Aegis

Snowfire waited a few hours after the meeting before she went to see the Captain, she'd wanted to make sure that she had everything all pulled together in a way that would be easily translatable and also to work out exactly how to explain it all. What she'd been doing with her Circle, the training she'd given them, and what that training would allow them to do. And...perhaps far more importantly, what that would create in the ship and how it was usable. She'd need to lay it all out on the table very clearly given its connotations, but for the mission they were heading into it could be vital. The ability to meet the Undine on equal terms, or at least hold the ship against psionic intrusion if it came to that, would be a god-send. So as it turned towards evening - ship time at least - she gathered up all of her data and asked ship to tell her where Kheren was.

It wasn't really anything that could be called a surprise to find that he was in his ready room, it wasn't late in the day yet and he seemed to often keep hours that many humans would have called borderline insane. Then again, he wasn't human.

The walk to the Ready Room was one that she'd become used to - in that it was also the route to the Horizon's bridge - and she was happy for its familiarity. It helped settle her, that stretch of corridor and turbolift ride. And for what she was about to explain and ask, she needed that settling. Even with the circumstances of their mission, instituting something like the kyrol that protected the ships of the IDF had the capacity to be a stretch, especially when you factored in what the empathic net could allow her to be capable of as long as she was close enough to the ship. But in this case, she couldn't not ask. It could help protect them, and that was the least that she could do for the ship whose crew was beginning to become family. You looked out for family.

She reached the bridge, crossing it with a nod and smile to the duty officers present, then tapped the stud linked to the Ready Room's admittance chime.

"Come."

The door slid open to reveal the Andorian at his desk with his yeoman, the copper-skinned Human Ensign Miramanee Blackbird at his side, PADD in hand. They were both hunched over his desk terminal as the Illythirii chief of science appeared before their lifted eyes.

"Make sure the quartermaster has everything on this list and that both Commander Redding and Lieutenant Leône get the manifest as well before and after everything has been checked."

"Aye, Captain," answered the Amerind woman looking on last time between the screen and her PADD, tapping something quickly on it.

" That we will be all for now, Yeoman."

With a nod, Ensign Blackbird left the room with a second nod to Snowfire as she went by her on her way out. Kheren then sat down in the chair behind his transluscent desk, inviting his lead science officer to take the one opposing him on her side of the desk with a gesture of his hand.

"What can I do for you, Lieutenant-Commander?"

Snowfire took the seat without speaking, then look up across the desk to meet his metallic-heud eyes. As to be expected, he'd been working on getting everything ready for the launch. She hoped this wouldn't take too much time away from that, but if not now...well, later would be worse. She laid her PADD on her side of the desk, placing her hands delicately on her lap, then began speaking.

"It's about the training that I've been giving about twenty-five percent of the psi-capable personnel among the Horizon's crew, Captain. And considering exactly what it is, it has relevance to our upcoming mission." She nodded to the PADD. "It's all in there, but I'll lay it out for you now." She reached up and tapped a button on the device, activating a hologram of the Horizon that hovered above the desk between them. "What we have now is a passive psionic detection net, which you instituted during our maiden voyage." She nodded at the display as a film of light surrounded the ship. "It'll pick up just about any attempt to communicate through telepathy or empathy, and that's good. But considering where we're going, and just in the aid of enhanced security, there's another measure that I've laid in the basic training for whilst I've been teaching the Circle technopathy." She tapped another control.

Panes of light spread out around the Horizon, almost as if another set of shields around her in response to that command, and Snowfire smiled faintly. "This is what my people call a kyrol, the best translation I can give is the term aegis or shield, and it's a form of active psi defence that can protect an entire ship against intrusion or attack. It's a communal effort that shares a lot with the other joint techniques that I've been allowed to teach, so putting it in place would be simple enough. But it pertains most to this mission in that it would protect us from any psionic intrusion by the Undine - if they make the attempt." She paused for a moment, letting that sink in.

"There is, however, another side to this coin. One that might not be one that you would like to use, but one that could be vital to our survival if we are ever faced with a full-fledged psi attack." She tapped another button, and this time a subtly different light spread out across the entire vessel. She reached up to indicate it. "This...this is what we call an empathic net. The translation is sketchy, but it does the job. It's a reservior of psionic energy that results from something like an Aegis being in place for continuous periods of time. The passive protocol you instituted has created a weaker version, but nothing that could add anything if you tapped it. This...this can." Her finger tapped the light a second time. "Without going into theory that you really need to work out on your own, when you maintain active psi effects tied to objects you get leakage into the object. And that leakage can be...tapped. Think of it as something akin to a battery."

"With something like that, given the reports I've read on the subject, I am confident that if necessary we could not only repel psionic incursion but also go 'outside' and actively confront an attacker on an equal footing. It's not something that I would do without your express permission, but if this is a trap - even if its not a trap for us but our contact - it could be a vital edge." She lowered her hand back to her lap, chewing on her lower lip. "It's not something that I offer lightly, and it's not something that I'm sure is even within the ethical boundaries of Starfleet itself but...you give your Captain everything that you can. If it's not something that they're happy with utilising, then you don't use it. But you have to let them - in this case, you - make that choice."

