ftp.ee.pdx.edu/2014.02.ftp.ee.pdx.edu.tar/ftp.ee.pdx.edu/pub/frp/stories/startrek/adv1/pro4

Text File | 1994-09-10 | 23KB | 509 lines

*******************************************************************************
                           Star Trek: Play by E-Mail
                              The Forbidden Years
                               Campaign Write-up
===============================================================================
                                 Adventure #1
                             Flight of the Phobos
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                  Prologue #4
                                  Reflections
===============================================================================
       Copyright 1993 Jim Vassilakos & Tony Hayes / All Rights Reserved
*******************************************************************************

                                  Cast & Crew

                    ST-PBeM GameMaster   Tony Hayes
                         Cmdr. Elineva   Jim Vassilakos
                            Dr. O'Neil   Mark Hammel
                        Lt. Bellasario   Alan Ward
                             Lt. T'lar   Ronnie Simonds


Administrivia:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Loknar Class Frigate - Model MK V - USS Phobos, NCC-20137

Length - 290 m  Width - 127 m  Height - 56 m  Weight - 145,975 mt
Transporter Rooms - 3  Emergency Transporters - 1  Crew - 92
Warp Drives - 2     Power - 90% of Constitution Class
Impulse Drives - 4  Power - 75% of Constitution Class
Phasers - 8 in 4 banks  Torpedoes - 4
Shields - 93.75% of Constitution Class' Power

Description: The ship consists of a main saucer section. Two wide sections
extend back from the saucer then flare up to hold the warp drives. There is no
secondary hull.

Deck           Area
1              Main Bridge
2              Main Conference Room, Sciences
3              Transporter 1, General Labs
4              Officers' Quarters, Rec Facilities
5              Computer Core, Quarters, Officers' Mess
6              Aux Control, Quarters, General Mess,
               Transporters 2 and 3 and Emerg.
7              Sickbay, Med Labs, Quarters, Brig
8              Main Sensors, Quarters, Rec Facilities
9              Main Engineering, Fabrication Services
10             Cargo, Life Support Services
11             Main Shuttle Hanger, Warp accessways, Main Deflector
               Controls, Life Support Services, Cargo
12             Shuttle Storage and Maintenance, Cargo


Stardate 6003.10 at 2100 hours: USS Phobos, Main Conference Room (Deck 2)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nien waits patiently as Lt. Cmdr. O'Neil and Lt. Bellasario enter the main
conference room on deck two, just beneath the jagged pit that was once the
vessel's bridge.

"Good of you to come, gentleman."

Bellasario takes a seat, "Did you find anything out from the Captain's log?"

"I isolated the entries which I found the most interesting. I'd like to hear
your thoughts before I air mine." She inserts an isolinear chip, displaying a
picture of Captain Doran's face on the view screen.

"Stardate 6003.08 at 1340 hours. Lt. T'lar reporting unusual behavior of the
forward sensor array. She and Lt. Morchainte are going to investigate the
problem which seems to be a short in the sensor grid. According to Chief
Engineer Hutchenson, the most probable cause is some radioactive debris. She
recommends that the grid be cleaned when we reach Starbase 75. So noted in the
maintenance logs. Since the sensor must be shut down briefly for the
inspection, we will stop and hold this position."

Nien presses pause, adding, "It's roughly the same position at which we found
them drifting." Then she released the pause.

"Stardate 6003.08 at 1400 hours. Main sensor array is now back online. It
appears that there is an unusually high background radiation field in this
area. We will report it to Star Fleet when we reach Starbase 75 so they can
send a science vessel to investigate further. The larger than normal background
was generating a static build-up on the array. It has been discharged, and we
have recalibrated the main deflector to prevent further charge accumulation.
Lt. T'lar and Lt. Morchainte will monitor the array from..." -- "Captain, we're
getting unusual readings from directly ahead."

The Captain's log automatically shuts off.

Bellasario looks up, somewhat surprised, "Is that all there is?"

