The Perimeter (Part 1 of 3)

Posted on 19 Mar 2013 @ 2:39pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D. & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Coleman & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Amril & Lieutenant Theron Rhodes & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant Dawn Meridian & Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Lieutenant Commander Amynta Markos & Command Master Chief Markum Quinn & Lieutenant JG Delainey Carlisle & Corynn'tha M.D., Ph.D. & Warrant Officer Evan Kell & Senior Chief Petty Officer Keval zh'Erinov & Crewman Athlen & Vincent Kramer Ph.D. & Raifi Zaren & Justin Baker

4,012 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Bridge, Various
Timeline: MD 03 - 2035 hrs

[ON]

Almost two and a half days had passed since Galileo departed SB-185, headed for Sector 025 and the Federation's latest promising discovery in deep space. The journey had been uneventful (for the most part), and the crew had settled into their new and returning assignments with relative grace. The continued presence of the large Galaxy Class USS Venture was also a calming sight, and further helped to boost crew morale on the eve of new scientific discoveries.

In the blackest depths of space, two bright warp flashes signaled the arrival of Galileo and her escort, after which the two ships delicately maneuvered at impulse until they established standard formation. Tucked safely beside the larger ship's space frame, the tiny Nova Class had finally arrived at her destination; A bright yellow sun in the near distance surrounded by a robust solar system. Rojar 861.

As the Galileo dropped back into normal space, Jonathan Holliday, currently manning the centre chair breathed a sigh of relief. Having spent the past few hours on the Bridge, the XO had been fully aware that this shift was likely to be cut short by their arrival into this new and unexplored solar system. Looking down at the chair's control arm, he tapped the comm.

=^=Bridge to Saalm - we've just dropped out of warp at the edge of the Rojar system. =^=

The hour was getting late and Lirha was half-asleep in her quarters when her commbadge chirped. The familiar sound of her XO's voice snapped her from her thoughts and back to reality. "On my way." she replied with a tap on her communicator, then quickly got to her feet and made her way to the bridge.

With a swish of the large turbolift door, the Orion captain marched into her ship's primary command center, around the siderail, then down into the central control area. A quick glance around the bridge revealed the entire team of beta shift bridge officers who were scheduled to finish their shifts in four hours. Unfortunately for them, Galileo had work to do.

"Report." Lirha called out to her XO as she approached him and looked up into his green eyes.

"Ma'am. All systems and stations report condition green. We're holding position at the coordinates specified at the edge of the system awaiting your orders."

With a nod, the XO lifted himself up and out of the captain's chair, before moving and taking his seat at his usual station by her side.

"Excellent, thank you, commander." the captain replied, then took a seat in her large command chair and opened the intraship comm channel. "All hands, this is the captain. We have arrived at the Rojar system. Set condition yellow." she said, hearing the familiar echo of her voice across the loud speakers. It was standard protocol to go to yellow alert while approaching an unknown solar system, and Lirha watched as the alert lighting lining the bridge began to methodically pulse in yellow waves.

From the Tactical station Lt. Rhodes activated the shields on the Galileo and performed a sensor sweep of the Rojar system for any ships. All shield deflectors were reporting operational. The complete scan of the system had only identified the Galileo and Venture to be currently in the system. This was all standard procedure, but Theron found it exhilarating to be doing it in a system that had not been previously visited.

Athlen tipped himself upright in his bed and blinked lazily. Kareel, his roommate, who was a joined Trill of most fascinating properties, was gone. On her shift, no doubt. He pulled on his uniform and stretched, swiping his commbadge of the table and pulling on his shoes. His mind was bathed in the remnants of happy sleep, long conversations with Mari over distances. Her voice was quiet now, as she too had eventually nodded off. He exited his quarters and trudged down the halls. "Athlen to Liyar. Liyar?" He blinked as he walked into the science labs. That was unusual. "Crewman Athlen to Warrant Kell."

The resulting answer this time was almost instantaneous. "Kell here."

