Rivers Overflowing

Posted on Thu Jan 30th, 2020 @ 6:54pm by Captain Abigail Laurens & Lieutenant Alanah Matashi & Lieutenant Commander William Gunnison & Lieutenant Alexis Aenera & Chief Petty Officer Benjamin Thor & Commander Ichiko Gail & Lieutenant Commander Calvin Morgan & Lieutenant Commander William Rogers

Mission: Dead Moon
Location: Main Bridge

Despite the increased number of staff on the bridge, an eerie sense of calm seemed to have settled as everyone remained transfixed by the image on the view screen. There was something almost beautiful about the sight before them, the color, the movement, it was almost hypnotic to watch.

For Rogers, his second time seeing the border of the sector was no less breathtaking than the first. He knew better now than to gawk at it though. Appearances deceive. His instruments would not.

Ichiko watched the colors and swirls , illuminated by the occasional flash or flare from within. She was speechless, words would fail to describe it properly. So breathtaking, and yet...

"It's hard to think that something so beautiful could be so dangerous," Will said.

Calvin stepped onto the bridge, the swoosh of the door being a louder announcement of one's arrival than normal. With quiet steps he moved over to an unused science station, bringing up medical information and the coordination information of the medical teams stationed around the ship.

"Hold position," Abigail ordered calmly, her voice sounding unusually loud over the silence of the bridge.

"Copy that." Rogers replied. His fingers punching the instructions into his console. "Holding position."

"Lieutenant Aenera, prepare the first lot of probes for launch on my command," Abigail ordered quietly.

Alexis brought up her screen to the feed queue for the torpedo launchers and confirmed that there were a good two dozen of the probes that she and Gunnison had prepared for what would come. Enhanced sensors, transmitters and shielding. "Probes are ready, ma'am." She confirmed.

"Lieutenant Gunnison, once the probes are launched I want all telemetry recorded. See if you can amplify the transmission range on the probes. Once we enter, we may not be able to receive any telemetry but it should record anyway."

"Aye, Captain," Will said. 'Here's to hoping that our work wasn't for nothing,' he thought.

"Lieutenant Matashi, scan the sector for any sign of Romulan vessels. If they've been here I want to know before I have warbirds uncloaking in front of us," Abigail said quietly. "Lieutenant St John, run a final calibration check on our weapons arrays. You'll need to maintain continuous checks. We can't risk using our weapons once we're inside and we have no way to tell for sure what's going to happen to our systems while we're in there," Abigail continued.

Alanah was just glad to be back at work. She went to task scanning the surrounding areas for any latent energy signatures. "Captain, If they are out there they are to close to the event Horizon. I am not getting anything."

"Aye, Ma'am," Nikki said. "I'll get on it." She turned to Alanah. "I'll be down with the arrays."

"Chief Thor, as soon as the probes are launched I want the reinforced shielding brought online. Make sure the shield modulations are properly calibrated to account for the additional stresses of the radiations and gasses once we're in." Abigail cast a quick glance toward the new Chief Engineer on the bridge.

Ben with a slight bit of nervousness replied "Yes Captain" and then nodded to an Ensign who was assisting at the engineering station.

"Doctor, are all the inoculations done?" Abigail asked quietly. "Anyone left at risk once we enter?"

Calvin turned in his chair. "First round of inoculations done, teams are standing by with additional medications. Sickbay is ready with radiation analysis to tweak further treatments for best effectiveness. The most at risk are being closely monitored." He turned again to face his console.

Finally, turning a steady gaze to Ichiko, Abigail drew in a deep breath and offered the faintest hint of a smile. "Anything I'm forgetting?"

"Fighters recalled, probes dispersed, shields... I think you hit all the major points, Captain." Ichiko affirmed.

Straightening her back, her posture becoming almost rigid, Abigail nodded slowly. "Lieutenant Gunnison, take us to yellow alert. Lieutenant Aenera, deploy the probes."

Alexis selected five probes in the queue and verified their course programming, then pressed the button to launch them. She verified the visuals and the sensors on their launches and then that they were transmitting data properly as well, "First probe shell has been launched, proceeding as normal, ma'am."

