S12 - M7: Back to Basics

[Tekin Nevir]

[Conference Room]

With the satisfaction of seeing Kali's look, Nevir stood up with the rest, waiting outside the conference room for most of the senior staff to arrive.  In the meantime, he looked over a personnel PADD.  There were a few more transfers before they could return to the Delta quadrant.  Which meant he had to start looking within for promotions.

Finally, though, he turned and walked in, taking the seat across from the admiral, to the right of the Captain.  Still felt awkward, but at least he didn't actually make a move on her... unlike the flight officers in the room with him.

Nevir glanced at T'Ra... she called the staff meeting, would she start it?

[T'Ra Jones]

[Lennox Ainsley]

[Deck 9]

Repairs on the Admiral's runabout was proceeding with only the occasional hiccup. It could have been worse if the entire warp core assembly needed to be replaced; a job that he never ever preferred.

He had about a thirty minute window while the T-14 modules went through the installing process and he had very little to do till then. If he simply waited in the Cargo Bay to listen to Johanssen assume yet again that the Admiral was aboard for some nafarious reason...he have to shoot him.....with kindness.

He didn't want to speculate since the higher your rank, the more Starfleet politics interceded. The Admiral could be aboard for a mundane inspection or to haul off the lot for gross incompetence for the epidemic fiasco. The Discovery could have been severely damaged or destroyed. How many bars of latinum would be required to compensate? Tantalus V penal colony was the last place he wanted to end his days...

Such brooding only made him almost as paranoid as his fellow engineer back in the Cargo Bay.

As it happened, 2 security personnel were coming from the other direction. He decided to be blunt.
"Excuse me, seeing you are Security, do you have any idea why the Admiral is aboard? "

[Deck 9]

Crewman Jensen had sparked up again, an excited grin being rather badly suppressed as she glanced to Lennox. The Scotsman straightened himself up, greeting the engineer with a light smile.

"Unfortunately, I dunnae actually know what the Admiral is doin' on board the Disco." Lennox replied.

He wished he knew the reasoning for the Admiral being on board, it would certainly settle the crewman by his side who only just about managed to not fidget. "But bein' we 'aven't been informed, I presumed it's fer the higher ups. Apologies, name's Lennox Ainsley, this is crewman Lena Jensen."

[Ardyn Jaeger]

[Conference Room]
Ardyn looked around the room as the meeting began, giving a curt nod to Wu in response to him. But why him?!

[Inzjana]

SCIENCE LAB TWOCONFERENCE ROOM

[Alexander Wu]

[Conference Room]

Leaning forwards, Alex tried to make sense of the garbled message. Unfortunately, he couldn't interpret the blurry visual any better than what had already been suggested to the table. "Three...maybe four figures." He guessed, noting the slightly darker shadows in the foreground. "If we could at least pinpoint the direction it's coming from, then we could launch a class 9 probe to conduct the pre-assessment before we arrive. Would give us roughly an hour to prepare."

CONFERENCE ROOM

"Focused light?" Alex unconsciously frowned, trying to remember a lecture from a very long time ago. "That's...21st century technology, if I recall my Earth history correctly. That could explain the distortion as the beam dispersed over a long distance...but that kind of communication system would require very precise targeting. Whomever's sending it would have to know we were here for us to intercept it. That, to me, is worrisome, if they have the technology to find us but not to communicate in a more modern capacity. On the other hand, it should make it relatively simple to track back to the point of origin."

[Declan Vincent]

[Deck 9]

Crewman Jensen had sparked up again, an excited grin being rather badly suppressed as she glanced to Lennox. The Scotsman straightened himself up, greeting the engineer with a light smile.

"Unfortunately, I dunnae actually know what the Admiral is doin' on board the Disco." Lennox replied.

He wished he knew the reasoning for the Admiral being on board, it would certainly settle the crewman by his side who only just about managed to not fidget. "But bein' we 'aven't been informed, I presumed it's fer the higher ups. Apologies, name's Lennox Ainsley, this is crewman Lena Jensen."

[Deck 9]

Declan had to stare up at Lennox which always made him a bit self-conscious. However he gave both guards a wide grin of appreciation. "Declan Vincent. Only been aboard the Disco a few months so I can't say how secretive the higher ups are though I'm getting a feeling you are dead on."

He had noticed Lennox was a couple of rates ahead of him but the man didn't infer his rate, which suited Declan just fine. So he didn't go with convention and address his senior as 'Petty Officer'.

