USS Tokyo
Misato took a long deep breath as she watched her senior officers filing into the conference lounge. She felt sick as she watched the all, one by one, taking a seat at the large table before her. As much as she tried to force it away, the events of the last half an hour kept on playing in her head, over and over again. She was stuck asking herself if she could have done more to prevent it and wondering just how much of it was her fault.
She knew it was silly to question it. Ibuki would have told her as much and she knew, were Ritsuko here she would say the same. Q had given her no time between appearing in her quarters and putting his little game into motion to prepare for anything. Just like all the other times he had appeared before a Starfleet captain, Q had played dirty.
She wished Ritsuko was here as a part of this meeting. Not just because of the strength she would have gotten from her lover being present but because Ritsuko might have been able to help in finding a solution to their problem. As it was, Ritsuko had returned to the surface and there had been no time to contact her nor make her aware of what had happened. Misato was certain NERV would be aware that something had happened, wormhole-like anomalies didn’t happen every day but they had not reached out yet.
She was dreading the moment NERV would contact them. If an angel were to attack now, the repercussions could be severe. Rei had been cleared to return to active duty but the loss of a pilot was no small thing, she had to get Shinji back. Not only that, but one of her most promising ensigns had been caught up in this. She wasn’t going to accept losing two crewmembers in one day.
Misato took a moment to have a final glance around the room, making sure that all of her staff were settled and ready. She started to speak, “Thank you all for attending as quickly as you could. I won’t drag this out too much but for the benefit of those who weren’t on the bridge this is the situation we find ourselves in.”
She paused as the screen sprung to life behind her, showing a two-dimensional top-down view of the system. There were two labelled points, one of the USS Tokyo and another for the Nagano.
“Around thirty minutes ago, the captain’s yacht, the Nagano was launched from shuttle bay two. Aboard were two of our crewmembers, crewman Shinji Ikari and ensign Asuka Langley Soryu.”
She paused as the screen changed showing two headshots of Shinji and Asuka, “Initial attempts were made to hail the vessel and order them back to the Tokyo. Unfortunately, due to reasons we’re yet unsure of, we did not receive a response to our hails.”
The headshots vanished showing only the top-down view, this time an animated blue beam spread from the point for the Tokyo, and extended to the Nagano.
“It was at that moment we tried to bring them back using a tractor beam. We were able to engage the beam and grab them but then…” She trailed off as a third point was added to the top-down view, this one was labelled ‘anomaly’. She continued to speak, “As we took hold of the ship, a wormhole-like anomaly opened up close to its location. We were unable to retrieve the Nagano and it was ultimate pulled through into the event horizon before closing. As of this moment we do not know the status or whereabouts of the Nagano, nor our missing crewmembers.”
The room fell into a solemn silence and she was once again hit with the now familiar pangs of guilt as she questioned her part in this. Misato had been briefed on the likes of Q and his trickster nature. She knew what his little games and challenges could be like and all about what he had done to the Enterprise back in 2365. Had she just made the same mistake Picard had made back then? Was this a lesson from Q that loss was inevitable? Had he bloodied her lip just like Q had to Picard?
“Captain.” Thankfully Maya broke the silence, “Moments before you came to bridge you mentioned you had been visited by Q. Are we to assume that this was his doing?”
Misato nodded solemnly, “Given the timing of his visit and this happening not long afterwards I’m almost certain this is his handiwork.”
“Do we have any idea as to what he wanted?” Ibuki asked.
“He wanted to ‘help’” Misato admitted, “He seemed to have taken in interest in what is happening regarding Shinji and the fight against these Angels, and was offering his services.”
“Captain.” Aoba spoke up, “Given his interest in us, is there a chance that he could be our saboteur as well?”
“I doubt it.” Misato shook her head, “As nice as it would be to have him to blame for that as well, I fear our saboteur was more interested in actually harming our crew rather than aiding them, at least… whatever counts to aiding someone in Q’s mind.”
“Still, I shall have my team check all the records for shuttle bay 2, as well as comb through the security footage.” Aoba replied, “I doubt Q will have left anything behind of use to us, but if those two were following protocols as they should have been, we should at least be able to find an initial log showing their destination.”
