S6: E1 - The Prime Recommendation

[Tora Zalos]

CPO ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger - Deck 12 - Main Engineering]

Within the ship's new Chief Engineer gone on an Away Mission, the remaining staff were still tasked to work on coming up with a solution to the folding space problem.  This would have well and fine with Lahr (who normally would sit back with his feet up and toss in unrealistic suggestions) if there had been some leadership left behind, but as it was right now with no engineering position higher than Ensign on shift the engineering staff were looking to Lahr as CPO for that leadership; even the newbie ensigns were coming to him with their ideas since in their eyes he had he experience.

But there was a flaw in that deduction; Lahr being an enlisted had never gone to the Academy for years of theory... he'd done his time in Sec/Tac bootcamp. While he was okay at the mechanical side of engineering, the theories behind why things worked the way they did mostly went over his head.

Yeah, the Chief SO had provided Neva with a ream of data to 'help' the engineers figure out a plan but Lahr needed help deciphering it.  That's where his buddy Hyperion would be helpful.

"Alright folks listen up!" Lahr called out to the other engineers. "I'm gonna take a 15-minute mental health break; step away and ponder these wonderful suggestions.  Petty Officer T'roth, please watch my station.  I'll be back in a bit."

Lahr beat a quick retreat from Engineering and headed down to Stellar Cartography on Deck 15.

[USS Challenger - Deck 15 - Stellar Cartography]

As the doors to the Cartography lab open, Lahr didn't waste any time blurt out his problem to the AI typically working there.

"Hyperion, I need your help 'dumbing-down' the basics of space folding." he called out, only to realize a moment later that Hyperion wasn't alone.

"Um... hello." he gave an embarrassed wave to the Cardassian Science officer.

[USS Challenger - Deck 15 - Stellar Cartography]

Oh god, the one thing Tora didn't really like about scientific work: what you did with data once you'd collected it. Anthropological studies yielded interesting stuff, like information about the subject culture's performance culture and so on at least. Astrometric data, on the other hand, was oodles and oodles of numbers and readings from anomalies and the like and combing through it had been one of her most hated necessary facets of her training.

At least, though, she'd had Hyperion to help her. God, did he do things fast. Well, he was an AI, of course he did things at the speed of a computer and then some. The work itself was mind-numbingly boring even then, though, and she'd honestly been ready to put her head down and nap before the Andorian walked in.

"Oh, uhm. Hello!" Tora smiled tiredly at the chief petty officer. "Dumbing down the basics of space folding? I'm sure we can manage that, chief. Hyperion?" She glanced sideways at her 'lab partner', who was still dilligently working away as usual.

[Hyperion]

CPO ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger - Deck 12 - Main Engineering]

Within the ship's new Chief Engineer gone on an Away Mission, the remaining staff were still tasked to work on coming up with a solution to the folding space problem.  This would have well and fine with Lahr (who normally would sit back with his feet up and toss in unrealistic suggestions) if there had been some leadership left behind, but as it was right now with no engineering position higher than Ensign on shift the engineering staff were looking to Lahr as CPO for that leadership; even the newbie ensigns were coming to him with their ideas since in their eyes he had he experience.

But there was a flaw in that deduction; Lahr being an enlisted had never gone to the Academy for years of theory... he'd done his time in Sec/Tac bootcamp. While he was okay at the mechanical side of engineering, the theories behind why things worked the way they did mostly went over his head.

Yeah, the Chief SO had provided Neva with a ream of data to 'help' the engineers figure out a plan but Lahr needed help deciphering it.  That's where his buddy Hyperion would be helpful.

"Alright folks listen up!" Lahr called out to the other engineers. "I'm gonna take a 15-minute mental health break; step away and ponder these wonderful suggestions.  Petty Officer T'roth, please watch my station.  I'll be back in a bit."

Lahr beat a quick retreat from Engineering and headed down to Stellar Cartography on Deck 15.

[USS Challenger - Deck 15 - Stellar Cartography]

As the doors to the Cartography lab open, Lahr didn't waste any time blurt out his problem to the AI typically working there.

"Hyperion, I need your help 'dumbing-down' the basics of space folding." he called out, only to realize a moment later that Hyperion wasn't alone.

"Um... hello." he gave an embarrassed wave to the Cardassian Science officer.

[USS Challenger - Deck 15 - Stellar Cartography]

Oh god, the one thing Tora didn't really like about scientific work: what you did with data once you'd collected it. Anthropological studies yielded interesting stuff, like information about the subject culture's performance culture and so on at least. Astrometric data, on the other hand, was oodles and oodles of numbers and readings from anomalies and the like and combing through it had been one of her most hated necessary facets of her training.

At least, though, she'd had Hyperion to help her. God, did he do things fast. Well, he was an AI, of course he did things at the speed of a computer and then some. The work itself was mind-numbingly boring even then, though, and she'd honestly been ready to put her head down and nap before the Andorian walked in.

"Oh, uhm. Hello!" Tora smiled tiredly at the chief petty officer. "Dumbing down the basics of space folding? I'm sure we can manage that, chief. Hyperion?" She glanced sideways at her 'lab partner', who was still dilligently working away as usual.

CPO ShranLahr ch'Verret

[USS Challenger - Deck 15 - Stellar Cartography]

As the doors to the Cartography lab open, Lahr didn't waste any time blurt out his problem to the AI typically working there.

"Hyperion, I need your help 'dumbing-down' the basics of space folding." he called out, only to realize a moment later that Hyperion wasn't alone.

"Um... hello." he gave an embarrassed wave to the Cardassian Science officer.

[USS Challenger - Deck 15 - Stellar Cartography]

Oh god, the one thing Tora didn't really like about scientific work: what you did with data once you'd collected it. Anthropological studies yielded interesting stuff, like information about the subject culture's performance culture and so on at least. Astrometric data, on the other hand, was oodles and oodles of numbers and readings from anomalies and the like and combing through it had been one of her most hated necessary facets of her training.

At least, though, she'd had Hyperion to help her. God, did he do things fast. Well, he was an AI, of course he did things at the speed of a computer and then some. The work itself was mind-numbingly boring even then, though, and she'd honestly been ready to put her head down and nap before the Andorian walked in.

"Oh, uhm. Hello!" Tora smiled tiredly at the chief petty officer. "Dumbing down the basics of space folding? I'm sure we can manage that, chief. Hyperion?" She glanced sideways at her 'lab partner', who was still dilligently working away as usual.

[Stellar Cartography - USS Challenger]

Capable of performing dozens of calculations and operations at one time, Hyperion continued to digest the data regarding this new region of space as he practiced his 'light conversation' with the new ensign Tora. On hearing the stored voice print of the being who went by the title 'Lahr', he pivoted his head around to face the Andorian. He had to search for the term 'dumb down' but after less than a second, he understood the expression as Lahr intended its use.

"Hello Lahr. It is an interesting exercise to 'dumb down' such a complex topic. However, I believe the best answer to suit your query is as follow. Usually, a vessel must traverse the intervening distance between two points to reach a destination. For example if one were to depart Earth and head for its moon, one must travel 382,240 kilometers. A vessel using fold space technology would essentially 'fold' space-time so that the distance is reduced to a fraction of the actual distance thus reaching the destination without traversing the distance between the two points. It is only conjectured within the Federation, that these people here have managed a form of this technology is simply remarkable. Does this response adequately meet the criteria of your query?"

[Ian Galloway]

[ Shuttle Onizuka ]

Despite the evasive maneuvers, the Landsers shuttles were rapidly closing in on their intercept path. Any fancy flying to get them out of their range would require flying directly back into the sensor web of the satellite system.

Grimacing, Jettis realized their options were limited. "The only way we're going to go without being caught is to emergency beam down to the planet. I can program the shuttle to fly itself back to the Challenger using the original pathing. Once it's out of the shuttle's range they'll probably give up, or at least give us some more time."

Fingers grazing they screen as he typed, he chewed on his lip nervously. "But we won't be able to contact the ship. Just have to hope they'll be able to make it down to the planet without being seen like we were."

With the shuttle programmed, he checked to ensure everyone was ready. Another glance at the sensors revealed the Landsers were almost surrounding them. "It's now or never." When given the okay from everyone he quickly instructed the shuttle to make its return trip, with the team of four being beamed out in a shimmer of light.

When Jettis came back to his senses, he felt his stomach turn being on the planet now. Shaking his head to try to clear it, he looked around hoping that no issues had arisen with the transportation.

[Shuttle Onizuka - Troposphere - Above Land]

The two Landser pilots had their planes at redline as the pushed to intercept the unknown aircraft they had visually spotted. As the closed, they remained frustrated that while they could clearly see the strange intruder, their radar stubbornly refused to lock onto the target. It was this lack of lock on which was why they were driving their planes so hard to close because it meant they had to get into cannon range as their missiles were proving useless. However, as they got within two kilometers, suddenly, the intruder appeared on radar! Excitedly, the lead fighter got a solid lock on with his missiles and fired. No sooner had the missiles dropped from his fighter, when the lock failed as the intruder both accelerated and started an steep 80 degree climb. The pilot swore as he saw the unknown aircraft outrun his missiles and then climb not only above his own fighter's maximum ceiling, but out of the atmosphere completely. Livid, the two pilots could only report what they had seen and return to their patrol, knowing they would face questions they could not answer when they got back to their base.

