El Sal Mission 8.1: Combatting Obsolescence

[ainsleighmcleod]

The doors to the conference room opened and the woman that had been causing so much speculation on the grapevine exited. Ainsleigh's first impression of their new doctor was that of a woman who at one time could have been considered comely, but a harshness tightened her eyes and a precision in her step told a story of someone that had experienced great hardship.

McLeod turned her attention back to the ensign she'd just checked up on. As soon as she had departed, the Science Officer heard lowered voices talking on the bridge.

"Enough of that," she spoke up with the authority of her position. "Back to work, we will be departing pretty soon."

With the small talk speculation silenced, McLeod grabbed her PADD and headed out to work on the Gorn technology and piece together where it came from and how it worked. She loved a good puzzle and ideas were rushing back and forth being considered and ranked in order of probability.

She turned at the lift and gave her officer an order, "Let the XO know that I have the Gorn equipment in lab 3." She saw no reason to add the redundant knowledge that it would be a holographic representation. With that said she allowed the doors to shut and ordered the computer to take her to the proper deck.

On this ship some of the science labs were on the top deck along with the bridge, but the main science area was on deck 3. It took only moments before the doors reopened and she headed to her lab.

[Savot]

Savot had listened wordlessly to Deis' story, caught between a sense of fascination at what she had discovered... and a rather un-vulcan urge to have every member of his crew enter witness protection and assume new identities just to be on the safe side. First Kevin's feud-inspired kidnapping and attempted assassination and now this from their former commander; Starfleet Intelligence definitely needed to step up its background investigation methodology. In the moment; however, that was neither here nor there, as they say.

Placing the PADD he had carried in on the table, Kevin glanced at the closed door. "I... think I should give my official report later," he said to Savot. "If that's okay, of course. I think I'm a little disoriented at the moment."

Savot was actually impressed with how 'together' Kevin had remained since he'd seen Irae again; a much greater sense of shock and 'emotional paralysis' would have been completely understandable under the circumstances but Zimmerman maintained his professionalism and put the job's status first. The vulcan nodded without hesitation, "That will be fine, Commander. You may consider your duty shift completed. We will break orbit at 1100 hours tomorrow, dismissed."

Leaving the briefing room, Savot returned to the bridge and moved to the new Engineering console to run a systems diagnostic and ensure all of the necessary connections were functioning properly. He would contact Starfleet early the next morning both to deliver their final report regarding the terraforming evaluation and receive their next orders.


(OOC: People can post any final thoughts they have, assuming there are any. Within the next couple of days I plan to have the new mission thread open and the preliminary details available. We've had some bumps this mission with the loss and gain of personnel, so we'll work to re-establish our momentum over the next mission. Those still present, keep up the good work.)

[ainsleighmcleod]

Ainsleigh started her analysis of the Gorn cloaking devise. Much of the cloaking technology used in the Federation came from the original Romulan design and that much was evident here, but there was a significant modification for planetary use. Quite brillant McLeod thought and knew Gorn advancements weren't up to the task.

The devise modulated the frequency but this worked in three dimensions, both up and down and side to side giving a naturally occurring movement caused by wind, rain or other events.
She was still trying to work backwards to discover the origninal formula when her commbadge beeped.

The bridge informed her that she had an incoming call from the Archimedes. "Patch it through to my labconsole," she answered. She chose the console so she could see the face of whoever was hailing her.

The screen changed to show the face of a science commander but she instantly knew something was wrong by the stoic look he was giving her.

In her best diplomatic fashion, Ainsleigh smiled and greeted the man as if nothing could possibly be wrong on such a glorious day. "Commander," she said with a nod, "Lt Commander McLeod here. How can I help you?"

He seemed uncomfortable with what he was about to say, "No equipment was removed from the site?"

Ainsleigh allowed her voice to reflect a more serious tone, grateful that she'd turned the monitor's screen away from the holographic reconstruction of the in question technology. "No, as per orders, all equipment remained where the Gorn had left it."

"And the scans?" he questioned and stated.

