Season 17: Episode 1: Step Into My Parlor

[James Ramort]

[USS Momentary | Deck 8 | Corridors]

Kalem stepped in front of the Commander in a defensive stance as they headed toward the Bridge.

"This is the best time that I'm going to be able to do this while not in front of the others."

Kalem opened a private com line with the Commander and made sure all his other com lines were muted.

"Commander, there is something that is bugging me. It is not anything I think you are doing intentionally. My name... Sir. According to Bajoran customs, calling me Lieutenant Michael is improper. While it is my name, other Bajorans will see it as too familiar. Much like the Japanese on Earth, it is Lieutenant Kalem. I would appreciate it if you would address me as such..... Sir."

[USS Momentary | Corridors]

He froze for a second. Of course, he should have known. Of course, he surely had made a note in his files somewhere. The mistake was still unforgivable. The Lieutenant wasn't the only bajoran he knew and still.

"I have to apologize deeply. This was an oversight on my part that should not have happened. I promise you, in the future this will not repeat itself! I hope you will forgive me this mistake."

Although the helmet was masking his expression somewhat, the sudden freezing in his movements betrayed the shock this caused for Ramort.

Kalem continually scanned around while he talked. When he finished, he froze in place. Death was not a new sight for him, but not in this way. The body of a Lieutenant floated in the corridor in front of him. It was frozen and weightless because the ship had no power, but something was off. The body was desiccated.  Kalem pulled out his tricorder and ran a scan on the body.

"Sir, it looks like this body was drained of all fluids and other matter besides skin and bone. It's not due to the decompression, as there would at least be trace amounts. Sir, there is nothing left in it. I'm relaying this to the other teams as well as Discovery for comparison and analysis."

Kalem pushed several buttons on his Tricorder, dropped his scan results onto the main channel's data feed, and then unmuted the channel.

"This is Kalem. I have a body found in the corridor on the way to the bridge. It looks desiccated. I'm dropping a scan onto the main channel data feed."

The body was part of an ever-growing mystery. There were not many things that could leave a body sucked dry like this. There were some exotic weapons that used miniature transporter mechanisms, ripping parts of the body out. Since most species used some form of bodily fluids, locking on to water and similar fluids was a sure-fire way to kill a being. Such technology was outlawed in most of civilised space, and even in the uncivilised spaces, most species believed such weapons to be beyond cruel. Leaving beings partially ripped apart, suffering needlessly and not even ensuring a kill if one managed to help the victims quick enough.

And was only if he considered technological means to extract the biomaterial.

[USS Momentary | Deck 1 | Bridge]

Crossing through long dark corridors and spending far longer than he would have liked climbing Jeffreys tubes up to the topmost deck, the finally emerged through a panel from the floor before the main viewer. A giant black screen of layered panels and transparent aluminium. Normally the central piece of bridge operations, it's falling dark more than all the other stations dimming to death was a sign and a bad omen. Pushing himself through the floor completely his flashlight cast a singular cone of radiance in an otherwise black void.

There should have been emergency lights. Fluorescent stripes at the floor marking the paths between the stations and the lift. Indicaitng where emergency hatches might be found.

As the cone of light hit the seats at the heart of the room. Something strange cought his eye. A reflection that should not have been there.

Taking a closer look the shimmer revealed itself to be a rank pip. The same thing he only shortly before had pinned to his own collar. Pips were held by magnetic strips in the collar of the uniform. Only miniscule metallic threads were included in the fabric but enough to prevent any pip from slipping, even if subjected to extreme movement or forces. Dropping a pip would only occur if the owner would have been assaulted. Quite violently at that. But there was no body. No great pool of blood. Only what looked to like an imprint of faint crystals covering the seat.

"Lieutenant, please have a look at whatever this substance is. Loop the lab on Discovery back into your findings."

Making room for the Bajoran to take the rains of the matter, he went to the back of the Bridge. Dislodging a panel, he exposed the power circuits. According to the specs, there were a pair of emergency power cells supposed to be here. Meant to keep the most vital systems like life support and computer access running in case of momentary power disruptions. Connecting the power line to a manual bypass, he powered on a secondary engineering console.

If all had worked as planned, they would have had access to a console then. But things never really worked as planned. The status indicator on the cell marked it as nearly drained. Devoid of its charge only able to sustain power for a few minutes.

Using the little time he managed to squeeze out of the system, he opened the most recent logs. Only resulting in flickering images, the computer chocking on itself as the fluctuating power powered circuits on and off.

  "Ramort to Engineering, I have miniscule power but I fear it will cut out in a couple of minutes again. Is there any way you can give me more power?"

"Ramort to Soreka and T'Rea, I have restored very basic access to ship functions but I am only getting static data. Can you check on the hull sensors while you are out there?" 

[T'Rea]

Trix tapped his communicator.  "Ch'Rehllan to Bridge. Sorry to break protocol, but Lt. Hayes is busy checking our systems. You are probably aware of the sensor blackout that just happened. I have a few suggestions for further investigation. First, I recommend deploying a Class IV probe perpendicular to the ecliptic. Running broadband scans should help us to verify whether our sensors are being spoofed, with readings transmitted in directed bursts to minimize interference. Second, I suggest raising tactical alert in case something used the gap in  sensors coverage to slip onboard. Third, I'd like the away team to get some tricorder readings of the exterior plating. Comparing the molecular composition to fleet records might give us a hint as to whether we're actually dealing with our Momentary. Oh, and if it is not too much trouble, have we been able to verify whether all of the escape pods and lifeboats on the Momentary are accounted for?"

"Launch the probe." Tekin ordered, a bit softer than he expected.

With a press of a button and an imaginary inserted sound, the probe had been launched. Buck watched as the transponder blipped to life as it began its scans. "Probe's been launched, everything looks green at the moment, sir." He relayed. Had the theory changed? Was it still just the two potential species that could have wiped out the entire crew of the Momentary with very little else to show for it? Of course the sensors were blipping, there was something just off about the way that it would flicker back and seemed to drain more power than most sensors would have.

"Cap'n, you seeing the readings of the sensors currently?" Buck needed to check that it wasn't just something he was having problems with.

[Ensign Kedan]
[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge]

Reflexively, Kedan checked the same copy of the probe's feed that was visible on his own console. Everything looked as it should from his perspective as well---at least something was going as expected. "Clean launch, Ops," Kedan confirmed with a nod of approval in Buck's direction, "I recommend that we follow Ensign Ch'Rehllan's earlier advise if possible—we can use the fact that we control the probe's movements—doing a very short comparative study between the Discovery's sensor array scans of the probe vs the probe's scan of our ship should provide enough of a cross check to confirm that the ship's sensors are transmitting real data. If you think it's a good idea, sir," Kedan would defer to the Lieutenant's superior knowledge of systems security, but it had sounded like an good idea... "And after that's all cleared up maybe week can set the probe to the same kind of wide band, full field of view scanning as our sensor array for a while—see if we can get an independent reading of these null values or not."

