Arriving at Arbazan

Posted on Sat Aug 28th, 2021 @ 9:22am by Captain Taliserra Tigran & Ensign Bracca & Petty Officer 1st Class Saral & Lieutenant Commander Tyrus Acevedo & Lieutenant Anthony Edwards Ph. D & Lieutenant Helena Wells & Lieutenant JG Summer Wyse & Lieutenant JG Kyle Samson

Mission: The Silent Scream
Location: Deck 1- Bridge
Timeline: 20th April 2395- 1010hrs

ON:

With one eye occasionally glancing at the readout that showed the Wolff getting closer and closer to their destination; the Arbazan system, Bracca idly ran a thrust vectoring simulation he'd been pondering on during their travel time, eventually, the helm console beeped at him. "We're approaching the Arbazan system Lieutenant." He announced.

Nilo was sat in the command chair as he heard the Ensign's report. Pressing the comm button on one of the arms of the chair, he looked up at the viewscreen before contacting the captain.

"Bridge to Captain Tigran, we are approaching the Arbazan system as ordered," he said, knowing that soon there would be orders to follow on as to what was required of the Wolff once it was in the system.

=/\= Thank you, Lieutenant, drop us out of warp. I'll be out shortly.=/\= Came Taliserra's response over the comm system.

"Understood Captain, Bridge out," Nilo responded. Turning back to the helm, he gave the command as instructed. "Helm, drop us out of warp and proceed at one half impulse power," Nilo added as he checked the readouts before the ship dropped out of warpspeed.

Helena sat at science station two and looked at the sensors. It was nice being on the bridge for once. She brought up a cross-screen to double-check on engineering as well looking at the readings there. So far nothing looked very interesting.

Anthony smiled as he looked over at the second science bridge station, He was happy to have HG back as having her on staff covered an Engineering deficit that he otherwise had. It also meant they could continue their relationship. “How’s it going over they “HG?” He asked so she didn’t think he was staring for no reason.

"Everything looks nominal sir," HG replied. She kept it professional while on the bridge. It was going to be hard as she was one not to, but she needed to show that she could do this. "Injectors running at eighty-five per cent and well within nominal range. Impulse showing well within nominal as well." She looked up and nodded but gave a little wink that the Lieutenant in the Captain's chair would not see. She really wanted to tell him about some of the work, but so far she had been admonished that everything and anything had to be cleared first with Fleet and only the Captain knew any of the basics.

Summer was sitting in her seat observing the bridge crew at work, there was little else to observe for the moment.

A few moments later Taliserra emerged from the ready room and headed for the centre chair, after Nilo vacated it she sat down. "This is your show Anthony, where do you want to start this little survey?"

“Well Captain so little is known about the Arbazan system. There is one sentient Humanoid UFP member species from before 2369, which is to say pre-Dominion war. One M class planet which the Native Arbazan call Arbaza.” Anthony responded as he brought up the library file on the system. “That said the survey data was either lost or not carried out, so I guess a generalised survey would be the best time because I can already see on sensors that the information we gave is inaccurate as I have signs that there is a second much smaller planet. Can you think of anything that I missed HG?”

"No sir, however, I would suggest perhaps that a good elemental composition of this originally unrecorded planet take place. Perhaps a rogue planet that has been captured in the gravity of this system. Check to see about orbital eccentricity as well might offer a clue if missed or captured rogue. If the latter, it represents a real interesting case as while there have been a few, there are not many on record." HG offered.

“Good point, HG, and your right captured rogue planets always pose many interesting questions, the most important of them being Where did they come from and how far have the travelled. Yes, I agree, detailed study of this planet, and if it is a captured planet how it has changed the system should be undertaken as part of a full survey of the system. That is what I would suggest needs to happen here, Captain.” Anthony said.

"Then we'll start there I think, helm put us in standard orbit of that second planet." Taliserra instructed, she wasn't a scientist but a potentially rogue planet now orbiting the Arbazan sun was certainly something worth investigating.

"Aye Sir." Bracca smoothly turned the ship to port and set course towards the other side of the system.

Science waits for no man, was a lesson Anthony had learnt early in his life. Probably because he loved it even as a young child. That said and because the best way to get scientific information from space exploration was to start as soon as it presented itself, so he started the sensors recording because so little was known about the system the time was perfect. "Running scans as we go Captain."

HG left that to Anthony and kept mostly tabs on engineering but would be available if he wanted secondaries to take a look at anything. So far so good but HG thought isn't that when things usually went wrong.

