Beginning the investigation

Posted on Saturday 3 June 2017 @ 02:22 by Captain Melody Jones & Commander Caroline Miller & Lieutenant Commander David Tan & Commander Save'ena (Sav) Tillatix & Major David Scarlet

Mission: The Perez Nebula
Location: Main Bridge / Shuttlebay / Engineering
Timeline: Stardate 239406.02
4080 words - 8.2 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Melody was in command on the bridge. She was finally back in her own body thanks to the efforts of Doctor Miller and Transporter Chief Brooks. She was still getting used to being back in her own skin, having just become used to having fur and a tail she now felt somewhat ....... Naked. Even in her uniform.

She rubbed her arms to dispel a chill that ran through her. Something was bothering her.......And she couldn't put her finger on what it was. Maybe it was the fact that she was not the most senior officer on the ship. The Captain had departed a few hours earlier after receiving an urgent request from Admiral Gomez for him to return to the Starbase."

Her train of thought was interrupted by a beeping from the helm, and Ensign Li Spoke up.

"Sir, we are approaching the other boundary of the Perez Nebular."

She rose form the command chair "Bring us out of warp and come to a full Stop helm. Yellow alert, shields up. Please begin close range scans of the nebula and send a message to Starfleet informing them that we have arrived at the Nebula and are beginning our sweep." She then addressed the Comm system "All hands, this is the bridge. We have arrived at the Nebular boundary."

In the drop bays, the six chosen fighters and their pilots were already in their ships and hanging in the drop chutes. Sav, being CAG, was in the lead fighter. All six were the new Phoenix class fighters, chosen due to better hardened electronics against the nebula effects, and having a more advanced reconnaissance pod for attachment. She made sure she had 'green' signals from the other five as they waited to be launched. She churred gently, happy to finally feel her tail and whiskers once more. While being a Terran for a while had its novelties, she was so happy to be back into her own body.

Melody then switched comm channels "Bridge to shuttlebay 1, we have arrived at the nebula. Is the squad ready for launch down there?"

Sav hit the comm link, =/\=Bridge, Dragon One, three pairs of reconnaissance scouts ready to rock and roll, just give the word.=/\=

=/\= Copy that Dragon one, you are clear to launch, assume positions and standby for telemetry link up. =/\=

There was a slight shudder through the Merlin as the fighter cradle locks disengaged and the fighters launched under full power out and away. There was some jockeying by the fighters as they left the ship to form up into their two fighter teams, but that was quickly done as the fighters shifted for -30, 0, and + 30 degree arcs from zero degree penetration point into the nebula.

Melody took her seat next to the Captain's chair, monitoring the launch of the fighters. "All fighters deployed, Lieutenant Tan, please implement sensor and telemetry link up."

... David accessed the program he and the Chief Engineer had worked long and hard on. It wasn't one hundred percent foolproof, and given it had thus far only been tested in simulations, there was a minute chance it wasn't going to be stable enough, they could only continue and hope it held up ... The phasers now emitted energy at only five percent output as the targeting scanners sought out the fighters in close proximity to the USS Merlin. As they locked on communications with that craft were confirmed, each fighter was now in contact with the ship, and the ship could see their telemetry readouts. He contacted Save'ena then requested one of the fighters make a rapid pass then circumnavigate the massive ship in order to test out the link. Minutes later he was satisfied. He turned to the Exec'

"Link established and stable Commander." he confirmed.

Scarlet just silently scanned over the weapons readouts. Lt. Tans plan seemed to be working. He just had to make sure there were no fluctuations in phaser power; too low and they'd lose the link, too high...

Melody nodded "Good work. Please monitor the link and advise if it becomes unstable for any reason." Melody then contacted the fighters again "Dragon lead, confirm link up."

Sav heard the command and decided to try something different. She contacted the other fighters through the phaser link instead of direct coms. =/\= Dragon Teams Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Dragon One, perform all communications through the telemetry link. This way we can constantly be aware of signal link with the Merlin and verify telemetry signal coherency.=/\=

The other five craft reported to Sav through the telemetry link. Sav now sent, =/\=Dragons, Dragon One, begin telemetry.=/\= All fighters began feeding data back to the Merlin. Sav felt through the link, then reported back to the bridge, =/\= Merlin, Dragon One, links verified and Telemetry being fed. Cohesion at 99.35 percent through current shielding.=/\=

"Less than one percent loss at present. I expect that to rise to approximately seven to ten percent, but we will still keep Comm lock on all craft Commander." David confirmed.

