The Time to Leave ... or not

Posted on Fri Feb 11th, 2022 @ 5:35am by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Lieutenant Samantha Leyton & Commander William Gerhard & Ensign Nuna Lepine

Mission: Mission 5 - Babel
Location: Unknown Planet
Timeline: Day 280 16:00
1759 words - 3.5 OF Standard Post Measure

Beth stared at the planet as it spun lazily below the view screen and sat back in her chair listening to the familiar hums from the ship. It had been a welcome break for everyone despite the tower incident and losing King. It would take a long time to fill that void but the MACO’s were coping well with it all for now. It had been unexpected as the tower had been stable and nothing had given rise to anything like that before but now, they were leaving once the final shuttlepod was back. “Let me know what the shuttle is back.” Beth requested.

"The shuttlepod is commencing recovery docking procedures and will be aboard within a minute," Leyton replied from her Helm Console at the front of the bridge.

“All departments reporting ready yet?” Beth asked looking around at all the crew at consoles. The only console unmanned was communication but that was because the crew member who should be manning it was resting hopefully in her quarters trying to get her memory back. She would be more than capable but Beth wanted her to heal up some more before she resumed the duties that she was more than capable of doing.

William sat at his console and stared across at the empty comms station. He was emotionally exhausted given the events of the previous few days. With the loss of Major King, Sergeant Guitierrez had assumed command over the remaining MACOs. William and the sergeant had agreed to begin cross training the MACOs and his own Armory team in each other's procedures. He hoped this would bring the MACOs together given the loss of their experienced and well respected CO. Then there came Lexi, who was still struggling to cope with her memory loss. The doctor had told William that he should be patient and give her time to recover, and he was doing his best. But given his own personal history, it was difficult to see a positive outlook. He found himself withdrawing into himself again, as he coped.

The captain's call pulled him out of his trance and he checked his status board. "Armory division is standing by captain," he replied as he looked to the viewscreen.

"Helm control is ready as usual," Samantha boasted with a grin. Despite the much-needed break, Samantha wanted to get going. Hopefully, they would soon find a way back home. She had to keep faith. "Shuttle pod is recovered," came the announcement after a beep from her console alerted her to the bay doors sealing shut and pressurizing.

“Good. Engineering?” She questioned pressing a button so that Sloan would be able to hear her in engineering. He answered that the engines were ready to go.

“Any final scans from Science?” Beth wondered over her shoulders wondering if Darru or any of the others had requested anything before they left.

"All requested scans are completed, Captain," Nuna answered.

“Good. Shall we get out of here? Get back on the road?” She wondered off the crew on the bridge.

William nodded, "Couldn't agree more with you Captain. Let's leave this place behind."

Beth offered a small smile and nodded. “Engage…” as she said the word the ship shook violently making her cling to her chair. “Report…” she said aloud and stopped dead as the words came out in French. “Report.” She demanded and again it came out in French. What in the world was going on? She did not default to French or any other language unless she was tired or hurt and she was currently neither just wanting to know what was happening.

Nuna's head swiveled when she heard the captain start talking...French? Nuna knew a few words of French. Things like oui, non and je m'appelle Nuna. But she certainly couldn't hold a conversation in French. Nuna didn't know what her Captain had said, or why she was talking French.

Turning to her Captain, Nuna asked in a musical lilt, "Taku niye woyaka?

Beth raised an eyebrow at the woman as she spoke and again attempted to speak in English but it just came out in french. She frowned and shook her head not understanding the woman but she suspected it was along the lines of what is going on. If she remembered rightly the woman understood and spoke Lakota, it was something that she did not speak at all or anything common around it. She turned to other people on the bridge trying to see if anyone else was unable to speak in standard.

Just before the captain had called the command, William had noticed a strange reading on his console. As the ship was shaking, he struggle to interpret the readings from his position. "Kapten, sensorer upptäcker något konstigt energy surge emanating from the tower on the surface," he called but stopped as he heard the words in his native Swedish. It was then he noticed that the captain had spoken in French, and while his French was not great, he somewhat understood her. He looked over at Nuna as he heard her say something he had never heard before. "Hast du verstanden ... warte, warum spreche ich Deutsch," he called out but stopped as he found himself speaking German now. What the hell, he thought.

