Location – Starbase 174, Hydrae Sector
"Admiral, the three ships we sent out has the Eclipse in tow, they're coming back now." Said a young dark haired woman at an operations console. The Admiral turned from another officer."Oh, good. Hail the Eclipse." Admiral Dayton said to the Ensign. The Ensign nodded then worked her boards for a moment.
The Admiral turned back to the officer beside him. "When they arrive, tell them to dock inside around docking bay 12 it's clear I believe." The yellow uniformed man nodded and took notes with his padd.
"Good, that'll be all thank you." The Officer nodded again and left the control tower, or OPS, and walked into a turbo lift. The operations officers later said. "Channel open Admiral. Captain Sutherland is responding."
The Admiral walked towards the view screen and stood there. "Captain." He said simply.
The view screen was focused on the image of the captain. The bridge was a little dark than usual but the figures were clearly identified. "Yes Admiral?"
The Captain of the Eclipse responded.
"I see you're ahead of schedule, you will be docking in bay 12, have your people notified, they'll be spending good time on Starbase 174." The Admiral grinned, the Captain returned it with a smile.
"Good to hear Admiral, we'll be arriving in less than 5 minutes at this speed." The Admiral nodded. The screen fizzed and reverted back to a image of space."
Admiral Dayton grinned again and looked at the operations officer at her console. "Inform repair crews that they are to repair the Eclipse once it docks." The young woman looked up and nodded then tapped a couple of buttons into her console.
The lights in sickbay were dim. Too dim for John Welch's taste, the power on the deck hasn't been restored yet but the ship was working at least. The Doctor buzzed from patient to patient with hyposprays and tricorders with the medical staff, the biobeds were lid to maximize protection for the patients in them. The patients had various injuries, from heavy scrapes, large incisions and lacerations to broken bones and fractured skulls. The doctor scanned the patient on biobed 4 he frowned at the scan results and shot a glance at his assistant.
"He's dead. Get him to a safe place in my office, we need all the biobeds." He said grimly. The assistant took a deep breath and nodded, two other assistants grabbed the dead patient's arms and legs then lifted the lifeless body to the Chief medical officer's office.
John Welch sighed and helped to lift another patient to the deserted biobed. He began his scans again and continued his work. He checked the scan results and breathed more easily. "This one is ok, dermal regenerator and he's good to go." He left biobed 4 to another one in the back. He did the same routine. The assistance ran around like bees in a hive working hard and fast to restore people to health.
Doctor Welch finished his scans and looked about nervously. He motioned to one of the passing assistants and yelled a quick word. "Hyronalyn!" The medic blinked then nodded and scurried off to the chemical tray. A second later the medic was back with a hypospray in his hand. John Welch nodded and took the hypospray with out looking back. He scanned the patient again and pressed the hypospray to the patient's neck. The medical device hissed as its cargo, Hyronalyn, is delivered into the patient's blood.
Hyronalyn, a chemical used to treat radiation poisoning a patient may have. The Doctor placed the hypospray forcibly in to the medic's hands then he scurried off again to help another patient resting on another biobed. John Welch's frown relaxed as the patient recovered from his ordeal with radiation.
Sickbay was now chaos as medics and doctors ran around the biobeds and lifting patients into and off the biobeds, the chemical trays were now being shoved and pulled in all directions. Hyposprays being handled, chemicals being injected and refilled John saw all of this and ran to another patient, he was doing his right, he noted. The brilliant dance of medics, chemicals, patients and medical devices continued.
Somewhere on deck 3, an unconscious Max Barton laid on the floor. The deck plating around him was covered with blood and burnt uniform and a ruptured plasma conduit. Another officer lay by the blown away panel, he wore a yellow uniform and had a deep gash in his forehead that was now bleeding. The blood seeped down from the deep wound on to his face and dripped on to his pants, the man didn't move.
"Oh, my head." The Junior Commander groaned then sat up backing his back onto a bulkhead that was also covered with burns. His eyes were still closed. He opened them and looked around, the lights in this section were operating it was quite bright. He winced and looked to his left a corridor lead down and turned to right. He turned to look at his right and got up. The junior lieutenant's eyes were lifelessly open, the blood continue to ooze out of a gash in his head, the red liquid dripped down and covered a small area around him. He was quite dead.
Commander Barton sighed and took the lieutenant's arms and lifted him on to his shoulders then applied his hand to the gash on the man's forehead with a little force, the bleeding was blocked. He looked at his uniform, which was now redder with the man's blood. He walked down the corridor and turned left.
