Begin Simulation

Posted on Sun Feb 8th, 2026 @ 3:45pm by Captain Piraa sh'Zamhlass & Commander T'Zara & Lieutenant Commander Eden Corwin & Lieutenant Kiran Arai & Lieutenant T'Razz & Lieutenant Kokoruda Teyali

1,252 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Green Sky
Location: Valiant, Bridge
Timeline: July 27, 2401 || 0900 hours

Piraa shifted in her seat the moment the Grazerite ensign at the Ops stations made the announcement. For the last few weeks, Captain Piraa sh'Zamhlass had worked relentlessly on assembling a crew, getting them settled, and training them for their initial mission: field trials for the Emergency Disaster Engagement Network, colloquially known as EDEN. In the last twenty four hours, the mission had already been compromised by its architect, a certain Commander Haxin Mariwat who protested the way Piraa chose to approach the mission, which was to keep EDEN offline until the last possible second so that the system could react in real time and not spend hours in simulations. Mariwat instead chose to keep EDEN offline, but to also sabotage the external sensors, masking an ion storm which wrecked havoc on the Valiant.

The Andorian captain couldn't have been prouder of her crew. They all reacted appropriately, and guided the ship out of perilous danger without the loss of life. Mariwat was relieved of duty and remanded to the nearest starbase to await court martial, one the Valiant's crew would participate in once these trials were over. In terms of the mission, Mariwat's sabotage did give Piraa the one thing she hadn't counted on during these trials, and that was a baseline test to measure EDEN against.

So, when the Grazerite ensign announced that they were receiving a distress call from the science outpost on Epsilon Indi, she could feel more confident about beginning this first trial. "Computer, activate EDEN."

EDEN's holographic form shimmered into being and came to attention before the Captain. "I stand awaiting your orders."

To the Ops officer, Piraa leaned back in her seat and said, "Put it on speakers, ensign."

"Mayday! Mayday!" cried the voice with a faceless owner. "Our sensors are overloaded with gravimetric and subspace distortions all around the planet. We need immediate assistance. Repeat, our planet is about to be torn apart by gravimetric and subspace distortions. Help us please!"

The speakers then looped the message, indicating that it was broadcasting on a repeated playback.

"Helm," Piraa ordered, crossing her legs while still seated in the center chair. "Increase speed to maximum warp." Then to her bridge crew, she posed the question, "Remember, EDEN is supposed to take point during this emergency. Before we ask for its plan, any thoughts on what might be happening at the outpost?"

"Are there any other ships in the area?" T'Zara asked as she listened to the recording.

Eden stood at her station, arms folded across her chest. She had been watching the situation unfold with the quiet intensity of someone who’d seen too many simulations turn into real emergencies—and too many real emergencies spiral out of control. “Gravimetric and subspace distortions,” she repeated, her voice low but firm. “That’s not a natural pairing. Something’s either tearing through the planet’s crust from below, or something’s trying to phase into normal space from within it.”

"The outpost was performing some research with subspace phenomena," the Captain shared, remembering that nugget from the briefing. "Perhaps something with that research went wrong. What are our sensors telling us?"

Kiran looked up from his console. "I'd recommend we scan the subspace signatures, see if we can figure out what they're working on. If something’s phasing in, it might not be natural. We should should also prep for planetary evacuation protocols. If the crust destabilizes, we wouldn't have much time.”

"Start scanning," the Captain said with a nod. Then she looked over to Commander T'Zara before looking at EDEN. "What about you, EDEN? What do you make of all this?"

"Until more is known, the likelihood of a successful estimation would have a high margin of error," EDEN replied.

"Spoken like a Vulcan," Piraa lamented. "Either way, let's increase speed to the planet. Anything yet on sensors?"

T'Zara looked over at the Engineer. "Report, Lieutenant," she requested.

"Inconclusive at this range. The distortions are producing subspace harmonics that are scattering our sensor signals all over the place. I'm working on dampening down the interference, but it should clear up the closer we get." Kiran replied.

"Helm now registers at Warp Nine," announced the helmsman. "Should we push to maximum warp, Captain? At present speed, we can get to the planet in under an hour. Maximum warp can cut that time in half."

"Lieutenant Arai," Piraa asked, looking over to the engineer. "Can our engines handle maximum warp at this time? Simulation or not, I don't want to risk unnecessary damage."

Tapping on his console, Kiran checked various systems to get an estimate. "Yes, we can probably use maximum warp, but I wouldn't use it for longer than an hour at the moment. We'll be able to reach the planet without the engines failing, and I can assign some additional crews to keep an eye on specific components I'm concerned about."

The Captain considered the options for a moment, then ordered the Chief Engineer, "Dispatch the additional crews. We're going to need the best speed now, and then the best speed as soon as this mission nears its end. If we're... or if EDEN is unable to stop these distortions, we'll have to evacuate everyone and get the hell out of here."

Kiran nodded in response. "Aye, Sir. Dispatching the additional crews now." He tapped away a few commands on the console, which was alerting various teams to report to specific areas.

Looking over to the Menthian Executive Officer, Piraa then added, "I have a feeling we need to start evacuating non-essentials as soon as we arrive. What are your thoughts?"

"I would suggest using all the transporters in tandem to keep the power flow even. However, if there's wounded, we'll have to do emergency beaming direct to Medical first."

At this moment, Piraa found herself at a loss. The Valiant was new, and while she had performed her due diligence studying the ship's technical manuals, she was now struggling to recall the ship's emergency capacity. "Let's start breaking down specifics. How many personnel are on the colony? If all four of our pads are running, how quickly can we effectively beam non-essentials aboard? And, more importantly, will these anomalies affect transporters? The last thing we want is patterns to merge or get corrupted during transit."

EDEN flickered for a moment before she responded. "Using all four transporter rooms and forty people per cycle, we can beam an estimated one hundred and sixty personnel aboard a minute. If you use the cargo transporter, you can get an extra eighty personnel a minute at ten people per cycle and four cycles per minutes. The system must be run to the absolute limit in order to do this and everything must be focused on it."

"What about the distortions?" T'Zara asked.

"We will have to attempt to punch through at the lowest altitude possible," EDEN responded. "That would revise the number of personnel evacuated to eighty to one hundred and twenty a minute safely."

Piraa called up the colony's manifest and ran a quick head count. "Looks like approximately eight hundred crew and civilians. Good chance ten percent or so of those are essential personnel and would be needed to help solve this crisis. But we still would need to verify that the anomalies won't affect transporters. Let's not merge or corrupt patterns on the first go if we can help it. For now, let's get ready to act. All hands, yellow alert."

 

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