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"The Lost Artifact"
(Previous Post: "Debate in Engineering")
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Setting: USS BASTET, Bridge
Stardate: 32101.0820
For the last couple of months the USS BASTET had been mapping various dimensions, thus expanding the list of known coordinates as well as adding details of those that had already been discovered. The mission had quickly become a monotonous routine as they jumped into a dimension, stayed there for a couple of days as they performed various scans before returning to the prime dimension to re-calibrate the instruments before starting all over.
The exploration mission proved to be uneventful despite the numerous dimensional jumps, this to the delight of the Commanding Officer, Captain Selene Iverson. As pleasant as the routine proved to be for her, the Captain blamed the monotony as being the reason why the senior officers had, from time to time, been talking about the issue that had involved the cargo bay on deck 8 so many days ago.
With their last dimensional finally behind them, the BASTET had set a course back to NEW ALEXANDRIA. There they would download all of the data collected as well as give the crew some well earned rest and relaxation.
"Now approaching the GEZA Nebula," Commander Valentine announced as the main view screen was made to display the impressive colours of the stellar formation which offered a breathtaking background to the base hidden within the nearby asteroid field.
"Send course and transmit our clearance code then get us home," the Captain offered, glad to see the familiar sight of the asteroid field. home of the NEW ALEXANDRIA base of operations.
"We are receiving a communication from Commander Quint," Commander Janeel announced, the expression and tone used showing surprise from the woman, no one having expected the Chief of Operations for NEW ALEXANDRIA to communicate with them, especially not with the ship being so close to home. Something was wrong.
"Put it on main viewer," Selene quickly ordered, trying not to let her concerns take the better of her. There had to be a perfectly normal reason for this call, as unexpected as it might have been.
"The Commander is request a private channel with you Captain," Janeel added, her surprise having grown by leaps and bounds at the latest development of this simple call.
Captain Iverson sighed, her hopes for a simple explanation having been crushed into nothingness. "I will be in my Ready Room if you need me," the Captain said before standing from the central chair and heading to her office where she would be able to take the call privately as requested.
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Setting: USS BASTET, Captain's Ready Room
Stardate: 32101.0830
[/\] Sorry for the mystery and urgency Captain, but I thought it best to discuss the matter with you personally, and this before you docked, [/\] the Ferengi man announced the moment the communication channel was open.
"Just tell me what this is all about Quint," Captain Iverson said clearly frustrated and not in the mood for whatever excuses or reasoning the Ferengi Chief of Operations had come up with to justify his calling her like this.
"It's Alexandria."
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Setting: NEW ALEXANDRIA, Section A, Level 6, Administrative Office
Stardate: 32121.1000
Allyson, as charming and helpful as she always was, ushered the Captain into the office of Admiral Koniki who had been standing behind his desk, waiting with his hands clasped behind his back while his gaze was cast beyond the massive window looking into the open area of the docking facilities.
"Welcome back Captain Iverson," the Admiral offered without turning to acknowledge the presence of the woman who had just walked in. "I gather that the dimensional mapping mission was a success."
"It was," Selene confirmed, not surprised that the man had decided to give her the cold shoulder based on what Quint had said during his earlier call. "The BASTET is downloading all of the gathered data as we speak There will be a great deal of work required in the analysis of that data, we came across several very interesting spacial anomalies that could never have been possible in this dimension."
"When will you and your crew be ready to head back out?"
The question had been blunt, direct and deprived of emotions. Obviously the Admiral had been in a rush to see the BASTET head back out for reasons that had been his and his alone for the time being.
"Ensign Thorquelsson has some material to be transferred to and from the BASTET, but I suspect that this will not take much longer than the actual download of the data we collected," the Captain detailed. "We can be ready to head back out in say three hours, if that is to your liking?"
"Three hours," the Admiral unhappily sighed, clearly the time frame given to him had not been what he had hopped for. "Fine, I will have the complete details of your next mission sent to you before then, and Captain..."
"Yes Admiral?"
"You will need to make accommodations for an additional presence on board the BASTET."
"May I inquire as to whom will be coming on board?" Selene asked, already suspecting the answer, this again thanks to her conversation with the Ferengi Chief of Operations for NEW ALEXANDRIA.
"It's Alexandria."
