Action Plan

Posted on Fri Apr 22, 2022 @ 1:57pm by Captain Larisna Koralova & Lieutenant Rei Yamashi & Lieutenant Penny Mc Taggard & Lieutenant Commander Kaedon Draesni & Lieutenant Jaro Antos

Mission: Mission 2 - A World With A Bluer Sun
Location: Observation Lounge

ON:

As soon as everyone was seated, Larisna called up the relevant data from both the Away Team and the ship's databanks. This time, she didn't even try to hide it, she was pacing at the head of the table, but this was also from being on her feet as an Academy Instructor. She simply struggled to sit down when explaining things these days.

"Okay - I'm going to say this part for the benefit of those who either slept through Early Federation History or did not attend Starfleet Academy." Larisna started with a slight smile to ease the tension, "So, in 2158, the Earth-Romulus War broke out. Earth, Tellar Prime, Vulcan, Andoria and a few other smaller powers banded together under the Coalition of Planets to form a united front against the Romulan invasion. The conflict was bloody, but strange because no one would see a Romulan during the entire conflict. At any rate, Atlantis belonged to United Earth, the NX-class was basically Earth's most potent ship until the introduction of the Yorktown-class and they tended to draw the most dangerous assignments. I believe off hand, most of the early ships in the class were lost save for NX-01 Enterprise."

"It seems that Lieutenant Yamashi's tricorder managed to pull some of the logs. I'm going to play the most relevant one for now, just so we know what their mission was." She said.

"Personal Log - Lieutenant John Kearny - Armory Officer, United Earth Starship Atlantis. May 15th, 2158. We finally got the bastard, caught the Romulans that killed those civilians over an unknown world. Part of me feels guilty in cheering death, but we played cat-and-mouse with them for weeks. And they...well...they knew when to attack, they waited until the evacuation was completed and then blew up the civilian ship. That's not war, that's murder...anyways, Captain has ordered us down to the surface, hopefully there's enough of the debris intact to bring back to Starfleet Command. Make the slaughter worth something. Our Vulcan advisor is coming with us, might have some info that we could miss. No stone unturned, I guess."

Larisna ended the audio recording.

"So that's the background so far. Let's move on to more recent developments. Yamashi, McTaggard?"

Penny looked at Rei and gave her a nod. Then clearing her throat she began.

“ Due to heavy interference from both EM and temporal effects. Our data on the wormhole is not full. From what we have been able to learn from what we have. There appears to be a vessel at the epicentre of the wormhole. It is our belief that the ship is the cause of all this. However whether this has been done deliberately or by accident is unknown at this time. Before I hand over this report to my colleague Lieutenant Rei Yamashi I would just like to say. It is my belief on a scientific basis what we have here is not only a tunnel in space but time as well.Rei would you like to continue.” Penny said turning to her friend.

Draesni held up his hand, indicating that he was about to speak. “Forgive me,” he said, casting an apologetic look toward Yamashi for interrupting, “but just to be clear, we’re talking about the other ship we detected, yes? Not the Atlantis.”

“ Yes.” Penny confirmed

Rei stood. It seemed more comfortable for her to present her findings while standing. Perhaps that's just how they did thing in the Navy she grew up in. She gave Draesni a nod and a motion of a singular finger. All in due time. "Due to the interference from the wormhole we had to use a binary collection array. Two probes for each band of readings, using internal clocks to sync the readings to something more reliable. The wormhole's energy signature is, strictly speaking, all over the place. Electromagnetic, beta, gamma, even temporal. The methods we used had to be as extreme, and even then provided us with mostly conclusive results." she began, "To answer the posited question, two crafts were detected. One at the heart of the anomaly which we can only presume, for now, to be the source of the event. The other ship has been identified as the NX-Atlantis by silhouette recognition and visual hull plate identification." she offered a smirk.

"Thank you for putting your ship names on the outside of the craft." she offered, the only bit of humor she'd put into her report.

"Now, the rest of the news. Our scans have indicated that there are lifesigns on the Atlantis. Exactly how many is tough to say, but estimates and best readings put it anywhere between fifty and seventy. I consulted the archives and a ship of that class couldn't carry too many more then that as a full compliment. Combined that with the readings showing a rather impressive hull for a ship as old as it should be, and I feel confident in reporting that we may have found THE Atlantis, with her crew present and accounted for." a pause, "As for the OTHER ship, the readings on it are impossible to discern with certainty. It doesn't match any design in the ship's records, and it's nothing I've encountered either in my service. If we hold to the theory that this other unknown ship is the cause of the wormhole, then that opens the door to a host of questions that I don't think we're ready to explore." a pause, "We've detected no signs of life on the unknown craft, but honestly I don't think we'd know what to look for even if we could get a good scan of it. The notion of a craft that explores the cosmos through personal temporal wormhole generation is more than a little concerning to me. My departmental suggestion is to retrieve the Atlantis and then remove it and ourselves from the wormhole's influence and either wait for it to seal or find a way to encourage it to seal."

