Posted by Gamemaster Mal Fet (GMT) in Main Sim: A Systematic Understanding (Science)

Posted by Civilian Stovik (Science) in Main Sim: A Systematic Understanding (Science)
snip

OOC: Is there anything specific you’re looking for at this time? Or just waiting for officers working on the previous searches to generate results?

Gamemaster Mal Fet

OOC: He was waiting for a response from the CSO:)

Kross reviewed the telemetry summary as it appeared on her display, lingering on the comparison between the sensor interference and the disappearance of the duplicate contacts. The distinction was important. If the ghosts were merely artifacts produced by the interference, their disappearance should have followed the same pattern. It hadn’t.

“Understood, Stovik. Don’t wait on the other departments. I want Science to work that discrepancy. Go back through the telemetry and isolate the gravimetric, electromagnetic, and subspace signatures from the moment we entered the system through the Klingon departure. Compare the interference against the appearance and subsequent decay of the duplicate contacts. I’m less interested in identifying individual ships right now than I am in determining whether the ghosts are being generated by the same phenomenon causing the sensor saturation.”

She paused briefly before continuing. “If there’s a common signature, isolate it. If there isn’t, I want that established just as clearly. Look for anything that persists after the interference drops away, particularly residual subspace distortion or gravimetric echoes. Whatever created those contacts may have left something behind even after the ships were gone. Keep me informed as soon as Science has something more substantial than a preliminary correlation.”
Selene Kross, Ph.D., M.D.
Chief Science Officer
Lieutenant, Sciences Division // USS Sentinel
Advanced Cryogenic & Environmental Systems

Stovik inclined his head slightly as the Chief Science Officer’s instructions came through.

=^= Understood, Lieutenant. Science will determine whether the sensor saturation and duplicate contacts share a common origin or represent separate, interacting phenomena. I will report when we have sufficient evidence to distinguish between those possibilities. Stovik out. =^=

He turned toward the assembled Science staff. “Retrieve the complete sensor telemetry beginning immediately before our arrival and ending after the final Klingon vessel departed. Separate the gravimetric, electromagnetic, and subspace bands. Compare the onset and reduction of the interference directly against the appearance and decay of the duplicate contacts.”

As the officers began their work, Stovik configured his own station as the central analysis point. Each scientist’s recorded results were routed to his console as they were completed, allowing him to consolidate the separate gravimetric, electromagnetic, and subspace analyses into a single synchronized timeline.

He began comparing the accumulated data, searching specifically for matching frequencies, harmonics, modulation patterns, energy fluctuations, or temporal correlations shared by the interference and the sensor ghosts. At the same time, he flagged any residual subspace distortions, gravimetric echoes, or electromagnetic anomalies recorded after the interference had disappeared.

The objective was precise: determine whether the sensor saturation and duplicate contacts originated from the same phenomenon and, if they did not, identify any residual signature unique to whatever had generated the ghosts.

Stovik
Science Specialist

The room grew quiet for a time as all the scientists turned their attention to reviewing the logs. As time went on, a few side conversations started as members of the team compared notes or asked for a second opinion. One partial exchange was loud enough for the Vulcan civilian to make out.

”…track quality is pretty bad…”

”…figured it was a result of the noise…”

Stovik himself had noted that the type and quality of the track data was substandard. It was more akin to what the sensors would provide near their maximum range.

The sensor interference was present as soon as the Sentinel jumped into the system, so the focus was mostly on logging the appearances and disappearances of the contact ghosts.

A lot of effort went into the final seconds of the timeline, and Stovik’s display had that portion of the timeline broken down by the millisecond. It quickly became clear that the Birds-of-Prey were not the source of the sensor anomalies. The process had actually started slightly before the Klingon vessels began jumping to warp. Ghosts started winking out while others warped out of the system.

All told, the Science Department flagged 27 vessels that appeared to go to warp, and 35 that appeared to vanish.

Outside of proving the two weren’t directly linked, there was a particular detail that stood out. While some sensor contacts did vanish individually, there were several instances where groups of two to four ghosts vanished simultaneously.

A glance to the side showed Stovik the map the Department had built, logging all the appearances and disappearances of sensor contacts from their arrival to the moment they were all gone. It seemed fairly scattered… but there were hints of what could be a pattern there as well.

Gamemaster Mal Fet

An additional team, the one focusing on friendly contacts, uploaded their data to Stovik’s display. It showed that all the sensor ghosts of the Declaration, Lagertha, Immelmann, and Pontiac disappeared in stages as well.

And the Sentinel’s own sensor ghosts, for that matter.

That caught the Vulcan’s attention.

Two sensor ghosts of the_ Independence_-class frigate appeared as soon as they warped into the system. Just like the computer filtered out own-ship returns unless an operator was conducting an internal scan, it automatically filtered out these sensor ghosts. The sensor operators had already been dealing with high levels of noise interference, along with dozens of other contacts to make sense of as the battle began, and did not have time to look into the automatic filters.

As Captain Asam closed the distance with the other Federation vessels, three other Sentinel ghosts appeared, but were filtered out by the computer as well.

Comparing this data with the contacts for the Klingon Birds-of-Prey showed that the ghosts of the Federation ships disappeared at the same intervals as 35 of the sensor ghosts that had simply vanished.

Gamemaster Mal Fet