On the Onizuka, the brief window the Landsers were able to track the shuttle equated to the time Jettis dropped the shields for the emergency beam out. As soon as the shields came back on, the Landser missiles again lost the ability to see the shuttle as it soared out of orbit.

The beam out was not a pretty one. The four members of the away team each hit the ground hard and when they rolled to a stop, Jettis, Neva, Zhuk, and Kyan found themselves alone. Unknown to them, they had been scattered over a twenty kilometer circle of the Landser countryside.

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

The bridge crew, as was most the the ship's crew, was very busy as the Onizuka was evading the Landser fighters. There had been many gigaquads of data collected on this sector of space as well as the Landser system. Ian was mostly going over intelligence reports on the bridge as the data was being turned into useful information to report to Starfleet, it was then that Randall at Science One spoke up.

"Sir, I'm picking up a ship lifting from the Landser moon. It is fifty meters long, no life signs. I'm picking an unknown power reading. It looks like the Landsers are about to test their fold space drive with an unmanned probe."

Before Randall could continue, Lieutenant Booker at Ops added.

"Sir, the Onizuka is leaving orbit, but I'm not getting a response to hails."

Ian was now faced with two important pieces of information and was still trying to assess which was the more important when Randall called out.

"The Landser test just engaged fold space! Massive temporal pulse in bound!"

The shields of the Challenger were already up as they screened the ship from the Landser's primitive sensing capabilities, but it didn't matter. The temporal pulse lanced through the shields without slowing and the impact was devastating.

From Ian's perspective, the universe exploded as it seemed every synapse in his brain fired at once. He was everywhere and everywhen that ever existed. Colors erupted in an indescribable kaleidoscope that defied words and his entire body tensed as if electricity flowed through him.

How long this sensation lasted, it was impossible to say. However, it did end and when Ian was able to open his eyes, the bridge was dark except for the dim red emergency lighting. As he looked around the bridge, he saw everyone was either slumped at their station or crumpled on the deck. Through sheer force of will, he managed to get his arm to move to tap his combadge, but when it didn't make a sound, his arm flopped onto his lap and he was exhausted.

He noticed that the display on the command chair was blank as was every console on the bridge. Worse still, the ship was silent, normally, even when stationary, he could feel the vibration of the deck plates indicating all was well with the warp core. Now, he could not feel or hear anything, it meant the ship was currently dead and likely drifting. He closed his eyes and mumbled.

"We are so humped."

[Zhukdrashar Mrekrerhas]

[ USS Challenger - Bridge - Main Shuttlebay ]

Jettis nodded in agreement with the Caitian's next suggestion. "I suppose that would be possible. Every satellite system, especially one made by a pre-warp civilization should have some dark zones, so to speak." If they could thread the needle just so, they could escape any potential notice.

Stepping from his station, he joined the Commander in descending to the 19th deck, with a fourth to be join them as well. Watching the turbolift doors slide shut, he raised a bow at Kyan's question. He was truthfully a bit surprised he wasn't confident in piloting the shuttle himself.

"I can fly us down. I'll communicate with my department as well to get a vague map of where we should be going as well." He nodded when prompted by Zhuk. He then tossed them both a more curious, yet amused look. "I'm surprised neither of you have gotten roped into the flying tigers program by Ian, yet."

[Shuttlebay - USS Challenger --> Shuttle Onizuka]

The Onizuka stood ready as the away team boarded and buckled in. Their departure was uneventful and slipping though their Landser's primitive sensor net was exactly as Lieutenant Booker had implied. However, as the shuttle dropped through the upper atmosphere down from the stratosphere into the troposphere, the shuttles computer spoke.

"Two atmospheric craft approaching on an intercept course. Range three kilometers and closing fast."

While a shielded shuttle was invisible to radar, the shuttle itself was still visible and it seemed, as if, blind random luck had put two Landser aircraft in a position to physically spot the shuttle with the classic Mark I eyeball...

[Lieutenant Zhukdra'shar Mrekrerhas | Bridge --> Main Shuttlebay | Deck One --> Deck Nineteen | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A | L7-425977 System]

"Ah, that is certainly relieving to hear," Zhuk placed a hand over his chest, letting go of the tension his muscles had momentarily acquired. He sighed before he proceeded to go back to his serious visage, "It is good to hear that you shalt take my suggestion, too. I am glad to be a useful member of this here team. As for your comment on the 'Flying Tigers' program, I must say that a formal invitation has not been extended towards me. Thus, I did not think that intruding upon the Captain's personal world would be tremendously appropriate. Besides, I am much more fond of entertaining myself with Battleships..."

He felt just a hint of heat coming from his ears as he revealed that, becoming just slightly more pink in color. A Caitian's way of blushing. He felt just a tad embarrassed of revealing that was what he enjoyed. In any case, that was better to admitting than he too enjoyed playing a member of nobility who enjoyed wooing the ladies of the court, and trying to survive the revolution that was soon to unfold upon their respective nation.

[Lt.JG ACEO Neva Cordon|USS-Challenger|Shuttlebay->Onizuka]

Neva hustled in, carrying 2 suits and another Crewman carried the others. Her kit flapped against her hip, eyes full of excitement. Skidding to a halt and pushing an arm backwards to stop the Crewman from butting into her. Seeing the others were boarding, she pointed to the shuttle. The Crewman handed his armful out, and Neva gave Kyan his & put hers on. She waved the kid away, giving him final orders before strapping in.

[Lieutenant Zhukdra'shar Mrekrerhas | Main Shuttlebay --> Shuttle Onizuka | Deck Nineteen --> Land | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A --> Land | L7-425977 System]

Zhukdra'shar regarded the incoming Neva with a polite nod as he took his suit. While he donned it, he began to ponder on the situation. He was glad to be flying now, as he hated using the transporter. He cherished these moments when the mission required a shuttle instead. Oh, and speaking about greatly enjoyable things, though he found it slightly difficult to fit his tail inside the specially modified suit, he was relieved that it at least would not be stuck to his leg. He was also quite happy to see that his ears perfectly had space at the top of his head to swish and move as they pleased. And his feet entered perfectly on the boots. Magnificent job by Neva.

"I greatly appreciate that thou took mine petition into consideration, Lieutenant Junior Commander Neva. Excellent performance."

Zhuk smiled under the helmet. Then, he proceeded to take a seat and get ready for Jettis to bring them to the planet.

He just hoped the landing would be smooth.

[ USS Challenger -> Onizuka ]

Jettis turned to Booker, nodding. "Very well. I'll start pre flight checks."

He stepped away to ready himself. Once Cordon arrived he was able to change into his suit, and once everyone gave the OK, they were on their way.

Jettis was comfortable 'behind the wheel' so to speak, and thankfully their network was not very encompassing. Easily maneuvering between the web of satellites, it almost seemed as if they would touch down unscathed. He was honestly surprised at how easy it had been, for humanoids who had managed to fold time-space, they didn't seem to have any eyes out for aliens. Such a far cry from Earth, who had dreamt of creatures beyond the stars before they had even figured out how to make automobiles.

However he'd spoken too soon, as the computer piped up as he approached the planet. Cursing lightly,  he checked scans again.

"Buckle down for evasive maneuvers," he warned the other occupants, as he strayed from the path carved out by Brooker. He would still need to be careful of running into any other patrols in the area.

"So, our element of surprise might be blown. Any ideas?"

Upon hearing the computer's warning, Kyan took the empty seat beside Jettis. "œThe Powers is after having a laugh at us so they are!" he muttered, looking over the sensor readings of the incoming aircraft. "œSure an I figured we might get in trouble but I dinnae think it'd be before we landed so."

The sensors showed a couple of what almost looked like old fighter jets from Earth. Considering the level of technology that the Lansders had, Kyan suspected that they were probably working with projectile weapons. It would be fairly easy to dispatch them with the shuttle's phasers, or the tractor beam. But that would probably be frowned upon by Galloway when they got back. "We're Starfleet lad... we's the gud guys." he'd say... in typical grup fashion.

Kyan sighed. "Well, we cannae just shoot em down so we cannae... the sadness of it. So we need tae escape. But we cannae get too far from the place where they're makin their engine so..."

Several scenarios played out in the Onlie's head as he watched the incoming craft get bigger. They were almost on them now.

Then the coms crackled to life. "Unknown craft. This is restricted air space. You will leave this area immediately. Acknowledge or be fired upon."

Kyan turned to the others. "Well... time tae be inventive the now. What do you guys think?"

