Incommunicado – Inner Boundary
by Commander Richard Dunham & Captain Tasha Tahir (NPC) & Lieutenant JG Petro
Post Details
On::
The small Wallace garrison vessel hung suspended in a gravity field in the belly of Deep space Five part of a pair the USS Pollux’s arrow shaped hull was linked to the station via one small airlock. It was dwarfed by its fellow Starfleet vessels that where under repair or being upgraded. In size the Wallace Class stood some way between a runabout and a defiant class starship, but did not nearly carry the punch of the later or the toughness of the earlier. But its small size, practical capability and long range combined with the fact that large parts for it could be built in a station with a dry dock meant it made an excellent garrison vessel.
Rick sat in the chair on the small bridge.....it wasn’t really a bridge looking more like a larger runabout cockpit with an extra seat behind the pilots, co-pilot and ops/tactical seats. But it met the needs of the mission and as Rick sat looking about the ‘bridge’ thoughtfully chewing on some gum he reckoned they would be ready for any encounter. He was concerned that the communication blackout anomaly was getting larger in size and that when they entered it they would have no further communication with the station and quite frankly with all that had happened in and around DS5 space in recent months it could be anything.....but that was half the fun of working in space.
They were ready to go they were just waiting for one more person and here he/she came onto the bridge. Rick gave a warm smile and “greetings lieutenant” to the J'naii as she walked onto the bridge.
"Thank you Commander," Petro replied, giving a slight nod and taking the seat indicated for her. "I guess we're ready to ship out."
The USS Pollux cleared its moorings and at half thrusters gently drifted up through the internal space traffic of the station before making a ‘B’ line for the main hanger doors. As the door opened ponderously the ship started to accelerate away, shooting out of the hanger bay like an arrow from a bow.
Soon they had cleared the main docking ring and where speeding into the inky blackness of space. “Helm lay in a course; heading 270 mark 4 Engage.” The ship went into warp for its small jump. Rick turned to Petro “Ok what have we got?”
Petro brought up the communication system and compared it with the navigational chart. "We should be reaching first trouble area in a few seconds. The upper bandwidth being where the most static was detected."
Rushtone remained alert as he manned the sensor console just behind the main cockpit area of the Wallace.
"Sensors online. Initiating a constant ping back to DS5 in the upper bandwidths. Returning in point zero four seconds." Robert advised as he moved the single speaker headset to a more comfortable position on his ear.
"Ok lets keep all wires running, sensor grids at full. Petro can you get me a communication analysis through all spectrum please the moment we drop out of warp please." The helm officer gave a nod to indicate they where dropping out of warp in; "four, three, two," the small Wallace class starship dropped out of warp and started its mission.
"Communication analysis in progress," Petro said, "all spectrums." They waited a moment before Petro spoke again, "I'm showing interference on low band frequencies. As if something is riding the carrier waves." She said as she continued to work the console.
"Try a high frequency spectrum analysis of the upper carrier waves on a beta and theta bandwidths, whilst integrating it with a photon polarity matrix beam in the lower waves." Rick really didn't like telling the Petro what to do....she probably had already started it, she was far more experienced in this sort of thing than him.
Petro looked at him, "Aye sir, but that's what I have been doing. I've isolated the signal that seems to be interfering with communications and noticed a pattern. It's the same pattern that is riding on all the frequencies in every spectrum and bandwidth. I don't think it is a natural phenomenon sir."
"That is very interesting" said Rick leaning forward in his chair to look at the data that Petro had brought up on the main view screen. His face was a mask of concentration "So its artificial in nature?" he asked just to be clear.
"It would appear so." Petro replied, "but I have no idea how to decipher it."
"Okkkkk" said Rick thoughtfully as he stretched the word over the length of the thought he was having "Ok, if its artificial lets try using a a focused type 6 static tricyclic tayron beam through the graviton subspace phase emitters to what we get."
"Tayron beam?" Robert interrupted, "Is that wise?" He stated as he turned his seat about and glanced at both the commander and the lieutenant. "I mean, sir, sorry to state the obvious, but if we are dealing with a lifeform, Tayron could be lethal." His eye dropped to the floor as he tried to think of something that would have less impact but still give them the same, if not similar result.
"True chief. But I cant think of anything else that can cut through this interference. Can you, I am happy to take suggestions" he looked around the bridge. He saw the Tayron beams as a viable option however as this communication blocking, at least to him, was a hostile act.
Robert shook his head. He had not considered that the Commander had already taken this into account and was why he had emphasised 'Artificial'
"No sir, in all honesty, I cannot think of anything that could." He replied forlornly as he eased the chair back to the console and released a gentle and unheard sigh as he began the calculations to enable the beam to be as constrained as it could without being lethal to any lifeforms in the vicinity. "Petro, I could use your help," He requested, "we need to keep the beam focused, yet give it enough power to resonate within its own constraints and still be able to piggy back a radio signal." Rushtone stated as the console began to display several different configuration options.
