The Centaur held a synchronized orbit with the ancient space station above the planet Oro, which they decided to name it since it was the one with life. Plus it just seemed fitting than coming up with something like P3X-295 or whatever in that combination. Or at least until the civilization manages to work through the ages and develop warp drive, and tell Starfleet what their home planet is really called.

While an engineering and science team worked around the clock to gather more information on the space station, the technology, the language, their operating system, the writing of the Tkon race…it is an archeologist’s dream. Of course from what Captain Carter can tell from what he was able to read on, it appears others have found plenty of Tkon facilities, ships, ruins…there were so much more of them than Carter ever thought there would be. But the more Carter thought about it, the more it made sense, since the Tkon Empire used to be vast. He wasn’t much of an archeologist, or the kind of person to delve into ancient empires. He just knew from what his teams had told him, that they were having a blast.

Vakai stepped up to his side on the bridge, looking at the view screen that was showing the station that Carter had been staring at for the last hour. “Penny for your thoughts?”

Carter took a deep breath and looked at Vakai from the corner of his eye. “It is truly amazing that a space station this old could still be here, in orbit of this planet.”

Vakai smirked, “I can only hope we build stations as magnificent as this one. But the Chief is installing various equipment right now, equipment that will act as redundancies in case the reactor goes offline again. And I believe that Starfleet Command will probably send someone to dismantle the station.”

Carter frowned, “I don’t know much about ancient empires but this station…why would anyone want to dismantle it?”

“Well for starters, it is old. Very old. Starfleet probably wants to analyze the hull composition some more. Get an idea of what it is made out of. As well as figure out what kind of reactor they used back then. Basically reverse engineer whatever technology is still intact on board.” Vakai licked his lips, “Then there is the fact that its reactor went offline once before. We don’t know if that was because of that robot we encountered, or because it went out on its own. It seems to be holding up fine but…what if it happens again? The auxiliary generators are gone, the batteries are drained dry…if the reactor goes offline again, nothing will stop it from plummeting into the planet and killing all those people.”

Carter nodded his head, “Of course. To preserve a civilization, we must dismantle another.”

“I hardly see dismantling a space station as dismantling an entire civilization, especially when they’re already gone.”

Carter shrugged his shoulders, “It’s nothing, Number One. I’m just thinking out loud.”

Vakai was about to say something when the Comms Officer interrupted. “Apologies, sirs. Captain, the Task Group Commander is on the line, he wishes to speak to you. Both of you.”

Carter and Vakai looked at each other before Carter acknowledged, “Just put it on screen.”

With a small brief moment, the view screen blinked to show a young looking officer with what Vakai could think of as a baby face. “Gentlemen. I wish to congratulate you on a job well done.”

Carter nodded his head, “Couldn’t have done it without my First Officer and his team, Commander.”

Maxwell smiled, “Of course, why I wanted to speak to you both. Many vessels have pooled in all their data of their findings, including yours, and discovered the source of the outbreak.”

“The outbreak being these molecules, sir?” Vakai asked.

Maxwell looked at Vakai then squinted at Carter before looking back at Vakai. “How much do you know about it?”

Vakai shook his head, “Nothing except what the Captain could tell. Just that this outbreak could mean the end of all life in the Galaxy.”

Maxwell sighed, either relieved or annoyed. “I hope you use a better discretion technique to your crew once you become Captain of your own vessel, Vakai.” He then looked at Carter.

Carter raised his hands, “I reviewed the orders, I did not say anything of consequences.”

“We shall see, as I will have to have your entire crew interviewed after this. But right now we need to resolve this outbreak as quickly as possible.” Maxwell pressed a button and the screen blinked, reviewing what Command had extrapolated. “These are beacons, supposed to be part of a large network like…cogs in a machine.” Suddenly the screen blinked back to his face. “Many of those cogs…beacons…are malfunctioning and Command wants every vessel to locate and fix them as soon as possible. Now that we know what we are looking for, our sensors detected that there is a beacon in your area. We can’t pinpoint it, but it is there.”

Carter nodded his head, “Understood, Commander. We locate the beacon, we repair it, and this outbreak could go away?”

“That is exactly what Command is believing. The numbers, they all add up, Captain. Fix these beacons, and we stop the spread. Everyone in the Fleet has their part, so I expect the Centaur to do theirs.”

Carter nodded his head again, “Understood, Commander. We will get it done. Centaur out.”

“Just one more thing, Captain.” Maxwell looked at Vakai. “Commander. You and your team did a magnificent job finding that database. It may have been among a lot of data that everyone else has pooled in, but it absolutely did help. And what your team had to go through was incredible. Keep up the good work.” And with one press of a button on his end, the transmission was terminated.

Vakai raised his brows, “Well. That was something.”

Carter smirked, “We may be higher in rank than him, but he has the higher position and when anyone in his position says things like that, take it as they are.”

Vakai shrugged his shoulders, “It’s not that, Captain. I am just simply doing my job that I signed up for. I don’t think anyone else would have done anything different. It’s our job, as Starfleet, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Carter chuckled, “All right. Let’s get the teams back on board the Centaur. We’re going to start a full sensor sweep of the sector and if we don’t find it here, we’re going to move on until we do find it.”

“Well…speaking of that, Captain.” Gomo’s voice trickled in.

Carter turned, both him and Vakai looking at Gomo. “Yes, Gomo?”

“Well, the moment that the Commander mentioned a beacon in our area, I already started sweeping the system and you might not believe this.” Gomo pressed a few commands and the view screen blinked once more.

Carter and Vakai looked at the view screen. Carter frowned where Vakai raised his brows. “Interesting.” Vakai said, Carter looking at him before looking back at the screen. “Is that what I think it is?” Carter asked.

Gomo entered a few more commands to angle the image as best as the sensors would allow but it was enough to make the object more prominent. “I believe your Earth has a few of these, don’t they?”

“That is very interesting. It’s a-”

“A Pyramid.” Carter finished Vakai’s sentence. Carter looked at Vakai, “Assemble the staff, we-”

—–

“-need to talk, Ruby.” said Ensign Mizu.

Ruby sighed as he set his tricorder down. He had been trying to help out the engineering team on gathering technical data on some of the systems here on this ancient space station. “What is it, Mizu?” He turned to look at her and then saw her covered in shaving cream. He smirked and did his best not to laugh but couldn’t help chuckle a bit.

“Oh you think this is funny, do you?” She squinted at him. “Second I go to order a cup of coffee from the replicator, I get this squirting in my face.” The engineering teams brought over portable replicators to ‘help’ productivity and Ruby decided to have a little fun with it.

“How was I supposed to know you were going to be the next person up?” He swallowed his laughter to give her that response. “It was meant for K’Roll, really.”

Mizu rolled her eyes, “You know K’Roll only eats and drinks when it’s break time, never on duty.”

Ruby shrugged his shoulders, “Could change you know. He is a cat after all, and might have wanted to try a new kind of milk.” He smirked.

Mizu groaned in frustration but then saw his jacket on a crate next to the power grid he was scanning. She smirked and grabbed his jacket, using the inside of it to clean herself of that shaving cream.

“Hey! Come on! Don’t do that…” Ruby groaned.

Mizu smiled and dropped his jacket back onto the crate. “Don’t leave things wide open for me then.”

“Come on, Mizu. The Environmental controls are acting up, it’s hot over here.” Ruby complained.

Mizu shrugged her shoulders, “Seems fine to me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have my own task to complete.”

While those two were bickering, K’Roll was patrolling through the habitable sections of the station with his phaser rifle at the ready. Just as he turned the corner, he suddenly bumped into Eli, with her screaming seconds later and landing on her rear on the floor.

“Holy crap! Where the hecking hay did you come from?” Eli asked.

K’Roll sighed and extended his hand out to her to help her up to her feet. “I’m just making sure that there are no more surprises for us that the away team had encountered. Besides, what are you doing, Elidia?”

Eli took his hand and then brushed herself off once she was on her feet. “I was trying to find the sensor systems on this station. It’s like a maze, and it’s driving me nuts. And I’m pretty sure that the away team gave the all clear, you know.”

“Does not mean I cannot be thorough, or cautious.” K’Roll told her.

Eli sighed, “I suppose, better safe than sorry. Well if you’re just walking about, mind helping me find the sensor equipment? I want to see if I can get some technical data off of it, see if we could possibly improve the Centaur’s sensors.”

K’Roll tilted his head, “Trying to earn yourself a promotion, Ensign?” He asked as he started to walk.

Eli laughed, walking beside him down the corridor. “No, of course not! I wouldn’t leave you guys behind. No, it’s not that. I just want to do my part, you know? Centaur may be old but wouldn’t hurt to tweak her some more, you know?”

K’Roll shook his head, “I am certain that Starfleet Engineers have done their best to make the Centaur as efficient as she can be with her current systems.”

Eli sighed, “Yeah I know but still, wouldn’t hurt to try, right? I mean, think about it. If this station had weapons, wouldn’t you want to take a peak at them? See what makes them tick? Maybe make some improvements?”

K’Roll shrugged his shoulders. “I’m just security, Elidia. I don’t mess with starship weapon systems, just hand pistols and rifles.”

Eli frowned, “Boy that sounds boring. Then well…what if we found Tkon hand weapons then?”

“I doubt there are any here. If they had hand weapons, you think they would have been sufficient enough to deal with that robot that the away team had to destroy with a runabout.”

Eli sighed, “Yeah you’re right…. Boy, how could they have made such things so durable?”

“It’s efficient, especially if they’re designed to be construction robots. Wouldn’t want some accident destroying them so easily or anything.”

“True, but it just seemed like a dumb idea when the thing went rogue.”

K’Roll tilted his head. “I don’t think they had planned for it to go rogue.”

“Well no, of course not but still. Ugh…. Nevermind, I don’t know where I am going with this. Oh hey! We’re close by now! Wanna help?” She asked, smiling up at him.

