mack updates andrews further

Posted on Tue Oct 12th, 2021 @ 3:52pm by Lieutenant Julius Mack
Edited on on Tue Oct 12th, 2021 @ 4:04pm

Mission: Consult the Anomaly
Location: fake source of message: Fleet accounting, topic: 5000 credit irregularity for questionable services

ON:

Mack has been scanning with a combination of his customized equipment and periodic appearances at his science station
on the bridge. He noted Genno's annoyance with the limerick and concluded that since it would have offended her people,
that he probably would not have gotten the joke anyway. He chose not to bring it up with Genno, who seemed to be enjoying
the command chair.

From his quarters he sent a message to Andrews, encrypted "for your eyes only" but outwardly appearing to be about Sprague's
expenditures. Really the un-encrypted, text-only message read as follows:

" Update: The Anomaly appears to have drastically different parallax compared to the charted class B star. From our frame of reference, the
anomaly appears to be "behind" the known 4595 star system but in reality might not even be in federation space, and could be outside the galaxy.
That is, Far enough away that the signal may be very old and the origin civilization no longer exists. Eventually we might earn some brownie
points with Fleet by updating their cartographic records about this area of space, assuming we learn anything materially accurate
about it. I am inclined to suggest that we veer somewhat off course, and maintain warp 5 for a couple of reasons:
a) in case the suspect vessel has already detected us, it might be to our benefit to appear vague about where we are going, so as not
to appear to be challenging them
b) veering off course MIGHT make the parallax a bit easier to measure, thus giving us a somewhat more-accurate idea of just how far away
the anomaly is, compared to estimated distance to the 4595.1 class B star system, and to potentially differentiate signals from either source.

In any case the suspect vessel seems to be in a very big hurry to get to wherever they think the anomaly is transmitting from. Maybe their
sensors are also somehow compromised or their commander is just enchanted by visions of great wealth and status from making some
major discovery (or claiming to own it). Motive is still unclear but behavior seems obvious enough. They are heading "there" in a big hurry.

The suspect vessel might be of ferengi design but appears to be cloaked with a romulan tachyon signature. At this point my best guess is that
this is the same vessel that we engaged at the security perimeter of Starbase 10, which we did quietly wing with a phaser blast during the
simulated-attack scenario that the Ferengi (and everyone else) evidently fell for. The phaser blast hit a port nacelle and the Ferengi either
neglected to detect that damage or were in such a huge hurry to get to sector 4595 that they did not bother repairing the damage. In any case
their tachyon trace is detectable to any sensor array tuned for tachyon emissions and doppler adjusted for a vessel traveling at high warp.

The other detail is that such a vessel, consumes quite a lot of antimatter fuel in a configuration like that. Unless they took on a potentially destabilizing
accessory warp core before getting under way, it is very likely that upon discovering that the anomaly is much farther away (and even the class B star
is as well) that they will find themselves alone in space without any fuel left, other than impulse and life support. Nor that for very long.

Unless of course they are counting on meeting other reinforcements somewhere.

I will continue as ordered unless you have any different orders.

regards, Mack.
"
OFF: