New Worlds (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 03 Apr 2013 @ 10:10pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Captain Jonathan Holliday & Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D. & Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Coleman & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Lieutenant Theron Rhodes & Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Commander Scarlet Blake & Commander Andreus Kohl & Lieutenant Jacob Pendleton & Lieutenant Dawn Meridian & Lieutenant Commander Amynta Markos & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Lieutenant Jared Nicholas & Ensign Jessica Wilson M.D. & Ensign Im'er Mor'an & Amril
Edited on on 04 Apr 2013 @ 12:11pm

3,560 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Main Bridge, Various
Timeline: MD 05 - 0520 hrs

Previously, on New Worlds (Part 1)...

After receiving the command to launch a Class 2 probe, one of Galileo's forward torpedo launchers briefly flared and sent a metallic capsule gliding towards the planets and its moons. It began to instantly transmit its data straight to the science, navigation, and command consoles on the bridge, and Lirha delicately crossed her legs while she waited to the information to be interpreted.

And Now, the Conclusion...

[ON]

While it looked like Earth was different in a number of ways as the probes cut through the interference. The gravity meant most things were shorter but not everything. In a colossal expanse of plains grew trees almost a kilometre tall and squat creatures seemed to amble in their shadows. Slow seas lapped on flat coastlines with water that carried more salts, shimmering as if it was made of glass. Cracked and weathered spines tore across the landmasses and fell into island chains, other than being heavy, it seemed nice. Looking nice wasn't the reason they were here though, "The Moon," It didn't have a name yet, "Has high levels of deuterium and base elements as well as small deposits of dilithium and group one metals on the surface. There is also a huge expanse of crystals on the seabed." Checking her data she started to move onto rarer things, "The surface temperature appears to shift between minus forty at the poles and sixty at the equator. This will likely drop considerably as the moon moves behind Rojar two during its orbit," At a guess it could be as much as forty degrees or more but that seemed to be a few days away yet. "There is indigenous life with a fully functioning ecosystem, but no signs of settlement or associated readings with advanced life." Finding life of any sort though was something quite new, none of those creatures had names or even pictures yet. "The climate is currently temperate and weather patterns seem to be stable with limited cloud cover." It didn't seem very dangerous at all.

As data on the second M class arrived, Maenad's typically blank expression hardened into a look of sceptical disbelief. "Captain," she said, "The second M class moon is showing signs of former habitation. There are many dozens of settlements all over the surface, but none are inhabited. Wildlife and wilderness have reclaimed them. The atmosphere has considerably high concentrations of gamma radiation," she said slowly. "Readings indicate concentrations to be between one and two roentgens per hour. Given the rate of decay, however, it was much higher in the past. This moon has been ravaged by war, captain. Borg weapons are known to leave high concentrations of residual gamma radiation, and there's also a high concentration of electromagnetic radiation as well."

The captain frowned and turned her attention down towards the centre console to view the data which Maenad was looking at. "Very interesting..." she mumbled as he mind began to work.

The hairs on the back of Theron's neck rose at the thought of coming in contact with the Borg, in any form. It took a concentrated effort remain focused on his tactical readings. There have been so many stories of the devastation caused by the Borg. He was sure that Lt. Stone was all over this information, but was not sure of what his reaction would be.

There were countless causes for gamma radiation from natural and manufactured sources. For it only to effect one moon out of all of these bodies though, it had to be a local source. That ruled out most sources outside of the moon itself. It couldn't be the sun, or a passing phenomenon that had caused it. There was a possible chance it had been the creatures that had encountered the previous day though the only evidence was they happened to be in the same solar system. There didn't seem to be an impact crater large enough to scatter that much radiation into the atmosphere so that slimmed the results. Be it war, pollution or an experiment gone wrong whoever lived here did it to themselves, scans weren't reviling more information than that yet though. Softly, given they were talking of a dead world, a graveyard, "It doesn't appear to have been caused by an external event."

Jacob's fingers flew across his console and he looked up from his on-going scans, "Perhaps if we can determine the rate of radiation decay, we can determine when this planet was inhabited by a civilization. I also suggest that if we find cantered regions of higher levels of radiation then I might suggest stronger clues as to whether or not there was orbital bombardment or self-induced nuclear and/or hydrogen based warfare or even the possibility of pollution or severe global climate change gone awry."

