Blue Goals

Posted on Sun May 7th, 2023 @ 9:20pm by Lieutenant Bharani Gupta & Lieutenant Alexis Ryan & Lieutenant JG Kirral Nagata & Ensign Quinn Alka-Sutton & Lieutenant Leah Bailey

Mission: Wrath of the People
Location: USS Athena - Science Labs
Timeline: MD-06
2336 words - 4.7 OF Standard Post Measure

It had been a long time since the science labs had actually felt busy. A Prometheus-class ship wasn't really built for the sciences, and so to say this part of the lab itself was a little bigger than a Runabout was being generous. It was starting to feel the tiniest bit cramped to have four of the crew packed in.

"This is a first," Leah noted, glancing around her colleagues. "Anyone else thinking they might just lock us in here and forget the key?"

Bharani gave the dark-haired woman a curious look understanding the playful manner in which she intended the comment. However, maybe a level of accuracy would make it funnier, at least to her. "Since the automatic doors don't work with a key or a lock I think it would be more prudent to say they would use their command code to seal the door and override our ability to get them open again."

"What a barrel of laughs you are, Gupta..." Leah rolled her eyes, amused that a scientist would have to be somewhat more literal with their interpretation. "There's me trying to break the ice and you're pouring liquid nitrogen all over it."

Kirral was not only one of the junior officers in the room, but likely among the least experienced as well. Half a pip off but not quite so burdened as Ensign Alka-Sutton. She hated trying to figure out some level of hierarchy, where she fit, but the fact that she had her own post and title meant at least a little in deciding all of that. Some of them may be Lieutenants, including their CSO, but they were also just Science Officers, offering help or assistance around the labs, conducting their own little projects or the like. She found herself observing more than participating as she tried to make up her mind on this small bunch that were her direct colleagues (and would be for the foreseeable future) on the ship. "Do we think the Chief has something big for all of us to work on? Usually left to our scattered shifts to handle more mundane things. But a gathering of senior science staff seems off. Right?"

"Wild speculation will lead to unnecessary anxiety," Bharani said nonchalantly. She didn't like to jump to conclusions either professionally or personally. It was better for her to have all the available facts and then deal with them after, making a reasonable hypothesis. It was the reason why she was a good scientist, if she thought so herself, and the reason she was able to stay cool under high-pressure situations. "It makes more sense to wait for Lieutenant Ryan to arrive than let our imaginations roam free."

Quinn, at the least, shared some of Kirral's thoughts - this was the first time they'd been called to a full department meeting and were, to say the least, somewhat intimidated by the thought of it. The others, though, were doing a good job of making light of the situation in their own ways; Quinn had only known the others for a short time - and sometimes only spoken in passing - so it was the first time the half-Bajoran was seeing them interact for the most part. Somehow, they found Lieutenant Bharani's to-the-point take on the situation calming, "I-I'm sure this is normal from time to time, right? It makes sense, given the situation and everything..."

"I don't know if making sense is the current priority of the day, Ensign," Ryan declared as she strode into the small space, dressed in a way that hinted at the formality of where she'd just come from. Beyond that, the redhead was agitated in a way that, so far, hadn't ever seemed typical of the Lieutenant. Her service record suggested an earlier struggle with anger management but Ryan tended these days to present as a poster child for appropriate intervention. Right now, the set of her jaw said a lot about what she thought of the judicial system and being placed on the stand with the evident intent to drag her reputation through the mud. "But we're going to try to do it anyway."

"We've gathered just about all of the data while you were...indisposed," Leah skirted around the obvious point that Alexis had been off giving some sort of official testimony or other. "I've got the latest scan data from Vespae, if Nagata and Gupta can add last year's survey data to the record?"

Kirral straightened her already painfully straight uniform top when the CSO entered the room, hands folding neatly at her back. There was a remarkably small gap in rank in the room, but everyone seemed to fall into their order well enough on Lt. Ryan's arrival. Hearing Lt. Bailey's last question, she looked at Lt. Gupta (so many lieutenants!) as if asking permission before bringing up her PADD to hand out toward the CSO. "Easy enough to compile, Chief. Partially due to just how much of the system is in the nebula itself. Survey teams tried to probe it, but chose expediency and quantity over quality, chose to move on and let future teams do more thorough analyses."

Having had her fill of incompetence within the system for the day, Alex slotted into place alongside Bailey and ran a visibly-exhausted eye over what her team had assembled so far. "Let's start with what we do know. Gupta, tell me about the composition of this nebula."

"A pretty ordinary class-two nebula," Bharani said to the others in her usual flat tone of voice. "As expected, mostly hydrogen and helium but with trace deposits of carbon, nitrogen, magnesium, potassium, calcium, and iron. Long-range sensors are pretty much non-functional, and short-range sensors are having a hard time operating at just over 55% efficiency. Lieutenant Leiko is working on improving that. Though I must say the asteroid field is way more interesting," she added as she handed a PADD to the Chief. "Electromagnetic disturbances are throwing off all sensor readings. A great place for a Pirate base of operations."

Ryan frowned at the readings. "Or a perfect opportunity for a slew of destroyed pirate ships. We're not dealing with amateurs, then." The Science Chief tapped her index finger against the display, a common habit that seemed to accompany her deliberations, and then she took a breath through her nose, exhaled and seemed to move on. "Do we know the cause of the electromagnetism? I assume it's naturally occurring."

