Beyond the edge of reason: Part 1&2

Posted on Wed Apr 1st, 2020 @ 6:28am by Lieutenant Commander S'hib

Mission: Challenge Missions
Location: Starbase 452 - Wormhole Janus
Timeline: 2394
3906 words - 7.8 OF Standard Post Measure

"I've done this a thousand times, never gets old..." Remarked Commander Adams, stroking his dark grey beard before glancing to his right at the young Sequus, his wide eye glued to the viewscreen instead of his console.

S'hib stared out over the controls of the type seven shuttle in awe, his gaze transfixed on the swirling maelstrom of a wormholes maw engulfing them, the kaleidoscopic gases replacing the empty nothingness of space. "Terrifyingly beautiful..." S'hib replied, blinking himself out of the wormholes trance.

"Well, you're not half wrong cadet," Adams quipped with a sly smile. "Janus has been misbehaving as of late so we may have some turbulence..." He added before pointing over to the console in front of S'hib. "keep an eye on sensors for me."

"Will do sir." S'hib nodded, letting out a slow exhale as he tried to calm himself, ignoring the notions of already being inside the belly of some great worm.

His eyes moved between the console and the view outside, lingering on the gaseous funnel swirling around them, violets and deep blues intermixed with snaking bursts of plasma that lit up the inside of the wormholes unnatural void light.

*insert convo*

It was unnervingly hypnotic he thought, his lips parting as his eyes tried to make sense of what he was seeing until his ears pricked up, the sound of a soft wet tap on the vinyl console screen.

"What was that..." He muttered under his breath, the words barely audible as he leaned down, his eyes darting to the source, a small red splotch over the LCARs.

Blood? he thought, moving his equine finger to the stain curiously before his eyes caught glimpse of a droplet of blood fall from his snout next to the first. "Sir... I..." S'hib stuttered as he brought his hand up to his face, wondering if this was simply a side effect of wormhole travel. "How long till we reach the other side." he whined as the shuttle shook slightly, increasingly becoming more uncomfortable with the situation.

"Another minute," Adams responded, before noticing S'hibs bleeding nose. "You alright?.." He added before noticing the blood discolouring his upper lip

S'hib and Adams stared at each other in silence for a moment, a mounting sense of dread filling the cockpit as proximity alarms sounded. "Sir, I'm picking up a massive spatial anomaly." S'hib snorted, trying to ignore his heart beating away in his ears.

"Where? inside Janus?" Adams questioned before the shuttle rocked violently to the side without warning, the rounded nose of the shuttle listing to port as if pulled by some unseen hand. “Computer what's happening.” Adams grunted, pulling his bulk back into the seat he was almost thrown out of.

The shuttles computer chimed back in response, its bland monotone voice unable to convey the severity of that ahead of them. “An unknown gravitational anomaly has been detected.”

Ahead the swirling tunnel began to twist and bend, the purple and yellow clouds of light refracting in and around themselves as they fell into an infinite void coalescing along the very edge of the wormholes tunnel, at first glance it looked as though some mighty being had simply poked its finger in the side of Janus, allowing the swirling clouds of light to escape into real space. However, the alarming readings painted a far different picture.

"Sir... that's..." S'hib blinked as the heartbeat in his ears grew louder, feeling the shuttle shudder with every beat.

“That's not an anomaly, it's a black hole!” Shouted Adams as he frantically grappled with the controls, trying to pull the shuttle away from the tunnel that was now bowing to one side.

“A black hole? how?” S’hib stammered, the hairs of his mane prickling up as he felt his eyes drift towards the depthless obsidian orb, a parasitic egg nestled into the innards of the wormhole.

“Cadet... I have no idea, all I know is there are regulations in place for why we don’t go near them...but this, this doesn't make any sense." Adams replied as the tunnel and exit ahead seemed to pull away from them, curving and twisting to be replaced by the black hole.

Outside the shuttle, the wormhole groaned and shuddered as the blackhole asserted its dominance, tearing Janus in half and forever binding each end to its gravitational influence.

"We're starting to get caught in the gravity well, I'm trying to turn us around." Adams proclaimed as he rubbed a hand over his mouth and beard, weighing the options that seemed to be quickly escaping them. "S'hib, divert all power to the engines, take it from life support, everything." Adams ordered as he spun the shuttle around.

"Done," S'hib replied after a few seconds, feeling a chill run down his spine as the shuttle lurched this way and that, the bulkheads protesting at the immense stress being wrought on the hull.

