Starseeker

[Hiver]

I blinked slightly and tested my balance, "Is my center of mass different?" I asked as I wobbled slightly.

T'Ro nodded, "Only slightly. While the endoskeleton and general musculature is identical, "she said, running a tricorder over me, "You are about half a kilogram lighter in total from the removal of the antenna mechanisms and forehead smoothing. It did shift your center of mass back approximately two centimeters. Your hair is also longer, magnifying it."

Nodding I shifted my avatar slightly, looking myself over.

It was... outright weird not to be blue anymore, even if my body shape was more or less identical. Trill was a really good idea, I have to say that those spots really are attractive.

Brushing my hair back, I held my arms out and did a small turn for T'Ro, "So what do you think? Will it work? How do I look?"

T'Ro regarded me for a moment before she nodded, "You look good."

I smiled at that and reached for the rest of my uniform to start to get dressed, starting with the skirt. Off-duty or not, walking around in my underwear would be a bit more casual than anyone but the Betazoid would be comfortable with.

And possibly the Caitians.

That thought made me grin. Poor, Poor Ajan was heading for Cait right now. I know he knew Caitians really only used clothes when off their homeworld, but I had no idea if he had actually realized quite what that meant yet.

Finishing putting my uniform jacket on, I shifted my shoulders, testing the fit. The dermal layer was mostly the same as before, just recolored.

Pulling my hair free from the jacket I then frowned and looked around, "Gates, can I have a hair-tie?"

"Of course. Looking good, by the way." He answered, beaming it in.

"Thanks." I said and took the hair-tie from the workbench, using it to tie my hair back into a ponytail before I put my boots on.

My old avatar had shoulder length hair, this one was significantly longer and brown instead of white, reaching to mid back so I needed to keep it out of the way.

"Thank you a lot for this, T'Ro." I said softly as I finished getting dressed by putting my 'Starship' rank insignia back on.

She nodded and closed her tricorder, "It was relatively minor cosmetic work. But you are quite welcome."

I smiled at that. Yes, I could have done it myself on a holodeck, using a holographic avatar, but it was a lot easier with T'Ro's help. It also gave me a second opinion on things.

"We have been at this for almost eight hours. You have to be tired." I continued. At least we were both off duty for another week until the new Luna was finished enough to be moved out of the drydock to Earth Spacedock to have it's last features installed.

The Vulcan shook her head, "Somewhat. I am however more hungry than tired. I believe I will visit one one of the restaurants. We should be able to meet with Rachel and Shran there if you wish to come as well."

Smiling I walked out the workshop with her, "Another week before we return to duty." I said, "Do you have anything planned until then?" I said while sending a message to our friends, asking if they was free to meet us.

T'Ro shrugged, "I have. There are several lectures on the feasibility of Transwarp at the university in Los Angeles that I wish to attend."

"You know, you should take some time to relax as well."

"You are sounding like Rachel now." she said and then nodded, "I have planned to spend a few days visiting different interesting cultural sites on Earth as well."

"That sounds nice."

T'Ro nodded again, "I believe it will be. Do you want to join me? You should also take some time away from work."

"I do take time off! I was out by Saturn a couple of weeks ago with the rest of the Runabouts."

"Conducting a training exercise."

"Playing games." I said with a smile, "That was significantly less of a 'training exercise' than it was a game of tag. But I would love to join you, do you have some places in mind?"

"Perhaps the Aztec pyramids?"

I nodded, "That sounds nice. How about the Great Barrier Reef? I have only seen it from orbit. You would need some breathing equipment, but it is an amazing sight, or so I have heard."

"That sounds agreeable. Would you mind putting together a list of sites to see? You are more familiar with Earth cultural and geographical sites than I am."

"Sure thing."

Walking into the restaurant I looked around, quickly spotting Rachel at one of the tables by the window, overlooking the planet below.

Smiling I headed over to sit down next to her, "Hey."

"Hey... wow. You look great!" Rachel said with a grin, "Love the hair."

"Thanks." I said and reached up to feel it before I leaned back in my chair, "I like it."

Sue me, I like women with longer hair, I think it looks good. So why should I not have it as well if I think it looks good?

A moment later T'Ro joined us, sitting down across from me with a bowl of Vulcan soup, "I think it turned out well as well."

"All thanks to you." I said, giving her a smile, "I may have designed the basic model, but I don't have the artistic touch you do."

"I did practice sculpting as a child." T'Ro answered, "It never held much of my interest, but I do still have the ability. While not exactly the same set of skills,it is somewhat applicable."

"Oh... wow." Shran said as he arrived with a grin, "Star, looking good! You know, you looked good as Andorian, but if you are going to be looking like that, I can handle the slight against my species."

I rolled my eyes at that, "Thank you. Going to sit down?"

He shook his head, "No, sorry, just stopping by to see how it went. I have a date I have to get too."

I blinked at that in mock surprise, "You mean you actually found somebody willing to date you?"

"Funny there, Spotty." Shran said with a grin, "She is a nurse in the medical center. Remember when you dislocated my arm last sparring session a couple of days back?"

"You actually asked her out when she pulled your arm back in place?" Rachel asked, giving him a look, "Seriously?"

"After, actually. Imagine my surprise when she said yes!" He answered with a grin, "Anyway, I have to run. We are meeting at the Klingon restaurant in ten minutes."

As he left the table, I turned to T'Ro, "He asked a girl to a Klingon Restaurant on the first date?"

She raised a eyebrow, "Seems... unwise. Personally, I would have asked somebody I was interested in for something less risky than eating live worms for a first date. Perhaps finding a common interest and doing that?" before sipping on her soup.

Rachel shrugged, "Well, for all we know, she was the one to suggest it."

T'Ro nodded at that, "That is possible."

...Then again, what did we know? Shran was the one to actually managed to get a date.




AN// Many thanks to Alleydodger for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

"Cadet... What are you doing?" I asked with a small frown, looking down at the Bolian crawling along the corridor.

"There is squeaking." He answered and then glanced up at me before basically transporting onto his feet. "Computer! Eh... ship! Ma'am! Lieutenant!"

I raised an amused eyebrow at that. "One of those are sufficient and either of those work. Now what is this about squeaking?"

Cadet Golir swallowed. "Well, Lieutenant, I was on my way to engineering and I heard a small squeak."

Cadet Golir was one of the two Cadets on board, getting ready for their graduation cruise. While we were not ready to leave orbit for another two weeks, everyone had already been transferred on board and finishing preparations.

I frowned faintly at that. "A squeak? Which kind of squeak?"

"Like the deckplate was not properly attached at one of the corners, ma'am. It's hard to tell beneath the carpet."

I could file a work order for a engineering team to look into the problem. A loose deckplate should never have gone through inspection in the first place.

