In the midst of a patrolling squadron, the blackness of interstellar space reached all around the CNS
Partitioner. The heavy cruiser was underway with its most recent reconnaissance patrol beyond the Colonial Sphere. To it's galactic south laid the Azrican Corridor, a spiraling extension of the Sagittarius arm of the galaxy. From the confines of the Heavy Cruiser’s navigation complex, the crew of the Star Fleet vessel worked tirelessly and in silence as the long patrol continued.
Locked in their work the vessel’s station was positioned forward the main armored bulwarks of the cruiser’s prow, allowing quick access to the signal’s processing hardware and the receiving arrays on the vessel’s thick hull. On one of the main air screens, a technician looked across a processing-line as a spectroanalysis machine sent a pulsating message in front of the skeleton crew.
“We’ve got something, a few AUs out -- it’s a lot of signatures.” A Junior Lieutenant called out from ‘the pit’, an open fissure in the navigation’s complex a story down below the main ‘office’ of the navigation suite. The upper half of his head was obscured by the hyper-reality helmet he wore, the two transparent optics where his eyes would be pulsing as he scanned over the imagery obtained from remote sensors on the vessel’s hull.
“I’ve got it.” A Chief Petty Officer replied, standing with two hands stretched out on the railing as he surveyed the air screen. His eyes narrowed for a moment before the Scatterran reached over to the holotank at his side. Pressing one analog button the device activated with a winding groan.
An exact copy of the spectroanalysis program sprang up in front of him. The next app he activated was a comms network to the bridge: after that he went back to the readout in front of him. “Just what the fuck am I looking at here?”
The ship’s onboard AI had produced an avatar with the holotank when it activated, running it’s own programming through the navigation suite. “It appears there are a number of signatures at long ranges nearby: I have already passed them to the bridge. Captain Anron will be responding shortly.”
The CPO crossed his arms for a moment as he waited for more information to coalesce in front of him. Immediately speaking the signatures were noticeably different than anything the Star Fleet shipman had seen prior: spectroscopy was an acute science in the Star Fleet, and many ships were crewed with academically-trained and knowledgeable navigation’s and communication’s specialists. “This might be an instance of first contact, Aria.”
As he responded to the AI another window expanded from the holotank, a beep sounding as a notification before the CPO turned to view the Captain of the
Partitioner. Captain Anron had received the spectroanalysis onto a handheld data tablet, and was looking between it and the holographic video.
“Chief Petty Officer, what is this we’re looking at?” Captain Anron studied his handheld briefly.
“Something that has stumped the spectroanalysis system in the navigation suite here." As the CPO looked back towards the air screen, he could see the first relays coming back to the complex and filtering up through the individual stations. When the heavy cruiser began receiving various probes across the blackness of space the Captain responded dryly.
"Send an FCP package." Across the vastness of space the lone cruiser made itself known with a wide-band broadcast. The sub-space relay from the cruiser's powerful communication's suite.
"This is the Star Fleet cruiser CNS Partitioner, contacting any unidentified vessels on behalf of the Coalition Military Apparatus of the Garden states."
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