Performing the Impossible

[Brian Graham 0]

"Performing the Impossible. What else?"

A Chen and Graham Joint Venture

USS Excalibur

Star date 200506.21

 

Moments after the intriguing events that unfolded in space over the Romulan-occupied planet in the Gamma Quadrant, Commander Corizon wanted concrete information as to what was happening down there. That could only mean an away team, on a planet, filled with Romulans, armed with disruptors. But the trick was getting down there without the away team, or Excalibur being detected. This fun task fell to Zack Chen and Brian Graham, either because the Commander thought them capable, or hated them. Brian and Zack hadn't decided which was the more prominent factor, but sincerely hoped it was the former. They had moved from the Bridge to the conference room, mostly because it was easier to concentrate without the numerous noises characteristic of a Federation starship bridge, but also when their idea didn't work, no one could know about the failures, instead only the final product; if the thing would present itself. After close to thirty minutes of offering several proposals, each being shot down by the other or by the one making the proposal by the characteristic stopping in mid-idea and saying, "Wait that won't work," both would grumble in frustration, and the exercise would repeat. Things were not going well, and at the moment, both would have settled on jumping out a window with a parachute to make the trip to the ground. And already they had talked about calling sickbay to get something for the headaches that were beginning to manifest themselves.

 

Zack had long since got up and was continuously pacing the conference room. He repeated the problem, hoping it would conjure fresh ideas. "A huge Warbird is out there and we have to sneak past it."

 

Brian was still sitting at the conference table. Sitting in the third chair from the head of the table, sitting on the side facing the windows, Brian looked out across the spatial void, except when said void was interrupted by Chen's form as he made another lap. They were getting nowhere, so Brian thought maybe starting at the beginning again would help. "Alright, what are our options? It's either shuttlecraft or the transporters, so it's just those two."

 

"Right," Chen said, still pacing. "Those are probably the only ways of getting off this ship." Chen stopped suddenly, "unless we take Excalibur in."

 

Brian could see Corizon's reaction to that idea and he suddenly felt ill. "Ooh, I don't think the Commander will like that idea."

 

Chen stopped the pacing that he had resumed again. "Probably not," he said as he manipulated one of the consoles on the table, activating a viewscreen on the wall. He brought up an image of the planet and the Warbird's position relative to the spatial body.

 

"Ok, a shuttlecraft would be immediately detected, so that's out. Do you know of any way we can use the transporters without being caught?" Brian asked.

 

Zack felt his legs go numb, either because he had been pacing too long or Graham having given him another problem to deal with. Sitting down across the table from Graham. "Well, to transport we'll have to drop the shields and deactivate the cloak, which would not be good at all. Did the Commander have an exact location on where to go?"

 

Now it was Brian's turn to have an additional question thrown at him. Brian considered opening a window to let some of the questions floating around the room out, but the thought of being blown into space killed that idea. Besides, starship windows didn't have a way of opening. Thinking back to what the Commander had said, Brian replied, "No, he didn't specify. Though since the planet is occupied, just about anywhere would suffice. Probably somewhere near a Romulan garrison, but outside the base's sensor range. From a staging area, it will be easier to determine the Romulans' armament and disposition."

 

With that to go on, Chen needed more information. "Computer, display Romulan-controlled territory on the planet's surface." The computer chirped and complied, showing the topography and shading the areas where the Romulans were. The current view showed the northern hemisphere of the planet. Chen looked over the display. "Ok." Pointing to two regions on the display, Chen commented, "Like all sensors, they can't penetrate deep rock, like these two places here. Otherwise, they see about half of the planet with no problem.

 

Well, that certainly narrowed down the possibilities Brian mused. "Alright, so we have two options for insertion. Now we just need transportation."

 

Chen sighed. "Well, first of all it's going to be difficult to slip by that Warbird and drop our cloak unless we can come up with some reasonable distraction." Chen looked on the display again. "That ship is currently holding position, and it's not in orbit. So, if we can keep them there, we might be able to slip over to the opposite side of the planet, transport an away team down, and get out without them ever knowing." Chen stood up to pace again. "Though I do wish we had a cloakable shuttle."

 

Brian thought about it, and the idea seemed feasible. "We might be able to persuade the Klingons." That thought was interrupted, "Bother, it would show up once it started to enter the atmosphere though." That meant they came back to Excalibur slipping by. "How about those Romulans on the planet, would they be able to detect Excalibur even if that Warbird can't see us?"

 

Chen grumbled, "Good point, they would likely be able to."

 

Brian switched gears back again. "Fine, but you might be on to something with that shuttle idea. We won't be able to use on that cloaks, but shuttles do have their own transporters, and their energy signature is far smaller than a Sovereign-class starship."

 

Chen immediately snapped his fingers as he mulled over the possibilities in his mind. "That's right! And we don't have to drop our cloak to deploy a shuttle. If the shuttle can just get clear of the Excalibur, transport the team, and then re-enter the docking bay, they wouldn't show up as more than an optical illusion or some minor subspace noise!"

 

It seemed settled, as long as the shuttle would appear as anything more. "Sounds great. How long would we have to get the shuttle out, transport, and get it back before we turned into an actual thing instead of an illusion?"

