Working Title

Posted on 20 Aug 2015 @ 1:00am by Lieutenant JG Tinaro Cyi & Lieutenant JG Cyrin Xanth
Edited on on 23 Aug 2015 @ 12:58am

3,151 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Episode 09 - Empires
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 7, Astrometrics
Timeline: MD04, 0200 Hours

[ON]

=/\= Tinaro's Quarters =/\=

Ti sat at his desk and reviewed, for what must have been the billionth time, the instrument observations from his last test run. Dressed in the open tunic shift and wide-legged soft linen pants of his homeworld, he had one leg lazily folded underneath him in the chair as the other dangled back and forth aimlessly. The temperature controls weren't working in his quarters so it was freezing. Ti felt the chill air refreshing.

There has to be a reason for this sudden neutrino spike in the antimatter containment field. He thought to himself. As he again replayed the information. He was sure there was a reason, there HAD to be a reason, and he was determined to find it. He threw himself into the problem of the engine to keep himself from noticing the silence around him in his quarters. Isotope's box was still in his room and he could not bring himself to get rid of it.

"Ok, I need help." Tinaro finally concluded standing up. He downloaded the information to a PADD and headed off to the Astrometrics lab, paying no attention to the fact he was barefoot.

[Astrometrics]

It was late, long after Cyrin's shift had ended, but he was still hard at work. Hopping back and forth between Astrometrics and the lab he tended to hide out in on Deck 3, he'd been running himself ragged over the dilemma the Galileo was in now. If they had any chance of making it back home, he might be one of those best qualified to try to find out how to make it happen. Cyrin, being who he was, didn't think that with any sort of ego. He hardly believed in himself. It was just that he had a job to do and he was going to do it. That didn't mean it was going to be an easy task of course.

"Computer, run dimensional simulation #332-47 Gamma-3," the Trill said with a sigh from where he sat, staring at the screen as the patterns began to shift. Cyrin ran a finger under his collar, scratching, then moved fingers through his short hair to do the same. He needed to leave at some point, get something to eat, take a shower, maybe even see if he could sleep, but it was likely he would keep driving himself until he couldn't actually think straight anymore.

Tinaro entered the Lab to find the young Trill in there. "I was unaware anyone was scheduled to be in here at this hour." Tinaro said suddenly becoming aware he was barefoot and underdressed.

Cyrin glanced up and blinked a few times to bring eyes that had been staring at a screen for so long into focus, "Huh?" It took a moment, but his vision sharpened and he recognized the figure before him. "Oh, hello, sir."

One of those quiet science-types, Cyrin had never had the opportunity to engage the pilot socially in his months on board, but he did recognize Tinaro Cyi at least. If he thought anything about the man being out of uniform, it didn't show. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"I do not mean to disturb whatever it is you are doing, Mr... I'm sorry I don't know your name," Ti's eyes darted to his collar and back. "Ensign. I'm Tinaro Cyi, I am in Flight Control."

"Xanth," he said with a small sigh, more for his exhaustion than anything else. Cyrin wasn't offended that he wasn't known, since he went out of his way to avoid people in the first place. "Cyrin Xanth. I know who you are, sir. It's n-no problem, the computer will take a while to run the latest simulation so I have some time." The young man sounded a little wary, however, and his eyes were narrowed slightly as he wondered what was going to be expected of him.

Tinaro flashed a smile. "No need to be nervous, Cyrin, I just need another set of eyes, preferably ones attached to an impressive scientific mind, to look at this readout and tell me whats going on. Seems it is my lucky day that you are here since I come to understand you have both." Ti walked over to the console. "Please, just Tinaro or Ti, if you please. I am barefoot and you are tired it is some unholy hour for either of us to be stuck on protocol." Ti smiled again.

If the pilot's actions were meant to try to put Cyrin at ease, they had the opposite effect it seemed. The smile made him flinch, the compliments caused a distressed look to enter his expression, and the offer to use a rather familiar form of address and name made him begin to stutter more. "I'll s-s-see what I c-c-can do to h-help," he stumbled over his words, trying to shrink down into his chair which didn't work so well given his height. "What d-did y-y-y-you want m-me to l-look at?"

It did not take a Betazoid to sense the Trill was uncomfortable. "Whoa there, Cyrin. Calm down. Your so nervous, you making ME nervous. Just take a breath. I have the readouts from a simulation ran with a new transwarp engine I am trying to develop. I am getting some odd neutrino buildups in the antimatter matrix and I can't figure out why. I figured another set of eyes looking at them would perhaps help me isolate the cause. This is not a test and if you can't figure it out, don't worry about it, I have been studying it for days without any luck."

"Let's h-have a l-look," Cyrin said, his voice growing softer but not much better when it came to his nerves. Having it pointed out how agitated he could get only made things worse! At least he'd been brought something he could try to wrap his mind around. He held out a hand for the PADD, carefully keeping his eyes on that rather than looking Tinaro in the eye. Transwarp mechanics were fascinating, and that was enough for him to start to calm down if the other's attempts hadn't been.

