Figuring it out
Posted on Sun Sep 18th, 2016 @ 2:19am by Lieutenant Griffen Tanol & Captain Tim Williams & Lieutenant Ryan North
Edited on on Sun Sep 18th, 2016 @ 2:26am
Episode:
Lost Property
Location: De Salle Infirmary
Timeline: MD05 0615hrs
The last of the crates from the Highlander returned to physical being as the transporter beam dissipated. Taking a step towards them Grif did a quick once over to make sure all the equipment she had told her Assistant to send over was here. With a nod of satisfaction that they were all here, she started to sort through them to find the powerful portable engineering scanner that was typically only used in drydock. "Everything's here, Lets see if we can't figure out how they frankensteined this imaging chamber." Grif said as she found the case she was looking for and cracked it open and began to assemble the scanner in the small sickbay.
Given the state of the imaging chamber Ryan was pretty much at a loss as to how they crew of the De Salle had managed to get someone to their phase. He glanced over his tricorder readings again, hoping that they would be of some help. But, another glance at the previously recorded reading seemed to get him nowhere. He sighed heavily and closed the tricorder.
"They managed to figure this out with pretty primitive technology,"Ryan stated, peering at the imaging chamber. "And I have no idea how they did it."
"Engineers of the NX class were some of the best in the galaxy at the time. A lot of the technology we use now was based on the work those engineers did just trying to survive a pretty nasty galaxy. I mean I remember a time when just travelling from Trill to Vulcan was a whole endeavor in itself." Grif said as she turned on the powerful scanner and took a step back. "Those engineers could work miracles."
A deep humming noise filled the room as the scanner began to cycle through it's basic scans all focusing in on the imaging chamber. The portable display the pair had already set up began to fill with information that to many would seem like simple gibberish. "Huh... now correct me if I'm wrong but is that a transporter trace there? It's been distorted with... something."
Ryan glanced at the sensor readings that were rapidly filling the screen. "It's possible, although it could just an after effect of the spatial rift that brought the De Salle crew member to us."
He tapped a few icons on the scanner. "The whole area seems to be irradiated. The levels are fairly low, I'm not surprised that the tricorder couldn't get a lock on them. I don't recognize the signature though."
Grif stared at the screen as she tried to associate the radiation on the monitor with different sources that she knew of. Few radiation types made sense as to what could accomplish anything towards even the idea of messing with time or phase. "Radiation... radiation... I know something about radiation...." She muttered to herself as she pursed her lips. Digging deep into her memories and the memories of her former hosts, Grif tried to find the answer she was looking for.
After several moments of staring at the screen in silence with the Scientist the idea popped into her head. Snapping her fingers in excitement Grif turned towards Ryan, "Polaric radiation! Or more accurately Polaric Ions." She said taking a few quick steps to the portable computer link they had brought from the Highlander. "Back during the Romulan-Earth war, the Romulans used tricobalt devices in their mines which as we know rips a hole in subspace. We also know that the Romulans were also experimenting with other types of weapons during that time as well. What if the mine the De Salle hit was a mix of the two? We have some ideas as to what Polaric radiation can do thanks to Voyager and we know what tricobalts do. What we don't know is what they'd do if they were working together." Grif said pulling up information on the Romulans old war mines and sent it to the large monitor, "I'm also willing to bet neither did the Romulans, that's why they did it, to find out. What if the combination of the two threw the ship into a different level of subspace, which would explain the time dilation, and a different level of phase thanks to a combination of the two types of weapons. That could easily explain everything."
"It's a good working theory, combining those two types of energy sources could certainly enough temporal energy to push something out of phase but that still doesn't explain how the crew from the De Salle managed to create a way to physically bring themselves here," Ryan said, fingers idly tapping the top of the monitor. "Unless they found a way to saturate subspace with some sort of heavy ions. Computer, was the access Starfleet database, run a check through the historical archives and look for anything on the NX Class ships that could be used in heavy ion creation. Display when finished."
"Please standby. Working."
A few seconds later several items began to stream by on the screen. Ryan scanned the list, stopping it halfway down.
"What are you looking for?" Grif asked as she watched the list scroll down through the various elements and materials that an NX class would have carried back in the day.