"We'll have to modify it manually." Petro said, reading over the configuration options and making adjustments. "If it is a lifeform we don't want to injure it. If it is an artificial communication then the tayron beam won't hurt."
Rick looked thoughtfully at the main viewer. He had his elbow on the arm of his chair propping up his chin with a balled fist, the three day stubble on his chin spiked into his fingers. “Ok” said Rick in agreement nodding his head almost in perceivably. “Do you need to go EVA to make any manual adjustments?” he hoped not it would make them far more of a sitting target than they already were. Rick also wondered when had he started getting as paranoid as the Colonel or Gabriel.
"Not likely." Petro said. "Most of the adjustments can be made here. Unless something goes wrong."
"I certainly hope not." Robert said as a cold shiver run down his spine and he arced around to Petro, "If anything goes wrong, we'll all need EVA suits!" He exclaimed nervously with a shrug of his shoulders. "Besides, if there is a lifeform, then the beam will either kill, cure or anger whatever is out there." His head nodded in the direction of the view window at the front of the Pollux as if something were in the general vicinity.
Rick leant back in his central chair feeling a little solitary in its ‘apart’ position; he made a mental note that he was going to stick with space fighters, far less complicated. He wondered if this was how he felt the captain felt sometimes with these kind of ethical, technological and unknown choices. Rick stood up straightening his uniform. “Ok lets get these upgrades complete and this beam sent. We are not going to answer any questions just sitting around here.” It was odd he felt more exposed standing on this small bridge than in the cockpit of his fighter. “Lets get this show on the road”
"Aye sir," Petro said, entering the necessary adjustments into the console in front of her. She looked over to Robert and nodded. "Ready."
Robert shrugged, knowing that what they were about to do, was as dangerous as anything else they had encountered but out here, away from the relative safe confines of the station, there were ducks in a duck shoot if anything were to go wrong.
"Let's do this." He muttered as he made alterations to the emitter console at his station.
"Do it" said Rick with the confidence of any starfleet officer. But the fact he was massaging his the side of his temple with the balls of two fingers clearly indicated he was worried.
They had only been several minutes into the second phase of the mission when a small growl began to seep through on Rushtones console.
"I can't say I like the sound of this!" Robert remarked as he felt the slight discharge feedback through his fingertips like static and he glanced across to Petro to see if she was experiencing a something similar.
"Certainly doesn't sound good." She responded, though she wasn't feeling the same sensations he was. "It's almost guttural."
"Did we forget to have dinner before we left?" asked Rick confused to what the hell was going on but also getting a craving for a pepperoni pizza.
"Definitely not." Rushtone began as he eased himself away from the console. "Consoles singing to me when we have not had dinner is not the norm!" Robert stood and made towards Petro.
The console began to vibrate harmonically and the colours began to mash into one as the console appeared to melt. He shot a worried glance at Petro.
"Commander?" He questioned his voice rising with anxiety.
"I don't feel so well." Petro said, running her hand across the console, "kind of feels like mashed potatoes." She said, then giggled. "I think we have more data but the consoles not responding."
"Confirm that we have more data!" said Rick launching himself from his chair and pulling up a deck floor panel. Red alert sirens screeched across the bridge and the red lightening gave everyone a sinister shadow.
Robert shook his head as he fell to the deck floor alongside the commander and began pulling up the databank isolinear chips. "Cannot confirm sir. We'll have to wait until we can check these through." He stated as he scooped the chips into his hands. "I can however, with all surety, state that the data was certainly being collated before the 'Meltdown."
"Good! we need to get the hell out of here!" said Rick as the bridges consoles began to melt and Its LCARS displays became inconceivable to read. "re routing helm control to manual..going to back us off" said Rick as he shoved his hands into the exposed inner workings of the ship, sparks flew as he reconnected and re-routed glowing fiber optics cables. He winced as the sparks burnt his hands, but the ship lurched and began to reverse.
Rushtone looked at Petro, her eyes closed, he assumed the fumes from the melting console had somehow affected her. He pulled the strap across her, securing her into her seat before stepping back to his own seat and strapped himself in before putting the glass like chips into a cloth and wrapping them carefully as they limped back towards DS5.
