Season 16: Episode 2: A Night at the Opera

[T'Rea]

"THAT I can do," she said, confidently. If ANYONE could, it was Vila, because someone just challenged her to do it. "Thank you, Crewman," she said, and returned to her own Console. Quietly, she got to work. It took several minutes-longer than she'd like-but she was in. "Crewman T'Rea. Open your channel to receive. Please," she said.

She looked to Bosch.

"Any luck?" She asked him.

Buck was fustrated as he tapped around, playing around with hypotheticals whilst monitoring the situation with their radiation shielding and finding a way to reinforce what little shielding they had left. Buck glanced over when Lorut asked whether he was making any progress.

"Reinforcing the shielding at the moment," Buck replied. "Any of the scientists around know how to counteract the effects of these particles? Neutralise them with a signal of our own or something?"

[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge | Science Station 1]
"Channel open," T'Rea confirmed. There was a short delay before the science station's screen was able to relay all the information available on the Allegheny's primary status display. It showed flashing warnings about inoperative propulsion and weapons systems, but T'Rea hardly paid that any attention as she found herself navigating almost instinctively to the shuttle's sensor readings, with Rajagopalan watching on closely.

Of course, the sensor arrays and scanning capabilities of the smaller craft were not nearly as advanced as the Discovery itself, but they were designed to be as versatile and effective as possible given the power and space constraints, and there was certainly plenty to be learned from them. The most readily apparent of which was the presence of a strong dampening field that engulfed the shuttle---This was the obvious source of the inoperative propulsion warning, and possibly the root cause of non-functional weapons systems as well, though thankfully internal systems and scanning capabilities seemed unaffected.

A broad spectrum sensor sweep revealed that the station itself was in most ways exactly as one would expect a station to be--it contained common building materials and basic particle residuals indicative of transporter and replicator use. And a long range scan (from the equipment mounted on the shuttle's underside for orbital surveying missions) revealed what appeared to be a more or less ordinary resort area on the planet's surface directly below them.

But the strength and complexity of of the energy readings she was picking up were enough to have her raise an eyebrow. Ensign Rajagopalan tapped at the screen to confirm the readings and they shared a look before the much more experienced science officer gave her a literal nudge, clearly intended to encourage sharing. She side stepped further contact but momentarily raised her gaze to the bridge again and spoke up. "According to these energy readings, it's apparent that the station itself must be the source of the shielding--both for itself and the planet below.

"We'll start a spectral analysis of the shield harmonics but... with this level of complexity it's going to take time." They'd need to run narrow band scans in order to get any reasonable level of resolution. But to cover the whole, relevant portion of the spectrum it was going to take dozens---if not hundreds---of such scans to be collected and then re-convolved before proper analysis could even begin...

[Lorut Vila]

[USS Discovery|Bridge]

Because despite their pleas, their goal was never our enjoyment and recreation. It is a trap.And at this point, they have part of our crew on the surface and a ship about to reach critical tolerance. There is no need for subterfuge.  That wasn't a plea, it was a threat.

"Sir. When I was with the Militia, when the Cardassians set a trap, the best course of action for our cells was to fall into it-BUT...with a plan. You go in armed, and beat them at their own game. It may be faster to alert them if we send a person down. I'll go. No one will miss me," she said.

T'Rea, Lorut, Graham, work on the probes.  We need to gather as much data as we can about that shield and this radiation tide.  If you want to try to blow up a probe against the shield, I am confident that it won't do anything, but it can still offer us data on the shield tolerances.  That technology is much more advanced than anything we have here.  Don't underestimate it.

Vila was many thing, but stupid wasn't one. She had recognized quickly that the tech they were dealing with wasn't something she'd dealt with before-whether civilian or military-and she'd adjusted course. Still, she wasn't sure it was "more advanced", just simply...different.

"Well do what we can," she said, sighing deeply. It was likely futile, unless they had some way to wrap the probe...the thought triggered another in her brain.

I won't sugarcoat it.  We are trapped.  And we are likely going to have no choice but to fall into their plans to get us on the station. We may even end up where the away team is now.  That can't be prevented, but what we can do is plan for what happens afterwards.  If we are forced to dock and I am not able to give orders, your orders are to tear that station apart until you know how it works and how to reinforce our own ship. We're Starfleet; our job to do the impossible and innovate our way out of any situation.  We've been through a lot; I agree with Lorut... I'll be damned if I see another clone of myself or anything else that involves control.  But this isn't that kind of situation.  We've been able to be in contact with the away team.  Do what you do best and we can make our way out. Sometimes the best way out of a trap is to spring it.

She smiled lightly; she knew he'd come around. Eventually.