“At this point anything is better than nothing. Report back immediately if you learn anything.” Misato nodded in his direction, “Lieutenant Kirishima, this anomaly that swallowed up the pilots. Do we know what it is yet?”
The young science officer looked up, “Our initial scans of the anomaly show a structure that is consistent with a wormhole, albeit a very short lived one. We are however picking up trace elements of neutrinos, ionized hydrogen as well as disturbances on a quantum level, all of which are consistent with a wormhole.”
“Do we know if it was indeed created by Q or is this natural?”
“I’ve reached out to NERV to get what records we can from this system and surrounding space regarding any wormhole-like phenomena but my gut is telling me this is artificial.” Kirishima answered, “Unfortunately, it is doubtful we can get anything useful regarding where the other end of the wormhole is from these trace elements.”
Misato folded her arms, “What would we need to learn that?”
“Ideally… we’ve need to re-open the wormhole long enough to send a probe through and have it return to us.”
“Is that possible?”
“Theoretically but It’s highly dangerous.” She replied, “Wormholes are notoriously unstable and unpredictable phenomena, aside from the Bajoran wormhole which isn’t really what a traditional wormhole as we know it, we’ve never really gotten any guarantees with them. If we try to reopen it then there are going to be risks.”
“But… it is possible.” Misato mused, “What are the risks?”
“Best case, we manage to open it and it closes immediately, meaning we’ve wasted time and a quantum torpedo. Beyond that… we make an error in our calculations and it sends us to a completely different location either physically or temporally.”
“And absolute worst case?”
“We create an unstable wormhole that collapses and causes a ripple effect that could not only destroy us but tear apart everything in this system.”
“I’ll admit, not quite the words I wanted to hear.” Misato admittedly, “But… we can’t rule out giving it a try, no matter what the odds are. If we’re going to do it, what would we need?”
“I’d need as much data on the collapsed wormhole that we can get and as detailed as it can be. Using that data, I should be able to make some modifications to our deflector array and one of our quantum torpedoes.” Kirishima started to explain, “From there, if we divert the right amount of power to the deflector, and target an undetonated torpedo with an amplified quantum beam… we might be able to reopen it.”
Misato looked from Kirishima towards her chief engineer, Makoto Hyuga, “Hyuga, work with Kirishima to prepare any modifications that she might need to make. Be as careful as you can, we don’t want to make any mistakes here.”
“Yes Captain.” Makoto nodded.
“For the rest of you, assist where you can.” Misato ordered, “I don’t think I need to remind you all that it’s imperative we get those two back.”
888
Shinji awoke to a faint smell of smoke hitting his nostrils, and the sound of machinery sparking around him. He slowly opened his eyes, feeling a dull ache running through his body as he tried to roll over onto his back. A part of him hoped that the smell and sounds were just some parts of a dream fading away that the sight above him would be the ceiling of the USS Tokyo’s sickbay. It was not to be, the scorch-marks on the ceiling above confirming to him that this was real, he was still on the Nagano and something had gone very wrong.
It all seemed like a blur. He and Asuka had set out from the Tokyo on the supposed assignment from the captain. They were barely a minute into their journey before the Tokyo locked onto them with a tractor beam and that anomaly had opened. There was panic and some frantic attempts by both himself and Asuka to pilot the shuttle away from the anomaly and back to the Tokyo. He could remember shouting, a lot of shouting before they were eventually pulled through and he blacked out.
Shinji waited a few moments before attempting to move again, surveying the wrecked shuttle and slowly coming to the realization of the situation they were in. They had crashed on a planet and he had no idea where they were. He had no idea if the Tokyo could get to them or if they were completely alone here. He had no idea if they would be able to get off of this place or they would be found. He had no idea if they could even stay alive here.
He felt sick and took in a deep breath to try and steady his nerves. He thought back to his time on Earth and spending time with his uncle. There were things he had been taught to do in this situation so they might be able to get food and water. Asuka was… she was a trained Starfleet officer; she would know what to do. They had a chance.
Shinji propped himself up onto his elbows and took a further look around. The Nagano seemed to be completely wrecked. The front of the ship had crashed hard into the planet’s surface, the front windows had given way to parts of trees and other foliage. It seemed that the shuttle had some emergency power running, the dim lights above him telling him that, but he doubted it’d allow for repairs or even replicator.
