That We Might See (Part 8 of 8)

Posted on 22 Feb 2019 @ 6:29pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Lieutenant JG Matthew Plumeri & Lieutenant Commander Ryan Alexander & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Captain Hiroshi Tanakata & Commander Teegan Jones & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Alexion Wylde & Petty Officer 2nd Class Donald Andrews & Crewman Draia Thero & Cadet Senior Grade Jemima de la Coeur & Elegy Reiko & Petra Varelli Ph.D. & Viola Avalon PhD
Edited on on 22 Feb 2019 @ 6:36pm

3,461 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: USS Galileo-A, Latari System
Timeline: MD 01, 0326 hrs

Previously, on That We Might See (Part 7)...

Saalm tugged at the bottom of her uniform vest to adjust herself. "Hail Trial, let them know we launched our team and we're ready to proceed to the second colony site."

With a nod, Ryan entered in a series of commands which opened a channel to the Trial and sent a message to the vessel about the away team being dispatched to the colony site. "Message sent and acknowledge receipt confirmed ma'am," Ryan replied to Lirha.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

USS Trial - Bridge

"Sir," the comm officer announced. "Incoming message from the Galileo. They have successfully launched their away team and have a communication probe also successfully in orbit. They are ready to move to second colony site."

Hiroshi nodded in acknowledgement. "Very well, reply we received message. Number One, take us out and keep escort formation with Galileo, I will let you and their captain work out the details."

"Yes, sir." Jones passed the message to helm and then sent a message to the Galileo informing them that the Trial was breaking orbit and would follow.

"Tactical keep shields up and keep an eye on those sensors. If there is anything that does not look right I want to know immediately."

"Yes sir," the tactical officer replied.

Hiroshi felt the push from the impulse engines as the Miranda-class vessel began to break orbit. He did not like this situation one iota. There was something that had gone on here and very little answers. It was the reason they were here but with such little information and little data it did not sit well. He felt blind and it was not just his ship but the Galileo as well he had to worry about with all the beings on board both. While the Waveriders were primarily atmospheric he knew some had been modified with warp. He wondered if that craft had been as well, just in case something happened they would be in big trouble. It was a passing thought as his focus went back to wondering what was going to happen next and keeping the two ships safe as possible.

In high orbit above the planet, the two Federation starships began to break orbit and maneuver towards the Latari A solar system where the second colony site was located. The clock was now running and a strong sense of timeliness permeated both of the captains' decisions.


USS Galileo - Bridge

"Setting new course and holding formation with Trial," Daruis announced from the conn. He'd matched their new heading and speed to keep the Nova-class close to the Miranda's bow. "Looks like...48 seconds at half impulse."

Saalm watched the timer on the center console's nav display begin to tick down and realized there was nothing more she could do for now but wait. Along with the rest of the forward-facing bridge crew, she watched the main viewscreen and observed them quickly accelerating away towards the second of three solar systems contained within the star system.

It didn't take long for the command center to suddenly come alive again. After just twenty seconds of impulse travel, the ship's sensors now detected new astronomical data from their upcoming destination. Audible computer chirps and notifications sounded from multiple consoles when the second Federation colony began to reveal its secrets.

As the terminals around her came to life Ensign Ullswater began her best efforts to collate the incoming data into a useful package for the bridge routing the necessary details through to the captain. As the planet itself came distantly into sight of the viewscreen she caused it to pop out of the display and commented, "That's it coming into view now, Latari A III, an Earth-like class M planet." She gave a sigh of relief - the image on the screen looked thankfully unlike a planet experiencing a massive natural disaster and none of the data she saw so far indicated anything like what happened at the other colony.

"Ma'am, I'm getting some freaky weird bio-molecular signatures from the planet surface," said the science cadet.

Ullswater's earlier relief was souring even more quickly than it had arrived. As more data began to be relayed though her science station she was more concerned by what wasn't coming through. After a momentary analysis the reason for that was clear. "Captain this might be a time for caution." She bundled together a batch of results and sent them to the captain's terminal. "I'm getting evidence of similar radiation to what we saw at Latari B III."

Saalm already felt tense but when the science reports of the second colony planet started to come in, she inhaled a sharp breath and stared at the main viewer with focused eyes. "Find the colony site and put it on screen. Full magnification."

