Season 14, Episode 2: Delusions

[Nira Said]

[Ri'lowo System - USS Allegheny]

Lek took a hard look at the debris field and frowned. He didn't like to put a damper on initiative, but he wasn't seeing a good return on investment in an EVA.

"Lieutenant Said, let's see if a good triangulated scan or beaming a smaller piece of debris aboard will get us an age before we attempt so thing so risky as an EVA?

[USS Allegheny]

Evandav took in the information from both Nira and Lek, as he began to mull over the situation which presented the team and the ship as a whole. A Romulan wreck in a system near Romulan space. Not unusual. A small fragment of his mind reminded him that there was still a potential danger of a trap, but he dismissed this idea from his mind quickly.
"˜And anyways, Discovery was more than capable of dealing with any threat.' He thought.
However, the task he was assigned was a little more scientific than the task he anticipated. It appears that he wasn't about to miss out on an opportunity on analysing the remarkable system
"œAye sir." He simply replied and he aligned the scanners towards the system, and he provided the data of the scans to his superior officers as they came in.

[Ri'lowo system - Romulan Wreck]

Getting through the gravimetric field itself was not too much of an issue.  Issues that came across were easily handled by an expert pilot turned helmsman. It wasn't long at all before they passed through the planets and reached the Romulan wreck.  They were certainly close enough to see the wreck and definitely to scan it without issues.

Scans both to the ship and to any pieces they beamed to them were able to date the craft to within a range of a few hundred years based on metal dating.  There was no evidence of weapons fire on the outside, no evidence of a power surge on the inside.  It just seemed to have mysteriously imploded for some reason.

[Lieutenant JG Nira Said | Runabout Allegheny | Ri'lowo System]

Seeing the options presented, and that Evandev was conducting scans himself, not just of the wreckage but of the system as a whole, Nira decided to go with the second option: beaming a smaller piece of the wreckage aboard. She was enthusiastic about that particular option anyway; it was an opportunity for a form of forensics work. Determining when something was destroyed and what caused it (like determining what kind of bomb went off in an outdoor area) fell into forensics, in a way.

With that, Nira went to the transporter and picked one of the smallest pieces of wreckage she could find.

"Finding a suitable piece to beam aboard," she said. "Bingo. Energizing."

She had to admit, she had rare opportunities to operate transporter systems, but everybody generally had to learn about transporters in the Academy. It was a useful skill to have in an emergency, after all.

The piece was brought aboard. Nira wished she had her forensics equipment with her, but she figured she'll have to make do with what she has on the runabout. Besides, it was a simple matter of metal dating, applicable to any piece of debris or shrapnel, though she never thought that she'd be working with something so incredibly old. The closest she ever came was the old skeleton she discovered on Carraya IV, on her first away mission with Discovery, only that skeleton was a few decades old.

With that, she knelt before the piece of wreckage before her and began her work.

"Well, isn't this very interesting," said Nira when she finished her forensic examination...for the time being. "Based on the metal dating on this particular piece, I can determine that the ship before us is a few hundred years old. At least within that range. No indications of weapons fire, obviously, but here's the strange part: There's no indication of a power surge on the inside. It almost seems like that ship imploded for no reason."

She pursed her lips when she said it, then she added, "Nothing implodes or undergoes destruction of any kind for no reason. Something had to have destroyed that ship all those years ago. As Sherlock Holmes of old Earth literature puts it, 'if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'"

Looking over at Evandev, she said, "Are you getting similar results from your triangulated scan, Mister Bervarn?"

[Luby Wentock]

Ensign Danjar-Torra
[USS Discovery - Deck 9 - Sickbay]

Torra dipped her head in apology at Luby's gentle not-berating and thanked her for the water.
..

After having her head scanned Torra had anticipated Luby informing her of an chronic concussion, but instead the cadet seemed to say that it was normal.  It didn't feel normal.

If it wasn't a concussion... what else cause headaches....  blood pressure?

Luby had turned the medical probe to scan elsewhere over Torra's body and from her immediate remarks, she obviously found something - something very worrisome.  Enough so that Luby instructed her not to panic... which had the opposite effect.

"Forgive the critique, but you need to work on your bedside manner...  Telling me not to panic has only made me worry what you've found that I might panic at... "

The Grazerite frowned, her worry increasing along with her heart rate when she noted Luby grabbing a fistful of tissues.  This condition that Luby found with her scan must obviously be very serious... perhaps even life-threatening.  Torra glanced at the cadet with large brown eyes wishing she'd just tell her.

But Luby seemed to think speaking to her in private was necessary, so Torra carefully swung her legs around and slid off the bed onto her feet and moved into the consulting room that Luby indicated.   Torra wished Don were here with her.

