Secrets Of The Staff

Posted on Sun Oct 4th, 2026 @ 1:59am by Lieutenant JG Kurumi Hatanaka & Commander Chisato Nishikigi & Lieutenant Takina Inoue & Lieutenant Mizuki Nakahara

1,908 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Kintsugi
Location: Laboratory 63-Delta, Daystrom Institute Okinawa Campus, Onna, Okinawa, Japan, Earth
Timeline: Immediately Following "The Tip Of The Iceberg"

"Ah Captain, you're back!" a woman's voice called. A tall slender woman with blonde hair approached them. She didn't wear a teal uniform like Okabe. She instead wore an engineers uniform, and she had work overalls on. "Oh, you've brought the Iconian weapons. Fantastic." She said.

"Meet, Commander Winry Rockbell." Okabe introduced her. "Our specialist engineer on Iconian technology. She will be the one you'll be working with the most."

"Pleased to make the acquaintance, Commander," Chisato greeted, bowing her head in respect. "In the event that Captain Okabe hasn't gone to the trouble already, I'm Commander Nishikigi, and these are my associates, Lieutenant Inoue, Lieutenant Hatanaka, and Lieutenant Nakahara, respectively."

"Why do I get last billing?" Mizuki grumbled to no one in particular.

"Good," Winry said as she came indicated to a large workbench. Upon it were several fragments of Iconian Staff weapons. All were badly damaged, and some of them even look burnt, twisted and snapped. "We've acquired several damaged pieces of Iconian weapons from other starships. However, we have yet to examine a fully working specimen."

She picked up a small purple crystal. "We have established that each Staff contains these crystals. We believe they are some sort of power core. We have two of these here," she indicated to another which had been shattered. "Our theory is that these are the Iconian versions of our power cells. Each crystal we have currently have come up positive for anti-protons."

"Hoo, boy, if those are the best examples you could get your hands on, Commander, then I think we're about to make your day," Chisato grinned as she motioned for Kurumi and Mizuki to set the crate down.

"Right, so back when we were stranded in the Dyson Sphere, the Heralds made an attempt to try and board our ship," Chisato explained as she pried open the lid and began rummaging through the crate's contents. "Our normal weapons didn't work, so in the heat of the moment we got the idea to try and rip their own weapons right off of them; took them completely by surprise, so we were least a dozen or so working examples ro dissect, try and figure out how it worked, which leads us to...A-ha!"

She proceeded to furnish a small, black box, about the size of a chicken egg, with about 2-to-3 wires feeding into the main unit.

"This, so far as we understand it, is an anti-proton beam projector," Chisato announced as she took the box and set it down on a nearby workbench.

"Yes, that is what we have established." Winry replied. "We believe that its similar to the anti-proton observed by the Enterprise on that strange doomsday machine thing. Do you agree?"

"Sort of, yes," Chisato nodded as she took a screwdriver and carefully removed the outer housing, revealing the main assembly within. "See, what we believe is happening- and by "we," I mean the Tokyo's Sciences division- is that the crystal is being used as a sort of lens with which to channel, and potentially even amplify, the antiprotons. Now, it's a little tricky for me to describe since Sciences wasn't ever my forte, but what they believe is going on- as I understand it- is that a Gamma laser is projected directly into the crystal, causing it to vibrate to such an extent that it actually warps the local spacetime fabric within the Crystal's microscopic gaps, causing protons that pass through those gaps to be split into protons and antiprotons. In essence, it's a subatomic cheese grater."

She looked back up at Winry. "It's some really complicated stuff; I'm not even sure I fully understand it myself."

"That actually makes sense!" Winry replied. "Raw anti-protons needs to be channelled. So this may be similar to how we use a focusing lens in our phaser rifles." she looked over at Okabe. "What do you think?"

Okabe nodded, he was deep in thought. "I believe that could be what it does. Although, we have yet to determine how the weapon actually produces the anti-protons. We have yet to find one that ifs charged or operative." He turned to look at Takina. "That is why we needed yours to study."

Takina nodded and offered up her staff to Okabe for the second time that day.

Okabe took it gently and placed it gently onto the table.

Winry ran a tricorder over the weapon. "Remarkable. I think this could be just what we need." She said. "Tell me, have you gathered any intelligence on their technology? We are hoping to use this weapon to develop new shielding technologies."

"And howdy," Chisato replied as she furnished a PADD from the crate and set it down next to the staff. "This here should contain a comprehensive database on everything- and I mean everything- that Starfleet Intelligence has gathered in regards to Iconian technology over the last three months. This includes data that Lieutenant Inoue obtained during the Atarilla Campaign from just a couple weeks ago, and information I happened to gather during my time aboard the Myogi."

She glanced over at Okabe, then at Winry. "Say, um... you guys wouldn't happen to have level 8 security clearance or higher, right? I figured with all this talk about confidentiality that you probably did, but if not, then I may need that PADD back..."

"So this is you admitting to the fact that you just gave them classified intel without checking to see if they had the proper security clearance?" Takina sighed.

