It was night aboard the USS Grus; just after 3am ship time.  Petty Officer Bento Sousa, sat alone in a small room; just forward of Main Engineering.  This was the Communications Office; which acted as a secondary monitoring station during the day, and the main one, when no one was manning the console on the Bridge, especial during the Gamma Shift.

The computer was slowly cycling through all known frequencies, extracting anything it felt was artificial from the natural background radiation of the universe.  Every so often it would flag a noise up, which required further analyse and Bento would tune in he’s earpiece to listen.  Before recording the time and making a note his findings.  Ensign Cho as Chief Communications Officer and therefore his direct superior, would always have a quick look at his report in the morning, before passing on anything that may warrant further investigation.

So far very little had been detected; on this particular shift. Bento was relaxing with a good book; one he’d started just after the ship had arrived in the expanse.  However he was not too distracted to notice the computer flash a stream of data up on the screen.  It had detected a faint transmission.  Placing the Padd to one side, Petty Officer Sousa set about narrowing down the source, which appeared to be operating on a Medium Wave radio frequency.

At first all he got was a distorted mumble, mixed with other sounds like music echoing through a tunnel.  With a few more adjustments, the song came through loud and clear, it was in Portuguese.

Quando te vê

E os meus olhos ficam sorrindo

E pelas ruas vão te seguindo

Being from Brazil he could easily understand the words being sung; but was at a loss as to why the Universal Translator wasn’t converting it to English.

He taped his Combadge “Sousa to Bridge.”

“Fletcher here, go ahead.” A voice replied moments later.

“I’m picking up music over subspace sir.”

“What sort of music?” Fletch asked.

“This kind of music.”  Petty Officer Sousa linked up the transmission with the Bridge.

Que me devora o coração

E só assim, então

Serei feliz, bem feliz

The song came to an end, and then there was talking; mostly a male voice but occasionally there was a female one to, all of it in Portuguese.

“Sousa, you wake Ensign Cho, I’ll wake the Captain!”

**********

Around seven minutes later; Lieutenant-Commander Vought arrived on the Bridge; and Ensign Fletcher vacated the Captain’s chair and moved over to Tactical.  A few moments later, Ensign Cho appeared, with Petty Officer Sousa close on the young Koreans heels.

Grus was the third vessel he’d served aboard, in the space of six years, but this would be the first time Bento had ever set foot on a ships Bridge.  Cho jumped into her chair as the Petty Officer stood behind it, watching the Chief Communications Officer’s fingers dance across the console.

Vought waited patiently until he felt Ensign Cho had gathered some additional information on the signal.  “Anything to report, Ensign.”

“I can confirm this is a radio broadcast operating on a frequency of 807 to 811kHz.” Cho replied.

“Is there any chance that it originated, from Earth?” Vought questioned.

“That’s a negative Sir, we’re too far out; any signal like this would take several million years to reach this part of the quadrant.”  The Korean responded.  “It’s also coming from the other direction.”

“Can you give me the location of the source?”

It took a few minutes for Ensign Cho to get a proper fix on the location from where the music was being broadcast.  “Signal baring 037.2 mark 066.8.”

“Helm, adjust our course to that heading.”  Vought requested.

“Aye Captain, bringing us about, new course laid in.”

The USS Grus banked and turned towards the source of the transmission; and it wasn’t long before the ship was dropping out of warp in the vicinity of a small star and it companion planets

“Mister Fletcher, what do we have here?” Vought stood up and walked closer to the main view screen.

“A G-type star with seven planets orbit around it.”  Ensign Fletcher reported back.  “The third planet in the system registers as M class, comparable size to Earth.”

“Are there any other vessels in our vicinity?”

“I’m not picking anything up, or any residual energy signatures.”

The Captain looked down to his helm officer. “Take us in, nice and slow, one quarter impulse.”

“Aye Captain, one quarter impulse.”

**********

It was roughly five hours later, when Lieutenant-Commander Vought assembled the senior staff; he had not slept or left the Bridge, during that period.  The USS Grus had hidden itself amongst the rings of the fourth planet; remnants of a moon which had once been in orbiting around it; sending a single probe to gather information.

Between brakes in the clouds the probe had managed to gather vital details about the planet and its inhabitants.

What had been discovered on the M class world orbiting an as yet unnamed star; were a number of small villages and towns dotted over the most southerly of four main continents,   the in habitants appeared human in appearance and those that had been heard over the radio, all spoke in Portuguese.

Any attempt by Ensign Cho and later, Lieutenant (JG) Lyambo had failed to establish why the Universal Translator wasn’t doing its job.

Any technology that had been detected on the planet seemed to be comparable with early and mid-twentieth century Earth.  That included a half dozen small satellites; one of which was transmitting radio messages across the inhabited continent and out into space; though the later was unintentional.

Building were a mix of wood, stone and brick and none extended beyond five stores in height; and even structures of that size appeared to be rare.  Transport consisted mainly of two wheeled horse draw carts; though some self-propelled vehicles with combustible engines had been sighted.  There were also some railway tracks linking up at least three areas of population along the east coast; upon which operated steam powered locomotives, hauling various goods wagons.

“You know it’s almost like these people were scooped up from Earth and dropped here.” Lieutenant Devron commented at one point.

“I agree added.” Debaere, the Chief Science Officer.  “Every aspect of their architecture, the way they dress, everything.  It all points to Earth.”

“Have we picked up any information about what they call themselves or this place?” Vought enquired.

“The name Lar Verde has cropped up a few times, but whether that’s the name of the whole place or just the location from which the radio broadcast originates, I can’t tell you.”  Ensign Cho answered.  “That translates as Home Green.”

“I’ve tried everything short of ripping the whole thing apart.” Lyambo added his voice to the conversation. “But I can’t figure out what’s wrong with our translator!”

“How dangerous would it be for us to move closer?” Their Captain enquired.

“Well even though they seem to be humans, this is a pre-warp civilisation.” Debaere looked back, clasping his hands. “So the Prime Directive still applies.”

“So it’s agreed we continue to monitor things from here, until we can be sure of moving closer without being detected.” Vought announced. “Agreed?”

Everyone around the table either nodded or voiced their approval.  With that done he concluded the meeting dismissed the senior staff.