Chasing Shadows

Posted on 08 Oct 2014 @ 6:34pm by Lieutenant JG Tobias Todd & Lieutenant JG Alana Tambor
Edited on on 25 Oct 2014 @ 11:48pm

1,559 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: M12: For Duty or Honor
Location: Holodeck 3
Timeline: MD 6 - 0632

-ON-

The klaxon sound penetrated every facet of the ship as it was supposed to. Tobias was on his way to the bridge and as he had chosen to continue working instead of sleeping .... well it was going to be a long day. The computer would continue to input and process data in the search of the cloaked ships but its capabilities were limited without a human interface. He pulled up the crew roster of the Achilles, Science department. he had noted earlier that the department was somewhat understaffed but it seemed he was in luck on this particular occasion.

=^= Lieutenant Tambor, report to Holodeck 3 immediately =^=

She was listening to a symphony, but one unlike anything someone outside her species would ever hear. She loved to listen to the languid tones and sweet melodies, punctuated briskly by melancholic undertones. The crews thoughts were inarticulate, a cascade of pure energy she was privy to receiving and after some time of effort and willpower listening to. Even the Alert blended into the melody, and changed the tone to an urgent march.

Like a swimmer in graceful maneuvers, Alana stood and moved through her melodic paradise, her uniform and other accessories applied without one iota more of thought applied than was needed. Even her reply was ethereal, the voder made it easy to speak without effort.

=/\= Tambor here, on my way.=/\=

Holodeck Three had a charged tension to it, and she knew it was time to put the music away, much to her regret. She walked into the holodeck, all business.

*' Reporting as ordered sir.'* She hated how the mechanical voice would tinge the personality of who she was.

If Lieutenant Tambor was surprised to find the Holodeck empty, aside from a stellar map of significant proportions full of differently coloured clouds, she his it well. Tobias was on the bridge but a part of his mind lingered in the circuits of the Holodeck. "Computer, engage program Todd-Alpha-Blue in Holodeck 3." He had hardly finished speaking as a holographic representation of himself materialised on the Holodeck.

"Lieutenant Tambor, good to meet you. However, I regret that it is not in person as I find myself on the Bridge but this holographic image should suffice for the moment. I devote a part of my internal processing power to the communication with you but the task I need you for needs considerable more ... presence than I can afford at the moment. Before you, you see a stellar map of this sector with information concerning abnormal readings on any known - and some speculated - sorts of radiations and subspace phenomena that may betray the presence of cloaked ships."

He regarded the map for a moment. Under better circumstances it might have been quite a beautiful picture but at the moment it only represented a puzzle that needed solving. A puzzle that had eluded solving so far.

"Your task is to identify patterns and correlations that may represent ship movements and, if possible, tie them to previous targets of Klingon attacks in the sector and to supply us with the ability predict their most likely movement and advance warning should we encounter any cloaked ships correlating to the identified signatures."

While his holographic finished speaking and looked at the Lieutenant expectantly, he was already concentrating on making sure the sensor array was working at full potential.

Operating her voder was a chore at best, if Lt. Todd preferred not to talk it was all the same to her. Without a natural ability to speak one naturally resorted to other means of communication, and only if needed. She sensed his satisfaction at her presence and competence so with simply a nod she stepped to the console. The task was well within her abilities but she had no illusions of actually finding a cloaked vessel. Space was so vast, and within that vastness was a presence trying to be invisible. Still, she was here and she would try.

It only took a moment to reconfigure her console to her liking. Grouping the sorting commands for quick paging under her hands, and the retinal inputs were swapped to vocal commands so she wouldn't have to speak. Within a moment she had set up her workstation to a highly efficient model and was indexing the collected data. Step one, as she was taught was to research existing data.

