STA: What Lies Beneath: Part 1, Act 2

[truemane]

STAR TREK
WHAT LIES BENEATH
Part 1:
What We Bear in Silence

Act 2
“Grief cannot be shared. Each carries his burden on his own.”
- Anne Morrow Lindbergh

*** MISSION LOG ***

STARDATE 48352.00
TO: USS Nares

USS Nares, an experimental science and research ship, helmed by an inexperienced crew, was called away from routine testing and training maneuvers to the Malcor system, where an entire starship, the USS Tempest, had vanished after establishing diplomatic talks with the newly-warp-capable Malcorians.

After some preliminary research, the command crew of Nares set down on Malcor only to find that one of Tempest's crew was still on-planet, and nearly dead from a mysterious illness that had spread through the Malcorian space program.

Arriving at the secure medical facility, Dr. Sevek tried to beam the stricken crew-member back to Nares,but failed to do so, and so he was forced to watch as a young Malcorian, and apparent political fanatic, pulled a bomb and threatened to kill everyone present (including the Planetary Chancellor).

A melee erupted. Captain Nowak was injured. Lt. Vese helped protect the Chancellor. Chief Karssinao tried to defuse the bomb, but failed.

An explosion rocked the facility just as Defense Minister Doerns arrives with reinforcements.

*** END LOG ***

The explosion knocked out most of the lights and most of the air exchangers. Some of the medical rooms had theirs still working and so the smoke dissipated, but only slightly. The air was hot and thick and oily and acrid and felt heavy in the mouth and in the lungs.

Through the gloom came Minister Doerns with ten heavily armed, heavily armoured soldiers. They claimed control of the chaos with military precision.

Within moments they had the floor sealed off, the injured Malcorians dragged away, the Chancellor, his guard (the one Vese had 'converted') and the Starfleet officers all lined up on a bench in a nearby meeting room. The table was overturned and the chairs lined up along the wall.

Of the Starfleet security, one was injured sufficiently that he, too, was dragged away with the others. The other was bleeding, and scorched, and sooty, but awake and upright.

Two of Doerns' thugs stand at the door. Two more are within sight in the hallway. The Minster is elsewhere.

No one has been bound. No one's comm badge was taken.

Okay! Act 2! So Krys still has an injury. And I'm going to say that Karssinao also does. His choice as to what kind. Vese is mostly unhurt.

[ve4grm]

"Yeuuurrrgh...." Krys groaned, rubbing his ribs. "Did anybody get the registration of that truck?"

The commander looked around at his crew, and the Malcorians with them. "Is everyone alright? How are you holding up, Chancellor?"

[seatyger]

"What'd you say?" Karssinao asked, inclining his head to the XO as he tried to clear the incessant ringing in his ears.

Karssinao is has been partially deafened by the explosion...it'll take a bit for the ringing in his ears to clear up. Otherwise, he's just sore from getting tossed about.

[whoiam]

"Think one of them must have gotten fresh while dragging us over here. My bra's all out of position." Vese takes a moment to adjust herself, doubtless drawing far more attention to her 'ample assets' than they would normally have gotten... and knocking her combadge off in the process. Shrugging briefly, she bends down to grab it. Deciding against re-attaching it to her uniform in the circumstances, she sticks it (and her hands) in her pockets. Then she grins at her XO. "There's always someone who wants to 'see if they're real'. After a while you just get used to it."

But what her mind was saying to him was "At the first sign of danger I'm tripping the duress alarm."

[ve4grm]

Krys nods slightly, understanding. "Vese, don't make me write you up when we get back..."

[seatyger]

It didn't take a mind reader to know what the girl was trying to do; Karssinao had already considered activating the emergency beacon himself.

Leaning toward Vese, he adds quietly - well, he thinks it's quietly, given the bells clanging around in his head, "You could've just taken it off to 'polish' it or something, kitan."

[whoiam]

For his efforts, Karssinao draws an incredulous stare. Mostly Vese is wondering how he's been an engineer for so long without learning not to rely on your own perception of volume after being in an explosion. But that's not something she wants the guards to catch on to, so she quickly addresses the two at the door, with her volume pitched-up to pass through Karssinao's concussion. Hopefully. "Uh, guards? I don't suppose there's a first aid kit anywhere? Our Engineer's a bit out of it if he thinks my underwear needs polishing to sit comfortably on my chest..."

Telepathically, she tells Karssinao: "Your 'whisper' was half-way to a shout. Please don't try that again until the ringing's gone! If you need to 'say' something to me privately, just concentrate on it really hard. I'll probably pick it up.

Anyway, point is that even people who know Orions' reputations underestimate me when they pay too much attention to my body. I'd really rather their minds were stuck in the gutter than wondering why the 'insignia' was worth worrying about at a time like this..."

[seatyger]

...Telepathically, she tells Karssinao: "Your 'whisper' was half-way to a shout. Please don't try that again until the ringing's gone! If you need to 'say' something to me privately, just concentrate on it really hard. I'll probably pick it up.

Anyway, point is that even people who know Orions' reputations underestimate me when they pay too much attention to my body. I'd really rather their minds were stuck in the gutter than wondering why the 'insignia' was worth worrying about at a time like this..."

The Caitian grimaced. You're thinking too hard; it's hurting my head. I'm not keen on waiting around to find out what they're going to do with us; press the button and get us out of here.

[truemane]

The Chancellor and his guard had been roughed up considerably in the blast. He was bleeding from a long headwound that looked series but probably wasn't. And his eyes were a little dazed and he kept blinking to pull focus, which didn't look that serious but probably was.

His head swivels to Krys. "I am... alive. Functioning. But I cannot... I could not... I," A heavy sigh, "I did not know things were this bad. We are a proud and fractious people. That is our strength. But this. This is... treason."

He seemed like he wanted to end that speech with righteous fury and indignation, but came out sad and defeated.

Just then the door opens with a screeching, grinding noise and in walks Defense Minister Doerns and two very tall, very broad, very rough looking Malcorians. Their faces are both scarred and pitted and gouged from old, poorly healed, wounds. They both carry bulky rifle-like weapons with short, large-bore barrels and a thick power chord connecting them to heavy backpacks.

A quiet electrical hum fills the air as they enter.

Minister Doerns, with all his pretenses and his forced civility fallen away, is a terrifying site. He walks the sudden, clipped fluidity of a lifelong soldier. His face is the ironclad passivity of a wartime officer, and his eyes are cold and sharp and never still.

The two guards snap to attention as he enters, fear filling their faces.

He stops. The soldiers scan the room, weapons up and ready.

Doerns: "What are you, children? Why aren't they shackled? And what's this? You've seen the histories! Why do they still have their badges? Take them! Now!"

Doerns, in his volatile mood, projects thoughts and visions and emotions out into the room at dizzying speed. Vese gets a very clear series of pictures of him parading the Starfleet prisoners for televid cameras, blaming the plague on them, jailing the Chancellor, and seizing power.

[whoiam]

In her pocket, Vese quickly activates the emergency signal.

Meanwhile, it's stallin' time!

"Those dreams of glory are a touch premature, don't you think, Minister? Blaming us for everything might bring you to power, but if you can't cure the plague you won't be able to hold it. I mean, you didn't even manage to seize the ship's Doctor, and he was the one of us you actually needed... All in all, I can't help but think you screwed up the timing on this one!"

[truemane]

Minister Doerns turns on Vese and his face clouds with rage. He strides toward her, one hand outstretched, hand pointing at her aggressively.

"Don't you play coy with me! You might have pulled the churk over this fool's eyes but I know you caused this! And if you cause it you can..."

And with that his voice fades away as the transporter beam locks on and the cold hard sitting room fades away to the slightly more subdued and soothing tones of the transporter room.

Two medical officers run over and start checking them over, scanning and muttering to themselves.

[ve4grm]

Krys rests his head in his hands. "Well, I don't know that we'll be getting much more assistance from the Malcorians. Miss Vese, Mr. Karssinao, do what you can to track down the Tempest, and figure out this warp anomaly. Maybe we can find our answers that way. Perhaps it's related to why we couldn't transport the crewman along with Sevek."

