Ensign Jovenan – Above my paygrade
Jovenan
((Captain’s Ready Room, Deck 01, USS Artemis))
Jovenan and Lt Dakora walked into the ready room after the Captain’s call to enter. The Captain was smiling when she saw them, but the smile faded soon. Clearly, with sufficient experience, it was possible to tell bringers of bad news and good news apart by looks alone.
MacKenzie: Something tells me I’d better sit down… Please feel free to do the same if you’d like.
They all sat down, and Lt Dakora started the explanation.
Dakora: Captain, We may have a problem, here. ::He gestured to the Edo beside him.:: Jovenan and Ensign Kawarda have some new information on the origins of the meteor that... well, Go ahead, Ensign.
Jovenan: Yes, umm… Sir, when we were still heading to the Meranuge system, Lieutenant Dakora requested I run an analysis on how the meteor could have hit the city so unexpectedly. The program was running when we were on ground, but Ensign Kawarda supervised it and filed a report on the results.
Commander MacKenzie adjusted her position on the chair. Jovenan couldn’t read people’s minds, but it was obvious the Captain knew the results were not going to be pleasant. Jovenan almost wished she could just tell it was nothing after all and flee the situation.
MacKenzie: So how bad is it?
Dakora: It's looking like what happened to Tecra wasn't an accident or natural disaster.
Jovenan: There is a high probability on the meteor course change being… being artificial and deliberate, sir.
Commander MacKenzie nodded. Jovenan tried staying as still as she could on her seat, not wanting to reveal how nervous she was but inadvertently making it more obvious to the senior officers present.
MacKenzie: Artificial and deliberate… ::indicating for the scientist to hand over the PADD:: Walk me through the evidence.
Jovenan gave her PADD to the Captain, showing Kawarda’s report. Taking a few seconds to gather her thoughts for an explanation, she began to think how much easier it would be lecturing in the Astrometrics, showing each individual datapoint as holographic projection.
Jovenan: The sensors recorded the movement and composition of objects and particles on the planet’s orbit, mostly rock and dust, and calculated their estimated their past trajectories and locations. The meteor and all other objects affect one another by gravitational pull and other forces, so we could form an image of all the movement before and after the meteor changed its course. If the meteor had been hit by another meteor, for example, we would be seeing shrapnel moving away from a certain point in space.
She inhaled and exhaled deep to calm down a notch.
Jovenan: Then the probabilities of each scenario were calculated. In the end, the artificial, non-accidental scenarios account for higher probability than the others. Use a tractor or repulsor beam is the likeliest. O-of course, the study can’t tell why it happened or what were their intentions, sir, just that it probably wasn’t meteors colliding or, umm, a ship passing by too close for example.
Jovenan turned to the Intel Chief for analysis on the question she didn’t have answer for.
Dakora: With the previous isolationist status of the Da'al, I'm afraid our Intel sources on the ground were functionally nil, leading up to this. But from what you and I heard from Minister Erbil, there was clearly some bad blood between the various factions... it's not impossible that this was part of some internal struggle.
The Captain kept nodding as she listened to them both and read the report. Jovenan tried to read her face to see if she was convinced or she had preferred to see all the coding and data they had accumulated. Then the Captain raised her eyes and stared straight into Jovenan. She tried not to react.
MacKenzie: I assume that by bringing this to my attention you’re confident in the results?
It was Lt Dakora who nodded in response.
Dakora: I've already asked Jovenan to get with Ensign Kawarda to confirm there were no errors in the process once we're finished here, but the consensus is that would be very unlikely.
Jovenan: W-we can try recalculating the figures. Too much time has passed for us to get any new data, but we can try different methods on the old data in case we get different results.
The Captain looked irritated by the response. Jovenan was afraid she wasn’t satisfied with the ensign’s work. Lt Dakora at least hadn’t expressed any doubts of her and Kawarda’s abilities, but the Captain, with her long career in command and research, might demand nothing less than absolute certainty and perfection. The Captain wasn’t facing them anymore, looking out of the window down onto the planet.
MacKenzie: You’re only looking at half of the puzzle. We have evidence that someone manipulated the meteor. ::Turning around to face them again:: But it’s not like the Da’al are not a technologically advanced race. So why didn’t they detect the meteor and attempt to divert it themselves? Or at the very least warn or evacuate the city?
Jovenan: I – I – I do not know, sir.
Dakora: And who-- or which faction-- stood to gain the most from wiping Tecra off the map?
Jovenan didn’t answer. Her expertise was running out as they turned to hunting the perpetrators. She didn’t know enough about the Da’al, their culture or their enemies to assist in the question.
MacKenzie: Response?
Dakora: No, I don't have any leads yet. I wanted to read you in on this before I made any moves. ::He cocked his head.:: With our relationship with the Da'al being as delicate as it is, I wanted to run it by you before we started asking questions.
Asking questions? They were moving onto planning an investigation. Jovenan felt like she shouldn’t be hearing any of this. Surely this matter was far above her security rating. Her eyes moved from officer to another, waiting to be excused while the adults were talking.
MacKenzie: Response
Dakora: And what if they decline our assistance?
MacKenzie/Dakora: Response
Jovenan flinched as she was asked a question.
Jovenan: Uh, the planet has rings, which usually means that small objects falling to ground is a common occurrence, sir. Either they have a dedicated agency for detecting them, or they view it as a normal feature of weather and have placed the prediction of meteor strikes under meteorologists, for example. Those are the people who should have noticed the course change first.
MacKenzie/Dakora: Response
TAG/TBC
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Ensign Jovenan
Science officer
USS Artemis-A
E239911J11