The next step of her task would prove to be more difficult, five separate instances to draw data and conclusions from would provide usable trend data but it wasn't enough for anything to be conclusively determined from preliminary analysis. Now she saw why she was contacted, this was entirely extrapolation and speculation, they needed someone to make something from nothing. She accessed the Parameters from Starfleet Intel regarding cloaking systems, and while Lt. Todd had made access to those systems available she lacked the knowledge of advanced physics for her to understand the intricacies of the cloaking higher functions.

[Communique]
Recipient:-Lt. j.g Todd Origin:-Lt. j.g. Alana Tambor
...Explain standard function for cloaking device? Deflector provides means but how is cloaking field generated?
...Verteron particles interacting with propulsion reveal flaws in cloak, request a Metaphasic analysis using the main deflector.
...Metaphasic Sweeps will reveal modified Subspace in the vicinity of recent warp activity, but only above warp 6.


Part of Tobias' attention returned to the hologram on the Holodeck. "Cloaking technology hides a ship from optical and almost every other sensor , making the occupied space appear to be nothing more than empty space without creating a sensor void at its location. This can be achieved through a variety of different methods. It's main weakness is the requirement of a deflector array which prevent using shield while being cloaked."

Even as we was still speaking the data from the metaphasic sweep flooded into Holodeck simulation in addition with different set of data. "Several Klingon vessels have been destroyed from internal explosions, the results cloud of particles and radiation should reveal the more individual ships."

He had hardly finished speaking as the intercom chirped =^= Achilles crew this is Executive Officer Stone. Due to the personal attacks on Admiral Da'nal and his family by renegade Klingons, I have been forced by regulations to remove him temporarily from command of the Achilles. Most of you do not know me yet, however the record of this ship and crew stands on its own. I fully expect you all to act within the oath you took as fleet officers. Anyone with concerns or worries, bring them to your department head who will then bring it to my attention. =^=

After a moment of silence the hologram added "Continue with your assignment." before falling silent again.

Alana was able to track the explosions individually, the red alert klaxon demanded her presence in sickbay but she had to finish her assignment. The Metaphasic sweep had highlighted the location of several suspiciously "still" spots where the energies from the exploded vessels washed in all directions. It gave her the location of a few vessels by their configurations. A macro for the exact sensor readouts shown was run, highlighting many other spots. Alana quickly scanned the available data, pulsars from forty light years away had created a constant beacon to check distortions by.

Sure enough, she saw the pattern by checking against the pulsar backdrop. Excited, she ran the algorithm through long range sensors and it revealed several hundred cloaked vessels. The sight made her heart stop for a moment as the implications ran through her mind. Her hesistance was short-lived as she fired the message to Tobias.

...Within 78 Lightyears of Pulsar in grid 7-d Sector alpha Orionias, with correlated data over the last five days has allowed for a search grid with predictable results within this range.

An overlay of the region showing where she had previous data to compare against appeared, they were well inside of it, as was the fleet. For the foreseeable future in this little corner of the galaxy, the cloak was useless except to prevent targeting when the ships were at rest. The distortions of the fleet in motion were detectable after warp had been initiated but it allowed extrapolation for course and heading. She had them revealed for the most part, but it wasn't perfect. They could only see where they were before, and were currently stationed. the transit in between was still out of their current detection ability.

...173 contacts of sufficient size to be detected are highlighted in grid. Do we have intelligence to suggest additional fleets in area?

The data stream from the holodeck flickered over his console and Tobias took several seconds to study the implications.

"Excellent work Lieutenant. Return to your station but leave the simulation running and I will continue the analysis from the bridge. Your contribution will be included in my report." Almost as an afterthought the hologram added "I look forward to meet you in person." With that Tobias deactivated his holographic likeness.

Alana acknowledged Tobias over the text channel before pushing away from the desk in her urgency to leave. She had a sick feeling in her gut, as though she would be dealing with injuries soon. Hoping this Red Alert was merely cautionary she made her way to Sickbay in a jog.




Lieutenant JG Tobias Todd
Chief Science Officer

Alana Tambor
Astrometrics/Medical

 

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