Punching Out

Posted on Sun Aug 16th, 2020 @ 1:20am by Commodore Jane Saulitis & Commander Dominic Aldrich

Mission: Cruel Meridian
Location: Bridge
Timeline: MD 09
1849 words - 3.7 OF Standard Post Measure

Jane squirmed in her chair ever so slightly. Yes, she was responsible for all the lives on the ship but she also had to trust that her crew knew what they were doing. They had been in tight spots before and always managed to get out of it. She was sure this time would be no different. But she was still nervous and couldn't help it. "You're sure you're ready Ms. Sullivan? Everything is calculated exactly? Presuming Lt. Vannan can punch a hole big enough for the ship of course."

Seated at the conn, Lieutenant Sullivan had her chair turned towards the center of the bridge as she awaited the order to initiate the plan that they had concocted to extricate themselves from the anomaly. Nodding as she listened to the captain, the consequences of failure were too high for her to even begin to entertain any other outcome except for a successful one. With the ship configured for maximum acceleration and inertial dampeners primed to deal with the sudden changes in direction that were going to be required, Lilith took a deep breath and signaled her readiness.

"Aye, captain. Just give me something to aim for, and I'll get us there. The ship's agile and ready to go, standing by for frequencies."

Vannan had the option for slacks this time out and a special harness as she was in the Jeffery Tubes; her favorite place to play, but this time she was not just fixing a little bit of conduits or replacing Gel-Packs. The Science Section had given her the wavelength frequency of the containment energy. The Deflector dish was no more than ten minutes in the actual adapting to the project on the wavelength; that was the easy part, it was pulling a few 'Safeties that would allow the added energy should it be required to go through.

Thick agoves and rubber boos withe a 'brain pan' scalp helmet; crawling through access tubes of a city Kilometers in the air to do repairs had Vannan a litte 'safety minded' plus when she completed her part there was the possible feed-back through the Jeffery tubes from the energy and some question if Maximum Dampeners were also for the tubes 'behind' that outburst of focused energy.

=^= All set down here. =^= Vannan relay to the bridge. =^= Frequencies set and power feeds open, you have an open gate...=^= SHe locked a strap from her harness to an anchor point in the tube wall. =^= To use all the power you can put to make the hole. =^= She snapped another secure line opposite her in the adjacent anchor point. =^= I will stay close should we need... adjustments. =^= she cinched herself secure. =^= Feel free to let her go Captain.=^= She relay to the bridge.

"Sensors indicate that we are within the range of a possible successful attempt, however just at the edge of that range. I recommend trying from here first in case the anomaly doesn't respond favorably. That would give us the best chance of not overloading the system with any feedback for a second attempt," Commander Aldrich reported.

"Let's do it then." Jane replied, she was having a hard time resisting the urge to grab the armrests on her seat but didn't want to appear as if she were frightened or in any way doubting Lieutenant Sullivan's piloting skills.

On the viewscreen, a wispy, pale blue beam of energy stretched ahead of the ship, arcing through the confines of time and space in a fractal pattern, not unlike a bolt of lightning searching for a path to ground. Unsure of what she was looking for, Lieutenant Sullivan stayed ready on the controls, waiting for some sort of visual cue for her to spring into action. After what seemed like an eternity, the energy arc stopped wandering and latched onto a point in space. Slowly, the terminating point of the arc began to expand outwards, creating an eerie halo.

"Here we go! Hang on!"

Lurching forward, the Majestic followed the path of the arcing energy beam under the guidance of her helmswoman, following the sharp geometric path created by Lieutenant Vannan's solution. If it had been stationary, following the beam would have been difficult enough with the number of twists and turns required, but as an added wrinkle, several dead-end paths arced off of the main trunk. Any wrong turn had the potential to send the ship careening through time with all of the unpleasant consequences that came along with it.

"C'mon, c'mon," Sullivan muttered to herself at the conn. Her perception had narrowed to the point where only the ship and the end destination existed. Nothing else mattered except getting out of the anomaly.

"The exit is shrinking. Increase power to the deflector dish. Lieutenant Vannan, make whatever adjustments you can down there," Hanover strained to speak over the gravitational forces pressing him into his seat.

Vannan had felt the whole movement of the ship as it traveled through the tunnel or whatever but she had heard from the bridge she needed to do something she had anticipated just hoped not to. Unhooking she crawled forward a few bits to the pain Deflector access. Pulling the panel open she had to do what every repair manual said no to do...

