Posted by Commodore Drudoc Andone (Commanding Officer) in Main Sim - 1 Week Later - Arrival To The Barrens
[snip]

As sensors got a clearer picture they found the following information soon coming up. The system was quite young in a stellar sense, barely a few thousand years old at most, the solar body at its heart was small about half the size of the Sol system’s own sun. In orbits moving counterclockwise were two planetary bodies, the first was a small gaseous planetoid with a small gasey ring system with barely formed lunar bodies. The second planet was solid and held an atmosphere that could be classified someday as probably forming a class m world, but for now was simply too high in nitrogen and methane to be worth breathing in even for a short time.

But what had drawn them here was just beyond the orbit of the second planet, there lay intact, the SS Synthesis. The ship was holding position about 20,000km ahead of them. Drudoc seeing this nodded, “..Give me a full scan of the ship..” she ordered.

Scans showed the ship’s power plant was online and stable though oddly was operating at about 2% higher standards than would be expected for normal operations in a holding pattern like this. Life sign scans too showed 100 members aboard, all seemingly alive and hearty with no signs of distress. Life support was clearly stable and online, though occasional images of flickering lighting along the hull showed something had to be afoot that scans couldn’t pick up. Curiously though there was no signal of the ship’s distress call or external beacons launched. The last thing of note curiously was that the ship’s shields were raised, weapons were primed and charged and hull polarization systems online. The shields being online would make sense given the environment they were in if they left the gravitational protection of the system, but being within its stable hold they didn’t really need it to avoid the effects of the Barrens, the weapons being online too was strange and seemingly uncalled for, no sign of ships or other threats were being picked up by the Ark Angel.

Drudoc watched all this form up on the ship’s view screen. Standing and adjusting her uniform she strode forward a bit from her chair as if those few extra steps would reveal some answer to this great mystery. “..Helm bring us within 40,000km of the Synthesis, and hold station.” She said, this order would be smart as it kept them a good 5,000km out of the effective range of the Synthesis weapons while still keeping them in turn well within return fire from the Ark Angel’s newer weapons.

”..Aye ma’am..” NE Chang said by the side helm station. As the Ark Angel closed to the indicated range and came to a full stop, Drudoc again eyed the readings still standing before the main view screen. A swirl of gas from the Barrens drifting by between both ships. “..Well no time like the present I guess, open a hailing frequency to the Synthesis, but keep our lines to audio only for now that should cut down on any cross computer issues from transferring.” She said.

Once this had been handled, Drudoc spoke through the open comm line. =/\= This is Commodore Drudoc Andone of the USS Ark Angel. We are responding to a distress call from the SS Synthesis and a Captain Damdrine, reporting loss of control of their ship systems. Can we be of assistance? =/\= She stated crossing her arms about her chest as she waited for a reply.

About five minutes past then, during which time Drudoc cast a glance to the comms NE to ensure their line had been received, “..Comm lines are open and being received Captain, I dialed down the sending frequency to accept their older mode of transmissions. No signs of any replies yet..” NE Poo said.

Looking to the ensign at science, she inquired. “..Any signs of them scanning us?” She asked.

“Not actively, Ma’am, although there are passive scans. They are undoubtedly aware we’re here, and likely have a visual,” Demil said, an undertone of curiosity joining the nervousness.

Once Demil reported this Drudoc looked back to the screen, arms still crossed. She did not yet want to move closer nor attempt a more open line of comms quite yet, especially given there did not seem to be any distress obviously among the crew, or damage to the ship beyond the oddities of their shields raised and weapons armed. Still eyeing the screen she said openly to all on the bridge, “..Thoughts?” She said.

Drudoc Andone CO

Ella had been monitoring at the secondary science and sensor station, as was her job whilst on the bridge. Not one to hold back her thoughts, “Commodore, given their defensive stance (or aggressive from a different view point) yet lack of distress it could be assumed our transmissions are not getting through, perhaps we could send a science probe configured to relay our transmission, it’ll keep us at a safe distance and allow us to scan further”

• Lt JG Ella Lokaa, Science

“I’d agree with the Lieutenant,” Demil said. “The fact that the crew appears to be intact is odd, and combined with the other peculiarities present, I’d guess there’s something up. The probe would also allow us to gauge how they’ll respond to something entering weapons range. If it proves to be safe, I’d suggest sending an aid team in a shuttle.”

Ens. Lis, Science

I could maybe use the deflector to signal them with morse code in the event their comm system is down…” she suggested “And we don’t really need to use a shuttle unless there is something stopping our transporters from working” the feline chief pipped up from the Engineering station

Luca glanced up from his chair at that last part. “That’s supposing we transport who we are expecting!” He looked passed the Commodore to the viewscreen. “There could be a whole squad of some hostile force posing as our mysteriously silent rescuees! Perhaps they are not communicating because they know something we don’t; that there is a threat independent of either ship and the Synthesis knows any communication could be intercepted and so is giving nothing away?” He cocked his head. “If they are looking out of the window, then a mythology-class starship dropping in also might be a bit of a surprise if no one onboard has ever seen the like.” But something nagged him. “Does anyone else feel like we’re the bee and that’s the honey-trap?” He cleared his throat, slightly embarrassed. “Also, acutely aware that I narrowed down nothing and will promptly ‘shut up’ until we make contact with … something.”

