Chronicles of Sol: The Fall

Countryman watched the screens as a flight of shuttles moved towards the dreadnought. A few hours had passed since they'd found it. In that time they'd managed to restore partial main power, but they were still dead in the water. Chief Engineer Richards assured him they were making progress with the engines, but apparently the damage was rather extensive. The engines themselves are fine, but key fuel lines and power manifolds were damaged. Once she patched all the damage, he could be assured they'd have full maneuverability. As for the hull plating, they'd managed to coax the Armor Integrity Field back online. Understandably, with all the outer hull damage, the field wouldn't protect the whole ship, but he did feel safer now that the remaining armor was properly hardened again.

The Valorian vessel however, wasn't so lucky, their structural integrity field was failing. Not only that, but they'd lost main power and shields. Large sections of the ship had been vented as well, and despite their best efforts, the ship was a lost cause. Countryman's shuttles and marine forces were conducting rescue and salvage operations. So far they'd managed to rescue almost a thousand people. Mostly low-ranking officers and crewmen, but at this point, he'd given up on the command staff. Apparently, the entire command deck had been vented to space.

It was a shame, if they had found themselves in calmer waters, so to speak, they might have been able to salvage that ship. A second vessel with similar tonnage to the Enterprise would be a huge boon, but they'll have to make do without it. In the meantime, he had other worries.

With partial main power restored, they also had managed to coax the sensor array back into a usable state. It was enough to confirm his worries, they were in hyperspace now. Worse, the Enterprise didn't have a hyperdrive, and their understanding of this realm was limited. Their subspace communications array made use of it, but they had reverse-engineered that technology from an example they purchased from the Krall. It relied on principles they only had a limited understanding of, and using it as a basis to devise an engine capable of moving matter out of this realm would likely be challenging at best.

It didn't help that they were already starting to notice what being here meant. The laws of physics didn't perfectly conform to the equations they knew. They were close, but there were slight key differences. This strange realm most notably allowed ships to go faster, a lot faster than they could in normal space. At the moment however he was more concerned about their force field systems. They'd been conducting operations without them, since they were unable to activate them. He'd assigned Vera to look into it. She was their best expert in fields, and he figured she'd be able to identify the issue. He just knew it wasn't a power failure or engineering problem.

Misaki hopped off her chair and stretched, before walking up the stairs. Now closer she said, "Engineering has finished inspecting the port nacelle, the storm has done a real number on the more delicate systems. I'm afraid both warp engines require a complete rebuild."

"Lovely. So we couldn't go to warp even if we wanted to. How long to rebuild?"

"The storm is making things... difficult and the components in there are sensitive. We are going to need to find a way to shield the nacelle and patch the housing."

"A port in the storm? A tall order, but I trust you'll be able to spot something for us."

She smiled, "On it sir! I won't let you down."

Finding a port in this storm would be welcome. Although Countryman wasn't sure what form that would take. Still it would be useful, since there was a lot of damage to patch, and they were quickly finding it hard to address damage to the outer hull. He made a mental note to discuss the issues with Ruri. Of course one thing he'd been avoiding thinking about, was the deadly radiation permeating the storm. Right now they felt fine, but the radiation lining in the hull wasn't really protecting them. It helped, but not enough, the radiation was penetrating even into the more protected core of the ship. Hell, even with the holes in the outer hull they should have been fine due to redundant layers of protection. But even areas with extra protection, like the onboard hospital and the bridge, were being bombarded with the radiation. They were being exposed to high levels of this Isanir radiation that the Krall had written about. Information on this was limited, but it didn't help that the Krall apparently didn't know much about Hyper-Ion storms.

Feeling somewhat useless here, he took one last look at the dreadnought. Slowly breaking up in the storm, while rescue teams searched for survivors. He wished them luck, as he informed Greyman that he was going for a walk. Passing through the blast doors, he briefly greeted the guards before taking the lift.

In seconds he was deposited on the fifth deck, officer quarters. Now that he was off the bridge, he felt the need to check up on his daughter. Rika was so young and already she'd been through so much, most recently that terrible battle, and now there was the storm too. Yet he hadn't had time to really look in on her. Only a brief chat with her caretaker, Rose. Rose was a good girl, and he trusted her, afterall he'd programmed her while Ruri had constructed her body. Rose was designed from the ground up to be a babysitter. Ruri had given her the appearance of a young girl, and she'd gone perhaps a little too far on the details. In some respects she was like a daughter to him as well.

Reaching his door, he thumbed the lock and stepped into the foyer of his quarters. Countryman barely gave his collection a look before going into the central multipurpose room. He had a lovely display of vintage and functional gaming consoles, complete with a select collection of titles.

