Brainstorming
Posted on Fri Jul 31st, 2026 @ 11:03am by Petty Officer 1st Class Dalen Rhys & Lieutenant Wynning Pi & Lieutenant JG Daniella Fox & Lieutenant JG Melody Piper
2,276 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Mission 1: Through the Janus Gate
Location: Departmental Briefing Room | USS Resolute
Timeline: MD001 - 1011 hours
Dani spent a little time researching ideas, then sent a message to Wyn. "Hey, do you want to meet a little early to talk hardware and software?"
Touching his comm, Wyn looked up from the model renderings he was busy adding layers of information from the sensor feeds over the work table in engineering. "Sounds like a good plan. If you like, I've just about got all of the latest information built into the simulation here in engineering."
"That sounds great. I'll be right there." She saved what she had onto a PADD and headed for engineering. There was still plenty of time to let Melody know where they were meeting. But just in case it would be best to stay in engineering, she brought the cookies with her.
She smiled as she approached Wyn. "Hi. It looks like you've accomplished more than I did." Then again, ops often worked around engineering's framework.
Dalen followed a pace behind Dani, carrying his own PADD and wearing the mild, unreadable look of someone already sorting the problem into systems, loads, tolerances, and things that would probably become Ops’ headache later. He offered Wyn a small nod as he stepped in, then moved to Dani’s side near the work table, content to let the officers speak while he quietly took in the simulation.
Arms folded, wearing his customary shop smock, Why watched as more layers were added and the modeling changed slightly. "The computer thinks it has most everything layered in and the best current systems information," Wyn said distractedly. He tapped some commands into the table and the entire image froze and flashed red twice. "Ok, it's saved and we can start the theoretical testing as you like. I need to monkey with the parameters, but it's all a learning process. The computer will do the same, of course."
"We're pulling information about the power it's emitting. How about we start applying it to the Resolute to see how the model reacts? It'll processes based on the captain's SOPs for reactions."
Dani nodded. "Yes. I want to see where the power goes and how it's utilized. That will help me know what systems are affected."
Dalen studied the frozen model for a moment, his eyes moving over the object rather than the readouts first. Whatever else it was, it had presence. Too much of it, really, for anything that was meant to behave politely.
“That’s not exactly a pocket device,” he said, glancing down at his PADD as fresh figures began to settle. “Something that size, generating that kind of output, is going to be hungry. Not just active-system hungry either. If it’s doing anything more than sitting there glowing ominously, it’ll need a serious power source behind it.”
"Yes, but why? As you said, that kind of output is not just for a trip around the system. How is it contained--if it's contained. Where does that power go, or what does it fuel? And if it's dangerous, can we stop it or control it?" Dani had a few broad theories, but she wanted to know where to focus them to even begin to understand what they were facing.
Melody walked in, having a bit of an apologetic smile.
"Hi, sorry if I am late." her eyes going towards the device, giving a bit of a shiver." "That thing just looks rather ominous."
Wyn glanced up distractedly and half waived as he backed up the recordings and ran everything ahead to the present time frame, watching the numbers. The images didn't change so much, but the readings did. "Energy output is increasing, though it appears to happen in waves. Kind of like the tide coming in. And the pattern is... changing?" Tapping a few more commands, he inserted a colored representation to the model and a muddy, bloody red color showed the energy outputs. "Why wouldn't the power outputs be constant, though that depends on the source of course."
As the waves touched the model of the Resolute, he said, "Doesn't appear too abnormal. Nothing shields can't handle at this point at least. Anyone seeing something different?"
Melody breathed in through her nose letting out slowly, the information that she had found out earlier still gave her the chills.
"Jorren and I discovered something you might want to look into" Melody began, her eyes tracking the waves that were being measured. "He and I discovered something that caused us some concern. We discovered some symbols that weren't Dominion." looking over towards the others there.
Looking up from monitoring the power flow, Wyn asked. "Not Dominion? Ok, lots of tech is built upon ideas or something taken from others. The Pakleds rarely have an original thought, but they are good at making things work together that we might not even consider. So, who's tech did the Dominion build on?"
"There are a few known species that have created powerful devices similar to this, but they haven't been around for a long time," Dani said. "Could this be some ancient device the Pakleds came across? Scientists have discovered a number of formerly inhabited planets, right?" She turned to Melody for answers.
"In some way yes. what Jorren and I discovered, the Dominion may have gotten hold of an Iconian gateway, and decided to experiment to make their own way to travel, without using the wormhole. I don't know why they quit working on it, nor do I know how the Pakleds had gotten hold of it." Melody responded.
"Why does that make me think they failed in some way?" Dani asked. "And if they failed, the Pakleds may have a problem on their hands."
Smoothing his hair with both hands, Wyn then looked at the model and said absently, "Rule of Acquisition Seventy Five says 'Home is where the Heart is, but the Stars are made of latinum'. And Rule One oh Two says, 'Nature decays, but latinum is forever.'" Musing he realized he'd spoken out loud and started slightly, before saying, "Used to deal with a few Ferengi, among others, to get non-standard parts sometimes. Basically, though the Pakleds will see anything that doesn't kill them right off as a win. If it works now, 'We're fine. Everything is fine. Nothing to see here. How are you?', sort of mentality."
"And then they jack up the price," Dani added, chuckling. "What is that saying...Never trust a Ferengi when money is on the line."
Dalen had been watching the shield response rather than the model itself. “It’s not the amount I’d worry about yet. Each pulse is arriving on a slightly different frequency.”
