S2 M1 - Fathers and Daughters II

[Tess tLhoell]

Lt. Cmdr. Tess Moreno
[USS Healy - Bridge]

Kalem just simply nodded and said,
"I'm ready whenever you are"

Cmdr Rayek tr'Lhoell
NPC Ensign Jayce Fuller

At the permission given, Jayce place their hands at Ensign Kalem's shoulder ready to provide the back pressure when called on.

After she received Kalem's okay Tess merely had to look at Jayce and nod and knew they would know what they had to do. Jayce providing back pressure Tess yanked Kalem's arm in a forceful but controlled way that made the head of the bone slide back into its place in the joint.

She watched Kalem closely, to see if he had been in any pain at all. Hrafn's call distracted her and made her turn around to look at the CSO.

[Bridge - USS Healy]

Hrafn had taken a little of the numbing gel and used it, which was a good thing when she suddenly had a brainwave and slapped the heal of her hand to her forehead.  It still stung but not as much as it had.

"HRAFN YOU EEJIT!!" she yelled at herself.  "Ooops sorry Captain, indoor voice but I really have been an eejit.  Dr. Moreno... the gel works just fine on my temples!" she added rather sheepishly.

"I've been approaching this the wrong way. I'm so used to being telepathic that I forgot the basics of psionics. Those that become psions learn that they can alter their vibrations to produce miracles of intensity to cause certain effects that seem to break the laws of Physics, but these actions are governed by higher laws than the laws we understand.  A psion and other psionic people are trained to send out vibrations that are answered powerfully and immediately.  Vibrations all I need to do is to work out the frequency of the vibrations and we can communicate with the entity! And..."

The CSO got a gleam in her eye and an impish grin on her face...

"If Ensign Rhade could help me out here as he's an engineer.  I'm thinking of something like a marker beacon or ... well it needs to be something that would send out artificial psionic vibrations, but as a constant thus giving the entity something to 'feed' from, It wants vibrations, we give it vibrations... it will hopefully shift it's attention from us and allow us to escape."

She turned to Tess.  "Doctor, do you have readings from myself or any other being on this ship with psionic abilities, and, if so do you have the frequency of the vibrations we put out, if I have the range then I can start trying to communicate with the entity, it would buy us a few hours if we already have the data on hand. Or we could try the data from Lt. Beja."

"I have readings from you when you were in sickbay a couple of hours ago." Turning briefly back to her patient she looked to Jayce. "Please see to anything the Lieutenant might need."

She then headed back to the spare tactical console she had been logged in at and called up Hrafn's brain circuitry pattern result which had been recorded while she had been trying to contact her father in sickbay a couple of hours ago.

The section where she had telepathic connection was clearly to see. Normally the beta wave frequency in a clear conscious state lay between 16-30 Hz. When Hrafn had tried to reach out to her father telepathically that frequency almost reached the gamma brain waves peak of 100 Hz, which conveyed expanded consciousness and peaked focus.

"Lieutentant", Tess spoke, looking over to Hrafn. "The average beta wave frequency when you attempted a telepathic connection was 97 Hz."

[Rayek trLhoell]

Cmdr Rayek tr'Lhoell
[USS Healy - Deck One - Bridge]

Just prior to his announced discovery, Ensign Corso managed to send out their reply to Beja's message.  Corso and s'Metra then worked on the sample from the bussard collectors.

Bridge - USS Healy
"Transmission sent. I'll let you know if we get a response."

Corso shifted his attention to the bussard readouts. Containment protocols were holding up as far as their sensors could detect. In a controlled environment they could examine the anomalous substance's chemical composition. Perhaps the answers to their plight lay somewhere within the basic building blocks of this strange pocket dimension. When Rayek assigned him an ensign with science background he gratefully leaned aside so she could get a better look. The orion girl was younger than him but by now Mike was used to that.

"This is a filament sample," he explained to s'Metra, "Unfortunately the bussards couldn't penetrate far enough to extract nexus material."

He was interrupted by an incoming coded transmission from the Nom Pach.

"Ensign Rhade went down to engineering," Mike gestured to the auxiliary station right next to him, "Take a seat for now and see what you can make of it. I gotta take this call."

He flashed her a nervous grin and began to read Beja's latest. The smile faded from his lips.

"Captain! New message from the Nom Pach. They've identified the anomaly's resonance frequency. Lieutenant Beja believes it might help us make contact. Sir, the klingons say we have two hours before they use their warp coils to destabilize the subspace domain."

To illustrate his point he mimicked an explosion complete with sound effects.

