Lt. Jg. Ryden Tarus Kel - We Might Not Get a Warning
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Ryden Kel
Nov 18, 2025, 4:31:28 PM (4 days ago) Nov 18
to sb11...@googlegroups.com
((Deck 1 - Main Bridge - USS Narendra – Deep within the Phaethon Nebula))
A ripple of pressure rolled through his mind then... small but
sharp... like the creature had stirred at the thought of intrusion. He
eased his breathing, trying to keep himself anchored. The last thing
they needed was another hallucination overtaking him mid-sentence.
Voss: What if it reacts poorly? If we hurt the creature and it lashes out…
Kel: ::exhaling slowly, grounding himself:: From a medical standpoint…
the probes are the least risky option we have. No crew exposed, no
telepathic feedback loops, no chance of anyone getting overwhelmed
again. If the creature reacts to the probes... agitation, fear,
anything... I should feel that shift before it escalates. It’ll give
us a buffer we don’t get with living minds out there.
A buffer for them, yes. But not for the creature. That thought pressed
at him again, unbidden. The entity had shown them trust—enough to
guide them here. If they misstepped… if they hurt it, even
unintentionally… the guilt curled warm and unwelcome in his stomach.
Voss: I’d like to… to try to keep the creature apprised of our
actions. I don’t know how effective it’ll be, but I think it’s worth a
shot.
McLaren: ?
Kel: And whatever data we pull in… even partial scans… I can
cross-reference with the neurological patterns we’ve already seen. If
the station is causing further harm to the entity, the stress
signature should be unmistakable.
He watched Lyra refocus on her console, her fingers steady despite the
tremor he still felt in her mind. She moved with purpose—determined,
but still carrying the bruise of her earlier telepathic contact.
Voss: ::sending her data to McLaren’s console:: Commander, what do you
think of this placement for the probe? We have a class-5
reconnaissance probe on board that should be able to avoid detection
from here.
McLaren: ?
She made several adjustments with practiced care.
Voss: Ready for launch?
McLaren: ?
Ryden felt the shift the moment Lyra opened her mind again... like a
door cracking in the middle of a hurricane. He sensed the creature’s
awareness sweep over her, vast and suffocating in its intensity. The
air around him seemed to tighten, the nebula pulsing with psychic
density.
Then, suddenly, she was back, gasping softly. Ryden, already leaning
forward, spoke before he even fully realized he had.
Kel: Easy… take a breath. Did it push back, or just… notice?
Voss: ::shaking her head to clear it:: I’m all right, I… yeah, I won’t
try that again unless it’s absolutely necessary. I think we can safely
say it’s watching us very closely. Let’s… let’s hope this gives us
some of the information we need.
Ryden nodded once, sharply, feeling the echo of her disorientation
lingering faintly in the air. Watching the launch sequence unfold, he
kept his focus narrow... on Lyra’s breathing, on the steady pulse of
the consoles, on anything that wasn’t the nebula trying to seep into
the edges of his thoughts.
When the probe shot forward, a small blip against the storm outside,
he felt the creature’s attention shift… then hesitate.
A few tense, quiet minutes passed before data finally began to filter through.
McLaren: ?
Kel: ::eyes scanning the neural-stress overlays:: The creature’s
baseline hasn’t shifted. No spike in agitation. Whatever the probe is
touching out there… it isn’t hurting it. At least not yet.
More data stabilized... structural readings, heat signatures, faint
power traces. Nothing whole. Nothing reliable. But enough to form a
picture.
McLaren/Voss: ?
Kel: ::leaning forward, voice low:: There. That pattern... those
cycling energy signatures. They match the same harmonic frequency we
saw in the creature’s neural entanglement. ::a steadying breath::
Whatever the Romulans are doing in there… it’s interacting directly
with the entity’s nervous system.
He felt a faint churning of disquiet in the pit of his stomach... not his own.
Or maybe partly his own.
McLaren/Voss: ?
Kel: If we can isolate the modulation source… we might be able to map
exactly how the station is affecting it. ::eyes narrowing at the
readout:: And more importantly... what condition the creature is
actually in.
The probe fed in another burst of fragmented sensor returns, and Kel’s
jaw tightened.
Kel: ::quietly:: Something’s destabilizing inside the station. I can’t
tell if it’s deliberate or a malfunction… but whatever it is, it’s
getting worse.
McLaren/Voss: ?
Kel: I don’t think we have much time before that interacts with the
creature again. And the next time… we may not get a warning first.