Zhukdra'shar was even more confident things would go according to plan, with the information Booker had provided to descend. Unfortunately, things turned out to be not too pleasant, and indeed, he cursed internally as he noted the appearance of two atmospheric Landser aircraft on the sensors. Soon enough, everyone was aware of the danger, and Jettis asked for ideas.

Kyan piped up with a suggestion to shoot down the aircraft, something that Zhuk was actually on board with. Then again, it was not very Starfleet of them to even think about that, so he returned to the drawing board. He thought of perhaps suggesting for them to find some kind of mountain chain to evade the aircraft, as he was certain they were not as maneuverable as the Onizuka. Correct?

In any case, he had no time to present his idea, as Jettis came up with his own. He sulked as they would need to use the transporters, but he relented,

"Fine idea. Let us proceed."

[Shuttle Onizuka - Troposphere - Above Land]

The two Landser pilots had their planes at redline as the pushed to intercept the unknown aircraft they had visually spotted. As the closed, they remained frustrated that while they could clearly see the strange intruder, their radar stubbornly refused to lock onto the target. It was this lack of lock on which was why they were driving their planes so hard to close because it meant they had to get into cannon range as their missiles were proving useless. However, as they got within two kilometers, suddenly, the intruder appeared on radar! Excitedly, the lead fighter got a solid lock on with his missiles and fired. No sooner had the missiles dropped from his fighter, when the lock failed as the intruder both accelerated and started an steep 80 degree climb. The pilot swore as he saw the unknown aircraft outrun his missiles and then climb not only above his own fighter's maximum ceiling, but out of the atmosphere completely. Livid, the two pilots could only report what they had seen and return to their patrol, knowing they would face questions they could not answer when they got back to their base.

On the Onizuka, the brief window the Landsers were able to track the shuttle equated to the time Jettis dropped the shields for the emergency beam out. As soon as the shields came back on, the Landser missiles again lost the ability to see the shuttle as it soared out of orbit.

The beam out was not a pretty one. The four members of the away team each hit the ground hard and when they rolled to a stop, Jettis, Neva, Zhuk, and Kyan found themselves alone. Unknown to them, they had been scattered over a twenty kilometer circle of the Landser countryside.

Soon enough, the quick calculations saw Zhuk disappear into a shimmer, as did the rest of the party. What he was not expecting was to be falling a few meters from the ground. Unable to properly adjust to land on his feet, Zhuk hit the ground hard, letting out a yowl as he was barely able to roll on the dirt and grass. He groaned, taking a moment to recover, before he finally stood up, and noticed he was all alone.

Great.

He activated the stealth for his suit, soon noticing that his left arm hurt. It particularly showed when he turned his wrist. Not a fracture, certainly, but perhaps a strain? He really couldn't check. Not without risking the mission. Gritting his teeth, he decided to keep his extremity close to his chest and began to look for the rest of his team.

[Ardyn Jaeger]

[Shuttle Onizuka - Troposphere - Above Land]

The two Landser pilots had their planes at redline as the pushed to intercept the unknown aircraft they had visually spotted. As the closed, they remained frustrated that while they could clearly see the strange intruder, their radar stubbornly refused to lock onto the target. It was this lack of lock on which was why they were driving their planes so hard to close because it meant they had to get into cannon range as their missiles were proving useless. However, as they got within two kilometers, suddenly, the intruder appeared on radar! Excitedly, the lead fighter got a solid lock on with his missiles and fired. No sooner had the missiles dropped from his fighter, when the lock failed as the intruder both accelerated and started an steep 80 degree climb. The pilot swore as he saw the unknown aircraft outrun his missiles and then climb not only above his own fighter's maximum ceiling, but out of the atmosphere completely. Livid, the two pilots could only report what they had seen and return to their patrol, knowing they would face questions they could not answer when they got back to their base.

On the Onizuka, the brief window the Landsers were able to track the shuttle equated to the time Jettis dropped the shields for the emergency beam out. As soon as the shields came back on, the Landser missiles again lost the ability to see the shuttle as it soared out of orbit.

The beam out was not a pretty one. The four members of the away team each hit the ground hard and when they rolled to a stop, Jettis, Neva, Zhuk, and Kyan found themselves alone. Unknown to them, they had been scattered over a twenty kilometer circle of the Landser countryside.

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

The bridge crew, as was most the the ship's crew, was very busy as the Onizuka was evading the Landser fighters. There had been many gigaquads of data collected on this sector of space as well as the Landser system. Ian was mostly going over intelligence reports on the bridge as the data was being turned into useful information to report to Starfleet, it was then that Randall at Science One spoke up.

"Sir, I'm picking up a ship lifting from the Landser moon. It is fifty meters long, no life signs. I'm picking an unknown power reading. It looks like the Landsers are about to test their fold space drive with an unmanned probe."

Before Randall could continue, Lieutenant Booker at Ops added.

"Sir, the Onizuka is leaving orbit, but I'm not getting a response to hails."

Ian was now faced with two important pieces of information and was still trying to assess which was the more important when Randall called out.

"The Landser test just engaged fold space! Massive temporal pulse in bound!"

The shields of the Challenger were already up as they screened the ship from the Landser's primitive sensing capabilities, but it didn't matter. The temporal pulse lanced through the shields without slowing and the impact was devastating.

From Ian's perspective, the universe exploded as it seemed every synapse in his brain fired at once. He was everywhere and everywhen that ever existed. Colors erupted in an indescribable kaleidoscope that defied words and his entire body tensed as if electricity flowed through him.

How long this sensation lasted, it was impossible to say. However, it did end and when Ian was able to open his eyes, the bridge was dark except for the dim red emergency lighting. As he looked around the bridge, he saw everyone was either slumped at their station or crumpled on the deck. Through sheer force of will, he managed to get his arm to move to tap his combadge, but when it didn't make a sound, his arm flopped onto his lap and he was exhausted.

He noticed that the display on the command chair was blank as was every console on the bridge. Worse still, the ship was silent, normally, even when stationary, he could feel the vibration of the deck plates indicating all was well with the warp core. Now, he could not feel or hear anything, it meant the ship was currently dead and likely drifting. He closed his eyes and mumbled.

"We are so humped."

[Bridge]

That wasn't good  Thought Ardyn as she turned to head out, with a brief mental reassurance to Alex as she prepared to head out. Unfortunately, she didn't get very far when suddenly, she felt the ship lurch for just a second. She barely had time to react to it all, when suddenly, she heard a  high-pitched whine in her mind growing louder by the second, Something between static and the ringing of the ears you felt after a solid blow of the head.  For a moment, a tidal wave of emotions across the ship came in all at once to her, threatening to overtake her under the waves of spinning vertigo and blinding colors she was simultaneously feeling.

And then, Everything went black.

[Sometime later]

It took her a while to come to, and even still, it felt like her head was simultaneously exploding and crushed under a pulsing vice.  She was on the floor now.  Was Alex okay? Maddy?!  She winced. Thinking alone just gave her a crushing headache.

Getting herself up, albeit shakily, she tried waking up the helm officer. They were still out cold. And it was quiet, too quiet.  Aside from the groans of folks waking up, there was none of the background hum of the varying systems and computers.

She checked the helm. reaching over the still-unconscious helm officer. No response.

The ship was dead in the water.

"You said that right. She's dead. I can't make her respond to anything."

[Alexander Wu]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

The bridge crew, as was most the the ship's crew, was very busy as the Onizuka was evading the Landser fighters. There had been many gigaquads of data collected on this sector of space as well as the Landser system. Ian was mostly going over intelligence reports on the bridge as the data was being turned into useful information to report to Starfleet, it was then that Randall at Science One spoke up.

"Sir, I'm picking up a ship lifting from the Landser moon. It is fifty meters long, no life signs. I'm picking an unknown power reading. It looks like the Landsers are about to test their fold space drive with an unmanned probe."

Before Randall could continue, Lieutenant Booker at Ops added.

"Sir, the Onizuka is leaving orbit, but I'm not getting a response to hails."

"The Landser test just engaged fold space! Massive temporal pulse in bound!"

[Sometime later]

It took her a while to come to, and even still, it felt like her head was simultaneously exploding and crushed under a pulsing vice.  She was on the floor now.  Was Alex okay? Maddy?!  She winced. Thinking alone just gave her a crushing headache.

Getting herself up, albeit shakily, she tried waking up the helm officer. They were still out cold. And it was quiet, too quiet.  Aside from the groans of folks waking up, there was none of the background hum of the varying systems and computers.

She checked the helm. reaching over the still-unconscious helm officer. No response.

The ship was dead in the water.

"You said that right. She's dead. I can't make her respond to anything."

