Away Team II

Posted on Sat May 1st, 2021 @ 3:40am by Lieutenant Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Major Kaden Ross & Lieutenant Freya Savette & Lieutenant Dean House

Mission: Trapped in Time
Location: Alla
Timeline: Current

Kaden found himself in a dark room the others nowhere in sight except S.I.D. who had its flashlight on. "Ross to bridge I think I been separated from the others." He took a moment to turn his flashlight on his SMG.

The moment he did so he found himself in a corridor of skeletal remains. Normally it scares people but not Kaden he was used to death he had his share of killing and seeing others die. Kneeling he studied the first set of a Bajoran. "Are you guys seeing this?" He asked as he ran his scans.

Back on the bridge, Rhenora's heart sank as she saw the set of remains. She looked towards the two empaths on the bridge both of which indicated they were still sensing some 'life on hold' type echoes.

"We are Major, please try and reunite with the team, I don't like the thought of anyone on their own over there." The Captain replied through the open com-link. "Commander Savar, we're still detecting some kind of temporal field, and both Freya and Aurora sense a life-echo which makes me think you may find some of the crew alive but trapped in a temporal bubble. Watch yourselves"

Kaden SMG in hand switched to a combat stance slowly working his way down the corridor. His tricorder on his armor not detecting any temporal anomalies as he crossed over more remains.

Until coming to the skeletal remains of something not seen before. It was a giant eight-foot armored three-eyed alien, unlike anything he saw before. "Guys, where ever this ship went I don't think they came back alone."

"Take a tricorder reading if you can Major, we'll analyze the data while you figure out what happened over there" The Captain replied, sending a look to her Ops team to expect the data shortly.

Looking around, Bonnie noticed right away she was alone. The lights flickered on ever so often, but otherwise, the large room was mostly dark. She pulled out her tricorder and began scanning. Right away she began to get strange readings, almost as if time itself were not right. She tapped her badge,

"Lt. Durnell to Liberty, I'm getting readings that show a carbon decay rate of only 16.3 years, at least in places. There are micro legions in the hull structure, however which show carbon dating well over two hundred years. Liberty are you receiving this?" she asked the comm channel, unsure if they could hear her. There was no reply. She tapped again, "Commander Savar, Major Ross, Lt. House, anybody?"

Back on the Liberty Freya had moved around to the XO’s seat, and was monitoring the readouts. “Captain our readings aren’t picking up all of the away team members. I seem to be coming up one team member short.”

"You've recalibrated the sensors?" Rhenora questioned automatically, her concern ramping up a notch

"Bonnie, do you read?"

"Does anyone have eyes on Bonnie?" Rhenora stood, unable to sit still any longer.

With no one on the comms and no one in visual range on the tricorder, Bonnie carried on scanning and talking out loud as though someone could hear her. "I'm showing a temporal phase variant of .019. So unless my math is wrong, for every year the ship has been here they have experienced 1 week. So 13.57 weeks mathematically."

She crouched low as she spotted an open crate of foodstuffs and some garbage on the floor. Someone had been here, someone hungry. She scanned the debris. Some showed 90ish years while other imprints showed only a week. "13.57 weeks in 95 years means for every minute the ship was only in normal time for a period of .0059 seconds." She sighed as she picked up a book of what appeared to be Bajoran poetry and thumbed through the pages.

Realizing she was out of phase compared to the rest of her away team all she could do was carry on recording and scanning. That is until the lights came on steady. The ship shifted and suddenly everything old was new again. For approximately .0059 seconds before returning to a state of temporal phase.

Kaden began taking scans of the alien remains, as he for some reason set the weapon on his lap, taking hold of Freya's pendant he wore around his neck. He hoped she could see him also thru the feed from S.I.D. because he had never taken it off since the war.

Freya and the kids were always on his mind it helped him fight to stay alive so they could all be together again. But he planned to return it to her but for some reason, he wasn't ready to part with it yet. "Liberty, scans of the alien remains are complete sending them now."

Kaden took note of the multiple blast shots from Bajoran weapons on the armor. "I say whoever our friend here is they didn't go down easy." He took his weapon scanning the corridor with the light. Kaden could see all sorts of signs of a firefight. "Signs of a fight between him and the crew, if the crew won, it was at great cost."

