Cmn. (3rd.) Wolf Rasmussen “Could You Dumb That Down A Bit?”
Wolfgang Rasmussen
“Could You Dumb That Down A Bit?”
((Office Of The Chief Science Officer, Deck Eight))
The ship was on alert…albeit only yellow…for now…which meant security details. He’d been assigned to provide support to the team looking into some peculiar bombardment the ship had been receiving. He was currently watching an exchange between the ships intelligence officer, chief engineer and chief science officer and…not being particularly familiar with any of them and even less familiar with the subject matter – he was getting every third or fourth word.
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 them are 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?
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: Errr…yes Ma’am…Wolf…although I’m not sure what I can offer. We have several individuals in sickbay – one of which is a…for want of a better word…workers leader – Charn. I believe they were rescued from some sort of adrift vessel. I’ve just spent time with the Captain, and others, meeting with the director of the Port Authority – Cazimir. Two sides of the same spectrum. In addition to that there appears to be a power, or powers, out there known as the Concordance although neither would be drawn on it.
He paused for a moment.
Rasmussen: Both are confident and headstrong, in my opinion – so if they’re shy about talking about this Concordance, they are either in league with them or afraid of them. ::How that might relate to these…emitters…is anyone guess. I am also led to believe there is some form of cloaked vessel or vessels out there.
That said he suspected they all had some rather shrewd ideas.
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?
Xiron: I am afraid you have me at a disadvantage, Commander.
Rasmussen: ::Slightly Relived:: I’m glad you said that, Ma’am…because I thought it was just me.
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: Headaches? I was getting horrendous headaches when I was in Stillwater the first time.
Ada: Response?
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?
Xiron: It would be quite the coincidence for the two to be unrelated.
Rasmussen: I’m inclined to agree, for what it’s worth. One thing might be unexplained but so many oddities – while not a pattern is...too cluttered for my tastes.
Ada: Response?
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: Clever…
Seleya/Ada: Response
The ships chief engineer walked towards one of the screens and stared at it before shaking her head. Then she then called up another display appearing to show the ship…various bit were glowing..
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: I would say we could rule out Charn…while there does seem to be oppressed masses I’m not sure they would be capable of this. They don’t have replicator or transporter technology in Stillwater so cloaks seem a bit of a stretch…plus he might nearly have been killed by these things
Seleya/Ada: Responses?
Rasmussen: I’m not sure the who matters at this point…the why and the how are probably more vital.
Xiron/Seleya/Ada: Responses?
Rasmussen: Well – I haven’t been privy to everything…I’m a crewman third class…a new one. Maybe my ignorance can add a new perspective?
Xiron/Seleya/Ada: Responses?
TBC
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Cmn (3rd). Wolfgang Rasmussen
Master-At-ArmsWriter ID.: A239005BM0
He/Him/They/Them: Player & Character