Near Pink (Part 2 of 3)

Posted on 16 Sep 2016 @ 3:10am by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Commander Langdale Wiggins & Commander Luke Wyatt & Lieutenant JG Rahl Tyton Ph.D. & Lieutenant JG Braxton MacKenzie & Ensign Miraj Derani & Petty Officer 2nd Class Nemo Bardasi
Edited on on 16 Sep 2016 @ 3:13am

2,784 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS Galileo/Paulson Nebula
Timeline: MD 02 - 2245 hrs

Previously, on Near Pink (Part 1)...

Natalya saw the data that was being forwarded to her. Her specialists in engineering seemed eager to start tackling the problems that lie ahead. She could hardly fault them. There probably wasn't much to do down there until they actually moved into the nebula. Then, there would be more than enough. She forwarded the data to Ops, as well as with a few recommendations on shielding and other protective measures.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

Rahl looked at the readings of the nebula. It would seem his idea that he spoke of with the Luke was going to be of the better idea. He shook his head as he hit his comm badge.

=^=Lt Tyton to the bridge. I suggest using two level nine probes. One placed on each side of the nebula. The probes should be outfitted to emit gravitonic pulses. It won't give us pin point accuracy however it will give us telemetry in the nebula itself as well as point out possible areas where either the ship or distress beacon is coming from. It will work something like old time radar or sonar if you will.=^=

Luke gave a short and sharp smile as he heard the chief of researches voice come over the communications systems, turning to the admiral. Though he wasn't sure whether or not his idea would be put into place. "I had Lieutenant Tyton prepare a plan B in case something happens, I think he might be on to something and he's already done the leg work for us. He's quiet the initiative individual."

Braxton looked at the readings. "We can launch the probes at your command Admiral. It will take about 5.2 minutes to sort through all the data." He said to Lirha.

Luke turned to the Lieutenant. "Do it please lieutenant, we don't have time to waste here people. It's a search and rescue mission not a training exercise." He said to no one particular prompting the younger bridge crew to use their initiative instead of asking for permission, sometimes time was at the essence and this was definitely one of those time

Wiggins had been wandering about the bridge casually glancing at consoles and data and display panels. While he followed what was happening around him, he found himself intrigued with observing the crew and how the interacted. He turned his attention towards Luke and gave him a nod. Not a training exercise. He liked that. While his own method of motivating crew was different and less direct, the assertive direction was more appropriate for their task at hand.

Braxton tapped the console in front of him and watched as the probes went out. "Probes away. We should start receiving data shortly." While he was waiting he tapped the panel and sent a private message to Nemo Bardasi asking him to receive the data from the third probe. It was specifically set to pick up information about the Nebula while the others looked for the signal. No reason hey couldn't do double duty. Nemo, the third probe will send you information about he Nebula until the probe stops working. Please process data an we'll meet after all this is over. Maybe we can learn something new. he sent the message and waited for the acknowledgement.

Nemo was standing at his station, already receiving telemetry when he saw Braxton's message. He typed in a quick acknowledgement, then kept his eyes on his work. This was what he had signed up for - the chance to really study something like the Paulson Nebula in depth. It was unfortunate that it was technically a rescue mission, but the opportunity for observation and data collection was wonderful.

Rahl stepped off the turbo lift onto the bridge. He headed to one of the science sections. Sitting down he pulled up the information for the probes. He saw they were nearly in position. His fingers skimmed over the console as he typed. "Calibrating the probes to emit wide angle and spectrum gravitonic pulses towards the nebula. I will fine tune the pulses in increments so we can get the most data possible on the inside of the nebula for telemetry and mapping purposes. However, there is a good chance that closer to the center of the nebula the readings may be off or faulty due to the immense gravitational forces inside of it. I will do what I can to compensate for it. It might be possible to combine the gravitonic pulse with a tachyon sweep to reinforce it's penetration into the nebula. I'll save that as a last resort. We don't want any unexpected reactions if we can help it."

Brax turned to Rahl. "Not to worry. Probe three is on a fact finding and mapping mission. The other two are just scanning. Nemo has probe three info." Hi hands tapped the console. "1 minute until probes are in position. They'll deliver info to both our stations." Braxton said.

