Quantum Leap

Bridge -  ===< Area Level: 1 >==============================================< Indoors >=== The bridge is arranged to permit operation by a single person, but additional stations are available to delegate ship's functions if needed. A main operations console is situated underneath the forward window, with a single seat. On either side of the primary console are two secondary consoles, each with a universal design so that they can accept operations transferred to them from the primary console. Each is equipped with a single seat. Behind the forward section, the bridge is arranged to be comfortable for those who are not involved with flying the ship. A pair of comfortably padded couches line the walls, and the floor has a rectangular area that can raise up to provide a small table if needed. The aft hatchway is situated on the rear wall, between a pair of light fixtures that provide soft lighting for the sitting area. Alexandra is here. There is also a Navcomp, some Viewscreen - Tharsis, some Engineering - Tharsis and some Helm - Tharsis here. Obvious Exits: Out  ==============================================================< ISS Tharsis >===

Tharsis' hologram sits at his primary console, pouring over a schematic of his shield array.

"Sorry I had to give up on it last night," Lex offers as she enters the bridge, faintly sheepish. "I'd about fried myself looking at the radiation signatures." She smiles a bit. "I'm only human, after all. Have you figured anything out yet?"

Tharsis zooms in on the pre-fire chamber of the particle accelerator. "I think I've discovered that if I can adjust the frequency of this harmonic amplifier circuit, we can vary the density of the particles generated from the reaction." he notes. "I'm about to test it."

Alexandra nods, and takes a seat at a console -- a different one from where Tharsis is seated, of course. "What, exactly, would varying the density of the particles do? Would we be able to prevent any more of these 'time shifts', or at least pull ourselves out of one if it occurs?"

"The hope is that by altering the density of the gravitons, I can in essence 'plug the holes' in the shield structure. The more dense the field, the less chance there is that radiation from the rift will be able to penetrate them." Tharsis replies. His controls begin to operate as he makes the necessary changes, and then he activates the new circuit. "Looking good so far..." he says as the screen monitors shield output, until suddenly there is a flash and the shield circuit fluctuates. "What the..?" he mutters, before looking over to where the Commander has been sitting... except he's no longer there. "Uh... Commander?"

"I see," Lex agrees, nodding. "Pardon, I'm learning as I go here. A lot of this is new to me." She frowns a bit at the flash, then looks over at the Commander's chair. The Sivadian goes pale. "...Oh, my," she breathes, an exercise in understatement if there ever was one. "Um. Alright. He can't have just -disappeared-. It doesn't work like that. We can get him back... right?" It sounds suspiciously like she's trying to convince herself.

Tharsis looks a bit worried. "To be honest.. I don't know." He looks back to his scanner as he brings up an internal security scan. "I'm not picking up his life signs on board... but there's no what he could get off the ship." he says, bringing up another level of scan. "Wait... that shield surge allowed a chroniton field to form /right here on the bridge/..." he says, looking very worried. "I've got to see if I can clear them out somehow.."

Alexandra bites her lip. "So... he's stuck elsewhere, then," she replies, nodding a bit. She rubs at the bridge of her nose. "Alright, what caused the fluctuation that allowed that field to form?" A slight frown creases her brow. "Strange that such a -localized- field popped up like that... but then, strange seems to be the word of the day."

Tharsis brings up a more focused internal scan. "The fluctuation was in the forward shield, that would explain why it hit the bridge." he says, bringing the schematic back up. "It looks like the proximity to the rift is causing a feedback loop in my shield array... I didn't see it until now... I'll have to compensate for it before the modifications will be effective. Until then... I've got to try to clear the field in here. Hmm... perhaps..." he mutters, as his holo-emitters shut off and his hologram vanishes. "I have an idea." his voice says from the intercom speakers.

"...Please tell me you're not going to whisk us off to where he's at," Lex murmurs, wincing a bit. She eyes the Commander's chair then, blinking. "...So it's still there? The field, I mean." A pause. "Yesterday, we were released from the field after a time. I suppose there's really no way of knowing how long it would be. Hm..."

"No telling how long it will take... this rift is so damned unpredictable." Tharsis says. "I think if I can reconfigure my holo-emitters to generate a containment field of sorts similar to the shield array, I can isolate the bridge. Perhaps that will dissipate the field. No telling how long this will take.." he mutters.

