Post # 17 Hug a Tree

Posted on Thu Aug 5th, 2021 @ 6:09pm by Lieutenant Lily Crawford & Commodore Sureth & Crewman Recruit Leaf Brol & Lieutenant JG Nic Covenant

Mission: Moving Day
Location: Starbase Mercury
Timeline: Concurrent to Post 016

On

The USS Bohr and runabout Amazon arrived back to the Starbase only to find the Blue ship awaiting their return. Sureth took notice immediately.

" Inform the dock master we will not be docking at this time. We know they can speak so open a channel." Sureth ordered.
" Aye sir." Dallas replied from tactical.

< Amazon >

"I wondered if they would be waiting for us." Lily said as she saw the blue ship. "Still, we've taken two out, more or less. Perhaps we can negotiate with this one, or at least stop them from doing us any damage." She had spent the time coming back in trying to learn a little more about the tactical systems of the runabout, relying on her memory and trial and error in figuring out the menus on the system.

Nic nodded and then scanned the craft. To his surprise the craft did not have the same metallic make-up
" Who ever they are they didn't come from that sphere." Nic told her.

"They didn't?" Lily asked. "Okay... what's the makeup of the ship? Any similarity to the makeup of our own ships?"

" Those alloys are found in this sector but the spheres was off the scale. Oh and this is way cool...our probe was tractored close to the sphere. We are receiving sporadic data readings . " Nic replied.


"I wonder if they know that." Lily said, laughing and shaking her head. "What kind of information we're getting from the probe? The data could prove useful."

" The station computer is analyzing the data and will have a determination imminently. As they spoke the Bohr crossed betwwen Amazon and the blue ship.

[ Lieutenant Crawford dock the runabout and meet me at ops please. The Bohr will run baracade until we make contact ] Sureth then instructed as he was beaming back himself.


[Copy that Captain.] Lily replied. She turned to Nic. "Looks like we're docking. Take us in please. You should come with me to Ops, there will be observations you can participate in."

" Yes Ma'am." Nic replied.


< Station >

On the station the Brol had made its way to the observation deck and had found the two Savai ambassadors sitting aimlessly in the ready room about to kill one another. As bigoted hates from decades broiled Brol entered as Fesra was about to slit Kuroths throat. But a few minutes later and with some of Brols magic both hugged Brol and headed out of the room back to their very own quarters.

Outside the station danger loomed as the blue ship still refused to respond to Sureths hails .

Sureth beamed directly to the ops transporter and joined the skeleton crew as he awaited Crawford and Covenant's return.

As soon as they were docked, Lily and Covenant made their way to Ops. "Captain." she said as she entered the area. "Reporting as ordered."

" Lieutenant your ability to get the probe that close to the event horizon was an act worthy of genius. Both you and Ensign Covenant will be commended. The data shows there to be two systems opening a temporal funnel. Furthermore a hollow sphere over 100 kilometers is using the funnel to traverse through a quantum strain. Did you see anything out there resembling this object?" Sureth questioned.

"Thank you sir. We observed an orb that came up through what appeared to be the quasar, but a temporal funnel makes more sense. They had only been theoretical up to this time though. The fact that this sphere, or orb, is hollow makes perfect sense; the sphere emitted a tractor field across its whole surface area, and was pulling us toward it. If you had not intervened, we would likely have been pulled to the edge of it, and I hypothesize myself and Ensign Covenant would have been beamed inside it. We were able to get readings on the sphere as well as all the ships." Lily summed up.

" Those readings confirmed an analysis of the existence of a Dysons Sphere. A shell with the ability to encase an entire star. Another such sphere was found by the USS Enterprise over thirty years ago. This one is similar but smaller."

"A Dyson Sphere. Of course." breathed Lily. "These are extremely rare, as they take vast amounts of resources to build. Only an advanced civilization would be able to build one. Usually they are put around suns to capture their energy. I wonder why this one has not." she frowned. Unless it was, and was somehow released from its star in order to use that energy to create the temporal funnel."

" As you are Chief of Science Lieutenant you have the full use of this station to get those answers. I must focus my attention on who or what is on that ship." Sureth replied.

"Thank you sir." Lily said. She had read a little on Dyson spheres, but her expertise was on black holes. She had not seen much on how the two could go hand in hand. "Computer, run a search on scientific papers for Dyson spheres which have absorbed all the energy from their star." she requested. It was a good place to start. It would take an enormous amount of energy to form a funnel between two black holes, and even more to travel through one. Quantum mechanics allowed for the principle of what they had done, but it had never succeeded beyond the atomic level before. It simply required too much energy. The energy of an entire sun, perhaps?

Processing. Search will take approximately 3 hours. The computer intoned. Lily sighed. Well, it was a start. She moved over to the science station to get an idea of what was coming in from the probe. While she waited for scientific papers on Dyson spheres, she could learn more about the one currently near them.

Ironically returning to the ops Brol found Crawford studying her screens.
" A great feat to harness a whole sun . Much power its builders must possess. They must be gods." the metallic voice of Brol said to Lily

Lily turned to find a tree talking to her. She smiled diplomatically. "Hello. What may I call you?" she asked. "I'm Lily Crawford, the chief science officer."

" I am Brol." it said extending limbs to hug.

"It is nice to meet you Brol, but I do not hug beings I have just met." Lily told the being. "You are very right about it being a great feat to harness a whole sun. It takes a huge amount of resources to build one, but once it's built, it can last... well, forever, theoretically, but no one knows for certain. Except maybe these people, who have come to our station. They have technology in advance of our own, but I doubt they are gods. Just because they are more advanced than you are does not make them gods. Remember that." she paused, thinking. "Did any of them come onto the station, Brol?"

" The beings out there are not of that. They are....dangerous." Brol warned.

"I appreciate your warning, Brol." Lily said seriously. "Do you mean the beings on the ship outside did not come from the Dyson sphere? Do you know where they are from?"

Brol shuttered and then replied," They are lost and afraid. Brol can feel thoughts. I am sorry someone hurt you. Brol is friend."

Lily jerked slightly, then tried to cover it as if swaying a little. "Thank you Brol. That is a pain I am still trying to get over. I appreciate your friendship, and look forward to getting to know you better. Right now though, I have a duty to figure out more about this sphere and the beings who made it. You can feel the thoughts of the people on that ship outside our station? I should tell the captain." She was fascinated by Brol, but now was not the time to get side tracked into a drawn out conversation with it. She was eager to confirm what it had said and pass it on, especially if it meant helping whoever was in that ship.

" I have." Brol replied. He then sent a mental message to Lily via his ability.
* You are friend of Brol now.

Lily smiled. "Thank you Brol. I would like that hug now."

Brol extended the same limbs and embraced Lily as it hummed a sweet hum of joy.

End

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