Whispers in the Dark

Posted on Sun Feb 21, 2021 @ 9:46pm by Lieutenant Penelope Naroot & Lieutenant JG Aergad Halvor & Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD

1,351 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Archangel
Location: Brig

The brig was quiet. Officially, it had to be manned, to not do so needed a department head approval. He was manning it, so Security could have the Brig crew. Win win. He was looking at data correspondence, audio and written for everything Archangel. He found something odd. A type of ship that is part of his whispers that can't go into certain atmospheres and stars, doing it. "Halvor to Naroot and Levesque. I'm in the brig. If you have half a minute, can you come see me? I have a Science Question per my current assessment."

Penny skipped into the brig and leaned against the door frame. "I've got a few minutes break from the wheel. What's up?"

"I can fly, but I am far from being you." He offered her the tablet. ""This cargo ship keeps going into this sector. That sector has a star with radiation that would destroy that model's shields. This says it is a Federation cargo ship with a Federation Captain. The service numbers don't match up. Nothing matches. It is just a transport order that seems to go to no where. Would you fly that that close to that star on purpose? Could it be done? Not engineering or flight regulations. Just can it?"

Camille came in behind Penny a moment later. "What's this?" She looked over Penny's shoulder. "That's quite the radiation output."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Penny said. "You'd need serious metaphasic shielding, and even then it would be a hot ride. But on a cargo ship that size?" she tilted her head. "What do you think, Camille? Could a cargo ship that size be equipped with metaphasic shields that could withstand that zone?"

"Let me get a closer look," Camille said. She took the PADD from Penny, adjusted where her glasses sat on her face, and began studying it closely. "Something looks strange with this. I can't quite...Un moment, s'il-vous-plaît." With that, she zoned out and began her own in-depth analysis, opening multiple tabs on the tablet to research why the information bothered her.

Grinning, Halvor went to a panel and brought up beacon and satellite footage for the area, at the specified time and date. There was radiation distortion. "That is a drop and hook." Cargo was being dumped into space and picked up. "The pick up ship is a short range runner."

Penny watched the footage, her head tilted. "So it is one, or it looks like one. If it is one, there's something nearby we don't know about. If it looks like one, then it's a trick to get to somewhere else." She watched things move. "Then again....this does look familiar. Almost--"

"I have it!" Camille exclaimed. "I knew this looked odd, but I couldn't place it until I realized it was familiar." She went to another panel and brought up the radiation output data of the star in question. "This is the spectrum and quantity of energy put out by the star per second. It's high, as you noticed, such that a ship going THAT close would easily take nineteen-thousand rads. A good metaphasic shield on a starship can usually protect up to about ten-thousand rads, maybe twelve-thousand at most. Something that small, probably only eight-thousand rads. But here's the thing..." She brought up another star. "This is Eta Carinae A, an unusually bright and radioactive star just outside Federation space. It's been studied countless times over the centuries. The spectral and energy data is identical. And it can't be; that's impossible."

She gestured to the images that Halvor had shown, of the ship that got as close as it did to the star in question. "I believe someone faked the star charts to show this as a highly radioactive navigation hazard. They may also have a satellite in place to transmit false data. If that star is actually a G-type of similar mass, then getting that close would be...well not trivial, you would still need a metaphasic shield, but it wouldn't need to be as durable. A ship that small could probably power one, at least for long enough to do what they needed to do."

"Which makes it a good clandestine resupply point," Penny said. "The question is, whose is it?"

Halvor spoke, "DCOs do drop and hooks like this a lot. RRTs get resupplied in a similar manner. Even classified, someone knows. It has signs. Lying on an Official Starchart takes umph, not just Starfleet Rank based authority. It is a hard lie to maintain."

"Not just Starfleet," Camille noted. "This would need to include civilian-used star charts as well. Not to mention the charts used by any other powers operating in this vicinity, allies and enemies alike." She checked the coordinates of the star in question. "This drop point is well into the Delta Quadrant, not too far from our current position, but that doesn't preclude the Romulans or the Klingons, par exemple, from sending scouts this way. Whomever runs this drop point needs to trick not just every Starfleet and Federation civilian vessel from going close, but them too."

Halvor brought up the sector report and astrophysicist report, "This is a Starfleet sector report. I run the name of the Captain and can't find them. Is this an Astrophysicist you recognize?" Non Starfleet Scientists wouldn't be in our system unless they wrote papers that were used by Starfleet.

"Oui, en effet," Camille answered, as she skimmed the report and saw the name and affiliation of the astrophysicist in question. "He's a professor at UC Berkeley. Top school, close to Starfleet Command, well respected astronomy and astrophysics department. But here's the thing: he doesn't do surveys or analyses like this. Never did. Trust me; I worked with one of his grad students on a project years ago. He doesn't like working with Starfleet, and he focuses his attention on Neutron Stars." She chuckled. "It's actually an incredibly good fake. Use a name of an institute people respect and a name people recognize, so they never doubt the report's legitimacy."

Halvor looked at her, "Your man, King, is on medical restriction. I found a bunch of these. You okay with me to sending them to him? This way I can look at Com data." He didn't tell her, he already did.

“No need to ask,” she said. “Just make sure I’m aware of cross-departmental taskings like this, so I know what my team is working on and can prioritize as necessary.”

Halvor looked at Camille, "Done. I sent him a bunch." He looked at Penny, "You want all my queries on ship design sent to you?"

Penny kept her head tilted, staring at the readings, then blinked and refocused as she realized she was being spoken to. "Yes, definitely," she said. "I'd love to see how they cobbled it together."

Halvor made some keystrokes. "Every ship that I found that goes places it shouldn't go based on record schematics just got sent to you Penny. There are 23 total. I may just be missing something on a few of them. I also included duration they were in areas they shouldn't go. Pilots and Engineers tend to know things that the one record ship tolerances don't show." Things like a lift is Rated for a ton, but it handle 1.2 tons on a regular basis and 1.5 tons for short bursts.

Penny nodded, head tilted. She stayed quiet then blinked. "Okay I'll add it to my reading list," she said, then smiled at them and skipped out of the room, heading back to the bridge.

By the time she got back to her panel, she had those files and the highlighted weird, "Dr Levesque, that woman is incredibly hyper. I'm surprised she doesn't have a cherry sucker and a Catholic school skirt."

“Who’s to say she doesn’t?” Camille replied cheekily. “I need to go back to my lab and check in with Monsieur King. If you find anything else of interest, please send it our way.”

Halvor went back to reviewing data.

 

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