Countdown.

Posted on Mon Feb 17th, 2025 @ 4:04pm by Lieutenant Samaire MacBride-Reece [Lalor] & Avalon [ADMIN NPC] & Captain Gary Taylor & Commander Kyle Reece & Lieutenant Colonel Azhul Naxea & Lieutenant Commander S'hib & Lieutenant Commander Alicia Kelea-Salik & Lieutenant Commander Rin & Lieutenant Anna Esquivias & Lieutenant Thor Magnus & Lieutenant Tate Sullivan Ph.D. & Lieutenant J'airesh Mora-Heath & Lieutenant N'vok Holv & Lieutenant JG Maxine Mckull & Lieutenant JG Daisheliss "Lissa" Kerr & Teevs Dosivi

Mission: Season 6: Episode 5: A church beyond heaven
Location: A'janie church
Timeline: MD:5
4395 words - 8.8 OF Standard Post Measure

S'hib stared down the vast curved length of the exterior docking ring as he waited, his eyes glimpsing a view of the tip of the Elysium saucer section through the coloured glass.

It was a good ten minute walk back to the umbilical bridge and he wasn't even on the other half of the station.

Naxea was still dressed in her Assault Armor, removing her mirrored full face helmet with her pulse rifle slung across her chest in a quick draw sling. "What did you need, S'hib?" she asked, keeping her voice professional and maintaining a distance from him.

J'Air had to run a few steps to catch up with the two in front of her but the rest of the team weren't far behind anyway. She waited for S'hib to say what was needed before saying anything.

Rin returned with her team in tow. She looked even more determined than normal, after seeing the information her team had managed to coax from the computers. She understood the urgency of the matter even if she wasn't quite sure yet as to what specifically the matter was.

N'vok followed behind, reading information off a datapad but somehow also aware of his surroundings. Seeing they were rejoining the larger group, he glanced back to his datapad. "Those with active tricorders, set them to search for energy in the Zeta band between -0.3 and 2.8 as well as chronoton radiation and decay. Those parameters should detect the chronal being. Please channel any reading to my datapad."

Anna hurried after him, frowning.

Alicia arrived along with the rest of Gary's team, wondering just what was wrong.

Gary had arrived along with the other members of his team and waited to hear what S'hib had called them back for.

Thor was scanning as well.

“We have a problem…“ S’hib remarked to Naxea before falling silent, watching everyone else approach.

“Alright everyone, listen up.“ S'hib neighed, his thick voice echoing in the vast space they all stood in. “By now you’ve all heard the transmission… and as concerning as it is it's also not our biggest problem, something I will get to in a moment.“ He shifted uneasily, adjusting his grip on the EVA helmet at his side.

“But first I want to know what else you found out before we proceed… I take it the creature is still trapped?“ S'hib asked, looking towards Rin and her team.

Max wasn't far behind, and at the moment she had very little to contribute. She listened, pulling out her tricorder and making the adjustments that were indicated, slowly casting it back and forth as her eyes scanned the display. She was feeling uneasy about remaining here, to say the least, but she found the hum of the scanner oddly comforting. She listened to both it and the officers around here, wondering what anyone else might have to contribute.

Gary came up. "The creature is out Commander S'hib. We found a clone of a crew member who informed us before he died that the creature was loose and difficult to track as it is out of phase."

S'hibs hand shifted on his belt upon hearing the news, flicking his fingers over the holster of his phaser. he knew it was still there, but he couldn’t help but feel the need to reassure himself regardless.

“Well that complicates things…“

"Difficult but not impossible," said N'vok, as he sat down, cross-legged on the floor, so that he could use both hands to work a holographic display projected from his datapad. "Captain, permission to remotely access the Elysium's sensor array and communications grid." His fingers were already setting up commands as he waited for Gary's reply.

"Certainly Mr. Holv, proceed." Gary told the science officer. Anything that would make their task easier he was all in favor of.

"The existence of such a creature, unmoored in time, is unprecedented to my knowledge," said N'vok, programming away, "though my understanding of transtemporal physics is limited. Its ability, a side effect of its nature of being I suspect, to reknit the edges of reality to conceal its presence and its consumption is fascinating yet is unlikely to be complete due to the entropic nature of the universe and the law of conservation of energy. With a complete sensor network, backed by the processing power of the Elysium's computer core, we should be able to pick up minor changes that would otherwise be imperceptible. It will be imprecise but it should provide more information than we currently have."

