The Gate Alights

Posted on Sat Nov 1st, 2025 @ 8:06pm by Commodore Elias McEntyre & Commander Gil’an Tyris & Lieutenant Commander Declan Malcom & Commander Rylen Lyo & Lieutenant JG Elen Rell

1,618 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Pilot - "The Gate"
Location: The Gate
Timeline: MD 001

It had taken several hours but now everything was in place to finally activate the gate.

Stepping off the turbolift, Elias strode to the center chair, taking his seat as he taps the comm key on his chair.

"All stations stand by. Engineering, are we ready down there for gate powerup?" He asked his engineering staff.

Elen checked the input from her Chief, giving a nod. Her fingers drummed on the console for a moment as she read the results, the power steady. She felt like she was about to run across a lake, that was on fire, with meteorites incoming. And also nervous. So nervous/excited. "We're ready on your order, Captain," she said and moved to her console, where she could monitor the progress. She itched to be on the damage control teams, but as Acting Assistant Chief her place was here, as a link while her Chief made sure that everything went according to her plan.

"Very good, Elen, stand by." Elias taps the comm off. Turning his chair, he looks over to Gil.

Lyo stood sentry next to the Ops console. Since Ops was his department for a long time, he felt most comfortable issuing orders from that area of the Bridge. “Lieutenant Zinaren, begin preparing an Iliad probe.”

"Gil, you ready on your end?" said Elias.

The Chief Science Officer, for what seemed like the fiftieth time, examined the sensor readings. The ship’s shuttles were all positioned properly, and Gil had personally overseen the calibration and alignment of their shield emitters. A crew from engineering had realigned the Guinevere’s shields, but of course Gil had triple checked that work. Not because he didn’t trust them, but because this was his pet project and he didn’t trust not want to take any chances with its success.

“Calibrations and shield alignments are green across the board,” said Gil, spinning his seat toward the command chair. “We can form the transit corridor on your order, Sir.”

"Very good, All stations stand by. Dr. Tyris, Ms. Rell, it's your show." Elias smiles as he leans back into his chair to watch them work.

Gil checked the shuttle positioning one last time. He knew he was being borderline OCD, but this gate activation would be a huge boon for Starfleet. “Bringing shield modifications online now,” he said. “Shuttles Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta are frequency matched to our plasma stream. Elen? Whenever you’re ready, the transit corridor is active.”

Elen let out a breath, shaking her hand out for a moment. "Powering up," she said, her voice soft over the comms. If she was nervous, it wasn't in her voice.

The ship's warp engines hummed and whined. Growing louder and louder as the power was transferred through the deflector though the shuttles and to the gate. The ship began to shake before in a brilliant flash of light, the gate came to life, ejecting energy before stablizing itself.

"Slight energy fluctuation in sector 92," Elen said, more to herself than anyone else as she stabilised it at her end. It stabilised a moment later, but she expected something to burst or most certainly spark. "Power holding, but it is heating up, Captain."

The ship shook more, violently, Elias gripping on his chair as crew stumbled. In engineering, it was worse as sparks began to fly from consoles before a massive lurch and explosion from one of the EPS conduits. Alarms rang out in Main Engineering.

“Shuttles Delta and Gamma shields are weakening,” said Tyris. “Seventy eight percent and falling. I estimate we will lose the transit corridor in less than two minutes.”

"Engineering, what's going on?" Elias taps his comms to engineering, hoping to find out why the shuttle shields were weakening.

"Damage control teams, get that conduit isolated and fire suppression in place! Medical response team to Main Engineering. Non-essential personnel, out, now." Declan's baritone called out, carrying over the noise of Engineering coming apart at the seams as he looked over a couple injured crewmen to see if any wounds were serious enough to need rapid support.

Once he was satisfied no one was going to die in the next few minutes, Declan strode over to the table and began to look over the readings, not thrilled with what he was seeing. "Lieutenant Rell, you in one piece over there?" He called out as his fingers started flying across the interface.

Declan was tempted to answer the Commodore, but as a temporary assignee, that fell to Elen first. "The gate opening threw exotic particles into the energy stream, it's throwing off the shield settings on the shuttles and causing a feedback loop to start up. We need to purge it quick, additionally, we need to bisect that stream into two parts. Borg tech works on multiple parts acting in unity, we're breaking that using a single point. Rell?"

