"Commanding officers log, we are 30 days into our long range scanning of the sectors beyond the Briar patch. So far we have mapped 17 sectors in this region and overall it has been rather dull. I am sure-"
He was cut off mid sentence. Across humming bridge of the large sovereign class ship the operations officer swivelled in her chair. Towards him.
"Admiral, we are picking up a metallic object on sensors, approximately 3 meters across. Could be a probe of some sort." The commander said curiously, this was the first thing of interest to cross her readouts in weeks.
"On screen commander, lets take a look." He said standing up and walking towards the front of the bridge as a 3D holographic display appeared there. Floating in front of the wall against a star background was a small cylindrical object with glowing blue stripes down its side. "Identity" heordered. At the back of the room and officer started scanning through know records until the computer came up with its closest match. His find came up next to the display as a flickering holographic display. "The Columbus project, designed in 2032 it to be a long range relay platformscanning planetoids and stellar phenomenon to relay back to earth. It was never built due to the third world war disrupting space programs."
The first officer broke his silence and spoke. "Maybe it came from the alternate universe?" he suggested trying to come up with something. The operations officer immediately scanned it for any displacement signs and shook her head.
"Track its course and find its origin." He ordered. The holographic display lit up and tracked a line back to a small solar system several light yearsaway. "Must have been travelling for over 200 years" he said looking at the vast distance it covered. "Bring it into shuttle bay one and have a teamready to analyse it."
The screeching of his communication alarm woke Charles with a sudden fright. He opened his eyes to the blackness of space, the starts twinkling in the distance and the reflection of his face in his space suit visor. "And I though it would be silent here of all places" he said tapping hiscommunications control. Buzzing in his bedroom, humming near the couch, humming on the lower decks, buzzing in the shuttle craft and still in space you get people scratching down your comm line. A voice broke in down the comm line. A rough voice of his 31 friends
"Charles, Starfleet is about to be informed of a new discover not far from 901. Report to your quarters for mission briefing." The line immediately went dead. He hit the emergency transporters controls and returned himself to the station.
He arrived back at his quarters to find Michael sat at his chess set. "Come on then, what's so important you had to wake me up." Charles said throwing his jacket on the couch.
He stood up from the chess set and moved across the room towards Charles "The existence of EVAs is not so you can have a kip outside the station. But anyway, we have reports from the USS Venture of a recently discovered probe from earth like origin."
"Earth like?"
"Yes, well the design is human, the background is human, DNA on its hull is human but we have no record of it and it doesn't come from Earth. As soon as our agent relayed information to us we sent in a cloaked starship to monitor communications and record images and video from orbit of the principle planet. They appear to be humans but don't originate on that planet, we tried to hack into their computer systems but they appear to be very sophisticated and unlike what we have found before. We believe that these humans might have been removed from Earth at some point in history and un willingly or willingly placed on this planet, they seam to know their predicament and seam to have accepted they cant get away. Their technological status seams to be near warp and a near perfect almost utopian society they have developed. Technology has developed far differently there than with us. We would have found them hundreds of years sooner if it had not been fore the Briar patch. Anyway, the USS Venture is returning here to drop off his cargo and report to Starfleet about the situation. They will decide to send the Ronin to investigate and the USS Venture back on assignment. You will be attached to the Ronin crew as its current operations officer has come down with an unfortunate case of PMD Syndrome. Gather what intelligence you can about their strategic capabilities and assets. A war is brewing, we want powerful friends not yet more planets to protect weakening our forces."
"Is this also tech retrieval?"
"If there is anything of use. You leave in the morning, in your personal database you will find all our surveillance information."
After reporting into the captain Saila was making his was through the station to collect a few items before heading off though the mood of the station seamed slightly, warmer. He didn't like it one but, a happy crew is an uninformed crew. There is a war on the horizon and these people don't seam to care. He decided it best to check in at a few placers to make sure people were actually looking at the sensors.
First stop was Operations, the few people there dint seam to be paying attention to anything around them. After checking in everywhere else the staff seamed to be far to distant. ~Am I the only one noticing this!~ he thought. Then he realised he seamed a bit distant, he thoughts keptwandering. He went to the replimat for a moment to get a quick drink, sitting at the table he noticed someone looking at him from across the promenade. That wired science officer from deck 8. She had been making excuses to talk al the time at un-appropriate moments over the past few days. He simply frowned and went back to his drink.
After taking a sip he looked back up again, and smiled. He stopped himself and just realised what he did. ~I don't smile~ he thought. He went back to his drink then looked up again, she was still looking and he was still smiling. Failing to snap himself out he decided a nice long walk throughthe arboretum maybe would be nice, clear his thoughts. Or perhaps dig out that old Vulcan meditation book. The fear of losing self control was almost Vulcan like in him, and scared him half to death.
As he moved away he heard amongst the noise her getting up and following. And he was getting even more distracted.
After he reached the arboretum and found a quiet spot he decided the thirty-one surveillance team could provide some intell on the situation. "Saila to Blue Bird, anything on your board?"
A voice replied down the comm line. [What do you mean].
"What day is it? Valentines day?"
[What are you talking about Charles?]
"Check your cameras, what do all the people have in common?"
[They are having a good time?]
"Too much of a good time, I was trained to spot the tiniest thing and this is hugely abnormal, where are the depressed people? Besides, I have a tail."
[We will se what we can do. I am authorising a lock down, return to your quarters]
"Understood". He stopped and turned, ~there's that beautiful weirdo again~. He mentally hit himself, he kept his mind on his job, 'relationships compromise judgment' he kept telling himself.
[Saila, we have beamed extra equipment into your quarters, we are pulling back to communicate with base, will return in 3 hours. Out] The com line closed. But Saila didn't care, he wasn't listening anymore.