"Pursuit" - Part 2 of 3

Posted on Mon Nov 4th, 2024 @ 6:12pm by Captain Samuel Woolheater & Captain Garrett Lovejoy [ Taylor] & Kyle Cragen [Reece]
Edited on on Mon Nov 4th, 2024 @ 6:14pm

Mission: Back Home
Location: Galaxy Station
Timeline: Today
2456 words - 4.9 OF Standard Post Measure

And now the continuation Part 2 of 3



=== LATER - CONFERENCE ROOM ===

After luxuriating for a half-hour in a shower and getting fresh clothes, Emma Woolheater felt like a new woman. When they were all gathered again in the Conference Room there was food. Real, cooked food. It was so thoughtful and appreciated. She didn't take but half-a-plate. While the others quietly ate their meal, Emma shared a lot of her meetings with families, brothers, sisters, friends and spouses. Both Starfleet and Marine crew members were terribly missed.

"...so you see, by some happenstance, I have become the defacto leader of this movement to get Starfleet to act and launch a serious mission to search for and recover the Elysium. Frankly, I am stuck. We don't have access to the important data to even know where to begin to look. Sensor logs, telemetry, marker buoys...I am a musician for a classical music group on Pacifica. I don't know the right questions to ask" she stated and ook a drink of a very nice Reisling wine.

Garrett listened thoughtfully as Emma spoke of her and the families of missing crew members aboard the Elysium. When she had finished, he spoke. "I think you make an excellent leader Mrs. Woolheater. The families you represent made the right choice when they choose you. You are intelligent, well spoken, organized and above all else passionate in your quest to find the Elysium. We here on Galaxy Station have also been searching for the Elysium and we have what I think is a reasonable idea where she is." He tapped his combadge, =^= Please have Two and Four come to the conference room.=^= He looked to Emma and Hammond. "I've asked two of the people in charge of out search to come and give you a more detailed explanation than I could."

A few moments later, the doors slid open, and a pair of Ex-Borg individuals entered. They appeared to be in their early to mid twenties, one was a man, the other a woman. They also looked as if they were closely related. "You wished to see us, Captain?" The woman spoke as they came to a stop at the far end of the long table.

Garrett nodded, "I did. I'd like you both to meet Mrs. Emma Woolheater and Captain Hammond. Mrs. Woolheater represents the families and spouses of crew members who were on the Elysium at the time of her disappearance. I told her that we don't believe the Elysium is lost but you both can explain our efforts and findings better than I can.

Two and Four turned their attention to the guests, then Two started to speak, as her brother activated the holoprojector in the table. "Greetings, Ma'am, Sir. I am Two of Six, this is my twin brother, Four of Six. We are just as interested as you are in finding the Elysium, Ma'am, as our Godmother, Lieutenant Rin, is a member of her crew."

Emma had not seen, in person, ex-Borg before. The implants looked like they were at one time; painful. Inwardly, she cringed at what was done to them and pity filled her heart, "May I share with you just how grateful so many people will be once they hear back that they are not alone. For far too long, we have been told that finding one ship lost in the cosmos is an impossible task. Or worse that the ship was destroyed but we're too busy to go and check for ourselves. To feel let down again and again, repeatedly by the people at the leadership level has been...it's been difficult. If there is one idea I want to convey to you dear ones, it is in knowing that all this time we have not been alone in our grief...or our hope." She said it from her heart and meant it.

Bob Hammond could see the intensity of the moment and shared in it, "I agree, with what has been said here. And I want to express my personal thanks to Captain Lovejoy for receiving us and for an opportunity for the first good news since we left Paris. Most of my crew knew Emma's son, Sam. A Marine attached to the 62nd Detachment. And, speaking as his former Captain and as a Starfleet Officer, I am not comfortable with anything less than finding Elysium or - if the worst has happened - finding that too and bringing them home. Anything you can tell us will be good news."

Two nodded, then she and her brother approached the middle of the briefing table and input a few commands into the holo emitter. Suddenly, the image of the last known location of the Elysium was presented, in a hologram that floated a few inches above the table. "As we recently briefed Captain Lovejoy," Two began. "The evidence we have been able to gather and analyze shows not only a very strong possibility that the USS Elysium, survived its encounter with a quantum filament, but that it was hurled far out of our galaxy, to the galactic northeastern quadrant of the Circinus Galaxy, which is currently 130 million light years away, and moving nearly one hundred light years further away every year. If the Elysium survived the transit, we postulate that it incurred severe damage to all systems. There us also a very strong possibility that there were severe loss of life. We are hoping that enough crew survived to effect repairs and attempt to figure out a way to come home."

Emma's heart leapt within her at the possibility. Hammond leaned in more to listen.

"Thank you Two, you as well Four." Garrett told the twin xBs before he turned his attention to Emma and Captain Hammond. "While the news isn't as good as we hoped, it better than what we expected. I will also say knowing the crew of the Elysium and their command team of Commodore Phoenix Lalor and Captain Gary Taylor if there is a crew and ship that can find a way home it is the Elysium." He looked at Emma, "Any questions ma'am?"

"Then there's a chance! He's alive. I know it. Sam and the rest of the crew. There is the possibility that they're still alive! What do you mean this isn't as good as we hoped? This is exactly the good news the families and loved ones have been searching for all this time!" She was stunned and overwhelmed, "Excuse me, oh, I feel a little light-headed. No, no...I'm all right. It's just overwhelming. You have to remember that for months people in command told us the opposite. That we were wasting our time and their time. I am a little...it will pass. Please, Two and Four? I want to know everything. What do you know about this...quantum...filament? I believe that's what you called it? Where is it? Can we go there? Can we recreate the conditions and get them back? What about communications? Oh, I have so many questions. Who else has worked on this? Where are they? How do we get started?" Her questions poured out of her. The long sleepless nights, the days and the weeks of sitting in waiting rooms, being on hold, being ignored. Finally...finally someone was listening and someone with resources was interested and could help.