As he looked up out of the front, he could see a canopy of trees, sunlight streaming in through a few gaps. It felt humid and sticky inside the craft leading him to think this could be some sort of jungle they had crashed into. Inside the shuttle, he could see the seats that he and Asuka had been sat in, lay strewn across the floor.
Finally, he prepared himself for the worst as he turned towards the still motionless body that lay on the side opposite to him. He was afraid of what might have happened to the ensign. For all the issues he had with her, he did not want her to die and perhaps selfishly he did not want to be alone. He got onto his hands and knees, carefully crawling towards her, noticing that, much to his relief, her chest was moving up and down slowly showing that she was alive and breathing.
“Hey… Um… Ensign…” Shinji reached out tentatively with his hand, placing it on her shoulder and gently shaking her, “A-Asuka?”
It didn’t take much effort for her to begin to stir. She opened her eyes slowly and groggily, gazing up at him, “Sh… Shinji?”
For the briefest of moments Shinji saw Asuka in a different light. She looked frightened, vulnerable even. Gone was any of the fierceness or anger he usually saw in her face; it was replaced by the image of someone who seemed to be as scared as he was.
“Where are… are we…” She looked around in confusion slowly pushing herself up off the ground and looking around herself to survey the damage done. Her mouth hung open for a moment in shock as she seemingly tried to process it all. She suddenly sunk to her knee, retching as Shinji immediately, leapt up grabbing her arm and placing a hand on her back.
“Asuka are you okay?”
She took a moment to gasp for air as she placed a hand on the floor to steady herself. Shinji closed his eyes, but kept his hand on her back, unsure as to if she would be sick or not. He let her kneel for a moment before slowly removing his hand.
“I’m fine.” She said after a moment, “I’m fine… I’m fine. I’m fine!”
Shinji took a step away and watched as she turned and sat back down, her face pale but the familiar fierceness back in her eyes.
“Are you sure?” He asked.
“I said I’m fine.” She almost snapped back at him as she tilted her head back and took another deep breath, “Unlike people like you, I’ve been trained to handle this sort of thing.”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
He had to stop himself from rolling his eyes in disbelief. He found it very hard to believe that anyone could be trained to handle this sort of situation but he knew it would probably be better to go along with it. Besides, if she was like this then it meant she must have been feeling somewhat okay now.
“Give me a status report crewman.” She asked.
“Um…” He looked around unsure what to say, “The shuttle is… has crashed and we’re in a jungle?”
“Any systems online?”
“I… I don’t know.” He answered, “I haven’t checked…”
If she had any problems with what he was saying then she didn’t show it. Instead, she slowly got to her feet and started to look around the shuttle, taking out a tricorder and using it to scan various consoles and screens.
“It’s completely wrecked… All systems pretty much done for.” She sighed, “No chance of us being able to repair it either…”
“Are we… going to be alright?” Shinji asked his voice trembling as the reality of the situation was still hitting him.
Asuka looked at him angrily seemingly ready to snap at him but on looking at him she smirked, “Of course we’re going to be alright. Thing like this… nothing to worry about! We just need to… we need some sort of distress beacon. Problem is, everything is too dense here. We’ll need to get to higher or clearer ground.”
Shinji nodded and felt some relief to hear her have some sort of plan. He listened to her as she continued, “We can probably rig our combadges together and use part of the communications array from the shuttle with an amplified signal from one of our tricorders to get a distress call out beyond this system.”
“Can we… actually do that?”
She let out a sigh, “Of course we can, didn’t you take any sort of engineering classes?”
Shinji shook his head, “No… It wasn’t really… a thing in school.”
“Just leave it to me, it’ll be easy. You just… make yourself useful. Go and grab one of the medical kits from the back of the shuttle and some of the ration packs for us. It might be a bit of a walk.”
“Okay…” Shinji stood up and walked towards the back of the shuttle where Asuka had indicated. All he found when he got there were a few empty shelves where he assumed the kits were supposed to be, “Um… Asu… Ensign, they should be here, right?”
He heard her sigh again, “Yes…”
“Well… it’s all… empty?”
