A Trail Of Breadcrumbs
Posted on Thu Jun 22nd, 2023 @ 8:24am by Commander Chisato Nishikigi & Captain Taiga Aisaka & Commander Thomas Johnson & Lieutenant JG Nezuko & Ensign Kehl th’Kaaliq
Edited on on Thu Jun 22nd, 2023 @ 8:31am
1,569 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Descent
Location: Gamma Zednor Station
"Hold on... that can't be right..."
Chisato leaned forward to verify that she was reading the sensor data correctly, and that this wasn't a trick of her imagination. Once she realized that she was indeed seeing what she thought she was seeing, her eyes widened as she put two-and-two together.
Holy shit; but if that were the case...
She needed some additional verification before she reported her findings to Thomas; stealing a glance over her shoulder, she spotted Nezuko working on a console nearby, along with the Andorian Ensign who had accompanied her earlier to help in restoring power to the ventilation systems. She wasn't familiar with him, but based on the blue uniform and the fact that he was helping Nezuko with more technical matters, she wagered a guess that he was part of sciences- his input could be of use in this situation.
"Nezuko," she called out from across the room. "Could I borrow you and that Ensign for a second? I need your opinion on this..."
Nezuko looked up, nodded to Chisato, and grabbed Kehl by the arm to drag him toward the Intel Chief. She cocked her head, curious about what Chisato had to show her.
Kehl had been wrapped up taking notes on a small PADD. Nezuko's pull likely tugged him away from walking into a vertical row of panels sticking from the middle of the room.
"Take a look at this," Chisato explained, directing their attention towards the monitor. "I've been carefully combing through the sensor data to try and establish a timeline of events leading up to the initial impact. Now, there's two things to bear in mind with this specific hardware- for one, the radar measures any and all foreign objects within a 500,000-mile radius of the station- if, for hypothetical example, an asteroid were detected here..." -she pointed towards the very edge of the screen- "...Heading towards the station at a rate of 10 miles per second, then the staff would have enough time to raise the shields so that it would bounce off of it harmlessly. Second, this computer utilizes an FGRPX-13 processor, which records data at a rate of once every 0.017 seconds- faster than the human eye can blink."
She looked back at Nezuko and Kehl and grinned. "Have I lost you with my nerd-speak, or have I still got your attention?"
Nezuko gave a thumbs up to Chisato. She decided to refrain from asking the one question that popped into her head: What’s a Mile? She’d figure it out.
Ensign th'Kaaliq smiled and offered a curt nod. "I am far from lost. Please continue."
"Right then," Chisato continued. "If I may direct your attention over here..." -she pointed to an area of the screen that was devoid of any object- "...This frame is from approximately 15 seconds before impact. Nothing out of the ordinary, right? Well, if we move on to the very next frame- in less time than the human eye can blink mind you..."
She clicked over to the very next frame, where the previously empty space was suddenly filled by a large anomaly.
"Boom! A large object, documented by the computer as measuring 325 Meters by 344 Meters by 313 Meters, is detected within just 22,000 miles of the station- and mind you, this is the very first frame in which it's detected."
"So, if we do the math," Chisato went on to explain. "Not factoring in any subsequent frames, this object has covered about... 478,000 miles. 0.017 seconds makes for about 0.00000472222 hours, so if we were to do some basic algebra and divide 478,000 by 0.00000472222, and that would mean it would have to be traveling at approximately 101,223,529,412 miles an hour to go from out of frame to this exact location."
She turned to Kehl and grinned. "Now, Ensign... what would you say is the probability of an object this size ever reaching upwards of 101 billion miles an hour?"
"To keep it simple", Kehl replied. "Highly unlikely... I would be looking at technology.. Did something push it there? Was it transported into range or somehow otherwise pulled into position?"
"I'm gravitating more towards the former," Chisato replied. "Because as I just pointed out, this frame is from 15 seconds before impact; if the object were to maintain the speed we're basing this off of from the previous two frames, you would expect it to travel no less than 421,764,706 miles in that time; for that matter, the station would likely be pulverized by this thing in the very next frame. But as you can imagine... that's not what happens:"
She scrolled ahead a few more frames, where the object had seemingly slowed and was now maintaining (at least at first glance) a much more realistic trajectory.
