Squatters
Posted on Mon Jun 10th, 2013 @ 8:56pm by Captain Vorn Krace & Commander Acle Walex & Lieutenant Commander Sara Archer & Lieutenant Kell Demar
Mission:
Renewed Beginnings
Location: USS Iapetus - Bridge (McAllister C-5 Nebula)
Timeline: Upon arrival at the Nebula
"We're approaching the nebula now, captain," Tom Cook reported, from where he sat at the helm station at the front of the bridge.
"Engage impulse engines," Vorn said, as he crossed one leg over the other in his command chair. He tapped the command on his chair to access the ship-wide intercom. "All hands, we have arrived at the McAllister Nebula. If you're looking for a more stimulating view than the starscape, I suggest you get to a window."
"Dropping to impulse," the petty officer answered, as his hands flew across the console, disbanding their warp field in a controlled manner to drop them back to sublight speeds before switching power to the impulse engines to propel them forward towards their task.
"Lieutenant Demar," the captain said, turning his chair slightly to face the sciences console. "Are there any anomalous readings from the nebula compared to the last recorded data?"
Kell watched the large screen near the top of the wall console; a small wave pulsing upwards and across the screen as the short range sensors scanned the nebula. As the computer cross referenced the new scans with the scans taken from when the last starship to pass through, the USS Malinche, 7 dots appeared on the screen as the sensors picked up anomalies. To the untrained eye the numbers and words popping up next to the dots were nothing more than unintelligible babble but to Kell it was it was like music notes to a delightful symphony. As the computer finished cross referencing Kell turned to give his report.
“I am detecting 4 new anomalies that were not present when the Malinche did the last charting mission. One is quite clearly a subspace eddy and the sensors can’t penetrate deep enough into the nebula to get any sort of firm reading on the rest; which is pretty common for McAlister. Once we are inside the nebula I should be able to reconfigure the sensor systems to compensate for the interference should you wish to get close enough to investigate thanks to the Iapetus’ new sensors.” Kell paused to tap a quick command into his console. “Petty Officer Cook should now have the coordinates to assist in plotting a course though the nebula. Along with that the standard 72 hour rule applies. All in all nothing too exciting.”
"OK then. Commander, begin the seventy-two hour countdown and post it to the viewscreen. Petty Officer; take us in, nice and slow. Archer; raise shields and configure to optimal protection form the nebula."
"Aye, Captain." Sara hands glided over her console. The commands for raising shields were in a prominent position on her tactical console layout. Configuring the deflectors to match the information coming in from the sensors was not nearly as easy, but still only took a moment.
Tom's head bobbed silently as he executed the captain's commands, following the course that had been sent to his terminal by the lieutenant and increasing their speed towards the nebula. He kept one eye on the sensor readout on one side of his station, alert to any abnormalities which might cause issues for propulsion, whilst the rest of his attention was focused on the flight controls.
Acle's hands manipulated the controls on the consoles beside him. As he did so, a small countdown appeared on the view screen. "Done Captain." Acle replied shortly.
As the crew watched, the image of the pink and purple gases of the nebula came closer on the viewscreen, until the ship finally entered the mass and the gases enveloped them. From that point on, the exterior view - whilst certainly fascinating and even artistic, didn't provide much tactical use.
The relative silence that had descended on the bridge as the crew had absorbed the sight of the nebula was broken suddenly by a shrill bleeping alert from one of the consoles to the side of the bridge.
Kell's head snapped up the large screen above him. A large red dot with lines radiating out from it of to the port of path of the little icon representing the Iapetus. They weren't anywhere close enough to be in any danger but in a several minutes "Proximity alert, Captain. Sensors are picking up a large object off the port bow bearing 212 mark 332."
Lines of text and numbers flowed across the smaller screens on the lower part of the science station. Kell didn't understand how the sensors missed whatever this was. It should have been large enough to pick up even if the sensors were configured to be looking for the more natural hazards of the nebula.
"Could it be something natural?" the captain asked, looking over to his science officer, his brow creased quizzically.