"Impulse isn't enough... and we can't go to warp, not while still in the wormhole." Adams said in a panic, running his hands over the controls as the shuttle swayed from side to side, buffeted by the clouds of gas being pulled towards the event horizon.

"We don't need warp, we just need the impulse engines to go faster," S'hib said as he glanced over to Adams, trying to ignore the after images of light behind pulled down the shuttle and through the rear bulkhead. "The impulse limiters, they're capped at one fourth the speed of light to safeguard the temporal prime directive."

Adams glanced at S'hib for a moment before looking back outside, the violent lightning around them leaving strange afterglows as they fell past the shuttle. "Computer, disable the impulse drive limiter... time dilation is going to be the least of our problems at this point."

The computer chimed in acknowledgement, the red glow of the impulse engines flared brightly as the shuttle started to slowly approach the speed of light.

"Why aren't we moving?" S'hib questioned as he looked to his side, double-checking the readings.

"We are, we should be fast enough..." Adams replied before clutching his head, followed by S'hib as the two doubled over in pain.


"Ś̷̢̨͇̬̞͖̥̅̐́͋̅͋u̶̘͊̈́̆̅̎c̶̜̭͎̫̃͑͐̇͒͘ḣ̵̤̯̻͓̖̥... T̴͖͇̗̼͝i̵̤̳̲͗n̶̡̙̣̽͗͝y̴͍͠... M̷͍̙̤̊̓͆̆͛̕o̸͍̾̋͝ṛ̵̘̬̙̹̱̋̽̀̍̉ͅs̴̡̠̲̻͎̭̰̊̓̑̅̚̚ȩ̴͉̼̹͙̀͋̚l̶̹͈͓̼͙̭̪̇͊̾͋ś̶͓̻̼͚̂̾͜ ..."


The words rumbled along the hull of the shuttle, every syllable shaking the craft with waves of gravimetric distortions.

"Please tell me I'm not the only one who heard that." Winced Adams as he looked back at the controls, his head and ears ringing from whatever it was that spoke to them.

"Sir..." S'hib replied with a heavy snort, staring over the rim of his phaser at something he could not explain.

Adams looked over at S'hib, his eyes drawn to the phaser pointed to the rear of the shuttle. "Cadet?" He said as he turned in his chair finally seeing what S'hib was seeing.

It was something from beyond this plane of existence, something truly alien. A swirling void of nothingness bending and twisting light all around it as it hung there, motionless.

It made S'hib's head pulse with pain just looking at it, but he was too scared to look away.

"H̴̙̎͘e̶̹̕͝l̵̜͕̐̒l̶͙̅ỏ̴̘͝... Ť̵͙͒ï̸͕̤̊n̵̝͛̈ỷ̵̰̇... M̵͘ͅo̸̞̕r̵̭̆s̷͍̅ȇ̷ͅḷ̶̓s̴̯͌..." The void said as it's fluttering gaseous mantle flowed behind it, curving around and down the impossibly long rear of the shuttle.

"Are you the one holding us here?." Adams asked stoically, moving an arm slowly over to lower S'hibs phaser.

"Ỉ̵̝... N̵̳̍è̶̳e̷̦̎d̵̘̿... S̸̘̀ȯ̸͙m̶̠̀e̵͖̾t̶͍͑h̶̘̔i̶̮̚ņ̸̂g̴͈̚... F̴̱̌r̷͇͑ô̴̳m̴̡̒... Y̶͈͊o̵̮̕ǘ̷̜." It replied slowly, it's very being pulsating with every word, twisting space and time around itself. "B̴u̵t̶... So̶m̷e̵t̶h̵i̴n̵g̵... M̷u̶s̴t̶ B̷e̴ G̶i̵v̸e̴n̴ B̵e̵f̴o̸r̴e̶ So̶m̷e̵t̶h̵i̴n̵g̵ I̵s̴ T̷a̷k̷e̸n̷." It added, its voice slowly tuning itself to their reality.

"What must be given?" Adam's replied curiously, glancing back at the controls to make sure the shuttle was not falling into the black hole.

"I W̷a̵n̴t̶ to leave thiss̸s̷...P̵͖̀͐͂̕r̴̗͔͚̆͘i̶̪̊̓s̷̛͔͐̄ǫ̸̟̫̍̀ṉ̷̓̈́͛." It replied bitterly, it's bulk swelling for a moment, causing the shuttle to groan and creek as the bulkheads started to bend. "G̸i̶v̴e̸ me this, and you may both ask anything of me..."

