Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth

Posted on 18 Dec 2015 @ 2:02pm by Commodore Da`nal of the House of Varal & Commander Nicholas Means & Lieutenant JG Lauren L'Vor & Lieutenant Commander Alanna Wells

3,385 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: M13-C: Shattered Time

[Freedom Transporter Room- 70 minutes after incident.]

"TYCE! It's bad enough-"

"One damn second Sir!."

Tyce was hip deep upside down re-assembling the primary buffers for the Freedom transporter to no avail, and Fanvo had been pressing him for the last hour for results. The Chief was tasked with explaining an accidental death, but security had revealed no clues from interrogation of all involved either. To say that Tyce was at his tolerance with the Elitist Engineering Chief was generous, he was gonna kick the little guys ass if he kept it up. For the fourth time they had gone over and broken down the transporter matrix, and this time like the previous three, was the same answer.

He pulled himself out of the transporter assembly and stared at the diminutive man with a face flushed from exertion.
"It's fine, just like before I cant see a single thing wrong with it, same as you -."

Adtanis was having none of it. "Pike didn't die because the transporter was working perfectly fine. Why don't you just beam over to Achilles real quick if its working so well?

"It's environmental or something lost with Pikes body. Medical may tell us but-"

Fanvo felt true anger rising in him, Tyce was being truly simple minded.

"Tyce, until we have an answer I expect you to keep searching. Every transporter in the fleet is offline at my word and we will not be activating them again until we are certain it is safe. Or do you feel otherwise?

Tyce wanted to spit in the mans face, of course he felt the same way, there was a death, and there was a reason that death happened. But that problem was still unresolved, and he was certain enough that the Freedom Transporters were working optimally. Other crews had already reported in negative results, the Berlin had even gotten their diagnostics done twice over. Fanvo was just under pressure...

"Sir you have us all searching the machines, but what if the problem was in transit?"

His face contorting into frustrated impotent rage, Fanvo nearly said very many things.

"Find why Pike died. Do not stop until we have an answer. Get to it."

[Achilles Main Engineering- 22 mins later]

The flight from Freedom to Achilles was short but the transit between the two vessels offered a moment of inspiration. The Freedom was not in synchronous parallel with Achilles, the shuttle had to adopt an eccentric flight pattern on approach. The nature of his conversation with Tyce Backo returned to him and the idea was once again introduced to him.

When he got to Main Engineering he was winded, the shuttle bay was a good distance from the Engineering Decks however by the time he arrived he had made a plan of action.

"I need a trimetric Dimensional bouy attached to a class Five probe. Coordinate with Helm to return our positions to station keeping at the moment of transmission to Freedom."

To confirm the working theory in his head he checked the readouts from Pikes transport. Dematerialization occurred at 4.789 seconds, 99.99999% encoded successfully to Buffer, transmission burst achieved at 5.214 seconds. Freedom didnt log the reception of any transmission until 6.084. The gap in the transmission was too long, something in the transmission delayed the signal.

Another page in the analysis showed a clue as well, Freedom logged transmission but at a different wavelength... When it attempted to re-integrate the buffer lacked the materials and the fatal error occurred somehow instantaneously. But what caused the delay?

This ventured further into Sciences than he knew he should venture alone. It was time to get some help. The machines were certified and functioning for now.

"Sir, Probe is ready. Bridge is on standby." The slender Caitian Ensign Krryt approached from the deeper bay, her mood was nervous as Adtanis was clearly in a state.

"Thank you Ensign please have transporter room 1 prepped for our trial run." Without breathing from one sentence to the next he summoned the bridge.

"Adtanis to Bridge"

== Bridge ==

L'vor was at the bridge science station and was reviewing the sensor logs to try to detect any possible interference in the transport that killed the Freedom's commanding officer even as the Commodore paced the area. "Anything?"

"Not as yet sir...". her report cut off as the call came in.

Da`nal continued his pacing as he acknowledged the call. While death was always a possibility and something he took in stride as a Klingon, to die in such a way even bothered him. "Bridge here. What do you have?"

"Adtanis here, I've got a theory that I am working, I'll need astrometrics to analyze data from a probe I'm configuring to test light propagation rates. For now it is clear that the transporters are functioning it seems to be local phenomena creating interference. Confirm with Helm, we have a lag in our station keeping with Berlin and Freedom."

