Christopher Adams The Enigma Factor

Mission: The Enigma Factor

Day: 1 - Stardate: 2407.01.27

(USS Paladin - Deck 51, Main Engineering - Ensign JG Christopher Adams - 1346)

Ensign Christopher Adams walked around the lower deck of the cavernous engineering deck of the USS Paladin. His face looking down at a PADD while engineering techs walked around him. Periodically he would glance up to check a readout verifying what he was seeing on the PADD. Lieutenant Matrix was on duty on the bridge, leaving Adams to watch over engineering.

Suddenly, Captain Straton's voice came over the comm system. =^=Bridge to Engineering.=^=

Adams tapped his comm badge, "Engineering here."

=^=We have picked up a distress call and are going to investigate and lend what ever aide we can,=^= explained the captain. =^=We will need all available power.=^=

"Aye, captain," responded Adams. "Engineering out."

Looking up at one of engineering techs on the catwalk at warp core 3, Adams yelled out, "You heard the captain! Bring Warp Core 3 online!" He then walked over to the main engineering table and tapped in the status of the warp core so that Ensign O'Connor and Lieutenant Matrix would be informed up on the bridge.

Ensign Christopher Adams stood at the main engineering table typing the status of the engines into the operations panel so that the bridge crew could monitor the power output from the third warp core since he had ordered it activated. Suddenly the two other warp cores started to pulse at a faster rate. ~We must have entered warp,~ thought Adams. Looking down at the engineering panel his speculation was confirmed. A green panel flashed on the engineering display and Adams touched it revealing a message from the first officer.

=== Ensign JG Adams-

You have been selected for possible away team duty in Away Team 1. Assemble necessary equipment and report to Transporter Room 1 in three and a half hours, if you are notified.

-Lieutenant Commander Capps ===

~Wow. My first away mission,~ thought Adams. He walked over to the equipment locker and pulled out an engineering case. Opening it up, he removed the tricorder and attached it to his belt. He closed the case and set it on the engineering table.

(USS Paladin - Deck 51, Main Engineering - Ensign JG Christopher Adams - 1740)

Ensign Christopher Adams walked around the engineering deck checking the various readings. The engines suddenly stopped their pulsing and Adams walked back to the engineering table to check the read outs. The ship had come out of warp and sensors were reporting a subspace rift in front of the ship.

=^=Away team 1 report to transporter 1,=^= Commander Capps's voice commanded over the ensign's comm badge.

Adams walked over to Ensign Tristen who was monitoring the subspace rift's effects on the power systems. "Tristen, I've been asked to join an away mission. That leaves you in charge down here. I will notify Lieutenant Matrix on the bridge." Adams then walked over to the engineering table where he typed a few commands into the table, picked up the engineering case, and headed to the turbolift.

(USS Paladin - Deck 4, Transporter Room 1 - Ensign JG Christopher Adams - 1743)

Ensign Christopher Adams walked into Transporter Room One where he met up with a very striking young female Trill with long blonde hair. "Hello," he said extending his large hand while a half grin appeared on his face. "I'm Ensign Adams. Pleased to meet 'ya."

Olesia took his hand, and shook it. "A pleasure, ensign. Nervous?"

"Sorry," Adams responded wiping his hand on his uniform pants. "I'm a little nervous this being my first away mission and all."

"You'll be fine."

Also in the room was a Klingon as well as other people dressed in security uniforms. Suddenly a phaser came flying towards Adams making him drop his engineering case in order to catch it.

"You won't get very far without that, Ensign," warned the transporter chief.

"Th...thanks," replied Adams attaching the phaser to his belt and picking his case back up. A whoosh came from behind him and he turned around to see Commander Capps and Ensign O'Connor enter the transporter room.

"Ensign Trei," said Capps looking towards the Klingon security officer. "You will be beaming with us, but I want your security team to beam immediately after us."

"We are ready for transport sir" Detron said to Commander Capps. “Team act on my signal. Until then, stand alert."

~This will be exciting. My first away security mission to lead. Lets Rock and Roll.~

The commander then looked towards Adams and Belden. "Ensign Adams, Ensign Belden," he said nodding in their direction.

The doors to the transporter room opened once again and a woman with long auburn hair walked through dressed in a blue uniform and carrying a medical case.

