Planetary Survey (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 31 May 2014 @ 3:06pm by Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Nesh Saalm & Vincent Kramer Ph.D. & Petty Officer 1st Class Viru Evek & Corynn'tha M.D., Ph.D. & Petty Officer 1st Class Threxa Shroll & Trisant Myrddin & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Norvi Stace
Edited on on 31 May 2014 @ 3:14pm

2,318 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: Lyshan III/USS Galileo - Science Labs
Timeline: MD 04 - 1216 hrs

Previously, on Planetary Survey (Part 1)...

Vincent rocked his head to the negative slightly, and said, "To each his own, deary. I very much prefer to stand off the planet and look down to do my research." He looked over to Jared to see his response.

"Well, I would love to be down there. I'm a linguist and love interacting. But orders are orders and at least I don't have to put on one of those universe damned EVA suits."

Vincent began to chuckle deeply, and slapped Jared on the back a couple times, "Well said, my boy, well said." and laughed a little more.

Jared quirked a brow and laughed along with Vincent.

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

Lyshan III
1216 hrs

As he muttered to himself --despite his communication channel being open-- Andreus Kohl was struggling with the sensor probe in his grasp. The cylindrical device was half as tall as him, and it wobbled mercilessly. He grasped the protruding handles with both his EV suit's gauntlets, and he twisted the probe and he thrust it to bury the pointed base of the tool into the rocky dirt. But every time he thought he had it secured in the ground, Kohl would let go, and the probe would topple over on its side. Kohl kept telling himself he was awkward in the EV suit, because he didn't want to think he didn't know how to use the probe.

Corynn'tha looked up from her wrist attached tricorder towards Andreus with the stereotypical arched Vulcan eyebrow. "Lieutenant Kohl, do you require assistance with your equipment?"

Kohl took one last stab at planting the probe in the ground, but the thing revolted. As soon as he released the hand-holds, the probe thudded Kohl in the chest. Kohl "oof"ed quietly and he tilted his head back as much as his helmet would let him. "Yespleaseyes," Kohl replied in resignation.

Corynn'tha approached her roommate and grabbed a hold of one side of the probe. "I believe that if we both attempt to insert the probe while each holding on to opposite sides help balance and guide the device."

Grabbing hold of the other end of the probe, Kohl worked in concert with the Vulcan to plant it into another patch of ground. "It's not like me to do something alone that I can do with others," Kohl remarked, moreso to himself than anybody else. To Corynn'tha, he asked, "Have you found anything remarkable?"

"Negative, Lieutenant." replied the Vulcan. "Though, I am seeing a trace of argon gas and heavy carbon dioxide."

"Hmmm, I see," Kohl said. But they were just empty words really. He released his combo-Vulcan-death-grip on the probe, and it managed to stand freely in its patch of dirt. Kohl raised a hand to the tricorder mounted on his forearm. The contact points on the LCARS screen had been enlarged -- optimized for use with the thick fingers of an EV suit's glove. Kohl keyed in the command to link the tricorder into the probe's sensors, and to transmit the raw information back to Galileo.

Stace approached the two and smiled through her visor. "Any reports?"

"Eh, not really--" Kohl started to say.

Corynn'tha reported. "Affirmative, we have detected trace amounts of argon gas and heavy carbon dioxide."

The probe began making a loud noise. "I believe we have detected several carbon based forms, buried...twenty meters directly below this location." stated the Vulcan calmly.

"Can you get a clearer reading?" Stace asked, standing back a little from where she stood. She brought out her own tricorder and began scanning. "Kohl, get that probe up and running and relay the information to the Gally and our tricorders. I want to see what we're standing on."

"On it," Kohl replied eagerly. His fingers were back on his tricorder, as he continued to calibrate the probe, and temporarily narrow its focus on the carbon-based forms. He looked up when Stace continued to deliver her orders.

"Corynn'tha, stay with him and assist if you can, please?"

The Vulcan nodded. "Affirmative."