He enlarged the comparison on his PADD. “It could be tuning. Run the pattern against our shield harmonics and warp field. If one of those waves starts coupling instead of dispersing, the shields holding now won’t mean very much.”
"That is certainly something to worry about, and if, and if what Jorren and I discovered who know what sort of catastrophic event could happen." Melody responded, still eyeing the readings.
"Tuning, or testing?" Dani asked. "And what happens when it stops? Can we shield against whatever it is?"
At that question, Wyn switched the model test and more information streamed down over the Resolute from the Pakled ship. "Then we're into the deflectors..." he said, mostly to himself again. The information streamed and stress points began impacting the Sovereign classes shields. "As of right here and right now," he said, "We should be fine. But that power output is changing constantly. Best educated guess is we'll be fine."
Then he straightened and began sketching out more math in the air, the holo-projector picking up his finger movement to allow the figures to hang in the air. "Right up until we're not.." he said after a minute. As he finished the last algorithm, the numbers all drained down over the model of the ship and projected image of the Resolute abruptly broke apart.
"Oops," Wyn said as he froze the feed. Backed it up and stared at the pieces as they ruptured and more mathematical information leaked out, representing the catastrophic failure that had just modeled out. "Well, that could be a problem. Seems there was, and I quote the computer, an unknown variance within the power itself that went through the deflector as one sort of power and hit the shields with something totally different."
Wyn sped the model’s destruction ahead, then backed it up again a few times before he reached down and pulled a data string out that wriggled like a caught worm before he flicked it up and the numbers displayed the information. "For some reason, the data read as a chroniton spike, which the deflector's itself altered. The shields take the information from the deflector, but generally it's all happening so fast it lost it in the clutter. Interesting."
"Fascinating. Keeping that in check is going to take some finessing," Dani mused. "Or a way to bottle it up while keeping it from overloading." She looked at the others. "The chronitons complicate matters."
She paused, thinking. "Wyn, is there a way to contain the energy while still allowing the excess to bleed off somewhere or be used up?"
Wyn didn't say anything for a minute as he reviewed the models and let the computer work, then he shook his head. "No way to know, at this point. There's a lot of theory here and the information we have is wonky enough that I'd be guessing. There should be a way," he said, emphasizing the word should. "But that’s the thing with unknowns. The chronitons themselves are dangerous enough that I'll be updating the protocols on the ablative armor matrix to make sure they don't lodge or get released in bad batches. Science will want to look at those anyway, so get your order in early Melody," Wyn said with a grin as he continued to sort through the numbers that were casting a red tinge on his face. "After that, we'll have to play it by ear. Once we get more time to analyze everything...maybe something will clear up."
Dani nodded slowly. "Agreed. Until we get more data--and science--we're just spitting out theories. At least we have a better idea of what we're looking at, which helps."
Dalen had been quiet through the last run, watching the instant the model failed rather than the pieces that came after. He reached into the display and drew the sequence back until the Resolute was whole again.
“There.”
He enlarged the exchange between the navigational deflector and the shield grid.
“We’re letting the deflector tell the shields what hit it after it’s already changed the signal.” Dalen pulled a second data path away from the first. “Split the feed. Give the shield controller the raw sensor returns as well. The moment the two readings stop agreeing, it freezes the harmonic cycle instead of trying to adapt.”
A few more adjustments placed a thin field ahead of the main shield envelope.
“Keep this separate from the defensive grid. It takes the first contact, dumps whatever it catches into an isolated capacitor bank, then we bleed that off through the forward phaser arrays between pulses.”
He started the simulation again. The red wave rolled over the ship. The outer field buckled, collapsed and disappeared.
The Resolute remained intact.
Dalen watched the figures settle. “It won’t contain it for long. It should stop our own systems making things worse, though.”
He saved the configuration and sent it across to Wyn and Dani.
“That gives us something we can put in place now. Science can tell us later why it works.”
Melody had gone quiet as she was absorbing what Wynn and the others were demonstrating. She looked impressed and the thought and theory of the harmonics it resonated.
She finally spoke up, "I'll definitely be looking into why it works. What you have come up with though, looks rather sound. And I am relieved." Melody looking at those there. "And perhaps this is my cue to go look into why this works. If you would send that to me as well?" Looking at Dalen.
Dalen glanced to Melody. “I’m sure the chief will pass on anything relevant.”
With a nod, Melody looked towards Wynn and Daniella. "Thank you. I'll see you all later I'll head back to science. And great work there." giving a smile before she turned to leave.
Watching the routing, Wyn pushed the simulation into a continuous run mode and ordered the computer to keep everything running and he added it to one of the systems stations in main engineering, set to update him hourly. The words of the others finally sank in and he said, "Thank you both. Nice work indeed. We’ll continue to run the model, letting the real time information update continuously. Then we can duplicate it at any point and through more hypothesis at it, see what sticks and maybe keep everyone alive for another day. I'm going to concentrate on that: using what we learn as we get closer to keep the ship and crew in one piece and then see what kind of time I can squeeze out."
Dani nodded. "Sounds good." Dani nodded at the model. "Really good work, Wyn. Thanks." She smiled and then headed back to operations.
Lieutenant JG Melody Piper
Chief Science
USS Resolute
Lieutenant Wynning Pi
Chief Engineer
USS Resolute
Lieutenant JG Daniella Fox
Chief Operations Officer
USS Resolute
Petty Officer 1st Class Dalen Rhys
Operations Officer
USS Resolute
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