Or I could...

I smiled at that. "Very well, Cadet. What do you suggest should be done about it?"

"Uhm... Well, I could go and get a tricorder and locate it before using a hand welder to attach it properly?" he said hesitantly.

"Sounds good to me." I answered with a nod. "Get to it then. Just don't forget to log the work order in engineering. Chief Engineer Sleeman is a bit of a stickler for that."

"Yes, Ma'am!"

"Dismissed." I finished and continued down the corridor towards the docking port and over onto Earth Spacedock, heading towards the section with temporary quarters.

Sure, I could simply have logged a work order with a thought, but he was on board to learn and gain experience.

Even so... something that simple should have been checked earlier. Somebody, somewhere, fucked up.

Sure, it was simply a squeaky deckplate, but it could have been something actually important.

I left a note to Commander Janeway about possible problems and another with Lieutenant-Commander Sleeman to let him know to run extra checks on everything.

A squeaky deckplate on a random deck was one thing. An EPS conduit on the other hand could get somebody hurt. Besides, it was MY deckplate. Having it be anything but perfect was unacceptable.
The time T'Ro and I spent touring the Earth had been great. The pyramids, great barrier reef, Rome... Would have wanted to see the Forbidden City but it had taken a direct hit during WW3.

It was very fun. We really had to do something like it again.

But... now it was time for something significantly less fun.

Stopping outside a set of quarters I hesitated before I sighed and pressed the button.

"Enter."

Pressing the second button, I walked inside. "Hey Sarah. I... thought I would stop by and help you pack."

Sarah smiled. "Thanks... Not that there is much to pack, I didn't unpack when I moved off the ship in the first place."

Nodding, I looked around the more or less spartan quarters. Just some books and clothes, the rest was already packed away in a couple of bags. "So I see..."

"Yeah."

Smiling sadly, I crossed the room to sit down on the bed next to her. "I wish you didn't need to transfer."

"You don't have a flightdeck now." She sighed. "I would need to transfer to another department."

"You couldn't." I answered, putting my arm around her shoulders. "You need to fly as badly as I do."

Sarah hmm-ed and nodded. "Yeah." She smiled and looked at me. "...I'm still not used to you looking like that."

I grinned at that. "Honestly? Neither am I. I spent two years looking like an Andorian." I shook my head. "The Hammond is a good ship, though."

She shrugged and got up, walking over to her small bookshelf to start putting her books away in one of the storage containers. "It might be an Akira, but that will just make it even stranger." she said and frowned. "I'm going to find myself talking to a wall a couple of times, aren't I?"

"Not completely unlikely. I heard of former crew doing that before." I answered with a grin before getting up to help her.

We quickly finished getting her books put away into the storage box before she stepped back and looked around.

"I think that's everything."

I looked around the small set of quarters as well before picking up her bag, shouldering the strap. "Walk you to the transporter?"

"Thank you." She answered before glancing up at the ceiling. "Gates, my stuff is free to transport."

"Transporting, Sarah." he answered and everything I wasn't carrying shimmered out of existence. "I deposited the boxes in cargobay two on the USS Hammond while the bags are now located in your quarters."

"Thanks, Gates."

She took a breath and looked around once more before looking at me. "Let's get going or I'm going to be late."

We walked towards the closest transporter room in silence, more or less. I was going to miss her.

A lot.

While I was more or less over my crush, I still really liked her. She was one of my best friends.

Entering transporter room eleven, I looked over at the controls. With Gates in control, there was no longer any need for transporter chiefs. And there was much rejoicing in Starfleet, it was the most boring posting in the fleet.

Pausing, I stopped before the transporterpad before I turned to her. "Sarah..."

She smiled sadly. "I know. I'm going to miss you too. Promise to stay in touch, okay?"

I nodded and then stepped up to hug her tightly. "I promise. You too?"

Sarah hugged me tightly back and sighed. "Of course."

Letting go, I reached into the inner pocket and pulling out an optronic data storage module. "Here. It's for you."

She frowned slightly as she took it. "What is it?"

"Those secret agent programs we were running... and five more I finished making but that we have not gotten to playing yet."

"Thank you." She answered with a faint smile, putting the memory stick away into her pocket. "Not sure if it will be the same, though."

Her combadge beeped at her and she tapped it to quiet it. "That's my timer." She said. "I have to go."

"Stay safe."

Sarah smiled and stepped up to kiss me on the cheek before she pulled back to walk onto the transporter pad. "I will. You too. Goodbye, Star." she said and glanced at the ceiling. "You too, Gates."

"Goodbye, Sarah." He said.

I swallowed and nodded. "...Bye. Fly safe."

She shimmered out of existence as Gates beamed her onto the transporter pad on the USS Hammond.

"I hate goodbyes." Gates said quietly and I nodded.

"Yeah. I know. Me too."




AN// A big bag of Thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

"So, you guys have any ideas?" I asked and leaned a bit forward, resting my arms against the table.

Shran shrugged, "I figured I would get her something for her quarters. Maybe a plant or something."

Rachel's birthday was in two days, a week before we leave Earth orbit.... and I didn't have any ideas.

Really, the 'gifts for birthday' thing was really a more Human than Andorian or Vulcan, but it was a tradition we followed. Problem was that I was out of ideas.

"You left it to the last minute again." T'Ro said and put her large cup of coffee down on the table.

"...I know.", I sighed and sat up again, crossing my legs in annoyance, "What are you getting her?"

"A book."

I groaned at that. Why didn't I think of that!?

"...I'm awful at gifts." I sighed and frowned in though.

What was it she really, really wanted?

Well, the answer to that was really simple. She wanted a dog.

But I couldn't get her a puppy for the same reason she refused to get one herself even when she really wanted one. She didn't want one stuck in her quarters all day while she was on her duty shift.

She had a really good point about that being a bit cruel, even for a smaller breed, even a captain's quarters would have been a bit to small to be cooped up in all, yet alone a lieutenant's quarters.

Even on a long range ship like this where everyone got extra room, it would be a exaggeration to call them large.

So I would have to find something else for her. Maybe I should... I don't know. Clothing I guess? Not like I could give her extra room for a...

…Ohhh.

I grinned and sat up straight, "I just had the best idea in the world. But I'm going to need both of your help to get it done before her birthday."



XXXXXXXXXXX



Rachel gave us a suspicious look as we walked along the corridor towards her quarters, "...What do you have planned?"

Shran grinned at her, "Don't worry, you are going to love it." he said.

"Last time you said that was at the Academy and it ended with us needing to replace the couch."

That was a very good point. Drunk Shran might be rather funny to watch, but he was also bad for property value.

"There is no need to worry. It was primarily Star and my work." T'Ro explained as we reached Rachel's quarters.

