Subterfuge at the Asteroid Belt

Posted on Thu Jun 6th, 2024 @ 10:54am by AImee & Ensign Eimi Santiago

2,242 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Rescue Interruptus
Location: Bridge
Timeline: MD1, 0945

Eimi filtered out of the meeting she followed after a few others. As she did, a odd tune started to ramble around her head. We represent the Lollipop Guild. The Lollipop Guild. the Lollipop Guild and in the name of the Lollipop Guild. We wish to welcome you to Munchkin Land. She had been assigned to work with, ~shit~ she thought, she had already forgotten. Eimi took a deep breath and headed towards the bridge, it would be her home away from the science department and whomever she was to work with would most likely be there.

As she walked she hummed the Oz tune quietly to herself. It was one of those silly catchy tunes that never ceased to get stuck. Eimi stepped into the turbolift and spoke "Bridge" Eimi hummed for a few more seconds and spoke again. "Chiaki, whom was I assigned to work with?" Prior to Chiaki responding in their typical fashion the computer piped up in response.

A thin woman appeared. She had a slight asian appearance, dark hair, and pale skin.

"You were supposed to work with Ensign Lazar", Aimee replied with a nod. "She is running behind and will be here in about 5 minutes. Lieutenant Showei is coming as well."

CARGO BAY TWO

"...You can't be serious."

"Afraid so, lieutenant," the chief replied wryly, "We are still going through everything to make sure the requested inventory is correct, but their chief sent over, well, everything in their warehouses they didn't want."

Osher glared at the self sealing stem bolts in the crate, his hands in fists on his hips. That...b..."

"Right," he said with a sigh, "We are going to have to shift this..."

"Materiel," the chief supplied helpfully.

Osher smiled slightly despite himself. He had a more colorful metaphor in mind, "Yes. Go through every crate-they're all unmarked?"

"Every one, sir. This is going to play hell with the rescue operation."

"I can't disagree with you th-" Osher frowned, "Rescue operation?"

Great, Osher thought. First Polly cried and carried on when she realized she was being left alone in their quarters. Then the unpleasant surprise with the cargo, and now it seemed he missed a mission briefing.

"You're off to a stellar start this morning," he muttered as he entered the turbolift. He checked his PADD and sure enough, there was a note. He was supposed to speak to an ensign Santiago. He called up her file...huh...kind of old for an ensign. Must have been a story there. Problem was, if he asked then likely he would have to open up as well about his background. Once he started doing that people began looking at him strangely, assuming he was making things up.

The turbolift doors swooshed open and he reflexively hesitated before exiting onto the bridge. He glanced about the bridge, spotted Santiago.

"Ensign?" he murmured, "Showei, Operations. I understand an asteroid somehow got past a planet's defense net and impacted near a city? Anything else I should know?"

AImee stood motionless, her eyes not even blinking. As the assignment had been given to Ensign Santiago, she figured it would only be proper to let her do the talking. In the meantime, she listened and continued doing the various calculations that she had been programmed to do.

Eimi was startled by the appearance of the AI, so much so it took her long moments before she responded to the new face that arrived. “That sir is the only thing we know. The reason why has been tasked to Ensign Lazar and myself but obviously the Ensign was unable to attend.” Eimi turned towards the station she stood next to. “Computer can you set my preferred computer layout to this station?”

"Of course," the AI said. "Please call me Amy. I like the reference better and it helps many crew be more at ease around me."

Once the station was more or less to her liking. Eimi fished Chiaki out of her pocket and set the beetle down on the corner of the station. It knew what to do. Record and copy items to the padd that Eimi carried with her. She set that next to Chiaki. Eimi tapped the console and pulled up information on Aramal This is the planet that was hit by the asteroid. Its defense system should have been able to handle the situation but obviously it didn’t. I don’t see anything out of the ordinary at first glance.” Then again, the science officer's expertise was not defense systems. The computer was revealing the planetary net overlay around the planet at the press of a button. It seemed as if it were functioning normally from the data they currently had. Which might now be hours old.

Osher looked like he was about to say something and then clutched his stomach and groaned.

"I am going to need to come back", the Lieutenant said. "I feel horrible all of a sudden, I better go to sickbay."

He left the room.

A moment or two later Ensign Lazar, the Caitian who was in the briefing early showed up.

"I'm really sorry I am late", she said. "I was delayed by a crewman and a power conduit."

Eimi blinked a few times. She glanced at the location the Lieutenant had stood in and released a breath slowly. She was used to being pulled in many directions but this round of jumping officers had her a bit out of sorts and what she needed right now was a good old fashioned climb up a rock face. Eimi instead used that thought to refocus on what she was doing and proceeded to try and complete the task given to her. "Right, this is showing the planetaries defense net." She explained to Lazar "Currently it appears fine. Well at this point in time it does any way." Eimi pushed a loose hair back behind her ear. "However at the time prior to impact it might not have been."

Eimi tilted her head "Comp... er, Aimee can you please over lay the defense grid of the planet at the time that the asteroid would have arrived and hit it."

"Certainly Ensign", AImee replied, and the new data was brought up.

After a moment, with her tail-thumping, Lazar said, "There seems like there was a communication lag in the satellite system during this time. AImee, was there any documented solar activity in the system within two weeks of the impact.'

'Negative", AImee replied.