"Why can't you leave on your own?" S'hib asked curiously, trying to keep one eye on the readouts beside him.

Adams shot a look at S'hib, the young cadet had a point but he also wanted him to keep quiet.

"I am my own lock, you are the keys..." Replied the strange swirling mass of nothingness.

"So we have to give you your freedom, and in exchange, you'll do what exactly?"

The void was silent for a moment, its inky black form slowly rotating, mimicking the black hole that was now inside Janus. "Sophia..." Was all it said in response.

"How do you know that name..." Adams stuttered back, his pale skin turning a sickly grey as if he'd seen a ghost.

"I could bring her back..." It shuddered, seemingly laughing as it did so.

"What are you? a Q?" Adams replied, his knuckles going white as he clenched the arms of his chair.

"Do not mention Them! or I will stop your daughter from ever existing!" It growled, swelling to an impossible size within the confines of their shuttle.

The sudden outburst took them both by surprise, stunning them into silence if but for a moment. "If we can help you we will, but threating us is the wrong way to go about it." Adams shot back, the deep lines on his forehead creasing further as he stared into the very heart of the blackness that occupied the shuttle with them. "Release us first and then we will-" Adams continued only to be cut off by a wave of immense pressure slamming him into his chair.

"S̸͈̏̈́̂ilẽ̴̳̺͆̀ncẽ̴!" The void screamed in a fit of rage, exuding its presence on the surrounding atmosphere with waves of gravitational energy ebbing out from its inky black core, time slowed and warped as each syllable rumbled over the shuttle causing systems to flicker offline for brief moments only to have been aged hundreds of years.

The sound that filled the cockpit was horrendous, a guttural death scream that went on for far too long, and when S'hib turned his gaze to where Adams sat he saw why. For it was not just the shuttle that had been affected by the warping of spacetime, Commander Adams had been as well with horrific results.

Why did he look, it was the first thought that crossed his mind, it lingered there in his mind as he sat motionless, staring at the impossible.

"I ö̸̧̡̠́nly require o̸ne of yo̴̰̞̚u." It shuddered as if to make its point more clear. "And now you may ask two wishes."

"He wanted to help you... even after you threatened him," S'hib replied, still unable to take his eyes off of Adams, his body had been ravaged by localised time dilations, causing parts of his body and uniform to rapidly age and decay into nothing but dust and bone.

"Why should I help you now." S'hib snorted angrily, turning his gaze towards whatever it was that still resided in the shuttle with him.

"Ś̴̞͌et me free... A̷̛̹nd you could ask for him to be... returned." The void said softly, almost mockingly.

"No... I'm not playing your game Imp," S'hib said sternly, his long throat rumbling the words out his lips.

"Oh, but Y̴͈͗̏ou already are..." It replied as a ripple of blinding energy washed over everything.

The pain from the light was intense, a brilliant warmth that subsided as quickly as it had come, but when he opened his eyes again he was staring at his console and the singular drop of blood from earlier.

"Another minute," Adams spoke. turning and noticing S'hibs bleeding nose. "You alright?.." He added, the words sending a chill down the cadet's spine.

"Turn us around..." S'hib stuttered as he watched the same droplet of blood land on the console as before. "TURN US AROUND!" He yelled.

"Cadet, what's got into-" Adams said before the shuttle lurched violently to the side far more so than it had before.

"Warning, Inertial dampeners are now offline." The computer chimed as the shuttle was thrown violently around, sending Adams and S'hib hurtling out of their seats towards the viewscreen, hitting the curved transparent aluminium with two audible thuds.

"Computer what's going on?!" Adams yelled as the shuttle's engine whined loudly, attempting to correct the sudden flat spin they now found themselves in.

“An unknown gravitational anomaly has been detected.” The computer chimed back before the shuttle suddenly and violently stopped moving altogether, throwing the two men to the floor.

"Į̶̕ am ḡ̵̟ŗ̷̉ỏ̵̥̆wing tired of you b̷̭̕o̷̬͒t̴h, Į̶̕ hope you know that..." The Imp snarled as the rear of the shuttle suddenly fell away into nothingness, the light inside the shuttle warping around and becoming trapped in the miniature event horizon that now floated before them.

Slowly S'hibs vision came into focus, dazed from being thrown around the shuttle and his mind suddenly filled with countless memories of this exact moment.

