Posted by Fleet Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Main Sim - Bridge

Posted by Lieutenant Ben Hudson (Chief Medical Officer) in Main Sim - Bridge

Posted by Fleet Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Main Sim - Bridge
Posted by… suppressed (57) by the Post Ghost! 👻
As soon as the Manhattan had parked behind the moon of the planet with the mysterious Vulcan energy signature, Shedda stepped through the bridge door to the conference room. “We’re secured behind the moon, Captain,” Mal’athar reported as she took a seat to his right at the table.

Cmdr. Mal’athar, XO

Cochrane took his seat at the head of the table. He looked at the XO and CE. “Lieutenant, you’ve been quiet. What are your thoughts of this situation?”

Cochrane, CO

Ben walked into the conference room, and took a seat at the table.

Lt. Hudson
Chief Medical Officer

Kaia joined everyone in the conference room. “I’m uncertain what to think, Captain. A mysterious signal that seems somewhat Vulcan, but does not match any known ship transponder, way out here in a quadrant far from Vulcan space. It is a puzzle.”

Lieutenant Kaia
Chief Engineer USS Manhattan

Eilah took his own place at the conference table. “It could be something imitating a Vulcan signal. I don’t like it, Captain.”

~ Fayth, COS

Cochrane nodded. “That is a possibility, Lieutenant. But we don’t have any record of Vulcans in the nebula.” A thought occured to him and he tapped the comms. =/\= Comms, send an automated message to the four Vulcan vessels requesting a status update. Send the responses to the Conference Room, please. =/\= He looked at Fayth and said “Might as well check and see if any of the four ships are unaccounted for. =/\=

Cochrane, CO

Shedda didn’t like this either. “Captain, now that we are closer, it might be worth putting out another probe to observe. There is the theory that no idea is every brand new. Someone, somewhere, some time has had the same idea. This could be an example of that and the Vulcan signature is a product of that.”

Cmdr. Mal’athar, XO

Cochrane thought for a second and then said “That would be an incredible scenario, for certain. One I am not keen to believe or dismiss, though. So everyone, keep that in mind.”

A few minutes later, the ping returned - all four were accounted for, with no deviation in their logged flight plans.

Gamemaster Amdirgol
GMT

Cochrane looked at the reports and then said “Okay, then. Hypothesis one is out the window. So any other thoughts, everyone? Any at all… no bad ideas here.”

Cochrane, CO

“Perhaps a Vulcan ship is not the cause. It could be an older Vulcan class that was sold and refurbished. It’s registry wouldn’t fall under Vulcan vessels. Our trade is quite significant now. It might be Vulcan technology that was traded or obtained on the black market.” Mal’athar ran through some of the options.

Cmdr. Mal’athar, XO

Kaia’s brow wrinkled as she thought carefully about the situation. “I agree with Cmdr. Mal’athar. It is not productive to simply speculate without any further information. We should send another probe, and try to gather more detailed scans of the situation.”

Lieutenant Kaia
Chief Engineer USS Manhattan

“Perhaps we’re not seeing the wood for the trees,” Ben suggested. “We’ve been overly focused on the Vulcan signature, but not talked about any other broadcasts that are being detected; nor, for that matter, any other evidence outside of communication signals. Have we detected any evidence of life on the planet?”

Lt. Hudson
Chief Medical Officer

“The level of technological development suggests civilization, but you are correct Doctor. As are you, Lieutenant Kaia.” Cochrane said. “So let us focus on both of those things for the next few hours. Chief Kaia, prep a surveillance drone and ensure it has a self destruct mechanism we can use so we don’t lose it to someone. Doctor, I would like you to work with the Science department and come up with a preliminary report on what we are dealing with. I would very much like to all we can about this world and those who live on it.” He took a breathe and then said “Lieutenant Fayth, please get me a risk assessment as soon as possible. Ok, all. Dismissed.”

Cochrane, CO

Kaia nodded upon receiving her assignment, and once they were dismissed, quickly left the conference room, heading in the direction of drone storage. While she walked, she commed her team to let them know where to meet. =Kaia to Able, meet me in drone storage.”

