The familiar orange and black walls fall away, and our team finds themselves surrounded by the cold stone of ancient ruins whilst a warm breeze licks at their backs. Atop this mountainous outcropping, our trio of officers have been tasked with exploring an unusual and unexpected energy signal nestled in the ancient and forgotten ruins.

Lieutenant Marsha Lee, Pioneer’s newest addition to the xeno-archaeology team and team leader, lays out the mission objectives. They are to explore the ruins and investigate the source of this sudden energy spike discovered by one of Starfleet’s deep space probes.

The ruins are ancient, steadfast, weathered marble that once hummed with the echoes of pilgrims and missionaries, now only play host to whispering winds and the rare avalanches from failing stone pillars. A large complex stands on the northern side, several smaller rooms that encircle a large pillared forum which holds some decidedly modern-looking cargo crates, whilst a small cluster of buildings barely present remnants lies to the southern part of the plateau. At the centre of the assembled buildings stands a tall, weathered statue. Unadorned and simply carved, the statue stands guard over a small bronze dish, buffed into a bright tone by the repeated hands of pilgrims. On either side of the statue are two large and incongruous mechanical devices. To the left, a squat bulbous device with a large green dome, to the right complicated-looking unit that currently broadcasts a spinning green orb.

Orlan begins scanning the area for hazards, including energetic or radiological dangers. None are present, but he does detect that there are currently isolated on the plateau, several miles above the planetary sea level. Escape from the platform would only be by transporter or shuttle; there is no direct route out. He proceeds to begin his examination of the local area for any signs of activity beyond the unusual devices.

Whilst he undertakes his initial scans, Shaw consults the ship’s library for information on the planet. The class M planet is named Generica, and whilst it is currently not settled, there are numerous sites of ancient ruins across the planet. It is not immediately scheduled for colonial expansion but has been earmarked for a new deep space outpost in the future. Little is known about the ancient inhabitants of the planet, as archaeological surveys are not scheduled for several months. This is one of several reasons Lieutenant Commander Lee has been assigned to this mission.

The trio begin to examine the machines and local building’s looking for any connection and discover both feature extensive untranslated scripts with similar but not identical construction. Lee lends her historical knowledge to Shaw’s extensive linguistic skills, and the pair establish that the languages are related, with the text on the machines being an evolution of the older text, similar to how Latin and Spanish are related. Moreover, the phonetics and root form hold several similarities to proto-romulan script recorded shortly after the Sundering.

The team believes they have sufficient data between the carvings, the machines and Pioneer’s library to formulate some sort of translation matrix for the machine’s systems. Orlan notes that the devices are heavily shielded and will likely require a direct connection to the interface.

Shaw and Lee begin to analyse the language using corpus linguistic techniques, making use of Lee’s special knowledge of the Sundering era, whilst Orlan offers to explore the area for tools or equipment to open the device’s cases. Shaw suggests he examine the suspiciously modern-looking cargo crates in the northern building.

Despite his previous extensive history of failure in athletic attempts, Orlan attempts to mount the pile of crates to examine the large units at the top. He manages to make an impressive leap (though barely retains his footing) and opens the top crate. Spurred by his surprise athletic ability, Orlan begins to investigate the crates, noticing that they feature Romulan script, though he does not share this with the team. Inside, he finds a number of standard surveying devices commonly used in the Romulan polities and a number of older-looking artefacts. One of these falls to the ground, and Lee can’t resist her sticky fingers and pockets a long, cylindrical tube with ornate carving.

She attests that it’s better in her hands than left on the side of a mountain, but the others remain unconvinced.

Having found a useful device, Orlan attempts to dismount the crates with a similarly impressive athletic display and fails miserably, falling and injuring his head as well as his pride. Lee quietly whispers ‘bingo’ as she makes a mental note to update her Pioneer bingo sheet.

Having managed to compile the translation matrix and gain access to the main device, Orlan begins hardwiring Shaw’s tricorder into the hologram projector. Shaw and Lee explore the ruins further, their engineering knowledge and skills being less than useful. During their explorations, Lee identifies the statue to bear a number of signs of Vulcan iconography, and when examining the brass bowl, finds a slender black stone with a deep crimson core at its centre. She pockets this too, convincing herself again with the logic that it’s better with her than in a museum.

