Captain Gar’rath scrolled through the initial contact report that he’d spent the last few hours drafting. Several parts had been revised multiple times, leading to the report growing in size from the initial dictation to its current incarnation. Even with all of the revisions and addendums to it, the Gorn wasn’t completely satisfied with it. And to add to his mounting frustrations, he couldn’t even properly articulate to himself why he felt it was lacking. He leaned backward in his chair, making the object creak slightly in protest at such a large creature demanding that it bare the brunt of his full weight with very little time to adjust.

As Gar’rath stared into the middle distance between himself and the ceiling in idle contemplation, the door chime filled the space with its particular warble. The sound prompted the Captain to straighten his posture and focus on the entrance to his Ready Room.

“Enter,” the Gorn commanded once his mind had refocused on his current situation.

Lieutenant Brian James stepped through the door, quickly followed by Ensign Thalia Zinith. Before they’d even completely entered the space, Capt. Gar’rath already began to extrapolate the meaning behind their visit. Between the time that had already eclipsed since the pair had begun their investigation and the pensive looks each officer in front of him wore, the Gorn could almost guess what the preamble for this meeting was going to be.

“I take it you’ve found something,” Gar’rath said preemptively.

Lt. James let out a wry chuckled, “We did indeed find something, Captain. Or rather, Ensign Zinith found something, which led me to look in the right places to confirm it.”

“Have you already briefed Commander Peters about your findings?” the Gorn’s eyes flicked between the two.

“No sir,” Brian answered, “I thought it best to report this directly to you.”

“If it is that important, then I believe we should both hear it together,” the Captain said before tapping the intercom command on his desk terminal, “XO, can you step into my Ready Room?”

Because the woman was already on the bridge, she opted to forego a verbal response and simply walked through the doors of the compartment. She walked past the two officers still standing near the doorway and came to a halt just to the Captain’s right in front of his desk.

“Now then, please tell us what you’ve discovered,” Gar’rath said, his words alerting Cmdr. Peters to the gist of why she’d been called in.

“As I said, Ensign Zinith made a discovery while scanning radio frequencies being emitted by the planet’s inhabitants…” Lt. James said before turning meaningfully toward the Ensign standing to his left.

“The signals we’ve been intercepting were difficult to translate at first, the degradation of the signal over time made whatever information they contained appear to be a jumbled mess of half-broken phrases. It wasn’t until we’d reached out current position that the carrier waves being used were strong enough to transmit a mostly intact message,” Thalia explained before her expression darkened slightly, “Most of the signals we intercepted during the first hour were warnings of attacks. After that, the messages were a mix of situation reports from what we believe were their combatant forces, and within the last half hour, the signals stopped altogether. Given our current position, there is about a thirteen hour delay between the signal’s point of origin and ourselves, which means that whoever was transmitting likely succumbed to some manner of…”

“Mutual destruction,” Gar’rath finished the sentence for the woman. The Ensign nodded weakly, her eyes drifting downward as she did so. For her part, Cmdr. Peters let out a slow whistle as she took in the gravity of the situation. The compartment remained silent for a few heartbeats before it was broken by the Captain’s voice.

“I take it you have some follow up information, Lieutenant, given how you presented this initially.”

“I do, sir,” Brian responded, “According to long range scans of the planet’s atmosphere, it seems likely that the inhabitants of the planet were at least far enough along, technologically, to have discovered nuclear fission. And more importantly, they had managed to weaponize it. Current reading indicate that well over a thousand high yield devices were detonated at various points all across the planet. Even without knowing anything about their population numbers, distribution, and the like… I can say with certainty that if their entire civilization hasn’t been wiped out already, the survivors won’t last through the next decade.”

“That’s…” Abby began before putting an unsteady hand over her mouth and muttering, “horrible…”

“Recommendations?” the Captain inquired.

Lt. James folded his arms across his chest, “Honestly? Part of me wants to turn around and head off to our original destination and forget we ever saw this.”

“Understandable,” the Gorn agreed before following up with, “But not something we can do in good conscience.”

“No… Which is why the more rational part of me recommends that we approach the planet and conduct a thorough and comprehensive investigation of the incident and what might be left on the surface. Given the suspected totality of the destruction, even if it didn’t violate the Prime Directive I would still advocate that we do not send anyone to the surface personally. The radiation would likely be too high even for our most advanced environmental suits to withstand,” Brian followed up.

“XO… your thoughts?”

“I concur, Captain,” Peters said after taking a deep breath to regain some of her lost composure, “We should at least do our best to catalogue the incident. They should at least be remembered, even if they never knew we were out here.”

“Very well. Have Lieutenant Connor take us into the system and establish a safe orbit around the planet. Mister James, have your department conduct the most comprehensive archival effort possible from orbit,” Gar’rath instructed.

“We’ll get to work the moment we’re in orbit. Also, may we retrieve objects from the surface? We’ll use all due caution to ensure that we don’t introduce contamination to the ship,” James requested.

Gar’rath gave the request a bit of thought before responding with, “You can look for artifacts during your initial investigation, but I want to see your findings and get a clear picture of what’s occurred and what the risks might be prior to you bringing anything aboard.”

“Understood, Captain.”

“Good, then carry out your orders,” the Gorn said in a dismissive tone. Abby was the first to head out the door, followed quickly by Lt. James. Ensign Zinith turned to depart before stopping and turning back around. Gar’rath’s right eye ridge quirked up slightly in surprise at seeing her lingering in his office.

“Is there something else, Ensign?”

“Sir…” the woman said in a cracking voice, “I didn’t think I’d ever be witness to the death of a culture when I joined Starfleet… We were far enough away that I couldn’t feel anything while everything was taking place, but still… I… I wasn’t…”

Gar’rath rose from his chair and approached the young woman, placing his large hand on her shoulder, “I don’t think any of us joined Starfleet thinking that one day we might bare witness to the end of an entire civilization. I certainly did not. But that is what has happened, and we now shoulder the burden of knowing it has come to be. We will carry out the solemn duty of committing them to memory, as we would for any who have fallen. It is a grim task, yes… but not one we can’t carry out.”

Thalia wiped the tears falling from her eyes with the sleeve of her uniform and nodded weakly, “Yes sir.”

“You are relieved of duty for the rest of the day, Ensign,” Gar’rath informed her, “Perhaps you should see one of the counselors if you feel that you need help to process this, they might be able to work through this with you a bit better than I can. I will have Commander Sorreth cover the rest of your duty shift.”

Ens. Zinith looked up at the Captain and gave him a small smile of appreciation, “Thank you sir, I’ll take you up on your offer.”

“Good.”

Thalia nodded and finally turned to make her way out of the Captain’s Ready Room. When the door closed behind her, Gar’rath let out a long, slow sigh that seemed to come from the pit of his stomach. Much like his young communications officer, the Gorn had not planned to have to witness the end of an entire race when he woke up that morning, and now that it had come to pass, he wasn’t entirely sure what he or anyone else was meant to do about it or how to actually process it fully.

Gar’rath turned toward his desk, the report he’d started a few hours ago hanging in mid-air one the holographic display. His first thought upon seeing it was that he now knew what was missing from it. Suddenly, he wanted to take the rest of the day off too…