“Did she give a reason why?” Karyn Reyas asked her husband as she pondered the recent news he had just shared with her. She was pacing up and down the carpet in his ready room, hands firmly clasped behind her back as she tried to understand why Cambil had just resigned.

Shaking his head, still in disbelief with had just unfolded in his ready room, James explained what happened from where he sat on the sofa curved under the arching window. “When I asked her what brought it on she couldn’t give me an exact reason besides things had changed too much and she needed to walk away from it all. She said something about hoping that Starfleet had changed and that she had hoped that our mission to the Delta Quadrant would have changed it all.” 

Perplexed as to why Cambil took just a rash decision quicker than a Borg Cube at transwarp, Karyn couldn’t get her head around it all. She knew that James and Bexa had gone through a rough patch with their working relationship recently, but they wouldn’t be the first pair of COs and XOs who had disagreed with one another and she was certain they wouldn’t be the last. On top of that they were close as friends. “This is unlike her. Something changed significantly without us realising.” She paused and looked down at her husband. His tired features were now prominent and she realised he hadn’t actually been home to tell their sons he was back, safe and sound. “Why don’t you go back to our quarters and take a rest. The boys would appreciate seeing their father alive and well.” 

Shaking his head and refusing the idea for now,James rubbed his face. “I will but I need to speak with Commodore Bennet and then I need to sort out Bexa.”

“Can you really sort her out though?” Karyn inquired as she took a seat next to him. “Give her time and space. She may need to sleep on it and realise what she’s done.”

“No, I think this is legit Karyn. She’s gone from my side.” James stated, sounding almost heartbroken from the ordeal. 

Surprised to hear his wife’s reasoning, Naprem looked at her with a confused expression. “So wait, James goes on a classified mission, one which he can’t tell you anything about and you’re ordered to remain loyal to him and trust him.” He stops as he makes sure he is recalling everything she had shared with him. “The rest of the senior staff do this and you’ve resigned your commission because you don’t like being in the dark about what he got up to?” He paused and looked at it. “And that’s it? Are you serious Bexa?”

Looking at him from over her left shoulder in an almost deadpan expression, Bexa rolled her eyes as she knew he wouldn’t understand. “It’s more complicated than that, Naprem.”

They were both in their bedroom. Naprem was lying on the bed while Bexa was sitting at her dressing table with her back to her husband. Before her was the impressive view of the space the ship was currently in. The large tilting windows were a luxury throughout their massive quarters. 

Raising his hands in surrender, he nodded. “I get it there’s things you can’t share as it’s classified, but you and James have been serving together for over a decade now. You’ve been his first officer for eight years. You two have practically written the book on this ship and you want to walk away from it all?”

“It’s not just Odyssey that I want to leave. It’s the uniform.” She said with a strong conviction as she held her combadge tightly. “It’s not been the same for a long time.”

“No surprise there babe.” Naprem agreed. “But Bexa you’re so close to having your own ship, are you sure you want to step away from it all?” Getting up from where he was, he walked up to behind her and placed both of his warm hands on to her shoulders. Slowly massaging them, he questioned her resolve. “You may regret this if you walk away like this.”

Appreciating his concern and love for her, Bexa enjoyed the intimate touch from him. “No, I don’t want it anymore.” She honestly said. “I’m certain the Prophets have been sending me a message, that’s it’s time to move on.”

“So what do you want to do? Have the Prophets told you what to do next?” He asked. “It’s not that I’m questioning your thoughts, feelings or even your faith, but we’ve built a home here. We’ve got friends, the boys have friends and I’ve got a job.”

Realising she was not only affecting herself but her family too, Bexa squirmed as she looked up at him. “I know but I can’t do this anymore Naprem. Starfleet isn’t the same organisation I joined. I need out and I’m certain that’s what the Prophets want of me. Tell me you’re not mad at me. Please.”

Pulling her up and close to him, he responded by placing a long soft kiss on her lips. As he parted he smiled. “Is that good enough assurance that I’m not mad at you?” He asked.

“Yes.” She said, sounding almost breathless from the surprise gesture. “Thank you.”

“We should speak to the boys.” He suggested. 

Nodding in agreement, she took him by hand and they walked out of the room to have a family meeting.

Somewhat shocked to hear what McCallister had reported to him, Commodore Bennet’s expression was apparent. After hearing that McCallister had completed his mission and ensured that there were no repercussions for the foreseeable future from the Kraylor, the Odyssey captain had then informed the commodore about his first officer. Still in the private confines of his ready room, McCallister spoke with a mug of tea in his left hand at the desktop console to the flag officer over a secured hyper-subspace channel.

“It’s a loss to the fleet, but if she’s finding it difficult to understand that sometimes the uniform comes with hard missions that place us in extremely difficult situations where a crew needs to explicitly trust it’s captain’s judgement, then she would struggle sitting in the centre chair if she was ever promoted.” Bennet’s words seemed so harsh, but being an outsider looking in he had more of an objective approach then anyone on the ship at the moment. Knowing he may be right, McCallister decided not to defend her actions. Bennet had already told him to accept her resignation and move on. “So who will you have as her replacement? You know Command won’t accept Karyn.”

Nodding to show he had already anticipated that reaction, McCallister responded. “Karyn and I knew that would not be available to us. Plus we both agree that it wouldn’t work for the crew, we wouldn’t want them to think that we can’t be objective when dealing with a huge crisis.”

“That’s a sensible idea.” Bennet backed up. “So who will you promote to first officer? You’ve got plenty to pick from out there.” 

“I’ve got one person in mind.” McCallister answered.

“Good, in the meantime send me everything you have collected on Omega and move the ship away from the Kraylor’s horizons. Find a nice uninhabited star system to scan for the time being.” Bennet ordered. 

“Are there any more omega cases I should be aware of?” McCallister asked, now worried there would be more on his plate.

“None that we are aware of that are near to you but there could be other matters that you may be called upon to investigate. The Omega Directive is still active as several Starfleet ships have detected it in the Delta Quadrant, but that doesn’t compare to what is happening at home.” Bennet replied back with. 

Somewhat surprised to hear how intense it was back in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, McCallister continued to ask questions from his superior. “Do we know what’s causing them?”

“Not quite,” Bennet stated, “but there’s a working theory that this has something to do with the Tkon.”

“The Tkon?” McCallister repeated. “My ancient history lessons are a bit outdated, but didnt they die off over six-hundred-thousand years ago?”

“As I said it’s a theory, but for now if you come across any of their technology or artefacts, you are ordered to recover them and inform Starfleet.” Bennet commanded. “Keep your eyes open captain.”

“Yes sir,” McCallister replied. “Is there anything else, admiral?”

“I’ll make a request for you to get a replacement for the Aquarius but it will be a week until we hear anything.” Bennet assured.

Appreciating the gesture, McCallister smiled at the commodore. “Thank you, sir.”

“Now go and find someone to jump off a cliff for you. Good luck, Bennet out.” The holographic display closed as soon as the commodore closed the channel at his end.

Exhaling loudly, James considered his next move. Tapping his combadge he called up for the person he had in mind to succeed Bexa. 

The auditorium was slightly busier than normal. In the background a holographic swing band was playing while being led by a male singer. They were currently playing ‘I’ve Got The World On A String’.

Sat at the main bar on stools were several members of the senior staff, all of whom had a drink in their hands. 

“I’m still impressed with your whole medical emergency, well done again doctor.” Jen congratulated the Denobulan chief medical officer. 

Appreciating the feedback, Sylvexs raised her glass of an Andorian ale as a gesture of thanks. “I was surprised that the Kraylor took it.”

“Even if they didn’t, I can’t seem them ever trying to take on the Odyssey, it would take at least four to five of their ships to make a serious dent in our shields.” Lenjir said as he sipped on his Aldebaran whiskey. “Still remind me to never take you on in a game of poker!” The Tiburon security chief joked.

Turning to look at Tomaz, Commander Hunsen noticed the young Barzan was drinking a Ktarian beer. “So Tomaz, you survived your first couple of months on the Odyssey, have we scared you enough yet?”

Chuckling at the chief engineer’s question, Tomaz shook his head as he placed his glass down. “Not yet sir.”

“Give the guy a break Tremt,” defended Counsellor Duncan, “he’s barely been on the ship long enough to be suffering from post traumatic stress disorder!”

Everyone, Tomaz included, laughed at that. The one who remained posed and unmoved was the Vulcan pilot. “I would estimate the counsellor would need to reassess the lieutenant’s wellbeing within one year to determine if such a diagnosis can be reached.” T’Rani remarked, taking a pinch of her Vulcan brandy.

More chuckling followed as T’Rani remained serious and still in her inflections.

“McCallister to Duncan, report to my ready room on the double.” 

“Ooh, sounds like someone is in trouble!” Court remarked from the left hand side of Duncan. The senior chief was enjoying a cold beer from a bottle before he mocked his friend.

Sighing as he heard his name called him over the intercom, Duncan placed his glass of Saurian brandy down. He glared at Court before he tapped his combadge and told the captain he’d be there soon. Looking at everyone else, he apologised for having to leave them. “Duty calls.” He added as he departed from the auditorium and into the nearest turbo lift.

The ride up to deck one was quick and simple. Stepping on to the bridge, he soon saw the site of the night shift just getting underway. After arriving at the door for the captain’s ready room, he tapped the door chime and was surprised to hear McCallister’s chirpy response. The man had kept his distance since his return from whatever he undertook. 

Walking in, Duncan smiled at his superior and wondered why he had called him at this late hour. “Everything okay, sir?” He asked aloud. 

Sitting behind his desk, the captain looked up at his visitor. “Yeah sure, Max. I’ve got something to say to you.” He indicated for him to take a seat opposite to his desk. “It’s a sensitive matter and one that only you can solve for me with a simple answer.”

Curious to know what it was, Duncan took the seat and showed his captain he was ready to listen to whatever he wanted to say.

Taking a breath, McCallister looked at Duncan and said to him one statement: “I’m going to need you to jump off a cliff for me.”

Leaning his head against one wall in his sonic shower cubicle, Max found himself taking a moment of silence and reflection. He hadn’t slept that much during the night, which was the worst thing for him to do on his first day of his new job. Five, maybe six hours, off and on. All night he kept racing through his mind the conversation he had with the captain almost eight hours ago. He was going through everything into much detail. Hearing the shocking news of Commander Cambil’s resignation and then McCallister wanting him as his new ‘Number One’ was an immense piece of news to slap on him so late in the evening. Now he found himself debating if he had made the right call to accept the offer? McCallister had started the conversation asking him if he would ‘jump off a cliff’ and as he explained further what he meant, Max’s reaction was straight to the point with a simple ‘yes’. At the back of his mind he wondered if his parents would have been proud of his decision. He had planned to send a message to his mother later that day with the news. Being a Starfleet captain herself, he pretty much knew what she was going to say. 

Yawning loudly, he eventually switched off the sonic shower and turned on the water feature. He didn’t need it but sometimes he preferred the warm water trickling down him instead of the tender warm vibrations from the sonic shower. The gentle stream of warm water helped him wake up further. He knew he had to be more alert for today. Once he was done and felt more like himself, the automatic dryer came on and the sensation was like he was almost being blasted by a furnace by its ferocious high speeds of heat. 

Walking out, he pulled out his underwear from the nearby walk-in closet he had. As a senior member of the crew he had a pretty large set of quarters for one occupant. The glory of the Odyssey-class, unlike some other ships, meant that he had two levels to his home away from home. His bedroom, bathroom and walk-in closet were on the top floor and a small set of winding steps led him down to the living area. There it had a large living room area with sofas, armchairs, a decent size round dining table, a kitchen area and a desk for him to do work while off-duty. Furthermore it had its own small double-bed guest room that branched off from the living room with its own ensuite facilities. Living alone, some would have thought it was almost the perfect bachelor pad, but Max had kept it tidy and decorated it with private items. Many of them were photographs of close family and friends. 

Looking at the uniform he wore yesterday, the one that he had slung on the floor after getting home from his meeting with the captain, he realised he would no longer be wearing the teal blue jacket that belonged to the science division. He would instead wear the maroon red for command. Walking over to the nearby replicator, he ordered it to create his new uniform. Within a few seconds his new uniform was ready for him. Pulling it on, he looked at the holographic mirror at his own reflection and realised he looked very different. Deciding that his new uniform required a new look, he went back into the bathroom area and restyled his hair so he had a thicker, larger quiff instead of a flat looking style. Pleased by his appearance he sat back down in the closet and pulled on his boots, again they were brand new. Feeling comfortable in what he was now wearing, he headed down into the living room and ordered the computer to make him his breakfast. As the replicator came to life with a mug of English tea and a plate with a buttered croissant, the door chime went off. 

Sighing at nuisance, he took one more glance at his reflection before he called after his visitor. “Who is it?”

“Cline,” There was a pause as the security and tactical chief then added the word:  “sir.”

Surprised to hear his voice so early in the morning, Max walked over to the door and opened it. “Yes, can I help?”

Standing before him was the tall muscular Tiburon lieutenant commander with two other members of his security team. One was Lieutenant Keli, Cline’s Coridanite deputy while the other was Ensign Trexx, a young Bolian who was almost as tall as Cline.  Keli had a big smile on her face, which was normal as she always had a cheer disposition. 

“Sorry to disturb you commander, but in accordance with the change in chain of command, it is our job to ensure your quarters are safe, secure and issue you with your new security clearance codes.” Lenjir said. “As per the captain’s orders.”

A bit startled that needed to be done, Max trusted the security chief and let him come in. The two security officers with him took a level each to scan; Keli upstairs while Trexx took downstairs and started in the guest room. While they did their job, Cline presented a PADD to Duncan, “If you can just place your hand on here.” He said. “And recite your current security clearance codes.”

Doing as he was told, Max placed his hand on the PADD, which he noticed had the captain’s authorisation on it to have him noted on the ship’s official records as first officer. “Computer, this is Commander Max Duncan, confirm security clearance Duncan-four-seven-delta-romeo.”

“Voice authorisation confirmed. Chain of command has been updated, this vessel’s executive officer is now Commander Max Duncan.” The computer said.

“Congratulations sir.” Lenjir said with a smile. “I don’t think anyone else knows, but the captain has called for a whole crew briefing at oh-seven-hundred hours in the auditorium.”

“What?” Max said, sounding surprised. “I didn’t see that on the schedule.” He groaned as he reached for a nearby PADD that had the crew roster and the day’s assignment on it that McCallister had given him last night. He then saw an update to the agenda. There it was, McCallister must have added late last night. Damn, he thought, he needed to make sure he read the schedule the moment he woke up.

“All clear up there.” Keli said as she came off the last step and closed her tricorder. “I’ve updated the computer terminals with the latest security updates as well.”

“Likewise around here.” Trexx added, as he finished off his last scan. “The transporter inhibitor is also active.”

“Transporter inhibitor?” Duncan questioned the Bolian. 

Nodding to confirm, Trexx explained to Duncan that everyone who was higher up on the chain of command required extra security features in their quarters to prevent any compromises to the ship’s security. 

“For what it’s worth sir,” Keli said, still grinning, “when we found out that Commander Cambil had resigned and you were taking over, we all agreed you’re a worthy successor.”

Max smiled at the compliment and looked at Lenjir who nodded in agreement.

“Obviously we’ve not told anyone else,” Lenjir added. “But yeah Keli is right. You’re the right person for the job.”

“Thank you.” Max said. “If that’s all for now, then I suppose I best rush off and see the captain before this gathering.”

“Indeed.” Lenjir agreed as they all exited the commander’s quarters. Max then hurried himself down the deck and to the nearest turbolift to make his way up to deck six, where the captain had his quarters.

