What Lies Beneath (Part 1 of 4)

Posted on 27 May 2025 @ 3:30pm by Commander Morgan Tarin & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant JG Serran & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Lieutenant JG Selon Illialhlae & Ensign Mimi & Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor & Lieutenant JG Hovar Kov & Petty Officer 3rd Class John Hollenday & Theo Winters & Petty Officer 2nd Class Shila Razavi

4,196 words; about a 21 minute read

Mission: Episode 21 - Helix
Location: Enus System, Enus V
Timeline: MD 07, 0525 hrs

[ON]

The purple-spotted cosmos surrounding the Enus system presented itself both magnificently and with tranquility. The Pleiades Cluster in the nearby distance sparkled with newborn stars contained within their respective stellar nurseries while a distant pulsar occasionally announced its presence at standard interval flashes. Space here, as the common definition held, was busy. Populated. Effervescent. The expansive void of darkness occasionally peered through the stardust but was stifled by the luminescent beacon of a single Class G sun anchoring the orbital construct. Here was the final frontier; here was the plantation of discovery.

The hour was early within USS Galileo's bridge, approximately 0525 hours. Gamma shift - the Mid Watch - was on duty which meant the vessel's command center was populated by only a handful of personnel. The ship-wide ambient lighting was dimmed to promote a circadian rhythm and produced the distinct effect of bathing the bridge in colorful silver, blue and yellow LCARS glows from the numerous consoles in proximity. A science officer, engineer, operations officer and helmsman occupied their respective positions and operated the starship in silence while the occasional running computer chirps and hum of the warp core provided a soothing environmental sound.

At the fore of the bridge, a new unorthodox chirp emanated from the helm console and captured the attention of Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius. The bulky dark-skinned conn officer looked up from his PADD then suppressed a yawn with the back of his fist before reaching out and inputting a new course correction. "Two minutes to the Enus system," he reported to the senior-most officer on the bridge. The large holographic viewscreen directly in front of him currently displayed a simulated solid gray bulkhead to prevent any unwanted occurrence of Starfield Effect on the crew during the early hours of the morning.

Sitting in the captain's chair recalled memories of childhood in Wos o Klomak. As a child, Sera had the opportunity to sit on the old stone throne in the great hall. To sit on this throne was to lead an entire clan...and fast forward to the present, she was now on a throne of a different sort.

"Acknowledged, Chief Darius. Upon arrival to Enus V, please slow to full impulse and enter standard orbit." Sera replied in a tone that was all business.

"Full impulse to standard orbit, aye aye cap'n," he glanced back to her with a playful wink. Maybe one day he'd be able to sit in the big chair and have someone call him 'captain'. Or 'admiral'. Maybe 'Admiral-General Darius'. Yes, that was the one.

Sera made a soft sound that was most definitely not an aborted laugh. Logical Vulcans did not make such sounds.

The bond they shared did not--at least at the current moment--allow for a consistent exchange of information between the two, but something did get through. Admiral-General Darius? She raised a brow at him as he looked over his shoulder and winked at her. She overrode the urge to stand and walk over to the conn officer. Times and places...perhaps later.

"Officer Razavi, alert all applicable crew of Galileo's imminent arrival."

The young Persian operations officer dutifully craned her head toward the Vulcan to receive her orders then swiveled back in her chair facing her console where her fingertips began to dance across the bottom of the LCARS interface. "Yes sir, notifications transmitted to all senior officers."

"Ensign Zalos, once we are in range, please begin full spectrum analysis. It would be prudent to obtain some arbitrarily useful data for the captain upon her arrival on the bridge." Sera offered helpfully.

Raising her hand to her combadge, Sera tapped the device opening a channel, "M'Lyr'Zor to Captain Tarin. Sir, We will reach the Enus system in two minutes."

The senior Human commander's distinguishing dry inflection came back through the comm from elsewhere on the ship with little delay. "Acknowledged. I'm on my way."

Currently the little spoon on their newly fitted double bed Mimi's ears twitched and she stirred slightly when the comm system in the room crackled to life calling her to the bridge, she shuffled around slightly to face John some more. "I have to go, work calls." She told him.