She made some calculations on her screen, and issued the final self-kill orders to the systems.

Lt. Vila, can you check if it is still possible to remotely access the shuttle's systems? If you can get Ensign Rajagopalan or I remote access to the shuttle's sensor array, we could run a sweep from inside the a shielded zone. That might give us some valuable information as to how their shielding functions.

"Lorut," she replied, automatically. It was a habit now. Vila was her given name; only certain people were allowed to use it. Still, she didn't stick on the subject. "I can..." She said. "Also...do you think we could turn on a replicator long enough to get enough metallic sheeting? Roughly how big are the probes?" If they coated the probes in an extra layer of metal, it could, logically, deflect any excessive radiation. "If we can wrap the probe in something metallic, would it help to deflect damage from radiation?" She asked the scientist. She was Ops, and she respected other peoples' jobs-she couldn't do them, after all.

Reinforcing the shielding at the moment..Any of the scientists around know how to counteract the effects of these particles? Neutralise them with a signal of our own or something? How about disguising our probe as a waste ejection? Send it in the path of the planet and see if it can get us any further readings?

"You're doing fine," she said. "Actually, that could work, too," she said. She looked to the Crewman again. "Get Rajagopalan up here," she said. She needed an officer who could make a call-no need for some crewman cadet to get in trouble from her bad ideas.

According to these energy readings, it's apparent that the station itself must be the source of the shielding--both for itself and the planet below. We'll start a spectral analysis of the shield harmonics but... with this level of complexity it's going to take time.

Vila simply nodded. "The transmitters are responding!" she called out. She sent the signals to the open channel. "Captain, to you," she said. "McNair, I'm sending it to you, too. Maybe you can interface it with whatever you have," she said, tapping out the commands quickly, staring straight ahead-focused. 

[Rayek trLhoell]

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Erewhon - Transport Site]

"Yes.  Now that you point it out. I think that might be because the locals are somehow tied into the facility's computer.  It could be muting their natural reactions, keeping them docile and under control..." he hypothesized.

The Romulan waited for a moment expecting some expression of disgust or outrage, but was surprised when his comment earned no reaction at all from the Away Team members.  Lek's silence he understood.  The Ferengi had said his piece and wanted nothing more than to quit this place - but the silence from the others bothered him.  Were they somehow also being affected by the same lack of emotion as the clones?  If so, then they did need to leave sooner rather than later.

By his reckoning, it was near time to check in with the ship, perhaps new orders would be received.

Motioning for Lek to cut the jamming, Rayek opened his own 'flip phone' communicator and attempted to contact the ship.

"tr'Lhoell to the Bridge." he announced, then waited until he heard the click of the 'line' connecting.

Away Team checking in.  Due to the earlier incident, we've been requested to await the Facility Manager's decision on whether or not we are bound by their Terms of Service, since it was only visible at a visual frequency our team members were unable to see, much less agree to before being beamed down to the planet.  How are things with the ship?  I have several team members that would like nothing better than to leave."

[Tekin Nevir]

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Erewhon - Transport Site]

The Romulan waited for a moment expecting some expression of disgust or outrage, but was surprised when his comment earned no reaction at all from the Away Team members.  Lek's silence he understood.  The Ferengi had said his piece and wanted nothing more than to quit this place - but the silence from the others bothered him.  Were they somehow also being affected by the same lack of emotion as the clones?  If so, then they did need to leave sooner rather than later.

By his reckoning, it was near time to check in with the ship, perhaps new orders would be received.

Motioning for Lek to cut the jamming, Rayek opened his own 'flip phone' communicator and attempted to contact the ship.

"tr'Lhoell to the Bridge." he announced, then waited until he heard the click of the 'line' connecting.

Away Team checking in.  Due to the earlier incident, we've been requested to await the Facility Manager's decision on whether or not we are bound by their Terms of Service, since it was only visible at a visual frequency our team members were unable to see, much less agree to before being beamed down to the planet.  How are things with the ship?  I have several team members that would like nothing better than to leave."

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

Before the Captain could really respond to the Bridge, the comms cracked and he heard the away team. He frowned, and answered.

"Be advised Away Team, we have reason to believe the facilitators have ulterior motives.  We are about to be forced to dock. We do not yet have a way to withstand the increasing radiation in the system and our shields are close to failing.  If we are forced to the station, we will continue work to break us all out of here."

He turned to the bridge. "Good work, Lorut. For the probe, to silence it, use the observation protocols. We can coordina-"

WARNING, deflective shield failure. Radiation levels rising.  Lethal levels in 30 minutes.

