Setting Sail [✱2]

Posted on Sat Feb 22nd, 2025 @ 7:15am by SubCommander Saa & Captain Rovak & Commander Alex Flynn & Lieutenant S'Lace & Mana'i & Lieutenant Commander Atna & Lieutenant JG Akaar Zuul

2,639 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: The Serpent's Tooth [3]
Location: USS Excalibur
Timeline: 0935 - MD02

At 0935 all hands had been confirmed aboard the Excalibur. On the bridge, Rovak pressed one of the buttons on his chair to open a channel to the CIC. “Excalibur to DS13, requesting permission to disembark.”

The ship was nothing short of a marvel. Resembling an original 2350s Constitution class, the apparently duotronic terminals would change at the first touch to the preferred display of the being accessing it. For some it was a design they would never have thought of, but encompassed their closest personal preferences. Others got familiar and deliberate choices.

“DS13 to Excalibur, you are cleared to depart. Bon voyage.” Came the voice of Commander Flynn.

Rovak tapped another button, opening another channel. “Subcommander, please report in at the first sign of any irregularities.” Rovak asked of the Chief Engineer.

Saa bit down on her first answer and responded instead with a clipped, “Acknowledged.”

“Helm, take us out.” Rovak instructed Ensign Akhzouri, who for the sake of timeliness filled in for Lieutenant Sh’Rhavar who was overseeing the parking of the shuttles brought aboard for this mission, she was expected to arrive before long.

“Aye, Captain. Moving out.” Akhzouri responded, and the ship began to drift slowly towards the opening docking door. As it slid aside, the Dreizhen sun shone in, bathing the Excalibur in golden light, which the bridge viewscreen display filtered immediately, allowing a clear view of the sun.

“Blue Alert.” Rovak announced, pressing the same communication button on his chair. “All hands, this is the captain. We are departing DS13 and we will make our way into the anomaly. From there, we will begin our exploration of the star system beyond.”

“Captain, we are clear of spacedock.” Akzhouri announced a moment later, something apparent to anyone watching the viewscreen.

“Very good. Green alert. Take us into the anomaly Ensign, three-quarter impulse.”

“Aye sir. Anomaly intersection in 90 seconds.”

“Mr Zuul, please keep us apprised of any abnormalities detected in main deflector beam.”

Lieutenant JG Akaar Zuul had been practically buzzing with excitement since the expedition had been approved. He had already thanked Rune at least six times before the crew of the Excalibur had even finished boarding. The anticipation of what lay beyond the multiversal rift had gripped his mind ever since he had been assigned to the mission.

And then there was the ship itself. Akaar had been even more eager upon learning he would be traveling aboard a Timelord’s vessel. The Excalibur and its enigmatic Commander had been the subject of both hushed speculation and casual fascination among Starfleet personnel for quite some time. Stories of its capabilities and even its very existence had circulated through the ranks, fueling equal parts curiosity and wariness.

Now, as he worked at his station, he had found himself studying the ship’s interface, fingers hovering over the controls. The system had been... intuitive. Almost unnervingly so. The responses had come just a fraction faster than expected, as if the ship had anticipated his commands before he had fully committed to them.

He hadn’t been sure how he felt about that. But duty had taken priority, and his focus had remained on the task at hand.

“Aye, sir,” Akaar announced as he monitored the beam, his voice steady despite the undercurrent of exhilaration and uncertainty humming in his mind. His hands had moved with precision, but there had been an unshakeable sense that he was part of something far beyond ordinary Starfleet operations.

A moment later, a precautionary thought had surfaced. “I have shields on standby,” he had added. It had been a simple measure, but one that had felt especially warranted under these circumstances. Because when dealing with the unknown, precautions had never been just a formality.

“Crossing anomaly threshold in 3, 2, 1.. we’re in.” Akzhouri reported.

“Full stop.” Rovak ordered, and Akzhouri confirmed it was done a moment later.

“Commander Atna, begin full battery of scans and tests. Subcommander Saa, prepare engines for impulse and warp speed sprint-tests. Rovak instructed.

“Aye, Captain. Commencing.” Atna said, beginning the vast array of tests the systems were capable of.

“Acknowledged, Captain,” Saa answered in the engine room. “All right. Level-four diagnostics on all drive systems,” she ordered.

“Viren,” she added to the Sublieutenant beside her, “I’d like a visual check of the manual override and emergency shutdown systems.”

“Ompwok, are you in position?” Viren asked the Petty Officer through her communicator who she’d dispatched to said area to visualise. She still wasn’t quite comfortable moving in these white jumpsuits Saa had insisted on. They looked like something from the starfleet museum.