In his head, Luca was beating himself senseless.

Lt. Vilyan CNS

I was talking about sending some of us over to the Synthesis she replied We can go over there and figure out whats up I would need to go over with an engineering team to figure out what is going on with the ship anyway” she added turning to the counselor

Miz’uki

Ella had heard the saying ‘honey trap’ before, though in a slightly different context. “I think perhaps the Counsellor may be right, my people enjoy deception and while we have yet to see anything dangerous I think transporting anyone over there without first establishing communications or why they are ignoring us puts those people at risk. Though if that is a path we take I would like to volunteer.” The Elasian said her words almost in a lullaby. Ella looked to the security officer on the bridge, they more than anyone would have a better understanding from a security standpoint and would likely want to weigh in on their discussion.

• Lt JG Ella Lokaa, Science Officer

“Again though I suggest we use the deflector as a morse code lamp and send them a message hopefully their computer is running enough to translate or someone happens to know morse code on board” she suggested once more

Miz’uki

“That’s not a bad idea,” Demil said. “Would it weaken the shields, though? We probably don’t want to do that.”

Ens. Lis

“The Ark Angel is a big ship, if they haven’t seen us now I don’t believe blinking at them will help either” Ella said in her all to Elasian tone. “All evidence is pointing towards them not knowing we are here, unless someone is looking in our direction the exact time we signal them and understand morse code, the odds are more slim than this being a ‘honey trap’” Ella’s tones wasn’t condescending nor aggressive, she was simply stating the scientific facts behind what had happened so far, and while the idea had some merit to it Ella couldn’t see it working, “However there is no harm in trying, I may be proven wrong.” She finally said remaining diplomatic.

• Lt JG Ella Lokaa, Science Officee

As they were discussing this there finally seemed to be some kind of response from the Synthesis, =/\= This is Captain Damdrine of the SS Synthesis of the United Federation of Planets. I am not sure what you are referring too with us sending out a distress call, Captain Andone. We have done no such thing. =/\= He replied.

Drudoc raised an eyebrow at the visual on the screen of the old ship, before replying. =/\= Captain Damdrine, so you may claim but we have intercepted just such a call. There is also the fact you have your shields and weapons raised and armed. Which with all due respect is a bit odd to us. =/\= Andone said.

There was a faint chuckle from Damdrine on the other end. =/\= Ah you caught us during a system’s experiment. We were testing to see how this area of space affected our shields and weapons. I must ask though, your signal is on the UFP’s frequency band, though your ship does not appear like any on the design boards not to mention in size. =/\= He said.

Drudoc considered how to reply to this. =/\= Captain Damdrine, we are from the UFP as well. There appears to be though strange forces at work here within the Barrens. We suspect there may have been a temporal anomaly of some sort at play, though we’ve yet to detect such as of yet. =/\= Drudoc said.

=/\= A temporal anomaly? The Vulcan Science Directorate would tell you temporal travel doesn’t exist. =/\= There was another chuckle. =/\= Frankly I don’t know much about such things myself, but I can say we’ve only been in this region of space for about a week now, and experienced no distressing issues or problems, much less strange anomalies. =/\= He said.

Drudoc frowned, this was getting odder and odder to her. =/\= I see Captain, then it would seem we have a deeper mystery on our hands then either of us may first realize. For us it is much further into the future then what I suspect you believe it to be. =/\= She said.

=/\= I guess, what do you suppose we should do about it? =/\= He replied.

=/\= I would like to send a shuttle over to your ship, with a few of my staff to assess the situation, being able to examine your ship for temporal anomalies or signs of the computer issue that had you send out a distress call you have yet to do that drew us here could help narrow down what is going on. =/\= She asked.

There was a pause and a murmur of someone else in the background likely one of the other Synthesis bridge staff saying something that the comms didn’t pick up. =/\= I see no problem with that, we’ll lower our shields and weapons and accept your shuttle party, say in 20 minutes? =/\= He asked.

=/\= This sounds fair, I’ll get a team together and signal you when they’re on approach, Andone out. =/\= She said closing the channel.

A second later the Synthesis’s shields dropped and weapons powered down, “..Thoughts?” She asked inquiring about the exchange. “..It seems to me it is possible they were running system tests when we came upon them to see how the Barrens would affect their shields and weapons..” She said.

Drudoc Andone CO

Ella considered for a moment, “From a science perspective this is amazing. Being closer to the anomaly or having actually caused it intentionally or unintentionally they will have a lot more data than we will. My biggest concern is if this temporal force is still at play and we are at ourselves in danger, my theory is that their time is moving slower than what we are perceiving it; thus we received a distress signal they haven’t sent yet and why they took so long to respond. The temporal interference could mean we are speaking to ghosts or worst the main event has yet to occur. We would need to run more scans to be sure sir.”

• Ella Lokaa, Science Officer