Posted by Ensign Luna (Security Officer /RTF) in SPT-ST Prolog: The Galactic Doughnut - All senior staff summoned

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Surda (Chief of Security / RTF) in SPT-ST Prolog: The Galactic Doughnut - All senior staff summoned

Posted by Ensign Daizi Orin (Scientist) in SPT-ST Prolog: The Galactic Doughnut - All senior staff summoned
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻
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Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

Durheim’s reply began slowly, but quickly became firm. “Y-es… yes, Mr. Cobb; I believe we may have something adequate; though I must say it is a prototype. It has been tested.... but not ‘in the field’, so to speak.” His commbadge clicked, and he quickly issued a few quiet commands; his tone becoming fierce towards the end. “One moment Mr. Cobb; I have an assistant bringing it to the bridge now.”

Roughly a minute or so later, a disheveled engineering assistant arrived at the bridge; panting and with a sheen of sweat on his pimply forehead. In his hands was a small pink box; roughly the size of a loaf of bread. As the assistant caught his breath (and momentarily stopped breathing at the sight of the assembled Brass) his eyes found Durheim; and he hurriedly passed the box over before making his exit. Sprinting feet could be heard once the door closed, though it was likely a coincidence. At closer inspection, it was apparent that the sides of the box were quite flimsy; they held their shape, but deformed slightly even under the engineers’ delicate grip, as if made of thin cardstock. Turning to the captain, Jonathan presented the item for inspection, grinning from ear to ear.

“Here you are, Mr. Cobb. Please don’t be too alarmed by its delicate structure; the important bits are all inside. This is a prototype, as I mentioned, but if it performs as expected it should hold together just fine.” Pausing, he looked at the box closely. “So long as it is treated with care, of course. Unfortunately for now, our focus has been on the containment and power supply; less so on the casement. But it should place any sufficiently small item under a relatively high containment level; so long as the power supply lasts. Under laboratory testing, it has performed as expected approximately fifty-nine percent of the time; with only a fourteen percent catastrophic failure rate!”

Durheim, Engineering

Zachariah took gentle hold of the box, turning it over in his hands and inspecting it closely with an engineer’s eye.
“Most impressive, Mr Dur…” he began to congratulate the man, before stopping short and fixing his own eyes on Jonathan’s goggled own. “F…fifty-nine percent?” he echoed in a more anxious tone, while silently accepting that those odds were the best the house would offer.

Durheim had just barely enough grace to look somewhat embarrassed. “Yes… as I did mention, it is only a prototype. But I will say, most of the failures stemmed from the.... delicate nature of the box. The containment matrix and emitters within had a much lower failure rate; and the power supply performed nearly flawlessly - it only overloaded twice during testing.”

Surda moved to inspect the box, raising an eyebrow at the color. “How long will the power supply last?”
-Surda, CoS

“Ah… Unfortunately Miss Surda, that is hard to say. On standby, the power supply will last for roughly a week; but given a particularly.... energetic occupant.... well, disregarding catastrophic failure, testing with a miniature fusion reactor suggested a minimum containment time of approximately an hour. But of course, anomalies rarely play by the rules.”

=^= Shuttle Craft to Bridge, I’m detecting a heavy gravimetric distortion originating from the ‘hole’ of the doughnut. A similar field of nine cubic meters is forming approximately twelve centimeters from the frosting covered side of the object.=^= There is a brief pause before the communications chime back up again. =Shuttle Craft to Bridge, the gravimetric field has been replaced with approximately nine thousand liters of water, which has become ice. I’m detecting multiple bio signs within the ice belonging to various families of alien fish. How should I proceed?=^=

The Storyteller

“Fish!” Cobb exclaimed. All present had no doubt heard the rumours by now on the captain’s fondness for aquatic lifeforms. “Can we…save ‘em somehow?”