After a few minutes of scrolling through the data, Cyrin let out a neutral, "Hmm." He didn't speak up yet though. For a little while longer, he continued to read, occasionally nodding his head. Finally, he glanced up, still not quite making eye contact. His voice grew a little more confident as he went on, as this was something he could understand, and understand far better than how to deal with people and their expectations of him.

"I th-think you're c-coming across the s-s-same p-problem a lot of other p-people have in the past. When emitting t-tachy-tachyons like this to generate triquantum w-waves, you're d-dealing with a geometry that has to r-remain sym-symmetrical across eleven dimensions at l-least. When that symmetry f-fails, neutrinos begin to leak out of the hyperdimensional structure and begin to bombard the p-power source that is used to generate the matrix. If you push it too far...boom."

Ti nodded. "Of course. See here..." Ti reached tapped a few commands into the PADD and handed it back, careful not to touch the Trill. "I created this. I call it the Tranquantum Wave Modulation Refractor. It is supposed to realign the quantum symmetry at a rate proportional to the tachyon flux and divert any random formations back into the wave field's hyperdimensional structure. You see... here!.. it IS working; look at that diversion rate, but there neutrinos are being formed for some reason that aren't being diverted. And in the Antimatter injectors too boot. And the weird part it is always happens at the same spot. Right before threshold. 9.9983 to be exact." Cyi ran a hand though his long hair. "It have ran this simulation more times than I care to admit and always the same. But I know it can work. I've DONE it before..." He let his voice trail off.

The refractor that Tinaro had created was quite interesting. Cyrin took the PADD back without a word and carefully scrolled through the specs, his face starting to light up a little bit. This was certainly a unique take on the problem that had baffled Federation scientists for decades. And it did indeed seem to operate as Tinaro had indicated, at least at first glance. But there was of course the remaining neutrino issue. Cyrin was so wrapped up in trying to decipher the problem, that he almost missed what had been said.

"Wait..." Now Cyrin looked the other right in the eye, his own face filled with surprise and disbelief. He was even shocked enough that his stutter had vanished. "You've actually created a stable transwarp matrix?"

Now it was Ti's turn to get nervous. "Well yes... kinda... once." Tinaro took a deep breath. "It a long story and kinda hard to explain and more than a little classified but the general jest of it is that I was piloting a prototype that reached velocity of 2.365 times Warp 9.9983 for 4.24 seconds. I know it CAN happen. I am just not able got it to happen again."

Cyrin was silent for a good, long while but this time he was staring at the pilot. At first, he didn't want to believe it. But then, he decided that there must be some truth to it. If the matter was classified too, then Tinaro had already told him too much. Oh, the Federation knew full well that transwarp was possible, as they'd dealt with a number of species that had such a capability, such as the Borg. But their best minds had been working on it since the time of the Excelsior without any luck.

"Well," the scientist said finally, dropping his gaze at last. "This isn't something I'm going to be able to fix in just one conversation overnight. But the problem still remains. My guess would be that you haven't accounted for all the variables - there are just too many, almost an infinite number. We're talking about building a hyper-dimensional structure, one large enough to encompass a large volume of space across eleven dimensions or more, dimensions we can't even comprehend yet. Your refractor is an interesting idea, and I think you may be on to something."

He sighed, looked up again though not quite in the eye, "But you can figure it out maybe. You have the hypothesis, it's falsifiable, now you need to begin to test every single possibility to rule them out as the cause of the leakage. Just...do it on a small scale or in simulations, yeah? No need to blow the ship up." Cyrin gave a crooked sort of smile with the last bit to show he was joking.

"Of course." Ti replied smiling slightly in return. "I have been working on his for years, I do not expect to perfect it this night. I appreciate you taking the time to look at and providing your insights." Tinaro looked at the display the scientist had up. "What are you working on this late?"

"I am glad to help," Xanth replied honestly. It was a problem that any number of scientists would love to be a part of solving, and not just because of the potential advancement it would mean for the Federation. The sheer challenge of finally perfecting a transwarp drive was highly appealing. He glanced at his console and answered, his voice growing more uncertain once again, "We have some logs that survived our passage through the singularity. The data is complex, but fragmented. However, I am r-relatively certain that we are uh...that the passage through that vortex..." Cyrin took a breath and just got the information out as quickly as possible. "That we were transported further than it seems we were. The results I've come up with, about distance travelled, don't quite match. It's only a variance of a few hundred kilometers, but I can't account for it..." He turned curious eyes up to the other's face, to see what sort of reaction his potentially grave news might cause.

Cyi's eyebrow shot up. He wasn't sure that a variance of a few hundred kilometers was worth becoming panicked over. Still he admired the young man's passion for his work and was impressed at his dedication to it to have him up so late. "I see. Well. Thank you for that information, Mr. Xanth. I am sure the reason for the variance will be figured out. With bright people like you working on it, I have no doubts." Ti responded honestly.

