[Ancient ch'Rihan: Nighttime]
The operation had been designed to look like nothing out of the ordinary was
going on. Crewmembers, slowly, were called inside and to bring their
belongings, separately. The operation was planned so that the villagers
wouldn't think anything was out of the ordinary, and the majority of the
migration was done during the night. If all went well, they wouldn't awake
until the ship noisily took off, and by then, it would be too late.
[SRR Morrhae'vnu: Engineering]
There had been a slight cheer from the Engineering staff as the warp core
flickered to life. Tacrun's knowledge of ancient technology combined with
the engineers' and scientists' resourcefulness proved to be the right
combination of Rihannsu passion with enlightened knowledge to handle the
situation. The cheer did not last long, however, as this was merely
impossible task #1 out of several hundred to be overcome...
[Oira]
Erie'riov tr'Rhagarokk (to the Rihannsu, ranks always mattered, even when
the Galae would not be founded for many years) sat in newly repaired command
throne. Resources for repairs had been tight, so cosmetic concerns were put
aside entirely. Cabling still hung from the ceiling; consoles still lacked
panels to cover their insides; controls were replaced with lower tech access
buttons taken from other parts of the ship; even the roof, while repaired
completely, still was covered by a large tape 'X'.
Rylan sat at Operations, the field he had originally been training for at
the academy. Gehan sat at Helm, complaining about how uncomfortable his
chair was. Vyynd sat, arms crossed, leaning against the wall in a dark
corner.
Rylan turned to look at Rhagarokk. "Whenever au are ready, rekkhai..."
Rhagarokk nodded. "Attention all hands. We are about to initiate power
transfer procedures for phase 1. All non-essential systems will be
completely drained. Communications will be reserved for command officers
only." The Leih paused a second before continuing on, solemnly. "We are the
finest group of officers and scientists in all of the military, but even I
cannot guarantee the success of this operation. If au have any loved io-a
onboard, I suggest au say whatever needs to be said now. After this point, I
expect all officers to give me all that they have. May the Elements be with
us."
Rhagarokk leaned back in his chair and shut his eyes, his last chance to
organize his thoughts before he'd have to do a double duty- be a science
officer and be a Leih. He was the only one on the ship qualified to perform
slingshot calculations. As his weary eyes opened again, he saw Vyynd
standing next to him.
"Ie, erie'Arrain?" queried Rhagarokk as he pulled himself up in the chair.
"Just wondering if au caught my note regarding Aemhig." stated the Agent.
Rhagarokk gives a slight sigh. "Ie, I did... some of the engineers think
they can get the transporter working for io beam-out, so once we reach orbit
we're going to try to rescue her that way. But it's na guarantee.
Otherwise..." Rhagarokk leaves the sentence trail off before Vyynd finishes
it.
"Otherwise she joins history." says Vyynd, before stepping off to see where
he could be of help.
Rylan, trying to avoid thinking about Katara and her safety, focuses on the
job at hand. "Structural integrity fields active. Inertial dampeners online
at forty-seven percent. Emergency forcefields standing by. Begin phase 1,
rekkhai?"
Rhagarokk nods before standing to give orders. "Commence power shut off from
all non-essential systems. Deactivate lighting down to emergency lights.
Gehan, is our trajectory clear?"
The Gonnaih nods quickly. "Just get it up in the air and I'll do my best."
"Rhagarokk to Tacrun, how's the warp core doing?"
In engineering, the multi-tasking engineer says quickly, "As well as can be
expected, rekkhai! Boy, if only they still made 'em like this..."
Rhagarokk chuckles briefly before cutting the com. "Begin pre-lift-off
procedures."
[Med Bay]
"This is na time to be performing an autopsy, DT." says Emni, who busily
tries to lock down everything in med bay and still be ready for any
injuries.
"It's na an autopsy if it's only a brain," says D'Tarik indignantly,
"Besides, I've never gotten to examine a serial killer before. There's all
sorts of neat stuff going on in this brain..."
"That's all very well and good, but can't it wait until we return to the
present?" says Emni as sweetly as possible.
"Na time like the present, that's what I always say. Hey, look at this, this
almost looks like Tal'Shiar sleeper agent programming..." says D'Tarik with
a mixture of happiness and concern.
"What?" begins Emni, before the power to most of the med bay's systems shut
off.
"Hmm, I suppose it will have to wait," says DT from the mood lighting.
[Outside: Village]
As the engines flare to life and wind begins to buffet the village, the
villagers exit their tents and hold their children close, wondering what is
going on.
As the engines glow a bright green, one little girl remarks "It looks like a
star..."
[Oira]
"Impulse engines are online, rekkhai." states Rylan with mirth is his voice.
"Excellent. Helm," says Rhagarokk, grinning, "Let's light this candle."
