Post 456: Anything Known

Stardate:70925.2040
Title: Anything Known
Author: Lair Kellyn
Scene: USS Alchemy
Time: Throughout Alchemy's journey- ending up when the Indy is still 2 days away from Yensul
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The trial run of the Alchemy had gone off without a hitch from the start.

They had made the initial jump to transwarp without incident, traveling a distance it would have taken the Independence twenty-four hours to cover, almost instantaneously.

Kellyn had watched the drive engage with Salvek standing at her side, and his eyes lit up with excitement even though the rest of his countenance remained unchanged. After the ship had jumped, emerged from transwarp and slowed to impulse in the stillness of space, Kellyn leapt for joy.

"That was amazing!" she shouted, and she threw her arms around Salvek's neck. "You did it, you did it. I'm so proud of you."

"We did it together," he replied modestly, and she heard Xhian politely clearing his throat to remind them both that he was in the room. She let go of Salvek and smiled.

"You just saw history take place, Xhian, how do you feel?" Kellyn beamed.

"Actually, Lt. Commander Lair, I was thinking that if a few changes were implemented Alchemy could have traveled twenty-percent-" he blurted, immediately sorry that he'd done it, thinking that it was too soon. He should have held the idea in reserve. He expected Lair to scowl at him, but instead, she surprised him.

"Twenty percent what, X?" she asked, her curiosity aroused.

"It can wait," Xhian replied shyly, turning and bringing up the data from the jump onto the panel before him so that he could begin deconstructing it step by step.

"No, really, go on." Kellyn urged him, and Salvek concurred.

"If you have ideas for increasing the efficiency of the transwarp drive, Ensign, please do not keep them to yourself. This is exactly the reason that you were asked to come on this mission, to provide your unique insights and lend your talents for the betterment of the ship." Salvek assured him.

"Yeah, don't be shy!" Kellyn pressed.

"I. . .have drawn up some schematics," Xhian replied, "I could leave them with you, you can look at them. At your convenience, of course."

"Go on and get them. I'm anxious to see." Kellyn said, and Xhian retreated from engineering. She took the moment to hug Salvek once again. "If your parents could see you now, Salvek."

He didn't respond but Kellyn knew that he'd heard her. His cheeks betrayed him by taking on a detectable greenish hue. "I will be returning to the bridge now," he remarked casually. He extricated himself from her grasp, and she smiled.

"I'll be here, if you need me."

"Kellyn, I could not have done this without you. Thank you for-" he stopped. How could he thank her for everything she'd done? For seven years of tramping around the quadrant, outrunning would-be assassins, surviving the time fractures that their first engine prototype had caused, for standing by his side through it all?

He couldn't. So he stopped speaking, and she didn't try to find the words to reply. She simply nodded, and he was gone.

---------------------------Later in the voyage------------------------------

Alchemy had recharged and was ready to make its final jump, the one that would put it, as Dabin Reece had so eloquently articulated the point, "within spittin' distance" of Yensul IV. They'd planned out the coordinates for the jump, timed everything to the letter and knew exactly where they needed to end up in Yensuli space to remain at a safe distance from anything known that could pose a danger to the ship.

Anything known.

Those two words would echo in Lair Kellyn's mind, as everything began, very quickly, to unravel before her eyes.

"We are preparing to make the jump, all hands stand by." Salvek instructed over the comm. Kellyn took a deep breath, and hoped for as smooth a ride as they'd had the first time.

--On the bridge--

"See, Pointy, I'm not the only one!" Reece lamented as he pointed to the sensor displays in front of him. "I'm not the only one who is concerned by the 'hope for the best' sensor system on this thing!"

Reece indicated schematics that Xhian had shared with him for proposed improvements to the sensors. Those improvements would require, however, diverting power from other systems, and that was something that Salvek did not like the idea of, at least not now.

"Your complaints have been duly noted, Lt. Reece, and I assure you that as soon as we have completed this initial test of the Alchemy we will make it a priority to get the situation in hand."

"A HIGH priority, I hope! Before we get owned by some unseen asteroid field or meteor shower or-"

As the ship seemed to suddenly accelerate for a split second before the artificial gravity could compensate, everyone felt a little dizzy. Reece's words suddenly seemed prophetic as the ship came out of transwarp and immediately went into a nose-dive at a high rate of speed.

"OR GRAVITY SHEAR from a nearby COMET!" Reece shouted over the din as the ship's proximity alarms began going off. Salvek had fallen to the floor, as had Maak and Biggs.

"Reverse engines!" Salvek yelled, "Red alert!"

"I can't regain attitude control!" February warned, as she tried everything possible to right the ship. There was no way to do it. Whatever had happened to them coming out of that jump, the ship's engines were now offline and all she had left to work with were maneuvering thrusters, which she reversed in an attempt to slow their descent. "We're not going to make it." She looked at Reece and indicated her screen. "That small moon, is it populated?"

"I don't think so, but hell it could have every person who has ever lived down there and I might not know it!"

"We're about to find out."

"All hands, brace for impact," Salvek shouted, and somewhere down below decks in Engineering, Lair Kellyn was very grateful that they had not brought Arie with them on this trip, even though she had begged, pleaded, and cried that she wanted to come.

She got to her knees, and braced against the largest, sturdiest object she could find. *My people have a saying,* Kellyn thought to herself in her last moments of consciousness, *"It is the unknown that defines our existence." It's also the unknown, apparently, that kicks you in the ass every time.*

She heard Salvek's voice over the com once more.

"REPEAT. ALL HANDS, BRACE FOR-"

-----------------------
Lt. Commander Lair Kellyn
Acting Chief Engineer
USS Independence/USS Alchemy
(Crashed in the vicinity of Yensul IV. . .)