".. of course we are losing time. Even in the shadow of the planet.  Mr Graham, plot a route to dock with the station. Mr. McNair, we are running out of options.  Have we tried attuning our shield's frequency to match the radiation?"

[James Ramort]

[James Ramort]
[Erewhon | Transport Site]

The Tricorder informed Ramort it had decoded a new section of the Alien script. It featured lots of tables and enumerations sorted into parallel columns. Some symbols returned as not part of any regular coded script at all. They were adorned by additional numberings forming concentric rings, making for a highly inefficient system of holding whatever information was saved here.

Then the title finally snapped into place.

"Exchange Rates for approved Currencies"

So this was about the monetary system they used here.

Going on from that he could put some sense to the tables he had scanned through. They were exchange lists of quantities of either currencies or commodities. Most were unique names in languages from species the translator had no context for, so they returned as phonetic approximations that had to miss the mark somewhere undoubtedly. Going on from there it shed more light on the strange ringed symbols though. They had to be elemental notations with charged ions used to indicated interactions with fitting minerals. More effective in recording data than putting the whole molecular notation, especially given it was to service various langagues and scientific backgrounds. The only problem being: He lacked the reference data to determine the molecules reacting to these charges noted here.

When he heard the Commander calling out for the Ship he snapped out to the ongoing events again. It seemd like his mind had been trapped by numbers and tables for a second there. Kinda embarassing but probably one of the dangers he had to be more aware of as a Scientist. Getting distracted might be a danger to his Crewmates in more dangerous circumstances. But were their circumstances really without danger? He still didn't know enough to judge that correctly but what they had observed so far left him with a strange feeling.

Looking around he saw Lieutenant Lachlyn approaching a child while the device in Commander Leks hand looked like it was functional now.

Seeing as his progress with his data seemed to be hindered by his limited understanding of the Currencies presented in the TOS he asked around the Team, maybe one of them could sheed some light on what was

"I think I found something that might be monetary exchange rates, does any of you know what a Barien Tanar is?""

Getting no immediate response, he tried looking through the pages more. The Staff had told something about the Commanders Account being on hold. If these Terms held monetary exchange tables, they also had to have some info on account freezing. Setting up the Tricorder to continue scanning through the pages taking only a couple of button presses.

[Ensign Kedan]
[USS Discovery | Deck 5 | Auxiliary Engineering]

Kedan had left the improvised Science Lab behind. With most of the Chaos having died down and all necessary emergency tools established, he felt confident he could focus on the immediate problems again.

With Engineering still being better equipped than them, he had transitioned to the auxiliary Engineering Space. As the Ship was in crisis, the Bay was a hornet nest of activity too. Engineers were running all over the place, attempting to hold together the most important systems.

Grabbing the attention of one of the Crewman running past him, he stopped him and asked:

"Is there a spare station I could use. Also, where is Lieutenant M'Nia? We need her help.""

[Lek]

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

Before the Captain could really respond to the Bridge, the comms cracked and he heard the away team. He frowned, and answered.

"Be advised Away Team, we have reason to believe the facilitators have ulterior motives.  We are about to be forced to dock. We do not yet have a way to withstand the increasing radiation in the system and our shields are close to failing.  If we are forced to the station, we will continue work to break us all out of here."

He turned to the bridge. "Good work, Lorut. For the probe, to silence it, use the observation protocols. We can coordina-"

WARNING, deflective shield failure. Radiation levels rising.  Lethal levels in 30 minutes.

".. of course we are losing time. Even in the shadow of the planet.  Mr Graham, plot a route to dock with the station. Mr. McNair, we are running out of options.  Have we tried attuning our shield's frequency to match the radiation?"

[Erewhon - Transport Site]

Lek heard the Captain and was immediately concerned. He was baffled by a radiation the Discovery's shields couldn't handle. He knew M'Nia was a good engineer and was certain she'd already tried everything he could think of off the top of his head. He needed to be on the ship, but he was certain the radiation wouldn't allow for a transporter to lock on. He had enough misgivings that he spoke from Rayek's shoulder.

"Sir, these people are up to no good. I'm recommend suspending first contact protocols and fire a photon across their bow to get they're attention and let us go."

[Alexander Graham]

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

Before the Captain could really respond to the Bridge, the comms cracked and he heard the away team. He frowned, and answered.

"Be advised Away Team, we have reason to believe the facilitators have ulterior motives.  We are about to be forced to dock. We do not yet have a way to withstand the increasing radiation in the system and our shields are close to failing.  If we are forced to the station, we will continue work to break us all out of here."

