Alake Van Der Laun’s peaceful slumber was interrupted by the incessant buzzing of his morning alarm.

Coming quickly awake he rolled over to get up and promptly banged his head into the bulkhead.

“Aww dammit!” He cursed “Computer – Snooze!”

He rolled back and rubbed his forehead. That was the third time this week he’d down that.
On his last ship, the Saracen, the wall had been on the other side of the bed.

He lay still for a few more minutes then got up, padded over to bathroom to freshen up, then dressed into sweat pants and a t-shirt before heading down the ship’s small gym for his morning workout.

Van Der Luan was Forty-Two years old, but had spent his career in Security positions and strived to maintain a high level of physical fitness despite his age.

One hour and a punishing routine later he was back, the sweaty gear when into the laundry and he headed for the shower.

[Officers’ Wardroom]

Freshly scrubbed and in uniform Van Der Luan entered the Wardroom for breakfast. He ordered from for the replicator, taking his plate he approached the Captain’s table.

“Good morning sir” He greeted Streth and sat down. He and the Andorian had settled into a morning routine with a working breakfast before Alpha shift.

“Morning,” The Andorian was gruff and pre-raktajino, “We must be coming up on 1-SZ soon. Slept the whole night though, good to see no-one’s left us any nasty surprises.” Streth popped a slice of kret-hen omelette into his mouth, “We’ll need to run a full sweep of the outpost as soon as we’re in range.” He somehow contained the food as he chewed and spoke, “You had any experience with these Lookout Class stations before?”

“Not really, I recall we took some Engineers to do some repairs on one by the Neutral Zone, years ago, when I was on the Spatha. Only there for a day or so and I never went aboard it.

From memory, and looking over the specs we got with the mission briefing, they are not much bigger than this ship. Compact and sturdy, but as I say basically a stationary light-cruiser class ship. Same kind of facilities but obviously with upgraded sensors and communications systems.

How about you sir?” He started in on his bacon sandwich and the Steward brought round a fresh pot of Raktajino, made to Streth’s taste.

A wistful smile crossed Streth’s face as he poured coffee into the steaming mug, “Only heard stories.” The deep aroma had lifted his mood already, “They got thrown up quickly in the 2350s before the war. Not much to them, a few bunks, just enough to make things sort of comfortable for an extended stay. From what I know, people were rotated in and out kind of frequently.”

He finished his food, moving his plate aside, “I’m hoping command remembers that and we don’t get forgotten about out here. Been assigned to some out of the way places before, but this takes the cake.” Streth leaned back, “Damn, this coffee’s good. Care for some?”

“It is a little off the beaten track” Van Der Luan agreed “But Insectoids, Shape-Shifters, the Breen and whatever comes across the border for company I don’t think it will be boring.”

He took the offered pot and poured himself an expresso-sized measure of the potent brew. “Thank you.”

He looked up as O’Glynn entered, “Pull up a chair!” He waved the Talarian to an empty seat.

Kaksos had his doubts on the assignment sure but his age forced circumstances. Licking algae off of rocks to survive a Breen Prison had made his tough, but these days it was nice to have a less stressful day. “Aye, boredom is for those who think they’ve trained for it all. In this universe of Q beings, telepaths, higher intelligences, I’ve never run out of training to put myself through.” He finished settling into a seat, continuing as he pulled a ready set of silverware and napkin from his breast pocket…”Besides, we have an outpost to re-animate, that alone will take a year.”

“We’ve got our work cut out for us, that’s for sure.” Streth looked up towards the old Talarian, “I’m glad we’ve got your experience to count on when it comes to the Breen, Kaksos. I thought we’d seen the back of them after the war but well… Here we are. I know getting the outpost up and running is our first priority, but I can’t help but wonder, why Klavdia? What the hell do you think they’re up to this time?” Streth’s gaze drifted down in thought as he asked the last question.

“The usual Breen behavior” Van Der Luan responded over his coffee cup. “Pushing their borders, raiding for slaves, hijacking convoys and generally getting up to mischief.”

Kaksos added in, “Much more than mischief, they use misdirection, and hide in plain sight. One moment you’ve scheduled a summit on your homeworld, next moment six Breen Heavy Cruisers lay waste to Federation Headquarters. Even their mischief is a part of something greater. We will likely need far more than a lookout post if this sector is under their gaze.”

“I hope Command comes to the same realisation.” Streth mused, “You’d think after the Earth attack, we’d be out here with more muscle. Then again, what’s going on the Archanis Sector probably has us good and distracted.”

The Andorian’s combadge sounded, “Bridge to Captain Streth.”

“Go ahead.”

“We’re approaching outpost 1-SZ. ETA approximately thirty minutes.”

“Acknowledged. Begin a level 8 sensor sweep as soon as we’re in range.”

“Aye sir.” The channel closed.

Streth took a swig of coffee, “Better eat quick, gentlemen. Mister Van Der Luan, start prepping an away team to get over there once we’ve completed the sensor sweep. It should give us an indication of any Breen tampering. Kaksos, we could use your help analysing the sensor readings on the bridge.”

“Understood Sir” Van Der Luan acknowledged.

Kaksos stood bolt upright, the coffee in his ready thermos stocked. “Be right with you sir, there is much to go over. Hope you enjoy mind games.”

Streth snorted, rising from his chair, “Can’t say I’ve played a Breen mind game yet. Can’t say I want to.”

The door slid open and Olafsen entered just as the three were getting up.

“Morning Lieutenant” Van Der Laun gave the Security Chief a smile. “Get breakfast to go Christina, we’re coming up on the station, Captain wants us up on the Bridge early.”

“Good Morning Sirs, I’m late for the chit chat. I hate that.” Christina, didn’t really hate that, she was excited to see the station. She grabbed some sort of pastry looking thing and turned back for the door.

Moving towards the door, it opened again as N’Vea entered. “And good morning Doctor” Van Der Luan greeted the Chief Medical Officer. “You can come along too. Grab some breakfast and come up to the Bridge. We’re approaching the Station, we’d like you input on atmospheric conditions over there.”

“If you’re in need of a jumpstart, the raktajino’s good today.” Streth added to the two Lieutenants, “It’s going to be a long one.”

Kaksos smirked to himself and loaded up a second thermos of the proffered Raktajino. It wasn’t common knowledge yet, but Raktajino had an intoxicating effect to Talarians. Very uplifting, it made him almost giddy. He made his way out the door without further comment.

The Vulcan nodded, but declined to take any of the Raktajino, or breakfast. An early riser she slept very little, preferring to mediate early in the morning and then get into the Medical Bay to catch up on any reports, and run the limited amount of experiments that she was conducting on the small ship. Used to smaller working spaces she was able to accomplish quiet a lot of hard science despite the lack of proper laboratory facilities that she might have had access to on a Starbase or university.

“Thank you for the offer, I have ingested a sufficient number of calories for the next few hours,” Doctor N’Vea said nodding to the other senior staff as a form of salutations. The doctor made a mental note to mention proper work-life balance, and the idea that eating at a workstation was not the healthiest way to either eat or work. The last thing she needed was a rash of officers chocking on their food.

The group field out and made their way up to the Bridge and Briefing room.

Lieutenant Commander Walker sat there in the command chair of his ship, the Ambassador Class vessel by the name of USS Don S Davis, that was following alongside the USS Altai to their destination. He had every confidence in his crew, all well experienced and knew exactly where they were going, along with the standing orders from Walker of ‘Just follow her lead.’ Reason for this is because his attention was no where on the view screen or what was out there. Sure he’ll put his eyes on the listening station once he sees it, and sure he’ll go blabbering off about nostalgia as well, but no, his attention was solely on his Chief Petty Officer, Amanda Cooper. She had been one of the most reliable engineers on his team since he recruited her from the Starfleet Construction Yards at 40 Eridani A. She had been with him since he commanded the Crazy Horse, Excelsior Class vessel, going around evaluating stations and outposts, making whatever repairs and upgrades they can, least until the conflict with the Hunters of D’Ghor made him and his team have a ship change to the USS Don S Davis, the Senior Administration of Starfleet Corps of Engineers felt that a higher class vessel would be ‘more protective’ as they put it, and not only allow him to continue his job but also be considered as some sort of damage control. And it has worked for the most part, but now Starfleet has other concerns, thus why the USS Don S Davis, along with her expanded cargo bays full of supplies needed to get the Listening Station fully operational, was following the USS Altai. Orders were orders.

But let’s get back to the matter at hand…. “Are you certain about this, Chief?” Walker asked.

Chief Cooper stood there, staring at the view screen, getting a glimpse of the system that they were entering before turning her attention to him. She had dropped a bombshell on him, big time. She told her Commanding Officer that she wanted to transfer to the Listening Post, to be the Station’s Engineering Officer, to be the one who not only brings the station to full operations, but to also be the one who maintains it and keeps it that way. It was important for Starfleet, and she felt that it was her calling. Of course she didn’t tell him until just a few minutes ago. “I am certain, Commander. I had been thinking about this ever since we were given word that we would be departing from Starbase Twenty-Seven and come all the way out here to bring some old listening post back online. It’s what I have been looking for in my career. Sure it isn’t a Cardassian Space station, and I know I’ve had my hand in repairing and upgrading all those outposts and stations over the years, but this is different. This listening post, it is important and I intend to make it my job to keep it running to exactly what Starfleet expects. I am going to prove it to them, that some day, I can be a Master Chief Petty Officer of Starfleet. Unless of course I get some crazy battle field commission if the Breen were to invade or some crazy crap.” She smirked as she placed her hands on her hips, turning her attention back to the view screen.

Walker sighed heavily, disappointed that he was going to lose her but then again, he was somewhat proud of her. She was like family to him, and hearing her wanting to achieve such a big goal as that, he knew he couldn’t say ‘No’ to her. He would only be getting in the way of her goals. “All right then. I assume you already have everything packed?”

Amanda smiled and looked at him again, “Even got my personally owned Holosuit all packed away. Better than having no holodecks on this ship, and I have no doubt that a small listening post like that has any either.”

Walker nodded his head before pushing himself up from his chair. “Comms, what’s the time?”

“0805, sir.” Responded the Comms Officer.

“Alright. Please send a message to the USS Altai. Tell them I would like to speak to their Captain.” Like the good old naval tradition, whoever is in command, regardless of rank, is called the Captain. Certainly gives Walker a goal to achieve for…Captain…

{Engineering-ACEO office}

Pampo was fascinated by the assignment, but leveraging a promotion out of it was the finesse bonus prize. His work with Starfleet Intelligence was off books, his assignments strictly under the diplomatic banner, and his service path listed as OPS. Truth be told, Pampo hadn’t worked a day in OPS since the Academy. A darling of the diplomatic corps, and his connections running deep, his assignments had been softballs. Now, he had a chance for a real assignment, doing the work he fantasized about.

“If I understand you Captain Orod, I’m to be your man on the inside… ” Pampo stroked his beard, staring at the Andorian from Starfleet Intelligence, “…Such discretion will require a higher access to system resources to cover my tracks adequately.”

Orod snorted, “Lieutenant is plenty for what we need. Make sure they toe the line, root out undesirables, report malfeasance. You want a full Pip on your collar? A tour out here will make it happen, but payment comes after the job is done.”

He took the loss with grace, quickly shifting topics, “I may find my silver tongue at rest, with nobody out here, they may come to rely on my rather non-formidable mechanics cover story.”

Orod was getting impatient, “You’ve managed to pass muster so far, this isn’t an assignment for the Elite, I have confidence you can make a character work for the setting.”

As he was getting nothing, Pampo pressed for some kind of silver lining to this assignment. “I have no experience with the Breen, with the mission briefs from 31, I’d stay relevant to them in many ways.” Another side effect of this was once you gained access it was never revoked, the person was silenced if they posed a threat.

Orod actually seemed to agree, he considered for a moment, “We can’t acknowledge how we received the information naturally, but that’s reasonable. Take a runabout from Don Davis, outfit it for long range travel, ask the captain to prep it for field work as well. I’ll have diplomatic corps sanction it as a state vehicle. On your reconnaissance runs you’ll meet with our field agents. If that is all… there is much to do.”

Managing not to smile, “No sir, we have outlined the mission well. I believe we are due within moments, see to my transfer orders then. I accept.”

Just before the comm link with the USS Altai was established, one of his team members approached him and handed him a PADD. Walker looked it over, seeing it was requisition orders for a runabout, as well as modification requests. Walker wasn’t going to complain about having one of his ship’s runabouts being requisitioned or modified, not like other Captains might. Being a Senior Officer of Starfleet Corps of Engineers, in command of a ship modified with extra cargo space to do repair and upgrade just about anything, he can easily get that runabout replaced without even asking. Walker would just place his thumb print right on the reader, acknowledging the requisition and modification request of one of his runabouts, practically handing it over and approving the modifications that one of his teams will take care of now that they got the approval. Walker returned the PADD to the officer and nodded his head to them before returning his attention to the view screen.

In the Fabrication bay of the Don S Davis, A trigger phrase activated the outfitting of the State Vessel, a variant of the Danube designed for spy work. Stealth systems and composite alloys twisted into the standard outfitted structure, a miniaturized matter/antimatter reactor and upgraded weapons and shields. The intelligence field package came with its own small armory of small arms and tricky tricks along with a restricted AI for systems access. Folded into any space possible, the standard issue Danube with a prominent UFP logo was all that greeted the eye.

{NX-0145: Prydwen}

Pampo admired the ingenuity of the craft, running his hands over the frame. He had wanted his own for so long, and now he had it. It could fly forever if he stopped once in a while to keep it fueled. His ambition anchored him to tradition but a part of him knew his heart belonged to no organization. Halanans are of two spirits, Hasskin was his counterpart and though he slept most of the day, Pampo wondered if the call to adventure was his alternate self working into the forefront.

He decided to commit to this new path. He was certain this was his choice, and the right thing to do. This ship was proof, he had gotten his reward, and the promotion from this simple assignment would vault him into the next circle of the game. A simple matter of life and limb, the usual stakes. He boarded the vessel, asked for clearance and flew under his own power out of the bay.

The viewscreen was filled with a vast debris field, endless miles of frozen lifeless rock, everything from pebbles, boulders and bigger chunks, all the way up to some the size of mountains with great jagged cliffs of strata and ice. The asteroid vista stretched to the far horizons, yet unlike many such fields this one was still, totally still. There was no movement, no tumbling rolling, grinding maelstrom. These asteroids simple hung there, frozen in time and motion as much as they were soaked in the dead cold of space.

“According to the chart, several hundred billion years ago there was probably a couple of small proto-planets here” Van Der Luan commented, looking over the data on a PaDD. “No star to exert gravity so the remains just hang here. Which I suppose is why the Station was placed in there and why it hasn’t been ground up.

How much further Master Chief?” He called to the Helm

“I’ve got a lock on its beacon, should be about another hundred and thirty kilometers sir” Master Chief McQueen replied from the helm.

“Incoming message from the Don S Davis sir” The duty Operations officer informed Streth.

In the centre chair, the Andorian had been mulling over the spatial geometric readouts as the Altai began its final approach to Outpost 1-SZ. His antennae twitched as the raktajino from breakfast began to fully take hold. He was glad they weren’t alone, for now. The Ambassador Class USS Don S. Davis had dropped out of warp not far from their position, following on their heading as they manoeuvred their way through the dense sea of rocks. Back at Starbase 382 Streth had expressed his concerns to command about the outpost and its suitability as a base. Under equipped for a full scale renovation project, the Altai was just too small to carry the kind of materials needed for hull reinforcement works, environmental systems overhaul and the host of other engineering concerns that no doubt plagued the decrepit old station.

He had even made the suggestion of constructing a new base in the area, to which Captain Forester had been less then receptive. Something about not wanting to provoke the Breen. If anything, Streth thought, the Breen were the only ones doing the provoking here. The meeting had not been completely fruitless, however. The Starfleet Corps of Engineers to assist with the project, and Streth certainly felt safer for it as the corps’ very own Lieutenant Commander Kevin Walker appeared on the main viewer.

“Commander, good morning.” Streth leaned forward, happy to see his more bearded, gold shirted human counterpart. “Trust you’ve had an uneventful journey?”

Walker smiled, even chuckled a little at his counterpart’s question. “Good morning to you too, Commander. And it has been uneventful since the moment my crew and I left Starbase Twenty-Seven. I tell you, we are very eager to get started. We were quite eager to get away from being ‘damage control’ back there, but let me tell you. Repairing and upgrading stations is one thing. But reviving and rejuvenating a station that was built almost fifty years or so ago is our inner child’s dream coming true. Most of us build models of old crafts made by Starfleet back in the old days. But actually being inside one? Oh…we are going to have fun.” He then let out a sigh. “As the saying goes, we do not build them like we used to, and that’s a sad hard fact.”

Walker then cleared his throat. “Before I get lost too much in nostalgia and go on another rampart.” He glanced over to Amanda who glanced back at him and nodded her head. He let out yet another sigh with a slight shrug of ‘Alright, fine.’ “Commander. I have a crew member who wishes to transfer over to the station once we get it up and running again. She’s a fine engineer, one of my best in my team, who’s been with me since I took command of the Crazy Horse, which was about…” He paused to think just for a second, “almost ten years ago in fact. And she’s stuck around with me even when we transferred over to the Don S Davis almost five years ago. She’s given me enough reason as to why she wishes to transfer over, and I am sadden to see her go but I won’t stop her.” He then turned his head towards Amanda before looking back at Streth. “Commander, this is Chief Petty Officer Amanda Cooper. The woman I was speaking about. She wishes to be the engineer who not only helps bring the listening post to life but also be the one who keeps it together. If you’ll have her.”

“Glad to hear all’s well.” Streth said, heartened by the engineer’s clear passion for his work. The Corps of Engineers surely were a special breed, with an innate affinity for the technology they knew from the schematics up. Knowledge of the Lookout Class stations bordered on the arcane, but Walker spoke as if recalling memories of an old friend.

“Someone from the Corps of Engineers would be a huge asset.” Streth didn’t take long to consider Walker’s query, “And once the Don S. Davis is gone we could certainly use all the help we can get.”

Still, he felt like there was something more here. To have been serving together for the better part of a decade, only to transfer to what was in Streth’s mind a dusty old relic of a station?

He decided against prying further, merely asking, “I can’t help but feel a bit of surprised at the enthusiasm.” He addressed Cooper directly, “It’s a long way from home, and most of us on the Altai weren’t exactly chomping at the bit for this assignment. Surely serving on an engineering would be far more engaging than station maintenance? ”

Amanda crossed her arms over her chest and smiled, figuring that question would come up. “No offense to Commander Walker,” She said as she looked at him before looking back at Streth. “But I need to step out of the shadow and start placing my own achievements. I don’t know about you officer types, but I have a goal of my own to reach before I get too old. Besides if the Breen do decide to show up, they’ll get more than a wrench thrown at their helmets.” She smirked.

Van Der Luan coughed and turned his head away to cover a smile at that comment, taking an instant liking to the feisty Chief and recalling it was only a couple of years ago he’d been a non-com himself.

Streth merely raised an eyebrow, “Then make your preparations, Chief. With Commander Walker’s approval, we’ll process your transfer to the Altai immediately.” He looked to the Commander, sensing his disappointment. Streth respected the man’s willingness to accommodate his crew’s best interests.

Walker nodded his head, “I will have the paperwork forwarded to you shortly, Commander. Don S Davis out.” With that last comment, the coms officer ended the transmission, returning the screen back to the system before them, along with Altai to the right of their view screen. Walker then looked at Cooper.

Amanda smiled, “You don’t have to look so glum. I was going to leave at some point.”

Walker nodded his head again. “I know. I will admit that I am sad to see you go. You’re one of my finest. But I am proud that you are ready to take on such large responsibilities. We will be around for a while so, if you ever need anything.”

“I know exactly who to ask.” Amanda winked. “I’m going to go and get my bags. Thank you, Kevin.”

Walker then reached down and grabbed the padd from his seat that she had given to him when she announced she was going to transfer. He simply just tapped where his name would go and then pressed his thumb into the thumb print scanner to acknowledge that he approved the transfer. Now he just needs to bring it to Commander Streth.

[Briefing Room]

Located to the rear of the Bridge and half a deck down, the Bridge view screen and audio was repeated on the Briefing Room’s screen for the assembled senior staff.

Beck sat there at the table, glancing at the screen every now and then as it played exactly what was showing on the view screen on the Bridge, as well as what was being said on the Bridge. He would return his attention to the various data PADDs he had on the table in front of him. A couple small ones and a couple large ones, going over one by one as he was not only keeping up with the reports coming from Main Engineering, but also going over the needs to make the listening post operational and to maintain it.

Of course he knew the USS Don S Davis had all the supplies needed to do just that, along with extra supplies to assist in the maintenance for both the listening post and the Altai, but still, Beck liked keeping himself informed of anything and everything engineering related.

But Beck was also going over some readings on the warp engines, the EPS grid and the like. He was striving to achieve the best power conversion level possible on any Starfleet vessel in history. Course that is the most difficult and probably almost impossible task to ever do, but he was running a simulation on one of the larger data PADDs and was simply adjusting settings here and there, modifying this and that and seeing where the power conversion levels end up at.

“Oh come on ye damn infernal contraption. A know whit A am doin is richt, show me whit A want tae see, no whit ye damn well think.” He said out loud right at the PADD he was holding that showed him a simulation conclusion that did not show him the power conversion level that he liked.

His accent wasn’t too thick, he had taken a number of English courses back in school before the Academy, but it wasn’t something that was going to go away. He cursed under his breath and reset the simulation on the pad, adjusting more settings.

“A know whit A want is richt, sae ye better give me whit A want, computer. Or A’ll tak ye apart, piece bi piece.” He said, as he merely talked to himself.

The door to the Briefing Room slid open and the slender Vulcan Chief Medical Officer entered. Lieutenant N’Vea was reviewing data on a PADD and sat down with a simple nod to her fellow officer. She was silent for a moment, focused on the work, and then having completed the task she set the PADD down and turned her attention to the man, studying him. Finally after a moment of observation she spoke up, in the distinctive flat tone of a Vulcan, “Lieutenant Beck, how are you?”

It was an odd question for a Vulcan, as their culture still did not particularly place a high value on the status of emotions, they tended to find little benefit in a question as unspecific as ‘how are you’. Either you were ill, injured, or healthy, there was little conversation to be had there. N’Vea however had studied medicine mostly on Earth and had learned the value of relationships with her patients. She also knew of the non-scientific factors in patient care, things that could not be quantified or measured like ‘bed side manner’ and ’emotional connection’. N’Vea even attempted a smile, which while not difficult to manipulate her mouth muscles to achieve did feel slightly out of place and unnatural. Like a Klingon in a ballet tutu.

Alex was still going over the numbers and adjustments, before running another simulation on the other larger PADD. When the results once again came back with nothing to bear fruit, he just let the PADD slip out of his fingers and clatter on the top of the table before he relaxed back into his seat with a heavy sigh. He started to stroke his beard in thought when he heard a voice speaking directly at him. He shifted his eyes to see the Vulcan female, slender and attractive as essentially every bloody female Vulcans were. One of the reasons why he enjoyed being buried in his work, so he don’t stare. “A am doin juist fine, lass.” He answered her question, aside from the build up of stress of trying to improve the ship’s power conversion rate, he was absolutely fine.

He returned his gaze to the PADDs laid out before him, thinking. The conversation that was going on from the bridge wasn’t too distracting, but he didn’t think they would be eavesdropping. Still, a break from Main Engineering was giving him the chance to break this code, solve this mystery, and hopefully come up with a power conversion rate of ninety-seven point five, that be an achievement in itself. Though when he looked at the Doctor again, he saw that attempt at making a smile and raised his brows. “It’s a nice gesture, lass but A wouldnae force it. No unless ye want tae pull a muscle.”

Having become familiar with Earth N’Vea recognized the man’s accent as being from the Scotland region of English. It was not particularly difficult to understand but rather unique and interesting. He told her to stop trying to smile or she would pull a muscle and she nodded, letting the smile drop, “A humorous suggestion, though a medically inaccurate one. The joke being the suggestion of me sustaining an injury commonly associated with heightened physical activity while doing something quite minor.”

Falling silent the doctor let Lieutenant Junior Grade Beck work without further disturbance. She had only the basics of Starfleet training in engineering, so she did not offer to help. Whatever occupied his attention would surely be more than she would be capable of handling. Instead after a moment she closed her eyes and focused on her breathing, trying to clear her thoughts.

Kaksos slung a toolkit over his shoulder after clinching another toolkit, seemingly to nobody, he was talking as he paced the briefing room… “Blaster re-orient for Plasma scoring, type VIII should do… we’ll spend the first week cleaning no doubt.” He paced back.”… Looker, Badger assist Engineering prepping for crate transfer- no don’ tell me that, upgrade the power cell if ya need to-As Ive said before, I go putting platinum in you and they’ll be someone stealing you before long. Again.” He was at the far end again, a caged cat walking the edge of the room,”…I’m giving you permission to use the replicator, upgrade- I dont have any to boot, so make do! Blaster come to the briefing room if you cant- Oh, well that is clever after all then Blaster, get up with Tasker to make sure you don’t blow up.” he stopped for a moment, “Blaster go ahead and wait for Fixer to check you out, that’s a small canon you’ve mounted after all, just stand by.”

He opened a separate channel, “Tasker get to Blaster and prepare a containment unit, it’s added a type 9 disruptor array, did you let it upgrade itself, I didn’t give it the key- How did he crack the cypher? Get there before Fixer has a stroke…” And on and on, he paced as he fussed over his bots circling him in the ship.

Olafsen had just left a junior officer at tactical and wandered into the briefing room. It took a while to settle into a new routine on a new ship and she was still feeling a little out of place. Everyone in the briefing room seemed very engrossed in their various functions so she just took a seat next to the doctor.

[Bridge]

“Station coming into view range now sir” McQueen called from the helm. “About sixty-two kilometers to run”

The far edge to the vast field appeared on the top of the viewscreen, creeping slowly downwards as the ship approached the Lookout’s location. Rounding a particularly large rocky massif a small clearing became apparent in the jumble of rocks, one of a number along the edge for the field, where the asteroids gave way to deep space.

This one was maybe ten or twelve kilometers across and perhaps thirty kilometers from the edge of the filed. In the center of it sat a small pale space station. Gently canted over a few degrees to its starboard side, squat and mushroom-shaped, the station was little bigger than the Altai itself.

“Not much to look at.” Streth muttered as he caught sight of their new home, “Bring us within twenty klicks, helm. Begin a level 1 sensor sweep. I want detailed schematics, and every nook and cranny of that station mapped before we send anyone over there.”

“Twenty kilometers, aye” McQueen responded, slowing the ship gradually over the last thrity kilometers and guiding it to a stop at the specified distance. “Starting sensor sweep now” he reported.

The station grew larger on the viewer. Its markings, utilitarian Starfleet hull paint on its bulbous upper canopy, read simply, “United Federation of Planets Outpost 1-SZ”.

Several of the illuminating beacons had failed, leaving the hull partially shrouded in darkness.

The viewports dotted around the outer hull were shadowed too, adding to the station’s spectral appearance.

With the ship holding position some twenty kilometers from the station, Streth and Van Der Luan went back to the half-deck Briefing room to review the incoming sensor date with the senior staff. Commander Walker from the Don S Davis was beaming over to join them.

The sensor readouts displayed directly on to the Briefing room screen. Van Der Luan looked over the live feed. Only the First, Third and Fourth decks, One and Three were in the cone at the top of the structure, appeared to be completely powered and have a partial atmosphere. There were some energy readings on other decks, Computer core, parts of Engineering and down on Deck Nine where a lot of sensor and communication systems were, but no much else.

With just automated systems there was not much need for heat or a full atmosphere on most of the station. “Well, looks like somebody forgot to leave the heat on. It’s a cool Minus Seven Fahrenheit in Operations and Minus Twenty on most of the other decks. Air’s not just cold, it’s thin too, only about sixty percent normal. I’m assuming it was mothballed that way, Mister Beck?”

All this time he had been figuring out some trick to up the power conversion level and he believed he found it. Apparently there was a section that has received its routine maintenance but nothing more. After doing some checking, he finally got it. But when his name was called, he set his padds down and got up from his seat to walk over to the screen with his hands clasped behind his back. He eyed the screen for a bit as he looked it over, basically just refreshing his memory from when he read the fine details about what Starfleet did to turn this station over to automation.

“Aye. Typically, starfleet wad leave some way tae send a signal ower tae the automatit system tae let it know thon beings were comin tae dae maintenance on it, or i this case, turn it ower back tae a crew. Thon way the life support system wad kick intae hich gear an make it comfortable for us. Now ye wad think thon starfleet wad have it more structurally sound wi it bein i an asteroid field but it appears thare are some structural damage. Guid thin we got the corps wi us.” He spoke with his Scottish accent. Maybe if he had spent more time in English class, he’d sound more like Gerard Butler or other Scottish people, but it didn’t bother him one bit if anyone understood him or not.

“Unless our Breen friends have moved in…” Streth commented and nodded to O’Glynn. “Mr. Kaksos, give me your analysis of the sensor data. Any potential Been interference, or tampering?”

“I’ve been monitoring our whole approach. What’s more suspicious is the lack of any monitoring device or signal. They are definitely here but I cannot detect them which worries me. Call it Paranoia if you like but we need to keep a tight lid on our our transmissions until we find their eyes and ears. As for the station, we will need to do a visual inspection and particle scan to be sure there’s no other surprises.”

“Noted. Short range comm wavelengths only.” Streth confirmed.

Van Der Luan turned to the physcian, “Doctor, any issues you can see with atmosphere, temperature and life support for an initial landing party? It won’t be pleasant but is it safe?”

The Vulcan nodded, “I would advise rerunning scans from onboard the station to confirm, but those levels are within safe levels for all species currently serving aboard the Altai.”

“Thank you Doctor” Van Der Laun nodded, “You’ll be going on the Away Team, so bring your tricorder”

Nodding crisply N’Vea answered, “Yes sir.”

“Christine, weapons and tactical look ok to you?” Van Der Luan asked their Security Chief.

Christine was a little unclear if he was talking about the ship or the stations so she figured she’d answer both. “The ship is “ship shape” as they say. It is hard to get good reading from the station as everything seems to be powered down. I’ll need eyes on to get any more than that.”

“Good, once we are on board and bringing everything back up, make tactical systems your priority”

Van Der Luan spoke to the Operations Officer next “Cam, once we get onboard we’ll need a full inventory of whatever supplies and stores are left over there, if any. And if they are still any good! Last time anyone was here was seven years ago and that was just for a day or so to do a routine upgrade to the sensors. So pretty much everything else is over twenty five years old.”

It was only an hour after Cam arrived on the Altai that she was involved in this briefing. She never had the time to unpack her belongings so she was involved very quickly… front and center. She never really had the time to study the structure to find out what the history of it was. Just hearing from the XO, it seemed that her work was cut out for her indeed. She was a little surprised that the XO would call her out by her first name… even if they might have mis-pronounced it. She was not about to correct them but her first name was pronounced almost like the old country name of “Vietnam”… but it would be “Cam” instead … almost sounding like the English word “calm”. She spoke as loud as she could as she nodded softly, not worrying about the possible language pronunciation of her name. “Understood. I will get my teams assigned and complete the inventory to see what is left that can be salvaged once we arrive at the structure.”

“Good enough. Like the Doc and Christine, standby to gear up, you’re coming over on the Away Team too” Van Der Luan replied

Cam let out a smile as she remembered her father’s teachings that she would have to go where it was needed. With her getting more responsibility aboard the ship in her new position, she expected nothing less. Though her voice may not carry as far as a normal person, she did acknowledge her XO. “Aye. I will be ready.” She replied back, feeling more comfortable in not giving out specific pronouns to her XO. She was glad that she learned about that in her arrival tour a couple of days ago.

The door slid aside and Walker entered.

Walker had a giddy look on his face as he went to stand out of the way of everyone else. Though he did hold up a padd that shown the station as well, his ship having done their own scans. “Now this is a piece of fine engineering. If we can get the Lifesupport generators kicking back to hundred percent, we should be able to warm up the station. Then my team can get to work on removing the automated systems, replacing them with stations for the crew.”

He did some tapping on his padd. “Commander, do you want this station to have better defensive systems? We have the parts to replace the power core with something more high grade. We can then give it a better weapon and defensive systems, but it’ll still have to rely on a starship if the Breen were to discover it.”

“Anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated.” Streth admired Walker’s optimism. To his Andorian eyes, the station appeared to be a dump. No doubt the Engineer he now stood face to face with felt it to be more of a canvas upon which to practice his art.

