The Comm Link, part 2
Posted on Wed Apr 6th, 2011 @ 1:03am by Commodore Samantha York & Lieutenant Tavish 'Tav' Ross & Lieutenant JG Talri & Lieutenant JG Tramira Kyt & Ensign Mak Free [Lynx] & Lieutenant JG Ronnie Wolfe
1,018 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
The Forests of Mythraeli
Location: Conference Room
Timeline: Current
[Conference Room, USS Calypso]
ON
[OLD]
"Have we any theories on the source of the interference as yet?" Tav asked. "It seems strange that natural phenomena would start producing interference to our equipment shortly after our arrival, but not before. That sounds like jamming to me."
[NEW]
Mak shook his head. "I'm not implying anything, I just made an observation." He turned to the Captain. "Perhaps there is some kind of intelligence down there driving this resistance?" He said in an unsure tone.
'That is a reasonable hypothesis,' replied Talri. 'However, initial survey scans indicated no presence, either biological or artificial in nature, with the intelligence necessary to react to our presence with such adaptations, is that not so?'
"That's right. The planet is pristine. No signs of anything intelligent or predatory," Ronnie said. "No signs of technology of any kind."
"We had no problems with the scans until after the away team landed. So something may have reacted to their presence. We simply don't know what it may be," Sam added.
"And nothing technological I take it?" Tav asked, confirming what he had read.
"Not that we've found," Ronnie replied.
"Biological?" Mak blurted out then went silent as if he couldn't believe he said it but a moment later added. "Aren't there biological forms of interference?" He asked having thought more about it.
"Don't look at me. I'm only the Security grunt." Kyt said. "I can bandage up wounds, or cause them. I'll try and refrain, unless it becomes necessary."
"Yes, there are," Sam said. "But nothing on the scale we're experiencing. "All known species of plant that can interfere with communications can only do it to a lesser degree. None have been known to totally block signals."
"What about animal life?" Tav asked, following the same train of thought. "Do we know of any animals that can produce a focused EM field to jam comms and sensors?"
"Not sufficient to jam comms," Ronnie replied. "That takes a lot of energy. Or a large area. The readings from the fighters could indicate a biological source. They showed something, but nothing we've seen before and thus can't be identified."
"Have we narrowed the source down at all?" Tav asked, becoming more confused by the minute.
"What we have so far," Sam said, trying to keep everything in some semblance of an order, "is that there is something that shows up on biological scans and blocks communications and sensors. A sufficiently strong signal can break through, temporarily, but it is quickly suppressed again -- or jammed, depending on how you want to look at it. Does that help?" she asked Tavish.
"I'm no biologist," he admitted. "I don't know of anything short of a EM jammer that would cause that sort of problem, if it's biological, I've never heard of anything like it."
"Neither have I," Sam commented wryly. "I'll admit, much as I want the away team found safe and sound, I'm finding myself increasingly curious as to the cause of the jamming."
"I'm not." Kyt said, though she was fairly certain just about everyone knew that by this point. "The only thing I can think of would be a biological pathogen which would inhibit such abilities. But then, I slice things with a hammer at the best of time, and I'm fairly certain that in order to make such a pathogen, we'd need a living subject. Oh, and the whole biological warfare being outlawed thing doesn't help either."
"How long will it take to modify communications and try to break through the interference?" Sam asked.
"Well I could boost the signal within the space of 15 minutes, but it sounds like the interference would simply catch up," Tav replied. "Unless we sent a signal in that limited space to the away team to modify their communicators to modulate the frequency on a set pattern. In that case we could modify our own communications array to mirror the pattern and we might be able to maintain comms until we run out of frequency range."
"Right now the most important thing is to find out if they're okay," Sam said. "Then we can figure out how to get them back."
"If someone can work on putting together a data packet explaining how to change the combadges to a modulating frequency, I can set up the comm system to break the interference and send the data to a tricorder, hopefully the away team will be able to follow those instructions," Tav explained. "In the meantime I'll boost the signal so that we can check they're safe, otherwise the modulating option is pointless."
He looked over to Mak for confirmation of his plan, he didn't know the Galaxy-class too well and it might take longer for the action than he had in mind.
"No problem," Mak replied with a nod. "You know there could be a new form of life that could be the cause of the interference and we just don't know how to detect them."
Kyt looked from Mak, to Tav, to Talri, to the Captain. "No offence, but it's my scheduled combat drill for my department. I'm probably not needed here anymore. Permission to be dismissed?" She asked, after clearing her throat.
"Go," Sam said dismissively to Kyt. The security officer had done as much as she could to this point. Now it would be up to the others.
Talri had been listening intently to Tav's idea. It was good that he had come up with something. Communications was, after all, not her area of expertise, and the small breakthrough she had made had been hard-won. If he could make something useful out of it, so much the better, and she had found herself nodding in approval.
(To be continued...)
Captain Samantha York
Commanding Officer
USS Calypso
Lieutenant Tavish "Tav" Ross
Chief Engineer
USS Calypso
Lieutenant JG Talri
Stellar Cartographer
USS Calypso
Lieutenant JG Ronnie Lancaster (PNPC)
Chief Science Officer
USS Calypso
Ensign Tramira Kyt
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Calypso
Ensign Mak Free (PNPC)
Engineer
USS Calypso
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