Bridge Training: Diabolus Ex Spatio Lacrimae (Part IV)

Posted on Tue Aug 12th, 2025 @ 12:56am by Cadet Senior Grade Meghan Stefani & Cadet Senior Grade Daniel Weaver & Cadet Junior Grade Emma Mendez & Cadet Junior Grade Shafin Todenhöfer

1,579 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: The Cadet Cruise

[PREVIOUSLY]

"Reverse course." Daniel said firmly as he walked back over to the command chair. This was starting off as an interesting training exercise. His father seemed to enjoying throwing things at them, but even more so, this was the second time they came across an anomaly that was difficult to scan. If he learned anything from the last one, going in there would probably be dangerous, so pulling back would at least by them time.

[CONTINUED]

The Helm's Cadet tapped on the controls, setting a course in reverse, away from the approaching anomaly. However, when things seemed fine, the flashes within the cloud began to increase.

"The... hell?" Daniel said softly, stopping just short of the Command Chair. He narrowed his eyes and raised a brow as he observed the reaction from the cloud.

Suddenly a bolt of energy, like lightning, shot out from the cloud and struck the ship. The power of the Cavalier began to glitch and flash until finally the power cut off. Seconds later, the emergency lights came on, covering the cadets in a pulsating red light. After the lightning strike, the flashes in the cloud returned to normal, as its movement continued toward them.

"The hell was that!!" Daniel shouted as he looked around the bridge at the other cadets. His eyes locked with Meghan's first, making sure she was okay, then he turned to Shafin. "What the hell kind of a training scenario is this?"

"Need I remind you that my duties are to monitor the crew per the Commodore. You may wish to consult with your First Officer, though more shielding would have been desirable" commented Shafin. "Nevertheless, we appear to be alive, and I do not believe whatever that is, is part of this simulation."

"Whatever it was it went right through our shields like they weren't there!" Emma said as she scratched her head. She had never seen anything like this happen before, which wasn't saying much as she was only a cadet. "It did however overload our phaser banks. We're looking at four hours minimum repair time..."

"Shooting at it likely won't do us much good anyways," commented Shafin. "If it was able to just cut through our shielding that easily, we are at its mercy. I'd be more concern we have life support, engines, and a means to attempt to communicate if it's sentient."

"Looks like we are about to find out in some form or another." Daniel replied as he observed the cloud approaching them. So close it was practically on top of them. "Should we brace for impact?"

Shafin walked away from his station and approached the view screen. "Maybe we don't. Perhaps we don't run from it, don't use our shields."

Daniel looked at Shafin. "It doesn't seem like we have a choice. We can't access systems. We can't even check to see what's still working." He let out a sigh and crossed his arms over his chest. "What are the chances that this thing isn't luring us closer for some sinister reason? Can we trust it to be peaceful?"

"Realistically, less than 50% if we are to be cautious. Though whether or not it is peaceful, we need to learn from it."

Meghan agreed with Shafin. It seemed they couldn't fight this, but they could learn from it. She began to passively scan the anomaly so if it was sentient, it wouldn't feel attacked. She also sent a message to Renae to get to Astrometrics and use the long-range sensors to see what she could pick up.

She didn't turn around when she heard the turbolift doors open and close, expecting it to be Renae.

While she ran the scans, Meghan began to search the ship's database for information on cloud-like spatial anomalies. From what she'd seen so far, polarizing the hull would do no good, and shields were clearly useless.

The cloud covered the ship, causing screens and consoles to flicker slightly. However, there seemed to be no impact or damage whatsoever. It would appeared their power was being drained, but it was hard to say with only emergency power on. Inside the could it almost seemed surreal. Lightning shooting across the screen with the purplish colored cloud shifting behind it.

Daniel stood there for a moment in awe of what was going on. "Could this thing be alive?" He said as he looked to Shafin and then to Meghan. "It clearly wanted to get at us. The moment we tried to reverse course is attacked. At least, I think it was an attack. There doesn't seem to be any damage, but it’s hard to tell with everything flickering like this."

"Potentially," Shafin replied. "I believe if it's intent were to destroy us if it has intent, we wouldn't be here. With hardly any damage, it could be studying us."

"Whatever it's doing I don't like it..." Emma commented simply as she crossed her arms. "Alive or not, it's still messing around with the essential systems of the ship." she looked directly at Daniel. "As acting XO sir, I must remind you that your first duty is to the ship and its safety at all times."

Daniel looked over to Emma and then to Shafin. Emma was right. As the CO, his duty was to the ship and his crew. The Commodore wouldn't let me sail through this training exercise, if it even was one, by keeping to the fact that it was all a fake. There was still no proof it wasn't a simulation either. It was all happening on the view screen. The ship could be manipulated to react the way it was from engineering or somewhere else like in the last simulation. Daniel took a moment to think before walking over to Shafin. "Shaf- Counselor? So far, everything we have experienced could done from inside the ship, right? We're on the bridge with only the computer and the main view screen to tell us what's going on out there and the systems can't be trusted right now. How do we see that thing through our own eyes?"

Shafin let out a small sigh. "I'm not entirely certain. Though the others may have more insight and options" commented the Vulcanoid.

Emma scowled briefly. She couldn't help but feel that Daniel was relying far too much on Shafin even though she was in the role of XO. However, it wasn't her place to question it, so she looked down at the tactical console.

"It's not acting intelligent," Meghan said. "It's reacting to movement and power. We need a way to make ourselves invisible to it or to repel it. I can't find anything in the ship's computer that comes close and I can't scan it to get any readings which means we're shooting in the dark, theoretically speaking."

"I can try changing our shield frequencies?" Emma suggested.

"Right now, I guess, we are at its mercy." Daniel replied as he looked around the bridge. "We have no information. No way of protecting ourselves until we know more. Until then, I am welcomed to options." He looked back at the view screen and let out a sigh. "For now, I think, we play it out. Shafin has a point. If this thing wanted to destroy us it might not have a difficult time with it."

"True, but we might also be able to minimize the damage by altering the shield harmonics, "Meghan suggested.

Shafin raised a brow at mention of his name and the term 'has a point' in the same breath. About time thought the Vulcanoid "Meghan, if you can mitigate the damage taken, then I'd recommend proceeding. There's no point in taking more damage if we do not have to."

"You know, if this... whatever it is gets into the wrong system, it might cause more damage or worse." Emma piped up. "For example, if it gets into the torpedo control system; or the warp core control matrix." She paused for a moment. "I don't need to tell you what could happen of those systems get compromised."

Meghan nodded to Shafin, then shook her head in response to Emma. She did not need to be reminded of what might happen if some of the systems were compromised. She turned back to her console to check the scans again and see if she could alter the shield harmonics to make them more resistant to the anomaly--or make it ignore the ship. She first made a list and then began to try first one alteration, then another. She paused after each change to check and see if it made a difference. "Just like a scientific experiment," she assured herself. Trial and error until something clicked. Or, in this case, didn't.

"We are scientists and explorers first and foremost are we not?" offered Shafin. "If we fired our phasers and launched torpedoes at every strange thing we encountered, we would not have a United Federation of Planets."

Meghan nodded in agreement, even though she was staying out of the conversation. Or trying to. Adjustment number nine seemed to work, but she wanted to give it a minute to be sure. If not, at least she was making progress.

(To be continued...)


Cadet Senior Grade Daniel Weaver
Acting Commander

Cadet Junior Grade Shafin Todenhöfer
Acting First Officer and Counselor

Cadet Junior Grade Emma Mendez
Acting Chief Security Officer

Cadet Senior Grade Meghan stefani
Acting Chief Science Officer

 

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