The Death and Birth of a star

Posted on Sunday 2 July 2017 @ 21:17 by Commander Save'ena (Sav) Tillatix & Major David Scarlet & Petty Officer 2nd Class Pete Burg
Edited on on Saturday 23 June 2018 @ 20:10

Mission: The Perez Nebula
Location: Main Bridge
Timeline: SD69736.62 - Date 239406.15
1105 words - 2.2 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

"Bridge to Jones. We're approaching the Lazarus star Commander." Peterson reported.

"Acknowledged, I'm on my way."

Moments later, Melody walked out onto the bridge. "All stop helm."

Sav's tail flicked as she touched the controls, calling out, "Helm All Stop, at station keeping, Sir."

"Well Petty Officer Burg, this is your show. How do you wish to proceed?"

Burg watched his screen for a moment before turning, "Helm, bring us to fifty thousand kilometers then all stop. Captain, my team and I have equipped a probe with a metaphasic shielding that should allow it to fly through the corona and get up close data and samples," he said.

Sav called out, "Aye, Sir, forward one tenth impulse."

Melody sat herself in the Captains chair. "By all means Chief, launch when you are ready."

... David was sat at his station, eyes constantly roaming his expansive panel. All Departments were showing nominal power usage and he could tell that sensors, shields, and weapons' systems were all at one hundred percent. He looked up at the large view-screen, watching the enormous phenomenon that was the Lazarus Star ...

The ship slowly closed the gap between the Lazarus Star. Sav was listening for anything amiss from Tactical or Sciences as this was getting them close to the star.

Lieutenant Scarlet looked over the readings from his console. "Shields have fallen 3%. Compensating to reduce the amount of strain from the star."

... "Commander, I'm reading a zero point zero two percent drop in power throughout the ship but Engineering are compensating." David informed them ...

"Keep an eye on that Commander." Melody replied.

Sav reached the required ranged. She called out, "Merlin at Fifty thousand kilometers, now at station keeping, Sir."

Pete didn't reply, instead targeting the area the probe would search and launching it, "probes away, it will be a few hours to collect all the data."

Melody walked over and stood discreetly behind Tan. "How's you're investigation into the derelict coming along?"

... David turned his seat to face the Exec' before running his hand over his clean-shaven head:

"I just don't get it to be honest." he said, bringing sections of information onto his panel for her to review, "We know for a fact that that ship was ours, this one, not a replica, so it would be exactly the same age as this one, but we are also aware that it somehow was sent back approximately five thousand yeas into our past and ended up here for us to pretty much stumble across. But then it gets more tricky ..... The sections we managed to transport into the Cargo Bay are giving us more headaches. There seems to be minute, and by minute I mean less than one part in a billion, organic cells within the sections. It's possible we're picking up on the result of someone dying and landing against, or bleeding out against the bulkhead, but it's weird to say the least, maybe the Medical Officer will be able to tell us more on that."

He said, changing the panel to display more information while glancing up at the view-screen then back, he didn't want any more surprises, he had enough to cope with:

"Then there's the Lazarus Star .... It's practically dead, which makes absolutely no sense, because initial readings say it's less than twelve million years old, practically an infant ... We're picking up traces of neutrino's and scant biological readings emanating from a nearby planetary body, but we can't find the thing. I could be that at some point in the timeline the crew transported down to the surface, who knows .... It's possible it's behind the Star, which would explain the faint readings, might be worth taking a look at some point. Finally, at least until the next mystery presents itself, the hallucinations. I've had no recurrence, but we have had reports from several crew that they have experienced 'strange' dreams, where they thought they saw ghosts from the derelict, and we can't dismiss the fact that some are frighteningly realistic." he finished, subconsciously putting a hand on the phantom wound in his chest ...

Melody nodded thoughtfully "Chief Burg has been looking into the sensor information we managed to collect inside the nebula. You two should compare notes when he's finished with the Lazarus star. In the meantime.......". Melody pressed her comm badge "Bridge to sickbay. Caroline, have you managed to find anything from the bodies we managed to beam over from the derelict before it exploded?"

"Commander, I think you need to come down to sickbay. What we have found is mindblowing," The blond doctor replied over the comm.

Melody frowned. "I'll be right down." She looked at Tan "I'll be in sickbay, you have the bridge."

... David rose from his seat after being addressed by the Exec and sat in the center seat. The ship wasn't going anywhere, having been placed on effectual station-keeping while the appropriate scans were conducted. He took the time to look around the pristine Bridge, remembering the decayed, shattered, and decrepit Bridge he was on only hours earlier, and wondered what had caused them to go back in time: Was it something there were about to do, something they had zero control over whatever their actions from this point in time, it was impossible to say, but it didn't prevent his concern rising a fraction before he returned his attention to their own bridge ...

Sav, being out in the fighters for most of the Merlin's time in the Nebula, had not experienced any of the 'hallucinations'. However, from what she was overhearing, it wasn't figments of imagination, but small time loops playing out of captured auric energies. It was the same as found in a residual haunting. The same events played over and over, the 'ghosts' were not interactive, and the energies were usually captured into quartz materials or limestone. Limestone would not be in the nebula, but quartz materials formed of exotic nebula material, not to mention used in Federation technology, well, there was a goldmine to keep the 'loops' playing. She did not say anything, though, as she knew sciences had probably figured that out, especially seeing as the burst of temporal occurrences would have locked those loops into place. She could only hope those anomalies were over and not destined to be retraced by the current crew.


OFF:

Commander Melody Jones
Executive Officer
USS Merlin

Lt Commander David Tan
Chief Operations Officer
USS Merlin

Petty Officer 2nd Class Pete Burg (APB Barstow)
Yeoman
USS Merlin

Dr Caroline Miller
Chief Medical Officer
USS Merlin

Lt. Commander Save'ena Amilia Tillatix
Chief Flight Control Officer
Bridge Command Specialist
USS Merlin