"I'll try to send an apology to the chancellor, if I can get a message past the military."

[seatyger]

Karssinao's first instinct is to brush aside the medical personnel and get back to work, but the ringing in his ears was starting to get distracting. With a glottal huff, he suffered through their pawing and prodding.

When he noticed Krys was talking and making, which to his ears sounded like so much muffled cereal munching, he thought, I can't tell what he's saying. What's he saying? Hopefully Vese would pick that up. It still hurt his head.

[truemane]

The Transporter Chief stares at her control board, a light sheen of sweat on her forehead. She lets loose a breath she'd clearly been holding.

"Check them thoroughly," she tells the medics, "I almost didn't get them. Some kind of crazy interference."

[whoiam]

"No chance of getting the others up from that room, then?" If it had been hard enough to grab their signals, rescuing the civilians was probably out of the question.

"Actually, XO, might I make a suggestion? First lesson of Counter-Coup 101 is 'Don't let the plotters control the narrative'. If we don't get our side of the story out quickly, the Malcorians are gonna believe whatever lies the Minister feeds'em. At that point, 'assistance from the Malcorians' really will be dead and buried. Y'know... forever. Shouldn't take more than a few minutes, but if we're going to do it at all, we've got to get it out early."

While she's making her suggestion to Krys, Vese gestures to one of the medics, indicates her ears, and then points them back to Karssinao. Apparently she'd interpreted Karssinao's thoughts as 'help, my ears are still damaged!'.

[truemane]

The medics swarm around Karssinao, tutting and hemming. A couple of scans later he is diagnosed with a severe concussion and damaged eardrums. Nothing a couple of hours in sickbay can't cure. He is ordered there through rather severe pantomime.

The Chief looks at some readings, does some math in her head, looks at Vese. "Sir, I think I could get the others out of that room. Someone would have to go back down, though." She grimaces. "Just for a minute."

[ve4grm]

Krys nods. "Vese, do what you need to. It looks like I'll deliver my apology in person." Then "Chief, grab me a pattern enhancer, then beam me back down."

[seatyger]

"Pattern enhancer, aye, sir," the chief responded, moving quickly over to the storage compartment to pull out the individual components of the desired device. With practiced ease, she assembled the enhancer and inspected the slide-out tripod before delivering it to the executive officer.

As Ma returned to the transporter controls, she asked, "Return you to the same location, Commander?"

[ve4grm]

Krys took the pattern enhancer, and placed it on the transporter pad, setting up the tripod. "Mr. Franklin," he called to the scorched-but-upright security officer. "You're with me. Phaser at the ready. I need you to cover me for a moment while Ms. Ma gets us back up. Only shoot if absolutely necessary, but the minister will probably be pretty angry."

"Yeah, Chief, same location. There are two civilians who were with us. The chancellor and his guard. Both were sitting on the benches with us. Grab them both, and beam us all back. On my mark."

Krys clicked the last piece of the pattern enhancer into place, leaving it set up on the pad, merely awaiting activation.

"MARK!"

[seatyger]

Just as a point of reference, her surname is Ma.

"Energizing," she reported, running her fingers along the console with practiced ease.

I don't know if this is even required, but, just in case:

Chief Ma Control + Engineering (14) vs. unknown Difficulty
[roll0]

[truemane]

Chief Ma wasn't wrong, she didn't misspeak, and she wasn't in the habit of boasting or making grandiose claims. As she often said, "We truck in facts."

But all the same, sending the Commander down to the same location was surprisingly difficult. Whatever the interference was that prevented the transport of the Tempest crewman played absolute havoc with the transporter signal (even in his very faint form).

All the same, she did the work, and dropped him right where she was supposed to.

Krys and Franklin appear in the room. It was quiet. The door was closed. The Chancellor and his guard sat, slumped, on the bench, their hands and feet bound with heavy shackles. At the door stood one of the rough-looking soldiers.

As though awaiting their return he immediately reached over and grabbed the Chancellor by the neck and pulled him toward the door.

"Minister! Minister!" he called into his radio. "They've returned! They've Ugh!"

His voice was cut off by a short, low-intensity blast from Franklin's phaser. Although barely hotter than a hot summer's day the soldier cries out in surprise, drops the Chancellor, and jumps back and readies his weapon. There's a whining sound as its power source cycles up, a very ominous looking white-hot glow inside the wide-bore barrel, and then Krys manages to activate the enhancer, and the Nares locks on to them and with an uncharacteristic jolt they are back aboard.

Inside the transporter room, Krys and Frankling vanish with the normal smoothness, are gone for no more than a minute, and then appear in jumps and starts.

Franklin takes a deep shuddering breath and falls to the ground before finding his feet. "Sorry," he gasps, "Suddenly... had no air... very strange."

Ma only barely managed to get them all back. Whatever the interference is, it's messing with the transporter's ability to actually read and identify the nature of matter. At a deep quantum level. Almost as though it's somehow making the transporter 'overlook' whatever it is it's looking for.

Sorry for jumping forward a lot there, I thought it best to get this bit done without too much fanfare and move on to the next bit. If I skipped over anything anyone wanted to do or say, feel free to do a little retcon.

[ve4grm]

"Not to worry, Mr. Franklin. We're back, and we're in one piece." Krys kneels down to check on the Malcorians.

[seatyger]

"Sorry, sirs," Ma said as she downloaded the data from the transport. "It was as if the sensors couldn't identify your basic components; I had to tie-in three pads for each of you just to get you back."

Holding up PADD, she added, "I'll pass this information on to the Chief and Miss Vese."

[truemane]

The Malcorians are both banged about, burned, and the guard (whose name turns out to be Novhu) has a wrist that's less fractured and more shattered. But a night in Medbay will seem them both through the worst of it.

The Chancellor, however, after getting over the shock of being on an alien spacecraft, in orbit, instantaneously, starts insisting that he be sent back right away, to a safe location, right away, so he can take control of whatever story Doerns will try to sell to his people.

He does agree to sit for a scanning, to assess the fulls cope of his injuries, but he insists he be sent back with none of them healed.

"I want them to see what that treasonous zealot has done to me."

[whoiam]

The chancellor's recovery starts Vese out of her compositional phase, and she hurries over to talk to him.

"I think there's a better way, Sir. I was going to address your people from the Bridge; we've got enough communication equipment here to broadcast across the entire planet. Would you care to do it together? We can find a safe place to set you down once the message is safely out."

[ve4grm]

Krys nods. "It is entirely your choice, whether you feel it would help or hurt your cause to be seen with us right now. If you wish to go back right away, however, please give us a location where you will be with allies, people you trust. Preferably somewhere at least a little public. If we had left you where we were, or if we put you back down in that enclosed space with only Doerns' people around, I worry for your safety."

"Regardless, I think I need to have a chat with engineering. I don't want to risk transporting you down if we can't get past this interference. We may have to take a shuttle to the surface."

[seatyger]

"I'll save you the trip, Exec," Karssinao growled as he approached the group. Holding up the PADD, he added, "I had a chance to peruse the transporter logs Chief Ma gave me; I can't tell you what's going on until I can get a little bit of time with the computer and our erstwhile science officer here. Need to test a few theories."

The player doesn't know what those theories are, yet, but I figured it was best to keep the ball rolling. ;)

[ve4grm]

"Right. Until we know more, I'm relegating transporters to emergency use only. The shuttle will do for the moment."

[seatyger]

"Aye, sir."

With a meaningful glance at Vese (his mind intoning As soon as you're done playing around, we need to start looking into this mess...), he taps his commbadge. "Guniang, lock down the transporters until further notice. Put the shuttlebay crew on standby."

[whoiam]

Karssinao's thoughts just draw a grin; whatever Vese is about to do, she seems likely to enjoy it. While she Chancellor's still going through his minimum required patching up, Vese heads off to the bridge to set things up with the comms officer.

