Posted by Fleet Captain Drudoc Andone (Commanding Officer) in Main Sim [Holodeck 3]: Faster Than the Speed of Thought… Maybe
[snip]

A moment later the feeling of the Ark Angel jumping to warp was felt slightly. After a few more minutes at warp the feeling of dropping from warp was felt, and Drudoc’s voice came back over the comms =/\= Andone to Ensign Weir, we’re on location, anything more you need from us up here? =/\= She asked then.

Caelian strode over to the console and set his hands to work uploading the relevant information on their work to the bridge. Once he was satisfied that they would know what to look for, he tapped his comm badge again.

=^=The Ark Angel will need to scan for protoform energy matching the wave pattern I’ve sent to the science station,=^= he replied. =^=I’m hoping that, since our new friend is a version of Miss Sharah, she’ll be able to sense her own kind and give us a better idea of where to look.=^=

A wry laugh broke free of his chest and filled the room. Buoni dei, they were actually going to do this! Grinning broadly, he chuckled. “Looks like we’re going fishing again!”
—Caelian Weir, Engineer —

There was a pause for long minutes before an NE replied…

=/\=..I’m picking up three large protomatter forms within scanning range fitting this profile, they seemed gathered around three large masses of Boridium just on the edge of the nebula..=/\= He said transmitting his findings to the holodeck as well.

MiniFayth spoke up looking up at the holographic imagery. “..Those are elder ones! They are nearing the end of their life and preparing for the rebirth. If you want to try harvesting their dying energies you must act quickly..” She stated.

GM CockRoach

Caelian could only blink. They weren’t ready! There were simulations to run, readings to analyze! His mind raced with dozens of thoughts. He gave V’alura a helpless, almost apologetic look. So many things could go horribly wrong! But this wasn’t the time, couldn’t be the time for that. He shook himself, turned to his team.

V’alura returned that helpless, almost apologetic look with her own look of helplessness. A paralyzing moment of panic seized her as she thought of the old saying: “Out of the frying pan and into the fire”. They’ve only just began to dip their toes into the waters of understanding protoform energy and now they must succeed or possibly die horribly. Which might just be preferable when literally any kind of horrific scenario could happen. ‘Keep it together, girl’ she thought. ‘Focus and we’ll get through this.’

“L’Nel,” he barked, surprised at the level of calm in his voice despite his heart thundering in his ears, “Grab a team, set up the chair and focus array up in one of the secondary mission housings. That should give you plenty of space to work with and put you in-line with the deflector array. I’ll have the specs waiting for you by the time you arrive. Check everything before you hook into the main EPS taps; it looks like we only get one shot at this, and we don’t need to blow a relay.”

Or us, Caelian grumbled inwardly. The Vulcan nodded, strode from the room without comment.

Nodding to Jackson, he ticked off mental items on his fingers. “Soph, get down to deflector control and get us set up for a wide-range EM charge. We’re going to grab as much of this as we can, so I’m counting on you to cast our net as wide as we possibly can. Once you’re set, I need you to disable the interlink between the Angel’s primary and secondary systems. Route the energy through our subsystems and set the bilateral flow regulators to manual; that’ll give us more control over the energy ratings and prevent us from crippling the ship if something goes wrong. Questions?”

The woman shot him a smirk. “More than we have time for, boss, but we’ll make it work.”

“Maz, I need you to grab a pattern buffer module from Transporter Room Three,” Caelian stated after Sophia was gone. “We’re going to try to use it to cushion the distribution rate to L’Nel’s station once we’ve captured the energy. I figure we’ll have no more than five minutes to decide what to do with the energy we’re going to bottle, and since we haven’t had time to build proper containment we’re just going to have to hope for the best. Sorry to have to just turn you around at the door.”

He took a slow, steadying breath and turned back to V’alura. “I need you and your mechanical friend crunching numbers as fast as the two of you can manage, be our failsafe. If you have any inkling that this isn’t going to work, have the computer dump the energy back into space through any mechanical means that you can—the shield array, phaser banks, whatever it takes. Just promise me you’ll confine the energy away from the crew. We can’t have any more reality-altering hiccups.”

“Understood,” V’alura nodded, seeming more determined and focused now that she had her own job to perform. Numbers, she can do. V’alura fired up her console and established a connection with the holodeck and the ship mainframe. “Computer, generate a workstation with several terminal screens. Connect screen one to the deflector array and EPS. Screen two display L’Nel’s biodata-” V’alura tapped her comm, “Med bay, send doctor to the secondary mission housing and bring and advanced biometric scanner capable of tracking brainwave activity from a distance. The team there will explain everything just get there and send the data to holodeck three.

“Screen three display-” And on until V’alura had a visual on every key area connected to the experiment. First V’alura calculated the limits of the deflector array, their containment fields, the buffer in transporter room three, any system that the energy would come in contact with or pass through. Then V’alura began an automatic program that would execute if the energy they took in exceeded those limits beyond their physical hardware capabilities. Once activated, the program would check for crewmembers, then create a safe path for the energy to vent. There was no room for error here, and for the next several minutes all her focus went into creating their emergency failsafe.

Sighing, Caelian turned to Hope and knelt before her. This was perhaps the most difficult part of the entire prospect, and it was one he had not been looking forward to dealing with. A difficult decision lay before her, one that he wasn’t sure she was ready to make. Having only been self-aware for barely a day, thrust into a life she hadn’t asked for and flooded with perceptions and feelings she couldn’t be prepared to deal with, he was going to have to ask her the single most difficult question any sentient being would face.

“Little friend,” he asked more calmly than he felt, “I wish we’d had more time to get to know one another—learn about one another—before we reached this point, but life doesn’t always give us the luxury of time. I’m so very sorry we took you away from the life you knew, even though we never meant to. I know you can’t go back to the way you were, and I understand you’re still confused about what it means to be a sentient being like us. I don’t know what kind of life you will have if we leave you here, or what to expect if you come with us, but you deserve the chance to choose.”

Caelian took a slow, steadying breath and choked back a wave of sorrow. He had been forced to wrestle with the idea of being millions of years from home, with the idea that he’d never see his mother or father ever again. He’d done his best to help his friends and crewmates wrestle with the same notion, poured every ounce of his optimism into conciliatory words to keep up morale. He’d even managed to keep his own spirits up, kept his faith in Starfleet and the crew of the Ark Angel. Now he was faced with asking Hope to endure the same. He could only hope that she would understand the ramifications, that she would forgive him—all of them—for her new life, wherever it led.

“What do you want, little one?” he asked slowly. “Where would you like to spend your life? Whatever you decide, I’ll do my best to make it happen.”
—Caelian Weir, Engineer—

OOC: Wonderful use of technobabble Caelian! Bravo!

MiniFayth looked to Weir, her expression was thoughtful, confused, anxious, and a myriad of other emotions. Finally after what felt long minutes but in reality was barely a single moment she replied. “..I think I will go along with your ship. I am not one of…” She gestured to the hologram of of outlines of the protomatter aliens, “..what I used to be” She finally said. “..the only way I can think to move ahead is go with you.” She answered then crossing her tiny arms about her tiny chest.

GM CockRoach

V’alura glanced up from her console, and made eye contact with Caelian, “How much time to we have left?” Her heart was thundering like it were a stampede of horses. She spoke while continuing to type, most of her focus on the screens before her, “I have the failsafe in place.”

Ensign Belmont (Science)