The Phantom Nebula (Closed)

[Don Damien Addams]

"œYou two are getting plenty of exercises moving back and forth," Don said with a grin.

Don saw the  horseshoe-shaped one coming up at thirty-five degrees starboard, elevation nine-point-four. He manually directed Mary Walker in that direction.

"œI was never the superstitious type. When I was kid my grandmother was super superstitious. Like take things in three," that was something he had done because it was something he picked up as a kid. "œThe hat on the bed. She claimed that was the worst bad luck ever."

He waited to see anything on the sensors and he quickly had the shuttle go onward. He was alert as a rat was aware of a cat pouncing on him. No Don was far from being a rat. He was on high alert to react fast. Everything had to be counted on every second.

[Lek]

[Shuttlecraft Mary Walker - Inside the Nebula]

Kimi watched, impressed, as the Ferengi engineer worked on the ops deck. With furtive movements he quickly dismantled and rebuilt the probe's internal structure. There was a hurried but assured confidence in the work, and he had it done even more quickly than she had estimated.

She lifted in the environmental and timer units and they fitted snugly in, before Lek sealed it again and prepared for launch.

They raced back up to the bridge. As she scampered down the dark corridor with the Chief, she swore she heard an echo of the ghostly tapping again, but shut it from her mind.

They joined Addams and M'rraw and Kimi slid back into her seat.

Kimi checked their position and the dimensional anomalies around them.

"We're on a time limit, Sir, so I suggest we take the very next opportunity. There's a horseshoe-shaped one coming up at thirty-five degrees starboard, elevation nine-point-four."

She looked up from her screen. "Horseshoes are supposed to be lucky on my planet. Let's try it. Launch in forty seconds, setting countdown now."

The comment about luck perhaps was a little unscientific and may have sounded desperate. But this was where they were. If this did not work, they were landing on that planet no matter what.

As the seconds counted down she glanced across to the Caitian. "Did anything weird come up on the internal sensors, M'rraw?"

"œYou two are getting plenty of exercises moving back and forth," Don said with a grin.

Don saw the  horseshoe-shaped one coming up at thirty-five degrees starboard, elevation nine-point-four. He manually directed Mary Walker in that direction.

"œI was never the superstitious type. When I was kid my grandmother was super superstitious. Like take things in three," that was something he had done because it was something he picked up as a kid. "œThe hat on the bed. She claimed that was the worst bad luck ever."

He waited to see anything on the sensors and he quickly had the shuttle go onward. He was alert as a rat was aware of a cat pouncing on him. No Don was far from being a rat. He was on high alert to react fast. Everything had to be counted on every second.

[Shuttlecraft Mary Walker - Phantom Nebula]

Lek fired the probe and it his the horseshoe shaped... event center of mass and was instantly absorbed by the nodule of unreality. As there wasn't a flash or any other indication of the impact, Lek's brow knitted together.

"Did it work?"

Lieutenant T'Charr's ears flicked rapidly as he consulted the sensors and replied.

"Readings keep fluctuating, but in addition to the four of us, I keep getting intermittent indications that others are aboard. I am unable to determine who or what these presences are as they are too fleeting for me to get better readings."

[Kimiko Sugiyama]

[Shuttlecraft Mary Walker - Phantom Nebula]

Lek fired the probe and it his the horseshoe shaped... event center of mass and was instantly absorbed by the nodule of unreality. As there wasn't a flash or any other indication of the impact, Lek's brow knitted together.

"Did it work?"

Kimi watched the sensors like a hawk as the probe speared into the anomaly. It was curious; the paradox did not appear on any sensor readings at all, nor was there any visual clue out of the viewscreen, except the creeping darkness that pervaded the entire nebula. The only reason she knew it was there at all was because of the anomalous echoes that came back once the probes entered its periphery.

What would happen if they tried to slam right through? They were about to find out. The probe provided a constant realtime position-attitude-velocity reading, until, suddenly it did not.

Kimi's brow furrowed. "Okay, it's entered the paradox - we've lost the reading."

