[AU] Investigating The Improbable

Posted on Mon Jun 22nd, 2020 @ 5:23am by Captain Nycolas Temple & Lieutenant Kalin Brennan-Griffin PhD
Edited on on Fri Jul 10th, 2020 @ 4:50pm

Mission: Divided We Fall
Location: Bridge

A Mission Post by Lieutenant Kalin 'Shae' Brennan PhD & Captain Nycolas Temple
Mission: Divided We Fall
Location: Bridge
Timeline:
Sun May 6th, 2018 @ 8:08am

ON:

Returning back to work on the escape pod, Nyx awkwardly twisted inside as he tried to work the panels without actually sitting in the seat. The last thing he wanted was for the pod to launch accidentally with himself inside. He had taken a few moments to work through the menus before pausing. His brow furrowed and he pulled his body out again, giving Brennan the universal ‘Something is wrong’ look.

“Shae, the escape pod’s battery is already down to eighty nine percent.” He spoke slowly, “How is that possible?”

"It shouldn't be," Shae remarked, then found her way to another pod. "This one is down to ninety one percent," she reported when she check its power reserve. "But why? It doesn't make any sense!" But nothing about their current situation made any sense... "Wait, the logs, this one has been active for hours! But it doesn't say how it was activated or what it's been doing all that time." The investigation into this pod wasn't going anywhere, so she left the pod to go check another one.

"We may have to check every pod on the three decks we have left." Nyx commented distractedly, as he scrolled through the Pod's internal systems. As he looked, the battery ticked down to eighty eight percent, causing Nyx to shake his fists at the screen. "But I didn't do anything!"

Taking a long deep breath, Nyx stuck his head back inside and started reviewing the Escape Pod's running functions. "Launch protocols ready, navigation charts loaded, boosters charged, power supply connected. Everything appears as per the normal checklist. You getting anything?"

"This one is offline, full power," Shae reported, then went to the next pod. "Okay, this one is down to seventy five percent!" she exclaimed when she checked the reserves, and so she checked its current functions. "Everything looks fine, I don't underand-" Shae stopped short when she realized what was going on. "Environmental controls, it's operating at almost two hundred percent capacity!" This was it, this was what was keeping them alive! "The pods, they must be powering the shields and filtering our air! Stars above, but who told them to do this? This isn't a protocol built into them, or the computer for that matter." Not that she wasn't grateful to have filtered air to breathe, but it seemed she now had more questions than answers.

Nyx's palm met his forehead as Shae's explanation set in. "So that's how we're still alive? The ship is now using the escape pods like batteries?" He allowed his body to sink into the chair of the Pod, his hands collapsing into his lap. "I don't know why either but thank goodness it's happening. That's a small miracle to come out of this situation. What I also don't get is why the ship seems to be draining power from some pods more than others. It means that some of them are going to be completely exhausted very quickly."

"There's any number of variables that could be affecting the power drain," Shae mused aloud as she left her pod to return to the one currently occupied by Nyx. It was hard for her to process everything logically right now, her thoughts were consumed with Aoife and how to get back to her, and it felt like she couldn't breathe! She was putting up a brave front, but she was struggling to maintain her composure and put their priorities here and now before the aching emptiness she felt in her gut. "It's possible the pods in use were not brought online at the same time, or it could be that they're being tasked to do different things which would drain them at different levels. But I agree, at this rate they will be exhausted quite quickly. I'll get with Kaleri and see if we can work out the minimal safe power consumption and air filtration so we can rotate pod usage to extend our resources," she forced herself to say; she would not let herself break down, not now!

Temple nodded along to Brennan's suggestions, "Sounds like a plan, let's get straight onto that before we lose any Escape pods completely." He instinctively tapped his comm badge then waited. It took a minute before he let out an audible sigh and looked to the ceiling. "I hate this!" He complained with a growl.

Lifting himself out of the escape pod, Nyx straightened up and looked back to Shae. "I will go retrieve Kaleri from Deck Two and send her back here to help you out. Will you be alright on your own? There's still a couple of officers resting on the Bridge, so you won't be entirely alone."

"I.... I don't know," Shae with a shuddering breathing; she was trying desperately not to break, but she couldn't help, her Aoife was still so helpless at times! "I know I need to work, focus on the task at hand, but all I can think about is Aoife. She still gets so afraid that I'm not going to come back for her when I go on shift, and sometimes it terrifies her so much she shuts down completely, especially if I don't pop into the creche to check on her from time to time. I need to get home to my baby, but I don't know where we are, I don't know how to fix this!" she said with raw frustration, but then that frustration turned to anger which she directed at herself. "I should have seen this coming! I saw the build up of neutrinos, I should have suggested we depart before the chroniton wave could hit us, but no, I had to be so fascinated by the Indigo sky, I just couldn't take my eyes off it, and now we're all screwed!" Never mind that a build up of neutrinos could mean any number of a thousand different things completely unrelated to the chroniton wave that hit them, in her mind logic and reason had vacated completely so it must be all her fault.

Nyx had moved to Shae's side while she vented her frustrations and gently knelt down to comfort her. "You cannot blame yourself, Shae. I gave the order to head to the Indigo Sky, I ordered a probe to be launched. Everything else that happened after that was completely out of our control. I shouldn't have asked us to delve into this mystery of the universe. Clearly there are some secrets we're not supposed to find out." He was trying to temper his tone between caring friend and dutiful Captain, hitting a strange mix of the personal and professional; a line which the two have had trouble when crossing before. "Aoife is okay. Just like Emilie and Katrine are okay. I just know they are. Our situation is difficult but we will get back to them soon. Once we even-out the power usage between the escape pods, we'll work on the distress signal. Once they hear that, we'll find a way to reunite the Pandora again."

His words helped temper her anger somewhat, but the guilt remained even as she took a deep breath to calm herself. "I know... I know in my head that you are right, by my heart rebels against all logic and reason... I just got Aoife back, she's still healing, finally starting to be a normal child, and if we are gone for too long I fear that she'll break," she said softly. But she knew he was right, they would not get back to the Pandora until they rectified their power situation and started broadcasting the signal. "But I'll push through this; I can recompose myself while you get Kaleri, then we can get started," she forced herself to say, pushing her raw emotions down as if to deny their very existence, all so she could focus on the solution to the conundrum of the nothing-space.

"You've done an amazing job of raising your little girl, she is more resilient now than when you guys first came onboard. I'm sure her nurse is looking after her and keeping her calm. Aoife probably just thinks you're at work still." Nyx added, trying to be helpful. "I'm sure there's a crew member resting in the Bridge who could grab Kaleri for us. I won't leave you unless you're totally comfortable with me doing so."

"I'll be alright, and I could use a moment to myself anyway," Shae replied. "Though if you come across Cailus, don't tell him about... this; he'll eventually figure out something is bothering me, he always does, but until then I don't want to be the cause of any distraction for him."

Nyx gave a small smile, "I will try, but I'm terrible at lying to my friends." He gave an emphasised sigh and nodded. "Alright, I won't be long."

Temple turned and jogged out of the room, crossing back over the Bridge and towards the nearest jeffries tube. He was saying a silent prayer that Shae would be alright because they needed this distress signal to work and he needed them to get home safely. And soon.