Clockwork - Part 3, the Conclusion

Posted on 05 Sep 2026 @ 5:37pm by Lieutenant Commander Steven Remington

2,508 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: The Doldrums
Location: Astrophysics :: Arawyn

Clockwork – Part 3

// Astrophysics //

Snip
Gabriella was breathless. “There is something influencing Moon E. It’s got to be tinier than Moon E and has to intersect its orbit at this location every 18th repetition of the Cycle. I think I can triangulate it.” Moments later she had a bright orange marker where the object should be seen. They shifted to the actual view of the planet and that location. On highest magnification, there was nothing there. The shift in mood was palpable.

“There has to be something there,” insisted Gabriella.

She paused the hologram display and tapped her comm. She did need to inform the Commander that they had a location, even if there was nothing there. “Cmdr Remington, I’ve found something.”
End Snip

“I’m on my way.” Steve existed his office an instant later, hurrying to Gabriella’s station. “What’s up?”

“For 17 cycles without a resonance, the 18th one resolves, and when it does, there is a small but apparently significant change in the orbit of Moon E, resulting in a change in the plasma density on that revolution. Something is affecting the orbit of Moon E on the 18th rotation,” explained Gabriella. “I’ve triangulated the location and it should be right there, but we can see nothing.”

Steve, Gabriella and Smithers watched the model’s prediction of the cycle of 18 rotations three more times.

“Ok, that revises the model as a whole, even if we can see it. Let’s compare those numbers to the last 5 events we have already observed,” said Steve. “D’Nay,” he called out across the lab. She immediately came to join the others.

Event 1: Predicted within 0.8 seconds.
Event 2: 0.4 seconds.
Event 3: 1.1 seconds.
Event 4: 0.6 seconds.
Event 5: 0.8 seconds.

This gave them enough information to extrapolate the next resonance.

19:22:17.6

Now they were ready for the probes, prepared by the Operations and Engineering Departments, which were ready to launch.

Probe One: near the plasma torus to measure the plasma density, ion velocity and magnetic fluctuations.

Probe Two: above the planet’s magnetic pole, measuring field-aligned currents, auroral particle precipitation, and radio emissions.

Probe Three: outside the magnetosphere, to measure stellar winds, incoming charged particles, and external magnetic conditions.


// 18:15:21 :: Science Conference Room //

In a little over one hour, if Steve and his team had figured correctly, there should be a complete resonance event. The probes were stationed the countdown had begun. The entire astrophysics department gathered in the conference room and waited as the holo-image moved the orbiting moons around the planet in real time.

As the moment drew near, the chatter abated and voices, when needed, were calm and low.

T – 8.4 seconds // Moon D’s plasma wake reaches a critical region.
T – 5.1 seconds // Plasma torus oscillation changes.
T – 2.7 seconds // Moon C’s magnetic interaction strengthens.
T: 0.0 seconds // Magnetosphere resonance begins.
T + 0.8 seconds // Field-aligned currents surge.
T + 2.3 seconds // Planetary aurora brightens dramatically.
T + 3.1 seconds // Radio emissions peak.
T + 11.6 seconds // Synchronization collapses.

They all cheered. This was magnificent, they had determined the cause, which led to the propagation of the variables, and that all resulted in the predicted effect. These things were not all happening at the same time, but in a predictable sequence.

With the information they had collected and calculated, they should be able to establish the causality, rather than the simple correlation.

But they had yet to establish what exactly was causing the fluctuation in the 18th cycle, as opposed to the other 17. However, they did have a location.

“I wanna see recordings of the scans of that moment when that orange variable happens. Pull every scan that was made by the ship’s scans and the probes, however insignificant it may seem. There’s got to be something there,” said Steve. “At T – 5.1 seconds, the plasma oscillation changed. That could be our unknown object's influence. Watch for that on the recordings.”

“Yes, Sir,” replied Gabriella and D’Nay in unison.

“Food!” called someone from the door of the conference room. “Someone ordered us four pizzas. They’re hot and bubbly.”

“Eat!” called Steve, knowing it had been hours since they had taken a real break. Everyone but Gabriella headed to the conference room. When Steve saw her, he came over and pulled up a chair next to her. “You can stop to eat,” he said quietly.

“I’ll forget all these numbers I’ve got stored in my head,” she said. “Thanks anyway.”

“Let’s go over it again, the sequence,” suggested Steve, knowing it might help for her to rerun the events through her mind yet again. However, all it did was bring them back to the same orange highlighted region on the holo-image, the home of something. But what could be so small they could not even detect it and yet have any influence on the whole system?

