Stellar Cartography, U.S.S. Atlas
Stardate: 38256.3
Stellar cartography was a circular room with an enormous deck to ceiling curved viewscreen which gave the impression that you were floating in space, to the uninitiated it could be a little daunting and had made one or two feel a little queasy (it was a good thing there was a head right across the corridor). Three consoles stood in the middle of the impressive room likewise following the circular design of the room, allowing members of the crew to call up star charts, plot their course, observe stellar phenomenon, or create new constellations as they travelled.
Lieutenant Xan Na-Gharii always enjoyed spending time in the map room, it made him feel as though he could touch the void of space without the encumbrance of an EVA suit. Ever since the captain had announced that the U.S.S. Atlas would have six months inside the Theta Maelstrom, after making their discovery of the pocket of normal space inside the hazardous expanse of thermobaric clouds and radioactive dust, his science staff had been chomping at the bit to get started. Almost every available sensor array and palette was accessed, though Lieutenant Maq’on had put her foot down when they’d asked to use the tactical sensors, in order to start gathering as much data as they could.
The newly discovered region was an oblate spheroid, fifteen light-years diameter at its widest point, though was filled with twenty-two stars. It had always been theorised that the Maelstrom had contained several stars, the gravitational effects of them had been discerned from what scans could be run on the navigational blackspot, though no one would have guessed there would’ve been this many—that didn’t even take into account any others that might exist in the swirling mass of charcoal grey gas and dust, they light from which would never be seen. Six months hardly seemed long enough, but it was all the time they had, so they had to make the most of it.
After making what few repairs were needed after their journey through the Maelstrom, they’d deployed a communications relay to link up with the two modified probes they’d launched inside the phenomenon, the New Orleans-Class U.S.S. Harriman had done the same on the other side, giving them a tentative link to the outside galaxy. Once they were ready, they continued their course to the alien signal that had initially brought them into the Maelstrom. As it was only a few hours away on impulse, the captain had decided to proceed at sublight, allowing them to gather as much data as they could (definitely far more than a few minutes at warp one would permit).
Everywhere onboard the Atlas felt like it was charged with warp plasma, the excitement at what they’d discovered and the anticipation of what they would find next seemed to give life to the very bulkheads. He’d already had every single member of his staff request to join away missions, seeking use of their various sensors and/or asking his opinion of topics for papers they were already drafting in their heads based on what they’d learnt so far. He had to admit he’d had all the exact same thoughts; this was the sort of thing any good science officer would kill to be a part of.
Just then the doors parted. He looked up to see who was joining him and was a little surprised to see Ensign Ruben de Boer enter, furiously tapping away on his PADD. The rookie officer stopped just inside the doorway as he looked up and saw he wasn’t alone.
“Oh, um, sorry Lieutenant, I didn’t realise you were in here. I’ll go.”
Na-Gharii smiled at the flight control officer and motioned for him to come in. “No need, Ensign. You were obviously coming here for a reason, so don’t let me stop you.”
“Are you sure, sir?”
“Pull up a stool. Is there something I can help you with?”
De Boer moved to one of the other consoles and set his tablet down. “I was going to start planning out the best courses to optimise our time here, I know we have a lot to do and only a few months so I wanted to give the captain options to consider.”
Na-Gharii smiled down at the wiry sandy-haired helmsman, wondering if he had ever been that over-eager when he was fresh out of the Academy. “That’s very conscientious of you, Ensign, I’m sure the captain will appreciate it.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Out of the corner of his eye he watched the younger man get to work, his fingers dancing over the controls with nervous energy, though clearly he knew the system—but then again it made sense for someone trained in astrogation and navigation to be familiar with stellar cartography. He’d have to read up on the human, to see what other talents he might be hiding—he was definitely easy on the eye, trying to look that little bit older with a well maintained short beard (much like his own silvery-white facial hair).
He must’ve been staring a little too long, as de Boer looked at him and blushed. “Is there a problem, Lieutenant?”
“No, sorry, I was just impressed with how you handled the controls. Is cartography an interest of yours?”
“I had joint majors in flight control and stellar cartography. I’ve always loved the stars ever since I was little, all I ever wanted in my life was to be in space, so now I’m here.”
