The Perimeter (Part 3 of 3)

Posted on 19 Mar 2013 @ 2:41pm 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 & Vincent Kramer Ph.D. & Crewman Athlen & Senior Chief Petty Officer Keval zh'Erinov & Raifi Zaren & Justin Baker

3,125 words; about a 16 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Bridge, Various
Timeline: MD 03 - 2110 hrs

Previously, on The Perimeter (Part 2)...

"Well just keep your eyes on the readouts, and if you see the spike, raise the shields anyway." Eve whispers, rising up and returning to her station.

Jeremy scowled. Of course he'd raise the shields at signs of danger. He wasn't going to let the ship get destroyed just because of someone else's curiosity. Instead he muttered a "Yes, Commander," as she left but -

"Sir," he called out in general, "We're being flooded with broadband Berthold rays." Looking over his shoulder he shook his head. "We're being probed. Tachyon emissions between the creatures are increasing. Berthold radiation levels are non-lethal and prevalent on every deck."

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

Jeremy frowned, running the scan again to make sure because what he was seeing couldn't be correct, not with the hypothesis they were working on. "Sensors indicate the amount of ionized gas is decreasing. I...I don't understand that."

Eve smirked, "Guess junior was eager to get out..." Her voice trailed off and her smile faded, "no..." her fingers darted along the console. "I was detecting up to six individual patterns now I'm only detecting the original two..."

Jacob adjusted his scans to focus on the Berthold and Tachyon emissions in case they got stronger as well as keeping a close eye on the creatures. He kept letting the data gather despite his want to look at it and start doing research in depth. He had to be patient though.

Looking down at her console, Lirha tapped several commands into the LCARS interface and tried her best to interpret the scientific readings that were being displayed...with little effect. "What happened to the other four patterns?" she asked.

Pola moved out of the turbolift as she entered onto the bridge following the message for her to report to the bridge". Her body was stiff as she looked around her. Moving over to the side so as she didn't get in anyones way, her focus was on the scene playing out on the view screen. "Can someone tell me what is happening?"

Dawn put a hand on her hip, giving Pola a nod and then frowning at the viewscreen. "It looked like those two Calamarains had given birth, but the patterns of the children vanished." Her eyebrows furrowed. "It doesn't make a lot of sense."

Corynn'tha stepped forward to stand behind a strongly built security officer, and then looked towards the Command Chair. "Captain, I am Doctor Corynn'tha, the ship's Xenobiologist. It is highly possible that the offspring was ingested, and for two possible reasons."

Kell looked up from his readings. Ingested.

The tall and elegant Vulcan placed a loose strand of dark hair behind an ear before looking forward again. "The first possibility would be that the offspring was not sired by the male, therefore were absorbed so the next line produced would be from this male. Another is that they hold the young fora period of time within themselves. Many different species of creatures participate in such manner." An eyebrow raised as considered something. "We could attempt contact, as they communicate through sequences of tachyon emissions."

Kell continued monitoring and then brought up the surrounding sensor readings, isolating the specific patterns of tachyons they'd been receiving. "We've only been getting a couple. Like background noise. How's it interpreted?" the Capellan asked.

Evelyn reviewed the sensor reading, "It doesn't matter. Seems to me they've detected us, and aborted their reproduction cycle. The two seem to be pulling away from each other."

"Did we cause it?" Kell asked, glancing at Coleman.

Coleman looked at Kell, "All I remember of my Cosmozoan Biology class at the Institute about the Calamarain is they don't like any disturbance during this process. Even a stray solar flare or a rogue comet would have them end the process abruptly." She frowned.

"Back us off slightly Helm - just in case they decide to get a little more annoyed..." John called out, knowing that whilst he might not be a Calamarain, he too would be pretty irritated if someone had stopped him in the middle of an intimate moment. The distance that Galileo had maintained however was far greater than the XO would have thought to define as "too close", and the fact that these organisms had aborted their...procedure suddenly was quite surprising.

Dea responded by backing Galileo off a bit more, "Backing off to 750,000 km Commander." The reasoning was sound. Really the last thing Mialin wanted to deal with was a bunch of pissed off Calamarain's because a private moment had been interrupted.

"Well," Amril observed, "if they are frequently interrupted by common spatial phenomenon, I'm sure they will recover from our interruption."

Jeremy crossed his arms and leaned back in the chair, frustrated. They'd been scanned by the creatures, which he considered a prelude to the possibility of hostility but...he sighed. At this rate he could have just stayed in his quarters to run tactical from a PADD.