'Aha...' s'Metra acknowledged Corso vaguely as she sat down, her attention now on the screen and on the collected sample and measurement data. Random photon bursts, and nothing else... 'Well, that's a bust, there's no matter here at all... But this is subspace, so maybe there shouldn't be.' She began scanning for known subspace-specific particles. 'Here we are, tetryons.' Extruded into normal space, tetryons became unstable with random momenta, and decayed rapidly and energetically. 'That explains the photon flashes.'. But tetryons were just force-mediating particles for other subspatial matter, which was still very unknown to the normal-matter scientists. The only other known subspace particle was one that generated tetryons, named for its famous discoverer, Doctor Solano. s'Metra had his signature on a copy of his book. Energy, mass, spin, it all matched. 'What we have is solanogen!' Ooh, these findings could make her just as famous.

Since they were already in a subspace domain, s'Metra could use stable tetryons to resolve an image, both of the sample and of the environment outside. Then she gasped, 'They're alive! And they're dying! We need to release the sample!'

Rayek's announcement was followed seconds later by s'Metra's declaration that the solanogen lifeforms were dying  and came at pretty much the same time as Ensign Corso summarized Beja's newest message..  acting out the warning at the end.  Complete with sound effects.

Fvadt.  What was it about bad news that had it usually coming in clusters?

"Ensign Corso, flush the sample out of the collectors back into the subspace fold immediately!"

He turned to look to the Captain to get his impression on the Klingon deadline.  "I'm surprised they are giving us even that amount of time." he remarked without humor.   He considered the current ships complement and the number of shuttles and escape pods contained on the back half of the ship.

"Starfleet's habit of redundancy will prove beneficial if our efforts to escape the fold come to naught.  We have enough shuttles and escape pods to abandon the Healy are still stuck at the end of the 2 hours. We are fortunate the shuttlebay was not lost to us.  It currently opens outside the fold."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NPC Ensign Jayce Fuller
[USS Healy - Deck One - Bridge]

Lt. Cmdr. Tess Moreno
[USS Healy - Bridge]

After she received Kalem's okay Tess merely had to look at Jayce and nod and knew they would know what they had to do. Jayce providing back pressure Tess yanked Kalem's arm in a forceful but controlled way that made the head of the bone slide back into its place in the joint.

She watched Kalem closely, to see if he had been in any pain at all. Hrafn's call distracted her and made her turn around to look at the CSO.

"I have readings from you when you were in sickbay a couple of hours ago." Turning briefly back to her patient she looked to Jayce. "Please see to anything the Lieutenant might need."

"Yes of course Doctor."

Jayce ran their scanner over the Lieutenant Kalem's shoulder.  "Everything seems to be in place.  Can  you show me your range of motion with it?  Reach up then lower your arm to the side then lift it straight out in front of you.  Let me know if you feel any pain doing any of that."

[L'mar Camili Rhade]

[ Acting Ensign L'mar Rhade | Main Engineering, Deck 11 | Healy ]

"Engineering to Bridge," L'mar's voice was hesitant as he wasn't sure if the subspace field the engineering crew was testing to counteract the interference disrupting combadges. The field was only put into place around the part of the New Orleans-class starship's hull that was inside the anomaly.

"I think we have to try a different frequency chief," L'mar said as he began tapping away at buttons along with Becker's voice in the background referring to modulation of the field.

"How's that pulse configuration coming Ensign?" Becker asked, his voice somewhat louder as he was now standing next to L'mar.

L'mar fanged a grin. "Ready to activate and it will resonate along the hull outwards." He replied.

"The repulsor beam from the aft emitter?" Becker asked.

"I have the program compiling as the sensors have to find the right frequency and modulation of the anomaly for the tractor beam emitter to fire the repulsor so it actually connects with the anomaly." L'mar reported more button tapping.

Becker nodded as he knew that often the tractor required target information to be used, since they didn't know much about the anomaly it will be difficult to lock on. The two had discussed how to remedy that and the engineering crew had already had the aft sensor pallets trained onto the anomaly since they had arrived. The various scans were still ongoing as it seemed the anomaly had some flux in terms of properties.

Well the outside of the anomaly anyway, they weren't sure about the inside as the rest of the sensor grid was being used by Sciences.

[Solluk]

USS Healy - Bridge

The news from Ensign Corso was not good.  They now had a literal deadline to contend with.   On the other hand, the information he was relaying from the Nom Pach might prove vital in understanding the phenomenon which surrounded them.

Solluk nodded at Rayek as he described his obsevations.  "It makes sense, and tracks with what we've experienced so far."  Solluk looked again at the video feeds Rayek had been observing.  "What are you thinking, then?  Something akin to a swarm of insects?  Or a school of fish?"

When Rayek noted that the Klingons were actually being quite magnanimous, given their usual proclivities, Solluk was forced to agree.  "It's true.  Not much about the crew of the Nom Pach has been what I'd have expected.  Perhaps I simply need to adjust my understanding of what Klingons are.  Warriors, yes.  But perhaps an orchestra, rather than a single note."