Off:
CAG Squadron Leader
Lieutenant Commander Richard Dunham
&
Chief Communications Officer
Lieutenant JG Petro
&
Chief Warrant Officer Robert Rushtone (NPC'd by Mark)
by Commander Richard Dunham & Captain Tasha Tahir (NPC) & Lieutenant JG Petro
Post Details
| Title | Inner Boundary | |
| Mission | Incommunicado | |
| Author(s) | Commander Richard Dunham & Captain Tasha Tahir (NPC) & Lieutenant JG Petro | |
| Posted | Mon May 07, 2012 @ 1:17pm | |
| Location | Local Deep Space Five Air Space | |
| Timeline | SD57 12:30 After Pushing the Boundaries & Spectrum |
The small Wallace garrison vessel hung suspended in a gravity field in the belly of Deep space Five part of a pair the USS Pollux’s arrow shaped hull was linked to the station via one small airlock. It was dwarfed by its fellow Starfleet vessels that where under repair or being upgraded. In size the Wallace Class stood some way between a runabout and a defiant class starship, but did not nearly carry the punch of the later or the toughness of the earlier. But its small size, practical capability and long range combined with the fact that large parts for it could be built in a station with a dry dock meant it made an excellent garrison vessel.
Rick sat in the chair on the small bridge.....it wasn’t really a bridge looking more like a larger runabout cockpit with an extra seat behind the pilots, co-pilot and ops/tactical seats. But it met the needs of the mission and as Rick sat looking about the ‘bridge’ thoughtfully chewing on some gum he reckoned they would be ready for any encounter. He was concerned that the communication blackout anomaly was getting larger in size and that when they entered it they would have no further communication with the station and quite frankly with all that had happened in and around DS5 space in recent months it could be anything.....but that was half the fun of working in space.
They were ready to go they were just waiting for one more person and here he/she came onto the bridge. Rick gave a warm smile and “greetings lieutenant” to the J'naii as she walked onto the bridge.
"Thank you Commander," Petro replied, giving a slight nod and taking the seat indicated for her. "I guess we're ready to ship out."
The USS Pollux cleared its moorings and at half thrusters gently drifted up through the internal space traffic of the station before making a ‘B’ line for the main hanger doors. As the door opened ponderously the ship started to accelerate away, shooting out of the hanger bay like an arrow from a bow.
Soon they had cleared the main docking ring and where speeding into the inky blackness of space. “Helm lay in a course; heading 270 mark 4 Engage.” The ship went into warp for its small jump. Rick turned to Petro “Ok what have we got?”
Petro brought up the communication system and compared it with the navigational chart. "We should be reaching first trouble area in a few seconds. The upper bandwidth being where the most static was detected."
Rushtone remained alert as he manned the sensor console just behind the main cockpit area of the Wallace.
"Sensors online. Initiating a constant ping back to DS5 in the upper bandwidths. Returning in point zero four seconds." Robert advised as he moved the single speaker headset to a more comfortable position on his ear.
"Ok lets keep all wires running, sensor grids at full. Petro can you get me a communication analysis through all spectrum please the moment we drop out of warp please." The helm officer gave a nod to indicate they where dropping out of warp in; "four, three, two," the small Wallace class starship dropped out of warp and started its mission.
"Communication analysis in progress," Petro said, "all spectrums." They waited a moment before Petro spoke again, "I'm showing interference on low band frequencies. As if something is riding the carrier waves." She said as she continued to work the console.
"Try a high frequency spectrum analysis of the upper carrier waves on a beta and theta bandwidths, whilst integrating it with a photon polarity matrix beam in the lower waves." Rick really didn't like telling the Petro what to do....she probably had already started it, she was far more experienced in this sort of thing than him.
Petro looked at him, "Aye sir, but that's what I have been doing. I've isolated the signal that seems to be interfering with communications and noticed a pattern. It's the same pattern that is riding on all the frequencies in every spectrum and bandwidth. I don't think it is a natural phenomenon sir."
"That is very interesting" said Rick leaning forward in his chair to look at the data that Petro had brought up on the main view screen. His face was a mask of concentration "So its artificial in nature?" he asked just to be clear.
"It would appear so." Petro replied, "but I have no idea how to decipher it."
"Okkkkk" said Rick thoughtfully as he stretched the word over the length of the thought he was having "Ok, if its artificial lets try using a a focused type 6 static tricyclic tayron beam through the graviton subspace phase emitters to what we get."
"Tayron beam?" Robert interrupted, "Is that wise?" He stated as he turned his seat about and glanced at both the commander and the lieutenant. "I mean, sir, sorry to state the obvious, but if we are dealing with a lifeform, Tayron could be lethal." His eye dropped to the floor as he tried to think of something that would have less impact but still give them the same, if not similar result.
"True chief. But I cant think of anything else that can cut through this interference. Can you, I am happy to take suggestions" he looked around the bridge. He saw the Tayron beams as a viable option however as this communication blocking, at least to him, was a hostile act.
