Well, That Escalated Quickly
Posted on Tue Oct 8th, 2019 @ 1:02am by Captain Aviram Drell & Lieutenant Daisuke Hafan, 3rd Tribe of Bon-Hwa & Commander Temperance Zachary & Lieutenant Ibem Zehl & Ensign Naloh
Edited on on Fri Nov 1st, 2019 @ 3:40pm
Mission:
Episode 02: "Samaritan"
Location: Main Bridge, USS Vesta
Timeline: Mission Day 01, 0832 Hours
ON: [[Main Bridge, USS Vesta, Mission Day 01, 0832 Hours]]
A small flicker of pseudo-motion twisted in the darkness of space. Moments later, there was a crackle of light and a magnificent starship appeared out of nowhere. The vessel slowed, adjusting its course, until it came to a stop outside a little known star-system only a short distance away. Instead of being pointed inward toward the system's core, however, the ship was pointed away toward an unseen phenomena light-years distant.
Inside, the beta-shift crew went about their work. They had spent much of the early morning traveling at high warp. The only ambiance during that time had been the soft, semi-musical tones from their consoles and the occasional verbal report.
Naloh looked up from where she was monitoring ship's communications. It took her a moment to realize what had drawn her attention, but then she noticed that several of her colleagues had turned toward the large window along the forward bulkhead. Curious, she followed their gaze, peering intently at the starfield visible ahead of them.
"You're not going to see it," a voice said from somewhere behind her, "Not at this distance, anyways."
The Benzite turned around to face the science officer. "What do you mean?"
"We're still too far away to get a direct visual," Ibem explained. As if to prove their point, the Bajoran keyed a sequence into their workstation. This caused a colored shape to appear overlaid on the window, highlighting a single point of light out of the hundreds visible. It then expanded into the lower right-hand side of the frame to show a somewhat pixelated image of blurred colors. "See?"
"What exactly are we looking at?" Temperance asked curiously, watching the screen with interest.
"The Amargosa Remnant, ma'am," Ibem replied, raising their voice to address the commander.
"Excellent," Temperance replied as she smiled, leaning back in the command chair and watching. "Initiate the long range scans and notify science to prepare to launch the probes. Keep an eye on the surrounding area. We need to know about any and all changes, no matter how insignificant they may appear. We don't want to leave anything to chance."
"Yes, ma'am."
Ibem relayed the order to their team in stellar cartography. Once that had been taken care of, they turned their attention to the next task. They pulled up the flight plans for the first series of probes and checked them against the navigational computer. A few minor adjustments had to be made to compensate for local ambient conditions, but otherwise, everything seemed to be in order.
"Lieutenant Hafan," they said, turning to address the tactical officer, "I've confirmed the vectors for our probes. Transferring the corrections to you now..."
"Received," He replied. His webbed hands were able to spread across a good section of his panel as he sat comfortably on the floor. His head swayed with the taps of his fingers. "Corrected." He stated again once he was confident all the information was updated.
"Launch the probes when ever everyone is ready and start recording immediately. We don't want to take any chances and we don't want to miss anything." Temp leaned forward, watching the view screen. She was definitely eager to get under way again, Amargosa was something she was excited to be seeing first hand.
Naloh turned back to her console. Now that the probes had been launched, it was her responsibility to make sure they were transmitting properly. She would have to listen to each probe in turn, monitor for their transponder signal, and confirm that telemetry was actually being received. As she was tuning in to the final probe, however, a burst of static exploded in her ear.
The sudden noise startled Naloh, causing her to jump slightly in her chair. She glanced quickly at the readouts to see if she could figure out where the static had come from. At first, everything seemed to be reading normal. Another burst of static, longer than the first, came through the earpiece. This time, Naloh thought she could almost hear someone's voice.
"Commander..."
Immediately Temperance's attention was drawn from the screen to Naloh. "Is there a problem Ensign?"
"I'm not sure," Naloh confessed, frowning slightly, "but I believe I'm receiving a transmission."
"From one of the probes," Ibem asked. It was concerning that the Benzite would be confused. If the transmission coming from any of their probes seemed strange, it could have been an indication there was some sort of problem, and that was not what Ibem wanted to hear.
Naloh tilted her head, but did not respond. She seemed to concentrate intently on whatever she was hearing. One hand went to the earpiece, pressing it tighter against her ear. The other began manipulating the surface of her workstation in an effort to clear up the signal. She wanted to be certain she knew what she was talking about before saying anything more.
"Is it a transmission?" Temperance asked, a fleeting hint of concern etching across her face momentarily at the sudden change in the Ensign's demeanor.
"Sorry, ma'am," Naloh replied, "It is confirmed. We are receiving a distress call."
"Play the audio," Temperance ordered, steepling her fingers together. "Lieutenant Hafan, can you trace the source of the distress call?" She knew it was likely the Captain was going to have to be called in, but she wanted to make sure she had listened to it at least once first so she had at least some idea of what they were dealing with.
Naloh worked quickly. A moment later, the same static she had been listening to could be heard throughout the bridge. ...having no effect, a voice said, Containment...immanent.
"45 mark 4," Hafan responded after he quietly worked his panel for a while localizing the source. With several taps he brought up a map onto part of the view screen that showed their location and a circle indicating the general area that the distress signal should be coming from. On the screen displayed transit times to the area at different speeds as well.
"Lieutenant Hafan, see if you can find out what vessels are in that area, and which one of them may be sending out the distress call." As soon as the order had been given, she sighed and leaned back in the command chair, making herself comfortable for the few minutes she would have left as she tapped her commbadge. "Captain Drell, I'm afraid you're required on the bridge."
OFF
Commander Temperance Zachary
Executive Officer
USS Vesta (NX-94200)
Lieutenant Daisuke Hafan, 3rd Tribe of Bon-Hwa
Chief Tactical Officer
USS Vesta (NX-94200)
Lieutenant Ibem Zehl
Division Officer, Stellar Sciences
USS Vesta (NX-94200)
Ensign Naloh
Communications Officer
USS Vesta (NX-94200)
