Time to Do the Impossible

Posted on Tue Jul 24th, 2018 @ 1:57am by Captain Enalia Telvan & Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Commander Rita Paris

Mission: Holographic Horrors
Location: USS Hera, bridge and main engineeringf
Timeline: 2395

Thex was still grinning as she and Rita made their way down the turbolift of the ship. At least there were no more malfunctioning orion holograms, only a few floors made of acid and another holo dinosaur which had been chewing on one of it's former companions.

Now they'd made it to the section of the ship where the part they had gone through so much trouble to retrieve needed to go be installed. The few security personnel and the small group of engineers seemed relieved to see them and slightly confused at Thex's change in attire.

" Right, everyone. I need to get this installed, with a direct link to main engineering. If we can do this plan, we might just be the only people in Federation history to get out of this mess. " Thex ordered as she bent down to get started on her work.

"You heard the commander, people," the chief flight control officer posed heroically like a 2257 recruitment poster model as she pointed to personnel and started barking orders. "You, get a toolkit over here. I'm gonna need someone managing power conduit flow so that we don't blow anything up. You there, break out the armory and arm people with phasers- if the ship's holographic system is going to keep trying to interfere with us I want a defensive perimeter established. Let's move with a purpose here, people!"

With the engineering crew motivated, Paris bent over to mutter to the chief engineer. "Okay, I probably literally don't know half the tools you use and I have no idea how to do what you're doing, but how can I help?"

" Grab someone and a portable terminal. I'll need to be monitoring the internal dampeners and the power levels so we make sure we don't rip apart as we try this. " Thex said already doing about five things at once as she began yanking out the broken part.

The engineering crewmen in the immediate vicinity were still a bit confused- after all, while word had gotten around about Lieutenant Paris, none of them were accustomed to being ordered around by the obvious anachronism, and there was the matter why their bright blue chief was wearing a flight suit instead of her uniform or one of the engineering specialty uniforms. But the young woman spoke with authority, in a voice that was clearly accustomed to being obeyed. And when she pointed and barked an order, the engineers still jumped.

"You there... yes, you crewman. Grab a portable terminal and get it set up over here for the chief." With that said, the long-lost lieutenant leaned back over again to mutter in her friend's ear. "Keep in mind, I haven't cleared this with the captain yet, and I am pretty sure I'm going to be remote piloting us out of here from Stellar Cartography. So we're just getting prepared, right?"

" Yeah, we're getting prepared for this. I think you should head for the bridge and tell the captain our plan. I should have everything ready by the time you've reached the bridge. " Thex said glancing up at her friend, who dropped to one knee to clasp the Andorian's shoulder as she to addressed her in a conspiratorial tone.

"Keep the men busy. So long as they have something to be doing they are less likely to focus on 'we're doing WHAT?!?' and do a good job and pull through. Just some friendly advice."

Tapping the front of her uniform, Rita rolled her eyes then held out her right hand. "Say, can I have my comm badge back? I'm glad you didn't need it," Rita chuckled. "Lifting the other girl's hidden weapon was very slick. And you have some crazy moves, my friend. I'm totally taking you swing dancing when things calm down."

" I never knew I could dance like that. Guess I'm better at it than I thought," Thex replied before pulling up the sleeve of her flightsuit to produce her friend's combadge out from the jeweled armband she was still wearing. " Can't believe I could see the needle blade she had on her back, either. I just saw it as I twirled, and went for it."

"Well, it was awesome, and I'm glad I got to see it. Okay, you got this down here, right? We're gonna do what no one's ever done, because somebody has to be the first to figure it out, right?" The comely companion of heroes offered a smirking grin that embodied the devil-may-care attitude Paris was trying to instill in her heroic Andorian companion.

" Yeah, I got this. Head up to the bridge, and by the time you get there we should be ready to go and get us out of this hell." Thex replied as she returned the grin to her friend.

"Maybe post some men on it- I still have to run all this past the Captain, remember?" Paris offered as she finished securing her comm badge then stood, tugging down the hem of her gold minidress in a practiced maneuver. "So get ready, but we don't get to just do it without orders. Hold your antenna, Miz Dance Champion Engineer." With that, Paris spun on her heel in an about-face, then marched away, PaDD in hand as she searched for the nearest Jeffries tube that could get her back up to wherever she needed to go to outline this plan in person to the captain.

Experience had taught Rita Paris that crazy plans were much better received in person.

Thex called out after her with a simple " Will do," before returning to work. If they were going to pull this off, she needed to work her heart out to get this done.



Apparently, according to both the CSO and the CO, physically spinning the ship produced no actual effect, and would in fact be pointlessly dangerous. Which was only of mild disappointment to Lieutenant Rita Paris, because as it turned out her graviton idea would work. According to all involved, spinning gravimetrically, using the warp coils as mass drivers in the engines and the graviton generators in the pod while reflecting all that energy off the main dish but leaving the ship itself stationary to simulate the mass and distortion of a planetary body... should create a pseudo-singularity barrier around the ship that could clear out dark matter from the local area, sufficient for the Hera to achieve warp and maintain the graviton bubble.

The downside of this is that the engines would be under double stress keeping both the gravity well going as well as the warp bubble. But Thex had assured all involved that the engines were still quite new, so they could probably take it.

