“So I must ask, if I may, sir. But when did they put those in?” Ruby pointed at the four Type-17 Cargo shuttles that were suspended from the ceiling. As a new Junior Lieutenant, he had the option to choose anyone to be his mentor and the person he had chosen was Commander Arthur Graves, the First Officer of the Sovereign. Mizu on the other hand, from what she told him, had chosen Captain Maxwell to be her mentor. They were both gunning for command in their career, so this was an opportunity for them to learn the basics of command, and what better than to learn from those who were among the Command Staff?

“Those were put in when she underwent her recent refit at the Avalon Fleet Yards,” Graves began to explain to Ruby. “With their current location, it would be easier to just lower them down onto the deck but in case we needed them in some sort of emergency, we can site-to-site transport pilots into them, so that they can run the systems check as quickly as they can while they’re being lowered onto the deck.”

“I see. So how many small crafts does the Sovereign carry now?” Ruby asked.

“Good question. It is best to know what complement you have when you’re in command. Helps you determine the best craft for the particular mission. This shuttle bay of the saucer section is expanded to four decks. You got the four Type-17s suspended up there, four of them here on deck with the eight type-11 shuttles. Deck below us has eight more type-11 shuttles with about four type-9s and some workbees for various things. Moving cargo. Patch exterior hull. Name a few. And deck below that has four type-11s, four type-9s and surprisingly, four type-7s.”

“So the deck we’re standing on, with the eight type-11s and four type-17s, deck eight, is the main entry and exit point for the saucer shuttle bay,” Ruby showed his observation to the Commander, which let the first officer know that Ruby had paid attention. “Then, the four suspending 17s above us is deck seven, and the two garage’s below us is deck nine and ten?”

Ruby watched Graves nod his head. “Yes and no. Deck nine of the saucer shuttle bay is the garage but deck ten is more of a maintenance area, where we store a craft that is undergoing maintenance. We have spare nacelles and other major components for these crafts stored there as well. Not all of these crafts are brand new, so we do have a couple undergoing maintenance right now.”

“Well I sure hope we won’t be needing to use all of them. What about the shuttle bay on the engineering hull? If I remember correctly, that deck fourteen through sixteen?” Ruby asked.

Graves nodded his head again. “Correct. That shuttle bay has quite a few more crafts as well. The purpose of that is so that if we have an emergency evacuation, everyone on the engineering side of the ship can use that bay than run up to this bay. Further, it also gives them access to crafts if we specifically need an engineering team. But if there is a specific craft we want to use, say a Delta Flyer, which we do have a few of those, or an Arrow which is always ready to depart first thing but can be moved out of the way if it is not the kind of craft we want to use for a particular mission. Deck Fourteen is the high landing bay and fifteen is the main landing bay. And Sixteen is pretty much garage and maintenance.”

Ruby whistled. “We sure got a lot to play with.”

Graves chuckled. “Like to fly?”

Ruby smiled and nodded. “I do, sir. I just don’t get to as much.”

Graves nodded his head. “Well, you’ve been running around doing grunt work since you’ve been an ensign. Now you have a chance to really step up and do something with your career. Lieutenant Tagg is our Chief Pilot, so how about you go and apply for Assistant Chief?”

Ruby sighed and shrugged his shoulders. Not exactly the proper answer to give, so he gave the commander a proper one. “My friend Mizu will probably apply for that job as well. Maybe. I’m not so sure just yet.”

“Wouldn’t hurt to try, son. And if you don’t get it, there’s other opportunities. We could use a Strategic Operations Officer. Got any experience in that?” Graves asked.

“Being strategic? Perhaps?”

Graves chuckled some. “Come. I’ll help learn more about it.”

“And that’s how we made it back to Federation space,” Maxwell had explained the story about how they dealt with the whole blood dilithium madness to Junior Lieutenant Mizu. Although he was uncertain as to why she had asked, since he clearly remember that she was assigned to the ship when the whole business went down. Although, she was an ensign at the time, so certain information was likely not available to her. Nevertheless, he did not mind, he was happy to tell the story to someone.

“I just find it hard to believe that we were able to pull it off against the Devore. Those ships are brutal, aren’t they?” Mizu asked.

