The Huygens Incident (Pt. 2 of 3)
Posted on Friday February 8th, 2019 @ 22:57 hours by Mayterial Droz
Mission:
Short Treks
Location: Main Bridge, Deck One, U.S.S. Huygens
Timeline: Stardate: 72830.9
663 words - 1.3 OF Standard Post Measure
Previously
The ship was still slowly rotating from when the thrusters had fired when she woke up. The gaping hole where the viewscreen had been started to give a good view of the black nebula, it was now as inert as she remembered it being when she retired to her quarters this evening.
And now, the continuation:
"When you sign up they can’t stop telling you how big the universe is and all the new things you’re going to experience." A voice came from the corner of the room, he had allowed her to have a moment to herself and was now slowly moving towards her, hoping to be able to ease some of her panic.
"What they neglect to tell you is that it’s trying to kill you." He gave an awkward smirk and reached out to pat her shoulder, "it’s nothing personal, it’s trying to kill me too." The cynical remark was only underlined by his rough voice and stubbled chin.
Naylaa was dumbstruck when she saw the operations officer, she leapt forward and wrapped her arms around him.
"Shut up, you idiot. I thought everyone was dead!" She slapped him on his chest without much actual force, "What happened out here, James?"
"That’s what I’ve been trying to find out myself. I came here the same way you did." James pointed at the Jefferies tube. He then showed her a PaDD.
It was the first display that Naylaa saw that night that was still functioning, she looked at it in awe. Wondering how he had gotten it there. How he had protected it from whatever had entered the ship through the viewscreen, "Any success?"
James pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers and shook his head, "Moments after I got here I lost all connection to the computer."
"Where’s the computer core?"
"Ehm." It took a moment for James to visualise the deck layout.
"Deck two?"
"Yeah. Deck two sounds about right. Why?"
"Whatever did this," Naylaa made a motion with her arms indicating the carnage and death on the bridge, "it came through deck two."
James took in a deep breath and looked around the bridge again, "From all the damage around here it seemed like it was putting out massive jolts of energy. Why would it be attracted to the computer core?"
"What if it wasn't putting out massive currents? What if it was extracting it?" Naylaa had great difficulty doing so but stepped towards the body of the captain. They had stepped out of the ready room but hadn’t gotten far. The marks on the body were consistent with a massive transferral of energy. It was impossible to tell which way it had travelled, "If it feeds on electrical energy then it must’ve gathered strength from the probes we have sent into the nebula for the past two days."
"Gathering enough strength to punch through the shield and hull?" James didn’t seem convinced.
"The shields weren’t active. There was no reason to believe there was anything hostile out there." Naylaa took at least half of the objections away with that, “The bridge is well shielded in a battle but during a regular night shift it’s probably the most active and accessible part of the ship."
"So, let’s say this creature does eat electricity. It went down to the computer core for a little midnight snack. And then?" As if the universe had been waiting for this moment the ship shook again. The forcefield, the only piece of tech that was still active in this moment, flickered.
"The warp core." Both starfleet officers came to the same conclusion in unison, they immediately rushed for the Jefferies tube they had both crawled out of. They needed to stop it before the damage would become catastrophic to the Huygens.
[To be concluded]