[Consulting Room - off Sickbay - Deck 9 - USS Discovery]

"So noted, and I'm still wondering if Medical is the right department for me, not because I'm incompetent with medical procedures, I'm fairly ok with that, but because I get too emotionally involved with my patients.  Forgive me, I didn't mean to alarm you but you're not just a patient, you're my friend." Luby said and waited until Torra sat down.

"I'm really sorry Torra, this is not good news that I'm about to give you.  However, with a little bit of medical wizardry, you'll be fine, and in time we can sort things even more satisfactorily than just the here and now."  the cadet inwardly berated herself, she wasn't doing a good job of this but she wanted to tell Torra as a friend.

"Simply put, you're pregnant, unfortunately you're not going to be for very much longer I'm afraid.  Your body for whatever reason - these are still mysteries to us even in this age - wasn't ready for the pregnancy and is rejecting it.  The most likely reasons are either your recent escapade that caused the concussion, that sort of thing can cause all kinds of internal mischief, or the hybrid nature.  I'm sorry to put it like that, some hybrids mesh well, others don't it's a tricky business but something I'm more than willing to help with in future.  There is no reason that you and Don can't have a child... you fell pregnant, that's a good indicator that you'll be successful in future... just if we know, we can help things along in the right direction."

She felt she didn't need to mention the fact that the foetus was malformed, and probably had died sometime previously.  It was going to be enough of an emotional blow to Torra that she was losing her child.

"However, the good news, such as it is... is that I can sort out the pain and so on now that I know what it is, relatively simply, you'll need about... 3 days I'd say to physically recover from that, 24 hours totally off work and then another 3 days on light duties only for good measure.  However, I know this will hit you emotionally too, so I can ask Counsellor Masters if he could sign you off for longer if you feel you need it.  It's up to you, some people feel that they just want to dive head first into things after... I know my aunt did, just took the minimum time off to recover from the procedure and then was up and at work - incidentally she worked on a farm.  Wasn't exactly light work but maybe she felt the animals needed her!"  Luby shrugged lightly realising she was waffling again.

Internally, she didn't know if it was for her own benefit or Torra's she felt she needed to fill the room with sound, for it not to be silent because that would be just too sad.

She elected to let Torra take this in a little before going any further, gently indicating the tissues she'd dropped on the desk and moving round to drop to a haunch and put her arms around Torra.  She knew she herself was close to tears, so she could only imagine how her friend felt.

[Ruth Sigurdsdottir]

[Bridge - USS Discovery]

While checking readings, Ruth took a minute to pull out her PADD to check her messages and see if any of the crew down in the labs had messaged her anything, she was going to tell them to just send everything to a central file so that anyone on the team could access the information about the planets.

While there she found a message from Lahr.  The silly Andorian she loved actually contacted her far more than she'd anticipated, and had actually broken up with Chloe.  She felt for the young medic, but she couldn't deny her feelings for Lahr.

Hey ho... she quickly read her message and smiled.  It would give her more determination to get back to him, and there had been some movement on that, but even if it went ahead, she wasn't going to do more than drop a few hints, but she didn't want to 'do a Will' on him and give the poor man a heartattack.  How to drive him back into Chloe's arms.

She let out a small chuckle and covered it with a cough, then sent the message to the science team to send all readings and scan results to a central folder which she created.

"Is there anything specific that the Allegheny is working on finding, Captain.  Merely asking so we can concentrate our efforts more efficiently rather than all of us working on the same thing... unless you want things from different angles of course."

[Anastasia Zhestakova]

[Counselors Office]

Zed sat alone at his desk. His last appointment of the day had just recently left which left him open for the rest of his shift. As he moved to his replicator he paused a moment. Should he check in on the bridge? See if he's needed elsewhere? No, he figured he'd likely only get in the way elsewhere. With a small sigh he resigned to only ordering tea and returned to his desk. For a moment he missed when he worked in engineering, but that quickly passed as he remembered how he nearly died on his first mission. Maybe it wasn't so bad to just be a counselor after all actually. Most of his days now were spent listening to other people's traumas instead of experiencing them himself which actually a nice change of pace if he was being honest.

U.S.S. Discovery - Corridors

Anastasia found herself calmly wandering the corridors of the ship that was the spiritual successor of her first posting. She hadn't been surprised to receive transfer orders after the events near the Tzenkethi boarder that her previous posting, the Challenger, had been a part of. What had surprised her though was to discover the Discovery that she knew was no more. This new ship that bore that storied name was something else though and Anastasia was surprised she'd been given the requisite clearances to server aboard a Prometheus-Class ship.

While she wouldn't complain about the posting, the awe inspiring amount of automation built into the ship ensured she'd never feel too out of sorts for as long as they left her in engineering, being posted to a war ship left her with a pervasive anxiety. Still the ship was immaculate and the possibility of getting to work with three ships worth of sensors in her off duty hours left a smile on her face. It could be vurse, Duktor Vlannigan could 'ave recalled you from zhe fleet.

