Compile summary --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stardate.2413.10.27 (USS Hades, Deck 8, Counseling, COUNS, Ensign Anamitra Ripley - 1506) (USS Hades-Observation Lounge-ACMO Ensign(SG) Hawkeye Dolphine 1943) (USS HADES- Mens Locker Room-ACMO Ensign(SG) Hawkeye Dolphine,1956) (USS Hades- Transporter room-ACMO Ensign(SG) Hawkeye Dolphine, 2000) (USS Hades, Bridge, Ops Lt. (jg) Rick Darson, 2003) (USS Hades, Bridge, Dr. Riven Mias, 2004) (USS Onyx, Deck 3, Diplomatic area, ACSO Dale Bracken - 2005) (USS Hades, Bridge, CO Captain Eva Straton, 2007) (USS Onyx - Deck 3,Nertalli diplomat's suite – FO/CSO Jericho Haynes- 2008) (USS Onyx- Deck 5- ACMO Ensign(sg) Hawkeye Dolphine-2018) (USS Onyx - Deck 5 - 2O/CTAC/SC Lt. jg Lo'ren T'Vof - 2019) (USS Onyx – Bridge– FO/CSO Jericho Haynes– 2020) (USS Onyx-Deck 5- ACMO Ensign (sg) Hawkeye Dolphine-2020.5) (USS Onyx – Bridge – ACSO Dale Bracken – 2021) (USS Onyx - Deck 5 - Sergeant Bill (Bear) Sterns)- 2022) (USS Onyx – Bridge – FO/CSO Jericho Haynes – 2023) (USS Onyx - Deck 5 - 2O/CTAC/SC Lt. jg Lo'ren T'Vof - 2024) (USS Onyx – Bridge – ACSO Bracken – 2024.5) (USS Onyx, Main Engineering, SO Lieutenant Baylon Trinin, 2027) (USS Onyx - Deck 4, Secondary Cargo Bay – Col Spider Drizzt - 2031) (USS Onyx- Deck 2 - CMO Angeni O. Windsong-Trommashere- 2032) (USS Onyx- Diplomatic Area - Sergeant Major Cawdill- 2034) (USS Hades, High Energy Physics Lab, SciO, Ensign Harry Doorman - 2035) (USS Onyx, Deck 6, Crew Quarters, Marine Sniper 3rd Lt Aurik Barsh, 2041) (USS Onyx, Deck 4, Marine Sniper 3rd Lt Aurik Barsh, 2041.5) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Begin compile Stardate.2413.10.27 (USS Hades, Deck 8, Counseling, COUNS, Ensign Anamitra Ripley - 1506) "I was raised on the ship by Daddy until he retired from the fleet when I was 12. I was caught up in his dichotomy of duty to me and duty to the fleet. I never worried about it, but I know that he did." "I see." Ana replied with a nod. In a very real way she understood exactly what Dale was referring to. She had been a Starfleet brat as well for the first part of her life. He father had been in the command branch and had eventually made captain of the USS Illustrious. "My father was a Starfleet officer also. I had a very similar experience." She stated. Dale nodded, a small tear forming in her eyes. "My father thinks I'm being selfish, returning to the Fleet as I have, bringing Aimee with me...we had such a blazing argument." Again Ana nodded, recalling her own similar experience. "I can completely relate. My situation, of course, was a bit different. My father all but ordered me to resign my Commission, after I graduated. Civil War can make Fathers particularly defensive of their little girls. I suspect that Grandchildren can also." "In a way though you are both right." "Your father maybe feeling that he had made a mistake during your early years really didn't want to think that you may end up making the same mistake. While you, being an independent Mother, felt that you should do what was right for you and your daughter, even if that meant rejoining the fleet." "It's hardest for us to be accepting of our family, because we know them so intimately. We have a bond with them that we don't really share even with our spouses or lovers, and that Bond is the source of a lot of angst, Joy, irritation, anger, frustration, compassion and understanding. I suspect that your father only saw in you the same aspects of himself that he somehow regretted. Most people aren't good at expressing their feelings, it's a cultural stigma, even in these modern times, and when people have difficulty expressing their true feelings, they can become frustrated and brusque." "Arguments such as the one you are speaking of aren't all that uncommon. It's how we handle them that determines if they will become an asset or a liability to us later in life. Do you see what I mean?" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Hades-Observation Lounge-ACMO Ensign(SG) Hawkeye Dolphine 1943) Having listened intently to the breifing given by Lt Haynes, Hawkeye was a little distraught. The thoughts of what those crew members were going through scared the living bejesus out of him. ~Audible and visual hallucinations are a scary thought for anyone to go through.~ Hawkeye thought to himself. As the briefing went on, Hawkeye listened as he was instructed as to head to the lockers to put on his EVA suit. He could tell by the look on everyone else's faces that they were concerned. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (USS HADES- Mens Locker Room-ACMO Ensign(SG) Hawkeye Dolphine,1956) Hawkeye looked over to the attendent in the locker room assinged to help him into his EVA Suit. The procedure reminded him of handling a Haz Mat scene back on Earth. As he stood up, put his helmet on, he ran through the final safety checks on his suit. He checked his med kit, attached his phaser to his suit and headed for the transporter room. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Hades- Transporter room-ACMO Ensign(SG) Hawkeye Dolphine, 2000) Hawkeye stepped on to the transporter pad. He nodded towards his crew members and waited. The last thing he saw before the transpoter energized was a look of concern on Angeni's face. He was able to send a quick PADD to PADD text before the transporter engaged. -------Just like back home huh Ang-------- the message read. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Hades, Bridge, Ops Lt. (jg) Rick Darson, 2003) "Lt Haynes and the secondary Away Team have transported over," Lt.Darson at OPS reported. Eva nodded. "Change our position by 5,000 kilometer but keep us within transporter range," she ordered. "Aye captain," Darson said as his fingers moved over the console. "Readjusting postion." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Hades, Bridge, Dr. Riven Mias, 2004) Riven stepped out of the turbolift doors in response to the Captain's summons and walked directly to the command chair. He knew that Eva knew he was here. She didn't turn to acknowledge him but immediately initiated telepathic contact. ::I need another set of 'eyes'. I want you to join me in keeping empathic tabs on the Away Team. Something doesn't feel right here and visual and auditory anomalies have been reported. I am not as familiar with all members of the Away Team nor am I a trained counselor, not to mention two sets of 'eye's are better than one. We will do nothing to violate their privacy or any of the moral laws, just their emotional state and hopefully add another layer in helping to keep them safe.:: He had heard the call broadcast over the ship's intercom so was aware of who had been called. Some he had seen but not talked to, others he was intimately familiar with. :: Whom are you able to monitor? I know some by telepathic contact and have counseled others.:: (Reply: Eva) :: I have counseled and been in telepathic contact with Lo'ren, Baylon and Angeni. Additionally I have counseled Lt. Haynes and Eoin. Also I should have no problem monitoring Mr. Haynes through the empathic link he shares with Lo'ren. I will be need to be very focused during this time, let me know if anything comes up that demands my attention please.:: (Reply: Eva) He nodded and took a nearby seat, settling into it he leaned back and closed his eyes in meditation for a moment. Angeni, Baylon and Lo'ren he was intimately familiar with. Eoin would be harder to monitor from this distance but could be done but he would have to be almost continually submerged in meditation. He began tuning out his senses one by one, leaving only his eyesight and