SEASON 2: EPISODE 02

Q, TIME AND AGAIN: Prologue

  “There it is again,” said Lieutenant Terri Letac.  Her small elegant fingers danced over her console.  Letac let out a sigh of frustration.  “Damn, I still can’t get a fix.  It’s like there is nothing there, but there was something there.”

  “She’s not imagining it either, Captain,” said Lt. Commander Whitechapel, backing up her good friend up from the Tactical station which was right next to Lieutenant Letac’s science station.  “I also got it on the tactical sensors.”

  “What position was this…thing?” asked Captain Jonathan Masters.

  “Bearing 176, Mark 4. At twenty-seven thousand kilometres,” said Whitechapel.

  “That is exactly the same position as before.  It might be that the sensors are a bit knocked up from skirting that nebula earlier,” said Letac.

  “Go to Engineering and run a level 4 diagnostic on the sensors, Lieutenant Letac,” ordered Jonathan.

  “Yes, sir.”  Letac started to head off to Engineering.

  Commander Susan Core made a loud groan of exasperation.  “Just what we need before…”

  The Swiftfire suddenly shook violently causing Core to stop as she grabbed her chair’s armrests.

  “What was that?” asked Core.

  “I don’t know,” replied Letac who had returned to her station.

  “Get Celcho,” ordered Masters.

  “Captain, this is Engineering,” said Lt. Commander Pavlo Celcho over the ship’s internal communication system.

  “Lt. Commander, what was that?”

  “We just got a surge through the Warp nacelles.  We don’t know what caused it but we are checking it out now.”

  “Keep me informed, Commander.”

  “Will do, Captain.  Celcho out.”

  “Like I said, just what we need,” said Core.  “With our luck…”

  Core was again cut off by another violent vibration through the deck.

  The internal communication system came alive immediately.

  “Captain.”

  “Yes, Celcho?”

  “I suggest we drop out of Warp while we…”  Masters gripped his chair’s armrest as the ship shook.

“I agree.  Ensign Cole, drop out of warp to half impulse.”

  Ensign Frank Cole quickly brought the Swiftfire out of warp to impulse.

  “We better signal the Venture that we will be delayed,” suggested Core.

  “Celcho, do you have any idea how long we will be out of warp?”

  “Not really, Captain.  We don’t even know what the cause of the problem is!”

  “Okay, just do your best to get as back to speed as soon as possible.  Bridge out.  Lieutenant Karak, hail Admiral Douglas with this development.”

  “Captain, I am unable to raise the Venture,” reported Lieutenant Karak.

  “Why?”

  The Lieutenant’s fingers didn’t leave the console as he continued to try to hail the USS Venture.  “I do not know if the problem is our side or theirs but I cannot raise them.  With our current problems suspect that the problem would be from our end.”

  “Well, there’s another thing to add to the list,” mumbled Core.  “Pavlo, we have another…”

  The Swiftfire shook with more violence then the previous disturbances combined.  The lights went out briefly before the emergency lights kicked in reducing the bridge lighting as the bridge filled with alarms.

  “Report!” yelled Masters over the alarms.  “Cut those alarms!”

  Karak quickly cut the alarms and the Bridge noise returned to normal.

  “We’ve got a major problem!  We have a cascade in both warp cores!” shouted Celcho over the alarms in Engineering, which were louder then the alarms that were going on the Bridge.

  “In both of them!” said Masters shocked.

  “That’s right.”

  The Swiftfire continued to shake.  EPS units overloaded and showered the deck below with sparks.

  “What can you do?”

  “We’re trying to contain it but we’re having problems.  The safeties aren’t kicking in and the system is resisting our efforts to stop the situation.”

  “Do whatever you can, Lt. Commander.”

  The Bridge was in chaos.  The crew were moving from station to station and yelling across the bridge.  Consoles were going off and on as power spikes forced the safety systems to turn off systems.

  “I’ve lost helm control!” yelled Cole.

  “Sensors are going haywire!  Everything is out of control!” said Letac in a startlingly calm manner.

  “Captain, we’ve lost control!  We need to eject the cores now!” yelled Celcho in a state close to panic.

  “Do it.”

  There was list of profanities flooding the communication system that didn’t comfort the captain.  “The system is fried.  I can’t eject them.  The cores are destabilising!”

  “Get out of there, Lt. Commander!  Commander Core, issue abandon ship orders.  Get all crew to escape pods.”

  Red emergency lights came on all over the ship as the order was issued.  The crew abandoned their posts and quickly started to make their way to the escape pods.  It wasn’t a mad panic nor was it organised.

  Masters was practically dragged and thrown into his escape pod by the Marines stationed on the bridge.  He had planned to stay and make sure everyone got off but the Marines had immediately grabbed him.  Masters resisted but the Marines still overpowered him and got him into the pod and locked it.  The Marines must have been instructed by the Colonel or by their training to immediately evacuate the highest ranking crew member from the ship.

  The Captain’s escape pod was a special escape pod.  Unlike the other pods on the ship this was specifically designed for one person, the ship’s commanding officer.  It was the closest escape pod to the bridge to allow for the quick evacuation of the senior officer.

  The pod launched and there was nothing Masters could do to stop it.  He looked at the main display in the pod; it showed the Swiftfire as his pod moved away.  The Swiftfire was missing a nacelle and the connecting arm was leaking atmosphere into space indicating that the emergency forcefields were down.  All over the ship there were small explosions as energy surges blew power units up and punctured the hull.

  Masters could see other pods launching from the Swiftfire.  It looked like the crew would make it from the ship.  All they would have to do is then wait for someone to come and pick them up.

  Suddenly the hull of the Swiftfire appeared to ripple as a shockwave emanated from the centre of the ship.  It hit the Captain’s pod throwing it about and the Captain inside.  By the time he got back into position to check the display to see what was going on he was just in time to see an explosion about to hit the pod.

  The explosion disintegrated the pod and everything around it.  The Swiftfire, the crew and everything was destroyed, wiped clean from the universe.