He smiled at his companion. “I know what you mean, Ensign. I know exactly what you mean,” he assured him, before turning back to the section of the monitor he’d been studying and taking a moment to appreciate it.
* * * * *
Bridge, U.S.S. Atlas
There was non-stop chatter coming from the two science stations, each had one person seated and another leaning over their shoulder as telemetry filled every screen. The excitement was more infectious than the Tarellian Plague, which made it difficult to block out—she could only imagine how much worse it was for the two Betazoids onboard—but given the tension and apprehension of passing through the Maelstrom it was a change for the better.
She sat in the command chair, her legs crossed as she reviewed the full report from Lieutenant Siraak. Though their damage had been minimal and easy to repair, the chief engineer had dutifully submitted a very detailed run through of what had happened and how they’d repaired it—but it was Celan’s experience that any good engineer took personal pride in their ship, even if a Vulcan might not call it that. With Lieutenant (j.g.) Maq’on at her customary place and Chief Tyne covering the helm she felt perfectly confident that everything was covered, even the young Ensign Tathar was proving himself to be a dependable member of the bridge crew despite only having been at the Academy weeks before.
When she’d seen that the captain had selected two rookies to hold senior officer positions she’d expressed her doubts, even if Tathar had been third in his class he was still untried and untested in the field. Captain Keller had heard her out and come back with the age old, ‘how can they get any meaningful experience if no one will put them in that position to begin with’ argument. She still remained unconvinced but was willing to keep an open mind, and a watchful eye, about Tathar and de Boer.
A proximity alert from tactical immediately snapped her attention to the Bolian security chief.
“I’ve got two warp signatures approaching from the planet,” stated Maq’on.
She slapped the intercom. “Captain to the bridge.”
“They’re dropping out of warp, directly ahead,” the ops manager reported.
“All stop. Stand ready on shields.”
Keller quickly hurried onto the bridge. “Report,” he said as Celan rose and moved over to stand beside Maq’on.
“Two ships from the planet have just dropped out of warp.”
The captain stood behind the conn-ops station and studied the viewscreen, which depicted to small wedge-shaped vessels whose engines looked to take up the majority of the ship.
“We’re being scanned,” added Tathar, his ears twitching.
“That’s quite alright, they’re just curious. So are we. Lieutenant, assessment.”
“Approximately seven meters in length with two lifesigns in each ship. No shields and only minimal lasers. Their warp drive looks fairly rudimental, my guess is they’re pretty new to interstellar travel.”
As Maq’on went over her readings, Celan tapped her combadge. “Counsellor Htennak, you might want to get up to the bridge. It looks like we have an imminent first contact situation.”
“On my way,” came his immediate reply.
“The lead ship is hailing us.”
“On screen, Ensign.”
“It’s audio only, sir.”
“Speakers.”
A moment later an alien language that no one else in the Federation had ever head before filled the bridge, the assortment of sounds, spoken in a deep, commanding voice, seemed to silence everything on the deck as though they all realised the significance of that moment. After a few seconds the voice stopped.
“Universal translator is processing it now,” said Tathar as he kept a close eye on the communications panel. It took a few seconds for it to chirp. “I’ve got the translation. They say they are with the Girsa Star Command, that they detected our approach and request/demand we identify ourselves.”
Keller glanced at her, so she gave him a wide smile in encouragement. He took a breath and let it out slowly.
“Open a channel, Ensign.” Tathar nodded just as Htennak entered, though the mission specialist stood to the side and watched. “Girsa Star Command vessel. I am Captain Bruce Keller of the Starfleet ship Atlas, representing the United Federation of Planets. We come in peace and mean you no harm. If we have encroached on your space then I apologise, we are explorers who are new to this region.”
There was a pause, an almost collective holding of everyone’s breath whilst the alien craft sat before them in silence. If they were early in their development of warp technology, this could very well be the first time they had encountered any other species, it may well have been the first time they had even considered the possibility that they weren’t alone in the galaxy.
“H…how do you speak Girsan?” they responded.
Celan almost let out a laugh. Of all the questions other race asked after making first contact, she had never heard of that being one of them, but it made sense, who was to know how much of their culture came from language only to then hear your own words coming from an alien ship would be baffling.