hearing partially active in case something of importance came up of which he needed to be apprised of which Captain Straton would no doubt notify him of telepathically. Taste, smell and touch diminished till it felt as though he were floating due to the sensory deprivation. The bridge at the same time began to diminish into the background until it seemed as though he were aware of it from far away, small then and barely heard. It was only the matter of a little more than a minute till his mind began searching for their particular mental signatures. Lo'ren was first due to the considerable time they had been in mental contact during her training. Baylon should have been next by all accounts but Angeni's mind came to his attention quickly, no doubt due to the ongoing spark between her and himself. Baylon was quickly noted, almost but not quite simultaneous with hers. Lieutenant Haynes was found by following his thread from Lo'ren. Their link was extremely strong. It took a moment before he found Eoin's mind but monitoring it was quite easily done once that contact was reached. After contact was established then he was more than a little surprised to find that they were all emanating a very similar emotion in varying degrees ... it was fear. An uneasy, nearly panicky fear. The power of that emotion given off by so many could be the undoing of individuals of lesser talent than himself and Captain Straton, it was quickly pushed to the background of his mind though continually noted. If it became worse or spiked suddenly he would know instantly. ~What by the goddess is going on over there?~ ::Captain just what have they been sent into?:: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Onyx, Deck 3, Diplomatic area, ACSO Dale Bracken - 2005) As they followed the marine Jack spoke to her. "Ms. Bracken I apologize for bringing you over here without warning after you were given the day off over this very ship. Having said that I needed someone whom I trusted who could help me get the job done over here and you were the best choice for the job. If for any reason you feel that was an unwise choice you have but to say so and I'll have you returned to the Hades and someone else transported over." “No apology necessary sir, I assure you. I’d only be going stir crazy waiting for reports anyway.” She paused slightly, taking a few steps as she did so, “thank you for the vote of confidence, been a while since i was considered a trusted person.” She was referring to the five previous years, where she had almost been considered persona non grata by Fleet Science. Obtaining all the data she had needed for her dissertation had been difficult, a lot of favours had had to be called in. He swiveled his head to look over at her. "Even so keep that in mind for future reference, all you have to do is say the word." “I understand sir, i assure you, that won’t be necessary, I’ve got your six.” She’d spent far too long with her mother, she thought as her mother’s marine vernacular formed itself on her lips. She smiled to herself, hidden by her helmet. Slowly, they pressed on, eventually reaching their destination; and after sharing a few words with the MCO, carried on again, with only the young marine as guide. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Hades, Bridge, CO Captain Eva Straton, 2007) :: Whom are you able to monitor? I know some by telepathic contact and have counseled others,:: ::The Bridge officers and several of the marines are the ones I am monitoring at the moment though I have a familiarity with all my senior officers to some degree,:: Eva replied. :: I have counseled and been in telepathic contact with Lo'ren, Baylon and Angeni. Additionally I have counseled Lt. Haynes and Eoin. Also I should have no problem monitoring Mr. Haynes through the empathic link he shares with Lo'ren. I will be need to be very focused during this time, let me know if anything comes up that demands my attention please.:: Eva nodded. ::Very well, you take those and I will take the others as well as Colonel Drizzt and those marines I am most familiar with from my time as MCO on the Boudicca. If something comes up, I will let you know.:: Riven was silent for several moments as he extended his senses out across the vastness of space toward the Onyx as Eva had already done. She narrowed her own empathic senses on those members of her crew that Riven would not be monitoring allowing him to pick up those he was most familiar with. ::Captain just what have they been sent into?:: Riven asked with concern. ::That is a very good question,:: Eva replied, ::The answer we don't know yet. All we know is the ship is completely without power and there is no sign of the Onyx's crew. You now know why I wanted you to help me keep tabs on their emotional state. Something is not right on that ship.:: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Onyx - Deck 3,Nertalli diplomat's suite – FO/CSO Jericho Haynes- 2008) The MCO looked about the room. .=^=We’ve been getting strange readings, and reports of odd phenomena.=^= He looked back at Jack. =^=I hope you can come up with some answers. The more superstitious of my group is starting to jump at shadows.=^= He grunted, =^=If I were a bit more paranoid myself, I’d be reminded of some old andorian legends, mostly dealing with the underworld.=^= Jack shook his head in befuddlement at the admission. The MCO was not easily spooked, no fighting man that had made it this far would be. The Andorian seemed to shudder, =^=So far, we’ve found no evidence of where the crew went, or what drained the ship of power. I’ve got my CE’s working in engineering now, trying to get into the computer.=^= Jack sighed. "Thank you Colonel, I know you are doing the best you can. I and Doctor Bracken are going to the bridge to see what we can find now that you have it cleared. Hopefully until some power is restored here we can find something, data chips... anything that will give us a clue as to what happened on this ship. If we can find something it will at least give me a foundation upon which to build a working hypothesis. I've got my ACEO headed down to engineering to give your men a hand." (Reply: Drizzt) "Thanks, keep me informed about what is happening down here. don't hesitate to pass along anything, no matter how negligible it might be. The Captain will be expecting to hear something soon." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Onyx- Deck 5- ACMO Ensign(sg) Hawkeye Dolphine-2018) Lo'ren let the Sergeant lead the way, with with Hawkeye not far behind and her bringing up the rear. The reports from the Marines were not pleasant ones – not a single soul alive that they could find. Hawkeye could tell that the general feeling of the crew on board the Onyx was an uneasy feeling. Hawkeye felt a little like being in a haunted house. He knew that there was nothing to be afraid of, but he could still feel his sympathetic nervous system kicking into overdrive. As he followed the Sergeant through the corridor, he heard Lo'ren's voice come through his personal comm system. -/\- “Hawkeye, Sterns, you getting anything on sensor? My taccorder is giving all sorts of strange readings.” 'Im not showing any signs of life. There seems to be some EMF spikes but that's about all I'm getting." Hawkye replied. No sooner had Hawkeye said that when he thought he heard an explosion and screaming coming from down the corridor "Lo"ren did you hear that? Sounded like someone screaming and some very loud explosions coming down the corridor? I could have sworn that I heard someone screaming for help" (Reply Lo'ren) “Let's start a cabin by cabin visual search. I want to know what's going on.”Said Lo'ren As Hawkeye continued through the cabin, he could see that there were signs of habitation but no signs of life. ~Whatever was through here left no surviors, but yet everything else is in tact.