While that was going on, another sweep of the center showed another blip of null values.  This one had moved by several degrees, but when the sensors went back to the spot, everything was normal.  The sensors were starting to require more power to maintain their strength.

Trix nodded, adding his findings to the common data feed before tapping his combadge.  "Ch'Rehllan to Kedan—check the data I just uploaded. We may be dealing with a moving 'subspace black hole'. Lt. Hayes has the rest of the lab dig into it for corroboration as we speak.  You may want to inform the away team to watch their step. They can probably use their tricorders to look for blank returns ahead of them when they are traversing the ship. We could also try to direct our probe's sensors into the general trajectory of this black hole to cover gaps in our  own sensor sweeps."

"Understood." He pulled up the file the Trix transmitted to the bridge science station but seeing a sizable plot of text, he continued speaking for before taking the time to read it.   "I'm compiling a list of requests for the away team now, and will transmit when able. Oh, and I checked your earlier question about escape pods—all such pods and lifeboats are still in their usual places on the Momentary. Whatever happened over there... there must not have been time for any kind of escape."

Not for the first time, Kedan wondered if he really ought to be the one manning the bridge in this kind emergency. Lt. Hayes with her considerable larger experience would probably be able to be doing a better job then himself, right? But then again... she could make the decision to come up and relieve him at any point, which she hadn't—at least not yet. He resolved that fretting about the topic wasn't doing anyone any good. For now, he could only trust the judgement of his superiors and try and do the best job he possibly could....

As he took another look at the sensors, waiting for even nothinger nothingness to re-appear in the nothingness of space, another concern began to gnaw at him. The sensors were pulling more and more power with each consecutive sweep for no discernable reason. Either something was pushing back. Or, more concerningly, siphoning energy off of the Discovery via their sensors emissions. Like a regular black hole, but instead of pulling in matter, it pulled in energy.
Concerned by his observations, Trix's hand briefly hovered over his combadge, before he thought better of it. He briskly walked over to Hayes, who was by now occupied moderating a discussion between T'lel and Parat about the finer points of subspace harmonics.

"Ma'am, sorry to interrupt, but we should reach out to Deck 1. Our sensors are pulling more power than usual, and I don't like the look of that given the condition of the Momentary. If this anomaly interacts with energy the way it seems to, we might just be getting the first taste of what happened to them..."

Without further comment, she held up her palm to stop the young Andorian from elaborating further before opening a channel to the bridge.  "Hayes to the bridge. Captain, we've found records indicating that the blank readings we are seeing belong to an energy absorbing anomaly dubbed a subspace black hole. We also show that our sensors are pulling increasingly more power to maintain their scans. Recommend isolating the sensor grid from the rest of the ship's power distribution and keeping a close eye on other systems for heightened power draw until we have a more definitive answer. I will report back once we have more information."

With his new resolve, Kedan had decided to try and focus on things he could do, the things he knew he was good at, instead of his anxieties. In the few moments of quiet on the bridge that had followed Trix's message to Kedan, the Benzite had finally taken the time to check the close range scans of the the Momentary to observe the finder details of the deuterium in the area immediately around the disabled ship. As a warpfield physicist he couldn't stop wondering about the trail of warp core fuel that had lead them here--was it a simple indication of a ruptured storage tank or could it give clues about what had destroyed and disabled the Momentary? But before he could come to any conclusions his work was interrupted by Lt. Hayes's call to the bridge.

Kedan's eyes widened in alarm at the senior science officer's report. This was the first indication that whatever had affected the Momentary may be starting to effect them as well, and it was not a comforting thought---after all, scans indicated that the Momentary had been drained dry of even it's emergency reserves, and now there was an unexplained power drain on the Discovery.

[Lorut Vila]

{USS Momentary|Main Engineering}

Vila's Comms badge picked up Ramort's question.

"Ramort to Engineering, I have miniscule power but I fear it will cut out in a couple of minutes again. Is there any way you can give me more power?"

Vila took a moment to think before she answered, because what she wanted to say was "you get as much power as you have. I am good but I am not a magician." Instead, she answered him cautiously.

=/\=My apologies, sir, this is the best we have for the moment, but Lt. M'Nia is working hard down here. I can come to you, though, and set up a secondary closed circuit, however.

Actually, it wasn't a bad idea, and under normal circumstances, she would just do it, but she remembered the last ghost ship and so, she was staying put. 

[Buck McNair]

[Ensign Kedan]
[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge]
Reflexively, Kedan checked the same copy of the probe's feed that was visible on his own console. Everything looked as it should from his perspective as well---at least something was going as expected. "Clean launch, Ops," Kedan confirmed with a nod of approval in Buck's direction, "I recommend that we follow Ensign Ch'Rehllan's earlier advise if possible—we can use the fact that we control the probe's movements—doing a very short comparative study between the Discovery's sensor array scans of the probe vs the probe's scan of our ship should provide enough of a cross check to confirm that the ship's sensors are transmitting real data. If you think it's a good idea, sir," Kedan would defer to the Lieutenant's superior knowledge of systems security, but it had sounded like an good idea... "And after that's all cleared up maybe week can set the probe to the same kind of wide band, full field of view scanning as our sensor array for a while—see if we can get an independent reading of these null values or not."

[USS Discovery | Bridge]

Buck nodded at the ensign's response that they had launched the probe without too much of a hitch. Buck was grateful for small mercies when it came to something being functional, whether it was on the ship or elsewhere. He knew the ensign was referring to Ch'Rehllan's earlier comment about running broadband scans which could help identify the spoofing of their own sensors. He looked over at the captain, who had ultimately the final say in inputting and diverting power on tasks that might end up hindering the ship's functioning abiliities. Though what had been shown next on the data feed only made his skin crawl and his whole body to momentarily freeze as his brain caught up in comprehension of what they were witnessing.

Then it had gotten worse from there.

They were apparently dealing with a subspace black hole which didn't just and wasn't just affecting the Momentary but the Discovery now too as the readings spiked briefly. Buck pulled up the probe, checking through its readings and it seemed to run in line with what the younger ensign was saying about the power useage. "Well I'll be damned." He rubbed his chin as he isolated the probe's power the best he could and rerouted non-essential functions, increasing the power to the essential functions of the ship by a percentage. "Probe's sensor grid has been isolated the best we can do from the power grid, however had to do some re-jigging to get the power grid back to an acceptable standard, for now some non-essential functions of the ship have been reduced."

