I.A.S Insanity Sliver, Trans-Phase Conduit
“Commander, we are in range of Gate Omega. Transmit exit codes?”
The commander stood at the helm staring out the forward screens; mere feet from her face the ship’s shields fended off the plasmatic fury of Phase space. “Begin transmit…”
“Ah Commander, we are not receiving a return signal from the Gate...”
The Commander turns slightly, glancing over her shoulder at the ensign, “What?”
The ensign holds up her hands in exasperation, “Omega Gate did not return a confirmation signal.” She points at console in front of her, and looks back at the Commander. The Commander walks briskly over to the ensign’s station while glancing over at a second console, “How far to the deceleration zone?”
The aid sitting at the station the commander had directed her question at deftly spins a holographic model and several holographic screens around like she was solving a rubix cube. “2 minutes till deceleration zone, Commander.” The commander nods, bending over the chair of the comm. Ensign and activates the transmitter again. Several seconds later the screen flashes red when the ship fails to receive the confirmation code. Her brow furrowed the commander’s fingers skittered across the console’s keyboard.
The metallic voice of the ship’s AI, Sanity, breaks the relative silence of the bridge, “Entering Deceleration Zone, recommend emergency Trans-Phase exit immediately.” The commander looks up from the screen, her face awash with confusion and fear. The ensign twists in her seat looking up at the commander, “Commander, Your orders ma`am?” The commander stares out the forward view screen with a curious look on her face. “Listen…”
“Ma`am?” The ensign glanced around the bridge; the eyes of the 3rd rotation team were all on the Commander.
“They’re silent…”
The Ensign stood up from her seat and looks to the view screen then back to the commander, “Who is silent?”
The bridge lights suddenly switched to a dull red, an alarm somewhere deep within the ship winds up. The commander looks at the Ensign, “The Collective, Ensign, they are silent-“ The Commander was cut short by the metallic voice of Sanity, “Emergency override activated, manual Trans-Phase exit initiated. Phase Exit in Five, Four.”
The bridge crew stares at each other for a moment in the stunned silence before the Commander snaps out of momentary panic attack, and leaps into her seat. “Three.” Sanity’s voice rang out, echoing off the walls of the elegantly designed bridge.
“Auxiliary power to gravity systems and inertial dampeners-“ The ship shudders violently, throwing one of the bridge officers, who had yet to reach their seat to the ground, to the ground. The officer scrambled back to her feet but a second tremor rocked the ship throwing her back to the ground. “Two.”
The ensign starts to get up from her seat, but the ship’s dampeners had succumbed to the tremors that were rocking the ship from fore to aft.
“Commander, we have not yet reached optimal deceleration!”
The commander had a firm grip on the arm of her command chair, “Brace for Exit!”
“One.” That one word rang out with a finality that did not seem to suit the situation. Without the gate to control the ships deceleration and exit there was no way to determine the location they would exit the conduit or if they would even exit in one piece. Manual Tran-Phase exit was intended as a last course of action and had never been attempted with an actual ship with a living crew. Spending second longer in the conduit than intended can send a ship to the far side of the universe or even back where the ship entered the conduit, they could exit the conduit inside a star or even a planet.
“Exiting the Trans-Phase Conduit, stand by.”
The space before the ship exploded in a vibrantly colored plasma storm hundreds of times larger than a normal Phase jump, and for a nanosecond the ship’s crew seemed to stand still in time as the conduit belched forth the ship back into relative ship.
I.A.S Insanity Sliver, Undetermined location off the border of the Commonwealth of Sonra
After a moment the bridge lights flickered back on, the ship’s controls recovering from the trauma of the exit. The silence on the bridge was necrotic. The voice of Sanity rang out again this time the AI’s holographic figure stood in the center of the bridge gazing out of the ship’s forward view screen, seemingly oblivious to the dead flight crew around her. “Ship’s log: Manual trans-phase exit successfully completed, 100% casualty among rotation team 3, unable to contact Alkari celestial markers. Critical power failure detected, powering down non essential systems to preserve life support, and cargo environmental controls, activating distress beacon. Without a second word the hologram disappeared and the bridge lights dimmed.
