Star Trek: Eclipse
- Thread starter Bry_Sinclair
- Start date
Nice teaser!
It's an idea I've had in the back of my mind for a while, looking at the Trekverse from the perspective of a civilian ship and crew. Hammered out the characters, the premise, and started working on the story, but thought I'd throw this out to whet the appetites of all those who were interested.
And for those who are curious, that is Captain Nathan Maguire and Doctor Rachel Croft.
And for those who are curious, that is Captain Nathan Maguire and Doctor Rachel Croft.
Patiently, await, I do, for this story!
Chapter One
A resounding shudder through the deck plates broke her concentration. Rachel Croft, her eyes dry and tired from glaring at a monitor for hours, looked to the ceiling expecting a klaxon, a call from the bridge, or even another deep rumble that shook the very spaceframe of the ship. But there was nothing. Her already pinched brow tightened even further, straining the muscles over her scalp and deepening the tension headache that she’d grown accustomed too. She waited in the relative silence of her makeshift lab, the pings, chirps and whirs of equipment running self-diagnostics, mixed with the underlying hum of the engines and hiss of the environmental system, being all that she could hear.
Though she had been onboard the Eclipse for almost five months, she still couldn’t get used to the ship. She wasn’t even sure how they kept it together let alone flying—but then again the Ju’day-Class was renowned for its ruggedness, which was why they were so popular with colonist (not to mention the Maquis one upon a time)—though with no other options available to her she couldn’t look the gift horse in the mouth. Even if the old ship did have a few too many rattles, an odd assembly of a crew, and a workspace she’d had to piece together with second-hand equipment. Her ‘lab’, such as it was, had once been an old storage bay as the Eclipse had never been in need of a purpose-built research suite, but seeing as how she was the one who had hired the ship and its crew, she’d needed to have one to carry out her objective. When she’d first come aboard she doubted she would ever have admitted it, but the facility she’d been presented with was of a decent standard—given what they had to work with.
More or less satisfied the ship wasn’t about to fall apart at the seams, she looked back at her monitor intent on continuing where she’d left off, though her eyes refused to focus again. It was when the growl of her stomach echoed in room that she paused.
“Computer, time?”
“The time is oh-three-seventeen hours.”
“What?” she asked herself, aghast.
“The time is oh-three-seventeen hours,” the computer repeated, somehow managing to sound irritated despite its identical tone.
No wonder her eyes were so tired and she suddenly felt so drained, she’d sat down at nineteen hundred. It wasn’t the first time she’d even gotten so engrossed in her work, in fact she was pretty infamous for it right up until the Dominion War, but since hiring the Eclipse she was pulling all-nighters almost daily, getting little in the way of sleep and even less to eat. The logical, reasonable part of her brain screamed at her to pull back on the reigns, reminding herself that she was setting up for a marathon not a sprint, but the dark, obsessed nook that had slowly consumed her wouldn’t ease up. She was facing the greatest mystery, not just of her own career but possibly of the entire century. At least that was what the nagging voice at the back of her mind kept telling her.
She took a deep breath and massaged the back of her neck. Her body was calling it quits for today, she’d need to get something to eat and then get to her cabin for a few hours of unconsciousness, just so she could start it all over again the next day, and the next, and the next until they finally got to where she wanted to be. Though after that day, the real work would begin.
Rising from her chair she groaned as her muscles, accustomed to hours spent sitting, suddenly had to move her once more. She stretched quickly, deactivated her terminal before heading into the narrow corridor.
The Ju’day-Class was compact and lacked the finishing of more modern vessels (she’d taken a couple of weeks to even get used to the old blue and green LCARS displays), but it was also very practical. With only three decks there were stairs and ladders to move between the levels instead of turbolifts, every available space was taken up with equipment lockers, conduits, or display screens. The Eclipse had only nine onboard, the original crew of seven as well as herself and Chief Thorev, her research assistant, so the corridors were quiet. The crew didn’t have any official rota system, as the level of automation the ship had allow it to run smoothly without anyone on the bridge, so the crew always seemed to work together. One or two would burn the midnight oil on occasion, but she doubted there would be anyone else awake at this hour, so it wasn’t surprising that the corridors or stairwells were empty.
She made her way to the ship’s mess, stepped inside, and stopped. She wasn’t the only one awake. Though the Eclipse had a couple of modern replicators, with a good menu, there was nearly always a pot of real coffee on the go—she’d yet to work out where the fresh beans came from though. Standing at the countertop where the coffee pot sat (next to a tray of mugs, real demerara sugar cubes and replicated milk) was Nathan Maguire, the captain of the Eclipse. Like herself, Maguire had obviously never expected to see anyone else awake at three in the morning, so had come to the mess in just his underwear.
He turned as the door opened and she entered, leading to a moment’s pause between the two of them. She was about to excuse herself and leave as quickly as she’d come in, before he smiled.
“Morning Doc,” he said cheerfully, resting against the counter as he sipped from his ‘Quadrant’s Okayest Captain’ mug, seemingly oblivious to his state of undress. Given the fact that the Eclipse wasn’t a Starfleet ship and she was technically on extended leave no one, other than Thorev, addressed her by the rank she held, choosing instead to use doctor (or some form of the title).
“Good morning, Captain,” she said politely. Though she had been onboard for almost five months as they travelled across sectors of unclaimed space to reach their ultimate destination, she had spent most of that time either in the lab or in her cabin, rarely seeing anyone other than Thorev. Other than her Andorian assistant, the captain was the only person privy to the full details of where they were going and why—she’d had to disclose it all before he’d agreed to take them onboard, after all it was a considerable task she was asking him and his crew to undertake. Since setting off, Maguire had made a point of popping his head in every few days to see how things were, being the dutiful captain, but the visits were usually brief and she let Thorev do most of the speaking, so she could keep on working. To Croft he was really only a passing acquaintance, so seeing the man in such a way was a little disconcerting.
Given that she’d planned on getting some sleep right after a light snack, she’d had no intention of going near the coffee pot—even less so now. She moved to the replicator to place her order.
“Working late again, I see.”
“Yes,” she said simply, selecting a breakfast tray of oatmeal and a fruit salad.
“You’ve been doing that fairly frequently since we left DS4, I’d have thought there wouldn’t be much more data for you to analyse.”
She picked up her tray and quickly debated whether to stay in the mess or take it to her quarters, favouring the latter given the captain’s current state.
“There are lots of different ways telemetry can be looked at, I just want to make sure it’s all in my head before we arrive,” she told him, deciding to eat in private.
“Doctor, when we get there then you’ll be gathering far more information than you have right now. If you don’t take a break you’ll burn out,” he said, his jovial tone giving way to something a little harder.
She paused, surprised to hear her own internal conflict vocalised from someone who was still pretty much a stranger to her. Thorev had raised the matter of how far she was pushing herself a couple of times before, though he knew firsthand the complex enigma they faced as well as just how hard she worked.
“I assure you, Captain, I’m perfectly fine. Now if you’ll excuse me.”
“Doctor Croft,” his tone had lost all of its former cheer, becoming almost steely. “I know that this is your mission and I may be nothing more than the spaceship jockey who agreed to take you on it, but this is still my ship and I have a responsibility to look after the wellbeing of all those onboard—even the person who hired me. In my opinion, you need to take a break. Get some proper sleep. At least for a couple of days, make sure you’re refreshed and ready for whatever may lie ahead.”
She opened her mouth to protest before a yawn stopped her. Although she loathed admitting it, he had a point and she didn’t even have the energy to fight him on it. The irony made her smile.
“Are you sure you’re not in Starfleet, Captain?”
His hardened face cracked a sly smile. “Definitely not, for one I doubt I’d be allowed to walk around my own ship in my skivvies.”
“Oh, so you do realise you’re practically naked.”
Maguire shrugged. “My ship, my rules.”
“I’ll remember that, Captain.”
He pushed off the counter, carrying his mug and heading for the exit. “I’ll leave you to your supper-breakfast.” As he passed through the doors he called back before they closed. “Stay out of the lab!”
Croft watched him go, surprised both by his level of insight into her and just how much she’d been looking as his butt as he’d left. She chuckled to herself setting down her tray on one of the small tables, opting to eat in the now empty mess. I definitely must be losing my focus, she realised if she was starting to make such crude observations—no matter how nice his glutes might’ve been.
* * * * *
Stepping onto the bridge, Ro Sandoval yawned as he ducked his head to fit through the hatch—he’d only had to make that mistake once (it was one of the rare occasions he actually appreciated his half-Klingon physiology, the bony ridges on his forehead had saved him any serious injury). It came as no surprised that Kell Sined was already there, sitting at the ops station checking over all the logs from the night; in the three years they’d been working together he’d never beaten her to their duty stations, at least not first thing in the morning.
“Morning,” he said mid yawn, stepping around the Captain’s chair.
“Hi Ro,” she replied, not looking up. He’d long since learned that she wasn’t being rude, but rather she didn’t let anything (other than an emergency) interfere with her morning routine.
The bridge wasn’t a large room, if anything it was an oversized cockpit, helm and ops at the front under the viewports, tactical was on the starboard side just behind the helm, whilst an engineering/science station was on the opposite bulkhead. There were a pair of system display monitors, then several equipment lockers before the exit at the rear, only the Captain’s chair and workstations sat in the middle of the deck. Despite there being quite a lot packed in such a small space, it still never felt cluttered or cramped—even if the ceiling was a little too low for the likes of Ro and Kell, who was only five centimetres shorter than his two meter frame.
He slipped into the helm, at which point Kell looked at him and gave him a smile before focusing on her checks and diagnostics. He entered his security code and brought his station to life, looking over the guidance system, engine monitoring displays, and assessing the helm functions before disengaging the autopilot. Even though there wasn’t much for him to be doing as they warped through space in a straight line, he still preferred to keep the controls on manual. There was nothing of note from the sensor logs that had impacted on their course or speed, so he looked at the navicomp monitor. It tracked their position in real time, from where they’d left Deep Space Four out to the unnamed cluster of star systems that was their ultimate destination. With only three days to go until they arrived at the first system, they had left Federation space almost one hundred light-years behind them.
This was the first time the Eclipse had been so far out on her own and he had to admit it was a little unsettling—all for a pair of scientists carry out some work. He still wasn’t entirely sure why they were going there, though he had heard the Eclipse wasn’t the first ship that’d been approached, but had been the only one willing to go on such a long journey. He’d only met the lead scientist twice, first when she’d come onboard and then again a chance meeting as they’d passed each other in a corridor—she didn’t seem to be the most personable, though her assistant, Thorev, was a different story. He seemed to be sociable enough for the both of them, which was definitely needed. Once he learned that Thorev was proficient at Galeo-Manada wrestling the two had sparred frequently, proving to be well matched—of course it did mean that Ro needed to brush up on his techniques and try to learn a few more, so that the scientist didn’t best him.
“Jossa to bridge.”
Ro smiled to himself, casting a look at Kell, whose shoulders slumped. “Go ahead,” she replied into the comlink.
“I didn’t happen to leave my diagnostics tablet up there yesterday?”
“You did.”
“I suspected as much, I’ll pop up and get it.”
“No need, I put it in your toolkit last night.”
“You did?”
“You’ve not even opened it up, have you,” she stated, already knowing the answer.
There was a brief pause. “There it is, slipped behind my hyperspanner so I didn’t see it.”
“Yes I’m sure.”
“Thank you, dear.”
The comlink closed and Ro had to fight to keep from snickering. Obviously not hard enough as she shot him a look, which only made him laugh out loud. Kell’s shoulders slumped lower and she sat back in her chair.
“How hard is it to put your tools away in the proper place once you’re finished with them? For Jossa it seems to be an alien concept!”
“The joys of married life, you’ll be picking up after him for the rest of your life.”
“Or his, it’ll be shorter if he keeps this up,” she muttered under her breath.
He clapped a hand on her shoulder. “Well I did tell you not to get married, but you wouldn’t listen so on your own head be it.”
“Next time try harder.”
“Planning on husband number two already?”
“Come on, Ro, you should know by now, I always have a backup handy,” she mock whispered with a theatrical wink.
They laughed. When he’d first met the tall, platinum blonde Trill he’d found her to be pretty distant, her highly efficient manner so unlike the others on the crew (especially that of Jossa) that she just seemed an oddity, but after working next to her he’d come to appreciate her subtle humour and had seen her relax a little—at least when it was just the two of them on the bridge.
The doors behind them parted as the laughter eased. Kell looked back first and her eyes opened a little wider. Just before Ro turned a warm, sweet smell filled his nostrils, overwhelming the bitter undertones of fresh coffee. He spun his chair around to see Thorev step onto the bridge, carrying a small tray. The Andorian, like Ro and Kell, automatically stooped a little—though the ceiling was at least ten centimetres above even his antennae, the slope down to the forward stations always made the room feel lower than it really was.
“Good morning you two,” he said, a wide smile on his bearded face.
“Mr Thorev,” replied Kell by way of greeting, her tone a little more formal than mere moments earlier.
“Hey Thorev,” he added, more focused on the tray than the man. Two metal mugs from the mess next to a plate with two purple items on it, both the size of Ro’s clenched fist.
“I’d heard that you two were already up here before I could offer you something homemade,” he came around the centre seat and set the tray down between them.
Ro peered at the two round objects, the appearance of which was that of violet coloured stones, but the aroma already had his mouth watering. “What are they?” he asked bluntly.
“Rigellian fruit puffs, a traditional breakfast on Rigel Four. My bunkmate, back when I was a recruit, always made them to remind himself of home, then taught me the secrets to their success. Since there’s not much left to do before we reach the cluster, I thought I’d get my bakers hat back on.”
“You made them? From scratch?” Kell asked dubiously.
“With my own fair blue hands.”
Ro didn’t need any more persuasion, picked up one of the lighter than air pastries and bit into it. The pastry flaked and crumbled into his goatee, whilst the bite he took seemed to simply evaporate in his mouth, bringing with it a wave of sweetness offset by a the sharp tart fruit, which lasted only a moment. He was left speechless.
Kell watched him, eyebrow raised. “Well?”
“Oh, you won’t like it,” he told her reaching for the other one.
She slapped his hand away and picked it up. With her first bite she moaned in delight, looking up at Thorev with a new sense of appreciation. “Wow!”
He smiled at her. “Jossa said you’d like it.”
“You may end up becoming the ship’s cook if you keep this up.”
Thorev shrugged as Ro devoured the rest of his pastry. “It’d be the least I could do, after all you’re putting yourselves out by taking us here.”
“You’re welcome,” mumbled Ro with a mouthful, sending crumbs flying.
Kell scowled at him like a disapproving parent. “It is very much appreciated, Mr Thorev. Thank you.”
“My pleasure. I’ll let you get back to your duties.”
As he left, Ro started picking rogue flakes from his facial hair. “You know, when this job is finished and we take them back to Starfleet, I’m going to miss that guy.”
The ops manager chuckled and shook her head, savouring her fruit puff as she returned to her morning routine.
* * * * *
Even from the corridor, Sined Jossa could hear the most wondrous singing of his life. Before he entered he stood beside the doors and listened, knowing that there was only one person onboard with such a voice. Growing up on Bajor, young Hinon Jossa hadn’t had much to sing about, though one of his earliest (and only) memories of his mother was her singing him to sleep. Unfortunately, it was one of the few talents he’d never been able to pick up so was always a little envious of those who could.
As much as he’d liked to have listened to the full performance, he’d been asked to run full diagnostics on the transporters before they reached their destination—to make sure that everything was running smoothly for the two researchers to carry out their work. He tapped the door entry panel and stepped into cargo bay three, the largest one onboard at the rear of C Deck. Despite being filled with freight, equipment, and a quartet of speeder bikes, its large volume offered it the best acoustics of anywhere else on the Eclipse, so it wasn’t the first time he’d interrupted a solitary concert in the last eighteen months.
However when he entered the cargo bay he was confronted with a sight he’d never expected to see. Sitting, cross-legged, on a crate in the middle of the bay, her back to the entrance was Sister Inaia, the source of the exquisite sounds—that in itself wasn’t the surprising part, the fact she was as naked as the day she was born was what had Jossa’s eyes wide and made his eyebrows reach his hairline.
Before he could retreat, to save her modesty, Inaia stopped and turned her head to look at him, a serene smile on her beautifully angular face.
“Hello Jossa,” she said, her speaking voice always had an incredible lyrical quality to it.
“Um, hi there Sister. I had some work to do in here, but I can come back.”
“Nonsense, I was merely here to meditate, but you have more right to be here than I.”
As he was about to tell her it wasn’t a problem, she stood up and retrieved the robe that had been lying next to her on the crate. He quickly averted his eyes, suddenly becoming very engrossed in the shipping label of a case of ration bars.
He heard a throaty chuckle. “I’d never have had you down for being quite so prudish.”
Casting a glance back at her, he breathed a sigh of relief to see she was covered up, though just barely. “I’m a happily married man, Sister.”
“That I don’t doubt, but a body is just a body, I have no qualms about who might look upon mine.”
“Yes but Detlans have an unfair advantage.”
“From what I understand, Bajorans have a few advantages themselves.”
He felt his dark cheeks flush, not knowing what to say to that. For a brief second he wondered if Kell had spoken about their relations to Inaia, but discounted the possibility almost as quickly as the thought formed, his wife liked their privacy—as difficult as that was on such a small ship, especially with this crew.
His face must’ve been a picture as Inaia laughed again. “I’ve studied Bajoran anatomy, even spent some time on a few of your outlying colonies during my pilgrimage.”
He let out a breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. With her demeanour and manner it was easy to overlook the fact that she was medical doctor as well as a priest. She was the first Deltan he’d ever spent any considerable time with and had to wonder if it was a trait of her species, or just those in her religious order. She had come onboard a year and a half ago, looking to help as they’d made supply runs to various refugee camps near the front lines. It hadn’t taken long for her to be indoctrinated into the crew.
“Well I hope you won’t have to put your knowledge to use where I’m concerned.”
“As do I, Jossa. I won’t keep you any longer, good day to you,” she said with a slight bow of her bald head.
“And to you,” he replied, mimicking her bow.
When he was alone in the cargo bay he took a deep breath and shook his head, had it not been for Kell being the only woman he had eyes for then he wasn’t sure he’d be able to resist her allure—he had to wonder just how the Captain, Ro and Talek all managed to restrain themselves, after all none of them were married or involved with anyone and Inaia was one of only two available women onboard (discounting their passenger). He smiled to himself, not for the first time thinking himself lucky to have Kell in his life.
I better get these diagnostics finished before she kills me then, he told himself, chuckling as he headed over to the cargo transporter.
* * * * *
A resounding shudder through the deck plates broke her concentration. Rachel Croft, her eyes dry and tired from glaring at a monitor for hours, looked to the ceiling expecting a klaxon, a call from the bridge, or even another deep rumble that shook the very spaceframe of the ship. But there was nothing. Her already pinched brow tightened even further, straining the muscles over her scalp and deepening the tension headache that she’d grown accustomed too. She waited in the relative silence of her makeshift lab, the pings, chirps and whirs of equipment running self-diagnostics, mixed with the underlying hum of the engines and hiss of the environmental system, being all that she could hear.
