Where in the Universe?

Posted on Tue Feb 20th, 2024 @ 1:02am by Lieutenant Tracey Walker Jr & Lieutenant Commander Kevin Lance

Mission: Visit to Eden
Location: USS Chuck Norris
Timeline: Current

on:
{Emergency Bridge, Deck 2}

Kevin stood over the tactical plotting board on the ship’s emergency bridge looking as a diagram of the alien ship. Lacking separate working space that was afforded to the Captain, he had come to use the back up control facility for planning and administration of the flight control section. The engineering and tactical watch officers manning the back-up stations had become accustom to his presence and both they and Kevin largely ignored one another.

“The alien ship has been cruising at .25 C ever since we made contact,” he stated to Trace and the junior science officer, “If their speed has been constant for 300 years, that gives us a search radius of a bit under seventy-one thousand light years.” He tapped the control panel for the tactical plot and the diagram of the ship was replaced by a map of the alpha and beta quadrants with a sphere representing the designated search area.

“They might have changed course to double back on themselves,” Trace offered, “but I find that highly unlikely.”

“So do I,” Kevin agreed, “So assuming minimal course corrections to avoid star systems and major navigational hazards, the search area narrows to a more manageable eighty-five hundred light years.” The sphere was replaced with a much narrower cone.

The science officer observed the new search area and typed some information into her PADD, “The star systems along the projected route have all been well surveyed and none has or had a civilization capable of constructing such a ship.”

Trace rubbed his chin in thought. "Well, I think we may have to get over there and see what we can find out from any ship logs or systems. Surely something was recorded that will give us a lead."

"I concur," Kevin nodded, "I hoped that by backwards plotting we could figure put who or what they are. As it is, it seems that the ship got her via a rogue wormhole or some such. But with a surface area of 322 thousand square kilometers, where do we start?"

"Based on the size of the ship," the science officer pointed out, "we calculate a gravity of .83 G of Earth normal but local gravity is varying between. 6 G and 1.4 G."

"Interesting," Trace confessed, "Why would a ship have random variations?"

"They aren't random," the science officer continued,
"Each variation is contiguous in an area of 100 by 100 kilometers except at the poles where the variation is in a circle 58 kilometers in radius.

"Anything else unusual?" Kevin asked.

"Yes. Each area appears to have it's own biome. Mostly Class M, but a few Class L and N. One is even Class O."

"Like paddocks," Trace volunteered.

"What do you mean?" Kevin asked.

"The Commander mentioned plant and animal life. What if this is some kind of an ark." Trace replied.

"An Ark, what's that?" Kevin inquired.

"Old Earth, origin stories. Noah...you know, the ark." Trace said, trying to distill decades of familiarity with myth and origin stories for Kevin. "If you were an ancient civilization, capable of building something like this, and you needed a way to save representatives of your entire spectrum of flora and fauna, well, you'd have to have a way to keep the predators from eating the prey, wouldn't you, and a way to keep them alive. So you'd divide them, and create biomes in which each could thrive."

Kevin didn't know ancient Earth mythology but understood where Trace was going. "I get separating species but why differing gravities and atmospheres?"

"That part I think we're going to have to see with our own eyes." He said, "but if I had to speculate, either we're talkin about one weird ass planet, or possibly multiple planets. Assuming the ark theory is correct."

Kevin looked at the gravity heat map of the ship. He noticed that the gravity at the poles was identical and matched the calculated gravity of .83 Gs. He switched to an analysis of the power consumption at the poles. That showed a greater amount of power at the northern pole. "We'll start there," he said pointing to the north pole on the map, "Gear up. I have a feeling that it's going to be a long day."

"Aye sir." Walker said, and headed to grab his gear.

:off

Lieutenant Commander Kevin Lance
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Chuck Norris

and

Lieutenant Tracey "Trace" Walker
Chief Engineer
USS Chuck Norris