Locked In (Part One of Two)

Lieutenant Commander J'Ross briskly walked the last two kilometres down into the planet and soon stepped into the cavern where the alien device they had discovered two days earlier was situated.

She looked around the room and saw science and engineering officers examining every inch of the equipment there. Other officers where carrying various sized boxes towards the ring platform, where they stacked them onto a large anti-grav sled. These officers were being assisted by several Jem'Hadar, who were able to carry the larger, heavier items with ease. As soon as a sled was full, two more Starfleet officers activated the propulsion units and slowly dragged the sled through the gate to the other side.

More boxes, carried by both Starfleet officers and Jem'Hadar appeared behind J'Ross. They started to stack them in the only corner of the room which was free, whilst the ones who had been loading headed back out of the cavern.

J'Ross stepped towards Lieutenant Rhee, who was speaking with one of the joint Science\Engineering crews investigating a piece of equipment which Rhee was sure controlled the rings function.

"Lieutenant, how are we doing ?" M'eko enquired.

"Slowly." Rhee replied. "Every time we think we've discovered what the symbols might mean, we discover a symbol which doesn't fit. I'm beginning to think that what we're looking at a single unknown language which is similar to both Iconian and Protector."

"What's your best guess ?" M'eko asked.

"I'd say what we're looking at is a language which is the root for both Iconian and Protector." Rhee suggested. "Which would mean that whoever built this device could be the predecessor to both Iconians and Protecters."

"A common ancestor to both races ?" M'eko stated, sounding puzzled.

"It's the most logical explanation." Rhee replied. "I know it sounds odd, the two races were so different, but their technologies at the basic levels are similar."

"Keep at it." M'eko said. "How are we doing with the device on the other side ?"

"It's similar to the one built here." Rhee reported. "But it's much older from the scans we've made. There's also no control device on the other side, which is odd. If the device on this side was built second, then that would suggest that whoever built both devices must have travelled here by some other means and then built the device."

"Have you found any other devices on the other side ?" M'eko enquired.

"No more rings, but we've picked up a number of large energy signatures." Rhee announced. "They're some distance from the ring on the other side, which is why we didn't pick them up on our initial scans. The nearest source is about twenty kilometres away from base camp. I've got teams of scientists, engineers and Marines travelling to the three closest signature and they should be reporting back to base camp in a few hours."

"How's Lieutenant Lloyd doing with pin-pointing the planet's position ?" M'eko asked.

"We've had a few problems with the equipment we've taken across." Rhee replied. "It could have something to do with the energy signatures we've picked up. We've just taken across a low-orbit probe launcher and she should have it set-up in about an hour."

"Thank you Lieutenant, keep me informed." M'eko stated. "I'll got and check on base camp."

Lieutenant J'ross moved away from the Leviathan's chief science officer and stepped up onto the plinth where the ring stood. She was stopped by an Engineer and the reason why was soon apparent.

The sled she had seen being loaded and passed through the ring came back, followed by its controllers. The engineer tapped his comm badge and confirmed that the sled was back and that Lieutenant J'Ross was about to come through. As the sled was powered down, the activity in the cavern started up again as more crates were loaded onto the sled.

"Sorry about that Commander." The engineer apologised. "We've discovered that although the link goes both ways, we can only travel in one direction at once. We lost a couple of Jem'Hadar the first time we tried it, they we're carrying some boxes through to base camp by hand, whilst at the same time the sled was coming back. We don't know what happened to them, but they never arrived on the other side."

"Carry on." M'eko said, thanking the officer.

She stepped towards the ring and cautiously stepped into it. Suddenly she felt her whole body tingle and then suddenly she was being pulled quickly through time and space. Moments later, she stepped out of the other side and into a very different environment from the one she had just left.

Base camp was being set-up all around her, in a clearing which was surrounded by tall trees. Pre-fabricated buildings and portable power generators were being set-up and there was a flurry of activity as new crates were opened and their contents removed.

She looked around and noticed Lieutenant Lloyd in the distance working with some equipment in a second much smaller clearing. As M'eko got closer, she noticed that this clearing had actually been created by cutting down some of the trees. Jem'Hadar were cutting up the felled trees and carrying the logs back to the camp. As the Lieutenant approached the Stellar Cartographer, Amy looked up and noticed her approach.