Our away team will take care of getting station life support back online, then your people from The Don will be clear to start patching her up. Of course we’d love it if you could fix us up with a good rec room.” He added, voice tinged with more hopefulness than intended.

Walker chuckled at the Commander’s request. “I’ll have to go over the station’s schematics once more and what exactly Starfleet has done with the old girl. But I think me and my team can come up with something.” He winked. The PADD he needed to give to Commander Streth for Cooper’s transfer sat there in one of his pockets, just one last signature to complete it but he was going to wait after the briefing. “Just let me know when your team is done and you’ll get to see a show from The Don.” He chuckled.

“Very well, Captain.” Streth smiled at the man, a little bemused, “I look forward to it.” He noticed the bridge was getting more crowded. The Chief Of Operations, Lieutenant Hawthorne, had arrived. “Good morning, Lieutenant.” He called over, “You certainly came at the right time.”

Cam was trying to get focused with the task at hand when she was distracted by a friendly voice. She may not have met Streth before out she was glad that someone other than the CO and XO acknowledged her presence in the briefing. “I guess that I did.” She spoke softly but was glad that someone else on the crew was welcoming her presence in the briefing.

“Okay, Doc, Christine, Cam and Alex you’re with me on the Away Team. EVO Suits and sidearms” Van Der Luan stated. “Commander Walker, can you spare Chief Cooper to join us?

With that said, Walker fished into his pocket and pulled out the small padd before handing it over to Streth. “Well if you just place your thumb print there, which will finalize the paperwork, and Chief Cooper will be all yours.” He told him before tapping his badge.

=^= Chief Cooper. Get yourself suited up and report to the Altai’s transporter room, you’re going with their away team. =^=

He paused for a moment before looking at Streth again. “She’ll be there.”

Streth looked over to the group of officers gathered around the briefing room table. “So the Doc says there’s probably something to breathe, and we’ve got incoming renovations from Captain Walker. Outstanding.

You should be able to ditch the EVO suits fairly soon after boarding. Away team members, grab your diagnostic kits and phasers. I still don’t entirely trust what’s onboard that station.

For safety, we’ll beam you into the main Transporter Room, Deck Seven. You’ll need to fire up the fusion reactors on Deck Six; restore the main power and get life support back online. Should be simple enough, but be damned careful. This tech hasn’t seen maintenance in decades, it could get volatile. If there are no questions, kit yourselves out and report to Transporter Room One immediately. Dismissed.”

Some eleven kilometers from the station, along the edge of the clearing; on the opposite side from where the Altai and the Don S Davis lay stationary; was a scattered area of smaller asteroids and dust. They varied in size and shape, but most were around the dimensions of a large cargo module. Cold chunks of rock and frozen gas, they hung, dozens of them, still and lifeless, locked in a frozen dance.

A short distance back from the edge was one particular rock, little different from the dozens that surrounded it, at least that is how it appeared. But this rock was different, very different…
What seemed to be a solid asteroid was a clever and ingenious facsimile.

The rocky exterior was only a thin veneer of natural rock chemically bonded to a duralloy underframe. Within this armored shell lurked a shielded power source; a short range passive but sensitive sensor suite; an encoded high-speed burst-transmission communicator and a number of self defense systems. These were controlled and managed by a powerful and sophisticated computer, which itself ran on a detailed and carefully coded program.

It had been placed there to watch over the Federation outpost. Tirelessly watching and monitoring, year after year, silent and still, hiding in plain sight amongst the other asteroids. Waiting for an event that would trigger the next stage in its program.

The arrival of the two vessels had awoken it from its slumber, now it scanned and recorded; analyzed and reviewed; piecing bits of information in to a report to send to its masters…

[USS Altai – Transporter Room One]

Van Der Luan clunked in from the adjacent compartment, where he had donned his EVO suit. His helmet was hooked to his belt and he adjusted the Phaser pistol in it’s holster. He doubted there was need for weapons, but better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

“Got the coordinates locked in Chief?” He asked the Technician at the control panel

“Yes sir, Deck Seven, the Transporter Room” The woman confirmed. There was a beep from the panel “Incoming personnel from the Don S Davis she announced, looking over to the transporter pads.

There was the familiar shimmer on the pads, when the beam faded it had deposited a short blonde Human woman, likewise dressed in EVO suit.

“Chief Cooper?” Van Der Luan asked “Welcome to the team”

Watched as the transporter room from the Don S Davis changed to the transporter room of the Altai, and there she saw an individual in their own EVO suit. She stepped down from the pad and placed her bags up against the wall, this way she can grab them later once they secure the station, or someone be kind enough to send them over later. However, she did keep her tool kit on her as she went over with an out stretched hand. “Lieutenant, pleasure to be here.”

Van Der Luan shook the offered hand. “Lieutenant Alake Vander Der Luan” He introduced himself, “I’m the eXOh. Don’t worry, I used to work for a living too. until they gave me these.” He tipped his chin to the rank pips on his collar in the open neck of the suit.

Cooper smiled, “We all get stuck with responsibility at some point, especially after earning it.”

He turned back to the Transporter Technician. “Chief, watch over Chief Cooper’s luggage till we’ve got the station habitable”

“Aye sir” The Technician nodded and gave Cooper a smile “Welcome aboard, let me know when you need them”

“Appreciate it.” She nodded to the Tech.

“You bring your biggest wrench then?” Van Der Luan asked, referring to Cooper’s comment earlier that morning.

“My biggest wrench, biggest hyperspanner and my biggest sonic driver.” She chuckled. “Even if we can get the station up and running, no doubt there’s going to be relays and EPS conduits that will need to be replaced due to age and overuse from automation. But guess we will find out when the team arrives.”

[Elsewhere…]

Alex returned to Main Engineering with his padds, scattering them on top of the main center console. “Hey team, can A have yer attention for a minute.” He then waited for his engineers to gather around. “I figured out the problem. This section here, hasn’t been getting the love and tender care like everything else has been. I want you, and you, to go to that section, fine tune it, upgrade it to the best as you can and then when I get back, I expect the power conversion levels to be at ninety-seven point five when I get back. Understood? Good. I’ll see you lads later.” Giving them something to do besides routine maintenance and the like was what kept the wheels turning smoothly on the ship, and giving them a goal to achieve is also something worth bragging about.

Alex quickly left engineering to get to the deck and room where all the suits would be, where he would quickly get changed appropriately before slipping into his own EVO suit. Once he got everything checked out and got nothing but green light across the board, he went to an equipment locker and grabbed himself an equipment belt to snap on. With that, he slipped in a tricorder, hooked a tool kit to one side, and slipped a couple small padds in the back. One was so that he can establish a link with the station’s main computer and operate various things, doors, lights, force fields, all that fun stuff. The other one was to take notes, anything that needed replacing or repaired. Though with the Don S Davis around, the notes probably be more like suggestions, as the entire ship has a team of experts that will know exactly what to do with the station. Last thing he grabbed, was a phaser pistol. Standard issue and standard on all away missions for self defense. Soon as he had everything, he headed off to the transporter room.

From the Bridge Lieutenant N’Vea headed via Turbolift to Sickbay. There she spoke briefly with her Assistant Chief Medical Officer and then removed one of the Away Team Field Kits from their storage area and double checked the equipment. A medical tricorder, hypospray, and a variety of other useful items were pre-packaged and ready to use. After checking the energy levels of anything that required a charge, she closed up the case and put the strap over her head as she carried it out of the Medical Bay towards the Turbolift.

Christine stopped in the armory first, She poked her head into the office and replicated some cheese and glass of water. Never hurts to have a quick snack before an away mission. Lastly to the antechamber of the transporter room for an EVO suit.

Cam had almost the same thoughts as Christine did about food. She made sure to have a good meal instead by replicating a small bowl of pho soup. Though the taste of the broth was too bland for her, she made a note to herself to add her mother’s recipes into the replicator program. Finishing the small meal, she did one last check of the ship’s systems to make sure that they were running as efficient that it could be. She would definitely have to set up a list of things to improve on later but for now, it was off to the armory to get her phaser and then to the antechamber to get her own EVO suit before arriving at the transporter room.

[Transporter Room One]

Alex stepped through the door way soon after the door split apart. He saw the Executive Officer and one other person in an EVO suit. He stepped on up to the two. “Sir. Wha is this lass thon’s comin wi us?”

Van Der Luan waved for Cooper to introduce herself to the incoming staff.

The Chief turned slightly to see the man through the helmet. “I am Chief Amanda Cooper, I will be staying behind and living on board that station after it’s all suited up for us.”

Alex smiled and extended his hand to her. “Guid tae meet ye lass. Lieutenant Alex Beck, Chief Engineer.”

Cooper shook his hand. “Impressive, Chief Engineer with a Junior Grade Lieutenant Rank? Must be a genius.” She smirked, stroking whatever ego the man may have. If he had one.

Alex shrugged his shoulders, best that he could in the suit after shanking her hand. “A’m juist guid at ma job an A know whit A’m doin. Like tae think thon be the reason why A wis selectit. Gin ye tell me more aboot yourself later ower a pint, A’ll tell ye more aboot myself. Deal?”

Cooper grinned. “Deal.”

The slender Vulcan Doctor entered and nodded at the rest of the Away Team. She noticed Lieutenant Beck’s phaser and arched an eyebrow, but said nothing. As a doctor N’Vea rarely carried a phaser unless a mission specifically called for it, or she was in a battle situation. Having had a fairly peaceful career up until that point she had not really held one outside of training.

Olafsen followed close behind the doctor as was becoming her tradition. She noticed the new member of the crew. She reached out her hand “Chief, welcome to the team. I’m Olafsen”

Cooper waved to the two additions in the transporter room. “Thank you!”

Cam arrived shortly after Olafson did in her own EVO suit along with a tricorder and a small tricorder to gauge the systems of the derelict. Let out a small wave to everyone, she softly introduced herself to those that she did not meet yet. “Hello. I am Cam Hawthorne. Chief of Ops. It is good to meet everyone.” She softly spoke as she was not sure that she was heard by everyone through the EVO suit. Just as she finished introducing herself, she heard the voice of Van Der Luan making his preparations to everyone.

Van Der Luan looked around the group. “Ok everybody ready? We’ll beam over to their Transport Room on Deck Seven, then make our way up one deck to Six. There should be a deck list and schematic uploaded to your suit displays.
Station Deck Listing

We’ll bring the reactor up to full power and life support out of stand-by mode. Mister Beck and Chief Cooper will take the lead on that, the rest of us will assist as needed.

Once that’s underway the rest of us will then move up to Decks Three and Four and the Operations Room. Ms Olafsen, Ms Hawthorne and I will do an initial systems check; Doctor, I’d like you to monitor the restoration of life support, climate and atmosphere and advise Mister Beck on progress and any adjustments that may be needed.

It’s been seven years since anyone was here, so expect things to be a little…“rusty”. But I’m confident we’ll deal with any problems as they arise’

He looked around the Team “Any questions?”

Cam shook her head no but one thing was very evident by the look on her face. She really did not like to be in this EVO suit. The sooner that she could get out of this dreaded EVO suit, the better she would feel. Her own questions were answered in the briefing earlier so she looked at the rest of the team members to see if they had anything to ask.

Both Alex and Cooper shook their heads ‘no’ as well.

“Alright, lets go to work” Van Der Luan donned his helmet, twisting it shut and checking the seal was engaged, then led the Team up onto the transporter pads.

Once they were all in place he gave the Transporter tech a thumbs-up

[Bridge]

“Transporter Room reports Away Team ready to deploy sir” McQueen called back from the helm.

Streth was leaned over the science booth to the rear of the bridge when he heard the announcement, “Glad to hear it, Mr. McQueen. Give them the all clear.”

He turned back to the sensor readout. There was something odd about the signals being displayed, but neither he nor the Science Officer who stood there equally puzzled, could put a finger on it.

“Keep an eye on that,” He instructed the Ensign, then paced back to the middle of the bridge, “and let’s keep a monitor on the away team’s vitals. Transporter lock too. First sign of trouble and we beam them out of there.”

The Ensign manning the science station was confused. It was an odd signal, intermittent and irregular. It was extremely difficult to distinguish it from the background subspace noise, but it was definitely there, “Uhhh, sir?” He called. Better safe than sorry.

“What is it, Ensign?” Streth continued to monitor the away team’s progress over at ops. They were making some progress and, to his relief, they were safe for now. He made the short walk over to flight control.

“I’m reading subspace fluctuations that seem consistent with transmission data. It’s strange though, sir, it’s definitely not coming from the outpost and there are no other ships in the area.” The young Byzallian appeared perplexed.

“Weird…” Streth mused, “Can we pinpoint it? These damn asteroids aren’t helping with the interference.”

“I’ll give it a shot.” The Ensign input a few commands then waited as the results displayed, “OK, it looks like the signal’s real close. Just on the other side of the station, actually. I’m still not reading anything artificial in the location though, just a bunch of space rock.”

Streth scratched his beard, antennae wiggling slightly, “Could be cloaked? Klingons or Romulans could be paying us a visit. Hard to see why they would bother coming all the way out here… Could you bring up the subspace waveform?”

The officer displayed the visual on the LCARS interface. Torden exhaled, “Try matching that to any Klingon or Romulan frequencies in our database.” The screen flickered as it cycled through Starfleet’s signals intelligence data with lightning efficiency, yielding no positive result.

“Weird…” The Ensign echoed Streth.

“Worthy of our attention, I think,” The captain moved to seat himself in the command chair, “Mr. McQueen, take the Altai around the station and get us a better visual.”

“Aye sir” McQueen brought the maneuvering thrusters on line, rotated the ship on it’s vertical axis, once the bow was pointing away from the station he powered up the aft thrusters and started a tour of the clearing.

“Cowboy, if we move at least five kilometers from our last position I can get a second bearing onto the source of the signal” The Science Ensign called over to the Helm.

McQueen nodded, brought the impulse engine up and eased the ship forward, slowing when he had covered the required distance.

“That’s good, bringing lateral sensors on to the target area” Science reported. A few moments later they announced. “I have a second bearing. They intersect on the edge of the clearing, there’s a region of smaller asteroids. It’s in there somewhere. Cowboy, give me a third position and we should be able to isolate the right spot.”

McQueen brought the power back up, moving the ship to a third position another five kilometers away and three kilometers in altitude above the last one, to give Science the opportunity to locate a three dimensional location.

[Asteroid field]

The watcher had dispatched its initial scans of the two ships, flashing out an encoded data stream to it’s masters. Now it sensed it was itself being scanned. The scan tripped a new protocol and it it immediately shut down, going as silent and inert as the rocks it was hiding amongst.

[Bridge]

“Got it!” The Byzallian announced. “It’s about six hundred meters back from the edge, according to the scan it just a regular ast-”

He was surprised, looked blankly at his panel, tapped in some controls and shook his head. “It stopped!”

“On screen.”

The rock was completely unremarkable. This was confirmed to Streth as the Byzallian read out the scan readings, “Around 28% iron, 33% cobalt, 18% nickel, rest of it’s hydrogen, carbon and some trace elements of ruthenium.”

“And yet was transmitting…?” Streth frowned, “How big is it? Can we bring it aboard?”

“Yeah, I guess so, sir. Not much bigger than a cargo pod.”

“Alright then, engage a tractor beam and open the cargo bay doors.”

“Aye sir” McQueen responded. Powering up he drove the Altai across the clearing, coming to rest close to the edge of the asteroid field.

Once in position he activated the tractor beam controls. Tightening the beam focus he slid it in between the jumble of rocks coming to bear on the one in question. “Tractor beam engaged and I have a lock. Bringing it aboard.”

Working the controls he deftly guided the rock through the maze of other asteroids and out into the clearing, then around to the port side of the ship and to the open hatch way of Aft Cargo bay Two. He deposited the rock onto the deck, shut off the tractor beam, closed the hatch and repressurized the hold.

“Rock is in Cargo bay two sir” He reported “Repressurizing and level four containment filed set up around the rock” He did not know what it was, but it if was in the ship he wanted it locked down.

=/\=Streth to Van Der Luan, we’ve detected an odd subspace signal that appears to be coming from an asteroid. We’re bringing it on board for a closer look. If you find anything unusual on the station, I want to know about it as soon as possible.=/\=

=^=Away Team acknowledges. Nothing to report yet but we’ll keep our eyes open=^= Van Der Luan’s response came over the speaker.

[Cargo bay Two Aft]

The rock had monitored the approach of the ship, the tractor beam and removal from its place of hiding onto the alien vessel. The computer activated the next step in its programming and waited.

The crewman on duty in the cargo bay was unimpressed, “Yup… It’s a rock.” He grumbled as Streth and the Science Officer from the bridge entered through the large double doors.

“Nothing unusual at all?” Streth asked, nonplussed.

“Nothing, nada, not even radioactive. Just a big lump of minerals.”

“I want to take a closer look, crewman. I saw the transmissions. There’s definitely more to this thing.”

“Aye sir,” said the cargo bay supervisor, skeptically.

“Drop the containment field,” Streth ordered, “we’ll use our eyes.”

The forcefield sparkled for a split second as it dropped. Streth, the science officer and the crewman approached, beginning to circle the rock that now sat in the middle of the cargo bay.

The science officer unclipped his tricorder, “Readings look pretty much identical to the ones we pulled off the ship’s sensors.”

Streth paced around for a minute, inspecting the jagged surface. Like the sensor readings, it was of no interest whatsoever. He reached out a hand, touching the surface. Dust coated his fingertips and he brought them up to his eyes for a closer look. Again, nothing special. Streth frowned. There had to be something more. His antennae moved as he stood there in thought. Absent-mindedly he kicked out at the rock, aiming at nowhere in particular.

CLONG.

The Ensign from science poked his head around from behind, “That sounded like…”

“…Duranium.” Streth finished the sentence for him.

“I don’t understand. How is it not coming up on the scans?” The Ensign was visibly confused.

The crewman joined them, “This is weird.” He surmised.

“Whatever this thing is,” said Streth, “it’s not just a rock.” He massaged the back of his neck in contemplation, “I want to find out what’s inside.”

“Phasers?” The crewman suggested.

“No,” Streth quickly rebutted, “if whatever is in there is sent those signals, we need to keep the equipment intact.”

“Hmmm, I’ll get the sub-micron phase cutter.” The crewman, happy for the chance to use some heavy equipment, strolled over to a corner of the cargo bay. He tapped in the unlock code and hoisted the machine from the storage unit. Streth and the Ensign stepped back as the enlisted man set the cutter down in front of the faux chunk of space debris. “I’ll set it to stop cutting as soon as it detects any internal space or a change of material. That should protect any equipment that might be inside.”

“Understood.” Streth watched the crewman input commands with the controls mounted on the tool’s rectangular metallic frame.

“You’ll want to stand clear. Initialising…. Now.”

A precision beam of concentrated phased energy shot from the cutter into the rock’s surface. It rotated in a perfect circle, boring a hole and melting through the surface in seconds. Vapour rose up slowly from where the beam made contact.

The circle fell from the side of the rock with a metallic clang rather than a crunching thud, all but confirming the men’s suspicions. The crewman pulled back the cutter and the Ensign kicked away the circular duranium plate. Streth crouched down and looked through the resulting hole. The size of a dinner plate, it was big enough for him to glimpse the blinking lights and conduits within. A display panel, partially obscured by the fake rocky surface displayed an alien script. Streth could not decipher it, but he recognised the symbols immediately.

“Breen.”

“Always good to know we’re being watched,” the Ensign in a glib tone.

“Take this thing apart,” Streth got to his feet, “let’s get it disassembled. Find out what exactly this thing was sending, and where it was sending to.”

An angry chip sounded from within the Breen device. All three men snapped their heads around to face the source of the noise. It continued, regular, every half second.

Blip.

Blip.

Blip.

“GO!”

They tore towards the cargo bay main doors, “Computer, activate a level ten force field five metres from cargo bay,” Streth yelled as they ran. The wall of energy shimmered into life just as the Breen listening device ripped itself apart in a tornado of fire. Shards of twisted duranium, held back by the glittering buzz, slammed into the deck that was now black from the roaring blaze. Emergency fire suppression systems activated, venting gas all around the cargo bay. A dull tone rang in Streth’s. Body rattled by the shockwave, he pressed himself to the deck.

The transport shimmer faded, there was that momentary sensation of disorientation that came with being torn up into a data stream hurled across space and reassembled elsewhere.

Van Der Luan looked around the dim compartment, lit only by the soft glow of the standby lighting. He activated his helmet lights for more illumination. It was a similar size to the Altai’s eight pads but the panel across the room looked to be a a much older design. He reached up and wiped his helmet, the frigid cold air had begun to condense on the warmer surface of his suit and ran in streaks down his visor.

Both Alex and Cooper did pretty much the same thing as the Lieutenant did, looking around at the similar but different room they were in. Cooper had gone over to the transporter console to check on it while Alex was checking the box with all the isolinear chips.

Cam looked around with her helmet as she turned on the lights of her own EVO suit. it was dark and very dusty all around her own position as it seemed like nothing had been moved in decades. Wiping off her own visor thanks to the cold air around her, she made her way towards a small control panel nearby her to investigate the functionality of the circuits inside.

Doctor N’Vea moved her tricorder around the area scanning. The temperature was below comfortable levels for terrans and some other species but well within survivable range. Her scans picked up nothing that would indicate long term exposure to the environment would pose a hazard to any of the crew. Satisfied that they were safe she put her tricorder away, but did not yet remove her EV suit until the technical team had surveyed their environment.

Olafsen joined the rest in looking around the room. Things don’t really get musty in space, but the room reminded her of an old basement in one of the older farmhouses where she grew up. No spiders, no dust, but it really felt the same.

Van Der Luan activated his comm =^= All good?=^= He looked around the team. =^= Let’s make a start, Mister Beck, the door if you please =^= He was not sure what would be functional with the power in standby and the station left empty for years.

“Aye.” Said Beck as he put the isolinear chip back in that he was checking, closing the box before going over to the door. Cooper came along side him, “Let me help you with that.” She said as they both opened up the door panel and started to mess with some components inside. “Is the station still running on minimal power for automation?”

“Aye, lass. Maybe we can bypass some o thon power tae this door.” Beck said.

“And run risk of shutting down the life support that’s already running on minimum power?” Cooper asked.

“No gin we tak it from somewhere else, like external sensors.” He told her.

“Fair enough, not like we will need them right away and with two ships in orbit, station’s sensors might as well take a break.” She smiled.

“Agreed.” He said, “But we neit only juist a wee bit o power really. An here we gae!” He said as the panel came to life and the door split open when it’s sensor detected a presence.

Cam was glad that the systems of the automatic doors still functioned. At least it would be easier to get around the ship now. Looking around her, she could see that there was a lot of work to be done to get this outpost fully functional again. She hoped that it would only take a little bit of time to make that happen.

While the Engineer got the door open Van Der Luan contacted the ship. =^=Away Team to the Bridge. All arrived, we’re going to move up to Deck Six =^=

=^=Acknowledged, away team.=^= Streth replied as Van Der Luan’s voice came through loud and clear across the bridge intercom, =^=We’ve got a good read on you. Scans indicate jeffries tube 261B will be your shortest route up to the reactors. No substitute for eyes on the ground though, use your best judgement Lieutenant.=^=

=^= Aye sir. We’ll keep you informed =^= Van Der Luan replied, waving to Beck and Cooper to lead the way.

“He say tube 261B?” Cooper asked.

“Aye. A studiit the schematics on our way here, the tube is ower this way.” Becker said as he pointed and led the way.

Van Der Luan passed through the compartment door into the corridor. It curved off to the left and right continuing out of sight, like the Transporter room it was dimly lit. There were a couple of doors to the left but Beck and Cooper had gone right and he followed them, wiping his visor again as the cold thin air continued to condense on his suit.

There was a recces in the corridor wall up ahead and he could see the Engineer working on an access hatchway.

Cam followed the team behind them as she noticed the engineer working on the hatchway. She figured that Ops and Engineering usually worked in tandem on many away teams so she slowly walked towards the Engineer. “Is there anything that I can help with… readings of systems, wires, and such?” She asked, hoping that her voice projected loud enough through the EVO suit so that Beck could hear her.

Beck heard her voice over his helmet’s intercom and he reached over to his tricorder on his belt, pulling it out and flipping it open. He spoke with his thick scottish accent. “Check everything, lass. Run detailed scans, whatever your tricorder records, we can send back ta the Don S Davis. That way they have a bigger picture on how much work they need ta do. If something interesting grabs your attention though, don’t be afraid to share with the group.” He added a smile into his voice, or at least a tone of one.

The doctor remained with the rest of the team, allowing them to work. Until they found the station’s medical bay, she would have little to do other than to continue to run a series of environmental scans to monitor for any alteration of the habitability of the station.

[Deck 6 – Lower Main Engineering compartment]

The climb up the Jeffries Tube had been accomplished without incident, besides the cumbersome nature of climbing a ladder in the EVO Suits in regular gravity. Clambering though the open hatch Van Der Luan got to his feet and looked around.

The compartment was cylindrical and extended up another deck above his head. Dimly lit like the rest of the station, but at least here the majority of the panels seemed activated and he could feel just the slightest thrum of the fusion reactor pumps through the soles of his boots.

He looked around for Beck and Cooper. “Mister Beck, Chief Cooper, this is your domain. We’ll continue up to Operations while you get the furnace fired up turn the lights on”

Beck stepped off when the order was given and watched Cooper do the same. “Aye, sir.” He spoke, “C’mon, lass. Let see what needs ta be done.”

Cooper smiled with a nod for him to see when they were looking at each other and then followed right behind Beck as he led the way to the reactor room.

Back in the Jeffries tube Van Der Luan led the rest up another two decks to Operations.

[Deck 4 – Operations Lower]

The hatchway was bit sticky and Van Der Luan had to climb up a few more rungs to give it a good kick with his booted foot before it opened. He crawled out of the hatch. Like Engineering, the Station’s Operations room was a a big conical compartment, covering two decks. A raised mezzanine level projected out from one wall.

The lower level housed the maneuvering control, Stellar Cartography & Sensor monitoring control; various other station control positions and panels, the main display, deck plans and internal sensors and cameras.

A stairway, a ladder and an open lift gave access to first the mezzanine and then the upper level.

The mezzanine was the equivalent of the Bridge command positions on a ship, the duty Mission Controller who commanded the station, along with the Security, Tactical and Operations positions were here. From the mezzanine they could see and control the entire Operations room.

On the upper level were Communications and Sensors positions, Station defense control and the Primary Power Distribution Network panel.

Like the rest of the station the entire room was in near darkness, lit only by the glow of the panels and standby lighting.

As the rest of the Away Team exited the tube there was a flicker and the lights came on. “Well done Beck” Van Der Luan said to himself.

He turned to the others. “Lets go to work! Cam, upper level, Power network position. Monitor the power systems, liase with Beck and Cooper as they bring systems on line. Let them know if any circuits fail and keep an eye on the fire control panel. No telling if that old insulation will decide to fail under a full load.”

“Doc, station environmental control and life support displays are over there” He pointed to a position across the room. “Once the power’s up, lets start getting some breathable air back”

The Vulcan doctor nodded, “Yes sir.”

“Christina, with me. We’ll go up to the mezzanine. Get tactical and security activated, bring them out of automated control. Then same as the rest, monitor the power-up, make sure we don’t have any issues with weapons or shield systems when they switch over to manual control”

“Aye Sir”

Van Der Luan crossed to the stairway and climbed up to the mezzanine, squeezing his EVO suit clad butt into the Controller’s chair he began accessing the control panel.

Olafsen followed him up the narrow stairs. She found the tactical station which didn’t have power just yet. They must have been working on something downstairs.

He was interrupted by a transmission from the ship. =^=Streth to Van Der Luan, we’ve detected an odd subspace signal that appears to be coming from an asteroid. We’re bringing it on board for a closer look. If you find anything unusual on the station, I want to know about it as soon as possible.=^=

=^=Away Team acknowledges. Nothing to report yet but we’ll keep our eyes open=^= Van Der Luan’s replied.

Ensign Astrid Vogler stood at one of the floor to ceiling windows in one of the many crew lounges aboard the USS Don S. Davis. The aging Ambassador class had once been a front line ship, now it was reduced to hauling construction supplies.

“Can I get you anything Ensign?” One of the civilian servers asked.

“Huh?” She asked in confusion as she turned around. “Oh, no I’m good thank you.”

Below the Davis, and almost out of sight was her new home, the USS Altai. She had transferred from the USS Brandywine to the Altai. After two weeks she was finally here. It only required taking a shuttle to Starbase 23, then the USS Cairo, to the S.S. Argo, a civilian cargo ship, which was supplying Starbase 58, and finally to the Davis which brought her here.

She heafted her bag, and walked out of the lounge and into the corridor. At the end she sidestepped an officer getting off the turbolift and stepped inside. The ship’s operations, and second officer was inside.

“Morning Ensign,” the chocolate skinned Vulcan greeted politely.

“Good morning Lieutenant. How are you?”

“I am well. Is it safe to conclude that you will be leaving us today?”

“That would be a safe bet,” Astrid said with a grin lifting her bag in emphasis.

“Indeed. There is a shuttle departing for the Altai in a few minutes. Perhaps you can accompany them.”

“Thank you sir. I will. Computer main shuttle bay.” The lift whirred to life as it started moving. “Permission to speak freely sir?”

“Go ahead Ensign.”

“Why do I get a sense that you don’t like me?”

“Ensign, I am a Vulcan. I am incapable of liking or disliking anyone.”

Astrid smirked, “Sir, I don’t believe that in the least.”

“Vulcans do not lie.”

“Uh-huh,” Astrid replied as the doors parted, “Obviously. Good day Lieutenant.” And with that she stepped out of the turbolift.

She walked to the end of the corridor and stepped into the main shuttle bay of the Don S. Davis. Finding the shuttle that was being prepped she approached an Ensign that was supervising the loading.

“I was told you were heading over to the Altai?”

“Yeah,” he said with a grin. “You must be Ensign Vogler. Lieutenant S’tek said you would be accompanying me.”

“Great! What can I do?”

“Nothing we’re almost done. Throw your stuff inside and get comfortable.”

Astrid complied taking one of the seats aft of the cockpit. The Ensign and a pair of NCOs entered a few moments later. After a few minutes of preflight checks the shuttle lifted off the deck.

The flight over and subsequent landing on the Altai was equally uneventful. A quick security check at the door and she was finally home.

[USS Altai]

She had taken the last two weeks to study the layout of the ship, and had a general idea where everything was. Nonetheless she still got lost and had to ask for directions to get to the turbolift. A less than auspicious start to her career here. However, she eventually did find the turbolift.

“Deck one, bridge.”

The computer beeped in response and the car shot upward. During the ride she dug out the PADD with her orders, and used the blank screen as a mirror to tuck a few errant stands of hair into her regulation bun.

When the doors parted she stepped out. Taking a second to orientate herself to her surroundings she approached an Andorian sitting the the center seat. She snapped to attention the heels of her polished boots made a soft click. “Ensign Vogler reporting for duty sir.”

Streth looked up from his chair, recognising the tall, dark haired woman immediately from the list of scheduled crew transfers. Ensign Vogler would be one of the last of the crew to come aboard from the Don S. Davis before outpost renovation efforts were scheduled to begin. Different teams on each ship were now busy mapping out the outpost interior, putting finishing touches to schematics indicating systems to be upgraded, parts to be replicated, and structural reinforcements to be made. Amidst the flurry of activity, a niggling doubt still rattled around in the back of the Andorian’s mind. So far, they had been undisturbed and unchallenged. However, as the one responsible for the safety of his crew, a vulnerability still preyed upon him. The person stood before him now was a welcome respite from these thoughts. The Hazard Team was the ace up Streth’s sleeve, and Vogler was its leader. He’d play that card when needed. When the time was right.

“At ease Ensign,” Streth said. “It’s good to have another piece of the Hazard puzzle here. The team’s a bit of a handful but I’m sure you’ll get used to them,” he spoke loudly enough to be within earshot of Chief McQueen, the Hazard team pilot who now occupied the conn.

“Of course sir,” she subconsciously slipped into a parade rest position out of sheer habit. “Mr. McQueen,” she greeted. “This will be a new challenge for me sir, but I look forward to it.”

“I wouldn’t say a handful sir” McQueen noted “We’re just a little… boisterous. He turned to give Volger a grin “Welcome aboard Boss”

“Thank you Mr. McQueen, and ‘boisterous’ I can handle. I have a little brother and three sisters. I’m used to it. As long as you get the mission done in a timely fashion you won’t have a problem with me.”

