Probing for Answers

Posted on Wed May 5th, 2021 @ 8:41am by Captain Xavier Carey & Warrant Officer Eitan Tuscadero & Lieutenant Vanessa Jackson

Mission: The Mentarin Effect
Location: Science offices
Timeline: Current

Cameron was wandering the halls, waiting, wandering, bored out of his mind. He had already walked three decks, and was passing by the science offices when he decided to peer in. He knew that Jackson and 'Tully' were in there, as he had inquired before his walk. Frankly, he was geting a bit concerned, especially with Tully. Should he have forced the promotion, or just left it alone, he wasn't sure.

Vanessa glanced up when the door opened. "Captain! Can we help you with something?" she asked, surprised to see him.

"Sir?!" the transporter operator stiffened his posture and nearly came to attention. Though he allowed himself a tiny bit of slack to relax a bit. He had not expected Greyson to be there. He thought it best to just let the senior officers do the talking.

"Relax Tuscadero." Cameron replied "just checking up on a few things. Not to grill you.:

"Well, I would hope not Sir" Tully replied. "I'm not the other white meat, and I'm a bit boney...stringy even. I don't think I would grill very well."

"Sense of humor, I like it." Cameron replied as he looked at the screens. "What have you got?"

Chuckling at Tully's comment, Vanessa waved her hand toward the viewscreen on the wall. "Go ahead and show him."

Tully smiled warmly and placed his hands behind his back as he walked over to a console. "Captain how would you like to see me model?" inquired Tuscadero who caught himself. Clearing his throat, Tully brought the model to life on the display.

"I'm married Tully..."

"I meant show you a model, not...oh you get the point." Tully gestured to the display. "As you can see, Nessa and I have been brainstorming."

"OK, and what have you guys come up with."

She was picturing Tully in a male belly dancing outfit, modeling. Vanessa composed herself. "We're considering a two-pronged approach." She switched to a scientific formula to help disburse the heavy mineral content of the atmosphere. We think we can improve a signal by 17% for an hour." The screen changed to show a cutaway of a probe. "Along with that, Tully has designed a probe to act as a pattern enhancement buffer. The probe can get to the surface with less chance of being intercepted than an ops team. Plus, we can put the probe in or on something that will make it harder to detect and remove. That will add an extra 32%. If we add a secondary locator, we get another 12%." The viewscreen showed a 3D image of a probe releasing the chemical cocktail into the atmosphere, followed by two probes that landed on the planet and deployed the pattern enhancers, then a humanoid transporting down to the planet.

Cameron just stood there staring, clueless as to what she had just said. "explain it like you would a ten year old."

Tully looked at Nessa and then at Cameron. "I can do that!" exclaimed Tully. "The plan has two parts; if we put pattern enhancers in a probe and launch it down to the planet, we will have good chances at breaking through. We can can add a few more bells and whistles, and add a chemical mixture that if released will greatly improve our chances.... yahtzee!"

"That I can understand... plus I like Yahtzee... so did my wife until she found out the die wasn't edible." Cameron replied as he thought about it. "How long before it can be set up?"

"The chemical mixture can be ready in twenty minutes. The probe, thirty. We have to replicate some parts, but it's not too difficult." She was erring a bit in case it took them longer than expected, but they could easily do it within that time frame.

"Twenty minutes, that was one hell of an idea you had Tuscadero." Cameron replied with a grin. "Oh by the way... bit of a surprise, but your new chief has arrived... nay want to fill her in on the little project."

"That was quick." Vanessa hadn't expected someone to come so quickly. But it was probably for the best. "We'll let them know what we're working on."

"Apparently there was an officer in need of a position on the Potempkin."

Tully beamed with delight. The idea was getting a greenlight, and the Captain seemed pleased. "Their loss, our gain. I'm just happy to have more brains to help work on this."

"Is there anything else we can do for you, Captain?" Vanessa asked, eager to see how well the probe worked.

"That's everything, I will leave you two to finish it."

____
OFF

Lieutenant Vanessa Jackson
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Resolution