Jacob started his own scanning. He adjusted his tricorder and did several basic sweeps first and then more powerful and detailed sweeps. He stopped several times as if he was having equipment problems and finally said, "Umm Stace... we might have a problem here... there seems to be a void of information and data at sector 6.5.1-a.." He pointed to his screen. "How it is possible that I am not picking up anything?? Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. Nothing."

Stace looked at her own instrument and confirmed what her assistant was telling her. "How odd!" she exclaimed, making her way over to Kohl. "What do you think it could be? A vacuum? Space?"

Kohl looked up from his own probe's sensor readings, and he leaned his whole body to the left to take a look at the display on Stace's tricorder. "Huh," he said in a mystified manner. "Air pocket?"

Norvi sighed, dissatisfied with what they had both found. "Hold on a minute," she then added stopping in her tracks. "According to our readings, this terraforming process is far more advanced that it should be. I'm reading conditions that are tens of years from original projections." She turned to Kohl. "Have everything sent up to the Gally labs and inform Lieutenant Nicholas that I'll contact him in due course with regards to what we're finding. But first, let's see what's in this void."

Corryn'tha raised an eyebrow curiously. "Could they perhaps be small, quasi-wormholes?"

"At this point," Stace said, looking at Corynn'tha, "your guess is as good as mine. The whole structural foundations beneath us could just be honeycombed, like human bone. The terraforming process is not entirely familiar to me."

Jacob shook his head. Never in his scientific career had he ever come across something like this. Yes there were papers written about pockets of negative space existing and yes there were proposals that dark matter or "empty matter" could theoretically exist under the perfect set of circumstances, but it all pure conjecture. He was completely at a loss of words over this situation.


USS Galileo - Science Lab 2

Abbey waited patiently at her station, she had spent most of the time twisting her hair around her index finger. Looking around the room she could see everybody was well and truly ready for the real fun to get started.

"Stace to Science Lab Two," shot through the intercom in a fuzzy, crackling manner.

Dr. Kramer stepped up behind crewman Wyatt as the transmission came in.

"We seem to have found some interesting readings down here on the surface. Well, beneath it actually. And interesting as in the sense that there are none. Almost like pockets of void beneath our feet. Can you confirm?"

Calling out from an LCARS console set into the bulkhead, Trisant Myrddin reported, "I'm redirecting one of the dorsal sensor arrays towards sector 6.5.1-a. ...Scanning now." With a couple taps of the interface, Trisant displayed the sensor readings on the widescreen display at the back of the lab. "Huh..." he said. "Nothing."

"Go back and run it again, in reverse. Slower this time and see if you can pick up the anomaly. Whatever it is, it has to be there. 'Ghost' or no ghost we all saw that it can't be there and then gone." Jared requested.

"We should notify those on the surface, so they know to be on the lookout for something happening.

Dr. Kramer moved over to another console and looked over the sensor data. He focused on the information, squinting his eyes and pinching up him mouth in the process. "Can we confirm if this void is natural or artificially created?"

Using the LCARS algorithms to parse through the raw sensor data, Trisant replied, "I'm not seeing any energy signatures around the edges of the void, like you might expect from a forcefield..."


Lyshan III
1248 hrs

Stace, back on the surface, relayed the Gally's sensor information back to the team. "Apparently, according to the ship's sensor data, the pockets of void are natural occurrences. It may be a result of the terraforming, but it's nothing to concern ourselves with." She bent down and took three more samples from the dusty ground beneath her. Securing it in canister, she turned to Pendleton and Kohl. "There's nothing more I can do down here. I'll take point on the ship, bring these samples back and liaise with you both from up top. Shout up if you need anything."

Jacob smiled at Stace, "And what should we shout? Perhaps 'Ollie Ollie Oxen Free' or 'Eureka!' or my personal favorite: 'Scotty, can you fix it?'"

"Let's stick with standard away mission communiques for now, Lieutenant. You can have your fun on the holodeck when I beat you again at hover ball."