For his part, Keller smiled. “We have technology that translates other languages, to allow us the opportunity to communicate with people from other worlds.”
“Why are you here?”
“We are on a mission of exploration, to study space and make peaceful contact with other species. We’ve only just arrived and you’re the very first people we’ve met from here, so we’d like to get to know your world a little better if we may.”
There was another pause. She had to wonder if they had any protocols for encountering aliens, or rather if they were conferring among themselves what to ask in that moment.
“You were heading directly for Anax. Why?”
“We detected a signal coming from your world, so we were on our way to investigate it.”
“Signal? What signal?”
Keller frowned slightly. “We’re not really sure what sort it was or where it came from exactly, that’s why we were going to check it out.”
The alien ship when quiet again. Keller glance at Htennak, the officer assigned to assist them with first contacts and understanding new cultures, but the Ktarian gave nothing away. Given the obvious hesitation on the part of the Girsa they may not have wanted to make contact, they might’ve been simply responding to something entering their system and not realised it was a ship.
“If you would prefer we didn’t approach your world or communicate further with yourselves, we will depart at once and won’t return to your system.”
Silence responded again before finally the voice spoke again. “We must report to Girsa Star Command. You will remain here,” they commanded before the channel closed.
Keller looked at Htennak again, his frown deepening. “Any thoughts, Commander?”
“Just one,” he replied before smirking. “I really don’t think you need me here, that was spot on, Captain. Seeing as how we’re going in cold, with no knowledge of this planet or its people, we have to make sure we don’t appear threatening, answer whatever questions they have, and give them an out in case they don’t want anything to do with us. You’ve done all that, now it’s up to them what the next move is.”
“So, we just sit and wait?” Tathar inquired as he turned away from his controls.
“All we can do for the moment. They’ll have to run it up their chain of command to their government who ultimately must make the decision for them and us.”
* * * * *
Captain’s log, supplemental.
It’s been two hours since we made contact with the Girsa vessels, but we haven’t heard anything since our initial communications. I just wish I had some sort of idea what my first first contact might end in, success or failure, but there’s no way to tell at present.
* * * * *
Stardate: 38256.3
Stellar cartography was a circular room with an enormous deck to ceiling curved viewscreen which gave the impression that you were floating in space, to the uninitiated it could be a little daunting and had made one or two feel a little queasy (it was a good thing there was a head right across the corridor). Three consoles stood in the middle of the impressive room likewise following the circular design of the room, allowing members of the crew to call up star charts, plot their course, observe stellar phenomenon, or create new constellations as they travelled.
Lieutenant Xan Na-Gharii always enjoyed spending time in the map room, it made him feel as though he could touch the void of space without the encumbrance of an EVA suit. Ever since the captain had announced that the U.S.S. Atlas would have six months inside the Theta Maelstrom, after making their discovery of the pocket of normal space inside the hazardous expanse of thermobaric clouds and radioactive dust, his science staff had been chomping at the bit to get started. Almost every available sensor array and palette was accessed, though Lieutenant Maq’on had put her foot down when they’d asked to use the tactical sensors, in order to start gathering as much data as they could.
The newly discovered region was an oblate spheroid, fifteen light-years diameter at its widest point, though was filled with twenty-two stars. It had always been theorised that the Maelstrom had contained several stars, the gravitational effects of them had been discerned from what scans could be run on the navigational blackspot, though no one would have guessed there would’ve been this many—that didn’t even take into account any others that might exist in the swirling mass of charcoal grey gas and dust, they light from which would never be seen. Six months hardly seemed long enough, but it was all the time they had, so they had to make the most of it.
After making what few repairs were needed after their journey through the Maelstrom, they’d deployed a communications relay to link up with the two modified probes they’d launched inside the phenomenon, the New Orleans-Class U.S.S. Harriman had done the same on the other side, giving them a tentative link to the outside galaxy. Once they were ready, they continued their course to the alien signal that had initially brought them into the Maelstrom. As it was only a few hours away on impulse, the captain had decided to proceed at sublight, allowing them to gather as much data as they could (definitely far more than a few minutes at warp one would permit).
