USS Tanjura

Lohalian Sector

Deck One’s conference room was filled with a tense silence as the senior officers took their seats, the stars outside glimmering in unfamiliar constellations. A sober mood hung over the senior staff, some recently released from sickbay, as they braced for the full rundown of their predicament. At the head, Njessa listened intently, her antennae curved forward, her eyes fixed on the ship’s chief astrophysicist, Chthit. The Kaferian scientist stood at the far end of the table, his compound eyes reflecting the star chart that hung in the air above it.

Chthit’s mandibles clicked softly, the Kaferian equivalent of clearing one’s throat. “As you are all aware,” he began, “We’ve encountered an unusual spatial event. We are now situated in the Lohalian sector, coordinates 3 Alpha by 4 Epsilon. That places us approximately 250 lightyears from our last confirmed position near Esquimalt Station.” The star chart adjusted itself to show both sets of coordinates. “Or, rather, Esquimalt’s previous position,” he corrected himself, “Since, according to our models, we now believe that the station itself has been spatially transposed.”

“Caused by the same event that propelled us here?” asked Njessa.  “On the bright side, this is the sector we are prepared to explore.”

En’ves took the question, eyes gleaming in the muted lighting as he leaned forward with interest. “During the event itself, we were still in contact with Esquimalt, and we caught some subspace chatter that helped us reconstruct what happened. It seems that there was an experiment going on just as we departed.” He keyed a control on the table, causing the projection to shift to a display of Esquimalt Station itself, with the microsingularity at its core highlighted in vivid color.

“As you’re aware, Captain,” continued Chthit, “Research has been going on for some time between Esquimalt and Deep Space 3 relating to a new potential mode of transport. The primary goal of ‘Long Range Quantum Entangled Transport’ was to harness the power of paired quantum singularities to permit instantaneous transmission of matter at sector-scale distance. From what we can piece together, our departure coincided with an unexpected instability in the singularity’s tetryonic field.”

V’Rea, her face still showing traces of dermal regeneration following her release from sickbay, spoke up. “Are you suggesting that the disturbance was a natural phenomenon?”

Chthit hesitated, antennae twitching in an expression of scientific caution. “To an extent,” he continued. “Our preliminary analysis suggests that the experiment’s disruption wan’t entirely artificial. We detected a surge in delta-tetryon emissions coinciding with the singularity’s instability. From the communications we intercepted, we believe that this tetryonic surge resulted from a natural subspace fluctuation, perhaps caused by a heretofore undetected interfold layer interacting with the singularity at a critical moment.” The projection changed, showing a complex web of lines representing the distortion of subspace around Esquimalt at the time of the event. “The instabilities caused by the entangled microsingularities intersected with our warp field, resulting in a directional subspace wave function, which acted upon us like a slingshot – in effect, a rogue slipstream event. This could lead to an exciting breakthrough, if the underlying conditions could be replicated.”

“Look into it, but it is not a priority,” said Njessa.  “It seems unlikely we would be able to generate the levels of power required.”

“Communications is trying to establish a secure link to Starfleet command but something in the local area is causing disruptions,” said Njessa.  “Ensign Savoi assures me that we will have communications restored within the day.”

Her violet eyes swept over the senior staff, before stopping at Doctor Chase.  “Medical, casualty report?  Is it still correct that we have had no fatalities?”

Jordyn let out a sigh as she looked down at her PADD. “We’ve lost two crewmembers from power surges on the terminals they were working on, other than that, most injuries are minor. I was able to have most released to report back to their stations. We only have one crewmember in critical condition at the moment, but I do expect him to make a recovery in time,” she reported.    

“That is most distressing news.  Please forward me their names and I will write to their families as soon as time allows,” Njessa only allowed herself a moment of grief at the lives cut short, grieving had to wait.

“Other departments, damage reports,” Njessa requested.

They were mostly as expected and then all eyes turned to engineering.

Tomaasz focused his attention on the Captain. “No significant structural damage to the hull or superstructure. Repairs are proceeding on the damages to weapons and sensors. Those were mainly from power surges during the event, nothing critical there. My teams are tracking down any additional systems affected by the surges. That was the good news.” He squared up his shoulders, visibly bracing himself to give the bad news.

