Posted by Lieutenant Garth (Chief Science Officer) in Main Sim - Arrival

Posted by Cadet Aili McMorran (Scientist) in Main Sim - Arrival

Posted by Lieutenant Garth (Chief Science Officer) in Main Sim - Arrival
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

“What if we launch a series of probes into low orbit? Could we use them to boost our comm signal down to the surface?” Max asked out loud, not to anyone in particular. He was a bit worried though, as there was no good backup plan if things went wrong. They could lose all direct communication with the surface, and not be able to beam the team out if things went sideways. It was not a good situation to be in.

Cmdr. Harkness - XO

Lieutenant Garth hobbled onto the bridge and waved a hand to dismiss Cadet Taurean to meet the away team in the shuttle bay. “It’s certainly worth a try, Commander,” he grunted in response to Harkness, “but the storms would likely disable any probes we sent down relatively quickly. I suppose we could just keep launching more if it comes down to it, but that seems like more of a temporary fix rather than a long-term one.” The tellarite took his position at the science terminal, pulling up schematics for any probes the Challenger might have aboard to see if they could be useful despite the raging storms below.

(Lt. Garth, CSO)

Meanwhile, Keval started turning back to his Engineering station. “I’ll meet you at the shuttle bay in a moment, Commander. Let me see if if I can get information on what to expect at the mining station.”

The Andorian pulled up whatever information the computer had the station’s layout, to be transferred to the runabout and his tricorder. He knew it wouldn’t be much - this was a private enterprise, and who knows how often they updated the public records, but anything would help.

-Lt. Keval Vras, CE

With the away team preparations in full swing, Emmy refocused her attention on her XO’s attempts to get around the communication barrier that the storms posed. “We’ll still need our own people at the station to investigate the situation,” she observed. “Better communications will allow us to keep them safe, however. See what you can do.”

Davis, CO

The layout of the station was pretty sparse and rugged. Looking at a surface map, there were three groups of buildings: An emergency shelter, a hab-unit, and the headframe of the mine.

The hab-unit was made of modular components and sat to the south of the mine itself. It was a ring and spoke type lay out with airlocks between each section, so that if one part ruptured, that module could be isolated from the rest of the station.

The headframe consisted of the lift in and out of the shaft itself, along with storage facilities for the raw ore.

The emergency shelter was only a little bit bigger than a 21st century shipping container, but was anchored to the surface and shielded from everything. It was designed as the last refuge for miners should something bad happen that would require leaving the hab-unit or the the mine itself.

The mine was a shaft mine with a main shaft and three branches outward. The top side shaft was longer than the one at the bottom. The rock and ice was dense enough that phaser tunnelers had to be used to get through it.

GM Wombat

“Aye Captain,” Max said while nodding. He moved over towards where Garth was working at his station.

“I know that the probes are only a temporary solution, so lets find a more permanent solution. How much do we need to reinforce the probes in order for them to last longer? Or can we do some sort of directed beam to a surface installment?”

Cmdr. Harkness - XO

Garth’s thick fingers punched at the science console clumsily as he pulled up the specifications to the probes, trying to determine if it was possible to modify them in a way that would make their use worthwhile in this situation. “Those storms are pretty nasty Commander, I’m not sure we want any of our equipment out in that longer than absolutely necessary… but I’ll see what I can do. Cadet Taurean created a prototype for the calculations of the directed beam you’re speaking of, but in order to even have a chance of breaking through the storm interference, Cadet Douglas will have to set up an up-link on the surface. He’s on the away mission for just that reason, so… let’s hope he can get it done.”

Garth looked up at the much taller man. “Given the unpredictability of the storms, having multiple contingency plans for communication seems wise.”

(Lt. Garth, CSO)

The turbolift doors parted, providing Cadet McMorran with her first view of the bridge of the Challenger. She hadn’t been assigned here until now, as an assigned substitute at this point in the schedule, her presence now required as officers left for the away-mission.

Looking around, she found Lt. Garth positioned at the science console with the XO standing behind him. Approaching the CSO, the Cadet nodded to Harkness as he noticed her approach and she made herself known: “How can I be of assistance Lieutenant?”

(Cadet Aili McMorran, Science)

Garth didn’t look away from the science console in front of him as he addressed McMorran. “Your colleague, Cadet Douglas, is traveling to the surface to establish a relay through which we can hopefully establish communications with the surface. But we’ll likely need to manually identify the frequency he sends, which may be difficult to spot among all the interference. You’ll man the Challenger’s sensors and find that needle in a haystack when Douglas attempts to initiate the link.”

McMorran began a nod, lowering her head.

Garth looked over his shoulder at that point. “If you are confident you can do so, that is.”

(Lt. Garth, CSO)

Aili froze mid-nod, and her eyes met Garth’s as she subtly raised an eyebrow. She didn’t appreciate what she regarded as the unneccessary questioning of her abilities but she wasn’t going to give anything more than the most gentle pushback. “Aye, sir”, the Cadet responded, before turning away and making her way to the sensor station. “Perhaps this is how they encourage us Cadets to push ourselves on these Academy ships”, she pondered silently.

Bringing up the interface for the relevant ship’s sensors, Aili located the flight plan for the departing shuttle and honed the sensor array to track it’s vector as it descended in an attempt to maintain some form of contact with the away team so as to track their status.

Whether or not she succeeded, she would proceed to configure a continuous sensor sweep of the landing area and mine. She hoped the computer would be able to analyse the behaviour and composition of the interfering background radiation sufficiently to flag anomalous frequencies, thereby narrowing the number of signals Aili would need to analyse manually as candidates for the away team’s transmissions.

(Cadet McMorran, Science)