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Setting: NEW ALEXANDRIA, Section C, Level 1, Auxiliary Quarters
Stardate: 32101.1045
"Will you stop for a moment and tell me what happened?" Selene demanded of the frustrated archaeologist who had been walking the full length of her quarters while angrily mumbling to herself.
"The man is a pompous ass," Alexandria shouted, still not stopping her thundering walk. "All he knows, all he cares about is Intel. I have spent months in this cage and that is all he has ever talked about. I can't stay here anymore, I honestly don't care where I go as long as it's as far away from this place as possible. It's either that or I will find a way to drop one of his towering Egyptian statues on him the next time I have to be in his office."
"Alex?" Selene said, trying to cut in against the verbal current of rage the woman had been in the middle of expressing.
"I tried," the daughter of Admiral Koniki continued having completely ignored the attempted interruption. "By the ancient gods of ANDOR, I tried! I gave him every chance possible but the man is obsessed with this place. The only things on his mind are the ships that operate from inside this rock, the issues that you all deal with behind the scenes, and keeping everything out there safe from threats that make no sense. Who in their right mind keeps talking about deadly moving shadows? The man should not be in charge of a place like this, he should be confined to a mental institution lost on some rogue moon heading into the dark empty space outside of our galaxy."
"Alex," Selene said once more, this time taking hold of the woman's shoulders to stop her from wandering back and forth through the quarters and insure that her attention had been focussed on the woman trying to help. "Pack your bags."
"What?"
"Pack your bags," Captain Iverson repeated with a gentle smile. "The BASTET may not be as spacious as NEW ALEXANDRIA but at least you can see the stars from your window."
"That would be nice."
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Setting: USS BASTET, Deck 1, Observation Lounge
Stardate: 32101.1230
The senior officers had been summoned to a meeting the moment the specifications for their next mission had been transmitted to the BASTET by the Admiral. Captain Iverson had been pleased to see that everyone appeared more than ready to tackle something else than dimensional mapping and not overly upset in seeing their rest time reduced to mere minutes.
"Let us get started," the Captain offered once everyone had taken their seats. "First I would like a status report from every department. Medical?"
"Given the absolute chaos that we had to deal with during our last mission, it took us a few minutes to get the dust off the biobeds," Doctor Bruxa said in jest. "Everything and everyone is ready," she added having quickly changed to a more serious tone.
"Counselling?"
Counsellor Lopez had been ready to make a joke about having treated the majority of the crewe for boredom from their last mission, but given that Satella had already gone that route, Adriana figured it best to continue on a more professional level. "I have no ongoing cases that require being mentioned at this time."
"Science?"
"All data gathered from our dimensional travels has been downloaded to NEW ALEXANDRIA for further analysis. All sensors have been perfectly re-calibrated to the standards of this dimension. Everything is working as expected," Lieutenant Mitshiba reported, glancing at the Chief Engineer noting by such his involvement and help in the stated accomplishments.
"Engineering?"
"We ran a full diagnostic on all systems," Ensign Thorquelsson answered. "My team is looking at a slight variation in the dimensional field generators, this likely from the repeated use that the system has endured over the last few months, but we should have it back to perfect in 10 to 12 hours, that is as long as we are not planning on performing another dimensional jump before then."
"No, it looks like our next mission will have us remain in this dimension," Captain Iverson confirmed before continuing. "
"Command and Control?"
"All systems are reading fully operational," Commander Valentine reported. "Everything and everyone who needed to disembark has done so and those coming on board have already been assigned quarters," Sarena clarified making sure that the Captain understood that everything had been taken care of in regards to their returning guest, Miss Alexandria Koniki.
"Commander Janeel," the Captain said handing over the briefing to the Mission Specialist.
"We have been made aware of the theft of an artifact which occurred on the Caitian homeworld of CAIT less than five hours ago," the Intelligence Liaison Officer / Mission Specialist began as she called up a holographic image of the system and planet. "The artifact was on display in one of the secondary display rooms of the planetary archeology museum, and according to witnesses and security records, the item simply vanished into thin air."
"Could a transporter system have been used to take the item?" Lieutenant Mitshiba asked, finding the solution to be far too simple to not be at the very least considered even if only in passing.
