Lieutenant Amelia Semara - Once More Into a Nebula

[Max]

(( Briefing Room, Deck 1, USS Khitomer - near the Ceram Archipelago ))

Amelia had to wonder about the use of having access to so much classified information when the validity of so much of it was about as nebulous as the pretty purple cloud outside the window.  Trusting the claims a pirate made to get out of being transferred from a cushy Starfleet prison to a much less cushy local authority was quite a leap of faith, but then...  It wasn't totally absurd when compared with other data points.

Semara: I tried requestin' sensor logs and forensics from the pirate's ship, but two days ain't enough time.  Still, there might be somethin' to it.  :: Beat :: From a biology perspective, it ain't wise to try eatin' somethin' you don't understand without some thought.  Could be toxic, for instance.  So there might be a small window to try talkin' with a smart, social predator while they figure us out.  Predators also commonly conserve energy, since huntin' requires lots of it.  They might kill a competitor with extreme prejudice, but maybe cooperate with a peer in another territory.  :: Beat :: Best guess?  The trick to talkin' would be makin' sure we don't look like prey or rivals.  Barrin' that, try to taste bad.

Amelia gave a little half smile, trying to imagine what "tasting bad" might even mean.

Zerva: Diplomacy and hope we give them a bad taste if they try to eat the Khitomer? ::checking the readings from the bridge:: According to these sensor longs, there was a fair amount of Sensha discharged around the one LA vessel outside the nebula. If that doesn’t give them a stomach ache, I don’t know if we’ve got anything that will work.

Semara: That's an interestin' point.  We've seen unusual behavior of Sencha in other nebulas, gravity tendin' to focus the waves to form... :: A tiny smirk. :: Anomalies.  :: Beat :: This nebula bein' so impervious to scans - might suggest the Nebula has some property that naturally disperses Sencha harmlessly.  And potentially many other energy forms.

For a moment, Amelia wishes Tori could have stayed aboard.  Her daughter knew more about Sencha than any other person in the galaxy with decades of research and experimentation to pull on.  Then again, Amelia was much happier her daughter would never take another dose of the stuff.

Nicholotti: Response

Zerva: Anything is possible.

Amelia studied the cloud for a moment.  The probe telemetry had ended abruptly - never a good sign.  She tapped the table impatiently.  The urge to call the science lab was strong.  To tell Ras to put his focus there: there was clearly some powerful energy dispersal property at play here.  If they worked on finding a way to trace the...

Her fingers clawed up instead of tapping her commbadge.  Lots of reasons not to do that.

Then it slapped her in the face.

Semara: You think it's possible...

The room's lights flickered.  Her eyes narrowed.

Semara: Nevermind, it's possible.

She bit her lips together.  She should have seen that coming.  Energy dispersal nebula of some sort.  Nebulas didn't exactly have hard edges.  The ship needed all kinds of energy.  That was now getting dispersed.  Duh.

Nicholotti: Response

Zerva: Well that’s not a good sign

Semara: No kiddin'.  Okay we just gotta think this through... :: Tapping some buttons. :: Without any sensor readin's...

Nicholotti: Response

Amelia hummed at the screen, then looked up to see Ezra already had the right idea: looking out the dang window.  Clearly he'd been reading the science books she recommended to him because he was quicker to the only working sensor (eyeballs) than the former science officer.

Zerva: ::beat:: Is it just me or is the nebula getting closer to us?

A leaden breath escaped as she pressed up to the window next to him.  The last time the two of them were looking out this window, the ship had lost power and Commander Hobart had been hovering over their shoulders.

Semara: :: Hushed. :: Just like old times, eh Ezra?

She watched the nebula, trying hard not to think about the way Ras lost his hand on that mission.  She squinted, but it seemed like the whole surface of the nebula was frothing and seething on the surface.  Everything was moving when she looked closely enough.

Semara: :: Quietly awed :: ...How is it movin'?

Could it be using the energy it siphoned off?  Not just dispersing energy, but... metabolising it somehow?  Her mind flit away to the labs again, gravitating to so many familiar things.

Nicholotti: Response

Semara: :: Pointing :: There - look.  Look at that arm a' the cloud relative to that arm.  They're both extendin' out, pinching.  :: Pointing :: And there's another finger.  Wasn't there before.  It's definitely movin'.

Nicholotti / Zerva: Response

A distinct shift of sound in the plasma conduits complemented a shift in the nacelle lights that betrayed the sputtering attempt to go to warp.  Amelia's lips slightly parted as an "of course!" hit her again.  A warp-capable predator would need a way to stop ships from going to warp.  If they had that level of mastery over subspace, then they had the raw tools to mitigate Sencha weaponry too.  It was about three leaps of wild speculation ahead, but the facts fit the theory.  She turned to the others, if only..

Naxell: =/\= Attention all hands, this is the captain. We are, currently, trapped by some unknown force. But we won’t stay that way. Keep your heads, keep working, and we’ll get out of this together. =/\=

The cloud was moving quickly now, maybe sensing the ship's struggle or fueled by the attempted escape.  Either way, the trap was closing.  In a nebula.  Again.  She nearly managed to scrape her brain away from a flustered refrain of Ras Ras Ras Ras.  The man only had one good hand left.  She liked that hand.

Naxell: =/\= Naxell to Lieutenant Semara. Report to the Bridge, and give Commander Dewitt everything you’ve got so far. =/\=

Semara: =/\= Yessir. =/\=

She had precious little that wasn't total guesswork, but she'd do what she could.

Nicholotti / Zerva: =/\= Response =/\=

Naxell: =/\= Admiral, I think your skills would be welcome in Engineering. We’ll need to keep the ship’s power supply stable and stretch out our reserves as long as we can. Lieutenant Zerva, you and your security team will be needed in Sickbay. Naxell out. =/\=

Her eyebrows flickered, and she offered a little smile before stepping onto the bridge.

Semara: Good luck.

Zerva / Nicholotti: Response?

(( Bridge, Deck 1, USS Khitomer, Ceram Archipelago ))

This nebula had at least one thing to recommend to it: the doors were still working and the air was still circulating.  Even if the lights were dimmed and the engines had sputtered to a halt, that was a much better place to start from compared to last time they were stuck in a nebula.

On the bridge, it felt like at least one person expected her to have the answers, and at least one person was completely heedless of her entrance.  There wasn't really time to explain her thinking.  Besides, her track record for explaining things today was downright dismal.  Her own words came back to her: oO A small window to try talkin'... Oo

Semara: I suggest comms.

There.  That should get attention.

C. Dewitt / Stros / Korras / A. Dewitt: Response

Amelia's eyes bored a hole through the viewscreen for a moment.  She wondered if there was a way to telepathically feel out a potential huntress out there in the dusty purple milk swirling around them more and more.  Probably with more time, but, right now, with the noisey emotions on the ship close at hand, she couldn't find any quiet waiting from someone or something else out there.  Then she pieced together the reason for her dubious malaise of foretelling.

Semara: We've only got a power drain from the nebula so far, right?  Those ships out there ain't got hull breaches from a power drain. :: Beat :: Tryin' comms, worst case we talk to a cloud.  But if there's a ship hidden out there, we gotta convince her we ain't prey and we ain't rivals and quickly.  If we open comms, we might make her wonder who we are and if we see her.  Or she'll talk, if we're lucky.  If she's there, she won't spend long puzzlin' us out.

C. Dewitt / Stros / Korras / A. Dewitt: Response

Tag / TBC...

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Lieutenant Amelia Magnolia Semara

Intelligence Officer

USS Khitomer - NCC-62400

A239710MA0