Lift The Veil And Give A Kiss

Posted on Fri Oct 23rd, 2020 @ 11:36am by Commodore Jacob Kane & Commander Taeler Santu M.D. & Lieutenant Dessame Sar & Lieutenant Noah Reed M.D. & Lieutenant Commander Savin & Lieutenant Ausra Danton & Lieutenant Commander P’rel M.D & Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII

Mission: The Shadow of Arachne
Location: Bridge
Timeline: MD-4 (coincides with "Don't Do It")
1264 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

"I'm ready sir," Ausra nodded. Her hands were shaking though. She choose not to pick them up so that anyone else could see. "Just as soon as I hit this button." The deflector dish was aligned perfectly, power flowed through all the right conduits and as long as her calculations had been correct, her plan would be as perfect as she could make it without actually going and finding real wolves to chase off the Breen. She sucked in a deep breath and waited for the few words that would tell her to press the button.

"Remind me again how this is going to work?" Kane asked. It wasn't that he didn't trust his science officer. Rather more that his understanding of how her plan worked was completely beyond his understanding. Physics and mathematics were not among his strengths.

"It's pretty simple sir. I've just modified the deflector to emit certain particles, mostly ones that indicate a ship is either nearing or has just arrived. Only this is going to be a massive does so that they think something big and powerful, perhaps a whole fleet is about to drop out of warp, or just has. Hopefully they don't look too closely at the readings because obviously I don't have a fleet at my disposal to manifest in front of them. I mean, I will project images or course but they will only last seconds, a minute at most otherwise it would require an incredible use of power, which we don't have at the moment." She suddenly breathed deeply as if the last of her air had been used to say that long run on sentence.

"It will work," Savin encouraged her, once Jerant had finished signing to him. "Everyone here has every faith in you ma'am." Science wasn't really in his area of expertise. Of course, like most he did know the basics but the finer details generally eluded him unless they referred to the workings of the mind. But that was his playing field, and this one really was not.

Santu sat in the XO chair, nailed to the seat. This should work. It had to. For the sake of everyone on the ship, "No time like the present," She whispered to Kane next to her, knowing that they were living on borrowed time. It had been a long time since she had this feeling. Fingernails were digging into the armrests, waiting for the proposed subterfuge to kick in and give them some refuge from the ongoing chase with the Breen.

"Glad I fixed the deflector." Dessame grumbled quietly as she scanned the sensor readings she could make out. She was partially in favour of this plan but knew the risks. The Breen were not going away any time soon and she didn't have the power to launch an attack on them, especially where they were.

Kane nodded, taking a breath. "Very well, Lieutenant. Activate deflector."

There was a chirp from the science station and a slight hum as the deflector array came online.

“Keating to the bridge, don’t activate those deflector modifications!”

It took a half-second for anyone to react. Kane almost jumped up from his seat.

"Lieutenant...shut it-"

Too late. The deflector had already activated.

The deck felt like it fell away from those standing there; as if the inertial dampeners took a day off and the gravity plating seized up. Stomachs felt like they were in mouths before re-settling in their normal places. Mostly.

Fighting the urge to hurl, Kane staggered back to his seat. "R...Report!?" he managed to choke out.

"Deflector array...completely offline. We're...out of the Badlands?" Ensign Brewster exclaimed. "This is all very confusing, sir; the sensors must not be working. We're not in open space either. It's like...like a soup out there..."

"What?" Kane frowned. "Show me."

The viewscreen flickered to life, showing a vast, grey swirling cloud-like environment all around them. No stars. No plasma storms. Nothing. Like grey-white noise.

"Malfunction?" he asked.

"Doesn't look like it, Commander. I just...I don't know WHAT we're looking at here."

Kane leaned back in his chair and glanced at Taeler. He felt suddenly on-edge and tense. What had happened with the deflector pulse? And where were the Breen? There were too many unanswered questions. He glared around the bridge.

"Lieutenants Danton and Keating...what the hell happened and where are we?"

"Uh," Ausra said, just as confused as Kane. "I don't know sir, this shouldn't have happened at all. I . . ." she had no idea what went wrong. "I'll check into it."

"I don't know exactly what happened, but we've located a third intruder on deck 10 with the main deflector controls. My best guess is that they mucked with something right before the deflector was activated." Keating replied, wishing they'd found the saboteur just a few seconds earlier. "Lieutenant Dash is headed there now to subdue him."

"How can we have so many intruders on this ship that we don't know about?" Dessame asked herself rhetorically before pressing the combadge on her chest. "Lieutenant Dash this is Lieutenant Sar, once you have caught this saboteur I want to know immediately," she said sternly. Dessame was frustrated that they weren't picked up beforehand, and a little confused in herself as to what 'mucked with something' meant... must be a Human term.

Kevan acknowledged the call via the comm. Listening to the situation unfolding, Kane scratched his beard thoughtfully. "Well, for all we know the Breen won't have the first idea what happened either. That gives us a little time to figure out what's going on for ourselves and complete repairs. As well as working out how many damned saboteurs are running around my ship," he added with a pointed look at his security chief. "Let's get to work, people."

Savin took a few moments to recollect himself after nearly spilling his breakfast. Then, as waves of confusion started to barrage him, he looked around the bridge. "Do we need to call for medical?" He asked, "are there any injuries that require attention?" He could see to minor injuries himself but he didn't want to step on medical's toes.

As if appearing due to the mention of his department, Doctor Reed stepped onto the bridge with a very concerned facial expression. "Has someone checked the turbolifts lately? I swear that it fell in the shaft for a moment. It scared the crap out of me." He took a look around the room and gauged the seriousness of the situation.

As a Vulcan, P'rel had a comparatively iron-clad constitution when set against most other humanoids. Nonetheless, her stomach felt as though it buckled inside her briefly. "Three Captain".... P'rel said, against the backdrop of a nauseating wave barrelling up her throat "...clones". She gasped, barely audibly as her hand reached out for one of the lit support posts around the bridge to steady herself. She had no idea if she had been heard, and with her eyes clenched shut to control the feelings of sickness, she also couldn't look. Just for the briefest moment, she heard that chillingly familiar mechanical whirring sound, accompanied by a raspy and artificial respiration.

Kane twitched as at least two of his crew staggered around the bridge. He himself had a touch of vertigo, which he put down to the sudden shift in the ship's positioning. This whole situation was unsettling.

"Get after those...clones...whatever they are," he motioned at P'rel. "And someone fix the inertial dampeners before we start throwing up all over the damned place."