Anthony was watching as a strange intermittent flashing began on his station and it struck him as strange. He knew HG was watching engineering sensors right now but knew she had better knowledge and wanted a second set of eyes to look over whatever it was. He took a sensor recording the next time it happened and sent it across to her. "HG what does that look like to you?"

HG switched things over and took a look. "Looks like you got a quasi-particle flash there. Specifically a polaron quasi-particle interaction. That is interesting as they only tend to arise mostly from condensed matter physics interaction or in odd super-conductivity like Bose-Einstein condensates. Not sure where it came from, but does not appear being on a carrier that would be with the planet. I will keep an eye on it, sir." She replied. Those were the most common examples of polaron observation but there were others. Breen were known to have used polaron style weapons but phase shielding had pretty much neutralized that. She herself though had made speculation of running a back and forth system or basically a bipolaron which would allow the polarons to shift in response but it was highly speculative and fraught with various problems of keeping everything in sync."

Talisera looked back and forth between the two scientists, she didn't understand most of what HG said but she said it sounded interesting. "Interesting enough to take a closer look Lieutenant?"

Anthony smiled as he thought about it, he understood what HG had said and expected the bits that he didn’t understand was perfectly correct, as it was her field of study that was what he needed to close a large hole in his training and the science teams abilities. He also knew that the Captain was looking for an answer from him or HG it could come from either of them but he knew it would be most understandable in plain English as he would say it. “Yes Captain all Polaron flashes are certainly intriguing enough for closer investigation.”

HG had remained quiet. Anthony was the head person of the department so she felt that he should be the one to make the recommendation. There was something though that tugged at her mind and she needed to bring it up. "As I mentioned captain, in general one only sees them in condensed matter physics or in special circumstances. There are certain propulsive drives such as quantum black holes that various others use that might produce something. I would like to request a portion of the scanners to search for gravitational waves. The reason captain is if there is a ship, and if that ship is cloaked, it cannot hide its mass. Mass moving through space-time causes gravitational ripples which we can pick up. Call me a bit paranoid."

“Bracca, take us to within 100km of that polaron signature.” Taliserra ordered then turned to Helena. “Whatever you need Lieutenant.”

HG nodded and started to scan looking for odd gravitational waves, especially ones that would seem to move from different locations. After a bit she finally turned and shook her head. " Sorry Captain, I do not detect any gravitational anomalies or anything else that might indicate a cloaked ship. Guess I just jumped to an idea that was wrong."

“We're within 100km Captain.” Bracca reported after several minutes impulse travel had passed. With a good idea what the Captain would order next he got ready to slow the ship down when something unusual happened. “Wow, the navigational system just went blank.”

“Full stop,” Taliserra ordered then something, or more appropriately the lack of something caught her eye. The viewscreen was entirely black, not a single star could be seen. “Full sensor sweep.”

"On it Captain." Anthony said. The starless viewscreen worried him. He kept the sensor running, not that it helped any as their was nothing there. "Nothing Captain I have a complete nothing like we were just swallowed by a dark singularity." He said.

Summer frowned, “Captain... I’m not sensing anything, other than our own crew. I normally sense the life around us from worlds in the vicinity of the ship, but here...” she shook her head. “It’s just the crew.”

HG looked at the results, well the non results and her mind started working. "Captain, fire phasers!" she called out. "I hope this is not what I think it is!"

Taliserra looked across at Hg. "Do you have an idea what this is Lieutenant?" She asked, unwilling to take her suggestion without some understanding of the situation.

"No sensor data, no responses I remember reading about something like this before. It is called null space, ma'am. However, it was indicated that the extent and shape could possibly be mapped by using photon pulses. Commader Riker did that when his shuttle was in null space, otherwise, we have no idea where we are or what direction or much of anything else. Worse is captain, I maybe wrong, best is it gives us an idea if we are and the shape of the space."

“Can’t we just reverse back out the way we came in?” Bracca asked, he didn’t mean to interrupt the Captains discussion but it seemed the most obvious solution. He had stopped the ships forward momentum almost as soon as they’d entered.

"You can try," HG replied. "If this is null space it moves and shifts and us along with it. Still worth a try I suppose, unless it is some other phenomena."

"Straight backwards Bracca, slow reverse." Taliserra instructed hoping the 'simple' solution would work.

"Engaging engines." Bracca announced and slowly started to reverse the ship. Everything was going smoothly until a sudden jolt brought the Wolff to a stop. “The Nacelles have made contact with something, like we hit a solid wall.” He increased the reverse thrust a little more to see if he could push the ship through whatever it was.”

“Pressure on the nacelles is increasing.” Saral reported as he monitored the goings on, despite the increased thrust the ship wasn’t going anywhere.