"I helped!" Shran exclaimed before he hesitated, "...Well, I handed them the tools at times? But I did do the shell!"

Rachel looked between us and I smiled at her as she hesitated, "...I was in here twenty minutes ago." she finally said.

"The wonders of transporters." I answered and motioned at the door, "Well?"

Reaching out she pressed the button, causing the door to open and let us inside.

She looked around and almost immediately spotted our present. A metal cube, a meter and a half cubed, taking up most of a corner of her quarters.

Rachel stared at it for a long moment before she spoke up, "A cube. I always wanted one of those."

I rolled my eyes, "It's more than just a cube and I'll tell you this, it was not easy to get done in time."

She frowned and slowly walked around it to see the other side which had a hatch in it, "What is it?"

"I call it a Puppy-deck." I answered and walked up to leaning against it, "We know you always wanted a dog but didn't want to subject it to shipboard life. Well, this is the solution."

T'Ro nodded, "It is a small holodeck, scaled for a small breed dog. It is hooked into the main computer network so Star can keep a eye on the creature during it's recreation time."

"Play, feed, water, even help train." I injected, "Basically, I could dog sit it while it runs around in fields, forests or whatever. While you are at your shift."

"It also has independent power and life support. Not enough to handle the holo projectors, but enough to keep the creature alive for several hours in case of a hull breach." T'Ro continued, giving me a look for interrupting her.

Rachel seemed a bit lost for words at that, "You... you all... you..." she said softly before sniffling.

Shran smiled and walked up to put his arm around her shoulders, "It took a bit of work to get this done in time. We leave orbit in just a little over a week. So while Star and T'Ro did most of the work on the cube, I expedited things a bit and got everything signed for you with Commander Janeway for permits. I also got in contact with several breeders down on Earth, specialized in smaller breeds. All you have to do is pick a breed and show up to see if there is a puppy you like."

"You all... I..." She said softly, "...Thank you. I don't know what to say..."

"How about what you want next year?" I said with a grin as I walked up to give her a hug, "Because now I am completely out of ideas."

I'm pretty sure that if I had been organic, she would have broken a couple of my ribs.




AN// Many thank to Zebrin for betaing this section. I figured you guys needed some antidote for yesterday

 

[Hiver]

I smiled and looked around the bridge. I didn't really need to have my actual avatar there for people to be able to 'look at me' when talking, I could use the brand new holographic system to simply project my avatar image.

But for the first time entering warp to leave the system... It felt fitting.

The layout was very similar to the Intrepid class, minus the special modifications of course but with a extra chair to the left of the Captain's chair.

Commander and Captain's chairs in the middle. Science over their left shoulders, tactical over their right.

The operations console was located to the front left and the pilot's seat was to their front right.

Or would be normally at least.

While there were pilots on board, they were all shuttle and runabout specialists. All dedicated pilots at least, there were plenty of people that were quite skilled pilots, but none that had it as part of their daily duties.

Which meant that neither of us had to sit and be bored while the other piloted.

Tactical was different as well, not being a permanent position like on a normal ship. The tactical officer was there in case I broke down and to give me advice and ideas during combat.

I might think a hundred times faster than any organic, but I can't think of everything at once. In any case, both positions were still there and manned at all times, but by science personnel unless there was a crisis such as a tactical situation.

"Antimatter transfer is complete," I reported, standing more or less at attention, my arms behind my back, "All diagnostics return nominal values. Ready for orders, Captain."

I had even changed my uniform, changing from the red of command and tactical to the teal of sciences. Seemed more fitting for a science vessel. Commander Janeway approved the change.

Mason nodded, "Set a course for Vulcan. Take us out, ship."

The first 'shake down' trip for every new ship. It was tradition. A short trip to Vulcan to see that everything worked like it should before receiving our first real orders.

Unofficially, Captain Mason, Commander Janeway and I already knew what they would be. We were to proceed from Vulcan to Andoria where we were to meet up with another ship, which one we did not know yet, and take on several runabouts along with two hundred scientists and engineers along with a significant amount of personnel.

We were then to assist the second ship with transferring the cargo to the Jenolan Dyson sphere where a permanent research outpost would be constructed on the inner surface. It was named as such after the USS Jenolan who... ran into the artifact. Literally.

Once that was complete, we would continue on our real mission. We were not scheduled to return to Federation explored space for over two years.

I admit, I was somewhat giddy at the prospect.

I quickly spared a thought to check on Rachel's puppy. She picked out a very adorable Beagle puppy which she named 'Porthos' after Admiral Archers famous pet of the same species. It was currently curled up and sleeping on a sunny spot in it's little holodeck.

"Yes sir. Entering Warp."

I looked back in system. We were at the outskirts of the Sol system, the antimatter refueling ship floating a couple of hundred kilometers away.

Sending a small message of Goodbye to Gates and the other AI, I diverted power to my warp drive and the universe answered, space folding around me as the warp bubble formed.

"Warp three. Warp five. Warp seven point five." I reported, "Holding steady at cruising speed towards Vulcan System. Estimated arrival... approximately one week."

"Good. Commander, you have the bridge." Captain Mason said and got up, "I'll be in my ready room."

Paperwork. Even without actual paper, it was still paperwork.

I on the other hand had a slight problem not grinning like a loon. Instead I smiled softly and enjoyed the feeling of moving under full power, to have full access to all my abilities again.

Subspace stretched out in all directions, vibrating with warpfields, gravity fields of distant stars and particularly Sol behind me folding space around them. Buzzing of subspace messages too weak or too encrypted to understand.

This is what I was meant to be.

It felt... right.

I was a Federation Starship heading towards deep space.

Adjusting my heading slightly to avoid a slightly denser section of dust ahead, I shifted some of my attention to Rachel, "How are the Ladies?"

She crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair in the small control room right next to the shuttlebay, "You know.... I should be happy that the shuttles are all shining brand new, working perfectly and up to spec, but it's boring. Nothing to do on them."

I grinned mentally at that, "You are the one in charge down here. You could try to tune them up if you want."

"I could, but there is only so much I can do with them." Rachel said with a shrug, "Besides, might as well give my people a couple of easy days. Not like we can actually test them until we reach Vulcan anyway. I'm going to have them running diagnostics until then anyway."

"How about the Aeroshuttle?"

Rachel grinned at that, "She is a beauty. Not the fastest thing out there in warp, but tough and able to handle most atmospheres. Can't wait to take her out."

"I bet."

Aeroshuttles were nice pieces of hardware. Not overly fast in warp, but nice and agile at subwarp speeds and with powerful sensors for their size. Ideal for research teams to take down to a unknown planet.

