Coming Up With a Plan

Posted on Thu Mar 31st, 2022 @ 4:12pm by Captain Aviram Drell & Lieutenant Azur Vaer & Lieutenant Rukil Vodaan & Commander Sorek & Lieutenant Commander Cor Cordale & Lieutenant Commander Irwin Riley & Lieutenant Daisuke Hafan, 3rd Tribe of Bon-Hwa & Commander Temperance Zachary & Commander Frank Kamar jr.
Edited on on Thu Mar 31st, 2022 @ 4:13pm

Mission: Episode 06: "Far From Shore"
Location: Observation Lounge, USS Vesta
Timeline: Day 1 at 0843

ON: [[Observation Lounge, USS Vesta, Mission Day 01, 0843 hours]]

Drell entered the observation lounge to find his staff already present and waiting for him. Without so much as a beat of hesitation, he strode purposefully across the room and took his seat at the head of the table.

“Alright,” he said, calling them to order, “let’s begin. As I’m sure you all know by now, we are caught in an ion storm. Sensors didn’t detect it until we dropped out of slipstream and, by then, it was too late.” He paused a moment to let his words sink in. “I’m not concerned right now with trying to figure out what went wrong or assigning blame,” he continued, “No one could have predicted this. It is what it is.”

"We haven't been able to contact any of the Spirits," Temperance replied, referring to the small fleet of Spirit class vessels that were travelling with them. "We have no idea what kind of condition they're in or if they've even survived the storm. They're going to be relying on us for help."

Drell watched as heads around the table nodded in understanding and agreement. “First thing’s first,” he said, “how are our people?”

"Injuries are coming in, Captain. I would suspect that there is likely no one on this ship who was not at least thrown off their feet." Sorek explained, Vulcan stoicism keeping him calm.

"I feel I am stating the obvious, but the fact remains - the longer we remain in this situation, the higher the probability we see an increase in injuries that will be more than we can handle. It could even see fatalities in certain circumstances." He continued, "My greatest concern is the stability of systems in Sickbay. So far, minimal damage was sustained but that also increases the probability of fatalities."

"Simply put - a swift resolution is our only recourse. Again, I am stating the obvious. Moreover, we have to also be prepared to take on patients from the other ships, should they have fared worse than we did." Sorek concluded.

"...and we must be concerned with mental and emotional well-being, too," Vodaan said, picking up on the thread started by his colleague, "What Doctor Sorek is saying about the risk of physical injury is just as true psychologically. Each of us handles stress differently, but prolonged periods of more extreme duress will take their toll on everyone."

Drell nodded to show that he understood. The El-Aurian was no stranger to the sorts of things both Sorek and Vodaan had described. Indeed, much of his career had been spent working with people in the very kinds of situations they'd just described. He was well-aware that they would need to act quickly to mitigate the risk, but it was good to have that assessment confirmed.

“Cordale, Kamar,” Drell said, turning to the two officers in services gold, “where are we in terms of the ship itself?”

"We narrowly avoided a containment breach, but got it under control before it could escalate. Fortunately, it wouldn't have been a dangerous leak if it did get by us, just a heavier-than-air pressure gas. Nothing dangerous like warp plasma or hydrazine or the like. The core is stable and operational, but I've cut off several of the EPS grid hubs to non-essential systems just in case there's a spike in the system. We take a bolt from that storm out there unshielded, and it'll pop the relays like popcorn." Cordale updated the others, "At that point, it's a matter of time before we lose the wrong relay and start losing life support. No air, no gravity, and that cuts the trip short."

"I've coopted one of the fusion reactors to help keep the containment field around the reactor steady, and until I get a better idea I'm trying to run a direct feed to cut down on the chances of a spike. It's not a solution, though. This is a band-aid on an amputation." the amputee said, grimly. "At this exact moment, we're stable. As long as those shields stay up."

"Shields are holding," Hafan piped up after a moment of silence. His large head mostly focused on the Captain, with subtle movements left and right as his eyes glanced about. "But are a salty oasis. The protection afforded is attracting additional strikes. I can guarantee a day or two until they collapse. Tactical is blind beyond 50 meters; I will provide an exact number once I know more. I will need to work with science on that."

"Yeah, about that," Spencer Riley replied. "At the moment the storm is playing havoc with our sensors due to the electrical interference. We're attempting to compensate, but at the moment our range is pretty much visual. And by visual, I mean what we can see out the window. Until we can cut through the interference, we have no way of knowing how far into the storm we are, or even what direction we're facing."