Almost running down the corridor, Max was approaching the doors to the captain’s quarters when he saw Court standing outside them. Along his journey he had passed a few crewmembers who had stared at him for his new uniform but didn’t say anything to him.

“Tobi, is he still in there?” Max asked as he slowed himself down to reach Court.

Senior Chief Petty Officer Court looked up from the PADD he was reading at the approaching figure and smiled. “You look good in red, sir.” He commented before answering the question. “And yes, I’m just waiting for them to answer.”

“Is this normal?” Duncan asked the captain’s yeoman and the chief of the boat. 

Nodding, Court explained how the captain’s routine normally went. “Most mornings he is out by oh-seven hundred hours, but this morning I’d imagine he will be up and read-” Court paused as the doors to the McCallister family quarters opened. 

Standing there smiling at them both was Alfie McCallister, the teenage boy beckoned them. “Dad said for you both to come in and make yourself comfortable.”

The teenager was already up and dressed, the sight impressed Max as he was never that organised as a teenager. Following Alfie in they were warmly welcomed by Commander Reyas, who was sipping on a mug of hot coffee, while behind her Alfie’s brothers were finishing off their breakfast. “Good morning Max, morning Tobi.” Reyas said. 

“Morning ma’am.” Tobi said and then he went over to greet the boys, his godsons.

Tobi was more at ease in the presence of the McCallisters, especially as he spent so much time with them off duty. 

Karyn approached Max and quietly spoke to him. “So now you’re my superior, I insist you call me Karyn.” 

“Of course ma-” Max paused and smiled at her, “thank you Karyn. And likewise back, I don’t want our relationship to change.”

“Sounds like a deal.” She said with a smirk and a wink. “You’ll make an excellent first officer to James.”

“As you would have.” Max replied quickly. “I don’t think it’s fair that Starfleet won’t allow it.”

Shrugging her shoulders, Karyn didn’t appear bothered by the new arrangement. “I’ve got a few more centuries in my life before I need to worry about such things.” She beckoned for him to come in further and away from the door he was stood at. “Listen Max, it’s not that we didn’t see Bexa every morning as she had her own family to sort out but I want you to know you are more than welcome to join us for breakfast, dinner or a midnight snack. There’s always an extra space for you.”

“That’s very kind of you, Karyn, thank you.” Max said, showing his appreciation for the gesture. 

“God knows, I’ve got to put up with Tobi winding up the boys so another body won’t make a difference and I know James sometimes likes to go over the schedule in a more informal setting sometimes.” Karyn shared. “So you ready for your first day?”

“I hope so.” Max answered sincerely. 

“You look it.” Karyn remarked and gave him a brief hug. “I’m loving the new hairstyle, very leadership-like.” she whispered before taking a sip from her mug. 

Walking down a similar flight of stairs like his own room, Captain McCallister soon appeared. “There he is.” He said, putting on his jacket and zipping it up.

“Morning sir.” Max said back to his superior.

Smiling as he tugged on the end of his jacket, McCallister reached the bottom step and spoke. “Excited?”

Nodding once, Duncan confirmed it. “Absolutely.”

“You’ll be great.” McCallister said as he walked past his new executive officer and headed to the table to pick up something to eat. As he made his way over, he looked to his wife and yeoman, “He’s gonna be great.”

Both officers agreed with his assessment and then the captain gestured for them to leave. As he turned, he looked at his sons and called after them. Wishing them a good day and that they’ll see them later for dinner. 

The four officers walked down the corridor and towards the nearest turbolift. “You’d think when the designers made this ship with how huge it is, that they may have considered installing either a private turbolift for the captain or an exclusive site-to-site transporter. The amount of walking we do, I’d be surprised if I’ve not walked the same amount of distance it takes to get up Mount Seleya and back tenfold.”

Just one step behind him, Max looked at Karyn who just rolled her eyes at her husband who led their pack. Looking at Max, she gestured for him to ignore the comment. Eventually they got into the turbolift and James ordered for it to take them to the auditorium. They had only a few more minutes left until the briefing that he had arranged would start.

“Tobi, make sure everyone on the senior staff is aware that I want a full meeting at oh-nine hundred hours and make sure you have a selection of coffee, tea and some pastries out.” James ordered.

The yeoman nodded.

Max instantly knew what that meant, “I take it that the senior staff meeting is going to be long?”

“Yep,” James answered quickly. “How’d you know?”

“You always have Tobi put out drinks and pastries when it’s going to be a long one.” Max answered. “The pastries are for Doctor Slyvexs while the coffee’s for Tremt. Both of them moan when our meetings go on longer than expected.”

Pleased his first officer recognised the tactic, James smiled before speaking. “And the tea is for Lukiz, one of his previous hosts found drinking tea a soothing way to help them listen.”

“Sir, do I invite someone to represent the counselling and diplomatic departments?” Tobi asked as he took notes on his PADD.

James looked at Max, “We need to discuss your replacements at some point. Your thoughts? Do we have someone who can do a dual role?”

Considering the idea for a moment, Max eventually shook his head. “I don’t think we have anyone else on the crew who is qualified for both roles sir. I suggest you promote both of my deputies. Samris is an excellent counsellor, he has strong links with the civilian representatives on the ship and Flemen is a superb diplomatic and contact specialist.”

“Which one would sit in your old chair though?” Karyn asked. 

James looked at his wife, “Lieutenant Flemen. It will be rare that we’ll need a counselling session on the bridge. Between him and Tomaz, they’ll be taking on the role of being our mission specialists now.”

It was true that James had been fortunate to have Max in both roles as chief diplomatic officer and chief counsellor. Many captains on the larger explorer ships were given the opportunity to have specialist trained officers to sit to their left in both roles, but now they were too far away from Starfleet to get anyone else quickly to replace him for both roles. Nevertheless he was confident that both men could do the jobs they were planning to elevate them to without any issue. “Do you want them at the senior staff meeting?” Max asked, noticing that James hadn’t clarified that point for Tobi. 

James nodded before answering, “Yes, but I’ll leave it down to you Number One to inform them of their promotions.” He paused as he realised something else. “Also I’ll leave it to you to offer Tremt the position of third officer.”

“Thanks sir.” Max said, not sure if how his friend and their chief engineer would respond. Happy, he hoped. 

The turbolift came to its destination and the entourage left it. 

Entering the auditorium, Max noted how quickly things looked different to how it normally appeared in the mornings. Normally the breakfast rush was in motion, but it felt like almost everyone was present. A holographic podium had been set up at the front of the huge room. 

“Captain on the deck!” shouted Court as they entered and everyone stood to attention to face the captain. 

Moving swiftly, McCallister made his way across to the podium. As he approached it his combadge activated the ship’s speakers and the intercom came to life as his voice could be heard across the ship. 

“Good Morning,” McCallsiter greeted everyone and gave his typical boyish warm smile. Though his boyish charms were slowing decay with his age, he still had a unique charisma about him. “After a long and heartfelt discussion, I’m announcing today a change in our ship’s chain of command. Commander Cambil has decided to leave the service for reasons that are private and that only she shared with me. Though she will always be a very valuable part of this crew, this family, I must respect her decision and choice. I wish her all the best, but I’m pleased and terribly proud to announce that, effective immediately, the position of the Odyssey’s first officer will be filled by Commander Maxwell Jack Duncan.”

The room was eerily silent and then a round of applause, followed by cheering filled it. The captain called Max up to the podium and shook his hand. “Congratulations, Number One.” He said and then joined in with the applause.

Turning to face his crew now, Max just smiled and waved to everyone that was rallying behind the captain’s decision in making him their new executive officer. 

In the far distance, in between many people, he could see his predecessor standing with a huge smile across her face. Cambil clapped with pride for her successor before quietly leaving the large crowd.  

Stepping down from the podium, Max went over to the rest of the senior staff that had assembled together.

“You kept that one quiet last night Maxie.” Hunsen said as he stepped forward and gave his friend a bear hug. “So proud of you, well done mate.” He said before letting go.

Sylvexs stepped forward, “Congratulations, sir.” She said as she bowed her head in respect. Being a Denobulan she did not like touching others in an affectionate manner. 

T’Rani came up to him next. “You are an excellent candidate to succeed Commander Cambil, sir.”

“Thank you, T’Rani. She’s left some big shoes.” Max replied. 

Laughing slightly, Jen hugged Max as well. “Shoes you’ll easily fit into.” He added. “Well done Max.”

“Thanks Lukiz.” Max said, appreciating everyone’s kind words of support and encouragement. 

“We have forty-five minutes before we need to report to the bridge. What does everyone say to you all joining me in the captain’s private dining room for a proper breakfast?” McCallister offered to his senior staff. 

A round of acknowledgements followed and as they headed to the private room that sat off from the upper level, Max passed many of his crew congratulating him as he went by. He was super overwhelmed, but he couldn’t shake off the image of seeing Cambil from a far. It felt weird that she was no longer a part of this group. He planned to see her before she left Odyssey; he needed to speak to her, even if it was for his own closure on the whole matter and for some sort of transition to take place.

The counsellor in him also knew that knowing Cambil, she was beating herself over something and if it was something that would affect him in his new role, then Max was determined to know as well. 

Stardate: 76497.17

One week later

“Commander, we’re approaching the Burbidge cluster.” T’Rani announced, from the helm. 

On the holographic viewscreen, the view of the large group of stars appeared. Each one had its own unique properties, but they all had one thing in common: all of them were orbited by gas giants or solid balls of rock. None of them could sustain life, except for one. A Class M planet orbiting a F type star. Being the odd one had peeked the captain’s curiosity. The ship was finally doing some exploring. 

“T’Rani, lay in a course for the Class M planet.” Commander Max Duncan ordered from where he was sitting in the captain’s chair. “Engage at full impulse.”

“Aye sir.” T’Rani said. 

After a week in his new job, Commander Duncan was finally getting used to the perks that the new job brought. He still had a lot to learn and he was quietly using the holodeck on the side to refresh his memory of areas that he wasn’t completing an expert in – this mainly covered engineering, starship operations and tactical analysis. 

Tapping the intercom in the captain’s chair, Duncan hailed the captain who was currently in his ready room with his wife and her deputy from the science department. The trio had been meeting to finalise the plans for their exploration efforts. Within a few seconds they all walked out, Reyas at the front with McCallister behind walking out with Lieutenant Abbej. He was in deep conversation with the Boslic woman, whose dark purple hair bobbed just inline with her shoulders. 

“Have we arrived?” Reyas asked as she approached the centre pit and looked over to the main viewer.

Standing up from the captain’s chair, Max answered with a simple nod. “Our mystery cluster awaits us.” He added.

“Excellent.” Reyas said, sounding excited as she turned to look at her fellow scientist. “Abbej, we best get those probes ready for launch.”

“Indeed ma’am.” She said after excusing herself from the captain’s presence as she made her way over to the science stations with her department head. As the head of the ship’s astrophysics division, this expedition of the cluster would rely on a lot of her expertise. 

The entire science department was extremely eager to get started on their exploration of the cluster. The ship would start at the mystery uninhabited M class planet before they would go on to map the other systems in detail. The whole project was estimated to last almost three weeks. 

McCallister joined his first officer and turned to look at the image on the main screen. “Any sign of any other ships nearby, Number One?” He asked. 

Shaking his head, Duncan reported a clear no. “We’re the only ones here. Long range sensors are still monitoring the Kraylor ships from before, but they appear to be keeping to themselves and extremely far away from us. Tomaz is going to brief us on other nearby species we should be aware of later this afternoon, but he’s already said the list isn’t long and it’s not truly inspiring.”

Chuckling at the Barzan’s repertoire of descriptive words for a report, McCallister knew his chief strategic operations officer preferred to be meeting other new species. He and only a few others may find themselves a bit lost as to what to do while the ship explored the cluster. Everyone else though would be super busy. “Good, it’d be nice to get back to basics and do some exploring without anyone looking over our shoulder or us having to worry that we might be attacked.” McCallister said as he sat down and Commander Duncan followed in the same action a few seconds afterwards. He leant in to his right-hand man, “any sign of what Starfleet wants us to look out for?”

Since their senior staff meeting over a week ago, Max and everyone else had been surprised by the captain’s announcement of Starfleet’s latest orders. They were to investigate any leads they had on the Tkon Empire. It was a stretch for them admittedly, especially this far out in the Delta Quadrant, but who knew? They were the closest Starfleet ship to the border of Delta and Beta Quadrants. They could find something, especially as the Tkon were so advanced and were known to have mainly occupied large areas of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. 

“Nothing yet, sir.” The new first officer answered. “However, from what I’ve read about them, it wouldn’t surprise me if this cluster was built by them. It almost appears too artificial from long range sensors. Plus knowing our luck, it will turn out to be one of their lost home worlds.”

“Care to place a wager on that, Max?” McCallister asked quietly. “As I’m pretty certain Admiral Beckett back home would appreciate your insights too. Name your price!”

Smirking at the captain’s playful sarcastic nature, the commander nodded. “If I’m right, I get to find a decent vacation spot on that planet and be left alone for two days.”

“Deal, but if you’re wrong then you have to endure joining me taking my sons on a camping trip.” McCallister countered with. “Karyn is desperate to get them off the ship, as much as I am. I’m sure her hints also include her wanting some alone time.” He paused for a second and considered an idea that entered his train of thought. “Actually Number One, that planet may provide the crew with some decent short R and R. I can’t see why enjoying ourselves would be such a bad idea”

“I’ll look into it, sir.” Max said and then looked at his captain. “And by the way that’s a deal, either way taking a break may do us all some good.” Shaking their hands on it, the Odyssey continued on its journey towards the uninhabited planet for a closer look.

Impressed with their findings, Karyn couldn’t take her eyes off the sensor readings. “Are we certain?” She asked, turning to look at Lieutenant Abbej.

The Boslic science officer nodded. “It’s confirmed, the existence of benamite crystals.”

The two women were currently standing in the primary astrometric lab reviewing the scans taken by the many Starfleet probes that currently orbited the planet they had named Outré, for its unusual and almost shocking properties. Within twenty four hours they had found pockets of deuterium, signs of gallicite, uridium and kellinite ore and large quantities of edible vegetation. This discovery now went straight to the top of the list. 

Excited at the prospect of finding a high amount of the rare crystal, Karyn ordered Abbej to turn their attention to the location of the readings. “We need to know everything before we go to the captain with this.”

“Already on it.” Abbej said and within a few seconds the large ceiling to floor monitor in the lab came to life with further scans. “It looks like a majority of the crystals are buried within a cave system, several kilometres under the planet’s surface. Plenty of tunnels for us to move within as well.” 

“I think we should run a full geological scan of the planet.” Karyn suggested as a hunch started to form. Looking at the preliminary scans of the underground tunnels made a small knot appear in the El-Aurian’s stomach. 

“That would take some time ma’am.” Abbej replied. Her tone carried a sense of concern and wonder as to why her boss wanted to take longer finding out more about the planet without stepping foot on it. 

“I know but I think it would be worth it in the end. We can launch more probes to assist. I just have a feeling we need to know more before we start placing people on the ground down there.” Karyn insisted.

“Scan underway, I’ll have the geological team take lead on this.” Abbej suggested. “Is there anything you want them to look out for ma’am?”

“Yeah, see if our theory of it being uninhabited was right.” She said, “In the meantime,I’m heading up to the bridge to see the captain to tell him about this.”