Taliserra sighed ever so slightly, “Cut engines,” She ordered. “Looks like we are not going backwards.”

"Indeed, captain, good thing dead slow. It is like we just ran into a literal wall." HG gave an update on the engineering part. She had been secretly holding her fingers crossed under the console while the maneuver took place. "Hope this is not a they check in but they do not check out thing.

Anthony had been working on an idea, but his theory needed something solid to work. He had been gifted exactly that as they backed into it. As the pressure was reduced on the back of the Nacelles he said "Captain I have a theory, at least it is partially a theory."

"I'm all ears Lieutenant." Taliserra replied.

"Well, historically in the twentieth century Captain they had Submarines. They used Sonar to find many things like. Sonar is very similar to how we use the sensors we just don't use them to see things because usually, we have the viewscreen to show us what's out there." Anthony said.

2oth century history wasn't Taliserra's strong suit but she understood how the ship sensors worked.

"Captain let me explain. I should have said something as I saw it happening and we might not have run into whatever it is that is." Anthony said with a smile. "I apologise for not reacting quicker, but as we got closer to whatever is solid our sensor showed some feedback, a reflection if you will. The time of confusion led to us colliding with it. I think I might have found a way to guide us through whatever is out there, I expect moving through will still be slow but at least we'll be moving."

"As Lt. Edwards suggested. Hence the use of the phasers to map the space. If this is null space, we will not not though get anything back, that is why none of the sensors currently are working. However, if we follow the photon pulse and calculate the time that it 'disappears' we know where we cannot go. Hence it acts as the lieutenant suggested as a sort of radar to tell us what not to run into. As a necessity until we get more coordinated with the calculations we will be moving dead slow." HG added.

"Ok lets give it a try." Taliserra eventually said, she turned to Lt Samson at tactical. "Set phasers to 10% power, give us a four axis stream, zero elevation, continue for..... five seconds then cease fire."

"Aye Captain." Kyle programmed the firing solution and tapped the fire button. Four phasers streamed out from the Wolff, their bright light barely illuminating some of the void the ship lay in, after five seconds the phasers stopped and the pitch black returned.

HG was waiting for Anthony's sensors to supply when the last of the light disappeared after the five second burst.

The only reflection that Anthony saw was the sensor data from the Phaser shot behind them. "At ten per cent of Phaser power Captain I only got anything from behind us but as we know we're pressed hard up against that. We'll need more to be able to move at any real pace."

"Bring weapons to 50% then fire again." Taliserra ordered. A moment later another bright stream of phaser fire illuminated their surroundings.

"One second captain, after the end of the burst, 300,000 km/sec well that gives us 300,000 currently in that direction. I think we can do some mapping." HG said. "It is going to be slow though."

Summer sat taking in everything that was going on, she was starting to act a little twitchy as the tension, and fear levels started to rise. She sat wringing her hands in her lap something she did when she felt nervous, although this time it was a reflection of the crew’s emotions.

"Slow is better than standing still Lieutenant," Taliserra said, as she spoke she noticed Summer in visible discomfort. "Lt Wyse, are you alright?"

Summer looked towards Tigran. “Sorry Captain” She nodded. “It’s just... the crew’s emotions are considerably high, it’s hard to block them out.”

"Understandable, this is a rather unusual situation we're in." Taliserra said, "Even I'm nervous."

Sky nodded. “I developed my abilities early so unlike others I don’t have the luxury of fully turning off, or blocking out the voices and emotions that I hear and feel. I get them all the time whether I want them there or not.”

"We will have to do what we can to put the crew at ease." Taliserra remarked, she started to realize this situation was as well as unusual was potentially dangerous for the crew, not physically but mentally.

Getting up from the centre chair she made her way over to the science stations. "Anthony, H.g, talk to me. Can we start moving? If we have a way to move through this phenomena I want to get us going, I don't like the idea of us getting stuck in here."

"Well Captain we have 300,000 km ahead and to each side, I would suggest choosing a direction and setting moving the same phaser pulse as we approach 200,000km which will give us a safety of 100,000km if we have to stop and choose a new direction." Anthony said.

HG nodded in agreement. "I am going to start taking a look at differentials. It was miniscule but there was a very tiny three microsecond difference on the starboard side possibly indicating more room in that direction. If I may suggest, Anthony can do the scan to make sure we are not running into something and I will see if I can get better differentials and start putting that into the computer to make a map."

"Then lets get moving," Taliserra said. "Bracca set course straight forward, speed....." She glanced across to Anthony and HG seeing if they had any recommendations.

