ZE/D02 - Science Labs

[Morad Ameen]

Ameen paused for a fraction of a second, his expression completely unreadable as Midshipman Cortez rapidly and awkwardly backpedaled his suggestion to digitally enhance the Captain’s physique. Then, a warm, genuine chuckle broke through Ameen's stoic command presence.

"Relax, Midshipman," Ameen said, offering Pedro an easy, forgiving smile. "I take no offense. In a purely tactical sense, your reasoning is sound—many species respect physical dominance. However, if we attempt to project an illusion of ourselves as physically imposing Apex Protectors, we are setting a trap for ourselves."

He turned his attention to Amila, softening his tone just a fraction to acknowledge her creative thinking without endorsing the risk. "A holographic disguise is a brilliant piece of espionage, Lieutenant Ra'an, but we don't know their salutes, their chain of command, or the subtle nuances of their musical language. The second we hit a wrong note—literally or figuratively—they will recognize the deception. A genetically engineered super-soldier who realizes they are being lied to is going to immediately classify us as a threat."

Ameen looked around the room, making eye contact with Keti, Singer, and the rest of the science team.

"Starfleet Command is breathing down our necks. In less than eight hours, a heavy cruiser is going to arrive to take custody of these people. I am not going to hand over twelve highly lethal individuals to another crew without knowing exactly how they react to waking up. But we are going to do it honestly. We will show them we are unarmed, we will use Cortez's musical frequencies to explain we pulled them from the ice, and we hope they are willing to listen."

Ameen gave Amila a firm nod, gesturing toward the turbolift.

"I'm all ears regarding your language breakthrough, Lieutenant. You, Cortez, and A'kilees walk with me and brief me on the way." He looked back at the remaining officers. "Lieutenant Keti, Ensign Singer—lock this lab down and secure the data. The rest of you, with me. Let's go meet our guest."

== Next post: Holodeck ==

[Amila Ra'an]

<<< Holodeck <<<

After the other officer's left, Petty Officer sh'Sjöress at one of the terminals, still combing through data from the module at one of the terminals. As she worked her head was resting on one hand as if lost in thought, though her eyes and antennae were busy reading, scanning. Her left antennae reacted with a small vibration to a frequency the human ear wasn't quite picking up and her brain tried to make it fit into the new world of the language and map that had been unlocked.

Leah sensed the pressure shift in the door mechanism before the sound reached her ears and she spun around to see the door open and the Chief and Midshipman Cortez walk in. She stood to her feet out of respect for the senior officers. Ra'an seemed nice, but she didn't really know her new boss yet or how formal she needed to be around her. Better safe than sorry.

"As you were, Petty Officer," Amila stated as they walked in. She realized maybe they should have a talk about lab procedures. Not only did she not want anyone to stand on ceremony, but it really was best that everyone stay focused on work, and not worry about senior staff walking in - regardless of who it may be. She new the Commander would agree.

"We're just here to transfer everything we have from the data module to a terminal in Sickbay," Amila told her. As Cortez stepped into place at the workstation they'd been using before she reminded him, "Everything, unclassified, whether we've been able to translate or unlock it or not, we need to make sure that the information gets through to the terminal completely unfiltered."

Leah's face lit up with excitement and she took a few steps toward the officers. "Is there anything I can do to help?" She asked.

Amila gave her a quick glance, then looked at Sebastian. "Midshipman, prepare the data for transfer. It's always better to have a second set of eyes, sh'Sjöress here can help us make sure that nothing is going to get corrupted in the transfer. The last thing we want is for them to think that we are hiding something."

"Just get it ready for now," she added, recognizing that the midshipman seemed to work best under clear, concise orders. "Wait for my mark before we send it it over to them."

Amila started to step away for a moment to comm Sickbay, when she realized that Leah had been reading through the module the entire time they'd been trying to make contact.

"Petty Officer, Did you see anything in there about a seed?" She asked.


==Tag Cortez==


==Tag GM Input, Are they going to find anything in there that references this genetic seed? Thanks ==

==OOC - Keti, feel free to tag yourself in as well if you see this==

[Jukish Keti]

The only thing that Keti enjoyed less than having these people on the ship was passing them to another ship, they have something that was potentially dangerous to all if mishandled. Site unseen Keti wasn't sure of the scope of the danger, but something was bothering him.