As if on cue at the subject of music, Hrafn seemed to have a realization about vibrational frequencies.  Although Solluk possessed esper capability, he was not well versed in the science of it.  No more than a sprinter needed to understand physics.  He listened with fascination as she made inquiries along the lines of her new theory.  "Keep at it, Lieutenant.  No hypothesis is off the table."

Saxon offered to go outside, and Solluk felt forced to add, "Except that one.  Lieutenant Saxon, if you're curious about the effects of naked exposure, I'm sure Doctor Moreno has some mice she can lend you."  Not long ago, Saxon had expressed concern about his continuing utility.  Was this his way of trying to remain relevant despite his age?  Throwing himself out of the airlock like a human guinea pig?  When this mission was over, he'd have to assure Saxon that his age and experience made him more useful, not less.

Jada was theorizing with Saxon about the utility of energizing the hull plating.  Such techniques had once been used to defend ships during the pre-Federation era.  Perhaps, as with Saxon himself, the old ways would prove invaluable in their current situation.

Suddenly, s'Metra alerted them that the bussards had collected a solanogen-based life-form.  And that it was dying!  Rayek was quick on his feet, ordering the Bussards reversed before they could find themselves responsible for killing a newly discovered entity.

While Solluk waited for that order to be carried out, his mind dwelt briefly on other Other remarks she had made.  The lights they could see were a byproduct of tetryon decay.  And visible light was also the least impacted by the unusual stasis-inducing properties of this subspace domain.  Once again, he wondered if this entity... or entities... had some use for light.  A use that made them choose to interfere with visible frequencies the least.

The bridge filled with a distorted voice at that moment.  ...engin....idge...

It was a com signal, but the message was distorted.   Was Engineering testing a way to bypass the interference?

"Ops, once we've backed out the bussards, send a text to Engineering.  Tell them we got a garbled signal.  They may want to know that whatever they're doing worked.  At least a little."

Meanwhile, Kalem's shoulder had been set.

One more problem solved.

They would collectively nibble away at this elephant.

Solluk felt sure the solution to their problems was minutes away.

What he could not yet know was that Hrafn's psionic frequency experiments would draw more of the mysterious subspace entities to the Healy, straining the shields to their breaking point...

[Eli Ferris]

Lt. Eli Ferris|Bride USS Healy
Eli had monitored their apparent lack of movement, beyond the Bussards. He felt a swell of cautious relief at the idea, only for a lifeform to get sucked in. Not the way to make first contact, he thought bitterly.

The data from the Klingons was equally as frustrating. Everything was stuck, as Cadet Moreno observed, like fly paper. "Captain, we have halted our progress, until we figure out what happened with the Bussards."

Eli racked his brain, their chemical thrust failing, so it wasn't the lack of a warp field generation. Of course, there was so much he didn't know, plus the apparent presence of increased telepathic communication, or something like that. Eli wasn't telepathic, and from the headaches it appeared to cause, he didn't want to be.

"Sir, our shuttles could be launched to probe along the border and determine what effect our engines have. We are dealing with a lot of unknowns, and the more information we can gather the better. Our engines seem to be having some miminal effects here."

Eli gave a half-shrug. "Or we can try to tow ourselves out enough to utilize the Bussards, but not risk activating them until we're out?"

[Tess tLhoell]

Lt. Cmdr. Tess Moreno
[USS Healy - Bridge]

[USS Healy - Bridge]

[...]

Still, perhaps it required a more direct observation to ascertain their chances. "Captain" he yet again asked Solluk. "Permission to leave the Bridge - I believe we need to determine the raw effects the domain has on us on our terms...before we're forced to find out the hard way."

What he didn't add was that out of all of them, he was clearly the most dispensable should the results prove inimical to known biological life.

USS Healy - Bridge

[...]

Saxon offered to go outside, and Solluk felt forced to add, "Except that one.  Lieutenant Saxon, if you're curious about the effects of naked exposure, I'm sure Doctor Moreno has some mice she can lend you."  Not long ago, Saxon had expressed concern about his continuing utility.  Was this his way of trying to remain relevant despite his age?  Throwing himself out of the airlock like a human guinea pig?  When this mission was over, he'd have to assure Saxon that his age and experience made him more useful, not less.

[...]
[/size]

It was only when Solluk mentioned her that she consciously became aware of what John had suggested before. She had been distracted by resetting Kalem's arm and Hrafn's question about the frequency or her brain waves.

Tess turned where she sat right next to Saxon, looking at him with a mix of disbelief and surprise. "We use tribbles in our labs", she picked up on the Captains suggestion. "I could assist with the determination if needed, Lieutenant", she offered.