[USS Challenger - Bridge]

A slight tingling sensation filled Alex with trepidation as someone reported that an unidentified craft had been launched by the Landsers, along with Booker noting the shuttlecraft was unresponsive to hails after leaving it's planned route. One thing being irregular was concerning, two issues happening almost simultaneously was too much to be a coincidence. Still, he hesitated, glancing back at Galloway who was digesting the information himself. Alex wasn't sure where he stood in the chain of command or how much incentive his new Captain appreciated, even while every intuition in his body had gone from a murmur to a persistent clamor. That was one conversation he should've had with Ardyn earlier, finding out more information about Galloway's style, but hindsight was often 20/20.

He didn't need to hear what the science officer shouted to know immediately from the tone of his voice that something very bad was about to happen. Still standing next to Booker, Alex reactively snapped, "Helm, break orbit, full emergency power, get the planet between us and that thing!"

But it was too late. Alex felt, more than he saw, what hit them, a thunderclap searing pain filling his head. Screams, echoing as though heard through a long corridor, blinding white light. Surprise, terror, wailing helplessness surged from every pore, from his fingertips to his toes.

Then darkness. Calming, merciful, nothingness took from him all sensation and awareness.

When he awoke, it wasn't from the blaring of claxons or barked orders, but to a murmur in his mind, a comfortable warming feeling of concern. Unfortunately, with his revival came a crushing, throbbing headache, and a ringing in his ears which muffled a familiar voice. Ardyn. Maddison! Pushing himself up onto his hands and knees, and swallowing down a surge of bile as the room spun, Alex tried to tap his commbadge, meaning to check on his daughter, but was only met with silence. No chirp of a communicator, no steady thrum of a pulsing warp core, not even a slight hum from the ventilation-

Oh. Merde. Groaning, Alex forced himself upright, lucid enough for lessons learnt decades ago to surface. "Life support's offline." He muttered, staggering to the emergency storage lockers behind the bridge and rummaging blindly until he found a survival kit. Squinting in the emergency lighting to read the tiny writing in the medication box, he finally managed to locate the right vial, inserted it into a hypospray and jabbed it against his neck, pressing down on the applicator. After what felt like minutes but was likely only a few seconds, Alex felt his headache begin to rapidly dissipate, his mind clearing as strength returned to his limbs.

Carrying the kit back onto the main bridge area, he first pressed the hypospray into Ardy's shoulder, and then Galloway's. "Tri-ox." Alex explained, pulling out the empty vial and replacing it with a full one. "Life support's out," He repeated, "Along with everything else up here." He continued around the deck, dosing the other bridge officers to hopefully stave off death from asphyxiation for the time being. Booker and the helmsman were still slumped motionless at their stations, so he pulled both off their seats, laying them in a recovery position on the deck.  "Ardyn, are you hurt?" Alex asked softly after he circled back to her, touching her elbow lightly. "What hit us, Captain? Did Starfleet mention if their scans showed anything like it happening prior?"

[ShranLahr ch'Verret]

CPO ShranLahr ch'Verret
[USS Challenger - Deck 15 - Stellar Cartography]

[USS Challenger - Deck 15 - Stellar Cartography]

"Oh, uhm. Hello!" Tora smiled tiredly at the chief petty officer. "Dumbing down the basics of space folding? I'm sure we can manage that, chief. Hyperion?" She glanced sideways at her 'lab partner', who was still dilligently working away as usual.

[Stellar Cartography - USS Challenger]

Capable of performing dozens of calculations and operations at one time, Hyperion continued to digest the data regarding this new region of space as he practiced his 'light conversation' with the new ensign Tora. On hearing the stored voice print of the being who went by the title 'Lahr', he pivoted his head around to face the Andorian. He had to search for the term 'dumb down' but after less than a second, he understood the expression as Lahr intended its use.

"Hello Lahr. It is an interesting exercise to 'dumb down' such a complex topic. However, I believe the best answer to suit your query is as follow. Usually, a vessel must traverse the intervening distance between two points to reach a destination. For example if one were to depart Earth and head for its moon, one must travel 382,240 kilometers. A vessel using fold space technology would essentially 'fold' space-time so that the distance is reduced to a fraction of the actual distance thus reaching the destination without traversing the distance between the two points. It is only conjectured within the Federation, that these people here have managed a form of this technology is simply remarkable. Does this response adequately meet the criteria of your query?"

Lahr rubbed the back of his neck as both the AI and the Cardassian Science officer were more than happy to help him out.  He listened to the explanation put forward by Hyperion and he kinda regretted using the phrase 'dumb down'  because what he got was not helpful at all.   He'd gone from hearing theoretical terminology he didn't have clue what was meant - such as affine connection and torsion tensor  down to an extreme simplicity that there was nothing he could work with to come up with a viable solution.

Yet before he could clarify what he needed he needed from the AI,  the fabric of space-time was folded.

"The Landser test just engaged fold space! Massive temporal pulse in bound!"

The shields of the Challenger were already up as they screened the ship from the Landser's primitive sensing capabilities, but it didn't matter. The temporal pulse lanced through the shields without slowing and the impact was devastating.

From Ian's perspective, the universe exploded as it seemed every synapse in his brain fired at once. He was everywhere and everywhen that ever existed. Colors erupted in an indescribable kaleidoscope that defied words and his entire body tensed as if electricity flowed through him.

How long this sensation lasted, it was impossible to say. However, it did end and when Ian was able to open his eyes, the bridge was dark except for the dim red emergency lighting. As he looked around the bridge, he saw everyone was either slumped at their station or crumpled on the deck. Through sheer force of will, he managed to get his arm to move to tap his combadge, but when it didn't make a sound, his arm flopped onto his lap and he was exhausted.

He noticed that the display on the command chair was blank as was every console on the bridge. Worse still, the ship was silent, normally, even when stationary, he could feel the vibration of the deck plates indicating all was well with the warp core. Now, he could not feel or hear anything, it meant the ship was currently dead and likely drifting. He closed his eyes and mumbled.

"We are so humped."

Pain erupted throughout his entire being as if he'd been hit with an electrical charge.   He wasn't capable of thought or movement - he just existed in pain until that was too much for his mind to handle. Then there was blissful nothingness.

Awareness was slow to return and when it did the Andorian fought it, preferring the void of unconsciousness to the reality of feeling alone once more.

[Ian Galloway]

[Bridge]

[Sometime later]

It took her a while to come to, and even still, it felt like her head was simultaneously exploding and crushed under a pulsing vice.  She was on the floor now.  Was Alex okay? Maddy?!  She winced. Thinking alone just gave her a crushing headache.

Getting herself up, albeit shakily, she tried waking up the helm officer. They were still out cold. And it was quiet, too quiet.  Aside from the groans of folks waking up, there was none of the background hum of the varying systems and computers.

She checked the helm. reaching over the still-unconscious helm officer. No response.

The ship was dead in the water.

"You said that right. She's dead. I can't make her respond to anything."

[USS Challenger - Bridge]

A slight tingling sensation filled Alex with trepidation as someone reported that an unidentified craft had been launched by the Landsers, along with Booker noting the shuttlecraft was unresponsive to hails after leaving it's planned route. One thing being irregular was concerning, two issues happening almost simultaneously was too much to be a coincidence. Still, he hesitated, glancing back at Galloway who was digesting the information himself. Alex wasn't sure where he stood in the chain of command or how much incentive his new Captain appreciated, even while every intuition in his body had gone from a murmur to a persistent clamor. That was one conversation he should've had with Ardyn earlier, finding out more information about Galloway's style, but hindsight was often 20/20.

He didn't need to hear what the science officer shouted to know immediately from the tone of his voice that something very bad was about to happen. Still standing next to Booker, Alex reactively snapped, "Helm, break orbit, full emergency power, get the planet between us and that thing!"

But it was too late. Alex felt, more than he saw, what hit them, a thunderclap searing pain filling his head. Screams, echoing as though heard through a long corridor, blinding white light. Surprise, terror, wailing helplessness surged from every pore, from his fingertips to his toes.

Then darkness. Calming, merciful, nothingness took from him all sensation and awareness.

When he awoke, it wasn't from the blaring of claxons or barked orders, but to a murmur in his mind, a comfortable warming feeling of concern. Unfortunately, with his revival came a crushing, throbbing headache, and a ringing in his ears which muffled a familiar voice. Ardyn. Maddison! Pushing himself up onto his hands and knees, and swallowing down a surge of bile as the room spun, Alex tried to tap his commbadge, meaning to check on his daughter, but was only met with silence. No chirp of a communicator, no steady thrum of a pulsing warp core, not even a slight breeze from the ventilation-

Oh. Merde. Groaning, Alex forced himself upright, lucid enough for lessons learnt decades ago to surface. "Life support's offline." He muttered, staggering to the emergency storage lockers behind the bridge and rummaging blindly until he found a survival kit. Squinting in the emergency lighting to read the tiny writing in the medication box, he finally managed to locate the right vial, inserted it into a hypospray and jabbed it against his neck, pressing down on the applicator. After what felt like minutes but was likely only a few seconds, Alex felt his headache begin to rapidly dissipate, his mind clearing as strength returned to his limbs.