He turned to the bridge. "Good work, Lorut. For the probe, to silence it, use the observation protocols. We can coordina-"

WARNING, deflective shield failure. Radiation levels rising.  Lethal levels in 30 minutes.

".. of course we are losing time. Even in the shadow of the planet.  Mr Graham, plot a route to dock with the station. Mr. McNair, we are running out of options.  Have we tried attuning our shield's frequency to match the radiation?"

[USS Discovery-bridge]
"Understood captain." Alexander didn't waste any time in plotting a route to the station. He figured that it may be ideal to get there urgently in the current condition that they were in. He went with his idea that had the smallest margin of error.

[Rayek trLhoell]

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Erewhon - Transport Site]

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

Before the Captain could really respond to the Bridge, the comms cracked and he heard the away team. He frowned, and answered.

"Be advised Away Team, we have reason to believe the facilitators have ulterior motives.  We are about to be forced to dock. We do not yet have a way to withstand the increasing radiation in the system and our shields are close to failing.  If we are forced to the station, we will continue work to break us all out of here."

The Captain's statement regarding the facilitators was unexpected, and Rayek was curious as to what had prompted it.  However, news that the ship was being forced to dock because of the radiation was far more disturbing.

Before Rayek could speak to acknowledge the Captain's information.  Lek spoke out.

[Erewhon - Transport Site]

Lek heard the Captain and was immediately concerned. He was baffled by a radiation the Discovery's shields couldn't handle. He knew M'Nia was a good engineer and was certain she'd already tried everything he could think of off the top of his head. He needed to be on the ship, but he was certain the radiation wouldn't allow for a transporter to lock on. He had enough misgivings that he spoke from Rayek's shoulder.

"Sir, these people are up to no good. I'm recommend suspending first contact protocols and fire a photon across their bow to get they're attention and let us go."

Rayek turned an incredulous look towards the Ferengi before the expression hardened.

"You recommend being the instigator to aggression with a species we know next to nothing about? Their shielding is obvious superior to ours in someways... what if their weaponry is the same? Are you willing to risk the ship just to 'get their attention'?!"

With his eyes still on Lek, Rayek addressed the Captain acknowledging the news. "Understood Captain. We will see what we can learn about the radiation and the shielding from down here. tr'Lhoell out."

Rayek closed the flip-phone after the call, and pondered Lek's attitude of late. The Ferengi had been surly since their mission began.

"Mr. Lek, it seems you want to return to the ship far too badly. Very well. Make a formal apology to the woman you insulted and offer a reasonable recompense; then we can ask for you to be returned to the station and ultimately the ship, where you can't get into more trouble.  Otherwise, we may be here a long while waiting on the Facilitator to determine how you make amends."

[James Ramort]
[Erewhon | Transport Site]

Seeing as his progress with his data seemed to be hindered by his limited understanding of the Currencies presented in the TOS he asked around the Team, maybe one of them could shed some light on what was

"I think I found something that might be monetary exchange rates, does any of you know what a Barien Tanar is?""

Getting no immediate response, he tried looking through the pages more. The Staff had told something about the Commanders Account being on hold. If these Terms held monetary exchange tables, they also had to have some info on account freezing. Setting up the Tricorder to continue scanning through the pages taking only a couple of button presses.

The quiet question from Ramort drew the Romulan's attention.  Rayek was grateful for the distraction from the 'Lek problem'.

"Tanar is a system near the Klingon border, if I recall correctly.  However, given the distances from there to here, I doubt there is any connection."   

[Lek]

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Erewhon - Transport Site]

The Captain's statement regarding the facilitators was unexpected, and Rayek was curious as to what had prompted it.  However, news that the ship was being forced to dock because of the radiation was far more disturbing.

Before Rayek could speak to acknowledge the Captain's information.  Lek spoke out.

Rayek turned an incredulous look towards the Ferengi before the expression hardened.

"You recommend being the instigator to aggression with a species we know next to nothing about? Their shielding is obvious superior to ours in someways... what if their weaponry is the same? Are you willing to risk the ship just to 'get their attention'?!"

With his eyes still on Lek, Rayek addressed the Captain acknowledging the news. "Understood Captain. We will see what we can learn about the radiation and the shielding from down here. tr'Lhoell out."

Rayek closed the flip-phone after the call, and pondered Lek's attitude of late. The Ferengi had been surly since their mission began.

"Mr. Lek, it seems you want to return to the ship far too badly. Very well. Make a formal apology to the woman you insulted and offer a reasonable recompense; then we can ask for you to be returned to the station and ultimately the ship, where you can't get into more trouble.  Otherwise, we may be here a long while waiting on the Facilitator to determine how you make amends."