K’Roll let out a guttural groan. “Fine. I have nothing else better to do.”

“Yay! So I wonder if we-”

—

“-have any idea what that is doing there?” Ryker asked, pointing at the Pyramid on the view screen.

Gomez stood straight after leaning over one of the stations. “A full analysis and deep scans indicate that there is a structure inside the pyramid and continues underground. It’s quite large and well hidden but no, Lieutenant, it’s nothing like the Pyramids back on Earth.”

Ryker frowned, “Really? Because that’s exactly what it looks like.”

Sivol stepped over to Gomez’s side. “It isn’t. Sensors indicate that the structure was built thousands of years ago, maybe more so if we go in for a closer look. But underneath the Pyramid, the structure is made of the same composition as this ancient space station.”

Ryker, Vakai and Carter looked at each other before returning their gaze to Sivol and Gomez. “So this pyramid is Tkon?” Carter asked.

The two women looked at each other and then Gomez shrugged her shoulders after she looked back at Carter. “Unclear. The Pyramid could have been there much longer than the Tkon when they arrived here. What we do know is, if what you’re saying is true, Captain, then I think we just found our beacon.”

Vakai frowned, “On a planet? If beacons are that important, how would this one be able to do it’s function on a planet?”

Gomez once again shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. Maybe the Tkon developed some sort of signal that doesn’t require line of sight. Maybe the Tkon space station acts as a relay. I won’t know until I get down there and investigate it myself.”

Gomo let out a huge sigh, which got everyone’s attention. “Oh. Sorry. Did I do that? Well I suppose I might as well tell you, since it is relevant anyways.” Gomo pressed a few commands and the view screen magnified to what looked like a camp. “I don’t think we can go down there without encountering the civilization that happens to be in the Steam age.”

Carter shook his head. “We don’t have much of a choice. Command said that these beacons must be repaired. We’re already getting a data burst from Command with possible ideas of how to repair the beacons, from what data they were able to extrapolate from all the data they’ve obtained from all the other starships out there. This is a fleet wide team effort, guys. We must do our part.”

Vakai stroked his chin for a moment, in thought, before looking at Gomo. “Can you start scanning the cities? Get as much information as you can about this civilization. I will take Ryker, Sivol, and Gomez with me to investigate the pyramid and see if we can get inside and find what is wrong with the beacon so that we can get it fixed.”

Gomo sighed, “I will try but I’m not much of an expert with this whole…blending in.”

Sivol walked over to him, “May I assist?”

Gomo looked at her. “Of course, by all means.”

Carter smiled, “Good. Take your time, this is something that I rather not rush, especially if we really want to avoid violating the Prime Directive. But if it comes down to it, the Omega Directive is still active and still supersedes the Prime. All right?”

Ruby shook his jacket with a small groan as he walked by Mizu’s side. They had just returned to the Centaur when they were notified of a new assignment for them. Mizu smirked, “If you hadn’t played that prank on me, you wouldn’t have a soiled jacket. Besides, it’s just shaving cream, right?”

Ruby rolled his eyes, “Told you, the prank was for K’Roll, not you.” He threw his jacket on and shivered a little. “Maybe so, but it feels weird, apparently it has not completely dried yet.”

“Still your fault.” Mizu grinned at him.

Ruby shrugged his shoulders, “Don’t think this is over, Mizu.”

Now it was her turn to roll her eyes as they stepped into the crew quarters where they were bunked with several other ensigns, including K’Roll and Elibia. In the center, they saw the Second Officer, Lieutenant Ryker. Mizu was the first to stand at attention before him to acknowledge her presence. “Ensign Mizu reporting, sir.” Then she moved into an ‘at ease’ pose.

Ruby was slow to do the same as he was shifting about in his jacket before deciding to peel it off with a sigh. “Ensign Ruben Ortiz reporting, sir.” He moved to an ‘at ease’ pose as well without standing at attention first.

Ryker raised a brow, “Something wrong with your uniform, Ensign?”

Ruby cleared his throat of the slight embarrassment. “Wrong size, sir.”

Ryker raised both brows now. “Find that hard to believe unless you somehow grabbed someone else’s jacket.”

“Yes, sir. That’s exactly it, sir.”

Ryker held his hand out, “Let me see.”

The color on Ruby’s face grew bright red when he slowly handed the jacket over to Ryker, where Ryker will find Ruby’s initials on the tag inside. Ryker will also find some odd residue on the inside of the jacket, where Mizu was doing her best to hold back her laugh.

Ryker wasn’t sure what to make of it and didn’t really care at this point. He sighed and handed the jacket back, “Doesn’t matter. You two are going on a little trip to a small town down below on the surface.” Ryker then passed two data padds over to both Ruby and Mizu. “Read up on your mission statement and get dressed. We expect a report back from your observation in four hours.” Ryker then took a step back before making his way out of the crew quarters.

Ruby and Mizu looked at each other before reading what was on the padd, it was only when Mizu’s squeal of excitement got others’ attention, including Ruby’s. “The heck woman.”

“I cannot believe that this culture is not just in the steam age but the steampunk age!” Mizu hurried on out, making Ruby run after her.

“The heck is steampunk?” Ruby asked her.

“Are you kidding?” She tilted her head, being astonished and slightly hurt. “Anubis Gate by Tim Powers?” Ruby shook his head. “Infernal Devices by K.W Jeter?” Again he shook his head. Mizu stopped in her tracks, “The Difference Engine by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson?” Once more Ruby shook his head and she groaned loudly in disappointment. “Unbelievable.” She walked into the one room where they could get custom gear.

“Steampunk is like, literally your Earth’s science fiction but is now real! It’s about an age where a culture develops retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics. And it’s not just about the technology revolving around steam, it’s also style.” She inputted the generated codes for clothing they needed and the replicator created the clothes right before their very eyes. Mizu then grabbed the jacket and held it out for Ruby to see.

“Whoa…that looks so cool.” Ruby went to feel it, his fingertips brushing over the leather of the jacket.

Mizu then lifted up her data padd and started pulling up a search before presenting it to Ruby. “Author G. D. Falksen here, is wearing a steampunk style arm prosthesis, created by Thomas Willeford. I am so hoping we get to see prostheses like these when we get down there.” She immediately started to disrobe to get dressed into her new attire for the mission.

“Whoa woman, slow down!” Ruby took the jacket and held it up over his face.

Mizu tilted her head. “The hell are you? Primitive much? I thought you humans outgrew such immature tendencies.” She said as she got dressed.

“Well…yeah but…you’re my friend, Mizu. I’m just showing respect, that’s all.” Ruby said before he felt his forehead being poked through the jacket. He lowered it and saw her already buttoning up her own jacket.

“I appreciate it, but it was absolutely unnecessary, Ruby. Come on. Strip.” Mizu commanded.

Ruby’s eyes went wide. “Here? But everyone would-”

—-

“-see.” Sivol pointed at the screen.

Ryker and Vakai both raised their brows. “They have airships,” said Ryker.

Carter chuckled some, “We had airships of our own, Lieutenant.”

Ryker nodded his head, “Yeah…just surprising to see them, that’s all. I mean, especially this culture.”

“It’s not at all surprising to me.” Gomez told him, “But what I would like to see is the design of the airship. And not all airships are of the same design either.” She swiped to the next image and they could see a much different and odd looking one, then she swiped again and yet again, another strange looking airship, smaller though.

Carter shook his head, smiling. “This will definitely be an interesting report for Command. I’m not sure how many vessels out there have met a culture in this kind of technological age, but I’m sure it’ll be added on some list somewhere. How are we doing with the second away team?”

Ryker took a look at the time real quick. “They should be heading to the transporter room right now.”

Carter nodded, “Then I guess you four better go change and get ready to head over to that pyramid.” He then looked at Vakai, “I will keep you up to date with anything from the second team.”

“Much appreciated, Captain. Come on guys, let’s gear up.” Vakai told them and the four of them left the Bridge.

—-

After they were transported down into an empty alleyway, they stepped out of the alley and walked right onto the sidewalk to witness a steam powered automobile going down the street. Mizu did her best to contain her excitement, not wanting to freak out the natives. “My oh my! I literally cannot believe we got this assignment.” They had gone to sickbay before beaming down to get minor cosmetic changes, to hide her spots and add a couple prominent ridges to their noses.

Ruby smiled as he looked around, not as excited as she is but he was amazed by all that he was seeing. Only then he patted her arm and pointed up at the sky where they saw a large airship slowly moving by a few propellers, while having what looked like six larger propellers that were helping keep the airship up in the skys, aside from the massive balloon that was almost twice as big as the hull itself. “That is amazing. And the design of it, as well as the design of these automobiles.”

Mizu smiled while staring at the airship before looking down and gasped. She covered her mouth and grabbed Ruby’s arm to turn them away, mainly to hide her face so as to not appear rude. Well, it was rude to stare and probably would be seen rude if she pointed but she had just seen a gentleman with a prosthetic leg. After she regained her composure, she turned them back around to keep walking in the direction they were heading and Ruby got to see what exactly she was freaking out about.

After they walked past the man, Ruby looked at her with raised eyebrows. “That’s amazing.”

“I know, right?! Oh oh oh, I wonder if they have pistols!” Mizu giggled and started to walk faster with a little ‘oomph’ to her step.

Ruby quickly caught up to her and matched her speed. “Pistols? The heck would you be thinking about weapons on a mission like this? Besides, they probably haven’t even invented energy weapons, let alone a stun setting.”

Mizu smiled and shook her head, “I don’t want one to use, I just want to collect, that’s all. And besides, they might have invented some sort of energy based hand weapons. In this culture, anything is possible. Do you know Nichola Tesla?”

Ruby tilted his head, “Who?”

Mizu stopped in her tracks and frowned at him. “Seriously, Ruby. Do you not read your own culture’s history??”

Ruby shrugged his shoulders.