"B̷u̵t̶ if I have to spend another eternity with you P̶a̷t̸h̵etic morsels, I might as well have some F̵͉̊ú̴͕n̵̮͝..." The Imp added as the shuttle shuddered and groaned.

No, this time would be very different S'hib thought, feeling his body become weightless.

"Warning, artificial gravity is now offline." The computer chimed as the two men started to slide down the floor of the shuttle.

Suddenly up had no meaning as the two scrambled to find purchase on anything they could to stop them falling into infinity.

"C̴̭̚areful now, you have n̴̹͗ȯ̶̦ way of comprehending how long that fall is..." The Imp laughed as it exuded its influence on gravity, increasing its effect on the two struggling officers.

Uniforms gripped tightly against skin and hair flattened as the two fought to hold onto anything they could, but the pull of gravity was too much for Adams, his fingers slipping from the cockpit doorframe as he fell down the shuttle.

S'hib held his breath as he watched Adams plummet down the length of the shuttle, his hands grabbing hold of the passenger seats just in time with a loud grunt. "Commander!" S'hib shouted as he adjusted his grip around the cockpit seat support strut. "Hold on!" He yelled before letting go and allowing himself to fall briefly, slamming his large hooves into the seats on either side of the shuttle.

"You are remarkably stubborn...even for a h̷̆͜ö̵͖́rs̶e̶̫͗." The Imp shuddered as it watched below the two, waiting for one or both of them to inevitably fall.

"Take my hand." S'hib snorted as he bent his equine legs and lowered his hand towards Adams.

"Ḯ̴̻ must be making this t̵oò̵̠̻ easy for you both." The Imp gloated as the shuttle shuddered once more, cracking the transparent aluminium viewscreen and increasing the gravitational pull upon the pair.

S'hib grunted lowly as he clasped his four-digit hoof-like hand around Adams's wrist, struggling to keep his powerful legs locked against the seats that were now starting to buckle under the immense weight of both men.

"Ahh!" S'hib snorted, feeling the joint in his shoulder pop slightly as he tried to hold on.

"Please don't let go..." Adams cried out with blood running down his arm, adrenaline blinding him from the hooved fingers digging into his skin.

"You're gonna take my arm with you if you don't climb!" S'hib yelled back, looking up at the lingering entity watching. "Imp, stop this!"

"No, I think I'm happy watching him die...again." It replied with a ripple of disdain, waving an unseen hand that vibrated around the shuttle.

Moments later S'hib cried out in pain, his arm dislocating with a sickening pop that jolted Adams free from his grip.

"Damn it, why?!" He snorted painfully, clutching his limp arm close to his chest.

"B̵͔̽e̸̲͒cause you both C̵͍̕o̷̫̔ḿ̴̹plicate things, even when I entice you with your wildest dreams, L̴̟͠o̵̻͛ved ones, power, I̴̠̾m̶͜͝m̷̗̀o̶͈͋rtality... I should have known it was going to be Ï̶̱m̷̖̃p̷̢̄ossible to reason with a human, But you S̷̹̒e̷̖̐q̵͓̆uus... Ohh I dislike you very much." The Imp spat before the shuttle filled with the same blinding light as before, returning S'hib to his seat staring at the blood dripping from his nose.

"Another minute," Adams spoke. turning and noticing S'hibs bleeding nose. "You alright?.." He added, repeating himself for what could very well have been the thousandth time.

"Sir, I'm sorry but I have to do this..." S'hib said with an exasperated tone, finding the clarity of each previous loop increase alongside his headache.

"What?" Adams replied, slightly taken aback by the Cadets admission.

"I'll try to explain later..." S'hib said while quickly unholstering his phaser and stunning Adams, watching him slump in his chair as the shuttle began to shudder violently. "If my plan works that is." He sighed, turning his seat to face the rear of the shuttle.

OFF:

-----
Part 2
-----

"W̸̖͒h̶̛͕at did you do?" The Imp hissed, watching S'hib roll Adams onto his side.

"If I'm playing your game Imp, I want both wishes..." S'hib replied, stepping over Adams and sitting in what used to be his seat.

"Ṃ̷̈́y my, you know out of the both of you... İ̵͔ really thought it was going to be him that would pull something like this, H̷̱̒u̵͕͑m̷̩̿ans are rather P̷̗̈́r̷̼̍e̸̝͘d̵̼̐ictable after all." The Imp replied softly, shrinking in size and intensity at the prospect of a willing vessel to freedom.

"That's why I shot him first." S'hib remarked, faking a small laugh as he glanced at the display to his side.

