NAZGUL: Subspace Node

Posted on Fri Feb 28th, 2025 @ 9:05pm by Commander Sean Loewen {Meji} & Lieutenant Commander Sheyla {MD} & Lieutenant Griffon Resch & Lieutenant JG T'Pri

Mission: THE LAST CRY FOR HELP
Location: USS NAZGUL
Timeline: Current

ON:

USS Nazgul was cruising through space at a casual warp four, following a standard patrol route provided by M-69 and Captain Green's Fleet Captain department. If not Nazgul, then Peel or Athena, or even a runabout run by the Flight Control Deprtmant of M-69, could use this route whenever they were on standard patrol. Commander Sean Loewen sat with his legs crossed at the thighs, his captain's chair facing the forward viewport straight on even as he had a PADD laying on his thigh that he was reading from as he looked over reports and signed off on anything his eyes needed to see. The transition from Helm Chief to Commanding Officer had gone off smoother than he had expected, so Sean was now finding his niche when it came to getting in his groove for his own command style.

As the Nazgul turned on its pre-determined course to head back towards M-69, the computer making the lazy maneuver itself, the current helm officer, Lieutenant JG Ken Kudo, began to hear a low yield bleeping coming from his station. Looking to it he saw it was a warning about being too close to a gravitational anomaly. "Captain. Picking up an odd signal from navigational sensors."

Loewen immediately paused his PADD and set it in his chair beteween his leg and the arm rest even as his legs uncrossed and he sat square for command. "An odd signal?"

T'Pri, at her Science station began to tap keys and called up the sensor data for Helm, then used the main sensors grid to focus an array in the direction of the anomaly.

"Some type of gravitational disturbance, Sir." Kudo responded, even as he turned a little to look back over his shoulder at the CO. "As far as I can tell there is nothing there."

"Thank you, Mister Kudo. Eyes forward." Loewen spun his chair enough to look towards Science. "Miss T'Pri, are you picking up anything?"

Her eyes still looking to her various monitors, T'Pri answered. "Nothing substantial, Captain. As per usual for this sector of space, there are a great many mysteries--" Her eyes lit up and her next words came out as a shout. "Drop from warp and take evasive ac...!"

The USS Nazgul, to the internal observer, careened onto her starboard side at a thirty degree angle even as a loud screeching sound like strained metal scraping along strained metal sounded out and drowned out all sound. The ship then next went nose forward and the artificial gravity fluctuated, sending a few officers flying from their chairs to the deck, some being tossed through the air several meters. One of whom was Commander Loewen. As the deck bucked like a wild bull Sean had felt the gravity plating slip a bit and knowing he was headed forward to pitch over the helm/nav console, he used his legs to push himself so he would clear the long work station and land on the deck ahead of the Helm/Nav stations for a more open area to tumble in. Consoles sparked and smoked with starined systems and power overloads, the lights flashing even as the red alert klaxon tried to sound but then went silent, the red alerts light flashing with intermittent power.

As Loewen had dove over the forward Flight Control/Ops console, he did land more on his right side and shoulder and did go into a shoulder roll. However, his momentum carried him forward faster than he had anticipated and his head smacked a support beam for the handrail that encircled the command deck, separating the upper Bridge from the lower Bridge. Try as he might, Sean's eyes and mind were going out like a light. He struggled against it, trying to sit up from laying on his back on the deck, but he fell back and his vision and mind went black.

Eyes fluttering as they tried to open, Loewen's brain began to come back from its unconscious state. How long he had been out was unclear, but he guessed that it couldn't have been been any longer than a minute. His head hurt like the dickens, especially where his upper right forehead along the hairline where his skull had impacted the metal rail support. Conveniently, the same support that had brained him he now used to sit up with a grunt. The Bridge was almost completely black with darkness, with control panels fluctuating as they tried to draw power, with still others snapping and popping as they sent out intermittent showers of sparks. Everyone looked to be unconscious, with whatever force they had hit at light speed having effectively jarred everyone's consciousness to the point of passing out. ~Great~ he thought. ~I got a double whammy~

Reaching up to the handrail, again grunting with the effrot, Sean got to his feet and looked around. He began to hear people coming to, their breathing changing to sudden intakes of air and groans of pain. "Computer." Loewen spoke out loud to the ship but got nothing in return. "Computer, acknowledge." Again, nothing. "Bloody hell!" He cursed under his breath. A bit whoozy on his feet, Loewen stepped over to the Ops. console, leaning on it for support with the concussion he knew he had to have. Tapping keys as the sputtering station allowed, he was able to enact emergency power, using the battery system on the ship.

"What the hell happened?" That query came from the direction of Tactical, with Resch asking out loud as he had stayed in his chair during the rodeo. "I feel like I've been out partying all night."

T'Pri, who had found herself unceremoniously tossed to the floor, and with her skirt had been laying in a rather liberal position when she came to, sat up quickly and corrected her posture to a more conservative stance as she got to her feet. "That is the effect of being forced from light speed rather than a controlled drop. It will only affect us for a brief time."

