Discovery

Posted on Tue May 2nd, 2023 @ 6:59pm by Gunnery Sergeant Reishi Hijani & Lieutenant Rebecca McMillen

Mission: Which Came First, The...
Location: Scientific Operations Center (Main Science)

Henry Bache was just a Petty Officer (Second Class), but being thirty-three years old meant that it was actually a relatively decent feat to get that far. Given the mandates of Starfleet, the Sciences were a slower direction for promotion and his own astrographics specialty wasn't anything that would ordinarily be a major draw to attention. However, he was remarkably good about what he did except for one major issue: He had a gambling problem that got him in trouble far too often. Of course, he could always gloat that he'd beat the spread on when he was going to be transferred off of Lilith, his old ship, but there had been no way to collect those funds before his departure to Chimera had taken place. His messages had gone unanswered to those who now owed him and there was no way to get TO them to... Persuade them to fork it over.

Being outside of Federation space did that sort of thing.

He sighed as he looked over his department head, now THAT one was an interesting bird. Oh, the sucker bets he could make with some of his old crewmates and make some serious cash, but again, no access to them. On the other hand, though, she seemed to have a good sense of humor so far, which made her far better to work for than some of the dry assholes that he'd worked for in the past. But he'd actually found something, at least, something that wasn't normal.

"Hey shorty!" Henry called out to the tiny officer a couple desks away, testing out an idea on what to call her, "I'm bringing something over to you that looks intriguing... Bet you that you've never seen anything like it before?"

"Shorty, eh? That's original." she giggled, hopping with assistance from her custom EVA suit from console to console. "You gotta try a little harder than that. Oh, and I already named the suit the MOUS, so you can't go that route either." she teased. "Now, about that whole never seen ... anything... like it befoholy shit." she muttered, "Run the scan again. Independent timestamp. I need a comparison. This is impossible. Like, you getting a date on Friday night level of impossible." she teased, throwing the barb back at him while she went over the data.

Henry smiled with a slight chuckle, this one would definitely be good to work for, maybe overlook a few things, "That's the third one I ran. Calibrated the sensors after the first two, because well, seeing THAT made absolutely zero sense." He brought up the two other scans that showed nearly identical results, "Perkins and I actually have a date on Thursday night, by the way, what say I can't make it a two-night ordeal? Now, I've seen nebulas, I've seen protostars working on forming inside nebulas, but I ain't never seen that."

"You got a date on Thursday? Gonna go for a nice time on the Holodeck, hmmm? Little miss ones and zeroes will be waiting there for you." She teased, but then things became Business. "No no I don't think that's a protostar. There's maybe twelve of them in the Milky Way, and if we tripped over the formation of one I'm on my way to get the Nobel Prize enjoy your date." she muttered as she checked the data, and then checked it again. "Well I'll be damned, that's a star. That's a legit star, inside a nebula. I'm calling it in." she tapped her commbadge, "McMillen to Skyie, captain we've got an impossible situation on the scanners. Sensors are showing a star inside a nebula mass. We're either at the very very beginning of a star's life, or just about at the tail end of it, except this star is showing zero signs of stardeath." the diminutive officer paused. "I think it's worth at least a closer look."

"And we can't seem to get a composition on the makeup of the nebula, it's too dense." Henry hissed quietly.

Cally sighed at the disruption, she'd gotten behind on her paperwork since she'd been on the planet for most of the last week or so, but this was why they were out here, "Is it worth me coming down there for to take a look at, or should I wait for your report? In other words, what's it look like? Just ye' olde standard nebula?"

"Your ye' olde standard science officer reports that it's ye' olde standard nebula." Rebecca giggled, "I mean, in all honesty you can wait if you're busy. I just want your authorization to launch probes or possibly alter course for a better investigation if necessary." she offered, a semi-official request.

