Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade James Rowe (Scientist) in Ens Donivas CSO Checkin (Deck 13 General Science Lab)
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James nodded as Khiryn admitted that the glasses were as much aesthetic as they were function, “Well they suit you.” He said honestly.

When asked about his name, Rowe responds, “James works, but most people just call me Rowe.”

When asked about shifting to science, he quipped “I got old” and let out a genuine laugh. “Honestly most people I know would start in science and then branch out based on their interests, I guess I just came at the whole thing backwards.” He shrugged, “Honestly I saw a lot of things in previous postings and I thought perhaps it would be good to see what they looked like before they became on the ground issues.”

“What about your transition? Most people’s parents would get very upset when they’re no longer able to tell all their friends ‘my boy’s a doctor.’”

• Rowe

Khiryn chuckled. “Still a doctor, though many would argue pathology doesnt really count. My dad’s a scientist himself, so the career change didn’t really phase him. My mom is in government, and very practical. She just reminds me to not burn any bridges and keep expanding my network of contacts and influence.”

He thought for a moment… thinking about his first few research projects post academy. “I still find Exobiology fascinating… but it wasn’t long before I realized I didn’t want to limit myself. Science is the study of everything… and some of the most impactful discoveries that have been made were multidisciplinary efforts. So thats where I shifted my focus.”

“Being out here on an exploration vessel… I feel like I’ll be stretching my abilities and forcing myself to grow.”

Ensign Khiryn Donivas - Science Officer - U.S.S. Athena

Rowe nodded along as Donivas spoke, “That’s a great mindset to have” He replied honestly. “Out here things tend to become everyone’s problem anyway.” Rowe shrugged before his eye looked around the lab again.

“I know you’re here to see the Chief, they must be caught up somewhere.” Rowe nodded back towards the station he was working at before Khiryn walked in. “I’m actually knee deep in some ‘data and text’” Rowe smirked at the callback. “If you don’t have anything else going on, would you have any interest in taking a look while you wait?”

• Rowe

Ensign Donivas smiled. “Well, I can’t say no to such a tantalizing offer, now can I?” He gave Rowe a gracious gesture to indicate he should lead the way. “As long as you don’t mind me pestering you with the occasional question about how we’re organized.”

The Akaali was honestly curious how things would work onboard the Athena. He figured he’d be supporting the bridge at some point, given all the shipboard familiarization training he’d undergone. That would be both interesting and tedious. There could be days where they encountered nothing of note… but when they did pick up something it could be anything.

Khiryn was a more than a little concerned he’d be stuck in Exobiology for his whole tour. With over a quarter of the personnel onboard assigned to the Science Department, he was afraid their wouldn’t be a lot of lateral mobility to work with different branches of science or the rest of the crew.

Ensign Khiryn Donivas - Science Officer - U.S.S. Athena

Rowe cracked a smile as he led Donivas back towards the workstation he’d been at before the younger man entered the lab. “Questions are always welcome… it’s literally what our department exists for.” He said casually.

“Ships like this are less rigid than they seem. They tend to be more like a mycelial fungal network than an org chart. Information and responsibility tend to spread wherever the pressure is.”

As they finally got to the station, Rowe stepped to the side so that Khiryn could take his place front and center before the information. “I don’t want to say too much at first where I color your perception of what you see. That’d defeat the purpose of bringing in fresh eyes, but I’ll tell you where the data comes from so that you’re also not walking in blind.”

Rowe leaned closer to the station and the assorted PADDs spread across it so that he could indicate to each. “This one is long-range telemetry for the last six months. It has been producing intermittent secondary returns. Tiny delayed echoes… not enough to trip any alerts… but it feels too consistent…” Then Rowe indicated the next PADD, “Gravimetric data from the same time period. We’ve been seeing faint fluctuations in roughly the same region. Nothing strong enough to suggest a planetary body or mass shadow, just enough drift to make navigational sensors occasionally disagree with one another for a few minutes.” He pointed to the final PADD, “Passive subspace monitoring keeps picking up low-level distortion across the area. Barely above background noise, but persistent enough to make me curious as I began overlaying things.”

Rowe stood back up to give Donivas space, “Individually all three are easily explained away… together though… I don’t know.... tell me what you see.”

• Rowe

Khiryn read the first PADD passively, taking in the data for what it was. As he read through the second he raised an eyebrow and looked at Row questioningly before turning back to devour the rest of the information. By the time he was mid way through the third PADD his eyebrows were furrowed as was identified too many correlations for it to be coincidence.

“I think you’re right.” He said finally. “This does appear to be something.” Khiryn shook his head… he still wasn’t convinced what it was yet, but he had the beginnings of a theory. “Given the nature of the scans, I’m guessing the sensors weren’t focused on this region, and caught this while directed somewhere else?”

Ensign Donivas tapped his glasses a few times as he thought. “Can we synch these up to see the temporal relationship between them?”

Ensign Khiryn Donivas - Science Officer - U.S.S. Athena

Rowe watched and listened attentively as Donivas worked through the data, a small smile crossed his face when Khiryn also got the impression that this was more than chasing ghosts. “Correct, these were all gathered incidentally.”

He leaned in to indicate a filter set on the data, “I went ahead and normalized for sensor drift and ruled out maintenance anomalies so the information should be clean for synchronization.” Rowe then took a step back out of the Ensign’s space to let him take the lead.

• Rowe

Khiryn sent all the the data to the large screen at the console and typed in the key sequence to synch them up. The display resolved itself quickly and the Ensign studied the results.

At first glance the data did correlate… a clear and repeating pattern. That supported the idea that something was happening… but then the Akaali Scientist took a deeper look. There were holes in the pattern… not just due to missing data… though there were plenty of gaps in the various echoes, gravimetric indications, and anomalous energy readings.

What was more concerning was the gaps that appeared even when the sensor data was present and something should have been visible. If the pattern was real, that is.

“I think that raised more questions than it answered.” Khiryn shook his head, glancing at Rowe. His tone was more excited than defeated however… he was now invested in this budding mystery. “I suppose the sensors could have just missed picking them up… the sections in question were all low resolution scans taken at long range.” He pointed at a few segments in question. “But these scans have the same approximate conditions as the ones taken a month earlier… but no anomalous indications were present the second time around.”

He looked at the display again, contemplating the bigger picture. “Do all the scans from from the Athena or do they come form other ships? If it’s different ships, equipment sensitivity could be a hidden variable.” That was a possibility but… but it also felt like a cop out. “What do we know of the system these scans come from? Are there any other environmental factors that could come into play?”

Ensign Khiryn Donivas - Science Officer - U.S.S. Athena