~ Hawkeye thought to himself. Just then he heard what sounded like a whisper right next to him. "I'm burning inside the Onyx" is what he thought he heard. At that exact moment, his tricorder had suddenly lost all power. Hawkeye quickly turned with his phaser drawn and his light shining ahead of him. He looked completly around but couldn't see anyone. ~Weird~ Hawkeye thought to himself. "Lo'ren I'm not sseing anything but I had a very strange experience while I was inside the cabin. I felt someone tap me on the shoulder and heard someone whisper that they were burning in the Onyx. When I looked around there was no one there." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Onyx - Deck 5 - 2O/CTAC/SC Lt. jg Lo'ren T'Vof - 2019) "Lo'ren did you hear that? Sounded like someone screaming and some very loud explosions coming down the corridor? I could have sworn that I heard someone screaming for help" Hawkeye queried her. She frowned, her helmet masking the visual display of displeasure. "I heard nothing Hawkeye, Sterns? Did you get anything?" (reply Sterns) Lo'ren grunted, "Log it and the readings you've got, Hawkeye, and send them off to Lt. Haynes and Dr. Bracken. This place is giving me the creeps." "Let's start a cabin by cabin visual search. I want to know what's going on." Lo'ren allowed the Marine his duty and Sterns wasted no time playing with dead overrides. She let Hawkeye in first and followed taking in the scene. She heard a fire crackling in the bedroom and moved in that direction. =/=Lo'ren I'm not seeing anything but I had a very strange experience while I was inside the cabin. I felt someone tap me on the shoulder and heard someone whisper that they were burning in the Onyx. When I looked around there was no one there.=\= She turned to the young doctor with an eyebrow raised. "Now that's interesting. I don't see anything around you Hawk." "Pain has a face. Allow me to show it to you. I AM PAIN.” Lo'ren turned towards the voice that spoke, "What the...?" She shivered as a malevolent presence surrounded her and then moved away. "Oh, now that was cold." (reply Hawkeye, Sterns) "Something evil just embraced me while a voice called itself Pain." Her eyes were wide and she shivered. ~Prophets, protect me.~ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Onyx – Bridge– FO/CSO Jericho Haynes– 2020) The trip through the access crawlway to the bridge of the stricken diplomatic vessel had seemed interminable to the second in command of the Hades. Every step of the way had been an exertion of will and he was nearly exhausted by the climb. This ship seemed to literally emanate evil from its very pores. From the moment he had transported over with the officers of the Away Team in EVA gear to meet with Colonel Drizzt he had sensed it, like some monster in the dark stalking its prey. His skin still prickled with the subliminal feeling of being watched by innumerable eyes. The marines of the Fallen Angels under Drizzt's command had reported seeing ghostly manifestations and hearing voices and assorted sounds in the short time they had spent combing the vessel for explosives and other nasty surprises, he had seen nor heard either... yet. Still he didn't need his primary senses to know that something horrendous had gone wrong here. Though the ship had vanished from contact with Star Fleet Command only a handful of days ago it conjured memories of the old Earth tale of the Flying Dutchman, a ship of ghosts and horrors. A doomed ship, a damned ship sailing through an eternal twilight. The expedition that had called them to this sector of space, the scientific study of PX 1354, a Magnetar in its final dying days before dwindling to dormancy seemed an eternity ago, a blissful period from a former life. His excitement at combing through the voluminous data being accumulated in those scant few days was long forgotten. Then he had had been in his element, a scientist reveling in the process of pushing back the veil of ignorance from an ancient and mysterious process. Here he felt like a fearful child, cowering at shadows. This Federation vessel had been escorting the Nertalli envoy to the Perthalla home world in order to stave off conflict between the two peoples, its mission had been tragically interrupted. Now the two civilizations stood upon the brink of war, each accusing the other of using force to derail the peace process. The Hades had come across the ship a little over one light year from its last reported position. Heavy tachyon interference had scuttled their attempted scans necessitating an exhaustive search of the vessel. So far nothing had been found, no ambassador, no crew and no power. The ship was drifting dead in space, lifeless. Void of even the slightest flow of energy. Empty. Lightless. Fearful.. Everything was completely undisturbed as though waiting patiently for their return, even down to the cup of coffee sitting on the Captain's Ready Room desk which was by now frozen solid... just like the water he had seen within the fountain in the common area outside the ambassadorial suites. Eoin had been sent to engineering on a quest to restore power to the dead vessel. Medical had been dispatched with security teams to aid the marines in their search of the ship for survivors. Jack and Dr. Bracken were now on the bridge looking for anything that might give a clue as to the fate that had befallen the ship. He turned his head and noted Dale Bracken was making her way to the science terminal, before beginning his search he hefted the near useless tricorder and tapped the 'record' button with a gloved finger. "First Officer's log, initial entry aboard the USS Onyx." "Doctor Bracken and I have reached the bridge and are beginning our search for clues. In my existence I never dreamt that I would come across a ship with such a stifling atmosphere. There is no power here and of course no lighting except that provided by our EVA suits. I seem to feel the darkness around me, it is stifling; almost malevolent." "Is the oppressive atmosphere a product of my own imagination or is there some layer of existence here that is hostile to our own? I have no answers at this time, only questions and time is something we are perilously short on. I fear that no matter what we might find here it will be insufficient to keep the Nertalli and Perthalla from entering into open conflict." "At any rate we will do our damndest to find out what happened to these people and get them back if possible. On that note I am ending this log, may God help us in our quest." He switched off the unit and was reattaching it to his harness when he heard a moan as of someone in great pain behind him and a shadow swept across the peripheral vision of his right eye., a bolt of fear shot down his spine in response. He heard a voice in a rasping whisper behind him and bile rose in his throat. "You who are from Hades, welcome... to hell." He spun around in his tracks, the lamps from his suit illuminating the doorway that had been forced by Drizzt's combat engineers earlier through which he and Dr. Bracken had come only a few minutes before. There was no one there. Icy fingers of fear clutched at his throat even as he considered this in light of the reports that Colonel Drizzt had made during the marine mission and what he had been told when he had met the man face to face in the Nertalli Ambassador's quarters. “If I were a bit more paranoid