What Seems to be the Problem?
Posted on Mon Apr 13th, 2015 @ 2:09pm by Lieutenant JG Allison Price & Lieutenant Colonel Edward Maxwell & Lieutenant Commander Morgan Kelly & Lieutenant JG Erica De'Havean
Mission:
God Complex [Incomplete]
Location: P-627 System
Following the coordinates provided by Lieutenant Price, the Jackal dropped out of warp. The system was certainly off the beaten path. Five planets, three of them gas giants, orbited a single pulsar, P-627. The intense radiation coming from the star would have ensured that no life could have developed on any of the orbiting worlds. But nevertheless, a small moon orbiting the third planet, one of the gas giants, was broadcasting a distress signal.
De'Havean scowled, bringing the Jackal out of FTL into the edge of the system. She read sensors just as well as any science officer. She maneuvered the ship, so that the planets blocked the worse of the Pulsars radiations waves. If she timed it right, she could hopefully use the planets as shields during the heavier waves of radiation. "We have arrived."
Kelly noted the readings coming from the star and sent a request for additional shield power to the engineering station. He could see the Caitian helm officer making a number of delicate maneuvers but it was better safe than sorry.
"Thank you Lieutenant." Ed said as he looked up from his padd. "Helluva unlikely place to set up shop." He said as he looked over the readings.
"Colonel," Price spoke up from her engineering station. "I suggest we raise shields. The gamma radiation from the pulsar will cause interference with ship systems if we approach unprotected."
De'Havean growled, "just raise the damn shields! I'd look really odd without fur!" Softly but still heard by all, due to the small bridge.
"Easy, De'Havean." Kelly said from the Tactical station. He had been with the Jackal long enough to know that she took no prisoners when it came to what she thought should happen on the bridge. Safer then to catch it before their Marine Commander did- he wouldn't be as understanding.
"Easy there Lieutenant, or I might have to leave the shields down just so we can see that." Ed commented as he stood up from his chair. "Raise the shields XO."
"Shields up, Captain, aye." His request for additional shield power raced to the top of the power management queue- it was always good to get in early.
"This pulsar is going to affect most of our systems to some extent. Nice place for someone to hide out and wait for someone to come investigate the distress call. Real or false we don't know yet, so lets err on the side of caution." Ed said, thinking aloud. "Yellow alert. Just in case theres company waiting for us. Lieutenant De'Havean take us in, nice and easy. Price, see if you and the XO can tune out some of the noise in the sensors."
De'Havean gave a ear flicker of acknowledgement as she looked at the set up of the planets and it wasn't looking good. She hoped that the shields would do their job as she brought the Jackel out from behind the fifth planet and at high impulse.
"Need an increase of power allotment to the Deflector," as Erica increased the Deflector beam output to push away objects using the all the current allotment of power assigned to the Deflector. She flew using what sensors were available, ship's harmonics and by the strain on the Deflector doing it's job.
The Jackel rotated along the length of the ship axis under the skillful paws of the pilot as it darted deeper into the system of the Pulsar. It's glowing deflector brightly lit up, looking like an evil eye, daring any object to get in the ship's path. Easing around Asteroids that were just to much for the deflector to handle.
After an hours worth of intense flying semi-blind, De'Havean brought the Jackel into the shadow of the third planet, The Gas Giant. Braking the ship forwards motions, well out of transporter range, coming to a stop. At least safe from the harmful radiation waves from the pulsar. As the targeted moon eased itself out of the shadow of the Gas Giant it orbited into the harmful rays of the Pulsar. She spoke up, "We've arrived at the third planet... Gas Giant..." Erica powered down the Deflector to allow it to cool down its emitters.
Allie had been working on clearing up the transmission. It wasn't much better, even with their close proximity to the source. The pulsar was doing a number on the signal. Still she thought she was getting it cleared up. "I think I've got rid of most of the noise, sir. I'm putting it on speakers now."
The same voice from before came up over the bridge speakers. This time, however, it was much more clear. "We are requesting assistance. Our planetary shield is malfunctioning. Without it, we will be exposed to deadly gamma radiation. I repeat, we are requesting assistance." The voice clearly belonged to a man, but not much more was known about the sender.
"The message just repeats itself, Captain," Price added, falling into the habit of naval tradition and calling the commanding officer of the ship captain, regardless of actual rank. "I've narrowed the source down to a single settlement on one of the moons of this planet. Our sensors could be playing tricks on us, but I am detecting a planetary shield of some sort, but it's showing a number of power fluctuations. It's not in immediate threat of failure, but there are a number of areas of concentrated radiation hitting the moon away from the settlement. If the shield is left in its current state, it might only last a few weeks before the system fails."