On the bridge of the Eclipse things were looking brighter the lights were now fully operational and the debris and bulkhead pieces that fell during the impact of the wave were now nicely tucked into the Captain's Ready room. Captain Sutherland worked in the back with a couple of officers discussing the repairs and reports. Helm and operations were abandoned, as was just about every other console the bridge, almost all of the officers were either cleaning up the mess or continuing with repairs in the side or in the back.
"How much more power can we get from the Warp Core right now? Safely I might add." The Captain asked a yellow uniformed man with a beard. He shook his head.
"I don't know sir, I say we can raise it back to 60 but 61 is pushing it. The core containment has been reinforced but I don't know if they'd hold if we increase reaction rate." The bearded man conferred with his padd and another engineer beside him, they both seemed to be in an agreement.
"Hmm... Understood, keep it at around 60% for now, any problems shut it down, now what other power generators do we have that is safely functional?" The other man nodded.
"We resorted to the rest of our fusion reactors, they don't pump out much power but it is enough to the containment and replicator systems on their toes. And after we activated the other 4 we kept main power steady at 46% and restored power to shields." The Captain nodded again.
"Looks good men. How are repairs?" The other engineer noted it was his turn and continued with help from his padd.
"The power is stable however we've taxed out some of other auxiliary ESP conduit. Decks 26 to 30 are losing lights, gravity plating and life support, we've evacuated the decks but we don't know how much people were in there. Warp Engines have been locked down and powered down, the plasma leaks are sealed, ship-wide communications have also been restored except to unpowered areas shields are back online if they're needed. Structural integrity has also been reinforced. Overall I'd say we're looking at a few days of repair, hours when we arrive at the star base."
Captain Sutherland smiled. "Good work. How is Chief Stiles?" The engineers looked at one another. "In sickbay, the Doctor didn't let us stay. He said it'd disrupt his work." Sutherland sighed then blinked. "Ah, good then hopefully he is there already. I wonder how many lost their lives today." The engineers were silent. "Sorry, lost in thought. Carry on."
The engineers nodded then left the bridge. He walked towards a collapsed duranium beam and held the small piece of metal in his hands. He looked upon its burns and areas where it was once connected to a stem bolt in the ceiling and wondered what would happen if the ship were as fragile as this piece of metal would be now. He shook his head and dismissed the thought. He walked back to his smudged chair and laid the piece of metal in it, as a reminder of this event. He was going to keep the metal as souvenir.
Two cloaked Romulan Warbirds lurked in the neutral zone and crept into Federation space. Commander S'Vok sat in his chair on the bridge of the Javlek, his energy was renewed and his eyes were filled with fire of determination.
"Status on the Lloann'Na vessels?" He barked.
The operations officer turned and nodded. "They have arrived at Starbase 174 and have docked in its bay."
The Commander frowned then nodded. His mind was racing, he needed another way to lure their ships out to the neutral zone then capture them. It would bring the empire great goods of all categories.
Sub commander K'vlove turned to see his commander he wondered why this mission of investigation made him so furious and determined at the same time. It was after all only 1 ship and 2 lost Warbirds. But he knew if S'Vok ever returned to the Empire empty handed and lost large amounts of resources he would be stripped of his rank and his head will hung in shame.
K'vlove knew what S'Vok was doing, he was going to equalize the equation, he was going to have those ships, one-way or the other. K'vlove was concerned, this perhaps would be a template for a successful mission but if they fail, their lives could be lost. The Sub commander monitored his instruments and kept his thoughts going, if this happened, it could provoke a Federation Romulan war.
Something broke his sequence of thoughts. "Commander, the energy field that destroyed 3 of our ships has increased in diameter its over 700 meters now. The Radiation around that area has increased by 300% and increasing exponentially." S'Vok raised an eyebrow.
"Cause?"
"Unknown. The readings are going off of our instruments. I recommend we keep our distance." The Sub commander reported hastily.
"Helm, maintain distance between us and that thing, at least a million kilometers." The Commander ordered. The young Romulan centurion tapped his console.
The Warbird shifted its position and entered deeper into Federation space with another ship closely behind it.
The pulsating energy field seems to be expanding at an accelerated rate now it spat out radiation and a little bit of debris when it destroyed and eaten 3 Warbirds.
"The Eclipse has docked. Repair crews have been dispatched as well as medical teams." The young woman at operations reported. Admiral Dayton nodded and turned to leave the control tower. He stepped into a turbo lift and ordered for the docking ports.