Looking up, Anastasia was happily surprised to see her feet had brought her to the Ship Counselor's office, the first stop on her check-in procedure after having dropped her gear off in her new quarters. Taking a deep breath, she hit the door chime and announced to the occupant, "Peetee Officer Zhestakova for check-in procedure, Zur."

[Lek]

[Lieutenant JG Nira Said | Runabout Allegheny | Ri'lowo System]

Seeing the options presented, and that Evandev was conducting scans himself, not just of the wreckage but of the system as a whole, Nira decided to go with the second option: beaming a smaller piece of the wreckage aboard. She was enthusiastic about that particular option anyway; it was an opportunity for a form of forensics work. Determining when something was destroyed and what caused it (like determining what kind of bomb went off in an outdoor area) fell into forensics, in a way.

With that, Nira went to the transporter and picked one of the smallest pieces of wreckage she could find.

"Finding a suitable piece to beam aboard," she said. "Bingo. Energizing."

She had to admit, she had rare opportunities to operate transporter systems, but everybody generally had to learn about transporters in the Academy. It was a useful skill to have in an emergency, after all.

The piece was brought aboard. Nira wished she had her forensics equipment with her, but she figured she'll have to make do with what she has on the runabout. Besides, it was a simple matter of metal dating, applicable to any piece of debris or shrapnel, though she never thought that she'd be working with something so incredibly old. The closest she ever came was the old skeleton she discovered on Carraya IV, on her first away mission with Discovery, only that skeleton was a few decades old.

With that, she knelt before the piece of wreckage before her and began her work.

"Well, isn't this very interesting," said Nira when she finished her forensic examination...for the time being. "Based on the metal dating on this particular piece, I can determine that the ship before us is a few hundred years old. At least within that range. No indications of weapons fire, obviously, but here's the strange part: There's no indication of a power surge on the inside. It almost seems like that ship imploded for no reason."

She pursed her lips when she said it, then she added, "Nothing implodes or undergoes destruction of any kind for no reason. Something had to have destroyed that ship all those years ago. As Sherlock Holmes of old Earth literature puts it, 'if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'"

Looking over at Evandev, she said, "Are you getting similar results from your triangulated scan, Mister Bervarn?"

[Ri'lowo System- USS Allegheny]

Lek looked at the debris with interest as he took note of the classic indications of metal fatigue on the piece of the old Romulan ship's hull.

"If I had to guess, based off of this one sample, you are looking at the result of gravimetric sheer. Based on the age of the ship, I would bet that even if she was cruiser sized, their shields were weaker than what we have aboard this runabout. The ship entered the confluence of the gravity wells from both planets and was simply torn apart by the diametrically opposed forces involved. My recommendation would be to not test that theory and avoid the confluence. I believe as long as a ship only has to deal with one gravity well, there won't be any problems."

[Zed Masters]

U.S.S. Discovery - Corridors

Anastasia found herself calmly wandering the corridors of the ship that was the spiritual successor of her first posting. She hadn't been surprised to receive transfer orders after the events near the Tzenkethi boarder that her previous posting, the Challenger, had been a part of. What had surprised her though was to discover the Discovery that she knew was no more. This new ship that bore that storied name was something else though and Anastasia was surprised she'd been given the requisite clearances to server aboard a Prometheus-Class ship.

While she wouldn't complain about the posting, the awe inspiring amount of automation built into the ship ensured she'd never feel too out of sorts for as long as they left her in engineering, being posted to a war ship left her with a pervasive anxiety. Still the ship was immaculate and the possibility of getting to work with three ships worth of sensors in her off duty hours left a smile on her face. It could be vurse, Duktor Vlannigan could 'ave recalled you from zhe fleet.

Looking up, Anastasia was happily surprised to see her feet had brought her to the Ship Counselor's office, the first stop on her check-in procedure after having dropped her gear off in her new quarters. Taking a deep breath, she hit the door chime and announced to the occupant, "Peetee Officer Zhestakova for check-in procedure, Zur."

[Counselor's Office]

Zed had been silently reviewing his personal files for what felt like an eternity. Trying to match up what he'd been told by patients with their Starfleet records to build timelines and hopefully more accurately pinpoint how best to help them moving forward. His last appointment had long since ended which left him confused for a moment until the crew member spoke up. Not particularly who he might have expected to show up, but a welcomed reprieve from the tedium of the work that had plagued him for the last hour or so. He rose from his desk and made his way passed the small living area to the door. As the door opened it revealed him standing near it. "Please, come in and have a seat anywhere you like. I'm Counselor Masters, you said you were Petty Officer Anastasia Zhestakova correct? I know I didn't have you scheduled but I try to always keep track of incoming personnel." The counselor turned and motioned into his office. There were plenty of places to sit, in the living area there were two small chairs across from one another, between them against the wall was a long comfortable looking couch. His neatly organized desk had another three chairs, one behind and two in front. "Some people prefer the desk, some people prefer the couch, some to stand...though I do not recommend the last one with how long some sessions can go on." Masters added lightly. "Make yourself comfortable and we can get started." His dark eyes glanced back at her as he offered a soft smile.

