The Box Is Opened

Posted on Sat Jul 5th, 2025 @ 1:56pm by Lieutenant Alexis Ryan & Commodore Jacob Kane & Commander N'Garzi Zora & Lieutenant Leah Bailey
Edited on on Sat Jul 5th, 2025 @ 2:15pm

Mission: Pandora's Box
Location: USS Athena - Bridge
Timeline: MD-07
905 words - 1.8 OF Standard Post Measure

In the 24 hours since the fateful mission to attempt to recover their missing personnel, Kane had glared several times at the image of the stricken moon with the torn-up remains scattered across it. If rage and frustration were wishes, he'd have had all his people back and then some.

Whirling as Lieutenants Bailey and Ryan stepped out onto the bridge, he fixed both of them with the sort of determined look most people in his world would have attempted to avoid.

"Talk to me, Lieutenants."

"Well, we might have...something...?" Leah glanced at Alexis, hoping that she hadn't thrown her department head under the bus. At least, not entirely.

Since the away team's return, Ryan hadn't stopped. It spoke volumes that Bailey's slight hesitation suggested uncertainty about the reception her interjection would receive, a hint that the Science Department might have caught the first whiff of what it was like to work with Alexis Ryan when she was in a foul mood. For now, there was a tight lid on her frustration, and the feelings of guilt, and the Lieutenant met her Commanding Officer's gaze with a stubbornness that matched his own.

"The last scans performed during the away team's attempted extraction gave us some pivotal data for recalibrating the combined effort. Both the Edison's and our own sweep have drawn exactly the same conclusion; our graviton issues aren't the result of the planet killer's natural decomposition. From the sample we extracted and current generally-agreed speculation, there hasn't been a single simulation that produces this kind of temporal instability. Commander Lance has suggested what we're actually dealing with is the reason for the construct's system's failure. Something it brought with it."

Kane's eyes narrowed. He understood very little of the science behind all of their work, but he trusted the people saying it.

"Commander Zora. Your opinion?" he asked, hoping to buy a moment of time to process for himself.

Zora stood next to Kane, facing the science officers. Her face was stony, hiding the grief she felt for all the lives that had been lost during this mission. She had hoped that at the very least they hadn't given their lives in vain, but no outcome had prepared her for this. "Are you saying that the Planet Killer ate something that didn't agree with it?" She asked, hoping she was following the science with the clarity the situation deserved. Their silence spoke volumes.

"Commodore, the other thing about that anomaly...we think it might be growing." Bailey added. "If the neutronium of the planet killer's shell is somehow 'feeding' it, then it could grow exponentially, perhaps even affecting subspace."

"Do we have a way to stop it?" Kane asked, sensing it to be the most pertinent question.

"Lieutenants Bailey and Kyan have..." Here, Ryan side-eyed the woman beside her and it seemed apparent that the credit was partial reconciliation for a previous heavy-handed protest, "...proposed the use of the quantum slipstream drive."

"It'll act like a neutralising agent, inverting the graviton effects and stopping it completely. The planet killer's shell will probably be destroyed. But this is the only way to stop it from spreading. And..." Leah grimaced mid-thought. "Athena is the only ship in the squadron equipped with a quantum slipstream drive."

"The quantum slipstream drive isn't just something we can eject. We'd have to take the ship pretty close in..." Kane muttered.

"Skirting the atmosphere of the moon, yes sir," Leah nodded.

"What are the risks to the ship and the rest of the task force?" Zora asked quietly.

"That it doesn't work."

Ryan's blunt words matched her expression.

"At the current rate of expansion, there is no doubt we're headed towards a rapid destabilisation of subspace. Given that we know the ship's hull will be causing enough interference that we're only picking up a percentage of the actual graviton output, we have to assume the impact radius is going to be catastrophic. Going to warp this close will only excacerbate the issue, there's no way to to get the fleet clear. We either do this, and it works, or..."

The Science Chief's jaw clenched.

"Subspace collapses, the region is flooded with tetryon and Starfleet will have a bigger problem than an obliterated taskforce."

"Looks like we have no choice then," the Commodore affirmed. Trusting in the experts was the only way to handle this one; his usual idea of shooting things to atoms wasn't an option against the neutronium anyway. "Signal the taskforce to withdraw to safe distance. Prepare this solution of yours, Lieutenant."

Leah exchanged a look with Ryan and the two of them hurried off to enact their plan.

"Signal the Aurora. I want the squadron to form on them a safe distance away on impulse. Secure all stations and brace for atmospheric turbulence." Kane called out while taking his chair. He gave Zora a momentarily look. "This is a pretty big risk we're taking. If it doesn't work..."

"I know that you're not a man of faith but I am, and I have enough for the both of us." Zora settled into her seat and crossed her leg over the other one. "All hands red alert, man all duty stations and prepare for extreme turbulence," she announced over the comm channel. She folded her arms in her lap as she fixed her gaze on the viewscreen. "Let's kick this anomaly's butt!"