" Noted Major, good analysis" The Captain replied, making notes on her own PADD as well as watching the feed as it came through. "Has anyone made contact with Bonnie yet?"

"Durnell? It's Ross, you okay? We are getting worried about you." Kaden called out on the comm. "Bonnie?" There seemed to be no reply. "Commander? Anyone? Tell me at least you guys are okay." Deep down he was starting to consider things might be a good time to prep this flying deathtrap to blow.

" Away Team - this is the Captain - sound off and check-in, we're having issues with our sensors and transporter locks" Kaylen called through the open commlink.

Freya was relieved to have seen and heard Kaden on the feed, she’d also watched him holding the pendant she’d given him which made her smile.

Savar was on the bridge however he was alone. "Savar to Durnell, House, Major Ross. Please respond." The silence was his answer. "Savar to Liberty" Again silence greeted him. Taking a moment before trying again he looked at the bridge stations, surprised to see they looked new with little to no sign of aging. "Interesting." He muttered as he continued his investigation. As he moved around the bridge, he noticed that the corridor from the bridge to the rest of the ship looked worn with age, the metal dull and tarnished.

"Commander, is that you?" Kaden replied after hearing him on the comm channel although there was a little static as well. He was working his way to the bridge a deck above him.

House looked around from where he was a moment. Switching the rifle light on. Also looking at a multitude of bodies all over. This had to have been Engineering from the look of it. Noe one else around from the team. Lovely. Tapping his comm badge. "Anyone around? Or here? I somehow ended up in Engineering."

"Lieutenant House? Is that you? I can hear you but getting lots of static could have sworn I heard from the Commander as well. Where you at?" Kaden replied.

Back on the Liberty Freya frowned, “Captain I’ve got life signs fading in and out of sync like crazy! Transporters will never get a lock on our people if this keeps up.”

She rounded what appeared to be the last of the freight containers and spotted the skeletal remains of a man leaning forward into a machine terminal. On the screen were inventory records and things related to shipping records. She scanned the remains and looked at the screen on her tricorder, "Male, Sixty-three, Bajoran, died of a heart attack." Then in the blink of an eye, everything old became new again, including the skeleton. He looked at her and blinked. She let out a blood-curdling scream that echoed off the walls of the room and jumped back clutching her chest. Another blink later and everything returned to normal. As much normal as normal was around here.

"Kaden? It appears like I'm in Engineering. Obviously, something went wrong down here. Dead bodies everywhere. Is it the same way where you are? Did everyone else get split up in transport?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, bodies here too, including some sasquatch ones. Looks like wherever this ship went it brought back friends, unfriendly ones it seems. According to the layout, I should be a deck below the bridge swore I heard the Commander scans indicate he is above me." Kaden replied stepping over a couple of bodies.

Bonnie began formulating a plan, based on the data at hand. Once she pulled herself together and studied the tricorder readings a bit further she realized a solution, albeit a dangerous one. She understood now, the ship was in a state of temporal flux and had been phasing in and out of linear time and space off and on for the entire 95 years, it had been inside the wormhole.

The images she had seen were those of the crew 95 years in the past, or roughly thereafter. She formulated that if she deactivated her phase inhibitor at the moment the phase blinked into the past, she would be there too, and capable of interacting with those in that time period. Moreover, if she took off her badge and placed it on repeat it would act as a beacon with a message. They did say those battery cells were good for thousands of years, right?

She tapped her badge three times in quick succession to place it in repeat mode, then took it off and attached it to her tricorder which held exact transport coordinates. She then placed it on the floor and crossed her fingers that her timing was right. With one hand on the tricorder, she waited for the blink to happen. It didn't take long, they were happening with more frequency. Apparently, time was trying to fix itself. The moment everything old became new again, she let go of the tricorder, effectively leaving it on the floor, in the past. She saw Bernoff again, ever so briefly, and then he was gone. She would wait and decide to join on the next blink.

95 years later, the USS Liberty received a repeating message from Lt. Bonnie Durnell. "USS Liberty, I am safe for now, stuck between time shifts. Please transport my tricorder and discern what you can. I have met a member of the crew, sort of, but in order to interact I must do something stupid."

TBC