Alexandra frowns. "Hopefully he isn't being chased by anything. Well, really, let's hope he hasn't moved, period. That could get interesting." She adopts a pensive expression. "Anything I can do to help? Aside from sit here and fret, I mean."

Tharsis brings up a schematic of his holographic subsystems. "We've got to determine a way to tighten the force field which contains my holograms to give them substance." he says. "I'll look into modifying the phase adjustors. See if you can determine a way to boost power output. It needs to be strong if it's going to have any effect at all."

"Right, power. Power I can do," Lex agrees, nodding, and scrutinizing the schematic for a good few minutes. "...What if we rerouted this," she pauses to tap the screen for emphasis, "Here?" She taps it in a second place. "...Mmmm. It might cause feedback issues. I don't want to see us blow a circuit here."

"Agreed, I don't have many to spare." Tharsis says. "Field intensity is still constant.. this one's not dissipating too quickly."

Alexandra wrinkles her nose. "Sorry. This is a bit more complex than I'm used to playing with... cybernetics are mostly difficult by virtue of being very small in scale." Her brow furrows in concentration. "I see places where we can -get- more power. It's where to send it that's being tricky."

"I think I can fine tune the adjustor circuit to bring the field into a tighter phase variance that will permit greater containment." Tharsis says. "With the increased power we should be able to effectively seal out the chronitons from the bridge. In theory, he should re-appear."

"Famous last words," Lex comments absently, looking at the schematic from a slightly different angle. "Here. This circuit's a bit sturdier. You can route power from here and here through there. It -should- hold." She smiles a touch wryly. "In theory."

Tharsis chuckles. "Much like the Titanic was unsinkable.. in theory." he says, as he takes note of the circuits Lex has identified. "I'll start the modifications... this may take up to 20 minutes to get them in sync."

Alexandra nods, and leans back a bit, though she's still looking over the schematic. "I'll cross my fingers. And my toes, for that matter. Let's just avoid icebergs, shall we?" She blinks, then looks back toward the Commander's chair, just a glance, really. "I hope he's alright. There's just... the possibilities are literally endless."

"For all we know he could be in the Dark Ages being accused of being a witch because of his hair or something.." Tharsis says as the progress of his work displays on a nearby screen. "Or he could be kicking back on some beach somewhere drinking beer."

"Chased by a dinosaur," Lex offers, nodding soberly. "Or being tied to the ground by tiny little men..." She chuckles a bit at that. "I think I'll stick with the kicking back on a beach drinking beer one, myself." She frowns at the display. "The field's still stable, isn't it?"

Tharsis brings up a scan showing the field around the area of the bridge where the commander was sitting. "So far I'm not seeing any fluctuation.. this is a stubborn one."

Alexandra nods, frowning a bit. After a few moments, she purses her lips "So... why didn't it take his chair? Matter's just matter, whether it's organic or not. Why would it differentiate at all?"

"That's an interesting question.." Tharsis says. "The answer may not be as simple as that. This rift seems to break all known laws of time and space, so I don't think it cares a whole lot for the laws of physics.."

"...Point," Lex replies, nodding a bit. She raises a brow then, and looks at the screen. "Could the -rift- be sentient?" she asks. "It might seem like a random question, but... it's done some -very- odd things, you have to admit."

"I'm not sure, but I think there was a force behind its creation." Tharsis says. "That day that voice was heard all over the galaxy saying 'I think I've got it...', and then all hell broke loose."

Alexandra blinks. "Could whatever created it still be controlling it, then?" she asks, her interest obviously piqued at this point. "Even if the -rift- isn't sentient, whatever made it probably -is-. It would explain things like why only the Commander disappeared and not anything around him, or why we saw that exact moment in history yesterday."

"That's also a good possibility." Tharsis replies. "Hell, all of this is speculation at this point, but there's also the possibility that it's a result of whatever 'it' was going horribly wrong."

"It's all speculation," Lex agrees, with a faint chuckle. "All of it. I mean. We've seen what, four unknown types of radiation, and several more that are extraordinarily rare. I'm supposed to be monitoring the effects on the crew, but I don't even know what to look for." She shrugs at that, and frowns. "Interesting, though. Very interesting. Some sort of time-travel experiment gone terribly awry, perhaps. But... there was that announcement from Kanter's medium to consider, too."

