Posted by Captain John Tiberius Glen (Captain) in Main Sim - Bridge
[Snip]

Rana took a deep breath then to see if anyone would throw something at him. ” We then,” he began again speaking,” We shoot the whole lot of rubbish out of torpedo tubes. However much we could gather. We fire it into the center of the beast out there sir. Right into the maw. But we then fire out a couple of probes to follow at a large distance watching our innocent little pile of garbage as it moves forward to meet the beast. The question to be answered is where will it all go or does something truly odd happen to it?”

“That doesn’t sound like a bad idea,” Glen answered. “In warfare it’s an idea that’s as old as the hills themselves. Dummy vehicles, decoys, inflatables, ghost armies, and occasionally entire cities built out of wood, sheet metal and canvas, were all employed to simulate the real thing and deceive the enemy. The deep fake was often completed with false radio signals and messages, recorded noises and lights, and sometimes a dressed manikin was added too. Such deception techniques were very effective in fooling the enemy. “

Stella overhearing the conversation between the captain and the new first office had to pull off one her earphones to make sure she was hearing correctly. She finally put her earphone back on and decided that that their new number one’s mama had dropped him on a flat rock when he was a baby.

M’Mera stood clueless until the Captain and XO had gotten to the end of the explanation. “A decoy?” She asked, testing her understanding. Her tail whipped to show her confusion.

“I believe a decoy was the Commander’s idea, yes I do!,” said the Captain. “We think there is a big bad wolf out there waiting for us, but we don’t know where it is or quite what it is. If we skip through these woods with our basket of goodies for grandma, then it’s surely going to eat us up for tea. So, instead we send out a decoy ahead of us. Maybe it’s not made of rubbish. I don’t know if the organic signature is important or not, but it has to be good enough to fool whatever detection systems they have. Anyway, if anything is out there, they shoot at the decoy and reveal themselves to us. Isn’t that your plan Commander?”

Rana chuckled at the captain’s comparison to the big bad wolf. ” No sir actually I was thinking of surfing. We know there are gravity waves. The thing is we don’t know where they are originating or where the breakers are that are causing the biggest of the waves. I think that if we can learn the structure of the gravity waves then it might greatly enhance our ability to navigate. We’d know where the rocks are under the waves as it were. As for the content of our decoy just any inert objects would do but if we had a bit of radioactive matter, we could pitch in with it, it would help in tracking.”

“Oh! Right! Sorry!” said Glen, who had misunderstood Rana, but then as he listened a little more, he found that this idea still wasn’t that far removed from his own. Rana was thinking about natural physical phenomena, Captain Glen about more designed threats. All were still threats, and all would have some point of origin.

“Either way still works!” added Glen.

Rana rather enjoyed that he and the captain were seeing things along the dame line as he said. ” It certainly will captain, for it’s my belief, although it may be wrong, that if there is anything in there it is using the force of the waves to move about in there.” Rana shrugged and then said. Of course, all this is just speculation.”

<<<Stella hearing the first officer’s plan thought the entire thing was nuts, but she was growing restless. She turned toward the captain and asked him. ” Captain sir? This gathering of things to put in the tubes? Could I volunteer to help?”

“Er.... why?” Now, it was the Captain’s turn to be flummoxed. “Do you have hidden skills in rummaging through garbage?”

The USS Merrimack holds her position on the edge of the Expanse corridor, impulse engines maintaining a steady hum as the surrounding space bends and flexes in subtle, uneasy rhythms. Long-range sensors continue to register broad gravity-wave activity—slow, rolling distortions moving through the region like ocean swell beneath a fog-covered sea.

On the bridge, the comparison had started as an offhand remark. Wolves. Storms. Bad terrain hidden beneath the surface.

Lieutenant Rana’s follow-up reframed it entirely.

Not predators.

Waves.

Gravity waves—vast, layered, and directional. Not chaotic in isolation, but dangerous where they steepen, collide, or break against unseen subspace density fields. The problem, as Science has confirmed, is not their existence…but their structure.

At present, the Merrimack can feel the push of the swell—but not yet read the water.

The suggestion has been brought up to seed the waves with ‘garbage’ so they can be seen. Each department will have tasks to complete for this to work.