As his fingers tapped out commands into the sensors Kell shook his heads. "Negative sir. It's size seems to indicate a ship and I am reading a large amount of Kelindide so I'd be inclined to think it could be the wreckage of a ship. I'm not picking up any sort of power readings but if the ship had been in the nebula long enough and the particle flux causes enough particle build up in the hull it could confuse the sensors to the point that they can't get a clear reading other then to say there is something there. The closer we get the better I can cut through the interference."
"Helm, adjust our course," Krace ordered calmly, curious as to what the source of these readings might be. Many knew of the nebula's effects, and some had even used the nebula to hide ships within in the past - this could perhaps be the remains of a starship which had attempted to do so but had remained too long, suffering damage too severe to be able to leave again. "Sara, and you try and filter the input from the external sensors?" he asked. "See if you can get a visual minus the gases of the nebula between us and the object."
"Aye, Captain. I'll see if I can clean up the image." Sara adjusts the sensors to begin filtering out the large amount of incoming data. This was something that she was familiar with. Sometimes as an analyst she needed to clear out the sensor noise and background readings to better determine what she was looking at. It was often a puzzle, and this one proved to be a riddle too, though not in the way she was expecting. On the viewscreen, the visual representation of what she was doing was shown. One by one, the layers on the image corresponding to different gasses or EM spectrums were stripped away, and gradually it became clear just what they were looking at.
"Is that... a Cardassian ship?" Krace couldn't help but mutter in surprise as the Galor class vessel became visible on the viewscreen. It was only a couple of moments after the Iapetus' sensors had locked actively on the vessel to take readings that the ops console bleeped.
"The Cardassian vessel is hailing us, sir," Biggins reported, as he checked the message the bleep corresponded to.
"Open a channel," Vorn said, genuinely curious as to what the Cardassians would be doing with a ship in this nebula.
"Federation vessel," came the terse voice of the Gul in command. "You have entered sovereign territory of the Cardassian Union and actively scanned our vessel. I order you to return to Federation space, immediately."
"Gul..." Krace said, unsure exactly how to respond. "This sector of space is officially neutral ground. It hasn't been a part of the Cardassian Union for twelve years."
"We are on operations to secure the territory of the Cardassian people that was stripped from us," the Gul answered. "We will protect our claim to this region of space. The Cardassian military will not shy from its duty any longer. You have twelve hours to leave, or you will be fired upon." With that, the line was cut.
Vorn raised his eyebrows as he looked around the bridge crew in shock. "'The Cardassian military will not shy from its duty any longer'?" he repeated.
Sara remained silent. She had plenty of opinions on the Cardassians, none of which were proper for her to say out loud.
"Number One, have there been any claims by the Union to this region of space since the Treat of Bajor?" Krace asked, though he was certain of the answer.
Acle had moved to a spare console unobtrusively as the impact of the Cardassian's words became apparent. His intelligence trained mind quickly skimmed through the data that was on the console in front of him. "Negative Captain. Nothing in our recent logs, or even in the central database. They have not made any claim, officially or otherwise, about this space. We are clearly in neutral territory." Acle said. "There isn't even any intelligence reports about Union military assets being remotely interested in this area... Until now at least." Acle finished, still cycling through reports.
Vorn reached up to rub his hand through his beard as he thought. "Hail them," he finally ordered, though he was expecting the response he got back.
"No answer, sir," Biggins reported, as he tapped out the commands on his console.
Taking a deep breath before letting a sigh out through his nose, the captain stood from his chair. "Configure a probe to act as a subspace relay," he ordered. "Launch it on a trajectory to take it out of the nebula, and once it is in position try to open a channel to our embassy on Cardassia. In the mean time," he began to walk towards his ready room. "Transfer all available data on the Treaty of Bajor and the Union's territorial boundaries over the last twenty years to my ready room. You have the bridge, Number One."
Captain Vorn Krace
Commanding Officer
Commander Acle Walex
First Officer
Lt. Commander Sara Archer
Chief of Security
&
Lieutenant Kell Demar
Chief Science Officer
USS Iapetus