Mizu groaned in disappointment. “My lord, I swear…” She started walking again, looking around for shops. “He was one of the most brilliant people in his time, at least that is what they say in your Earth’s history books. These people could have had someone just like that, who wasn’t turned away or accused of nonsense or had his work ridiculed.”

Ruby was back to catching up with her. “Okay?”

Mizu looked over her shoulder at him before resuming her search. “The inventions and technology he could have introduced to your world if he had not been shut down the way they had done so, would have or could have changed history.”

“Huh.”

Mizu smiled, “I know, it’s great.”

Ruby shook his head and just did his best to keep up with her, until suddenly he felt an arm around his neck and ‘erked’ loudly when he was yanked by the neck into an alley, which made Mizu turn around and follow him.

Moment she turned around the corner into the alley, Ruby was shoved into her and then they found themselves at gunpoint. Unable to reach for their phaser pistols to defend themselves, they raised their hands up in the air. Of course, Mizu was all giddy about it. “Oh my gosh! I cannot believe we’re getting robbed! And look at that pistol.”

“Mizu!” Ruby hissed at her.

“Shut up! Both of you, just shut up!” The guy then pulled out a device. “Get your identifications out. Now!”

Mizu’s smile then faded. “Oh dear. I think we have a problem.”

“You think? We don’t have-”

—-

“-a good story for how we arrived?” Gomez asked as she followed beside Sivol, Vakai and Ryker right in front of them, all wearing ‘expedition’ clothing that this culture wears, as well as having some cosmetics done before having arrived.

“We can just say we parked our cars back there.” Ryker pointed behind them as they walked alongside the pyramid, heading towards the main expedition camp. They transported on the other side of the pyramid as it appeared to have been the only location that no members of the expedition team had been at.

“You know darn well they will go over there to verify our answer and see that there is no ‘car’ back there.” Gomez frowned.

“We certainly cannot say that we traveled here by foot. There’s no other civilization close by, and they too would find that suspicious.” Sivol explained.

“Then we tell them that we were dropped off by a low level air vessel, whatever you call them. And it left after we paid our fare.” Vakai told them.

“Hovercraft.” Gomez corrected him.

Vakai threw up his arms. “Do they have hovercrafts?”

“We’ve caught a glimpse of one or two and it does appear to be the best mode of transportation to get here, especially with all this sand. And it’s probably the cheapest mode of transportation, at least I would think so. But this expedition team got here by airship, so who knows.” Gomez explained.

“Nevertheless, we have our best answer in case they do ask. We came here by service of a hovercraft. We paid our fare and we would like to join the expedition team on this pyramid. We will simply improvise as we go along.” Ryker said with a smile. “Boy I cannot wait! So exciting!!”

Gomez frowned. “Wait a minute. I thought you didn’t know anything about this culture. Were you lying?”

Ryker laughed, “Maybe I was. Besides, it was a simple tease. I’ve read books about a steampunk civilization such as this, and boy it’s like living in a dream. Quite exciting!”

“You’re unbelievable sometimes.” Gomez shook her head before grinning at him.

“I agree completely. We’re almost at the camp, so put on your best faces.” Vakai told them before fixing his hat and putting the rounded framed sunglasses, everyone else doing the same.

It was a long trek, considering how large the pyramid was, but they made it all the way to the camp with some looks of confusion from others who were on the side of the pyramid that they were walking on, having stopped their work to look and stare at the group. Not only were the group wearing what they found to be a worthy desert expedition outfit for this steampunk culture, but they also carried backpacks with rations and other supplies that they would need just in case things were to go south.

A man out of the group stood up from his table when he noticed the four individuals showing up at his campsite from looking out of the large wide opening of his tent where the large pieces of cloth had been tied off to allow breeze to come through, if there was one. Frowning as he was confused by their sudden presence, as he definitely did not recognize them. He put a device down and his writing utensil before stepping out of the tent, quickly approaching the group. “Excuse me. Excuse me!”

The group noticed the man approaching them rather quickly, Vakai immediately assumed that this man was in charge of the expedition, so he stopped in his tracks and everyone else did the same. “Are you the one in charge here, sir?”

The man stopped before Vakai, “Indeed I am. The name is Gilbert Elijah Styles, and mind if I ask who you four might be?”

Vakai was puzzled on how to answer that, they didn’t quite discuss what their names would be. But then Ryker stepped forward, with his hand extended out. “It is a pleasure to meet you, sir Styles! My name is James Lee Ryker, this fine lass here is Ashley Lee Gomez, and this lass here is Ethel Eudora Sivol and this gentleman here is Simon Norval Vakai. I must say, sir, it is absolutely incredible to finally meet you in person. I’ve heard a lot of good things about your work and I must say, when me and my friends heard that you arranged an expedition for this structure here, we just had to come.”

Styles stammered a bit before shaking Ryker’s hand. “I’m surprised anyone even knows about me at all. Have you read my published work?”

“Have I?” Ryker raised his voice in excitement. “My good man! Of course I have! It’s absolutely incredible.”

Styles laughed, “Well I’ll be. I don’t really know what to say. But why weren’t you and your comrades at the port when I announced the expedition?”

Ryker smacked his lips and hissed, “Oh boy, oh boy. We were so cooped up with our own work, deadlines and time tables…it wasn’t until after we finished our projects that we realized that you had opened an expedition. By then it was too late.”

Styles nodded his head. “I see, I see. Well, how did you and your comrades arrive?”

“We paid a hovercraft service to get us here.” Ryker told him.

Styles hissed and shook his head. “My lad! That had to have been quite expensive!”

Ryker nodded his head, smacking his lips. “Yeah…yeah it was, it was. But it was the quickest transportation that we could find and we absolutely had to get here. We are absolutely eager to help out with this project.”

Styles smiled, “Well that is fantastic to hear. I see from the look of those large packs on your back that you’ve come prepared?”

Ryker smiled and nodded, “Yes indeed, we have good sir.”

Styles smiled even more, “Wonderful! The last thing I would need is your identification packets.”

Ryker’s face went pale white. “Oh um…sorry?”

Styles tilted his head and chuckled, “I need to enter you folks onto the list of my expedition team. It’s the only way that you four can assist me legally. If I don’t put either of you on my team, neither of you can be here to assist me with this project, or you could face fifteen years of community service.”

Ryker gulped and then smiled nervously. “Oh yes yes yes! Of course! Silly me. I don’t know why I…haha, oh man I must be so silly to you right now. We…I…were just so in the moment of finally meeting you that I completely forgot about our identification packets!”

Styles smile faded. “You don’t have them?”

Ryker raised his hands and shook his head with a smile. “Oh no no no, of course we do! I just need to find them, that’s all.” He said as he knelt down while taking his backpack off and opened up the top. “I just need to dig in here, it’s possible I may have been in a bit of a hurry and buried our identification packets at the bottom, haha!” Luckily their badges were hidden in one of their jacket pockets and they were on an open comm link with the Centaur, so they heard everything. Unfortunately, they’re still waiting to hear from the second away team….

Styles suddenly pulled out a pistol from it’s holster that was hidden inside of his jacket and aimed it at them. “I’m sorry, everyone. But if you don’t have your identification packets, I will have to call the authorities and have you arrested.”

Ryker gulped, “No no! Seriously! We do have them! Haha. I just need to dig…deeper.” He really made it look like he was frantically looking for them, even pulling some clothing out and throwing it over his shoulder. “Oh god, please be in here…” he whispered to himself and to the Centaur.

“I said, I want your identifications!!” Yelled the robber who waved the pistol back and forth between the two.

“Yeah, about that. We don’t have ours.” Ruby told the man.

“Don’t have them?” The robber asked, confused.

“Yeah we…we must have left them at home, that’s right!” Mizu smiled weakly, both of them completely unsure what that pistol would do to them.

“Do you take me for a fool?! No one can leave their home without their identification packet. It’s impossible! Even if somehow you did, there are packet scanners at every corner of the street and at every door to every building. Without your packets, you would be arrested on the spot, and depending on your excuses, you could end up serving six months to twelve years of community service. So give me your packets!! Now!” The robber was growing very impatient.

Mizu got to thinking, “Excuse me, but what happens if you get caught?”

“I won’t get caught, I’ve never been caught. Now shut up and give me your packets or I’ll shoot you both!”

“We already told you, we don’t have them!” Said Ruby, but the second the robber pointed the pistol at Ruby, Mizu slugged the guy and he dropped to the ground. “Jesus… nice right cross.”

Mizu shook her hand, “thank you, ow.”

“You okay?” Ruby asked.

“Yeah, but we got some investigating to do and quick.” She knelt down and started with the man’s pistol. “Oh my god! Look at this. It looks like an old western colt revolver but it has a dozen cpils where the cylinder would be and there’s more coils that connect the barrel and the frame.” She picked up the pistol and examined it before laughing.

Ruby tilted his head, “The heck are you laughing about?”

She held out the pistol to Ruby with her hand on the barrel and the handle free for him to grab. “It’s dead. That’s why he didn’t shoot us from the start. It had no power or charge or however the pistol worked.” She pointed at where the cylinder would be. “There is some kind of glass tube inside, I haven’t figured out how to open it so I don’t know if you reload it with a freshly charged tube or plug it in or stick it in some… charging chamber or whatever. Wow, that explains why my hand hurts… his skull must have been thick.”

Ruby examined it some more before handing it back to Mizu, knowing she would want to keep it, which she did take it back and stuck it into one of her inside pockets. Then she searched the man’s pockets and found his identification packet. “Here we go, time to get some answers.” She stood up and opened up the packet. “Let see, photograph, name, date of birth, eye color, hair color, weight, height, city of birth, address of birth, hospital of birth… good lord… home address, city of living, state, ha… they even have area codes… oh this is interesting…there is some kind of code here under the bracket called currency. Bank of Flushstorm.”