---On the Bridge--

Once the Chancellor joins her, Vese guides him into the Captain's chair and gives him a quick briefing. "When you're ready, the Nares will make a blanket broadcast around all of Malcor III, on every frequency your people use. They're your people, so you can speak first, then I'll add my part once you're finished. Once I'm done you can speak again if you want to; once you're satisfied let the Lieutenant over there, " she points out the officer handling the comms, "know, and she'll cut the broadcast."

Vese takes up a position behind the Captain's chair, and smiles reassuringly at the Chancellor. "Ready when you are."

---After the Chancellor's opening address---

"Greetings, people of Malcor III. My name is Lieutenant Commander Vese, and I am the Starfleet Science Officer serving on the USS Nares. Normally we would have an Ambassador on hand to talk to a species we were hoping will be willing to join us; for reasons I'm about to get into, I'm the closest thing we've got right now.

When I last saw Minister Doerns, he expressed a belief that we were in some way responsible for the plague currently afflicting Malcor III. To which I have to say that I categorically deny we were in any way involved with causing, starting or spreading said plague. But I also have to qualify that 'we' - I am referring specifically to the crew of the Nares. We've been in orbit for less than a day - whatever happened to you happened long before we arrived.

In the interests of transparency, I'm now going to share our mission briefing with you."

Vese gestures off-screen at the comms officer, and their initial briefing plays back over the comm channel.


***BEGIN TRANSMISSION***

***ALPHA-ONE HIGHEST PRIORITY***

STARDATE 48352.00
FROM: Vice Admiral Yuri Nowak
TO: USS Nares

Starfleet has lost contact with the U.S.S. Tempest during a potentially volatile diplomatic mission to Malcor III. Prior reports indicated that talks were fraught, but productive, with some concerns expressed about possible civil unrest. The U.S.S. Nares is ordered to proceed to Malcor III at maximum warp.

Mission paramaters:

Discover the whereabouts of the U.S.S Tempest and render such aid as is required.
Contact with the Malcorians is authorized, but not required.
If contact is made, maintain peaceful relations if at all advisable.

Personal Addendum: Nares, we recognize that circumstances are not ideal. A new crew, un untested, a mission far outside the official mission profile. But the next nearest ship is almost two weeks from the Malcor System and Tempest may need assistance now. So it's up to you. Best of luck, Nares. We have every confidence in you.

***END TRANSMISSION***


"Starfleet sent us in without any idea what was actually happening in this system beyond the fact that the Tempest had lost communications. We did not find out about the plague until we'd reached the planet... and been exposed to it ourselves. This then leads to the question - could the Tempest have, in some way, been responsible for the plague?

I would love to be able to say that all Starfleet officers are perfect, incapable of malice or mistake. But that would be a lie. For all our training and ideals, we are not infallible. The Tempest potentially could have contributed to - or caused - the situation. I certainly hope they did not, but we have as of yet no way of knowing. So what I'm going to do now is show you the information we were given before we arrived.

So what are we going to do now? Well, we've got orders to find the Tempest, and save it if we can. And we will try to. For this, I have two promises to make to all of you. The first is that if we have to choose between saving the Tempest or saving Malcor III, we will save Malcor III. One of the primary duties of any Starfleet Officer is to risk - or lay down - their life to protect the innocent lives under our protection - your military has a similar expectation, I'm sure. While we're in this system you are covered by that duty.

The second promise is that there will be no cover-up of whatever the Tempest may have done. The Federation wishes to have the Malcorians join us as equals - you cannot trick or coerce people into a democracy and expect it to end well. Even if the Tempest did something bad to you, we will let you know what we find.

We also made a promise to investigate the plague. And we will keep that promise. Even if you don't trust our altruism, we've been exposed to it as well. This crew doesn't get to go home unless it's cured. For exactly the same reasons that we'll share whatever we find out about the Tempest, if we do manage to develop a cure, we will share it with you.

On a personal note, I'm hoping that once this is all over, I'll get to go drinking with some of you, and we'll be able to laugh at how misplaced our initial mistrust was. But that sort of friendship is something we have to earn, and with more than just words.

Anyway, Chancellor, if there's anything else you would like to say before we close the communications channel, it's all yours."

[truemane]

For the next few hours, Nares is a bustling hive of activity.

CAPTAIN NOWAK
Krys finds some time to look at the specs on the Malcorian Warp Drive. For such a fractured (and sometimes anti-progress) people, they managed to put together a remarkably complex and elegant piece of machinery. The drive basically operates by creating wormhole-like structures in space. Each one is infinitesimally small, only several microns long, but by generating a near infinite number of them, they are able to achieve speeds of up to Warp 3 and maintain them for long periods of time.

VESE AND THE CHANCELLOR
The only change to the proceedings suggested by the Chancellor is that they be permitted to record the address, but not to broadcast it yet. Knowlege of the plague is not widespread on Malcor III. The roots of the social unrest seem to be related to the perceiving 'interference' with planetary government by the Federation. And he fears that revealing the existence of the plague on a large scale would cause panic and overwhelm their emergency response and medical systems.

But he fine with the address as is. He adds some comments of his own, along the lines of remaining calm, exercising patience, that the authorities have things well in hand.

He then requests to be returned to his planet as soon as can be arranged. And then asks if there is some way he can confer with his colleagues on planet, from the ship. So he contain the political fallout and judge the correct time to release the broadcast.

Alternately, he is willing to release an edited form that removes all reference to the plague.

KARSSINAO
Finally returned to his beloved Engineering, and with some time, Chief Karssinao starts combing through data. And there is a lot of data. The advanced AI computer of the Nares is able to allocate him an enormous amount of processing power, and so he is able to sift through it very quickly and efficiently.

What he discovers is this:
The power drain in the Warp Core, and that measured 'discovered' by the prove, is effectively identical.
It is also matches the interference experienced by the transporters.
It seems as though the interference/radiation actually alters the quantum signature of whatever it hits (similar to recorded interactions with the Mirror Universe). But in this case, the change seems to make whatever is affected 'non-real' to all instruments and chemical/electrical processes.
What happened in the Warp Core, and with the probe, was that some of the anti-matter mix was altered in this manner. With the probe, there was a cascade reaction that killed all the power. With the Warp Core, there was nearly a different kind of cascade that almost caused a breach.
What happened with the transporters was that the transporter was confused by seemingly random bits of what it was scanning ceasing to exist and as such it refused to lock down.

All of which means they needed an entirely different means of studying and measuring the... whatever it was.

LOCKE
Lt.Cmdr Locke, as the medical officer with the most experience in the field, was looking over all of the medical files provided by the Malcorians.

The symptoms were fascinating. The digestive failure. The bleeding. The neurological dysfunction. All so precise. All so specific. In her experience, illnesses generally cause one single problem in one single place, and most other issues are autoimmune responses.

But this was very different.

Looking over the files of those affected, she can see no clear link between them, other than their involvement in the Warp Program. No clear reason why some of them fell ill and others didn't. Why some seem to have passed it on to others and some hadn't.

There was either no connection, or some connection based on information she did not possess.

The best she could come up with, based on the very scant details she possessed, was that all of the sufferers had sufficient clearance to actually see and interact with the Warp-capable craft itself.

All except one. A young Malcorian junior engineer named Formos. He was part of a second wave of infections and is still alive. He contracted the illness but had no clearance to even be in the xsame building as the others.

[BananaPhone]

https://image.gala.de/20012726/uncropped-165-206/6ba05e8d07a0e09d963ec48f61548625/vZ/natasha-henstridge--4746894-.jpg Lt. Commander Locke


Alone in her corner of the ship, Miranda peered up and across the large panels of data feeds with a tablet in her left arm while absentmindedly tapping a pen against her chin in thought. Softly humming a song while taking in the information before her, the Augment narrowed her eyes at one particular sentence. Whatever it was that she saw the doctor kept to herself, before she used her right thumb to depress a button on her pen to activate the local audio-recording banks.

"Chief Medical Officer's Log," she started, before pausing for a moment to consider just how much she liked the sound of that title.

"Stardate 48352.00. I have been consolidating all known data on the new infection on Malcor that has already claimed six lives. The initial symptom of this unknown disease first affects intestinal permeability, as nutrients are inhibited from passing across the gut wall. It is currently unknown which of the four layers of the wall apprehends this navigation, as is the intrinsic mechanism of this impediment. The second symptom of intestinal deterioration would suggest an underlying cellular apoptosis, or even rapid senescence.