John gave her a quick kiss. "You're not the only one. An engineer's work is never done. Be safe." He gave her another peck and started to get up.

Allyndra was in the Executive Officer's office. She was going over reports and what information they had managed to scan on the way. It was precious little when the call came in. She pushed the reports to one side and got up. The bridge wasn't that far away. Entering she observed the big screen.

The ship's Chaplain, who had to come up a few decks to reach the Bridge, entered said bridge with an air of curiosity. It was at that point that Hovar decided he was not there to necessarily answer questions of the spiritual variety. Then again, if he understood what they were going to experience right away, Hovar could anticipate what could be needed and be able to figure out a plan of action. Of course, his curiosity during his briefing was left unsatisfied, and Hovar felt he was not alone in this fact. Taking his place in the observer's seat, he hoped his curiosity could be satisfied.

Several minutes after the announcement Mimi entered the bridge, being called to duty before her shift would normally start and therefore before breakfast was not going to be good for her body but knowing Tarin she wouldn't care and probably wouldn't let her take a break to get something to eat until she fell down dead. Not knowing if her boss was coming or now she headed for the Ops station. "I will take the station Razavi, head down and work the job board for the rest of the shift." She told the slightly older human manning the station."

"Aye Sir." Razavi secured the Ops station before standing and heading for the turbolift.

As the doors opened for Razavi, out stepped Ullswater, who gave her a little smile as she stepped onto the bridge. She looked tired, her hair was just a smidgen less perfect that normal and there was a small white feather that she hadn't noticed stuck to her sleeve. Despite it all her face held excitement, they were finally going to see this new world. As she took her seat at the science station opposite Tora's she pulled up the incoming data onto her screen. She wanted to watch it all come in.

Allyndra observed the workings of the bridge before moving toward the center chair. "Good morning. Anything on scans that I should be aware of?"

Sera turned and looked up upon their newly minted XO, Commander Warraquim. She immediately stood and took a step away from the chair and placed her arms behind her back. "Good morning, commander. We have just entered into scanning range. I have ordered a full-spectrum analysis."

"Very good. I'll observe from here," Allyndra said. She'd wait for the captain to relieve the position.

Selon relieved Tora with a smile and sat down at her station, feeling the minimal, but strangely gratifying and weighty, comfort of the bridge chair as he reviewed the sensor scans in progress. The different instruments chirped and sang at Selon's manual tunings as he layered the different sensor arrays, peeling back layers of Enus V bit by bit, like sifting through sand on one of his digs. "Are you seeing this?" Selon tapped on the lifesign readings as his head turned briefly to Sofie to see if she indeed was. "Bioform readings are off the scales, the amount of organic matter on the planet is astounding for a world so young." Selon's double major in Zoology resurfaced as his mind went wild with what kind of taxonomic oddities might be present on a world such as this. Less than half the age of Earth and yet well into its Phanerozoic period.

"I see it all and I can't wait to see more of it." Similar readings were arrayed in front of Ullswater whose voice held some noticeable excitement. After a long eight months aboard Galileo it finally felt like this was the crew doing it's mission. "Sifting through this will make a nice break from those Canopus trade records, eh?"

"Got that right..." Selon mused with a smirk, remembering their archival work from a few days ago. It was good that he could laugh about it now. The ship's sensors couldn't penetrate the deeper levels of the planet's vast oceans but that just made the mystery of the planet seem that much more enticing.

Serran had been an early riser since he was a teenager, perhaps even earlier. He'd gotten up at his usual time, 0500, showered, changed into his uniform, and had just gone to the replicator to make himself a fried egg sandwich, when the alert sounded and he was summoned to the bridge.

Theo on the other hand was a night owl and wouldn't be up, unless forced for another two to three hours, if Serran was fortunate. He didn't bother trying to wake his son up, that would have taken more time than he had. So, he sent a note to his PADD, wrapped the sandwich up so he could finish it on the way, and left the room.