Ruby knelt down and grabbed the device that was in the man’s other hand but had clattered a few inches away. He stood up and turned it on, “Huh. Maybe you use this?” He asked and then scanned the square looking code and the device beeped. Then a bunch of numbers popped up on the display. “Fifteen thousand, eight hundred and twenty four shillings. What’s a shilling?”

Mizu gasped and grabbed the device right out of Ruby’s hand. “They’re using an old Victorian currency! Then that means,” She paused to do the math. “He has seven hundred and ninety one pounds and four shillings! That’s quite a bit of money, unless… does this thing have… yes!” She managed to press a couple buttons and find a history. “These are the previous scans he took and look, he charged a bunch of people for nothing… he stole people’s money with this thing.” She then took another look at the ID packet and found one thing she missed. “Occupation: Sandwich-Board.”

Ruby frowned, “What is that?”

Mizu snapped her fingers, “This man walked around with an advertisement board on his back. If I remember correctly, it doesn’t pay much. No wonder he resorted to robbing people. All right, I think we found all the information we need but what kind of occupation should we have?” She tapped her chin.

Ruby sighed, “Does it matter? We need to get this information to the Centaur before the main away team gets into trouble.”

Mizu sighed as well. “I just wanted to make sure they got all the details, I don’t want any mistakes.”

Ruby shrugged his shoulders, “Nothing we can do about that. We can’t keep walking around without these identification packets, or we do…community service…that makes me wonder actually…”

Mizu raised a brow at him. “About what?”

Ruby shook his head, “Later. Inform the Centaur already.”

“Right, right.” Mizu reached into one of her pockets and activated the badge.

—-

Styles sighed heavily, “I don’t have all day, I’m just going to shoot you and call the authorities.”

Ryker then heard a faint transporter beam, reached towards the bottom and felt four objects that felt leathery. He grabbed them and yanked his arm out of his backpack. “Here they are!” Ryker laughed as he stood up and held them out towards Styles. “I am so sorry for the wait, sir. I told you they were in my bag, I just…buried them by mistake.”

Gomez swallowed the lump of fear in her throat before clearing it. “Pardon me but…were you really going to kill us?”

Styles took the packets from Ryker before looking at Gomez with pure shock on his face. “Lass, I know some women can be dumb, but that was an incredibly stupid question.”

Ryker cleared his throat, “Sir, I apologize for my lady’s question that may seem absurd to you but you see, our last project had a uh…accident and she suffered a blow to the head which had caused her to lose some memory. It was one of the other reasons why we saw your ad for this expedition a bit late. We had to tend to her first. She’s fine now, obviously since she’s standing right there, breathing and all. Plus before we came here, she seemed to have recovered remarkably well! Except we weren’t quite sure what exactly she forgot and well…now we know that she forgot about how the um…that is a beautiful pistol, sir. Mind if I examine it?”

Styles frowned at Ryker’s question about his pistol and then sighed with a shrug of his shoulders. “I apologize for the insult, lass, I had not known.” He said, which Gomez accepted his apology, as he handed the pistol over to Ryker who held it out before everyone else to examine it. It was much like what Mizu and Ruby had found, it looked like an old western colt where the cylinder is replaced with some sort of tube with electricity in it, and that cylinder was surrounded by coils where there was another set of coils that connects the barrel and the frame together. This puzzled Styles. “You all act like you’ve never seen a Hedersett Revolver before.”

Ryker smiled as he handed the pistol back where Styles went and holstered it, which the holster was indeed attached to what looked like suspenders, and he closed his jacket which concealed it well. “We don’t get out much, sir. But could you perhaps explain to my lady here of how the pistol works and the laws as well? I mean, you’re a brilliant professor and who better than to refresh her memories?”

Styles raised his brows and shook his head as he couldn’t believe what was being asked of him. “For one, sir Ryker, enough with the flattery already, I get enough of it from my own colleagues. Two, Hedersett Manufacturer is the weapons manufacturing company that has replaced all weapons in the world and for a good reason. Weapons we had in the past, they were bloody and just outright savagery. Hedersett weapons changed everything, as they do not kill, they only stun. And because Hedersett himself had gone and changed the way we fight each other, the nations began to come together to figure out a way to end the savagery system of dealing with conflict and dealing with those who break the law. After several decades, the whole world is one nation and there is no longer a death penalty for any law that is broken. Depending on what law was violated, the person who violated it will serve a certain number of days… weeks… months… or years of community service. If the crime they committed was far, far worse, like murder, they get a life sentence in a single prison. Crime rate has dropped, but the death rate dropped incredibly. Of course we had to resort to population control, since we didn’t want to overpopulate our world, over-tax our resources and starve ourselves to death. But there are scientists out there that are trying to find better ways to reach the stars and hopefully explore our solar system.”

The four of them looked at each other and smiled before looking back at Styles. “Well I do hope that day comes soon.” Said Gomez.

Styles smiled, “Me too lass. But I am afraid it won’t be in my lifetime. I mean… I have theories… but I’m just not ready to share them just yet. Not until we find out what is inside this pyramid.”

The team looked at each other again before looking back at Styles. “You’re trying to get inside the Pyramid?” Vakai asked.

Styles nodded his head. “Of course. We just have not yet deciphered the language. Once we do, I am absolutely certain that we can get the door open.”

“I think we can help.” Said Sivol.

Styles frowned, “What do you mean?”

Ryker cleared his throat, “What she means is, a new set of eyes could help speed up the process of deciphering the language.”

Styles chuckled, “Ah yes, of course, of course. I just need to scan your packets and add you four to my crew. Excuse me.” Styles walked back towards his tent.

The four of them turned to face each other, “They have already gotten inside the pyramid.” Said Ryker. “Well, the first layer anyway. Like a lobby, perhaps?”

“We don’t know until he takes us to it,” Gomez told him. “But that could be quite possible. I mean, maybe the Tkon left something for these people. Maybe they were hoping that these people would evolve to a level of intelligence that would allow them to figure out the puzzle and let them inside, maybe to a treasury or-”

“Library of unimaginable knowledge.” Sivol’s voice jumped in, she gave Gomez an apologetic look for her interruption before she continued. “It may be possible that the Tkon had influenced these people.”

Vakai sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know about that. From what I’ve read about the Tkon, what we know anyways, I don’t think they’re the kind of Empire that would have contaminated a primitive culture.”

“Like they had their own Prime Directive?” Ryker asked.

Vakai nodded his head. “I would like to believe that the Tkon Empire would have allowed civilizations like this one to grow on their own, and just observe, like the Federation does. That could have been what that space station was all about…observing a primitive species.”

Ryker folded his arms across his chest and took another look at the Pyramid before looking back at them. “What about the Pyramid? We have a few of those on Earth. Were we influenced by the Tkon Empire too?”

Gomez shook her head, “I doubt it. Pyramids are just one of the most common geometric shapes in the galaxy. It’s just a mere coincidence that we see one here, on this planet, hiding a Tkon Beacon. In fact, it could very well be possible that the Pyramid was here long before the Tkon Beacon was.”

Sivol frowned, “You think that the Tkon people built or placed the beacon inside the Pyramid?”

Gomez shrugged, “We don’t know the vast technologies that the Tkon Empire had. They could have built it or transported it in or I don’t know…phased it in. Used some technology that created a stable interior of the Pyramid and a stable cavern below the sand and ground before popping that beacon right inside. We just don’t know.”

Ryker sighed heavily, “Boy I wish we could find an actual city of the Tkon people with a lot of Tkon people, alive and well…and then maybe Starfleet can finally get some answers.”

“Or just a single archive that has recorded and cataloged everything.” Said Sivol.

Vakai and Gomez nodded their heads while Styles came right back up to them and handed their packets back to their respective owners. “There we are. All done. I do say, all four of you sure have accumulated a lot of funds. But I suppose that would be the case for researchers like yourselves.”

Three of them opened and looked at their occupations, while Ryker stuffed his in his back pocket. “Exactly, Professor Styles. And our work has gotten almost nowhere. But we absolutely believe in exactly what you believe, Professor.”

Styles raised his brows, “And what exactly what that be, Doctor Ryker?”

Ryker chuckled, “Please, just James, Professor.”

“Well, just James. You can just call me Gilbert.”

“All right, Gilbert. We believe that there is something inside that Pyramid that will change our lives forever. That is why we are here, because we want to help you get inside. Because we need to know, we need the answer to the questions everyone is asking. Have we been visited? And if we have been, who were they?”

Gilbert smiled, “Damn right, my boy, James. Come on. I would love an extra set of eyes on our conundrum and get this damn mystery solved.” He said as he led the four of them over a dune that revealed an opening, like a doorway, that led inside the Pyramid. Or at least, the ‘lobby’. “You see, Doctors.” Gilbert began as they went through the doorway into the chamber. “This chamber encompasses all the way from one end to the other end, but only on this side of the Pyramid. And there are glyphs and letters all over. We have been here for almost a month and we only got a few letters figured out.”

The four of them stopped and looked down each passageway, all lit up by torches on the walls. Both Ryker and Gomez said ‘wow’ together before looking at each other and smiling. “This is incredible.” Said Sivol who then had a hand placed on her shoulder. She looked at it then over her shoulder to see Vakai smiling, “It truly is, isn’t it?” She smiled back and nodded her head.

“Yes, everyone, it is incredible. What else is that this is the only Pyramid here, on this planet. What we figured out though, that is truly, truly astonishing.” Gilbert suddenly turned around and faced them. “This pyramid is over seven hundred thousand years old. Maybe add a couple ten thousand to it but it is so old that we can’t even get it down to the exact number. But that’s from examining the exterior of the Pyramid. The interior of this chamber…is about six hundred thousand years old. Again give or take.”

All four of them looked at each other before looking back at Gilbert. “So you’re saying that someone…carved all of this…this chamber and the writing…into a Pyramid that has been here longer than they have been?” Sivol asked.

