Firebird, Torch and Inferno search for Sagan

Almost four hours later as the Captain's Yacht of the USS Phoenix approached the designated region where the shuttle Sagan was believed to have been lost, the Firebird and its escorts, shuttles Torch and Inferno, all arrived respectively to totally void space.

During that flight, Elliago had of course noticed the obvious missing right antenna on the head of the Andorian pilot, the one with the curiously human-sounding name. He had pointed out to her that regenerative treatment could restore the missing appendage in less than a year, but the blue-skinned woman had answered with a noncommital one word comment and he had not insisted further. He was all too well familiar with Andorians, having even served under one, to know that you did not harass one, even for his or her own good, without risking provoking one. And Andorians might not be easily provoked, but once they were...

She assured him, albeit with only the typically Andorian few, curt and stoic sentences,  that she had acclimated a long time ago to her loss. Her balance and depth of perception were now no better than that of a Human, but she could still hear and smell better; although her hearing was significantly impaired as much on her right side as to the rear. Hence why she always chose the right side seat or positionning anywhere she went, like currently at the forward station of the cockpit, with speakers oriented towards her left side to pick up all noises around her.

There were lots of people in Starfleet serving with even greater disabilities; Starfleet ships were always easily able to provide a lot of compensating tools like those speakers she was using. But the CMO of the Phoenix thought it good and proper to remind her that she did not for one have to endure her own unless she chose to. There was probably some deep personal significance to the loss and he knew better than to try to pry. At least, she knew she could be whole again. It was up to her now, Hyppocratic Oath obliged.

At her science station aboard the Firebird, the aforementioned Andorian Kalynda Hunter continued scanning throughout the area as the shuttle began to decelerate. There were no traces of the shuttle anywhere. She confirmed her lack of findings with the other two shuttles before addressing the shuttles commanding officer.

"Commander Riker. Our scanners have not picked up any traces of the Sagan in this region. If she were here recently, all signs confirming this have somehow been eliminated."

"Sir" the Bolian pilot Grexx Auder chimed in to the commanding officer as well. "Perhaps we can increase our search radius by having the other two shuttles spread out in equal distances from us as we continue searching."   

Looking up from then screen below him Commander Riker responded.

"We will need to increase our own search radius as well.  I want us to use a rotating frequency scan, rotate spectrums if you have to I do not want any stone unturned."

Reaching down Commander Riker pressed the controls next to his command chair and opened a channel to the other shuttles in the search party.

"Attention this is Commander Riker.  In order to increase our search radius and efficiency I want all ships to form up at an equidistant rotating triangle search pattern.  Modulate your sensors for a rotating frequency scan and I want a 30 degree overlap of long distance and short distance searches."

Waiting for the visual response from the other ships, Commander Riker looked and scanned around to everyone around him.  Nodding, he spoke.

"Let's make it happen." 

Elliago Nasaro-Myth sat back and crossed his arms so as to not start fidgeting. Until they found the Sagan, there was nothing he could do. His colleagues knew their jobs and he had to let them proceed with the search. His own team and equipment were ready for any medical emergency and situation... up to and including autopsies. This last prospect was grim but, like any Starfleet officer, he knew how unforgiving space was; it was the most hostile environment to life and travelling through it in a fragile metal shell with an antimatter bomb at it's rear end was not the safest of endeavors. A loss of contact with a spacecraft had more chances to equate death than anything else.

But still, he was a healer. Hope was ingrained in his being. And so he sat quietly, waited... and hoped for the best.

The three shuttles of the USS Phoenix fanned out and continued their coordinated effort for hours with no results. There was just nothing out there to detect.

Yet the more useless this endeavor appeared to be, the more unrelenting and determined the Andorian science officer aboard the Firebird became as she remained focused on her task. Some may call it a form of intuition, but she just had a sense that there had to be something out there that they were missing. Logic dictated that the Sagan shuttle had to be somewhere. They just need to figure out where.

As the time passed, Kalynda continued to work the science console and the sensors of the Firebird like a woman possessed.  She kept systematically sweeping the area and modulating frequencies as they crisscrossed the region looking for anything. That is until she found nothing; but this time an unexpected nothing.

She sent out another wave of senor sweeps to confirm and then just blurted out "Commander Riker. I found something.... I mean I found nothing.... I mean I found nothing that is something"

Realizing that she wasn't making any sense, she calmed down a bit and drew in a few deep breaths.

"Commander, as I was re-modulating these scans, I suddenly noticed at this frequency that my sensors were slightly refracting in space. But it is not in a fixed part of space. I've now intercepted twice a small region that is apparently in motion, but when my sensors intercept that small area, they cause the sensors to slightly bend around that region. It is so small that I could barely detect it. But we may have come closer to it as we traveled about this region and I suddenly noticed the miniscule shift. Yet my sensors continue to show that there is nothing there where these refractions occur."

