Hit or Miss

Posted on 14 Jun 2020 @ 3:59pm by Captain Mallory Thorne & Lieutenant Madalene Sabine & Lieutenant Rosine Deschamps

1,428 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Ab Intra
Location: Bridge x Science Labs
Timeline: MD 01 - 1145 hours

=/= Begin Log =/=

Atmospheric conditions were still the one thing that all of this technology could not beat. Luckily for her, the ship's library had several references to ships dealing with atmospheric conditions like electrical or ion storms that messed with communications.

As she read through past mission reports and looked over the sensor readings, she rubbed her face, realizing something. Everything had a frequency, which meant if she could figure it out, she could potentially 'hack' a storm.

The main question was how to hack the storm.

Tapping a few buttons, she pulled up the specs of the communicators, but even getting the frequency right with the communicators, it was the power and the range of the communicators even in perfect conditions. Having a shuttle sitting inside of a storm was pretty much out of the question. A probe was a possibility--using the probe as a relay, programmed to run on the same frequency as the storm.

Next problem was that she knew almost nothing--well, actually that was a total lie. She knew nothing about storms. Actually, she wasn't 100% sure if storms had frequencies. But at the same time, most things that had electricity had a some kind of frequency.

New problem. And this one was unfortunately out of her control and hands. Time. Time was the new problem. As she was working on this problem, the away team was most likely being formed. Tapping a few buttons as she moved the specs of the communicators to a PADD along with a general idea of her plan, she tapped her comm badge. "Lieutenant Deschamps, this is Lieutenant Sabine, Chief Operations Officer. Do you have a minute?"

"Of course," Rosine replied smoothly. She looked up from her console in the science lab, even though the other woman obviously couldn't see that.

After a few more polite exchanges, the women decided to meet up in the science lab, because if Sabine's thoughts would lead anywhere, they'd need the equipment in the lab.

Rosine smiled as the door slid open to reveal the COps. "Lieutenant, welcome to my humble establishment. What can I do for you?"

"I have questions about electrical storms, more specifically the one raging down on the planet. My hope is that like everything, these storms have a frequency," Madalene said, hoping she didn't sound insane with this thought process. "And if it does have a frequency, my hope is to use a probe to help amplify the signal from our communicators."

"It's an interesting question," Rosine frowned, leaning back in the chair she hadn't left yet. Looking thoughtful, her frown deepened. "Electrical storms have frequencies in pretty much the same way as normal electricity does. They cycle like a sine wave from positive to negative in a certain time interval. Depending on the intensity of the storm, that interval will increase or decrease. I'm not sure how we could use the resulting current to amplify communication signals through. I'd have to look more closely at the principle of a Tesla coil to see if we could get some inspiration there."

"Well, not necessarily looking to use the current to amplify the signal but more figuring out the code to the frequency to cut through it," Madalene said, walking over and taking a seat--still hoping what she was saying was making sense.

Rosine tapped in some commands to show a standard sine wave on her console. "You'd have to match your signal to hold up either through the positive or the negative end of the wave. It's the points furthest from getting hit and thus easiest to penetrate. I can't say I'm familiar with any technology that would do that though."

"Could...let's say a probe help? Not sure how but could it help get furthest points to spread evenly through the storm?" Madalene asked, thinking out loud.

"We could run a few simulations," Rosine was still skeptical. "I'm not sure exactly which compensations you'd like to try out. Do you have any suggestions?"

Madalene took a second to think on this. "So let's go with sending a probe into the storm emitting a frequency similar to storm so that hopefully any communications could get through."

Rosine didn't like the word 'hopefully'. It relied on basically anything but facts, and she didn't like that. "Let's do that," she spoke aloud, quite contrary to what she was feeling. It's not like she had a better idea to begin with.

"How long do you think it'll take to get some results--something to give to the captain saying this could work?" Madalene asked, hoping soon, seeing as they were on a deadline.

"See, that's what I've been trying to tell you, Lieutenant," Rosine sighed. "I don't think this could work. If, for some reason, I'm wrong and it will, we'll know within a few minutes because you can send a test signal along with the probe."

"Okay. Sounds like we need to bring in the captain," Madalene said as she tapped her badge. "Captain Thorne, do you have a minute to come down to the science labs?"

"I'm on my way," came the quick reply.

A few minutes later, the doors to the science lab swished open and the captain walked through. She noticed the two women and nodded to them both. "Lieutenants, what do have for me?"

"We might have a solution problem is there's only really one way to see if it works. My thinking is we use a probe to amplify and link up our communications frequency with the storms frequency to help our communications ability to cut through the storm." Madalene said simply.

Rosine was still in the process of nodding her greeting to the Captain's arrival as the other Lieutenant already spoke. Her head froze in mid gesture and she turned towards the woman, blinking slowly. "I told you a couple of times now, Lieutenant, that I don't think we have a solution. I'm not saying you can't inform the Captain of your idea, but leave me out of it."

Mal looked between the two women and arched a brow, although she kept her initial thoughts to herself. "Why won't it work, Lieutenant?" she asked, directing her gaze to Deschamps.

Taking a breathe to win some time to gather her thoughts after the other woman's strange recommendation, she quickly recounted what they'd just gone over. "-, so, I'm not saying you can't launch a probe. I'm just saying the chance is so slim to non existing that you'll be able to catch the frequency at its pole that it's not worth the resources as the probe would definitely be lost. In my opinion."

Madalene felt a slight confusion as she turned to the chief science officer. "Apologies. I didn't mean to overstep or put words in your mouth. I only used we as we were both discussing it when I came asking about it. As for the risk, I feel like it's one we should take if we want to keep the away team safe and in contact with us up here." Madalene's mind drifted, looking at a 0 and 3 for ideas that she had come up with.

Before Mallory had a chance to continue, there was a call over Deschamps' comm badge -- Petrova calling her for the away team. The captain nodded at her. "Better get down there," she said simply before the science officer departed and she turned her attention back to Sabine. "As for your idea... I don't like throwing equipment away without better odds, considering the difficulty to replace them. Was this the only working theory so far?"

"As of right now, yes," Madalene said, knowing that the captain was not gonna be thrilled with that. "After this, I was gonna head down to engineering and see what they have came up with. I just really thought this idea was gonna be it."

"For now, communications are iffy but holding," Mal said thoughtfully. "Continue to study this idea and see if there's something other than a probe that we could use--something we are not as limited on--and keep thinking of potential plans in case we do lose the comms."

"Of course, ma'am. I'll get with engineering and see what we can put together as well as get some there ideas that we can also try as well," Madalene said simply, again feeling a bit silly for calling the captain down and for misspeaking.

Mal did her best to give a reassuring smile. "Thank you, Lieutenant. I'll let you get back to work."

=/\= End Log =/\=

 

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