Incommunicado – Journey to DS5
by Ensign Stone Robatsch
Post Details
At the edge of explored space the stars look very distant. Some of them could be entire galaxies or clusters of galaxies. The view was obsolete and solitary, unlike the J25 system where Stone went in exploratory expeditions a few years ago. Why was he assigned this particular position? Rolling back memories he remembered the look on recruiter's faces when they said "because of your analytical skills". "You have no idea what you're talking about, don't you?" thought Stone. Yes, operations implies a great deal of overall systems understanding and why not, some analytical skills and strategies, but surely there are many others better at this than he is. Or maybe nobody wants to spend an eternity on DS5. Nonetheless, right now he was on board "Victory" en route to the starbase.
A girl's laugh captured his attention. She was sitting with her friends a few benches ahead. The shuttle was transporting provisions and scientific equipments. There were other ensigns on board but Robatsch wasn't interested in shaking hands with them. So he leaned his head to the window and returned to the darkness of space. It seemed like something's missing, so he searched for the headset and rolled over the PADD to find his favourite song. The first time he read about "Tannhauser" was back on earth, when he was an awkward teenager, concerned with mathematics and eager to show his superiors that everything is possible. He accomplished many projects and it seemed that there is nothing Stone can't do. And one of those days the department's financial advisor gave him to read Jack London's "Martin Eden". That's how Stone came in contact with one of Wagner's best works. And the next day he finished the book he quit his job. Interesting thing that survival human instinct. Whenever we feel ourselves cornered and exposed, we act as if our lives were in danger. Wagner's trumpets and violins were thundering in the dark void bringing purpose to the panoramic view. Galaxies started glowing brighter and brighter. The entire simphony exploded as trumpets alternated with milder violins just as light alternated with darkness or life with death. There are a few verses verse in Lucretiu's works that describe better this spectacle of opposites.
Suddenly the lights went off and so did the music. Judging by the innertial moment the shuttle stopped. Stone looked over to see the cause of this but he couldn't see anything. The PADD was also dead. The silence continued a few moments.
"What is going on?" shouted somebody in the back. No one answered. The pilots were too busy following procedures. They started touching buttons and one of them reached for the ship schematics.
"Do you think we hit something?" Asked the ensign sitting next to him. "Don't think so" someone said. "We would have felt the impact."
"Everybody stay calm" one of the pilots finally got off the chair holding a flash light in his hand. he looked over the passengers to convince himself that everybody's all right and continued while going through the aisle. "We encoutered some electronic interferences. The communications are down. We are out in the dark. You're PADDs must be off as well. Please remain calm and patient. We are working on the situation". The pilot returned to his colleague. They started to go over the ship schematics.
The silence didn't last for long. Every man was shifting in his chair impatiently. Stone leaned on his knees and reached down under the chair trying to find an emergency kit.
"Ok, so if it wasn't a hit then it must be some kind of EM interference. That would explain the PADD and the engines and the electronics" Stone recognized the girl on front of him. "Are there any quasars in this sector?" she continued. The answer came from a tall guy next to the rear window: "Quasars are enormous sources of stellar radiation. It would have been on the stellar charts and besides, it's a common transport route used by the shuttle. And there are none in this sector if you imply that we went off our initial course"
Robatsch found the kit, dragged and carefully put it on his knees. There were some analgesics, bandages, a pen, a hand laser and a halogen flashlight. He broke the light bulb and a diffuse green light flooded the shuttle. He could see now the faces of his colleagues. Some of them looked scared while others with glowing sparks into their eyes were smiling. "Either way" he said "let's forget about the cause. Let's think of a solution rather than a root cause. Is there any way to get the systems on-line? I hope you did notice it's getting hot in here. It means the life support unit is also down". While his colleagues looked baffled one at each other Stone took the pen he found in the medkit and wrote the time of the incident on his hand.
"We can try reloading the auxiliary power units" someone shouted excited. "It might do the trick. Do we know where the APU is?" asked the tall guy. "It is accesible from the cargo bay panels" one of the pilots said. He was standing next to them now "You just sit tight, I am going that way right now". He walked down the aisle to the rear airlock. Stone could see his name on the uniform. While he opened the door, he added "Mr. Winters I suggest you set the power unit to an alternating frequency, in case the EM source is still out there". The pilot grumbled something and disappeared into the cargo unit. A few minutes later the emergency lights went on and the first pilot started initiating the auxiliary support systems. A cold breeze of air was felt in the room and everybody took a deep breath. They won't choke to death after all. Stone got off the chair and went to the first pilot, leaned over and asked him the current coordinates. On the way back he stumbled upon Winters. "Thanks for the tip man" he smiled briefly then made a grim face and turned to the others: "As you have noticed we managed to get the emergency systems back on-line. The APU is on thanks to your ingenious solution but the communications are still down. We will resume our initial course to the starbase on the emergency power. Any other systems will be shut off. Please report to me if you notice something out of the ordinary".
"Do you think the starbase is still there?" asked the ensign standing next to him. "Yes" he answered, "In case it wasn't wiped out by the Borg like the last time, I suppose it's still there wise guy. We are 75% through the way. There's no going back. Sit tight and report anything suspicious"
"Sergeant is there any way to divert some power to the short range scanners?" Stone asked.
"The scanners are malfunctioning just like the communications array. We will take a look at them as soon as we exit this peculiar zone. That's all for the moment. Thank you for your attention."
