"Clockwork - Part 1
Posted on 25 Aug 2026 @ 11:23pm by Lieutenant Commander Steven Remington
1,004 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
The Doldrums
Location: Science conference room
// Conference Room, Astrophysics //
The holoimage of the entire solar system hovered over the conference room table. The astrophysics members of the Science Department had gone over and over the event that had occurred within fractions of a second of their prediction; .69 hundredths of a second to be exact. Why the variation? Steve wanted an answer.
“Lieutenant Teris, let’s look at your report first.”
“Yes, Sir,” replied D’nay Teris, stellar astrophysicist. “I’ve determined rotation rate, stellar wind velocity, magnetic field strength, flare activity, coronal mass ejections and charged-particle output. That tells us what energy the star is throwing at the planetary system, and when. We do see fluctuations in the stellar wind, but we are able to account for that in our predictions and we are much more accurate than ¾ of a second. I don’t think the difference is coming from the star.”
“Thanks D’nay. That eliminates one variable. But don’t totally dismiss it. Smithers, what’s your call?” asked Steve.
“Sir, we’ve mapped everything: atmospheric composition, rotation period, magnetic field geometry, radiation belts, magnetotail, auroral activity and radio emissions. What we’ve found is the magnetic field is not neatly aligned with the planet’s rotation axis. There’s a 12-degree magnetic tilt. That matters because as the planet rotates, its magnetic field effectively sweeps outward into and through the orbits of the moons. This means it could be affecting the orbital pull or other influences of the satellites, but I still don’t think that would account for the discrepancy by itself,” reported Lt Randy Smithers.
Steve nodded. He understood astrophysics, but this was a puzzle that would take the expertise of his whole team to figure out. “Thanks Randy.” He took a sip of his coffee. “So, we have a variable with the planet. We’ll call that Cycle A. Ensign Mindinoro, what cha got?”
The young Ensign took a cue from the others and didn’t stand. She hoped that wasn’t an inexcusable faux pas. But while her confidence with department etiquette was languishing, her knowledge of natural orbital satellites was solid. “There are nine natural orbital satellites. Most are pretty uninteresting. But four of them are. For lack of names, I will refer to them as A, B, C and D.
“Moon A is volcanically active and continuously dumps sulfur, oxygen and other ion-rich materials into space. The material is trapped by the planet’s magnetic field and forms a ring of ionized gas around the planet, a plasma torus.
“Moon B is unique. It is densely metallic and has its own magnetic field. And it does make a localized disturbance, like a wake from a boat, when moving through the planet’s magnetosphere. So, it’s also a possible influence on our time differential.
“Moon C is not remarkable, no magnetic field of its own, but its orbit does repeatedly carry it through the plasma ring created by Moon A.
“And lastly, Moon D orbits further from the planet and periodically crosses the stretched outer regions of the planet’s magnetosphere. Again, because of that periodic nature, it could be an influence, but I think our models would account for that. So technically, all 4 of those moons have the strong potential to affect the time stamp.” She paused, frowning at the holoimage and the consulting her PaDD. “Wait a minute,” said Mindinoro. “Time stamps. Stand by, please. I have an idea that might help, but it’ll take me a few minutes.”
“Thank you, Gabriella,” replied Remington. “Let’s all get our refills and bio-breaks and be back here in 9 minutes.”
Everyone but Gabriella left the table and she focused busily on her PaDD and the interface with the holoimage. She withdrew an ink pen attached to the side of her PaDD and wrote down notes on a napkin: radio B, aurora C, plasma A.
People returned on time. Steve did not like latecomers. For all his laid-back attitude, time was important. You didn’t come in late without a very good reason.
“Okay, how you doin’, Ensign?” asked Steve.
“Yes Sir. We have multiple, predicable variables, repeating at predictable intervals. Certain radio bursts occur when Moon B reaches particular orbital positions – every 6.3 hours. The aurora intensifies when Moon C passes through a particular magnetic longitude – every 31 hours. Plasma density spikes occur at regular interval associated with Moon A – 13.8 hours. That’s just three of the variables. There may be more. The important thing is the phenomena repeat. When I combine all of them into a common timeline, there seems to be a pattern,” finished Gabriella.
“Natural pattern or outside influence kind of pattern?” asked Smithers.
“I can find no evidence of it being manufactured. I believe it to be natural,” she replied.
Steve looked at the scientists gathered around the table. This now include two more specialists who heard about the findings around the “water cooler” and the “coffee pot” and wandered back with Smithers and Teris.
“It’s like a clock…. It’s clockwork,” said Steve. “Ok. We have Cycle A, the planet; Cycle B, C, D and E, the four moons. We need to combine all our models: stellar, planetary, magnetic fields, satellites, plasma influence, and orbital dynamics. Work on that for the rest of today. Give yourselves a good rest tonight and we come back tomorrow, same time, same place. I’m gonna work on the development of a holographic representation of it all. I’ll send you each the link to that. Feed your data into that model and let’s see what we’ve come up with. Remember, we have another full show of this phenomenon coming up in 4 hours, 37 minutes, some-odd seconds, give or take a second. That may reinforce our findings or completely smash them to sludge. Regardless, good work people. We’ll get this figured out.”
~~~
LtCmdr Steve Remington
Chief Science Officer
USS Arawyn
&
Lt Randy Smithers, Planetary Science
Lt D’nay Teris, Stellar Astrophysicist
Ensign Gabriella Mindinoro, Astrophysicist
NPCs apb Kate
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