The Eclipse finished its docking procedures now it was latched on to a docking strut inside the big Starbase dome. The crew began to evacuate the ship in an orderly fashion through the air locks and transporters. Things were still busy in engineering and sickbay and bridge but the station personnel were already dispatched to help to heal and repair the wounded and the ship.
The lights in Sickbay were now on full, the biobeds were all filled with patients. Max Barton was standing by the doctor as he treated the ship's first officer. Jack Stiles was also out in another biobed in the aft areas of sickbay. Numerous other crewmen laid on numerous biobeds receiving treatment.
John Welch the chief medical officer had been working for a long time to restore health to all the wounded crewmembers that were now under his care. After clearing another patient he finally noticed Max Barton and the dead officer in his arms. He stopped and examined the officer.
He nodded and pointed to his office Max understood and brought the man in his arms to the Doctor's office and laid him down then walked out.
"How many?" Barton asked. The Doctor took a moment to refresh his memory. Then continued to work on the patients, using the equipment and chemicals as fast as he could.
"8 so far. I don't know how many more could be dead on the lower decks." John Welch grimaced. Commander Barton nodded then got out of the way to let the doctor work he walked out of sickbay and headed for a nearby air lock.
The Doctor fought valiantly with the medical equipment in his hands and around sickbay but 8 have already perished how many more would it be? Welch was grief stricken as the medical staff from the station barged in on the Doctor and the patients. Doctor Welch looked up and cocked an eyebrow.
The leading officer stuck out a hand, she was taller him and more vibrant than he was right now, he took her hand and shook it limply. Chief Medical Officer Trell Erias looked at him with a troubled look. The Doctor ignored the other medical team and continued to treat the wounded that was all around him.
The Trill medical chief took this as her greetings then looked to the rest of he staff. "Get all the wounded stabilized and transported to the station infirmary." A bearded man nodded. "Right away doctor." The team behind the Trill dispersed and each began to inspect the wounded patients on the biobeds.
Erias stood by Welch who seems troubled with the patient. "He's slipping out of my fingers." The troubled Doctor said quietly. The Station medical chief took a peak at the tricorder readings then handed the Doctor a hypospray.
John took the hypospray and nodded. "I know, my only choice." He wielded the hypospray and stuck it firmly in the patients arm. The patient, a short man with a teal shirt, started to convulse for a second then relaxed. John Welch scanned the man again and sighed.
"Thank you, he's going to be fine." He said to his station counterpart who merely smiled at the comment. "Now we move them to the Starbase as soon as possible." The Erias said.
"Are you sure you're going to get all of them? Even the ones that may have been trapped in the lower decks?" Welch sounded more skeptical then depressed but Erias nodded confidently.
"Please Doctor. We're here to assist you. We'll begin the evacuation now, would you like to join us?" Erias offered.
"Of course, I need to keep an eye on my patients." The Doctor said flatly, sighed and gathered his used equipment and set it on the tray. The station medical staff did an efficient job at stabilizing the wounded they nodded to the chief that the patients were ready for transport.
"Good work, inform transporter room to directly to the infirmary." Erias said. The bearded assistant nodded then took a count when he was satisfied he tapped his communicator.
"Pryaor to transporter 7, 38 to beam directly to sickbay." The communicator beeped as soon the order was issued. A second later sickbay was deserted.
Admiral Dayton was standing by the window in the briefing room, the rest of Eclipse's senior staff sat in the chairs behind him. The Admiral turned and took a seat in the front then waited for them to quiet down.
"Okay, you encountered them first, what can you tell me about this?" Admiral tapped a panel to activate the holographic display. The display turned on a pulsating circular image appeared, it was moving, probably a record from some time. Sutherland noted. The Admiral turned back.
"I also got Romulans who claim that you destroyed 3 of their ships and that really seem impossible." The admiral got a round of smirks and coughs. "So the question is what did happen out there today?" Sutherland shrugged then explained from start to finish about what happened. The cloaking malfunction, the energy singularity and the strange distortion in the neutral zone.
The Admiral nodded then sagged into his chair, he was perplexed beyond comprehension. The rest of the senior staff told the rest the tale from different locations of the ship. An hour passed before the Admiral got tired with all the speculations and theories, he stood up. "Get some rest every one we reconvene here in 1700 hours, I'll gather my scientists and we'll compare notes. Dismissed." The rest of them noted, got then left the briefing. All except Captain Sutherland and Doctor Welch. The Admiral stood there.
