“Report?” Captain Elena Cortez asked as she exited her ready room and approached the officers clustered around the science station.
Lieutenant Commander th’Rhelsh turned to her as science officer O’Connell and ops manager Jraktdek continued to work. “We’re picking up a sensor ghost, but diagnostics show all arrays to be fully functional.”
Cortez frowned. The U.S.S. Archimedes was equipped with some of the best sensors that Starfleet had, as well as a few experimental arrays, for them to be malfunctioning was highly unlikely and there was no way her crew was in error, she wouldn’t tolerate such negligence. So that meant there was something out there.
“Put the location of the ghost on screen.”
At the tap of a control the viewscreen came to life and showed only the vague hint of blueish-silver haze, the only indication that they weren’t in plain ordinary space. What caused it was unknown, just like many other phenomena that plagued this particular corner of Sector Sierra-19, which was part of the reason why they’d been assigned to it. Despite being right on the border of the Romulan Neutral Zone the region was rarely travelled, partly due to the sensor and navigation issues most ships experienced.
“There’s nothing there,” Ensign Deveraux commented from the conn, earning the younger woman an annoyed glance from her Captain.
“The Kalista Triangle is bound to have her share of ghosts, given all the ships that vanished here over the centuries,” stated Master Chief Hiroto Kozu.
Holding in an exasperated sigh, she looked over at her chief of security. The old non-com had been close to her father ever since they’d been at basic training, so it was at his insistence that she’d taken him on when she made Captain, though it was a decision she had quickly started to question. Though he was perhaps the most experienced crewmember she had, he seemed to have his own way of doing things, which wasn’t how she wanted it done. His recounting of ridiculous rumours and tall tales were more suited to a dingy bar in the Rigel System, not the bridge of her ship.
“I think it would be better discounting other, more logical, options of what it might be, before we jump to the supernatural.”
“Twenty-eight ships confirmed to have vanished in the last hundred years alone, none ever to be heard of again, something unnatural is definitely happening out here, sir.”
She plastered on a polite smile. “Thank you, Master Chief.” She then turned back to the officers trying to provide actual facts rather than superstitions. “Run full spectrographic, quantum resonance and particle trace scans, if they come up negative switch to a tachyon sweep.”
“Aye sir,” th’Rhelsh replied promptly.
“Patch all the incoming data to my ready room, I’ll run my own analysis.”
Cortez’s fourth pip and her command of the Archimedes were still new, only gaining both six weeks ago on the first day of 2366, but even as a first officer she’d made a point in keeping on top of research projects and telemetry analysis—years spent as a science officer didn’t just stop with the change of uniform colour. She also needed to ensure that O’Connell and Jraktdek measured up to her expectations, she was already considering a new security chief so she didn’t want to have to worry about two other key members of her senior staff.
Her ready room, as with so many other things on the Oberth-Class ship, was small. Due to this there wasn’t space for a couch or coffee table, so all that was in her office was a desk, three chairs, a few shelves, and a replicator. She kept the office neat and tidy, with very little in the way of personal effects on display, other than a few of the awards and accolades she’d earned over her career, a photo of her father and her on the day she graduated from the Academy, and another of herself and a few of her classmates.
Her eyes lingered on the group of cadets, before quickly focusing in on one in particular, one who had meant the world to her back then but who was no longer with them. Paul Rice had been an infuriating man to know, but that was what gave their relationship such a spark, they challenged one another like no one else could. They’d managed to stay close even after graduating, meeting up a few times for leave, there was even some talk of taking things further, but they were both focused on their careers more than their personal lives, so they’d agreed to end things but still stayed in touch.
Two years ago, Rice had been the first of their class to make Captain, an honour they’d all expected to go to Will Riker, but he’d turned down the Drake for the opportunity to serve on the Enterprise-D. She’d been green with envy at Rice’s promotion, which only got worse when he contact her with the good news (or rather rub her nose in it). However, a few months later the Drake and all those aboard had been lost at Minos.
Every Starfleet officer knew that the life they’d chosen was a dangerous one, that they might never see their loved ones again, but knowing that and experiencing it first-hand were two totally separate things. Despite having not been a couple for years, his loss had still hit her hard. But it had also pushed her to get her own fourth pip for Rice as much for herself.
Sitting at her desk she focused on her terminal as the results of the scans began to filter through. The region nicknamed the ‘Kalista Triangle’ was definitely a mystery. Home to an unusual disturbance in subspace though that alone couldn’t explain the other phenomena, such as EM spikes, gravitational eddies, and charged particle fields, it also couldn’t explain how so many ships had vanished in the area of the centuries—including an entire task force from the Earth-Romulan War over two centuries ago.
As she studied the data she witnessed the sudden shrinking of their effective sensor range, though she cross checked and noted they were heading into one of the few charted areas of increased subspace distortion—which mean their sensors, communications, transporters and warp drive would all be affected. She focused in on the last location of the sensor ghost, curious to see just how it would be affected by the change in conditions.
Just as she saw a strange fluctuation in their readings, which told her there was definitely something out there, her screen suddenly went dead followed seconds later by the lights cutting out, plunging her ready room in near total darkness except for the pinpricks of starlight from the viewport. Tapping the companel resulted in the buzz of an inactive channel. She rose and headed for the exit, but before she reached the door all hell broke loose.