She focused sensors on the other side and waited. It did not show up. It was past due at this speed. She gave it more moments. Even just a minor dilation would be manageable, but... still nothing.

Kimi slammed her hand down in frustration. "We lost it... I guess it is somewh..."

A beep from the console cut her off mid-sentence. "Wait, I got an echo back, just not where we expected. Standby, tracing vector."

She looked at Don and Lek. "Time dilation nil. It's just a spacial jump. Let me see..."

She fiddled some more then gasped. "Oh, it's right over the planet!"

Kimi shook her head. "It's like it just went through a tiny wormhole, suddenly showing up in a different position. This... this horseshoe is a magic door to get us right over the planet!"

She looked at her seniors again. "If we took this one, we could save two hours, land, recharge, and reassess strategy, Sirs."

Lieutenant T'Charr's ears flicked rapidly as he consulted the sensors and replied.

"Readings keep fluctuating, but in addition to the four of us, I keep getting intermittent indications that others are aboard. I am unable to determine who or what these presences are as they are too fleeting for me to get better readings."

This announcement rang like an ominous gong in the ensuing silence. Kimi's eyes widened. She was not imagining it. She self-consciously looked over her shoulder back into the dark corridor that lead to the bridge.

"Others?" she whispered. "Someone, or something is phasing in and out of the ship? Can you show me the readings, anything at all you got?"

She suddenly felt it more strongly than ever before: They needed to land, recharge, and also come out from the claustrophobic, cramped space of the Mary Walker, if just for their sanity...

[Lek]

[Shuttlecraft Mary Walker - Phantom Nebula]

Kimi watched the sensors like a hawk as the probe speared into the anomaly. It was curious; the paradox did not appear on any sensor readings at all, nor was there any visual clue out of the viewscreen, except the creeping darkness that pervaded the entire nebula. The only reason she knew it was there at all was because of the anomalous echoes that came back once the probes entered its periphery.

What would happen if they tried to slam right through? They were about to find out. The probe provided a constant realtime position-attitude-velocity reading, until, suddenly it did not.

Kimi's brow furrowed. "Okay, it's entered the paradox - we've lost the reading."

She focused sensors on the other side and waited. It did not show up. It was past due at this speed. She gave it more moments. Even just a minor dilation would be manageable, but... still nothing.

Kimi slammed her hand down in frustration. "We lost it... I guess it is somewh..."

A beep from the console cut her off mid-sentence. "Wait, I got an echo back, just not where we expected. Standby, tracing vector."

She looked at Don and Lek. "Time dilation nil. It's just a spacial jump. Let me see..."

She fiddled some more then gasped. "Oh, it's right over the planet!"

Kimi shook her head. "It's like it just went through a tiny wormhole, suddenly showing up in a different position. This... this horseshoe is a magic door to get us right over the planet!"

She looked at her seniors again. "If we took this one, we could save two hours, land, recharge, and reassess strategy, Sirs."

This announcement rang like an ominous gong in the ensuing silence. Kimi's eyes widened. She was not imagining it. She self-consciously looked over her shoulder back into the dark corridor that lead to the bridge.

"Others?" she whispered. "Someone, or something is phasing in and out of the ship? Can you show me the readings, anything at all you got?"

She suddenly felt it more strongly than ever before: They needed to land, recharge, and also come out from the claustrophobic, cramped space of the Mary Walker, if just for their sanity...

[Shuttlecraft Mary Walker - Phantom Nebula]

Lek gave Kimiko a toothy smile and sighed in relief at the news. They hadn't inverted, or traveled in time, or ended up in some parallel universe, which just a few of the events Lek envisioned happening to them.

"I'm all for landing. By all means Lieutenant Addams, let's find a nice place to land. Perhaps a wooded area that fronts on a beach, lake or ocean will do. Listen to you heart as you set us down."

Lieutenant T'Charr's ears continue to flicker in their unknown dance as the Caitian made another scan.

"I cannot confirm what these apparitions might be. They show up so briefly on sensors that they only barely register before they are gone. It is impossible to gather data on them."

