SET 010 - Rojar III Moon Charting

Posted on 18 Jun 2013 @ 6:08pm by Vincent Kramer Ph.D. & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Crewman Athlen
Edited on on 03 Jul 2013 @ 2:04pm

5,233 words; about a 26 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: Rojar III - Various Moons
Timeline: MD 06 0830

ON:

Dea arrived in the shuttle bay. This mission would be very different than her last one. Waiting for the others to arrive she worked on checking the shuttle before boarding it to finish off any necessary preflight tasks.

The first person to arrive through the shuttlebay doors was the Rigelian science officer, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. With only two hours between away missions Athlen had a little face-to-floor time and a sonic shower before coming down to the bay. Athlen was looking to get some technical experience under his belt, and twelve hours on a shuttle sure helped. He had a large tricorder in a bag over his shoulder and a portable container of bened froth tea clutched in his fingers. "Morning!" he called to Mialin.

"Morning," Dea replied turning to face her crewmate with a smile.

Dr. Kramer had been looking forward to this survey mission since it had been scheduled. The probe data had been very fruitful, but the shuttle mission to survey the moons of Rojar's 3rd planet was going to be quite enjoyable for him. He had downloaded all the data onto his PADD. And with it tucked under his arm, Vincent made his way across the shuttle bay to the shuttle Virginia. He stopped near the shuttle and looked at its scraped and dented lower carriage. "It looks like she has seen better days." Kramer said, not really expecting a response.

Maenad trudged her way into the shuttlebay and saw that the others had arrived ahead of her. She was five minutes early, yet everyone else was always earlier. Feeling a tang of frustration, she kept her mouth shut as she neared the shuttlecraft. "Good morning," she said to everyone, and gave Lieutenant Mialin a nod of her own.

Kramer turned to see the Lieutenant, "Well my lovely spotted friend." He said smiling. "I am glad you could make it."

Nodding to Kramer as she approached the shuttle, "Well this bird isn't going very far without a pilot." Shifting her attention to Maenad, "I'll join you shortly just need to finish my walk around."

"Sounds good." Kramer replied. And it was good as he watched her walk away from him admiring her form. Shaking his head and turning away, "I gotta find me a girl friend." and moved to the shuttle entrance.

"Morning, Lieutenant," Athlen fingertip waved to Maenad from just inside the shuttle doors. He sat down at one of the shuttle's side aft seats and pulled the small console over his lap. He studied the controls thoughtfully, memorizing the layout, but not touching anything. He pulled out a PADD from beside him and rested his bened at the side of his chair, looking down at the notes he'd taken on the shuttle's sensor systems yesterday. "This is going to be very neat," Athlen agreed to himself.

Kramer followed Athlen into the shuttle and sat in the chair opposite him. He brought up the expected schedule on the console and reviewed it again as the others entered. Bodies in space always get me excited.

Dea passed the two on her way to the cockpit and took a seat. Quickly finishing up her preflight tasks. "Everyone make sure you're secured and any loose gear is."

While the others were getting ready, Maenad checked over the sensor array from her console at the copilot's seat. Kramer and Athlen were at the two science stations behind the cockpit, and when Mialin finished her walk-around she would take her place to Maenad's left and pilot this thing.

"It's a straightforward mission," Maenad turned her chair so that she could see everyone. "We're going to do a quick tour of the lunar satellite system. Mister Kramer's SCAP probes have already provided us with preliminary data, but now we get to see it for ourselves. It's a very cold and very dead place out here, but there's lots to see and do. If we find anything particularly interesting, we'll suit up and go down to take a look at it for ourselves," she smiled and looked at Mialin and then to the others. "Any questions?"

"EVA. How exciting!" Kramer exclaimed. He turned back to the console, very much anticipating the data from the sensors to relay. "The sooner the better my dear."

Maenad looked at her console and saw that they were cleared to depart. She glanced at the pilot and said, "Whenever you're ready, take us out, Dea."

"Galileo Flight Control requesting departure clearance," Dea went through her usual routine. Piloting the shuttle out of the bay once departure clearance was received.

