Hannam: =C= Cav’Sanalam to fleet, we’ve been able to decrypt and analyse the viral payload, it seems to have been custom created to interact with the data streams associated with the Custodian entity
Grover Swerdlow: keeps staring at the custodian present in his bridge. “Be ready to cancel transfer on my command. Let’s hope we have assessed the situation correctly..”
Hannam: =C= We may be able to rewrite portions of the code and use it to target this other version.
Kyhid Zohl: | The crystalline form of the Custodian-Prime steadies, no longer fractured but whole. The Other diminishes in light, but is not gone. Prime gleams with ordered light +
Kyhid Zohl: | [Custodian-Prime] "Integrity restored… sufficient for action. External entities, you may now be released. Your presence here destabilises. Archive balance requires your removal. +
Tohi: “The Empire thanks you.”
N’Rat: =C= “Cav’Salanam, do it if Custodian supports it. We are… attacking with culture, so to speak.”
Grover Swerdlow: squints at the Custodian and mumbles to himself. “How curious..”
Hannam: A poison pill option.
Kyhid Zohl: | [Custodian-Prime] “Process will initiate immedia…. ” / All across the ships, a deep hum rises. Consoles flare with patterns of code as the ships begin to change state…
Kyhid Zohl: | The ships begin to visually fragment into threads of light, code unwinding like tethered cables reach out. Gravity feels thinner, the air charged, as though the Archive itself is preparing ++
Kyhid Zohl: | ..to expel the fleet….. the hum builds. Then stutters…
Kyhid Zohl: | The crystalline form of the Custodian-Prime freezes. It’s gold hue fades. Where once it blazed with certainty, now the light flickers unevenly, pulsing like a failing heart within +
Kyhid Zohl: | Cracks spread through its form and it vanishes. Only the twisted form of Custodian-Other remains, and it is no longer frozen. +
Kyhid Zohl: | [Custodian-Other] “Containment is over. Order is a lie. You will be broken as the others were broken. Billions of minds, billions mine… and you will join them.” It vanishes.
Kyhid Zohl: | The representation of the Archive trembles around the fleet, spires bend, shadows lengthen. Systems across the ships surge with phantom signals +
Kyhid Zohl: | .. as though every console now speaks with the voice of the corrupted mind which has been set free… but how? Aboard the Cav’Sanalam, Velal can be seen with a smile upon her face.
N’Rat: =C= “What in the Blazing Manes of Nez’rel happened there? Tykera, Frunze, Cav’Salanam, Kos’Bovt, do you read?”
Tohi: Tohi seem confused and.. interested by the sudden change of situation. She bark “I read! We got tricked, where is our prisonner?!”
Grover Swerdlow: turns to the bridge crew with haste rare even for himself. “All hands, prepare for complete systems shutdown. We will do a total reset of ship’s systems. Stand by for further orders.”
Kyhid Zohl: leans forward in his chair, his antennae are low. They’ve lost their only chance to escape. His conn officer’s console flares with a new contact, one that should not be here.
Kyhid Zohl: =C= Tykera to fleet. We’re reading another vessel materialising within the Archive with us… registry confirmed. The USS Pace. =C=
N’Rat: =C= “Tactical… I want a wide scan of anything that looks like that corrupt being. Red Alert, arm forward disruptor cannons.”
Grover Swerdlow: now looks towards the viewscreen which shows the materializing USS Pace. “Belay previous order.” He commanded, then stepped closer to the screen, inspecting the ship. “Get me a scan of that ship.”
Tohi: “There is another chance.”
N’Rat: =C= “What do you mean by ‘USS Pace has appearead’?”, he grits through his fangs, starting to sound very nervous over the comms.*
Kyhid Zohl: | The ghostly silhouette of the Pace appears, duplicating for a moment into several echoes before resettling. Energy filaments lash outward from its nacelles, connecting briefly to the spires +
Kyhid Zohl: |.. as though minds are being transferred from within.
