This Silly Little Wafer, Part I
Posted on Sun Mar 15th, 2026 @ 1:17pm by Ensign Garabed "Garo" Hakobyan & Captain Remy Johansen & Lieutenant Commander Xalanth & Lieutenant Commander Daynah Ral & Commander Maxun Spello
2,493 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission:
Elegy For the Unseen
Location: Observation Lounge, Deck 1
Timeline: After "Origin & Purpose"
The Observation Lounge felt only half-occupied.
Space stretched in every direction outside the long, angled windows as distant stars streaked past. Inside the room, however, the air seemed to remain heavy on the conference table. Once more, the object of everyone's attention floated there, suspended in its stasis field of blue.
Garo stood nervously at the presentation screen because he had been the one to complete the analysis and Kash was more than happy to remain seated at the table amidst a selection of senior staff--Xalanth, Rixi, Commander Spello, and Captain Johansen.
He tugged once at his uniform jacket, then let his hands fall in front of him. His superior officer--the statuesque Daynah Ral--stood just to his left, a stalwart of support in this anxiety-inducing predicament.
Rixi threw him a smirk and he bristled slightly, but tried to ignore it. Instead he turned to the Captain, his eyes wondering if and when he should begin.
"Well," the El Aurian began. "What have you discovered about this device?"
Daynah stood next to Garo. She had reviewed his data personally and thought that he had the right of it. However, this was his moment to shine. So, she thought it best to let the junior officer take center stage as it were. Although, Ral seemed to enjoy watching the Ensign squirm, Daynah thought it was for his own good.
Garo cleared his throat.
"Alright," he began. "Short version first, before I ruin everyone's afternoon." Clearing his throat again, he continued. "It is alien. Not unknown-species-in-our-database alien. It does not match any known fabrication lattice, any metallurgical pattern, any isotropic ratio in Federation records. Or Romulan. Or Klingon. Or any others."
He tapped a control on the table. A holo-projection bloomed above the wafer showing a full spectral analysis.
"These are isochronite inclusions," he continued, pointing. "Same class of material seen near collapsed subspace corridors. Also gravinex crystal. Found inside artificial wormholes."
Rixi sighed--almost a little too loudly. Not wishing to appear flip, she sat up and straightened her posture.
"But what is it mean, Garo?" she asked.
The Armenian operations officer glanced over at Daynah and then back to the holo-projection. "It's a data PADD. Internal data matrix and storage capacity. Ensign th'Kaasniik has been unable to access its contents."
"So we know someone on the ship infected the ship's computer with a virus to hide this thing, looks like someone interrupted them whilst they were operating it and decided to bolt from the ship." Xalanth added. " It must be some very important info, but why did they leave it before running?"
"Gravinex crystal..." Maxun mused softly as his mind worked quickly. "There are only a handful of species that possess the technology to harvest that substance. The Tholians and the Dominion are the two top suspects. However, the isochronite inclusions...that is something that is near impossible to harvest. I don't know of any species that possess that ability." For an El Aurian, especially one who has lived as long as he had, that said something.
Garo shifted his weight from one leg to another.
"With respect, Commander," he said cautiously, "if Tholians or Dominion made this, they have made some... great leaps."
He reached out and expanded the projection. The wafer's interior was cut open in misty light with its geometry on full display. Conduction pathways curved through one another without completely touching. Intricate lattices braided and unbraided throughout.
"Look here," he said, pointing to a region where the isochronite inclusions shimmered. "These are anchoring points. Nothing like that exists."
Rixi raised a hand as though she were in elementary school. "All well and good, Garo--err, Ensign," she began, feeling all eyes turn to her. "But Xalanth has a great point: Why--in the name of the Prophets--would they leave it lying around?"
Maxun was still looking at the close-up of the wafer as he said aloud. "As soon as we figure out the who, we can start working on figuring out the what and why." He then straightened up and looked at Hakobyan. "Garo," he said calmly. "While the Tholians and the Dominion are the closest to being able to harvest some of the ingredients for this, I agree thar they do not possess the required technological advancement to construct this." He paused a beat as he considered the matter. "Of course, the Tholians do possess advanced inter-dimensional tech that we have yet to fully understand. Who knows what else they might be working on behind their sealed borders."
