Tell me your plans

Posted on Tue Nov 3rd, 2020 @ 10:51pm by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Lieutenant Samantha Leyton & Lieutenant JG Mattias Constantine & Ensign Elegy Nascimento

Mission: Mission 3 - 100
Location: Deck D - Cargo Bay
Timeline: Day 66, Month 3, Year 0 09:00
1524 words - 3 OF Standard Post Measure

It was not often that Beth got to hang out in the shuttle bay but waiting for the officers to arrive had given her time to nose around like any good commanding officer… The officer in Charge should when left to own devices. She had requested the shuttle bay as the location for many reasons as it was not the situation room, it allowed her to stretch her legs and lastly, she wanted to see what exactly the plan was with her own eyes if the shuttle was the one that was chosen. She glanced up from standing on a barrel to get a better look at a shuttle pod when the doors whooshed open.

"Hey Captain," Leyton greeted as she entered, wearing a huge grin. She was excited as the plan was finally coming together and in the final phases.

Walking in with Leyton, Ensign Elegy Nascimento wasn't quiet as loose and excited as his colleague. His hands were fidgety, as if he suddenly couldn't remember how to let them hang and swing by his sides. Pilled deeply on his shoulders was the brainstorming session he'd led with the science department. Rather than gathering brave new ideas, Elegy had mostly caught disbelief, shock and awe, distrust and confusion about this mission. That tension bubbled out of Elegy, when he asked, "Hullo, Captain. I hope we're not late..."

The Officer In Charge looked at the pair noticing the polar opposites of their body language. This was going to be interesting. "No, you caught me investigating the shuttle pod and no one else is here yet. Could you be helpful and offer me a hand down Ensign." Beth requested realizing there was no way to get down gracefully without help so she might as well ask the man for it.

"Are you sure you want to come down, Captain?" asked Elegy. His boots clanged against the deck grating, as he approached Beth. Welp, Elegy thought to himself; I can at least do this. If nothing else, I can serve as a step stool. "From up there," Elegy said as he reached the barrel, offering his hand and a shoulder, "You can reach any star."

“I saw the world from the stars' point of view, and it looked unbearably lonely.” Beth found herself smiling despite the sadness of the quote as she used the man to get herself down from the barrel. "Thank you, Ensign." She mused stepping back a few feet to look at the pair. "Are you both full of energy and explanations?" She wondered hoping that everyone else would be on time to this discussion.

Samantha shrugged. "So far, the plan is to approach the supposed wormhole and take a stationary position fifteen thousand kilometers from the entrance to the supposed wormhole and launch a modified torpedo into the entrance where Ensign Nascimento will monitor and record the readings."

During Lieutenant Leyton's explanation, the doors leading into the launch bay opened again to allow Lieutenant Constantine to enter. Having left the communications center in Ensign O'Connery's capable hands, Mattias had originally raised an eyebrow when he saw the location posted on the summons before remembering the shuttlepod discussion that had transpired on the bridge. With a purposeful stride, the communications officer walked over to the assembly, tilting his head to catch the end of Samantha's sentence.

"Commander, lieutenant, ensign," Matt looked to each in turn, "apologies for my tardiness. Did I hear correctly? We're going with the modified torpedo plan?"

"The warhead would be pulled out..." Chris spoke up as he walked in behind the previous officer and took a seat at the top, resting his feet over the edge and like a child leaning through the safety cables to prevent someone from falling over the edge. "... and replace it with one of our sensor boy's, like an advanced probe with training wheels. The torpedo hall will be stronger than what we have on our sensor boys and go faster, making it more manoeuvrable. Gives us the greatest chance of correcting the course if there are any issues that arise. And might I add. If we are going down this route, I recommend modifying the controls to go through the helm station. Then we would have a better response time."

"With me piloting the shuttle, who will be adding course corrections?" Samantha asked.

This caught Chris off guard. Had he completely spaced on not listening to a briefing where they discussed the part of Leyton piloting the shuttle? The very idea of doing that was dangerous and reckless. All the things he was jealous off as he smirked before shrugging at her question. "Guess the next best person can do it. But don't ruin that shuttle, unless you intend to help fix it when ya get back."

"And how many simulations have been run on this plan?" Beth finally asked trying to take it all in that they had really decided on that course of action. She was not sure she liked this place at all, it seemed to risk too much. Shuttlepod, Second Officer, Morale and they were in no particular order in her mind apart from losing Samantha in this plan, that was number one.

"As of yet, none but it appears to be the best plan, ma'am," Samantha replied with a shrug.

"None?" Beth asked looking at the group for a moment before she looked at the shuttle pod again. She pinched the bridge of her nose trying to centre herself as she thought through options. "Anyone have anything to add to the plan?" She finally said turning back to them.

Tilting his head from side to side --as if he was weighing out the pros and cons in his mind-- Elegy offered, "It may behoove us to launch a second torpedo casing." --Elegy cleared his throat and he waved a hand in the negative to correct himself-- "Or a first torpedo, without a warhead, without a sensor buoy. We don't know enough about why spatial anomalies exist to effectively simulate them. There may not be a clear path between Atlantis and the wormhole; the spatial anomalies may tear anything we throw at it to shreds."

"Communications is here to help however we can," Constantine waited for his friend to finish speaking before commenting. "Ensign O'Connery and I have been working on a method of increasing the frequency of our sensor scans. With the help of some parallel processing, we should be able to double our scan frequency at the cost of narrowing the sensors' field of view. That said, everything is in front of us anyway, so I don't think it will be an issue. However, our circumstances govern our decisions. And I refer to our limited resources. We are surrounded by debris in space, are we not? In lieu of using a torpedo, why not use the phase cannons to carve an asteroid into a more uniform shape, then grapple it towards the anomaly?"

"The idea of throwing a rock into an anomaly may sound al nice and dandy but if we want to get the proper idea of what we are looking at, how it responds and where it leads, a probe or shuttle are the only real way we can get an idea of what to expect. Anything else is honestly a waste of resources and power themselves in which I prefer not to waste. A couple torpedoes and sensor bouys and probes are the best call, then a shuttle. At least that is how I see it," Harper expressed as he shrugged.

"We do not have anything to waste so Harper is right the shuttle and probe are really the only way to investigate properly what this wormhole is all about," Beth confirmedglsncing at the man to gauge his reaction still. She had thought she had made it clear before but she wanted to make sure whet all knew what was needed here. "We get one shot at this and if it fails we move on. We find another route or a short cut." It was a lot to put on peoples shoulders but they were all senior officers and department heads. some of them were the smartest minds that Starfleet had to offer. She needed to keep them in the real world.

"Aye, Captain," Elegy said. His eyes on the down, Elegy Nascimento took a note on his PADD to take back to Sovar and the rest of the science team. Just one shot, he wrote. Elegy also made note of Constantine's idea for a heavy-duty probe made out of a hollowed-out asteroid. That could have... other uses in other scenarios. "Given the limited space in a torpedo casing, sirs," Elegy reported, "The science department is still analyzing and debating which sensor pallets would offer the most utility for exploring a wormhole." --Which is why the Ensign Nascimento had been sent to tend to these administrative matters-- "I believe we'll have a final recommendation for engineering in a couple of hours. Otherwise.. we're ready to see what a wormhole looks like from the inside."