Then almost to herself she muttered "It is most peculiar"

Kalynda then continued plugging the data into the shuttles computers.

"Sir" the Andorian woman continued, "if we coordinate this data with the other two shuttles, then we should be able to triangulate its projected path and begin to follow this anomaly together."  

"Most peculiar indeed.  Make it so."

Tapping his comms pad Riker spoke.

"Attention everyone this is Commander Riker.  We have discovered an anomaly in the sensors and are going to triangulate our scans on the area.  We are sending over our sensor data now."

Nodding to Kalynda as if to tell her to send it out Riker continued.

"If this thing shows any signs of movement then we are going to want to not only track it but stay ahead of it.  Any changes we should be scanning both the immediate surrounding area and the space in the projected path of whatever the hell this is." 

The Captain's yacht and the two accompanying shuttles linked up their sensors and data into a dynamic configuration allowing them to create a sensory net as they traveled in a three-dimensional delta-like formation through this narrowed region of sector space. 

They eventually matched the velocity of the anomaly and followed it in proximity above, below and behind it respectively  as it traveled. From what Kalynda could ascertain, this anomaly was showing no detectable affects on any of the shuttles.

The Andorian scientist continued to bombard the anomaly with sensor sweeps as the shuttles traversed a parallel course with it. 

"Commander, based on the refraction patterns occurring from our scans, this anomaly appears to be spherical in nature. But it also seems to be consistently yet slowly condensing as it travels; although I am still trying to calculated a specific rate of compression. Currently, it is sufficiently spacious enough to hold several large ships insides, but so far this pattern indicates that this condition will only be for a finite time period."

They all understood the consequences of this realization: time was running out to rescue this ship if it was somehow contain within this anomaly.

Kalynda then set her mind back to wonder what this anomaly was and how the Sagan could have been trapped within it. She began to replay in her mind all of the events that led up to the Sagan's disappearance that she could recall. They initially seemed to merely be a series of disjointed events.

In exasperation, she outwardly sighed in frustration.

"This is an enigma Commander" the Andorian woman pondered, almost to herself.

She then addressed the commanding officer once again, allowing her thoughts to just spill out.

"Perhaps something occurred within the composition of that nebula the Phoenix traveled through... with all of those scattered pockets of the thalaron radiation we tried to avoid, and then remnant materials emanating from the disengaged quantum slipstream drive. Maybe these substances reacted as a sort of catalyst... affecting the position or even the existence of the Sagan within normal space."

Her blue-hued brow crinkled as she contemplated this even further.

"If this is the case and the Sagan was somehow caught in a type of alternate reality or has been pulled out of our normal space-time continuum into this anomaly that we are following, then how could we establish even a temporary stable threshold to communicate with them let alone return them back to local space?"

As if the paradox was a personal insult Riker mumbled to himself.

"I hate temporal mechanics"

Looking around Riker sighed and frowed his brow before speaking.

"If we were to attempt to reverse the process, if we can even figure out what the process is what effect do you think that would have?"

Contemplating the questions presented in response to her question, Kalynda replied rather sheepishly.

"I am not certain Commander."

A silence fell within the confides of the Firebird. With no immediate solution available, the question paradoxically lingered; as if was rhetorical.

As Kalynda continued scanning, another idea manifested itself among a cacophony of thoughts.

She turned to address the commanding officer of the Firebird once again.

"Sir, what if we also adjust the phase variance in addition to the frequency of our sensors in small increments? I am not certain what affect this may actually have... but these inverted sensors may eventually find a synchronized variance that could match that of this anomaly and allow us to at least penetrate this aberration with a narrowed communication beam."

The Andorian science officer looked at Commander Riker as he listened attentively, yet Kalynda herself wasn't certain that this idea made any sense or would even work as the words escaped from her lips. Nevertheless, this was the sort of unique and often unconventional manner in which she approached unusual situations. It was now up to Riker to determine what happened next.

Lieutenant junior grade Taylor Nyambi had spent most of the trip out from the Phoenix in relative silence. Her specialty, communications, had seemed a pointless addition to a routine search mission. Atthough communication's was required on all missions and day-to-day travel, her placement on board the Firebird had seemed ... overkill. So she had monitored all subspace comms dutifully and had also assisted in the mundane chore of inter-ship communications with the escorts Inferno and Torch.

Suddenly, the previous conversation between Commander Riker and Lieutenant Hunter must have penetrated her mundane, mission induced lethargy and she caught on something that the Andorian had spoken of earlier.She broke into the conversation to address the Firebird's commander.

"Sir! The Phoenix traveled through here under quantum drive! And the quantum slipstream drive parameters are derive from the original development based on the Intrepid class data from Voyager on her Delta quadrant voyage."

Noticing that the entire crew were now staring at her raptly, Taylor thought sheepishly that the crew was no doubt wondering what this mostly silent crew mate had been eating to affect her now, during this crisis at all times. Regardless, she pressed on, looking solely now at Commander Riker.