"Set a course for the nearest moon," Maenad said after the shuttle had cleared the bay. She leaned forward to get a better view and a curious grin spread on her lips. Maenad was literally on the edge of her seat with her soles flat on the floor, her back straight. The other missions she had been on she'd been stuck in the back. This was the first real view of space she had had in a long time. Rojar III hovered in the blackness, an illusion of motionlessness. Its buttermilk colour swirled with oranges, browns, and reds, and dozens of dots of moons in varying sizes hung around the J class giant. The contrast of so much bright against the black of space made the stars invisible to the human eye.

"It's beautiful," Maenad whispered.

Dea continued to pilot the shuttle towards their destination nodding to Maenad, "Yes it certainly is. Space is a wondrous sight. I get to see a lot of things as a pilot but something as beautiful as this never gets old. ETA to the nearest moon is two minutes."

Maenad watched and listened. When she sat back, she glanced at Dea's hands skillfully working her console. She sucked the back of her bottom lip, thinking that she liked Dea. She wondered how long she'd been a pilot, but didn't ask.

Glancing over at Maenad momentarily. "Let me know of you want me to slow down or hover over an area for a bit." Otherwise she just planned to let the science team do their jobs without interrupting them.

Athlen wasn't subtle about his obvious delight either; his hands were clasped tightly in his lap as though to physically prevent himself from movement. His feet were crossed at the ankles and he was hovering over the terminal in front of him, half-torn between watching the various numbers indicating Rojar III's highly turbulent atmosphere and looking out of the window at the planet itself. It was large enough to fill up the screen even at their distance. This was Athlen's first time on a mission like this in space, and the magnitude of seeing an alien planet up close brought home the fact that planets like these existed everywhere, that space was bursting with energy and creation, systems emerging and dispersing at a moment's notice. He shook his head - sentimentality wasn't useful - and ran his fingers over the glass panel in front of him.

Dr. Kramer continued to review the sensor data coming in as they approached the first moon. Looking away from the others, he rolled his eyes at their emotional connection to the gas giant. A big bag of inhospitable gas. he thought. But this . . this could be very interesting. He focused the sensors on heavy metals and isotopes that usually get refracted due to crystals.

"We're coming up on the first moon, now," Maenad said. "Mister Kramer, run a full scan of the surface and subsurface."

With the readjusted sensors on R3-R2, Kramer commented, "We may have some Dilithium in this moon." It was just a dusty ball of rock with no atmosphere about 2/3rds the size as Earth's moon.

"Dilithium," Maenad repeated barely audibly. She checked the results and confirmed Kramer's theory. "Program a probe to these co-ordinates," she said a moment later. Maenad routed the information to Kramer's console. There appeared to be about ninety tons of dilithium in that single location, which was no small amount.

"Thank you Dr. Panne." Kramer reviewed data. "It does appear to be quite an amount . . but looks like at only 3% concentration. Definitely usable at that . . . Wait a second!" Vincent abruptly changed his tone and redirected the sensors at the surface to sector 774. He brought up a high resolution image on the screen. "What does that look like to you?" On the screen were furrows in straight lines on the surface of this moon.

Maenad studies the image on her display and her eyebrows straightened. Then they hardened as she slowly began to press her lips together. Patterns on the highlighted surface were visible. To the naked eye it might have gone unnoticed, but the shuttlecraft's advanced sensors were able to see what human eyes could not. Pathways, possibly roads, were buried in depressions. Not buried deeply, but under a thin layer of dust from hundreds, maybe thousands, of years of neglect.

"Yes," Maenad said finally. "It looks like somebody has been here before," her voice was quiet. "I am scanning for technologies, tools; concentrations of alloys that wouldn't be found in a natural environment." The scan took a few seconds. "Nothing," she sighed. But they all knew that that didn't mean anything; whoever had been there very well might have taken everything they had brought with them when they left. She then ran a subsurface scan and discovered that beneath where they were looking were tunnels and caverns that reached in places up to a hundred meters below the surface.

"Mineshafts?" she wondered aloud. They were too decayed to be precisely determined. Many sections had collapsed. It might have been an ancient lava tunnel, but unless they went down to check for themselves, they wouldn't get much more than that.

