LtCmdr Connor Dewitt - The Captain's Authorization
Tim
((OOC: I am a little feverish at the moment - the physicist in me still died from technobabble. So please, enjoy :D))
((Main Engineering, USS Khitomer))
After the small engineering command team had done everything possible to prepare the Khitomer for departure, they started to work on the 'how' that Nolen had requested regarding the Arrow's theft.
Dewitt: Right... So I suggest we analyze those energy signatures. You two will be going over passive sensor data, I'll remodel typical energy signatures. If you don't find anything directly, we'll start to do a convolution analysis of those signals. Agreed?
Senak: Aye, sir.
Sparks: Response?
Connor nodded.
Dewitt: Then let's go!
They each claimed a console, and Connor took a moment to orient himself in the Khitomer's file system. The structure they had on the Arrow felt like home. He could blindly find the files he needed. They were tagged accordingly, and it rarely took him more than 10 seconds to find what he needed. On the Khitomer, however, this was different. To ensure that he would find the files he was about to create later on, he decided to save them in a central location.
Connor quickly checked with his colleagues, who seemed to be working on their respective tasks, and returned to the signal modeling software he had opened. His head went through the different options to ramp up the Arrow's main systems, including the warpcore, from the hibernation status he had left it in.
Senak: Lieutenant, I believe I have found something. I cannot say for certain if it's what we're looking for, but it's the most out-of-place data I've found so far. It happened around the time the Arrow was taken.
Dewitt: Let's have a look then.
Sparks: Responses?
Connor moved over to Senak and looked over his shoulder at the screen in front of the Vulcan. The spiky sensor data had been marked with several time stamps. One of those was the departure of the Arrow. Only a minute before that, a huge spike in the energy output of the Arrow's warp core had been detected. That was nothing unusual. A ship that was about to depart had to power up its systems, but Senak was right. The shape of the spike was more than unusual.
Dewitt: That looks odd. Do you think that can give us a hint at how they accessed the Arrow's systems?
Senak: Yes, I believe so.
Sparks: Response
Connor nodded, still looking at the spike. It had a plateau at about 50% of its height to start with that was held for a couple hundred milliseconds before spiking up again to its maximum height. A lump formed in Connor's guts. He swallowed hard.
Dewitt: Bring up the neutron spectrum.
Sparks/Senak: Response
Neutrons were hard to detect. The only option to interact with them and detect them was the weak force, and building detectors with that force in mind was a daunting task for every engineer. Noise had to be low, and detectors had to be big. However, Deep Space 33 had an excellent scientific sensor array that would allow for a precise measurement of neutron energies.
Finally, another plot was shown on the small screen before Senak. And there it was. The proof Connor needed. He felt his mouth going dry.
Dewitt: ::whispering:: The Forge...
Sparks/Senak: Response
Connor needed a second before he could address his colleagues.
Dewitt: The Arrow features a full-scale industrial replicator system. The ship does not have warp capabilities when the replicators are in operation. We developed an emergency routine to shut the replicators down and power up the propulsion and tactical systems in less than a minute.
Sparks/Senak: Response
Dewitt: ::nodding:: Power output of the warp core temporarily exceeds the tertiary Cochrane limits. The plasma starts to heat up exponentially, creating pockets that are so hot that the atoms are split into their components. The neutron spike is generated from that. It's not dangerous for the ship...
Sparks/Senak: Response
Whoever had taken the Arrow could not have activated the emergency protocols to ramp up the systems without the Captain's or Chief Engineer's authorization. Connor was sure they had taken every precaution that circumventing those restrictions was not possible. Their little excursion to Odyssey station had taught him that. For all Connor knew, it was neither the Captain nor himself who authorized that protocol. So, the question at hand was clear.
The Commander tapped his communicator.
Dewitt: =/\= Dewitt to Shayne. We're going to need you in engineering, Sir. =/\=
Sparks/Senak/Shayne: Response
TAG/TBC
LtCmdr. Connor Dewitt
Chief Engineer
USS Khitomer
A239901CD3