myself, I’d be reminded of some old andorian legends, mostly dealing with the underworld.” The MCO had said. With a supreme effort Jack forced away the terror that was threatening to engulf him. "I am a man of science, a free thinker. I will not be spooked by ghosts and goblins from tales out of legend." He grated, throwing the challenge into the air of the bridge. Silence was his only answer. The darkness seemed not the least bit impressed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (USS Onyx-Deck 5- ACMO Ensign (sg) Hawkeye Dolphine-2020.5) Lo'ren grunted, "Log it and the readings you've got, Hawkeye, and send them off to Lt. Haynes and Dr. Bracken. This place is giving me the creeps." "Let's start a cabin by cabin visual search. I want to know what's going on." Lo'ren turned towards the voice that spoke, "What the...?" She shivered as a malevolent presence surrounded her and then moved away. "Oh, now that was cold." " What happened?" Hawkeye asked while looking around where Lo'ren was standing. He couldnt see anything around her, but he could see she was visably upset. "Something evil just embraced me while a voice called itself Pain." Her eyes were wide and she shivered. "What do you say we get out of this cabin and continue the search down the corridor? Whatever is here might be isolated to just this cabin." Hawkeye stated. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Onyx – Bridge – ACSO Dale Bracken – 2021) The darkness of the bridge entombed them. Dale remembered a lesson, from many years ago. It had taken the form of a discussion, a philosophical argument that her Astrochem professor had started; to warn of the dangers of drawing conclusion based solely on observed evidence. “Darkeness is faster than light.” He had stated. “If one goes into a room, and switches a light on, darkness is already there. The light has to travel.” “Darkness is heavier than light.” He had continued, “Sink to the bottom of the oceans, and light cannot reach it, is isn’t dense enough, only darkness possesses enough mass to sink to the bottom.” The class, needless to say, erupted into fierce argument. It was only months later that they had understood the meaning of the lesson. ‘Any hypothesis can be drawn from anything, the good scientist intrinsically knows what is sensible, and what is not.’ Years later, stood as she was on the desolate bridge, only a couple of others as company she felt the sense dissolve away from her. This ship was devoid of sense, it had disappeared along with it’s power, and without sense, mayhem creeps in, and after that, after the mayhem, at the root of everything, lies...lies fear. She felt the chill, even through the EVA suit, she could feel the cold blanket wrap around her, along with the cold, again, fear slipped in. ~Work Dale.~ She stepped away from Haynes and the Marine, walking toward the science station, pulling out the tricorder as she reached the station, beginning her standard sweeps. “You should not have come here,” The voice itself made her intestines squirm, writhing in her protective exoskeleton. “YOU SHOULD NOT BE HEAR.” She turned rapidly, noticing that Haynes had also done the same. Quickly she flicked her eyes, opening the comm diagnostic, which flashed green, showing that no error had occurred, next she opened the communiqué history, Haynes was most recent on the list, a good 20 minutes ago. Slowly, she pulled herself together, the atmosphere around her crushing her resolve. She flicked her eyes once more, opening a log entry. “ACSO’s log, Dr Dale Bracken speaking. Myself and Lt Haynes have reached the bridge of the Onyx, still no power in any system, my scans show massive tachyon interference, origin unknown, Ship is empty, crew absent, no shuttles launched. I wonder where they are. I’m not ashamed of admitting that this ship unsettles me, to say the least. Let the record show i flew through my last psyche test, but i’ve just heard...something, cold, angry voice, husky, malevolent. It said “ You should not have come, you should not be here. Nothing i can do with the science station until we’ve got some kind of power. Bracken out.” She turned to Haynes, and opened a private channel. =/= You hear something too Sir? =\= (Reply Haynes) Dale would be the first one to admit that she wasn’t great with formality, she tended to dispense with it all together at certain times, most normally when she’d just made some discovery, and had the task of explaining such to CO/FO or whoever, she felt a little like that now. Excitement was a powerful emotion, though not as powerful as fear. =/= What the frakk is going on here? Diagnostic shows no messages, whatever we’re hearing isn’t coming through the communications system. =\= ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Onyx - Deck 5 - Sergeant Bill (Bear) Sterns)- 2022) The chatter on the cmm system was disquieting to say the least. =^=Lo'ren did you hear that? Sounded like someone screaming and some very loud explosions coming down the corridor? I could have sworn that I heard someone screaming for help=^= That was from the ACMO. =^=I heard nothing Hawkeye, Sterns? Did you get anything?=^= "Negative." He replied. "All quiet here." Just to be on the safe side he checked the scans of the corridor again but there was nothing. "Confirmed, scans are negative." =^=Log it and the readings you've got, Hawkeye, and send them off to Lt. Haynes and Dr. Bracken. This place is giving me the creeps.=^= After going through the cabin the two officers began discussing what they had found. =^=Lo'ren I'm not seeing anything but I had a very strange experience while I was inside the cabin. I felt someone tap me on the shoulder and heard someone whisper that they were burning in the Onyx. When I looked around there was no one there.=^= =^=Now that's interesting. I don't see anything around you Hawk.==^= =^=What the...?=^= There was a pause from the Tac/sec chief. =^= What happened?=^= Bear turned his head to see her whirl in her tracks, a shadow seemed to dissipate as he did so which caused him to almost growl in frustration. There was nothing here you could 'lock' onto solidly. =^=Oh, now that was cold.=^= "What was sir?" Bear asked. =^=Something evil just embraced me while a voice called itself Pain." =^=What do you say we get out of this cabin and continue the search down the corridor? Whatever is here might be isolated to just this cabin.=^= As they spoke Bear made a full turn as he looked about the corridor with his weapon ready, his taccorder again registering nothing. "I am picking up no life forms at all close by Lieutenant..." His voice broke off as a number of life forms suddenly appeared on the scanner only to vanish an instant later. "What the ...?" (Reply: Lo'ren, Hawkeye) "Just a glitch." he growled. "It picked up a half dozen life form readings for an instant but the readings vanished almost instantly." He wanted to howl in frustration but repressed it. This place was enough to drive a man crazy if you stayed here too long. "I recommend we ditch the mission and get off this ship Lieutenant. Something is not right here." