The Redsea Signal - Chapter I

Posted on Fri Jan 8th, 2021 @ 7:56am by Lieutenant Commander S'hib

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: Sequella
Timeline: Current
Tags: Roll Call
789 words - 1.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Rain poured from the dark night sky of Sequella, running down the glass roof of the royal institute of science, overwhelming the gutters and drains and causing water to simply run down the windows of Doctor Shad'ashis office.

The streetlights outside flickered through his simple wooden blinds, illuminating the far wall of the office with hypnotic waves as the water gushed its way down to the street below.

Not that Shad'ashi noticed as he hurried himself inside the office, his dark brown coat verging on black as he attempted to towel himself dry, muttering frustratedly as he flicked on the light, dulling the light flickering on his wall before removing it altogether with a pull of the blind strings.

"Computer, bring up the seismic telemetry from the last two days, compare them with the readings from this data slate..." Shad'ashi snorted as he placed a small notepad sized object onto his desk, both it and the desk immediately illuminating with holo displays.

Though his voice was calm and collected, his demeanour was anything but, pacing around on what little carpet remained on his floor with well worn hooves.

"Compiling..." Responded a somewhat static female voice, a crude imitation of what Starfleet technology had brought to Sequella. "Compiling..."

"You're getting slower than I am Shande..." Shad'ashi huffed, trying to calm his own nerves more than anything as he begrudgingly sat down at his desk, waiting for the random towers of holographic code to be given form.

"Well, to be fair professor... my main processing core will still be asleep until morning... so you may have to grow a few more grey hairs before I finish." Shande shot back, the small blue light sprite sat amongst the holo code flickering as she spoke.

A hot snort left his still wet nostrils in response. "I should never have let the students design your personality, they did far too good a job."

"I have completed the data transfer, projecting results... Oh? Doctor?" Shande asked inquisitively as her orb looked down upon a holographic projection of Sequella and her only landmass, Rellulla, seismic readings from several locations around its perimeter slowly blinked.

"I need you to keep a secret Shande, it's not a particularly important one... would just be embarrassing if people learnt about it." Shad'ashi grinned, still rubbing his mane dry with a towel.

Her sprite flickered wordless for a moment, as though sincerely thinking about the ones and zeros running through her code. "Consider me intrigued Doctor, very well... divulge your little secret."

"I may have found something, something that could change everything we know about Sequella... but I can't prove it, not yet anyway." The excitement in his voice mixed with the trepidation of it all, giving his words a strange unease to them.

"I am not following, Doctor... what do you..." She started before a large hoofed hand came hurtling onto the holoprojection, pointing a stubby finger at the centre of the map.

"The data, seismic readings! they all come from inland... they all point, here." He said in a hushed tone, tapping a finger into the heart of the Redsea, the vast barren desert that swelled in the heart of Rellulla, stretching for tens of thousands of kilometres and making up more than eighty per cent of all landmass above sea level.

"I... see," Shande answered as her processor ticked away, evaluating the colourful addition to the puzzle before her as she mapped out the paths of every reading from the seismic stations, their observations of sea tremors inadvertently tracking a strange pulse, happening at the same time every few days. "This is plausible Doctor, but highly unlikely given that there is no significant tectonic activity under Rellulla's plate."

"That's because it's artificial..."

"Doctor, have you been drinking again?" Shande asked as her light flickered quickly, a unique way of laughing she developed once it was found that her voice model never recorded any laughter.

"On a work night? Of course... but Shande, I'm serious... not even Starfleet ships can scan the heart of the Redsea, the Kelbonite and Sh'ledium deposits interfere too much... nobody really knows what's out there, we just... assume its all going to be sand." He already sounded defeated, grasping at his slightly inebriated theory with whatever logic he could muster.

"I understand now why you want me to keep this a secret, out of all the logic paths I have run... your suggestion is rather low on the odds, however," Shande started, slowly and silently drifting high off the desk until she was eye level with Shad'ashi. "I have seen lower odds be proven correct before, and I have also seen better odds be proven wrong... so, Doctor... when do we leave?"