"Lieutenant Ra'an." Keti had some confusion in his voice. "Considering everything it might behoove to make a copy to hand deliver to Sickbay, it is the path of least resistance." For some reason Keti was thinking too many things one of them being the irony, no other ship would have picked them up in the first place. Now that they have another ship wants to take them, they can come out of this with clean hands.

"One more thing Lieutenant." This one he was mere hesitate to say. "For just incase we should make a full duplicate of the device, it would never fool the people who made it but it could Star Fleet." If they demanded something from them, this wax what they could give.

==Tag ==

[Morad Ameen]

== GM-Broken Arrow ==

Petty Officer sh'Sjöress's antennae twitched violently as she ran Midshipman Cortez's newly established mathematical translation matrix through the deeper, encrypted layers of the crystalline data module.

The "Genetic Seed" was not a physical vault of embryos or plants left behind on the Broken Arrow. It was digital.

Deep within the crystalline module's architecture was a massive, heavily shielded partition that dwarfed the ship's flight logs. As the translation matrix crunched the numbers, the universal translator spat out the Federation equivalent of the data: Genomic Ark / The Seed. It was the digitized, mathematical DNA sequences of their entire civilization, flora, and fauna, perfectly preserved in the crystal.

When Ameen ordered the away team to pull that "black box" from the bridge console before the ship exploded, they didn't just save a flight recorder—they saved the alien race's entire future.

Lieutenant Keti's suggestion to duplicate the module was not just good practice; it was now the most important tactical decision in the room. If they could copy that massive digital genome to a secure Starfleet drive, they could hand the original crystal directly to Apex Prime in Sickbay to prove the Zephyr had saved his mission.

[A’kilees]

[A’kilees to Lieutenant Ra’an, I’ve arrived in Sickbay and am standing by. You may begin the transfer when ready.]

==Tag Amila Ra'an==

[Amila Ra'an]

"Let me check," Leah nodded seriously as she typed in the search using the musical and mathematical algorithm that Cortez and A'Kilees had developed earlier. Her eyes and antennae scanned the data on the three-dimmensional display in front of her, while the officers continued talking.

"How long would it take us to make a physical copy?" Amila asked after hearing Keti's suggestion.

She understood his reasoning, but wondered about the ethics of doing so without the alien's permission. She also wondered how patient the alien would be while he waited - the module contained a lot of information. Everytime they looked into it, they kept finding more and more.

"The Captain wants a terminal set up in Sickbay," Amila stated as she was thinking out loud. "If we are wanting to do this without delay, the fasted way would be to try to copy it as we are sending it. I mean if we are putting it to their terminal, there is nothing that would keep us from saving while we transferred the information. Fool Starfleet you really think?" The idea concerned her.

"Chief," the Andorian petty officer's breathy voice broke through chatter, "Chief," she repeated herself sounding eager to be heard.

Amila turned to look at the petty officer, noticing an energy bubbling inside her, the young woman's antennae were buzzing as she shifted her weight excitedly.

"Leah, did you find something?" Amila asked.

"I think so," Leah nodded quickly. "Look at this."

Before them displayed the digitized, mathematical DNA sequences of their entire civilization, flora, and fauna, perfectly preserved in the crystal.

"Is this it?" Leah asked.

"I think so," Amila nodded. "Keti, can you get all of this?" She asked. "Cortez, if we can set up an upload stream to a server that Keti establishes, maybe we can hand-deliver this original module to Sickbay like he suggested while maintaining a copy. Will that work?"



==Tags all==

[Jukish Keti]

The idea wasn't to fool anyone it was more for the satisfaction of both parties, the Prime would get his property back while Star Fleet gets something to study. "Lieutenant I believe you misunderstood, or I misspoke. What I meant wax if we were to give the duplicate to our guests it won't fool them, it is just something to give to Star Fleet." They have scanned the device to figure out what it is with the transporter log, they could make a copy of the device without it being present.

"I believe that in order to make a physical copy of this device should take a minimum of an hour, with how complex the device really is the time frame is impossible to determine. I can safely say that it's doubtful that it takes more than twelve." This device had to be delivered completely intact, if they didn't it could mean problems would happen.

"It is just a hypothesis but once the device is placed in theirs the tone is going to change and it's going to be audible, we can record the sounds. Much like any musical instruments with changes in pressure, the duplicate would never be able to make the same sound." That is how the duplicate would never pass the Primes inspection.

