Posted by Captain Molly Holloway (Commanding Officer) in Main Sim - Bridge - The Arrival

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Renveer (Executive Officer) in Main Sim - Bridge - The Arrival

Posted by Gamemaster Alias Smith N. Jones, Esq. (GMT) in Main Sim - Bridge - The Arrival
Posted by… suppressed (10) by the Post Ghost! 👻

SNIP

As the song ended on Winter’s part, it kept going on the other end. The being looked out of the view screen and it’s music became… insistent… forceful… emphatic. For the first time, gestures started. Wild ones, its arms flailing and its fingers pointing in almost every direction. And for the first time… more figures appeared behind the singer. Soon, their voices were added to the first’s and the music began to become uncomfortable in volume.

GMT

As the cacophony rose in volume; NE Shandar tried to focus. She was a woman of science; and she was attempting to apply those principles now. So, their thought resembles music… There must be a basis to its structure , right? So, what bits are repeated? Oh! There’s more of them - OK, so are they all in sync? What is being repeated, are they addressing each other; what are their emotions saying… When they see us, what music do I hear; regardless of what my ears say…

-NE Shandar

Renveer’s eyes widened as the chorus rose in volume. It was an alarming display, due to the stark difference in their body language. Obviously Ensign Winter had made an impression… His mind raced trying to think of other measures they could take to respond in a cooperative way.

The executive officer was staring at the ground a few feet in front of him, brow furrowed in thought. “Ensign Winter,” he directed the assistant counselor without looking at her, “see if you can isolate the most common or persistent musical note in their song. They harmonized with you, maybe now it’s our turn to harmonize back. If you can isolate the complimentary tone, even if it’s something as simple as a B flat, we can harmonize back and see if that has any effect on their behavior.”

(Lt. Cmdr. Renveer, XO)

Kerilah was watching the flurry of activity on the screen and realized it was only distracting her. She suddenly closed her eyes and listened, as she used to in her music lessons. She had never really learned to read music, but she had an incredible ear for it. She could hear the crashing of multiple instruments, colliding and falling away in a lovely kind of vocal, asymmetry. It was captivating, but again, she needed to stay focused. Both the Commander and the Captain were counting on her. Afterall, she had stirred the pot, which automatically put her on kitchen duty.

Then she heard a commonality between the aliens as they continued their concert of dialogue. It was slightly ‘off’, but consistent enough to be a pattern. She wasn’t sure what it meant, but it was definitely there. The first alien was definitely providing the founding melody, and although they were not repeating the same ‘phrasing’, she would almost describe the tone of what they were doing, as a musical round, like row-row-row your boat; which actually made sense for a conversation. So, she stepped forward once more and simply sang a few repeating notes that harmonized with that main melody.

As she kept singing, like a repeating beacon, she kept her demeanor and body language calm and open. A look of wide-eyed wonder on her face as she continued until either the aliens responded, or the Captain or XO told her to stop.

(Dr. Winter, Ens)

Holloway looked transfixed at the screen as more beings appeared on screen. With a quick order, she motioned to the comms officer to lower the volume of the call to a more comfortable volume.

Molly knew, Renveer and Winter were working on the song, so Holloway’s eyes took in the gestures, trying to make any sense of them. It was unclear to her at that point whether they were making some sort of dance, or whether they were accompanying body language that was simply very different than the one humanoid species used.

Turning to Simms, Holloway asked. “Lieutenant, is it possible to analyze the aliens gestures and see if the computer is able to match it to anything known in the Federation database? Anything that could possibly indicate what their usage is?”

Holloway, CO

It was at that very moment that Drillek almost shouted in excitement “I’ve got something!” and the music from the other ship went silent as the computer began to compensate.

=/\=… know… can’t… lost… help… dock… help us… tried… broken… trapped. =/\= was all that came through.

GMT

Molly’s thoughts were cut by the Engineer’s enthusiasm, and she rushed to him to see what he had found.

Renveer’s shoulders dropped in relief. It seemed more clear than ever that the aliens had not caused the phenomenon that was effecting Julian Echo station. At least not intentionally. “Dr. Drillek, does this mean they’ll be able to understand what we say now? Even partially?” Working from what the translator had already deciphered, it stood to reason that a response such as ‘us try help’ might concretely communicate their intentions, but Renveer was not certain if the translator was capable of replicating the complex musical tones needed to produce the alien language, rather than just understand it.

(Lt. Cmdr. Renveer, XO)

Drillek looked back at the XO. “Much like us, theyshould be able to grasp about ten to fifteen percent of what we say. Their language is so complex, though, I don’t know how well Federation Standard is going to translate back. They may get the ten percent, they may get nothing. Unfortunately, until we can get them to supply us with definitive linguistics, their music has too many potentialities to get much farther than that. And I am sure you are aware, but I want to make clear: only understanding ten to fifteen percent of a sentence leaves a great deal of room for miscommunication.”