The quiet question from Ramort drew the Romulan's attention.  Rayek was grateful for the distraction from the 'Lek problem'.

"Tanar is a system near the Klingon border, if I recall correctly.  However, given the distances from there to here, I doubt there is any connection."

[Erewhon - Transport Site]

Lek couldn't have been more dumbfounded, he stared at Rayek with utter disbelief at what he had just been told. He choked back a hot retort, took a breath and then answered in a measured tone.

"Sir, returning to the ship is patently impossible. Their shields are only just barely holding back whatever this radiation is doing. It would be dangerous for the ship to drop their shields for a transport. It would also be dangerous for me personally to attempt to beam through this radiation as well.

"As I stated earlier, since we did not, could not, consent to their contract, no contract exists and therefore I am under no obligation to apologize, much less offer compensation to that woman. Thus I will do neither and since my input has no value, I will not offer anything further unless asked."

Lek then went silent, he would not speak again unless asked. In his mind, the matter was concluded, including what was left of the friendship he once had with Rayek. Lek supposed command and being married had sent Rayek down a different path that no longer included him. This made him think of Helga and how she had changed too.

"I guess being Borged does that to you. Well, that now means Rayek and Helga are no longer part of my life. I like to think I haven't changed, but it wouldn't surprise me that losing both of them ended up being my fault. I wish there was a Rule of Acquisition that fit this moment, but profit hasn't any room for relationships or love if you follow the true Ferengi way."

[Lorut Vila]

[USS Discovery|Bridge]

She'd been "calm and collected" long enough. Now, she was inching towards antsy, and soon would bridge into all out panic. She was doing her best, but she still wasn't fully "ok" in tense situations in which she had little to no control to help or do something. Frankly, sitting here, as a sitting duck, wasn't "doing something."

Good work, Lorut. For the probe, to silence it, use the observation protocols. We can coordina-

Vila silenced the alarm. She knew. They ALL knew.

"Initating observation protocols. Ens. Rajagopalan, how's that study going?" She asked, pressing some buttons. After a deep sigh, she stood up to stretch. Moving her body would help to calm her mind-at least for awhile. 

[Rayek trLhoell]

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Erewhon - Transport Site]

[Erewhon - Transport Site]

"Sir, returning to the ship is patently impossible. Their shields are only just barely holding back whatever this radiation is doing. It would be dangerous for the ship to drop their shields for a transport. It would also be dangerous for me personally to attempt to beam through this radiation as well.

"As I stated earlier, since we did not, could not, consent to their contract, no contract exists and therefore I am under no obligation to apologize, much less offer compensation to that woman. Thus I will do neither and since my input has no value, I will not offer anything further unless asked."

Lek then went silent, he would not speak again unless asked.

Rayek had never heard Ferengi being described as stubborn -  Clever, devious and greedy sure - but then Lek was certainly of a different breed.

The Romulan noticed how Lek hadn't countered his comments about the appropriateness of firing on or the station.  No, the engineer just focused on the impossibility for them to leave the planet.  Rayek had his own suspicions of that.

"Let's test that theory." he said aloud.

Rayek walked away from the Transport Site , heading towards the Cafe.  At the location that he knew the jammer was no longer effective, he called out.  "T'Sana, I have a question."

He got to the silently count of two before the hologram appeared around the corner and approached him.  "You had a question, Mr. tr'Lhoell?"

Rayek nodded affirmatively.  "Yes, I would like to know if it would be possible for you to safely transport one of my team up to your station or better yet onto my ship which should be docking with the station soon."

T'Sana smiled agreeably.  "It most certainly is possible, however until the Facility Manager gives their judgement on your situation, I'm unable to permit such a request. You and your team must continue to wait here."

Rayek frowned and pressed the conversation.  " A guest wishes to leave - are you saying you intend to hold them here against their will?"

The hologram hesitated as if uncertain how to respond based on conflicting programming.

[James Ramort]

[Ensign Kedan]
[USS Discovery | Deck 5 | Auxiliary Engineering]

Kedan had left the improvised Science Lab behind. With most of the Chaos having died down and all necessary emergency tools established, he felt confident he could focus on the immediate problems again.

With Engineering still being better equipped than them, he had transitioned to the auxiliary Engineering Space. As the Ship was in crisis, the Bay was a hornet nest of activity too. Engineers were running all over the place, attempting to hold together the most important systems.

Grabbing the attention of one of the Crewman running past him, he stopped him and asked:

"Is there a spare station I could use. Also, where is Lieutenant M'Nia? We need her help.""

