Steal the warm wind
Posted on Sat Aug 10th, 2024 @ 4:57pm by Commander Rovak & Lieutenant Commander Alex Flynn & Lieutenant Atna & Lieutenant Alph & Ensign Abra Akzhouri & Ensign Shova Qiil & Warrant Officer David Ramírez & Senior Chief Petty Officer Azlav Aitrell & Petty Officer 1st Class Ayol & Petty Officer 1st Class Linda Chau
Edited on on Sun Aug 11th, 2024 @ 7:02am
1,275 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Startup Sequence [0]
Location: USS Faraday - Adjacent to the singularity
Timeline: Immediately after 'The wages of altruism'
“We’ve been here an hour and we're still sinking in this fucker's muck. I need options. Now. Atna’s going to shoot you down if they’re non-starters.” Alex told the assembled Faraday senior staff. The ship rumbled around them. They were maintaining warp three, which kept them from the worst effects of the temporal distortion from the singularity. They couldn’t go faster, or the structural integrity fields would start to fail. They were stalled, and the mass driving the strength of the black hole's pull was growing irregularly.
“I do not have a specific suggestion at this stage, but I feel it necessary to advise that we cannot expect support from DS13 for at least an hour, from our perspective. Even if they have the foresight to send shuttles at warp. It is also likely that the gravitic intensity will continue to grow over time, and the time dilation will become more pronounced.” Atna advised.
“Can’t we reroute power to structural integrity from somewhere else?” Ensign Qiil asked, and Alex felt a small amount of sympathy for how obviously the question revealed her to be a security officer.
“The structural integrity fields are already at maximum power, to add more would risk overload for a negligible benefit.” Atna critiqued.
“If we dump our entire torpedo stash and set them for a timed maximum yield explosion, maybe that could get us just a little further away from the singularity?” The Engineer Ramirez suggested.
“The energy would be insufficient. This ship has only 60 torpedoes. Even using the tricobalt devices we would still fall well short of the necessary energy to disrupt the pull of the singularity, while generating an explosion at a sufficient distance to keep us from harm. Any explosion would need to also pass through subspace and impact the shields to give us a chance of escape.” Atna disagreed.
“What if we jettisoned the warp core?” Alex asked.
“The gravitic sheer would mostly likely destroy it and us before it could be fully released.” Atna countered.
“So we do a saucer separation.”
“The Oberth-class does not have –“
“I know,” Alex interrupted, “The saucer doesn’t separate. We separate it ourselves.” Alex said. “With phasers.”
Atna looked daunted by the prospect, and turned to Warrant Officer Ramirez.
“Well, it’s... possible. We’d have to shunt enough plasma to the coils to keep the warp field active long enough to get us free. And even when they run out, we’ll be down to battery power to escape.” Ramirez said, thinking aloud.
“What if we overloaded the reactors from the shuttles first? Couldn’t they give us a push?” Qiil suggested, and this time Atna seemed to like what she had said. Ensign Akzhouri seemed slightly horrified by the notion of wasting perfectly good shuttles, but she didn’t verbalise it.
“If my calculations are correct, two warp explosions from microcores would carry us far enough from the singularity to allow a third full-size detonation to get us over the necessary threshold to escape. But that assumes the intensity does not grow further, and we do not run out of power. If either occurs, I am not certain we will reach the necessary escape velocity.”
“Will we be attempting to communicate our plan to the station?” Specialist Chau asked on behalf of communications.
“If you can get a message through the time dilation, any response will be of little use. Regardless, I will assist you.” Atna told Chau.
“Alright. Everyone be about it.” Alex said.
--
Rovak watched the singularity and the warped space around it. Fifteen minutes earlier he had ordered rescue runabouts deployed for an extreme gravity well rescue. The runabouts also warped strangely as they passed through another layer of gravity, creating a distorted, streaking image.
Moving at a speed they could barely perceive, at a distance distorted along the usual spacetime measurements, DS13’s sensors recorded sudden movements and two sudden flashes behind the Faraday, causing it to grow visually as it passed through another layer of extending supergravity.
A flare of phasers and then third, larger burst flashed milliseconds later.
Supported by the tractor beams of the rescue runabouts, the Faraday emerged from the distortions that defined the singularity, with further tractor beams emitting from the station to bring it in gently. Most of the Faraday had emerged, anyway.
“Rovak to Faraday.” The Commander tapped the panel on his armrest, lifting his finger from it carefully afterwards to keep from accidentally switching the channel off again. “Status report.”
“We’re fine, sir. No injuries, other than what you can see already.” Alex responded, her face appearing on the CIC’s massive viewscreen. She looked sweaty.
“Debriefing in my office in 15.” Rovak said, standing from the large command chair and pulling the front of his uniform down.
“Got it, Faraday out.” Alex responded, high fiving everyone on the bridge once she was sure the display was off. She wanted to replicate a beer, but there was still an expanding singularity to deal with.
“Ayol,” Rovak called out to the Vorta sitting further down the platform away from the viewscreen. The Vorta was on his feet faster than you would think possible, a padd in hand, waiting for the Commander’s instruction. “I want every senior officer and everyone with formal training in any discipline that deals with black holes in the conference room in half an hour.”
“Sir.” The Vorta responded simply, disappearing down the platform to parts unknown. Korusca confirmed at navigation that the remains of the Faraday were securely docked.
Rovak turned back towards the screen. The singularity was visible against the luminous flare of a prominent stellar nursery in the near distance of the sky. As he locked his attention on it, he felt a sensation like a predator was sniffing at the back of his neck. A pure, aggressive Vulcan impulse that he resisted without visible difficulty, but could not fully dissipate as he would prefer.
The warped singularity seemed to extend a limb, a reaching three-fingered extension of the singularity’s darkness, crossing the vast distance between them at a speed that would exceed warp.
“Red alert. Shields!” Rovak ordered as quickly as he could react, calculating he may have already been too late.
Chief Aitrell at Tactical saw the grasping black claw-hand reaching silently from the singularity, swearing loudly in Andorian as he raised the defenses.
The station rocked hard to one side as the claw bounced off the shields, causing them to ripple visibly across their entire surface. The strange hand that emerged was a similar size to the docking hubs, and with apparently limitless strength and motivation.
Only briefly deterred, the claw grabbed for the station again and again, bouncing off the extended outer bubble shield, causing fluorescent flares of shield energy as it impacted, and further rocking the station.
“Damage report.” Rovak asked.
“No injuries reported, sir. Shields at 98%.” Lieutenant Alph answered from ops.
The claw seemed to retract, ceasing its ramming attack. Instead the three long fingers grew and sprouted new length, extending around the shape of the shield until they met in a grip, firmly grasping the shielded station. A multiplying lattice of whatever strange stuff made up the fingers began to form between them, solidifying its hold.
“Tactical, fire at will.” Rovak ordered, taking his seat once again and activating the safety belt.
Before the first phaser could be fired, the station jerked suddenly to one side again, as the tridactyl claw from the void ensnared the station by gripping the entirety of its shields and pulling the entire structure back towards the singularity.
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