However, every patient also demonstrates neurological damage similar to seizures. Furthermore, every patient has developed gastrointestinal haemorrhaging and neurological dysfunction after close proximity exposure to the Malcors new warp engine, which apparently..."

Miranda leaned herself over and peered at a separate feed. From the swift movement of her eyes it would look as if she herself were about to have a seizure, but after the Augment sped-red through the report, she straightened herself out and continued speaking.

"...opens numerous warp-holes in space. Finally, though this disease displays traits similar to a parasitic transmission, as of this recording there is no biological evidence of a parasite even existing. This leads me to believe that these patients are suffering from gastrointestinal ulcerations and central nervous system lesions brought on by a Cerebrovascular Accident, more colloquially known as a stroke. However, until I receive some actual samples to study, I am only conjecturing. I will make the acquisition of Patient Zero and Formos a top priority. Formos developed the same symptoms as all the others, but without direct exposure to the warp engine...at least officially anway. It's quite possible that he gained entrance via unofficial means, or contracted this disease from one who had. Regrettably, no dissections will be necessary, but a few standard tests will help give my thoughts greater direction."

[whoiam]

To comply with the Chancellor's wishes, Vese will record two additional parts - the first, a short addendum to the original recording, stating when she made it and that it's being held back at the Chancellor's request. The second, an edited version, covering only the coup attempt, the mission to rescue the Tempest, and the playback of the Starfleet briefing.

With that, she turns to Krys. "So, Sir, what have you found on their warp drive? It'd be nice to have a present for Karssinao to make up for the delays up here..."

[ve4grm]

Krys hands over a PADD with his notes. "It's actually pretty incredible, Vese. You see, unlike a standard warp engine, this seems to operate via some sort of artificial wormhole technology. They've already reached a sustained speed equivalent to our Warp 3. With enough power, given wormholes' folding of space, the theoretical maximum "speed" could well exceed ours, since they don't technically travel the distance in between."

"That said, while I understand the theory, the practical application is rather foreign to me. I'll have to turn this over to you and Mr. Karssinao to run simulations. I'll go assist the chancellor in contacting his allies, and getting him back to the surface. Let me know if you need a sim pilot - I'd love to fly this thing."

Krys turns to the chancellor.

"Come with me, sir. We can contact your people in my ready room." He nods to an Andorian in a gold shirt. "Ms. V'Tan, prep a shuttle."

[whoiam]

Vese doesn't even bother looking up from the padd as she responds with some simplified warp theory.
"Remember the rubber sheet analogy they use at the academy to teach you about gravity wells? Start with that. A Federation warp drive folds space so a bunch of the distance we need to cover is in the fold, pinches the sides together at the top, and the ship flies over the top, skipping the space that it shoved in the fold.

This design folds the space upwards, and then to get past the fold that's now 'in the way', pokes thousands of tiny holes in it and then rams the ship through the weak patch. Not exactly great for anything that might be caught in the fold.

I'm simplifying, of course, but under the speed, the novelty, and the somewhat unnecessary complexity this design is far more 'cool' than 'great'."

Finally, she makes some eye contact, apparently having finished her skim-reading.

"...But I'm gonna get Karssinao to build one, so you might get a chance to indulge yourself regardless."

And unless Krys stops her, she'll leave it there to get herself down to Engineering.

----Engineering----

"Hola, Furball!" Now she's not around her boss or any of the native dignitaries, Vese isn't even bothering to try and act professional. "Who wants to replicate of a piece of cool but inefficient tech so we can figure out who or what's eyes the Malcorians have been sticking metaphorical needles into?"

[seatyger]

It takes the Caitian a moment to make sure he heard everything correctly - damned residual ringing. With a nod of certainty, he responds, "Okay, kitan, how are you going to try to blow up my ship this time?" (Which is Karss-speak for, "what interesting thing do you have for me?")

[whoiam]

Vese tosses Krys' padd at Karssinao. "Krys scavenged up a copy of the Malcorians' warp core design. Kinda half-way between a traditional warp field and an array of micro-wormhole-generators. I'm thinking that whatever the cause of these anomalies is, our best bet at accessing it is through those mini-wormholes. So let's build some! Then start shoving microprobes through. I wanna see what's on the other side! Y'know, before it kills us."

[seatyger]

Catching it with ease, he skims over the PADD's content, nodding to himself as he reads.

"I've heard about something like this - I recall some egghead at the Warp Ten Complex at Jupiter Station presenting a paper on a quantum-tunneling drive, or whatever he called it. Similar theory," he says. "It'll certainly be easier to build a scaled-down bench-test than to program everything into the holodeck, but, I do want to run a couple simulations before we open up a wormhole anywhere near us.

"It may help to pull up some data on the Bajoran Wormhole, to see if there's anything we can learn from it that the locals are missing."

[truemane]

VESE AND KARSSINAO - ENGINEERING
The odd pair look over the available information on the Malcorian Warp Engine. It is detailed and complete and they could have a small-scale mock up constructed within four or five hours. Or, alternately, they could have holodeck programmed in twelve.

The main difficulty will be trying to detect the interference/radiation before it wreaks havoc on whatever it touches.

NOWAK AND CHANCELLOR CHARISTA
With the planetary address taken care of, the Chancellor insists on being returned to Malcor III. But, upon learning that they could not transport, and would have to fly down in a shuttle, became despondent.

"We have no planet-based defense systems. Although, if Doerns has his way, we will soon enough, but we do possess quite a powerful airborne military. And they will be watching for any alien incursions. I cannot imagine how we will make landfall undetected. Anywhere close enough to the city centres for me to perform any useful function. And anywhere beyond the population centres will be too far. Too remote."

LOCKE - MEDICAL
Commander Locke pores over all the available information, her computer-like mind synthesizing data and finding links.

The main things she becomes convinced of are that whatever is causing the neurological dysfunction is very similar to whatever caused power loss to the probe almost did to the ship, and has been causing issues with the transporter. The effect in living beings is more localized, and more consistent, but it does seem to be causing all electrical activity in the body to 'flicker' like an unstable power source. And the constant 're-booting' is what causes the violent seizures.

The other two symptoms do not appear to be related. However, all three are certainly from the same source. Which means there is a source. Just one they are thus far unable to detect.

[ve4grm]

"Not to worry, Chancellor, being undetected isn't required. In fact, remaining visible and public may be our best bet, as it will limit the chances of another assassin to come after you in private.

"Now, the military knows we're here, and we'll remain in contact during our flight so they know what we're doing and have no valid reason to regard us as suspect. We merely need to be sure that where we're landing is friendly. Do any of your allies in the capital have private landing pads? Something sized for a helicopter or similar?"

Working with the chancellor, Krys sends a message down to an embassy in the capital. The ambassador there has been fairly reserved in her attitude towards joining the Federation, but very positive regarding at least establishing good relations with the rest of the galaxy, and is a trusted colleague of the chancellor. She agrees to open their private helipad for our shuttle to land on.

"Captain Nowak to Commander Locke. It doesn't look like we'll be able to transport up any patients any time soon. Would you care to join us in shuttle bay 2 for a field trip? Bring any equipment you deem necessary."

[seatyger]

VESE AND KARSSINAO - ENGINEERING
The odd pair look over the available information on the Malcorian Warp Engine. It is detailed and complete and they could have a small-scale mock up constructed within four or five hours. Or, alternately, they could have holodeck programmed in twelve.

The main difficulty will be trying to detect the interference/radiation before it wreaks havoc on whatever it touches.

Thoughtfully scratching the scruff on his chin, Karssinao muses, "I dunno, kitan; I think we won't be able to replicate real-world results with the holodeck. The effect we're trying to find may be too anomalous for us to program the simulation effectively. We need to build the thing.

"We should install it on a probe and put it out to the edge of our high-resolution sensor range, using both the probe's sensors and the ship's sensors to gather data when we activate it," he proposes. "What do you think?"

