LAGOON NEBULA, ALPHA QUADRANT – An immediate crisis averted, the crew of the USS Khitomer recovered from injuries and cleaned up a spacetime mess.
The Engineering crew of the Khitomer worked tirelessly to restore power after it was knocked out, but the challenges were not straightforward. Attempts to restore power through reserve generators and batteries were thwarted by decay in the ship’s power conduits. Extensive work was required to restore key pathways to vital systems, and the ship would not be at full strength for another twelve hours after.
Only after they’d escaped one emergency did the crew come to know that they faced two more. Not only had the tests on multiple experimental systems caused damage to Khitomer’s power grid, but it had created a subspace rift, nicknamed the “Hobart Hole” by the crew after their acting Captain. But that wasn’t the most life-threatening hazard.
With their Sencha defenses down, the crew and ship would be vulnerable to further Sencha waves, and initially it was presumed they were safe. The probe used to emit them was equipped with a “dead man’s switch,” and could not activate without explicit instruction from Khitomer. However, the crew became concerned by the discovery of corrupted bio-neural gel packs throughout Khitomer’s computer information systems—if Khitomer’s data systems were corrupted, could the probe’s systems be, as well?
“The probe has bio-neural components,” explained LtCmdr. Connor Dewitt, Chief Engineer. “Its standby sequencing might be affected. That means it could still execute the field test protocols… or some corrupted form of those.”
A group of Khitomer officers daringly launched an impromptu and unauthorized mission to reach the probe by runabout and managed to disable the probe before it could harm the ship, though not before it could harm the away team. After the probe was ultimately destroyed, the crew returned with serious injuries.
There were less serious injuries, too. When the lights came on in Holodeck One, Lt. Charles Matthews was two meters off the deck and upside down. A dislocated shoulder, suffered when artificial gravity was restored without warning, was emblematic of the kind of minor injuries suffered across the crew, and illustrative of the risks that infuse the Federation’s final frontier.
Written by Nolen Hobart
