Cold Orders (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 09 Apr 2020 @ 2:28pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant JG Matthew Plumeri & Ensign Mimi & Ensign Callin Mastrel & Commander Andreus Kohl & Chief Warrant Officer 2 Oliver Sylver & Senior Chief Petty Officer Goldie Brown & Cadet Senior Grade Jemima de la Coeur

4,419 words; about a 22 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: Latari System Outskirts, Task Group Staging Area
Timeline: MD 04, 2102 hrs

Previously, on Spaceworthy (Part 2)...

A sleek Tholian dart accelerated to high impulse to pursue the tiny probe, then maneuvered into its rear quarter for a weapons shot. Three blue tetryon bursts consecutively streaked from the front of the ship towards the Starfleet object. The first two missed wide, but the third impacted the side of the probe and disintegrated its propulsion system, sending it into an uncontrolled spin.

T'Lin twisted and turned the probe as the sensors indicated that a Tholian ship was chasing it. She tried to head for the coronasphere hoping for the high energy there to help mask the probe but it was to no avail. "I have lost the propulsion on the probe." The statement could have been as dry as a Vulcan desert.

Sandoval assessed their options and decided their best course of action was to send out a distress call. The dart would come looking for them at any time and they had no chance of getting back to the colony in time. She looked at the others. "Activating the distress signal."

"Destroy it," Blake replied shortly, her chest tight with the words and her expression cool despite the tension coiling in her. "Destroy the probe."

Marisa looked at Blake for a moment, then set the probe to self-destruct. "Probe destroyed," she said a moment later.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

The third day of repairs to USS Galileo was slowly winding down. The small Nova-class starship floated in the cosmos in close formation between its two escorts, each of which had been ferrying supplies and workbees back and forth to get the science ship back to operational status as quickly as possible. The battle damage Galileo sustained to its starboard RCS quadrant was mostly repaired and now several secondary systems were undergoing thorough level one diagnostics.

Aboard the ship's bridge, the mood was calm yet filled with tension from various new developments. The Genesis Directive's orders seemed to perturb several of the senior officers, while the prospect of further combat with the Tholians and the fate of the missing Waverider away team added an underlying sense of anxiety.

Galileo had been conducting standard long-range sensor sweeps of the Latari system ever since its retreat from the colony three days prior. The hope had been that maybe, somehow, they would be able to re-establish contact with the first officer's away team or anyone still alive on either the Trial or the colonies. Waiting and monitoring subspace channels in silence was difficult for the bridge crew, but also a necessity.

It was so quiet on the bridge of Galileo that a computer chime managed to sneak up on Commander Andreus Kohl like an April Fool’s Day prank. Startled, Kohl swallowed a gasp. Overburdened with pride, he refused to look up; he refused to acknowledge if anyone had taken notice of his reaction. He kept his eyes on the down, studying the LCARS interface for the new report from Sickbay. Playing it cool in the Captain’s chair, he crossed one ankle over his knee. The silence put his teeth on edge. When Kohl had served as the last Galileo’s Second Officer, a couple years back, gamma shift had been his domain. His bridge crew would drink hot chocolate together, and play never have I ever, and sang karaoke on those reeeeeaaaally long nights. They had never been this silent.

Of course, that bridge crew had gone now. Moved on. This wasn’t the same Galileo. Kohl had similarly mixed feelings about the report from Sickbay. He was pleased to notice an increased number of crew returning to active duty. He was puzzled by how a casualty report could be written with such a blatant subtext promoting interstellar politicking with the Tholians. Puzzled, and also vaguely impressed. There had been a time Kohl had written casualty reports in iambic pentameter, but his Nurse Practitioner certification had long expired by this point.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kohl spotted something on the science dashboard of his command display. A familiar pattern, like a series of numbers similar to your old student ID code. “There,” Kohl tried to say, but his throat was dry. The sound came out hoarsely, because he’d gone so long without giving an order or making small talk. Sweeping his fingertips across the interface, he triggered that pattern to appear on the viewscreen as a waveform.

“Doesn’t that look like a hailing signal packet?” Kohl asked, and he regretted it as soon as he’d said it. Seeing it up there on the screen —in a bold shade of LCARS peach— he could see more clearly that he was mistaken. “No,” he said; “I guess I’m wrong…”

False positives had recently become problematic. The triple-star system and its multiple solar systems already naturally emitted ten times more cosmic radiation than found in the Sol system. Added to the EM interference was unexplained planetary radiation surrounding both colonies, which by now the crew assumed was related to the proto-Tholian activity. It made scanning for distant signatures and receiving communications difficult, at best.