Everywhere onboard the Atlas felt like it was charged with warp plasma, the excitement at what they’d discovered and the anticipation of what they would find next seemed to give life to the very bulkheads. He’d already had every single member of his staff request to join away missions, seeking use of their various sensors and/or asking his opinion of topics for papers they were already drafting in their heads based on what they’d learnt so far. He had to admit he’d had all the exact same thoughts; this was the sort of thing any good science officer would kill to be a part of.
Just then the doors parted. He looked up to see who was joining him and was a little surprised to see Ensign Ruben de Boer enter, furiously tapping away on his PADD. The rookie officer stopped just inside the doorway as he looked up and saw he wasn’t alone.
“Oh, um, sorry Lieutenant, I didn’t realise you were in here. I’ll go.”
Na-Gharii smiled at the flight control officer and motioned for him to come in. “No need, Ensign. You were obviously coming here for a reason, so don’t let me stop you.”
“Are you sure, sir?”
“Pull up a stool. Is there something I can help you with?”
De Boer moved to one of the other consoles and set his tablet down. “I was going to start planning out the best courses to optimise our time here, I know we have a lot to do and only a few months so I wanted to give the captain options to consider.”
Na-Gharii smiled down at the wiry sandy-haired helmsman, wondering if he had ever been that over-eager when he was fresh out of the Academy. “That’s very conscientious of you, Ensign, I’m sure the captain will appreciate it.”
“Thank you, sir.”
Out of the corner of his eye he watched the younger man get to work, his fingers dancing over the controls with nervous energy, though clearly he knew the system—but then again it made sense for someone trained in astrogation and navigation to be familiar with stellar cartography. He’d have to read up on the human, to see what other talents he might be hiding—he was definitely easy on the eye, trying to look that little bit older with a well maintained short beard (much like his own silvery-white facial hair).
He must’ve been staring a little too long, as de Boer looked at him and blushed. “Is there a problem, Lieutenant?”
“No, sorry, I was just impressed with how you handled the controls. Is cartography an interest of yours?”
“I had joint majors in flight control and stellar cartography. I’ve always loved the stars ever since I was little, all I ever wanted in my life was to be in space, so now I’m here.”
He smiled at his companion. “I know what you mean, Ensign. I know exactly what you mean,” he assured him, before turning back to the section of the monitor he’d been studying and taking a moment to appreciate it.
* * * * *
Bridge, U.S.S. Atlas
There was non-stop chatter coming from the two science stations, each had one person seated and another leaning over their shoulder as telemetry filled every screen. The excitement was more infectious than the Tarellian Plague, which made it difficult to block out—she could only imagine how much worse it was for the two Betazoids onboard—but given the tension and apprehension of passing through the Maelstrom it was a change for the better.
She sat in the command chair, her legs crossed as she reviewed the full report from Lieutenant Siraak. Though their damage had been minimal and easy to repair, the chief engineer had dutifully submitted a very detailed run through of what had happened and how they’d repaired it—but it was Celan’s experience that any good engineer took personal pride in their ship, even if a Vulcan might not call it that. With Lieutenant (j.g.) Maq’on at her customary place and Chief Tyne covering the helm she felt perfectly confident that everything was covered, even the young Ensign Tathar was proving himself to be a dependable member of the bridge crew despite only having been at the Academy weeks before.
When she’d seen that the captain had selected two rookies to hold senior officer positions she’d expressed her doubts, even if Tathar had been third in his class he was still untried and untested in the field. Captain Keller had heard her out and come back with the age old, ‘how can they get any meaningful experience if no one will put them in that position to begin with’ argument. She still remained unconvinced but was willing to keep an open mind, and a watchful eye, about Tathar and de Boer.
A proximity alert from tactical immediately snapped her attention to the Bolian security chief.
“I’ve got two warp signatures approaching from the planet,” stated Maq’on.
She slapped the intercom. “Captain to the bridge.”
“They’re dropping out of warp, directly ahead,” the ops manager reported.
“All stop. Stand ready on shields.”
Keller quickly hurried onto the bridge. “Report,” he said as Celan rose and moved over to stand beside Maq’on.
“Two ships from the planet have just dropped out of warp.”
The captain stood behind the conn-ops station and studied the viewscreen, which depicted to small wedge-shaped vessels whose engines looked to take up the majority of the ship.