He nodded his head. “That they are but we had the upper hand. With the combination of the hazard team and ship’s security forces, we were able to surprise and detain the Devore boarding party and then we were able to disable their ships. Unfortunately, it did not leave us on good terms with the Devore, but this captain wanted to impound the Sovereign and I had a duty to protect this ship and its crew. So there was no chance in hell I was going to let them.”

Mizu shook her head. “I don’t understand them. Just their whole business with the telepaths and that captain, who was clearly on a power trip. None of it makes sense to me.”

Henry nodded his head again as he went over to the replicator to order himself some tea, to which he asked to see if Mizu wanted anything and she politely declined. “That is the thing you may encounter some day when you are in command of your own ship. You may come across species that have a huge phobia against something and it could potentially lead to war if you can’t be diplomatic with them and negotiate with their leader or one of their commanding officers to avoid such a thing.” Henry then chuckled softly. “Oh that reminds me of the history lesson back at the Academy. Captain Archer, on the Enterprise, the NX-01. I can’t remember the details exactly but he brought his dog with him and the dog urinated on the wrong tree I guess and it started this whole issue and Archer had to do something crazy to apologize to them because it was his job to make peace, by whatever means necessary. It was extremely important to make friends in those days and it still is to this day. Starfleet is not a service that goes around punching people in the nose because we want to.”

Henry then took a sip of his tea before he resumed his explanation. “Starfleet is the most gratifying and honorable service anyone could ever ask for. We encounter the unknown and new civilizations that it becomes the most rewarding experience in our careers. You, yourself, could be in command one day and have the experience to negotiate a cease fire between two neighboring worlds and create a unified nation that potentially joins the Federation. One thing in my career, that I will never forget, is the lack of sleep I got when we were so desperately trying to save as many Romulan lives as we could before their sun went nova.” Henry then placed his cup of tea down on the coffee table as he eased himself down into the couch before it.

Henry watched as Mizu sat down in a chair to the opposite side of him and the coffee table, so that they both could look at each other in the eyes. He could see her interest had peaked and so he continued. “I remember, to this very day, that when we transported this family on board, this elderly Romulan woman came up to me and wrapped her arms around my waist. She hugged me so tightly and repeatedly thanked me, over and over again. When the Sovereign left orbit to take the refugees somewhere safe, I later found out from her grandson, who had just became of age to join the Romulan Imperial Navy. He personally told me that his grandmother, the woman who had hugged and thanked me, had always hated Starfleet. She had once served in the Imperial Navy and when she retired, she had always kept herself up to date with Romulan news or propaganda, whichever you want to call it. And because of that, she had always hated us. But because we went out of our way to try and save as many lives as we could from something no one could prevent, no matter how much we tried or how much we wanted to try, her entire view of us, shifted so much that she completely forgot why she hated us. I will never forget that.”

Mizu had a smile on her face that grew the more he told his story. “I’m guessing that, she was told that Starfleet did not care about the Romulan people, not even one bit. And to suddenly have their lives rescued by the very thing she was told was…I guess, a monster? Anyway. When someone, or an organization, does the complete opposite of what your government has told you since you were born, it changes your perspective quite rapidly.”

Henry nodded his head and sighed heavily in gratification. “I can only wish we could prove to other races that our intentions are pure and peaceful. But it is just not that simple. They’re afraid of what we are and what we could do to the galaxy. It was that way with the Klingons a long time ago. They were afraid we would change them for who they were. We don’t care about their religion or who they are as a civilization. We simply just want peace and to explore the unknown.”

“Thank you, Captain. I think, now, I have a much better understanding of what kind of commanding officer I want to be,” said Mizu.

Henry smiled, “You got plenty of time, Lieutenant. I miss those days. Being a young, junior officer. So little responsibility. Learning so much of what it is to be a Starfleet officer. As soon as I became Captain and given command of my own ship, this ship, I knew that the days of carelessness was over. I have such enormous responsibility, especially being in command of this ship. It may not be an Odyssey-class but it still represents Starfleet so well and carries a lot of weight, weight that I can’t just toss around and not expect consequences.”