Van Der Luan snorted. “By boisterous Cowboy means exactly what the Captain said, a right handful! And you can relax Ensign” He waved Volger down from parade rest.

“Spent a lot of my career in Security and Hazard teams, it can be a lot of fun, dangerous and unpredictable, but fun, mostly” He smiled, a veteran’s smile that only came from having managed to survive the fun.

“While the Team is semi-autonomous during operations, Lieutenant Christine Olafsen is Chief of Security and your Department Head, you and the Team report through her, understand?”

She did not relax. Doing so went against years of training, and relaxing likely would have made her relax less in front of the captain and XO. “Yes sir. Crystal clear sir.”

“Oh and with any group of specialists, it’s important, as their leader, to earn their respect.” He lowered his voice so it didn’t carry to McQueen this time.

“The Team members have years of experience and know their jobs, so listen to them and learn to trust their advice. You don’t have to follow it, but I advise you at least listen.

Things are more relaxed, less formal; they use nicknames as callsigns; you’re gonna be “Boss” it seems. Understand how small units work, you will have to prove yourself to them, they know you’ll make the odd mistake, when that happens own it, take responsibility, move on and don’t make the same one again. They’ll forgive you and learn to trust you if you work with them, ok?”

“Yes sir, but for the record I was an NCO. Hazard Team is new to me, but I know the senior NCO’s are the core of the team, and that I should lean on them.”

“I’m sure Ensign Vogler will ingratiate herself with the team in no time at all.” Streth brought a hand up, absent mindedly scratching at an itch behind is ear. He noticed that Vogler, while not snapped to attention as before, still remained alert. He considered that this was perhaps a sign of her tactical training and, moreover, an inner discipline that would surely serve her well in what would be a hardship posting for all of them. The ‘rough and tumble’ nature of the crew might not have had the glossy, Starfleet, sheen that many officers of a certain pedigree had come to expect of their postings. Voglers’ service record suggested no such predispositions, and Streth was happy with that.

The Andorian stepped forward, offering the young woman a handshake. It semed the appropriately human thing to do, “Look after my Hazard Team, Ensign. You can be damned sure they’ll look after you.”

“Yes sir. Of course sir. I prefer to lead from the front anyway.”

Things had quieted down a bit aboard the Altai. Crews from Engineering were still mopping up the mess that came from the incident in the cargo bay, and Astrid still wasn’t exactly sure what happened. But, as the the old saying goes, “that was above her pay grade.”

After a quick debriefing of her team she dismissed them and say down to write her after action report, which honestly didn’t take as long as expected, and she was pleased with how her team handled the crisis. Once the report was completed she sent it to the Chief of Security, her immediate supervisor, and CC’d the XO as a formality.

She closed her computer, and headed for her quarters. She had yet to truly move into her new living accommodations so it was spartan. Astrid entered the bedroom and stripped out of her hazard suit and changed into a heather grey tee shirt with “STARFLEET” emblazoned across the chest in charcoal. That was paired with black shorts and white running shoes.

She walked into the gym a few minutes later. She took a few minutes to stretch before jumping on an exercise bike. She had been there for only a few minutes when one of her team members, Austin Grant, walked into the gym carrying a long black case.

“Hey Boss,” Austin greeted as he stacked his belongings along the wall out of the way. “Crazy day.”

“Yes, it was Mr. Grant. Hell of a first day,” Astrid replied through panting breaths.

Austin chuckled, “Ma’am, everyone calls me Percival around here.”

“Percival?” Astrid asked.

Austin smirked, “Not my choosing. It’s a reference to Sir Percival. You know, of King Arthur and the Knight’s of the Round Table?”

“I am familiar,” Astrid replied. She had stopped peddling and sat on the bike with her hands on her hips. “What makes you Percival?”

Austin grinned, stood and went to where his belongings were sitting. He unzipped the black case and drew out a black handled sword in a dark brown sheath. “I get uncomfortable stares carrying this around the ship.”

“I would imagine so. Why do you have it?”

“I’m a HEMA enthusiast. That’s historical European martial arts.”

“Like those weirdos that dress up and play knights, kings, and queens?”

“That’s SCA. No, this is real medieval martial combat. It’s very similar in concept to Asian martial arts like Japanese kenjutsu , but very different in execution.”

Astrid used a towel to wipe sweat from her face and neck, “Not a very useful skill in a universe that has phasers.”

“Tell that to my dad who was on the receiving end of a Klingon bat’leth. He lived to tell the tale, but his replacement arm bothers him.”

“Point taken,” Astrid admitted, “Well, Mr, Grant have a good workout.” He smiled, nodded his head and headed over to the bench press. She gave him a sidelong glance to appreciate the bulge of muscles.

“Computer, move south wall one meter to the left.” Hlad heard the chirp of the Holodeck interface program and watched as the room grew larger. “Move door one meter south and increase window size to match.” He adjusted the furniture and smiled as the recreated details of his childhood apartment began to match his memory. There was still something off about the Bratislava skyline, but all in all, it wasn’t a bad first try.

An alarm went off on his PADD. He wished he had could reserve more than an hour a week of Holodeck time, but as a junior officer, he should be grateful for what time he got. “Computer, save file as Kappler01 and end program.” Another series of chirps indicated the computer was at work and a moment later the familiar surroundings faded, becoming a sterile grid. He knew the afternoon’s work had been self indulgent, but after his first week on the job, a little self indulgence was warranted.

The door grated slightly on opening. He’d have to make a note of that and check it out later. There were several enlisted crewpersons he could assign to do the maintenance, but if he was going to earn their trust, he had to learn the ship as well as they did, which was no small order. He pushed aside the fear that they resented him. After all, he was an inexperienced kid who outranked them just because he had taken a few more classes.

He passed an officer he didn’t recognize, but said, “Good morning, sir.” He worried it came out a little too energetic. The officer nodded and simply said, “Ensign,” and continued his way down the hall.

How was he ever going to fit in around here? He wondered if the USS Altai even needed another Engineer or if he had been assigned at random to any old ship. Either way, he was going to the his job. He knew he had a lot to learn from this crew and this ship. Not ‘this ship’; ‘his ship’, he corrected in his mind.

He took the turbo lift to deck 3 and walked to the officers wardroom. He was both disappointed and relieved to find it empty. He desperately desired to fit in and make friendships, but all the changes in his life over the past couple months had left him exhausted. He stood looking out the window and thought about the look on his mother’s face at graduation, the farewell party his roommate had thrown for their friends and the tearful goodbye with his girlfriend. He knew the odds of making a quadrant-long distance relationship work was difficult at best.

He had too much time to think about his past and wonder about his future as the USS Buffalo took him and a cargo bay full of supplies from Earth to the USS Altai. He had offered the Captain of the USS Buffalo his services as an Engineer, but the Captain dismissed him by saying, “I prefer it when my cargo doesn’t talk.” He was in his small guest room or stretching his legs in that ship’s corridors for over a month.

The first week aboard the USS Altai was a marked improvement to life on the supply ship, but the intense learning curve left him exhausted mentally and physically. He thought he responded well to his first emergency situation, and while only being a small part of a larger rescue operation, lives had been saved. Of course repairing the hole he cut in the cargo bay door would be a bit less glamorous.

And now, for the first time in a week, he had a moment to stop and process as he stared out the window.

“Looking for home?” Hlad turned to see a Bajoran lieutenant wearing a blue uniform standing behind him. In his time of introspection he hadn’t heard the man enter the room.

“I suppose I am,” Hlad replied and then said, “I’m sorry. Yes sir.” He wasn’t sure if he should solute.

“At ease ensign,” the lieutenant said and smiled. “I’m Lieutenant Modan. It wasn’t that long ago I was staring out the same window.” He pointed and said. “You can’t see them this far away, but Bajor is there,” he paused to get his bearings. “And Earth is about there. You are an Earther, right?”

“Yes,” he answered. “Ensign Hladson Kappler, but most people call me Hlad… well not here yet.”

“Don’t worry, Hlad,” the Bajoran encouraged. “First assignments are always a rough transition, but I assure you, you’ll fit in before you know it.” He then looked at his PADD. “Oh sorry, I’ve got to run. See you around, Hlad.”

The ensign smiled as he watched the lieutenant walk out of the room. This was the start of his new life and he had the feeling the Bajoran was right. He’d fit in just fine.

—————————

Lieutenant Modan touched his combadge with three fingers and held it for a couple seconds until a deep tone sounded. “Subject has been confirmed. Awaiting orders.”

Astrid stared at the hole created by the thing. Thing seemed like a silly thing to call it. Crustacean? No, that didn’t roll off the tongue. Maybe bug? Well, maybe. Crustaceans were essentially sea bugs, and that rolled off the tongue much easier.

She was stalling she knew. That thing survived space. It survived slamming into the ship, and it moved incredibly fast and could cut holes through deck plating like butter. Could it even be stopped? What if the thing somehow was able to reproduce like some sort of malevolent Tribble? That was an uncomfortable thought. What would a mechanical crustacean eat? Obviously not grain. It stood to reason it was probably less like a Tribble and more like a Borg, and that was a sobering prospect.

Holstering her hand phaser she pressed a sequence of buttons on her hazard suit and a phaser rifle beamed into her hand. This was an ingenious design, and she wished she had had it three years ago.

Without a second glance at the mess that was the cargo bay she headed for the turbolift and took it up to the next deck. As she had ordered her entire team minus McQueen were there waiting on her.

“Okay folks here’s the skinny. Some sort of mechanical crustacean thing has infiltrated the ship. We don’t know it’s level of AI if any, nor do we know what it’s objective is. It moves incredibly fast, can climb walls and ceilings, and cut through deck plating. Break into pairs. I don’t want anyone going this alone. It was last seen entering this deck. There is a high probability that it isn’t here any more but we must throughly sweep this deck before moving onto deck four. This entity may not be hostile, but I would rather assume the worst and hope for the best. Any questions?”

“Can we stop it with phasers?” Crewman Krell asked, a wide-eyed Bolilan with training in engineering.

“I don’t know. Be alert, and be ready. I don’t want to write any letters home extolling your bravery and sacrifice, especially on my first day. We do this by the book this time. No exceptions. When it’s over you can play grab ass and joke around. Remember this is a room by room search. If anyone doesn’t like it have them come to me or talk to Lieutenant Olafsen. Mr. Korel you are with me.”

The Xindi-Reptialian nodded and moved to her side.

After her workout Astrid decided to make her way to the Wardroom for a bite to eat, and maybe take the opportunity to get to know her fellow officers better. She would be here on the Altai for at least one tour of duty.

She had swung by her quarters to shower and change, so it elicited some stares as she walked into the Wardroom wearing a pair of light blue jeans and a black tee shirt that was probably a little too tight.

After replicating a plate of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and brown gravy, and a cup of English Breakfast she turned to look around the room. Spotting someone she recognized she walked over to his table and sat down without invitation. “Kappler right?” She asked. Extending her hand, “Astrid Vogler.”

He shook her hand and said, “Yes, Hladson Kappler from Engineering.” He then looked embarrassed to the three pieces of pie in front of him. “You caught me sampling the replicator. I’m not really that Hlad.” He looked at the ceiling with frustration. “Hlad! No computer, I said Hlad.” He sighed and continued speaking with a thick Eastern European accent. “The universal translator on this ship hates me. My name sounds like the Slovak word for hungry, so when I say the word ‘hungry’ it thinks I’m saying my name. So,” he awkwardly transitioned, “where are you from?”

Astrid sipped her tea before answering, “North America, specifically Denver.” She smirked at his story of the pie, “then perhaps you should refrain from using your name while ordering.”

“Yeah, I’d probably end up with four meatloafs,” he joked. “How long have you been on the crew? I’ve only been here a week myself.”

She stopped with a bite of meatloaf halfway to her mouth and grinned, “First day. Talk about diving in headfirst eh? I haven’t even unpacked yet.” She finished the bite, and teased, “With four meatloafs you might get so big you’ll have a hard time walking through the door.”

“Wait,” Kappler said. “Were you one of the crew that beamed in before we got the door down? Did you see… it?”

“Yeah, whatever ‘it’ is. I posted two armed Hazard Team members at the cargo bay in case things go all haywire, but for the most part our job is done. It’s really up to the rest of the crew to do the rest. We just move in secure the area and let you guys do the rest.”

“I just hope I’m on the team that gets to pull it apart and see how it works once we catch it.”

She shrugged. The she’d spent the last two years in engineering after becoming an officer so that side of her was undoubtedly curious, but in that vein the four years in Security as an enlisted crewman had taught her to be suspicious of the unknown. “I think I will try to stay as far away from it as necessary. Of course…” She shrugged and grinned, “If it turns into some sort of robotic spider thing hell bent on dominating the universe I’ll be there with bells on.”

“I’m glad you’re on our side,” Kappler said, grinning.

“Are you now?” She picked up her mug and sipped the tea and smiled happily. “This really is a good imitation. Not as good as the real thing of course. Before I left Earth last time I went to London and stopped at Twinings and stocked up.”

“The pie is not even close to homemade. It’s like this,” he cleared his throat and continued with his thick accent. “When I do the work of translating my own talking, I sound like this.” He paused and continued without the accent, “When I let the computer translate, my words have no discernible accent. I’m sure it’s easier to understand, yes, but a little bit of the flavor is gone.”

“I actually understand.” Astrid shrugged, “We didn’t even have a replicator in my house until I was twelve or thirteen. Mom had a garden for vegetables in the summer, and she would trade jewelry she made for our food for the rest of the year. We would get replicated meat from the replimat down the street of course. We weren’t barbarians after all.”

“So other than drinking a good cup of real tea and eating civilized, replicated meat, what do you like to do for fun?”

“Hiking and mountain biking in the summer and fall. In the winter I would ski and ice skate. Played a little hockey growing up.” She shrugged, “Oh and read. Do you know how wonderful it is to sit next to the fire on a cold winter night and read a good book? So, how about you?”

“I prefer the heat of summer,” Kappler answered. “I love getting out into nature, but growing up in a city we didn’t see much. I got a soft-light holo-generator as a teen and would spend hours getting the images of fantastic locations to line up with the walls of my bedroom. If you sat still enough it was like being there, well at least that’s what I chose to believe at the time. I’m thinking of getting into creating some Holodeck programs now that I have access to one, maybe even recreating the Pezinska Baba, a ski resort north of Bratislava where I grew up.”

“Never made a holodeck program myself either,” Astrid replied with a shrug, but I’ll help if you need it. I have a program for Monarch and Vail too if you need to borrow them for reference.”

“That would be a great help,” He said. “No need to reinvent downhill skiing Holodeck physics if it already exists.” He took one more bite of pie and frowned. “These really aren’t worth replicating again.”

She laughed, “No, probably not. Neither is this meatloaf.” She had finished her meal, but theatrically pushed it away. “Tell you what. Let’s make this our table. An Ensign’s table. It can be a place for friends, and new friends. We leave rank, Starfleet, and the day’s problems at the door. We tell stories and in general have each other’s backs.”

“I’m up for that. Now we just need to find an ensign who knows how to cook.”

“Well, I have no experience with Eastern European dishes, but if you want Western American, TexMex or German with a Midwestern flare I’m your girl. I make a killer Shephard’s pie. I learned it from an old cowboy cooking off the back of an ancient chuck wagon with little more than a campfire. He said he was, ‘keeping the Old West alive’. I didn’t care why this eccentric old man did it. He made some of the best food you’d ever eaten. Besides my parents were… are eccentric themselves. We didn’t have a shuttle or anti-grav vehicle. We had a car. An honest to goodness four rubber wheels car. My dad was a civilian contractor at the San Francisco Fleet Yards, and I think he used their industrial replicator to make the parts.”

Astrid checked her chronometer, “I’m going to be an aunt. My sister Mindy said she was going to send me a message at 1700 and I promised I would watch it when it came in.” She stood and started gathering up her tray. “It was good to meet you Hladson.”

“Great meeting you too. You’d better get moving. Nothing’s more important than family.” He said this with a momentary look of sadness in his eyes, but then smiled genuinely. “I expect to see pictures of the baby, Aunt Astrid.”

She caught that sadness, “We may not be blood, but we are still a family here on this ship. We are all brothers and sisters in uniform, and I am there for you if you ever need anything. Just like any sister would.”

“That means the world to me,” he said, “See you here tomorrow at lunch, assuming duty allows and the ship isn’t about to fall apart?”

“And assuming we aren’t being over run by alien monsters,” She added with a grin. “See you tomorrow.”

[Deck 6 & 5 – Upper & Lower Main Engineering compartment]

=^=Van Der Luan to Beck. We’re ready in Ops, go ahead and work your magic =^=

Beck was working on a junction with the panel wide open when he heard the FO’s voice through his helmet’s intercom. He did one more check, one more tweak before stepping away and looking at where Cooper was, who had been at one of the consoles, running diagnostics and making sure power settings for ‘Live Operations’ were where they should be compared to ‘Automatic Operations’. In his thick accent, “How we doing over there, lass?”

Cooper looked up in her helmet at him before giving him the thumbs up. “We’re good to go. Soon as we send the command, everything should power up back to normal operations.”

Beck backed away further from the junction before bringing up his left arm to press a button on the arm display. =^= Beck to Van Der Luan. We’re going to jump her heart. I am worried about possible shortages or power outages on certain decks but it’s the fastest way to determine what may be damaged or simply no longer functioning. So I would stay away from consoles and other displays, just in case. =^=

=^= Ops copies =^= Van Der Luan’s reply came back

Beck then looked at Cooper and nodded his head, giving her the thumbs up in return. “Go for it, Cooper.”

Cooper pressed the button and they both turned to the reactor, watching and hearing it powering up more, generating more power and soon distributing that power to the respected areas.

[Deck 4 & 3 – Upper & Lower Operations]

Van Der Luan looked around the big open Operations compartment, everyone was at their position. All they needed now was to monitor the reactivation and wait for the place to become habitable again.

“Keep an eye on your readouts, any problems call out” He announced, knowing they already knew what to do.

Christina stood before the lifeless tactical station. “Does not having power count as a problem?” She smirked at the XO.

“It didn’t power up when you switched it to manual control?” Van Der Luan asked, cranking his helmet around to look over to tactical. “Damn, that’s not good! see if it will reboot”

The Security Chief nodded and went to work.

Opening a conduit panel the Vulcan ducked down, running a diagnostic scan of the systems. Everything seemed in order, they just needed power to the terminal so that she could make adjustments. Given that life-support was considered the most essential of essential systems even in this situation, where the power was not fully restored there seemed to be some power to the system to make it almost liveable. Attaching her PADD to the network via the open conduit she ran another scan, “Life Support appears to be operational. Once we fully restore power there is an ninety-seven percent chance that it will operate without issue.”

Cam made her way over to the main Operations controls just before she heard the report. “Open up the conduits.” She softly said but loud enough for everyone around her to hear her. Slowly, the systems seemed to come online as the lights kept flickering in and out and eventually, the very loud pop was heard throughout the room as the lights went out again.

“Darn it! Trace that pop! Do we have still have life support online?” She shouted as loud as she could in her disgust. She was not about to take off her EVO suit until there was confirmation that there was breathable air inside this derelict of a station.

Van Der Luan groaned to himself as the lights went out completely, leaving Operations lit only by the soft glow of the panel lights and their EVO suit lights.

He was about to call down to Beck when his suit’s comms activated =^= Red Alert! Red Alert! Explosion on Deck Six, Cargo Bay two! We have a hull breach! Damage control Deck six Deck six! =^=

“What the…!” He keyed his mic =^= Vane Der Luan to the Bridge, what’s going on? =^=

Master Chief McQueen’s voice came back =^= That asteroid we brought aboard, it exploded sir! Blew a hole in our hull and started a fire. And the Captain was down there, we can’t raise him… =^=

Van Der Luan did not hesitate =^= Get us back there Cowboy, right now! Beam us directly to Deck Six, right out side the cargo bay! =^=

=^= Copy that sir, stand by for transport! =^=

Van Der Luan called out to the Away Team =^= You all heard that. We’re going back. Beck, shut everything down, you got ten seconds, then we’re gone! =^=

Beck was cursing in his helmet when his tricorder went off after power went crazy throughout the station. But with the situation going on on the Altai, he was cursing even more. It was his ship and now he’s pissed at who ever broke it. There just was no way an asteroid blows up naturally. He pulled the master switch and all power was cut, the reactor itself spooling down, which will take a while. “You ready, lass?”

Cooper just stepped over to his side. “Let’s get over there.”

Moments later the transporter beam engulfed the team members…

[Deck Six – Cargo Bay 2]

The wreck of the asteroid blazed brightly, bluish green flames danced and flared from the molten power cell, billowing dank acrid smoke and fumes into the compartment. The fire suppression system was working hard to contain the fire, pummping in fire damping gas and foam. It almost succeeded but across the compartment a five foot long jagged piece of hardened alloy had been slammed into the outer hull bulkhead like a javelin.

The point had punctured the inner and outer hull and a three inch tip was protruding into space, the rough shape of the metal was not a perfect fit in the hole and atmosphere was venting out around it. By sheer chance it had slammed right through the power conduit feeding the emergency forcefield generator for that section of hull and there was nothing to stop the leak.

Back inside the cargo bay, near the door way, four bodies lay slumped on the floor

The alert ran out across the ship =^= Red Alert! Red Alert! Explosion on Deck Six, Cargo Bay two! We have a hull breach! Damage control Deck six Deck six! =^=

[USS Don S Davis]

“Sir!” The duty officer entered Walker’s Ready Room. “The Altai just went to Red Alert, they had an explosion on board! That asteroid they retrieved blew up!”

Walker set his padd down as he got up from his chair and headed right on out of his ready room with the officer on his tail. “Give me a status report on the Altai.”

“The asteroid in their Cargo Bay, designated number two, blew up and caused a hull breach. Sensors previous recorded a few lifesigns, one of the badges indicated that their Captain was in there.” Reported the science officer.

“Was or still is?” Walker asked.

“Sensors are having trouble getting lifesigns with that hull breach but I think it’s safe to assume that they are still in there. Appears to be a plasma fire as well, so there must be an open valve. All of that is confusing sensors.”

“Very interesting for an asteroid to just go up like that. Go to Red Alert, raise shields, power up weapons, and I want those launchers full to the brim of torpedoes. I want a full, intensive sensor sweep of the entire area. I want no more surprises for today.” Walker orders as the klaxon went off and the lights shifted to red. Walker had read the recent reports about the Breen, and he was not going to let them catch them with their pants down. He was going to be ready, as ready as they can be. But he sure feels under-powered and outgunned, if they came showing.

“Well…on the flip side…the outpost lost power to its major systems. It looks like we’re going to be very busy rebuilding it up.” Said the Science Officer.

“Sounds like a normal Tuesday to me.”

[Deck Six – Engineering Upper]

The Engineering team swung and turned to look at their senior officer, young Ensign Kappler.

Kappler stood frozen for just a second. He had only just graduated from the academy a few months ago. He knew each man and woman on his team by their personnel logs, but not as individuals and here he was expected to lead them when he was still trying to learn the layout of the ship.

The moment passed and he ordered, “Grab your tools and get to deck six. Move it!” He didn’t have time to worry how he came across when there was a job to do.

[Deck Seven – Security Office]

Astrid was sitting in her cramped office when the explosion rocked the ship. She set down her PADD and tapped her combadge, =^=Vogler to Hazard Team. Suit up and await further instructions. Be prepared for damage control, and casualties.=^=

=^= Vogler to Bridge =^= she said over into the comm. She was already pulling on her own gear, =^=Where do you need us?=^=

=^= Deck six! Cargo bay Two! =^= Came the response, repeating the location that had already been announced

[Deck Six – Cargo Bay 2]

The dull clanging of the alarm was accompanied by a shrill whistle of venting air, the fumes were building but were being pulled away from the prostrate forms on the deck by the breach in the hull.

One of the engineers clearly had a broken leg, it was bent over at an unnatural angle and a white sliver of bone poked through a torn trouser leg. The other was crumbled over a toolbox, several piece of shrapnel protruded from their back, blood ran and dripped from the metal and stone.

The hail of shrapnel that had taken him down had continued across the room and torn into the door control panel. It hissed and sparked, completely wrecked

Nearby the science Ensign was slumped next to a cargo container, blood ran from a large gash on his forehead and a clear fluid drained from their ear.

The fourth body stirred. Pain shot like lighting bolt behind Streth’s eye. Through blurred vision, he could just about make out the carnage around him. Flames licked across a floor strewn with debris and shrapnel. He groaned. He could feel the viscosity of his blue Andorian blood between his cheek and the cold, grey cargo bay deck. Fragments, metallic on one side and rock-like on the other, surrounded him. His eyes pitched sluggishly between the large flaming chunk of the fake asteroid that remained, and the Science Officer by the cargo container. The streak of pain coursed through him again, and Streth fell limp as the burning continued.

[Deck Six – Corridor]
A crewman was frantically trying to get the cargo bay door open when Kappler and Vogler arrived.

She turned to the Engineer “It’s locked out, I cant get it open! The Captain and three others are in there!”

Ensign Kappler looked at the control panel and tried the manual release. “It’s not budging.”

Astrid pulled out her tricorder, “That’s because there’s and uncontained hull breech. The computer safeties are locking us out. We’ll have to cut through the door.” She pressed some buttons on her arm and an EVA helmet materialized from the buffer in her hand.

Several meters away there was a shimmer and six EVO clad figures appeared.

“There is still some atmosphere in the cargo bay,” Astrid announced, “But they are likely hypoxic, and breeching the door is likely to be very similar to an explosive decompression. Grant, and Korel,” she shouted at two of her Hazard Team members, “You two work on getting the emergency force fields back up.”

Van Der Laun looked around getting his bearings, as the team arrived beside him. He cracked the helmet seal and opened his visor. A damage control party came jogging down the corridor and He joined the three at the cargo bay door.

“Report” He stated flatly. “What’s up with the door?”

“Sir,” Kappler didn’t stop his work as he responded. “The cargo bay is depressurizing and the door is on emergency lock down. We will have access in less than a minute. The crew is prepared with field generators to seal the breach.” He returned his full attention to cutting an opening through the door.

“Go to it then Mister Kapler” He nodded grimly “Any contact from the Captain and the rest of them in there?”

“No sir” The crewman shook her head.

Beck walked over to the door, overhearing what the woman said about cutting through. “Sorry lass, that’ll take too long. But feel free to keep cutting while we work on forcing it open. Cooper, give me a hand with this.” He spoke with his thick scottish accent. He pulled out a tool from his belt and pried the door panel open, while Cooper came over to his side, pushed in panel release and yanked the panel off the wall. “Anyone who don’t have a helmet, best get clear to those bulkheads right now!” He then turned to look at Cooper. “Can ya get the forcefields back up?”

Cooper grabbing tools from his belt and working away. “I just need a minute.”

Beck shook his head. “You have my permission to reroute power directly from the EPS grid to the field generators, forget the buffers.”

“With all that power, we might just burn out the field generators.” Cooper told him.

“I’ve studied this ship inside and out since I got on board, the generators will hold! We only need enough time to get in there, get them back over here on this side of the door and we’ll be golden.” Beck told her as he worked on the door panel.

“Can you get the door to seal back up after you open it?” She asked.

“Of course. I’m just killing the safety protocols and disabling the emergency fail safe.”

“I thought the emergency fail safe was there so that you couldn’t disable it.” Cooper asked.

“They’re not that damn redundant.” He grinned.

“What about the hull breach. Why can’t we engage the forcefield there?” She asked.

“I don’t want to risk shunting too much power into that cargo bay. It’s safer to do it here.”

“Alright, I’m all set!” She told him.

Beck double checked to make sure that those who weren’t in EV Suits were cleared. “Do it!” And with that, the section that they were in was now sealed off with forcefields. Beck then looked at the Hazard lady. “All right lass. There is one thing redundancy that this bloody fail safe has. As soon as I get this door open, you and your team need to get in there and get our people out in five minutes! The second this door closes, I will not be able to open it again. Got it? The only thing that will let this door open, is if that hull breach is sealed.”

Cooper went to activating the forcefields but as she did, the flickered on before going right back out. “Damnit! Something’s wrong!”

Beck knelt down beside her and then pulled out his tricorder. “You did everything right. The damage the explosion caused must be more severe in the cargo bay than we realize. Guess we’re just going to have to leave it to them to cut the damn thing open.”

“They might not have a minute then” Van Der Luan concluded and activated his comms =^=Van Der Luan to transporter room. Lock on to the Away Team & Vogler, beam us into the cargo bay! =^=

=^= Transporter room copies! Locking on to you now, six seconds to beam out!=^= Came the reply

“Get the door open, we’ll see you on the other side!” Vane Der Luan said to Kapler and Vogler “Seal up again!” He called to the Station Team and flipped his helmet down.

Astrid pulled on her helmet and sealed it, “Ready sir. If transport is impossible my team is ready to breech with explosives, but we’ll probably have to evacuate this deck.”

Lieutenant N’Vea moved towards the Cargo Bay doors, ready to enter as soon as they were opened. She was glad that she was still holding her medical kit, as it was impossible to know what condition the crew inside the Cargo Bay would be in when she got in there.

“Ready to find out what the hell was inside that asteroid?” Beck asked Cooper.

“You bet. But we got to check on your people first.” Cooper told him.

“Always first, lass.” Beck looked at the XO. “Ready to go, Chief.”

Then it hit Cooper and she quickly grabbed the panel on the floor that she took from the wall before being enveloped by the transporter beam.

The Away Team was picked up by the transporter beam and disappeared

[Bridge]

McQueen turned as he heard the turbo lift open. It was his Department Head, Cramer, coming to the Bridge in response to the Red Alert. He gave the Flight Control Chief a situation report.

“Sir, there has been an explosion in Cargo Bay Two. The Captain was down there, with a Science team, to examine that asteroid we took aboard.”

He listed off the known details. “We have had no contact with anyone in the Bay since the explosion. Internal sensors are down, probably damaged from the explosion. We have a minor hulk breach in that compartment, hull integrity fields are also down, likewise probably from the explosion.

The door to the cargo bay is jammed, Mister Kappler and a Damage party are working on it.

The eX-Oh came straight back from the Station with the Away Team, they are beaming into the Cargo Bay now, along with Ensign Vogler.

You have the conn” With his arrival Cramer was now the senior person on the Bridge and McQueen nodded his head toward the center chair. “Your orders sir?”

“Err…carry on as you were for now” The young Ensign replied, reluctantly taking the center chair.

[Deck Six – Cargo Bay 2]

The Cargo bay appeared around Van Der Luan, there was a pall of thick black smoke coming from the the burning remains of a pile of what looked like shattered rock and mechanical components in the center of the bay. The smoke was being pulled across the room towards the outer bulkhead and then sucked into a hole made by some piece of tube or bar. Debris was strewn everywhere, rock fragments, tools, broken cargo containers, sparks flicker from several damaged conduits on the walls.

The transporter enveloped Vogler and she reappeared inside the dark cargo bay. She switched on her helmet beacons and the emitters sent out twin beams of light illuminating a narrow field of view which only showed devastation.

There was something impacted with the hull, and burned with what she could only describe as fire. That would have to be investigated, but right now she had to focus on their casualties.

“There might be some sort of interference, probably from the object. I’m having trouble getting any lifesigns. I have transporter enhances in my transporter buffer to tag our people.”

“Doc, Olafsen, Vogler, find the Captain and crew!” Van Der Luan ordered “Get them beamed to sick bay!”

“Yes sir!” Astrid replied and nodded to the other two.

“Beck, Cooper, get that hull breach sealed! If you cant get a field in place, find a torch and weld that bar into the hole!” Van Der Luan continued. “Hawthorne, help Kappler get the door open from this side!”

Astrid picked her way through the wreckage. She almost missed them. Their hunched forms had just caught the edge of her beacons. “Found them!” She shouted, and rushed over to their side, and now she felt helpless. They needed oxygen, and that wasn’t something she couldn’t provide.

NVea took hold of the Captain and one of the others. Olafsen grabbed the remianing two. =^=This is Doctor NVea, Six to beam directly to sickbay =^=

Streth could feel his body shifting. He sensed indiscernible movement around him through his scrambled senses. His chest heaved as he coughed a lung full of chemical smoke. A floating sensation coursed through him, and he realised he was being beamed away.

Beck pulled out his torch as him and Cooper headed over to where the hull breach was, least an indication of where it was. They both activated their magnetic boots and helmet beacons to illuminate the area. Beck also had his tricorder in his other hand, locating the hull breach as they got closer. “All right lass, good thing is, it’s not that big. You think that sheet of panel will hold?”

