Hide and seek part 2

Posted on Thu Jan 28th, 2021 @ 7:53am by Captain Taliserra Tigran & Lieutenant Nilo Rodis & Lieutenant Anthony Edwards Ph. D & Ensign Brendon Watanabe
Edited on on Sat Feb 27th, 2021 @ 9:29am

Mission: To catch a thief
Location: Deck 1- Bridge
Timeline: 3rd April 2395 1900hrs

Somewhat refreshed Taliserra strode out of the turbolift back onto the bridge, she was slightly surprised to see Lt Edwards still at his station. It was a fair bet that despite her telling him to get some rest he had stayed at the science station for the duration of the probes scan of the nebula.

"Anthony it has been six hours, what do we have?" she asked as she headed for the centre chair.

“Your not going to like my answer Captain.” Anthony said, he had just returned to the bridge a few minutes. He continued “Nothing but debris and space dust.”

"What do you mean nothing but debris and space dust?" Taliserra asked, her voice came across a little snappy.

Anthony a fully trained doctor of philosophy didn't much like being snapped at with only four hours sleep, so as many scientist did when people asked them questions, he repeated it only slower. "Nothing but debris and space dust. Means that there is no sign of any ships cloaked or otherwise Captain."

Taliserra slowly sat herself down in the centre chair "So where does that leave us, back at square one?"

Ensign Brendon Watanabe looked up just before from the second science station after being replaced by the returning Chief hoping he would say something anything to give hope.

"Well Captain something the team investigating the data core from that corvette got in last few hours before we got here was the fact that the core mentioned a belt, which we believe to be a near by Asteroid belt. It would have been nice to find them here but I guess the asteroid belt was the more likely location." Anthony said.

"An asteroid belt?" Taliserra repeated. "could be a good spot to hide ships of the size they were using. LT Nilo, what asteroid formations are nearby?"

Nilo ran a quick scan of the asteroid field formations that were ahead of them and nodded as the information came back.

"Captain, we have two types of formation out there," he began. "We're dealing with a S-type Asteroid formation, made up of mainly metallic nickel-iron mixed with iron-and magnesium-silicates. that alone would be enough to hideaway any ships in the area. Further out is a less dense C-type formation, made up of clay and silicate rocks however that formation shouldn't be as much of an issue."

Nilo thought on for a moment before looking over at Lt Edwards. "Lieutenant, we tried probes to see if there was any way of seeing what's inside, with little success. Would another option be either to take in a shuttlecraft and send back a live data feed based on its sensor readings perhaps? or we could look at firing some sort of pulse in there, that could affect a recognised cloaking device matrix?"

“Good point Lt Nilo, if the reason we had used the sensor probes weren’t because that we are virtually blind with normal sensors. Not to mention taking the ship in would make us even more blind the closer we got to the nebula.” Lt Edwards responded.

"Ah, that makes more sense now, thank you, Lieutenant," Nilo said now that he understood the situation more clearly. "I would still offer my idea then about using some sort of pulse in there, that could affect a recognised cloaking device matrix? Worth a try, if it scared out anyone that is hiding," he said.

"If they are hiding there, and don't expect us to go in blind, this might give the enemy the proud thinking that they have an advantage over us, whereas exposing their position could also cause them to run and give us an option to pursue?" Nilo asked as he surmised his idea to the others.

"Space dust and rather reflective space dust in there about all we would get is the reflection of our pulse. On top of which the data core the science team has been working on ever since the explosion gives a meeting place where they were all going to most likely regroup in the event of their mission going wrong. I guess this likely means the fact that we haven't seen anything of them in here already hypothetically says that asteroid belt must be a much better place to look for them. If the pulses that the probes sent out haven't found anything means there not here." Anthony said.

"Gentlemen," Taliserra called out, their discussion felt like it was going to become an argument if she let it carry on. "Helm set a course for the closest asteroid formation warp six."

"Aye Captain." The young woman manning the helm responded, tapping at the console she jumped the Wolff to warp speeds.

"Use whatever resources are needed for a quick but efficient search pattern." She told Anthony and Rodis.

“Yes Captain!” Anthony knew better than to mention anything about a Hypothetically based analytical discussion to himself and seeing as he was having that discussion on the bridge with a chief in front of other junior officers it was not the place to continue it. “Apologies Lieutenant Rodis. Let’s get on and program this search pattern instead.”

Nilo nodded as Edwards gave his apology and the Captain gave her orders. "No offence taken Lieutenant," he said. "I'm playing catchup and its good to know that thorough means have already been investigated, I'll prepare to re-route power to the sensor arrays once we arrive out of warp to assist in checking the asteroid fields."

