Setisar VI (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 18 Oct 2013 @ 8:10pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Commander Dea Mialin & Commander Scarlet Blake & Lieutenant Theron Rhodes & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Lieutenant Commander Amynta Markos & Commander Norvi Stace & Ensign S'Ranna T'Srrr'Kharh & Ensign Im'er Mor'an & Lieutenant JG Jacrux & Ensign Natalie Chevalier & Legatus of Borg & Vincent Kramer Ph.D. & Lieutenant Asahi Kita & Senior Chief Petty Officer Keval zh'Erinov

2,600 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo - Main Bridge, Various
Timeline: MD 06 - 0930 hrs

[ON]

Two very long and tumultuous days had plagued the crew of USS Galileo following the ship's untimely ambush. The badly damaged ship and her crew were towed against their will deeper into the Setisar Nebula, and the Borg cubes which had provided escort had surprisingly not bothered with the Nova Class or its crew very much, instead seeming content to follow the instructions of their hive mind.

Now, the journey came to an end, and three consecutive bright flashes in the cosmos signaled the arrival of Galileo and its escorts at their designated coordinates. Before them was the familiar sparkling blue glow of the Reflection nebula, but this time it was accompanied by a bright sun in the distance and blue-green planet near their current position. Two small moons orbited the world, silhouetted against the bright backdrop of the rest of the solar system.

S'Ranna was on shift at the helm, sitting at her hastily rebuilt navigational console. She was, however, more of a passenger than a pilot, powerless to steer the ship under tractor tow and doing little than running scans to try to narrow down where they were. The nebula conformed to what they knew of Setisar, but the presence of a solar system did not. Nothing in the Federation star charts on file matched up, and for all her fear and trepidation she could not resist a shudder of anticipation that they were perhaps discovering something previously unknown to science.

"We appearrr to be enterrring the orrrbit of the sixth planet, Commanderrr," she announced softly to Blake. "But this system has no entrrry in ourrr astrrrogation files."

As soon as the ship had come out of warp, Lt. Rhodes' tactical board lit up. He was able to identify several other Borg cube's. That is, in addition to the two that had brought them there. He spoke up without being asked, "Commander, I am confirming 6 additional Borg cubes and dozens of other smaller probes in orbit of this planet."

"Yellow Alert," Scarlet ordered as she moved to take the CO's chair. It had a similar feeling of jumping into another person's grave. She shivered, frowning as she ran her hand up over the throbbing base of her head; it was the best place to be to keep up with all the different areas though. She looked to the readouts on the small screen at her arm. "Let's get some scans going. I want to know everything that's out there and what's going on around us," before it can stab us in the back, she added silently to herself.

Mor'an, sitting quietly at her station, heard Blake's command and and turned her attention to diverting the needed power so that the sensors could operate. She turned in her chair to address Blake. "I have diverted power to sensors," she said, her voice uncharacteristically dull.

Dea took her place next Blake on the bridge. Sitting in the XO's chair was something she aspired to one day but didn't expect to be there today and that caused mixed emotions for Mialin. Her attention shifted from one person to the next. "I'm not a fan of surprises," Dea commented quietly to herself.

Stace, whilst staring at her own console readout, nodded to confirm the order from Blake and began active scans of the planet. The information started to flood her screen as her eyes darted from side to side trying to make sense of what was streaming into focus. "It's an M-Class planet, Commander," was the first and primary piece of information that jumped out at her. "Oxygen/Nitrogen atmosphere and an iron, silicate and water composite. Average temperature, a chilly 12 degrees." Stace's hands now flew across the dancing lights of her console as she haplessly tapped out the commands. "Kramer," Norvi called out over her shoulder to the Astrometics pool table behind Scarlett, "Sending you the telemetry now. What have you got for us?"

Dr. Kramer flipped through the different layers of data before replying, "Very Earthlike. Volcanically, surprisingly very stable. The planet has 35% exposed land mass, which is slightly more than Earth. It appears to be 5 main continents with small polar ice caps." He paused as he reviewed information and said, "Oh, this is unusual. There is no land mass blocking the Equatorial flow of water about the planet. The ocean flows freely about the equator with a very high speed ocean current, about 2.5 meters per second on the surface."

