Strange Bedfellows

Posted on Thu Apr 30th, 2020 @ 9:02am by Captain Enalia Telvan & Commander Rita Paris & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Lieutenant Commander Sonak & Lieutenant JG Tovanna Mah
Edited on on Thu Apr 30th, 2020 @ 11:02am

Mission: Return to the Core
Location: U.S.S. Hera. Main Conference Room.
Timeline: 2397

Trapped within the unusual and inexplicable realm that the crew, as of yet, had no name for, tensions were running high on the U.S.S. Hera.

Stuck within the bizarre, black void of toxic gasses where no stars could be seen, the Hera had been sucked in by an artificially created singularity that had deposited them in this disconcerting reality. A singularity that had been created by four, specially equipped Romulan Warbirds, three of which had been pulled in with them. Now, all four ships needed to come together and pool their resources if escape was to be possible.

The crew of one of the Warbirds, 400 Romulans and their injured commander, had been beamed off of their highly damaged ship. The healthy crew members had been send to one of the other two Warbirds, but the nearly 100 injured crewmembers were now packing the Hera’s now-overburdened sickbay.

Escorted by a security officer, the damaged Romulan ship's commander stepped in the door of the Hera’s conference room to confer with the command crew what she knew and could share to ensure all of their survival. Badly injured in the event, she had been expertly healed by the Hera’s medical staff, but it did little to alleviate the anxious young Commander’s mood.

Commander Arnia t'Rekt of the newly re-christened Warbird now called the IRW Nuseir Saeihr, or ‘The Third Star’… a decided improvement over its original designation of nothing more than the number three… was still in her slightly blood-stained uniform as she looked over the assembled officers in their garish, brightly colored uniforms. The Starship appeared to be run by a motley crew of alien races that caused the woman from a closed and notorioulsy prejudiced culture to raise an eyebrow.

Sitting at the end of the table, was the crimson-clad Captain of the ship. A Trill woman with prodigious physical assets that seemed to have a wholly inappropriate grin for the situation. Sitting next to her was an enigma of a woman in a gold uniform t’Rekt didn’t recognize with proportions even more unlikely than her captain. But Romulan intel wasn’t remiss and t’Rekt knew Starfleet rank markers, and this seemingly human woman as a commander. Ergo, a woman of power and importance.

Across from the blonde human, was a tall, lean and solemn-looking Vulcan in blue. So physically like her own people, but with that ever-present air of arrogance that she found in all his people, that put her even more on guard. Next to him was an Andorian woman in gold that was busy studying a data plan. And across from the Andorian, the woman in blue she knew was El-Aurian from her time in sickbay, and the only other officer she knew by name as Doctor Tovanna Mah, who had tended to her wounds and had the sickening audacity to offer her a child’s confection for simply bearing her pain.

The confused Romulan commander was young, but her preconceptions well established as she stepped to the table at military attention. “You wished to see me, Captain Telvan? I have, with your permission, spoken to the other two ship commanders and I am authorized to speak on their behalf in this mission as the highest-ranking officer.”

"Yes, please, have a seat." The spotted woman motioned towards the empty seats at the briefing room table. "We're all in this together so I appreciate your cooperation in this matter. There's a way out of every box - it's just a matter of finding it. It's my hope that, without compromising your own protocols, that we can work together towards finding our way out of whatever box it is we've found ourselves in."

"As for where we are, after referencing a few old documents and conversations I've had with Odin over the years, I believe this may be the dumping ground of the Asgardians. Sort of a tenth realm under Niflheim where they send things they want forgotten." Enalia waved one hand in the air offhandedly. "Or I could be completely off. Either way. So what's our current status?"

"Shields are holding, but slowly fighting a losing battle to the entropy of whatever's not out there. We're still not entirely certain what happened to half the hull of the IKR Third Star, but I believe there are some hypothesis which include the fact that we are not, in fact, alone here, and the entities who dwell here may not only be massive but an anathema to life as we know it. Or more specifically, mass. We have the graviton generators on two of the warbirds reading as still functional, if we could get some juice to them. The graviton generator from the Third Star is still intact, but again, no power, plus she couldn't get into position and remain stable."

