Hello Darkness My Old Friend
Posted on Tue Sep 24th, 2019 @ 8:30pm by Commodore Tyler Malbrooke & Staff Sergeant Shayla Kunadt & Lieutenant Commander Larim Myles & Lieutenant Commander Vaebn tr'Hwersuil & Lieutenant Elen Diari & Major Cornelius Tremble
Edited on on Wed Sep 25th, 2019 @ 1:54am
2,366 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Episode 8 - The Silence
Location: Bridge - Deck 1 - USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD004 1100 hrs
Tyler sipped his coffee as he chatted with Quinn next to him. Thankfully the journey to Wren IX had been relatively uneventful. "As soon as Starfleet Civilian Affairs assigns us a teacher we can get a proper school going on the Pioneer. Completing the family friendly side of the ship. I hope things are not too rough on Enya."
"A teacher would be nice..." Quinn started to say, but he wanted to address the routine comment Tyler just made. He leaned in closer to his seat. "I have learned, nothing is routine, when dealing with terrorist. I can't help but wonder, when the New Maquis will strike again." He said, wondering if Makeba Brown, should be confined. So far, she was proving her worth to the crew.
Tyler's brow furrowed for a moment, he hoped for some friendly talk with Quinn. However, Quinn would not be the best XO in the fleet if he did not keep people on task. "I am of the same mind. However, our hands are all but tied at the moment. Both the CDF and Starfleet want us to butt out of the New Maquis for the time being..." He thought for a moment before picking his words carefully. "Our Maquis guest has been behaving herself as of late. In fact some of the crew have said that she may have come around. Perhaps it might be time for you to visit her. Tell her that I have a mind to recommission her, but you are stopping me. Make her convince you. If she can do that then she must be sincere. In the process I think we can learn something or have her get us some information."
"I will reach out to Miss Brown." Quinn said. He made a notation in his log, to see Makeba Brown, later on. He then turned to Tyler. "Sorry if I seem harsh, Captain. I am hopeful, this mission will go without a hitch, but I like to be prepared." He said, with a boyish smile on his face. Quinn did not want to appear to be standoffish or to by the book. But he had a valid reason, to fear Makeba Brown, and the New Maquis.
"You wouldn't be the best if you weren't prepared." Tyler replied with a smirk. The sound of the warp nacelles settling into impulse mode was the sweetest sound Tyler had heard in a while.
Ingrid sat at the helm passing the time by reading tedious department reports. She loved being the lead pilot, but this part of the job bored her to tears. She was a woman of action and always had been. The console beeped the preset eta she'd programmed for 3 minutes. At the appropriate time, she programmed a warp kill point and, when it was reached, the Pioneer flashed down to impulse speeds. She smiled as the sounds of warp power phased to the dull hum of impulse speed.
"We've arrived at Wren IX. Smooth sailin' all the way." She declared. She moved her left hand over the viewsceen control and pulled up an image of the world.
Tyler stood up and looked at the ringed planet on the viewscreen. "Thank you Lieutenant standard orbit. Vaebn what am I looking at?"
"Wren IX in all her glory sir." Vaebn looked back and forth between two of his command screens. "Further sensor data is coming in now. Reading a Class M atmosphere with minor trace elements and background radiation from the stars. Levels are below the danger threshold and should pose no threat to away teams. The rings contain a number of non-planetary debris fields, but extent of the rings are causing some sensor echos." Vaebn looked over to Tyler, "Request to launch 4 sensor whiskers to assist in surveying the rings more thoroughly."
"Get it done Lieutenant. I want to know all I can before we send our survey teams down there." Tyler responded while staring at the viewscreen. This mission just gets more and more interesting by the moment.
Vaebn initiated the launch cycle and directed the sensor whiskers into a formation leading into the massive ring belts. "Whiskers away sir. Awaiting telemetry return."
=/\=Hawkeye to Bridge. Request departure sequence for Operation OMAHA=/\= The voice of Shayla Kunadt came through the comm system.
Ameri listened to the comm and verified the information requested. “Departure sequence is 1130 hours.” She replied to Kunadt.”
Listening in on his helmet's speakers, Neil's hand floated in front of him as he touched holographic controls displayed before him and he activated the comm. "Roger Pioneer. Hawkeye launching now. He switched to the team net and said, "All right people, here we go. Operation Omaha is now on the clock. Commence transports."
Shayla's smile broadened it was nice to leave the ship on a real mission something someone could sink their teeth into. "Let's kick the tires and light the fires." She said to the team as her hands danced on the controls and the Hawkeye rose from the deck plating and hovered in place. A klaxon rang out in the shuttle bay as the outer doors opened. =/\=Hawkeye to Bridge we are clearing the doors in three... two... one... mark! Happy surveying Bridge, Hawkeye away.=/\=
Ameri watched as they departed and logged that they were away. She silently prayed that all went well.
"Now reading previously projected orbit, sir." Ingrid announced. "The rings make a natural orbit impossible without collision. The helm will need to make simple course corrections once every seven minutes. All algorithms have been entered into the computer so it should be simple."
"Commander Myles, one of our whiskers is detecting an energy signature deep in the rings in this area," Vaebn transmitted the coordinates on the survey to the tactical station.
'This is weird." Myles began, looking to Vaebn. "As far as weapons or shields I've found nothing so far. Just a low power field of some kind. But I'm at a loss to describe it."
"I'm seeing the same. It appears to be a low level energy signature. Perhaps a power core or...... wait a moment. I'm getting what looks like an intermittent power signature from the surface, and it is identical to the one in orbit."
Ameri kept an eye on the ship’s systems. They were showing no changes in the ship’s operations. “She looked over at Vaebn. “Are they linked to each other or independent?”