"Do you have any idea where Liyar is? You're all being summoned to stations."

Evan Kell looked down at his desk and pondered that. "Mm. No, he's not around. I'll send up a comm. Did you need something?"

"Yeah, you heard the overhead. Liyar's supposed to be on the bridge."

"Yeah, I'll see what I can do."

Kell disconnected the system and blinked, before turning on the terminal at his desk. "Kell to Liyar. You there?" he asked his coworker, eyebrows knitting together when once again he received no answer. The overhead beeped again, reminding him that someone was supposed to be manning the post on the bridge, and he stood, tapping his commbadge. "Kell to Captain Saalm. Lieutenant Liyar is unresponsive. He's set up a DND signal." Which was highly unusual for the generally punctual and alert Vulcan, but, "Crewman Athlen is checking it out. I'll be up to the bridge shortly." He switched off that comm channel and opened another again to Athlen. "Athlen, you there?"

"Yes. I can't get any response from him. All I'm getting is a looping signal that says don't disturb, he's busy. Whatever that means. I'll check it out." Athlen wrapped his hands around the rail in front of him, staring out the window wondrously as the ship slowed through space and the Rojar system came into view.

"Yes, do that. I'll be on the bridge. Kell out." The intelligence officer shrugged on his uniform jacket and made his way down the turbolift. Once on the bridge, he crossed over to the mission ops system and sat down, giving a brief nod to Im'er and to his superior Coleman as he brought up their trajectory calculation map.

With the Beta shift nearing complete, Evelyn was already on the bridge when the ship approached the system. She remained seated by the Auxiliary station to the side of the bridge, eyes fixated on the sensor readouts from various satellites not noticing any enemy movements.

Dea awoke at the summons. Notifying the on duty Beta shift officer that she was on the way while she dressed. Leaving her quarters she stepped into the turbolift then quickly headed to her station once it arrived at the bridge.

Kiri had retreated to the bridge after having her emotions assaulted for a third time in the day. If she was somewhere public then she had stronger walls, that was just about all that was holding her together. If the words were true then there was no way she could would ever have any real friends, have anyone that liked her. Despite everything she was doing, everything she was trying to do. That weighed on her mind a lot more than just another star system among millions in the galaxy. Watching the streams of data unfold in front of her she focused on that, numbers that gave her facts. Something she could trust.

Jacob had been doing regular protocol scans and mandatory checks of the science systems including a diagnostic report and systems programming check. All was in good order.

The call to report to stations rang in Mor'an's ear and she immediately jumped from her meditation on the floor to answer. She had left her shift not long ago and had decided to meditate for a while. There were only two things to shake her from a meditation so completely: the voice of her mentor, Del'an and the call of duty. Walking briskly, Mor'an entered the bridge with a flutter of excitement on her chest.

Amril was in his quarters, reading a PADD that supposedly was about a ruler of Earth several centuries ago, some Prince or other. The author, Machiavelli, was quite intelligent and insightful, Amril thought from his initial reading. But when the yellow alert sounded, he placed the PADD on his nightstand and got up. He was fully dressed and in uniform, so it took him only the time required to walk to the turbolift before he was headed for the bridge.

Jeremy was waiting for this and moved as soon as the yellow alert status activated. He stopped at the door to his quarters and turned back to look at Sidi. "No, you have to stay here. I'm going to the Bridge and..." He shook his head as he turned away from the brown eyes staring at him, the canine body wanting to surge forward and go to duty. Jeremy slipped out the door quickly, before he could break and call Sidi to him. The corridors seemed smaller, darker as he crossed the few steps to the turbolift. His heartbeat pounded and his stomach twisted as the doors to the Bridge opened and he headed for the tactical station, replacing Rhodes.

"Go to the office and call up the back up stations," he whispered to Rhodes as they made the exchange.

Lt. Rhodes had slipped out of the seat at Tactical before the chief had arrived making the exchange easier. He replied back quietly, "Yes sir." And made his way to the turbo lift.

