03-19-2026, 06:14 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-19-2026, 06:17 AM by Ethan Diaz.)
Unfortunately, the superintendent's advice did little to calm Ethan's nerves. Even with all of his advanced training, he was still entirely capable of screwing things up. A starship was like a city, military base, and a university campus all rolled into one. Every officer, from the greenest midshipman all the way up to the Old Man himself, had a thousand responsibilities and had to know how to respond to a thousand different potential catastrophes. It was enough to make anyone at least a little unsettled. Ethan simply listened to Captain Allen with his hands clasped behind his back, nodding every now and then. He had just thanked her for her time and taken a shaky breath when all of a sudden, she gradually disappeared into nothing.
The holodeck had come alive and taken on a familiar environment—the cockpit of a shuttlecraft. In the pilot and copilot's seats were two ensigns, both oblivious to the voice of Captain Allen issuing from somewhere overhead:
"Welcome to your final exam, Cadet—"
Here we go. . .
"A federation survey vessel, the USS Meridian, has gone silent. The Meridian's last transmission was fragmented and brief."
Ethan heard a recording of the message from the main control board and listened carefully. The sound of heavy static left him with an ominous feeling. Obviously they'd pinged something on their sensors, and from the sound of it, whatever it was could potentially be responsible for the Meridian's current predicament.
"You have been assigned a runabout to investigate," came the voice of Captain Allen again. Then nothing. Looming large on the viewscreen, Ethan could see the Meridian coming into view. She appeared to be adrift, and her running lights were malfunctioning. Okay, so something's off—but it could definitely be worse.
At once, Ethan strapped himself in at the tactical station behind the pilot, along the port bulkhead. First things first: full trace scan. The fact that nothing appeared to be seriously wrong outside the ship didn't mean all was well on the inside. He listened in to the ensigns as the shuttlecraft moved closer, bringing his systems online. "Tac-1, initializing forward sensor array," Ethan said. "I'll try to hail them." He booted up a scanning beam with one hand while opening a comm channel with the other. It seemed pretty certain that gravitational anomaly was going to pose a problem at some point, but for now, the main priority was getting in touch with the ship.
"USS Meridian, this is Shuttlecraft—", he began, before glancing around in search of his vessel's designation. "This is Shuttlecraft Curiosity, hailing you on CRF One. Are you receiving? Over."
= GM Input Request: Results of scan and hail, please. =
The holodeck had come alive and taken on a familiar environment—the cockpit of a shuttlecraft. In the pilot and copilot's seats were two ensigns, both oblivious to the voice of Captain Allen issuing from somewhere overhead:
"Welcome to your final exam, Cadet—"
Here we go. . .
"A federation survey vessel, the USS Meridian, has gone silent. The Meridian's last transmission was fragmented and brief."
Ethan heard a recording of the message from the main control board and listened carefully. The sound of heavy static left him with an ominous feeling. Obviously they'd pinged something on their sensors, and from the sound of it, whatever it was could potentially be responsible for the Meridian's current predicament.
"You have been assigned a runabout to investigate," came the voice of Captain Allen again. Then nothing. Looming large on the viewscreen, Ethan could see the Meridian coming into view. She appeared to be adrift, and her running lights were malfunctioning. Okay, so something's off—but it could definitely be worse.
At once, Ethan strapped himself in at the tactical station behind the pilot, along the port bulkhead. First things first: full trace scan. The fact that nothing appeared to be seriously wrong outside the ship didn't mean all was well on the inside. He listened in to the ensigns as the shuttlecraft moved closer, bringing his systems online. "Tac-1, initializing forward sensor array," Ethan said. "I'll try to hail them." He booted up a scanning beam with one hand while opening a comm channel with the other. It seemed pretty certain that gravitational anomaly was going to pose a problem at some point, but for now, the main priority was getting in touch with the ship.
"USS Meridian, this is Shuttlecraft—", he began, before glancing around in search of his vessel's designation. "This is Shuttlecraft Curiosity, hailing you on CRF One. Are you receiving? Over."
= GM Input Request: Results of scan and hail, please. =