"I will leave that to An...Lieutenant Edwards captain. I need to watch the differentials from the phaser pulses to make the calculations and can feed to him to provide mapping." HG repsonded almost continuing to call Anthony by his name but figured on the bridge a bit more formal. He deserved it.

“Somewhere between twenty five and fifty thousand kilometres an hour captain, at twenty five thousand it will take eight hours till we need another pulse. Of course that means four if we go a fifty thousand.” Anthony smiled as HG sputtered around his rank after hearing the Captain use his as was her chosen preference on her bridge.

The USS Wolff's recent addition who's assignment was presently for this mission only until further decisions were made, surfaced from the Luna class starship's lower decks, emerging from the turbolift with an inquisitive look at the viewscreen. "Ah, I see we opted for the a scenic route this time," he said crossing his arms and leaning against a bulkhead.

"Shall I roll out the light sails, Captain?" he said with more than a dash of sarcasm.

"It looks like the nice and simple assignment I was hoping for won't be happening Commander, we're stuck in 'null space'" Taliserra explained to Tye

Anthony covered a laugh with a loud cough. "The Wolff doesn't do simple Ma'am isn't that your normal comment to that sort of statement Captain?"

Ty cracked his knuckles and proceeded down to the command pit to take a seat. "As I understand it, Doctor Edwards," he said addressing the lieutenant respectfully by his earned academic credentials, "This crew would not recognize normal if it ran up and slapped you in the face."

Anthony smiled and responded with the same respect that Commander Acevedo had shown him by calling him doctor, "That is true but an easy one would be nice occasionally. That said all survey missions start out rosy until something goes awry, then the shit hits the fan and it all goes to pot. Oh and I'm good with either Anthony or Lieutenant because even though I am highly civilian trained my doctorate isn't like an engineering, medical or true science doctorate, but something everything else is put into."

The First Officer scoffed as he settled in his seat. "Lieutenant, I don't care if your Doctorates is in radishes, don't sell yourself short. It's an accomplishment nonetheless. Now, I've heard the Captain's assessment. What say you?"

"Thank you again for the acknowledgement, Commander Acevedo however the captain's assessment has been formed by her with the knowledge of her Chief Science and other officers around her sir. That said if you have heard her assessment that is also mine. We came in we surveyed we found some unexpected and it turned pear-shaped from there. We have recently worked out how to navigate this spatial anomaly all be it for now slowly." Anthony said he was unsure for the moment as to how to take the new first officer, but new arrivals on a ship were always difficult to work out, during the adjustment period after their arrival.

Ty nodded having taken the seat. "Thank you, Lieutenant Edwards," replied the First Officer who looked over at the Captain. He wasn't questioning her assessment so much as looking to get a science perspective directly from the source. He knew Taliserra could provide an Operations one with ease, but he knew not of how robust she was.

He glanced over between the two of them, an incoming report from the lower decks: Engineering. Ty looked up at the Captain. "Structural integrity of the hull is holding, no significant damage at this time" he echoed a summary of the text. "Though I'd be concerned what may be out here in this null space."

HG waited a moment and then for the benefit of the captain and the commander without looking up from her her screen said, "In Null space we are dealing with what is called Null Physics, and it’s all about the underlying geometry. There is more to existence than mere appearance. Everything that we experience is ultimately composed of a framework that is not visible to us. The chair that supports you there, it certainly seems solid right? The water in the container you drink from it’s wet, it’s cold, it’s seems real. But what are these things composed of at the most fundamental level? If you dig down as deep as you can possibly dig, what are you going to find? Beyound the most fundamental particle?" She did not wait for an answer but supplied it for them. "Geometry. Matter and energy are intricate distributions of curved space, from the smallest particle to the largest galaxy. The universe contains two and only two things – space and curved space.
Curved space is composed of space, but what is space composed of? Nothing. Space is a vast array of geometric points, and geometric points have no intrinsic properties. No charge, mass, energy, or volume. A point is the personification of nothing. The only attribute it has is its relationship to other points. An isolated point is…nothing. Somehow we have stumbled into a region, a pocket of curved space in which Matter and antimatter are always created in equal, yet opposite amounts, whose electrical sum is zero, positive and negative electric fields sum to a neutral universe with zero net electrical charge, energy is conserved in all interactions; the magnitude of this pockets energy has zero change. This space is a collection of points, little bits of nothingness itself, which embodies
a geometric zero - Null. Hence the term Null space. Because the region is pocketed in of itself, it is almost like its own little pocket dimension and as the captain found it, just backing out will not work, since the geometry of nothingness constantly is a relationship. Our very movements alter the geometry but luckily very little compared to the rest of the space. Hence we need to map so that we can figure the relationship of nothing to nothing." She smirked but since she had her back to them they would not see but she figured Anthony would know she was doing that.

