Loose Ends And Quantum Mechanics
Posted on Thu Dec 7th, 2017 @ 10:57pm by Captain Remas McDonald & Lieutenant Commander Shadi Zatra
3,395 words; about a 17 minute read
Mission:
S1: These Are The Voyages...
Location: Map Room
Timeline: MD 2, 11.00, T- 3 hours to launch (Now 12 and change)
Unlike most Federation starships, the conference room was just for that: meetings. It was a place to sit, discuss, and come to an agreement all parties could agree to. It’s seating was ergonomically suitable for most humanoid, and some non-humanoid species, and the lights able to shift hue to be pleasant to anyone. It was the perfect space for anyone.
The Map Room, on the other hand, was not for everyone.
Who
It was a space within the heart of the Traveller, as large as a holodeck and ringed with workstations for the science technicians who would man it. The central dais was a large holographic projector, currently in standby mode with only the Traveller’s mission crest floating in the air above it. A brilliant bolt of light connecting the swirling mass of the known to the distant stars of Messier 4.
The air was crisp, pure. In fact, it was the purest air on the ship, given the Map Room had no reason to be opened until they were properly underway. Instead, the seal had been broken before its time, allowing the stench of the old worlds and their politics and bigotry to slip.
“You were meant to show us such wonders…” Remas whispered to himself, as he walked around the holographic projector and set himself up by the controls. The crest vanished, replaced with a slowly rotating tubular wall of data panes. Ship schematics, power readings from The Accelerator, and the evidence discovered by Tolkath and Victor's investigation. And, of course, the face of Lieutenant Gark Zark: their first casualty on this expedition. If Shadi Zatra hadn’t been such a...well. ‘Practically minded soul’ things might have gone differently.
Instead they had found the fruits of Samno and Bruke’s sabotage.
The door behind him opened for the first of the senior staff to arrive. He’d asked Shadi to arrive, a gesture of goodwill to the operations team and to her courage.
“Sorry for the cold temperature. Life supports still booting up in here,” Remas said, looking over his shoulder to the new arrival.
Shadi appeared clean as a whistle after her quarantine and decontamination in Sickbay. She wrapped her her abdomen in her arms, shivering all the while.
"If this is going to take awhile, Captain, then I am going to manually calibrate the system," Shadi said through chattering teeth.
"Please do so" Lesai entered and shivered "Captain, Lieutenant" She nodded to McDonald and Zatra. "I understand we have been infiltrated by Kingons posing as human crew Captain. I'm sure the Klingon Ambassador will have an interesting explanation for such behavior. It is regrettable I will not be there to hear it"
"No doubt the politicians will wrangle some sort of good for all of this," Remas commented, as he walked to the wall mounted emergency supply locker and cracked it open. He pawed through the contents for a second, before pulling out a small silvery bundle. He unfurled it into a large sheet, pressing a small pouch in one corner. As he held it out to Shadi warmth bleed from the blanket.
"Infrared survival blanket. I served with a pair of Andrissk navigators before diving into the Long Jump project, they always whined that warm blood was wasted on mammals. Since then I've made sure heat blankets come as standard, should see you through the meeting without diving into the wiring," he looked over his shoulder to Lesai. "Only have the one, apologies."
Shadi took the offered thermal blanket, looked at Lesai, and then offered it to her. "I will make do."
The doors opened with a swish and Arivek Zhuri walked through, his uniform pristine and smooth. "Is there a reason we are meeting at this hour? I have much to do before the launch," he said, his voice not hiding his obvious annoyance.
"And a fine assortment of eager folk wanting to look good in front of their boss and their bosses boss. Don't worry Ari, meeting won't take but a moment," he gestured to a spot around the table. "I despise chairs, but pull up a pew all the same."
Shadi seated herself as directed, though not without a tremble in her quivering jaw. Force of will gradually made it still.
Tolkath came in last, holding several PaDDs, he also shivered with the temperature so much lower than his Vulcan physiology preferred.
