517: Sensor Ghosts

by Rada Dengar and Salvek
80921.1300
After Let's Make a Deal

-=Bridge, USS Serendipity=-



[Hok to Serendipity.]

"This is Salvek, go ahead." The First Officer shifted attention away from a report he was reading in the Command Chair to focus on Hok's incoming call.

[We're heading back into the negotiations. There's no doubt in my mind the asteroid contains far less dilithium than they want us to believe. We just don't know precisely how much, but I've advised Green the best course, if they don't lower the price, is to walk away.]

"Because the Galadorians would never get away alive if they were caught in this deception by any group other than the Federation." Salvek observed.

[Correct, sir.]

"Very well, please proceed. I'm going to speak to Rada Dengar right now about putting a precise amount on exactly how much dilithium there is to be had. Salvek out."

He proceeded directly to Engineering to see if Rada Dengar had been cleared for duty. Apparently, he had.

"Have you been able to look into the asteroid yet?" Salvek asked, failing to take the time to greet Dengar.

Rada was a bit startled by this and was glad for the feeling; it seemed like everyone in Engineering had been walking on egg shells around him since he got back and it was good to see that at least Salvek wasn't. He jumped quickly into reporting mode. "I tried all of the usual methods; ultra violet absorption tests, ico-spectrographic analysis, Weston feedback assessments."

"I assume from your tone that none of these tests were successful in giving you an accurate measure of the level of dilithium in the asteroid?" Salvek questioned.

"Not exactly," said Rada as he handed Salvek a PADD with his findings. "They all suggest that there is exactly as much dilithium as we've been led to expect."

"That would seem to be," Salvek started but stopped himself, as while flipping through the PADD he discovered what Rada had been referring to, "very unlikely."

The results were all exactly the same. They were too perfect. There was always a margin of error in these tests, which meant the results didn't match up completely. It was like flipping a fair coin fifty times and counting the number of heads; do it once and you might get twenty-four, do it again and you might get twenty-six but you'd never expect to get twenty five every time, it was just too unlikely.

"Very unlikely indeed," said Rada, "So my first instinct was to try modifying our sensors to scan in a way that they wouldn't have anticipated, but then I figured that whatever they were doing down there had to have some way of fooling not just our sensors but anyone elses who might take a look at that asteroid." Salvek nodded that he agreed with Rada's assessment. "So, I decided to go low tech and try a good old fashioned tug test. I placed a probe within the asteroid's gravity and tested the pull against it from which I was able to calculate the asteroid's mass."

"You have been quite busy since you got back," commented Salvek. He noted that there was much excitement in Rada's voice now that he was back to work. "What were your findings?"

Rada led Salvek over to the console where he'd been working and displayed the image on the screen. "According to our sensor readings, that asteroid doesn't have enough mass to account for this level of gravity," he said.

Rada was correct. By Salvek's calculations it would take a body with at least thirty-two point nine percent more mass to account for these readings.

"Curious," said Salvek "If your assessment is correct," Rada very much hoped it was. "Then the asteroid either contains a denser element than dilithium or it contains dilithium in an even higher concentration than has been reported."

"There may be one other way to account for it," Rada suggested. "A subspace displacement field."

Salvek was familiar with the concept but always believed it to be flawed. A subspace displacement field required creating a bridge between two points in subspace at which windows to normal space were opened using variant warp fields, the effect being much like a short range worm hole.

"Contemporary research has shown that subspace displacement fields are unable to be sustained over the distances required to make their operation economical, and those which were generated became unstable in the presence of matter passing through the field." Salvek began to object before realizing, "But there would be no matter passing through the field."

"And if it won you the price of this asteroid, then it would be more than economical to run it for the course of these negotiations," Rada finished his sentence for him.

"Our sensors would pass through the field and scan the real asteroid somewhere nearby then pass back and report their findings. There would be a microsecond delay most probably causing a sensor ghost. The asteroid would of course appear to be exactly where we think it is because we are viewing the light reflected from the genuine article. The downside being the field would be one sided. If this field does exist, then it would logically be in the form of a sphere enclosing the real asteroid. Anything passing from outside of the sphere on our side would end up inside of the sphere on the other side, but something such as gravitational forces from whatever mass they chose to build this end of the field around would originate from inside of the sphere, and would simply pass through to our side. When combined with the same forces from the genuine article, this would result in excess gravity," concluded Salvek.

"There's the chance of a distorting affect could be caused by the field which would throw off our sensors, but they could place transmission equipment on the interior of the field on our side of the bridge where we can't scan, to send out reinforced sensor signals for the familiar types of scans. This would explain why the normal tests all match up so exactly," said Rada. "I'd suggest that when the negotiations were done, they must have been planning on deactivating the field and leaving. That way they get the money and to keep the real asteroid for themselves, wherever it may be. Essentially having their cake and eating it too."

"A very plausible theory," Salvek observed.

"Yes, although I'm not sure how we'd go about proving it," admitted Rada.

"Perhaps we do not need to prove anything. We have a solid theory in place, if Ensign Hok and Mr. Green bring it to the table and we are correct, the Galadorians will likely fold and admit what they have done. If we are incorrect, than the worst that happens is they walk away from the table without selling us a commodity that is not as valuable as we believed anyway. Thank you Mr. Dengar."

Salvek stepped away from Rada, and called Hok to reveal everything he had just discussed with Rada.

"Just be tactful in how you use this information, Mr. Hok. It is a solid working theory, but no more than that. If they ask you for proof, we may not be able to give it to you."

[Rule of Acquisition 20: When the customer is sweating, turn up the heat. When we call their bluff, they won't have a leg to stand on. We can make this work, Commander. Hok out.]


Lt. Cmdr. Rada Dengar
Chief Engineer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012

and

Commander Salvek
First Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012

NRPG: He's Chief Engineer for a reason, people. Never have I ever read such beautiful technobabble. Simply astounding, Danger!~ZL