“Is that why you never moved to a different ship?” Mizu asked.

Henry chuckled. “That’s one of the reasons. I just fell in love with this ship. She’s practically universal in so many ways. Although, she may not be as sophisticated as some science and survey vessels are but she can do a lot still. Just the mere presence of a Sovereign-class ship is complete awe to a lot of races out there. Basically, if a ship of this class or bigger, were to appear, it usually means that Starfleet is not joking around. We mean business and we mean to get it done.” He said as he slapped his knee. “Not only that, even though she was designed to help combat against the Borg, she is very combative in every way, but not invincible.”

“I hope she’s still around when I make captain!” Mizu grinned.

Henry laughed, “Only chance you’re ever going to get this ship is if I die in the chair.” He teased and then sighed heavily, he felt content, very content. “Of course, it is not ultimately my decision. But if you are serious about this mentorship, then I will do what I can to prepare you for it, if you get the chance that I did.”

“I am very serious, sir, and I am most honored that you’d take me under your wing.”

“Good,” said Henry. “Now, the Kobayashi Maru test. Complete load of crap. It is meant to prepare you for the inevitable, but honestly, any chance you have to save your crew, take it. If you can save as many crewmembers as you can before you go down with your ship, is still a win to me.” And he continued on as he leaned forward.

Tagg reviewed his data for the tenth time today already. He wanted to be sure that they were still on course for that star system in Talarian space, the one with a pulsating star apparently. Plus there was really not a lot that he can do with the ship at warp, except make sure that their course has not altered and nothing mysterious had jumped in front of the ship. When there was nothing left to check, he would turn his seat around to look to see if there were anyone to strike a conversation with and the one person he had not picked on yet, was Lieutenant Alex Beck. “So Chief. Is there any chance we could improve the Sovereign‘s turn rate in case we have to defend ourselves?”

Alex chuckled with a brief roll of his eyes. “While the yard’s engineers may have reset a lot of work that Gomez had done to the Sovereign, I’ve tweaked everything back to her specs and tweaked them even more as best as I can. You’re going to get what I can give you, Mr. Tagg.”

He sighed. “Just Tagg, please. I don’t understand this ‘mister’ thing.”

“It’s just a phrase we use, in a more formal term really. Better than constantly saying ‘Lieutenant’ all the time,” said Beck.

“I suppose. But I thought it was more commonly used when you have two names. I only have one name, and so I don’t see the point of it,” sad Tagg, as he watched Beck shrug his shoulders.

“It’s just something we humans say. Don’t expect the captain to drop it so easily,” Beck teased. “So what are you going to do once we arrive at the system?”

“I will probably go to one of the holodecks or holosuites, which ever one is available. I was thinking of experiencing on of your Earth’s world wars,” said Tagg.

Beck shook his head. “Waste of time. It’s bloody, it’s horrifying and it’s just a plain waste of everything. You’re better off taking one of the luxury liner cruises on one of the oceans. Or sky diving.”

Tagg frowned. “Sky diving?”

Beck chuckled, as well as some others on the bridge that had experienced it themselves. “It is an old activity but still very much done to this day. In fact, last shore leave I had, I went sky diving on Vulcan! Boy that was a wild trip.”

Tagg was about to ask more when suddenly, he felt a familiar sensation beneath his feet where the deck had shifted. The kind of sensation that they had just dropped out of warp. He turned in his chair and looked at his data to determine why. Tagg could hear a door or two open and it was not long until he knew who had arrived on the bridge.

“What’s going on, mister Tagg?” Graves voice filled the bridge, a voice of command and of someone who wanted answers.

“I am checking now, sir,” said Tagg. He too was in search for the answer and he had finally obtained it. “The auto navigation disengaged warp drive when it detected an anomaly directly in our path.”

“Confirmed,” said Utsall, an ensign at the tactical station that Zane Bates had recommended. “Sensors are reading a vortex directly ahead of us.”

“On screen,” said Maxwell, who sounded like he was directly behind Tagg.

Tagg looked up when the viewer adjusted to show the distortion before them. As much as he wanted to stare at it and describe the visual details, his station blew up with alarms. Tagg looked back down and began to read off the alarms as they came. “We are being pulled in, Captain! Helm control was set to all-stop and is trying to compensate from the sudden gravitational pull!”

