A Watchful Eye

Posted on Thu Mar 10th, 2011 @ 1:03pm by Vice Admiral Iluvar & Lieutenant Commander Joseph Thompson & Commander Michael Evans M.D.

Mission: Episode 1.4 - "Confusion in the Cluster"
Location: Main Bridge, USS Pandora
Timeline: Mission Day 04, 1420

ON: [[Main Bridge, USS Pandora, Mission Day 04, 1420]]

Joe was more than a little frustrated as he began yet another sensor sweep. Even in the short time they'd been near the Black Cluster, he had already grown sick of the limitations it put on their sensors. That, combined with the apparent lack of anything to find, was putting Joe on edge. For all he knew, whoever attacked the Markon was just waiting for backup so they could warp in and tear the Pandora apart. Given the circumstances, it wasn't all that far-fetched an idea. Once again, Joe found himself wishing for the simplicity of ground combat; there, at least, one didn't need to rely on sensors so much.

Sonya (NPC) tapped a command sequence into her console as she continued to monitor the sensor reports coming across her display. Since she had taken over for Lieutenant Rylen (NPC), there really hadn't been anything to report that was of any worth to their investigation at the moment. She paused momentarily to glance around the bridge. Everyone seemed intently focused on their own tasks, some moreso than others, leaving the room awkwardly silent.

A soft chirp drew Sonya's attention back to her own console. The readings scrolling across the display were still pretty vague, but sensors had definitely detected something in the nearby vicinity...if only they could figure out what it was. "Commander," she called out to Thompson, "I'm detecting a metallic signature bearing two-four-mark-five-three, distance twenty-thousand meters. Can you confirm?"

Dr. Evans perked up from his station. He hadn't really had much to do, but had dawdled on and off the bridge anyway while the investigation continued. Something... anything... would be better than a dead-end nothing.

"Right," Joe said, a little shortly. In all likelihood, it was probably nothing more than another piece of debris. Then again, Joe had learned the hard way not to let his job slide. As he focused the tactical sensors on the indicated location, Joe frowned. Once again, the interference was making the sensors almost useless. "I can't get a good reading," he finally said. "I'll keep trying, but unless someone wants to take a shuttle out there and personally look out a window at the thing, I doubt we're getting anything from it."

Sonya made a few more adjustments to the resolution of the sensors and ran another focused sweep of the object. Though she wasn’t able to cut through all of the interference, there was something that caused her to pause. She ran another scan to confirm the readings before slowly raising her head to look toward the center of the bridge. “I think I might have just figured out what this object is,” she said aloud, “alloy composition is consistent with…a Federation data recorder.”

Silence descended on the bridge as Ensign Masterson’s words took a moment to sink in. Most recorder-markers were designed to withstand the destruction of a starship in order to relay all of the ship’s information and logs in hopes of later salvage. If they had actually discovered the flight recorder of the SS Markon, it was possible that they might be able to shed some light on what had transpired just before the vessel’s destruction, provided the recorder was still intact.

“Lock a tractor beam on the data recorder and prepare to beam it aboard,” Iluvar ordered, adjusting in his chair slightly, “advise Lieutenant Warrington and the analysis teams that we may have found the flight recorder of the SS Markon.” He paused a moment as his orders were carried out by personnel around the room. Confident that the retrieval of the marker was well underway, Iluvar pushed himself out of his chair and started for the turbolift doors. It was time to see if they could truly answer the question of what had happened to the SS Markon.

OFF

A JP by:

Captain Iluvar
Commanding Officer
USS Pandora

Lieutenant Commander Michael Evans
Chief Medical Officer/Second Officer
USS Pandora

Lieutenant Commander Joseph Thompson
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Pandora

and

Ensign Sonya Masterson (NPC)
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Pandora
Played by: Capt Iluvar