Ominous Awakening

Posted on Tue Jul 26th, 2011 @ 4:14am by Captain Nathan Cowell MD & Lieutenant JG Elizabeth Marion

Mission: Tomorrow's Arizona
Location: Bridge, USS Arizona
Timeline: Concurrently with the Away Mission

"Sir, the away team has just departed the ship, their materialization has been confirmed as the center of the largest ruins on the surface," the voice of Lieutenant Junior Grade Elizabeth Marion called out, shattering the silence of the bridge that had developed since they had arrived in orbit. The view being displayed before them was dominated not by a planetary body, but the strange, oblong and rather doughnut-like chunk of rock floating in orbit. The longer it hung within view, the more ill at ease Commodore Nathan Cowell became.

"Helm!" Nathan barked suddenly, "Humor me and run a scan of that damn doughnut. I want to know if that sucker is big enough to fly a ship through it..."

Alexis didn't have many of the scanning functions at her console that were available to those working at tactical, operations, or science, but what she could do would be sufficient to answer Cowell's question. "Aye sir, that's an affirmative, easily. At its narrowest, sir, the aperture is just under four hundred meters in diameter." Just about any cruiser in Starfleet would be able to pass through that thing... should there be a reason to. At least one concern nagged at Alexis' mind though, and she felt compelled to voice it.

"Sir, I would recommend a density scan first though, to ensure that our engine wash won't undermine its structural integrity." The last thing Alexis wanted was that thing coming apart... if they decided to fly through it.

"I'm not too interested in flying through it..." the Commodore said, "I was just wondering if that might be possible. It's just nagging me to death why it would be that huge... it doesn't look natural. How about you, do you think it looks natural?"

"Negative." Alexis replied immediately. "The minimal variance in diameter would suggest artificial creation... either that or a naturally-occurring anomaly."

"Natural my ass..." the old man groused, "You know something... Run a deep resonance scan of that thing, inch by inch if you have to. Something just ain't right..."

Lt. Marion cringed visibly at hearing the Commodore say that, glancing over to Alexis with a worried expression. It had been her experience that those words from the Commodore's mouth normally led to something disastrous. Having had little contact with Lt. Sylvari, Liz wasn't entirely sure if her look of concern would translate well or serve as sufficient warning to proceed with caution, but she had to try.

Alexis caught the operations officer's look of concern... she'd only recently figured out that she was the woman Cowell had suggested she talk to. That moment was all kind of a blur, considering she'd been holding back tears at the time, and her mind was now considering it a memory subject for repression. She didn't really know what to take from Marion's expression... should she proceed with caution? Or would Cowell actually make her scan it literally inch by inch? She tried to return a confident smile to the woman at ops... as if to say Don't worry, I've got this. Uncertainty, however, continued to tug at her below the surface.

As Alexis input the scanning protocols, she quickly discovered that she wasn't going to have to scan every single inch... the object simply wouldn't let her. Surface scans revealed a fairly typical mineral composition as far as asteroids go, but no matter how she tweaked the sensors, she couldn't get them to penetrate the surface of the object... they all just kept returning with nothing more tangible than garbled static. Alexis hated admitting failure, but on her end there wasn't much more she knew how to do.

"Sir, our deep resonance scans are unable to penetrate the surface... something due to its composition, but I can't get any clear readings." Alexis considered saying sorry, but she figured that wasn't likely to earn her any favors or sympathy with Cowell.

The old man grumbled to himself for a moment before he finally spoke again, "Scan the space around that thing... See if there are any unusual particles floating around out there that shouldn't be."

"Aye sir." Alexis replied. Shifting her scans to the particles, she was at first somewhat disappointed to get readings of the same mineral composition on the surface of the... doughnut. But then the scans began to pick up something else... some sort of subatomic particles. She was not familiar with the signatures she was picking up on sensors, but running them through the computer database quickly revealed them to be chronitons... temporal in nature.

"Chronitons, sir... only traces of them. The computer is suggesting either the presence of a cloaked Romulan ship, or some sort of temporal activity." At one point Alexis would have put her credits on the Romulan ship... but after the incident her mind was a bit more open to stranger possibilities.

