Going the Long Way Round

Posted on Thu Nov 3rd, 2022 @ 12:01pm by Captain Ivan Petrov & Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov & Lieutenant Johnathan Anderson III & Lieutenant Commander Lyra Cassiel & Lieutenant JG Taina M'Tras & Lieutenant Sovas Nyseth & Lieutenant Dr. Daniel Brasken & Callie Marshall & Lieutenant JG Kassandra Selin

Mission: S1 Episode 4: The Cloud
Location: Bridge
Timeline: Mission Day 1 at 0900
4314 words - 8.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Bridge, ISS Vengeance
Another day of travel, another marginal bit closer to home. The Shadow Fleet travelled at warp through space with the singular goal of getting back to the Sol system as quickly as possible. The idea of being stuck aboard had started to sink in for people, and while some people were giving in to depression, others were finding their new lives pleasant. Both the Discipline Inspection offices and the lounges had been full with the happy or the sad, and life was starting to settle into an uneasy reality.

Andrei Petrov was not missing Terra at this moment. His father had switched him to leading the Alpha Shift watch while the old man sat in his office doing paperwork. Now, a rotation of senior staff would command Beta Shift, and Gamma shift would be passed off to unfortunate other junior staff, like department assistants. The XO had placed his PADD on the console between him and the empty Captain’s chair and had taken to staring at the moving stars. Their sensors had detected a nebula directly in their path, which could have meant a week’s diversion if they had to go around it. He was hoping going through would be an option, but one never knew until they were closer.

The past few weeks had certainly been eventful for Lyra. Christoph's demise, her promotion in his place, her time on Anorra, her rank promotion, and now the fruition of her elite squadron - home had scarcely entered her mind outside of when it was forced on her. Her acceptance of their situation had been immediate. Hope for home, but don't let it obscure reality. Her eyes lifted briefly from her console and she looked over toward Andrei as he stared at the view screen. The icing on top was him being out of that dreadful schedule of beta shift; it would make things easier on them. Her attention didn't linger but more than a second or two before she looked back down to her console. She was keeping an eye on incoming data from the long range sensors from the nebula they were heading toward, but at this point saw nothing tactically alarming about it.

Callie stepped out onto the bridge, making her way across to one of the small seats next to the CO & XO’s chairs. Over the last few weeks she’d been kept busy in her role as Discipline Inspection, and Counsellor. Fortunately her Discipline Inspection role was only required where the Kazon, and Vidiian slaves were required, most of the slaves who’d started out onboard Vengeance knew their places and rarely needed their loyalty questioning. Being the daughter of a slave herself, she tended to feel for those who served onboard ship, with the exception of the Kazon & Vidiians.

“Commander” Callie nodded politely to Andrei as she sat down. She was glad to be on good terms with Andrei given their shaky start, but that didn’t mean she fully trusted him.

Sovas had found little reason to concern himself with home or Sol, there was little for him there save for a father that had, in all likelihood, replaced him as heir apparent already since sentimentality or parental concern wasn't part of Thane Nyseth's emotional landscape. In a way, he felt like a burden had been lifted from his shoulders since they were so far away from the Empire and the internal politics that had given impetus to the driving forces of his life. Granted, he still wanted to return home if nothing more than to spite his father with his continued existence, but it wasn't an overwhelming priority, and he didn't allow himself to dwell on the distance or time it would take them to reach there. Or the fact that save his being killed or some other unforeseen incident, there was a good chance that he would likely be one of the few members of the crew to see Earth and the Empire again, given his half-Vulcan heritage. He considered his time down on Anorra and his distractingly pleasant encounters with Revana. However, he needed to figure out where anything might go, given they were assigned to different shifts; he wasn't opposed to another encounter with her. Anorra had been overall pleasant for him with the excursions he had taken for hunting and gathering supplies for trade - both on the ship and with any they might encounter - he'd made sure that the ship was stocked with goods that would see them through the foreseeable future with careful consumption and planning.