"Do we have any records of communication? If so I can analyse it."

"The electromagnetic interference would have scrambled most communications and nothing appears to be transmitting but could you keep checking? There might be something, or on the long range sensors." It was a tiny chance but maybe a signal hadn't escaped the system yet.

Jared nodded and went to work on the sensors. As unobtrusively as possible he took a few breaths to centre himself and reached out mentally. He doubted he would pick up anything specific but he might be able to pick up something general that would at least point them in the right direction.

"The cities don't appear to show damage from large scale weapons though their structure and design is extensively reinforced," Kiri looked up at Pendleton, "They do appear to be the epicentre though." More and more scans started to come in, one of the probes focusing on a city in detail, "They appear to be joined by pipelines that show residue from plasma energy, they are radiation shielded." Given how much time the radiation seemed to have to disperse into the water and ground, plants covering buildings and lack of obvious remains, "The effects appear to be around two hundred years old, at an educated guess."

Jacob nodded to Kiri and made more extensive notes. "If their structures show extensive reinforcement then either they were prepared for war amongst themselves or from another non-planetary race if I had to make an educated guess. Still, it is somewhat disturbing the amount of radioactivity fallout, decay and levels."

As more and more data filtered in, Liyar computed his own scans and information analysis alongside theirs. At the words former habitation his movements got clearer, more precise as he mapped the planetary ruins and possible information signatures. It took time to pinpoint this due to the extensive radiation field but he began triangulating between soft spots and slowly a picture formed. He forwarded the symmetrical data to the science stations. "There is no sign of communications networking or any remote interstellar craft in this system. If there was sentient life here, they have left no traces of their presence." Beyond the decimated ruins. They were gone, and there was nothing to remember them by.

The second wave of data started coming in, and most of it confirmed all that had already been said. The gamma radiation was definitely not a naturally occurring phenomenon, but there was no apparent cause from the civilisation itself. Whatever people had lived there before, they had an apparently neutral effect on the environment; there were no residual pollutants in the atmosphere whatsoever, except for trace amounts molecules from burned plastics and chemicals. The wilderness that had consumed the planet's settlements made it hard to tell how much of the cities had decayed naturally and how much had been destroyed, but it seemed to be about half and half. The most concerning element of all, though, was still the origin of the radiation.

Maenad showed on the viewscreen an image of a destroyed city, a live image feed from orbit. There was evidence of multiple starports, runways, roads, power stations, railways - but they had all been destroyed. "Captain, this a live picture of the moon's largest settlement. The natural environment has reclaimed it, however we can remove vegetation and organics from the image," Maenad removed all forms of life from the feed, leaving a horrifying image of a crumbled and now desolate metropolis. "Now we can see scorch and burn marks on the surface. There are small craters indicative, and key structures have been blown away." She highlighted areas that made good, clear, examples. "There is no doubt in my mind that this civilisation was attacked." It was time for Maenad to swallow her pride and hesitantly lick her lips. "Captain, we know that Borg attacks on planets leave high traces of gamma radiation. The style and attack patterns of what we are looking at," Maenad cycled through three other cities on-screen as examples, "match those of the Borg."

Kiri hadn't wanted to consider that was possible. She wanted to think that if it was the Borg there would have been nothing left, entire cities scooped up from the ground rather than left. Falling silent she looked at the picture and shook her head. There were other things she could be thinking about, the moon she looked at before. If the Borg was still here they'd know but she didn't want to think about it. Of everything she was scared of them more than anything imaginable.

The collective reaction of the bridge crew at the announcement breezed through Liyar like changes in a pressure meter. Fear of an unknown, unquantifiable enemy. Excitement, nervousness. He captured it and let it out, let it flow down to his fingertips, into keystrokes.

Jared too was picking up on the emotions emanating around the room. He kept his face as impassive as possible raising his shields to keep their emotions and perhaps his own at bay.

Mor'an raised an eyebrow -- her only reaction to the information about the Borg attack. It wasn't that she was sceptical, per se. It was more of an excited interest tinged with disbelief. She had always been fascinated by the Borg and now here she was, about to do hands-on work involving the Borg themselves.

