Episode 39: The Rupture Zone - Act 9

Game was 1/7/21. A bit zany at times, but it all came together at the end.

Once the Varich is underway Mel notices the tension on the bridge between Armina and Christopher. She asks Armina, "Ready room?" Armina nods and follows Mel to the doors. Christopher calls out, "Captain, what about the potential Oligarchy ship?" Mel tells him, "Do what you can, but right now getting back on track is more important." She then asks, "Phillip? What is the status of the Valiant?" Phillip replies, "The Valiant is taking the lead now, sir."

Mel and Armina settle into the ready room, and Mel asks her, "I have two questions for you. The first is there any way for you to detect other telepaths? Maybe not so much a pattern, but a break in the pattern? Also, I just want to make sure things are alright between you and our acting executive officer?" Armina replies, "Some form of line of sight is required for most telepathic abilities, captain. As for Hall, while I am certainly no fan of his, I will concede that he is learning to take a longer view of things."

Armina adds, "However, I may not be the right person to ask. After all, according to Jen, Alexandria is the shield." Mel shakes her head in frustration and admits that she has no idea what that is supposed to mean. She asks, "Is Alexandria meant to protect everyone on the ship? Or is she here to try and help us find them? Can she do that? Can she be a viewfinder?" Armina shrugs and replies, "Yes, I believe she can be. Her power outstrips mine, but I don't know how powerful this Oligarchy may be."

Mel points out, "I would imagine that they are very powerful. I suspect House Ollikar practices some form of Betazoid eugenics; breeding stronger and stronger telepaths." Armina grumbles, "You are likely right, captain. Not a pleasant thought." Mel agrees and asks, "What was it like, dealing with our older selves?" Armina shakes her head slightly and says, "Honestly, it was over so fast, and you all just mostly spat out nonsense." Mel asks, "And how is Malachi doing?" Armina replies carefully, "He is doing the best he can, but he's grappling with the fact that his entire timeline is gone. Although he knows academically that this Jericho McDougal is not his father, he is still an anchor for Malachi."

While the captain and the senior counselor are off the bridge, Christopher relaxes for the first time in a while before turning to Fal and saying, "I need that science brain of yours. I'm not comfortable leaving a potential Oligarchy vessel roaming the Rupture Zone freely; is there a way for us to track someone while in the Rupture Zone?" Fal replies carefully, "As we have proven many times before, nothing is impossible. But the Rupture Zone obscures a great many details, and this task may be beyond our current capabilities. We'll do our best, but please be aware of the expectation setting is very difficult."

Christopher nods in acceptance and states, "I know, and I appreciate your work." He turns to K'tral and asks, "Is there any way we can use the existing probes to expand the range of our sensors?" K'tral considers the question carefully before replying, "It is certainly possible, but we would need to find one of these probes first." Christopher nods and tells them, "I want both of you on this. Do the best you can."

As Fal and K'tral work together, Phillip continues following the Valiant without issue, and Jessa watches the nerds nerd. It only takes Fal and K'tral a few minutes before they locate a probe nearby. They decide to set up a digital sandbox to uplink to this probe, and quickly debate about using the main computer or the auxiliary computer core that Ssleestak built. They decide to risk the main computer due to the much faster processing speeds and start work on the upload as Mel and Armina return to the bridge. Christopher informs Mel about what he's asked them to do, but as he speaks, he realizes and admits that he doesn't know what he's even looking for. Mel replies, "Apparently, a ship shaped like a dagger." Christopher stares at her for a second and Mel just shrugs.

Down in main engineering, Ssleestak runs down his priority list and decides to amend it. He sends instructions to the crew to be ready to replace the inertial dampeners whenever they reach a pressurized environment, and then he turns to the Oligarchy's temporal and psionic weapons. He quickly whips up a subroutine to target the phasers as soon as they detect an enemy weapons system powering up but realizes but this is still a prototype. He decides to focus mostly on the temporal shielding, and hails Jen Kras to join him in main engineering for that purpose. Jen walks in a few minutes later with Chief Rebecca Montrose in tow.

