Messenger in a Bottle Part I
Episode Name: Messenger In A Bottle Part 1 Written By: Journey Cast: Balin, Blair, Gulliver, Jolvan, Journey, Kentoz, Laco and Poole. Produced By: Starfleet Directed By: Journey Aired On: Fri Apr 19 02:57:35 2002 Stardate: 52276.6
Time: Thu Apr 18 22:32:18 2002
Stardate: 52276.3
We fade in on Station 419's Operations center. It is the early evening shift, with a low thrum of activity spreading throught the cavernous space. Status displays show that everything is pretty much in the green tonight, and that the traffic in the area is relitively mild and under control. About the only oddity is that proximity sensors picked up an extra-solar cometary fragment that will be passing by the station and it's temporal companion.. The Anomaly's radiation and photon output have caused the frozen mass to start warming up and it is now venting a tail of colourful and luminous gasses.
Jolvan whistles while waiting for his files to upload.
Blair taps at the Communications console, hmming to himself and altering a setting here and there, periodically consulting a handy padd.
Laco , always one to enjoy brightly-colored-shiny-things, brings up a visual of the comet on his console.
Gulliver steps into the bustle of Ops from the corridor. The door slides shut with a whisper.
Gulliver has arrived.
Poole enters operations, a PADD clutched in her right hand. Pausing just inside the door, she smiles, then looks for the officer on duty.
Gulliver steps onto the bridge, quite routinely, handing off a PADD to a commander's yeoman and taking her station.
Kentoz watches the comet on his screen in between monitoring traffic. "We look all clear, sir," he says to nobody in particular.
Gulliver sits down at Tactical.
Blair sits down at Engineering I.
Jolvan sits down at Operations.
The cometary fragment slowly meanders across the screen, trailing it's debris of ice and rock. It is quite a serene and beautful visual until tactical and short range sensors start beeping at various consoles.
Laco heads out of Operations and into the main corridor.
Laco has left.
Kentoz sits down at Operations.
Gulliver says "Ops, let's put this on the public screens, it's not too often we get a show like this here." Moments later, as her panel beeps, she pauses, as she divides attention between the view of the comet and her panel. "Heads up folks, something's up. Stand by on shields, Ops.""
Jolvan looks down at the console then to Gulliver," Ready."
Poole apparently figures out Gulliver is in charge at the moment and brings the PADD she is carrying over to her. She pauses when the woman speaks, then asks, "If you need an extra pair of hands, ma'am?" and makes her way over to a science console.
Kentoz glances aside to Jolvan and lets him handle the important issue at hand while quietly monitoring the outlying traffic and sensor readings.
Gulliver glances over to Poole, and nods, running some scans. "Yeah.
Alley oop, folks, what do you make of ...this...? " She transfers an image
to the main screen.
Sensors pick up metallic debris trailing in the tail of a passing comet. The
largest peice reads as about 2 feet long, half a foot wide, a cylindrical
hexagon. It seems composed of an alloy made of Duranium and Tritainium. The most
puzzling part is it seems to have an energy signature of an extremely high
frequency.
Poole sits down at Science I.
Jolvan says "That looks like an intelligence made that."
Blair raises an eyebrow, setting his jaw and eyeing the image on the main
screen. "Probe of some sort, maybe? With that shape, can't tell what kind
of equipment's inside it...."
"With all the energy coming off of that," Poole starts, looking at
the sensor information, "It might be wise to start charging weapons... just
in case."
A visual of the 'object' pops up on the screen. Dark and scorched, it drifts
among the tail of ice and gas in a field of metallic debris, dragged along by
the microgravity of the comet.
Gulliver leans on the console. "Identify. Stand by on shields, Mr
Kentoz.... Let's.... Let it know we're friendly. You never know these days.
Transmitting friendship hails, but I think it's old cargo."
Kentoz gives a low whistle and scratches his head. "Shields on
standby."
Jolvan says "Hail to garbage."
Blair taps at his console, watching the comm system spike as Gulliver sends
the hail. "Well, we're Starfleet -- can't be discriminatory."
Gulliver murmurs, "Garbage with a homing beacon. I had a footlocker like
that." She hits a key and puts the signal on audio. The object seems to be
emitting a faint signal. Not in any language. Just a steady beep.. beep...
beep...
Kentoz glances back towards Gulliver and says, "Sir, more likely than
not this thing is going in to the Anomaly. Action?"
Poole shifts in her seat, watching the comet come closer and closer.
"Something about this doesn't seem right... those sounds remind of
something."
Jolvan says "Tractorbeam?"
Gulliver beepboopblips her station. "Well, five minutes to tractor
range. I propose we alter its trajectory to a wide Anomaly orbit when it gets
there. In the meantime, let's analyse that beacon. It could be just space
debris, or a jettisoned canister, but I want to know before I call on the
Commander. It could be a chest of antiques that got caught by a passing comet.