At times like this, Tate wished she could offer more in the way of tangible support rather than simply a steady presence and stream of emotional support. Were this experience not so terrifying, she might have allowed herself to marvel at the existence of such a being, but for now, it just made her head hurt. She trusted in time that a way for her to help would be forthcoming, but for

Lissa watched N'vok begin his work and almost sat down beside him, but the thought occurred to check on the doctor who had been stunned before. Spotting J'air, Lissa walked up her and lowered her voice so as to not draw too much attention to their conversation. "Are you doing okay?" Lissa asked the doctor.

J'air had been thinking about the problems of tracing and capturing the entity and had been lost in those thoughts, so when spoken to by Lissa she almost started a little. "Oh yes, thank you, I'm fine now, I was lost in thought, but thank you for asking. I wonder if I've still got a remnant of the concussion I sustained earlier but it should clear, don't worry." she added.

"I'm not going to pretend to act like I understood half of what you just said Lieutenant, but yes... if we can figure out where this thing is, do it." S'hib breathed in, mulling over the choices that now presented themselves.

"That being said..." He continued, looking around at the gathered crew. "we're all now in extreme danger, so I won't ask any of you to stay."

S'hib shifted uneasily on his hooves, glancing over at Naxea, burying the urge to tell her to run back to the Elysium. She wouldn't listen anyway he thought.

"Though I do need volunteers..." He sighed sourly, wanting nothing but to shoulder the risk himself.

"There is a command centre, somewhere here..." S'hib said, gesturing above with his helmet. "I need to find it; otherwise, the Elysium won't be able to undock from the church..."

S'hib huffed, letting his arm fall back to his side. "That's the problem I was on about, this creature has killed most of the A'janie... including their operational staff. Which means we can't leave until we find it."

Then S'hib turned towards Gary, shifting his focus to Maxine as he spoke. "We also need to prep the Elysium for departure and try to evacuate the rest of the A'janie."

"A terrible loss to the universe," said N'vok without looking up. "The A'janie were a ray of hope in this sector, they did not deserve this . . . apocalypse."

Naxea sighed. "Find me a way to track this thing. We also need to find the rest of the A'janie and evacuate them to the Elysium. I suggest completely sealing off the Elysium and use the transporter to get aboard."

“Unfortunately, transporters are out of the question… The A’janie have inhibitors all over the church, no doubt to dissuade any potential abductions from the Thaih'ea.” S'hib paused, his eyes still flicking about the rafters and catwalks above, so many places for something to hide, to slip out of sight and be forgotten.

S'hib continued, “However, I don’t believe the Elysium is in any immediate danger. In part due to the fact the only way on or off the Elysium is the umbilical bridge, it’s around a hundred and fifty feet or so of straight, unobstructed view with guards posted on our end.” He frowned, looking to his left towards the Elysium. “We’d see it coming and it seems to know that… but it may get desperate when it figures out we’re trying to leave, so we best leave quick.”

Kyle spoke up. "This thing seems to not really give two ships if it's seen." He paused a beat, frowned, then added. "If it comes down to it, the Elysium and the lives aboard her are more important than our lives. If we can't release the docking locks, or that thing starts towards her, they need to blow the umbilical and escape this hell."

Teevs did his best to stifle the shudder in his breath as he glanced at the Elysium through the window. Everything in him wanted to make sure his daughter was safe, but the situation it put him in was not easy. Would he sufficiently protect Kerilia by returning to the ship, making sure she was close in the worst case scenario? Or would staying and helping the crew track down this creature in the Church protect her more? Either option carried risk, either to himself or to the crew who so graciously took them in plus himself. This decision making in the face of danger was precisely why he opted for a simpler life.

"I want to find a way to help you detect it" J'air said to Lt Colonel Naxea. "I just wish I could battle through this foggy feeling."

Gary listened in silence as others gave their opinions and talked of strategy to find the alien. He cleared his throat, "Ahem. First thing we do is to understand just what we're up against. Then come up with a plan to catch and combat this thing. Then, we get back to the Elysium."