[Hrafn Falleg]

Lt. Cmdr. Tess Moreno
[USS Healy - Bridge]

After she received Kalem's okay Tess merely had to look at Jayce and nod and knew they would know what they had to do. Jayce providing back pressure Tess yanked Kalem's arm in a forceful but controlled way that made the head of the bone slide back into its place in the joint.

She watched Kalem closely, to see if he had been in any pain at all. Hrafn's call distracted her and made her turn around to look at the CSO.

"I have readings from you when you were in sickbay a couple of hours ago." Turning briefly back to her patient she looked to Jayce. "Please see to anything the Lieutenant might need."

She then headed back to the spare tactical console she had been logged in at and called up Hrafn's brain circuitry pattern result which had been recorded while she had been trying to contact her father in sickbay a couple of hours ago.

The section where she had telepathic connection was clearly to see. Normally the beta wave frequency in a clear conscious state lay between 16-30 Hz. When Hrafn had tried to reach out to her father telepathically that frequency almost reached the gamma brain waves peak of 100 Hz, which conveyed expanded consciousness and peaked focus.

"Lieutentant", Tess spoke, looking over to Hrafn. "The average beta wave frequency when you attempted a telepathic connection was 97 Hz."

[USS Healy - Bridge]

"Thank you Doctor, Ensign Fuller... " Hrafn said and turned to Benjin. "Try psionic waves, 4 pulses at starting at 70Hz working up to 150 and down again to 50Hz.  I will 'read' reactions."

A sudden 'brainwave', if one will pardon the pun, hit Hrafn.  "Doctor, if one was in pain, like severe pain and one had psionic abilities... potentially would you throw out more psionic energy because you wouldn't be able to control it?  If that is the case I'm thinking that might be what is happening to my Dad out there... a vicious circle and the entity or entities... it might be more than one working as a single body! But I digress, they create the terror and cause pain, so the psions are out of control with him, giving them more energy to feed on and... well you get the idea."

Turning back to the Captain she said "Working on it Captain, once I've tried a few things I'll see what seems to work best and then make a heady cocktail.  I'm not sure actual communication is possible but giving it a trade off like the beacon I've suggested might work... who knows."

[Rayek trLhoell]

Cmdr Rayek tr'Lhoell
[USS Healy - Deck One - Bridge]

USS Healy - Bridge

The news from Ensign Corso was not good.  They now had a literal deadline to contend with.   On the other hand, the information he was relaying from the Nom Pach might prove vital in understanding the phenomenon which surrounded them.

Solluk nodded at Rayek as he described his observations.  "It makes sense, and tracks with what we've experienced so far."  Solluk looked again at the video feeds Rayek had been observing.  "What are you thinking, then?  Something akin to a swarm of insects?  Or a school of fish?"

Rayek looked away from the enlarged picture on the viewscreen, to turn towards where Solluk was seated.  "Yes, Captain.  That is exactly what I think. Whether these solanogen-based creatures have any sentience is still unclear, but they do appear drawn to those of psionic ability or potential."  That information could be useful.

When Rayek noted that the Klingons were actually being quite magnanimous, given their usual proclivities, Solluk was forced to agree.  "It's true.  Not much about the crew of the Nom Pach has been what I'd have expected.  Perhaps I simply need to adjust my understanding of what Klingons are.  Warriors, yes.  But perhaps an orchestra, rather than a single note."

The Captain's statement regarding the Klingons not being as he would have expected, was an understatement.  Rayek couldn't agree more.

As if on cue at the subject of music, Hrafn seemed to have a realization about vibrational frequencies.  Although Solluk possessed esper capability, he was not well versed in the science of it.  No more than a sprinter needed to understand physics.  He listened with fascination as she made inquiries along the lines of her new theory.  "Keep at it, Lieutenant.  No hypothesis is off the table."

Saxon offered to go outside, and Solluk felt forced to add, "Except that one.  Lieutenant Saxon, if you're curious about the effects of naked exposure, I'm sure Doctor Moreno has some mice she can lend you."  Not long ago, Saxon had expressed concern about his continuing utility.  Was this his way of trying to remain relevant despite his age?  Throwing himself out of the airlock like a human guinea pig?  When this mission was over, he'd have to assure Saxon that his age and experience made him more useful, not less.

Rayek switched back the viewscreen to that of the view ahead.  There was still no response whatsoever from the Kosst Holana or the Romulan scout.  What were it's inhabitants doing.  One at least among them would appear to have strong. psionic ability or potential.  If it was Hrafn's father, as she claimed it was, calling for help what would they do?  Was the man aware that his daughter was aboard the Healy?

Fvadt.  There were too many questions and not enough answers.

