Posted by Ensign Matthew Riley (Science Officer) in Main Sim - Shuttlebay 1 - Shuttle Arrival
<snip>

He gestured away from the shuttle to give the other crew more space to do their work, and extended the PADD as they walked. “So, I have two questions,” he began, flipping the stylus in his right hand. “First, I need some help on what might cause certain energy levels and emissions from a ship.”

Moving next to the science officer Tabris looked at the PADD with some curious looks as he nodded and listened. Listening was always something he did well as he studied the readings. “That looks all sorts of wrong in my book.” Tabris commented, mostly to himself.

They arrived at a work surface near the bay wall, where repairs were often done. He flipped the stylus again and then pointed it at the energy readings from the Montezuma. “We’ve monitored an energy spike from the Montezuma, immediately followed by what looks like a cloak effect nearby.” He played the visual disturbance for the engineer.

“At the same time,” he continued quickly, toggling the PADD to another view, “we see tachyon emissions from the ship.” He spun the stylus in his hand again and then flipped it in the air, before turning to face the engineer.

“What could cause these emissions? Do you think they’re purposeful, or the side effect of something else? How might they relate to the visual disturbance - are they causing the cloaking effect, or could they be trying to end it?”

He paused, and felt the effects of a serotonin dump hit him. He dropped his hands to his sides, lowering his eyes. “Sorry, that was a lot. Let’s try again.” He looked back up. “What could cause these emissions?”

• Ensign Riley, Science

Tabris was about to respond when the man stopped, corrected himself, and looked a little flustered as Tabris had his usual smile on, a genuine one, “Matthew I might be old when compared to a human but I can keep up. Let me take a look at those initial readings again will you?” Tabris asked as the readings were shown again. “Well from what I remember on particle physics, tachyons are usually a result of temporal distortions, cloaking devices, or to access a transwarp conduit. Are there any reported temporal anomalies in the area that could cause these naturally? Always good to rule out red herrings if at all possible.” Tabris replied as he was a little puzzled on the visual disturbance, wondering if his theory about the de-cloaking induced tachyon emission was correct.

Riley was already shaking his head as the man finished speaking. “Nope. Nothing nearby. And the tachyon emissions directly correlate with the energy spike.” He pointed to the relevant chart, and then spun the stylus again. “The energy spike appears causative to the visual disturbance, based on the timing. I just have no idea what might be occurring on the ship to cause those things.”

Mazi was still looking around inside the shuttle for some clue to what had occurred to it when she turned to the Chief. “Can I call someone down to help with this? We have that new Ensign, what’s his name? The one on second shift that just got here.” She bit her lip a moment, her hand absently rising to scratch in front of her antennae as they shifted in slight irritation at not remembering the guy’s name.

“Oh, yeah… Ensign Ware. Mind if I call him to help me with this. These files could take a while to go thru.” She wasn’t aware what the Chief had come up with. All she had looked for, so far, were the travel records to see where it had been last. Perhaps even find maintenance records if possible.

Mazi Eng

Hearing the Lieutenant’s voice from inside the shuttle he called out, “Mazi? Would you put another set of eyes on this? I have my theories but I want to see if they line up with yours.”

Ensign Tabris Asam, Eng

Riley glanced over as Tabris called out to the other engineer. Another head would be good. Stars he understood; starships were another matter entirely. He always did love a good mystery, though, and he could feel the excitement of the chase thrum in his veins. Haven’t felt like this since early university, he mused. And that’s why you joined Starfleet.

• Ensign Riley, Science

Mazi poked her head out at the sound of her name. Glancing back seeing the Chief preoccupied, she tapped her comm badge. She doubted the supervisor would be mad at another head out here.

=^=Allendor to Ensign Wier. Report to shuttle bay one. And bring another diagnostic kit, please. =^=

Stepping out toward the men, she raised a curious eyebrow. “Ok, what are you two trying to figure out? And does it pertain to the shuttle?” She gave a half laugh wondering if this was something other than the situation at hand that she eased about to tangled in.

Mazi Engineer

Tabris handed the PADD over to the Lieutenant and said, “Here take a look at these readings.” As he said this he pointed to the energy spike and the tachyon emissions as he spoke. “To my knowledge tachyon emissions at this level are one of three options. Cloaking devices, transwarp entry and exit nodes, and temporal anomalies. As we aren’t near any anomalies and there is this visual disturbance I’m leaning towards cloaking, but wanted to see what you thought.”

Ensign Tabris Asam, Eng

The page startled him, and a loud crash announced the joyous meeting of Caelian’s skull with the roof of the bulkhead. He hissed through the pain, rubbing the back of his head and glaring at the isolinear array. It was a little difficult to finish depolarizing the module with his vision swimming, but he managed to do it. Once he could take a break from his task, Caelian sat on his haunches and tapped his comm badge.