One was fitted into my lower saucer, similar to how they were attached to the Intrepid class. That way they could be carried without taking up room in the hangar bay from the shuttlecraft. I carried a total of four shuttles. Three Type-6, one Type-9 Cargo Shuttle, and I also carried two Worker Bees.

That gave me just about enough room to squeeze in a couple of Runabouts more when we get to Andoria. I wasn't a Galaxy Class, I didn't have unlimited room. I was not made to carry Runabouts, that's why I have an Aeroshuttle! They had to be stored on the 'outer' and only forcefield protected part of the shuttlebay, there was no way they would fit to bring 'inside'.

"Say, Star..." Rachel asked after a moment with a smile, "Anything interesting happen when you and T'Ro was on your vacation?"

"Like what? Oh, that reminds me, I have to show you some of the holopictures I took. Some of them turned out awesome."

She sighed and rubbed her forehead, "Just wondered if something fun happened. But yeah, I'll love to see those pictures sometime," before she got up. "Well, my shift is over. Do you know where I can find Shran?"

"I'm kicking his arse up and down holodeck two."

Rachel grinned at that, "Are you really?"

"...No, not really." I sighed, "I have to cheat to keep up. I have my strength and speed turned up slightly higher than his. If I didn't, he would crush me every time. But don't tell him I said that, okay?"

He was simply a better martial artist than I was, despite me being his primary training partner. I cheated with my improved perception and being able to dial the strength and speed of my holo avatar up. Without it, it wouldn't even be a contest. Didn't help that his reach was longer than mine either.

She giggled at that, "Don't worry, I won't. Last thing we need is for his head to get any bigger than it already is at times. Tell him I want to talk to him later? I'm just going to check on Porthos first."

"Sure."




AN// A big box of thanks to Avernus for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

I kept a careful watch on the shuttles as they slowly tractored the mission pod into place, the cold expanse of Andoria far below.

A few kilometers away, the station was floating, just forward in stationary orbit from me.

"Five centimeters."

"One."

I felt my hull shudder softly under the relatively gentle impact. "We have soft dock. Locking down clamps. Clamps locked. Rerouting power, initiating life support. Turbo lift access... complete. Thank you, Rachel."

"That was a bit tricky. Returning to the hangar bay. We need to get the shuttles shuffled away to fit the Runabouts."

"You have about two hours according to the schedule." I said as I started to run a full computer diagnostics on the new mission pod attached to the top of my hull, just above where it attached to my lower hull.

This one specifically was made for a mix of planetary survey labs and enhanced sensors. Exactly what was needed for long term, deep space exploration.

The mission pod alone increased my sensor resolution by about twenty percent and gave us a bunch more labs.

I tried out my new sensors resolution running a passive scan on a passing Ferengi freighter. Hmm, their impulse drives were running a bit hot for their power levels.

Most likely have skipped scrubbing their plasma conduits since... well, ever.

Ferengi just being Ferengi, I guess.

I know it might seem like a stereotype that all Ferengi were profit-greedy cowards willing to sell their mothers for a slip of gold- pressed latinum.

I would even have agreed that it was a stereotype... if every damn Ferengi I'd met with very few exceptions didn't live up to it.

Lieutenant-Commander Nog however seemed like a rather nice person. I met him once during a reception at Starfleet Headquarters.

"Star, what's the ETA of the Fornax?" Commander Janeway asked as she exited the turbolift from the bridge, heading towards engineering.

Now that's one thing that made me double take the first time I heard it.

Stupid sim and stupid game. It was latin for 'Forge' damn it!

"I have them on long range sensors, Commander." I reported. "From their speed and course, they will arrive on schedule in six hours and will be able to start taking on their part of the cargo in time to be able to hit our departure date."

The USS Fornax was an older ship, an Excelsior-class cruiser. During the war, she had been patrolling Vulcan space. Quite frankly, even updated, the Excelsior class was simply outdated for combat duties. Even in their prime, the Excelsior class was more of a support than a frontline class.

And while she had plenty of cargo space, much more than I did, actually, she didn't have enough to carry everything needed to establish the base on the Jenolan Dyson Sphere.

Well, I was heading in the same direction anyway and did have enough cargo space and shuttleroom to bring what they couldn't.

Janeway nodded and continued on her way, eyes locked on her PADD. "Good." she stated as she took the corner and walked into the transporter room. "One to beam to the starbase."

"Commander, You do realize you don't need to actually be on the transporter for that, right? I can simply do site to site transports."

She smiled at that. "I know. But it sets a bad precedent for the rest of the crew."

"If you think so, sir. Energizing."


XXXXXXXXXX


My avatar exited the turbolift and I took a look around. It looked about identical to the rest of the ship.

I did frown faintly, though.

Damn it. The color scheme didn't match the rest of my corridors. The walls were beige. It looked like it was part of a Nebula or a Galaxy class.

It was a very minor problem, really. It was fully functional and in very good condition, but I could tell that it would keep bothering me. Like walking around with mismatched socks.

...Well, it was going to be a long journey.

Not only were we heading out of Federation space... but we were going in a very special direction.

Straight through the Bajoran Wormhole and into the Gamma Quadrant and then out into the great unknown, leaving what little had been explored there behind. Leaving the old Dominion territories.

In any case, long journey. I should be able to talk Lieutenant-Commander Sleeman into having one of his engineering teams repaint the walls.

Technically, I could do it myself. As the rank of Starship, I had the same rank as the ship's second in command, Commander Janeway during general operations.

I could simply grab some crewmen who looked like they were having too much fun for their own good and hand them some paint.

But I preferred to run things along the right paths, if at all possible.

"T'Ro." I said as I walked into the closest lab. "What do you think?"

"You can tell the mission pod is a couple of years old. Minor imperfections." She said and scooted out from under one of the consoles before turning to Ensign Anderson. "I want a level one diagnostic on all mission pod systems."

"Yes, Ma'am." He said with a small nod, managing to hide his disappointment. "We will get right on it."

Level one diagnostics were quite involved. Any more involved and they would have been taking the entire thing apart and putting it together again. All mission pod systems? They might, if they were lucky, be finished just as we entered the Bajor system.

"Do you detect anything we need to be aware of?" T'Ro asked me.

I leaned against the console and shook my head as I crossed my arms. "Everything shows green to me. We have to see what your engineering team finds. I do like the extra resolution the sensors give me, though."

T'Ro nodded and brushed some dust from her uniform. "Indeed." she said and frowned slightly. "We might have to reschedule our plans for later."

I shrugged one shoulder. "We can play chess at any time, really."




AN// A big bag of Thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this part.

 

[Hiver]

The Fornax was traveling at Warp Five next to me, barely a hundred kilometers away. We were still about a week out from the Dyson Sphere. The Excelsior class doesn't have the engines to do more than warp five without causing slight damage to subspace and as such, we were both limited in speed.