"If we could set up all three of the graviton generators inside this space, we have no idea where we're trying to navigate to with the warp gate. Apparently, Rendal used some of the math she got from the Gaia information in Dox's head, but I'm not sure how we could access that data. If Lieutenant Commander Dox were here, we could likely manage something, but... she is a universe away at the moment. We're assuming that you had presets for the generators?" At the last question, Paris directed it to the Romulan commander.

Sitting near the other end of the table, the hesitant Romulan Commander chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment. She had decided to accept help from the Starfleet ship. She had agreed to work with these aliens for their mutual benefit, but this was the moment when she had to commit to the openness required to do so, and openness was generally not her strongest suit. 

Swallowing what scraps of pride she had left, she looked down slightly from Paris' eyes and replied truthfully. "Presets? No. Not even that much. Commander Rendal... Her flagship controlled the generators remotely. The Iurret activated the generators, set the frequencies, everything. The operational computers and equipment were installed only three days ago and were designed to hold no data."

"We were... there to keep the machines running and our noses aimed in the right direction," t'Reck said, realizing as she said it that she and the others on her ship and the others that had opened the rift they were now trapped in, had been expendable. Sacrificial, if need be. And the thought lodged like a stone in her stomach.

For just a moment Enalia wished she had Mona here to at least act as a living lie detector before brushing the thought from her mind. They would have to trust each other completely if they hoped to escape wherever they were and as a Starfleet Captain, the beginning of that trust had to start with her.

Nodding solemnly, the Trill woman took a deep breath and let it out. "That sounds like something Dalia Rendal would do. We have the scan data, but there's still a lot we don't know. That missing data is aboard the Iurret... In Commander Dox's head... And in the datacore full of our memories and thoughts that was recorded shortly after the Gaia incident by Lieutenant Clemens that will be used as the subconscious personality matrix of one Kodria Mizu."

"After the Tribunal I had a sort of visitation by a being calling itself the White Rabbit and Moira was one of the people I visited right before Kodria's activation." The spotted captain tapped at the desk interface and brought up a holographic display of a cylindrical data storage device a bit larger than most but otherwise seemingly nondescript. "Which means we're likely going to violate the Temporal Prime Directive again since the data is also likely in the copy of herself that Kodria left in our systems."

"See, all this meddling with time," quipped the human woman born in 2233. "Well, she left an aspect of Kodria here. What we're after may or may not be a part of our onboard version. I'll have a word with her and see if Mr. Sonak and I can't help her plumb the depths of cosmic knowledge for a trail of metaphysical breadcrumbs to get us out of here. We'll need those codes, Commander. Also," Paris snapped her fingers then pointed casually. "I'm gonna need to know the political officers of your vessel who are now on ours. All of them. Please," Paris pleaded with those big blue eyes.

"Because if the Tal'Shiar can screw something up out of spite, you know they will. I think we can all agree it's pretty clear they intended no witnesses," Paris pointed out; as they were all now sharing the same fate, even the loyal Romulans. "So how about if the coordinating vessel identify the loose cannons, please? I really do want to survive this, and 'vanished, never to be seen again' is something I've had on my tombstone a few times already. I'd rather it not ACTUALLY come true."

"Agreed. I’ve cheated Death. I’ve tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. However, I've never faced Death. If you want proof of that, she has a room on deck eight. You can go ask her yourself. I'd go talk to her myself, but I can't see her, and I have no intention of ever doing so." With a grim look, Enalia tapped the holo-display back off. "Therefore, to both remove the need for her services and to ease the consciences of all involved, I must mirror my first officer's words."

Dr. Mah quietly looked at her Captain and XO, "If we have need to speak with Death we are on very good terms since we frequently come into contact serving the ship as I do. I can to speak to Death on your behalf should the need arise for....whatever reason." With that, she looked pointedly at the Romulan captain then back to her own. She knew she had zero influence on Death in any manner but she was betting the Romulans didn't.

Looking back at Rita, t'Rekt stiffened slightly. There was something about the golden-clad Commander that she didn't like, and she couldn't put her finger on exactly why, but under the circumstances, she didn't trust her people's natural distrust. 

Pulling a PaDD out of her pocket slowly, she placed it on the table, and taking a breath, pushed it towards Rita. "The command codes of... of all three ships. But to gain access, each ship's commander is also required to submit the data manually as our security also uses biometric encryption."

