Lt. JG. Gnai - Putting A Pin In That
Lich
(( Astrometrics - Deck 9, USS Artemis-A ))
Deck 9 was bustling again, not nearly as much as it had been before Frontier Day, but bustling again with life nonetheless. In its short time on the ship, Gnai hadn’t actually had the chance to do as much science here as it had wanted, not with being snapped across time and space and then the chaos of Frontier Day… But in the little time it had found between missions, it had come to feel comfortable with the flow of day-to-day work in the science center. Everywhere it turned, there were more experiments or consoles running models and simulations – it was almost like being back at the Academy’s own science labs. No matter how much things changed, some things always seemed to stay the same.
Today, though, Gnai wasn’t running tests on any of the specimens that they had stored away in the main science labs, or taking time to read up on the latest publications of the Starfleet Journal of Arts and Sciences with colleagues in the offices. Instead, it was sequestered away in its very favorite part of the entire deck: Astrometrics.
The overhead lights in the lab were dimmed today, but the room was still awash in brilliant blues and greens and purples. Various holoemitters subtly mounted to the walls and ceiling of the lab projected the entirety of the Celendi Nebula that the Artemis was flying through, and Gnai strolled amongst the filaments of gas with a PADD in hand. Across the lab, a display stretched to cover an entire wall, updating with notes from the ship’s sensors as the data came in.
It had been directed to investigate the currently heightened activity in the nebula, through the data already gathered from Deep Space 224’s long-range sensors as well as any new data coming in from Artemis’ systems. The heightened radiation of the nebula was interesting – there were a multitude of reasons why a nebula like this might have suddenly become more active, each one more exotic than the last. From what it had read about the nebula, and from what the initial data were showing… Gnai would have bet on metreon gas interactions with some other volatile material. Like protomatter. Or maybe charged methogenic dust particles. But it was still missing a reason for the activation. What had triggered it?
The holographic display of the nebula showed the underlying structure of it all, updating with what the ship was reading. It was supposed to help Gnai better visualize how the excitement of particles flowed across the nebula, highlighting anomalously high regions of activity (coinciding with the already known pockets of metreon gas – a point to that theory), but the new data coming in were increasingly fuzzy. Gnai stopped its pacing through the nebula, tapping at its PADD as it pondered a particularly egregious new set of scans as they filled in overtop of the station’s long-range data. What was going on with the ship…?
As it circled around the new data, trying to see if there was anything useful to be gleaned from it, its combadge chirped to life. Gnai tapped the communicator attached to its suit’s chassis, hoping to hear some more clarification as to why the quality of their scientific data was dropping. Maybe it was the radiation – but it couldn’t be interfering that much in these wavelengths… could it?
Jovenan: =/\= Jovenan to Lieutenant Gnai. =/\=
Perfect. Lt. Cmdr. Jovenan was taking a shift on the bridge, she’d have a far better idea of what was going on with the ship right now.
Gnai: =/\= Lieutenant Gnai here, sir. What’s going on with the scanners? =/\=
Jovenan: =/\= We’re facing heavy sensor disturbance from the radiation. Could you grab someone from the engineering or ops and head to the sensor pod and see if you could clear some of it out? =/\=
Could it… grab someone? And head to the sensor pod? Leaving all of this behind? The captain – fleet captain now – had berated it for thinking her wrong to pin a hollow pip on its chassis. But here was part of why it had been uneasy about getting a promotion. Ensigns were left alone to do science. Lieutenant Junior Grade were expected to take charge and go lead a team to fiddle with the sensor array. What would be next, mountains of paperwork instead of running simulations?
But it wasn’t going to express any of that, not to its boss. Nor her boss (the fleet captain, of course), who was probably there, listening in. Captain MacKenzie wouldn’t appreciate any more of its fussing over rank, and it didn’t want to disappoint her further. It would put all that aside and go to the sensor pod, and hopefully when that was all said and done, it could get back to work here in Astrometrics.
Gnai: =/\= Aye sir. What do you need from sensors? ::pause:: Should this find someone else to take over in Astrometrics…? =/\=
Jovenan: =/\= We’re looking for a missing ship, so focus on long and mid-range scanners, anything that could detect hull components, warp trails or something similar. ::pause:: The scientific inquiry needs to be postponed for another day. =/\=
Oh well. That was disappointing.
Gnai: =/\= Aye, sir. This will get to the sensor pod as quickly as possible. =/\=
The call ended, and Gnai was left once again in the middle of the holographic Celendi Nebula, with a daunting task in front of it. Figuring out a team. Engineering was easy enough, it could just call on Lt. Cmdr. Salkath. But there had been shake-ups within the Operations department since Frontier Day, and it wasn’t certain who would fit the bill – and it couldn’t go up there without Ops personnel, as the operations of sensors were their realm and they’d know far better than it would about how to deal with any anomalies. That’s why they were called Operations, of course.
With a quick command, Gnai killed the holoprojection of the nebula and brought the lights back up to normal. It dropped the PADD it had been recording its observations on onto a console… then thought better of it and picked it up again. Lt. Cmdr. Jovenan had said that they were dropping the scientific objective, but more data was always appreciated. And… if it all got sorted out quickly… maybe it could get back to the science after all.