[Ensign Kedan]
[USS Discovery | Deck 5 | Auxiliary Engineering]

"Sorry Sir, I haven't seen her in a while. I think she got called to another section of the Ship. I can't be sure however and even if, it would have been some time ago. She should have been back by now. We really need her down here. Until she returns, you can use the back-up stations at the far wall."

Nodding in appreciation to signal his thanks for the engineer taking his time to answer his questions, he went to one of the free stations indicated and began reconfiguring it. By standard, it was meant to mainly interface directly with the secondary systems and back up power reserves. He input instructions to change the link to tie into the power and shield systems instead, opening the science systems direct access to the Ships sensors and databanks in a secondary datastream.

Thus having his station prepared he called out for the rest of the Team.

"Kedan to M'Nia and McNair, I set up a work station for us in Auxiliary Engineering. Please report to Deck 5 for shield reconfiguration."

[USS Discovery|Bridge]

She'd been "calm and collected" long enough. Now, she was inching towards antsy, and soon would bridge into all out panic. She was doing her best, but she still wasn't fully "ok" in tense situations in which she had little to no control to help or do something. Frankly, sitting here, as a sitting duck, wasn't "doing something."

Vila silenced the alarm. She knew. They ALL knew.

"Initating observation protocols. Ens. Rajagopalan, how's that study going?" She asked, pressing some buttons. After a deep sigh, she stood up to stretch. Moving her body would help to calm her mind-at least for awhile.

[Ensign Vinod Rajagopalan]
[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge | Science Station 1]

"I am only getting back garbled data. The radiation is still interfering with the data. With the auxiliary sensors back online, I am able to run a comparative algorithm on the sensor's data to at least sort out the false positives. I am pushing sensor frequency to the max to get us the data we need."

Remembering he wasn't alone in his pursuit here called turned to the only other qualified scientist on the Bridge. Hoping to not overwhelm her with her tasks, but seeing no other option given the urgency for results he asked:

"T'Rea, if you have a hand free, can you help me managing the data flow?"

[Erewhon - Transport Site]

Lek couldn't have been more dumbfounded, he stared at Rayek with utter disbelief at what he had just been told. He choked back a hot retort, took a breath and then answered in a measured tone.

"Sir, returning to the ship is patently impossible. Their shields are only just barely holding back whatever this radiation is doing. It would be dangerous for the ship to drop their shields for a transport. It would also be dangerous for me personally to attempt to beam through this radiation as well.

"As I stated earlier, since we did not, could not, consent to their contract, no contract exists and therefore I am under no obligation to apologize, much less offer compensation to that woman. Thus I will do neither and since my input has no value, I will not offer anything further unless asked."

Lek then went silent, he would not speak again unless asked. In his mind, the matter was concluded, including what was left of the friendship he once had with Rayek. Lek supposed command and being married had sent Rayek down a different path that no longer included him. This made him think of Helga and how she had changed too.

"I guess being Borged does that to you. Well, that now means Rayek and Helga are no longer part of my life. I like to think I haven't changed, but it wouldn't surprise me that losing both of them ended up being my fault. I wish there was a Rule of Acquisition that fit this moment, but profit hasn't any room for relationships or love if you follow the true Ferengi way."

[James Ramort]
[Erewhon | Landing Site]

Ramort froze in place. What the Ferengi said there might be enough to cause a minor scandal if recorded for Star Fleet Command. It was a testament for the stress they were all subjected too.

He felt it too. The creeping feeling that something was deeply wrong.

The way the held humans and brainwashed them here. The way they frooze as if controlled. The smiles of the holograms. And all of that confined in a neat illusion. Walled in by a contract. A contract they provided only in a form they barely could decipher while they had full access to their database and must have known which spectrum humans perceived the world in.

Seeing the Commander moving out of the jamming zone he took some steps to follow him. Breaking up the group was a horrible idea in an enviroment that proved more and more that is was potentially hostile.

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Erewhon - Transport Site]

Rayek had never heard Ferengi being described as stubborn -  Clever, devious and greedy sure - but then Lek was certainly of a different breed.

The Romulan noticed how Lek hadn't countered his comments about the appropriateness of firing on or the station.  No, the engineer just focused on the impossibility for them to leave the planet.  Rayek had his own suspicions of that.

"Let's test that theory." he said aloud.

Rayek walked away from the Transport Site , heading towards the Cafe.  At the location that he knew the jammer was no longer effective, he called out.  "T'Sana, I have a question."

He got to the silently count of two before the hologram appeared around the corner and approached him.  "You had a question, Mr. tr'Lhoell?"

Rayek nodded affirmatively.  "Yes, I would like to know if it would be possible for you to safely transport one of my team up to your station or better yet onto my ship which should be docking with the station soon."