“We just need to seal the hole and any decompression will cease. If we have even the slightest leak, then no, this panel won’t hold.” Cooper told him, as she reached down and grabbed another panel. “Looks like this got yanked off the wall when this all went down.”

Beck smiled. “Two panels better than one. All right, let me have that.” He put his torch and tricorder away and took the second panel from her. “Let’s line them up just right and get them in place.” They held the panels flat towards the hole, slowly moving the panels closer until they were mere inches away, tightening their grip until first Beck released his and it smacked over most of the hole, and Cooper released hers nearly right after, luckily smacking over the hole right next to the second panel. With a quick adjustment, he took his torch and started to weld the panels into place, as well welding the two panels together so there were no cracks or anything that could cause the hull breach to just rip the panels apart. No suction, no risk.

This took about ten minutes for him to do, and Cooper double checked it with her tricorder before patting him on the shoulder. “We’re good here.”

Beck put his torch away with a smile. “That should hold for a while, until the damage control team can apply the actual sealant that we got. But I think I’ll instruct them to fix the forcefield system in the cargo bay. Soon as we get it online, soon we don’t have to worry about this until we get proper repairs done.” He sighed and smiled some more. “Want to go check up on that asteroid?”

“Sure didn’t look like one when we beamed in.” Cooper told him.

Beck nodded his head. “It sure didn’t.” He disengaged the magnetics in his boots. “That’s the part that’s got me interested.” He turned around and started heading towards the asteroid wreck, with Cooper right behind him after disabling her magnets in her boots. Both had their tricorders out and moving in on the wreck.

[Deck Six – Corridor]

Kappler saw sparks, showing someone was assisting him from the other side of the door. “Door will be down in a couple seconds. Masks on, this corridor is beginning to decompress.” The difference in air pressure caused the cut metal to swing open as the atmosphere rushed into the cargo bay.

Hawthorne was just a little too slow backing up and the door panel slammed into her, knocking her off her feet.

Van Der Laun saw her go down and not get up. =^= This is Van Der Laun, Beam Lieutenant Hawthorne to sickbay also!=^=

The Operations Officer vanished a few moments later.

Van Der Laun cracked his helmet seal, and looked around the shattered, smoky, cargo bay. Whatever had been brought aboard, it was no asteroid!

[Cargo Bay 2 – Asteroid wreckage]

The asteroid’s computer brain was dying, it’s chips and data systems were melting in the fire. It was aware of it’s diminishing functions and, as it failed, a final protocol was engaged.

Deep within the shattered carapace was a small heavily armored box, designed for just this eventuality and engineered to survive the asteroids destruction. One side of the box dropped open, it was dark within, an tiny string of orange lights came on and something moved. A spindly, robotic appendage poked its way through the gaping hole in what remained of the asteroid, then a second. Its sensory apparatus followed, as if the machine desired caution. Swivelling lenses on an elongated proboscis peeked out just over the top of the rocky surface, observing. Calculating. There was no time to react. In a microsecond, all eight of its needle legs hopped up onto the rock’s side. Two metallic antennae darted round, feeling the air around it. Another impossibly quick moment, and it was airborne.

Van Der Luan whirled around at the sound of rending metal from the charred debris. Then ducked as something flew through the air!. “What the -!” The fumbled for his phaser but it was already gone

The bot couldn’t have been much bigger than a medkit. Clamping itself to the cargo bay ceiling, it darted about evasively. A tiny cutting beam shot from one antennae, excising a sizeable chunk of duranium which clattered to the floor. It shot into the resulting hole, squeezing and distending its body in a mollusc-like fashion. As fast as it had emerged from its hiding place, it was gone.

Beck and Cooper both jumped when that thing came out. “Scan it! Scan it!” Beck said as he pointed his tricorder at it and tried to run a series of scans on it before it disappeared into the ceiling. Cooper had done the same thing but the entire motion of appearing and immediately disappearing was just too quick for the tricorders. “I didn’t get a whole lot, you?” He asked her.

Cooper shook her head. “Not much at all.”

“Send whatever data we have to the Bridge. Might not be useful but it’ll be something.” He told her and she nodded her head while pressing some commands on her tricorder.

Astrid drew her phaser and tried to get a shot off, but it happened too fast. “What in the Hell was that?” She asked looking around for some help. =^=Vogler to Hazard Team report to deck five. Some sort of mechanical… thing… bug…. I don’t know. It cut a hole through the ceiling. That includes you too Mr. McQueen.=^=

=^=I’m assigned to the Helm right now Boss =^= Came the reply, he was the team pilot and when not on a shuttle borne mission his duty post was the Bridge.

=/\=Understood. Those orders superceed my own.=/\= she turned to Van Der Luan, “Sir, I’m going after that… that thing.”

Van Der Luan approached the hole it had cut in the deck, the edges still glowed red hot. The thing…creature?.. was loose in the ship and they needed to catch it quickly, no telling what it would do. “Alright, get your team together Ensign. I’ll be on the Bridge, let me know as soon as you’re ready.

“Beck, find me a way to track it! Try internal sensors, alarms, power outages, I don’t care how, just track it!”

“Kapler, Cooper, get the hull breach sealed and see what you can find in the wreckage. It came out of whatever that was, there maybe information we can use! And be careful there’s not another one in there!”

He looked around the Officers and crew. “Go to it!”

=^= This is Van Der Luan, Beam me to the Bridge! =^= Moments later he was gone.

[Bridge]

Van Der Luan rematerialized and immediately began pulling off his EVO suit. “Report?” He asked Ensign Cramer in the center chair.

TAG Cramer

“Ok Ive got the conn” He sat down, heavily, still with half the suit on. “Take the helm Mister Cramer. Cowboy, get a weapon and go join the team” He ordered McQueen

“Aye sir!” McQueen was out of his chair in a flash and heading for the turbolift

“Anyone found the critter yet?” Vane Der Luan asked the Bridge crew

[Deck Five, Section Three Gamma]

It skittered and squeezed. Writhing between impossibly small bulkheads, it forced its way past EPS conduits and isolinear circuitry. It paused only to bore a hole through to the next deck or crawlspace. Antennae stood poised above its bulbous sensory unit, listening intently, sensing the quantum fluctuations guided the machine closer to its target.

It was cut off. Without the signal amplifying equipment within its outer shell, it was forced to operate autonomously. Its surroundings were unfamiliar, but it didn’t matter. It would follow its programming. Its surroundings were irrelevant, its beam would get it to where it needed to go. It took the most direct path; through. Damage to its host was not a consideration. Gathering information was its only goal, and the bot made straight for the place that contained the most.

The deck five, section three corridor extended along the starboard side of what could only be roughly described as the USS Altai’s “saucer section”. The large doors that marked the holodeck two entrance parted, and a trio of crewmen filed out. Alert lighting flashed along the corridor at waist height, illuminating their right fields of vision with a crimson hue. Exhausted from mountaineering in the Melrethen Peaks of Peliar Zel Beta, at first they did not notice the small glowing red circle slowly spiralling its way into existence on the deck plating in front of them. The metal disc popped out with a clatter onto the deck, followed by six probing, metallic limbs. They clicked and tapped as they felt about on the deck. The remaining two legs propelled it clean out of its hiding spot and onto the wall. It clung, red alert flashing beneath it casting a shadow that extended across the corridor. Its claws gripped the wall and it jumped forward, the scuttling, distorted shadow appeared at intervals as the red light intensified.

The crewman at the head of the group launched forward in pursuit.

“Drendol, WAIT!” came a yell of alarm from behind, “It’ll do to you what it did to the deck!”

Crewman Drendol heeded the warning, stopping in his tracks, “It’s headed for the computer core,” he called back along the corridor’s curve.

The crewman behind slapped her combadge, =^=Security team to deck five, section three gamma. Intruder is heading through to the computer core. Repeat, intruder is heading towards the main computer core housing!=^= Recognising the alert, the computer duly routed the message through to the bridge and HAZARD team.

=/\=Vogler to Hazard Team; converge on section three Gamma. Expedite!=/\=

[Bridge]

“It’s heading for the core?” Van Der Luan punched the arm of the chair. “Engage security forcefields. Lock the core compartment down!” He ordered.

The duty Security complied, tapping instructions into their panel. “Security systems engaged sir” They reported.

Beck had followed the First Officer to the Bridge to make sure what data they had on Beck’s and Cooper’s tricorders had made it for the Bridge crew to try and track it with internal sensors. Then he heard the crewman over the intercom system, he cursed loudly. “Oh bloody hell. Cooper, does the Don S Davis have any computer cores in storage for this mission?” Beck asked as he walked up to the First Officer.

“Yeah, a few or so, just in case. You never know, so we’re always come prepared for any contingency.” Cooper answered him.

“Perfect. How long do you think the Don S. Davis could get one hooked up and powered?” Beck asked.

“Well we got the equipment and the tools, we could jerry rig a power system, tie it into the EPS power grid, and network it into the ship to bring it online and ready for use. Why?”

“You’ll see.” He then looked to the First Officer. “I have an idea and it needs to be done quick. For one we know it is obviously a threat and for two we cannot allow this threat to get away with vital information so I am willing to take the biggest risk to preserve that vital information from whatever the hell that thing belongs to.” He spoke in his heavy Scottish accent.

“As soon as Don S. Davis gets the spare computer core online, we can transfer everything from our core to that spare core. And I’m not talking about just copy and paste, I literally mean cut and paste. So that little bugging bastard may get some information but it won’t get it all and once the transfer is complete, I can reroute power directly to the computer core’s casing so that bugger gets massively electrocuted. Problem is, doing that may also end up frying the computer core that we currently have…” Beck then looked at Cooper, “Any of those cores on Don S. Davis will be a suitable replacement for the Altai right?”

Cooper nodded her head. “Of course, we don’t carry just one type. Not every ship is universal, be insane if Starfleet Corps of Engineers ever thought of that concept.” She smirked.

Beck smiled back and then looked back at the First Officer. “What do you think, sir?”

“Do it!” Van Der Luan Agreed “But you better work fast, the speed that thing moves, no telling how long we can keep it out of the core compartment!”

Beck nodded his head and looked at Cooper. “Think you can get Don S. Davis up to speed?”

Cooper smiled, “Already on it.” She told him after sending the recording of the entire conversation from her EVO suit to the Don S. Davis. Soon, there was an incoming transmission from them which was brought on screen.

On the view screen, Walker raised the data padd that contained the text version of the message. =^=This correct? =^=

=^=It sure is, sir.=^= Cooper told him.

Walker handed the PaDD off to someone off screen. =^= All right. We’ll get one hooked up and let you know when its ready. I’ve got a large team over here, so it should just take about five, maybe ten minutes. We’ll have to unbox it, secure it, hook it up but we got the personnel.=^= Walker spoke directly at Van Der Luan.

Beck sighed, “Five or ten minutes might be too much, depending on how quick that little bugger can download data.”

=^= Thank you Captain =^= Van Der Luan responded to Walker =^= We’ve engaged security fields around the core and our Hazard team is chasing the thing down. We’ll make the time needed, one way or another! =^=

[DECK 5, Section 3 Gamma]

Astrid held her phaser rifle in the ready. Next to her Korel was breathing heavily. “Relax Crewman. So far it hasn’t attacked anyone.”

The Xindi nodded slowly, bit didn’t relax, “Yes Ma’am.”

“I’ve been in worse situations. When I was sixteen I broke my ankle and fell into a freezing river while skiing alone. Don’t do that by the way. This is just a little bug. We find it, and we all go to lunch okay?”

He nodded. She caught movement from an intersecting corridor and turned to face the unknown and came face to face with a pair of phaser rifles.

One of the pairs of her Hazard Team had made their way to the location looking on edge. She made a mental note to put them into the holodeck with the worst kind of combat she could think of.

“At ease crewman.”

A couple of moments later McQueen came jogging up. He’d grabbed a Phaser Carbine and his body armor. “What did I miss?”

“Nothing yet,” Astrid replied. “Good to see you Cowboy.” As the rest of the team converged she nodded and started breaking them up. “You two go to deck four and you two head to deck five. Let’s make sure it isn’t cutting through the deck again. Cowboy, you know this ship better than me. Take point.”

McQueen nodded, brought his carbine up to his shoulder, sighted down the barrel and moved cautiously up to a corner in the corridor. He swung around it, muzzel clearing the space ahead. The short length of corridor had two doors on the left side, then ended with a third door, entrance to the middle section of the computer core. A red strobe above the door was flashing and a forcefield quietly hissed and crackled, blocking off the access.

“They’ve engaged the security fields and locked down the core Boss” He reported back. The core was housed in a tall but thin cylindrical compartment that covered three decks; six, five and four. There were access doors on all three decks. “Might be best if we get in there, then we can cover all the entrances, instead of bouncing around from deck to deck” He suggested.

Astrid stepped forward, “Computer, deactivate force field, authorization Vogler 951 Theta.”

“Access denied,” the computer responded.

Astrid sighed, and shrugged at Cowboy. “I half expected that. New kid on the block and the low girl on the totem pole.” She tapped her combadge, =/\=Vogler to bridge. I don’t suppose we can access the computer core?=/\=

=^= Standby, we’ll drop the forcefield on the middle level =^= Came the reply.

=/\=We’re in. Securing the computer core now.=/\= Astrid replied.

Astrid looked around, nothing amiss. “McQueen you Denair, and Jefferson take deck four. Grant, Vorath, and Beck take deck six. Shoot on sight, and we’ll ask questions later. I’ll take whatever fallout that comes from that, so don’t worry about any consequences.”

[Bridge]

Ensign Kappler looked up from the Secondary Engineering Console, an idea coming to his mind. “Chief Beck, what if we used the Holodeck to simulate the computer core? The whole ship is on file for tactical simulations. It might confuse the robot and buy us a minute or two, or if we’re lucky it might go for the fake core.”

Van Der Luan looked over to Beck. “Would that buy you enough time to do the back up?”

Beck smiled and nodded his head to Kappler. “Go set it up, Ensign.”

“Aye sir,” Kappler said as he left the bridge.

Then Beck looked to Cooper. “Let Walker know that we just got our ten minutes. I’m going down to the computer core right now. I need to access it directly so that I can shunt main power throughout the entire core casing. Not to mention transfer all data to the secondary core on the Don S. Davis.” He said as he went into the turbolift.

Cooper nodded her head. “I’ll let him know and I’ll be right behind you.” She told him as she followed him right inside the lift.

“Just wish we can get out of these damn suits, but we don’t have the time.” Beck said as the door slid shut. “Main Computer Core.” He ordered the lift.

Cooper smirked, “Well once we’re done here, we’ll probably head right back to the station.”

Beck nodded his head, “Aye.” Course they were both helmetless. Just cramped-ish. “Though I am a wee bit worried about being completely defenseless and a sitting duck once the main computer core is, well…fried.”

Cooper frowned, “Not all command functions run through it though, right?”

Beck sighed. “Ya really think Starfleet is that redundant? Course, I don’t believe any ship had to deal with a bugger like this, nor go with a plan like mine.”

“Probably not.” She grinned.

[Deck Five, Holodeck]

Kappler entered the Holodeck, relieved to see it was not currently in use. “Arch,” he called out and the user interface appeared just inside the Holodeck’s door. Using the control screen, he quickly found the file labeled ‘USS Altai/Deck 5’ and engaged the program, centering on the computer core. There was a hum and the door to the computer core room materialized in front of the young ensign.

[Deck Five – Computer Core Power Conduit ]

It knew they were searching. It skulked above, in a cavity amongst the conduits, listening. It overheard the crew below. It had been programmed with numerous languages and could understand their words

= Standby, we’ll drop the forcefield on the middle level =

The scans it had taken of their energy weapons had determined them to be a significant threat. Now was the time for utmost stealth. It performed a sensor sweep to analyze for it’s next move. There had been two computer centers when it was first activated but now it only found one. It continued scanning trying to find the second.

Suddenly there was a new target. It had not been there a moment before but now data streams and information flows danced across its receptors. They did have a second computer core!

It shuffled around in the conduit and scuttled quickly towards it’s new objective.

[Deck Five – Computer Core]

The forward compartment housed the primary eight hundred modules for the ship’s computer, each made up of hundreds of optical transtator clusters, each containing thousands of segments. All running faster than light nanoprocessors, with each module generating some six-hundred thousand kiloquads of capacity.

The modules were arranged around the outside of the compartment, an open grid catwalk ran across the middle level on Deck Five, with ladders going down to the bottom level on Deck Four and up to the upper level on Deck Six. Also on Deck Six was the System Monitoring room with controls to checked and adjust the core’s functions.

The Secondary core, with a further six hundred modules was located was located aft.

The room, kept cooler than the rest of the ship, was bathed in a soft bluish light and there was a steady humming-drone of the running processors.

As directed, McQueen swung onto the down-ladder and clambered down to the lower level, followed by Jefferson.

“Anything?” Astrid asked she looked around. There was nothing here. Perhaps the decoy was working.

=/\=Vogler to Van Der Luan, computer core is secure. No sign of our friend. What are our orders sir? =/\=

=^= Remain there for now Hazard team. We’ve not been able to find the intruder on internal sensors and we don’t know if it will take the bait of a holo-core. Bridge out =^=

=^=Understood. Vogler out.=^=

[Bridge]

Van Der Luan checked the secondary core had been shut down, the primary core was now running all major functions for the ship. The duty Bridge Engineer confirmed that had happened.

He found a few moments to clamber out of the rest of his EVO suit and resumed his place in the center chair. With all that had happened, he had not thought of what had happened to Streth and the others in the explosion. Now he had time to find out and tapped the arm’s communicator.

=^=Van Der Luan to Sickbay. Do you have an update on the Captain and other casualties? =^= Trying to keep the concern out of his voice.

=^=Sickbay here,=^= came the calm reply, =^=Captain and all casualties stable. It’s gonna be a while before they’re up and about though. Hey WAIT-=^=

=^=Commander,=^= Streth’s voice rasped through the com line, =^=They told me what came out of that rock. Get it neutralised. We need to find out who made it. You’re in the chair for now,=^= he coughed, =^=Doc’s not letting me leave.=^=

=^=Understood sir. We’ll take care of it. Concentrate on getting well. =^=

[Deck Five – Computer Core]

Beck and Cooper also found the opportunity to crawl out of their evo suits, though someone will likely find two piles of it in one of the turbolifts, as they had rushed to the Computer Core to get started. That of course was a bit ago and they had been transfering the data even before the Hazard Team reported no sign of the mechanical menace.

Beck was at one console while Cooper was at the other, both working on speeding up the transfer by compressing larger files ahead of the transfer process, with a program built in to uncompress them as soon as they reach the other computer core on the Don.

Beck checked the progress. =^=We are at fifty percent in the transfer. A few more minutes and we will be able to set up the surprise. It looks like someone had upgraded the Don’s receiver, normally with a relic like Don, it would probably have taken longer.=^= Beck grinned.

“Hey now. You be nice to Walker’s ship. Me, him and that entire team over there worked very hard to make her tip top.” Cooper smirked.

“Only teasing, Chief.” He chuckled as he resumed to compressing. He still had his tools with him, took the toolbelt from the evo suit so that he could get the modification done.

He looked over at the Hazard Team. “As soon as the transfer is complete, and I finish the modifications to electrify the core casing, we all will have to stand clear of the core, unless you want your hair standing up around a five inch diameter hole in your chest. Because if that mechanical bugger takes the bait, we have no clue if any of the electricity will spark off of it or not so best not to be near by when it gets electrocuted.” He warned them.

Astrid gave the core a queer look and stepped back even farther despite being over a meter away in the first place. “That uh… No, that is not something I would like to do. This does not appear to be a safe plan Mr. Beck.”

“As long as ya stand right where you’re at lass, you’ll do fine.” He winked and resumed his work.

“And if we have to move around to get our friend? Not ideal,” Astrid observed. “If it were up to me we’d track it down and eliminate it with phasers. Still, I suppose for something thought up by an engineer, and on short time it’s not bad. But, what if that thing has some sort of sensors? Wouldn’t it just… well, you know, avoid the EM field? Maybe even attack the control unit? I saw it cut through the deck like a hot knife through butter. It could compromise the console before we even realize what’s going on.”

“So we stay here not knowing where the damn thing is, or hope it comes here and possibly get fried along with it, if it does” McQueen observed wryly from the lower level, gingerly poking the muzzle of his carbine into any nooks or crannies between the modules.

Beck looked at them for a moment before returning his focus on the console display. “The bugger was heading for this computer core, that we were all certain of. One of my engineers went to a holodeck to set up a decoy, and from how long we have been in this core, doing this transfer, that bugger should of been in here by now. Am I right?” He looked at Astrid before returning his attention to the display.

“Seventy Five percent, we’re almost done. So, as soon as it realizes the decoy is what it is, it will surely head its way over here. And if by some chance it does realize that this is a trap, it just might expose itself long enough for you and your team to fry it with your phasers.

So it never hurts to have a back up plan in place and I’m confident you and your team will be just fine where you’re at.” He smiled at them before looking over to Cooper. “How is your end, lass?”

Cooper looked up when she realized he was talking to her before returning her attention to the console. “Think I have compressed all the large files I could find. The transfer should speed up from here.”

Astrid gave the core another weary look. “Okay people look alive. We may only have a second to react.”

McQueen and Jefferson took up position in the center of the lower level, backs towards each other, phasers pointing outwards, slowly moving to and for as they waited for something to happen.

[Deck Five – Holo Deck]

Kappler stepped inside the Holo Deck and found a control panel for the recreated computer core and quickly instructed it to begin a level one diagnostic. He pulled out his tricorder and examined the scene, then tapped his com badge and said, =^=Kappler to Chief Beck.=^=

“Ah, he got back to me.” He smiled. =^=What’s the word, Ensign?=^=

“Chief, the program is up and running. I’m going to make modifications to see if I can make the recreated core run hotter than the real core. If the bug responds to anything I’m doing, let me know.”

=^=Well as far as we know, lad, that bugger ain’t here so it likely on its way to you as we speak. So keep an eye out and don’t let it touch you.=^=

[Deck Five – Computer Core Power Conduit ]

It had scuttled along several ducts and conduits, moving slowly to avoid detection. Now it found itself in behind a maintenance access panel next to the room holding the second, more powerful computer. It engaged several programs and tested its data probes, an array of which were mounted on its fore-limbs.

A few moments later it was ready, the cutting beam lanced out, slicing a clean hole in the panel through which it darted.

[Deck Five – Holo Deck]

There was a clang and a rattle as the cut portion of the access panel fell on the deck. The insect-like device quickly scanned the compartment it was in. There was one Humanoid figure present. It ignored it and concentrated on the computer data, searching for the quickest way to plug itself into the system.

There were a series of modules arranged around the room. It scuttled to the closest one, extended several data probes on its head and jabbed it’s head into the module side.

It began receiving data, but it was not of the expected type, it was some kind of photonic energy. It did not know this species used holographic storage and it tried to adapt its probes to read the data streams.

[Deck Five – Primary Computer Core]

Suddenly her display started flashing and she looked up at Beck to see the same flashing glow on his face. “Transfer is complete!”

“Sure is.” He said as he started grabbing for his multitool and opened up one of the panels that had all the power connections he needed. “Stand clear, Cooper. It won’t harm us now but if that bug shows up and touches it, we will want to be clear of any arching electricity.”

“Would it help if we erect a forcefield between us and the core?” She asked.

“Well if we did, it might give away our trap to the bug. Nah, lass, we’ll be fine. I’m sure of it. Only thing that won’t be fine, is our core. Moment that bug touches it, it’ll fry the bloody thing, along with every data and function inside. Luckily we got emergencies, so we won’t lose complete function of the ship.” He said as he started rearranging some cables. “That should do it.” He said as he got up and went back to the console, tapping in some commands before tapping his badge.

=^=Beck to Bridge, the bug zapper is ready.=^=

=^= Bridge Copies, let’s see if it takes the holographic bait =^=

Astrid moved in closer to Beck, her voice pitched just high enough for him to hear, “Are you sure this is still a good idea Sir? Frying the computer seems like a very bad idea.”

Beck replied back in his thick scottish accent. “Well lass, if you manage to shoot the thing before it touches the core, then we’d be peachy. But we’re all thinking that this bug is the enemy and if it gets any critical data off of our core and manages to escape the ship, whoever our enemy is, will have a clear upper advantage against us. Quite frankly, frying the computer core is a very bad idea, but it’s worth the risk. Pretty much every Starfleet ship carries almost the entire Starfleet Database, which is updated periodically.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. “Pretty sure in history that there has been an Enterprise or two that had some alien copy the data off of their computer core. We need that data for a lot of reasons, but allowing a threat taking any byte of it, is not okay. So I rather fry this thing than let the bugger run off with our data. Besides, we got a backup now on the Don.” He smiled.

She frowned, “So, putting that all on me.” She shrugged, “Aside from Master Chief McQueen this team is as green as they come. So wet behind the ears they are practically dripping.. I’ll get them whipped into shape, but we are operating outside of their capabilities right now.” She shrugged, “This is your circus sir, I’ll do what I can with corralling your monkeys.”

[Deck Five – Holo Deck]

Kappler looked at the computer control panel and noticed an external data transfer. Had this happened while he was working on the real computer core, he wouldn’t have noticed. Requests for information from the main computer would be coming from all over the ship, but here he had adjusted the holodeck program to stop simulating these random requests. The only place a data transfer could be initiated was from within this room.

A cold chill ran down his spine as he slowly circled the core. There, almost camouflaged amongst the other technology, the device stood with one of its spidery legs inserted into an isolinear access port.

The ensign returned to the control panel and considered his options before stepping out of the room. He tapped his badge and said, =^= Kappler to Bridge.=^=

=^= Go ahead Ensign=^=

“Sir, the device is in the holodeck,” Kappler said, trying to keep the fear he was experiencing from registering in his voice. “It attached itself to the replicated core and initiated a data transfer. How should I proceed?”

It knew it was detected. Its sensors had detected the Humanoid’s gaze, lingering just long enough for the machine to know it had been spotted. Imperceptibly, it clicked and whirred, redoubling is efforts to extract anything it could. Except… There was nothing. No files. No coordinates. No data of any kind, just useless photons glimmering suspended in a medium of light.

Its leg retracted from the port. If this core contained nothing, the bug’s algorithmic processes compelled it to head to the next most powerful quantum processing unit. A leg raised, waving around, pinpointing the weaker computer core signal. If it was capable of experiencing frustration, this is what the spidery mechanism would have appeared to display as it wiggled its sensory “head” back and forth.

It’s close proximity to the holo-core was generating an level of interference that was unacceptable to the bug. Time was critical, and it could not afford another misdirection. It concluded, therefore, that the only way to ensure directional clarity was to eliminate this signal interference. In a display of lightning agility its legs sprung out from under it, propelling it in a single jump to the apex of the holographic core. It quickly located the main holo-emitter responsible for the deception, and a blinding beam of concentrated energy shot forward from the bug into the holodeck ceiling.

Warning The computer reacted immediately followed by a two-tone alarm, Power surge detected. Electroplasma circuit overload. Holo-emitters deactivating.

The holographic core fizzled out for a second, blinking back into being once, then twice, before its constituent photons appeared to scatter into an unfelt wind.

It moved faster now. Time grew short. Concealing itself was no longer a concern. It had a fix on a target now – the real target. As it cut back out into the Deck Five corridor, it ran across the ceiling above the head of the Humanoid who had been inside the holodeck.

“Sir, the simulation just shorted out,” Kappler said, his comms to the bridge still active. “I see it! It’s headed toward the aft wall of the holodeck in the direction of the real core.”

[Bridge]

“It did what!? Blew out the holo-deck and it’s heading back to the core? Gawdammit” Van Der Luan swore as the Tactical officer informed him of the holo-image collapse and the intruder’s current presence on internal sensors.

=^=Bridge to Hazard Team! It’s coming your way! Be ready! And Mister Kapler, get after it, I want visuals! =^=

=^=We’re in position,=^= Astrid replied.

[Deck Five – Holo Deck]

Kappler’s tricorder hummed as it scanned the object. =^= “Kappler to Bridge. It’s generating a low level scattering field. I’m getting some readings, mostly visual and external composition. Electro magnetic readings are distorted and I’m not able to pick up anything of the device’s internal structure. Sending what I have to you now. It’s reached the back wall and is cutting through now.” =^=

[Deck Five – Primary Computer Core]

McQueen swung around to face aft, weapon coming up to an aim point. Jefferson swung in along side him. Both of them staring at the entrance hatch and the smooth circular walls of the surrounded modules.

Astrid raised her rifle to the probable location that it would come through. She sensed more than saw that Korel was at her side braced for action. The banter between her and Beck forgotten. It was time for buisness, and all hands on deck.

Her only movement was her eyes as she scanned the surrounding area. Her ears listening intently for any tell-tell sign of it cutting through a bulkhead.

“Sir, do you have a phaser?” She asked Beck without looking in his direction. “If you are free, I could use another set of eyes.”

Beck raised a brow at her. “I got myself my handy-dandy plasma torch. I could just jump on it and burn its eyes out.” He joked with a grin. “Nah lass, you and your team are more trained with your weapons than we Engineers are. You’ll probably have a better chance at hitting a tick off of a horse without hurting the horse than I would.” He added more to his joke as he monitored the energy flow in the grid that was being pumped into the core casing.

Cooper shook her head. “Do you think it’ll still go for the core with all of us in here? Wouldn’t it think that maybe this is in fact a trap when it comes burning a hole into this room and sees so many officers just standing here like we’re having a picnic?”

Beck shrugged his shoulders. “If having all of us in here scares the bugger off, then G.I. Jane and her team here can chase after it, while we take a nice deep breath and relax. Then if it doubles back, the bug zapper will still be ready for it.”

Astrid sighed in annoyance. Still without looking away from scanning the core she drew her sidearm and extended it to Beck. “Sir, we may only get one shot at it. We can’t monitor every possible point it could show itself every second. Point it like your ‘bloody wee’ plasma torch and press the center button. G.I. Jane?”

There was no time for anyone to respond. A muffled clang signaled the bug’s entrance to the computer core housing as it sliced through yet more inches of duranium. The signal was dead ahead, and deep within its artificial brain it knew it was now or never. It exploded forward like a shot from an ancient cannon, racing across the room’s ceiling in a flash.

The armed figures in front stood between it and the target. Calculations coursed through its internal circuitry at quantum speeds, its trajectory was set. It leapt. In a split second the insectoid legs that propelled it forward splayed out around its convex body. They snapped forward together in mid-air. Now a dagger-like cone, it hurtled in a javelin arc towards the computer core and the humanoids that stood in its way.

Beck heard something unfamiliar and when he looked, the speed it was moving was insane and he only had a split second decision at this. “Everybody get down!” He shouted before he dropped himself to the floor as well. If someone could get a lucky phaser shot on it, grand, but it was heading straight for the computer core and he figured it be safer to be down on the carpet if and when the bug zapper zaps that thing.

Astrid drew a sight on the bug and fired. The phaser shot hit it, but with a glancing blow. The bug’s trajectory remained unaltered. Swearing under her breath she tried realign and fire again.

McQueen and Jefferson snapped their weapons upwards, but neither could fire as there were personnel above them in the line of fire!

McQueen dodged to the side to get a better angle, he let lose a shot but missed as the thing flew through the air.

It reached its target. Legs still pointed forward, it fell upon one of the computer core’s main interface panels. It smashed through the surface with a loud crack, sparks spewed from the torn circuitry and choking white smoke began to billow. It’s head remained visible, but its metallic dagger legs penetrated deep into the core. They whizzed and whined, tiny tendrils emanated from their whole length. They reached out, fusing to ODN lines, sucking up data from their surroundings. Insatiable, it absorbed all it could. A pulsating hum grew faster and faster into a high pitched whirr and its head-like sensory unit split open. A glowing protrusion, spinning, emerged from the top of the machine which had now bifurcated. Now one with the core, it prepared to transmit everything it had found. But there was nothing. A brief scan of the data revealed only junk, empty container files and meaningless brinary strings. An electrical buzz built up within the computer core’s cylindrical casing. Power fed from an external source built up into a humming crescendo. The last thing its occular sensors detected was a leaping arc of electricty that poured into its body. Its legs retracted immediately, attempting to protect itself from a rising internal temperature as its own power coplings began to overload. It hissed and smoked. Its grip on the core casing weakened until, after a few seconds had passed, it fell away. The burned metallic husk rocked back and forth briefly, and it was still.

Astrid sat on the deck leaning against the bulkhead coughing up the acrid smoke that filled her lungs. Her right elbow resting on her knee and her head between thumb and forefinger. Catching her breath and senses she crawled to her feet.

