“Captain! Unknown object has appeared on sensors!” Shouted Na’Edin from his position at the science station. The fact that Na’Edin raised his voice showed that this was not something even he expected.
Captain Ra’Jinn spun her chair 180 degrees to face the Ensign, “What do you mean by unknown object?” Na’Edin never looked up from his monitors, which faced up from the station between them.
He shook his head as he looked at the readings, “I’m not sure, it definitely didn’t show on the probes we sent before warping into this system. Curiously, it doesn’t seem to fully appear on the broad spectrum sweep. Almost as if the sweep can’t decide whether it is there or not, I have never seen anything like this.”
Captain Ra’Jinn had never seen Na’Edin flustered in the four standard cycles he had been a part of her crew. “Ok then Ensign, tell me what you do know about this object.”
Na’Edin’s hands fluttered over the monitors, all six fingers a blur of movement. “Captain, I can tell you it is a sphere roughly (10 meters) in diameter, and it is made of an unknown alloy, and somehow only shows on the scanners intermittently as if it isn’t grounded in space-time.”
Ra’Jinn rubbed her chin, the Hassir Empire didn’t have anything capable of doing that, and her own star empire definitely had nothing of it’s like. Her gaze never left Na’Edin, “Does it pose a danger to this ship?”
Na’Edin looked up from his readings, his hands stopped moving, “Unknown Captain, it is incredibly small in size, but the power levels required to phase an object out of spacetime, even intermittently, is more than the combined power output of a planet.”
Ra’Jinn spun her chair back to forward postion, “Lieutenant, magnify the object, and put it on the forward view-screen, keep the starboard, port, and aft screens in realtime please.” The view-screen magnified a section of space, in-between the second and third planet. As the video resolved itself, a black and grey sphere appeared in the viewscreen. Only, it also didn’t, pieces of the object seemed to disappear and reappear randomly. Ra’Jinn brought her hands to her chin again, “Tactical, do we have anything even remotely similar in the database?”
Gunnery Sargent Ka’norell was ready with an answer immediately, “No Captain, nothing in the military database matches whatever that object is.”
Ra’Jinn nodded, “Tactical, bring up our screens. Helm, set a course for the object, put us 6 light seconds away from that object. Be prepared to go to warp if it so much as wobbles.”
A chorus of voices shouted out at once, “It will be so!” As the lights dimmed, the space around the ship shimmered slightly as the screens surrounded the vessel. The ship moved through space slowly as the fusion reactors ionized hydrogen modules and pushed them out the back of the scout ship at 90% the speed of light. It would take the Unwavering Message some time to reach it’s destination. Ra’Jinn touched her shipboard communicator and stated her first officers name, “Ta’Kinar, make your way to the Bridge, we have a situation.”
A moment went by, “Yes Captain, I was already in route, I will be there momentarily.” He was as good as his word, and was quickly seating himself beside the Captain.
“XO, we’ve detected an object between the second and third planet, it’s alien in origin and doesn’t appear to sit still in spacetime. It will take (Ten Hours) for us to reach the 6 light seconds that I am requesting the ship be brought to. I am going to get some rest, you have the bridge.”
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Captain Ra’Jinn made her way to her quarters for a meal, shower and rest. The onboard printers worked well for the older technology they represented. Some of the military ships now boasted true molecular replicators, capable of making an exact copy of any meal in the computer database. Oh how she would love to have one of those aboard her scout ship. While the Unwavering Message was not new, she did boast the most modern sensors in the star empire. Without them, it is doubtful they would have detected the object at all from the distance they entered the system. I will have to commend the royal shipyards at Le’Nerra, the new sensors are excellent. With that thought she set her empty plate and utensils in the automatic washer and took a shower. Afterwards she climbed into bed, sleeping soundly until her alarm aroused her from her dreams with blissful music.
She dressed quickly and prepared herself for the day. After a quick meal she headed to the bridge. Shift change was routine, “XO, anything new to report?”
Ta’Kinar shook his head, “No captain, we have kept constant watch on the object and as yet it has not stirred at all.”
Captain Ra’Jinn nodded, “Very well, get some rest XO, I have the bridge.” Ta’Kinar brought his closed fist to his secondary heart in salute and walked off the bridge. She looked around the bridge, soon they would be within the 6 light second barrier, the presumed safe distance to ensure enough time to jump should problems arrive. Ra’Jinn touched a few buttons on her chair, “Engineering, this is the Captain speaking, ensure the jump drive is fully charged and operational, we may need to initiate an emergency jump.”
A male voice came back over the speaker, “Yes Captain, we are ready for emergency jump, the XO warned us already.” Now that the ship was closer she could see much more detail in the object. It was as Na’Edin stated, a sphere, mostly black with some silver and red hues. It didn’t spin, it stayed completely motionless as it seemed to phase in and out of existence.
She spun her chair to face the science station, “Ensign, have you discovered anything new about our object?”
Na’Edin shook his head as he touched some buttons on his console. “The object is screened and partially phased out of reach of our sensors. With a broad spectrum pulse at the 6 light second range we may acquire more data, but the object may take a directed scan as a threat.”
Ra’Jinn spun her chair around to tactical, “Gunny, are our screen capacitors fully charged?”
Ka’Norell nodded his head, “Yes captain, the capacitors are at 98%, the highest they have been since leaving star-dock. Whether this will stop an attack from an object of unknown origin with considerable technology and energy output is debatable.”
Captain Ra’Jinn spun her command chair around to face the forward view-screen, which now converged with the port, starboard and aft view-screen, giving the bridge a near cockpit view of space, even though they were deep in the heart of the ship. “Very well, tactical I want full screens, science, begin the broad spectrum pulse, lets see if we can get anymore out of this object.” Within moments the lights aboard the small scout ship dimmed, the replicators and all non-essential systems went offline to pour as much power into the capacitors as possible. The ship may take a hit, or have to jump out of the system, both of which would drain capacitor pools, and the reactors needed every terawatt of power. The broad spectrum activated with a “ping” and the view-screens showed a representation of the invisible sensor pulse as it left the ship and traveled the 6 light seconds to the object. Captain Ra’Jinn tensed as the pulse reached the object, Na’Edin whistled, causing her to look over to his station.
“Captain, the pulse was only partially successful. The scan shows the device as screened, physical makeup is still unknown. However, the screens are layered and the energy output of the screens total 120 petawatts. This is in addition to the power necessary to partially phase the object out of space-time.”
Ka’Norell spoke up next, “Captain, the object is phasing back into normal space!” Ra’Jinn looked from the Captains’ chair at the forward view screen which showed the object 6 light seconds away. The swirling field was dissipating and becoming a solid form. Lights began to come on around the structure.
Science officer Na’Edin reported, “Captain, we are being hailed.”