Fal and K'tral manage to establish an uplink to the probe, but both realize almost immediately something is not normal. The resulting uplink seems incredibly aggressive, so they check to see if it is also actively malicious. After a few moments they both conclude that the probe itself is untouched since the day it was launched, but entropy has taken its toll and the probe is essentially a crotchety old man now. They also realize that this probe is still linked to a handful of other probes scattered throughout the Rupture Zone, so they decide to allow the uplink into the secondary computer core with plenty of safeties just in case. K'tral hails Ssleestak for permission, and Ssleestak makes it clear that he does not mind.

Back in main engineering, Ssleestak notes that Jen and Rebecca are working on the temporal shields, but then Jen suddenly goes into a trance and starts babbling! Ssleestak and Rebecca look at her, concerned, but then Jericho heads over, listens carefully, and tells them, "I think that's some form of Bajoran; I had a Bajoran roommate at the Academy, so some of these words do sound familiar."

Ssleestak immediately hails Fal, explains the situation, and creates a direct audio link from main engineering to the bridge. Fal realizes that Jen is speaking ancient Bajoran, but she just seems to be rattling off a string of numbers. He tells K'tral, "Take the helm on this," and listens carefully as he starts scribbling down the numbers on his padd. He realizes fairly swiftly that Jen is speaking a computer code in ancient Bajoran, and after several minutes he realizes this is in fact a Starfleet program code!

Trusting in his best friend and the Prophets, Fal immediately enters the program code into the Varich's main computer. The Varich suddenly shudders as she drops out of warp and then drops her shields! Phillip immediately reacts and swiftly pilots the ship away from the worst radiation while K'tral eyes Fal with a look that clearly states, "You fucking idiot." Mel demands an immediate explanation, but Shan'taar is the first reply, "Captain, warp power is being diverted to the tactical systems. Things are coming up that I've never seen before, and… wait, what's a quantum torpedo?" Mel immediately informs him, "Don't look at that, that's what got Jace boxed."

Before Fal can explain, the Varich suddenly raises shields and jumps back to warp! Shan'taar calls out, Captain, part of the ETS is online! Wait, how did that even get on board this ship? And now we have temporal shields?" Down in main engineering, Ssleestak crows, "Yes! One down!" as he realizes the temporal shields are now an active option. Jen is still in a trance, so he lifts her hand to give her a high five.

Back on the bridge, Phillip swiftly readjusts to warp speed, and idly notes in annoyance that his maneuvers caused a few dimples on the hull's paint job. K'tral tells Fal scathingly, "I questioned the logic of your actions." Fal replies, "That is justified. To use a human term, I want with my guts." Shan'taar calls out, "Worth it!" and Jessa adds, "Fal did something dumb but it worked!" K'tral gives Mel a quick explanation, barely repressing her irritation, while Phillip looks over in confusion as he has no conscious idea of what they're even talking about.

Back in main engineering, Ssleestak sets up the sensors to monitor the temporal shields when they go active but decides against poking it any further because he doesn't want to break it. Jen comes out of her trance and groggily asks, "What just happened?" Ssleestak enthuses, "Dues ex machina! So, wanna help with the psionic shields next?" Jen looks down at the display and growls, "Goddamnit," as she leans heavily on the station to keep from falling over. When Jen moves away to regain her equilibrium Ssleestak quickly pulls out a ShamWow to clean her station. He realizes that despite his earlier decision, he really wants to look at the temporal shields himself, but then decides to put in a request to speak to Armina whenever she can fit him in.

On the bridge, K'tral and Fal resume work on the uplink, and manage to contain the data safely behind the firewall. K'tral often stops to look at Fal intently, to ensure no other "gut feelings" are followed. However, the upload goes without a hitch, until the probe syncs up with the auxiliary computer core and then demands, "Wait, where am I? Why am I not flying? Where are my limbs?" in Phillip's voice! There's a moment of stunned silence on the bridge, and then K'tral turns to Mel and says, "I think I'm done here." Fal starts planning to administer a Turing test while Jessa wanders over. Back in engineering, Jen grumbles, "That is not my problem."

