New Worlds (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 03 Apr 2013 @ 10:09pm by Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D. & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Coleman & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Lieutenant Theron Rhodes & Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Lieutenant Dawn Meridian & Lieutenant Commander Amynta Markos & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Ensign Jessica Wilson M.D. & Ensign Im'er Mor'an & Amril & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm
Edited on on 04 Apr 2013 @ 12:12pm

3,929 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Main Bridge
Timeline: MD 05 - 0500 hrs

[ON]

As the chronometer reached 0445, the distinctive and annoying sound of the alarm began to sound, rousing Lirha from her deep sleep. Reaching over with her green hand, she slapped a large button on the device and the shrill tone finally ceased. The captain let out a groan and rolled on to her back, then began the slow process of waking herself up. It was three hours before her shift was due to start but she knew that Galileo would be arriving at Rojar II in only a few short moments. Normally she would have been content to let Commander Coleman run the operation, but Rojar II was a planet of much interest to the Federation, and the primary reason that her ship had been dispatched on this latest survey mission.

Almost fifteen minutes passed after which Lirha emerged from the shower and put on a fresh, crisp uniform. Grabbing her PADD and sidearm, she clipped them both to her belt and headed out of her quarters and towards the turbolift.

After a short ride, the door to the bridge swished open and Lirha stepped out into the command center. She paused briefly to rub the sleep from her eyes and took notice of the gamma shift skeleton crew who were currently present at only a handful of stations. She spotted the familiar blond hair of her 2XO sitting in the captain's chair and made her way around the side of the bridge and into the sunken command area. "Good morning, Commander." she said in a sleepy voice to the El-Aurian.

Coleman rose up out of her chair, "Morning, Captain. Nothing new to report, all ship systems are operating normally. We are approaching Rojar II and arrive on schedule."

"Excellent." Lirha replied, grateful that they were on course and on schedule. "You're relieved, commander. Go get some rest for a few hours; if all goes well, I will be needing your assistance leading our away teams later in the day." she said.

Evelyn looked at the Captain wondering if Holliday had informed her of her sabbatical at all. She decided not to bring up the issue now and merely gave Lirha a nod and proceeded towards the turbolift.

Slipping into the captain's seat as her 2XO departed, Lirha tapped her console and activated the ship's internal comms. "All hands, this is the captain. We have arrived at Rojar II and are beginning our planetary survey. Please report to your assigned stations." she said, then covered her mouth with her green hand to suppress a soft yawn.

Liyar suppressed the urge to roll over and go back to sleep when the call came in. The haze of yesterday was beginning to wear off. It was odd, how easily facilitated this was, despite the highly unusual scenario of the last evening. Drinking. Sleeping in someone else's living quarters. But it had not seemed offensive to Lilou nor Maenad, who he'd left behind hours ago. He barely remembered getting up and going to his own quarters, only that he'd fallen directly back to sleep until the announcement came overhead. There was little time to do anything but pull on his uniform and comb his hair. Once this was done, he headed out into the hall and to the lift, emerging on the bridge a few moments later and heading to sit down at his station.

Kiri was already up and dressed when the announcement came through. She knew they would arrive soon and didn't want to lose any time on reading the scans that would be coming through. It was the most important part of the mission they had so far. Quick marching through the corridor she reached the lift in a few seconds and after another she was on the bridge. As always she was well dressed but today her hair was braided into a single tail that hung down the front of her left shoulder. Taking a glance at the view screen she slipped into one of the empty science stations and started to review the scans they had so far on the planet and its moons. It wasn't her shift and she didn't want to disrupt Warrant Officer Petrov unless she had to.

Theron had been looking forward to this day. He had been notified that he would be at Tactical upon arrival at Rojar II. Awaking at 0400 he had showered and eaten a small meal. Just prior to the call he had been going through one of the relaxing forms of Tan-Kei in his room. With a check of his type I phaser at his belt, he exited for the Bridge.

Jacob took a good look at his alarm; and even though he had Beta shift, the arrival at Rojar II was paramount in his mind. He wanted to get to a lot of research time even if he had to pull double shifts. He would not be able to sleep much while on this assignment, but he did not care. He could not wait to get the Bridge.

Dea was already at her station and had complete the shift change for Flight Control. After running through some of the key reports from the shift before. It always helped to put things in perspective an allow her to keep an eye on anything that may need some extra attention.

Amril had awoken only a short while ago, but he looked wide awake and has his usual smile that seemed as much a part of him as his distinctive ears. Walking over to his station, he stood in a comfortable position and started his usual routine he'd developed to make sure he missed nothing in his duties as operations chief. Not that he was likely to forget something once learned, but that would not prevent him from carefully forming his habits.