Melody now contacted Engineering. "Bridge to Engineering. Please secure all systems for Nebula penetration."

A voice replied over the COMM "Engineering ready, all systems secured. You can proceed when ready bridge."

Caroline saw the communique from the bridge wanting to know readiness for sickbay as they were about to enter a nebula. "Nurse," she asked one of her staff as she was tending Ensign Roberts broken wrist from a holodeck misadventure. "Alert the bridge that we are go for sickbay."

With the ship now ready, Ensign Li now turned to Melody from the helm "The board shows green Commander, we are ready to proceed."

Melody sat herself back down in the Captain's chair. "Take us in helm, thrusters only."

Scarlet allowed himself to let out a sigh, it was good to have a task in front of him again. The voyage here had been... enlightening. He gritted his teeth to try and keep from glancing at her, but couldn't stop it. It was strange to feel this way about someone again. Strange but hopefully not dangerous.

The fighters now spread out along their fight paths. At the current 30/0/30 from the ship, the fighters would go out 30k km, then shift parallel. All data would be fed to the Merlin from the pods and fighter sensors as they were acting as forward scouts for the Merlin. A second set of fighters were on Alert 5 in the drop bays to perform extra reconnaissance and/or rescue as the case warranted it. The three teams of fighters entered the nebula. The link Coherence went to 89.4 percent, which was still very acceptable. With the redundancies built in, the link would have to degrade past 34 percent to become unusable, and all fighters were already informed to scramble back to the Merlin if less than 39 percent was encountered. This was a scouting mission, not life and death, and the safety of the pilots and fighters were more important than that 'just a little more data' wants by the powers that be.

The great ship proceeded to enter the nebular slowly, following the fighters which were acting as its eyes and ears.

... David monitored the phaser/comm connections between the Merlin and the myriad of smaller fighters out ahead of them. He watched as the coherence dropped below the ninety percent mark, but then stabilised. He made several minor adjustments to the frequency output, and while they didn't increase the percentage, they didn't decrease it either, so all was well. He was inwardly beginning to worry about the distances involved as the fighters moved further and further ahead of the massive ship. He glanced over at the Exec' then back to his console. It had been decided that if the phaser/comm link dropped below forty percent the fighters would be recalled, he entered several commands making sure that if the link dropped below sixty percent an automatic recall would trigger. His finger hovered over the flashing button but he decided those in Command needed to know his concerns. Getting up he approached Lieutenant Commander Jones:

"Commander. I'm a little concerned at the distances here." he began, deciding he needed to continue, if she overruled him fair enough, at least his concern was on record, "The fighter are too far out. This was meant to be a test of the phaser/comm links not an all-out run. The links could drop out unexpectedly and our fighters would be out of contact." he waited for her reply ...

The fighters were already at minimal shielding and sensors having entered the nebula before the Merlin. However, now that the Merlin was inside the Nebula, the coherence of the telemetry links was down to 81.2 percent. Sav churred in admiration. That was higher than the test plotting, which was good. It was expected that in the densest parts of the Nebula, the coherence would drop to just over 50 percent, but that was still within tolerance range.

After a few minutes, the fighters reached their 30k km range from each other, and the Merlin, forming a forward arc of 60k km from the ship, and pods allowing 100k km past that for their max range in sensing into the nebula's structure. Telemetry was at 77.4 percent. =/\= Merlin, Dragon One, Scanning doing well and Telemetry better than expected. Let us know when you want us to go to 60k km out, then 100k km for maximum scans radius.=/\=

Melody thought for a moment. "Ok Lieutenant, could you please work out the optimal distance for sensor resolution with a margin for error and relay that information to the squad please. We don't want to loose anybody out there."

... "Already working on it using the information we're getting from the fighters." David said, "I wouldn't risk going further out than they are at present, the drop-off increases incrementally over sixty thousand kilometers. I'm working on refining the phaser output to see if that can be increased moving forward. We have almost ninety seven percent link-up performance in the thirty to sixty thousand kilometer range."

