Ansolon Season 02 / Episode 14
by Alan Tripp

2412

Unknown Forest

“The Straits,” Malstrom Expanse

Cmdr. Valyres Morgraz could feel the life flowing around her.

For the empath, it was unlike any sensation previously encountered, except for maybe that one time during survival training on Ephes VI.

“Primal … That’s the best way I can describe it,” she informed her captain.

Shallana Ironwolf wiped her brow. … The humidity making it hot as hell.

Even without the visual evidence surrounding them, she’d have trusted her first officer over scanning equipment any time, any day.

The Betazoid / Vulcan closed her eyes and fought to push through the primal to find any signs of something here that … well … didn’t belong here.

The crew of the now lost Crazy Horse had been force to quickly abandon refuge aboard the Duderstadt-class U.S.S. Sparhawk for the same reasons as the original crew.

No air … the crew dies.

So they followed the Sparhawk crew in beaming down to the surface.

It cost them the last reserves of energy from the batteries, but yet again the entire crew was alive and accounted for with yet another chance to live.

If they’d not drifted through the stargate and into the interior of a Dyson Sphere, the living part would have quickly become dying.

But they were alive and although they had no time to conduct scans from up above, they were alive and wandering around nearly blind in what seemed a tropical rainforest.

Life was so think that with whatever else was around, their scanners were useless.

“For the moment,” the captain had said with that ‘I refuse to give up’ attitude of hers.

But as was said a moment ago … ‘nearly blind.’

Because of her mixed heritage, her telepathic abilities from her Betazoid heritage was limited to her being empathic.

Because of her Vulcan side, those empathic abilities could at times seem magnified.

If not for that Vulcan genetic gift, she’d not be able to cut through the blinding primeval soup of life surrounding them.

So thick with life, it was like trying to hear whispers in a crowded room with everyone talking at once.

But there it was again … something that did not belong.

Or someone might be closer to the mark and that person was in a lot of pain.

“That way,” she said, holding up and arm and pointing east.

“Then that way we go,” Shallana said.

“MOVE OUT!” the captain ordered in a louder voice.

“Davidson … You have point. Heads on a swivel as who knows what’s out there,” she continued.

Ten minutes later, Davidson up front raised a hand, halting the column.

That same hand wiped sweat from his face on the way back down to his rifle … a rifle he slowly swung from one side in a slow sweeping arc to the other.

There was no need to hush the people as everyone remained quite, even that Bolian from engineering named Hronoc which in itself was rather surprising.

Valyres again closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to make sense of what the patterns of life surrounding them were telling her.

Slowly filtering out this and that mentally as best she could.

And then her eyes flew open.

“RUN!” she ordered, swinging her rifle down from should to ready position.

“I SAID RUN!!!!” she screamed.

And then her scream was overwhelmed in volume by another.

Davidson screamed even as he pulled the trigger on his phaser rifle.

Everyone finally saw what he’d seen seconds before as a giant reptilian head came down from above, clamping shut over the human to where the upper half disappeared down the throat while the bottom half fell limp to the ground.

And then it unleashed a primal roar that had everyone running for their lives.

Respectfully,

Cmdr. Valyres Morgraz
XO, U.S.S. Crazy Horse

The post The Straits: “Primal Screams” appeared first on The Malstrom Expanse.

Ansolon Season 02 / Episode 09
by Alan Tripp

2412

U.S.S. Crazy Horse

“The Straits,” Malstrom Expanse

“I tell you there is a ship out there,” Jinesleis said.

“An intact ship, the Orion science officer emphasized, “that is in better shape … hull wise than this one.”

Shraz crossed and then uncrossed his arms, waiting his turn.

“You know everything is limited but did manage to cut through that soup with the tactical sensors enough to confirm what Jines is seeing,” the Caitian noted.

“And the silhouette match’s that of a Duderstadt-class,” he added.

“So likely the Sparhawk,” Shallana said.

“Couldn’t get anything beyond location and silhouette … and thankfully Duderstadt are unique in ship’s profile,” Shraz confirmed.

“So most likely U.S.S. Sparhawk… And structurally in better shape than we are at that,” he continued.

At last … hope.

“And I understand you already have the workings of a plan on how to reach her?” the captain asked.

Jenesleis laid her larger workpad in front of her captain.

On the screen was as much of a map as sensors had allowed.

The Orion tapped its surface.

“We’ve determined this current should sweep us from where we are straight to her.”

“And how do we get into said current?” Shallana asked.

“Blow the shuttlebay doors followed immediately by blowing the main ventral airlock,” Shraz explained.

“The expulsion of air from shuttlebay should be enough to give us the needed thrust and the blown hatch the course correction to reach the current,” the Orion continued.

“And once in the current, it will do the rest,” added the Caitian.

“This is where it gets tricky,” he continued, looking back over to the science officer.

