Now What?

Posted on Tue Feb 17th, 2026 @ 2:49am by Captain Rhenora Kaylen & Commander Jenna Ramthorne & Commander Savar cha'Salik hei-Surak Talek-sen-deen & Commander Dean House & Lieutenant JG Olivia Voight & Lieutenant Commander Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell

1,703 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Beholder
Location: Sunfire

The away team beamed back to the Sunfire, with Baldric and Batel beaming to sickbay a moment later. Captain Kaylen greeted the team in the transporter room, keen to know more about the situation and what they could do to prevent the Vezda escaping.

"Are they contained?" She asked simply to start with, recalling the old fashioned gold uniform that Batel was wearing.

"We've two in Sickbay. Hmm." Dean had phasers locked on the target below.

Bonnie recalled, "For now Captain. However without the Beholder Guardian... " Her tone reflected the worry and strain they all felt.

"Right, we need a plan, now" Rhenora affirmed, motioning for those able to join her. They headed to the ready room, leaving the bridge to monitor for any indication the Vezda were on the move. Once there she took her seat and nodded for the others to do the same.

"I want all ideas on the table, I don't care how crazy they seem."

Not really wanting to speak first, but also having her brain to mouth filter itching, Bonnie almost blurted out, "I really think Kit was onto something. Her Möbius loop idea, powered by the ley-lanes, should keep the Vezda in a state of perpetual animation unless something, I don't know, crazy like a supernova or something happens. But... that would be astronomical odds... right?" She finished her rant with a skeptical twitch. The twitch at the end was reflexive, equal parts doubt and hope, like she’d already run the numbers and didn’t quite trust reality to behave.

"Explain this Möbius loop idea" Rhenora countered, having not been familiar with the concept of high level theoretical physics. She understood the ley-lanes - they were in the Enterprise files and were a concept of natural space 'highways'. How they would contain the Vezda though? She was keen to find out.

Bonnie shifted her weight, fingers flexing like her thoughts were already halfway out the door. “Okay, credit where credit's due. This was Kit’s idea, the, um, the Möbius thing.” A small nod, respectful, then the words sped up.

“She realized if you fold the ley lines back on themselves, picture them like two long extension cords stretched across subspace. Right now they run straight, dumping energy from Point A to Point B and back again. What Kit realized is that if you twist those cords just right, like a Möbius strip, you won’t need more power.”

She gestured vaguely in the air, tracing a loop that crossed itself. “So instead of power flowing from here to there and eventually burning out, it just... keeps going. Same surface, same path, over and over. The Vezda stays animated because the system never reaches an off switch. It’s like putting them on a cosmic treadmill.”

"The math agrees. The chronotrons are there... We might need a light tachyon nudge to get the synchronization in motion, something small, surgical, just enough to convince the universe this was its idea all along." Bonnie shrugged, "If it works, the power doesn’t tear a hole in anything important. It just… stays. Um, folded."

" interesting concept, and you support this theory?" The Captain prodded gently, noting that it was the only containment theory they had at the present. She had been expecting some elaborate feet of engineering on the pedestal where the Beholder once stood to keep it closed, but this was almost....poetic in its simplicity. "We need to confirm with Captain Batel that this will work..." she wad well aware that the fellow Captain was still recovering.

"Yes." She began. "Um, we would need..." she trailed off as she realized the Captains' attention had already been diverted. She was about to describe the equipment needed and how it would all work, but stopped short, mouth agape.

"Ready Room to sickbay" she paged.

"You know.." Of course Dean was going to chime in with something. Glancing up after making sure he still had phasers locked on the planet. "Someone said, something like a Supernova. I...um....may or may not know how to pull that off.."

"You want to blow the prison up, or the Vezda, or both?" Rhenora narrowed her eyes a little at the suggestion of blowing up a sun.

Eyes wide, Bonnie wanted to tell Dean that was the opposite of what was needed. In fact they wanted to avoid damaging the subspace lanes if at all possible as that would likely result in freeing the Vezda from their prison.

"Sickbay here," Olivia responded. "Is there a problem Captain?"

"What's our patient's status? Am I able to talk with her?" The Captain's voice was firm but kind. She had a mission in its critical stages with the fate of the surrounding planets hanging in the balance.