Nien shakes her head, "The following is a transcript from the ship's log... as
recorded by the overhead bridge-camera." She pushes another button, causing the
monitor to show a wide-angle picture of what used to be the bridge of the
Phobos.

Navigator: "Captain, we're getting unusual readings from directly ahead."

Captain: "On screen... I don't see anything. (hitting a comm-button) Doran to
T'lar, is the main sensor still operational?"

Off-camera voice: "The main sensor is operating within normal parameters. No
static build-up detected at this time."

Captain: "Thank you, report to your bridge station at once."

Off-camera voice: "Aye sir. On my way."

Science: "Sir, these readings don't make any sense. It's like there's something
there one minute and gone the next."

Captain: "Range."

Nav: "3.02 Astronomical Units. ETA, 3 minutes at this course and speed."

Captain: "Slow to impulse, we don't want to run in to it until we know what
*it* is."

Asst. Helm: "Aye sir. Slowing to sub-light velocities."

Captain: "Gene, what is it?"

Science: "I don't know. One minute it's there... then it's gone, then it simply
reflects our scans. I haven't been able to... wait I've got something... a ship
coming at us at high velocity!"

Captain: "Red Alert! Raise Shields! Helm, evasive maneuvers!"

Science: "It's firing."

The picture goes black, and all that remains is the recorded voice of the
ship's computer. "Unable to access bridge recording devices. Main bridge
destroyed. Warning, main power couplings damaged. Warning, main warp controls
damaged, automatic warp drive shutdown procedures initiated. Warning, impulse
drives off-line. Switching to Auxiliary Power. Alert, main life support is
off-line. INTRUDER ALERT...INTRUDER ALERT...INTRUDER ALE"

The log ends.

Nien watches as Bellasario and O'Neil look back and forth between each other.

"Not a pretty picture," the lieutenant offers.

"No. It's not," Nien agrees. "I've been over this sequence in the log about
five times. The computer has been unable to identify the weapon that hit the
ship. It does indicate that it was some type of energy weapon, but there's no
entry for it anywhere in the database."

"What ever it was, it must have been damn powerful."

Nien nods, "True. But the thing that bugs me most is that I can't think of
anything I would have done differently. It wasn't like Captain Doran
hesitated."

"No, he just didn't have a chance," O'Neil surmises.

"The term you humans use is 'sitting duck' is it not?"

Gunner nods, "Yeah. That about sums it up. But that still doesn't explain what
happened to the missing crew."

"I took the liberty of checking the transporter logs. There are no records of
anyone beaming off the ship. And no shuttles are missing."

"So what are you saying? That a bunch of intruders beamed themselves aboard and
kidnapped the people they didn't kill?"

Nien nods, "You got it, Lieutenant." She waits a second for the conclusion to
sink into his head before proceeding. "You were in engineering. What's the
damage?"

"It's minimal. It's like whoever did this wanted to salvage the ship. Worse,
they knew exactly where to hit us. Their objective was to disable the craft
while doing minimal actual damage. What it means is that they must have had a
lot of technical information to base the attack on."

"Well, they certainly did a good job. But that leaves us with a puzzle. If they
wanted to take the ship, why didn't they? And where are they?"

"Well, the real question is 'Where did the Excalibur go?'"

"Or where did we go." Nien hits another button, calling up a different record
on the isolinear chip. "This is a long-range sensor sweep of the local area.
The right stars are all in the picture, but notice how they differ in position
with respect to the map." She produces an overlay, and for a moment, Bellasario
figures that Nien accidently reversed something when she put it together.

"It's like a mirror image," he finally decides.

"It is a mirror image. The Excalibur didn't go anywhere. We did. Into a mirror
universe."

"Into a mirror universe??" Bellasario can scarcely believe his ears.

"So it seems. That lurch we all felt... it wasn't anything hitting us. We had
no shields. If anything significant hit us, we'd have had a hull breech. And
there are no new debris or residual radiation associated with photon torpedo or
phaser hits. No indication of tractor beams. No ships within sensor range. No
federation nav-markers. We are alone, out here, wherever here is."