“Everyone report in.” Astrid shouted before succumbing to a fit of coughing.

=/\=Bridge to computer core housing,=/\= Streth’s voice echoed through the smoke, =/\=We’re reading a massive power surge. What’s going on down there?=/\=

Astrid was realizing the sharp pain in her chest was from some arcing electricity when the Captain’s voice cut through the haze. =/\=Our friend is neutralised sir. As far as the core….=/\= She looked it up and down, “That’s above my pay grade, but it doesn’t look good=/\=

Beck watched in amazement at how quick that bug moved, how it pierced into core’s interface and how in matter of seconds, the proximity of that mechanical spider had awakened the shocking trap that Beck and Cooper laid for it. Covering his eyes, he watched as it was hit by a bright arching bolt of electricity, his ears filling up with the hissing sound and watched as smoke filled the room in which they now breathe in. The moment Beck saw it hit the floor and not moving, was when he reached over to the console to disengage all power to the primary core, but just as he hit the button, a small arch of electricity reached out and hit his hand, causing him to cry out. He sat back against the bulkhead by the door as he held his hand, watching the console go dark as power was finally terminated by the command he gave.

Cooper came over to him, breathing into her sleeve as she checked his hand. “Are you all right?” She asked him, while she examined his right hand. It had a large circular burn on the back of his hand and on the palm of his hand.

Beck nodded his head. “Yeah, just hurts like hell.”

“It looks like a third degree electrical burn. Is your hand numb?” Cooper asked.

“My whole bloody arm is numb.” Beck told her.

Cooper nodded her head. “Your system took a nasty shock, is it just your arm?”

Beck pressed his left hand into his shoulder and towards his chest then back. “Yeah, just the arm. I can still feel my shoulder when I put pressure.”

Cooper smiled. “On the Don, electrical burns are pretty common when we’re out upgrading or retrofitting outposts and space stations. Some fear of nerve damage but they always get feeling back in their limb in a few hours. All you really need is to get these burns checked out.”

Beck smiled and then looked over at Astrid who was answering the bridge. After her remark about the core, he spoke up. =^=Beck here. Had to shut down all power to the primary core to, well obviously shut off the bug zapper. Didn’t want anyone to get too close to it while power was still shunting into it. But my best guess is, the core is likely to be fried. And if the emergency system is working properly, the secondary should be kicking on right about-=^= And with that, they could hear a slight hum and then the smoke in the room being filtered out through the ventilation until it was breathable again. Beck took in a deep breath and sighed, =^=And there we have it. Like nothing happened.=^=

Cooper smirked. =^=Cooper to Bridge. I’m going to take Beck here to Sickbay. He’s got some burns on his right hand but other than that, he should be fine. Then I’ll return to the computer core to disengage the trap and run a complete diagnostic on it. If you could send someone to grab that dead bug, I’d like to take it apart and see who owns it.=^=

Cooper then looked over to Astrid. “Want to dissect a mechanical spider with me?” She grinned.

She winced in pain, “Nah, that’s your job. I break it you fix it. Division of labor.”

Streth smiled slightly as their bickering came through his combadge. =/\=Acknowledged, Cooper. Vogler, get yourself to sickbay with Beck. Security team is en route to pick up the bug, they’ll leave it waiting for you in the main science lab.=/\= He had been watching their vitals from the operations station on the bridge. His own injuries ached a little as he let out a small sigh of relief, antennae drooping forward. He was tired. =/\=All of you, great work down there. Now make sure you get some rest. That bug’s not going anywhere – the dissection can wait until tomorrow.=/\=

It had been a busy day in sickbay, Streth thought to himself. Finishing the final system checks, he handed bridge control to gamma shift. The crew of the Don S. Davis had been hard at work, and no doubt some of them were now also finishing up from a hard day of photonic welding, duranium replication and isolinear relay spooling. Slowly but surely, Outpost 1-SZ was flickering back to life.

Benjamin was standing there in front of the door to the Division Head of his sector, who had called him to meet with. He was only a few steps away from the door, with his hands clasped behind his back as he waited for the command to enter, the very same command that would notify the computer to unlock and open the door so that whomever was waiting, could enter. He wasn’t certain as to why he was being called to the ‘Principle’s Office’ as his colleagues would say, he knew that he had completed his missions with success. He has turned in valuable information that Starfleet was able to use, and he was quite frankly eager to get back out there and continue to do his job for Starfleet.

“Enter.” The voice came and so the door split apart to grant Ben entry, as such he stepped through and stood at attention before the Commander’s desk. “At ease, Lieutenant. Take a seat.”

“No disrespect to you sir, but I prefer to stand.” Ben replied.

“Your choice.” He said before looking at the other individual, Benjamin’s supervisor.

“Something wrong, sir?” Ben asked.

“Now, Benjamin. No need to over analyze or make assumptions. We are simply here because we would like to discuss about your performance these past fourteen years with Starfleet Intelligence.” Said Ben’s supervisor.

“All right.”

The Commander was then skimming over something on the data padd before him before looking up at Benjamin. “Your record here appears to be quite spotless, Lieutenant. Your supervisor here even says that you are one of his best agents.”

Ben shrugged a shoulder. “Just doing my job, sir.”

The Commander nodded his head. “Of course.” He went back to skim reading before looking at Ben again. “Your latest assignment, gathering intelligence on the Hunters of D’Ghor was exemplary. Of course, you weren’t alone in that field either.”

Ben shook his head. “No sir.”

The Commander nodded again. “Care to explain how it felt to work with a group, Lieutenant?”

Ben paused for a moment before answering, “I did not work with everyone, sir.”

The Commander frowned. “Why not? Where did you work, Lieutenant?”

“I took on assignments by myself, sir. Assignments that required infiltration, simple intelligence gathering, even portraying as a buyer for slaves at one of the Orion slave hubs, just to get my hands on data that were more difficult to get, but were much more valuable for Starfleet.” Ben explained.

The Commander nodded again. “By yourself.”

“Yes, sir.”

The Commander then sighed. “I am not going to say that what you did was wrong, Lieutenant. You succeeded in pretty much every assignment you took. You got information that helped the Fourth Fleet quite well. But again, you were not alone on that task, Lieutenant. You had a team, a team that you were suppose to work with, to get the intelligence together. So explain to me, why did you choose to do these assignments, along with the risks of either being caught, captured, interrogated or even killed, all by yourself.”

“I work best alone, sir.” Ben replied.

It was the supervisors turn to sigh. “That is not how Starfleet operates, Benjamin. I told you from the beginning when we accepted you into Starfleet Intelligence, that you will have to cope and work with a team one day. Then we had a crisis on our hands, and you were placed with a team to make the Fourth Fleet’s job easier, and yet you chose to not work as a Team Player.”

Ben frowned, “Surely my years of service, my dedication and determination at my job for Starfleet is enough.”

Both shook their heads. “Sorry, Ben. It is not.” The Commander told him. “And for this, we are going to have to reassign you…out of Starfleet Intelligence.”

Ben frowned even more. “This is my home. This is where I belong. You said it yourself, I am one of your best agents and you want to kick me out?!”

The Commander raised his hands. “Except you have clearly shown that you cannot work with a team, and that is what we need, that is one of the principles of Starfleet, of the Federation. There is no ‘I’ in Team and certainly no ‘U’ in Team either. The Federation is a collection of many different races working together as a team. Starfleet is filled with many of those races, working together as a team. That goes for every single department in Starfleet, including Starfleet Intelligence.”

Ben appeared to have relaxed but he was clenching his fists. “Where am I being reassigned to, sir?” He asked with a calm, although annoyed, voice.

The Commander grabbed another data padd and looked it. He then looked at Ben’s supervisor, who nodded, before looking back at Ben. “We are going to assign you as the Second Officer of the USS Altai. The Commanding Officer has already been made aware of your arrival, we even made sure he had access to your files so that he understands who he is getting. We already blindsided him by throwing you into the Second Officer position without notifying him first, so the least we can do is let him know who you are and what you are capable of.” In this case, Ben’s record will show that he not only served in Starfleet Intelligence for fourteen years, along with his skills and training from being in Starfleet Intelligence but he also has advance ground weapons training, hand to hand combat, majored in Astrophysics as well as Command and Control, can pilot anything from a shuttle craft to a starship and has field medic training. He was more of a hands on active Intelligence Agent who preferred to get his information on the ground than hiding behind a portable computer with some ‘spy’ equipment that records audio or video or both, depending on what was installed in the ‘targets’ room.

“And what is the Altai’s mission?” Ben asked.

The Supervisor walked around the desk and sat down in one of the chairs opposite from the Commander. “Her mission is to get an old listening post back online that was used during the Dominion War. It was put in place in an ice asteroid belt to keep an eye on the Breen, right after they joined in the war as our enemy. We’ve been hearing rumors, uncomfortable rumors, that the Breen have been taking Dominion Technology and retrofitting their ships with it. Weapons, shields, you name it. Not only that, but because of the trouble we were having with the Hunters of D’Ghor, there was also some fear that the Breen will try to take advantage. Luckily they haven’t…yet. We don’t know what the Breen are doing, and I will admit it, it scares the hell out of me. How do we know if they have not adapted their disabling weapon technology so that it works again? Starfleet cannot afford another war or conflict, especially not with the Breen and especially with their enhanced warships and if they have figured out on how to make their disabling weapon work again, Starfleet will quite literally be screwed. Big time.”

The Commander raised a finger and pointed at Ben. “But you are NOT there to gather any sort of intel about them. At least, not by yourself, Lieutenant. You are there, as a Second Officer of the USS Altai, and you will be taking orders directly from the Commanding Officer. Whatever he says, whatever he tells you to do, you do it. You understand?” Benjamin nodded with a ‘Yes, sir.’ The Commander sat back in his seat. “Good. Because the Altai is going to get that kind of information, together. As a Team. But they are doing it as discretely as possible. They also have a Starfleet Corps of Engineers with them, the USS Don S. Davis, commanded by Lieutenant Commander Walker. Him and his team has going around to about every starbase and outpost along the Federation border to retrofit and upgrade them as best as his team can. So that listening post should be working like it just recently built, thus it shouldn’t be too difficult for them to get information that we desperately need. But that information comes from the Commanding Officer, not from you, not from some secured channel. I get one secured, untraceable message from you, and I will submit to Starfleet Command a Dishonorable Discharge for Insubordination. Are we clear?”

Benjamin felt a tight twinge in his heart, as if the Commander had taken a dagger, stabbed him in his heart and twisted it. Starfleet meant a lot to Ben, and being threatened that he would be kicked out of Starfleet for crossing a line that they know Ben would never do…it hurt. But a part of him understood why this was being said. Ben had been doing everything alone. He had been pushing people away and left his shields up at full strength so no one could get in. He simply did nothing but worked alone for the entirety of his career. This was his punishment. Being forced to work with a team and to be a team player. Either he didn’t have a choice, or he had a Division Head that was simply looking out for Benjamin and wanted the man to get some friends, whether Starfleet truly cared if he worked alone or not.

“Crystal clear, sir.” Ben replied.

“Good.” The Commander then gestured to Ben’s now former supervisor, who got up and gestured to Ben to follow him as they walked out of the office.

“We already have a runabout set up for your trip. It should take about, maybe a week, maybe less if you push the engines but you’ve done this before so you already know that you cannot push those engines too hard on these runabouts.” The man explained.

“I do.” Ben replied.

“Good. Anyway, the runabout is prepped and supplied for your journey. I recommend reading up on the USS Altai and her crew. Since you are going to be the Second Officer, you’re going to have a lot of responsibility and it would be wise to learn all you can. I think a week would be more than enough. Another thing that I would recommend is getting to know your Commanding Officer and First Officer. I am not saying you have to open up all the way to them, I’m just saying, be an ear for them. Give them a reason to trust you, Ben and you will do fine there.” They walked into a turbolift which they took to the main bay where all sorts of crafts were sitting in.

Benjamin sighed finally. “Why?”

The man looked at him with a raised brow before smiling. “I really rather not lose you, Benjamin. But you haven’t made a single friend since you joined Starfleet Academy. I know this because you haven’t made a single video call to anyone. Sent no letters. Didn’t spend any time at the parties or at the local bar. You were all cooped up in your room, studying. Then when you graduated and joined us at Starfleet Intelligence…it was the same thing. None of us saw you mingle with the others. None of us saw you make small talk with anyone.” He shook his head and folded his arms over his chest. “You are a great agent, Ben. But you are also a human being. You can’t keep going like this, isolating yourself.”

“I just really enjoy working alone. If there is a mistake, it would be my own and no one else’s. My responsibility and no one else’s.” Ben explained.

“Which is honorable. If you had made a minor or even a major mistake, you would be the only one accountable and everyone else would of gotten away scott free, because you wouldn’t let them help you. But that’s the point. You’re not giving them the chance. Sure, you have had very minor mistakes since you joined us, but that was in the beginning of your career with us, which we almost always expect a Junior Agent to make a mistake. It happens. But ever since then, you’ve done an incredible job. But still, you gave no one a chance to make a mistake with you, or give you feedback or criticize your work, or…” He sighed. “As I said, Ben. You didn’t give anyone a chance. You need friends. Because you need people to trust you.”

Ben frowned. “Don’t you trust me, sir?”

He sighed. “Of course I do, because you’re amazing at what you do. But I am your supervisor. If something were to happen, I can’t protect you because I would be bias. You see what I am saying? You have no one to back you up. No one to help you. No one to save you from anything that could potentially end your career in Starfleet. You’re great. But you can’t be great forever. You’re bound to make a mistake at some point and when you do, it could be so devastating that would not only end your career with Starfleet but could also put you in prison. And you have absolutely no one to back you up, to prove that the mistake wasn’t your fault. Let me put it bluntly. You. Are. Alone. And that is depressing. So be thankful that we’re sending you somewhere to help you build your Team Player Skills, rather than sending you to a therapist or psychiatrist, which those will end your career in Starfleet Intelligence. For good. Because we simply can’t keep an agent who is compromised, especially a field agent. We have strict policies.”

Ben frowned again and then followed his former supervisor as the lift had stopped and the door had opened, following him to the runabout. “So wait…are you saying I can come back to Starfleet Intelligence after I…develop my Team Player Skills?”

They stopped by the open side hatch of the runabout. “Depending on what the Commanding Officer says about you, we shall see. But we’re also hoping that, once you start opening yourself up to people, that you may not want to leave. Look, I’m not saying we wouldn’t want you back. It’s just, most officers who do really well at their jobs, is because their colleagues around them had become a second family to them. They’ve become really good friends, trust each other through and through, and would always back each other up, no matter what. I am hoping that you will develop that same kind of bond that maybe you don’t want to come back to us at Starfleet Intelligence. But then again,” He shrugged his shoulders. “If you do come back a different man, maybe you’ll form a bond here as well. Guess only time will tell. So do you understand your assignment?”

Ben sighed and nodded his head. “I do, sir.”

“Good. And if anything changes at all while you’re on your trip to the USS Altai, we will let you know. All right?”

Ben nodded his head. “Yes, sir.”

“Good. Have a pleasant flight, Lieutenant Benjamin Jones. I hope to hear more good things about you in the future.” And with that, he walked away to get back to his office to pack and get back to his team on another world.

Ben again sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose before stepping into the runabout. He pressed the command to shut the hatch before sitting down in the pilot seat and started the preflight sequence. Once everything was in the green, and noticed that the auto-pilot was already set up to where he needed to go, he launched the craft out of the bay, staying on the projected flight path he was given to leave safely and up into orbit. Once he was clear, he engaged the auto-pilot and let it do its thing. A week on board this craft was not going to be exciting but he figured he might as well get some reading done and learn about his new assignment.

[Present Day…]

Benjamin just finished shaving when he heard the comm system notifying him that he had an incoming message from his former Division Head Commander at Starfleet Intelligence. He had not expected any ‘changes’ in his assignment, so he was rather curious about it. He finished getting dressed before going to the front of the runabout and sitting down at the pilot seat, just to open up the video message, a recorded one as it appears, so no response was really needed.

“Lieutenant. There has been a slight change in the roster on the USS Altai. We were just informed that the current First Officer is being reassigned and will be leaving with the Don S. Davis once they are finished with the listening station. It appears that you are now going to be the First Officer on board the USS Altai. Of course, I am not going to say that it is completely decided. That is completely up to the Commanding Officer and what he decides. So I hope you’ve been studying, Lieutenant. Because once you arrive, I highly suggest you report to the Commanding Officer at once and find out where he wants you. But don’t be surprised if he does make you his First Officer. So be prepared, because guess what, you just earned a lot more responsibility. Good luck out there, Lieutenant.” And then the screen blinked to reveal the UFP Logo.

Ben sighed heavily and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He had read up and studied the duties of a Second Officer, but now he has to go and study the duties of a First Officer. Worst of all, he is about to arrive at the system and when he does, the runabout will take him straight to the Steamrunner Class vessel, as soon as it picks up its transponder. That being said, before Ben could pull up any details on being a First Officer to study, the runabout just dropped out of warp and was already picking up the USS Altai. Ben cursed under his breath, only to start receiving a warning notification on his display, the runabout had ran a full scan on the USS Altai, normal procedure, especially when the auto-pilot needed to inform the ship that it needed docking procedures so that it could land the craft in full automation. The display was telling him the condition of the vessel, stating that the Primary Computer Core was offline and the Secondary had just been engaged hours ago.

Ben frowned and started entering commands, linking the Runabout’s ODN with the Altai’s and pulling up information on what happened. Sensor readings, command prompts, reports that were recently filed, as well as damage and repair reports. Ben frowned even more, “The Chief Engineer did what? To do what?” There wasn’t a lot, only so much was filed, surely more to come later, but this just means that he was not fully up to speed on the current situation, let alone not up to speed as to what his position will be, SO or FO. Ben sat back in his seat and watched as the runabout flew around the USS Altai before slowing down to start making its final approach to the shuttle bay. “The hell did they get me into…”

Dr. Atticus Randall looked up from his PADD as a blond woman in her mid-twenties entered sickbay. Setting his medical journal down he stood and walked over to her. “Hello Ensign, ” he greeted in his posh English accent. “What seems to be the matter?” He motioned for her to sit on a nearby biobed.

Astrid grimaced as climbed onto the bed, “I think I was electrocuted.”

“You think?” Atticus picked up a medical tricorder and started scanning.

“I blacked out for a moment. Breathing hurts and my heart feels…. well, I don’t exactly know how to describe it.”

Atticus set the tricorder down and picked up a hypospray. He filled it and injected the drug into her arm. “You did receive a electrical shock. It would appear that your suit protected you.”

“I expect that’s the point,” she said with a weak smirk.

“So, it hit you in the chest, where did it bloody discharge?”

Astrid shrugged, “Uh… yeah. I think I might know.” She peeled off her left glove to reveal a series of ugly burns on her fingertips.

Atticus frowned in sympathy and picked up a dermal regenerator and ran it over the burns. After several seconds the burns had faded into a healthy pink. All traces of the injury now gone. “How did you do this to yourself?”

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Astrid retorted, “This wasn’t my plan. Our insane Chief Engineer decided to electrify the computer core, and when the bug thing jumped on it, I must have been in the way of an electrical arc.”

Atticus shook his head, “Let me get a screen set up and get you into a hospital gown for the next part.”

“Doc,” Astrid said with a sigh. “They’re just boobs, and I’m wearing a bra. Let’s just get this over.” She was already peeling out of the top of her hazard suit. Tossing it to the food of the bed she lifted up her tank top to reveal the wound.

Atticus activated his dermal regenerator again and soon his patient was good as new. He made one last scan with his tricorder and smiled. “There, almost good as new. The rest of the symptoms will start to pass in a few hours, but do me a favour will you? Don’t be jumping into any bloody lighting for a few weeks will you?”

Astrid was pulling the top of her hazard suit back on and laughed, “I’ll see what I can do. No promises. First day on the job and I’ve already shot at a mechanical spider, and did my best lightning rod impression.”
Atticus laughed as he put his equipment away. “What’s your name by the way Ensign?”

“Vogler, Astrid Vogler.”

“Nice to meet you Miss Vogler. Doctor Atticus Randall, at your service madam.” He made an exaggerated bow in the same vein of a proper eighteenth century gentleman.

Astrid made a more subdued bowing of her head. “See you around Doc. Let’s just hope it’s not any time soon. No offense.”

“None taken Ensign.”

Michelle Ortiz was in one of the Altai’s science labs sitting at one of the holo-tables, and a tablet propped up in mid-conference call. Scattered about the table, backlit in soft white/blue, were dozens of bone fragments holographically reproduced in intricate detail.

Michelle picked up one of the larger fragments, roughly the size of a silver dollar, and examined it. She turned it over in her fingers, and then pulled on the edges to make it bigger. “Dr. Kaoutzanis, what did you date this as?”

“Between 100,000 and 150,000 years ago.”

Michelle set the piece down and it snapped back to its original size and picked up another piece. This time it was an 8cm fragment of mandible complete with two molars and a canine.

“That’s impossible,” she replied. She held up the fragment to the tablet for emphasis. “There were no homo sapiens in Southern Spain that long ago. And this is clearly a modern human. ” She shuffled through the fragments and packed up a finger bone, most likely a middle phalange. “Judging by this and the teeth, this individual was an adolescent. The structure would suggest female, but without a pelvis and rebuilding the skull that is pure speculation.”

Dr. Kaoutzanis laughed, “Our team had a similar reaction. You’re right we shouldn’t have found her in that cave, but here we are. There are more bones and stone tools that we are still excavating and cataloging. But, you are good Dr. Ortiz. It took us a week to come to age and gender. It’s good to have that confirmation though.”

“Well, glad to have been of help,” Michelle grinned.

“When are you going to leave Starfleet? You belong back here on Earth. We could use you in excavating this cave.”

Michelle shrugged, “I don’t know. It is unfortunate having two loves that don’t compliment each other. I’m excited to pick new cultures apart. To see what no other human has seen. But, yeah… Starfleet isn’t what I expected. This hasn’t been the meteoric climb through the ranks like I envisioned. But, here we are. Not a whole lot of fossils found on a starship. Now, if I had gone into astrophysics or something I’d always be busy, but I would have to sacrifice this love.” She shrugged, “I’ll give this tour a chance, but I will likely resign soon enough. And I’ll be looking for a job.”

“You have one with us,” Kaoutzanis said with a grin.

“Thanks Doctor. We’ll, if there is anything I help you will let me know.”

“Absolutely. I’ll be in touch. Kaoutzanis out.

Michelle flipped off the holo-table and the bone fragments and the tablet vanished into thin air. Gathering up her belongings she walked out of the Anthropology lab heading for the mess hall.

Dr. Randall took his tray from the replicator slot and turned to scan the mess hall. It packed… of course it was lunch time. That had to be expected.

In the corner one of the smaller tables sat a solitary figure. She was hunched over PADD transfixed on its contents. She didn’t even look away as she picked up her sandwich and took a bite.

Atticus crossed the room, skillfully dodging officers as he mad his way to her table. Without invitation he slid into the seat across from her. She looked up and scowled at him. Her dark features as unwelcoming as they come.

Undaunted he smiled giving her his best disarming expression. “Hello, I’m Doctor Atticus Randall,” he introduced.

“Not interested,” she said without looking up from whatever she was working on.

“Not interested in what?” He asked with his English accent.

“Whatever it is you want. I assume you want to ask me on a date.”

“I perish the thought. No my dear all I want is a place to sit and enjoy my meal. Though, friendly conversation might make things a bit less awkward.”

Sighing she pushed her PADD away and sat up with her hands folded on the table in front of her. “Doctor Ortiz.”

“Pleasure to meet you Doctor,” Atticus replied. “I assume that’s PhD? You aren’t a member of my medical team.”

“Yes it is,” Michelle replied. She picked up a potato chip and bit into it with a crunch. “That means you have the M.D.

“Indeed. So, what is that PhD in?”

Sighing she was getting annoyed with this man, even if he was kind of cute. “Paleoanthropology. I also have degrees in human biology and linguistics.”

“Okay, the linguistics I get. Being able to read tombs and stuff. But human biology?”

“My focus is on early hominids. Not a lot of tombs… or writing for that matter. The human biology is helpful. I may not have to deal with a lot of soft tissues, but knowing the bones and how they relate to the body is helpful.”

Atticus thought for a moment, cut a chunk of shephard’s pie before answering, “I can see that.”

Michelle finished her sandwich in two bites, and piled napkins and her empty cup onto her tray. “Now. It was nice meeting you Mr. Randall. Good day sir.”

Atticus chuckled as she retreated. If she hadn’t intrigued him before she definitely had now. He just needed to work out how to walk that line and not come off as creepy. She was closed off now, but could he open her up? This was going to take careful planning.

Streth stood, staring away into the void. The half-lit incandescent glow of the lights penetrated less than fifty metres into the gaping tunnel maw before fading into the blackest pitch. What lay down there, in those unplumbed, unfathomed depths was anyone’s guess. Well, any one of the most recent arrivals’ at least. For the Breen that had abandoned the array no doubt had their reasons for continuing to excavate deep down into the rock’s frozen core. Built, like a malignant growth, into the side of its host asteroid, the metallic structures melded and sank into the barren silica surface. Dendritic metal towers, packed to the brim with signal boosters and subspace repeaters, reached out towards space as if yearning to separate themselves from their dusty prison.

The Starfleet team responsible for automating the base had clearly never ventured beyond this point, and had clearly not cared. Their job had been simple; to install automated listening equipment that would report ship movements in the sector back to Starfleet Command. They had barely been here a few days. Now Streth, and the crew of the Altai, would be here for the foreseeable future.

The Andorian scratched at the two day old stubble adorning the lower half of his face. Since arriving at 1-SZ, he’d barely had time to think, let alone shave. His leg still ached from the explosive blast in the cargo bay. The previous night’s sleep had been deep as soon as his head had hit the pillow, but he did not feel rested. He had yet to see his base-side quarters, but even now the thought of spending a night here instilled a deep sense of discomfort. His eyes struggled to adjust as he peered into the gloom in front of him. The Lieutenant from the Don S. Davis who accompanied him held an arm mounted flashlight, the beams from which were swallowed up whenever they flickered into the inky distance.

“It’s definitely a generator of some kind.” The Grazerite glanced towards Streth, gesturing into the tunnel, “If we can get it back up and running we could restore this whole section.”

“What’s stopping you, then?” Streth said, voice tired and gruff, “Scared of the dark?”

“Well sir, our records indicate that no Starfleet personnel have moved beyond this point. Based on the logs of the original automation team, there could be all manner of Breen anti-personnel devices, potentially hazardous indiginous life forms, biochemical-”

Streth tapped his combadge, =/\=Streth to Vogler=/\=

=/\=Voger here sir,=/\= Astrid replied.

=/\=I need you to suit up the HAZARD team and get ready for a bit of cave exploring. Report to level…=/\= He paused, barely remembering the base layout he had briefly skimmed only hours before, =/\=68 Epsilon, at once.=/\=

=/\=On our way sir.=/\= She looked over at her hazard suit hanging up on the other side of her office and sighed. =/\=Other than spelunking, anything I need to know?=/\=

=/\=There’s an Engineering team here that could use a little reassurance before they go further into the tunnels. Said there’s another generator down there, they’re gonna try and activate it. I think we’d all feel a lot better if your team was keeping a lookout for anything… unexpected.=/\=

=/\=Understood. A whole lot of unknown. We’ll be there in a few minutes, and we’ll be loaded for bear. Vogler out.=/\=

Streth looked up at the Lieutenant, “HAZARD team’s on the way.” His expression softened, “You’re right to request assistance, Lieutenant…?”

“Joresh, sir.” The Grazerite volunteered.

A twinge of regret came over Streth from his earlier remark to the Lieutenant, “Joresh, I’ll put some of my people on it. We don’t know what’s down there, it’s a new environment and we’re all tired. We’d never expect you to go it alone.” His blue eyelid twitched, betraying some of the fatigue.

“Uh… Appreciated, sir.”

=/\=Beck,=/\= Streth was back on coms, =/\=I want to map out some of these tunnels, it’s like a frost-rabbit warren down here and I don’t want people getting lost. Got anything in your box of tricks?=/\=

=^=Funny that you asked, sir.=^= Beth said as he pushed himself away from one of his engineering consoles in Main Engineering that he had tasked to keep checking on the progress of the Station’s repairs. =^=I was keeping an eye on things and I noticed where the progress had stopped. I believe I can take the spare equipment in the cargo bay to our class nine probes and install it…=^= Beck paused for a moment as he stopped to think, going back to his Academy days when he read about something that might just work. =^=Cap, is one of them Davis’ crew there?=^=

=/\=Affirmative, Beck, we have a Lieutenant Joresh from the energy systems work team.=/\= The Grazerite looked a little alarmed as Streth mentioned his name.

=^=Perfect! Lieutenant, I don’t suppose the Don S. Davis could have…oh I don’t know…any of those old DOTs lying around in one of the Cargo Bays?=^= Beck asked in curiosity.

Cooper raised a brow from the spider that she was still working on. “You know you could ask me.”

“Yeah but no offense lass, you’re no officer and you’re also no longer assigned to the Davis either. Can’t keep using you to pull on Commander Walker’s strings for favors!” Beck chuckled.

=/\=DOTs…=/\= Joresh looked puzzled for a second as he racked his brain, =/\=You know I think we do have some of those…=/\= Overhearing Beck’s side conversation with Cooper, he added, =/\=I’m sure the Captain will let us have a few if I ask. Want me to have them beamed straight down here?=/\=

Beck smiled at the answer he got, with Cooper sticking her tongue out at him when she knew that was the answer Joresh would of given anyway. Beck shrugged one of his shoulders at her and then left Main Engineering. =^=If you don’t mind, Lieutenant, that would be wonderful. I will be there in five minutes.=^=

After a short but painless talk between Joresh and Captain Walker, the DOT materialised about three metres away from where Joresh and Streth stood. Streth was familiar with the worker drones, having used them several times on Cratek pass for forays into areas his personnel would rather not have gone. Streth could see where Beck was going with this. It wasn’t long before the Chief Engineer materialised himself, flanked by Ensign Vogler and the rest of the HAZARD team.

[Altai Transporter Room/Level 68 Epsilon]

In her Hazard suit standing outside the transporter room Astrid had briefed her team. “Okay guys, after our little metallic friend visited us we got some nervous people around here. We’re going to escort some engineers around while they do their jobs. There will likely be some scouting involved. There’s a whole lot of unknown so there’s a good chance we got dressed up to go the ball and our dates flaked on us. But, that doesn’t mean we should let our guard down. We have a lot of people depending on us. Not just the gear heads, but our families back home. Let’s go.”

Astrid lead them into the transporter room. Stepping onto the pad she made one last check of her equipment and announced, “Energize.”

Beck ran into the transporter room with his case. “Hold it! Hold hold hold, please!” He said as he hurried up onto one of the empty spots on the pad. “Good thing I got here just in time! Not like were in some energy crises that needs us to save on energy with these things but hey, better I tag along than go in all by myself.” He grinned before nodding his head to the transporter chief who finally engaged the system and off they went.

Then it wasn’t long for Beck to arrive shortly after the DOT did with a case in hand that had one of the probes sensor equipment in it, and the HAZARD team “Ah, wonderful. I was hoping these things were still in service. I’ve never seen them before but in Starfleet History, these buggers used to be around quite a lot on Starships.” Beck knelt down behind the DOT, taking out his tricorder, syncing up to the DOTs systems and shutting it down. “Oh and the cavalry is here!” He pointed back with this thumb at Astrid’s team with a grin. Then he sighed, “I wonder why they don’t have these around as often as they used to though…maybe they took too many jobs away from us engineers and there was a complaint form or something.” He grinned with a chuckle as he set his case down and opened it up before removing a panel from the rear of the DOT. “I am just going to install this sensor equipment from one of our Class Nine probes, give the DOT more powerful sensors than what came with it, which should be able to map out this cavern without any issue at all whatsoever.” He said as he started installing the sensor equipment into the DOT. “Once I’m finished here, we should be able to tap into its systems real easily with our tricorders and get to see a wonderful view of whatever is beyond us from here with this lovely little thing.” He tapped the DOT’s head as he quickly finishes up before putting the rear panel back on and sealed it up. “There we have it.” He stood back and pulled out his tricorder to turn the DOT back on. “Excuse me my little friend, but could you give us a peak at what’s in front of us and beyond? Ya should have access to some lovely new sensors.”

Astrid sighed. This was turning out to be a typical babysitting expedition. Turning to her team, “Fan out. Standard fixed position securement.” She holstered her phaser and sank back out of the way a few meters, but still close enough to observe and hear everything.

