Rust, Part 6

Posted on 30 Sep 2022 @ 9:17am by Lieutenant JG Kemm & Lieutenant Zayna Ryler

1,118 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Extinction
Timeline: Mission Day 17 at 1000

Having double and triple checked the scans, Zayna found the best place she could for them to setup the containment field for the filaments and pull any stragglers in. With the filaments spread throughout the secondary hull, however, they'd have to leave it up for some time.

"I think this is the best we're going to get without interfering with any ship systems. I just hope that when these things hopefully become attracted to this containment field, they won't pass through any critical systems."

"Or anyone at all," Kemm added, running a diagnostic on a field generator with his tricorder. "We've been lucky the last couple of weeks, but the last thing any of us need is finding a crewmember who's been rapidly aged."

Zay bit her lip, "I didn't think of that one, but you're right." She did a quick sweep for who might be in their way. "I think we're okay. We just have to keep ourselves safe too. There's no promise these things will go right in, so we have to keep a distance."

Kemm nodded his agreement and looked back to his tricorder. He tapped a few more buttons before closing and deactivating the device. "All looks good here, each diagnostic confirms that all systems will function as expected. I suppose we are ready to try our magnet out."

Nodding, Zayna moved to what she assumed was a safe place and once making sure Kemm and Djinx were in safe places, kicked on the magnet. "Let's hope they take the bait."

“Let’s hope. But do we not have to set up warning for the crew?”, the Commander asked.

"Warnings are out there," Kemm confirmed. "But this is a silent killer. You won't see it coming, nor will you know it hits you until it happens. Much like what you humans call a heart attack. No warning signs." Still, the engineer took a few steps back to watch the magnet at work.

"Then..." Zayna flipped the 'switch' so to speak (or rather, hit the button) and carefully watched for any signs of movement in the filaments.

And so they waited for several moments. Kemm did not keep track of the time, but he was certain that each second felt like a minute. "Well," he said at long last, breaking an awkward silence. "I knew it was foolish to expect immediate results, but I still find myself disappointed."

Putting her back against a nearby wall, Zay nodded, "I had hoped as well, but, science is never exact. Looks like a waiting game."

A soft hum could be heard from the equipment, almost as if it was building a larger than normal charge. Whispers of ganglia began to emerge from the base of Kemm's skull, causing a wave of fear to wash over Kemm. "Oh no," he said softly and quietly. "No one move... it's here."

Watching both Kemm and the machine, Zayna raised an eyebrow. "Lieutenant...what is going on?" She didn't move, as he said, but became extremely concerned.

"I think..." he said quietly. "I think there's a filament in here."

Checking the scans but moving very slowly, Zay nodded. "Confirmed. At least this thing picked up one." She gently put a hand on Kemm's arm. "It's okay, just...we can't move around too much."

That's not what worried Kemm. As a Kelpien, he was at least a foot taller than either science officer, which made him a larger target. Across the room, the magnet's hum intensified, an indication that the filament was getting closer. Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light, followed by the many whispers that were accompanied by a struggling forcefield. When Kemm's vision returned, he saw what appeared to be one end of a glowing string tethered to the field generator's forcefield. "It worked!" he gasped.

Double-checking the containment field, Zayna smiled. "It did! But we know there is more than this...we have to keep waiting. However, I'm hoping we won't have anymore things on the ship randomly aging after this."

“We can only be sure of that by observation and constant monitoring, since we have no clue how many filament there are here.”, Arjin offered.

"The scans should hopefully let us know once this is done. Hopefully..." Zayna let the scanners run while the filaments were on their way in. "Even one stray one will cause hell."

"This is just one end of the filament," Kemm reminded everyone as his excitement dissolved back into obligations of duty. He pulled out his tricorder and began to scan. "This end of the filament is now easy to pick up on scanners, but the traces disappear not far out of this room. We still need to find the other end so that we can remove it safely."

Zay nodded, "Then that's what we have now. And we'll leave this on until we know we're in the clear. I'm just hoping that won't take too long. But, how far out do we want to go?"

"To that question, I have no answer." Kemm cautiously approached the generator and scanned the filament that they'd snagged so far. "The section we see here is definitely in a state of flux. There's a lot of chroniton and tachyon energy."

Looking between Kemm and Djinx, Zayna sighed. "That's an understatement. We have to make sure we finish this up, quickly. Else the sections could still end up a mess with pieces needing replaced."

Suddenly, a light flashed and a second filament appeared. The magnet did a great job of keeping the two filaments apart, no matter how much they threatened to intertwine. "Lieutenant Ryler," Kemm said quickly. "I bet if we can bombard the filaments with anyons, we should be able to trace these back to their source."

"That is great thinking. Let's do it. I want to get to the bottom of this now rather than later."

Kemm was not in a position to argue, nor would he want to. These filaments had tormented the ship long enough. "It should take a minute or so to reconfigure the forcefield emitters throughout the ship to emit anyon particles. The filaments should attract them and that will be that. We'll have to bombard the entire secondary hull for about a minute. Anything more than that, then we'll be hearing from sickbay."

Zayna smirked, "I don't think I want to deal with sickbay in the aftermath of all this. Most of the ship likely doesn't know what is going on as it is."

The two officers kept working to catch more of the filaments, and while they were able to collect more and track down the source, little did they know how extensive the damage already was...

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