1. Not Again!

Posted on Mon Sep 4th, 2023 @ 9:27pm by Captain Dirk Taggart & Lieutenant Commander Henry Castle & Lieutenant Kinaav M.D. & Lieutenant Jennifer Matthews & Lieutenant Adora (Addie) Hart & Lieutenant JG Vespa Kale & Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD

Mission: Back Through the Nebula
Location: Bridge

"Red Alert!" Captain Taggart said as he stood from his chair watching the nebulous cloud grow larger onscreen. "Full impulse Power, let's try to power through this thing once again. Seeing this once was bad enough but twice this is uncalled for," showing unusual emotion. "This is gonna get interesting Ladies and Gentlemen, let's check in and continue scanning what we can. I need to know the second there's an anomaly outside or inside this ship."

"Once again?" Jenni asked. The Chief Engineer had just stepped onto the bridge and paused just outside of the turbolift doors' motion sensor. She looked at the nebula on the screen and wondered why the Captain would be so concerned about a nebulous cloud. Of course, she also wondered if she needed to turn around right now and proceed to Engineering. "What'd I miss?"

"Good question." Castle didn't take his eyes from the Captain, the call for Red Alert was altogether a questionable one, given what he knew of the situation.

Turning, the XO looked at Camille. "Ms Lévesque, key the primary sensor grid through the pod'a array. Full spectral analysis. What are we looking at?" The unease in Taggart was seeping, and Castle's tone was just a little off.

"Aye, sir," Camille responded, just as confused as Jenni and Henry. It's a nebula. This is the third time the Captain and others have been upset by it. C'est quoi donc?

"I'm reading 95% hydrogen, almost equal parts ionized, neutral, and molecular, 3% helium, and 2% micrometer-scale cosmic dust particle," she replied, virtually every sensor pointing directly at the unassuming cloud. "The colour is mostly from excited electrons which release a photon when they drop down to lower energy states. An unremarkable, if beautiful nebula, Capitaine."

"Wait," she added. "It is moving subtly faster than I might expect. Still in the direction of its galactic orbit but faster than the nearby gravity sources would imply. Maybe it got a boost from something?" The Chief Science Officer shrugged, still not certain where this was going.

"This nebula overtook us once before, while the ship was engulfed inside of it, the crew had elevated dopamine levels and elevated adrenaline, causing everyone to be angry and highly emotional almost erratic. The aftermath was rough but it ended with several crewmembers in Medical with injuries inflicted by their fellow crewmembers," Captain Taggart explained briefly.

"Are we attracting it somehow?" Jenni asked, immediately moving to the Engineering station and sitting down. "If you've encountered this before, why do we have to fly though it. Surely we can just warp to a different vantage point and go around it."

"You could try but I doubt the warp engines will engage. Things happen awkwardly around this thing, and I wish I had more answers," the Captain replied.

The turbolift doors swished open, allowing the binary form of Vespa Kale to return to the bridge. "Apologies for being a bit delayed." she started, but before she could explain the notion of her delay she saw the scan display. "I... is that?" she padded over to the station to investigate, unfortunately bringing with it the feeling of crowding around Camille. "Sorry, apologies, oooooh I'm sorry just.."

She had paused, rather than shifting her focus. She saw the scan results, saw the coordinates, and then walked away from the station (and Camille) and leaned over the tactical rail to slightly directly address the Captain. "So, we're avoiding this, yes?"

Her other form piped in, "Yes, no need to explore something we've already explored right oh bother so unfortunate oh look over there, a twinkly star that needs discover." it was easy to tell when Vespa was nervous. She tended to abandon punctuation when she was...

Having been observing from the back of the bridge, the rather tall Tellarite grabbed onto a console close to him. It happened to be one of the science stations. Dr. Kinaav peered at the size of this nebula that was getting closer. He was s doctor not a bridge officer. Why was he even up here. He liked to stay in his sickbay, but no... he had to be on the bridge at this moment.

“Is no one else fascinated that a nebula is apparently attracted to us?” Camille asked, incredulous. “This is new for me! Sensors are gathering all possible data. Viens-t’en, Vespa, I need you on Science Deux.”

Voices. So many voices, voices that remained trapped inside her mind. She gasped a breath in, leaning against the wall of the turbolift, trying to focus her thoughts. Vaguely aware of the turbolift doors opening, she stumbled forward, nearly tripping and reaching blindly for anything to grab hold of for support. It was only once she had regained her balance that her gaze drifted to the view screen, eyes widening with fear as she took in the nebula swirling gracefully in front of them.

The voices became louder, angrier, making her head ache with their intensity. Tearing her gaze away from the view screen and the nebula, Addie found herself, instead, staring directly at the twin forms of Vespa, one meeting her gaze as the other drifted a hand to press lightly against the memory of a phaser burn.

