More Questions Than Answers..
Posted on Tue Nov 5, 2013 @ 7:59pm by Fleet Captain Rhea Kennit & Lieutenant Samantha Raylen & Lieutenant Commander Miguel Torres
2,506 words; about a 13 minute read
Mission:
A Whole New World: Part 1 - Precipice
Location: U.S.S. Victory - Bridge
Timeline: 62536.899 {Tue, 04 Dec 2384 18:51}
Bridge
With the away team safely back aboard the Victory, the Captain's attention shifted gears to that small alien ship which had slipped away from the hulk and disappeared (so it seemed) from their sensors. "Bring up the visual recording of the unidentified vessel which departed from the wreck.." she ordered as she walked to stand by the tactical station.
"Aye Captain.." on the tactical display console, the visual recording from Victory's sensors appeared. She frowned slightly, unaware of the expression on her features as she focused intently on the sleek, dark gray vessel as it dropped down using the planet's gravity to draw it away from the derelict and then engaged a drive system which cast a blue/white glow from it's dual propulsion units. A quick touch on the console and the screen split to show the visual recording as well as the sensor data collected. The readings were quite.. unusual. The computer was unable to determine if the ship was manned with a living being or not, a fact which the Captain found to be quite puzzling.
For her own part, Rhea had never seen readings like what she was looking at. The sensor data was too short, the ship had departed and disappeared before they'd been able to take more detailed scans..
The recording was coming up on the point now where the ship had vanished from sensors, and as she watched an odd spatial distortion formed around the alien vessel before it seemed to elongate oddly, an effect of the distortion field perhaps?, and then vanish.
"What the hell did we just see happen?" she said, speaking to no one in particular. Looking at the current sensor data on the derelict, she said "I want a complete sweep of that things hull.. find out if there are any more of those ships attached to it.."
Exiting the transporter room on the room Alec reached the nearest lift, "Bridge" He snapped as the lift jerked into motion. Only then did he realize he was still in his PPE suit. Sighing with frustration a swell as knowing that Rhea would undoubtedly have a comment about his appearance, he began to remove the suit before the lift reached the bridge, snapping the button open he had the suit halfway off, as the lift reached it's destination and the doors hissed open.
"Dammit!" He growled in anger as he froze in mid motion and then muttered, "Oh the hell with it." And continued to remove the suit. Once done he made his way to the Captain. "Sorry about my appearance, I wanted to get it as fast as I could." His eyes drifted to the tactical display, "What are we looking at?"
"That is the question of the hour Number One," the Captain said as she stood straight and looked at him. "It appears that ship over there was not quite as abandoned as we thought. Sensors detected a small ship, approximately 8.94 meters in length. Our computers can't identify it.. and it's not like anything we've encountered, from it's hull composition which is unidentified, to whatever its using as a propulsion system.."
Alec looked at her, digesting what she was telling him. "I'd say that's impossible but clearly it isn't." As he waited to hear Daystrom's opinion on the mystery ship.
Looking over towards operations, the Captain said "Lt. Daystrom, I need for you to run an analysis of the sensor recording we have of the smaller alien ship. Build a computer model of the vessel we can use for a breakdown analysis.. and I want a scan of the hull on the derelict where it appeared to drop down from.. I want to know if it was inside the derelict in a bay of some kind, was it attached to the hull, was it just drifting using the hulk to shield itself from us.. the fact that it broke away as it did and disappeared worries me. It was going somewhere.. and I'm worried about what will happen when it reaches it's destination and reports our activity here.."
"Yes, Ma'am!" answered Dani from the OPS console, as she began dancing her fingers across the surface of her LCARS interface. The pretty brown-skinned Operations chief was eager to get a good look at the data collected by the Away Team, and it was with wide-eyed enthusiasm that she began reconstructing a metrigraphic model of the unidentified ship. "The vessel appears to have a single-hull fixed-wing design," reported Dani, her dark-brown eyes flitting across the data as it scrolled across her screen. "Length: 8.94 meters. Height: 1.52 meters. Wingspan: 5.59 meters. Forward swept-wing design denotes atmospheric flight capabilities ..." Dani trailed off for a moment, her eyes hardening as she absorbed more of the metrigraphic model's extrapolations. "Ma'am, preliminary analysis indicates multiple possible tactical hardpoints on the vessel's fuselage, including two possible forward cannons mounted at the wing roots ..." Dani stopped and turned to look at Captain Kennit. "My first, best guess, Ma'am, is that the vessel is some type of interceptor or fighter craft."