Streth observed Beck’s comments on the DOT sensor switch-out, recalling his own brief experiences using the robots. “A novel idea Mr. Beck, I had no idea the Class IX probe sensors were so versatile.” Engineers truly did seem like a species unto themselves at times like these. The DOT whirred to life at Beck’s question, hovering above the rough, uneven tunnel floor.

The HAZARD team were already positioned at the group’s extremities, forming a protective bubble around Joresh, Beck, Streth and the DOT. The Captain surveyed the group, impressed by how quickly they had jumped into action, “Feeling a lot better about this now your team’s here, Ensign Vogler,” Streth looked towards the tall, dark haired woman who stood watch with an air of authority.

“Yes sir,” Astrid replied respectfully. “Of course sir.”

The DOT began to glide forward at a walking pace. Two floodlights lit up the tunnel ahead, highlighting jutting chunks of rock and casting shadows that stretched long into the distance.

Joresh snapped open his tricorder, “Sir, our schematics indicate the generator chamber to be about 200 metres further below the surface.”

“Alright everyone,” Streth called out, “let’s see if we can’t make this place a little more hospitable.”

The USS Altai streaked through space at cruising speed. Their destination; the nether regions of Federation space, bordering the frozen conquered territory of the Breen. The atmosphere was calm. Little had been detected on sensors since leaving starbase over a week prior, and now the crews of both Altai and Don S. Davis had settle into a rhythm. Both ships’ systems hummed and routine operations continued for all personnel who worked diligently, unaware of what awaited them on the cold, looming asteroid ahead.

“Enter,” Streth said, voice gravelly and raktajino infused. The ready room doors hissed open to reveal a familiar face. The Romulan Yeoman had been one of the last crew assigned to the Altai before their departure, and Streth was happier for it. The assignment of a yeoman would greatly ease the administrative burden of setting up and maintaining base operations. “Ah, Mr. Maec,” the Andorian waved the Ensign in, barely looking up from his PADD, “have a seat.”

D’vaid had been on the Altai for a small amount of time now and was really starting to feel how the ship ran and most importantly how Streth was. He had been asked to report to the Commander and immediately made his way to the ready room. He straightens his outfit and took a deep breath. He always wanted to make a good impression no matter what hopefully he did.

He activated the chime and heard the Commander tell him to enter. He sat down as requested.

“You asked for me, Sir?”

“Coffee?” Streth looked to the pot of raktajino on his desk before continuing.

D’vaid had come to like raktajino upon coming to the Altai. “That sounds great, Sir.” He grabbed a cup and the pot and poured him a drink before comfortably sitting down in the seat adjacent to the Commander.

“Ops chief on the Don already reported estimated material usage for the base renovation work.” He held out a PADD to D’vaid, “We’re looking at 50,000 tonnes of duranium, 16,400 metres of ODN cabling, computer core upgrade, eight bio-neural interface hubs, six power converter installations… It’s a lot Any updates they give us on those figures, I’m directing them to you for signing off on. I’ve got enough on my plate with the Breen tactical situation. That OK, Ensign?”

D’vaid looked over the requisitions handed to him. It was not the worst amount of work for him to have to sign off on, but he wanted to make sure that everything was perfect before he would sign off on such a requisition. He nodded and looked up at Streth.

“I can handle this it all looks in order. I am not sure of how soon we will get the supplies from what I have heard it’s a slow process. I will make sure the information is processed immediately. Any updates will be carefully evaluated and if I see any issues I’ll be contacting you directly, Sir.”

D’vaid signed the PADD after explaining and knowing he had the Commander’s authority, though most people would not like his job it was something he loved.

Streth sipped his coffee, “Alright, I think the only other thing left is chasing up the signatures from beta shift. A few of the watch officers have been getting lazy about running their diagnostics.” He appreciated D’vaid’s enthusiasm for the job. Keeping the Captain’s bureaucracy running smoothly on a ship like the Altai was often no easy task, “Anyway, Ensign, how are you settling in on the Altai?”

D’vaid sipped his coffee while making a note on his personal PADD about getting the signatures requested for the Captain. He looked at the Captain.

“Well, it has been refreshing I wasn’t quite sure how the crew would respond to a Romulan, but so far I haven’t been hit too hard. I am liking it here especially working under you, Sir. I enjoy the paperwork and handling things for you. I did have a question though when will my office be ready? Trying to work from my quarters is…shall we say messy…”

“Good to hear that you’re enjoying the work, Maec, and I’ll look into your office status.” Streth replied, “From what I remember they were converting one of the unused quarters on deck three. There’s gonna be plenty of room on the base, though. Almost too much.” He thought ahead to their arrival, and of the vast empty spaces shown on the base schematics. He placed the PADD down on the desk, dispensing with any pretence of business, “This is all I’m going to say on this subject: I’d expect nothing less from the crew than your full acceptance as one of us. Starfleet command is confident you can do the job, and so am I. If we can’t tolerate a diverse range of backgrounds among us, then what the hell kind of fleet is this?”

D’vaid immediately respected the Captain and Starfleet at another level.

“I’m guessing on the station my office will be adjacent to yours? And I couldn’t agree more it’s nice to be accepted because at first…I never knew how I’d be treated while I was in the Academy it was a struggle for sure.”

“It’ll be somewhere nearby, one level down from base ops.” Streth said, unsure of the exact specifications. He smiled, recalling his eagerness to find out about what his own working conditions would be like back on the G’Mat. “Every cadet goes through their own struggle at the academy. That’s the point of it; we were still learning the ropes. Klingons have been through it, Klentathans, even Ferengi. Part of that process is learning that everyone at the academy has a right to be there. And now you’ve got a right to be here, Ensign. Now, is there anything else I can do for you?”

D’vaid thought for a second and shook his head. “No, Sir I think that’s all. I will make sure I get these signatures to you. If you need anything you know how to find me. Thanks for the coffee.”

D’vaid got up and nodded before departing to hunt down the beta shift watch officers.

[Guest Quarters]

Jones stood there at one side of the door while the crewperson who brought him here was standing on the other side. “I do apologize for the arrangement, sir. As far as I know, the former First Officer has yet to completely pack up his things and leave the ship. I don’t know much more beyond that, except that those quarters are not yet vacant.”

Jones looked to the crewperson. “It will do fine, Petty Officer. I have slept in worse.”

She smiled, “We would of put you in the Second Officer quarters but then what would be the point? You’re the new First Officer and we figured, here, you would be more than ready to move your things over to the First Officer quarters once it’s vacant. But then we realized, it wouldn’t make a difference, and-”

Jones put his hand up. “Relax. I said it will do fine. Besides, I pack light.”

She cleared her throat and then noticed the single large duffel bag. “Oh. Right! Of course. Not sure why I didn’t see that. Well, if it is all right with you sir, as soon as your real quarters are vacant and ready, we can transfer your…bag…to your official quarters.”

Jones gave her a single nod. “That will do just fine. Where is the Captain?” He asked as he picked up his duffel bag and placed it by the door, inside the guest quarters.

She smiled and placed her hand on the touch screen wall, where the computer responded to her touch. She tapped a few commands and then a map appeared to display a blip. “If the computer is right, the Captain should be in his Ready Room. Likely finishing breakfast or reading up on the computer core replacement report.”

Jones blinked as he remembered, looking at her, he noticed that her colors placed her in Operations or maybe Engineering. “Thank you for reminding me, Petty Officer. How is the Primary Computer Core?”

“Good! The Don S. Davis had exactly what we needed. When I read that the Ambassador Class that the Don is currently had been refitted with more cargo space, I had no idea that she carried that much equipment and supplies. But then again, it is a ship specifically fitted for Starfleet Corps of Engineers to do many tasks while out on the frontier.” She blushed when she realized she rambled too much again. “Sorry, sir. It’s been a bit hectic here and I’m still bustling with energy.”

Jones raised a brow. “Hectic?”

She shrugged, “Well besides the mechanical spider that was close to stealing Starfleet secrets or at least our mission secrets…we’ve been assisting the Starfleet Corps of Engineers from the Don in getting the station up and running, as well as running diagnostics and maintenance checks on the new Primary Computer Core, to make sure that it is fitting properly. I mean it’s practically identical but we swapped out the broken one with the new one by transporter and that was done between two ships, not at a Drydock with experts and … well it’s just been hectic.”

Jones nodded his head then sighed. “Well I appreciate the update, Petty Officer. Do try to relax, otherwise if there was another spider like that, it wouldn’t need a Computer Core to steal information.”

Her face went beat red and she took a step back. “I’m really sorry, sir.”

Jones shook his head with a small grin. “Don’t apologize, you did nothing wrong. Just a little joke. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to report in. So you might want to return to your duties.”

“Yes sir!” She smiled and hurried off, which Jones did the same, to the nearest turbolift so he can get to the Captain’s Ready Room.

[Bridge]

The door to the turbolift split open to reveal that someone had come to the Bridge, though it was normal for the Bridge Crew, so almost no one pays attention to who arrives. Jones stepped out onto the Bridge from the lift, taking a good look at where he would most likely be seeing himself at for a good part of his career before noticing the doors that read ‘Captain’s Ready Room’ on it. With one more look around the Bridge, he walked over to those doors and pressed the chime button on the door touch pad.

“Enter,” Streth was reading updates from the initial base upgrades completed over the last 24 hours. Environmental extraction filters had reduced in-air particulate matter by 98%. Food replication systems were now online, and 25 crew quarters had now been made ready for occupancy. Streth looked up to see a dark-haired, gruff looking officer making the short couple of steps across the ready room towards his desk. He recognised the man instantly, and rose from his seat, rounding the desk to stand face to face, “Ah, Mr. Jones.” Streth looked approvingly at his new First Officer, “Thanks for reporting in at such short notice.” He extended a hand.

As he had stepped in, his first look into the room was the Captain, Lieutenant Commander Torden Streth, with the blue skin, white hair and the two antenna’s, which are the exact features of an Andorian. He could say he has worked with Andorians before, but then again, he had worked alone for a major portion of his career. From what he read though, Streth was an Andorian who you could get along with pretty easily. When the man came around the desk and extended his hand, Jones didn’t hesitate to accept it and leave a tight grip on it. “After what I have read, sir, I figured that the best thing to do is report to my new Commanding Officer. Especially since my position was changed on short notice. Although, I don’t know much except for what was available on record. Plus reporting in is standard procedure as well, and there are some procedures you don’t ignore.”

“Couldn’t agree more, Lieutenant.” Streth said, “It’s a shame Lieutenant Van Der Luan was called away. I expect he has more fruitful endeavours awaiting him,” he worked to hide a hint of regret in his voice. “Starfleet Command works in mysterious ways, and now they send me an intelligence officer. Lieutenant Jones, have you seen much of the Breen in your line of work? We could sure use some more intel on them right now.”

Jones nodded his head on the comment of ‘Starfleet Command works in mysterious ways’ as there really was not much explanation as to the roster change, though Jones wouldn’t doubt that his previous Commanding Officer had already explained why Jones was out here instead of back in the field. He blinked back into reality with the question that was asked. “Aside from that the Breen has taken Dominion technology, adapted it, and enhanced their vessels in almost every way? Afraid not. They’re one of the most mysterious races in the Alpha Quadrant, and even when I have done only an operation or two on the Breen, we still don’t know what they look like under that helmet of theirs. What I do know is, they’re not stupid. I would not be surprised if they already knew that we took over one of their old stations, and most likely have a scout ship watching our every move as we speak. But unless their behavior has also changed with their adaptation of Dominion technology to their own, I don’t think we would be encountering them unless we do something provocative. We’re not in their space, at least, there was no mention of them believing that this part of space is still theirs because if they had, I believe you and the Don here would of had an encounter long before my arrival.” Jones paused for a moment to give the Captain time to let that sink in but he was also rather curious about the spider drone that attacked the ship. “Any news from your team about that spider?”

“I suppose we should be thankful Breen territorial ambitions haven’t yet stretched their way out here. But part of me thinks it would make their motives easier to explain if there was just something we could point to that they wanted. Seems they don’t get that ‘mysterious’ reputation for nothing.” Streth held himself back from continuing down that particular rabbit hole, choosing instead to focus on the task at hand, “That… Thing is currently being dissected by Lieutenant Beck and Chief Cooper. Here’s hoping they can shed some light on the thing.” The last sentence was uttered by Streth without much hope in his voice. A lightbulb then pinged on in his head, “Lieutenant Jones, given your previous assignment, am I correct in assuming you have extensive signals intelligence experience?”

Jones nodded his head, “Well I am rather curious about that thing, so I hope they report in soon.” He then smiled a little at the question. “I do, sir. Got a job for me?”

“As you’ll know, Breen communications are notoriously hard to decrypt. Our universal translators can’t even work around their language, and when you add their computer systems to the mix it’s almost impossible to detect any kind of encryption pattern.” He paused, aware that Jones’ intelligence training likely meant the Lieutenant knew even more on the subject, “I want to know if that bot sent or received any communication from the Breen. Is there any way of finding out? You’ll have full access to Beck and Cooper’s analysis when it’s ready.”

Jones stroked his chin before nodding his head. “Aye, Captain. I’ll get right on it.” He said before taking over an empty station on the Bridge and started to work, bringing up sensor and communication logs, multiple displays and various diagnostic tools.

[Main Engineering]

Beck stepped through one of the doors to find Cooper had yet to get the mechanical spider open, but definitely looked like she had been busy trying. His right hand was wrapped up after it had been treated for the third degree burn he got, it would be a day or two of treatment to remove the scar or he could decide to forgo the treatment and keep the scar as a reminder of his reckless, insane ideas. With his now mild accent, “Lass, I thought you would of had that bugger opened by now.”

Cooper raised her head looking at him, slightly confused before she smiled. “Have you been practicing?”

Beck shrugged his shoulders. “The nurses were chewing me out for what I did, that I could of gotten myself killed but the only thing I truly listened was how they talked. And on my way where, I was talking to myself.”

Cooper smiled, “Seem awfully quick.”

Beck chuckled. “Ah, honestly I been holding back. I’ve been practicing since the Academy. I knew my accent can be a pain for others to understand sometimes, but I’m getting better. So what’s the story here?” He asked as he stood before the mobile bench that the mechanical spider was on, aside from the wheels being locked in place to keep it from moving.

She sighed, “Well that insane idea of yours did the trick all right. But it really fried it. How’s the hand?”

Beck smiled with a shrug. “It is fine, just like you said it would be. Although apparently I was not the only one who got an electrical shock. Appears that miss G.I. Jane got one too.”

Cooper smirked, “Why do you call her that? And how did she get hit?”

Beck shrugged again. “Ah, cuz I barely know anyone’s name on board this ship and the fact that her primary job is being purely a soldier. Being part of a Hazard Team is normally a secondary occupation in Starfleet. But for her and her team, it’s their primary. Plus I consider it to be a compliment. She’d be the one on the front lines in case anything goes straight to hell in a hen basket. And if that is her primary occupation, she’ll do just fine, better than me and my engineers, that’s for sure. We may have some phaser training, but not as much as they do.” He shrugged his shoulders. “And I don’t know, lass. Apparently me and her were the most positive people in that room, aside from that mechanical bugger.”

Cooper smiled, “Well that training of theirs certain showed when that spider showed up. And is she going to be okay?”

Beck blew raspberries. “Oh yeah, she’ll be just fine.” He then shrugged his shoulders, “Not their fault. This bugger here was bloody fast, and I mean really bloody fast. Plus I do believe one of them did get a shot on it, but the damn thing got some kind of strong material protecting it. Honestly, I really thought this was something new the Breen had to spy on us and find out why we are here. But now…now I feel like this is something else. Or the Breen found some new material that we don’t have a clue on just yet. Either of those conclusions is scary enough, lass. It means that we either have a new foe to worry about, a dangerous one at that, or the Breen have found some alloy that is quite strong, and neither of those conclusions sound good to me.”

Cooper sighed with a nod, “Yeah. Neither of them do.” She then straightened out her back and stretched as she yawned.

Beck frowned, “How long have you been at this, lass?”

Cooper sighed, “Oh jeez. Since I got your ass to sickbay.”

“You should get some sleep.”

Cooper shook her head and waved her hand at him. “Oh please. I’ve pulled so many all nighters in my life, this is nothing.”

“I could make it an order, Lass.” Beck grinned.

“And I rather you don’t give me one that I’ll most likely defy. Besides, we need to know what this thing is, to find out which one of those conclusions are the ones we need to be worried about and the sooner we inform the Captain, the sooner we can try to prepare ourselves for whatever the hell is out there.” Cooper said as she grabbed a plasma torch.

“Are you just now picking that up?” Beck asked.

Cooper shrugged, “I tried everything to pry this thing open without the risk of burning up what circuits it has left but your idea really fused its casing together. So yeah, I am.”

Beck nodded his head and then grabbed some other tools. “All right then, if that is the case, I say we open it up like we’re dissecting it. Literally.”

Cooper frowned, “We can’t just slice right down the middle and pull apart the casing like it’s skin.”

Beck smiled, “No but we can cut a fair size rectangle to get a look inside.” He set the tools down and grabbed a tricorder, changing modes on it to give him a view of the interior of the spider. “Hmm. Whatever this alloy is, it’s not preventing me from using this mode here.”

Cooper smirked, “I know right. It’s strong but it doesn’t block certain scans. Odd isn’t it?”

“Odd enough to give our internal sensors hell but not enough to keep us from looking inside it? It is indeed. All right, adjust your plasma torch down to the second setting. That should allow you to cut through the casing and still keep you from burning up any circuits that are left inside of it. Here, I’ll guide you.”

With a little effort, part of the metallic exoskeleton was prised away. While the bug now immobile, the insides of the autonomous machine were far from still. Writhing, wriggling and seething under the removed panel were a million glowing tendrils of light. Like an anemone inhabiting one of Earth’s oceans, the tiny filaments withdrew as they became exposed to the outside air. They radiated through the colour spectrum, washing the area around them in hues from violet to ochre, trying unsuccessfully to tuck themselves away from prying eyes and implements.

Both Beck and Cooper stared at the inside of the spider with amazement, seeing the writhing, wriggling and seething tendrils of light that basked in an amazing spectrum of colors, while trying desperately to hide. “Have you ever seen anything like this before, lass?” Beck asked while he stared at it.

Cooper shook her head, she too staring hard into it. “No, sir. I think I would recognize such beauty if I had seen it before.” And of course, they weren’t alone, others in Main Engineering, on the main and top deck were seeing the light and of course, curiosity got the better of them. “Should we alert the Captain?”

Beck, still staring into it. “Well, this would be significant to report. Because this just obliterated my speculations of the Breen being involved right out of the water.”

Cooper blinked then looked up at Beck. “Wasn’t there a report from the Defiant about tendrils, kind of like these, being alive and moving around, getting entangled with all sorts of systems throughout the ship?”

Beck nodded his head, “Standard reading in Starfleet Academy, so that we know what exactly to do to get rid of them in case the ship gets infested with them. No lass, I don’t think this is Dominion technology.”

Cooper frowned, “But what if it is? Just…someone made an advancement of it?”

Beck shook his head, “Nah. This…this looks organic. And it is alive. Or it feels that it is exposed to the air outside of its shell and this reaction it has is just a reaction to being exposed.” He sighed some and then pulled away from it, rubbing his eyes and face. “Good lord, I could stare at that for hours.” Then he withdrew his hands from his face and noticed his engineers were staring as well. “Oy! Get back to work!” He raised his voice just enough to knock them out of their trance and off they went.

“How about we get another pair of eyes and hands on this, see if we can find out more about this…spider…before we give the Captain a full report?” Cooper asked.

Beck nodded his head and tapped his badge. =^=Ensign Kappler. Report to Main Engineering. We got a surprise and a project for you.=^=

-^- “On my way.” -^-

It only took a minute for Kappler to step out of the turbolift and walk into Main Engineering. “Good morning, Chiefs,” he said. His eyes lit up as he noticed the dissected machine in front of them. “Oh, I was hoping to get a look at this thing.”

“Good morning, Ensign.” Cooper smiled before returning her gaze at the innards of the Spider. “Ever seen anything like this before?” She asked Kappler.

Beck chuckled, “I can already tell you, Chief, no one has.”

Cooper shrugged a shoulder. “Was curious.”

Beck nodded and then sighed. “Your opinion, Ensign Kappler. How do you think we should proceed? As soon as we peeled off it’s casing of its under belly, aside from the beautiful light coming from it, these tendrils are more alive than this mechanical bug is and they clearly don’t like being exposed. Should we just stick our hand in there and see what else we find or what?” Beck asked.

Kappler leaned in as close as he dared, fixated on the undulating motion of the tendrils.

Cooper smiled, “Better answer quick, won’t be long till the Captain and First Officer shows up asking where we’re at on this thing.”

“Well, first question first,” Kappler responded. “No, I don’t recognize the technology. It’s definitely not Breen or Kzinti. Second… and I don’t think you’re going to like my answer…” he paused looking over the readings from the few scans that saw through the device’s scattering field. “We shouldn’t do anything more until we determine whether it is alive.”

Cooper sighed when Kappler said that before looking over to Beck. “Guess we’re going to have to report to the Captain and the First Officer now. At least give them a progress report to say the least.”

Beck shook his head, “Nah. Forget it. I’m going to get to the bottom of this thing.” Beck started messing with the settings on his tricorder to try and get through so he can get detailed scans of the spider. Then he shoved his hand into the belly of the beast, feeling around the tendrils until he found something that felt like a data port. “Well, well, well. What do we have here.” He pulled his hand free, grabbed a large data padd, connected a cable to it and then took the other end of the cable and stuck his hand right back into the spider before, painstakingly, plugging the other end right into the data port. He pulled his right out and started downloading anything and everything he can, at least he hopes he didn’t trigger any self termination protocols or anything like that.

The screen of the PADD flashed blue. Garbled text ran across it in streaks of yellow. Breen script mingled with symbols of unknown origin. The chunks of text increased in speed, merging into a neon blur as the PADD absorbed as much as it could from the conduit. Disappearing into the spider’s belly like a cybernetic umbilical, the cable’s optical nodes began to flash rapidly as the PADD worked harder and harder to commit the information stream to memory. The spider’s bottom legs twitched in a barely perceivable spasm. A tiny servo whirred. There was no time to react. The leg reached up, its bifurcated point gripping onto the ODN cable. In a flash it ripped the wire from its body cavity, sending sparks shooting up. The leg fell back, hanging limply from the observation table. Its innards were now impenetrably melted and fused, its storage chips blackened, distorted and erased.

[30 Minutes Later]
[Asteroid Base]

An energy beam started to appear on one of the station’s transporter pads and soon, the reconstruction of a figure was finished. Benjamin Jones took the initiative to visit the station that they are going to be occupying for the time being, and see how far the Starfleet Corps of Engineers are from completing their task. Like some stations, this one had one of its transporter pads on the Command/Operations Level of the station, used for in case of emergency evacuation either from the station or to the station, or other obvious means. It also made it convenient for when you wanted to get from a ship to the Operations of the Station to deliver an important, top secret message. Or to tell an Operations staff to stop what they’re doing. There were a number of reasons for it, most that Jones couldn’t really come up with right now, as his mind was pretty occupied with questions and curiosity of his current assignment.

He could see a lot of yellow shoulders walking around with utility belts, parts in their hands, or at some of the consoles, installing new circuitry. One in particular stood out, where Jones could make out the pips on his shoulder/collar bone, a Lieutenant Commander. Jones immediately deducted that that Officer was Lieutenant Commander Kevin Walker, Commanding Officer of the Don S. Davis and leader of this team of Starfleet Corps of Engineers. Jones stepped off the transporter pad and walked on over to the Commander, holding his hand out to him as soon as he got up close to him. “Commander Walker. Lieutenant Benjamin Jones, the new First Officer of the Altai.”

Walker raised a brow when a random Lieutenant came up to him with his hand out, only now to smile and take his hand to shake it. “Ah, Lieutenant. I had no idea that the Altai was getting a roster change.”

Jones shrugged a shoulder. “Honestly, I had no idea either. I was originally assigned to be the Second Officer but as soon as I arrived into the system, that changed.”

Walker smiled, “Whatever the reasons are for the change, it’s none of my business. Not my ship, not my crew.”

Jones nodded his head, “How is the retrofit and repairs coming along?”

Walker whistled. “Son, the fact that Starfleet got their hands on this station in the first place, is a miracle to me. I barely understand Breen technology myself and there still plenty of it here. Then there’s the automated systems that Starfleet slapped in. Had to replace a lot of their circuits to get them up and running again.”

Jones frowned, “We’re still going to use those?”

Walker nodded his head. “Even if Commander Streth is going to have most of his crew manning this station, it’s best to keep the automated systems as a precaution. You know how it is, we love redundancies. Our ships mostly have two computer cores.” He then winked at that.

Jones shook his head. “I’ve yet to speak to the crazy engineer who came up with that idea.”

Walker chuckled. “Don’t be too hard on him. It was a crazy idea but it worked and he had good reason. Did you read the report on how insanely fast that spider was?”

Jones nodded his head. “I did and they’re opening it up now. So I am rather eager to find out what it is, being that I used to be in Starfleet Intelligence.”

Walker raised a brow. “Used to be?”

Jones shrugged a shoulder. “Long story.” Actually a short one but Jones didn’t want to get into it. “So how much longer do you think it will be?”

Walker sighed and lifted up the large data padd in his hand, skimming over some of the reports that were actually coming in live. “We’re likely to be done in a couple of hours. We’ve repaired a lot of the major systems, life support, reactor control and safety systems, as well as replaced the station’s computer core. I don’t know what kind of Computer Core that Starfleet slapped down in this station but it looked terrible.”

Jones frowned in thought, “Correct me if I’m wrong, but this station was inactive since the end of the Dominion War. Wouldn’t that be the reason why?”

Walker sighed again with a shrug. “I mean, it could be. But most of Starfleet’s equipment should last longer than that. Mostly. It could be because of the integration with Breen technology that’s still on this station. Or it could because Starfleet was in a rush and slapped mediocre equipment down. I don’t really know. All I know is, it’s taking up a lot of supplies from my ship’s stores to get this base up an running at top peak efficiency and I mean top peak. I don’t leave a job half done, and I certainly don’t leave a job mediocre either. We’re in no rush, we’re in no war, so me and my team can take their time in making sure that this station lasts before the next major maintenance is needed, which don’t be surprised if I come back with the Don S. Davis to do such maintenance.”

Jones nodded his head. “So my understanding then is, once your done, this place will look brand spanking new. Correct?”

Walker smiled, “That’s our motto. My team is one of the best. We’ve been doing this kind of work for years and we know what to look for, what needs to be repaired or replaced. So yes, let your Captain know that this station, will be ready to go, spit shine and all.”

Jones smirked, “Well I am sure that he would be happy to hear that. But no problems? No mishaps?”

Walker shook his head, “Nope. We’ve been doing pretty good, accident free.” That is until one of the two crewmembers carrying a heavy crate suddenly slipped out of his hand and his end fell onto his feet. They all turned when they heard him cursing in pain. Walker frowned, “And we jinxed it.”

Jones raised a brow. “Not superstitious are you?”

Walker shook his head, “No but that sure was quite the coincidence.” He then looked back at the two crewmembers. “Hey, get him back to the Don, have the doc check him out. Everyone else be more careful. I don’t want one incident turning into a dozen.” Then he looked back to Jones. “Anything else, Lieutenant? I really got to get back to work here.”

Jones shook his head, “Ah, no sir. Thank you for the update.”

Walker smiled, “You’re welcome. I do appreciate you stopping by. I do enjoy telling my customers how hard we’ve been working.”

Jones smirked before he headed on back to the transporter pad, where he was then transported back to the Altai. His curiosity on that mechanical spider has finally gotten the better of him, and as a former Intelligence Officer, he was extremely curious.

Addison walked the cool halls of his soon-to-be former ship. For a first real post outside the academy, it had been a good one but brief. He took a breath as he paused outside the transporter room. He gave his tunic a nice pull then walked inside. He had been assigned as a tactical and security officer but after 6 months of what he felt was torture, he was being reassigned. It was the work that bothered him it was the so-called chief who believed in a more lax approach to management. He looked around the room and it was just him and the transporter control officer. He made his way to the platform and looked back around at the room before nodding that he was ready.

One moment the room was there and the next he was gone. He blinked his eyes a few times taking in the transporter room aboard the USS Altai. The room was nothing special, in fact, it looked like most others but it was a new start, and maybe just maybe this time he could do his work to the standard he felt was right. He stepped off the path and made his way out of the room and towards the turbo lift. He started to feel uneasy but the change was part of life and to get where he wanted he would need to get used to it.

He stepped into the turbo lift and then spoke. “Bridge” moments later the turbo lift started moving. He didn’t have a duty station on the bridge he wasn’t even sure what his job would be here. The turbo lift came to a stop, “Ok let’s make a good impression” he said to himself before the doors opened to the small but tactically designed bridge. He stepped out and turned left heading for the captain’s ready room. He rang the buzzer and waited to see what new adventure was about to begin.

“Enter,” Streth called. A few seconds passed and he was greeted with the sight of the new Chief of Security & Tactical. The human was one of a good few recent transfers from the USS Don S. Davis. Streth was happy enough for the infusion of personnel from the Corps of Engineers vessel. The more construction and maintenance experience he could muster from his crew, the better. This particular officer, though, had a very different set of skills. Yes, Streth was sad to see Lieutenant Olafsen go, but the Don was the bigger ship. It was only natural that an officer might want to pursue that avenue for career advancement.

“Mr. Blake,” Streth rose from his chair and, as was becoming his custom, walked around the desk so that nothing now stood between the two humanoids, “welcome to the Altai. I’m sure Captain Walker’s very sorry to be losing you. His loss I guess. It’s good to have someone on board with your kind of tactical experience.” He shook the Ensign’s hand, “So you’re interested in the assignment all the way out here?”

Addison smiled as he shook the captain’s hand. “Honestly sir, Captain Walker may be relieved I was transferred. ” He uses the moment to get a mental picture of his new boss. Sometimes looking at a person told you more about them than a conversation. “It might sound odd sir but this could be an adventure as much as it could be a tedious routine. Either way, I’m sure the department will be squared away”

The last comment was more of a promise than it was a statement. This was his chance to do things a little different than in the past but now the pressure was right on him. If he failed it wouldn’t fall on someone else it would be on him. Sometimes life gave you a chance and you had to take it before it passed you by. It wasn’t often an ensign was given a shot at a Department head position.

“Good optimism there,” Streth replied, “I’m sure we’ll all need plenty of that to get us through the next few weeks. This base setup is going to be a lot of work. I want you over there as soon as we arrive. It’s been automated for years, and anyone could have paid a visit for all we know. There’s a chance they may have left behind some surprises. I want you to organize a forward recon team. Scour the areas we’re heading into with the engineering teams and make sure they’re clear of anything suspicious. Breen, Kzinti, you name it, if there’s anything unfamiliar I want it gone. Understood, Mr. Blake?”

“Yes sir. we will make sure the station is clear and safe. Sir has there been any recent enemy activity near the station? that would determine if they had time to hide something more concerning or it would be a more simple trap or weapon in a reasonably easy place to reach” His voice was calm but he knew that depending on the answer it could be a much harder task.

Streth recalled the reports, “We’ve had word of increased Breen activity in the sector, yes. That’s part of the reason why Starfleet now wants a permanent presence on the base. As far as we know, there’s been no direct interference with the base itself. Although, I should add, we have no real way of knowing for sure. It’s geared up for long range sensor sweeps. If someone were to come in cloaked, or maybe even tachyon shielded, they could theoretically have beamed in.” He knew this was not the answer the Ensign wanted to hear.

“Understood sir, we will make sure no bulkhead goes unchecked. This will take some time to do thoroughly but we won’t miss a thing, sir.” This was not turning out as he wanted, this was going to be painstakingly slow but even more important than he had first anticipated. He smiled at the captain and tried to give him a look of confidence.

“Good to hear it, Ensign.” Streth smiled, “You’ll need to co-ordinate with the the Don S. Davis. They’ll want to send a team down too, no doubt. The Hazard Team is also at your disposal. Ensign Vogler runs them like clockwork, so make sure you run any deployment plans by her. She’s got them in training exercises daily, so they’re really gonna hit the the ground running when you need them.” His antennae swayed slightly as he thought of anything else he might have missed, “Is there anything else, Ensign?”

“Nothing else sir” said Addison before coming to attention.

“That’ll be all then.” Streth concluded, confident that the young man had a good head on his shoulders.

Addison nodded and then left the room he had a lot to do now and it was you by to be a long road but this is what he always wanted.