Lieutenant Kaia
Chief Engineer USS Manhattan

Able tapped his badge and replied, =^=Able here, on my way.=^=

Nightroad, Engineer

As they filed out, Ben playfully nudged his shoulder into Eliah. “Let me know if you need a hand with that risk assessment,” he said with a smile. “You just never know what medical risks there could be.”

Lt. Hudson
Chief Medical Officer

Eilah grinned and grabbed his fingers, only to let them slip out of his grip. “Will do, Doctor, I might page you later.” He winked and headed towards his office.

~ Fayth, COS

Cochrane waited for the Department Heads to file out and then he looked at the XO. “Sheddah, I want you to tackle this from an archaeology perspective. Look at where this place is at technologically, and start working backwards through their records to see how they got here. And try and figure out if they were somehow influenced by the Vulcans…” and a thought occured to him and he held up a finger. “Or the Romulans. See if there is any indication, if we do find influence, if that influence was accidental… or by design. I know it’s a long shot from here, but any direction we can get will help us if we have to make contact.”

Cochrane, CO

“Aye Sir. I’ll see if computer science can get us into any of their databases without being discovered. That will help.” Shedda was sitting still, but inside she felt like a kid at Terran Christmas. She loved this kind of thing, and with their CSO out for the time being she was going to get to take a much more hands on part in it. “I’ll let you know what I find.” She stood and excited the conference room and made her way down a few decks to the computer science labs.

Cmdr. Mal’athar, XO

Cochrane stood after she left and looked out the window at the moon they were hiding behind. He shook his head and smiled. “Well… here we go.” and he turned and went back to the bridge.

Taking his seat in the center chair, Alex looked at the bridge team, each in turn. “Ok. Report. What have we got so far?” he asked.

Cochrane, CO
NE Vasquez, having just vacated the chair at the captain’s return, snapped to attention. “Some preliminary scans have completed, sir. Development appears consistent with a species approaching warp technology, likely within two decades. The universal translator has a primitive communication matrix in development, and we have been intercepting cultural transmissions for later analysis. Still unable to pinpoint the Vulcan signature.”

Gamemaster Amdirgol
GMT

“What have we found in ways of scanning the local space? Any space-based facilities or surveillance satellites?” Cochrane asked.

Cochrane, CO

“There’s a primitive station in orbit, doesn’t appear any more advanced than Earth’s ISS of the 21st century. Nothing surveillance focused, though they almost certainly have the capability to magnify anything in-system unless its obscured.”

Gamemaster Amdirgol
GMT

“Alright, let’s stay here until we can get a better feel for who we are dealing with. All stations, run full scans of the planet. Run their language through the UT and see if there is any linguistic similarities with no languages. Also, identify any institutes of higher education. See if we can access their database and find out who we are dealing with. History, biology, popular culture… anything we can use to build a sense of who these people are and what their priorities are.”

Cochrane, CO

=^=CE to Bridge. The advanced surveillance probe is ready to launch on your command.=^=

Lieutenant Kaia
Chief Engineer USS Manhattan

Cochrane tapped the comms. =/\= Excellent work, Chief. Launch and let’s see what we are dealing with. =/\=

Cochrane, CO

Maeve was on the bridge at her station and had already locked on to the coordinates and was now just awaiting on the captains orders as to when he wanted her to fire the probes.

Lt.Cmdr Maeve Harlow, CTO

At that moment, the green light came from the conference room. Probes were ready and authority to launch had been granted.

Cochrane, CO

Kaia returned to the bridge and stood at the engineering station, waiting for results to come in from the probe.

Lieutenant Kaia
Chief Engineer USS Manhattan

The turbo lift doors opened and Sebastian stepped onto the bridge. Seeing the COin the center seat, he walked over and introduced himself.

“Excuse me, Captain Cochrane. I’m Lt. Cmdr. d’Aramis, the Intel chief you requested from fleet command..I came through the Dyson Sphere Gateway to get to the Delta Quadrant. Unfortunately, some of the files on my shuttle got corrupted. One of which was the briefing for this mission. I would appreciate it if someone could read me in and bring me up to date.”