“Full reverse, Lieutenant!” Graves ordered.

“I’m trying!” Tagg said, even though that was yet again not a proper response but he was not wrong. “Engines are at full reverse, sir. Bow thrusters at maximum!” Tagg reported and watched the distance indicator continue to decline. “We are still being pulled in!”

“We can’t keep this up, Captain. We’re going to burn out the engines if we do,” said Beck.

“Then we don’t have a choice. Disengage reverse thrust, but try to stabilize as much as you can!” Maxwell ordered.

Tagg entered the command and the engines and thrusters were placed at stand-by. Then he watched the distance indicator drop rapidly, only to look up and watch as they were pulled right into the vortex. For a brief moment, they watched as the ship was dragged through a tunnel and as much as Tagg tried to keep the ship stabilized, they hit the walls of the tunnel a couple of times, which had caused the lights to flicker, couple of times the flicker was quick, other times they were in the dark for a little longer. This went on for quite a bit before they were spat back out into space.

“Was that it?” Graves had asked before he pulled out his back-to-business voice again. “All decks, damage report.”

Tagg watched as the lights flickered back on before he reviewed his own data at his station. “Helm controls are responding. Impulse and warp engines are online. Thrusters online. Helm is good to go, sir.”

“Tactical is good, sir,” said Utsall.

Tagg heard everyone else sound off on the bridge, now he can only assume that other stations throughout the ship had reported in on Commander Graves console.

“Shit!” Came from Beck.

Tagg turned in his seat to look at him, much like everyone else did and Tagg could see Maxwell stand from his chair and hear his concern. “What is it, Chief?” said Maxwell.

Tagg could see the look of worry in Chief Beck’s eyes, a look he normally does not see often. “Life support is offline. Internal sensors are reading a fire and for some reason the fire suppression systems are not engaging!”

First thought that came to Tagg was

‘Oh crap.’

Tagg was vigorously running various scans around the area, short and long range, as he it was his job to find out where they are and if there was a system near by that may have a planet habitable enough. It may not have been ordered, but as Chief, he needed to think ahead. With life support offline, who knows how long it would take to repair it and he needed to have options available for the Captain.

“Hazard Team Bravo is en route to Deck 16, with a damage control team and Lieutenant Beck,” said Graves.

“Any reason as to why the fire suppression system did not engage?” Maxwell asked.

“It appears whatever damaged the life support and started the fire, may had also damaged the fire suppression system in that room. Or the fire detection system. Either way, they're going to have to fight it in person,” reported Graves.

One downside of being a Ferengi, big ears. He could hear pretty much everything on the Bridge, including the conversation between the two command officers. Nevertheless, he did his best to remain focused on his scans until finally, a popup with information of a system appeared. “Captain. Commander.” Tagg spoke up loud enough to get their attention. After he had skimmed over the data, he turned in his seat to look at them. “Long range sensors have detected a star system. Three planets. Won't know more until we take a closer look. Unfortunately, it is the only system in range and if one is barely habitable," Tagg paused.

Graves took the cue, “Which will give us an opportunity to evacuate all decks except for critical areas. Bridge, Main Engineering, Sickbay and Deck 16.”

“Good thinking, Mister Tagg. Plot a course, and don't spare the horses,” Maxwell ordered.

“Ah. I recognize that expression. Maximum warp it is." Tagg then turned back around, entered the course, pushed the warp speed indicator to max and pressed the button. In matter of seconds, the ship picked up speed then launched itself into warp velocity, which the indicator then notified that it had reached maximum speed and notified the arrival time. “We will be there in ten minutes, sirs.”

Gomez checked her monitor on her arm once more before she looked over at Beck. She did a quick visual inspection of his EV suit before she gave him a couple pats on the shoulder. While the Hazard Team Bravo were in personalized EV suits, Beck and the damage control team were in standard Starfleet. Though the damage control team were the only ones carrying packs on their back with fire foam.

“Why are we in EV suits again?” Gomo, the Cardassian, asked. Though Gomez had to make a mental correction, Gomo is the only Hazard Team member with a fire foam pack on his back.