The bridge's starboard entrance hissed open and the lean bootsteps of Commander Morgan Tarin announced the captain's arrival. Red-collared uniform crisp and wrinkle-free (for now), her brown hair was tightly formed behind her head in a rare mid pony-tail. Discerning hazel eyes scanned Galileo's command center and the present officers while she walked toward the center of the compact room and stepped down into the command well next to Warraquim. Observation of the main viewscreen revealed the starship had dropped out of warp and was now moving at high impulse toward the ever-growing blue planet in the far distance. "Report. Are we alone out here?"

Ullswater had been so keenly watching the readings from the planet that it took her a moment to respond. Or maybe it took her a moment to respond because she was sleep deprived and malnourished. Either way she turned her attention to the broader minded scans. "We're the only ship in the system, sir. No one else showing up."

"Same on long range sensors, nothing out there Captain." Not even a freighter and even with their uplink to Regula One's database of flight-plans it looked like this area of the Pleiades was unusually ill-traveled. Selon didn't know what to make of that but it should make Captain Tarin happy that their mission would go uninterrupted.

Tarin stifled a rare yawn with the back of her fist then stretched her arms to increase bloodflow through her tall and lean form. Several vertebrae softly cracked much to her relief. She approached the captain's chair then settled in before gesturing to Warraquim to do the same. "Scans are clear...for now," she quietly spoke to the first officer with a subtle intonation of vigilance. "ETA to the planet?"

Allyndra took her seat and did a quick scan to get an update. "Approximately 6 minutes, captain."

"Maintain course. On screen," ordered Tarin.

"Yes sir. Planet Enus...V," Darius' former-Marine brain short-circuited for a brief moment before tapping the correct sequence on his console with soft chirps. The main bridge display blinked then showed a small blue ball in the near distance, slowly growing in size with a hazy green atmospheric hue.

"Magnify," the captain instructed.

The planet's size and resolution increased to now encompass half of the main viewscreen. Large blue planetary oceans could be seen but were obscured by a robust white cloud layer slowly rotating through the atmosphere. Land masses were sparse and barely-identifiable through visual observation, but below the waterline were many visible subsurface cyan reefs which contrasted against the royal blue water.

"Almost looks like home," Allyndra remarked.

"Very much like I imagined my home to look like from the stories my mother told me," Mimi added.

"Different from Earth," Serran replied quietly, "but I observe several similarities as well. There are almost none of those between Vulcan and Enus V."

"Same amount of land as Pacifica though twice the size... storms must be a problem." Selon mused as he looked over the topographic and meteorological reports from Enus station.

So much blue...more blue than Earth, even. Sera had not had much opportunity to visit other planets. Thus far she had visited two alien worlds: Earth and Remidia. There was just so much water...it would appear that some planets had all the evolutionary 'luck,' as it were...although Vulcan once was a far more habitable world before one of the trinary stars went nova burning away much of the planet's surface water and initiated fundamental climate and evolutionary change upon the planet.

"It looks...wet." Oh, such an eloquent description, my dear. whispered a 'voice' within her mind. It was enough to send a frission of shivers up her spine.

USS Galileo continued to approach the planet at high impulse. The small silver-hulled starship was a speck within the larger cosmic landscape but quickly became more significant with each passing moment. The single robust fusion reactor powering the vessel's sub-warp flight subsided in crimson intensity when the ship approached its destination.

"Entering standard orbit," reported Darius from the conn while pulling velocity from the impulse reactor in order to settle into a gravity-captured flight vector.

Tarin reached up to run her palm across the side of her hair then raised her chin toward the large new world on the main viewscreen. "Contact Enus Station and inform them of our arrival. Number Two, planetary analysis."

"Nothing so far that indicates the initial report was wrong. It's all consistent with what we expected." Ullswater had half memorised the survey team's report ready to check for even the smallest inconsistency, any indication of the hidden truths or potential dangers. "Iron core, highly active mantle and almost entirely covered by surface water. There's a tropical cyclone in the southern hemisphere, you can see the edge of it on the view screen there. It's huge, largest I've ever seen."

"The planet's biosphere is unusually advanced for a world of its age, planetary scans confirm initial reports that the planet is well into its Phanerozoic period and complex life is abundant though both our scans and those of previous survey teams are obscured by a thermal layer that comes from highly active tectonic plates and associated underwater volcanism." Selon added to Sofie's report.

