Stardate: 74448

Time: 1156 hours

Location: Gamma Quadrant – Megara

USS Heracles

As the Heracles settled into an orbit around the only planet that had at one point supported an ecosystem that had oxygen. The ship was sending constant scans of the barren rock to the Command Control Room that was located just off the back side of the bridge. Vausees stood there bent over the holographic imaging of the planetoid. She studied the imagery and the readouts before she turned and headed back to the bridge.

“Cody, Debrah, Charles meet me in the Conference Room,” she said as she reached down and tapped the intercom on her armchair, “Zyvia, report to the Conference Room,” she tapped the intercom again.

—ten minutes later—

In the conference room Vausees and the Officers that she had called upon sat in silence, each person looking at Vausees and each other. Vausees thought about what she was going to say as she sat with the group.

“I and you four are going down to that barren rock that we are in orbit of,” she said as she looked at them.

“What are we looking for, Captain?” Cody asked as he looked at her.

“Anything that might look like this?” Debrah said as she set the Tkon idol on the conference table.

Zyvia and Cody looked at each other and then back at the idol. Vausees saw the reaction from them and cocked her head to the side.

“Something on your mind?” she asked both Cody and Zyvia.

Cody nodded to Zyviz, “The scans from the holographic table show similar items in a room below the surface,” she said as she brought up the current scans of the planetoid. She brought up the room that she had told the Captain about. Sure enough, scattered throughout the room were figurines and items from the same material as the idol. 

“Good work, both of you,” she said.

“Charles, what can you tell me about the structural integrity of the ruins on this rock?”

He looked at her, having looked up from the console in front of him, “Not much I am afraid, other than it is intact.”

“I can assume that there is no breathable oxygen on or inside these ruins?”

“I can’t give that information either as the sensors are all over the place,” he stated as he continued to look at his Captain.

Vausees sat back for a moment, her fingers steepled as she weighed out their options and the information that had been given to her. She looked to her left at Debrah, who had her eyes on Vausees the entire time the meeting had been going on.

“What’s your thoughts, Commander Fergouson?” She asked as she continued to look at Debrah.

Debrah sat there in silence for a moment more as she thought about what could happen. All manners of danger came to her mind, but none of them seemed to fit and all of them seemed to fit. 

“We don’t have much information on the Tkon or their technology, however, I believe that there is something on this rock that could point us towards that information,” she said as she rocked the back of her chair looking at the only reason for her existence in the eyes. “Hell for all we know some of what we are looking for could potentially be on this rock. The risk is high, that is for sure, but so is the reward.”

Vausees nodded as she listened to her love. Her mind was on the mission at hand as she thought about what Debrah had just stated. She then looked at the group before her, “Join me in the main hangar in twenty minutes, suit up in EVA’s and be prepared to shuttle down onto the surface.” She then turned to Charles. “I hope you can do some fancy flying if we need it, Chief,” she said as she stood up. Charles nodded as Vausees dismissed the group. 

As the group left the bridge, Vausees tapped Trever on the shoulder once more. “Trever I am leaving my ship in your hands again.”

He nodded as he stood up and took the Command chair once more. Vausees knew she could count on him like before to keep her ship flying.

***

In the shuttle Charles’ hands flew over the console of the craft. He piloted the shuttle toward the surface of the barren rock, his speed was more of a combat pilot landing than of a shuttle pilot. When the shuttle touched down Vausees tapped his shoulder as she hooked up his oxygen to his helmet. She received two taps, one from Debrah, and the other from Cody, both of which had checked and double checked her suit. Zyvia stood at the ramp with her rifle at the ready, both her and Cody waited until the Captain joined them in the rear of the shuttle. 

A moment later the ramp lowered after the pressure in the rear compartment equalized. Cody and Zyvia stepped off the ramp first and scouted the area.

“No obvious defenses,” Debrah stated as she moved up behind them. Vausees followed her and Charles brought the rear.

“Tricorders,” Vausees ordered as she pulled out hers. “Spread out, Cody, take Zyvia and Charles. Keep your comms open.” she said as she looked at Debrah, and nodded. 

“Call out if you find something interesting,” she said as the two groups took off in different directions to cover more ground. 

Vausees and Debrah entered through an opening in the side of a cliff as they followed the holographic scan from the Heracles on their Tricorders. Debrah appeared on the other side of the opening and flipped on a flashlight. She cast the light about the room for a moment before Vausees entered.

“Nothing here, Captain,” she reported as the two headed for a room just off the room that they were in.

***

Cody, and Zyvia looked about a room that had lit up upon entry, the lighting was dim and as far as Charles could tell was run off of an unknown power source that he could not identify. He brought up his tricorder and started to scan the room. He looked at Cody, “I am not sure what is powering these lights or for that matter how they even came on,” he stated as he looked back down at the tricorder. “Unless our equipment is malfunctioning, I think that there is something here that is disrupting our tricorders.”

Both Zyvia and Cody checked their tricorders and agreed with the Chief. “Other than the scans from the Heracles, we are not able to confirm anything in these rooms.” Cody says to Vausees via the open comms, which they were lucky were still functioning.

***

Vausees and Debrah stood in a very large chamber, which was not on the Heracles scans.

“Away team relocate to my location,” she said as she and Debrah looked up and into the darkness of the room, as the dim lighting in the room could not reach the ceiling. 

In the center of the room stood what appeared to be a terminal of some sort. Or at least that is what both Vausees and Debrah deducted from the appearance. A moment later Cody and the other two with him entered into the chamber with Vausees and Debrah. They didn’t say anything to Cody and his team when they arrived. They wanted to see what they came up with, and sure enough everyone was on the same assumption about the object in the center of the room.

Charles moved up next to it and attempted to sync with it, with his tricorder. He let out a triumphant yell when the two devices connected. 

“We’re in business, Captain.”

Vausees patted him on the back, “Great job, Chief,” she said as she leaned over to take a look, “How much time do you need?” she asked him.

“None,” he stated as he closed his tricorder. “It’s all transferred.”

This shocked Vausees, “Do you know what it is that your transferred?”

He shook his head, “Not until we get it to a secured server on the Heracles and have her translate and decipher it,” he stated as he looked at Vausees.

Vausees looked about the room, she didn’t see anything of interest or value. “Ok wrap it up and let’s get back to the shuttle.