Posted by Ensign Khiryn Donivas (Scientist) in Mission Specific Science - Planetary Science Lab 2 (Deck 14)

Posted by Ensign Khiryn Donivas (Scientist) in Mission Specific Science - Planetary Science Lab 2 (Deck 14)

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade James Rowe (Scientist) in Mission Specific Science - Planetary Science Lab 2 (Deck 14)
Posted by… suppressed (8) by the Post Ghost! 👻
With his own work complete for the moment, Ensign Donivas decided to use his personal time to look into Wer Beta III.

Another team was already looking into the problem, and he knew he could simply wait for them to post their results, but he was a little impatient. The Akaali scientist could try to sell it as an independent parallel analysis intended to validate the original team’s results… but in reality, it was just Khiryn’s curiosity.

Wer Beta III was a bit of a scientific anomaly. Its position on the outer edge of its star’s habitable zone meant it should be relatively cold, but instead it maintained a temperate climate. Many Federation scientists believed this was the result of the planet’s geothermal activity and unusually dense atmosphere. There appeared to be a surprising number of climatologists already studying Wer Beta III, and it was easy to see why. If they could determine how the planet regulated the temperature of its biosphere, it could represent a huge leap forward for terraforming. It might even open up new worlds that had previously been deemed unsuitable for the effort.

Khiryn started at the beginning. The initial information suggested that whatever was happening on Wer Beta III was a recent change, but a scientist never took anything for granted. He ran a historical analysis of the planet’s climate data to see if that assumption held up.

Once that was complete, he looked for when the shift had actually begun. It might have seemed sudden to the population, but there could still have been a change in one of the underlying variables of the planet’s biosphere that only became apparent once the rains and storms intensified. Two of the most likely candidates were also the planet’s most unique characteristics… its strong geothermal activity and dense atmosphere.

But neither variable existed in isolation.

Khiryn wanted to know whether either had changed and, if so, whether something else had accidentally or deliberately altered them, or whether the planet’s normally stable systems had simply been pushed beyond their usual equilibrium.

Then he would compare it with other planets that had experienced significant climate changes, whether natural or artificial. Given the number of worlds that had experienced one form of ecological disaster or another, that would likely be an ongoing process.

OOC: This scene is set slightly in the future, after the high-level briefings are complete and information has filtered down to the junior officers.

I am incorporating information the GM revealed in other posts because none of it seemed to be secret. If I’m wrong, I’m more than happy to backtrack and edit.

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

OOC: Every time I hear Wer Beta, I think of a planet full of werewolves. I know, weird, but I had to share. Wondering if anyone else has the thought?

D…

OOC: Awooooooo!
IC:
A slew of historical information about weather patterns on Wer Beta III started to scroll across the screen, showing nearly 4,000 years worth of data. From temperature, to atmospheric pressure, to humidity, it all started scrolling across the screen. There was a gradual uptick in what could be precursor to storms starting about 1,000 years ago. With storms starting to pop up about 100 years ago.

A prompt came asking him to narrow the parameters on the search for comparable worlds, as the search would otherwise take approximately 34.72 hours.

• Big Gorilla

“Well that is interesting.” Ensign Donivas said to himself as he filtered the data in a few different ways as he tried to identify what might be causing it. Like many planets, Wer Beta III was undergoing some sort of slow climate change.

It looks like these changes have been happening for some time, so maybe it’s not quite the exemplar of a stable biosphere that some scientists might like to think it is. Such long term change wasn’t unusual though… and it certainly wasn’t an explanation for the rapid change it seemed to be experiencing now.

Khiryn smirked when he saw the search duration on his display. Yeah, I probably got a little greedy there. He narrowed his search parameters down to planets that experienced flooding or a rise in sea level as a result of dramatically increased rainfall. He entered increased temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure as potential causal or correlating factors.

The Akaali scientist also had the computer highlight any of those planets that experienced increased storm activity during their climate crisis.

James Rowe entered the lab, tea in hand, expecting to find it empty. Instead he found Donivas hard at work. “G’morning, Khiryn.” He said as he approached. Seeing a wall of data scrolling in front of the younger scientist, James grinned… “Mr. Donivas, have you been holding out on me?”

• Rowe

Khiryn glanced back at James’s comment and offered a grin of his own. “Of course not. I’d wager I’m doing the exact thing you’re going to do… I just happened to get here earlier than you did.”

