Intelligence Gathering

Posted on Tue Sep 15th, 2020 @ 5:30pm by Commander Jamie O'Connell

Mission: By Odin!
Location: USS Independence
Timeline: Current

The chime of the communicator interrupted Jamie's perusal of the deeper mysteries contained in "Montgomery Scott's Theories On Trans-Warp Propulsion".

"Lieutenant O'Connell here, go ahead" Jamie responded to his communicator while bookmarking the page in his newly acquired book.

"This is Ensign Ferrón," replied the officer, "I am the operations officer assigned to prepare the mission orders. I have some technical questions about the Odinskusin...the Odinskosnar...the ship we will be escorting.

"Don't feel bad Ensign, I can't pronounce the race's name either. What exactly do you want to know" Jamie asked with a slight chuckle in his voice.

"Yes, sir," Jamie could almost hear the Ensign's face coloring, "according to the mission profile, the Odins...the race's ships travel intra-system using a combination of solar sail and short burst reaction mass ejection, but I can't figure out how they perform interstellar travel. They have the ability to form a warp field but I don't see any way to maneuver once it is created."

"Well...let me see" Jamie responded with his mind going-a-mile-a-minute "This is a very primitive arrangement. Sounds to me like there is some sort of device on the back end of the ship; sort of like a pair of 'rudders' which were used on the ancient Earth's sailing ships. That would be about the only way that they could steer the ship. They may have a sort of 'nacelle' arrangement on each back side of the ship which would enable them to navigate after the warp field was established; that would be their 'rudders', if you will. Hope that helps Ensign. It's tough to be sure without seeing the vessel up close."

"It doesn't sound like they would be able to generate much above Warp One with this arrangement," the Ensign observed, "It will make for a long trip back to Starbase 10. Thank you, sir. Ferrôn out."

Jamie opened his book again but his mind considered the conversation with the Ensign. Solar sails? Mass ejection? Rudders? Sounded like an old Earth sailing ship.

He read on but when he encountered a section discussing the flows of energy currents, his mind snapped back to the problem. Currents? Could it be? No one would be that crazy. At least, no one with advance warp theory.

Quickly Jamie pulled up the Federation Ship Database and searched for a ship that was similar to the one that the Ensign has described. After a few minutes he found what he was looking for; a 'primitive' design that relied on solar winds and warp currents. That ship had a cruising speed of warp 4 and could reach as fast as warp 4.8. That's it, that had to be how the Odins-whatever were planning to travel between the stars with such a primitive propulsion system. They were planning on riding the warp currents.

"O'Connell to Ensign Ferron" he said rather excitedly.

"Ensign Ferron, go ahead Lieutenant" was the response.

"Ensign it may not be such a long trip after all. I found a ship in the Federation Database similar to what you described. It says that it's cruising speed is about warp 4. They must be setting up some sort of 'warp field resonator' which would enable them to actually ride the warp currents in space in order to cruise at warp 4. It's not the safest way to maintain warp; if their warp field collapses then they are in big trouble." Jamie reasoned being very sure of his findings. "Hope this makes the mission not so boring for you."

"Thank you, sir," the Ensign sounded relieved, "That explains quite a bit."

As Jamie sat back on the couch, he couldn't help but think about his conversation with the Ensign. Hopefully the Odins-whatever have their propulsion system perfected or this mission could get real interesting real fast.