Lt. Cmdr. Sebastian d’Aramis
CIO-USS Manhattan

“Have a seat, Commander.” Cochrane said and indicated the third chair. “Sorry I wasn’t there to greet you myself, but we have a bit of a situation.” Cochrane inclined his head to the images coming in from the probes. “Non-cintact civilization that appears to have been influenced by Vulcans. No record of the events or planet. We are conducting reconnaissance now.”

The CIO took the offered chair and replied with a simple thank you.

Scan data filtered in as the probe swept into the upper atmosphere. There were several large cities in the area it was overflying, with the probe picking up millions of humanoid inhabitants in each. All of them registered with fragmented Vulcan signatures, although a more distinct signature was also identifiable in part of the largest - specifically emanating from a large building complex with sweeping arches and high peaked roofs, glass-ceilinged plazas connecting the buildings. Other buildings seemed to indicate this was likely the capital. The probe was still in high orbit - much lower, while providing more details, and they’d risk being spotted by aircraft.

Gamemaster Amdirgol
GMT

The Captain looked at the new CIO. “Thoughts, Commander?”

Cochrane, CO

Eilah scanned the probe data looking for clues as to what types of offensive and defensive technology the planet had. He also asked the computer to do a search on the societal and political stand points on outsiders (OOC: are they open minded or xenophobic?).

~ Fayth, COS
Their combat technology appeared slightly more advanced than what their level of space exploration might suggest, though still barely able to scratch the Manhattan - plasma cannons, a few spatial torpedoes, nuclear weapons (and power). They didn’t appear to have developed true defensive shields yet. The computer reported that they seemed remarkably open-minded and welcoming of others, and had in fact had a unified world government for decades.

“As far as I know, Capain, Vulcans never explored the Delta Quadrant, at least officially. That’s not to say Vulcans never attempted to explore it There are, however, some species like the Voth and Sikarians that do exhibit characteristics that are somewhat reminiscent of Vulcans, such as a focus on intellect, advanced technology, or strategic thinking,”

Lt. Cmdr. Sebastian d’Aramis
CIO-USS Manhattan

Gamemaster Amdirgol
GMT

The doors for turbolift 2 had softly swished open as Cochrane and d’Aramis were speaking. Mal’athar made her way across the back of the bridge, around the tactical station and took her seat to the right of the captain. “That may not necessarily be true. Pursuing their database has been intriguing.”

Cmdr. Mal’athar, XO

Ben followed the XO out of the turbolift an on to the main bridge.

Cochrane looked at the XO and said “Interesting you say? Well don’t be shy, Commander. Share with the class.”

Cochrane, CO

“Lt Hudson and I were searching their databases. One of the data bases we were able to access was the History of Molkas, 1270-present. So we have the name of their world now.” Shedda tapped on her work station and the information was directed to the large view screen.

“The data base covers roughly 500 years of history. It’s pretty standard for the most part.” The file scrolled, highlighting various events. “A handful of wars, key innovators, the rise and fall of nation-states. However, then things got interesting when we started looking at the most recent 250 years. It was accelerated to an abnormal level. After a series of three ‘Aentekin Wars’, the rate of development spiked. The records indicate that the planet was similar to Earth’s Napoleonic period immediately before the wars, but by a 100 years later, they had developed nuclear power. A unified world government had formed almost bloodlessly by the time of their first spaceflight. The records indicated that they’ve been spacefaring for about 90 years. The records indicate that they are pre-warp. There are no records of anything that would explain the warp signature we were picking up.”

There was more, much more interesting, but she paused incase their were any questions or Hudson wanted to add anything.

Cmdr. Mal’athar, XO

“It seems to suggest that some interference may have occurred,” Kaia commented softly.

Lieutenant Kaia
Chief Engineer USS Manhattan

Ben nodded. “Interestingly, the pace of technological advancement seemed to be driven by one particular faction. The wars were as a result of the other factions wanting to acquire the technology. There was also regular references to two other terms: Aentekin and Telas.” He paused before continuing.