GMT

Priscilla had moved up next to Drellik as he made the discovery. “I’m guessing they came to be helped by the station, but in docking, they somehow… broke… something. Now they are trapped.” She bit her lip. Glancing at Drillek, she shook her head wondering. “I know they are phasing in and out, somehow, but can we find the definitive location of their docking clamps? Perhaps we can find a way to separate them from the station in the middle of all that static and resonating?” She had moved to a console beside him to try and find that lock that held the ship to the station. Maybe if they separated, whatever was keeping them in that state of flux would rebalance itself.

Priscilla
CSO

The Dresden had been continuously scanning both the alien vessel and the station since they had come within range. Drillek pulled up the latest compilations and showed them to the CSO. “They aren’t phasing… see? It’s more like everything that is effected by whatever is going on is in some kind of stasis field. I think we were seeinga distortion of what was happening because we were scanning through that chroniton interference you found a few days ago, remember? And here, look…” and he brought up a view of the station and the ship. A perfect sphere of energy was displayed. It covered the entire station and, by sheer chance of how the ship had docked, half of the alien vessel. The field was centered at a point inside the station. Drillek scowled when he saw that and said “That’s the high energy laboratory…”

GMT

“So, what you’re saying is that something at the high energy laboratory is causing this stasis field that is affecting the station and is keeping the ship trapped here?” Holloway asked Drillek, looking at the diagram over his shoulder. “How close to the station can we go without risking being caught in it as well?”

Molly wondered exactly how would they be able to help the trapped aliens without being trapped themselves. Visiting the station or the high energy lab seemed out of the question at the moment. At least before they found out more about the phenomenon they were witnessing.

Holloway, CO

Priscilla bit her lip and started wondering out loud. “So if it’s in the lab and they are the center of the phasing, then the question is, can we set someone on the stable part of the ship or station, then send them into the lab to help shut down or destroy whatever is causing this? The question is,” she began typing over the console once more, “is there a way to safely send someone across the horizon line between the non phased and phased section and will they be able to tell those there what’s happening?” She furious searched for anything that could help with their predicament. They couldn’t move the station because it would merely take the field with it since the center was aboard. Frowning, her out loud musings continued. “And what happens if we try and uncouple the ship and remove it from the field?”

Priscilla
CSO
(curiouser and curiouser)

Drillek scanned the ship and station for a moment and then said “There! Right there, look.” and he pointed to an image on the Science console screen. A small triangular recess in the alien vessel’s starboard aft section, outside of the stasis field and away from the side of the ship facing the station, was visible. “I may be wrong of course, but that looks like it could be a docking hatch. We’d have to extend an umbilical because our clamps don’t fit that, but it should be doable. The material of their hull will accept our magnetic couplings. Although Engineering may have to fiddle with it to get it flush.”

GMT

OCC: Sorry for the delay, everyone! Time can really get away from you. I swear it didn’t seem that long since I last posted. Apologies!

---

Kerilah had stopped once the discovery had been made, and was quite relieved to have done so. Again, public singing wasn’t really her thing. Still, she felt so grateful to have been of assistance and she was fascinated by whatever was going to come next because this was far from over. She stood by Renveer and seized the moment to speak, “Commander, is there any way for us to condense the intention without getting bogged down in the language? Perhaps that will give us enough of a jumping-off point, like an image instead of a word?”

She was starting to feel like she belonged, but so far the XO was the only person she really knew. Speaking of…[*What can I do to help, now? Or should I be reporting back to sick-bay at this point?] She shook the thought off and focused on Renveer, which was easy to do. If he didn’t have a specific task for her, she would leave them to it and continue with her expected duties. Though she couldn’t help but hope for a bit more to do here; after all, it was first contact and she’d hate to miss the opportunity.

Priscilla’s voice came across the bridge just then. “Sir, we think we found a way to uncouple the ship and maybe remove it safely from the phasing zone. It’ll take engineering and a bit of fancy finagling, but I think we can rescue them.” She glanced at Drellik for confirmation and then back at the Captain. If they could remove the ship, then it was one less thing to worry about. Then they just had to get on the station, move through phase shifting areas and get the station to turn off whatever was on.

…. Piece of cake…

Priscilla
CSO

Drillek looked very confused for a moment and then shook his head. “No, no.” and he looked at the Capatin. “I’m saying we can dock with the alien vessel outside of the effected area. It will take a little modification to our docking umbilical, but it should work.”

GMT

“Alright.” Molly said a little more enthusiastically than she wanted. “Maybe we could bring them on board and work out our differences? Maybe formulate a plan with what they know and with what we know…” The latter words were more of a thought than an actual question, even though they were said out loud. “Doctor, Lieutenant.” Holloway continued addressing both Drillek and the CSO. “Have Engineering help you with that. I want a plan on what needs to be modified on the Dresden in order to dock with the alien vessel.”

Drillek nodded and began detailed scans of the docking hatch, relaying the results directly to the Engineering station and to Main Engineering.

