The Over Turned Ant Hill

Posted on Tue Nov 5th, 2019 @ 11:38am by Captain Benjamin Ingram Dr & Lieutenant Commander Mara Ricci & Lieutenant Commander Meilin Jiang

Mission: S2:1: Into The Drowning Deeps
Location: Canopus Station, Station Operations
Timeline: MD 1 : 20:30

The scene that presented itself as the tram from the nearest transporter station came to a halt, was one of controlled chaos.

The stations surrounding the control dais were manned with crewmen and technicians speaking in quiet tones that overlapped into a burbling white noise. The overhead lights were darkening noticeably as holographic Yellow Alert decals floated against the walls. What was even more telling were a pair of Starfleet Marines in full battle rattle standing by the doors to Station Ops, phaser rifles at the ready. As the group approached, one of the Marines looked them over whilst the other kept a ready eye on the antechamber beyond. The smart system built into their helmets HUD read their Starfleet identity tags as they passed, granting them access past the velvet rope of armed security.

And at the centre, standing on the command dais overlooking the situational awareness holo display, was Captain Benjamin Ingram. He was speaking to an Ensign in science blues.

"-confirm the moment the probe's course has altered enough to bring it into range," he made a dismissive gesture to the Ensign who scurried away. Ingram turned to look upon the new arrivals. He seemed to think for a moment, and turned to one of the surrounding work stations. "Begin bringing the barrier shield generator online. But do not energise the emitters until my command."

There was a nodded affirmation, and then he turned his attention back to his command staff.

"We have company."

Meilin rushed toward the cluster of stations that comprised the many suites in Canopus' vast sensor array. "What do we know so far?" she asked by way of summary as she pulled up sensor logs for her own review.

"The secondary sensor array picked up the tidal echo of a slipstream transit at the edge of the system ten minutes ago," Ingram said and began to cast images into the holographic display. On one side was the water droplet ripple of a Starfleet Quantum Slipstream Drive signature, and beside it was something similar but much more subtle. The gravitational ripples were lower, the subspace stress of tearing a hole into the slipstream showing more of a gentle parting than not.

"We then picked up a second entry echo when the main array was brought on task. A ship jumped into the Carpathia System and then jumped out again. Though given the lucky strike we had in detecting the first transit I'm not sure we were meant to detect them," Ingram intoned gravely. He nodded at the side by side images. "A stealth QSD do you think?"

Of course, being who she was and what she'd experienced in life, Mara's brain went immediately to previously unknown aliens. "Did the sensors have time to identify the ship?" she asked, heading to one of the ops stations. "Or decide if it was unknown?"

"As it stands we have no ships with QSD capability operating within Messier 4. The Traveller and Resolute are both on the upgrade time table, and other more esoteric means of travel have come from the star via the Whisper Gate-" Ingram's words were cut off, and the water droplet diagrams on the main holo display vanished replaced by a simplified system map. "Report!"

"Tidal echo, same subtle gravity ripple as before," the sensor tech reported as the map plot updated. This time the map zoomed in from a wide view of the system to the orbital kingdom reigned over by Tangerine Dream. Carpathia blinking gold in its orbit around the gas giant, with a blue jewel representing Canopus Station riding behind it. A red contact marker flickered intermittently behind one of the other moons on the far side of Tangerine Dream. The contact then turned grey, as the main array lost the contact. "Sorry Sir, we lost the contact. It hopped back into slipstream again."

"That far inside a gas giants gravity well?" Ingram said, looking at Mara. "I thought QSD's were limited to operating outside of a major gravitational anomaly like the gravity well of a planet. Commander Jiang, please take over sensors and find me that damn ghost."

“They shouldn’t be able to,” Mara muttered, studying the scans with wrinkled brow. “Well, I mean, we can’t. And we don’t know anybody who can. Maybe the Telino, but let’s face it; we don’t know what they can do.”

"Well, we have a treaty with the Telino and they are safely on the other side of a Galactic Barrier to us," Ingram mused aloud. The map updated again, this time the contact marker for the unknown ship appeared closer to Carpathia, this time only one moon away. One day they would get around to naming them all, but for now, it was just Moon 5.

And Moon 5 had a Shore Battery on it.

The targeting sensors of the Shore Battery were a little farsighted, being a long-range weapon system designed to fight over the long light hours of a star system. So the sensor image picked up on the holo was a jumble at best. The wash of the subspace and gravitational distortions from the ships exit and then sudden entry to slip space gave the few seconds of footage an odd watery quality to it.