He tapped a few buttons on his station and sent the information up to the large display. “I didn’t want to wait to see what the primary team came up with on Wer Beta III, so I… we…” Ensign Donivas corrected himself with a smirk. “…are conducting a parallel analysis. This is what I’ve gleaned from the historical data, and the computer is processing my revised search for similar planets as we speak.”

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

Rowe took a long pull from his tea as he tried to wake his brain’s data processing abilities.

“So we’re the ‘B team’… strangely I don’t hate that. None of the pressure of expectation… all the glory and bragging rights of telling the A-team we found what they missed.” A mischievous grin played across the older science officer’s face.

As he felt the effects of his caffeine take hold, James leaned closer to the display. “Alright, bring me up to speed… what are we looking at? And what’s your thought process behind these parameters?”

• Rowe

The computer pinged as the computer popped up a notice on the screen.

1,213 Matches Found

• Big Gorilla

“Not enough thought, apparently,” Khiryn replied easily. “Still over a thousand matches to my parameters.” He knew climatology wasn’t one of his strongest fields, but he wasn’t deterred. This just means I’ll need to dig a little deeper.

“If you’re not familiar with Wer Beta III, it is something of an anomaly because of its temperate climate despite being at the outer edge of the ‘Goldilocks zone.’ This is attributed to its dense atmosphere and higher levels of geothermal activity. There is a surprising amount of data on the nature of its biosphere, actually. But that’s a separate discussion.”

“Going back to the problem at hand… and the apparently sudden shift, I think many people keyed in on the idea that something happened recently. Climate change is generally a slow process, however, and what appears sudden to the populace could have been building for decades or centuries.”

Ensign Donivas tapped on the console and pulled up a relevant section on the large display. “About a thousand years ago, a slight upward trend started in several measurements… but the storms themselves didn’t start until about a hundred years ago. That doesn’t tell us anything by itself, but I’m searching for planets that faced similar issues… and learning that far too many planets experienced climate crises at one point or another.”

The Akaali pulled up the search field again. “I’ve already narrowed it down to planets that experienced flooding or a rise in sea level as a result of dramatically increased rainfall. I had it flag results that included storms as a priority… but I could use that as a discriminating factor to limit the results. I had increased temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure as potential causal or correlating factors.”

“Any suggestions on how to narrow the search further?”

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

James stared at the number for a moment before taking another long pull of his tea. “Ok… what if we treat the storms as a symptom… and try to start farther back with a simple question of what causes the rain? Right now we have over twelve-hundred planets where the end result looks like Wer Beta III… we need to figure out how they started down that path.”

He leaned toward the display. “More moisture has to be getting into that atmosphere somehow. Increased evaporation, atmospheric changes, temperature shifts… something.”

Rowe paused, studying the thousand-year mark. “I’d also be curious what the people living on Wer Beta III were doing when this trend started. When did they industrialize? Start large-scale power generation, mining, geothermal exploitation… anything capable of changing a system that had apparently been stable before?”

He gestured toward the search results. “Maybe limit this to worlds where the atmospheric or hydrological change came before the storms, and see if that gives us something more manageable to work with…”

• Rowe

Khiryn nodded. “That’s good… you’ve hit on something I seem to have missed.” He tapped on the console again and pulled up a historical timeline of Wer Beta III. “I noted the slight climate change that started a thousand years ago, but I didn’t look for an underlying reason. By identifying some potential root causes, we may be able to refine our search parameters as we look for similar planets.”

Ensign Donivas left his original search for comparative worlds for the moment and started searching for any significant changes within a century of the first shift he had identified on the planet. He searched for industrial causes, changes to the ecological foundation such as deforestation, and even population changes among the planet’s significant life forms.

“It’s sad that we immediately look for a sentient cause to an ecological decline… but history has told us that is very often the case.”

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

OOC: We may partially be waiting on a response from the GM.

OOC: I agree.

…and started searching for any significant changes within a century of the first shift he had identified on the planet. He searched for industrial causes, changes to the ecological foundation such as deforestation, and even population changes among the planet’s significant life forms.

IC:
The Akaali glanced over at James as the data started coming in. “What do you think, Rowe? Am I still missing something?”

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

James looked over the parameters again before shaking his head and saying, “Not at this point. It’s good to cast a wide net like this at first… the whole idea of aim small miss small only works if you know the target.”

He took another drink of his tea as he considered Khiryn’s comment, “You’re right about history giving us plenty of examples… we just have to make sure we don’t fall in love with that explanation because of its familiarity.” Nodding towards the incoming data, “If there was a major change around the thousand-year mark… sentient or otherwise, hopefully this catches it.”

• Rowe