[BananaPhone]

https://image.gala.de/20012726/uncropped-165-206/6ba05e8d07a0e09d963ec48f61548625/vZ/natasha-henstridge--4746894-.jpg Lt. Commander Locke


Locke was peering at her scrap-board of ideas in thoughtful contemplation when Krys' communications came through.

"Hmm?" she perked up, looking about herself as if she had just forgotten where she was.

Reaching up and tapping the badge on her chest, the Augment replied, "Yes sir, I'll report to the shuttle bay immediately, Sir," her gentle voice came through on his end.

"Well, it looks like you will have to wait for now..." she said to her current work, as she transferred it all to a small datapad that she could take with her down to the surface.

Gathering a few things into a handy over-the-shoulder bag, Lt. Commander Locke made her way to the shuttle bay, her movements on autopilot while her mind went over the current data again and again.

[whoiam]

"I was gonna say shuttle, myself, but we had the same basic idea. Either way we can get it far from the ship and run our stock of probes past it at relatively little danger to the crew. Need any help from me on building the thing? 'cause if not, I'm gonna grab m'crew and start making some educated guesses about the sort of things we should be looking for, get started on programming the probes, that sort of thing. We don't know how long we can keep it running once we start, after all, so the quicker we can get results the better..."

[truemane]

NOWAK AND LOCKE

The two bundle the Chancellor into the shuttle and set off from Nares. The ride is smooth and uneventful. The Chancellor points out several landmarks and important sites. Almost all of the landmass on Malcor III is on three large continents. The main landmass, Alchor, is long and narrow, and is also the most populous.

The second, Bilchor, is the largest, with about half of the population and is home to most of the more 'conservative' communities and elements of Malcorian society. It can be seen to the north of Alchor across a narrow body of water, almost like it's looming over the seat of power. The third, Enchor, is the smallest, is on the other side of the planet, and is almost entirely uninhabited.

As soon as they break through the atmosphere they are joined in the sky by two warplanes. They emerge from cloud cover nearby and bookend the shuttle. They are primitive craft, by Federation standards, but are the very height of Malcorian planetary transport.

The shuttle is hailed and Minister Doerns' face fills the screen. "Captain. Please allow my men to accompany you to the ground. You are in Malcorian airspace now and I must insist you follow correct protocol."

Unrelated to the above, can you both make me a Reason OR Insight + Science roll? Difficulty three.

Any tasks you want to roll in regards to the above feel free.

VESE AND KARSSINAO
Meanwhile, on Nares, the other two bridge officers go about constructing a mock-up of the Malcorian Worm-drive. It is quite complex. Maybe even more complex than it needs to be. A few more iterations and this drive would have half as many moving parts, use a tenth as much power, with double the output.

This iteration, however was a clunky, twitchy, fiddly, over-wrought mess of a mechanical device wrapped around an elegant set of physics principles.

About halfway into the process, they are hailed from the bridge. "Commander?" said the Ensign at the Conn, "You might want to see this?"

She routed something to their terminal. It was some kind of coded message emerging from Malcor III. It was almost buried in the background of their broadcasts and communications. Nares only caught it because several bits of it were close enough to a Federation distress call to trip the sensors. And,once detected, it repeated over and over and over. It was unlikely anyone on Malcor III would even notice it.

It was encoded. Cleverly encoded. Almost deviously encoded. Whoever wrapped this up was very smart, and was very intent that no one unravel it.

Pick the traits you think would make the most sense and roll them. Difficulty 2.

[ve4grm]

"Certainly, Minister Doerns. That suits us just fine. We will be landing at the Potellan embassy. Ambassador Megrin is expecting us. They may take issue with your craft as we get closer."


Tasks to roll:

Insight (9) + Science (1)
[roll0] - no successes

And I'll roll to maintain control over our route, without looking like I'm actively fighting them if they're trying to guide us elsewhere. ("Fly casual" :smallsmile:)
Control (11) + Conn (4) (Focus: Small Craft)
[roll1] - 2 successes

[truemane]

The Minister scowls. "Very well. You are not to exit your craft until my personnel arrive to escort you." And with that he cuts the communication.

The Chancelllor leans in to Captain Nowak once Doerns is off-screen. "We must be cautious. The Potellans are a strong faction, and proud of the independence, but they haven't the spine for true resistance. If Doerns pushes them, they will bend."

Meanwhile, the craft remain close, perilously close. The pilots are clearly trying to test Krys' resolve by flying almost close enough to touch. But the seasoned pilot remains steadfast and they backaway. Just a little.

[seatyger]

"Huh. It's been a while since I've played with cryptography. Care to lend a hand, kitan? I could use a little backup on my math," the engineer says. He understands this is more of an operations officer specialty, but they didn't teach a broad curriculum at the academy for nothing.

Karssinao Insight+Engineering (10/5) task vs. Difficulty 2. No Focuses apply.
[roll0]

Ship Communications+Security (10/2) assist. Ship's Focus always applies.
[roll1]

OOC: Vese, please assist with Reason + Science.

[ve4grm]

"If Doerns pushes them, they will bend."

"Ideally it won't come to that, Chancellor. I'm still holding out hope that Doerns will see that word of an attack against you, by one of his own men, would be bad for his image. Unlike before, when he had us all in custody, he's no longer in control of the message."

Commander Nowak pressed a few buttons on his comm panel, dialing up the embassy. To the confused Malcorian assistant on the other end, he spoke:

"This is a message for Ambassador Megrin. Please get this to her immediately. Tell her that we should be there within minutes, but we have a Malcorian military escort. There may be some ground forces coming as an escort, as well. We will do our best to keep the embassy peaceful, but I felt it prudent that nobody be surprised when they show up. Thank you."

Krys hangs up.

"Computer, generate a memory disc with the Chancellor's address on it. Encrypted. Something compatible with Malcorian playback devices, please."

[BananaPhone]

https://image.gala.de/20012726/uncropped-165-206/6ba05e8d07a0e09d963ec48f61548625/vZ/natasha-henstridge--4746894-.jpg Lt. Commander Locke


Locke had remained characteristically quiet throughout the orbit-to-atmosphere flight. Her blue eyes scanned the horizon and the external environment as the shuttle whizzed passed a blur of geography, but overall she seemed her usual distant self.

In truth, she was still going over the plague in her head. She had dedicated minimal mental resources to being aware her surroundings during something as routine as a trip to the surface in the shuttle.

[whoiam]

"I'm always up for fiddling with numbers, you know that! ...All the encryption changes is which branches of maths I get to play with."

But for all her stated enthusiasm, Vese would help Karssinao as little as she thought she could get away with. If he cared to sneak (or force) a peek at her PADD, he'd notice that she was working up test plans for their mocked-up engine between periods spent helping with the decryption.


Setting up Vese's Testing a Theory bonuses for later by... well, having her come up with a theory now for her to test later.

Don't think I really need to roll for that (I'm pretty sure she's had a prior success on the topic with the first probe earlier), but I'll throw out a couple of theories she can roll against if you like :smallsmile:

[truemane]

Momentum - 1
Threat - 4

Traits: None


NOWAK AND LOCKE
The shuttle flight is tense but uneventful. The two fighters stay close enough to make Krys had to dedicate most of his attention to piloting, but they make no other overtly hostile acts. It would seem that Krys' was correct about Doerns not wanting to take any action that is too public.

However, the two fighters do accompany them all the way to the Ambassador's landing pad, veering off only at the final moment. Krys can see the delegation of the Potellans just outside their facility, including Megrin. And he can also see two trios of soldiers standing nearby.

The computer produces the memory disk, as requested.

Locke remains quiet, continuing to go over the data in her head.

VESE AND KARSINNAO
The encryption on the signal turns out to be not only conceptually complex, but also requiring almost all of Nares' computational power to undo. It is a fair bet that, not only is there no computer on Malcor capable of doing the same but it's a question as to whether all of the computers on Malcor could solve it.

Once undone, it turns out to be two alpha-numeric sets. The first is a bit of a mystery. But the other is almost certainly a transmission frequency of some kind.