Though she had been onboard the Eclipse for almost five months, she still couldn’t get used to the ship. She wasn’t even sure how they kept it together let alone flying—but then again the Ju’day-Class was renowned for its ruggedness, which was why they were so popular with colonist (not to mention the Maquis one upon a time)—though with no other options available to her she couldn’t look the gift horse in the mouth. Even if the old ship did have a few too many rattles, an odd assembly of a crew, and a workspace she’d had to piece together with second-hand equipment. Her ‘lab’, such as it was, had once been an old storage bay as the Eclipse had never been in need of a purpose-built research suite, but seeing as how she was the one who had hired the ship and its crew, she’d needed to have one to carry out her objective. When she’d first come aboard she doubted she would ever have admitted it, but the facility she’d been presented with was of a decent standard—given what they had to work with.
More or less satisfied the ship wasn’t about to fall apart at the seams, she looked back at her monitor intent on continuing where she’d left off, though her eyes refused to focus again. It was when the growl of her stomach echoed in room that she paused.
“Computer, time?”
“The time is oh-three-seventeen hours.”
“What?” she asked herself, aghast.
“The time is oh-three-seventeen hours,” the computer repeated, somehow managing to sound irritated despite its identical tone.
No wonder her eyes were so tired and she suddenly felt so drained, she’d sat down at nineteen hundred. It wasn’t the first time she’d even gotten so engrossed in her work, in fact she was pretty infamous for it right up until the Dominion War, but since hiring the Eclipse she was pulling all-nighters almost daily, getting little in the way of sleep and even less to eat. The logical, reasonable part of her brain screamed at her to pull back on the reigns, reminding herself that she was setting up for a marathon not a sprint, but the dark, obsessed nook that had slowly consumed her wouldn’t ease up. She was facing the greatest mystery, not just of her own career but possibly of the entire century. At least that was what the nagging voice at the back of her mind kept telling her.
She took a deep breath and massaged the back of her neck. Her body was calling it quits for today, she’d need to get something to eat and then get to her cabin for a few hours of unconsciousness, just so she could start it all over again the next day, and the next, and the next until they finally got to where she wanted to be. Though after that day, the real work would begin.
Rising from her chair she groaned as her muscles, accustomed to hours spent sitting, suddenly had to move her once more. She stretched quickly, deactivated her terminal before heading into the narrow corridor.
The Ju’day-Class was compact and lacked the finishing of more modern vessels (she’d taken a couple of weeks to even get used to the old blue and green LCARS displays), but it was also very practical. With only three decks there were stairs and ladders to move between the levels instead of turbolifts, every available space was taken up with equipment lockers, conduits, or display screens. The Eclipse had only nine onboard, the original crew of seven as well as herself and Chief Thorev, her research assistant, so the corridors were quiet. The crew didn’t have any official rota system, as the level of automation the ship had allow it to run smoothly without anyone on the bridge, so the crew always seemed to work together. One or two would burn the midnight oil on occasion, but she doubted there would be anyone else awake at this hour, so it wasn’t surprising that the corridors or stairwells were empty.
She made her way to the ship’s mess, stepped inside, and stopped. She wasn’t the only one awake. Though the Eclipse had a couple of modern replicators, with a good menu, there was nearly always a pot of real coffee on the go—she’d yet to work out where the fresh beans came from though. Standing at the countertop where the coffee pot sat (next to a tray of mugs, real demerara sugar cubes and replicated milk) was Nathan Maguire, the captain of the Eclipse. Like herself, Maguire had obviously never expected to see anyone else awake at three in the morning, so had come to the mess in just his underwear.
He turned as the door opened and she entered, leading to a moment’s pause between the two of them. She was about to excuse herself and leave as quickly as she’d come in, before he smiled.
“Morning Doc,” he said cheerfully, resting against the counter as he sipped from his ‘Quadrant’s Okayest Captain’ mug, seemingly oblivious to his state of undress. Given the fact that the Eclipse wasn’t a Starfleet ship and she was technically on extended leave no one, other than Thorev, addressed her by the rank she held, choosing instead to use doctor (or some form of the title).
“Good morning, Captain,” she said politely. Though she had been onboard for almost five months as they travelled across sectors of unclaimed space to reach their ultimate destination, she had spent most of that time either in the lab or in her cabin, rarely seeing anyone other than Thorev. Other than her Andorian assistant, the captain was the only person privy to the full details of where they were going and why—she’d had to disclose it all before he’d agreed to take them onboard, after all it was a considerable task she was asking him and his crew to undertake. Since setting off, Maguire had made a point of popping his head in every few days to see how things were, being the dutiful captain, but the visits were usually brief and she let Thorev do most of the speaking, so she could keep on working. To Croft he was really only a passing acquaintance, so seeing the man in such a way was a little disconcerting.
Given that she’d planned on getting some sleep right after a light snack, she’d had no intention of going near the coffee pot—even less so now. She moved to the replicator to place her order.
“Working late again, I see.”
“Yes,” she said simply, selecting a breakfast tray of oatmeal and a fruit salad.
“You’ve been doing that fairly frequently since we left DS4, I’d have thought there wouldn’t be much more data for you to analyse.”
She picked up her tray and quickly debated whether to stay in the mess or take it to her quarters, favouring the latter given the captain’s current state.
“There are lots of different ways telemetry can be looked at, I just want to make sure it’s all in my head before we arrive,” she told him, deciding to eat in private.
“Doctor, when we get there then you’ll be gathering far more information than you have right now. If you don’t take a break you’ll burn out,” he said, his jovial tone giving way to something a little harder.
She paused, surprised to hear her own internal conflict vocalised from someone who was still pretty much a stranger to her. Thorev had raised the matter of how far she was pushing herself a couple of times before, though he knew firsthand the complex enigma they faced as well as just how hard she worked.
“I assure you, Captain, I’m perfectly fine. Now if you’ll excuse me.”
“Doctor Croft,” his tone had lost all of its former cheer, becoming almost steely. “I know that this is your mission and I may be nothing more than the spaceship jockey who agreed to take you on it, but this is still my ship and I have a responsibility to look after the wellbeing of all those onboard—even the person who hired me. In my opinion, you need to take a break. Get some proper sleep. At least for a couple of days, make sure you’re refreshed and ready for whatever may lie ahead.”
She opened her mouth to protest before a yawn stopped her. Although she loathed admitting it, he had a point and she didn’t even have the energy to fight him on it. The irony made her smile.
“Are you sure you’re not in Starfleet, Captain?”
His hardened face cracked a sly smile. “Definitely not, for one I doubt I’d be allowed to walk around my own ship in my skivvies.”
“Oh, so you do realise you’re practically naked.”
Maguire shrugged. “My ship, my rules.”
“I’ll remember that, Captain.”
He pushed off the counter, carrying his mug and heading for the exit. “I’ll leave you to your supper-breakfast.” As he passed through the doors he called back before they closed. “Stay out of the lab!”
Croft watched him go, surprised both by his level of insight into her and just how much she’d been looking as his butt as he’d left. She chuckled to herself setting down her tray on one of the small tables, opting to eat in the now empty mess. I definitely must be losing my focus, she realised if she was starting to make such crude observations—no matter how nice his glutes might’ve been.
* * * * *
Stepping onto the bridge, Ro Sandoval yawned as he ducked his head to fit through the hatch—he’d only had to make that mistake once (it was one of the rare occasions he actually appreciated his half-Klingon physiology, the bony ridges on his forehead had saved him any serious injury). It came as no surprised that Kell Sined was already there, sitting at the ops station checking over all the logs from the night; in the three years they’d been working together he’d never beaten her to their duty stations, at least not first thing in the morning.
“Morning,” he said mid yawn, stepping around the Captain’s chair.
“Hi Ro,” she replied, not looking up. He’d long since learned that she wasn’t being rude, but rather she didn’t let anything (other than an emergency) interfere with her morning routine.
The bridge wasn’t a large room, if anything it was an oversized cockpit, helm and ops at the front under the viewports, tactical was on the starboard side just behind the helm, whilst an engineering/science station was on the opposite bulkhead. There were a pair of system display monitors, then several equipment lockers before the exit at the rear, only the Captain’s chair and workstations sat in the middle of the deck. Despite there being quite a lot packed in such a small space, it still never felt cluttered or cramped—even if the ceiling was a little too low for the likes of Ro and Kell, who was only five centimetres shorter than his two meter frame.
He slipped into the helm, at which point Kell looked at him and gave him a smile before focusing on her checks and diagnostics. He entered his security code and brought his station to life, looking over the guidance system, engine monitoring displays, and assessing the helm functions before disengaging the autopilot. Even though there wasn’t much for him to be doing as they warped through space in a straight line, he still preferred to keep the controls on manual. There was nothing of note from the sensor logs that had impacted on their course or speed, so he looked at the navicomp monitor. It tracked their position in real time, from where they’d left Deep Space Four out to the unnamed cluster of star systems that was their ultimate destination. With only three days to go until they arrived at the first system, they had left Federation space almost one hundred light-years behind them.
This was the first time the Eclipse had been so far out on her own and he had to admit it was a little unsettling—all for a pair of scientists carry out some work. He still wasn’t entirely sure why they were going there, though he had heard the Eclipse wasn’t the first ship that’d been approached, but had been the only one willing to go on such a long journey. He’d only met the lead scientist twice, first when she’d come onboard and then again a chance meeting as they’d passed each other in a corridor—she didn’t seem to be the most personable, though her assistant, Thorev, was a different story. He seemed to be sociable enough for the both of them, which was definitely needed. Once he learned that Thorev was proficient at Galeo-Manada wrestling the two had sparred frequently, proving to be well matched—of course it did mean that Ro needed to brush up on his techniques and try to learn a few more, so that the scientist didn’t best him.
“Jossa to bridge.”
Ro smiled to himself, casting a look at Kell, whose shoulders slumped. “Go ahead,” she replied into the comlink.
“I didn’t happen to leave my diagnostics tablet up there yesterday?”
“You did.”
“I suspected as much, I’ll pop up and get it.”
“No need, I put it in your toolkit last night.”
“You did?”
“You’ve not even opened it up, have you,” she stated, already knowing the answer.
There was a brief pause. “There it is, slipped behind my hyperspanner so I didn’t see it.”
“Yes I’m sure.”
“Thank you, dear.”
The comlink closed and Ro had to fight to keep from snickering. Obviously not hard enough as she shot him a look, which only made him laugh out loud. Kell’s shoulders slumped lower and she sat back in her chair.
“How hard is it to put your tools away in the proper place once you’re finished with them? For Jossa it seems to be an alien concept!”
“The joys of married life, you’ll be picking up after him for the rest of your life.”
“Or his, it’ll be shorter if he keeps this up,” she muttered under her breath.
He clapped a hand on her shoulder. “Well I did tell you not to get married, but you wouldn’t listen so on your own head be it.”
“Next time try harder.”
“Planning on husband number two already?”
“Come on, Ro, you should know by now, I always have a backup handy,” she mock whispered with a theatrical wink.
They laughed. When he’d first met the tall, platinum blonde Trill he’d found her to be pretty distant, her highly efficient manner so unlike the others on the crew (especially that of Jossa) that she just seemed an oddity, but after working next to her he’d come to appreciate her subtle humour and had seen her relax a little—at least when it was just the two of them on the bridge.
The doors behind them parted as the laughter eased. Kell looked back first and her eyes opened a little wider. Just before Ro turned a warm, sweet smell filled his nostrils, overwhelming the bitter undertones of fresh coffee. He spun his chair around to see Thorev step onto the bridge, carrying a small tray. The Andorian, like Ro and Kell, automatically stooped a little—though the ceiling was at least ten centimetres above even his antennae, the slope down to the forward stations always made the room feel lower than it really was.
“Good morning you two,” he said, a wide smile on his bearded face.
“Mr Thorev,” replied Kell by way of greeting, her tone a little more formal than mere moments earlier.
“Hey Thorev,” he added, more focused on the tray than the man. Two metal mugs from the mess next to a plate with two purple items on it, both the size of Ro’s clenched fist.
“I’d heard that you two were already up here before I could offer you something homemade,” he came around the centre seat and set the tray down between them.
Ro peered at the two round objects, the appearance of which was that of violet coloured stones, but the aroma already had his mouth watering. “What are they?” he asked bluntly.
“Rigellian fruit puffs, a traditional breakfast on Rigel Four. My bunkmate, back when I was a recruit, always made them to remind himself of home, then taught me the secrets to their success. Since there’s not much left to do before we reach the cluster, I thought I’d get my bakers hat back on.”
“You made them? From scratch?” Kell asked dubiously.
“With my own fair blue hands.”
Ro didn’t need any more persuasion, picked up one of the lighter than air pastries and bit into it. The pastry flaked and crumbled into his goatee, whilst the bite he took seemed to simply evaporate in his mouth, bringing with it a wave of sweetness offset by a the sharp tart fruit, which lasted only a moment. He was left speechless.
Kell watched him, eyebrow raised. “Well?”
“Oh, you won’t like it,” he told her reaching for the other one.
She slapped his hand away and picked it up. With her first bite she moaned in delight, looking up at Thorev with a new sense of appreciation. “Wow!”
He smiled at her. “Jossa said you’d like it.”
“You may end up becoming the ship’s cook if you keep this up.”
Thorev shrugged as Ro devoured the rest of his pastry. “It’d be the least I could do, after all you’re putting yourselves out by taking us here.”
“You’re welcome,” mumbled Ro with a mouthful, sending crumbs flying.
Kell scowled at him like a disapproving parent. “It is very much appreciated, Mr Thorev. Thank you.”
“My pleasure. I’ll let you get back to your duties.”
As he left, Ro started picking rogue flakes from his facial hair. “You know, when this job is finished and we take them back to Starfleet, I’m going to miss that guy.”
The ops manager chuckled and shook her head, savouring her fruit puff as she returned to her morning routine.
* * * * *
Even from the corridor, Sined Jossa could hear the most wondrous singing of his life. Before he entered he stood beside the doors and listened, knowing that there was only one person onboard with such a voice. Growing up on Bajor, young Hinon Jossa hadn’t had much to sing about, though one of his earliest (and only) memories of his mother was her singing him to sleep. Unfortunately, it was one of the few talents he’d never been able to pick up so was always a little envious of those who could.
As much as he’d liked to have listened to the full performance, he’d been asked to run full diagnostics on the transporters before they reached their destination—to make sure that everything was running smoothly for the two researchers to carry out their work. He tapped the door entry panel and stepped into cargo bay three, the largest one onboard at the rear of C Deck. Despite being filled with freight, equipment, and a quartet of speeder bikes, its large volume offered it the best acoustics of anywhere else on the Eclipse, so it wasn’t the first time he’d interrupted a solitary concert in the last eighteen months.
However when he entered the cargo bay he was confronted with a sight he’d never expected to see. Sitting, cross-legged, on a crate in the middle of the bay, her back to the entrance was Sister Inaia, the source of the exquisite sounds—that in itself wasn’t the surprising part, the fact she was as naked as the day she was born was what had Jossa’s eyes wide and made his eyebrows reach his hairline.
Before he could retreat, to save her modesty, Inaia stopped and turned her head to look at him, a serene smile on her beautifully angular face.
“Hello Jossa,” she said, her speaking voice always had an incredible lyrical quality to it.
“Um, hi there Sister. I had some work to do in here, but I can come back.”
“Nonsense, I was merely here to meditate, but you have more right to be here than I.”
As he was about to tell her it wasn’t a problem, she stood up and retrieved the robe that had been lying next to her on the crate. He quickly averted his eyes, suddenly becoming very engrossed in the shipping label of a case of ration bars.
He heard a throaty chuckle. “I’d never have had you down for being quite so prudish.”
Casting a glance back at her, he breathed a sigh of relief to see she was covered up, though just barely. “I’m a happily married man, Sister.”
“That I don’t doubt, but a body is just a body, I have no qualms about who might look upon mine.”
“Yes but Detlans have an unfair advantage.”
“From what I understand, Bajorans have a few advantages themselves.”
He felt his dark cheeks flush, not knowing what to say to that. For a brief second he wondered if Kell had spoken about their relations to Inaia, but discounted the possibility almost as quickly as the thought formed, his wife liked their privacy—as difficult as that was on such a small ship, especially with this crew.
His face must’ve been a picture as Inaia laughed again. “I’ve studied Bajoran anatomy, even spent some time on a few of your outlying colonies during my pilgrimage.”
He let out a breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding. With her demeanour and manner it was easy to overlook the fact that she was medical doctor as well as a priest. She was the first Deltan he’d ever spent any considerable time with and had to wonder if it was a trait of her species, or just those in her religious order. She had come onboard a year and a half ago, looking to help as they’d made supply runs to various refugee camps near the front lines. It hadn’t taken long for her to be indoctrinated into the crew.
“Well I hope you won’t have to put your knowledge to use where I’m concerned.”
“As do I, Jossa. I won’t keep you any longer, good day to you,” she said with a slight bow of her bald head.
“And to you,” he replied, mimicking her bow.
When he was alone in the cargo bay he took a deep breath and shook his head, had it not been for Kell being the only woman he had eyes for then he wasn’t sure he’d be able to resist her allure—he had to wonder just how the Captain, Ro and Talek all managed to restrain themselves, after all none of them were married or involved with anyone and Inaia was one of only two available women onboard (discounting their passenger). He smiled to himself, not for the first time thinking himself lucky to have Kell in his life.
I better get these diagnostics finished before she kills me then, he told himself, chuckling as he headed over to the cargo transporter.
* * * * *
Securing the armoury, Zirayne, who had spent an hour recalibrating the hand phasers and rifles they carried ensuring each weapon was in perfect working order, headed aft on B Deck. The Eclipse was technically classed as a courier, as such she occasionally needed to carry some sensitive or valuable equipment or cargo which made her a target, so they had a decent stock of firearms for the crews defence, should any raiders or privateers get it into their head to try and take what wasn’t theirs. Admittedly, she would’ve liked more but they would have to make do with what they had.
With one task ticked off her list, the Eclipse’s first mate headed to her second job for the day; a full system check and diagnostic of the shield generators. The little ship was almost five sectors away from DS4, with no Starfleet or Federation-registered ships within sixty light-years of them, which meant they were well and truly on their own—as such she wanted to make sure they were ready for whatever they might find in the cluster.
When Maguire had told her of their latest job she had thought the human had lost it, no other captain was crazy enough to go on such a venture—at least not without making a lot of latinum or getting something else out of it. Heading out to a barren group of systems to run a full an analysis of them just seemed like such a ridiculous notion, so of course she’d quizzed him on it. He’d remained fairly tight-lipped on the details, at the behest of their new employer, but told her that it was a worthwhile venture and left it at that. Of course she wasn’t one hundred percent happy with that, but she’d served with Nate Maguire for almost six years and knew that, though he was foolhardy and reckless at times with regards to his own life, he would never put his crew at risk—not is he could help it.
Trust wasn’t something that came easy to her; she could count on two fingers the number of people she actually trusted implicitly and one of them was Maguire. She would follow his lead though keep an even tighter eye on things, seeing how isolated they were and the fact that they were heading into the unknown.