"Aye Sir," Mimi responded. She tapped at her console sending a communications request to the Enus station, after waiting a little and getting no response she sent the request again, with still no response forthcoming she ran a quick diagnostic on the communications array. "No response, our comm system checks out."

Several long seconds passed while Tarin waited...and hoped there was some sort of system failure on the part of the planet's research facility. She'd double-checked all of Galileo's long- and short-range communications systems reports given to her by the Operations department before deploying and fully trusted her crew's readiness report. "Hail them again, wide band across all Starfleet frequencies."

Serran's face remained impassive as if this was a routine operation or he was contemplating a chess move. That didn't mean he didn't care, he did. It just meant he wouldn't let his emotions cloud his judgment or his logic.

He attempted a hail a second time. Then a third.

Turning his face toward the Captain he said, "No answer sir, and it's not our systems."

Crossing one long leg across the other, Tarin shifted her posture to the side against her chair's armrest while pursing her slim lips and rubbing the smooth skin of her chin with a contemplating knuckle. "Life signs within the facility?"

"I can see where the facility is but our sensors aren't able get a clear reading from it, maybe there is interference..." The chief science officer's heart rate was quickening, she was thinking of that moment months earlier on the shuttle Virginia: Given the secretive nature of the facility maybe that's intentional. If this was all part of the same pattern then they wouldn't want to be spotted here either. She changed her focus, started looking for the telltale signs of EM interference from an artificial source. They were hiding and she would find them. "It's a shield, artificial. Illialhlae, I'm sending you the frequencies I'm seeing. Try to get through."

Selon's fingers glided over the panel with some occasional fumbling at the LCARS. The source of the EM interference was indeed a shield but not one configured like any he would expect on a small scientific research station. Starfleet technology was adaptable and infinitely modular so of course this modification was intentional but as he typed away, becoming a bit flustered as he tried to break through the interference, what sat ill with him was the why of it all.

"I'm in." Selon slightly stuttered as he broke through the EM interference after he thought he had clicked the wrong input. "I'm reading... four, yes four humanoid life signs within the facility." Selon rambled off, his anxiety long past spiking.

"Four?" repeated Tarin from the center of the bridge. There was a mixed-dose of perturbation and unwelcome surprise in her dry inflection which accompanied her continued chin-rubbing. "The facility's manifest lists 13 personnel." A silent and discontented huff preceded her next order. "Widen the scan radius to ten kilometers. See if there's anything in the vicinity outside of this 'shield'."

"Two more, about eight kilometers from the base. We might assume..." Ullswater rubbed the bridge of her nose with one hand. Her words trailed off. She tried to pull her thoughts into order. "We might assume that the rest are conducting field work further from the base. But still, nine out of thirteen staff off site would be much too many for standard operations."

"Captain there's something else out there... large, definitely not humanoid, maybe sub-aquatic, I can't get a good reading. It's closing in on them, fast." Even through the large ambient life-signs detected on the large world this particular sign stood out, though even the Galileo's sensors couldn't make out exactly what it was, other than it was notable. Vast distances above the planet Selon and the rest of the Galileo crew were helpless and could only watch as the distance rapidly closed between them.

"On screen," ordered Tarin. The holographic main viewer blinked to display a grid-overlayed top-down scan of the planet's underwater features. The resolution zoomed in to identify two gold Starfleet chevrons denoting each of the personnel, alongside a large red oval shape less than a kilometer from their position and quickly approaching.

As the unknown lifeforms reached the position of the other two life signs they flickered out of the sensors. They were gone. It had been sudden, there could be any number of explanations for what had happened and not wanting to jump to the most morbid conclusion she imagined others would Ullswater reported the events as dispassionately as she could "Sensors are no longer able to detect the two humanoid lifeforms."

"Captain, the remaining life sign is on a return trajectory to Enus Station..." Selon half muttered as silence filled the bridge at the apparent snuffing out of one of the science team's members. He didn't want his first mission on the Galileo to start this way. Though considering he had so exhaustively gone over the ship's logs before his posting, perhaps he was naive to have hoped.

