Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Roger Ferguson (Chief Science Officer) in Main Sim - Bridge - Another Day Another Survey

Posted by Ensign Elemirre Serinde (Engineer) in Main Sim - Bridge - Another Day Another Survey

Posted by Vice Admiral CockRoach (GM) in Main Sim - Bridge - Another Day Another Survey
[snip]

It was January 1st, 2152, the morning after the Earth celebration of the new year. With that new year came new surveys. It was with this in mind that the crew of the Bonaventure found themselves around a system roughly 12 light years from the Sol system. Designated UES-11 (for unexplored system 11) they were coming up on approach to the system which had drawn their interest. Long range scans the night before had picked up strange gravity anomalies not common to a system like this and finding their source would no doubt be of interest for the science and engineering crews. For the rest of the crew it was a day to so far relax and enjoy the holiday spirit.

A beep for the helm station would indicate they were nearing their destination.

GM CockRoach

Ari and Baumann had spent the night before in a private celebration of the turn over of another year. It was a nice night of dinner, and companionship they had been lacking in the last month because of missions. But just before they had settled to dinner, the night watch had informed her of the off readings. With nothing else currently on their schedule, Ari had changed course to check it out. A new year, a new section of space. It seemed fitting.

Since it wasn’t anything imperative, she hadn’t bothered to rouse any of the other Department Heads. She was going to let them sleep off the reverie of the various parties that had scattered the ship and filled the halls with ruckus laughter and partying well into the night. She was grateful to the designers of the ship that the Command Rooms were set apart from the main crew bunks. The noise and carousing hadn’t spilled over into her relatively quiet evening.

So it was, a rare, real cup of coffee in her hands, that the Captain came onto the bridge at the beginning of first shift. The Lieutenant Commander rose from her chair with a start. “Ma’am… I didn’t realize you would be here. Is everything all right?” Daniel had volunteered to take the morning shift for her to allow her to sleep in. But her curiosity had gotten the best of her and she’d slid from their bed with silence and left Baumann sleeping. Or at least, she hoped he was still sleeping. He deserved a break.

“It’s all right, Michealson. At ease. Go ahead and have a seat, I’m just observing this morning. Those gravitational anomalies had be curious, was all.” To give credence to her words, she took up the XO’s spot and tapped on his chair console to see what the readings were. For gravity to be this readable at such a distance, surely something was here. “Do we have a black hole in the vicinity we need to be aware of or anything?” She glanced back at the science officer on deck and hoped they had been as inquisitive and already a step ahead in finding possibilities for the readings.

The Lt Cmdr sat back down and smiled. “Something told me you wouldn’t stay in bed with this on your mind, Ma’am.” He laughed lightly and enhanced the coming section of space on the view screen to see if the telltale signs of the dark black hole were visible.

Captain Arialla Bovar CO

There was no visual sign of any black holes, though curiously sensors did report rising levels of gravitic anomalies patterns opposite in orbit from the system’s third planet. More details were still coming in.

Jonathan chuckled as he made his ways through the hallways, doing his morning rounds. There were definitely a few crewmen moving slower this morning then normal, definite signs of their long nights partying. Back in his day he could have partied with the best of them, and been at his duty post the next morning. Probably with a strong cup of coffee. He still had the coffee, which he carried in his right hand, but he wasn’t able to stay up all night anymore.

So between that, and being new to the ship, he had volunteered to take the early shift that morning. Let some of the young officers sleep in instead.

He figured he’d check in with the bridge before heading down to sickbay and engineering on his rounds. “Commander Michaelson, how goes…” he trailed off as he turned the corner and saw the Captain sitting there.

“Captain, good morning. I didn’t expect to see you up here this early. I thought you had the morning off.”

Cmdr. McKnight - XO

Ari smiled as Michaelson stood to nod and greet the XO before stepping to the security station to see if the ship was all right from the shudder. “An anomalis situation like this and you think the craziest scientist on the ship ‘wouldn’t’ be on the bridge?” She laughed and shook her head. “I forget you haven’t been with us long. I fear the big chair didn’t diminish my desire to be a scientist above all things. Though I do manage to temper it with better decisions in the last few years.”