Like the armoury, the shield generator control room was secured to ensure only the crew could enter. She’d urged for the security precaution as, after a few personal modifications, the deflectors of the Ju’day-Class ship were no longer standard issue. She’d picked up a few tips and tricks to make the most out of them, making them stronger whilst using less energy—pointers quite a few others would be keen to gleam from them. She tapped in her code, stepped inside and found that she wasn’t alone.
As soon as she entered, Khalan Talek looked across at her. Of all the crew their engineer was definitely the most surprising, though not for the highly intricate pattern of tattoos that adorned his skin, from the crown of his head down to his toes, but rather the pointed ears and faint V-shaped ridges on his forehead. Often passengers found having a Romulan onboard to be, at best, unsettling whilst there were those who were blatantly hostile towards him—even though he had even less love of the Empire than they did. Though that was where her knowledge of Talek’s past ended (which was considerably more than he knew of hers), as he stayed to himself more than anyone else onboard.
“I see you had the same idea as me,” she said.
“I’d rather be overly-cautious now and not need it than the alternative,” Talek replied, his accented tone soft and deep.
“How’s it looking?” she enquired, moving over to one of the consoles to look over the readouts.
He turned back to the job at hand. “I’m almost finished, just the last checks on emergency transfer circuits and that’ll be it. So far everything is satisfactory.”
For Talek, ‘satisfactory’ was one of highest endorsements—the engineer had very exacting standards. A rare smile curled her lips. “I’m glad to hear it. Mind if I lend a hand?”
He gave her a nod. She moved to the secondary console and brought up the test programme for the final step that was needed, whilst he opened up a panel on the generator itself, behind which was a myriad of isolinear chips and wiring that controlled and regulated the transfer of additional or emergency power to the shields—so that they could either be strengthened or maintained even if the ship lost its mains. They worked in relative silence, speaking only when they were going through the various stages of the diagnostic. It was something she always liked about the engineer, whilst she got on well with the likes of Ro or Jossa, their tendency to chatter often made straightforward jobs last twice as long as they needed too.
After only twenty minutes the diagnostic of the shield generators was completed and passed with flying colours. She downloaded the findings from Talek’s full system status report, which she would review later, not that she doubted his work but because it was her job to make sure the ship was in the best shape possible.
Talek put the tools back in his kit and closed it up, then paused.
“Zirayne, do you think Doctor Croft will ever tell us what exactly it is we’re doing out here?”
She tossed a rogue strand of violet hair over her shoulder then leaned against the edge of the console. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I’m wondering how much she actually told the Captain, but neither she nor her assistant have been very forthcoming.”
“Before we left, I heard at least nine different rumours of this region; whilst I doubt we’ll face the second coming of the Great Bird of the Galaxy, there were a few that sounded far more unsettling.”
“I heard a few of them as well, but whatever the truth is Starfleet was pretty quick to pull out their last ship and label this cluster as confidential.” She mulled over the question that had been niggling away at her for months once again.
Now that they were only a few days away, she needed to know just what it was they heading out there to do. Maguire had said that they’d get more details when the neared the star group and she would him and Croft to that.
“I’ll make sure we’re all brought into the loop before we get there,” she assured him. “Before then however, I still need to check on our phaser banks.”
“That was next on my list as well,” he told her, the faintest hints of a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth.
“Let’s be at it then.”
* * * * *
With a deafening rumble Aean val Sahro was thrown from her bed. She smacked against the metal bulkhead and slumped to the deck, winded her eyes watered as she tried to draw a breath. Ripped from a pleasant dream, her head was foggy from sleep and the growing lump on her smooth brow the wall had given her. It took her several long moments before her slim body started to do what she wanted, finally able to suck in enough air, though all it did was make her cough.
Before she could even think about getting to her feet the deck pitched under her again, making her tumble towards the forward bulkhead, but the impact was nowhere as severe as the first. It was only then that the long tapered ears on the top of her head twitched as she picked up the alert signal, it called everyone to their post. She needed to get down to the reactor room or to the nearest repair team muster point, huddled on the deck of her quarters wouldn’t help her shipmates.
Legs shaking, she got to her feet and, still in her sleeping attire, headed for her door. Being a junior technician her quarters were small, but had the essentials, they were also located deep inside the ship—she wasn’t privy to an external window. Just before she reached it, another jolt smacked her into the wall again. The lights cut out, plunging her room into darkness.
Her eyes adjusted almost immediately to the dark. They’d lost main power and there must’ve been a problem with the backups as the emergency lights should’ve come on, which meant that things were bad in the reactor room. Steadying herself again she neared the door, but it remained closed. She opened up the panel next to it and pulled the manual release, which popped the magnetic seal allowing the door to open a crack. Hooking her fingers into the opening she pulled with all her strength to get to metal door to move, providing her enough space to slip through.
Like her quarters the corridor was in darkness, but was murky with smoke from quenched fires. The acrid smell hit the back of her throat and made her cough again, her amber eyes watering. She rested a hand on the bulkhead to use as a guide as she headed for the nearest ladder. Just three months out of training, her head was ringing with what her instructors had said, how being in the Tauan Interstellar Service meant she had a duty to perform which was her highest obligation. That statement cut through the pain in her head and drove her forward. This was the life she had wanted, so she needed to do what was expected of her—if she could stand and walk, she could head to her post and carry out whatever was required of her.
She was only halfway towards the ladder access when her foot caught something heavy and she stumbled to the deck. Lower to the floor the darkness was clear of smoke, so she was able to look back and see what she’d tripped over. A pair of unblinking emerald eyes stared back at her.
Aean gasped, her heart pounding as she clawed backwards across the deck, away from the prone body. She had never seen a dead person before and now she was nearly face-to-face with one. Tears dripped from her chin, but she didn’t know if they were from the smoke or the body. How many others were dead?
She turned away, moving to the opposite bulkhead and pulled herself back up to her feet. There was nothing she could do for the Serviceman, but she could at least try to help the fifty-eight others on the Kada-Mos. She made it to the ladder alcove without any other problems, but found the hatches between levels to be sealed. The panel to operate them wasn’t illuminated so, just as she’d done in her quarters, she pulled the manual release for the hatch to the deck below. Her acute hearing picked up a buzz, but other than that nothing happened. She tried again and again.
“No,” she silently pleaded. The hatches were a precaution, during emergency alerts they sealed to help keep decks separated, but could be easily opened to allow crew to pass between levels in order to reach their stations or respond to problems. They would only remain secured if there was a hull breach, ruptured energy conduit, or other hazard that would threaten life. If it wasn’t opening in meant that the level below her had been lost, she wouldn’t be able to reach the reactor room.
She tried the release for the hatch above her. It too remained closed. She was cut off from the rest of the ship. Her legs felt weak. Gripping the ladder for support she lowered herself to the deck, tucking into the alcove that now led to nowhere. She buried her face in her hands as she wept.
* * * * *
With one task ticked off her list, the Eclipse’s first mate headed to her second job for the day; a full system check and diagnostic of the shield generators. The little ship was almost five sectors away from DS4, with no Starfleet or Federation-registered ships within sixty light-years of them, which meant they were well and truly on their own—as such she wanted to make sure they were ready for whatever they might find in the cluster.
When Maguire had told her of their latest job she had thought the human had lost it, no other captain was crazy enough to go on such a venture—at least not without making a lot of latinum or getting something else out of it. Heading out to a barren group of systems to run a full an analysis of them just seemed like such a ridiculous notion, so of course she’d quizzed him on it. He’d remained fairly tight-lipped on the details, at the behest of their new employer, but told her that it was a worthwhile venture and left it at that. Of course she wasn’t one hundred percent happy with that, but she’d served with Nate Maguire for almost six years and knew that, though he was foolhardy and reckless at times with regards to his own life, he would never put his crew at risk—not is he could help it.
Trust wasn’t something that came easy to her; she could count on two fingers the number of people she actually trusted implicitly and one of them was Maguire. She would follow his lead though keep an even tighter eye on things, seeing how isolated they were and the fact that they were heading into the unknown.
Like the armoury, the shield generator control room was secured to ensure only the crew could enter. She’d urged for the security precaution as, after a few personal modifications, the deflectors of the Ju’day-Class ship were no longer standard issue. She’d picked up a few tips and tricks to make the most out of them, making them stronger whilst using less energy—pointers quite a few others would be keen to gleam from them. She tapped in her code, stepped inside and found that she wasn’t alone.
As soon as she entered, Khalan Talek looked across at her. Of all the crew their engineer was definitely the most surprising, though not for the highly intricate pattern of tattoos that adorned his skin, from the crown of his head down to his toes, but rather the pointed ears and faint V-shaped ridges on his forehead. Often passengers found having a Romulan onboard to be, at best, unsettling whilst there were those who were blatantly hostile towards him—even though he had even less love of the Empire than they did. Though that was where her knowledge of Talek’s past ended (which was considerably more than he knew of hers), as he stayed to himself more than anyone else onboard.
“I see you had the same idea as me,” she said.
“I’d rather be overly-cautious now and not need it than the alternative,” Talek replied, his accented tone soft and deep.
“How’s it looking?” she enquired, moving over to one of the consoles to look over the readouts.
He turned back to the job at hand. “I’m almost finished, just the last checks on emergency transfer circuits and that’ll be it. So far everything is satisfactory.”
For Talek, ‘satisfactory’ was one of highest endorsements—the engineer had very exacting standards. A rare smile curled her lips. “I’m glad to hear it. Mind if I lend a hand?”
He gave her a nod. She moved to the secondary console and brought up the test programme for the final step that was needed, whilst he opened up a panel on the generator itself, behind which was a myriad of isolinear chips and wiring that controlled and regulated the transfer of additional or emergency power to the shields—so that they could either be strengthened or maintained even if the ship lost its mains. They worked in relative silence, speaking only when they were going through the various stages of the diagnostic. It was something she always liked about the engineer, whilst she got on well with the likes of Ro or Jossa, their tendency to chatter often made straightforward jobs last twice as long as they needed too.
After only twenty minutes the diagnostic of the shield generators was completed and passed with flying colours. She downloaded the findings from Talek’s full system status report, which she would review later, not that she doubted his work but because it was her job to make sure the ship was in the best shape possible.
Talek put the tools back in his kit and closed it up, then paused.
“Zirayne, do you think Doctor Croft will ever tell us what exactly it is we’re doing out here?”
She tossed a rogue strand of violet hair over her shoulder then leaned against the edge of the console. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “I’m wondering how much she actually told the Captain, but neither she nor her assistant have been very forthcoming.”
“Before we left, I heard at least nine different rumours of this region; whilst I doubt we’ll face the second coming of the Great Bird of the Galaxy, there were a few that sounded far more unsettling.”
“I heard a few of them as well, but whatever the truth is Starfleet was pretty quick to pull out their last ship and label this cluster as confidential.” She mulled over the question that had been niggling away at her for months once again.
Now that they were only a few days away, she needed to know just what it was they heading out there to do. Maguire had said that they’d get more details when the neared the star group and she would him and Croft to that.
“I’ll make sure we’re all brought into the loop before we get there,” she assured him. “Before then however, I still need to check on our phaser banks.”
“That was next on my list as well,” he told her, the faintest hints of a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth.
“Let’s be at it then.”
* * * * *
With a deafening rumble Aean val Sahro was thrown from her bed. She smacked against the metal bulkhead and slumped to the deck, winded her eyes watered as she tried to draw a breath. Ripped from a pleasant dream, her head was foggy from sleep and the growing lump on her smooth brow the wall had given her. It took her several long moments before her slim body started to do what she wanted, finally able to suck in enough air, though all it did was make her cough.
Before she could even think about getting to her feet the deck pitched under her again, making her tumble towards the forward bulkhead, but the impact was nowhere as severe as the first. It was only then that the long tapered ears on the top of her head twitched as she picked up the alert signal, it called everyone to their post. She needed to get down to the reactor room or to the nearest repair team muster point, huddled on the deck of her quarters wouldn’t help her shipmates.
Legs shaking, she got to her feet and, still in her sleeping attire, headed for her door. Being a junior technician her quarters were small, but had the essentials, they were also located deep inside the ship—she wasn’t privy to an external window. Just before she reached it, another jolt smacked her into the wall again. The lights cut out, plunging her room into darkness.
Her eyes adjusted almost immediately to the dark. They’d lost main power and there must’ve been a problem with the backups as the emergency lights should’ve come on, which meant that things were bad in the reactor room. Steadying herself again she neared the door, but it remained closed. She opened up the panel next to it and pulled the manual release, which popped the magnetic seal allowing the door to open a crack. Hooking her fingers into the opening she pulled with all her strength to get to metal door to move, providing her enough space to slip through.
Like her quarters the corridor was in darkness, but was murky with smoke from quenched fires. The acrid smell hit the back of her throat and made her cough again, her amber eyes watering. She rested a hand on the bulkhead to use as a guide as she headed for the nearest ladder. Just three months out of training, her head was ringing with what her instructors had said, how being in the Tauan Interstellar Service meant she had a duty to perform which was her highest obligation. That statement cut through the pain in her head and drove her forward. This was the life she had wanted, so she needed to do what was expected of her—if she could stand and walk, she could head to her post and carry out whatever was required of her.
She was only halfway towards the ladder access when her foot caught something heavy and she stumbled to the deck. Lower to the floor the darkness was clear of smoke, so she was able to look back and see what she’d tripped over. A pair of unblinking emerald eyes stared back at her.
Aean gasped, her heart pounding as she clawed backwards across the deck, away from the prone body. She had never seen a dead person before and now she was nearly face-to-face with one. Tears dripped from her chin, but she didn’t know if they were from the smoke or the body. How many others were dead?
She turned away, moving to the opposite bulkhead and pulled herself back up to her feet. There was nothing she could do for the Serviceman, but she could at least try to help the fifty-eight others on the Kada-Mos. She made it to the ladder alcove without any other problems, but found the hatches between levels to be sealed. The panel to operate them wasn’t illuminated so, just as she’d done in her quarters, she pulled the manual release for the hatch to the deck below. Her acute hearing picked up a buzz, but other than that nothing happened. She tried again and again.
“No,” she silently pleaded. The hatches were a precaution, during emergency alerts they sealed to help keep decks separated, but could be easily opened to allow crew to pass between levels in order to reach their stations or respond to problems. They would only remain secured if there was a hull breach, ruptured energy conduit, or other hazard that would threaten life. If it wasn’t opening in meant that the level below her had been lost, she wouldn’t be able to reach the reactor room.
She tried the release for the hatch above her. It too remained closed. She was cut off from the rest of the ship. Her legs felt weak. Gripping the ladder for support she lowered herself to the deck, tucking into the alcove that now led to nowhere. She buried her face in her hands as she wept.
* * * * *
A fantastic introduction to this intrepid private crew venturing out into the frontier without Starfleet's resources.
I'm intrigued by the scientist's mysterious mission, and by whatever just wrecked the good ship Kada-Mos.
You're establisting a great, diverse crew of notable characters, and I'm eager to see where you take them.
I'm intrigued by the scientist's mysterious mission, and by whatever just wrecked the good ship Kada-Mos.
You're establisting a great, diverse crew of notable characters, and I'm eager to see where you take them.
This is really good, Bry! I have a soft spot for civilian ships and you have put together an interesting and diverse crew. I like the idea of a Starfleet researcher hiring a private vessel for her mission. The relatively peaceful intro is shattered by the attack on the Kada-Mos. Wonder how the Eclipse plays into this scenario?
Chapter Two
Analysis based on samples taken from the third planet show a highly pure form of dilithium, as well as traces kemocite, trilium and uridium; further samples would be needed to confirm the makeup of these other minerals, though their presence in the current sample would seem to indicate there may be several veins near the surface, which would make mining a straightforward process.
The sample from forth planet contains the highest duranium-content in the database; Lieutenant Croft has reviewed my findings and confirmed them. At these concentrations, the planet could supply Starfleet with enough metal to construct an entire fleet of vessels from less than eight percent of available material.
Croft blinked back tears as she read over the report. It wasn’t the content that made her emotional, but the knowledge of who had written it, Ensign Rhaiell. The Rigellian-Enex had been fresh out of the Academy when Croft had hand-picked her for the team—with only five open spaces she needed the best and Rhaiell definitely fit the bill, with degrees in astrogeology, mineralogy and stellar cartography. She had been the only other officer on her team so Croft had taken her under her wing, teaching her all about leadership in the field. The younger woman had surpassed all of her expectations, listening to and heeding the advice of the non-coms, all of whom had years more experience. She had a bright future ahead of her.
Or at least she would’ve had. Once the U.S.S. Lancelot had returned to Federation space the crew had learned of just how serious a threat the Dominion had become, which saw many of the crew of the reconnaissance ship reassigned to other vessels. Croft had gone to the Intrepid whilst Rhaiell had been assigned to the Lafayette and, as things had heated up, she’d lost contact with the ensign. The next time she heard of the junior officer it was on the casualty list from the Battle of Tyra, where the Lafayette had been lost with all hands.
Over the next two years, she’d seen Petty Officers Shizumi and Grott on the list of the dead, and T’Nel classed as MIA. Other than herself and Thorev, every other member of her initial team had become victims of the Dominion but as bad as the other names had been to see, it was Rhaiell that stabbed at her heart. Someone so young, so full of potential, just wasn’t with them anymore. Part of Croft’s obsession with the cluster was for Rhaiell and the others, all of the hard work they had put into what they’d found had been brushed aside, as though it meant nothing and Starfleet was too preoccupied to discover the truth.
She set the PADD down on her bed and wiped her cheeks dry. After her encounter with the Captain in the mess, she’d gone to bed and slept for ten hours straight—she couldn’t remember the last time she had so much uninterrupted sleep—and now felt better for it, so had taken note of his advice and decided to stay out of the lab for a day at least. Of course, that didn’t mean she still didn’t have materials regarding her mission to read in her cabin.
For the first time since coming onboard, she actually took a good look at her room, one of six single-occupant cabins. It was very basic, with not much in the way of space, just her bed, cupboard, a small bedside table and cabinet for secure storage. Five months onboard and she had barely registered there wasn’t enough room to swing a cat. She really had been pushing herself far too hard.
Feeling better rested than she had in years, she found herself with energy to burn and not knowing what to do with herself—without disobeying the Captain’s orders and going to the lab. She swung her legs over her bed and pulled on her Starfleet-issue boots, then stepped into the corridor. She moved to the next room, where Thorev slept, and tried the enunciator but got no answer.
Though on extended leave, both she and Thorev kept their combadges on to remain in contact with one another should it be needed. She tapped hers. “Croft to Thorev.”
“Go ahead, Commander,” he replied promptly, breathing heavy.
“I was just wondering where you were, Chief.”
“I’m in the gym,” he paused, stopping whatever he was doing. “Is something wrong, sir?”
She shook her head, feeling silly for calling him. “It’s nothing, Chief, I was just heading to the mess and wondered if you were hungry.”
“Oh, in that case give me fifteen minutes to finish and wash up, then I’ll be right with you.”
“That’s alright; I wouldn’t want to interrupt your workout.”
“It’s not a problem, sir.”
“Thorev, I know you and your workouts, you’re not finished until you can barely speak. I’ll see you later.” With that she closed the channel.