Clearing his throat sheepishly, Andreus Kohl rubbed the back of his neck, as if a muscle spasm or a skin irritation could have caused him to misdiagnose solar radiation as a communication pulse. He leaned back in the chair and he settled both boots on the deck. The sensation reminded him of his first time commanding a starship: the USS Nautilus during a wargames simulation. His skin had been buzzing with such electricity --and he had been so scared of the Captain's chair-- that he had practically danced from station to station rather than sit at his post. Truly, he couldn't remember the last time he had sat in the chair for such a long time.

But then, this Bridge crew had recently removed their Captain from command of the starship. Kohl couldn't be certain that, if he went to the head for too long, he wouldn't find Luke Wyatt sitting in the Captain's chair when he returned. And so Kohl sat some more.

Several more minutes passed in silence within Galileo's command center. The door to the bridge casually hissed open then shut as one officer retreated to use the head. Another quickly vacated their station to go to the replicator for a snack.

LTJG. Plumeri stepped through the bridge doors as they opened. The doors closed behind him and he stood there for just a moment. The last time he was on the bridge of a starship they were under attack on the Trial. Even though his wounds had been healed, he instinctively and unconsciously put his hand to his chest as he remembered being repeatedly kicked by the Tholian boarding party. His eyes ended up on the center chair. He recognized Andreus Kohl from the briefing room. He didn't know the officer. But, Matt thought to himself, nobody but a member of this crew belonged...no deserved...to be in that chair. Even so, Matt acknowledged his command with a nod and walked to Science Station I. He spoke to the crewman manning the station, "I relieve you." A quick update was shared and Matthew took a seat at the science station. He had a clear view of the main viewscreen. And Science I was just off to the side of the center command seats. He sat down and logged on. He typed in his command codes and the computer configured the Science station to his liking. The screen panel quickly read:

"LCARS COMMNET: ENABLE
INTEGRATED SYSTEMS ACCESS 4748 490-324903-209 351-569 UNIVRSSPCCRFTSYS
TRANSPORT PROTOCOL: MODE SELECT.7844.AUDIO.USER.VIDEO.ARRAY.SCI1.ALLSYSACCESS.ENCRYPT/DECRYPT
FROM:NCC80010.CSO.USSGALILEO
LINK ESTABLISHED
STARDATE: 69024.4
LCARS COMMNET ONLINE
USER: #2148.1613 PLUMERI, MATTHEW THOMAS
BLUFDATALINK ID# 64673245.437.0903

::: LCARS - SCIENCE STATION ONE - ONLINE :::"

Plumeri started working by conducting a quick scan of the system and getting an astronomical time check fix from Latari-A star.

Acknowledging Callin's nod made Matthew feel a little less edgy. At least he knew that Callin working at Science II station was going to be helpful for the rest of this bridge shift.

Callin looked up briefly as his new friend and superior in the Science Department arrived, gave Matt a nod, but quietly turned his attention back to his own station. He was still consumed by the data they'd gathered during the Tholian's attack, still ashamed by his failure to present a successful way to penetrate their defenses, but it was something else that had him uneasy today. Someone, rather.

The feelings were coming quite strongly from the man in the center seat, the stranger that had taken command, and were enough to set Callin's teeth on edge even as he tried to focus on his job. The Argelian's turbulence was worrying, jumping from feeling to feeling, maybe suspicion the worst of what the Betazoid thought he detected. What must he think of them, coming on board to hear of mutiny? Maybe Callin was a bit more concerned about his future at the moment than really studying. Or maybe, he really didn't know what was normal for Argelians in the first place.

CWO2 Oliver Sylver sat at the CONN, blue eyes focused at the display in front of him, at the information coming in. His eyes would then flicker up, to the actual view; almost as if the visual confirmation would offer something else for him. He had lost track of how long he had been there. Beside him he had a cup that had once contained...what had it been? Coffee, that was it. Was better than chewing raw coffee beans, his mind supplied quite unhelpfully.