[Anastasia Zhestakova]

[Counselor's Office]

Zed had been silently reviewing his personal files for what felt like an eternity. Trying to match up what he'd been told by patients with their Starfleet records to build timelines and hopefully more accurately pinpoint how best to help them moving forward. His last appointment had long since ended which left him confused for a moment until the crew member spoke up. Not particularly who he might have expected to show up, but a welcomed reprieve from the tedium of the work that had plagued him for the last hour or so. He rose from his desk and made his way passed the small living area to the door. As the door opened it revealed him standing near it. "Please, come in and have a seat anywhere you like. I'm Counselor Masters, you said you were Petty Officer Anastasia Zhestakova correct? I know I didn't have you scheduled but I try to always keep track of incoming personnel." The counselor turned and motioned into his office. There were plenty of places to sit, in the living area there were two small chairs across from one another, between them against the wall was a long comfortable looking couch. His neatly organized desk had another three chairs, one behind and two in front. "Some people prefer the desk, some people prefer the couch, some to stand...though I do not recommend the last one with how long some sessions can go on." Masters added lightly. "Make yourself comfortable and we can get started." His dark eyes glanced back at her as he offered a soft smile.

[U.S.S. Discovery - Counselor's Office]

Anastasia braced herself as the door opened. Even though the ship had changed, she the name itself was enough to remind her of Jhamel. Thankfully, the counselor was neither Aenar nor female. Still, the smile she gave Zed was partly forced as she had hoped to skip a formal session right off the bat. She did accept the invitation in however, "Zhank yoo, Zur. Zhe chairs vill do yust fine I zhink, da?"

Seating herself, legs curled beneath her, Anastasia continued, "I 'ope I am not intruding. I vas yust going zrough check-in before I am reporting to zhe Keptin. I am kvite suprised to be stationed 'ere, if I am being 'onest. Zhe last time I vas stationed on a Discovery I put an ancient god sized 'ole zrough zhe ship. I am zhinking maybe zhe new Discovery is not capable of 'andling zhat, no? I am also zhinking I am babbling now. Sorry. I am yust a little anxious. Of course yoo know I am 'aving anxiety, Duktor Vlannigan must 'ave sent yoo my files. I am still babbling. Sorry."

Anastasia hid her face behind her hands, embarrassment joining her anxiety. Stoopid girl, yust shut and let 'im do 'is yob. Peaking one ice blue eye between her fingers, she made to judge the counselors reaction.

[Nira Said]

[Ri'lowo System- USS Allegheny]

Lek looked at the debris with interest as he took note of the classic indications of metal fatigue on the piece of the old Romulan ship's hull.

"If I had to guess, based off of this one sample, you are looking at the result of gravimetric sheer. Based on the age of the ship, I would bet that even if she was cruiser sized, their shields were weaker than what we have aboard this runabout. The ship entered the confluence of the gravity wells from both planets and was simply torn apart by the diametrically opposed forces involved. My recommendation would be to not test that theory and avoid the confluence. I believe as long as a ship only has to deal with one gravity well, there won't be any problems."

[Lieutenant JG Nira Said | Runabout Allegheny | Ri'lowo System]

"That makes absolute sense," said Nira, when she heard out Lieutenant Lek. "Shields of today are a lot stronger than shields of centuries ago. I think there's the occasional shield harmonics designed for protection even against the heat of a star, though even it might be going out on a limb, as they say on Earth, to say that even today's shields are powerful enough to allow ships to go through a star.

"Still," she added, "we now know for sure what caused the ship's destruction. Now the question is what's the cause of this gravemetric confluence. And I think we might know the answer to that," she said, looking out the window of the runabout, out at the planets beyond.

"I wonder," she said with curiosity. She then ran another scan, this time on the planets. And she got the results: Two magnetic fields deflecting off of each other. The poles were positioned in an interesting way, enough that she can easily imagine a space elevator would've been possible...but it instantly made Nira suspicious, as her investigative side always does, but this was of a more scientific aspect.

