A Scientific Approach

Posted on 30 Jun 2017 @ 3:16pm by Rear Admiral Harold Doolittle & Petty Officer 1st Class T'Lin

2,644 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: Starfleet Command - Doolittle's Office (Room 1732)
Timeline: Current - MD 3 - 0845

ON:

Rear Admiral Harold Doolittle had been in his office since 0700. He had been using the time before his next scheduled debriefing to go over the notes from his previous debriefings of the crew of the Galileo and he had come to the conclusion that he just may have to speak to one of them again. She had given him some very interesting information and he just might have to follow up on it deeper in depth. But that would come later. Right now it was time to summon the next crewmember for debriefing, and that person was Petty Officer 2nd class T'Lin.

Tapping his combadge, he called out =/\= Admiral Doolittle to Petty Officer T'Lin. Please report to my office, 17th floor of Starfleet Headquarters, room 1732 at 0900. =/\= He then sat back and awaited her arrival.

T'Lin got the message and being a Vulcan showed up at the Admirals office promptly at 0900. The aide was expecting her as well and rang the chime and announced that she was there.

"Enter..." he called out when he heard the chime.

T'Lin had wound her hair up in regulation fashion. The blond locks in very tight braids that were pinned tightly in place. She entered and with typical Vulcan lack of emotion came to attention and saluted. "Petty Officer second class reporting as ordered sir!"

"Stand at ease and take a seat," he said, pointing at a chair in front of his desk. "Do you know why you've been summoned here?" he began without preamble.

T'Lin with the long practice of being at Temple took her seat and sat ramrod straight and on the edge. She tilted her head slightly as she answered, "It would seem logical that one would make an inquiry into the loss of a Federation ship and the subsequent happenings and unusual manner of the return of the crew from Klingons to Romulans back to Federation."

"It was a bit unorthodox, wasn't it?" Doolittle asked rhetorically. "You were a science officer aboard the Galileo, is that not correct?" It was and he knew it from the ship's manifest. "Tell me, what is your specialty in the science field?"

"My specialty sir is biochemistry, and as it would be logical to presume that you have a manifest from the ship, I was assigned as a science officer in that capacity." T'Lin kept as still as a statue.

"Then, as a biochemist, perhaps you could tell me anything you know about this..." Doolittle said as he turned to a small safe embedded in the wall of his office. Opening it, he withdrew the small box that had been given to him by Petty Officer Eviess. It had been his intention to take th box and its' contents to Starfleet Medical later today but perhaps Petty Officer T'Lin could tell him a bit about the chip.

He set the box on his desk, then opened it and withdrew the chip. Placing it in front of T'Lin, he asked "What can you tell me about this?"

T'Lin picked the item up and examined it. She pursed her lips and then set the item back. "Very little without a complete scan. However, it would appear that it is designed to interface with biological nervous system. The style of manufacture would suggest Romulan in origin. Exactly what it is used for I could only at best speculate sir."

"Tell me what you think it might be used for please." Admiral Doolittle said."

T'Lin cocked her head. "What ever I conjecture would be speculation at best sir. However, given the size of the device, and the connections it would appear to be something to be installed into the spinal nerve bundles in order to stimulate nerves that the brain would sense as pain. Call it a control device. I do not think it has sufficient circuitry nor was intended to record anything." She straightened her head again, "Again mere speculation."

"Whom do you think could give me the best analysis as to the purpose of this device?" he asked. "Starfleet Medical or Science?"

T'Lin again tilted her head for a moment. "I would say medical. The device is obviously designed to interface with a beings nervous system. Biomedical science should be able to elucidate the purpose."

"In actuality..." Doolittle said as he returned the chip to its' box, ..."your analysis goes along with what I already know. That chip was removed from one of your shipmates. Petty Officer Eviess. And according to her, there were others who had them implanted in them as well." He looked at T'Lin for a long moment. "I'm guessing by your reaction you were NOT one of the ones implanted with those chips?"

"Not that I am aware of, and I was not privy that there were any others. You may wish to ask someone perhaps in the medical department. There were some personnel that were taken for interrogation and it would be logical to presume that they are the most likely candidates to have such devices sir."