-----
Lieutenant JG Ryden Tarus Kel
Medical Officer
StarBase 118 Ops
O240109RK1
A ripple of pressure rolled through his mind then... small but
sharp... like the creature had stirred at the thought of intrusion. He
eased his breathing, trying to keep himself anchored. The last thing
they needed was another hallucination overtaking him mid-sentence.
Voss: What if it reacts poorly? If we hurt the creature and it lashes out…
Kel: ::exhaling slowly, grounding himself:: From a medical standpoint…
the probes are the least risky option we have. No crew exposed, no
telepathic feedback loops, no chance of anyone getting overwhelmed
again. If the creature reacts to the probes... agitation, fear,
anything... I should feel that shift before it escalates. It’ll give
us a buffer we don’t get with living minds out there.
A buffer for them, yes. But not for the creature. That thought pressed
at him again, unbidden. The entity had shown them trust—enough to
guide them here. If they misstepped… if they hurt it, even
unintentionally… the guilt curled warm and unwelcome in his stomach.
Voss: I’d like to… to try to keep the creature apprised of our
actions. I don’t know how effective it’ll be, but I think it’s worth a
shot.
McLaren: ?
Kel: And whatever data we pull in… even partial scans… I can
cross-reference with the neurological patterns we’ve already seen. If
the station is causing further harm to the entity, the stress
signature should be unmistakable.
He watched Lyra refocus on her console, her fingers steady despite the
tremor he still felt in her mind. She moved with purpose—determined,
but still carrying the bruise of her earlier telepathic contact.
Voss: ::sending her data to McLaren’s console:: Commander, what do you
think of this placement for the probe? We have a class-5
reconnaissance probe on board that should be able to avoid detection
from here.
McLaren: ?
She made several adjustments with practiced care.
Voss: Ready for launch?
McLaren: ?
Ryden felt the shift the moment Lyra opened her mind again... like a
door cracking in the middle of a hurricane. He sensed the creature’s
awareness sweep over her, vast and suffocating in its intensity. The
air around him seemed to tighten, the nebula pulsing with psychic
density.
Then, suddenly, she was back, gasping softly. Ryden, already leaning
forward, spoke before he even fully realized he had.
Kel: Easy… take a breath. Did it push back, or just… notice?
Voss: ::shaking her head to clear it:: I’m all right, I… yeah, I won’t
try that again unless it’s absolutely necessary. I think we can safely
say it’s watching us very closely. Let’s… let’s hope this gives us
some of the information we need.
Ryden nodded once, sharply, feeling the echo of her disorientation
lingering faintly in the air. Watching the launch sequence unfold, he
kept his focus narrow... on Lyra’s breathing, on the steady pulse of
the consoles, on anything that wasn’t the nebula trying to seep into
the edges of his thoughts.
When the probe shot forward, a small blip against the storm outside,
he felt the creature’s attention shift… then hesitate.
A few tense, quiet minutes passed before data finally began to filter through.
McLaren: ?
Kel: ::eyes scanning the neural-stress overlays:: The creature’s
baseline hasn’t shifted. No spike in agitation. Whatever the probe is
touching out there… it isn’t hurting it. At least not yet.
More data stabilized... structural readings, heat signatures, faint
power traces. Nothing whole. Nothing reliable. But enough to form a
picture.
McLaren/Voss: ?
Kel: ::leaning forward, voice low:: There. That pattern... those
cycling energy signatures. They match the same harmonic frequency we
saw in the creature’s neural entanglement. ::a steadying breath::
Whatever the Romulans are doing in there… it’s interacting directly
with the entity’s nervous system.
He felt a faint churning of disquiet in the pit of his stomach... not his own.
Or maybe partly his own.
McLaren/Voss: ?
Kel: If we can isolate the modulation source… we might be able to map
exactly how the station is affecting it. ::eyes narrowing at the
readout:: And more importantly... what condition the creature is
actually in.
The probe fed in another burst of fragmented sensor returns, and Kel’s
jaw tightened.
Kel: ::quietly:: Something’s destabilizing inside the station. I can’t
tell if it’s deliberate or a malfunction… but whatever it is, it’s
getting worse.
McLaren/Voss: ?
Kel: I don’t think we have much time before that interacts with the
creature again. And the next time… we may not get a warning first.
-----
Lieutenant JG Ryden Tarus Kel
Medical Officer
StarBase 118 Ops
O240109RK1
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