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Mission Brief Meeting - Conference Room-A

Posted Sept. 5, 2020, 5:22 a.m. by Lieutenant Hal "Hannibal" Brown (Chief Of Security) (Mike Monte)

Posted by Master Chief Petty Officer Robert Mooney (Medic) in Mission Brief Meeting - Conference Room-A

Posted by Captain John Tiberius Glen (Captain) in Mission Brief Meeting - Conference Room-A
[snip]

Listening to the officers intently, a thought began to form it’s his mind. Leaving his post at the door Mooney approached the conference room viewer to examine the pattern of contacts. Beginning to apply basic search and rescue methodology to locating a week signal he began to form a basic search area. Deep in thought, he began applying some analytical techniques to trace the contacts. First a basic analysis of random vs directed dispersion, then projecting back to the most probable point or points of origin as well as the most likely future appearances. Setting the computer to mute, wile her asked it to run analytical software.

A smile tugging at his lips as he remembered flirting with his lab partner, wile the instructor introduced Bear-Helms geo analysis method of coordinate analysis as it applied to SAR operations.

As mentioned the pulses seemed to show a travel method of a few light years between traveling to another unexplored system further beyond. Whether this was the unknown race’s ‘home’ or not couldn’t be answered.

Emi’ko Had been sitting quietly just looking over what they had before them namely the Warp Signature analysis

Again as mentioned the warp signatures were low key and short jumps really barely breaking warp 1. There wasn’t anything obvious that it was from a known species.

“I think we can agree only that we need a much closer look?” Glen proposed.

Glen was probably right, they were likely at the end of their admittedly short rope to question or find out more answers without simply getting out there into space to track things down.

“Well, does anyone have anything else to add?” Glen asked, minded to bring this meeting to a close and get on and gather further intelligence on the race from observation. “Hal, you’ve been quiet. Do you have any security concerns about contact with them?”

Hal was thinking. “They did seem to broadcast a general transmission to make first contact, Sir,” he suggested. “And the warp pulses would be indicative of testing out a new warp drive.”

Tia had remained stoically silent and was making copious notes as to the signatures and the signals. To her, assuming they weren’t advanced was a bit of a leap. Perhaps they just hadn’t gone more than Warp one in the area. Or perhaps they were crippled in some way and couldn’t go faster. Making a warp one only ship seemed a bit curious, but till they knew more, she certainly wasn’t one to jump to conclusions or even overly speculate.

Inola looked up from the communications. “They seem to be friendly. With some guesswork, we can assume they say their species name, their planet name, their greetings and their intent to make contact.” She shrugged. “It could be worse. In my professional opinion, they likely have some sort of religious view surrounding space and extraterrestrials. Chances are contact would be fairly straightforward and relatively safe. Excluding of course, the predilection to consume or sacrifice extraterrestrials.” She leaned back a bit, having said her piece. She realized something else and spoke again. “That also doesn’t account for changes in the years since it was sent.”

“Radio signals would predate the jump to warp speed,” Hal said. “But it would be far longer then a decade. On Earth, it took about 150 years.”

“And what are their intentions with us? Do they want to exchange recipes for whatever their version of apple pie is?”

“Do they want to study us? Experiment with us? Fornicate with us? Or war with us?”

William had only been half paying attention but the Security Chiefs third idea caught his attention, he turned his head around in an amused manner.

“Thank you for those interesting ideas,” replied Glen. “The radio signals have been estimated at 10 years old. Maybe they sent signals earlier but we haven’t detected them. In any case, I don’t think that from our inability to detect them, we can jump to the conclusion that they have made rapid technological advances. However, we should certainly think about that possibility.

We have no idea what they expect from meeting us, but Earth made similar radio broadcasts and sent out probes containing messages, and we didn’t have an agenda about meeting aliens either, we just thought it prudent to do so.

Whether they want to worship us, fornicate with us, or dine upon upon us; these things we cannot know in advance. However, I think that what we can do is to be very clear in our own actions towards them. We must be very careful to vet who we let come aboard, or who of our crew beams down to the surface, and possibly we meet them instead in some neutral surroundings. We must not appear aggressive, aloof, god-like or dictatorial. We must expect that theft of weapons and tech is very likely, and strictly limit it’s availability. We carefully explain that our magic tricks are merely advanced science. We must also respect whatever religions they hold.

Anything that I missed?”

There was also the more likely possibility that the radio message was more for anyone to hear not just the Federation.

“I’m hoping for a nice cultural exchange of recipes, Sir,” Hal admitted. “I’d like to try some of their locally brewed ale. And a bit of what passes for their fortification.”

“But I’m prepping for the worse case scenario of alien experimentation in advance of a.declaration of all out war. Just in case.”

“I’d like to mention that we need to be careful not to make assumptions beforehand based on such little data. Any preconceptions can distort how we view a new Species, we need to base our… well everything on the evidence we gather and not the hopes or fears we might have or share” He spoke calmly, hiding his internal excitement at the prospect of making first contact.

Inola laughed a little. “I wouldn’t be too worried if I were you. The captain’s right, they probably don’t have any malevolent plans. As long as we’re careful, it should be straightforward.” She looked around the room. “I haven’t worked with any of you before, but I get the feeling none of you are planning on going in and pretending to be gods, so that’s one less thing to worry about.”

“The uncertainty is why we should be cautious. We don’t know what has happened to them in the last ten years. This may be our first contact with them, but it might not be their first contact with aliens.” Kord offered.

“Indeed,” summarised Captain Glen, “they may have had a bad experience meeting some other race, they may have annihilated themselves in nuclear or biological warfare, or their society may have achieved Ascension to a higher plane of existence! We have no idea what has happened to them in the last 10 years and it is pointless to speculate upon what we don’t know. What we need is some evidence, which can only be achieved by getting out there and finding it. “

Glen finalised, “I think this conversation is beginning to run around in circles, so lets finish at that point. Our mission is to make contact with them, so that is what we will do, however, being cautious is prudent and some hidden observation first could do us no harm. If you all return to your departments and brief your junior officers we will get the Merri underway as soon as possible.”

Glen turned to the Ship Designer Emi’Ko, “I trust that the repairs all went to your satisfaction and we are okay to leave? I haven’t received the test reports yet. Or, if I have, I haven’t had a chance to open it yet. Could you outline the main findings to me before we leave K-5? I also hope that next time we meet, I will have made a better job of keeping to the Merrimack’s maintenance schedule.”

-Glen, CO

Despite what he suspected were simply not enough data points, Mooney attempted to apply a geo-temporal analysis to the data. He suspected that if he were to enlist the aid of the science department to look at the raw data, and other reports in the general area that might have been overlooked.

Some might be surprised to see the rough and ready Corpsman crunching numbers at a computer console, but SAR did involve ‘search’ before one could ‘rescue’. And despite the methodology being based on work buy crime annalists in the late twentieth century it had applications here.

In fact he was so engrossed in the problem he had forgotten the senior officers present as he worked.

MCPO Mooney

Hal said, “I’d just like to point out, Sir, that if they did manage to ‘annihilate themselves in nuclear or biological warfare’, our sensors would easily detect that. High radiation or noxious chemicals, abandoned and deserted cities. Large numbers of corpses. The signs will be there.”

CoS


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