"I could be wrong but I get the impression that there were many who were unaware that they had been implanted with those devices," Doolittle said. "From what I understand, Eviess did not know about it until she became ill." He shook his head slowly. "Who knows how many more of the Galileo crew are still walking around with a chip implanted in them. It might behoove you to have yourself checked - if for no other reason, your own satisfaction."

T'Lin raised an eyebrow but other than that there was no other reaction. "Sir, I would know. I am wan ker ve, a white one. On Vulcan such as I were destined for the priesthood and as such I spent several decades being Temple trained. As such, we learn to know our body intimately, and thus I would know if something was there. However, I will comply with a scan if that is required."

"In view of what you've just told me, I don't believe that will be necessary." Doolittle quickly responded. He was satisfied that the Vulcan science officer knew herself intimately and would know if anything were inside her body as she had said.

"I have spoken to others and they have told me how they found the conditions on the planet Kreanus to be. Would you please give me your opinion and assessment of that situation? How did you find conditions there to be and how were you treated?" His reasoning behind these questions was to try to determine if members of different races had all been treated equally or not.

"Conditions were sufficient to sustain life but from my observations they were beginning to strain the resources of the place. A rogue world that still has some native life functioning on it is rare and as such in a very delicate balance between the geothermal heating and attendant organisms that work in that environment. On its own, it would be a fascinating world for scientific study but as a colony, it is doomed to fail. It is not just the condition of the equipment but merely the fact that the world cannot keep up with the pace of demands now being placed upon it. At current census and projected usage and failure of the equipment and amount of resources available I would give a probably catastrophic failure in approximately four Terran decades. I would give a more precise time but do not have sufficient data to make anything closer. As far as treatment, I was not tortured. Neither was any of the ranking officers that I am aware of which would seem to be the more logical choice. Who was selected and why did not seem a logical choice to me."

Doolittle allowed the ghost of a smile to cross his face for just a moment. "It's been my experience that seldom are captors logical when it comes to dealing with their captives." Then moving on to another subject, he asked "What do you know about the attempted takeover of the Klingon ship by a band of renegades?"

"Very little sir. I was in the science lab when it happened. Though a few of the warriors attempted to storm the lab, they were subdued quickly."

"Would you tell me what, if any, precautions were taken by Admiral Saalm before the Galileo entered the Paulson Nebula? I know scans inside a nebula are unreliable at best, but were there scans conducted outside the nebula before the ship entered? Did they scan for ion trails that might have indicated the presence of other ships in the area?" The purpose of Doolittle's line of questioning was to ascertain whether or not Admiral Saalm had exercised due diligence for the safety of her ship.

"As a biochemist I am not privy to what part the science department had in such tracing. As far as I am aware of all normal precautions were taken. I recall there was some 'discussion' about the age the supposed freighter that the signal was from. However, what that entailed in terms of protocol I can not say as I was not aware of anything."

"Who led the team that was able to put down the attempted takeover? Commander Wyatt?"

T'Lin cocked her head again and replied, "I will admit that I do not have sufficient data as to that. Until we transferred to the Romulan ship I was in the Klingon vessels science lab. We had prisoners and a bit of a mess to cope with. The first was from dealing the coup perpetrators and the later trying to help after the battle ship had been fired on by Klingon forces."

She was curious though she would not offer it about what part science had played in the blinding of the Sentinel, but then again maybe that information had not made it to the admiral.

"Tell me about that incident, please. Why were you fired upon by the Klingons?"

"From my understanding Korag was a wanted person by the Klingon defense forces. As such, the ship was recognized and Klingons being of certain emotional mind set tend to shoot first, shoot some more and then when it is all over perhaps ask a question or two. From later talking to other crew it seems as if the whole cruise was a subterfuge by the Romulan command of Kreanus to rid themselves of Korag and most of the Klingon forces stationed there. A political move and I must say, very skill fully carried out by the Roumlan command and quite logical as well. Logic would indicate that continued depradations by the Klingon refuges combined with continued probing by the Klingon forces would sooner or later resulted in the colony being found or precipitate a battle between the Federation and the Klingons. In either case the colony would suffer even more so then they are currently."