"The plague?" Tharsis says. "Hmmm... I'm no medical expert but I'd have trouble connecting a organism like a virus to creating a massive rift in space like this... and even the most powerful psionics would have trouble tearing up this much space all at once. Still.. like this rift, anything's possible." he says... just as his alert indicator beeps.. "Speaking of which, here it goes again..." The viewscreen flicks on, and a nearby microrift begins to flash as the Hindenberg emerges from the rift. "A... blimp?"

Alexandra shakes her head. "No, no, you're misunderstanding. Tylin's announcement means that the Laters are done trying to defend humanity from psionic intrusion," she explains. "They're going to turn inward, more than likely, and simply take care of their own. The virus is basically them handing -us- the means to defend ourselves if we wish. I'm guessing it's a retrovirus of some sort, one that alters the genetic code slightly to turn on or add in that negator gene." She blinks. "Psi is as plausible an explanation as any other, I suppose. But now we're back to specu... oh. Wow. That's a -zeppelin-."

"A... zeppelin? Hmmm... never got around to studying those records.." Tharsis says. "Not picking up anyone aboard it... that's a good thing, at least." he says with relief. "That longboat had a full crew on it when it came out."

"...Ick," Lex replies, wincing. "Poor buggers." She tilts her head at the front viewscreen. "...So. That makes a zeppelin, a Sherman tank, a Viking longboat complete with crew, a pair of socks, a purple throw pillow, an -enormous- fan, a space dragon..." She trails off there. "Nobody's going to believe the list. Hmm. I wonder. Do larger objects coming through generate more of a disturbance?"

"Huh... that's another good question." Tharsis says. "I'll analyze the data to see if there's a correlation. The modifications to my emitters are almost complete... I've noticed that the field in here weakened somewhat when the rift emitted the zeppelin. Maybe it'll dissipate on its own soon. We can only... what the.." The rift fluctuates again, and this time, a small object the size of a Volkswagen beetle emerges. Tharsis zooms in on it.. "What the hell is that? There's writing on the side... 'Little Boy'.. huh.. looks kinda like a bomb..."

Alexandra nods a bit, then frowns, looking over the object. "...I feel like I should know what that is," she says, rubbing her forehead with one hand. "But it does look an awful lot like a bomb..." She purses her lips a bit. "I don't suppose you're up on your history of warfare, hmm?"

"I'm taking a glance through my records.. dad downloaded a lot of information during his travels but it was so extensive I wasn't able to get all of it." Tharsis says. "Hmmm... maybe..." Just as Tharsis begins to peruse his records, the bomb outside suddenly explodes. In the vacuum of space, the shockwave quickly traverses the distance and slams into Tharsis' shields, knocking him for a loop. "AHHH! DAMN!"

"Bloody -hell-," Lex curses, clinging onto the console as the ship reels under the impact. "...no doubt it was a bomb -now-," she mutters, glancing over the indicators briefly. "Status? Are you alright?"

Tharsis fires his maneuvering jets to get himself stabilized. "That.. HURT..." he says, bringing up a diagnostic screen. "Shields down 35 percent... I'm diverting power to try to firm them up. That can't be good." he says. "Structural integrity took a hit.. down 10 percent. 'Maintain position at all costs' they said." he says with a bit of sarcasm. "Damn bureaucratic bastards... they get to sit in a damn cushy office chair while I get to sit out here getting the living hell knocked out of me!"

Alexandra nods, frowning a bit. "I'm glad I wasn't connected when that happened, or I'd probably be on the floor," she admits. "And I'm in complete agreement with you. It's easy for -them- to tell us to stay out here when all they have to do is look at the data, not deal with what's actually happening." She looks over the display as well. "What do you do to get your structural integrity back up? I mean. I know what you do on any other ship, but you're a bit different, to be sure."

"My circuits and structures are maintained by nanites that go in and repair damage at the molecular level." Tharsis explains. "Much like cells of your own body perform repairs. However, it'll take time to heal it. I should be able to restore full integrity in about 2 hours." He brings up another screen with the bridge scan. "Well, that's a good thing at least.. the chroniton field has destablized, it's starting to dissipate.."

"Interesting!" Lex comments, nodding. "So, effectively, you -do- heal. That's good to know. And here I was praying I remembered how to use a plas-welder." She chuckles a bit, and eyes the bridge scan. "Ah, good. Now we'll get to see if he was being chased by rabid dingoes, or sunning himself on a deserted island."