"Well it sounds like a legitimate distress call." Ed said from his seat in the command chair. "How feasible are transporters in this situation, with all the disturbance from the pulsar?" He had a fair idea that it was a bad idea, but he wasn't a technical expert on these things. Give him a fighter and he could make your head spin.
Price shook her head. "I would recommend against transporters. Not only would it be risky to attempt to beam through their shields, we'd have to drop ours as well."
"Wait here till it makes it rotation around the Gas Giant. Make contact in 30 hours at the current rate of speed. The inhabited moon will be in relative safety of the Gas Giant shadow. So we can land on the moon. This way we have our resources at paw." Looking over her shoulder at the rest of the crew.
"That's a fair suggestion ." Ed agreed, thinking over the situation they found themselves in. "If they've got a few weeks before the shield fails, another day isn't going to cause much deterioration in their condition on the surface. I'm sure they're taking precautions as it is. My first priority is this ship and crew. If it's safer for us to wait and it isn't going to jeopardize that settlement, we'll wait."
Kelly grimaced. His first instinct was to do everything that needed to be done to get to that moon but the Colonel was right, if they were taken down by some cosmic disturbance then that would be no good to the people on the moon. "Agreed."
"I never did like playing the waiting game," Ed commented, "but in this case we don't have much choice. The radiation and interference is going to get worse the closer we get to the Pulsar. How long would it be before our shields were overwhelmed and we all got nuked if we were forced to go to the colony before it reaches us?"
Being true to her felinish nature, Erica spoke up, "they would die, for I would be taking the Jackel back to the star-base for my court-martial, before that would ever happens. And you all will be pleased that you wasn't the ones to make such a decision. For I am a selfish cat when it comes to my safety." Spoken with such simplicity it would happen. If that was the choice placed upon the crew of the Jackel.
De'Havean busily worked on a course out of the system at warp speeds.
Price sighed loudly, though she hadn't intended on it being nearly so audible. As an engineer, it drove her crazy when other officers made rash decisions without considering the capabilities of the equipment. "Sir, I'm not too worried about the shields holding. If we're not coming under fire, they would do fine against the radiation. It can be deadly in excess, but our hull would mostly protect us. Without shields, I'm more worried about navigation, sensors, and communication going offline, long before we would see any lethal does of radiation. With shields, we'll be fine." She gave the feline pilot as subtle of a glance as she could muster. "If it would make everyone more comfortable, I could boost power to the shields with auxiliary power or even non-essential systems. We're in no dire risk as long as we have shields and an intact hull. There's no reason why we couldn't approach the planet now."
"Aside from the fact we'd be lowering our shields and exposing our systems to the radiation, which you just mentioned as a concern Lieutenant." Ed commented with a wry smile. "I don't really want to have my atoms scrambled because we'd be beaming through the radiation and the planetary shield. How would our shuttles shields handle the radiation? Would it be too much of a strain for them, with their smaller warp cores?"
"We have one shuttle and I doubt it ever left its hanger as it is a pain to use." Erica having taken a look at what she could see when she did the Readiness Diagnostics on it before each mission. The shuttle filled the hanger bay that was in the center of ship, taking up the two lower decks (4/5) and exited out the bottom of the ship. You entered the shuttle directly from the ship and it took precision maneuvering to get it re-aligned when ready to depart the shuttle back into the ship proper after the mission. Erica kept the Jackal in the Gas Giant shadow two hundred meters from edge where the Colonized Moon would enter the Gas Giant's shadow.
"Okay so we've never used it." Ed said patiently. "You didn't answer my question. Would it's shields handle the trip from the ship to the colony?"
Kelly took the opportunity to chime in. "It's fifty-fifty, sir. The generator might hold out but we'd stand a much better chance if we took the Jackal down."
"Well then, it looks like we wait for them to come to us." Ed said as he relaxed into his seat slightly. "The waiting is the worst part."
Erica gave a soft purr as she swiveled around t face the helm and began the prepping the ship for planetary landing. She even brought up the written procedure and checklist on the maneuver. At least this would keep her busy for the next umpteenth hours for the arrival of the colonized moon to show. She was excited as her tail wiggled with anticipation.
Waiting or not, Allison Price was confident in her equipment to get the job done. But regardless, she made sure the ship systems were closely monitored while they waited. She even set a few warning alarms to alert her if power levels dipped below optimum, well before anything would become dangerous. Then it was simply time to wait.
Lt. Colonel Edward Maxwell
Commanding Officer
USS Jackal
Lt. Commander Morgan Kelly
Executive Officer
USS Jackal
Lieutenant JG Erica De'Havean
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Jackal
Lieutenant JG Allison Price
Chief Engineer
USS Jackal