Melody returned to her attention to the sensor reading they were getting from the fighters. She frowned, rose and wandered over to science station one. "Sensors are detecting traces of various exotic gasses, dense stellar matter, deuterium, cobalt, hydrogen but we're also picking up traces of duranium and titanium and various other synthetic alloys. There's also strong chronotron eddies and signs of temporal displacements."

The knot in the pit of Melody's stomach was getting worse. "There's also indications of a large matter antimatter explosion."

She signalled the fighters again =/\= Dragon squad, keep your eyes open and your wits about you. Report any contacts no matter how insignificant. =/\=

=/\= Merlin, Dragon One, copy that. Dragon one out.=/\= She now sent to her team over their sub channel links through the phaser telemetry beam, =/\= Dragons, Dragon one, you heard Control. Anything that is not nebula gasses, report on. I don't care if it might be imagination, report and we'll verify and report, got it?=/\= Affirmatives came back from the other five ships. Sav glanced at the range of the fighters, being at 60 k km out. That would give the scanner pods a range of 160 km clear for the Merlin, and then depending upon how dense the nebula, further out, but unreliable. Telemetry was at 67% and holding.

A beeping from the helm broke the silence, cut through the tension on the bridge. Ensign Li reported "Sir, we're picked up a very large contact approximately 200 km away. It's hard to get a clear reading but it looks like a ship."

Melody moved over to his side "Alter course to intercept, can you give me any more information?"

Justin worked the console "The contact is over 800 meters long, no power readings, negative life signs. It appears to be covered in a great deal of nebula material. I cannot get any cleared reading till we're closer."

"800 meters?" Melody said to no one in particular. She contacted the fighters again. =/\= Dragon squad, we've altered course to investigate a large contact, possibly a vessel. You'll have visual contact first. Lets not take any chances =/\=

=/\= Merlin, Dragon Squad, not yet. As we have altered course, we'll keep our eyes and sensors peeled wide open. As soon as we sight, we will give the notice.=/\=

Now, it was a waiting game as the formation of fighters and Merlin approached the area where the fighter pods had found a contact. Of course, once the range hit 160 k km, the scanners now showed the 800 meter contact. However, the contact seemed to waver in amount of mass, and also readings of dense matter to metallic matter. However, metallic was definitely there.

Sav noted the ping on the HUD and contacted her squad. =/\= Dragons, Dragon One, that shifting mass is our target. Keep an eye peeled. We should come into visual around 16k klicks. Any signs of energy buildup and we are outa here, got it?=/\= Once again, affirmatives came from the other fighters.

At 17.5k klicks, Dragon three reported. =/\= Dragon Squad, Dragon three, I see a large mass at the limits of my sight range. Adjust course 3 degrees left to have my squad bear directly on it.=/\=

=/\= Merlin, Dragon One, far range sight of object. Not close enough to identify yet. Adjust course, three degrees port, please, so Dragon squad 2 can be directly going towards the object.=/\=

=/\= Copy that Dragon one, adjusting course now. =/\= Melody gave a discreet nod to Ensign Li.

As the net drew closer to the object, at 12k klicks, the slowly rotating hulk could be made out more. Sav was at the far left of the net, and so had no visual as she was 60k klicks from Dragon squad 2, and thus about 67k klicks from the object itself. Dragon 3 and 4, though, had a clearer sight through the nebula matter.

=/\= Merlin, Dragon 3, it's shape is of a ship of some kind, kind of like a fed design but missing the nacelles. Its almost as if... yes, it's clearer now. It IS a ship, and it has been wrecked or blasted, and the scanners are reporting its been out here for five thousand years. When we get a little closer... that's it, closer...=/\=

Dragons 3 and 4 were now 8k klicks from the wreck of a ship, and that is when Dragon 3 realized what the ship was. =/\=Merlin, Dragon 3, its definitely a Federation ship, and it looks like an Excalibur class... bringing up HUD friendly recognition, definitely an Excalibur class... Temporal eddies confirmed as that class has not been around for no freakin 5000 years. Orders?=/\=

Melody thought for a moment. Best be prepared she thought to herself. Raising her voice, she ordered "Red Alert!"