Cyrin started to blush again, the red creeping up from under his collar and up to his cheeks, even his ears. The spots seemed to stand out even more than ever. He was fighting back a surge of worry now, that he would screw up or just not be able to figure it out, that people would expect so much of him and then he'd disappoint. That it had been tied together with a compliment only made the whole matter worse. The young Trill struggled with his emotions, to get the panic he felt growing under control.

"Th-th-thanks," came the weak reply.

Ti felt the panic growing in the young man. "How ever did he make it out of the Academy this nervous?" Ti thought to himself. He wanted to help the young man calm down but he wasn't sure what he could do that would not make the situation worse on the Ensign. He definitely wasn't a counselor, but he WAS Betazoid after all. He wouldn't touch the young man's mind, but one thing a pilot knew, was that there was always several ways to get to the same destination. Ti nodded and pretended to be looking at something on the display. Concentrating slightly, he began to emit calm empathically around himself.

Cyrin took a few breaths and started to calm down, unaware of any assistance that he was being given. Things certainly seemed to de-escalate more rapidly than he was used to, thankfully. It seemed safer perhaps to discuss something other than their mystery, and since he couldn't get more details on the pilot's transwarp flight Cyrin tried a different path and as he spoke he grew calmer and calmer. "That's g-great you're interested in um, all the science and r-research into pro-propulsion methods, sir. Did you ever c-consider wearing the blue collar?"

Cyi nodded. "Indeed I did. I studied Advanced Mathematical Theory and Spatial Propulsion before joining Starfleet. I love math and the sciences. Numbers and equations just... make sense. They are stable. Not so much like people. I never did terribly well in the Humanities." Ti replied, omitting the fact he obtained PhDs. "But you have to follow your passion, Ensign. And I like to fly. Truth be told, I just love MOVING. Running, rolling, flying. Space, atmospheric, terrain, submariner. It really doesn't matter. I just like MOTION." Ti blushed a bit realising how much he just revealed. "What about you, Ensign. Never wanted to push the throttle a little bit?"

Cyrin understood the love of numbers and the sciences. They had been things the young prodigy Cyrin Fel had been talented at, before the Joining. So too had some of his other hobbies, and when the pilot asked him about pushing the throttle, he actually grinned. "Well, sir, I played a couple of years on Trill's football team. We made it to the final round of the Federation Cup in 2384. Played for the Academy team after that." He'd leave off the bit about ion surfing, for now. Some people reacted sort of negatively to the high-risk sport, though he could pick up some impressive speeds riding the impulse wake of a passing vessel. The nervousness was basically gone now, and the young man even sounded proud of his days in professional sports.

"Ah ok. I was never very good at the physical sports." Tinaro replied. His small and fragile frame wasn't built for contact sports. "Always picked last for the teams and such." Ti replied with a small smile.

Cyrin smiled slightly as well, "Sorry to hear it. But you'd do well in football I'd bet. Quick feet and being able to dodge around the opponent can go a long way, and there's not too much contact going on. If you ever wanted to play I have some holodeck programs that are a lot of fun." The Trill looked confused for a moment. He was inviting someone to come play soccer with him? Cyrin didn't do that, he spent his time alone. He started to give Tinaro an odd look, deep in thought, but still calm.

"I may take you up on that soon. I need some stress relief and some good physical activity may be just what I need." Ti ran his fingers though his hair and sighed. "I guess I should give this a rest. I am not going to revolutionize subspace quantum mechanics tonight it seems." He began to gather his PADDs. "You should think about getting some rest soon too, Cyrin. A good nights rest does wonders for the thinking process, or so I'm told. Perhaps it is a good thing I am such a heavy sleeper."

"Oh, I'll rest soon," Cyrin said vaguely. In the middle of a manic phase, and without being on medication, it wasn't likely but a little white lie didn't hurt much he figured. Besides, he needed to figure this out. "I'm g-glad to h-help with your figures later if you want. I l-like crunching numbers and t-testing th-theories." His own work beckoned to him, like the siren out of legend, taunting him with it's seeming impossibilities that he knew were just actual facts that needed revealing with the light of science. It was the most rewarding kind of work he could possibly have, unless it was maybe being a small part in figuring out Transwarp of course. For that, he'd publish as many papers to the scientific community as he could get away with before becoming pedantic.

"I would like that. I will grant you access to my secured files on the computer so you can.. crunch the numbers, as you say, at you leisure. I just ask you not to make any changes to the drive itself without letting me know first." Ti blushed a bit. "This project is kinda my life's work." He shook off his embarrassment. "I will leave you then, hope to see you around soon, Ensign."

"That would be very much appreciated, the data. S-see you around, sir" Cyrin said a bit vaguely, already putting Tinaro from his mind and putting it back on his work. So much to do...

[OFF]

Ensign Cyrin Xanth
Astrophysicist
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Tinaro Cyi
Asst. Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

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