[Kalem Michael]

[USS Momentary | Deck 1 | Bridge]

Crossing through long dark corridors and spending far longer than he would have liked climbing Jeffreys tubes up to the topmost deck, the finally emerged through a panel from the floor before the main viewer. A giant black screen of layered panels and transparent aluminium. Normally the central piece of bridge operations, it's falling dark more than all the other stations dimming to death was a sign and a bad omen. Pushing himself through the floor completely his flashlight cast a singular cone of radiance in an otherwise black void.

There should have been emergency lights. Fluorescent stripes on the floor should have marked the paths between the stations and the lift, indicating where emergency hatches might be found.

As the cone of light hit the seats at the heart of the room, something strange caught his eye—a reflection that should not have been there.

Taking a closer look the shimmer revealed itself to be a rank pip. The same thing he had only shortly before pinned to his own collar. Pips were held by magnetic strips in the collar of the uniform. Only minuscule metallic threads were included in the fabric, but enough to prevent any pip from slipping, even if subjected to extreme movement or forces. Dropping a pip would only occur if the owner would have been assaulted. Quite violently at that. But there was no body. No great pool of blood. Only what looked like an imprint of faint crystals covered the seat.

"Lieutenant, please have a look at whatever this substance is. Loop the lab on Discovery back into your findings."

Making room for the Bajoran to take the reins of the matter, he went to the back of the Bridge. Dislodging a panel, he exposed the power circuits. According to the specs, there were a pair of emergency power cells supposed to be here. Meant to keep the most vital systems like life support and computer access running in case of momentary power disruptions. Connecting the power line to a manual bypass, he powered on a secondary engineering console.

If everything had worked as planned, they would have had access to a console then. But things never really worked as planned. The status indicator on the cell marked it as nearly drained. Devoid of its charge only able to sustain power for a few minutes.

He opened the most recent logs using the little time he managed to squeeze out of the system. This only resulted in flickering images, and the computer choked on itself as the fluctuating power turned the circuits on and off.

  "Ramort to Engineering, I have minuscule power, but I fear it will cut out in a couple of minutes again. Is there any way you can give me more power?"

"Ramort to Soreka and T'Rea, I have restored very basic access to ship functions but I am only getting static data. Can you check on the hull sensors while you are out there?" 

[USS Momentary | Deck 1 | Bridge]

Kalem stepped toward the command chair in the center and pulled out his tricorder. he started scanning the crystalized substance on the chair. The return from the scan took his breath away. He could hardly breathe even though he knew that the suit he was wearing was functioning properly. He slowly calmed and finished the scan when an audible warning came from his suit computer.

Warning suit power level at 50%

Kalem stepped back rapidly from the command chair.

"SIR...

Kalem stopped and recomposed himself. He was in no immediate danger, so he looked at his power level. He only had 49.8% remaining. He did a quick calculation. They had been on board the Momentary for about 30 minutes; he should have almost 90% power. Instead he only had just shy of 50%. Where had the rest gone?

"The substance appears to devour my scans. I can't get anything from the center. However, I see traces of multiple sets of DNA around the edges of the ... Anomaly... Comparing it to the data we were given it appears to match several different members of the crew. Also, I must report that it appears to drain power from external sources. My power cells currently read 49.8%. I am reading that there is no malfunction in the suit systems. I am dropping my scan results onto the data feed. I'm also requesting a remote check of my suits systems to confirm that my readouts are displaying correctly."

[T'Rea]

[USS Momentary | Deck 1 | Bridge]

If all had worked as planned, they would have had access to a console then. But things never really worked as planned. The status indicator on the cell marked it as nearly drained. Devoid of its charge only able to sustain power for a few minutes.

Using the little time he managed to squeeze out of the system, he opened the most recent logs. Only resulting in flickering images, the computer chocking on itself as the fluctuating power powered circuits on and off.
  "Ramort to Engineering, I have miniscule power but I fear it will cut out in a couple of minutes again. Is there any way you can give me more power?"

"Ramort to Soreka and T'Rea, I have restored very basic access to ship functions but I am only getting static data. Can you check on the hull sensors while you are out there?" 

[U.S.S. Momentary | Deck 8 | Corridor]

"Acknowledged, sir, we'll report back when we have something," T'Rea replied to the Commander's request as she followed Soreka down the hall, letting him check for any dangers. As they moved she used her tricorder to scan for any evidence of power within ship systems or any biological matter, but the range was limited inside of a ship of the Momentary's design, and it was actually her eyes that gave the first evidence of something out of the ordinary. "Lt. Soreka, look at these marks," she ran her hand over a dark mark against the wall of the corridor, "They're burn or a scorch of some kind." She tried to make sense of the pattern, "Do you think it could be from a weapon, or caused by some other kind of fire or heat exposure?"

But there wasn't time to linger. After a few moments of study they decided to move on. As the walked, T'Rea reported in on what little they'd seen so far. "This is T'Rea, Lt. Soreka and I are seeing burn marks on Deck 8" she reported across the open channel, "Discovery, you asked about running console panels. I haven't seen anything with power since we arrived--console panels included."

To her surprise, this last statement earned her a prompt reply, "Kedan to T'Rea, that's all received. I also have a few low priority requests here from the rest of the science department, for when and if you find the time. We'd like to have some tricorder readings of the Momentary's exterior hull to compare against 'Fleet records, and we'd like you to keep an eye out for any instances of null returns anywhere. If you see any, please report them immediately.

T'Rea raised an eyebrow at this final request (even as she set her tricorder to give an auditory alert in the case of any such strange readings) but she nodded, "Understood, Ensign. I'm tying in my tricorder feed my comm's secondary frequency now, so you have have direct access to what I'm seeing here." But she didn't say anything further because the had rounded a bend and now the hull breach was visible, all jagged edges and the dark maw of open space beyond it, only broken by the scattering of debris floating in and about it.

She ran a quick scan of the structural integrity of the decking in front of them, and when it seemed sufficient to support their weight she gave an approving gesture to Soreka and began to lead the way this time. The continued all the way until the decking fell away to nothingness--but getting from an internal corridor out to the external hull itself still wouldn't be trivial--there was a jagged mess of what had once been ducts for wiring and air circulation, and various structural supports still in their path to the outer hull. T'Rea looked uncertainly to the security officer. "Maybe we should find a good anchor point a bit back in the hall and tether ourselves to that instead of just relying on our mag boots, what do you think?" she asked, the faintest hint of anxiety audible in her voice. After all, magboots were great at keeping one anchored, but that wouldn't do much good if the thing they were anchored to broke off from the ship and started drifting away...

