Experience (tbd)

Posted on Thu Jul 10th, 2025 @ 4:52am by Lieutenant Commander Savin & Lieutenant JG Nayisa Wrea

Mission: Pandora's Box
Timeline: MD5 - evening
1606 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure

The cat herding was precisely why Nayisa never wanted a department head role. It was as annoying to send reminders as it was receiving them, so she felt a pang of guilt for the call that was ringing to the newer security chief, Stef. It was technically Kevan's job to gather these reports, but he was so busy with all the security tasks that there was no notable objection when she offered to do this simple task for the ongoing investigation. Late reports meant delays in the investigation, and the last thing she needed was more criticism of her work today.

The image of a very young looking Vulcan appeared on the screen. He was doing his best to keep a straight and stoic expression on his face but anyone knowing how to read a Vulcan could see he was barely keeping things together. "A little busy here ma'am," he apologized,"I am aware I have neglected to report but I have so much going on I do not have time to put together more reports. I do not even know where to start."

Nayisa's usual professionalism transitioned into surprise, then into sympathy when she saw the stressed Vulcan. She didn't even need to be a social intelligence background to identify the overwhelmed nature behind his eyes. Compared to P'Rel, this young man was practically an open book. She eyed the single pip on his collar; having an Ensign as head of security was practically unheard of because the necessary experience required to run a department usually came after several years in the field. The poor guy was undoubtedly in over his head.

She gave him a calm smile, "Stef, right? What can I help with?" It was probably a little odd for her to be asking such a question, especially since they weren't crewmates, but they were in the same squadron. She had her own work to do, but since much of it was investigative, she had a little time to spare. "Forgive me, but you look like you're going to pass out or something."

"I may have neglected to rest or obtain nourishment," the young man admitted as he briefly glanced sideways when something caught his attention. "I am receiving readings that do not make any sense. There is no logic to them, perhaps you could have a look? I can send the data to you."

If they were in any other situation, Nayisa may have cracked a joke to tease the poor soul on the other end. Instead, she locked onto the bit about foregoing nourishment. "Sure, I can help. Several colleagues describe me as illogical, so maybe I can find what's missing." She paused, then added, "bring the data to your ship's mess hall. I'll meet you there."

"You are Human," the Vulcan agreed, "a very illogical species. Very well, I will meet you there in .." he paused, arching a single eyebrow at her. ".. ten minutes?"

Nayisa simply flashed her charismatic smile in response. "Ten minutes."

Barely ten minutes later, carrying several PADDs and a tricorder, Stef walked into the mess hall and found himself a perch at one of the window tables. Leaving the items, he went to get himself a simple meal consisting of a cheese sandwich and some vegetarian vegetable soup. Carrying the tray back to his table, he waited for the Athena intelligence officer to arrive.

Nayisa honestly wasn't that hungry, so perhaps an invitation to a mess hall wasn't the most appropriate, however she made the offer for the sake of the poor security chief. With the mostly-true excuse of working on this investigation, she was able to transport to the other ship. It took a couple minutes to find the mess hall, but when the doors finally opened she looked around.

Man, he looked worse in person.

The silver-haired woman spotted Stef by the window setting his tray down. Having worked with P'Rel, she knew what organised was for a Vulcan and he was not fitting that description. She entered the line for the replicator, and when it was her turn she asked for some tea and a small bowl of fruit, something light but still fulfilling. Grabbing the replicated items, she then turned and approached the table, giving him a warm smile. "I hope after this is over you will take the time to go do something that relaxes you," she commented, acknowledging his plight. "Judging by the stack of PADDs here, I'm guessing... what, at least 12 hours of meditation to relieve the stress?"

"Perhaps," Stef answered as he rose in respect to her superior rank. He sat back down when she too sat, and pushed a particular PADD her way. "These sensor readings make no sense, it is like something is out of alignment, but every diagnostic returns as operational without error."

She gave him grace for the formality, this time. Now curious, Nayisa picked up the PADD and took a minute to read its contents. She stabbed a strawberry with her fork, but when she brought it close to eat it she paused, her brow furrowing as she continued to study the sensor readings. The strawberry hovered a couple inches from her face for a few seconds before she finally ate it. "That is bizarre," she said, once she swallowed the fruit. "It's like... whatever was being scanned got... smaller? But that doesn't make sense. That's physically impossible, considering the circumstances."

Not a scientist like his twin sister was, Stef didn't really understand. "What do you mean, got smaller? Like it is getting downsized?" He grabbed a different PADD, loaded a file and pushed it towards her. "What about this? Here, it disappears. One second it is there, the next it is not. I am very certain sensors did not malfunction, I calibrated and checked them myself." He sighed. "I wish T'Para was here..she would know."

Nayisa focused on the new information presented, then looked between the two data streams. "That's what it looked like to me from a first pass. I have an Ops background, so cut me some slack," she said with a smirk, briefly looking up at him. Returning her focus to the data, she then added, "it does look like something simply ceased to exist. From this data feed, it looks instantaneous, but from this one," she gestured to the first PADD, "it's almost like... the only reasonable comparison I can make is it looks like trying to see something through a door that is closing. What you can see on the other side gets smaller, or narrower, until it's no longer visible. I'm not saying this is any weird mirror universe nonsense, but from this perspective it's like you see less and less of the scanned object until it's no longer there. Until it literally disappears from scanners." There was a brief pause, then, "who's T'Para?"

"She was my twin sister. She was killed during one of our academy starship rotations. She was in the science track and she has the misfortune of running into a Kzinti when a boarding party invaded our ship. We had never been separated for long before." He gestures at the elusive data in front of them. "She would have grasped at this mystery with a passion," he added, "but it makes no sense to me. What exactly are we looking at..a temporal anomaly? A wormhole?"

"I'm sorry to hear that." Nayisa took another pensive bite of her fruit. "Honestly, this looks like something the science team should take a look at. All I can say with certainty is that it looks like things... and maybe even people... just disappeared. That actually aligns with the reports from some of the security teams, where they reported raiders just vanishing into thin air without a transporter signature."

The young Vulcan nodded. "But where did they vanish to," he wondered out loud. "If you could bring it to your ship's science team...they seem to be the most ah.. experienced among the teams present."

Nayisa couldn't tell if he was trying to crack a joke, because the statement was so obvious. She knew some science, but not for something like this, and she didn't know what Stef had for an education but if he was a security officer then he probably only got basic science training as well. "I'm sure they're already on it, Bill Nye, but I'll make sure this gets to them."

"Who is Bill Nye?" Stef queried, arching a single eyebrow to support his question, "yes, please make certain they receive this data, I feel it is important." Steff pushed another PADD towards her. "Additional data," he supplied, "and I will keep them running."

"Only one of the greatest scientists that ever came from Earth, next to Einstein," Nayisa replied with a smirk. She looked at the new PADD and gave it a read-through, eventually nodding. "Great, this will be helpful for both the investigation and the other security teams, thanks."

The young Vulcan didn't seem any less confused however, but his expression was soon replaced by one of determination. "You are welcome. I should return to my station and keep uploading data," he suggested quietly.

Nayisa nodded, knowing she should do the same. Collecting the PADDs, she stood from her seat. "For the record, I think you're doing fine," she said with a smile and a wink. She then took her bowl to the replicator to discard before exiting the mess hall.

Watching her leave, Stef gathered his own things and discarded his lunch items to the replicator before returning to his own duties.