Lt Commander Samantha Palmer Mission Specialist USS Chimera NCC 96899 = Astrometrics Lab The USS Chimera had finally reached the Spinward Marsh. The ship’s arrival in the murky region of space had put a dampener on the crew’s mood; one didn’t need a counsellor to sense that much. Samantha was in a sombre mood. It was only the second time she had been to the Marsh, and the feeling it left her with was the same as the first time: a dark, claustrophobic anxiety. The clouds of the Marsh seemed to close in on everything around it, blotting out the stars and communication signals. It was a place where, if you got lost, you stayed lost. She was starting to realise now just how suicidal this rescue mission was. The search for the Gott was taking them into the most dangerous corners of the Marsh, each turn reminding them of the countless lives that had been lost here. The Astrometrics Lab was quiet as Samantha studied the new sensor calibrations. Lieutenant Oriana and most of her staff were already off-duty, and except for the occasional grave-shift crewman coming and going, the mission specialist was alone to conduct her work. She glanced up at the large holographic screen. It displayed a chart of the Marsh, the Chimera’s selected route highlighted in red. Pockets that contained suspected temporal anomalies were highlighted in blue, and the Chimera’s route zigzagged, twisted and turned between them, heading to the last known location of the USS Gott. The exact location of the Gott, however, still remained as much a mystery as their surroundings. The anomalies were bouncing back their sensor signals, creating echoes and ghosts and feedback loops. Samantha input a few new calculations into the console and integrated them into the current simulation. A sensor wave (representing the sensor array scan) was emitted from the Chimera’s location on the screen, travel in a 360 arc around the ship, stretching out in all directions. As soon as it came into contact with the anomalous pockets, however, the wave bounced back, like ripples on a pond upon reaching the shore. Samantha looked at the simulation for a moment and considered a few things. At least the modifications had allowed them to detect the temporal anomalies, which before wouldn’t have been possible, but now they needed a way to see through them, or at least be able to penetrate them a few kilometres. On a whim, Samantha decided to link the deflector emitter to the sensor array. She programmed the emitter to send out a pulse of chronometric particles at timed intervals. When she ran it through the simulation, she achieved the result she had hoped for. The particles disrupted the event horizon of the temporal anomalies long enough to allow for the sensors to emit and return data on the anomaly, such as its temporal variance and distortion strength. The pulse would have to be timed carefully to ensure a maximum result, but the particles would not disturb the anomalies themselves, only the event horizon and then just briefly each time. It was safe and easy enough to be incorporate into the new sensor modifications. Unfortunately it still didn’t solve their problem about finding the Gott. It allowed them to avoid the sensor ghosts and scan the Marsh more efficiently, but Samantha wondered if they wouldn’t need more to find the errant science vessel. She turned off the simulation and the screen returned to its default display of the Chimera’s current location. Taking a pen, she wrote her final notes and suggestions on the padd, then signed her name and placed in on a small stack of other padds that waited for Oriana to read them when she came on duty in the morning. Adjusting her hair slightly, Samantha left the Astrometrics Lab and headed down the corridor to the turbolift. = -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.323 / Virus Database: 267.9.0/50 - Release Date: 2005/07/16