Not In Kansas Anymore Part 1

Posted on Wed Oct 23rd, 2019 @ 3:53pm by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Ensign Michael Sloan & Lieutenant Commander Lukas Carter & Major Samuel King & Lieutenant Aurelius Davis

Mission: Mission 1 - One Step forward
Location: Main Bridge
1457 words - 2.9 OF Standard Post Measure

It hadn’t been the voices that woke Beth from her nap between the wall and an Engineering Officer who had wiggled into her space overnight but the sudden bump and then wallop of the ship being thrown around. If she hadn’t been against the wall when she woke, she would have been along with the several over people who were now on top of her. Soon enough the ship stopped throwing people around and she was able to crawl up to her feet. “Anyone know what happened? How long have we been in here?” She asked not able to see any of the clocks that were around the sickbay to allow them to see how much time had past.

"No idea," Ensign Jordan Fairchild shook his head. "Captain Morgan had Engineering controls sent to the gymnasium, we still have ten minutes before the doors can open," he pointed out. The engineering officer rubbed his head from his spot on the floor of Sickbay. A slight scrape appeared above his brow, from his fall no doubt.

The woman looked around sickbay and grabbed up some sanitizing solution. If they couldn't get out of Sickbay for a few more minuted they might as well patch up the bumps and bruises. "Come here, Ensign." The woman soothed softly as she wiped the scrape.

Wincing slightly at the touch to the fresh wound, Jordan could almost feel the solution burning away the bacteria. Knowing the person beside him was the First Officer, he offered, "Once we're on the Bridge, I can try to restore onboard comms first." It came off as slightly more awkward, Jordan had never left Earth before this mission.

"Sorry." The woman said gently before putting one dissolvable stitch in before standing back to check it properly. "It will do for now." The woman mused seeing the Doctor dealing with properly injured people. "Thank you. I feel I might need to be doing other things." She said feeling a sense of foreboding already around her that something had gone very wrong.

"We shouldn't have bumped and been so turbulent earlier," Jordan shook his head. "I would have guessed an overheating reactor, but they don't correct themselves so quickly, but it didn't feel like space anomalies," he pointed out, just as confused. Nodding toward the locked door, "How much longer?"

"No, we shouldn't have." The woman agreed with him looking around the sickbay. Everyone was looking to her for leadership. She turned back to the Ensign. "Not long." She assured moving to stand up on the bed behind him. "Listen to me folks. Something has gone slightly wrong. I need everyone to return to duty stations as soon as the door releases. Can anyone come along with me and Fairchild to the Bridge?" None of the people in her charge were bridge officers but if something had happened to the other group some of these people needed to get used to the Bridge as there new duty station.

Quietly, Jordan slipped in line beside Beth. He looked toward those in Sickbay, he silently hoped some of the others would volunteer. While he was qualified, something was giving him a very odd feeling.

As soon as the door released Beth inputted her code and the door opened without hesitation allowing the small group out into the corridor. If Jordan was worried, Beth was worse but didn't let it show on her face at all. She knew something was bad by the silence of the ship and by the strange turbulence that they had experienced. "Let us go up." She said indicating a ladder that would allow them access. She would have to input her code into everyone as they went up.

"Right with you, ma'am," Crewman Gillespie answered.

Darcy was pulling and twisting her fingers. She couldn't stand this, she needed a distraction. When the group departed she look around her. "Anyone read anything good lately or had an interesting dream? Something to talk about to get our minds off of well . . . . what's going on?"

"I dreamt I was standing in a cornfield before we did bump into something," Beth said looking down at the woman from above on the ladder rung. "What about you Gillespie?" The Executive Officer asked.

Gillespie let out a sigh and shook his head. "Reading a biography on Colonel Green. Stuff of nightmares if you ask me."

"I always dream I can't find a bathroom, or if I do find it then I can't figure out how to use it because there are all these tubes . . . " Darcy's voice trailed off and she gave a little shrug.

Chiming in with the rest of them, Jordan added his dream, "I have this reoccurring nightmare. I'm back in officer training school and we have a major test. I keep oversleeping by hours and the building has locked all of the doors."

"I think we've all had that dream." Beth countered trying to make him feel a little better as they climbed. Beth stayed quiet for a moment as she clung on to open the last sealed. "Here at last." The woman called back down happy about the fact that they were on deck 1.

Sam smiled at the dreams of the others. It was nice to hear dreams that were amusing and not filled with death and destruction. His dream was of the Reptilian Xindi vessel and his fight with one of their larger combatants. Hand to hand combat with a lizard was never something he'd ever thought he'd have in his life time.

The Executive Officer climbed out on the Jeffrey tube and fell onto the floor of the corridor outside of the bridge and leaned back to help the others out.

"Thanks, Commander," Ted Gillespie said, hauling himself onto the deck with the help of Leroux. He made his way to the tactical station to take stock of the situation.

Beth nodded and moved silently to where the Bridge was and stepped out. She instantly stopped as she took in the view screen and the purplish glow that was outside. That wasn't where they were meant to be at all. If they weren't where they meant to be, where the hell were they?

"What do you think happened?" Darcy whispered to anyone listening. "Did we drift off course? Get pushed by something?" She was tempted to ask if aliens had taken over the ship in a half-hearted joking matter, but that's exactly what this wasn't.

Sam had stayed quiet upon their ascent to the bridge but at the sound of the questioning from the woman to his side he did have a suggestion. "Maybe the radiation affected our systems, either pushing us off course or forcing an all stop? I'm not expert on space travel by any means though." he did offer at the end.

"I... I don't understand these readings," Jordan spoke up from the engineering post on the Bridge. "Our sensors cannot get a navigation lock on the stars, even if I use the Vulcan database. It's as if none of these stars have been mapped, but that can't be true. The Enterprise gave us detailed maps of the path to the Xindi homeworld."

Beth took in a deep breath and closed her eyes for a split second as she tried to gather her thoughts and think on what had happened. "I don't think we are where we should be. I don't think we are in Kansas anymore." It was a human expression that would easily be recognized and the significance of it.

As realization hit, Jordan brought the readouts to the main viewer. "Where the hell are we?" he asked, a little fear seeping into his tone. He then set the sensors to find Sagittarius A, the supermassive black hole in the center of the galaxy. Finding that would at least tell them which quadrant they were in currently. It would be a few moments to compute, the longer it took the worse the news.

"Can we even rely on the sensors after what we went through? What if our readings are off or the star chart data corrupted?" Ted was grasping at straws. The tactical readout provided even less clarity. There were no familiar IFF squawks or ships within range to confirm their position.

“We’ll need to perform a Level 1 Diagnostic,” Jordan shook his head. “All systems read normal but a diagnostic would make sure of that.”

OFF::

Commander Bethsabee Leroux
First Officer/Chief Communications Officer
NX Atlantis

Lt. Commander Michael Sloan
Chief Armory Officer/Second Officer
NX Atlantis

Lieutenant JG Darcy Blair
Science Officer
NX Atlantis

Ensign Jordan Fairchild
Engineering Officer
NX Atlantis

Major Samuel King
MACO Commanding Officer
NX Atlantis

Crewman Ted Gillespie
Auxiliary Armory Officer
NX Atlantis