By Commander Dabin Reece
80216.22
After Rising Tensions
-=Aboard the USS Serendipity=-
80216.22
After Rising Tensions
-=Aboard the USS Serendipity=-
Dabin waited most impatiently outside the cargo bay.
They were waiting for the all clear from Blakeslee that the wreckage they were tractoring into the bay was safely inside. Until then, Reece and Salvek had nothing to do but stand helplessly outside the doors.
"What is the freaking hold up?" Reece tapped his foot on the floor. He was anxious to get to work, knowing February was out there somewhere on the ship and finding out where this debris came from may be the first clue in finding her.
"Patience Mr. Reece. Using the tractor beam on wreckage is tricky work. If too much stress is put on the materials they may crumble to pieces." Salvek said.
"You are awfully calm considering your little lady is over there too."
"Anxiety will not help us find the Alchemy any faster, therefore there is no logical reason to surrender to its detrimental effects."
"Yeah logical reason, I've got a logical reason. Open the damn door!" Reece pounded his fist on the bay door.
>Unable to comply, the cargo bay is temporarily under security lock until tractor beam cycle is complete.<
"Oh shut up, I wasn't asking you."
>Tractor cycle complete.< The computer announced pleasantly, and the cargo bay doors slid open.
Reece dashed into the room and flipped open his tricorder. Salvek followed behind.
The wreckage was about the size of a shuttle craft, and appeared to be a section of outer hull, from whatever it was. There was also a jagged portion of a floor and broken conduits protruding out of the debris.
"Looks like we are looking at a portion of outer wall between two different decks. This must have been blown clear of the star whenever what it was attached to exploded." Reece continued to scan, looking for any clue that may indicate what type of station this came from.
"Definitely Federation." Salvek said.
"Here's something." Reece said, pointing to the interior of the outer hull where it was cut open and exposed to view. "The thickness of this hull is nearly double that of a standard station."
Salvek followed his line of reasoning. "The Federation only uses this construction for facilities located in dangerously close proximity to stellar bodies."
"Yeah, which means it's no accident we found this where we did. There was a station HERE orbiting this star."
Reece continued to scan while Salvek tried to put the pieces together in his head.
If the Federation had a station here, then they were most likely responsible for the impending destruction of Beta-626. What concerned him most was that there was no record of a station here, which confirmed the hypothesis that some rogue group like Special Ops or Temporal Investigations had to be behind what happened.
Whoever was responsible also had the forethought to lay false evidence here that would implicate the Romulans in an attempt to cover their tracks. Or, perhaps, the Romulans were implicated in an attempt to give the Federation justification to enter into a war with the Romulan Empire.
"I need more information Mr. Reece. There is already a political disaster brewing for the Federation if our allies and enemies find that we have developed a weapon of this destructive magnitude. Rest assured, if the Alpha Quadrant powers believe the Federation has technology to destroy a star, they will feel compelled to take military action against us before we have a chance to use it."
Reece looked up from his tricorder. "Thank you, Ambassador Salvek. I'm working on it!" He pointed emphatically to the tricorder. "Little help?"
Salvek discontinued his hypothesizing for the moment and began scanning again to assist Reece.
"How could the Federation possibly be involved in something this... jacked up?" Reece asked, shaking his head.
"I am afraid we do not have the luxury of an ethical debate at the moment." Salvek said. "But I am sure that debate will be forthcoming before this mission is over."
"Oh, oh boy. Oh boy." Reece stood up and checked his tricorder once again, not believing what he had just seen.
Salvek walked to Reece's side and checked what had gotten the Trill worked up.
"Your tricorder is malfunctioning." Salvek held his in the same spot Reece had scanned.
"Is yours malfunction too?" Reece asked sarcastically.
"The likelihood of two tricorders malfunctioning simultaneously is negligible.”
"Apology accepted. I think we need to speak with the Captain.” Reece concluded, closing his tricorder and heading for the door.
-=Bridge=-
“What have you found, gentlemen?” Zanh Liis asked as she rose from the command chair.
Reece stepped close enough to her to be able to be heard without announcing his findings to the entire bridge.
“You may want to be sitting, Liisy.” Reece offered. She held up her hand, dismissing him. “Ok, well, our tricorders detected the presence of triquantum waves on the wreckage.”
“Triquantum waves are the signature of an opening transwarp conduit.” Added Salvek.
“But in this time, the Federation has only encountered triquantum waves near conduits opened by the Borg. Are you suggesting they may be responsible?” Liis asked.
“Negative, Captain.” Salvek replied.
“Here’s the kicker Liisy, the triquantum wave signature only appears on the INSIDE surface of the hull.” Reece showed her the tricorder reading.
“Meaning.” Salvek concluded for her. “That whoever manned this Federation facility attempted, intentionally or not, to open a transwarp conduit on the station itself. That is the only way the triquantum waves could have bombarded the inside surface of the station’s hull.
Zanh Liis pondered their report and had no doubt she knew for sure now who was responsible.
From her experiences with Temporal Investigations she knew what happened in the here and now with project Alchemy would ultimately result, years down the road, in the development of a stable temporal jump drive.
She also knew that Temporal Investigations was an impatient lot and loved to take shortcuts anywhere they could. If they could render project Alchemy moot by developing their own way to produce transwarp conduits in the here and now, she had no doubt that they would.
Transwarp and temporal drives were different technologies, but closely linked. If you mastered one it was only a matter of time before to deciphered how to use the other.
However, with the lack of knowledge that existed in this century, it would have taken an incredible amount of power to attempt to open a permanent artificial transwarp conduit. It took every scrap of power Alchemy had to even use their transwarp for a few moments.
Zanh Liis knew the reason Beta-626 had gone into such a high rate of fusion. Somehow, Temporal Investigations had developed the technology to affect this star, in an attempt to power their transwarp experiment.
Obviously it had been a failure, as most corner cutting experiments usually were. The question that remained was, did they get out in time, or had everyone on the station died?
“I don’t think I need to tell you Captain, that allies and enemies alike are not going to accept transwarp experiments as a satisfactory explanation for why the Federation developed technology to destroy a star.” Salvek warned. “Whether we tell the truth or not is irrelevant, there will be repercussions.”
“There is only one way out of this Salvek. We are going to have to serve TI’s head on a platter to our allies and enemies to appease them, and make sure every scrap of research on what they did to Beta-626 is destroyed. Then we pray they never find out about the transwarp experiments that happened here.”
Zanh Liis lamented every word as she spoke them, dreading the implications of a showdown with Temporal Investigations.
“But first things first, we still need to recover the Alchemy. Everything else can wait.”
Reece returned to his station. He looked at more scans of the star, but knew that it was futile from this distance to try and discern what exactly TI had done to Beta-626.
At this point their only hope was to find the Alchemy, and hope her sensor logs contained information on the star that would help them figure out how Beta-626 was doomed, and how to stop TI from ever doing it again.
*******************
Commander Dabin Reece
Chief Science Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Commander Dabin Reece
Chief Science Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012