Naxea looked at S'hib. "This thing took out a fortified Benthai Marine position equipped with an automatic pulse turret on one of the Benthai ships. What chance in hell do you think two of your guards with phaser rifles have?" She then looked at J'air. "Figuring out a way to track it should be yours and N'Vok's duties. Once you do that then we kill it. Capturing it is too dangerous."

"Whatever it is, it was trapped before," Lissa offered. "I think we should at least consider that if it could be taken down by ordinary weapons that the person we met in engineering in that canister would have done so by now. He seemed awfully terrified of whatever it was, and alarmed that it escaped. Angry rather. I'm not opposed to weapons, but I think we're going to need a trap ready as well."

Alicia had been silent up until now, thinking about Savar, their children and the rest of her family onboard the Elysium. "If we have to sacrifice ourselves to save our families, and friends then I'm at peace with that. I know Savar would understand my decision, if it came to it."

"No doubt he would Alicia, as would our respective families but that creature isn't going to get any of us. If I can help it." Gary replied with fierce determination. "We work together or in small groups. We will find a way to defeat the creature."

Naxea then tapped a few commands from the display monitor on her forearm. "My suit's scanner recorded what we saw on the Benthai ships." The monitor came to life. On the deck laid several Benthai bodies, every single one was ripped open violently. Blood splatter covered the bulkheads. "This is what we're dealing with."

Gary looked at the footage of the horribly mutilated bodies. Blood and body parts were splattered all over the bulkheads, floor and ceiling. It was a bloodbath. "Even more determined that we stop it here. We can't let it get aboard the Elysium."

"With that as a datapoint and the wonders of Avalon . . ." said N'vok. "We will be able to refine it but at the moment, I can tell you where the creature is not with some accuracy. That eliminates about three-quarters of the A'jane structure. But, unfortunately, not the route to the Elysium."

S'hib's brow furled as he saw the footage, it didn't make sense.

"Why are there no bodies like that over here, It seems very out of character... almost like it was toying with them, a dune cat playing with its food." S'hib paused, glancing about before resting his eyes on Gary. "And your encounter with it in engineering. It could have killed you all, but it didn't. Instead, it ran back here to familiar territory, like it was scared it would get trapped again on that ship..."

"This thing, whatever it is... It's intellige-" S'hib's words were suddenly cut short as the floor beneath his hooves jolted, shifting violently to one side and causing him to almost stumble over.

He caught himself, stamping a hoof quickly to one side as lights all over the church flickered.

The Wandering Child groaned and creaked as the entire station started to move, reverberating through the vast empty halls with a dull moan of metal and cracking stone.

"Now what!" S'hib neighed as the station shuddered again, though nowhere near as intense as the first time.

Anna hit her comm badge. "Esquivias to Elysium! The station's coming apart!"

"I can go look for the control center. I got a tour of some of the less public spaces," Rin volunteered. "From that point I could also broadcast an invitation to survivors to gather at the Elysium."

[[Elysium here]] Came the voice from the Operations officer on duty. [[We are tracking your comm badges. Do you required a beam out?]]

As Elysium replied, Kyle looked at Rin. "I'll go with you, Rin. No one goes anywhere alone here. But, we best hurry!" He exclaimed as the station shuddered some more.

N'vok took out his phaser and did a bit of quick reprogramming. He handed it to Rin, "Reattune your phasers to those frequencies. It should have more effect on the being should you encounter it." He looked around. "Everyone should set their commbadges to active tracking and recording in case you run across the being."

Rin did the suggested re-attunement of her phaser while nodding in agreement to Kyle. "Perhaps the transport inhibitors are controlled through the same central command. If we get those offline we can evacuate everyone."

With that, Rin and Kyle started a brisk jog down the nearest corridor deeper into the ship.

N'vok turned to the others. "Do we attempt to disable the ship engines or return directly to the Elysium?"

"I'll help," Lissa replied quickly looking at N'vok. "Do we have time?" She asked urgency in her voice.

"We will find out, I still have a tap into the computer system here," said N'vok. "If we cannot stop the reaction, perhaps we can slow it down. As a last resort, an armed shuttle could cut the ship's engine free or destroy it, though that carries risks as well,"

"I don't wish to rush you Mr. Holv but time is of the essence." Gary replied calmly to the science officer. "Everyone else prepare to move back to the Elysium. We'll give Rin and Kyle all the time they need." Gary looked at the other members of the away team. "While Rin and Kyle are rounding up others. We need to get moving and see about unleashing the docking clamp.. “Who is up for a trip with me?"