"Advanced interdimensional tech or not," Rixi said, picking up the Executive Offiicer's thought. "We recalibrated internal sensors shipwide to detect matching mineral signatures. Every cargo bay, conduit, storage locker." She glanced over at Garo, then back to the table. "And nothing. No additional traces or resonance echoes."
"Captain," Garo said to Remy, venturing carefully. "Where do you want us to go now?"
Xalanth was about to speak before his combadge started bleeping. "Sorry captain one moment," the lizard said as he tapped it. "Xalanth go ahead."
=^= Dad....please.... cargo bay five. =^= came the voice of his second born. She was still adjusting to her ability to speak after the successful surgery, yet the tone of her voice was still showing Travla was panicking.
Xalanth was leaning forward in his chair and rising to his feet even as the next words crept out. =^= Woman.....not....sleeping. =^=
"Dad's coming." Xalanth said, already on his feet, though he turned to captain. "Ma'am permision to leave, she wouldn't contact me directly if it wasn't something dire."
Captain Johansen had been listening, thinking. The interruption from a child was frustrating, she wanted her security chief here. But it also wasn't urgent, and her trusted chief was indicating that the call he received likely was.
"Very well, Commander. But make sure you get yourself briefed as soon as possible." She nodded to the Commander indicating he was dismissed.
" I will captain." He replied professionally before he hurried out the door.
Rixi felt a pang of worry for her Dragonian friend. His demeanour had changed and she found herself watching the door close behind Xalanth, completely unfocused on the meeting.
"Mr. Hakobyan," the Captain stated, recalling where they had been in the conversation. "Before Astrea was dispatched to Freecloud a few weeks ago we were given a rather sensitive assignment. Our former Chief Intelligence Officer was lead on it and actually took a team out ahead of our arrival."
"Commander Spello," Remy turned to her First Officer, "We may need to bring in Lieutenant Fulvia, Commander Keel at this point. I know Fulvia was on the ground with them once we arrived, but they should be able to access Commander Cyn's files." Ƙ
Maxun nodded to his Captain, then tapped his commbade, sending a call for both officers to report to the Observation Lounge.
"Let's figure out when that virus was put into our system. That should tell us if it could be related and if not, where else we need to look," Remy continued. "Commander Ral, I want your team and security to work together to track that asset's movements while he was on board. Nor was his name. I don't think we've had any Bajoran/Cardassian hybrid crewmembers assigned since Astrea was officially commissioned, so it shouldn't be too difficult."
"Can either of you think of anyone else who has been on board that we should be concerned about?" Remy asked.
Garo shook his head, realizing he would make a very poor investigator. His shoulders slumped slightly and he cast a glance to his superior, Daynah, hoping she might have some idea.
"There is not anyone that I can think of. However, if we begin to investigate this Nor we may uncover others who are worthy of a look. However, we do have to be careful not to turn this into a proverbial witch hunt." Ral looked very serious as she spoke. Missions like this are a necessity however, they could lead to a lot of problems among the crew.
"That's a good point," Remy agreed. "And why we should keep it on a need to know basis for now."
She turned to the others at the table, focusing mainly on the junior officers. "If word gets out to too many people, there could be widespread paranoia, people, crew not trusting one another. We need to keep a clear focus. Do you understand?"
Garo nodded once, a bit too quickly.
"Yes, Captain," he said. His voice came out thinner than he would have liked, so he cleared his throat and tried once more. "Understood."
He folded his hands behind his back as if he were back at the Academy reciting rules he had already broken in his head. His eyes drifted briefly to the wafer that floated in stasis above the conference table. The glow painted a faint circle of blue on the ceiling.
Need-to-know basis, he thought. The problem with that was the thing in the stasis field didn't look like something that belonged to anyone who knew anything.
Rixi, meanwhile, leaned back in her chair. Her body language was that of someone trying very hard not to look restless but was overdoing it.
"Understood, Captain," she echoed.
Then she tilted her head toward the wafer again.
"Still," she said, "for the record... this thing didn't accidentally fall into someone's lunch tray in Ten-Forward."