He was currently at his station checking on the probes he'd ordered to have made ready should they desire to inspect the looming nebula in their path to see if there was anything of value to be had. Though he was also keeping himself distracted from his other issue that the presence of the cortical monitor placed behind his ear didn't let him forget or the subtle shifting in his mind of the presence there that seemed to be trying to hamper the efforts of the medical staff to get a sense of what had taken residence inside of him. So far, it was behaving, but he'd also found that he'd experienced little moments of lost time and indulging himself more frequently with the slaves of the ship to relieve tension or running through his holodeck programs to violently relieve the more bloodthirsty urges which had caused him to consider if it wasn't time to request detainment possibly. However, none of this inner turmoil was evident by merely looking at the half-Vulcan, who maintained his calm and efficient demeanor.

Johnathan sat at his helm, quietly checking his controls and looking to see what the sensors showed about the nebula that they were approaching rather quickly. Though he looked it, his mind was not fully on his duties. He was feeling frustrated by the fact that the Captain seemed to be taking his time in deciding as to whether or not he would give his blessings. After discussing things privately, Johnathan and Kassandra had decided that, until things were settled, one way or another, with her father, they would both abstain from having any form of sex. They still spent the evenings together, having dinner together and talking about their lives, both past and what they wanted for the future.

"ETA to nebula boundary," Johnathan spoke up, breaking the silence that was on the bridge. "Fifteen minutes at this current speed, Sir."

The door to the bridge from the turbolift opened, and the chief of Intelligence walked onto the bridge, a Padd in her hands. She stepped up to the console where her station was and set about inserting the data into the system. She barely paid attention to the others on the bridge.

Engineering
Taina was not emotionally homesick for Terra. There were things she missed there, but there were more bad memories than good and even the good ones tended to be complicated. Here, she had Samuel, and her feelings there had grown quite serious despite her best efforts to pace herself. All of that was in ever present on some level but her immediate focus was on her duties. Whether she felt homesick or not, she aimed to do her part to get this crew home. She glanced down at the console before her and quickly worked the controls, checking something yet again. The engines and her staff were prepared for whatever the captain (or Commander Petrov) would ask of them.

Suddenly, on her terminal, an incoming message notification pooped up. The sender was one warrant Officer Samuel Harrison.

Taina quickly scanned her people and her console to make sure she could spare a moment. Then she opened the message with a grin.

When the message was opened, Taina was given a simple text message. It read;

T-

What are your thoughts of, after duty, we take a casual stroll in the holodeck, followed by dinner at one of my favorite restaurants?"

Yours,

S-

Taina sent back a quick affirmative before resuming her duties. Something to look forward to.

Sickbay
Daniel stepped out of his office and looked around for a moment. It was nice to enjoy the relatively quiet atmosphere while he could.

The moment passed, however, and he started directing his staff. Commands to prepare vials of radiation medications and tools and make sure they were distributed into the medical kits along with making sure the kits themselves were distributed to the secure areas of the ship.

He wasn't ever willing to rely on replicators during a crisis. Not that he expected one, but nebulae were always a grab bag and twice that out in the middle of nowhere.

Bridge
"Captain Petrov to the Bridge." Andrei said, having hit his commbadge. His tone was unexcited. He would rather remain in command when something interesting like this was happening. As the Nebula filled the screen in front of them, he checked his readings and then looked toward the helm.

"Johnathan. Full stop."

"Aye, Sir," Johnathan replied calmly and professionally as his fingers moved over his controls, bringing the massive warship to a standstill. "Helm answering all stop."

A few beats later, he added, "Navigational sensors now reading full stop, Sir."

"Let's get a closer scan," Andrei said as the doors from the ready room parted. He eyed his father and gave a nod as the old man made his way to the command chair but turned to face the Ops station. "Sovas, scan the nebula and check for conditions appropriate for sublight and warp travel."

