Through The Looking Glass

Posted on Fri Jun 25th, 2021 @ 3:11am by A.I. Specialist Jaime Treva & Assistant Chief Medical Officer Leonardo 'Leo' Giordano M.D. & Commanding Officer Maralen Seitha & Chief Security/Tactical Officer Sarah Dominie & Science Specialist Eos Tolján & Doorway Specialist Karyn Morgan & Ship's A.I. Lyta

Mission: What Lies In The Darkness
Location: Doorway Operations, Deck 147
Timeline: 248001.01 13:35

Karyn was in her element, sort of. It was in the sense that it was scientific in general and to do with wormholes in specific. It was not because this device was very different than her QRS. She was taking advantage -- okay, let's be honest, she had been taking advantage since she'd gotten here and Mika had gone off to meet the captain -- of the time she had to really familiarize herself with it. She was very engrossed in this.

When the Doorway itself was inactive, there was only the Encoder. This was a three-and-a-half-foot tall electrum-colored triangular column whose top surface appeared, at first glance, to be a slick, black surface. When the Encoder was activated, the twenty-seven symbols of the Builder alphabet appeared in glowing amber, a stark contrast to the black surface. Touching these caused the Encoder to hum. Destination coordinates were entered by touching sequences of six of these symbols. The six represented coordinates on a three-dimensional grid -- north, south, east, west, above and below the point of origin. Once these were entered, the Encoder activated the Doorway. When activated, the IPD shimmered into existence in front of the Encoder and remained for a period of one minute before both returned to Dormant State, unless given the command to remain open longer.

This seemed simple enough, but it had required a couple of things. First, she had needed to learn the Builder alphabet so that she knew what the symbols meant to them since it was their technology. Two, she had to learn their coordinate system so that she would know which sets of symbols to activate for a given destination. The problem with that second one was that, because this Doorway was mobile, those changed with whatever Sector, or galaxy, they were in. So the coordinate setup for the Milky Way, or as the Builders called it, Sector XR-14, was different than the setup for this Sector. So she was familiarizing herself with this Sector's Doorway Coordinates.

That had actually not taken her terribly long; being a Prodigy was helpful for that sort of learning. So now, she was studying the schematics of the Encoder, just in case she had to repair either theirs or another in their travels.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the comm. in the room. Looking away from the schematics which were displayed three-dimensionally above the desk, she activated the comm. "Doorway Operations." She could see by the ID that the signal was being sent by the Bridge, but she was confused. They were damned near in orbit of that station; why would the Bridge need her?

Back on the Bridge, upon hearing her voice, Mika had to smile, although his response to her was immediate and to the point. "Prepare the Doorway for activation. We'll be using it to send a team to the Builder station."

Karyn frowned, though inwardly she was smiling at the pleasure of hearing his voice. The frown was for the information. "Pardon me, Commander," she said, using the rank to be properly professional, "but why not use the Translocator Matrices?"

"We haven't been able to make contact, their shields are still up. Unfortunately, the current situation dictates we take immediate action." Mika replied, sounding concerned; the whole situation not sitting well with him.

Karyn frowned; the tone of his voice mirrored her own thoughts. They'd had contact with the man. Why now did that cease? What could have gone wrong that caused that? "Understood. I will power up the Encoder," she told him even as she placed her hand on the top surface to activate it then removed her hand to wait the few seconds it would take for the device to hum to life and display the symbols. Fortunately for all involved, the shield being up would not matter to the Doorway since the device was of Builder design and so was the station; they were designed to ignore the shields unless the device at the shielded location refused to connect. Just to be certain, she tested the connection (but did not open a Door yet). "The Doorway connected," she told the XO. "We should be able to send people over without incident."

"Good to hear," he responded back, and then informed her, "The team should be arriving anytime."

Meanwhile, Jaime had walked in, and hearing Mika's voice had remained silent giving Karyn a polite smile. She hadn't had the chance to meet the specialist yet, although she'd been meaning to. Looking away, she adjusted her tool belt slightly, checking her scanning equipment at the same time.

Leo followed the security personnel in with his medical gear, appearing uncertain. He'd never experienced going through a doorway before.

Sarah glanced at Leo, "Not to worry. Just close your eyes and take a step. Easier than falling asleep." She gave his shoulder a pat and stepped forward with more of the security personnel so they were in front of the group. The last two of which were waiting patiently in the back for the others to step through when ready.

Leo had given Sarah a forced smile of thanks in return, but it immediately left as she turned away. Looking around, he decided to go stand over by Jaime.

Maralen entered the room on the tail end of that, followed by Lyta. He gave his team the once-over, noting the absence of the science officer. They could wait a few minutes more.

Karyn responded to Mika. "All but one are here now, Commander," she told him. "I'll open the Doorway when they're all here. Anything else I need to know, sir?"

Eos came in as Karyn was speaking, giving no indication she was aware she was cutting it close in timing. She came to stand next to the members of her team, making brief eye contact more for their benefit than her own.

"No, not at this time," Mika responded to Karyn. "Let me know when they arrive."

Karyn smiled. "Well, it seems that I spoke to soon. The last one has arrived. Opening the Doorway now." She said that for his benefit as he could not see what was happening here. As she did, she keyed the sequence that would open a Doorway to the station below the ship. The swirling vortex formed, then shimmered and aettled. "All right, guys, you may proceed," she told the team.

Maralen acknowledged then nodded to Sarah. "Lead the way, Chief."

"On it." Sarah replied and without hesitation walked through the portal at the ready with two other security.

Lyta looked to Maralen, but he shook his head. They waited for the others to follow the security chief through, then they followed. Behind them, the remainder of the security team entered the vortex. Once they had all exited the other side, the vortex on the FarVoyager closed, and the panel Karyn was watching chimed softly. To Mika, she reported, "Away Team on site."

"Thank you, Karyn. We have them on our screen." Back on the Bridge, Mika continued to stare at the holographic screens before him. One displayed the away team's readings, and one showed the enemy ships. For the moment, those were sitting just within sensor range, but they were not moving.

The two forces, the FarVoyager and her fighters and the semi-retreated enemy ships, it seemed, were at a temporary stalemate. Now it was up to the Away Team to fulfill their part of this mission before those ships came back for another shot at the station.

~End