[ve4grm]

Commander Nowak palms the disc, and leads the chancellor and Ms. Locke out of the shuttle. Seeing the security forces keeping a respectful distance, he approaches the ambassador and extends a hand in greeting. "Thank you for your hospitality," he says while slipping the disc into the ambassador's open hand. "I hope our caution is unwarranted, but in case it isn't..." he pauses "...I'm glad the chancellor has allies such as you to assure our safety."


I'm going to go with Control+Security to surreptitiously pass the disc without security noticing, and get my message across that if something happens, it is to be accessed.
Spending 1 momentum.
Control (11) + Security (3) = 14
[roll0]
Yeah, I think that will do. Any bonus successes will go to party momentum.

My plan - The decryption on the file should take a few days for Malcorian technology to decrypt. Plenty of time to ensure that it doesn't get released too early, but short enough that it will be able to be released if something should happen to us. The enterprise could also send a decryption key on my request.

Krys then takes a step back and defers to the chancellor.

[seatyger]

VESE AND KARSINNAO
The encryption on the signal turns out to be not only conceptually complex, but also requiring almost all of Nares' computational power to undo. It is a fair bet that, not only is there no computer on Malcor capable of doing the same but it's a question as to whether all of the computers on Malcor could solve it.

Once undone, it turns out to be two alpha-numeric sets. The first is a bit of a mystery. But the other is almost certainly a transmission frequency of some kind.

OOC: Spend 1 Momentum on Obtain Information, and Bank the other 4 (for now). Does this look like it was created with Federation encryption techniques, and would a ship with the computing power of the Tempest be able to create this complex of an encryption?

[truemane]

MOMENTUM: 5
THREAT: 4

NOWAK AND LOCKE

The Ambassador shows only the barest of expressions when he feels the disc pressed into his palm. He tucks into one of the many pockets in his robes (and, indeed, Krys would later learn that Malcorians refer to ambassadorial regalia as Hoarder's Cloaks for exactly this reason), smiles and greets him and Locke and the Chancellor.

As the soldier watch, stony faced and ready, the Chancellor and Ambassador begin trading pleasantries and formalities. They get to the Official Welcome and the Formal Acceptance and start moving toward the building. The soldiers break into two groups of three: one for the dignitaries, and one for the Starfleet officers.

As the whole ungainly mass of people start moving, a woman breaks away from the crowd near the doorway. She is dressed simply: a grey tunic and light over-shawl and light walking shoes. Her hair is pulled back in a casual bun. She looked for all the world like a mail carrier or notary public who wandered into the wrong party.

But her walk was confident and direct. And the soldiers didn't stop her from approaching.

"Captain and, Doctor?" she gives Locke a lingering, appraising glance, "I would like to speak to you alone, if I may."


I'm going to assume that Locke has read everything there is to read about the Malcorians, and the aborted First Contact, and everything Dr. Mirasta ever said when she left Malcor. If I'm correct in my estimation, roll me Reason + Science, Command or Security. This is memory/deduction Task. Difficulty 3.

Also, thinking more about the plague and the information she has available to her, Locke becomes even more convinced that there is a single direct cause, and that the issue is that she/they can't yet detect it.

VESE AND KARSSINAO

The Chief, upon further investigation, is convinced that the source of encryption is Malcorian. Just done by someone with some knowledge of or contact with a Federation distress signal. And with the scientific/logical mindset required to reduce it to its component parts such that Nares would pull it from the background noise.

And encryption is easier than decryption. It would take a serious computer, probably something along the lines of a government-funded supercomputer, to create it. But it is well within the capabilities of their technology. But whoever made the code, made it so it could not be cracked by their own people.


I wasn't clear enough, but I meant for that second point to be obvious from available info. So you can Obtain one more Information without spending Momentum.

[ve4grm]

Captain Nowak glances at the chancellor, who gives a small nod. It looks like he will feel safe enough here, and Krys doesn't expect any sort of attack to come in the relatively secure embassy.

As he responds to the woman, Krys continues walking with the procession. "Of course, miss..." he pauses expectantly, hoping for a name.


I'd like to roll an Insight (9) + Security (3) (12 total) check to confirm what I wrote above - that the chancellor is relatively safe here, and this woman isn't an immediate threat.
[roll0]
1 success

[seatyger]

I wasn't clear enough, but I meant for that second point to be obvious from available info. So you can Obtain one more Information without spending Momentum.

The question is, then, could we garner any clues as to the nature of the first alpha-numeric code?

[truemane]

Momentum: 5
Threat: 4

NOWAK AND LOCKE

The woman smiles a coy smile. A pretty smile, but also a cold smile. It was a smile that held secrets.

"Just call me Set."

The Universal Translator stumbles over that word. It's not a name, it's the literal translation of whatever word she used. But the translator was clearly not used to hearing that word in this context.

Her eyes follow Krys' and she nods in understanding. "I assure you that the Chancellor is in quite significant danger. But I can also assure you that the danger is, at the moment, the sort for which he is well equipped, and for which you are not. So we may steal a slice of season, as we say."

She starts walking along the side of platform toward the stairs to the maintenance building: a long, low, metal flat-roofed structure just below this level.


The Chancellor seems at more or less at ease. And you don't sense anything in anyone's manner that indicates they're about to shoot him or anything. 'Set' also doesn't seem like a physical threat. She carries no obvious weapon and she doesn't look like someone who kills with her bare hands.


You remember from your reading that there's a letter from a dead language, used in Malcorian algebra, is commonly referred to as set. In the same way that humans use Delta to mean 'Change' or Theta to mean 'Sum.' Set is used to represent an unknown answer. So, basically, she just called herself Ms. X.

VESE AND KARSINNAO

After running the first string of symbols through the computer, it seems that they are orbital coordinates in the Malcorian system. The spot is not far away, but is away from the planetary government facility and over a smaller city a couple of hundred kilometers away.

Just a tiny shift for Nares, but maybe a long haul for a Malcorian.

[whoiam]

Glancing over at Karssinao's results, Vese opines "Well, that's interesting. But I think we should run our test first before we poke too deeply into what the Malcorians are hiding. If we go straight for them, we run the risk of malfunctions at the worst possible time..."

[ve4grm]

Captain Nowak looks at Miss Locke and shrugs. "Mysterious stranger? Sure, why not! Maybe she can actually tell us what's going on here." Krys holds his hand up to his ear, thumb and pinky extended, and mimes "We'll call you" to the chancellor - a gesture he almost certainly doesn't understand - and follows Set to the building.

[seatyger]

Glancing over at Karssinao's results, Vese opines "Well, that's interesting. But I think we should run our test first before we poke too deeply into what the Malcorians are hiding. If we go straight for them, we run the risk of malfunctions at the worst possible time..."

"Right. Let's see what this thing can do," the Caitian engineer says as he inspects the Malcoran device one last time before turning it on.

[truemane]

Momentum: 5
Threat: 4

NOWAK AND LOCKE

The chancellor does indeed give the officer a strange look before disappearing into the facility. Set leads the two across the platform and into the long, low shed. The inside is a single space filled with what appears to be various kinds of maintenance equipment and supplies.

There are four workers in here toiling away and varying tasks. They look up as the group enters and stare incredulously.

Set unclips a metal token of some sort from her belt, holds it up and says, in a polite tone, "Can you give us the room please?" And they hustle out a far door with haste and determination.

She turns to the pair.

"Okay, Starfleet. I am not a word-mincer and am no politician. Your presence has proved both toxic and explosive for the Malcorians. I am tasked with keeping my people safe. Which, in this circumstance, to my best estimation, and please correct my thinking if I have erred, means two things: determining the cure for this Space Plague and getting you all off my planet and out of our star system, forever."

She paused.

"And I am asking what you need from me to make either of those things happen. Preferably both."

VESE AND KARSSINAO

They engaged the Malcorian Worm Drive. The device hums to life...

[OOC: Awaiting rolls]

[ve4grm]

"Explosive... yeah..." Krys Mutters.

