Sensors for Sienna

Posted on 30 Sep 2012 @ 3:21pm by Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Rachel Hardaway Ph.D. & Captain Jonathan Holliday

1,672 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Deck One - Bridge
Timeline: MD 10 - 0615 hrs

[ON]

With their meeting adjourned, Holliday had wasted no time in following the last of his officers out onto the Bridge, watching closely as each of them disappeared into the turbolifts and corridors in order to complete their assigned missions. Although an accomplished pilot, Holliday was no sensor expert, beyond tactical applications he preferred to simply use rather than design new algorithms. However, with their crew numbers so heavily reduced by battle and injury, he had no choice but to step up and do his best to assist.

Nerves getting the best of her Kiri had started slewing skin from the inside of her lip layer by layer until she was surprised by the dense iron rich taste that leaked out. Given her outburst she had become even more timid, scared that anything she did might make her mistake worse. Her green eyes were red, edging towards bloodshot. That she could tell this was her first real mistake, one that she felt should get her in a lot of trouble, it had only taken her two weeks. Croaking slightly as the back of her throat started to burn she almost whispered as she stood next to the commander, "I'm, very sorry, sir."

"You're damn right you are Ensign." the XO replied, not even bothering to turn around or adjust his gaze to account for her arrival. He had never in all his years see a junior officer act in such a way. Half his mind wanted to string her up and make a formal note in her record, but the other half wished he had been given the same degree of confidence as a young cadet.

"Pull a stunt like that around me and I'll bounce you back to the Academy...that said....unofficially....nice job." He spoke in a low voice, smirking for a moment as he thought back on the events of just a few moments ago.

For a few seconds it was as bad as she thought, then, like normal Kiri was confused. He had told her what she knew, that was she done was wrong, that she wouldn't dare do something like that, then that she was right? Her silence lasted several long seconds while the gears turned, "I, yes sir?" She felt better on one level, still she wanted to physically chastise herself on another.

Walking out of the briefing room, Rachel dragged a hand across her eyes in order to wipe away the tears before pulling her back up straight. Looking at Jonathan and Kiri, she dared them to mention anything about her red swollen eyes. "Ok so...where are we going to carry out our part in all of this?"

"Well doctor...one traditionally carries out piloting from the helm...so I suggest we work from there."

Turning to face the correct console towards the front of the Bridge, the XO headed towards it, dismissing the crewman on duty there to give him an uninterrupted view of the systems involved.

"What better way to access navigational sensors than from the point at which they are more sensitively used?"

Standing back, Rachel indicated for both officers to lead the way. Still angry herself over everything which had happened, she understood Tony's want to do nothing and to stand back but she also understood the sense of self preservation, the preservation she wanted for the people she had grown close to in the Sienna project, and her husband himself.

Tapping a series of command lines into the console, Holliday brought up the best resolution sensor image he could generate of their current position within the nebula, relative to Federation territory. The distance between them was vast, even when generated on a map of this size, the tiny representation of the Galileo looked insignificant against the background of Klingon territory nearby.

"So....we need to get from here....to here" John began, indicating first to the small Galileo icon, and then to the Sol system, and Earth. Their mission was to get home, and there was no way the Klingons would be foolish enough to pursue them all the way to the greatest stronghold of the Federation.

"Plotting a vector isn't an issue....but a calculation of distance is....any ideas?"

That Kiri could tell, Sienna folded space in such a way that distance was, complicated. She didn't know how that part really worked, or to what effect. It wouldn't fold them completely to their destination but the distance between the point they occupied and Earth needed more equations to solve. For that Kiri looked to the doctor, feeling rather useless so far she wanted to do more.

"Doctor Hardaway....correct me if I'm wrong but the data I've read seems to indicate that Sienna's power levels are relative to the distance being traversed - the farther we go, the more power the system core draws, correct?"

Nodding her head, Rachel looked down at the information being sprawled out across the monitor. "Because Sienna essentially folds space to join two points, the greater the distance, the more power required to physically manage this." Typing in a number of commands, Rachel accessed the project database and brought up the information relevant to this discussion. "This is the results of a number of simulations which where carried out. Our main issue is not the formation of the travel, it's the creating enough power to keep it stable. Before you picked us up, myself and Tony had thought we'd found the solution. In our calculations, we never allowed for the subspace wave interference from the drive itself but we never got an opportunity to rework our calculations."

"So what you're saying is that you have no idea that this will even work, regardless of how much power we manage to transfer to Sienna?"

Holliday looked down at the database in front of him, it was extensive and to be honest, far more complicated than anything he had studied for a length of time. There had to be a way to make the system work, but right now time was not on their side.

"We have to take that risk....the question is...how do we direct ourselves to a point in time using a coordinate system that doesn't exist yet?"

Desperate to find a use, any use, Kiri found a fragment of her voice, "Doctor, do you have data on the on the interference the drive produces?" There was a start of an idea in the young woman's head. If she had the data, could find the patterns in it she could find a way to predict it, with that maybe she could almost completely remove that obstacle to do that she would also need, "And, all of your formulas for the project?"

Leaning back over the console, Rachel went through the series of files before isolating and bring forward the one in question. "Our formulas are based on Spatial wave theorems. It's here we isolated the factor of the equation we had left out." Selecting a second file, Rachel brought it up so as it was viewable side by side with the formulas. "This is all the data we aquired on the interference in the small window of time we had...I'm not sure what you can do though. It would take days of reworking to get it right."

Kiri looked at the numbers, in her head she could see what they formed. Shapes, colours, even personalities, it was hard yes, for once though she wasn't trying to just come up with her own answer, she needed any answer. Her voice now seemed disjointed from her mind, "If it was worked from the start, it might, but it looks similar to interference from a Romulan quantum singularity, there is already a program to scan for that," If she could check it would work and adapt it, it wouldn't take more than a few hours.

Looking across at Jonathan, Rachel stepping back slightly in order to allow Kiri more room to view the console. "Realistically, how long have we got to make this work Commander?"

Holliday had kept quiet for the majority of the conversation, afterall theoretical physics wasn't usually something he would list amongst his top attributes. He did however, have a keen sense for timing and availability of resources. Taking a moment to rub his chin with his right hand, the XO thought before speaking.

"Not long...a few hours at most....we just need something to work once, not a permanent solution to fully integrate Sienna into the Galileo...can it be done?"

In a frustrated gesture, Rachel dragged her hand through her hair. "Ensign. You seem to have a grasp on this, can you work with me to achieve a result in just a handful of hours?"

Kiri still came across as rather distant, her mind was already settle into the numbers, turning, changing, working her way though each section. Unlike with people there was a problem put in front of her and she just had to solve it. It was things like this that made her happy, "Yes, yes sir," Her eyes took longer to focus, her face tightening like a flash when she remembered to think about it. It was just the sort of thing she used to run away and hide from the world, right now, it was what she wanted.

Watching the Ensign, Rachel had to wonder what was going through the woman's head before turning back to the Commander. "We can take it from here Commander. I'm sure between the two of us that we can have this finished."

"Get it done. I'll be in the Ready Room." And with that, the XO turned from the helm station and walked away. The confidence he had in his team was growing by the hour, but this time, if his confidence was misplaced, it would be the last thing he ever did.

[OFF]

Lt Cmdr Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Kiri Cho
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Rachel Hardaway
Sienna Scientist

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