Fragments: Data, Part 2

Posted on Sun Aug 17th, 2025 @ 10:21pm by Captain T’Kal & Lieutenant Megosho Gehente & Lieutenant JG Renata Novotná & Ensign Siat-or-iian Elkovais
Edited on on Thu Oct 9th, 2025 @ 7:53pm

1,720 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: ARYL 1X03: The Listening Post
Location: Briefing room, Station Delta IV

Last time on Star Trek: Ark Royal:

“Then please demonstrate, Ms. Novotná,” the Captain instructed. “Applying the original station data feed. Perhaps we can uncover further information already.”

"Yes, sir. Just a second." Renata nodded and opened the small science toolbox she brought along, and took out a small, rectangular 'box'. "With this little gadget I'm able to pick up all the hyperphasic radiation from here to the Suez Canal. Let me see if I can connect it." She sat down to the computer interface to create the connection necessary.

Peering over Renata's shoulder, Meg watched with interest as she worked her magic with this mysterious box she had produced. She leaned in towards Elkovais, 'science really is similar to magic, isn't it?'

"Something that's definitely way above my pay grade." Torii agreed as she watched what Renata was doing as well. Her nose twitched along with the tips of her tails as she wondered why she was even here, aside from as obvious protection for the Captain on an away mission, "I may have gone through Starfleet Academy, but I'm still getting used to the difference in technology."

The Captain’s communicator chirped, so she stepped away to take the call. While Renata finished plugging her device into the station computer, she spoke with medical, followed very quickly by security.

And now, the continuation

Just before the connection was finished, T’Kal returned to the others. “Medical has just declared a Class One emergency. Commander, relay this to all stations. There appears to have been an intentional contamination of the station with a biotoxin, which has caused the death of one of your engineers and rendered two others gravely ill. Until the contamination is identified and removed, all crew must use protective equipment.”

The station commander nodded sagely. “I thought this might happen. Let’s check this room and Ops first, eliminate these two critical rooms as threats.”

“Agreed. Lieutenants, finish your work while I assist in Ops a moment.”

Looking up at the Captain for a moment, Meg then nodded her understanding. Retrieving her Away Pack, she fished about for the biohazard kits that were supplied. Popping the seal, she unfurled the ungainly white suit that was folded into the clear panel that would allow her to see what was going on. One foot in, then the other, and she was soon zipping up to protect herself.

'Oh seriously?? Sabotage?? What now??' Renata thought. As if the situation wasn't serious enough, someone was deliberately trying to kill the personnel on board the station. Great... "These protective suits never really matched with my eye colour" she quipped as she quickly got into the ugly white biohazard suit to continue her work on the sensor booster.

Soon the Captain was back in the room, in her own protective gear. She gestured to the besuited Feixian security officer. “Assist the station with their scans. If we are safe, I want us out of these suits as quickly as possible.”

She then turned to her two present Department Heads. “Continue your examinations. Any clues you can glean from that blip will be useful. But also, while in Ops I spoke with the shuttle team. They believe that they will clear the sabotage which disabled one of the sensor antennae shortly, and you may have new readings to examine with your sensor modifications.”

"Okay-dokay..." Renata nodded. "I mean, aye, sir."

Torii made an effort to make sure her ears remained back and flat to her head, as much as she could do so because these suits were definitely not designed with her species in mind and her ears were sensitive. Of course, her tails were also confined and she wanted OUT, NOW. But she knew that she could handle it if needed. She moved over one of the stations that contained the internal sensors and began to study the readings. A scientist she was not, but this was easy enough..

Moving to the Comms console next alongside Torii's station, Meg leaned over, 'you OK in that thing? It can't be comfortable.' Meg was a yapper. She knew it. She loved it. Not wanting to look at herself too critically she reckoned she probably used it to cover the fact that she was nervous as well. Working the console, she flicked another glance in the Feixian's direction.

A slight rustle of fabric from her head, then a bigger one from her rear end and then finally Torii shook her head, "I hate it, I hate this more than anything I've hated in my entire LIFE." The Feixian growled out, trying to keep her voice low so that the Captain wouldn't hear her, "I didn't think to bring along a containment suit of ours, only an exosuit in case I need to willingly exit through an airlock. My ears are ALREADY killing me and if I see a pile of whatever it is that's causing this, I may strip this off and dive in just to get this torture over with!" She turned herself to look at Meg, tears welling up in her eyes from what her fluffy ears were going through, not her normal stoic self.

