Relics Pt1

Posted on Mon Mar 15th, 2021 @ 10:32pm by Lieutenant Commander Timo Schaefer & Lieutenant Charlie Caspian & Lieutenant JG Tobias Jackson-Sanders & Lieutenant JG Ovrora Sh'rholok & Ensign Sturnack & Ensign Kevin Ibanez & Captain Tobias Bach

Mission: The Relics of Isonzo
Location: Bridge
Summary:
Timeline: Mission Day 2 at 1430

Sometimes bridge postings were boring. This was ok, Ovrora told herself as she scanned the same data stream that had been on her screen for the last 30 minutes. Wasn't life supposed to be what happens when you weren't busy or some such nonsense? If that was true the Andorian supposed that life was very dull indeed. Absently she tapped her screen bringing up a small-time clock that indicated only fifteen minutes had passed since she had last checked. Her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she had, against all intelligent plans, skipped lunch. She glanced at the clock again then frowned.

"Lieutenant," she called, breaking the quiet on the bridge to get the attention of the operations officer occupying the captain's chair at the moment. "The Zheng He is late for their check-in." Her frown deepened as she turned to face the center chair. "Should we... check on them?" she asked.

Having fallen deep into his own mind as he flicked through the various details held upon the PADD in his grasp, to have his focus broken so abruptly by his Andorian colleague came as a very mild shock to Toby whose gaze switched swiftly from Ovrora to the ship's chronometer and then back to her as he nodded slowly and stood.

Moving to overlook the shoulder of the ensign that had temporarily replaced him at the operations station, he took a quick look at the data the station display held before frowning, "We haven't even picked up the slightest attempt from them to communicate, I think we might need to go after them."

Returning to the chair, he opened a communications channel, "Commander Schaefer to the bridge. The Zheng He has failed to check-in sir, I believe a pursuit may be required."

The Chief Engineer didn't respond to Toby's call over the comm. It took only moments for him to traverse the corridor from the ready room to the bridge. "Let's give them a few more minutes, but just in case, you and Sturnack prepare the ship to break orbit. Ensign plot a course for their projected position," Timo said, sending the Operations Chief back to his console.

"Aye, sir." Sanders responded to his senior officer, patting the ensign that had occupied his station to dismiss him before retaking his regular seat.

"Acknowledged," Sturnack said, nodding from the Engineering console. To the casual onlooker, breaking orbit seemed as easy as the helm officer just tapping some buttons to make the magic happen. Like most things in life, however, perception rarely matched reality. Reaching forward, the Vulcan began any number of tasks related to prepping the ship to escape the mass they were orbiting below — tasks made more difficult by the ongoing issues with the Ulysses' computer core.

Over the last day, the Chief Engineer had dispatched teams to work on the core, hoping to repair its linkages with the rest of the ship — linkages that had been obliterated by the systemic power surges caused by the ship's traversal of the energy field the day before. While the engineering teams zeroed in on the final repairs belowdecks, the Vulcan manned the Bridge, manually augmenting the computer's functions with his own calculations. "The necessary engine power is now available," Sturnack reported, nodding to himself once again.

"Helm standing by," Kevin reported, looking a little more alert than he had been, having spent most of his shift so far trying not to fall asleep with one elbow propped up on the console in front of him.

Settling into the vacated chair, he looked to his left, focusing on Caspian and Ovrora, "Lieutenants, I'm sure I already know this answer, but is there any way to track the Zheng He without going after them?"

Ovrora shot Caspian a look and frowned. "Not easily, sir," she replied. "Unless they've gone to warp there isn't really a good signature for us to track, and even then the ion storm is still periodically throwing ghosts on our sensors."

Caspian nodded as her friend spoke. "Under normal circumstances, I'd suggest using the relays we launched earlier to extend our sensor range and compensate for the ghosts... but the ionization is just bouncing the signals all over the place."

"Damn, okay, five more minutes," The minutes seemed to crawl for Timo, and he caught himself tapping the arm of the chair impatiently. He wasn't overly concerned about the other ship. There wasn't likely anything in this system that could harm them, but the first live broadcast test was in a few hours, and the Ulysses needed the Zheng He to make that connection possible.

As the time allotted elapsed, the Human engineer sighed. Shaking his head, he made eye contact with his Operations Chief, "Alright Toby, get me the Captain."

Nodding in acknowledgment of his instruction, Toby's hands moved across his console rapidly before speaking, "Ulysses to landing party..." The operations officer knew immediately from the readings on his console that the initial message would not have been strongly received, "We're getting a lot of interference Commander, I'll see if I can clear it up a bit." he said to the current man in charge.

"Landing Party," Bach's voice was a gravelly mess, "Repeat your message, you're-< 'and his voice too scattered, "Boost your signal." An Engineer next to Timo made quick work, tapping at his console before he nodded to the Chief Engineer. "Repeat this is Landing Party," Bach's voice was clearer now, but still distorted, "What's your status, Commander? We've got base camp set up and the shield generators are in place to deflect the ion storms. Now we're working on air filtration."

