Reconvene, part 2

Posted on Mon Dec 5th, 2011 @ 3:18pm by Captain T'mpest Michaels & Captain Elsie Halliwell & Lieutenant Commander Dylan Blake & Lieutenant Cedric Shepherd & Lieutenant Jimmy Cooper

1,213 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Unmasked Miners

ON

[OLD]

Having delved further into making sense out of Kendrick than she realized, Birsi's eyes met Halliwell's inelegantly. Fortunately, the only other necessary acknowledgement was to do as the captain had mentioned. Along with preserving her dignity, the stellar cartographer was able to return her full attention to her notes.

[NEW]

"And now that you yourself, Mr. Cooper, have had a brief chance to analyse the data from the probe, what can you tell us that we don't already know?"

"We've got good data of 'this' side of the planet, courtesy of the probe." Jimmy said, "My team has compared the readings with the data from 10 years ago, and..."

"We wondered for a moment if the probe was defective," Birsi deadpanned, "because when recompiled for matching detail, comparing the Sullivan's tectonic plate maps of Taylforth to ours indicates that the planet has experienced fault line movement that's measurable in kilometers. For a 10 million year gap between scans, that might pass for normal. 10 years? No way."

"Yes. And in addition," Jimmy shifted the view and zoomed in, "there's a lot of volcanic activity under the ocean. It's nothing I've ever seen before, and there weren't many relevant database entries."

Shepherd leaned forward in his chair and folded his hands on the tabletop. "You say you've got good data of one side of the planet. Is something wrong with the data on the other side?"

"Ah, yes, that's another interesting point." He shifted the view again, revealing faint rings pointing outward from the planet. "These are warp fluctuations, apparently emanating from the ocean. The only viable explanation I can give at this time is that the Romulans may have dropped some kind of previously unknown device or weapon which set this all in motion. That's speculation, though."

Elsie looked about the room, her stoic glance ticking over a train of thought that should have been on the tip of everyone's tongue as she spoke. "What if," she exclaimed, taking the floor again and rising slowly out of her seat, "the Taylforthians had managed to construct an early warp device themselves... but unsuccessfully. Something went wrong," she hypothesised, projecting world catastrophe with her theory, "and, as such, the unstable tectonic plates caused what we see today." She paused and then turned back to walk towards her own chair again. "If this test were to fail, who knows how the planet reacted. Or in what timeframe. The floods could have started small, allowing small pockets of civilisations to construct or adapt vessels to ensure their survival."

"What?" blurted Shepherd. There was a heartbeat's silence, followed by Shepherd smiling a slightly self-conscious smile and gently settling back into his chair. "Sorry," he added, "I'm uh, I'm not sure I'm grasping what you're suggesting, Captain. They broke their planet?"

“At this point, Lieutenant,†Halliwell returned, her eyebrows heightened in a curious but non-aggressive manner, “we can’t afford to rule any theory out. I’m merely just putting forward a possible hypothesis. But,†she continued, her voice taking on a stronger tone than usual as she directed her dialogue back to the room again, “Cedric is right to question. In fact, that is all we can do until we can garner more facts for ourselves.â€

Still reeling over the prospect becoming more actively involved in the planet half of the discussion was utterly lost on Blake. Instead he could feel his fingers gripping the desk edge in utter terror, lost in a memory of torrents of icy water and darkness.

Her thoughts then fell silent, taking in the visage of each one of her crew dotted about the table. “With the probe not providing much more information than our own previous, superficial scans, and with the Romulans biding their own time, I propose that we take a deeper look into this situation, and hopefully determine a cause before the Pelican arrives.†Elsie raised her right eyebrow and allowed the penny to drop and the ensuing discussion to bubble forth…

"That actually fits in with an odd comment from the space station," T'mpest said. "Something about failed tests causing their return to the planet to be delayed."

"Captain," Jimmy mused, picking up on the cue, "We may be able to adapt the shielding to allow the Ranger to be able to function... under water. If nothing else, it would give us a marvellous opportunity to study this planet further."

Elsie shot Blake a pregnant look. "Mr. Blake?" she questioned.

Only when kicked rather sharply under the table did Blake seem to exit his personal thoughts and returned to the meeting in which he'd been mentally absent. Instantly he knew he was in the hot seat with the senior staff shooting daggers at him, no doubt noticing his pale, sweaty face.

He swallowed heavily; "I'm sorry, Captain. I'm not feeling overly well. What did you say?"

Elsie's brows knitted in a definite mark of concern as then her eyes briefly fell upon Commander Fox's.

Blake licked his lips, petrified at the prospect of being submerged, he bravely fought for enough control at least to answer the question: "A smaller craft such as a shuttle would be more probable than the entire ship, theoretically."

"Are you okay?" Jimmy looked worriedly to the fellow lieutenant. "Should someone escort you to sickbay?"

"While I realize it's easy to forget I'm here." Doctor Fox drawled, interrupting the conversation at hand, scratching the side of his head absently, "Sick Bay is already here.". Truthfully, Blake's hydrophobia was etched across his forehead as plain as the nose on his face, at least to the medically trained eye and Fox had been watching him passively all the while. Normally it was nothing more than a mild response like the one Blake was having now, but every so often it manifested differently - which was exactly what he was watching for.

This was quickly turning into a nightmare in Blake's opinion. He had hoped he could at least keep his phobia at bay from a large number of the crew to save what was left of his shrinking decency. He should have known judging by his run of poor luck so things would never happen. He couldn't stomach to answer Cooper's probing question, which in turned didn't seem to matter as the elder Doctor pointed out.

Halliwell's face relaxed at Fox's seeming consternation as a warm, almost humoured expression followed it. "I'm sure Mr. Blake will be all right with some water." She looked directly at him, not even considering for a moment what lay beneath his distance and nodded to him. "If you're not, let Commander Fox know, all right?"

The sweating lieutenant whimpered at the Captain's off handed remark putting all his previous thoughts that she'd understand his unnatural fear firmly out of the air lock. A little water - ha! She wanted to submerge the whole damn ship and run the risk for drowning the entire crew turning the elegant ship into a watery grave!

Captain Elsie Halliwell
Commanding Officer

Commander T'mpest Michaels
Executive Officer

Lieutenant Cedric Shepherd
Chief Security/Tactical Officer

Lieutenant Jimmy Cooper
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant Dylan Blake
Chief Operations Officer

Crewman First Class Sessan Birsi
Stellar Cartographer

 

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