"Scans show none of the radiation from that blast penetrated the shields." Tharsis says. "Here's to small concessions, at least."

Alexandra nods. "You'll have to peruse your records at some point and find out what that was," she offers. "I don't think anything short of a nuclear reaction would have that sort of power output. If it -was- a nuke, I'll want to scan everyone just to make sure."

"Chroniton density on the bridge has nearly disappeared... if it's anything like last night's experience he should re-appear once it's gone." Tharsis says. "In theory..."

"More of that 'in theory,'" Lex replies, with a faint chuckle. "If only it worked as often in practice as in theory. But things -always- look better on paper..." She looks expectantly toward the Commander's chair, waiting for the field to dissipate.

The readings show the field dissipates, but there's no sign of the Commander.

"Uh... the field's gone.. but... he's not there." Tharsis says with a twinge of worry. "No sign of him on internal scans... what the hell!? Where could he have gone?" He activates his external scanners and begins sweeping around the ship. "No sign of him anywhere in range...."

Alexandra just -stares- at the chair. "Oh, bugger. That's just... brilliant. Absolutely brilliant." The tone would seem to indicate more than a little irony in the statement. And anger. Oh yes, there's that, too. "...I'm of half a mind to get on the comm and tell Fleet they've seriously cocked up this time."

Tharsis continues scanning. "Ok.. this isn't good... not good at /all/. There's no sign of him, and we have no way to track when or where he is! He could be lost for hours, days, maybe years!"

Meanwhile...

Sam looks up from the ditch and lifts his rifle yelling on his commlink, "Commander Gideon to Command." Still no response. In his space-suit the young Solan glances wearily at the next cliff-face, taking a bearing on his PDA he tucks it aways into his pocket and begins to climb, over his local radio can be heard the confused word, "Commander?" Appearing further behind him on the trail, two Nall in space-suits appear. Gideon remains where he is, attached to the wall of dirty ice and doesn't make a move. The two nall head further down the trail and out of sight.

Back on board Tharsis...

"The objects that have come through, have you scanned them all thoroughly?" Lex asks, after a long pause. She leans back on the chair, lips pursed thoughtfully. "Is there anything -different- about them than things that are native to here, so to speak? Any sort of unique radiation signature, or variation in density or trace elements? I'm grasping at straws here, I know..."

"There might be, I'll look back through the archived data to see if there's a pattern. Perhaps objects from different eras have a signature we can use to try to track time streams." Tharsis says. "Even if we do manage to locate it, though, there's no way we can follow... the best we can hope to do is wait and hope that the timestreams are two way..."

Alexandra nods. "Right. But if we could even -find- him, that'd be a step in the right direction," she comments. A frown then. "I wonder if he simply moved out of range of the field before it dissipated, and got stuck that way. You didn't -move- when the field had all of us, which might actually have been very fortunate indeed."

"True enough... sometimes malfunctions can actually be a good thing." Tharsis says. "This is a lot of data to crunch, I may not have the answer for some time."

"Fair enough," Lex replies, nodding a bit. "And it's a shot in the dark, when you get down to it, but it's all I can think of right now." She rubs her forehead, fingers moving gingerly along a tracing of fine silver lines there. "Pity I can't boost my synapses any more than I already have. Safely, I mean."

"I tend to get a headache if I do that." Tharsis agrees. "I wonder what he's doing.. wherever he is..."

Alexandra chuckles. "I'd get more than a migraine," she admits. "Overclocking the human brain is a dicey prospect at best. You can only go so far before you start burning synapses out, at least with our current level of technology..." She trails off there, and chuckles. "You'll have to pardon me. Once I get to talking about work and all, good luck getting me off the subject."

"Oh think nothing of it. I tend to get talkative myself sometimes." Tharsis says. "You'd probably have a lot to talk about with my sister Alaria. Medical science was her thing." he says as he continues to crunch data.

"Oh?" Lex asks, her head tilting a bit. "A pity we couldn't have got her for the medical ship then, instead of a converted Prague-class freighter." She grins at that. "Well, in any case, I'm sure my ramblings are archived. You never know -- they might come in handy." Then, she raises a brow. "So did you attend school, then? Or is the knowledge simply uploaded to your databanks?"

