<<Takes place the day before departure>>
[USS Charon, Astrophysics]
The five Vulcans silently floated through the doors, trailed by a less than enthusiastic yeoman who had drawn the short straw this day – or so his sour face suggested.
Immediately, a tall, dark haired male steered towards a brightly lit console to study readouts while another in rust colored robes made for a screen on the other side. And the old crow in charge didn't so much as blink. It was a bad day for Brzinski, to put it mildly.
And to top it all off, the only officer present was a Cadet.
"Afternoon, ma'am." The dark blonde human nodded towards the female and then blinked when he realized what species he was looking at. "Got some Vulcans for you. Esteemed councilwoman V'Laz, who seems to be in charge while the other one's not around, shellmouthed T'Kal over there and their entourage whose names I can't remember for the life of me. They've asked for a tour, which means they're going to poke their noses into everything within sight and if you could help me shepherding them I'd be eternally grateful. Rehu's going to blow a gasket if they start fiddling around with stuff and… HEY!" the latter was directed towards Voran who had lightly touched a panel and brought up sensor scans of Yy'a nebula in astonishing detail. "What did I tell you about touching stuff."
The Vulcan turned slightly, fixing an expressionless gaze on the fidgeting human and then quirked a brow at the Cadet who had found herself at the focus of the yeoman's attention.
"Greetings, Cadet. Might I ask what prompted this repeat analysis of plasma eddies?"
Aayla didn't turn around to answer the Vulcan, but instead nodded her head to address his question. "Good morning, and the analysis of plasma eddies in Yy'a was to look for a wormhole that may or may not exist." Aayla explained, refocusing the screen to turn to the stellar nursery the Vulcans were so hyped about. "And this is the stellar nursery you wanted us to see."
"Wormhole? Fascinating."
To the yeoman's chagrin, the flock of Vulcans immediately dispersed and every single one steered towards some screen or other.
"May we offer assistance in analyzing and filing the data?" for the first time during the tour, the willowy lady named V'Laz spoke up, standing politely in front of a console.
"If you'd like, but most of the Astrometric sensors are down due to repairs on the adjacent relays, so our sensor arc is fragmented." Aayla explained. "And this something you've been dying to study for years...." Aayla said, refocusing the long range sensors to an area of space she knew so well. "...Vre'allia."
The twin suns of the system glistened in the darkness of space around it. The mists shone brightly today with the swirling blue-green expanse wisped against the background of dense stars and nebula.
"That will present no problem." V'Laz replied evenly and within seconds, the screen in front of her changed from displaying a host of incoherent data to reorganizing itself into a stream of shimmering light. A few more taps at the console caused a translation matrix to activate and from this point on a band of drunken Klingons might have invaded the lab, none of the Vulcans fixated on various screens would have so much as twitched a brow.
All except T'Kal who kept an interested eye on the analyses her colleagues were running but stepped up to the display the Cadet had produced to let a level gaze linger on what the long range sensors could project at this distance.
"Indeed we would much prefer to study the stellar nursery. However, at this distance the data is fragmented at best, no?" While the optical representation was quite impressive, the datastream accompanying it could best be described as incoherent. No wonder T'Pelar was so intent on leaving, the potential for scientific discoveries one could anticipate even at this distance was … extraordinary. But they would have to get much closer before being able to do anything meaningful with these readouts.
"Will the repairs be completed in time for departure, then?"
While Aayla's ears were hidden behind the strip of cloth that wrapped around her head, covering her empty eye sockets, her sensitive ears perked up at the mention of departure. "Departure for where?" She asked.
Quirking a mildly bemused bow at the young Cadet, T'Kal turned back to appreciate the swirls of a green golden nebula being displayed on one of the secondary screens "Your original destination, of course. The Stellar Cluster which Charon was sent to investigate. I have been given to understand that we will proceed there without further delays."
Aayla turned to T'Kal. "Well thats........ great, I wasn't aware we would get there so soon, I've charted the outer layers, it's a class three globular cluster, much like the Vree Cluster, I've designated it Charon for now because of its dimensions, one hundred eleven light years across and eighty three developed stars." Aayla explained exuberantly. "Here is my charting before the attack." Aayla said, bringing up her data on the Charon cluster.
The Vulcan stepped onto the platform, studying the holographic representation floating before her with a practiced eye. Silently as a Le-Matya stalking across the hills, Voran had moved to her side and pointed at a blue supergiant, frozen in time, hovering over the smooth, dark surface of the platform.
Nodding slowly, the elder woman made a sweeping gesture towards a T-Tauri object with an impressive accretion disc. What might be hidden behind those swirls, rendered in crimson and gold by the information Charon's sensors had been able to collect?
"Fascinating." Voran murmured, and suddenly his eyes narrowed at a dark speck showing in the middle of a crimson cloud.
"Cadet, would it be possible to zoom in on this area?" He pointed towards the protostar, as openly curious as a Vulcan can possibly be.
"Lets see....." Aayla said, switching off the database scans and moving to the Borg/Starfleet sensors used on all Starfleet ships with Astrometrics labs since the return of Voyager. "...yes." She said zooming in on the protostar. "My sensors indicate that based on the method developed by the stellar cartographers on the Enterprise-D forty years ago, this star will form into a SOL type star." Aayla explained.
A sudden beep at the Astrometrics console opposite Aayla made her slowly turn around.
"Now that's a scientific find." She said looking at the data.
If they hadn't been Vulcans, they might have frowned at the fact that all they had to work with was this image, a long range scan taken weeks ago, little more than an archive picture despite all its unmoving splendor. But by and large, they have a reputation for being a patient race, T'Pelar's recent flights of fancy notwithstanding.
So T'Kal merely nodded at the Vree Cadet, casting this unusual being a curious glance which was brief enough to not be intrusive and nodded affirmation.
"We expect a great number of those, Cadet." She stated levelly and watched young Voran with an indulgent air about her.
The younger Vulcan had joined the Vree and was engaged in a murmured debate concerning the possibility of this massive swirl becoming a G-Type and possible time frames.
Her gaze however was drawn back to the dark spot looming amidst colors.
An inaccurate rendering of the sensors due to the great distance? Or something else?
Behind T'Kal, analyses were conducted, theories spun and discarded, and the low hum of Vulcans having a grand time (though they'd rather drop dead than admit it) permeated the cavernous room.
In front of her, their destination beckoned.
If only they would not arrive too late.
Aayla continued to debate with Voran about the time frame of the star coming into full bloom, but they both agreed on a time between 750,000 and 1.2 million years from now. (She have to wait a while until she was proven correct.). T'Kal stood behind her, looking at a place Aayla had initially shoved off as an inaccurate sensor reading, but maybe T'Kal saw something more.
Aayla and Voran continued their debate for the remainder of the afternoon and T'Kal offered her input of a nod or cocked eye brown once in a while, but besides that, she just stood there behind Aayla and Voran, looking at a seemingly unimportant patch of space in the Universe.
[End Log]
Cdt Aayla Bre'accoria
Stellar Cartographer
USS Charon
Voran, V'Laz et al
Vulcan Science Council
