Captains Log: Zeniths broken Edge

A ship equipped with a dark matter engine for travel faster than light

Captain’s Log – Stardate 8723.5

Vessel: Zenith’s Edge

Commander: Captain Darrin Kael

System: Zyphora Nexus

It has been roughly 48 hours since the dark matter engine was operating properly and the failure has the crew on edge. Being out in space is enough anxiety on its on. Adding a malfunctioning engine and things could get…mutinous. “Captain” his first mate taps at his quarters. “Enter” “What are we going to tell the client? The way things look with the engine, we might not make it out of..the Zyphora system let alone complete the delivery.” “We will hail Tarson Control when we have more news to tell.” “More than our engine not getting us into the aether lane so we are stuck using archaic traveling methods?” “Precisely. What are the engineers saying?” “They want to do a system reboot. Full system.” “We would need an atmosphere to do that we are too far from Kaelyth without the engine. Have them look into a way to do a localized reset, or at least maintain our life support.” “Aye Captain.”

After his first mate leaves, Captain Kael walks over to his desk and removes a glass and serves himself a finger of whiskey. He pauses a moment to let the fire in his throat and lungs settle. _Not the best way to handle this_ he can hear the first mate chime in his ear. There is nothing else to do now, and it knocks the edge off. He puts the cup back and when he sets it down he notices that it has no weight. “Shit-“ he manages before his own weight keeping him to the deck disappears allowing him to float a full foot only to snap back dropping him nearly buckling at the knees. He immediately runs out the room down the short hall onto the bridge and sees that the crew who are present are still recovering from their less elegant run in with gravity control. “One of you find your feet and report!” Communications manages to gather themselves first, “Aye sir! seems our gravity control is experiencing the same glitch as the engine.” “Glitch? Thought it was a malfunction. A _glitch_ is corrupted programming get engineering on now!”

The crew activated the emergency signal throughout the ship and everyone with a role found there way to the bridge then strapped themselves in to their respective stations in case gravity wavered again. On the line with engineering Captain Kael was getting the explanation for what went wrong. “What do you mean you don’t know? You were supposed to be doing an observational inspection so that we can localize a restart. Now you are saying it just ignited on its own?” “Well sir that’s part of the glitch. It just ignites systems with little warning and virtually no order.” “We will revisit this vernacular issue later, but for the record, a malfunction and a glitch are two separate things and should be reported as such. Your priority is preventing another system glitch and identifying a way to recycle our lodge array without killing the crew.” “Heard-“ time dilation interrupts them, the front display turns dark, and gravity increases slightly tugging the captain deeper into his seat. Only for a moment as everything snaps back into normalcy “-Captain..wait. did you feel that?” “Damn right I did, that felt like ridding the aether. Nav, what’s our location?” Nav looks nervously at the captain with uncertainty and a bit of fear in her eyes. “Looks like we are just outside of the Eryndor Spiral sir, the system of our destination.”

“We jumped? Chief, get that engine in order. That is your only task.” He hangs up allowing the engineer less distractions then flips the switch to communicate with the whole ship. “Crew, this is your captain. If you have not strapped in to something solid yet, you are mad. Strap in immediately all activities are suspended until further notice.” “Captain,” the woman from navigation “should we just go to planet Tarson using our thrusters. Bypass the DM Engine?” Valid question, we are close enough to make the destination within a week of our delivery time. “No, Lets give engineering some-“ another pull on the crew forces air from captain Kael’s mouth and the display goes dark again as their position shifts for a moment snapping back on to show a swirling disk of dust and rock orbiting a small bright mass. A collective ‘where are we’ can be felt in the bridge as all eyes fall to navigation. “We are being hailed captain.” Says comm before anyone can remind nav to confirm their location. “By who?” “Luminary Vos” “Shit, we are in the Cluster. That’s the Celestial Womb. Answer it. We are not supposed to be here.”

