm, the pilot seat is my realm. We are in a field surrounded. Still flight systems steadys. Probe’s impulse engines ready.
Yup, living the dream.
El’Heem: How long until it reaches the edge?
Melville-Kilpatrick: ::quietly:: Looks...close.
Matthews: ::Squinting at the screen:: It does look close, why does it look close? It shouldn’t be close. I’m going slowly and carefully.
Not that Richard’s choice of modus operandi mattered here. Even though he was slowly guiding the probe towards the nebula, to ease it in, to gently breach it with his probe and most importantly, not alert any man eating things to their presence! The nebula itself, it seemed, was moving around in space to come up behind the probe as it moved to get closer to the ship.
Something that wouldn’t be easily noticeable if they hadn’t been aiming at and watching the nebula. Tracking the distance from the probe to it. Seeing that distance shrinking rapidly while at the same time growing. Richard checked his instruments again. Yes, the counter was ticking up indicating that the distance it would take for the probe to reach the nebula was going up.
While another readout was warning that there was something approaching and getting closer to the probe. That something being the nebula.
How the heck was it moving away, and stretching back around like that to get to them?
And then - gold flashes lit up his little screen filling it completely for a moment before fading to a violet haze instead of the regular blackness of space.
El’Heem: What was that? What just happened? We lost the probe?
As the yellow warning lights turned red denoting that the danger was getting, well, more dangerous. Richard found himself exclaiming.
Matthews: . . . Nope. That’s a probe, and possibly other things, eating nebula. I reject this reality.
Melville-Kilpatrick: It's gotta be the same thing that happened to that Sheliak ship!
Matthews: But since the ships are not snack sized like probie, they didn’t get gobbled up. ::Richard frowned:: Poor probe. Good thing we just sent out one after all.
El'Heem: Response
Melville-Kilpatrick: ::craning his neck to look at the other screens:: Can you see if it sent anything before it...crashed?
Matthews: Just what we’re getting from outside the probe. We hadn’t penetrated the nebula and so, there’s no new data to be had. Oh. Except that the nebula is moving under its own power. Sensors can collaborate that terrifying discovery.
El'Heem: Response
Melville-Kilpatrick: I could try to do another scan, but I don't think the probe counts as 'biological' unless I could manage to pick up traces of whoever made it.
Matthews: No, she’s clean, we sterilize those things every time they come back in. Plus, I don’t see anything left out there, not a piece of space debris at all. ::He glanced at Ras:: We should alert the bridge that we may be dealing with an unidentified life form of some kind.
El'Heem: Response
Matthews: It’s either something in the nebula that’s using it. Or it is the nebula itself. And I don’t know which outcome I’d prefer. MK going to need your help to figure out if the nebula is alive . . . words I never thought I’d say outloud
El'Heem / Melville-Kilpatrick: Response
Turning in his seat, the old science officer, or young science officer, depending on how you looked at it. Stood and took two steps towards a bank of computers.
Matthews: I have a bad feeling about this. Giant space monster or . . . nebula bending space aliens. Whatever this may be. If I was a betting man I’d wager the Alliance was after it or them. I don’t think . . . but maybe . . . okay here we go.
El'Heem / Melville-Kilpatrick: Response
He turned after keying in a few quick commands. On one of the screens the Constellation class USS Eridani was displayed.
Matthews: The USS Eridani, possessed by a juvenile of a non caporal species we discovered. Named Junior. I don’t think what we are seeing is the same thing. But there could be correlations to the entities that can possess star ships and what is possibly controlling the nebula. ::He shrugged:: Unless it is the nebula. That said, well, guys this isn’t good is it.
El'Heem / Melville-Kilpatrick: Response
Matthews: ::Shaking his head:: I can only speculate. But I think, if we can somehow link up to one of the Alliance ships and start reading their logs. We’ll find that they had discovered this creature and tried to capture it. ::Richard glanced to Ras:: Chief, could I work on trying to get a link to one of the ships while MK works on puzzling out what the nebula is?
El'Heem / Melville-Kilpatrick: Response
TAGS/TBC
_________
Science Officer
USS Khitomer (NCC-62400)
A238908RM0