Gilbert nodded his head. “Precisely. I wish I could get it down to the exact number, but we just are not there yet in such technology. Now,” Gilbert turned around and headed for the main door. But this gave Sivol a chance to open up her jacket, pull out her tricorder and hid it behind the left part of her jacket as she did some scanning of the interior…then she quietly but quickly walked outside to do the same of the exterior before returning to the team. While Gilbert was rambling about the mechanics and how they had tried everything to open the door, Sivol had everyone facing her and listening in closely.

“He’s correct. The scans indicate that the exterior of this pyramid is around seven hundred and twenty thousand years old. The interior is six hundred and eighty thousand years old.” She whispered to them.

Gomez frowned, “I don’t know how that makes sense. I mean, didn’t Command say that the beacons were older?”

Vakai shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t think Command ever said anything about how old the beacons were. Just that they needed to be repaired.”

Ryker shrugged one of his shoulders. “Hey, this just means your theory was correct. This Pyramid was here long before the Beacon was. So someone else built this Pyramid.”

“Hey… Doctors, are you listening?” Gilbert’s voice pierced into their private discussion.

They turned to face Gilbert and Ryker stepped forward. “I apologize, Gilbert. We were just going over how amazing it is that someone came here, took a structure such as this that was obviously built by someone else, and used it to hide something.”

Gilbert smiled, “Precisely. And I believe it was these people.” Gilbert took a step back and pointed at a green looking symbol on the large door. All four of them froze in their place as they knew exactly what that symbol was. The symbol of the Tkon Empire.

“Well, if anyone had any doubts, that just blew them away.” Vakai spoke softly for only the four of them to hear.

“Mind blown.” Said Gomez.

Ryker imitated an explosion sound with his mouth.

Mizu and Ruby had returned to the ship once they were certain that they had obtained all the information they needed that would assist the away team in completing their mission. Dressed back into their uniforms, they walked together side by side down the corridor, Mizu holding her prize pistol.

“Can’t believe they allowed you to keep that thing.” Ruby told her.

Mizu shrugged her shoulders, “Hm. Well it is out of power, and we don’t know how to recharge it, so I don’t think they care. I mean, I’ll find a way to recharge it but the computer was able to extrapolate that the pistol is completely harmless, that all it does is stun.”

Ruby frowned, “Strange culture.”

“Maybe, but it may also be that they figured that death was a complete waste. Or too cruel. I don’t know honestly, but what I do know is, this thing is pretty darn cool. Want to head to the officer mess?” She asked.

Ruby sighed, “I don’t know. It has been a long day, I was kind of thinking of just relaxing with a book.”

Mizu rolled her eyes. “Oh come on! K’Roll and Eli will be there.”

Ruby threw up his hands in defeat. “All right, all right.”

“Yay!” She threw an arm around him and squeezed him before they got to the mess hall, where they did in fact see K’Roll and Eli, so Mizu waved to them and Eli waved them over to the table. Both Eli and K’Roll were fascinated by the steampunk pistol that Mizu brought back, and all four of them discussed about Mizu and Ruby’s adventure down on the planet while Gomo, Maya and Koyda sat together at a separate table, a few tables away.

“So, Gomo. What really made you enlist in Starfleet?” May asked.

“Why are you two so interested in my reasons for enlisting in Starfleet?” Gomo asked.

Koyda shrugged his shoulders, “Because we are simply curious.”

Gomo squinted at them as he set his drink down. “Curious because I am a Cardassian? Curious because I joined my people’s saviors and not my people’s military? Curious because my people used to be your oppressors and were arrogant and egotistical?”

Maya and Koyda looked at each other then back at Gomo. “It’s not like that, Gomo, really.”

Gomo held his look for skepticism for a moment before smiling with a soft chuckle. “I was merely messing with the two of you.” He told them before taking a sip of his drink before he began. “I enlisted in Starfleet because my parents insisted I join the Cardassian Military, the new Cardassian Military under the new Cardassian Government of course. They fed me with so much hatred for both the old Cardassian Government and the Federation, that I simply had enough of it. I wanted to prove to them that the Federation was not at all what they thought it was and that as a Cardassian, I could also bring some aspect to my people that we are not all bad guys.” He saw that Koyda was about to say something but he held his hand up. “I know, you got Damar and a few other notable Cardassians, like that tailor on Deep Space Nine. But it was something else. I just wanted to do something on my own, rather than being told what to do or where to go by my parents.”

“Then why not become an Officer?” Koyda asked.

Gomo grinned, “Why not you two?”

Maya and Koyda looked at each other again before back at him. “We didn’t feel like we were Officer material, and we weren’t too sure about holding the responsibility that officers have. We just wanted to do our part, as a non-commissioned officer and we were happy with that.”

Gomo smiled, “Precisely how I felt. Even though I wanted to make my own path, I didn’t want it to be weighed with the responsibilities of an officer. And I too enjoyed where I was. Until Vakai came along.”

“Is it weird that he insisted that we take those training courses to become Officers?” Maya asked.

Koyda shrugged one of his shoulders. “We didn’t really serve with him for that long but we did do one hell of a job when we worked together.”

Gomo took another sip before setting his drink down. “That’s precisely something I wished I had been able to avoid.”

Maya frowned, “What do you mean? You didn’t want to become an officer?”

Gomo sighed, “I didn’t want to be part of a Hazard Team at all. I didn’t want to be selected for some crazy mission and be noticed for something that I honestly don’t think I am good at.”

Maya shook her head, “But you’re a good tactical officer, Gomo. You’ve proven that much against the Vorcha Cruiser we had to deal with.”

Gomo shook his head, “But I could have done better. And I had the weight of everyone’s lives on my shoulders. I did not like that feeling, not at all. I just don’t think I am cut out to be whatever it is that Vakai wants us to be.”

“I have never met a Cardassian who was this unsure of himself.” Koyda stared at Gomo. “You are definitely cut out to be what Vakai wants you to be, we all are. He sees it and so do we.”

Maya slugged his shoulder, “Don’t you go puffing your chest now.”

Koyda chuckled, “What? I’m serious. If Vakai didn’t see anything in us, then why keep us around? Why request that we go through that crazy training to become officers? You know he’s going to stick us in as his senior staff when he gets his own ship, right?”

“Oh, you’re so sure about that, huh?” Maya asked with a grin.

Koyda chuckled again, “Absolutely! I wouldn’t put it past that guy. He may be the First Officer, and he may act like he’s tough as nails but he’s got heart and you know that he likes us. Especially you, Gomo.” Koyda pointed at. “That’s why he wants you, all of us, to be here with him.”

Gomo leaned back into his seat and sighed, “I don’t know. Maybe I’ve been hanging around you guys for far too much.” He smirked a little.

“Come on, Gomo. We know you’re full of it. You loved being on that crazy mission as a Hazard Team member. You were having a blast, and we all know it. Your eyes lit up the moment they saw those heavy weapons, and you were laughing like a mad man when you got to use them too.” Maya grinned at him.

Gomo shrugged his shoulders, “They were a lot of fun.” He smiled. “But, next time we go on some away mission…please don’t have killer robots in them, that would be great.”

“Uhhh, you do know that there are still Borg out there, right?” Koyda asked him.

Gomo smirked, “That’s different. They’re cybernetic beings, not robots.”

“Close enough!” Maya giggled.

Ruby came back to his friends table with their drinks and sat down. “So what were your duties like on the Tkon Space Station?” He asked.

Eli sighed, “Boring, as usual. I mean. It was great to be on an ancient space station, the materials don’t look all that different from what we use but I know there is something different about them. And their equipment is unique but…old.”

“Of course they’re old, Eli. They existed over six hundred thousand years ago.” Mizu told her before she took a sip of her drink. Then she looked at Ruby with a grin, “So K’Roll. Did you ever get to the replicator in main engineering for…oh I don’t know…a small cup of coffee?”

Ruby looked at her with wide eyes and K’Roll tilted his head at her with a frown. “Why…?”

Mizu shrugged her shoulders with a smile, “Oh was just curious, that’s all. I heard a rumor that someone was setting a trap and I was just curious if you ever got to it.”

K’Roll shook his head, “No. I don’t drink on duty. I did my rounds, as I was ordered to, and assisted Eli with her work. That’s about it.”

Mizu sighed, “God you’re so boring. Would love to have seen some white shaving cream all over that black furred face of yours.”

K’Roll’s mouth hung open, Eli covering her mouth as she giggled into a full blown laugh and Ruby…he was covering his face. K’Roll then looked at Ruby, knowing he was obviously the guilty one. “You are such a pain, Ruby!”

Ruby threw his hands up in defense. “What are you talking about?! I didn’t do anything. Well I mean, you weren’t the one who fell for the prank anyways. She did.” He pointed at Mizu.

“Yeah, I did, and I had cream all over my face. Not exactly something I like to walk around with, since I didn’t have anything but your jacket to use to wipe my face clean.” Mizu stuck her tongue out at him.

Ruby stuck his tongue back out at her and K’Roll just shook his head. “You two are such children. Do either of you ever grow up?”

Both Mizu and Ruby answered, “No.”

“Don’t any of you ever want to get promoted?” K’Roll asked them.

Again, they both answered, “No.”

Both Eli and K’Roll frowned. “Why not?” Eli asked.

Mizu groaned, “Being promoted is so boring, all right? You get handed more responsibilities, and then you have your own team, and you have to be responsible for your team, and … it’s just not for me. Okay? I rather be where I am, and do what I am good at. And that’s being given odd jobs. Like today, me and Ruby were ordered to go down to visit a small city, get some data, and I came back with a souvenir. So why the heck would I want to be promoted and miss out on that?”