[M'Nia]

{USS Momentary|Main Engineering}

Vila's Comms badge picked up Ramort's question.

Vila took a moment to think before she answered, because what she wanted to say was "you get as much power as you have. I am good but I am not a magician." Instead, she answered him cautiously.

=/\=My apologies, sir, this is the best we have for the moment, but Lt. M'Nia is working hard down here. I can come to you, though, and set up a secondary closed circuit, however.

Actually, it wasn't a bad idea, and under normal circumstances, she would just do it, but she remembered the last ghost ship and so, she was staying put.

"With due respect commander, we're doing everything we can. It's going to take time. Looks like this one did use dilithium. Crystals are drained but I think I can reenergize them. However it will take time and not sure about the circuitry .I want to check that out and make sure it can hold it ok. I might be able to rig up something from auxilary power. won't give us warp drive but life support and maybe some other stuff. Like maybe food replicators." M'nia said.

[Tekin Nevir]

[USS Discovery | Deck 10 | Science Lab 3]

Trix's antennae straightened as his console beeped, signaling a long-awaited result from his database search. He had almost started to think the search parameters were too broad, that he was chasing ghosts. But here it was—something tangible, or rather intangible.

At first glance, it looked like just another entry in a sea of anomaly reports, but something captured his attention. An energy absorbing anomaly. No sensor readings. An old report from a Romulan science vessel, coincidentally obtained during the brief alliance between the Federation and the Empire during the Dominion War. A kernel of sand in a desert sized data dump. Then again, Trix mused, was anything ever really a coincidence with Romulans? That would be like assuming a Ferengi misplaced a bar of latinum—technically possible, but highly unlikely.

The Romulans had dubbed the phenomenon a 'subspace black hole', though the term was more of a best-guess translation than an accurate description. According to the report, the anomaly had seemingly dissipated after the Romulan ship launched a probe into it. Trix frowned. Or had it?

If the recent sensor readings of the Discovery were anything to go by, maybe the Romulans hadn't actually seen the anomaly vanish. Maybe they had just lost track of it before it reappeared somewhere else. That would explain the newest sensor non-blip—the null values appearing in a slightly different position before disappearing again. A physical phenomenon like this shouldn't be able to move on its own accord, or phase in and out of existance. Then again, what was normal about an energy and signal devouring subspace black hole anyway?

Whatever it was, it was better than being eaten alive by space spiders. Trix shuddered involuntarily at the thought, shooting another quick glance upward—just in case. Or so he told himself. "Subspace anomalies I can deal with. But interstallar crew eating spiders? No, thank you."

He quickly refined his search to chase down more records. Three other potential encounters cropped up over the last century. In two instances, the anomaly had simply vanished before further analysis could be completed. But in the third instance... the investigating ship had been lost. Trix tapped his antennae in contemplation while he tasked the computer with finding whatever information existed on that ill-fated vessel, the SS Weir, cross-referencing any sensor logs that might remain, salvage records from the vicinity around the time of disappearance, insurance claims, anything really.

While the search was running, Trix couldn't help but wonder how the Momentary had encountered this same phenomenon. Had it simply flown into one of these subspace black holes out of sheer bad luck? It would not immediately explain the hull breach, or the remaining laundry list of oddities about the Momentary's current state, but at least the completely depleted energy levels could be accounted for. If so, was there a way to predict when and where the subspace black hole would reappear?

Shaking off his unease, he turned to Lt. Hayes, explaining his findings. Having heard Trix's theories, Hayes nodded sharply. "We need to inform the rest of the team. I will get them up to speed on this and coordinate task. You contact Kedan, make sure he sees this."

Trix nodded, adding his findings to the common data feed before tapping his combadge.  "Ch'Rehllan to Kedan—check the data I just uploaded. We may be dealing with a moving 'subspace black hole'. Lt. Hayes has the rest of the lab dig into it for corroboration as we speak.  You may want to inform the away team to watch their step. They can probably use their tricorders to look for blank returns ahead of them when they are traversing the ship. We could also try to direct our probe's sensors into the general trajectory of this black hole to cover gaps in our  own sensor sweeps."

As he took another look at the sensors, waiting for even nothinger nothingness to re-appear in the nothingness of space, another concern began to gnaw at him. The sensors were pulling more and more power with each consecutive sweep for no discernable reason. Either something was pushing back. Or, more concerningly, siphoning energy off of the Discovery via their sensors emissions. Like a regular black hole, but instead of pulling in matter, it pulled in energy.

Concerned by his observations, Trix's hand briefly hovered over his combadge, before he thought better of it. He briskly walked over to Hayes, who was by now occupied moderating a discussion between T'lel and Parat about the finer points of subspace harmonics. "Ma'am, sorry to interrupt, but we should reach out to Deck 1. Our sensors are pulling more power than usual, and I don't like the look of that given the condition of the Momentary. If this anomaly interacts with energy the way it seems to, we might just be getting the first taste of what happened to them..."

Without further comment, she held up her palm to stop the young Andorian from elaborating further before opening a channel to the bridge.  "Hayes to the bridge. Captain, we've found records indicating that the blank readings we are seeing belong to an energy absorbing anomaly dubbed a subspace black hole. We also show that our sensors are pulling increasingly more power to maintain their scans. Recommend isolating the sensor grid from the rest of the ship's power distribution and keeping a close eye on other systems for heightened power draw until we have a more definitive answer. I will report back once we have more information."

As Trix listened to Lt. Hayes finishing her report, his mind kept circling back to the SS Weir. He glared at his computer console, with the nonsensical notion that he could simply will it to produce more information for him faster that way.

[Ensign Kedan]
[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge]

Reflexively, Kedan checked the same copy of the probe's feed that was visible on his own console. Everything looked as it should from his perspective as well---at least something was going as expected. "Clean launch, Ops," Kedan confirmed with a nod of approval in Buck's direction, "I recommend that we follow Ensign Ch'Rehllan's earlier advise if possible—we can use the fact that we control the probe's movements—doing a very short comparative study between the Discovery's sensor array scans of the probe vs the probe's scan of our ship should provide enough of a cross check to confirm that the ship's sensors are transmitting real data. If you think it's a good idea, sir," Kedan would defer to the Lieutenant's superior knowledge of systems security, but it had sounded like an good idea... "And after that's all cleared up maybe week can set the probe to the same kind of wide band, full field of view scanning as our sensor array for a while—see if we can get an independent reading of these null values or not."

"Understood." He pulled up the file the Trix transmitted to the bridge science station but seeing a sizable plot of text, he continued speaking for before taking the time to read it.   "I'm compiling a list of requests for the away team now, and will transmit when able. Oh, and I checked your earlier question about escape pods—all such pods and lifeboats are still in their usual places on the Momentary. Whatever happened over there... there must not have been time for any kind of escape."