Bob could see the excitement grow in her and he gently and calmly said to the room but directed at Emma, "A quantum filament is rare, has almost no mass. But the ship would have been polarized to the same or similar resonancy as the filament string itself. Is that how you were able to trace it to Circinus?" he asked the xB and Captain Garrett.

Two nodded as she replied. "The Captain is correct. Added to the resonance alignment, the ship apparently activated their quantum slipstream drive. The resulting power burst, in effect, slingshot them free of the filament. However, the power blast also caused them to accelerate far past safety and design thresholds. The residual energy wake was still present, allowing us to postulate their possible destination, barring any other unforeseen obstacles."

Emma sat back in her chair. Moments before she was elated at the news. Now, not so much. If the Galaxy station crew were correct, and she had no reason to question their findings, then the situation had only changed slightly. Where as before it was doubted that the Elysium was even found or alive. Now it was doubted that anyone would ever be able to contact her due to the immense distance.

She shook her head, "No...no...no...no...there has to be a way to reach them. What about subspace? You use that communicate across great distances. How about that? Why can't we use that to call them?" She looked at each of them in turn. "What is it you're not telling me?"

Two spoke up first. "Unfortunately, subspace communication would not be possible in this situation. Firstly, we do not possess any relay stations that far away from United Federation territory. Secondly, even if we had relay stations to the very edge of our galaxy - which would take three hundred, forty-seven years, ten months, two weeks, five days, ten hours, four point six minutes, at our current level of technology to accomplish - we still do not possess the technology or power to send a message 150 million light years. Third, even if we could, we have no idea where in Circinus that they currently are. Fourth, even if we did, we do not know their current state of being.

Now she was pissed, "Are you trying to tell me that its hopeless? They and everyone on the ship are just too far out of reach?" She looked over at Captain Hammond who was on the verge of shrugging his shoulders. And this made her even more determined, "Gentlemen, we haven't come all this way to be stopped again just because the way forward won't be easy. And I am mindful that the challenges before us are immense. Full of danger and unknowns. Isn't that why you are out here? Isn't that why you send my son...our sons...and daughters out there into the unknown? Well, let me tell you. Where you see defeat I see opportunity. Where you are unsure I am very sure. Where you see indecision I see the path forward clearly. If we can't reach them by conventional means or by the methods we know. Then it seems clear to me that we must find the unconventional means. By methods that we do not yet fully understand. I believe that is how we learn and grow. Allow me to speak it plainly; we must find a way to get to them. You know your ship, you know the Commodore and the XO. Well, I know my son. He is alive. He IS alive! And if my Sam is alive then I can assure you...there will be others. If we must lay subspace beacons, like galactic breadcrumbs all the way to this other galaxy then that is what we must do. But I believe that there is another way. A way that we have not even yet conceived. And if we need new ideas and new methods, new thinking and new vistas then we have to start looking where new ideas are born and with and by people who don't know the word, 'impossible'." She had such conviction. Such determination. Hammond looked at both Captain Lovejoy and Cragen who has been silent up to this point.

Garrett listened to Emma's anger and frustration come boiling over. He tried the diplomatic approach. "Mrs. Woolheater, Emma." He corrected. "No one said impossible or hopeless. daunting and challenging for sure but I believe, I know like you to that we are up to this challenge. Please try to understand. "As it stands right now. we can approximate their position. I have no doubt Sam and others are alive and we are not abandoning them. We are working every day, testing new idea or theories to contact the Elysium. We are even looking at old ideas and as you suggested unconventional ones. The sheer distance is the main obstacle. As Two pointed out we don't have the power to reach them as of right now. You should feel hopeful instead of upset and angry. We know where they are. We just need to find a way to reach them and let them know they aren't alone."

Emma took a deep breath, her hands clenched tightly at her sides. "Hope?" she echoed, her voice tight with emotion. "Hope can’t just be a feeling, Captain Lovejoy. It has to be built on something real — something we can hold onto. Knowing where Sam is doesn’t ease my fear or my frustration because it doesn’t change the fact that we can’t reach him. Hope without a plan, without action, it’s like standing on air. All of us, all of the families that allow me to speak for them...we can’t base our hope on the unknown. WE....I need something concrete—something more than just knowing where they are. That's not enough. I'm sorry...but its not enough. I need to know we can actually get him back." Emma’s voice trembled as she continued, the weight of her words pulling her forward. "You’re asking me to be grateful that we know where he is, as if that’s enough to calm this storm inside me. But you don’t understand, knowing he’s out there, trapped, maybe injured, maybe alone, wondering if we’ve given up on him—it’s tearing me apart. How can I be hopeful when every day that passes without us reaching him feels like a day closer to losing him forever? Closer to losing them all forever.

"I’m not angry because I’ve lost hope—I’m angry because hope without action is a hollow promise. You talk about distance, about power, about obstacles, but what am I supposed to do with that? How do I take comfort in knowing where he is when I’m helpless to do anything about it?"

Her eyes burned, the frustration, fear, and love for her son pouring out all at once. "Hope can’t live in the unknown, Garrett. It has to be tied to something real, something we can work toward. Otherwise, it’s just a way to keep me quiet while he’s slipping further out of reach." She took a breath. Bob had more respect for her then he had ever had before.

=== Continued in Part 3 ===