Lirha stared at the viewscreen and let out a soft sigh of disappointment. She hated to think that her starship had disturbed the creatures, much less be party to some sort of non-coporeal abortion. On the main viewscreen, the large blue swirls of gas were still present, however they were much more wispy than before. It seemed their coitus had temporarily ended, but they were content to allow Galileo's long-range presence. At least, for the moment.

Not wanting to deny the rest of her crew the opportunity to view the rarely-seen Calamarain, Lirha reached down and tapped a button on her console which opened the ship's comm channel with a soft chirp. "All hands, this is the captain. If you will please turn your attention towards the forward viewports and the video feed from the bridge, you will notice two Calamarain approximately seven-hundred and fifty thousand kilometers off the port bow. These beings are non-coporeal and very rarely seen or studied. We currently have a small science team passively monitoring the creatures, however we will ask that all crew refrain from disturbing the creatures with active sensor scans. Saalm out."


Sickbay

Meanwhile, down on deck four, the Captain's announcement played across the communication node in the Intensive Care Unit. The doors to the passageway slid open and Lieutenant (JG) Andreus Kohl walked in to hear the back half of the message. On the large LCARS display set into the bulkhead, there appeared a cerulean haze framed by stars. Despite the sight, the blond Argelian was scanning everywhere else with his eyes. His eyes lingered on each of his colleagues, looking for her, but she wasn't there. He took a deep breath. He was relieved she wasn't there --it was his first time back to Sickbay in days-- but he was also disappointed that he would have to wait longer. And so he stepped closer to the display, and he wondered what everyone else thought of the aliens.

"Even if we wanted to, we couldn't scan them the way we're used to," remarked Delainey ruefully, referencing medical officers in general. "Although this discovery almost makes me want to dawn a gee suit...almost."

As he strode further into the compartment and came to stand beside Delainey, Kohl said, "If we were out there, close enough to touch them, I wonder if touching a semi-corporeal life form would tickle?"


Intelligence Office

Amynta Markos frowned as she heard the announcement, taking a deeper breath as she stood, glancing around before winking at one of the crewmembers. At least something was happening.


Bridge

Amril was working at his console, but now looked up at the Lirha again. "I've reassigned operational resources away from active sensors, captain. I will ensure only high priority active scans are permitted for the time being."

"Very good, lieutenant." Lirha replied with an appreciative nod towards the Vorta. The last thing she wanted was for a curious scientist to begin refocusing the sensor array on the Calamarain, however she was still hopeful that Galileo could collect at least some data about the space-faring entities.

Turning back towards the science alcove, Lirha spoke in a curious voice. "Is there a way to mask the signature of our deflector arrays without upsetting the Calamarain?" she asked. It was a long shot, but at least worth a try, especially now that they had apparently ceased their reproductive activities.

Dr. Kramer looked from Panne to Liyar and then to the Captain, then spoke up. "Sir? If I may? I'm not much of a biologist, but I am an excellent geologist. May I recommend that we make a small asteroid packed with short range and passive sensors, as well as visual recording devices. It wouldn't even have to transmit to us. We could go around to the other side and pick it up."

After hearing the doctor's proposal, Lirha stroked her chin in thought. "An interesting idea, Doctor." she thoughtfully replied, looking over at the blue-collared man.

Kramer further emphasized, "If it looks like and smells like a rock, then they will ignore it."

"A discrete observation post, of sorts?" the captain thought out lout.

Kramer explained. "The transporter can create it with the help of replicator files, assembling it next to the ship and sending it close to the Calamarain."

"Why not just scan for what's not there?" Jeremy asked, glaring at his station, his arms still folded.

Having stayed quite to this point, Pola stepped forward at her eyes still scanned across the image playing out on the view screen. "If I may. To go any further, no matter how we may mask our signal is detrimental to the Calamarain. We have already been the probable cause in the interrupting out their reproduction cycle, no matter if our intent is scientific exploration, we have no right to interfere in races in such a way as we are now by taking risks which may not work."

Amril leaned forward on his console, the Calamarain temporarily forgotten. A smile touched his features as he listened to the Starfleet officers argue about the reproductive cycle of a space-faring creature and their exploration of it. They were just as fascinating as the Calamarain, perhaps more so to him, and as he listened he tried to understand their motivations as a whole and as individuals.

Keval was on duty when the yellow alert sounded. He was running a series of diagnostics on the communications system. He would have preferred the security system, but he wasn't about to cross swords with Stone about this. The less he saw of the egotistical bastard the better. There was something amiss, he couldn't see it, the diagnostic wasn't picking up but it was there. He knew it. He would tack it down, he just hoped it was before it became an issue.

