Magic carpet ride

Posted on Mon Feb 6th, 2023 @ 7:48pm by Lieutenant Helena Wells & Lieutenant JG Ash Rowe

2,965 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: The devil wears tripolymer
Location: Various
Timeline: Not mission critical

HG had long given up on the magic mushtoom and gone back to her idea of folding spacetime. Parsing out the extra spatial dimension was fairly easy accessing the extra time dimrnsion had even tasked the computer to its limits. Time for a test. The problem was she did'nt really fly and keeping things going would be a handful.

"Say didn'nt we get a new pilot recently?" HG muttered to herself. "And said pilot may not know my reputation quite yet." It took just a brief look through personnel listiings to find her victim, er target. Pressing her comm "Lieutrenant Rowe, Wells here, need to take a shuttle out for an experiment, if you have a little time?"

If Ash hadn't have had time, she'd have made it. There was no way she'd miss the chance to take a small bird out. "On my way..." she assured, picking her jacket up on the way out to sling over her shoulders. She didn't leave her waiting too long, holding onto the hatch frame as she half swung around the corner. She wasn't familiar with the lady yet...and she looked like a lady. But her pips gave her a helping hand. "Lieutenant? Ash Rowe, you ordered a pilot?"

HG stuck her head out of the shuttle as she heard the voice. "Not ordered, requested. This is strictly a scientific test." HG didn't bother to say that she had not passed it by anyone. "I want to test out a new idea that may decrease the time between star system travel. I need someone to fly while I monitor and I'm not flight certified."

Ash grinned at the prospect, moving carefully through the shuttle to get to the pilot's seat, not wanting to disrupt any equipment. "Well you called the right person...I'll take any excuse to go faster."

HG chuckled. "We may not go anywhere either. This is all highly experimental." She moved to take a seat where she could monitor things. "So best you know what is going on so you can back out. What is the shortest distance between two points?" HG didn't wait for an answer. "What if you could fold space-time in such a way that the two points for a fraction touched? One would simply say take a step from say Earth to Vulcan in a blink of an eye. So what I am playing around with is taking that the universe is composed of a couple of extra dimensions, one of space and another of time. We can't normally access those extra dimensions but well imagine a two dimensional creature encountering a cube. It would have to go around the perimeter, but we could move into another dimension and to the other side, and if we counter normal time with a counter time, the task would be exactly no appearance that time had passed." HG pointed toward the shuttle bay exit.
"So ready for a magic carpet ride?"

Ash blinked, just staring at her for a long moment. "Yeah, I lost you around about folding space," she turned to start firing the shuttle up, going through the usual checks. "But it sounded impressive, so we should definitely do it."

"Very good take us out sub-light to around 2AU." HG gave Rowe the information. She thought to herself. "Perhaps I should tell her we could all end up as disassociated atoms. Nope she might back out."

Ash took the shuttle out, going through the motions with ease and a strangely relaxed state. For a woman who had stared death in the face and won, not much phased her anymore. She took it easy on the shuttle though, just a warm up for what was to come.

"Bring us to a halt."HG tapped several spots on the panel. "All right, hang onto you butt, here we go!" Suddenly the stars disappeared out the view screen being replaced by absolute darkness, followed by the feel one had with an elevator dropping too fast. Then the stars reappeared but in patterns that they had not been.

Ash gripped the side of the console out of sheer instinct, the nauseating sensation sounding a primal response of disorientation and unsteadiness. When she realised she wasn't falling, she straightened up, shaking her head slightly as if to try and reorientate herself, looking to the screen with confusion. "I have no idea what just happened, but this is insisting we're in the Andromeda galaxy..." she started running a diagnostic in reaction to the impossible readings.

HG blinked and then got up to go dig through the modifications. It took her only a few moments to find the problem. "Bugger! The limiter burned out. Oh and a few other bits besides." She turned her head toward Ash. "Best see if there is a M class we can get to on warp only. This is going to take a bit to fix." HG didn't voice "if I can."

Ash held her sigh back...oh well, it had been exciting while it lasted, even if it was short lived. She searched for a planet that might serve their needs. The nearest was pretty tiny, but still registered with safe M class parameters. She plotted a course, getting them underway with a slight frown. "It will still take about 3 hours to get there," she warned.

"Three hours is nothing compared to how long it will take to get back to our galaxy. Warp core would not even last long enough, so say in several thousands of years we might make it." HG sounded droll. "Well, it was a fun trip and all in the name of science. Maybe plant a buoy or flag someplace to say we were the first."