"Let's go," commanded Capps as he walked up to the transporter pad.

Ensign Adams followed the rest of the away team and walked up onto one of the transporter pads.

(Unknown Vessel - Control Center - Ensign JG Christopher Adams - 1751)

The dark room became illuminated from the transporter beam as the away team from the USS Paladin appeared. Ensign Christopher Adams's knees buckled as the gravity of the unknown ship took effect. He reached into his case and pulled out a palm beacon which he strapped to his left hand. They appeared to be in the control center of the ship, perhaps the bridge. There were several bodies around the bridge.

Commander Capps instructed the away team to start searching various areas of the ship. "Ensign O'Connor and Ensign Adams, let's see if we can get power back on, and internal sensors."

Adams nodded and followed O'Connor over to the nearest wall where an access panel appeared to be. O'Connor knelt down in front of the panel, "Adams, help me get this cover off." Adams knelt down with a grunt next to the Ops officer. "If the gravity is still working," continued O'Connor. "Then that means that at the bare minimum, the aux power systems are working. If we can find what ever passes for an EPS port we can try and set up a cross link between the environmental controls and the rest of the systems, hopefully bring back online the internal sensors and the computer system, then maybe we can get some answers. That is, assuming they use anything we can recognize for a power distribution system. If not, we will just have to wing it, I want a look at the computer system as soon as we can bring it back online."

Both grasping the panel the two officers were able to pull it off. Pulling his tricorder off of his belt, Ensign Adams scanned the circuitry behind the panel. "Hmmm. You are correct. The auxiliary power is still operational and these systems don't seem that far off from our technology. I have some optical cable in my case which I can use to re-route the power from the environment system to the computer systems. There isn't enough power in order to do much more than that…"

"Ensign Adams, help me move this body," asked Ensign Belden from a couple of meters away.

"Just a second, Belden," responded Adams. "I should be finished over here in a second."

Looking back at O'Connor, "There isn't enough power to drive more than the computers. You are going to have to check the power distribution and see if you can re-route power once the computers come online."

Ensign Adams picked up his case and pulled out a meter worth of optical cable. Reaching inside the panel he found the EPS taps and used his hyperspanner to connect the cabling from the auxiliary power to the computer systems. He picked up his tricorder and did one last check.

"Try it now," said Adams.

Ensign Adams grasped the wall and with a grunt rose up to his feet once again. The heavier gravity was starting to make the young ensign a little winded. He lumbered over to Ensign Belden as she pulled on the body which was slumped over one of the command consoles.

"You push, I'll pull," instructed Adams. "One…two…three…" Adams pulled on the arm of the body and it tumbled to the ground.

Ensign Adams then walked back over to O'Connor to see if he needed any help re-routing the power to the other systems.

(Unknown Vessel - Control Center - Ensign JG Christopher Adams - 1828)

Ensign Christopher Adams had spent the last half hour working with Ensign O'Connor getting the engines up and going. In order to get any response at all, they had rerouted around at least a dozen collapsed power conduits, or at least this ship's version of a power conduit.

"Commander," Ensign O'Connor stated getting the attention of Commander Capps. "I'm rerouting emergency power to the engines now, once we get the engines back on line we should be able to restore a semblance of full power to the rest of the systems and move us out of the rift."

"Nice work," responded the commander. "I will contact the Paladin. Let's get out of this rift."

"Aye sir," Michael said. "Engines starting in what looks like…three…two…one…and," Ensign Adams stood beside O'Connor when he touched the last panel which engaged the engine. The whole bridge started to shake sending Adams onto his side with a thud.

"Son of a…," screamed O'Connor, shutting down the engines.

Adams slowly got up the increased gravity still pulling against his large frame. Returning to one of the engineering stations, he started pulling up a diagnostic of the engine.

"Sir," reported O'Connor. "Sensors indicate that the rift just expanded when we turned the engines back on. I've powered them down again, and I don't think we're gonna drive this ship out of the rift. Belden, Adams," started O'Connor looking at the engineering and science officers. "Any possible idea what this rift is?"

Adams continued to look down at the engineering panel and the diagnostic he was running.

