Finding the Pieces

Posted on Wed May 12th, 2010 @ 12:43pm by Commander Fala Awen & Vice Admiral Iluvar

Mission: Episode 1.2 - "A House Divided"
Location: Science Lab 1
Timeline: Day 15, 0800

ON: [[USS Pandora, Science Lab 1, Day 15, 0800]]

Isela (NPC) returned to the lab with her expresso, suppressing a yawn. She'd been up for hours already. As she walked in, the Trill frowned slightly at the mug. Prior to the joining, she'd never touched any form of coffee. Unfortunately, it seemed that one of the previous hosts, Torin (NPC), had practically lived off it...thus giving her the craving for it every so often.

"Good morning Isela," Sonya (NPC) said with a chipper smile. She'd arrived at the lab only a few moments before to find Isela nowhere in sight. Rather than trying to track the Trill through the ship, she had chosen to wait for Isela to return. Judging by the work that was in progress, it was a pretty good bet that she wouldn't have had to wait long...and she had been right.

Taking a sip of her expresso, Isela grimaced slightly, shaking her head. She made her way over to Sonya and managed to return a smile, "I don't know about good, but it is morning..." Mentally, she kicked herself. Another bad trait from a previous host - pessimism. Isela had thought she was adjusting well to being joined, but perhaps not. "How long have you been waiting?"

"Oh, not long," Sonya replied. The Trill's grim view of the morning was shared by many millions, perhaps billions, of individuals across the Federation. Not everyone was a morning person, she knew. For humans, at least, the typical response to a slow morning was to infuse it with a cup of coffee, which Sonya noticed Isela already had. "Figured I'd come lend you a hand this morning," she continued, looking around, "What are you working on?"

Taking a seat at the console next to Sonya, Isela sat the hated cup of expresso off to her left. "Well, there were apparently some reports of odd geological and meteorological events on Nerus V, so I was asked to run some more in depth scans. They've been running for hours thus far, but they should be done soon. I also had the computer start looking up any and all unusual related activity in the past five years," she explained.

"I know operations has been having troubles with interference in the communications links and the transporter locks," Sonya said, thinking for a moment, "It's possible that all that buildup in the atmosphere could be caused by the geological disturbances." She rested one of her hands on the edge of a workstation as she paused. Geology wasn't exactly her field of expertise, but she had at least a general idea of most of the major concepts.

Isela paused to consider Sonya's theory, "Depending on what type of geological disturbances they are, how severe they are, and how long they've been happening, yes...it could possibly explain it. Once the computer comes back with information, it should help narrow down the possibilities."

Sonya nodded to show that she understood. Sometimes, it could seem like there was a whole lot of "hurry up and wait" when it came to being a science officer. So many studies and experiments required meticulous planning and preparation, only to result in hours of waiting while the experiment actually took place or the sensor data was recorded and analyzed. "How much longer did you say we had," she asked casually.

Tapping the console's controls, Isela waited for the progress bar before replying, "Looks like another five minutes at most." While they waited, the Trill brought up a display of the current conditions on the planet, "Hmm...no visible signs of significant geological activity right now."

"Probably means that it's pretty quiet down there," Sonya observed, looking down at the display closest to her hand. The console had been configured to monitor the meteorological patterns of the planet and was displaying the current weather status. She could see that, while the colony itself was experiencing a rather mild, sunny day, there were several large storms on the far side of the planet. One of these was at least the strength of a category five hurricane. "Looks like we wouldn't want to be vacationing on the southern continent this week," she added.

Isela glanced over Sonya's shoulder, "I'm not sure I'd want to be on any part of the planet...who knows what the Romulans could be up to... But, yeah, I'd absolutely be avoiding the southern section." Shaking her head slightly as she continued to look at the display, she quickly turned back to her station as it beeped. "Looks like it's done..."

"Let's see what we've got," Sonya said, turning to the monitor and pulling up the resulting data. What she saw was incredible, even for someone who wasn't all that well-versed in geology or meteorology. "Forget what I said about quiet," she muttered, watching the results scroll across the screen.