Sylver had brief moments like this as he sat there. Moments when his brain would go to something else. He should have shaven. That popped into his mind suddenly but again he just pushed it aside. There hadn't been any time. He worked, got relieved, slept, tried to eat and then back on duty. What kept him going, kept him alert and awake, was more the routines drilled into him during the war. It was not good for his mental health to drop back into the mindset, but it got the work done for now.

What Sylver really wanted to do was to turn around, to look at the others on the bridge. To somehow try and cut through the tension that laced itself in the air, that seemed to swallow them all up whole. To look at Kohl and find some sort of...familiarity. To ease the wounds that he suspected they all felt. His mouth felt suddenly dry and he blinked, swallowing a bit, before he closed his eyes for a few seconds. When he opened them again, whatever emotions that flicked across his face were gone and he was yet again focused on his work.

The feeling on the bridge was more tense than she'd experienced. Jemima felt no excitement, no desire to bounce. She wanted to stay quiet and not be noticed, which was very unlike her. She glanced over at Goldie, who was equally somber.

Again, Kohl gasped very softly. He had been holding his breath. In truth, he hadn't even noticed that he'd been doing it. At some point, he must have felt as if his breathing was too loud. As if the silence on the bridge was so pervasive that the rush of air moving through his nostrils was impossibly louder than the comforting white noise of the environmental systems running in the background.

Still, Kohl sat, and Kohl stared. He scrolled through reports on his display to avoid even the possibility of making eye-contact with a member of the bridge crew -- this mutinous bridge crew. The thought of it was nearly pushing him into a panic.

To only the most observant eyes, a sudden small pulse in the subspace communications low-band frequency was seen on the operations display, then disappeared. Then came another, several seconds later. Then another -- all identical waveforms yet barely detectable among the background noise.

To Kohl's eyes, it was the repetition that stood out. The pattern of movement dancing across his operations dashboard. In his time as a Science chief, Kohl had observed that the natural universe was rarely --but not never-- so regimented. The shape of the waveform, in itself, looked like astronomical electromagnetic waves, to Kohl, and yet the regimented repetition was peculiar. Kohl hesitated for no more than a heartbeat. As much as he feared giving this bridge crew any ammunition to declare him unfit, Kohl knew Blake and Saalm were out there. Both had been desperately-needed trusted mentors to him. Kohl would strip naked and roll through broken glass, if it meant seeing them both home safely.

"What's this one?" Kohl asked aloud. As much as he didn't want to ignore a hunch, Kohl wasn't ready to heft his reputation behind the pattern. Again, he swiped the low-band frequency from the operations management display to a corner of the viewscreen. "I haven't met many stars," Kohl said, "that knew how to perform a good drum beat like that one."

"No sir. Not like that" Matt said as he used his finger on the panel to swipe in a copy of the low-band spectrum over to his workstation. The screen accepted the copied information and opened an analysis table. Wavepoints, arcs and pivot points started to be displayed an analyzed. Several detection algorithms started to chew on the frequency but nothing seemed to stick. Matt used both hands and made the little blue and white window larger. He pulled it open with his fingertips and it got larger. The computer drew lines between the now focused window to other sensors that could assist. Matt said after a moment, "There is too much solar radiation from the star to get through Captain." The word stuck in his throat like a glottal stop. Matt lifted his eyes to look at Kohl. But only for a moment.

"I can compensate for the solar radiation coming from the star" Matt said as he typed in the commands. The frequency was boosted a little - but not nearly enough. Matthew shook his head after a moment, "It's like...trying to get a drink from a fire hydrant. The star has so much instability across the spectrum. I can't compensate for it all."

"We don't need it in replicator-fresh condition, Lieutenant," Kohl offered in his best approximation of a warm tone. Kohl recognized the edge of perfectionism in Matthew's voice, and somewhere along the way Kohl had learned starship crews could get by on far less than perfect. This mission, in particular, hadn't located the same solar system as perfect. His gaze Matt's eyes for a similarly abbreviated moment. "I trust you can compensate enough," Kohl encouraged.

Meeting Kohl's gaze he said, "Aye sir. I'll keep trying." Matt could hear the tone of the Captain's voice change but he didn't know if that was condescending or not. There was no time for feelings right now.