Kheren knew little about psionics. In fact his own abysmal score on the psionic testing routinely done by Starfleet upon entering the Academy almost registered as a form of natural shielding against it, so unreceptive he was to it. The only actual experience he had with it was the Andorian marital bond he now shared with his wives that extended beyond the confines of space or perception; and he guessed that even this normally natural psi-link of his species had only been possible with him because one of his wives was Aenar.

But as little as he knew or understood about it didn't mean that he discounted it or didn't see the practical applications of it; especially in a strategic and tactical sense when they were about to meet a very alien, potentially agressive and dangerous species who's natural form of communication was telepathy.

"I will look into this in geater depth with Counselor Lyrya later on," promised the Andorian after a moment. "This is tremendous work, Lieutenant-Commander. If this works as you describe, then you have given us a genuinely effective way to protect and even defend ourselves if things come to worse. You are right that I may not like all it implies... but even if I do not like them either, I know that sometimes we have to fire phasers."

He pondered for another moment, looking at the data which was expertedly offered both in simple, concise and understandable terms for someone like him and in elaborate, precise scientific details usable by those truly knowledgeable in the field.  Snowfire K'Leysha was her usual thorough self and yet evidently aware that she had not only to do the work properly but to communicate it effectively; Kheren was seeing that her time among many people of different species and cultures not as familiar with the subject as her own had served her well.

"I can see the value of what you are proposing. But that brings four questions to my mind. One; is this or something derived from it usable as a communication tool? Two; will this work for our non-psionically endowed crew as well and if so to what degree? Three; will this create a kind of group-mind where thoughts would be perceived by others? I'm asking this because I know more than a few who would balk at the idea of having their thoughts bared open."

He made a pause to let her first ponder his questions but also to make the last one predominant in her mind as it was in his.

"Fourth and last; is there any risk involved?"

"The basic practices are exactly the same across the board in communal work. All you need to do is know how to -" she cut off with a rueful grin. "Sorry. To answer your first question simply, yes. It's a derivation of the communal technique that allows psi-capables to boost others. Given the level of psionic potential available aboard this vessel and with either Counselor Lyrya or myself as the focus point, I have little doubt that we could punch messages across interstellar distances. I'd need to teach the Counselor how to act as a focus - I've studied the cultural records and there really isn't anything there of a similar nature - but it isn't a hard skill to learn, just to master." She shrugged.

"As to its effects, see it as a psionic deflector grid. It's pretty much that simple. Any attempt to break through the Aegis will get stopped beyond the hull of the Horizon so long as the link is strong enough. If the known levels of Undine psi-potential are accurate, the Circle that I've been training will be capable of holding off small groups of them. Larger ones if you want to hold back my response capability, as in that case they can tap the Net as well. It will protect all those aboard equally." She said with a striking finality. "And no, it will not create a Groupmind. Not unless those within it chose to create one, which is in the end their choice and won't pull anyone else in but those who wish to be. And what is shared in a Groupmind stays within it. That's something that I'm afraid I can't explain, but am totally secure in stating."

"As to risk..." Snowfire sighed. "Captain, of course there is risk. But the risk is so much greater if the crew is not protected. The risk to myself is greatest, as the primary focus of the shield," she held up a hand quickly. "No other could do so Captain, and regardless of what I may be I do believe in protecting my family. This ship in many ways is part of that family now, and I would give my life freely to protect it. With that said though, there is little danger of that. If the shield is breached, even in such a way as it could harm me, the link to it will be severed without conscious thought. We shall shield the Horizon, but I am the only one who can create the aegis that will let us do so. That places on me a certain strain, but it is one that I am fully capable of adapting to without harm. The only other possibility of risk is one that would in itself be a result of a situation full of it and that I would honestly discount. But, an answer is nothing if it is not full." She nodded at the haze of light that represented the empathic net.

"If I use that to go 'outside', as it were, there is a risk to myself in that I will be engaging in what amounts to mental combat with other psi-capable entities. However out of every member of this ship's crew, I am the only one who is both mentally and emotionally capable of doing something like that. I can train others, and I will if you will let me and they are willing - as I will teach them how to hold the aegis without me. But in the end, 'outside' they will not be me. And there is little arrogance in the statement that I am the best trained and most experienced combat capable psi in the quadrant."

Kheren listened to his chief science officer then pondered a moment longer on everything she had said. It had been obvious in his eyes that the comments about family had touched him deeply. Then he nodded.

"I may know next to nothing on the subject, but I understand enough of what you are telling me to see indeed that this is something to consider with all seriousness. Very well, Lieutenant-Commander; see to the implementation of this... Kyrol for the Horizon and her crew. Make sure that you train enough people to support you in case of strain or possibly take over for you if you are put out of action. As with any tactical measure, we need a contingency plan if this weaken or fail. But I am sure that you will have already thought about it, given your usual thoroughness and your obvious experience in this. Also, keep Commander Redding, Commander Oseno and Lieutenant Somers, our new chief of security and tactical, informed about this. Do not hesitate to invole our Doctors in this if need be. In both our best and worst case scenarios, this might just be the best tool we will have at our disposal."

The Andorian lifted his chin in his usual show of respect.

"Well done, Lieutenant-Commander... and thank you."