“Deck 16 may still have oxygen like the rest of the ship, but we're about to expose ourselves to a room that may likely be running out of oxygen. Not to mention, a lot of heat from a plasma fire,” Koyda explained, husband to Maya and the Team's First Officer.

“Listen. We need to scan the room first before we open any doors, is that understood?” Maya said loudly as she began to check every single person in the turbo lift. The lift was only large enough for so many, that the damage control team was on another lift that will arrive at a different section of the deck. But the comms were open to all of them.

“Understood, ma'am,” Gomez replied and she heard everyone else do the same. As the door to the lift opened, they began to file out one by one, first Maya, then Koyda, Beck, Gomo and finally herself. They made their way towards the life support room, standing several feet away from the door in the corridor. As Maya and Koyda began to run their scans with their tricorders, Gomez felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to see that it had came from Beck.

“I've been running some theories on why the fire suppression system did not engage,” said Beck.

Gomez was eager to hear this. “Go on.”

“The Sovereign was in drydock back at the Avalon Fleet Yards after she had a shakedown cruise to make sure the upgrades were responding fine. But often times, no one performs a one hundred percent check on all systems during a shakedown cruise,” Beck had explained.

“So why would they forget to test the most important system on a star ship, in the most important compartment that contains the most important system of a star ship?” Gomez asked.

Beck threw up his hands. “Person error, perhaps. I don't know. The only way we're going to find out is when we get in there, and that's if nothing is too far damaged from the fire.”

“If the fire is still raging since we left the aperture, there's a good chance that the life support system is not salvageable," Gomez warned him.

Beck shook his head in his helmet. “If that is the case, then we're going to need people to start searching the cargo manifest, because we may have some parts, but certainly not all of it.”

Gomez nodded her head, “I'll make a petition to Starfleet about giving us a spare life support system in one of the cargo bays in case this ever happens again. But for right now, we're going to have to cannibalize some systems. Do you know which ones you think we may have to tear apart?”

Beck sighed audibly in the comms., “No idea. Not until we get in there.”

Gomez then looked towards the Maya and Koyda, who still had their tricorders out, when Gomez noticed a crewmember heading straight for the door with a magnetic release device. She was confused as to why they would be on their way to open the door, as she is certain that Maya made it clear. “Crewmen!” Gomez began to shout in her helmet, knowing full well that the comms were still active and practically in everyone's ears. She got the attention of everyone else, but the crewmember. “Crewmen, stop!” But they placed the device on the door and began to enter the code. No one was close enough to stop them, and no one understood what was going on or why the crewmember was unresponsive.

“I think their comms are off!” Beck shouted and suddenly, they heard Maya's voice.

“Everyone get down!” As soon as Gomez hit the floor, she watched as the crewmember opened the door after they released the magnetic seal and it was too late. The room compartment had practically no oxygen but still a fuel source, something that they had yet to determine what. But it did not matter. The rest of the deck still had oxygen and they just introduced that oxygen to the fire, which resulted in a dreadful backdraft. Gomez watched in horror as the crewmember was engulfed in greenish-orangish flames, who were then running around with their mouth open, clearly screaming, while their EV suit was on fire. What's worse about this, was that not everyone made it to the deck in time, as two other crewmembers were engulfed by the fire that managed to reach out to them and were also on fire but not as back as the who had opened the door.

“Bridge to Hazard Team. The hell is going on down there? Sensors are showing that the fire is spreading!”

“This is Maya, seal off our section with bulkhead doors! Now!” Gomez heard the commanding, and yet, fear in her voice before she heard the loud thuds of bulkhead doors that had slammed down. Not only did those doors cut the fire off, but it also removed any more oxygen that the fire could feed off it. This resulted most of the flames to retreat back into the room but there were small flames around the ceiling.

“On your feet!” Maya's voice filled their comms. “Gomo, focus on the small fires on the ceiling. Damage control team, once you're done putting out your crewmembers, get in there and start tackling that fire! We need to know why its still going!”

