Lieutenant JG Ghee'looth Xiron-Nothing But the Rain
Colgin
(( Main Sickbay, Deck 5, USS Valkyrie-A ))
Xiron made her way down the Deck 5 and the Medical Department’s large suite of offices and clinics. She moved quickly without running toward the main sickbay. Arriving the area looked busy but almost calm and professional in their yellow alert state.
Doucet: Lieutenants, what brings you here?
Xiron: The people we brought back from the anomaly. We were hoping they could fill us in how they got there.
Doucet: Ah, gotcha. Well, we’ve got Charn awake. I’ll take you to them.
Doucet: Commander Ada, Lieutenants Xiron and Seleya have come here to meet you. Something about the emitters? Xiron, can you elaborate?
Ada: Seleya, Ghee. What's going on?
Xiron: They seem to be tracking us.
Ada: Let's go to my office. ::Over her shoulder:: Charn, I will leave you in their capable hands. ::To the officers, motioning to her leg:: I'm not moving at top speed yet, so it'll be a leisurely stroll. For you.
Charn: Gee, thanks lady.
Ghee’looth started to follow the Commander out when she noticed a familiar face. Arthur Strathmore! She had recalled the mandatory psychological screening after her first firefight on Denali Station. Her left antenna moved in a gesture of recognition. She would have to ask him out for a drink after the mission to catch up on old times.
(( Office of the Chief Science
Officer, Deck 8 ))
Ghee’looth politely followed at Commander Ada’s pace. The sting of someone getting injured on one of her projects still echoed in her body. Space was dangerous on an easy day and injuries were all too common, but her sense of professionalism and duty still pushed her to ensure safety for all she served with.
Ada: Thank you for being patient with my slower gait. Let's review the facts: there are at least 6 emitters in the system, and possibly all of the mare capable of tracking movement. We know the emitters are putting out dense streams of neutrons that decay rapidly into elementary particles, and it's clogging up our systems and messing with some of our bodies. We know that I am an anomaly, because I recovered from my symptoms despite heightened doses of the radiation on my E-V-A.
Ada: We don't know how these emitters work, or how whoever made the managed to create a stream of decaying neutrons. We also don't know if there are other subatomic or elementary particles in the mix, because our sensors are clogged up by the particle streams. It'll be hours before Labs work up inference models to determine what all is being thrown at us. Finally, we don't know what the goal is of the people pointing them at us, but we can assume it's not nice. That's what Science has right now--more questions than answers. Seleya--anything from intel might help us?
Seleya: I can start looking into it.
Ada: Thank you. Ghee? How are ships systems holding up with the bombardment? I'm guessing the deflector dish helps, but what're we facing?
The ChEng was of course expecting this question but she had only a short time to read up on the reports.
Xiron: The deflector holding a decaying neutron stream is not exactly what our systems were designed to withstand but for the time being we are ok. In the long term we will have a mess and if unchecked we will see major systems failures.
Ada: And, I don't believe we've met. Lieutenant Commander Azura Ada. You're Rasmussen, Right? Security? What do you have to share?
Rasmussen: ?
Ada: Thank you. ::She sighed and reclined in her chair, thinking for a moment:: We need more data, and we can't wait for Labs. Not with those cloaked ships out there. Hm... Might be interesting to see if or how their cloaks interact with the emitters. But I'm guessing they're related, and thus well aware to avoid the emitters. And then there's the mystery of me. Shooting from the hip, I wonder if my different quantum resonance changes h--oh, of course. My Sheng emitter! I took it off.
Seleya: Sheng emitter?
The Andorian’s right antenna raised like a befuddled Vulcan’s eye brow.
Xiron: I am afraid you have me at a disadvantage, Commander.
Rasmussen: ?
Ada: The little box I typically have strapped to my shoulder. I took it off for my E-V-A, and that's when I started to feel better. Because we're being bombarded with subatomic and elementary particles, and my nervous system is still mostly made of matter from my home universe, I'm less or not at all impacted by it.
Seleya: I see, well that is fortunate at least. I am assuming that is the culprit behind the headaches?
Xiron: Subatomic? That would explain the subspace calibration issues on the listening post. But had not measured any anomalous particles in our prep?
Rasmussen/Ada: ?
Seleya: And mind if I ask about the mystery particle we found in the science lab earlier, does that have anything to do with this?
The situation was frustrating. All the pieces seemed to be there but still the answer was not forthcoming.
Xiron: It would be quite the coincidence for the two to be unrelated.
Rasmussen/Ada: ?
Seleya: So these emitters have been set up by someone. They were here before us, I would be curious if Stillwater is aware of them. Perhaps some people, but I would be curious with their reactions if our findings were to become publicly known to them.
Xiron: Whoever set them up did a good job of disguising them during the listening post set up. The anomaly too gave them cover. Any strange readings in that area of space and we just write it off as another property of this little studied hole in space.
Rasmussen/Seleya/Ada: ?
Ghee’looth walked to the display screen on the wall. The corners were still flashing yellow. She pulled a chart of the system and she overlaid the scant data from the listening post and the runabout. Staring at the display for a moment yielded no new theories.
She then called up a ship’s status board display.
Xiron: The question is who and for what purpose were they set up. But we will need to find out quickly. Our drive will not like these unwelcomed particles raining on our deflector.
Rasmussen/Seleya/Ada: ?
(TAG/TBC)
Lieutenant JG Ghee’looth Xiron
Acting Chief Engineer
USS Valkyrie
D240010GX2