She briefly considered going to the mess hall, but decided against it, not feeling just overly hungry. Of course she could join Thorev in the gym, get the blood pumping and try to wake up muscles that would soon start to atrophy if she didn’t make use of them, but she wasn’t in the mood to really work up a sweat. What she really wanted was to look at something that wasn’t a monitor or bulkhead, unfortunately the Eclipse wasn’t blessed with an abundance of viewports, except at the front of A Deck.
Without thinking she headed for the stairwell. She hadn’t been on the bridge before, in fact she hadn’t made it up to the top deck. The transporter room she’d beamed into was on B Deck, along with her lab, whilst her cabin and the mess were down on C, she’d never had any reason to go anywhere else.
To boldly go, she quipped to herself, immediately grateful no telepaths were nearby to hear her awful attempt at humour.
Bypassing B Deck she carried on upwards. When she arrived on the upper level there wasn’t much difference to the other two, grey bulkheads and ceiling panels whilst the deck was a metallic mesh like on B Deck (down on C there was a well-worn blue-grey carpet in the crew area). She headed forward, though she may not have been there, it was a straightforward layout. Rounding one corner she was only a few meters from the control room, but even from where she was she could hear the sound of hearty laughter.
She stopped, suddenly rethinking her desire to stargaze (after all they were at warp, all she’d see were streaks) not wanting to intrude on the crew. She turned and almost walked straight into another woman, letting out a startled yelp—she hadn’t heard, or even felt, anyone behind her.
The Boslic was her height, with vibrant violet hair cascading over her shoulders, and narrow almond-shaped eyes. Her face was set in a neutral expression, making her impossible to read, but obviously wasn’t upset by nearly being flattened.
“Doctor Croft?” she asked with a level tone.
“Sorry,” she paused for a second as she racked her brain to remember the names of the seven crewmembers, “Zirayne. I never heard you there.”
“It’s called stealth, it comes in handy sometimes.”
“I’m sure it does.”
“Is there something I can do for you?”
“No, no. I was just having a walk, just looking around.”
Zirayne’s eyes narrowed slightly. “You were heading for the bridge.” It wasn’t a question.
“I did think about it, but I don’t want to be a nuisance. I’ll let you get back to your duties,” she said, looking for the best way to slip around the other woman.
“Doctor, we’re at warp in empty space, I doubt you’ll be bothering anyone—they may even appreciate a break from the routine. We’ll call it your tour.”
The Boslic first mate gestured towards the door. With no reason to refuse, Croft turned back and headed for the entry hatch. It opened as she neared and she stepped in, Zirayne close behind. Inside, Captain Maguire was perched on the edge of the port console grinning from ear to ear, the Trill ops manager and half-Klingon helmsman were both at their customary posts, though both turned towards Maguire chuckling. They all looked at her as she entered.
“Hello Doctor,” Maguire said, his grin somehow widening. She kept her eyelevel up, trying not to think about the last time she’d seen him. “I don’t believe I’ve seen you up here before.”
“I’ve been a little busy these last few months, but thought I’d take a little break.”
A knowing glint flashed in his eye. “I’m glad to hear that, we wouldn’t want you to burn out before we reached the cluster.”
“Thank you for your concern, Captain, but I assure you it’s not needed—my senior year at the Academy I don’t think I got more than three hours of sleep every night.”
She paused as she looked out the viewport. As she stared at the shimmering streaks, Zirayne took her place at tactical. Croft could feel the other three watching her, knowing that she needed to say or ask something, so that she didn’t look lost.
“I was wondering how long until we arrive?” she settled on, looking at Maguire, then the two at the forward stations.
The helmsman glanced at his display then back at her. “We’ll reach the first system in a little under sixty hours at present speed, Doctor.”
Croft nodded. “Thank you.” She paused again, looking back out the viewport, realising for the first time how much for granted she took the true spectacle and beauty of life in space.
Once again she snapped herself out of it. “I’ll let you get back to work, sorry for the intrusion.”
Maguire shook his head. “No apologies necessary.” He stood up and spun the vacant chair towards her. “Why don’t you have a seat, it must’ve been a while since you looked out at the stars—being on a ship with so few viewports can take some getting used to.”
She frowned softly as she looked at Maguire, wondering if he was part-Betazoid for the insight he seemed to have into her mind. “I wouldn’t want to put anyone out.”
“Nonsense, both Jossa and Khalan are busy with diagnostics and systems checks—making sure everything is ready for you when we arrive—so they won’t be needing the seat.”
Before she could politely refuse once again, feeling a little daft for being there, there was a chirp from ops. Though she wasn’t used to the ship, she knew a sensor alert when she heard one. The blonde Trill quickly turned back to her console and responded to it, all other eyes on her for a long moment.
“I’m picking up some sort of energy flux,” she announced, her tone puzzled.
Maguire moved to stand between the pair at the front, as the helmsman spun back and Zirayne started checking over all of her sensors as well. Croft stepped further into the room, her curiosity peaked.
“What kind of flux?” the Captain asked, leaning forward for a closer look at the readings himself.
The ops manager shook her head. “I don’t know, the computer has nothing like it on record and the composition is baffling the sensors.”
Before she realised it, Croft was on the other side of the Trill peering over her shoulder. She happened to glance across and saw Maguire looking at her.
“Doc, maybe you’d like to lend us a hand and see if it’s something you’re familiar with,” he suggested before she could apologise for her curiosity.
She stepped back to the vacant console and slipped into the seat. “When I was here there were no anomalous energy readings in this sector and the reports I read from the Einstein had nothing like that on record,” she told him, patching the sensor readouts onto one of her monitors. She pulled out an isolinear chip from her trouser pocket and slipped it into an empty slot, then brought up the sensor logs from both the Lancelot and Einstein on separate screens. As she began an analysis on the new readings, she looked over the data she could almost recite in her sleep. Nothing matched up.
“Captain, a moment,” she heard Zirayne say.
Behind her she was vaguely aware of Maguire moving over to the opposite side of the bridge and speak in hushed tones with his first officer. However, she was too engrossed in the new findings to pay much attention to him. Unfortunately, most of the equipment in the lab was for planetary surveying, they hadn’t had the space to bring in specialist apparatus for stellar analysis—they would have to rely on the Eclipse’s own sensors and probes for that.
“This telemetry is incredible,” she mused to herself, not realising she’d spoken aloud.
“It’s an experimental quantum resonance array we were hired by the Daystrom Institute to test,” said the Trill beside her. “It’s a remarkable piece of technology, but was deemed too expensive to be of any commercial value.”
She looked at the other woman, surprised. “How do you still have it then?”
“The Captain suggested keeping it installed instead of payment for the work—this way the Institute gets a full field testing they don’t have to fund, to see if the benefits outweigh the cost.”
Very shrewd, she determined having a whole new appreciation for just how wily Maguire was. She wasn’t sure if the array would be better than anything onboard a dedicated Nova-Class surveyor, but it was definitely an impressive piece of tech for the old courier. It gave her far greater in-depth information than she’d expected, something that would most definitely come in handy.
“Do you see that?” she asked the Trill, whose name she wished she could remember.
“Yes.” She looked over at the starboard side. “Captain, the energy is dissipating steadily. It’s down by fifteen percent already.”
“Any suggestion as to its point of origin?”
“It was already pretty faint when we detected it and without anything more on its properties I can’t begin to narrow down where it may have come from.”
“Gather everything you can on it, Kell,” ordered Maguire, and she made a mental note of the woman’s name. “Doctor Croft, I think now would be a good time to bring everyone into the loop—my crew have already been more than patient.”
She turned around to look at him and found both Maguire and Zirayne staring back. When she’d hired the Eclipse to transport herself and Thorev, she’d told Maguire about the purpose behind the job, but had asked that the crew not be told anything but their destination until they neared the Cluster—after all some of what she would be telling them was confidential information. She’d have to put aside her oath to Starfleet to make it through some parts of the briefing, though that allowance to bend the rules would only extend so far—the classified aspects of the Lancelot’s mission would remain just that, after all it wasn’t of relevance to the Cluster, so they didn’t need to know that Starfleet had sent a recon ship out to ascertain whether the Breen were about to make territorial gains, back when the Confederacy were more of an enigmatic uncertainty than an ally of the Dominion.
“Now?”
He tapped the intercom panel on Ziranye’s console. “Everyone this is Maguire, muster in the mess hall in ten minutes.” He looked her levelly in the eye. “Now, Doc.”
She nodded, though admittedly she’d rather run a few more scans on the energy field that was seconds away from disappearing completely. She’d had five months to think about just what she was going to say, but still wasn’t entirely sure if she could put into words just what they were doing there and why.
* * * * *
Analysis based on samples taken from the third planet show a highly pure form of dilithium, as well as traces kemocite, trilium and uridium; further samples would be needed to confirm the makeup of these other minerals, though their presence in the current sample would seem to indicate there may be several veins near the surface, which would make mining a straightforward process.
The sample from forth planet contains the highest duranium-content in the database; Lieutenant Croft has reviewed my findings and confirmed them. At these concentrations, the planet could supply Starfleet with enough metal to construct an entire fleet of vessels from less than eight percent of available material.
Croft blinked back tears as she read over the report. It wasn’t the content that made her emotional, but the knowledge of who had written it, Ensign Rhaiell. The Rigellian-Enex had been fresh out of the Academy when Croft had hand-picked her for the team—with only five open spaces she needed the best and Rhaiell definitely fit the bill, with degrees in astrogeology, mineralogy and stellar cartography. She had been the only other officer on her team so Croft had taken her under her wing, teaching her all about leadership in the field. The younger woman had surpassed all of her expectations, listening to and heeding the advice of the non-coms, all of whom had years more experience. She had a bright future ahead of her.
Or at least she would’ve had. Once the U.S.S. Lancelot had returned to Federation space the crew had learned of just how serious a threat the Dominion had become, which saw many of the crew of the reconnaissance ship reassigned to other vessels. Croft had gone to the Intrepid whilst Rhaiell had been assigned to the Lafayette and, as things had heated up, she’d lost contact with the ensign. The next time she heard of the junior officer it was on the casualty list from the Battle of Tyra, where the Lafayette had been lost with all hands.
Over the next two years, she’d seen Petty Officers Shizumi and Grott on the list of the dead, and T’Nel classed as MIA. Other than herself and Thorev, every other member of her initial team had become victims of the Dominion but as bad as the other names had been to see, it was Rhaiell that stabbed at her heart. Someone so young, so full of potential, just wasn’t with them anymore. Part of Croft’s obsession with the cluster was for Rhaiell and the others, all of the hard work they had put into what they’d found had been brushed aside, as though it meant nothing and Starfleet was too preoccupied to discover the truth.
She set the PADD down on her bed and wiped her cheeks dry. After her encounter with the Captain in the mess, she’d gone to bed and slept for ten hours straight—she couldn’t remember the last time she had so much uninterrupted sleep—and now felt better for it, so had taken note of his advice and decided to stay out of the lab for a day at least. Of course, that didn’t mean she still didn’t have materials regarding her mission to read in her cabin.
For the first time since coming onboard, she actually took a good look at her room, one of six single-occupant cabins. It was very basic, with not much in the way of space, just her bed, cupboard, a small bedside table and cabinet for secure storage. Five months onboard and she had barely registered there wasn’t enough room to swing a cat. She really had been pushing herself far too hard.
Feeling better rested than she had in years, she found herself with energy to burn and not knowing what to do with herself—without disobeying the Captain’s orders and going to the lab. She swung her legs over her bed and pulled on her Starfleet-issue boots, then stepped into the corridor. She moved to the next room, where Thorev slept, and tried the enunciator but got no answer.
Though on extended leave, both she and Thorev kept their combadges on to remain in contact with one another should it be needed. She tapped hers. “Croft to Thorev.”
“Go ahead, Commander,” he replied promptly, breathing heavy.
“I was just wondering where you were, Chief.”
“I’m in the gym,” he paused, stopping whatever he was doing. “Is something wrong, sir?”
She shook her head, feeling silly for calling him. “It’s nothing, Chief, I was just heading to the mess and wondered if you were hungry.”
“Oh, in that case give me fifteen minutes to finish and wash up, then I’ll be right with you.”
“That’s alright; I wouldn’t want to interrupt your workout.”
“It’s not a problem, sir.”
“Thorev, I know you and your workouts, you’re not finished until you can barely speak. I’ll see you later.” With that she closed the channel.
She briefly considered going to the mess hall, but decided against it, not feeling just overly hungry. Of course she could join Thorev in the gym, get the blood pumping and try to wake up muscles that would soon start to atrophy if she didn’t make use of them, but she wasn’t in the mood to really work up a sweat. What she really wanted was to look at something that wasn’t a monitor or bulkhead, unfortunately the Eclipse wasn’t blessed with an abundance of viewports, except at the front of A Deck.
Without thinking she headed for the stairwell. She hadn’t been on the bridge before, in fact she hadn’t made it up to the top deck. The transporter room she’d beamed into was on B Deck, along with her lab, whilst her cabin and the mess were down on C, she’d never had any reason to go anywhere else.
To boldly go, she quipped to herself, immediately grateful no telepaths were nearby to hear her awful attempt at humour.
Bypassing B Deck she carried on upwards. When she arrived on the upper level there wasn’t much difference to the other two, grey bulkheads and ceiling panels whilst the deck was a metallic mesh like on B Deck (down on C there was a well-worn blue-grey carpet in the crew area). She headed forward, though she may not have been there, it was a straightforward layout. Rounding one corner she was only a few meters from the control room, but even from where she was she could hear the sound of hearty laughter.
She stopped, suddenly rethinking her desire to stargaze (after all they were at warp, all she’d see were streaks) not wanting to intrude on the crew. She turned and almost walked straight into another woman, letting out a startled yelp—she hadn’t heard, or even felt, anyone behind her.
The Boslic was her height, with vibrant violet hair cascading over her shoulders, and narrow almond-shaped eyes. Her face was set in a neutral expression, making her impossible to read, but obviously wasn’t upset by nearly being flattened.
“Doctor Croft?” she asked with a level tone.
“Sorry,” she paused for a second as she racked her brain to remember the names of the seven crewmembers, “Zirayne. I never heard you there.”
“It’s called stealth, it comes in handy sometimes.”
“I’m sure it does.”
“Is there something I can do for you?”
“No, no. I was just having a walk, just looking around.”
Zirayne’s eyes narrowed slightly. “You were heading for the bridge.” It wasn’t a question.
“I did think about it, but I don’t want to be a nuisance. I’ll let you get back to your duties,” she said, looking for the best way to slip around the other woman.
“Doctor, we’re at warp in empty space, I doubt you’ll be bothering anyone—they may even appreciate a break from the routine. We’ll call it your tour.”
The Boslic first mate gestured towards the door. With no reason to refuse, Croft turned back and headed for the entry hatch. It opened as she neared and she stepped in, Zirayne close behind. Inside, Captain Maguire was perched on the edge of the port console grinning from ear to ear, the Trill ops manager and half-Klingon helmsman were both at their customary posts, though both turned towards Maguire chuckling. They all looked at her as she entered.
“Hello Doctor,” Maguire said, his grin somehow widening. She kept her eyelevel up, trying not to think about the last time she’d seen him. “I don’t believe I’ve seen you up here before.”
“I’ve been a little busy these last few months, but thought I’d take a little break.”
A knowing glint flashed in his eye. “I’m glad to hear that, we wouldn’t want you to burn out before we reached the cluster.”
“Thank you for your concern, Captain, but I assure you it’s not needed—my senior year at the Academy I don’t think I got more than three hours of sleep every night.”
She paused as she looked out the viewport. As she stared at the shimmering streaks, Zirayne took her place at tactical. Croft could feel the other three watching her, knowing that she needed to say or ask something, so that she didn’t look lost.
“I was wondering how long until we arrive?” she settled on, looking at Maguire, then the two at the forward stations.
The helmsman glanced at his display then back at her. “We’ll reach the first system in a little under sixty hours at present speed, Doctor.”
Croft nodded. “Thank you.” She paused again, looking back out the viewport, realising for the first time how much for granted she took the true spectacle and beauty of life in space.
Once again she snapped herself out of it. “I’ll let you get back to work, sorry for the intrusion.”
Maguire shook his head. “No apologies necessary.” He stood up and spun the vacant chair towards her. “Why don’t you have a seat, it must’ve been a while since you looked out at the stars—being on a ship with so few viewports can take some getting used to.”
She frowned softly as she looked at Maguire, wondering if he was part-Betazoid for the insight he seemed to have into her mind. “I wouldn’t want to put anyone out.”
“Nonsense, both Jossa and Khalan are busy with diagnostics and systems checks—making sure everything is ready for you when we arrive—so they won’t be needing the seat.”
Before she could politely refuse once again, feeling a little daft for being there, there was a chirp from ops. Though she wasn’t used to the ship, she knew a sensor alert when she heard one. The blonde Trill quickly turned back to her console and responded to it, all other eyes on her for a long moment.
“I’m picking up some sort of energy flux,” she announced, her tone puzzled.
Maguire moved to stand between the pair at the front, as the helmsman spun back and Zirayne started checking over all of her sensors as well. Croft stepped further into the room, her curiosity peaked.
“What kind of flux?” the Captain asked, leaning forward for a closer look at the readings himself.
The ops manager shook her head. “I don’t know, the computer has nothing like it on record and the composition is baffling the sensors.”
Before she realised it, Croft was on the other side of the Trill peering over her shoulder. She happened to glance across and saw Maguire looking at her.
“Doc, maybe you’d like to lend us a hand and see if it’s something you’re familiar with,” he suggested before she could apologise for her curiosity.
She stepped back to the vacant console and slipped into the seat. “When I was here there were no anomalous energy readings in this sector and the reports I read from the Einstein had nothing like that on record,” she told him, patching the sensor readouts onto one of her monitors. She pulled out an isolinear chip from her trouser pocket and slipped it into an empty slot, then brought up the sensor logs from both the Lancelot and Einstein on separate screens. As she began an analysis on the new readings, she looked over the data she could almost recite in her sleep. Nothing matched up.
“Captain, a moment,” she heard Zirayne say.
Behind her she was vaguely aware of Maguire moving over to the opposite side of the bridge and speak in hushed tones with his first officer. However, she was too engrossed in the new findings to pay much attention to him. Unfortunately, most of the equipment in the lab was for planetary surveying, they hadn’t had the space to bring in specialist apparatus for stellar analysis—they would have to rely on the Eclipse’s own sensors and probes for that.
“This telemetry is incredible,” she mused to herself, not realising she’d spoken aloud.
“It’s an experimental quantum resonance array we were hired by the Daystrom Institute to test,” said the Trill beside her. “It’s a remarkable piece of technology, but was deemed too expensive to be of any commercial value.”
She looked at the other woman, surprised. “How do you still have it then?”
“The Captain suggested keeping it installed instead of payment for the work—this way the Institute gets a full field testing they don’t have to fund, to see if the benefits outweigh the cost.”
Very shrewd, she determined having a whole new appreciation for just how wily Maguire was. She wasn’t sure if the array would be better than anything onboard a dedicated Nova-Class surveyor, but it was definitely an impressive piece of tech for the old courier. It gave her far greater in-depth information than she’d expected, something that would most definitely come in handy.
“Do you see that?” she asked the Trill, whose name she wished she could remember.
“Yes.” She looked over at the starboard side. “Captain, the energy is dissipating steadily. It’s down by fifteen percent already.”
