Stone watched through the runabout viewport as the masses of people began to gather in the square, preparing to be transported away from their homes with nothing. What a waste of a world, to say it was one man, it was an ingenious plan.
Suddenly the computer interrupted his thoughts with a bleeping.
"Message incoming priority one," Marc announced.
"This is it, standby to grab and go," Stone said referring to beaming up as many civilians as possible and the getting out of the way of the explosion. "Let's hear it."
The display changed to show a picture of the Operations Officer on Starbase 901. Stone grimaced at the thought of racing the runabout in front of the explosion as he watched the Ops Officer's lips slowly part.
"Lieutenant, get your team to Txamsem immediately!" the Ops officer said quickly.
"What?!" Stone exclaimed.
"The bomb detonated, but we've registered a minor explosion, it's believed that Banshee Squadron had a plan to stop the bomb, but we've received no communications from them since they entered Txamsem's atmosphere," he paused. "We need you to find them, or what's left."
"We'll give it our best, show us enroute," Stone replied.
"Thank you Lieutenant, 901 out."
The screen went blank again and Stone hit the flight controls, spinning the shuttle around and throwing it forward at great force.
"Advise the unit, we're coming to collect them," he told Hedley. "Red alert."
The runabout's cockpit lighting dimmed as the computer registered the alert command, and the status panels began flashing red light which made the interior of the ship look like an old earth submarine ready for combat.
Fisher and Watson had just received news that USS Pennine was returning and were standing at the edge of the landing pad waiting. They heard the sound of a high powered craft and suddenly the hull of the Pennine emerged from the over the building behind them. The public address system burst to life.
"Standby for transport," they heard Hedley's voice echo out of the loudspeakers on the runabout.
Beside them a pile of containers materialized. Fisher recognized them as the equipment they had loaded onto the runabout at the start of the emergency. A fraction of a second later a sparkling light consumed her and Watson and the next thing she knew they stood inside USS Pennine. They immediately noticed the status lights and the dimmed lighting and dashed into the command section. Lieutenant Stone vacated the Pilot's seat and sat down in the Co-Pilot's seat as Hedley moved to Ops 1. Ensign Watson quickly sat in Stone's place and tapped the console for full thrusters to exit the atmosphere. Jan was thrown around the cockpit by the sudden motion and grabbed at the chair in front of Ops 2 console before quickly sliding herself into it and bringing the console to life.
"Sorry, Jan," Rich said, as he continued accelerating the runabout skyward.
"It's fine, I'm used to being thrown about when you're flying," she replied sarcastically.
"Jan, get the sensors tuned for Txamsem's atmosphere. We're looking for anything metallic, humanoid or part of," Stone said as he entered commands into the co-pilots console.
"Understood, sir," Jan replied and began tapping at various points on her LCARS screen. "Although I don't hold much hope. A needle in a haystack comes to mind."
"Yes, big planet, big problem," Stone said.
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