Thank goodness for Coffee!

Posted on Mon Jun 22nd, 2020 @ 6:08am by Commander Owen Nash & Lieutenant Commander Mindo
Edited on on Fri Jul 10th, 2020 @ 4:56pm

Mission: Divided We Fall
Location: Nash's Quarters
Timeline: Disappearances + 9 hours

A Mission Post by Commander Owen Nash & Lieutenant Mindo
Mission: Divided We Fall
Location: Nash's Quarters
Timeline: Disappearances + 9 hours

It had been nine hours since the shock wave that crippled the Pandora and caused several Bridge officers to mysteriously vanish. Mindo and his team of Engineers and Scientists had been working very hard to determine what happened. Mindo had been given a few hours off to catch some sleep, but he hadn't even been back to his quarters. Instead he had gotten and drink at the Box and then a snack with Rebekah and Aoife, all within two hours. He had returned to the Bridge after that and was met with little progress. While they still did not know where the Bridge crew were, they had a few vague clues that Mindo was hoping to share with Commander Nash right now.

Mindo hit the chime outside Nash's quarters.

Having managed to catch a couple of hours rest whilst the crew continued their various assignments, Owen was sat at his desk in his quarters drinking a large mug of Black Coffee to try and help keep himself awake. However it had been a restless sleep, several times he swore he heard the voices of the missing crew calling out to him.

So, deciding Coffee was a better alternative, Owen was finishing his second round when the door chimed. "Come," he called out.

Looking up from his empty mug, Owen saw Mindo walk in and look to be in a similar state to himself. "Okay, now I dont feel so bad that I look like hell," he began. "Seeing you look the same way makes me feel better...what do we have?" He asked his friend.

"Besides a headache and exhaustion?" Mindo said. "We've got a ship with shields at forty percent, weapons still offline, warp drive too, and this." Mindo handed Nash the PADD which contained the official report from Mindo and his team of equally-exhausted engineers and science officers.

"We found something interesting," Mindo continued. "The shock wave left behind trace tachyon signatures and baragon particles, two things often found in spacial anomalies. We know very little about our Indigo Sky, but I found something we didn't pick up before. A 'tachyon storm' inside the cloud, and a very high concentration of baragon particles... but still no anomaly or clear source. And the tachyon storm wasn't there when we got here."

Owen took a moment to dwell on the information that Mindo had presented to him. This meant that there had been an element introduced by the Pandora...

"So, does this mean that we were responsible for introducing an element in the storm that led to the Wave reacting as it did?" Owen asked.

Mindo sighed and scratched his head of disheveled hair. "My educated guess is that the extra propulsion module I attached to our probe may have caused a kind of spike in radiation, creating a chain reaction that resulted in our shock wave and probably the tachyon storm. I would say for sure that's definitely what happened, but none of this explains why the Bridge crew just magically disappeared. So for that we're back at square one."

"Damn it," Owen said as the thought of returning back to the start was something that felt like he was being kicked in the gut. He took a sip of his coffee.

"Hang on... We caused a Wave of energy inside the Indigo Sky that originated from a Tachyon Storm that we created..." He said as he worked his way through the facts. Then he suddenly had a thought...as if the Coffee caused a thought process to kick in.

"What if the wave that originated from the tachyon storm displaced the missing crew and affected parts of the ship? We know that the Bridge was affected... What if we could find some evidence of this by scanning the Bridge Module?" He suggested.

"That's exactly what I thought," said Mindo. "I'm running a thorough scan right now. Should be done in a few minutes. We can bring up the results on your terminal over there." Mindo nodded to the console on Nash's wall.

"Sounds like a plan old chum, have a seat for now. We could both do with a few moments rest to catchup after the last few hours," he offered.

"Any chance you have more of that coffee?" Mindo asked.

Owen smiled. "Absolutely." He walked over to the replicator and ordered two large black double sweet coffees. Once the replicator produced both drinks on a tray, Owen handed one to Mindo.

"Can I be honest with you for a moment, friend to friend?" He asked the Chief Engineer. Owen needed to talk and right now sense was something he wasnt short of. He sat down before taking a sip of his drink.

"Of course," said Mindo, taking in a much-needed sip of hot coffee.

"I wasnt looking for command of the Pandora. Hell she's my home and always has been, despite being away for a while but she is home," Owen said. "With the others missing, Starfleet wants an Officer in command and I understand that... But I feel that I've betrayed my friend and Captain... Does that make sense?" He explained

Mindo took a sip of the much-needed hot coffee. "It makes sense only if you've decided to give up on finding him. We've both been in Starfleet long enough to know that our missing crew could be anywhere. Maybe they've been beamed to another planet. Maybe they've gone back in time... or maybe they've been vaporized and are dead forever. I don't think they are, though. The good Counselor still feels a hint of their presence and I'm not going to give up on that. In Captain Temple's absence, you are the best option to run this ship. That isn't a betrayal. That's a compliment from Nyx himself."

Owen thought for a moment. "Dammit, you are a smooth talking son of a bitch," he joked. "I haven't given up on them either and like you, I know that they are out there somewhere looking for a way back just like we are looking for them."

Owen leaned forward in his seat. "Just do me one favour. When Nyx gets back, remind me to make sure he gets the keys back as soon as possible... I dont want to be accused of scratching the paintwork whilst he's been away," Owen explained.

Mindo laughed. "You'll be dealing with me if you screw up the paintwork!"

At that moment, the Wall Monitor beeped for attention with the scan complete.

"Ah, it's done," said Mindo. He brought up the results on the monitor and began reading. "Things look mostly normal," he said. "The tachyon radiation seems to have died down a bit. Our own life support system is likely the cause of that... Computer, compare state of the Bridge starting from five minutes before the shockwave to a few minutes after our crew disappeared."

The computer brought up two matching screens containing the data for both time periods.

As the Computer worked through the data, Owen was hopeful that something from the comparison would provide either a lead or an answer. "Lets see what the Comparison shows...there has to be a clue there somewhere," he offered as the Computer finished its scan of the data.

"I don't see anything," said Mindo, scanning the comparison. "One minute they're there, the next... poof! They weren't vaporized. That would leave trace particles." Mindo thought for a moment. "You know, we keep scanning the ship for irregularities. I think we need to examine the external phenomena itself. We need to send in another probe... but we'll need to move the ship closer to the nebula, and without shields..."

Owen considered Mindo's suggestion for a moment. "Hypothetically speaking... If I wanted Shields back, how long would it take?" He asked Mindo.

"Hypothetically I could have shields ready in ten minutes," said Mindo. "Realistically, it will take a lot longer."

"So, if we approached the Nebula without Shields then we run the risk of taking further damage...but theres no point making things worse," he said.

"Ok, lets take the ship to the maximum safest range of the Nebula and send out another probe...does it need to be the same specs as the first one though?" He asked. He recalled Krys' original fear about the Probe upgrades before he left the Bridge.

Mindo shook his head. "No. An ordinary probe will suffice."

Owen stood up from his chair after downing his last mouthful of coffee and looked at Mindo. He threw on his duty uniform jacket as he spoke.

"Right, lets get this underway. We'll need a standard probe ready to launch back into the external phenomena," he began.

"In the meantime, I'll need you to work whatever miracle you can with getting us some type of shielding whilst we are there, then we have some protection at the farthest range just in case we get a repeat performance. I'll head up to the Bridge and co-ordinate from there, We'll need to run a full systems check before we put the plan in action," he explained.

"Sounds like a plan to me," Mindo replied.