Posted by Ensign Khiryn Donivas (Scientist) in Side Sim: The Morning After (Lower Stellar Cartography)

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade James Rowe (Scientist) in Side Sim: The Morning After (Lower Stellar Cartography)
<SNIP>

James thought back on the previous day and a slight smile crossed his face. “I haven’t yet. I got a little ‘distracted’ after my shift was over yesterday.”

Taking another pull from his tea, Rowe considered the mystery before them. “It looks like we’re asking the same questions from different vantage points… So let’s do this…”

“I’ll reach out to the Sagan and start digging through Federation sensor archives. Even low-resolution data from ships that transited this region could tell us whether we’re looking at isolated anomalies or part of a much larger pattern.”

He glanced back toward Donivas.

“In the meantime, I’d like you to take the historical approach. If these really are scars, then every survey we find without them narrows the window for when they first appeared. We may never identify the exact event that caused them, but if we can determine when the scars weren’t here…” He shrugged lightly. “…that’s still a valuable piece of the puzzle.”

• Rowe

Khiryn nodded… trying not to blush at the reminder of his interruption. He was certainly a distraction yesterday, but it was unlikely he was the one James referred to. _Not when he’s smiling like that. _

“I like it,” he replied simply. While some might view such an assignment as boring, the Akaali knew that work like this often laid the foundation for future insight. Giving anything less than his best at this point could result in them missing an important connection later. Garbage in, garbage out, as they say.

He activated the holographic display on his glasses and started his research playlist. It primarily consisted of progressive rock from his home world. It was very popular when he was a teenager, and he liked the way it blended different styles and genres to create something entirely new. It reached his ears through tiny speakers in the temples of his glasses.

Ensign Donivas started typing away on the console, pulling up any archived data for this system that was in the database. “In this situation, I think it bears reminding that sensors have improved by leaps and bounds over the last century. I’ll prepare a time-weighted filter to account for that… but we’ll be able to see the raw data as well.”

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

Rowe watched with interest as the younger officer ‘locked in’ by activating his glasses. His old habits of studying people hadn’t died, simply took their rightful place on the back burner.

Setting his mind to his own task, James pulled up the computer’s interfleet communications interface. A warm smile crosses his face as he finds the name he’s looking for, fond memories playing across his mind.

Lt. Cmdr Renn Zhelek… ‘wow’ James thought to himself ‘Renn’s been killing the game’.

He types out his message, not wanting to disrupt Renn’s schedule. =^=Renn, it’s Rowe. Been a while… Congratulations on the promotion! Proud for you! I always told you that you’d get there long before I did. When you have a chance, I’d appreciate a call. Nothing’s wrong… or immediately urgent. I finally found something worth cashing in that poker debt for. Looking forward to hearing from you!=^=

Rowe took a long drink, finishing his Asaam, before moving closer to the projected holographic display. =^=Computer overlay sensor data for all known vessels transiting through our selected coordinates over the last six months using the same parameters we’re currently working with.=^=

James walked amongst the display as it began to populate the available information.

-Rowe

Khiryn turned up the volume of the music. If he didn’t, he knew he would get distracted by what James was doing. The man was a more than capable scientist, and their best move right now was exactly what Lieutenant Rowe had recommended: divide up the tasks and work on them in parallel.

As he pulled up older archives, what became immediately obvious was that despite the position of the system, it was not as heavily trafficked as Ensign Donivas had initially assumed. There was a fair amount of data available for historical comparison and trend analysis, but it was not the mountain of information he had envisioned.

Not a problem… we knew the more recent sensor logs from other ships would be more relevant anyway.

The Akaali scientist began plotting the data using the same algorithm they had used for their previous analysis, making the eventual merging of the datasets a simple affair.

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

As each layer of transit sensor data populates in the holographic projection, the scene becomes a bit chaotic.

Rowe studies the projection silently. He cocks his head to one side… then he physically moves to change the perspective. Despite the chaos, he felt like he was seeing some correlation. “The distribution isn’t even.” He said to himself.

One more change of perspective and a thought clicked. Reaching out to point at one ship in particular =^= Computer give me side by side projections. In the first I want to isolate all data from ships operating along the same vector as this one. In the other display the information from the remaining vessels.=^=

As the projection before him changed to reflect his instructions, James said aloud “Well that’s something, but what they hell does it mean.”

His reverie was broken by a chirp from the console. =^=Incoming communication for Lt. Rowe from the U.S.S. Sagan.=^=

James hesitated a moment as his brain tried to work through what he was looking at. Then he tapped his comm badge =^=Acknowledged, I’ll take it in just a moment.=^=

Prying his eyes away from the holographic display at last, James moved to one of the corner consoles to take the call.

-Rowe

Bump

The historical sensor data Khiryn compiled painted a picture… but it was still too many missing pieces for the scientist to make out.

