Posted by Commodore Drudoc Andone (Commanding Officer) in Main Sim - 1 Week Later - Arrival To The Barrens
[snip]

A week later the Ark Angel dropped out of warp a few thousand kilometers out of the boundaries of the massive area of space known as The Barrens. For many light years the tracks of thick syrupy like dark-silver nebula spanned before them. Sensors were already having a little trouble piercing the clouds but enough readings came in to pick up a system about 3 light years ahead with signals that matched the distress call of the SS Synthesis.

Demil was on the bridge when the ship dropped out of warp, sitting at the CSO’s station. Lieutenant Belmont had asked that he fill in for her, as she had some work to do and there was always someone who had a question.

Drudoc sitting in the CO’s chair observed the view screen. “..Science what do we got on scans?” She asked.

Science in addition to the above could also report that the local area was highly charged with plasma eddies and small scale ion storms nothing the shields couldn’t handle though.

“Sensors are faintly picking up a system about 3 light years in that seems to be the point of origin of the distress call, Ma’am. The area in between is full of plasma eddies and ion storms, weak enough that our shields will be able to protect us, but the Synthesis might not have been able to fully withstand them,” he said, his voice slightly betraying his nervousness. This was his first time on the bridge of a ship except for the Academy trainers, and if he made a mistake, it might cost people their lives or at the least result in damage to the ship.

”..Understood Ensign, are there any signs of anything else artificial between here and the system?” She inquired.

Scans mostly confirmed what tactical could report next, beyond the drifting hulks of lost ships nothing else artificial showed up on scans for science. Of course science was free to try other means to scan and probe the area if they thought of anything.

After the report she nodded, and looked over to the security and tactical chief. “..On tactical any scans?” She asked.

From a tactical point there was debris picked up distantly around the region, mostly old wrecks of alien ships, a few of Federation design dating back over the years, and even a smattering of Klingon, Romulan, and Dominion wrecks. But nothing showed up as active or showing signs of life, it seemed they were alone out here for now.

Pondering the report on the wrecks, Drudoc rubbed her chin, she did not want to rush into this, but they had a mission to complete. “..Raise shields, and helm move us into the Barrens to intercept the distress call, XO take us to yellow alert.” She said.

GM CockRoach / Drudoc Andone CO

The Lumerian had no more time for such helpless self questioning when the doors to the bridge swung open and he stepped out, heading towards his chair (his chair!!), giving the Commodore and Lieutenant Commander Diridaa respectful nod before sitting down and tapping at the panel to his side to bring up all the mission information and notes he had made. After double-checking to see if what he had noted down was worthy of mentioning to the CO and XO, Lieutenan Vilyan turned to his right. “Commodore, Commander Dirida; I wanted to raise something,” sound confident, sound professional “If who are in fact hearing is Captain Damdrine and can be sure that the distress signal we are hearing is from someone who is present now - so someone who is not Captain Damdrine” stop stating the obvious!, “then either they have managed to live for over a century, which should be unlikely, or we may be dealing with either an imposter, or the ship who was caught in some kind of time-based anomaly,” he soldiered on quickly to the point bring acutely away that both officers will have gotten to this conclusion without his insight. “Should the latter be the case, it may come as a very real - and expectable - shock, and that is if they believe us at all. They may consider that this is a ploy by some enemy to deceive, so I advise we do everything we can to assure the Synthesis we are who we say we are.” He realised he had said a lot of words but knew he had to carry on to deliver - at least what he thought - was important information. “And even if the Captain believes us and accepts the date we give him, this may lead to a range of responses, with the most obvious being shock, but others could include a sense of displacement that could drastically impact their actions following the news, and even grief as the Captain, and other members of the crew, begin realising that loved ones back home would be deceased.” He gave a short pause. “In any of these situations I believe we must be ready to be met with powerful emotional-driven responses and reactions, and not necessarily professionalism and relief at our arrival.”

His near bit through his tongue as he waited to see if he would be ordered off the bridge for wasting the time of CO and XO with information they had already considered and taken into account or if he would keep the place in his chair.

Lt. Vilyan CNS

Drudoc gave a nod to the new CNS. “..It is a strange event we are dealing with, I am personally hoping we aren’t dealing with a temporal anomaly, I’ve had enough of temporal mechanics the past few years to last me a lifetime. There is also the issue of how the crew would react to learning the truth of the Romulan people’s origins in this time period, or that one is now in command of a Federation ship. I suppose we will just have to ‘play it by ear’.” She said.