Rahl turned towards Braxton and shook his head. "With all due respect Lieutenant but I believe that the third probe is a waste. There are reasons as to why we do not know much about the nebula. The nebula itself foils starship sensors and scanners not only due to its component makeup but also due to the immense gravitational forces that it exudes from its center. Remember we would have to enter under impulse power and warp from inside the nebula is impossible. The reasons for that is the gravity. The sheer force of Newtons per kilogram increase exponentially the closer you get to the center of the nebula. The shear force that it is creating inside probably is on par if not more so than a black hole. The Galileo would probably be crushed under just one cubic inch of the gravitational force from its center."

He shook his head again letting out a long breath. "Those gravity waves alone are enough to break apart sensor scans not to mention the solid makeup of its insides. Between the dilithium hydroxyls, magnesium, and chromium, and who knows what else might be in there. The sheer mass of particles will refract sensor readings. That's why I said to outfit the class nine probes to emit gravitonic pulses. This way at least it should be able to cut through most of the gravitational interference coming from the center of the nebula. However the closer the pulses get to the center the less certain we can be of the information coming back. No one has ever been able to ascertain what goes on inside a stellar phenomenon with a gravitational density this big. So unless the third probe is outfitted with gravitonic emitters it won't be able to do much other then what we are doing here which is to collect the information from the other two probes and correlate it into a possible map of the inside."

Braxton sighed, "With all due respect Junior Lieutenant," he said speaking French, "poo poo on a stick, do you think I'm some three year old? I have a science degree too mister My coffee mug is bigger then yours." While he spoke it in Cajun French he didn't stop to think that with the universal translators going others could understand.

Braxton took a moment to calm down. "Besides the probe is outfitted with emitters and it's not gravitonic emitters it's graviton emitters." He switched back to French, "My little coffee mug." Braxton growled. "The sensor data will return on a Graviton pulse that is low level and can be converted to usable data. I fixed it myself!"

A slight twitch of his eye was the only give away that Rahl's temper was rising. Having settled in the area of what was Louisiana in North America when he came to earth. He knew full well what Braxton was saying. "Yes, Junior Lieutenant Braxton. I understand you may have done so. However, let me give you some information that you seem to be lacking. The word gravitonic means dealing with gravitons. I think that word applies here especially in my sentence structure since you seemingly want to critique my use of language."

He raised an eyebrow and slipped in some french as well. "I do not think you want to debate the theoretical scientific theory with me that what I do for a living ..." He kept a growl from coming from his throat. "Now if you want to sit there and sling insults at someone that was simply giving you a little professional criticism. Then perhaps you are not the right person for the job as chief science officer. We are given criticism every day. It is usually what drives us to prove them wrong."

"You know what Peunez (Stink bug)? Let us jus' do di job." The angrier he got the more pronounced his accent was. "You do your job, I do mine. The probe was no waste. I know what I am doing. Now di data is comin' in." He had to take a deep breath. "And I was right with the word you were wrong. Look it up!" He growled and then switched to Cajun again, "stop your winning and let's get this done!"

He again raised an eyebrow and looked over towards Braxton. "As a child, was your cradle rocked too close to the wall? I know full well the meaning of the word. Perhaps you should study the etymology of a word before you start trying to act like the professional on language. Stop trying to show off"

He shook his head and turned back to his console while flailing his arms as his voice took on a robotic like tone. "Danger, nerd rage rising, danger." He scoffed and his fingers started over the console again. Refining gravitonic pulses. I will continue to refine them ever three minutes for computational data purposes for telemetry"

Braxton sighed. "Yes it was as rocked as yours my little Bouillee. (Pudding). He smiled and shook his head. "I'm starting to get info. It's about 1000 KM into the nebula. My friend can you pull the direction. Having some trouble."

Rahl nodded as his fingers nearly flew over the console. His eyes scanning the incoming data and correlating it between the two probes. The information started fusing into the model he had created as he pulled it up linking everything together as best he could. "Indeed, object sighted 34 degrees starboard bearing thirty-four mark minus ten. The object appears to be maintaining position a thousand kilometers in just as Lt Braxton has stated." He looked over and gave a nod and a grin to Braxton.

Braxton smiled and gave a nod to Rahl. "Thanks for your help Lieutenant Tyton." He leaned over. "You still owe me coffee you know."

"I think both of you guys owe us coffee." Natalya said, the first to break the tension. She was half-tempted to to ask if anyone wanted to argue in Russian and pretend the universal translator couldn't understand, but she was too attached to her job to risk angering the captain.

