Welcome to Star Trek Simulation Forum

Register now to gain access to all of our features. Once registered and logged in, you will be able to contribute to this site by submitting your own content or replying to existing content. You'll be able to customize your profile, receive reputation points as a reward for submitting content, while also communicating with other members via your own private inbox, plus much more! This message will be removed once you have signed in.

Sign in to follow this  
Followers 0
Samantha_Kent

Intelligent Response ((O'Leary/Kent))

Sam leaned on the edge of her console with narrowed eyes, drumming her fingers against the corner. "Alright, I'm adjusting course again," she said aloud, tapping gently on the controls. The aim of their current endeavors was to see if the potentially intelligent distortion they were dealing with might become, in time, acclimated to the approach of their probes, or whether its responses were purely reactionary and instinctual. So far, nothing in particular had shifted about its course changes, but Sam still held out hope.

 

She glanced sideways at Ellie O'Leary and grinned. "Can you imagine what a find this would be? If we could prove it was sentient?"

 

Ellie glanced at her screen, noticing just how big the "thing," for lack of a better word, was. "I just hope we're still alive to prove anything," she answered Sam without looking away from her console. Ellie tapped away on the console, consolidating what little data was sent back to Arcadia from the probes. "Why do I have the feeling that we're poking a rabid dog with a stick here?" She shook her head, trying not to formulate worse-case scenarios.

 

Sam chuckled. "Well...it hasn't shown any interest in us just yet. Just in the probes. It might not even know we're here. Rabid might be putting it a little strongly, though admittedly we don't know just what it might be capable of. Course change!" She broke into her own speech to note the reaction, yet again, to the probe's presence. "Bringing it about, let's try again."

 

Ellie stood by, waiting as the probe moved in for another approach. Then she abruptly mumbled to herself, "Would you look at that..." before resuming her analysis. "Sam, we're actually getting something!" She paused for a second, observing the data coming in. "I'm still getting interference, but I think that if we run it through the proper filters, we will finally be able to determine what we're dealing with!" Ellie stopped typing for a second, blushing when she realized just how loud she had spoken. So much for staying on the down-low...

 

Sam's head swiveled around. "Really, now? That's a good sign...what are you seeing?" she asked excitedly, leaning over to peer over Ellie's shoulder, barely noticing the other officer's nervousness through her own exuberance.

 

Resuming her analysis with cheeks matching her hair closely, Ellie went on, "I'm running it through a series of filters now, trying to clear the remaining interference. In the mean time, I think we should change the probe's direction one more time. If this thing..." Ellie motioned towards her screen with her chin "...is indeed sentient, I think it's getting used to the the probe, or it decided it wasn't a threat per se. Data received is improving with each new heading of the probe. The next one should be really clear."

 

The console beeped having finished filtering the information . The science station's console now showed a still blurred but definitive shape ahead.

 

Sam eyed the blue blur on the screen with curiosity. "Alright...one more pass, then...here we go..." Reaching over, she tapped the probe into another approach, watching for the distortion to change course again.

 

Ellie turned to Sam. "Hopefully this works, I'd love to know what we're really dealing with here, once and for all."

 

"You and me both," Sam said absently. "When I first picked up the readings, I wasn't expecting it to-- hey-o! No course change...no response to the probe! No response -- no physical reaction!" She almost bounced in her seat. "That could potentially be an intelligent response!"

 

Ellie sharply turned back to the screen, just as excited as her Bajoran colleague. "We're getting clear data!" she said loudly, forgetting to be self-conscious.

 

"Excellent, excellent, let me see," Sam said, grinning widely, slapping Ellie lightly on the shoulder as she poked at the console to pull up the readings on her own console as well. "What have we got here?"

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!


Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.


Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  
Followers 0