Questions Answered

Posted on Fri Apr 13th, 2012 @ 8:08pm by Commander Jordan Gunning & Lieutenant Commander Zim Drex & Lieutenant Commander Sara Archer & Lieutenant JG Emily Hamson & Ensign Niol Tyo & Chief Petty Officer Exaine Roeings [Walex]
Edited on on Fri Apr 13th, 2012 @ 8:12pm

Mission: Heart of an Explorer
Location: USS Iapetus - Shuttle Bay
Timeline: MD40 1315hrs

Chief Petty Officer Exaine Roeings entered the shuttle bay from the turbolift. He had been summoned to the bay by Lieutenant Commander Sara Archer, to assist with the intelligence aspect of the strange ship's recovery. The strange ship had just entered the bay, and Exaine hurried to join the growing group of officers watching the proceedings.

The ship itself was not large, and had multiple damage points. It didn't appear to have a navigational shield, as the hull of the vessel was marked by small dents, and even in a few places, holes from small collisions. Sparks could be seen shooting from one exposed plate in the lower side of the hull, giving credence to the hell that this ship had gone through to make it to this point.

The first to duck through the doors of the shuttle bay after Roeings was the Betazoid counselor's assistant. At an average height with moppy auburn hair and a meditative posture, he didn't seem very threatening at all. His eyes, however, seemed somewhat more analytical and keen than the rest of him. He strode through to the main area where the others were gathered, hands clasped behind his back and a PADD tucked between his fingers, before he came to a stop. "Chief, Commander," he greeted in his usual placid lilt. He was surprised at being summoned, but glad for the opportunity.

Emily walked in next with her hands behind her back in an elegant fashion. The ship wasn't as big as she expected. She joined the others and remained silent as she waited for things to begin.

Drex was right behind the Science Officer with his trusty tech kit, along with the Assistant Chief, seeming eager and enthusiastic to be investigating the alien craft.

"That it's alien should be reason enough, Drex. I think things that are less advanced than us are just as interesting." She said, on their way through the door.

"Well, I for one wont be happy until I pull something out of there that glows fourteen shades of purple and distorts the space-time continuum." The pair went to the port bow of the craft and started scanning the thing with tricorders, as well as visually for an access hatch.

Drex found a gap in one of the panels with a recessed divot in the superstructure. He waved the whirring beeping tricorder in front of it. "I don't see what's holding this panel shut. There seems to be some kind of hinge mechanism in place here. Almost like...a cupboard door... Hand me a laser cutting unit."

Lieutenant Johanson stepped forward, stuck her fingernails in the gap, and pulled. The panel sprung open exposing the guts of the craft. "Easy access."

"Whoa. Any minor collision could have ripped that thing off. This thing is a sponge beetle."

"A what?" the half-vulcan female asked.

"A flimsy piece of space junk."

"Oh, you mean a lemon." She said, peering around the interior.

Drex scooted next to her. "No navigational deflector."

"No navigation system of any kind. Electromagnetic power flow actuators."

"Electromagnetic? This thing could have been knocked offline by a solar flare."

"That's right." She looked at him with a grin. "Sir." She stuck her head a little inside the panel opening. "Look at this!" She said, backing out so Drex could get a look.

Drex shuffled his head in through the panel. "Well I'll be damned. A class 2 fusion reactor. Talk about your antiques."

"What've we got?" Came the unusually loud voice of Commander Gunning as he reached the small ingress hatch of the shuttle.

Drex pulled his head out of the hole, stood, and faced the Security chief, straightening his uniform with a jerk. "Simple design, point and shoot navigation. I'm surprised it held together this long. Thing's a lemon. Most of the damage is due to its design. Most of the failsafes that keep a starship operational aren't in place. In fact, I'm not sure this thing has any. Fusion generator looks to be intact, but I'll have to remove more of these panels to do a thorough inspection of the power matrix."

Emily sneered at the craft as she briefly looked at it "The probe's technology is very basic, clearly thought was not put into it's design or construction. As Lieutenant Commander Drex has already pointed out, it has pretty much no navigational systems so would be impossible to plot an actual course. The interior is not much better! Most of the probe's interior space is taken up with the mechanics of the vehicle such as the warp core, if you can can even refer to it as a warp core. It doesn't use anti-matter. It's very similar to the late earth's version of a nuclear reactor. I believe with the help of Lieutenant Commander Drex we could repair and make it more efficient." Emily reported.

"If you can, you might as well. If we end up releasing it back into space, whoever sent it here might be thankful for a little bit more efficiency." Gunning looked inside the craft. They were right. It was a mess. "Any idea where it was being aimed?"

"Unfortunately no. It would probably be best to ask the pilot however, if you wish i could attempt to estimate where it was going based on its trajectory and any data that i can download from the pods data banks." Emily answered.

Sara spoke up seemingly out of nowhere, giving the other officers a jump. "I'd like Chief Roeings to accompany you with that, Lieutenant. Those data logs may hold more information than just destination. Even better, we may be able to find out where it was coming from, or what it was doing. Commander Drex, does there appear to be any kind of weapons system on board?"

"Not unless you count the cockroaches." Drex replied with a smile.

"There aren't any cockroaches, Drex." The Assistant Chief told him. "There doesn't appear to be any." She said turning to Sara.

Gunning rolled his eyes. Control of one's emotions, clearly meant having a humourectomy on Vulcan. "No weapons system, no functional navigational array. What do we think the purpose might have been? It sounds like a coffin to me."

"From my experience in the delta quadrant." Emily began speaking loudly "I'd simply say that the species simply don't possess the technology to make the ship adequate and it's most likely some kind of exploration or travel vessel. Most likely a travel vessel." She told them.

"Like a train..." Gunning observed.

Emily looked at him with a questioning gaze "A strange comparison sir but acceptable." She said with a slow nod.

Drex looked at the Assistant Chief. "If you enjoy this kind of work, I'll assign you to this task Lieutenant. Be sure to use components and composites that are within the scope of their technology."

"Aye sir." She said back with a slight smile, showing off her human side momentarily, before returning to her stoic, all business expression.

"In the meantime, I'll run a multispectrographic analysis of the ship's hull. With any luck, it will help us confirm where the craft originated." He said toward Gunning.

"Fantastic. Keep up the good work, you lot." The Security Chief stated, completely unaware what a multispectrographic analysis was or how it would help Drex identify the origin of the craft.

[OFF]

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A joint post by:

Commander Jordan Gunning
Chief Security/Tactical Officer

Lieutenant JG Emily Hamson
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant Commander Zim Drex
Chief Engineering Officer

Lieutenant Commander Sara Archer
Chief Intelligence Officer

and

Chief Petty Officer Exaine Roeings
Encryption Specialist
(Played by Acle Walex)