LCDR Nolen Hobart — Rookie Mistake
Nolen Hobart
((Conference Room, Deck 1, USS Khitomer, at warp))
Murmurs filled the room as the assignments were taken in and mulled over. But Lt. Commander Hobart wasn't done. He keyed in a few commands to the table, and the display of the Khitomer fizzled out of existence, replaced by an amorphous haze, with gleaming and twinkling lights scattered throughout.
Hobart: And now the catch. Ensign Cain? This is our final destination: the Lagoon Nebula. It's a stellar nursery, filled with enough different gases, dusts, and radiations to make long range communications and scans impossible. The enemy won't be able to observe, but neither will Starfleet. Which is just as well, since we've been under radio silence since we left Sector 001. Official word in the Fleet is we're being reassigned, and the Renown and Lowell are taking our place. We're on our own for this. Questions? Concerns? Floor's open.
Nolen didn’t know it but he’d just opened a can of worms. It was, he would come to hope, the last time he’d ever do that. Starfleet Officers were very smart, usually. One could be forgiven for describing them as “the best of the best,” with the occasional outlier also being described as “the weirdest of the weird.” But part of what made Starfleet Officers so smart, so good at their jobs, was their creativity. And that creativity, given as open an invitation as he’d just made, could become a liability. Things started off well enough.
Dewitt: I’ll urge every team to keep in mind the radiation and particles coming up in a stellar nursery… ::pause, looking at Commander T’Dara:: Do we expect any interaction between the matter and Sencha Waves inside that nebula?
T’Dara: Yes.
In the moment, the answer surprised Nolen, and he looked to Lt. Commander T’Dara with some amount of concern. He would, in time, come to appreciate Vulcan bluntness as a counterweight
T’Dara: Models have indicated no interaction we can predict- but Sencha waves have not been tested in this environment, with its abundantly mutual interactions. I give no suggestion as to what we will see; rest assured, whatever we witness, I will be swift in my response.
That was fair enough, if a bit vague. And it appeared as if it set the crew on edge even more, though with the inhibitor Talia gave him still numbing his paracortex, he couldn’t be sure. He found reading faces without the use of his empathic abilities to be exceedingly difficult.
El’Heem: Have we gotten any reconnaissance on Lattice-Alliance movements? What’s the likelihood here for engagement?
In the back of Nolen’s mind, a little warning klaxxon blared, though he wasn’t entirely sure why.
Hobart: There’s no—
Cain: So, let’s say everything works as advertised—our shiny new systems counteract the Sencha waves, and we come out of this in one piece. What’s the next move? The Lattice Alliance isn’t just going to sit back and let us run tests without noticing. Do we have an exit strategy if they show up early, or are we planning to fight our way out?
R. Matthews: Space is pretty big. They can’t monitor everywhere, sounds like they couldn’t monitor the Lagoon Nebula if they tried. Though, if they don’t have eyes on it. We should assume someone might patrol the area at least.
As some in the room nodded along, Lieutenant Commanders T’Dara and Hobart shook theirs. Space was, in fact, very big. Mind-bogglingly so. And Federation space was a vast chunk of it. Their destination was so far behind enemy lines that the Nolen considered an incursion that deep into Federation space a sign of far bigger problems than that the Lattice Alliance would see their experiments, or take on their ne ship.
A Dewitt: It seems to be a big risk to take an experimental weapon and test it in an area that at the very least will be patrolled and/or vulnerable to attack.
Michaels: If they do not detect us entering the nebula and can not detect us once we are in the nebula, then it is improbable that they will present us with any difficulties. Unless they are already there.
R. Matthews: Again, space is big, we just make sure no one is waiting for us there and then monitor short range scanners to avoid any surprises.
The conversation continued and the scope of his error began to dawn on Hobart. His dark eyes fixed on a point on the wall by the entryway to the conference room, and he took refuge in the understanding that this was just a moment in time, that it would pass. The meeting couldn’t last forever, and when the officers were done being creative in their concerns, they’d dutifully carry out their instructions. He knew the crew that well.
Semara: Could always daisy-chain a coupl'a probes as range extenders for early warnin', too.
But T’Dara didn’t.
T’Dara: Any communication probe or early warning system launched is a greater liability to our mission than an asset. Our certainty is based on conclusive evidence, but our mission profile is carefully balanced on the presence of two craft in the nebula- the Khitomer, and the Sencha Probe. Anything further cannot be tolerated.