"Captain, I have managed to find us several launch windows for leaving ahead of schedule" He held up the PaDDs, "There are three options, with varying chances of success"
"That's good. I like success," Remas nodded, gesturing to the hologram table. "You can sync with the projector and give us a show and tell. I have no doubt our Chief Engineer will be more than willing to give us chapter and verse on the overall stress the Traveller and her charges will undergo."
"Hopefully he can give us the succinct version," Shadi muttered, arms still wrapped around herself.
All eyes drifted to the wall mounted chronograph as it slowly ticked by, the red numerals flicking to 3.02.
Victor finally walked in,"Sorry I'm late Captain, I'm busier than I expected, especially considering we haven't even left yet!" he said with a chuckle noticing the cold tickle in the air, "Hmm feels mighty fine in here." as he ventured further into the room, the doors closing behind him.
Tolkath hooked up the PaDDs to the projector interface, a holographic image of the Milky Way appeared, four different colored lines appeared, leaving their location, running out across the known galaxy towards the galactic barrier and then beyond. Except two of the lines did not make the full journey, both stopped short.
“Very well, I will be brief” He explained “The blue line is our original course, which has been carefully plotted and refined for several months, giving the best possible calculation of a successful transit.
That was based on a launch time some twelve hours, fourteen minutes and …. thirty eight seconds from now’.
The green, yellow and red lines are possible variants that have previously been discarded due to unacceptable percentages of success." He continued
"As you can see the red course is going to be too close to Black Hole Delta Sigma Twenty Seven; the yellow course would intersect with the supernova in the Bandaran Nebular.
In both cases there are possible course corrections to avoid those obstacles, but those then lead to further obstructions that require further corrections and so forth. Each correction increases the possibility of error. Ultimately, in both cases we would reach a point where we were attempting calculate corrections at a dangerous rate, unlikely to be successful.
I have prepared detailed projections of the mathematical equations required and.... " He looked around the room at the cold and tired command team and changed tact.
"In simple terms Imagine attempting to thread the ship through a slalom course of poles. Except the poles, the route and the ship are all moving simultaneously in three directions, at different times and speeds. If you pass a pole on one side instead of the other, the next pole will move its position. Until it becomes more and more probable that you will collide with a pole.
Both of these possible courses involved launches close to our original time. However, the green route would require only sixteen corrections, which we could preprogram into the flight computers. It again leads us very close to the Delta Sigma Black Hole, close but within the safety margin, although not to the same degree as the original route.
Previously this would have been an illogical choice." He paused and took a breath "Now it may be illogical to delay."
The green route would require a launch in” He checked the chronometer again “Two hours fifty eight minutes and eleven seconds. If we are going, we need to decide quickly“ He looked to McDonald and raised an eyebrow in question.
“Scylla,” Remas said gravely, gesturing at the hologram. “If we’re going to chance being snatched by a gravitational point source with more mass than the entire Sol system, damn blue fire it’ll have a name.”
He looked around the room at the other faces there.
“We signed on to take a risk, but it was a risk calculated into safety by years of study and scientific tomfoolery. But, the way I see it we risk further acts of sabotage unless we leave sooner rather than later,” Remas held up a hand to Victor. “I have every faith in your Expedition Security force, but Samno and Burke worked for years alongside us before plunging the knife in. Unless you can sell me a guarantee that there are no more saboteurs on board the Traveller, the colony barge, or the I Knew I Forgot To Tell You Something, then this is a risk we need to take.”
"Sir my force is the best we have to offer. I can guarantee you my officers will give you 120% or die trying either by their effort or my hand for not doing what I expect, you choose." Victor said ,"Once we can get a modified tricorder in every hand of my officers they'll do a sweep of every living humanoid and mammal in our tender care."
Remas nodded, tapping his finger against a PADD in front of himself. Note taking was his way of getting his thoughts in order, even if it was in his private short hand of Federation Standard and Rishish. Same sounds, vastly different meaning for a wandering folk of space farers.