"Graviton generators at 40 percent and rising. Main dish appears stable. Do we have sensor readings on the mass distortion field? Is the bubble forming?" the old-school officer asked of the science officer on the bridge.

" It's building, but very slowly. Engineering, can you give us more power to the graviton generators?" The bridge science officer called into the communications.

Down in engineering, Thex was concerned every reading she was getting. In normal circumstances, she'd be ending this, but now they had no choice. Her hands were flying as they worked to get every bit of power out of the engines.

" I'm giving her all she's..." the acrobatic Andorian began, as with a few switches and the opening of the isolinear variance node a thud echoed around the ship for a brief second. The Andorian engineer's blue eyes light up as another reading began to rise. A warp field was forming.


" Thex to the bridge, we have a go to form a warp field. It's going to be very weak, so you likely won't be able to get top speed. "


The voice of the Captain filtered through engineering from the bridge. "Bridge here. Engage and go to warp one at your discretion."


Gripping the solid and holographic controls of the Hera's main piloting station, Paris reviewed her options she was prepared to engage, and her eyes flickered to her colorfully plumed assistant chief, Ensign Mona Gonadie who sat perched casually on the console. A nod of 'yeah, you got this, boss' and Rita Paris smiled. Twisting her wrist slightly, she punched in the simple destination for the Hera's shortest trip out of the storm with her right hand as the Hera rotated to align herself on the former tactical officer's vector heading.

"Ahead warp factor one," the career fleeter gal proclaimed as the engines took hold, and the warp nacelles of the USS Hera lit up, and she began to exceed the speed of light once more. "Warp field holding, speed warp one. Let's get some readings and determine her stability, folks."

Thex was rather shocked that this mad idea had worked. Maybe they just might get out of this nightmare after all.

On the bridge, Rita Paris was feeling out the actual non-simulated controls of the Hera for the first time, urging her on through a dark matter ion storm. The throttle was intuitive, as were most of Gonadie's controls. It was the Miradonian's strategies that were amazing, as she had demonstrated a number stunts with the custom manual piloting interface. But for now, Rita had the reports and was experimenting with increasing the power, throttling her up slow but steady. Taking pauses in the acceleration to take readings and confirm that everything was still working according to plan, the constitution-class expert insured that they weren't exceeding the graviton field they were using to generate this area of clear space.

If nothing else, years of working with a scientist had taught her to be careful when possible, and to document the readings. After all, if this worked, it would go into the report, which would then be disseminated throughout Starfleet. So accurate readings and experimentation was of vital importance to science.

Just as Thex had finally felt a sense of relief flowing over her, thinking they had rounded the bend on this crisis, a loud banging echoed through engineering. Wheeling around, the Andorian engineer could immediately tell one of the coils had failed, judging by the smoke coming from it's casing and the horrible rattling sound it was making. The computer began to beep with emergency warnings, causing the andorian to panic. They had passed up to warp 5.4, but the field was becoming destabilized. " Thex to the bridge, slow us down or the engines are going to fail." The andorian yelled.

At warp 5.2 there had been a bit of a vibration. At 5.3 Paris had realized that the Hera might be exceeding the graviton distortion field. By warp 5.4 she was positive of it, even as Thex yelled to shut it down. Dropping her into flat Warp 5, Rita ran the calculations for the Hera's escape at this rate.

The andorian let out a sigh of relief as everything began to stabilize, as the ship settled into a safe speed. It seemed they were stuck at warp 5, but at least they were moving. " We're stable now. Just keep us at warp five for now." She called into her combadge.

"Acknowledged, engineering. Lieutenant Paris to Captain Telvan. 5.2 days to the edge of the storm at current speed and heading, ma'am, and engineering advises against any faster. The gravitron field is holding stable and we are underway. I might be able to shave some time off that estimate with deeper scans and pauses for resetting the heading, at your pleasure, ma'am."

Enalia sighed and finally leaned back in her chair, looking over the readings on her own consoles. "That's a far cry from waiting the storm out. Plus we have the added benefit of hopefully fewer malfunctions with that graviton bubble. If we lose another coil though... Slow us to warp 4.8 for now. Yardboys said that that was one of the high efficiency spots for these engines so that should help with strain. Plus if we burn out another, we shouldn't have to drop speed."

“Aye captain. Warp 4.8 and holding stable, at current speed and course we should be clear in just under 5 days,” Paris reported from the helm.

After a little bit longer monitoring the Hera and keeping watch over power levels, Enalia's sly grin and curiosity was raised. "This is your first time piloting the Hera in person, isn't it? How is she?"

“Point and shoot, ma’am. We’re not making warp hops or inertial dampener skids or anything fancy since this is essentially a rescue mission, so not much to feel out I’m afraid. Not like maneuvering at impulse… just a straight line doesn’t really give me a lot to work with. The controls sure are spiffy though,” Paris opined, rising from the chair to let her assistant take the helm.

“Experiment successful, ship saved, course set, travel time calculated and crisis averted, ma’am. Dismissed?” Paris asked, standing beside the helm

Enalia shrugged. "Still... First time is always memorable, I think. They might want to celebrate it down in the pilot's lounge or something. Anyway, dismissed."