She glanced to Nolen, and he reciprocated with a curt nod.
T’Dara: Sir.
R. Matthews: :: Pinning points on his chart with a flick of his finger :: I’m sending an updated map to navigation Ensign Cain. Pin 1 and Pin 2 located at 9’ and 1’ north of the star cluster. We could aim for there to do our testing if the commander okays it.
Cain: Response
His eyebrows tilted and his expression softened. They were back to discussing how to do the mission, rather than whether, and that was a hopeful sign to Hobart.
Hobart: Come up with a few different coordinate pairs; we’ll want to try multiple locations for iterative tests.
Cain: Response
R. Matthews: And then if we need to beat a hasty retreat, I’ve circled an additional dark nebula on the map. We could use that for cover if needed, or check out the dark lane that split the luminous nebula from a north to south axis. That’s a dust lane according to our records. We should be able to hide in there. The hig column density would obscure optical wavelengths.
Hobart: I don’t think that’ll be necessary, Ensign, but if you have an abundance of free time…
Cain: Response
R. Matthews: :: Looking up from the tricorder :: I just want to cover possible line of sight issues. Yes we have sensors and communications scrambled. But anyone can use a telescope.
T’Dara: Ensign… Matthews? A telescope viewed from directly outside the nebula would see light that had been emitted some sixty years previously. There is a not-insignificant chance that every person in this room will be dead before the light containing our presence escapes the confines of the phenomenon, and we will be various colors of mulch by the time said light reaches a stellar body, or even a sufficiently intrigued starship that knows where to look. Galileo weeps, Mr. Matthews.
He didn’t need his empathic abilities to see where this was going, as Ensign Matthew’s eyes locked on the Vulcan visitor.
R. Matthews: Well, as long as I didn’t hurt Hans Lipperhey’s feelings. Since he was the person who submitted the patent in 1608 for a refracting telescope. The actual inventor is unknown, Galileo built his own version in 1609 after word of the invention spread to Europe from the Netherlands. Unless we’re just picking random people who've improved on the invention? I would have gone with Isaac Newton, since almost all major telescopes used on earth for astronomy research are reflecting telescopes.
Nolen looked around. Was this really happening? He subtly pinched the back of his hand to ensure this wasn’t a nightmare. The prick of pain in his skin confirmed that he was awake. Or at least that’s what he understood about dreams. He couldn’t remember ever feeling pain in his dreams, but then, maybe that was just a function of waking up? And speaking of waking up, maybe he should be drinking more coffee. No, on second thought, he didn’t want to be fully alert for this conversation of long-dead Terran tinkerers. Less coffee, that was the trick.
R. Matthews: May have misspoke, though, and the proper word would be periscope for a ship like this. But eh, if we’re ever in a jam and can’t use scanners to see what’s outside the ship. I could see whipping up a telescope and pointing it out a window to take a gander working pretty well to compensate. So let’s assume anyone monitoring this area of space have their ways. And compensate for that.
A. Dewitt: And what if we are discovered? What’s the contingency plan for that?
Momentary relief at the conversation’s turn away from historical trivia was quickly replaced with minor despair, as the conversation once again turned to the statistical (un)likelihood of a Lattice Alliance incursion into the heart of Federation space to discover and attack an experiment that was a close to “off the books” as on the books experiments got.
R. Matthews: I’ll ask Ensign Graves to start mapping the area for safe zones we can fly through to try and lose anyone that tails us. But I think we have some good places to hide if we can spot them first.
T’Dara: Discovery is unlikely.
C. Matthews: I mean, I’ll love to be wrong, but will the nebula cause problems with our shields too? Adding that to being unable to scan and communicate whilst inside the nebula just… gives me a red alert… ::taps the back of his head:: …right here.
A Dewitt: It’s a valid question. We’ll be vulnerable and with an experimental weapon that’s ripe for the picking.
A murmur rumbled about the room and Nolen perked up. This was his opportunity. This was his chance to clear up their concerns once and for all. He could put their fears to bed, and—
Michaels: It is apparent that these technologies have been tested extensively in laboratories. It is also probable that prototypes have been tested on spacecraft as well. Have there been tests on starship-scale craft, perhaps using older, decommissioned ships? Were any of the tests conducted in environments similar to the Lagoon Nebula?
