SNIP

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

Rowe watched with great interest as Donivas worked and the information took shape. The pattern was unmistakable as were the gaps the Ensign had pointed out. When James spoke, his tone indicated that his mind was working through what they were seeing even as he spoke. “All data originated from Athena. Using multiple sensor packages. The readings were gathered over several months. The region is otherwise unremarkable, with no known stellar phenomena explain the pattern.”

Khiryn flagged the file’s location so he could investigate it later if he had time. He still stared at the screen, trying to glean new insights, but he started tapping his fingers against the console.

James shifted his weight from one foot to the other, “The variation in the gaps is confounding… What are our constants here? Because as far as I can tell we’re either missing out on some variables or whatever we’re looking at isn’t passive about being watched.”

Rowe

He finally stepped back as he considered Lt Rowe’s question. “We need more data.” The Akaali replied simply. “While the initial indications are compelling, if perplexing, we don’t have enough data for them to be statistically significant.”

He gestured to Rowe. “You’re more familiar with Starfleet procedures than I am… is there a way to identify all Starfleet ships that passed through this region over the last couple of years? Can we ask them to send us the relevant sensor logs?” By Khiryn’s estimation, if Athena had passed through the area a few times in the last several months, there was a good chance other ships had as well.

“Barring that… when is the next time the Athena is scheduled to pass through? Maybe we can make a case to the Chief Science Officer for a slight course diversion so we can leverage the high-resolution sensors.”

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