Blood on your hands pt4
Posted on Thu Oct 29th, 2020 @ 12:29pm by Lieutenant Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell & Captain Rhenora Kaylen
Edited on on Thu Oct 29th, 2020 @ 12:35pm
Mission:
Diplomatic Masquerade
Location: USS Liberty
Timeline: Current
The doors parted granting access to the bridge. It was a place she had seen in passing but not stayed as her place was a small hole in Engineering, and by small hole that meant a two deck computer core containing most of the knowledge in Starfleet. Today it was busy, almost every station occupied. She felt it was sort of like getting on a transit bus where almost every seat has already been taken.
As she stepped out and looked around she immediately spotted the Captain and as luck would have an open science terminal at the back. She quickly made her way out of the lift and to the back terminal and sat down. Inputting her access code, activated the screen and brought up her data results of the communications signal. She then turned around and called for the Captain, her timid voice evident. "Captain, can I have a moment of your time?"
Rhenora looked around and the new voice and did a double take - when had Bonnie arrived on the bridge? What other subtleties had she missed?
“Of course” She commented and set the now empty coffee cup back on the small console beside her chair and headed to the science station.
“How can I help you?” She offered warmly, hoping to make the young officer feel more at ease.
Bonnie swallowed hard, "Well I was researching the distress signal, attempting to understand it's origin and composition." She turned around and pointed at the screen. " At first I suspected it may be a Cardassian signal modified to deceive us, but I compared the spectrum with everything we know about them and found the signal doesn't match, not even close."
She pointed at the spectrum of the signal and the known spectrums of the Cardassian signals. Then she changed the screen to show her data collection of the foriegn signal. "In fact I found only one other similar signal in the Federation database and that signal had an organic structure." She turned back and faces the perplexed Captain. "Based on what we theorize about this civilization, possibly living entirely underground, possibly diggers by nature. What if we are dealing with a deeper subterranean culture, like evolved ants or something? And that's why we haven't found them, we're not looking deep enough?"
"An interesting hypothesis" Rhenora mused, resting her hands on her hips "any deep dwelling civilization would be almost impossible to detect from the surface. Any power signatures would be dampened by the many tonnes of rock. " She continued. "Whoever they are they're advanced enough to know to send a distress call - this could be a first contact situation."
"Right. So I was thinking if the signal has an organic signature, so too maybe the antenna used to send the signal." She turned back to the console and inputted some information. The screen displayed a large tree surrounded by many little trees with a cross section showing their connected root system.
"This is a Kesselian swamp root tree. It evolved to take in salt water and copper from the surrounding lake bed. In theory if you applied the right amount of energy through the root system you could broadcast a long range signal. Put several together and you could have a subspace transmitter, in theory."
Rhenora smiled at an old analogy that crossed her mind regarding wind directions, metal clothes lines and rudimentary mobile telephone reception.
" Theoretically possible, add the fact the air is so dry, perfect antenna. Metallic core, high location, it could work" Rhenora absently scratched the palm of her hand that was beginning to burn again. What was with that?
"I thought of that too. No swamp and arid conditions on the surface, but what about just below the surface. Like say, a salt water aquifer?" She smiled and turned back around. "I haven't scanned the surface yet but I think what we should look for is a large grouping of trees, a vein of conductive metal ore and a nearby aquifer. Those conditions have to be rare, right?" She was beaming with positivity.
"I do believe you may be on to something, good work Bonnie" the Captain encouraged, raising her palm to inspect why it was so damned itchy.
Bonnie was about to say thanks but her expression changed to one of concern. "Are you okay Captain? Your hand looks like your husband's cheek." She quickly recalled Remal saying he was going to see the doctor about it.
"Say what?" The Captain regarded the offending limb, then connected the words through an elaborate thought process in her brain. "Remal had something on his cheek?" She queried, concern for her husband overpowering the urge to brush a skin irritation away.
"It was red, like your hand and he kept scratching at it. I think he was going to see the doctor about it."
"That's so weird" Rhenora mused, attempting to refocus herself on the task at hand "wait, he went to sickbay for it?" Suddenly her mind was conflicted. The mission was at a delicate stage, yet her husband was unwell with herself showing a common symptom. What was going on here?
"Keep at it Bonnie, let me know the minute you find anything" She ordered before handing the bridge over to Lt Commander Lexington. She had to find out what was going on with Remal.
She watched the Captain leave with a worried mind, something only menial work could distract from. In turning back to her computer terminal she brought up the current planetary scan records and began a systematic scan grid using the new data point parameters. Like the proverbial grass growing cycle, she watched the search pattern fill in the blanks.
