There was a whole universe he could have been admiring at this point in time, however he wanted to stay on task, the dangers of spending anytime out on a walk like this was extreame, if the ship altered speed or heading the assorted factors that would see to his demise were fortunately not being contemplated by his mind.
"Nathanial, I'm going to start trying to establish contact with the Bridge." He let Ensign Doyle know his intentions before he prepared to start his message.
Nathanial was none to pleased about being addressed as 'Nathanial' but figured now not to be the time to bring it up. "Roger that, I am now also closing the outer doors" He said, trying to keep a calm cool tone for Thomas to be centered on.
"Cadet Thomas Clipper to the Bridge please respond." Nothing came back through his headset he took a few more steps towards the starboard pillar the connected the pod to the rest of the ship, has he approached he could see the rear section of the ship the Warp Nacelles glowing radiantly either side of the stern of the ship, the launch bay directly in front of his vision, it was a real sight to look upon, seeing the ship from the outside from this angle was a real treat, he would have been cherishing the experience if it wasn't for the circumstances.
A few moments later he requested again. "Cadet Thomas Clipper to the Bridge can you hear me." Again he was greeted by a dead channel.
"Any luck?" Nathanial asked over the comm's.
"None, I am going to try from another angle"
"Roger that" Nathanial replied. He was concerned, if we couldnt contact the ship from even outside, or worse, maybe there was noone on the ship left to contact...
Thomas had now made his way to the underside of the pod the thudding of the magnetic boots back onto the ship each time he took a step gave the noise of a muffled impact through the inside of his suit. He was now on the underside of the pod, the rest of the ship was directly above his head, he could now also see the saucer section of the ship. Thomas was staring directly at the bulge which was in the saucers centre knowing it was the bridge he was desperate to get a response as he called "Cadet Clipper to the Bride, we have a serious issue within the sensor pod."
"Still nothing?" Asked Nathanial
"Roger sir, I am going to head down to the main part of the ship"
"Roger that, proceed with caution"
He didn't wait so long this time between calls he was only a few steps down the inside of the Starboard pillar making his way toward the main section of the ship as he called again "This is Cadet Clipper Bridge plea. 'CSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH'"
Nathanial stopped in his tracks, he had been pacing, but stopped when all of the sudden all he could hear from the other end of the Comm's with Thomas was static.
"Nathanial to Thomas, come in Thomas" but all he was greeted with was static.
"Shit!" he cursed out loud, then quickly looked around and thankfully saw that neither Shenn or Galen were anywhere nearby to hear him swear.
"Nathanial to Thomas, come in Thomas" he said again, his voice showing the slightest edge of worry.
"Nathanial to Galen, can you hear me"
Galen replied with a yes, Nathanial could tell that he was not amused by the question, but Nathanial shifted his attention back to Thomas, or the lack there of.
He was starting to feel the stress that the others had, but compounded now with Thomas disappearing was pushing him close to breaking point. His first official mission 'of sorts' with a team reporting to him, and not only had he gotten them stuck without any way to contact the rest of the ship, but now he had gone and lost one of his team members. He whacked his forehead with his left hand "Snap out of it Nathanial" he told himself, it was most probably just the same thing that was effecting communications with the rest of the ship. Although, the comm signal to Thomas was still giving off the hiss sound of static, and the communications to the ship were just giving back dead silence, no not silence, rather no open comm at all.
He picked up his tricorder, its presence in his hand had a slight calming effect, he knew that the most rational thing for him to do was to go back to conducting the scans of the bubble, he turned and headed out of the probe launcher bay muttering "crap, crap, crap" under his breath."
"se Respond." It had changed, it had all changed, it was all in an instant. All he had done was blinked. No longer could he see the rest of the ship because he was back inside it. Standing at the junction of the Jefferies Tubes, a junction he knew all too well…
...Deck a.
The little voice in his head was summing it up nicely "Aaaahhh crap!" He also let an emotional outburst go as he went to kick the hatch next to him shut, however the magnetic boots held firm and all he achieved was toppling over with a distinct thud as he fell to his knees, only just preventing a headplant by catching himself with his hands and elbows. He sat hunched over like that for a monment it was all a bit much for him at that second.
Nathanial was about to say his 17th 'crap' when Thomas's voice came back over the comm's. "Cadet, are you alright? ...and thats no way to speak over open comm's!" Nathanial quickly replied to the 'Aaaahhh crap!' from Thomas. He was extremely relieved to hear Thomas' voice, and was more than glad he stopped himself from saying his 18th 'crap'.
Hearing his superior chastise him over the comms was a bit rich in his mind, at least he had enquired onto the Cadets health. "Oh I'm great, but please tell me what is the regulation response for when the magnetic grips fail on the EV suit sir?"
Knowing the cadet was quite stressed he let the comment slide "What do you mean your grips failed? Are you floating in space? Whats your location!" He asked begining to worry about the situation and the still potential loss of one of his staff.
"Oh the Grips are fine." He replied rubbing his ankles from his fall. "It was just for my future reference. The artificial gravity here makes it hard to float, I'm back on Deck A, are you still at the Torpedo controls?" Realising he was probably on thin ice at the moment he added a cautionary and very regulation "Sir." Sitting up as he deactivated the magnetic grips as he made his way back towards turbolift, he had spend enough time in the Jefferies for the moment.