"Good morning, captain," the vorta declared cheerfully as he began his work.

Lirha glanced at the ever-pleasant Vorta and gave him a small smile and a polite nod. "Good morning, Mister Amril." she replied. He always seemed to be in good spirits, and Lirha wondered if it was a cause of his genetics or simply that he was a jovial person in general. Either way, he brought a positive and curious atmosphere to the bridge which was a welcome change from the incessant whines and complaints of a certain security officer.

Having only left the Bridge a few hours ago, Jonathan was rudely awakened after a shorter than usual sleeping period. Sadly though, the order had come from the Captain, and wasn't simply something he could put off until morning. Groaning as he pulled himself up from the mattress, he headed to get dressed. As the turbolift doors opened, the XO found some degree of composure as he headed around and settled into his seat.

Jared still wasn't sure exactly the reason for his being summoned, he was after all a mere linguist and there was after all the universal translator, but he was a scientist and a naturally curious man. Besides he had been called to the bridge and he wasn't about to pass up this opportunity.

He entered, looked around for several seconds before spotting his station, and then went over to it.

Mor'an walked in a brisk pace, arriving at her station in good time. She settled in her chair and waited for commands.

With a full bridge crew now assembled, Lirha nodded curtly to her XO. "Let's begin, shall we?" she asked with a small smile.

"Yes ma'am. Miss Mialin - place us in a high orbit around the planet. Computer bring the nearby planet up on the main viewscreen."

"Roger that. Entering high orbit," Dea responded. Carefully changing the ship's vector so that they took a flight path that would place them in the designated orbit. All the while Mialin kept a close eye on their progress.

After receiving the verbal command, Galileo's computer adjusted the viewscreen to display the planet dubbed Rojar II. There was no need to magnify the image because the swirling gas giant was literally the largest planet Lirha had ever seen. She stared in awe at the screen for several long moments and took in the incredible sight of the blue and white swirls of atmospheric clouds which moved across the planet's surface. A gas super giant, indeed, she thought to herself.

Liyar programmed his station to feed in once science obtained environmental scans, planetary maps, spatial relativity coordinates, celestial bodies - he knew they were M-class, and composition. These were the relevant pieces of information necessary to his job. Resources. Colonization potential. Position in space. He paused over the controls as they entered orbit of Rojar II. Liyar's only extra-solar visit was to Terra. He had never before visited a planet of this size. He thought it resembled the itajki sticks they would sell on the street to children back home. A Terran might call it floating cotton candy, but Liyar did not know what cotton candy was. He could see the planet, ethereal and enormous.

Rhodes was almost distracted by Rojar II's many colors. He had flown near gas giants before, but this one seemed larger and much more vibrant than he expected.

Mor'an had seen enormous planets before, but even Rojar II's size put her in awe. Her eyes widened slightly at the sight of the planet.

Maenad came onto the bridge with her hands behind her back. She saw the huge gas giant on the viewscreen and watched with muted awe as she approached the science console. Petrov, the Gamma duty officer, was so entranced that he didn't notice her coming up behind him. She set his hand on his shoulder. "Good morning," she said quietly.

Petrov jumped, but not dramatically so, and turned around. "I am sorry, lieutenant, I did not hear you sneak up like that." He took his hand off his heart and smiled.

"It is quite all right," Maenad grinned down at him. "I relieve you."

He looked suddenly morose and raised his chin. "I never get to do the fun things," he complained as he stood.

"You get to go to bed," Maenad said as she sat down his seat. She felt the residual warmth of his body on her legs against the chair.

Petrov sighed. "That," he pointed to a PADD on the console's edge, "is the night report. Have a good day, Lieutenant Panne." He bit his tongue inside his mouth, glanced once more at the planet on the viewscreen and sulked his way off the bridge. He allowed Lieutenant Pendleton to exit the turbolift before he made his way inside and disappear into the bowls of the ship.

Jacob quietly let out a very soft whistle and whispered to Maenad, "Looks like we got ourselves an immense planet to work with!"

Maenad's sole agreement was a short smile she gave him, only briefly looking away from the Gamma report Petrov had given her.

Now was a good a time as any to begin scanning the large celestial body, and Lirha looked over her shoulder at Maenad. "You may begin your scans, lieutenant." she ordered, then leaned back in her chair while she waited for the results to come in.