Jada was theorizing with Saxon about the utility of energizing the hull plating.  Such techniques had once been used to defend ships during the pre-Federation era.  Perhaps, as with Saxon himself, the old ways would prove invaluable in their current situation.

Suddenly, s'Metra alerted them that the bussards had collected a solanogen-based life-form.  And that it was dying!  Rayek was quick on his feet, ordering the Bussards reversed before they could find themselves responsible for killing a newly discovered entity.

While Solluk waited for that order to be carried out, his mind dwelt briefly on other Other remarks she had made.  The lights they could see were a byproduct of tetryon decay.  And visible light was also the least impacted by the unusual stasis-inducing properties of this subspace domain.  Once again, he wondered if this entity... or entities... had some use for light.  A use that made them choose to interfere with visible frequencies the least.

The bridge filled with a distorted voice at that moment.  ...engin....idge...

It was a com signal, but the message was distorted.   Was Engineering testing a way to bypass the interference?

"Ops, once we've backed out the bussards, send a text to Engineering.  Tell them we got a garbled signal.  They may want to know that whatever they're doing worked.  At least a little."

Meanwhile, Kalem's shoulder had been set.

One more problem solved.

They would collectively nibble away at this elephant.

Solluk felt sure the solution to their problems was minutes away.

What he could not yet know was that Hrafn's psionic frequency experiments would draw more of the mysterious subspace entities to the Healy, straining the shields to their breaking point...

Rayek rose from seat and walked over to stand by the Ops console, watching the Ensign work at releasing the solanogen-based lifeform, by flushing the sample from the bussards and back out into the subspace fold.

Lt. Eli Ferris|Bride USS Healy
Eli had monitored their apparent lack of movement, beyond the Bussards. He felt a swell of cautious relief at the idea, only for a lifeform to get sucked in. Not the way to make first contact, he thought bitterly.

The data from the Klingons was equally as frustrating. Everything was stuck, as Cadet Moreno observed, like fly paper. "Captain, we have halted our progress, until we figure out what happened with the Bussards."

Eli racked his brain, their chemical thrust failing, so it wasn't the lack of a warp field generation. Of course, there was so much he didn't know, plus the apparent presence of increased telepathic communication, or something like that. Eli wasn't telepathic, and from the headaches it appeared to cause, he didn't want to be.

"Sir, our shuttles could be launched to probe along the border and determine what effect our engines have. We are dealing with a lot of unknowns, and the more information we can gather the better. Our engines seem to be having some miminal effects here."

Eli gave a half-shrug. "Or we can try to tow ourselves out enough to utilize the Bussards, but not risk activating them until we're out?"

Rayek considered the towing option that the Romulan hybrid suggested.  It was a possible solution on how to extract themselves.  The Healy's engines were much more powerful than that of even several shuttles in combination...  however perhaps the shuttles and the engines working in tandem might be enough.

"Mr. Ferris, have your department prep the shuttles.  We will will give the tow option a try."

Then turned to listen to what Tess and Hrafn were discussing.  Rayek had no idea that psionics measured so low on the scale.  If such attracted them ... then shouldn't extreme high frequencies be 'like kryponite' to the creatures - yes Movie Night was definitely influencing him and his ideas.  And if these creatures were the reason the Healy was stuck perhaps the high-end frequencies might encourage them to let the Healy and the other ships leave.

[Tess tLhoell]

Lt. Cmdr. Tess Moreno and NPC Cadet Benjin Moreno
[USS Healy - Bridge]

[USS Healy - Bridge]

"Thank you Doctor, Ensign Fuller... " Hrafn said and turned to Benjin. "Try psionic waves, 4 pulses at starting at 70Hz working up to 150 and down again to 50Hz.  I will 'read' reactions."

A sudden 'brainwave', if one will pardon the pun, hit Hrafn.  "Doctor, if one was in pain, like severe pain and one had psionic abilities... potentially would you throw out more psionic energy because you wouldn't be able to control it?  If that is the case I'm thinking that might be what is happening to my Dad out there... a vicious circle and the entity or entities... it might be more than one working as a single body! But I digress, they create the terror and cause pain, so the psions are out of control with him, giving them more energy to feed on and... well you get the idea."

Turning back to the Captain she said "Working on it Captain, once I've tried a few things I'll see what seems to work best and then make a heady cocktail.  I'm not sure actual communication is possible but giving it a trade off like the beacon I've suggested might work... who knows."

Benjin, sitting at his spot at the helm, looked over to the science officer hesitantly. He felt a little overwhelmed with the science task she gave him, sure, as a cadet in the flight departement he had basic scientific knowledge, but he felt that this task was more up to a science person's alley.

"Uh- ... Ma'am?", he asked, the feeling of his own inadequacy making him blush a deep shade of red.