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Onyx – Bridge – FO/CSO Jericho Haynes – 2023) The tones of an active comm system were a welcome distraction, almost soothing. =/= You hear something too Sir? =\= "That is an affirmative." Jack stated as he turned to check the full area at the back of the bridge. "A voice welcoming us to hell." The feeling of being watched seemed to grow as he spoke as though something or someone were intently listening =/= What the frakk is going on here? Diagnostic shows no messages, whatever we’re hearing isn’t coming through the communications system. =\= That was the empirical observation that he needed to focus himself. He turned and walked toward her, his movements determined. "Not on a comm. channel? Thank you Dr. Bracken for that information. The voice was as clear as though speaking to me directly. Tell me, what did you hear?" (Reply: Dale) "Interesting." He stopped only a couple of feet from her, their proximity giving a feeling of shared camaraderie that helped to drive back the brooding darkness a bit. "So what we heard was not audible at all, it didn't come from around us or through a comm channel, what we heard then was a 'voice' in our minds which was different for each of us. Had someone been using telepathy we would have heard the same thing at the same time. It did not therefore come from a single being. Do you agree?" (Reply: Dale) "Therefore unless this was orchestrated for our benefit by multiple beings what we just 'heard' was more then likely along the lines of a hallucinatory event which would point to a shared though individual viewpoint. Logically then due to some condition or conditions aboard the ship rather than some unknown or alien life force. Do you agree?" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Onyx - Deck 5 - 2O/CTAC/SC Lt. jg Lo'ren T'Vof - 2024) Lo'ren looked at the Marine, trying to ascertain what had startled him. "What do you have?" She snapped at the man, her nerves were fraying at an exponential rate in this Ship of Wraiths. "Just a glitch." he growled. "It picked up a half dozen life form readings for an instant but the readings vanished almost instantly. I recommend we ditch the mission and get off this ship Lieutenant. Something is not right here." (reply Hawkeye iyw) She could feel the creeping malevolence, trying to get in under her skin. It spoke to her again. "You will be my plaything, half-breed." ~Get out of my head, you are not welcome.~ Rather than ask any longer, Lo'ren simply logged the occurence and filed it for the science team to evaluate. "I agree that something is not right here, but we will stay until we have further orders, Mister. I'm not risking us bringing something to the Hades, until we are certain we are not contagious. Clear? Hawkeye?" Her voice carried the strain she felt, pushing the darkness away from her mind - and she was beginning to lose the battle. (reply Sterns, Hawkeye) "Good." Lo'ren was using her own resolve to keep from breaking down like a small child. She hit her comms rather more sharply than usual and called in reports. "Lt. Trinin, Dr. Trommashere, Major Cawdill, report." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Onyx – Bridge – ACSO Bracken – 2024.5) "Not on a comm. channel? Thank you Dr. Bracken for that information. The voice was as clear as though speaking to me directly. Tell me, what did you hear?" “It was a voice, dripping with malice, it said ‘you should not have come here.’ Then ‘you should not be hear’ at the time i assumed that it was us, now though, i rather think that it was personal – directed at me.” "Interesting." He stopped only a couple of feet from her, their proximity giving a feeling of shared camaraderie that helped to drive back the brooding darkness a bit. "So what we heard was not audible at all, it didn't come from around us or through a comm channel, what we heard then was a 'voice' in our minds which was different for each of us. Had someone been using telepathy we would have heard the same thing at the same time. It did not therefore come from a single being. Do you agree?" The logic followed through, a perfectly reasonable hypothesis given the evidence. “Sounds probable.” She stopped, beginning to realise where he was going. "Therefore unless this was orchestrated for our benefit by multiple beings what we just 'heard' was more than likely along the lines of a hallucinatory event which would point to a shared though individual viewpoint. Logically then due to some condition or conditions aboard the ship rather than some unknown or alien life force. Do you agree?" Again, the logic was flawless, “Scanners have shown no life forms in the vicinity, so yes, prevailing conditions have to be the answer.” Dale stopped briefly “but how, or what, I’ll confess I’m stumped. My knowledge of neural science is very limited.” (Reply Haynes) She raised the tricorder once more, and showed Haynes the readings. “We’ve got nothing...obvious, only the high levels of tachyons...but those in themselves shouldn’t cause anything like these sort of occurrences. No, there’s something...intangible, something we’re missing.” “Missing?” The rasping voice resounded through her evilly “You’re missing half your brain, you shouldn’t have come back, you’ve put her directly into my hands, and i will feast.” As quickly as it had come, the voice left, it had hit her at the deepest centre of her insecurity, stabbing, then twisting the knife, before yanking it out and leaving, joyous in its success. She couldn’t concentrate, not under these circumstances, normally she’d feel alive, now though...she shook her head to attempt to clear it. “Another visitation.” She said keeping the flow of chatter open. “Okay.” she stopped and sighed. “Let’s go back to the beginning, what do we know?” --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Onyx, Main Engineering, SO Lieutenant Baylon Trinin, 2027) =^=Not anyone calling my name, but I heard the scream of a banshee loud and clear.=^= ~A what?~ Baylon thought a half second before voicing his thought aloud. "A what?" (reply Eoin) "I'm going to cycle the door to the Chief's Office, see if there is anything lying about that might give us a clue as to what happened here. I'll be right across the bay." He stated, then strode across the still and dark compartment to the Chief engineer's Officer Door. Not surprisingly the door was closed, so Baylon once again fished his Emergency Hand Actuator out of his utility compartment of his EVA suit and pressed it against the out plating of the door. The Magnetic charge sealed the device firmly in place and the Betazoid managed to use the thick ends of his gloved fingers to activate the small power field to release the door hatch. He disengaged the actuator and tucked it back inside his Utility compartment before wedging his fingers between the open sections of the door. He gave a grunt of exertion as the doors separated to allow him entrance. To the smaller compartment. It like all the other areas was powerless and showed signs of habitation. He stepped through the small doorway and into the office. The duty station was covered in stacks of hard copy manuals, and rolls of documents were stacked neatly against the wall. One such roll was unrolled across the desktop, it's corners weighed down by work manuals. Baylon took another step forward and looked down at the revealed documents. They appeared to be some sort of hard copy schematic of the Onyx, laid out across the table. The ring of a long missing coffee cup was clearly visible on its surface. That's when it hit him, this was some sort of important clue. He stepped back to the open door way and felt a cold shiver run down his spine and settle into the pit of his stomach. The finest hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and he started suddenly as the Biofilter proximity alarm on his Taccorder sounded with an ear piercing shriek. It took him a moment to calm himself as he looked out on the Engineering bay. The source of the alert was not visible and the alarm had gone silent almost as quickly as it had sounded. There was no one but Eoin, and now, a pair of marines who were working on the upper catwalk. =^=Well, there is no power here, but the good news is that there might still be power to the antimatter storage tanks. Either that, or the crew was able to eject it before the complete power loss. Either way, we're not dead.