240011.05.0300

“Ma’am all systems are a go,” the LTJG turned and looked around the crew compartment of the runabout. “All crew are accounted for. We are ready for launch.”

Lt. Talibah looked around the runabout and nodded. “Alright then, Ensign Vr’oshek your my Engineering Officer. So light her up.”

“Yes ma’am”

She then tapped on her console beside her. “Osiris flight control this the the Nile Oasis, we are mission ready.”

“Roger Nile Oasis,” a klaxon could be heard in the shuttle bay along with a pulsing green light. “Dropping the Field, you are go for launch. Have a nice ride Nile Oasis”

“Thank you flight control, please tell Lt. Shrybaas to keep the lights on while we are gone.”

A chuckle is heard over the channel. “Will do Ma’am”

The shuttle lifts from its pad and slowly makes its way out of the Osiris’s port side shuttle bay, once clear of the ship it made a hard turn to starboard and went warp.

“Just a short jump ma’am. Then we can start with the first mission objective, Reconnaissance of a safe route for the Osiris from outside of the system to the planet.”

“Normally it wouldn’t be an issue Lieutenant for the Osiris, but the deposits of blood dilithium that have grown in this system could make things a bit tricky.”

“Yes ma’am. I fully understand. It is logical for the route to be planned in order to keep the crew safe.”

“Which reminds me, Lieutenant. Did you visit sickbay as directed last night?”

“Yes ma’am. The doc gave me the suppressant and outfitted me with the monitor.” He pointed to the small device at the base of his skull. “She said that you would also be able to monitor it on your console.”

“Very well, we should keep an eye on that.”

“Ma’am” ensign Vr’oshek quietly said, well as quiet as a Klingon can be, “The doc also asked me to wear one, even though I am not a telepath. Something about creating a baseline for each of the species that make up the crew. She said it could help in figuring out why or how it affects telepaths only and to see if it actually affects everyone on a level that most of us wouldn’t show any of the effects.”

“Yes, she explained it to me that way also.” She lifted her hair from the nape of her neck. “I volunteered to be the human test subject and I believe the Captain also volunteered.”

“Honour and loyalty, ma’am. Signs of a good leader”

 “That and and we both live by the old rule that a leader should never ask anyone to do something that they themselves are not willing to do or have not already done themselves.”

“Ma’am, dropping out of warp in 3, 2,..1. We have arrived at the outermost planet of the system. According to the information that we received we should be clear of Dilithium here.”

“Sensor’s show a class J planet ma’am. Quite dense and compact. I am reading an ice core. The moons are both ice and rock.”

“Well I think this would make a good spot for the Osiris to enter the system and park in an orbit around the planet. She could than launch the other runabout and her shuttles to conduct sensor scans and research amongst the outer limits of the system.”

“Chief, send a message to the Osiris with our recommendation.”

“Yes ma’am”

“LT. Naes, let’s take her to a 50,000 kilometer geostationary orbit of the 5th planet’s southern pole. According to the data that we have been able to analyse, the 5th planet was over the rift’s central area when it orbited over it. We should be safe at that distance from any effects of any Blood Dilithium on the planet at the location.”

“Yes ma’am.. coordinates locked in, going to warp.”

30 minutes later

“Ma’am we are coming out of warp at our destination.”

The view screen goes from the warp tunnel to a view of a planet filling their screen.

“Take us in Lieutenant, 50k above as we had planned. Let me know if you feel anything or do I need to monitor your data?”

Lt. Naes turns in his chair to face the XO “It is only logical that I tell you if I feel anything ma’am to do otherwise would possibly put the crew, ship and the mission in danger which is highly illogical, is it not?”

“It is, however, many would try to cover it up to stay on mission and not be in sickbay or some other location being watched over by a bunch of nurses and medical crew.”

“Ensign Rockhold, let’s run the scans in three phases shall we. Run a planetary surface scan, a geologic and an Ico-spectrogram. That should give the Osiris some good data to start with.”

“Starting scans now, ma’am. If I may suggest adding a Spectrographic analysis to those other three. We may pick up something that others have missed. When we get the data to the Osiris they can complete a more thorough analysis of it.”

“Good idea Ensign.”

Over the next couple hours the Nile Oasis and her crew worked to complete the scans over the southernmost land mass on the planet. 

“Ensign Ngin, how is the preliminary analysis of the date from the spectrographic scans showing us anything out of the norm?”

“Ma’am. I’m not sure about the others but you can use my first name, T’shimtisho. So far the scan is giving us what we expected as far as the Dilithium, though the surface that it has attached to is another matter. The data I’m seeing shows that most of the ice is frozen carbon dioxide and it’s located mainly in a very large caldera that encompasses about a third of the land mass. The land mass itself is quite large, roughly 6,632,501 square kilometres. From what I can see on the scans so far it seems like the lithium spreads out from the caldera in ripples, I’m counting fifteen ripples/waves.”

“Well that’s interesting, any ideas on why?”

“Maybe the rift was pulsing ma’am and each time the planet went over it was hit with the pulsed energy from the rift which washed down from the caldera and out. I am seeing the heaviest concentrations of the Blood Dilithium on the walls of the caldera.”

“Add that to your report T’shimtisho and send it and all of the data to the Osiris. “

“Yes ma’am, sending it now.”

“Next stop the asteroid field, Lt. Nars let us use the same precautionary distance for the field. After we run some preliminary scans of the entire field we will focus on the two asteroids that the governor asked us to look into.”

“Yes ma’am, the destination is locked in and the course is set. Entering warp now, looking at 35 mins until we arrive at the destination.”