Singularity's Zenith, Part II

Posted on Fri Nov 4th, 2016 @ 4:57pm by Commander Isabella dei`Silvisi & Captain Alistar McKeon & Lieutenant Jera'turak Ros & Lieutenant Commander Akira-Ri Sato & Lieutenant JG Fe'cia Niatra & Lieutenant T'lon & Lieutenant Élan Val

1,024 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Singularity

-= Briefing Room =-

Isabella walked into the briefing room set just off of the bridge and sat down, her gaze instantly turning towards the view port and the point in space where the mysterious anomaly was located. Granted, her primary career field had started off in medical, but Isabella had earned several bachelor degrees in various fields of science as well, and nothing she had studied had prepared her for this. It was a problem that star ships faced often, and unfortunately the Endeavour now faced something that was completely unknown to her crew. Leaning back in her seat, the slim Italian woman sat and waited patiently for the others to arrive.


Akira waited just long enough to check on the most recent updates from the duty officer before she stepped from the bridge into the conference room. Taking her usual seat, she tried to keep herself from fidgeting but she was simply too tense and wound up to stop. She tried to settle herself by holding her hands in her lap and staring out the view port, hoping that there was an answer to this situation.


Élan stepped into the briefing room with Lieutenant Niatra in tow. Even though the captain had called for a senior officer meeting, the Trill had thought that the two most senior ranking officers in the Endeavour's science department should both be present for the meeting. Taking a seat, Élan nodded silently and waved for Lieutenant Niatra to sit down as well.


Jera had been monitoring the situation from engineering, although there had been little if anything that she could contribute to the situation. Engineering dealt with internal issues that the ship might face, and very rarely dealt with external situations unless those situations dealt with engineering systems directly. Sitting down in an empty chair, Jera couldn't help but tap her thumbs against the table top as they waited.


T'lon entered the room at exactly one minute until the designated time that had been set forth by the captain. Taking what had become his usual seat, the Vulcan noticed the addition of the Caitian science officer and he raised an eyebrow. It was not unheard of for additional officers to be present at these meetings, and he could understand how Niatra's presence might prove to be a logical addition as well.


Fe'cia had been surprised to be asked to attend a senior officer meeting. Usually, these meetings were for the senior officers but somehow she had warranted being important enough to be present. She knew that sometimes additional officers were requested to be present as well, it was just that Fe'cia had never been one of those officers. Sitting in her chair, the Caitian twitched her tail as she waited along the others.


As usual, Alistar arrived a minute and a half late. Waving for everyone to remain in their seats, he sat down in his own chair and sighed. "Alright everyone. By now, I'm sure you are all aware of what's going on. I've already been to sickbay and filled Lieutenant Eidan in on the situation. She's currently making sure medical is prepared for the worst possible outcome."


"Please excuse me for interrupting captain, but what is the worst possible outcome?" Jera asked.


"The complete destruction of the entire ship," Fe'cia answered the engineering chief's question.


"As dramatic as Lieutenant Niatra's answer may be, I am afraid that she may be correct in her statement that this anomaly could very easily destroy the Endeavour," T'lon said.


"Ok, first of all, just what the hell are we dealing with?" Alistar asked.


"Going by everything I've seen so far, we may be looking at a singularity that exists in both normal space and one possibly multiple realms of subspace," Fe'cia said.


"Actually, I may have a second opinion based on data that I managed to filter through the sensor data that the probe sent back before it was destroyed by the gravimetric distortions. The computer just filtered through the last few seconds of data and I've positively identified small concentrations of neutrino particles that seem to be forming at a rapid rate. It's a late development, but it’s possible that it's the late stage of wormhole development," Élan said.


"Wormhole development? I thought wormholes were smaller than this thing," Akira said.


"On the contrary, the amount of information that we possess regarding wormholes is rather limited. In fact, there have been more agreements on just how limited our knowledge on the subject is than any other subject related to the matter," T'lon said.


"If we're looking at the formation of a wormhole, it would explain how the anomaly exists in normal space and subspace, as well as the similarities to a singularity, however we still can't rule out the possibility of a black hole either," Isabella warned, trying to keep the excitement out of her voice as she spoke. In fact, she was both excited and concerned as the possibilities ran through her mind.


"If I remember correctly, one common theory is that black holes and wormholes are one in the same or at least related. In fact, one of the longest living theories is that a black hole is a wormhole," Alistar said. "But that doesn't help much in our case, since we don't have any hard data, only theories."


"One thing I'm confused on is the fact that this thing is so blasted large," Jera said. "If it's a black hole, we may not be able to escape."


"We wouldn't have been able to withdraw to our current distance if it was a black hole, at least not as easily as we did," Élan said. "Black holes have an increasingly powerful gravimetric pull the closer you get to it. Plus, they don't send waves out and away from it. They only absorb and pull matter towards their cores."


"That is a solid fact, in fact it's the one law about black holes that separate singularities from wormhole openings," Isabella said. "The question now is what do we do? If this is a singularity or a wormhole trying to form, what do we do?"



To be continued...

 

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