Nira opened a channel to Discovery and, still wondering why neither Lek nor Don had reported themselves, reported, "Allegheny to Discovery. Lieutenant Said here. Captain? Commanders T'Lara and Sigurdsdottir? I think we've determined what happened to that Romulan ship. It all happened centuries ago, the wreckage is that old. What could've destroyed it is not from weapons impacts or a core failure, but from being ripped apart by gravimetric sheer, maybe even some kind of gravity well confluence. I'm just guessing here, but I think I know what could be the cause of it:

"I'm sure you might have noticed it as well," she said, "if Discovery has picked them up on their sensors, but these planets' magnetic fields are deflecting off of each other. It definitely could explain how the probe got off course, but perhaps the magnetic fields are deflecting off each other strongly enough to cause this confluence. If you intend to take Discovery closer, I recommend proceeding with caution, but don't get any closer than you have to. If you have to get closer, I also recommend making sure shields are strong enough. Modern shields should be strong enough to repel the confluence; I don't think the Romulans of centuries past here were lucky; shields back then aren't likely to have been as strong as shields of today. However, it's likely the confluence will be so strong not even Discovery could last long."

[Zed Masters]

[U.S.S. Discovery - Counselor's Office]

Anastasia braced herself as the door opened. Even though the ship had changed, she the name itself was enough to remind her of Jhamel. Thankfully, the counselor was neither Aenar nor female. Still, the smile she gave Zed was partly forced as she had hoped to skip a formal session right off the bat. She did accept the invitation in however, "Zhank yoo, Zur. Zhe chairs vill do yust fine I zhink, da?"

Seating herself, legs curled beneath her, Anastasia continued, [color=goldenrod0"I 'ope I am not intruding. I vas yust going zrough check-in before I am reporting to zhe Keptin. I am kvite suprised to be stationed 'ere, if I am being 'onest. Zhe last time I vas stationed on a Discovery I put an ancient god sized 'ole zrough zhe ship. I am zhinking maybe zhe new Discovery is not capable of 'andling zhat, no? I am also zhinking I am babbling now. Sorry. I am yust a little anxious. Of course yoo know I am 'aving anxiety, Duktor Vlannigan must 'ave sent yoo my files. I am still babbling. Sorry."[/color]

Anastasia hid her face behind her hands, embarrassment joining her anxiety. Stoopid girl, yust shut and let 'im do 'is yob. Peaking one ice blue eye between her fingers, she made to judge the counselors reaction.

[Counselor's Office]

Masters moved to sit directly across from Anastasia. As he listened to her speak he returned an honest grin. "He did send the files, but I personally prefer making my own assumptions. People aren't words on a screen, they're much more complex than that and I like to find more about them by just listening to them." He replied calmly. "Before we get to much farther though, enough of that 'Sir' stuff. Counselor, Zed, Masters, basically anything other than sir."

His smile turned slightly more mischievous as he spoke again. "As for the Discovery, we should certainly try avoiding putting things through the hull, but I think we'll be fine if you just can't resist." Zed replied in an obviously joking tone. "For what it's worth on my last posting I nearly blew up an entire Starbase on my first day. I wasn't even stationed on a Starbase." He chuckled to himself as he briefly recounted that deeply scarring part of his service record in an attempt to make Zhestakova feel more comfortable. "So, we'll just have to promise each other that we'll try our hardest and we'll make it through together."

[Anastasia Zhestakova]

[Counselor's Office]

Masters moved to sit directly across from Anastasia. As he listened to her speak he returned an honest grin. "He did send the files, but I personally prefer making my own assumptions. People aren't words on a screen, they're much more complex than that and I like to find more about them by just listening to them." He replied calmly. "Before we get to much farther though, enough of that 'Sir' stuff. Counselor, Zed, Masters, basically anything other than sir."

His smile turned slightly more mischievous as he spoke again. "As for the Discovery, we should certainly try avoiding putting things through the hull, but I think we'll be fine if you just can't resist." Zed replied in an obviously joking tone. "For what it's worth on my last posting I nearly blew up an entire Starbase on my first day. I wasn't even stationed on a Starbase." He chuckled to himself as he briefly recounted that deeply scarring part of his service record in an attempt to make Zhestakova feel more comfortable. "So, we'll just have to promise each other that we'll try our hardest and we'll make it through together."

[U.S.S. Discovery - Counselor's Office]

Anastasia took a deep breath, held it, and then dropped her hands. "Anastasia vill do zhen... Zed. And vhile I am more zhan 'appy to promise, I vas not trying to destroy ship zhe vurst time. It yust... sort of 'appened. Is vhy I started not liking being on avay missions so much, da? Zhe vor vis zhe Gorn solidified zhat." Anastasia shrugged as if to say, 'what are you going to do.'

