Epsilon Indi

Posted on Sat Apr 11th, 2026 @ 10:44am by Captain Piraa sh'Zamhlass & Commander T'Zara & Lieutenant Commander Eden Corwin & Lieutenant Kiran Arai & Lieutenant T'Razz & Lieutenant Kokoruda Teyali

1,332 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Green Sky
Location: USS Valiant, Main Bridge
Timeline: July 27, 2401 || 1000 hours

With a flash, the Valiant dropped out of warp as close to Epsilon Indi as sensors deemed to be the minimum safe distance. To the naked eye, there was no emergency, no distortions, and relatively no danger. Sensors, however, were picking up simulated telemetry from the research colony on the planet below. More than one hundred meters below the surface, in an underground lab designed for the purpose of experimenting with a series of quantum singularities, one of the experiments was showing signs of a containment failure and now threatened the existence of the entire world.

Piraa's seat had no screens in front of it, nor any controls that would allow her to take a look at the simulated data by itself. But the bridge's speakers had no qualms about holding back on alarms. "Report!" she called out.

EDEN turned to face the Captain. "“Captain, we’re seeing a rapid spike in gravimetric shear from the singularity array. Containment field gamma is fluctuating by twelve percent and rising. The lab’s automated dampers are trying to compensate, but the feedback loop is accelerating faster than they can respond."

"I’m also detecting power bleed from the tertiary conduits feeding the experiment—if the field collapses, the singularity could breach the chamber and start tunneling into the surrounding substrate. At this rate, we’re minutes away from a critical threshold and unlikely to beam everyone aboard in time."

"I'd recommend immediate lockdown of the entire facility and rerouting all available power to the containment lattice. If that doesn’t stabilize it, we’ll need to consider a full emergency vent of the singularity core," T'Zara said.

"Commander Corwin," Piraa called out, "hail the colony. Get me the administrator. Lieutenants Kokoruda and Arai, will this gravimetric shear interfere with transporters?"

"Without a doubt Captain, the Gravitational Compensator will be working overtime as it is," Teyali reported, her eyes focused on the screen in front of her, graph of the shear overlayed with transporter simulation data streamed across it. "The worse it gets and the more antigravatons that build up in the emitter coils will slow down the transport process. Not only will it take longer to beam people out but we risk leaving them in the buffer for too long."

Eden’s fingers were already moving across her console before the Captain finished speaking. “Opening a channel to the colony now, Captain," she said, a beat passing as she routed the signal through the interference. “Colony control, this is the Valiant. Priority one. Put the administrator on immediately.”

She glanced toward the command chair. “Captain, I’ll have the administrator for you in just a moment.”

The viewscreen flickered a moment later, switching to a distorted image of the colony administrator. "Starfleet!?" he acted in mock panic and relief. "Thank the Great Bird you are here!"

"I'm Captain Piraa sh'Zamhlass of the USS Valiant," the Andorian shen introduced herself. "We are here to assist. First, we'll need to start evacuating all non-essential personnel. Do you have muster points established?"

The administrator shook his head. "We do, but they're too close to the danger zone."

Captain sh'Zamhlass turned to face Commander Corwin and gave a motion to mute the transmission.

"Suggestions for alternatives?" the Captain asked aloud. Then she turned towards the holographic EDEN and added, "starting with you. This is supposed to be your show, after all."

Corwin’s hand moved instantly to her console, cutting the audio. She straightened, eyes flicking between Piraa. “Transmission muted, Captain.”

EDEN straightened, the hologram’s posture shifting subtly into the stance she used when she was about to take command of a crisis model. Her tone stayed calm, but there was an unmistakable edge of urgency—precise, analytical, and already three steps ahead.

“Captain, the colony’s muster points are unusable because they were designed for fire, seismic, or atmospheric emergencies—not a gravimetric cascade. We need locations that meet three criteria: structural reinforcement, distance from the singularity array, and minimal subspace distortion.”

She brought up a holographic projection of the colony’s subterranean layout, rotating it with a flick of her hand.

“There are three viable alternatives: The geothermal maintenance caverns — They’re nearly a kilometer from the lab and built with duranium bracing to withstand tectonic shifts. Gravimetric shear will be lower there, and transporter lock retention will be significantly higher."

"The agricultural dome sublevels — Not as heavily reinforced, but they sit on a natural pocket of low-density bedrock. That reduces graviton reflection and gives us cleaner transporter windows. We could cycle groups through more quickly from there."

"The colony’s maglev transit tunnels — They’re narrow, but they run perpendicular to the shear gradient. That orientation will help stabilize pattern integrity during transport. We’d need to clear civilians from the cars and lock down the line, but it’s workable.”

She paused, eyes flicking toward the muted administrator on the screen.

“Given the time constraints, I recommend we direct the administrator to move civilians to the geothermal caverns first. They offer the best structural protection if containment fails and the highest probability of successful beam-out even as conditions worsen.”

Her gaze returned to Piraa.

“If we act now, Captain, we can establish emergency beacons and pattern enhancers along the access routes before the shear intensifies further.”

"Agreed," confirmed the Captain without a second thought. "Commander Corwin, head down with the SAR teams to those locations. If you need extra hands with the pattern enhancers, grab them from Ops. Commander T'Zara, grab Lieutenants Arai and Kokoruda and assemble an away team. EDEN will monitor the situation from here, but you'll need to be the hands on the ground helping stabilize."

Corwin rose from her station the moment the order landed. “Aye, Captain.” She said and tapped her combadge as she stepped away from the console. “Corwin to SAR personnel—stand by for immediate deployment. Muster at the forward transporter room with full pattern‑enhancer kits. I’m en route.”

Turning back to Piraa, she gave a crisp nod. “I’ll have teams on the ground as soon as we’re cleared, Captain.” Without another word, she headed for the turbolift, already mentally running through her own prep checklist as the doors slid shut behind her.

T'Zara nodded. "As you wish, Captain," she said before she looked at Lieutenants Arai and Kokoruda. "You two are with me." She headed for the turbolift and waited for it to return after taking Lieutenant Corwin to her destination.

Kiran returned a nod to the Commander. "Yes Ma'am." He then tapped his comm badge. 'Arai to Engineering, I want minimal teams teams in the transporter rooms. Keep an eye on the emitters, and monitor antigravaton levels. I want to know the second they start building up. Arai out.' He tapped his badge again to close the line.

Looking back to the viewscreen, Captain sh'Zamhlass nodded to the administrator. "Help is on the way. In the meantime, let's establish a telemetry uplink between your sensors and our ship. It'll help both of us make sure we're seeing accurate information."

The administrator frowned, clearly unhappy about opening a tunnel, secure or otherwise, to their central computing platform. "Telemetry only, Captain."

"Don't worry, Administrator," the Captain attempted to assure the Efrosian shown on the screen. "We're only focused on saving lives. And simulated emergency aside, if this were an actual event--"

"If this were an actual emergency, Captain," the Efrosian interrupted, "then I would certainly hope Starfleet would show up with more than an undercrewed and underpowered vessel. And we already have measures for preserving our research, ones that won't involve changeling infiltrators from interfering or intercepting."

With that, the viewscreen shut off, leaving the Captain alone with the bridge crew and EDEN's holographic avatar. Piraa could only frown as she leaned forward in her chair. "Good to know you don't like this either," she muttered.

Then, again to herself, "Good thing this can't get any worse."

 

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