Taking a Closer Look

Posted on Mon Mar 7th, 2011 @ 5:43pm by Vice Admiral Iluvar & Lieutenant JG Malia Jacy & Ensign Bok & Lieutenant JG Kell Gibson

Mission: Episode 1.4 - "Confusion in the Cluster"
Location: Engineering Lab Two, USS Pandora
Timeline: Mission Day 03, 0630

ON: [[Engineering Lab Two, USS Pandora, Mission Day 03, 0630]]

The team had picked the likeliest components to show the weapons signatures. They had wanted to get a thorough scan of the debris and left it for the computer overnight. Ensign Bok was glad that he was finally getting a task to do that wasn't just ho-hum routine. He showed up early to see the results, so early that Lt. JG Jacy hadn't arrived yet. Nothing was going to turn this morning bad. He patiently waited for the Chief Operations Officer to show up, or as patiently as Bok was capable of.

Velia slipped through the still parting door, her morning glower not yet washed away by coffee. In fact, she was carrying cup number two of the day - she was behind schedule. Her eyes swept the room and after confirming Bok was the only uniform in sight, she sneered ... or maybe it was a smile. "That little to go on that they only have one person assinged to this?" The mug met her lips in an effort to thwart an eye roll.

"Well I feel up to it. Although we may need to take a break in about an hour. I only had a 900 calorie breakfast," Bok gave Velia a big grin. "Shall we see what was cooked up?"

Bok pulled up the sensor data from the first set of components. "This doesn't make sense."

"Story of this ship," Velia grumbled as she exhaled heavily. The door opened behind her, causing her to give a half turn at the waist.

"What doesn’t make sense,” Thomas (PNPC) asked as he entered the engineering lab along with Lieutenant JG Kell Gibson, whom he had been somewhat surprised to encounter in the corridor on his way from Main Engineering.

Thomas being here could only mean that Lt. Warrington was checking up on Ensign Bok. At least that's how Bok saw things. Bok quickly browsed through all the samples and they all showed pretty much the same thing. "The samples do not show any weapons signatures. The only thing we're finding is normal background radiation from the cluster. What could explain that? We should be finding something, even if that something was something that we'd never encountered before."

Kell stood beside Thomas, he had run into him while just exploring the ship trying to get the layout into his mind. He had gotten a quick gist of what they were doing. "Well, we are near the Breen, and I've heard rumors that they have been developing a new weapons system."

"I suppose that's a possibility," Thomas said slowly, his eyes tracing the edge of one of the debris samples, "but wouldn't Breen weaponry leave some kind of energy signature?"

"Every known weaponry leaves some sort of signature," Velia intoned. That could go in her notes. 'Officers aware of energy signatures'. She wondered if making a little heart above the i's would make it seem less hostile. The thought caused a lop-sided smirk to appear on her lips.

"It might be a specially designed weapon built for this area of space," Ensign Bok suggested. "A weapon could be built to take advantage of the fact that shields don't work here. Such a weapon would use the principles of resonance. Instead of the standard weapon which uses destructive energy, this weapon would cause a ship to essentially vibrate itself apart like an opera singer breaking a glass. I can't see how they would know which frequency to use though because every ship would be different. Such a weapon would need a great deal of trial and error and would be useless against a shielded ship."

"So what are we looking for," Thomas asked, looking between the weapons specialist on his right and the engineer on his left, "If this is some sort of new weapon based on resonance, shouldn't there be some sort of consistent pattern to the hull fractures?"

Malia enetered the room quietly. She disliked being late and wondered when Engineering Lab Two had been reserved as a party center. "There's definitely not a pattern to the fractures," she interjected lightly.

"First off, this is all theory," Bok pointed out. "We still have no true idea who was even responsible, though the Breen seem likely candidates. If only we had their log data, but a ship in this bad of condition...The only thing we do know is that this ship was not destroyed by any conventional weaponry. I suppose a way to test it would be to recreate it with harmonics, a sort of powerful tuning fork. The computer can easily simulate this but we'll need precautions, probably a level 10 forcefield. We don't want sympathetic vibrations to effect our own hulls. We can replicate new components from the freighter and subject it to the vibrations. If they show a similar damage pattern we have a match."