[Southern Continen]
{{Timing is everything in the Tal'Shiar}} The thought quickly flashes in
Aemhig's subconscious, but is quickly put aside in her programmed brain. As
the agent, now T'Rehu the Ruling Queen in mind, word, deed, and most
importantly history, fights her way through armies, a green streak flashes
brilliantly across the sky. The superstitious among the soldiers take this
as a sign, and are hers forever.
The old man tr'Monk looks up to the sky and gives a minor prayer. "Find
ninte way home in the Endless Sky, my friends."
[Morrhae'vnu: Orbit around ancient ch'Rihan]
Had the viewscreen been working, Rhagarokk would have liked to have seen
Ancient ch'Rihan. But as it was, it was a non-essential (and broken) system,
and everyone was working off of instruments. Pulling his personal science
station console from the side of his command throne, Rhagarokk began to work
fervently on numbers, trajectories, and positions. Before too long, the Leih
had given an exist position to point at by Eisn, the sun of the twin worlds.
The impulse engines continued to complain, but the ship was soon pointed at
the exist right place.
"Rylan, remove all power from impulse engines. Cut life support to minimal
levels. Do we have transporters at all?"
Rylan shakes his head. "There's na way the transporters can operate right
now."
Rhagarokk looks over to Vyynd and gives a look that seems to say 'I'm sorry'
Vyynd simply goes on with his work.
"Alright then. Slave auxiliary helm control to my station. We're about to
push an ancient warp core way beyond what it's designed for." As everyone
looks at the Leih expectantly, he gestures and yells, "Engage!"
The next view seconds had the crew doing the job for a crew three times
their size. Every engineer, working on keeping power going and keeping an
antique (even in this time) warp core operational. Officers and scientists
from other departments were recruited to handle things like repairs. The
entire ship wanted to scream and fly apart at any second, its hull rumbling
and making sounds like a banshee as the ship continued to accelerate higher
and higher into faster than light speeds. As Eisn's gravity well kept the
ship in orbit but provided yet another force with which to rend the ship
piece by piece, Rhagarokk hurriedly adjusted his calculations to make sure
they didn't wind up in yet another wrong time. Rylan wiped the sweat from
his brow and pulled out every trick he had learned to feed power where
needed- mostly to the structural integrity fields. The sound of tearing
metal increased. Communication became nearly impossible on the Oira, but
Rhagarokk was pretty sure he could hear Vyynd trying to say something over
the din.
"Mas...d...age...all d... hull br...thr...r... casu..." was all that he
could make out.
But the ship kept accelerating, and eventually, hit high warp speeds, and
everything went white...
Drifting...
Blackness...
Timelessness...
{{Hmm, death is a very different experience then what I had expected. Let's
find out who was right after all. I wish I could take notes}} thought
Rhagarokk. What he was experiencing was not merely darkness. Darkness is
simply the lack of light. What he was experiencing was a lack of sight. The
pure oblivion that penetrated directly into his brain was not merely
darkness, but the opposite of light. The sensation of perceiving the
anti-light lasted only a fraction of a second, but that second seemed to
dragon until there was no time. From the oblivion came darkness, and from
the darkness came images. Like a positive and a negative particle coming
into existence from a singularity, people began to exist in front of him,
existing but falsely.
And as Rhagarokk perceived, the people became familiar and not so familiar.
The first was tr'Riog, a young elemental priest who had come with Rhagarokk
to this reality aboard the SNR Cradol. As Riog moved past, frozen in some
action pose, drifting, Rhagarokk's perception briefly turned to a flickering
flame. As his "vision" realigned, the next figure drifting past was a Rihan
that Rhagarokk did not recognize. The man's features were blurred,
indistinct, but seemed to be wrapped in a green fire. The man changed for a
split-second into what appeared to be a bird, formed out of the green fire.
The bird drifted out of sight. The third figure was easily recognizable as
tr'Ragarok, Rhagarokk's "resident" counterpart for this reality. He was the
same Ragarok, but garbed as a Tal'Shiar agent and covered with what appeared
to be glowing particles of a variety of different colors. As a frozen
Ragarok drifted past, the image suddenly stared at where Rhagarokk would be,
and said simply "Ta'khoi."
Ragarok dissipated into nothingness and soon was replaced by a mouth that
filled Rhagarokk's entire field of vision. As the mouth swallowed him,
Rhagarokk felt as though he were surrounded by water, drowning, being pulled
down into the abyss...
"...hear me? Are au all right, erie'Riov?"
Rhagarokk's eyes flickered open, and he saw a Rihannsu officer standing near
him, attempting to heft the collapsed command throne from Rhagarokk's body.
"Ie..." was all Rhagarokk could muster to say. He quickly took a survey of
the room- his crew were passed out, but none were obviously dead. The
situation quickly sunk in, and through monumental effort, raised his arm and
grabbed the officer by the shirt. "The date!" he shouted, "Today's date!"
"240104.15" recited the officer as quickly as he could.
"Figures..." said Rhagarokk, before letting go and passing out again.
|