The Strange Silence
Posted on Mon Feb 26th, 2024 @ 1:09pm by Lieutenant Colonel Shaun Bradley & Lieutenant Alan Harrison & Lieutenant JG Kikua Mahone & Lieutenant JG Tamra Pren & Master Chief Petty Officer Lucas Nilsson
1,300 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Crossed Wires
Location: Main Engineering
Timeline: MD 02: Early (After "Reuniting the Hounds")
Alan quickly walked into the engineering building, responding to an urgent summons regarding some unresponsive ship on an approach to the colony. Today, like yesterday, seemed to be full of surprises and strange events. He made a mental note to check if they'd unintentionally desecrated something sacred when building the colony after the current situation settled down. He noted that Kikua, Lucas, and the colony's communications specialist Tamra were present in the main engineering room. He turned to Kikua and asked, "What's the situation, Lieutenant?"
"Not great. We got a report from Security-" Kikua started, smacking the side of the holographic projector. It sprang to life, showing the nondescript vessel he was about to speak on. "About this thing. It dropped out of warp a bit ago, and I'm sure they'd have gotten the Haumea welcome wagon, but they won't respond to hails from the Shuttle Pad..."
He trailed off, pulling up another image with the flick of a wrist. It was a map of the surrounding galaxy, with the ship's placement. A little red line sprang from that to the planet that Haumea sat peacefully upon. "If it keeps going at the rate it's going - which is real slow - then we're looking at it eventually breeching the atmosphere and crashing right into the center of town."
"Approximately how big is this ship, Lieutenant?" Alan asked. If it was small enough, they might be able to tractor or deflect it, "And are we detecting any life signs onboard?"
To his callsign's namesake, Shaun had entered the room somewhat unnoticed as he approached, finally chiming in as he approached the pair and placed a PaDD down. "It's about two kilometres long, though estimates suggest that most of it is dedicated to fuel and storage," the Colonel said, nodding to the pair. He fed the data from the PaDD out to their screens. "We are only detecting around two hundred people, though I highly suspect that is not an accurate number. The hull is made of some kind of radiation reflecting material."
Kikua let out a low whistle as he scanned the stats on screen. "Warp trail that followed behind it suggests it was going Warp 1 before it entered the system. Wonder where it came from."
"Warp 1?" Alan pondered for a second, "Can scans tell us anything about their engines or warp core? Maybe they're simply limping home after being attacked."
Kikua frowned at the screen. "Gotta say, it's hard to tell. There doesn't seem to be any external damage, but the core is not reading at high energy levels. I can't tell why though. Could be something stuck in their systems, I'd have to get over there to get a closer look, and if we can't hail them - probably not a good idea, huh?"
"They haven't responded to hails, though we suspect their technology is limited in the subspace band. We are trying other methods, old school tight beam and radio, but we also suspect their systems are damaged. There is a ton of scoring on the hull. If it hasn't been on this path long, then it is old." Shaun fed the trajectory the ground controllers had worked out. "This looks uncontrolled, a coasting path probably that didn't account for stellar drift. The ship seems equipped to aerobrake, you can see the atmospheric brakes along the nose. But it has no way to land, so I suspect it is meant to skip off the atmosphere and enter an orbit. This path won't see that happen, and in fact we will likely see after its second aerobrake maneuver its going to end up lithobreaking."
Alan thought for a few moments. "I know it's an ancient technique, but have we tried communicating using light pulses? I think they called a standard pattern 'Morse code' centuries ago on Earth."
Kikua shook his head. "Even if we had, how are we gonna be sure they'd understand a light signal message like that? Could be seen as an act of aggression."
"We could hardline them," Shaun said, rubbing his chin as he studied the schematics that are up. "We used to do it when pirate hunting. You strap a magnetic harpoon to the bottom of the ship and fire off the line, create a chain of interlinked ships with no external communications. Keeps you silent, and when you find you mark you dump the cables." It would be easy enough to set up a shuttle, or even the Atala to operate in that way, allow for a physical connection if their systems are damaged.
"We would need to do it in such a way that it couldn't possibly be seen as aggressive," Alan replied, "But I like the idea of using a shuttle to go closer. There's no way something that small could be seen as a threat to a ship this large. And it would let us get a better idea of what situation they're in."
"At such a size, they may just be too busy dealing with keeping their structural integrity field working to be concerned with our comms," Lucas said, finally standing up to join the conversation.
"I'd be in favour of a closer scan, though I am cautious about sending a shuttle alone. The Atala would be preferable, as it's not a combat ship but it can take a bit of a knocking and keep going." He regarded the main structure in front of them. It had no visible weapons, but that didn't mean anything. "My priority for you all is to get us an idea of why they are here. If that means a line of communication, awesome. If it means we get a more detailed scan, and some understanding of their systems, we can work with that. If they start shooting, I want to make sure we can push them away A-S-A-P."
"I think that sounds like a good compromise, sir," Alan replied with a nod, "I'd like to volunteer to go, if that's an option. And I'd like to bring Lieutenant Pren in case we need to fix their communications array." He looked over to the Lieutenant sitting at her console on the other end of the room.
Kikua gave the whole ship and what little they knew about it the big skeptical squint. "We might wanna all go. Bring some Ops with us too, get all the perspectives in." He added as an offhand suggestion. "Just in case it's not just the communications array."
Alan nodded, "Good idea. I heard we're going to be getting a new head of Ops soon - hopefully they'll be here by the time we set off."
"I have no objections. But I am sending a squad of Marines with you. I'm not having you caught unawares if someone decides to get feisty. But you're in charge Lieutenant. Don't let anyone give you any flak around it, and if you feel they're best to stay on the ship, they stay on the ship." Shaun looked between the two people. "I don't have anything else but well wishes and luck to offer. Unless you need anything else from me, I have a Civilian population to attempt to calm."
"Understood, sir. Mahone and Pren, you're coming with," Alan said, "Nilsson, you're in charge of engineering planetside effective immediately."
"Aye, sir," Lucas replied and turned to glance at the panels listing the overall status of systems in the colony.
"Yes, sir," Tamra replied with a stoic nod, "I will collect portable comms equipment."
Kikua coughed out a nervous, "Sounds good, Sir." He rubbed the back of his head and made a gesture. "Should I get the prep started?"
"Yes, Lieutenant," Alan nodded. Looking around the room, he continued, "Anything else?"
"No, get to it," Shaun said before leaving the room.
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