The young ensign responded quickly pulling up the site on the viewscreen. The sensors were still having trouble picking through the radiation but it was clear just from the visual that was displayed in front of them that this colony had met a similar fate to the last one. A mass of volcanic activity and murky clouds blemished the planet's surface like a boil.

Ullswater's shoulders sagged with resignation. Something had happened here to these colonies, and it had already happened. From what she could see they had always been too late. "Captain what we're seeing looks to be a related incident to that at the other colony." It was probably clear to everyone looking at the image that this was the case but the readings on Ullswater's console now confirmed it.

Watching that heinous volcanic reaction on the viewscreen, Lake ir-Llantrisant only said one word. He only said, "No." Perhaps, it has been longer than that. He vowel had been punctuated by an initial tinge of hope that they might find something different, and then prolonged by the sound of that hope being crushed. Thoughts of Romulus burning filled his head and Lake scrambled for bring to mind any meditation techniques that could keep him focused. In the meantime, his heart rate increased and sweat began to bead along his hairline.

"Ten seconds until arrival," reported the dark-skinned conn officer. Darius' eyes were locked on his console displays and the new astrometric readings. The ship's nav sensors were being scattered by what appeared to be more localized solar radiation. "Lot's of interference out there," he added while trying his best to compensate. "Five seconds..."

USS Galileo and USS Trial both dropped out of high impulse and decelerated into a stable orbit above their destination. The new world, Latari A III, was as close a replica of Earth as could be envisioned, complete with robust white cloud systems, lush green vegetation and bright blue oceans. It would have been a paradise if not for the geological event now occurring on its surface. Like its sister world in the adjacent system, a large circular molten deformation could be seen on the surface through the dark clouds of ash spewing into the stratosphere.

Lirha's eyes shifted from the viewscreen to her chair's console. Her green fingers tapped the small LCARS display in an attempt to obtain more information but an unknown master caution alarm pierced the air and interrupted her. A single yet distinctive warning siren had sounded then cut off, and suddenly the entire bridge went offline.

Throughout the starship's primary command center, the main viewscreen and computer terminals at each station all went blank and turned dark with no illumination. A second later, the bridge alert lighting shifted from red to blue and a strange Starfleet symbol was projected on each console and screen throughout the vessel -- a bright green, rotating double-helix DNA strand superimposed over the United Federation of Planet's emblem. In orbit above the planet, both the Federation starships' impulse and warp engines powered down leaving each of them in a state of orbital drift.

"Captain!" Lamar exclaimed with mild horror when his terminal was overridden, "Helm's compromised, I have no control." Through his boots and the deck plating, his feet could feel the subtle vibrations of the impulse and warp reactors disappearing. "Engines are offline." He tapped away with futility at the symbol on his console in an attempt to remove it.

Jemima stepped back. "Hey! My console's offline, too! What gives? This ain't no Batsymbol." She looked around at the others. From what she could see, everyone had the same symbol.

"Mine too." Though not making much of an exclamation Ensign Ullswater looked similarly miffed to the other bridge officers. It didn't feel to her like there was much she could say here. Maybe as a science officer she should know the computer systems well enough to be able to do something but Plumeri had always been better at that. Right now she really wished it was him here instead of her.

Feeling a sensation like his stomach dropping, Lake's thoughts and fears went to the away team. He made futile gestures similar to the rest of the bridge crew, bashing his hand against his LCARS interface, which had become little more than a one-way display. The emblem on his screen showed no sign of interactivity. "How will we monitor the Vincenzo," Lake murmured, "and the away team?"

Noticing the reactions from the others on the bridge, Amaranai scrolled through her screens until it, also, went blank.

"Seriously?" she said.

Amaranai ran her fingers across the console again in hopes of getting her screens back. However, when the screens flickered, the same symbol that had already appeared on the other screens showed up on hers.

Ryan furrowed his brow at the sudden darkening of his LCARS, and those of the other bridge personnel. He tapped at his console for a moment, trying to see if any other systems were operational, or if he could bring up any sort of status display. “Ops offline,” Ryan said aloud, reporting his status like the rest of the bridge crew. He was about to start taking apart his console when the symbol that had been appearing on other screens, appeared on his.

