Posted by Ensign Matthew Riley (Science Officer) in Main Sim - Shuttlebay 1 - Shuttle Arrival

Posted by Gamemaster Capybara (Game Master Trainee) in Main Sim - Shuttlebay 1 - Shuttle Arrival

Posted by Ensign Matthew Riley (Science Officer) in Main Sim - Shuttlebay 1 - Shuttle Arrival
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻
[snip]

Caelian set the diagnostic kit at Mazi’s feet, his ears picking up bits and pieces of the conversation. Definitely not a maintenance call, he noted sourly. He tried his best not to peek over Mazi’s shoulder at her PaDD, but couldn’t help noticing the signal displays and other graphical data. He tried his best to piece together what was going on based on what he’d overheard, but he had to admit that it wasn’t much to go on.

While one of the other officers explained his hypothesis, Caelian rummaged through his toolkit for his own compact PaDD. Once he was done simulating his own theory, he stepped around Mazi and put up a hand in front of him.

“E-Excuse me, sirs?” he offered tentatively. “If you’re trying to narrow down disturbance, I’d also suggest looking at other particle types in the region. Depending on density and energy patterns, it should be easy to narrow it down to naturally-occurring or artificial phenomena. Everything in space affects everything else, right?”

Keying up the readied display on his PaDD, the engineer held it out. “Whatever this—I’m sorry, Montezuma, was it?—ship is interacting with, we could learn a lot by how it’s interacting with your distortion. If there’s a cloaking concern, we could try a metaphasic sweep or scan for a muon wake. Verteron or lepton particle eddies could indicate the presence of a proto-wormhole or collapsed temporal distortion.”

“Has anyone checked the astrogation charts for this region, see if anything has been reported?” he asked after a brief pause for thought. Seeing the collection of faces aimed at him, Caelian suddenly felt very awkward and chuckled nervously. “I-I’m sorry, sirs. I shouldn’t have just butted in like that. I-I should probably get back to my diagnostic.”

—Caelian Weir, Ensign—

Ensign Genard entered the Shuttlebay on the advice of the CSO. He had been asked to join the team there but had no idea what was what. Looking over the bay it was clear the largest concentration of people was at a non typical designed shuttle. Obviously not a Federation mark 6 standard. That’s when he saw Matthew. Finally! A familiar face.

Walking over to the shuttle he watched where he was going due to fuel lines and other obstacles in the Bay. Walking up behind him, Claude chimed, “Matthew, Look’s we get to work together.”

As the trio turned to face the new Ensign, Claude didn’t feel out of place, just wanting to get caught up.” I was asked to join your team. What do we have?”

• Ens. Genard

Mazi smiled and listened as Caelin gave his opinion. When he finished, she reached up to absently scratch at the base of her antennae which were perked forward in curiosity.

Glancing around the small cluster beside her, she nodded. “I think he’s got the right of it. I’d suggest first finding out if this small anomalous pocket of yours is natural, listed or present in any other proximity. Next, let’s see if we can find out what that ship’s doing to, or about, it, if anything. Perhaps a naturally occurring cluster of some type of radiation or energy is reacting to being probed, scanned, or fired upon.”

She paused to tap the new Ensign’s arm. “Good job. May have up put you on my shift to help me with my homework.” She laughed and looked to the others to see what they thought.

Mazi
Engineer

Riley grinned at Claude and tapped his PADD a few times. “I’ve scheduled a metaphasic sweep of the disturbance area, to see what else we can find there. I’ll check the results out back in the lab, or on the bridge,” he answered Mazi before he handed the PADD to Claude and passed a hand through his hair, moving a blond lock from his forehead. “Take a look at the sensor logs I’ve highlighted.” The data about the energy spike from the Montezuma and the cloak-like disturbance were displayed.

Riley turned back to the engineers, stylus spinning between his thumb and forefinger. “My second question is about your shuttle,” he pointed. “Based on the levels of radiation present from passing through that ion storm, can you determine how long before we picked them up they had passed through it?”

He flipped the stylus into the air, barely noticing it pass into his view before landing in his hand, where he spun it again.

• Ensign Riley, Science

The discussion about the shuttle itself going around in circles, the thought began to creep into people’s mind that it might be a dead end, and a better route would be to focus on the disturbance and energy spike from the Montezuma.

GMT Capybara

Riley nodded as they each considered the various routes it might have taken, with no real consensus. “Well, I appreciate all the help here,” he said, nodding and tucking the PADD under his arm. “Definitely some ideas I wouldn’t have thought of, which is why I came to you,” he added with a grin.

“I’m going to head up to take a look at the results of that metaphasic sweep,” he continued, and turned to Genard. “If there’s not anything else you’re doing, wanna lend me a hand? Two heads are better than one, after all, and I can show off the astrometrics lab.”

• Ensign Riley, Science

Caelian made room for the new edition, nodding his appreciation for the lieutenant’s support. He still had no clue what was going on beyond the still-mysterious shuttle, a rogue distortion, and another vessel. It certainly wasn’t much to build on, and only luck had allowed him to contribute. He let the conversation drift around him while he pulled up the available engineering files on his PaDD. He felt his brow tighten as he noted a few odd facts; he wouldn’t be able to confirm them here. As the conversation regarding the shuttle continued, Caelian crouched next to Mazhari.

“Pardon, ma’am,” he said, keeping his voice unobtrusively low, “but I don’t think we’ll find much from the shuttle. If the theory is that we’re dealing with some sort of temporal anomaly, we have to remember that time is relative. All a scan would readily tell us is what we already know: that it came into contact with an energy source. A high-yield burst could saturate the duranium as thoroughly as low-yield long-term exposure. And since we’re dealing with a variable time component, we won’t be able to know which is which. If there were any crew, a quick med scan would tell us how long they were exposed, but that would be relative to them and not us. We’d have to compare that data—or the shuttle’s log—with another relative point, say the shuttle’s point-of-launch. A temporal pocket could have trapped them in there for months or whisked them back before they’d even left. There’s no efficient way to know.”

He swallowed back the rest of his theories, all of the what-ifs of temporal mechanics making his head spin. “Anyhow, assuming the anomaly—whatever it happens to be—is still out there and another vessel is meddling with it, that should be our priority. The shuttle’s contained; we can study it later. If you don’t need me here, ma’am, I’d like to return to engineering to better-assess the situation. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I’ll need to be informed either way if I’m going to be able to help.”
—Caelian Weir, Ensign—