Jacob shook his head and muttered to himself, "Borg. Wonderful..." He shook his head to get the thought of them out of his mind.

Lirha was fascinated by both discoveries, first a giant Class M moon flourishing with life in an ideal climate, and the second which at first glance appeared to have started out that way, but had unfortunately suffered a catastrophic disaster of some kind. The initial report about a war-ravaged civilization was troubling, and so were the concentrations of gamma radiation which were commonly associated with Borg technology. And her chief science officer had practically confirmed what her suspicions were telling her. She thought long and hard for several moments. They were on the verge of entering former-Borg territory and it would sadly make sense that the Borg had arrived and once tried to conquer this world.

Turning to the nearby intelligence officer, Lirha looked at Amynta with a curious glance. "What do we know about Borg activity in the sector over the past fifty years?" she asked. There was a good chance that Starfleet didn't have much information due to the unexplored nature of the region, but perhaps her intelligence department knew more than she did.

Markos looked at her, taking a deeper breath. "There's been some," she said softly, considering it. "Although there are not that many reports of it. More due to lack of survivors. But it has been quiet over the last years. Or equally, Starfleet has not heard about it."

"Any Borg activity is bad activity." The XO said in a low voice, nervously tapping his hand against the command console located between his own and the Captain's chair. The last thing Galileo needed was the unexpected arrival of the Federation's greatest enemy without warning. John had studied every engagement that Starfleet had ever had against the Borg, making it part of his mission to ensure that if he ever came up against such a threat, he would be prepared.

"Begin round the clock scans for anything resembling a Borg transwarp signature...if we so as much see a whisper of activity we get out of here sharp. Ma'am?"

Lirha looked over at her XO and nodded. "I think that would be a prudent idea, yes." she agreed. The last thing she wanted was to engage a superior enemy. "Mister Rhodes, coordinate your sensor sweeps with USS Venture and notify us if any hostile signatures are detected." she ordered, looking towards the tactical station.

"Yes Ma'am." Rhodes replied.

"Ah, I don't know much about these Borg..." Amril said, leaning forward on his console, "The Dominion had minimal contact with them, and I was not involved in that sort of thing... but there may be another explanation. If the Borg were here, why is there so much left behind? This planet has not been assimilated."

"The Borg do not assimilate technology which does not benefit them in some way," Liyar posited. Occam's Razor. "They would ignore it. If the Borg were here, then we are seeing the remains of technology and structure which were unworthy of assimilation."

Lirha looked over her shoulder at the purple-collared Vulcan. "No...not necessarily, lieutenant." she corrected him. Her experiences in Starfleet had taught her that there was much about the Borg which was still not understood, and while they might ignore a species which did not pose a threat, it was naive to make a bold assumption such as the one he had just done. "There is still much we do not understand about this world and its history. And about the Borg. We would be wise to consider all possibilities before jumping to conclusions," she said, then turned towards her XO with a soft sigh. Her crew was on edge and understandably so. "In the meantime, however, we have a job to do. Begin deploying our support craft and start to organize a set of away teams. I want us to be on the surface and collecting data by 1200."

"Yes ma'am." John replied with a nod, turning to the command console situated between their chairs to begin drawing up some ideas for possible away teams. He also sent a message to the shuttlebay to begin preparing all support craft for off-ship activity - a check over before anyone took anything into unknown territory.

"Whether or not technology remains on this planet, it is not an indication of assimilation status," Liyar repeated himself flatly. "That is the answer to Lieutenant Amril's query. The Borg could easily have assimilated the population of this world and left the technology alone, considering it inferior."

"Still supposition and speculation Mr Liyar. As the captain says - we don't do anything until we have evidence to support a hypothesis. If this was indeed done by the Borg they would have had reason to do so...we just need to find out what it is."

John agreed with Liyar that the reason for the Borg destroying a planet like this was certainly one amongst many. Unless there was an advantage for the collective to engage an opponent they generally avoided it -at least that was the popular theory amongst Starfleet.

"We'll deploy away teams as ordered and can investigate all the possibilities. Be patient."

Liyar checked his universal translator. It was functioning normally, but that obviously meant nothing. Tameriatcieda rietkea'a, ziyreh livan-tameriatci, his mind whispered softly. Let it go.

