Effect & Cause & Effect

Posted on Thu Jul 4th, 2024 @ 9:52am by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Commander Jonathan Grayson & Commander Samantha Howard & Lieutenant Commander Callie Raven-Grayson & Lieutenant Imik S'Niohun & Lieutenant Inara Senn & Lieutenant JG Kate Kono & Ensign Torog Zakhov

Mission: The Andromeda Strain
Location: USS Washington

The Washington and Andromeda were just an hour away from the troublesome sector. Shran had the bridge officers at stations. Deanna and Inara had reported temporal distortion waves emanating from the sector for nearly an hour, and Shran was concerned at what it would do as they moved ever nearer. "Report" he said as he leaned forward in his chair.

"Distortion waves are continuing to increase. Shields are holding, but we are going to have bleed through as we continue to move closer" Deanna replied. "I fully expect for the temporal visions to begin being reported soon."

Imik was also running scans, as with most space fairing races her kind had encountered things similar to this before. Only these distortions seemed different, more dangerous. As an Ojnas she played with different parameters to see if perhaps something might turn up, so far all had been for naught. "I to have no good news Captain, chronoton levels are rising which may lead to sudden time jumps or repeated actions. Added to the dimensional aspect of the distortions, I fear mental dysphoria will occur on board."

Sam was on the bridge with med kit in hand, her team in Sickbay were also prepped and ready. There wasn't too much they could do to prevent the dysphoria; however, they would start with standard treatments and work from there.

Inara continued to study the distortion effect, there was a correlation between their distance from the anomalies and the warp fields. "Captain, I recommend we drop to low warp." She gestured Shran over. "The anomalies are growing in intensity as we near them. I'm detecting a chronoton field variances that match the subspace field modulation of our warp drive. Dare I say we may be rocking our own boat."

Shran looked to Deanna. She looked at what data Inara was referencing, "I'd have to concur with Inara's assessment."

"Very well" Shran replied. "Reduce speed to Warp 4, notify the Andromeda of our findings and advise them to match our speed. And I want constant monitoring of all crew. If anyone has a bout with the temporal dysphoria, I want to know about it immediately. That goes for any other temporal distortions that might impact the ship."

Callie nodded from where she sat in her seat, it had been 3 weeks since the birth of her & Jon’s twins and she was back on light duties for a few short hours a day. She couldn’t help but wonder what to expect from temporal dysphoria if it occurred, would it be the past, the future? Did she really want to know?

Suddenly, calls began coming into to bridge.

=^= Ayana to the bridge. Captain, I have encountered a pair of ensigns who appear frozen just outside turbolift 2. Scanning them with the tricorder I am detecting chronotons present. I believe they are in some sort of temporal fugue. =^=

=^= LeFaye to bridge. We are detecting chronotons here in Engineering. I have personnel that are freezing in place. =^=

Shran looked at Inara and Deanna, "Is this what you expected regarding the potential temporal dysphoria?"

Hearing the reports coming in, Imik rechecked her scans. Somehow, someway there had to be an answer. Just what that answer was now began to come into focus in her mind, a tetryon radiation sweep. "Captain, this maybe a leap too far. But I believe a tetryon sweep of this vessel right now might abate some of the chronoton radiation and allow our crew to function." She looked around the bridge and waited for the response, it was a gamble but what else could they try?

Shran wasn't sure how scanning for tetryon radiation was going to abate chronotons, but with crew starting to succumb to the predicted temporal dysphoria, he was willing to take certain things on a bit of faith. "Make your sweep lieutenant. Report your findings to Cmdr Celes."

Kate entered the bridge and activated a map overlay of sensor data taken from all Starfleet records on the area of space and sent the files to the viewer to be used for anything useful. She didn't say anything because the captain had his hands full and no amount of words, she could add would really be helpful for the self-explanatory information offered. Sure, she wanted to talk, but -- there was no reason to file a complaint about the fact that her and her boyfriend's quarters were frozen in time. Luckily for Kate, she discovered it through a random paper airplane that she flung through the room. She knew when those leaflet airplanes were never landing, it was time to get her, and her significant other out of their quarters. The bridge seemed like the safest place.

Considering crew members were freezing in place, her paper airplane problem was the least of anyone's concerns, but at least she offered a map of where not to go -- it's just that, obviously, some road bumps on their journey were shown, and certainly not all. Kate continued doing research with sensor data to try and fill in the gaps while the rest of the crew around her on the bridge continued to work their own individual problems.

Jon sat in the XO's chair, reports were coming in from all over the ship of crew members having temporal flashes and freezing in place. He glanced in Callie's direction; she was back on light duty and seemed to be alright. He gave her a wink and smile as a sort of reassurance then turned back to take more reports coming in from every part of the ship.

Sam gave instructions to her people to assist where they could, but until people were free from their temporal freeze, there wouldn't be much they could actually do. This went way beyond the physical.

"I am not scanning for tetryon Captain, I am using tetryon to counteract the chronoton. It is not a permanent solution to the situation, only an aide to allow our people to operate until we do indeed find the proper solution." Imik had picked up Shran's confusion, she now looked over to Shran, "Do I continue Sinkahue? Or do you wish me to stand down?"

"By all means scan away. Just send the information to Deanna should you have any reactions" Shran replied.

Callie was feeling uneasy, she could sense mixed emotions from all over the ship. “Everything is so...” she stopped talking as the scene on the bridge changed before her eyes. The bridge was silent, the crew were down everywhere she looked, stations were sparking, lights were flickering, and the bridge was filled with thin clouds of smoke...

Torog slammed the engineering console again. This time cracking the touch screen LCARS display. Red alert sirens screeched around main engineering. The usual pulsing blue throbbing of the warp drive had ceased and been replaced by several gaping cracks in the core hissing with green fumes. Engineering crews either tackled fires or lay on the floor from various injuries. The warp core was reaching critical mass and about to explode. Torog had tried every trick he could think of to re-route power to the ejection system, but nothing was working. Every Tellarite swear word he could possibly recount, and some alien ones as well were shouted at the noncooperative ships systems... He felt a hand on his shoulder. Torog turned, but nobody was there, and main engineering had returned to normal.

Shran hit his comm panel of shipwide, "All hands, the temporal distortions are beginning to penetrate our shields and impact crew. Continue to notify regarding any crew you encounter experiencing a temporal dysphoria incident and remain at red alert stations." Shran looked back at Deanna and Inara, "Tell me you have an idea to at least protect us from this?"

Deanna was looking at all the sensor data, but in all honesty, she knew they couldn't do much. Then she took note of something, they were being hit by waves of chronotons, not constant streams. That meant these temporal issues were temporary. It wasn't much but she thought it important to inform the captain about. "This isn't a constant stream captain. We are being hit with waves of chronotons. This is just a temporary situation we are dealing with. Data from Andromeda confirms this as much. They are dealing with the exact same thing we are."