Magna-pliers the pulled the First of Four regulators; the circuit breaking protection that kept this panel from over loading; spewing arcs; then she pull the second from another corner until she had all four pulled. The last flood gate was removed and the full power from the Warp Core and fusion reactors could be let loose. Clipping into the base of the panel Vannan cinched herself to the base.

Like floodwaters the power went through the panel into the Deflector, channeling all the power possible through the 'Beam' pulling them through. Sparks flew as the panel's other protection from power feed-back tried to fight back the flow. Lightning like arcs reached out as the panel channeled the flow of power. Vannan tried to curl into a more fetal and protective position as the Gravitational forces tried to play with her as one would a rag doll.

One of the restraint clips; the clip was not as strong as a metal one; chosen because with electrical arc potential plastic seemed safer than a small lightning rod. The pressure of even her light female form broke it and Vannan did not hear her scream as she was only half attached to safety and Gravity had a new toy to bounce around...

Dominic monitored the surge in power through the deflector. "Captain, we are getting a lot of feedback. That much power coming back may begin to affect temporal and gravimetric properties near the deflector. We need to get all of our people out of those sections." He saw a pulse come across his console, "The resonance is shifting. I'm going to try to counter the shift and get us back in sync."

"Order an evacuation," she tried to think of someone to put on it but the Chief Medical Officer would be busy tending to any wounded. "Have Lieutenant Hawke see to it." Jane felt as if she were shouting though the noise of the deflector and everything else going on around her could only be a few decimals over what it normally was.

"Just hold it together for a few more seconds, we're nearly there!" Sullivan bellowed from her seat. With one eye she flew the ship along its course towards the cerulean halo and with the other, she watched and waited for the indication that Commander Aldrich had successfully synchronized their resonance with that of the anomaly's exit. A split second after every indication turned green, Lilith poured on the coals and accelerated to maximum impulse. "Captain, on a count of three, we're going to need one last push of power to the deflector dish. We can widen this exit for just long enough for us to get out."

"Do whatever you have to," It was a standing order. Of course it would be bad if the stress tore the ship apart but she trusted Lily to know when that was going to be and not to take them past that point on their way to freedom. Jane couldn't help but grab ahold of the armrest that held her small computer console though and began to pray to whatever gods that were listening to help make them through this safely.

"One."

The ship lazily rolled over to align the widest part of the saucer with the widest gap in the elliptical exit.

"Two."

On the viewscreen, the void of space had been washed away in the pale blue light created by their own deflector dish. A collision with the bright swirling tendrils of energy seemed imminent, but still Sullivan waited.

"Three!"

---

"Mango?"

Jane fell back against her chair laughing, she couldn't help it. Why she had picked that word, and why in this circumstance it was funny she couldn't say. "Yes Commander, Mango. We're apparently together in the right . . . . time."

After the barrage of vibrations and sounds had finally subsided, Jared remained frozen in his seat until the sound of the captain's laughter broke him out of his trance. A slow, steady smile spread across his lips before he too joined in with a contagious chuckle. The unspoken relief of being freed from the anomaly relaxed him, but the very next moment, his thoughts were scattered to the decks below and the casualties that they had doubtlessly suffered.

"Captain, with your permission, I'll go check our people down below. That was a wild ride."

"Granted Commander, thank you." She gave him a serious and sincere nod on the subject.

"Lieutenant Sullivan," Commander Hanover stood from his seat in the command cluster before making his way to the turbolift, "It's good to know we have one of the best, but if it's all the same to you, I hope I don't have to be here the next time you have to push the envelope. Hell of a job, lieutenant."

"Just doing my job, sir," Lilith nodded, professionally neutral in tone and in demeanor. However, a slight waver in her voice belied the amount of stress the helmswoman had endured during the maneuver. "I, uh, believe I have sated my appetite for flying for the day. I will take relief with your permission, captain. Ensign Oron will be more than capable of taking us to Sozon when we're ready to go."

"Yes, thank you again." Jane planned on putting this in Lily's record, even if she had been white knuckled and holding the seat the entire time. Jane may have even been holding her breath. "Contact Starfleet, let them know of our situation," Jane said to Vannan. "I'm sure they're going to be very interested in our story."

"Right away Ma'am." Vannan was much happier being back on the bridge rather than bouncing about below decks in a Jeffery Tube. "Connecting nearest Sub-Space relay..."

Jane leaned back in her chair and let out a breath. Finally they were home.