====== Bridge, USS Qashqai ======
Shane still felt a bit weak after his poisonous experience,
but he was sitting in his CO's chair erected like an 18
years old cadet. Bridge of the defiant class ship was very
small, hardly one quarter of the spacious OPS area on UNITY,
but the Captain's area was surprisingly comfort
nonetheless. He was studying the message send by Commander
Terek from UNITY and thinking hard about it.
The first surprising fact was that the massage was heavily
encrypted. All SSF messages were highly encrypted by
standard, but this one was sealed that only Shane's code
could open the message. Adding pain to injury – the
content of the message was a puzzle as well. It was a square
with 12 rows and 12 columns, full of numbers. No explanation
or clues given. It was pure luck that Shane knew Terek for
long years and that he knew what "should" be in the
message. Shane was expecting space coordinates of Rangi's
message origin.
This was a rescue mission and therefore only minimal science
staff was on board, so Shane took the challenge to decode
the message himself. He was a seasoned commanding officer,
decorated with many medals and having years of service … a
task like this should be peanuts.
He failed.
After half an hour spend trying to decode the message, Shane
was rather disappointed by the lack of success. He ruffled
his hair and tried to focus on those numbers once again. It
seemed fitting to take the diagonal axis as starting point.
That gave Shane 12 numbers. Terek was supposed to send him
space coordinates. Space coordinates came in X,Y,Z axis
format – that are three numbers. But what the other nine
numbers mean? Trying to take-and-try approach was of no
success. The first three numbers were just empty space near
Earth, other three groups of numbers WERE real space
objects, but the first was a planet in Klingon space, the
second was a space station in gamma quadrant and the last
one was a supernova deep in Breen space.
It just gave no sense!
Finally Shane remembered the very basic information about
space navigation: "Whereas bearings and headings use polar
co-ordiantes, galactic co-ordinates use Cartesian
co-ordinates. The corresponding concept in navigation on a
planet's surface is that of latitude and longitude. Of
course, there are three co-ordinates in space, and so
galactic co-ordinates are given in an (X, Y, Z) format. By
convention, the galactic centre is used as the origin (0, 0,
0) for galactic co-ordinates, and the co-ordinate axes are
aligned as follows."
A thought stroke his mind suddenly: {What if it's NOT the
galactic centre used as the 0,0,0 point?} Now the path was
clear ahead. He needed THREE new points for the 0,0,0 point
and where he should get them? Right … from Terek's
message! He substituted the three galactic coordinates into
the matrix and added the fourth number (previously pointing
to nowhere) and voila! He's got a target. Padassa system
– a certain outpost station.
Shane was just about to order a new course, when he's been
interrupted by the OPS officer: "Commodore, we have an
incoming transmission … addressed personally for you".
Shane looked at the OPS officer and frowned: "Who is
sending the transmission, Lieutenant?"
The OPS officer tapped his panel and replied: "Some
Nicolas Harker, sir"
Shane opened his eyes WIDE.
====== End of log ======
Commo. Shane Guzman
CO, 1st TF, SSF Command
CO, SB 234: UNITY