Gomez rose to her feet in time to watch the damage control team spray fire foam on the three crewmembers to put the fire out, and then she watched them begin to spray the foam into the room. “Maya to transporter room, I got three with possible plasma burns, they need immediate site to site transport to sickbay.”

“Consider it done, Bravo.” Came from the Transporter Chief, and Gomez watched the three that were on fire just disappear.

“Gomez! Beck! Most of the fire is already out, hurry up and figure out what's keeping it going!” Maya ordered.

“Yes, ma'am!” Both Gomez and Beck replied. Gomez followed right behind Beck into the compartment and saw that the damage control team still tackling some flames. “Gomez!” She heard Beck's voice and she shifted to look at him but could not find him. “I think I found it!”

Gomez walked around the life support system, that looked entirely charred and black from the flames. She found Beck on the other side of the unit and there was an ruptured plasma conduit from the floor. There, they could see the flames spewing out far enough into the ceiling. “Jesus.” She looked at the spot the flames blasted at on the ceiling. “I am surprised it has held for so long.”

“It won't hold much longer if we don't find the valve! You remember what's above us?" Beck asked.

“Just junior crew quarters?” Gomez smirked. So far they're lucky.

Beck looked at her and grinned. “Yeah, suppose that's not too bad. Hopefully no one is in them. But also, the fire suppression detector.”

“Aren't there suppose to be more of those in this room?” She asked.

Beck shrugged his shoulders. "I'll make a note to install a couple more."

“And somewhere not near the dam plasma conduit that's running through the floor." She rolled her eyes. "Anyways, I'll go look for that valve. You go assess the life support system,” Gomez told him as she left the compartment to find the nearest jefferies tube access so she can go locate the valve and shut the plasma flow.

“Sirs. Look," said Tagg.

Maxwell stood from his seat and began to step closer to the main viewer, where from the corner of his eye, he could see Graves had done the same. What they were so interested in, was the fact that they had begun to approach the third planet. They had arrived in the system just a moment ago, and found that the first two planets were too close to the sun to be remotely habitable but the third planet was in the so called ‘Goldilocks zone.' Although, the sensors had indicated that it was a very unique planet.

“It's a planet made entirely out of gems!” Maxwell heard the excitement in Zina's voice. For one who was more in Planetary science than Bazial is, this was definitely up her alley. “It also has a set of rings, as big and thick as Saturns! And they're composed of ice asteroids, gems and crystal!”

“Focus sensors directly on the planet, we need to know if it has a breathable atmosphere,” Graves said, who stood right by Maxwell's side. “What do you think?”

Maxwell shook his head. “Either we were incredibly lucky to stumble on a planet as unique as this, or incredibly unlucky for the exact same reason. What exactly could possibly generate a breathable atmosphere on a planet made entirely out of crystals?” He asked rhetorically while he watched them begin to slowly navigate through the rings. Though it was not difficult, they were very spaced apart and had left quite an opening for them to pass right through.

“Sirs! Sensors picked up some debris in the rings. Definitely foreign," said Utsall.

Both Maxwell and Graves turned at their heels to look at tactical, and Maxwell watched as Graves stepped closer, while Maxwell remained where he was. “Can you identify the debris?”

“Better. Look,” she inputted a command and then gestured towards the view screen. Both of them, once again, turned on their heels to look at the viewer and they could see what was half of a Valdore-class warbird. The starboard wing was completely gone and so was the beak, with half of its neck. Then Utsall must have inputted another command, because the viewer magnified on the identification of the warbird.

“It's a Republic bird,” said Graves.

Maxwell sighed. “That's Jadek's ship.” Jadek was a Romulan Republic Commando, who had once served on board the Jarok. Although, Maxwell had only read about the man and had planned on to meet the man where he had made a request to the Republic for Jadek as Second Officer of Starbase 415 through the Officer Exchange Program. Unfortunately, the request could not be completely made because when he approached Jadek with the idea, Jadek had turned it down since he was reassigned to a different bird, which had begun their tour in the Independent Factions territory. They very much needed to make an attempt to assist more worlds outside of the Republic and hopefully, get some to join.

“The debris is incomplete, sir,” Utsalls voice cut through right through Maxwell's thoughts, thus made him turn on his heel to look at her.