The planet was the largest Maenad had ever seen, and its system of moons was even more spectacular. Kiri's sensor enhancements were proving themselves, too, as exact figures came in more quickly than they would have before. "The planet is fifty-one times the size of Jupiter," she said matter-of-factly, as though she had no interest in what she was saying, "with a diameter of five hundred eighteen thousand, five hundred twenty kilometres. Its atmosphere is composed of metallic hydrogen, helium, and frozen trace elements. Its core is solid and frozen. We are detecting eighty-one moons." Non pertinent data about orbital times eccentricities were coming in that Maenad didn't read. "There is also a small ring composed of mineral rocks, metals, ice, and frozen gases, and because of the planet's immense gravitational field there is a large debris field surrounding the planet. Navigating its moon system will be difficult and will require full strength to the deflector shields."

As Maenad turned the sensors to scan the moon system, the readings became difficult because of the high-reflective content and density of minerals in the debris field. So much of it was so fine, barely dust, that it was invisible from this distance, but there such a sheer concentration of it that scattered the ship's instruments. With a frown, Maenad tried to think of a way to get around the problem. After a few pensive seconds, she remembered Kramer's probe project. Maenad turned to face Kiri at Science II; the probes had already permeated the debris field a day before and would have likely had a substantive amount of data. "Miss Cho, do you have access to the SCAP probe data?" she asked. "What did they report?"

Kiri had a lot of data to start to pull together. Imaging sensors had given her a head start though but there were reams and reams to cover. Letting it compile for a moment more she bit her lip, "Of the Eighty One Moons, six may have been to be capable of supporting life in the past. There are only two that remain, they are big though, large M class planets. There are also six others with breathable atmospheres of these, four have higher than baseline resource readings. Of the other moons that vary in size, orbit and composition there are twenty nine that have mineral make-up that would make them of survey interest." Checking that they were all assigned numerical names she started to file them by probable importance. "Several moons have failing orbits or will impact with each other in the next thousand years, some seem to be formed from the remains of other moons that have been destroyed in the past. This debris causes difficulty in detailed scans," Even with her new sensors, "There is impact damage to almost all outer moon orbits, those close to the planet are tectonically unstable due to its gravity. A small band between the two is where the moons that have formed atmospheres are found," Looking up from her screen for a moment, "Would you like me to put it on the main viewer?"

"Captain?" Maenad asked ascent for Kiri's question.

Glancing down at her console to look at same data which the science team was currently viewing, the captain gave a slow nod. "Go ahead." she answered, then looked up to the viewscreen in anticipation of getting a first glimpse of the various large moons. She was excited, to say the least, and the opportunity to discover new habitable worlds was such a rarity that she felt extremely privileged to part of the first crew to explore these unknown lands.

Flicking the visual sensors to the main display, Kiri too took a moment to look. The first of the planets was huge and orbiting towards them, it looked a lot like Earth. A blue green planet covered in plants, large landmasses and island chains. Just rising from behind the gas giant was another slightly smaller planet that looked entirely blue, shadowed by a darker grey mass that swirled with clouds. It took her breath away for a moment, the chance that the universe worked out this way. Could it have been created? By who? And where had they gone?

Lirha smiled to herself as the first planet came into view. It was beautiful. Much like Risa looked, and probably what Earth looked like before it had become industrialized.

Jacob looked over to Maenad, "Dr. Panne, we have a situation. The planet's immense gravitational pull is creating a vacuum circumstance with any debris near the planet. I am detecting large scale planetary and near orbital meteor and meteorite strikes all over the planet and moons. Although these bombardments will be good for research opportunities, surveying, scouting and research the planet and its moons is going to be a difficult, and potentially a very dangerous situation. I strongly recommend that initial research should begin with high orbital scans originating from the poles of the planet and its corresponding moons so that we avoid the worst of the possible bombardment areas."

"Mister Pendleton is right, captain," Maenad agreed. "Until we can get a more detailed analysis of the moon system, we should keep our distance. It's chaotic in there; once we get a clearer picture of objects' telemetry, we'll be able to plot a safe course."

Lirha let out a quiet sigh. She knew it was almost too good to be true; discovering a new planet with so many ideal worlds and no apparent obstacles to their mission. Fortunately, their first hindrance had been spotted relatively quickly, and with careful piloting and navigation it could simply be turned into a minor annoyance. "I agree, lieutenant." she replied to her chief science officer. "I would like to launch a series of probes to begin mapping the debris, then uplink the telemetry to our navigation consoles. Hopefully with more detailed information about the various orbits, we can avoid any potential mishaps." she explained, then glanced towards the conn. "Lieutenant Mialin, you heard the woman. Keep us at a safe distance until we have determined that Galileo can safely navigate around the planet."

