Vanishing Act

Posted on Sun Nov 17th, 2024 @ 1:45pm by Captain Nycolas Temple

Mission: The Only Thing Left Was Hope
Location: Earth - Copenhagen, Denmark
Timeline: A Day After "Hope"

ON:

Nyx had managed to securely travel back to Earth following his excursion to the Federation Penal Colony Jaros II. He powered down the Severn before it reached sensor range of Earth and let it glide to a fixed orbit on the dark side of the moon. Once he was clear that he had not triggered any alarms, he stepped away from the console and into the cabin.

The Protector, as the mystery man liked to call himself, had enlisted Nyx to help the crew find the Pandora. In order to do that, he needed to disappear for a while, using the advanced tech bestowed upon him to find the answers they needed - without anyone knowing that he was looking. The Protector had been adamant that Nyx work alone on this endeavor, convinced there was an unknown force working against them. This force had allegedly stolen the Pandora away from the Protector and was using unique anomalies to disguise their movements. If he could find the anomalies and who was behind them, he could help find the ship. But an unseen enemy is hard to find, so Nyx too had to vanish - to get to the bottom of what was happening and, hopefully, retrieve the Pandora from wherever it was.

But, of course, Nyx being Nyx, he was not about to follow those instructions exactly. He had worked alone before, spent many years as a man on a solo mission for Starfleet Intelligence. That was before he had the Pandora, before he had a crew and friends to help him. Before he had a family waiting for him at home. Nyx was not about embark on this journey without at least telling them what he was up to.

Zipping up the jump suit and placing on his helmet, he set in the coordinates on his control panel and prepared to transport down to Earth.

...

It was dead of night in Copenhagen, Denmark - Nyx's home city. The historic Sydhavn neighborhood where he lived was quiet, as expected for this time of night. The waters of the canals of the district lapped calmly against the moonlight. It was first night of the moon's full phase, which gave the city a brighter bluish glow than usual. It was a night he would usually spend in bed with Emilie, talking until they fell asleep, wrapping up in each other's arms.

What had intended to be a clean landing on the street opposite to his townhouse did not go to plan.

When Nyx exited his transport tunnel, he found the neighbor's cat sprawled out fast asleep on the ground, right where he was about to step into. This caused Nyx to make a sudden correction and leap over the fatigued feline, stumbling forwards by several steps until he found himself hurtling towards the edge of the canal.

Nyx braced himself against the metal guard fence and collided into it with a thud. His feet lifted off the ground, threatening to launch himself into the cold waters of the canal below. He managed to stop himself in time before he went fully over. Once he was assured that he had stopped, Nyx stood placed his feet firmly back on solid earth and backed away from the railing. He looked around, thankful that no one had seen that less than graceful landing.

The cat awoke for a moment and gave an unconcerned meow before falling back asleep.

Catching his breath, Nyx looked through his helmet across the street. The house was dark as expected, Emilie and the kids likely fast asleep. They thought he was still on Risa reunited with the crew. They had no idea what had transpired in the last few days. His helmet reading indicated there was no movement from within, and there were just the three life-signs as expected. All in their beds as usual.

Nyx reached into his suit and retrieved the letter he had hand-written for Emilie, and the data chip for his security system. The plan was to get in and out quickly. He tried to push down his conscience voice telling him not to do this, to abandon the Protector's mission and walk into his house like normal. He had to ignore that thought while he set the coordinates for his next jump.

"Computer, set a timer for thirty seconds." He quietly asked. The helmet chirped in acknowledgement. "Alright, I have thirty seconds. Thirty to get in, plant the data and get out again." He began hyping himself up, tilting his neck left to right pensively. If he missed his window, no number of bypasses or codes were going to stop his security system from activating. The house would be lit up, Emilie and the kids would find him, and Federation Security would be alerted to his presence.

He had to get in quick and vanish just as quickly.

Taking a deep breath, Nyx let it out slowly. "Alright. Start timer. Jump." He hit his wrist control, and his suit activated again.

Appearing in the vestibule just inside his house, Nyx immediately moved aside the picture frame that hid his security console and inserted the data chip into the port. The system brightened with a preliminary alert from being accessed, which Nyx nullified with his code.

Twenty-five.

Twenty-four.

Twenty-three.

Nyx stood pensively as he waited for the data chip to download the appropriate files. He accessed the sensor logs and got to work implanting the data.

Eighteen.

Seventeen.

Sixteen.

With the files in place, Nyx started to erase his footsteps. It was his own system, so of course he had a kill-switch already installed. It took a few moments to erase his presence from the house.

Eleven.

Ten.

Nine.

Nyx rushed into the living room and slid the letter onto the table for Emilie to find in the morning. It was an added risk leaving physical evidence of his presence, but he knew he could trust Emilie not to give it to anyone they couldn't trust. She would know what to do with that information, he was sure.

However, as he let go of the letter, the air he pushed from rushing into the room caused it to drift across the table and almost over the edge. Nyx gulped, realizing his plan would be foiled if Emilie did not find the letter.

Six.

Five.

Four.

Trying to be as quiet and as quick as possible, Nyx reached over and with desperate fingers extended out, he managed to just grab the edge of the paper by his fingertips. Then he dragged it back towards the center of the table once more.

One.

Nyx hit the jump button on his control panel, and he disappeared.

...

Back outside, Nyx took in a deep breath. He turned back towards the house, waiting to see if an alarm had tripped or if someone had been woken. He stood there for seemingly ages, half expecting something to happen. When the house remained quiet, he let out the breath again in relief.

The neighbor's cat suddenly appeared by his feet, giving a curt meow as it brushed against his legs. Nyx leaned down and with his gloved hand, petted the cat gently on its head.

"Why am I doing this?" He wondered aloud to the cat. "I should be in there, asleep with my wife. I should be getting up in the morning to make my kids breakfast." The cat meowed, sensing the topic of food. "I love doing that. This?" He sighed, "This just feels wrong."

The cat purred and slumped down onto its side, indicating it'd had enough of being touched and enough standing for now. It began to absent-mindedly lick its paws. Nyx regarded the animal and shrugged, "You are no help."

...

Returning to the S.S. Severn, Nyx jumped into the cabin. He took off his helmet and unzipped his suit to get comfortable again. He moved back into the cockpit with a forlorn sigh as he sat down in the pilot's chair.

"Why?" He asked to no one.

Just then he received an alert on his console. The anomaly had appeared again.

Immediately, Nyx set in a course and let the shuttle drift out of orbit. As soon as he could, he powered up the warp drive and zoomed away from Earth in a flash of light. He had his why.

OFF