Stardate: 70925:1845
Title: Lost Contact
Author: Marc Remmick
Time: During and After 'Into The Warren'
Location: USS Horizon - Main Bridge


[Shouldn't be a problem. I'll see if Remmick can give me more power to the sensors. Kehn out.]

The Science Officer swung in the center chair, to face Remmick. "Increase the supply to the main sensor grid, Lieutenant, but keep it within cohesion levels."

Marc nodded, drawing auxiliary power into the scanner arrays, keeping a close eye on the readouts. The Horizon's sensors were one of the most sensitive systems onboard. Too much power fed blindly into the grid could fuse or blow out the delicate emitters and probes embedded all along her hull. Trying to keep a lock on the combadges and biosigns of the Operations Chief and future-Horizon Captain was becoming increasingly difficult. The clear sensor picture was beginning to break up - but if Remmick boosted the signal strength, he ran the risk of burning out their narrow-band active scanner array, or blotting out the faint lock he maintained on the two women.

"We're encountering dramatically increasing break-up in the signal back from Commander Falls. I've boosted supply to the cohesive-imaging array, but we're at the safe limit without adversely affecting performance, or damaging the grid."

Kehn looked intently at the engineer. "Are our scans being actively interfered with?" Remmick shook his head, consulting his diagnostics.

"I'm inclined to blame these crystalline subsurface elements, they're refracting our scans like a prism splitting a beam of light - I can't focus our sensors to punch through without overloading the-"

He was cut off by a warning tone from his console. "We've lost combadge and biosign lock on; I think they've gone into an area of massive interference. Attempting to compensate."

Now he was juggling factors, attempting to minutely tweak their sensor frequency to break through the maddening barrier of the crystalline deposits. Garbled static and disquieting interference was being broadcast over the Bridge speakers, as the communications system fought to extract a signal from the Ops Chief. And then, suddenly her voice came through clearly - but incoherently. Commander Falls was in extreme distress, and demanding an immediate beam-out. Then, her voice was cut off, and a horrifically-echoing silence fell across the Horizon.

Remmick's guts clenched, and a cold sweat broke out across his entire body. He was confronted by a sudden realisation that something horrible had happened deep under the surface of this alien, hostile world - something the Horizon could not see or stop. For the first time in his life, Remmick was facing a situation that had nothing to do with lab experiments or theoretical discussions. A crisis was occurring right now, and lives were at stake. His mind twanged, a whirl of ideas and half-thought solutions cascading through his imagination, before one simple answer leapt out, perfect in its aggressive clarity.

"I think I could use the deflector array to focus a concentrated graviton pulse onto her last position. It would smash through just about any sensor-refracting crystal, echo her and the Captain's combadge signals, and allow us to beam them up - but it would be nearly as powerful as a phaser barrage. We'd essentially be shooting at their planet."

Remmick stared across the Bridge at Lieutenant Kehn, the plan formulated in his mind, and prayed to the Universe that he would not have to fire the first shot in a War that could consume the Federation...


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Lieutenant (JG) Marc Remmick
Engineer
USS Horizon
NCC-72400
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