Signals & Noise (Part II of II)

Posted on Tue Oct 22, 2019 @ 10:04pm by Captain Maritza Soran & Ensign Calaban Bel-Asher & Lieutenant JG Erich Hartmann & Lieutenant JG Scaliontis Lovok & Lieutenant Kivan Ta'Gas

1,317 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Doors of Perception
Location: Pangaea Portal Complex
Timeline: MD11 1900~2100

Previously on Signals & Noise
Scaliontis read the padds. "Maybe the portals need the planet to be in a state of flux to operate, so it is easier to breach the dimensional barriers..." He trailed off as if he was thinking out loud how they worked of course no way of confirmation unless they met a portal creator but that won't happen so he shrugged.

"We could throw the frequency of the transmission it received back at the portal. It might trigger it to open or make a crack that we can scan through." The Romulan said to the others before turning to Soran, "We're really not sure what will happen Commander, it's your call." Scaliontis said with an unsure smile.

"Not doing anything doesn't get us anywhere," Soran replied. "Let's get started."

And now the continuation

Scaliontis nodded and turned to Bel-Asher and Kivan, "let's get the core connected and can you two load the scanner and communications programs in the core while myself and," he turned to Erich, "Lieutenant Hartmann will move the scanner into position? Can you help me?" He asked with a smile.

“Happy to.” The German replied.

"The only problem we will have to sort out is because we give off the same signature, we have to focus the sensor at the portal so it won't pick ours up." Scaliontis said as he went to the large dish shaped thingy and waited for Erich to go to the other side. It was heavy, like heavy!

Lt. Kivan Ta'Gas waited for the Marines to place the Core in the appropriate position. Once it was settled he began to unspool the high-yield cables from the Engineering conex and began to run them towards the external chassis that had been designed for the Core. He began to route the connections to the lower-level admin systems. Since the Core seemed to operate on its own system independent of DS9, Kivan was going to put the system into a diagnostic mode to allow it to seek out the nearest portal. Hopefully, its close proximity to the portal would allow it to connect.

With the scanner in place and connected up to the core, Kivan's tricorder quickly began to show that it was seeking signals, but the scanner array wasn't picking anything up. Martiza frowned. "Okay, what have we missed?"

The Cardassian looked at his tricorder and frowned. "We were concerned that this would occur." Lt. Kivan replied. "The Core is able to ascertain the various quantum signatures of the different individuals that have traversed the portal; however. . ." He said as his voice began to trail off. "Without a viable portal, it has nothing to scan and differentiate." He said. "It's like having a legend to a map, but no map to compare it to." He added.

"There needs to be an open portal that the Core can access. Once it has found the specific frequency, then it can actually find the particular quantum signature and ascertain it's distance from the portal." He explained.

"So we need to crowbar a wormhole?" She took one of Calaban's pads, "Last week, when we first picked up signals... The atmosphere was rich in chronitons and tachyons, due to the anomaly. Even more so than usual. What if we flood this chamber with both particles?"

Scaliontis, with Erich's help, got the sensor in place. He heard Soran's suggestion and got a little concerned. "Aren't both those particles dangerous to our health?" He asked between rapid breaths.

"Eventually," she agreed. "But I'm not seeing any alternatives? I open to suggestions if you have any, gentlemen."

"I don't see any," Scaliontis said and looked to the others hoping they might.

"I'll do it." Ta'Gas said, his voice shaking slightly. "I've been through the portal more times than just about anybody standing here." He said. "If anybody can handle the bombardment of chroniton and tachyon particles during a portal dilation, it is me." He said as he finished connecting the access panel to the flow-distributor.

"I'm not going to declare this a suicide mission just yet. Lets get a concentrated particle beam aimed at that portal. If the radiation starts to rise past safe levels before anything happens, we might have to think again."

Scaliontis nodded to the Commander before looking back at Kivan and Calaban. "Whenever you two are ready," he said.

The Cardassian Engineer sighed as he began to bring up the control panel. He was probably more familiar with the characteristics of the portals than anyone else on the Away Team. They were wasting time by just sitting here and tossing out theories and possible ideas. The sooner they could put boots on the other side the portal, the sooner they could get their people back.

However, he knew there was no point in trying to lodge a complaint at this point. Instead, he would hope that someone else's plan would work. "EPS input levels are stabilized." Lieutenant Kivan said.

"Alright, fingers crossed." Calaban stood back from the small shield generator, taken from a runabout and the small power united that fueled it. "Random time bath in three... two... one"

The jury-rigged shield generator hummed to life, letting out a feint blue glow. It was the only indication that it was doing anything. He took out his tricorder. "And we are at twice background radiation, 2.5, three... When we get to one hundred things get interesting. I give it about five minutes."

“How interesting?” Hartmann asked. “Tell me you mean superpowers interesting.”

"In an infinitely diverse universe, all things are possible." Calaban said. "But more likely its random mutations in the DNA and RNA, leading to various levels of impairment, but its not bad, easily fixed. After another hundred, then its seizures, foaming at the mouth and peeing blood as our organs breaks down, and then 'oh god, oh god, we're all going to die'."

“Well...aren’t you cheerful.” Hartmann quipped.

"Guys can we focus on the task at hand please?" Scaliontis asked just a little paler than he usually is, only a little. "Can you speed up the process?"

The light in the chamber shifted slightly, the veins in the marble obelisks were glowing with a purple light.

If it wasn't enough of a weakness, Purple light immediately grabbed Scaliontis and he smiled. "Commander I think we should probably get ready for anything?" He asked pulling his away team standard phaser with one hand and his tricorder with his other hand. He directed both at the portal.

The Romulan core came to life, a sharp whine as it picked up signals from through the portal and ran it through the decryption algorithms. and then it started playing them "...insurgents are dead, confirm escort survival...we've lost their escort. They have some sort of scrambling technology. We're tracking them as best we can... Orders are changed. Execute on sight. Acknowledge...."

Soran looked grim. "Something's working. Turn that flow up! I want this portal open before those orders get carried out."

Hartmann obeyed, turning knobs and making adjustments to see if something positive would happen.

The obelisks started to... hum, a low steady rumble, and the marbles veins started glow blue and not purple. "Uh-oh," Calaban said. "definitely ionising radiation. We're all going to need a bath when we're done. And we're at 85 times background on the Time soup."

But before anyone could respond, the whole cave began to shake and the Sentinel began to say over and over again "Frǽcednys! Frǽcednys! Frǽcednys!" It only took a few moments for the Universal Translator to kick in with its best guess. "Danger! Danger!"


To Be Continued....


Lieutenant j.g.
Kivan Ta'Gas
Assistant Chief Engineer

Commander Maritza Soran
CO
DS5

Lieutenant JG Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer
Deep Space Five

LTJG Scaliontis Lovok
Chief Engineer
DS5

LTJG Erich Hartmann
Chief Operations Officer
DS5

 

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