Renveer nodded at Ensign Winter, guiding her over to one of the empty terminals. “We can work on formulating a greeting. We need to make sure that every word said is positive, welcoming… something that can’t be misconstrued by incomplete translation.” He wracked his mind for a starting point. “I like the image idea. But what do we send an image of? We’re trying to dock with the ship, but we don’t want them to think it’s a boarding party…” Renveer shook his head at his next thought. “Dr. Drillek mentioned an ‘umbilical’ tube. Could we use that literally? Send a picture of a human embryo in the womb, with an umbilical cord attached? My understanding is that almost all animals that have in-uterus pregnancies have fetuses that look similar up to a certain point, so if we chose an image of a fetus young enough, it should appear similar to how an ultrasound would appear for the aliens as well. I would hope that image would foster a sense of care and assistance, as if we might be the mother in the metaphor. And if they have also associated a similar docking mechanism with an umbilical cord in their language…”

Renveer looked to Winter, wondering if he was making any sense at all. It was an out-of-the-box idea, but this was an out-of-the-box scenario.

(Lt. Cmdr. Renveer, XO)

Keri smiled at Renveer with a combination of commraderie and wonder before she could stop herself, then buttoned it down before speaking; “That’s a great idea, sir. And even if it’s not perfectly understood, it would give us a starting point, much like my earlier performance”, she said with a wry grin. Talking to him was easy. She seemed able to brainstorm with him as if they were colleagues, without forgetting the chain of command. It just made lobbing ideas off one another more fluid, and less encumbered by the added stress of rank. “Besides, I can’t think of any way that image could hurt our cause”, she added.

She began running through the biological database to sample the best examples of the image the XO was looking for. As she was running through the options, she felt herself stealing a brief glance back towards the Captain; she really was an impressive woman. She seemed at ease in the ‘big chair’ without being cavalier, which Kerilah had heard a lot about during her training at Starfleet. [Even if it’s all a smoke-screen, she is still excelling where others have failed because it doesn’t show] She admired Captain Holloway, and she hoped she had made a good impression on her Commanding Officer.

The console indicated it had completed the search and offered several dozen options. She selected the top three, that showed a young enough fetus to be non-descript, but still subjectively identifiable as something being supported and cared for, then presented them to Cmdr. Renveer.

“Which one is our ‘ambassador’, sir?”

(Dr. Winter, Ens)

At that moment the computer made several more advances in translation. As the figure on the screen spoke / sang, their voice came through. “… help in stopping… laboratory… the field… trapped… accident… assist… stopped… sacrificed… power… satellite… find…”

GMT

As the words came through, Holloway’s gaze shifted between the console and the viewscreen where the call was still ongoing. The words seemed more and more disconnected the longer they went. She glanced at Renveer and Winter for a split second as she knew that they were tirelessly working on a way for them to explain to the alien beings who they were. But they couldn’t just leave them hanging indefinitely.

Turning to Drillek, she asked. “Was there ever the mention of an accident on board the station?”. Holloway suspected that she knew the answer already, but she might as well just ask.

“No, Captain. Last report was completely normal.” Drillek replied.

Finally, she walked back to the center of the Bridge, and standing in front of the center chair, she pointed to herself and then at the viewscreen, as she spoke three isolated words. “We help you.”

Holloway, CO

The alien looked at her for a moment and then leaned forward, as if they were having trouble hearing her. one of the Comms officers said “Captain, we get more facial reaction and body language when the messages are sung, rather than spoken.”

GMT

Renveer nodded the Ensign Winter and pointed to one of the images she had presented, but his attention was quickly drawn back to the viewscreen as the captain spoke. He lowered his voice to address Winter. “We’ll suggest this to the captain if verbal communication continues to give us problems, but for now your singing talents might be needed again.” Renveer was not keen on singing himself… of course he would if required, but part of him was nervous that if he sung off-key it’d be like he was using a negative tone of voice to the aliens… and he did not want that. For now, he’d let those more confident in their lyrical abilities handle the communication.

(Lt. Cmdr. Renveer, XO)

Molly sighed softly as the comms officer spoke. Singing was not one of her best abilities, and even though she knew it was for the good of the mission and so on, she was afraid of the possibility of making a fool of herself in front of the Bridge crew.

Looking around, her eyes settled on Renveer and Winter, and she moved towards them. “Any progress?” She asked the two officers more as a proforma rather than anything else, before turning to the young Ensign. “Ensign Winter, the tune you sang a few moments ago was the first breakthrough we had. Do you think you’d be able to uh… sing our messages to them?” An apologetic smile broke her lips. “According to Dr. Drillek, they should be able to understand around 10% of what we are saying. Right now we are just trying to let them know that we are going help them. And you are quite more competent at singing than I am.”

Holloway, CO

At that moment Drillek stood up. “I’m going to Engineering to help with the modifications to the umbilical clamps. I will send word when we are ready.” and he turned and walked off the bridge.

GMT