"I think I got something," stated Adams to the whole room. "I don't quite understand the science behind why the rift is expanding, but I think I know the cause. It turns out that this ship is similar to Romulan engine technology in that their engine is powered by an artificial quantum singularity. This ship must have come across a subspace tear and when the two came in contact, it caused a cascading power inversion. Pretty much destroying systems all across the ship from the inside out."

"The only option I see," continued Adams. "Is to get the Paladin to tow us out with a tractor beam. Once we are clear of the rift, we should be able to restart the engines and repair systems enough so that the ship can continue on its own power. Closing the rift, that's a whole different problem."

Ensign Christopher Adams continued to pour over the readouts from the diagnostic he was running on the alien vessel's engineering systems. He pinpointed each collapsed power conduit and looked for ways around it so that he could bring each system up one at a time.

"Any luck on translating any of this? Knowing what 'siurrh ieuyye' would really help," said Adams glancing over to Ensign O'Connor with a smile.

"Commander," shouted Adams trying to get the attention of Commander Capps. "I think I've gotten sensors back up and going and we've got a problem. There's another alien vessel just outside the rift along with the Paladin with a configuration similar to the one we are on. I've pinpointed all the breaches in the power systems. I can start working on them without having an effect on the rift. I could also go down to engineering and see if this ship has an alternate method of propulsion then the quantum singularity which drives the warp core. Which area do you want me to concentrate first?" Ensign Christopher Adams looked at Commander Capps for direction when Ensign O'Connor spoke up, "Commander, I want to take Adams and the Doctor down to what ever qualifies for Engineering on the ship. There may be people injured down there, and if we are going to figure out what's going on or how to get us out, we are going to need access to that section of the ship."

"It seems you and Adams have the same train of thought." Calvin really didn't want to split up the away team. It seemed only the worst could happen from here on out. But he had to believe in his officers opinions. "Agreed. Take the team you want. The rest of us will stay here. We will continue to review sensors, logs, and attempt to contact the Paladin. I also would like to know what that unknown ship is out there."

O'Connor nodded and looked towards the doctor and Adams, "Doctor Whetari, Ensign Adams, you're with me, we're going to head down to engineering. Adams, you think you can convince the turbo lift to take us there without voice commands, or should we find what passes for a Jefferies tube and hoof it?"

"I should be able to convince one of these lifts to take us there," responded Adams. "It may take me a few minutes while I pull up a map of the ship and then hard code the route into the lift."

(Unknown Vessel - Control Center - Ensign JG Christopher Adams - 1848)

Ensign Christopher Adams used his tricorder to pull a ship schematic from the computer system and walked down a hallway where he found a lift. Pulling a panel from the wall he started to look at the circuitry inside. It was similar in design to a Romulan ship, but with differences here and there. He traced the circuitry back to the lift's control buffer and was able to use the tricorder to decode the command codes. With the command codes in hand, it was just a matter of putting together the right sequence that would get them to what looked like engineering on the schematic. A few more taps on the tricorder and he had fed the commands into the lift's control buffer.

"Okay," said Adams to O'Connor and Whetari. "I think I have it. Ready to go for a ride?"

(Unknown Vessel - Engineering - Ensign JG Christopher Adams - 1849)

Doctor Whetari and Ensign O'Connor joined Ensign Adams on the lift. Once they were on board, Chris hit a button and the lift doors closed and they were whisked off into the depths of the ship. After a few seconds, the doors reopened on a dark hall. Adams illuminated the passage with his palm beacon and walked towards a large room which had a strange pulsing glow coming from within.

In the middle was a single chamber with half a dozen conduits entering it. Radiating outward from the chamber were several shimmering strings floating in mid air. An intermitted hissing sound could be heard from the strings as air was sucked into them. Sitting in the middle of the chamber was a single glowing ball of energy. Scattered about the floor of the camber were more bodies.

Michael followed ensign Adams out of the turbo lift, Doctor Whetari behind him. It wasn't surprising that they found more unconscious bodies.

Ensign Adams made his way into the chamber first. "It appears that the quantum singularity is still getting power and is causing smaller pockets of subspace tears around it. We should avoid contact."

"All right, first person to loose a limb to the subspace rips buys the rest dinner. Doctor, take a look at the crew, and get back to me with a general opinion on the condition, I'm worried that they are going to be worse of this close to the drive. Also while were down here, you are hereby-designated Temporary science officer, keep an eye on your tricorder for anything unusual. Also, when you're checking the crew keep a look out for the guy with the most decoration on his collar or uniform, he's the one we are going to want to talk to if things go south," Ensign O’Connor said with a wry smile.

