The Sixth Dimension

Posted on Mon Apr 25th, 2016 @ 11:03pm by Lieutenant Seren Hawke & Lieutenant Commander T'Rowl N'Riss C.Phil & Ensign Leela Carter & Ensign Reva Madhava & Lieutenant Commander Marie O'Donnell

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Borders Of Kenim & Borg Space

* EFS Kohanna *

Marie had been keeping to herself, mostly, while the ship barreled through space. She wasn’t exactly sure how much help she would be on this particular mission but she felt a bit helpless at the moment. She hadn’t been ignoring anyone, but the rest were all busy making preparations,
exploring the seemingly ever-changing ship and, well, doing their thing. But Marie was Temporal Affairs and there wasn’t much of that going on at the moment.

She sat in her cramped quarters going over some past case reports filled out by peers of hers on some very interesting temporal events. Always studying and trying to learn more, she thought that combing through prior events might help her gain some insight on the ins and outs of her job. She was a Lt. Cmdr., but even at Admiral you’re not at the top--there’s always more to learn, so she kept studying.

Until…

"Six to...anybody.....I need..."

Marie sat straight up in her chair and quickly tried to remember where Six’s quarters were, if that’s where she was to be found. “Down the corridor, third on the left,” she said aloud as she dropped the PADD on the desk, opened the door and hurried down to the room she knew belonged to Six.

The door, however, had been secured. “Dammit. Six!” she yelled. “Open the door!” She rolled her eyes and chastised herself, knowing that if Six were in trouble she wouldn’t be able to open the door. “Idiot,” she hissed at herself. “Uh, computer, ship...thing. Open the door, medical emergency.”

The doors slid open immediately, revealing Six just inside on the floor. Given Marie’s use of the words ‘medical emergency’ the ship had obliged her. The EMH suddenly appeared.

“Please state the nature of the medical emergency.”

Seeing Six in an almost catatonic state on the floor, Marie rushed to her. “I don’t know! Medical assessment, now,” she said to the EMH, then turned back to Six, shaking her gently. “Can you hear me? Six!”

The EMH began to scan Six with his tricorder. “Strange,” he commented. “Her implants have shifted slightly out of phase, which accounts for her loss of consciousness. “I want to get her to sickbay and I can get a more thorough reading on what’s happened. However, if that is what has happened, it falls within your area of expertise doesn’t it?”

“What do you mean out of phase?” she asked, shooting the EMH a look. She stood and tapped her communicator. “O’Donnell to bridge. Are you noticing any strange anomalies up there?”

=^= Nothing on scanners =^= came the reply.

“Just slightly,” the EMH answered, “which has interfered with neural functions. Computer, please initiate transport to sickbay for Six.” As Six vanished in a swirl of green, he turned to Marie. “You’ll inform the captain?”

She nodded, but before notifying anyone she needed a few things from her quarters. While Temporal Affairs officers were more for setting things right during a temporal event, or even making things better, they were just glorified scientists. She needed her own equipment to begin investigating what the EMH had noticed in Six’s implants and, if possible, try to figure out if anything had been affected.

“Very good. I’ll be in sickbay.” The EMH vanished.

Before Marie had time to move, Seren appeared at the open door. “What’s up? Where is Six?”

“Sickbay. The EMH checked her, but she’s out of it. He said her implants had shifted out of phase?” She shook her head. Just saying the words didn’t sound right. “How could the implants be the only thing out of phase around here?” Slipping past him, she headed back to her quarters. “I need my equipment,” she said over her shoulder, assuming he was still following. “Something is wrong with his assessment or something very bad is about to happen.”

“Let’s hope it’s the EMH,” Seren fell in step beside Marie as they hurried down the corridor.

* * *

Meanwhile, having heard the callout from Six, N'Riss' heart sank. He figured that the worst things that he had feared from before were probably going to come true at this point. Regardless, he didn't think that he had much of a chance of making a difference if he didn't get out there now, which is why he bolted out into the turbolift, predictably with all of the reflexes of, well, a cat.

Soon enough though he had trundled through the tube and done a scan to ensure that he was aware of the location of the other, thus allowing him to soon head off to sickbay. While it might have been that too many individuals would have ultimately gotten in the way, the Caitian officer figured that it might have been best to at least try to help for the moment. Churrling once more as he stepped out, he quickly made his way to the aforementioned area.

The EMH looked up as the doors opened to admit N’Riss. “Hello Commander. What may I do for you?” He turned his attention back to Six, who lay still on the biobed, and resumed his scan.

"This was supposed to be the other way around, murrr. I came to help you out if at all possible." Nevertheless, had he been told to back away, then N'Riss wouldn't have bothered the hologram any more.

“Give me that neural scanner.” The EMH pointed to a silver disk that lay on the table on the other side of the biobed. “What I can tell you so far is that there is a problem with her neural and ocular implants. They seem to be slightly out of phase, which you may want to report to the captain. Marie is checking into the phase question as we speak.”

Naturally, the Caitian officer wasted no time in collecting the aforementioned silver disk. Passing it over to the EMH in the process, he tilted his head, but remained silent. Rather than speaking, he had elected to illustrate the fact that he was listening by instead tilting his ear upward at the doctor.

After attaching the disk to Six’s forehead, the EMH continued his scan. He was silent as he worked, but finally, he frowned and cleared his throat. “It seems my initial scan was correct. Her implants are indeed out of phase, and the variance is slightly greater than it was in her quarters, meaning that we might have a real problem.” He tapped his comm badge to summon Marie, then looked back at N’Riss. “You’ll tell the captain?”