=^= Now that was interesting. The ring made by the coffee cup on the schematics was centered around the antimatter storage pods. "Mac Liam." Baylon said, using a tone of well practiced authority to hide any taint of fear from reaching his voice. "I found something interesting here. Some Schematics. I think the engineers were working on something when whatever happened, happened. Maybe if you take a look it might shed some light on what it might have been?" (reply Eoin) "Oh, and I just had a thought concerning the Antimatter storage pods. They don't have to have power, nor do they have to be ejected if they are empty." He added a moment later. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Onyx - Deck 4, Secondary Cargo Bay – Col Spider Drizzt - 2031) Drizzt poked his scatter-gun around the corner of a small container and visually scanned around. According to his Taccorder, there was at least two somethings here – but there didn’t appear to be. The problem with that, though, was that Spider was no longer confident that he was seeing sensor ghosts. There had been far to many strange phenomena to discount that somebody, or something, was indeed aboard this ship. He spent long seconds with his lights fully illuminated, scanning the immediate area for any signs of movement. Only when the ‘ghosts’ disappeared from his sensors did he turn away, rifle at the ready. There was nothing spectacular in the small cargo storage area, some emergency supplies and a few spare parts that would have been difficult to replicate with any speed, that was it. Almost none of the containers were stacked higher than his line-of-sight, so he had an almost unlimited view of the room. It was dark, Drizzt could almost hear the mutterings of little goblins, just waiting to raise a ruckus when his back was turned. Something was happening on this ship, there was a presence – a presence that smelled suspiciously like evil. The Andorian, his lips pressed unnoticed into a tight line, stepped out of the cargo-bay and back into the corridor. Here the corridor was slightly larger than standard, to facilitate the moving of large crates into the door by giving more swinging room. As with the rest of the ship, it was pitch black, except for the corona of light and life that his suit gave out. He’d long since stopped trying to move around in the darkness, the ship was alive with crew from the Hades, anything here would know where they were. Besides, things could hide the in dark, perhaps things that wouldn’t alert his sensors. In the dark, evil could thrive, it could slither unnoticed and strike when least expected. Drizzt thrived in dark places, he had made his career by being that unseen – he knew better than most what could lurk in a dark corner. He wasn’t about to let his guard down, not now that he knew something was indeed wrong. Without warning, a hand reached out from around a corner and grabbed his right arm. Drizzt had just enough time to note that the hand was encased in Marine armor, and that it had completely collapsed his primary control panel by main strength, before he was yanked off his feet and thrown forward. He slammed into the wall with a crunch of gear. His Battle Helmet immediately began relaying a damage report into his ear, and that it was dispatching repair nanites, but Drizzt was barely listening. The Marine attacking him jumped, landing where Spider had just been only a moment after Drizzt rolled to the side. Drizzt yanked his weapon up, but it was backhanded to the side by the attacking Marine, who then pulled back for a heavy punch. Drizzt dropped and spun, taking the legs out from under his enemy before rolling away. ~This is it!~ his mind exulted, even as he turned to his enemy again. ~A suit could be programmed to be hidden! The mystery is solved!~ He didn’t have time to follow up with it however, as the Marine slammed forward at him again. Drizzt crossed his arms and blocked the punch, and answered with his own full powered backhand that snapped the Marine’s face to the side, even with its own servos trying to hold the head in place. Such a backhand on a bare human would have chucked the head clean off. But as if the enemy didn’t feel it, he turned and made a grab, probably so he could body-slam Spider into the ground. Unarmed Combat between two Marines in BDU was usually problematic, the one who won was usually the one who got the other into a position of vulnerability and pounded them to oblivion as the armor itself was strong enough to ward against all but a strong direct attack. Drizzt jumped back several feet, but not before grabbed the Marine’s arm and yanking him along. His opponent fell to his knees, leaving Leonal the perfect opportunity. He reversed his momentum and slammed down on the Marine’s head with all the force he could muster in the suit. The enemies helmet snapped at an odd angle, but Drizzt didn’t wait to see if the man was dead, he followed up with a kick to the face that tossed the Marine several feet away on his back. The helmet, already broken, flew clean off. Without the protection of the helmet, his enemies head should have been a smear on the top of the corridor. Instead, the head snapped back and flopped against the back of the armor, its neck and spine apparently pulverized. For a moment. The head snapped back into place a few moments later, as if it was repairing itself. The face that presented itself turned Drizzt’s blood cold. It was half rotted, the face of a corpse that had been in the ground for months. On its face was a hideous smile, which presented several broken teeth that dripped blood from ulcerated gums. Drizzt pulled his sidearm and held it out, but he didn’t fire. “As I am now, so will you be.” The thing hissed in dreadful amusement. “Now you reside in the bosom of Hell, here shall you suckle on the tit of despair… for all eternity” The Marine slowly faded, its rotted face twisted into a sneer, leaving Drizzt perfectly alone. Leonal, breathing heavy from the adrenalin and in a crouch with his sidearm pointed at empty air, looked around for the creature but saw nothing – but he did notice his arm. There wasn’t a scratch there. His suit continued to report damage, but only from his left quadrant, where he’d slammed into the corridor wall. The crumpled plates were rapidly being repaired, as was the armor mesh that would protect him from energy fire. That was it. It’s basic integrity was intact. Who, or what, had he been fighting with? Had it all been a dream? No Marine could just vanish into thin air, no more than a walking corpse could toss him around like a rag-doll. The triumph he’d felt when he thought the mystery was solved dissolved in an instant. “… for all eternity.” The voice whispered, very faint, from no direction in particular. It was almost soft enough to be his imagination, but the chill it left him spoke for the opposite. On this ship, they were not alone. “Oh Gods,” he breathed. He spun on his heel and dashed down the corridors at high speed after picking up his scatter-gun, looking for the last place he’d seen the First Officer. “Drizzt to Haynes, we’ve got to get off this ship immediately – please respond.” --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Onyx- Deck 2 - CMO Angeni O. Windsong-Trommashere- 2032) Angeni looked around, her visor lights casting an eerie glow about. Her skin crawled with the feeling that she was being