Carrying the kit back onto the main bridge area, he first pressed the hypospray into Ardy's shoulder, and then Galloway's. "Tri-ox." Alex explained, pulling out the empty vial and replacing it with a full one. "Life support's out," He repeated, "Along with everything else up here." He continued around the deck, dosing the other bridge officers to hopefully stave off death from asphyxiation for the time being. Booker and the helmsman were still slumped motionless at their stations, so he pulled both off their seats, laying them in a recovery position on the deck.  "Ardyn, are you hurt?" Alex asked softly after he circled back to her, touching her elbow lightly. "What hit us, Captain? Did Starfleet mention if their scans showed anything like it happening prior?"

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

The injection of tri-ox woke Ian right up and he lurched to his feet. He knew he had to start issuing orders, but where to start was the problem.

"Okay, Lieutenant, here's what we all know. We were hit by a temporal pulse. What it did ta us and why the shields didn't protect us, are unknowns. The first assumption we have ta make is the rest of the ship is as dead as the bridge, that means we're ta save ourselves as there's nae a body ta save us. So, first order of business is ta treat any injuries and get the bridge crew on the job. Ensign Tal, is our engineer, we'll have ta follow his lead. Regardless of that, at the moment, we're all engineers. Grab yourself some tools and let's see what we can get operatin'."

[Kyan Mackenzie]

[Lt. Commander Kyan Mackenzie | In some Landser's backyard (outskirts of the capitol city... somewhere in the suburbs)]

~Early Afternoon (1-2 hours after beam out)

"Hey! Eely'ot what are you doing out here?"

The actually speech would have been incomprehensible to human ears, and Kyan wouldn't have been able to understand it even if he'd been awake. The universal translator caught a few of the words, but the Landsers were still at a stage in their development wherein scores of distinct languages and dialects were being spoken on their planet.

As it was, Kyan heard nothing. He was unconscious, having re-materialized  above a tree and smacked several thick branches before being caught on one of them. The Onlie's Isolation suit was a ruin. The HUD visor was completely offline and the rest was shredded. Kyan hung upside down from a large branch, about a meter and a half off the ground. The lower half of his suit held him there by one foot, having caught on one of the luminescent thorns.

"Eely'ot!"

The Landser boy stared in open-mouthed wonder at the extraterrestrial hanging from their family's prized Lumithorn tree. He could see inside the helmet just enough to know that whoever this was... they weren't Landseri.

Eely'ot didn't hear his younger sister's calls, nor did the enthralled boy hear her walk over.

"Wha.... What is it?" she asked, stopping beside her brother, who finally noticed her.

He tore his eyes away from the alien hanging in the tree and regarded his sister. Eely'ot didn't have an answer. He didn't know what it was, but he did know what it wasn't. And he also knew what it would mean if one of his parents or the neighbors found out about it. "G'erti... go get your doll wagon." he said finally. "I'm going to get it down from there."

G'erti was hesitant. "Do you think it's still alive?" she asked? "Maybe we should call someone."

Eely'ot wasn't about to do that. The police would take it away before it even woke up and he'd never see it again, much less get to see if it woke up. He had a plan though. "No." he replied. "They'll take it away. Hurry up and get the wagon."

G'erti didn't argue further. She knew it would be pointless. Besides, she knew that this was something extraordinary and she was curious too. Without another word she ran back into their family's house and emerged a few minutes later with a wagon. The bottom was padded and there was a wooden rail around it. She'd taken most of her dolls out to make room for the alien. She also got one of her blankets to cover him up once they got him down.

When she got back, her brother had gotten a ladder and was climbing up to the thorny branch from which the alien hung. "Put the wagon under it." he told her. "I'll lower it in. You grab it's arms and make sure it doesn't fall."

G'erti did what she was told, and soon she was guiding the alien into the wagon. When they'd finished, her brother bounded down the ladder. Kyan was now laying on his back in the wagon with his legs and arms dangling outside it. His head slumped against the railing on the back.

"Now what do we do?" she asked, cupping her hands to peer through the tinted visor on the alien's suit. She could make out a face that wasn't all that different from their own, aside from the color of the skin and the smaller, rounded ears.

Eely'ot pointed toward the house. "Take it inside... we'll put it in the toy room. Mother and father never go in there."

G'erti nodded but then a thought occurred to her. "What about Mikel?"

"We might tell him... if he promises not to tell anyone else." Eely'ot said. "Now come on.

Eely'ot took hold of the wagon's handle and pulled it into the house with G'erti following. It was a struggle to get the wagon down the stairs to the basement but once they had, it was a relatively easy thing to get the alien out of the wagon. G'erti and Eely'ot laid Kyan on the play mat and G'erti sat down beside him. Eely'ot left and returned a few moments later with scissors.

While his sister watched silently, Eely'ot cut what was left of the suit off and finally pulled the hood off to reveal the alien. With the suit off, it was clear that the alien was alive, as the two of them could now see it's chest rising and falling with each breath. Tentatively, G'erti leaned over the sleeping Onlie. Then she slowly reached out and touched his ear which, aside from his skin color, was the most glaring difference between the two of them.

At the touch, Kyan's eyes opened suddenly and he sat up, frightening the two Landser children. Eely'ot scrambled back, and G'erti screamed. Kyan pushed her away and tried to scoot back himself, but was suddenly still as if frozen in place.

G'erti looked at her brother. "Did you....."

"It just happened!" Eely'ot stammered. "I didn't even... "

G'erti waved a hand in front of Kyan's face, who stared blanky ahead, entranced. When he didn't move, she looked over at her brother. "Now we have to tell Mikel."

[Ardyn Jaeger]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

The injection of tri-ox woke Ian right up and he lurched to his feet. He knew he had to start issuing orders, but where to start was the problem.

"Okay, Lieutenant, here's what we all know. We were hit by a temporal pulse. What it did ta us and why the shields didn't protect us, are unknowns. The first assumption we have ta make is the rest of the ship is as dead as the bridge, that means we're ta save ourselves as there's nae a body ta save us. So, first order of business is ta treat any injuries and get the bridge crew on the job. Ensign Tal, is our engineer, we'll have ta follow his lead. Regardless of that, at the moment, we're all engineers. Grab yourself some tools and let's see what we can get operatin'."

[USS Challenger - Bridge]

A slight tingling sensation filled Alex with trepidation as someone reported that an unidentified craft had been launched by the Landsers, along with Booker noting the shuttlecraft was unresponsive to hails after leaving it's planned route. One thing being irregular was concerning, two issues happening almost simultaneously was too much to be a coincidence. Still, he hesitated, glancing back at Galloway who was digesting the information himself. Alex wasn't sure where he stood in the chain of command or how much incentive his new Captain appreciated, even while every intuition in his body had gone from a murmur to a persistent clamor. That was one conversation he should've had with Ardyn earlier, finding out more information about Galloway's style, but hindsight was often 20/20.

He didn't need to hear what the science officer shouted to know immediately from the tone of his voice that something very bad was about to happen. Still standing next to Booker, Alex reactively snapped, "Helm, break orbit, full emergency power, get the planet between us and that thing!"

But it was too late. Alex felt, more than he saw, what hit them, a thunderclap searing pain filling his head. Screams, echoing as though heard through a long corridor, blinding white light. Surprise, terror, wailing helplessness surged from every pore, from his fingertips to his toes.

Then darkness. Calming, merciful, nothingness took from him all sensation and awareness.

When he awoke, it wasn't from the blaring of claxons or barked orders, but to a murmur in his mind, a comfortable warming feeling of concern. Unfortunately, with his revival came a crushing, throbbing headache, and a ringing in his ears which muffled a familiar voice. Ardyn. Maddison! Pushing himself up onto his hands and knees, and swallowing down a surge of bile as the room spun, Alex tried to tap his commbadge, meaning to check on his daughter, but was only met with silence. No chirp of a communicator, no steady thrum of a pulsing warp core, not even a slight hum from the ventilation-

Oh. Merde. Groaning, Alex forced himself upright, lucid enough for lessons learnt decades ago to surface. "Life support's offline." He muttered, staggering to the emergency storage lockers behind the bridge and rummaging blindly until he found a survival kit. Squinting in the emergency lighting to read the tiny writing in the medication box, he finally managed to locate the right vial, inserted it into a hypospray and jabbed it against his neck, pressing down on the applicator. After what felt like minutes but was likely only a few seconds, Alex felt his headache begin to rapidly dissipate, his mind clearing as strength returned to his limbs.

Carrying the kit back onto the main bridge area, he first pressed the hypospray into Ardy's shoulder, and then Galloway's. "Tri-ox." Alex explained, pulling out the empty vial and replacing it with a full one. "Life support's out," He repeated, "Along with everything else up here." He continued around the deck, dosing the other bridge officers to hopefully stave off death from asphyxiation for the time being. Booker and the helmsman were still slumped motionless at their stations, so he pulled both off their seats, laying them in a recovery position on the deck.  "Ardyn, are you hurt?" Alex asked softly after he circled back to her, touching her elbow lightly. "What hit us, Captain? Did Starfleet mention if their scans showed anything like it happening prior?"