Quinn was walking the corridor of Deck-5 after concluding a quick surprise inspection of a few enlisted crew that had been known to slack off from their stations. To his surprise, they were working. Once the Captain has informed the ship of their position, and the yellow alert lights came on, he left for the Bridge. The CoB exited the turbolift and walked to stand to the left of the CO's chair. He was amazed at the sight before him. It was beautiful.

Turning her attention towards the bulkhead in front of her, Lirha decided that now was as good a time as any to get a good look at the undiscovered star. "Put the star on screen." she ordered, then watched as the large holographic viewscreen shimmered then materialized. In the distance, a yellow star was finally displayed.

"Magnify," Lirha called out, then watched as the ship's computer quickly recognized the voice command and enhanced the image by zooming in on the bright celestial body. To boldly go where no one has gone before... she mused to herself. There was no time like the present, and she quickly issued a series of orders to begin the survey.

"Contact Venture and inform them we are beginning initial reconnaissance." she called out over her shoulder towards the Operations alcove. "Helm, set one-half impulse and put us in orbit of the system."

From his station, Amril watched the star, but also the other officers. They seemed delighted by the sight, excited, fascinated. He was not entirely sure why. It was an easily classified star and there was nothing immediately apparent to make it unique. Maybe he was not cut out for exploration after all, if fascinating with stars was required. He sighed to himself and looked down at the console, pulling up a commlink to the Venture.

"Galileo to Venture," he said in a voice quiet enough that it would not disrupt activity on the bridge, "we are beginning to collect preliminary data on the system's current status."

Glancing up from Flight Control Dea responded, "Aye Ma'am, One-half impulse vector set for us to enter orbit of the Rojar system." Entering a few commands as she acknowledged the Captain's order. Dea was completely focused on her duties despite just getting out of bed a short time earlier.

Galileo's large impulse engine came online and began to glow bright red as the tiny ship maneuvered itself into very high orbit of the solar system, well beyond the last planet. Lirha was just as anxious as anyone else to begin the survey, but still knew that it was necessary to take the proper precautions before heading full-speed into an unknown collection of worlds. Especially with the press watching.

Turning towards the Science alcove, Lirha gave a nod to her chief science officer. "You may begin preliminary scans, lieutenant." she said, then turned towards her tactical officer. "Are there any other ships in the nearby vicinity?"

As soon as he sat, he began running scans of the system. "Aside from us and the Venture, Captain, scans are showing clear. Running active systems for known Borg or Romulan signatures." He didn't recognize the terse, clipped tone he used as he made his report.

He kept his eyes focused on the main viewscreen or his station, refusing to acknowledge that others even existed. Especially the one to his right.

Maenad was on the bridge ahead of arrival. She wanted to be there without having to be summoned by the captain or anyone else. Kiri was on duty at the primary science station, she had seen when stepped off the turbolift. She relieved her to the secondary station and sat down, running her hands over the console to configure it her way. When the ship dropped out of warp and the star appeared on screen, Maenad glanced up from her controls and stared at it for a few seconds longer than was necessary.

A tiny appreciative grin appeared on the corners of her lips; it was possible that she was one of the first people to ever see the star up close like this. But, Maenad didn't have the time to stare right now. She instantly began a variety of scans and began interpreting the data as it came in. Six planets, a Type G yellow star, two asteroid belts; it seemed like the Venture's initial scans were correct. There was too much interference to get intricate details of the large moon systems because their planets blocked a good portion of them. Maenad turned her head for a second, "I recommend launching a series of class four probes, captain, to enhance our sensors and begin basic a basic system survey,"

Dr. Kramer exited the turbo lift at that moment to hear the recommendation. He raked his fingers through his hair in excitement of the moment. He looked both ways and then headed to stand behind the Chief Science Officer.