“I will look after the crew and check my tricorder regularly, Ensign.” Nissa replied with a nod. “But, regarding the rank insignia – who is to say that this race marks their command with more, rather than less or larger insignia. I will evaluate what insignia I see and report back with my observations.” She explained, making her way over to the first body.

Limbs splayed at a strange angle, the first body that Nissa came across had third-degree burns over most of its head and torso. The young male died from those and other serious injured to the upper half of his body.

Nissa sighed deeply as she moved on to the next body with a sorrowful look.

Michael turned to face Adams. "Ok so we have subspace tears forming inside of a ship inside of a subspace tear, joyous day. We need to find a way to either get us out, or contact the Paladin so she can get us out, let's start by taking a look around and figuring out just what everything is down here, until we get the system translated we aren't going to have a whole lot of luck doing much but rudimentary things. I think our primary concern is reestablishing at least a com link with the Paladin. Any ideas on that other than going back to the basics and flashing the running lights in Morse code?"

"Not sure," responded Adams. "As you suggested, let's poke around and see what we can find."

Ensign Adams started walking counter clockwise around the edge of the room. Standing clear of the subspace tears radiating from the engine core, he scanned each engineering station with his tricorder as he went around. "Internal Sensors. External Sensors. Engine monitoring. Propulsion. Communications." Adams named off the stations as he passed.

"Well we know standard communication channels aren't going to work, because our own comm system can't break through the subspace interference. Hmmm," thought Adams. "We could modify the sensors to transmit a positron burst encoded with a message. It wouldn't allow live communication, but we could send messages back and forth. The burst would be picked up by the Paladin's main deflector dish and processed as part of their sensor data, but there's no guarantee that they would know it's a message. It's kind of like Morse code. Just all in one burst of light," Ensign Adams said after Michael asked for any ideas about communicating with the Paladin.

"It's worth a try, however at the moment we don't really have much to tell them. Lets poke around a little bit more see if we maybe can find a secondary system we can use to get us out. Before we send we'll coordinate with Commander Capps, see if he has anything he wants to send as well." Michael said.

(Reply Adams iyw)

Once he was done with Adams, Michael walked over to where Doctor Whetari was working. "How bad are they, Doc?" Michael asked. "If we can't find a way out ourselves we might need their help., but if it would be kinder to let them sleep, then we'll let them sleep for now."

“Unfortunately,” Nissa huffed as she stood up from her crouch above one of the bodies, “all but two are dead, Ensign.” She motioned to an older female and younger male across the room from them. “They are the only survivors and they have both sustained rather serious injuries. It is not advisable to wake either unless we have to, though I think that we could revive the younger of the two with less pain, as his injuries are slightly less.” She explained with a frown and a slight nod, acknowledging that they may have to wake the aliens even if it would cause them pain.

(Unknown Alien Ship, Engineering - COPS/3O Ensign (sg) Michael Ian O'Connor - 1910)

Michael perked up from his work with the computer systems when he heard his name. Walking over to where Adams was sitting down in front of what he had listed off as a propulsion terminal earlier. "What do we have?"

"Ensign. I've analyzed the commands which control the Propulsion Station. It appears there's only one which won't active the ship's engines and it involves another ship. I'm not exactly sure what will happen if we initiate the command, but I can only presume that one ship will pull another ship. Maybe it's some sort of emergency system? We know there's another alien ship out there. What do you think? Should we try and send this information to the Paladin through the positron burst?"

Ensign Christopher Adams sat on the engineering floor of the alien vessel looking up at the chief operations officer, Ensign Michael O'Connor. Adams had just listed out a few options that they could take and was looking for guidance on what they should do next.

"Compress the sub-routine," commanded O'Connor. "…and, set up the positron burst...and be ready to send it again to the other alien ship if we get the okay from the Paladin…they haven't started firing yet, but we don't know if they're friendly yet. Give them what ever information they'll need so they can set an answer we can interpret. Let me know if you need me to do anything. I'll inform the bridge of what we're going to do, internal communication should be okay, although I'll head as far from those strands as I can. Let me know when you're ready to send and I'll let you know if the bridge has anything to add."