"Well Lennox, I been working on the Admiral's runabout." He glanced occasionally at Lena but found himself chastising himself seeing she was old enough to be his daughter. That alone made him sigh inwardly. "He was lucky to have made it actually considering. In fact I have never seen such a cascade of T-4 modules failing.."

[Inzjana]

[Conference Room]

"Focused light?" Alex unconsciously frowned, trying to remember a lecture from a very long time ago. "That's...21st century technology, if I recall my Earth history correctly. That could explain the distortion as the beam dispersed over a long distance...but that kind of communication system would require very precise targeting. Whomever's sending it would have to know we were here for us to intercept it. That, to me, is worrisome, if they have the technology to find us but not to communicate in a more modern capacity. On the other hand, it should make it relatively simple to track back to the point of origin."

[CONFERENCE ROOM]


[Playing as (NPC) Chief Science Officer - Lieutenant Johan Spielenberg]


Johan harrumphed and crossed his arms annoyed but trying to be humorous at the impertinence of Mr Wu trying to sound as though he knew anything about what Johan felt was under the auspices of the chief of science and what Johan considered a glorified stick-jockey. Of course, Johan had to admit that the 'stick-jockey' had a point, as amazing as that was to the Discovery's chief science officer.
But given that the information came from the 'robot' in science lab two, he knew the information had to be right so there was only one thing to be said.


"Captain, far be it for me to argue with my learned colleague," he said, with more sarcasm than he had intended, "but wouldn't it be more likely that they sent a multiple LASER transmissions, rather like LiDAR a multiple set of LASER transmissions emanating from the same source. I very much doubt that any civilisation would be able to know where we were going to be at a specific set of coordinates at a specific time and send a transmission that can only travel at the speed-of-light!"


Now that he was on a roll, Spielenberg couldn't contain himself and continued after taking a quick breath. "It would then be only a matter of using stellar cartography to ascertain the origin of the transmission."

[T'Ra Jones]

[Conference Room]

Leaning forwards, Alex tried to make sense of the garbled message. Unfortunately, he couldn't interpret the blurry visual any better than what had already been suggested to the table. "Three...maybe four figures." He guessed, noting the slightly darker shadows in the foreground. "If we could at least pinpoint the direction it's coming from, then we could launch a class 9 probe to conduct the pre-assessment before we arrive. Would give us roughly an hour to prepare."

"Focused light?" Alex unconsciously frowned, trying to remember a lecture from a very long time ago. "That's...21st century technology, if I recall my Earth history correctly. That could explain the distortion as the beam dispersed over a long distance...but that kind of communication system would require very precise targeting. Whomever's sending it would have to know we were here for us to intercept it. That, to me, is worrisome, if they have the technology to find us but not to communicate in a more modern capacity. On the other hand, it should make it relatively simple to track back to the point of origin."

"Captain, far be it for me to argue with my learned colleague," he said, with more sarcasm than he had intended, "but wouldn't it be more likely that they sent a multiple LASER transmissions, rather like LiDAR a multiple set of LASER transmissions emanating from the same source. I very much doubt that any civilisation would be able to know where we were going to be at a specific set of coordinates at a specific time and send a transmission that can only travel at the speed-of-light!"

Now that he was on a roll, Spielenberg couldn't contain himself and continued after taking a quick breath. "It would then be only a matter of using stellar cartography to ascertain the origin of the transmission."

[Inzjana]

[CONFERENCE ROOM]
[Play as (NPC) CSO - Lt. Johan Spielenberg]

"Aye Captain," Johan quickly stated, not so much because he didn't like the captain, which he didn't, but then Johan really didn't like anyone much, more so Vulcans. Even he wasn't stupid enough to voice that opinion to captain T'Ra Jones who for all intent and purposes was half a robot according to Johan.

He just knew that the jumped-up little up-start Inzjana would be in stellar cartography by now anyway and couldn't wait for the captain to release him from his bonds before she could find the damn origin of the transmission before he could.

[STELLAR CARTOGRAPHY]
[Playing as PC]

Inzjana had made her way to stellar cartography after sending the relevant data to the Chief Science Officer that the transmission they had picked up was LASER based. Musing that it was odd that it was odd that the transmission had been sent via LASER instead of radio that the development level this civilization of obviously at would have been capable of and seeing as radio can be omni-directional and LASER is direct, it would have been more logical to send a distress call using radio. But they did not have enough information and therefore as any Vulcan knows it is illogical to jump to any conclusions before more facts were ascertained.

