Starship Armstrong - Season 2

Part 55 - Remembrance of the Magellan Class (III)

"Hey!" exclaimed Ensign Marceaux.

"What's going on?" asked the Captain.

"I lost the signal," said Marceaux, frantically working his console "I mean I know it's still there, I can see it on my scanners, but the ship isn't recognizing it at all."

"The ship isn't recognizing it?" asked the Captain.

"It won't interact with it in any way," said Marceaux "It's the damnedest thing. Everything was working fine just a moment ago."

"The Armstrong doesn't malfunction without a reason," said Mitzner.

"Oh here we go," said Gibson, rolling his eyes.

"Your skepticism is getting pedestrian, Commander," said Mitzner.

"This doesn't bode well," said the Captain "If the Armstrong doesn't like that signal and we've already lost a ship in the area that's reason enough for me to get out of here. We can mark the location and send word back home about the Jofuku. Let Military Fleet deal with it."

"That is probably wise," said Gibson.

"Ensign Guildenstern," said the Captain "Take us out and resume our previous course."

"Aye, Captain," said Guildenstern, bringing the ship about and preparing to engage the relativity drive.

Nothing happened. The Armstrong continued to fly along at cruising speeds.

"Whenever you're ready, Ensign," said the Captain "Sooner rather than later."

"I'm sorry, Captain, but I can't seem to open a space/time tunnel," said Guildenstern, sheepishly.

"This is ridiculous," said the Captain "Let me guess, the relativity drive just refuses to engage?"

"Oh no," said Guildenstern "It engages just fine. There's no problem on our end. The local space/time just won't budge."

"No," said the Captain, shaking her head "I don't like any of this. Continue to take us as far away from this system as we can get at cruising speed, and retry the relativity drive every ten standard minutes."

"Aye, Captain," said Guildenstern.

"Commander, page Lieutenant Solarin and then meet me in my office," said the Captain "Lieutenant-Commander, you're with me. Ensign Guildenstern, Ensign Marceaux, if the slightest thing changes page me immediately do you understand?"

"Aye, Captain," they both said immediately.

And the Captain and Mitzner disappeared into her office.

* * *

Once the Captain and Mitzner were seated in her office, she paged the Science Department.

"Captain to the Science Department," she said "Dr. Kang, report to the bridge. There are one or more anomalous situations I'd like you to have a look at."

Dr. Kang sighed theatrically over the communicator.

"On my way," he said.

The transmission cut out.

"Good," said Captain Littlecrow "Let Lieutenant Soliarin deal with him for a change."

Commander Gibson entered the office from the bridge and took a seat.

"So," said the Captain, shrugging "Theories?"

"Whatever is out there is bad. Some malevolent entity," said Mitzner "And the Armstrong is trying to protect us from it. It's probably the thing we saw in the gap in the scanners and the same thing that's preventing us from using the relativity drive. It's all connected."

"You're making quite a leap there, Lieutenant-Commander," said Gibson "We have no evidence that the three equipment malfunctions we experienced are connected, let alone that they spring from the same source, let alone that the source has agency and some kind of animus towards us. That's to say nothing of the ongoing personification of the ship."

"We're not here to rehash that argument, Commander," said the Captain "Your position is widely understood so you won't have to waste any time restating it. What do you believe is going on?"

"I believe that there is either a mechanical issue or, more likely, a software bug that is causing our scanners to occasionally show blank spots or phantom signals and that is preventing our relativity drive from operating properly. It is also possible that there is a series of unrelated bugs. That would be the most obvious answer, and a tad more realistic than invisible space monsters."

"I never said it was a monster," said Mitzner "Although it is."