Foreseeable future – Onwards to the past...
by HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Sogh Marla Varquis & Sogh Thor'nan Mal'Kor

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Title   Onwards to the past...
Mission   Foreseeable future
Author(s)   HoD Ro' Matlh & Sogh Germite Ephilom & Soghla' HIchop Matlh & Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & Soghla' Jared & Soghla' Marie St. Helene & Sogh Marla Varquis & Sogh Thor'nan Mal'Kor
Posted   Sat Feb 02, 2013 @ 2:28am
Location   Various
Timeline   All of them
Flight control officer Daigon looked at his panel. He frowned. Flipping a few switches he checked that his sensors were reading right.

"Sir," He hazarded, not wanting to call attention to something that he was having trouble believing himslef. "I am picking up a Dilithium signature from Iapetus."

HIchop strode across the command floor and came to stand next to the young Ensign.

"Ignore it," he said gruffly. "Sensor glitch."

"Yes, sir, I thought so too, but I have run the level 5 diagnostic and it is not a glitch."

HIchop levelled his gaze at the young Benzite, "I SAID it was a sensor glitch."

Daigon swollowed and nodded.

However a moment later he called back, "Er... sorry sir... but... that sensor glitch is exchanging weapons fire from the local air police."

"They got the weapons working?" HIchop asked despite himself.

"Sir?" Daigon replied.

HIchop waved his arm in anoyance at his slip. He decides on a change of strategy.

"How long till the anomaly reaches us?"

"I am not even sure it is heading to our...oh... it has changed to intercept. Er.. two minutes."

"Prepare to extend shields around the phenomena."

"Sir," Lt Cmdr Maschnost queries carefully.

"Problem?" HIchop asks.

Maschnost straightens. "No, sir!"

Two minutes later the Dilithium signature moves out of the atmosphere, still pursued by the local constabulary.

"Extend shields!" HIchop bellows. "Prep..." There is a shimmer of red and he vanishes.




A moment later he is standing in the hold of the FHew. There is a roaring noise, that HIchop recognised as a hull breach.

Marie was at the controls bellowing at him, ".e ..ed t. g.t ..t .. .ere."

Hichop shook his head, "..at?"

Marie leaned in further and yelled louder, "WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!"

Both made for the inner door. HIchop had just enough time to notice the cargo bay light was still working.

Once outside Marie sealed the door and both sat panting. A short distance up the corridor Tell could be seen trying to weld a patch of metal over a EPS fracture.

"Damn and blast it," shouted Tell "This rust bucket has got more cracks in it than Ro's right foot. I would be better off using duct tape. IF I COULD FIND IT!"

Marie walked up behind Tell and tapped her on the shoulder.

Startled, Tell suddenly let loose a string of profanities that would have a started cheers and a round of applause in any Klingon pub. She lost her balance slightly and there was a sudden smell of singed hair. "I suppose you enjoyed that."

"Sorry," Marie said. Inwardly, she was laughing. Tell's reaction had been such fun to watch. It almost took her mind off the dire situation they were in. Almost.

"I stowed it in the cargo bay. Pity. We just had to evacuate it. You'll have to make do as best you can."

Tell re-tuned the welder and a more intense flame spread out from the tip. She altered her mask and went back to work. As soon as she was repairing this crack another was already spreading on the other side. Jared had better make it quick, she thought. Any longer and this patch will be the only thing left.

On the bridge Ro' was wrestling with the Helm controls. He listened carefully to the klaxons and alarms around him and relied heavily on the automatics, "How much further, Jared? I am loosing too much fuel. We will begin to free fall soon."

Jared was at the sensor panel, "Almost... almost..."

Germite struggled with the structural integrity field. Most of the atmosphere had already vented into space and they were rapidly loosing outer plating. The attack from the police had caused havoc. Germite's hands flew across his controls, but it was a losing battle. He glanced back to Ro' for a moment.

"I'm giving it all I've got, but I'm a doctor, not an engineer."

His attention was brought back to the controls when he heard them beeping at him, "Captain, we've got to do something quickly or we're doomed."

