Better Sensors

Posted on Tue Jul 16th, 2013 @ 9:30pm by Ensign Maximillian Cobyassa PhD & Captain Jacob Lambert

861 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 2 - Whispers in the Clouds
Location: Ready Room
Timeline: Day 2 - 0900

It seemed to Jacob that the whole morning so far had been spent in the ready room having meetings with everyone. This time it was the turn of the science department.

"Lambert to Ensign Cobyassa."

"Ensign Cobyassa here." Lambert.. Lambert.. who was Lambert again? The name sounded familiar, but Max just couldn't place it.

"Please report to my ready room."

Ready room..? Oh crap, its the captain! the answer struck him like a thunderbolt. A bit stunned, at first he wondered if he was in trouble for something. Oh no, lets not go down that path again. He had learned his lesson from last night's late meeting with the Commander. Best not to assume the worst and just go and see what the captain needed.

"Y-Yes Sir. Right away!"

After a few minutes, and several redirections from the computer, Max finally found his way to the captain's ready room. Taking a deep breath, he pressed the ringer.

Jacob looked up as he called the officer into his room. "Ah, come in Ensign," he gestured to the chair "Please have a seat."

"I'm not sure how much you know about our upcoming mission, however I hear you are good with sensor arrays. We are searching for a Federation ship which has gone MIA in the Finnean corridor. We believe it may have been lost in the Moray nebula, which is a class 9 Nebula. We need to think of a way we can enhance our sensor array in such a way that we can at least counter some of the elements that would ruin our sensor readings." He observed the man in front of him thinking, almost seeing the cogs in his head moving.

To be honest, Max hadn't heard anything about his current mission. He had heard that there had been some kind of emergency that had occurred, but hadn't been privy to the details of why. Finding a ship huh? Well that definitely wasn't something you did every day. As he thought things through in his head, he opened his mouth to ask a question, only to shut it silently as a torrent of other questions would assault his brain. After several moments of silent thought, he finally spoke up.

"Do you have a PADD that I could borrow?"

Jacob stood and walked to the panel at the end of the sofa, which slide to its left revealing a storage area. he reached in and took out a PADD, handing it to the Ensign.

Taking the PADD, Max's fingers flew across the surface in a flurry of activity which became a blur to the eye. As all the ideas, thoughts and questions poured into his brain, he did his best to capture as many of them as he could. After a few minutes his fingers eventually slowed as he managed to get a grip on his thoughts. With a flick of his fingers, he brought up a few questions on the screen.

"Do we have access to the ship's mission log and expected trajectory?"

"Yes," he returned to his seat at his desk. He tapped some buttons on his desk, sending the information to the Ensigns new PADD. "All the information you need is being transferred. There is nothing special about the route they took. It was a standard trade route between New Bajor and DS15. The main problem is if they have drifted into the Moray nebula, which is why I need you to come up with a way to counteract the nebulas effect on our sensors.

"I remember reading up on class 9 nebulas at the Academy, and they've been a thorn in the side to quite a few researchers much better qualified than I. But I wonder if it might be faster to narrow the search grid instead of widening our search potential. If we could scan the areas along their trajectory but outside of the nebula with our scanner's full power, we may be able to identify what happened to the ship before it entered the nebula and with a few simulations get a closer approximation of where in the nebula the ship would get to before failing completely. And of course if there was some sort of damage done to it before entering it, we may be able to pick up the trail of crumbs to lead us through the maze."

"Excellent. Get to it then." Jacob sat for a moment, wondering if there was anything else.

"Right away Sir." Max said as he rose from his chair. "Who's the project lead that I should report to in order to get things started?"

"Report to Lieutenant Wildner. She has some experience with mapping these kinds of nebulas, but you have more experience working directly with the sensor array." He waited for a moment to see if the Ensign had any more questions.

Max nodded. He was eager to get involved in this new project. It wasn't at all what he was expecting, but he was honored to have been hand picked by the captain for such a special project.

"Very well," Jacob sat up just a little straighter. "Dismissed."

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