Duktor Vlannigan said ve are to be blunt and not apologize. Anastasia smiled and gave Zed a rueful smile. "Vhere vood yoo like to start zhouhg? Zhere is so much, da? Zhe day before I vas to be commissioned I vas kvietly shuttled avay from zhe academy as a crooman and sent to zhe old Discovery. Andorian's and Aenar make me anxious because I killed an Aenar vhen I put zhe 'ole in zhe ship. Zhat 'ole claimed almost 200 of zhe crew so I 'ad von of zhe 'ighest kill counts at 18 years old vhen zhe vor vis zhe Gorn started and zhen I was deployed more zhen vonce for boarding action. I am not sure if it vas killing or seeing comrades die zhat really cemented my PTSD in place. But zhat is not mattering as zhey pulled me from zhe fleet for zree years. Vhen I am getting back I am developing a problem vis running out of alcohol and maybe using some substances not approved for Starfleet personnel so zhey are kvickly recalling me back to Sol. Zhen I am spending zree more years but vis Duktor Vlannigan and Duktor Poostrodaiya zhis time. And zhen zhey are sending me back, telling me I am maybe obsessed vis temporal mechanics to fix everyzhing zhat 'as gone badly for me so zhey send me to engineering. But zhey vere not right about zhat. I vas obsessed vis temporal mechanics at zhirtteen but zhey are not listening to me on zhis. Still I am an engineer on zhe Challenger and I am not knowing much about engineering vhen in my vurst veek on duty ve are 'aving combat encounters vis zhe Tzenkezhi tvice. So zhey pull me from zhat sector and send me here.' By the end of her impromptu speech, Anastasia was manic and panting, her diminutive hands digging her nails into the arms of the chair and her feet planted firmly on the deck. Glassy eyed, she gave Zed a look that begged for help.

[Don Damien Addams]

[Lieutenant JG Nira Said | Runabout Allegheny | Ri'lowo System]

"That makes absolute sense," said Nira, when she heard out Lieutenant Lek. "Shields of today are a lot stronger than shields of centuries ago. I think there's the occasional shield harmonics designed for protection even against the heat of a star, though even it might be going out on a limb, as they say on Earth, to say that even today's shields are powerful enough to allow ships to go through a star.

"Still," she added, "we now know for sure what caused the ship's destruction. Now the question is what's the cause of this gravemetric confluence. And I think we might know the answer to that," she said, looking out the window of the runabout, out at the planets beyond.

"I wonder," she said with curiosity. She then ran another scan, this time on the planets. And she got the results: Two magnetic fields deflecting off of each other. The poles were positioned in an interesting way, enough that she can easily imagine a space elevator would've been possible...but it instantly made Nira suspicious, as her investigative side always does, but this was of a more scientific aspect.

Nira opened a channel to Discovery and, still wondering why neither Lek nor Don had reported themselves, reported, "Allegheny to Discovery. Lieutenant Said here. Captain? Commanders T'Lara and Sigurdsdottir? I think we've determined what happened to that Romulan ship. It all happened centuries ago, the wreckage is that old. What could've destroyed it is not from weapons impacts or a core failure, but from being ripped apart by gravimetric sheer, maybe even some kind of gravity well confluence. I'm just guessing here, but I think I know what could be the cause of it:

"I'm sure you might have noticed it as well," she said, "if Discovery has picked them up on their sensors, but these planets' magnetic fields are deflecting off of each other. It definitely could explain how the probe got off course, but perhaps the magnetic fields are deflecting off each other strongly enough to cause this confluence. If you intend to take Discovery closer, I recommend proceeding with caution, but don't get any closer than you have to. If you have to get closer, I also recommend making sure shields are strong enough. Modern shields should be strong enough to repel the confluence; I don't think the Romulans of centuries past here were lucky; shields back then aren't likely to have been as strong as shields of today. However, it's likely the confluence will be so strong not even Discovery could last long."

[USS USS Allegheny]

"You think there is anything else we need to get while we here?" Don asked the team. He was not bored, but he figure the Captain was dying to get his hands on this science stuff. The rest of the staff as well.

[Tekin Nevir]

[Bridge - USS Discovery]

While checking readings, Ruth took a minute to pull out her PADD to check her messages and see if any of the crew down in the labs had messaged her anything, she was going to tell them to just send everything to a central file so that anyone on the team could access the information about the planets.

While there she found a message from Lahr.  The silly Andorian she loved actually contacted her far more than she'd anticipated, and had actually broken up with Chloe.  She felt for the young medic, but she couldn't deny her feelings for Lahr.

Hey ho... she quickly read her message and smiled.  It would give her more determination to get back to him, and there had been some movement on that, but even if it went ahead, she wasn't going to do more than drop a few hints, but she didn't want to 'do a Will' on him and give the poor man a heartattack.  How to drive him back into Chloe's arms.

She let out a small chuckle and covered it with a cough, then sent the message to the science team to send all readings and scan results to a central folder which she created.

"Is there anything specific that the Allegheny is working on finding, Captain.  Merely asking so we can concentrate our efforts more efficiently rather than all of us working on the same thing... unless you want things from different angles of course."

