Ensign Gavrin Tarsan - Escher Rang And He Wants His Work Back
Sean Sabbage
((USS Artemis-A, deck 11, Hazardous Materials Lab))
Bancroft: Huh. Second time today my entire existence has been threatened by advanced engineering. ::glancing between Cole and Tarsan, the faintest smile under his mustache:: And I can’t help noticing that the two of you are present in both incidents. ::kindly:: D’tin, in the future you might consider requesting a transfer if you’re ever assigned to a team with the three of us together.
Breys: I’ll ::she manages to stifle a laugh:: I’ll keep that in mind.
Gavrin was not unaware of the fact that one of the last times he was in a lab he accidentally blew it up, and was attempting not to do the same thing this time.
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.
The Doc looked at Cole.
Bancroft: ::leaning forward:: You, of all people, have trouble with metaphors? I may need to sit down.
Breys: If Ensign Tarsan is right, then the folding of space is very delicate. Spatial Trajectors may have solved the problem, but usually the effort ends in at least one form of matter passing through the folded space being irradiated. If it opens, and they didn’t perfect the tech, that could be a problem for us.
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.
Bancroft: Unless something’s changed with our sensor tech in the past ::checks chrono:: few seconds, it sounds like the only way we’re going to learn what’s inside is to actually open it. D’tin? Gavrin?
Breys: If we’re going to open it, and I still don’t encourage it, then we need to make sure to do it from a safe distance. Ideally into a vacuum.
Gavrin checked his readouts again, carefully scanning through it before he nodded slowly.
Tarsan: I think it should be fine to open. We’ve stabilised it as best as we can at this point.
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: The HML’s safety protocols are still active, Commander. I’m… almost entirely sure we’ll be fine.
Breys: “Almost entirely sure” is far from the worst odds Starfleet deals with at least.
Tarsan: Almost entirely sure is… ::remembering the order for no jokes:: .. good enough for me.
As the seal released, there was a little change in the sound coming from the box and Gavrin froze, lifting his hands from the console in case any touch set it off.
Cole: Easy. That sound changed the moment the seal moved. Nobody rushes the next step.
Bancroft: I’m picking up what looks like trace antineutrino residue. Can anyone confirm?
Breys: I’m seeing something anti-matter, but it could be traces of the antiproton scan. ::she looks closer at her console:: That’s interesting though, the residue seems to be filling the damage in the kelbonite.
Tarsan: It’s self-healing as well?
As they worked, the seal slowly started to unlatch, revealing a tantalising glimpse of the folded space within the box. Gavrin leaned over to try and peer deeper into the box, his mind not quite able to make sense of what he was seeing.
Cole: So the good news is, it’s interesting. The bad news is, it might be thinking.
Bancroft: Or trying to talk… that change in pitch we heard? I think it was an automated distress signal. I’m seeing what look like communication signals. Outbound.
Gavrin paled at Bancroft’s discovery. That was not good - but who was it trying to communicate with?
Silveira: Shut it down.
Breys: We can’t just yank out the power supply, right? ::she looks to Tarsan:: Tell me what to do and I’ll help.
Tarsan: Considering everything else right now, I’m not sure I’d want to just pull the power. If that pocket collapses the wrong way it could uh… well, we’ve been over it. Let’s not linger further.
Cole: Response
Doc Rogers shook his head.
Bancroft: Respectfully, don’t shut down the signal – let’s just make sure it doesn’t get wherever it’s trying to go. ::looking up reflexively:: Computer, erect a level-ten subspace damping field around the Hazardous Materials Lab. Isolate the lab from all internal and external communications relays. No outbound subspace, EM, tachyon, or carrier-wave emissions without command authorization.
Computer: Acknowledged. Level-ten subspace damping field established. Hazardous Materials Lab isolated from communications relays. Outbound emissions restricted.
Silveira: Okay, fast thinking Doc… Now what?
Breys: It seems like Bancroft was right, the residue in the cracks is definitely antineutrinos, and it can’t all be residual from the scan.