Kramer reviewed the 'mineshaft' images, "There is no particular pattern . ." he readjusted the display to incorporate the rock strata. "Yes, it appears by this that they are mine shafts. See here," he pointed to the screen with an enlarged image. "They were following these lines where it looks like platinum and tri-latinum appear to have formed."

Maenad was busy wondering how this could have been. The idea wasn't an impossible one; space was not as empty as humans once thought. "Athlen, Dea, do either of you have any theories?" she asked. "Let's pin this and come back to it," she added loudly enough for those behind her to hear. She then turned to Dea and said more quietly, "Our next stop is up to you," she smiled.

"Alright we'll follow the clearest path out of here to our next closest survey point," Dea replied. So far things have been proceeding smoothly. While she didn't want to get too over confident, it would be a good thing if that trend continued.

Kramer looked at the agenda for moons on their current heading. He said aloud, "The next three moons to survey are all small and seemingly large rocks, but the one after that seems interesting."

It was true. This moon system was bland, except for their potentially meaningful find of mineshafts. The scans confirmed that the others were literally just rocks with craters. "Can you take us to the fourth closest moon?" she said to Dea.

"That's not a problem," Dea piloted the shuttle towards the 4th closest moon. "Ok hang on things are going to get interesting here. I have a feeling your team will enjoy the data you can gather on this one..." Her voice trailed off as she altered course to keep put them on a vector that would allow them to study the moon, but still stay safe given the slightly different orbital path she'd picked up on.

"Ah Yes." Kramer said with a smile on his face as he reviews the sensor data. "I remember now. This is the captured moon."

While they all talked amongst themselves, Athlen sat quietly at his station observing them. He had started to speak when Maenad asked if he had any theories, but realized that no one was interested in them as they had so quickly moved on to the next potential moon. Identify, move on, identify, move on. Athlen wasn't a hard scientist, and so he didn't appreciate the scans and sensors and numbers. He would rather percolate ideas, his imagination taking flight as he envisioned how these moons could have formed, and who could have used them for resources so very long ago. Did the ancient Rojarians harvest those mines? Or perhaps another alien race that had long been wiped away, leaving only mineshafts and rubble. He leaned forward in his seat as they approached the next set of coordinates.

"Ah here we go." Kramer said excitedly as he reviewed the mineral spectrum scans. "Look at the diversity of the elements present on this moon. It is only the surface area that is covered with the common materials of this solar system." Kramer sat back in amazement. "This moon may have come from an entirely different solar system and then captured by the gravity well of this gas giant."

"Unlikely," Maenad replied. Planetoids drifting through deep space were almost unheard of. It would have taken hundreds of millions of years, perhaps billions, just to reach another system depending on where it came from. "But it might have come from another planet in the system, or formed as a result of a lunar collision in the distant past," she hummed. With so little data, it was hard to know anything. Terrans were still arguing about the origins of their own moon, and they had all the data they were ever going to get.

Kramer didn't necessarily like the answer she gave, but this was not the time to argue the point. "I do find it interesting that the angle is off the other moons' rotation and the rotation is in retrograde. So, I can see how a massive collision from one of the other planets, but sent it in a very different direction and then attracted to Rojar III when it approached."

At the moment Dea really wasn't worried about the scientific reasons behind the moon's orbit. Her job was to pilot the shuttle and keep them safe. Navigating around a moon like the current one provided a unique challenge. It gave Dea a chance to keep her flight skills updated.

Kramer looking over the data added, "It certainly has some significant mineral deposits. This could be quite handy as a source of raw materials for the Federation."

For the moment Dea continued to monitor their flight path. Things were looking good and there wasn't much she could contribute to the actual scientific discussion. She lets the science team do their work.

"Let's hope not," Maenad said in response to Kramer, without looking away from her console. The Federation had more than enough resources; this system didn't need them gutting it just so they could have a little more. She didn't like the feeling that this mission was becoming more of a mineral surveying team for big-time intergalactic capitalists to rape the pristine environments of a system far away, out of sight and mind. "Launch a sub-surface probe to penetrate the rock," she said to him. "We'll get more accurate readings of the moon's interior and mineral composition." Her voice was flat and lifeless.