Ash shook her head, unable to process the reality of what they'd done. "This is crazy, you know that? Are you sure this isn't some kind of really clever prank on the new officer?"

HG glanced up. "Run a diagnostic if you wish. Do I think I can fix it? Maybe. The limiter burned out; thankfully, otherwise, it would have taken the rest of the unit with it. In order to return, going to have without the limiter and hope the unit holds together." HG waved a hand out toward the screen. "Just think, though, we have gone where none of us have gone before. Let's just hope we don't run into the Kelvans."

Ash grinned at the last words, looking out at the sight with awe. As a self confessed adrenaline junkie, this was more than just a little exhilarating. She let out a whistle, shaking her head slowly. "You should make a log...the first Starfleet log to be made here."

"Go ahead. I need to concentrate. If you pick up any odd ships, let me know. As I mentioned we don't need to run into the Kelvans. They made it to our galaxy way back, haven't been back since that I know of. I'm guessing that since the crew never returned they gave up."

"Absolutely," Ash assured with a firm nod. They were isolated and on unfamiliar ground. She had no desire to get into a fight this far away from home. "How long have you been working on this?"

HG glanced up a moment and made a face. She finally got up, she would have to work on things from the outside as well and had no wish if he could avoid it to be in a suit. "Physics wise most of my career going back to graduate school days." Waving a hand to the panels now scattered around the floor. "This was the reason I quit the fleet. I was worried that the fleet or parts of the federation like Section 31 would use it militarily." HG sighed. "I was recalled and decided that perhaps the powers that be would not misuse it, but then again, everything was just theoretical as all hell." She chuckled a moment. "I didn't really expect it to work tell you the truth."

"Well you sure as hell did it," Ash replied with awe, shaking her head as she watched her. Her eyes drifted to the damage she was trying to fix, her smile fading a little with it. "Is there anything I can help with?" she asked, but with little expectation. She could put the shuttle on auto pilot, but she wasn't exactly an engineer.

"Not unless you want to do an EV. I don't particularly like them. However, need to do a repair that is not accessible from here. Hence, partially why an M class. Of course, things might not work so that the planet may become our new home. Your choice, EV or planet. If you decide EV I can talk you through it. It is not terribly complicated. It appears that the set of connections to the warp drive have come loose when we dropped out of fold space abruptly."

Ash looked out at the view, holding her breath as she considered. The adrenaline junkie in her was more than happy at the idea of leaping out into the cold of space. The trained officer she now was told her that it would leave them vulnerable and make a quick escape impossible. And they were really more than vulnerable enough as it was. So that was that. She sighed with the conclusion. "Let's get to the planet," she suggested reluctantly.

HG nodded. "Sounds like a plan." As she got up to get back to the chair a light started flashing. "Bloody well damn, we are being hailed!" HG put the message up.
On the screen overlay, a thing with multiple tentacles appeared around a round bulbous body.

"Small unknown craft!" The translation was scratchy. "You will immediately stop! You have entered and are trespassing in Kelvan space."

HG shook her head. "Crap, what I feared. Looks like either you or I are going to have to take that walk if we want out of here."

"I'll go," Ash was already pushing herself up, undoing her jacket. "You can probably fly this well enough if something happens to me, but I can't fix it up the other way around."

HG pulled a PaDD and tapped on it a moment. "Here you go. This should get you what you need to do." HG waited and then when Ash was ready dropped out of warp. "I'll see if I can stall the Kelvans. None the less, they will be here at their present rate in ten minutes."

"Right..." Ash gave a firm nod as she looked at the padd, taking it in, as if it would somehow imbue her with magnificent ability. "Ten minutes. Right..." she let out a sharp breath to gear herself up before sealing her gloves and heading out.

The first few moments were a disorientating swirl to the head. A few breaths later, Ash's stomach settled and she took a moment to just look out at the horizonless expanse, flexing her fingers to feel the gloves, the only thing between her and the deadly, long cold. She pushed the thought away, carefully but steadily moving forward to get to the damage.

HG opened the channel. "Kelvan ship, we apologize for being in your space. We have an emergency with our matter-anti-matter reactor and might be unstable."

"Unknown ship. We do not detect any leakage. We will transport you off and destroy the ship."

"Ugh...we might not be compatible with your life support systems." HG replied quickly hoping Ash was getting things together.

"We are capable of modifying any system. Send parameters" HG rolled her eyes. She thought about the most creative biochemistry that she could and then sent the data.

