However, when the Excalibur was dragged into the Anomaly, Edison and the rest of the crew didn't feel anything. Was this what death felt like? Not being to feel anything at all? Edison had his eyes closed when suddenly, he felt something hit him in the face. He opened his eyes. "What the hell w-" He said before he stopped himself after realizing that he was talking. He wasn't dead! Nor was the bridge gone, and so too the crew! After looking throughout the bridge, he saw that a PADD hit him, which was now floating in mid-air like it was weightless. "Number One?" He called to Atathia. "Captain?! You're-?!" She exclaimed. "You're al-! No, we're alive!" She exclaimed. "It appears we are Number One; however, the Anomaly must've knocked out the gravity control systems. We have to get them up as soon as possible." Commanded Edison. "Already ahead of you, Captain, starting a full systems restart." Responded Atathia, working on her station. "What I don't understand, however, is…." Edison started thinking. "…why are we still alive? And better yet… where are we?" Questioned Edison in his thoughts. These questions raced across his mind as his First Officer worked tirelessly to regain control of the vessel. Finally, Atathia spoke to her commanding officer. "Sir! I've managed to get ship communications back online," Atathia responded Jubilantly. "Yes, Number One! Bridge to Engineering! What are we looking at down there?"
Commanded Edison. "We could be doin' better dahn 'ere Captain, mate! The bloomin' Anomaly must've knocked the bleedin' main energizers as we were sucked in; I'll give it a go 'ave auxiliary power in a couple of minutes!" Alastair informed the Captain. "Get it back, Edison Out," Edison spoke as he ended the call. Soon Afterwards, Edison began to speak again in a commanding tone. "Bridge to Sickbay, report." "Captain, we must get gravity systems back online; we have to hold some patients ourselves." Informed Kylkuc. "Chief Engineer Lavanchy is still working on it; we'll be able to have it working in some time." Informed Edison. "It is imperative that he does so. Kylkuc out." Kylkuc added before his voice disappeared.
"Sir. We are getting reports from the crew." Rolf informed as he was receiving transmissions from all over the Ship.
"What are they reporting, Lieutenant?"
"Reports of… a dark red expanse." Informed Rolf.
Edison was taken aback by the report. "Red… Expanse?" he slowly questioned.
"Correct, sir, that is what they're reporting." Reaffirmed Rolf.
Edison was in total confusion as they looked forward to the blank view screen. Dark Red Expanse? They indeed weren't in the dark blacking space that they were so accustomed to; they were somewhere new, somewhere where possibly no one had gone before. Edison wondered what laid ahead of the blank emptiness of the view screen above him, perhaps something that had never been discovered early. "Lieutenant, are you able to get the viewscreen back up?" Edison asked. "Aye, Sir, the front of us should be on screen," Rolf said as he worked at his console. And before finally, the viewscreen shot to live and revealed what lay ahead for our intrepid crew. It was… the same dark red expanse that Rolf informed the Captain about. She'rl looked deeply into the stretch. "That's something you don't see every day." She commented before a red alert started to scream on her console.
ALTITUDE CRITICAL- 3000 METERS AND DROPPING. ETA TO SURFACE IN 2.36 MINUTES.
She'rl's heart nearly exploded when she saw the alert. They weren't in space; they were falling! "Captain!" She yelled to Edison. Edison jumped when he heard his name cried. "What is this it?!" He Exclaimed.
"We aren't in Space, Captain! We're falling! And in 2 and half minutes, we're going to hit the surface!" She explained in a worried and fast-paced tone.
Edison had a mix of confusion and fear explode on his face. "Change View, Bearing 270. On-screen." Commanded Edison. The View Screen display changed from a dark red empty expanse to clouds that were approaching rapidly. "She'rl, you're right, we're falling!" Edison exclaimed, knowing that they still weren't out of the jaws of death. "Maximum Thrusters, Lieutenant!" Edison commanded. "I can't, Captain! Helm Controls are still offline!" Informed She'rl in a worried tone. "Bridge to Engineering! We have to get those Thrusters up!" He commanded.
"Aye, Sir! We're tryin' us best to get them back online. We 'ad to do a full systems reboot; they should be online in three minutes."
"We don't have three minutes! In 2 minutes and 15 seconds, we're going to smash into the surface of wherever we are!" Explained Edison.
"Aye! Just let me think…."
"We don't have time to think, Alastair! We need to get the implode engines online right now!" Loudly commanded Edison.
As Edison commanded his order, the Excalibur Passed through the clouds of this unknown world; they were unable to the large amounts of smoke, and that their viewscreen was back at its original viewing position.
"W-Wait! I could bypass the Impulse control through the RCS subsystems to perform an explosive jumpstart to the Impulse reactors! It's dangerous, but if it works, it should be able to restart the Impulse Engines!" Informed Alastair.
"But I should tell yer that the bloody last time this occurred, right, the bloomin' USS Antares was destroyed!"
"Captain! We're at 1,500 meters and dropping!" Worryingly informed She'rl.
"Just do it, Lieutenant!" He commanded Alastair.
"Aye, Captain! Performing Impulse jumpstart!"
