Posted by Captain Emmeline Davis (Commanding Officer) in Main Sim - Arrival

Posted by Lieutenant Keval Vras (Chief Engineer) in Main Sim - Arrival

Posted by Gamemaster Wombat (Gamemaster) in Main Sim - Arrival
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

McMorran’s efforts were not in vain. After some time she was able to find that the storms ebbed and flowed like any weather pattern and were not, strictly speaking, permanent. The otherside of the moon, for example, seemed to have less weather than this side, and if the meteorological models were to be believed then the storm would pass in 12-16 hours. Until then the best way to get a signal to or from the surface would be a lot of power to push through the noise.

GM Wombat

Turning to Lt. Garth, Cadet McMorran piped up. “The storms should dissipate in the region of the mine in twelve to sixteen hours sir. The other side of the moon has less atmospheric disturbance, possibly allowing a surface-based relay to be set-up if it came to it. There doesn’t seem to be any possible method of countering the interference here other than increasing the power to the signal.” She awaited in anticipation for approval of her report from her superior. Garth had been amicable enough but Aili found it difficult to determine what he really thought of her or her performance. She was reasonably confident that the suggestion she had offered would be a valuable contribution to the list of potential courses of action but while she was keen not to feel suppressed by the chain of command, she was wary of overstepping the mark during her first mission.

(Cadet McMorran - Science)

Emmy studied the interaction between the two. The cadet’s report had been exemplary. Before Garth could respond, she broke in, “what would be your recommendation based on this information, Cadet?” She put great effort into ensuring that her laser focus on the cadet was not too intimidating, but whether or not she managed to accomplish that task was… questionable.

Davis, CO

Before the cadet could respond, Emmy turned to Harkness. “Since you have experience as a pilot, take some cadets to the Shuttlebay and see if you can make any improvements to one of the runabouts in case we have to evacuate the mine. The runabout could have to make several trips and I want to ensure that it can do so safely.”

Aili’s head jolted towards the Captain and her mouth fell open slightly as her low-level anxiety was replaced with intense surprise. She’d followed standard procedure by having relayed information to the bridge as a whole, but hadn’t anticipated Captain Davis questioning her directly. She wasn’t intimidated by the woman (not too badly, anyway) so much as by the novelty of the responsibility she felt she was bearing. Narrowing her widened eyes and slowly bringing her jaw back to its proper position, she promptly responded, making an effort to be clear and concise. “I would advise Engineering of the possible need for a ground-based signal relay, Captain”, she paused, “and in the meantime ensure that the away-team operates their transmitter at full power. We should do the same.” The Cadet maintained eye contact with the CO, presenting as professional an image as possible. She had already interacted with the Captain off-duty and now she felt the need to earn her professional respect.

(Cadet McMorran - Science)

Emmy listened carefully to McMorran and then turned to Garth expectantly, waiting to hear his input on his cadet’s plan.

Davis, CO

Garth huffed lightly as he straightened from the science console. “Muscling the signal through the interference with brute force isn’t the most delicate of solutions, but it seems to be working at the moment so I see no reason to change strategies. Cadet Douglas has the tools necessary to set up a signal booster on the surface, so if he can accomplish that with the help of the engineering crew on the surface, that’ll make implementing McMorran’s plan all the more practical.” Garth looked at McMorran out of the side of his eye. “I would agree with McMorran to transfer additional power to the transmitter.”

(Lt. Garth, CSO)

McMorran listened intently as her superiors discussed her suggestions. She was warmed by their seeming appreciation for her contribution and it meaningfully bolstered her self-confidence.

Emmy listened carefully to Garth’s version of the results and then nodded her assent to the last sentence. “Go ahead and take care of that from the Challenger side. Lieutenant Vras is enroute to handle communications on their end, so go ahead and contact him and update him on your findings.”

Davis, CO

(OOC: When you do the comm call to Vras, you’ll do something called crossposting, where you’ll write your response here as normal and then copy and paste the communication part into a response to the last post in his main sim thread and post it there as well. I like to mark in my signature that it’s a crosspost. That helps keep the timelines sort of synced up so we can keep things straight! Catch up with Ben or I in Discord if that doesn’t make sense.)

Nodding to the captain, the accelerated beating of Aili’s heart was joined by the smack landing above it as she activated her communicator. Hoping the ship’s transmitter would successfully deliver her words to their intended recipient, she spoke. =^= McMorran to Lieutenant Vras. Are you receiving me? =^= If a response was received, she continued. =^= The storms in the area won’t clear for at least twelve hours. Our best hope of maintaining communications, for now, is to strengthen our signals. Cadet Douglas should have everything needed to establish a signal booster and is instructed to do so with the aid of the engineering crew. =^= Aili was really rather excited to be contributing to a real mission. Her worries regarding her suitability for the strict structure of Starfleet had been beginning to evaporate during her time on the Challenger and in moments like these, she was optimistic and excited for what her future in the organisation might hold.

(Cadet McMorran - Science)

Emmy listened with interest to hear the occasionally gruff CE’s response, but she nodded approvingly at McMorran’s handling of the situation thus far.

Davis, CO

(OOC: Perfect on the crosspost!)

As everyone in Science and Engineering knew from their first year communication theory, power in comm systems is mostly used to amplify the incoming signal once it hits the receiving array. What the Challenger could control was the power used to send the signal (reception is more or less passive with transmission active). Assuming that the ship side engineering had diverted power to her communications, the signal got through fine, the challenger having larger power than the runabout.

Whatever the response was from Vras, it was broken and static filled, but could be easily deciphered.

GM Wombat

The Andorian Chief Engineer’s voice came over the comms. =^= Thank you, Challenger. We’ll see what we can do to boost power to communications. It’s pretty desolate down here, so any work is bound to be a source of excitement for all of us. Vras out =^=

-Lt. Keval Vras, CE

Emmy’s brows furrowed as she listened to Vras’ reply. Was he expecting there to be excitement? Was he disappointed that there was not excitement? It was ideal for the Challenger and for the miners if this mission was as routine as possible, which was the opposite of exciting… She shook her head slightly to shake out the confused feeling and then redirected her attention to the task at hand.

Davis, CO

Garth nodded to McMorran as Vras’ communication came through, a wordless gesture of approval.

“Captain,” Garth stated, “getting the shuttlecraft back to the Challenger will be much more difficult than sending it to the surface. I know we have a team modifying a shuttlecraft in the hangar, but I’d like for McMorran and I to run calculations about the projected status of the storm for when the away team is planning to return. We might be able to find a path of least resistance to make breaking atmosphere as dangerless as possible. Do you have a time frame in mind for when they would most likely return, so we can focus our projections to that interval?”

(Lt. Garth, CSO)