Echoing her XO's statement, Lirha tapped her commbadge to prepare her ship for personnel deployment. "Saalm to sickbay, prepare your staff to inoculate our away teams before we depart. We will also need several medical personnel to accompany us." she ordered.


Sickbay

As she heard the Captain's voice echo around sickbay, Pola glanced around at the chaos which had erupted around her mere minutes ago. Once everyone realised that they had finally arrived at their destination, they each knew that many preparations still needed to be completed before people could start leaving the ship and as such, the pressure was on.

=^= Acknowledged Ma'am. We will be ready.=^=

Instead of standing around, Pola moved around to ensure that her own pair of hands would be put to proper use, helping anyone who needed it.

Padding slowly across the intensive care unit, Andreus Kohl was rubbing his eyes with the heels of his palms. After the night he had, Kohl wondered if making planetfall at 0500 hours might quality as torture under the Seldonis IV Convention. He would have to dig through his old academy notes, and ponder on the matter. For the moment, though, he walked past Jessica Wilson and followed one of the passageways that would take him deeper into the Sickbay complex. He was on the hunt for the vast store of inoculations they had been supplied by Central Hospital on Vega Colony.

In her little corner of the sickbay Jessica was working quickly to get all of the equipment ready that would be needed. Making sure that all of the medical kits had the appropriate equipment and drugs as well as various other supplies that would be needed. She checked each one diligently, the last thing she wanted was to get something as important as this wrong, especially if something, god-forbid, actually happened during one of the away missions.

Dawn spun into sickbay with a surprising amount of energy, given the hour. She didn't like mornings, usually. She especially didn't like mornings as part of Beta shift. It was a surprise that she wasn't dead, given her three hours of sleep. Maybe she was dead. Although that made the afterlife basically the same thing as actual life.

She'd probably need a coffee before long. With a smile, she began to help organise the supplies as best she could.

Counsellor Scarlet Blake wasn't far behind, physically rolling her sleeves up as she moved into the already bustling Sickbay. She took a quick glance around, noting the faces, who was there, and what was being done. Her other counsellor wasn't there yet, not that she could see anyway. She headed straight for the supplies, focusing on getting full medkits packed up for the teams. Her medical knowledge being limited to that of a field medic, it matched.


Bridge

"I'd like to volunteer sir," Jared said to the XO, "If you'll have me that is."

"I appreciate the enthusiasm Ensign. You'll get your chance, along with the rest of the crew."

The XO replied with a smile. The raw enthusiasm of an officer straight from the Academy could be infectious, especially with something as unknown in front of them to explore.

"Sir, thank you. I want a chance to redeem myself in your eyes." Jared genuinely did want to repair the damage he had done. Of course the fact that Holliday had eyes he could get lost in had nothing to do with it. Jared was of course in something akin to a relationship and it was obvious that the XO was as straight as they come. Still he could not help it that his mind wandered a bit before he brought it back under control.

"Good, and Mr Rhodes - coordinate with Lieutenant Stone - all away teams will be accompanied by security staff - type two phasers and rifles to be issued." John called over to the Tactical station. Whilst usually going into unknown territory would call only for a type two weapon issued to the away team members, Holliday was taking no chances where there was evidence of Borg activity, however minor or ancient.

Rhodes glanced back then replied, "Yes Sir. I will follow that up with the Lieutenant."

"Excellent. Let's get to work people - there's a lot of uncharted territory to chart." John called out across the Bridge with a growing sense of pride that the ship he served on was to become the first to survey an unknown world.

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Jonathan Holliday
Executive officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Liyar
Diplomatic Officer, VDF/SDD
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Kiri Cho
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Dawn Meridian
Counsellor
USS Galileo

Lt. Commander Evelyn Coleman
Chief Intelligence Officer/2XO
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Theron Rhodes
Assistant Chief of Security
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Amynta Markos
Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Andreus Kohl
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Cadet Senior Grade Im'er Mor'an
Red Squad Intern
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Scarlet Blake
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo

Ensign Jared Nicholas
Linguist
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Amril
Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo
played by Psylus Anon

Lieutenant (JG) Jacob Pendleton
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Commander Pola Ni Dhuinn M.D.
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Jessica Wilson M.D.
Medical Officer (Intern)
USS Galileo

ENS Lilou Peers
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

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