“Ok, here’s something new on the readouts. A radio emission. Adding in the location and intensity of the effect, according to this new model, there should be a very weak radio emission at frequency 277mhz, coming from the opposite magnetic hemisphere,” she said, thinking aloud. “Ok, Computer, seek radio frequency 277.561 in the magnetic hemisphere directly opposite from our suspected location of the object in question. Filter out all other noise.”

A red dot appeared on the model, exactly where she had expected it to be and over the speaker could be heard a faint bleep and the oscilloscope also showed the emission. She turned and stared at Steve, who broke into a smile.

“You found something. That’s fantastic,” he praised her.

“But why can’t we see it?” I’m gonna check the Probe scans again,” she persisted.

Steve left to go get them each a plate of pizza and a fresh cup of coffee.

Calibrating Probe Two to a visual scan, Gabriella enlarged the image. There it was. A tiny black dot against the mottled cloud cover of the planet. “What is that?” she said.

The computer replied:
The object you are referring to is a rocky natural satellite.
Mean diameter: 48.7 kilometers.
Estimated mass: 1.6 times ten to the eighteenth kilograms.
Composition: carbonaceous silicates, hydrated minerals, iron-nickel compounds and complex refractory organics.
Mean surface albedo: 0.018.
Surface temperature: 91 Kelvin.
No detectable atmosphere.
Intrinsic magnetic field: negligible.
Internal thermal activity: none detected.
Orbital inclination: 31.4 degrees relative to the planetary equatorial plane.
Orbital eccentricity: 0.21.
Preliminary orbital analysis indicates probable captured origin.

When Steve return, the woman was elated. "I found it. A rock. Practically small enough to throw like a baseball. Well, maybe not quite." She replayed the computer's description.

"Why wasn't it identified in the original satellite survey?" asked Steve.

The computer replied. Object was detected in 21 previous sensor passes. Signal intensity fell below automatic satellite classification threshold. Previous returns were categorized as ring debris or background occlusion.

The tiny moon’s orbit had a surprisingly elliptical orbit on a high incline that brought it to the edges of the plasma ring and then carried it low, almost to the southern pole of the planet. A great deal of that time, the tiny 30-mile mean diameter object, already a light absorbing black against the blackness of space, was virtually invisible. On the 18th rotation of the Cycle, it actually slipped into the underside of the plasma ring and created a fluctuation in the plasma density and on that 18th cycle, the resonance occurred.

“Now that we know the orbital period …” Steve was thinking aloud. “Computer, add these calculations of this smallest known satellite to the model and report.”

The object intersects the outer plasma torus at 31.7 degree declination. Localized plasma displacement detected. Mean wake length: 18,400 kilometers. Electron density reduction within wake: 3.8 percent. Perturbation duration: 142 seconds. Propagation of disturbance consistent with observed phase displacement in magnetospheric resonance events.

Others were returning, stomachs full of pizza.

"Gabriella has found us a rock in orbit," Steve announced, obviously proud of her. Again, the computer's description was replayed.

“This boring little rock just became thelynchpin. Fascinating.” Steve turned to the team. “This rock does not have a magnetic field of its own with the power to disturb the plasma, but as it moves for 142 seconds through the thin plasma ring, it picks up charged particles and drags a wake behind it, like a boat through water, or a tail on a comet. But with the rest of the system’s clockwork poised for resonance, it gives the system just enough of a shove to push it into the effect. Resonance happens. The satellite isn't powerful but it is perfectly timed. We’ve been searching for a source of energy. There isn’t one. But the 5th satellite, a captured asteroid, changes the phase, the timing. Computer, when is the next resonance predicted?”

In 2 hours, 17 minutes and between 12 and 13 seconds.

“Meet back here in 2 hours,” said Steve. The group dissipated slowly. Steve clapped Smithers on the shoulder.

“Think it will be right …the new prediction? asked the Lieutenant.

“There will always be a variation. There are possible stellar wind effects, plasma density is not uniform throughout the ring, the 5th moon’s wake is not a constant, and our sensor resolution is finite. Therefore, there will always be variance of fractions of a second to 1, maybe 2 seconds,” Steve explained.

“So not exactly clockwork,” said Smithers, disappointment evident in his tone.

“No, because we are not dealing with machinery, Randy. This is a living astrophysical system being nudged by stellar winds and local plasma fluctuations. It operates like clockwork, but its a natural phenomenon, and we know it’s not some alien technology bent on blasting Arawyn to smithereens. Pun intended,” Steve replied, giving Randy Smithers a thumbs up of encouragement.

“True, and thanks to the Great Bird of the Galaxy for that,” intoned Smithers.


