Discoveries (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 28 Jun 2018 @ 1:16pm by Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Lieutenant JG Tris Shizn & Lieutenant JG Manuel Lucero & Chief Petty Officer Crispin Snow & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Commander Marisa Wyatt & Ensign Mimi
Edited on on 21 Aug 2023 @ 2:25pm

2,424 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 16 - A Far Sun
Location: The Borderlands, Pleione System - USS Schofield
Timeline: MD 03, 0700 hours

[ON]

Both the Schofield and the Kindred Spirits popped out of warp near the outer edge of the star system. By the time the two ships had gotten closer to the inhabited planet one could see that the star looked angry. Tendrils of plasma seemed to arc over the star.

The ensign stationed at the science console dedicated to the peripheral arrays was practically holding his breath in anticipation. He should be back in the lab, supplementing data for Lieutenant Lucero's analysis of time-dilation effects on observed-superposition while moving at warp. He'd never been posted on the bridge, and felt an incessant weight of circumstance pressing down on his shoulders from the sheer fact that, at any moment, a dying star was going to obliterate millions of people, including the two superior officers of his immediate chain of command. His eyes were transfixed to the console, inches away in fact, glued to the lines and bars representing the potent rage of the old cepheid variable, refusing to go without a fight. He desperately wished that he could help, and hoped even more that he wouldn't miss anything; But, just as that familiar brand of self-doubt that inhered in every touring junior officer began to break his focus, a small aberration in the already messy but patterned data began to show. His eyes went wide and his voice went loud. "Electrons are battering the plasma medium at base ten to a power of seven. The star surface is inflating and activity is mounting! It's transitioning into pre-flare phase, Captain!"

Scarlet's anxiety was notching higher as she sat rigidly in the chair. Her features were cool and almost emotionless though, not giving away her growing concern for the away team. The battle had been a distraction they really couldn't afford. "Ops, can we contact the away team yet?"

"The stars activity is making this very hard, but I think I have the away team," Mimi announced.

Tris adjusted speed and heading Bringing the Schofield into a low planetary orbit. He reported, “Sir, we have achieved a low standard orbit.”

Once the Kindred Spirits was safely in orbit Allyndra beamed back over to the Schofield as did most of the team. She made her way to bridge to see what was going on.

"Sandoval to the Schofield." There was a lot of interference.

Allyndra heard the contact and asked, "Can we clean that up a bit?"

Snow, at comms, made some adjustments to the subspace antenna. "Try now, Ma'am."

=^=Allyndra here, the star is going into a major eruption. I only locate you and Lieutenant Lucero? Where are the others?=^=

"I don't know. They were taken in for questioning. Commander, the planet has been protected by an advanced race they call the Protectors. I believe they left behind technology to protect the planet from the sun, but it is malfunctioning."

Allyndra looked at Blake. =^=Repeat that, you said this society has or had an alien presence?=^=

"Yes, ma'am. There's a pyramid built by a race they call The Protectors. I have a book that was published about it." She didn't mention that it was bought for her by one of the inhabitants, and that he knew who she was. "I believe it was to protect the planet from the solar flares, but it's not working properly. No one here has any idea what it is or how it works."

"Sounds fascinating, good work maybe there is something we can do."

"Well that changes a few things Captain," Allyndra said. "I would suggest we get our team back up and do a quick debrief. If there is a machine that can hold this star stable perhaps there is something we can do. Science see if you can pick up the locators for the rest of the away team and if so get them up."

Scarlet nodded in agreement, frowning slightly as she started to turn it over in her mind. Even better if they could keep their assistance as unobtrusive as possible. But first, they had to get their people home, the main concern on her mind for the moment.

An ensign staring blankly at the LCARS display of his console spoke just loud enough to be heard over the others. "Our scans don't show anything for Lieutenant Franklin or Ir-Llantrisant."

