“The Periodic Table lacks one of the most powerful elements that make up our world, and that is the element of surprise.”

Daniel Handler, “The Ersatz Elevator” (2001)

A raptor stalks through the darkness.

Purposeful, intent, unseen – it soars high above its unsuspecting prey as it rides the currents of adaptation that has seen it ascend to the very apex of its predatory evolution.

The perfect end – point product of natural selection, as it stalks through the night – black vastness of the void, it is unarguably the ultimate expression of ‘descent with modification’. Typically, biological evolution expresses itself as changes in gene frequency within a population over time – if, say, birds with genes that produce long talons went from being rare to being common over multiple generations. In all of these cases, the modifications are heritable and can be passed on to the next generation — which is what really matters in evolution: long term change.

The raptor itself had been influenced, stylized and informed by the generations that had flocked before its genesis, over time becoming the most simplest equation whereby its form, function and purpose had emerged as that pre-eminent expression in the business of stalking its prey and dealing swift death from the shadows.

That it was not the most current or modern iteration of its genus mattered very little. Even though the mechanisms of change had further shaped the generation that proceeded it, the raptor was more than capable of executing its function and maintaining its evolutionary fitness.

So, it played to type and let those critical adaptions dictate it’s behaviour, very much like the Accipitriformes it’s genus had derived from had done some 44 million years before. It loitered unnoticed beyond the comprehension of others and rode the turbulent waves of chance.

Waiting for the perfect time to strike.

Stardate: 2402.11.07 / 11.21hrs

Location: USS Kirk,Hecate#7b, Hecate Binary Cluster, Shackleton Expanse, Beta Quadrant

The graceful, manta – like hull of the USS Kirk went from gradual ‘night’ to ‘day’ as the brilliant brightness of the twinned binary suns of Hecate gradually illuminated the elegant sweep of the powerful twinned nacelles that predominated the superstructure and the escort rotated through its central axis as the ship came out of warp and angled towards the dun – colored orb of Hecate#7b.

Built for comfort as well as conflict, the confident lines of the Shran – class signaled the Federation’s confidence and commitment – all in one compact package. Able to operate independently, this was a vessel that was intended to end fights instead of starting them, but her armaments and sensor – capabilities were today turns to a mission that complement Starfleet’s role as a peacekeeper and she was currently engaged in perhaps the most noble humanitarian effort of all.

Search and rescue.

“Captain, we’ve arrived in Geosynchronous orbit around Hecate#7b.” Ensign Jasmine Hunter reported smoothly from her place at the helm – console. The young CFC officer handled the escort with a lithe grace that belied her relatively – young years and her voice carried the sure confidence of someone well – at home behind the controls.

From her vantage point on the central dais, Lieutenant Commander Lane Hanley could rotate her command chair through the 240 degrees it required to take in every station, in order to directly address the officer manning that function on the small bridge of the Kirk, a rail immediately to either side of her habitually projected holo – displays that could tell her in an instant the exact same telemetry that the officer in question was seeing. But at this moment she elected not to do either.

Right now, her attention was squarely fixed on the forward viewscreen and the visual depiction of the Hell – world that hung like a death sentence below them.

Hanley curled her slim hand into a hard fist and coiled it on her knee without really realizing she was doing so.

“TAC. Report.” Lane ordered, her voice firm and level.

Ensign Kutka inclined his fuscia – scaled head and when the Saurian reported back, his tone was unhurried and confident.

“Sensors report not contacts within range, Captain. Ship remains at Yellow – alert status. Shields at 50 percent.”

Lane narrowed her eyes as she scrutinized the data and was satisfied that Kutka’s tactical evaluation seemed correct. A vast sense of disappointment accompanied this realization.

Of the RNN Selquar, there appeared to be no sign.

Perhaps it was signal to the attendant frustration that had been steadily building over the last 8 days, but part of her had willed the missing Romulan Republic science – vessel to just be sitting there in orbit, the victim of nothing more pedestrian than a downed subspace communication array.

But of Sub – commander  Thecal and the crew of his Galas – class vessel, there again appeared to be no sign.

Trying not to let her innermost disappointment show, lest it demoralize the crew further, Lane put a brave face on things and pushed her annoyance to one side. Had she really thought that this would have been so easy?

She knew that this avenue of inquiry was a hand desperately clutching at straws that were blowing away in the wind – but with every hour that the combined – fleet went without locating the Selquar, the terser the cooperation between the alliance became and the more imperiled the fate of the missing crew became.

