“All right everyone,” Ruby began to announce in the pilot/crew compartment. “Please make sure you are strapped in, as this will be a rough, rapid departure.” Ruby explained as he monitored his displays on the console screen. Everything was in the green as they were two days ago. Not that he expected anything to change during that time, but anything could happen.

“Just make sure you get us down there safely, Lieutenant.” Said Riov.

“That, sir,” Ruby looked over his shoulder at the second officer. “Is the plan.”

“Bridge to Away Team.” They began to hear Grave’s voice over the shuttle’s intercom speakers, as they all witnessed the large, main shuttlebay door release it’s seal and begin to descend. “We are entering low orbit of K’Shar. Your departure window will be in fifteen seconds.”

For just that single moment, those fifteen seconds felt like forever. But the moment the countdown on his display hit one, he released the magnetic locks from the landing gear and the craft floated several feet off the main deck. Then the counter hit zero and Ruby punched the standby release on the engines. With the impulse engines cranked to one-quarter, the shuttle launched through the forcefield and quickly made a hard turn towards the planet once they were clear of the ship.

“I think,” Mizu began as her hands gripped her arm rests rather tightly. “You may have broken a protocol or two there, Ruby.”

“Sorry,” Ruby grinned at her as he entered the predetermined descent coordinates into the controls and the craft moved on its own to get into position before it began to descend. “I’ve always wanted to do that.”

“Nevertheless,” Riov began. “I highly recommend that you do not do that again, Mr. Ortiz.”

Ruby looked over his shoulder at the second officer, well in this case since they left the ship, team leader. “Understood, sir. Although, with all due respect, time is not on our side at the moment.”

Riov watched as Ortiz landed the shuttle within the compound of the ruins. They were just close enough to the temple where Riov and Elidia could walk to it, while Mizu and K’Roll took the all-terrain vehicle to explore the point of interest outside the perimeter of the ruins.

Riov unbuckled his straps before he stood up from his seat. “Remember everyone. We return here at the designated time so that we may leave this planet before the storm arrives. The closer the storm gets, the more interference we will have with communicators and transporters.”

“Don’t worry, sir,” Ruby said as he swiveled his chair around and stood up. “No one wants to stay inside that temple for more than two months.”

Riov watched as Mizu and K’Roll headed for the gear compartment to load up the vehicle and depart. Then he turned his attention to Elidia. “Let us grab what we need and head for the temple, Lieutnant.”

“Yes, sir!” Elidia said enthusiastically as she hurried after Mizu and K’Roll to grab some gear.

Riov then looked to Ruby. “See what you can get from the ruined structures around us. Anything that gives us a clue as to what kind of civilization they were. Any kind of technology. But also stay close to the shuttle.”

Ruby chuckled. “Already know, sir.” He said as he headed for the gear compartment.

Riov followed behind him to grab a large, collapsible data pad with a transciever, and a tricorder. “I merely repeat myself to ensure the guarantee success of this mission, Lieutenant.” Although, Riov realized that it may be clear as how nervous he is as team leader, with how much he has repeated himself. Perhaps it was the generations of paranoia in his family that still lingered since the age of the Romulan Star Empire and the Tal Shiar that overwatched every move and action that was made. Or perhaps he simply do not want there to be any chance of failure.

Riov could tell that Ruby was about to say something but before he could, Elidia pipped up. “You’re just being a good leader, sir!” She said with a big smile. “If you didn’t repeat yourself, we would think that you didn’t care about our safety.” She added before she slipped past to go to the port hatch to open it and leave the shuttle.

Riov watched her go before he looked at Ruby, and saw both Ruby and Mizu shrug their shoulders before Mizu joined K’Roll in the vehicle and Ruby slipped past to also exit the craft. Riov simply took a deep breath and exhaled slowly through his lips to calm himself. There was nothing to be concerned about.

As Riov exited the craft, he looked to his left to watch the vehicle with the two in it depart towards the west, where they followed what could have been a road or a path out of the ruins. To be specific, a ruined city. What it may had been anyway. It was large but when one looked at it from an aerial view or from orbit, it was entirely circular. Like a dot in the desert. And along the edge of the city’s perimeter was these strange pillars, all identical to one another. Which was another thing added to Mizu and K’Roll’s list to investigate.

Riov then looked to his right, where he could see that Elidia was already half way up the steps of the temple that seemed to reside in the center of the city. Riov began to make quick, long strides towards the temple, where in just a few minutes, he made quick work of those thirty steps and had caught up to Elidia in time before she made it past the entrance. Riov then looked behind him to see that Ruby was using his tricorder along the structures near the shuttle. A lot of them looked like homes, that were worn down, in disarray, nearly or completely gone.

“What happened here?” Elidia’s voice had pulled him out of his thoughts.

Riov turned to look at her. “That is where you and I will hope to find, Elidia.” That answer seemed to bring the enthusiasm back to her as he watched that smile return to her blue face. She would then follow at his side as they stepped further into the temple. It was much like any temple at first, a large room with six pillars, walls decorated with glyphs, and near the opposite side of the entrance, would be steps that lead further down into the temple.