Not for the first time, Kedan wondered if he really ought to be the one manning the bridge in this kind emergency. Lt. Hayes with her considerable larger experience would probably be able to be doing a better job then himself, right? But then again... she could make the decision to come up and relieve him at any point, which she hadn't—at least not yet. He resolved that fretting about the topic wasn't doing anyone any good. For now, he could only trust the judgement of his superiors and try and do the best job he possibly could....

With his new resolve, Kedan had decided to try and focus on things he could do, the things he knew he was good at, instead of his anxieties. In the few moments of quiet on the bridge that had followed Trix's message to Kedan, the Benzite had finally taken the time to check the close range scans of the the Momentary to observe the finder details of the deuterium in the area immediately around the disabled ship. As a warpfield physicist he couldn't stop wondering about the trail of warp core fuel that had lead them here--was it a simple indication of a ruptured storage tank or could it give clues about what had destroyed and disabled the Momentary? But before he could come to any conclusions his work was interrupted by Lt. Hayes's call to the bridge.

Kedan's eyes widened in alarm at the senior science officer's report. This was the first indication that whatever had affected the Momentary may be starting to effect them as well, and it was not a comforting thought---after all, scans indicated that the Momentary had been drained dry of even it's emergency reserves, and now there was an unexplained power drain on the Discovery.

[USS Discovery | Bridge]

Buck nodded at the ensign's response that they had launched the probe without too much of a hitch. Buck was grateful for small mercies when it came to something being functional, whether it was on the ship or elsewhere. He knew the ensign was referring to Ch'Rehllan's earlier comment about running broadband scans which could help identify the spoofing of their own sensors. He looked over at the captain, who had ultimately the final say in inputting and diverting power on tasks that might end up hindering the ship's functioning abiliities. Though what had been shown next on the data feed only made his skin crawl and his whole body to momentarily freeze as his brain caught up in comprehension of what they were witnessing.

Then it had gotten worse from there.

They were apparently dealing with a subspace black hole which didn't just and wasn't just affecting the Momentary but the Discovery now too as the readings spiked briefly. Buck pulled up the probe, checking through its readings and it seemed to run in line with what the younger ensign was saying about the power useage. "Well I'll be damned." He rubbed his chin as he isolated the probe's power the best he could and rerouted non-essential functions, increasing the power to the essential functions of the ship by a percentage. "Probe's sensor grid has been isolated the best we can do from the power grid, however had to do some re-jigging to get the power grid back to an acceptable standard, for now some non-essential functions of the ship have been reduced."

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

The Captain took his seat, looking down at the console on his chair while he watched the data read out.  There were alerts coming from the sensors that they required a diagnostic, due to power use. The incoming data was interesting.  There were pockets of null values from both the ship's sensors and the probe, though there was a noticeable difference in direction, indicating that theses spots of nothingness were at points and not just directions.

There was also a small yet noticeable power drain on the probe.

Nevir listened as well to the away team's progress, and the main issue they had was trying to get power to start up anything.  All of their standard engineering practices involved backup and backups to the backups. 25th century batteries to help jump start a ship dead in the water. Prioritized power isolation to prevent the loss of essential systems like life support.  But what does one do when even the backups are dead, and the batteries are empty?  An impossible situation that would have been scoffed at Starfleet Academy was now very real and affecting the USS Momentary.

Bridge to Sickbay

"Shickbay here, its Sluchaynyy"

"Have you been able to get anything from the scans?"

"Eh, would be much easier if you bring poor boy here for us to check. But preliminary scans show... nothing. Absolutely nothing. No fluids, no neurons, no brain activity at all. Nichego. But we need body here, in quarantine, for full assessment. No other way."

The Captain closed the channel and then stood up.

"Discovery to away team; is it safe enough to beam that body you found to the ship, and have you confirmed that all power is drained?  We can set up a power transfer from Discovery-"

The Captain was interrupted as there was a shudder in the ship.  Minor but noticeable.  However, it was in Engineering where the shudder was more important.  Klaxons in engineering sounded as power disruptions affected the antimatter containment fields.  They were suddenly in danger of collapse; the warp core was at risk unless it was shut down.  At the same time, it was noted by the computer that even if the warp core was fully ready, they could no longer form a warp bubble.  Warp drive was not currently possible.

"Report!"

[Lorut Vila]

{USS Momentary| Engineering-Bridge}

The stupid helmet on her suit was really making this more difficult than it needed to be. With an irritated sigh, she tugged off the stupid thing, and put it next to her. There, much better. She shook her head a little so her hair could settle off of her face, and then she stood up.

"I'll go get the Commander set up," she said. She took the circuit with her; the systems would hold long enough for her to make it to the Bridge. At least, she was 99% certain. In her other hand was her phaser. She still couldn't carry her Bajoran one, though she'd gotten the Fleet to at least let her use it for battle simulations. Good enough.

She made her way carefully and cautiously to the Bridge. She was already cautious-always alert to danger, but now, she also had to worry about preternatural anamolies. Maybe. Or something. She kind of preferred the predictability of the Cardassians-she hated those bastards, but at least they were easy to beat.

Finally, she was on the Bridge.

"Christ, Ramort, you need to calm down. People are going to think we've switched bodies. Here, hold this," the Bajoran said, handing him the circuit before stepping in front of him to work the console. "It's a closed circuit energy producer. A battery, your people call them," she said, and then, she took the circuit from him, snipped a wire, reattached it to a wire in the console cover she'd pried off, and started it up again. Soon, the whole bridge hummed to life.

"There," she said. "Now, Lt. M'nia is trying to recharge the crystals," she said, "But it'll take time. In the meantime, this is the best idea I have. The main systems are up, but nothing else. I can set these up around the ship, but it'll take me a bit. That'll give us extra power until M'Nia and what's his face are done recharging the crystals or whatever they do; my late husband was an Engineer but I stopped listening about ten years ago," she said.

They were interrupted by Tekin's comms.

Discovery to away team; is it safe enough to beam that body you found to the ship, and have you confirmed that all power is drained?  We can set up a power transfer from Discovery-

Vila looked at Ramort. "Sir, we're at barely 20% power. That body needs to stay here for now...best I can do is attempt to awaken the EMH," she offered. "We're using...well. Batteries, basically. As soon as Engineering has the crystals ready, we'll ship him right over," she said. She was comfortable with bodies around-but understood that no one else was. "Actually, sir, sending extra power would be great, and the EMH on a portable transmitter if possible," she said. "Maybe the ESH, too, if we have one," she suggested. Did the Discovery even have an emergency science hologram? They were rare but it WAS old enough.