'Hey, look, the faster we figure out that we're safe, we can get out of these things. They're no joke for anyone who has a positive relationship with fresh air,' she said, throwing a glance in the Security officer's direction. Her hands worked their way across the console, bringing the comms back online to download the data in the cache. The going was slow with the damage to the system. 'I bet it's really just a precaution ...'

"Which makes it worse." Torii half-whined, really flattening her ears to her head this time in a last-ditch effort to protect them, "At least if the threat is real, this isn't for nothing." She exhaled deeply as data began to flow onto the screen in front of them and she gave a huff as the current air conditions came up, "This room is showing absolutely no contamination, filtration system is operating at maximum efficiency. Do you concur, ma'am?"

The Captain consulted her own readings, as well as those transmitted in from station ops and the young security officer’s scans. “Confirmed. This room is clear. Remove protective gear but we will remain here until and unless all sources of contamination across the screens are identified and cleared.” She began removing her hood and nodded to the others to proceed.

"Ahh, thank goodness!" Renata took a nice deep breath as she removed the suffocating helmet and quickly got out of the safety suit.

Torii's gloved handles scrabbled at the catches on the helmet desperately, failing to gain any purchase, her claws still sounding as if they were scratching at it dully before she was finally able to release the seal and took off the helmet with enough force that it flew from her hands even as she reached out for it. It flew across the room and hit T'Kal in the back as her purple Feixian eyes went wide in shock.

The Captain did not wince when the impact hit, but she did turn around to look at her Feixian security officer. She watched with cool detachment as she considered her next sentence. “Upon our return to the ship, Ms. Elkovais, report to Quartermaster Summers. She will have you fitted for proper emergency gear.”

"Yes, ma'am." Torii took the few steps and retrieved the helmet as gingerly as she could, her ears twitching furiously as they were now freed. She continued to remove the rest of the emergency suit and her tails joined her ears in their twitching and she breathed a sigh of relief as she was finally unrestrained.

Brightening considerably, Meg gladly stripped herself of the suit, taking a moment to shake her head and get her hair swinging freely again in the low ponytail. Though not as uncomfortable as it was for Torii, these were definitely not the nicest part of Starfleet's uniform. She watched with satisfaction as the smart material concertina'd itself back into the faceplate, creating a neat package she stowed in her pack once more.

“Now, Ms. Novotná, I believe you have a sensor recording to analyze,” the Captain noted.

"Yes, sir." The science officer nodded and tapped a few commands into the console. She felt proud of herself and her team for their efforts, and this was her chance to show off to her Captain and her crewmates. This was her big moment. And much to her satisfaction - it worked perfectly!

The device they rigged up and the station's computer worked together like a dream, and the sensors were now able to pick up the blimp much louder and clearer than before. Instead of a simple, tinmy blimp, the sensors now read something else: an intense radiation burst of enormous proportions. "Oh, my god..." Renata gasped as she saw the incoming sensor data. "I mean... sir... this is not exactly what we've expected."

"What we thought to be a flare, is actually an intense and evolving explosion, lasting about 30 or maybe 40 seconds." she explained, cross-checking the sensor data to verify. "It's incredible... Sir, it's like if subspace briefly opened up at the coordinates where the explosion happened. This is certainly a subspace rift of some sort, but I can't elaborate further. Maybe if I can analyze the sensor data further."

'Yeah, confirmed. Long-range comms frequency picked it us as a flare but this is definitely more like a sustained explosion,' Meg confirmed as she worked the comms console. 'You can see here that the noise it makes registers about ten seconds after the initial explosion. Must have been fairly powerful for that much of a light/sound gap. Then it continues for a bout ten to twenty seconds after the light show fades.'

The Captain watched the replay of the reconstructed blip, or rather longer-term explosion. “Learn everything you can. We are in no rush to leave.” As the image played again, she watched the explosion change. An intense flower of subspace energy. But what was it? “Fascinating.”

END

Captain T’Kal
Unbothered-by-Containment-or-an-impact-to-the-back

Lieutenant Megosho Gehente
Chief Chatterbox

Lieutenant JG Renata Novotná
Chief Science Officer

Ensign Torii Elkovais
Tortured-Fox-Girl-With-Sensitive-Ears

 

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