Fork in the Road

Posted on Thu Sep 2nd, 2021 @ 12:13pm by Lieutenant Commander Tyrus Acevedo & Lieutenant Aiko Kiroshi & Lieutenant Anthony Edwards Ph. D & Lieutenant Helena Wells & Lieutenant JG Summer Wyse & Ensign Bracca

1,380 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: The Silent Scream
Location: Bridge
Timeline: 22nd April 2395- 1800hrs

ON:

Anthony had been working on this maze since the ship was first involved and his shift was coming to an end, and the last sensor flashes were registering on his station now he saw the tunnel branch out in front of him. "HELM ALL STOP NOW!"

Without questioning the order though surprised by it Bracca quickly cut the engines and used the thrusters to slow the ship down to a dead stop, after a few seconds his console read all stop. "All stop." He reported.

As soon as he said that Anthony explained it to the other bridge officers. "Commander, we have a problem. Our funnel has developed a choice, we have two directions to go in."

Ty remained seated in the Captain's chair, Taliserra was tending to her child and hopefully getting some rest thought the First Officer. "I don't see a Chesire cat here to ask us where we are going, Lieutenant," he said in response to Anthony Edwards. "We have reached an impasse," he added. The man mulled over the decision for a moment.

"Before we make a decision on where we are going, I want to make sure we know where we have been," Ty stated. "This easily could lead to a dead-end eventually. Hell, it could even snake back around and we'll find ourselves back at this fork." Ty shook his head. He did not want the ship to be traversing this obstacles course of a space labyrinth only to have their progress nullified by a twist, turn, or fork.

Ty stood from his seat and turned to face the science personnel. "Can we compile our navigational information since entering this...labyrinth and launch a navigational marker buoy here at the fork?"

"Sir, that might work, but null space tends to shift. I guess it cannot hurt though but it could also throw us off," HG responded. "As we have found out, just backing out did not work, the space shifts in response to energy. It also drains energy, it is quite possible that a buoy left here would only last a short while before the space here drains it sufficiently to no longer be useful."

Ty nodded. "A buoy is much smaller than the Wolff itself," the Commander replied. "Theoretically speaking, could we add some sort of enhancer or amplifier to it to adjust with these shifts? I know this is a bandage on a deeper wound, but even a short term fix would be better than nothing."

"Hopefully a short term fix to work out which fork will help us get out of here and which won't, but yes we can get set them up with amplifiers to be useful at a longer distance to where the fork is in case it ends in a dead end." Anthony said.

Summer stepped out of the turbolift, she’d been taking a break trying to get her mind off the rising levels of emotions with the ship being stuck where it was. To say it was an almost maddening level of emotion was an understatement. She walked across to her seat and looked towards Tyrus offering a polite smile.

“We can try, still not all who wander are lost besides if you don't know where you want to go, then it doesn't matter which path you take.” HG replied to Anthony using Cheshire cat quotes and added a big wide grinned smile as well. A challenge and been set and she was game.

Ty noticed Summer, acknowledging her with a quick smile. "I will be ready to take one...either one without hesitation, but my primary concern is leaving some bread crumbs behind to know we were already here, should we end up back at this same spot."

"In that case Commander Acevedo a marker buoy would be the purrfect." Anthony said as he laughed at HG's Cheshire cat-like grin. "Now seriously it will show us both that we're either turning or not, and if we return to the starting point."

Ty nodded. "Make it so," the First Officer replied. "As soon as we have one ready, we'll launch it and get underway and set course down...the left side of this fork," added Ty. There wasn't really any rhyme nor reason for the choice.

Anthony sent a message with an alert to the cartography team to what the executive officer had asked for in setting the marker buoy. "Five minutes Commander Acevedo and we'll be ready for launch."

"Very well," replied Commander Acevedo. Five minutes to get a buoy together was not bad at all. The few minutes they were stopped was not going to cost them much. They would soon be underway and heading down the left fork, and whatever was to come would come.

Commander Tyrus Acevedo once again got comfortable in the Captain's chair, using the chair's controls to open a comm signal to Engineering. Time to check on trouble he thought to himself. The Chief Engineer had already built a delightful reputation.

"Bridge to Engineering, apologies for the full stop, Lieutenant. We will be underway again in a few minutes. We came to a bit of a fork in the road," Ty explained. "Is everything running smoothly down there?"

Aiko had her hands full. "So far so good down here sir. We're doing a few nonessential repairs as we go but all is fine." There was a pause. "Just don't fry my engines..sir."

Ty leaned over towards the seated Ship's Counsellor. "How is the crew holding up?" he asked in a bit of a soft whisper. Summer was the Chief Counsellor for the USS Wolff, but she was also a Betazoid, something Ty knew he could utilize in gauging overall crew morale.

Summer looked towards Tyrus. “To be honest they’re finding this difficult, there’s a lot of uncertainty and people are afraid. I suggest you keep giving them things to do, concentrating on their jobs is helping somewhat.”

Ty nodded at Summer's assessment. The not knowing, uncertainty, all of that had a way of wearing people down. The best thing was to keep the hands busy and the mind occupied. Ty could relate to that from his engineering background.

HG was doing what she did best, calculating and speculating. She sure wished she understood that old idea better. How would that hold up to here? To jump nearly anywhere? That was something else though and soon enough she had her answer.

"As I mentioned sir," she spoke primarily to the Commander but it was for her department head as well. "Null space, well nulls things, both this ship and the buoy will be drained of energy. Using available data, we have approximately one hour ship's time before the loss of signal. However, your idea of bread crumbs is not a bad one. If we put extras out along the way, the energy needed to keep signal to the first one here is lessened and gives us more time."

"Alright, then you two start breaking apart the bread and we'll leave some crumbs along the way," Ty replied. "But if we find a candied house of gingerbread, I'm not staying for tea and biscuits with the forest witch."

"Counsellor, If you'll join me in the Captain's Ready Room for a few minutes?" Ty said looking over at Summer. He wanted to pick her brain a bit, but in the privacy of the Ready Room rather than openly in front of the bridge crew.

Summer nodded. “Of course Commander.”

Ty cleared his throat, stood up, and gave his uniform a good tug. "Lieutenant Edwards it looks like the bridge is yours for a bit," The First Officer announced. "I'll be a stone's throw away in the Captain's Ready Room. Deploy the first buoy at will and then take us down the left side of this fork when ready."

"Aye Commander," Anthony said but kept working with HG on keeping a line between the Wolff and the original marker Buoy to keep them all power without over-stressing the engines.



OFF:

Lieutenant Commander Tyrus Acevedo
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Anthony Edwards Ph. D
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant Aiko Kiroshi
Chief Engineer

Lieutenant (jg) Summer Wyse
Chief Counsellor

Lieutenant HG Wells
Science Officer

Ensign Bracca
Helmsman [npc Taliserra]

 

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