Or not. They could just move on and pretend they hadn’t all spent ten minutes fretting over paranoid delusions that wouldn’t change their objectives in the slightest.
Hobart: ::faint smile:: No, that’s our job. This is the real-world testing, to see if these technologies should be pushed out to the wider fleet.
Semara: S'posin' things don't work as advertised... What's our emergency shut-off procedure for the probe's emitter?
The room’s attention shifted to orient around Ensign Semara, who had raised a very good question.
T’Dara: The probe’s interface is directly tied to the ship’s mainframe. Without a constant feed from our uplink computer, it is utterly non-functional. Multiple safety access points for the probes, and for the upgrades themselves, exist on bridge terminals, the deflector deck, engineering, and due to the specifically telepathic disruptions caused by Sencha waves, an additional emergency cut off exists in Sickbay.
Semara: And if I can't do that owin' to bein' unconscious? Or radiation from the stellar nursery interferes with our uplink to the probe?
T’Dara: For the latter I would recommend greater faith in the Corps of Engineers. For the former, I would suggest greater faith in yourself.
R. Matthews: So, no timer setup to shut off the device if it’s left on for too long?
Hobart: It’s a dead-man’s switch, a timer shouldn’t be necessary.
R. Matthews: Maybe we could add the timer? Just to be safe?
T’Dara: Response
He nodded to the visiting engineer. The risks of adding additional components in the kind of environment they were headed towards were minimal in terms of the kinds of fears the crew had been voicing, but potentially more perilous to the integrity of the tests themselves. If the timer were triggered or affected by the radiation inherent in the nebula, or by the Sencha emitter itself, that could contaminate their data.
R. Matthews: :: Turning to Dewitt, the one whose name started with a C :: This resonance field, when you say fine-tuning, does that mean we couldn’t just set a program to have it cycle through different frequencies? Like the program we use to compensate for enemies whose shields adapt to our phaser fire?
C. Dewitt: Response
R. Matthews: If it’s something we can look into, I’m all over it. I just need to run back to the labs and grab my. . .
Ensign Matthews glanced down at the tricorder in his hands, and shook his head, chuckling as if at some unstated joke.
R. Matthews: Ah, never mind, I don’t need anything else.
C. Dewitt / Croix: Response
Nolen leaned forward at the table, his steepled fingers holding him up. They all had work to do; he had seen to that. But he had one more task to address before he could begin his tour of the various projects.
Hobart: You all have your assignments. Once Ensign Cain is back to his post and inputs the final coordinates, we should be arriving at the nebula in about six hours. Coordinate with your team leads. Let’s get this done and go get our Captain. Mister Semara, please stay behind. The rest of you? Dismissed.
Semara / Michaels / Cain: Response
As the room emptied, Nolen realized another small inconvenience—Ensign Semara was a team leader. So he graciously waited for her to instruct her project partners, because what else could he do? When the doors shut behind the others, and it was just the pair of them, he cleared his throat.
Hobart: Ensign, when Captain Shayne… departed, it fell to me to review his in-progress tasks. Some of that was personnel-related, and your file was top of the list. Do you have any idea why that might be?
Semara: Response
He listened in silence and nodded when she was done.
Hobart: I couldn’t say, and I won’t speculate. What the Captain chooses to share—and what not to—is his prerogative. By intention or oversight he put this off, and now that it falls to me to command this ship in his stead, I see no reason to put it off any longer. ::firmly:: Stand to attention.
As the Ensign’s posture sharpened, Nolen reached into his pocket and produced a small, wooden box. He set it on the table beside them and pried it open to reveal a single half-pip. It was, perhaps, unfair to Ensign Semara to award her this honor without the benefit of an audience, but given the circumstances of the Captain’s departure, sometimes things had to be left to the shadows, despite our desires.
Hobart: Amelia Semara, under the authority granted to me by Starfleet, I hereby recognize your service and leadership and award to you the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade, and all its incumbent rights, privileges, and responsibilities. Computer? ::chime:: Register the time and date of the promotion of Amelia Semara, Science Officer, USS Khitomer, to the permanent rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade. ::chime::
Semara: Response
Tags/TBC
———
Lt. Commander Nolen Hobart
Executive Officer
USS Khitomer (NCC-62400)
A240001NH3