"Gentlemen?"
John Welch looked up. "How many did we lose?" The Captain glanced at his medical chief.
"The number is not certain yet the engineering teams reported they rescued all of them trapped in the lower decks. I'll have a report filed in 10 minutes." The Doctor nodded and stood up.
"Thanks. I think I'll wait 10 more." The Admiral nodded and turned to face Captain Sutherland. "You want some thing too?" The Captain stood up then sighed.
"No, just thinking, thank you all." The three men left the briefing room, Sutherland turned to head for the mess hall, and Doctor Welch followed the Admiral to the control tower.
"Admiral on deck." A short yellow uniformed woman said when Dayton stepped on to the bridge. "Please, carry on." The Admiral casually said and led the Doctor to a console.
"I know losing people isn't exciting but if it will make you sleep better knowing the casualty, wait here for the number, it should be here any second now." The Doctor said nothing but stare at the console, waiting.
They waited 2 minutes then the data came up. The Doctor sighed and relieved breath. "Thank you Admiral and your personnel." John looked at the number again just to be sure it was correct. "Nine." The Admiral nodded.
"The engineering crews found no one on those lower decks, I guess I should commend your security department for evacuating them fast. Unfortunately, Lieutenant Cofile did not survive. His wounds were too severe to be treated in time."
"His heart was failing. I know." The Admiral patted the Doctor on his shoulder. "Get some sleep." The Doctor looked up then stumbled into the turbo lift. His duty was finished for now, and he could sleep now knowing the others will still live when awake, but nine will not. This reminder was added to various other reminders he had in his past. It would take time for him to recover but he will recover.
"Lewis." The Captain shook his first officer's arm. "Sutherland to Wellington. Report." The Captain mused. The first officer winced then opened his eyes to meet with the captain's gaze.
"Whoa, what did I drink last night?" The first officer grinned widely then began to sat up Sutherland placed a firm hand on his shoulders and pushed gently downward. Wellington gave up and lied by down.
"Okay what happened? Where's John?" He paused then chuckled. "Where am I?"
"You're in the infirmary aboard Starbase 174." Wellington relaxed as his captain explained their current situation to him or rather how the current situation resolved and the casualty report.
"All in a day's work huh?" The captain's grave expression remained. Wellington cut off his silliness and nodded. "When are we expecting a memorial service for the nine?"
"Tomorrow, 0900 hours holodeck 6. There's a meeting in a few hours, if you're feeling up to it I'd like you to attend." Captain Sutherland glanced at another biobed. "How's Stiles?" Wellington thought for a moment.
"I remember someone said he was stabilized for transport so I guess he'll be alright. I'll try to attend."
"Good, try your best for now don't over exert yourself, The Eclipse and its wounded are in good hands." Wellington nodded. "They've got a good doctor, Trill I believe." The Captain's solid impressions broke and he smiled.
"Take care for now I have prepare for a briefing."
"Understood."
The Captain turned and left the infirmary. Doctor Erias walked from another biobed to Commander Wellington's.
"How do you feel Commander?" Wellington took a chance and sat up. He felt better then groaned. "What happened to my head? Did some hit me with a bulkhead?" The Trill doctor shook her head.
"Not a bulkhead or else you won't be sane enough to be talking to me. No, you had a minor concussion - a couple of classes caught you in the temple. The Eclipse's CMO told me himself. He said he was with you when the wave hit." Erias couldn't keep the curiosity out of her voice.
Wellington muttered something that wasn't coherent, rubbed his head then nodded. "Now I remember – His synthale glass got me."
"And you smashed your head against your own glass." The Trill Doctor added. Wellington nodded then rubbed his temple again. Though the wound was gone he could still feel tingling sensation when he touched it.
"How is my friend?" Wellington pointed to Jack Stiles, who seems peacefully asleep. Doctor Erias nodded then walked to the chief engineer's biobed and checked his status.
"Fractured right arm, left leg, third degree plasma burns on his left forearm. His condition is stable although we're keeping him here for 20 hours of observation. I must say your Doctor John Welch is a efficient worker." The Trill doctor tried to keep her voice as impassive as she could but failed miserably when her voice spelt out amazement.
"Impressive, eh?" Wellington caught a wind of that amazement and lay back down again. He thought about Welch, Barton and himself the good times they've had as cadets and now senior officers. But deep down he knew only he and Barton were still cadets and Welch was the one who really grown from his work.