Finally, she broke her vigil and turned from the screen to address the coltish – Denobulan seated at the science – station.

“Mr Phorrel. Your analysis please.”

To his credit, Orvid nodded confidently and spoke as he worked, reviewing the data that was currently streaming in from the Kirk’s advanced Planetary – sensor suite.

“Initial telemetry from the planet confirms our earlier Y – class categorization, ma’am.” Orvid murmured as he began to parse the data and make sense of what the instruments were telling him. “A more hostile biospheric environment could hardly exist anywhere else. H’mmm…that’s certainly interesting though…..”

Lieutenant Bohrigm Nil rose from the auxiliary station, where the Executive officer normally occupied on the cramped bridge and went over to stand behind Phorrel to get a better look at the data streaming in.

“What exactly am I looking at Ensign?” The barrel – chested little Tellarite asked as his fingers stroked his birds – nest of beard.

Orvid keyed a control and the viewscreen was suddenly filled with a top – down view of the planet’s surface streaming by, an unhospitable fracture of sepia – faded continents crawled underneath, largely obscured by vast sepia – coloured bruises of cloud systems that strobed with violent stabs of lightning storms.

Ensign Phorrel adjusted the camera view and phase – shifted the acuity to the Electromagnetic imaging array.

“Unless I’m very much mistaken, some of these formations correlate to manufactured structures.” Orvid’s voice carried a tinge of curiosity and the excitement of discovery, despite the grave nature of their mission.”

As the view altered from a purely visual representation of the planetscape to one where hues of primary colors resolved with powerful processing – imagers, there did indeed seem to be some regularity to some of the shapes predominating the landscape below.

“Any sign of lifeforms?” Hanley demanded, her mind ever on the Selquar.

Orvid sucked air through his teeth as he considered this enquiry.

“It’s hard to say without more detailed scans, Captain, the extent of competing background radiations conspire to make such a confirmation difficult indeed. With time I should be able to refine my search, but, I would say that nothing has lived on the surface of Hecate#7b for somewhere in the region of 10,000 years.”

Bohrigm frowned. “How can you be so sure?”

Orvid nodded.

“Well, Lieutenant, by calculating the rate of decay from the gamma radiation particles in the atmosphere with the portal – sensor array in Becquerel’s (Bq), where 1 x Bq equals 1 decay per second, we can arrive at a count per minute (cpm) to give us a standard decay ratio. By sampling that rate of alpha & beta particle decay over the distribution over the planetary mass, its reasonable to assume that the people that built what remains of those structures ceased to be sometime in the last 10 millennia.”

“So, Hecate#7b wasn’t always a Hellworld?” Hanley interjected.

“I would say not Captain.” Orvid turned to face her. “Again, whilst it’s impossible to conjecture the exact sequence of events that led to the planet’s current state, I would rule out some sort of natural disaster.”

“How can you be so sure?”” Lane demanded.

Ensign Phorrel adjusted the view on the screen and panned and zoomed to what appeared to be a large, dark lake near one of the central land – masses around the equator.

“This formation here is not man – made, Captain.” The scientist explained. “Rather it has the characteristics of geological formation that occurs as the result of a high – energy release in a localized volume. A weapons discharge. By the glassing effect of the mica around the shoreline, I would guess at the detonation of a ‘primitive’ thermonuclear device of considerable yield.”

He nodded sadly.

“It would appear that Hecate#7b was transformed into its current state by the advent of some sort of devastation brought on by global conflict. If the levels of radiation and mutagens in the atmosphere are indicative– it would have been an extinction – level event.”

Lane sat back in her chair and considered the implications.

If there had been an ancient civilization once extant on the planet below, would that have been sufficient to pique the interest of Sub – commander Thecal and entice the CO of the Selquar to alter course from his published mission light – plan to investigate?

Whilst that hypothesis reasonably held – water when the inquisitiveness of the scientific mind was considered, what it did not take into account was what could have been transpiring upon this cold, long – dead world to gain the attention of Thecal and cause him to alter course in the first place?

“Mr Phorrel, you mentioned that it was a diminishing reading correlating to that of a Singularity Breach event that first alerted you to Hecate#7b?” Lane narrowed her eyes, trying to work the logic of the situation.”

“That is correct Ma’am.” The young Chief Science Officer nodded his auburn – haired head in confirmation.

“Apart from that occurrence, has there been any other recent phenomena in this volume that could have caused the Selquar to deviate from her assigned course, in order to investigate.”

Orvid looked nonplussed as he too considered the implications of this question.

“Certainly nothing extrasolar of that magnitude, Captain.”