[Deck 1 - Main Bridge - USS Discovery]

"Once they determine the cause of the wreck, thats all we need from them.  We on the other hand should be focused on the planet itself." he stated, as he heard the hail come in from the away team.

[Lieutenant JG Nira Said | Runabout Allegheny | Ri'lowo System]

"That makes absolute sense," said Nira, when she heard out Lieutenant Lek. "Shields of today are a lot stronger than shields of centuries ago. I think there's the occasional shield harmonics designed for protection even against the heat of a star, though even it might be going out on a limb, as they say on Earth, to say that even today's shields are powerful enough to allow ships to go through a star.

"Still," she added, "we now know for sure what caused the ship's destruction. Now the question is what's the cause of this gravemetric confluence. And I think we might know the answer to that," she said, looking out the window of the runabout, out at the planets beyond.

"I wonder," she said with curiosity. She then ran another scan, this time on the planets. And she got the results: Two magnetic fields deflecting off of each other. The poles were positioned in an interesting way, enough that she can easily imagine a space elevator would've been possible...but it instantly made Nira suspicious, as her investigative side always does, but this was of a more scientific aspect.

Nira opened a channel to Discovery and, still wondering why neither Lek nor Don had reported themselves, reported, "Allegheny to Discovery. Lieutenant Said here. Captain? Commanders T'Lara and Sigurdsdottir? I think we've determined what happened to that Romulan ship. It all happened centuries ago, the wreckage is that old. What could've destroyed it is not from weapons impacts or a core failure, but from being ripped apart by gravimetric sheer, maybe even some kind of gravity well confluence. I'm just guessing here, but I think I know what could be the cause of it:

"I'm sure you might have noticed it as well," she said, "if Discovery has picked them up on their sensors, but these planets' magnetic fields are deflecting off of each other. It definitely could explain how the probe got off course, but perhaps the magnetic fields are deflecting off each other strongly enough to cause this confluence. If you intend to take Discovery closer, I recommend proceeding with caution, but don't get any closer than you have to. If you have to get closer, I also recommend making sure shields are strong enough. Modern shields should be strong enough to repel the confluence; I don't think the Romulans of centuries past here were lucky; shields back then aren't likely to have been as strong as shields of today. However, it's likely the confluence will be so strong not even Discovery could last long."

"Understood, Allegheny, we will keep our distance.  If you are confident with that explanation, go ahead and come back.  I guess it wasn't as exciting a mystery after all.  Discovery out." 

With a sigh, the Captain turned back and sat down.  "Alright, you heard the team, we keep our distance.  Remain outside of the central point-"

The ship shuddered as if suddenly frozen, with a slight rattling as if it was being held against its own will.  The sensor immediately recognized something was wrong and the red alert klaxon sounded.  Sensors started showing hull stress on one side of the ship, stress that was pointed towards a point on the planet.  It was as if it was being... tractored.  And right now that tractor trajectory was towards the midpoint.

"Break us out of their range!" he ordered, as the ship started to pull itself away from the port side planet and closer to the starboard side.  The stress would start to lightened with the distance, but then...

Another shudder, and this time hull stress was on the starboard side.  Same thing.  The ship was now caught in two beams, and pulled in neatly to the midpoint.  For the moment, it seemed like the purpose was to pull a vessel right to the midpoint, and with the stresses on the hull, using the thrusters or warp engines would not be a good idea.

[Lek]

[Deck 1 - Main Bridge - USS Discovery]

"Once they determine the cause of the wreck, thats all we need from them.  We on the other hand should be focused on the planet itself." he stated, as he heard the hail come in from the away team.

"Understood, Allegheny, we will keep our distance.  If you are confident with that explanation, go ahead and come back.  I guess it wasn't as exciting a mystery after all.  Discovery out." 

With a sigh, the Captain turned back and sat down.  "Alright, you heard the team, we keep our distance.  Remain outside of the central point-"

The ship shuddered as if suddenly frozen, with a slight rattling as if it was being held against its own will.  The sensor immediately recognized something was wrong and the red alert klaxon sounded.  Sensors started showing hull stress on one side of the ship, stress that was pointed towards a point on the planet.  It was as if it was being... tractored.  And right now that tractor trajectory was towards the midpoint.

"Break us out of their range!" he ordered, as the ship started to pull itself away from the port side planet and closer to the starboard side.  The stress would start to lightened with the distance, but then...

Another shudder, and this time hull stress was on the starboard side.  Same thing.  The ship was now caught in two beams, and pulled in neatly to the midpoint.  For the moment, it seemed like the purpose was to pull a vessel right to the midpoint, and with the stresses on the hull, using the thrusters or warp engines would not be a good idea.