There was silence until a gasp broke it. Wellington shot up as if startled by the chief engineer's raspy gasp. Doctor Erias merely turned her head to address the engineer.
"Commander Stiles, how are you feeling?" The Doctor checked the engineer's vitals while she waited for a response.
Jack Stiles, Chief Engineer of The Eclipse looked around with frightened eyes he sat up and stood. His burns were only partially visible and the rest of his wounds were healed, as if they were never inflicted. He looked Wellington then at the nurses then at Trill Doctor then around the infirmary. Wellington sat up and stood up as well.
"Jack?" Wellington spoke softly as if to calm a frightened child. The Engineer stood there with tension hung around him like a blanket.
"W-w-wh-where am I? What is this place?" Doctor Erias placed a hang on the engineer's arms and maneuvered him back on to the biobed the engineer complied with out a word.
"You're on Starbase 174 in the infirmary. If you have any questions regarding your health please ask me or any of my assistants. How are you feeling Commander?"
The Engineer surveyed himself and nodded. "Fine, where's the Eclipse, did she survive?" Wellington walked to his chief engineer and intervened.
"Thanks to your skills and fine trained engineering staff, yes. She's docked with the station. The engineer sighed relieved.
"Thank god." He muttered. "I feel like hell." Wellington smirked.
"Don't we all. Now we now how border-cutters feel when these things happen." Stiles nodded then obediently climbed on to his biobed. Doctor Erias motioned Wellington to do the same. Wellington shook his head.
"I'm fine, thank you Doctor. I have a briefing to prepare as well." The Trill doctor smiled then shook her head. "One more hour then you can go." Wellington knew fighting against the medical staff wouldn't help him when it comes to his physicals so he climbed back into his biobed and lied down as well.
"Good. Now I will finish my scans." The doctor gracefully glided to the biobed scanners and tapped a few commands.
This is going to be a very long hour. Wellington thought to himself and closed his eyes.
"I think you should see this Admiral." The dark hair woman at operations said then tapped a command to transform the main viewer. The main viewer flickered then an image appeared. It was circular almost taking up all the main viewer's space its strange energies vibrated against the dark background. Its energy pulsated. The Admiral stared at the strange phenomenon.
"What is it? ..." He murmured the science officers scrambled at their stations to get a clean reading from the neutral zone. "Its large, 1.63 kilometers in diameter, spherical, its radiating a lot of radiation, scans stop at the interior of it – a dampening field.
The Admiral seemed perplexed by this strange occurrence but noted something that he saw before. "Patch an uplink to The Eclipse's sensor logs, if I am right then what we're seeing is the same thing that created that large subspace shockwave."
The operations officer nodded then worked her boards for a moment and accessed the Eclipse's sensor logs. "You're right Admiral it is the same thing same energy signatures and radiation signatures just ... 600 times stronger."
"600?" The Admiral repeated the statistics.
"Yes, 600." The control tower was silent for a second.
"But what is it?" Admiral took it silence as the answer – which no one knows.
The Admiral stood by the operations console and laid a finger on the station communicator. "Control Tower to Captain Sutherland, report to the CT at once."
It took Sutherland a couple of minutes until he stepped onto the Control tower. He took a position next to Admiral Dayton. Sutherland stared at the pulsating image on the main viewer.
"I thought it reached critical mass and exploded." Admiral Dayton raised an eyebrow at him.
"Apparently it didn't. It's growing, fast I might add." Captain Sutherland blinked.
"How is that possible?"
"We don't know."
"Scans?"
"Inconclusive." One of the science officers answered.
"It seems we have reached an impasse." Said the Admiral
"Indeed." Replied the Captain.
"I hope our meeting at 1700 would be more enlightening. You may go if you wish."
"Noted Admiral." Sutherland nodded then left the control Tower. The door swooshed behind him.
"Science, I want all available data on that thing logged, keep scanning use any means to the most data out of our sensors and scanners. We have to find out if this is a threat or just an misunderstanding." The Admiral said continued to stare at the main viewer.
"Aye sir I'll log all the data into one file." One of the science officers at the science station reported. Admiral Dayton didn't bother to respond he knew his officer's abilities and he trusted in them.
The science officers continued to peck away at their control panels and sensor readouts, they were one crack team aboard the Starbase and they had all the resource they needed to find out what this strange dazzling spectacle of swirling soup of matter and energy is.
The lead science officer compiled a complete report for this experiment and began tapping in notes furiously as the data quickly displayed. He had no time to chat only time to test and get results from them.