Breadcrumbs in Space

Posted on Wed Dec 21st, 2011 @ 6:40pm by Captain Benjamin Byrne & Provisional Lieutenant Commander Narayn Ballard & Lieutenant JG Michael Watters & Lieutenant Markus Rubens [PNPC] & Lieutenant JG Zam Stott [Byrne]

Mission: Old Relics
Location: USS Endeavour, Bridge
Timeline: MD14 1145

The Endeavour had been on its patrol of the Federation border for two weeks, and very few items of note had come up during it. A few stray clouds of gas, and that comet the crew had observed for the past couple of days had pretty much been the only high points in terms of external interests. Internally, the ship's new crew members had been getting settled in; getting to know their new duties and their new ship mates. It had been a rather pleasant cruise thus far.

Byrne's thoughts were interrupted by the chime of the operations station as the sensors it was connected to came across something that wasn't in its programmed parameters of what to expect for this region of space. Benjamin blinked twice to bring his focus back into the room, before looking over at the Bolian sat at the table. "What have we got Mister Stott? Surely the odds of finding another comet this close to the last one are long at best."

The Bolian's head was crumpled in a frown. "No, sir... I'm detecting a very unusual trace of a power signature. It's a weak signal, so it can't be terribly close, but its output is too low for me to pinpoint how far it is exactly."

While it may not have been all that surprising to discover something unfamiliar this far from the Federation core worlds, Mike was disappointed his efforts to improve the quality and range of Endeavour's tactical sensors had not yielded greater results. It was a matter he would have to revisit once the current situation had been resolved. Within moments, he had manipulated the focus of the sensors on the unusual power reading. Even a quick consultation with the ship's tactical database wasn't bringing up any sort of immediate leads. "I'll second that," he said, looking up from the readouts on his display, "the signature isn't matching any of the known species profiles...certainly not anything I've ever seen before."

"It's probably some kind of buoy. Maybe it points the way to a really good restaurant." Ballard offered absent-mindedly.

"Well, looks like this cruise may not be quite so quiet as we had all thought," the Captain commented out loud, as he sat back in his chair, tugged his jacket down around his torso and crossing one leg over the other at the knee. "Mister Rubens, set a course on the bearing Stott has on that power signature. I want to check it out."

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The Endeavour dropped out of warp at the outer edge of a solar system, sparsely populated with rocky and gaseous objects. "Report," Benjamin asked, as he strode from one side of the bridge to stand just behind the operations officer, arms crossed in front of his chest. "What's out there?"

"It's a small system, captain," the Bolian replied. "Two planetary bodies. One of them is a gas giant, orbiting at the system's outer edge. The other is much closer to the sun, orbiting just inside the system's asteroid belt, which is thinner than most. The planet has a rocky composition, thin but breathable atmosphere, and seems to be orbiting close enough to the asteroid field to almost be considered a part of it."

"What've we got on that signature, Mister Watters?" Ballard asked as he rose to his feet.

"Not much, I'm afraid," Mike replied as he watched the results of another scan scroll across the tactical console. He had been trying to gain some sort of deeper insight with regards to the energy reading, but all of his efforts so far had only led him to dead ends. There was simply too little information for the computer to make any sort of accurate comparison to any of the known signatures. "I've managed to triangulate the signature," he continued, adjusting the readout, "it seems to be coming from somewhere near the inner planet."

"On-screen," Benjamin ordered, as the view from the default bow camera on the hull was replaced with that of a view closer into the system. The red-orange tint the system's small sun cast on the objects in the system was more intense here, and the planet along with a flat plane of asteroids were clearly visible on the screen. That wasn't what caught everyone's attention on the bridge, however. Orbiting parallel but 'above' the asteroid disc on the orbital plane was a large, metallic object. The structure was made up of a number of bulbous spires arranged in a circle around the longest, which was itself tipped at each end with a long spine extending out the top and bottom of the structure. At around a third of the way up the structure's length encircled a ring-like structure with several rectangular towers spanning out from its outer edge. The space station was extremely large; perhaps even contesting with the size of the Federation's Stardock class of stations, but there were no lights visible shining out through the external face.

"It's definitely the source of the power signature, Stott, said, dragging his gaze away from the screen momentarily long enough to hit a few controls on his console. "But it's power reading is much too low for a functional station of that size. It looks like it might be in some sort of power-down or stand-by status."

"There doesn't seem to be anyone's been through here recently," Mike observed. He had been running pretty consistent tactical sweeps of their surroundings since the unknown signature had first been detected and had yet to locate any of the usual signs any other vessels had been through the area. There were no decaying engine trails or unusual energy signatures other than that which they had traced to this alien station. "All quiet on the western front..." he added, "...for now."

Benjamin turned towards Ballard for a moment to issue some orders. "Get a team ready to investigate. Take th'Ralik with you, I want to find out as much as we can about this station. See if we can't get its databanks online."

"Aye aye, sir." Ballard replied before returning a thought, "Should I take Lieutenant Gaius in case we get it back up and running?"

"If you think he's needed," Benjamin said, nodding. It wasn't often that the universal translator couldn't cope with a new language being discovered by an away team, but with a station such as this, it was good to know that his XO was thinking ahead.

"Mister Rubens, take us in to transporter range."

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Captain Benjamin J. Byrne
Commanding Officer

Prov. Lt. Commander Narayn Ballard
Executive Officer

Lieutenant JG Michael Watters
Chief of Security

NPCs:
Lieutenant JG Zam Stott
Chief Operations Officer

Lieutenant Markus Rubens
Acting Helmsman