From her station in the bridge, the captain stared at the glowing symbol now displayed on every console. Her eyes narrowed while her mind raced in both recognition of its secretive meaning and the repercussions. Status reports from across the bridge confirmed all primary ship systems were either offline or locked out, meaning they now had no operational control of the starship.

Plumeri was in the turbolift when suddenly everything went dark for a moment and the lift came to a sudden halt. "What the hell's?" After a few seconds, the panel inside the lift displayed a double-helix DNA strand superimposed over the UFP logo. It cast a blue-green light inside of the lift. He tapped his comm badge.

=A= Plumeri to bridge? =A=

There was no reply, in fact, the comm system seemed down. He reached for the turbolift panel in the semi-darkness and found it unresponsive. Only the DNA symbol that slowly rotated. "Well...things could be worse I guess? If this is a computer glitch; it could have tried to reboot to DOS." He tapped his badge again,

=A= Lieutenant Plumeri to anyone? What's going on? Please respond? =A=


Deck 3 - Sickbay

The lights flickered as did the biobed readouts and then the sickbay went dark for a moment before the backup power kicked in. Thankfully the quarantine forcefield remained steady. "By the Twins!" Allyndra exclaimed. The screens flickered on but with a strange symbol.

=^= Engineering, sickbay here we are getting some sort of interference on the monitors with a critical patient! =^= she called. There was no response. =^= Bridge, sickbay, =^= she tried with as little luck raising anyone.

As a dance of wind and wave she knew something was off, the odd vibrations were missing. She could only wonder what had happened. Emergency was on but it seemed communications were out. They would lose the patient for sure if they had any more problems. The EMH had vanished as well and that was not good either at least for a moment before Shirley came back online. She had felt no impacts or anything that would indicate the ship had been struck.

With all of the biobed's carefully calibrated controls blanked by the symbol of the UFP vandalized by double-helix DNA strand, the medical equipment no longer offered its patient pain-management, nor clarity of cognition. In no time, the patient crossed his arms over his abdomen and curled back into a fetal position. His softly slurred words turned to groans, and soon his groans turned to pained screams.

"What the hell is going on..." Alexion exclaimed with all the frustration and indignant disbelief of a doctor who had been in his profession for far too long. He shook his head with a deep frown, swearing in his own language under his breath as he moved quickly to administer pain relief manually with the access point in the barrier. Whatever was going on with the computers wasn't his job to fix...he just hoped the people whose job it was got it sorted out quickly.


Deck 4 - Aquaponics

Viola was cleaning out one of the tanks when power flickered and went out, then came back on a moment later. She put down her tools and went to the nearest panel to see what was going on. It was down, too. A strange symbol glowed on the screen. Something was definitely not right. But the best thing she could do was stay at her station and out of the way of those who were dealing with the situation.


Deck 4 - Multi-purpose Lab IV

Petra looked at the specimen under the microscope again and entered in her notes. Just then the console flickered and a strange symbol appeared on the screen. "What the hell?" She tried to recover her data, but the screen didn't change. She tapped her commbadge. "Science to Engineering. What happened to my computer?"


Deck 7 - Engineering

"Wow, what the hell?" Donald almost shouted when his console went black, the constant thrumm of the warp core quickly dulled to a lower power state. "We're losing power on the warp core." he called out.

"Impulse engines just cut out too," another engineer called out.

From one of the damage control stations, Crewman Draia Thero squealed with delight. "Sir, the computer's emergency shutdown routines are fully functional," she reported to any officer who was listening. "I don't think the engines are failing, Sir. The computer is gradually valving off the deuterium fuel flow and safing off the fusion initiation power regulators." --She swiped across her interface to expand one of the system monitors-- "Accelerators are bleeding residual energy into the EPS. Oh, that might cause a couple of fluctuations... Otherwise, it's all happening according to the specs."


Deck 1 - Bridge

In their current situation, Saalm knew the audible reports of confusion in the command center would slowly give way to panic if unaddressed. She'd barely had any time to process the ramifications of the LCARS symbol, but within ten seconds from the initial systems lockout she finally took action to regain operational control of the starship. With her attention focused on the central console between her and Lake, Lirha tapped the screen to input her private command codes into the override prompt.

The computer recognized the fingerprinted authorization sequence then spoke clearly through the commotion. "Command override accepted."