"I'm guessing this group of Klingons were a group of renegades with their own agenda? And if that is the case, do you know what their agenda was?

"Insufficient data sir, even to speculate."

"How much time elapsed between the time the attack began until the Galileo was disabled?" Doolittle asked. "And was security called to repel boarders?"

"Very little, the Klingons that attacked the battle ship knew when and where it would be. The admiral signaled surrender in a very short time after the initial attack. It was then the coup started."

"Could you give me an estimate as to how much time passed between the attack and the time that Admiral Saalm ordered that the Galileo be abandoned?"

"Twenty three minutes and sixteen seconds from when I felt the first impact. As I mentioned it was very swift and brutal."

Doolittle nodded in acceptance of her answer before deciding to re-visit a subject she had mentioned previously. "A few minutes ago you mentioned the USS Sentinel," he began. "I see here..."he said, indicating the PADD he held, "...that there was an attack on that ship. What can you tell me about that?"

"The Federation ship detected the cloaked Klingon warship. There was an imbalance in the cloaking device though it could have been quite that a clever science officer noted unusual gravity waves. A ship cannot cloak its mass and a mass moving through space-time will cause gravitational ripples. As such the Duq'Q was forced to a confrontation."

"You say forced into a confrontation - how so? Did the Sentinel fire on the Duq'Q?"

"As far as I am aware of, no. However, one could logically presume that a Klingon battle cruiser, even old style, in Federation space near the border that some sort of stand to was issued. As I was not on the bridge then I cannot verify what transpired." T'Lin answered with her calm but minimal reply.

"I see..." It was becoming obvious to Doolittle that the science officer seemed to know little that transpired aboard ship outside of her own science department, so he decided to change the subject. "How long were you and the rest of the crew held on Kreanus?"

"At least several weeks. I found it very hard to judge time there, thus I cannot give you a more precise time frame. The lack of stimuli resulted in the lack the zeitgebers, those stimuli that reset circadian rhythm. That resulted in non-24 hour sleep-wake rhythm disorder which even my particular physiology was unable to overcome."

"While we're on the subject of time, how long was it after you abandoned the Galileo before you were picked up by the Klingons?"

"Transporters began to take people off the ship and from the pods as soon as the ship was declared to be abandoned. I did learn from one of the guards that had been on the Klingon ship that I was beamed to, that the Second Officer seemingly was forgotten until the clustered pods began to make a coordinated distress call. Presumably either the Klingons were not familiar with Akkadians or perhaps unique physiology did not match their life sign indicators is unknown. He did not seem to speculate on that."

Doolittle nodded wordlessly as he made notes on his PADD. Once he had finished, he focused his attention on T'Lin once again. "You have been most helpful T'Lin, but before we are finished do you have any questions or is there anything you wish to add?"

"I have no questions at this time sir. As per most, the only question is what is to happen to the crew but then again it is logical to presume that a final decision has yet to be made."

"You are correct. That is something that will be determined at a later date," Doolittle agreed. I may wish to speak to you again later, but for now we are done here. I must caution you though that all gag orders remain in effect. You are not to speak of what we've discussed here with anyone." Giving her a curt nod he added "You're dismissed..."

T'Lin rose with an easy grace and came to attention and made the proper salute. "Yes sir," she said with her usual cool efficiency and then backed two paces and turned and departed.

OFF:

RADM Harold J. Doolittle
Starfleet Bureau of Personnel
Starfleet Command

PO2 T'Lin
Science Officer
formerly of the USS Galileo
(NPC of Allyndra illm Warraquim)


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OOC Area

OOC: Sorry it's taken me this long to respond and apologies for the brevity of the tag. Chemo treatments on Monday and Wednesday coupled with a bit of writer's block. - Jim

OOC A: I am so sorry to here. I hope you feel better soon. Sorry if my response is quite small as well. T'Lin gives typical minimal responses.

OOC: I think we can tag and wrap this one. Any ideas for a title? - Jim

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