Posted by Lieutenant Commander Avik (XO) in Main Sim: Europa Arrives

Posted by Gamemaster Creeping Dread (Gamemaster) in Main Sim: Europa Arrives

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Madison Sullivan (Chief Engineer) in Main Sim: Europa Arrives
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

SNIP

“I think one of the ways to determine if they have warp capabilities is to observe that ship. If we can also scan it without alerting the natives, it might have evidence on it.” It was a light suggestion from the top of her head, but a sound one in her eyes. She hoped the Captain would see that or someone would come up with better suggestions.

–XO, Avik, Lt. Cmdr

“Exactly my thought, Ms. Avik,” the Captain said. “Let’s do that instead. Passive sensors, please,” he ordered everyone on the Bridge. “Helm, hold this position for now.”

“Put the ship pulling away on screen, and magnify.”

– Johann Dvorak, CO

The viewscreen magnified the ship in question. In comparison to Cochrane’s ship that led to Earth’s first contact with the Vulcans this ship was two to three times larger and not as streamlined cylindrical. What could be considered warp nacelles, without seeing them in action, were placed in front of the ship in a way that might hint at pulling it into warp instead of propelling it. Passive sensors detected deuterium and helium being used in a fusion reaction to fuel the ship’s systems. The traditional propulsion system seemed to be chemical reaction based with liquid oxygen being burned to provide thrust. The science ensign relayed these details to the Captain.

“That’s a little odd that they have a fusion plant, but chemical propulsion,” the Captain thought aloud. “You’d expect a society with fusion power technology would be able to also use it for more efficient propulsion, at least in terms of specific impulse.” Though, this planet had unusually heavy gravity, so perhaps the tradeoff for them still favored the higher thrust provided by chemical rockets.

The ship’s chemical propulsion turned off as it coasted further away from the station. It was aligned on an outbound course from the suns and seemed to be building energy as the fusion reactor output increased. With a flash of light it entered warp, which the Europa’s sensors tracked, before it quickly dropped out of warp 20 AU away. Seemed like they had warp tech, but the next questions is did they develop it themselves?

GM Dread

Mattie scanned the warp trail and began analyzing it for comparison to the various warp signatures that were in the computer. She worked quietly as she also watched the ships at the station.

CE

OOC: What are you looking for exactly?

Avik digested the information given by the science officer. In a few ways, it shared the same characteristics of Earth’s early space years design. However, there were clear differences. She suspected these changes were influenced by the planet’s environment and other features. She made a note to contact Officer Zorell shortly for details.

When someone broke the prime directive, the similarities were uncanny and betrayed the source. There now was evidence that could support this civilization developing far more rapidly than expected.

“The only question left is to determine if they developed it themselves or obtained it from another source,” Avik stated out loud then turned to the CO.

“Now, we can follow your idea of contacting them and start an investigation.”

–XO, Avik, Lt. Cmdr

“Let’s make sure we know what we’re getting into before we actually contact someone,” the Captain said. “I mean… we don’t have enough information yet to determine that they did or didn’t make it themselves. I would expect that if they didn’t make it themselves, then they’d have skipped past a design like this that uses fusion power entirely in favor of some kind of anti-matter based system, which is vastly more common for warp drives given the high power requirements.”

“Can we get a sense of that ship’s capabilities? I can’t imagine they can sustain warp speed for that long if they’re using a fusion plant? I mean, that’d be like trying to run our warp engines with our impulse reactor.”

“Also, are there any communications between that ship and anyone else in the system that we could potentially listen in on?” He wanted to have someone trying to listen in to media broadcasts on the planet, also, which was what he was about to order before the ship stole everyone’s attention.

– Johann Dvorak, CO