"Sorry to disturb you, Captain," Timo started, but the smile on his face said otherwise. "The Zheng He is almost fifteen minutes overdue for their latest check-in. They were investigating a blip from their magnetometer near the star, and I imagine they've had some sort of communications failure. As you know, the Engle-class has been prone to chambers coil failures, but I'd like permission to take the Ulysses out towards the star and see if we can get a read on them. If they have had a comms problem, we may have to delay the live test tonight," The Engineer paused for the Captain's response, wondering if he would want to be brought back up for this jaunt out into the system.

There was a pause that warbled and siren-called, so it was hard to tell if Bach had spoken or if it was just disturbance. A few moments later, Bach could be heard over the comm talking to Commander Muldowney. "Understood. With all the ionic disturbance floating around the system, their systems might have a hard time cutting through so close to the star. Check it out. If anything's amiss, get in communication immediately. I expect to hear from you in no more than two hours time."

"Aye, sir. We'll be back before dinner. You can count on it, Ulysses out," Timo nodded to Toby to cut the link, but the seasoned officer had already done so. "Mr. Ibanez, break orbit and lay in the course for the Zheng He's expected position. Take us to full impulse power as soon as we clear the gravity well. Toby, bring the ship to Yellow Alert, please, and standby heat shields."

"Aye sir," Kevin reported, sliding his fingers up the impulse thrust meter. "We are underway."

Pumping as much energy as he could draw from the still struggling power generators at Ulysses disposal, there was a quiet but genuine concern that their slowly diminishing lack of power combined with an increasingly frustrating delay from the computer to execute any command he input would make their relatively straight forward task unnecessarily challenging to complete

Turning to glance at Ovrora, Caspian spoke softly. "There's something wrong here, Ro. I should at least be picking up Zheng He's transponder signal by now. Even if the ion storm was bouncing it around so we couldn't determine its actual location... But I'm not getting anything..."

Ovrora frowned, tapping the side of her console as if doing so might change the data that had been accumulating on her screen for the last several minutes. As they had traveled closer to the star where the Zheng He was believed to be located several numbers had jumped. Curiosity warred with concern and she ran a few quick diagnostics to be sure the sensor readouts were accurate.

Finally convinced she was not seeing errors she turned toward the central chair where the chief engineer had taken up residence. "Sir," she said, clearing her throat to get his attention, "I'm detecting a significant increase in soliton particles in the background. We ran a series of scans on this area when we placed relays yesterday and the concentration has jumped from parts per trillion to parts per billion."

The Chief Engineer shook his head following the update from the Andorian. He considered what the ramifications of jump in particles would be on their mission, "That's a hell of a jump, Lieutenant. What's causing it?"

"I can't say exactly what's causing it, but it does appear that the star's coronal activity is destabilizing. I see increased sunspots in three," she scanned again, "no five different areas within a particular localization. The start's magnetic field appears to be warming as the sunspots appear. I'm concerned we're going to see another ion storm ejection in," she paused, calculating rapidly, her antennae twitching as she did so, "in the next few hours at the latest."

Her report cause Timo to respond with a raised eyebrow, and if not for the worry on his face, he might have pulled off the Sturnack maneuver, "The next few hours? Previous surveys indicated we had months before the next ejection. Full analysis, Mr. Ovrora."

Azure flingers flying she placed tips on a central image and expanded them outward flinging the image forward to place points of measurement all around the sunspots. Two more had appeared in the time since she had identified them to the Chief Engineer and they had begun to form an obvious circular design. Tapping further she sent sensors outward, setting them to map the particles. Perhaps these were why the Zheng He had gone silent.

After what felt like ages, but was only minutes, the image of the particles began to form. Ovrora's stomach dropped. Particles were many things, but naturally occurring in this shape was not one of them.

"Ummm..." she said, alarm coloring her tone. "The particles appear to be forming a conical shape radiating away from the star. It starts roughly," she tapped again, "1.1 million kilometers from the star's corona. That's not a shape you see naturally occurring in soliton particles." She paused again, palming her interface to bring up the diagnostics on their sensor range. "Sir, the particles are interfering with any sensor sweeps out beyond the cone. I'm not sure we're going to be able to see the Zheng He if she's here."

Frowning and watching his own console's readings closely as he did his best to listen in on what the ship's science officer was reporting, Toby spun his is chair once she'd finished talking, "I'm not sure we'd see very much regardless. We're struggling to maintain our power levels, sir, I'm going to need to start shutting down systems if she doesn't get a rest and some maintenance soon." It was less than ideal but the Malachowski class starship had been pushed hard in recent weeks and she was beginning to push back a little bit.

"Just don't shut the shields down, Toby, ok?" Caspian gave the ops officer a nervous grin. She glanced at Schaeffer. "Commander - how about sending out a couple of shuttles ahead of us and pinging the area we think Zheng He is in with active sensors at close range? If we get a contact, triangulating her position should be fairly straight-forward..."