Vaer leaned forward in his seat. “We do know we’re moving forward,” he said, “or, at least, keeping things stable by flying into the wavefronts (as best we can). But I’m doing my best to limit that as much as possible. As has been said, without the navigational sensors or astrometrics, we could just as easily be flying into the storm rather than out of it.”

Things fell silent as Drell considered what had been shared so far. It seemed to be a rather fair assessment of their situation. Now, the question was…what to do about it?

The El-Aurian turned to his chief operations officer, Kamar. “Is it safe to assume that, given the interference we’re experiencing with our sensors that communications and transporters are having trouble as well?”

"That's correct," Kamar replied, "I've been running a frequency scan to try to see if we could find an alternate, but that is using resources that take away from shielding, so it could be hours before I find anything that way."

“Which means,” Drell said slowly, “we’re going to have to find another way to find and talk to the other ships in our convoy. Thoughts?”

The Thux cupped his chin in thought with his prosthetic limb, "Hmmm, okay so the trick is, anything that we COULD do to communicate through the storm has two big snags. First, it has to be RECOGNIZED as an attempt to communicate, and there would need to be a way to acknowledge it. I mean, we can reverse the polarity of the shield emitters and send out a monomagnetic pulse, but the odds of it being recognized as us are pretty slim, and responding would be nearly impossible." the cobalt-blue engineer mused.

"We'd need something simple. Simple but obviously artificial. Like tapping at a wall." he thought, "We could run a probe out on a tether, and have it pulse out a sequential pulse to get the fleet's attention, like a sonar buoy. The trick is, getting them to respond, and sending a message."

"If we rigged a camera, light, and a relay, we could use Morse code, but that would depend on someone aboard those ships recognizing it." Kamar looked at the engineer, "What if we ejected some antimatter? It might be unique enough to show up on scanners and leave a bread crumb of sorts?"

"No can do." Cordale countered, "As soon as we release that antimatter, no matter how small, it's going to come into contact with matter and, well, kaboom. There'd really be no way to contain it effectively short of just using torpedoes as breadcrumbs. But Antimatter by itself, not a viable plan." a pause, "And ejecting the core is a no go. We kinda need that and I'd rather not rotate out a spare simply because we needed to become a lighthouse."

"Cameras, lights, and relays depend on too many variables. Visuals, mostly. We need to find a way to send that code you're talking about through means that won't be confused with ion flashes or electromagnetic spikes." he paused, "I could see about rigging a probe with some of the boson plating in the gravity deck plating and see about rigging it to send out a gravitic pulse. BUT, that would still need to send a message. And without a means to respond, we'd have no way to know if the message was received."

"We could load the probe up with data on how to build the beacon, and the code cipher." a pause "But that's a longshot at best."

"Would low power phasers be traceable through the storm?" Hafan added, tapping through a PaDD to try to figure the answer out as well.

"No. Wait.. wait yes." Cordale immediately reversed course. He thought for a second about it, "OK so yes, but it couldn't really be low power. It'd have to be strong enough to pierce the storm's background radiation AND the highly energized ion state." Cordale stated to do the mental equivalent of 'bar napkin math'. "It'll be tricky, and we need to monitor the phaser variance to keep it from essentially being a lightning rod, but I think... yeah I think we could do it."

"Until sensors can be strengthened, I can adapt an all around defensive algorithm to aid in signaling as effectively as possible," Hafan added, building the joint task list in his head that would require Science and Engineering now onboard to make it work.

"We should be able to handle that without diverting power from other systems, but to be safe I will have the power diverted from holodecks and a few other non essential areas in case it's needed," Kamar explained.

Temperance listened to the plan as it was explained out, her brow furrowing with concern. "Probably wouldn't hurt to confine non essential crew to quarters," she murmured as she contemplated. "The last thing we want is people wandering around needlessly and potentially getting hurt. Other than that..." she sighed and finally shrugged. "I guess it's the closest thing we have to a plan?"

“Agreed,” Drell said, satisfied they had enough to at least get the ball rolling, “Cordale and Hafan, start working on modifying the phasers for low-level emissions. Kamar and Riley, see if you can find some way of cutting through the interference. We need to be able to navigate ourselves out of here. The rest of you, assist Commander Zachary with securing ship’s personnel. Dismissed!”

OFF