She looked at Ramort and smiled before standing to move on to the next station to build more batteries. "Head up. If they haven't fired me yet, you're fine," she said, and then left, heading for the general replicator she'd passed on the way in. 

[TrikNarChRehllan]

"The substance appears to devour my scans. I can't get anything from the center. However, I see traces of multiple sets of DNA around the edges of the ... Anomaly... Comparing it to the data we were given it appears to match several different members of the crew. Also, I must report that it appears to drain power from external sources. My power cells currently read 49.8%. I am reading that there is no malfunction in the suit systems. I am dropping my scan results onto the data feed. I'm also requesting a remote check of my suits systems to confirm that my readouts are displaying correctly."

[USS Discovery | Deck 10 | Science Lab 3]

Trix leaned over Vinod Rajagopalan's workstation, his antennae angling forward as the geologist pulled up the latest data on the crystalline remains aboard the Momentary. The sensor readings remained maddeningly inconclusive, but Vinod pointed at a magnified optical scan with a look of disbelief.

"Now it's my turn to feel like I'm seeing things," Vinod muttered. "Some of these crystals—at least some—appear to be graphite."

Trix felt a cold wave of realization surge down his spine. Graphite. Carbon. Carbon-based life.

He quickly cross-referenced the DNA data Kalem had picked up from the edges of the anomaly. The results were unmistakable: multiple sets of DNA from different species, all matching crew members from the last known roster of officers of the Momentary.

His stomach turned. "That's..."

Vinod gave him a grim nod, spelling out the unthinkable through his bushy beard. "If this stuff is graphite, it's most likely the compressed and crystallized remains of the Momentary's crew."

Having added the information to the ship's data feed, they quickly waved over Lt. Hayes and showed her their latest finding. Her complexion several shades paler than when she approached the pair of junior scientists, she tapped her combadge.  "Science to Medical. The crystalline substance on the Momentary isn't just some random mineral deposit. At least part of it is graphite, which strongly suggests it's the remnants of organic matter. The DNA scans back that up. We're looking at what's left of the bridge crew, or at least some... leftovers."

While he listened to the call to the bridge, almost absentmindedly swiping through Lt. Kalem's suit diagnostics he noticed something beyond the suddenly drained suit power.

"He's... dehydrated?" Trix exhaled sharply. "The power drain, the dehydration—they're both most likely linked to proximity to the crystallized remains."

He opened his own channel.  "Ch'Rehllan to Ops—Kalem's readings are showing spontaneous dehydration on top of the suit's power loss. We believe both are connected to the crystallized remains on the Momentary. If this stuff is draining energy and fluids, the away team needs to stay away from those cryistals and keep an eye on their suits' readouts. Sending you the data now."

Before anyone could process what that meant, the ship shuddered violently.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]
The Captain was interrupted as there was a shudder in the ship.  Minor but noticeable.  However, it was in Engineering where the shudder was more important.

Overhead lights flickered for a brief moment before stabilizing. Trix's hands clenched into fists as his stomach churned, lingering in freefall even after the room had steadied.

Lt. Hayes' voice cut through the murmurs of concern in the lab. "Alright, everybody, emergency data preservation! Save your work to the core and download everything to your PADDS! If the power goes, we need to keep working."

The practiced exasperation of her tone reminded Trix of a fellow human cadet from the Academy, Carl "CJ" Johnson, who's voice always carried an air of fatalistic determination when things went sideways. He vividly remembered a training exercise gone wrong, where CJ had sighed, 'Here we go again,' and calmly organized the team while the rest of them panicked. That same energy was in Hayes' voice now, a grim acceptance of chaos as part of her life among the stars.

While Trix followed the protocol, he was simultaneously terrified and amazed at how routine this seemed to the others. It was as if they were used to doing this twice a week.

As he worked, contemplating the increased power draw of the sensors a thought hit him. What if this latched onto power emissions? What if their sensor readings made them the target? What if their curiosity attracted this... whatever this was? Like moths to a flame... He paused in his motions. It just might work. Not wanting to disturb Lt. Hayes as she oversaw the data preservation, Trix hastily shot a message to the science duty officer on the bridge, outlining his idea.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

Ensign Kedan's brow furrowed as he absorbed the information from both Trix and his own data streams. He had been analyzing the sensor blips and their impact on the ship's systems, his years of studying warp-field physics failing to even fundamentally make sense of what was happening around them. No—happening to them. The situation reminded him of a quote he once read as part of his intercultural training before attending the academy. 'When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.' But what if the truth itself was unraveling? At least the input from the science lab was something to work with. The idea he had received from science was radical, bordering on the ludicrous. But it was better than nothing.

Normally he would have waited for the Captain to receive the report from engineering, but apparently they were too busy finding out themselves what was happening to the systems under their care. Considering this an emergency that allowed for deviation from protocol he addressed the Captain.

"Sir, I believe normal space-time itself is being disrupted around us. A warp field requires precise manipulation of space-time curvature. If something is preventing us from forming a warp bubble—whether intrinsic to this region of space or caused by subspace black holes—then we could be dealing with a localized subversion of the fundamental laws of physics."

In an attempt to calm his nerves before coming to the proposal science had cooked up, Kedan inhaled deeply through his respirator before continuing. "Lt. Hayes' team suspects our active scans and energy emissions might be attracting this phenomenon. They recommend firing a slow moving high-yield photon torpedo into deep space as a decoy while simultaneously cutting active sensors and reducing our emissions profile. Lay low and rely on the probe's readings while the torpedo draws away whatever is affecting us."

[Lorut Vila]

{USS Momentary|Bridge and Corridors}

When Vila was done setting up the Commander, she moved on to the next task. She heard Kalem's suit beeping. What was HAPPENING up here?

She stopped next to him, hooking him up to the closed circuit battery that she'd used to fire up Ramort's computer. "Life support is up. You can take it off soon anyway," she said. "Until it goes again," she said, a hint of exasperation in her voice.

"Commander, I am going to fire up the Ops console," she said. "And I'll coordinate with McNair on the Disovery; he can send me scans," she said.

She sat down, and plugged the computer into the circuit via the dongle she'd found in her pockets. The Bajoran carried a lot of technology supplies on her person at all times-you never knew when you need an emergency bomb built or something. After a moment, the computer hummed to life. She sent a quick comms to the Discovery.

McNair...can we share a screen? I am going to attempt to hack in and get whatever logs I can, and meanwhile, I need you to look for anything of use, but also any kind of counterattacks or viruses or something," she said. 