Operational Concept

Science will lead a gravity-wave structure analysis, deploying a limited number of inert drifter objects ahead of the ship. These units will be passive, non-propulsive, and minimally powered—intended to “ride” the local spacetime conditions rather than resist them.

A small quantity of shielded radioactive tracer material will be embedded in each unit—not as a hazard, but as a high-contrast marker to improve tracking fidelity through the Expanse’s interference.

The goal is simple in concept, complex in execution:
• Observe how the drifters move,
• Identify coherent flow versus shear,
• And determine where wave energy steepens into potential “breaker” zones.

The Merrimack will hold position while departments prepare.

No probes will be launched until all departments report readiness.

⸻

Department Prompts

Science

You are tasked with:
• Configuring sensor arrays for gravimetric interferometry and wave-phase tracking
• Designing the deployment pattern for the drifter units (number, spacing, orientation)
• Determining what secondary phenomena (subspace stress, tidal gradients, chroniton noise, etc.) should be monitored during the test

What do you need from the ship to make the data meaningful?

Operations

You are responsible for:
• Coordinating deployment logistics for the inert drifters
• Managing tracking channels and data routing to Science and Helm
• Ensuring the tracer material remains within acceptable safety tolerances

What constraints or timing considerations do you identify?

Engineering

This operation will require:
• Temporary sensor power reallocation
• Possible deflector and inertial telemetry tuning
• Monitoring for unexpected feedback from the Expanse into ship systems

What precautions or limits do you recommend before Science proceeds?

Helm / Navigation

You will:
• Hold the ship steady during deployment
• Begin theoretical modeling of wave-aligned navigation corridors based on incoming data
• Assess how gravity-wave flow might affect impulse response or maneuvering

What concerns do you have about maintaining position—or later “riding” the waves?

Security / Tactical

Though the drifters are inert, they are objects in contested, poorly understood space.

You are asked to:
• Evaluate risks of detection, interference, or misuse
• Monitor for anomalous movement not consistent with natural wave action
• Recommend defensive postures during the operation

Do you advise additional safeguards?

⸻

The bridge settles into focused anticipation.
Space ahead continues its slow, unreadable motion—
not violent, not calm…just waiting.

As the bridge waits as plans are made to deploy the XO’s plans the bridge’s turbo lift doors open disgorging the M’Mera. The CE moves quickly to the Engineering station as she says to the Captain.

“Ssirr, I feel it iss betterr that I am on the brridge to coorrdinate with Engineerring. Rresponsse timess will be fassterr.” She taps a few buttons on her console to bring up an engineering configuration on her screen.

“If you wish,” Glen replied. “I won’t micromanage your department, but I find it helps to have someone senior from every department on the Bridge. If not yourself, then I’d like someone senior here, and you cannot be on duty every hour of the day. Maybe all departments should check their rotas. I have a bad feeling about this place and things have a habit of occurring at the most unexpected times.”

Elyss had listened to the ideas of the command team while her eyes kept scanning the information scrolling across her console. “Lt M’Mera, we could use more probes with minimal propulsion to travel to a programmed area, and then have them disgorge their contents so the waves are better seen by our sensors, couldn’t we?” She looked over at her friend.

M’Mera quickly set up a simulation using probes to get the debris out into the densest area of the waves ahead of the Merrimack. “ Captain, I can coorrdinate with Engineerring and Sscience perrssonel to prreparre thesse probess. The debrriss will need the prropulssion ssysstem of the prrobess to get them deep enough into the field. If we usse prrobess to get the materrial farrtherr out into the field we will get a morre detailed map of the rroute we can take thrrough.”

Captain Glen felt it was somehow wrong to pollute this pristine space with litter, but he dismissed the thought. His duty came first, and keeping this crew safe was his second most important duty, right after the prime directive. “If we have enough probes then that sounds like the best plan, so yes. In any case, we took on extra materials so more probes could be replicated as we expected to go though them quickly… also make sure that this ‘littering’ includes radioactive material and reflective material for easier tracing, and some organic/biological material, just in case that is how ‘whatever is waiting out there’ identifies foreign materials.”

