When Medicine, Science, and Engineering Meet

Posted on Sat Oct 25th, 2025 @ 3:03pm by Lieutenant Aidan O'Connor & Commander Samantha Howard & Lieutenant Inara Senn & Lieutenant JG James Phoenix

1,805 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Wild Wild West
Location: Planet

Once Sam had spoken with Shran, he approved for a mass transport of personnel to study the mystery that the crashed vessel had presented. The security personnel were the first to transport down, a dozen in total, with Phoenix being left in command of the security personnel. Inara and the engineers were the next to transport down. Aidan met them just outside the vessel. "Alright you lot, get down to the Engineering section and start cataloguing everything. Nice and easy with everything, this ship uses technology similar to the Romulans, but far more advanced. And nobody touches the cloaking device."

Aidan dismissed the engineers to start their work and then moved to talk with Inara in a more personable setting. "Lt Senn, glad you are here. You are not going to believe some of the things we have found aboard this would be derelict. Thought you might be interested in taking a closer look, especially with the engines. This power system is using a gravimetric drive, but no artificial singularity required like the Romulans might use. Just pure power from the use of gravimetric energy, unlike anything I have ever encountered before."

"Indeed." Inara said simply and flipped open her tricorder with a toss in the air and began to examine this so-called Gravimetric Drive. "Aiden... Put a lid on this ship and everything about it, that means all the away teams. This ship was built by, hypothetically, people who had the envious chance of studying a naked singularity. They've studied a singularity without the event horizon and learned to manipulate and control gravity in a way that is throwing off this tricorder's sensors." Inara mentioned. "I'm picking up controlled gravity manipulation in normal space, subspace, and possibly other quantum realities that may or may not have an effect on space, time, and things in between." Inara mentioned.

"Aye lass, that is why I wanted either you or Cmdr Celes to take a look at this. I've worked on Romulan systems before, but this is much more sophisticated. I'd say it is at least a century ahead of anything the Romulans have, and based on what we've learned, this ship has had this technology for centuries. The automation it possesses makes our computers look primitive in comparison." He looked around and then spoke in a hushed tone, "I was going to keep this quiet no matter what, but if you want it to be an order, the doc is in command of this away mission still."

"I'm not even certain the Romulans can research this, lieutenant. Because this relies on scientific observation that does not exist yet, perhaps we don't even know where this ship arrived from. Our own galaxy, the local galaxies, or perhaps another space time continuum, and if the Voyager's crew possessed this vessel, they'd be home before supper on the very day they disappeared" Inara mentioned. "Which explains why this ship should be classified. Their technology is powerful, imagine what their weapons will be like." Inara mused. "Weaponized gravity. The ability to reach out with the universe itself, and spaghettify your opponent. Shields won't work on pure entropy warfare. Because our shields are energy fields, this... it's everything being manipulated, including energy." Inara mentioned. "I imagine that the powers that be will want destruction options?"

Aidan chuckled nervously. "Well, if this ship is what you think, you better do as much research as you can. Command will want to study this ship itself. Probably bring in all sorts of covert folks, a team from the Daystrom Institute or perhaps the Vulcan Science Academy." He looked back at his people working as ordered, "I wish things in here were all we had to be concerned about. The doc is still seeking out the cause of the crew's death. Based on what we've learned thus far, something, possibly an alien lifeform incinerated them."

"That is even more ominous, Aidan," Inara pointed out. "The Daystrom Institute has the same problems any group of intellectuals does — ivory tower egos. And the Vulcan Science Institute? They spent almost a century insisting that time travel was absolutely impossible," she added. "That being said, I think it’s better that as few people know about this as possible. This kind of power can be... seductive, even to those within Starfleet and the Federation. And if I’ve learned anything from those bothersome Celt and Nord gods, it’s that power is dangerous. Which is why, ladies and gentlemen, I insist we keep a lid on this until some very trustworthy people — who fully understand the implications of this ship — can make a decision about it. The more people who know, the harder that will be. I recommend strict need-to-know access and full compartmentalization until we’ve learned everything there is to know about this place," Inara concluded.

**********

Sam's medical team met her shortly after, a small group of 3 people, all specialists in forensic medicine. She gave them the broader brief that the crew had been somewhat reduced to dust by disembodied energy beings. Although the timestamp on the last log entry still didn't make sense. This vessel was very advanced and yet so very old.