"The next few frames clock the object as traveling at just 5,280,000 miles an hour- still fast, but quite a difference from the 478,000 miles it covered in a span of time faster than the human eye can blink. so, if we consider that the object went from over 101 billion miles an hour to just over 5 million in 0.017 seconds, that would be a deceleration rate of 8,282.908754052803 feet per second squared. Now, already factoring in the ludicrous improbability of that object ever achieving a speed of 101 billion miles an hour, what would you say is the likelihood that any object within the physical realm of space could experience this sort of deceleration without tearing itself apart?"
"Not very likely at all", Kehl replied. "Something highly artificial is at hand."
"Of course, by now you'd begin to suspect that this might potentially be the fault of the software," Chisato continued, opening up the external casing for Nezuko to peer in and have a look. "But that's certainly not the case here, either:"
Nezuko inspected the computer. A bit of heat damage from all the smoke but otherwise very good quality. It had been replaced very recently, that much was certain. She gave Chisato a thumbs-up sign.
"Historically, Academy facilities have some of the most well-maintained subsystems of any Starfleet installation," Chisato elaborated. "They routinely train cadets every semester on maintenance and calibration procedures, so that they can take what they've learned firsthand and implement it into the field. That means that subsystems like these are routinely serviced on an average of 3 months, way more often than is recommended by the manufacturer. As a matter of fact, I've heard instructors having to deliberately sabotage PCB boards just so that their students would have something to work on."
Nezuko remembered these lessons well. She wrote onto her PADD. So this was not a computer error. The objects were either placed here directly, somehow at speed, or maybe it was cloaked?
"I'm inclined to believe the latter," Chisato pondered. "Remember how when we spoke to Commander Ral and she claimed that the asteroid literally appeared out of nowhere? The whole theory of a cloaking device would line up perfectly with that statement."
"I can see the reasons for a cloaking device", Kehl said while scratching his head. "Even if it was a cloaked asteroid which was weaponized, they still may have used some method of transport to bring the cloaked asteroid to bear."
Chisato glanced over her shoulder and spotted Thomas conversing with Commander Ral.
"Commanders," she called out, waving the two of them over. "Come take a look at this."
Petra came over. "What did you find?" She asked as she brushed some of her hair out of her face.
"I've sifted through the sensor data to try and determine anything unusual about the asteroid's trajectory, and it looks like you bit the nail on the head," Chisato explained, scrolling back to the frame right before the asteroid appeared.
"Observe: this was taken approximately 15 seconds before impact..."
she then scrolled to the frame after that.
"...and this was taken approximately 0.017 seconds later," she continued, indicating towards the anomaly in question.
"Like I said before. It literally appeared out of no where." Petra explained. "We didn't even have chance to lock on weapons to divert or destroy it, then it got very busy... you know... with it hitting us and all..."
"Then Romulans, or someone associated with Romulus that has easy access to cloaking technology." Thomas said.
Petra nodded at Thomas's comment. "Can you back up the data? We'll need it should we fail to stop the station from falling out of orbit, plus, we should focus on getting everyone out of here safely first."
"Can do," Chisato nodded as she pulled out her PADD and began hooking it up to the console.
Ensign th'Kaaliq just felt so new. There was a sharper learning curve here than in a field like tactical. He took his PADD out and began writing notes. It was a good example of studying video footage to make deductions.
Posting by (In Order Of Appearance):
Lieutenant Commander Chisato Nishikigi
Chief Intelligence Officer, USS Tokyo (NCC-91101)
Lieutenant Junior Grade Nezuko
Chief Operations Officer, USS Tokyo (NCC-91101)
Ensign Kehl th'Kaaliq
Astrometrics Officer, USS Tokyo (NCC-91101)
Commander Petra Ral
Commanding Officer, Gamma Zendor Station
Commander Thomas Johnson
Executive Officer, USS Tokyo (NCC-91101)
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