Alicia nodded to Gary, “You can count me in Captain.”

N'vok looped Lissa's system into the link to the ship's computer. "See if you can throttle down the engine, Lieutenant Kerr, and I will look for an emergency shutdown system."

"Excellent Alicia. Understood Mr. Holv, we will certainly give it our best shot." Gary answered.

Naxea donned her full face helmet as it sealed with a quick hiss of air. "I'm going to grab the survivors and lead them to the Elysium. S'hib, get your butt back to the ship. If we don't encounter the being here before we leave, I suggest blowing the station once we depart."

"Tune your phasers to the Zeta bands," said N'vok without looking up, "that should improve their effectiveness against the being." He continued working on his datapad. "Captain, please coordinate with myself and Lieutenant Kerr, we will provide what operational support we can." He looked up briefly to Naxea. "Hopefully, it will not come to that, the station is a work of art as well as an archive."

Gary glanced at Alicia, "We'll do that now." As he brought his phaser forth and made the adjustments. "You can count on us contacting you or Lieutenant Kerr, Mr. Holv. We wouldn't think otherwise."

Lissa had been trying to throttle the engine down as ordered by N'vok, but the engine wasn't responding the way that it should be. "Everyone, I'm using Lieutenant Holv's tap into the ship's computer to try and shut down these engines. It looks like the engines are taking the commands, but nothing measurable is happening. At best I'm slowing it down, but I'm not reversing it."

J'Air had gone along with Lissa so that she wouldn't be going alone. She had noted the advice from Kyle earlier that no-one should do that but she didn't really feel particularly useful to Lissa as this was a very definite 'engineering' task. Still, at least she could (and did) change the settings on her phaser as demonstrated and 'have Lt Kerr's back' in case they found anything more dangerous to defend against. If it helped somehow, or if Lissa needed a medic for any reason, at least that was something better than just fleeing and then hoping from a distance that those who stayed would save the day without support. That had been J'Air's thinking.

Hearing first hand and witnessing it as well, J'Air could feel the frustration and confusion that the rogue 'Maws' Impulse engine was causing by failing to slow down even though it was apparently taking instructions. "Makes no sense" J'Air shook her head and muttered. "I can't understand why it hasn't burst into flames by now.....unless....... if it has already and that's what's countering what you're doing Lissa?" she said but then realised that this was so "101" that obviously Lissa would have already thought of that way back in her calculations and assessments. "Sorry" she apologised. "I'll just shut up and let you think in peace." she blushed and didn't offer any further thoughts.

"No, please. I'm a scientist not--" Lissa started to say.

Gary looked at Lissa and J'Air. "Do you want Alicia and I to see if we can get the engine to cooperate from engineering or would you like us to join Naxea in looking for survivors?"

"J'Air just mentioned that maybe there could be a fire in one of engineering components keeping the remote commands from working," Lissa stated. "We should get to engineering quickly. If she's right we need to stop it. If she's not, it could still be something else physical that's impeding the shutdown."

"Then Alicia and I will go there now." Gary replied decisively. "Are you coming with us Lissa?"

"Yeah, let's go," Lissa responded before Gary could finish his invitation. She knew they had to move fast.

"Alright Lissa, let's get going and see what we can do with the engine." Gary replied decisively.

Gary with Alicia and Lissa headed for the engine room with the intent of shutting the unresponsive engine down from there...if they could and they wouldn't know that until they reached the engine room. As the trio hurried along the corridors were noticeably vacant. "I wonder where everyone is?" Gary questioned.

"I think we may need to come to terms with the fact that there may not be anyone," Lissa reminded him. "How many times had that clone been killed already?"

That's true," Gary replied as the trio hurried along. "I think counting the time he died in front of us it made three times. So, there may be no left down here."

---
Rin led Kyle deeper into the ship. The outer corridors were meant for the common travelers, the people moving from ship to ship, stopping for supplies, so on and so forth. Beyond that, however, the ship took a more somber tone. The lighting was lower, the corridors more narrow. After some time, they found themselves in the outer archives. While the A'janie had most of their data digitally stored, they also preserved written documents, here stacked floor to ceiling.

And all of it was going to burn.

