The Unknown Variable

Posted on 01 Jun 2026 @ 2:53am by Lieutenant Ryan Collingway
Edited on on 01 Jun 2026 @ 3:57am

474 words; about a 2 minute read

///Engineering///

Ryan took a deep breath as he entered engineering, holding his data padd tightly. He had survived his first senior staff meeting. The meeting itself had left more questions than answers. He wondered if his future command training covered 'What to do next when the Prime Directive is already messed up beyond recognition.' The last time they had gone through something like this had been with the Eirians. Sure they had been worried, but they had space flight and could process what happened to them.

But between ten and fourteen thousand people from 1984? Not so much.

He didn't envy the Captain's choices.

The Eirians also said his own mind was cluttered, and it was true. Swallowing, Ryan cleared it and focused on the probes. Being able to tinker helped with his thoughts.

His computer was directly tied in with the science department. More often than not the two departments worked hand in hand. He didn't know Remington very well, not personally. But he could say the same thing with half of the senior staff. Unlike Commander Sorvak, he didn't seem the type to peel him off a medical bed for answers, so that was already a plus.

No sign of any of this being caused by natural phenomenal. No sign of any other ships or warp trails in the area. There was that mysterious signal coming from the portal. Potentially alien in origin.

Potentially coming from the planet.

Ryan had run probability scenarios, and it was highly likely that whatever had caused this had come from something on that planet. Perhaps an alien force that was working on an experiment. Or perhaps someone from 1984 messing with alien technology that had been left behind. Their own version of Earth had problems with that when a borg ship crashed into its past. Ryan remembered that history lesson from the Academy. Maybe that same scenario happened here.

A lot of different possibilities.

He uploaded the specs of his probe to the science lab. Easily able to avoid 1984 satellite technology. Extemely likely to not cause any issues to the displacement portal based on all know variables and calculations. Reinforced shielding to protect the probe from external compression, and temporal variance, based on what they had learned from the Eirian portal.

But it was based on data and theories. Not an actual test.

And there was the unknown factor-the mysterious signal. Until they understood what it was, there was no way to know how it would interact with a probe, or a shuttle for that matter. He entered those notes as well for science.

That done, Ryan leaned back. There was still the not-so insignificant fact that he had a department of two hundred and fifty engineers to run. But he would follow up with science on this shortly.

Lieutenant Ryan Collingway
Acting Chief Engineer
USS Arawyn

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