“What do you mean ‘it’s empty’? How can it be empty?” She asked, “We had a full manifest of supplies when we left! You did check the manifest… right?”
Shinji looked at her blankly before shaking his head, “No, should I have done?”
“God damn idiot!” She snapped, “First rule of any away mission is to ensure the shuttle has rations and medical kits! Anyone who has been through the academy knows that!”
“I haven’t been through the academy!” he protested, “Besides, I didn’t see you checking it either and you’re the senior officer!”
“Oh, don’t split hairs!” She bit back at him, “God damnit, okay, so we don’t have any medical supplies or rations.”
“Actually I…” Shinji tried to cut in.
“Shut up, I’m thinking!” She interrupted him, “We’ll just have to make do for now! There must be a source of water on this planet otherwise these trees wouldn’t be growing. Maybe we can find that on the way to setting up the beacon. Only worry is defence… you have got your phaser and tricorder, right?”
Shinji nodded as he made his way back to the front of the shuttle, pulling out a small backpack and retrieving both items from it. He slung the pack onto his shoulder and the phaser/tricorder into their holsters on his uniform. Asuka eyed him curiously before crouching down near the front of the shuttle. She withdrew her phaser and fired at a few spots on a panel she had been trying to open. It now opened for her and she reached inside, pulling out a small device.
“There, stick that in your bag.” She instructed him, “We’ll use it when we find a good spot and hook it up to our combadges. That should allow us to send out the distress signal. Now, come with me.”
888
Ritsuko nervously glanced at the screen next to her, ensuring that she was completely alone on this level of the NERV facility. It likely wouldn’t have mattered if she wasn’t, aside from Fuyutsuki or Ikari, no one bothered entering her office and even if they did, it wouldn’t have been odd for her to be working late. Still, she wanted to be as careful as she could given the circumstances. She wasn’t really supposed to be making use of these channels, and if she was caught, it could be bad for certain people.
She tapped away at her main computer, anxiously watching as an array of bars filled up with reds turning to green. A few seconds later the words ‘Outgoing quantum communication’ appeared on screen. Ten second later, the image of a tired and worried Mari Makinami appeared.
“Akagi! What’s going on? Is everything okay?”
Ritsuko nodded and quickly tried to calm Mari down, “Everything is fine Mari, it’s just I…”
“Oh, thank god.” Mari breathed a sigh of relief, “When I saw you were contacting me using this system, I thought the worst had happened. Wait… what the hell are you doing using this channel when it isn’t an emergency! You know we’re not supposed to have contact with each other, if Ikari finds out he’ll…”
“I know!” Ritsuko sighed, “I know the risk it’s just… It’s not an emergency but things have… gotten complicated. It’s not bad but it’s… it could be bad, I have… and I assume Katsuragi as well, we’ve been visited by Q.”
“Q?” Mari frowned and leaned closer to the screen, “I don’t understand, what does that have to do with me?”
“When he was talking to me, he mentioned Kyo. He said he had been nearby the other day.” Ritsuko frowned, “I’m sorry but I have to know, have you seen or heard of anything unusual lately?”
Mari shook her head, “No, nothing. Rits, Q is a trickster, he likes to manipulate and get inside people’s heads. He probably just wanted to get a reaction out of you or wanted to scare you.”
Ritsuko thought back a moment to what Q had said to her whilst he was there. All those things about Kyo’s potential, was that really just to get a reaction from her? If so, to what end?
“You might be right.” Ritsuko sighed, “It’s just I… I know he’s sensitive to what has been happening, Fuyutsuki mentioned they might even consider bringing him here and I…”
“I know Ritsuko, you aren’t going to let that happen and believe me I won’t let it happen either.” Mari answered, “Kyo is safe here, he’s got friends and aside from a few weird dreams around the time the first Angel appeared, he seems to be okay.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear it.” Ritsuko nodded, “Thank you.”
“It’s no problem.” Mari smiled, “So, whilst I have you… how are things with you and Misato?”
The woman’s voice had a teasing tone to it and Ritsuko couldn’t help but feel herself blush slightly. She was never keen on talking about her love life, especially to someone that she considered to be her family.
“They’re good.” Ritsuko replied.