Ro' growled, "I can hear that, Doctor. Focus on keeping the bridge intact. If we have to jettison the rear half we will. The others better get up here before that happens."

"Someone call for an engineer?" called Tell cheerily as she walked onto the Bridge "Hope no one has been messing with my engine because she is very delicate and needs a gentle touch. I wouldn't push her too hard, don't take her to warp and don't even take her above one quarter impulse. She has very special needs and as long as we don't fly this rust bucket for more than a minute we'll all be perfectly fine... well when I say perfectly fine what I mean to say is maybe just fine... perhaps even dead.... What the hell do I know I'm just the flaming engineer. I know noththththinggg."

"Can I have that in writing?" Marie asked as she entered the bridge. "I always knew you were faking it when you pontificated about how much you knew about engines."

"I'm the best engineer this side of the galaxy so they tell me." Tell replied with a grin. " They gave me a badge to prove it, it's cool and it even glows in the dark, look." Tell flashed her lapel at Marie "But I still know nothing and so I just make it up as I go along."

Ro' barked, "I am literally flying by sound here so if the pair of you would SHUT UP!"

"Oooh...tetchy," Marie said sotto voce to Tell.

"He's just a bear with a sore head." replied the engineer "He needs to lighten up a bit."

There was a shudder and the tearing sound from the engines ceased. In fact all sound from the engines cut out abruptly. There was a sickening feeling in the stomach like one gets when on a swing just before the descent.

"Jared?" Ro' asked worried.

"We're nearly in position!" the little man shouted from the flickering science station.

"Are we falling?" asked Tell to no one in particular.

"We're between the perihelix and the epihelix of the metafocal bridge-point!" Jared shouted. "A hundred more kilometres and we'll be right in the perihelix! If we go now, things might be... a bit unpredictable. And by a bit, I mean a lot."

Marie heard a soft popping noise then felt a sharp pain in her upper arm, just below her shoulder. She grabbed at her arm, rubbing it briskly, but the pain did not abate.

She turned towards a hissing sound and knew immediately what had hit her: a rivet was working its way loose on the port side of the hull and there were two holes where others had already come free.

“Hull breach,” she yelled.

She dived for the cabinet holding various repair kits. She sprayed the area with a self-setting foam. That relieved the immediate problem but she knew the patch would not hold long; not with the condition the F’Hew was in. If the problem wasn't fixed – and soon – the hull would vent atmosphere.

"Just a hundred more kilometres!" Jared shouted. He looked over at Tell. "Any chance of getting these delicate engines to..."

...Talk fell silent as there was a deafening sound of tortured metal from the rear of the F'Hew - a screeching sound of abused metal, ending in an ominous, resonant "thwunk".

Jared tapped a key to flip the main viewer over to rear-view, and the crew watched in momentary silence as the primary impulse engine tore free and fell out the rear of the ship, violently venting drive plasma as it began to fall back to the planet.

"Never mind!" Jared shouted. "Activating now! This'll be rough. Hold on to your identity!"

He tapped a key on the science station, activating his hastily constructed impossible technology. There was a moment's howling noise that seemed to originate inside everyone's head, and then...

- FWIP! -

...Ro was standing on a bunch of grapes the size of a small mountain...

- FWIP! -

...Tell was sitting in her mothers old armchair, lovingly nursing and bottle-feeding a large shark...

- FWIP! -

...Germite was running from an enormous flying malignant glove with a trail of rainbow flames...

- FWIP! -

...HiChop was lying in a room full of melting clocks, using one as a bedspread...

- FWIP! -

...Thor'nan was free-falling through a planet's atmosphere with a parachute on his back, surrounded by similarly clad infants and falling towards what appeared to be a woman the size of a small city...

- FWIP! -

...Marie found herself on a stage, watched by hundreds of people, surrounded by actors dressed as French peasants who were all looking expectantly at her for the next line...

- FWIP! -

...The crew were all standing on the bridge in the same places, but everyone appeared to be made out of knitwear. Tell found herself vomiting multicoloured strands into a nearby knitting basket...

- FWIP! -

The flashing scenes came to a halt. Things were... different.