[T'Rea]

They continued all the way until the decking fell away to nothingness--but getting from an internal corridor out to the external hull itself still wouldn't be trivial--there was a jagged mess of what had once been ducts for wiring and air circulation, and various structural supports still in their path to the outer hull. T'Rea looked uncertainly to the security officer. "Maybe we should find a good anchor point a bit back in the hall and tether ourselves to that instead of just relying on our mag boots, what do you think?" she asked, the faintest hint of anxiety audible in her voice. After all, magboots were great at keeping one anchored, but that wouldn't do much good if the thing they were anchored to broke off from the ship and started drifting away...

[USS Momentary | Deck 8 | Hull breech]

It had taken a bit of time, but in the end they had used the harness and retractable tethers built into their environmental suits to anchor themselves to a tie down ring at the mouth of an access hatch several meters back in the corridor. T'Rea temporarily deactivated her mag boots after that and let herself experience the weightlessness properly as she propelled herself down the hall and carefully over the debris. She pulled herself out and around the opening until she had her feet again the external hull and T'Rea remagnatized her boots.

As luck would have it the first thing she noticed once she'd stabilized herself was the Momentary's forward sensor array. They were on the opposite side of the giant gash of the hull breech, but at enough distance to it that they were still fully intact. She pointed her tricorder in the array's direction "T'Rea to Commander Ramort. Lt. Soreka and I have the sensor array in sight. It appears mostly intact, but there's no trace of any power to them." At least that was one thing that had been consistent in the Momentary's readings since the beginning. No power anywhere...

That report made, she took a few moments to take in the state of the hull breech from her new vantage point—truly up close and personal. The damage pattern was difficult to interpret—she considered if perhaps an impact with a sizable foreign body had caused the stress point, resulting in a depressurization that had flung parts of the ship far away from the primary wreckage, but that was little more wild speculation. The only thing she could be sure of was that several hull plates were missing entirely. Which left the remaining hull plates under her feet as her next source of possible information...

She knelt down to run one gloved hand over the damaged hull plate—it was rough where should would have expected it to be smooth--and used the other to scan for its molecular composition. It didn't seem to match standard Starfleet material choices at first glance, but she didn't have the time for a proper analysis here or now—she'd have to assume that that Kedan and the rest of the science department would be able to make something from the data feed her tricorder was supplying to her comm link.

She moved forward a few more careful steps to the nearest bit of 'netting'—though it didn't really look like a web or a net from close up. It was, however, not just a simple discoloration of the hull. It was a different material seemingly deposited on top of the hull and at least a couple centimeters thick. Another scan with her tricorder revealed the same confusing (and frustrating) jumble of organic matter readings as the Discovery's sensor array had given, and she pursed her lips to return the tricorder to her belt with the scanner still on and tugged free the stasis kit from it's place slung over her back. She had to be careful now not to lose any critical components as she opened the kit, but she managed well enough, magnetizing the magnetic clamp on the stasis chamber itself to the deck nearby and taking a laser scalpel in hand to try and carefully break off a piece of the webbing, only.... T'Rea startled as the tool sputtered in her hand and died and before she could fully process that the power supply inside the scalpel was dead her tricorder also gave an unexpected ping. 'Warning, anomalous power drain detected. Please check levels and consider taking steps to conserve power,' the handheld device warned her.

T'Rea felt her first real burst of alarm, but forced a steadying breath before tapping her comm,   "Away team, Discovery, this is T'Rea. I'm on the Momentary's exterior hull trying to procure and webbing sample, but my laser scalp lost power after only a few seconds and my tricorder is experiencing a power drain at an exceptional rate that I can't explain." Her tone of voice remained level, but from a Vulcan perspective the report was a clear cry for help or instruction. In other words: now what?

[TrikNarChRehllan]

[USS Discovery | Deck 10 | Science Lab 3]

Trix had barely begun sorting through the incoming data when Lt. Hayes sighed and pushed away from her console. "I'm being summoned to Lab 1 to settle an argument over whose analysis is more crucial right now," she announced. "This is why I decided not to have kids." She shot Trix a pointed look. "You're the only one not actively doing any actual science, so congratulations—you're in charge until I get back." Then, her voice loud enough to be heard by the others "Ensign Ch'Rehllan is in charge. Try not to break anything without me."

Trix gave his superior officer and fellow sociologist a mock salute. "Honored, ma'am. I now see why they put us in charge down here."

Hayes snorted with a knowing smirk before striding out, leaving Trix to stare at the lab's command interface. In charge. His antennae curled inwards. He had wanted a chance to prove himself. But like this? The weight of responsibility settled on his shoulders, but he pushed the uncertainty aside. Now wasn't the time for doubt.

Then he took a breath. Work the problem. One step at a time.

Resolving that more information was better than less, he patched himself into the Away Team's communication stream just in time to hear the latest development.

[USS Momentary | Deck 8 | Hull breech]
T'Rea felt her first real burst of alarm, but forced a steadying breath before tapping her comm,   "Away team, Discovery, this is T'Rea. I'm on the Momentary's exterior hull trying to procure and webbing sample, but my laser scalp lost power after only a few seconds and my tricorder is experiencing a power drain at an exceptional rate that I can't explain." Her tone of voice remained level, but from a Vulcan perspective the report was a clear cry for help or instruction. In other words: now what?

Before Trix could even fully process the information, Crewman M'ura walked over to Trix, his fur bristling like he had stood to close to a plasma conduit, eyes wide with what he recognized as barely restrained panic. The Caitian thrust a PADD into Trix's hands, its display filled with esoteric molecular data that meant absolutely nothing to the Andorian at first, second or third glance. "We've analyzed the hull composition from the samples sent by the Away Team. It's... impossible."

Trix stiffened. "Define impossible, M'ura."

"Well, sir, the plating's atomic structure is compromised on a fundamental level that I have never seen before. Electrons from orbitals beneath the valence shell have been stripped away. That shouldn't be possible without collapsing the atomic bonds completely—but instead, the hull is still mostly intact. Unstable, though. Honestly, I'm surprised the hull hasn't crumbled to dust already. The plates could degrade further at any moment. And that means whatever T'Rea is standing on—"

"—Could literally disintegrate beneath her," Trix finished, already feeling his stomach sink. He briefly wondered whether anything would go their way today before pulling himself together again. Work. The. Problem. "Understood. Tag that data and add it to the main data stream. Oh, and flag it for Kedan's attention while you're at it. At least we know this is the real Momentary—just not for how much longer."

Trix stared at the engineering drawing on M'ura's PADD, and another idea sparked in his mind. He had hated every idea he'd had in the last two hours—but he had to follow up on it. Looking at the drawing next to an image of the Momentary's wreck, he realized something about the net pattern of organic material.

