“Mystic Invasion”
Episode 70
Prologue
CAPTAIN’S LOG, STARDATE 74857.9: The Starlight is en route to the Delta Antar System in response to a
distress call from the USS Maine—a long-range Federation scout
ship. At the present time, details on
the source of their mire are not overly forthcoming, but the situation does not
look good.
Matthew Harrison liked a good mystery. There was something about their complex
intrigues that sparked his imagination, and drove the Commander on a seemingly
futile quest for clues. Naturally, none
of these clues made much sense at a mere glance, but when weaved together into
an intricate tapestry, they magically formed something called the
solution. As he stared at the tunnel of
verdant light streaking across the Starlight’s viewscreen, the
beginnings of that tapestry were beginning to form, for Matthew Harrison was
intrigued.
But while Matthew happily pondered the
mystery at hand, Alan Christopher sat at the opposite end of the spectrum. The Captain loathed most
mysteries—especially those involving distress signals and Federation starships,
for they tended to result in unpleasantness for one and all. And while this particular mystery didn’t
seem overly dire, looks had the tendency to be deceiving—and deception was at
the heart of every mystery…
Unable to keep his posterior in the warmth
of his command chair, Christopher finally gave in to his brimming nerves, and
rose to his feet. Instinctively, he
started to pace behind the helm, but only a few steps into the maneuver, he
paused, and turned his bright teal eyes upon the workstation. “Neelar,” he said, “what’s our ETA?”
The young Bolian’s deft fingers danced over
the control interface. “Two hours, ten
minutes,” he replied after a moment.
Christopher nodded indecisively. As far as he was concerned, that was two
hours too much—but at the same time, he knew those same two hours could be put
to good work. With any luck, they could
begin to shed some light on this newfound mystery—and Christopher intended to
do just that. “I want to know
everything that’s been happening in and around the Delta Antar System,” he
promptly announced.
Megan Reinbold immediately glanced up from
the operations station. “I’ve already
run three long-range sensor sweeps of the entire region,” she stated. “Nothing out of the ordinary has taken
place.”
Christopher trusted the Starlight’s
sensors. He trusted Megan
Reinbold. But for some reason, he
always felt better when Erin Keller delivered status reports from ops. He suspected his eternal devotion to Erin
might have something to do with that… However that was one mystery that
was not in need of immediate resolution, and Christopher promptly turned to
Harrison for his thoughts on the more pressing matters at hand.
“Perhaps they suffered some sort of
mechanical failure,” suggested Harrison almost immediately. “It has been known to happen.”
“Indeed it has.” Christopher could recount several occasions when the Starlight
was rendered dysfunctional due to some sort of mechanical problem—the
malfunctioning phasers being the most recent incident. “Still, I’m not going to discount anything
until we arrive. The dreaded and evil—”
A sensor alert suddenly interrupted the
Captain, bringing his cunning remark to an abrupt end. “There appears to be an object in the
transwarp conduit with us,” Bator announced a brief moment later.
“A ship?” Harrison inquired.
The Phobian shrugged. “Unknown,” he replied. “Sensors cannot easily penetrate its
surface—however, the object is small… No larger than ten centimeters in
diameter. It may be a probe of some
kind.”
Something that small didn’t exactly strike
fear into Christopher’s heart—but he wasn’t about to discount the object. “Are we being scanned?”
“No,” said Bator.
“But the object is destabilizing our
transwarp conduit,” added Neelar Drayge.
“We’re losing it!”
Christopher immediately tapped his
communicator. “Christopher to
Tompkins!”
* * *
Standing over the master control station in
main engineering, Lucas Tompkins knew exactly what the Captain wanted even
before he answered the hail. Their
transwarp conduit was steadily breaking apart—and Christopher wanted an
explanation. But as he tapped his
communicator, Lucas Tompkins was as far from an answer as one could get. “This is Tompkins,” he replied.
“Lucas,” said Christopher evenly, “what
the heck is going on down there?”
Tompkins glanced at the data on his screen
one last time, just to be certain he had not missed anything. But much as he expected, everything was in
perfect working order, including the transwarp manifold. “As far as I can tell, the disruption isn’t
related to the Starlight,” he said.
“There’s nothing I can do to keep us from losing the conduit.”
“What about boosting power to the
engines?” Christopher inquired.
In the back of his mind, Tompkins knew
that was not going to help, but it was always best to humor the Captain. “I’ll give it a shot,” he said, “but I’m not
sure what good it will do. Tompkins
out.”
Those were not the words Alan Christopher
had wanted to hear. He wanted
everything to go perfectly, without so much as a single hindrance; of course,
it never did, and Christopher long ago realized there was little use in
fretting over it.
The ship jolted slightly as the engines
kicked up a notch, but as Tompkins had prophesized, it did little to help their
situation. The ragged transwarp conduit
on the viewscreen slowly streaked away its verdant light; the Starlight
lingered in utter darkness for only a moment before its grandiose expulsion
from transwarp amidst a blaze of white light.
Christopher swayed slightly as they streaked
into normal space, and was immediately crestfallen at the sight of stars gently
streaking across the viewscreen.
Trouble was brewing on the USS Maine, and the Starlight
could barely amble to their rescue.
“We’ve dropped down to warp three,” said Drayge
after a moment.
“Damage?” Christopher inquired.
“None,” said Bator.
That was a relief. Often times, an unexpected departure from transwarp gave rise to
ten kinds of tumult, leading Christopher to believe that luck just might
be on his side for once. So he decided
to take a gamble, and test the lucky waters.
“What about the transwarp engines?”
Drayge promptly went over the data on the
helm. “They look like they’re fully
functional,” he stated. “That… thing we
saw in the conduit must have been the problem.”
Christopher clenched his jaw. “It must have been,” he said. “Reopen the conduit, and resume course for
Delta Antar.”
On the viewscreen, the gentle streaks of
starlight abruptly merged into a flash of blinding light. The Starlight rumbled a bit, and when
the light finally subsided, the tunnel of verdant light returned.
“There is no sign of the object,” Bator
announced.
Matthew Harrison expelled an immediately
sigh of relief. “Most excellent,” he
proclaimed. His mind was focused
entirely upon the mysteries of the Maine—not that there was anything
wrong with that. Once the investigation
began, Christopher was confident the solution would not evade Matthew for long.
But Christopher still harbored some concerns
about their tiny friend in the transwarp conduit—and he didn’t like it one bit…