Shaw, meanwhile, examines the bulbous device and notices it shares several similarities with a transporter receiver, but lacks the components and power source to act as a transmitter. He confirms this with Orlan, who, having just deployed the finalisation programme, suggests that perhaps the people who put it here were simply lazy.

As the translation matrix begins to translate the data on the unit and on the holographic display, it becomes clear that this system is part of a larger network of transporter hubs across the planetoid. Shaw expands the system’s report to discover that this network extends into the nearby orbiting satellites as well. The trio, excited by the possibility of a more extensive and powerful transporter technology, begin to consider what this might mean for the Federation when the rock Lee had taken from the altar bowl begins to glow, burning hot.

Moments later, the previously inactive transporter pad begins to hum and glow, and the team realise they are about to have visitors. A number of undiscovered forcefields leap into existence, cutting off all hope of exit from the ruins, whilst Lee casts the now scalding hot stone onto the ground. All three fall back to more defensive positions as familiar green fireflies begin to assemble into a trio of Romulan Centurions.

From their hidden positions, the three watch the hostile visitors begin to search the area. Orlan notices the Starfleet tricorder and padd are still fitted to the ancient device, and in an attempt to take the initiative, Shaw steps up from his hiding place and declares.

“Today is a good day to die!”

He proceeds to open fire with his phaser on stun at the lead Romulan officer but misses completely.

The two trade disruptor and phaser fire until the Romulan officer lands a solid hit on Shaw, catching his shoulder and forcing him back. As the Romulan trio turn their attention to the wounded man, Lee decides to undertake a surprise assault against the apparent lead, running forward to rugby tackle her to the ground. Her grapple is successful, and the surprised Romulan is pushed to the flaw, drawing the assembled attention from Shaw. Orlan begins to lay down covering fire whilst Lee wrestles on the ground.

A firefight occurs, with Shaw and Orlan attempting to take down the foe. In the process, one of the Romulan officers fires on his colleague in an attempt to hit Lee. The Romulan leader grabs the fallen officer’s disruptor rifle and, in the confusion levels it at Shaw. She lands a direct hit and incapacitates the man with a growing disruptor wound to the stomach. Orlan takes advantage of her focus on Shaw and takes her down, missing the opportunity to prevent her from injuring his fellow officer by a split second.

Lee rushes to Shaw’s side whilst Orlan engages in a shootout with the third and final Romulan officer. As weapons fire flies above their heads, Lee barely manages to triage and stabilise Shaw due to her limited supplies, and, in what he believes are his last moments, he begs her not to let him die.

The third Romulan manages to levy an uncanny shot at Orlan, who falls unconscious from the shot due to his already wounded state from his earlier athletic attempts. In his last moments of consciousness, he opts to overload his phaser, converting it into a photonic grenade. His throw is unsuccessful, and the phaser lands in the centre of the ruins, exploding and damaging the devices they had come to investigate.

Left alone against the third Centurion, Lee must make a difficult choice to attempt to treat Shaw or deal with the final adversary. After a moment of indecision, she opts to make use of her grappling skills again and tackle the Centurio,n but slips on a nearby rocky outcropping and ends up locked in a stalemate of a wrestle with the Romulan.

As she continues to wrestle with him, she manages to gain the upper hand when he reaches for his disruptor and pushes him to the ground. As she stands over her foe victoriously, a strange, cold sensation runs up her spine.

As she turns to see what is happening, the gaunt, vacant face of Shaw is before her. His sallow face and blank expression set her stomach churning.

His lips suddenly part, and with a cruelly cold and inhuman voice, he announces.

“There is a rot at the heart of things.”

The apparition of Shaw then shoots Lee at point-blank range.

She expects to feel pain. She expects to scream. She expects to die.

Instead, she falls, lifeless and heavy, backwards.

She expects to hit stone but instead falls, and falls, and falls, like a ragdoll dropped from a plane.

With a sudden panicked breath, she awakens to the delicate kisses of a warm breeze, the gentle whispering of nearby trees dances on her ears, and the delicately dappled sunlight warms her face.

Nearby is Orlan, Shaw and the unconscious form of Lieutenant Daes Ral.

The smells and sounds of the nearby farmland waft into her nostrils, and as her eyes begin to focus once again, she realises they are no longer on the mountain, nor the planet, nor perhaps even their reality.