Datamining

Posted on Sat Apr 2nd, 2016 @ 2:15am by Captain Tim Williams & Lieutenant Commander Horatio Hawke & Lieutenant Commander Jean Reynard

Episode: Lost Property
Location: USS Highlander - Bridge

"Gentlemen," Tim said, as he approached his XO and Ops officer at their respective computer stations. "Have we managed to learn anything about our lost property out there?"

"Well, let's see," Jean said, pausing mid-keystroke. "The first thing I learned is that pre-duotronic computers don't deal well with sudden bone-liquefying accelerations followed by a century of radiation exposure. Shocking, I know. However, I can give you a definite date and location for the incident based on the logs I've recovered so far. The critical malfunctions started at 1754 ship's time, June 10 2159, as the ship was nearing the outermost planet of the Rigel system."

"2159?" Tim asked, raking his brain for what scant information there was about history in there. "That would be, what? After the Battle of Sol, but about a year before the end of the Romulan War? Were there any battles around the Rigel system at that time?"

Hawke shook his head. "There were no significant fleet actions in that region at that stage in the war," he said. He had a strong interest in military history and the war between the Romulans and the Coalition which led to the founding of the Federation was one of the most significant conflicts in military history. "But there were skirmishes all over the place. This was a time when each side of the combatants was looking feverishly for an advantage to press home and force an end to the war. That's probably what the DeSalle was doing."

"Unfortunately, to avoid detection, ships on scouting missions couldn't routinely send subspace messages, they could go weeks without sending even short messages," Jean said. "I couldn't find any detailed reports in the historical database past April for the DeSalle. However, I did find this." He brought up a map of the Rigel system, highlighting zones around several of the planets. "The Romulans loved using mine warfare to deny access to locations, even when they couldn't put ships on guard. After the war, Rigel was one of the systems that required years of extensive minesweeping to make it safe. Starfleet found thousands of the things there - mostly fusion mines, but a few more experimental ones like gravitic mines as well."

"A gravitic mine or something more experimental could alter the trajectory of a ship if it were just about to enter warp," Tim said, tapping his chin as the idea came to him. "If the ship's warp bubble had already been formed, but the ship hadn't yet reached warp speed, it's possible that a significant enough detonation could throw the ship into warp in a different direction. That would explain the failure of the inertial dampening system, and why the crew were all thrown to one side of the ship; the dampeners we just never designed to compensate with an acceleration to warp in that direction."

Hawke winced at the thought; the inertial dampeners were something every spacer just took for granted and barely gave a second thought to, until they didn't work properly. "Damn," he said, shaking his head. "Hell of a way to go."

"Well, if it makes you feel better," Jean told him, "it was probably a lot faster than what would have happened if they hadn't been entering warp. The records I used for comparison... well, let's just say they're pretty gruesome and leave it at that."

"The Romulans were brutal during that war, and only got more so the longer the conflict went on," Tim recalled. "I've read some truly horrifying accounts of what they left in their wake. Even in defeat. Whenever one of their ships was disabled, the crew waited until one of ours was close enough to begin docking and boarding actions, and then initiate their self-destruct. For a long time Starfleet's standing orders were not to approach any Romulan ship too closely, even a disabled one." The captain ran a hand through his head as he thought about their next step. "The gravitic mine theory is definitely possible, though it's just an unproven theory right now. See if you can get any more data from the logs, but I'd also like you to run a few simulations, see if it's possible to happen like that. Include Ryan too - I bet somewhere in his head full of science mumbo jumbo he'd have a few paragraphs that could help explain it all."

"I'll touch base with him immediately, sir," Jean said. "I've also put in archival search requests in to Memory Alpha for war data - if we're lucky, they should have schematics for old Romulan weaponry on file."

"Good idea," Tim told them. "Let me know what you find."