“Certainly,” he nodded, though he didn't leave sickbay just yet in case there was more that the other individual had to tell him for the time being. Still, though, he nodded once again in response to telling the Captain. "Murrrr, I would alerrrt our commanding officer immediately if need be."

Moving over to a small terminal, the EMH began to study the scen transmitted by the disk. “This can link to her neural implant and give us a reading of what was happening just before she called.” He fell silent, watching the screen, then frowned. “There is a short carrier wave here, that isn’t Six’s.” He isolated the wave and then tapped the console. “It’s audio.” Another tap and then a voice came as the pattern was replayed.

"Six Of Ten, Primary Adjunct of Unimatrix 325...you will respond... The voices stopped, replaced by a single voice. "Six Of Ten....I know you're here....you will respond eventually."

The replay stopped. “Inform Leela. Once Marie has has time to check Six, I’ll report in.”

Nodding after he had naturally listened, N'Riss finally looked up and swallowed deeply. "I will certainly deliver the news as quickly as possible. Merrow, I only hope that we are not too late with any of this." Naturally he was going to do everything within his power to ensure that they would have been successful. Just like last time, he considered the person in question to be a friend and that would have made another loss all the worse.

“Thank you. I’m going to revive her and see what she can tell Marie once she arrives.” The EMH readied a hypospray. “If the captain has any questions, don’t hesitate to call.”

Nodding for the time being, N'Riss used nothing but a further purr before turning in the opposite direction once more so that he could do precisely this, tapping his combadge in the process to alert the aforementioned commanding officer of the situation.

Passing N’Riss in the corridor, Marie entered the medical area and immediately began scanning. “What’s her status?” she asked of the EMH.

“My last scan shows the temporal phase variance is growing,” he responded. “Which puts us firmly in your area. Also, I isolated a secondary pattern stored in her neural transmitter.” He replayed the recording for Marie. “I don’t know that it has anything to do with the shift in the readings but it is concerning all the same.”

“While Six’s safety is paramount, and the Borg, or someone else, hijacking her brain is a major concern, the bigger issue is an unexpected temporal event.” She had noticed the event beginning to grow once she had gotten to her equipment. It was mostly just scientific scanners but tweaked to look for certain indicators specific to her duties. She tapped her communicator. “O’Donnell to Carter.”

“Carter here,” came the reply.

“We are experiencing an unexpected temporal event,” Marie stated, trying not to sound nervous. “I don’t know the magnitude, or even the source for that matter, but it’s already begun. Since I’m caught up in it with everyone I can’t advise if it has affected anything for us or the ship yet. I am, however, concerned that it seemed to start around the same time that Six called out for help.”

Carter didn’t respond for a long moment. Finally, she did: “Understood, Commander, thank you. We’re starting scans to determine if anything has changed. We’ll keep you posted.” Carter closed the channel.

* The Bridge *

Carter turned to look at the Caitian as he entered the bridge. She was to the point: “What’s your impression of Six’s condition?”

Vic turned in his seat at the conn as N’Riss appeared, wanting the news too. “She will be alright, won’t she?”

"I understand that Marie is checking into the situation further. The problem stems from her neural and ocular implants, from what the Emergency Medical Hologram explained to me, murr. They appear to be somewhat out of phase. Additionally, there is an audio transmission modulating inside of her that is attempting to force her to reconnect from what I understand." Once more the Caitian punctuated what he was saying with a trademark purring sound.

“Reconnect?” For a moment, Leela’s brain didn’t want to make the connection. “Oh, to the Borg. Yeah. Can we shut that down? Vic? Do you know more about this? You’re friends with Six.”

Vic frowned at the question. “It seems to me that she would have to be physically there, on a ship in order to be reclaimed. But anyone with a neural transmitter can listen in or be communicated with. They could very well try and lure her back though.” He really didn’t like the XO’s news. “Not that she would go unless ….unless she thought the rest of us were in danger and it was the only way to save us. The Borg have pulled that trick before.”

“They are tricky, since they have such an encyclopedic knowledge of the universe,” Leela worried. “Perhaps we could put her in a containment field and block the signal.”

Rubbing his chin slightly, the Caitian officer used a purr to denote the fact that he had agreed. "That could possibly make sense. Otherwise a sufficient amount of foil could even block their signals I suppose, if they're based around electromagnetism."

“This phase issue worries me,” Vic commented. “If her implants are getting out of temporal phase, what about the rest of the ship and us? And what does that mean for Six? She cannot function without those implants. Is she in danger?”

Leela shrugged. “We’ll have to ask the EMH, or maybe an engineer,” she hinted.

Vic nodded and tapped his panel. “Vic to Reva.” He updated her quickly on the report on Six. “I have some questions for you.”

“Ah... yeah,” she sounded at once distracted and concerned. “Can you come here, though? I’d rather not have this conversation over the comms.”

Leela nodded at Vic then looked at N’Riss, “Will you go, too?”

“On my way.” Reva’s words had obviously shaken Vic. “I want to stop at sickbay too. I need to see her.”

****************
Lt. Commander Marie O’Donnell
Lt. Seren Hawke
Emergency Medical Hologram
Lt. Commander T’Rowl N’Riss
Lt. (jg) Leela Carter
Vic
Ensign Reva Madhava