There's No Place Like Home Part I

Posted on Tue May 24th, 2022 @ 5:25am by Commander Cyrus Cain & Lieutenant Cael Maz & Lieutenant JG Melissa Jones

Mission: S1 Episode 2: Caretaker, Part II
Location: Caretaker Array
Timeline: Mission Day 7 at 1330
846 words - 1.7 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

Control Room, Caretaker's Array
Just over two hours had passed since the away team had beamed aboard the array and, finding it sparsely defended, put the Kazon scum they had found to death excepting Cullah, whom they had sent back to Vengeance for special treatment. Since then, Commander Cain had worked tirelessly with Lieutenants Maz and Jones to activate the piece of technology which had brought them to the Delta Quadrant. After Maz had successfully translated the main language in the computer, their work came closer to being possible to complete.

Cyrus stood hunched over a console, his uniform jacket and gloves long-sense chucked over a chair beside him. He was an engineer by training, and a damn good one, but these systems were so far beyond him.

"When we get back, I'm going to apply to teach a course at the academy: Weird alien shit 101." he said, a slight smile on his face as he depressed several keys.

Melissa continued to work relentlessly on this she sighed and shook her head. "This technology is almost five centuries beyond us, it uses a type of... Quantum folding that I cannot even hypothesize." She mentioned. "We're not dealing with science and technology here. That I can understand." Melissa said calmly as ever. "We're meddling with magic, as Arthur C. Clark would define it. And if you were to teach this class known as Weird Alien Excrement 101, concerning this unique array. The class would last fifty years." Melissa mentioned.

"You're not much for joking, are you, Lieutenant?" Cain asked and chuckled, before opening a new file. "we've found the program for calculating wave trajectory. Now we just need to see if we can find the one that allows us to send our ship back rather than just scattering it across the quadrant."

Melissa spoke. "It relies on precise mathematical calculations done by the old fool with the banjo, commander. This place was built as an extension to being we found in that village. And the old fool has no doubt died.. The Ocampa were experimenting on this place to see if they could link the array to someone else, and that person requires very specific characteristics and mental capability. Annoying Instrument." She noted. "You Terrans have produced some fine music, and some not-so-fine music in your history."

“Have you ever heard Klingon Opera?” Cyrus asked, and then turned his head back to his work. “We need to find a way to complete those calculations here at a console…maybe, if we network the Vengeance computer, she can complete them.”

"Possibly.." Melissa noted. "The Vengeance's computer is enhanced with bio-gel packs like a primitive neual network. Augmented with my own capabilities and link to the computer. I could with time plot a singular course to bring us back to Terra and Vice Verse.. We are uniquely fortunate the Vengeance Class was designed with that capability in mind. It will be taxing but possible even with my enhanced mind." Melissa noted. "In essence I know where we're going, and where we are... But it will be quite impossible to go to places I do not know. That is the limit of my mind, and to continue I will have to redirect a considerable amount of the Vengeance's processing capability. Holodecks, Agonizer booths, replicators, transporters, and other non-essential computer processes will have to be disabled." Melissa mentioned.

"I don't mind being hooked up to this device." Cael Maz said after listening to the two banter. "If it needs an interface and years of experience, there is no one else on the ship with more experience than myself, all things considered." He said in a nonbosting way. "Worth the processing power, I suppose," Cael said in a bit of an off putting mood. Something was clearly going on with this man internally and it was starting to show externally.

“We’d need to rig the bio-interface to work on humanoid physiology. The first part we can do right here, right now, but the second will take time. Safety testing; troubleshooting; adjustment.” Cyrus said. “We May not have time for that right now.”

Just as he finished his sentence, an indicator alarm went off, drawing their eyes. He stepped over toward Cael’s console and frowned.

Cael went to answer about 'damned the safetys' when the alarm went off, "Looks like we have company, Kazon ships on the inbound."

"Negative.." Melissa noted. "We have to use my bio interface." She noted. "Lieutenant Maz, you need to connect my interface to these systems. I have an idea on how to secure the situation While sending a ship seventy thousand light years may take us a week, sending these Kazon ships into a nearby star will be far more simple. I can do it as soon as I am interfaced."

Maz looked to Cain for permission or at least his thoughts on the matter at hand, "Five minutes is all I would need to get her in there."

Cain thought for just a moment, then gave an affirmative nod.

"Do it."

TBC