"The museum is a high security building, shielded from sensors and transporters," Commander Janeel explained, "but even if it had not been, it would not explain how the artifact appears to have vanished from its display in less than a second. Before anyone asks, the display casing as well as the solid marble pedestal were untouched during this theft."
"There are no know transport system that operate that fast," Ensign Thorquelsson pointed out, the man now curious as to how this crime could have been done so quickly. "Just the initial transport sequence takes as less a full second if the entire system is previously prepared."
"However interesting the method of the theft might be, I'm guessing that there is something special about that artifact itself for us to be called in to investigate," Doctor Bruxa added, suspecting that there had been something missing from the information that had been given to them so far.
"The artifact is called the Eye of Eternity," Commander Janeel stated as the holographic image set in the middle of the conference table changed to show the item in question. "The chemical composition of the three outer rings is a naturally occurring mixture of iron, copper and silver. What is truly remarkable is that the actual ring formation is also naturally occurring on CAIT. This though, is the only known example of three such rings being formed together in such a perfectly symmetrical arrangement."
"As interesting as the outer rings may be, I suspect that the central sphere is what makes this artifact truly unique," Commander Valentine added, her attention having already been focussed on the glowing center of the holographic display.
"The mystery of the outer rings is only the first page of a mystery that spans several imposing volumes," the Mission Specialist confirmed. "The inner sphere is described as a positive energy zero-gravitational output quantum singularity."
"A what?" Counsellor Lopez gasped, voicing what many others had wanted to.
"A white hole, one that does not generate a gravitational field," the Chief Science Officer explained in terms that everyone would understand. "But that's impossible. There are no known accounts of a white hole in this universe, let alone one that generates light without matter and without any accompanying gravitational field. Although only theoretical, white holes should have a negative gravitational force, pushing things away from it instead of attracting them. Even if the theory was proven false, as many claim it should, there should be some sort of gravitational field around the sphere, however minuscule as it may be."
"The CAIT Science Institute, with the assistance of the Federation Science Council, have been studying this artifact for over a century and they have been unable to figure out how it does what it does," Commander Janeel continued. "The artifact is as much a complete mystery now as it was when it was discovered nearly 1400 years ago. Every effort to understand it or even tap into the power it is believed to contain have been met with complete failure."
"Could some sort of change in the quantum energy of the artifact have somehow caused it to vanish?" Lieutenant Mitshiba offered, loving the mystery this scientific enigma was proving the be. "Maybe something influenced the artifact at the quantum level and caused some sort of shift turning the core into a black hole instead. This could, given its limited size, have forced it to collapse onto its own imploding gravitational field."
"The security and surveillance system of the museum picked up no increase in energy or gravitational forced either prior, during or after the disappearance of the artifact," Commander Janeel clarified. "The artifact was there one second and simply gone the next. We are being set to CAIT to help in the investigation. Officially we are there because of our, as an exploration vessel, have encountered something similar in our travels. Unofficially, the BASTET is being dispatched because we have instruments and knowledge that will permit us look into and investigate avenues that others would not considered."
"Our ability to consider that maybe the manipulation of time, dimension, if not both, could have been at play in this theft," the Captain further clarified. "All information on the Eye of Eternity, as little as there is, as been made available to you all. The BASTET will be heading out in 15 minutes. Ensign Thorquelsson, we will need maximum warp speed as we are expected on CAIT as quickly as possible."
"Understood Captain," the Chief Engineer acknowledged with a nod of his head.
"If there are no questions, dismissed."
As everyone stood and made their way out of the Observation Lounge, Captain Iverson intercepted Counsellor Lopez and instructed her to stay with a silent motion of her head.
"Is everything all right Captain?"
"Everything is fine with me, but I will need you to speak to Alexandria."
"She is back on the BASTET?"
"She is," the Captain confirmed. "Things were less than pleasant for her on NEW ALEXANDRIA. It seems that the Admiral and her could not bridge their differences. I need you to speak to her, get her to open up. I am hoping that this mission will provide her with an opportunity to stretch her professional and social skills," the Captain stated.
"That would be nice."
---
Jessica Solarik
Commanding Officer
USS BASTET
&
Chief Science Officer
USS ANUBIS
"To see the world in a grain of sand,
and a heaven in a wild flower.
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
and eternity in an hour."
- William Blake (British, 1757-1827)