Vincent could have launched into a long dialog with Panne about the necessity of available raw materials for the expansion of the Federation, but this was not the time nor the place. Fuming under his collar, Vincent turned back to his console and waited for further data.

The console in front of Vincent began to receive the data from the probe. He went through several diagrams and read outs as they came available. "Nothing too spectacular here."

"It seems thoroughly dead," she commented, agreeing with Mister Kramer. And so were the rest of the moons. Nothing but lifeless rocks, and after flying to and fro to confirm it, Maenad finally suggested that they return to the moon with supposed mineshafts. "Let's land and see if we can get some definitive answers as to whether people used to be here."

Dr. Kramer turned to Dr. Panne and asked with uncertainty in his voice, "You want to take the shuttle down to the moon? Are we authorized for that?"

"As long as we can locate a stable landing zone we should be good," Dea commented piloting the shuttle over to an area that looked to be a decent place to land the shuttle. "We'll be touching down shortly."

Knowing perfectly well what she was doing, Maenad gave Kramer a glare. "Yes," she said curtly. Maenad didn't like having her judgment questioned.

Kramer shook his head slightly and rolled his eyes, turning back to the console he brought up the surface diagram where the different tunnel system came to the surface. He quickly cross referenced them with a good landing site and optimal possibilities of finding something at the opening of the tunnel systems. "Lieutenant." He looked at Panne. "I would recommend one of these three sites for your little exploration." There were three blinking lights on the surface map. One was in a great expanse. One was in a deep chasm. The last was at the base of some kind of mountainous bluff.

"Why not here," Athlen suggested, and pointed toward the chasm. "We would be closer to the mineshafts," he smiled. "These look really archaic," he studied the telemetry information on a portable PADD in his hands, leaning forward on his knees. It had come back in detail from the probe, and clearly outlined manmade structures. "So archaic it's possible these folks were pre-warp when they discovered this place. They were probably from within this system itself. Any society that could create the technology to go to warp would have had better ways to harvest these materials," he theorized, attempting to keep the excitement from his voice. "So, I'd recommend exercising caution, if we go into the mines." He hoped that they would, but felt it would be neglectful not to mention. "Old mines like that have always had incredible danger associated with them."

Kramer turned to Athlen, listening intently to his recommendation. "All good points." Exercising caution would definitely be high on his list.

"That was my thought exactly, Athlen," Maenad nodded to the map. First, they had to land, and Maenad looked over at Dea who was piloting the shuttle to where Athlen had suggested.

Dea carefully brought the shuttle down for a landing at the designated coordinates. "Here we are." She ran through a quick systems check as she secured the shuttle after landing.

That was easy enough Vincent thought. Dr. Kramer turned in his seat looking at Panne, offering up his hand toward the small airlock area, "Ladies first."

Maenad curled her lips at what she thought was remarkably sexist comment. She looked at him disapprovingly before getting up. Her expression was something between boredom and disgust. She only barely parted her lips before pushing herself up from the arms of her chair. "We'll take a look at these caves," she said down to Dea Mialin. "We'll keep an open comm with you. If there's any sign of trouble, beam us out immediately." She walked to the rear of the shuttle and suited up with Kramer and Athlen, where they suited up. She attached a phaser to her side, which she made careful attention to have on stun, before she attached her helmet.

Kramer got up from his seat feeling frustrated at Panne. He could tell that she was, for some reason, upset at his comment; allowing the women to go ahead of him. He thought, Cannot a guy still be chivalrous in this modern age? He followed suit, prepping his EVA suit and picking up two cases for samples and diagnostic equipment for their little romp.

Dea simply nodded to Maenad, "Roger that." From here on out her job was just to sit and wait. Not exactly exciting but she hoped that her assistance wouldn't be needed.

"Ready?" Maenad asked them, looking at the two men in front of her. She touched the control panel to raise the forcefield behind the hatch and lowered the ramp. Maenad led the way down onto the desolate lunar surface, immediately feeling the reduced gravity. Half the sky was filled with the Jupiter look-alike that was Rojar III. Dotted throughout one of the most impressive starfields she had ever seen were the varying sizes and colours of moons; some full discs, others half, and a few were crescents. She raised her PADD which had Athlen's map reproduced on the screen. After several seconds of appreciating the alien landscapes, Maenad brought herself back to the mission. "This way," she said, heading in the direction of what they thought were mines. "About thirty meters from the edge of the bluff is the first entrance."