Beth looked at him confused. What kind of reading? And why was he speaking Swedish and then German? Everyone else was looking just as confused and unsure as to her as they did not understand anything that was being said. It was everyone's nightmare but to a communication officer, it would be an interesting challenge.

Beth glanced around at William as he spoke two languages she knew. She picked German and answered him back. "I understood." She assured him quickly before looking around to see if anyone else understood what he had said, when no one else did she ran over to his console and looked at the sensor readings that he mentioned. She was flung by the ship into Gerhard. She apologised profusely before looking at the readings. "Stop the engines." She called to Leyton in german but the look that she got back told her that she did not speak it. She started running through stop in languages that she thought Leyton might know - french, Italian and then finally Spanish.

Samantha was confused at what was going on. Why was the captain speaking French and German, with Gerhard speaking Swedish and German? At least that's what it sounded like. Then she heard the familiar sounds of Spanish coming from the captain: detener los motores. "Aye, Captain," she replied in Spanish as she powered down the warp and impulse engines, using thrusters only to maintain their current position.

Nuna had once seen a film re-enactment of the destruction of the legendary Tower of Babel. There was one scene where confusion was sown among everyone present by taking away their ability to speak the same language. Apparently, some deus ex machina had stepped in and removed the bridge crew's ability to speak Standard. And although it was still an unproven assumption, it was only logical to assume that this "condition" extended to the rest of the ship.

When the Captain started speaking different languages to the first officer, Nuna immediately understood the Captain's plan, if not the languages themselves. By trial and error, the Captain was searching for a new linguistic common ground. Unfortunately for Nuna, the only other language she was fluent in besides Standard was a non-European one. Nuna did have a grounding in Latin, which let her understand some of the Italian the Captain was speaking. After all, Italian and Latin had a ninety percent lexical similarity. But similarity wasn't identical.

In a dialect that would have made Ovid and Cicero wince, Nuna told the Captain, "I speak a little Latin, ma'am."

Beth held up her thumb to the science officer that she understood that Italian was an option for her. Beth took a deep breath and looked around the bridge. No one spoke a language in common that she could tell from the panic looks on everyone's face. "Do not panic. We are going to figure this out." She repeated three times for the crew on the bridge before she moved to the communication console and yelped as the console shocked her making her move back out of self-preservation to look at it. She held her hand and moved to the next console where she did not get shocked. "What in the world." She whispered looking at the console now that she could see a faint purple haze over it.

William checked his console as he saw the captain pull back sharply from the communication console. He checked his readings again. What the sensors displayed were readings he had never seen before. Since he knew the captain spoke his native tongue, he spoke in Swedish since it was most comfortable for him, "It appears that the tower is emanating some kind of energy that is affecting our communication circuits, though I can't pinpoint the exact source."

"Just perfect," Beth did not like this at all as the ship violently shifted again. "Leyton, Lepine find out why we are not moving and what the energy is that is holding us here." She instructed the pair in two different languages. "Gerherd go and get O'Connery and MacDonald," Beth said to the armoury chief knowing he would be able to at least speak to Lexi and get across the situation to her to allow her to explain to others. Beth looked at the centre chair again and pressed a button to allow her to make a ship-wide announcement. "This is the Captain. We have been hit by something as we leave the planet not allowing us to communicate in English." She said as she tried to write on her PADD and it came out in french. "Both written and speaking." Beth started to explain in as many languages as she could clearly. By the time she was finished, she rubbed her head trying to think clearly enough to communicate what she needed to next. "Senior officers need to come to the briefing room."

"Aye captain," William answered as input a few commands on his console to call up the location for the two comm officers. Once he had their location, he made his way to the nearest turbolift and called up the appropriate deck. "I'll bring Ensigns O'Connery and Macdonald to the briefing room captain," he called to her as the turbolift door closed.