"She hasn't spoken yet," Olivia replied. "It is a bit of a slow process with the patient at the moment. There is the chance that our patient will be speaking a little by the time you get down here to Sickbay. Just remember there is no guarantee that you will be able to get all the answers you want right away."

"I understand, I'll be down shortly" the Captain confirmed before closing the channel.

"Do we have any further suggestions or strategies? Commander Savar? Lt. Stevens? Commander Ramthorne?" She looked around the room, checking if there were any other ideas before making a decision.

"Since we don't have an actual star we can purposely make go supernova. Shuttles have warp cores. Warp cores do what when they are to damaged or set to overload and self-destruct. Given just how powerful that kind of explosion is because of the anti-matter. We could probably use three of them to get the type of destructive force needed to simulate a supernova." Dean nodded as he chimed in again.

Savar stood quietly, listening, observing collecting data as the captain and other talks and speculated. When he felt he had something worthwhile to add he would but for now he observed and listened.

Rhenora glanced at Savar and watching him taking everything in before circling back to Dean's suggestion "A Supernova to what end though? Seal the prison? blow it up? kill the Vezda? OR all of the above?" She sought clarity.

Unable to sit still and hold it in any further, Bonnie blurted out, "The idea was to avoid anything like a Supernova. Not... um... create one." She glanced sideways at Dean then looked away. "Once the harmonics are in place on Skygowan and Vadia IX, and the ley lines inverted... I was trying to say, ONLY an explosive force of a Supernova would be able to disrupt it." She faltered, "Unless you want to free the Vezda?" An odd giggle slipped out at the thought.

"Which is precisely what we are avoiding" Rhenora quipped, wondering why they always got the spicy missions. Then again - who wants run of the mill survey missions? "So... Möbius... time loops... they go round and round in circles for the rest of time unless someone sets a supernova off in the vicinity - is that the crux of it?" The Captain clarified.

"Yeah, uh, pretty much, Captain." Bonnie shrugged. She was still hoping Kit would have something more to offer.

Dean gave a shrug, "I heard the word, and decided I would offer up we could make one, that's all. I didn't mention how to use it."

"Ok, so it's a working theory, how do we set this moebius loop into motion before the Vezda escape now that the Beholder is no longer in situ" Rhenora looked around the room at her officers.

Bonnie shifted her weight, fingers worrying together for a second before she pushed the words out. “R–right. Okay. So." She cleared her throat.

“To actually set the loop into motion, we’d need two energy refraction inverters. One stationed on Skygowan, the other on Vadia. They’ll inject a calibrated tachyon stream into the subspace layer along the ley lanes. That will force a phase inversion, basically flipping the energy signature at both ends at the exact same time.”

“If the inversions are perfectly synchronized, the ley-lane current should fold back on itself instead of dispersing. Think of it like twisting a ribbon and joining the ends. Once the twist is locked in, the energy doesn’t have an ‘edge’ to escape from anymore. It just… keeps circulating.”

Her shoulders rose in a faint shrug. “What we don’t currently have is time. We’d need to fabricate the inverter units, transport them, and synchronize them to within, well, microphase tolerances.” She hesitated, then glanced toward Kit.

“Unless, um… Ensign Thenis has a more elegant solution,” she finished softly.

Rhenora nodded sagely, the gravity of the situation evident in her posture.

Jenna leaned forward, "So, Commander Durnell, what do you need to be able to build these energy refraction inverters and get them deployed?"

"Oh, um, a five man Engineering team for each unit should have them ready by tomorrow morning 0800 hours. Then deployment at both ends, meaning outside the gates on Skygowen and Vadia Nine."

"So you'll need the Sunfire to transport one of the units to Vadia, that risks leaving one of the teams behind here on Skygowen. Risky." Jenna commented. "And we are sitting on a bag of hope the Vezda don't escape." She looked around the table, "Contingency plans?"

"I'm waiting until Captain Batel is well enough to speak regarding a timeframe - but I suggest we work as quickly as possible in case the Vezda do try and escape in the meantime" Rhenora replied cautiously. "We have no other intel apart from the comms probe that is showing audio and visual through the gateway. At this point - no movement has been detected."

She paused, considering their options and finding them few. "Jenna, can you take the lead, work with Bonnie and Kit and use all the personnel and resources you need to get this done. We'll reconvene at 0600 tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I hope to be able to speak to Captain Batel and get some more intel."

She looked around the room once more "Let's get it done".

TBC

 

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