Small Spaces

Posted on Tue Nov 3rd, 2020 @ 5:26pm by Ensign George Paxton & Lieutenant Leah Bailey

Mission: The Shadow of Arachne
Location: Engineering
Timeline: MD-05
1476 words - 3 OF Standard Post Measure

George ran yet another diagnostic on the ship’s systems. Everything continued to be slightly off. It was likely some sort of side effect from being in this fluidic region of space, but he was no science officer so he couldn’t be sure. I wonder if Leah could help with this?

He thought back on his brief encounter with Lieutenant Bailey when she had lent a hand with engineering repairs a few days ago. She was not only a science officer, but seemed to have a decent working knowledge of engineering systems as well. “Paxton to Bailey,” George spoke through the commbadge, “are you able to come by engineering for a few minutes?”

"Absolutely," Leah responded shortly after.

She appeared in the Engineering section a couple of minutes later, spying out the Ensign in the corner and frowning away at something.

"Hey there Ensign," she smiled on her approach, tapping him on the arm. "You look terrible. What's got you so worried?"

“Gee, thanks. Do I really look that bad?” George chuckled. “Everything is slightly off. I think it has something to do with being in this unusual region of space, but I’m not a science officer so I wanted to get your opinion.” He looked up from the console. Was it just him or did the walls in engineering suddenly seem closer?

She gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "It's okay to be a little scared, Ensign. But there's really nothing to worry about; from all indications the space outside isn't harmful to the ship or the crew." She smiled warmly. "I won't tell anyone, if you're bothered."

Scared wasn’t really the right word, anxious was more accurate. As if they were teetering on the precipice of a towering mountain and someone was waiting to push them off. Either way, he appreciated the sentiment from Leah. “Maybe it’s nothing then and I’m just overreacting,” he gave a slight smile.

A flicker on the console caught his eye, “or maybe it’s not nothing. See what I mean?” George pointed to the flashing warning. “One of the antimatter injectors on deck four is malfunctioning, but it’s like it’s happening for no reason. There are no other system failures, nothing to indicate that this should be happening or why and instances like this have been popping up all day. Last night the gravity failed in holodeck two while I was swimming and when I went to investigate, the computer had no record of it. It was as if it never occurred. It’s just bizarre.” He sighed, exhausted from chasing down ghost issues but knowing he'd have to go and investigate on deck four anyways.

"Hmm. Maybe worth running a diagnostic on the internal sensors. Could be part of the problem. We took a lot of damage with the Pico explosion, too, so that could be part of the problem." Leah motioned over her shoulder. "Why don't we go take a look for ourselves? It's not far and we can check the sensors when we get there."

"Maybe, but I ran a diagnostic on all of the internal sensors this morning and nothing popped out. Regardless, you're right, we should check it out." He said, reluctantly pulling himself away from the console.

They entered the small room that housed the antimatter injectors on deck four and George twitched as the doors automatically closed behind them. He moved to inspect the injectors, trying to shake off the uneasy feeling that still plagued him and focus on the task at hand. A quick scan revealed that nothing was wrong. "Do you see what I mean? Nothing's wrong with these." He waved his hands at the injectors, exasperated. George then looked up and his expression went blank. The walls were definitely closer, by at least a meter, he could swear by it.

"That is strange," Leah agreed, peering down at her tricorder. "Well, there's really nothing unusual here. Could be an issue with the main computer..." she looked over at him for a second. "What is it?"

“Doesn’t the room seem smaller to you? The walls have definitely moved in at least a meter. I know it sounds crazy, but this room is smaller.” He replied, panic creeping into his voice. “May...maybe I just need some air,” George made for the door hoping the open hallway would ease the anxiety attack, but when he approached the doors nothing happened. “Oh no. No no no, I need to get out!”

"Ensign...Ensign, what's wrong?" Leah tried to grab hold of him and try to help him calm down. "It's okay, it's fine. Just relax!" For whatever reason the young man was freaking out. "Do I need to get you to sickbay?"

“Can’t you see that we’re trapped?! The doors won’t open!” He exclaimed, desperate to escape the ever shrinking room. Realizing that the doors were not going to budge, George stopped, slumped forward against the door and took a deep breath. “Focus, 5...4...3...2...1,” he murmured, quietly tried to calm himself back down.

"We're not trapped. We're fine. We're going to be-" Leah abruptly stopped as the Ensign turned to face her. His face, from her perspective, was gnarled and mutilated. She sucked in a gasp and staggered backwards, her memories surfacing of those tragic victims of a delta-particle radiation disaster; their bodies reduced to a husk of their former selves. She was shaking as she took two steps backwards against the wall. "N-no...no..not again..." she whispered as tears began filling her eyes.

Having finally calmed himself down George looked at Leah. “Lieutenant?” He inquired as she now clearly seemed to be in distress also. “Not what again?!” He asked as he stepped towards her, still a hint of panic in his voice. Nearing Leah only made her shirk farther away. Why is she pulling away from me? I'm not the problem, he thought. "I don't think we have much time before these walls snuff out what space we have remaining. We need to find a way out." He stated, trying his best to keep from entering back into a fully panicked state.

"Out...out..." She breathed, her eyes clamping shut as she tried to focus in on the moment. "Need to get out." She opened her eyes, shutting-out the horrific image in front of her as she sought the doors to let them out of this room. "Door," she motioned. "Door!" her tone became more urgent as she refused to face the grotesque form confronting her senses and stumbled in the direction of the exit.

“The doors aren’t working!” George exclaimed as he continued to finick with the control panel. The room felt less oppressive as he focused on the task at hand. Though the anxious feeling of hysteria remained perched on the edge of his mind as if just awaiting an opportunity to grasp control. “I’m trying to get them to work, but from a technical standpoint it doesn’t look like there’s actually anything wrong with them!”

A large metal bar slammed into the door not far from the Ensign's head. Leah, wielding a piece of duranium piping like a crowbar, hammered it against the crack that was supposed to open and allow them exit. After a grunt and a snarl of various different emotions, she pushed and pried until the door snapped open causing her to almost fall through it to the deck beyond. She was shaking and breathing hard, looking around at Paxton, whose face had returned to it's non-melty normal self. "E-Ensign..." she gasped. "You're...okay?"

George quickly stepped into the hallway after her. “I’m okay? You mean we’re okay. That room was only about a meter from snuffing our lives out, I’ve never seen walls move like that, it shouldn't even be possible...,” He said as he turned around. He peered back into the room, which was now the same size as when they had entered it. “Wait, what the heck?! Are you seeing this? That room was just ten times smaller….”

Leah was still catching her breath. "I saw...I saw..." She wasn't even sure what she'd seen, were she completely honest with herself. "I saw you burned. By radiation. But...that's not what happened, is it? Just like the faulty relay, the walls..." She shook her head. "I think we need to report this."

“If that’s not what happened then...you think we imagined it?” George asked. “It can’t just be a coincidence since we both had a hallucination right? What do you think caused it?”

"Shared hallucinations? I've heard of drugs or nerve agents that might do that." Leah frowned. "Let's get to sickbay; maybe we can find out what's really going on."