It grabbed its tricorder back from where it had left it on another console, stowing it within the suit’s chassis (another small innovation added by Lt. Cmdr. Salkath when he had helped rebuild its tank), and tapped the combadge on its suit. Time to call and see how its friend (if Vulcans could be considered to have friends, after all – and if he would agree to be called a friend, as they had never discussed it) was faring in Engineering. Perhaps Lt. Cmdr. Salkath would be available, or he could send another from the department to assist it.
Gnai: =/\= Lieutenant Gnai to Commander Salkath. =/\=
Salkath: =/\= Response =/\=
Gnai: =/\= Commander, would you be available to meet this in the sensor pod? The Artemis is facing heavy radiation disturbance and the scanners need to be cleared. Commander Jovenan suggested I reach out to the engineering department for help… =/\=
It hoped that the request wasn’t out of line. There was no way it would be ordering him to join it at the sensor pod, but it really did need an engineer. Ideally someone as experienced as Lt. Cmdr. Salkath, but again. It couldn’t order him to come.
Salkath: =/\= Response =/\=
Gnai: =/\= Good. Thank you, Commander. =/\=
Salkath: =/\= Response? =/\=
And that was the engineer settled. Lt. Cmdr. Jovenan had told it to pick one or the other, but it would certainly not be a bad idea to grab one of each. The more the merrier, as the humans put it. Now to find the operations officer…
(( Science Center Corridor - Deck 9, USS Artemis-A ))
With the work in Astrometrics finishing, Gnai walked through the corridors of the Science Center, tapping on its PADD. That had to be the easiest way to figure out who to pull for this little excursion to the sensor pod. Crew roster… Active personnel… Operations division…
There, a new ensign. One Olliver Bergmen, assigned to the Artemis on 240109.18. He’d do. Gnai tapped its combadge again as it walked, calling this ensign. This ensign. It outranked him. That felt weird.
Gnai: =/\= Lieutenant Gnai to Ensign Bergmen. =/\=
Bergmen: =/\= Response =/\=
Right, it was a lieutenant (junior grade, but still lieutenant nonetheless). It could order him – was this some test from the captain? To see if it would be able to do that, to live up to the rank that she had given it? As uncomfortable as it was with the new rank and with ordering around ensigns… it had to get over itself, like she had said.
Gnai: =/\= Mister… Mister Bergmen, can you please report to the sensor pod? =/\=
Hopefully he couldn’t tell over the comms how uncomfortable Gnai’s synthetic voice sounded. It was a miracle (not that it believed in those), honestly, how sometimes the mostly monotonous speakers could make it sound so nervous. At least it had arrived at the turbolift, which it called as they talked.
Bergmen: =/\= Response =/\=
In its haste to get the order out, it had indeed forgotten to tell him why his presence was so needed atop the ship. It was only sensible for him to be curious, if Gnai was in his position, it would have wanted to know what was going on as well.
Gnai: =/\= Oh, right. There is a missing ship, and the sensors have gone awry. This needs an operations officer to assist in recalibrations. ::pause:: Thank you, ensign. =/\=
Bergmen: =/\= Response? =/\=
As the call ended, the turbolift that Gnai had called arrived – auspicious timing indeed. With a quick order to take it to the sensor pod, Gnai let itself be whisked away. It had never been to the sensor pod in all its time on the Artemis. Despite its disappointment in having to put away the work it was doing in Astrometrics, it was excited to get to see a new part of the ship all the same.
(( Sensor Pod - USS Artemis-A ))
Obviously, it was the first to arrive. It had the advantage of a head-start, even if it had started from Deck 9. As it stepped off of the turbolift into the sensor pod, Gnai was struck by how much it reminded it of the science labs, all full of terminals and screens and blinking lights. Except for the small detail that it was currently unmanned – very different from the bustling where it worked. Even when it was working alone in Astrometrics, as it liked to do from time to time, others would pop their heads in every so often to chat or grab something. Up here, with just the very distant hum of the warp core, it felt like it was floating out in space, an effect much amplified by the dim lights. If it could squint, it would have guessed that the various blinking lights could have been mistaken for stars.
A deep rumble joined the warp core as the turbolift departed. Moments later, it felt another rumble start, nearing the sensor pod. Hopefully that was the others coming to join it and not some horrible Changeling or Borg. Those days were behind them, right? But here it was, alone. At the top of the ship. With no one else there to help it, and sensors crippled. That had been how everything in the Badlands had kicked off, hadn’t it? Was it really radiation that had knocked the sensors into disarray…?
As the turbolift doors opened, Gnai found itself waiting for a phaser blast, only to instead be greeted by two of its colleagues. It tried to put its fears aside, as it welcomed them into the sensor pod with it.
Gnai: Thank you for coming. ::pointing to the various consoles:: These have been impacted by the radiation in the Celendi Nebula. Commander Jovenan has ordered the recalibration of the long and mid-range sensors. ::pause:: There’s a missing ship that needs to be found.
It wasn’t sure how much the news had been spread amongst the crew, so it tried to cover everything that was relevant as it spoke slightly too quickly. Was that just its nerves making it think the suit was going too fast, or was there something wrong with the processor that dealt with its speech…?
Salkath?/Bergmen: Response
Tags/TBC :)
((OOC: Yes, I know reading data as a plural is weird, but I’ve had that hammered into my head from professors, so Gnai is going to be the same.))
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