It wasn't a net. It was a network.

His eyes widened as realization struck. The deposits followed the ship's major power distribution lines—but on the outside of the hull, like someone had painted them on crudely onto a scale model to show the flow of energy throughout the ship to a child. The substance was clearly draining energy from it's surroundings, but was it what had actually fed off the ship's infrastructure?

No, he resolved. Even with the alarming rate that these deposits could drain suits and scalpels, this couldn't have been what had bled dry the Momentary's massive power reserves. Whatever happened, these deposits were simply part of the aftermath.

He quickly tapped his combadge. "Ch'Rehllan to Ops. I believe this net is not just spread across the hull arbitrarily—rather, it appears to follow the Momentary's main power distribution system. It is just a theory, but you have a better grasp of the power grid. Can you confirm whether this makes sense on a technical level?"

—

[Ensign Kedan]

[USS Discovery - Main Bridge]

Ensign Kedan's respirator hissed faintly as he processed the incoming data. He turned to Lt. Ruiz at Tactical. "Lieutenant, can we focus a precise phaser beam to cut out a section of the anomaly for the Away Team? If we can isolate a piece without endangering our people, we might be able to help them out."

Ruiz nodded, already bringing up targeting parameters, her fingers flying across the console. "Let me run a simulation. We'll need to modulate the beam to avoid completely vaporizing it—or T'Rea for that matter."

Kedan opened a channel.  "Discovery to T'Rea. We're looking into cutting out a sample for you—with our main phaser array. In the meantime, I recommend you take a few steps back from the deposit—we have seen a tiny bit of similar material on the bridge rapidly drain Lt. Kalem's suit power. Oh, and the lab suggests you really watch your step—those hull plates are barely holding together on a chemical level and could turn to dust under your feet at any moment."

[Tekin Nevir]

[USS Discovery - Deck 10 - Main Engineering]

Lieutenant JG T'Farr

Alarms sounded through main engineering and the tell tale sounds of the warp core failing was flooding the room.  Of course, T'Farr kept her calm and almost dispassionate demeanor as a Vulcan.  With both the acting Chief Engineer and the second-in-command on the away team, she naturally took charge.  Which meant she was the one to immediately take action.

"Begin safety shutdown.  Secure the anti-matter; if we can't keept it contained we'll need to purge it."

"Engineering to Bridge - something happened to the anti-matter containment field, we're in danger of a cascade failure in the warp systems if we can't solve it."

On the Bridge, the Captain tensed, looking around at the officers with him.

"Can you define 'something'?"

T'Farr mentally chastised herself.  Too much time with officers who were quick to respond vaguely in order to speak quickly.

"We have a power disruption in the containment fields; power relays aren't working. I'm attempting to bypass them but the power we send to the warp systems is degrading; we can't seem to restore the power. Containment fields are at 30% and dropping fast."

On the Bridge, Nevir turned to Kedan, the look on his face said it all.  He was starting to understand what happened to the Momentary, and that it wasn't just abandoned.

"Shut it down, secure all power reserves and prioritize defensive systems."

T'Farr confirmed and immediately ran to the main control panel for the warp core, shouting orders to begin the shutdown sequence.  After some time, the swirl of the warp core slowed and faded out, leaving a dark pillar where the most dangerous but powerful reactor should be.  Elsewhere, orders were relayed and the smaller alpha hull warp engine was also shut down. Then the anti-matter was flooded into the diamagnetic emergency containers, with the excess rejected.  It was the last thing any engineer wanted to do; it would mean that the anti-matter would need to be regenerated and that took time and energy.  But it was either that, or watch helplessly as the anti-matter started touching the ship and blowing it up.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

With the channel closed, there was fear in the Captain.  He already lose his friend and an entire crew to this, and now they might to finding out first hand what happened.

"RED ALERT! Prepare torpedoes and strengthen the shields. Secure all relays." he ordered, taking his chair again, not even realizing he was standing up again.

"Discovery to away team; we can't divert power to restore the Momentary.  We just lost warp power ourselves.  We might not be alone out here, get to safety and prepare to evacuate if necessary."

The sensors went off, indicating a tear in space.  A subspace tear.  With a null value reading on the sensors.  But this time it wasn't just some sort of subspace black hole, something was coming out. A large angular ship that seemed to be composed of a bio-organic material.  The computer saw only one similarity; it was similar to the material found on the Momentary.

It seemed to be pretty clear now that the ship was attacked.  And now the attackers returned; either to take the rest of the ship, or more chillingly, because they knew there would be another ship.  Bait.

[Lorut Vila]

{USS Momentary|Bridge}

Vila sighed loudly and put her helmet back on as the systems began to fail.

Ch'Rehllan to Ops—Kalem's readings are showing spontaneous dehydration on top of the suit's power loss. We believe both are connected to the crystallized remains on the Momentary. If this stuff is draining energy and fluids, the away team needs to stay away from those cryistals and keep an eye on their suits' readouts. Sending you the data now....

Vila's brain took the pains to translate the words from Standard to Bajoran and back again. Bloody hell, the implications... quickly, she stood up. "Kalem, get your Bajoran ass to medical. NOW," she said. "There's no time. Just go. I'll tap into your systems," she said. "Hold on," she said. She could reroute just enough power to beam him there...now. She watched as he disappeared. She turned back to Ramort.

"Whatever is...out there or in here or...whatever is sucking the power dry. And some of the crew's very life essences. I have the computers running but I don't know how long they'll hold," she said.

Suddenly, her own suit gave a low power warning. She rolled her eyes. "I'll go plug in," she grumbled, returning to the Con and placing the closed circuit battery into the power unit of her suit. She was less concerned about the possibility of her own dehydration; she'd been through that and starvation at the Camps, and was used to it.

Discovery to away team; we can't divert power to restore the Momentary.  We just lost warp power ourselves.  We might not be alone out here, get to safety and prepare to evacuate if necessary.

She cursed in Bajoran, raining the ire of the Prophet's onto the Captain's family name, but she did understand, even if this left them as sitting ducks. Quickly, she tried to maintain a line.

Sir? Get down to Engineering and whomever is there can set up a closed circuit energy unit. It'll give you enough power to run life support. An old trick from the Militia. Be careful.

The computer shut down, and she hit the keyboard in frustration. She reached under the console seat and was surprised to find the phaser still there.

"Ramort. I am going to head back to Engineering. Maybe M'Nia has something new. Or I can blow a hole in the wires and MAKE them work," she said. Either way, she didn't see a downside. It wasn't HER ship. The Turbolifts and transporters would no longer work, so she'd have to walk through the ship alone. She was going to be armed if that was the case.