The bridge was mostly silent for the next twenty minutes as the Wolff sped closer to the asteroid formation, the silence was broken by the Helmsman. "Dropping out of warp, beginning sweep." She announced and started to pilot the ship through the course Anthony had sent her.

Taliserra waited patiently for a few minutes before calling out, she knew the Wolffs sensors should have no trouble with a simple asteroid field. "Anything?"

"Nothing Unusual, Captain, a generalised silicate with the normal mix of metallic asteroids which are generally larger than the silicates at the moment. If I was to form a hypothesis it would involve a large metallic, as it might hide their ships a lot easier than a silicate-based rock one, unless there was a huge one with a large cave system within." Anthony said as he read the sensor data before he added. "So much White Gold out here, sorry Gold and Palladium with a smaller mix of other useful metals too."

Nilo read through the sensor data further at his station, to see if he could pick up on anything else that could offer a new lead or further explanation as to where the pirates could be hiding. Once he picked up on something new, Nilo narrowed the detection field of the lateral sensor array to focus on it better.

"Captain, Lieutenant, I believe I have something else of interest," he said. Working away further, Nilo looked up. "I believe that I've located signs of high power generation coming from a cluster of larger asteroids in the local area. Power generation could mean that there may be some sort of settlement out there unless its a natural phenomenon."

"Continue the search pattern," Taliserra instructed. "if it's them I don't want them to think we've detected them yet."

"Grid by grid Captain, we might skip diagonally occasionally to speed up the search. Those power signatures will pinpoint where they certainly could be, or it could just be an innocuous mining company doing just that. Though I will log it for checking later." Anthony said.

"If I may, I can continue to scan the same area whilst we are following the grid pattern, however using the sensors on a low frequency that would not raise any alarm or provide any sense of detection. That way we can still pull any required information whilst we follow the grid search pattern?" Nilo offered. He felt that he was onto something but wanted to be certain that he could get facts.

Doctor of Philosophy and Language and Linguistics Lieutenant(jg) Anthony Edwards listened carefully as Lieutenant Rodis spoke and he liked what he heard. "I concur Captain. if we do that we can look like a science vessel doing an ordinary scientific survey while still getting the information we want, They will either see us coming and ignore us because we're sticking to a survey like grid pattern or the will get nervous and try and make a break for it and then we have them literally on the run."

Taliserra nodded slightly. "Keep it as discreet as you can, let's not show our hand just yet."

"Aye Captain," responded Nilo as he began working on re-aligning the required sensor suites for the low wave scanning he proposed. Once they were re-aligned, Nilo then worked on making sure that the power grid was set to provide low power rates to the sensor suites whilst the Wolff was set on her new search pattern.

"Sensor scans are underway, discreetly, Captain," Nilo reported.

After only a few minutes waiting Taliserra stood from the chair and started slowly walking around the bridge, she thought constantly about how much more time they could be wasting if the mercenaries weren't there, how much further away from their last known location they could be and how much lower her chances of finding them would be with ever hour that passed.

About ten minutes later the Captain began her trip around the bridge Edwards turned to her and said “Captain we’ve got them, the asteroid we have been watching covertly has a ship in orbit. It is one of the ships caught on the station's sensors and mentioned on the ships computer core.”

Looking at one of the consoles Taliserra quickly turned towards the viewscreen "On screen."

The viewscreen changed from a wide-angle view of the asteroid field to a close in view of a very large asteroid, a small ship could be seen slowly orbiting it. "Only one ship, any signs of the others?" She asked.

“A few anomalous power readings Captain, which could be ships or on an asteroid that size a small community, highly likely if it is a community it is likely a very fluid community on the wrong side of the law of who knows how many alien races. Either way, it is a good place to offload stolen tech.” Anthony said.

Nilo looked up once he received the latest data from the sensors. "Captain, I have match on the ship in orbit, its a corvette type ship, currently with its shields and weapons offline according to the latest data we have just received. If they were expecting us, I would have thought they would have gone to a defensive posture by now...perhaps our plan has worked so far?" Nilo offered.

"Slow to 1/2 impulse," Taliserra instructed wanting to keep the illusion but not get too far away from the asteroid that they couldn't close the distance quickly enough to catch them. "Bring us around to close on the ship. Can you tell if there are any surprises hiding in the asteroid field?"

"Sensors have a fairly good reading of most of the field between us and that large one that ship is orbiting now Captain, there are no surprises I can see this side. There are a few larger asteroids that could hold weapons platforms and some smaller patched of disintergrating asteroids that could hold mine fields on both sides through it is fairly wide gateways either way." Anthony answered.

"Good." Taliserra mused. She made one more slow loop around the bridge weighing the options. "Red Alert." She called out.

TBC