Lt. V'Len Kel - The Ruse

[Don K]

(OOC - Sorry for the delay and the lengthy sim.  The end of the summer is coming up busy at work and home and my mother in law is having some health challenges.    Will end the scene for V'Len here and then set him up for Act III before I leave town.  I will be gone Aug 13 - 22.)  

(Bridge, Deck 1, USS Oumuamau)

Kel:  Did we just activate some kind of arming device?

Ulasso: Possibly sir, however the color red doesn't always indicate danger in alien species as it does in the Federation. Perhaps in the Gamma quadrant it is a friendly color.

Nijal: It might be trying to communicate anything.  

Cabrillo: Shields are not going to hold them. They are coming through Lieutenant.

As they watched the screen the glowing probes seemed to move through the shields.  V'Len waited for an explosion, but once again none came.  The devices floated harmlessly through the shields and the ship's hull and took up stations above the Oumuamua.  As the lost contact with the shields, the glow disappeared and the probes took on their original bluish hue.

Taylor: I think it’s safe to say now that they’re not torpedoes.  

Kel: ::standing up:: Gold star Ensign Taylor. One for you to Ensign Cabrillo. Ensign Nijal damage report?

Cabrillo: Why aren’t they attacking?

Taylor: Did they damage us?  

Nijal: No, none. No damage at all.

That was a relief.  He would not have to explain to Greaves why half the saucer section was missing.  So either their plan had worked and the weapons had been pushed out of phase…or they were never weapons to begin with.  

Ulasso: One of the Doctor's famous gold stars, color me jealous Ensigns.

Vomek: Sir, those probes, they're sending EM pulses back to the spider ship. I'm trying to decode them.

Cabrillo: They are probably laughing at how easy it was to breach our shields.

V'Len reflected.  He could take being laughed at over being fired upon.  

Taylor: Or maybe they’re just collecting data from us up close?

Having all the Oumuamua's secrets stolen was perhaps not ideal, but still preferable to trading fire with an enemy which so far had proven to be difficult to hit at best.  Perhaps Ensigns Vomek could tap into their communications.  He had indicated earlier that he had been able to, in some way, monitor their computer systems.  

Ulasso: I've sent a crew to check the shield generators. It's possible those devices stressed them due to the unique nature of the attack.

Nijal: They were certainly doing something.

Cabrillo: ::looking to Nijal and smiling:: That they are, you got any ideas….

Taylor: I mean, if we’re all differently phased their earlier scans might not have gathered much info. Same as how we can’t really detect them either.  

Kel:  Ensign Vomek can you use your magnetic pulse language to determine what information is being relayed back to that ship?  I wonder if the team on the dome is safe?  If we've truly damaged that ship they could be in danger?

Ulasso: Yes sir, good thinking now that we have potentially angered our new spider friends. The ground crew might be attacked as well. I'll have the transporter room get ready for Krik. We will have to lower shields briefly for the transport.  

Cabrillo: Setting the ventral shields only to lower during transport. That will give you a clear transport Lieutenant without dropping all the shields.

Kel: Negative.  Petty Officer Krik is new and inexperienced.  Besides Greaves, Basillia, Brodie, Kessler and most of all Toz are over there.  Believe me they're more than safe.  (beat) Still, Ulasso keep a transporter lock on them.  We may need to pull them out at a moment's notice.  

Nijal: Now, what about our little friends?

Cabrillo: Are they testing our defenses or our intelligence?

Ulasso: Yes, they may be curious to how we respond. Ensign Taylor, thoughts on our next move? Nice work with those evasive maneuvers by the way, it takes a lot to impress me in that department. We will have to go head to head in the simulator some time.

Vomek:  ::Turning to face Ulasso and Taylor:: Looks like somebody's got a date with a Lieutenant.  Whoo wee.  

Kel:  ::Clears Throat::  Ensign Vomek, you're supposed to be working on the signals coming off those probes.

Vomek turned back to his console.    

Taylor: Thanks, and you’re on sir! (Pause) Oh, and uh, I don’t really know what else to do. I don’t think they’re threatening us.  

Nijal: Even if they're not meant to communicate, they're still sending us some kind of message. I just wish I knew what it was.

Cabrillo: ::looking to Nijal and Taylor:: Can you link the EM pulses into the translation matrix that the away team is using to see if that will help identify the message?

Ulasso: Wow, the away teams are having two first contact situations that means. Ensign Vomek, with your linguistics skill that must be driving you crazy to not be part of it.

Taylor: Hey, we need Vomek over here as much as they need his language skills over there.  

