Lieutenant Ras El'Heem - Brace for no impact Pt. 2
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((Deck 16, Science Lab, USS Khitomer))
They had a line to follow. They still had time. He gave a steady exhale and turned back to the data. The numbers had jumped.
El’Heem: ::frantically:: Oh boys. BRACE. The nebula is on us NOW.
The acceleration was obscene. It was tens of thousands of kilometers away but in that short moment discussing next steps it had erased the distance entirely. Ras barely had time to register the spike before the viewscreen drowned in violet again. Red light flooded the lab and the klaxon blared. He gripped the console and shit his eyes, ready for impact. But it never came. Instead, the ship settled, as if they had been plunged into a sea of gelatin.
His console flickered under his hands, data spiking and collapsing in rapid succession. Ras looked up as the lights dimmed. Eyes wide, his gaze fell from the ceiling onto the ensigns.
Matthews / Melville-Kilpatrick: Response
Matthews was right. This wasn’t good at all. It had caught them all by surprise. The sound of their captain cut through the alarm.
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. =/\=
He swallowed. They needed answers and they needed them now. He turned to his station.
El’Heem: Alright. That confirms a few things. If it’s alive, it’s eaten us and we don’t know how much time we have left until it’s digested us. If it’s being controlled by someone, the outcome is just as bad. Matthews, our timeframe just moved up. We need the sensor data isolated into something useful. Melville-Kilpatrick, check atmospherics and ensure the Khitomer is going to hold it’s own and keep us all alive.
He didn’t look at them as he spoke. His eyes stayed locked on the failing readouts. Whatever that pink cloud was doing to their ship, it was causing cascading failures through the electrical systems. If the air scrubbers failed, they’d have even less time to figure out how to extradite themselves.
Matthews / Melville-Kilpatrick: Response
El’Heem: Matthews. Now.
The ensign’s sarcasm was wearing thin. There was one thing to be said about coping in your own way, there was another thing entirely when gathr’k had hit the fan and lives were on the line. The doors slid open and he straightened at the sound. Captain Naxell. Ras stood at attention.
El’Heem: Captain.
Matthews / Melville-Kilpatrick: Response
Naxell: At ease. ::to E’Heem:: Your assessment, Chief?
His uniform felt a little tight around the neck. He couldn’t tell them man they had precisely nothing. But they didn’t have nothing did they? Ras did not answer right away. His eyes moved over the telemetry again, slower this time. There had been no fragmentation of the data, no radiation spike, no measurable recoil at the moment of impact. It didn’t read like a collision. The data had simply stopped. Cleanly. And the Khitomer currently being surrounded by the object…His brow furrowed as he turned back to the captain.
El’Heem: Not much but…we launched a probe to gather preliminary data that our sensors couldn’t gather. The probe was lost on contact with the cloud. ::beat:: it’s not behaving like a cosmological entity. Not a gas or debris field. At least not conventionally.
The inconsistencies were faint, but a pattern did precipitate the more he mulled it over.
El’Heem: It’s not homogenous. And it’s not random. We can’t tell you yet what it is, but we’re working on it.
Matthews / Melville-Kilpatrick: Response
Naxell: As I feared. To understand this cloud, we’re going to need a physical sample, and that means someone’s going to have to go out and get it. ::looking to Matthews:: Are you up to date on your EVA training, Ensign?
Ras almost huffed but he held it in. It wasn’t disagreement, just a calculation of risk. They were going to have to manually collect a sample of the very thing that had enough power to overcome an entire starship. He looked at Matthews expectantly.
Matthews / Melville-Kilpatrick: Response
El’Heem: There’s significant risk, but it hasn’t exactly damaged the ship yet either. I’ll be right there on comms with you and Melville-Kilpatrick will be monitoring your vitals.
Naxell / Matthews / Melville-Kilpatrick: Response
((OOC: I’ve bridged the two scenes but I don’t want to bury Sarah in more tags than that.))
TAGS/TBC
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Lieutenant Ras El ‘Heem
Chief Science Officer
USS Khitomer (NCC-62400)
K240106RE3