[Bridge]

The gripping headache seemed to be alleviated"¦. somewhat by the dose Alex gave her.  She could at least think again to some degree of clarity. Oddly enough, it still hurt as she did her mental look around for Maddy she had been practicing, enough that she winced just a bit, which was enough to at least tell her that Maddy was alright, albeit somewhat scared.

"œ Thanks. I'm alright. Mostly. My head still feels like it's being squeezed by a vice, but I'll live, I think. "œ she said when Alex asked how she was.

Wincing again somewhat, she tried to project some feeling of reassurance to  Maddy, but whether or not it worked, she wasn't sure.

"œRight,"  said Ardyn to Ian as she immediately pulled apart the panel under the Helm. If she guessed right, there might be some way she could "œhotwire" some of the systems to a backup generator. Assuming the backup generator up here worked and wasn't fried like the rest of the systems. It wouldn't be a lot of power, but if they could get back some form of function to the ship or at least the bridge, it would be better than nothing. "œDo we still have a manual toolkit on the bridge? I don't know just how fried these systems are and I'm not putting any chips on that anything else will work. "

[Ian Galloway]

[Bridge]

The gripping headache seemed to be alleviated"¦. somewhat by the dose Alex gave her.  She could at least think again to some degree of clarity. Oddly enough, it still hurt as she did her mental look around for Maddy she had been practicing, enough that she winced just a bit, which was enough to at least tell her that Maddy was alright, albeit somewhat scared.

"œ Thanks. I'm alright. Mostly. My head still feels like it's being squeezed by a vice, but I'll live, I think. "œ she said when Alex asked how she was.

Wincing again somewhat, she tried to project some feeling of reassurance to  Maddy, but whether or not it worked, she wasn't sure.

"œRight,"  said Ardyn to Ian as she immediately pulled apart the panel under the Helm. If she guessed right, there might be some way she could "œhotwire" some of the systems to a backup generator. Assuming the backup generator up here worked and wasn't fried like the rest of the systems. It wouldn't be a lot of power, but if they could get back some form of function to the ship or at least the bridge, it would be better than nothing. "œDo we still have a manual toolkit on the bridge? I don't know just how fried these systems are and I'm not putting any chips on that anything else will work. "

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

When Ardy asked about a tool kit, Ensign Tal spoke up.

"Right here Sir. Academy taught no engineer is ever without a tool kit."

With Tal leading the way Ardy and he inspected the isolinear chips he'd extracted from the helm console. The chips showed no outward signs of damage, of course without a tricorder it was impossible to see any internal damage. Tal shrugged and plugged the chip back into its socket and to his surprise, the chip lit up showing it was active!

Blinking in surprise, Tal quickly said. "I think I have a theory Lieutenant, help me extract all of these chips and reseat them."

Working quickly, the two officers manually removed the 36 isolinear chips that comprised the circuitry of the helm station and once the last was plugged back in, the console beeped, rebooted, and came back online.

Excitedly, Tal turned to face the Captain.

"Sir, I believe I can guess what happened to us. Each isolinear chip when connected carries a set of instructions on how to perform a task. When a new chip is inserted into existing circuitry, it pulls the instructions from the network of connected chips and begins doing its task. It is this interconnection of instructions that allows isolinear chips to function with such efficiency.

"I believe the pulse essentially reset the isolinear chips to factory standard. Since this occurred to all the chips at once, the individual chips couldn't pull instructions from the associated circuitry, so they went into a sort of standby mode. It looks like if the chip is removed and reseated, it is able to restore its instructions from the internal memory buffer and begin working!"

Ian's mouth dropped open and he winced as if in pain.

"Sweet Maker of All. Have you got any idea how many isolinear chips there are in a ship this size? It will take weeks to reset all of them!"

It was Tal's turn to wince at the Captain's response.

"Aye Sir I do know, but I think it is possible if enough chips are rebooted, it could cause a sort of cascade reboot effect and accelerate the process."

"Bloody hell. That's better than manually resettin' all of them I guess. Okay everyone, you heard the Ensign. Open every access panel, extract every isolinear chip inside, reinsert them, and let's reboot Challenger."

Ian turned to face Randall who had remained silent during the exchange with Tal.

"Evan, we need ta ken why that pulse sliced through our shields. Right now, fold space tech is a weapon that can disable the Fleet. As soon as you have sensors operational, we answers and we need protection."

"On it Sir."

Ian moved to the command chair and opened the access panel as he began extracting chips he added to the petty officer at the Mission Operations station.

"Mister Grelek, I'm goin' ta need you ta use the ladderway inside the turbolift ta begin spreadin' the word on how ta reboot the ship, more hands we have repairin' critical systems, the sooner we can get back on our feet."

"Affirmative Captain."

The Vulcan immediate moved to the turbolift and using his superior strength forced open the doors before disappearing down the shaft.

As he left, Ian thought.

"I hope things are going better for Kyan than they are for us."

[Alexander Wu]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

The injection of tri-ox woke Ian right up and he lurched to his feet. He knew he had to start issuing orders, but where to start was the problem.

"Okay, Lieutenant, here's what we all know. We were hit by a temporal pulse. What it did ta us and why the shields didn't protect us, are unknowns. The first assumption we have ta make is the rest of the ship is as dead as the bridge, that means we're ta save ourselves as there's nae a body ta save us. So, first order of business is ta treat any injuries and get the bridge crew on the job. Ensign Tal, is our engineer, we'll have ta follow his lead. Regardless of that, at the moment, we're all engineers. Grab yourself some tools and let's see what we can get operatin'."

[Bridge]

The gripping headache seemed to be alleviated"¦. somewhat by the dose Alex gave her.  She could at least think again to some degree of clarity. Oddly enough, it still hurt as she did her mental look around for Maddy she had been practicing, enough that she winced just a bit, which was enough to at least tell her that Maddy was alright, albeit somewhat scared.

"œ Thanks. I'm alright. Mostly. My head still feels like it's being squeezed by a vice, but I'll live, I think. "œ she said when Alex asked how she was.

Wincing again somewhat, she tried to project some feeling of reassurance to  Maddy, but whether or not it worked, she wasn't sure.

"œRight,"  said Ardyn to Ian as she immediately pulled apart the panel under the Helm. If she guessed right, there might be some way she could "œhotwire" some of the systems to a backup generator. Assuming the backup generator up here worked and wasn't fried like the rest of the systems. It wouldn't be a lot of power, but if they could get back some form of function to the ship or at least the bridge, it would be better than nothing. "œDo we still have a manual toolkit on the bridge? I don't know just how fried these systems are and I'm not putting any chips on that anything else will work. "

[USS Challenger - Bridge]

Ardyn's second wince was enough for Alex to know that she was hiding her discomfort, as usual. "Can you sense if Maddy's okay?" He asked while changing out the vial in the hypospray, following up her dose of tri-ox with a mild analgesic. He was concerned, frustrated, irritated. Angry, that Starfleet sent them to investigate a phenomenon which they knew was dangerous, had enough foresight to give it a name, but hadn't taken the precaution to develop any defenses against. An overconfidence in their technological edge, the Admiralty's Achilles heel, time and time again. He was also just the slightest bit scared of being in the dark, both literally and figuratively. Alex wanted nothing more at that moment than to get his family to safety. But there was no safety to be found here, not while they were all stuck on a drifting, powerless, starship.

Throughout his career, he had nearly died several times while trying to save his crewmates, came very close on Discovery. Back then, he was willing to die for his friends, his crew, the only family he had left. Maybe have a minor municipal building or ship's lounge named after him, for posterity. But something had changed over the past years, that willingness to sacrifice himself for others gradually shifting to a much stronger sense of self-preservation. Now that Alex had Ardyn and Maddison to live for, he wasn't so eager to dive blindly into unknown danger for, in this case, absolute strangers. He didn't know this crew, or this Captain Galloway. They weren't even friends, barely acquaintances over the past 24 hours. He didn't owe them anything, much less his life or the lives of his actual family.

But still. The uniform still meant something, along with the delta they all wore. Alex handed Ardyn a small toolkit and palm beacon from the survival kit he'd found in the lockers, and then set to work carrying out Galloway's orders. The slightest edge of vexation tinged his tone when he tried to scan Booker with a medical tricorder only to discover it broken. "Useless." Alex muttered, next pulling out a regular tricorder and finding it defective as well. "It's not just the ship." He reported, toggling on a hand beacon with mild relief to find at least that worked. "Unless someone forgot to change the powerpacks in these tricorders, it doesn't look like anything more advanced than flashlights work. At this rate, we'll have to communicate with tin cans and string."