watched...no...stalked. She felt as if a predator was watching their every move, waiting for its prey to make a mistake. She caught herself turning around every few moments, waiting to see the jaws of some unwordly being dripping with venom, ready to kill her. She closed her eyes, saying a small prayer to herself. As she opened her eyes, she saw the fleeting view of a child run from the room, an airy giggle playing behind the child. "Ah-wi!" She heard the child call. Angeni froze. "Hey! I..think...I think I just saw a child. She called my name!" Without waiting for a response, she walked from the room, across the hall into another room. That one didn't feel as odd as the other did, and she looked over her shoulder to see if the security team was behind her. She scanned the room, and as she did, she heard crying coming from behind a large potted plant. She slowly circled around it and she saw a raven haired child sitting, her knees pulled up to her chest, her head burried in her knees. Angeni noticed a few plasma burns on her forearms, and she reached out to the child. "Come on..." She crooned softly. The child looked up, and Angeni recoiled back, putting herself into a corner. Half of the childs' face was gone, nothing more than an ugly plasma burn. The childs' remaining eye was completely black, and the young girl walked towards Angeni, her voice something straight from hell. "Pain and suffering is all you will feel!" The child quickly changed from a young, injured girl to a demon. It reached out to Angeni, putting a claw on her arm. A dark, spotted tongue lolled out of its mouth, showing off rows upon rows of yellow fangs. She never took her eyes off the beast as it leaned in to her, its mouth mere inches from her visor. Tricorder in hand, she willed herself to move, and she threw the tricorder at the being and she tore off out the room back to where she started. Whispers filled her mind, speaking in a demonic tongue. She felt the firey red eyes trying to burn holes in her back, and she constantly swung this way and that, spinning her head lamps in such an erratic fashion that she looked like a giant disco ball. "In...there! Not...human...not real!" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Onyx- Diplomatic Area - Sergeant Major Cawdill- 2034) He had been on this damned ship for almost an hour and a half of gut wrenching, spine tingling horror now, Jumping at spooky noises and whispered voices. Snapping his head around at fleeting shadows. He was almost ready to snap. The worst part of it was that he knew it. One man or woman can take only so much before losing it, before running screaming away from their tormentors, or if you had a weapon, toward them. His tormentors were out there somewhere ... in the darkness. He had been trained to withstand interrogation and yes even torture. His will had been tempered by the fires of training to shut out pain, cold, deprivation. To resist mind altering drugs and mental attacks. You couldn't shut out the voices, couldn't turn your head from the shadows. They invaded your mind, sapped your will, left you skittish and afraid. There was nothing solid to strike out at, no enemy to punch, cut or burn down with your weapon. The taccorders were useless, seemingly in league with the enemy. They picked up things that weren't there ... and hid what was lurking in the shadows. Frustration, anger , fear. They were like fuel in his veins waiting for an ignition source. The spark came in the form of the CMO. He was walking point when he heard shouts and turned to see her running in panic from a room behind him, her head whipping about as though she were screaming her lungs out. Her arms wind milling as though she were trying to ward off an attacker She was. He moved without thought, his training kicking in. His kicked in the compressor of his scattergun and it made a rising whine as his booted feet churned over deck plates in his haste to cover her. She was screaming over the comm as he did so. =^= In...there! Not...human...not real! =^= He didn't realize he was shouting at the top of his voice as he rounded the corner. He ran right into an ambush. The room was full of tentacled creatures with fiery eyes brandishing energy weapons in humanlike appendages. He cut loose with the scattergun again and again, phaser blast marks raking the deck and bulkheads until the room was a smoking ruin. His eyes slashed through the room, noting that his enemy had disappeared... so he went to look for more. "Yaaaaahhhhhh!" He screamed at the top of his lungs as he burst out of the room, searching the corridor for more enemy. The lights from his BDU swept down the hallway, past the trembling CMO and the security officer. They were coming from the direction he had been walking point, dozens of them, their weapons fire sizzling through the airless corridor. Past where the officers were standing. They had heir backs turned, they would be dead in seconds. His legs churning he flew past them and began firing the scattergun again, The beams of ravening energy mushrooming through the corridor. The enemy broke and fled. He followed them still yelling at the top of his lungs, his eyes wild. Down the empty corridor where his enemy was fleeing from him. Into the darkness. Chasing shadows of horror that existed only in his mind. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Hades, High Energy Physics Lab, SciO, Ensign Harry Doorman - 2035) "It just doesn't make any sense." Harry muttered to himself as he looked over the stream of data that was being returned from his formulas. "What doesn't make any sense?" Lyle asked as he leaned back in his chair at his station. "All these tachyons." Harry responded. "How so?" Lyle pushed. "Well consider this..." Harry began. "Here he goes again Lyle, you had to ask didn't you?" Someone else, perhaps Robles, added as Harry began to consider his case for annoyance. "We know that tachyons are created as a result of certain sorts of interactions on the quantum state levels between specific aspects of various subatomic particles, and that the majority of those are relatively speaking very short -lived interactions that result in only a very short, sometimes nearly impossible to detect burst of tachyon energy." Lyle nodded his head, among physicists this was a commonly known fact. But we also know that tachyons have exceedingly short life spans once they are released during those reactions. As they are released the velocity of the tachyon approaches infinity and the energy tends to zero. In effect, the tachyon disappears from the universe. This is commonly known as the Friedmann- Roberston- Walker Rule. "Yeah, every Physics specialist knows that." Lyle stated, helping Harry to move on to his next point of conjecture. "Right." Harry agreed, "And every observational encounter with tachyons show the same thing; No interaction, no tachyon generation. And tachyons have been shown to only exist where high-yield quantum state interactions are taking place, i.e. when two interactive quantum bit are colliding or bonding or when some other equally observable state is underway." "Uh-huh." Lyle said as he nodded. "So I've been running a scan of the area, looking for any sign of any of the known and even potential signs of some of the theorized interactions, including particle scans for tell-tales that might indicate such a high level quantum state interaction is underway. And I find nothing. Absolutely nothing at all." "That's not really all that surprising." Lyle stated, obviously missing the point. "No, I suppose it isn't because we're used to seeing quantum state interactions all the time. Deflector