Lazar's ear's twitched, "Any maintenance going on during this time?"

"Unknown, I don't seem to have access to any of the logfiles of the system", AImee said, her brow scrunching up.

"That's curious", Lazar said.

"I concur" Eimi stated with the slightest bit of puzzlement. "There should be log files of some sort. After all they sent a distress call and that would have been logged." Eimi turned to face Lazar and crossed her arms for a second as she leaned her hip against the consoles edge. "Do you think they could have been tampered with in some way? Maybe deleted?" In her head Eimi almost snickered to herself, a deleted file always left a trace. If there wasn't one and they could not undo the damage then it was done by someone far more superior then her skills could handle.

"Well, any computer can be hacked", Lazar said. "No offense, AImee."

"None taken", the AI replied with a simple nod.

"Maybe if we were able to get access to the planet's main defense control", Lazar said. "I wonder if the Captain could arrange that? Oooh, also, what information about the asteroid is available?"

Eimi stood straight once more and her fingers slid across the panel brought up the asteroid'ss information as she said

"Almee can you project this please as a three-d model."

"By all means Ensign", AImee replied displaying the asteroid and its path towards to the planet.

To Eimi the asteroid looked pretty normal and the data supported it, "Silicate, some clay, random metals and other dense materials most would be called rocks per Terrans." Eimi stated as she leaned slightly forward her dark eyes widened as she watched the asteroid and its path through the atmosphere. She shrugged slightly that small nudge she got about the logs not being there bothered her. "Almee, send the Captain a request and see if we can obtain access to those files."

AImee nodded and after a moment said, "Done."

Eimi stepped towards the 3-d model suspended in space. Well not really in space, it was almost as if it were projected form the ai's palm. She was definitely seeing the advantage of the automated ai computer especially with its ability to create holo type images right there. It was a jagged piece of work, large, ugly and would cause great damage when it hit. Well it had caused damage, at the moment they did not know what kind. It could be varied and that worried her. What worried her more was that there could be more following behind it and they could hit the populated areas of the planet and kill people.

The request could take time if the information hadn't already been forwarded. Eimi hoped that it wouldn't take too long. She glanced at the tail twitching ops officer. "If there are more of these asteroids behind the other and the defense grid fails again. What abilities does the Athena have at her disposal to assist as stopping them?"

The Caitian looked at the asteroid and replied, "If it isn't any larger than this one, the Athena's tractor beam would be capable to divert it. Her weaponry would most likely be able to destroy most of it at least."

"Ok, but if there are dozens or hundreds we will not be able to indefinitely do that." Eimi mused to herself "Aimee are there other asteroids in the vicinity of the Aramal?"

"There is an asteroid field 950 million kilometers from the Aramal system", Aimee responded. "From historical records the closest an asteroid from the field has gotten to the planet is 738 thousand kilometers. Given the positioning of the field to the system, it is extremely rare for asteroids to come into the system proper."

As Aimee responded Eimi had another thought "Would an asteroid the size of the one that hit the planet be able to be coerced to this location with minimal effort?" She glanced at Lazar for the answer.

Lazar's tail swished back and forth, and her ears twitched at the thought, "It would be difficult, depending on the technology used, but I think it could be done."

Eimi's head moved back and forth "One would think the use of an asteroid to try and do something negatively towards a planet would be unheard of but I guess stranger things have occurred in the universe. The sole question that remains is why. Why do it? Why hide it? It obviously could have looked very natural, the asteroid impacting the planet. Yet the removal of the logs pinpointed towards an underhanded event and..." Eimi paused for a moment and moved towards the station and pressed the console her finger flew over it, glanced at something and then swiped it away, she glanced at something else and swiped it. Eimi eventually glanced up at the Catian once more and spoke "Why would they want a federation ship, this federation ship in particular, to be involved in the findings? When it looks like it was literally misdirection and subterfuge."

"Going on the assumption that this could be an intentional act", Lazar replied. "The why is hard to tell. This planet, compared to others in the sector, doesn't impact any interstellar trade all that much. Perhaps it was a proof of concept? As to why the Athena is amongst the ships brought in, perhaps it is because it is a prototype with newer technology. The other ships are newer as well. Only one is older than ten years in age. Another possible reason for the Athena being called in, is that one of the primary duties of the Prometheus class was to assist in intelligence gathering in areas more prone to hostility. Perhaps someone at Starfleet is concerned that a random asteroid impacting a planet that has an early warning system was a tad suspicious and we are truly here to figure out the mystery?"

Eimi would have raised an eyebrow if that would have been her inherent nature. Instead she simply gave a courteous quick nod of acknowledgement and stated "Indeed, the point." Inside Eimi felt as if she had missed a key, in your face, thought item that she had forgotten. It would come to her later when she least expected she knew and then she would be up all night trying to determine what it was and how to find the correct answer.

"Aimee", Lazar said. "Please let us know if the Captain approves our request."

"Affirmative", the AI system answered.

"I'll go dig up where their scientific control facilities are", Lazar said to Eimi. "I think they are on the south continent. I'll let you know once I do and then we can take a little trip. We shouldn't be the only ones left on the ship."


A Joint Post By
---
Ensign Eimi Santiago
Chief Science Officer

Ensign Sayla Lazar (NPC)
Assistant Chief Operations Officer

AImee
Command AI
PNPC - Captain Griffon

 

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