Ensign Qurgh'Loq Yinn:
Mike Vago
(( Lower Astrometrics Lab, Deck 11, Octavia E Butler))
When they were on duty, Loq tried to keep their Bolian body in the science lab and their Klingon body in the diplomatic corps, mostly because those were the faces their colleagues were used to seeing. But their physical therapy schedule was rigorous, and it was important to them that both bodies could swim, and both bodies could fight. So their Bolian half was in their quarters practicing with a bat'leth, and their Klingon half was reporting for duty in the science lab.
They were getting the hang of having two conversations at once — it turns out having two brains working in tandem lets you process a lot of information. But in this instance they were glad they didn't have to. Bat'leth practice was meditative, so they'd better be able to focus on the mission. They closed Yinn's eyes to better focus on their new First Officer.
Promontory: Right. (clapping his hands together) We’ve got our work cut out for us. Hardly anything is known about the Omicron Victor IV system and the last reports from the Unity Dow haven’t added much. Commander (nodding at Peri), what do we know?
Katsim: response
Nilsen: Like is there anything in the databases about this system?
Yinn: Neither we nor the UDP have explored the system, and obviously we do not have much info from the Dominion. What we know is mostly astrometric data and things like chemical composition of the planets. There doesn't seem to be an M class candidate in the system, which may explain why it hasn't been visited before now.
Promontory: It’ll have to be enough to go with for now, Ensign Yinn, is there anything from cross-comparative analyses that could give us an insight? (beat) Mr. Nilsen, if you’d assist.
He nodded and looked to Yinn for the next step.
Nilsen: Of course sir.
Yinn: It's a curious system in some ways. Omicron Victor is a low mass star that's just at the start of a transformation to red giant. But the planets are very far-flung for a small star. There's also a small nebula in the system. My theory is that it was a binary star system, and one of the stars broke down into a planetary nebula well before the other.
Loq preferred to be concise and not overexplain, but they weren't sure of Commander Promontory's science background and knew from experience that Lt. Nilsen was no scientist.
Yinn: I should mention that the human name for a "planetary nebula" is a misnomer. It's a star that loses cohesion after the red giant stage. But it's unheard of for one planet to be so far ahead in its development. Binary stars are formed together, so they tend to be the same age. It's unlikely any of this has a connection to the Unity Dow, but it's fascinating from a scientific perspective.
Katsim: Response
Promontory: Well, whoever came up with the name lacked imagination. “Omicron Victor IV?” It sounds generic and unremarkable.
He seemed to look at the name on the display
Promontory: Maybe we could call it Oh-Vee-I-Vee (OV-IV).
Loq had never understood, in either past life, humans' fixation on abbreviating everything.
Nilsen:::Looking up from the display:: At least that’s a more interesting name then Gault. Like, our star is called Gault, our system is the Gault system, the planet is called Gault, there’s even a city called Gault, on Gault. I get there’s keeping it simple, but ::slight laugh:: yeah. We ain’t a smart lot.
Yinn: Could we return to the mission at hand?
In some ways, Loq was still wrestling with conflicting emotions and opinions their two selves had had before merging. But their annoyance with humans' propensity towards distracting themselves when there was work to be done had merely intensified. It was a wonder that these scatterbrained creatures were the ones who had largely built the Federation.
Katsim: Response
Nilsen: Yinn, Peri, you know those telescopes the federation has, the long long long range one, the ones that look into like deep space and all those other erm…
He tapped his leg a couple of times, a human gesture Loq was unfamiliar with but suggested nervousness.
Nilsen:…radio, heatwave things. can we see if any of them have got data on…:he considered his next words:: Oh-Vee-I-Vee?
Loq's annoyance softened a bit. The human was out of his depth and trying his best. They had felt the same way on Yinn's first away mission.
Yinn: Deep Space 14 has better pan-spectrum telescopy than the Butler, and of course they've already scanned the system. I can pull up the data we have so far.
Promontory/Katsim: Response
Nilsen: Tell ya what Yinn, while you do that, I'm going to maybe bark up the wrong tree and see if any other ship has even gone near Oh-Vee-I-Vee and if their sensors had picked anything up.
Promontory/Katsim: Response
Nilsen tapped his PADD several times, until he found an image to bring up on the display and focused on it as he spoke.
Nilsen: Yeah, even at the longest range, there still might be something ::beat:: erm what do you make of those clouds on the edge of the system?
Loq nearly dropped their bat'leth. They had been so focused on the irregular binary pair that they barely took notice of the system's Oort cloud. Yet it was as odd as anything else in the system.
(ooc: I'm leaving the rest of you an opening to point out odd things about this system, but if no one else has anything, I can keep running with the ball.)
Promontory/Katsim: Response
Yinn: We might make a scientist out of you yet, Lhandon!
And of course, the scientist in Loq wanted more information.
Yinn (to Promontory): Sir, how much do we know about the Unity Dow's mission? Both in the short-term before the ship disappeared, and in the long term. If they were a science vessel, their interest in the system would be obvious. If they weren't, then we have to ascertain what brought them to Omicron Victor.
Promontory/Nilsen/Katsim: Response
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Tags/TBC
Ensign Qurgh'Loq Yinn (they/them)
Science Officer/Federation Diplomatic Corps
USS Octavia E Butler
O240011Y12