Destination: Skyhook

Posted on Sun Jan 10, 2021 @ 7:05pm by Captain Larisna Koralova & Lieutenant Penny Mc Taggard

Mission: Mission 2 - "Drawing Deeply From The Well"
Location: Briefing Lounge, USS Hornet
Timeline: Several Hours Prior to Arrival to Skyhook Alpha

Larisna waited for the senior staff to enter the briefing lounge. She stood by her chair at the head of the table, but she keyed up the holographic display to show in the middle of the table. Some COs liked to use the displays at the head of the table for self-important reasons, but she wanted her officers to keep focus on each other and the mission rather than her.

The more Steven looked over the information on the Skyhook mining facility. The bigger the scientific conundrum seemed to gather. The Dilithium was far to pure for its surroundings. Plus the shapes were wrong they should not grow like that. Could the vicinity of the gas giant be a factor?

These questions buzzed around his head. As he entered the room. Giving a polite nod he took his seat.

“ Greetings. “ He said distracted.

Lt Commander Malloy came in next, she liked to be a little early for these events as there was always something that came up, that would require her expertise. Now that she was the Executive officer and her replacement had arrived Amanda's primary concern was to the ship, not Ops. It was an adjustment. She had recently switched to the red uniform. First time in her career she wore red. She had always been assigned to Ops which always wore the gold.

"Good Morning Captain, Mr. Edgemore, I guess we are the first ones here," Amanda said. feeling a bit like captain obvious.

"Please tell me there is some coffee here.." Amanda added.

E'Lor walked in and noticed the command change and smiled before getting her customary racktijino. Nodding to those already there, she sat and waited.

A blue-skinned Bolian male in a gold uniform walked into the briefing lounge. He held a PADD in one hand and a steaming cup of coffee in the other. He nodded to everyone in the room and moved to take an empty chair at the table.

Steven gave a nod.

“Plus this stuff is much purer than normal. It would fetch a nice tidy sum. Our Romulan friends would kill their own parents to get their hands on it.”

Larisna glanced at Steven and shook her head, "Mister Edgeware, let's tone down those kinds of comments, please. I appreciate a good cup of coffee, but that's not a comment suitable for the Bridge."

She then nodded to the rest of the crew as they entered, "Take a seat, please, we'll get the briefing underway on what awaits us at Skyhook Alpha."

E'Lor was interested in what Skyhook Alpha was in relation to why the Romulans were involved. It didn't sit well with her that Romulans were involved. It could only mean trouble.

Amanda poured herself a cup of coffee.then went over to sit next to Steven

"So did you ever figure out why the crystal lattices are forming the way they are? Amanda asked?

"I don't mean to pry but crystal lattices? Sounds like you're discussing dilithium crystals," E'Lor said. "They can be mis-shaped by pressure within the planets gravitational forces. Gas Giants can do that if their gravitational force is greater than the planets. It also could be affected by pressures within the planet itself" she added, looking at Cmdr. Malloy and Lt. Edgewater.

"Interesting I didn't know that." Amanda said. Planetary sciences had never been her forte.

Steven nodded in agreement. But he still was not happy. Something just did not feel correct.

“ I agree with you. But the density of the lattice is still not correct. Especially with those conditions you just explained. There is another variable here. But at this moment I cannot see it.”

"I'm sure we will get to the bottom of it one way or another."

"An interesting addition to the equation, Mister Edgeware." Larisna nodded in approval. They were coming together. This was good.

Darkstar made his way in and took his usual spot on the viewport side of the table. He had brought his own coffee and was quietly nursing the steaming mug as the others settled in.

Vott walked in and moved towards one of the seats. Still being somewhat new, he hadn't had a chance to meet everyone at the table. So he just did a general nod to everyone and smiled broadly and sat down.

Once everyone was seated, Larisna nodded and slid the display over to the image of Skyhook Alpha. It looked very different to anything in use in the quadrant. The station itself was an asymetrical U-shape with jagged ends and a spire that ran down from the center of the U into the planet. Partway down the spire was a circular structure with 6 beams jutting out from it, all equal length and equal distant, somehow out of place in the design and yet in place.

That's when Queren arrived. He'd been working on far too many reports that were due by the next morning and at this rate wouldn't be where they were meant to got by the time they should have been; and as such he'd lost track of time. Being called into a meeting of the senior officers was still as new to him as his promotion to COB. He'd been beating himself up about being three minutes late to the meeting from the time he left his brand news office until he made it to the Observation Lounge--four minutes.

Doing his best to go unnoticed and avoiding eye contact with the assembled officers who'd all turned to to look in his direction when they heard door as it hissed open, he walked quickly to his favorite seat--far end of the table, opposite the window so he could see the stars.