"Ms... Set, we in no way want to cause trouble for Malcor. We'd prefer to have a relationship with your people when you're ready to do so, but the terms of that relationship will be left up to the Malcorians, not dictated by us. Member of the Federation, ally, or isolated community with little contact, that's your people's choice, but frankly that's for the diplomats to discuss, and is not why we're here."

"Our main goals right now are to find our people, and cure this plague. I'd say we could ignore the plague if Malcor asked us to, but it's affecting some of our people as well, so that's no longer an option. We weren't able to transport our crewman's body to our ship earlier, due to some sort of disruption around the planet. This time, we've brought more medical equipment down for Dr. Locke to examine the patients in more detail. She can explain more."

Krys gestures at the badge Set flashed. "I assume you're planetary security or secret police of some sort. How aware are you of what happened to the Chancellor earlier?"

[seatyger]

"Clumsy, inelegant, bastardized design...what the fridz were these people thinking?" Karssinao mumbles as he activates the Malcoran drive; he's reluctant to even call it a "warp" drive, since it's about as far away from warp technology as these hairless monkeys around him are from civilized beings. "Damnable monkeys, messing with things they don't understand."

Karssinao Insight + Engineering (10/5) task vs. Difficulty ?? (reduced by 1 for Karssinao's Brilliant Curmudgeon trait) Purchasing 1 extra d20 for 1 Momentum. No Focuses apply (as this doesn't seem to be close enough to Warp Field Dynamics for it to be useful).
[roll0]

[BananaPhone]

https://image.gala.de/20012726/uncropped-165-206/6ba05e8d07a0e09d963ec48f61548625/vZ/natasha-henstridge--4746894-.jpg Lt. Commander Locke


Locke perked an eyebrow at the introduction of "Ms Set". Before her knowledge of the Malcoorian language kicked in, the name "Set" had drawn the augments mind into Egyptian mythology and the God of violence, chaos and foreigners. Given this womans shady profession, as her flash-of-the-badge to clear out a room full of workers demonstrated, it was an apt moniker.

After Krys spoke first to Ms Set, it was Locke's turn to address the mysterious stranger.

"I have been going over what data I have," the Augmented started, "and we have experienced power irregularities with our ship, which I believe is linked to the neurological problems caused by this plague. Additionally, every patient is joined by exposure to your new warp drive design, except for one, and youth named Formos. In ideal circumstances, I would need to examine both him and the first Malcoorian to exhibit symptoms of the plague. When I have data from those, I can consult with our engineers in regards to your warp engine. Is that possible?"

[whoiam]

"I'd guess they probably started out trying to build artificial wormholes, and this is likely what they re-purposed it for when they found they didn't have the tech to scale any of them up to a usable size... but they could tie a bunch of experimental projectors together pretty easily."

Vese doesn't have any problem idly chatting as she starts up the probes for her scans. They've got some things to test out, after all...


Vese is following two lines of investigation here. The first is general scans of their new warp field, using the ship's sensors and some regular probes. The second is running some micro-probes through some of the short-lived micro wormholes to get a more direct measurement of what the wormholes may be tunnelling through.

As to the theory she's testing, there's two main ones. The first is that the wormholes are hitting some exotic dimension and the effects they're seeing are caused by something leaking back through from there. Her personal bet is on something similar to Anti-Lazarus' anti-matter universe, though there are other possible dimensions they could be hitting.

The second theory is that there's something around the planet that standard sensor sweeps don't pick up but which reacts to the Malcorian warp drives - some kind of space-borne entity slightly outside of the standard dimensions that they're starting to irritate by jabbing it with needles wormholes...

The general scans:
[roll0] - 2 dice + testing a theory's bonus die, against Vese's Insight or Reason + Science (16) and using the Astrophysics focus.
For this roll, she is assisted by the Ship's Sensors + Science (12) [roll1] and the Advanced Sensor Suites (-1 Difficulty)

The Microprobe runs:
[roll2] - 2 dice + testing a theory and Computer Expertise bonus dice, against Vese's Insight+Science (16) and using the Astrophysics focus.

But since they're not running the Nares through the wormholes, it's not helping out on this one. (Karssinao's welcome to help with one or both checks, though :smallcool: )

[truemane]

Momentum: 9
Threat: 4

LOCKE AND NOWAK
Set nods at Krys. "My primary concern is containment. Of this plague. Of the panic. Of the separatist zealots that Doersn might not actively support but for sure doesn't dissuade. Of your involvement with our politics. Containment."

She pauses at his questions. "I know... some. Not all. There was an incident. He survived, most likely due to your intervention. Was on your vessel. And is now returned. Whether he comes home to open arms or suspicion or even prison and disgrace is, as you say, up to the diplomats."

She listens attentively to Locke's requests. "I believe I can arrange you to see Formos. One way or another. Patient Zero, as I believe you call them, has died. And whose body will not be easily retrievable, I'm afraid. Not quietly, anyway."

VESE AND KARSSINAO
The Malcorian drive rumbles and hums, staying in one place but spinning date out into Nares' computer banks.

A few things come into focus pretty quickly.

The wormholes do indeed seem to be touching, or impacting, or travelling through some kind of exotic dimension. As best as they can tell, it is somewhat akin to the Mirror Universe in that the energy of that dimension seems to have a different quantum signature than that of our reality. And contact with this dimension seems to subtly alter the signature of whatever enters, just enough so that, when the microprobes enter, they are completely undetectable for the infinitesimal length of time it takes them to cross over.

So it is clear here is there is something (or somethings) at work here that are outside of their sensors' capabilities.

Solving that will mostly like take input from science and engineering.

Secondly, there is nothing they can detect that seems to react to the drive in a measurable way. Not in its current configuration anyway. Not in any way they can detect.

However, their tests are short-lived as one of the contained warp fields loses integrity, launching one microprobe out at horrendous speed across the room and into the computer bank on the far side, destroying it and causing a fire that, while quickly extinguished, spreads far enough to cause significant damage to the computer systems in Engineering.

[ve4grm]

"Indeed. There was a bomb, and a struggle where we managed to remove the explosive from play. We ended up in containment and, while we'd prefer to defer to your legal systems, we suspected that some of the other security officers, or maybe even Mr. Doerns himself, might share these extremist views, so we extricated ourselves and the chancellor from the situation. We offered to tend to the chancellor's injuries on our ship, but he wished instead to keep them so that everyone could see the result of the attack. We'll have to see how that plays out."

"How will retrieving the first body be difficult? Is he buried already? Can you tell us more about the patient? I also think it will be beneficial to examine our own ill crewman again, to compare how it's affecting human physiology."

[whoiam]

In the silence after the aftermath of the probe's ejection, Vese takes a moment to examine the readings on her PADD. And apparently likes what she sees, as the next thing Karssinao knows, he's on the receiving end of a bear hug. "Guesssss what we just found?"

Without waiting for the engineer to answer, Vese hits her combadge. "Vese to Nowak, is this a good time to talk?"

[seatyger]

In the silence after the aftermath of the probe's ejection, Vese takes a moment to examine the readings on her PADD. And apparently likes what she sees, as the next thing Karssinao knows, he's on the receiving end of a bear hug. "Guesssss what we just found?"

Without waiting for the engineer to answer, Vese hits her combadge. "Vese to Nowak, is this a good time to talk?"

The engineer stiffens up, resisting the instinct to bare his claws to defend himself from the grapple. When she releases him to make the call to the exec, Karssinao adjusts his tunic and mumbles, more to himself than to her, "A pocket dimension. Like the thousands of others known to Starfleet."

[ve4grm]

Without waiting for the engineer to answer, Vese hits her combadge. "Vese to Nowak, is this a good time to talk?"

Krys hesitates for a second, but decides that sharing information may be in their best interest. "Go ahead, Vese. You're on with me, Dr. Locke, and one of the Malcorian security operatives, a woman named Set. We've been discussing the plague, and how to help contain it."

[whoiam]

"Hiya Set!" Said with a tone that would be more appropriate to a giant, fluffy dog as it attempted to lick a stranger's hand.

(Assuming you could teach such a dog to speak, of course.)