“Yeah, I got it. Gimme a second here, ma’am. Fakakta communicator..” Ompwok’s voice came back, echoing within the jeffries tube he was crammed into. “Alright, you should be seeing it.” As the petty officer said it, the holographic image of the junction point he was looking was broadcast from his location to theirs in full holographic definition.

“Looks like what we would expect, ma’am.” Viren said after a moment’s analysis against what they had on file for the original design.

“Thanks, Sublieutenant,” Saa replied from the master systems display. “Mr. Ompwok, run a circuit pathway scan, then get back here.”

Waiting for the diagnostics to finish, Saa swept the reaction chamber with a buzz of sonar, but found little reassurance from the knowledge that it was still phase-transition-welded corbonitrium, having changed neither its shape nor its composition in the last half hour. Over the past several days, simulations had been run across all flight modes and mixtures. Warp field harmonics had been double-tested and then triple tested. Core ejection systems were armed and verified. But on an alien ship with telepathic circuits, operating in another universe, that could all end up meaning too little for her liking.

For more than a few minutes it was quiet as everyone went about their business, the Excalibur resting silently just past the boundaries of the anomaly.

Once the Excalibur had passed through the rift, Akaar had immediately begun a wide-area all-ranges sensor sweep, his fingers moving swiftly across the controls. His priority had been clear—identify potential hostiles or anything hazardous that could pose a threat to the ship.

It hadn’t been just enemy vessels he had been scanning for. Stellar bodies, nebulae, gravitational anomalies at extreme range—anything that could warrant course corrections or evasive manoeuvres had been just as important to detect as a hostile ship. The unknown had always carried risks, and out here, beyond the familiar laws of their own universe, vigilance had been more than protocol—it had been necessity.

As the data had begun streaming in, Akaar had kept his focus sharp, prepared to report the first sign of anything that didn’t belong—or worse, anything that did.

S’Lace had opened a view screen in the rather unique Sickbay to monitor the progress of the vessel, at least in the beginning. After a short while she returned her attention to her environment, part of her thoughts, perhaps with a trace of guilt, directed at her staff back on the station who now had to contend with the bureaucratic detritus she had left in her wake.

Meanwhile, Mana’i had spent the past hour or so in one of the several crew lounges on the ship, people-watching and typing into the device her new allies called a ‘PADD’. So small, yet so useful, this flat device. She’d used it to make notes on at least twelve different species so far, which she considered quite amazing. If she ever found her way home and wrote a thesis with everything she’d seen so far, academics were going to clamour to read her work. She was sure of it.

“You are taking quite well to the technology here.” Dr T’Zor told Mana’i, looking mostly out the window of the lounge, but still enjoying their newest guest’s company. “I’m guessing there’s not much in the way of computers back home?”

“Oh, nothing quite so advanced. If I took even this PADD back home with me my people would advance forward by... oh, centuries, easily. What we’d give to have a portable means of storing data.” Mana’i noted with great amusement. “I’m sure some of the industrious ones will reverse engineer it and then sell the prototypes for a handsome price. Possibly at outrageous markups, knowing them.”

“Are we safe to begin, Commander?” Rovak asked Atna as she finally looked up from the viewfinder built into the terminal.

“Results show no discernible differences in physical properties of universe. Potential differences and distinctions in subspace layers and domains, but nothing that should have a dramatic effect on our technology.” Atna stated. “In my view, we are safe to begin.”

“Bridge, Engineering,” came Saa’s voice over the comm. “Diagnostics complete. All readouts showing nominal. Exactly nominal, Captain. Not a submicron variance on any parameter.”

In the engine room, Saa wasn’t sure whether to be reassured or deeply unsettled. But there was only one report she could give.

“We can light the candle any time.”

“Very good Subcommander, make it so. Helm, take us to one quarter impulse over sixty seconds. Once target speed is achieved, maintain for another sixty seconds and increase by another quarter. Continue in that pattern until full impulse is reached. At the first sign of irregularity or trouble Subcommander, we will discontinue.”

Akzhouri confirmed from the helm, and entered the relevant commands. After several minutes of unremarkable flight, they were at full impulse.

“Engineering, are we ready for warp?” Rovak said after nobody had raised any concerns.

Saa glanced to Nion, received a nod of confirmation. “Bridge, clear for Warp 2, and hold for a warp field integrity scan.”

The thump of old-style magnetic constrictors unlocking reverberated through Main Engineering, followed by the distant popping of plasma injectors opening in sequence as safety interlocks disengaged. She almost forgot it wasn’t a real starship.

“Helm, plot a parabolic course that keeps us within the boundaries of the solar system.” Rovak instructed.

“Course plotted.” Akzhouri responded.

“Warp two.” Rovak ordered. “Execute.”