"Very well." Lirha answered, "Prepare the probes and launch when ready." She agreed with the science chief, and at such a far distance a series of probe scans would probably reveal more information about the system than even Galileo's powerful dual-deflector array.

Sensing someone standing behind her, Maenad turned around to see Doctor Kramer. Weird, she thought. She gave him a soft smile and nodded to science station four.

Dr. Kramer glanced over to the Science 4 chair and then towards it and said, "Thank you." He sat down and first pulled up the inventory of probes on one side and the designated coordinates for each next to them.

Maenad configured the forward torpedo launchers to fire ten of her recommended probes at various coordinates in the system. Once readied, she pressed the button to launch and raised her eyes to watch them fly away on the viewscreen. "Probes launched," she said. Maenad turned her head to Kiri at the station off to her right, "Data should start coming in to you in a few seconds."

That wasn't helping. She'd had her office taken away, given a shift away from the people she wanted to be close to, had her confidence demolished and forced to question everything about herself. Now the task she had been preparing for and planning for most of the day taken over as well. She didn't matter, not in the slightest. Sinking heavily into the seat she'd been demoted to Kiri's fingers didn't move as fast as they normally did. Her eyes set heavy on the numbers that normally made her happy, they just felt numb. Wasn't she good enough, she thought she was perfect at her job. It didn't feel fair, nothing did.

Inside Galileo's forward torpedo launchers, the loading mechanism acquired a set of Class 4 probes from the magazine and proceeded to quickly load them into the launching mechanism. When given the final command from the bridge's science station, the Nova Class' torpedo tubes briefly flashed in sequential order, sending a small team of probes out towards the system on their various orbital trajectories.

Back on the bridge, several long minutes passed while Lirha patiently waited for the sensor data to be transmitted and interpreted by her ship's science staff. "Anything yet?" she called out towards the science stations.

"What do you have, Lieutenant?" Maenad had the data on her own console, but she wanted to hear Kiri's interpretation. She turned her head in her assistant's direction, but kept her eyes on her own screens, analysing and confirming the data that Kiri was to read.

"The system has over two million bodies of various sizes, ten thousand are larger than two hundred kilometers. There are six planets, >No. of moons< and two main asteroid belts," Kiri's voice was quieter, lifeless and dull compared to normal, "Navigation inside the inner system is hazardous," Her eyes were on the console and she didn't dare look at anyone else, "There is a complete spectrum of elements and minerals with various spikes that are not yet triangulated. There is also a blind spot at two hundred ninety four mark two ninety three caused by an orbiting ionized gas cloud. It blocks scans from inside the system and most approaches, a possible hazard." For all these new planets and moons, Kiri couldn't really bring herself to feel much of anything about them. She wanted to just crawl into bed.

Dr. Kramer lifted an eyebrow towards Lt. Panne and said softly, "Intriguing."

Lirha frowned at the report of a possible hazard and wondered what could possibly be generating the sensor interference, especially if no other ships were present. "An ionized gas cloud?" she asked, then scratched her chin in thought. "Have the probe relay its imagery to the main viewscreen." she ordered, curious to have a look at the strange phenomenon.

Kramer brought up the data of the scans on the ionized cloud. This was not fitting into any designated category he knew about, and he knew a great deal of spatial bodies.

After linking into the probe's data stream, Galileo's large viewscreen flickered and the image suddenly changed to display the ionized cloud of gas. Surrounded by the pitch black backdrop of space, a swirly ball of gaseous nature appeared to be sitting idly on the outskirts of the system. It produced a colorful hue of bright blue and white tones, and slowly rotated and tumbled on its own axis. Lirha had never seen anything like it before, and tilted her head to the side as if trying to get a better view. "What...is that?" she wondered out loud.

The XO had remained silent during the initial setup of their scientific instruments - it wasn't exactly his field of expertise and he was fully aware that there was still plenty for him to learn about those areas of the ship.

"More importantly - is there any chance that a vessel could be using it to elude our sensors?"

