Posted by Ensign Thollin bav Crirv (Engineer) in Starbase 157 - Amongst the Bustle

Posted by Gamemaster Conspiracy Theorist (Weaver of Webs) in Starbase 157 - Amongst the Bustle

Posted by Ensign Thollin bav Crirv (Engineer) in Starbase 157 - Amongst the Bustle

SNIP

Thollin grunted as he read through the specs. She was asking them to emit a high-frequency stream in a narrow bandwidth. While it was within the capabilities of the defector, it was near the upper limit. Deflectors were most accurate in the middle of their operating band, but became less accurate at the upper and lower limits due to increasing frequency distortion. If she’d asked him before they left the starbase he’d have recommended installing better phase discriminators in each runabout. But she hadn’t asked him, so they would have to do their best with what they had onboard. He quickly surveyed the deflector array.

=/\= Make sure you tie in the neutrino band-pass filter and set it to high-gain. That should ensure the emissions remain constant, =/\= he added gruffly.

Thollin, Eng.

Lane read quietly over Karina’s shoulder with creased brow. This was a science different than his own, but understandable broadly.

Grauagen, Medical

=/\=Thanks for the tip =/\= Keiko’s voice replied, =/\=We shouldn’t need to hold it for long, however, if Athena isn’t good to go on the other side we may need to do it multiple times, is everyone ready? =/\=

Junior Gamemaster Conspiracy Theorist

Karina made the settings and was finally set. =^=Proteus ready=^= she finally said and waited for her signal to transmit. She was suddenly more thankful for the time the last few days she had spent in shuttles learning their systems more than she thought she needed. She’d have to send a thank you to the patient Lieutenant who answered her unending questions about every button and lever in the ship.

Karina
Doctor

Thollin keyed all the sequences into the controls, tying in the filter and setting it to high-gain as he completed the specified modifications to the deflector. He made a quick double-check of the configuration and nodded his approval.
=/\= Calypso standing by. =/\=

Thollin, Eng.

=/\= Excellent, alright everyone, bring it on my count when I hit zero, 5,4,3,2,1, zero! =/\=

Junior Gamemaster Conspiracy Theorist

Karina mouthed the final countdown and hit her button. She hoped everyone else was doing the same. Out the front window she watched as various other beams were emitted and she waited with held breath, hoping her ship would come home. The doctor murmured under her breath, “Come on… wwwoooorrrkkkkkk!”

Karina
Doctor

Thollin hovered his finger over the button, pressing it when the count reached zero. The deflector began to hum as it emitted the beam. Thollin scanned the instruments carefully.
=/\= Calypso reporting. All systems nominal. =/\=

–Thollin, Eng

Neutrino readings started to increase across the spectrum and for a moment it looked like they were going to punch through but then the field suddenly collapsed. However in the split second before it did, outlined by energy feedback, a small cloaked jamming probe was visible to sensors and then faded to black again.

Junior Gamemaster Conspiracy Theorist

Thollin was monitoring the readings carefully when he saw an anomalous feedback in the neutrino stream. His brow furrowed deeply. The feedback was setting up a resonance in the deflector. He was about to raise the alarm when the computer terminated the beam to prevent an overload. He had been too busy monitoring the deflector’s output to see the jamming probe briefly appear. A quick look at the other runabouts showed him their deflectors had shutdown as well.
=/\= This is Calypso. Somehow we’ve generated a feedback pulse that has triggered a shutdown. I’ll run a check on the equipment to see if it’s something we’re generating ourselves. =/\= He began a diagnostic of the deflector array, which quickly showed him everything was operating normally. He checked the sensor logs to see the output of the other runabouts and everything looked like it was within the specifications Keiko had sent. =/\= I don’t see anything wrong with our equipment, =/\= he added. He snorted and walked to the back console. Perhaps a more intense diagnostic would reveal the cause. ‘Or Keiko’s calculations are wrong and we’re just wasting our time…’

Thollin, Eng.

Karina had been monitoring the beams as well. Adjusting as much as she could till the shut down happened. But she had been looking so intently at the space where she had guessed her ship would show up, that she caught of glimpse of… something. “HEY!” But then her console beeped a second before the auto shut down occurred. Thankfully it hadn’t been up to her to shut it down or things might have gone wrong.

Her excited cry was repeated as she hit the comms. =^=Hey… there was something there. A jammer, or similar. I only caught a glimpse.=^= She was growling under her breath. The Athena was right there. She was sure of it. An idea struck her and her hand found the comm once more. =^= Can we repeat what we just did? Only this time, someone needs to fire into the opening the second it’s available. The object is just on the other side. A shot, quick, short and centered, should hit it without doing too much damage to the Athena if its behind it.=^=

It was a long shot, but she wasn’t going to let some sentinel machine keep her family from coming home. The sudden surge of realization that it was her family made her choke silently. The rest of the folks here were going to the ship for the first time. She was going home. Her determination, already ten fold, became a hundred fold in that moment.

Karina
Doctor