... The 'Red Alert' wasn't unexpected given their situation. David had been watching his panel intently, his focus mainly on the readings from the phaser/comm links to the fighters out ahead of the enormous Merlin. A knot formed in his stomach when he heard that the object that had suddenly appeared on sensors so close. Had they been traversing the nebula any faster they would have been hard pushed to avoid a collision, let alone come to a complete stop before the unknown behemoth. He expected the Merlin to begin slowing her approach until the fighters had been able to get a look at the derelict ....

Scarlet quickly ran his fingers over the console. He paused for only a moment to make sure that the emitter for the communications remained engaged. As soon as he saw the confirmation he continued. "Weapons engaged. Shields at full power. Currently unable to get a full target lock."

... David glanced at the Tactical Officer, hoping he knew the Merlin's weapons system's could be back at optimal capacity in one third of a second following his re-writing of the protocols, so while they would loose effective contact with the fighters, and be forced to rely on the sporadic at best sub-space communications, they 'would' have one hundred percent defensive capability ... He turned back to his panel, checking and double checking, then checking once again, to ensure the safety of both their Starship, and their tiny, but vital, fighters ! ...

All the fighters got notification of the red alert. They knew now that at any moment, they could lose their telemetry. However, Sav had an idea. =/\= Dragons, Dragon One. Use the scanner pods to lock on identify each other, and Dragon four will lock on identify with the Merlin. That way we will have a beacon for each other when Telemetry goes down. *I hope, Sav thought to herself*. =/\=

The Dragons each took one channel of their special pod scanners to lock onto each other and Dragon four, while Dragon four locked onto the Merlin. Beacons now shown on the HUD displays. Sav pumped her fist in her fighter, happy that it worked. While no telemetry could be gotten this way, at least the fighters could find their way back to the Merlin from any range of 100k km or less. =/\= Dragons, Dragon one, move in to 45k km of each other and the Merlin. Keep feeding sensor data. This will give us an effective range of 145 KM sensor range for the Merlin, but keep us in tighter for whatever manoeuvres the Merlin requires of us.=/\=

Sav now reported in, =/\= Merlin, Dragon One. I have the fighters using one channel of our special scanner pods to lock onto each other, with Dragon Four locked on the Merlin. If the Telemetry link goes down, we can find our way back to the Merlin. I have moved the fighters in at 45k km for better net cohesiveness and better fighter coverage of what is out here, while still having you 145k km sensor range. We are now at 1 km station keep from wrecked hull... let it pass inside our net, or do we draw in our net around it and let the Merlin approach? Orders, please.=/\=

... He watched the telemetry readings flowing over his panel, each of the separate feeds from the phaser emitters to the individual fighters was holding better than expected. Two of the phaser arrays were currently being utilised for the admittedly 'experimental' communications and both were doing what was expected of them, providing the fighters didn't pass the sixty thousand kilometer maximum. Should they need to move out further then the Merlin will need to follow or risk loosing contact. He glanced over at Captain Barstow and Commander Jones, wondering what the next move would be, though moving in to investigate the wreck seemed logical. Something occurred to him suddenly and he opened a Comm to the Air Group Commander in Dragon One:

=^= Dragon One .. Merlin Ops .. Can you please ensure none of the fighters pass behind the derelict vessel .. I would rather not loose contact at the range they are currently .. If they need to see around the other side they may need to do so by moving further out or consider going above or below to maintain direct line-of-sight for the Comm system .. Once Merlin is in close proximity I think we could risk braking a comm link temporarily .. The array 'should' scan for the fighter automatically now the link is established =^=

=/\= Merlin Ops, Dragon One, Affirmative. I will have Dragon's 3 and 4 move left, then Dragon 4 move out to look behind the vessel, but maintaining line of sight with Dragon 3. Dragon one out.=/\=

Dragon communications lit up and the middle group of dragons shifted left of the derelict by 5 K Km. Dragon four moved out past the hulk by 5 K km, then station kept while waiting to see if the Merlin would move up onto the hull or not. There was nothing hiding behind the wreckage.

The knot in Melody stomach was getting worse as she stood looking at the derelict hulk on the viewscreen. "Can we confirm that is a federation starship?"