She had the impression someone was standing just behind and outside of the visual picture of the Commander. Carrefully wording her response, "Scans?" she stated and questioned in returned raising an eyebrow to emphasize her supposed puzzlement.

The commander didn't let her continue, "All scans and information are to be turned over to the Archimedes stat."

"I'm sure Captain Savot will be," and she paused a beat thinking of the Vulcan, "happy to comply with all Starfleet orders. Good day to you," and she cut off transmission.

Immediately she did two things, called the bridge and asked to see the Captain and took out a new PADD and downloaded a copy to the Gorn technology and her work.

She headed to the bridge at a fast trot, the download had taken a little longer then expected and she wanted to be sure it had been stored safely away.

The doors to the bridge opened and Ainsleigh saw that Savot was on the bridge and alone. "May I speak with you?"

[Savot]

As he stood beside the Ops console standing a solo vigil on the El Salvador's bridge, Savot heard the turbolift doors open to reveal the Chief Science Officer. The vulcan prepared to greet her as that was polite especially given the officer's relative newness to the ship, but the officer herself had a purpose to her countenance and began to address it right off, "May I speak with you?"

Savot couldn't pick a particular emotion from her tone, and so simply nodded as he stepped away from the console and clasped his hands behind his back, "Certainly, Ms. Mcleod. What can I do for you?"

(Sorry for the brevity Mcleod; didn't want to risk assuming what you intended to say/ask. Rest assured I will respond quickly to your next input)

[ainsleighmcleod]

There was nothing really wrong with the Archimedes asking or more precisely, demanding all scans and other information taken of the Gorn equipment, it just bothered her. It smacked of another cover-up and quite frankly Ainsleigh was enjoying her work on the cloaking devise.

"Sir," she started out, not wanting to sound like a petulant child, "the Archimedes and ordered all records of the Gorn equipment to be turned over immediately." She had managed to keep her voice neutral as though only updating the Captain.

She paused trying to word her next statement carefully, "Would this include only those records from the planet's surface?" she didn't yet add, "or any subsequent work done and discoveries done by me.".

Her Captain was a Vulcan and she had no doubt he completely understood the implications of her question.

McLeod could hear in the background the sounds of the bridge crew preparing to depart orbit. A part of her wondered if the Captain had already received orders for their next mission.

[Savot]

"Sir," the science officer started out, "the Archimedes and ordered all records of the Gorn equipment to be turned over immediately."

Savot raised an eyebrow slightly. Surely the course of action required was obvious, but Mcleod elaborated before he had to respond.

She paused as though trying to word her next statement carefully, "Would this include only those records from the planet's surface?"

The eyebrow started to shoot up a bit higher, for a split second before realization dawned on him and the vulcan's countenance returned to 'station keeping', so to speak. He paused as though considering for a moment, though his mind was already made up, before replying to his officer, "That would seem to be the logical interpretation of the orders, Commander. Your further work is based on simulations of the actual equipment and can therefore be considered... 'secondhand' is the term I believe. To provide such data to the Science Council would only impede the progress they would make by starting fresh."

(Mcleod response)

Before Mcleod departed, the vulcan turned back toward her and gave a parting word on the subject, "However, given the nature of the data the containment of any and all sensitive materials will be your department's responsibility. I trust you will adhere to proper R&D protocol throughout."

Savot let the Lieutenant Commander depart without the slightest sense of having shirked duty in what he knew was a wide interpretation of the requisition order from the Archimedes. Without reverting to such crude notions as possession being 9/10 of the law, it was only reasonable that as a combat vessel the El Salvador would likely be on the front lines if any new conflict broke out with the Gorn; and as such they would need the most accurate data possible in their databanks in order to confront any hostilities.

On the whole though, Savot felt peace could be maintained especially in light of the Gorn's current physiological situation, so ideally the data wouldn't be needed. But the fact remained that he saw no need to turn over information the science vessel would have complete access to since they were taking the physical specimens with them.

The vulcan captain took his seat and waited out the rest of the evening shift before taking a few hours to sleep before their departure the next morning.