L'vor's hands moved across the holographic display. "Confirmed. I will inform astrometrics and have them ready to receive the probes data." Once the channel was closed she called for another officer to man her station. She wanted to see the raw data as it came in as it might be of interest to her superiors


==USS Achilles - Astrometric==

Alana was mid shift in sickbay, when an unexpected call came through from the ships computer. Report to Astrometrics... her skills were needed, and not healing ability either. It felt very affirming to be called for her insights and intelligence and she gracefully made her exit towards Astrometrics. Unfortunately with transporters down it was a quarter mile and three decks difference. She made her way in a hurry, glad to do so.

L'Vor was approach the main astrometrics lab when Alana arrived, holding out her hand. "Glad we will finally get to work together."

Once again Alana found the mechanical voder ill fitting for her personality and true emotional inflections. A rather flat, "Greetings, I feel much the same. After you Lieutenant." She hoped with a wide smile and graceful gestures that her impediment was overcome.

Once inside, the massive Astrometrics room L'vor nodded to those already there. "OK people we need to analyse the data about to come in from a probe launch by engineering." Tapping the commpanel on the main console. "L'vor to Adtanis. We are ready to receive your data."

=/\= Backo Here, I've got the data funnel setup from Berlin and Freedom. Chief is in holodeck four monitoring the situation live. one moment...

Alana took the time to analyze the nature of the experiment. It seemed an innovative approach, a way of getting higher dimensional readings with lower dimensional devices. Berlin, Freedom, Achilles, would all fire two probes and coordinate the data through the disruptions. The orbital pattern of the scans would deviate through the area and highlight the structures at work. That was where her department came into play.

=/\= Adtanis online and ready. Berlin needs to report in still, but otherwise ready.

=/\= Berlin here, on standby, awaiting orders.

=/\= Adtanis to fleet, Autos on ready, no need to push the button just let the computer coordinate. On three , 1...2...Mark

The space inside the triangular volume was subjected to high intensity scans as nine probes danced in a spiral around their vessels of origin slowly blossoming into wider circles.

=/\= Backo to L'vor, Telemetry is inbound, we will only get occasional snapshots of the higher dimensional structures, so be ready to adjust the flight paths as we go to get a better idea.

== Acknowledged. == L'vor monitored the trajectory of the probes as the moved off and made adjustments as scan resolution began to fall off.

=/\= Adtanis here, I'm recording it in the holodeck but we can expect massive degradation to data storage replay, it's vital you chart as much as we can with he live data stream, the particle saturation will make another test like this impossible for several days. Good luck.

=^= Luck is not factor... =^= She replied with a grin. As the data came in she set up a back up of the raw data prior to the transfer to the holographic subsystems. That way the core data was protected from any playback degradation. She was more than intrigued as she watched the data come in.

[Astrometrics]

Alanna walked into Astrometrics to see if she could help the others. "What do you have so far?" she asked.

L'Vor reported to her boss without taking her eyes off her data as she worked the display. "Ma'am,Engineering didn't find anything wrong with the transporter systems aboard the Freedom and nothing was detected on the initial scans so a series of probes were launch to help find any anomalies that could have disrupted Commander Pikes transport to such a point that the safety systems couldn't maintain his pattern. The raw data is still coming in."

"Have you run a full spectrum analysis? Light, heat, particulates, wave patterns?" Alanna asked, going to an empty console to look at the data, too. "If you compare the data from the probe with past scans, it might highlight irregularities." She looked over at the other officer who was still staring down at her screen. "I know, I'm repeating the obvious, but I don't want to let anything fall through the cracks."

"No analysis as yet, I am currently maintaining scan integrity while the data comes in. I was waiting on scans to be completed before beginning any analysis so that we can do a complete analysis."

Alanna nodded. "I'll prepare the baseline so that we'll have more comprehensive data to compare against the new scans." She began to collect data from past scientific expeditions and scans and compile them in preparation for the analysis.

"Okay, scans are complete." Lauren opened a channel back to the Chief Engineer. =^= L'vor to Adtanis. Scans are complete. We are beginning our analysis and should have some thing for your holo-program soon. =^=

Alanna began her comparison analysis, watching the stream of data with elements, particles, light, and matter scrolling across the screen. It was too much to track herself, but the program she ws using would highlight any anomalies and anything that differed from previous scans. It would be a starting point for any in-depth analysis.