Once someone from science peered into the scanner viewfinder they could report the following to the Captain. The system held at present three planets. The first innermost one was not much bigger than Mercury in size, an airless rock which scans showed in passing was rich in copper, zinc, and iron deposits. The second planet was one the size of Neptune, and like that planet was a gas giant. Again, like said giant the planet’s atmosphere was made up of hydrogen, helium, and methane, giving it a similarly strong blue color. Interestingly though this planet had a ring of ice particles and microasteriods which spun in an orbital pattern in a counter clockwise pattern. The third and final planet was in the ‘sweet spot’ for life, yet no signs of intelligent life seemed to have evolved on the planet. A big stand out on the mineral scan was rich dilthium deposits. Also evident around this planet was a small moon rich in assorted deposits.

But what was really the stand out of the system and had drawn them here was the pulsing eddies of gravitic anomalies which were rising in sudden strength on the opposite side of the system from the third planet! As the Bonaventure would drop from warp to enter said system and proceed on impulse, the was a sudden and unexpected change in the system. A swirling grey ‘fog’ like anomaly which defied the sensor’s understanding other then to show signs of massive gravity wells pulsed suddenly and then vanished! In its place was an amazing sight a FORTH planet in the same orbit as the third had appeared!

This one too was Class-M but the atmosphere was a dark murky color and sensors were quick to point out rising levels of ash and nuclear fallout as well as even in flight nuclear missiles crashing down into cities or other places on the three large land mass planet! As this all was abosrbed a final, and yet the strongest yet, gravitic anomaly pulsed out from the planet’s orbit, sending the Bonaventure shuddering on its course. Readings showed this pulse had created an anomaly formation almost 4 light years in span! This was disrupting the ability for the ship to form a warp bubble and send out long range comms. Effectively they were now stranded in the system!!

GM CockRoach

Meanwhile, a couple decks down, El was moving down the corridor toward engineering, a coffee mug in hand when the ship shuddered, sending her momentarily off balance, her free hand supporting herself on the wall of the corridor. Her eyes glanced ‘up’ as though that was where things came from. She perked up though her mind took another moment to catch up; the night before had left her with less sleep than normal. That wasn’t something that they taught in the military academy - the ship making those kinds of motions. “That can’t be right,” she muttered and sped her pace toward engineering.
- El, Eng

Roger had just arrived at the Bridge, the lift doors opened, when the ship shuddered. Roger stumbled into the open doorway of the lift, reaching out to brace himself. Surely he wasn’t feeling the effects still of last night and the copious amounts of alcohol he had consumed.

Shaking his head vigorously, Roger made his way onto the Bridge, giving a nod to everyone who was there. “Morning,” He said, making his way over to the science station. He took a glance into the scanner viewfinder, and promptly exclaimed, “Wow!”, in a loud excited tone.

“Captain,” Roger said, turning to face her. “This is incredible. The sensors are picking up so much information here. It looks like we’ve got a class-M that appears to be involved in some kind of nuclear conflict. We got hit by some kind of gravitic anomaly that’s creating a formation covering almost four light years. The anomaly appears to be disrupting many of our ships systems.” He turned back to look in the viewfinder, trying to take in all the data that was coming in.

-Roger Ferguson, CSO

Ari stood up with a frown. “That’s not right. A nuclear struck world shouldn’t be affecting space this badly. And certainly not to this degree.” She watched the planet on the viewscreen and frowned. She wanted to reach down and stop the missiles from heading where they were, and from doing more damage. But she couldn’t. Well, perhaps she could, but she knew she shouldn’t. She bit her lip and shuddered as each impact was noted from their position high above the surface. A shudder and sigh slipped between her teeth. “Do we have any long distance scans of this area? Need to see if this area of space has always read this way, or it’s relatively new.”

She loved being the first to explore someplace. As she had told the XO, her heart beat because of discoveries like this. But the downside was, there was little to no information to go on for comparison investigations. Long range showed unusual gravity readings. But the question was, had they always been here? And were they in any way responsible for the chaos that reigned down on those below?

“I want all the information we have from this area going back to the beginning of the scans. I know it’s not much, but let’s see if this… let’s call it a ‘gravity hole’.. has always been here since scientists started scanning.” She sat back in her chair to keep from moving closer to the screen as if somehow she could help. She glanced back up at the XO. “Rounds this morning may have to wait, McKnight. But let’s make sure everyone’s all right and the ship is still good to go, shall we?” She smiled and nodded to Michaelson, “If you would be so kind as to man the security station till someone arrives, I’d appreciate it.” He was a good man in a pinch, and with the XO on the bridge, three Command seats weren’t in need of filling.

Ari
CO