Robert shook his head. He had not considered that the Commander had already taken this into account and was why he had emphasised 'Artificial'
"No sir, in all honesty, I cannot think of anything that could." He replied forlornly as he eased the chair back to the console and released a gentle and unheard sigh as he began the calculations to enable the beam to be as constrained as it could without being lethal to any lifeforms in the vicinity. "Petro, I could use your help," He requested, "we need to keep the beam focused, yet give it enough power to resonate within its own constraints and still be able to piggy back a radio signal." Rushtone stated as the console began to display several different configuration options.
"We'll have to modify it manually." Petro said, reading over the configuration options and making adjustments. "If it is a lifeform we don't want to injure it. If it is an artificial communication then the tayron beam won't hurt."
Rick looked thoughtfully at the main viewer. He had his elbow on the arm of his chair propping up his chin with a balled fist, the three day stubble on his chin spiked into his fingers. “Ok” said Rick in agreement nodding his head almost in perceivably. “Do you need to go EVA to make any manual adjustments?” he hoped not it would make them far more of a sitting target than they already were. Rick also wondered when had he started getting as paranoid as the Colonel or Gabriel.
"Not likely." Petro said. "Most of the adjustments can be made here. Unless something goes wrong."
"I certainly hope not." Robert said as a cold shiver run down his spine and he arced around to Petro, "If anything goes wrong, we'll all need EVA suits!" He exclaimed nervously with a shrug of his shoulders. "Besides, if there is a lifeform, then the beam will either kill, cure or anger whatever is out there." His head nodded in the direction of the view window at the front of the Pollux as if something were in the general vicinity.
Rick leant back in his central chair feeling a little solitary in its ‘apart’ position; he made a mental note that he was going to stick with space fighters, far less complicated. He wondered if this was how he felt the captain felt sometimes with these kind of ethical, technological and unknown choices. Rick stood up straightening his uniform. “Ok lets get these upgrades complete and this beam sent. We are not going to answer any questions just sitting around here.” It was odd he felt more exposed standing on this small bridge than in the cockpit of his fighter. “Lets get this show on the road”
"Aye sir," Petro said, entering the necessary adjustments into the console in front of her. She looked over to Robert and nodded. "Ready."
Robert shrugged, knowing that what they were about to do, was as dangerous as anything else they had encountered but out here, away from the relative safe confines of the station, there were ducks in a duck shoot if anything were to go wrong.
"Let's do this." He muttered as he made alterations to the emitter console at his station.
"Do it" said Rick with the confidence of any starfleet officer. But the fact he was massaging his the side of his temple with the balls of two fingers clearly indicated he was worried.
They had only been several minutes into the second phase of the mission when a small growl began to seep through on Rushtones console.
"I can't say I like the sound of this!" Robert remarked as he felt the slight discharge feedback through his fingertips like static and he glanced across to Petro to see if she was experiencing a something similar.
"Certainly doesn't sound good." She responded, though she wasn't feeling the same sensations he was. "It's almost guttural."
"Did we forget to have dinner before we left?" asked Rick confused to what the hell was going on but also getting a craving for a pepperoni pizza.
"Definitely not." Rushtone began as he eased himself away from the console. "Consoles singing to me when we have not had dinner is not the norm!" Robert stood and made towards Petro.
The console began to vibrate harmonically and the colours began to mash into one as the console appeared to melt. He shot a worried glance at Petro.
"Commander?" He questioned his voice rising with anxiety.
"I don't feel so well." Petro said, running her hand across the console, "kind of feels like mashed potatoes." She said, then giggled. "I think we have more data but the consoles not responding."
"Confirm that we have more data!" said Rick launching himself from his chair and pulling up a deck floor panel. Red alert sirens screeched across the bridge and the red lightening gave everyone a sinister shadow.
Robert shook his head as he fell to the deck floor alongside the commander and began pulling up the databank isolinear chips. "Cannot confirm sir. We'll have to wait until we can check these through." He stated as he scooped the chips into his hands. "I can however, with all surety, state that the data was certainly being collated before the 'Meltdown."
"Good! we need to get the hell out of here!" said Rick as the bridges consoles began to melt and Its LCARS displays became inconceivable to read. "re routing helm control to manual..going to back us off" said Rick as he shoved his hands into the exposed inner workings of the ship, sparks flew as he reconnected and re-routed glowing fiber optics cables. He winced as the sparks burnt his hands, but the ship lurched and began to reverse.
Rushtone looked at Petro, her eyes closed, he assumed the fumes from the melting console had somehow affected her. He pulled the strap across her, securing her into her seat before stepping back to his own seat and strapped himself in before putting the glass like chips into a cloth and wrapping them carefully as they limped back towards DS5.
Off:
CAG Squadron Leader
Lieutenant Commander Richard Dunham
&
Chief Communications Officer
Lieutenant JG Petro
&
Chief Warrant Officer Robert Rushtone (NPC'd by Mark)