Standing with his first officer, chief operations officer as well as his chief engineer, Captain McCallister was listening to the suggestions he was hearing from the three men. They had met to discuss the upcoming options of sending down teams to Outré. Now that most sensor scans of the planet had been complete there were plenty of places for them to look at in person. The group were all huddled around the primary mission ops station on the bridge with a map of the planet below on the main screen. 

“So far our science team has discovered several sites that could be worth visiting first.” Duncan explained, pointing to each of them as he spoke. “Two in the northern continent, three in the south and one on this chain of islands near to the equator.” 

“We’re already replicating prefabricated bases for each location and when we decide on more sites then we will use these ones as primary bases. Others will take tents, unless they are quite far away from the prefabs.” Hunsen added. 

The joined Trill operations officer then spoke. “We’re also getting out of storage all of the equipment we will need to take down for the teams and T’Rani is preparing all of the shuttles when the transporters are in use. We are also getting the mining equipment ready, with this amount of deuterium,gallicite, uridium and kellinite, we’d be foolish not to extract some. Doctor Slyvexs is also keen to determine if the vegetation is worth looking at to replenish our stores. She’s quite keen to farm.” Jen paused and then looked at the captain. “There has been one request sir that we wanted to run past you first.”

“Oh, what’s that Lukiz?” McCallister wondered what it would be, especially seeing as they had already covered most areas.

“Ground vehicles sir.” Jen answered. “Some of the science team have requested that we deploy the four we already have and build another three. That way each primary site has the ability to cover further terrain.”

Smirking at the request, McCallister agreed to it with a nod. “What about a place for R and R?” He asked.

Remembering the deal they struck just over twenty-four hours ago, Duncan grinned at the captain as he tapped on the map on the screen and enlarged the chain of islands he mentioned earlier. “We’re recommending these islands sir for the crew.”

“Let’s just call it our own mini-Risa in the Delta Quadrant!” Jen supplemented with. 

Chuckling at the name, McCallister thanked them all for their time and was about to dismiss them when the turbolift doors opened to reveal his wife.

“Ah, James, I’m glad I caught you.” Reyas said with a cheerful mood and then saw who else he was with. “Sorry captain, what I was meant to say was I needed to share something with you and I’m glad you’re all here. We’ve found something else that may interest you.”

“What do you have, commander?” McCallister asked her. 

Squeezing into the group, she leant over and tapped away on the mission ops console to bring up the scan she had just seen from the astrometrics lab. “One of the probes we launched yesterday went in for a closer look and found readings of benamite crystals deep underground.”

“Benemite?” Hunsen repeated. “That’s pretty rare to find.”

“Exactly, this planet is rich in a range of resources, captain.” Reyas said as she showed what the sensors had shown to confirm the existence of the rare crystal. “Large quantities of it are located within a set of caves and underground tunnels. I think it’s worth a look and if we can safely do it, to mine it.”

Crossing his arms as he heard the revelation, McCallister looked to his first officer. “Number One, your thoughts?”

“I agree with Commander Reyas, benemite is rare and if we can collect it then it’d be worth it. It’d be just another resource we’d be collecting from this planet.” Duncan answered.

“We’d need to setup another base as it’s quite far away from all of the others.” Hunsen remarked.

“And we’d need a lot of climbing gear, transporter enhancers, etc. to take with us.” Jen said as he considered the additional away mission. 

Duncan turned to Hunsen and Jen and asked them if they could use their latest addition. “Would it be easier if we sent down the Telemachus?”    

“I can’t see why not.” Jen answered.

Nodding in agreement, Hunsen liked the idea. “Would save us time and her transporters are better than most of the other shuttles and runabouts we have.”

McCallister looked at the four, who were all looking at hime to give the go ahead in using their new Aquarius-class support ship. It had arrived only forty-eight hours ago after Starbase 38 had sent it through the Barzan Wormhole shortly after Commodore Bennet had sent in the request. As they were close to one of the wormhole’s cycles it had been brought to them by the USS Tereshkova who had used a number of subspace corridors to reach them before returning back to the rest of the lead expeditionary group. “We’ve got to break it in somehow, so yeah go for it.” McCallister said, authorising the request. 

“I’d like to lead that mission,” Reyas said almost straight after her husband had given it his blessing. “The caverns and underground tunnels interest me.”

“I’d be keen to join you as well, commander.” Hunsen replied. He was looking intensely at the scans they had of the underground layers. “Is it me or do those tunnels look almost-”

“Artificially made to look natural?” Reyas finished for the Betazoid engineer. She didn’t need to be a mind-reader to sense his curiosity that he now shared with her. “It’s exactly what peaked my interest Tremt.”

Looking between the two officers, Duncan asked for clarity. “What are you guys getting at?”

“Well, I’m no geologist but natural tunnels and caves when they are formed do not generally have sufficient space between them for most humanoids to climb through, these ones on the whole appear to be sufficiently wide enough in most places.” Hunsen pointed out. “That’s either bizarrely lucky for us that these underground tunnels have formed like that or someone has beaten us to it and dug them out themselves.”

“Worth a look then.” McCallsiter encouraged. “Number One, will you start handing out assignments to team leaders and then I want to see plans for our giant study of this plan on my desk by tomorrow afternoon.”

“Yes sir.” Duncan replied. “I reckon we’d be ready to go the day after that. It’d give us enough time to make sure all the equipment is ready, including our temporary accommodations.”

“We’ve already started a full geological scan of the planet.” Reyas added. “I should have the results for you by tomorrow afternoon as well, captain.”

“Good.” McCallister said and then motioned to the others that their conversation was complete. His wife remained there with their chief engineer reviewing the sensor logs. He wondered if their hypothesis of the caves being dug out artificially were correct. Either way, he was keen for his crew to find out more. A good mystery was exactly what they needed.

“Chief Science Officer’s log, supplemental. We’ve spent the last twenty hours reviewing our deep geological scans of Outre, giving us plenty of information to decide on where to start our expedition of the underground tunnels. We are now getting ready to get underway.”

Zipping up her excursion jacket, Reyas smoothed the creases out before putting her combadge back on her breast. Tying her hair up into a bun, she made herself more comfortable and ready for her mission ahead. The door chime to her cabin went off. Turning around she looked at the doorway, “Enter!”

The shiny silver door slid open and a familiar figure stood there. “I see you’ve taken over my cabin.”

Smirking at her husband, Reyas stepped forward and kissed him as she pulled him into the small room. Their brand new support craft, the Telemachus, was top of the range in everything but the small cabins for its crew were still the same in size as the Aquarius had been. “I am the commanding officer for this mission.” Reyas said after pulling away from her embrace. “So I thought I’d take the chance and move in for a while.”

McCallister looked around at how quickly she had turned what was designated as the captain’s quarters into her own private domain. Her own clothes, stacks of PADDS and bags of other items were loitering around on the floor and the spare bunk. Three coffee mugs sat on the small desk, two empty and one half full. A plate of a half eaten hasperat was next to them as well. He hadn’t realised how messy his wife could get. “I suppose so.” He ignored the disorder and looked at her in her excursion gear and gave her a smirk. “Whatever you wear you always look gorgeous.”

Rolling her eyes at how cheesey he would get at complimenting her, Reyas turned back and around to pick up the final bits of her gear. “So what are you doing here Captain? And why aren’t you in uniform?”

It was true that McCallister was out of uniform when he was meant to be. He was wearing his casual civilian clothes, a rare sight for the Odyssey’s captain. He wore a pair of black trousers with a white top under a navy blue jacket. “Well while you’re away I’m taking the boys on a camping trip for a couple of nights.”

“Aren’t you meant to be commanding a starship?” Reyas questioned her husband. She paused as she guessed what he had done. “Did you leave your new first officer alone up there?”

Raising his hands up in defence to show her she wasn’t right this time, McCallister explained the situation to her. “No, I’ve not. Max is in fact joining us.”

“Oh dear lord, are you starting some sort of fraternity with him, our boys and let me guess Tobi?” Reyas moaned. She had gone along with some of the adventures he had got up to with their sons and Tobi when they were off duty, but she didn’t think she could deal with Max joining them. “Aren’t you a little bit too old for that James?”

Shocked at how much she was mocking him, McCallister placed his hands on his hips. “Hey, I’m in my forties and still can do a lot of things.”

“You’re almost fifty darling.” Reyas quipped back. “Don’t kid yourself, I saw how exhausted you were after your last mission.”

“And you’re double my age, but I don’t comment on it.” McCallister answered back. “Plus in my defence, I did have to run an entire mission by myself.”

Giving him a deadly glare for bringing up her age, Reyas then smirked. “For someone who is over a hundred years old, I look pretty good.” She then went on to deal with the other point raised. “The only person you have to blame about your last position is yourself…and probably Starfleet Command too. Anyway, what are you planning to do?”

Moving closer to her and placing his hands on her hips, James smiled. “Well I thought a couple of days of camping may help smooth things out with the boys and help me build up a closer rapport with Max.”

“So basically you’re trying to make up for your loss of Bexa on two fronts?” Reyas said as she strapped her tricorder to her hip, shaking her head at her husband’s idea. “Are you sure you can handle both attempts?”

McCallsiter was certain he could and wondered why his wife was questioning that. “Sure, why not?”

“It’s just out of all of our boys, it’s been Theo that has been pretty angry at you and blames you for him losing Leeyum. Those two were super close as friends.” Reyas remarked. 

Sighing with slight frustration, McCallister replied. “And he’s gotta get over the fact it wasn’t my choice for Bexa to leave and move her family back to the Alpha Quadrant.”

In the past week, since Cambil had resigned, she and her husband had made the decision to return to the Alpha Quadrant. When the Tereshkova arrived and dropped off the Telemachus, the whole Cambil family took passage with the Inquiry-class ship. Their departure had left a bittersweet taste in their mouths, especially for both James and Karyn. They were close with both Bexa and Napreem and the whole affair had left so much in the air between them. It didn’t help that when their sons, all of whom were close, found out what had happened, they got extremely angry with their parents, more so with their father. Henri, Theo and Alfie had ignored their parents for almost four days now, it hadn’t helped with Theo screaming at James one evening and then locking himself in his quarters for the evening. Out of the three of them though Alfie was slowly lowering his defences which James hoped would create a domino toppling effect on the other two.   

“And teenagers don’t see it as easy as we do.” Reyas reminded her husband. “Theo, out of the three of our boys, has always been the quieter one, the more reserved and so is Leeyum. Bexa and I would always used to say that the two of them are like a pair of Miradorn twins. Completely inseparable and so completely alike. He’s going to need more time to deal with it.”

Frustrated that his wife was bringing up conversations they had recently had as a family, James shook his head as he let go of her. “I’ll say it again, it’s not my fault that Bexa and Naprem left. The sooner the boys see that the better. Even Max said that having some father-son time would help rebuild things with them. He was a counsellor, so he knows what he’s talking about.”

“For goodness sake James, is that why you’re bringing Max? To help facilitate you rebuilding your relationships with your sons?” Reyas said, almost raising her voice at him, “I’m not saying the camping trip is not a bad idea, in fact Max is right about it being a good idea, but you need to remember that in Theo’s eyes his best friend left because he thinks his father and his best friend’s mother had a falling out. He doesn’t know the true reasons why Bexa resigned and what happened between you two. So you need to tread carefully with him.” 

Hating the fact he knew she was right, McCallister gave out a sigh as he rested against the small desk. “So basically, I need to have a heart-to-heart with him.”

Nodding once, Reyas agreed with the idea. “It might go a long way.” Finishing getting herself ready, she picked up her rucksack. “So who did you leave in command of the ship?”

“Tomaz.” He answered as he got up. “Everyone else, like you, is engaged with a survey of some sort and he was keen to get some more command experience under his belt.”

Reyas’ combadge then chirped and the voice of Lieutenant Abbej followed. “Hunsen to Commander Reyas.”

“Go ahead Tremt.” Reyas said after tapping her combadge. 

“Sorry to disturb you Karyn but the team is assembled in the shuttlebay. We’re ready to go on your order.” The Betazoid chief engineer announced.

“Thank you for the update Tremt, I’ll be there shortly. Reyas out.” She tapped her combadge to close the channel and looked at her husband. “Duty calls. So, good luck with your away mission then.” 

Kissing her on her cheek, McCallister smiled. “Likewise Commander Reyas.” He gave her a wink as she started to leave the cabin.

Turning around before she left the doorway, “You best not move anything around in my cabin.” She said, motionining at how she had left the room.

Saluting at her, McCallister chuckled and followed her out. He had no intention of tidying up after her but he was adamant she wouldn’t be leaving their brand new ship in a mess.

The planet Outré had many wondrous places to explore as such when assignments were being put together, Doctor Slyvexs was eager to take one. She had not been off the ship to engage in a job that wasn’t medical related for a long time, so leading a survey team to see if the large swathes of vegetation were worth investigating in more detail was a welcome break for the chief medical officer.  

Her team was currently working through a large luscious green valley of shrubbery. She had split the team into smaller groups to scan specific plants; currently she was in a group with T’Rani and Lieutenant junior grade Jisaraa, an Orion security officer who had volunteered for the mission too. 

“So ladies what do you think?” Slyvexs asked as she scanned a nearby tall plant. There were rows of them that stood almost a meter taller than any of them and long green leaves on them and what appeared to be a purple like vegetable growing from it.

Scanning with her own tricorder at another plant similar to the one the doctor was at, T’Rani looked over her shoulder at her Denobulan superior. “What do you mean doctor? On the plants or the valley?”

“Well, a bit of both.” Slyvexs said as she squinted her eyes as she continued to run her scans.

“This valley is enriched with this,” T’Rani paused as she considered her choice of words, “vegetable. It appears to have significant nutritional value.”

Jisaraa, who was kneeling down at another plant of the same variety, looked up from her scans, “I know I’m no botanist and I’ve never worked on a farm in my life, but doesn’t it strike you weird how much of it there is and how well organised this patch of it is?” The Orion questioned with curiosity. 

“As our human comrades would say, bingo!” Slyvexs as she closed her tricorder with a simple flip of her wrist. “I’m starting to believe we’ve walked into someone’s back garden.”

“Doctor?” T’Rani said, raising her left eyebrow slightly. She wondered what the doctor meant.

“I’ve dabbled into a bit of gardening during my many years,” Slyvexs explained as she crossed her arms and looked around their setting. “If you notice a majority of the crops here are laid out in lines and are almost exactly the same distance from one another. That’s not natural selection there, that’s been artificially chosen. Plus this particular crop,” she said, taking hold of it. The vegetable itself, which looked like purple corn, is the most dominant in this patch of land. Plus,” She looked above, “there’s nothing that is above it to prevent sunlight, warmth and rain getting to it. It’s not competing for the resources it needs to grow.”

“It does appear that this valley has been made to house…well to be a large farming area.” Jisaraa suggested. “There’s a source of water with the nearby river too.”

“An interesting theory, if this land has been managed in such a way then it begs the questions who created it and why are they not here to harvest it?” T’Rani questioned. 

“Who’s to say they live on the planet? This could be a farming world for some race we don’t know.” Slyvexs offered.

“Surely they wouldn’t have left something to lay claim to it?” Jisaraa as she stood up and placed her tricorder away. “Should we meet with the others and see what they’ve found?”

“Sounds like a sensible idea.” Slyvexs, stated with a simple nod as she looked around at their surroundings again. “We’ll need to return our data to,” She paused and looked at T’Rani,  “who’s the new chief biologist on the ship?”

“Chief Petty Officer Mara,” The Vulcan replied. “She joined the ship at Starbase Thirty-Eight.”

“Oh you mean Anar?” Jisaraa said, recalling the first name of the ship’s new biologist. “She’s great, very down to Earth for a Cardassian and she enjoys our hazard team training quite a bit.”