O'Neil looks up, gravely, "But how did we get here? What 'jolted' us here?"

Nien shakes her head, "I've experienced this jolt phenomenon once before. Prior
to my enlistment in the academy, I used to travel the starlanes aboard my
father's merchant vessel. It was a real clunker of a craft, and once our warp
field decided to take a impromptu vacation. We were suddenly returned to
sublight. My sister broke her arm and the rest of us received less serious
bumps and bruises. But the point is that when we came back into normal space,
we'd shifted about a light-year off our former position. It was like we hit a
pocket of instability of something. From what I understand, the phenomenon is
pretty rare, but is does happen from time to time... usually only to very small
ships with unstable warp fields, and none of these areas of instability ever
exist for very long. Nor are they very big. I don't think anything quite like
this has ever happened to a post hundred-thousand ton vessel before."

"But we didn't merely shift a light-year."

"No... we ended up somewhere else entirely... but the idea is still the same.
The small pockets of instability are like dimensional loops. They take you from
point A to point B very quickly. This, however... this is something bigger...
not a dimensional loop but more like a dimensional rift from one universe to
another."

"But assuming you're right, can we go back through it to our own universe?"

Nien shakes her head, "Like it's smaller cousin, whatever we went through has a
finite lifetime. It's possible that its dying process is what brought us here,
sucking us through as the phenomenon closed upon itself."

Bellasario nods slowly, "But if a phenomenon of this magnitude doesn't occur
naturally, then it seems safe to assume that it was artificially generated."

"Quite possibly, though the technology necessary to do something like that
would have to be out of our league."

"Perhaps... but if we can make that assumption, then we can also assume that
whoever opened that 'rift' as you call it is also responsible for attacking the
Phobos. In fact, it may be attacking the Excalibur right now."

"I don't know about that," O'Neil breaks in. "Judging from the level of
cellular decay of the corpses we have, the attack probably occurred over 24
hours ago, which agrees with the ship's log. That would leave the attacker lots
of time to leave the area."

Bellasario grits his teeth, "Maybe so... but I've got to tell you, I've got a
really bad feeling about this. We have to find a way back through."

"It no longer exists, Lieutenant. There is no way back through." Nien turns
toward O'Neil. "So... what did you discover in sickbay?"

The doctor shrugs, his eyes a mixture of hazel and green. "Whatever we're
dealing with, they have some powerful weapons. The doors were barricaded to
keep out the attackers, but they just shot right through the walls. We found
traces of a greenish blood."

"It better not be Romulan. If they're this far ahead of us, technologically..."

O'Neil shakes his head, "I don't think it's Romulan. Basically, that's what it
appears to be at first glance. I mean, it's green."

"A real bang-up analysis, Doctor."

"Look, all I'm prepared to say is that we've been getting some unusual readings
off it. At first I thought it was a problem with the equipment, but everything
checks out on the self-diagnostics."

"What sort of readings?"

"You really want the details? Okay... the fluid is organic. It's carrying other
organic cells. Thus, it qualifies as blood, at least by the most basic of
definitions. It's copper based, hence the greenish tinge, just like Romulan and
Vulcan blood. Lack of certain trace elements rule out Vulcan blood, however.
Other trace elements cannot be identified by the computer."

"What's the problem?"

"It's like they're there one second and gone the next. If you want to give it a
technical description, call it phasing."

Gunner shakes his head, "My first instinct was to suspect Romulan involvement
as we are... or were... near the neutral zone. Now, while we cannot rule
Romulan involvement out entirely, I strongly believe a third party to be at
work. As we know, someone appears to have abducted a large portion of the crew,
not a usual Romulan tactic that I am aware of."

Nien nods, "Considering all the evidence, it's looking more and more like the
Romulans aren't the culprits here. At least... they're not the main culprits.
The technology is too advanced. The tactics are all wrong. Even the physical
evidence is less than supportive."

"So what's that leave us?"