The telltale from the starship communications system chirped from overhead. The disembodied voice of Crewman Draia Thero quickly followed. "Thero to Bridge, I, uh, I think I've got a-- uh--" she reported in a halting manner. If one could vocally shrug, Draia would have managed it when she said, "Welp, no. No, I've lost it. I guess-- I guess nevermind?" A heartbeat later, the comm system chirped to signal the closing of the connection. Only a heartbeat later, Draia was back on the comms, saying, "No, no, wait. I've secured a transporter lock on Lieutenants Sandoval and Lucero. (...I still can't locate the other two members of the away team.) Ah hell, Energizing now!"

"No, wait..."

Allyndra nodded to Blake. "I will go see what has happened to the other two and find out more. Will report back shortly." She made her way to transporter room one and waited for the two to appear.


Transporter Room One

The swirl of light seemed to go on longer than normal. She suspected the star was more responsible then anything but finally the two Lieutenants stood there and she greeted them.

"Glad you are back but we are having trouble locating Amarani and Lake. Any ideas where they are?"

Marisa shook her head. "No. Manuel might. He was taken with them. I stayed with a doctor who kept me hidden and helped me learn more about the Protectors."

Allyndra nodded. "Manuel report to the bridge and inform the captain what you know."

"Aye aye, Commander." The lieutenant immediately ran off towards the turbolift.

She turned her attention back to Marissa. "Now what is this about...what did you call them protectors?"

"From what I've learned, it would appear that these people are protected by an alien race they call the Protectors. The built a pyramid that I believe controlled the solar flares and is now malfunctioning in some way. That is why the sun was stable for so long. It was because of these Protectors. I have a book about them I've been studying. I don't quite understand the symbols yet, but I would like to run them through the computer to see if I can figure out how it works. If I can, I believe it is possible to repair the pyramid and save the people on the planet." She paused for emphasis. "There is precedent for helping a pre-warp civilization that has been influenced by another advanced civilization without violating the Prime Directive."

"It certainly does, but the captain has the final say. In either case until a final decision has been made utilize all computer and science personnel that you need."

Marisa smiled. It wasn't a no, and it gave her the chance to find the evidence she needed to help the people on the planet. "Yes, ma'am. Thank you." Between the book, the computer, and her scans, she had a good start.

"Very good, then I leave it in your capable hands." Allyndra nodded and headed off.


Bridge

Blake was sat in the Captain's chair, her hand on the arm rest, nails tilted to be digging ever so slightly into it with the tension in her body. Two team members down. It went against every fiber in her being; sat in a chair waiting for news. She wanted to march to the transporter room and get her boots on the ground to find out what was going on for herself.

The commotion on the bridge was more than enough to muffle the familiar sounds of the turbolift, which opened to reveal the ship's sweaty assistant CSO moving with a purpose to the front of the command chair. "Captain, there's much more going on down there than we could've possibly expected: There are clear indications of previous contact by a non-indigenous sentient species to a level that has pervaded the everyday lives of the native populous. The scale and reverence the planet gives them is god-like, it seems. It's objectively reasonable to believe that they've deployed technology to artificially stabilize the planet's star in the past, but its efficacy has likely deteriorated to the point of giving way to what we see here." He vaguely gestured to one of the LCARS consoles being operated by another science officer behind him. "The star's stability is likely to be correlated to the function of these pyramidal structures on the planet's surface where the population gathers for the worship of these 'protectors'. Lieutenants Ir-Llantrisant and Franklin were incarcerated pending further interrogation by members of a local law-enforcement organization. We know where, but our attempts at communicating with them on the surface had failed, likely due to the solar activity."

Tris found this possible explanation fascinating. It definately was not his area of knowledge, being a Helmsman, but the idea of something here on the planet effecting it’s own sun, to stabilize it was . . interesting to say the least.

Scarlet wasn't fascinated. Now, she was getting angry. She carefully kept her features cool as she turned to point to Ops. "Find them," she said shortly.