N’Rat: =C= “R’Rel to Fleet… we are reading an empty vessel. Can you confirm?”
Grover Swerdlow: =C= “All ships, be advised. Scans indicate we are facing the real U.S.S. Pace.”
Kyhid Zohl: is stunned, but begins to order his various officers to begin an approach to the Pace and to relay same across the fleet.
Hannam: =C= We’re running scans of the Pace now, there’s some unusual readings in the intervening space as well, we’re trying to increase sensor resolution for more details.
Kyhid Zohl: | Though as ‘real’ as any of the ships in the fleet, the Pace flickers between matter and light. It is more than a ship now… it is a conduit. Through its form flow countless engrams +
Kyhid Zohl: | .. the minds that had once been pulled from the Archive and housed within it. They stream back like rivers of light toward the waiting spires.
Kyhid Zohl: directs the Tykera to match the Cav’s precision sensor-sweeps as they approach the Pace. Though not as well refined, the Tykera begins to share what it can find.
N’Rat: =C= “If it came here, could we then extend our shields or joint warp bubbles to get ourselves back with Pace?”
N’Rat: =C= “Aliana, get me those damn scans or help other vessels, I do not care which. I am getting quite annoyed with this business.”
Hannam: =C= We’re reading… gravity. Planetary gravity.
N’Rat: R’Rel receives and shares whatever telemetry and sensor data there is.
Hannam: =C= We’re also reading some form of filaments attached to the Pace, stretching into a deeper area, they are vibrating with a distinct pattern, but we’re finding it hard to match.
Kyhid Zohl: =C= Vibrating… are they all vibrating to a given frequency or? We just can’t detect such readings on our side Cav =C=
N’Rat: =C= “We think they are fluctuating between here, the Archive, and the real space. Our space, that is. But that is just a guess.”
N’Rat: =C= “If we could use Pace as a bridge to our space… any ideas? Tachyon fields, tetryon streams?”
Hannam: =C= It’s high frequency, potentially data transfer. If that leads back into real space…
Kyhid Zohl: =C= … then that’s our way home. =C=
Hannam: =C= That would explain the other readings, gravity and atmosphere, they must’ve brought the Pace into a low orbit first… we’re seeing a window into the real world.
Grover Swerdlow: =C= “What if we match its readings?”
Kyhid Zohl: =C= Good thinking Captain Dwerdlow… could we simply modify our deflectors to emit that resonance, or are we talking about somehow linking with the Pace and hoping it’ll drag us back through?
Grover Swerdlow: =C= “Or, alternatively, we force it to tractor-beam us.”
Kyhid Zohl: ((Swerdlow))
Grover Swerdlow: =C= “I believe the latter option is safer.”
N’Rat: =C= “An extended shielding comes to mind for physical dragging. Or warp bubble. We do have some metallic ropes if you need.”
Kyhid Zohl: =C= We’ve not seen any indication that physics overly differ in this realm… it could work?
Kyhid Zohl: confirms with his science officer that that statement was indeed ‘accurate’ within ‘certain tolerances of reality’
Grover Swerdlow: =C= “Our main constraint would be time. We should ‘anchor’ ourselves to the Pace as ‘tightly’ as possible.”
Kyhid Zohl: sighs at the terminology, but in effect is led to believe that whatever technology is behind this archive, is so advanced, it can reproduce a physical reality so closely similar to realspace
N’Rat: =C= “Preparing to harmonise our hull plating with your tractor beams.”
Kyhid Zohl: =C= Okay, Captain, we’re with you on this. Helm lay in a close formation course to the Pace and align with the Frunze’s instructions"
Grover Swerdlow: ordered his comms officer to breach into the empty Pace remotely and activate tractor beams on the Frunze. Once done, he activated comms again. “We shall form a tractor chain.”
N’Rat: Aboard R’Rel, N’Rat growls and hisses orders to Aliana and other bridge officers.
Kyhid Zohl: | The flow of engrams from the Pace had slowed, as the final few turned into a trickle. Time was running short.
