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Sim Start

Posted March 3, 2021, 7:47 a.m. by Captain Michelle Allen (Captain) (James Harrison)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Maeve Harlow (Chief of Security) in Sim Start

Posted by Gamemaster Deus Ex Machina (GM) in Sim Start

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Peter Sigmundsson (Chief Intelligence Officer) in Sim Start
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻
<SNIP>

There initially wasn’t a response to the hail. Then the ship started sending out beeps. Beep pause Beep Beep, pause, Beep Beep Beep, pause, Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep, pause, Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep, pause, Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep, pause, Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep.

GM

Markus frowned as the beeps came in, but then quickly tapped a few buttons on his console, running them through what he knew of codes. It wasn’t morse code. It wasn’t a prison speed code, at least based off of English. It wasn’t binary. Analyzing the beeps as dots, he nodded to himself feeling fairly certain as to what it was. “If I’m right, and I usually am,” Markus said. “The beeps are meant to indicate prime numbers in Base Ten mathematics. One, two, three, five, seven, eleven, thirteen. i believe the vessel is waiting for a response back, completing the next part of the sequence.” He felt he was on the right track, but it was still just a best guess. All science really is, is making your best guess. However, testing that guess, making guesses based on a lot of information that makes it very very likely is all part of exploring the unknown.

More over, this was one way to recognize another intelligent species, as covered in a lot of Starfleet’s first contact protocols. There were others, of course, but this was a pretty simple one. Others were ways to indicate one’s understanding of Pi, and the Pythagorean Theorem, indicating an understanding of matter and physics, and so on. So far this was a good start, if the vessel was trying to establish a First Contact, or establish intelligence. At least in his mind.

Lt Woods, CSO

Michelle had been mostly silent, watching her crew and seeing what they would do. She turned to look at the CSO. “Send a response as you see fit. Let’s make sure sensors are running constant scans, I want as much information as possible. Tactical, any analysis?” She asked.

-Captain Michelle Allen

“Aye,” Markus replied, then sent back the next three prime numbers in the sequence, seventeen, nineteen, and twenty-three, in beeps while monitoring with their sensor resolution turned all the way up. “Come on, we’re talkin’ back now. Let’s have a lil conversation,” murmured the Lieutenant, ostensibly talking to the vessel nearby.

Lt Woods, CSO

Peter frowned at the answer to the hail, it wasn’t the norm these days to answer a hail with math. With no obvious life signs, it could mean that the onboard computer was simply trying to communicate, still, first contact was not his specialty and neither was mathematics. He trusted the Science Chief to know what he was doing.

CIO

The sequence of beeps stopped and the ship shifted course slightly using maneuvering thrusters coming to bear more directly at the Viking.

A deep uneasiness began to make itself home in Watley’s mind. What was this thing and why was it communicating in the manner that it was? He had a gut feeling that whatever this thing was, it was trouble of some sort. “Captain” he said in a hushed tone, “I think going to yellow alert as a precautionary may be a good idea at this time, we have no idea what this vessel is or what whoever is talking to us wants.”

Lt. Cmdr. Maxwell Watley- XO

“Very well,” Michelle said, nodding. “Yellow Alert!” she ordered.

A few moments passed and the active scans could see that the ship seemed to start primary power up. As any Star-Fleet engineer would know getting a ship from off to on isn’t an instantaneous process. The ship started sending a series of images and verbal terms that seemingly matched the picture. The speed started slowly until it was a blur that only the computer would be able to comprehend. However because of the speed there was no way the biologicals could prevent a message that the didn’t want to go through. Of course the computer had automatic defenses so logic suggests it would be safe.

GM

Maeve was watching the whole situation from her security console behind the captain and first officer. “Captain, the ship is powering its primary systems.” Maeve then watched the sensors to determine if any weapon systems were powering up along with the ship’s primary core.

Lt.Cmdr Maeve Harlow - COS

Markus watched the sensor feeds as well, noting the systems powering up. Then more transmission. The beep/pulse transmission was about as low power as one could get and communicate at least a little. But as systems began coming online, a carrier wave started up with a data stream, image and video, phonics and so on. It came faster and faster. “Captain, it looks like we’re getting a language upload. The computer systems are chewing through what they’re sending now. The universal translator should have full communication… about now.” For most Terran languages, a library of around 1600 words was needed to establish conversational to fluency range. People had the misunderstanding that fluency was achieved when someone knew pretty much an entire language. But in truth, fluency came when someone could think in a given language without needing to translate back and forth. That only took about seventy-five to eighty percent, and some practice. But the computer systems were getting a big dump, and more than enough for the translator to work with.

The information dump could have come as a cyber attack, planting a virus or program in the system. But there were a lot of safeguards. In Markus’ mind this was more of an attempt to communicate. A Golden Disk being sent ahead, to pave the way for more direct communication. Wanting to talk first was at least a somewhat positive indicator.

“I’ll see if we can get this mess into something coherent,” he asked. Communications wasn’t really his specialty. But he had basic skills picked up over the years. He glanced over to the other bridge officers, wondering if there were any linguists aboard. At the same time, he started setting up a queue and filters, the former to set things up in a first-in-first-out format to see if there was any kind of playback or order to what they were being sent.

Lt Woods, CSO

Peter looked at the information coming through, to his mind it read like a wartime intelligence report, giving an overflow of information so that it couldn’t be read by those it wasn’t intended for. His own linguistic skills were limited to half a dozen federation languages and a handful of non-federation languages he’d picked in his years as a private citizen, good things to have in the intelligence field but not so good for this situation.

CIO

The flow of pictures and text stopped after a dozen seconds after a pause of perhaps another second came a written response. =^=Greetings… Welcome Aboard.=^= The message repeated. The ships impulse engines fired up and the ship was going 1/3rd light speed… which was inconsequential given the distance, but was a clear sign of heightened interest in making contact.

Scanners were able to detect weapon hard points for beam weapons, likely phased laser beams, tubes for missiles or torpedoes, and other energy projection systems perhaps tractor beams. There were no shields detected as of yet, but a magnetic field had just activated - again likely to deflect micro meteors since the ship had accelerated significantly.

GM

“Captain, detect laser beam weaponry…” That wouldn’t even be able to scratch the paint Thought Maeve. “The ship also has what appears torpedo tubes. They also appear to have passive defensives but no shield emmeters besides a basic magnetic field. Captain… It’s almost as if it came from earth’s late 21st century.”

Maeve continued to monitor all her sensors to determine if there were any potential threats, ready to hit the Red Alert if it the command was given.

Lt.Cmdr Maeve Harlow - COS

“Continue scans, keep shields down but at the ready. We don’t want to appear threatening.” Michelle said in response to the CoS.

Michelle looked over at her CIO. “Anything you recognize?” Often times Intelligence officers had information that other crew did not. Her own background in Intelligence was often an asset. She did not recognize this specific design of craft, but that did not mean there weren’t files and records that other intel officers may have read.

-Captain Michelle Allen


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