Lieutenant Peterson replied from science station 2 "Confirmed Sir. It's defiantly a federation starship, Excalibur Class. I can't get a name on it, there's too much debris and damage to the hull. There are multiple hull breaches. Both warp nacelles are missing, as is the warp core and antimatter storage tanks. It looks like the main power gird has collapsed. There's no atmosphere anywhere onboard. I'm also reading a temporal displacement signature."

Melody raised an eyebrow "You're saying it's travelled though time?"

Paterson nodded "It sure looks that way Sir."

Melody contacted the fighters. =/\= Merlin to Dragon squad, did you copy that?=/\=

=/\= Merlin, Dragon One, copy that. Lt. Tan is keeping results fed to us. All observations confirm time travel. Keep careful, Merlin. Dragon one out.=/\=

"Is it stable enough for an away team?"

Now it was Patterson's turn to frown "There's considerable damage to the hull bearing struts. Barely stable, but there might be weak spots."

Melody turned to Tan "David, we need some answers. Take a minimal away team in spacesuits and see if you can find out what ship that is and if possible how it got there. We'll monitor you from here and keep a transporter lock on you at all times. If anything happens, we'll beam you back."

Sav, in listening into the conversation, suddenly keyed her comm. =/\= Merlin, Dragon One, be advised that Transporters are severely degraded in a Nebula. In recent history, they would NOT work in a Nebula, period. Merlin needs to get within 10 K Km range for reliability, and the closer the better, as in 10 km range for best lock. I would prefer if you took a shuttle. If your getting that close, request permission to launch next six fighters as Merlin shadow squad.=/\= A shadow squad meant the fighters would stay close to the Merlin and be prepared to engage whatever target presented itself, as well as perform spherical scanning around the ship as each fighter would take up Forward, Starboard, Aft, Port, Up, and Down along the Merlin.

Melody sat back down in the Captain's chair "You heard her Ensign, move us within 10 kilometres of the derelict. Bridge to transporter room 1. We're sending an away team over to the derelict ship. I want you to keep a transporter lock on them at all time, be prepared to bring them back at a moments notice."

The signal for Alert 5 for the second set of fighters changed to Launch Now. The teams scrambled for their fighters. They would be able to launch shortly.

Dragon 3 waited for the Merlin to pull up along side her, and then moved out to join Dragon four. With the Merlin at 8 thousand Km from the hull, they were within degraded, yet stable transporter range. Yet, the Merlin kept moving closer. At 8 km range she stopped, making transporter activity one hundred percent viable. The other six fighters deployed and shifted out at 3 thousand Km from the Merlin and announced their positions.

As Dragons Seven through Twelve deployed, Dragons Three and Four moved out to 45 km of Merlin at 30 degrees past the derelict, putting them in Merlin's 330 degree arc. During this time, Dragons One and Two moved to 210 degrees of Merlin, while Dragons Five and Six moved to 90 degrees off Merlin. Dragon's One through Six were at 45 K Km away, giving the Merlin an effective 145 K Km sensor net on the planer level, while covering 73 K Km vertical up and down. The Merlin had her early warning system in place, best that could be done for the Nebula, with interceptors in place.

=/\= Merlin, Dragon Squad Two. Dragons 7 through 12 in position for Shadow Keep. Dragon Seven out.=/\=

=/\= Merlin, Dragon Squad One, Dragons 1 through 5 are in sensor position around ship giving 145 K km radius planer and 72 K km radius vertical sensor area. Dragon One out.=/\=

=/\= Dragons, Merlin. Copy transmission. Standby, we're sending the away team over Now. =/\=

... David picked three others to go to the derelict. They made their way to the Transporter Room where EVA suits had been brought and began to suit up. Checking comms, both internal and to the ship itself, he stepped up onto the Transporter Platform, the others following suit. Taking a breath he looked at the others, who all seemed as concerned as he was to be going over to a substantially unstable environment. With a nod he turned to the Transporter Chief:

"Energise ....." .....

TBC in "Ghosts of the future"

OFF:

Lieutenant Commander Melody Jones
Executive Officer
USS Merlin

Lieutenant David Tan
Chief Operations Officer
USS Merlin

Lieutenant JG David Scarlet
CSTO
USS Merlin

Lieutenant Save'ena Amilia Tillatix
CAG / Uroboros Squadron Leader
USS Merlin

Lieutenant Commander Caroline Miller
CMO
USS Merlin