String of Pearls

Posted on 2025, Sun Oct 19th, @ 7:27am by Corporal Roy Fitzroy
Edited on on 2025, Thu Oct 30th, @ 11:35pm

737 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 2: Pillars of the Theater - USS Vigilance, Star Base 113
Location: geosynchronous orbit 10,050 km above the equator
Timeline: Day 9
Tags: Cetacean Ops, String of pearls

Corporal Roy E. Fitzroy sat at the enhanced sensor processing suit in the middle of the cargo portion of the back half of the heavily modified Danube-class shuttle, also known as a Runabout-class. It was a type of Federation runabout in operation during the latter half of the 24th century. The pilot sat up front, where a second seat could handle weapons systems, while he sat in the sensor suite. The Sensor suite was slightly better than what was on the bridge, due to the bridge crew needing to be non-distracted from the heads-up holo-display that displayed hundreds of different bits of information. This information or data was combed over by the operator who was assisted by a dozen different Artificial programs that helped track and sort the million bits of data that could be accessed. In the old days, displays were simpler; You just had the beeps, the sweeps, and the creeps. Everything was easy to watch.

The string of pearls, aka the small class two and three probes, currently provides real-time sensor coverage of about 59% of the planet's surface. There was currently a class III science probe above the away team's location, the planet's east and west magnetic poles, and north and south geographic poles. 30 class two science probes were spreading out to cover the rest of the planet's surface; most of the sensor operators called them the string of pearls.

Currently, the planet was rolling along in its orbital path. Yet another of its interesting features, most planets in this solar system day-night cycle spin like a top. This planet's magnetic field was offset by 90 degrees from its rotation plane, and that meant it had to be artificial in nature and be controlled by something smart.

Yet another problem to solve was why the atmosphere suddenly ended at 10,000 km; Instead of slowly spreading out to over 100,000km. It was breathable at 9,999km, and 30 inches of vacuum at 10,000km


Roy assumed that the bridge crew already knew this fact, but highlighted it and put it at the top of the critical intel update. As a Tactical operator, Roy would be expected to send a new intel brief every 30 minutes, unless one of a hundred things shows up on the critical list.

His watch rotation was 6 hours, with 30 minutes travel time allotted to get into position to supervise the distribution of the "String of pearls". Once that part was done, the boring phase of the operation would begin. 99 percent of the time, nothing happened, but it was that one percent that make you alternate from sweating to the feeling of cold dread running down your spine. Roy bumped the cooling unit that was attached to his chair up a notch. "Never let them see you sweat!" He muttered. The pilot replied, " Well, spot the problem early, so the captain doesn't get caught with their pants down, and you won't be sweating..."

There were only 79 minutes until the string of pearls deployment would be complete. A lot could happen in one hour and nineteen minutes. His mind worked differently than most other people, and he had a slight problem with interpersonal interaction. But his AI that he had re-engineered would read social cues from people and give him tips on how to deal with other biological life forms. There were only a few bugs to work out. Telling the Navigation specialist, a dolphin-like creature in Cetacean Ops, to go swim in circles didn't quite get translated right. That translation glitch led to his accidentally dropping a mating call in Cetacean Ops instead of the intended insult. Turns out humor works well in the universe. Although he did get a few invites a week to their island-style luau. Roy was determined not to get caught up in some extended practical joke.

Multitasking was easy for Roy; The hard part was getting his brain to shut off, so he could sleep was the hard part. Roy said in his monotone voice, "76 minutes to go, till string of pearls deployment is complete!" The pilot replied, " Aye, aye, sir!" This always irritated Roy, and the automatic reply was always, " I work for a living!" Roy continued his dissection of the planet's hidden secrets. "Another sensor anomaly, adding it to the critical intell update list!; Sending update to Bridge now!" Roy sent the Critical Intell update to the bridge, priority alpha. Then went back analyzing the data from the sensors.

End Trans

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