“How so?” He asked.

“The debris is inconsistent, from what the sensors are telling me. Escape pods are missing, and so are their small crafts. If the ship and crew had completely met their end, the mass of the main structure would be more and the debris field would contain more metals and components,” she explained.

“So there could be survivors?” Graves asked.

The Klingon nodded her head, “Indeed, Commander.”

Maxwell turned back towards the viewer and stepped closer to the two stations, where he placed his hand on Tagg's shoulder. “Get us in orbit of that planet, now!” He watched as the young officer inputted the commands, before his eyes returned to the viewer and saw everything rush past the viewer at a fast speed, with their direction adjusted for medium orbit. This goal did not take long at all and the orders to scan the surface of the planet had been given.

“I'm detecting small crafts on the surface! And escape pods!” Reported Utsall.

“We got life signs on sensors," reported Bazial. “But they're under the surface of the planet?”

“It's possible that they found a large cavern,” said Zina before she made her report. “The atmosphere is barely breathable. If we were to send anyone down there, they would need an EV suit or oxygen masks. But sensors are detecting that the oxygen is coming from a network of caves.”

Maxwell looked up at the ceiling. “Maxwell to Maya, how's the fire going?”

“It has been dealt with, Captain. A plasma conduit in the life support compartment had ruptured. Gomez went into the jefferies tube and turned the valve. It is safe to open those bulkhead doors now.”

“Good. Because I need you to take your team, go to the transporter pad on Deck 15 and beam down to the planet surface. We will send the coordinates to the terminal."

“What is our mission?”

“Quickly investigate the cave network, reach the cavern where there are survivors of a Romulan Republic ship and let us know if the cavern is large enough and has enough oxygen for seven hundred people,” Maxwell could feel the eyes on him after he had said that.

“Sir?”

Maxwell began to look at each and every one on the bridge, before he looked back up at the ceiling.

“We're abandoning ship.”

“Coordinates locked, we’re ready to transport you now,” said the transporter operator, that is until Zina stepped into the room.

“Wait!” She said as she stepped up onto the transporter pad only to pause for a second when she realized it was just Maya and Koyda. “Where is everyone?”

“If there is going to be an evacuation, they’re going to be needed here. Why are you here?” Maya asked.

“I got permission from the Captain. I’m coming with you so I can determine what exactly is producing breathable air in the cavern on a world made entirely out of gems and crystals. It’s also important to know this information, in case we get stuck down there longer than we plan to,” Zina explained as she stepped onto an empty pad and put on her oxygen mask. She had no time to put an EV suit on, so an oxygen mask was the best she could do.

“Fine by me,” said Koyda.

“Energize,” Maya ordered, as she did not want to waste any more time.

In matter of seconds, Zina watched the transporter room be replaced with a large opening before them and various large, elongated crystals that would be in place of where trees would be. The ground around them was a surprisingly flat surface and was nothing but gems as far as the eye could see. There was no dirt, no grass, barely a noticeable atmosphere. Zina already had her tricorder out with the scanner at work before her arm was grabbed, where she was pulled with the two into the cave. The last thing she saw before they went completely inside, was some Romulan crafts that looked to be almost a hundred feet away.

“I know this is tickling your scientific child inside, but we are on a very important mission here,” said Koyda.

“Sorry, it is just incredible. How is there even atmosphere? And it’s warm! With barely an atmosphere, you would think it be a little colder. But then, there is not a single cloud in the sky! No ocean or lakes or-”

“We get it. Maybe Starfleet can get back here with you on board a science vessel,” said Koyda.

They traveled for what felt like a kilometer, maybe half really, the path sloped downward a bit so they were they would be several hundred feet below the surface. Without the lamps from the Hazard suits, they would be in pure darkness. That is until they traveled a few dozen feet more, where they were met with natural light that started to grow brighter. A few feet more and they came to an entrance to a enormous cavern, so enormous, Zina could barely see an end to it.

“Starfleet!”

Nearly startled, Zina looked to see where the voice came from and saw a Romulan female who approached them, with a big smile on her face.