He turned once again to Surda and Luna. “How soon can you mount a containment mission?”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

” can we use the transporter to beam it into the containment unit?” Luna asked. She was unsure how else to get at a donut floating in space.
Ensign Luna

Daizi tentatively raised her hand in the air again to unwillingly draw attention to herself.

“Umm… given how little we know about the ‘doughnut’ and errr what it’s… you know… doing… I’m not sure disassembling it down to it’s err… component molecules.... and reassembling it in an untested containment.... ” she looked at the flimsy pink item that had been produced “box?.... would be ummm.... wise?”

Ensign Daizi Orin - Scientist

Surda sighed. “We’ll have to take a shuttle, do a spacewalk to get the… doughnut… and then we have about an hour to get it back here and into containment.” She looked critically at the pink box. “Can we slide this inside a metal case? Perhaps a munitions crate?”
-Surda, CoS

“Hmmm, yeesss.... I suppose we could…” Uncharacteristically, Durheim sounded quiet hesitant, even uncomfortable. “I can’t say I have any good reason, but it just feels.... correct to be containing this mysterious confectionery in a flimsy pink box. Though truthfully, there is no reason we can’t do that; it would help to prevent damage to the containment unit.”

Zachariah reclined in his seat and listened as his crew debated the situation, impressed with the points and suggestions being raised. Finally though, he waved a hand and interjected.
“Aye, adding a reinforced exterior to the containment box sounds practical. But Lt Surda,” his query was aimed at the CoS, but he would welcome suggestions from anyone present, “How do you plan to get it into the container itself? If you make physical contact with the doughnut then I fear I may find myself with a bowl of cereal for a security chief?”

His eyes shifted briefly to Luna before returning to the wider group. “Interference in the atmosphere of the planet is preventing us from using the transporter to rescue the survivors. Is the situation identical in the local area of the doughnut? If not then this might be a less dangerous suggestion. Or maybe a tractor beam?”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

“I’d imagined it isn’t much different from catching fish. Easier perhaps, since it isn’t trying to get away. You just sort of…” She mimed a scooping motion, similar to one made with a net. “And then shut the container.”
-Surda, CoS

” yes but I’m not shure ill be able to do the space walk with you Lutanat ” Luna said opening her wings.” Ether way I think LT is right” Luna said.
Ensign Luna

Surda turned to the Ensign, looking her up and down. “I see the problem. We’ll figure it out later. I suppose you could pilot.”

“Our suits usually use magnetic fields to anchor itself to an object, if i’m a betting Trill that thing isn’t metallic or magnetic. you’d be relying on momentum and the use of the suits thrusters. Im not disagreeing with you but any mistake here results in as Captain Cobb right said a cereal bowl of a security chief and i’m more of a bagel guy” he said trying t o keep the conversation light but grounded. “I’d want you both tethered to the shuttle at all times.”

• Cmdr Raauhl, XO

Surda shrugged. “I think I’d be some sort of… granola?” She nodded at the tether comment. “What’s zero-grav training for if not situations like this?”
-Surda, CoS

Casela really didn’t have much to contribute to containing the donut, her mind going over the logistics of rescuing the crew that had landed on the planet. She gave an involuntary shutter, she hated zero-g training, it made her sick, quite brilliantly, and it was always embarrassing. But…”Actually,” she turned away from the screen she’d been staring at, “Fenrir could do it, or go with you. He has Short Burst Anti-Grav Thrusters that he’s programmed to use to help maneuver in zero-gs. He also has a cargo compartment, for lack of a better description, that can hold something that size,” she pointed at the flimsy box, “until the containment units take over. It would be easy, Lt Surda, to give you control over him if you want to take him.”
Lt Synthi-er, CNS (No more zero-gs for me)

“An excellent idea, Lt. Synthier. Thank you.” Surda turned expectantly to Luna, waiting for her input.