“Any suggestion as to its point of origin?”
“It was already pretty faint when we detected it and without anything more on its properties I can’t begin to narrow down where it may have come from.”
“Gather everything you can on it, Kell,” ordered Maguire, and she made a mental note of the woman’s name. “Doctor Croft, I think now would be a good time to bring everyone into the loop—my crew have already been more than patient.”
She turned around to look at him and found both Maguire and Zirayne staring back. When she’d hired the Eclipse to transport herself and Thorev, she’d told Maguire about the purpose behind the job, but had asked that the crew not be told anything but their destination until they neared the Cluster—after all some of what she would be telling them was confidential information. She’d have to put aside her oath to Starfleet to make it through some parts of the briefing, though that allowance to bend the rules would only extend so far—the classified aspects of the Lancelot’s mission would remain just that, after all it wasn’t of relevance to the Cluster, so they didn’t need to know that Starfleet had sent a recon ship out to ascertain whether the Breen were about to make territorial gains, back when the Confederacy were more of an enigmatic uncertainty than an ally of the Dominion.
“Now?”
He tapped the intercom panel on Ziranye’s console. “Everyone this is Maguire, muster in the mess hall in ten minutes.” He looked her levelly in the eye. “Now, Doc.”
She nodded, though admittedly she’d rather run a few more scans on the energy field that was seconds away from disappearing completely. She’d had five months to think about just what she was going to say, but still wasn’t entirely sure if she could put into words just what they were doing there and why.
* * * * *
Nate Maguire hadn’t wanted to put Croft on the spot in quite such a crude way, but Zirayne had highlighted that given the scientist was now being presented with something she didn’t know it was about time the crew were brought up to speed with the rest. He couldn’t question her rational and had been meaning to bring it up with his employer earlier, but after seeing how run down she was in the mess hall in the wee small hours, he’d hoped to broach the subject after she was better rested.
No time like the present, he told himself as he led the bridge crew into the mess.
Inaia and Thorev were both already there seated at one of the three tables. The Eclipse had accommodation for sixteen, so had more than enough space for her current complement of nine. A fresh pot of coffee was ready, whilst what remained of Thorev’s fruit puffs sat on the galley counter—Ro made a beeline for them, before sitting down with the Andorian and their new medic. The Sister was a tough one to get a read on; sometimes she was as sultry and seductive as a Risian companion, other times she had the discipline and bearing of a Vulcan monk, and then there were the times she was a thorough and nurturing physician—she definitely kept everyone on their toes.
He, Zirayne and Kell took one of the empty tables, whilst Croft remained standing beside the door. A moment later, Jossa entered and joined them, grease smeared on his dark cheek, as he flashed his wife a bright smile. A couple of minutes later, Khalan Talek entered and sat down at the empty table, which wasn’t an unusual occurrence.
Maguire looked around the faces of his crew, all of them waiting intently. He then turned to Croft, who tucked a strand of her jet black hair behind her ear, her soft grey eyes looking over the small assembly. When he thought of Starfleet officers, the demure Englishwoman just never quite seemed to fit his expected mould.
“This is your show, Doctor.”
She nodded. “Thank you, Captain.” She paused, took a breath and looked around the room again, he noticed an encouraging grin from Thorev. “Firstly, I’d like to thank you for being so patient over these last few months, I know it can’t have been easy being kept in the dark like this, which leads me to my second point. Some of what I have to tell you was deemed confidential information by Starfleet Science, shared with only a select few organisations outside of the fleet.
“Four years ago, I was Chief Science Officer onboard a Starfleet ship on a scouting mission to this region. Our mission was one of security not scientific enquiry, so I only had a small team with me,” her voice caught and he thought he saw her eyes moisten, but she blinked it away, cleared her throat and continued, “of which Chief Thorev was a member. We were carrying out rudimentary charting of the region, being the first ship in the area meant we were kept busy, though nothing overly enthralling. Until we reached the co-ordinates we’re heading for.
“In the space of three light-years, we found six planetary systems with between five and fourteen planets, as well as dozens of moons and seven asteroid belts among them. I don’t want any of you to think I’m exaggerating when I say we found a veritable goldmine in this cluster. Each system had at least three bodies, either planets or moons, capable of supporting life and each one was a veritable Eden. Our scans showed they teemed with life, ideal for colonisation, with many also holding a wealth of materials—metals and minerals in concentrations none of us had seen before. Even the worlds that couldn’t sustain human life were also rich with natural resources.
“Unfortunately, we were on a very tight deadline so couldn’t spare a lot of time to study each system. We were given two days to gather all the information we could of the first system we came too, and use sensors to catalogue as much as possible on the other five. We ran every scan possible for forty-eight hours straight, managed to retrieve a few core samples, and carry out preliminary planetary surveys that barely scratched the surface.”
“If that’s true,” Ro interrupted, “why haven’t we heard of it before?”
“Starfleet kept our findings quiet. By the time we returned to Federation space, hostilities with the Dominion were escalating and war looked all but inevitable. Command couldn’t spare the necessary resources to harness what the Cluster offered; the Federation Council wasn’t comfortable sending a civilian team out without any assurance of Starfleet protection, whilst some of the private companies and organisations who were privy to the details likewise didn’t want to venture too far from Federation territory given the political climate. The information wasn’t made public, as they didn’t want to alert other races who could use the resources there against the Federation.”
“Starfleet swept it under the rug,” Jossa clarified.
“For their protection and peace of mind,” she admitted. Maguire understood the logic, there was no point alerting everyone in the quadrant to what was there when they were on a knife edge and facing the threat of all-out war any day.
“For the next two years, Starfleet fought the Dominion, which saw us lose too much. Then, once the war was over, we spent a year running around trying to do all we could to rebuild and offer relief to every race and system that’d been affected by the war, with only a fifth of our previous resources to do so. It was only at the end of 2376 that Starfleet could spare a single science ship to send back to the Cluster, to carry out a more thorough survey of each system to see what would be needed to being full-scale mining operations. Unfortunately, I was on another assignment at the time and could get away to return onboard the Einstein. They undertook this journey, and after five months arrived to begin their survey.
“They found nothing.”
“Nothing?” Telak asked in his deep yet soft voice. It was rare for him to speak up, so the narrative must’ve caught his attention—truth be told, Maguire would’ve quite happily sat and listened to Croft all day, her voice was so rich but had a huskiness to it that made her almost hypnotic to hear.
“They arrived at the system we’d spent two days in, but all of the planets and moons were little more than barren balls of rock, none of them contained anything but the most-common of elements that can be found on any world in the quadrant. They moved onto the next and found just the same, as were all the others. Where there should’ve been six systems with an abundance of life and materials Starfleet desperate needs to rebuild, they found dozens of planets and moons that are of no use to anyone.”
“How is that possible?” asked Inaia.
Croft shook her head. “I don’t know. They theorised there must’ve been some sort of stellar event that caused irreparable damage.”
“You don’t sound very convinced of that theory,” Kell noted.
“If it was just one system, then maybe there could’ve been some sort of solar flare activity that was to blame, but not something that would affect all six. The only things that could might’ve been a super nova or a rogue black hole, but there are no evidence for either of those phenomena.”
“So what happened?” asked Ro, his half-eaten pastry forgotten about.
“The Einstein was recalled, their mission no longer existed and Starfleet could put the ship to better use helping refugees than looking for answers. I spent days looking over the findings and couldn’t see any explanation. I went to the head of Starfleet Science himself to try and persuade him to send out another team to investigate the reason behind the sudden devastation. But he accepted the Einstein’s theory and turned down my request. At which time, I sought out Thorev to make sure that I wasn’t been short-sighted and he agreed with me.”
She looked around the room again, her eyes settling on Nate’s. “That’s how we came to be here.”
“So you’re here to carry out your own investigation then, into what happened,” said Jossa.
“That is our aim. We’re going to start off in the same system we were in four years ago and go from there, adding our findings to those of the Einstein and comparing them against what we first found.”
“That’s a monumental task,” stated Kell. “To do a full survey of six systems would take a couple of months, at least.”
Nate took that as his cue. “When Doctor Croft first approached me, we did discuss a timetable. Seeing as how travel to and from DS4 is ten months at warp five and our supplies aren’t unlimited, we agreed to two months work once we got here though, as I’m sure Jossa can attest too, we have enough supplies to last twice that if needed.”
He knew that being out of the safety of Federation space for a year was a long slog for his crew, but over the war they’d worked tirelessly for months helping the innocent victims along the frontlines. They’d faced far greater dangers and stress, often with no other support and for much more critical work. He knew they would be able to handle it, after all when they’d heard where they were going they’d known it would be a long job. Though it wasn’t like they were leaving a lot behind, for all of them the only family they truly had was onboard the Eclipse.
“Once we get started, there will be plenty of work to go around to get this done as effectively as we can, which means we’ll all be taking orders from Doctor Croft—this is her show after all.” He looked back at her. “I don’t think there’s anything more, is there?” She shook her head.
“Anything else?” he asked his crew. They too were surprisingly quiet, but now they knew just what was on the cards then he knew they’d be happier—and that if they thought of anything later he’d soon hear about it.
“Alright then, the Doc and I will get together and draw up a few plans for how we’ll work out the logistics and take it from there. If there’s nothing else, you all know where the door is.
There was a brief pause, before they started to move. Croft stood to the side as the rest filed out, though Zirayne stayed sitting. Thorev paused in the door, waiting for his superior officer as she looked at Nate.
“Thank you, Captain.”
“You’re welcome, Doctor.”
With that she joined Thorev and left, telling him about the energy readings she had seen on the bridge. Nate watched her go, then turned back to his right-hand woman. As the person who’d pressed for the briefing now, she’d been oddly quiet.
“Something to add, Zira?” he asked, using the nickname he knew she hated to get a rise out of her. Her face remained impassive. The moment of silence stretched out, but he was in no rush to fill it—knowing that was her usual ploy.
“I get it now,” she said finally.
“Get what?”
“Why you took this job.”
“For the benefit of science?”
Zirayne scoffed. “Doctor Croft.”
He frowned. “What about her?”
A faint smile curled the corners of her lips. “She’s just your type, you’d never say no to such a damsel being in distress.”
He opened his mouth to tell her she was being crazy. Yes, Rachel Croft was a beautiful woman, very sharp too (‘doctor’ wasn’t just an honorific title, she had two PhDs), her dedication to her cause and her assistant were both qualities he admired, respected and understood, when they’d first met her passion for what she was trying to do was almost infectious, and in the few rare moments he’d managed to distract her from her work and actually speak to her as another sentient being, she had proven to have a subtle sense of humour...
“Crap,” was all that came out of his mouth.
“Thought as much,” she stated, her smile growing. “Why else would you agree to such an insane job?”
“I swear, Zira, that wasn’t the reason I took it on. I do believe in what she is trying to do. Something unexplainable happened out here and no one seems willing to try and figure out what or how.”
“Just keep telling yourself that, but this is a clearly a case of the little head overruling the big head.”
“Hey!”
Zirayne let slip a rare laugh. He’d always liked it, not that he heard it very often. But as quickly as it started it ended.
“I admit, she has an interesting task ahead of her, but do you think that we can really make much headway when a dedicated Starfleet research vessel couldn’t?”
He sighed heavily. “I don’t know. We can at least give her a couple of months to sample the dirt, take some scans, and see for herself that this could just be one of those catastrophic wonders of space that don’t really have an explanation. But she does need to do it for herself—I don’t think she’ll let it go if she doesn’t.”
She nodded. “Agreed,” she said simply, then rose from her seat. “I best get back to the bridge and see about running some cursory scans of the Cluster.”
“Sounds good, Zirayne.”
The Boslic strolled out, leaving him alone for a moment, mulling over his sudden realisation and questioning whether or not he had taken the job just because of Croft.
* * * * *
The Kada-Mos was a short-range scout ship, intended to carry out preliminary reconnaissance of an area to see if a full-fledged cruiser was needed for a more thorough investigation, as such she was a compact design to minimise her sensor silhouette—her greatest defence was to avoid being detected in the first place. The scout had only five decks, cargo and fuel stores at the bottom, the reactor room and most other ship systems on the second, most of the crew quarters (including Aean’s own) and support facilities on the middle deck, officer accommodation and the control room on the fourth, whilst the top deck was almost all sensors.
Aean was stuck in the middle of the ship, the decks above and below had been compromised, whilst there were many other sections on the third deck that were also sealed to preserve life. She could only hope that there were Servicemen and women alive in other areas, who could do something to save them all. But as tightly as she clung onto that hope, part of her had a terrible feeling that there was no one else. She was torn, between wanting to believe that others were able to do their duty and see to their rescue and the prospect that there was no one else who could help her—that it was up to her to save herself and anyone else who might still be alive.
What should I do? she asked her ancestors, seeking guidance from all those that came before her. With no clear idea of what she could, or needed to, do she’d retreated back to her quarters—after covering the body in the corridor with her bunkmate’s blanket. Tela would’ve been in sensor analysis when the ship had been…what? Attacked? Battered by some kind of storm? She didn’t know anything, couldn’t do anything.
She felt tears welling up once again.
“Stop it,” she told herself. “Make a plan and stick to it.”
It was one of her mother’s guiding principles, even making a bad decision was better than making none at all. Taking that to heart, she took in several deep breathes then pulled herself to her feet once more. Given what had happened so far, she would be better served by believing in the worst case scenario: everyone else was either dead or any other survivors were trapped elsewhere and unable to do anything to help the crew. She could get into a few compartments, though hadn’t really tried to see just how many she could gain access too.
There was the crew’s communications room on the left side of deck three, from which the technicians and specialists could maintain contact with their families back on Tau’a. If she could get there then she could at least see in the array was able to send out a signal of some kind, even a weak one—something that would allow her to call out for help.
It was worth a shot.
She dressed in her uniform; it would help keep her warmer than her nightwear as well as reassure her as she made her way through the silent ship. She grabbed the torch she kept in her bedside table, though her eyesight wasn’t inhibited by the darkness if she needed to carry out any repairs she’d prefer to work with a light source, and the small toolkit her mother had given her before she’d shipped out, slipping them both onto her belt. The simple action of pulling on her uniform made her feel surer of her decision, she was doing her duty.
Stepping back into the corridor, she headed in the opposite direction of the body, remembering what rooms she found that were open and the ones that were sealed. When she’d learned of her posting, she’d made sure to memorise the ship schematics and deck plans, so as she moved through the murky hallways she had a picture in her mind of just where the damage was. If it was even half as bad as her mind was making it out to be, she was lucky the ship hadn’t been completely obliterated.
Her progress was slow, hampered by far too many closed doors. Fortunately, she didn’t find any more bodies of her shipmates—she wasn’t she she’d be able to cope with that, knowing that her first would stick with her forevermore. Turning into a corridor, an emergency hatch had slammed shut at the far end, just ten meters behind which was the comm room. The two cabins nearest her opened without a problem, inside one she spotted an old data terminal and a diagnostics interface (obviously a pet project someone was undertaking), however after those rooms the others nearer the hatch were all secured.
Aean’s best means of getting to the comm room was impassable, just like all the other options. She looked back at the empty cabin with the old terminal, which far more comprehensive than the basic desktop computer that came as standard. Depending on who had been working on it, what they were trying to do and how far they’d gotten, it might give her a shot of accessing the ship’s systems if she could patch it in and power it up.
“I need an energy source,” she told herself, her whisper echoing down the vacant corridors. Her aim was still the same, access the communications array and call for help, but now she had a few extra objectives to complete before she could do so. She’d need something to power it up, only then could she see if it would do what she needed it too. There was a lot of work she needed to do, so she had no time to stand around and fret about what she couldn’t do.
Make a plan and stick to it, she repeated over and over as she began a more thorough search of all the quarters and rooms she’d been able to access.
* * * * *
No time like the present, he told himself as he led the bridge crew into the mess.
Inaia and Thorev were both already there seated at one of the three tables. The Eclipse had accommodation for sixteen, so had more than enough space for her current complement of nine. A fresh pot of coffee was ready, whilst what remained of Thorev’s fruit puffs sat on the galley counter—Ro made a beeline for them, before sitting down with the Andorian and their new medic. The Sister was a tough one to get a read on; sometimes she was as sultry and seductive as a Risian companion, other times she had the discipline and bearing of a Vulcan monk, and then there were the times she was a thorough and nurturing physician—she definitely kept everyone on their toes.
He, Zirayne and Kell took one of the empty tables, whilst Croft remained standing beside the door. A moment later, Jossa entered and joined them, grease smeared on his dark cheek, as he flashed his wife a bright smile. A couple of minutes later, Khalan Talek entered and sat down at the empty table, which wasn’t an unusual occurrence.
Maguire looked around the faces of his crew, all of them waiting intently. He then turned to Croft, who tucked a strand of her jet black hair behind her ear, her soft grey eyes looking over the small assembly. When he thought of Starfleet officers, the demure Englishwoman just never quite seemed to fit his expected mould.
“This is your show, Doctor.”
She nodded. “Thank you, Captain.” She paused, took a breath and looked around the room again, he noticed an encouraging grin from Thorev. “Firstly, I’d like to thank you for being so patient over these last few months, I know it can’t have been easy being kept in the dark like this, which leads me to my second point. Some of what I have to tell you was deemed confidential information by Starfleet Science, shared with only a select few organisations outside of the fleet.
“Four years ago, I was Chief Science Officer onboard a Starfleet ship on a scouting mission to this region. Our mission was one of security not scientific enquiry, so I only had a small team with me,” her voice caught and he thought he saw her eyes moisten, but she blinked it away, cleared her throat and continued, “of which Chief Thorev was a member. We were carrying out rudimentary charting of the region, being the first ship in the area meant we were kept busy, though nothing overly enthralling. Until we reached the co-ordinates we’re heading for.
“In the space of three light-years, we found six planetary systems with between five and fourteen planets, as well as dozens of moons and seven asteroid belts among them. I don’t want any of you to think I’m exaggerating when I say we found a veritable goldmine in this cluster. Each system had at least three bodies, either planets or moons, capable of supporting life and each one was a veritable Eden. Our scans showed they teemed with life, ideal for colonisation, with many also holding a wealth of materials—metals and minerals in concentrations none of us had seen before. Even the worlds that couldn’t sustain human life were also rich with natural resources.
“Unfortunately, we were on a very tight deadline so couldn’t spare a lot of time to study each system. We were given two days to gather all the information we could of the first system we came too, and use sensors to catalogue as much as possible on the other five. We ran every scan possible for forty-eight hours straight, managed to retrieve a few core samples, and carry out preliminary planetary surveys that barely scratched the surface.”
“If that’s true,” Ro interrupted, “why haven’t we heard of it before?”
“Starfleet kept our findings quiet. By the time we returned to Federation space, hostilities with the Dominion were escalating and war looked all but inevitable. Command couldn’t spare the necessary resources to harness what the Cluster offered; the Federation Council wasn’t comfortable sending a civilian team out without any assurance of Starfleet protection, whilst some of the private companies and organisations who were privy to the details likewise didn’t want to venture too far from Federation territory given the political climate. The information wasn’t made public, as they didn’t want to alert other races who could use the resources there against the Federation.”
“Starfleet swept it under the rug,” Jossa clarified.
