A Valid Code
Posted on Mon Jul 28th, 2014 @ 1:12pm by Lieutenant JG Allison Price & Commander Jordan Gunning & Lieutenant Augustus Deakin
Mission:
Fate of the Angels
Location: Main Bridge [USS Seraphim]
Timeline: 2261
OOC: I decided to split it up a bit- it's an incredibly long post. I've posted the first part- we might even need to split it again?
Previously...
"Is there a problem, Lieutenant?" She asked, her eyes still fixed on the viewscreen.
Gunning gulped and his attention immediately snapped back to the gaudy console. "No sir."
[ON]
Deakin watched the First Officer relieve the junior science officer at the console next to his and bury his eyes into the scope. If the Seraphim got itself into some kind of trouble here, it was a good bet that Commander Anto missed something in this scan. Or maybe it was a subsequent scan. Either way, it would help them to know what was going on. He knew the science console was isolated, so he couldn't use his own console to try and hack into it to set up a repeater. This was going to need a different approach.
It was probably a stupid idea, but Gus had very little to lose at this point and somebody had to do something. He got up from his station and stepped across to science, thrusting his hand toward the First Officer. "Commander Anto," he said, close enough now to pick up some information from the commander's console, but not much. "I just wanted to introduce myself and say what a pleasure it is to serve with you. Commander Spock spoke well of you on the Enterprise."
There were two Commanders on the bridge. One sat at the helm with his head in his hands, disguised as a lieutenant, the other stared at Deakin, agog. The look in his eye suggested that Commander Anto was about to backhand Starbase 332's ops chief out of existence.
"It has been a long time since I've seen Commander Spock." Anto stated matter-of-factly. "I trust that he is still in rude health?"
Gus kept the broad smile on his face, but slowly retracted his spurned hand, folding his arms across his chest and leaning casually on the console. "Oh, you know how Mr Spock is," he said. "Always setting a stoic example for us grunts. In fact, he had been giving me some tutelage on sensor operation just before I got shipped off the Enterprise," he continued, hoping he wasn't overplaying the part of a chatty non-comm. "I'm thinking about becoming a science officer, you see. Anyway, Mr Spock told me just before we left that I'd do well to follow your example. So, I was wondering, if it's not too much trouble, if you'd have the time to show me a few things, just like Spock did? I'd hate to miss a chance to learn from you, sir."
Allie didn't know what to say. She was sure that she was supposed to be doing something from the engineering console, and she hoped to God that the captain was not trying to give her orders. Instead, she just watched Deakin's trainwreck unfold, and silently praying that something bad didn't come from all of this.
Anto stared at the crewman. This was most irregular and he was surprised that the Captain had not pulled him up for it. In fact, her face carried a wry smile. "Are you familiar with the science console?"
Gus broadened the grin stretching across his face and nodded enthusiastically; he couldn't believe his ploy was working! "Yes, sir," he said, glancing over the console and recalling the layout from his academy days. He pointed to one of the most obvious sections of the console and said, "Here are the controls for the long-range passive sensors," he said. "Thermographer, Hyper-Spectrometer and here's the Electromagnetic Field Detector. And over here are the active scanners. Those are the ones Mr Spock was training me on when I left the Enterprise."
"That's right." Anto stated flatly. "Tell me, Crewman. What do you discern from the readings?"
The tall, red-shirted imposter smiled and leaned down to peer into the scope. The interface was cumbersome and inefficient, but Gus could at least understand the readings. He tweaked the frequency of the scanners and quickly applied a radiation filtering algorithm that wouldn't be invented for about seventy years while the results scrolled before his eyes. As he worked, he paid no attention to the expression of growing concern on the face of Commander Anto.
Then he saw it: a chroniton spike on long range scanners, in a sector about an hour's flight away. Gus lifted his head back from the scope for a moment and looked at Anto, who had an agitated look in his eye. He was about to say something, but decided against it. Instead, he stood up to his full height, turned to the front of the bridge and walked straight toward Gunning. As he walked, he gestured for Price to join him at the helm.
The ensign quickly looked around the bridge. There was no being discrete at this point. All eyes were on Deakin. She did a quick check to make sure that the engines weren't on fire and hurried over to the helm console.
Gunning remained at 'his station', keeping half an eye on the course. After all, if he didn't, no-one would. "What've you got?"
Deakin rounded the Helm/Navigation console and leaned in close to Gunning, ignoring the incredulous looks directed at him from the others on the bridge. "Commander," he said, blowing the ruse of Gunning's lieutenant rank, "I saw a significant chroniton spike about an hour ahead of us. Enough to suggest a significant temporal anomaly of some kind and given what we know ..." he shrugged, leaving the end of the sentence hanging.
Gunning grunted his acknowledgement of the information.
"I also saw higher than expected, but localised tachyon traces," Deakin added. "Could be cloaked ships out there."
"So what's the betting that the two are related?" Gunning mused, checking the ship's course against the readings coming in from Deakin's scan. "If the Seraphim is ambushed along this course, its drift would lead it straight into that anomaly."
The Commander stared straight ahead past Deakin's concerned expression for a moment as the words Temporal Prime Directive flashed across his mind. They had to return the Seraphim to its rightful timeline without deviating too much from the 'history books'. "Let me try something."
He rose from his chair and turned on the bewildered Captain who was yet to speak against the impromptu conference. "Captain, I am Commander Maximilian," he hesitated a moment, "Theramin, of Starfleet Intelligence. We have reason to believe that you are about to be ambushed by Klingon ships."