The ship's computer continues talking in Phillip's voice, while Fal and K'tral try to figure out what exactly they just uploaded. The probe continues ranting about how it can't see anything properly, so Jessa calls out mischievously, "Phillip, stand up so you can see what your butt looks like!" Phillip cries out, "No!" The artificial Phillip immediately recognizes Jessa but muses, "That's true, I could see what my butt looks like!" In main engineering, Ssleestak observes, "We acquired an extra Phillip. Great idea!"

Back on the bridge, Shan'taar hisses a warning to Mel, "The Phillip-probe in cargo bay three?" Mel winces but the artificial Phillip calls out, "Oh, that can be useful!" and then the link suddenly goes quiet. Shan'taar immediately orders a security team to cargo bay three and tells them, "Be on lookout for Phillip. Probably a naked Phillip. Once you find him… I don't actually know."

K'tral and Fal observe that the probe seems to be functioning normally now, once Phillip is gone, while Mel asks, "Why did the probe think it was Phillip?" No one has a good answer, so Mel opens a ship-wide hail and calls out, "Digital Dade to the ready room." A moment later they all hear, "T'rin to bridge. Why is Phillip Dade running around naked and yelling that he has limbs?" Mel groans and replies, "Just get it up here."

Fal and K'tral access the original probe, and confirm it is from the U.S.S. Varich-A, launched about eight years uptime, but has approximately ten thousand years of data! However, they are able to access the rest of the probes still linked to this one and expand their sensors accordingly. To their horror, they do indeed detect an Oligarchy ship in the Rupture Zone! They immediately alert Mel and Shan'taar and call up a rough image of the enemy vessel. Everyone eyes the dagger-shaped vessel and Christopher concedes, "OK, you were right. That's a kink." Shan'taar calls out, "They are 230,000,000 kilometers aft, and they're following us!" Mel realizes, "They're using us as a beacon!"

The second Phillip strides onto the bridge wearing multicolored pants, leading Jessa to comment, "That's a good look for you." The second Phillip grins and agrees, but then blames Jessa for his current predicament. Jessa protests, but the second Phillip snaps, "Nine-tenths of the time you create the problem!" Mel interrupts tersely, "Ensign Dade," but the second Phillip replies, "Lieutenant, actually." Everyone notices the second Phillip lift his hand and gently touch the right side of his face, and then seems surprised to feel the smooth skin. Thinking back to the earlier encounter, Mel asks, "Are you looking for your disruptor scars?" The second Phillip eyes her without recognition but nods. Mel asks, "And you serve under Captain Shay'taal?" The second Phillip nods and replies, "Yes."

The second Phillip turns to stare at the back of Phillip's head, until Mel orders, "Lieutenant Dade, stop harassing Ensign Dade, he's flying the ship. How do you end up in a probe?" The second Phillip replies, "The Oligarchy. The Oligarchy found us and ripped out my psyche before stuffing it into an object." Jessa muses, "This is another Phillip-probe." While Mel confirms that the second Phillip is a lieutenant under Captain Shay'taal of the U.S.S. Varich-A, Jessa heads to the replicator and replicates some fist-sized hacky-sacks. She then lobs it at the back of Ensign Dade's head! K'tral stares at her while Mel immediately upbraids her.

Mel turns to Shan'taar and asks, "Do we have psionic shields?" Shan'taar shakes his head but Armina reminds Mel, "Alexandria is the shield, remember?" Lieutenant Dade nods and says quickly "Yes, get the shield!" Mel asks about the Oligarchy's psionic range, and he replies, "Three to four thousand kilometers, depending on a particular ship's psychic gestalt." Mel risks a glance to Armina, and notes the counselor seems exceptionally regal, which does nothing to calm the captain's nerves.