* * * * *
Lieutenant Commander th’Rhelsh turned to her as science officer O’Connell and ops manager Jraktdek continued to work. “We’re picking up a sensor ghost, but diagnostics show all arrays to be fully functional.”
Cortez frowned. The U.S.S. Archimedes was equipped with some of the best sensors that Starfleet had, as well as a few experimental arrays, for them to be malfunctioning was highly unlikely and there was no way her crew was in error, she wouldn’t tolerate such negligence. So that meant there was something out there.
“Put the location of the ghost on screen.”
At the tap of a control the viewscreen came to life and showed only the vague hint of blueish-silver haze, the only indication that they weren’t in plain ordinary space. What caused it was unknown, just like many other phenomena that plagued this particular corner of Sector Sierra-19, which was part of the reason why they’d been assigned to it. Despite being right on the border of the Romulan Neutral Zone the region was rarely travelled, partly due to the sensor and navigation issues most ships experienced.
“There’s nothing there,” Ensign Deveraux commented from the conn, earning the younger woman an annoyed glance from her Captain.
“The Kalista Triangle is bound to have her share of ghosts, given all the ships that vanished here over the centuries,” stated Master Chief Hiroto Kozu.
Holding in an exasperated sigh, she looked over at her chief of security. The old non-com had been close to her father ever since they’d been at basic training, so it was at his insistence that she’d taken him on when she made Captain, though it was a decision she had quickly started to question. Though he was perhaps the most experienced crewmember she had, he seemed to have his own way of doing things, which wasn’t how she wanted it done. His recounting of ridiculous rumours and tall tales were more suited to a dingy bar in the Rigel System, not the bridge of her ship.
“I think it would be better discounting other, more logical, options of what it might be, before we jump to the supernatural.”
“Twenty-eight ships confirmed to have vanished in the last hundred years alone, none ever to be heard of again, something unnatural is definitely happening out here, sir.”
She plastered on a polite smile. “Thank you, Master Chief.” She then turned back to the officers trying to provide actual facts rather than superstitions. “Run full spectrographic, quantum resonance and particle trace scans, if they come up negative switch to a tachyon sweep.”
“Aye sir,” th’Rhelsh replied promptly.
“Patch all the incoming data to my ready room, I’ll run my own analysis.”
Cortez’s fourth pip and her command of the Archimedes were still new, only gaining both six weeks ago on the first day of 2366, but even as a first officer she’d made a point in keeping on top of research projects and telemetry analysis—years spent as a science officer didn’t just stop with the change of uniform colour. She also needed to ensure that O’Connell and Jraktdek measured up to her expectations, she was already considering a new security chief so she didn’t want to have to worry about two other key members of her senior staff.
Her ready room, as with so many other things on the Oberth-Class ship, was small. Due to this there wasn’t space for a couch or coffee table, so all that was in her office was a desk, three chairs, a few shelves, and a replicator. She kept the office neat and tidy, with very little in the way of personal effects on display, other than a few of the awards and accolades she’d earned over her career, a photo of her father and her on the day she graduated from the Academy, and another of herself and a few of her classmates.
Her eyes lingered on the group of cadets, before quickly focusing in on one in particular, one who had meant the world to her back then but who was no longer with them. Paul Rice had been an infuriating man to know, but that was what gave their relationship such a spark, they challenged one another like no one else could. They’d managed to stay close even after graduating, meeting up a few times for leave, there was even some talk of taking things further, but they were both focused on their careers more than their personal lives, so they’d agreed to end things but still stayed in touch.
Two years ago, Rice had been the first of their class to make Captain, an honour they’d all expected to go to Will Riker, but he’d turned down the Drake for the opportunity to serve on the Enterprise-D. She’d been green with envy at Rice’s promotion, which only got worse when he contact her with the good news (or rather rub her nose in it). However, a few months later the Drake and all those aboard had been lost at Minos.
Every Starfleet officer knew that the life they’d chosen was a dangerous one, that they might never see their loved ones again, but knowing that and experiencing it first-hand were two totally separate things. Despite having not been a couple for years, his loss had still hit her hard. But it had also pushed her to get her own fourth pip for Rice as much for herself.
Sitting at her desk she focused on her terminal as the results of the scans began to filter through. The region nicknamed the ‘Kalista Triangle’ was definitely a mystery. Home to an unusual disturbance in subspace though that alone couldn’t explain the other phenomena, such as EM spikes, gravitational eddies, and charged particle fields, it also couldn’t explain how so many ships had vanished in the area of the centuries—including an entire task force from the Earth-Romulan War over two centuries ago.
As she studied the data she witnessed the sudden shrinking of their effective sensor range, though she cross checked and noted they were heading into one of the few charted areas of increased subspace distortion—which mean their sensors, communications, transporters and warp drive would all be affected. She focused in on the last location of the sensor ghost, curious to see just how it would be affected by the change in conditions.
Just as she saw a strange fluctuation in their readings, which told her there was definitely something out there, her screen suddenly went dead followed seconds later by the lights cutting out, plunging her ready room in near total darkness except for the pinpricks of starlight from the viewport. Tapping the companel resulted in the buzz of an inactive channel. She rose and headed for the exit, but before she reached the door all hell broke loose.
* * * * *
