Can they change the laws of Physics?

Posted on Thu Jan 21, 2021 @ 12:37pm by Lieutenant Alanna Wells & Ensign Calaban Bel-Asher

1,077 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Si vis pacem, para bellum
Location: Science labs,
Timeline: MD 01 0900

[ON]

Calaban Bel-Asher wondered in to Alanna's office, padd in one hand, coffee in another, and in board shorts and a hawaiian shirt so loud it would put rock concerts to shame, and said. "Before you go back planet side, would you like to see something weird?"

"Sure. What have you found?" His choice in attire always made her smile. She liked working with Calaban, too. With him around, she never had to worry about getting too serious.

He tapped his padd, and the room's large display screen quickly showed a time series chart marked with a mostly low level of peaks and troughs, scattered with half a dozen large ones. "We now have over a year of solar activity to examine. I was looking for patterns and look at this: Solar flare activity on the Pangaea sun. The spikes are big flares." Those flares could prove problematic, under certain circumstances.

She looked at it for several moments. "That is interesting. Do those spikes correspond to anything in the system or on the planet?"

His face was filled with glee. "Oh yes. Ohhhhh yes." he touched his padd and a series of red lines appeared, each just in front of a large flare. One from several months ago was labelled "Portal destroyed at destination", the next one, a few days to left was, "Visitors come through." Each significant interaction with the planet had been labelled, though there were a couple of smaller flares marked "Unknown."

"So, every time there's activity in the portals, we have a solar flare? How are they affecting the planet and its occupants?" She looked closer. "I don't see any noticeable changes when we go through the portals, just when beings from the other side do. Or when a portal is destroyed."

"Things is, all I have right now is correlation, not a causal link." He scrubbed a hand through his shoulder length hair. "The thing is, the solar activity is otherwise stable, a nice boring G main sequence. So a) even the little blips probably mean something. we just don't know what. and b) can we predict portal activity using coronal activity?"

Alanna nodded. "This is definitely something that bears investigation. Work with T'gan and see what you can find together. I think you have something important."

"Oh, I know I have something important." Cal took a swig of his coffee, and stared at the readouts. "I just don't know what yet. We need more data."

"We do. I'll see if we can send a probe into the sun to get some better readings." She paused. "I wonder if I can set something up from the portal site to monitor temporal fluctuations from both the portal site and the research station. It's far enough from the portal site that I might be able to get some ripples."

"Cool. Cool. And can we ask the marines if these dates ring a bell? They may not have noticed anything, but it might jog a memory or too."

She thought for a moment. "That's a good idea. I'll send the list of dates to the Marines at the portal site and see if they correspond to anything. Maybe we can ask if one of them wants to liase with you on the project."

"Sounds fair." He put his coffee down carefully and made some notes on the padd. "How good is your quantum mechanics?"

"Not as good as T'gan or Jason, but it's decent. Why?"

"Well, In the absence of other causes, I was wondering if maybe the planet moved because the portals kind of... turned inside out... and if that the case, then there's a good chance that the tachyon's and involved may have ended up in a state of separation, which would mean there's some sort of quantum entanglement going on. Which may be how we're seeing results like these right now. And technically that goes both ways. So what would happen if someone did something like...drop a tri-cobalt warhead into the sun, as an experiment, controlled circumstances, all that."

The conversations she had with Jason over TI's concerns played through her mind. She did not want them to know of this. "Yes. We definitely need to run some scenarios on the holodeck to see what would happen. Preferably before the Cardassians decide to cause more trouble." That was not something she want to blow up in their faces.

"I can run some simulations," Calaban said slowly. "But it might be quicker to skip straight to practical experimentation. We already know that planet doesn't always conform to the laws of physics as we understand them."

"What sort of experimentation do you have in mind?" Alanna asked. She was concerned that, without proper testing, people could be injured.

"I was going to suggest dropping quantum torpedoes into the sun, and see what happens in the radiation fields around the portal caverns. I need to work out some of the fine details, write up the proposal. But it its a flat no right now, I'll save myself some work."

"Before we drop anything into the sun, I want to make sure it won't cause a ripple effect that will destabilize the planet and the portals," she said. "We're not only dealing with quantum entanglements, but temporal ones as well. I don't think Captain Soran would like us experimenting with real torpedoes until we've tested them on the holodeck first. We also need to consider what a solar ejaculation could do to the station."

"I'll run them. But given this solar system doesn't always react the way we think it should, it may be a false security." He warned. "I'll send them over in a day or two."

"I know, but I'd rather not take chances. Yes, it could still blow up in our faces--literally, but at least we're doing our due diligence."

Calaban nodded. "This is true." He drained his coffee and wandered over to the replicator for a refill. "I'll get started then."

"Thanks. I look forward to what you find," Alanna replied. She knew he had a point about things not working they way they were supposed to on Pangaea, but she also knew that they were just as likely to go sideways if they didn't follow proper protocol. As much as she was prone to act quickly, she generally needed a good reason to bend some rules.

[OFF]

Ens Calaban Bel-Asher
Astrophycisist
DS5

Lieutenant Alanna Wells
Chief Science Officer
Deep Space 5

 

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