"This," Ryan pointed out. "Heloditrixium ore, seems most NX class ships carried a batch on board to help in the synthesis of new power conduits. Normally pretty harmless stuff, however if you superheated it and then exposed the liquid to a varying degree of gamma, x-ray, and EM radiation you could in theory create a stable but highly toxic concentration of irritated ions that could be beamed into a chamber. Hell, the transport beam it's self may have been all the radiation exposure that it needed."
Grif bit her lip as she thought over the idea, "It could work... the imaging chamber was a kind of jack of all trades type tech it did a lot of stuff that we later developed dedicated tools for. The problem is, it's not the right type of radiation and it can't mess with subspace. Unless...." Staring at the screen, Grif spoke "Computer in theory.... could someone focus a warp bubble within the imaging chamber of the De Salle? With the NX level of technology."
"Negative. The warp nacelles were unable to control the field so precisely with the NX-Class Starship." Came the reply of the Highlander's computer through the commlink.
"According to specs..." Grif muttered to herself. "Computer, contact the subspace probe and get it to scan the De Salle's warp nacelles."
Turning towards the lieutenant, Grif motioned towards the Imaging chamber. "The type of radiation is all wrong, but in theory it's close enough to polaric that it could hold the same properties with the introduction of another element. Throw that in the imaging chamber with the focused warp field it could hold the same effects as the Romulan mine. I still have no idea how they transported the guy through the tear though, even by our standards that should be neigh impossible."
"All that unlikely energy reacting together could have left some sort of echo in subspace," Ryan theorized. "What if it wasn't on purpose?"
"That would.... make a bit more sense. All of these seems like they were just throwing darts at a board and seeing what stuck." Grif replied honestly. "I assume you've got a line of reasoning then?"
"We've been assuming that they did this on purpose, what if they didn't. What if they were looking for a way back to our phase but hadn't stumbled across anything yet, at least anything that they thought would work. The doctor had to have been in the imaging chamber right..." Ryan quickly ran over to another monitor and started tapping away at it. "What if they did something by accident that caused him to get transported through. These old imaging chambers were famous for leaking radiation... there!"
Grif looked towards what the scientist was pointing at. Bending over slightly to get closer to the screen and she squinted slightly at the smaller grouping of text. "Well that's not polaric based radiation. What is that?"
"Boradium, no toxic low level but unstable when exposed to radiation in the higher bands... like polaric. Boradium can decrease cell's permability, if they were running scans... say something of even a low level multiphasic variety that could have pulled him into our phase."
"It wouldn't have done it entirely... there still had to be some kind of transmission." Grif said as she stood, a grin took over her face as an idea struck her, "If the Doc was being hurt by whatever radiation this was, the mixing of the two its possible the imaging chamber was malfunctioning. If so the way they might have tried to get him out is a transporter. If we assume they did, mixed with the radiation and the scan it could have gotten sucked through the rift. Everything would have been an accident. A happy set of accidents that gives us a way to get them home."
"Yes and no," Ryan pointed out. "The doctor arrived in less than stellar condition, we need to find a way to safely bring them over to this side."
"Hey I said an happy set of accidents." Grif said with a laugh, "An accident nonetheless." She bit at her lip as she thought it over. "So.. we want to punch a hole in subspace, infuse it with radiation and transport people through it.. what could go wrong? Obviously we'll need to use the probe somehow... infact maybe that's our link. It's already come through the different levels of phase, it's already created a hole that we can use. It's got the sensors to act as a transporter relay... all that's missing is the radiation."
Ryan pinched the bridge of his nose. "The problem is that transporting people through subspace puts enormous strain on the human body... plus to be honest I'm not sure we can find a source of heavy radiation that won't cause permanent harm to the person on the other side."
Letting out a sigh Grif nodded in agreement. "I think we need to get this information back to Highlander and get some more heads in on this. The two of us alone aren't going to be able to do this and we need to let Williams know."
"Agreed," Ryan nodded.
OFF
Lieutenant Grif Tanol
Chief Engineering Officer
&
Lt. JG Ryan North
Chief Science Officer