"It leaves us with a puzzle... and we're not going to solve it sitting around
here flapping our gums."

Gunner smiles, "We will obviously have to make the Phobos space-worthy if we
are required to do any traveling, so that should probably be our first
priority."

On that note, a comm-light blinks on the wall, followed by a beep and Chief
Watson's voice. "Commander, we're quickly running out of auxiliary power down
here. It's gotten so bad, I've had to open up our hand phasers and hook their
batteries to converters."

"Can you bring up impulse power again?"

"We can get two of the four drives online immediately. This will take us off
auxiliary power, and it will also give us limited sublight maneuverability,
assuming all the thruster control units are working."

"I assume the mundane system will be completely powered."

"Life support, sensors, communication, transporters, and the computer. It will
not provide much energy for shields or phasers, however. If we can get the
other two units online, we will be able to generate enough energy for decent
shielding or phaser fire. I suggest a quick but complete evaluation of the
damage to critical systems, then we can provide reasonable time estimates for
repairs."

"Okay, Chief. You have the go ahead."

The channel emits a short pop, audibly disconnecting. Bellasario looks toward
Nien.

"Why did you have him take impulse offline in the first place?"

"It was just before we were sucked into the rift. Scans were showing that the
source of the interference was moving toward us, particularly toward the aft...
in other words the warp nacelles and impulse drive. I think that when Watson
brought impulse #3 online, it disturbed the rift enough to hasten its closure.
I figured our only chance to escape would be to switch the power off and hope
for the best."

"Maybe you should of had him punch it to full and tried to climb the ship out."

"Well, that was, of course, the other alternative. All I knew at the time was
that we were somehow attracting the source of the interference. It would have
been a gamble either way. There will be time enough for recriminations later,
Lieutenant. Right now, we have to get this ship operational."

The wall's comm-unit beeps again. This time the voice is Cullinac's. "Sir, I've
been re-running the internal scans, and I think I've got something. In addition
to our crew, there's some sort of suppression field distortion on Deck 8,
Section A-5."

"We're on our way."

Nien makes a quick exit with Bellasario and O'Neil right behind her. Once
they're in the turbolift, Bellasario casts her a stern glance. "If it's a
sensor suppression field," he warns, "then it could be hiding several of the
enemy. I strongly suggest that as the commanding officer, you should hang back
a ways and let us handle this... just in case."

Nien pauses, then concedes, "Fine."

Once the turbolift arrives on deck 8, she allows Bellasario to assume the lead
with O'Neil running a close second. They make their way toward the main sensor
array, where they find the make-shift suppression field smack in the middle of
a corridor. In actually, it is merely a security field being driven off
auxiliary power. A structural pylon has caved-in at the center of the corridor,
and trapped underneath is a humanoid, a female vulcan if their eyes are to be
believed.

"It's okay, Commander," Bellasario calls back down the corridor.

"I'd be calling her Captain now, if I were you," O'Neil mutters, checking the
vulcan over with a medical tricorder. "She's still alive. Let's see if we can
extract her." They end up having to carve her out with a phaser. "Vital signs
are very unusual... if I'm not mistaken, she's in some sort of healing trance.
Let's get her to sickbay before she wakes up."


Stardate 6003.10 at 2200 hours: USS Phobos, Sickbay (Deck 7)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"According to personnel records, her name is T'lar. She was the helmsman."
O'Neil points to her lieutenant's badge.

The significance of the badge is not lost on Nien. Not only have they found a
survivor, but their survivor is a member of the ship's command team. "How badly
is she hurt?"

"Broken leg, several cracked ribs, various bumps and bruises. And internal
bleeding. Other than that she's in great shape."

"Can we wake her up?" Bellasario inquires.

"You won't be able to ask her anything until she revives from the trance and we
stabilize her."

Nurse Reeko walks over, "Doctor, we've managed to set up a field that prevents
the blood from phasing."

"Oh really?"