Ruby sipped on his drink when all three of them looked at him, obviously waiting for his explanation. He gulped down the liquid in his mouth and just shrugged his shoulders. “Oh I’m the same way. I’m mister irresponsible here. I mean, I tried to play a prank on you, K’Roll, which backfired. It could have happened to the Chief, you know? And I probably would have been reassigned as soon as this ended, if the Chief had gotten hit with the prank I mean. I’m a ticking time bomb, I’m going to do something stupid and it’s going to get me canned to another ship until no other ship wants me.”

K’Roll growled, “So you two are basically taking the whole service in Starfleet as a joke then, is that right?”

Mizu looked at Ruby then back at K’Roll. “It’s not that we’re taking it as a joke, bud. We joined Starfleet because we wanted to do our part.”

Ruby shook his head, “Nah. I just want to mess around really. If I can get my hands on the helm controls, oh boy, we will be doing barrel rolls for days.”

Mizu frowned at him, knowing the real reason but she wasn’t going to spill it, it wasn’t her choice in that matter. “Point is, K’Roll. We are doing our part, as Ensigns. We’re taking the load of odd jobs and boring jobs that no one else wants to do. We’re making life easier for other Ensigns. So what’s the problem with that?”

K’Roll got up from his seat, “The problem is, that there is no honor and your paths lead to no future.”

“K’Roll!” Eli stood up but Mizu pulled her back down.

“Let him be, he’s just having one of his days.” Mizu told her.

“Still, it wasn’t very nice of him to force his opinion on you two.”

Mizu and Ruby shrugged their shoulders. “He means well, but he just doesn’t understand that there is so much more than getting promoted.” Ruby told her.

Eli sighed, “I wonder how the away team is doing.”

—-

The team had spent about an hour inspecting the glyphs from one end to another, trying to get some clue on how to open the door. But they were finding things to be a bit off. For one, the glyphs almost made no sense and what words there are, were not in the Tkon language.

“I just do not understand.” Sivol said to Vakai. “I have seen the Tkon language plenty on the station. But this is certainly not it.”

Styles overheard when he was just walking over to them. “That is because it is our ancient language, from the times of old. Here.” Styles handed his journal to her.

“You still write on paper?” Vakai asked as Sivol took the journal and started skimming through it.

Styles smiled, “Of course! Nothing beats the feeling of an ink pen in one hand, the smell of paper and the sound that the pen makes when you scribble on the paper. Plus it allows me to view my findings faster than a data recorder.” Styles then looked at the wall and his eyes lit up, so he began to read the wall as he walked away, heading back towards the center.

Sivol was flipping pages until something had caught her eye, which made her turn back a page and the surprised look on her face got Vakai’s attention. “What is it?” He asked. She pointed at the drawing and the scribbles of this culture’s current language. She looked at him, “This looks very familiar to a matter and anti-matter formula to potentially a warp engine.”

Vakai raised his brows and then waved Gomez and Ryker over while Sivol pulled out her tricorder to translate the written language. When Gomez arrived, Sivol showed her the drawing and the translated text. It only took her a couple seconds before she looked at all three of them. “Styles just discovered a way to develop a warp engine.”

“Are you certain about this?” Ryker asked, and Gomez just nodded. Ryker looked at Vakai, “Looks like this culture is much closer to warp travel than we thought.”

“But if he discovered a way for interstellar travel, then why is he here? Why is he not presenting this, and helping his people move forward into a whole new era?” Gomez asked.

Ryker sighed, “Those are really good questions. Ones that we-” he was cut off by some rumbling that made all four of them run towards the center, just in time to bear witness the door opening and Styles laughing.

Styles turned to them with a huge grin on his face. “It was simple! I mean, after I started looking at the glyphs as numbers, not words, I finally figured out how to open the door. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it till now but, the answer was simple.”

The four looked at each other then back at Styles. “What answer?” Gomez asked.

“The answer to the question was Forty-Two. Then walla, the door opened. Come on! Discovery awaits!” Styles chuckled and hurried inside, the four of them looked at each other again before running in after him.

After they caught up with Styles, they walked through an odd winding tunnel until finally, they reached an opening, and opening to a vast interior that revealed the one thing that definitely was not of this world. The Tkon Beacon. Styles laughed cheerfully, “I knew it!! I knew we were visited! This will prove to those half wit, pea brains back at the university that I was right, all along!”

The team looked at each other, then back at the beacon. “Well, looks like we can get to work on getting this thing back online.” Said Gomez.

“Yeah, and it also looks like we can drop the Prime Directive too.” Said Ryker.

“So it seems.” Said Sivol.

Vakai sighed, “then we better tell him.”

Styles’ smile faded and he turned around to look at them. “Tell me what?

Styles stared at all four of them, having sat down in a deep divot in the wall of the Pyramid when they told him who they were. “I’m sorry but, you’re what now?”

“We are with the United Federation of Planets. We serve on board a Starfleet vessel called the USS Centaur. We travel across space with interstellar technology known as the warp drive.” Gomez explained more slowly to him.

“We are here because an ancient and vast, powerful race created these beacons that communicate with one singular facility. But for some reason the beacons stopped communicating and are creating a lot of havoc in the galaxy.” Said Sivol.

“So we are here to repair this beacon…it’s…as far as we know, a galactic crisis if we don’t repair this. It is very important.” Said Ryker.

Styles stood up and shook his head, “But why tell me? Why come forward with this?”

Sivol, who still had his journal, opened it up to the page where the warp engine was drawn and showed it to him. “This is a matter-antimatter warp engine. It takes matter and antimatter, harnesses the powerful energy they give, and channels that energy not just to power systems but also creates a warp field or bubble around the vessel and propels it across space at speeds faster than light. This engine brings interstellar travel to any civilization that discovers it.”

Styles stared at it, “Why would an empire so vast want to give this to my people?”

“To help them understand that other beings were on this world before them through the use of interstellar travel. We know there are other means of traveling among the stars, but warp travel is the most common and known throughout all species that we’ve encountered. It was the best one to explain to his people, on how the Tkon came to be.” Sivol explained.

“Question is, the Tkons existed only six hundred thousand years ago. How did they know these people existed at all?” Gomez asked.

Sivol opened up her tricorder and started reviewing her scans. “Fascinating.”

“What does that mean?” Styles asked.

“I did not consider this until now, but all the text that was put into your language, is actually more fresh than the room itself. The ruins you found, how did your language appear?” Sivol asked.

Styles shrugged his shoulders, “They seemed old, like our ancient language, like thousands of years ago.”

Vakai frowned, “What are you thinking, Sivol?”

Sivol looked at Vakai, “Before we came down here, I did some reading about the Enterprise that chased a Ferengi vessel to a planet that happened to have been a Tkon Outpost. Apparently there was a portal of sorts there and it released a guardian. The guardian was the one who protected and guarded the outpost, although slept for most of the time whenever the planet was left alone. I believe this beacon too had a guardian, someone who should have come out of stasis and maintained the beacon, to ensure no malfunction occurred.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go find this guardian.” Ryker said and began to lead the way onto the platform of the Beacon.

“Hold on, James.” Gomez called out and looked at everyone else. “If this beacon has a guardian, then why haven’t they repaired it themselves?”

“Maybe something went wrong. I don’t know for certain but why else would these people’s own written language appear on their own structures, hundreds of thousands of years later?” Sivol asked.

Vakai sighed and patted her shoulder. “Then we best get in there and figure this out. Coming, Professor Styles?”

Styles did a bit of a tilted head nod. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world!” He said with a smile and followed them, walking on the platform towards the center of the Beacon, where they would eventually find what appeared to be the operations center.

As they were searching around the operations center, looking for a way to turn the terminals on, Gomez stood there beside Ryker and sighed. “Starting to think that maybe we didn’t need to come repair this facility at all.”

Ryker frowned, “How so?”

Gomez shrugged. “Just the fact that Styles was already studying some ancient ruins of what used to be a research colony and they led him here, to this pyramid where the beacon is. Then he found the answer needed to open the door. All of it was re-written into his people’s language. It is as if the Tkon had prepared for this.”

Ryker gave up on trying to turn on the terminal he was at and faced her. “You think that the Tkon wanted this beacon to be found?”

“It’s like Sivol said, something happened. We don’t know what, but this is no coincidence. They wanted this beacon to be found, and he was the one who did it, the one who figured it all out, not his team, him.”

Ryker stroked his chin, “So you’re saying…this was a challenge? A test?”

Gomez shrugged her shoulders. “Possibly. Maybe we shouldn’t do anything. Maybe we should let Styles do all the work. Maybe it is his destiny.”

Ryker chuckled, “Sounds a bit familiar. But you may be right.”

Styles had been staring at something for a while before opening his journal and flipped through the pages. He then stopped at a page and started comparing his drawing to what he was staring at. “Hey guys. Come look at this.” The four of them came over to Styles to see the drawing and what he was pointing at. “I think this is supposed to be something. The texts I found at the research colony suggested that this is some portal. But something is missing.”

Sivol looked more closely at the drawing and then at what was before them. “It is a portal. But smaller, and it appears to be damaged.”

“A pillar is missing.” Gomez pointed out. “How do we fix something like this?”

Styles flipped some pages and then pointed, “There should be a room on the lower level here that has some sort of device that will recrystallize anything. Or restore anything. I don’t know, that word was a bit odd.”

“No. You are correct. The Tkon used crystalline structures, at least that is what the Enterprise away team encountered.” Sivol explained, “and the pillar appears to be made of that material.”

Suddenly a creature appeared out of nowhere, grabbing hold of the remaining pillar and screeching at them, causing them to jump quite a bit, Gomez, Ryker and Styles crying out a little in surprise. The creature was bipedal, two legs, two arms, four digit claws, three being fingers and one a thumb, the feet were much like the hands as well. It had bat-like wings, a creepy face with two beady eyes, a tiny nose, a huge mouth, and pointy ears. Completely hairless all over its body. “What the hell is that?!” Said Styles.

“No idea!” Said Ryker, and then they just watched it take a large bite out of the pillar, its teeth sinking through like it was made of cheese and it chewed on the mouthful that it had. “And apparently it eats crystalline. Fantastic.”