"School, actually. We studied texts and historical records, certainly, but we were also taught by dad's crew." Tharsis replied. "After we'd been schooled for a few years we found our callings and started more specific studies. I found I enjoyed the physical sciences, so that's what I focused on."

Alexandra nods. "Sorry if I'm asking too many questions," she says then, giving a wry little smile. "Especially since you're trying to poke at that data." She blinks then. "How many crew did your father have?" Ah, yes. More questions.

Tharsis brings up several more screens as he diverts more processor streams to the data analysis. "Oh, about 50,000 or so." he replies.

"...That many?" Lex says, clearly taken a bit aback by the response. "That's an awful lot of people." She bites her lip just a bit, then. "Pardon. I shouldn't be asking these sorts of things. Especially not after what happened yesterday."

"It's.. ok." Tharsis says. "It kinda helps to talk about it."

Alexandra smiles just a touch, and nods. "Still, I'm probably distracting you, simply to occupy myself while we wait." She leans back in the chair again, crossing her ankles and stretching out comfortably. "You mentioned you had a sister. Were there any others?" Insatiably curious, indeed.

"I have a brother, Berseus." Tharsis says. "Alaria remained behind to help dad's crew settle into their new home, but he took off exploring like I did. No telling where he is these days."

"Mmm," Lex replies, nodding a bit. "Where did they move to? The crew, I mean." She pauses, expression thoughtful. "Was it that planet we saw when we were shifted?"

"Yes... the planet was called 'Hygia' by the locals in the nearby systems, their word for harmony." Tharsis says. "They landed dad's body and built a city around it. They renamed the planet Delta Ultunima, a nod to dad's home planet." he says, bringing up more data. "Hmm.. I'm beginning to see a pattern here. Nothing specific yet but there is definitely a difference in the energy signatures with each object."

Alexandra blinks. "Grasp for straws, and find something more substantial. It could be a dead-end, of course, but... a glimmer of hope's all you need." She purses her lips. "If you can isolate the differences, then it -might- just be possible to find him. In theory. Getting him back's another rather sticky problem, but one thing at a time, hm?" She tilts her head then. "Have you gone back there? To Hygia, I mean."

"Not since I left." Tharsis says. "It took me years to make the trip here, and I headed here straight from there. Maybe someday I'll make a trip back there to see the crew. They're like my family."

"Visiting the... resting place... of a loved one can be helpful," Lex offers, nodding. "And it would be doubly good to visit with the crew." She smiles at that. "It'd be worth the trip, I think."

"It would be, just to see how they're getting along after so many years." Tharsis says. "Dad picked them a great place to call home. For some, it was the first home they'd had outside of dad for the longest time. Many had trouble even remembering their past lives."

Alexandra nods. "Living shipboard is... an experience," she admits. "You get very used to it. I'm still not comfortable planetside, myself. It's why I applied for the job on board the Hope." She smiles a bit at that. "I'm sure he picked a wonderful planet. It looked gorgeous."

"Oh, it was." Tharsis replies. "They built the city near a lagoon on a tropical island. I think some Earth islands in the Caribbean sea look about like that one did."

"That sounds divine," Lex replies, nodding. "Speaking of... I could use a little sun myself. I'm looking paler than usual." She chuckles at that. "Maybe some time on New Luna or La Terre when this is all over and done with."

"That would be nice... some warm sunshine on my hull feels awfully good after a long time in space." Tharsis says. "Hmm... There are definite patterns emerging here. I think by morning I can have a fairly definite map of the timestreams that rift is generating."

Alexandra -grins- at the announcement. "Brilliant," she offers. "Then we can get to work on the second sticky bit. There's a brief, pensive pause. "...You know, I never thought that you might like sunshine, too. But really, who -doesn't- like sunshine? Now I just feel silly."

Tharsis lets out a yawn from his speakers. "I think I'm going to start my rest cycle for a bit. Get recharged before I finish this number crunching."

"Alright," Lex replies, nodding. "I'll stay up here until I see someone else, so I can let them know what happpened." She smiles. "Sleep well."

Meanwhile...

In the distance, the Solan youth can make out through his eyeglasses his destination glittering, he activates his commlink, "Command, this is Gideon. Come in." There's a pause and then a crackle. "Command Actual to Ensign Gideon, come in." Gideon is about to say something when two nall in spacesuits appear, "Drop your weapon human."