It was then that Inzjana passed Petty Officer Inigo Montaña going in the opposite direction. He paused stood looking at Inzjana with his mouth open in a "WOW!" that would have been obvious to a blind wombat facing the opposite direction down his burrow. As Inzjana passed him with a courteous nod, the young man of Spanish heritage scurried after the object of his current affection trying dubiously to introduce himself.

"A...A...A...Hi Lieutenant, m...m...m...my name is Inigo Montaña, it is great to finally meet you ma'am!" He said, getting the last part out perfectly Inzjana thought, giving him credit for grammatical persistence.

Inzjana turned to the third member of the science department and said pleasantly but stoically, as to not lead the young man on as humans would say, "Na'Shaya Mr Montaña, it is agreeable to meet you finally." That was true to, Inzjana had actually never met the petty officer before and had to admit that although much to you for even Inzjana who was young herself, he was 'kinda cute' as she had heard her fellow female human officers say quite often.

"Come with me to stellar cartography petty officer, we have work to do," Inzjana added, realizing that he was no doubt out to please, "AYE AYE ma'am!"

Inzjana walked in to stellar cartography with her 'puppy' in tow and walked across the bridge to the command and control dais for the spherical holographic screen that surrounded them minus the access port. The door closed and Inzjana motioned for the petty officer to sit at the C & C controls as she stood near him watching him hesitantly manipulate the controls not wanting to make a mistake, and the display.

"Mr Montaña..." Inzjana started but was interrupted by her underling, "please call me Inigo," he said seemingly getting some confidence back and was more comfortable now, at least that was until Inzjana reiterated regulations to him, "that would be a breach of protocol petty officer, whilst we are on duty," she said. "Now as I was saying, access the optical sensor data-log, especially from the photo-multiplier system and bring up last LASER transmission," she ordered calmly.

"Y-Yes ma'am," Inigo said, telling himself off for his stupidity, after just meeting the Lieutenant.

"Now overlay the surrounding topography, extrapolating for the origin of the source, taking in to account the gravitational field of any stellar objects with significant mass to refract the LASER transmission," Inzjana asked. "Aye ma'am," Inigo responded, understanding what she was looking for but a little unsure as to how to do all of what she had asked for.

As Inzjana and Inigo worked their way through the gigaquads data, equations and commands, the path of the LASER transmission started to take form on the holographic screen. Step by step, the path of the beam of excited photons was becoming more clear, made easier by the fact that a LASER will always travel in a straight line, only being deflected by a fraction of a degree each time. Until they finally came to what appeared to be the origin of the transmission, a small backwater star that didn't even have a series of numbers to it let alone a name, but the coordinates were clear enough. Of course it wasn't a hundred per cent a given but it was as good as any place to start. That was of course, until the transmission could be cleared up, the beings would have logically included their location.

"Well done Mr Montaña, we might have found our callers," Inzjana said. Inigo smiled as Inzjana tapped her combadge,  "Captain, excuse the impertinence, but we may have found the origin of the transmission. It is in a system with an orange dwarf star 8.9 light-years from our current position which means the transmission was sent 8.9 years ago, it would seem, ma'am. The coordinates are seven five by eight two by one seven three."

Inzjana suddenly felt that her life was in danger from someone aboard the ship.

[Malcolm Adeyemi]

[Conference Room]

Adeyemi was more than impressed with how the Discovery's team was handling the task. They were an unorthodox bunch, but they appeared to know how to get the job done.

"Well done Mr Montaña, we might have found our callers," Inzjana said. Inigo smiled as Inzjana tapped her combadge,  "Captain, excuse the impertinence, but we may have found the origin of the transmission. It is in a system with an orange dwarf star 8.9 light-years from our current position which means the transmission was sent 8.9 years ago, it would seem, ma'am. The coordinates are seven five by eight two by one seven three."

[Conference Room]

"We could be too late," Adeyemi conjectured to the team, breaking the silence after the news came through. "Or their situation is so bad that they knew it would take years to get help."

Neither prospect sat particularly well with the admiral. His expression moved from stoic to I ate a bad clam in the hand span of a few seconds.

[Inzjana]

[CONFERENCE ROOM]
[Playing as NPC - SCO Lieutenant Johan Spielenberg]

Johan couldn't contain his anger any more, seething in his seat and having what he thought to be wonderful fantasies of the many ways he could mame, torture and then eventually kill that damn green-blooded demonic hell-spawn that just stole his thunder. He was so irate that he almost interrupted the admiral, an admiral?!

Johan Spielenberg, chief science officer of the USS Discovery, just popped a blood-vessel, "Captain!" He said, making it obvious as to what he was referring to.