"Unusual. It shall take us slightly longer. Shut down drive."

"Sorry no can do."

As Ash ducked back into the helm area, she was still pulling her suit off with a shiver. A purely instinctive reaction, she was sure. She nodded firmly to HG, indicating she'd got the fix in...or at least, had done the best she could given the ticking clock.

With a sudden appearance a titanic ship suddenly appeared. "Kelvans are here!" HG called out. "Aim us along the same course we got here and then pray things work."

""Prepare to surrender vessel!" Came the call over the comms.

HG was back on the floor. "I'm going to have to manually calculate how long fold space since the limiter is gone. Ready? Here we go!" HG activated the drive and for a moment nothing happened then once more that weird falling elevator feeling. HG counted and then broke the connection. The shuttle fell out the fold space and back into normal space. "Damn, bugger! Burned by fingers!" HG looked to the screen and there were stars and then she turned her attention to Ash. "Did we make it?"

Ash caught her breath as she checked her readouts...and then checked them again to be sure with the way her head was spinning just a touch. "We made it..." she assured, looking back to her with a grin. "We're only four light years away from the Wolff."

HG nodded. Her hands hurt from the burns. "I hate to say this, but delete the entire ship's log. I never really expected fold space drive to actually work." She got up to sit in the chair next to Ash. "I'm worried that such a thing could be ill-used yet. Sorry, but you will just have to know personally the two of us have gone where no man or woman, for that matter, has gone before. As soon as we get back to the Wolff I'm phasering the rest of that out of existence." HG sat back, trying to push the pain in her hands away.

"What? You can't do that!" Ash watched her with shock for a long moment before shaking her head. She reached out, trying to see her hands. "Let me look at those?" she asked with a frown, leaning out to get to a medkit.

HG waited while Ash went for the Medkit. Though it hurt, HG pulled a phaser and held it. She tapped on the console to bypass the security and put in the commands to erase the last several hours of the log. "Sorry, Lieutenant. I think it is for the best." She turned in her seat made a quick reset and fired at the floor. The mechanism glowed brightly for several moments before becoming nothing but a vapor. She turned back, readjusted the phaser and then turned it to hand to Ash. "You can arrest me for threatening a fellow officer, but what did I think was for the best. Imagine, what would happen if somehow the Borg, or Cardassians, or who knows got a hold the technology. What if a later expedition got captured by the Kelvans? Ships or weapons that could pop in and then away to anyplace. There would hardly be a way to defend. Billions could die. I might not be the most stable person in the galaxy, but I don't want to go down in history as the one that potentially caused all those deaths. So, we know what we managed to do and a good tale in the bar of being on the most magic carpet ride anyone has been on."

Ash watched her, shaking her head slowly, but she had a small smile with it. She finally chuckled as she reached out for her hands, running a regenerator over the palms. "But all that work you put in to it. You must have known when you started that it was always a possibility, but you pushed ahead anyway?"

"Yes. Theory is nice, but to prove it is something else." HG waited while Ash treated her hands, and thankfully the woman did not seem too upset to have a phaser pulled on her. HG hated that as well, but she had a thought. She took a tricorder she had kept some of the flight on. At least one image showed the star configuration and another the Kelvan ship. She handed the instrument over with the Kelvan ship on the ship. "I didn't quite get rid of everything, nothing here to show how it was done, but let's call it a souvenir for the next time you're in a bar half drunk and telling how you were the first pilot to take a ship to the Andromeda galaxy and have a bet riding on the story. You can prove it you truly went on a magic carpet ride."

Ash grinned at that, taking it to look at with a soft laugh. She glanced back to her with a nod, finishing up with her hands...or at least, what she could do with a basic kit. "Sounds like you know me already," she winked, shaking her head. "A magic carpet ride, hm? Well, I hope you got the answers you were looking for."

"It worked. The principle of space folding is more than theoretical." HG looked back over the mess. She shrugged. "And now to be forgotten. I would ask you to say we attempted and the device melted down. Thanks for being a great pilot, but right now sickbay is going to be my next stop." HG leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. "However, if I get up to correcting a few things, would you be up to taking another ride?"

"I mean, in for a penny, in for a pound, right?" Ash laughed, shaking her head as she looked back to her controls, steering them back towards the ship. "I mean, who else are you going to get with hands on experience, hm?"


--

Lt. HG Wells
"Crazy" Science Officer
USS Wolff

Lt. JG Ash Rowe
Chief Flight Control Officer

 

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