Exploring We Will Go! Part 2

Posted on Wed 23rd Oct, 2019 @ 8:16pm by Commander Jasmine Collins-Keller

1,413 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: A Diplomatic Affair
Location: Bushido, Samurai Captain's Yacht
Timeline: MD 9, 0800

Previously on Bushido: Henry ran his fingers over the panel and activated the ship wide P.A. system. "Good morning ladies and gentleman and welcome aboard the new and improved Bushido. As soon as you finish stowing your gear, come to the bridge for a cocktail and our mission briefing."

And now, we continue ....

McCord took a small plate and added some fruit and an orange-cranberry muffin to it. A pineapple-orange juice was already poured, so she took that and sat on one side of the table in the galley, also used for entertainment and meetings.

"Henry, someone might think you were drinking awfully early in the morning," she laughed. "Others might be disappointed you aren't!"

Hari and Anthony came in on the heels of that remark, and Tony laughed. "Count me as relieved." Hari went directly to the food with no comment, filling his plate with only healthy choices.

"Well, maybe that will be an option once we leave the station," Henry said with a devilish grin on his face. "Is everyone ready for the briefing?" he asked.

McCord looked at Oscar. He was at the Chief Science Officer's feet, down on his belly, front feet out, and head up alertly. She had the feeling that it would only take the slightest threat for him to be at full attack, but for the moment, his tongue lolled out of his mouth as if he were laughing, and he looked at her with begging eyes.

"Oh, no you don't, puppy dog," she admonished. "This is definitely food for people and not for those of your type. You probably wouldn't even like pineapple."

Jasmine laughed. "He doesn't like pineapple, but he does like apple and banana as a treat once in a while." She was nibbling on a muffin and some orange slices and other fruit. Her mug was filled with her usual Spiced Tea with cream and sugar. Oscar had eaten already before coming aboard, but she slipped him bites of banana now and then.

Anthony and Hari settled in to their seats and looked expectantly at Commander Perry. Everyone was munching on something, but ready to listen to the mission brief.

Jasmine was relaxed and ready to hear the plan. She nibbled at the fruit on her plate as Oscar went back to sit at her feet, satisfied with the few pieces of fruit he'd managed to beg.

Henry made his way to the to one of the wall panels on the bridge of the yacht and turned the image on the view screen from the interior of the Starbase port to an image of the planet below the base.

"Hello, everyone. I'm glad that you could all attend this little field trip that Commander McCord and I have put together. This trip is two-fold. What I am here for is to be your driver, but mainly to test some new tech that we have put onto Bushido." Henry tapped another button on the wall console. "What you are looking at on the main viewer is the new Bio-neural circuitry that Starfleet is testing. If everything goes well, this will become the standard in all Starfleet vessels during ship refits."

Henry wished he could tell them about the AI's that would be running the individual ship systems, but it wasn't something they needed to know.

"Riko, if you would like to talk about the sciencey/timey whimey stuff?" Henry said as he gestured for her to take his position.

Laughing, Riko shook her head and stood. "Really, Henry?" She took the front position and said, "Not everything on this yacht is new, but it always had some amazing tech for the science crew. Since Commander Perry needed a good run with his new toys," she grinned at him, "I thought it was the perfect opportunity for all of us to cooperate in finding out more about Nāmaka."

Pressing a button, she brought up an in-close view of the swirls on the planet. "We know that it is a Jovian planet, and both of you will know what that means. What I hope we'll find out is a little more about the exact composition of the atmosphere, and what's under it. Possibly we can rule out, or in, whether some kind of life could exist in that beautiful blue-purple soup of an atmosphere.

"We've already shared everything we currently have with each other, so let's spend the next couple of hours merging our lists of questions and how we can find the answers to them while Henry circles the planet testing out his new equipment. Commander Collins-Keller, what do you have?" Riko sat down, prepared to find out what questions she'd forgotten could be important.

"Given the violet color in some of the gas clouds, I'm anxious to see what the chemical makeup is as well as what the core of the planet is made of." Jasmine went over her list. "And of course we all want to know if any form of life is sustainable in the atmosphere. We wouldn't be where we are right now if we didn't hope to find new life forms." She smiled.

"We do have some distance scans and analysis, but the huge spot is especially of interest to me. And I have speculated so much on the core, I have dreams about!" Riko laughed, agreeing with Jasmine's priorities.

"I hope we can fly close and send down a probe into the spot ... at least one. Henry, do you have any idea how long one of Samurai's probes can survive in that atmosphere? It isn't especially close to the sun, but our sensors are estimating a surface temperature of about -200 Celsius. We can't be sure, because of the cloud layers, but maybe we can get a drone down there long enough to measure it?" She glanced questioningly at Henry.

"We won't know until we try." The engineer stated, while thinking about Starfleet sensor probe structures. "Our probes are designed to withstand temperatures on both ends of the extremes, but we can figure something out if the first one doesn't come back with any readings."

"That's what I like, a positive attitude!" Riko said. "Now, how are we going to recognize life, if it's there? I don't think there's anything that's going to speak to us. If there were sentient life, sometime in the past century, wouldn't it have let us know it was there? There might be some lower life forms, though. What would be likely to survive in that atmosphere, of life forms we know?"

"Small silicate based life forms might be able to survive the pressure and heat or lack there of on the surface, something energy based or gaseous wouldn't have a problem with the pressure but probably couldn't stand the cold. But again, until we know what the core is made of, we can't know for sure." Jasmine looked at the Padd in her hand. She was looking at the primary information they had gathered on the planet from the few scans they'd done.

"Well, there's this," Riko said, examining the station's database. "Drones sent in have measured much lower winds than expected, and with the higher water content, scientists had expected vicious storms, but that isn't the case. Astrophysicists deduce there's something that stabilizes the water convection, since the holos sent back don't show much lightning. I wonder what scientists those were," she said, looking at the others.

"Before our time, but how much before? Does anyone know about those particular drones and their sensors? It might help us predict the life of our drones, if there were more information on them in a science file."

Anthony spoke up. "I read that, too, when I was looking into lifeforms. I think it must have been before the base was handed off to the civilians, don't you? Considering the condition we got it back in, I don't think they had a lot of money for exploring! So ... that would have been 2373 when the Dominion War started, right?"

Henry broke into Anthony's discussion, eager to leave the station for the adventure ahead. "I hate to interrupt this riveting conversation, but the pre-flight checks are wrapping up and we should all take our seats and prepare for departure."

"Oscar, bed." Jasmine sent Oscar to a place safe for departure and took her seat. She was excited to get moving and ready to explore the planet.

 

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