Flotsam and Jetsam

Posted on Sun Jun 12th, 2016 @ 4:56am by Captain Charybdis MacGregor & Captain Patrick O'Connor
Edited on on Tue Jun 26th, 2018 @ 2:53am

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Taking Chances
Location: USS Bonne Chance, Deck One, the Bridge
Timeline: 2265
Tags: sensors

Debris. Debris could be tricky.

The real challenge of debris was not just identifying the varying energy signatures left behind by vessels. The trick to debris was in identifying the pieces themselves, then keeping track of them as you placed them with the vessels which they used to belong to, and insuring that redundancies stayed separate to be piled into the category of new vessels.

And if so, how many.

Debris tended to be irregularly shaped, so it could sometimes send back signals that were easy to misinterpret, so scanning had to be performed from different angles, even as the debris continued to tumble through space, whatever velocity imparted to it from the destruction of the vessel of which it had formerly been a part continuing to send it tumbling through the vacuum until a greater body acted upon it.

The deflector would move anything that got too close out of the way and change those trajectories, which were key to deciphering the puzzle left behind by starship battle debris, and Charybdis knew this game well. Thus as the Bonaventure was moving through the field, her sensors were blanketing the area, collecting information from literally dozens of sources, from the various electromagnetic spectrums to visual recordings to simple magnetic resonances.

Those energy fields could be tricky, and she recommended course changes once or twice to avoid potentially hazardous zones as the Bonne Chance glided amongst the great and vast puzzle that was the aftermath of a battle. But they could not fool her. Wherever they confused her sensors she simply changed frequencies to go over or under them, like water around an obstacle.

There were bodies... parts of bodies, entire bodies, bodies damaged, destroyed, decompressed, their fluids hanging in space forever as perfect frozen spheres. These too she catalogued, because these too were pieces of the puzzle... pieces that had families and loved ones who would need to know their fates, and one of her duties was to identify them and catalogue them as well, even those who had died in battle opposing them.

It was not one she faced with as much relish as piecing together the vessel fragments. But still it had to be done.

This was her job, this was her duty. This was why she had been chosen to be the Chief of her department. Because nothing escaped her observation... not here, not with the mighty starship's sensors hers to command. Echoes and pulses and fuel leaks and globules of fluids and frozen gasses could abound, and she would catalogue them all. Here she was in her element. Here, she reigned.

The freighter that had not been captured she scanned as well, to insure that it was not in danger, nor would it endanger the Bonaventure. Lifeforms, cargo, energy signatures, radiation sources, material densities... the scanners revealed it, and she processed it. A report would be forthcoming, and she would need to have answers to every question that could be asked.

Two faint lifesigns in amongst the flotsam and the jetsam... survivors. She intensified the lifeform scan, locked onto them and verified.

"Captain, I have verified two lifesigns in the debris field. One Tellerite, one human... lifesigns are steady and stable... they are in EVA suits, sir, in amongst the debris. I have a lock- shall we beam them aboard?" she explained without looking up from her viewer. The decision was not hers- she did not command here. Hers was to proved the answers, to make sense of the hundreds of thousands of fragments of data that were flying past her field of vision- to identify, catalogue, verify- and report.

"Security and medical detail to the main transporter room. Beam them aboard as soon as the teams are assembled, Transporter Chief. Good work, Lieutenant."

She did not look up from her post... there was still too much to do, and her shipmates would be counting on her to be perfect. And so she would be. But the nod of praise from her Captain still made her smile as she worked.

She was a Starfleet Science Officer, on the most sophisticated vessel in the galaxy, doing one of the most demanding jobs possible.

Loving every minute of it.

 

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