Near Pink (Part 1 of 3)

Posted on 16 Sep 2016 @ 3:09am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Crewman Aurangzeb Ameen & Commander Langdale Wiggins & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant JG Natalya Kirilova & Lieutenant JG Noah Khoroushi & Lieutenant JG Rahl Tyton Ph.D. & Lieutenant JG Braxton MacKenzie & Lieutenant JG Jonas Flynn PsyD & Ensign Miraj Derani & Ensign Mimi & Lieutenant Commander Ryan Alexander & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Greg Mitchell & Petty Officer 3rd Class Micah Hershey & Petty Officer 1st Class Eric Anderson & Petty Officer 2nd Class Nemo Bardasi
Edited on on 16 Sep 2016 @ 3:11am

2,922 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS Galileo/Paulson Nebula
Timeline: MD 02 - 2240 hrs

[ON]

USS Galileo - Deck 1, Bridge

Galileo's journey towards the local Paulson Nebula had been efficient. Traveling at a maximum sustained cruise speed of warp 8, the Nova-class was now approaching the large purple and pink stellar nursery less than forty hours since the distress signal had first been detected. Streaks of nearby starlight blurred by outside of the window in Lirha's office, and despite the late hour, she had returned to duty in anticipation of their arrival and investigation.

Her executive officer, Commander Wiggins, was officially on bridge duty along with the rest of the beta shift bridge crew, but it would only be a matter of time before all personnel would need to be summoned to perform their designated tasks. Lirha was finishing up a final review of astrometrical data concerning the nebula they were about to enter when her commbadge sounded.

"Ensign Derani, Ma'am," the young helmsman's disembodied voice floated out of it, "We're almost at the nebula, two minutes to warp exit."

"Thank you, ensign," replied Saalm with a tap on her communicator. She closed her desk's LCARS screen before slowly standing for a quick stretch. After a short moment, she rounded the corner of her office and stepped out into the bridge with a soft swish of the ready room door.

Galileo's cramped command center looked rather empty as the midnight hour approached. Lirha knew it was only temporary, however, and made her way to the center chair where her XO was currently situated. "Status report, Mister Wiggins. Ready for an eventful evening, I hope?"

"Well..." Wiggins said as he eased himself out of the chair. "I don't think that fish wrap from earlier is agreeing with me. And Ophelia is still mad at me for relocating her, which makes finding my breakfast all over the floor this morning quite suspicious." Wiggins smiled then gestured to helm. "And we'll be arriving at the Nebula in about...oh fifty-eight seconds."

"Perhaps she would like a play-date with Snuffles?" Lirha suggested with a warm smile. Her targ pup was still not quite an adolescent and greatly enjoyed any type of company offered to him.

"Sure," Wiggins chuckled. "Though I'm not sure how much fun she'll be. She's more 'ball of fur and wrinkles and drool' than dog." He smiled, saluted and stepped away from the center chair.

Lirha took her seat and quickly thumbed the ship's internal comm switch on her chair's console. "All hands, this is the captain. We are about to arrive at the Paulson Nebula," she began, her voice echoing throughout every corridor and room within the starship. "All personnel report to your stations. Counselor Flynn, please report to the bridge."

Natalya had been sound asleep, hoping to catch up on a few hours rest after alpha, knowing she'd back at it soon enough for the big show. She'd linked the intercom broadcast with her alarm clock so that either way, she would wake up. She was one of the first to arrive, mainly because she'd slept in uniform. Her jumpsuit was a bit ruffled and her hair a bout tousled, but she was otherwise in acceptable condition for an officer pulling a double shift.

Manning her console and entering her access codes, Natalya waited for the sensor data to roll in.

Making his way to the Ops console, Noah inclined his head before taking his seat and began logging into the systems.

Luke had dressed quickly and made his way to the bridge, seeing the whole crew here he nodded and silently relived the beta shift crewman and took over the tactical Control panel and began scanning.

Braxton had been in bed tossing and turning when the call came in for him to go to his station. That meant they were about to enter the Paulson Nebula or close to it and that was not a good thing. The room’s temperature seemed to go up by at least 10 degrees. He started to sweat. He shot out of bed and changed quickly this time reaching for the Amulet he’d forgotten to wear the last time. He tucked it into his shirt. He sent a silent prayer for everyone to be okay and then he took a moment to look in the mirror. “This isn’t your father’s ship. This isn’t going to happen again. Just breathe!” It was a mantra he’d used over the last several days. He ran his fingers through is hair and headed out. Within a few minutes he was on the bridge and at his station. He called in reports from his department and got confirmation from his team they were indeed at their stations.

Jonas arrived, nodding to the Admiral before finding a place to stand out of the way. That place turned out to be just behind Science I, which was convenient for keeping a close watch on Braxton. He could already see clear signs of agitation, but the Lieutenant appeared to be focused on his work. "Evening Brax," he said softly. "Let me know if I get in your way."