// Two hours, 13 minutes later //

Even more of the science department gathered around the conference room table and leaned against the walls and milled around outside the room, all eager to find out if the new model could effectively predict the resonance with some degree of accuracy, at 22:47:11.

The timer counted down the last 4 minutes. They watched on the feed of the actual event on the rooms wall monitor. The last 30 seconds. The last 10 seconds.

T – 8.4 seconds // Moon D’s plasma wake reached a critical region. No one made a sound. No one shuffled their feet.

T – 5.1 seconds // Plasma torus oscillation changed. A softly whispered “yes” could be heard. Then silence.

T – 2.7 seconds // Moon C’s magnetic interaction strengthened. Not a word. Not a sound.

T: 0.0 seconds // 22:47:11 // Magnetosphere resonance began. “It’s exactly right,” whispered Gabriella. “It’s happening,” answered Smithers.

T + 0.8 seconds // Field-aligned currents surged.

T + 2.3 seconds // Planetary aurora brightened dramatically. The intake of a collective breath accompanied the aurora’s ignited glow.

T + 3.1 seconds // Radio emissions peaked. A thin stream of radio static could be heard over the speaker and slowly dissipated.

T + 11.6 seconds // Synchronization collapsed.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” said D’Nay softly. “It was spot on target.” Then she burst into laughter, pent up, delicious laughter. And others joined her, breaking the tension as everyone congratulated everyone else with hugs, and high-fives and handshakes. Those only peripherally interested drifted away and those who had served as some point of connection with the event huddled into the conference room.

The celebration continued for a full 10 minutes, before the euphoria subsided and coughs after laughter gave way to discussion of the process of which they had all been a part. There were a few after-effects reports to generate. Records to be finalized. The computer would do most of that.

“Good work. Thank you all. We earned our keep today, team. Take a break, eat the rest of that cold pizza and I’m gonna have a fresh cuppa coffee and write up a report for the Captain.”

“Thanks Commander,” said Gabriella. “You may be a zoologist, but you seem to know your astrophysics pretty well. You were right here in the trenches with us too. Thank you.”

“We don’t any of us do exploration alone or in a vacuum. I studied as a theoretical physicist first but turned to biology in the end because while physics tells us how the universe works, and I really like knowing all that -- biology tells us why it matters. This universe is sacred. I’m not talking in a mystical sense, but everything out there matters to something else. Even that little 30-mile diameter rock has a purpose. It matters. This whole system matters. That’s why we’re mapping it. And you and I and all of us matter. I don’t want to ever forget that.”

“Thank you, Commander,” replied Gabriella.

“Take a break. Get a bite. Something to drink,” Steve suggested.

“I just wanna finish writing up the last of my report for you, before I forget all this excitement. This was pretty amazing.”

“I agree.” Steve walked away, satisfied he had a solid report for the Captain and a deeper connection with his staff in the Science Department. He had enjoyed the step outside of Life Sciences and was pleased his astrophysics knowledge had come back to him so readily when he needed it. But he also recognized that he had a good team. A group he could trust to know their jobs, who had the conviction to do those jobs with integrity.

Returning to his office, he sat down in front of the computer terminal and prepared to dictate his report to the Captain.

“The gas giant and its satellite system constitute a naturally occurring coupled magnetospheric resonator. The resonance occurs approximately every 4 hours and 8 minutes. We were able to extrapolate the last resonance event exactly. That, I believe may not always be the case as there are several inconstant factors involved. But after a great deal of trial, error and effort, we can now predict the event to within 1 to 2 seconds. This is mainly due to the discovery of a very small satellite that eluded our detection for some time.

The resonance itself is driven by the interaction of:

 Stellar wind
 Planetary rotation and magnetic geometry
 Plasma supplied by the volcanic moon
 Orbital motion of the four major satellites
 Electromagnetic interaction of the magnetic moon
 Periodic plasma perturbation caused by the extremely small, inclined satellite

The phenomenon produces predictable bursts of tense radio emissions, enhanced auroral activity and temporary redistribution of charged particles within the magnetosphere.

I recommend Starfleet classify the system as an object of significant astrophysical interest and send a dedicated study mission.

I would also recommend a commendation for Ensign Gabriella Mindinoro, Astrophysicist, for her work and cooperation with the team involved in this project. I suggest the entire resonance effect here be named after her.

"The entire Department got involved at one point to watch the final predicted event, which occurred exactly at the time predicted.”

End
~~~
LtCmdr Steve Remington
Chief Science Officer
USS Arawyn
&
Lt Randy Smithers, Planetary Science
Lt D’nay Teris, Stellar Astrophysicist
Ensign Gabriella Mindinoro, Astrophysicist

 

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