Tess, still waiting on a response to her suggestion to assist Lt. Saxon, looked from her brother over to the SCO, thinking. "As I understand it", she spoke up, briefly looking to Solluk and Rayek before turning back to Hrafn, "we are attempting to communicate with a telepathic entity. Lieutenant, you are currently the only one here without a neural inhibitor. So, if we want to try for you to get in telepathic contact with the entity, it is you we have to attune with the entity's frequency."

Tess rose from her chair, turning to Solluk and Rayek. "Sirs, we could use a psi-wave device, a sort of transceiver implant, to calibrate Lt. Falleg's psionic frequency with that of the entity's."

[Hrafn Falleg]

Lt. Cmdr. Tess Moreno and NPC Cadet Benjin Moreno
[USS Healy - Bridge]

Benjin, sitting at his spot at the helm, looked over to the science officer hesitantly. He felt a little overwhelmed with the science task she gave him, sure, as a cadet in the flight departement he had basic scientific knowledge, but he felt that this task was more up to a science person's alley.

"Uh- ... Ma'am?", he asked, the feeling of his own inadequacy making him blush a deep shade of red.

Tess, still waiting on a response to her suggestion to assist Lt. Saxon, looked from her brother over to the SCO, thinking. "As I understand it", she spoke up, briefly looking to Solluk and Rayek before turning back to Hrafn, "we are attempting to communicate with a telepathic entity. Lieutenant, you are currently the only one here without a neural inhibitor. So, if we want to try for you to get in telepathic contact with the entity, it is you we have to attune with the entity's frequency."

Tess rose from her chair, turning to Solluk and Rayek. "Sirs, we could use a psi-wave device, a sort of transceiver implant, to calibrate Lt. Falleg's psionic frequency with that of the entity's."

[Bridge - USS Healy]

"That makes sense, doc... OK let's try the psi-wave device... I'm game for anything and potentially this could help Dad as well as our crew and anyone else trapped in there.  I'm game." Hrafn said  "If it means I get back to my kids, and indirectly to my husband I'm all for it.  Let's do this."

[Solluk]

USS Healy - Bridge

The suggestion to tow the Healy free was such a good one, Solluk was ashamed he hadn't thought of it before.  As had been pointed out, they had the shuttle bay open to space.  Rayek ordered the job undertaken, and Solluk nodded his affirmation.

But then a thought came to him.  "If it works, don't pull us completely free.  Just move us a couple of meters as a test.  The moment we get free, the Klingons will doubtless undertake their plan to destroy this place.  If we can delay that, I'd like to.  Should the Counselor's suggestion that this place is alive and intelligent be correct, I'd prefer to give the local life-forms a stay of execution."

Meanwhile, operations were underway to save the dying life forms in the bussards by reversing the bussard collection.  The flickering life-forms would survive due to this quick action, and return to the envelope of subspace, leaping back into the subspace bubble while twinkling frantically.  As they did so, the twinkling throughout the entire space altered its pattern.

When the Doctor suggested using Tribbles in place of Mice for Saxon's test, Solluk was surprised.

Decades ago, tribbles were believed to have been utterly eradicated, partly through the efforts of the Klingon Empire.  The Klingons had an irrational hatred for Tribbles, and apparently the feeling was mutual.  There had been reports during the 23rd century that a Tribble had once been used to identify a Klingon spy.

However, the reports of Tribble genocide had apparently been inaccurate, because the animals had resurfaced along Ferengi trade routes during the Dominion War.

Although Solluk did not know it, that was when Tribbles came quietly back into the Federation fold.  Analyzed as an invasive species, they were found to have characteristics valuable to medical research.  Solluk was unaware of this information, primarily because he had never delved deeply into medical matters.  But also because the lab variety of the animals which were kept on stations and ships were not merely given birth control to prevent over-breeding... they were also kept in isolated medical labs and carefully monitored.  The fluff-balls chirped and trilled happily in segregated isolation chambers, situated next to exotic plagues and dangerous medicines.

However, although Solluk was surprised, he quickly realized that Starfleet in general, and the medical personnel in particular, would have processes and procedures to keep the little creatures from becoming a problem.  They may even have been bred to limit their fecundity.

"All right, Lieutenant Saxon.  If you need to expose an animal to the unknown, let it be a tribble."

Investigations progressed to the point that the Doctor and Lieutenant Falleg were ready to attempt a psionic communication.  Solluk nodded his head, "Yes, proceed.  I trust we'll be ready to cancel the procedure if something should go awry."

In fact, two things were about to happen.

One, Lieutenant Falleg was about to have a direct channel opened into her father's mind.  She would become certain of his location in the Romulan ship's cockpit, and be aware more intensely of the terrible agony he was suffering as his psionic energies were being devoured by the unknown life-form which filled this place.

