[Dawnspring] [Aurora] Dournal - Strange Goings-On <tag: S'Rel>

[Edward Saum]

D4 0955 Hours

[Command Center, Starbase Aurora]

While the estimates Dournal had given for completion of the replicator system and the sensor relays were aggressive, the Ba'ku Lieutenant Commander knew that they were not wholly unrealistic.  Each depended upon the progress of the other, which in turn depended upon the completion of a substantial number of secondary tasks, both physical and electronic.

After the Captain and XO had left to tour the station, all the while engaged in their typical pseudo-sexual back-and-forth banter, the Chief Science Officer was currently the senior officer on the Bridge.  Therefore, when the comm message came in from the Damocles Bridge, it was routed by the Comms Officer to his console.  A seemingly-inebriated Petty Officer, swaying to and fro, asked if the Aurora had any daffodil-yellow paint onboard, as the starship was fresh out.

Dournal could see the lower Bridge of the Andromeda-class vessel over the Petty Officer's shoulder.  What appeared to be a card game, involving the removal of clothing, was taking place.  A tall Terran in Command Cranberry shot to his feet.

> Pressman: "Captain on the *Bridge*." <

=/\= "Um, scratch that, Aurora.  Captain Cupie Doll just showed.  Gotta go.  Love ya, bye-bye." =/\=

With that, the Petty Officer in Operations Gold terminated the signal.

"Intriguing," Dournal said quietly.

< S'Rel? >

"An unusual transmission from the Damocles, Doctor.  Nothing of consequence," was his reply.

Given Dournal's prior knowledge of the Damocles' duty activity logs for the primary (and increasingly negated) timeline, he was aware of what would later be determined to have been the source of the contagion that was the source of the irrational behavior that was apparently still running rampant aboard the starship.  The passing of the pathogen to the ship's Acting First Officer while aboard the Avarice Coil had been one of the first in a series of events that soured relations between the Federation starship and the local populace.  The temporally-misaligned arrival of the Aurora would, in all likelihood, substantially alter the timeline.  At least, one could hope so...

< S'Rel? >

Dournal had experienced a distinctly uncharacteristic lapse in his mental focus.  The thought of what the Damocles had / was originally destined to go through was even chilling for one as disciplined as the Chief Science Officer.

"I apologize, Doctor.  What was that?" he said, his face flushing slightly.

< S'Rel? >

"Indeed," he replied, returning both hands to the inventories on the console screens before him.  "The last of the available components should be in the Cargo Bay by the end of Gamma Shift."

< S'Rel? >

---  ---

Lieutenant Commander Dournal
Chief Science Officer / Second Officer
Starbase Aurora

---  ---

"And it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel was just a freight train comin' your way..."
- Metallica, No Leaf Clover

[Sarah Eccles]

D4 1000 Hours [Command Center, Starbase Aurora]

=/\= "Um, scratch that, Aurora.  Captain Cupie Doll just showed.  Gotta go.  Love ya, bye-bye." =/\= With that, the Petty Officer in Operations Gold terminated the signal. "Intriguing," Dournal said quietly.

“Might I enquire as to what you find intriging?” S’Rel asked as she walked in, having just missed the conversation. She had transferred her updated data and star map up to the Science hub in the Command Centre to coordinate the buoy placement with Commander Dournal.

"An unusual transmission from the Damocles, Doctor.  Nothing of consequence," was his reply.

That earned a raised eyebrow from the young Vulcan woman, but if the Chief Science Officer said that it was of no consequence then she believed him. “I have the optimum locations for the first sensor buoys mapped on the start chart along with the regions they should perceived based on what we know of the sensor-lensing effects of the time-space distortions in the immediate areas, if you would care to review them.” She called up the rapidly growing star chart and zoomed in on the relevant area.

Dournal had experienced a distinctly uncharacteristic lapse in his mental focus.  The thought of what the Damocles had / was originally destined to go through was even chilling for one as disciplined as the Chief Science Officer. "I apologize, Doctor.  What was that?" he said, his face flushing slightly.

Dournal was normally incredibly sharp and focused for a non-Vulcan, and his lapse earned him a long, neutral look from the astrophysicist, slim hands linked and tucked neatly into the volumous sleeves of her robe in that classic Vulcan pose, before she repeated her statement.

"Indeed," he replied, returning both hands to the inventories on the console screens before him.  "The last of the available components should be in the Cargo Bay by the end of Gamma Shift."

“Do you have an estimated time of completion for the phase I sensor buoys?” S’Rel asked. “We will need to coordinate use of one of the larger shuttles.”   <Dashing Dournal?>   “This area of space is fascinating in it’s complexity. It is sufficiently convoluted in it’s nature to observe; one wonders what it will be like to navigate.” She mused.    The space between the wormhole and the Dawnspring and the hidden dark nebula,  where both the Aurora and the Avarice Coil hung, seemed to be something of a ‘null space’, an ‘eye of the storm’, where the influences of those special phenomena cancelled each other out. Beyond that small region of calm however space became very complicated indeed.   <Daring Dournal?>   Doctor S’Rel Civilial Astrophycisist Starbase Aurora   “Just remember this my girl, when you look up in the sky, You can see the stars and still not see the light.” – Paul Simon, Already Gone