T'Sana smiled agreeably.  "It most certainly is possible, however until the Facility Manager gives their judgement on your situation, I'm unable to permit such a request. You and your team must continue to wait here."

Rayek frowned and pressed the conversation.  " A guest wishes to leave - are you saying you intend to hold them here against their will?"

The hologram hesitated as if uncertain how to respond based on conflicting programming.

Judgement. That sounded bad. Very bad. If it was merely a review of their spendings they should have called it a review. The Universal Translator usually worked quite well even in linguistically edge cases. So Judgement meant they were not merely looked after but tested against the law.

"On which grounds do you hold us here. We are free citizens requesting the right to exercise our freedom to return to our duties on our Ship."

[T'Rea]

[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge | Science Station 1]

"Well do what we can," she said, sighing deeply. It was likely futile, unless they had some way to wrap the probe...the thought triggered another in her brain.
...
"Do you think we could turn on a replicator long enough to get enough metallic sheeting? Roughly how big are the probes?" If they coated the probes in an extra layer of metal, it could, logically, deflect any excessive radiation. "If we can wrap the probe in something metallic, would it help to deflect damage from radiation?" She asked the scientist. She was Ops, and she respected other peoples' jobs-she couldn't do them, after all.

T'Rea glanced up at the question. "A tungsten or lead shield would certainly help protect any launched probes from radiation, but it will also severely limit the onboard sensors' ability to collect data on the other side." she explained as succinctly as she could. Unlike active, deflector shielding which could in some cases be uni-directional, traditional, passive shielding like Lorut had suggested of metal was always omnidirectional and would blind them just as much as it would protect them.

...and yet, the more she thought about it the more potential she saw in the proposal. "It depends on what our goal is. It won't help us collect any detailed information to help us engineer a shielding solution, but it could act as a simple early warning system for the next surge in the radiation tide." Behind the filter of a high Z metal shield they wouldn't get accurate spectral information or absolute radiation readings, but they didn't need that to detect a relative surge. And as long as the subspace antenna was outside of the shielding, faster than light communication with the probe should still be possible.  "Crewman M'ura should be able to prepare a suitable probe in just a couple minutes,"  even without the primary science labs, M'ura was nothing if not resourceful and quick on his feet, at it really was a very simple modification. She called  him up and briefly detailing her plan and request. He would contact her as soon as it was ready for launch.

"How about disguising our probe as a waste ejection? Send it in the path of the planet and see if it can get us any further readings?"

"If it will give us the chance to try and pass a probe through the planets atmosphere, then I think it is an approach worth pursing," she voiced her support for his proposal--though it would require approval from the Captain himself to execute. She could use the probe she had already configured before coming up to the bridge. That probe hadn't been launched yet, because she still hadn't gotten any feedback from Officer Graham on her earlier proposed flight path. "I have a probe ready, if needed."

Vila simply nodded. "The transmitters are responding!" she called out. She sent the signals to the open channel. "Captain, to you," she said. "McNair, I'm sending it to you, too. Maybe you can interface it with whatever you have," she said, tapping out the commands quickly, staring straight ahead-focused. 

T'Rea was impressed that Ops had gotten any access to the transmitters at all, and her estimation of Lt. Lorut increased a notch. "How does it look with the transmitters? Are you able to decipher anything? If it's at all possibly to locate source code that contains shield output setting, it might save us a lot of time." At least that was true in theory. Given how advanced Erewhonian technology seem they might not be able to interpret anything they managed to access. And even if they could, it might not do much good without schematics of the transmission hardware.

[Ensign Vinod Rajagopalan]
[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge | Science Station 1]
"I am only getting back garbled data. The radiation is still interfering with the data. With the auxiliary sensors back online, I am able to run a comparative algorithm on the sensor's data to at least sort out the false positives. I am pushing sensor frequency to the max to get us the data we need."
Remembering he wasn't alone in his pursuit here called turned to the only other qualified scientist on the Bridge. Hoping to not overwhelm her with her tasks, but seeing no other option given the urgency for results he asked:
"T'Rea, if you have a hand free, can you help me managing the data flow?"

"Yes, sir," she acknowledged immediately---there was certainly no shortage of tasks to be managed here on the bridge, but adding more ways to collect data from more sources wouldn't do them any good if they weren't even properly analyzing the data they already had access to...

"I can look at it in a moment." Before turning her attention to the data processing chain of the Discovery's assorted sensor arrays she checked the status of her looping scans with the shuttle's sensors. All 76 of her narrow-band scans had been complete now, and the data had just finished transferring to a spare computer core in the auxiliary science lab. With a few more taps at the console in front of her she executed a routine that would convolve the individual scans into one complete (and detailed) dataset and then automatically begin analysis to generate high resolution view of the spectral fingerprint of the shield harmonics being transmitted by the station to protect itself and the planet.