Sylvexs nodded, she forgot that Jisaraa led the beta squad for the ship’s Hazard team. “Yes, let’s see if she’s found anything else on this planet from a biologist’s point of view. I’m sure she’s got other teams spread across the planet.”

“If someone did live here, where do you think they lived?” Jisaraa wondered aloud. “We’ve not seen anything else that would prove they lived on the surface.”

“My gut instinct is telling me that Commaner Reyas’ team who are about to go underground may find some more answers for us.” Slyvexs commented. 

T’Rani then interjected her thoughts on the matter. “The possibility of discovering an sub-terrain civilisation is low, doctor, especially when we have conducted thorough scans of the planet and have not detected such life.”

“Never say never, T’Rani.” Slyvexs countered back with as she led them back the path they had used to find their fellow teammates. 

“Come on Lukiz, you must be done by now?” Lenjir whined from where he was sitting.

Ignoring the unhelpful complaints coming from his friend’s direction, the operations manager carried on with his scans. “Cline, shut up.” Jen answered as he concentrated on the scans he was making. “I need to focus and I can’t do that if you keep interrupting me. You offered to accompany me, I could have easily asked someone else.”

“You told me this away mission would be exciting! Instead all you’ve done is scan that rock for almost half an hour.” Lenjir said. “Can we please either head back to the ship or the base camp?”

The two men were by a large cliff edge within a mountainous area which was one of the locations of sources of uridium on the planet. Jen had been eager to take on one of the survey missions to find out more about the natural resources this planet had an abundance of, so scanning the uridium ore to see how much was here was a top priority especially if they had the chance to mine it. 

“No, now be quiet so I can concentrate on my work.” The joined Trill stated as he took more samples from the rock face. “You could go and get me the phaser drill.”

“Finally, something exciting to do.” Lenjir said in a sarcastic tone. Walking over to the ground vehicle they had used to visit this area, the Tiburon dropped the phaser rifle he had brought with him into the back and went straight into the trunk to find the equipment that his friend would need. Being in an extremely warm wilderness, he decided it was time to remove his excursion jacket, wearing just his vest in the glorious sunshine. The area they were in had spectacular fault block escarpments, so Lenjir could see why it was an area of interest but he was not someone who was into geology. He also knew his friend Lukiz was not into it either. As he picked up the phaser drill, along with the containers they would use to store their samples, Cline made his way back over to his friend. “So which one is it?”

Standing with the rock face only a few centimeters from his own face, Jen glanced over his shoulder and questioned his friend to clarify what he meant. “What are you on about?”

“Which host is it that enjoyed geology?” Lenjir said. “Anytime you get obsessed with something it’s because one of your hosts is interested. Is it Daubin? No, could it be Kesha? She was a scientist. Or was she the lawyer?”

“Timor was the lawyer, Kesha was the warp theorist.” Jen replied. “If you must know, it’s Denah who was a geologist enthusiast.”

“How much are you tapping into his experience right now?” Cline asked as he set up the phaser drill. He had always been fascinated with the Trill symbiosis joining and when Lukiz had agreed to become an emergency host when the Jen symbiont almost died with its previous host, Daubin, his interest only grew.

Shaking his head in disbelief at how much his friend liked knowing the ins and outs of his past hosts and their lives, Jen returned to his work. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m not sure if I should feel lucky to have a friend like you who is this keen about my previous lives or slightly creeped out by your fascination.”

“The former.” Lenjir answered quickly as he finished working the drill. “Plus it’s best friend not just friend.”

Chuckling at that, Jen turned around and walked over to the drill. Noticing his friend had taken his jacket off, Jen copied him and as he unzipped he told Lenjir  what he wanted to do next. “Program the drill to dig at least three meters in.”

“Just three meters?” Lenjir double checked. “That’s not very far. I thought this ore would be deeper underground? Surely the years of rock layers would be greater.”

“My thoughts exactly, but from what I can see from my scans this source of uridium is closer to the surface.” Jen said. “If we take some samples back to the base then I can get the team there to run an analysis to see if there’s any chance of getting more answers.”

“Okay,” Lenjir said before pressing the fire button on the drill. Noticing his friend was still looking at the scans he took, he spoke up above the noise of the phaser now cutting into the rock. “You look bothered, what’s up?”

“I don’t quite know,” Jen answered. “The scans of this area show the ore is quite easy to get access to. It’s almost as if someone purposely made it that way. The rock formations don’t appear natural to me.”

“If that’s the case then that’s even more reason to get these samples back to the base camp.” Lenjir said. 

“Yeah and the sooner the better, it won’t be long until the sunsets.” Jen said as he switched his tricorder off.

“You make it sound like something bad is going to happen when that happens.” Lenjir said, with a worried tone. “I thought Commander Reyas said the planet is uninhabited.”

“She did, but you never know.” Jen said just as the drill finished its business, letting him walk over and take what he needed, leaving Lenjir to consider his words for a moment.

“I can’t see why we couldn’t have used your yacht.” Alfie complained for the seventh time that afternoon. 

Ignoring the comment, James just rolled his eye at his son as he continued to help with the assembling of the tent they’d be using. 

“Alfie has a point, dad.” Henri added as he placed a peg into the ground. “Being on the yacht is a lot more comfortable.”

“And would save us time putting up tents.” Alfie stated. “Plus why do we have to share one with you while Uncle Tobi gets his own one with Commander Duncan?”

Getting frustrated at their constant teenage angst, James finally gave in. “As I wanted to spend some quality time with my sons, is that such a horrible thing? And we’re not using the yacht as it is on standby to be used for an emergency. Is that clear?”

“Suppose.” Henri grumbled as he returned to putting in more pegs. 

Alfie shrugged his shoulders as he carried on putting the tent up.

Captain McCallister was now on one of the equator islands they had scanned and was setting up the camp that he had brought his sons to along with his first officer and chief of the boat. A bit of male-bonding and getting back to nature hadn’t completely been received well by the McCallister boys, but they were all there. The only ones who had been the most vocal against it all had been Henri and Alfie, while Theo had remained quiet, giving his dad the silent treatment.

“How’s it going, captain?” Commander Duncan asked, as he approached the group and interrupted the exchange between his captain and sons. 

“Well, for the most part.” James answered as he glared at his two sons who were complaining the most. Turning to his new first officer, he added more. “Max, listen while we’re off the ship and off duty we can drop the formality side of things. Call me James or JP. I don’t mind.”

“Sure,” Max said as he took a breath and added the captain’s nickname at the end of his sentence, “JP.” Pausing for a second, he shook his head. “That feels weird saying it.”

Chuckling at Max’s difficulty in getting used to the informal approach, James clasped the man on his shoulder. “Let’s get some beers and see if that helps.”

“Sounds good to me.” Max answered as they headed to where they had placed their food and drink. After being beamed down to the planet, the group had picked a decent area by one of the beaches. The white hot sand and the nearby calm sea seemed like a good place to build their camp.  

The two men walked over to where the gear was, they would need to store it in one of the tents soon, but they had time to do it. Court was stood by, organising some of it when they approached. 

“You alright Tobi?” Max asked. 

“Yeah, I was going to get a fire started and perhaps start on cooking dinner.” Tobias answered as he looked up from the container he had been searching. “How’s the tent situation going?”

Looking back at the chaos that was almost their camp and then back, James answered honestly. “It’s getting there.”

Indicating over his left shoulder at the figure sat on the edge of the sand already in his swimming shorts, Tobi mentioned about Theo keeping to himself from them. “Is Theo going to be sitting in the water for the rest of the trip? I tried to get him to help me with the fire but he just ignored me.”

Sighing at how Theo was behaving, James couldn’t believe how his son was now trying to isolate himself from them. “Give me a moment.” He said as he left their company to see his son. 

Theo was sitting with his back to the camp, his feet and legs in the water as he pushed the sand around him. Almost being childish in his behaviour, he picked the sand up and let it slip through his fingers over his bare chest. The feeling of the grains hitting his skin made him shudder to force it off his body.

“You okay?” His father called after him as he approached him.

Not bothering to look up at him and continuing to play with both the dry and wet sat around him, Theo just answered with a simple, “yeah.”

Taking a breath in, James ignored the petty behaviour that Theo was exhibiting. Knowing he needed to make an extra effort with him, he sat down next to him. “Okay, listen Theo I understand you’re cross and upset with Leeyum leaving and I know you blame me for it.”

“You goddamn right I do.” Theo said in an angry tone. 

“That’s fine.” James stated. “You know I can’t share specifics with you because of the job I do and I hope that one day if you get the chance you’ll understand but Leeyum’s mum made the decision to leave the Odyssey.”

“You didn’t stop her.” Tobi remarked, still crossed with his father and tears started to form in his eyes. “Leeyum was my only friend. The only person who got me. Now he has gone and I’m alone.”

“It may seem that way, but you’re certainly not alone.” James said, continuing to remain calm. “Your mum and I love you just as much and so do your brothers and I for one would love to get to know you, because if your some alien that has taken over my son then I need to know now as that’s a security risk!”

Chuckling slightly at his father’s attempt at wit, Theo shook his head and rolled his eyes. “You could have stopped them from going, dad.”

Realising he may not win Theo over, James moved in closer to his son’s side. “I could have, but that would have caused more upset and unnecessary tension with Leeyum’s parents.”

“You and Bexa were best friends.” Theo threw at him. 

Nodding in agreement, James couldn’t deny that statement. “Yes, we were and we were comrades. We taught at the academy together, she was my right hand woman for over a decade but Bexa made the choice to leave Starfleet.”

“Because of you.” 

The truth did hurt James, but he kept cool. “Partly true,” He said back to Theo. “You need to understand Theo, that when you work for an organisation like Starfleet there are times when the line of duty can become blurred when you are superior to your friends. The higher you go up the chain of command, the more you are made of the less you can share with those that serve under you.”

“You share everything with mum.” Tobi spat out as he rubbed his eyes. 

“Not true.” James answered in his defence. “There are some things that your mum is not cleared to know, just as much as Bexa wasn’t able to know. If I shared those things with them then I’d be locked away and you wouldn’t see me for a long time.”

“Yeah but I can’t see Leeyum now,” Tobi took a breath as tears slowly rolled down his cheek. “He was my best mate and just because his parents wanted to leave the Odyssey he has to go as well.”

“And that’s what it means to be a family, sometimes you have to give up things for those you love and sometimes those things need to be a fresh start. I’m sure once we establish more regular communication with the Alpha Quadrant you’ll be able to call him. In the meantime, why don’t you consider writing him a letter. Tell him what you’ve gotten up to, share something stupid that Alfie said or how you’ve pulled a practical joke on Henri. I’m sure he’d love to hear from you.”

Sighing and washing his face, Theo eventually gave into his father’s suggestion. “Fine.” He paused, “But why did you have to bring Commander Duncan with you? You’ve moved pretty quickly to replace Leeyum’s mother.”

“When you’re a captain of a huge ship like Odyssey, it’s important to everyone on the crew that they see there isn’t a crisis with the ship’s leadership.” James honestly answered. “If I had it another way, I’d have waited but I’m afraid I couldn’t. I know it seems unfair and pretty disrespectful towards Bexa, however I promise you that she and I spoke about it. She was all for me announcing her successor as soon as I could. Now that Max is my first officer, I think it’s important I get to know him more and who better to help me then my own sons?”

Theo smiled slightly at that idea. 

“Now, do you fancy helping your old man off this beach so we can go help your uncle start a fire?” James pleaded.

“As long as I don’t have to share a pod with Henri, he snores.” Theo said, trying to negotiate his exit strategy.

Laughing at the request, James nodded. “How about you help me up and then we’ll sort out who is sleeping in which pod with a swimming race between you three.”

“You know I’m going to beat them both.” Theo remarked. “I’m the stronger swimmer out of us three.”

“Really?” James questioned sarcastically, appearing as if he didn’t know that fact. 

As Theo pushed himself up from the sand he instantly pulled his sand out of the sand that he had touched. “Ow.” He said in reaction. “What’s that?”

“What is it?” James asked as he watched Theo dig into the sand and pull out what appeared to be something made from gold. 

“It looks like a badge, maybe a brooch.” Theo offered as he dug further into the sand and pulled out a rounded shaped object with an unusual pattern on it. He passed it over to his dad. “I thought this place was meant to be uninhabited?”

“So did I.” James said, now concerned about what they had just unearthed. Standing up, he walked back over to their main camp with Theo by his side.

Max instantly recognised that James had something in hands. “What’s that?” 

“Is that gold?” Tobi asked as he looked at the artefact that James had.

“I don’t know, but it’s certainly not naturally made.” James answered as he showed both sides of the treasure they just found. He picked up his combadge, which was sat on one of the nearby containers, tapping it straight away. “McCallister to Odyssey.”

Straight away his chief strategic operations officer answered. “Lieutenant Tomaz here sir, go ahead. How’s the camping trip going?”

“Tomaz, how quickly can you send a shuttle to our coordinates?” McCallister asked.

A second or two passed before the Barzan replied. “At the moment sir most of our shuttles and runabouts are out and about on the planet or elsewhere in the system. Do you need an urgent beam up?”

“No, I just need access to a decent sensor array.” He looked over to where Alfie and Henri were, still trying to put up their tent, “what about my yacht?”

“It’s not being used sir, I think Lieutenant Tierra is undertaking some maintenance on it. Do you want me to send it down?”  Tomaz offered.

“Yeah send Tierra down with it quickly.” The captain answered.

“Understood sir. Odyssey out.”

Max then approached his captain. “Do you think there’s something more here that we’ve missed?”

“I can’t help but ignore that this planet seems too good to be true with its access to rich resources and land that host millions, it just doesn’t make sense why no-one has claimed it yet.” McCallister answered. “I want to run some further scans of this area, even if I’m wrong.”

“It’s better to be safe than sorry.” Tobi offered, he as he looked at the item in McCallister’s hand. “Are we about to hunt for more buried treasure?”

“Possibly.” James offered as he placed the gold badge on the container between them all. “Once Tierra arrives with the yacht we’ll scan for more gold in detail and then see what else we find.”

Looking behind him where James’ sons were, Max then turned back to James. “Maybe we can enlist some help and make this camping trip interesting?”

“Good idea, Max.” James said as he went over to where Theo had headed to tell his brothers about his find, hoping that the three of them would be up for helping their old man solve a problem. 

“Do you think he’ll win them over?” Hunsen answered, still looking at his tricorder as he led the group through the underground tunnels. 

Chuckling at that question, Reyas pointed her wrist torch in the direction they were heading as their fellow teammates behind them laid down lighting. “I hope so, as knowing James he will refuse to leave until he has accomplished his mission.”

“Damn, taking on three hormonal teenagers like that is brave!” Hunsen remarked. “I’d prefer to take on a Borg Cube or two!”

Enjoying the chief engineer’s company as they made their way through the underground tunnels, Reyas continued to smile at his friendly nature. “Well it’s either that or I suspect Max may end up killing them from being so all incredibly stubborn. All three of them get that from James and sometimes the four of them can be a pain to live with.”

“So is that why you were keen to lead this mission, to get some peace and quiet?” Hunsen checked with his superior. 

“Absolutely.” She answered honestly as they approached a part of the tunnel that appeared to widen. In the dark distance they could hear water running. “Is that a waterfall I can hear?”

“I think you’re right.” Hunsen answered and as they approached the cavern they were about to enter, the chief engineer had to stop himself from falling forward. Thankfully the harness he had on kept him secure as below him was a huge drop down but their torches were no longer needed. “Looks like we’ve struck gold.” He said, pointing towards the benemite crystal formations with his torch.

