"It's been too long. We must go in after her!" said the worried Captain Osagawa
"Shall I take an away team to locate her?" asked Tumock
"We wont be able to take a runabout down, if the Griffin has come under some trouble then a runabout wouldn't stand much of a chance" replied the captain.
"The sensors are having trouble in these conditions, which will make it hard to get a transporter lock. We should be able to beam down there, but there is no guarantee we will be able to get back"
"That's an obstacle we will have to overcome when we get to it. Assemble an away team."
"Aye, sir."
Tumock stood to attention, gave a little nod and turned to leave the ready room. The doors slid open as Tumock approached, allowing him access to the bridge of the mighty starship. A few people turned their heads in curiosity, but quickly got back to the tasks at hand. Nige stood at the tactical station, punching away at the computer panel. Tumock walked up to him.
"Lieutenant."
"Yes Commander?"
"Come with me". At that Tumock nodded at a crewman who quickly came to take Nige's place. The two officers made their way to the to the Turbolift door. Once inside Tumock turned to Nige.
"What's going on, Tumock?" asked Nige
"Commander Carter has not yet returned from her mission"
"Shouldn't she be back by now?"
"Yes, that is why I am leading an away team down and I am under the impression you wanted abit of a change". Nige gave a little smile and Tumock tapped his comm badge."
"Lieutenant Haakon, Lieutenant Benson report to transporter room one"
On arrival to transporter room one, Tumock and Nige were greeted by the waiting officers. Tumock walked over to the transporter controls, and the other three walked onto the transporter pad. Tumock punched away at the computer panel before looking up.
"Computer prepare to beam down to these co-ordinates, authorisation Tumock beta 5". The computer beamed an acknowledgement, and Tumock walked up to join the other three officers.
"Energise."
The transporter room started to fade away as the transporting procedure began, only moments later to be replaced with a desert like barren planet. Tumock took a moment to take in the surroundings before taking out his tricorder and scanning the area.
"The interference is limiting our scanning range" said Benson tapping on the tricorder.
"There seems to be a high concentration of anti-matter particles south of here" said Tumock viewing his tricorder, he looked up. "It could be the remains of a crashed ship." With that, Tumock closed his tricorder, placed it in its pouch and started to walk in the direction of the ship.
Finally they reached the ship. The small group stared at the once-mighty fighter craft, reduced to scrap metal. Haakon walked over to the cockpit.
"There's no sign of Carter....... Commander, come look at this!" shouted Haakon. Tumock made his way over to Haakon.
"What is it, Lieutenant?" asked Tumock
"It's a large amount of human DNA" she looked up at Tumock "Carter's DNA"
"Could she have gotten far?"
"Carter is physically very fit, she may have managed a fair distance, but she has lost a lot of blood. It's safe to assume she's delirious"
"Tumock to Knight"
[Osagawa here, go on commander]
"We've found the Griffin, it's badly damaged."
[Any sign of Carter?]
"She is not among the wreck. Lieutenant Haakon believes she may have wandered away in a state of delirium."
[Carry on your search, Knight out]
"Lieutenant Haakon, can you decipher which way she has gone?"
"My scans aren't picking up any traces of life at all! Even with the interference there should be something."
"Suggestions?"
"Well, we have no leads and the scans aren't picking anything up, so lets try there," Nige spoke up and pointed to the temple-like structure.
"Not the logical choice, but we don't have many alternatives," Tumock turned to face the away team "Let's go." Once again the team started to cross the sandy surface.
The temple was massive. Such a structure would require extremely advanced technology, yet there was no other sign of an advanced race. Two large stone doors covered the entrance, almost, a small gap enough for one person to get through invited the officers inside. There, in all its glory, a Guardian of Forever replica stood. Indeed it could accommodate a Constitution class starship.
"It's amazing" stuttered Haakon. Tumock turned his head away, amazed by the piece of technology in front of him, but trying to complete his mission.
"There seems to be an echoing distortion in the interference. It may mean that something or someone as entered" said Tumock tapping away at his tricorder.
"Here!" called Haakon. "More of Carter's DNA!" he exclaimed, pointing to a small pool of blood.
"Tumock to Knight"
A jumbled, yet distinguishable message came back. [Thish is.......Car.. on Commander]
"We believe that Carter may have entered the replica, awaiting instructions on how to proceed"