[Kimiko Sugiyama]

[Shuttlecraft Mary Walker - Phantom Nebula]

"I'm all for landing. By all means Lieutenant Addams, let's find a nice place to land. Perhaps a wooded area that fronts on a beach, lake or ocean will do. Listen to you heart as you set us down."

Kimi studied the sensor scans coming back from the orb rotating below their ship and frowned.

"I don't know about nice beaches... I'm afraid it's quite dark compared to what we are used to, and the equatorial region is quite unstable, massive tectonic activity, volcanoes. Towards the poles it is much better but mostly ranges of mountains, hills, valleys, plains of igneous rock. There are lakes but I am not sure it is water - some other liquid. And..."

She glanced out of the viewscreen at the planet in question.

"That's weird. Look at those areas of glowing lights. It's not cities or technology. I am reading flora, I think it is bioluminescence. Despite the distant, faint star, life found a way. It's quite an oxygen-rich atmosphere away from the gases around the equator. I suggest we head for one of the glowing forests."

Who knows, she secretly thought, we might find some interesting alien species!

Lieutenant T'Charr's ears continue to flicker in their unknown dance as the Caitian made another scan.

"I cannot confirm what these apparitions might be. They show up so briefly on sensors that they only barely register before they are gone. It is impossible to gather data on them."

Kimi could not help but glance again over her shoulder.

"You mean, like ghosts?"

I am a scientist. I don't believe in ghosts! she scolded herself.

Kimi sighed. She just wanted to get down to the planet and out of this big metal box as soon as possible...

[Lek]

[Shuttlecraft Mary Walker - Phantom Nebula]

Kimi studied the sensor scans coming back from the orb rotating below their ship and frowned.

"I don't know about nice beaches... I'm afraid it's quite dark compared to what we are used to, and the equatorial region is quite unstable, massive tectonic activity, volcanoes. Towards the poles it is much better but mostly ranges of mountains, hills, valleys, plains of igneous rock. There are lakes but I am not sure it is water - some other liquid. And..."

She glanced out of the viewscreen at the planet in question.

"That's weird. Look at those areas of glowing lights. It's not cities or technology. I am reading flora, I think it is bioluminescence. Despite the distant, faint star, life found a way. It's quite an oxygen-rich atmosphere away from the gases around the equator. I suggest we head for one of the glowing forests."

Who knows, she secretly thought, we might find some interesting alien species!

[Shuttlecraft Mary Walker - Phantom Nebula]

Lek chuckled as it seemed, like most scientist, this young feemale took things literally.

"Okay, let's broadened the landing parameters. How about 'Not in space with pockets of unreality all around us and in a place on the planet with a stable biosphere?'"

Lek made sure to give the ensign a big smile so that she knew he wasn't being serious despite the situation.

Kimi could not help but glance again over her shoulder.

"You mean, like ghosts?"

I am a scientist. I don't believe in ghosts! she scolded herself.

Kimi sighed. She just wanted to get down to the planet and out of this big metal box as soon as possible...

[Shuttlecraft Mary Walker - Phantom Nebula]

T'Charr's expression remained unreadable, but it was her ears that gave at least an inkling of what she was thinking away based on how rapidly they were flicking.

"If the term 'ghost' means what I believe I've been led to understand, I find the premise unlikely Ensign."

[Don Damien Addams]

[Shuttlecraft Mary Walker - Phantom Nebula]

Lek chuckled as it seemed, like most scientist, this young feemale took things literally.

"Okay, let's broadened the landing parameters. How about 'Not in space with pockets of unreality all around us and in a place on the planet with a stable biosphere?'"

Lek made sure to give the ensign a big smile so that she knew he wasn't being serious despite the situation.

[Shuttlecraft Mary Walker - Phantom Nebula]

T'Charr's expression remained unreadable, but it was her ears that gave at least an inkling of what she was thinking away based on how rapidly they were flicking.

"If the term 'ghost' means what I believe I've been led to understand, I find the premise unlikely Ensign."