"Bridge this is Astrophysics...," the voice of a Draylaxian woman spoke up over the comm, "We're detecting a spectral ghost about a million kilometers from the star's surface down here." she continued. "There's a distinct organic shift in the spectral emissions bearing 066 mark 312. I'm detecting... carbon... metallic elements... trace oxygen. We're also detecting traces of drive plasma. But it's dissipating fast in the stellar wind."

"Maybe the Zheng He had some engine trouble, but that still doesn't explain the solitons," Timo stated in the way of dismissing Caspian's suggestion as no longer necessary. "Put that area on viewer and keep trying to hail them, Toby. Ibanez, alter course to intercept but drop us back to one-half. I don't want to run into them with all this sensor distortion. Ovrora, focus sensors on that area, see if you can lock on to them." He quickly tapped a button on his chair, opening a line to sickbay, "Doctor, we've picked up traces of drive plasma and are moving to intercept. Perhaps the Zheng He has encountered some engine trouble. It's precautionary, but perhaps you should prepare to treat people with radiation exposure."

The young Andorian officer was already moving to move sensors into place, singling in on the coordinates that her colleague has indicated. Her fingers danced rapidly across her console as she maneuvered the sensor arrays into place then jetted upward to a different screen where she intended the results to display.

"Aye, sir," Kevin reported as he changed this ship's course to intercept. "Dropping to one-half impulse." He blinked for a moment when it looked as if something blipped on the navigational sensors, but then the next moment it was gone. Figuring it was just an optical illusion, he ignored it.

Trying hard to listen to what was going on around him, Toby's battle to keep power levels adequate enough to complete their task was intensifying minute by minute as Ulysses continued the search for their comrades. It was difficult for the Ops manager to determine if they were losing what ever they had briefly detected because it had disappeared or because their own sensors were starved of the resources they needed to operate, "I'm temporarily shutting down all recreational and scientific facilities, I should be able to give our short and medium range sensors a boost" Sanders said, watching as almost half the extra power freed up by the move was immediately sucked up by more vital systems which drew a sigh from Sanders, "Sturnack, I could really do with getting an internal generator back to full output."

Swinging the starboard bow tactical sensors towards the co-ordinates which the astrophysics officer had highlighted, Caspian frowned. There had been a flash of something on her panel - only momentarily - and now it was gone. She played back the data and frowned once more at the analysis. She turned her head to speak to the science officer seated behind her, but spoke loudly enough for the rest of the bridge crew to hear.

"Ro... I just got a blip of something... duranium and titanium composite... But it wasn't big enough to be the Zheng . And now it's gone again..."

Ovrora nodded her agreement with Caspian's readings. "Checking to see what I can find now," she said by way of response, her fingers again seeing to fly across the screen in front of her.

The main screen blipped to the location, a blinding warm white light completely filling the bridge with day. Gradually the sensor screens began to filter out the bands until a dark ring-shaped object, very faint and fuzzy, could be seen on a background that resembled broiling white oatmeal.

Timo squinted, rubbing his chin as the object cleared slightly, "Reduce brightness by one-quarter. What the hell is that?" He asked, knowing it was too large to be the Zheng He.

"Holy shit..." Kevin muttered under his breath as he stared out of the viewscreen at whatever it was that was in front of him. He'd never seen anything like it before.

"Getting readings now sir," Ovrora responded in acknowledgment of the Chief Engineer's question. "The unknown object is roughly..." she double-checked her readings before continuing, "700, maybe 800 meters long and the same quantity in width. Sensors are having trouble evaluating its construction, but what we see so far suggestions a carbon-ceramic makeup. Extremely dense structurally."

A loud alarming screech emanated from the science officer's workstation, drawing the woman from her readings on the unknown object to the new information. Her jaw dropped as she read. "Uh..." she started, half distracted as she continued to take in the details, "Sensors are picking up the drive plasma and..." she tapped to confirm, afraid to continue if the information was incorrect. Looking up from her readings she met Timo's eyes. "Sir, there are biosignatures. Or at least I believe there are. Three of them. And the rest looks like wreckage. Bringing it up on screen now."

The screen before them filled with the warm oscillating light of the star, but as it zero'd in on Ovrora's coordinates the objects in front of them became painfully and alarmingly clear. A port nacelle, entirely separated from its starship, gyrated slowly, the motion clearly a response to the pull of the nearby star. Dark striations near the strut and strained and twisted metals indicated its removal had been less than easy. Saucer pylons remained as well, also showing evidence of extreme strain.

The Andorian woman gaped for only a moment before glancing back down at her readings. Her heart dropped into her stomach as she did. "Sir, that nacelle is from the Zheng He. I'm sure of it."

"Red Alert!" Exclaimed the acting CO as his finger instantly stabbed the corresponding button on the chair's arm. Another quick movement opened a ship-wide channel as the overhead lights dimmed and the familiar klaxon blared. Throughout the ship, the alert status indicator flipped red, animated bars drawing attention. Timo's voice boomed, echoing from all corners of the Ulysses, "General Quarters! General Quarters! All hands to Battle Stations, this is no drill! I repeat this is no drill!"

To be continued...