Issue One, Act One
Day of the Portal
Scene Two
Fate of an Enterprise
"Captain's log, supplemental, September 15, 2076. Captain Charles Briggs reporting on the A.K.S. Enterprise-C. Boring, boring and more boring; that's how I describe this mission. We have been out here for a month looking for life, but all we find are lifeless lumps of rock. There was an asteroid with crystallized bacteria on it a few light years back, and I'm sad to say that's the most excitement we've had, enough to declare it an official holiday, but that's not real life. Most of the crew wants to go home, but that's not happening soon. I, too, want to go home and see my wife and kids. All I can hope for is some excitement... preferably something higher on the evolutionary scale than plankton. We should at least be waiting on the other side of the galaxy for an attack from the Almerac and Skrull."
His rant was shattered by an abruptly violent shaking, rattling the captain's tea off a side table next to his chair onto the floor; it broke into millions of pieces and tea spilled out, moving back and forth with the ship.
The captain screamed out, "What in hell is going on?"
A young ensign replied, "Some kind of disturbance in this sector."
"You think? What kind of disturbance?"
"I don't know, sir."
"Captain," chimed the science officer, "...I believe this is some kind of inter-dimensional disturbance. I suggest we move away."
"Good idea, lieutenant. Helmsman, back us off."
"Yes, sir," replied the Helmsman.
As he started up the engines, the ship began to shake more violently, forcing the captain to bark out, "Now what!"
"There is some kind of force pulling and pushing us consecutively; that is why we are shaking," said the science officer, pointing droopily to the main viewing screen.
As they gazed, no one crewmember knew how to reply to the distorted vision they saw before them, not even Captain Briggs as first. The captain took a few investigative steps forward from his chair, eyeballing everything within the screen, and able to identify none of it. It was truly transparent, almost ghost-like in this dead sea of space that the Enterprise drifted in. The disturbance, still unnamed by the crew, carried varied shades of smoky blues and greens, and would periodically blip in and out, sometimes disappearing completely for seconds at a time before returning. It didn't move, not one inch. It was there to stare at the Enterprise, and for the crew to do likewise as the ship continued its forced descent towards it. The captain's strong confidence shattered the suspense.
"Fine, we'll just have to be more forceful than this disturbance. Helmsman- "
"Sir, that my not be a good idea. It could be our engines that is causing the disturbance," interrupted the science officer.
It was something Captain Briggs had already theorized, the first thing in fact. And if it was the Enterprise's doing, he thought, then it would be a simple matter for the Engineering, a task they would welcome to endure in this dead-stumped adventure, but, he considered, just what if it weren't that simple?
Captain Briggs negotiated with himself, debating the risks in an instance's notice, noting the evidence so far, most primarily, the sickening feeling developing in his gut. It was time to decide.
"Well, there is only one way to find out. Helmsman, activate the Hyper- Drive and go to Mach 1."
"Yes, sir."
As they would soon discover to their utter regret, the disturbance had maintained too strong of a grip around the Starship. It was being vacuumed towards this unknown spatial phenomenon.
"All power to engines," fired the captain.
But the science officer yelled out, "No, it's the engines that are causing this. We must stop them now!"
Briggs was trapped in between decisions. His crew knew the Enterprise better than those who built it.
"Maybe your right....Helmsman, stop engines."
"I can't! None of my controls work."
"What?!" yelled the captain.
"I can't stop it; we are being pulled in."
"I'm reading some kind of life on the other side of that portal and I don't think it's friendly," said the science officer.
The readings were naturally unclear, but the science officer could make out vague portions of what he guessed was another vessel; one that he'd never seen the class of in his life. He could see the shades of blue which covered it, and what almost looked like the letter "M" embedded in red on the vessel's back side.
Upon hearing that, the captain yelled out, "Red Alert! All hands to battle stations, raise shie-"
And as abruptly as the disturbance appeared, it was equally abrupt of the manner in which the crew and technology of the A.K.S Enterprise-C vanished from outer space. All that was left behind was echoes of ship debris and the disturbance left to itself. But the sudden silencing of an adventurer's voice was a common pastime in the silence of space.