"What I'm trying to get at Commander is that the Phoenix' main deflector operated at a phase variance also. Lieutenant Hunter may be on to something here. The original Voyager investigations revealed a phase variance of zero point four two. We used the same variation during the flight through here. I know this because I was monitoring the main deflector during the flight. Perhaps the lieutenant's idea should start at point four two and work up and down from there along the frequency. It may be that the Phoenix slip steam is at the same variance as this bubble thing."

While she awaited the order to proceed from the commanding officer, Kalynda nodded an appreciate acknowledgement to the slightly taller human female communications officer who had just spoke up and offered a starting point for her idea. She then began to adjust the phase variance on the sensors at zero point four-two as suggested.

With her fingers ready to initiate the first round of sensor sweeps, Kalynda gazed up at Commander Riker and eagerly awaited his decision.  

Looking around Riker rubbed his beard and then addressed the people inside the Firebird.

"I do not expect everyone to agree with all of my decisions or even want to face the danger, trust me where I came from not wanting to face danger does not make you a coward.  In most cases it makes you smart.  There is no guarantee the success rate of what we are about to try, but no one and I mean no one gets left behind on my watch as long as I have breath and am wearing this uniform.  Anyone who objects feel free to do so I will note it in my log and I give you my word as both your Commander and as Joshua Riker the man I will not hold it against you."

No one spoke up.  With an almost proud nod Riker, Turning to look towards Kalynda Hunter, gave the order.

"Set the phase variance of the sensors as needed.  Steady as she goes take us directly into the anomaly."

Leaning back slightly Riker turned his head to crack his neck and then looked back to his panel reading for the changes.

With the order to proceed confirmed, Kalynda Hunter began implementing the phase variance of the Firebird's sensors directly on the spheroid anomaly traveling in a straight line ahead of them. She began increasing the variance in small increments and checked her instruments carefully to see if there was any indication of a reaction or change in the readings.

After completing a series of phase changes both above and below the zero point four-two starting point, Kalynda was silently disappointed to note that this process had no affect on the senor readings or on the readings of the anomaly itself.

She continued to mull over these results for a while longer until she realized that she hadn't adjusted the frequency of the sensors while increasing or decreasing the phase variance. Kalynda then set-up another round of tests. This time though she would calibrate the frequency to run through a complete cycle for each incremental phase change that was implemented.

Once this procedural application was locked into her console, she engaged the program. Even though this automated process would take much longer to complete than her initial attempt, it would also be more thorough and precise. Her vision was locked onto the display of the data stream as it began to pour in from the sensors once again.

As Kalynda continued to watch the results stream in, nothing noteworthy occurred.  Despite this, she did not flinch but stayed focused on the numbers on the display as this process continued unabated.

Then suddenly she noticed that the sensor display did not refract as it reached the anomaly as it had all of the other times, but had silently went straight toward the spheroid and then just disappeared. Nothing came out the other side.

With controlled excitement, she immediately paused the program and noted both the phase variance and the current frequency of the sensors.

She turned immediately to the commanding officer with a looked of exhilaration radiating from her expression.

"Sir, I believe that I have found the phase and frequency combination required to penetrate this anomaly!"

Without hesitation Riker shouted.

"Do it."

Kalynda immediately turned to the human communications officer.

"Lieutenant Nyambi, if you could create a simple message... perhaps identifying who we are and what we believe we have figured out so far, we can try to send it via a carrier wave at this specific phase and frequency combination into the anomaly. Even if they are unable to decipher the message, they may at least be alerted to our presence out here."

Throwing together the requested message, Nyambi quickly sent it to the Andorian science officer to include onto the probing beam, via a piggy backed carrier wave. Basically, the message was short and to the point: ‘USS Firebird to Shuttle Sagen; Respond at frequency and phase variance ??.’

The short message conveyed the status of the sender as Federation; the USS part, and the point of the receiver; Sagan. It also included the frequency and phase variance arrived at by Hunter so that the shuttle, if it was inside this bubble in space, to respond in kind back out of it.

Aboard the Firebird, with a brief message compiled and ready for an attempted delivery, Kalynda drew in a subtle yet deep breath as she muttered to herself "here we go"

The Andorian science officer carefully engaged the synchronized phase and frequency combination into the sensors with a piggy-backed message attached directly toward the anomaly traveling before them. She watched her console display with bated breath for a few seconds as the signal traveled into the center of the anomaly and then just disappeared without refracting by any discernible measure.

She then exclaimed "I think that it worked!"

She then noted a bit more evenly  "I'm going to wait a few moments and then sent another signal into this thing. Perhaps if someone in there detects this signal,  it will give anyone seeing it a chance to figure out how to respond back."

Kalynda then prepared to send another signal into the anomaly.