Dea nodded adjusting their flight path to stay clear of the hazard for now. "Aye Captain." She really didn't want another crash landing. "Adjusting course to keep us at a safe distance from the orbital debris." Various types of space debris had been an issue since the early days of space travel.

"Mr Rhodes - bring our shields up to 50% - not that I don't have every faith in Lieutenant Mialin's helmsmanship, I just like being safe rather than sorry." Holliday called out to the Tactical officer. Being able to dodge the debris was one thing, surviving a straight on hit from a piece was an entirely different story.

"Very good Sir." Rhodes replied and brought the shields to half.

"Warm up the phaser banks to ready mode whilst you're at it - just in case things get a bit tight and we have to do a little drilling work."

Rhodes couldn't help that a big grin came upon his face and replied, "Yes Sir." and brought the phasers on line with tracking sensors actively checking outward from the planet for any debris that may come their way. As an afterthought he asked, "Captain, Do I have your permission to fire on an object with a collision course? Before it hits us?" He glanced over his shoulder to get the effect from the Captain.

"Yes, lieutenant." the captain answered. "Although I would prefer to attempt to simply avoid the larger satellites, if possible, rather than destroy them. We might risk creating even more debris if we blow apart a large piece of rock." she added, then looked to her XO for confirmation of her thoughts.

Facing forward Rhodes replied, "Of course Sir. My thoughts exactly."

"Indeed - weapons should be the last of last resorts - I don't want to turn one large rock into a shower to avoid simply because we hit the red button too quickly. Keep your trigger finger under control Mr Rhodes - hopefully we won't need it."

John replied with a nod to his captain. Whilst it was always safe to have weapons ready as a precaution, it simply didn't make sense to make a problem worse unless there was simply no other answer.

"Engineering - I want you to start on a way to transfer additional power to structural integrity and reduce the time it takes us to seal a section off - on the off chance we suffer a hull breach I don't want half the ship being blown out into space."

=^=Yes, sir,=^= Peer's voice came through Holliday's commbadge. =^=I'll need to shut down and seal off Deck 5 Storage and the Astrophysics Lab, as well as the Repair Bay, the Cargo Bays, and two of the multipurpose labs on Deck 6 to reroute the power, without disrupting the shields.=^=

=^=Get it done Miss Peers - if we need the systems back then we can worry about it later. Holliday out. =^=

"Probes are ready to launch on your signal, Lieutenant Panne," Amril announced. He went from one thing to the next quickly, punctuating each change with a distinct but brief silence, "Cadet Im'er, please take control of the probes and monitor them. Shall I increase power to the deflector dish, captain?"

Lirha gave a single nod to the operation's chief. "Go ahead. And bring the secondary deflector array to full power as well. I would like as complete a scan as possible of this planetary system." she ordered. Galileo was the one of the only starship's in fleet blessed with two massive deflector arrays, and Lirha intended to put good use to both of them.

"Right away, captain." Amril got to work redistributing power and soon had both deflectors running on full capacity with all their sensors available.

Maenad configured the forward torpedo tube to fire a single class two probe into orbit and fired. Within seconds, data and detailed telemetry about the orbital debris of Rojar II started coming in. There were several safe routes the ship could take, more than Maenad had originally thought possible. Feeling relieved, but maintaining a steely outward appearance, Maenad began collecting the possible courses and sent them to helm. "I'm forwarding you the debris paths, lieutenant," Maenad said.

"Aye," Mor'an said in response. She waited the few seconds it took for the information to appear before her eyes. When it did she set to work immediately. It took her a few minutes to calculate the safest route -- a few minutes too long in her opinion.

After receiving the command to launch a Class 2 probe, one of Galileo's forward torpedo launchers briefly flared and sent a metallic capsule gliding towards the planets and its moons. It began to instantly transmit its data straight to the science, navigation, and command consoles on the bridge, and Lirha delicately crossed her legs while she waited to the information to be interpreted.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Liyar
Diplomatic Officer, VDF/SDD
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

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

Lieutenant (JG) Dawn Meridian
Counsellor
USS Galileo

Lt. Commander Evelyn Coleman
Chief Intelligence Officer/2XO
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Theron Rhodes
Assistant Chief of Security
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Amynta Markos
Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

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

Cadet Senior Grade Im'er Mor'an
Red Squad Intern
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Scarlet Blake
Chief Counsellor
USS Galileo

Ensign Jared Nicholas
Linguist
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Amril
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo
played by Psylus Anon

Lieutenant (JG) Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Jessica Wilson M.D.
Medical Officer (Intern)
USS Galileo

ENS Lilou Peers
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

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