"Don't be an ass!" one of the other Klingons says to the one holding the disruptor.

"This little pocket of subspace is shrinking! There will be no glorious death for you here--you'll just be squashed down into a speck of debris. And I can assure you it will be quite painful... for you and the rest of us."

"Now put that damn weapon away! It's not the tool we need right now."

"Our only chance of escaping this prison is with the Federation's help."

As the other Klingon scowls in anger and frustration, the speaker turned to the Mongoose crew members.

"I am Gorvok, chief scientist on this project. The angry Klingon is Meng. He did not want this assignment; he felt it was beneath his ability."

"As you may have already determined, our supply ship is due at any moment... assuming that time works in here like it does on the outside. That was why we were sending a distress signal out on our comms."

"We did not expect anyone on that ship to be able to help us, though. So you can imagine our surprise when we received a comm from you."

"Are one of you a scientist or engineer? Can you help us figure out how to reverse this event?"

Silviene decided to let Shard handle the hostel Klingon since he seemed to want to get shot and responded to the Klingon science officer. Glancing at Koram and Sergei in turn.

"Koram is an excellent engineer with a grasp of what's going on here. We have also brought a medical officer incase any were injured."

She continued with the line that they had ended up in the anomaly intentionally so as not to appear devided in front of the klingons.

In reply to Silviene Felis (msg # 145):

Shard smiles at Meng and gives a flippant salute to the officer, then turns and steps a little closer to Silviene and Gorvok--but not too close, Shard wants to leave Silviene room to let go, if that becomes needed.

"Ah, Science Leader Gorvok, hello." Shard says, introducing himself, "I'm Lieutenant Commander Shard Vinzz, off the USS Mongoose.  I believe we spoke earlier, on the comm?"

Shard nods, first towards Silviene, then towards Koram Val--but both of his antennae are swiveled to the right, pointed towards Meng, "As Lieutenant Commander Felis has said, Engineer Koram is one of our best, he's been lead engineer on the res--uh--our inquiry, here.  The Mongoose is a deep space exploration vessel, specifically tasked with wandering The Expanse.  We should be able to provide you with whatever assistance you may wish to call upon."

Shard cocks his head to the left a bit, and swings his left antenna around to point roughly at Gorvok and/or the activity around the device behind the Klingon Scientist,

"Forgive me, Science Leader, if I ask an obvious question--I am barely trained in any engineering knowledge--but, from our previous conversation, I don't suppose the answer to this problem could be as easy as just putting a fresh power supply into your device and then just...reversing it?"

"While I understand the basic principle behind what you were attempting to accomplish," Koram addressed the Klingon scientist after being introduced, "I was not able to ascertain what caused the problem, since the most significant equipment was no longer in the lab, but here."

"To answer your question, Commander: no, merely reversing the process would not get us out of here. Think of it like a salt shaker. You can turn the shaker upside and shake salt out of it. But, if you try it in reverse, it is virtually impossible to shake the salt back through those tiny holes."

"Yes, there are ways to accomplish that, but it requires considerably more effort and equipment. Fortunately, Commander Blackthorne is in the lab still. Between the two of us, we should be able to modifier the equipment to extract us."

Back in the lab, R.T. was thinking pretty much the same thing. He'd had doubts as to whether the Klingons in the pocket dimension would be of any assistance, but also couldn't see an alternative.

"Oh-oh," he says as he scans the consoles again to see if there's any change in the readings.

"Here... see this indicator? It's a countdown. That new energy pulse that swept away half our team into the subspace pocket... it was a function of the first one that took the Klingons. The first one happened 24.6 hours ago. There's an energy siphon coming from the pocket. It hit a benchmark that produced the second fluctuation."

"A secondary result is that the countdown has sped up. By my calculations, the next fluctuation will occur in 15.1 hours. If the countdown speeds up at the same rate, then there'll be another fluctuation in 7 hours after that."

"That should drop the siphon to zero. I think... that would mean that the subspace pocket collapses in on itself."