"A moment, Commander." The half-Vulcan answered while his fingers danced across his console to run a scan of the nebula to ferret out the desired details; he began to hum a nursery tune that had just entered his mind. He felt compelled to start while working entirely unnoticed to himself. Several of the reading concerned him, given the high concentrations of a variety of what one would expect to find in a nebula, along with some exotic particles and impurities that were undoubtedly anomalous. He stopped humming just as suddenly as he began while seeming to ignore any strange looks that the behavior might have drawn as he looked at Andrei.

"Nothing would hinder the formation of a stable warp bubble though we would be limited to making micro-jumps at a maximum of warp three and only able to sustain them for approximately fifteen minutes." Turning his attention back to his console, he continued to read through the information being provided by the sensor. "Though I would also advise extreme caution if we enter the nebula due to the presence of an organic acid that appears to be similar to naphthenic acid, which is a compound typically seen in the processing and production of petroleum products and is known to be highly corrosive to metals."

"M'Trass, come in." Andrei said, tapping his commbadge. "Take a look at our recent active sensor data. We're going to need you to cue into our conversation up here for the next few minutes. Lieutenant Sovas has determined that the organic acid in the nebula will necessitate our use of shielding the entire time we're inside. Do you have any input that might enlighten us?"

"Calling it up now, sir," Taina said as she worked the console. There was a brief pause. "He's absolutely right. We'd be limited to brief jumps at warp three, and we'd need to use shielding to prevent any direct contact with the acid. There's a definite risk factor. I'm confident it's manageable, but it'll definitely slow us down."

Ivan turned to the helm and looked at Johnathan.

“You’ll be taking point on plotting a course and getting us through the nebula in one piece, Lieutenant.” He said,making sure Johnathan knew he was the one being addressed.

Johnathan turned to face the Captain. Thinking about the issue quickly, he finally nodded. "Yes, Sir. If I can have control of the sensors during the flight, as I would need to identify the safest routes on the fly, I believe I can get us through."

“You’ve got them. Lieutenant Selin will assist you in plotting the course and checking its safety. Beyond any planned projects we have in there, we are looking for the fastest and safest way through for the Fleet.” Ivan responded, his eyes drifting to his daughter without searching her eyes for answers on how she felt on the matter.

Johnathan nodded as he replied. "Aye, Sir. I'll get to work on a route immediately." As he turned back to his helm, his eyes landed on Kassandra's, and a brief, soft smile filled his face. He then finished turning around and got to work, using the navigational information he already had to build at least the first leg of their journey, while waiting for Kassandra to give him more Intel.

Kass spoke "Sending through our scan data now to helm"

Lyra listened to the others, her attention split between that and her own readings. Suddenly, something caught her eye, and the conversation around her evaporated, her focus now completely on what was in front of her. She ran the scan again, focusing it to make sure that it was not just a phantom reading. Once she confirmed it wasn't, she stood a bit straighter and looked toward Ivan. "Captain, sensors are detecting concentrations of decalithium within the nebula."

While this may have been lost on some, Lyra could feel a sadistic excitement quicken her pulse at the prospect of getting her hands on the substance, though only one person in the room would be able to pick up on it. Her face remained neutral and professional.

Ivan had been quite content to leave the investigation to Andrei, but at the mention of the rather obscure element, his ears perked up.

"Get a closer scan, Lieutenant. How much do you detect?"

Looking back down, Lyra's fingers tapped at the console. The density in parts per million in some of these pockets was impressive. Once they were all roughly calculated, she gave the answer. Given the super dense nature of the material, it wasn't any sort of infinite supply, but it was absolutely enough to give them a substantial edge were they to successfully harvest it and convert it into red matter. "Inconclusive, sir, but the computer is estimating anywhere between one and three tons once all deposits are concentrated."

Ivan looked at his son first, who didn't seem to register what was going on, and then stood up and found several other clueless eyes. He opened his mouth in order to explain.

"Decalithium is a key component in the production of red matter, a substance capable of producing a black hole when introduced to an object of sufficient size, say a planet or a star." Ivan said, his eyes going wide with interest.

"It is a very volatile agent, and if we can harvest it, we may be able to use it." The soft voice of the chief of Intelligence came from where she stood. "Enhance our torpedo's." She suggested. "The information on it, states that it is doable, but it is a dangerous process."

