Lieutenant Jack Kessler - Encounters of the Unknown
Joel Cannistraro
((Shuttlecraft Kepler, USS Ronin))
With the team assembled and now aboard the Kepler, Jack was not entirely happy with the number of people on this assignment. What was initially. "I'll take that risk" type of assignment had turned into six people aboard the shuttle. Three more than Jack felt was truely needed or warranted for a mission that had potential consequences much graver than one might think. The decision was ultimately Commander Kel's and Jack woud not question it openly in front of the junior officers but he would now have more people to worry about and have to take into consideration on this assignment. O'Connor was seated at helm and with the grace of a great pilot the Kepler smoothly departed the Ronin’s bay and arced around heading out toward the edge of the Ross-580 system. They’d set up a survey pattern that would have them the farthest away from Ronin to start with then spiral their way back in.
Seated at a rear console, Jack started his tactical scans and analysis of the surrounding space. At least the Kepler's sensors were fully operational at this point compared to the Ronin's limited short range abilities.
Kessler: Initial scans indicate no other vessels other than our own in the immediate area. The interior planets could potentially have something behind them but I cannot see anything until we get closer.
Shortrith: Response
Kel: Doctors. See what you can see as far as life readings on those interior planets
De La Croix: Well I can hardly see anything from here, these sensors are like cans tied together with string. According to this...::she gestured towards one of the displays at random::...I'm fairly certain the gas giants are devoid of life.
Jack glanced slightly over his shoulder as Poagie stood up and approached the Doctor's station. He did not know either of these individuals but he was taking notes. A lot of notes.
Poagie: Perhaps I can assist. I’d be happy to push buttons for you.
O’Connor: Look, Sorry to interrupt you latnum digger woo-fest but could you start pulling up your modified sweeps for similar chroniton patterns.
Jack glanced over his other shoulder to O'Connor who smiled at De La Croix and gave her a “you owe me one” look. Poagie sighed and moved to a different control station deeper back in the shuttle. Returning his gaze to his own console Jack focused on his tactical scans.
Kessler: Confirmed, no life readings currently coming from the gas giants.
Shortrith/Wren: Response
Kel: ::pleased:: The gas giants are very colorful.
De La Croix: Just simple chemistry, Doctor...hydrogen, helium, a splash of ammonia and methane for variety...hardly worth waxing poetic about. Oh and no life to speak of...much like the last medical conference I attended. Tedious doesn't even begin to describe it.
O’Connor: Maybe you need to come to one of the helm officer symposiums someday. Tedious is not something remotely on the agenda. Then again the poetry might night be your style.
Kessler: ::interjecting but not looking away from his console:: I am not sure I have heard Orion poetry before.
Shortrith/Wren: Response
O’Connor: Hey, I’m part Irish. Of course I do limericks. I’m actually thinking of one now. :: He smiled at the chief surgeon:: …
Kessler: ::looking to V'Len:: Tactical scans are still negative.
A gentle nod to his friend to give reassurance they would get to the bottom of this but something still felt ominous about the whole mission. Jack obviously was hoping for a much different ending than what they had been presented with but reality told him that those chances were lower than he would like to imagine.
Shortrith/Wren: Response
Kel: ::smiling:: I'm always like this, all the time.
The shuttle continued it's flight path and the scans from the various team members continued to reveal limited or useless data on the primary question. V'Len's voice cut the momentary silence and with a bit of surprise.
Kel: What the…I'm picking up a massive burst of ultra-high energy gamma rays coming from the gas giant closest to the Ross-580 star.
Wren: Shielding is at seventy percent, but it’s dropping rapidly.
Jack looked over to his readings as O'Connor adjusted course. The shuttle's shields were dropping but at a much higher rate than should have been caused by the level of gamma rays coming from the gas giant.
De La Croix: Well then we should probably....back away from the particles that could tear our cellular membranes to shreds. Surely you already knew that.
O’Connor: Already on it boss altering course slightly. We’ll need to adjust sensors a bit as we’ll be farther away from that area than we anticipated. And if someone could reroute some power to shields, please.
