Posted by Captain Arialla Bovar (Captain) in MAIN SIM pt 1: Intriguing Nebula - Bridge

Posted by Commander Wulf Baumann (Intel Officer) in MAIN SIM pt 1: Intriguing Nebula - Bridge

Posted by Commander Jonathan McKnight (Executive Officer) in MAIN SIM pt 1: Intriguing Nebula - Bridge
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

<Snip>

Baumann showed the message to the XO, and then proceeded to catch him up on the nebula briefing packet he had received. Moving to the desk, he did a search for the name. “Here… Earth colony vessel McAlister. Last known coordinates are… one-hundred-twenty-three lights years from here. The ship is listed as Missing and presumed lost with all hands… including 187 children.”

Baumann, Intel

Fleet immediately brought the ship to a stop, letting the Bonnie float stationary. He glanced around, then focused on running a short diagnostic of his console that would take him less than a minute to finish.

Fleet, Helm

Having followed the Captain and Baumann into the Ready Room, Jonathan looked over the message. “I can’t say that I’m familiar with the McAlister. Though I’m familiar with the designs of most of the commonly used colony ships. So it would depend on how much the colonists modified the ship…” he trailed off looking over the Captain’s shoulder to look at the information on the console.

“How long as the ship been missing? Because it would have taken them,” he stopped to do some quick math in his head, “over 12 years to get that far from their last coordinates, at warp 2.”

Cmdr. McKnight - XO

Ari frowned and shook her head. “It’s not part of the current fleet nor part of anything still considered in commission that I can find. So missing or not, it happened so long ago, she’s not listed anymore.” She glanced up at Baumann. “You think it’s one of theirs? And if it is, I’m open to suggestions. We are supposed to steer wide and clear of them. But if there are children in danger… can we honestly turn our back?” She wasn’t one to hide her emotions well with him. And if he looked, he would see the pain and helplessness in her eyes and the desire to run ‘into the fire’ to save them, so to speak. She steeled the expression quick enough, but either man would have caught it if looking.

Ari
CO

Baumann punched in a few more commands. “Its been missing for…” and his voice trailed off slightly, “… almost two hundred years.” and he looked up at the CO and XO. “That would put it in the same era as the Eugenic vessels… but still a vessel we know of. Unfortunately, we can’t know if the Eugenics ships were launched before or after the McAlister. So we don’t know if they know of it or not.”

Baumann, Intel

Ari shook her head and paced to the window. After taking a deep breath, she shook her head once more and turned to the men. “I don’t like this. Especially since we don’t even know if the other ships are viable and out here. But as a ship from Earth, we can’t merely abandon it to the darkness any longer. I think we need to see if those children are still alive, perhaps in stasis of some kind. But I can’t just walk away from this. Can you?” She glanced at them both, perhaps Baumann a bit longer than her XO. While it didn’t show on her face, perhaps her subconscious was asking him to forgive her for not asking permission.

Ari
CO

“Well it is hard to just walk away without doing anything Captain. But we do need to be cautious. We don’t know how long that distress call has been going out for. For all we know it has been going out for 200 years, and everyone is long dead. Those colony ships were designed for long duration missions, but that is a lot of time to be out here, even for one of them.”

Jonathan was definitely cautious. As much as he wanted to run in and help, he kept getting a weird feeling about it.

Cmdr. McKnight - XO

Baumann considered all the options. “I will neither agree or disagree. The decision is for you to make, Captain. All I can do is give you the facts as I know them. One: The Eugenic vessels are a major threat if and only if they are activated. We still do not for certain they are even here. Two: This could absolutely be a trap set by them to lure someone in and, perhaps, attempt an escape… an attempt that would most likely succeed, given their abilities. Three: The odds of a colony vessel remaining functional after so long are low… but not out of the realm of possibility. There are several cases where colony ships of the era lasted well past their initial viability. I will leave you and the XO to balance the risk and reward, and see if the scanners can find anything else.”

Nodding once, he stood up and made his way to the door.

Baumann, Intel

Ari sighed and turned back to the men. “Ok, so we do both. Err on the side of caution and see if the call is still real and viable, but keep ourselves safe. I think we need to launch a probe then place ourselves well past this launch point. That way, if followed ‘back to where it came from’, we aren’t here if someone comes looking. The probe should be able to tell us if the call is coming from a derelict ship, and hopefully enough info to give us a better clarity for the next choice.” She headed for the door, pausing at the XO. “It’s all I can think of to both protect us and still check. Your thoughts?”

Ari
CO

Elizabeth was working on the signals hoping to find something more to show Baumann when he returned. Seeing the results of the Morse Code, she was elated. Realizing it was something they may see more of, she downloaded the Morse Code alphabet and files on the code to her personal files to study later. Next time it will be better to know it and not need it, she thought.

Prescott
Sec/Intel