<USS Avalon> "What Immortal Hand or Eye" (Moreya, 2007:11:08)
- From: "Jamie Lawson" <ayeshalan@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: avalon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2007 16:48:54 -0800
[I'm making a few guesses or speculations here as to the nature of the
situation the Avalon is being drawn into. If in any of them I'm off
the mark, please let me know and I'll revise or withdraw this log.
--jamie]
"What Immortal Hand or Eye"
Moreya
2007:11:08
After the Captain had declared a short shore leave period at McKinley
station, Moreya locked down the main Science console on the bridge,
and after a brief exchange with the communications officer, made her
way down to the Avalon's Stellar Cartography labs.
This room was large, dim and quiet; with the crew out on leave, the
only sounds in the labs were the constant low hum of the computer and
sensor banks and the gentle hissing of air through the ventilation
system. The dim light and quiet made it easier for Moreya to focus on
what promised to be some intense researching.
As she settled into one of the workstations and raised the
sensor-display hood over her head, she allowed herself a single minute
of regret for not taking shore leave. She had at least one very good
friend at McKinley, one she had not been close to in a long time. But
now, with the utterly unexpected loss of the Cochrane Institute and
everyone there, and all the dreadful portents it carried, she had more
important work to do.
She began by calling back up to the bridge. As she'd requested, a
dedicated subspace channel was opened and waiting for her. She used
the Stellar Cartography sensor suite -- the most sophisticated array
the Avalon possessed -- and tied them in. She sought back along the
channel, all the way to the nearest communications relay to the
now-demolished Institute. Information was what they needed, and
Moreya was seeking to construct the equivalent of a "black box
recording" for the scientists at the Institute. Something had to have
gotten out -- camera footage, transcript, verbal reports, comm
exchanges -- that would document the last moments of the Advanced Warp
Development Group's failed experiment.
Something that would give a clue as to why it all failed so disastrously.
At the same time, Moreya began a search through the library data on
the AWDG's projects. Most of this was highly classified, but with her
credentials as Avalon's Science Officer -- plus a few judicious
applications of technology that was distinctly grey -- she was able to
obtain the basics.
When she did, she was unable to stifle a reaction remarkably human: a
long, low whistle.
What the AWDG was attempting was not a development of the usual warp
technology as such. Rather, they were attempting to create a warp
field that would punch through to another space-time continuum
altogether, not unlike what subspace communications technology did.
Ambitious indeed -- and if it paid off, could reduce travel times in
the ever-expanding Federation by orders of magnitude, without the
concerns associated with high warp factor travel presently.
But what about this could have possibly caused the degree of disaster
seen at the Institute? For that, she would have to go back and look
at whatever record of the Institute's final moments could tell.
For some reason she could not explain, a long, slow shudder passed
through Moreya's body as she turned to look at the data she was
beginning to pull down.
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