Source of the Signal

Posted on Mon Mar 15th, 2021 @ 8:28am by Captain Nycolas Temple & Commander Mindo & Lieutenant Declan Roderick & Ensign Ian Milkovich

Mission: The Gauntlet
Location: Sensor Pod - Deck 1

ON:

It was long into the evening ship-time but the small team assembled on the Pandora's Sensor Pod were wide awake. They had set themselves the mission of finding the location of the "Stop the Pandora" signal and despite the long hours, they were still determined to find it. The Sensor Pod was the perfect location for the task at hand, as they were able to use the Luna Class vessel's additional long-range scanning abilities to filter through the typical spacial "noise" of the weak sub-space message. Though they had managed to get some identifying data - it wasn't enough to find a location just yet.

Spread out around the operations bridge of the Sensor Pod, the team were huddled around their individual work stations - with a variety of empty or helf-drunk coffee mugs, discarded plates of snack food, PADDs, or Engineering tools lying around them. A silence had fallen over the group for the past ten minutes as they worked quietly but determinedly.

Lieutenant Mindo sighed and leaned back in his chair, taking a sip of spiked coffee. The alcohol worked with his Fesarian chemistry to help the diminutive Chief Engineer stay sharp and focused. He had left his usual post in the core to work on this problem personally, as the rest of his staff worked on the various repairs from their last aggressive encounter. Fortunately the damage was very minimal.

"This is ridiculous," Mindo remarked. "The signal is more like several pieces of a signal bounced around from location to location. Some of these places aren't even possible, such as the Hesiod system. I can't tell the difference between the 'ghost' signals and the real thing. But they all had to start from somewhere."

“So, we have a jigsaw puzzle of signal fragments.” Roderick leaned outward from his seated console. He, too, was becoming frustrated and tired.

“Our sensor network works on the assumption that subspace signals, or bases of signals, are from a known definition of a densely sampled frequency grid. In this case, Starfleet subspace relays and listening outposts.” He posited.

“We could work on a modified algorithm, exploiting partial, approximate subsets of data for our subspace estimation points of reference.” Taping in some grid points to highlight. “If we infer an algorithm can reject certain noise, recovering missing base fragments of the signal, then we can recover a theoretical targeting detection performance scan.” Declan offered, then taking a drink from his stale cold silver mug of coffee, double cream, double sugared.

Sitting in the far corner tapping away at a PADD, Ensign Milkovich spoke up, "We could try a simulation first, with a replicated signal based on the conditions of our message. See if there's an algorithm that could potentially find a trace?"

Declan had nodded at Milkovitch. "What do you think Mindo?" He had felt the Engineer had considerable knowledge and unorthodox solutions.

"I love it when you all talk dirty," Mindo said, rubbing his eyes. "I think we're all taking the long way around. And I think that's exactly what the source of these message fragments wants us to do. So let's look at this differently. If it were me, I wouldn't send out one signal. I'd send out several from separate locations. What I want to know is, how did they get access to our subspace networks and get them to echo the message? A Starfleet communications grid would be impossible for even the most advanced Alrakis tech genius to crack. I'm beginning to think part of this was orchestrated from within Starfleet. I think right now our entire focus needs to be on our own subspace comm grids. Let's sort out our own mess before fixing another."

"We have the access to Starfleet subspace com grids. That is what I was proposing." Lt. Roderick gestured at the grid. "Mindo, you're saying Starfleet has allowed the Alrakis to send identifier signal through multiple loci points within grid mainframe. If that is true, then I don't know what we possibly can do?" Roderick was unsure as to which briefings the Lieutenant had received.

"He's saying the Alrakis Pact aren't the source of the signal, it's come from someone or somewhere within Starfleet." Ian added carefully, not wanting to overstep his role. He tapped at his console and changed the image on the main view screen to a map of the Expanse. "So we're assuming the message was echoed into the Expanse via Starfleet's subspace grid. If we were able to isolate and disable one of the relays, could we potentially shut the signal... off?"

"We can," Mindo replied, raising his index finger, "and, we could bring the identity of the Starfleet perpetrator and the Alrakis collaborator to Captain Temple on a silver platter."

"Easier said than done, I assume." Ian frowned, "Plus what would stop the signal from continuing to echo across the other relays? I doubt Starfleet would be a fan of us turning off the grid one by one."

"So we won't," Mindo said. "Every Alrakis idiot with a ham radio knows about the signal. Why stop it? The point is, we'll know who's behind it all. I think that information would be more useful to the Captain in the long run."

=/\= Nyx to Roderick, can I see you on the Bridge right away?" =/\= Came the Captain's voice over their comms badge. The Lieutenant immediately departed.

Down to two, Milkovich decided to carry on. He stood and walked in front of the viewscreen, looking at the map. "What do you recommend, Lieutenant Mindo? The two main broadcast stations are Carnwennen here at the south - " He pointed to the border of Federation space, that long thin corridor between the Talarian and Tzenkethi regions which the Pandora initially passed through years ago, "Or Deep Space 12 to the north." Ian indicated to the station sitting just near Cardassian and Ferengi space. Though this corridor was larger, it was also dominated by intense gravitational storms and a dark matter nebula. "I think it's unlikely that the culprit would actually be on those stations, Starfleet Intelligence would have found them by now, right? Could they be elsewhere and just using one of those stations as the starting point?"

"Yes," Mindo replied. He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "We're headed to Paradise next, right? That's one of the signal beacons from which the signal is broadcast. If I could access their systems and create a subspace 'piggy-back,' I could find the signal's origin much faster. To do that, I'd need full access to Paradise's encryption algorithms, which they won't easily give." Mindo thought for a moment. "Terrekal knows the Expanse better than anyone. He's one of those guys who 'knows a guy.' Terrekal left Paradise on unpleasant terms, but there has to be someone there who still owes him something. Maybe that guy will know a guy..."

Ian nodded, "I guess that's the way the Expanse works, right? It's who you know that matters." He took in a deep breath and shrugged, "I think it's the best lead we've got right now, might as well go for it. Should we tell the Captain?"

"I think he'd like to be informed," Mindo replied. "Hopefully he'll go for it."

"He will." Ian remarked, but then he smiled, "I mean, he'd be stupid not to, right? Let's get this to him immediately."

They had a lead, now they could only hope Terrekal's contact could help them in their search.

OFF