Lt. Commander Foster - Keep a Bead
Jamie LeBlanc
((MFT Maximum Thrusters, Bridge, Currently Landed at the Temurian Outpost.))
This was not Wyn’s first rodeo on figuring out mysteries from the clues scattered about. He had excellent practice on it when he was a medical officer and it served him well.
The hard part was trying to wrap his head around the why. To think like a pirate, an Orion Syndicate smuggler, or an independent trader. He was actively trying to think of how the minefield was set up, and why.
Foster: There are a lot of asteroids out here, most of them are moving, and I’m not seeing any evidence of a lot of explosions. That indicates that the mines are either only attracted to certain things like… I dunno possibly warp signatures or power emissions of some sort – or they can be turned ‘on’ and ‘off’ by whoever put them there.
Ysatch: I think I see what you're getting at. We could use the probe to simulate some of these conditions in a way that looks like a natural phenomenon. Something a controlling intelligence wouldn't want to waste their ordinance on. If the mines activate, we know what sets them off. If they don't activate, we know someone's got their hand on the wheel.
Wyn tipped his antennae forward in a nodding assent gesture.
sh’Sonora: Might be difficult to make our probe look like an asteroid. It’s made of sensor-absorbing composites and not rock and iron, but with a little sensor spoofing that might work.
Ysatch: So what are potential detonation conditions? Like the captain said, warp signatures and power emissions are big ones. There's also biodata -- scans for life signs. Any others?
sh’Sonora: Simple stuff, like magnetic signatures, EM frequencies, light sensing, AI photographic extrapolation with a good old fashioned camera lens. You know, the classics.
Leave it to a pilot to know every way to track a ship in the galaxy. Wyn settled back, listening, tracking the data being discussed.
Ysatch: Power emissions seem an easy one to start with. We can set the probe's core to run hot and dirty and the lieutenant can pilot it on an arc out from one of the wrecked planets that clips the edge of the danger zone.
sh'Sonora: I mean, that’s doable, but I’d still worry about looking out of place.
If they set off an explosion, it could completely blow their cover. But that would by and large depend on if anyone was watching – and if they were, how they were watching.
Foster: So how would that work?
He turned towards Tori
Ysatch: It's kind of a double-reverse decoy. An automated system would flag it as a potential threat, but a good ops officer would see a radioactive meteor that's not going to hit anything and isn't worth the effort. ::looks around awkwardly:: At least that's what I'd do.
sh'Sonora: A slight variance from its propulsion system will give us the radiation reading we need!
Wyn considered this. It was daring, but he reminded himself that they didn’t come out here to hide and wait. They came out here to find answers and try to track down a dangerous Syndicate criminal. And they weren’t going to make progress on that by doing nothing.
Foster: Alright, make the adjustments to the probe to send out the correct signalling. Mi’sh, get ready to wobble like a radioactive meteor.
Ysatch: ?
sh’Sonora: ::Clapped her hands together.:: Alright, now we’re talking! Let’s send our ::Air quotes, with fingers and antennae.:: ‘radioactive meteor’ out for a little sleuthing.
It was fascinating to watch the probe amble around in the asteroid field as if it was just another rock. A curious combination of movement to get it to mimic the movement of the other asteroids.
It headed towards a very large reddish colored asteroid, and the sensors started to light up with readings of metals, ores, resources…
Foster: Slow her down a bit…
There was so much information coming in very quickly, and the MTF didn’t have was the processing capability of a Starfleet starship. Sometimes the old fashion answer of going slow was the best one.
Ysatch: ?
Duranium flashed up on the scans. Worked, structural duranium.
sh’Sonora: Holy frell… is that a… ship?!
Foster: Either a ship or an on-asteroid mining operation.
Possibly both. The large asteroid was brimming with valuable metals ripe for the mining.
Ysatch/sh’Sonora: ?
He drew in a short breath though his teeth which hissed in the small bridge.
Foster: If there is a power signal, that means someone or something is watching. Can we back the probe off? Fly casual? Natural?
Even if the entire place was automated, it was bound to have sensors and communications relays. The Orion Syndicate was known for being paranoid and protective of its ventures.
Ysatch/sh’Sonora: ?
Foster: Keep a bead on it. I want to know if there’s any sort of power spike, any sort of movement.
They might have gone undetected… but it wasn’t a risk Wyn was willing to bet on.
Ysatch/sh’Sonora: ?
~*~
tags/tbc
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Lt. Commander Shar’Wyn Foster
Acting Commanding Officer
~Julian Beck
E239010ST0