Glancing at Enalia, she continued. "Each of our ships came with an Intelligence officer to report to Commander Rendal directly. My ship's is very dead, I'm afraid. One of the fourteen lost in engineering when the graviton generator overloaded."

"On the Hwi, the officer is named SubCommander ir-Jhaan. One the Sei, it is SubCommander Sieeve." t'Rekt said, shaking her head lightly. "These ships. Us. Our crews. We were... assembled only days ago. Most of us... myself included promoted from lesser ranks to our current positions. I cannot speak to either officer as a Romulan, or to their loyalties. I can only say that I tried to avoid my watchdog as much as possible on this mission."

"Perfectly understandable." With a bright smile, Enalia changed gears. "So now that we have the start of a plan, what are our options from here? How long do we have? What's the decay rate on the Third Star's singularity? Will we be able to at least salvage it and use it to get out of here?"

"My Master Engineer says that our emergency shutdown of all non-essential power usage has stabilized our decay rate significantly. As is, the singularity should remain stable long enough to effect basic repairs." T'Rekt replied, folding her fingers together. "It should at least be possible to attain a level of functionality to assist in any efforts to escape from... wherever we are."

All this time, Sonak had remained silent. For one thing, he knew from experience that emotional beings needed time to adjust to one another before being able to work together. So he took this opportunity to make several calculations in his head before addressing his commanding officer.

''Captain; there may be a way to stop the drain and even restore power to all ships. Since there is no actual gravity in this area but that generated by the mass of our ships and whatever other source is distantly acting on them, it should be possible to use this to generate power for our own use.''

He activated the holographic projector to show a strange contraption that looked like a segmented metal snake undulating on watery waves.

''On Earth, during the later half of the twentieth century and centuries before that on watery worlds like Bolarux IX, power had been generated by what could be called tidal turbines. Essentially, it is a link of generators powered by the coming and goings of the tides, the movement of each segment of the chain under the moving waters producing the energy then converted into electricity.''

The image switched to the four ships at station-keeping to one another and visualized what he explained next.

''If our engineers can make us something akin to twenty-second century grapplers, we could link all the ships with power cables and let them drift with the gravitational waves of this unknown, undetected mass. Thus, we should be able not only to... ride the wave as it were, but the movement will produce much of the same effect. It will be a slow process; I estimate forty-seven hours for restoring full power if we ration our current consumption to the strict essentials. But it will slow our movement towards whatever is pulling at us and eventually bring all our systems to nominal status; we will then be able to reactivate the Romulan gravimetric projectors and effect an escape from this area.''

"The man from Vulcan has a plan. Thex, can you give us something like what Sonak describes? Assuming so, Captain, authorization?" Paris turned to regard first the sapphire-skinned sprite from engineering, then the spotted captain, seeking her decision on the common-sense plan in the outlandish circumstances.

The Trill woman tapped one finger to her lips thoughtfully. The Artans had used similar techniques in the distant past as well so she was vaguely familiar with the science, if not directly. After all, history was one of the lessons in which she had drilled into her.

Finished studying the holo-display, Enalia eyed her Rihannsu counterpart with a grin. "Commander t'Rekt, I may be the highest-ranking joint commander in our little fleet here, but I won't proceed without your approval since this involves interconnecting the power systems of all of our vessels. What say you?"

Linking ships. Allowing Starfleet officers access to her command codes. Allowing those same officers access to her Warbird's engines, computers and technology. The list of crimes that would be linked to her disgraced name continued to mount. Looking down, she began to wish that it had been her ship these officers had destroyed before the rift collapsed, and not the noble crew and commander who had passed to Vorta Vor. She wished that when she was but an Arrain... the Romulan equivalent of a Lieutenant... that a week ago, she had somehow turned down the inexplicable leap in rank to the Command of her own ship. But she had chosen her path to save the lives of the remaining crews, and had committed to that shame too deeply to worry about her own disgrace now.

"My only interest is in the survival of my crew and those of the Hwi and the Sei. I will approve what I must and shoulder that responsibility, Captain. You... have my approval." t'Rekt said, a noticeable weakness in her voice as she gave up what she considered another ragged shred of her honor, her eyes never lifting from the table.

"Thank you, Commander. On my honor, your faith in us won't be misplaced," Enalia replied, her usual piratical smile softening. "All right everyone, let's get to work. We've got lives to save, and little time to do it in."