“Good.” Mari smirked, “She’ll be good for you Ritsuko, you’ve been stuffed in offices at NERV for too long by Ikari or Section 31. Katsuragi will inject a bit of adventure and life into you, maybe you’ll take some more risks.”
“I feel like I already take enough risks just being here.” Ritsuko frowned, “She’s going to hate me when she finds out the truth of it all.”
Mari sighed, “What does she know?”
“Nothing.” Ritsuko answered, “And I’m aiming to keep it that way. She doesn’t need to know about Kyo or the reasons I have to do what I’m doing.”
“Why not? She could probably help you!”
“That’s exactly why!” Ritsuko bit back, “I can’t risk getting her involved or hurt by any of this, and if she tries to help then Gendo and Fuyutsuki they’ll take Kyo away! If I tell her anything that is really going on, then I could lose both her and Kyo, I’d rather her hate me then lose her.”
Mari said nothing for a moment but gave Ritsuko a sympathetic look, “Sorry, I… I know it’s tough for you.”
Ritsuko shook her head, “It’s fine, look… just to put my mind at ease. Q… said something about Kyo having potential. I know my mother ran experiments on him when he was younger to try to prepare him for piloting and God knows what else but was that it?”
Mari paused to think about it, “She always kept him away from me and the others when running her tests so I can’t really say but she never said anything to me, I mean… it was your mother Ritsuko, she… she could have done but if there is anything it certainly hasn’t shown.”
“I need to know what she was doing to him.”
“I know, and I wish I could do something to help but when your mother died, both Ikari and Fuyutsuki saw to it that all of her research and equipment was destroyed. They purged everything.” Mari answered, “If there was anything to be found then I don’t think I can find it.”
Ritsuko felt her hand forming into a fist as she struck her desk, “Damnit, just what the hell were they playing at? What did my mother want to do with him?”
“She wanted to be special.” Mari answered, “To be seen and noticed, and she didn’t care what it took.”
“Are you sure they got everything?”
“I was there Ritsuko, they got rid of everything. I tried to stop them!” Mari said, “Your mothers research as… unethical and illegal as it was, I always thought you had a right to see it for yourself one day and make a decision on what to do with it.”
“Do you know why they destroyed it?”
“Who knows, maybe to cover up their own tracks. Gendo backed her research and was still being backed partially by the Federation. If they discovered what was happening then that was him removed from his position as head of NERV.” Mari shrugged.
“That bastard!” Ritsuko muttered.
“Look, I might… I might know someone who can lend a hand but it’s a long shot and it’s risky. It’ll take some time for me to contact him though and let him know the situation. They’ve been by here before and they’re interested in what is going on with NERV.”
“Someone came by your place asking about NERV, who?”
“Someone from Starfleet Intelligence, but I suspect he was acting independently.” Mari answered, “He claimed he wanted to know the truth about NERV and the Impact, that he was investigating it on behalf of Starfleet. I sent him packing but he left his details in case I wanted to speak to him later. I did a bit of digging and I saw he’s connected to a few people involved in this, including the officer that sent you to NERV.”
Ritsuko thought about it a moment. Getting someone else involved would go against her instructions from Section 31, plus if they were found out then there was a risk to herself, or even worse to Misato or Kyo. Still, Q’s prior words about taking a leap of faith were still ringing in her ears. If she really wanted to know the truth about her mother and help Kyo, could this be the sort of thing Q was talking about?
Ritsuko had never really been one for faith or intuition. She had always found it worrying that Misato relied on her gut instinct so much rather than cold hard logic, but now she found herself compelled to take that risk.
“Do what you can Mari, contact me when you find out more.”
888
Misato stepped through the door into engineering and paused to take a quick look around for Kirishima and Makoto. There was a sense of calm and quiet in the room, the only sounds to be heard was the small murmuring of chatter between the staff, against the background hum of the ships pulsing warp core.
It took a few seconds but she finally saw Kirishima and Makoto stood together on the upper tier of the room. Both of them seemed to be quite deep in conversation and wearing very serious expressions. They were stood either side of a table-like console, seemingly studying a screen on the top of it.
Misato wasted little time in climbing up onto the upper tier and greeting the two of them.