Lucero nodded and held his hands behind his back as he turned from the Captain's chair. "The building where we were interrogated is approximately 2 kilometers from our insertion point, based on my estimate. But it's adjacent to the pyramid nearby, which is hard to miss." He took the disguised mini-tricorder from his wrist and handed it to an Ensign scrolling through sensor data on a terminal. "This wristwatch recorded my movement and steps relative to our insertion point. Find the location estimate from the last time period where no significant movement activity was recorded immediately preceeding last night's sleep. That would be when I was trapped in the room awaiting interrogation. That should give us a coordinate pair to use as a focal point for signal detection. The smaller the area we search, the more the sensors can pick up."

Scrolling down the LCARS interface designated Communications, there were row after row of sensor composites being illustrated on the panel as subspace communication waveforms. To look at them casually, most of said waveforms were distorted by irregular spikes from the stellar interference. One of those wildest waveforms, though, was interspersed with irregular blips of dit and dah sounds howling through the dark in a language that could never be created by the natural universe.

Snow narrowed his eyes as he heard the blips, and added another filter to try and take out some more of the background radiation of the star. When he did the ireggular pings suddenly became a lot more regular.

After a pause, the pings rang out with a, Dit dit dit dit, and then a pause, and then a single dit. The sensor data on the LCARS panel crackled with interference and as it faded, there was a dit dah dit dit, followed by a dit dah dah dit.

Snow raised an eyebrow. He hadn't heard morsecode since he was a boy playing in Captain Proton holonovels. "Ma'am. I think someone is trying to contact us. There's an old earth code coming in on a long range radio frequency!"

Lt. Shizn turned to the communications station and thought, Morris Code? He knew that to be an ancient ’Earther’ espionage code. At least that was what he had been taught at the Andorian Officer school.

Snow twiddled with his controls. "It looks like the signal is falling in and out of subspace. I'm trying to patch it together, but those flares are scrambling the subspace parts."

"Keep trying," Blake said firmly, meeting the man's eyes for a moment, but her own were filled with faith that he'd be able to do it. "Filter out the noise," she said quietly, and she wasn't talking about the message.

Traces of the mechanical staccato continued to be captured by the ship's sensors, but the distortion slushed away any of the definition between when one sound stopped and the next one started. Between the RF transceivers and the subspace antennas on the ship's hull, enough of the next message was captured and was described on the Communications interface. Dit dah dit dit was how the first morse code character came across, followed by a dit dah, and then a dah dit dah, and finally a separate and distinctive dit.

Snow put the last few letters together. "Lake!" He blurted out. "'Help....Lake' It must be the Counsellor!" He got to work trying to pin down the source of the signal, if they coul get that, they may get a clear shot at beaming the romulan exile back to the ship.

If the messaging behind the morse code clicks wasn't explicit enough, Schofield's subspace transceivers received an emergency distress signal in sharp clarity. Encrypted within the signal were coded identifiers, letting any Starfleet facility know that the distress signal was sent from the combadge of Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant. The precise design of the emergency distress signal signified one other thing: this was an automated reaction to the destruction of the combadge's outer casing. There was no guarantee Lake had sent that signal himself.

Whilst the flares were still building Snow could start cleaning the two sources of signal, try and use one to verify the other, get all the data to the transporter room and let the tech there make the call. He got to work.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

Allyndra illm Warraquim
Acting Executive Officer and Chief Medical Officer
USS Schofield

CPO Crispin Snow
Operations Officer
USS Schofield
[PNPC Derani]

Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant
Chief Counselor
USS Schofield

Ensign Tris Shizn
Helmsman
USS Schofield

Commander Scarlet Blake
Acting CO
USS Schofield

Crewman Draia Thero
Engineer's Mate
USS Schofield
[PNPC ir-Llantrisant]

Lieutenant JG Manuel Lucero
Asst. Chief Science Officer
USS Schofield

Lieutenant Marisa Sanadoval
Chief Science Officer
USS Schofield

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