USS Edinburgh – Bridge – Alcove Stations – 1400

The lights on the bridge had faded to a mild yellow and Lieutenant Thasaz stood in the back alcove stations, a group of her newly assigned science team facing her from each station.  They had arrived at the intercept point.  The search was to begin.  The Romulan Science Chief held a PADD before her as she spoke, “I’ve shared with each of you the algorithms that are most used by Romulans in their attempts to cover up warp trails, signals, and the like.  I’ve loaded into the ship’s computer a further complete list as well.  We’re trying to identify the entry point, attack point, and exit point with the bonus of identifying where they were going or a general direction.”  She tapped at her PADD, “I’ll be working with you to see what we can find.  Flag me down if you see something.  Questions?”  There were none, just anxious faces ready to find their missing crewmen.  “Let’s get to work.”  Harris stood at the threshold of the space, watching and listening.  Thasaz caught his eye and stepped over to him, “Anything I can do for you, Commander?”

The CO leaned against the support beam, “You and your crew are doing what is needed.”  He looked around the alcove, “You think we should name this part of the bridge?”

She frowned, “I am not sure I understand the context or the meaning, sir.”

“The name of this ship is the Edinburgh.  There’s a lotta context but the two important ones are the capital of Scotland is the city of Edinburgh…and there’s an Edinburgh castle in the city that dates from 11th century in Earth’s ancient history.”  He thought for a moment, “We could call this area, ‘The Tower’.  He looked back to the bridge, ”Call that ‘the ’Castle’.”

Thasaz thought for a moment, “It would help…enhance the relationship the crew would have with the ship.  Naming something unique to the history of the vessel is something all alien races do in some way.”

“I’ll make a note in the ship’s log.  Keep me updated,” he gestured to the four stations in The Tower as he returned to his chair.  

She returned her attention to the crew as one of them, Ensign Sadie Fowler caught her attention.  She walked to stand behind the officer, “What do you have?”

Fowler bobbled her head a little, “I’m not quite sure, Lieutenant.  See here”, she identified several warp trails and various other readings, “and here…”, she compared them on the screen, “My brain is telling me what I’m looking at…but I’m not sure I believe it.”  She waited for her chief to respond.

Thasaz leaned down and grumbled, “No, that looks like…what is the human equivalent…breadcrumbs.”  She stood and looked to the other three, “Anything to report?”  One of them raised a hand, “Yes, Ensign Wolfe?”

Sebastian tapped at his console, “There’s no weapons fire…at least that the computer recognizes.  There is an unusual power reading here…”, he tapped at the console which showed an unusual pattern reading.  “I don’t remember seeing something like this in the academy.”

She stepped forward to get a better look from his screen and nodded, “You wouldn’t because it doesn’t exist…at least technically.”  The science chief grumbled, “I’d heard they were working on something like this.  It’s a weapon that manages to disable a ship completely from top to bottom – shields, weapons, communications…everything.”  Thasaz looked closer, “Trouble was the power requirements of something like this would be astronomical – whatever you attached it to there would be no chance for shields, weapons…nothing but a barebones attack sled with maybe a weak cloaking device attached.”  She turned her attention to the gathered science officers, “Focus in on the power readings.  We might be able to see if we can track it or search it out somehow.  I’ll take this to the commander.  Good work, everyone.”

Harris looked up as his science chief sat to his right, a PADD in her hands.  “What are we dealing with?”  She handed him the tablet and he read, frowning every so often, his eyes searching for hope in the not so hopefully report.  He handed the PADD back, “So they’ve given us a map to wherever they want us to go with the breadcrumbs…and they’ve got a weapon that’ll knock everything out.”  Ambrose grumbled, “I guess credit to Romulan ingenuity.”

Thasaz shrugged, “The design wouldn’t allow rapid-fire.  It would need time to charge up again…or even get the energy from a sun or something.  That much power isn’t going to come easy.  The obvious trap is a trap…but what choice do we have?  Not much in the way of your Starfleet task forces able to split off to assist.”

The CO sat back in his chair, “You make good points.”  He considered for a moment longer, “We go in with both eyes open.  Get your team looking every which way they can for anything that even twitches wrong out there on the sensors.” She gave a nod and returned to The Tower.  Harris stood, “Mr. Prentice, go to Red Alert.”  The klaxon rang out and the lights dimmed as the ancillary lights flashed the customary red.  He waited until officers had reported to their stations on the bridge before ordering, “Mr. Prentice, set us a course to follow the path outlined by science.  Start us off at warp 1.”  He glanced back at his tactical chief, “Mr. Kondo, you and your crew need to work with science.  We’re going into a bit of the unknown.”

The Edinburgh slid forward to warp.