Untangling puzzles

Posted on Mon Jul 25th, 2022 @ 5:00am by Commander Raiden Kosugi & Lieutenant Commander Mel Torma & Lieutenant Edruj Daughter of Thrawn & Lieutenant JG Eira Cortez & Ensign Emma Walken (Walken)

Mission: The Goddess
Location: Science lab
2201 words - 4.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Raiden asked Eira to come down to the science labs, to converse with Mel, and Emma. Since he wasn't there when they were in that holo program of the old temple he wanted to get some information from them. The door shwooshed closed behind him as he stepped inside.

"Greetings thank you for joining me in this meeting." Raiden giving a smile. "it maybe a bit unorthodox, forgive me as this is my first attempt as being the XO of the ship."

"Of course, you know how much I love a good social call." Mel started, then when he mentioned it being the first attempt as XO, her forms smiled wide, "Oh wait what? Oh that's incredible, congratulations!" she almost bounced.

"Okay so now that that's out of the way, ummm, congratulations sir." her other form mentioned, now a little more professional. Just a little, though. "So what's on the schedule for the meeting?"

"Congrats, Commander." Eira said quietly with a warm smile. Unlike Mel, she was rather reserved with the enthusiasm but recognised that Raiden definitely deserved it by the pride and nervousness radiating from him.

"Well, as for the meeting, there has to be a way to find out more about that temple and that machinery. Maybe figure out some theories? Maybe brain storm as well? All I know about these people is their barbaric ways. And a terrifying practice." he paused then asked. "Have you gotten a piece of that machinery that was in the holo program? I think there had been a piece manufactured to be studied?"

Mel gave a pair of nods, "We've got the piece now and we're running a spectromagnetograph to get the exact make up of the object so we can see if it's distinct enough to come from..."

"... only certain places. Other than that, I'm still a little stumped on the temple's function but, if we have any writing or texts or even some scripture we might be able to..."

"... get the next piece." one of the twin motioned to the piece under a very expensive looking piece of machinery, while the talker, well, talked. "Think maybe Hawkins has some texts in evidence he could part with copies of?"

"You have a good point there, he may well have something we need or even a text that has been found that we've not looked at yet." Raiden giving a slight sigh. "Okay so..." he walked over towards the piece of machinery that was brought to the lab. "Maybe we can also get a miniature of the temple program that we had stepped into and piece it together as well?"

Emma finally spoke up, it really wasn't her area of expertise. "I would be careful with the program until it's swept through we don't know what kind of potential viruses, trackers, or anything like that that could be spread."

Raiden glanced over towards Emma and gave a nod. "That is a good point to be brought up. I'm not the most scientific person here but, I think we can utilize our brain power just to figure out what direction we can take this to." he mused then looked at those here in Science.

"Is there a place we can bring up a miniature version of that temple we were looking at and try to dissect piece by piece in order to figure out what the components are?" Raiden feeling like he was a blind man reaching out to find his way through some sort of maze.

Then it hit Raiden, he needed someone else to perhaps help untangle some of this. He tapped on his commbadge. "Lieutenant Edruj would you come to the Science Lab? This is Commander Kosugi"

Edruj was in Engineering putting the finishing touches on the upgrades. She had been adding a little touches of home as it were. She heard the call for her to report to the Science Lab and acknowledged it. About five minutes later she stepped through the Lab doors. "Commander Kosugi I am reporting as ordered."

"Thank you for coming, Lieutenant Edruj." Raiden responded. He tapped in some codes then looked around then gave a nod. "So let's go into one of the labs here, and pull up a holographic diorama of that temple we were in." pointing off towards another area. Security codes are intact."

He looked over towards Mel, "Commander Torma, hope you don't mind us using the archeological dioramic table to get a better view to this puzzle?"

"Not at all. Single Instance life has the most adorable, albeit possible offensive, expression of Two Heads are Better Than One." it was adorable to hear Mel use that phrase. "So, by all means, invite everyone and ..."

"... we'll use every resource we can to figure this jigsaw puzzle out." at that, the analysis of the initial piece completed, and a *ding* tone caught the Dalacari's attention. She made her ways over to examine the results. "Hmmm, copper, iron hydroxide, nickel, oh this is..."

"... interesting. It's a mix of a bunch of materials but the largest concentration is selenium. About eighteen percent." she held out the results for others to confirm. "Selenium fell out of use in major electronics when more stable, less toxic..."

"... alloys were discovered, long before the invention of memory metals and isolinear storage, but it always had properties that were misunderstood. It had an interesting interaction..."

"... with subspace, they just didn't know it at the time. A few crazy theories floated around at the time that a sizable concentration of selenium could act as an antenna..."

"... to transmit or receive messages from vast, potentially galactic distances. A precursor to subspace communications." she looked at the design of the structure, then the piece in her hand. "Think it's a radio?"

Edruj stepped over to the hologram and stared at it intently. The wheels in her head began to spin in overdrive. At first she was going to offer a different theory than the Commander. However, when she was going to open her mouth everything became clear. "Yes... Yes I would concur this is a some kind of radio, or at the very least a transceiver. The bigger question is where is the power source. For something like this to work in particular across great distances it would need a large source of power."