Astrid sat, at one of the briefing desks in the briefing room for the hazard team doing her after action report. She had changed out of her hazard suit and was wearing a standard security uniform.

Setting down her PADD she picked up her cup of steaming English Breakfast tea. She held the sip in her mouth for a moment savouring the flavour before swallowing.

Ensign Magara had finished changing also, and now wore his starfleet uniform – which was heavily tailored as to adapt to his largely non-humanoid bodyform, it was looser and in several overlapping cloth pieces, rather than the near skin-tight form of others – upon his rather oversized head lay a turban, coloured soot-black, in contrast to the yellow of most of his uniform. Soon enough a great booming groan was heard from outside the briefing room, she could have sworn her tea was wobbling from the vibrations of the guttural and tri-tonal tune – though of course that was unlikely. The door opened from the changing room, as Magara lit up a long, intricate pipe – seemingly carved from ivory or bone.

“Magara,” Astrid greeted thankful for the distraction.

“The Black Sun,” he responded, puffing out the smoke as he did so, looking in her direction before offering a smile through droopy lips. He then moved over towards one of the replicators and looked over it, before flicking through the menus to see if his requested meals and beverages were put in place. “The Eclipse has proven herself a strong fighter” he said idly, continuing to shuffle through the recent items. “This one is glad to have her by his side”

“Black Sun is happy to have Brown Tree at her side as well,” Astrid replied with amusement. “What exactly does… Forgive me; what species are you?”

Magara looked over “There is Three of the Herd amongst the Starfleet. Magara is one of them.” he said, “Magara is of the Three…Of the-” he then let out a tri-tonal entirely unpronounceable sound, three different tones of “A” were bellowed, before coming to a gurgly and slow end with a harsh stopping of a “Kh”. He composed himself after giving his native pronunciation “The Akh. In The Federation’s speech.”

“Okay, so what does an Akh eat? You don’t look like a meat eater, but the incorporation of meat into the diets of early hominid species on earth is what allowed our brains to evolve to our current capacity. No meat no Federation… or at least a Federation with humans in it.”

He shifted “Akh…The Akh do eat meat, but the Black-sun is right – it is not a common part of the diet. The Akh were grazers once, but had learned to consume what would be equivalent to insects and small mammals. The Akh broke the Tuberstones. Then the Akh followed the Godbeasts, becoming nomads. Nightstriders. This one was a Nightstrider.” he spoke “But Magara is no historian, Magara is demolitions expert” he said with a slight chuckle.

“And what does this particular demolitions expert like to eat?” Astrid asked cradling her tea in her hands. “Not much of a vegetarian myself. Hard to pass up good barbecue, or a steak.”

“This Demolitions Expert likes to eat many things – Khuuuuumagh, Drauahakhmahlam…However, this ship does not have the ingredients that this Demolitions Expert would like.” he said simply “Magara enjoyed his years upon the Second World of Earth” he said, before looking through the replicator for a moment and wondering “Perhaps this one could create an…Imitation.” he said, placing a hand upon his chin. “3 large Okra, 2 Jalapeno, 1 Capsicum, 2 cups of lemon-grass,” he said, speaking into the replicator – his list continued with many other earth plants, spices, nuts, insects and meats.

Astrid watched in amusement wondering where this would go, “You forgot a drink my friend.”

He looked over “This is hardly an occasion for a drink” he said with a chuckle.

“Not exactly what I meant, but it doesn’t matter.” She returned to her report and wrote the last couple of sentences, signed it and sent it off to the chief of security for the final report to the captain. “Done. I hate reports. Enough to make me never take a promotion.”

He looked over a bit confused “What did the Black Sun mean?” he asked – as he had the items that he had replicated be placed inside a box, in order to be brought back to his domicile. He walked over towards her with the box in hand “Magara is glad he is no longer a Guildmaster, and instead is simply demolitions expert. There is little paperwork.” he said, perhaps with a bit of a joking gloat.

“Yeah well, you get to be my assistant guildmaster if you will. Not a lot of officers on the team. In fact it’s just us.”

Magara stopped dead in his tracks and looked over reluctantly “This Demolitions Expert regrets his transfer”

“Don’t fret Brown Tree. Keep me alive and you won’t have to fill out any reports,” Astrid teased.

“Then the Tree shall shade the Sun” he said with a grin.

“Welcome to the Hazard Team. Glad you’re here. I like you Magara, though I could do without the tobacco.”

He took an inhale of the pipe in his mouth, and allowed it to flush out of his large nostrils “Noted.” chuckled the massive creature.

Astrid smirked and finished off her now tepid tea. “We all have our vices. For me it’s tea. Drink it all day if I can. My XO on the Brandywine thought I was British.”

Magara furrowed his brow “The British…” he spoke softly in a low rumble, running a three fingered hand through his long, recently cleaned although typically soot-stained beard, now only marked with the ash of his pipe. “Magara is unfamiliar, but remembers the ‘Emerald Isle’ – these words were unknown to the Herd, there is no word in the language of the Akh to describe…An island, isle, river. This one’s first time upon Earth was strange, never before had such water been seen by the eyes of an Akh. San-Francisco and the great bridge. The beasts of the water.” his voice was lower than previous, his eyes almost glazing over as he remembered the sights and smells of Earth. It was something he missed.

“Not much water on your home planet Magara?” Astrid asked curiously.

Magara shook his head “Akh Prime is without any surface water. Only deep in the ground, sparse – dredged up by deep rooted plants or burrowing animals. There are sacred springs that rise up on occasion. But none last – the three suns wittle their life away into evaporation.” he spoke “But, the Gods gave their herd these” he said, pointing to the massive hump on his shoulders “Magara has not drunk for three months.”

“We have camels on Earth. Their humps serve a similar purpose, but I’ve no idea if they can go three months or not. They do however, roam the harshest of our deserts.”

“It is almost time for revelry for this one, every three months the herd partakes in a great drinking. It would be a shame to have this ceremony alone, but only with those bonded can it be done…The Black Sun is kind and strong. The Brown Tree would be happy to consider her a friend. Would she join the Ritual of Three?”

“I would be honored,” Astrid replied in surprise. “I… well… yeah… I’m honored.”

“Prepare her body for battle and meet Magara in the Holodeck after the work is done” he spoke, his eyes lighting up with purpose, the generally tired looking alien seemingly reinvigorated with life.

“I’m done,” she replied with a shrug.

Magara turned his head slightly, the large eye on the side of his head observing her “The Black Sun is sure?” he asked, though did not wait for answer, he simply turned and moved away, leaving the room. His body may had been gone but the scent of smoke, both nitrous and tobacco lingered for a good while after his departure.

Standing she grimaced inwardly. There was still a little tinge of pain from her injury in the Caverns. It wasn’t bad, but it was a reminder.

Following Magara to the holodeck she waited excitedly for the fascinating creature to complete his preparations. “What should I expect? Is it like a Navajo sweat lodge or more akin to a Klingon bachelor party?”

In time, all secrets would be revealed.

The group trudged deeper and deeper into the dark. Streth was grateful for the DOTs, their intense beams like lighthouses carving up the inky black. Every so often a rock flew across the cavern floor, dislodged by humanoid feet, causing a clicking echo to reverberate its way through the dank air. Streth thought about the rock that lay between him and the surface, hundreds of metres thick. He could almost feel it pressing down on him, hanging over him with the weight of a thousand different responsibilities. The crew, their lives, the mission, all weighed heavy on his shoulders as they pressed on.

A call from a forward member of the hazard team, “It’s here!”

Moments later they stood facing the domed metal structure. Tall, spindly conduits emanated from a lifeless central cylinder. The whole assembly was covered in a thick layer of dust and grime. Electroplasma had not flowed through the injection coils for as long as the base had been abandoned. Lining one side of the generator were several service hatches, their inspection windows caked in filth.

The generator stood in the middle of large chamber, at a crossroads of sorts. Besides the tunnel the team had just exited, another four tunnels branched off at varying angles like broken spokes on a bicycle wheel. Only the Breen, long departed, knew the purpose or destination of these paths into the bowels of asteroid 1-SZ. Right now, Streth had neither the wherewithal nor the curiosity to explore beyond this particular section of the tunnels. The sooner they could get the generator on and back up above ground the better. Mapping out the damned place was best left to the DOTs. Streth looked on as the team got to work, and as he did so the ground gave another long juddering shake.

Astrid pulled out her tricorder and scanned the generator and surrounding area. “No signs of traps, and the only lifesigns or our own sir,” she said to Streth.

“Good.” Streth replied, “But still… I want a defence perimeter set up. I don’t like these tunnels.” He looked around uncomfortably at the looming passageways.

She nodded. Moving around her team she split them up to monitor a passageway. Hopefully with sufficient warning the rest can maneuver to the threat in short enough of a time. “Hazard Team’s in place,” she reported.

Magara made his few striding footfalls around the area, walking to each of the tunnel entrances, scanning the walls – before scanning along the ceiling and edges of this chamber. “This room is in no danger of collapse” he spoke in that baritone voice “Blue-Sky, Magara could break these tunnels. Leaving only the exit in-tact.” He postulated.

“Or collapse the whole chamber with us in it,” Astrid remarked.

Magara shook his head “This room is reinforced well, the spherical walls and domed ceiling of this chamber protect these ones well. Destroying the central portion of each tunnel would not collapse this room.” he responded to Astrid. “It may not need to come to it, but perhaps Magara could lay the explosives as a…Response measure, Black-Sun.”

Astrid nodded, “Do it. I like extra assurance. Good thinking my friend.”

Magara nodded in response “Very well, Black-Sun” he said, striding into the dark recesses of the next area, opening the container he had with him, and inserting two cylindrical explosive devices into the rooves of each tunnel, about 15 meters in each. Of course ensuring to be cautious on his march there, and the insertion of both yurium mines.

Beck on the other hand just let the others do their chatting while he followed the one and only DOT they brought with them with the nicely modified sensor equipment he installed into it; followed it all the way to the generator itself. Beck didn’t even need to scan the generator with his tricorder, the DOT did that for him and sent the data to his tricorder. “Well, thank you very much, Dottie. You know, I really am curious as to why we don’t see you DOTs around on all the starships anymore… I mean, you guys are pretty handy as can be.” Beck talked to it while he examined the data. “You know, I think I’ll keep you on board the Altai. Wouldn’t hurt to have a useful assistant keeping, well either this station or the ship in tip top shape.” His thick Scottish accent might make some unsure of what exactly he said.

Beck turned to look at Commander Streth. “Oy, Cap. I believe we found the problem with the generator.” Beck waited for Streth to come over before holding out the tricorder for him to see that had the results of the scans.

Ensign Michelle Ortiz had came over with Magera. She wasn’t sure what Paleoanthropologist would do on this mission, but as a linguist she approached the generator looking for any sort of writing.

Once the Akhan had returned, Magara watched as Ensign Michelle past by, his long neck craning to see what they were doing. Magara by no means was a linguist – before one of his large almost floppy ears perked up, listening to the accent of Beck, proving this fact even more to him. He couldn’t comprehend a single-word. He actually worried if his universal translator was broken.

Magara then connected the yurium mines to a detonator wirelessly, and held it firmly in one of his three-fingered grips. Whilst he stood watch, keeping an eye out on either tunnel. The detonator would allow one or both of the tunnels to be collapsed. Hopefully such precautions would not come to that measure.

Like Vogler, Streth now felt reassured that the mines were in place. Anything coming out of the tunnels would now have a few tonnes of rock to deal with before making it through to the generator.

“Looks like the phase coupling’s fried, and the plasma matrix is all clogged up with gunk,” Streth eyed the tricorder readings before looking up at Beck, “Looks like this is gonna take some time.” He waved over to the DOT Beck had been talking to, “Can these guys replicate components? If not, we might have to send one back up to the base to grab a few things.”

Beck sighed heavily and shook his head. “Afraid not, Cap. I upgraded it’s sensors but not given it the ability to replicate. Though that would be a nifty idea…” he pulled out a padd and started scribbling down the idea. “Dottie, my little friend, I am going to get you assigned to me on the the Altai, even if it means I have to arm wrestle the Cap of the Don myself.” The Dot just tilted its head in curiosity.

Streth’s brief moment of feeling in control was shattered when the cavern shook again, “Streth to ops, are these increased levels of seismic activity? Feels like an earthquake or something down here, what’s going on?”

“Negative sir, we’re not reading anything out of the ordinary here. Then again this equipment’s junk so… Hang on, sir, let me check with the Altai’s sensors.” Streth waited patiently as the officer worked, “No, still nothing. Looks like whatever’s going on is localised to your location.”

“Thanks.” Streth said, feeling no better at all. The com link closed, and he turned to Vogler.

“Keep your people frosty.” Then to Magara, “Anything coming up those tunnels- anything- you blow those mines. No chances.”

“As the Blue-Sky commands” spoke Magara, before turning “This old one wonders, these seismic activities. If localized, a mining thumper? An automated detonation of mining explosives? However, this rock has been long abandoned. With no power here, it may be something else.” He then postulated, placing the cigar back in his mouth, thinking for a moment – trying to figure out what could cause these vibrations – the exact measure of the type of explosive needed. “Magara shall time the interval between quakes” he set, setting a timer on his tricorder, and moving the cigar slowly around in his maw as he thought to himself.

Astrid felt her palms start to sweat as she adjusted her grip on her phaser rifle. She peered into the maw of the branching caves seeking any sign of a threat. She didn’t feel good about it, but there was nothing to tell her what this threat was… if there was in fact a threat at all.

“Be calm, Black-Sun” Magara offered, his deep and low humming voice juxtaposing the dull buzzing coming from the DOTs. He put his tricorder on his belt and then placed a hand on Astrid’s head – though not taking either of his eyes off of the tunnels, the nature of his head’s shape allowing him to look in two directions at once, or straight forward.

“I prefer a threat I can identify. I don’t even know IF there’s a threat. How do you prepare? How do you strategize? The ancient Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu wrote, and I’m paraphrasing here, ‘know your enemy as yourself, and you will never lose’. Battle isn’t fair and I will cheat at every opportunity.”

“With uncertainty, the herd is tempered.” he quoted “Dru’gara the Chsoen, An ancient Ga’ran proverb.” he said, taking a small puff of his cigar.

Astrid looked at him with a confused expression, “What does that even mean?”

“Magara has no idea” He said, chuckling a bit “Magara is specialist in explosive devices, not old proverbs. The Brown-Tree believes that it means that The Herd grows closer and stronger together, in times of adversity and uncertainty. So worry not.” He said, smiling through his droopy lips.

She shrugged, “Okay, I’ll give you that. Makes sense.”

Another rumble. More intense this time, Streth struggled to remain upright. From the cavern directly ahead of Vogler, a long sighing groan accompanied a blast of fetid air. A stench was carried on the wind. So putrefying was the warm breeze that all those stood within the generator chamber could almost taste a vile concoction of rotting organic detritus and death. Streth gagged. He fought against his reflexes, struggling over to where Vogler and Magara stood.

“Gas explosion?” He wondered out loud, regretting it immediately as more of the stinking miasma permeated his nose and mouth.

As if in answer to his question, a faint rustling skittered and clicked in the distance. Still the cavern walls betrayed nothing as their flashlight beams were completely absorbed into the abyss beyond. The noise grew. The pitch lowered, now sounding more like a continuous ocean wave crashing down upon the jagged rocky walls. It was getting closer. Streth watched in horror as the parts of the tunnel where light still shone began to writhe and seethe, as if they were themselves alive. Now the sound had become a roar, and Streth now realised what was coming. Covering every inch of cavern surface and skittering towards them like an undulating blanket were millions of insect-like organisms about the size of Streth’s clenched fist. His face contorted the magnitude of the abomination sank in. He bellowed, “SEAL IT OFF!”

Beth had to pull his undershirt up and over his nose, which didn’t help too much sadly, to try and not lose control of his lunch. Though that was the least of his worries when he saw what Streth saw. “Oh bloody hell.” Beck then raised his voice. “Oy! Could ya bugs go bugger off? We trying to fix this thing here!!” Doubtful they would listen but he tried.

The scent permeated deeply into Ensign Magara’s large nostrils, and he had to shake his head roughly, letting out some deep, guttural and tri-tonal cough before slamming his thumb down on the detonator button – a few millseconds passed, before the yurium mines expanded, buckling beneath their metal shells until they suddenly cracked, flaming power flushing out through the center of the tunnel – the rocks collapsing on top of several of the insectoid-like creatures, if they were not immediately disintegrated by the enflamed yurium.

Several bugs escaped and Astrid opened up her phaser rifle and started picking off the lucky ones. “This bloody mission is cursed!”

Beck had fallen back onto his ass, witnessing the whole thing go down, even covering up his nose when the stench woke his senses up. He watched Astrid pick off those that got through, hoping she got them all until suddenly one had dropped from the ceiling and landed on top of him. “HOLY BLOODY HELL!” He shouted. But luckily for him, the DOT he procured had grabbed the creature and tossed it off to the side before blasting it with it’s plasma laser in a short, high powered burst. Beck just laid there on the cavern floor, catching his breath. “Dottie. Could ye be a sweet and fix this bloody generator please…I’m going to just lay here and pretend I’m back in Main Engineering, tinkering with the Warp Core.”

Magara took a few long strides over to where Beck had fallen, – the tall being crouching down and sniffing the top of his head, before offering him a three fingered hand “The Time for dreaming shall come soon, Boundbreaker” he spoke – the deep and reverberating voice, although loud – was now calm. Seemingly the explosion had put him a bit more into his element. “But this herd has a job to finish yet”

Astrid blasted one of the bugs treating the Captain. “Form a firing line,” she shouted to her team. There was a rumble rocks from within the collapsed cave, and a moment later more of the bugs came into view. “Yup, definitely cursed. Magara if you have any photon grenades now would be the time to use them.”

Phaser fire flashed glittering gold across the cavern. Scorched bugs fell to the ground, picked off by the hazard team’s expert marksmanship. Grenades were thrown here and there, vapourising several clusters of the remaining bugs until only a few flitted about. Streth looked towards where rocks had settled in a tight seal across the tunnel mouth. It seemed impermeable to the bugs, for now, and he would have to make to with that. He turned to see Beck lying on his back, Magara crouched over him.

“Vogler, have your medic check him out and get him to the base infirmary.”

“Doc!” Astrid yells. “Beck needs help!” She kneeled and pulled the trigger in three quick bursts. The last shot taking out two at a time.

Beck grumbled, “I’m fine, really!”

The generator clunked and whirred. It started slowly at first, building up into a high pitched hum. Green lights began to pulsate on side of its grey, cylindrical housing. It it were possible for a DOT to look pleased with itself, the one attending to the generate would have certainly been beaming. It returned to Beck, seemingly awaiting its next orders. A sad boop emanated from the DOT’s spiky head once it saw the Chief Engineer’s body lying on the ground.

Power surged through hidden cabling and lights flickered on in the cavern. The dusty walls lit up as the embedded glow tubes woke from their long dormancy. Bug carcasses littered the floor, their shiny blue-green shells glinting in the shining fluorescence.

“Magara,” Streth called, “Do you think these seals will hold? When we get back up to the main base, I don’t want any more visitors from down here.”

Magara shook his head slowly “These are burrowing creatures. They will break through eventually. A few hours, this one would imagine”

“Damnit,” Streth muttered under his breath, “we’ve got to reinforce it now. What’s it gonna take, duranium? Tritanium?”

Magara walked over and crouched down to look at one of the mangled corpses of the bugs, spying over the mandibles. “These are rockbreaking jaws. Good tempered steel, maybe five inches would be enough.” spoke the Ensign, his long neck turning to look back at Streth. “That assuming, these creatures only come in one size.”

The ungulate man’s comment sent a chill down Streth’s spine, “Ah steel we can do. Let’s get as much metal as we can between us and those… Things.” Streth scanned the area around the generator for the Engineer, “Beck! Infirmary’s gonna have to wait. Call up the Don and see how much steel we can get down here. We’ll need personnel and antigrav units to get it in position, anything else you need you just say the word.”

Beck pushed himself off the ground floor, it was time to stop resting and get to work. He tapped his badge and started speaking off the supplies and personnel they needed from the Don to seal this generator room. “And we need to make this quick, we got bugs that ya don’t want crawling around on board your ship, if ya know what I mean. Then get in touch with the Altai, if ya don’t mind. We could use some forcefield generators, backup batteries, and all the equipment we need to set up a terminal so we have direct access to the generator. I want to be able to run diagnostics, establish an alarm system and be able to play some damn music off the magnetic coils. So pick the biggest and fanciest terminal you can find and bring whatever adapter cables you need. And make it quick, we got less than an hour, I’ve had enough of these bugs already.”

“You need to go to sickbay sir,” the Trill Medic protested.

Beck patted the Trill’s shoulder. “And I told ye lad, I ain’t got a scratch on me. Was just startled, aight?” Then Beck remembered something and tapped his badge, “Ey Don, could ya send over more of ya DOTs, more the merrier, they can assemble quicker than an Exocom.” He smirked.

[USS Altai, Cargo Bay 2]

D’vaid was one of the only senior staff members on the Altai. He had been doing his normal administrative duties when he got a comm message that seemed urgent. He immediately marked down what was needed and headed for cargo bay 2. The list was big and the requisition, though easy would be paperwork for D’vaid later on.

He began looking for the forcefield generators, backup batteries, and all the equipment needed to set up a terminal for direct access to the generator. He also needed to include the adapter cables that would be needed. His time on the ship had helped him learn the preferences of the officers. He picked the high-end terminal and gathered the other pieces with the help of some crew members. It took almost an hour before he had the supplies set and ready for beam down.

“D’vaid to Ground Team, all supplies prepared and ready for immediate beam down.”

[Outpost 1-SZ Caverns]

“Everyone check your equipment,” Astrid shouted to her team. “Magara, glad you are here.”

Aside from the hum of the generator, the cavern had been silent as the officers discussed their course of action. Just as Beck’s com channel closed, a faint scratching sound could be heard against the rock. It was like the tapping of a thousand tiny fingernails on the surface of a wooden table. The noise grew and grew until within minutes a frantic scrabbling filled the air. Streth shuddered.

“Sir!” Astrid said to Streth a concerned look on her face. “You should go back to the ship and send reinforcements.”

Streth acknowledged Vogler’s comment with a squint, “Alright. I’m heading back up to the tunnel mouth. Ensign Ortiz, you’re with me!” He looked again to Vogler, “Keep things together until I get back, and help Beck prep the area for the construction team.”

The science officer was visibly pale. She hadn’t expected any fighting, and her job generally dealt with digging in the dirt, not using a phaser. “Yes sir,” she replied weakly.

“You, and you,” Astrid said pointing to two of her Hazard Team members. “Escort the Captain. He dies you better be dead, and then get your butts back here.”

“Yes ma’am!” They replied in unison.

The team travelled back up to the tunnel mouth at a brisk pace. Streth’s breathing quickened on the steeper parts of the slope, now bathed in the cold glow of the activated lights. He could hear the hum of transporter beams in the distance and, sure enough, on rounding the final bend they set eyes on the growing assembly of personnel and equipment. Streth stopped, catching his breath. He looked to Ortiz, pointing out the fifteen or so Engineering personnel that had begun fitting antigrav units to the weighty girders, “Get these people back down there and putting those beams in place right now.”

Michelle Ortiz swallowed hard. She had thought she was getting out of the line of fire, now she was being ordered back into it. Reluctantly nodding, she turned to the engineers, “This way.”

The forcefield generators had begun to arrive, six of them materialising in two neat rows like the number six on a die. The heavy, metal drums were not designed for portability, but they would need to be moved fast if the pestilence that ground its way through the rock was to be held back.

“THESE FIRST,” Streth yelled out to the engineers, “Get ’em down there and get ’em on! Move, NOW!”

The scraping sound made by the insects against the rock rose in intensity. The echoes reverberated through the whole length of the tunnel, up to where Streth and Ortiz now stood with the engineering team. The sickening crunching sound was amplified, distended as the acoustic waveform stretched and bounced off the rocky walls. The resulting high pitched scree of tearing rock pierced Streth’s ears, a thousand sonic pinpricks stabbing through him.

The lead engineer had fixed the antigrav unit to the first generator. He had just begun positioning it ready for the journey down the tunnel when the sound cut through him too. He stopped in his tracks, peering down the tunnel in front of him.

“GO!” Streth bellowed, then yelled towards the Hazard team members, “Head down in front and make sure nothing happens to these guys. When you get down there, help Beck with the assembly. We’re all engineers now.” He waved them on, and they proceeded down towards the generator.

“Streth to Maec,” he tapped his combadge, “Gather up any off duty personnel on the Altai and have them beam down to my location. Get yourself down here too. We’ve got to shore up these fortifications and we don’t have much time.”

D’vaid immediately took off in a full sprint towards where Blake would be. He ran until he reached her office and politely chimed before entering. He saw the startled look of the Chief, but technicalities be damned at the moment.

“I apologize for the intrusion, but we have been called down to the Outpost Ensign Blake. I am here to get you per orders of the Captain. We have no time to waste and it seemed urgent.”

Addison had been sitting in his office going over reports and planning out the upcoming week as his door opened. He was about to speak when the man let out a string of words. He grinned as he stood up. “Let’s get going then, ill have some of my staff meet us there” he replied following the man. He would make time to actually meet him later.

“Excellent then let’s get some weapons and head down.”

After a quick run to get some phasers D’vaid and Blake were set and ready to beam down. They reached the transporter pad without another word the transporter officer energized and D’vaid saw himself materialize in what looked like a cavern. He looked over seeing Blake beside of him he nodded and found Streth in the group of people.

“Reporting as ordered Captain…I hope you know I am not well versed in combat.”

Addison smiled “Reporting as ordered sir”

Wasn’t all who came down, Lieutenant Jones and Chief Cooper had tagged along as well. Jones gave Streth a smirk, “Heard you needed some help, Captain.”

“Damn good to see you, Jones,” Streth beamed. The XO couldn’t have had better timing, “what’s the status on that bug?” Before Jones could answer he ushered more of the engineering staff down from their position into the tunnel before, “Blake, D’Maic, strap the antigravs on those girders and get them down to the generator with the forcefield generators. Lieutenant Beck will tell you what to do with them!”

Jones then patted Streth on the shoulder before gesturing with his head over to a spot hopefully away from any listening ears. Jones kept his voice low but enough for Streth to hear. “I did some digging, and with the data that Beck and Cooper were able to get from the spider before it fried itself, I do believe we have a problem. I believe the Breen sent the spider, there was a lot of Breen language hidden in the data that Beck got from it. I also checked the communication logs more deeply and there was indeed a faint signal, very faint, that was piggybacking on our own comm frequency. Where it went to, I’m not sure. All I can say is, they are very aware that we are here. Where they got the spider, that’s beyond me. I know nothing about Breen technology currently.”

Streth’s smile morphed into a grimace, “This day just keeps getting better and better. Critters coming up from below, Breen coming down from above…” He wiped a grubby sleeve across his brow, “let’s focus on getting all this metal in place. Looks like the last of the material’s heading down now. We’ll deal with the Breen later. Let’s go.”

Beck patted the DOT’s head with a smile, because along with all the equipment that arrived, so did some of the remaining DOTs from the Don, “Ey little buddy, look like some of ye friends are here to join us from the Don. Care to help us out in getting these things built and installed?” The DOT beeped at him with an interesting joyful tone before it took off to join with the other DOTs to hurry and grab the equipment from the new arrivals. Beck made his way over Addison and Maec, with a PADD in hand, waving Magara over with his other hand. “Glad ye lads could join the party. The DOTs will spread out in various sections of the cavern to help assemble the steel wall, along with any free hands available. As for us, the A-Team, we gonna assemble the forcefield generators and place the emitters here and here.” He pointed at the diagram he sketched up on the fly, looked like one section of a steel wall with a couple emitters placed far apart from each other. “Long as we have these emitters placed in their proper spots for each section of these walls, a forcefield should be generated outside of the steel walls, like a shield, and the moment them bugs try to touch the wall, they get a nice zap. Will make em think twice before coming near here again. Sound good, lads?”

Beck then noticed Cooper, “Aahh, lass! Was wondering when you were gonna get off the bloody ship. Mind going over there,” He pointed to the other side of the cavern, “And help assemble the forcefield generator?”

Cooper smirked, “On it.” And she was off.

Astrid flipped the arming mechanism of her last photon grenade. She hoped there would be supplies with the equipment being sent down. The power cell for her phaser rifle was running low too.

She gauged the timing for a group if the bugs and in an over handed throw tossed the grenade into to the center of a mass of bugs. An instant later the explosion vaporized any of the bugs within a ten meter radius. Raising her rifle she fired, missed, fired again, missed again, and two more, consecutive shots took two more of the bugs out. All around her, Hazard Team members were doing the same.

Streth had just reached the cavern where the generator lay. The air tingled with the hot residue of phaser fire, and the photon grenade had kicked up dust that hung in the air, creating a haze. The rocks, all that lay between them and the seething mass of bugs, began to bulge from the pressure of the biomass behind them. A few of the smaller fragments began to tumble from above as the whole structure weakened. With assistance from the antigravs, the engineering personnel had successfully wedged many of the girders length-ways between the floor and ceiling of the cave. The rock was already relying on them in some places for support, and large gaps still existed through which the skittering insects would no doubt come pouring.

“Beck,” The beleaguered Andorian barked, “how many forcefield generators do we need in place before we get a strong enough barrier?”

Beck looked all around them, analyzing the size of the cavern in his head, taking into account on the steel structure they were building, plus the flooring of course. He could be seen doing the numbers in his head while also looking like he was writing on a chalk board right in front of him but there was nothing but air, and no chalk in his hand. “At least six generators, two being back up. Each generator can anchor to at maximum of six forcefield emitters. If we place the emitters out exactly as I had shown to everyone else on my lovely artistic drawing here,” he raised the large data PADD. “Then we should have this entire structure completely protected. And as long as these generators are hooked up to back up power, if this hefty generator here in the center goes out, we will have a lovely little warning system in place, once that terminal is hooked up for me to set everything up of course. And that will give us plenty of time to come down here, fix whatever the problem is while the forcefield generators are on backup power, to fix this hefty thing or replace it if it comes to it, and we won’t hear from them nasty little critters again. I hope.” Beck smiled at Streth and Jones. “Too much?”

“If it stops us having to deal with these things,” A phaser bolt from Vogler’s rifle fizzed behind him, “nothing’s too much.” All those in the cavern now worked feverishly. Girders were propped in position and laser welding flashed bright. Shadows blinked in and out of existence in the eerie strobe. .

Having depleted her phaser rifle Astrid switched to her hand phaser. Thankfully they had slowed the onslaught and the situation for now was under control. Hearing Streth’s return she groaned inwardly. “You,” she said to Korrel, “you’re on Charlie Oscar. Be his shadow.”

“Aye ma’am,” the crewman replied.

A group of crewmen heaved a forcefield generator in position, inputting commands on a small LCARS panel to calibrate it.

“EVERYONE, FALL BACK BEHIND THE FORCEFIELD LINE!” A voice cried out. A shimmer extended from it towards its twin generator, situated twenty metres to the right, punctuated by a high pitched zinging noise as the wall of invisible gravitons powered up.

As the Hazard Team was falling back behind the forcefield and bug emerged from the floor right at Astrid’s feet and climbed onto her right leg. Before she could react the alien lifeform buried itself into her thigh. She yelped in pain moments before the black closed in around her and she fell to the ground unconscious.

Streth saw the Hazard Team leader go down. Before he knew it, he was running full pelt towards the officer manning the forcefield generator. “STOP!” he screamed. Two bugs skittered over his feet, “Don’t raise it yet! Vogler’s down.” Streth’s hands were close to physically pulling the engineer back from the forcefield controls, but he soon realised there was no need. “With me!” he called to the officer, breathlessly pushing past him and climbing the rock pile towards the Ensign’s body crumpled awkwardly where she had fallen. Her vitals were checked, “She’s alive,” were the only words that passed between the two men as they lifted. Streth hooked his arms under Vogler’s shoulders, while the engineer held her legs. Streth backed his way back down across the boulders, phaser bolts flashing past him has the rest of the Hazard team read the situation, laying down enough fire to deter the bugs from approaching their wounded comrade.

They set her down behind the forcefield line and Streth darted to the controls. A small group of bugs, braving the phaser fire, scuttled towards them at growing speed. A fizzle was heard, and the bugs collided with the invisible wall. Tiny sparkles of blueish charged particles dissipated as they rammed again and again into the field. Streth stepped back, taking in the forcefield’s entire length. The blue patches shone momentarily wherever the bugs threw themselves up against it. The physical barrier of steel and rock wasn’t perfect, but it could always be reinforced. Now as long as they had energy, they were safe from what lay deep within the bowels of the caverns below.