The earliest useful scans he found were from twenty-seven years ago when a Darwin-class frigate, the USS Volta, traversed that exact region of space. Its high-resolution sensor readings indicated that there was nothing unusual occurring in the area at the time.

The second potentially useful dataset was from eight years ago. The USS Minsc, a Chandley-class cruiser, passed close enough to sweep the area with its low-resolution sensors. It recorded some sort of distortion, and the basic parameters did correlate with what Rowe had discovered, but the data was too limited for Ensign Donivas to draw any firm conclusions.

There were a dozen other ships that traversed the area between the Volta and the Minsc, but they had either been too far away or had not scanned the region. Apparently, the system was considered dull enough that multiple crews had scheduled sensor maintenance while transiting through it.

The Akaali scientist switched off the music and looked around for James, finally spotting him at a corner console.

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

As Rowe accepted the Sagan’s call, the face of his Bolian friend filled the screen. Rowe blew out the half whistle of someone seeing something they were impressed by and said, “Commander Renn Zehlek. The new pips look good on you my friend! I always said you were going to be the first one into a command chair.” A genuine smile spread across James’s face as he continued, “It’s been a while… how are things on the Sagan and how’s Lyra?”

When Renn’s face appeared on the screen already, he was already wearing a broad grin. The blue ridges of his face had become a little more pronounced with age, and there were faint laugh lines around his eyes that hadn’t been there at graduation. “Well, if it isn’t James Rowe.” He chuckled.

“I was starting to think I’d have to get promoted again before I’d hear from you.” Renn glanced down at the new pip on his collar and gave it an exaggerated brush with his thumb. “I appreciate it. Though I distinctly remember you saying I’d make a decent first officer because I was too stubborn to listen to admirals… A reasonable theory.”

James grinned at his friend’s reaction.

The smile softened into something more genuine. “It’s good to see you, James… The Sagan’s been keeping us busy. We’re wrapping up a stellar cartography survey along the Halden Corridor before we head spinward. Lots of long-range mapping, not much excitement… which, for a science ship, generally means we’re having a successful month.”

At the mention of Lyra, Renn couldn’t suppress another smile. “She’s doing well. Busier than either of us, as usual. Last month she somehow managed to convince three governments and the Federation Science Council that they all agreed with one another. I’m still not entirely sure how she pulled that off.”

Rowe responded bluntly, “She was always the smartest and most charming of the three of us.”

Renn leaned back in his chair, studying his old friend for a moment. “She’d probably tell you I don’t ask enough questions… so let me start correcting that… How’re you, James?”

James tried to wave off any concerns his friend might have, though his tone left room for interpretation. “You know me… peaks and valleys…”

Renn pressed, “I heard you disappeared into some classified assignment after Theta…” He waved a hand dismissively. “Then the rumors stopped, which usually means Starfleet finally decided to leave somebody alone.”

Rowe shifted a little uncomfortably. “Yeah, I don’t know about all of that. There was an accident.... it was kind of touch and go for a while… medical wanted to put me out to pasture but our ‘friend’ in the big chair had different plans.”

Concern ran through Renn’s eyes as James mentioned the accident, but the mention of their ‘friend’ made clear that it would have to be a conversation for another time… when they weren’t on a public channel. Renn’s grin returned. “So… if nothing’s immediately on fire, and you finally decided to cash in twenty years of poker debt… I’m guessing you’ve found something interesting.”

James also smiled as Renn brought them back to the task at hand. “I think it might be the start of something interesting at least. You said you’re about to survey Halden… I’ve got what appears to be some anomalous sensor data… except it follows a pattern… and it also happens to look like it follows a vector. I was hoping you could help me out while you were in the region.”

• Rowe

• Bump

OOC: lol, I was waiting for you to get off your comm call.

IC:
Khiryn stood and started walking in James’ direction, hanging back a bit when he saw he was on a call. Then the Akaalli decided that the other scientist would have taken the call in another room if he wanted privacy.

Ensign Donivas approached at an angle that would let him clearly be seen in the background, and spoke up as he got closer. “Are you calling in the cavalry, Rowe? I didn’t find much in the historical logs… so I’m definitely not complaining. A huge influx of new… and current… data would be much appreciated.”

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

OOC: No worries, just didn’t want to monopolize the dialogue.

IC: A grin played across Rowe’s face as Donivas approached. “I’m absolutely calling in the cavalry.” He said.

“Ensign Khiryn Donivas, meet Lt. Cmdr Renn Zhelek, quite literally the second smartest person I know. We’ve known each other long enough that getting into the details may prove detrimental to our career paths.” James said with the humor in his voice palpable.

Returning his attention to Donivas, “You said you didn’t find ‘much’… but that means you did find something. Why don’t you tell us what you’ve got. I was just filling Renn in on what little we know thus far.”

• Rowe

“Nice to meet you, Renn. I may need to ply you with alcohol to get some of those questionable stories about Rowe if we ever pull into the same space station in the future.”

