A Perfect Circle

Posted on 05 May 2024 @ 3:41pm by Lieutenant Commander Stovek

568 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Enigma Variations
Location: Cygnus Bridge

Having returned to his work station on the bridge of the Cygnus, Lieutenant Commander Stovek began to take a look at the broader picture and the broader facts. Until this point, he had been focusing his energies upon the data and situation of the moment; although that was a prudent course of action art the time, the Vulcan now needed to see things with even greater clarity. So, as any Vulcan would, Stovek began the rigorous and ruthless application of Logic. He closed his eyes and began to clear his mind, bringing his hands together in an almost prayer-like pose.

Logic is the cement of our civilization, with which we ascend from chaos, using reason as our guide. The words of the Philpsopher-Priestess T'Plana-Hath were a poignant beginning to logical medication; they served as a reminder of the primacy of Reason and Logic in Vulcan society. Her words served as a beacon for those beginning the ancient studies of Kolinahr. Although Stovek had accepted that the purging of all emotion was not his destiny, the words of T'Plana-Hath still brought focus and clarity.

Nothing that is is unimportant.The axiom, made famous by the Philosopher Xorr centuries ago, was the next step in Stovek's logical processes. The disciplined mind had an intrinsic means of ordering data and prioritizing facts...but Xorr's words reminded Stovek to consider as much of the data as possible, overlooking as little as possible. The blast hole in the hull of the freighter had been caused by something, but because the vessel's mainframe had a auto-deletion function in the sensor logs that severely hampered retrieving said logs. And the Bixilfiz crew were refusing to turn over the command codes. Which meant an even more rigorous analysis of the available empirical data.

Nothing unreal exists. Stonn's First Principle of Analysis, taught to every child in the Vulcan Educational System, was the next step in Stovek's analysis. Scans taken by the Cygnus upon arriving at the scene, as well as analysis of the limited debris, allowed for the construction of a detailed simulation of the moment the explosion had occurred. Local conditions indicated a moderate wash of Epsilon radiation, likely caused by the pair of eclipsing binary stars located 2.55 Light Years away. Stovek rewound the simulation until the moment of the explosion, then advanced the simulation 0.25 milliseconds at a time. Until this moment, Stovek had not realized the significance of something.

The explosion, the one that had crippled the Bixilfiz, had occurred on the exact midpoint of the vessel. And the power systems running through that area were stage one EPS taps. Only something requiring a lot of energy, like a warp engine, used stage 1 EPS taps. And only some sort of high level feedback could rupture the warp coils.

Tachyons. Accompanied by residual antiprotons. This was the only possibility based upon available data.

And what piece of technology produces tachyons as well as residual antiprotons? A cloaking device.

Confident in his logical processes, Stovek shook himself from his proverbial logic trance and stood up from his seat at the bridge Ops console. He tap the arrowhead-shaped chevron on his uniform that serves as a communication device.

"Captain, this is Lieutenant Commander Stovek. My analysis suggests the freighter's damage was caused by the detonation of a cloaking device. "

 

RSS Feed