Arrival

Posted on 31 Mar 2018 @ 1:05pm by Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Lieutenant JG Tris Shizn & Lieutenant JG Manuel Lucero & Ensign Callin Mastrel & Chief Petty Officer Crispin Snow & Petra Varelli Ph.D. & Calaban Bel Asher & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Marisa Wyatt
Edited on on 21 Aug 2023 @ 1:57pm

2,727 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 16 - A Far Sun
Location: Pleonie System, Borderlands - USS Schofield
Timeline: MD 01, 1800 hrs

[ON]

The two weeks had passed by mostly uneventful and they had slipped into the Borderlands area without incident. A couple of long range scans had indicated some minor activity, but it was far off their current course and nowhere near their final destination.

Allyndra sat in the main chair, as they got closer. They had begun observations further out and the star had seemed to be brightening, as a cephid would normally be before settling back down. That would mean the solar storms would be strong, but the shields both external and internal on the old ship should be more than enough. The Oberths were built strong coming from the old days when it was into the nebulas or whatever other phenomena.

"Take us out of warp Mister Shizn," she said.

“Yes Commander,” Ens. Shizn replied as he brought the impulse engines on line as he deactivated the warp field, bringing the science vessel back into normal space.

The planetary system dominated the screen and the background stars took on their more normal look. As they moved at impulse into the system one could even from this far out see the star looked disturbed.

Marisa had everything ready to start scanning when they dropped out of warp. She eagerly looked over the data, and then frowned. "Commander, I'm getting 20th-Century-like radio and television signals." She switched to a low-band radio frequency. "Definitely humanoid. Recording."

Allyndra was surprised at that. "Continue monitoring," she said. Her thoughts turned to the analysis that it might be a pre-warp style civilization.

Amaranai had been manning the tactical station at the moment as part of her secondary shift. There hadn't been anything to worry about as they traveled through warp. As the commander had mentioned, there would be little for tactical and security to deal with, but there she was, manning the station.

As they exited warp, however, it seemed as if the problems were just beginning. There was a report of radio and television signals being picked up by the sensors. Amaranai pressed a few buttons on her console and looked up. "The signals are coming from the fourth planet, commander," she reported.

Allyndra took in the information. A planet, an inhabited planet around the star that was going into a very active phase. That would put an end to whatever civilization there was. "Shields up, and go to yellow alert please."

Marisa began to scan the planet to find out what sort of life and technology were on the fourth planet. She also hoped to get a good idea of what sort of civilization lived there.

Amaranai nodded and pressed several buttons on the LCARS sending the ship into Yellow Alert and raising the shields. She also sent several messages to her staff to prepare their own tactical stations.

Allyndra contacted the Captain, but considering she was sick it was more for formality at the moment. This was going to be problematic.

"Mister Shizn, put us in orbit please," Allyndra said.

“Aye Sir,” was Tris’ automatic reply. He angled the Oberth Class vessel toward an orbit about the equatorial region.

Science Lab

"Take a look at that!" Callin exclaimed to the others in the lab, pointing to the sensor data that was pouring in with his excitement. The old-style LCARS screens were lit up with numbers cycling across the displays, data they were analyzing to study the star's transition. "That flare developing in the photosphere is huge!" He couldn't help his excitement on this, his first mission, even if his enthusiasm might be a bit too much for such simple phenomena.

Petra turned to see what he was talking about. "Wow. That's...incredible."

The console behind her beeped and she turned around. "Radio signals?" she asked as she saw the data being transmitted from Marisa.

Manuel walked into the lab from the direction of his and Marissa's office. He swiftly made his way to where the ensign and Doctor Varelli were hovering over their consoles. His face was serious, but the excitement was shown clearly in its features.

He spoke to all the crewmen and officers in the lab. "I'm sure you guys noticed we're in Yellow. Expect a lot of bridge activity and array deploys. Get your projects to a stopping point and let's start processing this influx of data we're pulling from this system. You find anything critical, contact Bridge immediately."

He lowered his voice so that only Petra and Callin could hear them, "That flare is something, isn't it... We could grab some clearer readings if we filter out the EM noise from the photosphere. Callin, could you adjust the z-parameters to the same float value as the percent-distortion of the star's magnetic center; thanks to the flare, that should give us what we're looking for?”