Antos listened to the information that had been shared thus far and given the gravity of their situation, the curious part of him was utterly intrigued by this discovery and wondered what type of aliens were capable of temporal wormhole generation. The level of power alone to operate that type of technology, not to mention the mastery of complex wormhole mechanics. It was quite clear they were dealing with a technologically superior alien. What was less clear was the intent of this unknown entity.

"Regarding extricating ourselves from the wormhole," Antos jumped in, very conscious that he had not been called upon, but it seemed relevant for him to provide his input here. "I think that's going to be very problematic. The sheer gravitational pull from the wormhole is proving too difficult for our engines to overcome- at least if we want to keep our ship intact. Couple that with the power drain and I think we are in a precarious position, and could end up stuck inside the wormhole, if we don't act soon."

Antos shifted in his seat as he continued. "One solution my team has come up with is boosting power to our structural integrity field and using a number of our shuttles to tractor us out. However, it is unclear if the interference from the wormhole would interfere with the tractor beam or even if the collective tractor beams of our shuttles will be sufficient enough to pull us out of the grasp of the wormhole."

Rei gave Antos' suggestion some thought, "I don't think the Structural Field would be the way to go. IF, and I mean IF, we could manifest a warp bubble, we could modify the ship's perceived mass, and then the shuttles would have the power to move us. Without that, I don't think ever shuttle in our bay would have the power and capacity to pull us free." she paused, "An excellent idea, though." she praised.

"Agreed. If not for the effects we still don't have a full grasp of, your plan could be actionable. As it stands, we might just end up with more added to the stranded pile." Larisna agreed.

"With our guest in sickbay still undergoing treatment..." Larisna paused for a moment, "Full disclosure, but what our only actionable plan may be would technically invoke several dozen temporal regulations and breaking them. And for the record, I bear the responsibility of that. But nothing in the Starfleet regs says that our rules are a suicide pact. And we need a better read on the situation and Atlantis is closer than we are."

"Commander Draesni, take an Away Team over. Standard protocol, however, that includes bringing phasers. I don't want you beaming over and finding out the Romulans of the era took the ship. Otherwise, get with Atlantis' crew and find a way to get some better readings from there, maybe they've been here long enough they figured out something we haven't yet. We also need to find out the suitability of towing them out if we have to, no sense in all this work only to find their hull is past tolerance points for tractor beams." Larisna said, "I'll stay here and once our guest is brought back by Doctor Aereen's staff, I'll talk to him."

"This is a Bozeman style incident. For those of you who missed that lecture, temporal displacement doesn't go in one direction. In the 2360s, the USS Enterprise-D was caught in a causality loop for several weeks until they broke free - the loop was the USS Bozeman from 50 years earlier crashing into them and once it was resolved, the crew of the Bozeman were stuck in the future. DTI had to acclimate them. So please be patient - the crew of Atlantis is of an era that isn't documented that well but was a pioneering time for what would be the Federation and Starfleet as we know it." She paused, "And it's also possible that you may end up encountering our enemies at the time and they won't be as inquisitive."

"Any questions?"

“ Do you think we send over just a human away team? As I understand the history of that time.Their encounters with non human races was quite small.” Penny asked.

Rei perked up a bit, "I don't think such a measure would be needed. They might be from an earlier point in your time but they were still explorers. Just be certain to leave nothing behind in the event that we have to leave quickly." a pause, "And speaking of quickly, time is a factor that is not on our side. We should worry less about how we look and concern ourselves with what we can do. I'll need to be there personally to inspect the craft. If we're going to tow them, I'll need to inspect the hull integrity. Stress fatigue and other factors may lead to us accidentally ripping their ship apart. Worst case, we abandon the craft but rescue the crew. That's a call I cannot make from here."

She offered Penny a smirk, "I appreciate you wanting to spare the worldviews of those souls. I'll just have to carefully break the news to them that Humans aren't alone in the cosmos." she teased.

Penny gave her a small wink.

"We also don't have time." Larisna added, "Humanity was in contact with numerous races. Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites, Rigelians, Denobulans, Klingons, the Xindi...they're not xenophobic. And we can't stand on protocol right now. Expediency is our best measure."

"Agreed. I can be prepped and set in ten." Rei committed.

"Good...because we're going to need your engineering skills," Draesni said, leaning forward slightly in his seat, "and we'll need your scientific background to help us analyze the data on site, McTaggard. There's no guarantee that, once we're over there, we'll have a reliable connection to the Hornet's database."

"Entirely." Larisna said.

Draesni nodded in agreement. "Exactly," he said, "You will be receiving a briefing packet before we depart. There isn't a lot of time, but it's important that you read it over in its entirety. Although many of the basic operating principles may be the same, we are going to be dealing with technology and people from over two hundred years in our past. No doubt, it will be as difficult for us as it is for them. The one advantage we do have is we can at least prepare ourselves for the encounter, so...do your homework."