Black eyes blinked as Callin caught up to the conversation, withdrew his senses from the disconcerting feelings going on and used his ears. Tholian data was pushed aside for now so he could access the ship's systems instead. His voice came out a bit loud for how quiet it had been, and he over-explained, "I think I can use some communications protocols to give you a clearer picture. By amplifying our sensor gain, and running some radiation filters on top of that I've used to help with sort of similar interference from a pulsar...in a simulation at least...um...Secondary deflector will be yours in a moment, Lieutenant...Captain...uh, sirs." Biting his lip to keep from shouting at the both them, sure he'd say something unfortunate and definitely not an ensign's place to bring up, Callin bent his head over his console, hunched his shoulders, and typed in his algorithms.

"Copy that Ensign Mastrel. I see the secondary deflector is helping...the main deflector dish isn't keeping its static alignment. Possibly damaged from the attack? Or maybe the antenna itself was damaged by debris while offline? I've still got too much noise. The secondary deflector is helping. But it's also degrading the signal. Making the signal look like all the other background noise from the star." He looked over at Callin, "The sensor array on the port side...is that the best we can do?"

"Mmm, let me check," Callin bit his lip as he worked, and with some focus and direction now was able to ignore his discomfort for the time being. "My filters are going to need some adjusting, this is a lot more radiation than in the simulation. Let me tie-in the UT as well, and with a bit more power that should help compensate for the signal degradation.

Hearing Callin mention he needed some more power Mimi tapped at the ops panel, reassigning some of the ships power into the various sensor arrays the panel showed the science stations were using. "Try it now Ensign." She called over to Callin.

Up until now, Goldie had been doing anything she could to keep awake. She'd checked every system, looked up the repair log, and then went to reading articles in the communications manual. But now her blood was pumping. They might have something. "Boosting power to the communications receiver," She said, putting deed to word.

Suddenly, the Science I display screens started flickering and started to get brighter then the screens went completely white. "What the hell?" Matt said to no one in particular. Just as quickly as the displays blanked over; they came back. All black except for the standard interface template with the words, "SYSTEM OVERLOAD - REINITIALIZE".

Matt looked annoyed, "Uhhhh...too much energy for the primary sensor array there. My sensors overloaded the processors. I'll have to re-initialize the primary and secondary arrays. Back off the power to the grid please? It'll take a moment to re-initialize." He didn't mention any names and kept it professional as he could. Mistakes were bound to happen and the computer should have warned that too much energy was being dumped into the array. After a few moments, the sensors were back online. "OK, we're back up. No harm done. I'm rescanning the area to get a new baseline." He typed into the terminal and then turned and looked behind him to Science II & Science III stations and asked, "Instead of amplifying the sensors...let's try casting a bigger net? Callin, if you extend the range of the secondary sensor pods and De La Coeur? If you extend the lateral sensor array we can tie them together to the primary array...like a big ear?"

"On it," Jemima said, checking the lateral sensors, then extending them, careful not to cause an overload.

"Aye, sir," Callin replied on Jemima's heels, slowly expanding the range of the sensor pods in case there was unknown damage ready to cause more problems.

"Let me know when you're ready? Then I'll run the waveform analysis again and see if we catch anything?" Plumeri asked before turning back to his station. He was grateful for the help of his colleagues and their ideas. He waited patiently for them to calibrate and slave their sensors to the primaries. "Here's hoping we don't blow anymore conduits."

"Ready," de la Coeur said.

"Looks like we're good to go, Lieutenant," Callin confirmed. "Any more and we might be picking up signals from the next system over."

Science I came alive with the additional stations II & III. The graph got larger and Matt answered, "Thank you. We're online!" He typed quickly, "I'm reforming the sensors to block as much of the stellar radiation while preserving what is not sourced from the star."

The analysis chewed away at the data. Small computational windows appeared and disappeared as the information was analyzed. A waveform started to appear. It started to take shape. Matt worked to refine the sensors, the additional horsepower from stations II & III made all the difference. "I have something....its an organized signal. Not natural. Repetitive...damn...nearly invisible. It's so weak." He looked up at Kohl. "Even though it's missing the headers - the high packet data tags that confirm its from a Federation source sir...I'm sure its a distress message of some kind. Yeah....even with high packet loss this has to be a message. Like you said, nothing beats like a distress signal."

The transmission abruptly vanished mid-analysis as if it'd been cut across the throat. All waveform spikes ceased along with all incoming comms data following the brief stream.

"Whuh-- what happened?" Kohl blurted out, sitting forward in the command chair. He gripped the armrests, as if he could add kinetic energy to the ship's power stores. "Did we blow out another array of sensor subprocessors?" he asked, looking to each of the science stations.