His multipurpose room was set up as his main living area. There was his small kitchen complete with a fridge, a cooktop, a modest pantry and a few integrated appliances. He had a nice metal table and a few chairs nearby to dine at, and there was a large sofa set up in the room. The Sofa was L shaped, and placed in the corner facing a large display with a small table in front of it, just like a little living room.

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Rose was nestled on his Sofa with his eight-month-old daughter in her arms. She had a bottle in hand but the little one was more interested in the screen. At the moment it was just a bright swirl of colors, while some childish music played in the background. He smiled as he watched the scene, noting a few toys were out in the living areas as well. Obviously playtime hadn't been that long ago. "Not that hungry, right now?"

Rose looked up, "I think she's about done actually. Came to check on her?"

"Well she's so young, and then there is..."

"I've been keeping an eye on her, so far she's fine. I've got a Medikit handy in case she starts showing signs of getting sick but there isn't much more I can do."

He settled on the sofa, watching his young girl. Sometimes it was hard to believe she was already eight months old. Part of him still recalled her being born quite vividly, he'd managed to find the time to be there in the room when Ruri finally gave birth. He almost chuckled at the memory of how she propositioned to have another and Rika was barely a few minutes old. Ruri was a strange girl, smart, but she could be rather... oblivious. It was easy to forget sometimes with how she acted and how young she looked, but Ruri was 95 years old, technically 94 but her birthday was this month. His was next month, and he wasn't that young either, at 195 years old, it would be 196 in May.

"So is Ruri still around or did she leave?"

Rose looked up, "Well you know her, the moment she heard we were in hyperspace she had to get to the lab. I think she said something about measuring the speed of light."

He chuckled, "That sounds like her, alright."

"Yeah, and it was like dealing with a second child, she wanted to go out naked. I had to slow her down and get her dressed."

"Welcome to the club."

Rose shrank a little, "I don't know how you put up with that Jac."

"I've known her for years, you get used to it."

Rose gave a wry smile, just as little Rika was pulling away. She set the young girl on the deck, and she went right for the blocks. It was a good toy for one so young, and she seemed to really like them. Countryman watched her for a few minutes. Seeing her play made it easy to forget they were trapped in a weird hyperspace storm, being bombarded with deadly radiation, and completely adrift with multiple system failures. For a moment the world felt more normal, and Countryman briefly wondered what the future would hold. How were they going to survive a year here? Ten? Twenty? He hardly knew what other dangers the storm held, but the radiation was already a problem. Worse it was hard to say when the storm would surface.

Rose came over and gave him a hug, "It's going to be alright Jac. Why don't you go see Ruri? I've got things with Rika here covered."

"I guess I should, and I figure I'm going to need her insights more than ever. I just wish I could forget my responsibilities and join her." He stretched, "I used to enjoy just building things. Hell, I built this ship."

She grinned, "Perhaps one day you'll be able to do that again."

He returned the grin and headed on out. Part of him was curious as to what Ruri had found out so far.

Countryman found her in the lab, leaning over a console as a stream of new data was coming in. Ruri spotted him come in, and smiled, "Hey Jac, this hyperspace place is pretty fascinating."

"So what have you found out?"

"Well naturally the laws of physics couldn't be too different from our own, or we'd die, but there are some differences. I've mostly tested the easy stuff. Back in normal space, the speed of light was roughly 300,000 kilometers per second, but that's not the case here. I consistently recorded speeds twelve hundred times faster. That doesn't mean we can go 1200 C just flying around, relativity still applies. If my tests are close to right, we can travel at 960 times the normal speed of light with our sublight engines."

"Interesting, any idea if the warp drive would still function?"

"I'd be inclined to say no, but it will take me time to confirm it. Just some of my initial experiments have noted... issues with spatial projector tech. I wouldn't recommend trying to fire any of our pulsed particle cannons. The beam arrays should be fine though."

"I was not looking to shoot anything, but I'll keep that in mind. Now on a different note, what do you make of the Isanir radiation?"

"I have the computer analyzing it. So far, there's not much to say. I have noted that it seems to ionize certain pieces of technology but so far I haven't found a way to shield against it. Until I do, we won't be able to use any kind of tech that involves projected energy fields, namely force fields and energy shields. Our standard structural fields won't be affected. It's also going to make salvage jobs harder, as it will interfere with the operation of standard mag tractors."

"Damn, there goes one of my few ideas on how to solve the radiation problem."

"I've got a few ideas on how to compensate, but no promises."

Countryman nodded, and promised to get her the resources she needed. The radiation shields would need fixing before they could be used, but the issue she found was a game changer. They were going to need a fix for that, since they likely wouldn't survive if they didn't solve the radiation problem. He still didn't know what it was doing to organic tissue, but the Krall hadn't recommended long-term exposure. "So what does the Isanir radiation do to people?"

She frowned, "Well..."