Tarsan: Maybe we can try and decrypt the signals, figure out what it’s trying to say, and to who?
Cole: Response
Bancroft: So, whatever we’ve got in here has antineutrino residue and is trying to phone a friend. Possibly the same system, possibly two different but interconnected systems. Anyone have any theories?
Silveira: Yeah… Romulans.
Gavrin wasn’t sure anymore - they’d had so many back-and-forths, technologies on top of technologies, all trying to confuse the issue. Could they tell anymore? He stayed quiet.
Breys: The singularity core would lend to that theory, I’m just not sure why they’d make something like this. The Da’al could be using tech from multiple sources.
Cole: Response
Vitor shrugged.
Silveira: It’s a gut feeling more than anything. This feels like something that the Romulans would come up with. If we could get some evidence on it… ::Vitor raised his hand:: I am not saying I am right, if any of you have any other thoughts or ideas, please state them…
But I really feel it's Romulans…
Tarsan was out of ideas as well. He didn’t think “all or none of the above” would be a helpful theory at this point.
Cole/Bancroft: Response
Silveira: Can we translate that? Make it discernible or have a way to talk back? Maybe that way we get to see logs or anything that gives us concrete evidence.
I mean… What can explain the antineutrinos and that space pocket thing Ensign Tarsan explained? I… ::from the back of his mind a thought formed:: Wait… Isn’t that used by someone for transportation?
Breys: I’m reading starfleet’s data on spatial trajectors, and it just supports Tarsan’s theory. They definitely are generated by the tech. It says here the particles are incredibly damaging to federation technology as well.
Breys: It looks like folded space transporters in general emit antineutrinos, and the Romulans have been using those for at least thirty years.
Gavrin shot Breys a relieved and grateful smile that she’d been able to dig up the information so fast. He’d forgotten the general operation of them, so to have the back-up was deeply gratifying.
Cole/Bancroft: Response
Silveira: Oh really?
Breys: The density of antineutrinos we found earlier could imply that both technologies are at play here.
Tarsan: That’d make sense from the readings.
Cole/Bancroft: Response
Gavrin was too absorbed in the discussion to notice what Breys had, though her interjection brought him back down to the deck with a bump
Breys: The shielding is decaying too quickly, we either need to open this thing or decode the signal.
Tarsan: Let’s see if we can get the signal first?
Silveira/Cole/Bancroft: Response
Breys: I’m attempting to decode the signal now, something about the data feels familiar.
While Breys worked on the signal, Gavrin spent the time in parallel trying to figure out how to open the last part of the seal to fully open the box.
Silveira/Cole/Bancroft: Response
Breys: The box is trying to transport something out of it, presumably with a folded space transporter. I can’t tell what the pattern is for though.
She sent the data from her console to the others.
Tarsan: Do you think it’s trying to escape?
Silveira/Cole/Bancroft: Response
Breys: I think the only way we’re going to find out for sure with the time we have left is opening the box.
Tarsan: Let’s do it, I think I have the last of the sequence
Silveira/Cole/Bancroft/Breys: Response
Gavrin nodded before activating the last part of the sequence. The box finally finally gave up its grip on the lid, and it finally, at last, swung open.
And that’s when everything exploded. Just kidding.
The core that they’d been able to glimpse now lay before them, unshielded and unguarded (except by the HML’s own forcefields). It glinted in the light, its neural pathways uncanny and mind-breaking as they zoomed around the inside of their own MC Escher painting. Up was down. Down was inside out. And left? Left had gone back in time and beaten up Euclid in a dark alleyway.
The core was blinking in a regular pattern, cycling through various colours as if it was trying to communicate.
Tarsan: I’ve… never seen anything like it. Everytime I try and look directly at it it’s like my mind tries to comprehend the space and just goes… nope.
Silveira/Cole/Bancroft/Breys: Response
The blinking was slowing, the power readings starting to show a faster drain now.
Tarsan: I don’t think our power can keep it going for much longer… we can’t just let it die! Any luck on that signal?
Silveira/Cole/Bancroft/Breys: Response