 

Chen picked up one of the PADD's scattered on the table and did some calculations, factoring in sensor gathering, data processing, computer display, Romulan reflexes, and shuttle energy output involving engines and transport. "I'm glad this is a planet since the transmission of sensor data will be slower. I'd say we have about ten to fifteen seconds to do this since their sensors would pick us up in about twenty. It will be close."

 

"15 seconds, huh?" Real close, Brian thought, considering the operations involved, but it could work. "Alright it can work, as long as there isn't a Warbird somewhere else on the side of the planet we need to be. If there is one cloaked, would they pick up the shuttle faster?"

 

"Yeah. Haven't thought of that," Chen said, almost throwing the PADD away in frustration, but instead he just put it back on the table.

 

Brian leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and covered his face with his hands. "I am really starting to hate the Romulans." Brian had never really liked them, but this strong negative emotion was getting more prominent with each throb of his aching temples.

 

Chen started his pacing again to combat the frustration. "Hide and seek. It's all about who decloaks first."

 

The idea had come along so far, and Brian didn't want to throw it away and start all over again. "Ok, ok, we have a way down there. We have a method of doing it, we just have to give that shuttle more time and keep it hidden without a cloaking device."

 

"Thanks Brian, don't make it sound too simple," Chen quipped, testament to the difficulty of figuring out that one.

 

Brian let it pass without firing a jab back, besides Chen hadn't given him much ammunition to use against him. Instead, he had an idea, "Hey, what's the engine output of a Romulan Warbird?"

 

Chen was confused at this piece of irrelevant trivia, and it was too broad a question for a definite answer. "Output as in warp speed or sub light?"

 

"More like orbit speed"

 

"Hmm, regular orbit speed for this planet at about 8000 kilometres in altitude. Approximately 28,000 kilometers per hour. Why?"

 

Brian did not want to know how Chen had just done all that in his head, but answered, "Well, I asked because I remembered my Senior AP Pilot class at the Academy. On the Io course near Jupiter I followed the lead too close. His engine wash blinded my sensors so I had to back off really quick so I could get my bearings back. I lost points for that dumb move too, but with that, do you think that a shuttle could hide in the engine trail of the Warbird?"

 

"Oh definitely. Engine backwash for a ship that size would be pretty great."

 

"Ok, now we might have something. Look at this." Brian said as he typed away at a console. He brought up a starboard view of a Romulan Warbird and had the computer display and highlights the engine trail. A cone unfolded behind the Warbird with different sections colored to indicate the respective energy output in relation to distance from the Warbird. "So, if we can get the Excalibur close enough so a shuttle could leave and get right in that engine trail, it should be able to stay there without being detected. Could it do that, or would its energy signature from the transporters be too strong?"

 

Chen studied the model for a moment. "It could hide in there if Excalibur doesn't hit the Warbird and we stay out of the engine trail. If we get mixed up in it, it will interfere with the cloak." Chen brought up the wave emission on a sine-analyzer. "Computer, bring up Excalibur issued transporter and cloak frequencies and overlay that data to the current analysis." The computer overlapped the corresponding information onto one graph. "Drat," Chen lamented, seeing the display. "It would really interfere with the cloak." Chen indicated the fluctuations displayed on the graph. "The frequency is halved inverse with our own. But Engineering may be able to fix that."

 

Brian now could picture Crispin's reaction. "More work for Crispin? He's not going to like that. Himself and his whole staff will probably be working like mad while this operation is being carried out."

 

Chen thought about that too. "Yeah, but look who gave us the impossible task first, not to sound disrespectful, of course," Chen added, hoping the room hadn't been bugged. "Once our cloak frequencies directly equal that with a slightly smaller amplitude, we probably can do this. At least it's an option. Neat idea Lt. Graham."

 

Brian almost laughed at the statement, considering he had almost failed his exam when he had done that manoeuvre a few years ago, and that grade had cost him a few slots into where he had graduated in the class. "Well, the idea almost got me an F a few years ago." Brian suddenly thought of another aspect of this stunt. "How about the transporter, will it be able to operate through all that interference the Warbird will be putting out?"

 

Chen thought a moment. "They should be able to. Yeah, they would." Chen quickly double-checked the transporter specifications of the shuttlecraft. "The team would be limited to about five people. Anything larger would be pushing it."

 

Brian was relieved that it could be done; their idea had come too far to be ruthlessly murdered by a transporter limitation. "Sounds great, the Heisenburg Compensators will probably be pulling overtime during the transport. The away team would be able to make it back too right?" Brian quickly asked, hating the thought of being stranded on a planet full of armed Romulans.

 

"That depends on the situation when they want to return. If it's not too tight, there shouldn't be a problem hopefully."

 

"Yeah, that's the keyword of the day. I guess we'll be sure when the team transports down. Maybe we should limit the transport operation to groups of two. That way we won't tax the transporters too much doing the whole team at once."

 

Chen concurred with the precaution. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea. We'll know what the Commander thinks of this idea soon enough..."

 

Brian sighed. "Well, I hope he likes it because that's the best we have come up with."

 

"Yeah," Chen agreed, "but I've got a bad feeling about this."

[Cptn Corizon 0]

This fun task fell to Zack Chen and Brian Graham, either because the Commander thought them capable, or hated them

 

 

or both :P....Great Log Guys