"Music to my ears, Lieutenant Wells," Ty replied with a smirk as he adjusted to the chair which was not the least bit comfortable. It felt like a Vulcan had sat there. "I am glad we could get that out of the way before life support fails us," he teased regarding her long-winded lecture.

HG glanced the commander's way with a bit of sour look. "Just for the benefit of those to understand that we cannot just go zooming about and why we are moving so slow. Anyway I would suggest another burst. I want to check the differential on the starboard side to see if an artifact or it is steady."

Ty thought for a brief moment about outing himself as a former science officer, but that was so long ago. He thought better of it. "Make it so," he said and stood from his seat. He then decided to take a little walk around the bridge. "That chair makes my ass numb."

The humerous comment made Summer smile as she looked towards Tyrus. At least it was a momentary distraction from the emotions all around her.

Anthony chuckle at commander Avecedo's comment. "Only because it is where you sit Commander, otherwise it might make my bum numb now maybe if Utopia Planitia could design a ship seat that is actually comfortable to sit in or a bed comfortable to sleep in then maybe Grethor might freeze over."

The engineer in Ty smirked. "Yeah, we keep trying for comfort, but engineers are piss poor designers for comfort. We prefer functionability and sturdiness," quipped Ty.

He looked at the Captain. "I'm going to pop down to engineering and see how the Chief Engineer is doing." Ty had his reasoning. "An engineer aboard a starship that's barely moving..." he shot a look at Summer. "What's the term? Stircrazy?"

“Totally Stircrazy!” Summer smiled and nodded. “Permission to join you Sir? It’s driving me nuts sitting here getting a head full of everyone else’s emotions!”

Ty glanced at the Captain, a mutual understanding was met. He looked back at Summer and nodded. "Alright, Lieutenant. Let's go see the Chief Engineer."

“Thank you Sir” She looked back at Tigran and nodded her thanks. “I’m Ops trained Sir so I may be of some help.”

HG typed a message on secure from her console to Anthony's saying: 'If you cannot stand the heat...' She then said outloud, "Definitely a differential toward starboard, in fact it is a bit larger than last time. Your call sir, but suggest changing heading and see if we have a way forward at something above warp factor snail."

"Change course fourty five degrees starboard helm." Taliserra finally spoke after a long time of quiet contemplation and listening to the interactions between her longer time officers and the new Xo.

"Aye Captain." Bracca replied.

"Anthony, Hg, prepare a briefing for the science and helm leads for the next few shifts, I want them up to speed on our situation and how we sho.... will be getting out of here."

HG nodded. "Yes captain. I will send my thoughts and data over to Lieutenant Edwards for final presentation."

As he got HG's information Anthony said "Got it, Lieutenant!" He then started making the report for the incoming Bravo to Delta shift science officers. A few minutes later he had finished it and said: "Done Captain they will know exactly what we have worked out before they get here Ma'am."

"Good." Taliserra said, as much as she'd like it she couldn't keep Hg an Anthony on the bridge for the entire time.

HG continued to do calculations. Another burst confirmed things seemed to be open in the direction headed. "Still good, in fact, even better, at least a path forward. I think we could pick up the pace a bit."

"Lets not get ahead of ourselves." Taliserra said, while she wanted to get out as soon as possible, she didn't want to risk the ship hitting anything they couldn't see coming. "Take it steady for now."

HG nodded. It was a good call. Slow going but trying to go flying off with the chance the space might shift or narrow or whatever was a good. "Sorry captain, I wish I could get faster data back, but analyzing the bursts are time consuming. Still the way forward seems good so far."

"You're doing fine Lieutenant Wells." Anthony didn't like pressing that because he knew she did much like it though as equals in rank and senior in time in service and job description he could call her HG But the bridge didn't seem like a place to experiment in this situation. "Speed isn't the most important thing at the moment safety of Ship and family."

'That it is' Taliserra thought. "Get comfortable people, we might be here for some time." She remarked as she set about typing out a draft of a message she would give to the whole crew explaining their current situation.

OFF:

Captain Taliserra Tigran
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Anthony Edwards Ph. D
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant Commander Tyrus Acevedo
Executive Officer

Lieutenant (jg) Summer Wyse
Chief Counsellor

LTjg Kyle Samson, Ens Bracca, Po1 Saral
tactical, helm and ops officers
npc's

Lt. HG Wells
Science Officer