Vincent was second out of the ship. He appreciated the added weight of the EVA suit. It made it much easier to walk. He stood there for what seemed an eternity as Panne looked across the landscape. He was sure that they did not see him rolling his eyes, frustrated in the wait. Finally! He thought to himself when she pointed the way.

Dea monitored their progress from the shuttle's cockpit. Listening carefully to the comm. Beyond that all she could do was keep an eye on things til they returned.

Last out of the shuttle behind Kramer was Athlen. The Rigelian had been a little paranoid with his EVA suit, checking and rechecking the systems and pressure clamps over and over again to make certain there were no errors. Suffocating in the vacuum of space did not sit well with him. The suit itself was claustrophobic and he felt a bit like he was back in the brig, but he shook it out, pasting a weak grin on his face and hopping out of the back. The lighter gravity bounced him over to Kramer and Maenad and he scrabbled to the ground before them, landing on all fours with a laugh. He stood to his feet again and looked up at the sky. "This place is amazing!" his voice rang through their comm units, a little more steady, he was slowly getting used to the suit.

After carrying the cases for quite a while, Kramer realized that maybe he should have gotten a hover device to carry the extra equipment. He wasn't a wimp, especially in this low gravity, but the bulky suite and the case kept banging, and it was just beginning to annoy him.

Athlen followed behind Kramer and cleared his throat, pointing down at the heavy equipment. "Would you like any help with that?" he asked.

Kramer stopped and turned toward Athlen, "Thanks. That would be helpful." extending the case in his right hand to him.

The Rigelian lifted up the case with ease, and offered Kramer a smile. It was bulky, but he lifted it up over his head and balanced it on his helmet. With one hand on the case and the other free, he pointed his finger over to a small ridge that descended down. "There. Does that look natural to you guys?" the sociologist asked.

Vincent turned in the direction the Rigelian was pointing. The structure did seem rather uniform.

Maenad squinted, trying to see what Athlen could see. She couldn't. Lifting her tricorder, the readings displayed what was, indeed, something unfamiliar. At least, for a natural formation. A smile came and went with a short burst of excitement. Alien. "I am detecting a support structure in the rock," she said monotonously, looking up from her screen. "Titanium, primarily. Atomic decay indicates at least a eleven hundred years old." She frowned. She increased her pace ahead of Athlen and Kramer, who she managed to get several meters distant from without realizing.

She reached the mouth of the cave and stopped. It was pitch black inside no matter how hard she strained herself to see. With no light and little atmosphere to reflect it, the inside of the cave remained as black as space. She scanned inside, learning that this was the entrance to the shafts they had detected from orbit. About thirty meters inside, the tricorder indicated that there was another contraption made of the same titanium alloys as the support structures; an elevator, perhaps. She searched in vain for a power source. Maenad turned to look over her shoulder to see the two figures of Athlen and Kramer just meeting her in front of what appeared to be a giant mouth. It was eerie, but Maenad was smiling regardless. "I think this is our mineshaft," she grinned.

Kramer looked up from his tricorder readings, "The structure and strata appear sound, a collapse is very unlikely. I think we should proceed."

Athlen looked to Maenad, his free hand clapped over the tricorder in his utility belt. He pawed around at his sides for a moment before producing a thin metal tube. "Flashlight," he grinned breathlessly. "Although, the light from our helmets should be sufficient, it's pretty dark down there. There should be a lever or a switch, if we load into the elevator, that should lower us down. But I'm not sure how functional it would be after all this time." Athlen thought it could go either way. Untouched for centuries, in a weightless environment with little corrosion, perhaps it would work after all, but it was very old. "If we do, think we should keep transporters locked at all times. In case," he pressed his lips together and bobbed his head to the side. "You know. Collapse. Falling. Oxygen depletion."

Vincent also extracted his hand held light from his belt and shined it around, getting his bearings. "Just to remind you, even with a transporter lock, it will only be able to function through 265 meters of rock. So as long as the shaft remains open it works to our advantage."

