Once back on board the USS Jaxartes Lieutenant Devron called together some of the crew for a meeting in the aft observation lounge; which in his opinion was the best place to conduct these things, despite being at the opposite end of the ship from the bridge.

Jason placed the Padd he’d took with him to the Los Angeles on the table in front of him, but remained standing whilst the other four he’d selected took their seats. They all took note that he’d collected a phaser and was now wearing it on a belt around his waist “You know they actually asked me to submit to a blood test over on the Los Angeles!” Devron began, cutting into the visible tension building in the room.

“You really should have expected that.” Declared Doctor Andrianakis. “Considering whom we’re facing out there and what they are capable of.”

“Yes, yes agreed. But you’d already conducted blood tests on the entire crew just last week.” The young lieutenant was still slightly flustered by events, and was it his imagination or could he still feel the spot Doctor Rehman had taken the sample. “Still with all this technology to hand, how come we’ve not got any better ways of being sure?”

“Numerous methods have been tried, but apparently none have proved totally fool proof.” C’Rren the Caitian science office interjected.

“Did you pass?” Lyambo, his Chief Engineer asked with a smile.

Jason looked his friend directly in the eye. “I shall completely ignore that comment.” Trying to keep any hint of a smile from his own face “Any way to business, and the reason I’ve called you together.”

With a few taps on the keyboard he brought up a display covering the area of space the USS Jaxartes and Los Angeles currently occupied. “As you can see the Los Angeles has been able to get a fairly detailed scan of almost everything in this region.” He zoomed the star map in on a section bottom left of the screen. “Apart from this planet that is, the wonderfully named Sierra Six Delta Two Zero Four Eight Dash Three.”

“Catchy” Dinari butted in.

“But that’s behind us.” Lyanna noted. “Surely if there was any threat from it, we’d know by now?”

“I don’t feel we have the luxury of not making sure.  It’s a great place to hide and these probing attacks may be a trick to bring more of our fleet here.  Then hit us from behind!” Jason answered.

C’Rren ran the fingers of his right hand through the cream and black fur on his chin. “There is the odd gap here and there in the cloud which I’m sure Lieutenant Stuart could pilot her way through.” He mused. “We can scan a fairly wide area of the planet’s surface in one pass and make a run for it if things look dangerous.”

“I’m sure the Lieutenant can manage that.  Can’t you number one?” Devron looked at his half Orion half Scottish chief helm officer and second in command of the ship.  Who merely nodded back to him. “This planet was last surveyed about 60 years ago. Large areas of rain forest, wetland and vast plains.  All the details you can read through before we arrive.” He looked around the table at the faces of the other four crew members trying to gauge how they felt. “Right I want us ready for anything, including even the possibility of landing. Got that.”

“Aye sir.”

“Dismissed then.” As the Captain stood up. “Stuart, C’Rren; I want the pair of you to come back with me to the Los Angeles, so we can go through everything with Captain Oteng and his command staff. We’ll need to agree emergency rendezvous points and passwords to confirm neither ship has been compromised. He clearly doesn’t want any more misunderstanding.”

**********

The following day they conducted two orbits of the planet, just to confirm there were no hidden planetary defences or monitoring satellites in orbit.  Then once Lieutenant Stuart had spotted a largish gap in the cloud lay she dropped the nibble corvette through it. What meet their eyes a few minutes later once below the cloud was completely unlike what they had expected.  Instead of a vast rain forest, there appeared to be just desert, if fact from horizon to horizon in every direction the cameras and scanners could pick up nothing but rolling sand dunes.

“What the heck!” Exclaimed Devron

“Registering no life forms of any description captain.”  C’Rren announced from the back of the bridge.

“Hold on.  Target baring 317.” Tholakath cut in. “Unidentified craft on the planet’s surface now 200km north west of use.”

“Take us in for a closer look Lieutenant.” Jason said calmly. “Shields up, Yellow alert.”

The Jaxartes banked sharply, heading directly for what appeared to be a lone ship in a vast empty and dead landscape. As the distance reduced more details became evident. “Ship appears to be a Jem’Hadar scout ship half buried.” The Cardassian at tactical announced. “Scans unable to penetrate the hull.”

“I’m getting no communication signals on any frequency captain.” Ensign Cho informed him.

They made one high attitude pass at a speed equivalent to Mach 3, gathering as much information as they could before coming around again at a much slower pace and low enough to kick up the sand on a couple of the higher dunes.

“I’ve got five, no sorry seven bodies in close proximity to the ship.” Tholakath voice was low, almost a whisper. “All look to be Jem’Hadar troops.

“I don’t know which worries me most.” Devron commented.  “The fact that all life looks to have vanished from this planet’s surface or that I have a crashed ship and dead bodies lying around!”

“I’m not picking up anything dangerous in the atmosphere.” Reported C’Rren. “Though oxygen levels are almost none existent.”

Devron pressed the communication button on the arm of his chair. “Bridge to Engineering.  He only had to wait a moment to get a reply, then he continued. “If we land close to the crashed vessel, can we extend the shields around it and create a breathable atmosphere inside it?”

**********

Down in Engineering, Lyambo quickly ran through a few calculations using the computer interface at the island in the centre. “I can give you 80% on the shields if I shunt some power from auxiliary and redundant systems, as for oxygen if you don’t mind being half way up Everest you should be fine for a couple of hours outside the ship.”

**********

Jason switched communications to all parts of the ship and “This is the Captain, stand by for landing.  All crews to your assigned stations.” Then he looked up at Lieutenant Stuart. “Blue alert. Take use in.”

“Aye Captain, moving into position.  Deploying landing legs.” She waiting fingers hovering just over her controls.  The Jaxartes gave a slight shudder as four lights winked green along the right side of her console. “Legs deployed and locked.” The young Orion’s fingers once more danced across the controls, as she continued her running commentary of everything she did.

Several minutes past. “Touch down in eight, seven, six…..four, three, two, one, zero.”  As Stuart said zero, the legs of the Jaxartes made contacted with the soft sand; the whole vessel squatted down on huge shock absorbers, before slowly creeping back into position. “Powering down all manoeuvring and landing thrusters.”

Overall Lieutenant Stuart was pleased with her very first landing of a Federation ship on a planets surface.   Compared with the MRT Atragon which basically fell most of the way, this was a far smoother and more pleasant landing.  Her thought’s turned for a moment to the crew of that ship, all gone save for the Greek doctor they now had on board and the crew the Jaxartes they had also lost.  A chill ran through her bones, yes the last time they’d been on an empty planet searching for a crashed space craft, everything had gone to hell.  This was another empty planet with a crashed space craft on it!