The Officers

Chapter 5 - There's an alien station Ma'am

~~~ The outpost

She gave the sensor officer a hard look, "And pray tell what isn't right?" If it was something which was a threat to the ship she wanted to know now and not later. She was looking at the main view screen, but nothing jumped out at her as being a possible threat.

"Give me a few minutes Ma'am. I'm getting some anomalous readings. Doesn't appear to be a threat but I need a few minutes to clear up the readings." He started working with the sensors though it was going to take some time. The best sensors they had was going to be Lidar combined with Radar. They had other sensors but those were the quickest to get information. They had thermal sensors, energy sensors, and several new ones. The new ones were primarily for FTL but had use in normal space.

She frowned slightly, "Make it quick. I want to know what you are sensing and why you indicated something wasn't right." She would give him a short amount of time before she started demanding answers.

"Ma'am, I'm getting indications of metal. Not from a meteorite but manufactured metal. It's at the edges of our sensors. Can you have the ship move forward at 10 or 15% speed? It will help me localize the source and get better results. The sensor department is helping to refine the incoming data." His eyes remained on the results of the sensors.

"Metal? Are you saying refined metal such as what the ship is made of? Are you telling me we might have found the first real indication of Alien life?" That might just be why he indicated something wasn't right when they came out of FTL the most recent time.

"Yes Ma'am, that's what I'm trying to say. Refined metal and relatively close to the ship." Relatively close was a term which could indicate a million or two miles up to a billion. The further away the longer it would take to refine the results.

She was stunned at what he'd said, "Continue. Navigation take directions from Sensors. Once you localize where the station bring it up on the screen. Don't bring us any closer than two million miles. Are there any indications of power?" Being they had no idea how old the station might be it could still be occupied. If it was she wasn't going to take a chance on being attacked because they weren't invited to visit.

"It's to soon to tell Ma'am. At this distance at most I'll get an idea of direction and potential size. Considering the distance, I'm going to assume it's fairly large." He adjusted the sensors, "Come about to 120 degrees starboard and up 5 degree's." The indications he was receiving was from that direction. The ship moved forward at 15% power. It took some time before he had a better lock on the outpost.

The closer they moved the better the information he was able to tweek out of the sensors. Once they were close enough he finally turned to look at the Captain, "There are some energy signatures, but they are limited. The station appears to be mostly dead as of now. I'm starting to pick up indications of hull penetrations. How old or what caused them I'm not sure. Right now it's approximately 100 million miles from us. I'd recommend remaining at this speed or at most 20%." He turned back to the sensors.

She rubbed her chin, "Make 20% power to the engines and as ordered, when we get close stop 2 million miles away unless we start picking up indications of targeting systems. XO, you have the bridge. I'll be back shortly." She stood and left the bridge and took care of some needs even as her assistant placed some food on her desk. They'd been moving towards the station for several hours and the crew was being rotated for much the same reason.

When she came back they were closer, but it was going to be several more hours before they reached the limit she'd given. Once there they'd launch shuttles and fighters depending on what they found.