Vogler was already being stretchered towards the tunnel mouth, ready for emergency beam-out to the infirmary. Streth resolved to check in on her as soon as the generator site was fully secure. The young Ensign had seen more action in the last 48 hours than a peacetime Hazard Team was likely to see in six months of normal starship operations. As her unconscious body was hauled away from the desolate pit in which they stood, Streth felt a wave of guilt rise up in his chest.

Streth wiped the brownish dirt across his face with an equally dirty uniform sleeve. Predictably, this achieved nothing but to smear streaks of rock dust mingled with sweat over his brow. The sleeve itself was tattered and frayed, the result of heaving against heavy metal, moving generators and steel into place. He’d still not checked into the base’s rudimentary infirmary after ensuring Vogler was being safely treated. It would have been a waste of time anyway, he reasoned to himself, as the place was only half-built, the staff no doubt busy enough. And he sure as hell was not beaming back up to the Altai at this time of night.

Unlike the infirmary, base Ops was nearly complete. A few of the Don S. Davis’ crew remained in the control centre, performing a last minute rearrangement of an isonlinear relay matrix. Streth ignored their sideways glances, fully aware of his bedraggled state as he strode over to the communications console. The room was circular with a central island which housed a holographic display. Sensor, communications, tactical and operations controls lined the perimeter of the nerve centre. Three doorways, evenly spaced, were also embedded into the duranium walls. One led out to an access corridor connecting the room to the rest of the base’s above-ground facilities. The middle door formed the apex of the base’s turbolift network. While not exactly at the ‘top’ of the outpost, Ops was at the furthest point from the subterranean levels. The final door led to Streth’s office; a utilitarian room, but not in the sterile Federation grey fashion so common on Starfleet facilities. Instead, the room was tinged with a light shade of green. While not the most comforting to Streth’s Andorian sensibilities, he understood that the Don S. Davis’ renovation works did not extend as far as cosmetic alterations.

He tapped at the comms controls. These, at least, were familiar to him. The Corps of Engineers had ripped out the old Breen equipment post haste, replacing it with the vastly more capable and user friendly Starfleet technology. Captain Walker came into view on the holo display, and Streth looked around to face him.

“Commander Streth, what can I do for you?” Walker looked as erudite as ever standing on the bridge of the engineering vessel.

“Just wanted to say thanks for the equipment Captain, we’ve shored up the tunnels now. Lieutenant Beck is confident that we won’t be getting any more nasty surprises springing up at us from down there.”

“I heard about what went on,” Walker’s expression grew concerned, “you look a little worse for wear there, Streth, everything alright?”

A sheepish ghost of a smile shadowed Streth’s face, and he rubbed his eyes with a thumb and forefinger, “Nothing a sonic shower and a good night’s rest can’t fix,” he sighed.

“Good.” Walker said, not entirely convinced, “Well you’ll be pleased to know the repairs are on schedule despite that little hiccup with the bugs.”

“Excellent,” Streth tried hard not to reveal the pang of regret he felt. He was less than thrilled by the prospect of the Altai being left alone to maintain this rock, and he was going to miss having the Don S. Davis around. The engineers had already helped them out of a tricky spot with the bugs, and he had the feeling they were certainly not all that was lurking in this desolate, godforsaken pocket of space. “Your departure time remains unchanged?”

Walker nodded, “I like to stay on time, Commander. We’ll be out of your hair in… About seventy-two hours.”

“Then we better make the most of the Don’s replication facilities while we can.”

“Hah.” Walker’s laugh was dry, “And I think you better get some rack time while you can, Commander.”

“Looking forward to it. G’night, Walker.” Streth stifled a yawn as he closed the channel.

***

Streth’s quarters were only marginally less dingy than his office had been. The soft orange lighting glowed in the corners of the small room, illuminating nothing but the stark, featureless walls. He pictured a few decorations here and there; a potted plant, a framed holoimage of his parents back on Indarax, anything that could take him away from the bleakness of the rock in which the base lay half buried.

He peeled off his uniform jacket, sliding the well fitted uniform over the back of a chair. He examined the torn sleeves, confirming that it was in fact unsalvageable. A fresh one would have to be replicated in the morning. Kicking off his shoes, he unfastened his belt buckle and eased himself out of his remaining clothes. He stepped forward into the shower cubicle. It was a simple affair, with two-way controls for heat and the intensity of sonic pressure that was to be applied to his skin by a small particle field. As he reached towards the panel where the controls were mounted, he caught sight of himself in the mirror. Only now did he realise the full extent of the caked dust that clung to him, what was left of his silvery hair now appearing a shade of dark terracotta. His antennae drooped, relaxed as the sonic field surrounded him. The familiar warm sensation tingled its way across his body, imperceptible vibrations separating foreign matter from the blue skin underneath.

That was when he saw it. The bug, fist sized, scuttled across the floor in front of him. He seized up. Antennae stood almost vertical as electricity shot down his spine. Nearly pulling the shower screen clean of its hinges, he leapt out, eyes following the bug’s path.

“Computer, lights, full brightness.”

The soft glow of the night lights was replaced by a hard, sterile fluorescence. Every nook and cranny of the room was now exposed. Streth scanned, tired eyes blinking as he looked hard for anywhere the bug might have got to. He moved towards the bed and sat down. Naked, denied even the simple pleasure of a shower, he exhaled sharply. A low growl then came from his throat. Had the bug really been there? A shiver coursed through his body, bringing his skin up in gooseflesh. What if there were more of them? He reclined on the bed, too tired to think. It was going to have to be a problem for the Streth of tomorrow.

“Computer, lights out.”

Atticus Randall stared down at the young woman lying before him on the rudimentary bio bed. He would have to contact the Don S. Davis about expanding his sickbay capabilities before they flew off into the void.

The ensign lay unconscious before him. Supposedly one of those bugs native to this rock had bore its way into the woman’s thigh. There was no blood, which seemed strange, yet there it was, nearly a 10 c.m. ring of damaged flesh.

Doctor Randall scanned his patient with a tricorder. She was stable. All vitals were normal, yet she lay on the bed out cold. Could it just be the shock of it all? He wondered. He didn’t think so. Members of the Hazard Team tended to be made of sterner stuff than your average Starfleet officer. They had to be. It was part of the job description.

He set the tricoder down on the nearby tray and picked up a hypospray syringe and pushed a glass sample vial into the back of it and he pressed the device into her shoulder and extracted a sample of her blood. With a soft squeak and pop he removed the sample vial and walked across the sickbay and pushed it into a scanner. The computer made several beeps as it worked to break down the blood sample and give the doctor vital information.

He electrolytes were off as was her A1C counts. Then he saw it: labeled “unknown substance”. His fingers flew over the control console as he isolated the substance. “Computer, analyze the unknown substance found in patient Vogler.”

The computer beeped in acknowledgment, “Working… The substance is a neurotoxin working as a paralytic.”

“Well that explains that,” Atticus said to himself.

“Unknown request. Please restate.”

“Not you,” Atticus said, annoyed with the computer. “Computer give me a PET scan with contrast of the right thigh from our patient and bring it up on the holo projector.”

The requested body part appeared in 3D slowly rotating before him. There was the wound. Atticus prodded it with his finger in fascination. It would have been dangerous and unethical to do it to the real patient, but here he could let his curiosity run wild.

Entering commands the skin and subcutaneous fat was removed to reveal the musculature of the limb. There it was. The bug lodged into the muscle tissue. “Computer what is the status of the lifeform inside the patient?”

“There are no lifesigns coming from the lifeform.”

“So it’s dead?”

“Affirmative.”

“What’s the source of the neurotoxin?”

“As the entity is being broken down by the body the toxin is released,” the computer replied in her standard emotionless voice.

Atticus peeled apart the muscle tissue on the holographic limb to look closer to the entity in Vogler. It wasn’t connected to anything. It was now just a foreign body and the immune system was working accordingly. Gripping the pronutum behind the head he pulled the bug free with a wet sucking sound. He mentally decided to use the transporter on the actual patient.

Inside the empty wound he saw them. Hundreds of wriggling larvae feasting on the patient’s flesh. Atticus nearly wretched despite himself. That explained why the bug had climbed inside of her. It had nested and laid its eggs and those had already hatched. How long before they matured into adulthood?

Armed with the information he needed Atticus sighed, deactivated the hologram. “Nurse, let’s transfer the patient to the OR and prep her for surgery. I’ll need a level 1 biohazard sample tray as well.”

“Of course Doctor.”

Atticus crossed sickbay and entered the cramped surgical wash room where he washed his hands and arms before changing into sterile scrubs, mask, and cap. He exited the room directly into the OR With the addition of the larvae had had changed his strategy again and would do the surgery manually.

Vogler was already prepped and waiting on him when he entered. Not for the first time he appreciated nurses more and more. The actual surgery only took about twenty minutes with the bulk of it taken up with extracting the tiny juvenile bugs.

With Vogler back in sickbay recovering he destroyed all but one of the larvae and placed the adult into a stasis container for the science division to study. With his new pet bug he wanted to see how long it would take it to reach maturity.

With the adult removed the neurotoxin was quickly flushed from Vogler’s system and she was already awake when he returned to sickbay still clad in his surgical scrubs. “You are awake Ensign.”

“Yes Doctor. Nurse Tam was just explaining what happened.”

“How do you feel?”

“Uh… well a little foggy to be honest. My leg burns a bit.”

Atticus scanned her and smiled, “You should make a full recovery Ensign. I want you on light duty for a few days, but you are free to return to your quarters. Replicate some ibuprofen as needed for the pain, but you should be fine once the nerve endings settle down.”

“Sure thing Doc.”

Atticus walked into his office and set the clear sample container down on his desk and stared down at the yellow tinged wriggling white worm as it munched on a piece of replicated beef. Sighing he pressed the comm, “Captain Streth I have something you need to see at your convenience.”

Outpost 1-SZ’s exterior structure spiked up from the asteroid’s surface like jagged stalactites reaching out to pierce the endless expanse beyond. The station’s monitoring arrays and subspace transmitters towered yet further above the habitat structures which had, for decades, fed a constant stream of data to Starfleet Command’s hungry eyes. Conduits had been stripped, replaced with higher capacity optical lines. Every major computer system had been overhauled, sensors torn out and replaced with equipment allowing the base’s antennae to cast a far wider, more accurate net. Now, for the first time in the twenty four years since the Dominion War, permanently stationed personnel walked the draughty halls, slept in unwelcoming bunks, and became the watchers.

Base ops was whirring to life for the beginning of alpha shift. A communications officer was relieved, stepping aside as her replacement began the job of monitoring the incoming streams of subspace chatter. A Caldonian engineer discussed the quirks of the base’s life support system functions before making her way towards the turbolift. Streth’s freshly replicated mug of raktajino wafted the bitter aromatic vapours of the fortified Klingon coffee up to his nose. He inhaled deeply as he approached the centre of the room.

“Sir, incoming hail from the Don. It’s Commander Walker.”

“On screen.”

Streth could see the individual grey bristles of Walker’s beard as the man’s face and upper torso filled the main viewer, “Good morning, Commander,” he beamed, “all done?”

Walker had set down his own mug of coffee on a pedestal, very much the one that had been on the Excelsior at the time Captain Sulu was in command. But this one was only there because of a few holoemitters on the Bridge. Made it easier than installing one. “Good morning to you too, Commander.” A big smile formed behind that bushy grey beard and mustache of his. “We most certainly are. And I must say, it was very fun. I’ll have the receipt of our work sent to you right away, that way there are no surprises.”

“Your crew has definitely helped us out of a few… Unexpected situations,” Streth understated. “On behalf of everyone on the Altai, I’d like to express our sincere thanks for their help, and for getting us up and running so damned quick,” his antennae leaned forward slightly, accentuating the solemnity of an almost imperceptible dip of his head. The Corps of Engineers was an entire unit of miracle workers and as far as Streth was concerned, the speed with which Don S. Davis crew had got 1-SZ up and running provided ample proof of this.

Walker chuckled a little, “Unexpected indeed. You’re absolutely welcome, even though it is our job.” He winked. “Tell that Engineer of yours to be nice to that DOT that we so graciously given to him. They’re not as popular as they used to be back in the old days but they can be very useful when needed.” Walker turned his head to someone off screen before a padd was handed to him.

“I’ll be sure to pass that on,” Streth’s smile returned. Sensing the moment had arrived, he straightened up. “Well Commander, farewell and plain sailing to wherever your next assignment takes you. You’re always welcome to stop by again if you ever happen to be around these parts.” A wistful tone underscored his voice along with the knowledge that Don was unlikely to return.

Walker smiled, “Maybe next time I’m personally in the area. Stay safe out here, Commander. Don out.” From Walter’s perspective, his screen blinked to show the station and the Altai, only to scroll away to the side out of sight when his ship rotated in place to take the plotted safe route out of the area before they can jump to warp. Little did he know that once his ship and crew return to the Starbase, the ship will be mothballed and him and his crew reassigned elsewhere but he ain’t gonna be a stranger, he’ll make sure of it.

The USS Don S. Davis propelled herself from the asteroid field at half impulse. To the rear of the ship’s saucer section the fusion powered boosters glowed red, flaring and accelerating the ship as the last tumbling rock passed it by. Out in the clear, the Ambassador class vessel pivoted starboard. The only illumination along her hull came from her own exterior lighting, displaying the ship’s markings, name and designation for all to see. But there was no one to see, and would be no one for light years ahead. The blackness of this particular area of space soaked up every last ray of light produced, even that of her viewports through which was offered to those aboard a featureless gaping sight into sheer nothing. The circular plane of her saucer section tipped in the direction she turned, adjusting to her new heading. Sensor sweeps read clear save for Outpost 1-SZ and the Altai, whose signatures fell further and further behind as she continued to accelerate. Then, as if itching to remove herself from this desolate corner of nowhere, the cigar shaped nacelles of the USS Don S. Davis began to charge. Electroplasma was forced through the two huge warp coils at levels of excitement so great that spacetime in the immediate vicinity began to move and distort. Then, in an instant, a flash of blue ripped out across the engines’ meridian. The ship was gone. A distant flash and boom were all that remained; only visual artefacts of an object that now hurtled its crew back towards the safety and security of all that was familiar.

One. Of Three.

The sound of those words echoed across Magara’s tri-lobed mind as he slowly, and methodically laid out the groundworks of the first ritual. The Holodeck was made to resemble the homeland of the alien, but certain accommodations were made as to make it safe for the human to be present – as the temperatures of that world would cause her to pass out in only a few moments, no matter how strong she may physically be.

He drew using a long, crooked staff – carved from an ancient beast’s thighbone, across the jagged sand, crackling and popping slowly as he did so – the sand was a bright white, all colour long since bleached from it by the unforgiving suns. This place, which was just outside one of the Three Megacities that the Akh lived in – was one of the areas that Magara as a child had seen the power of fire, flame – and did his first ritual.

On the ground, he carved three circles, each of them intersecting – making a triple Ven Diagram. Each of them were large, perhaps thirty feet across each.

The Holodoor opened, and he emerged – the heat from within emanating “Enter, Black Sun” he spoke in his baritone rills, for once a cigar not in his mouth.

“So… this is home? It’s… well, it’s desolate, and hot. So, what do I do?”

“Upon, surface- Akh is desolate. The two eyes of this world hinder, the third allows sight of it’s true beauty. The trial of three, is a competition between companions, the trial of three – is to bond closely. The Trial of Three shall be decided upon by both. The first trial, this old one has decided – shall be combat, of the staff.” he said, taking a step within the further circle – and placing his hand upon the weighty staff at it’s centre. “The next, shall be of the Blacksun’s choosing.”

Astrid sighed, if this was going in the direction she supposed it was going to go this was going to be very painful. Melee combat was not something she was good at. In fact she barely passed her hand to hand combat training to earn her qualifications to lead the Hazard Team.

She crossed the distance to the circle and picked up her own staff. She spun it in an awkward and amateur way fully displaying her ignorance in the weapon. Mentally she made a note that maybe a few classes would be beneficial. “So, is there a point system? Timed? Or do you just bludgeon me until I give up?” She joked with a half-hearted laugh.

Magara bared his teeth, an imitation of smiling – something that was not done often by his people. But he smiled nonetheless “First, to three. There are three circles upon the ground, a combatant can only score a point whilst within one circle, and cannot score again if within the same circle. The final rule, a combatant must pull their strikes.” he said, picking up the staff as well, though doing no such spinning – simply holding it.

Astrid swallowed feeling mildly embarrassed. In an attempt to save face copied Magara’s demeanor holding the staff in front of her across her body with both hands. “And touching is a point?”

Magara nodded slowly, lifting the staff up – and beginning to advance towards her circle – his strides were long, but he did not rush. Evidently this was less of a game of raw physical strength and more of one of careful movement.

Astrid had enough raw athleticism and with years of cross country skiing she was light and quick on her feet. It was this that let her avoid Magara’s attacks, but her own were equally ineffective as she swing her staff at him and the strike was deftly deflected. She grunted as that sent her spinning, loss of balance threatening to send her to the ground.

A tap on the shoulder sent her the rest of the way falling left shoulder first into the sand knocking the wind out of her. “Okay, that backfired,” she croaked as she used the staff to help herself to her feet.

“The Blacksun’s instinct is to fight, this is no fight.” he said, looking over her to make sure she wasn’t actually injured. Before moving back and slowly circling again – moving interchangeably between the three circles on the ground.

Astrid raised an eyebrow, but followed Magara back to the circles. She took a deep breath and settled back into position.

The corridors and hallways already appeared sparse to Streth. The faces he passed as he walked along them had grown familiar since taking command of the Altai. Routines were setting in, the same people in the same places at the same times. A few transfers from the now departed Don S. Davis were peppered amongst the crew, all of whom had seamlessly blended with their Altai counterparts. Streth still struggled to fathom why many of them would have actively chosen to be assigned to such a remote posting, but he reminded himself to keep an open mind. Maybe some would come to realise sitting on the outskirts of Federation space was not the frontier adventure it was cracked up to be? Maybe some simply liked the isolation? Following the events of the past two weeks, all Streth knew was that this would be no ordinary assignment, with no ordinary crew.

There was a calm quiet to the mess hall and the scent of freshly replicated food floated through amongst the tables. Some benches were longer, inviting groups of officers and crewmen to sit around and share their experiences. Some tables were smaller, more private experiences for those who simply wanted to scarf something down, either to get back on duty or back to work. Streth’s tuber root partinna stared back at him from the bowl. He took a gulp of water and shifted the food around, coating the translucent fibres more evenly with red specks of lem spice. The taste was fiery, perfect for the long winters on the Indarax fjords. Streth dug at the food with growing enthusiasm, fully realising the hunger he had developed a tendency to forget about while on duty. Fully engrossed, he barely noticed who was standing by the table.

A moment ago, Jones had decided to try out the mess hall on the station that had been refurbished by the Corps of Engineers when he noticed a familiar blue Andorian. He give the man a moment to find his place before getting up from his table, picking up his drink and tray before walking over to Streth’s table. This be where he is currently standing by the table. “Seat taken?” He asked.

“Not at all, Mr. Jones,” Streth looked up from the food, “What’s for dinner?”

Jones set the tray down before taking his seat and smiled, “medium rare steak, seasoned mash potatoes and gravy with corn on top. Oh and tea.” He held up his cup before taking a sip.

“Ahhh potatoes,” Streth sniffed. The gravy smelt delicious, if a little rich for his taste, “the human staple. Can’t think of a human I’ve met who hasn’t loved them. What is it about them, anyway? Just seem like flavourless balls of starch to me.”

Jones chuckled some at the question, “They really are, unless you put some seasoning into them, add bacon, corn and smother it in your favorite gravy. Mine is beef, some people like chicken or turkey gravy or my other favorite, sausage gravy.”

“The huge variety of meat juice always fascinated me,” Streth mused, “but you can’t argue with how delicious that smells.” He looked down at his own half empty bowl, “Ever ventured to try something a bit more on the spicy side, Mr. Jones?”

Jones looked up at Streth with a raised brow and thought about for a second before smirking. “Spicey?” He leaned back, smacking his lips as he recollected his thoughts. “Well there was a time when I was out on my own on an assignment to investigate a suspect of biogenic weapons. I’ve been on the planet for several months, due for a resupply of rations to hold me out for at least another month, which was when my assignment was due to end. Anyways, the supply drop failed to arrive, so I was forced to look for other sources of food and sudden there was this wild targ, so you can guess I was on a Klingon world. It apparently had been starving for days as well as I have and when our paths crossed, we both knew that one of us was going to get our supper. It was a fierce battle between two hungry creatures, it charged directly at me, I dove to the left, it came to a skidding stop while turning itself around and was primed to launch at me and I was in trouble. I started reaching for my knife but it wasn’t there, must of fell off my belt when I lept out of danger so I had nothing to defend myself with when the targ jumped on top of me. I wrapped my hands around its throat and at the same time I was choking it, I was also pushing it away, keeping it from biting my head off. But its neck was still too thick, must not have been starving for as long as I had thought, so it was difficult for me to choke it. So while I held it at bay with one arm, I searched around for something to use, something to get this beast off me and as it came mete centimeters away from biting my nose, I found a large rock. So I grasped it hard and tight and I started bashing that rock right into the targ’s skull, knocking it off of me and I rolled on top of it, where I kept bashing until the beast moved no more.”

Jones paused for a moment to see if he got the man engrossed into the story. “And being some sort of Klingon tradition, since I killed the targ, I found my knife, sliced its chest open, grabbed its heart and ate it.” Jones paused once more for the suspense. “But being as it is, I threw it up. But I did skin and cook the rest of the targ, very delicious.”

As the story had progressed, Streth’s expression evolved from intrigue, to concern, until finally his mouth hung open at the casualness with which Jones recounted the ordeal, “They say there’s nothing like freshly slaughtered Targ. But can’t say I’ve ever met someone quite so… Determined to find out.” He pushed his bowl away, “Never could fathom why the Klingons liked eating their targ so much. I’m sure they’re tasty enough, but aren’t they supposed to be pets? Faithful to the end? In what universe is it honourable to kill and eat the heart of a Klingon’s best friend?” Streth wasn’t really expecting any answers to these questions, “Anyway, Jones, I admire your enthusiasm in following the cultural practices of other species. Let me know when your next targ hunt is.”

Meanwhile, Beck and Cooper sat across from each other. Cooper with a fruity drink, and a taco salad, where Beck had coffee and spaghetti. Though they barely touched their food as they were going over the specs and exchanging ideas on various things, upgrading certain components on the DOT he obtained from the Don, and other things for the station. The Corps of Engineers did a great job, Cooper clearly exclaiming that well to Beck, which Beck didn’t deny, but he believed the ‘standard’ specs that they follow can be improved. He wanted to improve the efficiency of the sensors and communications, make it so they can hear a a flea nibbling on a Caitain lightyears away, and maybe even see through those grubby helmets the Breen wear and be the first to ever see their faces and make history in all of Starfleet history! Which Cooper found to be hilarious but unlikely. Nevertheless, their exchanges weren’t all that subtle.

Addison sat made his way into the mess hall and grabbed a coffee he sat down at a table. He was new guy so to speak and he wasn’t quite sure about the rest of the crew. While he wasn’t opposed to people he wasn’t sure this was the time to just start walking up to people. He found this the perfect time to do work and refocus from his day.

Ensign Vogler entered the mess hall with with Ensign Ortiz. The two women continued chatting as they went to the bank of replicators and ordered their food.

“Where should we sit?” Michelle asked.

Astrid scanned the room taking in their surroundings. She gave the Captain a polite nod, but as a junior officer aboard this ship it wouldn’t be appropriate for her to join the senior staff, but her eye fell on the chief of security, whom she hadn’t met yet. “Over there,” Astrid suggested.

Michelle shrugged, “Sure.”

The two women approached Ensign Blake, and Astrid flashed him a smile, “Is this seat taken?”

Addison looked up when he heard a new voice “No it’s not please take a seat, I’m Addison Blake” he said with a soft smile looking at the 2 ensigns standing by the table.

They both sat across from Blake and Vogler looked him over carefully . “This is Michelle Ortiz one of our science officers, and I’m Astrid Vogler, and you must be my new boss.”

A hearty laugh from Streth sounded in the background. It was something much needed, and yet something that had been in short supply of late. He appreciated the levity that Jones brought to the conversation as the two officers exchanged a few remarks about the state of the base. From the corner of his eye, Streth noticed a few of the officers had congregated around one of the larger tables. Beck and Cooper sat nearby too, and Streth half listened as they traded stories over their evening meals. “We should drop in,” he said quietly to Jones, “see how they’re finding the base,” he threw a glance over to where the two engineers were eating.

Cleared his throat from all the laughing, especially almost choking up on his drink earlier before looking over to Beck and Cooper that Streth pointed to. He was practically done with his food, well full really, so he agreed with Streth, only to quickly place the tray in a replicator to recycle, grab himself another cup of tea and join Streth in crashing the party.

The Andorian had disposed of his own tray and replaced it with a large mug of jestral tea. Alongside Lieutenant Jones, he carried it over to Blake, Ortiz and Vogler’s table. He tried his best to keep it casual, knowing all too well the effect the commanding officer’s presence was likely to have on a group of junior officers like this one. Waiting for a natural pause in their conversation, he interjected, “Evening all. Don’t suppose there’s any room here for a couple of senior citizens?” He shot Jones a side glance, “Well, one senior citizen, anyway.”

“Oh course sir,” Astrid said warmly and scooted over to make room. “What prompts the Lord to walk amongst the peasants?” Astrid grinned.

Michelle was much less comfortable and sat silently looking into her tea waiting to be addressed.

Jones snorted at the senior citizen part until Streth corrected himself. He glanced over at the Commander with a smirk, “Is that why all you Andorian’s are grumpy? I mean, you’re born with that white hair right? So from the moment you’re born, you’re already swinging your cane at people?” Jones waiting for Streth to process that, but while he waited he raised his drink to the Ensigns, seeing the look on Ortiz’s face. He looked to Vogler, “Unlike the Middle Ages on Earth, we Lords like to make sure our peasants are comfortable and doing well.” He then looked to Ortiz, “And that they can relax, we don’t behead anyone for looking at us wrong, we’re beyond that.” He chuckled.

“Yeah, instead he sics his pet bugs on you,” Astrid joked.

Streth grinned. Memories of the banter at Cratek Pass came flooding back. He’d developed a sense for it after spending so much time there with the humans, “Yes beheadings are off the cards for now. Jury’s out on the cane though, so as they say on Earth Jones, get off my lawn.” Streth’s mock anger creased with a self-congratulatory smile on finding the correct idioms.

Michelle smiled at the jovial ribbing, “Good to know the brass is looking out for us.”

“We try, Ensign Ortiz.” Streth pulled out a chair and seated himself, his expression gave way to one of genuine concern, “In fact, while we’re on the topic of those bugs, I believe Doctor Randall is still screening for them now. I trust you’ve all paid him a visit? I want to make sure we don’t have any hitchhikers from down there among us.”

Astrid swallowed her coffee, “Twice now. Patient Zero is way less fun than it sounds.”

Streth’s mouth twisted into a slight smile. It was good to see that Vogler had retained her acerbic manner despite the ordeal. He elected to tread lightly, not wanting to make light of the situation. Unable to resist a little jape, however, he remarked, “I’m sure we’d all find zero patients much more fun. The less of those… Worms, the better.” He quickly followed it with, “So how are you holding up?”

“A little stiff,” she admitted, “but, I’m fine. It didn’t help things that Ensign Magara whacked me several times with a stick.” She waved a dismissive hand. “Long story. Don’t ask. Apparently it was an honor to participate… or at least so I am told. Some sort of ritual thing.”

Jones raised his brows and looked at Streth before back at her. “Good to know. Something to jot down into my own personal notes. Do not get injured. Period.” He smirked.

“Isn’t that the goal in general? Michelle asked Jones over her tea. “I suppose there are a few people who do in enjoy getting hurt, but that is contrary to evolutioary theory. Being injured makes you weak, and more likely to fall victim to preditors. So, if you are often injured you’d be eaten.”

Astrid frowned and gave Michelle an uncomfortable glance. “That’s an interesting thought.”

D’vaid had just finished up the ins and outs of all the supplies he had beamed down to the station during the…encounter. It was fun going through the hoops to make sure it was all approved, but if there was one thing he was good at it was taking care of admin work. He decided to head for the mess hall as his stomach was growling something fierce. He arrived to find Streth and a few others already there.

He went and replicated a small snack then proceeded to sit down with the group. He smiled “Hi everyone!”

“Ah, Mr. Maec,” Streth looked up towards the Romulan, “it’s good to see you base-side. Pull up a seat! What’s that you’re eating there? Pepperoni roll?”

D’vaid chuckled at the remark he knew most had no idea of what he was eating. It was something he had discovered at the Academy from a Cadet who lived in West Virginia. The food was delicious and D’vaid enjoyed them as a snack on many occasions.

He looked over at Streth and grinned taking the other roll and handing it to him “You have to try one it is worth it I promise.”

Streth raised an eyebrow, accepting the offer from D’vaid. He recognised the bead as an American staple, eaten nonstop by a few past colleagues who hailed from that area of Earth. “Have to admit I’ve never tried one of these before,” he said before taking a bite. The soft bread tore off easily between his teeth and the spiced sausage inside was still warm from the replicator. He considered the taste for a moment before declaring, “That’s damned delicious! Glad to see you’ve got a taste for the human food too, Ensign. Got any more favourites? Lieutenant Jones was just telling me all about the gravy.”

D’vaid chuckled and nodded “I have come to like food around that area of Earth. Gravy is good, but get you some Biscuits and Sausage Gravy and it will transport you to another world entirely.” D’vaid stated as his mouth began to water at the thought of the dish.

A thought popped into Streth’s head and he leaned back, “Hey Jones. Targ gravy. Could it be a thing?” He turned back to D’vaid, “Lieutenant Jones is the expert targ chef around here. I figured if anyone was going to know it would be him.”

Jones raised a brow at Streth and then looked at D’vaid. “Uh, maybe gravy poured over targ meat but targ flavored gravy? I don’t think so.” He chuckled, before talking directly to D’vaid. “Talking about Biscuit and Sausage Gravy, you tried some from the Southern of North America? I believe those from Alabama know what they’re doing, absolutely delicious.”

D’vaid raised an eyebrow in complete disgust at the thought of targ gravy. A horrible taste was in his mouth and about threw up at the thought. He had never been a fan of any Klingon cuisine and this discussion made him lose his appetite. He slid the plate away. “Most places down that way are known for their food. West Virginia had a restaurant dedicated just to biscuits.”

Having spent a good deal of time that evening extolling the virtues of meat sauces from Earth, Streth found the pair’s lack of enthusiasm for a Klingon twist amusing, but also perplexing. He didn’t pursue it further, it was just one of those things about Earth culture he was just going to accept if he wanted to preserve the flow of the conversation. As this human and Romulan evidently knew much of Earth’s North American continent, he focused instead on D’Vaid’s enthusiasm for one of the ancient ‘states’, “Never had the chance to visit there when I was at the Academy. Now I wish I had. People did mention that the place is famous for its country roads, too.”

Jones looked at Streth then at D’vaid before laughing.

D’vaid smirked before he spoke up “Computer play country roads.” As the command finished the tune started to play through the mess hall and D’vaid started humming the tune as the rest of the crew was just looking trying to decide if they liked the tune or not.

***

That evening, Streth laughed along with the others in that mess for what seemed like the hundredth time. Where before there had been only cold, desolate rock, there was now life. Conduits and pathways within that slowly tumbling asteroid, having laid in silence for years on end, now echoed with conversation and the familiar sounds of a Starfleet crew going about their business. It had been a grueling beginning. They had encountered surprises and horrors that nothing could have prepared them for. Somehow, though, he found himself able to peer through the foreboding shadows on his thoughts, present since that first day aboard the Altai. Reassigned from one desolate corner of space to another, Streth had resigned himself to eking out his days reading holonovels and letters from home. What had transpired could not have been further from his expectations. Things had been set in motion on this tiny rock that would ripple out across the galaxy. In time, he would understand. They all would.

For now, a feeling crept through Streth that he had been altogether unfamiliar with for years. Amongst friends and talk of food, it fell around him in a place he’d least expected it. As Jones told another story, Maec listened, Vogler, Ortiz and Blake swapped tales of their own, Streth smiled again. At that moment, in that room, there was peace.