Jacob replied, "Fine, but for the record, hoverball is not my best sport, let's see you beat me in wrestling." He chuckled a bit and then kept scanning and recording data

Without a word, Kohl moved to Stace's side and took the sample canister from her. He carried it over to the sample crate and he slotted the canister into position with the others. For himself, he removed a fresh canister that was partially filled with solid adsorbent materials designed for the collection of gasses. On his tricorder, he noted the time and the place when he activated the canister's collection control. Before he activated it, he called over to Stace, "Travel safe!"

"Thanks, Andreus. I'll be in touch."


USS Galileo - Science Lab 2

As Stace de-suited in the transporter room, she quickly made her way to the science lab to ascertain what everyone had collected and reported in. Walking up to Kramer the Trill instinctively spied over her shoulder at the console. "Anything new from the surface, Doctor?"

Vincent smiled and turned to see Lt. Stace, but before he could speak Lt. Nicholas spoke up.

"We've discovered some unusual anomalies and not exactly sure what they are." Jared reported.

As Stace began to collect her thoughts and the information from the surface from her staff around her, she couldn't help but notice the niggle in the back of her mind that something wasn't right. The pockets of void, the terraforming process projections being way off from what they had found. But there was nothing substantially scientific she could place her finger on. After walking around the lab for a brief moment, she herself sat down at a sensor console and began her own scans. She sighed, placed her hand on her forehead and shook it. Looking towards the room she asked, "Have the results come back from the samples I collected on the surface?"

From another LCARS workstation, Trisant Myrddin hopped off his stool and swiped a PADD from off his companel. He strode towards Stace, checked the display on the PADD, and his brow creased when he didn't see what he expected to see. Trisant turned back to the workstation and stabbed at control contacts on the PADD until the requisite information transferred over. "Sir, I've manage to process your first three samples through the phoretic analyzer," Trisant said in reply. He handed the results on the PADD over to Stace.

Dr. Kramer stood behind Stace looking at the data and said intriguingly, "That is very interesting."

"So, what is going on?" Jared asked curiously

"I'm not entirely sure," Stace the replied, her attention clearly on the padd in her hand. She studied the data hard, breaking eye contact with it to think and then returning to the coloured text on the screen. She pursed her lips and then furrowed her brow, knitting them together. "These samples support our earlier findings... The terraforming process is far more developed than what was initially projected. The carbon decay of the organic matter we collected is decades more advanced than what they should be." Stace stopped and looked over to her beeping console. She swiveled in her chair to get a closer look at the readout. As she tapped the controls, the alarm silenced.

"Sensors have detected a faint power signature from underground, near to where the mines are located."

The Trill then brought up a planetary 3D map on the display table in the middle of the room, and the sensors did their job of pinpointing the location of the find. The globe zoomed in too not far from where her teams were located on the surface. "I'm not quite sure what that is." Stace mused, more to herself than anyone listening.

She then turned to Jared. "Lieutenant. Call the teams up from the surface and liaise with Pendleton and Kohl to review the data and samples we've already collected. Ask them to get ground scans of the signature but from their location. Advise them not to approach." She turned, downloaded the data into the padd she already had in hand and then started to pace towards the door. "I'll take this to the captain for direction. Nicholas, you're in charge."

[OFF]

--

Crewman Apprentice Abbey Wyatt
Scientist Mate
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Wyatt]

Lieutenant Andreus Kohl
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

PO3 Trisant Myrddin
Stellar Cartographer
USS Galileo
[PNPC Kohl]

Lieutenant Jared Nicholas
Language Specialist
USSGalileo

Cadet Freshman Grade Nesh Saalm
Scientist's Mate
USS Galileo
[PNPC Kita]

Petty Officer 1rst Threxa Shroll
Zoologist
USS Galileo
[PNPC Kita]

Corynn'tha MD, PhD
Xenobiologist
USS Galileo
[PNPC Quinn]

Lieutenant Norvi Stace
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

PO1 Viru Evek
Chemist
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Miir]

Vincent Kramer
Astrophysicist
USS Galileo
[PNPC - Rhodes]

LT Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

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