Phoenix had been monitoring the tactical console for a while now, to see if there was anything he had missed. Prior to that he had ordered the security detail to preform patrols of the ship, in addition to securing the perimeter of sensitive areas around the ship. He had been monitoring their progress and so far, nothing. He was also continuing to guard the Doc as ordered. His mind kept leaping back to the discovery of the date listed in the ship's computer. It reminded him of his own dealings with time having been stranded for a similar amount of time, albeit unconscious.

Sam and Phoenix were on the bridge, alone now as the rest of the teams had been tasked. She was working through the forensic data whilst he checked on the progress on the other fronts. She sat at one of the terminals, back to the rest of the space and focused on her PaDD when she felt something moved behind her. It was like a breeze, a shifting of the air as though someone had walked past her, yet Phoenix was still working at one of the consoles. She turned around and tried to see what had caused it.

"James?" There was a tension and caution in her voice.

Phoenix had felt the breeze but dismissed it initially. He turned around. He started thinking that it wasn't just a breeze. "Did you feel that too?"

"Yeah I did, I thought it was you until I saw you on the other side of the bridge." Sam's senses were screaming that something was wrong but she couldn't see anything. "I dont think we're alone in here" she said simply, trying to scan the room with her tricorder. This pissed the energy being that had been studying them off greatly. Energy struck just by Sam, causing her to dive to the side and drop her tricorder. She felt blindsided, unable to see where the creature was until it fired.


***********

Aidan had worked with Inara regarding scanning and studying the gravimetric drive and all the systems connected to it for a few hours. He had to check on the progress of his people and noted that everything pointed to this drive powering the entire ship. Inara was correct in saying that this thing was the scariest beast he'd ever come across. Harnessing the power of the universe itself was a feat of engineering far outside anything he could imagine someone being capable of, and yet, it was obvious that a species had managed it. He was tinkering with the cloaking device at the moment, which was impressive in its own right. He'd studied cloaking technology, understood how it worked. He'd even managed to get a firsthand look at a Romulan cloaking device once, as well as a Klingon cloaking device on several occasions. Like everything else here, the technology was superior to anything he had seen.

He noted Ashlynn and Inara standing in close proximity to each other. He walked over to them, "Nothing here makes sense. The best I can tell, the only reason this ship crashed was because it had been on automatic for a long time and it got pulled into the gravity of the planet. But it seemed to ease the landing along the way a bit because this ship is ready to fly wherever it wants if somebody was so inclined. And you'd have a great bit of craic in the process. I'm fairly certain this ship would be able to handle a whole fleet of Borg if pressed, and that is just from what I've seen down here. Have either of you found anything that explains anything about this ship?"

"You're expecting me to simply know things about a potential new classification of space faring species that may have intimate control of their own universe?. One that has seized control of gravity itself," Inara stated and continued. "It would take us centuries with myself, all the Federation's horses, and all the Federation's men, women for that matter, to even scratch the surface on this thing." She mentioned. "And we will most certainly attract the attention of some intolerable meddlers, and if it were up to me, I'd be going to Romeo and Juliette in the Holodeck right now and scratch this thing off all our records."

Aidan was slack jawed with disbelief. "Alright" he said, unsure what, if anything, he should say next. He looked to Ashlynn, hoping she might not give him quite as dense a response.

"So far I haven't found anything too concrete. But I'm seeing logs here that may be able to determine this ship's builder. If they have that information, I may be able to determine the full extent of the basic specs" Ash said, her voice hopeful. In reality she wasn't sure if that information was even there. After all, a ship with this kind of technology would likely have logs that were hard to decipher.

"What about the star charts? Maybe we can learn where they originate from, or at least where this ship travelled. That would at least be something" Aidan queried.

"Nothing yet besides what Sam found earlier regarding that spatial anomaly" she began as she continued scrolling through the files in the computer. "I think that the anomaly is related somehow. It would make sense if the ship traveled through it from the past given the date James mentioned."

"I know it sounds outlandish" she looked at Aidan before turning back towards her research. Then she saw something. A file that appeared to have coordinates in the file name. She tapped on it. "Lieutenant I've found something."

TBC

 

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