Silviene Twitched her ears. Well she supposed that the cat was out of the bag, about their ability to get everyone out. Were Trill always so bad at dissembling? You would think that would come from the vulcans. Then again Stilk was still on the other side. She glanced around at all those assembled in this little pocket dimension. She still wondered what any of this had to do with destruction of the Catspaw.

"I suppose none of you would happen to know anything about an attack on a federation ship near your base?"

"How would we know anything about an attack on a Federation ship?" Meng snaps back almost too quickly. "We've been trapped in here!"

"Can you get us out or not? I do not wish to spend the last moments of my life with you Federation petaQ!"

Silviene bared her teeth at Meng again. This guy was getting on her nerves as much as Shard.

"Don't test us Qa'Hom. If you would stop blustering and let us work we might be able to get your Lo'LaHbe hide out alive."

She narrowed her eyes and glared at the angry Klingon. He was the kind of klingon that would only understand one thing. Getting his ass kicked. Well she would present him the opportunity if he wanted.

In reply to Silviene Felis (msg # 151):

"Lieutenant Commander Felis…" Shard, a smug smile on his face, says in a low voice, keeping his attention on R.T and Koram as they go over the device with the Klingons,

"In regards to my previous directive concerning your physical interactions with the Klingons?" Shard turns his smirk towards Silviene, "When it comes to Commander Meng, at your discretion, you may ... eat ... him.  Just do not let him interfere with the other Klingons or the efforts to get us out of here."

"Can you build a fusion reactor with a bat'leth?" Koram directs his question at Meng.

"Don't feel bad. I doubt if I could, either, even if that is what is required in this situation."

"Fortunately, I have one advantage over the bat'leth--I have people on the outside with sophisticated equipment."

"We're working on determining the precise vibrational frequency of the subspatial terminus. Once we've done that, we can build an inverter and a modulator. We'll need the modulator to control the size of the inversion aperture. Otherwise, when we activate the inverter, we'll be returned to normal space... but we'll get shoved through a pinhole to get there."

Although he was an engineer, he could sense the tension between everyone. If Meng and Silviene went at it, there was going to be a lot of bloodshed in this little space. He didn't for one minute think that the Klingon scientists wouldn't side with Meng. Blood is thicker than mathematics.

If you can't dazzle them with brilliance--baffle them with bullshit! The old adage came back to him. He hoped 'explaining' the process would defuse Meng a bit... unless he was a total Luddite.

Silviene smiled and nodded slightly as she twisted one ear in shards direction.

"Acknowledged Sir."

She listened to Val's assessment of their situation and his plan for getting them out. Could that work? She didn't have any clue honestly. She like Meng what more the bat'leth type. And she didn't see anything wrong with that so long as she wasn't reckless or indiscriminate in her use of it. Meng seemed to be both.

As Koram relayed his information to the outside team, R.T. had pretty much come up with the same solution... sans the modulator. He hadn't crunched the numbers that far yet to determine the necessity of it, but it made sense. He could see that's where the equation was leading.

The diminishing inverse would have bottomed out at .0001 or thereabouts. Clearly, Koram had gotten there ahead of him.

Based on the missing equipment, Koram could build the inverter on the other side, but he wouldn't have enough to handle the modulator as well. R.T. looked the Klingon physics lab, assessing the equipment that was there. Yes, he could build the modulator.

"Copy that, Koram," he replied over the radio. "I take it you can build the inverter? I've got the modulator covered. We'll just have to sync the two up. Probably need to boost the comms."

While the security forces were posturing and the science geeks were figuring out how to get out of here, Sergei tried surreptitiously to scan everyone with his medical tricorder. Nobody looked injured, but who knew what an unprotected transfer to subspace might do. Lots of harmful radiation in that scenario.

He was both surprised and self-satisfied when the scans proved him right. He'd started with the closest Klingon, making sure the tricorder wasn't pointed at the equipment. He was quite sure that they were well aware that he was a medical doctor, but still, they'd think he was trying to steal their research.