=^= Weir to Allendor, =^= he replied carefully, checking his fingertips for signs of blood. =^= I’ll be there presently. =^=

He managed to flag down one of his peers and indicated the module as he returned the tools to his kit. “Benson, can you take over? E-17 is giving me a fit, but the rest of the array is taken care of. Thanks!”

Caelian’s half-hearted smile melted away as the shuttle bay doors yawned open to reveal the gathering of uniforms. Every face was a mask of determination or concern, and the air itself hung with cool purpose. Hitching his tool kit into a more comfortable position on his shoulder, he drifted cautiously in. The bay door sealing shut behind him was oddly ominous. This is not a maintenance call, is it? he wondered to himself. He mentally swatted away the dozens of questions buzzing around in his mind and started poking around.

“I’m, uh, looking for Allendor,” he announced, waggling the diagnostic kit in front of him. “Something I can help with?”

—Caelian Weir, Ensign—

OOC: Again bumping this for replies from the GM!

CockRoach

Mazi had her back to the bay doors and didn’t see Cel enter. But the sound of her name hit her ears and her hand rose to scratch at the base of her antennae as the twitched in curiosity. Turning around, the PaDD in her hand, she smiled. “Weir, right? Over here.” Assuming he would come up beside her, she turned back to the guys she was speaking with. Looking at the readings, she frowned, her antennae reflecting her deep thought as they laid back slightly on her hair. “Ok, so you have three options, you said. Of the three, cloaking devices, transwarp entry and exit nodes, and temporal anomalies, which are these readings closest to when combined with this area of space and the readings of the shuttle when it arrived? I am thinking you can probably narrow that list down to one, perhaps two. But I doubt all three have the same parameters. So let’s start there. Take readings from the shuttle, and then compare them to whatever other readings you can get from its trail as well as the localized space around it. Also,” she added as she scratched her head once more in annoyance and handed the PaDD back to whichever of them would take it, “check the logged mission logs from the ship it originated from. If they’ve been thru a worm hole or temporal anomaly, that could be recorded and help with your field narrowing. Yes?”

She looked at them wondering if she had helped or just made things worse, her head turning at the end of her speech to see if Weir had made it to her yet.

Mazi
Eng

Riley frowned as the Andorian responded. “No, but-” He furrowed his brow as she turned away. He closed his mouth, took a deep breath, and relaxed. He was the interloper here - this was still an active investigation scene. “I think you might have misunderstood,” he continued, throwing in a half smile. “The emissions are coming from the Montezuma. I’m looking for reasons why it might do that, and what the relation might be to the visual disturbance-slash-cloak effect we see near it.” He tapped his PADD a few times and then held it out, showing her the recording of the disturbance.

“My initial hypothesis,” he said, pulling it back, “was that they are attempting to decloak something, but wasn’t sure if there was some other explanation for these emission levels, like some kind of system, or a malfunction of some kind.” He gestured at the three of them. “Hence why I wanted to talk to engineers,” he finished, grinning.

He swiped the PADD again and began tapping. “Let me see, what are the dimensions of that disturbance again… I know the sensor log has them somewhere…”

• Ensign Riley, Science

Caelian set the diagnostic kit at Mazi’s feet, his ears picking up bits and pieces of the conversation. Definitely not a maintenance call, he noted sourly. He tried his best not to peek over Mazi’s shoulder at her PaDD, but couldn’t help noticing the signal displays and other graphical data. He tried his best to piece together what was going on based on what he’d overheard, but he had to admit that it wasn’t much to go on.

While one of the other officers explained his hypothesis, Caelian rummaged through his toolkit for his own compact PaDD. Once he was done simulating his own theory, he stepped around Mazi and put up a hand in front of him.

“E-Excuse me, sirs?” he offered tentatively. “If you’re trying to narrow down disturbance, I’d also suggest looking at other particle types in the region. Depending on density and energy patterns, it should be easy to narrow it down to naturally-occurring or artificial phenomena. Everything in space affects everything else, right?”

Keying up the readied display on his PaDD, the engineer held it out. “Whatever this—I’m sorry, Montezuma, was it?—ship is interacting with, we could learn a lot by how it’s interacting with your distortion. If there’s a cloaking concern, we could try a metaphasic sweep or scan for a muon wake. Verteron or lepton particle eddies could indicate the presence of a proto-wormhole or collapsed temporal distortion.”

“Has anyone checked the astrogational charts for this region, see if anything has been reported?” he asked after a brief pause for thought. Seeing the collection of faces aimed at him, Caelian suddenly felt very awkward and chuckled nervously. “I-I’m sorry, sirs. I shouldn’t have just butted in like that. I-I should probably get back to my diagnostic.”
—Caelian Weir, Ensign—