“Whilst the universal translator is still working through Aentekin, Telas appeared to be a name; and one that phonetically very similar to that of the Vulcan name T’Las. The computer also concluded that there was a 78% chance that the changes on Molkas were influenced by the cultural philosophy of Vulcan.”

Lt. Hudson
Chief Medical Officer

“Definitely sounds like a Vulcan name. Did you happen to find anyone or thing mentioned by that name in a Vulcan database? It might be a good idea to search the Romulan database for that name or term, as well.”

Lt. Cmdr. Sebastian d’Aramis
CIO-USS Manhattan

“Actually, we did.” Mal’athar pulled up the log entries. “After running a cross reference for both Vulcan and Romulan databases, we narrowed it down to six possibilities. The name Telas does not appear, even in older forms, on the planet before this cultural shift. These six posibilities appeared from Vulcan records. Those records indicated six officers named T’Las listed as MIA between the years of 2140 and 2160 - all of them assigned to various exploratory ships.”

“Out of those six, five were fairly routine. The sixth did stick out because there was the mention in the S’tel‘s report of statistically significant increases in theta-band radiation and gravimetric distortion, in the final 2 reports that were received by Vulcan High Command. These numbers can often indicate the activity of certain classes of wormholes.”

Cmdr. Mal’athar, XO

OOC: Adding this here because I forgot
IC:
“There is also a word, Aentekin that appeared to be an epithet of some kind. It was mentioned a few times in the records about Telas. The UT is still working on figuring out what it means though.”

“Which seems to suggest that this T’Las found himself or herself flung across the universe, landed on this planet, joined one of the factions at the time, and effected the development because of their advanced technology. It surprises me that a Vulcan would interfere, I thought they were even more concerned about the prime directive than us.”

Lieutenant Kaia
Chief Engineer USS Manhattan

“They may not have had a choice.” Cochrane said softly as he furrowed his brow at the new information. He was quiet a moment and then said “Ok. Lt. Kaia, you and the XO work together to get an idea of the ship’s structure and design. Once you have that, get with Science and start scanning for any sign of the ship this T’las was on. See if we can find anything that may be still existing from it so we can try and figure out what happened from the Vulcan perspective.” He looked around at the bridge crew and said “Listen up. We are still going to try and abide by the Prime Directive and not show ourselves unless absolutely necessary. However… at this point we can assume that there has already been a violation of that; so if we do make contact, we are going to operate as if we are not the first extra-planetary visitors these people have met. But until then, keep listening and learning whatever you can about them. Everyone understand? Any questions?”

Cochrane, CO

“What if they only see us ‘blurred’, for lack of a better word?” one of the science NEs on the bridge asked. “Like if one of their spacecraft spots us briefly during a flyby but without decent readings?”

Gamemaster Amdirgol
GMT

Cochrane looked at NE Grand and nodded. “Good question, Ensign. From what we have surmised so far their technology is not as advanced as ours. If we are spotted there’s a definitive window of time before they will respond because they will have to analyze the picture use what technology they have to try to ascertain what it is that they saw, so on and so forth. If we are spotted we will pull back, monitor this area to see what kind of response they give, and plan from there. If they show up looking curious and trying to discover what we are; the depending on what information we have we will attempt to make contact or not.” The CO took a breath and then sighed. “But if they arrive with guns out and looking for a fight… well… We will probably just learn what we can about them from a distance and send that information off to the federation. If their first reaction is hostility, that’s probably not somebody we want to try to deal with right now.”

Cochrane, CO

Shedda moved to the back of the bridge next to Kaia. “Alright the specific ship we are looking at the the Vulcan ship S’tel.” She tapped into the computer to pull up the schematics for it.

She turned in the seat certain of her next recommendation, “Captain, what we’ve been able to get so far from their databases is only a snap shot, and we’re not going to get a lot more from hiding behind their moon. I recommend we do some cosmetic alterations and send an away team.”