Lane shared a meaningful look with Bohrigm, as the XO stood by the science station.

“So, we have a dead planet transformed into a Hellworld, presumably thousands of years again resulting in the death of all sentient life and no reason to correct your course to visit it.” Lane spoke her confusion aloud. “So, the question is – IF the Selquar came here (and that’s a big ‘IF’ that is looking less likely by the minute), then what was it that drew Sub-commander Thecal here in the first place.”

Silence filled the bridge as the question was far from evident.

It was Bohrigm that finally broke the deadlock.

“Ensign Phorrel, can you show us the location of the Singularity – disturbance that you originally detected?”

“Of course, Lieutenant.” Orvid brought up the data.

Lieutenant Nil nodded and fed the coordinates into the Nav – computer.

“Helm, make this your course, quarter – impulse.” Bohrigm ordered as Lane nodded her approval.

Jasmine altered the plane and heading of the Kirk, as the manta – like hull of the swift little escort altered course and headed towards the northern hemisphere of the Hellworld.

“Quarter impulse Aye Sir. Changing course.” Hunter murmured as she brough the ship towards its new heading.

After nearly two hours had elapsed Ensign Kutka reported, “I’m reading a band of orbital debris ahead, Captain.”

“Science. Analysis.” Lane ordered, a sense of anticipation slowly beginning to build.

After a short pause as the data came in Orvid replied.

“There’s a considerable degree of orbital debris encountered in low – planetary orbit. Some correlated to natural ejecta and stellar debris. There is a percentage of manufactured materials, from it’s size and composition, I would postulate that its probably wreckage of orbital platforms, satellites and such – stemming from the original occupation of this world ten thousand years ago.”

Lane bit her lip and commanded in a sure voice.

“Continue scanning, Mr Phorrel.” Hanley prompted as Bohrigm came over to join her, his stubby fingers grasping one of the rails that flanked the Captain’s – chair.

“What are you thinking?” Her friend asked her in a low voice.

When Lane replied, her voice held a note of caution.

“I’m not sure what to think Bo’, but there are a lot of things here that don’t seem to add up and that alone makes me suspicious.”

The stout little Tellarite nodded thoughtfully.

“She might never have visited here. We could just be chasing our tails?”

Hanley nodded grimly, but their discourse was suddenly interrupted by an excited exhortation from Phorrel.

“Captain! I do believe I am reading trace elements of atomized deuterium particles within the debris field. Despite its state of degradation & dispersal, it closely conforms with a known alloy – composition analogous to that used in the Naval – architecture of more modern Romulan vessels.”

Lane sat forward in her seat, her expression intent.

“Could it be the Selquar?” She demanded.

“Conceivably, yes.” The Denobulan nodded his creased brow. “It could be that some unknown event triggered a critical loss of containment of her warp – core and the resulting loss of containment of the Singularity that powers her caused her complete destruction.”

“Could there have been survivors?” Bohrigm asked.

“That would depend on the nature of the critical event and the speed at which it occurred.” Phorrel hazarded. “But it’s not inconceivable that at least some of the crew managed to transport to the surface before the Selquar was destroyed, although their chances of surviving over 20 days on the surface of a planet with such antagonistic environmental – conditions would be slim to non-existent indeed.”

Lane’s heart raced.

Had they, in – fact, found the Selquar?

“Mr Phorrel, I want you to resume planetary scans as a priority.” Hanley ordered. “I want you to scour every inch of the surface and hypothesize any scenario that might encompass survival for the crew of the Selquar.”

She turned to Gaca and began to issue orders to the Operations Officer.

“Ops, send a message to Framheim Operations. Inform them of the progress of our search and tell command that we may have located the Selquar.”

Ensign Gaca nodded hurriedly and began to compose the message.

“Aye Captain. Sending…” Gaca began, when she was interrupted by an uncharacteristically – urgent outburst from Ensign Kutka.

“Captain! Vessel decloaking off the Starboard rear – quarter!”

Every nerve in Lane’s body seemed to ignite at the same time.

“Identify!” She barked.

Kutka’s black eyes were intent upon his readout, the vertical membranes that served as eyelids flicking quickly back and forth as they nictated.

“It’s a Romulan Warbird, Ma’am, D’deridex – class! Romulan Free State Markings! SHE’S OPENING FIRE !”

The USS Kirk shuddered under the sudden violent punishment of vengeful disruptor – fire and Hanley clutched at her seat for support as the deck heaved and she thundered.

“RED ALERT ! HELM! EVASIVE ACTION!”