The R’Shka Anomaly
Posted on Wed Aug 26th, 2026 @ 11:37am by Commander Hiro Sommers-Yoshida
841 words; about a 4 minute read
Mission:
Episode 9: Across Time
Location: Ops, Ready Room
Timeline: Backpost
ON:
Commander Hiro Sommer-Yoshida’s Ready Room was quiet save for the muted hum of Deep Space 21’s environmental systems and the soft glow of tactical overlays suspended across his desk display. He stood near the viewport with a mug of rapidly cooling tea in one hand, reviewing system readiness reports, when the chirp of an incoming priority channel cut through the calm. The voice of the operations officer arrived a half-second later.
“Sir, Master Chief Petty Officer R’Shka has just transported aboard. Arrival logged through Transporter Room Three.”
Hiro gave a small nod at the name, already setting the mug aside. “Acknowledged,” he replied evenly. “Sent her to me when she arrives.”
The Officer hesitated just long enough for Hiro’s expression to tighten slightly. “There’s… an additional matter, sir.” The Ready Room lighting flickered once. Barely perceptible, but enough that Hiro noticed immediately. The report followed quickly after.
“Station systems are registering intermittent synchronization faults. Internal sensors briefly mapped overlapping corridor configurations on Deck Seven. Transporter logs are also experiencing temporal indexing conflicts tied to the Master Chief’s arrival.”
Hiro frowned sharply at that, the composure in his posture hardening into command focus. “What do you mean with overlapping.”
The answer came uncertainly. “Two concurrent hallway states occupying the same spatial grid for approximately one-point-three seconds.”
Hiro stepped toward his desk console, eyes narrowing as another minor fluctuation rippled across the LCARS display. “Seal the hallways and diagnostic access and dispatch Engineering teams immediately,” he ordered without hesitation. “I want full verification on structural integrity and sensor telemetry, and a complete transporter diagnostic.” He cut the channel a moment later, gaze lingering on the flickering display as Deep Space 21 hummed quietly around him, just slightly out of rhythm. This could be another effect related to the Beacon they had on the station.
The doors parted before she announced herself instead of the Standard doorbell. R'Shka barged and locked her gaze with the back of the Commanding Officers head.
“Commander,” R’Shka said evenly as she stepped inside. “I took the liberty of collecting tricorder while your station was deciding which version of itself it preferred.” She placed the scanner on his desk. “Whatever the Beacon is doing now, it’s no longer contained to passive interference. The station’s beginning to occupy conflicting spatial states. Also, what the hell is going on?
Hiro’s eyes shifted from the altered corridor projection to the tricorder R’Shka had placed on his desk. “You’re not the only one who wants to know, Chief,” he said quietly.
He straightened fully behind the desk now, the calm in his expression narrowing into something sharper and more deliberate. Not panic, but control under pressure.
“but I have my suspicions.”
R'Shka's silverish eyebrows furrowed and she looked at the man, he looked tired. "Let's hear it, as she walked to the Replicator and ordered herself, she punched in her order, Coffee Black, Double Strength - Triple Espresso Shot.
"I have a dependency, at least it is manageable." She said as she sat down.
Hiro watched her cross to the replicator, but his attention remained partly on the sensor data still rotating above his desk. The overlapping corridor scans continued to drift through one another like misaligned layers of reality. Under normal circumstances he might have objected to a newly arrived senior chief making herself comfortable before a formal briefing was complete. But these were not normal circumstances.
"The Beacon," he said simply. He folded his arms and studied the projection for a moment before continuing. "When we first brought it aboard, it behaved like an exceptionally powerful subspace artifact. Difficult to analyze, occasionally disruptive, but predictable enough that we could establish containment protocols and continue our research."
His gaze shifted toward the viewport.
"Over the last several weeks, we've documented a gradual increase in anomalous behavior. Sensor discrepancies. Localized power fluctuations. Brief telemetry inconsistencies that Engineering could never fully explain." He shook his head slightly. "Nothing severe enough to justify shutting down operations, but enough to keep appearing in incident reports."
The Commander's expression hardened. "What happened during your arrival is different."
Walking up beside the CO R'shka's tone change, she looked out the porthole. Her Antennae twitched. "Commander, if we are dealing with these anomalies we risk innocent civilian lives. We perhaps should evacuate non-essential personnel and restrict traffic to only necessary."
"You're right, Chief. It's already underway. If I'm right and it's caused by the beacon, then we have to act fast and find a solution. We can't have these sorts of incidents on the station." Hiro's first thought was to move the beacon off station. But Abrasax was in the midst of his analysis and he also wasn't sure what the consequences would be when it would be moved. "Normally I would give you some time to adapt to life on the station, but now I have to ask you to join Lieutenant Abrasax and his team to study this beacon and find a solution."
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