Warp Fishes - Part Three

Posted on Mon Mar 26th, 2012 @ 3:16pm by Lieutenant Jimmy Cooper & Captain Elsie Halliwell

960 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Fishing
Location: Cargo Bay One
Timeline: Current

ON:

As Junior Grade Lieutenant Prudentia walked in, Science and Engineering personnel were already working together on securing the cargo bay. Signal amplifiers were installed to reinforce parts of the forcefield if necessary, and the boxes of supplies, which normally littered these cargo bays, were moved to the other cargo bays making the space eerily big and empty.

"Ensign, report," she asked not unkindly to one of the ensigns overseeing the operations up to that point.

"Bridge Ops has swathed the bay with a Level Ten forcefield, as per Captain's instructions, and we're just waiting on the transport to take place. Once we're notified that the Transporter room is ready, we're to let them know our status. We were, in truth, just waiting on your arrival, Lieutenant." The plucky engineer coughed and nodded to Prudentia. "Ready when you are, ma'am."

Prudentia took her time inspecting the cargo bay. With Lieutenant Cooper usually taking the biggest assignments, she saw this as an opportunity for her to shine in front of Captain Halliwell.

The doors opened and Elsie, marching loudly in her standard issue boots, swooped into the cargo bay and bee-lined straight for the lieutenant. "Report!" she barked as she neared the science officer.

"We were just getting ready, Captain." Prudentia said, before she tapped her badge and reported "This is Cargo Bay One to Transporter room, everything is ready down here."

"Aye, sir," came the disembodied voice as it resounded around the empty space. Then, a subtle beam of light hovered in the void just beyond them as the familiar trill of the transporter beam kicked in and deposited the device.

"Shields back up!" Ensign Chester called out once the device had been deposited. Elsie remained silent, and took out her tricorder to initially scan it. One thing she didn't need her trusty scanning device to relay to her was that it was big. Big, rusted and angular. A faint glow still emanated from within it as the power faded from its grasp after the deflector pulse but this no longer held any danger for Ranger or her crew.

"Ensign," Prudentia said to Chester, whom had been in charge before she had entered, "I want you to keep an eye on the safety at all times. If this... thing does anything we don't expect, I want you to start emergency procedures immediately." She then faced her captain, "What do you think, sir? Whatever it is, it's nothing I've ever seen."

"That's the key," Elsie retorted, looking more closely at her provisional scans. Now scanning more thoroughly, her usual scowl began to soften as an almost smile began to hinge itself above her small chin. "One thing's for certain," she said, nodding, "it most certainly is not of Romulan origin."

Meanwhile Prudentia had set herself up at one of the side panels, hastily set up for science duty. "I'm starting a more thorough scan now, Captain. It looks to be made mostly out of an alloy of aluminium and other crude materials.... Hmm, even so, the strength of this thing is quite impressive."

"Aluminium?" Elsie enquired, searching her memory. She quickly marched over to an adjoining console and began systematically typing in commands into the display. She cycled through report after report and then, haphazardly, she stumbled across the survey she was after. "Bauxite!" she exclaimed in an almost EUREKA! moment. "This sea-bed is riddled with Bauxite!"

"Ah yes," Prudentia double-checked on the database. "Bauxite is the main ore aluminium is made of. There's also a reasonable amount of carbon. It seems quite an ingenious solution to strengthen the stuff. Question is, why?"

"The question isn't 'why?'," Elsie retorted. "This is the answer. Or at least a step in that direction. If we can prove that this," she paused, looking at it more closely, "construct was built on Taylforth by the Taylforthians, it goes a long way with regard to licence us to assist them. The Constraints of the Prime Directive would no longer hold us by the throat." Elsie paused and turned to Prudentia and Chester with a wild, almost excited look in her eye. "I need you to find out if they did indeed build this and if they were on the brink of warp design. Also, if this is the reason the climatic shift happened to abruptly."

Prudentia found her captain jumping to conclusions a bit, but she knew better than to start a causeless debate. "Captain, considering we've turned it off now... Isn't it possible that could change the climate again?"

"No," Elsie said, shaking her head and knitting her brow. "What damage is done is done. It's not like an 'off switch' you can flick off and everything reverts to normal."

"Well, there aren't many documented cases of climate changes this drastic, even though most worlds have historical records of some sort of massive floods, we haven't seen it happen like it happened here." Prudentia knitted her brows in thought. "How can we make sure this is Taylforthian made... And how can we make sure it's goal was warp flight as you suggested?"

Elsie smiled and raised her eyebrow. "That, Lieutenant, is the reason I have tasked you to head up this investigation." She nodded and turned on her heel. As she disappeared through the cargo bay doors she added, "Inform me as soon as you have something!"

"Very well, Captain." Prudentia nodded as she turned back to the console.

OFF:

Captain Elsie Halliwell
Commanding Officer
USS Ranger

AND

Junior Grade Lieutenant Jenna Prudentia
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Ranger

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