The stars began to streak across the viewscreen, and there was a sudden flare of blue light as they broke the light barrier.

“Steady as she goes. Bridge to Engineering. We will maintain speed until further advised.” Rovak told Saa through the button on his armrest as the ship passed the system’s fourth planet at superluminal speeds.

“Acknowledged, Bridge. Standby for integrity scan.”

Akaar had an interesting thought. “Commander may I ask a question or two?” He called for the Timelord.

“Yes.” Came the Commander’s voice.

“Thank you,” Akaar replied with gratitude. “With the nature of your ship’s interior and the exterior we use, are there any areas that you’d wish to have extra shielding during combat?” He asked.

“No.” The Commander responded simply.

“Very well,” Akaar replied, he returned to his tactical scans of the area. Thankfully nothing had showed up yet.

“Captain, initial pre-survey is complete.” Atna explained.

“Good work Commander, please present your findings.” Rovak said.

“The system comprises of five planets, two terrestrial, two gas giant, one gas supergiant. The second planet appears to be Class-M. Tachyon sweeps have revealed some unusual results that I would request we inspect further. There seems to be some manner of exotic material making up more than 5% of the planet’s mass.” Atna explained as the revised projections of the system appeared in an overlay on the viewscreen.

“There are no signs of civilization to be found, nor of visitation from spacefaring societies. We may wish to probe the star for tagging isotopes, but long-range sensors are not detecting any activity within local star systems. There are a number of scattered signals suggesting advanced civilizations elsewhere in the galaxy, but nothing coherent enough to interpret. I think it is safe to say we can expect a certain amount of privacy, at least by the standards of our own reality. We are at the outer edge of this Galaxy, which resembles distinctly our own Milky Way.” Atna concluded.

S’Lace listened to the Chief Science Officer’s report and felt a twinge of disappointment. No sign of civilization? How disappointing. However it did not mean there were no signs from up here. Ancient civilizations might have long disappeared. But that was speculation without proof. She held her peace.

“Would you be able to place which edge of the galaxy we are in, Commander?” Akaar asked curious as to which quadrant they are in. Perhaps there was a Federation here? He mused.

“This position in our own Galaxy would be in the gamma quadrant.” Atna explained, overlaying the position of major regions in their own galaxy with positions on the other map, on which many stars seemed to align.

“Fascinating.” Rovak said. “I presume this second world will be the first candidate for any survey?” He asked the Science Chief.

“Indeed, Captain. However if the readings from the preliminary scans are accurate, we may need to do our survey from afar. Scans show the planet is an early stage of development comparable to Earth’s devonian period, meaning there is likely life under the water, and only flora on the surface. This means oxygen concentration will likely be very high, creating a significant risk for atmospheric ignition. We will likely need to take any samples we desire with the transporter.” Atna explained.

“Understood.” Rovak said. “Helm, begin projections for survey course.”

Excalibur angled in toward the system on a spiral trajectory. The warp tests took a few more hours to complete on what would have been a museum ship were it still in regular service, but in the end, went by utterly without incident, like a surreal dream to most of its seasoned engineering personnel.

Petty Officer Vincent Ompwok had just closed off late at the end of his shift, stowed his tools, and was making his way back through the engineering section when he was surprised to find Chief Engineer Saa still hovering over a system diagnostic terminal.

“Chief! You’re still running diagnostics?” he asked.

“I will continue running diagnostics until I get a reading that corresponds with reality,” Saa grumbled.

“Suit yourself,” Ompok shrugged goodnaturedly, familiar by now with the Subcommander’s somewhat compulsive need for control. “My shift’s over. See you in the morning.”

Saa waved a manipulator without looking.

The current series was going to take the computer a few minutes. Taking a break from glaring at the screen, Saa circled the empty room, stretched her back, took a deep breath, and listened, while her secondary auditory cortex, with the surety of 30 million years of specialized evolution, processed the sounds reaching her from the drive system not as a series of separate events, but as a clearly discernible pattern.

It was too perfect. If Saa knew anything, it was engines. She’d worked on them all her life. As a senior technician at the most precise, exacting and meticulously error-free shipyard in the quadrant, she’d personally supervised the installation and testing of the most precisely engineered, finely-tuned propulsion systems that Starfleet or Vulcan had ever produced.

Even with a drive system operating at peak efficiency, there should be deviation somewhere—microscopic fluctuations in the plasma flow, negligible but nonetheless extant distortions in the phase variance. There should be noise.

This ship was perfect in a way real starships never were.

To Rovak and other command officers, the ‘Excalibur’ was a curiosity. To most of the crew, it was an exciting adventure. To Saa, it was a puzzle with too many pieces missing, which, in her experience, typically meant disaster.

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