"A fighter... great.." the Captain answered in a low voice. "What are the sensors showing currently.. any other activity in the sector we need to worry about?" she asked.
Dani worked her fingers upon her console's smooth glass surface, taking a moment to interface with Victory's telemetric, tactical and even navigational sensor arrays. "Nothing as yet, Ma'am," answered Lieutenant Daystrom. "Telemetry is still incoming on the area where the ship disappeared, but other than that ... it's all quiet out there."
"Keep an eye out.. that ship was heading somewhere and we can be sure of one thing, where ever it was going when it arrived it will have reported that we're here. Someone was watching that ship for a reason, and I do not want to be taken by surprise.." the Captain answered.
"Aye aye, Captain," nodded Dani with a smile. "I've got my eyes peeled, Ma'am."
Alex made his way on to the bridge after changing out of his pressure suit and into the standard uniform. He had intended to head to the astrometrics lab but had an idea on the turbo lift, so he headed right for the science station currently being manned by a young Ensign. Not wanting to disturb the others he spoke quietly. "Do we have sensor data of this ship when it vanished?" The woman nodded. "Pull it up, specifically theta-banned. I want to see if there's any sign of spacial distortion."
Exiting the turbolift with the Cartographer, Chief Barnes took a position near the rear of the bridge, quietly observing the activity. While the Away Team was over on the alien vessel, Tom had maintained an active comm channel with the bridge in the event of an emergency. Now that the team was back and his shift over, he thought it would be best to pick up some extra information should he have to handle morale changes and scuttlebutt amongst the enlisted crew.
Walking a few steps to where the XO was standing, the Captain continued to watch as her crew studied the visual and telemetric data showing the alien ship disappear as she said, "You all right?"
He turned to face her, "Sure, I'm fine just thinking. You know I have a bad feeling that our world suddenly got a lot more complex with the sighting of that ship."
"You and me both.." she answered. "I think we should consider getting out of here.. moving on now.. I'm not sure it's wise to stick around and see who might show up .."
"I call that sound and prudent judgment and couldn't agree more with it." Alec answered, "What course and speed? Do you want the shields raised as well? Just in case that ship returns and brings friends." His thinking clear, it was better to be safe than sorry when dealing with the unknown.
"What was our next system to be scanned and charted?" she asked. "And have we completed the initial sensor scans of this system so that the data can be entered into the navigational database?"
The young science officer gave the woman he'd been talking to a light pat on the shoulder as he relieved her. Alex slipped into the chair at the science station and tapped a few buttons as he checked on one of Rhea's request. "Captain, we're a little light on initial mapping scans, but I believe it would meet the basic requirements for our mission."
"How much time do you need to complete the mapping scans?" the Captain asked.
Volos turned his chair to look back at the Captain and shrugged slightly. "Depends on what we find, about an hour to finish preliminaries." Of course that meant having a map that would have big holes labeled "stuff" but it was better than nothing.
With a nod, the Captain said "Get your scans done.. maintain yellow alert and keep a very.. very.. close watch on the sensors. And be ready to break orbit and exit this system at maximum speed.. The sooner we're out of here the better but at the same time, we have a job to do.. so lets do it and get underway.."
"Aye, Captain." The young science officer said with a nod as he turned back to his station.
Then, she looked at the XO. "Join me in my ready room.. I want to hear what you found over there.."
"Yes Captain. Be glad to fill you in." Alec replied, he would have preferred they went to red alert but he had to admit the Captain was correct. There was no sign of danger, The area was clear ..... for now.