"Once the field was set, the liquid discharged and is now stable even without
the field. We've done intensive scans, and I can assure you, it is NOT Romulan
or Vulcan or Rigelian blood but, being copper-based, has certain similarities
to all three. I'd say we're dealing with a new race. No blood listed in any of
the medical databases matches."

O'Neil nods, "Good work, Lieutenant." He turns toward Nien, "Captain, I'm going
to be seeing if we can find anything more about this alien blood. Now that the
phasing elements have been controlled, we should be able to get a clearer
picture."

"Let me know as soon as you find anything significant."


Stardate 6003.10 at 2230 hours: USS Phobos, Engineering (Deck 9)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chief Watson walks alongside Nien, PADD and lightpen in hand. "Commander, I can
give you full impulse power in 12 hours and warp drive in 3 days. We'll have to
do some patches to the hull, especially where the bridge used to be. Bellasario
will be handling the weapons and shields. The replicators are operational so,
in theory, we can repair just about everything."

"In theory?"

"Well," he smiles, his dark face wrinkling, "According to the maintenance logs,
the Phobos is rather picky about adjustments. She's been overhauled innumerable
times. I'm actually surprised Star Fleet hasn't gotten around to scrapping
her."

"Chief, I have every confidence in you. There's a few other things that concern
me, however."

"Anything I can help with?"

"Perhaps. I don't think you or your staff have been properly briefed, but we're
not anywhere near home."

"I know. Lt. Bellasario told me all about it."

Nien nods, "I'm concerned that we might run into problems due to the physical
laws of our home universe not applying in this one."

"To which laws in specific are you referring?"

Nien stops and looks at him, "I'm not an engineer, but just as an example...
take the electromagnetic coupling constant that regulates the speed of light.
It figures into equations which, in turn, figure into the design of certain on-
board systems. Am I mistaken?"

Watson smiles, apparently amused by Nien's unexpected knowledge of shipboard
systems. In his view, it makes her just smart enough to be a hassle. "No...
you're not mistaken, but if something like that were suddenly modified, we'd
have noticed it by now. I'm not sure if you're aware or not, but the
engineering department of every Federation starship has a standing order,
according to Star Fleet regs, to report anything that appears to violate known
physical laws. But we're down to a skeleton staff here. That's putting it
generously, actually. We don't have too many idle hands with time to run
physics experiments. No disrespect, sir."

Nien nods, "None taken. But if you do come across anything strange... let me
know immediately."

He smiles, "Well... there is one thing, sir."

"Yes?"

Watson scratches his head, as though unsure how to say what he's got on his
mind. "It seems that before the computer went offline, it reversed the polarity
of the antimatter containment field."

Nien looks at him, uncertain what that's supposed to mean.

"Under normal conditions, sir, that would result in the immediate destruction
of the starship. Apparently the computer detected something, and acted
accordingly. Taking it's lead, we've been reversing the polarity of systems all
over the ship. Sensors, replicators, subspace communication. It's pretty much
the same all over. And it's working."

Nien shakes her head, "I'm sorry, can you try to explain what you mean...
reversing the polarity. I know I've heard it somewhere before, but..."

"The situation is that a reaction that should produce a clockwise spinning
electron in n-space produces a counter-clockwise spinning electron. We're lucky
that most of the on-board systems, like the antimatter containment field, have
self-adjustment programming or circuits that compensate for the reversal. But
the warp field generators and sub-space exo-comm needed manual reversal. Since
fixing the problem was fairly easy, I wasn't going to mention it until the
final status report in three days."

"Understood, but do you have any idea what might be causing this polarity
reversal?"

"Well, sir... it's like Bellasario told me. We're in some sort of mirror
universe. Hence, we have mirrored subatomics to deal with. The staff is fully
aware of it, now, so I don't think it'll be a problem."

Nien nods, "I hope not."


                      _   /|        Jim Vassilakos
                      \`o_O'        [e-mail]
                        ( )         [e-mail]
                         U          Riverside, California

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 This Star Trek PBeM is archived on ftp.cs.pdx.edu in pub/frp/stories/startrek
 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------