Braxton looked up and smiled at Jonas. They were becoming fast friends which was weird for Braxton but... he was enjoying it. "Sure. I'm sure you'll be fine here." He smiled and then turned back to his screen. His hand flew over the console but every now and then it darted to the Amulet which was now hanging around his neck. He'd removed it from his jacket so he could reach for it when he got nervous.

Ryan had been off shift for awhile. He had been spending his free time with his cube sats, making sure that he had a number available for if and when they were needed. When he heard the captain's call he smiled to himself as he finished securing the last of the sats in the launching mechanism. He dusted himself off and tided himself up before heading to the bridge.

Ryan was fairly certain that he was one of the last to arrive, but he quickly took his station without preamble. His fingers flying over the keys to bring up current status readouts and figures in order to orient himself. After a few quick moments, and a few screens later, he was able to get a handle on what he was seeing and turned his attention to his Department head and the Admiral, hoping that he would be able to anticipate any information that they would need.

Noah glanced up as ENS Alexander took his place and nodded to the younger man before returning to his own perusal of the system.


Some Random Deck

Meanwhile, twenty thousand fathoms below (aka, just a couple of decks down) Greg walked down the corridor making his usual rounds as the alert to stations came in. Promptly, he tapped his badge and reported in: "CWO3 Mitchell, on station."



Deck 3 - Sickbay

Allyndra was almost ready for gamma shift but with the Admiral and Executive Officer on the bridge and the ship just starting to enter the Nebula she knew that one more person there would be an inconvenience. Instead she headed for sickbay which was pretty under crewed at the moment.

Still with the Nebula entry things could go wrong and she needed more than the EMH on duty.

=^=Allyndra to Quershi and Tuula, please report to sickbay during Nebula entry=^=

As she finished her hail, Eric briefly brushed his fingers against the Chiefs shoulder to alert her to his presence. "Last patient has been discharged and sick bay is otherwise ready for whatever this place might bring."



Deck 1 - Bridge

A few officers trickled into the bridge soon enough, and Lirha watched the countdown on her chronometer slowly reach the point where they were scheduled to drop out of warp. "Bring up the main viewer," she commanded.

Min nodded, tapping a few commands into her console. Min had a soft spot for holographics, the EBH was a joint creation between hereself and several other crew, but having the nebula intrude right into the bridge was a bit weird, even if it wasn't real.

Solid projections of bulkheads suddenly shimmered and were replaced by a forward view of space. Streaking stars and a massive, pinkish-blue nebula could be seen rapidly growing in size as Galileo approached her destination. The inside of the bridge became bathed in various shades of fuchsia which added to the beauty of the cosmological phenomenon in front of them.

The 3D projected bubble was definitely something she could get used to, Miraj decided as she brought the ship out of warp, not even looking at the controls, and slowing the ship to impulse and slowed even further so they would park up only two hundred kilometers from the edge - sneezing distance in space.

The projection didn't do justice to the reality, the colours of the nebula itself bright and vivid where the projection was deliberately subdued so people could actually see through it. Clouds of lilac and fuschia, magenta and violet swirled and billowed as extra solar winds tugged at it, the streams of charged particles churning the edges of the nebula, and stirring the soup of elements within.

She rolled the ship around until she could practically feel the edge of the clouds tickling at the belly of Galileo, and they were hovering above it. Until she knew how they were going in, the sensible thing to do was to keep the vulnerable bridge and nacelles as far as possible from anything coming out.

"All-stop," Miraj announced. "We are one hundred ninety seven meters from the edge of the cloud."

Mimi turned from her console as the bridge was bathed in purple light, she looked at the projection of the nebula. "Ta lie ederra." she said to herself watching the beautiful motions of the phenomena intently.

As the ship moved to impulse, Noah began scanning actively for a distress signal. Judging by the environment, and possible damage it could cause to a vessel, he focused on low-band, trusting it as the most likely to cut through the static.

"Routing auxiliary power to sensors." Natalya said as Noah began his scans. With not much else for her department to do for the time being, she prioritized monitoring the sensors to make sure they were operating at peak efficiency.

Braxton as fascinated with the colours. They seemed more vibrant then he remembered. It took a moment to get him out of his ‘ooooohhhhh prettty’ mode and into the science 'Boy Wonder' mode. He sighed and turned to his console. “Ma’am, initial readings show Nebula temperature to be 8,200 K and at this particular moment there is a high reading of Hydrogen. The Chromium and Magnesium levels are a bit lower than usual but all in all within normal parameters. Other than that not getting much else. I’m increasing my scans and trying to penetrate a bit deeper. I estimate with the readings and levels once we fully enter the nebula it will take a few hours before the ship starts to show signs of stress.”