shields that interact with various tardyons, cause the by productive creation of tachyons, as does antimatter reactions, cloaking fields, and even the subspace field generated by the warp drive." "Okay..." Lyle replied, but something was beginning to stir in his eyes, a spark of comprehension was beginning to form there. He leaned forward. "But there isn't any of that at all, not anywhere near here, anyway. Only the Gamma burst from the magnetar could possibly produce those sorts of reactions in a natural state, and only then if they are interacting with some other compatible quantum state tardyons, that by chance happen to result in a tachyon formation event." "But the bursts are irregular and we've already observed the tachyon decay after each one, so..." Harry prompted. "So what is powering the continued tachyon formation on the Onyx?" Lyle supplied. "Exactly." Harry said with a nod. "There is no sign of antimatter on board the Onyx. No reactors that could continue an on-going tachyon formation event. And the rough interaction patterns as well as the vectors of the shedding tachyons seem to suggest that some high order energy quantum particle is interacting with some sort of tardyon field." "It was this supposition that led me to test a theory." Harry stated. "What sort of theory?" Lyle asked, obviously now following the direction of the conversation. Someone else in the room snorted. "A few years back I saw some data that was provided to me on Dark matter energy fields that might actually apply here." "But Dark matter isn't defined or even proven." Lyle interjected. "True, but the theory and the mathematical formulas are solid. Without getting too involved into the mathematics and theory, lets hit the highlights, okay?" Harry said and Lyle nodded. Suppose our mystery field is initially in the conformal vacuum state originally defined by Birrell and Davies. Using first order perturbation theory, the number density of created particles is given by performing a series of calculations to determine the conformal coupling parameter, and when you factor in time, which runs over a range of values from the 'in' region where the vacuum is defined to the 'out' region where the particles can be examined, you can gain a data set that defines velocity in the Plank Universe, which when plotted looks just like an inverted velocity diagram for tachyon acceleration to zero-energy at infinite velocity." Lyle's eyes seemed to glaze over for a few moments, but he nodded for Harry to continue. "So if you use that data set to solve for the scale factor, choosing a range of integration that includes the instant of tachyon disappearance, you find that the integral diverges exactly like they do in the laboratory. This result suggests that the tachyon disappearance induces dramatic effects in the quantum vacuum of the scalar field - a 'quantum flash' - the formal divergence being quenched by the smearing values implicit in assuming a thermal distribution of tachyons. Of course, the use of perturbation theory is obviously inconsistent with this equation, and therefore may understate the particle creation effect. The extent to which this is the case will depend on the assumptions made about the smearing of values required by demanding a distribution of initial tachyon energies. Second, if a parameter is chosen to make the scalar field conformally invariant, corresponding most closely to, say,that of the electromagnetic field, then the right hand side of our equation vanishes. So the burst of particle production requires the breaking of conformal symmetry. In a more realistic model, conformal symmetry might be broken even when taking into account departures from homogeneity and isotropy in the disappearance of the tachyons." "We can therefore conduct a stress-energy-momentum tensor of the scalar field evaluated in our conformal vacuum, by representing an intense surge of quantum vacuum energy, through quantum excitation and the observation of quantum bonding, resulting in an intense period of tachyon creation events leading to a seemingly observable sustainability of the observable tachyon streams. This can be proven once the tachyons have disappeared, as this should cause this undefined quantum vacuum energy to fall back to a negligible value." "Irregularities in the tachyon background would lead to local 'hot spots' of particle creation that might have observable consequences. Stronger effects could to be associated with the vacuum energy, even in the case of conformal symmetry as might apply to, for example, photons. But this effect is transient, limited to the epoch of tachyon disappearance." Harry finished with a smile. "Sorry Harry, but I think you lost me somewhere around quantum flash." Lyle said, "I've never even heard of a quantum flash." Harry frowned and then changed tack, making the explanation as simple as possible. "I suspect that we have here is a pocket of dark matter, which I am calling a quantum vacuum field, which is interacting perpetually through a time dilation with a high-yield gamma burst from the magnetar, which has resulted in a quantum burst that generates tachyons as a side affect. Because the interactive quantum materials are nearly unobservable themselves, we only see those interactions as tachyon formation events. The time dilation, may be a result of a phase variance or maybe a side affect of the interaction, I can't say for certain, but if you imagine a bubble of dark matter filled with energy that was just pierced by a dart of extremely powerful quantum energy, the result might well be the stream of constant tachyons that we are seeing everywhere, despite the lack of observable quantum stimuli to procreate the tachyon formation event." Harry explained in a very simplified manner. "Okay, Lyle said then with a sigh, "I get it now, even if the theory and the math are way beyond me. What does that mean for us?" "I have absolutely no idea." Harry responded, "but at least I have an idea where the power may have gone." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Onyx, Deck 6, Crew Quarters, Marine Sniper 3rd Lt Aurik Barsh, 2041) Barsh felt himself shiver with the cold on the ship, even though his BDU regulated his body temperature. Aurik kept running into these phenomena. For what seemed like the thousandth time he started a new log of spectral activity "Computer, log taccorder scans for past several minutes and record message: Phenomenon experienced - Red and gold lights sighted swirling in sleeping chamber, children's laughter heard along with phenomenon. Laughter seemed ethereal and ghostly. Phenomenon dissapated shortly after my sighting and hearing it. End recording and send to science teams." Having finished his recording Aurik went back after the MXO. "Ricky!" Brash turned at his childhood nickname. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (USS Onyx, Deck 4, Marine Sniper 3rd Lt Aurik Barsh, 2041.5) "Anther? Where are you?" Aurik followed the sound out of the crew quarters and down the hall. He kept his scatter gun at the ready but he was puzzled by the presence of his friend. "Ricky, come and play!" Aurik felt a shiver go down his spine as Anther led him onward, laughing. "Anther! Wait!" Aurik started running after the small boy - Aurik forgot that his childhood friend should no longer be a child. He saw the boy flit down another corridor and followed - running into a horror scene. A Takaran Wildebeast had Anther between its jaws and was rending the boy as he screamed. "NOO!" Aurik screamed as he let loose with his scatter gun. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- end compile