"They appear to be independent of each other," Vaebn said as he adjusted the sensor scans. "The one in orbit is low and constant, however what I'm reading on the surface is much more powerful, widespread and..." Vaebn was puzzled as he looked over his shoulder at Ameri. "Lieutenant, can you please verify the following coordinates? Sensors are showing the ruins of a large city, but every now and then I think I'm getting a sensor ghosting. I'm sporadically seeing life signs in the ruins."
“I am not picking up anything,” Ameri replied. She ran several checks and hen looked over at Vaebn. “Still nothing and my systems appear to be working fine.”
"Lt Myles, I'm directing two of the whiskers into the direction of the orbital power source and copying the data returns to your station." He sent the orders to the sensor drones and released them from their pre-set formation, and then directed teh remaining two ahead of Pioneer to assist with the navigation through the rings. He looked to the helm console, "Lt Hollister, I've slaved the remaining sensor drones to the helm; they should provide you with an early warning as we traverse the ring belts." Vaebn then turned his attention to the planetary scans. The returning data was beyond confusing. For a brief moment here and there it appeared as though the ruins were fully functional cities teeming with life, before reverting back. There was no temporal or chronometric disturbances or emanations from the planet or the surrounding area. None of this made sense. "Lt O'Flannigan, are you certain that our sensors are operating correctly?
Ameri checked and rechecked the sensors before replying. “The sensors are running normally. I ran a diagnostic and everything comes back normal.”
"Sir," he said turning his gaze towards the Captain, "sensors are primarily showing ruined cities with indications of heavy damage indicative of a massive orbital bombardment and limited life signs to small flora and fauna. However, I'm seeing intermittent readings that show fully intact cities with connected infrastructure and millions of humanoid life signs. It's only there for the blink of an eye before settling back into the previous." He pulled up an overlay of the two images onto the main viewscreen in what appeared to be the largest city. "The first is the constant sensor data, and this," the echo image came up, "is what our sensors are catching intermittently. If the sensors are working properly, and I'm extrapolating here, I think we're either seeing a temporal echo from prior to the assault, which I can't be certain of as there is no residual energy patterns from weaponry, or something is intentionally disrupting our sensors."
Tyler sat and leaned his head on his hand as he thought. What he wouldn't give to have precognition right now. He tapped his comm badge. "Elen this is the Bridge. Get me a level three diagnostic on the sensor systems. Right away please."
"Ok, will take a couple of minutes. Will report when it's finished" El replied.
Tyler had always been the kind of Captain who was inclined to sit back and let his crew figure out what they had. He had faith in their abilities and knew that they would report anything that was out of the ordinary. Thus far he wondered if they had a glitch, sensor ghost or something else. "Quinn, penny for your thoughts?"
Quinn reviewed the scans coming from the surface. If he did not know better, it appeared that settlement, was jamming them. The system that attempted to jamn then, was clearly was damaged. The readings were off the charts. He could see why Vaebn was confused by it. "Sensors are contradicting one another, Captain. The settlement appears to have sensors scrambling net in affect, giving us positive and false indications of ruins. This is very strange." He called out. Knowing the Cardassians, this was probably a ruse, to keep anyone from getting a tactical advantage on their settlement.
Tyler nodded in agreement at the mention of the Cardassian ploy. It would be something that they would do. "Let's see if we can find any evidence of Cardassian technology. If this a Cardassian ploy then the question would be why would they send us here if they had already been here. Either way I feel we should proceed with caution. Number one prepare some away teams but wait to leave."
"Diari to Bridge. Sensors OK, bit noisier than I'd like, and we're getting two overlapping signals on the main channels." El reported.
"Lt Diari, I'll try running the sensor data through secondary and tertiary data buffers to try and clean it up some," Vaebn said as he started entering commands to the sensor terminals. As he did a second monitor flared to life with a influx of data from a secondary source. "Commander," he said looking over to the XO, "I'm getting more data from the sensor whisker in the ring belt. It seems like there is an unidentified structure connected a number of large asteroidal debris in the outer belt, which is emitting the power signature we recorded upon arrival. It's configuration matches no known technologies or species in Starfleet record."
Ingrid swiveled around in her chair and looked at the command team in the center of the room. "We were sent here by the Cardassian Government. Maybe it's a trap or an elaborate diversion. "
Tyler smirked at his ever vigilant pilot, he knew all that she had been through with the Cardassians and that she above most knew what they were capable of. "Our sentiments exactly Lieutenant. Plot us a course out of here in a hurry, in case we need an escape. Larim sound yellow alert and raise the shields." Tyler was borrowing a play from his XO, that play was to have back up plans to the back up plans.
"That structure may hold some answers for us, maybe a small team should beam over, Captain." Quinn suggested. He did not want to risk the crew of the USS Pioneer, but it was clear, something was going on. And maybe those answers were on the structure, on that asteroid.
"I agree number one, but we also need to get a team on the surface for preliminaries. Put together two teams. I would like you to lead the team on the surface. Leave when ready." Tyler responded as he took his seat. Here we go again into the breach. He thought.
"I'm ready now sir." Quinn said, as the scene starts to fade. Before he left, he tapped on his combadge, and assembled his away team for the mission to the planet surface.
A Joint Post By
Captain Tyler Malbrooke
Commanding Officer, USS Pioneer
Commander Quinn Ó Flannagáin
Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Captain Cornelius Tremble
Marine Commanding Officer/Second Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Vaebn tr'Hwersuil
Chief Science Officer, USS Pioneer
Lance Corporal Shayla Kunadt
EVAC Specialist, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Commander Larim Myles
Chief Security/Tactical Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Ingrid Hollister
Chief Flight Control Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Ameri Ó Flannagáin
Chief Operations Officer, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Junior Grade Elen Diari
Chief Engineering Officer, USS Pioneer
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