This was going to be so exciting, I had always wanted to see a Sphere. Never in my life thought I actually would, but..

The technology needed to construct something like that was a couple of orders of magnitude higher than the Federation's. A lot higher, actually.

A sphere the size of Earth's orbit around Sol. The idea of something that big boggled the mind. There actually used to be a research base there already. The local sun was a bit unstable and sent out a lot of solar flares, so the base had to be shielded, but it was definitely livable.

Hell, even the radiation wasn't bad once you got close to the surface and under the atmosphere, the solar flares just liked fucking with technology unless it was shielded. Sure, you might not want to walk around for years at a time without some kind of shield if you were organic, but it wasn't actively 'dangerous' for most species.

The inside of the sphere was not actually dead. In fact, it was covered with thick vegetation and had a rich wildlife. There used to be a manned research station there before the Romulan War, but they were evacuated for safety.

Hell, if we were able to stabilize the sun, something that might actually be possible even at the Federation's level of technology. Why the builders didn't, we had no idea. We don't know who built it, but they probably died out before the sun even started to act up.

A colonizationable Dyson Sphere in Federation space would be...

It would be quite a prize indeed. 250 million times the surface area of Earth.

Basically unlimited space to expand into. You could pick up everyone in the entire quadrant and if you spread them out equally across the entire inside of the sphere, they might never see another intelligent being in their lives again.

Yeah, that's big. If it was solid all the way through with levels instead of just a shell, you could put Jupiter in a room and then lose the damn thing.

Huge.

"Lieutenant-Commander." I said with a smile, giving Sleeman a nod as I walked over to him.

"Hey, Star." my slightly overweight chief engineer answered, looking up from his console, his grey hair cut short to hide the fact that he was losing it.

Both things easily fixed with a five minute medical procedure each. Most people didn't, though.

I hypothesized that it was a leftover from the Eugenics wars.

"Everything going alright down here?" I asked and leaned against the side of the console, looking around.

For the first time I actually had a traditional vertical warpcore. Both the Akira and the Sabre had horizontal ones.

I rather liked this design better, it was a much more effective use of room to have it ninety degrees to my deck orientation.

"Still getting used to a new design." He answered with a smile. "So what can I do for you? It's not often you send your avatar down here."

If I did, I usually ended up doing something productive with it, something I tried to avoid. That meant somebody else wouldn't get to do it and well.. I didn't want that.

"You know how I feel about taking the job of somebody else if I can help it... and usually when I get involved in engineering I can't help myself." I answered with a smile in return. "Still, I want to ask a favor. Well, two actually, but one is rather minor."

He raised his eyebrows. "I think we might be able to accommodate you. So what can I do for my favorite starship?"

"Well... the first favor is the largest one. It's about the mission pod." I explained as I crossed my arms. "It's nothing major or mission important, but it keeps bothering me that the corridors and rooms are in different colors than mine. Do you think you could spare a engineering team to fix it?"

"Sure thing." He said with a nod. "It might take until we leave the sphere, things are a bit busy until then, but I'm sure we will find be able to find the time."

"Thanks, Harold. It's not really important, it just keeps bothering me. Like wearing mismatched socks."

He chuckled at that. "What's the second thing?"

"I have a bit of an idea I want to try when we get to the sphere and I'm going to need some help building the prototype. I mean, I could likely do it myself, but I'm not sure I would make it in time with just one pair of hands."

Well, unless I monopolized one of the holodecks. There was no way I would cut into the crew's recreation schedule like that.

He frowned slightly. "What is it you want to build?"

Smiling I handed a PADD over with the preliminary blueprints, "It's a solar powered atmospheric probe. It's perfect for the inside of a Dyson Sphere."

In total, it was not very big and the sensors were mostly optical, IR and radar based. Simple to build and very reliable. Anything more advanced would be bothered by the sun. A simple subspace com gave it a connection to the 'ground' with a range of a couple of hundred thousand kilometers.

Three meters long in total and about as wide at the widest it wasn't very big, the entire craft covered with ultra-efficient solar cells that worked on all spectra. It was usually used to help provide extra power to starbases to supplement the normal fusion reactors.

It was actually powered by a propeller instead of any other kind of modern propulsion like antigrav and such.

The use of something like that as well as actual aerofoils for control and lift actually made it very energy efficient, making the solar collectors more than enough to power it.

According to my simulations, it would actually give the thing performance similar to a early mark world war two spitfire.

"Interesting." He said after a moment as he flipped through the design. "I'm not seeing any kind of landing gear."

I shrugged. "It's not meant to land so it's removed to save weight. With the solar power, it has basically unlimited range. You just beam it into the upper atmosphere and let it go. If you have to bring one back, you could always use the tractorbeam on a runabout."

He nodded slowly. "I see. Yes, this could be useful, I think. A couple of these could fly back and forth across areas of interest, allowing the Fornax to focus their attention and sensors on other spots. Have you run this past the Captain or shown the design to the passengers?"

I shook my head. "Not yet, I wanted to see what you thought first. If you like it, I'll bring it up with Captain Mason when he gets back from the dinner with Captain M'less on the Fornax."

"I'm going to need to go through the design in more detail, but I rather like the idea. Good initiative there, Star. Actually, add a good battery to charge during the day and this could be used on other worlds as well for planetary survey missions."

"Sometimes, having grown up on a 'low tech world' does help in perspective."

"So I see."

Actually, I mostly wanted to build it because flying with Aerofoils was something I had only done on the holodeck before and that's at the manual controls of a aircraft. I just needed to make the design practical for work as well get a excuse to build the damn thing.

This was going to be so much fun.




AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

Floating outside the dyson sphere, I couldn't help but have to struggle against a small case of claustrophobia.

I couldn't help but feel like an ant about to be crushed under a boot. A planet is large. But even a gas giant wasn't this... mind-bogglingly massive. It was like somebody had cut the universe in half.

…In scale, it was larger compared to my ship body than the Earth was compared to a fly.

"Captain... I have located the entrance. Ready to trigger the mechanism at your command." I reported.

I suspected it would be better once I got inside it. It would be like being in orbit around a planet or being inside a starbase. I was okay then, I should be okay inside too.

Mason leaned back in his chair and nodded. "Take us in, Star. Signal the Fornax to follow us."

I sent a quick message to the Fornax before I pulsed a signal towards the receiver on the surface of the dyson sphere, right next to the large aperture in the surface before cutting my engines.

The massive... if only compared to me, not the actual sphere... gate started to open slowly as a set of tractor beams lashed out to scan across my hull before starting to slowly pull me inside.

