Storm Riders (part 1)

Posted on Wed Dec 30th, 2020 @ 10:44am by Lieutenant JG Jhosa & Commodore Samantha York & Lieutenant Aenar Torek
Edited on on Fri Jan 1st, 2021 @ 4:15pm

1,099 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Eye of the Storm
Location: Bridge
Timeline: MD 01

ON

With the shuttle on its way to the planet, it was up to the remaining bridge crew to look for a cause for such strong storms.

"Helm, see if we can use the moon as a bugger."

"Aye, ma'am."

"Mr. Torek, as we suspect this storm is not natural, see what evidence you can find to support that theory. We need proof before we can take any action other than helping the colonists."

'Aye Captain - the probe should be in place, and relaying data on the system's primary. It should show us either way if the star is the cause of this.' Aenar paused a moment, wondering if he should dive into the technicalities of second-order Fermi calculations, but decided against it. 'Once we're behind the moon, hopefully the data transmissions can be sorted from the background noise.'

Sam nodded. "Set up the filters you need. We should also look at gravitational waves in the sector to see if they're influencing the readings."

'Yes Captain - I'll set the filters now.' Aenar paused a moment as he thought, 'we should perhaps look for any local coronal mass ejection events in the last few months ... eliminating those ought to go a long way to determining whether these storms are artificial in nature.' He worked the console for a moment, 'there, filters set, calibrated for gravitational waves and anomalies, and any see-em-ees in the last few months.' He looked at the Commodore once more, 'any other recommendations, ma'am?'

"Check the planet's atmosphere. I don't know what I'm looking for, but if someone on hte planet is responsible, there might be residual particles in the atmosphere."

'Aye captain - I'll scan the atmosphere for any signs of trace elements.' He cocked his head a moment as he thought. 'We may of course be looking in the wrong area. It's entirely possible that there's an artificial construction in near-orbit that's generating the storm.' His hand moved deftly over the control panel in front of him, setting up and executing the sensor subroutines. 'If you'll allow the sensors a moment to collect our data.'

"Go ahead. Anything that can help us find the cause and stop this storm is welcome." Theories were all well and good, but they needed data to figure this out, and the Calypso's Chief Science Officer was doing a good job of gathering it.

'Good - we'll run the scans once we're in the lee of the moon, it should give us a better picture,' the Bajoran replied, satisfied.

"Mr. Wolfe, how are the shields holding up?"

"Steady." Wolfe replied, tapping at the console as he watched the readings. "For now anyway."

She nodded. "Let me know if it changes."

Sam had confidence in the ship's ability to weather this storm, but she still didn't want to take chances.

Fingers dancing along the control console; deftly adjusting the pitch and Yaw as the shields took a pounding while the added reinforcement of the Deflector Dish was helping marginally as Sith Th'tyhren; the Andorian female Helmsman steadied the Calypso as much as the Impulse power would allow. A steady had on the throttle to keep a nudge of power against the waves of energy engulfing the ship as they seem to be getting into the stronger part of the Ion Storm.

Taking the Headway towards the moon as ordered she had to compensate with propulsion to fight both the gravity pressure and energy washing over the front from the planet side as he angled Calypso to try and used the mood; or rather the 'Shadow Side' of it to take a brunt of the storms rage.

"I calculate that we will be getting very close to the surface to get under the storm Commodore, There are no stations that we require to avoid closer proximity to is there Ma'am?"

"None that I know of," she replied. "But then, we don't really know what we'll find until we get there." There was far too little information about the colony for Sam's liking.

The angle of approach was the key in this type of maneuver, Th'tyhren had to get the angle of decent correct; the haste to get to the position was not so hard as the gravitational effects and the Negative acceleration factors. Unlike in an atmosphere that gave residence and a moon being a smaller stellar body with lighter gravity played the edge of the sword. Usually a moon is not the best for a 'Slingshot maneuver' to give acceleration and the usual choice of his approach.

Using the maneuvering thrusters and reverse impluse in a more subtle form to keep from the natural physics of throwing a star ship into a gravitational field and not wanting to accelerate or used a full orbit needed to slowly cut the rate of approach when getting into a 'Dark Side of a gravity and the 'flow of an Ion Storm to allow the surface to take the brunt of the effects; in essence turning the Calypso 'into the wind direction' of the storm and utilizing the moon as a safe harbor.

Th'tyhren inserted the mass of the Calypso into a stable and stationary orbit of sorts as this class of vessel has an unfavorable history of 'Landings' upon the surface of planets so he parked it well above the surface enough for minor maneuvering to 'hold position but not too close to endanger a 'forced landing./

"We are in minimal stationary orbit of the Satellite Commodore. I do believe Science has the opportunity to reach out for any soil samples while we wait ma'am." Th'tyhren informed.

"Thank you." Sam turned to security. "How are the shields?"

"Science, let's see what you can find," she said to Torek.

'Data's coming through,' replied Aenar tersely as he worked the panel to pinpoint the data he needed. As the probe's telemetry came in, he worked to compare it with historical analyses of the system's primary over the last few months.

The Bajoran whistled quietly, 'no coronal mass ejections detected.' Aenar looked to the Commodore, 'this is most likely an artificial ion storm.'

"I agree. Now, we have to find out if this is an attack from an outside force, or one from someone on the colony itself," Sam said. This was enough confirmation for her to focus the search. "Send a probe into the planet's atmosphere. Let's see what readings we can get."



(To be continued...)

Commodore Samantha York
Commanding Officer

Th'tyhren
Pilot

Lieutenant Aenar Torek
Chief Science Officer

 

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