Turning the Problem (N'vok Roll Call Post)

Posted on Fri Jan 5th, 2024 @ 12:40pm by Lieutenant N'vok Holv

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: Science Office
Timeline: MD6?
774 words - 1.5 OF Standard Post Measure

N’vok leaned back in his chair in the science office. “Computer, display hologram sequence Family Three.”

“Affirmative,” replied the computer and began to cycle through the holograms of the Holv family, the last time they had all been together. When he rejoined Starfleet, it was with the full support of his wife and his children. They all knew he would be away, but they were supposed to be able to keep in touch through the wonders of the subspace network.

He hoped they were all well. Logically, they should be. The Federation is almost universally safe. But, logical analysis is not the same as knowing, as talking to them. The myth of Vulcans being emotionless, was just that, a myth, they just held them tightly under control, so as not to interfere with the proper analysis of the situation at hand.

Logic was cold comfort at the moment. Away from his family, still not fully recovered from his injuries, at least that is all he could think of that made him miss the alien artifact as the source of the psi wave disruptions. Never theorize before facts, he knew better, but approaching the sector of space controlled by the slavers seemed to be the obvious trigger for the nightmares, not something that was already aboard. At least it was gone now and only troubling him and not the entire crew.

He forced such thoughts down and away and tried to lose himself in the gentle nostalgia of the holograms but it was no use. “Computer, end program. Call up what information we have on the Slavers and their technology, sorted by confirmed technologies to speculated.”

“Affirmative,” the hologram shifted from Vulcans together to various forms of technology from ships to implants, a wide range and far too much in the speculation section.

“Run comparison to known and reported technologies from outside the Alpha Quadrant,” he asked, knowing this was a sign of his frustration. There was no new information and previous searches had yielded no results.

He tapped his fingers on the desk. There was something that was missing, no he was missing something. “Computer, randomize the images and redisplay.”

N’vok leaned forward as the holograms flickered back into existence. “Magnify item seven by four.” He looked at it. “Rotate object.” He leaned forward, studying it. “Change contrast, bring up the blue and green spectrum.”

He leaned back. “That could be an explanation. Computer, compare these objects to known and suspected Precursor artifacts.” He watched as matches started to appear. “Never assume, always question.”

“Computer, stellar map of the local area. Do we have any idea if there are any known Precursor ruins in the local area?”
“Negative, our information on the local area remains minimal,” replied the computer.

“Run local systems against our knowledge of preferred Precursor worlds, are there any potential matches?” asked N’vok.

“Potential, yes. But the variables are wide and our knowledge of Precursor preferences remains in the realm of speculation,” answered the computer.

“I know, this is building a theory on sand as we do not have the information we need,” said N’vok. “Still, it is a possibility that makes sense. Tag the worlds with a greater than twenty percent match with known Precursor worlds in the Federation in blue.”

“Affirmative.” A handful of worlds changed color.

“And fifty percent or more? Tag in indigo,” said N’vok. Only two changed color. “Change to yellow any of these not controlled by the Slavers.” Only one of the blue did so. “Illuminate Slaver claimed space in pink.” The color shifted, only the yellow-tagged world was outside the pink region which had some odd bulges to reach those spots of color.

N’vok learned back, “Correlation is not causation but . . .”

“Is there a question?” asked the computer after a moment.

“No, not yet,” he stared at the map. “Please contact any xeno-archaeoloigist we have on staff or specialist in Precursor studies. And that Mister Dosivi as well, he knows the local area and may be able to provide some insight. Let them know I would like to speak to them as they have time. I think I may have some insight but I need more information to confirm or deny it.”

“Affirmative, Lieutenant, messages sent,” said the computer.

“Thank you,” he said tapping out notes on his datapad. “Now, run an analysis on the slavers' ships. See if the designs have changed over the years.”

“Affirmative though we are running on an extremely limited dataset,” replied the computer.

N’vok sighed. “Yes, yes, I know. Make do with what we have. We have to start somewhere.”

“Affirmative.”