Now that I really didn't like. But it was the way this worked. At least the last research team found the way to open it from the inside as well instead of needing to trick it like the Enterprise did when they ended up inside by mistake.

Passing through the massive set of doors, a forcefield slid across my hull and suddenly the pressure of atmosphere was around me, pressing down on my hull from all directions.

As the tractorbeams let go, I reengaged my engines and powered upwards, making sure not to go too fast to cause shockwaves or strain my shields.

"Keeping below the speed of sound until we breach the atmosphere. We are exiting the atmosphere in approximately one minute, sir."

I had to crank up the inertial dampeners to keep things from shaking. I was not meant to move in a bloody atmosphere!

Well, I could, but I was not built for it and I was not evenly aerodynamic. My hull geometry was for an efficient warp field, not for air.

"Acknowledged, star." Commander Janeway said, checking some things on her armrest display. "Bring us to a stationary..." she started to say before she paused in thought. "...What do you even call it when staying stationary 'inside' a sphere?"

I shrugged my hologram, seemingly leaning my back against the railing next to her chair, my arms crossed across my chest. "I have no idea, Commander. Orbit works as well as anything, if not very accurately. Locating beacon... beacon located. Changing course and adjusting altitude."

This was much better. The star was shining far above and I could see what was the problem with it. Its magnetic field was a bit... fucked. It's like it was constantly at the worst end of its sun spot cycle. No wonder it gave off small radiation bursts and was hostile to technology.

Even so, the inside of the sphere was... there was no other way to say it, than that it was beautiful. The areas around the entrances were built up into structures and looked rocky, but the rest of the sphere was covered in a thick carpet of green vegetation, from time to time broken up with structures, lakes, oceans or mountains.

The inside was as beautiful as the outside was scary. There were lifesigns... everywhere. In all directions.

Actually, there was so much that I was having problems making out specifics other than 'plant' and 'animal'.

Hell, you could hide the entire population of the Klingon Empire a couple of thousand kilometers away and there would be no way I would be able to tell with this much life around in combination with that unruly star above messing with my scan resolution.

"Research Base Alpha coming into view now, Captain."

"On screen."

I brought it up and zoomed in. "... Permission to log a name change to Research Base Salad, sir?"

Mason hid a grin by rubbing his chin. "Denied, Star. I see they might need some weeding done, however."

Now that was the understatement of the year.

It was a standard modular research base, capable of holding two hundred personnel basically indefinitely. Integrated solar and fusion power plants, replicators, holodecks, labs, personal quarters, hydroponics. Everything you needed to live somewhere and learn everything you could about it.

In this case, if I didn't know where it was from the automated beacon, I would never have seen it. It was covered with vegetation and all the land that had been cleared for landing pads had been completely hidden.

The station was left there a year ago. In a year, the plants here had made it look like it had been unmanned for twenty years.

It was one thing to read in a report that due to the constant sunlight, the plants here were evolved to use all that energy. It was quite another to see it for yourself.

Basically, some of them made bamboo look like redwood.

"...This is going to be more work than I thought it would." I said with a small frown.

Shran leaned against the 'tactical' station to my left. "Most of which will be handled by the crew of the Fornax. Something I'm infinitely glad for. I always was bad at botany."

"Then I guess it's good you will get your chance to practice it, Lieutenant." Janeway said with a grin, glancing back at him. "We will help them get the base up and running again before we leave. We can't unload our cargo or the passengers until we have somewhere to unload them after all."

"...Yes sir..."

Personally, I was looking forward to sending my avatar down there to take a look around. It was so rare that I got to go on away missions.

I loved being a starship, but other perspectives are always nice.




AN// Many thanks to Grey Rook for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

Rachel leaned back in her chair, looking out the window of the messhall, a cup of coffee in her hands. "This place is... incredible. Amazing."

"I can't even imagine the technology needed to build something like this," Shran added, poking at his meal. "Are we sure this chef can cook? This don't taste right."

T'Ro shook her head, "You are simply not used to actual grown food yet. Replicated food is close, but not a hundred percent identical to natural food."

I smiled at that, "I thought the difference was impossible for most people to detect."

"It is," T'Ro said and sipped at her replicated Vulcan tea. It was actually similar to some sorts of Chai as I understand it, a bit spicy. "However, while it is impossible to tell the difference between for example, a replicated tomato and a naturally grown one by taste alone, there is a difference and after having eaten replicated food for a long period, normal food tastes slightly different."

Shran looked doubtful at that and poked his pasta, "I am dubious."

Rachel rolled her eyes and reached across the table to steal one of his meatballs, "Tastes fine to me. A different recipe than the replicator though... are you sure it's not just the cumin you don't like?"

He shook his head and pushed the plate away, "Whatever it is, I don't like it. I'll replicate a sandwich when I get back to my quarters."

I shook my head and looked out the window. The view really was amazing, and that's only counting optical sensors.

Actually, to normal eyes, it wasn't any different than being in very low orbit around a planet other than the fact that the sun didn't move and it was blue in all directions instead of just down and there was no curvature of the earth.

Land just stretched on and on and on until it dissipated into the blue haze of atmosphere.

With the rest of my actual sensors, I could see the rest of the inside of the sphere. The view was no less amazing then, even if the resolution was not brilliant as things got further away due to the interference from that screwy sun.

"Wonder how the culture of a civilization evolving in one of these spheres would turn out." I asked as I crossed my arms, looking out the window. "The sun always at zenith. There always being more land to reach and explore. No nights, no moon or stars. What would they think the universe looked like?"

Hell, a civilization like that would likely never reach higher technology levels. Even the thickest parts of the ground were only about a kilometer thick before you reached the shell, unless you counted the mountains. Sure, there were plenty of natural resources, if much less metals than on a natural planet. Oil and such might not be able to form, too little heat and pressure, but peat could still form.

That was a idea though. I did a quick scan of higher concentrations of CO2 across the sphere. Even looking for something that simple, it would take hours, this thing was so massive.


T'Ro sipped on her tea, "Difficult to say. Ajan would be a better person to ask. He might have some ideas better than simple speculation. You could send him a message once we exit the sphere."

Hmm. He would likely have some good hypothesis about it.

Hell, for all we know, there could be a thousand examples to study somewhere in the sphere and we wouldn't know at this point. One job of the Fornax would be to map the entire inside of the sphere.

With a inner surface area of about two hundred and fifty million M class planets, even with probes, that would take a while, at least at the resolution needed to make it accurate and mark interesting spots for further research later.

I nodded, "I think I will do that actually. Bet he will like some pictures of the place too."

"Speaking of pictures," Shran said, "Can you send me some to my PADD of the base? The Fornax are dragging their heels getting me a accurate layout with the plants added and I still need to plan the security team deployments for tomorrow."