But give us an analysis. The floor's open."
Blair glances at the others. "Lieutenant, permission to scan for
outgoing or interceptable transmissions." Must be a comm-and-sensor thing.
"That beep could be a cover -- or just a sensor interpretation." After
a moment, he eyes his console, and notes a bit wryly, "All right, so I
haven't dealt with a lot of alien technology."
Jolvan says "I could check on that signal to figure out if its a
code."
Kentoz gives Jolvan a short nod then says, "I'm on the tractor beam,
sir."
Gulliver nods to personnel in turn as they make various analyses of the
object.
Poole fiddles with the science console's controls, then frowns at the
results. "Come on..."
Blair pokes at his own. "No results here. Just...that beep." He
frowns slightly, prodding the console again.
Gulliver continues to lean on her console. "Could almost be Starfleet
issue, but the alloys and dimensions are all wrong... Anyone got anything on the
contents? I'm getting some high-frequency radiation from there. Going to full
tactical scan."
"I tried to date the metal... That energy field is blocking my scans,
perhaps it's some sort of shield," Poole offers, watching the comet with
growing emnity.
Gulliver nods. "All right. Let's see. Hexagonal tube, pretty
universal... Beacon, to attract attention, same kind of materials we use, but
none of it by our standards. Let's run back this comet's course, and see where
it might have come from and picked up that canister.
Poole nods and tries to calculate the comet's trajectory and backtrack it's
flight based on that, given that she's at the science station and all.
Jolvan says "The signal keeps repeating itself. It seems to be
electro-organic. My guess a sort of homing beacon or distress call. Most likely
a homing beacon."
Kentoz stands by at his station and monitors it's direction. "Tractor
beam charged and waiting on your order, sir."
Blair taps at the computer, lightly altering power to the sensor systems in
an attempt to boost the power of the facing array that Poole is using.
Gulliver says "Eh, start taking velocity off the canister as it comes
into range, Mister Kentoz, it's sure being tempting."
"Aye aye, sir," the Napean intones. "Tractor set on repulse,
minimal output. Firing now."
"It came from the direction Neutral Zone..." Poole says, then
smiles, "Three hundred years ago."
Poole says "Quite a long flight, I should say."
Blair raises both eyebrows. "Good grief. That's practically
pre-warp."
Gulliver looks up. "Whoa, maybe it's from my aunt. "
Blair chuckles softly, tapping at his console. "Is this how you get your
birthday presents, sir?"
Jolvan says "Where in the Neutral Zone?"
The blue/green conical beam of the station's tratcor beam arc across the
screen. It strikes the small object, swallowing it with it's energies. Being so
low powered, the touch is as light as a kiss as the beam gently guides the
object from the field of debris and away from comet.
Gulliver beeps at her console. "Not from the old war, not with this
power output. Neither side had this kind of power in a package like this. Ops,
let's get that think to be holding station as soon as we can without hitting
crush-vecs...."
Kentoz gives a curt nod and says, "Aye, sir. She won't even know she
landed." He makes a few taps and attempts to delicately guide the object
towards the nearest holding bay.
Gulliver says "Negative, negative. I said holding station asap, not take
her aboard, Ops."
The tractor beam flickers and falters, like a flame in the wind. There
appears to be a power surge on teh small object, not large but enough to be
visable. The surge affects the beam, causing a greater repulsion in the field
and the hexagon, vectoring it in a slow arc towards the station.
Kentoz scowls at the viewscreen and mutters, "You dirty, rotten..."
Blair peers at the viewscreen. "Definitely not from the old war."
Poole looks up from her console and her eyes widen as she looks at the
screen, "... What did you do?"
Gulliver sighs, and retargets the tractor beam herself. "Increase
magnification four times. Theories, anyone? I'm parking this puppy in the
brickyard."
Jolvan looks astonished at his console,"What? No. It couldn't.",
Laughs," For a moment there it look like it was transmitting a
Biosign."
The screen blinks and the object is zoomed upon. It looks to be about a meter
long, a third of a meter thick/ It's hexagonal hullpanels are very dark, as if
soot has collected on it. It looks completely smooth, with no seams.
Blair blinks and glances at Jolvan, then looks at Poole. "With as odd as
this thing is, even fleetingly apparent biosigns might bear investigating."
He glances at Gulliver, one hand already starting to reach towards his console.
"...sir."
Gulliver glances up as she locks the tractor controls on. "By all means,
investigate. Think it's worth waking the brass for this one."
"Biosigns?..." Poole asks of Jolvan before turning back to her
station.
Kentoz looks up at the viewscreen and frowns lightly. "Has to be pretty
cramped in there if something's alive."