More for Petra's sake, he continued, "The electromagnetic field on this class, like our Sol, loops around the surface like millions of thin elastic bands attached to each pole. So, as the star spins, the magnetic bands get tighter and tighter around it until the field itself just snaps, then we have our flares!... With age the flares happen more often as more and more bands snap. Well... The natural ones at least. This Cepheid seems a bit off."

Petra just raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

He stole a peek at the console she was on. "Are those the radio signals? What can you tell us about their content, Dr. Varelli?"

"At least one of the planets is colonized," Petra said. "Pre-warp by the type of transmissions." She turned to face Manuel. "It means that if we don't do something, innocent people are going to die."

Callin had replied to Manuel's directions with a nod, selecting filters to apply to the data that had come in so far, though he was distracted too, obviously trying to listen in on the discussion about the signs of life. His enthusiasm had fallen for watching the transition of the star. For a moment he left his screen ignored and whispered, "Pre-warp? Then what can we do?"

"Well... The simplest action would be dependent on the population. We could evacuate the planet. But, I don't know if that's exactly feasible with the Prime Directive. I'm actually surprised the stellar activity hasn't scrambled those signals or destroyed their transmitting equipment by now; with natural phenomena, our hands might be legally tied. One things for sure, we need to do something or..." Manuel drifted off with a grim look on his face.

Calaban bel Asher strolled into science, coffee mug in one hand. "What’s the fuss about? Something sexy?" He looked around and saw the data pouring in. "Wow. That's a lot of He-III. No wonder its variable." He double checked, "But where's all its mass? Cepheids should be bigger than that?"

The Lieutenant turned to the Risan. "You're right..." He looked back to the data and skimmed it more thoroughly. "If we assume she's just a class A, we could be looking at a Delta Scuti Variable, which would explain the dwarfiness. But DSVs are much more stable; which is obviously not the case here." Manuel put his hand on his chin and stood back from the console. "It could just be some Eddington Valve action... Double-ionized He-III gets heated at the crest of a pulse period, surface begins to expand, changes its density and giving it the appearance of having less mass in proportion to its size... But that should be reversed by the star's gravitational attraction to its center once the EM radiation heating the He-III gets released. This fireball is just too damned small for that to be the case, though. Like its core is already making heavy atoms so early in life."

"So, what does this mean for the people who live here?" Petra asked.

Calaban stroked his beard. "Well. This was a stable main sequence star until recently. It’s gone Cephid, which is just wrong, so it’s already putting on mass and heading for supergiant status. It will all come down to how fast it puts on the missing mass. If it’s fairly slow, it could move to a supergiant, and slow roast the planet just from heat radiation. Or the increased solar activity could do fun things to meteorological systems. Or warp its magnetic field. All over a course of years probably, maybe months."

"What I'm getting is that this star is not acting the way it should. So, we need to find out why," Petra said.

"It does seem odd, right?" Callin added, once again turning his attention back to the sensor data the computer was analyzing. "I mean, what are the odds that we'd have a star behaving this way, but even more one that hosts a planetary system that's developed life?" He had no evidence to back up what he was intimating, that perhaps what was happening here wasn't exactly natural, leaping to a hypothesis without the proof to support it. Still...The adjustments Manuel had ordered began to clear up the resolution of what they were seeing inside the massive fusion reaction hanging in space. "Something is definitely off with the conversion rate into denser elements."

Manuel peered over Collins shoulder at the new data swimming across the LCARS, once again. But this time, when he spoke, his voice was a tad more frantic. "Do you see that gyro chronology data The Cepheid's radial spin is depreciated beyond a factor of the inverse of its mass!” He stood up straight and looked at Calaban and Petra. "This star is way past its expiration date..." He continued quietly, "By about 20,000 years... This star must have been this unstable for quite some time." His furrowed brows and loose frown evidenced the confusion on the Lieutenant’s face as he turned to Callin. "But how can a pre-warp civilization even survive such activity? Actually, how could life exist in the first place with this thing at its center?"

"Isn't that what we're here to find out?" Petra asked. She really didn't think the sun being 20,000 years past it's expiration date was a big deal. It wasn't like it cared. Besides, the lifespan was more an approximation than an exact number. It was too bad they didn't have more data to determine how long the sun had been in this state. And if it weren’t very long, they would have to find out why.