“Ari. The Accelerator’s going to be shooting us towards Messier 4 at superluminal speeds. These course corrections, plus the flyby on Scylla, that's going to put a lot of stress on the fairing and the mounting joints. What sort of damage could we be looking at?” He raised an eyebrow, looking at Shadi. “Same question to you, smaller scale. Are we likely to lose life support doing this? Should we be going old school and getting the crew into spacesuits in case of decompression?”
Shadi trembled with rage until it finally exploded. She shot up in indignation. "'Smaller scale'! How dare you refer to me as 'smaller scale'?! I am a daughter-spawn of the Ragolar brood, the Bane of Lyaksti and Talon of M'Tezir! If you demand my resignation for the death of my superior, Captain MacDonald, then you may have it." Shadi snatched her commbadge from her uniform and slammed it on the table. "But do not add insult to my disssgrace."
Remas took a well deserved moment to just...process this.
"Ah. 'Smaller scale', I see my error. I was not referring to you, but to the range of tasking, the Operation team is set against. Ari's tool pushers have to contend with making sure we get there, your team has the equally important task of making sure we have a ship able to function when we arrive," he pushed the combadge back towards her. "There is no disgrace in what you done. Federation might have a dim view of an eye for an eye, but where we're going it's nice to know we have such a capable one as you at the fore."
Shadi avoided everyone's eyes and sheepishly retrieved her commbadge. "Oh..."
"Before my...reptilian counterpart begins yet another emotional tirade," Arivek said, looking at Shadi from the side of his eyes, "I would like to point out that scientific and astronomical issues are not the only concerns for the alternative plots." The man took a step forward towards the holographic display.
"While I understand Lieutenant Tolkath's lack of understanding, as he is new to this project, I've been working on this launch for quite a few years." He pushed his fingers towards the holographic display and rotated it so the destination was closer to the group than before. "The trajectory you wish to utilize, notated by the green line, is also unsafe. There is an unknown phenomenon here," he said, pointing to an empty space just outside the galactic barrier, "that during all simulations has caused problems with the warp core. In most situations, the core destabilized and we are unable to eject it at the speeds we will be going." Arivek looked up to Remas. "The Traveller is destroyed in every simulation. It is the main reason we chose the final path we did."
"So either we wait, and maybe another shoe drops from the Burke and Samno Company. Or we launch early, and maybe run afoul of rough water," Remas ran a hand over his chain. "I am open to alternative strategies."
"I think you misunderstand, Captain," Arivek continued. "There is no other options. The original flight plan is the only viable route we have. It took 18 months to formulate and test it. We have no options but to fend off any more sabateurs."
"My calculations are only as good as the initial data" Tolkath said "If there is a further undefined obstacle beyond the Galactic Barrier, that information was not made available to me. However, I have no reason to doubt Lieutenant Zhuris assertion of it's existence and effects. "
"it might be possible to add in further corrections to avoid it, if there is some idea of it's scope and magnitude. But with the limited time available we would need to commence those computations immediately." He finished.
"The Accelerator requires six hours to fully power up for launch," Arivek said, crossing his arms as he stared at the Vulcan. "We will not be altering our course."
“The Accelerator only needs six hours to power up to get us to Messier 4,” Remas said, his hands tapping on the projectors controls. One of the projected courses began to shrink, its end point drifting away from Messier 4 and into the darkness between it and the galaxy it orbited. “But we don’t have to get to Messier 4 on the first shot. We just need to get close enough for traditional propulsion to get us the rest of the way. Could we performer a shorter leap? No course change, just a lower power setting.”
"Of course, Captain. I'll get right on that." Arivek picked up a PADD and looked at it for a moment. "I can make those changes and the Traveller will be ready to launch in 37 days."
"Whatever happened to that pride Starfleet engineer's are meant to express? The thrill of the adventure? The challenge?" Remas said, feeling some of his teeth begin to grind.
"I'm all for a challenge. But technology has some limitations. Especially limitations that we set on it."
Shadi looked from one face to another, her own wrought with a look of bewilderment. A fish out of water barely scratched the surface of how she felt.
Remas gave Ari an eye but held up a hand to forestall any further conversation on te topic. The look on his face made it clear the old saying about compromises was coming into effect. He instead turned his eyes to his Security Chief and the representative of the Operations team. Sure someone would argue that just because Shadi had been there when Gark died, didn't automatically get her a seat at the table.