“You mean literally gold.” Reyas added as she indicated towards a nearby structure with her torch that wasn’t part of the cave and made out of gold. The beams of light reflected off and showed what looked like an underground settlement. “This doesn’t didn’t come up on the scans.”

“Damn, this is huge.” Hunsen said as the rest of their team came to the edge they were both on and started to shine their torches across the scene before them. 

A buried alien settlement rested before them. 

Finally feeling that he was winning some ground with his sons, James was somewhat grateful for the unexpected treasure that Theo found on the beach almost two hours ago. It had given him the excuse to rope his sons into helping out what it meant. What made their little quest interesting further was the discovery of several more trinkets that they dug up after scanning for them on the beach. These items were definitely from a civilisation that had existed on the planet. 

Having access to the Calypso’s sensor array had helped greatly, it gave James the opportunity to place a filter into the scanners to detect specific substances, with gold being at the top of the list. After hunting along the beach in unplanned treasure hunt, their finds had been brought onto the yacht.  

The Calypso herself was another brand new vessel, assigned to the ship when it was undergoing its refit and overhaul after the Archanis Campaign in Earth orbit. The design followed a similar lineage to the yachts found on Galaxy-class era ships instead of the more mission-orientated ones from the designs of the Intrepid and Sovereign-classes. His wife had said it looked almost like a flying saucer, something she had seen from one of the many chapters of their sons’ favourite holonovel series: The Amazing Adventures of Captain Proton. Nevertheless the Calypso herself was created to be quite the agile ship. It was more aimed at supporting the commanding officer of being able to host diplomatic functions on a smaller scale when the Odyssey was not available or it could turn into another support vessel, for short missions that lasted only a week or two. It didn’t carry enough provisions compared to the Telemachus, but it would suffice for what they needed to do today. 

“Why didn’t we see any of this before?” Duncan asked as they all stood in the port cargo hold of the Calypso. 

McCallister looked at his new first officer, “Unfortunately, Number One, our sensors are not precise enough to detect such objects. The original focus had been to gather as much information on the planet’s composition first, not to be digging for treasure.”

“But we’ve been on the bridge before where we’ve detected settlements before.” Duncan stated back. “How come we’ve not seen anything to indicate where these objects have come from?”

At that point, Tierra, Odyssey’s Deltan assistant chief engineer stepped into the room with a PADD in her hand. “I think I’ve found some more information that may answer the commander’s question.”

Passing the PADD over to her captain, she gave McCallister a moment to read over the recent scans she had just taken. Handing the PADD over to Duncan, McCallister had an answer for him. “There’s your answer, Number One. The settlement isn’t on land, which is our default setting…”

“…it’s under the water.” Duncan finished, astonished at the revelation. 

“I’d assume these treasures have been washing up on the shores of this island for sometime, hence why we’ve been able to find so many.” Tierra suggested. 

Tapping his combadge, McCallister felt it was time they halted their treasure hunt on the beach and went elsewhere with it. “McCallister to Court, we’ve got a new lead which may give us some more answers about lost treasures. Fancy bringing yourself and the boys on board the Calypso?”

“Understood sir.”

“Sir, the Calypso hasn’t been tested for underwater operations.” Tierra warned her superior.

Appreciating her concern, McCallister knew the risks. “Don’t worry lieutenant, with the Calypso’s immersion shielding, her strong hull the only thing we would need to do is modify the thrusters and she’ll be seaworthy in no time.” He explained as he indicated for them to leave the cargo hold and head out into the main area.

Entering what was known as the informal reception area, the three officers encountered Court entering via the starboard airlock hatch with the McCallister boys in tow. “Permission to come aboard captain?” Court mockingly asked.

Smirking at his yeoman’s request, McCallister nodded and answered. “Permission granted. Welcome aboard the Calypso gentlemen.”

Alfie stood forward in front of his godfather with his mouth wide open. “Wow this ship is huge on the inside, dad.” He said and looked into the centre of the large room they were in. “Is that a whirlpool tub under there?”

“Shut up! Why didn’t you tell us about how cool this place is dad?” Henri interrogated next as he started to look around and peeked his head into one of the guest cabins and back out again. 

“Tobi, show the boys where they can store their stuff in one of the guest cabins.” McCallister ordered, noticing that his other son Theo was remaining quiet while the other two were still getting excited over the ship. “Theo, you want to come up the front with Max, Tierra and I to the cockpit?”

“Sure dad.” Theo answered with a smile and joined his father as they entered the cockpit area.

Slightly wider than a cockpit found on a runabout, the forward compartment followed the curve of the yacht with consoles and chairs under the tilted windows. The usual configuration of stations was set up, with the helm and operations centre stage under the middle window. Stretching around to the left were tactical and mission ops. Running on the other side were engineering and a dedicated science station. The best thing though about the cockpit was the inclusion of a captain’s chair with integrated holographic computer access, allowing even just one person to fly the ship if need be. 

“Here, take my chair.” McCallister offered this to his son before heading to the front to take the helm. 

Hesitant at first, Theo sat down and felt how smooth the chair’s arms were and got himself comfortable. 

Tierra had sat herself at the engineering station as she started to work on the modifications to the thrusters. Duncan on the other hand had sat at the operations console.

“How are we doing?” McCallister asked his small crew.

“Thrusters are almost ready sir.” Tierra announced. 

Duncan was tapping away at his controls when he replied. “Unimatrix shielding is active, I’m bringing the immersion shielding program online as we speak.”

“Good,” McCallister said as he started to get himself familiar with his new ship. The holographic consoles were a lot more intuitive than those he had gotten used to on the Aquarius. “Max, we won’t be needing the warp core, channel power from the core into the deflector and then use it to reinforce our shields and structural integrity fields.”

“Aye sir.” Duncan replied. 

“Thrusters are done, sir.” Tierra announced. 

“Great job Tierra,” McCallister praised, just as Court entered the cockpit with Alfie and Henri. 

“That’s not fair, why does Theo get to sit in the centre chair?” Henri moaned.

“Oh get over it Hen.” Alfie remarked as he took a seat at the science station. 

Court took the chair at tactical, not that they would need the ship’s weapons array, but it was best to be prepared. They had encountered other unexpected surprises so far, who knows what else they would find down there. He looked at Henri and motioned for him to sit down next to him at the mission ops station. 

“I think we’re ready to go.” McCallister said, after doing one more systems check. “Everyone sit tight and anchors away!”

Activating the seatbelts in the cabin, McCallister raised the Calypso up from where it was parked on the beach front and further up into the area. He did almost a loop-the-loop action and brought the ship back down, smashing into the seas below. 

Northern Continent underground caves and tunnels,

Outré

Finding this ancient settlement had blown Reyas’ mind. Almost pulling everyone from her team to get started on scanning every centimeter of it had been her first task. Climbing down into what appeared to be some sort of trench had been easy for everyone. There was some natural light pouring down, along the route of the waterfall that was entering the cavern and leaving via a naturally created path to other parts of the underground tunnels. The view was breathtaking but the golden icons they had discovered were just as beautiful. 

The settlement reminded the chief science officer of a tour that she had taken to Athens back on Earth. The design of the buildings reminded her of the Greek architecture she had seen, with the huge pillars and intricate sculptures woven into various patterns along walls. The use of gold was excessive though. 

Leading her team around on what appeared to be a semi-stable rocky path, Reyas continued to scan as they went around. “This is marvellous.” She recounted to Hunsen, who was right behind her.

“Spectacular is what I call it.” He replied, also scanning the settlement. “Do you think whoever constructed all of this, did it purposely underground or it has somehow got pulled down here and eventually was buried?” 

“Without taking detailed scans of the cave walls, I couldn’t be certain.” Reyas answered.

Speaking up from behind, Lieutenant Abbej revealed that Hunsen’s second idea was most likely. “Before we came down, I took a scan of the planet’s tectonic plates and we are almost three kilometers from the nearest one, I’d summarise that the planet may have undergone a number of quakes that may have pulled the settlement in and then over the years has been covered over.”

“We should inform Odyssey.” Hunsen suggested. “We may want further scans made of the area before we move anything.”

“You’re probably right.” Reyas agreed and tapped her combadge as they came to the steps of one of the buildings. It looked like one of the Greek temples she had seen before. Standing by the bottom step she called up to their ship while Hunsen and Abbej went forward to investigate the building. “Reyas to Odyssey.”

“Go ahead ma’am.” answered Lieutenant Tomaz. 

“Tomaz, can you patch me through to the captain please? We’ve made an interesting discovery down here.” Reyas said.

“Unfortunately ma’am, the captain is unavailable. He is currently in the Calypso heading down into the seas to investigate something.” Tomaz announced.

The mention of the Calypso surprised Reyas and the fact her husband had stopped his camping trip with their sons to investigate something meant that it was worth a look. She hoped that he wasn’t putting their sons in danger though. “Did you say he is investigating within the seas?”

“Aye ma’am.” Tomaz replied. “The captain believes they’ve found evidence that a civilisation existed on the planet.”

Hearing that, she smirked. “Well I think we’ve beaten it to him.” She replied. “We’ve found a settlement within one of the caverns.”

“Seriously?” Tomaz said, sounding impressed at the news. “Ma’am, we’ve had a few others report in with similar unusual encounters. I didn’t think it was anything until the captain reported his findings and now yours.”

Placing her hands on her hips, Reyas asked the Barzan officer to share more as she motioned for Tremt to join her. “Can you give me examples, Tomaz. What have our people encountered?”

“Well for starters, Doctor Sylvexs reported that she believes her team have found that the large quantity of vegetation they’ve been surveying has actually been planted in a certain fashion that makes her believe they would be farmed at a later stage.” Tomaz shared. “However scans of the area indicate the vegetation has been overgrowing for sometime now and the land itself was rearranged to be susceptible to farming crops on it.”

“Go on.” Reyas insisted.

“Another interesting find came from Lieutenant Commanders Jen and Lenjir, where they found that accessing some of the valuable ore was easily done. Commander Jen is running further analysis but he believes the rock formations are not natural.” Tomaz reported. 

Looking at Hunsen, Reyas wondered if they were placing themselves in danger with all of these finds. In the back of her mind she was wondering if something was about to go wrong. “What do you Tremt, shall we return to the ship, regroup and hold fire until we are able to answer some of these mysteries?”

Thinking her idea over carefully, Hunsen could see why she was giving it some serious consideration. “What appeared to be a natural planet on long range scans, to something that was enriched with multiple resources and now these discoveries, you might be right for us to play it carefully. It’s your call if the captain isn’t available.”

Reyas rubbed her forehead and spoke to Tomaz again. “Lieutenant, order all teams from the planet to return to the ship at once.”

“Yes ma’am, what about equipment and resources set up on the planet?” Tomaz enquired.

“Tell them to leave what they can’t carry back onto shuttles or for us to beam up. We may return.” Reyas indicated. “In the meantime, my team will return to the Telemachus and attempt to find the captain and his group.”

“Understood commander, I’ll send their last known coordinates to you.” Romaz replied.

“Thanks, any problems let me know. Reyas out.” She tapped her combadge and looked to the Betazoid chief engineer. “Something about this place just doesn’t sit right with me Tremt.” 

“A calculated retreat, even temporary, wouldn’t be a bad thing.” Hunsen offered.

Before she had a chance to thank him for his support in her decision, Reyas was stopped by shouting coming from Abbej. “Guys, come here!” She was saying. 

Rushing over, the two commanders found the assistant chief science officer scanning what appeared to be cave-like paintings on the wall of the temple. It showed a range of creatures, possibly the inhabitants working on the land, and high up was an icon that caught the attention of the Boslic woman. “Do you guys recognise that?” She said, pointing to it. 

Encrusted with what could be something similar to emerald gems on top of a depiction of the planet’s sun with gold, was a symbol that McCallister had briefed the entire senior staff about several days ago. Both Hunsen and Reyas looked at each, surprised at the find. 

“That looks like…” Hunsen said, taking a moment to check it with his tricorder.

Not giving the scanning device time to confirm, Reyas knew the symbol like the back of her hand. “The insignia for the Tkon Empire.”

“Didn’t Commodore Bennet order the captain to keep an eye out for Tkon memorabilia?” Hunsen questioned.

“He sure did.” Reyas said before tapping her combadge. “Reyas to the Odyssey, Tomaz, get me Commodore Bennet at once and patch him through to the Telemachus. Also take the ship to yellow alert, I want everyone back up sooner rather than later.”

 “On it ma’am, is everything okay? Tomaz asked, sounding worried.

“You remember that side-order the captain briefed us about the other day?” Reyas said, knowing full well the Barzan would say yes, so she didn’t give him time to respond. “We’ve just found indications of the Tkon Empire influence on the planet. Can you have Hazard Teams Alpha and Beta along with Commanders Jen and Lenjir sent to my location at once.”

“Straight away ma’am. Anything else?” Tomaz wondered.

“We’ll set up transporter pattern enhancers so they can get down here quickly.” Reyas said. “Reyas out.”

“Tremt, take over here. I’m heading back to the Telemachus, but I want you to get those pattern enhancers set up and then once our teams arrive, have the site secure before we explore any more of it.” Reyas ordered as she started to head back out of the caves.

“Righto.” Hunsen answered as he started to do what she asked of him. 

Calypso (Captain’s Yacht)

“Six hundred kilometres down, we’re almost to the bed of the sea.” Duncan announced. “Communication with the ship is failing.”

“Couldn’t we launch a buoy?” Court asked. 

“Not at this depth chief,” Teirra answered. “The water pressure may crush it.”

“I’m detecting something ahead.” McCallister reported, as he slowed the ship down. “I need forward illumination.”

Tierra quickly complied with the captain’s request and the yacht’s forward lighting system came online. As the cockpit’s own illumination had been made a lot darker, the bright light increased the brightness within the cabin itself. 

“Oh my god.” Duncan said that the revelation before them was somewhat surprising. “Is that a whole city before us?”

In front of the yacht was a huge broken settlement, one that appeared to spread far across the seabed. The structures all looked like something out of Earth’s ancient history with various pillars lying in awkward positions. 

“Sure looks like it.” McCallister commented.

Scanning the structures in front of them, Court spoke up from the science station. “Sir, there’s a large quantity of gold, almost in the centre of the…settlement. It appears to be some sort of obelisk. It’s huge, I’m measuring it at least one kilometre tall and almost the same wide.”

“Let’s take a look.” McCallister insisted as he pushed the controls to fly the ship towards what Court had found.

Moving in and out of the ancient settlement, the Calypso soon arrived in the centre of it and the captain brought the ship to stand still, being stopped by what they saw.

Duncan spoke up first at the bombshell that just hit them. “Is that-”

“Yep.” McCallister was quick to answer his executive officer.

“And didn’t you say that Starfleet wanted us-” Duncan started again.

“Yep.” The captain repeated. 

Before them, etched onto the obelisk, in green like gems, was the one symbol they didn’t expect to find at the bottom of this sea.

“That’s the Tkon Empire symbol.” Duncan said.

“It sure is.” McCallister confirmed, almost sounding as dumbfounded as Duncan did. 

A billion questions raced into the captain’s mind, but knowing they might be in danger he quickly turned the yacht around and headed back up to the surface at high speed. 

“Max the moment we are in radio contact, get me the Odyssey at once.” McCallister ordered. He needed to check the ship was okay before he made his next move. 

What that next move would be, he didn’t quite know yet but knowing his history of what happened when the Enterprise-D first encountered the Tkon, he wasn’t prepared to find out if the planet they were on was one of their last remaining outposts and hoped that his ship wouldn’t be drained all of its power. There was no way he would risk everyone on the yacht so deep under water. Returning to the Odyssey was a safer place to start investigating this place. They could send down modified probes first.