Plumeri worked on the problem saying only, "Checking...". That was all he said for what seemed like long moments. His face wore the answer his voice said next, "Negative Commander. All sensors are online and all are withing normal tolerances. We're online and we're working. There's...just no more signal. Just no more nothing. It's gone." He looked up at Kohl and then the screen and feared the worst, "The signal...its just gone."

Listening to the exchange between the science team Mimi had decided to have a look at the sensor data herself playing it back from when it was first picked up to when it cut out. Her tail twitched gently as she scanned through the data several times before something started to stand out; a sub pattern that looked oddly familiar. "I think I have something." She called out though she hoped she was right as she felt several eyes turning in her direction. "There is a small section with a pattern that looks like a Federation IFF signal." Her tail twitched quicker and quicker as she tapped at the console. "I think it is the Vincenzo."

"Can we hear the distress call?" Kohl asked the bridge crew. He rose from his chair, taking a couple of steps closer to the viewscreen. Some days, it still felt uncomfortable to drive results through others. The inaction made his joints hurt.

Error messages with option menus slid onto most of the operations and science LCARS panels across the bridge. The recorded waveform of the distress call popped out of the error message and the Computer identified large chunks of data that it recognized as Starfleet-encrypted cypher text. However, it also identified unfamiliar sections of data that looked more like the result of solar radiation.

"Trying sir" Matthew typed in a command and the waveform mess was made audible. It sounded like a blender or a lawnmower; perhaps an alto saxophone was the best description. It sounded like the saxophone/lawnmower/blender was being played with a bad reed because budget cuts to the music department in favor of the science department. The "arts" - hhmpff! The background noise of the Latari main sequence star masked nearly everything else in a white noise of blistering sound. It wasn't loud, Matt had turned the volume down from high school band room to elevator lobby, but it was entirely foreign. Rising and falling, as if the star itself were wheezing. Then, almost inaudibly, and pattern of organized sound. Clearly digital the sudden addition of organized tones indicated intent. Then, just as quickly as it came, it was gone again. Swallowed up by the star's intense output of energy. Then, it was back. This time Matt applied a filter and the digitally compressed data sounded distinctly. The computer grabbed the signal and processed it. Plumeri announced, "That's the signal; that's the best its going to get. It's heavily degraded. I'd estimate that if it is the Vincenzo then they have been inn distress for at least forty or fifty minutes? Every time the headers come back they are shorter. And weaker."

"I'm picking out a partial transmission, but it's so degraded I can't get much," Jemima said, trying to adjust for the distortion.

"It's text-only," Goldie added. "There's no voice or video. It's like they were trying to sneak it out."

"I bet we can defrag this, no problem!" This was something Callin enjoyed, definitely knew what he was talking about at last. He accessed the Universal Translator systems once again, and started with a basic program already in memory to do an initial sweep. While that ran, the Betazoid bit his lip, typed in some additional algorithms to a new file, glanced back and forth between the scrolling, incomprehensible text Goldie had pulled out of the signal. Patterns started to emerge from the chaotic jumble of symbols. "Looks like they've sent us some scan data," Callin called out, still tweaking his translation as he spoke. "Tagged as Planetary Data...blah blah blah...Latari B III...Divines! Confirming, yeah, this is evidence of proto-Tholian presence on the surface."

Sylver's blue eyes focused on the surface data as it appeared in front of him, a slight frown coming to him. It took him a few moments, eyes travelling over the information before he smiled. "There's survivors," he announced, relief flooding him. "Federation colony."

Kohl folded his arms across his chest, briefly scowling at the viewscreen. That placed two of their objectives on the surface of Latari B III. One to rescue and one to obliterate. Multi-tasking both would prove problematic. Angling his head towards Operations, Kohl requested, "Open a channel to the Lagrange."

Mimi tapped a few buttons on the Ops console "They're responding, channel open Captain." She called out.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

LTJG. Matthew Plumeri
Science Officer/Historian
USS Galileo-A

PO1 Goldie Brown
Operations Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Sandoval]

Cadet Senior Grade Jemima de la Coeur
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Sandoval]

Ensign Callin Mastrel
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

Ensign Mimi
Asst Chief Ops
USS Galileo-A

Commander Andreus Kohl
Acting Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC ir-Llantrisant]

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