It almost looked like the vessel was surfacing from a silvery pool, and then ascending through normal space to plough into an upper layer a few kilometres above it. But for those few seconds of visibility in normal space, the ships fuzzy profile was clear for all to see. An elongated bow, rising to a sharp ridge three-fourths of the way from front to back, with a pair of nacelles mounted vertically at the aft.

Ingram pressed a button on the console before him, and an echoing chime filled the air as the all-hands channel opened.

"All hands go to Red Alert. All civilians seek shelter in designated safety areas," Ingram looked at Mara and across her shoulder to Theylan. "Chief Ricci bring the main reactor to full power and energise the barrier shields. Mr th'Zohan bring all station batteries online, prepare to fire on my mark."

He then looked at Meilin.

"Save the pacifist proclamations Commander, skipping through a star system with a needlepoint QSD does not strike me as anyone idea of a First Contact protocol," Ingram said gravely.

"'To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders'," Meilin intoned. "Lao-Tze, from the Tao Te Ching."

Ingram levelled a baleful gaze upon his Chief Science Officer. He did not know if losing her from Tactical was better than having her in Science. Malfunctioning phasers were a lot more common than malfunctioning centrifuges. Not that he was likely to be so lucky. He was about to say something in return when the hologram shifted once more, and the station's proximity alarms began to wail fitfully.

The holo cams vantage point was from the skirt of the stations docking dome, looking down the length of Canopus towards the flared agridome and the spherical reactor sections. A scant two hundred meters off from the reactor section the phantom ship had appeared, ghosting out of the slipstream and coming to a relative halt. Closer now, and in far more detail, the ships white hull was dotted with only a handful of viewports, with the base of the raised tower at its aft holding an inlaid defector dish that glowed a sapphire blue.

Not that that was the most eye-catching aspect to be seen.

"...Sensor's can you zoom in on that section of the hull just fore of the tower structure?" Ingram said. The hologram expanded, and the view enlarged until the hull plating in question on the strange vessel came into sharp focus.

RCN Dauntless, CC 3478.

Mara’s face wrinkled into an expression of pure incredulity. “What even...?” she started, but didn’t know how to finish that sentence.

"Perplexed expressions later people!" Ingram said in a raised voice to encompass the other slacked jawed lookers-on. On the hologram's projection, the sleek blade of a ship remained still just off the station's reactor, but it did not remain inactive. What few lit viewports could be seen along its flanks flickered, and the oddly familiar red and blue warp nacelle casings crackled with energy discharge. A vicious bolt of electricity flashed like the fingers of an ivory tree and discharged against the raised barrier shield.

"Chief Ricci, I don't believe that to be weapons fire nor standard ships protocol," Ingram noted as the command centre's lights dimmed in response to the drain from the shield impact.

"Nor do I," Meilin put in. Her roving eyes were scanning multiple sensor readouts at once. "They're power fluctuations, but beyond anything a ship of that size should be able to generate. Active sensors can barely penetrate them. As far as we can tell, there are carbon-based lifeforms on board that are breathe atmosphere comparable to ours, but the power surges are blinding our sensors to virtually everything else."

"Sensors are showing an induction coil producing high-frequency alternating currents," Mara replied. "So, basically... they've got a Tesla Coil. I think that's the source of this... this disturbance." She sighed in exasperation. "I can't believe they're using a raw Tesla Coil! They're really unstable!"

The hologram flickered as another racking blast of discharge stroked along the shields, energising the hull panels beneath the protective barrier until the paint boiled off into space. And then the ship went dead. The running lights, viewports, and the nacelles dulled to darkness.

"Meilin gets a sensor read on them now," Ingram said and then looked at Mara across the command console. "Prepare a rescue party. If they've suffered an engineering casualty let's help them out, and make sure it doesn't turn back on again. Some of those energy spikes were...interesting. In a purely theoretical manner."

The initial scans reported breathable atmosphere, but Meilin wanted to confirm that before clearing an away team. After a moment, the secondary sensor report showed all clear. "Life support seems to be operational, but given we are unable to verify much else from sensors, I recommend all away team personnel wear EV suits." Her tone lowered in a wary warning. "There could be anything over there."

"Agreed. Commander Ricci, you will command the rescue and recovery effort. Commander Jiang will accompany you in her role as Science Officer, I want you scanning for the Concordance fungal spores. This could be a trojan horse loaded with plague for all we know," he then looked over at the Andorian security chief. "Mr th'Zohan, you're job is self-explanatory. The away team returns unmolested." Benjamin said authoritatively. "Let's get to work."