Polaron Phantasms

Posted on Thu Dec 2nd, 2021 @ 9:08am by Captain Taliserra Tigran & Ensign Bracca & Ensign Daniel Franklin & Petty Officer 1st Class Saral & Lieutenant Commander Tyrus Acevedo & Lieutenant Anthony Edwards Ph. D & Lieutenant Helena Wells & Lieutenant JG Summer Wyse

1,972 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: The Silent Scream
Location: USS Wolff | Deck 1 | Bridge
Timeline: 30th April 2395- 1445hrs

The USS Wolff had taken its forked route. Lieutenant Commander Tyrus Acevedo had made the decision as to which 'road' to take though he was beginning to be concerned that he had taken the road less traveled. Ty was not sure exactly what he was looking for...hoping for. An exit from this labryinth perhaps, but it would be a Deus ex machina for their problem to be resolved with the sudden appearance of a way out.

Some sort of thread to lead them would be ideal yet again improbable. So, they had nothing. This forked route they had taken had yielded nothing more exciting than the route they had previously been on. Would the other path have been more fruitful? Ty could not allow himself to be idle wrestling with hypotheticals.

Amidst the chatter on the Bridge, the science consoles and tactical station sprung to life like a nestful of youthful hatchlings seeking a morning feed. Something was setting the sensors off. Ty immediately straightened in his seat. "What do you have for me?" he asked, knowing if there was anything out there of interest, his science officers would be immediately seeking answers. Something to alert the Captain of perhaps Ty pondered.

Anthony started moving his hands across the main science console as the information drove in from directly ahead of them. “Commander Acevedo, I don’t have a lot to tell as the computers are still processing the information at a much faster speed than my brain can take it in. That said what I have at the moment is that we appear to have multiple Polaron bursts of varying schedules.” Some more came in and he added, “Polaron burst like that are rarely natural and deserve investigation. “Are you seeing the same thing Lieutenant Wells.”

HG was looking at the readings and pondering the data. She did not answer immediately. "I think they are not quite polaron bursts, or shall I say they are decays of polaron bursts. They strike me more as something called a phonon. Sort of ghosts of polaron particles."

Summer arrived on the bridge, walking across to her seat she offered a warm smile. “Seems to be some activity here, am I missing something interesting?”

"Just in time for a lecture on polarons and phonons," Ty replied looking at Summer. He had begun to make his way over to the scientist. "We were a bit liberal with labeling things as 'polaron,' and I'm curious...there are a several species and factions that use technology that would read like this. Federation starships are capable of it."

Ty crossed his arms. "The Borg have been known to use something like this as have the Breen, the Jem'Hadar, and a few crude minor factions. See if we can follow these ghosts to wherever they are manifesting from....I know physics in this place is awkward."

Ensign Bracca suddenly started paying attention, the 'corridor' they were in had been remarkably straight for the last few hours so he'd not had to make any changes to their course even minor ones. "Ready for course corrections." He called out.

Summer motioned Tyrus to Bracca, “How’s about we do a little changing of direction? See where it gets us?”

"We can try, Commander?" HG wanted confirmation from the first officer.

"Make it so, adjust our heading a bit," confirmed Ty. "Not too much though," he added with a bit of a tonge and cheek response.

After travelling forwards for another short while Bracca turned the ship through a very tight right hand turn and moments later the science station warbled as it picked up something new.

"Sensors are registering something metallic about 10 kilometers ahead of us." Daniel reported from the other side of the bridge.

"Helm, bring us closer," Ty instructed. He wanted more answers to the questions that were being raised with each passing moment. "And someone...anyone scan whatever it is. I want to know who or what we are dealing with."

Anthony worked his hands over his stations console as the scans came in he read out as many of the list of metals that he thought he could pronounce. "Traces of Strontium, nickle, Borinium and many that I don't think I could possibly pronounce. Oh and I am the best person I know with languages."

"The decays are pretty strong as well, as though very recent polaron activity," HG added onto Anthony's quick verbal report.

Anthony watched as more information came across his screens, as Lieutenant Wells made her addition. "The activity is what attracted our attention Commander. They're the signatures we have been chasing."

"We should be approximately 500m parallel to it." Bracca reported when he stopped the ship's momentum nearby to the unknown object.

As the USS Wolff approached the vessel its class first came up on the science consoles Anthony was working and just before he was ready to say it the viewscreen started showing the craft they were approaching and it was flashing. Commander Acevedo, that is a Jem'hadar Attack ship. Life support is on but at the lowest possible level Sir."

"On this side of the wormhole and this far away," Ty studied the viewscreen. The First Officer stood and glanced at the Ops station "Hail them," ordered Lieutenant Commander Tyrus Acevedo. He was not sure what he was expecting...them to respond or attack? Was there even anyone to respond?

"Opening hailing frequencies." Po Saral called out from the ops station.

"Someone summon the Captain," Ty added.