"It is, yes." Lyra confirmed and nodded toward Kassandra. "But I believe we do have the capability to do so."

“Do we really need to be risking the ship to get this Decalithium?” Callie looked towards Ivan. “I understand it’s a weapons grade material, but as Lieutenant Selin just said it’s very volatile. One mistake and we could lose people, or even damage the ship.

Kass listened. She was not about to speak out before the Captain did.

“Well, we have a fleet of alien vessels for a reason.” Andrei said, looking to the Captain. “Let’s do our research on the Rynall. She has the scientific capabilities and the slaves there would likely be a momental help.”

Ivan seemed to consider the idea, then he looked around the bridge.

“Thoughts?”

Kass took a breath, "It is indeed why we have them. I would also suggest that we look into ways of increasing our warp capability with it. It is a powerful agent and as Lieutenant Cassiel says, we do have the capability to mine it and refine it. I would suggest we also come up with a safe way to store it, perhaps not on the Vengeance."

Callie frowned. “So put the Rynall at risk instead of the Vengeance? Why not the Rynall?”

"Researching on the Rynall does not necessarily mean harvesting on the Rynall." Lyra spoke up, sympathetic to Callie though not directly addressing the woman. "The Rynall has scientific capabilities that outweigh ours on the Vengeance as we haven't yet integrated their technology with our systems, it makes sense to look into the prospect there. I know the basics of the collection and refinement processes for decalithium, perhaps the Vidiian slaves can assist with the finer points."

Storing would be a whole other issue. Red matter was extremely dangerous, yes, and it was a risk to have it on the ship, but would they really rather put it on a ship with a bunch of slaves? Still, it was a topic to address after they had established if they could even do it.

"I would be happy to work with our engineering teams to organize the supplies and storage of both the decalithium and red matter." Sovas offered up since it seemed that the Rynall would be the preferred storage facility for the dangerous material.

"One step at a time, people." Andrei said with a bit of a snap, his brow furrowing around his interface patch. He took a step forward, his visible eye falling on the senior staff in his view. "We can't figure this out from every angle at once. As we've made clear, we have the expertise to harvest these materials and the facilities to do so. We also have the potential to create a very deadly, extremely and notoriously powerful weapon that would strike fear into the hearts of all who speak our name. The first question is how do we get the decalithium."

As the discussion continued, Johnathan sent a message down to Micheal, who was in his ship, in the shuttle bay. He told the older man that his services might be required and to stand by. He then activated a small monitor at the rear of the bridge, to allow Micheal the opportunity to listen in.

Andrei folded his large arms over his chest and seemed to consider his own question.

"Kassandra, do you know of any history elemental extraction from nebulae?" he asked, turning to his sister who stood at her console right behind the command area. "If so, have there ever been issues that arose when doing so with decalithium?"

She shook her head. "Normally deposits are found on dead planetoids, I would hypothesise that this amount is from a failed planetary formation within the nebulae. That said, using environmental suits and Terran mining equipment, it should be possible. There is also the option of using our transporter system. We could use the targeting system to lock onto the mineral and beam it to a holding zone for processing and testing." She glanced towards the screen that showed Micheal Richardson. "And I also believe that Mr Richardson has a Talaxian freighter that owes him... their lives. Their assistance would be beneficial."

"It seems the big problem with putting on bio-suits is the corrosive acid capable of chewing through the hull. One would imagine it could chew through those suits as well." Andrei responded.

"Hence my other option of using the Transporter" His sister replied calmly and politely.

“That might be the best option then.” the XO said, steering a middle course as he was no more sure of the fact than anyone else. Next, Andrei turned to Sovas. He energetically stepped up the stairs to his level, but spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear him. It seemed like he was in his element at the moment, engaged and giving order to a group of people. The Captain seemed content to watch and listen in silence so long as his authority went unquestioned.

"Next, we need to consider storage. Sovas, Is there any reason we can't store raw decalithium in one of our cargobays before we begin to use it to create red matter?"