Using the holographic communication device to speak with Commodore Bennet and his wife allowed McCallister the opportunity to go over their discoveries on Outré. 

The holographic version of Bennet was of him standing in his ready room as he attempted to multi-task by listening to the Odyssey crew and while also reviewing a range of reports. The life of a commodore mused McCallister. 

Bennet spoke up, “At the moment your find on the planet isn’t the only one we’ve encountered in the Delta Quadrant. A couple of other ships have found Tkon influences on other worlds. That said, Starfleet is keen to find out as much as possible. What’s your thoughts on the planet James?”

As he stood in the centre of the Calypso’s informal reception room, McCallister leant against the handrail that went around the inner circle. With Commander Duncan at his side, McCallister had been able to join the call that his wife had made shortly after they had ascended to a safe distance to get a signal out. 

“Our best bet is to run further scans before we remove the artefacts and limit our surveying of the planet to two teams at the moment.” James suggested. 

“I’d agree with that.” Reyas said in support. Her holographic representation of her standing on the bridge of the Telemachus almost made it feel like she was right there in the room with them. If it hadn’t been for slight transparency of her image, McCallsiter may not have known the difference. Being this close to the ship allowed for such strong reception. She continued with her recommendation. “We know the Tkon had the power to move entire planets, star systems, so it’s hard not to believe they didn’t have the power to make worlds the way they wanted them. We should start from the Tkon symbols we’ve found.”

Bennet looked at McCallister, “Any sign of anything unusual from the planet?” he asked, inferring about omega molecules without saying it outright in front of Duncan and Reyas. 

Shaking his head in answer, McCallister explained that nothing out of the norm had appeared. “We can run further scans to be sure.”

“Very well, keep me informed of your progress. Bennet out.” The commodore proceeded to close the channel from his end. 

Looking at his wife, McCallister informed her that they’ll be another ten minutes or so before they resurfaced. “Max and I will return to the ship to assess the situation, carry on with your investigation of the ruins.”

“Understood. Are the boys okay?” She asked, eager to know if her husband was returning with the same set of moody teenagers he had left with or if he had made some progress with them.

Smirking at her question, McCallister told her that matters were improving. “Do you need anyone else to help you with the ruins?”

“No, Tremt and I have most of what we need and once Cline and Lukiz arrive with the hazard teams then we should be secure.” Reyas informed him.

“Sir, can I make a suggestion?” Duncan offered from where he was standing. 

Turning to his first officer, McCallister nodded.

“Lieutenant Flemen is a somewhat pro when it comes to ancient civilisations, I recall he did a thesis on the Tkon while he was working on his masters in archaeology, it might be worth he beamed down to the site as well.” Duncan proposed.

Scratching his beard, McCallister considered the idea. “If he is our Tkon expert, then I think I may want to keep him on the ship to assist with getting to know our underwater city.” He appreciated the idea, but moving all of their senior staff to the ruins may cause more problems. He turned to Karyn, “Commander, once the Hazard teams have helped secure the site then I want Lieutenant Commanders Lenjir and Jen to return to the ship.”

Understanding his thoughts, Reyas agreed and then closed the channel so she could get on with her work. 

Turning to his first officer, McCallister ordered Duncan to inform the Odyssey to have Flemen start to review the scans they had taken of the underwater city. “I want Craigen to review that obelisk, I’d like to know what it’s for and if we could remove it safely.”

“Very good sir.” Duncan answered, somewhat frustrated that his early idea wasn’t taken up. Nevertheless he could understand the captain’s thinking. Placing all of their eggs in one basket was not a good idea, especially on an alien world like Outré. 

USS Odyssey NCC-80000

Sitting in the centre chair of the bridge, Lieutenant Tomaz was reading the latest progress of the away teams returning to the ship. To his left side he could hear Lieutenant Flemen getting frustrated at his task. Getting up to see if he could assist in any way, Tomaz walked over. “Craigen, are you okay?” He asked the ship’s new chief diplomatic officer and contact specialist. Stepping around the command pit and up the slight ramp, he stood just behind the man who wore a red command uniform. 

Looking up from the mission ops console he was working from, the Lumerian sighed heavily first in response. “These scans are somewhat incomplete.” Flemen complained with a frown. His distinguished markings on the top of his forehead appeared all crumpled in his annoyed expression. “The computer is finding it hard to compare the Tkon structure that the captain found with anything that’s in the ship’s archeological database.” Scratching his almost curly blonde hair, the diplomatic officer turned back to his work. “Sorry if I was being too loud in my frustrations.”

Smirking at Flemen’s response, Tomaz leaned against the back of his chair and considered a solution. “What if we launched one of our multi-spatial probes, it’s shielding and hull composition should withstand the pressure of the ocean, like the Calypso?” He offered in between taking breaths from his respirators. 

“It would help, I wanted to get some ideas thrown together before the captain docked with us.” Flemen answered. “The Federation has engaged in numerous digs about the Tkon back in the Alpha Quadrant, so there should be something of some resemblance to what he has found.”

Tomaz told Flemen to leave it with him while he gave out the orders. The Barzan understood how much Flemen wanted to impress the captain. This was his first big assignment since being made chief diplomatic officer and contact specialist only days ago. Wanting to help his kindred spirit, especially as he found himself feeling the same level of anxiety since he was left in command, Tomaz issued the orders for a probe to be prepped and ready for launch. Walking over to the security and tactical station that arched around the center pit, he ordered Lieutenant Keli to prep the probe for launch. The Coridianite nodded in acknowledgement and loaded the ship’s forward torpedo tube with its scientific ordnance. 

“Probe is ready sir.” She announced. 

“By all means launch.” Tomaz said. “Have its sensor telemetry sent straight to Lieutenant Flemen’s station.”

Several minutes later and the aft turbolift doors to port opened, allowing Doctor Slyvexs and Lieutenant Commander T’Rani to step out. Tomaz, who was still standing at the tactical station discussing their mission with Lieutenant Keli, turned around to see his superiors and automatically he knew that his time in the captain’s chair was now coming to an end. “Welcome back.” He said with a slight smile.

The Denobulan woman with her Vulcan companion made their way over to the Strategic Operations Officer. As the ranking officer, Doctor Slyvexs had the authority to assume command. “How’s it going on up here, Tomaz?” She asked with sincerity. “Is the captain back yet?”

“He’s on his way up now.” Tomaz answered, “Besides coordinating getting our people to return home, nothing else exciting is happening. Did you want to assume command ma’am?”

About to shake her head, Slyvexs was interrupted with Flemen crying out loud in joy. The three senior officers were interested to see what had got the man so excited so all walked over to the mission ops station. 

“Good news, I hope?” Tomaz asked Flemen. 

“Very good news.” Flemen replied, he continued to tap away at the console he had been working on. “The obelisk the captain found, we’ve had dealings with something similar before.”

“By ‘we’, I assume you mean the collective termin inferring to the Federation?” T’Rani questioned, she was certain the Odyssey since its launch in 2386 had never engaged in a mission that included anything related to the Tkon Empire. 

“Indeed.” Flemen said. He brought up the scans of the obelisk on Outré and then one on a planet in the Alpha Quadrant. They looked almost identical. “Archaeologists, historians and cultural anthropologists over the years have unearthed this symbol before on dig sites that do not correspond to any known Tkon worlds. Instead they are ones which they have theorised have been influenced by the Tkon and had their own culture, their own history, their own civilisation.”

“Fascinating.” T’Rani said in amazement. 

“An old professor of mine once theorised that these monoliths are either the Tkon’s leaving cards or they are some sort of monument that is worshiped by the race that created it.” Flemen stated. “She always believed it was the former, as most of them were designed in the same fashion. Other colleagues stated that she may have been right or it was a mixture of the two. But the dimensions are almost exactly the same.”

“So can we confirm that this planet has been visited by the Tkon?” Tomaz asked.

Looking over his left shoulder, Flemen nodded once. “I believe so, but the reason why is unclear.”

Considering the evidence before them for a second, Slyvexs turned to the pilot and started to postulate an idea that was forming in her mind. “T’Rani, logically speaking we know the Tkon were pretty powerful and based on what we discovered in that valley, it makes me start to think that this planet was made for its inhabitants. The fact it is the only planet in a cluster that is capable of sustaining life, it makes me wonder if they purposely either built or changed this planet for a reason.”

“An interesting concept doctor.” T’Rani said. “But there are still so many factors to investigate to rule either in favour or against your assumption.”

“A DNA analysis of the crops we brought back may reveal if certain segments of their DNA have been hyper-stimulated or resequenced so they can be adapted to survive on the planet.” Slyvexs remarked. 

“That would most certainly determine if the planet’s organic matter has been artificially created or not.” T’Rani replied.

Looking at Tomaz, the doctor told him she was heading down to the biology lab and would be leaning on the scientists there to assist her. After she left, the Barzan man looked at T’Rani. “What are your orders ma’am?”

“Resume command Mister Tomaz, I’m heading down to the shuttlebays. I am certain that we will need them to remove the obelisk so I wish to ensure they are properly refueled and refitted for such deep underwater missions.” T’Rani commanded as she too left the bridge. 

Smirking at the fact he still had the bridge, even for a short while more, Tomaz headed back into the command pit and sat in the captain’s chair. 

Northern Continent underground caves and tunnels, Outré

Returning to the dig site, Reyas used the Telemachus’s transporter to beam back to it once it was confirmed the transporter enhancers had been set up. Fizzling in a spray of white speckled light, Reyas materialised at the entrance of the cavern. 

Walking over to where Hunsen was with Abbej, she had been impressed at how quickly the site was secured by the Hazard team. “Anything else?” She asked the two of them.

Turning around to face the El-Aurian science officer, Hunsen nodded. “We think we know what this building is.” He said, pointing at the temple-like structure. “We think it’s a library of some sort.”

“How come?” Reyas questioned, impressed that he would make such a bold statement.

“Watch this.” Hunsen instructed as he pushed one of the symbols on the side of the wall and a brick underneath it popped out slowly. Dust appeared before it settled to reveal a hidden compartment. Within it sat a small talisman like object. Picking it out, the small turquoise object was smaller than in his palm as he passed it towards Reyas. “We accidently came across the fact that each of these symbols represent something in this culture’s record keeping, so when we pressed them they showed these. If you scan it you’ll find it’s a sophisticated computer storage device. Similar to our own isolinear chips.”

“Can we access what’s on them?” Reyas asked.

Shaking his head as he walked back over to where Abbej was standing. “Not here, but with Lukiz’s help, I reckon we can open them with help from the Odyssey’s computer.” He pointed to the Tkon symbol they found earlier. “But when Abbej pressed the Tkon symbol, this happened.” He nodded to the Boslic to do it.

The wall that the Tkon symbol was etched on to started to shake and tremble as it separated out. Within a few seconds it opened to reveal a hidden chamber. Behind it, hanging from the wall were more talisman like objects like the one that Hunsen had just handed Reyas. Before she had a chance to walk in the chamber wall started to close on itself and Hunsen placed a hand on her arm to hold her back. 

“The wall only remains open for less than six seconds and it has alloys in it that are preventing us from getting a perfect scan when it’s closed, so I wouldn’t want to risk the transporters.” Hunsen explained. “Plus we don’t know what other traps could be in the chamber once the wall closes. The system also resets and takes another minute or so before we can press the symbol again.”

“That’s frustrating as hell.” Reyas stated as she crossed her arms. “Do we have any options on how to by-pass the automatic lock?”

“I’m working on it but the technology performing this trick is not simple to get around.” He offered her his tricord and showed the scans he had already taken. “It’s a particle synthesizer.”  

“That’s pretty impressive technology.” Reyas said as she looked up from the scans. “Surely there’s a power source we can block or interfere with.”

Abbey stepped forward, “Oh there is.” She shared. “But it’s feeding energy off from the core of the planet. It’s geo-thermal.”

“So it’s endless. We need to disrupt it somehow.” Reyas stated. 

“That trick is going to need a bit more thinking and I could do with bringing down more of my engineering people down here.” Hunsen offered. 

Reyas understood where he was coming from, so she moved away from the group and tapped her combadge, “Reyas to the Calypso.” 

“Go ahead Karyn.” replied her husband over the intercom.

Taking a breath, she hoped that James would grant her request. “I know you’re not going to be a big fan of me asking this, but we’ve uncovered what we believe is a treasure trove of artefacts related to the Tkon. Tremt believes they are computer storage devices, however we can’t access them as they are in a hidden chamber being created by a sophisticated particle synthesizer. Trent is asking for an engineering team to beam down to join us, can I call it in please?” 

“Absolutely, but keep the team to a minimum.” McCallister answered. “I’m just in the process of docking the ship now, let me know if you need any further equipment.”

“Thank you captain.” Reyas replied and closed the channel with another tap of her combadge. She turned back to the group. “Help is on the way.”

“We could start to send some of the other computer devices up to the Odyssey to be decrypted and translated. We may find something else about them.” Abbej suggested. “Perhaps some clues, maybe start to work out what a lot of these symbols mean.”

Agreeing with the course of action, Reyas ordered her deputy to start to pick which ones to send up to begin the process. A headache started to form and she just hoped that they would be able to resolve some of these mysteries sooner rather than unearthing more. It was getting on her nerves; they were finding more questions than answers.

Working with the biology department’s main lab was another welcome change for Odyssey’s chief medical officer. Slyvexs found the change of scenery from being in the large medical complex aided with her enjoying her current work. Though it was not her job to perform such work, her field of expertise in genetics made her the ship’s most senior expert on the matter. Nevertheless she enjoyed working closely with Lieutenant Treiskreedfrek, the ship’s chief exobiologist. The Ktarian man was in his early thirties and had originally been assigned to the Triton originally after he had graduated from the academy. Like many from the Luna-class, he had joined the Odyssey in 2386.

“I’m just saying,” Slyvexs said, continuing her conversation with the tall man, “you should consider applying for more training so you can get that extra pip on your collar. I’m surprised we have so many lieutenants running around on a ship this large.”

Chuckling at the doctor’s sentiments, Trei (which was the short name he went by) admitted that the chief medical officer may be right. “You’re probably right ma’am but for most of those courses they require an endorsement by our department head. A majority of us in the science department don’t want to upset the commander as she’s such a good head. We love our jobs and love being on the Odyssey.”

“All of you are hurting your careers by remaining still.” She remarked. “With a ship this size having numerous lieutenant commanders isn’t going to make Starfleet take you all away. Plus we’re in the Delta Quadrant, over thirty-five thousand light years from Earth, they can’t do anything about it. Promise me you’ll look into it.” 

Before he had the chance to respond, the computer beeped which meant the electron resonance scanner had finished recalibrating itself and was ready for their next specimen to look at close range. Placing a small sample of the purple like corn vegetable they had encountered on the planet below, Sylvexs dipped her head into the viewing area and the mixed blue and purple hue illuminated against her eyes.

“How’s the resolution?” Trei asked, from where he worked at the nearby station. 

Nodding to indicate it was good, the Denobulan doctor zoomed in further. “This is bizarre.”

“Not another one?” Trei asked as he wandered over to her side.

“Take a look for yourself.” Slyvexs said as she stood up straight. 

Taking a peep, Trei was astonished at what they had found. “Once again there seems to be some kind of contaminant on the base pair sequence. It’s on the same location like the other hyper-stimulated segments of DNA we’ve scanned. But what are they for?”

“This level of sub-molecular technology is highly sophisticated.” Slyvexs remarked. “My only assumption is that these tags are used to control the organic matter on the planet.”