"If we send everything we have to Engineering they can fabricate everything we need physically, we can download everything we have already adding in what we can record from Sickbay later. I do say however what we need isn't going to be here, what we need has been in Sickbay the whole time. The device we have is how we access the information, while the  storage is there." It's like adding a physical key to a computer to gain access to it, also a reason that a duplicate would never work. "I leave the final decision to you. My recommendation is to bring it there now whi,e was wait for the duplicate to be made, while the device is in use we can use the ships internal sensors to record what we don't. If it is discovered we can say it's just to make sure everything is safe, or to make sure it's all functioning properly. If there is something wrong dueto length of time in space, a number of problems could happen." If they are called on it it was plausible that he would believe it, and be greatful that we are protecting them." There were still,,  a number of factors that can go wrong, the best they can do is minimize them. "You can count on me." Keti really wanted this to be over, and the sooner they get something better.

==Tag==

[Sebastian Cortez]

Sebastian had assumed that they were going to be setting up some kind of interface for the aliens in the Science lab, so Lt. Ra’an’s request momentarily threw him ever so briefly

Lt. Ra’an then said, "Cortez, if we can set up an upload stream to a server that Keti establishes, maybe we can hand-deliver this original module to Sickbay like he suggested while maintaining a copy. Will that work?"

Sebastian thought for a moment. "Yes, Lieutenant, it should work easily. Give me a moment, and I can set that up.” Replied Sebastian.

Sebastian got to work quickly he set up a streaming device, it was super fast capable of making three copies, an original or a master copy, a copy that would be streamed, and a backup, which contained the original and the streaming and the third that would compare the original against the copy that was streamed and would compare the two to find any discrepancies, it was ingenious.

Sebastian wondered if anyone had set up an interface for the aliens on board; it could be a simple alphanumeric keyboard, or even a musical keyboard,

“Lieutenant, has anyone set up an interface for the Apex Predators anywhere on board? Maybe if they have a way to answer our questions in a format that they are familiar with might make communications with them easier. I’m sure we could put something together rather quickly.” Said Sebastian.



== Tag All-==

[Amila Ra'an]

Amila listened to both scientists carefully.

"If the aliens seem interested in future relations, your keyboard idea may be something to look at down the road, Midshipman," Amila acknowledged. "I know you are are eager to communicate, but the aliens seem more interested in examining the module as soon as possible, and seemed to be making sense of what the Universal Translator can do for now."

"Lieutenant Jukish, getting engineering involved is the best idea. What was that engineer's name who helped us earlier? Raven something, the ensign?" Amila said searching for her name. "Singer! Let's get singer on comms, have her loop into the Midshipman's streaming device from Engineering, we can get our master saving to a drive through them while she makes sure everything is locked down. We'll stall on hand-delivery, for as long as possible, but when he asks for it, or if he asks to come here, we may not have a choice."

"Keti, get Raven on the line and tell her what we need her to do," Amila ordered. "Pedro and Leah, go ahead and prepare a local computer here in the Lab and make sure it's disconnected from the main core, and start copying while we wait for Raven to secure the interface. When the interface is ready, we'll need to patch her in, and get A'kilees' terminal in Sickbay looped in ASAP. They are going to be wondering where we are."


== Tag Keti and Cortez ==

[Morad Ameen]

== GM-Broken Arrow ==

The moment Lieutenant Ra'an asked about a "seed," Petty Officer sh'Sjöress's hands flew across her console. She routed the specific inquiry through the new mathematical translation matrix that Midshipman Cortez had just established, pushing the Zephyr's computer to dig into the deepest, most heavily shielded partitions of the crystalline data module.

A moment later, the console chimed, and a massive partition of data finally unlocked.

Leah's antennae twitched in pure shock as the Federation equivalent of the translation scrolled across her screen. "Lieutenant... Midshipman... you need to see this," the Andorian breathed, stepping back from the console so her superior officers could view the telemetry.

The "Genetic Seed" was not a physical vault of embryos, nor was it an agricultural stockpile left behind on the Broken Arrow. It was purely digital.

The module contained a Genomic Ark. It was the digitized, mathematical DNA sequences of their entire civilization, their flora, and their fauna, perfectly preserved within the crystal's matrix. When Commander Ameen ordered the away team to pull that "black box" from the bridge console before the ship exploded, they didn't just save a flight recorder, they saved the alien race's entire future.

