The Pinicon Belt

Drake responded, perhaps too enthusiastically. "Yes, Commander! You can count on me." He hoped his excitement didn't show too much on his face. Sure, he was a little tense, but this was an amazing opportunity.

"I don't think I'd advise beaming anything in these conditions, Commander. But I'm sure we could set up a pressurized docking field."

The transporter was at the top of his mind, and he ducked back down to his console. LCARs did itself many favors, but he longed for his laboratory and its vast displays and access to a full starship's instruments.

He pulled up logs of the static and interference, scanning for any patterns that might indicate a shift in quantum frequency, an indicator that they had slid from one universe to another, to a full log of the ship's diagnostic activity, seeing if anything they had done might have triggered it. The incomplete diagnostics they had been able to pull from the derelict Raven clone might corroborate his hypothesis and his hope.

If the ship wasn't responsible, after all, it would be quite difficult to induce the anomaly to act the way they needed it to.

"Point well taken Lieutenant," replied to the Science Officer inwardly chastising his self for his mental lapse regarding the transporters, "Luna. Hold her steady and invite the other Raven to dock with us."

Luna holds her steady.
"Raven crew, standby for docking." she says in the comm. Then she commences the docking procedure. She made sure to do everything by the book but couldn't help wonder if their "book" was the same.
Once the necessary steps is taken, "Raven crew, you are clear to enter."

Drake sticks with Jayce and subtly pats his phaser, a gesture that reassures the ensign that he ready.

Unwilling to risk the transporters in the intense interference, the crew floats the intervening distance in environment suits and boards your ship through the airlock. You now that they're armed with a phasers, and their suits are armored. After their Dr. M'Ress scans the air inside for pathogens, and you've scanned them, they remove their helmets.

"Captain Cole Walker. This is lieutenant D'Ress, Ensign Zarah, and Second Lieutenant Vilchis."

The four of you state at your doppelgangers. The strangers are like you but scarred and war savaged. The distance in their eyes tells you they've seen and lived with more horror than you might imagine.

She watches her copy with narrow eyes, the tip of her tail flicking. She visually scans the alternate team for fresh injuries, but hopes they are as competent.

Tell me, were you pulled into another reality as well, or are we in yours?

Drake tries not to look agog, but it takes great effort not to. Surely the crew are as much a surprise to their guests as the guests are to them.

His mind burns to hear an answer to the doctor's question as his eyes subtly watch their guests.

Cole cast their counterparts in an appraising stare through narrowed eyes, noticing all were armed with phasers and scarred with the wear and tear of war. Taking the initiative the Doc posed a valid question to the foursome, and as he waited on their response his eyes flicked towards Jayce, a brow rising in question as he looked for some confirmation as to their opposite's emotional state and temperment.

The other doctor puts away her tricorder. "We don't see here the massive borg presence in the Alpha quadrant that is common place in our universe. There, you could sense their subspace communication frequencies everywhere, but here they're silent. Either you have no borg or you defeated that threat. In our ... dimension? In our reality, they control most of known space."

The captain grinds his teeth. "Yes, we were caught in a rift and pulled here, while we investigated this asteroid belt for a weapons cache. This isn't your reality, either, and I'm sure all of us want to get home."

He's suspicious, and Jayce gets the sense that he's trying to determine whether or not you're borg spies or informants.

"The Borg are still at large and remain a formidable threat in our reality Doctor," replies Jayce to the guest M'Ress. (He inwardly admits that is is very odd to be addressing another Doctor M'Ress). "Captain, I sense your worry, although we have been fortunate to not currently be engaged in a full out war with the Collective in our reality, we neither have any truces with the force, nor could we imagine one existing."

Jayce senses that the Captain Cole is honestly suspicious about the motives of Jayce's own crew, and does not sense any level of deception from him thus far.

"We do want to get home. We are all needed in our own realities. I'm sure your crew is needed crucially. Perhaps we could work together to figure out what anomalies got us here and how to reverse them to get back."

They agree to work together and in a somewhat natural way, they approach each of you. Curious about the differences. They're still suspicious but the temptation to compare to a history that might have been is too much.

The other Drake removes his upper part of the suit and shows a mechanical right arm, up to mid bicep. "You've got your whole arm. I lost mine in a Borg attack on Risa."

The other Luna stands awkwardly near Luna. "I wonder where our timelines diverged. I used to be the helmsman, too, but was promoted in the field a few weeks ago. The borg have been around longer than that though."

Drake's eyebrows raise as the other Drake shows off his mechanical arm.

"That's an impressive piece of hardware. I'm sorry to hear about you losing your arm but it looks like you got something better for your trouble."

The other Drake's openness was encouraging.

Cole forced a polite smile as Jayce attempted to belay Captain Cole's suspicions as the two crews settled in to figure out how to return them to their perspective realities, his mouth drawing taut at the mention their counterparts were from a different reality than they one they were currently in. As introductions continued, Cole motioned the other Cole over towards Lieutenant Ah.

"This is my science officer, Lieutenant Aurin-Ah," he stated simply with a gesture towards the Aurelian, "You've been pecking away over here Lieutenant --- any solutions present themselves yet?"

Aurin was absorbed in his work. Not for lack of interest in their visitors, but his crew was counting on him, and there were... many, many variables to examine. One finger grazed over his greenish crest, as he turned away from the console.

"I wish we were meeting under less... unpredictable circumstances. But we welcome your assistance." It was strange, seeing these doppelgangers roaming the bridge, but it was some comfort he didn't have to confront himself, not yet. He had quite a lot on his mind already.

He motioned to the screen. The commander could use a briefing, one he could distill to the crew, if need be. And the other commander... could probably use a gesture of goodwill. But he didn't speak privately, letting the others perk up if they found an interest in his predicament. "The sensors on the Raven are... woefully insufficient to penetrate the interference around this belt. I haven't been able to isolate a source, but it is quite a lot of background noise." He motioned to three abstract waveform graphs, two representing the output and operation of a ship's systems, the other a log of the interference that seemed to be bombarding their sensors. "We're ill-equipped to examine the theoretical, so I'm focusing on the practical. I've got our engineering logs, here, and what we could piece together of the wreck's logs, against the pattern of the interference, here. Trying to see if it's been... agitated by our behavior at all. Engines. Reactor. Transporter. Weapons. Tractor. Life support." He motioned to different colored lines that carved through the overarching waveform of reactor output.

The claw on the tip of his thumb glided down the edge of his beak. "If we can isolate any system we have control of that alters its behavior, we may be able to induce it to act. Or, at the very least, we may be able to use the interference itself as a sensory medium able to carry signals from whatever is the cause of the anomaly - a sort of quantum sonar. If the Raven's computer is up to it, anyways." He shook his head. "I'd give my left wing for the main arrays on the Christa right now."

He doesn't look directly at Aurin-Ah but doesn't ignore the Aurelian either.

"There may be a way to recalibrate your sensors to filter out the Pinicon Belt’s quantum interference. Commander, we'll share the upgrade with your team if you agree to cooperate in assisting us, and in doing so yourselves. We believe that the source of the interference is deeper in the belt, and I'd like for you to accompany us."

His expression tells you that he's hopeful you'll join him, despite his somewhat strong arm tactics in obtaining that help.

Drake's eyes widen with hopeful excitement at the prospect of an adventure, and with their opposites. He almost says something but decides to bite his tongue as that would be totally out of line. Maybe he'd be excused for exuberant youth but there was also the safety of the crew to consider.