The quiet before the storm. Part 1

Posted on Sun Aug 4th, 2024 @ 2:53am by Lieutenant JG Miraj Derani & Captain Gary Taylor & Commander Kyle Reece & Lieutenant Commander S'hib & Lieutenant N'vok Holv & Commodore Phoenix Lalor-Richardson

Mission: Season 6: Episode 5: A church beyond heaven
Location: Bridge
Timeline: MD:1 - 0900
1431 words - 2.9 OF Standard Post Measure

In the last stages of its death throes, the light of a distant star lit up the Elysium's battered and tired hull as she meandered along at sublight speed.

Her nacelles had grown tired in the days since leaving the tropical paradise nestled inside a nebula, with fluctuations in her warp field prompting engineering to shut them down and run a full diagnostic.

Still, they shimmered even without the blue glow of warp plasma as light from the supernova glistened off the Nacelles' warp field grills.

On the bridge S'hib stared at his console, his eyes glazed over as his mind clutched to all the other worries in his life, Naxea and Slee... his relationship, or what was left of it.

He blinked, wondering how long he had been lost in his own head and sheepishly glanced up, thankful to see everyone else was just as lost as he was.

It had been weird, this lull, the emptiness that followed so suddenly after being on edge, running and fighting... coming across that world, it was like everyone was waiting for something, and nobody dared mention it.

But now with nothing happening, he had all the time in the world to think. And that was the problem.

"Commodore," S'hib blurted out, almost startling himself.

"The um, the probe is sending us confirmation that it's in position, we should..." He trailed off, pausing as he suddenly paid attention to his console.

"Start getting a detailed scan of the supernova shortly, and it's already beaming back some amazing images."

"On Screen Commander" Phoenix said softly.

Kyle has just returned to the bridge, after being down below, visually checking the various weapon systems used to protect the Elysium. Looking over at the viewscreen, he commented as he moved to his station, "Wow! I've seen some amazing sights in my time...but few things compare to the power of nature." He sat down at his station and logged back in to the system.

S'hib kept his eyes on his console, but a single ear had already flicked towards Kyle, tracking him as he walked across the bridge. "We're rather lucky to be witnessing this, Commander."

He paused, glancing up at the viewscreen as he brought up more images sent from the probe. "Correct me if I'm mistaken but I believe this makes us the third crew in Starfleet to witness a Supernova, and the first to witness one in a different galaxy..."

His tone shifted slightly, still pleasant but masking a hint of disappointment. "Though unfortunately Voyager still holds the record for closest observation..."

As S'hib trailed off, a devilish grin crept onto his face. "Personally, I blame Miraj." He added quickly, his eyes already snapping over towards helm.

Gary had been silent as S'hib and Kyle talked, when S'hib said he blamed Miraj, his head snapped around to first look at S'hib and then back to the helm console where Miraj sat, waiting to see and hear her reaction to S'hib's statement.

Miraj twisted around in her seat to fix the sequus with an arch look. "I can fix that anytime, without even looking at the controls. Or are you chicken, pony boy?"

S'hib somehow managed, while leaning over his console for emotional support, to stifle his laugh. His top lip, however, betrayed him with a knowing quiver.

His silence, however, was louder than any witty remark. Still, he raised a hand in defeat before shaking his head.

N'vok calmly filed away the scan, tagging some for later review, and sending others directly to members of his team who he knew would be interesting. He half paid attention to the exchange between the other bridge officers but saw no reason to interject any thoughts.

Knowing S'hib and Miraj had a close relationship, Phee kept her gaze on the screen.

And with that, the bridge fell quiet once more, the boisterous spat between Miraj and S'hib replaced by the gentle hum of electronics and whispers of the crew at their stations.

It was not an awkward silence, far from it. But soon enough S'hib was lost in his own head again, staring at the blinking notifications on his console, his eyes focusing before narrowing as its attempts to grab his attention eventually worked.

"Commodore, I'm... I think I'm picking up another signal, a transmission, though it's quite distorted." He summarized as his hands moved about, trying to reorganise the data on his screen from the probe to focus more on the transmission.

"It's probably due to our proximity to the supernova, but I think I can cut through the background radiation... just give me a minute."

Phoenix turned to S'hib and nodded. She trusted him to get the information.

A few more moments went by as the transmission started to come through, barely audible at first, nothing but faint static echoing on the bridge.

S'hib frowned, his ears twitching as the audio cleared just long enough for a handful of words to be made out.

"Commodore, this is probably as good as it's gonna get until we move away from the supernova."

His ear flicked again, hearing more words. They were different this time, Almost too different to be the same language.

"Thats odd..." He said more to himself than anyone else as he returned to his readouts, wondering if, by mistake, they had intercepted multiple signals overlapping.

"We could launch another probe to get a better link to the signal," said N'vok. "It could relay the broadcast on a tight beam to minimize interference from the supernova."

"Run it through the translation matrix a few times see if we can get a translation, and launch the next probe." Phoenix ordered.

S'hib nodded, already reconfiguring the forward torpedo tube to load a class 2 probe with the appropriate equipment onboard.

"There it is again, that same word..." S'hib stated after confirming the probe launched successfully. "does anyone else hear it? A'janie... it's right near the start every time."

He paused, tilting his head as the ears atop his head twitched and swivelled, waiting for the next repeat.

"The definition for A'janie in our language database," said N'vok, "does not make any contextual sense here."

Gary looked about the bridge, "Is it a distress call being repeated in multiple languages on different frequencies?"

"It's possible?" S'hib said, his ears still twitching, waiting for the next transmission to repeat.

"By the way, Lieutenant," He added, glancing over at N'vok during the brief quiet between transmission repeats. "The tight band signal from the probe was a good idea, we're getting a-"

He stumbled over his tongue as the next transmission began to play, the velvety words surprisingly understandable, unlike the last dozen.

"This is an open invitation from the A'janie church, The Wandering Child. His Excellency, the Warden Protectorate of this most esteemed feretory, Bishop Higsfard, wishes that you would come and listen to his divine words."

S'hib glanced about the bridge, catching the same awkward and confused glances he was giving in return.

"Should you wish to be enlightened, and bask in the glory of cosmic understanding, embedded within this automated transmission are our coordinates, we do hope to see you soon."

A stunned silence fell over the crew as the transmission ended, with everybody looking at one another with a knowing glance.

"Fascinating," said N'vok. "Let me run that through a forensic language analysis."

Gary spoke again, "We're being invited to church?"

"I think they're inviting everyone from the sounds of it..." S'hib quipped as he leaned back from his console and looked towards N'vok.

"Say, Lieutenant... now that I think about it, how come that one came through fully translated?" He asked as the transmission continued repeating, this time in another alien and unintelligible language.

"Did we already have the language on file?" He added, taking a moment to shut off the transmission from playing through the bridge speakers.

"The original language was Thaih'ean, sir," said N'vok. "Which is intriguing. Given my understanding of the Thaih'ean culture, limited that it is, it seems unlikely to be interested in such an appeal. The church must know this yet they try to reach them anyway."

S'hib nodded thoughtfully, unsure what to make of the revelation. "Commodore, I've extracted the coordinates in the transmission... They're not far from our present location."

He paused, taking a moment to send the information to Miraj. "Would only take us a few hours at low warp."

The Commodore nodded. "Plot the course and get us on our way at impulse, lets keep the warp drive off for now. "

"Aye, ma'am."