Jolvan says "That's what it looked like."
Gulliver says "You said it might be *sending* biosigns, Jolvan. Like it
was transmitting them rather than just showing them?""
The Tractor beam lances again across space and envelopes the quickly drifting
pod. It takes a few moments but the beam dissapates the objects momentum and it
is soon just floating motionless in space, about 25 clicks from the stations
between it and the anomaly.
"A status capsule of some sort?" Poole offers as she works her
console, then responds to Gulliver, "Maybe I can verify that, ma'am."
Jolvan says "Yes. I am monitoring its communications."
Gulliver nods. "Think this is worth calling the Commander." She
leans on a comm-channel. "Ops to Commander Balin."
Blair taps at his console. "Hmmm. Not picking up any lifesigns,
no...but...there's something there. Plasmatic matter and energy...I think. Lot
of organic material, almost submolecular level. Like...reminiscent of..."
He hrms. "A transporter matter stream? Might have to cross-reference
this."
Gulliver hmms, while waiting for Balin to respond. "Sublieutenant, does
this correspond to anything your people are familiar with?"
Jolvan says "Not that I know of but I can relay the finding to the
nearest Staroutpost, so they can check their database."
Gulliver nods. "Let's give ourselves a minute before we call them, but
after that I won't be too proud to ask. Speculation, anyone?"
"They might be able to identify it better than we could," Poole
says, looking down at her console. "That doesn't mean we shouldn't
investigate it though.... There could be a lifeform in status on board. A
survivor of an accident or the like."
Kentoz shrugs slightly and says, "Somebody's lost sensor probe?"
Jolvan says "A ship's log buoey(SP)."
Gulliver reaches up and taps her comm badge, ending transmission.
Blair's comm badge ends its transmission.
Gulliver taps her comm badge, "Lieutenant JG Gulliver to Commander
Balin."
Over Gulliver's comm badge, someone sighs as he answers. "Yes?"
Into her comm badge, Gulliver says, ""Ops here, Commander. We've
found something unusual in cometary debris, an artifact that may be a probe or a
contact beacon of some kind. It's transmitting something like life signs, and
we've held it at maximum tractor range. Thought you might want a look at it,
sir.""
From Gulliver's comm badge, Balin says, "I'm on my way. Balin out."
Gulliver leans on the station. "All right, then. Let's have station
reports ready when he gets here."
Balin steps into the bustle of Ops from the corridor. The door slides shut
with a whisper.
Balin has arrived.
Jolvan says "Commander on deck."
On the Main Screen, the small heagonal cylinder floats in space between the
station and the anomaly. It is slowly spining, like the station, and emits no
lights. From teh COMM panel comes a faint beep... beep... beep.
Blair hmms. "Matter stream is highly compressed, matching with computer
records. No leakage or seepage...maybe like a replicator? Detecting something
like...a computer in there." He frowns, tapping at the console. "I
think that's it. The pattern the molecules are following is like...a...like a
memory storage unit." He almost misses Balin's entering as he concentrates
on the readout on his console.
Balin steps into Ops wearing a yellow monstrosity. He is wearing a pair of
pastel yellow plaid traditional golf pants. Tucked into this is a polo-style
shirt of a solid pastel yellow. His socks, which are pulled up to his knees, are
the same. On the top of his head is a plaid yellow Scottish beanie with a white
pom pom. On his feet are a pair of black cleats.
Kentoz tries to stop from staring at the Commander with little success.
Poole turns to regard Balin from her seat at a science console and does a
double-take. Blinking once, she puts on a wobbly smile, then looks back at the
console.
Gulliver looks over to Balin, repressing a smirk. "Sorry to disturb your
game, sir, but Mister Blair believes he's confirmed some kind of matter-stream
being held in there. Configuration unknown. Familiar shape and materials, but
the dimensions and ratio of the alloys doesn't correspond to anything on record.
Lieutenant Poole believes it came with the comet from the Romulan Neutral Zone
about three hundred years ago.
Jolvan doesn't seemed phased by Balin's dress but then Jolvan Does drink with
Lux.
Poole looks back over when her name is mentioned and gives Balin a polite
nod.
Balin studies the screen, without showing any indignity at his attire.
"How big is it?" he asks, his brow pinching together.
Jolvan says to Commander Balin,"The object could be in a Romulan
database. I can send our readings to confer, sir...." looks at his console,
"The signal is dropping." taps at the console," It loses .0000023
percent each cycle."
GAME: Balin spends a courage point.
Gulliver indicates a viewer that's zoomed in on the object.
"Approximately a meter long, sir. We sent friendship hails and linguacode
first thing, but no joy. Clearly, it was made to be found, but if it's something
like a transporter signal, it could be anything."