Scene Two
Fate of an Enterprise
"Captain's log, supplemental, September 15, 2076. Captain Charles Briggs reporting on the A.K.S. Enterprise-C. Boring, boring and more boring; that's how I describe this mission. We have been out here for a month looking for life, but all we find are lifeless lumps of rock. There was an asteroid with crystallized bacteria on it a few light years back, and I'm sad to say that's the most excitement we've had, enough to declare it an official holiday, but that's not real life. Most of the crew wants to go home, but that's not happening soon. I, too, want to go home and see my wife and kids. All I can hope for is some excitement... preferably something higher on the evolutionary scale than plankton. We should at least be waiting on the other side of the galaxy for an attack from the Almerac and Skrull."
His rant was shattered by an abruptly violent shaking, rattling the captain's tea off a side table next to his chair onto the floor; it broke into millions of pieces and tea spilled out, moving back and forth with the ship.
The captain screamed out, "What in hell is going on?"
A young ensign replied, "Some kind of disturbance in this sector."
"You think? What kind of disturbance?"
"I don't know, sir."
"Captain," chimed the science officer, "...I believe this is some kind of inter-dimensional disturbance. I suggest we move away."
"Good idea, lieutenant. Helmsman, back us off."
"Yes, sir," replied the Helmsman.
As he started up the engines, the ship began to shake more violently, forcing the captain to bark out, "Now what!"
"There is some kind of force pulling and pushing us consecutively; that is why we are shaking," said the science officer, pointing droopily to the main viewing screen.
As they gazed, no one crewmember knew how to reply to the distorted vision they saw before them, not even Captain Briggs as first. The captain took a few investigative steps forward from his chair, eyeballing everything within the screen, and able to identify none of it. It was truly transparent, almost ghost-like in this dead sea of space that the Enterprise drifted in. The disturbance, still unnamed by the crew, carried varied shades of smoky blues and greens, and would periodically blip in and out, sometimes disappearing completely for seconds at a time before returning. It didn't move, not one inch. It was there to stare at the Enterprise, and for the crew to do likewise as the ship continued its forced descent towards it. The captain's strong confidence shattered the suspense.
"Fine, we'll just have to be more forceful than this disturbance. Helmsman- "
"Sir, that my not be a good idea. It could be our engines that is causing the disturbance," interrupted the science officer.
It was something Captain Briggs had already theorized, the first thing in fact. And if it was the Enterprise's doing, he thought, then it would be a simple matter for the Engineering, a task they would welcome to endure in this dead-stumped adventure, but, he considered, just what if it weren't that simple?
Captain Briggs negotiated with himself, debating the risks in an instance's notice, noting the evidence so far, most primarily, the sickening feeling developing in his gut. It was time to decide.
"Well, there is only one way to find out. Helmsman, activate the Hyper- Drive and go to Mach 1."
"Yes, sir."
As they would soon discover to their utter regret, the disturbance had maintained too strong of a grip around the Starship. It was being vacuumed towards this unknown spatial phenomenon.
"All power to engines," fired the captain.
But the science officer yelled out, "No, it's the engines that are causing this. We must stop them now!"
Briggs was trapped in between decisions. His crew knew the Enterprise better than those who built it.
"Maybe your right....Helmsman, stop engines."
"I can't! None of my controls work."
"What?!" yelled the captain.
"I can't stop it; we are being pulled in."
"I'm reading some kind of life on the other side of that portal and I don't think it's friendly," said the science officer.
The readings were naturally unclear, but the science officer could make out vague portions of what he guessed was another vessel; one that he'd never seen the class of in his life. He could see the shades of blue which covered it, and what almost looked like the letter "M" embedded in red on the vessel's back side.
Upon hearing that, the captain yelled out, "Red Alert! All hands to battle stations, raise shie-"
And as abruptly as the disturbance appeared, it was equally abrupt of the manner in which the crew and technology of the A.K.S Enterprise-C vanished from outer space. All that was left behind was echoes of ship debris and the disturbance left to itself. But the sudden silencing of an adventurer's voice was a common pastime in the silence of space.