[A Few Hours Later]

Thomas studied the readout for a moment before turning his attention away from the display and toward the fragment of hull that lay interior side up on one of the lab tables. The lack of familiar energy signatures was making it difficult for them to narrow down any known weapon as a source. Ensign Bok's theory about some sort of new Breen weapon, while it seemed like a stab in the dark, still needed to be considered. This wouldn't have been the first time the Breen had developed a weapon that Starfleet wasn't aware of. The Breen were known for keeping to themselves and didn't really share much with others...information or otherwise. Unfortunately, they hadn't found anything in their analysis so far that would have indicated the Markon was destroyed by a resonance-based weapon.

"It looks like we're back to square one," the young Betazoid said with a sigh, "If only these fragments could speak..."

"Oh they do," Ensign Bok retorted as he picked up a fragment. "You just have to know how to listen. What's that you say?"

Bok held the piece up to his ear then held it out in front of him again, "It says I just got the snikeys beat out of me. Excuse me what was that?"

Chuckling slightly to himself at the sight of the Tellarite engineer “listening” to the hull fragment, Thomas shook his head back and forth. “Maybe we should just start calling you the Techno-whisperer,” he joked, “When you’re finished, maybe you can ask the secondary gyrodine relays why they feel the need to slip out of alignment.”

Velia was unimpressed with joking going on in the room. These officers weren't helping to make her job any easier; was it really too much to ask for something to come about? She tried to imagine McNeil's face when she informed him that the spectacular engineering department had convinced the Markon's remains to speak.

Bok held the piece up to his ear again but when he held it out in front of him again he hesitated for a moment looking at it closer, "Ensign Rolands, did you notice this material in the cracks before. Its green."

“No…I did not notice that before,” Thomas replied, suddenly serious again. He looked at the section of debris Bok was holding in his hand and, though he could not necessarily see what it was that the Tellarite was referring to, wondered what the material could possibly be.

Malia bent forward; she'd long ago sidled her way up next to the Tellerite ensign. He had an odd way about him, but Malia knew from experience that people who looked at things alternatively often came up with a solid solution and at times, they seemed to do it quicker than via the standard route. "Hmm," she muttered aloud, raising a forefinger to swipe at the fragment.

"If that's left behind from the attack," Velia's voice cut into the room, "do you really think you should be putting your fingers in it?" For God's sake, the Intel agent shook her head, what would the woman have done next? Licked it?

Malia hesitated for a moment and with a nod put her hand down. A shy grin emerged at the top of a shrug. "Curiosity," was her excuse.

"Weapons that leave residue of sorts suggest Projectile weapons, not Energy, yet the damage Patterns doesn't suggest Projectile weapons." Kell said moving around the edge of the examination area. He stopped and reached in to feel the residue.

"No. The only metals that would turn green are copper and copper based materials like brass," Bok pointed out. "They would have to oxidize which they can't do in the vacuum of space. This has to be some sort of bio-matter."

Thomas quirked an eyebrow at the Tellerite's assessment, realizing what it could possibly mean for their investigation. It had only taken the Pandora about an hour to respond to the Markon's distress call and, as far as he knew, they hadn't found any evidence of lifepods, which meant there likely hadn't been any survivors. "I'd like to get a sample of this to Doctor Evans," he said quickly, "If this is bio-matter of some sort, he'd have a much better chance of telling us where it came from."

OFF

A JP by:

Lieutenant JG Malia Jacy
Chief Operations Officer
USS Pandora

Lieutenant JG Kell Gibson
Weapons Specialist/Marine Liason
USS Pandora

Ensign Thomas Rolands (PNPC)
Interim Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Pandora
Played by: Capt Iluvar

Ensign Bok
Engineering Officer
USS Pandora

and

Ensign Velia Moretti (PNPC)
Intelligence Officer
USS Pandora
Played by: LtJG Jacy