Maenad eyed the inside of the pitch-black cavern with noticeable hesitation. It was dark in there. Too dark. She heard all that was said between Athlen's suggestions and Kramer's response, but she looked at neither of them. She pressed the button on her helmet to activate the flashlights above her visor and followed Athlen's lead by unhooking the additional light from her belt. She shined it inside without moving any closer to the opening. "I don't think we should use the lift," she cautioned. The last thing she wanted was to fall hundreds of meters in an alien elevator shaft. Kramer was right; the transporters weren't fool-proof. "We can go inside," she looked to Athlen, "but Mister Kramer is right. Let's just stick to the tunnels we can walk in and out of."

"Understood," Athlen saluted his oversized helmet and smiled.

Maenad glanced at both of them, turning from side to side, then gingerly made her way into the void. She opened a channel to the shuttle. "Dea," she said, "can you hear me? We're going inside what appears to be an alien mineshaft. It is structurally sound, so we're going to see what we can find. If our signals start to fade, let us know so we don't wander too far."

"Roger that," Dea replied. "I'm copying you loud and clear at the moment. The moment your signal fades or begins to break up I'll let you know."

"Okay," Maenad acknowledged. She looked at Athlen and Kramer, before nervously smiling at them through her visor. She nodded forward, and Kramer took the lead.

Vincent smiled at Maenad's use of the term alien. He thought, How silly. Isn't everything alien to another race? He shrugged it off and didn't want to make it an issue and continued to walk deeper into the maw of the cave that was now sloping down at 10 or 15 degrees.

As they walked through the darkness, Maenad could feel that her heart was speeding up. It was so dark that the only light was at the end of their flashlights, making it like a bad case of tunnel vision. Maenad kept checking her tricorder, but kept getting the same readings as before. This was an old dilithium mine. But, still, she couldn't shake the feeling that, from somewhere in the dark, they were being watched. Maenad liked the dark, but she didn't like this and, she admitted to herself, this was a lot scarier than she thought it would be.

Athlen, on the otherhand, loved it. He thought the old mineshaft was one of the most fascinating things he'd ever seen, and his head turned this way and that, looking at the structures surrounding them which reflected off of the light in his helmet. He was long over the sense of claustrophobia induced by his suit and he practically skipped with interest. Over his head, Kramer's suitcase was still balanced perfectly.

They came to the end of the passage, to the elevator shaft, and Maenad used her tricorder to check for any lingering power sources. The computer that controlled the elevator was effectively dead. "Even if we wanted to go down there," she leaned over the rail, "we couldn't." She kicked a rock over the side. Almost twenty seconds later they heard a loud pang. "It's a long way down," she said, turning around to Athlen and Kramer. "Take a look around this chamber," Maenad told the two of them. "We might find some indication of how old this place is or who it belonged to."

"Go right ahead." Kramer said. "Archeology is just not my cup of tea. "You let me know if you find something." He then peered through the cracked open elevator shaft. The sensors indicated that it was 1800 meters straight down. "Too far for our equipment."

Maenad reactivated the comm to the shuttle. "Away team to the shuttle, can you still hear us? We have confirmed that this is an old mineshaft. We have found an elevator, but it's inoperative. How are you doing?"

Kramer was looking about with his light as the others talked, when the light was refracted in a flash. A very tiny flash. He walked over and bent down on one knee. With the clumsy glove he was able to identify the tiny shard that had caught his light. The tricorder readings made his eye open wide and a smile could not be suppressed. "Hey everyone."

Maenad walked over to where Kramer was, wondering what he'd found.

Vincent selected a tweezer tool from his arm pocket and picked up the small 1 centimeter long very thin crystal and placed it in a small vial with cap. "Ladies and Gentlemen . ." turning holding up the vial for the others to see. "I give you Dilithium".

"Hm," Maenad took the speck of dilithium from him and looked at it in her palm. "All right, let's get back to the ship and report what we've found."

OFF:

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Crewman Athlen
Sociologist, SSC
USS Galileo

Vincent Kramer, Ph.D.
Planetologist
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

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