"While its certainly a bit of outdated tech now, I'm familiar with storage methods used in the mid-23rd century from historical records for dilithium mainly due to the fact that they didn't possess the technology or precise knowledge for the recrystalization process, though I believe we could in theory create a container." Sovas gently quirked an eyebrow at the rather exuberant Andrei before turning his attention toward Lyra.

"Lieutenant given that you have some expertise here, do you think we could set up something similar to safety store the decalithium?"

Lyra had gone quiet and was just leaning against her console, listening to each person speak in turn and holding her peace until she was spoken to. She was looking at Sovas when he addressed her, but she didn't speak until Andrei also turned to look at her to cue her to do so. "We should be able to, yes. The container would be very similar to one to contain trilithium as decalithium and trilithium share many of the same properties. Decalithium is just much more volatile. As it would be when converted into red matter, the decalithium needs to be kept as near to absolute zero as possible both when being mined and stored which is where the trouble tends to come in. Heat it up too much and its all over."

"We'll definitely need to speak with engineering about maintaining the absolute zero environment, though surprisingly I think the Vidiians may have something ready made." Sovas had turned his attention back to his station and was looking through the manifest logs before finding what he was looking for. "Commander Petrov was correct in suggesting the use of the Vidiian's ship as the initial platform for our venture as they have superior cold storage technology that appears like it could easily be converted to our needs."

"It's all imminently doable," Taina said over the comms in response to Sovas. "You and I would need to make some preparations, of course. "There's enormous potential here, but I can't stress enough that the margin for error is functionally zero." The last was aimed at everyone, though most of them were surely already aware.

"While we research on the Rynall, it may also be worth looking into the possibility of harvesting the necessary materials to make red matter directly from the decalithium isotope deposits instead of having to go through the process of crystalizing it." Lyra offered from her station. "It would cut out the risk for that step at the very least, though if it is possible we would have to make a decision on where to store the red matter. It needs null environment - no contaminants, cold, zero gravity - and people that we trust to not compromise that."

"I'll make the necessary arrangements for our equipment needs and coordinated with Lieutenant M'Tras to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible." The half-Vulcan spoke up and then considered the matter of containment of such a volatile substance though it would prove quite beneficial for them when applied carefully.

Ivan raised his voice at last, indicating he was ready to decide. When he did so, all attention was given to him from those who were a part of the discussion.

“That sounds like the best plan to me. Lieutenants Sovas and M’Tras will generate a clear plan for safely gathering and storing the decalithium with the Chief objective of safeguarding the lives of the people in our Fleet.” He said, at last. “In that same spirit, Dr. Brasken will work closely with his team to ensure that no medical threat is presented by the decalithium or the nebula itself.

"Yes, sir," Taina acknowledged.

Daniel reached over to touch the broadcast button from his office in Sick Bay, having been listening in to the bridge over the medical channel. "Acknowledged, sir."

"Affirmative, Captain." Sovas replied, happy to have some work to do and start getting back in the swing of things as he started to consider the resources they would need and coordinate with M'Tras.

“Now, the final project will be to create a red matter weapon of most terrible destruction. Lieutenant Cassiel, you will take point on this and work closely with Commander Petrov to design this weapon. Enlist the help of anyone you require with expertise on the matter.” The Captain said, looking from his son to the woman who had grown so close to him, nothing but professionalism on his face. “Once the time comes for us to create and test the weapon, we shall bring our teams together and see it done the right way.

“Aye, Captain.” Lyra replied and nodded. Her expression was passive and her tone focused; neither betrayed her inner thoughts. Her heart was beating faster and already her mind had begun to bring back fantasies of weapons that had played in her mind years ago when she had first learned about the substance. The potential of having such ultimate and oppressive power was exhilarating to say the least. When Ivan’s attention moved from her completely, her eyes slid to Andrei. They’d create a masterpiece.

With the discussion done, the senior staff returned to their new assignments and began to involve their departments in there work. What would come of this search for destructive force was yet to be seen, but success was anticipated.

END