"As the Klingons reported, sir," Sergei directed to Shard, "there is a high level of interphasic tetryon energy being emitted by the subspace rupture. It's almost like antibodies trying to fight off an infection. The energy is causing cellular degradation in all of us. The Klingons have been here longer, so they've been affected to a greater degree."

"I can give them an injection of arithrazine to help resist it, but it's only temporary. If they aren't out of here within 24 hours, they'll start turning to goo. We'll follow a few hours later."

"As it is, they've already started losing coordination, and are probably experiencing headaches as their synapses are being over-stimulated. They could lose consciousness within another hour."

In reply to Sergei Kondratev (msg # 156):

     "Shrack!" Shard spits out quietly, as his antennae twitch nervously,

     "Just what we frelling need, on top of everything else, isn't it, Doc?" Shard asks Sergei quietly, then turns his attention to the group of Klingons working around the large device.

     "Ah, Science Leader Gorov?  Could you spare a moment and--I know this is a long shot, but--do any of your officers, there, have a background in life sciences?  Please bring them over here, if you do."

     Then Shard closes his eyes for a moment--simultaneously his antennae both droop wearily--and he takes a deep breath.  Opening his eyes and lifting up his antennae, Shard turns to Meng,

     "Commander Meng." Shard calls, "You would do me great honor if you would also come and speak with us--as Military Leader of this station, your knowledge and experience would be an invaluable input."

     Without waiting for a response from Meng, Shard turns back to Sergei, and keeping his face turned away from all the Klingons, he whispers around a snarl, "Better to get back on Meng's good side, just in case his increased surliness is a result of the radiation on a normally surly Klingon.  Try to get a close-up scan of him, if you can, Doc--see if his head is more rotten than the others."

     Shard turns to await the Klingons--if not with a smile, at least he's lost the snarl he was showing Sergei.

     When whoever is coming gets there, Shard jumps right in.

     "This is Doctor Kondratev, Chief of our ship's medical department.  He's been taking some scans and has found some disturbing results--I asked if you had anyone trained in life sciences so you could look at the Doctor's readings, yourselves, to confirm his conclusions." Shard gestures at Sergei, "Doc, why don't you explain what you've determined--tell them exactly what you told me."

After the Doctor explains his readings and his deductions and diagnosis, one of the Klingons steps forward.

"I am Kreyton," he introduces himself. "I am also the Life Scientist here, and I already alerted you to the presence of radiation."

"However, I did not know it was that extreme. I believe it is due to the subatomic decay from conversion to a subspatial state. Much like energy is released during normal chemical reactions."

"As you've no doubt already determined, we have no protection here from that type of radiation. With the proper equipment, we could suppress that conversion temporarily, but we do not have that type of equipment here either."

"So, yes, we need to exit this unstable subspace pocket as quickly as possible."

"And you are correct: Meng is already suffering from partial synaptic dysfunction. Your medical treatment will be appreciated."

"MENG! The doctor here will give you an injection that will keep you from turning to... as he so succinctly put it... goo. If you wish to become goo, of course, you can refuse the injection."


Almost as if it was causing him great pain, he reluctantly let the doctor administer the injection.

Silviene gave Meng a softer smile and patted his shoulder.

"See, wIj jup I knew there was still Klingon honor and bravery under all that."

R.T. starts going around to all the consoles and cabinets in both this room and the outer room.

"I need this one opened... and this one... and this one," he says to the others, as he spots a system that should have the equipment he needs.

Once he makes the rounds and indicates 7 areas that have the right equipment, he tackles the last one... pulling off the front panel and probing around inside to find the magnetic induction coil that he needs.

He hopes Stilk and T'Shran have decided to assist him by pulling off the other panels.

Meanwhile, Koram was doing the same in the subspace pocket... only, he doesn't have the same resources as R.T. does.

Fortunately, cobbling together an inverter was somewhat easier for him since he had the core of the basic system in front of him.

"We need to disassemble what's left of this unit. Is that a proton ram? Okay, that's got to go."

"Oh, wow. Good construction! The anti-matter bottle didn't rupture."