"This is ridiculous!" The Captain crossed the bridge until she was eyeing Gunning from about half a foot away. "You walk onto my bridge and expect me to just allow you to throw this ship into jeopardy?"
"Captain McIndoe, we don't have time to discuss the impropriety of my actions. I am from Section Thirty One of Starfleet. You probably haven't heard of us but we're very good at our jobs and right now our job is making sure that you don't get blown into a chroniton anomaly. You can check my clearance code: Charlie-Delta-Six-Four-Nine-Oh-One."
"Check that, Anto." The Captain fumed at having been backed into a corner by what she thought was her relief helmsman. "Now."
Price leaned toward the Commander and whispered. "Is that really a valid code?" she asked.
"Yeah. It's an old code- to us at least- but it'll check out." Gunning whispered in reply.
The science officer typed the code into his station and studied the results on his display. "It appears to be a valid code, Captain, though there isn't much information in the databanks about who it belongs to."
Gunning had a moment of clarity where he remembered first seeing the code. The United Federation of Planets Museum at one of the old shipyards in Iowa had a full scale replica of the bridge of the USS Farragut and the code was one of the permanent displays on the science screen. He decided not to reveal the fact that he had just put the lives of his colleagues in jeopardy based on a guess.
McIndoe waved off his reply. "Fine, fine. Let's say for a moment that you are who you say you are. I'm not saying that I'm convinced, but let's pretend." The captain was still in a bit of a huff. It was clear that she didn't like being showed up on her bridge. Why do you think we're about to be ambushed by Klingon ships, there has been nothing on scanners?"
"They're out there, Captain. You just can't see them." Gunning replied, sounding more and more like a lunatic to McIndoe with every utterance. "My colleagues should be able to explain."
Price looked over at Deakin, hoping to defer to the superior officer. But his look back told her that he didn't want to start anymore than she did. She tried to stumble over her words, trying to come up with a way to explain cloaking technology to a five year old but not come across as sounding condescending. "Ah, so we, at uh, Section 31, have reason to believe that the Klingons have been developing a prototype form of stealth technology." She looked over to Deakin, hoping that he had an idea of how to not give away too much information.
Deakin picked it up and ran with it from there, "Captain," he said. "We cannot reveal too much information, as it is highly classified. However, we can say that Federation agents within the Klingon Empire have reported that their military has been trialing advanced stealth technology that renders their ships invisible to our sensors." He looked between Gunning and Price hoping he hadn't revealed too much, then back to the captain. "We don't know much about it, but what we do know - and, please captain, know that I could get in to a world of trouble even telling you this - what we do know, is that they may have a ... a tell. Tachyon spikes." He pointed over to Anto. "That's what I detected in the scan I just performed."
The engineer nodded along with Deakin's explanation. While there was so much more that she could say, Price was weary of the temporal prime directive. Revealing too much could allow Starfleet to negate the cloaking device's tactical advantage before the Klingons and Romulans could even use it against the Federation. While it would be a major victory for Starfleet, there was no telling what it would do to history. The Butterfly Effect kept coming to mind. Feeling a little less timid, she decided to continue, and hoped that she didn't blow their cover by doing so. "What my colleague says is correct, Captain. However, as he said it is highly classified. Few outside of this room know this information, and it needs to stay that way."
"This is insane." McIndoe said quietly. "You realise that what you're saying is absolutely insane, don't you?"
"I'm aware that it doesn't sound plausible, Captain," Gunning replied, doing his best to safeguard his grave countenance, "but it is true. Those tachyon spikes refer to either one Klingon ship, or multiple. We're not able to tell at this moment. What we are able to tell you is that we're here to help you ensure the safety of your crew."
McIndoe put her face in her hand. To Allie, the safest assumption was that she was trying to decide between the brig and the airlock. Neither were very appealing to the engineer.
"Captain," Commander Anto called out from the rear of the bridge. McIndoe looked back to him, not saying any words in acknowledgment. Anto didn't need any. "He's right. Well, about the Tachyon spikes, at least. There's no way of knowing if they are invisible Klingon ships, but there does appear to be something out there."
The captain focused her attention on Gunning. "Fine, Commander Theramin. Let's just say for a moment that you're right, not that I have any reason to believe you. What do you propose we do?"
"Well, that's the real question." Gunning replied. "We have to make sure that you're able to defeat them. There's no way to go around them so we have to find a way to cut their advantage in battle."
"There's quite a lot of metreon gas in this nebula," Deakin pointed out, rubbing his chin as he thought. "That's probably why they're in here to begin with, it's a perfect place for an ambush. But not a good place if your target is shooting back. We might be able to use that to our advantage, particularly while their shields are down."
Allison was certainly no tactician, but she remembered reading about someone using metreon gas in a similar fashion. It was a good thought, and not one that she would have considered.
"Metreon gas is highly flammable, Captain," Anto announced just off to her right. "Perhaps we could lure the Klingons into the gas pockets and ignite the gas with our phasers? The resultant explosion may be enough to destroy them, or at the very least, cause enough damage to allow us to escape."
Captain McIndoe considered this plan for a moment. She didn't like the idea of her crew turning on her, but if Anto saw merit in their suggestions, then perhaps they were right. "Fair enough. Commander Theramin, since you relieved my helm officer, would you be so kind as to adjust our course?"
[OFF]
Commander Jordan Gunning
Strategic Operations
Lieutenant Augustus Deakin
Chief of Operations
Ensign Allison Price [NPC: Captain Von]
Engineering Officer