“We are gonna have to be ready to abandon ship as soon as we are within range of the Sparhawk or we’ll be going down with the ship.”

“Meaning Crazy Horse is gonna rip herself apart … BUT,” Shraz added.

“But, she should last just long enough under the sheer and gravemtric forces to get us there AND we should have just enough juice left the batteries to power the transporters for one last set of transports to get us there.”

“Will we be able to breath once we get there?” Shallana asked.

Both shrugged, but it was the Orion who made the suggestion.

“I’d say either have the crew put on environmental suits or be prepared to hold their breath,” she said.
“Just in case,” she added.

Shallana didn’t even have to think about it as time was against them.

“Do it.”

Twenty minutes later, Crazy Horse was riding the waves of the streaming current, following its course through the region her crew had dubbed “The Straits.”

And with each passing minute, the groans of an already overtaxed hull grew louder … echoing throughout the small ship.

Hold together, Love. Hold together,” Shallana whispered to her ship.

Engines had been gone.

Reserves and the batteries were all that was left as they Okinawa-class destroyer surfed along.

If not for the simple fact that most consoles surrounding the bridge were already dark, Shallana imagined there would have been more sparks and explosions.

But everything they had was being pumped into navigational sensors and structural integrity.

Soon to be shunted over to the transporter systems.

Speaking of which …

“Make sure they are maintaining constant transporter locks on all crew,” she ordered.

“We haven’t lost anyone yet, and I will be damned if we lose someone with this next stunt.”

Shraz nodded and gave an affirmative.

The ride was reaching a point her teeth were vibrating in her head.

Then three things happened at once.

First, they reached their destination with the Crazy Horse slipping into the same bubble that housed a near dark Duderstadt-class.

Second, the alarms sounded but were drowned out by the sounds of the hull beginning to crack like a smacked eggshell.

Shallana could already hear the sounds of air seaping through cracks as the protective dome of the bridge module itself was compromised with decompression eminent.

And third, the transporters kicked in with Shallana’s hand automatically going to her medicine bundle with her sacred Pipe that was attached to her environmental suit.

In her mind, she could hear the death cry of the Crazy Horse even as she and her people were whisked from the jaws of death and into the unknown of the U.S.S. Sparhawk.

The ship’s whose destress call had brought them here was now the next leg in their journey.

“Give me a headcount,” Shallana ordered through her environmental suit’s comm unit.

“I want to make sure everyone made it,” she continued.

It only took a couple of minutes for the numbers to come back and for the time being at least … all of her crew continued to survive.

“Ok … Remember your assignments,” Shallana ordered.

“I want to know what happened here,” she continued. “Spread out and learn what you can learn.”

As for her and her small team, they made made climb upwards to the bridge as turbolifts … of course … were out.
An hour later, they knew enough to say …

• The crew had been forced to eject the core.
• Sparhawk was operating on heavily depleted battery reserves.
• Impulse engines had been damaged in their cruise through the Straits and then burned out completely while attempting to hold station above the closest (one too close) blackhole.
• Sensors had detected a network of superstructures or stations or arrays surrounding that blackhole.
• Said blackhole was slowly pulling the Sparhawk backwards. At least until …
• Said blackhole suddenly vanished … disappeared … was now gone from their reality.
• In the absence of interference of said black hole, sensors had found something else.

And it was that something else that Shallana and her science officer were sifting through at the moment.

“I’ve seen this before,” Shallana told the Orion suddenly. “Or at least something similar.”

Jinesleis seemed skeptical, raising an eyebrow in an almost Vulcan … or actually … more Romulan manner.

“It’s a stargate,” Shallana answered.

“Stargate?” Jinesleis asked, scanning back through the data and slowing starting to see the edges of what the Captain might be talking about.

After a moment, she locked eyes with her superior.

“Stargate = gateway,” Jinesleis noted. “WHERE does this gateway lead?”

“THAT … is the question,” Shallana said. “And I’m betting THIS is what the Sparhawk’s captain was talking about.”

Although they had found the captain’s log entries, they had been corrupted and only portions recoverable.

In one of those recovered segments they’d learned the ship and crew had gone somewhere … else.

But nothing recoverable pointed the way.

At least until now.

“We’ve no idea what’s on the other side except wherever it is, this ship’s crew felt able to abandon ship for better refuge elsewhere,” Jinesleis said.

“And that ‘elsewhere’ is where we need to go,” Shallana said.

“All we have to do is find someway to gain forward momentum to get us back through that gateway before that blackhole comes back,” she continued.

“You sure it’s coming back?”

“I’d bet my life on it.”

Respectfully,

Capt. Shallana Ironwolf
Acting Commanding Officer
U.S.S. Sparhawk, NCC-71301

—-Out of Story—-

We know now that at least they WERE alive.

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