For several minutes, nothing out of the ordinary showed up. And then the computer flagged a reading. Then another, an another. A dozen more anomalies were highlighted as Alanna watched.

When it was completed, she pulled all anomalous readings into one file and ran them again, this time looking for comparisons. "Lieutenant L'Vor, come look at these," she said.

When the other scientist joined her, Alanna continued, "These particles are acting irrationally. Look, it's like they're moving through a thick substance, yet nothing shows up on any of the scans to warrant such behavior." She pointed to another series of anomalies. "And here, light waves seem to hesitate for a moment, then they appear to warp slightly. Their behavior is similar to the particulates in that the light rays act like they're going slowly. Like they, too, are moving through dense matter, but again, none is evident."

"Computer, show visualization of the anomalous data," Alanna said.

L'vor routed the same data to the holodeck Adtanis had indicated for his use as well. "I've link the results to Lt. Cmdr Adtanis and have set up and open channel to him. Commander Adtanis are you there?"

"Ready when he is," Alanna said.


[Holodeck 23]

=/\= Adtanis, here. I am back aboard and ready to view the data.


[Astrometrics]

The data was sent to the holodeck and to the main viewscreen in Astrometrics. The holodeck would have the advantage of seeing the data manifested in 3D images, but in both places the image of light waves moving through space, then seeming to slow and bend, much like they would through water, was disturbing.

Alanna zoomed in to a molecular level where even they seemed to be affected by the anomaly they passed through.


[Holodeck 23]

Adtanis watched the slow motion program play out. His program colored and graphically displayed the transporter beam as it the Freedom's transporter system reached out to retrieve it's CO. Even as the shading of the beam changed to indicated the presence of Pike's bio data, all seemed well. Suddenly there was a lensing of the beam as it passed through or something passed through it. "Freeze Program! Scan data and visually enhance the anomaly intersecting the transporter beam."

=/\= Wells are you seeing this?


[Astrometrics]

"Yes," Alanna replied. "Matter doesn't behave this way naturally. Computer, what in the scientific database behaves in a similar fashion?"

"There are currently no matches in the database of this phenomenon. There are six theories that fit the parameters."

"Display them on the secondary viewscreen," Alanna said. She turned away from the main viewscreen to watch the data scroll across the screen.

Lauren moved to stand with the Commander as the computer displayed the theoretical data. Once again, well first for this persona, playing like she didn't know what was going on, as what was theoretical for the humanoids was known to her kind. "The beams energy was received by the Freedom's transporter but the bio data seemed to be completely restructured during the materialization phase."

Alanna gave the woman a curious look. There was something odd about her, but she couldn't place it. Her thought patterns felt ... off. "Not so much restructured as scrambled," Alanna said. "Or warped. So when the transporter tried to recompile the electrons, they weren't where they were supposed to be, so rematerialization failed."

Looking at the theories the computer was displaying. "Which of these theories do you think is the best fit for what happened; though I'm curious as to why the pattern buffer wasn't able to reorganize the errors in the matter stream?"

"From what I can surmise, the transporter beam hit a spatial anomaly that has similarities to Zeno's Paradox. One of these theories touches on that and its relationship to dense space. Matter that enters this anomaly does not move consistency. It's analogous to moving through water and suddenly hitting strands of gel. The particles will move at different rates of speed, sometimes seeming to pause for no reason at all. So, not all matter will make it through the anomaly. You cannot recover someone when ten to twenty percent of their matter is missing."

"Computer, compare the data from recent scans with Zeno's Paradox and theories on dense space. Show what might happen if a transporter signal were to pass through such matter."

A particle stream entered from one side of the viewscreen. Parts of it seemed to ricochet off in different directions. Some particles seemed to spin in an invisible whirlpool and others seemed to simply implode. Most of the particles made it through, but clearly many did not.

Adtanis had left the holodeck and entered Astrometrics just as the computer played out her request. "Well that would would definitely scramble somebody's eggs. Zeno's Paradox, if I'm not mistaken but the level of distortion would seem to show multiple...almost a combination of a quantum-zeno and anti-zeno effect."

