A Bridge Too Far - Part II

Posted on Mon 17th Sep, 2012 @ 4:26pm by Colonel Horatio Drake & Commander Paul Graves PsyD

849 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: http://sb109.sim-station.net/index.php/sim/missions/id/2
Location: USS Bretagne, Main Bridge
Timeline: Boarding + 4 hours

ON:

When a Starfleet phaser is discharged it emits a coherent nadion pulse that, depending on the energy used, can simply heat a target by exciting the molecular motion or destroy it by breaking the molecular bonds. When the kill setting on a phaser is activated the sarium krellide crystals, which are used in all Starfleet issue weapons, emit a bright red hue. This colour is what Drake now saw around the scorch mark on the Captain's uniform. Hard to distinguish against the red of her tunic, but not impossible.

"Lieutenant, these officers were killed with Starfleet phasers" Drake almost whispered over the inter-comm.

Paul nodded at Drake from the other end of the bridge, where he'd gone to examine the other bodies, one by one. "That's what it looks like," he said. "Every one of these people appears to have been armed with a phaser when they died. Some of them are armed with two."

"Why are none of the escape pods launched? And why are there no bodies in any of the corridors? Did this happen on a night shift?" Drake had so many questions... for now he directed them at Graves.

Paul frowned, studying the gruesome scene again. "Unless some unknown intruder beamed aboard or docked and left without a trace, I can only conclude that this ship's crew killed each other." He gave Drake a wry look. "If that's the case, many of them may well have stayed holed up in their quarters rather than risk being attacked in the corridors. I guess we'll find out the accuracy of that theory by looking in the living quarters."

He walked back toward Drake. "I'll be interested to hear what the ship's log says."

"Meadows to Drake," his helmet filled with the voice of the crewman.

"Drake here, what have you found?" He asked.

"Well, the systems have been down for a long time... but I believe I can get secondary power back online with an energy transfer from the Coldstream. It'll only last about ten hours, but it should work. I'm on my way back to the Runabout as we speak."

"Very good. Have you found any bodies yet?"

"I found a few in Engineering, but none anywhere else." There was a pause. "What happened on this ship, sir?"

"I don't know, crewman... I don't know. Just keep your wits about you, and concentrate on the task at hand. Drake out".

Drake glanced at Graves and then turned slightly to view the back of the Captain's head, looking almost life-like from behind. "If this happened on the night shift, why was the Captain... and most of the senior staff... on duty?". He almost made the remark under his breath as he saw what looked like the Chief Tactical Officer lying abreast of the tactical console.

"I only said that people might hole up in their quarters if they expected to be attacked in the corridors. As for why the senior staff are all here and at their duty stations...Senior staff assume their duty stations at any time of day, if an emergency is dire enough. But if there were such an emergency, I'd expect all the crew to be at their poses, and, according to Meadows, they aren't."

Suddenly two of the consoles on the Bridge lit up... for some reason this just added to the strange feeling on the Bridge, as it just looked out of place.

"I've managed to get some power to secondary systems, sir... I'm trying to stabilise the transfer. It should take about an hour or so". The voice of Meadows sounded, once again, over the intercomm.

"Excellent work, Crewman."

Graves had already moved to one of the newly operational terminals... Drake wasn't far behind. "See if you can access the last status of the ship... was she at Red Alert?" Drake knew that the information available to them on any given console, without the back-up of the main computer, was limited. But, at this point, any information would probably help to shed some light on the situation.

"It certainly looks like it, sir. However, unless the systems were affected by something, this isn't it's last known position... or last known time frame. If we're not looking at some sort of temporal element at play... then something transported this ship hundreds of light years, into this expanse."

Steele frowned, one that was clearly visible through his visor, something about this was starting to feel uncomfortable... the pitch darkness seemed to start creeping closer towards him. "Well, we know that they were en route to Starbase seventy-seven, their last known position was over two hundred light years from here. Are you saying that the ship thinks it is somewhere else?"

Locke shook her head, "No," he confirmed, "it seems that our estimates of last known time and position were not all that far off. But if that's where and when the ship's computer thinks it is, the question remains:" he paused looking up at Steele, his raised eyebrow visible through his visor, "How did it get here?"

To Be Continued...

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