Posted by Lieutenant Thomas McGregor (COS) in Bridge Main SIM First contact
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The sensors showed quite a bit of activity with the new arrivals. The away team’s commbadge signals showed that they were meeting the newly arrived people.

Dagen returned to the bridge and moved back to his station. Clapping NE Terry Spinner on the back, he reclaimed his seat and looked at the main viewer. The shuttle had arrived, apparently, but that didn’t mean that information was over. “Sir,” he said to the XO, “Lt Chan is deploying a very small probe, more like a drone.” He gave the size of it based on his hand gestures. “It is essentially cloaked to their scanners and we can get a closer look at things, or even, a closer peek at their world.”
- Thor, Eng

OOC: Adding my last post …

GM

“Sounds like two Government ministers,” Thomas said, mostly to himself as he took notes on the conversation. “And asking if the Federation is accepting applications.”

COS

“She’s doing what?” Marius turned facing Dagen. “Who the hell gave her permission to do that?”

Marius XO

“Sir, you wanted to find out more information and see if we could get a look about without being overt. I said she could launch it. It’s the size of your dinner plate and to their tech invisible. It needs to be guided like a drone and so she is coming up here to guide it where we might want it to go. I thought it would be something to have a closer look at their homeworld. Ultimately it is your call, sir. I just thought that it was a subtle way to explore the system.”
- Dagen, CE

“From here, I wanted to find out from here… passively, quietly.” He looked around for a moment. “Information is valuable, but in first contacts I don’t want to launch anything, or do anything that could be misconstrued as aggressive. They probably can’t detected it, but if they could, would they think its an mine, or some other offensive weapon.” He shook his head.

“We can’t do it. Leave the probe in the hanger.”

Marius

Chan would be up there momentarily and they could work out together what they could do next for having a peek around the system. Sure they could run optical sensors .. aka a telescope but that is only going to see how good the paint job was on their ship. Security would be looking at their communications. She sighed. “Aye, sir. Will see what we can suss out then.”
- Dagen, CE

Calvin heard the disappointed tone in the engineers’ voice. He felt like the mean parent. ‘rules are rules’ he thought to himself. “I’m sure you’ll figure something passive, out.”

A few moments later Chan arrived on the bridge. she nodded to the XO and then walked over to Dagen “So Our best chance is disallowed?” she asked quietly knowing the answer already. her annoyance and frustration poorly masked in her voice.

Dagen nodded, his face set in a ‘we will figure this out but thought we had it figured out’ mask.

“I guess you’ve already figure out that the only other option is an optical scan. It’s the only thing that we can do. However it won’t help much. Not to mention they might pick up the scans. The scans might seem like an aggressive action.” Chan said as she started tap a few button on the console trying to figure out what they could do. “If we could mask our scanning frequency we might be able to have a bit of a look. However the further out we look the harder it will be to cover it up.” she said giving her idea. However she knew those types of scans would be pointless and not give them much information. However it was the only option open to them.

Lieut Chan (Sub-DH Robotics)

marius

Ignoring the engineering discussion, Thomas continued to monitor the Away Team’s discussion.

It was interesting, and slightly worrying, to learn that there was a division among the Pallas leadership about their space program, though he would also concede that they have a valid concern.

COS

Dagen tapped at the display. It was more of an absent tapping to look through the data that they could see. His finger stopped at one place and he looked at Chan. “What about broadcast satellites. We don’t have to tap into them as much as just have a look at what they are beaming down to the planet. The same thing with their communications. Have a look and see what satellites they have going on and what we might need to do to have a look see.”
- Dagen, CE

“Well there can’t be any harm in watching what they are broadcasting, especially if they can’t figure out what we are doing.” Now that was an idea he liked. “Get your binge on.”

Marius

Chan nodded “Finally something we can do” she said more to herself then anyone else. Chan began looking to see what satellites they had in orbit. She wanted to tune right in and have a look see. After all if you want to know about another race or another person. Listening to communication they thought where secure was the best way.

Lleut Chan (Sub-DH Robotics)

The satellites were using technology similar to 21st century Earth for their thrusters but were still using electromagnetic wave energies for transmission. The disadvantage was that they could only travel at the speed of light. It would take seconds for the communications to reach them. However, the UFP technologies were more sensitive to these waves and so they were also able to get clearer resolutions from the Pallas satellites that the Pallasians themselves.

GM

“Should we make popcorn?” Thomas asked, while also hoping there would be no sappy telenovela-style dramas included in their pirated feed. “Oh, and if you can find an all-news broadcast, I’ll volunteer to take that one.”

OOC: Real Life bias showing!

COS

The strange thing is that there was no mention of contact with the Federation on any of the official news media channels. However, the messages between the planetary government and the Merry were nothing but the contact with an alien ship.

The main broadcasts were mostly entertainment channels, with music and soap opera type dramas occupying almost 85% of the broadcasts.

From the news broadcasts, the top story was that the unemployment rate was at about 15%, the highest in years. The planetary government was studying the situation and would take steps to improve on the situation.

GM