Looking Through the Data (part 1)

Posted on Tue Dec 11th, 2012 @ 12:12am by Captain T'mpest Michaels & Captain Alexsa Kendrick & Lieutenant Jimmy Cooper

1,016 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Sowing the Seeds
Location: Science Conference Room, Ranger
Timeline: Mission Day 4, 0600 hours

ON

T'mpest sent a message to key scientists on both the Ranger and Dubai to arrange a meeting to discuss the information the Dubai had sent over. She had a lot of questions and not nearly enough answers to satisfy her curiosity.

She had managed, in the interim, to piggyback a program onto the Dubai download to net additional information that she had carefully secured in her own computer. Currently, Sammi, her computer avatar, was sifting through it to see if there was anything that would explain the odd behavior of the crew of the Dubai.

For now, however, she wanted to have a talk and see what, if anything, the scientists could learn from each other.

"Lieutenant Rinn reporting as requested ma'am." Rinn stated as he breezed into the science conference room with a small PADD in hand. "Though I have to admit, I don't know why I'm here. All of our data was included in the transfer." he added as he took a seat.

"It's always good to talk," Lieutenant Jimmy smiled, "Found anything, Commander?" He wasn't sure whether to talk to and look at T'mpest or Sammi, which was doing the work.

Sammi snorted at Jimmy's comment. "Not quite," the pig said.

"Welcome Lieutenant Rinn. We did manage to find some information that wasn't in the data transfer. Would you care to elaborate on that?"

She turned to Jimmy. "Yes, as a matter of fact, we did. The problem is making sense of the data." She handed Jimmy a PADD. "What do you think?"

"I think," Jimmy began, "that the data mostly consists of the less interesting parts, making the sector look even more boring than it is. Most data we recovered included mentioned of organic, if not intelligent, life on 3 planets, something we could've at least been informed of."

While Jimmy went on with his reply to T'mpest, Rinn looked on with minute interest glancing between Jimmy and the data on the PADD summarily slid to him by the Ranger's first officer. He patiently waited for his turn to speak before, "There's a lot of data presented here, commander. I'm afraid that you'll have to expand on what wasn't included before I can give a distinct hypothesis of why is was not transferred over with the rest of the material."

"What I find more interesting is why you chose to hold information back," T'mpest countered.

"Commander," Rinn started with a slight wry smile, "you seem to be implying subterfuge where none exists. I was attending the formal dinner for the senior staff when the transfer of information was taking place. As much as I might like to be in the labs overseeing my staff, I can't be there twenty-five seven. I would have to take the matter up with the Assistant Chief."

"I merely asked a question," T'mpest responded. "I'm Vulcan. I do not deal in subterfuge." Generally, anyway. "If you look at the PADD, you will see the data that was not part of the original transmission."

Rinn audibly sighed and returned his line of sight to the PADD. Pausing deliberately before going on, as he saw, the information which was not included was clearly marked by the vertical orange line to the left of the display next to the sections of sensor data and information, "I can see why it piqued your interest Commander Michaels, but I have to return to my original point that I was not the one overseeing the transfer--I would have to discuss with my staff."

There was another brief pause before Rinn cut in again before anything else could be said or countered, "Of course I'm also aware of your past involvement in Starfleet Intelligence, I'd say that while subterfuge is no longer a daily way of life, the intention still runs through to the core. If there is such a thing going on, on either side," Rinn injected the thought that something could be going on from the Ranger side too, "I'd very much like to know how you got your hands on this information, to know that it wasn't included in the first place."

Starfleet Intelligence dealt primarily with information gathering and very little with subterfuge. T'mpest suspected that Rinnwas a ware of this but chose to ignore it for the sake of his argument. So she chose to ignore the comment.

Jimmy decided to back T'mpest up, and said "We cross-referenced our own scans, the Dubai's recorded flight, and we noticed some slight anomalies. For example, the Dubai recorded 2 planets circling the Omicron Pau system, while our scans showed 3. First we doubted our own scanners, but when we got deeper, there was more flawed data."

Rinn didn't have to be a telepath to realise the noose was being tightened by these folk. "I would hate for this to turn into a proverbial chest beating scenario between us, the respective heads of science on each of our vessels, over who's sensors are better. Being the science chief Mister Cooper, I'm sure that you could come up with any number of reasons why the scans could be incorrect--sensor echoes, ionisation through storms or atmospherics, we've been seeing a lot of wild solar flares throughout this sector, I believe that Humans also have these little creatures called gremlins that they seem keen on blaming things on." The Dubai's science chief paused for but a second before adding, "and pardon me for being blunt, but while we are discussing the data as you lured me over here for, this is beginning to feel more like an inquisition than a discussion regarding something that does not exist." Rinn made his last point resonate as he said it by tossing the PADD he held in his hand to the centre of the table.

(To be continued...)

Commander T'mpest Michaels
Executive Officer
USS Ranger

Lieutenant Jimmy Cooper
Chief Science Officer
USS Ranger

Lieutenant Rinn
Chief Science Officer
USS Dubai

Sammi
Computer Avatar
USS Ranger

 

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