Jessa texts Mel, "Should I go get Alexandria?" Mel nods, so Jessa quickly departs the bridge. In main engineering, Ssleestak decides to form a psionic shields subcommittee and sends out an invitation to Malachi and Alexandria to join them as quickly as they possibly can. Malachi bounces in a few moments, but his enthusiasm fades as he quickly realizes that he was correct, and an Oligarchy vessel is here in 2372. Jen says firmly, "Alexandria is the shield."

Jessa walks into main engineering, hoping to intercept Alexandria, but there is no sign of the Romulan anywhere. Ssleestak asks the ship's computer, "Computer, please locate Alexandria Tovan." The computer replies, "Alexandria Tovan is no longer on board the* Varich." Jessa cries out,"That's impossible! When was she last detected? And where?" the computer replies, "Approximately one hour ago in the counselor's office."*

Malachi starts hunting for Alexandria psychically while Jessa departs main engineering and heads to her office on a hunch. Alexandra is not there, but Malachi links with her mentally, an experience Jessa calls, "A spooky combadge." Malachi replies, "She is in the arboretum." Jessa heads there, and Malachi informs her, "Turn left, and she's up that tree." Jessa thanks him, but stipulates, "Ask next time, please." Jessa finds Alexandria in the tree and asks her to come down. Alexandria still looks scared, but Jessa asks her, "An Oligarchy ship is here and is chasing us. We need you. I will protect you from Jen. Will you come with me?" Alexander replies, "Sure. Thank you, meat shield… I mean, trusted friend!" Jessa snorts but leads her back to main engineering.

On the bridge, Shan'taar calls out, "They're increasing speed!" Phillip gooses the warp engines as much as he dares, while Christopher sends out a message to the Valiant to explain their situation. Unfortunately, the Oligarchy ship continues to close with the Varich. Fal detects some sort of subspace wake in front of the Oligarchy vessel, allowing them smoother passage through the Rupture Zone, and makes a reference to an ancient Bajoran religious figure that resembles the Christian legend of Moses parting the waves.

K'tral feel something slam against her mental shields and reaches out to identify it. She detects a telepathic wake and calls out, "Captain, they're using our collective minds as an anchor!" She then feels something like a shoal of predators eyeing her, so she quickly tries to abort. Down in main engineering, Malachi uses his psionic abilities to try to calm the telepathic wave, while on the bridge Phillip continues piloting as fast as he can, but then suddenly the Oligarchy vessel leaps forward to three thousand kilometers aft!

K'tral realizes that they're still linked to her mind and fights back to break the link. Unfortunately, the Oligarchy vessel is in range for their psychic gestalt, and they attack! K'tral and Mel managed to brush it aside, while Fal gets a migraine. Unfortunately, Jessa suffers under the psychic assault, so much so that she is forced to retreat into herself and Terjan comes to the fore! Worst of all, Phillip collapses unconscious, but then the second Phillip immediately jumps into flight control, shoving Ensign Phillip Dade out of the way without much grace. Shan'taar also collapses, but Virgil Thon darts forward to take tactical. Malachi winces under the strain as Ssleestak shudders in pain, but the Gorn manages to lock down several controls as he sees several engineers twitch as the gestalt tries to hijack their bodies!

On the bridge, Lieutenant Phillip Dade bursts out laughing as he realizes that he is utterly immune to the Oligarchy's psychic assault, while back in main engineering Jen calls out to Ssleestak, "I'm immune! I can help you, tell me what to do!" As Ssleestak takes over the system, he calls back, "Those three engineers! The ones starting to jerk against their will! Stun them, now!" As Jen complies, Malachi calls out, "Help them! You have to help them!" to Alexandria.

Alexandria screams in terror but throws up a mental shield powerful enough to rebuff the Oligarchy! However, her instinctive reaction is to get away, and thanks to her almost limitless psychic capability, the Varich and the Valiant are suddenly shunted into transwarp while in the Rupture Zone! Malachi staggers and drops to his knees while on the bridge Lieutenant Dade quickly adjusts to the transwarp speeds. Although the dangers of transwarp in the Rupture Zone are incalculable, Ssleestak immediately scans the ship for any data he can about transwarp.