Brax touched his amulet again. He wiped the sweat off his forehead. He enjoyed the sparing but it was more a symptom of his anxiety. This wasn't lost on Jonas, who was still standing close but who had not been able to think of a way to redirect the bickering.

The more and more the two officers bantered back and forth, the XO had walked closer and closer to the pair. He kept his expression neutral, even if his dark brown eyes betrayed a sense of disappointment. He said nothing, but instead had looked over his shoulder at the admiral through out the exchange.

The Orion rear admiral had glanced over at her XO with a bewildered expression on her face while the two blue-collared bridge officers had engaged in what sounded like a Ferengi mating ritual. Lirha couldn't do much except subtly shake her head and rub her forehead -- she was not at all pleased by bravado banter in the vessel's command center, but there was little time to address the matter at the current moment. Instead, Galileo now had what seemed to be a bearing on the signal they were tracking.

"Science, send your coordinates to the helm and to Ops. Miss Derani, can you plot a course?"

Braxton tapped the console, "Getting the final coordinates now. Ms. Derani I'm sending you the coordinates now." He typed in a series of numbers and directions and hit the send button. He watched as the young woman piloting the ship started entering the coordinates. She was a darn good pilot from what he could see.

Locating the signal, Noah ran it through a sequence of filters, clearing out much of the 'space garbage' in order to render it as clear as possible. "Incoming, Derani," he announced before forwarding the cleaned-up signal to the Helm.

Miraj refrained from making a noise that indicated that as far as she was concerned, she'd just been asked if she could breathe. Instead she flexed her fingers, toed off her boots for best feedback from the ship and plotted the course, gently down to the target point. "Course laid in ma'am."

"Proceed, ensign," replied Lirha. "Thrusters only and keep an eye on our surroundings," she instructed. She was grateful the signal had finally been located and anticipated arriving within the half-hour if her starship's navigator didn't get lost along the way. Unlikely, but completely possible in such a nebula as this one.

Galileo's entrance into the nebula was ceremonious -- the tiny Nova-class became quickly embraced by the bright nebulous fog which quickly engulfed her and made her vanish from sight to any outside observer. Inside the thick outer layers of the gaseous anomaly, the starship quickly made its way towards the designated position, changing course and doing her best to compensate for sensor refraction, blackouts, and navigational hazards.

Just inside the edge of the nebula the churning of the gases as they cooled and sunk towards the cloud's center, creating currents and waves that rocked against the hull, she could feel the tickle of it across her feet and up her skin. Miraj adjusted pitch so they banked around the co-ordinates, sensor ports on Galileo's belly always pointing towards it for maximum effectiveness.

It was slow and stately as she approached, the force of the roiling gas creating turbulance that the inertial dampners didn't bother to compensate for, the magnitude of the movement not enough to draw power away from the sensor system where it was more urgently needed. By the time they got to the range where they should have been able to see a ship with the naked eye, the whole of the vessel was being bucked and kicked every few seconds and Miraj's small fingers were jumping all over the con to make sure they held position. "We're here."

Braxton gasped. He checked his scans and double checked them. "Damn!" He took a deep breath. "Ma'am we have the distress call's location to the left and five minutes from here....But... It' a broadcasting beacon. It's not the freighter." His mind screamed trap.

Rahl's eyes narrowed as he began punching more buttons on the console. "Standby, confirming initial readings. Adjusting sensors for close range scanning. Sorting out chromium interference by scanning for known Federation construction elements not native to the nebula."

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Miraj Derani
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Ryan Alexander
Operations
USS Galileo

Lt JG Rahl Tyton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical and Second Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Commander Luke Wyatt
Chief strategic Operations officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Mimi
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Natalya Kirilova
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Petty Officer 1st Class Eric Anderson
Nurse
USS Galileo
[PNPC McCarthy]

Lt. JG. Braxton MacKenzie
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Lt. j.g. Min Zhao
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Commander Langdale Wiggins
First Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Jonas Flynn PsyD
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo

Petty Officer 2nd Class Nemo Bardasi
Astrophysicist/Cosmologist
USS Galileo

Ensign Christopher Parker
Asst. Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

PO3 Micah Hershey
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

LTJG Noah Khoroushi
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

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