Post # 15 The Next Generation Part 1

Posted on Wed Jul 28th, 2021 @ 9:18am by Commodore Sureth & 2nd Lieutenant John Dallas & Captain Shauna Callaghan & Lieutenant Isabelle Veran-Dallas & Lieutenant Lily Crawford & Lieutenant JG Nic Covenant

Mission: Moving Day
Location: Starbase Mercury
Timeline: Concurrent

On

The station was very busy with new arrival ships and crews and with a pending reception. At 1900 hours the party would start but at 1800 out if no where a mysterious blue dot appeared on the Mercury's sensors.

" Lt Crawford to the bridge please." Security officer Dallas called over head.

Seismic activity out in space gave proof of an event horizon four parsecs from the Triume system. A quasar where none had been known about .

Lily sent her acknowledgement and left her quarters and hurried to the bridge, glad that it wasn't a long trip. "I'm Lt. Crawford." she had not recognized the voice who had paged her, and doubted they had met her. "You called for me?"

" I was told to call you if we received any unusual subspace readings. Well this qualifies as unusual." First Sergeant Dallas reported from tactical.

"Ah, thank you First Sergeant." Lily replied, moving to the science console. She examined it for a moment, then raised her eyebrows. "Oh my. Unusual to say the least." she said, checking the readings to see when it had begun. "And very recent as well. "Do you know if all the traffic coming through is accounted for?" To have an accretion disc form so unexpectedly was somewhat alarming. What was the black hole eating, and would it continue to feed? Their station and all the planets in the area could be in danger.

" I am only tactical Ma'am. The computer says it was sudden though ." Dallas replied .

"Ah right." Lily replied. "My apologies. I know we're short of Ops officers, but do we have any crewmen currently at Ops?" her head swiveled around. She didn't recognize anyone from when she had been up here earlier. Just because she didn't see someone right in the middle of the Ops station didn't mean there wasn't someone manning that station right now.

A young man at the ops station wearing ensign rank stood there and he seemed to know his way around the board.

" Lieutenant he just arrived today Ensign Covenant." Dallas replied.

Lily put a smile on her face. "Ensign Covenant? I'm Lily Crawford, Chief of Science. I'm a little concerned about the sudden appearance of an event horizon around our black hole. That means something is disappearing into it, something big and bright. I'm worried something closer to us could be next. It would help to know that everything we expect to see - ships, planets, stars - between here and Sagittarius-a us accounted for. Can you please check on anything traveling nearby?"

She was already setting up a search for anything in space or subspace that should be there and wasn't on the science console.

" Lieutenant I can confirm it is a quasar like but it appears to be stable. I recommend a probe. This is a new event horizon and the radio wave signals are being directed toward this system." Covenant told her.

"Absolutely we should send a probe." Lily said, wondering if the radio waves were being directed to the station, or simply being picked up by the station. "A new event horizon? This isn't the Sagittarius-a black hole? That's practically impossible." Even if experience had told her that space was far, far stranger than she had ever expected when she started studying it.

" It behaves .... like a massive ...and I mean massive wormhole." Covenant replied.

Lily's jaw dropped. "A wormhole?" she asked. "Fascinating! We really should tell Captain Sureth... but getting confirmation would be a good idea first." she considered a moment. "We need that probe to go into the anomaly. If it's a true black hole, it won't come back. If its a wormhole, this station is about to become a lot more important."

" A class 1 probe is on standby Lieutenant." Covenant then told Crawford

Lily had never given an order to launch anything before. She felt a little thrill as she did so now. "Launch it." she said. "Thank you, Ensign."

" Probe launched...it will reach the event horizon in about one hour Lieutenant. I guess we wait." Covenant replied . He had grow up on the Bohr, Captain Sureth's ship and was well aware of what he expected.

"Thank you for letting me know." Lily replied with a smile. "Observing what the anomaly does during that time will help with an eventual conclusion. The Bajoran wormhole closes when it's not in use and becomes essentially invisible, but this seems to have a continual visible event horizon around it. Of course, the Bajoran wormhole was constructed." she fell silent.

" Lieutenant we are receiving some early readings. This is not believable but a small set of vessels are exiting the path and heading our way . They are following the radio signal that is directed to the planet below. That quasar appears to have been it's origin. They will cross paths with the probe in 1 hour " Nic added .

"Ensign, are we dealing with a first contact situation, or are these ships known to the Federation?" Lily asked.

" Too far to tell. Ironic that they are heading to us though. I am detecting a signal beacon from just outside the Old City on Savai. Somebody down there is summoning them." Nic added.

" Lieutenant I have sent Captain Sureth a message. He is on his way," Dallas added.

"Good. If you had not, I would have. This is out of my purview." Lily told him. "I think we can venture a solid hypothesis that the anomaly is a wormhole of some sort. The fact that someone on the planet is summoning them troubles me." Lily told them. "It could be this event horizon is their way of opening the wormhole." she added, more to herself than the room at large.

The door to the Captain's ready room opened and Sureth exited wearing his formal uniform as he was preparing for the reception.

" Report?" Sureth asked as he took the center of the room.

"Captain, an anomaly, which could be a wormhole, has developed approximately 4 parsecs from the station." Lily began. "We have launched a probe, but some unidentified ships have also appeared, coming from near or inside the anomoly. There is a signal beacon between the Old City on Savai, and the anomaly. Ensign Covenant tells me that the signal is originating from Savai."

" Savai? Fascinating and yet disturbing. I will summon my First Officer. The Bohr is off line and all we have are a few shuttles and runabouts. Bring us to Yellow Alert " Sureth then ordered.

Sureth then tapped his comm badge. " Commander Callaghan report to Ops."

“On my way Sir” Shauna’s response rang out crisply. It didn’t take her long to arrive in Ops with Isabelle in tow.

“My apologies for not being here sooner Sir” Isabelle smiled warmly. “I was going over Ops reports from the installation of the station.” She moved across to Ops joining Covenant in her duties as temporary Ops Officer until a Chief of Ops was assigned.

“What have we got Captain?” Shauna looked at Sureth curiously.

" Number One good, Science and ops have discovered a possible worm hole. With the Bohr in refit I want You and Lt Crawford to take a runabout out there and investigate. " Sureth instructed.

Covenant interrupted. "Sir those ships have increased speed. They'll be here in 30 minutes." Nic warned.

" Delay that order. Ops open hailing frequency in all languages and symbols. Incoming vessels yo this system I am Captain Sureth of the United Federation of Planets Starbase Mercury. You are on approach to our system. We welcome you and ask that you stop to allow our customs agents to inspect your vessels before docking " Sureth pronounced.

Shauna looked at Sureth, “Looks like we’re going to be kept busy Captain.”

"What would you like me to do, Captain?" Lily asked.

" I need a reading on that quasar. Take Covenant and fly over to a safe range. The three ships are approaching so take a different route and use the moons to hide your egress." Sureth ordered." Commander prepare the ops for battle alert just in case "

Dallas turned to Shauna.

"Aye sir." Lily looked over to the Ops ensign. "Let's go, Ensign Covenant."

" Aye aye Lieutenant." Nic replied as he left his post.

"Good luck, Captain." Lily said, making a questioning gesture to the exit. Some captains had preferred to dismiss her; others had not. She had not yet got the measure of this captain.

" Mr Dallas launch the recon drones and have them cover the runabouts flank. I do not want those ships engaging the runabout." Sureth then ordered.

Dallas nodded and went right to work.

tbc