Planning, Part Two

Posted on Fri Aug 5th, 2011 @ 1:19pm by Captain T'mpest Michaels & Captain Elsie Halliwell & Lieutenant Commander Dylan Blake & Lieutenant Cedric Shepherd & Lieutenant Jimmy Cooper & Captain Alexsa Kendrick

913 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Taylforth
Location: Halliwell's Ready Room
Timeline: Day One

{Continued]

[OLD]

"Additionally," Blake added feeling put out by Cooper's instant move, "the planet is awash with these signals sending them in all directions possible as a means to contact one another. While a second is sent into space, I would guess that their lack of technological resources limits the range of the message."

[NEW]

Halliwell raised an eyebrow as the information disseminated through the ranks flanking her own desk as she sat comfortably behind it. “Then the distress signals sent out into space would have degraded before they even reached the edges of their system?†she questioned. “That would indicate that they at least hoped someone would be out there listening. Like a last ditched attempt for assistance…†Elsie’s voice trailed off as she rested her small chin in her little hand.

"So it would seem," Blake nodded.

"In addition, Captain," Jimmy began, "scans have pinpointed a space station in orbit around the planet, big enough to house several astronauts comfortably. However, no life signs seem to come from it."

Elsie looked toward T’mpest as her eyes widened and flared with a curious fire. “Captain Cadbury did detail the station in his last report. But, if it’s no longer manned then we’ll have to determine if it is an intentional scientific move forward for the civilisation or a tragedy.â€

"Agreed. It does warrant investigation at some point," T'mpest agreed. "However, the distress calls would indicate some sort of global catastrophy."

"The station also has minimal power readings," Shepherd added. "Too weak for it to be a planetary defense platform. If it's a science station, it may have some answers about the new surface water. Unmanned and unarmed, we could cozy up to it slowly, which means minimal power readings on other people's sensors. A shuttle could do that with ease."

Again with the shuttle... Kendrick was beginning to doubt the sanity of any of the crew around the table. First contact was a real risk in this situation, and one the Taylforthians were not ready for, despite whatever tragedy their planet and they had suffered, and the Prime Directive should have been weighing heavily in everyone's mind--seemingly not the case though... apart from the Bajoran's...

The shuttle idea's constant recurrence grated Birsi's nerves to the point that she sank her head into her hands. If sending a probe to ascertain the planet's infrastructure supposedly presented a detection risk, then why were so many people onboard with sending a much larger craft? At this stage of technological development, power signature detection generally wasn't a mainstream concept. What was however, was getting some kind of light or wave emission to bounce off a surface, which a shuttle inherently gave the Taylforthians much more of. While the Ranger had the means to counteract it, it wasn't an intrinsic consideration of shuttle design because there were far more pressing dangers it needed to protect its occupants from than an old RADAR or LIDAR array. . .

Perhaps she became too fixated on the worst case in her quest to prove her competence. After all, what were the odds that a species beleaguered by the near-total flooding of their planet were looking for UFOs?

Elsie’s expression twitched as the clear sight of the Bajoran burying her ridged nose into her hands arched downward in her peripheral vision. She cleared her throat emphatically, interlaced her hands and then knitted her eyebrows as she turned her shoulders to face Birsi fully. “I know that you are opposed to the shuttle notion,†the captain said quietly and with a warmth that, uncharacteristically, was not designed to intimidate, “but our best chance to garner any information about what has happened is a manned away-team. It’s our best course of action.â€

Any information was a bit imprecise, Kendrick thought. Some information would be closer. Enough information? Well, that remained to be seen. It was certainly not the best course of action in Kendrick's view. That noose was getting tighter.

"I'm no scientist," said Shepherd after a moment of silence following the Captain's reply, "but while an away team, and by extension a shuttle, seems best for checking out the station platform, it seems to me that there's no reason not to put a probe in orbit as well. We need more sensor data anyway, if only to update the survey file. Or have I missed something in the arguments?"

"I think that's an excellent idea. We do need basic geographic and atmospheric readings that could easily be handled by a probe while a shuttle is better suited to investigating what happened," T'mpest said quietly.

Shepherd's recognition of the possibility would've provided a tempting lead-in if Birsi hadn't already decided that the only person lending her factual concerns any consideration was Jimmy, her superior and senior-most science officer onboard. If his attempt to sell her perspective fell flat not two strides out the gate, then what the hell sense did it make for one of the enlisted help to keep trying?

(To be continued)

Captain Elsie Halliwell
Commanding Officer
USS Ranger

Commander T'mpest Michaels
Executive Officer
USS Ranger

Lieutenant Commander Vladimir Zhukov
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Ranger

Lieutenant Dylan Blake
Chief Operations Officer
USS Ranger

Lieutenant Cedric Shepard
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Ranger

Lieutenant Jimmy Cooper
Chief Science Officer
USS Ranger

Crewman First Class Sessan Birsi
Stellar Cartography
USS Ranger

Captain Alex Kendrick
Internal Affairs
USS Ranger

 

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