Two, the unknown life-form which filled this place would suddenly identify the Healy as the source of a very delectable and plentiful supply of psionic 'food'... and they would encroach en-masse, further debilitating the shields...

[Beja]

IKS Nom Pach - Bridge - Science Station

While Beja was waiting for a response from the Healy, she tried to the test of the transporter with the kilogram of food. She needed to keep busy, and her mind off the ticking clock. She didn't want to think about what would happen when the two hours were up. It was better to put the time to use in more productive endeavors.

Unfortunately the transporter test was not such an endeavor. Beja had taken the gagh and the goal had been to transport it outside the ship. If it worked, they were going to try and send it farther. They didn't have to worry about that, as it hadn't worked. Instead of materializing outside the ship, whatever the subspace domain had done to keep them in place, did the exact same thing with the gagh. The material never materialized, and just some red sparkles glittered outside the ship. A waste of good gagh.

Before Beja could dwell on the failure of the test, she watched on the console as the Healy's bussard's were filled with the blinking lights, and then suddenly the bussards pushed them back out into space. That wasn't as surprising as what she saw unfold next, the blinking lights pushed out began to flash rapidly, and the other lights flashed back. It was then that she realized she had been wrong. Her assumption had been flawed by her ego, but the proof was now right in front of all their eyes!

Beja shouted, "Qapla!" "That's it! Did you all see that?" She pointed to the screen in front of her, to the rest of the Klingons on the ship, "They aren't talking to us. They are talking to each other! We just need to diagnose the flashes, to see the repeating patterns, in order to try and isolate words or meaning of their language."

She quickly began to type into the computer, and ran the pattern diagnostic again. But this time, Beja wanted to isolate the repeating patterns that the lights made to each other. Most likely what had happened, was the collected lights had been frightened by the experience at the bussards, and was telling it to the larger group. And the larger group went to help out and defend them. It's what the Klingons would have done, and what the crew on the Healy would do.

Now all they had to do was flash the same pattern back at the entity, and tell the entity they were also scared and frightened. Maybe the entity would realize that they weren't trying to harm them, and would release them. They didn't have anything to lose.

Beja found the repeating patterns and adjusted the Nom Pach's deflector lights, and began flashing the pattern at the entity.

"There, let's see if the entity gets our message, and will respond back. I think I figured out a few of their words meaning, with their flashes," at least she hoped she had, for all Beja knew she had just asked the entity for a mounted duel, like the Healy had asked the Klingons. She held her breath while she waited and just stared at the computer console, they didn't have that much time left.

[Jada]

[Bridge]

Soon, but perhaps not soon enough for the dying solanogen-based lifeforms, they were ejected back out of the Bussard scoop and back into their peculiar subspace domain. After some time spent in study of data recorded during and after collection, s'Metra turned slightly in her seat to address Captain Solluk and Commander tr'Lhoell. 'Sirs? You wondered if these creatures were like insects or fish – well, given the high viscosity of this space, and the need to undulate the body for locomotion, I would say a fish is the closest match. In fact, I created this composite image of one from multiple real-space projections while they were in the scoop...' She gestured any interested eyes to her console screen, showing a golden piscine shape with a short body, large finned tail, and big sucker-like mouth. She animated the image and the fish's body wiggled from side to side, just not in any familiar spatial dimension.

To those very unfortunate few who'd seen the solanogen-based lifeforms – designated Solanae – that had conducted cruel experiments on the crew of the Enterprise-D, or seen the sketches made by survivors, there was a faint yet disturbing resemblance, perhaps, in the piscine appearance or the bulbous eyes. One might trace a line of evolution, or a convergent evolution, between the two.

Meanwhile, as she waited for Saxon's verdict on hull polarisation, Jada was examining the tactical display to see the effects on the shields. There, she also saw the dots ejected from the Bussard collectors and moving swiftly away. Increase activity was induced through the whole network, and more dots steadily approached the stricken ship, now avoiding the scoops. There was something familiar about it all, in the movements and purposes. Jada had hunted and studied animals, and had watched a lot of wildlife documentaries. She called across the bridge, 's'Metra? You remember that maths you were telling me about?' s'Metra looked a little blank; when did she talk to Jada about maths? 'For flocks of birds?'

'Ooh!' Excited by this, s'Metra began tapping on her console, loading equations and creating models.

