Post 502: A Chance

Stardate: 71017.1915
Title: A Chance
Author: Ensign Rada Dengar
Scene: Bridge, Independence
Time: Following “Under the Bus”
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Rada was certain that the trio he found himself working in was made up of a coward, a genius and a mad man although he wasn’t sure which was which. This group consisted of Doctor Xander T. Corbinsky, Lt. Micah Samson and himself.

Their job was simple enough; just find a way to scan through a field specifically designed to not be scanned through in order to scan for a ship with trans-phasic shielding which is specifically designed to be able to hide from your scans.

Rada was not confident about their chances since the group consisted of one man who has been familiar with this technology as a theory but has never seen it put into practice like this before now and two other men who have only just learned of its existence.

Rada believed he was beginning to understand how if not why Corbinsky’s technology worked. Then again when he was twelve years old he’d though he understood how to operate his neighbour’s hover-bike, three cracked ribs and a broken potted plant later, he decided that this was probably not the case.

This principle in use seemed to be one big conjuring trick, rather than making sensors think they were looking at nothing, have them look at something and think it’s something else. Traditionally, cloaking devices kept any signs of a ship so low that locating them was similar to trying to spot a tiny grain of sand in a pool of water; whereas this cloak created so many false signals meaning the experience was more like trying to spot a particular grain of sand on the beach.

Corbinsky had theorized that successfully getting through was a matter of compensation. They needed to compensate for the fake moon by adjusting the sensors to read that a moon with the exact properties of the one being projected isn’t there. Basically since they couldn’t stop the sensors falling for one trick, they had to make them fall for another.

Rada felt more nervous than usual since every set of eyes including the captain’s keep finding their way over to Corbinsky and hence to Rada’s direction, this spelled trouble. After analysis he’d figured out there were only two options open to him:

One; he does absolutely nothing and best case scenario everyone things he’s as useless as a tanning bulb in the middle of the desert or worst case scenario everyone thinks that he could be doing something if he tried but that he is such an evil bastard that he’d rather they not find the Alchemy’s crew.

Or two; he does something and best case scenario he makes so many mistakes that people realize how ridiculously incompetent he is and he gets chucked off the ship the first chance they get, or worst case scenario everyone sees how many mistakes he’s making and concludes that he’s either trying to sabotage the hunt for the Alchemy or to blow up the ship and then they all get out their phasers and shoot him believing it’s the only way to avoid a catastrophe.

None of these options seemed particularly appealing to Rada but he felt that his only chance for getting out of this intact was to keep the captain happy and to do that he would have to find the Alchemy so he decided to pitch in as much help as he could.

Rada’s real fear was however of Corbinsky, not of the man but of the concept.

Corbinsky behaves as Rada tries to. He is confident, enigmatic, charismatic and yet for some reason certain people don't like him. Rada knew that Corbinsky inspired love in some people and loathing in others, is that the best future that Rada could hope for? Is that how it will all be if Rada ever perfects his act? Rada knew Corbinsky could be arrogant, but after living the life he had that type of confidence seems like something to admire.

“It’s not working,” commented Corbinsky with an irritation at his failure to get through the cloak and a simultaneous pride about the fact that his idea was so clever that not even he could beat it.

“Someone on Yensul must have made some adjustments to your theory.” Micah commented.

“I don’t think that’s likely, from what I know of these people any input they could have had on my work would be detrimental, they couldn’t come close to thinking of anything I didn’t,” said Corbinsky arrogantly and slightly defensively.

“Then how else could this be not working?” asked Micah “We’ve taken into account every possible element of that moon…” and then Rada cut him off.

“That’s it!” he exclaimed instantly regretting it realizing his idea may very well be idiotic and there’s certainly no guarantee that it’s ‘it’, nevertheless he had committed now and had to continue.

“The Yensuli don’t seem nearly intelligent enough to handle this type of technology properly, particularly considering how advanced it would be compared to their own.”

Micah turned to Rada and asked “So you think they’re working with someone else?”

“I doubt he does,” interjected Corbinsky, “They’re not really on friendly terms with anyone and besides, they couldn’t risk what they’re doing getting back to the Federation.”

Rada was amazed that Corbinsky managed to shoot down Micah’s idea without out ever sounding condescending but he was even more amazed that Corbinsky believed Rada could have reached the same conclusion about the Yensuli working alone that he had.

“We’ve been trying to compensate for every possible element that should exist within the moon they’re projecting but considering the Yensuli probably couldn’t take into account every element, we’ve been compensating for things which weren’t there.” Rada concluded.

“So if we simplify down the model we’re compensating for...” started Micah.

“Then we might just get something closer to what they’re projecting,” finished Corbinsky.

“We can use what information we have on Yensul’s level of technological development to approximate the type of moon they’re likely to simulate. If nothing else we should be able to get an outline of what’s under there so that TC can find his way around,” added Micah.

This exchange naturally caught Zanh Liis’s attention and she instantly approached them with look on her face which Rada simply could not read.

“What have you got?” she asked.

“A chance,” smiled Corbinsky “A chance.”
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Ensign Rada Dengar
Engineering Officer
USS Independence NCC-90791