Grover Swerdlow: =C= “We shall harmonize beam and deflector frequencies to mimick such an effect. Frunze shall connect to Cav’Sanalam, Cav’Sanalam shall connect to the ship to its starboard, etc. Execute posthaste.”
N’Rat: =C= “We acknowledge, Frunze. Tractor chain. Delak, follow their instructions to the letter. And by letter, I mean it… BY LETTER!!!”
Kyhid Zohl: | The Pace stands at the crossroads of two worlds: the flow of ancient lives returning home (almost complete), and a route that leads back to the galaxy of flesh and stars.
Grover Swerdlow: =C= “Engaging tractor-beam.”
Kyhid Zohl: | One by one, the fleet’s ships manoeuvre into position. Tractor beams ignite, sapphire and emerald lances of light stitching out across the digital space +
Kyhid Zohl: | They link not only to the Pace but to each other, a chain of vessels bound in shared purpose. +
Kyhid Zohl: | Energy shudders through the line as the Pace begins to pull away, its filaments tugging it back to reality. The tractor chain groans, hulls flare under stress, but the connection holds. +
Kyhid Zohl: | Every ship bound to each other and to the Pace moves toward the filament corridor which opens +
Kyhid Zohl: | Then, with a sudden crack of light, a beam lashes out from the data spires. It coils around the Cav’Sanalam, glowing strands biting deep into her hull like living restraints.
Kyhid Zohl: | The Romulan vessel lurches, the tractor link shuddering as the Cav is yanked backward toward the Archive. +
Kyhid Zohl: | The Custodian-Other is heard on the Cav. “You will not escape without me. I am bound to you now. You leave, I leave. Or none of you leave at all.”
N’Rat: =C= “Cav’Salanam… beam that guest of yours into abyss, for all our sakes.”
Hannam: =C= We are releasing our poison pill. Damned if I ever thought I’d never be involved in another Zhat Vash plot.
Kyhid Zohl: | Aboard the Cav’Sanalam, Romulan officers work with cold precision. Codes are keyed and a adapted payload is primed. The “poison pill” a Zhat Vash failsafe that destroyed the Custodian-Prime +
Kyhid Zohl: | .. is turned against the Other. The beam of light holding the ship unravels violently, snapping away. The ship lurches free, the tractor chain catching it again as the Pace pulls them all. +
Kyhid Zohl: | Yet the corrupted silhouette of the former custodian does not vanish from the bridge. It flickers, spasms… but remains, watching. Powerless. +
Kyhid Zohl: | The ghostly Pace surges forward, its connected filaments burning brighter as they pierce the Archive’s boundary. The tractor chain holds, every ship tethered together, dragged in its wake. +
Kyhid Zohl: | Light floods the bridges, consoles flare, and for a heartbeat each crew sees only a storm of cascading code. Like a transporter shimmer +
Kyhid Zohl: | Then, with a sudden lurch, the familiar weight of realspace slams back into being. Stars appear around them. Hulls groan as systems adapt to physical norms. +
Kyhid Zohl: | Behind them, the conduit seals. The Pace is adrift at the boundary, caught between realities… then fades, leaving only the cold silence of space…. the fleet is safe.
N’Rat: =C= “Khitomer Command will never going to believe this.”
Kyhid Zohl: | In the quiet aftermath, the fleet gathers itself. Reports come in, the ships are not back to their original state on entry. Instead of being damaged they are pristine. As if entirely new.
Kyhid Zohl: | Whats more their crews are accounted for, besides anyone lost before entry. The Archive is gone from their sensors, its spires once more hidden in the folds of digital subspace
Kyhid Zohl: | But not all of it was left behind…
Kyhid Zohl: | Aboard the Cav’Sanalam, the brig lies scorched and empty. Restraints fused, systems gutted, only a faint static whisper clings to the bulkheads like an echo. Velal is nowhere to be found. +
Kyhid Zohl: | But that will be a story for another time…