“We’re being scanned,” added Tathar, his ears twitching.
“That’s quite alright, they’re just curious. So are we. Lieutenant, assessment.”
“Approximately seven meters in length with two lifesigns in each ship. No shields and only minimal lasers. Their warp drive looks fairly rudimental, my guess is they’re pretty new to interstellar travel.”
As Maq’on went over her readings, Celan tapped her combadge. “Counsellor Htennak, you might want to get up to the bridge. It looks like we have an imminent first contact situation.”
“On my way,” came his immediate reply.
“The lead ship is hailing us.”
“On screen, Ensign.”
“It’s audio only, sir.”
“Speakers.”
A moment later an alien language that no one else in the Federation had ever head before filled the bridge, the assortment of sounds, spoken in a deep, commanding voice, seemed to silence everything on the deck as though they all realised the significance of that moment. After a few seconds the voice stopped.
“Universal translator is processing it now,” said Tathar as he kept a close eye on the communications panel. It took a few seconds for it to chirp. “I’ve got the translation. They say they are with the Girsa Star Command, that they detected our approach and request/demand we identify ourselves.”
Keller glanced at her, so she gave him a wide smile in encouragement. He took a breath and let it out slowly.
“Open a channel, Ensign.” Tathar nodded just as Htennak entered, though the mission specialist stood to the side and watched. “Girsa Star Command vessel. I am Captain Bruce Keller of the Starfleet ship Atlas, representing the United Federation of Planets. We come in peace and mean you no harm. If we have encroached on your space then I apologise, we are explorers who are new to this region.”
There was a pause, an almost collective holding of everyone’s breath whilst the alien craft sat before them in silence. If they were early in their development of warp technology, this could very well be the first time they had encountered any other species, it may well have been the first time they had even considered the possibility that they weren’t alone in the galaxy.
“H…how do you speak Girsan?” they responded.
Celan almost let out a laugh. Of all the questions other race asked after making first contact, she had never heard of that being one of them, but it made sense, who was to know how much of their culture came from language only to then hear your own words coming from an alien ship would be baffling.
For his part, Keller smiled. “We have technology that translates other languages, to allow us the opportunity to communicate with people from other worlds.”
“Why are you here?”
“We are on a mission of exploration, to study space and make peaceful contact with other species. We’ve only just arrived and you’re the very first people we’ve met from here, so we’d like to get to know your world a little better if we may.”
There was another pause. She had to wonder if they had any protocols for encountering aliens, or rather if they were conferring among themselves what to ask in that moment.
“You were heading directly for Anax. Why?”
“We detected a signal coming from your world, so we were on our way to investigate it.”
“Signal? What signal?”
Keller frowned slightly. “We’re not really sure what sort it was or where it came from exactly, that’s why we were going to check it out.”
The alien ship when quiet again. Keller glance at Htennak, the officer assigned to assist them with first contacts and understanding new cultures, but the Ktarian gave nothing away. Given the obvious hesitation on the part of the Girsa they may not have wanted to make contact, they might’ve been simply responding to something entering their system and not realised it was a ship.
“If you would prefer we didn’t approach your world or communicate further with yourselves, we will depart at once and won’t return to your system.”
Silence responded again before finally the voice spoke again. “We must report to Girsa Star Command. You will remain here,” they commanded before the channel closed.
Keller looked at Htennak again, his frown deepening. “Any thoughts, Commander?”
“Just one,” he replied before smirking. “I really don’t think you need me here, that was spot on, Captain. Seeing as how we’re going in cold, with no knowledge of this planet or its people, we have to make sure we don’t appear threatening, answer whatever questions they have, and give them an out in case they don’t want anything to do with us. You’ve done all that, now it’s up to them what the next move is.”
“So, we just sit and wait?” Tathar inquired as he turned away from his controls.
“All we can do for the moment. They’ll have to run it up their chain of command to their government who ultimately must make the decision for them and us.”
* * * * *
Captain’s log, supplemental.
It’s been two hours since we made contact with the Girsa vessels, but we haven’t heard anything since our initial communications. I just wish I had some sort of idea what my first first contact might end in, success or failure, but there’s no way to tell at present.
* * * * *