She knew she had no time to save any of it. No time to get pa tost security systems and upload data to the Elysium. If it was just risking herself, she might well have done so. But this was everyone's life on the line. Maybe there was still a priest in here somewhere. Maybe she could task them with saving at least some small portion of their databanks.

That was a big maybe, and not the maybe she needed to be focused on.

As he has never seen this part of the station, Kyle was momentarily astonished by the sheer volume of recorded histories present in front and around him. "Holy shit! It's like the fabled Library of Alexandria in here!" His eyes took in rows and rows of shelves, crammed full of various forms of hand-written tomes. He looked over at Rin as they kept moving. "Please tell me that you or your department was able to download at least some of this, before the shir hit the fan?!"

"Some, mostly mission relevant. Local cultures, star charts, etc.," she answered. "Records of another Federation ship they encountered. I don't know everything that got delivered. But still just.... a drop in the bucket. Please let there be a priest still alive in here somewhere..."

Kyle nodded, then remembered that, as part of his away team kit, he always carried a few transport enhancer tags. While he didn't have enough for everything, they could tag a few things, and try to save them. He saw a large bookcase, with sealed shelves, and an ornate-looking trunk beside it. Not caring what the information either contained, he slapped a rag onto both of them, keeping the other three in his kit in reserve. Slapping his combadge, he shouted, "Reece to Elysium, lock onto the two transport tags I just activated and beam the contents aboard. But keep them locked in the buffer, until the Inrel and Science departments can get down there to look over them!"

There was an acknowledgement to his orders, and the two large pieces vanished in a swivel of energy, taking with them everything they contained.

Looking back at Rin, he nodded. "Now, not a total loss. Unless I just saved the section dealing with casserole dishes. Now let's see if we can find a survivor!"

But the halls of the ship remained distressingly empty, Rin and Reece's quick footfalls echoing through the corridors. There was quiet music coming from somewhere. Meant to promote a sense of calmness, Rin assumed. It was utterly failing in that task.

She knew from scans of the station that the command center was not against an external bulkhead. Therefore, she assumed it was probably near the center, with the station having developed around it over the centuries. That limited how many directions they needed to search. But it was still a maze of corridors.

As they turned a corner, they nearly collided with an A'janie priest. He was looking around as if he had a task to do but couldn't remember what it was.

"Oh dear," he said, "I'm sorry, but you shouldn't be down here. Are you lost?" He asked.

Reece grabbed hold of the man and gently guided him along with he and Rin. "Apologies for the rough handling, Sir," he began, as he practically carried the smaller man along. "We need to get to the control center, so we can deactivate the docking clamps that are holding our ship to your station. We would appreciate your assistance in this manner!" The station continued to vibrate and rumble around them as they continued to move.

"Yes," the priest said, pointing in a direction. "This way. I've been alone here for so long. Something's terribly wrong."

"The short version is there's a being is on board which has been killing people and generating temporal anomalies," Rin explained as they continued forward. "That's why you can't remember people being here. We also have a ship whose drive is about to go critical. We want to evacuate everyone to our ship. Also, if you'll allow us, we'd like to download as much of your database as we can to preserve for you. I'm afraid this station is done for."

"Where will we go?" the priest asked.

"We can figure that out later. Right now we just want to save as many as we can and much as we can."

A door slid open, revealing what was clearly the command center. The priest hurried to a central control station and started tapping on antiquated controls. "There, that should do it."

Rin slapped her badge. "Rin to Elysium. Docking clamps released, Transport inhibitors down. Ready to evac the station. I'm also attempting to upload as much of the A'janie data as possible, so I need every bit of computer space we can spare."

["Acknowledged. Stand by for beam out!"] Came the reply.

‐--------------------

Naxea had left the group as she moved towards the temple. With the A'janie being religious nut jobs, she figured there were a few hiding, hoping their deity would save them. The A’janie were learning that deities don't give a damn about those who worship them. It was a lesson she learned from the Prophets. Her scanner was set to a continuous sweeping pattern on all wavelengths to help detect the creature should it show.

The Elysium's transporter techs began beaming out people as fast as they could in groups of 20. The transporter rooms ran smoothly, with the refugees being funnelled into the Emergency areas in the cargo bays so they could be documented and found rooms. The away teams were beamed out at the last moment, and the Elysium moved away from the cityship.

OFF