Ensign Reuben Sees The Future
Ensign Clara Reuben was, officially, a Sensor Analyst, 1st Rate. But in actuality, she was a spy, from a long line of spies. Not in the cloak-and-dagger-and-dead-drop sense. In previous eras she would have been called a photo analyst. Previous to that weird neighbor with a telescope. She actually did have a telescope in her quarters too.
Right now she was pouring over their scans of the new Enterprise, writing notes out on a PADD with a stylus, scribbled comments like "venturi shape = work pods thrust = 4kN? They carry work pods!", "shuttle warp engines 1+ cochrane each!", "warp field coils misaligned badly", "vulcanoid andorians!" and so forth.
"Ensign." Oh fiddlesticks. That was Commander Spock.
"Sir." Still she didn't look away from the visual image she was scrutinizing. If it had been Kirk, or Sulu, she would have stood to attention and saluted instantly, but Spock would understand that her focus and time were precious. "My preliminary opinion is that yes, it's a Federation starship. Aside from the obvious design heritage, I've identified members of all four Federation founding races aboard and at least one current affiliate, the Caitians." A snort. "Not that it was hard to do so for the Caitians. Captain Mrr'Shan's coloration and speech patterns are traceable to the Fyrrr region of Ferasa. They also have at least one male Orion aboard that I've seen. There are several species aboard I don't recognize but presumably they represent affiliates or ratified members from the future."
"Ratified members, Ensign?" She could hear the raised eyebrow.
"I know the political outlook on ratification of any current Federation affiliate is rather dim, sir. The conference area off the bridge has a plaque indicating the ship has participated in several ratification ceremonies for new Federation members. Amarki, 2306. Betazed, 2308. Apinae, 2313. I've tentatively identified the blue vulcanoid species as the Amarki. There are several mentions of Betazed in our databanks, passed along by other species we've encountered, but no direct Federation contact. Apinae I don't know anything about. The crew is much more diverse than our own."
"Your assessment of the ship itself?"
"Hard to say, sir, but I wouldn't suggest attempting to engage it even with its damage." Reuben pointed at the image she was examining, a near-infrared shot of one of the nacelles. "Look at the condition of their warp coils. The level of misalignment here would have blown our nacelles apart, so they've been running hard over spec for some time and obviously understand warp fields better than we do. Their torpedo yield is twice ours on a torpedo that would actually fit in our launchers, though it's about a tenth more massive. Phaser output is below twice ours but still better. The whiff we got of their sensors in targeting mode would suggest theirs are twice or better the power and resolution of ours." She chewed her lip briefly. "I can't make real guess at what kind of facilities it has for diplomacy or the like, but it has plenty of internal space to use for that, assuming it hasn't got a bunch of sensor, power, or weapons capability in reserve. And from what Captain ka'Sharren said, I doubt it does." Back to the lip chewing as she continued to survey individual windows and the rooms beyond them. "I don't see any reason to think it's some kind of ruse. Too much fine detail."
"Speak freely, Ensign."
"Just personal affirmation, sir. The future is carried forward on the backs of a hundred thousand unknown workers, toiling to make it happen. If that ship is the future of Starfleet, then whatever small part I played in making it happen was worth the effort."
She could hear the raised eyebrow again. But it didn't come with a question. "Indeed."