"For those of you who don't know, this is Skyhook Alpha in orbit of the fifth planet of J05-882, a system on the edges of Federation territory here. Discovered on Stardate 51327.09, or rather, the second year of the Dominion War, by the USS Kongo. It was surveyed by the Vulcan Science Academy on the USS Soval and brought online in 18 months. We have no idea who built it, the Vulcan Science Academy still sends teams out to try and figure it out, and no one in the neighborhood has a clue or is advanced enough to be of claim to it." Larisna explained, "SCE runs it, they have a caretaker crew on board. As you may have surmised from Mister Edgeware, this place pulls up a significant amount of dilithium. And from the sounds of it, unusually pure."

"Which would also go some way to explaining how it helped keep ship production after Mars. The facility is mostly automated but significant portions of it are inaccessible even to this day." The display of the station flashed blue in small parts, "SCE has been trying to figure this thing out since they got the green light. At any rate, the current crew has reported that the ramscoops do the actual diving into the gas giant and have been coming back in various states of damage, and not by natural sources. They suspected an attack, but they can't pinpoint it. The USS Bunker Hill came by a few weeks ago, but they couldn't stay long and couldn't investigate fully. Bunker Hill is Inquiry class, they don't have the equipment for a proper survey. So that's where we come in."

"We need to determine the source of the attacks, they all seem to be happening within the gas giant. Now, as to who is so gutsy as to go into a Class J to shoot at ramscoops but won't attack the station itself, that's a mystery. Could be Romulans, could be the Orion, could be a previously unencountered race, maybe even the folks who built the place and don't like us using it. We're going to figure it out and do what we have to to keep the peace." Larisna said, "Ideally, we figure this out and resolve it without shooting anything." She paused, "Any questions thus far?"

"You say they are attacks Captain, did the equipment have weapons damage, or was it perhaps a biological attack? I'd hate to think that we were invading a mothers den of some life form that we've never seen before and its just protecting its young," Amanda said.

"Ramscoop damage, attack, inside a gas giant? How on Earth...?"E'Lor asked looking at the diagram.

"Was there any biological residue?" Amanda asked.

"None that either the Skyhook personnel or Bunker Hill could determine. But the teams at the Skyhook have limited equipment and the Bunker Hill is a ship intended to protect, not research. Which is where we come in." Larisna explained, "So. I'd like Mister Edgeware and Mister Paans to get in touch with the Bunker Hill, have them send over their sensor logs and go over any details they might have. Meanwhile, Commander Malloy, Lieutenant E'Lor, pull one of the Type 8 shuttles. See what you can do about prepping it if we have to drop it into a Class J and probes are a no-go. Don't know what we're dealing with yet but I'd like to be ready."

Hmm Class J Amanda thought is characterized by a tenuous surface, consisting of gaseous hydrogen and some hydrogen compounds, and an atmosphere consisting of zones that vary in temperature and composition. The only known lifeforms to be found on J-class planets are hydrocarbon -based. Jupiter is class J.

"We will need specialized environmental pressure suits with both heating and cooling elements as well as flight control thrusters and we will have to bolster the structural integrity fields and shields on the shuttles. We might have to fine tune the sensors to those environmental conditions as well." Amanda said.

"I'll move some schedules around to focus on suit and shuttle upgrades," Queren said casually, meanwhile seizing the opportunity to make his first impression with the entirety of the Hornet's leadership. "A number of my crewmen have experience in multiple fields, so giving them an opportunity to showcase their lesser-known talents will be a strong motivator. Nothin' like a bath of fire to see who's got the sense to get out of the tub."

"Class J, gas giants are made up of fluorine gas, ammonia, and methane. Methane is combustible, and fluorine gas is deadly if breathed. I am not sure if we can actually adequately keep the shuttles sealed from the fluorine gas. You would have to already be in EVA suits before you got into the shuttles. Then to work in suits inside a shuttle will nearly impossible. There might be a way though...... I would have to replicate the material for it but it could work," E'Lor said thinking as she spoke.

"If there's any other prepwork, any other ideas, let's hear them. I'd like us to be ready when we arrive to get to business. Once we get there, we'll interview the staff, pull sensor logs, scan everything we can. Hopefully, we do all this now, we'll come more prepared than the Bunker Hill and solve this."

"Agreed most Definitely!" E'Lor echoed.

"Are there any more questions or proposals? If not lets get to work." Amanda said.

"This takes priority, so if you need use of ship systems or any teams, grab them. If there's anything I can do to help, any fires I need to light, let me know." She stood up, "Alright, let's get this done. Please keep me up to speed of any developments. If there's nothing else, you're dismissed."