[Ri'lowo System - USS Allegheny]

Lek was content to let the science department and Lieutenant Said take lead on the investigation as apart from assessing the piece of Romulan wreckage, this whole mission was outside his area of expertise. He was about acknowledge the captain's order to return to the ship when he saw Discovery lurch. He immediately said.

"She acting like she's being tractored. Scan the surface and see if you can find a source!"

[Nira Said]

[USS USS Allegheny]

"You think there is anything else we need to get while we here?" Don asked the team. He was not bored, but he figure the Captain was dying to get his hands on this science stuff. The rest of the staff as well.

[Lieutenant JG Nira Said | Runabout Allegheny | Ri'lowo System]

"I doubt it," said Nira, "but let's see what the Captain thinks."

"Understood, Allegheny, we will keep our distance.  If you are confident with that explanation, go ahead and come back.  I guess it wasn't as exciting a mystery after all.  Discovery out." 

With a sigh, the Captain turned back and sat down.  "Alright, you heard the team, we keep our distance.  Remain outside of the central point-"

The ship shuddered as if suddenly frozen, with a slight rattling as if it was being held against its own will.  The sensor immediately recognized something was wrong and the red alert klaxon sounded.  Sensors started showing hull stress on one side of the ship, stress that was pointed towards a point on the planet.  It was as if it was being... tractored.  And right now that tractor trajectory was towards the midpoint.

"Break us out of their range!" he ordered, as the ship started to pull itself away from the port side planet and closer to the starboard side.  The stress would start to lightened with the distance, but then...

Another shudder, and this time hull stress was on the starboard side.  Same thing.  The ship was now caught in two beams, and pulled in neatly to the midpoint.  For the moment, it seemed like the purpose was to pull a vessel right to the midpoint, and with the stresses on the hull, using the thrusters or warp engines would not be a good idea.

[Ri'lowo System - USS Allegheny]

Lek was content to let the science department and Lieutenant Said take lead on the investigation as apart from assessing the piece of Romulan wreckage, this whole mission was outside his area of expertise. He was about acknowledge the captain's order to return to the ship when he saw Discovery lurch. He immediately said.

"She acting like she's being tractored. Scan the surface and see if you can find a source!"

"Well, I guess this means we head back to the ship," said Nira. She was finding more and more that it was her and Evandev's show; Lek was more the engineer and Don was the pilot, after all...

"[spoiler]Shite[/spoiler]! The ship!" shouted Nira when she noticed the ship. It looked as if it was being pulled by two different tractor beams. She remembered hearing stories in ancient Earth times when prisoners were executed by dismemberment, specifically by being pulled apart by horses, camels or elephants, and what was happening to the Discovery reminded her of those stories.

"It's being pulled apart," she said. "Maybe it's happened before, though we can't tell if that wreck was indicative of being torn apart."

At Lek's order, she commenced scanning the surface. She was suspecting, as she worked, that the magnetic fields or the gravity well confluence was behind this...but that was what she thought first. But she realized that it could be the work of tractor beams, more of an artificial device. Then it hit her. Beams, plural. And it was being pulled in two directions. She corrected herself and scanned both planets, and it came up with...

"Found it," said Nira. "There are two automated emitters, each from the two planets. That's the source behind the two tractor beams. Both emitters are originating at two adjacent points: the north poles of both planets that are facing each other."

Nira couldn't help but be astonished at what was happening. Once again, she felt like she was serving aboard Deep Space Nine; aside from a commanding officer who's Bajoran, here she was in a runabout with an away team when the rest of the crew was in trouble. And it looked like this away team had to save the ship somehow. Nira wondered if it ought to be especially urgent on the part of Don, given his wife...and Nira's best friend...was in trouble with the rest of the crew.

"Lieutenant Lek? Mister Bervarn?" she asked the two other men, "any recommendations you both have with shutting down or disrupting or nullifying those emitters?"

[Evandav Bervarn]

[USS Allegheny]

Evandav pored over the results from the scans which they had taken, and he soon found himself absorbed by all the data which came in. Quite simply the atypical nature of the gravitational distortions caused by the planets was fascinating. In a way, at that moment, he felt privileged by the fact he was here and able to witness something quite as extraordinary as this. Indeed, his face lit up, and he found it hard to suppress a smile from his face.
"œYes sir, the scans are showing pretty much the same results that your scans of the piece of Romulan ship have shown. The smile however was soon wiped from his face when Discovery appeared to have been grabbed by something. A beam of some sorts. Nira worked it out faster than Evandav had, but the result was the same. Nothing like this could've occurred naturally. At least, not in Evandav's admittedly small experience. Bringing up the scans of the 2 planets, he observed exactly the same thing which Nira did. He quickly began to think out loud
"œA couple of photon torpedoes to destroy them should do the job hopefully. Apart from that, we could be able to disrupt the beam as it travels to Discovery through space."