Checking Out the Neighborhood

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

Mission: Episode 1.2 - "A House Divided"
Location: Science Lab 1
Timeline: Day 15, 0820

ON: [[USS Pandora, Science Lab 1, Day 15, 0820]]

Sonya lifted an empty PADD from a nearby work surface and began to take notes.


Initial Assessment - Nerus V Colony
- Planet appears to be extremely active both geologically and meterologically.
- Evidence suggests one of three possibilities
1) The colony is continuously mobile to adapt to changing weather and geologic patterns.
2) This is the latest of several attempts by the Romulans to establish a colony on the planet
3) The colonists have consolidated their resources over time due to struggles and losses
- Latest data indicates the significant possibility of seismic activity in the near future


Once she had put in the brief list of notes so far, she turned her attention back to the monitor and continued to read the analysis of the former colony sites. The age of each site varied, which might have contradicted the third theory of a consolidation of resources and individuals. In addition, the pattern of movement was too erratic to be a nomadic settlement, which would have been odd for a Romulan outpost anyway.

As Isela continued looking into the geological clues, she asked Sonya, "Is there any evidence that would suggest the age of the various colony sites?"

"Yes," she said, taking a few more notes on the PADD, "Based on what I'm seeing here, the oldest colony site dates back to sometime in the 2360s. What's strange is that none of the other sites are as old as those that preceded them. It looks like there are some that are only a few months apart, others that are years apart from one another."

"Hmm....that doesn't necessarily narrow down the options. It makes the second option more likely, perhaps, but either of the others are still possible," Isela replied.

"Where was the most recent site previous to the current one," Sonya asked, looking up from the PADD where she had been taking notes.

Taking a closer look, Isela leaned forward then pointed to a site East of the current colony, "It looks like this was the most recent one, before the current colony."

Sonya looked where Isela was indicating with her finger. According to the data analyzed by the computer, that did seem to be the most recent site. The age of the remains was about fourteen months. In order to get a better idea of what had happened on Nerus V, they needed to figure out what would have caused that site to be abandoned. "Alright," Sonya said, brushing a lock of hair from her eyes, "Let's take a look at the recent seismic and meteorologic data. Look for anything that might have affected a colony site at that location."

Isela started looking through some of the data, but paused, "What if it wasn't something to do with the seismic or meteorological activity though? Similar to the ancient Earth debate of what killed the dinosaurs..."

"Then I guess we'll find out," Sonya said with a slight smile, "Just doing the best with what we've got, right?"

Returning the smile, Isela said, "Exactly. I think we'll find out what happened, though. We do have the current colonists and they might either know what happened to the other sites or whatever it was could be affecting them right now." She turned back to her console and looked through the recent seismic activity. "It looks like the Eastern region was more prone to volcanic activity, especially in the last three years."

That's if we ever get a chance to speak to the colonists, Sonya thought to herself. From the sound of things, they were still in the initial phases of things. The last she had heard, the initial away team had beamed down to the surface, but nothing newer than that. Besides, their mission was to assess tactical defenses, not analyze geologic history. It was a pretty good bet that the Romulans weren't going to be letting them interview the colonists and conduct soil samples, even if this was a science vessel. "Sounds like it might be a good reason to clear the neighborhood," Sonya remarked.

"Agreed. These colonists must not be on the Romulans' good list...even a basic check of the planet would've shown them that the locations for the sites were bad choices. So either they didn't take the time to check or they did check and purposefully put the colonists in the locations," Isela said, shaking her head. Neither possibility was overly appealing, but hopefully the colonists weren't knowingly placed in harm's way.

"We've seen how the Romulans would be willing to put the good of the Empire over personal comfort or safety," Sonya reasoned, "They are a very dedicated people."

Isela nodded, "True. Still, I'm wondering why it had to be this particular planet that they put the colony on... I've not done a detailed analysis on every planet in the system, but surely there had to be at least one with better conditions. Every time they have to re-start the colony, they require more resources and colonists, assuming each colony is a completely new one, of course."

Setting the PADD aside, Sonya leaned over the workstation. She knew that even if she stared at the display all day, the answers weren't going to magically come to her. They had one piece of the puzzle and others no doubt had different pieces. The best that they could do was to understand their piece to the fullest extent that they could. After that, it was up to the admiral to decide what to do with those pieces. "Alright, let's start at the top," she suggested, "Take them one by one. What do you think?"

"That's probably the best way," Isela agreed. They would be able to concentrate fully on one site before moving to the next that way. Otherwise, there would be too much data to sort through at once. The Trill's fingers slid across the console, filtering the data to only show information related to the site they'd identified as the oldest. "Here we go..."

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