"Aye, sir," responded Adams. "Actually, I could use some help." Adams threw his tricorder over to O'Connor.

(reply O'Connor)

"I've downloaded all the command codes into the tricorder. You just need to author the subroutine which will initiate the subspace link between the two ships. I'll work on compressing the message into the positron burst."

(reply O'Connor)

Michael nodded and turned, "Doctor, if you have any information you want passed onto the Paladin, or any questions, let Ensign Adams know, he might have a way to pass and receive information." Michael yelled across the room to the Doctor as he moved to the far side of the room to contact the Commander.

(Reply Whetari iyw)

Adams got off the floor with a loud grunt. Sweat had started to pour down from his brow and he was really breathing hard due to the increased gravity.

Ensign Christopher Adams looked over in the direction of Doctor Nissa Whetari. "Doctor? Is there anything you can give me to help me catch my breath? I'm having trouble in this increased gravity."

"I have something that I think should help," said the doctor making her way over to Adams. "Just sit and rest of a moment," the doctor warned pressing the hypospray against Adam's neck. Making a few adjustments, she injected herself as well. "You should start to breathe easier in a moment and any feeling of fatigue or heaviness should subside in the next few minutes."

"Thanks, doctor," responded Adams. "But, I have to get this message ready to send. Each moment that we sit here with another alien vessel outside, we are in that much more danger.

"I heard you tell Ensign O'Connor that you wanted to put a casualty report into the message," Adams replied as he began to breathe easier. "What did you want me to put into the message?"

“Please let the Paladin know that we have at least five wounded here and have found at least 15 dead.” Nissa said, reloading the Hypospray and looking around for Ensign O’Connor. She noticed that Ensign Adams seemed mildly frustrated. ~He must be having trouble with the systems, since we’ve lost contact with the Universal Translator.~

“Its too bad you this ship doesn’t have a Universal Translator that we can access, but you are doing a great job.” After giving her words of encouragement, Nissa moved towards O’Connor, leaving Adams to work in peace.

Not wanting to waste any time, Adams lumbered over to the External Sensors console and started looking over the display with the alien pictographs. ~Damn,~ thought Adams. ~Completely unreadable. Can't we all just use the same language?~ Adams opened up his engineering case and pulled out another tricorder and started analyzing the different control schemes. After a couple of minutes he was able to figure out how to use the ship's particle emitters and started authoring the message he was going to send to the Paladin.

Adams lumbered over to the External Sensors console and started looking over the display with the alien pictographs. ~Damn,~ thought Adams. ~Completely unreadable. Can't we all just use the same language?~ Adams opened up his engineering case and pulled out another tricorder and started analyzing the different control schemes. After a couple of minutes he was able to figure out how to use the ship's particle emitters and started authoring the message he was going to send to the Paladin.

Tapping his comm badge three times he engaged a local transmission.

(Unknown Vessel - Bridge - FO Lt Cmdr Calvin Capps - 1911)

Calvin was sitting in a loose chair that he had found lying on its side. He sat across from the unknown alien. In the past 30 minutes the First Officer and the alien attempted to talk to each other. Back and forth the two talked. Not knowing what the other was saying but to Calvin it seemed that the alien knew why they continued to communicate any ways. Calvin believed that the alien he was talking to knew that they were trying to get enough dialog between the two for the translator.

So far it seemed that the aliens name was Huor. The translator was no where near perfect but Huor had said 'name', 'my', and 'Huor' enough times that the translator was able to pronounce those words back in English so Calvin could understand what Huor was saying. Lt Cmdr Capps assumed that the translator was also able to speak back to Huor what his name was.

Huor was no longer a dangerious threat. Trei went back to working on the sensors and Belden continued to work the translator and hitting commands here and there.

"Huor, we need your help. Can you understand me?" Calvin asked the same question about 10 times now.

(reply Huor)

It sounded like Huor responded with the same response as he did the last 9 times. Except this last time more words were translated to English. A small dictionary was being assembled in the translator, but at the current rate of translation it would take longer than the away team had.

Calvin was then interrupted by a communicator. "Belden, continue talking with Huor."

