Looking For Answers

Posted on Mon Feb 17, 2020 @ 12:53pm by Lieutenant Martha Cusack & Commodore Michael Aravan & Lieutenant Commander Arrda & Ensign Michael Donovan

Mission: The Nanjing
Location: Main Armoury
Timeline: MD 1 || 1400 Hours

Martha stood in the main armoury waiting for her colleagues to arrive so that they could begin the tactical analysis which had been requested by Michael. Something didn't seem right about the situation - and while Martha's initial suspicion was the Nacene it was nothing more than a hunch. With any luck the combined expertise of the analysis team would be able to come to a swift and concrete conclusion.

Arrda had to confess, if only to himself -- and maybe his wife later tonight -- that what they had witnessed on that Borg cube had disturbed him deeply. He had seen many things in his long life so it wasn't the remains themselves that bothered him. No, it was the idea of what could do that to that specific 'species' -- could the Borg really be called a proper species? -- that troubled the Triumphant's Security Chief as he entered the armory and nodded distractedly to Lieutenant Cusack.

He had been racking his brain, trying to divine what could strip a Borg cube at all much less so thoroughly. The problem was that he had no idea because there was a sexcnd element to this that made it all that much more disturbing. Whatever could and had left no trace behind, no signature. Nothing.

He knew that was not entirely possible. It was more likely that whatever signature they did leave was simply not detectable by Triumphant's sensors. But what did that leave? He was absently petting the Marai weapon coiled around his left arm as he thought.

Things were odd to Donovan. Damn odd. The Cube...what he'd heard so far, none of it made sense. The armory was quiet even with the three of them in there. The Ensign shrugged and turned his focus back on his phaser.

Seeing that everyone was now here, Arrda stood to his full height, hands falling to the table before them. "All right, so what we know so far is very little really. It's our job to theorize how what we do know could be accomplished and then prove it." His eyes touched each of the other two before he continued. "So what we have thus far is that something killed a Borg cube, stripped it, and vanished... all without leaving a single trace of its existence except for the remains of the Borg ship, that is, and that box we brought back. So, any theories. I want to hear all of them, no matter how foolish you think they sound."

"Species 8472," piped up Donovan. "We know they can take out the Borg. And for vanishing...open an aperture back into fluidic space. The box is a bit of a pickle with them, though. Unless they're trying to send a message to anyone else or other Borg."

"I'm not so sure that it's Species 8472 as the Borg were able to counter them with the bioweapon they developed with the Voyager crew. If I had to guess I'd say it is the Nacene...although what I'd like to do if we can get permission from the Commodore is bring aboard some of the debris for analysis" Martha commented.

Donovan shrugged. "Eh, it was idea. But debris...what kind? Like something that'd fit in a lab or the cargo bay?"

Arrda listened to the ideas being tossed about and had to admit that Donovan's had been good except that Cusack was correct... and 8472 had not stripped a Cube like this did. Not to mention that their weapons left a now-known signature when used. "I think at least asking is a good idea," he said after a moment of thought. "Smaller is likely better in case something goes wrong, but we do need a big enough sample to run scans on." He looked at each in the room. "Remember, whatever did this left no weapons signatures that we could detect, which means it is likely something entirely new. But deep scans of some of the debris might yield residual traces that the ship's sensors might not detect. Any other thoughts?"

Martha nodded. "I think we should go for one of the more medium sized pieces - large enough to carry out our analysis but small enough to get rid of quickly in an emergency. We could run a scan of the field and see what fits this criteria"

"That could work," said Donovan. "Maybe we should seal off the cargo bay with Level One Security force fields."

The Chief Tactical Officer nodded in agreement. Keen to get to work with the scan Martha decided to ask if the Ensign wanted to assist her with the scan of the debris field.

"That would be a wise idea Ensign. Would you like to assist with the scan?" Martha replied.

Arrda listened quietly, assessing all that was said. "All right. I will send a request to acquire a medium-sized chunk of the debris and seal it off in Cargo Bay Two with Level One Forcefields." He was tapping into his PADD even as he spoke, sending the request to Commodore Aravan immediately. The sooner they figured this out, the better. Goddess only knew what might come shooting at them next... or worse. "All right, I've sent that request. Cusack, you want Donovan on your team for this? Who else do you need? I will send work requests."

"Yeah, I'll assist," Donavan replied to Martha. "If you'll have me and the work requests go though. Let's get this scan going."

"Of course Ensign - let's do this" Martha replied.

Martha gestured for Michael to join her at a nearby console and began to scan the debris field to see if any of the fragments of wreckage fitted her criteria. With her department busy retrofitting further phaser arrays with anodyne couplers all the help she could get was much appreciated.

Michael sauntered over to the console and watched the scans. Hopefully, they could find exactly what they needed.

After a few minutes of scanning the wreckage of the craft Martha had found a few suitable pieces of debris which could be brought aboard for analysis. She wasn't sure if a more up close and personal scan would bring any results - as scans with the Triumphant's sensors had failed to yield any results - but it was worth a try.