"I'm here," Elen said, not looking up. Her braid was half undone, dark strands stuck to her temple with sweat and something that might have been blood. One sleeve was torn, a smear of red along her forearm where shrapnel had kissed the skin, not deep, barely a scratch bleeding for attention. She didn't feel it yet. She braced herself against the console with one hand, the other moving fast. "Purging the loop. Phase variance rerouted to secondary." She watched the results and for a brief moment her eyes flickered to the specialist. "I can split the stream with a pulse inversion, but I need a clean buffer window. If you can bounce the frequency off the tertiary vents, I can hold the modulation here."

"Bouncing. Give me...18 seconds. Declan responded, following the request. He was not happy about the blood he could see, nor about her havnig to brace against the table.
"We really should answer the Commodore before someone starts having conniptions. You want the task, or me? Also, when the medical team gets here, you get looked at. No ifs, ands, or buts. Clear? I can see you bracing and the blood." Declan told her with all the no-nonsense tone he could muster.

"I'm fine," Elen said and tapped her combadge. "Engineering to Bridge, we're working on stabilising it. The Commander should see improvements in the next...30 to 60 seconds. Engineering out." Her hand went back to the console and she grinned, looking at Declan. "Let's be big engineering heroes." She focused back on the panel, watching for a clean window...and started working.

"Don't make me pull rank. Or sic one of the medical types on you, I know they absolutely love that." Declan responded as he tapped away, creating the purged window Elen would need and keeping an eye on the readings. "We'd better move, that plasma temp is going to start baking those shuttles soon."

Elen made a sound at the back of her throat at the half-threat, knowing that he was right. But right now, she was focused on this. Her body didn't matter, the task did and her fingers moved over the controls, getting the pulse inversion lined up. "And...there!" she laughed at the result, shaking her head a little as she blinked. Not to focus her eyes, they were focused. More to soften it so she could take in the results as a whole. Now...she just had to maintain this dance.

Declan knew that look, until they finished, Rell wouldn't take care of herself. He'd gone through that a few times himself over the years. "Looks like it's stabilizing. We'll let sciences tell us for sure. I think the split point transfer is, yes, it's reducing that particle spew. You see it?"

"You should do the honours, let the bridge know," Elen said and looked at him, eyes shining with it before she looked back at the results.

Declan simply shook his head ruefully for a moment, though he did send a look across to Elen that he meant it about being treated. "Bridge, Engineering. Can Sciences confirm a reduction in the exotic particle spew the gate was throwing? The transfer appears to be stabilizing on our end with the spilt approach."

“Confirmed,” said Tyris after a long moment of examining data. “Exotic particle bleed has dropped to an acceptable level. Nice work, Mister Malcom.”

"Understood, thanks, but it's all of us down here. Estimate about two more minutes until the dual stream brings the systems fully online. Can someone get a medical response team over here? We have some minor injuries from when the EPS conduit went boom, but someone more experienced should check." Declan commented, and yes there was a direct look at Elen when he said it.

“Excellent work,” said Lyo. He had taken a position directly behind the Ops console, currently manned by Lieutenant Zinaren. “A medical team is being dispatched as we speak, Mister Malcom. Zinaren, status of the Iliad probe?”

As was their custom, Zinaren spun their chair around to directly face the individual speaking to them. “Sensor package is programmed, and subspace data link is strong. The probe’s micro fusion thrusters are fully loaded with deuterium slush. The probe is ready to launch from forward tube one on the Commodore’s order.”

"Launch Iliad!" The Commodore ordered with a nod, a hopeful glint in his eye as he did. What would be on the otherside of the gate? A mystery waiting to be solved.

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Commodore Elias McEntyre
Commanding Officer
U.S.S. Guinevere

Commander Rylen Lyo
Executive Officer
U.S.S. Guinevere

Commander Gil’an Tyris
Chief Science Officer
U.S.S. Guinevere

Lieutenant Commander Declan Malcom
Engineering Officer-On-Loan
U.S.S Guinevere

Lt. jg Elen Rell
Acting Assistant Chief Engineer
USS Guinevere

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