"We don't yet have a cause, Chief. Scans don't seem to indicate its composition as any different than any other nebula of its class. Natural is the most logical conclusion, but we haven't ruled out some sort of deliberate jamming on the part of these pirates." Kirral wrinkled her nose briefly as she spoke, catching the 'L' word in there. Great way to get yourself mistaken for a Vulcan. But she shook that off and continued, as was her duty, doubling down on her confident posture. "Either way, it is as you said, they are not amateurs. Which suggests more than common smugglers or scavengers. The way I see it, there's two options, if I may? Their cover is deliberate, in which case it is likely meant to deter and is just camouflage on the outside, meaning we'd be clear once inside. The second, more likely option, is interference is natural and they beat it, meaning we can too."

"Not natural," Leah quipped. "I've seen something like this before; Malon transports would dump theta radiation all over subspace. It used to cause all sorts of disruption. This looks like someone took the principle and deliberately spread radiation across a portion of the asteroid belt - but not all of it." She motioned. "It doesn't intersect a large stellar body, nor does it show a natural source. So more than likely someone deliberately wanted to cover just a section they didn't want anyone to see."

Ryan's gaze swung back and forth between the two women. Kirral's natural talents were evident all throughout her service records, and the young officer was certainly amassing experience in the field that would make her a viable prospect for the Chief's own position one day. But Bailey, Ryan had very quickly come to rely upon, was a solid and dependable veteran of multiple encounters who should have been offered the position outright already. It had become entirely obvious that Leah was the reason Sciences still functioned at all and it hadn't been lost on Alex that Starfleet's decision to move in a systems specialist with combat background had been a contentious attempt to force the department into a tiny pigeon-hole that sucked the joy out of scientific endeavour and left only a contribution to battle efforts. On paper, Alexis Ryan had seemed like a great answer to the problem of accommodating a Science department on a warship. In theory, she was far too interested in growing capacity in others to capitulate.

She nodded slowly.

"Our primary concern will be figuring out how to navigate it," she concluded, offering Kirral a nod that reassured her that her input was still welcome, even if Bailey had contradicted her somewhat. "In the meantime," she turned to Quinn, "what do we know about our science station?" She'd given the enthusiastic Ensign the task of compiling the report on the station's function and latest transmissions.

The young Bajoran ensign had glanced between each of the others as they spoke - and found themselves glad when the senior officer had stepped in... and then found themselves a little shocked when they were suddenly addressed. Quinn gave a little start and lifted the PADD they held, "Right - th-the station. Uhm... there's not too much special about it. It was established just under a decade ago to begin studies to determine Vespae IV's suitability as a terraforming candidate and hasn't changed focus since. Officially, it's home to a few dozen personnel running a variety of studies on the planet, though given the records of transfers in and out, I'd say the official numbers are a little on the low side and someone's been seriously negligent in updating them." Their fingers flew over the PADD, tapping between various bits of information, "There isn't really anything of much interest in their reports... I almost fell asleep reading through them. Well, up until recently, that is. A short while ago, they reported finding an unusual device on the planet. I took the liberty to dig up their initial reports and... well, it's not really my specialty but that thing is definitely emitting some sort of strange energy."

Kirral had been at least somewhat confident in her assessment, leaving room for interpretation where she lacked experience, specifically. That didn't help her feel any better when Bailey chimed in, causing a bit of a slump in the junior lieutenant. She had to remind herself that she was good, but very little made up for the sort of wisdom actually being in the field brought. And the look from Ryan seemed to assure her, bring her back up with a cleared throat. "Lieutenant Bailey and I can work on the navigation problem in my lab, Chief." It was a helpful suggestion, maybe just a bit of emphasis on the possessive pronoun, but she was all business, nodding at Leah.

Ryan held up her hand, brow furrowed. She couldn't fault Kirral's work ethic, nor her willingness to pursue solutions, but Quinn's report had just thrown up another consideration. Reaching her hand across for the Ensign's PADD, the Science Chief scrolled through the information and then handed the device to Bailey for a similar scrutiny. "Strange devices emitting unorthodox energy signatures don't tend to be coincidences." Alex's eyes darted about with no particular target in mind as she processed the information. "But it doesn't look like they'd made a lot of headway into figuring out what it was. Thank you, Ensign," she remembered to add, offering Quinn a brief smile. "I'll make sure the Commander knows to add this to the away team's agenda."

At the bit of praise from the chief officer, Quinn pretty much beamed, feeling quite proud of themselves. There was something else though, something nagging at the back of their - "Oh! One last thing. Several years ago there was record of some sort of space faring life form passing through the system. The team on the station tried to get some readings but, like happens here so often, getting anything more than a sensor shadow was difficult and they never came near the planet." The ensign recited this from memory, clearly excited they'd found something related to their field, "Since it didn't seem to affect the progress on the planet, no further follow up was completed. I'm not sure if it's of any use to the mission but... well, you asked me to look for irregularities."

"Some space-faring life forms excrete electromagnetism radiation I believe," Bharani said, thinking out loud. "That may explain the presence of it near the asteroid field. It's just a theory but it may add a further challenge when navigating this region of space."

With her gaze wandering between each of the expectant faces, Ryan took a moment to align all the information in her head and then shook it, needing no formal degree to predict their small contingent was going to have its work cut out for it this mission. "We'll keep our options open until we get close enough to form a better opinion. For now, good work. I'll prepare an interim report for the Commander, you all go grab something to eat and take a break." Alex's gaze fell firstly on Kirral and then finally on Leah, though she could have had her pick of workaholics and easily have placed herself atop the list. With a wry smile, the Science Chief lifted a hand with index finger and thumb a scant inch apart. "About this far from making it an order."