“I have never been happier to see Starfleet in my entire life! Oh, you don’t need that mask anymore, or your helmets, there’s plenty of air to go around,” said the woman, while Zina watched Koyda and Maya remove their helmets.

Zina quickly pulled her oxygen mask off, “How big is this cavern? What’s producing the oxygen? Where is all this light coming from?”

The woman laughed before she ushered Zina to come with her, but before she had left the ear shot of Koyda and Maya, she heard Maya inform Sovereign that it was safe.

“The hell is going on?” Ruby asked, as he stood there in the corridor just outside of the main shuttle bay and there were lines of crew that led to the bay.

“Where were you when the order was given?” Mizu asked. She had just reached him, after she had to squeeze through several people to reach him.

“Well, I was not as fortunate as you were to be assigned to the bridge. I got stuck in the control complex. I guess it was important for me to learn a bit about operations and flight plans and-” Ruby stopped when her hand went up.

“The Captain made the evacuation order. All nonessential personnel are going to the planet below. So everyone received their orders to either use transporter pads or load up on all the small crafts we got.” Mizu explained to him.

The Chief Operator of the Shuttle Bays Control Complex stepped out to find the two of them standing there in the corridor. “You two! Are you both pilots?”

“Yes, sir.” They said in unison.

“Then I need you two to get into the cargo shuttles on deck seven, run the emergency flight checks to get your crafts ready to go as soon as possible. Once the crafts from deck eight depart, we will lower your crafts down so that they can be boarded. Got it?” The Chief asked.

“Understood,” Said Ruby.

“Loud and clear!” Said Mizu and she followed right behind Ruby but noticed he was heading for the closest transporter pad. “Why are we going this way?”

“I didn’t see catwalks that went to the suspended cargo shuttles, so we will have to get beamed onto them,” Ruby explained.

“Oh fun.”

Not even five minutes later, Ruby was transported to the very front suspended cargo shuttle while Mizu was transported to the third one in the row, as two others were transported to the other two. Ruby sat down in the pilot seat and as he started to go through the emergency flight checks, he could see shuttles leaving through the open door. It was not long until his cargo shuttle began to descend to the hangar deck. He went through the most important systems in the power up sequence before he brought the shuttle online, that by the time the engines were primed, the sudden thud beneath him told him that the craft was on the hangar deck.

In matter of seconds, after the side doors opened, crew started to flood in and take their seats, or stand where they could as the craft was filled to capacity.

“Mom, are we going to die?” A child complained, one that got Ruby’s attention where he took a look over his shoulder and saw a little girl looking up at her mother, someone who looked to be from the science department. Or medical.

“No sweetie, we’re going to be just fine,” she told her child.

“But why is everyone leaving?” The look on her face showed she was scared and Ruby thought about keeping quiet and let the mother handle it but something in him just wanted to help.

“It’s okay little one. We’re leaving because something very important on the ship broke but we got really good people working on it right now,” Ruby smiled as he had turned his seat around to look directly at her. “But you want to see something really cool? Its the planet that we’re going down to and I think you’re going to love it.” Ruby held out his hands. With the approval from her mother, she came over to Ruby where he picked her up and sat her down on one of his legs, turned back around so that they faced the controls.

“Cargo Four, why haven’t you departed yet?” Came from the control complex.

“Departing now,” Ruby replied and took the controls. First he made the board indicated that the doors were shut and sealed before he lifted the craft off the hangar deck and accelerated out and through the forcefield. Once he was clear from the ship, he turned the craft towards the rendezvous point, to which brought the crystal like planet right into view.

“Whoa!” She exclaimed, the fear on her face completely disappeared and replaced with shock and awe.

“Right?” Ruby smiled. “You don’t see these kinds of planets every day.”

“But…how do we breath crystal?” She asked.

Ruby’s smile got even bigger. “There is a little bit of oxygen on the surface, but we will be wearing oxygen masks when we step out of the shuttle. Then we will go to a cave, that we will be landing close to, and deep inside the cave is a massive subterranean cavern that has lots of oxygen, safe for us to breathe.” The rest of the flight was calm but short, and they landed in a large area next to the other crafts where crew had exited and began their short trek towards the cave where they will enter the massive subterranean cavern.