[Amila Ra'an]

Once the secure line with engineering was working, and they were ready to make their copy Ra'an gave Cortez the cue to go ahead.

"Send a handshake to "Terminal 3 in Sickbay for A'kilees to connect to, Midshipman. We need to be deliberate about how we funnel this information. Once he sees we have the seed, things could take a drastic turn, and we need to get this information to the Captain before the alien. Start by sending just the navigational history and ship's diagnostic information."

"Keti, give him a hand on the back end. You and Leah can make help keep a firewall up until we're ready to push that information through," she added, noting that it was her linguistics officer that had found the information in the first place.

She then tapped her comm badge to alert Sickbay.

"Ra'an to Midshipman A'kilees," Ra'an's voice paused a brief moment to ensure that he was paying attention.

"You should be receiving a request to connect to a secure signal at your terminal, your credentials will open the link as will the senior staff members who are with you now. Information will be incoming. from the module, and our guest should be able to have access to the information we have from his ship. Please have the Commander get on a secure line with me when he's able, Midshipman. If you run into any issues, Cortez and I are here on standby."

[A’kilees]

[Understood, thank you Lieutenant. I’ll be sure to pass the message along. A’kilees out.]

[Sebastian Cortez]

Sebastian was excited; hopefully, they would soon have some answers. He double-checked his work, knowing that if he didn’t, the mission would backfire. He was confident in his work but just wanted to make certain. So he checked the algorithm that he and A'kilees had created. That's when it hit him. Working through his 26-letter musical cipher, he couldn’t believe he had hit a structural wall. His instincts about the music were entirely correct, but the framework was too Terran-centric. These beings did not use a 26-character alphabet.

How could I have been so stupid?

Sebastian began running some calculations on his Padd,

[ Here are a few possibilities:

Option 1: Seven-letter alphabet (simplest)

If they used only the diatonic notes:

A
B
C
D
E
F
G

They would have only 7 basic symbols. Complex words would rely heavily on rhythm, duration, and context.

Option 2: Twelve-letter alphabet (most likely)

If every semitone were a distinct symbol, their alphabet would be:

C
C♯/D♭
D
D♯/E♭
E
F
F♯/G♭
G
G♯/A♭
A
A♯/B♭
B

This gives 12 primary "letters."

That is analogous to our chromatic scale.

Option 3: Twenty-four letters

Suppose ascending and descending notes have different meanings.

For example:

C↑
C↓

Now every pitch has two forms.

12 × 2 = 24 letters

Option 4: Thirty-six letters

Imagine each pitch can be played in three articulations:

Short
Normal
Sustained

12 × 3 = 36 symbols

Option 5: Forty-eight letters

Suppose dynamics are also phonemic.

Each pitch has:

Soft
Loud
Short
Long

12 × 4 = 48 letters

Option 6: Seventy-two or more

A highly musical civilization might treat these as separate alphabetic elements:

12 pitches
3 octaves
2 dynamics

12 × 3 × 2 = 72 basic letters

Add vibrato, timbre, or attack style and the alphabet could easily exceed 100 distinct symbols.

If they were an advanced species

An advanced civilization might not think in terms of letters at all.

Instead, the smallest unit of language might be a musical chord.

For example:

12 notes taken three at a time gives:

(
3
12


)=220

That would mean 220 basic "characters."

Four-note chords yield:

(
4
12


)=495

Five-note chords:

(
5
12


)=792 ]

The possibilities seemed endless.  Sebastian took his Padd over to Lt. Ra’an. ”Excuse me, Lieutenant, I may have made a mistake,” Said Sebastian as he handed Ra’an his Padd. “How would you like me to proceed?” Added Cortez, his voice filled with frustration at having made such a foolish mistake.



== Tag Ra'an.==

[Jukish Keti]

There was a lot that Keti was confused about when it came to this system, the process to make sure the information was entered into the system for transport between systems the ideal way to do this would be in a compressed file. Thankfully it would be a copy of the original that was left intact, the best way to really handle it was to bring it directly there. He really wasn't sure who Raven was, but eventually he will.

The information about fabrication a duplicate device was already in the system, so he sent it if for fabrication. With all of the detailed scans done of it, they should be able to make the whole thing piece by piece. This was going to be an involved process that should take a few hours to complete, with another hour to put the information in the system itself. It was something important for him to get right just like anyone else, Ra'an was working equally if not harder to make sure this happened. "as you wish." Keti said while he put things in motion. 

