Massive Anomaly

Posted on Thu Jan 4th, 2024 @ 6:25pm by Commander Kevin Lance

Mission: The Avenger
Location: Rolar Nebula
Timeline: Current

on:
{Shuttle Sierra-03}

Lieutenant Tracey Walker rubbed his eyes to clear his vision. Staring at the short range sensors for trace heavy elements hours on end was starting to give him eye strain. He was halfway through his third three-hour rotation on the “sensor line” as Lieutenant Lance had named it. He had gotten almost six hours in his bunk after the last rotation and was still a little blurry.

The science ensign acting as co-pilot was complaining, again, about the pace of operations over the last almost thirty hours. The Captain, at Lieutenant Lance’s recommendation, had everyone working double shifts. “I did my regular shift in astrometrics then Lieutenant K’ner pulled me to assist the triage of the debris of the Avenger for another four hours. Then when I was looking forward to a shower and a hot meal, they stuck me out here.”

Ah the entitlement of youth, Trace thought.

“You think this is bad, kid,” he replied wryly, “I was out on the deserts of Sekteth looking for the lost sarcophagus of Demok. The planet had a thirty-six hour rotation and it wasn’t uncommon to work twenty-two or twenty-four hours straight. You tried to sleep a full twelve hours but usually got only eight or nine. We were going on caffeine and adrenaline for nearly a month.”

The ensign crossed her arms and sunk back into the co-pilot chair. She had been looking for validation, not this rugged old fossil’s sage wisdom.

=/\= “Sierra-03 this is Norris” =/\=

“Go for Sierra-03,” Trace replied.

=/\= “Probes are detecting a large anomalous mass along bearing 316, mark 108 from our location,” the Chief Flight Control Officer’s voice continued, “You are to break station and investigate.” =/\=

A few taps on the shuttle’s console and the line from the Norris extending out in to space appeared. “Wilco,” Trace answered, “Sierra-03, out.” With a few more taps, the shuttle turned and headed in the direction of the anomaly.

{Bridge}

Kevin studied the data feed from Shuttle Sierra-03 as it made its way along the plot calculated from the probe’s data. The shuttle’s sensors were estimating the anomalous mass at in excess of 4 million cubic meters. The NX-series topped out at less than 1.2 million cubic meters. Kevin was about to ask the science officer on duty if a debris field in the nebula would cause the computer larger volume than the original vehicles dimensions when the communicator on the Flight Control console chirped.

=/\= “Norris, this is Sierra-03. We are being hailed.” =/\=

{Shuttle Sierra-03}
Trace has barely finished his transmission to the Norris when the hail from a female Cardassian voice came again, “This is the CMS Binpatt Ore to Federation vessel. Identify yourself.”

:off

Lieutenant Kevin Lance
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Chuck Norris