Vomek:  ::turning to Ulasso::  Its definitely killing me, but my day will come.   ::turning to Kel:: O.k. Lieutenant I think I caught a break.  The data is coded slightly differently, but they're definitely sending back data.  If the translation matrix is correct I think they're looking at the basic specifications of the Oumuamua.  Strangely there is an emphasis on our radiation emissions.  Like their looking for some specific type of radiation.  

Cabrillo: Lieutenant, if they won’t respond to our hails then maybe we need to get a little primitive and resend their own EM pulses back at them to get their attention and then follow that EM pulse by a standard greeting in the form of a mathematical sequence. ::beat:: maybe try establishing a more common ground to communicate on if we can’t get the UT to work.

Ulasso: And here I thought Vomek was the communications specialist. You are a man of many talents Ensign Cabrillo. Spanning engineering, tactical and communications and I'm sure many others with your experience. You would make a great leader.

Taylor: Yeah, that’s a good idea. Any race that has mastered warp flight should be able to identify complex mathematical ideas.  

Cabrillo: This is your show Lieutenant, I’ve still got my finger on the trigger if you would rather end this here and now.

Kel: ::turning to Cabrillo::  We are most certainly not going to "end this here and now".  But I like you're idea of resending their information back to them.  That should be possible, right Mr. Vomek?

The Ensign nodded.  

Cabrillo: Just an option sir, one of many but the only one I’ve got right now aside from offering them some homemade cookies.

Ulasso: Ensign, you may be on to something there.

Taylor: Wait, what?

V'Len looked toward his friend.  Ulasso tended to think way, way outside the box, but one thing Greaves had told him about command, there were no bad ideas.  They were after all brainstorming.  

Nijal: Offer them something desirable, sir?

Ulasso: If we can get communications to work, I say we offer them some homemade cookies.

Perhaps! Zi considered the superior officer with a slight cant to her head, thinking.

Nijal: What could we offer them, though?

Kel:  ::nodding:: You're right Ulasso.  They're on the Esse ship for some reason, there must be a resource thy need.

Ulasso: After our findings along with the away team's, we can make a reasonable conclusion that these are the creatures stealing the Eesse's sap.

Lt. Katsim had all but confirmed that earlier.  And everything he'd seen in sickbay suggested the same.  He used the command chair console to bring up Toz's analysis.  Something she had said about molecules present in the sap.  

Taylor: Is that what’s killing the forest?

Kel:  ::looking at Taylor:: It's mostly likely the case. :: turning back to the display::  Here (beat) Dr. Toz noted the presence of two key molecules in the sap, Xylem and Phloem.  Large molecules, proteins, modified in some way.  

Ulasso: Perhaps we could offer them a batch of our own homemade, synthesized sap as a gesture of peace. Your plate of cookies, Ensign.

Zi nodded enthusiastically.

Taylor: Is that even possible?

Nijal: And if it is, how do we tell them we have the sap?

Kel:  Actually I don't know that we need to make any.  Ensign Vomek, follow Ensign Cabrillo's suggestion to send back the same data the probes are, but sneak in the fact that we have 11 kiloliters of sap synthesized.

Cabrillo: Responses

Vomek:  Even if we could make that much where are we going to put it.

V'Len took a deep breath.  

Kel:  It’s a ruse.  We don't need to have sap, we just need them to think their probes are telling them we do.  Ensign Nijal, have engineering set up emitters to send out Epsilon waves.  They aren't overly harmful and it may create the illusion we have some of the sap on board.  Ensign Cabrillo, make sure a security detail is nearby the emitters, just in case we have guests.  

It was a good plan.   V'Len was confident it could draw the new aliens out and interest them enough to communicate.

Taylor: Wait, where’d they go?!

V'Len returned his gaze to his viewscreen.  The probes it seemed were gone.  

Nijal: No sign of them on any scanners. They just (beat) disappeared.

V'Len stood.  For now at least the Oumuamua was safe and not hostiles were in the area.

Kel:  Take us to yellow alert for now Ensign Cabrillo.  Ensign Vomek keep sending their sensor data back and include the tidbit about the sap.  

Taylor/Ulasso/Cabrillo/Nijal: Responses

Kel stood up.  

Kel:  I'm going to the conference  room to keep working through Toz's data.  Maybe we can add more details to our little ruse.  Lt. Ulasso you have the bridge.  (beat) And let me know before you do anything.  

V'Len headed to the conference room.  

Taylor/Ulasso/Cabrillo/Nijal: Responses

[End scene for Kel and Vomek]

--

Lieutenant V’Len Kel

Acting XO/Chief Medical Officer

USS Oumuamua NCC-81226

T239811VK2

He/Him (character and player)