“Our dilithium crystals are badly damaged. There are stress fractures all throughout the crystalline lattice. Shallow fractures so far, but extensive. We can still draw low power from them, but I would be hesitant to enter warp until we can take measures to shore up their integrity. And I certainly wouldn’t want to get in a fight.”

Briefly checking his padd, he continued. “The exact cause of the fractures is unknown. At first I thought the spatial event had caused a subharmonic particle burst, but the crystals were intact until 27.3 seconds into the event, nearly half of its total perceived duration. At that point, the first fractures appeared and began spreading at a geometrically increasing rate until the end of the event, 34.4 seconds later.” Tapping the padd, he brought up two holographic displays over the conference table. One was a visual representation of the dilithium crystals, the other a graph showing the increased damage by elapsed time. “It’s almost as if a subtle imperfection were introduced into the crystals, and the farther we traveled, the more those imperfections grew. We’re analyzing all the scans to determine whether we passed through some unknown phenomenon that caused the damage. And we’re running a level two diagnostic on all systems related to the power core. I’ll have an update for you once those are completed.” He sat back down, ears swiveling attentively to take in the next report.

Kyle narrowed his eyes at the holographic displays before them, he’d be the first to admit that Engineering was his weakest point but the news of the dilithium crystals left him uneasy. The idea of the ship damaged and vulnerable, with a glaring weak point wasn’t his prediction for how this shakedown cruise would go. 

“Almost? Are you saying that the fractures were separate from the general damage of being slingshotted?” Glancing over to Tomaasz, “but what could we have passed that would do such specific damage?” 

“I don’t know yet. I’ve already isolated and ruled out energy signatures like those of Breen dampening weapons. And no known spatial or subspace phenomena would damage the crystals in this way.” The Caitian’s ears lowered as he continued. “One of the concerns of this expedition from the beginning has been the risk of running afoul of ancient Noraxian weapons left over from their final war. I suspect that we may have encountered one or more of those weapons in our precipitous flight. I won’t know for certain until the analysis is complete, but I think it’s a reasonable suspicion.”

Kyle nodded his head along to his friends explanation, a small part of him feeling somewhat foolish to have underestimated this sector. They’ve barely knocked on the front door and are already sprawled out in the backyard it seems. 

“This is troubling news,” said Njessa.  “Thank you for your complete report, you have done well.  Can we use a regenerative matrix to at least stop further damage to the dilithium?”

“We’ve begun setting one up, and adjusting its harmonics as our analysis progresses,” Tomaasz replied. “I hope to incorporate a variably interphasing matrix for additional protection. Ideally, we can shore up the crystalline structure to a more usable level as well.”

“Science and Operation, run scans for potential local sources of dilithium.  We had best start making plans assuming the worst,” ordered Njessa.

En’ves shook his head. “It’s unlikely that we’ll find any. There’s always been a dearth of dilithium in this sector – but there are a few trade systems where we can acquire some if needed. It might be a good idea to stock up.”

Njessa nods.  “It is still worth looking.  Do you think you may know anyone in this sector of space?”

“I’ll put together a list,” En’ves nodded.

“As quickly as you can,” said Njessa. 

She looked to the Chief Engineer and the Operations chief.  “Have the shuttles’ warp drives suffered similar damage?” she asked.  “They may have to become our primary means of exploration.”

“My teams are checking them over now.” He tapped his padd, one ear twitching at the lack of new reports. “Initial scans show no damage to the shuttles that were powered down at the time. Two of our Type 9 shuttles were engines warm. Their crystals show the same damage as the main engines. I’m having level two diagnostics run on all of the shuttlecraft, runabouts and fighters before we try to activate any of them. Just in case whatever caused the damage alo sticks to inactive crystals.”

Operations concurred.

“Keep me informed,” said Njessa.  “As I get word from Starfleet command, I will pass it on but for the moment, we must work with what we have.  Contact me directly if I can be of any assistance.  Now, unless there is anything else, I will let you return to your tasks.”