“For their protection and peace of mind,” she admitted. Maguire understood the logic, there was no point alerting everyone in the quadrant to what was there when they were on a knife edge and facing the threat of all-out war any day.
“For the next two years, Starfleet fought the Dominion, which saw us lose too much. Then, once the war was over, we spent a year running around trying to do all we could to rebuild and offer relief to every race and system that’d been affected by the war, with only a fifth of our previous resources to do so. It was only at the end of 2376 that Starfleet could spare a single science ship to send back to the Cluster, to carry out a more thorough survey of each system to see what would be needed to being full-scale mining operations. Unfortunately, I was on another assignment at the time and could get away to return onboard the Einstein. They undertook this journey, and after five months arrived to begin their survey.
“They found nothing.”
“Nothing?” Telak asked in his deep yet soft voice. It was rare for him to speak up, so the narrative must’ve caught his attention—truth be told, Maguire would’ve quite happily sat and listened to Croft all day, her voice was so rich but had a huskiness to it that made her almost hypnotic to hear.
“They arrived at the system we’d spent two days in, but all of the planets and moons were little more than barren balls of rock, none of them contained anything but the most-common of elements that can be found on any world in the quadrant. They moved onto the next and found just the same, as were all the others. Where there should’ve been six systems with an abundance of life and materials Starfleet desperate needs to rebuild, they found dozens of planets and moons that are of no use to anyone.”
“How is that possible?” asked Inaia.
Croft shook her head. “I don’t know. They theorised there must’ve been some sort of stellar event that caused irreparable damage.”
“You don’t sound very convinced of that theory,” Kell noted.
“If it was just one system, then maybe there could’ve been some sort of solar flare activity that was to blame, but not something that would affect all six. The only things that could might’ve been a super nova or a rogue black hole, but there are no evidence for either of those phenomena.”
“So what happened?” asked Ro, his half-eaten pastry forgotten about.
“The Einstein was recalled, their mission no longer existed and Starfleet could put the ship to better use helping refugees than looking for answers. I spent days looking over the findings and couldn’t see any explanation. I went to the head of Starfleet Science himself to try and persuade him to send out another team to investigate the reason behind the sudden devastation. But he accepted the Einstein’s theory and turned down my request. At which time, I sought out Thorev to make sure that I wasn’t been short-sighted and he agreed with me.”
She looked around the room again, her eyes settling on Nate’s. “That’s how we came to be here.”
“So you’re here to carry out your own investigation then, into what happened,” said Jossa.
“That is our aim. We’re going to start off in the same system we were in four years ago and go from there, adding our findings to those of the Einstein and comparing them against what we first found.”
“That’s a monumental task,” stated Kell. “To do a full survey of six systems would take a couple of months, at least.”
Nate took that as his cue. “When Doctor Croft first approached me, we did discuss a timetable. Seeing as how travel to and from DS4 is ten months at warp five and our supplies aren’t unlimited, we agreed to two months work once we got here though, as I’m sure Jossa can attest too, we have enough supplies to last twice that if needed.”
He knew that being out of the safety of Federation space for a year was a long slog for his crew, but over the war they’d worked tirelessly for months helping the innocent victims along the frontlines. They’d faced far greater dangers and stress, often with no other support and for much more critical work. He knew they would be able to handle it, after all when they’d heard where they were going they’d known it would be a long job. Though it wasn’t like they were leaving a lot behind, for all of them the only family they truly had was onboard the Eclipse.
“Once we get started, there will be plenty of work to go around to get this done as effectively as we can, which means we’ll all be taking orders from Doctor Croft—this is her show after all.” He looked back at her. “I don’t think there’s anything more, is there?” She shook her head.
“Anything else?” he asked his crew. They too were surprisingly quiet, but now they knew just what was on the cards then he knew they’d be happier—and that if they thought of anything later he’d soon hear about it.
“Alright then, the Doc and I will get together and draw up a few plans for how we’ll work out the logistics and take it from there. If there’s nothing else, you all know where the door is.
There was a brief pause, before they started to move. Croft stood to the side as the rest filed out, though Zirayne stayed sitting. Thorev paused in the door, waiting for his superior officer as she looked at Nate.
“Thank you, Captain.”
“You’re welcome, Doctor.”
With that she joined Thorev and left, telling him about the energy readings she had seen on the bridge. Nate watched her go, then turned back to his right-hand woman. As the person who’d pressed for the briefing now, she’d been oddly quiet.
“Something to add, Zira?” he asked, using the nickname he knew she hated to get a rise out of her. Her face remained impassive. The moment of silence stretched out, but he was in no rush to fill it—knowing that was her usual ploy.
“I get it now,” she said finally.
“Get what?”
“Why you took this job.”
“For the benefit of science?”
Zirayne scoffed. “Doctor Croft.”
He frowned. “What about her?”
A faint smile curled the corners of her lips. “She’s just your type, you’d never say no to such a damsel being in distress.”
He opened his mouth to tell her she was being crazy. Yes, Rachel Croft was a beautiful woman, very sharp too (‘doctor’ wasn’t just an honorific title, she had two PhDs), her dedication to her cause and her assistant were both qualities he admired, respected and understood, when they’d first met her passion for what she was trying to do was almost infectious, and in the few rare moments he’d managed to distract her from her work and actually speak to her as another sentient being, she had proven to have a subtle sense of humour...
“Crap,” was all that came out of his mouth.
“Thought as much,” she stated, her smile growing. “Why else would you agree to such an insane job?”
“I swear, Zira, that wasn’t the reason I took it on. I do believe in what she is trying to do. Something unexplainable happened out here and no one seems willing to try and figure out what or how.”
“Just keep telling yourself that, but this is a clearly a case of the little head overruling the big head.”
“Hey!”
Zirayne let slip a rare laugh. He’d always liked it, not that he heard it very often. But as quickly as it started it ended.
“I admit, she has an interesting task ahead of her, but do you think that we can really make much headway when a dedicated Starfleet research vessel couldn’t?”
He sighed heavily. “I don’t know. We can at least give her a couple of months to sample the dirt, take some scans, and see for herself that this could just be one of those catastrophic wonders of space that don’t really have an explanation. But she does need to do it for herself—I don’t think she’ll let it go if she doesn’t.”
She nodded. “Agreed,” she said simply, then rose from her seat. “I best get back to the bridge and see about running some cursory scans of the Cluster.”
“Sounds good, Zirayne.”
The Boslic strolled out, leaving him alone for a moment, mulling over his sudden realisation and questioning whether or not he had taken the job just because of Croft.
* * * * *
The Kada-Mos was a short-range scout ship, intended to carry out preliminary reconnaissance of an area to see if a full-fledged cruiser was needed for a more thorough investigation, as such she was a compact design to minimise her sensor silhouette—her greatest defence was to avoid being detected in the first place. The scout had only five decks, cargo and fuel stores at the bottom, the reactor room and most other ship systems on the second, most of the crew quarters (including Aean’s own) and support facilities on the middle deck, officer accommodation and the control room on the fourth, whilst the top deck was almost all sensors.
Aean was stuck in the middle of the ship, the decks above and below had been compromised, whilst there were many other sections on the third deck that were also sealed to preserve life. She could only hope that there were Servicemen and women alive in other areas, who could do something to save them all. But as tightly as she clung onto that hope, part of her had a terrible feeling that there was no one else. She was torn, between wanting to believe that others were able to do their duty and see to their rescue and the prospect that there was no one else who could help her—that it was up to her to save herself and anyone else who might still be alive.
What should I do? she asked her ancestors, seeking guidance from all those that came before her. With no clear idea of what she could, or needed to, do she’d retreated back to her quarters—after covering the body in the corridor with her bunkmate’s blanket. Tela would’ve been in sensor analysis when the ship had been…what? Attacked? Battered by some kind of storm? She didn’t know anything, couldn’t do anything.
She felt tears welling up once again.
“Stop it,” she told herself. “Make a plan and stick to it.”
It was one of her mother’s guiding principles, even making a bad decision was better than making none at all. Taking that to heart, she took in several deep breathes then pulled herself to her feet once more. Given what had happened so far, she would be better served by believing in the worst case scenario: everyone else was either dead or any other survivors were trapped elsewhere and unable to do anything to help the crew. She could get into a few compartments, though hadn’t really tried to see just how many she could gain access too.
There was the crew’s communications room on the left side of deck three, from which the technicians and specialists could maintain contact with their families back on Tau’a. If she could get there then she could at least see in the array was able to send out a signal of some kind, even a weak one—something that would allow her to call out for help.
It was worth a shot.
She dressed in her uniform; it would help keep her warmer than her nightwear as well as reassure her as she made her way through the silent ship. She grabbed the torch she kept in her bedside table, though her eyesight wasn’t inhibited by the darkness if she needed to carry out any repairs she’d prefer to work with a light source, and the small toolkit her mother had given her before she’d shipped out, slipping them both onto her belt. The simple action of pulling on her uniform made her feel surer of her decision, she was doing her duty.
Stepping back into the corridor, she headed in the opposite direction of the body, remembering what rooms she found that were open and the ones that were sealed. When she’d learned of her posting, she’d made sure to memorise the ship schematics and deck plans, so as she moved through the murky hallways she had a picture in her mind of just where the damage was. If it was even half as bad as her mind was making it out to be, she was lucky the ship hadn’t been completely obliterated.
Her progress was slow, hampered by far too many closed doors. Fortunately, she didn’t find any more bodies of her shipmates—she wasn’t she she’d be able to cope with that, knowing that her first would stick with her forevermore. Turning into a corridor, an emergency hatch had slammed shut at the far end, just ten meters behind which was the comm room. The two cabins nearest her opened without a problem, inside one she spotted an old data terminal and a diagnostics interface (obviously a pet project someone was undertaking), however after those rooms the others nearer the hatch were all secured.
Aean’s best means of getting to the comm room was impassable, just like all the other options. She looked back at the empty cabin with the old terminal, which far more comprehensive than the basic desktop computer that came as standard. Depending on who had been working on it, what they were trying to do and how far they’d gotten, it might give her a shot of accessing the ship’s systems if she could patch it in and power it up.
“I need an energy source,” she told herself, her whisper echoing down the vacant corridors. Her aim was still the same, access the communications array and call for help, but now she had a few extra objectives to complete before she could do so. She’d need something to power it up, only then could she see if it would do what she needed it too. There was a lot of work she needed to do, so she had no time to stand around and fret about what she couldn’t do.
Make a plan and stick to it, she repeated over and over as she began a more thorough search of all the quarters and rooms she’d been able to access.
* * * * *
I like where this is going. My first thought about what happened to those systems, of course, is a Doomsday Machine scenario. However, anything could have happened.
I like a mystery and this is already proving to be a great one. I like Dr. Croft (a descendant of Laura Croft, the explorer, perhaps?) and the Captain as well. He reminds me of a somewhat more level-headed Malcolm Reynolds. And what of Aean and her seemingly deserted ship? It certainly adds a spooky element to this tale but I suspect this thread relates to the larger tale and the puzzle which has absorbed Croft. More, please!
Glad you're all enjoying it. Decided this will be a piece of therapy for me, the more I can focus and concentrate on writing the story the less time I'll have to think about going to the fridge and breaking the diet yet again, lol.
Wonderful stuff! The revelation of Croft's mysterious mission didn't disappoint. What the hell could completely alter not only the biosphere of dozens of planets and moons, but the metallurgical constituents of their crusts as well? And now there's anomalous energy readings flitting about...
And what of poor, trapped Aean? How might she escape, and where to?
Keep it up!
And what of poor, trapped Aean? How might she escape, and where to?
Keep it up!
Apologises for the delay in getting the next chapter up, was full of the cold last week so was too drained to do much of anything. Am hoping to get a chapter done a week so the next instalment is for last week and I'll set to work on the one for this week, it'll keep me out of trouble.
Chapter 3
Thorev always hated EVA. He always found the suits tight across his shoulders and chest (not to mention the way they rode up lower down), whilst he had to keep his antennae tucked close to his scalp in order to get the helmet on, but given the conditions they were to face on the planets of Cluster then there was no way he, or any of the others onboard the Eclipse, could survive without them, so he had to grin and bear it.
Before they’d reached the first system, it had been decided that each system would be named after the ancient Greek alphabet, from Alpha through to Eta, so that everything could be organised in a methodical manner, which meant they were standing on the surface of Alpha III. Four years ago he had stood on the very same spot, but where once there had been thick orange foliage and red moss in place of grass there was nothing but grey rock. He remembered the air had had a scent similar to cinnamon, whilst four-winged birds had squawked high in the sky above him. All he could smell now was his own perspiration and above him was an unspoilt view of stars. It wasn’t just the life on the surface, or the minerals underground that were gone, the planet had no atmosphere left at all. He was at a loss for what could’ve caused such massive damage in just four years.
“Ready,” came the deep voice though his suits comlink.
He turned and looked over at his teammate, Telak. Of all the Eclipse’s crew, he was the one Thorev hadn’t spent much time with—not for the lack of trying. He’d asked the crew about the Romulan, but they had provided few details about him though he couldn’t tell if that was to protect his privacy or that they didn’t know much about him. As well as Thorev’s two degrees in planetary geology he also had one in archaeology and was an amateur sociologist, so enjoyed studying other species. Though his knowledge of the more intricate elements of Romulan culture was limited, he did understand there was a taboo about tattoos which presented a great many questions about the engineer. During the rare times he’d seen Telak, he’d been mesmerised by the lines, swirls and patterns he could see on his head, neck and arms (all the skin he typically exposed), which made him wonder just how extensive the body art was.
Just like his first time on Alpha III, they had split up into smaller teams to retrieve core samples. They’d chosen the same locations as before, to ensure they could as accurately compare like-for-like, knowing what they’d found in the location once before they could see just how different things now were. He and Telak were working together, whilst Commander Croft and Jossa were at the second site, the two Eclipse crew were apparently both knowledgeable on the equipment needed for collecting the samples.
“Already?” he asked, moving closer to ensure it was set up properly.
“It’s simpler to what I’m used to.”
Thorev gave it a quick once over then looked at his companion. “You worked with core samplers before?”
“A lifetime ago,” was his only reply, picking up the control panel and starting it up.
As much as he wanted to press the topic, to discover more about the engineer, he left it alone. He may have liked to become friendly but there was nothing that said Telak wanted the same. Instead, he pulled out his tricorder to run a quick scan before they got started, wanting to double check just how far down they had gone before, to ensure that they could get as accurate a comparison as possible.
His scanner swept through the rock, showing nothing more than the basic elements they’d detected from orbit. Where they’d once found great deposits of dilithium crystals, there was nothing but crumbling rock. He frowned as he looked at the small screen. “Where we once found...” he muttered to himself.
“What have you found?”
“Nothing.”
“We saw nothing on our sensors before,” Telak pointed out.
He spun back to his teammate, whose piercing green eyes were fixed on him, making his flattened antennae quiver. “I know, but I’m not picking up anything else. There’s no evidence any core sample has ever been collected at these co-ordinates.”
“Seismic activity could’ve obscured the sample sites.”
“There are no fault lines or evidence of any kind of tremors in a six hundred kilometre radius,” he told the Romulan excitedly. He didn’t know what his discovery meant, but it was another piece of the puzzle, hopefully something that might help point them in the direction on an answer.
Like Croft, he too had wanted answers to the mystery of what had happened in the Cluster, though was pacing himself somewhat better than she was. During the year he’d served with her on the Lancelot he knew she was an ‘all or nothing’ sort of person, once she focused in on something then she put her heart and soul into it. He also knew just how hard she had taken the loss of Rhaiell, though she had never as said as much, he knew her well enough to know that the loss of the ensign weighed heavily on her. He had mourned the loss of the young woman, she’d been very personable and instantly likeable, offering her help at every opportunity—he’d known more than a few newly commissioned officers who threw their weight around far too much—and had seen the sister-like bond that had formed between her and Croft.
“Team one to team two.”
“Is this about the sample points, Commander,” he replied, old habits dying hard.
“Well that answers that question.” He could hear the smile in her voice. “I’m getting no trace of them, is it the same for you?”
“Exactly the same here, sir, there’s no sign that we ever drilled into the surface.”
“Do we proceed?” asked Telak.
“Yes, collect your new sample then pack up.”
“Understood. We’ll see you back on the Eclipse. Thorev out.”
He looked at the Romulan gave him a nod. With one tap of a gloved finger the drilling apparatus came to life and set to work. It would take some time for them to get what they came for, so he kept his tricorder open and continued to scan, collecting as much information as he could. He left Telak to monitor the drill as he retrieved his case and collected a few small containers of soil, which looked more like rock dust than anything capable of supporting life—though there could be micro-organisms present, which would mean that the planet wasn’t as dead as it seemed.
With his beakers sealed and labelled, he set them back in the case and closed it up. He cast a glance over at the engineer, whose back was to Thorev, and saw him hunch and rotate his shoulders.
“Everything alright?” he asked through their private comlink.
Telak turned so he could look behind him, realising he’d been caught. “Nothing, just these suits.”
“Damned uncomfortable,” he finished with a smile.
“Yes,” he replied simply.
“I know just what you mean, you’d think whoever designed these would try to make sure they didn’t ride up or chafe.”
“Believe me, Romulan suits are worse.”
“Plenty of room in the shoulders but not much else?”
He heard a throaty chuckle. “Something like that.”
Thorev grinned to himself, pleased to have made even the smallest of inroads with Telak. He set the nearly empty case back with the rest of their equipment, without any plants or water courses to collect from there wasn’t much more he needed it for. As he straightened up he heard the control tablet chirp.
“We’re almost there.”
Once they reached the required depth, the drill was deactivated and the pair began working steadily to recover the core sample. It was delicate work as they needed to ensure that what they collected remained intact as it was extracted and brought up to the surface, so wasn’t something that could be rushed. Telak definitely knew what he was doing without being asked, which made Thorev wonder if he worked as a geological surveyor or mining prospector before. He pushed thoughts about his teammates past to the side and concentrated on what they were doing.
Their progress was slow, the most time consuming element was winching the cylinder back to the surface, but once it emerged they laid it on the ground and Thorev ran a quick scan. No radioactive or chemical hazards, though given how barren the planet now was that wasn’t unexpected—in fact he’d have been thrilled if there was something untoward about it (that would be something they could work with).
“We’re good here,” he told his teammate.
Telak immediately set to work dismantling the rig. Thorev ensured the cylinder was secure before lending him a hand. The apparatus wasn’t Starfleet issue but straightforward to work with and didn’t take long to take apart.
“Do you have much experience with mineralogy?” he asked, binding the legs of the tripod together.
The Romulan slowly looked up at him. “Some,” was all he said, before packing away the sonic drill.
He was definitely the toughest person he’d tried to speak too, but that just made Thorev all the more interested in him; a Romulan who very clearly flaunted his disdain over an ingrained social taboo, who may have worked in the mining industry before, now living and working onboard a Federation-registered ship as a certified engineer. It was a story he wanted to find out more about, that much was for sure; after all they did still have another seven months together.
* * * * *
On the portside of A Deck, right next to the bridge, was a room that was used for monitoring and maintenance of the Eclipse’s communications and sensor arrays, known to all those onboard simply as comm-scan. Seeing as how the bridge stations could handle all the routine operations of all of their routine functions easily, then it wasn’t used very often—except in rare occasions that more detailed sensor analysis was needed, like now.