"Computer," replied the captain, "Restore primary and secondary systems control, authorization Saalm-gamma-alpha-zero-zero."

A chirp of acknowledgement sounded after two seconds. "Primary and secondary systems control restored."

The bridge lit up again in unison and the strange symbol on each console disappeared as normal operations came back online. The traditional LCARS information format returned to each display to allow operational control of the vessel.

"Conn's back online," Darius reported while checking and re-checking their current position in space above the planet. "Our orbit is stabilizing..."

A rising LCARS bar, three shades of coral, drew Lake ir-Llantrisant's eyes to the Executive Officer's command station to his left. The graphic interface spread across the display, populating with selection contacts and menu options. "Status displays are available, captain," reported Lake. His hand hovered over the interface, as if he could pull information out of it faster, as if on strings. "Each deck is starting to report in..."

"Sensors now back on line too." Ullswater's response quickly followed the counsellor's as her console began to spring back to life.

Ryan’s response came just after Ullswater’s after having run a quick diagnostic on his console. “Ops back online.”


Between Decks - Turbolift

Matt had removed the turbolift ceiling cover and was hanging by the rim as he pulled himself up. Suddenly, the lights came up, the control panel lit up and the strange symbol disappeared. The lift started to resume its descent. When the lift moved again, the hatch cover came down with a slam on his fingers and that caused him to let go. He fell to the floor with a loud thud and said, "OOOoofff! What the hells? You've got to be shitting me!" He laid there on the floor having the wind knocked out of him, and his fingertips sore. He slowly got to his feet and the lift came to a stop and the doors opened. He exited the lift saying, "They ain't paying me enough for this!"


Deck 1 - Bridge

New reports came in across all seven occupied decks confirming Galileo was back under its own control. But while operationally it might have seemed that way, the Orion captain's eyes had turned cold and she now gave more obscure and urgent orders.

"Transfer all control of communications and short-range sensors to my ready room, immediately." Lirha rapidly stood from her seat and reached for the PADD clipped to her belt. "Lake, you have the bridge," she instructed, then walked off towards the port-side exit.

It took Lake a moment to grasp what had just happened. His head snapped in Lirha's direction. With his mouth half-agape, he watched her walk away. And then even when he thought he understood the situation, he quickly understood there was plenty more to it that he was missing. Rising to his feet, Lake took an authoritative stance. "You heard the captain," Lake proclaimed, "Ship's eyes and ears are for her purview only."

“Transferring comms to your ready room, ma’am.” Ryan reported as he typed in the proper commands.

Well, this is ominous at all. A slightly bemused Ullswater acknowledged the request and rerouted her terminal's functions to the captain. "Sensor control and data has been transferred." The science officer said and leaned back, ever so slightly glad that responsibility had passed to someone else.

Lirha felt numb while she exited the bridge. She'd kept her head down and eyes to her PADD on her way out, deliberately not looking to any of the officers for too long for fear of betraying the nature of her -- their -- new duty. Her PADD now displayed the same double-helix DNA symbol that'd been seen throughout the ship, but this time is was the cover page of a terribly familiar long and detailed classified Starfleet Intelligence report. Genesis Protocol.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

CWO3 Lamar Darius
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Saalm]

CMDR Allyndra Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer/2XO
USS Galileo-A

ENS Sofie Ullswater
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Matthew Plumeri
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

LT Amaranai Franklin
Deputy Security Officer
USS Galileo-A

LT Lake ir-Llantrisant
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo-A

ENS Ryan Alexander
Operations Manager
USS Galileo-A

CDT(SR) Jemima de la Cour
Scientist's Mate
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Sandoval]

Elegy Reiko
Patient Zero
Colonist
[PNPC ir-Llantrisant]

CWO3 Alexion Wylde
Medical Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Blake]

CAPT Hiroshi Tanakata
Commanding Officer
USS Trial
[PNPC Warraquim]

CMDR Teegan Jones
First Officer
USS Trial
[PNPC Sandoval]

Petra Varelli
Anthropologist
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Sandoval]

Viola Avalon
Marine Biologist
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Sandoval]

PO2 Donald Andrews
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Mimi]

CN Draia Thero
Engineer's Mate
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC ir-Llantrisant]

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