Alex pried the back off the Ops workstation, doing a 'sniff' test for any acrid smells which could indicate a fire or short circuit, as was usually the case when everything went kaput. To his surprise, asides from no power running through the circuits, it all appeared immaculate. Visually, there wasn't any damage at all, nothing to explain what had happened, and without a working tricorder, he had no diagnostic tool to use. "This doesn't make any sense." Alex postulated, glancing at Galloway. "Even if main and secondary power went offline, the batteries should've automatically kicked in. If this is a supply issue, then we might really well be 'humped'."

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

When Ardy asked about a tool kit, Ensign Tal spoke up.

"Right here Sir. Academy taught no engineer is ever without a tool kit."

With Tal leading the way Ardy and he inspected the isolinear chips he'd extracted from the helm console. The chips showed no outward signs of damage, of course without a tricorder it was impossible to see any internal damage. Tal shrugged and plugged the chip back into its socket and to his surprise, the chip lit up showing it was active!

Blinking in surprise, Tal quickly said. "I think I have a theory Lieutenant, help me extract all of these chips and reseat them."

Working quickly, the two officers manually removed the 36 isolinear chips that comprised the circuitry of the helm station and once the last was plugged back in, the console beeped, rebooted, and came back online.

Excitedly, Tal turned to face the Captain.

"Sir, I believe I can guess what happened to us. Each isolinear chip when connected carries a set of instructions on how to perform a task. When a new chip is inserted into existing circuitry, it pulls the instructions from the network of connected chips and begins doing its task. It is this interconnection of instructions that allows isolinear chips to function with such efficiency.

"I believe the pulse essentially reset the isolinear chips to factory standard. Since this occurred to all the chips at once, the individual chips couldn't pull instructions from the associated circuitry, so they went into a sort of standby mode. It looks like if the chip is removed and reseated, it is able to restore its instructions from the internal memory buffer and begin working!"

Ian's mouth dropped open and he winced as if in pain.

"Sweet Maker of All. Have you got any idea how many isolinear chips there are in a ship this size? It will take weeks to reset all of them!"

It was Tal's turn to wince at the Captain's response.

"Aye Sir I do know, but I think it is possible if enough chips are rebooted, it could cause a sort of cascade reboot effect and accelerate the process."

"Bloody hell. That's better than manually resettin' all of them I guess. Okay everyone, you heard the Ensign. Open every access panel, extract every isolinear chip inside, reinsert them, and let's reboot Challenger."

Ian turned to face Randall who had remained silent during the exchange with Tal.

"Evan, we need ta ken why that pulse sliced through our shields. Right now, fold space tech is a weapon that can disable the Fleet. As soon as you have sensors operational, we answers and we need protection."

"On it Sir."

Ian moved to the command chair and opened the access panel as he began extracting chips he added to the petty officer at the Mission Operations station.

"Mister Grelek, I'm goin' ta need you ta use the ladderway inside the turbolift ta begin spreadin' the word on how ta reboot the ship, more hands we have repairin' critical systems, the sooner we can get back on our feet."

"Affirmative Captain."

The Vulcan immediate moved to the turbolift and using his superior strength forced open the doors before disappearing down the shaft.

As he left, Ian thought.

"I hope things are going better for Kyan than they are for us."

"Unplug it and plug it back in again. Brilliant." Alex was astounded by the simplicity of it, but as in 80% of all cases, the simplest fix was the easiest one which worked. More importantly, this meant it wasn't a supply issue, and they should have enough emergency power to get their essential systems back running, including the warp core. Quickly popping the tricorder's cover, he pulled out the isolinear chip and plugged it back in, relieved by the steady chirping sound as it began working again. "Mr. Tal, your reward. First working tricorder on the bridge." Alex tossed it over to the engineer, and then handed the medical one over to a blueshirt who had taken over care of the officers still laying unconscious. Resetting the Ops console took a bit longer than the helm, since he was working alone, but he did finally manage to get the workstation back operational.

With the rest of the ship only learning about the repair solution at Grelek's climbing speed, everything still read offline on his display. He did manage to activate the viewscreen though, and it flickered back into existence after a few seconds. After several moments of staring at the screen, Alex frowned. "Sir, is it just me, or does that planet seem alot closer now than before?"

[Ian Galloway]

[USS Challenger - Bridge]

Ardyn's second wince was enough for Alex to know that she was hiding her discomfort, as usual. "Can you sense if Maddy's okay?" He asked while changing out the vial in the hypospray, following up her dose of tri-ox with a mild analgesic. He was concerned, frustrated, irritated. Angry, that Starfleet sent them to investigate a phenomenon which they knew was dangerous, had enough foresight to give it a name, but hadn't taken the precaution to develop any defenses against. An overconfidence in their technological edge, the Admiralty's Achilles heel, time and time again. He was also just the slightest bit scared of being in the dark, both literally and figuratively. Alex wanted nothing more at that moment than to get his family to safety. But there was no safety to be found here, not while they were all stuck on a drifting, powerless, starship.

Throughout his career, he had nearly died several times while trying to save his crewmates, came very close on Discovery. Back then, he was willing to die for his friends, his crew, the only family he had left. Maybe have a minor municipal building or ship's lounge named after him, for posterity. But something had changed over the past years, that willingness to sacrifice himself for others gradually shifting to a much stronger sense of self-preservation. Now that Alex had Ardyn and Maddison to live for, he wasn't so eager to dive blindly into unknown danger for, in this case, absolute strangers. He didn't know this crew, or this Captain Galloway. They weren't even friends, barely acquaintances over the past 24 hours. He didn't owe them anything, much less his life or the lives of his actual family.

But still. The uniform still meant something, along with the delta they all wore. Alex handed Ardyn a small toolkit and palm beacon from the survival kit he'd found in the lockers, and then set to work carrying out Galloway's orders. The slightest edge of vexation tinged his tone when he tried to scan Booker with a medical tricorder only to discover it broken. "Useless." Alex muttered, next pulling out a regular tricorder and finding it defective as well. "It's not just the ship." He reported, toggling on a hand beacon with mild relief to find at least that worked. "Unless someone forgot to change the powerpacks in these tricorders, it doesn't look like anything more advanced than flashlights work. At this rate, we'll have to communicate with tin cans and string."

Alex pried the back off the Ops workstation, doing a 'sniff' test for any acrid smells which could indicate a fire or short circuit, as was usually the case when everything went kaput. To his surprise, asides from no power running through the circuits, it all appeared immaculate. Visually, there wasn't any damage at all, nothing to explain what had happened, and without a working tricorder, he had no diagnostic tool to use. "This doesn't make any sense." Alex postulated, glancing at Galloway. "Even if main and secondary power went offline, the batteries should've automatically kicked in. If this is a supply issue, then we might really well be 'humped'."

"Unplug it and plug it back in again. Brilliant." Alex was astounded by the simplicity of it, but as in 80% of all cases, the simplest fix was the easiest one which worked. More importantly, this meant it wasn't a supply issue, and they should have enough emergency power to get their essential systems back running, including the warp core. Quickly popping the tricorder's cover, he pulled out the isolinear chip and plugged it back in, relieved by the steady chirping sound as it began working again. "Mr. Tal, your reward. First working tricorder on the bridge." Alex tossed it over to the engineer, and then handed the medical one over to a blueshirt who had taken over care of the officers still laying unconscious. Resetting the Ops console took a bit longer than the helm, since he was working alone, but he did finally manage to get the workstation back operational.

With the rest of the ship only learning about the repair solution at Grelek's climbing speed, everything still read offline on his display. He did manage to activate the viewscreen though, and it flickered back into existence after a few seconds. After several moments of staring at the screen, Alex frowned. "Sir, is it just me, or does that planet seem alot closer now than before?"

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

When the viewscreen flickered back to life and Wu commented on the planet's size, Ian looked up with an even more pained expression.

"I was afraid of this, our drift has got us at the very edge of the planet's gravity well. We've got to get summat workin' ta stabilize our course."

Thinking furiously Ian added.

"Thrusters, they draw the least power of any propulsion on the ship, we've got ta focus our attention on gettin' thrusters online."

"Sir, I hate to complicate things, but we have an additional problem."

Randall said from the Science One station.

"Go ahead Lieutenant." Ian sighed.

"I started scanning the local area for traces of the fold space temporal pulse to work on some sort of defense. As I was scanning, I detected an strong increase in radio frequency activity emanating from the planet. It looks like when our shields dropped, the Landsers have detected us. I don't know what they can do about it, but I am certain they know we are here."

"Well, there goes any hope of avoidin' a court martial."

Ian replied sourly as he pinched the bridge of his nose.

"I would say it's a given we've gone a buggered the hell out of the Prime Directive at this point. Mister Wu, as soon as you're done with treatin' Lieutenant Booker, see if'n you can tap into the Landser's communication network. No possibility of puttin' off talkin' with their government now."