It was left to Jada to explain, 'Sirs, the motions of large groups of creatures – flocks of birds, schools of fish, swarms of insects, crowds of people – boil down to a few simple rules followed by the individual creatures: don't get so close they collide with neighbours, don't get so far apart they can get separated and lost, and move toward the same average direction and position as the neighbours. From that, the group can keep an overall compact shape, like a big flock of birds flying in a mass. You can add to that other simple rules: approach a food source, retreat from a predator, stay near a nest. Then the whole flock can avoid a predator or zero in on a food source.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bb9ZTbYGRdc

Ready to talk now, though not to stop typing, s'Metra picked up the thread of the conversation. 'It's an emergent behaviour! Ah, that's when an action or structure appears in the whole but not in the individual parts, but arising only from the interactions between them. Scientists have been inspired by swarm rules and emergence to create problem-solving algorithms working on the same principles: particle swarm optimisation, even swarm intelligence. So, these fish-things might not be intelligent individually, and these flashes might be no more than like bird tweets, but some form of intelligence might arise as an emergent behaviour. My mathematical model fits theirs.'

'So, all that cosmic crap about an intelligent universe was wrong, cuz?' Jada teased, then frowned at something on screen.

'Well, I wouldn't say that. But everything in it might be, which all comes to the same.' s'Metra revised carefully.

'Well, it looks like this swarm has learned to avoid a predator – the Bussard scoops – and approach a food source – us.' Exhibiting a bit of that flocking behaviour, they were starting to swarm around the ship, only avoiding the Bussard collectors.

[John Saxon]

[USS Healy - Bridge]

At the failure, Jada frowned, which on her face looked much more aggressive than she really meant, and began modelling a complex, asymmetrical wedge shape, wider at the aft, narrowing to the fore. Theoretically, the negative gradient would provide resistance against them being pulled further in, and might even help push them out. 'My last ship had ablative armour – not an option here.' she corrected before he did. She was thinking aloud, reminding herself of alternative shielding options; Orions were talkers and listeners, largely. Then she remembered a technique that rarely came up in Tactical teachings these days, but which hadn't been forgotten, just left in place as one of those famous Starfleet redundancies. 'What if we polarise the hull plating? It should harden the hull, maybe even repel some of the barrier matter.' Jada had never polarised hull plating in practice, but figured Century Saxon had probably done it all the time back on the NX-classes or something.

Saxon was about to offer a supplementary note that while ablative armour was a remarkable tactical development in starship construction (oh how Narendra III could have been a different story entirely), it wasn't particularly useful  - even if fitted to the Healy - in this situation as its main function was to boil off under intense energy assault and the dissipating particle cloud diffracting further hull contact for a brief period, the Senior Chief followed up her outer monologue with a suggestion that took him quite by surprise by its effective simplicity.

Polarised hull plating, he pondered. The NX-01 museum had a whole section on the tactical innovations that the pre-Federation Enterprise had sported, but it always struck the young Saxon how limited the ship was in active protection. Still, that class - or perhaps the NX-01 specifically - was said to have been remarkably robust, with testimonies of its resilience despite overwhelming damage igniting the fires of imagination in the young John's mind.

The idea had merit, but while modern structural integrity fields were an evolution of that somewhat archaic process, there were subtle differences that needed to be resolved. "Excellent notion" he replied. "Contact Mr Rhade in Engineering and see what can be done to modify the structural integrity field to energise the hull."

It was at that time that Solluk and Tess responded to his request to leave the Bridge in an effort to ascertain the danger to the whole crew if shields - and polarised hulls - failed. He opened his mouth to reply to the Captain, to flag that his idea would have involved a winch and a 'dead-man's switch' to immediately reel him back within the protection of the shields in the event of losing consciousness, rather than taking a proverbial walk out to the wastelands, but Dr Moreno interjected before he could, offering the use of laboratory Tribbles as a substitute. It wouldn't be quite so useful he ruminated, since a real-time narrative on the effects could pay dividends, but it was clear both the CMO and Commanding Officer had rendered that route moot; assessment on Tribble biology would have to do.

Once again, he was about to reply when events overtook the need as Tess and Hrafn deliberated on the subject of psionic communication. Seeing a pause in proceedings, the elderly Lieutenant turned to his tactical console and reviewed the current situation the ship was in. Right now, an offensive option was nearing completion. Thankfully, it seemed not to be needed yet.

[Kalem Michael]

[ USS Healy - bridge]

Kalem rolled his shoulder around, making sure nothing had been permanently damaged. Rolling his shoulder, windmilling his whole arm, hand over his head, and other things like that. He looked to the doctor that had stayed behind.

"Is that good Doc?"

After being cleared Kalem headed back out onto the bridge. He sat at the back of the bridge at one of the secondary consoles. He typed out a message to Ensign Corso

From: Lieutenant Jg. Kalem Michael
To: Ensign Mike Corso

I'll be at the back of the bridge. If you need me, message me. I'm going to try and figure out a way to get shipboard communications back. Keep doing what you are doing.

With that done, Kalem started his own investigation into the reason that communications had gone down. Focus on one problem then move on to the next.