"Back on Deck A? And how did you get there?" Nathanial was confused, it seemed that alot wasn't making sense at the moment.
Thomas replied as he entered the lift "Deck B, Well I don't actually know why I always end back there, however it seems to be a common theme every time I attempt to get below deck A. I assume the same thing that has prevented me from getting lower via the Turbolifts or the tubes. That phenomenon must extend outside the ship; I was hoping the shielding of the outer Hull would have made a difference. Obviously not as I simply appeared there, one second space next moment I'm there." The lift exited him at his destination and he continued on.
"Wait, so were you beamed? And what happened to you for the five minutes that we lost communications?" Nathanial asked while heading towards the turbolift.
Rounding a corner he saw Nathanial. The Cadet was relived to see another face. He stopped and took off his helmet, Thomas was sweaty from the suit. With the helmet back under one arm he ran his other hand through his red hair which was now slightly damp as well as teased in all sorts of directions. "Wait, what do you mean five minuets? It hasn't even been five minutes since I was out there." He stopped running his hand through his hair to point towards the closest wall for emphasis and continued "I haven't lost comms with you yet!" He now pointed to the Helmet under his other arm. "Was I really 'Missing' for five min…" he paused for a second before changing tact "…and after five minutes all you could do was chastise me for swearing?!" He couldn't help himself and glared at his superior.
Nathanial stared at the cadet, sure he had been through a bit, but he was trained to handle this kind of situation, or was he...? Ontop of that he was on the USS Charon, talk like that could get him thrown across the bridge or worse... Right now what Nathanial needed was a science officer and not an emotional man, and someone that could survive on the Charon.
"Would you like a massage with that?? We are still on a starship..Cadet Clipper, not some day spa. Your well being is my upmost priority, hence why the first question out of my mouth was asking if you were ok, but we are Starfleet, and upholding what it stands for is all our responsibilities. I have to have faith in my men, and your personnel file gave me the impression that you could take care of yourself in a difficult situation, now I know this situation is taxing but pull yourself together. Do I make myself clear?"
It was a proverbial slap in the face for the Cadet. He had been 'chewed out' before for displaying similar tendencies during his training, he found such a cold and unforgiving attitude a poor substitute for control in his mind. It was all an exercise in shutting out emotion, or to create fear as a tool for the one doing all the shouting were his thoughts. Apparently emotion was a thing too weak for hostile environments. A sentiment he had no appetite for. He would go as far to say he found it Archaic and outdated. Unlike the training he kept that to himself. He didn't need the black eye and a few days of undesirable duties it landed him the last time.
Life was something Thomas held dear to him and he hoped he would never be forced to react in such a cold and calculating fashion. It made him feel suddenly very guilty for the situation he put his superior in, he had to be more considerate, all actions had a response and he premeditated that one. "Perfectly, Sir" Such an answer worked on the hard arsed Starfleet instructors who always acted like Nathanial was acting now, hopefully it worked here.
"Now what happened? The comm signal seemed to have had some sort of interference as all we got was static for roughly five minutes, did you pass out? How did you physically get back inside? Did you enter through some hatch?"
"No, nothing like that. I have experienced a totally different timeline to what you described. For me I was walking on the hull of the ship attempting to communicate to the bridge and before I finished my last attempt I was back aboard the ship on deck A in the Jefferies. To me it happened seamlessly, no noise, no delay, nor accompanying feeling, nothing. To me the five minutes of 'static' you describe do not exist." Turning the helmet over he unfastened the gloves and placed them into it as he considered the events to add to the description "How I get moved around I have no idea, I think previously in the tubes or the lift it was happening. I just never picked up on it because I was ending up in a location that looked sort of like where I was going." He wanted to begin speculation on the cause of this whole affair, however he was past taking liberties for the moment, he didn't want to give his leader any more excuses to continue acting in the manner he currently was.
Nathanial heard the break in Thomas's voice, it reminded him back to when he had also felt that break, that bucket of cold water, the cold wash of starfleet regulation. Nathanial wanted to reassure the new cadet that life wasn't just harsh regiment, that he wasn't all about harsh regiment, but Nathanial was stressed, alot more than he had expected. Too much was happening out of their control, he had nearly lost a man, or so it had felt, and the other two were on the verge of breaking out into fight, on top of that they were trapped, stuck with very little control as to where or what they could do. He shifted his thoughts back to the situation at hand.
"So you were outside, and then you were inside, but to me you were outside, and then you were nowhere and then you were inside, It's as if you were taken out of time for those five minutes and..." Nathanial stopped mid-sentence as a proverbial light bulb appeared above his head.
"Let's go, do you have your tricorder handy?"
Thomas tried to make sense of the sentence, inside outside not there…looping it a second time in his head he instead let it go and answered the direct question instead. "No I never did get that replacement, however there were some in storage with this equipment, if you'll wait a second." He dashed the rest of the distance to the control room where he ceremoniously dumped the helmet and gloves and retrieved one of the tricorders he had seen there in the storage. Grabbing one he confirmed it was more functional than his last one before returning.
"Good good, adjust it to pick up temporal radiation and distortion, your 5 minute trip is the key."
Nathanial headed past Thomas and towards the tubrolift, as he passed Thomas he patted him on the back of the shoulder, "Great work cadet".
Chief Science Officer
USS Charon
&
Assistant Science Officer
USS Charon