"Sure thing. Want the actual foliage or should I fade that away and leave just solid structures?"

"Better send me both."

"Processing now. Should be done in a... now. Here you go."

"Thanks, Star." He said and pulled his PADD out to check the images, "Yeah, exactly what I need."

"No problem."

T'Ro raised a eyebrow at him, "You could have done that yourself."

"If I had a console and about half a hour, yes," He answered, not taking his eyes off the screen.

"I don't mind helping out with the small things," I said with a grin.

Not like it actually took any effort too. I did the same kind of thing for pretty much everyone on board.

I had to be careful though not to overdo it. They had their jobs to do, I just helped them focus on the important things from time to time.

"Even so," T'Ro said and put her cup down, "Is Holodeck One still running the forest simulation?"

"Yeah. Going on a run?"

T'Ro nodded and got up, "Yes. The work on the science pod has taken up much of my time lately and I have fallen behind on my exercise routine."

"Want company?" I asked.

"Please."

"I'll be there," I told her with a smile before looking out the window again as she left, down at the mat of green below. That really was a nice view.

Rachel groaned and then got up, "I should join you two as well, Star, but I don't have time. I have to go over the duty rosters for my people for next month. Remind me to make up for it later."

"Sure thing."

"See you later," Shran said as she left before he sighed and got up as well, "I should head to my office as well and get this done. You would think that just because my shift was over, I would be done with work for today."

I grinned, "Have fun."

He grumbled as he left, but that didn't fool me. He enjoyed making tactical plans and exercises the same way as I liked to fly.

That begged the question of what to do with my avatar though.

Shrugging, I headed for my quarters to get changed. I had planned to simply use a hologram avatar, but if I didn't need it for something else, I might as well join T'Ro with my physical one.




AN// Many thanks to Avernus for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

I shimmered into existence and looked around, smelling the air. No unexpected trace chemicals, oxygen levels one percent above human standard. No detectable dangerous spores or other substances.

Not unexpected with this much plant life around. Not dangerous for my avatar either. It's military grade technology and at this close range, my com signal was solid.

Not that I really expected a toxic atmosphere around considering away teams from both me and the Fornax had been working on the base for two days already.

Stepping off the transporter pad, I gave the operator a smile and a nod, "Mr T'Let," before leaving the small transporter room.

The base looked like pretty much any Starfleet base I have been on before, in space or otherwise. Not that surprising really, it was modular after all and Starfleet did have a certain construction style.

Actually, from the inside, the situation of the base was not that bad. The seals had mostly held and kept the plant and animal life outside.

It really did look different from the ground than from... damn it, there are really no words for it? What do you call the inside of a dyson sphere? I guess I'm in semi orbit around the star and out of atmosphere?

Fuck it. I'm in orbit.

It looked really different from orbit. Stopping, I turned to look out the window. It looked like a rainforest on Earth, just with different plants but just as thick. Without digging into the reports from the base before it was shut down, I couldn't identify any of them.

It wasn't just plants either. The place was buzzing with life. Insectoids, larger beings. Some kind of... bird bats. They looked like four winged bats with beaks and no legs. Colorful elongated scales though that worked as feathers.

The larger species have escaped the area though. The closest hundred or so meters from the base was currently being cleared to try to keep the quickly encroaching jungle at bay.

But even with phasers, it was slow work as everything was being cataloged and scanned first in search for new species. So far, they have found around two hundred new species just beating the jungle back ten meters from the stations and clearing the hangar deck and the hangar doors.

The plan is to set a force field fence up at a range of about hundred meters out to keep larger and possibly dangerous creatures away from the station once the ground out there is properly cleared.

The original station didn't have that as they didn't know quite how fast the jungle here grew. Now we knew better.

A six legged spider like creature with a sparkly blue shell skittered up to me, climbing up onto the window to end up at eye level, one of its three compound eyes aimed in my direction as it flashed in a complex array of colors, the translator on her stomach translating the colors into speech, if somewhat flat, "Starship female Star. How soon can the rest of the research equipment be beamed down. There are things we require."

I did a quick check in the records and then shook my head. "I'm sorry, Professor K'K'K'RRk. I'm afraid the schedule is still delayed until the xenobiology lab is fully resealed. According to Lieutenant Liset, it should be sealed and... cleaned out... in a couple of days."

A stupid tree had managed to squeeze its way in through one of the window seals and then grown, cracking the hull. Wood was a amazing material like that.

The spider-like being shifted in annoyance, "Very well. Have to make due with portable equipment until then. Thank you, Starship." She climbed down and skittered off, carrying a small sample container.

I looked after her for a moment before I glanced out the window again and continued on my way.

Normally, species of similar body structure was divided up in different ships, bases and expeditions unless they asked for something else.

Humanoid oxygen breathers at somewhat Earth temperature and pressure on their ships, and methane breathing, three legged beings on their ships.

It wasn't a matter of segregation, but of safety and practicality. It simply wasn't possible to make a ship containing more than one separate environment unless you expected your crew to wear environment suits at all times when out of their quarters.

It was not just environments either, it was a matter of instruments, controls, weapons...basically everything. Most humanoids could use the same controls, but when it came to species with say... two tentacles, the standard consoles and instruments simply didn't really work.

So similar species with similar species was simply practical. Which is why I was surprised to find Professor K'K'K'RRk was onboard the Fornax. Thyd was a 'KR'krt.

It was a really fascinating species actually.

Four genders. Male, Female, Ke and Thyd.

Only one of the genders, the Thyd was actually sophont. The rest was basically about as smart as a exceptionally stupid dog on their own.

The Thyd however was connected to the rest of the bodies with a telepathic network with a range of a couple of kilometers. Each Thyd hatching from a egg created and carried by the Ke from materials from the Male and Female. Each egg contained a Thyd, a Male, a Female and a Ke, but the Thyd in question could also pick to just have it contain a male, female or ke.

Honestly, what little I knew about their culture was fascinating. The Thyd was naturally immobile and blind, looking somewhat like man sized barnacles hanging from cave ceilings.

The Ke was about half that size and had the best manipulator limbs. The males had the best senses and could fly while the females was the only ones that could communicate via color changes. Both of them about the size of a human head. For genetic variations, Thyd usually swapped males and female 'drones' with other nearby thyd.

It was actually pretty amusing to draw parallels between K'K'K'RRk's use of avatars with my own.

K'K'K'RRk was a brilliant xenobiologist though even if thyd wasn't a member of Starfleet but a civilian researcher. Due to the Thyd range limitations and immobile nature, thyd attached to basically a solid metal plate instead of the ceiling of a cave like back in their primitive days. That meant they could be moved around. Thyd was currently mounted to the ceiling of thyd quarters.