Anthony raised an eyebrow before he gently tapped his communicator and said =/\=Lieutenant Edward for Captain Tigran, Your presence is requested on the bridge.=/\=

After a few seconds Taliserra's voice groggily replied. =/\= I'm on my way. =/\=

"They're not responding." Saral said after a brief wait and repeating the hail request.

Summer was trying to get a sense from the other ship. “I’m not sensing much at the moment but that doesn’t mean a lot.”

Ty nodded. "With Jem'Hadar I'd imagine not," he replied to Summer. It was not a knock on Summer or the extent of her abilities. Ty had come to find her reliable and a good Officer, a great sounding board to have, but the Jem'Hadar were not the best species for reading. They were militant, stoic, and worse of all...manufactured.

"If they have been trapped here..." pondered Ty as the turbolift doors opened. The First Officer came about to greet the Captain. "Captain, we found some friends. We've been trying to hail them, but nobody is answering. The ship appears to be operating at minimal power."

"What on earth is a Jem'Hadar ship doing here?" Taliserra asked as she looked at the unmistakable form of the attack ship on the viewscreen.

Ty crossed his arms. "That is exactly what we are trying to figure out," replied the First Officer. "Jem'Hadar usually have short life spans, they died in battle. We are not getting any response from them. They could be dead, Captain. We don't tend to see Jem'Hadar live more than a decade or so..."

He shook his head. "If they aren't going to respond, then I would recommend we have a look around."

HG turned in her seat. "I sure would not mind being a part of that. We still have some of the phase inverters still in the lab, just in case."

Anthony didn't even need to look at HG to know the truth. A linguist wasn't the scientist you needed in this situation. "I concur captain Lieutenant Wells is certainly the Science Officer that is best suited to this situation."

"Are there any lifesigns?" Taliserra asked, it was unlikely, if this ship got caught here during the Dominion war it would have been there for almost two decades.

"None Captain. Though the dominion war has been over for a long time now Ma'am and with a life expectancy about the same as and Ocampan I am not shocked there isn't any life signs, Jem'hadar or otherwise on that ship. Their Klingon like win or die at all costs lifestyle and death before dishonour I expect stasis would not even occur to them." Anthony said from the main science station.

Ty was in full agreement. "Coming through the wormhole and getting this far into the quadrant would surely be an act of war. All signs are definitely pointing towards that ship having been here a while...a long while. There may be technology aboard or at the very least logged sensor data that could be of use to us."

"I am not sirs," HG spoke up after listening. "Polarons degrade fairly quickly, the echoes we detected either had to be something a bit more recent or it is possible that within null space some of the physics just does not work the same that we are used to. There is little known about temporal mechanics within null space as basically due to the structure it cannot be really studied properly. I would still urge extreme caution. While the ship may have been here a bit," she waved a hand. "Time may not flow in the same way."

"That is a valid point," Ty replied in response to HG. "We cannot really do much more than speculate from where we are. Some of our physics have been thrown off in this null space. Time may not be as we have known it either, but I suppose we won't have any answers unless we board that vessel."

"Can we transport onboard?" Taliserra asked aloud as she headed to the centre chair, she agreed there could be useful information on the dominion ship and it was worth the risk .

Anthony looked over the information the sensors were sending to his station and said "I would suggest a shuttle and life support and power is so low at this point captain that I would suggest Envirmonetal suit and some of HG phase inverters."

Taliserra nodded. "Commander, prepare an away team and take a shuttle over there."

Shuttle it is thought Ty as he mulled over his options for an away team. "Have ensigns Turell and Chandler meet me in shuttlebay one," the First Officer said sternly. An engineer was a logical choice, but given where the Wolff was, Ty did not want to pull the Chief Engineer away from the starship. Taking Turrell was a necessity, a security officer was by the book.

"Wells and Wyse, if you ladies would kindly accompany me to the shuttlebay," added Ty with a nod to the Captain as if to indicate that was his selection for an away team. A robust five, counting himself, with various backgrounds and skillsets.

“Aye Sir” Summer nodded and rose from her seat. She wasn’t relishing away party duty to a Jem’Hadar ship but she also wasn’t going to refuse it either.

HG got up as well to follow. She wondered if she would have time to stop by the science lab and grab the wrist phase inverters. She reminded herself that she had not even checked them and they might currently not be working.

"Good luck Commander, we'll keep an open channel if we can." Taliserra said, using her chairs arm panel she sent an order to prepare one of the shuttles for immediate use.

Ty nodded. "Understood," Ty replied. He knew keeping a stable communications channel open would be difficult. With all the issues this null space was having thus far, it was going to present an abundance of obstacles. "I'll report in regularly, comms permitting."


OFF:

Captain Taliserra Tigran
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Commander Tyrus Acevedo
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Anthony Edwards Ph.D
Chief Science Officer

Lt. HG Wells
Science Officer

LTjg Summer Wyse
Chief Counsellor

Ensigns Bracca, Franklin, Po Saral
Npc's

 

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