Confusion overwhelmed her. In her peripheral vision she saw Major Griffiths moving toward her. No, that wasn't right. Was it? The Major wasn't on the ship any more.. was she? She glanced back toward Vespa, her friend, only Vespa looked scared... scared... of her?

She gasped in a breath, suddenly feeling like she was unable to breathe. Her hands gripped whatever it was she was holding even tighter, knuckles turning white, vaguely aware of sounds and voices around her as once more she caught the vision of Major Griffiths from the corner of her eye.

Wide eyed, her gaze flicked across the bridge before settling on one other form, a form caught, at least in her mind, somewhere between a memory, a nightmare and the present. She opened her mouth to try and speak, but no words came. Instead the voices fell silent, replaced by one solitary sound, the sound of her own scream before she lapsed into blissful silence.

Castle stared at the Viewscreen, his hands balled into fists. Nails digging into his palms. 'Thumpthump thumpthump thumpthump.' His heart pounded in his ears, hot blood rushing to his head, and a feeling of just being way too warm coming over him. Adrenaline flooding his system. The urge to run, to fight, to do 'something.'

He was pulled out of his own head at the sound of a scream, and a body falling to the floor. Turning, he looked, seeing Addie collapsed on the floor. In one smooth motion, Castle vaulted the rail, coming to a crouch next to her. Something was definitely wrong. They had to get out of there. "Helm." His voice cut the air like a knife. "Turn us the hell around, Warp 1 anywhere." He rose to his feet, eyes locked on the Captain. "You maybe wanna tell us what the Hell we're walking into here?" The words came out far more aggressive, more confrontational than he intended. Yet, there it was.


"We're going back into hell," Taggart snapped back at his First Officer uncharacteristically. "Watch" he said as he walked to helm. He quickly set the heading in the direction opposite of the nebula, hit the engage button to go to Warp 1 and was no surprised in the least when the engines didn't respond. "This thing, this damn nebula, affects the engines we can't warp away, all we can do is full impulse through it. It will take a few hours. I wish I knew why the hell it keeps showing up. No other Federation ships have even seen it."

Vespa jumped at the sound of Addie's scream, her binary attention torn between the science posting request from Camille and her friend in peril. "This nebula is to be avoided. It doesn't want to be avoided. That's my scientific analysis." she was direct and even as the pair made their way to Addie quickly, borderline sprinting.

"Shhhh, it's alright, you're with me and you're safe." one said, while the other gently reached out to offer a hand. A stable frame. She tried her best to put on a good face, no longer afraid OF Addie, more... afraid WITH her. "Bad times ahead but we've..."

"... been through terrible times together." her silent twin turned to the captain, "I recommend everyone non-essential stay in quarters."

Camille found herself getting increasingly, maybe irrationally frustrated. Why was everyone afraid? Why was no one taking this seriously?!?!?! She gritted her teeth and kept her head on her readings, angry that Vespa was coddling the counselor instead of doing her job as Camille had told her to. Had ordered her to.

Still gripping the console near him, Kinaav watched the terror enveloping the bridge. The massive nebula that was getting larger on the viewscreen would engulf them, and who knows what would happen. Of course this would happen to me so soon into my tour here. He thought to himself. "Captain, I should attempt to get to sickbay. There will probably be wounded, and the rest of my staff will probably need me."

"Proceed Doc," the Captain said. "All non essential will be confined to quarters unless needed. Lévesque, please gather anything you can, compare it to our previous findings and see if there have been any changes."

Camille was not the only person frustrated that everyone was afraid and unfocused on getting the hell out of there. In fact, Jenni found herself quite frustrated that the warp engines were not responding. The intermix ratio was correct. The coils were fully charged. Magnetic constrictors were optimal. The crystal was new and not cracked. The energizers were showing green. Mechanically, everything was fine.

Yet, somehow the coils could not ignite the drive plasma and launch the ship to warp. Jenni turned to Taggart. Ignoring the other events on the bridge, she cautioned, "Captain, we should cut warp power. If we continue to saturate the coils, we could have an serious issue on our hands. We may need to vent the plasma and reset the coils before we try warp speed again."

Captain Taggart sat dejectedly in the command chair he knew their efforts were futile, but he hoped for their sake that they wouldn't lose heart. It was pointless the Nebula would engulf them, he just hoped that they would get through it without anything more than bumps or bruises.

Focusing again on the events happening around him he replied to his engineer, Do what you need to do, but don't attempt warp again. Lay in a heading that takes us through on full impulse. I don't know what this thing wants be we will find out," he said determinedly trying to show a confidence that he didn't quite feel at the moment.