Tarin's legs unfolded with a sense of urgency while her head snapped over to the first officer who sat adjacent to her. "Something's wrong," she spoke the obvious to Warraquim hoping her perception of what they'd just witnessed wasn't what it appeared to be.

Allyndra didn't answer the captain immediately. "Scan, is the object we observed going after the remaining StarFleet personnel? Ops would it be possible to beam the remaining person to this ship?" She then turned her attention to the captain. "I think they've lost a person. There's a predator of some kind in the ocean. We have the same on Akkadia. They can be highly aggressive. I'm not sure phasers could reach deep enough and a torpedo would have concussive effects on the remaining person."

An uncomfortable, anxiety-ridden roll in her abdomen privately betrayed Tarin's stoic outer features. "We can't fire from here, we'll kill everything within the vicinity," she concurred before clenching a fist and digging a short yet sharp fingernail into her palm in an effort to quell rising frustration.

The chief science officer called out to her colleague on the other side of the viewscreen. "Illialhlae, keep tracking the lifeform, is it still moving in the direction of the station? I'll see if I can regain the two life signs on sensors, they could have entered another shielded area." An uninvited thought came to the front of Ullswater's mind: Did she really still have hope that those two people were alive or was it rather that she subconsciously didn't trust herself with the more important task and so needed an excuse to hand it off. She pushed the thought to the side, there were more important things to focus on right now, yet in the background the doubt still gnawed at her.

There was no space in Selon's mind to be dejected at what he would normally call a vain hope that his counterpart proposed, for his green eyes were glued to the display that was tracking the... lifeform, whatever it was. "It's still headed on a trajectory to Enus Station. It's moving at incredible speed." Selon had initially operated under the assumption that the creature was large but he soon realized all it really had to be was deadly, and such alacrity befitted a predator.

"I might be able to get a transporter lock on them," Mimi announced though there was a distinct amount of uncertainty in her voice.

Serran had been about to run a surface-level diagnostic to make certain the sensors were functioning properly when Mimi's words caught his attention and shifted his focus.

"Diverting power to the transporters, to break through the interference, but we only have a small window."

"Beam them up, now," swiftly ordered Tarin. In the absence of further information, the perceived threat to Federation personnel superseded any calls for further observation. She'd seen enough. "Helm, maneuver to geostationary orbit above the target location. Roll axis one-eight-zero; point our transporter receivers directly at the surface." The freckled Human commander then pointed to Warraquim. "Get to the transporter room with a medical team." Her torso swiveled to find the chaplain. "You too, Mister Kov.”

The Klingon did not need to be told twice. After hearing everything that has been going, he figured that his only role as a clergyman would be to provide last rites for those who were killed. Then again, as a shepherd, part of his role was protecting the crew. It was by that logic that he concluded that with a medical team being who they were, he was familiar with a tense situation.

“Yes, Captain.”

The Klingon rose up and headed out.

"Aye, captain," Allyndra replied standing up. She headed for the doors and as she got there pressed her comm badge. "Nusien, Becker, Carlisle, medical emergency. Report to Transporter Room One. Prepare for possible decompression."

At the fore of the bridge, the chief warrant officer received then started to execute the new maneuvering order. "GEO over target location, engaging. 42 seconds until we enter position." His head looked down to his console terminals while his hands splayed across several different LCARS interfaces to manually input and control Galileo's commanded orbital adjustment. An increase in velocity to round the planet's corner preceded a controlled roll; on the main viewscreen, the blue water planet Enus V slowly rotated from along the bottom of the display, to the side, then to the top while the Nova-class spun belly-up into the cosmos.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

CMDR Morgan Tarin
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

CWO3 Lamar Darius
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Tarin]

CMDR Allyndra illm Warraquim
First Officer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Serran
Operations Manager
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Sofie Ullswater
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Selon Illialhlae
Anthropologist
USS Galileo-A

ENS Mimi
Deputy Operations Manager
USS Galileo-A

ENS S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor
Chief Engineer
USS Galileo-A

LTJG Hovar Kov
Chaplain
USS Galileo-A

PO3 John Hollenday
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Warraquim]

Theo Winters
Crew Family
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Serran]

PO2 Shila Razavi
Operations Officer
USS Galileo-A
[NPC Tarin]

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