Ensign Jovenan – Collision in a faraway orbit

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Jovenan

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Mar 3, 2023, 7:49:57 AM3/3/23

to USS Artemis-A – StarBase 118 Star Trek PBEM RPG

((Astrometrics, Deck 9, USS Artemis))

Dakora: And in your opinion, are you seeing anything unusual here?

She looked as the confidence bands, displayed holographically above them, changed as her program injected the new data from sensors to the model. Every few seconds, the estimation of the meteor’s course became slightly easier, as the sensors recorded the location and movement of ever tinier objects in the orbit of Meranuge IV, the Da’al homeworld. The meteor would have interacted with dust and meteoroids in the area before the strike, but it had already been a long time. Even if there had been something off, they might not be able spot it.

Jovenan: ::staring the holograph:: We won’t be getting perfect results. Seeing to the past is difficult – the meteor isn’t there anymore, the particles have been running around since then… Also, we are still rather far from the planet.

Dakora: I understand. ::He smirked.:: Like I said, we aren't looking for hard evidence here. The Da'al haven't asked us to investigate how it happened and with their non-Federation status, that puts it outside our jurisdiction... ::He pointed at the planet.:: But we are sending our people into this mess and if there's another... aspect... to this crisis, it's my duty to try and figure it out.

A moment of silence fell as the two officers focused on the holographic figure of the model. One or two of the bands had disappeared, as the computer deduced they were impossible considering whichever of the multitudes of factors it had available. These early stages would be vital to prune out the most outlandish hypothesis.

Jovenan: The Resolution… Where you on it when they visited the planet last time?

Doctor Adea had been there, or at least in its orbit, as he had told her and the rest of the team. Maybe some of the other senior officers had been there and could tell more about what is ahead of them.

Dakora: No, that was a year or so before I came aboard. ::He thought for a moment.:: I guess it'd just be Commanders MacKenzie, Adea and Yalu left who were part of that mission.

She had expected for more people from those days to still be in the crew, but then again, it had been years and there had many opportunities for transfers, promotions, and retirements. They had also changed ships twice in the meantime. Speaking of which…

Jovenan: I see. How… how about the… last day of the Resolution?

She regretted asking the question after it slipped her lips. It was not an enjoyable topic to discuss. She had asked the same from Doctor Adea once, and it had become awkward. She hoped it wouldn’t be like that now.

Dakora: I was there for that... sort of. ::Beat.:: I transferred to the Res on the day it... ::He laughed once, mirthlessly.:: Let's just say my shuttlecraft arrived to a distress call and a cloud of debris...

Jovenan: Oh. I’m sorry you had to witness that; it must have been awful…

Dakora: It was bad. I helped out with the recovery efforts, but I just felt like... an intruder.

Jovenan: I’m sorry…

Their focus shifted back to the holographic planet. One of the bands was now narrower than others in most places. That indicated the meteor had been one of the many objects in the planet’s rings, although it was impossible to say if it had been in the rings originally or if it originated from somewhere else and had only been captured by the planet’s gravity. However, the object had also made an unexpected turn some days or weeks before the strike, knocking it off the orbit and towards the planet. That could be what they were looking for, although not all estimates supported the hypothesis.

Dakora: What do you think?

Jovenan moved to the display. The holographs were pretty, but the hard data was on the console interface.

Jovenan: Hmm, there are small fragments moving to all directions from the place where our meteor would have turned towards the planet. That could indicate that the meteor collided with another meteoroid or something else. I say ‘something’, but all we know it could have also been someone hitting it or shooting it. There’s just not enough data to say anything meaningful.

Dakora: I agree. We just don't have enough solid information yet. ::He rubbed his chin as he thought.:: But it's something to consider.

She kept watching as the numbers ran on the display. Collision, natural or artificial, could have indeed caused the meteor to plummet to the planet. The Da’al might not have had enough time to intercept it since the turn happened so close to their planet, but there was still something off. Surely a species so advanced, living on a planet that was bombarded by small objects from the rings, would keep track of the possible threats. The strike didn’t happen immediately after the collision in orbit, surely they would have issued a warning and start evacuating people.

Jovenan: I still wonder why they didn’t react…

After a few seconds, Lt. Dakora looked at his wrist.

Dakora: Holy strokes, this took longer than I expected. ::He took a step back.:: I've got to finalize some things with my away team, still. ::Beat.:: Can you schedule the computer to fine-tune the simulation once we've arrived? We'll be planetside, but we can call up to the ship and see if anything has changed.

She had worked as fast as she could, but since they were approaching the planet at high warp, they had had very limited time to prepare for the mission. Not even with the high-quality equipment they had at their disposal could they reach final conclusions in the time they had. Time was the ultimate scare resource.

Jovenan: Yes, sir… I mean, uh, I need to prepare for my team’s mission as well, but I can ask Ensign Kawarda or someone else from the sciences to take over tuning and observing the programme if you wish.

Dakora: I appreciate it. ::He fixed her with a warm smile.:: You're my new favorite Science Officer.

Jovenan: ::blushing at the compliment:: Thank you, sir. You too…

oO Did I just call him my favourite science officer? Oo

The intelligence officer left, and she was left alone in the vast laboratory. The fact that they had not found a conclusive result frustrated her. At least they had found something, potentially. Null results were important but always so disappointing.

She informed Ensign Kawarda of their program and asked him to take a look on it and to report all new findings when they were on the planet’s surface. She did feel somewhat uneasy by the fact that Kawarda would be reading through her speedy code and pick up errors, but she also trusted him to be professional about them. After setting up everything to order, she left the Astrometrics.