"We need to reverse the micro-polarity infuser. Dismantle it and swap the two ends over the central chamber. Here, you can use my protoplaser." He hands the tool to the Klingon named Vork.

He was giving a running explanation in case something happened to him; those remaining might be able to complete the process.

"The phoratic impulse generator needs to get fastened to the positive end, and then the antimatter injector gets fastened to that. The final step is to use the photon regulator to control the resulting energy stream."

"Then it just needs power. We don't have enough time and equipment to tap the antimatter, so we'll need to use phasers and disruptors to power it."

In reply to Koram Val (msg # 161):

"Now aren't you glad I made you take that Type-2, back on the shuttle, Koram?" Shard calls over to the engineer, as he removes his own Type-2 from where it hangs at his waist,

"Here!  Here's mine!" Shard warns, before tossing his own phaser pistol over to Koram, "Silviene, please tell me you at least have a Type-1 tucked away somewhere, and that that bat'leth isn't the only weapon you brought along on a Security Detail?"

Silviene ran her tongue along her sharp teeth and unsheathed her claws. Giving shard a look.

"most of my weapons are natural. I was trained by ambassador Warf which I take as a point of pride. My training in Klingon martial arts utilizes my natural weaponry. While I can use phasers they are not my preferred weapon. "

In reply to Silviene Felis (msg # 163):

Shard casts a frustrated grimace towards Silviene, then adds "A talk for later, Lieutenant Commander."

Shard then turns and raises his voice to address the whole group, "Alright everyone, give your energy weapons to Engineer Val--yes that humanoid right over there, draining hand weapons into the capacitors of the singularity device.  We're going to need all the energy from the power cells of as many personal energy weapons as we have."

Shard raises both hands in a placating gesture--and glances mostly at Meng--"Please, keep your melee weapons.  I don't want to attempt an interdimensional subspace shift without everyone having some kind of weapon--am I right, Commander Meng?  Eh?  Never venture into the unknown without a good blade at your hip, right?"

Shard hopes the meds that Sergei had given Meng will mellow the man somewhat, but a load of ego-boosting, as well, never hurts.

In reply to Roland Thames 'R.T.' Blackthorne (msg # 160):

T'Shran assists Blackthrone.

I believe the Difficulty to build the subspace inverter is 2 (1 standard +1 for having to use Klingon equipment). Target Number is Reason (11) + Science (4) = 15.

12:43, Today: Koram Val rolled 8,15 using 1d20,1d20 ((8,15)).

His quantum mechanics focus would apply, but since neither roll is below his Discipline (Science) level of 4, it doesn't matter.

So, that should be 2 successes.

With the assistance of the Klingon scientist, he is able to build the inverter. Now, though, he needs to power it.

13:34, Today: Koram Val rolled 14,7 using 1d20,1d20 ((14,7)).

Probably the same situation as above, but using Engineering instead of Science, which is still 4.

So, 2 success again.

He's got the power wired in.

Now he just needs to sync the inverter with the modulator that R.T. is building.

13:40, Today: Koram Val rolled 8,3 using 1d20,1d20 ((8,3)).

That should be 3 successes (if his Focus comes into play).

So, Stilk and Miranda help R.T. scavenge the parts from the Klingon equipment. Part of that requires pulling out a bunch of wires to wire the modulator into the power grid.

Pretty much the same routine as Koram: Reason 10 + Science 5 = TN 15.

13:45, Today: Roland Thames 'R.T.' Blackthorne rolled 16 using 2d20 ((15,1)).

No focus, though, so the '1' will generate 2 successes, for a total of 3.

I'm guessing that since a power source is readily available, the construction of the modulator will include powering it.

Again, if the Klingon equipment increases the standard Difficulty from 1 to 2, then that's one Momentum, which he'll carry forward to sync the modulator with the inverter through the subspace aperture.

14:04, Today: Roland Thames 'R.T.' Blackthorne rolled 25 using 2d20 ((15,10)).

Not sure what the Difficulty is, but even it's as high as 3, he should succeed.

Silviene simply looks at Shard before nodding.

"Yes sir."