“Kirishima, Makoto, hoping I’m not interrupting anything too important?”
Makoto looked up from his console and turned around to face her, giving her a slight nod, “Captain. We were just discussing the results of some simulations we were running.”
“I see.” Misato folded her arms as she spoke, “Have you made much progress then?”
“Some, we’ve been going through the data we gathered from the wormhole as well as running a number of simulations based on Kirishima’s theories.” As Makoto spoke, he tapped some buttons on the console. Misato came around to look down as the screen and saw a visual representation of the wormhole appear as Makoto continued his explanation, “The good news is that as far as this particular wormhole goes, there is nothing remarkable about it based on what we already know about wormholes. As such, the plan should work.”
Misato nodded, “You said ‘good news’, I’m going to assume there is bad news alongside it?”
Kirishima stepped forward to answer, “The bad news is that in order to reopen it, we need to make sure we are precise in what we do. We will need to launch the torpedo and detonate it along with the beam from our deflector at the exact coordinates of the epicentre of the previous one. We can’t allow for even the smallest margin of error.”
“I see.” Misato nodded her head again, “I’m going to assume that’s the purpose of these simulations then?”
“Exactly.” Kirishima replied, “I figured even the best pilot in Starfleet wouldn’t be able to get the timing right on this, so we can use the ships computer. Thing is, we still need to make sure the ships computer does it at the exact time and takes into account solar winds, gravity pulling, anything that might affect the flight of the torpedo to any degree. It should be able to do it but we can’t take any chances.”
“There are other risks as well.” Makoto followed on, “Even if we can get the precision down, we still can’t be sure that it will lead to the same place Ikari and Soryu ended up, add to which we’ll likely only have a short window to get through, get them and get back before it collapses.”
Misato frowned, “How long?”
“It’s impossible to say, rough estimate says five minutes at the most.”
“Doesn’t seem like much but… in some cases could be an eternity.”
Kirishima shook her head, “That’s our best estimate, until it’s open, we won’t know how stable it’s going to be. Five minutes is the top end but it could be thirty seconds.”
“Damn, pretty low odds then.”
“If I were a gambling man, I wouldn’t be taking that bet.” Makoto replied.
“Still… they’re better than zero, so we have a chance?” Misato smirked, “Way I see it, you two get the thing open and I’ll handle the rescue. What if we launch a shuttle to reach the edge of the wormhole just as it opens, could the ships computer handle that too?”
“It could.” Kirishima answered, “Again, it’s down to timing if we launched the shuttle too early then it’s going to be hit with the shockwave of the torpedo detonating and the wormhole expanding but if we launch it at just the right time then it’ll get pulled into the wormhole immediately as its open.”
Misato nodded, “So, we do that and it’ll give us the maximum time on the other side of the rift. We can pick up Soryu and Ikari immediately and bring them back. I’ll pilot the shuttle through, Ibuki will object to it of course but I can’t ask anyone else to take this risk.”
“Captain, if I may.” Kirishma replied, “Everything we are doing here is theory and guesswork, if you go through in a shuttle there is a risk you will be stranded on your own. If it isn’t the same destination as those two, and if it does close immediately, we will lose you, hell you could even be stranded in a whole other universe.”
“I know the risks Lieutenant and that’s why I’m the one who has to do this. I couldn’t ask anyone else to do it.”
“Perhaps it would be best to send a probe through first to ensure we have the right place.” Makoto suggested.
“You both said it yourself; you can’t guarantee how long it’ll be open for. Someone needs to go through immediately and pick them up.” Misato shrugged, “Look… If the worst happens then the ship is in good hands with Ibuki until I find a way back.”
“Captain, there might not be a way back.” Kirishima replied.
“Then I guess I’ll just have to work on grovelling to Q.” Misato folded her arms, “Look, I know it’s a slim chance but it is a chance. We need those two back, so do what you can and let me know when things are ready.”
The two of them gave an uncertain nod and slowly went back to their work. Misato made her way back down to the ground level of engineering and had barely finished descending the stairs when an alert sounded for her.
“Ibuki to captain Katsuragi, your presence is needed on the bridge.”
Misato tapped her combadge, “What is it Ibuki?”
“An Angel has just appeared in the system.”