Suspicious Signals [USS Excelsior]

Posted on Mon May 16th, 2011 @ 12:03pm by Captain Alexander Gunning & Commander Dietrich Reinhart & Lieutenant Commander Nilani Prax

Mission: In Defiance Of Orders
Location: Archanis Sector

[ON]

The Archanis Sector was expansive and stark. There was only really one system of any note within its boundaries. The Archa system. First contact had been made with the Archaans some years earlier and they had seemed like an open, progressive people. So said the reports at least.

Sulu's hand lingered on the edge of the teacup as he placed it back on the little table. They must be getting close now.

Riordan's sensors placed them as nearing their approach vector. She laid in the necessary corrections and turned to face the Captain. "We're approaching the Archanis Sector now, sir."

Valtane stood behind Sulu's seat staring at the spectrometer. It was not the most technological improvement on the new Excelsior, but it was his favorite and what he was most comfortable with. Sometimes the lights and gamma rays and x-rays told more than the sensors did. An anomaly could come in as radiometric shifts or improper magnetic pole alignment or some bull-hockey like that. But the ion trails were always so nice in the spectrometer, crystal clear and tangible feeling.

But there was something there! It took a second to adjust for the Archanis star, but when he saw the ion trail past the fourth and third planets, he had to wonder if he accounted for the spacial drift and solar winds. Dmitri adjusted the sensitivity and the bandwidth. Hydrogen ions were not uncommon in star systems. But such a significantly defined line of ion particles on a steady course without detectable drift meant something was there. He went to the sensor array and focused on the stream of ions. The concentration was enough. The direction was there. An estimate of sublight-speed and course was coming in. But a Federation engine signature? The Excelsior was the only one this far away from Sol System.

"Captain Sulu. We're picking up a Federation engine signature twenty million clicks from a nebula cluster."

"All right, Commander." Sulu said, turning once again to face his helmswoman, "alter course towards the signature and engage, Lieutenant."

"Aye, sir."

"Captain," Alev spoke up, from his position at the weapons console as he turned his chair towards Sulu. "As far as I'm aware, there aren't meant to be any other Federation ships in this sector."

Sulu wrung his hands, remaining completely silent.

"I'm also picking up a significant amount of comm traffic on the long-range receivers, Captain," Rand informed him, holding the earpiece to her ear and by instinct leaning towards it as she struggled to listen. "It's doesn't seem to be Federation in origin, and the Universal Translator doesn't recognise it from the databanks; it's still working to translate. It's too far off to be of any immenent importance, but..." she shrugged, straightening back up again as she looked over to her long-time shipmate. "Last I heard the Archanis sector was meant to be a quiet one. Very little space traffic, let alone subspace comms."

"We'll investigate that in due course." Sulu replied, knowing full well that it could be a completely natural development in the system. "Take us to that Federation signature, post-haste."

"Aye, sir." Riordan responded, changing the allotted course in the vessel's helm. She reinitialised the engines and moved the giant vessel into its flight path. "We'll be there in ten minutes."

"All right." Sulu replied before turning to face the rear of the bridge. "Bring us to yellow alert. If there's not supposed to be any ships out here then I don't want us to be running into some kind of trap."

Valtane heard the Captain's orders and nodded to the weapons and operations officers. At this moment, more power would be going towards shields and "primary" systems than the "secondary systems". Whatever they were heading towards intrigued Dmirtri, but none of it seemed right. The Excelsior was farther away from System 001 than any other Starfleet craft at this point. Nothing should be out of here.

[OFF]