Rana stood silently rubbing the side of his chin as he listened to the two officers chatting back and forth between them. It made him feel good that they were picking apart everything. Looking everything over and trying to improve thing. For any endeavor which was undertaken with just one voice was most generally doomed to failure. He paused then and looked up at the screen at the dark forbidding view. He took a long deep breath as he stared at little, they could imagine out there. All they knew now was radioactive bursts and dense gravitational waves. Nearly liquid in their state. It was one of those things which shouldn’t be, but it did anyway.

At the mention of throwing out organic material into something like thing out there Stella got the shivers up and down her back and felt sorry for whatever thing that might be. The amount of radiation out there would start frying anything that got close to it like her Uncle Walter’s method of barbequing. She was sure that the captain knew what he was doing though. She turned back to her console to listen to things which not her ‘space music’ but to something more distorted and ominous instead.

Cross stepped quietly on the bridge , with only the sound of the turbolift opening,she looked around and decided to approach Stella ‘’Lt would you care to fill me in about what is going on?’’ the not knowing was hard to bear and endure .

M’Mera double checked the number of probes used, 12. The Merrimack had 25 prepared with 25 torpedo casings to use as well. “We ussed 12, did we not, Lieutenant Zavey? That would leave 16 prrobess and 25 torrpedo cassingss we could usse.”

Elyss looked at the count on her panel. “Actually, we used 14. The initial 12 and then two more to identify the magnetars.” They had taken on extra equipment on the station also. “It looks like we have 11 probes from our original stock, plus an extra 20 that we brought on board from the station, making our total 31.”

ElyLieutenantss Zavey
Chief Science Officer USS Merrimack

“Ah, I misssed thosse in the inventorry. Thank you, Lieutenant. Sso, we actually have 31 prrobes and 25 torrpedo cassingss then. Morre then enough to do thiss tassk.”

At the talk of torpedo casings Ranna frowned, taking a moment to try to understand. ” Excuse me Lieutenant but what would we be using the torpedo casings for? Are you proposing that we disarm them and cut them up to send out with our litter as the captain calls it?”

Rana Singh Number One

Glen hoped that the number of probes wasn’t going to become a major problem. This was always going to be primarily a exploration mission, and they had indeed brought on board additional probes in respect of that. He had also brought on board material to make the deck alterations that DS-K5 had had insufficient time to make, and some of that material could be diverted to make additional torpedo casings if necessary. Ultimately, the number of probes and casings were both finite, and maybe they should go a little easy on this ‘littering space’ idea if they were to have any left. They were good for one try anyhow.

M’Mera looked over at the XO, “The torrpedo cassingss arre jusst that, ssirr. Jusst the cassingss without the innarrdss. We can usse them ass we ssee fit.”

Rana rubbed his chin worriedly. The captain would of course be the one to make the last decision, but Rana wanted to make sure there were no details he was missing in their plans. He then said to M’Mera. ” My original plan was quite simple and with an eye toward frugality.” Rana looked at M’Mera and explained. ” All we need do was to collect our litter, pack it into a torpedo tube and then fill the torpedo tube with compressed air. We then use the ship to aim. Having aimed we would simply open the outside door of the of the torpedo tube and let the pressure of air meet the empty cosmos and let nature take its course. Our garbage would stay in a close proximity with one another of its own gravity. ” He thought for a moment before he started speaking again. ” I understand that the approach to the gravity waves might be slow but once out litter is there it should start to go very fast. Standoff probes would be a wonderful idea. to place them behind our trash as close as you dare to. ”

Rana then shrugged and said simply. ” You may be right, however. The whole thing does seem on the face of it too simple, eh? Is there anything the engineers could do to make it work any better and more efficiently?”

Cross simple listened to the ongoing conversation ,at first she couldn’t make heads or tails about what they plan to do but once the CMO got a better understanding to her it sounded absurd .
Still Cross kept silent she watched the Cmdr as he spoke and it seemed he did have some reservations about the whole idea but ultimately it all came down to the Captain’s final decision.

Cross CMO.

M’Mera pondered, “Ssimple iss neverr bad. Let’ss trry it yourr way and ssee how it worrkss. If therre iss not enough coverrage then we can trry mine.” She finished with a languid shrug.

