Lt. JG Natasha Cole - The Boundary
Natasha Schell
((USS Artemis-A, deck 11, Hazardous Materials Lab))
A small alert flashed on Roy’s console, briefly washing his face in crimson light.
Bancroft: Internal power is reaching critical depletion. Whatever it’s holding together, hiding, or remembering, it’s running out of time. Is the backup supply ready?
Cole: Backup first. Then the next seal. Let's not let the mysterious box make the decisions.
Breys: I think I see a spot we can pipe it in right… here. The conduits are made for Romulan tech but I think you can make it fit.
Tarsan: I can make it fit. Anyone got a hammer? ::holding up his hand:: Joking, joking!
Silveira: Let’s keep both hammer and jokes aside. Just remember, no explosions.
Natasha’s mouth twitched faintly. Given the day they’d been having, “no explosions” felt less like a precaution and more like a plea.
Bancroft: Response
A faint change in pitch came from somewhere inside the box, soft enough to miss if you were listening only for the loud kind of dangers.
Cole: Wait. Something in there just shifted.
Her head angled toward the casing and she lifted one hand in a small, immediate signal for stillness, eyes narrowing on the seam nearest the sound.
Tarsan: When you say… shifted?
Silveira: Care to elaborate Lieutenant?
Cole: ::not moving from her listening position:: It sounded like there was a change in pitch from within the box.
Bancroft: Response
Cole: Grandpa Dorian used to say the worst machines were the polite ones. The ones that kept working right up until they decided not to. This feels like one of those.
She glanced once around the table, making sure everyone had actually stopped moving before she looked back to the box. She leaned in as close as she could without touching the force field.
Breys: ::quietly:: What is she doing?
Tarsan: ::shrugs:: I don’t know… but we haven’t got long until the power gives out.
Bancroft: Response
Breys: May I ask what you are doing, sir?
Cole: Trying to decide if this thing is an imminent threat or not.
Nat noticed that Ensign Breys quietly went back to work on her PADD, likely to not disturb Nat as she was deep in thought.
Breys: You don’t have to do that alone. I think I can help from here. I can give you a higher resolution image of what you’re working with as the scanning frequencies slide into place.
Cole: I’ll take the help. Right now I’m working with one suspicious noise and a bad feeling.
Bancroft: Response
Breys: This inner layer is the Multi-Adaptive shielding the tricorders found, it’s like cloak lite for sensors. Once Lieutenant Cole finishes with her inspection, I'm going to try an antiproton scan.
The force field threw a soft harmonic across the casing and the sound inside answered it, not loudly, but enough to make Natasha straighten. It was concerning for sure, but they needed answers.
Breys: With permission of course, sir.
Tarsan: Sounds good to me - not that you need my permission ::grinning wryly::
Silveira: Your call Lieutenant.
Cole: ::steps back:: Alright. Let’s see what it’s hiding.
Bancroft: Response
Breys looked like someone still getting used to the sound of her own authority, but the work itself was solid. Natasha respected that more than swagger.
Breys: Activating antiproton scan now, we should be getting a clear outline of internal components soon, no details though.
Tarsan: ::breathing a sigh of relief:: Power supply stable again - don’t think it’ll last for more than an hour or two but it gives us some breathing room.
Silveira: That will be enough time. We have to crack this as soon as possible.
Cole: Then we use the time we’ve got. Does anyone have any ideas?
Bancroft: Response
Natasha stared at the outline for a second longer than she meant to. It did not read like standard hardware. Not Federation, not Da’al, not Romulan, at least not in any way she knew. It looked less like a device and more like an answer to a question that should have stayed theoretical.
Breys: I’m no Engineer, but I’ve never seen anything like this. Do any of you recognize what we’re looking at? Are we even sure it's technology?
Tarsan: I really really hope that’s not what it looks like… ::checking the scanner, confirming some readings::
Silveira: I never seen anything like that.
Cole: I don’t know what it is yet. I do know someone thought it was important enough to hide behind shielding and power management.
Bancroft: Response
Breys: Any ideas on how to get a clearer picture on what this thing is before we open the box completely? Maybe a probe?
Tarsan: I don’t think we need to - I know what it is. I’m picking up neutrinos. I am… very sure that’s a repurposed spatial trajector.
Silveira: A what?
Cole: Gavrin, I need the version that starts with what it does, not what it’s called.
Bancroft/Breys: Response
Tarsan: So uh, remember how I thought there might be an intelligence in there? You’d need somewhere to store the neural matrix. I think rather than using it as a transporter, they’ve used it to fold space in on itself to make a sort of… dimensional pocket.
Natasha tilted her head as she was processing what Gavrin was saying.
Silveira: How could that happen in such a small container? And with what power?
Cole: I don’t know how, but I’m starting to think “because they shouldn’t have” is part of the answer.
Bancroft/Breys: Response
Tarsan gestured to all the readings
Tarsan: I don’t know. It’s possible the pocket will crumple in on itself and destroy the entire thing. Or uh.. It might turn itself inside out and everything inside the pocket would try and… inhabit the same space as everything around it.
Silveira: That’s… Confusing and it sounds bad…
Cole: So best case, it collapses and we lose the contents. Worst case, reality gets… ::moving her hands together into a single tight ball::
Bancroft/Breys: Response
Tarsan: Yeah uh, the metaphor kinda falls apart there.
Silveira: Or on itself from what you said Ensign.
Cole: ::shrugs:: That’s the trouble with metaphors.
Bancroft/Breys: Response
Vitor closed his eyes, took a deep breath and rubbed his neck before he spoke again.
Silveira: Let’s see if you are right, Ensign Tarsan. ::He looked at the others:: Anyone have any other thoughts?
Cole: We need to know whether opening the box reveals the contents or collapses the conditions keeping them where they are.
If Gavrin was right, then the box wasn’t carrying cargo. It was carrying conditions. That implied the contents were either unstable, intelligent, or both. Natasha did not care for any of those options.
Bancroft/Breys/Tarsan: Response
Vitor nodded as he listened to them.
Silveira: OK we can also try that. Just remember, no boom on the box
Cole: If that pocket is real, then this isn’t a box anymore. It’s a boundary.
Bancroft/Breys/Tarsan/Silveira: Response
The seam separated by a fraction with a soft metallic click. The sound inside the box changed with it, not louder, but sharper, as if something enclosed had suddenly become more aware of the room around it.
Cole: Easy. That sound changed the moment the seal moved. Nobody rushes the next step.
Bancroft/Breys/Tarsan/Silveira: Response
The interior resolved in fragments, a compact core suspended inside the folded space, veined with luminous pathways that flickered in sequences too deliberate to dismiss as random power loss. Natasha had seen enough data centers and enough tactical systems to know when something was processing.
Cole: So the good news is, it’s interesting. The bad news is, it might be thinking.
Bancroft/Breys/Tarsan/Silveira: Response
Tags/TBC
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Lt. JG Natasha Cole
Security Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240205NC4