Lirha looked back at Pola with a hint of hesitation in her green eyes. The doctor had a valid point; They had already inadvertently interrupted the beings' natural processes, and although it was with good intentions and in the name of science, they were probably being somewhat disruptive to the sensitive creatures. It was such a rare opportunity that Lirha had wanted to do everything in her power to collect data on them, but she slowly began to realize that her ambition and curiosity might be getting the best of her. The last thing she wanted to do was to upset the Calamarain and put her crew in danger.

Turning to her XO, the Orion captain let out a soft sigh and looked up at him. "Perhaps the doctor is right? I do not want to overstay our welcome..." she said to him in a quiet voice.

Maenad was angry. She watched her console silently, her lips together. If no one heeded her advice to stay as far away from the creatures as possible, then that was their problem. The Galileo was such a small ship that from her suggested distance they would have been perfectly fine. She was also flustered by the amount of people crowding the bridge, and she was confused as to why there were more science personnel than necessary for such a mundane task. They didn't even need to scan the Calamarians to watch them, either; they could have just magnified the viewscreen, but no. No one wanted to do that and her opinion seemed to not matter. She crossed her legs as she ran her tongue over teeth behind lips, watching her control over the ship's sensors disappear to the defector on the other side of the bridge. As the streams of data that they'd been getting were cut off, Maenad's job, and the rest of the science stations, were rendered useless. She crossed her arms when she found that her hands had nothing more to do and she clenched her jaw as she stared down at the idle console.

It hadn't been them, Dawn decided. Trying to explain the actions of something like a Calamarain based on how a humanoid - albeit a strange and possibly infanticidal one - would act didn't really work. She wasn't even sure they'd actually done anything with the children. Or if there had been children at all. She narrowed her eyes at the press again. She could see it now: Starfleet Crew Causes Celestial Abortion. Great.

Jared remained in his quarters. He'd accessed his computer to determine the nature of the mission and didn't think his presence would be needed. If it was then he would be notified. In the meantime he would use his time to deepen his understanding of Ferengi. He had picked up a very basic understanding of it and wanted to master it.

"Very well. Helm get us out of here - we don't need to be any more of an interruption than we already have been."

Sighing, John thumped the arm of his chair as he gave the order to the helm to remove the Galileo from this location. It seemed that whilst they might have gathered some useful intel on an otherwise unknown species, it could have come at the cost of a new life.

"Aye Sir," Dea complied with the order. Carefully piloting Galileo away from their current location giving the new species a wide berth. Sure she had mixed feelings about this encounter but duty required her complete attention so she focused on that.

Hearing her XO give the order to depart from the presence of the Calamarain, Lirha turned and took a final glance across the crowded bridge. Despite the short-lived observation period, they had made a relatively historic breakthrough and had managed to observe and record the non-corporeal beings more so than any other starship in Federation history. Quite an achievement for the beginning of their survey mission, she mused. "Thank you for that opportunity, and a job well done. No doubt the information and observations we collected will prove to be very valuable to Starfleet Command." she addressed the entire bridge crew and FNN team with a content smile.

"Perhaps next time," Amril suggested, "we could develop a probe that would not disrupt their life cycle. We will be in the system for some time..."

Pushing a hand through her hair, Pola let out a little sigh of relief. Next time could be dealth with next time, science could research how to get it right but for right now, the species would no longer be at risk.

Dr. Kramer turned back to his console and said under his breath, "Just another day of looking the other way. Now, we look for other fish to fry." and shrugged.

Justin twisted his wrist as Remo took in a full angle of the bridge and her crew. It had been a gold mine when they got to witness the play between the crew and senior staff in the right and wrong of the decisions they needed to make. This was gold pressed latinum in his eyes.

Zaren glanced at Justin with a small quirk of a smile, then surveyed the crew members and their various reactions silently.

Jacob looked over Maenad and said, "That was remarkable and yet unsettling. Something to reflect on indeed. Excellent work though Dr. Panne, excellent work. Now we can use this data to formulate a better response if, or when, ever we might run into these creatures again." He smiled over at her and then went back to sorting and filing what data they had just collected.

Jool continued to watch the Bridge crew as they moved away from the Calamarains. While she understood her people's near xenophobia was detrimental to their standing in the galaxy as a whole, there were times that she had to admit it was probably one of the better policies. Today - watching the tiny ship tempt fate with the Calamarain - she was definitely in the 'mentally deficients' camp. Still, her mind buzzed with the story and how it would be packaged and reported for her audience. Despite the danger, despite the folly of it she also had to admit it was rather exciting.

In space, Galileo moved away from the Calamarain. The tiny starship discretely slipped away from the non-corporeal beings, and turned her attention back on the Rojar system.

[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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