I entered a quick sequence of numbers into the door lock which let me out into the airlock and then further into the nature outside the station. I smiled, looking around before heading down the ramp towards the work teams where they used a tree cutting device that used a combination of particle beams and tractor beams to safely cut down trees and clear vegetation while runabouts moved back and forth to lift the felled trees away and out of the way to a location a couple of kilometers from the base.

"Hey, Shran, how is it going?" I asked with a smile as I walked up to him.

He glanced at me and then went back to scanning the forest, a monocle for one eye to show him heat signatures. He was also wearing what passed for body armor. Honestly, armor was not of much use against energy weapons. What he was wearing was more of a advanced full body stab vest with some energy dissipating properties that might protect against a close hit and might let him keep going after being hit by a weak stun shot.

Honestly, it was not much thicker than his normal uniform and only actually stood out because the red shoulders of the normal one was limited to a single line instead of a thick area.

"Good. Had to scare something big and scaly away a couple of hours ago, but other than that, just those weird bird things," he said with a smile, resting the compression phaser rifle comfortably in his arms. "I don't mind this, actually. Sure, in a couple of more days I'm sure it will start to get old, but I'm enjoying being out of the ship for once. Clear skies, warm sun... If a bit too warm for my liking. Still, it's a nice change. So what are you doing out here?"

I shrugged, "Wanted to see the place from the ground. Even with my scanners, you miss a lot of details just floating in orbit."

Shran nodded, his antenna bobbing. "Just be careful and don't go too far out. Tricorders do not like this sun and there are life readings everywhere. So far we have not located any large predators, but I rather you didn't have to smack the local fauna around to save your avatar. I would have to put it in my report and it would look bad. For me, that is."

I grinned at that. "Don't worry, I'm just touring the base and having a look outside. I'll keep my avatar in the cleared area."

This avatar at least.

Turning to look up, I could just barely make out a silver flash of light as the constant zenith sun reflected off a silver surface about a kilometer away and five up into the air.

The drone was preforming wonderfully...and was awesome fun to fly.




AN// Many thanks to Rastamon for betaing this section.

 

[Hiver]

"Captain, we are being hailed by the USS Fornax. Captain M'less wishes to speak to you."

Captain Mason looked up from going through his fishing tackle and then sighed and nodded, "Very well. I'll take it on my console."

He headed over and sat down before tapping the screen to activate it.

"Alexander, I hope I'm not interrupting," The old Caitian asked, his right ear flicking as he took in the sight of the Captain in his fishing gear.

Mason shook his head, "Just getting ready for some holodeck time, M'less. What can I do for you?"

"One of our away teams have have stopped answering hails. They are using one of the runabouts to investigate the ruins close to one of the entrances of the sphere. I would like it if the Starseeker could investigate. You have the superior sensor capabilities. We still have the beacon of the runabouts, but no-one answers our hails."

"Star?"

"I am reading the location beacon of the runabout 'Angelica', Captain," I answered. "At the limited speed in the sphere, they are one hour and thirty four minutes to transporter range. I am unable to locate any specific combadges or lifesigns at this distance."

Mason nodded, "Divert course," he ordered before turning back to the screen. "We will move to investigate."

"Thank you, Alexander," M'less said, both ears flicking with a nod of his own, "Transmitting the relevant information now. M'less, out."

Sighing, Mason ran his hand through his short brown hair, looking over at his fishing gear, "I suppose I'd better cancel that holodeck time."

"Not necessarily, sir," I commented, "I'm sure Commander Janeway is able to handle matters."

He smiled at that and shook his head before getting up to get changed back into his uniform, "I have no doubt that Kathryn would able to run this ship without me, but that doesn't make it any less of my job to do it. Go through the data Captain M'less sent us and get a briefing ready. Have Lieutenant Shran put together an away team for a possible search and rescue mission and then have them report to the briefing room in forty minutes."

"Yes, sir."


XXXXXXXXXXX


The shimmers of the transporter disappeared and I looked around, doing a tricorder scan. Not that it did overly much more than my already intense scans from 'orbit'.

"Anything?" Shran asked as he used his own tricorder, a phaser pistol in his other hand.

The away team included my avatar, himself, Ensign Andrés and Ensign R'Tua. Ensign Andrés was the medical expert, she normally worked in sickbay. She was here in case anyone was injured and Ensign R'Tua as a member of security.

My avatar was there as science and support as well as a constant link to the ship. Personally, I enjoyed it. It was not often I could go on actual 'away missions'.

"Not much. The runabout is this way," I said and pointed to the left before starting to slowly head that way.

The rest of the away team followed behind, letting me take the lead. Generally a good idea; if my avatar got shot, it got shot. So what? We could make a new one.

Besides, I was wearing the general 'away team uniform'. It wasn't phaser proof, but it was better than the general uniform. Also, it involved pants which was always nice.

In any case, my avatar was a lot easier to repair than anyone else in the away team which made it very practical to bring... if very limited as I had to keep a constant com signal with it. That also made it useless for some missions, like tactical ones.

There had been way too many of those for my liking during the war.

Stepping over a large root, I continued along the street. The ruins were... monolithically built. Made from thick, light stone, towering almost ten floors above us on each side of the wide street.

Were they made by the builders of the spheres? Nobody knew, but it was unlikely. As far as I knew from the reports, they were a lot younger than the sphere itself. Barely five thousand years old.

What happened to the builders? No idea.

But they did have active power signatures in them and they were around each of the entrances of the sphere.

They were far from perfectly preserved though. The jungle covered them in a thick layer and they had taken damage in their time.

Five thousand years was a massive amount of time. Five thousand years ago, humans were still trying to figure out that entire 'sails' thing.


"There is the landing site," Shran said, his phaser held at the ready as we reached the end of the 'road' into a large square. A clearing had formed from one of the large trees falling over and the runabout had used the cleared space for somewhere to land safely.

No sign of the scientists. The camp looked more or less intact as well even if some of the tents were a bit damaged.

"Andrés," Shran said glancing at the rather petite blonde woman, "Stay close. T'Rua, let's clear the camp. Star, you have the Runabout."

I nodded, "On it," and headed in that direction as I pulled my own phaser pistol. Mine was similar to Shran's, a actual 'humanoid' style phaser. It looked more like a classic pistol than the 'banana' phaser that was in general arms lockers that was 'good enough' for almost all species.

I thumbed it to heavy stun and headed through the camp towards the open hatch of the runabout while keeping a active lock. I might not be able to make out their specific life signs even at this range from orbit, but they were all wearing transponders on their belts.

First sign of danger and I'm beaming the bunch of them up and if need be, nuking the site from orbit.

...If I run into some kind of large leathery eggs, that's procedure number one. They can yell at me about it later.




AN// Many thanks to Avernus for betaing this section.