Alanna turned. "It does, doesn't it?"

He looked back at the other science officer with a shrug before replying. "Your asking me? I'm an Engineer not a quantum physicist. The good thing is that I should be able to modify the sensors to pick up the anomaly so there won't be any future issues."

"I can help with the software side," Alanna said. "I'm more concerned with the transporters. They'll need to be recalibrated to deal with future phenomenon."

"Not to worry I got that. I was thinking a quantum disturbance cutoff or transmission delay would do the trick. If you are satisfied with sticking with this as the cause of Pike's death we should report our findings to the CO."

"I want to run a few more tests, but I'm 80% sure this is the cause," Alanna said. "I'm 100% sure it was caused by a spatial anomaly. I'm 80% sure this is the anomaly."

"Ok, you run you tests to confirm and I will be on the bridge at the engineering station, when you are ready you can meet me there."
He cast a glance to the Lieutenant as he left.

Lauren, looking over to her boss asked, "Is their anything you'd like me to do ma'am?"

"Is there anything we're missing?" Alanna asked her. "Any date we've overlooked?"

Knowing that it was the transmission of her own status report into fluidic space that had created the micro quantum distortions an honest answer to that questions was unacceptable how ever she replied without hesitation. "As there was no other anomalies detected or mechanical explanation for the disruption of the Commander's transporter beam this seem pretty solid. My question would be what created the quantum distortions in the first place.

"I can create a database and begin an analysis. This IS goingto be a long trip and a good research project would give me something to sink my teeth into...who knows maybe I can put a paper together on it."

"I know a number of journals that would love such an article," Alanna said. "I'll keep running analysis to see if there's more information we can add, but for now, I think we have all we need."

She turned to L'Vor. "Is anyone else in engineering working on this problem?"

Shrugging honestly, "I don't know. That would be a question for Commander Adtanis." Smirking she added, "I think he's on the bridge."

"Then I think I will leave you alone for now," Alanna said, transferring the data analysis to her office computer so she could continue monitoring it. "I will see you later. Thank you for your help."

[Bridge]

Adtanis entered the bridge and moved to the engineering station. No one paid him any mind and he nodded to the officer manning the station. "You're relieved Lieutenant."

Seeing his superior standing there he nodded and rose from the station. "Sir the next set of comm buoys are ready for deployment."

"Thank you, that will be all."

He watch the lieutenant leave and took a seat calling up the buoys programming to ensure his filter, to remove anything referring to him or his past, was still in place. With an internal grin he closed the programming profile. Turning towards the command station to see the officer of the watch sitting in command. "Buoys are ready for deployment. We will reach optimal position in 45 seconds...mark."

"Understood. Deploy when in position."

As the ship neared the zone Adtanis tapped the holo-display and began the deployment proces, "Deploying". A panel on the aft hull opened and the comm buoys fell away and took up pre-programmed positions. Once there they spread their arrays and pinged back to the Achilles upon activation.

"Buoys are online and functioning properly."

Da`nal emerged from his ready room with Stone & Means in tow. Seeing Adtanis he motioned for the other to follow. "Did you complete your analysis?"

"Yes sir. Lieutenant Commander Wells and I have gone over the probe and sensor data. There was nothing mechanically wrong with the transporters so that was eliminated as a possibility. It seem that there was a quantum distortion that happened to intersect the transporter beam at the time of Commander Pike's transport."

Means shook his head slowly. "So it was just dumb luck that killed him?

"Seems so."

Slightly irritated that he was only hearing this from one of the key investigators Da`nal continued his questioning. "I see, and why did she not accompany you to the bridge to report on this?"

"She wanted to run a few additional tests; just to be sure. Either way I was going to recommend a recalibration to the ships sensors to detect similar anomalies as well as a transport delay/cutoff to prevent future accidents."

"Very well. Make your modifications,I don't want to lose anyone else to that kind of...accident."

Alanna returned to the bridge shortly after and nodded to the Captain, unsure if he had any questions for her or if she should simply go to the science station.

---------------------------------------------

Commodore Da`nal
CO - USS Achilles

Commander Means
CO - USS Freedom

Lt. Commander Adtanis
CEO - NPC'd by Da`nal after removal

Lieutenant Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer

 

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