“An extremely advanced version of genetic engineering on the sub-molecular level, perhaps.” Trei suggested. “We should run a compositional analysis.”

Agreeing with his thinking, Slyvexs nodded as she looked at the DNA further. “If I’m right, it looks like the parts of the vegetable’s DNA that are hyper-stimulated are what is making it exhibit certain properties, like its nutritional value. Whoever did this wanted these crops to live long but carry all of the nutrients by those who consume it.”

Working on the analysis, Trei spoke up. “I’m having trouble getting a clear reading from the sample. It looks almost like the er, genetic tags could be slightly out of phase.” 

Moving over to where the lieutenant stood, Slyvexs spoke up. “That may be the reason why our tricorder scans never picked them up in the first place. Can you compensate for the phase variance?”

“I’m attempting to.” He answered and then he got a response. “You’re not going to believe this, but I’m picking up an energy signature. These tags are transmitting some kind of a signal to the planet, right towards the underground settlement.”

Surprised at that news, Slyvexs immediately tapped her combadge to call the captain.

Standing around the science station, which was currently showing the in depth geological scan that the ship and its almost fleet of probes had taken of the planet, Captain McCallister was listening into the muscular form that was Lieutenant Naef Oran. Several others stood close by as well. 

“So as you can see sir,” The Brikarian male said as he pointed to the upper display, “there’s too much precision in the make-up of the planet to conclude that the planet was naturally formed. For example, the tectonic plates are evenly distributed across the planet, with almost the same amount of dimensions. Our geologist department has had a wild time examining all of the data we’ve taken.”

Sniggering at the image of the geology team on the ship enjoying their mission made the tone of the conversation lightier, McCallister did his best to keep his composure as he spoke. “I bet they have. Have they come up with any other ideas about how the planet was artificially created?” 

Oran nodded, “Yes sir, but their theory is that someone changed the planet at the subatomic level and almost reprogrammed how the planet should…well exist. Their guesses are that the planet itself was changed at least twice over six-hundred thousand years ago.”

“Why twice?” asked Lieutenant Commander Jen, the Trill operations manager was stood behind the captain, listening into the presentation. 

“Scans from the different layers of the planet’s crust show significant changes happening more than once as well as the unnatural stress we’ve registered placed on the tectonic plates indicating that two waves of transformation took place. Another working theory we have is that the second wave actually melted large parts of the planet’s polar ice caps which forced sea levels to rise drastically.” Oran explained. 

“That may account for our underwater city,” Duncan said as he tried his best to understand what the lieutenant was sharing. “But what about the settlement that Karyn and Tremt have discovered? Any more ideas on how it came to be underground and preserved so well?”

“We believe that it was always an underground settlement created sometime after the first wave. The tunnels for example are naturally formed but artificially created in a way that proves that a civilisation built them. However, when the second wave hit, it caused significant changes in the layers of rock above the settlement, pretty much trapping those who lived under the planet’s surface.” Oran reported. 

“So lieutenant, are you saying that being able to easily access the planet’s rich resources like the ones Lukiz and I found, was specifically designed to be like that?” Lieutenant Commander Lenjir asked.

Oran nodded. “Yes, we think the original wave was designed to literally push the resources that were needed closer to the planet’s surface.”

In the back of his mind, McCallister was recalling one incident in Starfleet’s history that took place after the first and failed experiments with Omega. At least this one had been declassified by Starfleet almost a century after its creation and the misuse of its potential. “Anyone else here thinking about Genesis?” He asked. 

T’Rani, raised her eyebrows at the captain from where she stood. “The Federation project created by Doctor Carol Marcus and her son Doctor David Marcus that used protomatter to rapidly terraform a planet with a programmed matrix to build whatever environment was needed on an uninhabitable world.” 

Looking at his pilot, McCallister confirmed her statement with a simple, “Indeed. A good bunch of what the lieutenant just shared sounds like what Genesis was created to do.” He turned back to the Brikarian science officer. “Naef, have you scanned for protomatter on the planet?”

Shaking his head, Oran answered honestly with a simple no. “I hadn’t considered it to be honest sir. Those aren’t part of the normal scans we do.”

“Make the scans and then-” before the captain had a chance to finish speaking he was interrupted by Doctor Slyvexs’ voice over the intercom.. 

“Slyvexs to the captain.” She said. The urgency in her voice was heard by everyone. 

Replying to her with a simple tap of his combadge, McCallister spoke up. “Go ahead doctor.”

“Captain, we’ve discovered that the edible organic matter we’ve brought up all have genetic tags on them. They’re broadcasting a signal that is being sent back to the planet.” She announced.

Confused with what she was saying but not surprised, McCallister looked at everyone else who all had the same expression on their faces, besides T’Rani. She just looked more intrigued by the doctor’s statement. This planet was now unveiling its unusual secrets to them. The inner explorers within them all were water to learn more. “Can you clarify where on the planet and what their broadcasting?”

“It’s on a low level frequency but the tags are slightly out of phase.” She reported. “The signal appears to be directed towards the underground settlement.” 

“Understood doctor, standby.” McCallister placed his hands on his hips as he considered their next move. They had a huge puzzle before them which they needed to put the pieces together. “Lukiz, where do we stand in translating those devices we found in the settlement?”

“The computer should be completed within the hour in translating the information on the ones we’ve recovered, but sir they’re aren’t the Tkon ones.” Jen reminded him. “If you’re assuming what I think you’re assuming, then we need access to those devices that are sat behind the Tkon symbol to get more answers.”

“You’re right Lukiz, but until Tremt is able to crack that particle synthesiser we may have to rely on other information.” McCallister remarked.

“Sir, you’re not going to believe this.” announced Oron from the science station. “I’ve just completed the scan of the planet to find any traces of protomatter and it’s there.” Pushing the scans onto the main screen, Oron explained what they were looking at. “There are remnant traces, but barely enough to register on our normal scans.”

Pointing at the screen, Commander Duncan walked down the ramp from where he was standing towards the main screen, “What about that area? It looks like it has the highest concentration of protomatter remnants.”

“Is that where I think it is?” McCallister asked, staring at where his first officer was indicating.

“Sensors show that the promatter shockwave on this planet emitted from there.” Oron remarked. 

“So it originated from the obelisk?” McCallister questioned, he wanted confirmation.

Oron looked back at his readings, “I’ve moved the probe that Lieutenant Tomaz sent down earlier and it’s sensors are confirming what we are reading. The obelisk is ground zero.”

“Fascinating.” T’Rani said. 

Agreeing with his pilot’s statement, McCallister was impressed with what they were discovering. He was now wondering if they had just found several more examples of the Tkon’s advanced technology. Was this how they colonised other worlds? Or was it their way of making planets more hospitable for those that belong to their old empire. “Right, we need some concrete proof whether this is Tkon technology or not.” He said before tapping his combadge. “Doctor, I want you to investigate these genetic tags further.”

“Understood sir.” 

“T’Rani, Cline, take a runabout down to the planet and dig that obelisk up. I want it on the Odyssey for a closer inspection. Take whoever you need to assist.” McCallister ordered.

Both of them just nodded to their orders and left to get their mission underway.

Looking at Jen next, McCallister gave out further orders. “Lukiz, I want those devices translated and then searched through for any thing that could help us give us any more clues to what this planet is about. Again, use whomever you need to get the job done quickly.” 

“Number One, I’ll be in my ready room. Something tells me I need to take a history lesson.”  McCallister shared as he left the bridge to read the logs from a former Starfleet legend.

Blinking several times, Commander Hunsen couldn’t believe his luck. A level of exhaustion washed over him as he finally completed the task at hand. Wanting to give himself a pat on the back, the chief engineer waved his tricorder in the air. “I did it.” He cried to his teammates.

Covered in dust, mud and pure dirt, like everyone else, Commander Reyas heard her colleague’s announcement from where she was kneeling. Between her and Lieutenant Abbej, they were currently cataloguing the computer storage devices they were retrieving before they were sent up to Odyssey. Pleased to hear the news, she got up and wiped the filth off from her hands by rubbing them down the front of her uniform. “Do you mean it Tremt?” She checked.

Nodding profusely, the Betazoid showed her the scan that indicated that he did in fact disrupt the power supply to the particle synthesiser that was preventing them from gaining access to what they had dubbed, the forbidden Tkon chamber. “We’ve got a small window before the power relays reconfigure themselves to bypass the work I did, but it should be enough time to get in, set up a transporter enhancers and beam the entire contents of the chamber up to Odyssey.”

Almost wanting to kiss the man for his brilliant ingenuity and technical skills, Reyas instead opted for a close embrace and a well done. Abbej ran over instead and gave him a kiss on the cheek and a cuddle too. 

“Right, let’s do it then.” Reyas instructed her subordinates as they finally achieved their goal. 

“Odyssey to away team.” came the voice of Lieutenant Commander Jen over the intercom. “The transporter is waiting for your next beam up, is everything okay down there?”

Tapping his badge, Hunsen did the honours. “Standby Lukiz, we’re just about to enter the forbidden chamber.”

It took a second for it to sink in with the Trill ops manager, but he quickly spoke up. “That’s great news. I’ll inform the captain. Jen out.”

Abbej pushed the Tkon symbol and automatically the chamber’s entrance appeared. Giving it almost six seconds to clear, both Hunsen and Reyas were relieved when the door didn’t reappear. Stepping forward and picking up the transporter enhancer, Hunsen made his way in with Reyas by his side. 

The chamber itself was tall and all around the huge curved wall were numerous slots with the talismans in. Each one had the Tkon Empire emblem on them. Working quickly, Hunsen set up the transporter enhancer while Reyas scanned the room, trying to document everything that was in it. 

“How we doing Tremt?” She asked as she took the last scan and then closed her tricorder down. 

Twisting the enhancer central panel a full one-hundred-eighty degrees, the engineer activated the device. “We’re in luck.” He tapped his combadge. “Hunsen to Odyssey, pattern enhancer is set. We’re transmitting the coordinates to you now. Lock onto the devices and energise.”

“Away team this is Captain McCallister, well done. Targets obtained. Now get yourselves out of there and return to the ship. We’ve got a lot of data to sort out.” McCallister ordered over their combadges.

Pleased with their result, Reyas smiled proudly at Hunsen as they left the chamber. “Aye sir, we’ll be heading back to the Telemachus shortly. Does Doctor Slyvexs need any more information on those tags of hers?”

“Negative, the doctor says that the control panel that Hazard Team Beta liberated has aided her in understanding the tags further. She should have some more answers soon.” McCallister answered.   

“Alrighty then, we’ll be home soon. Reyas out.” She tapped her combadge and closed the channel. “I dunno about you guys, but I could do with a stiff drink right about now.”

“Aldebaran whiskey, right?” Hunsen said, smirking at their small victory with the Tkon artefacts. 

“Now that sounds like a party!” Abbej added as she approached them. “Shall I get the teams to start to tidy up and beam our gear back to the ship?”

“Please do, Abbej,” Reyas said, still smiling, “please do.”

Invicta (NCC-80000/36)

Flying a Delta-class runabout in a large body of water was challenging, even for a trained and highly experienced pilot like T’Rani. Manipulating the controls of the runabout required her to pay extra attention to the readings, instead of relying on the automatic work carried out by the computer. She was worried that if she took the ship down too quickly the pressure may overload the shields or the thrusters. However she had been successful in attempts and they were now confronted with the underwater lost city that the captain had found earlier that day. 

Behind her at the tactical station was Lenjir while Lieutenant Tierra was working in the aft compartment, adjusting the ship’s transporter systems. Deciding to bring the assistant chief engineer was T’Rani’s suggestion. She had worked with the Deltan female on many occasions before and was impressed with technical expertise, it rivalled that of Commander Hunsen. 

On the way down, neither Lenjir or her spoke a word to one another. Being former Academy classmates and sharing similar career paths, they had grown accustomed to one another. Lenjir enjoyed the calmness that T’Rani brought while she was satisfied with his quiet presence during an away mission. 

“That is an impressive structure.” Lenjir said as they came almost face to face with the obelisk. 

“Indeed it is.” She answered back, sounding not too interested in studying the object. The captain was eager to learn more about it. 

“I’m running deep scans to determine the best course for us to remove it from the ocean floor.” Lenjir announced. 

Loading up the sensor readings herself and tying them into the ones being transmitted by the probe that had been sent down earlier, T’Rani was curious to see what the ocean bed was like. Unsurprisingly, what Lieutenant Oron had summarised in his presentation to the captain and other senior staff was apparent here. The ocean bed appeared almost flawless in its make-up. However T’Rani then reminded herself that in fact this city had originally not been part of the ocean floor when it was created. Looking out she wondered just how many people may have died when the floods from the polar ice caps melting hit the city. She even postulated that they may have actually evacuated. Perhaps to the underground settlement that Commander Reyas was excavating at the moment. 

“The design of this city is almost symmetrical in a circular shape.” She stated from what she was looking at. She then widened her view of the scans to a more aerial view. “Correction, they are not.” She looked over her shoulder at Lenjir. “Cline, have you seen this?”

The Tiburon had been busy reviewing a way to remove the obelisk from the ground so they could use the transporters; he appeared frustrated by her distraction and then composed himself. “My apologies T’Rani, it would appear we may have to dig it out. You were talking about the design of the city?”

“Look.” She said as she pointed at the primary monitor that sat in line with her head to the right of her. 

Lenji unbuckled himself and made his way over to her. There before him the aerial view of the city showed the buildings layed out in a particular pattern. “That’s the-” he paused as T’Rani loaded up the historical database and overlaid the image she retrieved above the city scan. “The Tkon emblem.”

“If we needed any more confirmation that the Tkon were on this planet, or influenced its inhabitants then here is further evidence.” T’Rani announced.

The doors from the aft compartment slid open as Tierra ducked through. “Okay, the transporters are online and ready for our little transporter suspension attempt.” She shared and noticed her two superiors glaring at the screen. “Have you both seen something else?” 

“Take a look.” Lenjir gestured as he resumed his seat at tactical. “I’m loading the photonic missiles.”

Seeing what they saw motivated Tierra to complete her task. She took her place at the engineering console. “I’m triangulating the pattern lock with the probe.”

“I’m increasing the power to the shields.” T’Rani announced and then she saw as Lenjir fired the missiles at the base of the obelisk, within a few seconds after the shockwave pushed against them gently, Tierra activated the transporter and the entire object was beamed inside their pattern buffer. Tapping away at the helm she soon turned them around and went straight back up with their prize. 

USS Odyssey (NCC-80000)

Being technical was never one of Doctor Slyvexs’ fortes, however she always tried her best to learn anything she came across that was engineering based and she was always told she showed great intuition. Commander Hunsen had always told her that medicine and engineering were similar to one another when it came to them having to solve a problem and find a quick way to fix it before the patient died. Hopefully today her patient wouldn’t die. 

Her patient in this case was the control panel that the Hazard Team had acquired for her. It’s discovery had made her investigation a lot easier. Confirming that the signals from the genetic tags were being processed by it was one breakthrough, now she wanted her next one. 

Working with her still was Lieutenant Treiskreedfrek, alongside him was Assistant Chief Operations Officer, Lieutenant Decter Jines. Hailing from the planet Rutia IV, a troublesome non-aligned planet that had a long standing trading agreement with the Federation, the man that Slyvexs had before her was not the same man she had met for his physical over fourteen years ago. For someone who had fled his homeworld due to its continued problems, he had impressed a Starfleet captain that took pity on him and encouraged him to join the academy. Captain McCallister had taught him while at the academy and insisted on bringing him along when he took command of the Triton and subsequently the Odyssey. Now no longer naive, he was more sure of himself and was someone she knew that would go far. 