"Let me burrow my way out from under this mountain of PADDs and I'll be down there... Soonish. We're due to break orbit in six hours so some of this is ACTUALLY important." Calypso was quiet for a few moments as she considered, "Why not? Let's make that our first stop once we get free of this place. Let Windancer know and I'll see you soon, Skyie clear." The comm went dead.

Henry glanced back and forth at his readings, "Um, Mini-me, this isn't 'ye olde standard nebula'.." He turned the screen again, "I'm getting density readings I've never seen in any sort of natural formation. The star is standing out because it's cleared some area around it, but I'm not actually reading what the nebula's made up of. I'd almost say that if it weren't in deep space that it could be some sort of atmosphere, it's that thick.." A beep from his console sounded, "Aaaaand it's got a volume of about 108 cubic light years that we can observe right now."

Rebecca ggave Henry a glance, "You really need to recognize sarcasm when you hear it. Your date will appreciate it." she turned to the readings. "These readings are borderline impossible." she remarked, scrolling through the feed. "This formation violates just about every known configuration of nebular mass. Volume, density, composition... let's keep the sensor array fixed on that region to refine our findings and wait for the telemetry from the probes, when we get clearance to launch."

"The planet we're in orbit around might interpret a probe launch weird. Let's hold off on that until we're underway, or about to leave." a pause, "Six hours until departure, so yeah just keep the sensors pointed at it." Rebecca suggested. "Refine the readings every twenty minutes. Eventually the Captain is going to get up, get dressed, get coffee, and get down here. I'd like to have something to poorly explain to her when she arrives."

"Ah yes, the Captain will be here.." Henry muttered, "The one who would love to see me floating in space somewhere most likely. Did you know she sat me down soon after I got on board and interrogated me? Told me in no uncertain terms that she was accepting me based purely on the fact that she needed reasonably qualified personnel." Henry shook his head slowly as he punched in a few buttons, "Lookie here, the Dashians say that this is a danger zone we're going to. Seven ships have gone missing in the last couple years by trying to use the region as a shortcut."

"You know, being qualified never hurts on a job interview. Can't go through life being dash clever and handsome and slick. Eventually you're going to hit a wall you can't charisma your way out of, and it's going to bite you. Getting tossed into an airlock is one thing, but being smart enough to keep the airlock sealed will save you far more than a wink and smile." she offered. "Keep the intel on the region coming. I'll have to ask the captain if she can negotiate with the Dashians about any last entry logs from the lost ships. Could hold a clue." Rebecca offered.

"I'll get some alternate scans done too. Thermal, radiological, anything I can think of." Henry mused, keying in the different variations as he thought of them, "Maybe we'll get something on this sucker. I'll give 50-50 odds on whether it's young or old, but I'd wanna take the young route."

Rebecca gave a nod, watching for the results as they came in. "I'll take any results I can get. Let's just say, I'm kinda glad to not be the strangest thing in the room right now." she actually giggled. "So, a date, eh? Good for you. Tell me about her."

"Perkins, you know Perkins don't you? Short little thing, cute with a button nose?" Henry queued up another series of scans as the one they had going continued on, "Over in Operations? Twenty-six, redhead, maybe five foot nothing..."

"Did you just describe someone as SHORT... to me?" Rebecca offered with a giggle. "Oh she's five nothing? Pfft, such a midget." Rebecca giggled, the moment of discovery of an alien nebula broken completely. "I'm sure you'll do just fine. You got this."

"I've never had a problem with the ladies." The Petty Officer gave his (not really) patented 'smolder' look to Rebecca, "The problem is always too many of them."

Rebecca just played along, mocking a swoon, "Oh I'm so smitten." she giggled, "Though I have a similar problem. Too much woman." she giggled, teasing. "But in any case, good luck. Please spare me the details, and if you break her heart send her my way. She sounds like a cutie." she teased, watching the newer readings.

"Well then, I suppose we should get this information refined so that you can brief the Captain when she gets here." He smirked at her, "And so I can woo my young lady properly."