“Hello, Apologies luminary, we seem to be-“ gravity yanks his conversation short and his bones begin to ache with the repeated leaps into the aether lane. Jostled and uneasy the ship vibrates and a sharp strain in the hull can be heard throughout the bridge. The display lights up revealing a bright red flare flying across the visual display. “SHIELDS!” He yells feeling the jerk of evasion tactics that the onboard AI automatically engages when detecting danger. It pulls to the left avoiding another spurt of solar energy using the gravity of the red star to follow its curvature navigation takes over in hopes they will break free from the stars gravity. After a short while the pull lessens only to reveal a massive blue star across the horizon spinning itself nearly into a disk on the other side. It was at this point that Captain Kael realizes it was not that they had broken free from the red giant, but the gravity of this blue one had reached across it and grabbed the small ship. In confirmation, the audible strain on the hull whines and so does their speed increases. “Comm, get me engineering.” “Already on the line.” “Engeerin-” “Force the glitch.” “Wait what? We were about set up a-“ “Force it!” “We can but-“ “NOW!” The force on the ship changes and he feels as if his whole weight is trying to fall into his belly button. When the feeling passes he realizes that now their internal gravity is off as is the display. “This is getting tiresome. Navigation?” “Well sir this data…this is impossible.” “Lets here it” “Sir it looks like we aren’t anywhere.”

For a moment, nothing happens. Except that he sees the back of his head as his body leans forward hand extended. He then reaches into the space he now occupies and touches nothing. He returns to his position confused. He then sees shifting of his nose to the left and right with movements he then takes as he tries observing the ghost of himself forward in time. He then sees himself get out of his chair and float off his seat moving his hands to his head. “It’s gotta be the dark matte shift. We are stuck in the upper dimension.” Then a soft murmur rises into his ears, many voices in different cadences rumble through the bridge. He unbuckles his strap and floats out of his seat to get a good view of what the crew is doing but the noise rise to an uproar bringing his hands to his head covering his ears. Gravity returns and his body slams to the deck. He recalls why regulation is to strap in whenever there is null gravity. He brings himself to his feet, and feels the silence. He notices a blinking light in his peripheral and turns his eyes to the display. A ship. Only a ship. No stars just the lights emitting form the hull of the ship and surrounding darkness..

“Hail them” He says to comm “they could have more information regarding our…location.” “I’ve tried sir, they are not responding. The ship then splits into two floating in opposite directions. They then split again and one heads in towards them revealing the name upon the Hull: ‘Zennith Edge’ “Its our ship” He says confirming his thoughts. Turn up the area model, let’s see what is around us. A projection opens up in the middle of the brig presenting a 3D oval depiction of the ship and a few the area around it. “There are so many ships, and they are all likely replicas.” :Should we evade captain? Some of these ships are getting really close.” “No, these are all doing things that we could have done and splitting off. If we get too reckless we will all die in this dimension. Shields up.” “Engineering is on the line Captain.” “Put them through. Give me good news.” “Well we just finished setting everything up, wanted the ok to run the reset.” “You have it, how long with it take?” “Should be immediate sir.”

A loud clank resonates in around the ship and all at once he feels centered yet terrified. On the projection it shows all the other ships starting to reverse. They gain enormous momentum collapse into a single structure before anyone can react, leaving only the wind as they collectively breathe again. Captain Kael falls into his chair and buckles in as gravity pulls toward the bow increasing speed and weight. The 3d projection cannot keep up so it shuts off. the image in the forward display shows a light in the distance appear and grow taking an oval shape as they get closer to it. Kael digs his nails into the chair. The display shifts, unfurling layers like petals on a flower. Each petal lifting to reveal several more beneath it. They speed Into this infinite flower until it’s too large to be seen and with their speed it elongates into thin lines of light stretching into the distance. The light infant stops unfurling in an instant they are through it loosing all momentum leaving silence and tension in the bridge.

They all sit in it for a long while, waiting for something else to happen. “Seems to have worked Captain” he hears in his ear realizing that he is still connected to engineering. “Everything looks normal and the glitch seems to be gone. She’s ready to go whenever you are.” “Th-thank you” he manages then takes a deep breath to settle the himself. “Nav, where are we?” “Appears we are just outside of the spiral.” “Good, take us in to Tarson using the thrusters. Nice and easy.” “Yes sir.” Comm, get Control on, I need to tell them our ETA.”