Gomez pulled out her phaser pistol. “We can’t let it keep eating that! We need it to restore functionality to this beacon!”

Vakai didn’t want to start what could be a fight that they might not win, but Gomez was right. If they don’t get this beacon online, they could be the only ones preventing the chaos in the galaxy from ending. “Make sure it’s on stun!” He told her, who nodded her head to confirm that it was and fired at dead center, a direct hit to its chest. But nothing happened, except it squealed so loudly that everyone had to cover their ears before it took off flying. Suddenly they began to hear more squealing…dozens more.

“Ohhhh that’s not good.” Said Ryker as he pulled out his pistol, everyone else doing the same, including Styles.

Vakai looked at him, “No! You get the device and get this thing repaired! Quickly!” Vakai then switched his weapon to maximum stun. “Everyone else, max stun setting. Fan out and don’t let them touch you!” Vakai looked back at Styles, “You’re with me. We must get that device!”

Styles cranked a dial on his pistol before nodding and led the way to stairs. But as they began to descend, they heard the creatures getting closer, the flapping of their wings filling their ears as it grew louder and louder until finally, a few of them came into sight and the team opened fire on them. As the three in the ops center held them off, Vakai and Styles took a few down while they hurried to the floor below.

“Vakai, Captain Carter here. What is the status of your mission?” Carter’s voice came through the badge in his pocket.

“Not a good time right now, Captain. Can I call you back?” Vakai said as he shot another creature out of the air while they reached the floor and hurried to the room, Styles shooting one down directly in front of him, both of them jumping over it now. They weren’t crazy big or anything, just about the size of a monkey…flying monkey anyway. More screeching was heard as Vakai shot at a few that landed on the platform behind them.

“The hell is that noise?” Carter asked.

“Oh, just some pests that we came across. Sorry, Cap. But gotta go!” Vakai reached into his pocket and tapped the badge, closing the transmission.

“Who was that?” Styles asked as they reached the room and he frantically began searching for the device as Vakai held off the creatures at the doorway.

“My Captain of the ship we told you about. Fine ship too, old but she is still very much kicking. Starfleet tries to build things to last but not all ship classes do.” Said Vakai.

“Ah, kind of like our airships. We have a few that have been around for over fifty years. But there are some that were built ten years ago that have been grounded and scrapped.” Styles explained as he rummaged through the containers.

“Found it yet?!” Vakai asked as he shot two more down.

“You know, for a very large and powerful empire that you say the Tkon once were, you think they would have a decent organization system here.” Said Styles.

“Could you two kindly hurry up please? We’re getting a bit overwhelmed here!” Gomez’s voice came over Vakai’s badge.

Styles suddenly held up an object and cheered, “Ah ha!! Found it!”

“Good, then let’s go!” Vakai told him.

“No wait. Wait. It’s missing a power source of some kind.” Styles said as he rummaged through the containers.

“Are you kidding?” Vakai asked, shooting two more down.

Styles then held up some sort of cylinder, “Wish I was but I believe I have found it.” He inserted it into the slot behind the device and it came to life. “Eureka!”

“About time, let’s go!” Vakai ordered and led the way back up to the ops center, both him and Styles fighting there way back, shooting at any creature that got close, some almost too close.

“Is that it?” Ryker asked as he shot one down.

“I believe it is.” Said Styles as he went over to what remained of the portal.

“You believe?!” Gomez asked with wide, glaring eyes before paying attention to a creature that almost got her face with its claws, until Ryker shot it down.

“Yes, yes. It is, I am certain!”

“Then if you would please, hurry!” Said Sivol.

While the team fought off a horde of these creatures, Styles activated the device and both crystalline pillars were repaired in a matter of seconds. “Well, how about that! Very use-” Styles was suddenly pulled towards the portal and just disappeared.

“Oh what the hell?!” Shouted Gomez.

“I think we should get out of here, Commander!” Said Ryker.

“No! It took him for a reason! We have to keep them off of the pillars, or he will be gone forever!” Said Sivol.

“Did it take him and the device?” Ryker asked.

Vakai looked after he shot a creature and grumbled. “It did. Do your best to keep those creatures off of you but the pillars are top priority!” As Vakai said that, one landed on one of the pillars and he shot it down. The battle raged for what felt like an hour but was merely ten minutes when suddenly, all the terminals came to life and they could hear power humming around them, feeling the deck under their feet just vibrating with life.

“I think he did it!” Said Gomez as she shot another creature.

Then suddenly, as over a dozen of these creatures came into the ops center all at once, completely overwhelming them, they then vanished right before their eyes. The team looked at each other, confused, that is until a familiar figure appeared between them and the portal.

“Professor Styles!” Said Ryker, but then he took another look. “What are you wearing?”

Styles smiled. “Just call me Gilbert, James. I apologize for taking so long, but the knowledge of a vast…incredible empire was just difficult to process all at once. It took longer than I liked, so I hope none of you would hold it against me.”

Gomez smirked as she holstered her pistol, everyone else doing the same. “We might. But what did you do with those creatures?”

Gilbert shrugged, “I sent them away. To some other underground cavern, deep within the planet’s surface, far far away from here where they can enjoy all the crystals they want.”

“Incredible.” Said Sivol.

Gilbert shrugged again. “I don’t know about incredible really, it was just a simple command of relocating them to a new home.”

“So, how did this happen?” Gomez asked.

“Child. You have to be more specific.” Gilbert smiled.

Sivol smiled at Gomez, letting her know that she would take it from there. “What she meant was, how did those creatures get here in the first place?”

“Isn’t that what I said?” She whispered to Ryker who just shrugged his shoulders.

Gilbert smiled, “When the Tkon created this vast empty space inside the pyramid and below the surface, they had apparently connected the underground cavern with some sort of tunnel network. The Tkon did not detect anything unusual nor did they detect any of these creatures at all. They were a bit baffled by the tunnel network but their priority was placing the beacon and establishing a guardian for it. Over the hundreds of thousands of years, these creatures suddenly existed. I believe they used to be some sort of crystal eating slug…and over time, they evolved into that of which you have dealt with. Then they must have developed some sort of ability to locate edible crystals and thus it led them to here, this beacon. The original guardian did what he could, he destroyed the entrances of the tunnels that led to this cavern, but not before half a dozen got through. All it took for them was to devour some of the crystalline down below to start reproducing and when the guardian realized what was happening, he then took matters into his own hands by modifying the Tkon written language at the research colony and in the large room, making it possible for someone like me to discover it, solve the puzzle, open the door and restore this beacon to its original state.”

“What happened to him, the guardian?” Sivol asked.

Gilbert smiled with a sigh. “He unfortunately perished. Before he could return to the portal, the creatures found him and apparently they had a taste for flesh as well.”

Gomez shivered, “He was devoured.”

Gilbert nodded. “Indeed. But after he was able to put his plan in motion. He knew how important it was to keep his beacon active. I too know why as well.”

Vakai looked at everyone before looking at Gilbert. “Could you tell us?”

Gilbert chuckled. “I am afraid I cannot. Your Captain, and Starfleet Command have very good reasons to keep it a secret. You, some day Vakai, will be informed of what it is. But I am afraid that your friends will have to wait longer before they too are informed.”

Ryker groaned, “Seriously? You are going to keep the information from us? Are we that untrustworthy?”

Gilbert shook his head, yet still smiling. “It is not about trust, my son. It is about ensuring that the information does not fall to the wrong hands. It could be very devastating. All I can say is that with this beacon restored, and all the others restored by your comrades in Starfleet, this…galactic crisis…will soon come to an end.”

“What about your people?” Vakai asked.

Gilbert tilted his head, “Meaning?”

“You discovered the formula that the other guardian left behind to create a functioning, stable warp engine that will propel your civilization into a new era. Is that knowledge going to be shared or are you the only one who knows about it?” Sivol asked.

Gilbert chuckled softly. “I am the only one who knows, and remembers. After I saw it and wrote it down in my journal, it disappeared from the documents I found at the ruins of the research colony. It was the basics I needed to learn and understand everything the Tkon gave me, in preparation to become the new guardian.”

Gomez frowned, “Basic? Are you saying the Tkon had other forms of interstellar travel?”

Sivol placed a hand on her shoulder. “Information we had on the Tkon, did say that they were able to move systems.”

Gilbert chuckled, “Quite right. Warp technology is the basic building block I needed to simply understand everything the Tkon taught me in order to repair and operate this beacon.”

Intrigued, Gomez had to ask. “Like what?”

Gilbert chuckled some more. “Oh child. So curious. Sorry, but much like your Prime Directive, I cannot reveal what other forms of travel are without your kind discovering it and creating it first. The risk of self annihilation is too great.”

Gomez frowned, “You really believe that we would annihilate ourselves? We’re far too sophisticated to do that.”

Gilbert shrugged his shoulders, the smile having never left his face. “True. You are. But I have laws of my own to follow. Just how this…employment works.”

Vakai stepped forward, “So this beacon is repaired and online?”

Gilbert nodded his head. “Very much so. It was quite simple really. As soon as I was sucked into the portal and after I recovered from all the information that was crammed into my head, I was able to activate the self repair system and it took almost no time at all to get this beacon operational again.”

Vakai nodded his head. “What about your expedition team?”

“Ah yes, them. My team. I sent them back home with no memory of the expedition. The door is sealed and no one can open it like I did. I changed the lock. Forty-Two seemed too easy.” Gilbert chuckled.

“What did you change it too?” Gomez asked.

Gilbert chuckled, “Oh dear child. Wouldn’t be much of a password if I told you what it was, now would it?”

Ryker patted her shoulder before looking at Gilbert. “So, how are we going to get back to our ship?”

“Are you four ready to return to your ship?” Gilbert asked.

They looked at each other before looking back at Gilbert, all four nodding their heads. Except Vakai held up a finger. “One more question. What happens if you need a replacement?”