[Alexander Wu]

"Captain, excuse the impertinence, but we may have found the origin of the transmission. It is in a system with an orange dwarf star 8.9 light-years from our current position which means the transmission was sent 8.9 years ago, it would seem, ma'am. The coordinates are seven five by eight two by one seven three."

[Conference Room]

Adeyemi was more than impressed with how the Discovery's team was handling the task. They were an unorthodox bunch, but they appeared to know how to get the job done.

[Conference Room]

"We could be too late," Adeyemi conjectured to the team, breaking the silence after the news came through. "Or their situation is so bad that they knew it would take years to get help."

Neither prospect sat particularly well with the admiral. His expression moved from stoic to I ate a bad clam in the hand span of a few seconds.

[Conference Room]

"With all due respect, Admiral, I'd prefer to find out first hand rather than postulate." Alex was a tad rougher in his tone, still unsettled by the note shown to him by Adeyemi in the turbolift. "8.9 lightyears would be roughly two days at maximum warp." He quickly recovered, rounding up the calculations in his head, followed by an estimation of what kind of response they could provide. "Lieutenant Jaeger, can you bring up those coordinates on the display screen?" He didn't have the luxury to keep being squeamish around her, not if they had a mission to complete. "Two days would give us enough time to prepare the disaster pods for transport, and I think that would give Kali's teams adequate opportunity to spruce up the Cargo Bays, in case we're looking at evacuation?" He glanced quizzingly at the Ops Chief, reluctant to step on her toes.

[CONFERENCE ROOM]
[Playing as NPC - SCO Lieutenant Johan Spielenberg]

Johan couldn't contain his anger any more, seething in his seat and having what he thought to be wonderful fantasies of the many ways he could mame, torture and then eventually kill that damn green-blooded demonic hell-spawn that just stole his thunder. He was so irate that he almost interrupted the admiral, an admiral?!

Johan Spielenberg, chief science officer of the USS Discovery, just popped a blood-vessel, "Captain!" He said, making it obvious as to what he was referring to.

Alex paused, startled by Johan's interruption. While not the most pleasant of people, the science officer was generally competent. What he wasn't known for was spates of uncontrolled tourettes.  "Spielenberg, everything alright?"

[Tekin Nevir]

[CONFERENCE ROOM]
[Playing as NPC - SCO Lieutenant Johan Spielenberg]

Johan couldn't contain his anger any more, seething in his seat and having what he thought to be wonderful fantasies of the many ways he could mame, torture and then eventually kill that damn green-blooded demonic hell-spawn that just stole his thunder. He was so irate that he almost interrupted the admiral, an admiral?!

Johan Spielenberg, chief science officer of the USS Discovery, just popped a blood-vessel, "Captain!" He said, making it obvious as to what he was referring to.

[Conference Room]

Nevir remained silent, just listening.  The team was selected for a reason, he had faith in them to be able to come up with idea that wouldn't require him stepping in.  However, his focus had turned to his CSO.  Nevir was staring the man down, the look in his eyes showing the disapproval he was holding.  This wasn't the first time the man had spoken up in a tone that sounded more preaching than anything he liked, but this time.. in front of an Admiral. 

The final straw was hearing from Inzjana, and having the Lieutenant sudden shout in anger.  Alex was more confused, but Nevir was not happy.

"Lieutenant!" The tone was calm, but firm.  The look on his face told it all.  Spielenburg had crossed a line.  Nevir stared the man down as his let his voice fade, before speaking again.

"You can either remain silent and act like a senior officer, or you can wait for me in my office.  Which one would you like?"

[Ardyn Jaeger]

[Conference Room]

"With all due respect, Admiral, I'd prefer to find out first hand rather than postulate." Alex was a tad rougher in his tone, still unsettled by the note shown to him by Adeyemi in the turbolift. "8.9 lightyears would be roughly two days at maximum warp." He quickly recovered, rounding up the calculations in his head, followed by an estimation of what kind of response they could provide. "Lieutenant Jaeger, can you bring up those coordinates on the display screen?" He didn't have the luxury to keep being squeamish around her, not if they had a mission to complete. "Two days would give us enough time to prepare the disaster pods for transport, and I think that would give Kali's teams adequate opportunity to spruce up the Cargo Bays, in case we're looking at evacuation?" He glanced quizzingly at the Ops Chief, reluctant to step on her toes.

Alex paused, startled by Johan's interruption. While not the most pleasant of people, the science officer was generally competent. What he wasn't known for was spates of uncontrolled tourettes.  "Spielenberg, everything alright?"