Then something bucked repeatedly.
Wren: Sir, we seem to be receiving damage to our engine. Scans are unclear on whether it’s from the radiation, our shields are dropping. If we move back, we might be out of range, but we’d be back in the eddy.
Kessler: Adjusting shields to compensate.
Jack made some rapids modifications to the shield stabilizers and then angled the weakest part of the shield away from the highest field intensity coming at them. He watched his console as the shields showed some stabilization and the weaking seemed to slow significantly.
Shortrith/Wren/Kel: Response
De La Croix: Well if you didn't want my opinion then why did you ask me to join you in this dinky little skiff?
O’Connor: Hey, Kepler doesn’t like it when you ‘dis him. Just hold on everyone,we seem to be experiencing some slight turbulence.
One engine seemed to just drop almost all thrust and O'connor quickly compensated before they started spinning. Jack continued to make, on the fly modifications to the shields harmonics and stabilizing routines.
Wren: ::strained:: We’ve lost partial thrust from our engine, we’re going to start listing to the side. I can try and go fix it ::grabbing her kit::, but it might take a minute, I'll have a better idea of what we're dealing with if I go look at the engine itself.
Kessler: ::looking to Kel:: Gamma rays will play havoc with shields, but not as fast as they are with the modifications I have made. Something else is draining the shields other than the gamma rays.
Jack turned back to his console and enter another sequence of modifications to tighten the shields against the strongest field bombarding the shuttle. O'Connor was doing his best to control the shuttle and Jack knew that, but as he studied the sensor scans one thing became much more obvious. There was another factor at work against them. One they had not yet seen.
Shortrith/Wren/Kel/De La Croix: Response
O’Connor: Look your highness. We’re almost stopped anyway. I could always let you out if you’d li..
Jack threw a glance at O'Connor and then at the Doctor and then back to O'Connor as more alerts went off, and O'Connor brought the shuttle to a rapid halt. Inertial dampeners compensated instantly.
O’Connor: Whoah. Where did that come from?
Jack's eyes shot up to the main viewport, the massive object appeared out of nowhere almost directly in front of them bathing the area with chronitons. O'Connor worked the console and dropped their new temporal anchor. The probes deployed and the gravity well formed, holding the Kepler in place.
Kessler: Scanning. ::beat:: The hull is composed of a number of different known materials and a handful I cannot identify. ::double beat:: Life signs Commander but they are not stable. Sensors cannot get a definitive lock.
Shortrit/Wren/Kel/De La Croix: Response
O’Connor: Ok then I guess, “When” did that come from?
Jack did not look back up from his console. His hands, his fingers danced across the console scanning every millimeter of the object in front of them. The sensors penetrated some areas and deflected off others. Some scans seemed to simply get absorbed into nothingness and others seemed to reflect back data that made no sense.
Kessler: ::turning to Kel:: Sir, we're moving. Sensors show we are closing on the object at 50 KPH. Shields are still draining, slowly but draining. Down to 68 percent now and phaser power has reduced 9 percent.
Shortrith/Wren/Kel/De La Croix: Response
Continuing to scan the object Jack was about to make a tactical analysis when the shuttle was filled with an intense blinding white light and an ear piercing sound wave that made Jack put both hands over his ears and lean away from the forward section of the shuttle. Not that the action helped at all but, instinctively he leaned away from what he thought was projecting the sound.
Kessler: Shields down another 11 percent Commander.
Jack was yelling over the sound wave, hoping V'Len heard him but was not entirely sure he had.
Shortrith/Wren/Kel/De La Croix/O'Connor: Response
Kessler: ::fingers jumping across the console:: Rotating shield harmonics but it does not seem to be helping Commander.
Shortrith/Wren/Kel/De La Croix: Response
As the sound subsided and the light dimmed, Jack found his head pounding mercilessly. He felt nauseated and somewhat dizzy. He started to look around the cabin at the others as his vision started blurring and then nothing. Jack lay unconscious, face on his console.
TAGS/TBD
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