The screen blinks and the object is zoomed upon. It looks to be about a meter
long, a third of a meter thick/ It's hexagonal hullpanels are very dark, as if
soot has collected on it. It looks completely smooth, with no seams.
Balin looks back to the Romulan. The Commander nods once. "Very well,
Mr. Jolvan. Find out if you have it on file. How long before the signal
stops?"
Jolvan says "looks up,"44 hours and 23minutes, sir" (and 12
seconds but I am neither spock nor Data. :P)"
Jolvan switches from the calculations to opening a chanel to the closes
Romulan Outpost.
Gulliver nods, "Computer, could the energy pattern we're scanning be
condensed to its matter pattern by station transporters or replicators?"
The computer chirps in repsonse. >>Scanned Energy and Matter stream are
compatible with most transporter or replicator systems known. Materialization
would require a pattern of some sort.<<
Gulliver talks to the computer. "Can you discern and decipher such a
pattern in the apparent life sign that appeared at Mister Jolvan's
console?"
The computer chirps in repsonse. >>Negative. Such a pattern would be
stored in either a replicator database at the molecular level or temprairly
during transport in a transport buffer. The scanned object and it's signal
displays neither at this time.<<
Balin asks Gulliver, "How about a holographic pattern?"
Jolvan sighs,"The Astrophysical Academy knows this comet well. As a
stellar ice ball. We do know it came from the outside the other side of the
Empire."
Gulliver mms. "I figure they must have brought a pattern with them, sir.
The question being, how would we get turn the thing on if they did.... One,
three, six.... Computer, correlate the dimensions of the object itself, the
number of sides, and the interval of the signal beacon. Is there anything like a
mathematical language implied?
Poole glances over to Jolvan, "Then who knows how long it's been really
been out there..." She shakes her head, turning her gaze to the viewscreen.
The computer chirps in repsonse. >>Negative. The dimensions and shape
of this object coincide with various modular storage systems employed by over 68
known and cataloged species.<<
Gulliver nods. "All right, computer, before I suggest to the commander
that we blink back at it, how many of these species could possibly intercept
this cometary fragment?
Jolvan chuckles,"Perhaps its a long lost nimaz gift."
The computer chirps in repsonse. >>None of them<<
Gulliver looks to Jolvan. "I don't know what that is, but I bet the
computer comes up goose egg on this query."
Balin comments, "I'll be in my office, Mr. Gulliver."
Gulliver says "Ah, orders, sir?""
Blair hmmms. "Coming up with some new information using onboard sensors,
sir." he taps at his console. "There's a computer in there that's
storing patterns, if anything, on almost a quantum level -- no wonder the
computer didn't detect it on the first shot. Definitely not something we
normally run into."
Balin looks back to Gulliver. "You haven't needed them yet. What would
you do with them now? File the necessary reports."
Balin enters the commander's office.
Balin has left.
Gulliver watches the Commander leave. "Right, I'll just put it in my
quarters, then," she murmurs.
"Same commander, different hat though," Poole says with a grin as
Balin steps out. She sighs, then looks to Blair. "Any way to see if this
quantum computer has the pattern our computer is looking for?"
Gulliver says "I'm starting to think the thing will turn itself on when
it gets either the right signal or finds a safe atmosphere. Any propulsion on
the thing?"
Poole goes to perform that scan.
Poole shakes her head, "There's no propulsion on that thing."
Gulliver leans on her console again. "Think we're just going to have to
up the ante, sooner or later. "Any word from the home office, Mister
Jolvan?"
Blair glances at Poole first. "We'd have to hook it up to the station
computer first, and I'll be darned if I know how to interface two technologies
this different...would take quite a bit of jury-rigging."
Jolvan says "Yes we just know it as a comet."
Poole sighs in response to Blair, then asks helplessly, "Where's Marcus
when you need him?" She looks over to Gulliver, waiting to see what the
officer will do.
Gulliver sighs. "Let's clear a landing bay for containment, then. I
think we're going to have to interpret this as a potential first contact or
distress situation."
Gulliver looks about the bridge. "Unless anyone just thinks it's a big
facy bomb or something?"
fancy
"I doubt it's a weapon," Poole says, speaking up. "And even if
it were, I don't think that part of it would even operate any more."
Jolvan says "Let's hope."
Gulliver says "All right. Clearing all comm channels, let's see if it
does anything when its signal comes back to it.""
Gulliver says "All right, let's bring it aboard.""
Gulliver locks the tractor on and tugs.
The lonley little pod, scarred and dark from it's long travel across empty
space for untold amounts of time, is gently picked up by teh tractor beem and
pulled into Cargobay 2. Within moments, the pod is brought out of the darkness
and into teh light, hopefully for it's secret to finally be unlocked.
