"Sensor Blip"

[Sean Xiang 0]

Sean sat at his desk in his quarters, datapadds where strewn about the surface and he was staring at the main monitor at the back-center of the desk. His roommate, Ensign Matro, was lying on his bed flipping through a magazine. “What are you doing?” He asked Sean, looking up from the mag. “I am going over the data I downloaded from the computer in the alien complex.” Sean replied.

 

Sean had decided not to return to the surface of the planet. He had spent far too much time there earlier. Nequencia III was nice, but he was in no hurry to return. The fact that the corridors were lined with weapons they still did not fully understand only served to cement his decision.

 

“Fun,” Matro said dryly. Then he returned his attention back to his magazine, rolling over on his bed. Sean just ignored him. Matro was…irritating at best. But thus was the burden of a junior officer: Shared quarters. He continued to wade through pages and pages of data, splitting his attention between the monitor and the datapadds. There was enough data here to keep scientists busy for years.

 

Since the start of this mission, Sean had gained a fair grasp of the L’Traisan language and writing. Therefore he was able to save time, not having to translate everything into basic before studying it. There was data of all types. Cultural, military, scientific…all of it fascinating. Well, at least to a scientist.

 

Sean relished in learning about and studying new cultures and species. Needless to say, he could have sat there for hours. Matro stirred a bit. He had fallen asleep reading his magazine, and was now mumbling in his sleep.

 

Sean looked over at Matro’s bed and, as if on cue, Matro rolled over and awoke just long enough to ask, “I’m not bothering you am I?”

 

“Of course not,” Sean replied in a even, but mildly sarcastic, tone. But Matro was already back asleep and oblivious to the world.

 

Turning back to his desk, Sean came to the sensor logs the complex had taken over the years it had been in operation. Even Sean had to admit this was boring. Nequencia was an out-of-the-way system, and noone had had any reason to come near it.

 

At least that was what Sean thought, until a blip on the logs caught his attention. He hooked the datapadd he was looking at into the monitor and began going through the section with the anomaly. The anomaly, as it turned out, was actually a small ship.

 

Sean viewed that section of the log again and again. Trying to ascertain the make of the vessel, why it was there, and who might have sent it. But there was simply not enough data. And the data that was there was far to limited to be able to glean any further information then this: A small ship of unknown make had entered the system, taken in-depth scans of the planet, was then warned away by the weapon and left the system at high speed. It was also the only ship to come near enough for the weapon to actually activate in the time since its activation

 

He cross-referenced the data on the vessel with other sensor logs, the cultural database (mainly the L’Traisan ship designs), and anything else he thought might be relevant to the unknown ship. Still nothing. Sean sighed audibly, he was not sure how long he had been sitting here. But he knew it was too long. He rubbed his eyes, knowing that he was not going to learn anything else about this ship in his current state of exhaustion.

 

He cleaned up the desk a bit, downloading all the data on the ship to a single datapadd. Then he stood, his muscles stiff and his neck aching with a set in crick. He walked over to his bed and got in. He would get some sleep and then take this information to Lieutenant Grey. Pulling the covers over himself, he fell asleep instantly.