"Chief Barnes," she said. "You have the con. The XO and I will be in the Ready Room. If anything gets picked up on the sensors I want to know immediately.." she told him.
Tom was momentarily surprised at the command, firstly because he had lost himself in the chatter from the senior officers and secondly he hadn't thought the captain noticed him coming onto the bridge. She certainly was on top of her senses, especially in a crisis. "Aye, Captain," he quickly replied.
Then, with a nod of her head she indicated for the XO to accompany her to the Ready Room.
As the command team left the bridge, Tom moved towards the center chair, but did not sit down. He instead stood beside it, arms folded behind his back. His eyes scanned the bridge, noting the various officers all at work. It didn't surprise him to learn that all but two people on the bridge outranked him. Each one had a job to do more important than temporary command of the ship. Thomas didn't mind in the slightest. He liked to try new avenues and taking he con was indeed new. He hoped the captain didn't know this was his first official watch, perhaps she'd never do so again if she did.
For now, he would gladly keep watch over statuses and stood by to notify anything of importance to the captain.
[Ready Room]
Entering the Ready Room with Alec following, the Captain walked towards the couch set by the viewport and sat. Looking at him, she said "Well.. what did you see over there?"
For the moment Alec stood as it was his place, this was First Officer reporting to Captain. "It was unbelievable Captain! The ship was like nothing I've ever seen before. It seemed organic and inorganic at the same time. The that experiment we found in the lab. You heard Anderson, it's not like the Borg, a hodge podge. This was a union of flesh and metal. I don't know any race that has that kind of technology. Also there was no warmth to the ship, I don't mean from a temperature standpoint. I mean it was cold, barren of any decorations. I don't know what Miguel and Mr. Volos saw but I can tell you this that ship is not from around here."
"Was there anything that indicated the age of the vessel?" she asked him, "Or how long it's been abandoned?"
Alec shook his head from side to side. "Nothing Captain,it looked to be ready to stand a fleet inspection. There was no dust buildup that would be there had the equipment not been used in awhile, in addition there was no sign of wear on any of the equipment we saw, no frayed conduits nothing. The ship still had power. That ship could have been abandoned ten minutes before we came on board. Or ten years. Point is I don't know."
"The hull was breached, that means the interior would be clean.." she said softly, thinking aloud more than speaking to him. "Damn.. there's no way to determine how long it was here without spending more time studying it and I'm worried about that ship that dropped away from it's hull, and even more worried about where it was going.."
She paused a moment, thoughtful. "No signs of it's crew.. of who or..what built it?" she asked, looking up at him once more. "What about that robot Torres had brought back aboard.. did you get a look at it?"
He shook his head, "No sign of a crew or crew ever being aboard. No plates or cups strewn about. No anything Rhea." He paused fora moment, "As for the robot Miguel and Volos found, no I didn't see it. The Doc and I were busy looking at the hybrid or whatever you want to call it. We were in a different section of the ship."
"huh.." she said, standing up in a fluid movement. "Well if you haven't seen it..and I know *I* haven't seen it.. care to accompany me down to take a look at this thing our Chief Engineer and Stellar Cartographer brought back as a souvenir?"
"I'd like nothing more Captain. I confess I am curious to see just what it is they brought back and if it looks like anything like what we discovered. Maybe we can get some idea of just who or what we're dealing with."
Flashing him another smile, she answered "Excellent! Well then what are we standing around here for? Lets head down to Engineering, collect Mr. Torres and then go take a look at what he brought aboard
.."
Tapping her comm badge, she said "Kennit to Torres."
Torres looked up as he heard his name being called out by the Captain."Torres here, what can I do for you Captain?"
"The XO and I are on the way down to meet you.. I want to take a look at this robot you brought back aboard.. Where is it stored?"
"Engineering Support Lab 1 on Deck 9." he replied immediately.
"We'll see you there .." the Captain answered.
Alec waved his arm in front on him, "After you Captain." He said gallantly as they prepared to make the trip to Engineering and see just what it was Miguel and Volos had brought back.
TBC...
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