Cmdr. Mal’athar, XO

“Commander, most Vulcan ships are made from duranium-tritanium alloys. If this Telas person landed or crashed, there may be a trace of the ship’s remains on the surface or slightly under the surface. I can start scanning for such in an effort to help speed up the process.”

Lt. Cmdr. Sebastian d’Aramis
CIO-USS Manhattan

Mal’athar nodded, “Do that. Lt. Kaia and I will see if we can find something specific to the S’Tel to narrow down the search.”

Cmdr. Mal’athar, XO

Akane had remained silent so far, gleaning as much information as she could. “I would be happy to assist in the research sir, I may be able to offer some insight into their culture and customs?” She offered, hoping she could be of some use.

• Lt Sakai (Counselor)

“Absolutely, Lieutenant.” Cochrane said. “Any insight we can glean, please make note and give us your best opinion.”

Cochrane, CO

(OOC: Just would like to draw attention to the XO’s suggestion of a covert away team :) )

Gamemaster Amdirgol
GMT

“I think I have enough detail from their records and our scans to do successfully do some cosmetic surgery,” Ben said. “We don’t have an exact DNA profile for them, but you should be able to use your tricorders to scan them and mask your DNA signatures, should they want not want to take you at ‘face value’,” he said, grinning at his own joke.

Lt. Hudson
Chief Medical Officer

“Excellent Doctor. Go get that ready. Counselor continue going through their cultural database and feed us information. d’Aramis I want you to listen in to their comms and see what you can find out. Fayth, Daveyla, Kaia report to sickbay. Or send someone from your departments.”

Shedda stood up, “Captain,” she asked waiting for Cichrane to approve.

Cmdr. Mal’athar, XO

Cochrane looked up at the XO… and grinned. “Commander, when was the last time you looked in a mirror?” and he chuckled. “Now, I’m no medical specialist… but the last time I checked bright green skin isn’t the norm for these people. So you know what that means… right?” He stood up slowly and then danced a little jig. “That means you get the center chair and I get to go take a walk.” and he laughed. He looked back at Hudson and said “Doctor, let’s go see how good your counterfeiting abilities go.” He looked back at Mal’athar and said “Commander… you have the conn.” with the biggest cat-that-ate-the-canary grin before turning around and walking to the turbolift.

Cochrane, CO

Shedda’s brows went up giving Cochrane the most unbelieving look. She was quite well aware of her skin color. This was her area of expertise. Of course she was going! Besides she wasn’t supposed to let him do dangerous things like this. Then she grinned at his little dance though. “Have you got cabin fever, Captain? Fine, go, but if you get hurt and I have to come save you, I will never let you live it down.” She walked around and took the vacated center seat. “I am not doing your reports.”

Cmdr. Mal’athar, XO

“Unless the locals have some very strange pets, I don’t think I’m the right fit for this mission,” Kaia laughed. Three feet tall and covered in fur, it’d take a little more than cosmetic surgery to get her fit for a covert ops landing party. =^=Ensign Able, report to sickbay for the landing party.=^=

“Guess its girls night up here, Commander,” she turned to Mal’athar with a small grin.

Lieutenant Kaia
Chief Engineer USS Manhattan

“Aye,” Able replied.

“Excellent idea, Lieutenant.” Cochrane said as the turbolift doors opened. “You are acting XO in my absence. Congratulations.” and he stepped into the turbolift and the doors closed.

Cochrane, CO

Ben followed the Captain toward the turbolift, stepping through as the doors whizzed open. Before the doors closed, he held them back with one hand. “By the way, Commander, I have just the thing for reducing your green complexion for any future away missions,” he said with a smile, knowing full well that he was stirring the pot between the XO and the CO.

Lt. Hudson
Chief Medical Officer

Cochrane said “You didn’t hear that!” and playfully swatted the CMO’s hand away so the doors closed before the XO could reply. He looked at Hudson and said “Ben, I’ve been stuck on this ship for almost a year without any time on-mission with an Away Team. If you mess this up for me, we are going to have a serious discussion about the trajectory of your career, Doctor.” and he chuckled.

Cochrane, CO

Nightroad, Engineer