As Elidia went towards the glyphs, Riov was intrigued on the steps, where he saw them worked downward in a typical U shape with sharp corners but they seemed to keep going for quite a while. At least, it was hard to tell where they stopped, as only after the second flight of stairs, it grew dark and after half-way on the third flight of steps, it was pitch black.

“Sir,” Elidia’s voice called out to him. “I think I found something.”

Riov stepped away from the stairs as his curiosity peaked. He headed over to her side. “What is it?”

“Look here,” She waved her hand over a section of glyphs. “It seemed like they were a bipedal species, most common of course but I think they had horns or a couple tentacles grow out of their heads, that were either shoulder length, or were so long, they would wrap around their necks.” She then waved her hand over the next section. “I believe that this is saying that they were thriving. I have no idea what kind of diet they had, nothing here depicts it but surely it was something.”

Riov took a few steps back and looked over the wall from one end to the other, left to right as how one would read a paper book. “I believe this just depicts their history. Nothing about growth or what they ate.”

“That’s what I thought,” Elidia said as she stepped over to the next section, only to step back. “What is that?”

Riov stepped over to her side to see her pointing at a strange image. “Perhaps a creature of some kind?”

“It looks nothing like the other glyphs.” Said Elidia, which was rather obvious. She pointed at another glyph. “I believe this section depicts that whatever this…creature is…came from above the sky.”

Riov frowned. “Space. That means this creature could likely have been species with warp capabilities.” He pulled out the collapsed data pad, took both ends and pulled them apart. He activated the padd and then brought it up to take a picture of the creature. “Run your tricorder scans, take as many images of these glyphs as you can. All of them.” Riov spoke in a stern voice as he headed back towards the entrance.

“Yes, sir.” Elidia acknowledge. Before Riov had left, he saw the look on her face and she looked nervous. Perhaps he may have been too stern with his order.

Nevertheless, he needed answers and he needed to know if there is a chance that Starfleet had encountered this creature. So he stepped outside of the temple, where he had a solid connection with the Sovereign. He sent the image and then tapped his badge. “Lieutenant Commander Riov to Sovereign. I just sent an image of a glyph from the temple. It is a creature that appeared to have visited this world. Can the computer extrapolate and find anything that matches to the image?”

“This is Bazial. I got the image, Commander. I have processed your inquiry into the ship’s database. This will take a moment.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant.” Riov acknowledged and as he held onto the ends of the padd with both hands, he noticed that the vehicle had arrived at the pillars to the west entrance of the city ruins. He wondered what their tricorders will gather. There was simply a lot here to do, a lot to discover. Were those pillars just simply an architectural design or did they have a purpose? And if so, what happened if the population of this city grew too big? Would they build more of these pillars to expand the city walls?

“Commander?” Bazial’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

“Go ahead, Lieutenant.”

Suddenly, it was no longer Bazial’s voice but Captain Maxwell’s.

“Commander. The computer has found a match to that image you sent us.” Riov could hear the intensity in Maxwell’s voice. This cannot be good. “The computer has identified it to be a extra-dimensional lifeform, called the Vezda. The first encounter Starfleet had with them, was the USS Enterprise in 2261 under the command of Captain Christopher Pike. We are sending you all the data that there is about them to your padd. And Commander?”

“Yes, Captain?” Riov asked as he looked down at his padd while everything went dark except for the bar in the center that began to fill with the words ‘receiving data’.

“Are you absolutely sure that the glyphs in that temple show that the Vezda arrived on this world?”

Once the bar filled completely and the screen lit back up, he began to skim through some of the data. Riov began to see why the Captain seemed tense. “Yes, sir. But there is much, much more for us to decipher. And even then, this city looks as if it has not seen life for thousands of years.”

There was a pause, so long that Riov thought maybe the connection had been interrupted until he heard Maxwell’s voice again, this time it sounded more calm. “All right then. Continue your investigation, Commander. Gather as much data as you can and then get back on the ship.”

“Aye, sir. Riov out,” Riov then tapped his badge to terminate the connection before he proceeded back inside the temple, where he found Elidia just standing there in the middle. “Lieutenant?”

“What did the Captain say?” Elidia asked, which made it clear that she heard the conversation.

“Not polite to eavesdrop, Lieutenant.” Riov jest but he could see the look on her face, she was in no mood for jests. “He said that we must continue our investigations. Dig deeper. We need to know what this creature has done to these people.”

“Yes, sir.” She responded before she began to head over to new section of glyphs, but Riov stopped her.

“Elidia,” His voice made her stop and turn to face him. “There was a civilization here. Thousands of years ago. Whatever this creature did to these people, we must find it. But this creature is most certainly dead at this point.”

He could tell on Elidia’s face that she couldn’t decide on whether to be relieved or worried. There was indeed a mixture of both there. Relief on her face, but worry in her eyes. “Of course, Riov.” She made a weak smile before she resumed on her path.

Riov then looked back down at the padd where he continued to review the data. This creature, this Vezda, that came to this world. What did it want with a primitive species? And why? One thing is for certain, that after he went over more of the information on what Starfleet knows based on how old the Vezda is, these ruins could very well be almost ten thousand years old.

He sure hoped that this Vezda creature is dead….