[Neva Cordon]

[Lieutenant Zhukdra'shar Mrekrerhas | Bridge --> Main Shuttlebay | Deck One --> Deck Nineteen | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A | L7-425977 System]

"Ah, that is certainly relieving to hear," Zhuk placed a hand over his chest, letting go of the tension his muscles had momentarily acquired. He sighed before he proceeded to go back to his serious visage, "It is good to hear that you shalt take my suggestion, too. I am glad to be a useful member of this here team. As for your comment on the 'Flying Tigers' program, I must say that a formal invitation has not been extended towards me. Thus, I did not think that intruding upon the Captain's personal world would be tremendously appropriate. Besides, I am much more fond of entertaining myself with Battleships..."

He felt just a hint of heat coming from his ears as he revealed that, becoming just slightly more pink in color. A Caitian's way of blushing. He felt just a tad embarrassed of revealing that was what he enjoyed. In any case, that was better to admitting than he too enjoyed playing a member of nobility who enjoyed wooing the ladies of the court, and trying to survive the revolution that was soon to unfold upon their respective nation.

[Lieutenant Zhukdra'shar Mrekrerhas | Main Shuttlebay --> Shuttle Onizuka | Deck Nineteen --> Land | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A --> Land | L7-425977 System]

Zhukdra'shar regarded the incoming Neva with a polite nod as he took his suit. While he donned it, he began to ponder on the situation. He was glad to be flying now, as he hated using the transporter. He cherished these moments when the mission required a shuttle instead. Oh, and speaking about greatly enjoyable things, though he found it slightly difficult to fit his tail inside the specially modified suit, he was relieved that it at least would not be stuck to his leg. He was also quite happy to see that his ears perfectly had space at the top of his head to swish and move as they pleased. And his feet entered perfectly on the boots. Magnificent job by Neva.

"I greatly appreciate that thou took mine petition into consideration, Lieutenant Junior Commander Neva. Excellent performance."

[Lt.JG ACEO Neva Cordon|Shuttle Onizuka]

Neva nodded deferentially to Zhuk, smiling proudly despite herself. "No problem Lieutenant. It's part of being an Engineer." Her smile turned into a smirk. "Besides, I enjoy the challenge." That said, she took a seat and belted in.

Zhuk smiled under the helmet. Then, he proceeded to take a seat and get ready for Jettis to bring them to the planet.

He just hoped the landing would be smooth.

Zhukdra'shar was even more confident things would go according to plan, with the information Booker had provided to descend. Unfortunately, things turned out to be not too pleasant, and indeed, he cursed internally as he noted the appearance of two atmospheric Landser aircraft on the sensors. Soon enough, everyone was aware of the danger, and Jettis asked for ideas.

Kyan piped up with a suggestion to shoot down the aircraft, something that Zhuk was actually on board with. Then again, it was not very Starfleet of them to even think about that, so he returned to the drawing board. He thought of perhaps suggesting for them to find some kind of mountain chain to evade the aircraft, as he was certain they were not as maneuverable as the Onizuka. Correct?

In any case, he had no time to present his idea, as Jettis came up with his own. He sulked as they would need to use the transporters, but he relented,

"Fine idea. Let us proceed."

Soon enough, the quick calculations saw Zhuk disappear into a shimmer, as did the rest of the party. What he was not expecting was to be falling a few meters from the ground. Unable to properly adjust to land on his feet, Zhuk hit the ground hard, letting out a yowl as he could barely roll on the dirt and grass. He groaned, taking a moment to recover, before he finally stood up, and noticed he was all alone.

Great.

He activated the stealth for his suit, soon noticing that his left arm hurt. It particularly showed when he turned his wrist. Not a fracture, certainly, but perhaps a strain? He really couldn't check. Not without risking the mission. Gritting his teeth, he decided to keep his extremity close to his chest and began to look for the rest of his team.

Neva materialized on a precipice of a low mountain. She woke to see reddish brown blades of grass and felt rocks against her cheek. She felt a headache beginning to bloom in her temples. She screwed her eyes shut once more, trying to assess the state of things below her neck. She felt scratches and places where bruises would form, but nothing broken. Thanking The Gods, she sat up slowly. She let her eyes open only slightly, testing as she moved.

With her hands on each side of her for balance, Neva carefully and fully opened her eyes. Looking down at her body, she noticed her suit was ripped and torn in many places. Groaning, she pulled at it, finally tearing it from her like a caterpillar emerging from a cocoon. Thankfully, her phaser, Tricorder, and kit were intact. She put them back on once she was free of that blasted suit.

She took in the vista before her, a gray rocky mountain wall to her right and open air to her left. She held up the mound of cloth that was her hazard suit and frowned. She walked away from the edge and dug her hands into the earth near a group of large rocks. When the hole was big enough for her taste, she stuffed the cloth in. She almost threw the dirt back on it, then. Neva suddenly felt her spine mirror a warp core vibrating through its tower double time.

Neva's dark eyes whipped upward and called out for MacKenzie, Zhuk, and Jettis with her comm badge, but no one answered. Not good...

Scrabbling up, she made for the tree line that thankfully appeared. Once enveloped within the trees' canopy, she flung her back against a trunk facing away from where she'd come.

Neva slid to the ground, nestling between some large roots. She tapped her comm badge again. A buzzing chirp was the answer...not good. She repeated the action to the others of her group and had the same result. She grumbled in annoyance. The comms were dead. 'Isn't that just typical?' she mused.

Neva grabbed her Tricorder in hopes of finding something familiar or at least helpful. Eyes glued to the screen, she swept it in a wide arc before her. Grunting with satisfaction, she put the instrument away and rose.

The Tricorder had shown life forms to the right of her position. Neva set herself a good pace, not fast but ground covering. As she ran, the petrichor of the area tickled her nose. It smelled similar to any other planet's ground, but this had a slight "spicy" tinge to it. She could also tell it'd rained recently, the smell stronger despite the dry day.

As she got closer to the lifeforms she'd detected, Neva suddenly stopped dead. ~~Annoyance...Curiosity...Determination...~~

Neva went into a crouch, letting underbrush cover her. She sat there confused, wondering if it was one of her crewmates. With the slowness of a turtle, she pulled out her phaser.

'By all that's Holy, let me stay safe!' she begged mutely.

Neva felt that whoever it was, they were coming closer. They were looking for someone that she hoped wasn't her. She took in a breath, letting it out slowly and carefully. She could tell whoever it was, they were male and older than her.

[Jettis Jyur]

[ Somewhere on the Landser's planet ... ]

Jettis' landing was, shockingly, not very hard. Granted, he had no idea where he was, but at least he hadn't fallen through the tree canopy or into any dangerous fauna. His isolation suit was mostly intact, with only a few tears. However, the immediate searing pain from being planetside was another issue. There was an immediate flash in his mind, alarm bells sounding as a wave of nausea crashed over him. Though he couldn't pinpoint its location, he didn't have to wonder what it originated from.

A few seconds, or maybe minutes, maybe hours passed - he wasn't sure. But eventually the Af-Kelt subsided enough for him to straighten and make an attempt to walk straight. Now, he could properly take in his surroundings, though it didn't help him at all. It was a rather generic landscape - the reddish-brown grass and small mounts of rocks gave way to a forest a few hundred meters away from him in one direction, and appeared to be more open field in the other.

Jettis didn't like the idea of an open field, especially not if any more temporal shenanigans were going to be happening. So he turned to make for the trees, partly to stay hidden while he regained his bearings, and partially in the hopes the other three would do the same. His eyes swept the area around him one last time, before he made a break for the cover.

Once within the trees, he slowly pulled out his phaser, though he couldn't exactly use it unless it was an emergency. He had no idea what the Landsers could, and could not pick up, but the knowledge someone was probably looking for them set him on edge. Eyes searching, he looked until he found a reasonably sharp rock to etch a small J into one of the trees, before proceeding deeper into the forest. Despite his best efforts to memorize his path, the terrain looked woefully alike, to where he questioned if he'd accidentally circled back a few times. However every time he stopped to check for markings on a tree, he found none, so he could only assume that he was still going in a straight path.

He saw no evidence of anyone else coming through either. He wasn't sure if that was something he should be thankful for or not, considering it meant he was nowhere near the rest of his team. However, the further he traveled into the forest, the more he could parse out from the regular din of the planet. Suddenly he stopped in his tracks as a chill ran down his spine, abruptly turning to his four o'clock and dropping down. Lifting his phaser, his eyes flickered through the area.

He couldn't see anyone, due to the thick covering of underbrush, but thankfully that hadn't dulled his senses at all. Once he realized he didn't exactly feel any ill-intentions, he slowly straightened. The presence was familiar enough, and after a few beats, he lowered his phaser. 'Don't shoot. It's me.' Though he was confident the person hiding in the brush wasn't a threat, he wasn't entirely convinced there wasn't anyone else nearby. Keeping slightly crouched now, he warily turned back toward the direction he was headed, before looking back in Neva's general direction with a small wave. 'Have you found anyone else?'