Gilbert shrugged, “Then I will probably do the same as the previous guardian did. Hope someone figures it all out and give them the reigns. But I don’t expect that happening for another…ohhhh…several hundred thousand years. Toodles!” He waved goodbye and vanished before them. Then suddenly, they found themselves on the bridge.

Carter, among the other bridge crew, staring at them, blinking a little in surprise. “I take it you four repaired the beacon?” Carter asked.

The four of them looked around, realizing what happened before looking at Carter. “Yes, sir. Well. Sort of.” Said Ryker.

Carter raised a brow, “Sort of?”

“One of the citizens. He figured it all out on his own, repaired the portal…became the new guardian…and repaired the beacon.” Said Gomez.

Sivol nodded her head, “Apparently the former guardian had suffered a terrible fate but before he passed, he laid clues in hopes one man would find them and discover the beacon himself. Though, not sure if the clues were necessary, sounded like it was too easy. For him anyway.”

“So we’re good here?” Carter asked.

Vakai nodded his head, “Yes, sir. Prime Directive was held and the Beacon is restored with a new guardian who will make sure it stays that way for…many…many years.”

Carter sighed heavily in relief. “Good. I don’t know about everyone here, but I think it is about time we return to the Devron Fleet Yards for repairs and much needed leave. Chief says, with everything working as they should be, we can only achieve Warp Five. It’s just a patch job to the nacelle, it is going to need more work once we get back to Devron.”

“Understood, sir. I think we can handle a long journey back.” Vakai smiled.

Ryker shrugged, “Shouldn’t be too long. Maybe a week or so.”

Gomez sighed, “I will head to engineering, see if I can help the Chief coax more speed out of her. First…I need to change.”

“Me too.” Said Sivol.

“I will do that as well.” Vakai grinned.

“Oh come on. Am I the only one here who enjoys the steampunk stuff?” Ryker asked as he followed the three of them into the turbolift.

Carter shook his head before handing out orders, “Helm get us out of this system and then lay in a course for Devron. Warp Five. Comms, inform Command that we have completed our repairs on our beacon and are heading home for repairs. So please don’t send us more work our way, if they don’t mind.” He got both acknowledgments from them before he sat down in his chair. “I hope nothing like this pops its ugly head up again…”

Mizu flopped her back on her bed, wearing mostly her top and starfleet issued undies. “Ugh, feels like we have been at warp foooooor-eveeeeeeerrrr.” She groaned.

Ruby finishing up his reports on his duties he did today, just brief really, following the ‘Keep It Simple Stupid’ method before setting the padd down and leaning back in his seat. “We have been at Warp Five for only a few days, Mizu.”

Eli came out of their shared bathroom brushing her teeth. “Yeah but, we won’t arrive at Devron for at least a week.” She said, which made Mizu groan even more, after taking the toothbrush out only to stuff it back in and returning to the bathroom.

K’Roll laid there in his bunk, tucked neatly under the covers as he stared up at the ceiling. “So we pick up some extra, tedious duties. Make the time go quicker.”

Mizu sat up on her bunk. “You don’t get it. You heard the Captain. We are all due for shore leave. Hell, I bet the entire fleet is going to kick back and drink martinis long before we get to Devron to enjoy our own.”

K’Roll grunted, “Price we paid for defending ourselves against a superior opponent.”

Ruby chuckled, “I don’t know about superior, but definitely had us out matched, that’s for sure.”

“Oh come on! This old girl can take on a hundred Vorcha Attack Cruisers and still come out without a scratch!” Mizu folded her arms across her chest.

Eli came out of the bathroom and sat down on her bunk beneath K’Roll. “You don’t know your classes all that well, do you, Mizu?”

“Pfff. Please. It’s not about the ship, it’s the crew. Captain Carter will out match a hundred Klingon Captains without a blink of an eye!”

Ruby tilted his head, “You got a thing for the Captain?”

Mizu gasped, “What?! No! Ew! Man old enough to be my grandpa. Just stating the facts, bro. He’s got a ton of experience under his belt. He was on this ship during the Dominion War. It was no surprise that we kicked that Klingon Raider’s butt.”

“He’s going to retire.” Said K’Roll.

Mizu gasped again, grabbed her pillow and tossed it up at K’Roll’s face. “You take that back!!”

K’Roll had blocked himself perfectly before grabbing the pillow and handed it to Eli who returned it to Mizu as long as she promised not to throw it again. “It’s true. I overheard the Chief and Doctor Pearce at the mess hall. Vakai got a battlefield promotion, then his pals got their promotions too. Soon as they leave this ship, Captain Carter plans to retire.”

Mizu placed her pillow back on her bunk and glared at him. “I don’t believe you! He is a career man, he loves this ship, he won’t give up until they transport him to an olds people’s home. Even then he’d find a way back to the Centaur.”

Ruby sighed, turning his seat around to face them. “Face it, Mizu. He’s right. Captain Carter has been in Starfleet and in Command for a long time. Heck, a lot of people are still surprised this ship still flies. And we learned a lot on carrying out manual diagnostics and doing adjustments and submitting things for maintenance to look into. We all have done our bit to keep this ship in tip top shape for the Captain but how long do you think that will last? And what about the torpedo pod? That thing got a hole the size of a runabout. Only one tube works. If Devron replaces the pod, we will be lucky, or we will be looking for a new assignment after shore leave.”

Mizu groaned and plopped back down on her bunk. “And here I was enjoying the dirty work that this ship required.”

“At least we were part of history!” Said Eli.

Ruby chuckled, “That is true. We got to board a Tkon Space Station in orbit of a steampunk civilization.”

“If only we could have gathered more data on their weapon technology. They were the most powerful people six hundred thousand years ago.” Said K’Roll.

“You know Starfleet isn’t about better weapons.” Said Eli.

“Yeah, but we could have used them against any foe that threatens the lives of millions. Like the Borg.”

Ruby shrugged, “I think Starfleet has that covered. But if we did get reassigned to a new vessel, I hope we all get the same one.”

“So what? You can try pranking K’Roll again?” Mizu asked with a grin.

Ruby chuckled, “Nah. I just don’t want to turn into Barclay and land an assignment with a Holodeck and create Holodeck friends that look like you guys.”

“Hey! He got over that and became a valuable asset to Starfleet. Even made it possible to communicate with Voyager when they were still in the Delta Quadrant.” Said Eli.

Ruby grinned and squinted at her. “You sure he got over that holodeck obsession of his?”

“Who cares. No one is going to separate us. We’re too valuable! Couple of ensigns who are willing to keep doing the back breaking boring work on a starship and two other ensigns who look to do big assignments that one day will get them a promotion to Junior Lieutenants! And then they’ll leave us and we will have to find new ensign friends.” Mizu pouted.

“Aawww. I promise we will stay in touch!” Said Eli.

K’Roll grumbled, “Just because I want a promotion, doesn’t mean I don’t want to spend time with you guys. I want a Career in Starfleet, not treat it like it’s just another job.”

Mizu laughed, “Awww, kitty cat loves us after all. Don’t worry about it, K’Roll. You do you, while me and Ruby will do whatever we want.”

Ruby’s padd pinged, notifying something new came up and he went to check. He then lit up, “Ohhhh yesss!! Mizu! The Chief of Security wants to do some simulated combat on the ship! Where a single deck is designated the hot zone, and two teams duke it out with phaser weapons at one one thousandth power.”

Mizu grabbed the padd. “Aawww yeaahhh!! It’ll sting a little but who cares!! The four of us will crush tbe opposition!”

“When is this supposed to be?” K’Roll asked.

Mizu skimmed over the details, “Couple of days. They want to use tomorrow to brief and prep.”

“Ooooooo, I’m so excited!! I don’t know if I will get to sleep now.” Said Eli.

“You and me both, sister. Boy. First some crazy stuff goes on in the galaxy, then we find some abandoned Tkon space station and then we had to go and repair some beacon. Now we get to have laser tag on an entire deck!! Best ship ever!!!!” Mizu flopped her back back onto her bunk, cheering.

Meanwhile, some distance away behind the Centaur was another vessel, one that could not be seen, or found by sensors. It was a restored Romulan Bird of Prey, upgraded with the latest technology in every aspect, cloaked and stalking its prey. On the bridge of the cloaked vessel one man stood before the view screen as he stared at the rear of the Centaur Class vessel. He stood there, arms folded across his chest, as he waited for the computers to get a complete and full detailed scan of the vessel, choosing the slowest option to avoid detection, low intensity scan that scans a small piece of the ship one bit at a time, in a sense scanning an entire warp nacelle would take several hours. It was the best method to not alert his prey, even with the best cloaking technology, he will not risk giving himself away. Besides, he has plenty of time, the ship won’t make it back to their allies for another week. So the man was patient, and he chose the best course of action to ensure his mission succeeds. While he waited, he thought back of what brought him to this moment.

“We want to hire you for a job, a very specific job, and we are willing to pay.”

Man shook his head, “I work for someone already. It wouldn’t be polite to take a job from the Tal’Shiar behind my employer’s back.”

Officer chuckled, “I figured you would say that. I am not going to pay in credits or latinum if that’s what you think. I would rather pay with information.”

Man shook his head again, “No amount of information you have that my employer won’t be able to get themself would make me take this job.”

The Officer smirked, “Oh really? What if it is about your parents, and the one who made it all happen…?”

Now he was intrigued. “What’s the job?”

“I need you to capture someone and bring them to these coordinates. That is all that I require and you will receive all the details you need to find the one responsible for your parents death.”

“Who is the target?”

Officer smiled. “Commander Vakai.”

The AI appeared beside the man. “When do you want to begin the attack, Ajis?”

Ajis continued to stare at the back of the Centaur. “As soon as we have all the data we need to ensure that this assault goes without a hitch.”

She smiled, “Two days then?”

Ajis nodded his head. “Indeed.”