Back in leading engineering, Alastair worked at the RCS control panel and made it so that it tied into the impulse engines to explosively restart the engines. "Initiating Impulse Jumpstart, hold onto somethin' lads!" He informed as he activated the RCS Impulse reaction. Immediately, a thunderous explosion fell in the back of the saucer section, with the crewmen being thrown to the ground like a football. After what was like an hour of tense uncertainty, the impulse engines roared to life.
"Sir! Impulse Power is back online!" Informed She'rl to Edison.
"Yes, Alastair! Maximum Thrusters Lieutenant!" Commanded Edison, who was clutching his seat as hard as he could.
"Aye!" She'rl responded as she engaged the Thrusters.
Immediately all crew members who didn't fasten themselves down directly smashed into the floor below. A force pushed all of the crew seemingly into the floor.
"8-800 meters to surface…." She'rl struggled to be informed as she was pushed against her station.
"650 Meters, Captain… we're slowing down." Said She'rl, now being able to get back from her previous position.
The Excalibur creaked as the Thrusters slowed it down from smashing into the surface. "Structural Integrity at 60 Percent Captain."
"632 meters… we should be stopping in a bit." Informed She'rl as the pull of the gravity slowly began to lessen on the crew.
The creaking began to finally subside as the Ecalixbur started to slow down as they began to slowly stabilize as they passed through the smoke.
"Captain, we've stopped Atmospheric Stabilizers has put at around… 540 meters above where ever we are," She'rl informed Edison.
"Shields are back up, Captain," Xehrarv informed the Captain.
"Captain… you might want to see this," Atathia called to the Captain.
Edison unbuckled himself from his chair began to walk to his first officer's station.
"What is it, Number One?" He asked, hunched over her station.
"I've conducted Life Sign scans of the surrounding area, and it says that they're at least 18 Million Life signs just in a 50 Mile Radius!" Informed Atathia.
"18 Million?" Edison said, aghast. Such a population in a small area was unheard of, even in the largest federation worlds.
Looking Forward to the screen, he couldn't see much. Pollution from the city has made seeing past the Excalibur challenge. However, he could see very faint outlines of street lights and buildings.
"Helm set a course, Mark 2-" Edison commanded before the Ship suddenly shook. "What the hell was that?!" Edison called out as he went back to his chair. "There seemed to be an external explosion off our port side," explained Xehrarv. "Visual." Commanded Edison. The viewscreen then changed to be looking down at the smoke, with what seemed to be red circles passing through it and exploding, causing another shake. "Something seems to be throwing a hand-based projectile." Added Xehrarv. "Navigational Systems and Interial Dampeners are coming back online!" Informed She'rl.
"We need to get out of here. There's no telling what these… things will do next. She'rl, set a course, Mark 090. One Quater Impulse." Commanded Edison.
"Aye Sir, course plotted and laid in." Responded She'rl.
Edison sat back in his chair. "Engage." He Commanded as he pointed his finger towards the viewscreen of the bridge.
The Impulse engines erupted to life as the Excalibur soared upwards to the sky at tremendous velocities, causing a sonic boom as it faded out of view.
However, as they climbed towards the surface for around a minute, She'rl console began to bleep. "Captain, I'm detecting something in front of us." Informed She'rl.
"What do you mean Lieutenant? There's nothing ahead of us but clear-" Edison questioned before he cut off by the collision detection system on She'rl console started to beep.
COLLISION IMMINENT. ETA TO COLLISION IN 10 SECONDS.
"What the fu-?! Full stop!" Edison loudly commanded as She'rl cut out the Impulse engines and triggered the External Inertial dampener so that the Excalibur would turn to a stop. What they saw or rather detected then truly fascinated the crew. It was clear, appearing something like glass, with faint traces of some kind of unknown energy pulsating in it, creating a barrier.
"Conduct Preilimentry Scans." Directed Edison.
"Aye, Captain," Atathia responded as she administered the scans on her station. The scans revealed that the roof was made of solid energy, which was utterly alien in all ways.
"Captain, it appears to be made of some form of energy or power in which Starfleet hasn't encountered before," she explained.
Edison was more and more confused by the second as they were here. Extremely Hostile Residents? High Levels of Pollution? Cramped Living Spaces? Some unknowen new Energy? It was starting to sound like a Dystopian Fantasy.
"Scan for any traces for subspace interferences; it might give us an idea of how we got to wherever we are." He ordered.
"Aye," Atathia responded as she scanned the area for any interferences. Suddenly her console began to emit a signal that alerted her of subspace interference. "I found it, sir. Bearing 147, Mark 35. It's around 40,000 Kilometers away. Its subspace distortions are similar to those of the Anomaly." Informed Atathia.
"Sh'erl set a course to that location. 1/4 Impulse That might be our ticket to find out what the hell is going on. Engage." He commanded.
"Aye, Sir." She followed as she inputted the course and directions onto her console.
The Excalibur would then turn away from the so-called "barrier" and blasted away at impulse, traveling its way to the interference, and hopefully, their way to find out wherever they are and how they can escape and rejoin with the world they were kidnapped from.