Subject: Grail: 'The Great Brightness' - Lines of Enquiry

USS Grail: 'The Great Brightness' - Lines of Enquiry

by

Eve Mallory & Jarel Deshaine

<<Stardate 47307.30 - 15:00>>

<<Science Department>>

<<OOC: First up, come with us on a trip back in time to the

previous day, and the previous chapter.

As of the end of this post there are now *TWO* Asst.

Chief Science Officers, one for Alpha Shift and one for Beta.

The ACSO for Beta shift is an NPC, but the one for Alpha is...

well, read on.>>

The doors hissed open as Jarel walked into the Science Lab and

looked around. He was scheduled to have meeting with Lt

Mallory in an hour to discuss what equipment would be needed

to recreate Seyetik’s work and how long it would take to finish

the project and he did not want this meeting to be as unsatisfying

as the last one. Pulling Seyetik’s information was an easy thing to

accomplish. There was the complete twenty- volume

autobiography that Seyetik had just finished prior to his demise as

well as the complete records of his terrafarming marvels. It was in

these records that Jarel hoped he could the answers that could

save the doomed planet.

Seyetik’s model was an easy one to build. It required a

single torpedo armed with a high-powered warhead equipped

with the missing combustion elements of the sun. The elements

would infuse itself back into the sun’s crust, and in theory begin

burning brightly once more. Dumping the information that he

needed for his meeting onto a portable PADD, he started to leave

until it suddenly hit him what lab he had entered.

Looming in the back of the room was a solid black security

door. Written plainly for all to see was "Authorized Entry Only".

This was the containment lab that Jarel had designed per Starfleet’s

orders for the containment of hazardous materials that the crew

might encounter along their way. It was also the lab that Angeline

was brought to upon her arrival on the Grail. Jarel let a small sigh

escape from him as he ran his hand along the cold metal door.

Pushing away the thoughts of trying once again to set her

free and flee into the vastness of the Delta Quadrant, Jarel turned

and headed out the door to Mallory’s office.

Mallory read through the information on the screen. Soren's

device was well known, but records written by the scientist were

difficult to come by. Most of them had been on the Klingon vessel

that the Enterprise had managed to destroy, but after considerable

digging in the computer of the Space Station he'd been based on,

researchers had managed to find bits and peices of the plans and

blueprints for the device.

It was a horrific idea, a single torpedo that could destroy

a sun, and anything within it's solar system. But the tragedy was

that Soren hadn't done it for power, or glory, or a desire to conquer.

If it had been for any of those things, Eve's dislike of the man

would have been clear and clean.

But Soren hadn't built and used his device for any of

those reasons. He'd created a weapon of horrendous destruction,

because he wanted to be at peace. He'd ended billions of lives,

destroyed planets and suns, all to get into the Nexus. Where he

would be reunited with his wife and family, who had been

assimiliated by the Borg.

So instead of hatred or dislike, Mallory simply felt sorry for him.

She simply couldn't imagine the kind of *need* that Soren had

lived with, a need that would lead him go to such lengths for

peace and joy. Even based on such a false premise as the Nexus

provided.

She believed that they could combine the two technologies. It

certainly should be possible; both were for similar things, merely

approaching from different directions.

Her door chime went off, and she opened her door to admit

Deshaine. He came in, carrying a PADD and sat down.

"So what did you find out?" Mallory asked.

"Well, getting information on Seyetik's work was the easy part.

In theory we just find the trace combustion elements of the sun

and then generate enough in a single warhead to make the sun

reignite. All we have to do is run the scans on the sun to find out

what those key elements are and go from there. After the sun

begins burning though, we are going to have to take into effect

that there will be an increase in the gravitational pull in this

system. It shouldn't be more than we can compensate for, but you

can never be too sure. I have gone ahead and set up a simple

scenerio in the PADD to show you what I mean. The info is again

based off of Seyetik's work, but it should give engineering a

rough idea of what will happen." Handing Mallory the PADD

with the information on it, Jarel waited to see what she thought

of his idea. It wasn't that he thought her idea of using Soran's

device to reactivate the sun was a bad one, he just thought that it

was a bit extreme to be there first measure. Plus if all else was to

fail, there was always the records on Project Eden.

Mallory took the PADD and read through it. There was a lot of

data on Seyetick's theory, as she suspected from what Deshaine

had said about the man previously. Both angles were valid, she

thought, although Seyetik was the most likely path to take. But

what of they could be combined?

"Well," she said, looking up. "We'll have to wait till we actually

see the scans of the Kerestian sun before we make any decisions."

She put the PADD down. "For all we know, there may be another

option." She sat up. "All right, what I would like you to do, is

see if it's possible to combine Soren and Seyetick's work into

one. Plus, I'd like you to do some research into any other

possibilities there might be."

"We'll be going through the Great Brightness tomorrow, and

once we're through, we'll be in the Kerestian system. I want to

us to be able to come up with a working hypothesis as soon as

possible." She paused. "Have a word with the Gianinni twins

if you need to; I'm sure Stellar Cartography would *love* to

help."

Jared nodded, and picked up the PADD. "Yes, Lieutenant, I'll

get right on it."

"Deshaine... Jared." Eve's voice stopped him. "Two things. I

do intend to help your wife; it's just that with the way things are

at the moment, there hasn't been time."

"Thank you," Jared didn't try and keep the gratitude out of his

voice.

"Secondly, I've been looking at your Starfleet record, and I'm

impressed. Karen Blake is nominally my ACSO, but she's on Beta

Shift. I would like you to be my ACSO on the Alpha shift. And

when I'm down on Kerestia, both of you will be in charge of the

department, but during your shift, you'll have priority. Will

you accept?"

Jared nodded. "Yes," He said, "I accept."

Jason Cleaver

Lieutenant (jg) Eve Mallory

Chief Science Officer: USS Grail

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Rampart/8529/index.html

argo@easynet.co.uk/ ICQ No: #4914684

"Great, she's a toaster oven. Can we go now?"

Alien Resurrection