"We are going to have a problem." Keti said to himself while realizing the full scope of what he had there, most of the information would give them problems. The data of a single DNA strand of a single person is giant, to have a whole population would require a super computer the Federation never seen before. On the upside Keti didn't think that Star Fleet needed this information, the most important thing was going to be the device itself. 

==GM input on device construction and information condensing for transport to Sickbay==

[Amila Ra'an]

Amila could hear the furstration in Sebastian's voice as he handed his PADD over to her and mentioned a mistake. She was looking over the musical algorithm variations that were laid out before her, and getting ready to respond when she overheard Keti mumbling to himself that they were going to have a problem. She looked over to Keti with concern before handing the PADD back to Cortez.

"I understand what you are trying to say, Mr. Cortez, but I don't think it was a mistake. You gave our computer enough for the Universal Translator to help the Captain and our alien guest communicate effectively, and the initial harmonic was understood. You did well," she assured him. "If we are able to successfully duplicate this data module, then this might certainly help us analyze what we have. Especially, once we've parted ways with our guests."

She looked back over at Keti once more and noticed signs on stress on his face as he worked. "You and Ms. sh'Sjöres can keep looking at this together," she suggested. "Work with data that's already been transferred over, so we don't bog down down Ensign Singer while she monitors the transfer."

Amila paused for a second as if she were second guessing herself, and then nodded. "Yeah, go ahead, that should work."

She then walked briskly over to Keti and looked over his shoulder. "What's going on?" She asked with concern.

==Tags for Keti and Cortez==

==GM tag for Keti's question above; and whether Cortez is able to glean any more information from the data module with the more advanced algorithm.==

[Morad Ameen]

[Ameen to Lieutenant Ra'an and the Science Team. Data transfer was flawless. The asset has been verified, and our guest has officially stood down. First Contact is stable. Exceptional work, all of you.]

[Morad Ameen]

A few minutes later.

[Ameen to Science Labs. Lieutenant Ra'an, the Auberjonois will be taking custody of the Genomic Ark as well. Prepare a secure data handoff of your translated matrix and package the physical crystal for transport.]

[Amila Ra'an]

"All right, everyone heard that," Amila announced. "Let's shut this down and package everything up for transport," Amila called out to the crew in the lab.


==Tags==

[Sebastian Cortez]

Sebastian waited for Lt. Ra’an to reply to what he had shown her. He was surprised when she said, "I understand what you are trying to say, Mr. Cortez, but I don't think it was a mistake. You gave our computer enough for the Universal Translator to help the Captain and our alien guest communicate effectively, and the initial harmonic was understood. You did well," she assured him. "If we are able to successfully duplicate this data module, then this might certainly help us analyze what we have. Especially once we've parted ways with our guests."

Maybe she’s right, but I should have seen my mistake from the beginning. How could I have been so stupid?

Sebastian was always his own worst critic; he wanted to excel in his work, and mistakes were unacceptable.

Now everyone will hate me,  the fool who couldn’t get it right.

Sebastian was packing up his equipment, making sure everything was ready for transfer to the arriving ship that would pick up the Aliens. When the ship communication system activated.

[Ameen to Lieutenant Ra'an and the Science Team. Data transfer was flawless. The asset has been verified, and our guest has officially stood down. First Contact is stable. Exceptional work, all of you.]

The Captain’s praise was good to hear, but still Sebastian felt like a complete failure. He carefully noted his shortcomings for further review.

As he was packing up the gear and the crude communications device and accompanying communication algorithms that he and A’kilees had created.

Suddenly the comm system activated.

[Ameen to Science Labs. Lieutenant Ra'an, the Auberjonois will be taking custody of the Genomic Ark as well. Prepare a secure data handoff of your translated matrix and package the physical crystal for transport.]

"All right, everyone heard that," Amila announced. "Let's shut this down and package everything up for transport," Amila called out to the crew in the lab. Ordered Lt. Ra’an.

Sebastian felt bittersweet, in that the mission was over, but he couldn’t help but reflect on his many failures, like his Claustrophobic episode during the away mission, his miscalculation of the aliens' alphabet and their unique form of communication.  Right now Sebastian just wanted to go to his quarters and escape into a good book.

“Aye, Lieutenant, right away.” Said Cortez to Lt. Ra’an’s last order.



== Tag All. ==