"Can't be Romulans... so we have to assume the more bizarre of the two..." Nathan muttered just loud enough to be heard. The old man scratched his chin for a moment as he gazed at the floating ring in the center of the screen. There was something vaguely familiar about it... Not familiar in the way one looked upon something they had seen before, but a feeling deep in the pit of one's stomach... like he was looking upon something that shouldn't that shouldn't even be there.

And then the thing gave Nathan a reason to suspect that shit was about to get real...

A brilliant flare of multicolored light exploded in the center of the floating doughnut, engulfing the entire center of the thing in a haze of ever-changing colors that drew the eye into it. The effect was almost hypnotic, or rather it was hypnotic to those that had never seen such phenomenon before. Unfortunately, Nathan had seen such things before thanks to the Nexus ribbon... and he was very much aware now that he was staring into the maw of something both benevolent and sinister all at once.

Nathan was on his feet within seconds of the thing coming to life, "Cowell to transporter room one, enact emergency retrieval of the away team now!"

The sudden orders from the Commodore jarred more than one of the occupants of the bridge back to reality, not the least of whom was Lieutenant Marion. She went about running scans of the device, only to be greeted with an instrument panel that read blank, as if the object had suddenly disappeared from the universe altogether.

"Sir, I can't get a reading anymore..." Liz reported.

"Of course not... he's humored us long enough..." the Commodore grumbled, his tone indicative of someone who was suddenly very much aware of what was happening.

I HAVE WAITED A LONG TIME FOR YOU... a voice thundered in the minds of everyone on the bridge. It was at once frighteningly alien and uncomfortably familiar.

"Do we have the away team back?" Nathan inquired urgently.

"Yes sir, they've been brought aboard," Liz nodded.

"Helm, get us the hell out of here!" the Commodore demanded. He watched his helmsman endeavor to carry out his orders, and found himself sick with dread when the computer began issuing the tell-tale warning tones that indicated the inputs were being refused. Even as the Lieutenant turned to report the ship wouldn't respond, Nathan had a hand up to silence her.

"I already know, Ms. Sylvari..." the old man said with a sigh, "We've been caught..."

YOU HAVE CONCERNS... a voice raged in Nathan's mind, and by the looks on the faces of the people around him, only in his mind.

"You're damn right I have concerns! I know what you are, you're one of those damn paradox critters... My ass is my beginning and all that crap... I've heard more than I ever wanted to hear about you from old James Kirk..." Nathan fumed, drawing some rather skeptical looks from a few of the crew on the bridge.

THAT WAS NOT ME... the voice countered rather briskly, THAT WAS ANOTHER OF MY KIND...

"Another one? Good lord, how many of you critters are there?!" the Commodore lamented aloud.

THAT DOES NOT MATTER...

"The hell is doesn't..." Nathan grumbled as he stared the thing down through the view screen.

YOU HAVE BEEN BROUGHT HERE FOR A PURPOSE... IT WAS INEVITABLE THAT YOU CAME HERE, TO THIS PLACE, AT THIS TIME... the voice explained ominously.

"Was it now?" the Commodore scoffed at the notion that they had been predestined to arrive here and encounter the floating doughnut with a superiority complex, "More like we were set up..."

The crew shot one another worried glances as they listened to only half a conversation that seemed to be taking place. Even Lt. Marion, who had served Nathan the better part of her adult life, was growing concerned at the exchange. While she didn't doubt his mental stability, she did fear the seriousness of the exchange and what it would mean for the crew.

"Sir..." Liz spoke up in a pleading manner.

"Shush now, sweetheart, the grown ups are talking..." Nathan brushed her off in a rather brisk manner that did nothing but raise further concern.

YOU MAY VIEW OUR MEETING IN WHATEVER MANNER YOU CHOOSE. YOU ARE, HOWEVER, HERE NOW. EVENTS HAVE BEEN SET INTO MOTION... the voice said with finality. Nathan could feel the presence leave his mind, as if it had been standing right next to him a moment ago and was now suddenly worlds away from him. Before the Commodore had time to really register the sensation fully, a buckling in the ship jarred him, causing him to lose his balance and flop backward in an almost comedic manner into his chair.

"Sir, we're being pulled forward, toward the aperture..." Alexis reported from her console.

"Shit..." Nathan muttered, "This is going to suck..."