Peel Post # 2 " Unexplained"

Posted on Tue Feb 13th, 2024 @ 11:58pm by Captain Jamie O'Connell & Lieutenant JG Johan Albo
Edited on on Wed Feb 21st, 2024 @ 7:40pm

Mission: TALES FROM THE MIDDLE STARS
Location: USS Peel
Timeline: Current

::ON::

~Deck 1~

{Stellar Cartography}

Lieutenant Albo walked into the area and brought the Cartography Computer online to start mapping the Lagoon Nebula as per the Captain's orders. Normally the Computer was left offline when not in use to conserve on the Ship's computing power since this particular Computer was a 'resource hog' due to the complexity of said mapping. The mapping was the easy part since the Computer directed the process, after setting up a grid, going section by section to completely cover the designated area. Sometimes it would take a few hours but in this case it may take days or even weeks given the vastness of the Nebula.

Meanwhile Johan walked over to a Secondary Console and put his Science knowledge and training to work. After setting up his own grid of the Nebula, he started at the outer edges, where the Peel was now parked for the time being, slowly and meticulously going sector by sector while the Main Computer documented the data during the entire process. The second set of scans was the Captain's idea to help the Science Station on the Bridge to find this so called entity and gather as much data as possible.

Johan had seen quite a few different anomalies over the years but nothing as beautiful and as vibrant as the gorgeous colors of this Nebula. There were several shades of reds, pinks, blues, and greens like he had never seen before. Also he noticed the occasional different shades of white; if that was even possible. As he stood and watched his Screen, it was almost mesmerizing seeing the different colors cascade, mix, and intertwine with each other. The further he scanned into this amazing creation, the more he was in awe.

Over the next few hours Johan scanned deeper and deeper into the anomaly carefully not wanting to miss any of it's beauty, when he stumbled upon something entirely different from what he had been seeing up to this point. It was this large translucent mass with, what looked like, some sort of gaseous material swirling around inside of it. "This must be the entity that the Captain was looking to find" he thought to himself being totally engrossed in the moment.

Several more minutes went by when Johan noticed the data stream suddenly slowed way down; almost to a trickle "That's odd" he thought to himself never seeing this sort of thing happen before. After making the necessary adjustments to his Console he realized it wasn't helping one little bit; matter of fact it was worse now than before. "Computer, run a level three diagnostic on this Science Station" Johan requested being quite confounded at the moment. "Running level three diagnostic, this will take several minutes to complete" their Computer replied.

Soon the Computer responded "Level three diagnostics have been completed. The Science Station is operating well above Star Fleet specifications."

Johan thought for a moment before inquiring "Computer where is the slow down coming from if the System is running above Star Fleet specs."

"Processing" then after several seconds "The occurrence seems to be emanating from somewhere within the Nebula; exact location unknown" the Computer responded.

"Great" Johan whispered under his breathe before tapping his Comm "Captain this is Lieutenant Albo" he stated in a clear voice.

"Go ahead Lieutenant" Jamie replied after hearing his Comm.

"Sir, you may want to come over to Stellar Cartography; there is something I think you're going to want to see" Johan stated matter of factly.

"On my way Lieutenant" the Captain replied. Minutes later Jamie came walking into the Lab "So what's going on Mr. Albo" he inquired as he approached the young Lieutenant.

"Captain while the Cartography Computer has been mapping the Nebula, I have been scanning the area as per your order. Everything was going fine until the data stream slowed way down "he stated then continued "I even went so far as to run a level three diagnostic on this Science Station which according to the Computer is operating well above Star Fleet specs" Johan explained.

The Captain was surprised by Johan's explanation of the data streams "That is interesting.....I'm glad you had the fore thought to run a Level Three" then he paused for a moment thinking "So what you're telling me is, it would appear to be emulating from within the Nebula...is that a correct assumption."

"Yes Captain it would appear so" Johan replied then proceeded to explain what he thought might be this entity showing the Captain all the data to support his hypothesis.

Jamie stood thinking for a few moments with a stoic look on his face "Ok so the data has slowed down as compared to before" as he paused "Lieutenant have you tried to speed up the slower data streams after collection to see if they reveal anything."

Johan looked at the Captain for a moment impressed with his suggestion "No I haven't Sir but I can attempt it and see what happens if you'd like" he replied.

"Yes please Mr Albo" Jamie answered as he stood beside Johan watching his progress.

Johan changed some settings on the Screen when suddenly the already collected data stream returned to its previous speed. Looking at his Captain "How did you know that would happen Sir."

Jamie grinned "Captain Taavis mentioned during the briefing that time distortions had occurred when something or someone was in close proximity to that entity. That's why your data streams slowed down and why you were able to counter the effects on the Computer. Your scans must be getting close to this entity...question now is what will be the effects on the Ship, or on the Crew for that matter" he concluded with some concern.

"So do you want me to continue my scans Sir.....I mean I know about where the thing is located in the Nebula just by the data I've collected" Johan inquired.

"Yes continue with your scans but don't get too close to that thing until we have more data to go on" Jamie ordered.

"As you wish Captain" Johan responded happy with the results of they impromptu meeting.

O'Connell smiled "You're doing some fine work here Lieutenant. You know where I'll be if you need me so I best get back to the Bridge before the Commander comes looking for me" as he left the Lab.

Johan was quite pleased with himself and couldn't wait to tell Sarissa all about his day in the Lab.

::OFF::

Captain Jamie O'Connell
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant JG Johan Albo
Operations/Science Officer
USS Peel
NCC-71015