=^=Ensign O'Connor to Commander Capps, Ensign Adams might have a way to transmit information to the Paladin. If you have anything you want to send, let me know and I'll make sure it's in the burst transmission. Be aware we are going to rig the sensor to emit a coded positron burst aimed at Paladin. =^=

(Unknown Alien Ship, Engineering - COPS/3O Ensign (sg) Michael Ian O'Connor - 1914)

=^=Ensign O'Connor I will assume that you will not be doing anything that may get us into more danger than we already are. Having said that. Send to the Paladin our status in general. Tell them that we are unable to get out of the rift using our own engines. Also tell them that we have one awaken alien that we have limited communication with using a even more limited translator. =^=

"No sir, nothing that will endanger the ship, the Paladin, or us." Michael said. "I'll add that to the message, Adams is constructing."

=^=And to give you an update about our situation up here Ensign. Our translator is beginning to work. I believe this alien known to me as Huor may help us use the systems on the ship. =^=

"Sounds good, sir, are you making any further progress on your end?" Michael asked.

=^=We are getting no where up here, and we only have one Huor. We will be moving to your location. If this ship is anything like ours we will have the same systems in engineering. =^=

"We do seem to have access to most systems down here that I saw up on the bridge. But be aware sir, the core is still partially active and there are more subspace tears occurring near it down here, it could be very dangerous."

=^=We will take that chance. Send that burst out as soon as possible. See you soon Ensign. =^=

"Aye Sir, O'Connor out," Michael said and then moved back to Adams.

Ensign Christopher Adams bent over the External Sensors station working on getting the ship to emit a positron burst encoded with a message, when Ensign Michael O'Connor approached him tossing Adam's tricorder back at him. "We have a report from the bridge to add to the message before you send it out. Send it out as soon as you can, and be prepared for a response, the Captain and the rest of engineering will make sure we know they heard us."

"Understood," Adams replied looking down at the tricorder that O'Connor had tossed to him. He started up a standard Away Team Report and filled in all the information known.

---

Away Team Report

Situational

• Stuck in rift and cannot engage engines
• One awake alien with limited communication

Medical

• Discovered 5 wounded
• Discovered 15 dead
• Total compliment unknown

Engineering

• Engine similar in Romulan design: artificial quantum singularity
  • Seems to be related to rift
  • Engaging the engine caused rift to expand
  • Smaller versions of subspace tear emanating from engine core
• Have discovered possible way out of rift
  • A system which would send message to the other alien vessel
  • Other alien vessel pull this ship
  • Doesn't engage engines on this ship
  • Details of what this would do: unknown

---

After the message was done, Ensign Adams compressed it using a Starfleet standard encryption protocol and fed it to the alien's External Sensor console. "Alright. Here goes nothing," Adams said looking over at O'Connor. He pressed a button on the console and looked down at his tricorder.

(reply Paladin)

Ensign Adams looked back at Ensign O'Connor with a look of excitement in his eyes. "Message Away. Now we just hope that they find it in the sensor data and know it's a message."

(Unknown Vessel - Engineering - Ensign JG Christopher Adams - 1931)

Ensign Christopher Adams heard hollow footsteps coming down the hall and his hand reached down to his phase. Commander Capps and the rest of the away team appeared out of the shadows. Adams couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Ensign Belden guiding one of the aliens with them. Commander Capps turned towards O'Connor and Adams, "Were we able to send the transmission?"

"Aye, sir," replied Adams. "Sent about fifteen minutes ago and no reply as of yet. It may take some time for them to discover that it's actually a message from us. Then again, they might not discover it at all, but it's better than nothing." Adams handed the commander the tricorder containing the message he had sent.

(reply Capps)

"The subspace tears emanating from the warp core are troubling. The engine isn't completely shutdown and it's the only thing feeding power to key systems like life support. But, I suggest shutting it down completely before a rescue attempt is made or we may end up just ripping the subspace tear across the sector." Ensign Adams pointed at the alien. "We could really use his help. Everything we do down here is just little shots in the dark. We are being as cautious as we can, but it would really help if someone could translate some of the systems down here."

(reply Capps, O'Connor, any)

Credits

• (posted by Jason French)
• (Posted by Wes)
• (posted by Calvin)
• (Posted by Edward)
• (Posted by Patrick D.)
• (posted by Spencer)
• (Posted by Sarah Feldman)