“Likewise Khiryn, though it will take substantially less plying than James would like to believe.” Renn said mischievously, drawing an unamused scowl from Rowe.

Ensign Donivas tapped the console and pulled up the data for Lt. Rowe and Lt. Cmdr. Zhelek. “Well… the USS Volta conducted high-resolution scans of the area in question twenty-seven years ago, and there was nothing unusual in the system. Beyond that, the USS Minsc passed very close to the area eight years ago, and its low-resolution sweeps picked up something.” He shook his head. “I’m tentatively calling twenty-seven years ago the start of our timeline. Without diving in deeper or getting more corroborating data, my initial guess is that what the Minsc detected eight years ago was a lesser version of what James identified in the Athena’s sensor scans. Like it’s been progressing for some time.”

Khiryn flashed a grin at Rowe. “There’s not much else usable, which is why it’s so important for you to finish bribing your friend into sending off those probes for us.”

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

It was Rowe’s turn to smirk now, “Looks like calling in old debts is bribery now.” The two old friends chuckled before Rowe continued with his ask, “From what I’ve been able to glean there appears to be some correlation to vector associated with whatever it is we’re looking at. We’re hoping you could spare a couple of probes for survey passes along different approach vectors using identical sensor parameters. Something appears to have changed in this region sometime in the last 27 years and the sensor characteristics may be dependent on observational vector. Greedily I’d love if the Sagan could make a pass with its sensors, but that’s unreasonable given how little we’ve got to go on.”

Renn leaned slightly toward his display as the data populated, the teasing expression gradually giving way to the focused look of a scientist presented with an interesting problem.

“Twenty-seven years ago nothing, eight years ago a maybe, and now you’ve got enough of a signal to start identifying patterns…” His eyes moved across the information Donivas had provided. “I agree with your caution, Khiryn. Three points don’t make a trend, particularly when one of them came from a low-resolution sweep, but it’s certainly enough to justify another look.”

Renn considered James’s request for a moment. “The probes I can do. We’re carrying more than enough for the Halden survey, and I can justify a few calibration runs before we begin the real work.” A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. “So we’ll call your poker debt settled before Starfleet starts asking why I’m diverting Federation resources to cover a twenty-year-old gambling loss.”

He turned his attention back to the proposed vectors. “Send me the coordinates, the approach vectors you’ve isolated, and the exact sensor parameters you want replicated. I’ll have my people program identical sweeps and keep everything else as controlled as we reasonably can.”

Renn paused, studying the data again.

“As for the Sagan…” He shook his head slightly. “You’re right. I can’t justify diverting the ship based on what you’ve got right now.” His expression suggested the scientist in him wasn’t entirely happy about that answer. “But if those probes confirm that the signature changes based on observational vector… or give us evidence that whatever the Minsc saw has actually progressed…”

His eyebrows rose.

“Then you won’t have to bribe me.”

James smiled and looked at Khiryn relieved that the call had yielded some support. “Will do, old friend!” He said excitedly. “I appreciate this, Renn. Seriously! We’ve taken enough of your time, but we need to reconnect in person sooner rather than later. I’ll have that information to you before the end of the current cycle. Please tell Lyra I said hi.”

• Rowe

“That’s a good friend you have there, Rowe,” Khiryn said honestly. “Though you may have cashed in on that debt too early. I’m half convinced he would have done it anyway.” Ensign Donivas let a grin show as he took a seat. “He seemed nearly as interested in the initial data sets as we were.”

It seemed like they were done with their side project for the time being… at least until more data came in. Khiryn had some other studies he needed to wrap up as part of his official duties, but he wasn’t in any rush to get to them.

“So he’s been a friend of yours for twenty years? From before you joined the Science Division?” He shook his head, contemplating that feat. There were people in Starfleet he’d known for sixteen years, dating back to the Academy. He’d call them colleagues, sure, but not real friends. “What’s Renn’s specialty?”

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

Rowe smiled as Donivas asked his questions and decided on taking the two most straight forward points first. “Renn is an astrophysicist, and you’re absolutely right that he would’ve helped us anyway, but by cashing in I don’t have to feel indebted myself.” James gave a playful shrug.

“We go all the way back to the academy…” Rowe started as his mind played back the scene in his head, “Second semester of my first year, I took an elective that I had zero academic interest in because I wanted an excuse to be close to a certain girl.” He paused as he looked for Khiryn’s reaction, knowing that skirt chasing likely wasn’t the first impression the younger scientist had of him.

“Renn and I were cordial, but it was his sister Lyra that I wanted to get ‘friendly’ with.” A warm smile crossed Rowe’s face as he told the story. “One weekend, Renn and I were the last two standing in a poker game and I beat him with a terrible pocket pair that just happened to draw out at the river. He couldn’t cover his debt, and I offered to forgive it in exchange for an introduction to the fairer Renn sibling. You should’ve seen the look of panic on his face until I told him I was obviously joking and would simply accept a favor to be named later.”

• Rowe