JDL | Captain Coo & Lt JG Mallow | CO & Engineer

Posted on 241709.04 @ 7:50pm by Captain Rozen Coo PhD & Lieutenant Hober Mallow

.:/ Bridge /:.

Hober Mallow could count on his hands how many times he had been to the bridge. The display was impressive enough, but the engineer could not help but see that every button pressed up here was just a message really; instructions for some other person, or system, or piece of equipment to carry out. It was his department in engineering that did the real work.

The current officer waved him dismissively towards the Captain's ready room. Apparently the number one was busy with other matters. Hober pressed the chime and scratched one last time at his face paint.

Rozen had been compiling a report to send to fleet before they entered the Nebula, diminishing or cutting off communications. Rozen heard a chime at the door and called out, "Come." The doors opened on Lieutenant JG Mallow. "Ah, Lieutenant Mallow, how can I be of assistance," said Rozen physically setting aside what he was working giving the Lieutenant his full attention.

Hober crossed the threshold batting the tablet he brought with him against the palm of his empty hand, "Lieutenant Baker wanted me to apprise the bridge of our preparations for the nebula, it was sent to your data queue, but here is supplementary details that weren't meant for everyone. " He offered the tablet across the desk.

"How is everything going down there?" he asked giving the PaDD a quick glance. "I know we are just about flying into this thing blind, but I hope the little bit of information we had on file helped with preparations?"

"We are prepped as much as we can, and we are giving the science team some help with the signal analysis." Hober took the edge of the guest seat without invitation. "About going blind, at first glance this nebula shares a lot of properties with a class nine. We gave the Enterprise a cross-eyed sensor to compensate." the engineer explained using his fingers for air quotes.

"Brilliant," chuckled Rozen aloud. "So with the crossed sensor you are hoping to get better resolution moving forward?"

Mallow waggled his head, "Sort of, " he held out both hands flat in the air in front of him, "by having a secondary array at a frequency tuned to the nebula specifically," he waggled his hand above the other, "we can layer it on top of our regular pallets," he brought both hands on top of each other, "giving us a two fold increase in eliminating false readings."

He dropped his hands to his knees, "We don't get to see any better really, but we can a lot more certain that what we are looking at, is actually what is front of us. This nebula has a class nine's deceiving properties."

"Will the composition of the nebula effect shielding or even hull plating?"

Mallow picked at the paint on his forehead, "Unfortunately we just don't have enough data to say for sure. Right now collectively engineering says it shouldn't. As we get closer we will have a more definitive answer, I'm working with Lieutenant Rymer on analyzing the affect it may have on tactical systems."

"Fantastic," replied Rozen. "We should be entering the nebula in approximately 48 hours. I am sure there is plenty we will be learning over the next few days. Have we noticed any fluctuations in the Warp Field in closer proximity to the nebula?"

"Not that we can discern, we have a battery of diagnostic tests to run as soon as we revert from slipstream."

"I am glad we are ready for any outcome," said Rozen with a warm smile. There was a pause. "Unless there is anything else to report, you are free to see to your duties."

Hober nodded and stood up and started towards the door, Rozen wasn't so intimidating once you spoke to him a few times.

"Uh.. Lieutenant..." Rozen called out before the door opened. "Can you come back here? I think you may be able to assist me with a project..."

Hober spun on his heels, and retracted his steps back to the desk, "Oh?"

"Yes," replied Rozen gesturing to one of the chairs in front of his desk. "However, this needs to stay between you and I? Understood?"

Hober sat back down, "Understood"

"When we passed Outpost 1138 we received a subspace message... and don't exactly know where it came from. I was wondering if you could do some digging and perhaps track down where the signal originated?"

Mallow began picking at his forehead again, "I can give it a shot. What are the details of the message?"

There was an awkward pause, "That's not exactly important... I just want to see if we can figure out where it came from..." the silence in the room was deafening.

"Okayy, can you forward the meta data about the transmission to my data queue and I will start right away."

"Thank you," said Rozen. "The data will be transferred immediately. Thank you for your help."

Mallow nodded and made for the exit a second time.

The door closed and Rozen forwarded the requisite information.

--

Captain Rozen Coo, PhD
Commanding Officer
USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-F

Lieutenant JG Hober Mallow
Engineer
USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-F