Kell sat at the larger of the two consoles in the room, every monitor in front of her was filled with information: some displayed the current sensor feed, others showed the results of the two previous Starfleet ventures to the region, a pair showed the progress of the teams on the surface, but most had everything they’d collected on the energy field a few days earlier. It wasn’t very often she would be called upon for such work and she was relishing the opportunity to get her teeth into it. Or she had when she started, but after two days of looking at little else her zeal was beginning to wan.
They just didn’t have enough on the energy to make any headway; all she could do was make educated guesses based on anything that might be in the slightest way similar—not that there was much. Before arriving at Alpha system, Doctor Croft had helped out as much as she could but even she wasn’t coming up with anything concrete. The particles were unknown, the background radiation was of a type the computer had no records for, and as far as their sensors could tell it hadn’t done anything.
Croft was right, there was nothing like it in the previous expeditions, even the most recent, so it may well have been an unknown phenomenon that only happened in this region on very rare occasions, which meant they wouldn’t be getting anything more. Kell’s first feeling was that the energy had something to do with the mystery of the Cluster, but as far as she could tell it was localised to a small patch of empty space—of course it had been so weak when they first detected it that they were only aware of it on a small scale, it could’ve been far greater—and the energy had done nothing to the space it appeared in, or the Eclipse as she passed through where the energy field had been. Since that was the case, she put the brakes on her theory and instead focused on the actual analysis.
Without much else to go on, she hypothesised that it was energy released from a layer of subspace, which would explain how it seemed to vanish into nothing. She surmised that it could well be some form of proto-wormhole, given how it emerged and withdrew into subspace; if that was the case it might well never reappear near the Cluster again. She’d taken the idea to Croft, who’d looked over the results and agreed that was one possibility, though wanted her to keep on it for a while longer to see if anything more came of it. Kell was at a loss though, as they didn’t have a suitable probe to leave behind to carry out further scans, so all she had to work from were their logs and whatever the long-range sensors managed to pick up.
Behind her the door opened and she turned to see Zirayne step inside, her face as impassive as it always was but her eyes taking in everything in the room before flicking over each monitor. Kell had always been impressed by her way of immediately assessing a situation, so much so that she’d learnt to trust the Boslics instincts implicitly.
“Any success?” Zirayne asked only a few seconds after entering.
Kell shook her head. “Nothing substantial. We just don’t have enough data on the energy field or this region to make any kind of headway. All I can offer are theories, but we can’t even test them. Even Doctor Croft is baffled, so I don’t feel like a complete failure.”
“I can guarantee you, Kell, no one has ever thought of you as a ‘failure’.”
She gave a single humourless laugh. “My parents would disagree with you there.” As quickly as her parents came to mind she swept them aside. She’d not spoken to them since she’d left Trill, defying their plans for her to be Joined like they were, something that had never interested her—she wanted her life to be hers alone.
Zirayne shrugged. “Their loss.”
Despite herself, Kell felt a smile tug at her lips. “Yes...well...I’m not sure what more I can make of what we have,” she said, focusing back on her work once more.
The first mate crossed her arms and leaned against the bulkhead beside the large console. “You’re sure it had no effect on the ship.”
“I’ve run every scan and diagnostic we’ve got, all of them came back clear. The only other thing we could do would be a metallurgical analysis, but for that we’d need to run a series of quantum scans on a panel from the hull.”
“Would it be of benefit?”
“It might, even just to tell us that there is nothing unusual happening on the subatomic level.”
“Maybe we should see about doing it, just to cover all our bases.”
Kell smiled at the other woman. “I’d spoken to Telak and he’s already got the workshop set up for it, once he returns from the planet he was going to ask the Captain for some time to get what he needed from the hull.”
The Boslic chuckled softly. “I thought you’d already have it covered, I just have to ask these things—give the illusion of authority.”
“You do it so well.”
There was a pause as Zirayne looked at the original scan results from four years ago. “What do you make of all that?”
She looked back at it again, letting the information flow over her for a moment once more. “Their findings were truly spectacular. This system alone was an amazing find, but for have five others in such close proximity all rich with metals and minerals yet untouched is pretty hard to believe.”
“Maybe they weren’t untouched.”
“Everything Doctor Croft provided shows no signs of sentient life in the Cluster, even at a primitive stage, nor any indications that it’d been previously visited—of course that doesn’t account for any archaeological evidence, long-range sensors are only so effective.”
Zirayne frowned. “Of course, that raises the matter of what she didn’t include.”
“Given how focused she is about this, I’d say that she’s included everything that was connected to the Cluster—there aren’t any gaps that I can see.”
“Hmm,” she muttered, sounding unconvinced.
Kell turned to face her, her analysis put on hold for a moment. “Do you not trust Croft?”
“You sound surprised.”
“Everything she’s provided us checks out, both her and Thorev’s identities have been confirmed, and she seems genuinely obsessed with finding out what happened here.”
“Are you saying Starfleet never lies about things?”
“The Captain trusts her—he wouldn’t have taken a job like this if he didn’t.”
An odd look crossed her face but vanished as quickly as it appeared. “You know what he’s like, always wants to see the best in people. He doesn’t have any experience dealing with the cloak and dagger world of covert intelligence.”
“And you do?”
There was a beat of silence in which Zirayne seemed to bristle. Kell had never felt so uncomfortable in her life and made a mental note to never, ever, raise this topic of conversation with the first mate again. As always Zirayne never gave anything away, simply took a breath and carried on, glossing over the unwanted subject matter.
“I want you to keep an eye on what she does, make sure she isn’t sending out any disguised messages. If you get the chance, check her data for any signs it might’ve been falsified.”
Kell nodded quickly. “Sure thing. If I find anything I’ll let you know.”
Zirayne turned back to the door and left as quickly as she’d entered. When she was alone again, Kell slumped back in her chair, rubbing her temples. “Good going,” she muttered to herself.
Though she may have known the Boslic for four years, may have gotten on well with her and appreciated her work ethic, there was always something about the other woman that made Kell a little...unsettled at times. She didn’t know much about her, what she’d gone through or just how she was as well trained in her multitude of skills, but she was now left with the impression that she didn’t want to know.
* * * * *
Thorev always hated EVA. He always found the suits tight across his shoulders and chest (not to mention the way they rode up lower down), whilst he had to keep his antennae tucked close to his scalp in order to get the helmet on, but given the conditions they were to face on the planets of Cluster then there was no way he, or any of the others onboard the Eclipse, could survive without them, so he had to grin and bear it.
Before they’d reached the first system, it had been decided that each system would be named after the ancient Greek alphabet, from Alpha through to Eta, so that everything could be organised in a methodical manner, which meant they were standing on the surface of Alpha III. Four years ago he had stood on the very same spot, but where once there had been thick orange foliage and red moss in place of grass there was nothing but grey rock. He remembered the air had had a scent similar to cinnamon, whilst four-winged birds had squawked high in the sky above him. All he could smell now was his own perspiration and above him was an unspoilt view of stars. It wasn’t just the life on the surface, or the minerals underground that were gone, the planet had no atmosphere left at all. He was at a loss for what could’ve caused such massive damage in just four years.
“Ready,” came the deep voice though his suits comlink.
He turned and looked over at his teammate, Telak. Of all the Eclipse’s crew, he was the one Thorev hadn’t spent much time with—not for the lack of trying. He’d asked the crew about the Romulan, but they had provided few details about him though he couldn’t tell if that was to protect his privacy or that they didn’t know much about him. As well as Thorev’s two degrees in planetary geology he also had one in archaeology and was an amateur sociologist, so enjoyed studying other species. Though his knowledge of the more intricate elements of Romulan culture was limited, he did understand there was a taboo about tattoos which presented a great many questions about the engineer. During the rare times he’d seen Telak, he’d been mesmerised by the lines, swirls and patterns he could see on his head, neck and arms (all the skin he typically exposed), which made him wonder just how extensive the body art was.
Just like his first time on Alpha III, they had split up into smaller teams to retrieve core samples. They’d chosen the same locations as before, to ensure they could as accurately compare like-for-like, knowing what they’d found in the location once before they could see just how different things now were. He and Telak were working together, whilst Commander Croft and Jossa were at the second site, the two Eclipse crew were apparently both knowledgeable on the equipment needed for collecting the samples.
“Already?” he asked, moving closer to ensure it was set up properly.
“It’s simpler to what I’m used to.”
Thorev gave it a quick once over then looked at his companion. “You worked with core samplers before?”
“A lifetime ago,” was his only reply, picking up the control panel and starting it up.
As much as he wanted to press the topic, to discover more about the engineer, he left it alone. He may have liked to become friendly but there was nothing that said Telak wanted the same. Instead, he pulled out his tricorder to run a quick scan before they got started, wanting to double check just how far down they had gone before, to ensure that they could get as accurate a comparison as possible.
His scanner swept through the rock, showing nothing more than the basic elements they’d detected from orbit. Where they’d once found great deposits of dilithium crystals, there was nothing but crumbling rock. He frowned as he looked at the small screen. “Where we once found...” he muttered to himself.
“What have you found?”
“Nothing.”
“We saw nothing on our sensors before,” Telak pointed out.
He spun back to his teammate, whose piercing green eyes were fixed on him, making his flattened antennae quiver. “I know, but I’m not picking up anything else. There’s no evidence any core sample has ever been collected at these co-ordinates.”
“Seismic activity could’ve obscured the sample sites.”
“There are no fault lines or evidence of any kind of tremors in a six hundred kilometre radius,” he told the Romulan excitedly. He didn’t know what his discovery meant, but it was another piece of the puzzle, hopefully something that might help point them in the direction on an answer.
Like Croft, he too had wanted answers to the mystery of what had happened in the Cluster, though was pacing himself somewhat better than she was. During the year he’d served with her on the Lancelot he knew she was an ‘all or nothing’ sort of person, once she focused in on something then she put her heart and soul into it. He also knew just how hard she had taken the loss of Rhaiell, though she had never as said as much, he knew her well enough to know that the loss of the ensign weighed heavily on her. He had mourned the loss of the young woman, she’d been very personable and instantly likeable, offering her help at every opportunity—he’d known more than a few newly commissioned officers who threw their weight around far too much—and had seen the sister-like bond that had formed between her and Croft.
“Team one to team two.”
“Is this about the sample points, Commander,” he replied, old habits dying hard.
“Well that answers that question.” He could hear the smile in her voice. “I’m getting no trace of them, is it the same for you?”
“Exactly the same here, sir, there’s no sign that we ever drilled into the surface.”
“Do we proceed?” asked Telak.
“Yes, collect your new sample then pack up.”
“Understood. We’ll see you back on the Eclipse. Thorev out.”
He looked at the Romulan gave him a nod. With one tap of a gloved finger the drilling apparatus came to life and set to work. It would take some time for them to get what they came for, so he kept his tricorder open and continued to scan, collecting as much information as he could. He left Telak to monitor the drill as he retrieved his case and collected a few small containers of soil, which looked more like rock dust than anything capable of supporting life—though there could be micro-organisms present, which would mean that the planet wasn’t as dead as it seemed.
With his beakers sealed and labelled, he set them back in the case and closed it up. He cast a glance over at the engineer, whose back was to Thorev, and saw him hunch and rotate his shoulders.
“Everything alright?” he asked through their private comlink.
Telak turned so he could look behind him, realising he’d been caught. “Nothing, just these suits.”
“Damned uncomfortable,” he finished with a smile.
“Yes,” he replied simply.
“I know just what you mean, you’d think whoever designed these would try to make sure they didn’t ride up or chafe.”
“Believe me, Romulan suits are worse.”
“Plenty of room in the shoulders but not much else?”
He heard a throaty chuckle. “Something like that.”
Thorev grinned to himself, pleased to have made even the smallest of inroads with Telak. He set the nearly empty case back with the rest of their equipment, without any plants or water courses to collect from there wasn’t much more he needed it for. As he straightened up he heard the control tablet chirp.
“We’re almost there.”
Once they reached the required depth, the drill was deactivated and the pair began working steadily to recover the core sample. It was delicate work as they needed to ensure that what they collected remained intact as it was extracted and brought up to the surface, so wasn’t something that could be rushed. Telak definitely knew what he was doing without being asked, which made Thorev wonder if he worked as a geological surveyor or mining prospector before. He pushed thoughts about his teammates past to the side and concentrated on what they were doing.
Their progress was slow, the most time consuming element was winching the cylinder back to the surface, but once it emerged they laid it on the ground and Thorev ran a quick scan. No radioactive or chemical hazards, though given how barren the planet now was that wasn’t unexpected—in fact he’d have been thrilled if there was something untoward about it (that would be something they could work with).
“We’re good here,” he told his teammate.
Telak immediately set to work dismantling the rig. Thorev ensured the cylinder was secure before lending him a hand. The apparatus wasn’t Starfleet issue but straightforward to work with and didn’t take long to take apart.
“Do you have much experience with mineralogy?” he asked, binding the legs of the tripod together.
The Romulan slowly looked up at him. “Some,” was all he said, before packing away the sonic drill.
He was definitely the toughest person he’d tried to speak too, but that just made Thorev all the more interested in him; a Romulan who very clearly flaunted his disdain over an ingrained social taboo, who may have worked in the mining industry before, now living and working onboard a Federation-registered ship as a certified engineer. It was a story he wanted to find out more about, that much was for sure; after all they did still have another seven months together.
* * * * *
On the portside of A Deck, right next to the bridge, was a room that was used for monitoring and maintenance of the Eclipse’s communications and sensor arrays, known to all those onboard simply as comm-scan. Seeing as how the bridge stations could handle all the routine operations of all of their routine functions easily, then it wasn’t used very often—except in rare occasions that more detailed sensor analysis was needed, like now.
Kell sat at the larger of the two consoles in the room, every monitor in front of her was filled with information: some displayed the current sensor feed, others showed the results of the two previous Starfleet ventures to the region, a pair showed the progress of the teams on the surface, but most had everything they’d collected on the energy field a few days earlier. It wasn’t very often she would be called upon for such work and she was relishing the opportunity to get her teeth into it. Or she had when she started, but after two days of looking at little else her zeal was beginning to wan.
They just didn’t have enough on the energy to make any headway; all she could do was make educated guesses based on anything that might be in the slightest way similar—not that there was much. Before arriving at Alpha system, Doctor Croft had helped out as much as she could but even she wasn’t coming up with anything concrete. The particles were unknown, the background radiation was of a type the computer had no records for, and as far as their sensors could tell it hadn’t done anything.
Croft was right, there was nothing like it in the previous expeditions, even the most recent, so it may well have been an unknown phenomenon that only happened in this region on very rare occasions, which meant they wouldn’t be getting anything more. Kell’s first feeling was that the energy had something to do with the mystery of the Cluster, but as far as she could tell it was localised to a small patch of empty space—of course it had been so weak when they first detected it that they were only aware of it on a small scale, it could’ve been far greater—and the energy had done nothing to the space it appeared in, or the Eclipse as she passed through where the energy field had been. Since that was the case, she put the brakes on her theory and instead focused on the actual analysis.
Without much else to go on, she hypothesised that it was energy released from a layer of subspace, which would explain how it seemed to vanish into nothing. She surmised that it could well be some form of proto-wormhole, given how it emerged and withdrew into subspace; if that was the case it might well never reappear near the Cluster again. She’d taken the idea to Croft, who’d looked over the results and agreed that was one possibility, though wanted her to keep on it for a while longer to see if anything more came of it. Kell was at a loss though, as they didn’t have a suitable probe to leave behind to carry out further scans, so all she had to work from were their logs and whatever the long-range sensors managed to pick up.
Behind her the door opened and she turned to see Zirayne step inside, her face as impassive as it always was but her eyes taking in everything in the room before flicking over each monitor. Kell had always been impressed by her way of immediately assessing a situation, so much so that she’d learnt to trust the Boslics instincts implicitly.
“Any success?” Zirayne asked only a few seconds after entering.
Kell shook her head. “Nothing substantial. We just don’t have enough data on the energy field or this region to make any kind of headway. All I can offer are theories, but we can’t even test them. Even Doctor Croft is baffled, so I don’t feel like a complete failure.”
“I can guarantee you, Kell, no one has ever thought of you as a ‘failure’.”
She gave a single humourless laugh. “My parents would disagree with you there.” As quickly as her parents came to mind she swept them aside. She’d not spoken to them since she’d left Trill, defying their plans for her to be Joined like they were, something that had never interested her—she wanted her life to be hers alone.
Zirayne shrugged. “Their loss.”
Despite herself, Kell felt a smile tug at her lips. “Yes...well...I’m not sure what more I can make of what we have,” she said, focusing back on her work once more.
The first mate crossed her arms and leaned against the bulkhead beside the large console. “You’re sure it had no effect on the ship.”
“I’ve run every scan and diagnostic we’ve got, all of them came back clear. The only other thing we could do would be a metallurgical analysis, but for that we’d need to run a series of quantum scans on a panel from the hull.”
“Would it be of benefit?”
“It might, even just to tell us that there is nothing unusual happening on the subatomic level.”
“Maybe we should see about doing it, just to cover all our bases.”
Kell smiled at the other woman. “I’d spoken to Telak and he’s already got the workshop set up for it, once he returns from the planet he was going to ask the Captain for some time to get what he needed from the hull.”
The Boslic chuckled softly. “I thought you’d already have it covered, I just have to ask these things—give the illusion of authority.”
“You do it so well.”
There was a pause as Zirayne looked at the original scan results from four years ago. “What do you make of all that?”
She looked back at it again, letting the information flow over her for a moment once more. “Their findings were truly spectacular. This system alone was an amazing find, but for have five others in such close proximity all rich with metals and minerals yet untouched is pretty hard to believe.”
“Maybe they weren’t untouched.”
“Everything Doctor Croft provided shows no signs of sentient life in the Cluster, even at a primitive stage, nor any indications that it’d been previously visited—of course that doesn’t account for any archaeological evidence, long-range sensors are only so effective.”
Zirayne frowned. “Of course, that raises the matter of what she didn’t include.”
“Given how focused she is about this, I’d say that she’s included everything that was connected to the Cluster—there aren’t any gaps that I can see.”
“Hmm,” she muttered, sounding unconvinced.
Kell turned to face her, her analysis put on hold for a moment. “Do you not trust Croft?”
“You sound surprised.”
“Everything she’s provided us checks out, both her and Thorev’s identities have been confirmed, and she seems genuinely obsessed with finding out what happened here.”
“Are you saying Starfleet never lies about things?”
“The Captain trusts her—he wouldn’t have taken a job like this if he didn’t.”
An odd look crossed her face but vanished as quickly as it appeared. “You know what he’s like, always wants to see the best in people. He doesn’t have any experience dealing with the cloak and dagger world of covert intelligence.”
“And you do?”
There was a beat of silence in which Zirayne seemed to bristle. Kell had never felt so uncomfortable in her life and made a mental note to never, ever, raise this topic of conversation with the first mate again. As always Zirayne never gave anything away, simply took a breath and carried on, glossing over the unwanted subject matter.
“I want you to keep an eye on what she does, make sure she isn’t sending out any disguised messages. If you get the chance, check her data for any signs it might’ve been falsified.”