” umm I don’t know to fly a shuttle i would rather be on the space with the Lutanat I don’t like the idea of her doing it alone.” Luna said. She had only piloted a shuttle ones and just well enough to pass the Federation requirements. ” iv had just enough pilot training to know i don’t trust myself to pilot” she added as an after thought. ” I could keep us from crashing though getting close to the um … anomaly is another story” she said quietly. ” sje said.in all honesty they should probably figure out t b e space walking thing out they would come across more instances of neededing to space walk.
Ensign Luna

Surda hummed thoughtfully. “Ensign Anders may be able to pilot. Captain?” She turned to Cobb, checking for his opinion on the plan.
-Surda, CoS

Cobb nodded slowly. He’d been a starfleet officer for more than thirty years at this point, had seen countless battles, faced down untold scores of enemies and been cast down onto countless hazardous planets. And yet never, in all of that time, had he ever heard a plan so fraught with danger, so seemingly destined to hasten the demise of every crewmember involved. And that was why he felt convinced that it would work.

“Aye, I am sure Anders will be capable of piloting the shuttle, Lieutenant. Or Nakuto is a reasonable fallback if you can’t find any takers in your own department.” His eyes moved quickly to the XO.
“But Commander Raauhl is right, you must remain tethered to the shuttle at all times. Conditions being what they are out there, if something goes wrong, then we might not be able to reply on our transporters for a rescue.”

He moved once more to the viewscreen and gazed out at the diabolical doughnut. “Proceed when ready,” he gave the final order over his shoulder. “And may the gods hold us in their favour. For once.”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

“May the odds ever be in your favour,” Raauhl said adding to Cobbs instructions, any additional luck at this stage was probably welcome. Sometimes he hated being the Xo it meant sitting back and letting others take the risk.

• Cmdr Raauhl, XO

” Captain, Camander” Luna said taking a step twords them. ” we will be fine, there is no way a donut is going to get the best of us.” She said then turned to follow Surda. ” So let’s get going we need to get the donut from space and rescue the people stranded on the planet. ” she said happly. Happly ? Yes, that was right the was one thing Luna liked more then flying and that was doing her job.
Ensign Luna

“The shuttle should have some munitions aboard, correct? If there is not one of suitable size already, I can fabricate one quickly once aboard.” Durheim piped up; knowingly volunteering himself for this dangerous mission. Not only was he invested in the containment unit; wanting to see how it fared in actual use, but he also was simply curious about this strange (which was saying something) anomaly.

Durheim, Engineering

“If there is flyin’ to be done, look no further ladies and gentlemen, ain’t no one on board this here tub that’s a hotter hand in a shuttle than me and that’s a fact.”

There was a loud clicking noise from the science station as Daizi swung her boots up on the console and leaned back her chair, her usually nervous demeanour replaced by that of someone wholly relaxed and oozing self confidence. She treated the assembled staff to a wink and a roguish grin that seemed to only be missing a half smoked cigar for the full effect.

Ensign Daizi Orin - Scientist and Space Cowgirl

Surda nodded, looking at the assembled officers. “Alright. Luna, Orin, and Durheim with me. We’ll meet in the shuttlebay in ten minutes. Luna, you’ll need to stop by the armory, we’ll grab a case there. Durheim, you can join us if you don’t need anything else, and Orin, you can go start the pre-flight checks. Captain, Commander.” She nodded to both, then tapped her combadge. =/\=Gersh, send an officer up for bridge duty, I dismissed Kelvin. Get a science replacement too.=/\= She grinned confidently at Cobb. “We’ll be in touch.”
-Surda, CoS

Luna Nodded then turned and headed to the Armory.
Ensign Luna

Just before Surda left Raauhl caught her gaze, “No unnecessary risks and dont be trudging icing back through the decks when you’re done, you’ll go straight into quarantine and be check over by medical before being debriefed” The Trill XO was not taking any risks, usually when things appeared to be sweet and tasty it was a big trap and bigger the temptation the bigger the hunter.

• Cmdr Raauhl, XO