[Mary Walker shuttle]

Don smiled as Lek was being nice to the feemale. There was times when Lek and Don had issues when they had to deal with Martha in the cargo. The reason Don was attach because he had grew attach to shuttles, ships, starships and any traveling transportation. He was a pilot of course.

"œAll right I found a location where we can land," he said. He descended down and surprising there was no bumps on the ride down. Then he landed the new shuttle down without a bump.

"œWe landed," he told them. "œYou claimed the atmosphere was clear for us to breathe?" He asked.

Outside of the shuttle there was a massive cloud of flies zooming around the shuttle. The shuttle must had drawn attention to them. Then after a few more seconds they zoomed away in the cloud.

"œDid you see that? Look like a cloud of flies," he shared.

[Lek]

[Mary Walker shuttle]

Don smiled as Lek was being nice to the feemale. There was times when Lek and Don had issues when they had to deal with Martha in the cargo. The reason Don was attach because he had grew attach to shuttles, ships, starships and any traveling transportation. He was a pilot of course.

"œAll right I found a location where we can land," he said. He descended down and surprising there was no bumps on the ride down. Then he landed the new shuttle down without a bump.

"œWe landed," he told them. "œYou claimed the atmosphere was clear for us to breathe?" He asked.

Outside of the shuttle there was a massive cloud of flies zooming around the shuttle. The shuttle must had drawn attention to them. Then after a few more seconds they zoomed away in the cloud.

"œDid you see that? Look like a cloud of flies," he shared.

[Shuttlecraft Mary Walker - Unknown Planet]

Lek had to admit he wasn't certain that they would make it to the planet as he wouldn't have put five strips of latinum on the planet even being real. However once Addams announced they'd landed he was very pleased especially when he mentioned the cloud of flies.

"I wonder if they're edible?"

[Kimiko Sugiyama]

[Phantom Nebula: Planet 1.]

"œWe landed," he told them. "œYou claimed the atmosphere was clear for us to breathe?" He asked.

Kimi trembled with excitement. The ride down had been exceptionally smooth - Addams really knew what he was doing and could handle even in strange climates and atmospheres. A whole planet and ecosystem beckoned, from just beyond the exit portal, to be explored.

She almost forgot the dire predicament that had forced them to land.

Kimi shook her head, remembering the pilot's question. "Oh, yes... I mean, Yes, Sir. It's within one twentieth Earth gravity and pressure - we will feel just slightly light. And quite balmy... oxygen and humidity high. There are some insignificant impurities in the air but I think we will be fine without masks..."

She glances to their medical officer for final authority on that.

Outside of the shuttle there was a massive cloud of flies zooming around the shuttle. The shuttle must had drawn attention to them. Then after a few more seconds they zoomed away in the cloud.

"œDid you see that? Look like a cloud of flies," he shared.

Kimi raised her tricorder but could not get a reading. She did not even get a good look at them. It was certainly a cloud and they were very slight, like gnats. Colony organism? Kimi immediately thought.

But they were gone too quickly, moving like an incorporeal apparition, like a... ghost.

That word again.

[Shuttlecraft Mary Walker - Unknown Planet]Lek said, "I wonder if they're edible?"

Kimi made a face. Yuck! It took her attention away from the flies for a moment and on Lek. Then she noticed the angles of the environment around and behind him, and squinted. She cocked her head to one side, and began taking more readings from her tricorder.

She turned a slow circle, surveying visually rather than through the machine now.

"Commander, Chief... have you noticed something... odd about this place?"

She could not quite put her finger on it, but it was right there in front of her eyes, yet not. A wrongness about the planet. The "trees" that glowed around them formed semi-geometrical shapes - which in itself was not entirely strange in nature, but something about the radar-like "leaves"... They were octagonal or sometimes heptagonal and irregular and...

"Oh," she gasped, staggering to one side. "The angles, they don't quite add up."

It should make three-sixty degrees for the shapes to close properly like that, but they were somehow distorted. Then... now she saw it... she could see the same thing in everything around them.