"But I assumed they did..." Chisato pouted.

"They have level ten..." Kurumi said simply. "I looked it up."

"You're officer is correct." Okabe said as he took the PADD from Chisato. "In fact, we hold the highest clearance level when it comes to Iconian technology." He explained. His fingers tapped on the controls of the PADD as he skimmed through the contents. "I will have to read through this thoroughly, and that could take some time," he explained.

"Lieutenant Inoue, Commander Nishikiji. I would like you two to join me in the test firing range." Winry said. She indicated to a secure door that would usually be seen on a cargo bay or the entrance to a holodeck on the far side of the room. "We have been testing some new shielding technology and armour prototypes. I want you to fire the weapon at them to test effectiveness. Plus, we can use the internal sensors to monitor the weapons power."

Okabe nodded. "A good idea." he turned to Kurumi and Mizuki. "Lieutenant Hatanaka, my reports say that you have a speciality in computing technology. I would like you to organise and compile these intelligence reports." he said as he passed her the PADD. "They need uploading into the secure computer core we have here at Daystrom."

"Yes sir," Kurumi said. She took the PADD from him.

"Lieutenant Nakahara. Join the team in the firing range. I think keeping an eye on those sensors would be a good job for you to do. We need to look for power signatures and weapon power output." Okabe added.

Mizuki blinked in surprise. "Me, Sir?"

"Yes, you. Unless you have something else you can contribute?" Okabe asked simply. "You are an intelligence officer are you not? You have training in reading sensor readout. Its all hands on deck here at Daystrom lieutenant. There will be no slacking off if we are going to stand a chance against the Iconians."

"Wait, hold on, that's not what I meant..." Mizuki grumbled as she followed Okabe towards the firing range, with Chisato and Takina in tow.

[Firing Range]

A long bench stretched from wall to wall. On the other side were several targets mounted down a long room. A large window occupied the left wall, in which a room sat behind. It had various consoles, screens and monitoring equipment inside. A single door led to it from their side of the bench and another door led from the monitoring room to where the targets were located.

Okabe indicated for Kurumi and Mizuki to follow him into the side room. Whilst Winry led Chisato and Takina towards the firing bench.

"Right, so seeing as we're going to be stress-testing these prototypes, I should point out that the projectors that we've managed to recover can be switched between stun, high density, or split-beam settings," Chisato explained as Takina began calibrating the staff. "Any preference as to which setting you want us to start off with?"

Winry nodded. "We need an accurate control." She said as she turned around to a set of lockers set into the wall. She pulled one open and passed Chisato a standard Phaser compression rifle. "Commander, if you would. Whilst Lieutenant Inoue fires the Herald Weapon, you fire alongside her with this." She said. "That way we can see the comparison between the two weapons in real time."

"Got it," Chisato replied as she took the rifle and lined up on the bench alongside Takina. "Set your weapon to stun, Takina-Chan, give them something of a control before we move up to higher settings."

Takina nodded and adjusted the settings on her staff accordingly. an audible hum could be heard emanating from the staff as the projector began to warm up.

"Safety is off," Takina announced as the two of them assumed a firing stance. "Weapons are hot, and... firing!"

There was a bright flash of light as the two weapons were discharged simultaneously, but even on the lowest of settings, it was clear that the staff had a noticeably higher yield than its Starfleet counterpart.

"Interesting," Winry said. "Exactly what setting was that set to?" She asked.

"Stun," Chisato responded. "It's the only setting of the three that's non-lethal, but it's still intended to be incredibly painful."

"I see." Winry said as she looked down at her tricorder. "Set both weapons to full power." She said.

"Right," Chisato nodded, before glancing over at Takina. "Let's go for High-Density, Takina-Chan."

As with before, Takina adjusted the settings on her staff before assuming a firing stance.

"Weapons are hot," she announced again. "And... firing!"

There was hardly any contest this time as to which of the two weapons was more powerful, as the initial blast from Takina's staff was so intense that she actually stepped back just to stabilize herself. If one had not been paying attention, it would have been easy to miss the fact that Chisato had even fired her weapon at all.

"Ok. I think thats good enough," Winry said. She looked over at Okabe and gave him a nod. From the other side of the glass he returned the nod. "Store both weapons in the lockers. We'll run the analysis of the scans we took from that demonstration. In the meantime, I think now would be a good time to grab some lunch?"

Chisato was about to reply when her stomach decided that it was the perfect time to dispel any leftover gasses from her last meal, effectively saying all that needed to be said on the matter.

"That confirms it," Winry said simply. "Lunch time it is."

Posting by:

Commander Chisato Nishikigi
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant JG Kurumi Hatanaka
Intelligence Officer
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant Takina Inoue
Intelligence Officer
USS Tokyo

Lieutenant Mizuki Nakahara
Intelligence Officer
USS Tokyo

Captain Rintaro Okabe
Head of Iconian Research
Daystrom Institute

Commander Winry Rockbell
Inconian Technology Researcher
Daystrom Institute

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