While waiting for that analysis to complete she could turn her attention back to Rajagopalan's request. Almost immediately she was able to recognize the problem--data was coming in through the forward sensor array and auxiliary sensors at a rate faster than the processing script could reconstruct outputs, which meant they were progressively falling behind real time readings... She started to check through the algorithm, trying to find the bottlenecks and either simplifying the requested computation or rewriting it to be more efficient. It had been a very long time since her coding and computation skills had gotten this intense of a workout, but the more she worked, the smoother it seemed to go, and she did her best to briefly explain her updates to the Ensign, "Here I applied the Jacobian, and here I made use of Satak's theorem to cut down on the number of operations required. If I check the timings again---yes, it's fast enough to keep up with the high frequency frame rate now.  If you reinitialize the script you'll be able to see the latest outputs in real time." She just dearly hoped they'd be able to learn something immediately applicable from it.

[M'Nia]

[Ensign Kedan]
[USS Discovery | Deck 5 | Auxiliary Engineering]

"Sorry Sir, I haven't seen her in a while. I think she got called to another section of the Ship. I can't be sure however and even if, it would have been some time ago. She should have been back by now. We really need her down here. Until she returns, you can use the back-up stations at the far wall."

Nodding in appreciation to signal his thanks for the engineer taking his time to answer his questions, he went to one of the free stations indicated and began reconfiguring it. By standard, it was meant to mainly interface directly with the secondary systems and back up power reserves. He input instructions to change the link to tie into the power and shield systems instead, opening the science systems direct access to the Ships sensors and databanks in a secondary datastream.

Thus having his station prepared he called out for the rest of the Team.

"Kedan to M'Nia and McNair, I set up a work station for us in Auxiliary Engineering. Please report to Deck 5 for shield reconfiguration."

"Excellent Kedan. I'm on my way" with that M'nia hurried to auxilary engineering. "Ok Kedan show me what you got!" she said as she entered the room.

[Lorut Vila]

[USS Discovery|Bridge]
Vila tapped her left foot against the bulkhead in a rhythmic tap-tap-tap. If she couldn't pace about, this was the next best thing.

I am only getting back garbled data. The radiation is still interfering with the data. With the auxiliary sensors back online, I am able to run a comparative algorithm on the sensor's data to at least sort out the false positives. I am pushing sensor frequency to the max to get us the data we need...

"I'll reroute any extra power to you," she said, pressing buttons.

tungsten or lead shield would certainly help protect any launched probes from radiation, but it will also severely limit the onboard sensors' ability to collect data on the other side...It depends on what our goal is. It won't help us collect any detailed information to help us engineer a shielding solution, but it could act as a simple early warning system for the next surge in the radiation tide...Crewman M'ura should be able to prepare a suitable probe in just a couple minutes.

Vila smiled a small smile. "Very good," she said. "Captain?" She asked, but of course, she didn't really ASK. "Please ask her to do that," she said. Vila knew that "m'Ura" was the Cardassian word for paisley-the fabric motif. One of the few words she'd retained, for whatever reason. She'd been forced to learn Cardassian, and indeed, could recall it when she needed to-which was usually to tell one of them where to go and what to do with themselves when they got there. This T'Rea had just jumped up a notch in her book. She'd be spared from one of Vila's tantrums..at least, for now.  She settled back down to get to work on the interface before they were kicked out and blocked

How does it look with the transmitters? Are you able to decipher anything? If it's at all possibly to locate source code that contains shield output setting, it might save us a lot of time.

"Very unstable," Vila replied, tightly. "The radiation and distance are really doing a number on the connection," she said. It frustrated her, but she was smart and resilient. "I am going as fast as I can. McNair, how're you doing?" She asked.

"Sir, I've lost the connection," she said. Dammit. "Wait....the shuttle," she said, mostly to herself. She clicked some buttons. "That's it!! I am in," she said. "The interface from the shuttle is slightly more stable...because it's still docked inside, the radiation isn't affecting it as much," she said. She could, hopefully, bounce the signals off. "I will try to contact Commander tr'Lhoell," she said. She issued a "comms" call over the transmitter, that would, hopefully, go directly into the Commander's ear, if not to the rest. "We're working to get you out. I can't receive, just send. Stand by...don't do anything I would do." 

"Captain, anything you want me to relay before I lose the signal? I can tap into their general planet-wide system for at least thirty-five seconds..." that's how long it took for them to kick her out last time.