"If it's a structure, could the power source be geothermal?" Mel inquired, each form cupping their respective chin in thought. Tails twitching as thoughts flared in those binary brains. "It wouldn't be as grand a source of power as say, a proper antimatter reactor or even fission, but..."

"... it would be impossible to detect on sensors. Stealth power for an invisible radio antenna." that thought didn't sit well with her. "So what if this is how the cult communicates..."

"... with distant cells and other splinter groups to kinda coordinate atrocities? Imagine if we could tap into their comm network." she offered, now thinking way outside the box. "I mean, gotta find one operational..."

"... first, but this opens entirely new doors. We couldn't find anything because we were looking for something THIS advanced..." one of her forms held a hand up over her head.

"When they're using techniques and methods THIS advanced." and the other form hunkered down, and put a hand down by the ankle of her digitigrade stance. Then she recovered her collective stances. "Theoretically, I mean. It's all just on paper, as they used to say."

Raiden was listening in to all that was being tossed about, all they were talking about was rather probable. "You know you do have a point how do they actually keep in contact? Maybe even piggy backing on other programs and radio signals. This group does seem even more organized than what I first thought." He blew out a puff of air through his pursed lips, feeling a cold shiver go up and down his spine. In fact he shuddered just ever so slightly. "Gives me the chills just even thinking about this. Looks like I've got some reading to go over, and yet another piece of a puzzle to look at." he rubbed his face, taking a deep breath. "May need to figure out where they had gotten these supplies, which means even more digging. And more coffee or tea." he looked at the others." This definitely is progress that is for certain."

"Everything that the Commander says is possible, and maybe even probable. However, we must figure out what the correct answer is about the power source. I request permission to power the device up. I believe I can power it up in a stand by mode of sorts. Once powered up we can trace where the power is coming from and there you would have it." Edruj spoke to Raiden as she looked over the consoles in front of her.

Raiden looked over at Edruj, "are you suggesting that we activate the miniature version of what this might be and see where the signal is going to?" he pondered over that, "That is if we are able to figure out the true size of the thing." he looked at Eira, Mel and Emma. "What do you think? I honestly don't know the whole scope and size of this thing could be unless you can make an educated guess?"

"I am suggesting exactly that. Sometimes when you are not sure what a machine does, it is best to boot it up and watch. The only thing that I would add there is to boot it up in standby, this way we can control what if anything it does." Edruj replied with a small amount of eagerness in her voice. She was excited to possibly take on an unknown machine.

"That's *IF* it has a standby mode." Mel pointed out. "If we do this, we should do it someplace shielded. Heavily shielded. If it's a simple transmitter we don't want to potentially alert..."

"... whoever is on the other end listening." with that out of the way, her forms turned to Raiden, "My guess is that we had it right in the holodeck, it's a structure. A tower. If we assume it..."

"... is some form of broadcast antenna, the bigger it is the more signal it could produce. So, in theory, the more range."

"I agree that there needs to be safety precautions. However, I stand by what I said earlier. The best way to learn how something works is to see it work." Edruj made one last attempt to have her idea accepted by Commander Kosugi.

Eira nodded in agreement with the Lieutenant, "I agree. We should test it out, possibly make a mock-up of this, to see how it works and learn."

Raiden thought over their proposal, he had just one other person he wished to weigh in. He looked towards Emma, "Ensign Walken, what's your thoughts about this? I am all for setting this up but, I'd like to hear your perceptions as well."

"Well as a biologist I can tell you that I can't give you a fair opinion through my studies. Personally, I would say as long as we take proper precautions and do what we can to not alert someone who might be listening on the other end." Emma answers.

Raiden nodded, "Then we need to get the precautions set up, and possibly back on the holo-deck where the captain had the huge mock up before? This time though, smaller scale would be better fitting it together like a jigsaw puzzle. Shall we all head there?"

Mel gave a pair of nods, "Absolutely." she stated in unison, making certain to bring the piece she was analyzing. "The holodeck is going to be the safest place for this kind of experiment. Just, remember..."

"... to keep the safeties on as high as possible. No need to invite danger." It was a fact that the Dalacari were very conscious of their own well being, and thus the wellbeing of others. Safety and avoidance of harm were top of their lists. Well, that, and being trendy. Being safe was always in style, though.

It made a lot of sense when you really took a look at them. Dalacari, that is. Not just her.

"Very well, everyone looks like we're heading back to the holo-suite." Raiden commented "We're definitely making headway, and I'm glad of that. " he paused for a moment when a chirp was heard from his PADD, he looked at it and gave a slight frown. Looking up from it, he said,

"Okay lets meet in a couple of hours, this will give us a break to refresh our minds, and not to mention get some food. On that note, I've got to get going." with a wave, Raiden headed out of the science lab at a rapid pace.

Mel gave a pair of nods. "Sounds good. A break, a snack." She said with a smirk or two, "Or maybe someone has a date..." she teased, while her silent twin put her hands on her head to imitate long ears.

"I'm only teasing." She relented, relaxing her forms.

Raiden jut chuckled as he heard Mel's tease but said not a word in return, the door closing behind him.