Bridge

Allyndra was still on watch and she watched the planet below as they orbited far enough out. There were very few satellites in orbit, very primitive and not much above just a small electromagnetic beep. Internally she wanted to do something, prime directive be damned. To allow this many people to simply be destroyed because that was their fate did not sit well with her.

"Lieutenant Sandoval," she asked suddenly. "Any information from science?"

"I'm getting conflicting data. According to the current state of the sun, destabilization should have taken decades, but the fact that there's still life on the fourth planet would belie that. They shouldn't coexist. I'm scanning the planet now and recording data from the sun and sending it down to Astrometrics for further analysis."

"Lieutenant Franklin," she turned her attention to tactical. "Any indication that we are being detected? Shields are holding?"

Amaranai checked the sensors at her command and then checked again. "Shields are holding, ma'am," she started. "And there is no indication that whatever civilization is down there would even have the capability to detect us."

Allyndra tapped her fingers on the command chair. They could observe and monitor but there was something that did not seem right. The data that science had given them and what was before them did not jive. She made up her mind. She went ahead and pressed the ship wide comm.

=^=I need volunteers for a landing party=^=

Tris was always curious about new places, but he figured his antennae and blue skin might not fit in so well this particular time. He chose to just tease Allyndra by turning to and giving a wink. He didn’t see her reply, because he looked up at the turbolift doors as they opened.

Lucero stepped out onto the bridge, “I'm all yours, Commander."

Marisa raised an eyebrow, wondering what brought Manuel to the bridge.

The comm-system chirped, heralding the disembodied voice of Lake ir-Llantrisant. The Romulan Counselor spoke out through the communication nodes on the Bridge. "Sickbay to Bridge. Doctor ir-Llantrisant reporting," he said. Even Lake was surprised by how excited he sounded at the prospect. Without Allyndra serving the Medical department, Sickbay would be light on personnel. He said, "I've been monitoring the situation as it's evolved. I can meet the away team in the transporter room to offer medical support."

Allyndra turned, "Very good Lieutenant Lucero." She got the message from Lake. =^=Very good, Lieutenant.=^= She replied. She needed two more people. What they could from orbit record would be one thing, but a few boots on the ground would be able to get at least a little bit more before the inevitable doom of this civilization.

"Commander," Amaranai said. "If you need another volunteer, I can go."

"I'll go, too," Marisa said. Learning about a new culture and its people was something she was familiar with and her expertise might be needed.

"Very well, report to the transporter and we will get scans of appropriate clothing. Be careful, try to stay under the radar and good luck...." She nodded to the volunteers.

Pressing a few buttons on her console, Amaranai left her station and headed to the turbolift and headed to the transporter room.

Marisa called another science officer to take her place and headed to sickbay to look more human.

"If it’s alright with you, commander?" Snow raised a hand from the secondary Ops panel he was manning.

"Thank you, but I have four people and right now do not want to send more unless needed. I will keep you mind just in case."

"Yes, Ma'am," Snow said, perfectly naturally.

After the volunteers had all left, Tris turned back to the Commander, “I have the feeling that you would have liked to join them?”

"And I you, but I have no desire to give up my wings just yet nor wear those horrible contacts that I have had to do once before," Allyndra remarked. She did want to see before this civilization was snuffed out and it grated on her sense of responsibility that there was nothing they could do, or were allowed to do but watch the end of these people.

[OFF]

--

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Acting XO and CMO
USS Schofield

Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant
Chief Counselor
USS Schofield

Lieutenant JG Manuel Robert Lucero, V
Asst. Chief Science Officer
USS Schofield

Ens. Tris Shizn
Helmsman
USS Schofield

CPO Snow
Operations Officer
USS Schofield
[PNPC Derani]

Calaban Bel Asher
Civilian Scientist
USS Schofield
[PNPC Derani]

Ensign Callin Mastrel
Science Officer
USS Schofield

Lieutenant Marisa Sandoval
Chief Science Officer
USS Schofield

Petra Varelli
Forensic Anthropologist
USS Schofield
[PNPC Sandoval]

Lieutenant JG Amaranai Franklin
Assistant Chief Security / Tactical
USS Schofield

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