Broken Bubbles

Posted on Wed Aug 5th, 2020 @ 2:30pm by

532 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Broken
Location: Bridge

The bridge during the early hours of the morning had become a place of solitude for Bianca. Given her ongoing inability to sleep, Bianca had taken to spending many hours overnight on the bridge, enjoying the chatter between the bridge staff as a welcom diversion from the solitude and silence of her quarters.

"So, anyway, Lieutenant Callohan said he was going to meet Lieutenant Kirkland in the lounge last night at eighteen hundred but apparently he forgot because when she showed up, she found him getting very cosy with Ensign Diredes." The voice of the helm officer drifted across the bridge, bringing Bianca back to the moment.

"No way!" The incredulous voice of the operations officer shot back from across the way. "K'Pleth, isn't that the Klingon from Sciences?"

"No," the helm officer replied with a shrug as fingers moved across the navigational console. "You're thinking of Ensign Giskehlo. Diredes is in Sciences. She's a Bolian, and, well, you know what Bolians are like."

Bianca coughed softly. "I suggest, Lieutenant Gravenor, I suggest you pay a little more attention to the helm, this conversation is about to get..."

Before she could finish her words, the ship shuddered violently, the force enough to throw them from their seats, a console somewhere behind her exploding. "Is everyone okay?" she asked quickly as she clambered to her feet. "What the hell was that!"

The questions came in rapid succession as she dropped back to the seat, tapping quickly at the controls built into the arm rest.

"We've dropped out of warp," Gravenor responded as she moved back to her seat. "Our warp bubble destabilized."

"Commander, damage reports are coming in from around the ship. We've sustained damage, but we won't know how much until reports are in." Operations responded. "Sickbay is preparing for wounded and engineering teams are mobilizing."

"Commander, it looks like we're experiencing some effects from the gravitational distortions in the Gamma Tauri sector," Ensign Julki explained from the Science console. "It's having a negative effect on the ships warp systems and we can't maintain a stable warp bubble. I'm afraid we'll be restricted to impulse travel until we're clear of the distortions."

Bianca sighed. "How long until we get to Gamma Tauri?"

"At impulse only Ma'am, we're looking at a solid two days, maybe a little longer."

"Commander Caselli, it's possible that we will experience more difficulties as we get closer to Gamma Tauri," Julki interjected. "If we're being affected this far out we have no idea what to expeect."

Bianca stopped, contemplating for a moment. "Alright, Lieutnant Gravenor, get us back on course for Gamma Tauri, maintain maximum impulse for as long as we can. Ensign Julki, have sciences prepare a probe and launch it ahead of us. Hopefully it will detect anything else we have coming up and we'll have enough warning to react before it happens."

"Aye Ma'am," the two voices responded simultaneously.

Leaning back in the seat again, though unable to relax, Bianca fixed her attention on the large view port in front of her as she reached up and tapped her commbadge. "Captain Hood, please report to the bridge. Sir, we seem to have hit a snag."

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