"I'm Lieutenant Commander Vese, the Nares' Science Officer. With me is Lieutenant Commander Karssinao, our Chief Engineer. We've been building and testing a Malcorian-style warp drive to check for a link between the drive and the 'plague'... and we've found one. Short version, 'something' leaks out from those warp fields, we're not sure what, and the plague's what happens when too much of that 'something' gets into a living person. It'll probably still be a while before we can get specifics of what this contaminant is, but for now, we've found a detectable quantum signature. I'm downloading it to your and the Doctor's tricorders. Should be enough to let you do exposure and contamination checks, so at least you're not wandering around blind down there.

We're gonna keep working on it. Oh, doc? If you get a chance to scan anyone symptomatic, call us back with the exposure levels. Karssinao and I would appreciate knowing how much of this stuff we can take before we're debilitated as well."

[truemane]

Set hides it well, but she is clearly taken aback that Vese and Karsinnao have managed to build a prototype of her people's most advanced and precious technology so quickly (and so casually).

"Tha... thank you, Starfleet. I admit I am most gratified by your competence."

She turns to Krys and Locke.

"I can bring you to see your crewmate. Instantly, if you wish it. Any of the Malcorian victims as well, with perhaps a couple of exceptions. Almost anything else you need, anywhere else you need to be, I can manage with an hour or two's notice. Except..."

She paused.

"The body won't be hard to retrieve, it will be hard to retrieve quietly. He was the son of a prominent family, related to the Minister himself a time or three removed. And the cause of his death was hidden and hushed from even his own family. Any movement in that direction invites consequences I am not currently willing to risk. Except in absolute necessity."

She pauses. Makes eye contact with both officers in turn. "And I mean absolute."

Meanwhile, on Nares, having discovered a means to detect the altered quantum signature of matter that has come into contact with the mysterious contaminant (for it seems to cause shifts, unpredictable shifts in quantum signatures, rather than just having one alternate signature, like the Mirror-verse), figure out that they can detect its presence easily enough, but to truly 'see' it will require constructing an entirely different kind of sensor than anything they had on Nares.

It was lucky they were the ones running this experiment, as it was a job that would require both science and engineering knowledge. And it would take at least a couple of hours.

And there was also the coded Malcorian message left unresolved.

[BananaPhone]

https://image.gala.de/20012726/uncropped-165-206/6ba05e8d07a0e09d963ec48f61548625/vZ/natasha-henstridge--4746894-.jpg Lt. Commander Locke


"I knew it!" Locke said under her breath when it was confirmed "something" was leaking out of the miniature worm-holes created by the Malcoorian warp drive. Knowing the cause, she could rule out virological vectors, which cut the list down considerably. With the proper materials and a working replica of the warp drive, she could run several in vitro tests in an afternoon and then use that to move onto better patient care.

"Patient Zero is highly desirable," Locke stated, "but the price you're speaking of would be a last resort. Formos will do for now."

[truemane]

Set nods at Locke. "Very good. I will pay that price if that is what the situation demands, but I will not pay it until I am certain it is required. In the meantime, let us see Formos."

She starts walking. Pauses. Looks back. "I have heard tell that your people have discovered the power of instantaneous teleportation? Is this true? Is it safe for both your people and mine? Can it be used to deliver us anywhere?

Her face was a mix of curiosity, nervousness, and excitement, anxious to ask more questions but limiting herself to what was necessary.

On top of whatever else, she was probably a science nerd.

[ve4grm]

Krys is all too happy to engage in conversation. Ingratiating themselves with Set seemed like a good idea right now, anyways. "Well, near-instantaneous at least, yes. The federation and others have variations on this technology, and yes, it's quite safe. If we have the chance when this is settled, we could arrange a demonstration. As far as delivering you anywhere, though... not exactly. Shielding and other disruptions can prevent transport through them. And it is limited by power requirements, and dissipation over great distances, so inter-planetary transport isn't generally feasible. But in and around a planet and its orbit is well within our means, yes."

He paused for a second, frowned. "Except Malcor, it seems. Something about space around the planet, potentially related to the current situation, is making transport tricky... risky. That's why we brought our shuttle down this time."

[truemane]

Set nods. "Then we are not able to travel in that way at this time. Very well. No matter." Her expression is a combination of relief and disappointment.

She leads them through an access tunnel to a smaller platform on the opposite side of the facility and into a small aircraft. It is very basic repulsorlift tech and is noisy and shaky and very unstable compared to the smooth, confidence of the Nares' shuttle.

But it lifts off and it flies and they aren't going far. Set makes several communicator calls, each filled with code words and phrases.

Within minutes they had landed on a hospital rooftop and, within several more, they had traversed a narrow maintenance hallway and elevator and arrived in a room with a single Malcorian. He is painfully, painfully thin, worn away to almost nothing, his bones stretching his pale waxy skin. His hands and feet tremble almost constantly. He has what looks like a constant stream of blood hooked up to both arms.

His brow is furrowed and his head is shaking back and forth as though his dreams are unpleasant. He is muttering something, a single word, over and over. It sounds like "Ah-sheel.'

"I am told he is sleeping, not comatose," Set almost-whispers, "Although his lucidity may be in question."

All of the available data on the terminals matches what Locke and Nowak have already read.

Set looks at the clock on the wall. "We have perhaps ten minutes before I have to start explaining things to people in ways I'd rather not. Be swift."

Asheal Behahr was one of the last of the first round of victims, now deceased. He was an astronaut, but an alternate, and never went into space.

The corner of the room has a table pulled away from the chair where it should be. On it is a cup of coffee (still steaming slightly) and what looks like a half-done card game. You would guess there was a guard of some sort in here not long ago. Large booted footprints on the floor indicate possible military.

[whoiam]

With the call over, Vese's attention switches back to Karssinao. "Well, not sure if it's a pocket dimension or not, considering the odd way they're folding space it could well be larger than the regular ones! --Probably not important right now. Important thing is we've got a way to detect what it's interacting with. Next step, I think, is to set up some basic tests to try and work out what is coming through. Real elementary stuff, like is it is particle, does it have mass, can we deflect it with magnets or block it with shields? Better yet, I've got a sort of half idea of how we'd be able to scan for it properly - but that'll involve some funky new emitter-scanner-emitter rigs, so we might want to finish the basic tests before we start rigging up any of those."

With that, Vese passes over her PADD and it's new list of experiments. It's also got a sketch of her planned detector - two offset emitters creating an interference pattern of ???, and one detector watching the pattern for disturbances. The other experiments seem to be designed to test candidates for use as ???.


Science+Reason, using Astrophysics, Testing a Theory, one Momentum-bought die and the Full Quantum Signature advantage. For what I assume is the start of an extended task, but could be a check all on it's own... either way, this roll's the same!
[roll0]

[seatyger]

Karssinao nods. "I think I can put something together to help us focus on what you're looking for. Let me replicate a few parts and I'll see what I can do."

Karssinao Reason + Engineering (9/5)
[roll0]

[truemane]

The next couple of hours see Vese and Karssinao working to put together the modified scanner protocols. It is slow, careful work. The scanners were never meant to work this way, and the math is complex and detailed.

However, between Vese's theoretical knowledge and the Chief's practical know-how, they do manage to cobble together a retrofit for Nares' main sensor array. Within another couple of hours, they should be able to have all the sensors on the ship outiftted with the alterations.

So they were all set.

The only question was what to point it at?

[BananaPhone]

https://image.gala.de/20012726/uncropped-165-206/6ba05e8d07a0e09d963ec48f61548625/vZ/natasha-henstridge--4746894-.jpg Lt. Commander Locke

Locke withdrew severla instruments from the little bag she had brought with her and immediately drew up to Formos. Holding the scanners up, she took readings of the first patient to be confirmed to contract "the plague" without being in proximity to the new warp drive.

"Just a few questions," Locke asked, "you were never within proximity to the new warp drive before you fell ill, yes?" she confirmed, "among those who were, who were you in contact with in the following days?"

"Additionally, what were your first symptoms? And how long did it take for you to feel the effects?" Locke asked, her tone carrying the diplomatic hue of a doctor questioning their patient, as she drew the scanners over the Malcoorian.