The angles of shadows or the skies across the horizon. Everything was slightly out of whack. She took some steps and staggered again.

"Gravity and vectors are not right. We will need to walk very carefully - it's like... like this place is not entirely real, or maybe part of it is here but another part of it exists in dimensions we cannot observe..."

She hushed. The wrongness was profoundly unsettling. She looked down and stared at the parched ground. The clay-like soil had dried into more geometrical shapes, like a mosaic across the ground. But every single shape was different and unique and... and they slotted together perfectly so that were only thin lines like spider-web strands between but... the angles were not right. It should not make a perfectly fitted pattern like that. Hexagons butted up next to ovals, dodecagons next to circles, and yet, they fitted together perfectly.

Kimi shook her head again, afraid she was hallucinating and becoming entranced. She stepped up close to Addams and Lek and M'rraw.

"Let's stay close to one another, keep talking," to stop us from going mad, she thought but did not say...

[Lek]

[Phantom Nebula: Planet 1.]

Kimi trembled with excitement. The ride down had been exceptionally smooth - Addams really knew what he was doing and could handle even in strange climates and atmospheres. A whole planet and ecosystem beckoned, from just beyond the exit portal, to be explored.

She almost forgot the dire predicament that had forced them to land.

Kimi shook her head, remembering the pilot's question. "Oh, yes... I mean, Yes, Sir. It's within one twentieth Earth gravity and pressure - we will feel just slightly light. And quite balmy... oxygen and humidity high. There are some insignificant impurities in the air but I think we will be fine without masks..."

She glances to their medical officer for final authority on that.

Kimi raised her tricorder but could not get a reading. She did not even get a good look at them. It was certainly a cloud and they were very slight, like gnats. Colony organism? Kimi immediately thought.

But they were gone too quickly, moving like an incorporeal apparition, like a... ghost.

That word again.

Kimi made a face. Yuck! It took her attention away from the flies for a moment and on Lek. Then she noticed the angles of the environment around and behind him, and squinted. She cocked her head to one side, and began taking more readings from her tricorder.

She turned a slow circle, surveying visually rather than through the machine now.

"Commander, Chief... have you noticed something... odd about this place?"

She could not quite put her finger on it, but it was right there in front of her eyes, yet not. A wrongness about the planet. The "trees" that glowed around them formed semi-geometrical shapes - which in itself was not entirely strange in nature, but something about the radar-like "leaves"... They were octagonal or sometimes heptagonal and irregular and...

"Oh," she gasped, staggering to one side. "The angles, they don't quite add up."

It should make three-sixty degrees for the shapes to close properly like that, but they were somehow distorted. Then... now she saw it... she could see the same thing in everything around them.

The angles of shadows or the skies across the horizon. Everything was slightly out of whack. She took some steps and staggered again.

"Gravity and vectors are not right. We will need to walk very carefully - it's like... like this place is not entirely real, or maybe part of it is here but another part of it exists in dimensions we cannot observe..."

She hushed. The wrongness was profoundly unsettling. She looked down and stared at the parched ground. The clay-like soil had dried into more geometrical shapes, like a mosaic across the ground. But every single shape was different and unique and... and they slotted together perfectly so that were only thin lines like spider-web strands between but... the angles were not right. It should not make a perfectly fitted pattern like that. Hexagons butted up next to ovals, dodecagons next to circles, and yet, they fitted together perfectly.

Kimi shook her head again, afraid she was hallucinating and becoming entranced. She stepped up close to Addams and Lek and M'rraw.

"Let's stay close to one another, keep talking," to stop us from going mad, she thought but did not say...

[Phantom Nebula - Unknown Planet]

As the ensign described the planet, the smile he was wearing fell. Once again, he found himself wondering how he got roped into the little side trip in the first place.

"Great, the space isn't right, so I suppose it makes sense the planet wouldn't be either. At least power levels have stopped dropping. Now the question is, can we use the remaining probes that we have to map a way out of the nebula, at least far enough to get into communications range?"