Remas's name badge said Captain, so boo to them.
"Now for the Pakled in the room: Victor. How many of those devices did we end up finding? Seems there was one for nearly every mounting joint on the ship. How did we not have a quality control inspection find them?" he asked pointedly to the Betazed security chief. There was no accusation there in his voice, not that there had to be.
Shadi finally found her voice. "With all due respect, Captain, but Lieutenant Zark and I conducted constant inspections, which is how we came to dissscover the devices in the first place. The only possible explanation that I can see is that there are more saboteurs at large, perhaps as many as one saboteur per device. How else could they have appeared so quickly?"
"I lost count of the number of devices sir but only thing I can think of is they were placed after the inspection teams went through, or the inspection teams aren't crewed by who we think they are. I can have security round them up as soon as possible sir just say the word. Maybe if we can figure out exactly how these devices tick, we can send out a pulse of sorts to short them out before any ones we missed can cause more damage."
“Given their location, I imagine they were designed to disconnect the faring from the Traveller during the acceleration phase of our jump. If that happened we’d dreidel inside the shell, turning this finely built machine into a meat grinder,” Remas mulled over that. Any sort of destructive event inside the phase space of the jump, at least in simulations, ended with the computer throwing its hands in the air. Reality would turn bad, was the closest a Smart AI at the Daystrom Institute had gotten to an answer. Very very bad.
“Victor, Ensign Zatra. I want the two of you to prioritise collection of these devices. Shadi is tech support, Victor I want you to make sure no one tries to stop her. First sign of trouble stun’em, we’ll sort this all out in Messier 4,” Remas nodded. ”I know you can handle yourself Ensign Zatra, but right now my circle of trust is small.”
Shadi nodded, though it could have just as easily been dipping her head in shame.
"Yes sir." Victor said hoping what they feared didn't manifest to truth.
We’re explorers, he thought, when did we need to become soldiers to do our job?
"So in closing, before we head off to do what we can: Shadi and Victor are off to play a very dangerous scavenger hunt, and Ari...you and Tolkath are going to oversee the launch in," he tapped a button and the chronograph on the wall flickered. "Six hours and change. Tolkath you're science background is going to play a role in this, and so will your engineering prowess my friend. Ari, watch each other's back in Engineering. If someone is going to play us a bad hand, they'll do it where they'll get the most bang for their buck. And before you question that old friend, you'll have your hands full and your attention focued else where. A second pair of eyes never hurt a soul."
Shadi nodded again in acknowledgement before getting up to leave. She didn't wait for Victor. "I'm starved with a phaser, Lieutenant, so I sssuggest keeping yours handy."
"Always do Ensign, even my back up and my back up's back up." Victor said with a smile as he followed Shadi out.
"It seems l might be here to hear the Klingons explanation for this terrorism after all" Lesai commented and turned to leave, Tolkath nodded to McDonald and followed his wife.
Long after everyone had left and the room went dark, a lone pair of boots worn by a hidden figure crossed the threshold. The computer did not turn on lights, and that was the way it would stay. Footsteps led to the far corner where a pair of gloved hands ran across a wall panel.
With a hiss and a snap, the wall panel detached, revealing a relay of EPS conduits and a very peculiar black box attached behind it. A lone light on its side flashed green. The gloved hands removed the box with a small, narrow cylindrical object, and then plugged it into a PADD. The light changed to a steady red.
The gloved hands entered a few commands into the PADD. After a warble indicating a completed process, a recording came from its interface.
"“Sorry for the cold temperature. Life supports still booting up in here.""
The unmistakable voice of Captain MacDonald. His recording was cut off by another command prompt from the gloved fingers.
Apparently satisfied, the gloved hands pocketed the PADD away along with the transfer device and replaced the wall panel with the black box remaining affixed behind the EPS relay. With lights still dimmed, the shadowy figure walked back to the door, into the corridor, and melted away into the obscurity of the ship's crew.
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