Kell nodded quickly. “Sure thing. If I find anything I’ll let you know.”
Zirayne turned back to the door and left as quickly as she’d entered. When she was alone again, Kell slumped back in her chair, rubbing her temples. “Good going,” she muttered to herself.
Though she may have known the Boslic for four years, may have gotten on well with her and appreciated her work ethic, there was always something about the other woman that made Kell a little...unsettled at times. She didn’t know much about her, what she’d gone through or just how she was as well trained in her multitude of skills, but she was now left with the impression that she didn’t want to know.
* * * * *
With each passing rotation drawing in a breath grew harder, which made Aean’s headaches worse and affected her concentration, making her already slow progress drag even more. The old console she’d discovered had been well repaired but still hadn’t been patched into the data network, which had been her first task—a fairly straightforward one, after all computers were her forte. Once she’d gotten that done, the next trick had been to find enough energy for her to actually do something to help her situation, which had been tough as all the main power lines had either been severed or damaged.
She’d managed to scrape together an energy cell and a few pieces of equipment with independent power sources that she could drain, after making a connection that would allow her to do so. Though that just let her power up the console and link in with the network, allowing her to see what she could and couldn’t gain access too. The list of what was unavailable was far longer than what was salvageable. At the top of the list of systems off-line was environmental, which meant that all she had to breath was whatever was sealed inside the small habitable section she’d found herself in, but that would dwindle with every breathe. She also couldn’t gain access to sensors, so still had no clue if there was anyone else onboard.
The one ray of light she had was that communications were still accessible. The array had sustained minor damage and wouldn’t be able to receive signals but could still transmit, that was if it had power. She’d spent almost three rotations bleeding power from anywhere she could find throughout the Kada-Mos, but still didn’t have enough to send a signal back to Tau’a. If she were to call for help, it wouldn’t get much further than the sextet of systems they’d been sent out to survey. If there were no inhabited planets or ships then her call for help would echo in the void of space long after she’d died from the lack of oxygen.
Make a plan and stick to it, her mother’s voice echoed in the back of her mind.
She shuddered in the cold, without environmental controls then the ship’s internals wouldn’t be heated leaving it at the mercy of the deep cold that surrounded the small scout ship. Pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders, she cupped her hands in front of her mouth and breathed on them, bending her stiff fingers to restore as much sensation to them as she could.
Her stomach growled, which echoed in the quiet room. She was about to enter her next feasting period, something all Tauans went through every eighty to ninety rotations. During these periods they would gorge themselves for hours, loading their bodies with enormous amounts of nutrients which would be digested, broken down and stored throughout their system for a slow release—it was how her species had survived famines as they’d developed, and cut out the wasting unnecessary time eating each day.
Of course, now with her next feasting period almost upon her she had to wonder what would kill her first: suffocation, freezing, or starvation?
She shook her head, her drooping ears flapping against the side of her head. “F...focus,” she stuttered with the cold, her lips dry and cracked.
There was no way for her to get more power, so she would have to make do with what she had, which meant a short range signal and hope that there was someone close enough to hear her. Even if no one did hear her, when the Service sent a rescue and recovery vessel to find them they would pick up her transmission and at least recover the bodies if nothing else. She may never get to see home, but at least she could ensure the crew received the appropriate funeral rites if nothing else.
With shivering fingers she tapped in the sequence for an emergency broadcast. The flickering display board chirped when the channel was open.
“This is the Tauan Interstellar Service scout vessel Kada-Mos, in need of immediate assistance. We have lost power and environmental systems. Please, if anyone can hear me, we need help.”
What to say had weighed upon her. She couldn’t waste power on too long a message, it needed to be concise and to the point, showing how bad things were and that they needed aid as soon as possible. As she played back her message, she could hear just how weak her voice was and couldn’t help but feel she needed to say something more, but just couldn’t think what else she could add.
The console dimmed again, remaining dark for several long seconds before flickering back to life. It wouldn’t last much longer, so it was now or never. She saved the message in the transmission buffer, set it to repeat every few minutes, then tapped the broadcast button.
That was it, her plan was finished. There was nothing left for her to do now but wait and see what happened next. Her heavy eyelids fluttered closed, but she struggled to keep them open, long enough to see the makeshift console cut out for the last time.
“Please...help,” she muttered to the empty room before her eyes closed.
* * * * *
Though the Eclipse was well automated, to the point that they didn’t need to have the bridge manned every hour of the day, Ro had decided to burn the midnight oil at the helm. After so long at warp, flying in a straight line, he relished the chance to pilot the courier at impulse—where she truly excelled. After Alpha III they were moving onto the next planet, checking out a couple of moons along the way. Though Doctor Croft would probably have wanted to visit them, they couldn’t stop off at every single moon, planet or asteroid in the Cluster, so she’d asked for some extensive scans.
Ro took that to mean low-orbit sweeps, which would allow them to thoroughly sweep both moons whilst also flexing his piloting skills once more. Thanks to the high-torque adjustment of the inertial dampeners no one onboard would feel a thing, not unless they were sitting next to him, and Captain Maguire gave him a lot of liberty when it came to flying—so long as he didn’t ‘scuff the paintwork’ then he was free to indulge himself.
Grinning from ear to ear, he pulled free of the second moons gravity well with a boost in speed propelling them towards the fourth planet. Part of him was glad for the five quiet months they’d had travelling to the Cluster, it’d allowed him to tweak and adjust the stabilisers, navcomp and control system to make the little ship more responsive than ever—the only way he could make it any better would be through a direct neural interface. He chuckled to himself as he wondered the likelihood of talking Maguire into that.
Though the Eclipse would reach their next planet within ninety minutes, no expeditions had been authorised until the morning, to give the teams time to rest us, as Croft and Thorev got to work in the lab with what was collected from their first stop. He did wonder if they would both beam down to the next planet or not, seeing as how they would be working on analysing what was brought back to him it made sense to split up and work independently (such as Thorev on the ground and Croft in the lab), which would mean they’d need another volunteer to help with the drilling and sampling equipment. Whilst he wasn’t any kind of expert, he’d read the manuals and could probably put it together and would definitely be a boon to getting the heavy gear carried around when on site.
He’d make his case for being on the next planet-bound team in the morning when they were having breakfast, unless of course Maguire planned on joining them—which was more than likely. Once he got them into orbit and started the series of scans that had been requested, he’d head for his cabin to get some sleep, if he wanted to convince the Captain to send him on the next team then he’d need to be well-rested.
A loud chirp from Kell’s ops board cut through the Rigellian metal that he always played when alone on the bridge. He glanced at the flashing indicator and saw they were receiving a communication signal. A deep frown dug into his bony brow. Where could they possibly be receiving any kind of transmission from? There was nothing out here.
Ro silenced the music the leaned over and opened the comm system. The monitor displayed the details; a short-range signal, very weak, audio only, with an alien carrier signal. He made sure the universal translator was patched in then opened the channel.
A soft hiss of static filtered through the speakers, before a faint voice could be heard, speaking a language he didn’t understand. But before the UT could translate the voice stopped. His frown deepened further. Slipping out of his seat he moved to Kell’s and took full control of communications. He studied the telemetry of the signal as the UT worked on what had been recorded, noting that it’s point of origin couldn’t be very far away, given how weak it was. The translation programme had just chirped confirmation as it completed its work, just as the frequency came alive again.
“...ellar...scout...Mos, in nee...f...have...power an...Please...help.”
Ro sat listening to the fizz of the channel, straining to hear if there was anything else. There was something about the voice, something so desperate and lost but earnest with a hint of hope, that it felt like a vice clamped around his heart. He didn’t know who it was sending out the distress call, but he knew that he needed to help them.
He slapped the intercom. “Captain to the bridge!”
* * * * *
“What?” the Captain barked as he stepped onto the dimly lit bridge. He smiled to himself as the snivelling helmsman sunk lower into his chair—he always enjoyed seeing the fearful reaction to his presence. Though hardly the most physically imposing person in the quadrant, he’d gotten to where he was through a lust for violence that few could match.
“We’re picking up a faint signal,” stated his sensor operator from one of the side consoles, her tone confident and assured; she was one of the few who had never flinched from him, which was what he liked about her—which made her special talents simply a bonus.
He slithered up to her and kept his tone low as he hissed, “What signal?”
She still gave no impression of being threatened by him, her jaw rising defiantly by just a few millimetres. “It’s coming from the other side of the cluster, where we encountered that alien ship.”
He felt his hackle rise, his yellow eyes narrowing as they bored into her, which saw her chin lower slightly—the most significant reaction he’d ever gotten from her. “You said there were no signs of life,” he pointed out.
“I said it didn’t look as though there were, the damage caused a lot of radiation and scattered a significant amount of bio-matter. An active life-sign or two could’ve been obscured.”
The Captain rested a calloused hand on handle of the long-bladed knife on his belt, his favourite of all the bladed weapons he owned which he sharpened daily. Whenever he drew it from its scabbard he never replaced it clean, all of those onboard knew that when that weapon was in his hand someone would end up losing either several pints of blood or their lives.
“Those survivors may come looking for us,” he began but was stopped when she scoffed.
“Their hull was severely compromised, there wouldn’t be much more left in the way of breathable air—especially if there was more than two survivors. If they’re not dead yet, they will be very soon.”
“I want to make sure,” he growled at her. “Helm!” he roared, making the pilot yelp. “Retrace out heading, warp seven.”
“Aye Captain.”
He focused back on the voluptuous sensor operator again, stepping up closer to her, keeping his hand on the weapon. “No more mistakes,” he whispered to her, every word dripping with menace. “You’d be wise to remember that, both on the bridge and with the Professor.”
The muscles in her jaw flexed. “Yes Captain,” she replied carefully, no doubt wanting to say something more—though wisely held her tongue.
“Good.”
With that, he turned on his heel and headed through the rear exit and back towards his quarters once more, hoping, for the sake of his bridge crew, that there were no other interruptions before the morning.
* * * * *
She’d managed to scrape together an energy cell and a few pieces of equipment with independent power sources that she could drain, after making a connection that would allow her to do so. Though that just let her power up the console and link in with the network, allowing her to see what she could and couldn’t gain access too. The list of what was unavailable was far longer than what was salvageable. At the top of the list of systems off-line was environmental, which meant that all she had to breath was whatever was sealed inside the small habitable section she’d found herself in, but that would dwindle with every breathe. She also couldn’t gain access to sensors, so still had no clue if there was anyone else onboard.
The one ray of light she had was that communications were still accessible. The array had sustained minor damage and wouldn’t be able to receive signals but could still transmit, that was if it had power. She’d spent almost three rotations bleeding power from anywhere she could find throughout the Kada-Mos, but still didn’t have enough to send a signal back to Tau’a. If she were to call for help, it wouldn’t get much further than the sextet of systems they’d been sent out to survey. If there were no inhabited planets or ships then her call for help would echo in the void of space long after she’d died from the lack of oxygen.
Make a plan and stick to it, her mother’s voice echoed in the back of her mind.
She shuddered in the cold, without environmental controls then the ship’s internals wouldn’t be heated leaving it at the mercy of the deep cold that surrounded the small scout ship. Pulling the blanket tighter around her shoulders, she cupped her hands in front of her mouth and breathed on them, bending her stiff fingers to restore as much sensation to them as she could.
Her stomach growled, which echoed in the quiet room. She was about to enter her next feasting period, something all Tauans went through every eighty to ninety rotations. During these periods they would gorge themselves for hours, loading their bodies with enormous amounts of nutrients which would be digested, broken down and stored throughout their system for a slow release—it was how her species had survived famines as they’d developed, and cut out the wasting unnecessary time eating each day.
Of course, now with her next feasting period almost upon her she had to wonder what would kill her first: suffocation, freezing, or starvation?
She shook her head, her drooping ears flapping against the side of her head. “F...focus,” she stuttered with the cold, her lips dry and cracked.
There was no way for her to get more power, so she would have to make do with what she had, which meant a short range signal and hope that there was someone close enough to hear her. Even if no one did hear her, when the Service sent a rescue and recovery vessel to find them they would pick up her transmission and at least recover the bodies if nothing else. She may never get to see home, but at least she could ensure the crew received the appropriate funeral rites if nothing else.
With shivering fingers she tapped in the sequence for an emergency broadcast. The flickering display board chirped when the channel was open.
“This is the Tauan Interstellar Service scout vessel Kada-Mos, in need of immediate assistance. We have lost power and environmental systems. Please, if anyone can hear me, we need help.”
What to say had weighed upon her. She couldn’t waste power on too long a message, it needed to be concise and to the point, showing how bad things were and that they needed aid as soon as possible. As she played back her message, she could hear just how weak her voice was and couldn’t help but feel she needed to say something more, but just couldn’t think what else she could add.
The console dimmed again, remaining dark for several long seconds before flickering back to life. It wouldn’t last much longer, so it was now or never. She saved the message in the transmission buffer, set it to repeat every few minutes, then tapped the broadcast button.
That was it, her plan was finished. There was nothing left for her to do now but wait and see what happened next. Her heavy eyelids fluttered closed, but she struggled to keep them open, long enough to see the makeshift console cut out for the last time.
“Please...help,” she muttered to the empty room before her eyes closed.
* * * * *
Though the Eclipse was well automated, to the point that they didn’t need to have the bridge manned every hour of the day, Ro had decided to burn the midnight oil at the helm. After so long at warp, flying in a straight line, he relished the chance to pilot the courier at impulse—where she truly excelled. After Alpha III they were moving onto the next planet, checking out a couple of moons along the way. Though Doctor Croft would probably have wanted to visit them, they couldn’t stop off at every single moon, planet or asteroid in the Cluster, so she’d asked for some extensive scans.
Ro took that to mean low-orbit sweeps, which would allow them to thoroughly sweep both moons whilst also flexing his piloting skills once more. Thanks to the high-torque adjustment of the inertial dampeners no one onboard would feel a thing, not unless they were sitting next to him, and Captain Maguire gave him a lot of liberty when it came to flying—so long as he didn’t ‘scuff the paintwork’ then he was free to indulge himself.
Grinning from ear to ear, he pulled free of the second moons gravity well with a boost in speed propelling them towards the fourth planet. Part of him was glad for the five quiet months they’d had travelling to the Cluster, it’d allowed him to tweak and adjust the stabilisers, navcomp and control system to make the little ship more responsive than ever—the only way he could make it any better would be through a direct neural interface. He chuckled to himself as he wondered the likelihood of talking Maguire into that.
Though the Eclipse would reach their next planet within ninety minutes, no expeditions had been authorised until the morning, to give the teams time to rest us, as Croft and Thorev got to work in the lab with what was collected from their first stop. He did wonder if they would both beam down to the next planet or not, seeing as how they would be working on analysing what was brought back to him it made sense to split up and work independently (such as Thorev on the ground and Croft in the lab), which would mean they’d need another volunteer to help with the drilling and sampling equipment. Whilst he wasn’t any kind of expert, he’d read the manuals and could probably put it together and would definitely be a boon to getting the heavy gear carried around when on site.
He’d make his case for being on the next planet-bound team in the morning when they were having breakfast, unless of course Maguire planned on joining them—which was more than likely. Once he got them into orbit and started the series of scans that had been requested, he’d head for his cabin to get some sleep, if he wanted to convince the Captain to send him on the next team then he’d need to be well-rested.
A loud chirp from Kell’s ops board cut through the Rigellian metal that he always played when alone on the bridge. He glanced at the flashing indicator and saw they were receiving a communication signal. A deep frown dug into his bony brow. Where could they possibly be receiving any kind of transmission from? There was nothing out here.
Ro silenced the music the leaned over and opened the comm system. The monitor displayed the details; a short-range signal, very weak, audio only, with an alien carrier signal. He made sure the universal translator was patched in then opened the channel.
A soft hiss of static filtered through the speakers, before a faint voice could be heard, speaking a language he didn’t understand. But before the UT could translate the voice stopped. His frown deepened further. Slipping out of his seat he moved to Kell’s and took full control of communications. He studied the telemetry of the signal as the UT worked on what had been recorded, noting that it’s point of origin couldn’t be very far away, given how weak it was. The translation programme had just chirped confirmation as it completed its work, just as the frequency came alive again.
“...ellar...scout...Mos, in nee...f...have...power an...Please...help.”
Ro sat listening to the fizz of the channel, straining to hear if there was anything else. There was something about the voice, something so desperate and lost but earnest with a hint of hope, that it felt like a vice clamped around his heart. He didn’t know who it was sending out the distress call, but he knew that he needed to help them.
He slapped the intercom. “Captain to the bridge!”
* * * * *
“What?” the Captain barked as he stepped onto the dimly lit bridge. He smiled to himself as the snivelling helmsman sunk lower into his chair—he always enjoyed seeing the fearful reaction to his presence. Though hardly the most physically imposing person in the quadrant, he’d gotten to where he was through a lust for violence that few could match.
“We’re picking up a faint signal,” stated his sensor operator from one of the side consoles, her tone confident and assured; she was one of the few who had never flinched from him, which was what he liked about her—which made her special talents simply a bonus.
He slithered up to her and kept his tone low as he hissed, “What signal?”
She still gave no impression of being threatened by him, her jaw rising defiantly by just a few millimetres. “It’s coming from the other side of the cluster, where we encountered that alien ship.”
He felt his hackle rise, his yellow eyes narrowing as they bored into her, which saw her chin lower slightly—the most significant reaction he’d ever gotten from her. “You said there were no signs of life,” he pointed out.
“I said it didn’t look as though there were, the damage caused a lot of radiation and scattered a significant amount of bio-matter. An active life-sign or two could’ve been obscured.”
The Captain rested a calloused hand on handle of the long-bladed knife on his belt, his favourite of all the bladed weapons he owned which he sharpened daily. Whenever he drew it from its scabbard he never replaced it clean, all of those onboard knew that when that weapon was in his hand someone would end up losing either several pints of blood or their lives.
“Those survivors may come looking for us,” he began but was stopped when she scoffed.
“Their hull was severely compromised, there wouldn’t be much more left in the way of breathable air—especially if there was more than two survivors. If they’re not dead yet, they will be very soon.”
“I want to make sure,” he growled at her. “Helm!” he roared, making the pilot yelp. “Retrace out heading, warp seven.”
“Aye Captain.”
He focused back on the voluptuous sensor operator again, stepping up closer to her, keeping his hand on the weapon. “No more mistakes,” he whispered to her, every word dripping with menace. “You’d be wise to remember that, both on the bridge and with the Professor.”
The muscles in her jaw flexed. “Yes Captain,” she replied carefully, no doubt wanting to say something more—though wisely held her tongue.
“Good.”
With that, he turned on his heel and headed through the rear exit and back towards his quarters once more, hoping, for the sake of his bridge crew, that there were no other interruptions before the morning.
* * * * *
Just realised my Engineer's name has changed from Talek to Telak, not sure how that happened but seeing as how I prefer the latter that's what it will remain--unless another typo slips by.
Wonderful stuff, and now the introduction of another ship, and a hostile one, to boot! Loving the little moments between the crew, like an Andorian trying to chat up a mysterious Romulan on a mineral survey.
Here's hoping Eclipse makes it in time to rescue the stalwart young Aean.
Here's hoping Eclipse makes it in time to rescue the stalwart young Aean.