Lt. M’Mera CE

<<< Rana paused for a moment going over his own plan in his head and looking for things in it once again that he could find wrong. For he was not one to assume that he was right all the time and this plan had not had a huge amount of thought. It was more on the level of something that would come to you in the shower. Finally unable to find anything wrong with it he nodded toward M’Mera and spoke, saying simply, ” Thank you Lieutenant. ” He smiled as he realized he was enjoying working with her. ” I have a feeling that we will work together well in the future. ” He turned then to the captain, saying with a large grin, ” Sir it would seem we have a working plan on how to proceed. if you agree.?”

Rana Singh Number One

“Of course!” Glen seemed to snap out of a daze. His eyes had wandered over to the Viewscreen, where the instability of the Expanse space cause flashes and movement of colour saturation and brightness rather than the usual starfield that he was more used to. It was almost hypnopic and in turn, his mind had wandered there too, wondering what was really out there.

Focused once again on the discussion, Glen said, “Right! Yes, I think we have an agreed plan. First of all, we will simply eject these objects from the tubes as we go, and see if that gives enough coverage to show up the gravity waves. If that doesn’t work, we’ll try with a limited number of empty torpedo casings to push them further afield. At the moment, let’s keep the probes back for the scientific surveys that Lieutenant Zavey needs to complete. Weapons Officer, Lieutenant Kahuna can organise torpedo casings for you if required. Lieutenant Gagon has already expressed her interest in spring cleaning the ship to help to gather materials. And Lieutenant ch’Ravik’s men can be instructed to do that too. And another advantage of this idea is that we will leave ourselves a trail behind if we need to leave in a hurry. This is something the Merrimack has tired before in the past with probes. Think of it like a fantasy dungeon game where chalk marks are left on the walls as the party of adventurers climb deeper into the cave system. I have a strong impression that leaving the Expanse might otherwise prove more difficult than getting in.”

• Glen, CO

Cross saw Stella leave , to fill the torpedo’s with garbage .In all her years of working with the Federation nothing similiar was ever done the way everyone seem to agree with, but she trusted Glen knowing that he always had the safety of the crew first and foremost.

The CMO did not move or say anything......in fact she started to wonder if she was invisible .

Cross CMO.

“Doctor Cross, welcome to the Bridge again,” the Captain said. “While I have your ear, can I ask if you could have someone investigate whether or not these ‘Gravity Waves’ will have any medical effects upon us? Just now I found myself drifting away. That’s probably just me, but I recently read that there are known induced neurological function effects from prolonged travel at Warp Speeds, and also from microgravity and radiation, of course. If we need increased protective measures while we travel inside the Expanse, then I’d like to have those put in place ASAP. There is no point in us preparing against attacks by hostiles, and against catastrophic hull failures, only for us all to slowly die of a ‘space sickness’.”

• Glen, CO

’’ The same thing that you described happened to some , though not all in sickbay .’’ Cross replied ‘’I would suggest raising up the shields to protect us , shall keep an eye on the radiation and if it increase we do have medicine specifically for rise in radiation and prevent the crew from harmful side effects though the shield should protect us …that is if it holds , defects or malfunction due to the gravity waves since who knows what might happen ‘’.

‘’Captain as you know we are heading in uncharted territory ,lets us be one step ahead of any anomalies. As for the microgravity there is only one thing we can do and that is to gradually lower the warp and entering the Expanse more cautiously ‘’ the CMO replied.

Cross CMO.

“I should have been made aware of the mental effects of the ‘Gravity Waves’ as well as the physical, but I haven’t had time to read your report yet,” the Captain replied. He was missing not having a Yeoman, and behind on all his reports. “I thought it was just bumped heads from falls, and sprains. I also think we’ve been as cautious as we can be. We still have a job to do, but I do think we’ll get better at avoiding these ‘Gravity Waves’ as we learn more about them. By the time we finish mapping the Expanse we will know it better than we do Earth’s Solar System. We be able to avoid them like the potholes in an Asphalt road.”

• Glen, CO

Elyss listened to the conversations around the bridge while she kept her eyes on her console and the main viewscreen. Would ejecting garbage into the Expanse really help them ‘see’ the waves they were planning on riding further in? She had to rely on the expertise of the other crew members who were all experts in their fields She felt a headache forming behind her eyes and tried to will it away.

Lieutenant Elyss Zavey
Chief Science Officer USS Merrimack