“So anything yet lieutenant?” She asked the deputy ops manager. “Any clues?”

Looking at his tricorder, Jines put his finger up in a motion for them to give him a moment. His thick black hair with a dash of silver in the fringe bounced as he did that. “I think I’ve got something. It looks like a recording is being act-”

He didn’t get a chance before an alien voice spoke up. “Alien computer interface detected. Security precautions activated.” It said, “Please terminate your operations with this terminal, failure to do so will result in its self-destruction.”

Slyvexs ordered Jines to put his tricorder away. 

The control panel then beeped in acknowledgement. “Thank you for your compliance.” It then activated an emitter on the side and a holographic representation of a tall humanoid that had no distinguishable features. They were just plain looking, wearing a long black robe. “Hello.” It said, “How may I help you?”

Both lieutenants looked at Slyvexs to take the lead, so she did. “Hello, who are you?”

“I am the farmer for the people to ensure they survive.”

“How do you ensure they survive?” Slyvexs asked.

“By growing my crops of course.” 

Slyvexs tapped her combadge and asked for the captain to visit her at once. She had just wondered if she had made first contact with a possible witness to this world.

Rubbing his face, Captain McCallister couldn’t quite believe what he was now confronted with. Standing in the exobiology lab after being called down by Doctor Slyvexs, he was now trying to make pleasantries with an ancient hologram. A photonic projection that made the EMH Mark I appear revolutionary by its responses.

“Unable to process inquiry. Please restate.” The Farmer said again for what felt like the hundredth time, but most likely was the sixth time in the space of five minutes. 

Frustrated that he could negotiate trade deals with the Ferengi, outsmart a Cardassian gul as well as survive a Klingon assault, but right now McCallister couldn’t get anything out of this hologram that was useful. So far all they had learnt was that his program was designed to oversee the growing of the crops on the planet and to ensure there was plenty of supply for the inhabitants. Lieutenant Jines was running an analysis on the hologram’s datacore while McCallister and Lieutenant Flemen continued to engage the Farmer.

“Can you tell us who created you?” Flemen asked, trying to outsmart the program by asking an alternative question they had not attempted yet. McCallister had been impressed with his new diplomatic officer so far, his young fresh eagerness reminded him of how his first officer was like when he joined the Odyssey over a decade ago. 

The Farmer looked at Flemen and nodded. “My creator created me.”

Rolling his eyes in reaction, Flemen shook his head as he turned away from it and flipped his hands up in the air. 

Chuckling somewhat at the two command officers in the room, Doctor Slyvexs was leaning over one of the side consoles with her hands firmly grasped together. Bowing her head as she tried to hide her expression, her blonde curly hair shrouded her face somewhat before she looked up. “This is like asking if water is wet.” She said, the amusement still echoing through her voice. “So, we know it can tell us what its purpose is, its designation, that it had a creator and how it goes about working, is there another route in?”

Crossing his arms against his chest, McCallister considered the doctor’s challenge as he looked at the hologram. “Are you Tkon?” He asked the Farmer. 

“Unable to process inquiry. Please restate.” He replied.

Soft banging of Lieutenant Flemen hitting his forehead against the nearby bulkhead quickly followed. The whole scene was comical. 

“Do you know who the Tkon are?” Lieutenant Treiskreedfrek tried. The Ktarian man was now sitting on one of the stools and like the captain had his arms crossed against his chest.

“Yes.” The Farmer said, blinking twice at the exobiologist.

That answer peeked everyone’s interest. 

Smiling with some sort of pride for getting a helpful response, Trei asked another one. “What do you know about them?”

Standing almost like a lost child, the Farmer’s unremarkable body language with its plain features blinked again at Trei before answering. It’s demeanour was innocent. “A great deal.” 

The Ktarian surrendered to that response with a huff of exasperation and flew his hands in the air. “Seriously?” He poked back with. 

Flemen, who had stopped hitting his head against the wall, had turned around and reassured his colleague that what he had said was helpful. Standing almost face-to-face with the Farmer he spoke back to it. “Unable to process answer. Please elaborate knowledge of Tkon further.”

Twitching its head to one side, the Farmer blinked at Flemen now and replied. “The Tkon are the caretakers of the homeworld, they created our crops.”

“Jackpot Craigen!” McCallister said with pride in the diplomatic officer. “Keep going.”

“Unable to process response. Please elaborate further.” Flemen said, finally feeling confident he had found a way to communicate with the hologram. 

“The Tkon provided the nourishment and resources to maintain the homeworld.” The Farmer answered, again two more blinks followed. 

“Unable to process response. How did the Tkon provide for the homeworld?” Flemen asked. 

Looking down and then back to Flemen, the Farmer replied. “The Tkon provided for the homeworld by establishing organic produce and natural resources to maintain the people residing on the homeworld.”

“Response processed.” Flemen attempted. “Are the Tkon your creators?”

“No, the Tkon are the caretakers. I was created by my creators.” The Farmer replied back with. 

“Done.” Lieutenant Jines said as he got up from scanning the inner circuitatory of the console from where the Farmer was being projected from. “Captain, there’s nothing wrong with the Farmer. They’re functioning perfectly. They were only programmed with about two hundred rudimentary subroutines. Most of them are linked to monitoring of the genetic tags.”

McCallister acknowledged the lieutenant’s insight with a nod and a smile. “That would understand its limited ability to interact with complex language that is beyond its operating system.” He looked at the hologram, the once former operations officer within him was eager to strip the entire console apart to see how the Farmer worked, urging to get out, but he had to suppress it. “Decter, keep monitoring the program, see what else you can learn.” He looked at Flemen. “Craigen, I’ll leave you here to carry on with our first contact. See what else you can find about the Farmer’s knowledge of the Tkon and their interaction with their people.”

“Understood sir.” Flemen said, pleased he was now getting somewhere with the hologram. 

McCallister looked at the other two scientists in the room. “Do you two need anymore to complete your research on the planet’s food supply?”

Trei responded first, “I’ve asked Naef to provide me with a complete scan of the planet’s biospheres. I want to see if these tags operate in other organic matter, now we know how to detect them, we can see if they appear elsewhere on the planet and if we can access the signal.”

“I’d like to remain working on this case sir, this level of sophisticated submolecular technology is a once in a lifetime project to be a part of.” Slyvexs added with an eager smile. “This could be the first breakthrough in understanding one aspect of Tkon science knowledge that we’ve not had access to for decades.”

Nodding with the doctor’s request, McCallister knew she would be an asset to the research. “Keep me updated, I’m heading to the shuttlebay to see how the analysis on the obelisk is getting on.”

 Thankfully shuttlebay one had a huge hanger deck, allowing for various smaller support craft to be housed as well as guest ships too. The obelisk had been rematerialised after being stored in the Invicta’s transporter buffer. It’s retrieval had been a bit dramatic and the only casualty was the transporter system on the Delta-class runabout, however engineers were currently working on repairs. The long artefact now rested on its side along the shuttlebay’s deck with a number of the ship’s science and engineer crew scanning it at various areas.

Working his way around the point of the monument, Lieutenant Commander Lenjir held his tricorder in his hand while his close friend, T’Rani, stood almost by his side, scanning it as well. “Your hypothesis appears to be correct, Cline.” She indicated after looking from her handheld scanner to the object before them. 

“I want to be certain before the captain arrives.” Lenjir said as he tugged on his left earlobe. “Tierra, your analysis.”

“Based on what we know about Tkon energy signatures, I’d agree with Lieutenant Commander T’Rani’s assessment.” The Deltan assistant chief engineer replied with. She was standing by a nearby console, working on a quantum analysis of the obelisk. “From what I can determine, the technology in this huge plinth is similar to what the away team on the underground settlement encountered with the console that Doctor Slyvex was working on. It’s not Tkon technology, but I am detecting some level of Tkon inspiration.”

“Unable to process inquiry. Please restate.” 

The voice of the captain startled every one of them as he entered the shuttlebay via the main entrance and walked over to join them. Seeing their confused looks by his statement, McCallister just gestured for them to ignore it while he smirked. “What do you three have?”

“Some good news and some bad.” Lenjir answered, before pointing at the huge artefact that laid on their shuttlebay floor. “Naef’s theory on this being the device that emitted a Genesis-like wave is right.”

“Is that the good news?” McCallister wondered as he looked at the obelisk, surprised at how big it was and now understood why it overloading the Invicta’s transporter pattern buffer. 

“I’ve barely touched the surface, sir.” Lenjir replied. “Unfortunately sir, it’s not Tkon technology. That’s the bad news.”

Disappointed to hear that once again another piece of technology they had dug up wasn’t from the Tkon, McCallister’s shoulders appeared to deflate at that news, “so what’s the good news?” He asked his security chief. 

“I am certain this is good news, but it is certainly an interesting revelation.” T’Rani answered. “The obelisk is of the same technology as the control interface that Doctor Slyvexs’ team is analysing at the moment.”

“Oh dear god, I do hope it does not have a hologram as well.” McCallister quickly said and then realised he had interrupted his Vulcan pilot, so insisted she carry on with her presentation. “Sorry.” He added.

Bowing just her head slightly as a gesture of gratitude for him allowing her to continue, T’Rani explained that they believed the obelisk was based on Tkon technology. “We are also assuming that is why the underwater city was designed in the Tkon symbol. This was at the centre of their city, so logic dictates that it was the inhabitants’ way of replicating the work of the Tkon.”

“Their caretakers.” McCallsiter said before explaining what he had found out with Slyvexs, Flemen and the others with the Farmer. “So do we think they created the two Genesis waves?”

“No.” Tierra said. “From what we can see, this obelisk’s circuitry was burnt out when it was used to create the genesis wave.” The Deltan assistant chief engineer showed the captain a holographic representation of the scans she had taken of the device, showing exactly what she said. 

“We’ve scanned the planet captain and we think the valley that Doctor Slyvexs investigated was actually created by the impact of a powerful strike and it was there where the first wave was detonated.” Lenjir explained. “From orbit, we think the Tkon terraformed this world and then its inhabitants tried to replicate the technology.”

“And failed?” McCallister added.

“Indeed.” T’Rani said. “The evidence of what we’ve seen would back that idea up. The second wave came from the obelisk.”

“But why would they want to detonate a second wave?” McCallister asked. “If the Tkon had already terraformed the planet, why do it again?”

“That we are not clear on.” Lenjir answered.

“Two possibilities are that the inhabitants were trying to impress the Tkon, the way the city is laid out could be an indication of some sort of worship by wanting to aspire to them.” T’Rani suggested. 

“And the other idea?” The captain questioned. 

Lenjir answered, “the Tkon terraformed their world in a way that wasn’t habitable for the natives and they had to turn it back to the way it was. However we’re not relying too much on that notion, as this planet is the only one in the star cluster that is inhabitable.”

“For all we know the Tkon may have made those planets uninhabitable too.” McCallister stated. He enjoyed hearing his officer’s thoughts on this mystery they had come up with. 

“Reyas to the captain.” spoke his wife’s voice over the intercom.

Tapping his combadge in response, McCallister answered her. “Go ahead commander.”

“Sir, we’ve got something you may want to see. Can you join us in astrometrics?” Reyas stated, sounding excited. 

“On my way now, McCallister out.” He looked at his officers. “Keep poking holes in the obelisk, see if there are any more clues we can find.”

All of them confirmed their orders with an acknowledgement and the captain left their company. He hoped that once he arrived in astrometrics that his wife had found something that was Tkon in originality. 

“The short answer is no.” Reyas said flat and plainly, before carrying on. “But we’ve found other evidence you’d be happy to hear about.”

Disappointed that the computer storage devices they had retrieved that were marked with Tkon symbols were not Tkon originals, McCallister sighed slightly as he motioned for his wife to carry on sharing what she, Hunsen and Jen had found so far. They all stood in the astrometrics lab with various displays being shown around them from the data from the computer storage devices. Most of it was in the alien language they had discovered on the planet below. 

“The inhabitants of Outré collected vast amounts of information on the Tkon, mostly observations and scans. We’ve only broken through the tip of this iceberg, but from what we can tell they worshiped the Tkon as their caretakers.” Reyas explained.

“That would go along with what the Farmer told us and what Cline, T’Rani and Teirra believe based on the obelisk. Trying to emulate the Tkon in their technological level.” McCallsiter said. He was pleased to hear that some of the pieces of this huge puzzle were finally coming together. 

Nodding to Jen to carry on, Reyas smiled at her husband and appeared quite giddy at their finds. “The computer is still translating their language, most of it is made up of symbols and pictures. Very similar to the hieroglyphs of the Ancient Egyptians from Earth’s past and Ancient Bajoran language. Each one has its own meaning, so attempted to crack the code is taking longer but from what we’ve been able to translate the people,” The Trill looked at the captain, “we’re calling them the Outréans for now, appeared to have a strong and rich culture prior to the Tkon arriving on their planet. We believe their technology was advanced, perhaps not as advanced as the Tkon, but from what we can gather they looked at the Tkon in an almost god-like way due to their advanced technology and abilities. It created some sort of race for them to advance their civilization in an attempt to rival the Tkon. There appear to be legends from their past of their people wanting to be members of the Tkon Empire but the Tkon refused.”

“Why is it a legend?” McCallister asked. 

“As there is conflicting data showing that their people’s perspectives on this story differ on whether it was real or not.” Jen answered. “Nevertheless their fascination with the Tkon is what drove their people.”

“This drive made them focus their efforts in following in the Tkon’s footsteps. Everything they made was Tkon inspired.” interjected Commander Hunsen. “Trying to emulate them was not a past hobby. They were fanatics. Living, breathing and eating the Tkon.”

“Which leads us to our next discovery.” Reyas said as she pressed a few buttons on the main astrometric consoles. “Their star charts are quite accurate of the surrounding space from the era they were made. They launched a number of probes trying to find the Tkon, but instead found nothing. However their last effort resulted in them speculating in them believing they knew where the Tkon were resting and waiting for them.” She pointed at the large wall monitor as it changed to show the old star charts to a more recent scan of the region. It ended up zooming in a certain place, in the south-west part of the sector. “They called this the Belt of the Tkon Outreach. Only one of their probes was able to cross it, but in the centre is a planet they believed to be a Tkon outpost.”

Showing an area of space that appeared to be unstable with a range of anomalies  surrounding it, McCallister walked up to view the data closer. “A thick layer of thermobaric clouds, an intense plasma field, a radioactive Mutara class nebula, a dense region of subspace vacuoles and a large type 4 quantum singularity. This is not normal Karyn.”

“No it’s not.” She answered back to her husband as she joined his side. “I’ve already spoken with Naef and several others and they certainly believe that these spatial disturbances were placed here on purpose. It is highly improbable for them to ever occur naturally so close together.”

“So are we thinking they were placed there by the Tkon?” McCallister asked. 

“Placed there,” Hunsen replied, “or created there. We think they’re a natural barrier from stopping anyone from reaching the Tkon outpost.”

Looking at his wife, McCallister smirked. “This was certainly something I’m happy to hear.”

“Good, we’ve already started to train our sensors on the Belt, but we’ll need more time to really understand them.” Reyas said. 

“Captain, before you say it, I want to remind you that these barriers could cause significant damage to the ship and the crew. That radioactive nebula for example will require us to be clever in protecting the crew.”

“Then let’s get on with it. We may not have another opportunity like this again.” McCallister said, now sounding excited. “Is there anything else we need from the planet?”

All three officers shook their heads. 

James turned back to the data before him on the large screen, he could feel they were closer to their prize.