The Trill's eyes widened as she read through the results. She was well versed in geology, though not as much with meteorology. Isela read the results aloud, "Earthquakes, abnormally high volcanic activity, dense concentration of volcanic gasses...Blizzards, hurricanes, flooding, droughts, desertification... That's quite a bit of activity. Especially considering the frequency they've occurred even in just the past few months. It looks like the activity's been increasing steadily for the past few years."

"Who would want to live here," Sonya wondered aloud. She continued watching the readouts, wondering what could have possibly possessed the Romulans to establish a colony on this world. Even more curious was the fact that the colony had survived this long under such natural duress.

"Not me," Isela replied. "I'm certainly not recommending it as a vacation spot either. Whoever chose this planet for a colony made the wrong choice. Makes you wonder what kind of shape the colony is amid all this...." Part of her - the curious Scientist part - wanted to go down and explore the planet and colony. However, knowing what she did about the activity on the planet, she mostly wanted to stay as far away from it as possible.

Reaching out, Sonya paused the display on her monitor. "Take a look at this," she said, motioning to the information currently displayed on the screen, "What do you make of that?" The display showed residual traces of construction materials, waste products, and other signs of former habitation at nearly half a dozen sights within a fifty kilometer radius.

Isela tilted her head to one side, considering the information. "I can think of a few possibilities... One, the colony we're visiting is currently on its 6th or 7th site, having to move due to some of the increasing activity we're seeing; a few of those sites are fairly close to some of the worst areas. Two, the Romulans tried starting colonies here multiple times and they kept failing, until this one...though this one may very well be close to failing. Three, the colonists were spread out amongst the sites to begin with and the one we're visiting is the only one that survived - the others were either abandoned or left no survivors," she theorized, ticking off the ideas on her fingers.

"Any of those would make sense, given the information we have," Sonya replied, turning back to the display. She studied the orbital view very closely, comparing it to the meteorological and seismic data that had already been compiled. What have these people had to endure for the sake of the Romulan Empire, she thought to herself. "Let's see if we can't find out a bit more about these colonists," Sonya said, tapping a sequence into the console, "I'm sure the admiral will be wanting a detailed report of our findings."

"What do you think we can find that Intel won't?" Isela glanced over at Sonya. "Not to say we shouldn't look of course, but I imagine they have access to more information than we have." There was the pessimism again. Quickly - a little too quickly - she reached for the expresso and took a large gulp. Her eyes watered slightly as the hot liquid burned her mouth, but she bit her lip. The morning just got better and better... Plastering what she hoped was a half decent look of serious dedication, Isela looked over at the parameters Sonya had set.

"We've got current information about the physical parameters of the colony," Sonya replied, pausing from her review of the data, "I'm sure the admiral will be just as interested in our report as he is the report from Intel. Besides, if I were the one in command, I'd want all the information I could before I made a decision or went into a situation."

Isela nodded, "Of course, sorry." The Trill continued to watch silently as Sonya scrolled through the information. She might have tried to explain herself, but had decided there was no sense. She was joined now and she just had to learn to take control of the former hosts' personalities. "Anything interesting?"

"Depends on how you define interesting," Sonya said, focusing in on one of the older sites, "It'd probably be a lot easier if we had some historical records to work from, but we're just going to have to make do." She let out a small sigh, but smiled to show that she was both ready and willing to get her hands dirty if she had to. "What do the seismic readings for the past few days look like," she asked.

With something to concentrate on, Isela perked up a little. Her fingers glided across the screen, bringing up the seismic activity readings. "Hmm...not much activity the past few days. Based on the data we have though, I'd be willing to bet there will be seismic activity soon."

OFF

A JP by:

Ensign Sonya Masterson (NPC)
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Pandora
played by: RAdm Iluvar

and

Ensign Isela Vin (NPC)
Science Officer
USS Pandora
played by: Lt Cmdr Fala