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

=/\= If you’re sure then, Captain. Very well I’ll put the squadron on standby 5 light years off. Anything else to add?=/\= He asked

=/\= Nothing important that I can think of right now… Just one thing! I admit that I don’t fully understand the weapons that my XO and COS are preparing, with the assistance of the Ark Angel. I do however, know that previous experiments with subspace weapons have shown they have a very unpredictable nature. I’m a little concerned about the effects that could occur as a result of using these weapons, such as a subspace tear, but I have agreed to it as I see no other way of attacking the Dark Serpents when they seem to exist within subspace itself. There is a strong possibility that Ark Angel, or ourselves, may cause permanent damage to subspace in this region although it is very remote and unpopulated. It could even be the reason that the third planet disappears. Having time travelled so much, having seen the Merrimack in the future turned into a floating museum, it makes me wonder about our legacy. I don’t wish to be remembered as the Captain who destroyed a Sector and made it uninhabitable. =/\=

William perked up at the sound of subspace weaponry, he hadn’t been in the meeting much to his chagrin so this was the first he’d heard about what kind of weapon they were designing. He’d been briefly a part of a think tank that was looking into potential uses of Subspace weapons, although his work had been entirely theoretical as he understood it the weapons were probably the most unstable kinds of weaponry available.

=/\= Thank you Admiral. We will keep you appraised. Captain Glen Out =/\=

When the call to the Admiral had finally finished, Captain Glen turned to his CSO. “You weren’t in the meeting but you will have gathered that we are going to investigate the third planet in this system and why it no longer exists in the time from which the Ark Angel came back from. I want you to lead on that investigation. You will also have gathered from my conversation with the admiral that we are working on subspace torpedo weapons to defeat the Dark Serpents. I have a bad feeling that the loss of the third planet is no coincidence. I noticed in your personnel file that you were briefly a part of a think tank that was looking into potential uses of Subspace weapons. You are therefore probably the most qualified person aboard to investigate any link.”

The turbolift doors opened into the Bridge, but Remi didn’t step out. He took a moment to let it sink in. The activity level, the big forward screen. Of course he had been in the simulators, the ship museums, and all that. But this was his first time aboard an active starship’s command center.

William nodded “Yes, Sir” He looked at the newcomer before turning back to the Captain “Our research concluded before we got to making physical tests, Starfleet decided they wanted Weapons R&D to take over, which was quite a relief. But I’d need access to the Ark Angels sensor data on where the planet should be in their timeline” He stood up and placed on hand to his chin thinking “I wonder if we could truly create a planet-killer in our armory” He spoke somberly,

“Please, don’t even joke about it! It must be something to do with my thirty-something age, and the son I have who I have never seen, but seriously, I do worry about the kind of legacy I’m leaving for the future. When we visited the future and saw the Black Rock facility with the Merrimack in centre stage as a floating museum, there was a great celebration of our contribution to history… …But I just don’t see it! I’m the Captain who has helped to start three wars and destroyed countless planetary ecosystems. Now, we might be adding the destruction of an entire planet that…” Glen stopped an looked to the turbolift where William had looked earlier. The doors remained open.

“Are you joining us?” Glen asked, “Or just taking in the view?”

Remi answered the query confidently. “Lieutenant Buchanan, sir. I am the shuttle pilot you requested. I have not yet been cleared for Bridge duty, and I did not want to violate security protocols. If someone were to escort me…”

“Welcome to the Bridge,” said Glen. “Please take over at Helm. Put us into a standard orbit about that planet.”

“What does this third planet actually look like? ” Glen asked his CSO. “I don’t supposed it is very interesting?”

William smiled softly as he sat down and started a planetary scan.

As scans of the third planet came back in they were now orbiting it seemed at first to be mostly a generally dead rock of iron and nickel. But then deeper scans would show a myriad of caves and tunnels crisscrossing the slightly bigger then mercury sized planet. These showed a just within tolerance class-m atmosphere! Also picked up were signs of subterranean plant and small animal life. Kind of interesting really if they weren’t facing another problem.

But then scans for artificial sources came up with a blip! William in this case could report a small caravan roughly 100 yards by 250 yards around 1/2 mile beneath the surface, with two small underground rivers riding through it with plant and animal life, the artificial anomaly was almost smack in the center of the caravan. But several deposits of lead and gold seemed to be creating interference to get a better read. Maybe they could send a small away team down to investigate

“There isn’t anything of note on the surface, just rocks and various metallic readings but there is a system of caves that appears to cover most of the subterranean parts of the planet, I’m getting readings of some plant and animal life there. Truly a fascinating prospect and if time itself wasn’t at stake I’d really like to spend a few days cataloguing them.” Willam said with a hint of disappointment before noticing a blip

“Captain I’m detecting a cavern approximately 90 meters by 230, about 800 meters belove the surface. There seems to be some sort of artificial anomaly right in the middle of it. These caverns do indicate an M-class environment so I’m going to say it’s safe for a team to visit”. He turned around to face the captain again.

“We will need to beam down and investigate,” said Glen. “I’ll need a multidisciplinary team.”

=^=Captain, the subspace torrent bombs are ready. We need to be at least one AU away when we set one off. The second is a back up in case the first fails. We do not want to set off two of these at the same time.=^=

=/\= Very Good… We are now approaching the third planet in the system. There are some anomalous readings beneath the surface so I’m going to send a landing party down to investigate further… These bombs? Where were we thinking of directing them? We have no idea where or when the ‘Dark Serpent’ will appear. That is their tactical advantage over us. Subspace is huge. Sending one bomb at random is unlikely to achieve anything? =/\=

Glen, CO

=^=The effective diameter is just over double the orbital diameter of the system. As long as the bomb is within the system at detonation it will affect the entire system but, for best effect, the closer to the center the better. I recommend somewhere between the orbitals of the second and third planets. And once one is detonated the resulting subspace storm will make subspace communications impossible as well as limiting travel to sub light. Warp speeds below factor two will cause damage to the drive systems and over factor two will destroy the vehicle. The effect will last approximately two Terran standard days.=^=

Kord, XO