Approaching the Event Horizon

Posted on Fri May 6th, 2016 @ 9:26pm by Ensign Reva Madhava & Ensign Ian Bren & Lieutenant Tess Rutheridge & Ensign Kai Sarkozi

Mission: Further Challenges

* Starbase 900 - 2391 *

Kai opened a section of the bulkhead covering a branch of the Jeffries tube and led the way in. They crept along to a junction and after entering a code in the panel, a hatch opened to reveal a ladder going down.

“This will get us to the to Promenade level and we can take a cargo lift down a little further before the going gets rough.”

Ian looked down at the ladder and down, down, down past the ladder. “That’s 270 decks down, Kai. Past the Science labs; can’t we just access the labs from the jeffries tubes and sneak in?”

“For the labs, yes. We’ll stop off before we go down that far. We’ll get out on 205, after we pass the gyms. They’re using those as war rooms, basically. Bryce will meet us there and then we need to get to 213. That’s the lab where….” Her voice trailed off and she shot a glance to Reva.

Reva caught the reference, frowned and said, “Where Riley effectively died, slowly being torn apart.” There was a hitch in her voice but she shook her head and looked at Ian, “But you’re going to stop that. You’re going to go back and do whatever it is that you were supposed to do.”

He nodded, hoping her faith was well-placed. “Right. Okay, let’s go.” He started for the ladder, but Reva stopped him.

“I’ll go first; I can open the access points,” she said, starting down the ladder.

Tess peeked over as Ian followed Reva: “The first thing we have to do once we get to destination is to build some bypass in the power conduits. When we start working the power usage will seem to be directed to some sub-system, the trick will give us some more time before they’re able to track down our activity. I think you can take care of that Reva?”

“Can do!” Reva called back. “I can pull power away from the Security systems, depriving them of their sensors and cameras.” She was ready to deal the Krenim a few injuries. She hadn’t been on duty when the Krenim had swept through the station, taking it over - which had been fortunate. She had pulled the computer’s records from that day and saw that the Krenim forces had summarily executed the engineers. It made sense: they were the best equipped to cause the Krenim problems. Still, it had been terrifying to watch her friends and co-workers killed that way.

“I’m going ahead; you guys catch up,” she added then put her feet on the outer edge of the ladder and slid down.

Ian looked down to watch her disappear into the depths of the station. “Yeah, I’m not going to follow her that quickly,” he said, looking back up at Tess and Kai.

“Let’s do this. When I say time is precious, that applies doubly here when we’re dealing with a race that has made time its playground. See you at 205.” Kai gave them a brief smile, then began to descend the ladder.

By Deck 50, Ian was sweating and his arms were shaking; by Deck 100, his legs were shaking and Kai was having to urge him to keep going. By Deck 102, he was questioning his life choices, particularly the one he’d made 102 decks up to not use Reva’s descent method. At Deck 110, he was grateful that there was a spot where he could step off the ladder and let Kai and Tess descend past him. He then questioned his choice to stop: how would he ever start moving again?

By sheer force of Bren’s will, that’s how. He got back on the ladder and kept going. Eventually, he caught up with the others, mostly because they had stopped. Reva was talking to them: “...easier to put him in a ship and slingshot him around the Archadian sun. It’ll take a huge amount of energy to open up a controlled rift in time. Either that or we steal a Krenim time device.” She’d already sent Gilroy, Jr. and Kahuna off to do just that.

“Enormous amount of energy, yes. But only for a few seconds,” Tess pondered aloud. He deemed sending the two spiders for a Krenim device very risky, for them. “What if we used all the starbase power. And I mean all of it...”

“All of it?” Reva gave Tess a look that doubted his sanity. “That could simply fry the systems. It could also destroy the Station... in a very large explosion.” She thought it some more and added, “Not that that matters, right? If we’re successful, this version of the future doesn’t happen; if we’re not, do we really want to give the Krenim the station?” She’d be fine not continuing to live without Riley.

“Exactly what I was thinking.” Tess replied.

“I’ll get started, then,” Reva said and moved off down the jeffries tube.

Ian’s brows went up. “You’re proposing suicide,” he said. “We’ll need to work the calculations right to make sure I don’t end up in 1961 instead of 2388.”

“I’ll slip out and meet Bryce. We’ll get down to the lab and stand guard while you all get started.” The idea of Kai guarding anything bigger than a housecat suddenly struck her as funny. “I carry a big gun,” she informed them, then vanished through a side tube.

Tess watched Kai go then turned to look at Ian again. “I’m proposing to fix something that should never have existed. The fact that you’re standing right there with your vicissitude is quite the proof of it.” Tess’ voice was heavy with grief. “We had the object of our undoing with us all this time and the Krenim just took advantage of that, crushing our lives and hopes in a blink.”

Silence hovered on them for a few instances then Tess sighed deeply, “Let’s go Ian, there’s a lot of work to do. We must get you home.”

“Right,” Ian nodded and he slipped into the lab.

**************
Ensign Kai Sarkozi
Reva Madhava
Ian Bren
Tess Rutheridge