She gestured toward the projectile again.
"Nobody seeds isochronite and gravinex into a data lattice unless they're trying to solve a very particular problem." She paused and then added, "Or maybe hide from one."
Garo shifted from where he stood and then tapped the control panel again. The holographic cross-section of the wafer rotated slowly, its strange architecture unfolding.
"Another thing," he admitted.
Several heads turned back to him.
"I did not mention earlier because... it sounded ridiculous when I first noticed it." He rubbed the back of his neck and look at Daynah. "Still sounding ridiculous."
"Those are usually the best kind," Rixi muttered.
Garo ignored her and pointed to a narrow cluster of glowing nodes buried deep in the wafer's interior. They flickered faintly and were out of rhythm with the rest of the device.
"These structures," he said slowly, "they are not part of the storage matrix. They do not carry information or route energy."
"They could just be stabilizing the lattice," Rixi interjected.
"No, not even," the Armenian officer shot back gently.
"Stop with the bickering, Ensigns," the Captain interjected sharply. "If you have a point, make it, Mr. Hakobyan."
Garo lowered his head, feeling a slight wave of shame. He and Rixi were friends but they sometimes allowed their personal feelings sometimes bled into their work, and it was now on display for the command staff.
"I am sorry, Captain."
Rixi kept her eyes level, her expression now dark at having been reprimanded by Captain Johansen. She never liked being publicly called-out--even by those in authority.
"It won't happen again, ma'am."
Garo cleared his throat, hoping it might make a better segue into his point.
"Captain--sir," he began, looking for his words. "I am simply saying this object has unknown quantities of matter that do something, but we don't know what that something is. It may be benign, yes. It may be transmitting or storing data. We have no way of knowing. So I recommend it remain in stasis for now."
Maxun considered the option, then nodded as he looked over to Remy. "I concur, Captain. Until we have more information, for the safety of the ship and crew, that chip should be kept in stasis, under strict quarantine. It should only be studied further in a field of absolute safety, or at least as best as we can do here."
Daynah disagreed, as she knew that if you quarantined the chip within the system it could not harm anyone or anything. However, she also knew that this was not the time nor was it the place to bring something like that up. "I can have a level four containment storage box made up in a matter of moments if you wish Captain. We can keep it in there until I can set up an area for absolute safety as the Commander suggests."
Xalanth's voice interrupted the meeting, [Captain, I need a security team along with the ship's forensics officer down in cargo bay five immediately. Have Garo come down as well, they're going to want to see this.]
"Should we all go?" Remy suggested looking around the table as she tapped her communicator.
[Right away, Commander.]
Rixi and Garo exchanged alarmed looks.
Maxun nodded as he stood. "It certainly sounds important enough to pull the Chief of Security out of a meeting."
"Commander Ral, once we see what is going on in the Cargo Bay, I want you to take care of this device as you suggested. Pull in science and engineering as needed on a means to study it."
"Yes Commander." Daynah replied. For the time being she thought the safest place for this was on her person. She placed the device in her pocket and fell into step with everyone else.
Kash looked over at Garo and Rixi and muttered, "What did you two get us into?"
"Don't look at me, Kash," Rixi said, pushing-out from the conference table. "I analyzed the thing and that's it."
Garo tapped the console at the end of the table, ending the holographic depiction of the wafer's interior. He fell in behind Lieutenant Ral as the remainder of the grouping filed out of the conference room.
~To Be Continued: Unexpected Discovery~
Captain Remira Johansen
Commanding Officer
USS Astrea
Commander Maxun Spello
First Officer
USS Astrea
Lt. Commander Daynah Ral
Chief Operations Officer
USS Astrea
Lt. Commander Xalanth
Chief Security Officer
USS Astrea
Ensign Kash th'Kaasniik
Operations Officer
USS Astrea
(NPC of Remy Johansen)
Ensign Garabed "Garo" Hakobyan
Transporter Specialist
USS Astrea
(NPC of JB Dorsainvil)
Petty Officer 2nd Class Zal Rixi
Engineering Officer
USS Astrea
(NPC of JB Dorsainvil)
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