Finishing off the pre-flight checks, Thaustin was eager to take the Delta-class runabout out to find more clues to the mysterious surrounding the Sikarians and their neighbours, who had all disappeared and crashed on their planet. Sitting in the pilot’s seat, he was flicking through the switches, bringing the small craft to life, when he heard footsteps behind him. Expecting either Lonar or T’Penni to be there (as they were joining him for this mission), Thaustin was surprised to see Jarata standing by the aft hatch after he turned around in the chair.

“Rubon, you lost?” Thaustin asked.

Jarata chuckled. “Nah, I’m just checking that you’re all good here?” 

Thaustin smirked and nodded. “Yeah, I’m all good here. Why?”

Jarata moved down to be closer. “Well, it’s your first mission on the Chimera; I just wanted to make sure you were all okay. Plus you must look after this ship as it’s the captain’s favourite. We won the Antarian Trans Stellar Race in her.”

“We’re all okay, Rubon, and I promise not to get a scratch on her,” Thaustin replied. He was a bit confused as to why Jarata was visiting him. “Is there anything else you need, commander?”

Jarata just flashed him a grin, his dimples appearing in full swing. “Nope,” He shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll leave you be.” He turned around and started to turn to the hatch he had entered.

“Rubon,” Thaustin called after him and was pleased the pilot stopped. “When we get back, fancy grabbing a drink after all this is done?”

Nodding and still smiling, Jarata accepted the offer. “Sure, just make sure you come back alive. Neither one of us has the other one to depend on!”

Chuckling at that, Thaustin nodded in agreement. Perhaps he was starting to like Jarata and could see why the captain liked him. 

At that point, as he was leaving, T’Penni and Lonar walked in. Jarata excused himself politely as he went by both women. 

“You two ready to go grab ourselves some dinosaurs?” Thaustin asked as he returned to the pilot’s chair with an upbeat in his tone and step. In some ways, he was excited to see a Voth ship, and the explorer in him couldn’t wait to explore more of the world they were currently orbiting.

“That would be an incorrect identification, sir,” T’Penni corrected him. “The Voth are not dinosaurs, sir; they are hadrosaurs.”

“I stand corrected,” Thaustin said as he started to bring the engines on the Chimera to life.

“Did Commander Jarata need something?” Lonar asked as she started to power up the ship’s defences.

Thaustin looked over his shoulder. “No, he was just being a good chief flight control officer and checking to ensure the Chimera was in working order.”

Lonar smirked, which Thaustin caught at the corner of his eye and decided to ignore. Instead, he opened a channel to the bridge. “Chimera to the bridge, requesting permission to get underway.”

“Permission granted, Number One. Stay cool and keep the sand down there!” replied McCallister. 

Thaustin thanked him in between, smirking at his comment; they were about to search through a desert. 

The journey to the planet went without a hitch. As the ship had moved out of orbit above the Sikarian colony, Thaustin had taken Jarata’s advice in taking the long way around to avoid them detecting them entering the planet’s atmosphere. They skimmed just a few meters above the ground, approaching their target at impressive speeds. It was almost a joy ride.

“I’ve located the Voth ship on sensors,” T’Pennie announced at the station behind Thaustin’s right shoulder. “I’m transferring the coordinates to you now, commander.”

Looking up at the screen to his right, Thaustin nodded in appreciation as he slowed them down. Before them, they could see the crashed remains on the small Voth ship. Thaustin was pleased it wasn’t a Voth city ship. Those ships were massive. He looked at the sensor scans coming in of the ship. “As you and Kazlaf found, besides a number of hull breaches from its crash, most of it appears to be intact.”

“Let’s hope we find something of use,” Lonar added.

Thaustin couldn’t agree any more with that statement as he landed them gently next to the craft. “Let’s go,” He said as he secured the ship. Thaustin was pleased they were already wearing their desert excursion gear so they could beam over immediately after picking up their gear. 

Crashed Voth research vessel

Though some light was peering through the cracks in the ship’s damaged hull, it was still pretty dark inside after they had beamed in. Thaustin instantly lit up his phaser rifle and wrist torch, just as the other two did. T’Penni and he had their tricorders out, scanning every inch of the ship, trying to find something useful.

“Sir!” Lonar almost screamed. 

Rushing to be by Lonar’s side, Thaustin wasn’t surprised with what she had found. The skeleton remains of a Voth.

T’Penni bent on one knee to examine the remains and scan it with her tricorder. “They’ve been dead for over three years.” She reported.

Realising nothing could be done for the dead crew, Thaustin instructed his team to continue their search. He didn’t want to return to the Constitution empty-handed.

It took another half hour or so before T’Penni had called Thaustin. She had found an undamaged console in the engineering room. Using a portable battery, she activated it and brought it back to life.

“Anything?” Thaustin asked as partial power came back to life. Several lights flickered around them. 

T’Penni studied the console’s computer directory first. She then nodded. “I am detecting the remains of a computer virus,” She shared.

That news put shivers down Thaustin’s spine. “Is it the same one as the Hirogen had found?”

She nodded again. “Affirmative, sir. I will remove it from the computer mainframe.”

He sighed and was about to tap his combadge when T’Penni stopped him by sharing she had found something else of interest.

“What is it?” Thaustin asked.

“Standby, sir,” She said as she walked away from the console. 

Confused by her behaviour, Thaustin looked back at the screen she had been using. It showed the schematic of what he believed was an engine that appeared to show its current status.

“Sir,” T’Penni said, calling him to where she had gone. “I have found something that the captain may find of interest.”

Intrigued by what she meant by that, Thaustin walked over and asked her what she had found.

“A working transwarp coil,” T’Penni said.

“Did I just hear you right?” Lonar asked as she entered the room. “A transwarp coil?”

“Indeed,” T’Penni confirmed. “If I can attach this to our warp engines, it may help us escape from the Sikarians. It may not be as powerful as a Borg transwarp coil, but it could help.”

Intrigued by that idea, Thaustin looked at Lonar. “Did you find anything?”

She nodded. “More evidence that the Sikarians had been here, sir. I’ve picked up Sikarian DNA over several other consoles, and from what I could tell, their entire computer database was downloaded over three years ago.”

“Very well, let’s take what we can use back to the Chimera and then return to the Constitution,” Thaustin ordered. He was pleased they weren’t coming away without anything, but he knew Captain McCallister wouldn’t be happy with the evidence against the Sikarians.