With the directives input by Loewen, and the system finally able to get the message out to all connected systems, the battery power began to stabalize the consoles and ship's systems. The emergency lights came on, bright white and glaring. With his concussion they hurt Sean's eyes so he tapped in a reduction of the lights on the Bridge to 50 percent illumination. The affects was almost immediate. Like Griffon had said, Sean felt like he had a hangover and a migraine combined. "Let's pull ourselves together, people. Mister Resch, start talking to the departments and see where we stand. T'Pri, keep an eye on the battery power and keep the power draw to a minimal. Non-essentail systems are to be shut down until further notice. Mister Covenant, talk to Engineering and work on restoring auxiliary power. We have six fusion reactors for impulse, so let's see if we can get one working to supply power until we can determine the extent of the damage."

Reaching up to his forehead, Loewen lightly felt the egg on his hairline, and a sting, pulling his fingers away to look at them. There was some light blood on the finger pads. He could feel that the AG had stabalized with the batteries now supplying power, so at least feeling queezy and off balance would not be due to inconsistant gravity. "Captain." This came from behind him as he stood at the front portion of the OPS console, so he looked back over his shoulder to the familiar voice of Number One, which caused him to wince slightly as he now realized that hitting his head had also jarred his neck. Letting go of the station, and spinning to face his Exec, Sean walked over to her, his eyes on her even as she continued to look out the forward viewport. At least his own balance was back. "What's up, Sheyla," He asked, even as he continued to lightly touch his head wound.

"There are no stars, Sir." Sheyla's eyes remained looking outside, glancing his way and then using her head to point toward the window. "We are in a starless void."

Loewen, at hearing that, forgot all about his head and looked out the window with her. Sure as shit, there were no stars. It was a black, empty void. "How the...I mean...what?"

Sheyla looked over sideways at him. "My thoughts exactly, Captain. What the hell did we hit and how are we now in a starless landscape?"

As they began to speak, Resch interrupted from his own station. "Skipper, we got a few wounded here. Is it okay to send them below to Sickbay?"

Of course, thought Loewen. The ship needed him to get his shit together. Looking to his top cop, Loewen gave a nod. "Just a minute, Mister Resch. I'll head down with them." His eyes passed over the other wounded, all of them seeming to be able to move on their own power. That was a good thing since transporters would drain the batteries very quickly. Sean spoke to them. "Can you officers make it on your own power?" He asked this since none of them seemed to have broken any bones in their extremities. They all gave positive answers and nods. "Good. With the batteries supplying power we are going to use the emergency ladder wells. The more power we save, the more we can use to make repairs." Loewen's eyes returned to Sheyla, who he saw was grinning, despite their rahter precarious status.

"Go ahead, Captain." Sheyla said. "I'll keep things rolling. Get that head looked at before I have to order you to do so, according to regulations. I would find that unpleasant."

"Me too, actually." Sean quipped. "The Bridge is yours, Number One. Damage Control is a must. I'll see you after the Doctor sees me. Carry on."

Waving his officers to follow, Sean led them through the starboard lift and they began to descend to the lower decks to get to Sickbay.

Sheyla set to work. "Mister Resch, we need damage control. Send a few teams of Security to gather portable generators and install them at the primary battery compartments around the ship. If we can keep up a steady recharge on the primaries, then we can keep the secondaries charged when needed."

"You got it, Commander," Resch answered. "I'll head a team myself if you can spare me."

"We can. Between myself, T'Pri, and the others, the Bridge will be fine. Get going." Sheyla ordered. With a nod, Griffon exited the command deck. Sheyla moved over to the Science station where T'Pri stood with arms folded across her chest, occasionally reaching out to adjust a screen or to tap a key. "Talk to me, Lieutenant."

T'Pri glanced over a moment and looked her in the eye. Her eyes maintained their Vulcan calm despite also showing concern over their current standing as a vessel. "We are in a serious situation, Commander Sheyla. What we experienced was a sudden tear in the fabric of space which caused the Nazgul to make contact with a subspace node. That contact, with the ship at light speed, caused a power cascade that caused all power systems to shut down or we may have blown apart. The warp core is now shut down and will need to be cold started. Establishing auxiliary power should now, however, not be a problem."

"What about warp?"

"We can restart the core, but warp will not be possible in subspace. It would cause a power build up that would be near impossible to shut down. The more power we use towards light speed, the faster the build up. We would, eseentially, be building our own bomb while sitting on it."

Turning to look over at Bob sitting and working at OPS, Sheyla got his attention. "Mister Covenent, we need aux power as soon as possible. Head to engineering and work with Ejo to get that done. If you can get the warp core functioning for power purposes, so much the better, but we need at least impulse to move around." Covenent acknowledged the orders and stood up. "If you can, Bob, have some of your Operations people work with Resch and the power generators. Carry on." Covenant gave a nod of understanding and left the Bridge.

"How about sensors?" Sheyla asked, pretty sure what the answer would be but asking anyway.

"With batteries, Number One, they would not last long. The drain on the batteries would be too much..." T'Pri stopped talking, her face showing she had began to think on an issue.

Sheyla almost grinned but was able to control it. "Care to share, Miss T'Pri?"

"Oh, yes," said T'Pri, her eyes blinking to bring her back to the now. "Apologies, Commander. An idea came to mind that I will have to look into while we remain stuck here. As for the sensors, we can use passive scans. They draw less power and the data received is without distinction and focus, but the basics can still be detected. The power requirements are also far below active scans."

"Sounds good, Lieutenant T'Pri. Get them set up and lets have a look around, as it were. Carry on." Sheyla gave her a nod and turned away, leaving the Vulcan to do things the way she needed to to accomplish her goals.

Right now it was about survival and repairs. Once those two things were dealt with then the rest could be seen to.

TBC...

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