Engineering was pitched in tension as the crew took to their stations. For Micah that was a console near the warp core, He looked behind him hoping to locate the Chief Engineer but she wasn't anywhere to be seen. Still new to the ship he wasn't sure where her normal place was in a moment like this. Micah tapped a couple of keys and chewed his lip, a brief headshake following as he used Engineering's limited sensor bandwidth to do some quick scans of the chemical makeup of the nebula. He wanted to know what the engines would be subjected to and it looked grim.

"Lieutenant Kirilova will be on the bridge, sir." Aurangzeb dropped into the seat across from the station directly next to Micah. He wasn't exactly certain the petty officer was looking for the chief, but assumed as much. Tapping the console to life, he entered login credentials and watched as the stations' default configuration rearranged to his preferred display settings. "The Paulson Nebula: 1.6 light years in diameter, 3.86 grams per cubic centimeter." Aurangzeb noted aloud as he scanned the available sensor data. "Temperature is 8,200 degrees kelvin with a luminosity of 0.51 lumens. She is beautiful..." He finished, eyes fixed on the swirling mist-like composite of red, purple, and pink.

A lopsided smile and a blush. Right... of course she would, Micah thought to himself. He had to get used to a whole new way of operating around here. He chuckled, "We're both Enlisted, put that sir stuff in a torpedo tube..." he grinned and did a side glance, "Crewman." A teasing note. Micah hadn't really been able to take a moment to appreciate the color. And a dour turn came to his mouth soon enough.

"Look at this." Micah tapped a couple of keys, a last stab with a pinky and brought up on their shared screen a new graph for Aurangzeb to look at. "Ionizing radiation at 263% above normal and climbing." Micah tapped another that showed differentiated waves of gavimetric shear was also spiking. Nothing the integrity fields couldn't handle... yet. All of it he fed to Kirilova's screen on the bridge. He looked at the Indian man in profile, "As nebulas go it's a lightweight in size. But it's dense." Only then did he take a moment o appreciate the beauty. "Yeah... a dangerous beauty."

He leaned toward Micah to garner a better vantage point at the information his counterpart referenced. "They're all within acceptable parameters given the circumstances, but we should keep a watchful eye. It would be prudent to request Operations reroute additional power to our structural integrity fields, just to be safe."

"That's probably not a bad idea," the brunette-ginger said with the perk of a wiry eyebrow, " It was hard not to detect the closeness of the other... and harder still not to breath in his scent. Exotic. Spicy. Micah chewed his lip, eyebrow still raised. "Excuse me," his hand came over Aurangzeb's and he stabbed at a key he needed, "I'd suggest shifting from passive to active debris clearance once we head in." He checked the man and his dusky profile, "You left without telling me your name..." he teased.

There was a sweetness to Aurangzeb's breath, a scent reminiscent of cardamon and tamarind. His eyes turned from the data to the soft, delicate lines of Micah's face, "It's not as beautiful as something else I've recently discovered, but it's a close second." His posture returned to normal as he pinged Operations with the request for allocation of the power reserves.

Eyes on the fingers and seeing the resources were requested, all they could do was sit back and wait now. That was the hard part. Waiting. With lives in the balance if was sometimes hard to stay impartial. To focus on engines. But his thoughts drifted back in lasered attention and... was Aurangzeb meaning him? He turned to lean against the console, resting elbows on it's edge. Briefly he checked the MSD and saw the luminations around his rapidly becoming precious engines were still acceptable. "I had a nice retreating view the other day..." His raised brow and oval face turned to snerk gently at the man. "I think I'm going to call you..." His console beeped and he did a quick swivel around and lean to check it. "Hmmm I don't like this..." and again Micah chewed the edge of his lip, "There's a deuterium transfer assembly in the port bussard that's..." he chewed again, a sigh of frustration, "I was working on it yesterday. I think it's a replication defect. But we're getting intermittent spikes in neutral bulkhead pressure around it. No micro-hull fissuring yet but it's not something I'd be happy about going into a nebula."

Natalya saw the data that was being forwarded to her. Her specialists in engineering seemed eager to start tackling the problems that lie ahead. She could hardly fault them. There probably wasn't much to do down there until they actually moved into the nebula. Then, there would be more than enough. She forwarded the data to Ops, as well as with a few recommendations on shielding and other protective measures.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Ryan Alexander
Operations
USS Galileo

Lt JG Rahl Tyton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical and Second Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Commander Luke Wyatt
Chief strategic Operations officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Mimi
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Natalya Kirilova
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Petty Officer 1st Class Eric Anderson
Nurse
USS Galileo
[PNPC McCarthy]

Lt. JG. Braxton MacKenzie
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. j.g. Min Zhao
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Commander Langdale Wiggins
First Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Jonas Flynn PsyD
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo

Petty Officer 2nd Class Nemo Bardasi
Astrophysicist/Cosmologist
USS Galileo

Ensign Christopher Parker
Asst. Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

PO3 Micah Hershey
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Noah Khoroushi
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

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