"So far, the shielding on the probe is holding," Will said. "It's getting bounced around a bit out there, but nothing to worry about as of yet."

"Raise shields," Abigail ordered, her fingers gripping the arm rests of her chair. "Helm, take us in, nice and slow. "

Rogers waited for the confirmation of the shields being raised before moving the ship. "Ahead 0.1 impulse." he announced. The swirling mass of gas and lightning displayed on the slowly began to grow larger.
He kept his eyes down working from the navigation data alone. "Science, can I get a composition of the gas clouds in the path of the storm at two eight mark 5?"

"It's an H2O2 cloud, no threat factor assigned, but mapped as several thousand kilometers in breadth. As long as we don't move through to the other side of the cloud, we will be in no danger. Object Charybdis Charlie Three, a very small black hole with an Schwarzchild radius of seven kilometers, is on the other side, minimal danger to us as long as we don't make a close approach." She focused a set of sensors on the approaching storm, "The storm should have a negligible effect on the cloud."

Ichiko became more and more aware of a buzzing around the base of her skull, which got slightly more pronounced as they began to head towards the swirling mass of color and smoke. Her ears drooped slightly as she peered ahead, then took a sharp breath in and got caught up in a coughing fit. Like any good guest, she brought a hand up to catch each cough.

Bringing her hand away from her muzzle, her brought her hands to either side of her, to steady herself in her chair. "Captain, I..." a pause, another deep breath. Another fit of coughs, followed by a bit of heavy breathing. She tried to stand, but found it was harder to push herself up than she initially thought.

"Captain.... help." she whispered, not wanting to chance another fit by taxing her breath too greatly.

"Ichiko?" A look of alarm crossed Abigail's face as she heard the choked whisper. They had barely been inside the anomaly for ten minutes. "Lieutenant Morgan!" Abigail yelled across the bridge as she moved so she was standing on front of her first officer, touching a hand to her furred head, between her ears. "Get her to sickbay, NOW!"

Calvin was already next to Ichiko before the Captain could say a word. A quick hypospray was given before he pulled his medical tricorder out to scan her. He furrowed his brow, watching the sedative take effect. He pulled a second hypospray from the medical team who showed up seconds behind him, tweaking it before administering it. "Bring her to radiation isolation in Sickbay. The other Ts'Usugi are to be relieved of duty," He instructed the team leader as they quickly packaged the first officer onto the stretcher and took her away.

As the team walked away, the team leader communicated orders to other teams, Calvin looked at the Captain. "She'll be okay," he said softly with unshakable confidence. Without waiting for a reply, he returned to his station, and began to quickly work on updating protocols for the other teams and interpreting information from science.

"Lieutenant Gunnison, make sure the shields are holding against the radiation and the environmentals are functioning properly! I want constant monitoring of the radiation levels through the ship!" Abigail called across the bridge.

"On it," Will said, "though sensors are getting some weird readings on a couple of the radiation types. I'm sending the info to Lt. Aenera and Dr. Morgan's stations and am adjusting shields to compensate, though it may be worthwhile to consider withdrawing at least nonessential personnel from the outer parts of the ship and more into the interiors. Hopefully that may offer an additional amount of protection, even if it's only a small amount."

"I've got a source to the radiation." Alexis mouthed a few words to herself before nodding, "The outer edge of the cloud closest to us at least has a large layer of tritium that's emitting very large amounts of Beta radiation. I'm theorizing that the plasma storms are breaking the bonds of the H2O2 and forming tritium along with liquid oxygen." She looked up for a moment from the sensors, "I concur with Lieutenant's Gunnison's suggestion."

"Protocols for treatment and protection from radiation are being updated and transmitted to the medical teams. I can give you an estimated duration time we can last before effects become too negative in a moment," Calvin added in.

Abigail nodded slowly. Trying to fit the crew into sections inside the ship would be no easy feat, but security and operations would no doubt find a way to make it work. "Very well," she said, her voice clearly betraying her concern. "Make it so."

The ship rocked violently as a metreon cloud to the port side exploded, making the shields ripple as they bore the brunt of the impact. "Helm, maintain course and speed. The sooner we find this ship, the sooner we can get out of here."