Ens. Lis

Miz’uki had taken the Engineering station on the bridge and was monitoring the ship’s systems very closely looking for anything that might indicate trouble like the computer “glitch” that the Synthesis had before they disappeared her tail swished back and forth in anticipation like a predator on the hunt the chair had of course been modified to add a slot her tail could fit in that way she was not sitting on it and a low rumbling purr was emanating from Miz’uki though she was keeping it low enough that she should be the only one to notice the Purring

Miz’uki

Diagnostic scans of the Ark Angel by the chief engineer didn’t bring anything back abnormal. As the Ark Angel would move ahead into the Barrens itself there was a brief shudder of the deflection systems moving aside spacial junk but again nothing out of the ordinary. The storms would soon engulf the large ship but once more with shields raised nothing came afoot that would be of concern. Within a short period of time the storms were behind them and the small system which was their goal was ahead.

As sensors got a clearer picture they found the following information soon coming up. The system was quite young in a stellar sense, barely a few thousand years old at most, the solar body at its heart was small about half the size of the Sol system’s own sun. In orbits moving counterclockwise were two planetary bodies, the first was a small gaseous planetoid with a small gasey ring system with barely formed lunar bodies. The second planet was solid and held an atmosphere that could be classified someday as probably forming a class m world, but for now was simply too high in nitrogen and methane to be worth breathing in even for a short time.

But what had drawn them here was just beyond the orbit of the second planet, there lay intact, the SS Synthesis. The ship was holding position about 20,000km ahead of them. Drudoc seeing this nodded, “..Give me a full scan of the ship..” she ordered.

Scans showed the ship’s power plant was online and stable though oddly was operating at about 2% higher standards than would be expected for normal operations in a holding pattern like this. Life sign scans too showed 100 members aboard, all seemingly alive and hearty with no signs of distress. Life support was clearly stable and online, though occasional images of flickering lighting along the hull showed something had to be afoot that scans couldn’t pick up. Curiously though there was no signal of the ship’s distress call or external beacons launched. The last thing of note curiously was that the ship’s shields were raised, weapons were primed and charged and hull polarization systems online. The shields being online would make sense given the environment they were in if they left the gravitational protection of the system, but being within its stable hold they didn’t really need it to avoid the effects of the Barrens, the weapons being online too was strange and seemingly uncalled for, no sign of ships or other threats were being picked up by the Ark Angel.

Drudoc watched all this form up on the ship’s view screen. Standing and adjusting her uniform she strode forward a bit from her chair as if those few extra steps would reveal some answer to this great mystery. “..Helm bring us within 40,000km of the Synthesis, and hold station.” She said, this order would be smart as it kept them a good 5,000km out of the effective range of the Synthesis weapons while still keeping them in turn well within return fire from the Ark Angel’s newer weapons.

”..Aye ma’am..” NE Chang said by the side helm station. As the Ark Angel closed to the indicated range and came to a full stop, Drudoc again eyed the readings still standing before the main view screen. A swirl of gas from the Barrens drifting by between both ships. “..Well no time like the present I guess, open a hailing frequency to the Synthesis, but keep our lines to audio only for now that should cut down on any cross computer issues from transferring.” She said.

Once this had been handled, Drudoc spoke through the open comm line. =/\= This is Commodore Drudoc Andone of the USS Ark Angel. We are responding to a distress call from the SS Synthesis and a Captain Damdrine, reporting loss of control of their ship systems. Can we be of assistance? =/\= She stated crossing her arms about her chest as she waited for a reply.

About five minutes past then, during which time Drudoc cast a glance to the comms NE to ensure their line had been received, “..Comm lines are open and being received Captain, I dialed down the sending frequency to accept their older mode of transmissions. No signs of any replies yet..” NE Poo said.

Looking to the ensign at science, she inquired. “..Any signs of them scanning us?” She asked.

Demil could report that no return scans had been picked up actively from the Synthesis, normal background and passive scans were present, so they could be reasonably sure the ship should be picking them up on visual at the least.

Once Demil reported this Drudoc looked back to the screen, arms still crossed. She did not yet want to move closer nor attempt a more open line of comms quite yet, especially given there did not seem to be any distress obviously among the crew, or damage to the ship beyond the oddities of their shields raised and weapons armed. Still eyeing the screen she said openly to all on the bridge, “..Thoughts?” She said.

Drudoc Andone CO

Ella had been monitoring at the secondary science and sensor station, as was her job whilst on the bridge. Not one to hold back her thoughts, “Commodore, given their defensive stance (or aggressive from a different view point) yet lack of distress it could be assumed our transmissions are not getting through, perhaps we could send a science probe configured to relay our transmission, it’ll keep us at a safe distance and allow us to scan further”

• Lt JG Ella Lokaa, Science