"I n̵̟̕o̸͓̅ticed." The Imp replied as it slowly began to take on a more humanoid shape, it's inverted mass displacing the light around it, appearing as a three dimensional shadow than anything tangible or real.

"So... two wishes for one?" S'hib snorted, crossing his arms and trying to keep his composure.

"Y̸e̶s̴ yes, you get to steal his wish, now hurry up or you'll have to shoot him again." The Imp replied, seemingly crossing what could only be described as 'Its' arms.

"Alright well, there was this guitar... old looking thing from a bar I went too with some friends." S'hib started, trying to explain what it looked before it appeared on his lap in a bright flash. Seemingly plucked from his very memory.

"I offer you a̶n̷y̸thing in the universe, and you pick t̸h̴a̷t̵..." The Imp scoffed as if insulted by such a trivial use of its powers for its freedom.

S'hib couldn't help but smile at the Irony of the Imps statement, he really could have asked for anything, yet here he was holding the same old guitar from the bar, missing string and all. "Do you like music?" S'hib asked, tapping on the screen with a single stubby digit, every other tap doing something other than bringing up a list of music.

"We don't have time for this, what is your second W̸̘͝is̴h!" The Imp asked impatiently, swelling back into a more familiar spherical shape.

S'hib glanced back at the music selection screen but not really paying attention to it, wondering instead how time seemed to be an odd commodity for a creature like this to be running out of.

Perhaps his hunch was correct after all. "My second wish..." S'hib replied, glancing back at the Imp "Is for you to stay trapped here, Computer now!" He added with flared nostrils, turning quickly in his seat and moving his hands to the controls.

"Ẅ̴̟́ha-" The Imp growled before suddenly moving up the length of the shuttle and out of the viewscreen, staying where it was as the shuttle hurtled backwards in full reverse.

"I really hope this works..." S'hib said out loud, feeling his mouth turn dry as he tilted the nose of the shuttle up and over, bringing the swirling monster inside Janus into full terrifying view.

Alarms blared as they approached the crushing tidal forces of the black hole, the impossibly huge void filling the entirety of the horizon in an instant before he could move the engines back into full impulse and begin the gravity assisted slingshot manoeuvre.

"Hull integrity is now at thirty two percent and falling." The computer barked loudly, barely audible over the low rumble of the event horizon they were now practically skimming over. "Not helping..." S'hib replied as he tried to follow the escape vector showing on the viewscreen, trying to ignore the fact that everything to his right was a blackhole.

"Warning hull integrity will fail in sixteen seconds." The computer chimed back in.

"Computer, no more warnings, please... I'm well aware." S'hib snorted, feeling his heart beating inside his throat as the shuttle started to peel away from the event horizon.

Seconds counted down as the shuttle hurtled up through Janus, the swirling maelstrom calming more and more as the view of realspace came into view.

How many seconds had it been he thought, sitting there feeling the shuttle practically shaking itself apart with his jaw clenched shut.

Nearby Starbase four five two Janus briefly spluttered back into life, a tiny whimper just long enough to spit a shuttle back out, sheering off the port nacelle and most of the rear hull plating as it closed back into nothingness.

Sparks erupted from every conceivable place possible as the shuttle began to fall apart. "Mayday Mayday Starbase four five two, this is Cadet S'hib of shuttle Epsilon, request emergency transport, two survivors." S'hib shouted down the comms before turning and moving towards Adams, only to find he wasn't there.

"Shuttle Epsilon, only reading one life sign on board, did you say two?" Replied the female conn officer.

S'hib never replied, stunned into horrified silence as the shuttle began to fall apart around him, feeling the pull of the vacuum on his mane as the transport beam took hold of him.

"Cadet?" Said an elderly Vulcan captain after S'hib materialised, her posture seemingly showing her to be more concerned about the man beside her than anything else. "Where is... Commander Adams." She added, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't know..." S'hib replied, looking down at the guitar he was barely holding off the floor. "He was, right behind me."

"Cadet the wormhole you just exited doesn't exist anymore, it imploded shortly after you left... three months ago." She added, somehow raising her eyebrow even further as if struggling to find the logic in her own words.

"But, it's only been a few minutes..." S'hib stuttered, struggling to comprehend everything that had happened.

"Cadet... My name is Captain Hammond, I'm from the Temporal Integrity Commission, we have a lot to discuss."

OFF:

Lieutenant JG S'hib
Security Officer.

 

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