In the same dull tone Kiri answered first and still quietly, "The cloud is not dissipating, something is creating a gravitational or magnetic force strong enough to hold the gas in place. It could be an very dense material, or the remains of a gas giant that suffered a catastrophic impact in the past. If it was that then it might explain why the system wasn't detected before. The material could have disrupted sensors." Now her mind was starting to get involved Kiri felt very slightly better. "Or it could be something completely different, there are no organic signs, but it could be a spaceborn lifeform." Then it could be something completely different entirely.

Kramer turned to face the main viewscreen. He thought, A spaceborn lifeform could provide its own cover or shield to hide itself, but that is totally out of my field. He looked over Lt. Cho at Science 2 who would be most likely be checking for lifeforms.

Maenad preferred to stay quiet while she thought. For her, there was never any sense in thinking aloud. The data on her console said everything that Kiri had told them, and Maenad thought that she was right that this 'cloud' could have been a lifeform. As more data came in, the idea that it was a gas giant after suffering a catastrophic event became impossible, however. Maenad finally drew her eyes away from her console and toward the command pit. "There are no charged ion trails to suggest a conventional sub-warp propulsion system within sensor range," she said to put the commander at ease. More data was arriving every second. "Nor in the probe's range. We're the first ship to visit Rojar in at least several weeks - possibly months," she confirmed, scanning the screens for any residual ion trails.

"The cloud's coordinates are surrounded by a particularly dense patch of transition metals, which certainly would have affected the Venture's scans from its distance," Maenad continued. "The cloud's behaviour does not suggest there was a large gravitational body, and its chemical makeup is..." she frowned, "Is fluctuating..." a smirk. Maenad glanced at Kiri, then to Kramer, and back toward the command area. "Sensors show there are two distinct clouds, and they are reacting to each other independently. I believe Lieutenant Cho is correct that we very well could be looking at a lifeform."

Pulling up a database of interstellar life onto her screen Kiri started to cross reference the readings they were getting. There were some things that were starting to come in clearer now. They weren't composed completely of normal matter, some parts seemed to even fluctuate between matter and antimatter. High levels of Boron seemed to make up some of its basic chemistry, but she wasn't really a biologist or even a chemist. They were gaseous, but the energy readings were similar to a few lifeforms they had encounter before. Forwarding the data she had back to the primary terminal along with a shortlist of possible matches Kiri kept quiet, but was a little more interested.

Jacob looked over at Kiri as she made her reports, she sounded sad or upset. He made a mental note to ask her about things later. He continued to do some deeper research into what they were viewing.

Evelyn looked around the bridge at how gazing the reaction of the crew to the recent events. She bit her lower lip, turning to her station controlling the urge to laugh.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

LCDR Evelyn Coleman
Chief Intelligence Officer/2XO
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Amril
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo
played by Psylus Anon

LTjg Jeremy Stone
Chief Security/Tactical Officer/K9
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. (jg) Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. (jg) Theron Rhodes
Asst. Chief of Security
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Andreus Kohl
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Dawn Meridian
Counsellor
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Kiri Cho
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Delainey Carlisle
Asst. Chief Counselor
USS Galileo

ENS Lilou Peers
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Jared Nicholas
Language Speicalist
USS Galileo

MCPO Markum Quinn
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo

Warrant Officer Evan Kell
Intelligence Officer, SFI
USS Galileo
(PNPC Liyar)

PO2 Keval Graysan
Operations
USS Galileo
(PNPC Jared Nicholas)

Crewman Athlen
Sociologist, SSC
USS Galileo
(PNPC Liyar)

Dr. Vincent Kramer
Planetologist
(PNPC Rhodes)

Jool Fenta
Federation News Network
USS Galileo
(pNPC Rabe)

Raifi Zaren
Journalist, FNN
USS Galileo
(pNPC Lilou Peers)

Justin Baker
Cameraman, FNN
USS Galileo
(pNPC Pola Ni Dhuinn)

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