The shuttle resumed its course. The ensigns went on discussing possible causes of this misterious shut down. Among the others there were some interesting hypothesis. For example the tall guy suggested the cause might be the ship's cargo while other kid supposed we stumbled upon a black hole. They went debating the issue fiercefully. But Stone didn't care. Why should he care? He leaned his head on the window and dove his thoughts into darkness.
by Ensign Stone Robatsch
Post Details
| Title | Journey to DS5 | |
| Mission | Incommunicado | |
| Author(s) | Ensign Stone Robatsch | |
| Posted | Sun Jun 10, 2012 @ 9:15pm | |
| Location | Shuttle "Victory" |
A girl's laugh captured his attention. She was sitting with her friends a few benches ahead. The shuttle was transporting provisions and scientific equipments. There were other ensigns on board but Robatsch wasn't interested in shaking hands with them. So he leaned his head to the window and returned to the darkness of space. It seemed like something's missing, so he searched for the headset and rolled over the PADD to find his favourite song. The first time he read about "Tannhauser" was back on earth, when he was an awkward teenager, concerned with mathematics and eager to show his superiors that everything is possible. He accomplished many projects and it seemed that there is nothing Stone can't do. And one of those days the department's financial advisor gave him to read Jack London's "Martin Eden". That's how Stone came in contact with one of Wagner's best works. And the next day he finished the book he quit his job. Interesting thing that survival human instinct. Whenever we feel ourselves cornered and exposed, we act as if our lives were in danger. Wagner's trumpets and violins were thundering in the dark void bringing purpose to the panoramic view. Galaxies started glowing brighter and brighter. The entire simphony exploded as trumpets alternated with milder violins just as light alternated with darkness or life with death. There are a few verses verse in Lucretiu's works that describe better this spectacle of opposites.
Suddenly the lights went off and so did the music. Judging by the innertial moment the shuttle stopped. Stone looked over to see the cause of this but he couldn't see anything. The PADD was also dead. The silence continued a few moments.
"What is going on?" shouted somebody in the back. No one answered. The pilots were too busy following procedures. They started touching buttons and one of them reached for the ship schematics.
"Do you think we hit something?" Asked the ensign sitting next to him. "Don't think so" someone said. "We would have felt the impact."
"Everybody stay calm" one of the pilots finally got off the chair holding a flash light in his hand. he looked over the passengers to convince himself that everybody's all right and continued while going through the aisle. "We encoutered some electronic interferences. The communications are down. We are out in the dark. You're PADDs must be off as well. Please remain calm and patient. We are working on the situation". The pilot returned to his colleague. They started to go over the ship schematics.
The silence didn't last for long. Every man was shifting in his chair impatiently. Stone leaned on his knees and reached down under the chair trying to find an emergency kit.
"Ok, so if it wasn't a hit then it must be some kind of EM interference. That would explain the PADD and the engines and the electronics" Stone recognized the girl on front of him. "Are there any quasars in this sector?" she continued. The answer came from a tall guy next to the rear window: "Quasars are enormous sources of stellar radiation. It would have been on the stellar charts and besides, it's a common transport route used by the shuttle. And there are none in this sector if you imply that we went off our initial course"
Robatsch found the kit, dragged and carefully put it on his knees. There were some analgesics, bandages, a pen, a hand laser and a halogen flashlight. He broke the light bulb and a diffuse green light flooded the shuttle. He could see now the faces of his colleagues. Some of them looked scared while others with glowing sparks into their eyes were smiling. "Either way" he said "let's forget about the cause. Let's think of a solution rather than a root cause. Is there any way to get the systems on-line? I hope you did notice it's getting hot in here. It means the life support unit is also down". While his colleagues looked baffled one at each other Stone took the pen he found in the medkit and wrote the time of the incident on his hand.
"We can try reloading the auxiliary power units" someone shouted excited. "It might do the trick. Do we know where the APU is?" asked the tall guy. "It is accesible from the cargo bay panels" one of the pilots said. He was standing next to them now "You just sit tight, I am going that way right now". He walked down the aisle to the rear airlock. Stone could see his name on the uniform. While he opened the door, he added "Mr. Winters I suggest you set the power unit to an alternating frequency, in case the EM source is still out there". The pilot grumbled something and disappeared into the cargo unit. A few minutes later the emergency lights went on and the first pilot started initiating the auxiliary support systems. A cold breeze of air was felt in the room and everybody took a deep breath. They won't choke to death after all. Stone got off the chair and went to the first pilot, leaned over and asked him the current coordinates. On the way back he stumbled upon Winters. "Thanks for the tip man" he smiled briefly then made a grim face and turned to the others: "As you have noticed we managed to get the emergency systems back on-line. The APU is on thanks to your ingenious solution but the communications are still down. We will resume our initial course to the starbase on the emergency power. Any other systems will be shut off. Please report to me if you notice something out of the ordinary".
"Do you think the starbase is still there?" asked the ensign standing next to him. "Yes" he answered, "In case it wasn't wiped out by the Borg like the last time, I suppose it's still there wise guy. We are 75% through the way. There's no going back. Sit tight and report anything suspicious"
"Sergeant is there any way to divert some power to the short range scanners?" Stone asked.
"The scanners are malfunctioning just like the communications array. We will take a look at them as soon as we exit this peculiar zone. That's all for the moment. Thank you for your attention."
The shuttle resumed its course. The ensigns went on discussing possible causes of this misterious shut down. Among the others there were some interesting hypothesis. For example the tall guy suggested the cause might be the ship's cargo while other kid supposed we stumbled upon a black hole. They went debating the issue fiercefully. But Stone didn't care. Why should he care? He leaned his head on the window and dove his thoughts into darkness.