"Commander." She acknowledged. "How are you ?"

"Good." M'eko replied. "How are you doing ?. Do you know where we are yet ?"

"I'm just about to launch the first probe now." Amy stated. "We should have a rough idea in a few minutes."

"Please continue." M'eko suggested. "Is there anything I can do to help ?"

"No we're about ready to launch." Amy said. "Stand back."

The two officers moved back and away from the equipment and Amy took out a tricorder and launched the probe. In a flash of light, the micro-probe about a metre long zoomed away from the launcher and into the air. They watched the small rocket rise higher and higher into the sky. Suddenly it exploded.

"What happened ?" M'eko asked.

"I don't know." Amy admitted, quickly checking her tricorder. "What the….."

"What's wrong ?" M'eko enquired.

"The probe was destroyed when it hit the upper atmosphere." Amy reported.

"By what ?" M'eko asked.

Amy was silent for a few moments before answering.

"It looks like it hit some kind of energy field." Amy stated.

"An energy shield !" M'eko remarked. "Why didn't we pick it up on our initial scans ?"

"From the probes reading, it looks like the shield was on very low power until the probe came close." Amy stated. "Then it suddenly jumped to full power until the probe hit it and was destroyed. And that's not all, just before the probe was destroyed it picked up several artificial satellites in orbit, they look like weapons platforms of some kind."

"A planetary defence system ?." M'eko suggested. "Very puzzling."

"Could be…" Amy admitted. "….but was it designed to protect the planet from the outside or keep something in."

Suddenly M'eko's comm badge beeped and as she tapped it, she heard a familiarly voice.

[Colonel Phanan to Commander J'Ross.]

"J'Ross here Colonel ." M'eko replied. "What's your situation ?"

[We've just reached the source of one of the energy signature Lieutenant Rhee had us investigate.] Marine Lieutenant Colonel Jon Phanan reported. [It appears to be some kind of obelisk. The energy readings were pretty low until about five minutes ago, when they jumped. Second later, we noticed a high altitude explosion, and then the power readings dropped back to their previous level. The explosion appeared to be very close to base camp, are you alright ?]

"We're fine." M'eko confirmed. "It looks like this planet is protected by at least a planetary shield and possibly an orbital defence system. Make as many scans as you can of the device you've found and head back to base camp. We'll speak more about this later."

[We'll be back sometime tomorrow.] Phanan confirmed. [One more thing, we've found symbols on the obelisk which appear to be Protector in origin. The science guys were puzzled by this, because the tricorder recognised it immediately. We don't however have the processing power to decipher the symbols on site.]

"That's very interesting." M'eko suggested. "I'll see you tomorrow. M'eko out."

[Phanan out.]

Commander J'Ross was silent for some time thinking about what she'd just heard and what had happened to the first probe. Eventually an idea came into her head.

"Lloyd, how many probes does that launcher hold ?" She asked.

"Two." Amy replied. "But we've got another two which we can load into it and we can always get more."

"Right. At what altitude did the shield power up ?" M'eko continued to ask.

"The probe was destroyed at about ninety thousand metres." Amy reported. "The shield powered up when it reached eighty-five."

"How long can these probes remain in flight ?" M'eko asked.

"They're designed to reach a low orbit of around an hundred and fifty thousand metres." Amy stated. "Once in orbit, they can remain there for upto a month."

"Can they be re-programmed to remain within the atmosphere and perform high-altitude scans instead ?" M'eko asked.

"I guess so, but they wouldn't be able to fly for more than half an hour." Amy said. "It would take some time through; we'd have to re-programme the flight control systems. We could extend the flight time by reducing the probes speed"

"And would you be able to get your astronomical results from such a scan ?" M'eko enquired. "And could we get scans of the plant at the same time ?"

"Sure. The astronomical data won't be as accurate as if they were made from orbit." Amy admitted. "But I should be able to get a rough idea of where the planet is. Once that's done, we should be able to perform more accurate scans to pin-point our location."

"Then let's get started." M'eko suggested.