Nat chimed in with a discovery of her own. "There are signs of life," she confirmed in a solemn voice. This might very well be the opportunity of a lifetime, to survey a new planet and map out undiscovered life: it was exactly what she'd taken a starship posting to achieve. Yet with crew missing, injured or dead, and the Borg everywhere, it was hard to work up much excitement. "Small methane deposits in the lower atmosphere: it's likely primitive, single cellular organisms only."

Her scowl grew as she studied the results. "Except, no - sorry, this doesn't make any sense. Give me a moment, please." The readings did show very advanced lifeforms, exhibiting the characteristics of intelligence: but there were no intermediaries on the evolutionary chain, and the rest of the planet was in a state more consistent with only recent - in morphological time - development of life.

"This is very strange," she mumbled, half to herself. "The planet is in a young state, and the indigenous lifeforms are barely more than complex amino acid chains. But there definitely are other lifeforms down there, and they're not Borg. Advanced civilization, signs of development and intelligence." She looked around the other scientists, utterly bemused. "I really don't understand..."

"Confirmed," Stace called out, now reading the information in more detail as it scrolled on her display and coming to the same conclusion as Chevalier. "But this planet shows no signs of technological advancement, Commander," she added, furrowing her brow in confusion. "No industrialisation of continents, no cultivation of agriculture, no atmospheric signs of artificial compounds." Her features now straightened into a concerned, almost terrified mask. "It's as though these species were just simply dumped here. Like a planetary prison, almost."

Keval looked up from his console and started to say something. He stopped himself, looking back down at the console and checking things for the third time. Without looking up this time he said, " I am getting some strange EM radiation readings from from the surface, the same kind we saw on Rojar II. Maybe whatever stopped those Borg, if indeed they were stopped has a common source."

Suddenly the lights on Galileo's bridge began to flicker then dimmed out, the tell tale sign signaling the all-too-familiar reception of an unauthorized incoming transmission. The viewscreen blinked and suddenly displayed the interior of a Borg cube, and a terrifying figure stepped into view from the shadows. The broadcast was displayed on all decks and LCARS consoles.

"We are the Borg representative to your vessel. Your presence in this system has been authorised. You will comply with all directives or you will be destroyed. Your compliance is mandatory. You will lower your shields and make no attempt to power your weapons....Miss Blake."

Rhodes found himself squeezing his right fist tightly. The knuckles were white. It took all he had inside of him to hold back his desire to fire weapons and attack.

Keval really should not have been on duty. He was barely recovered from the attack on him and was wobbly with out his left antenna. He turned a deep shade of blue when he saw the former Commander. "DAMN!" he muttered under his breath.

S'Ranna's tail shot upright and her mane grew three times in volume as her golden eyes widened at the sight of the recognisably unrecognisable Commander Holliday.

Asahi was new to the vessel yes, but the reactions of the others were enough for him. Whoever this was was damned important.

Scarlet watched, her eyes on the familiar, and yet not, face. Her throat tightened with anger from it, but she kept her features cool and neutral, not letting it show or tell as she kept a steady gaze. "We want to know more of what we're getting into first," she replied easily to the new 'drone'.

Jac narrowed his eyes at the assimilated Holliday. He respected the man, and it was discouraging to see him taken captive like that. A man like that should have been killed as soon as he was injected with the nano probes, to save him the indignity.

Wow. And to think he tried to criticise my standards of dress, Nat thought, chuckling to herself at her rather dark joke.

Dea was shocked to see someone that looked like their Executive Officer but she knew better. "I"m the acting Executive Officer. You're asking us to comply but you you haven't answered some very big questions. Why are the Borg in this system? Why is Galileo authorized and why were we brought here?" She tried her best to fight back her instinctive reaction to fight back. Diplomacy was not Dea's expertise but she was filling a role that required her best skills in that area at the moment.

"Mialin, Dea - Trill-Betazoid hybrid. This drone is aware of your function in the command hierarchy of your vessel at this time."

The drone seemed less inclined to answer questions and for a moment remained silent until instructions were fed back to it's cortical processor for completion.

"Your vessel was escorted to this sector as required. Questions are irrelevant. Your understanding is irrelevant. You will comply or you will be assimiliated. We calculate less than a 3% probability you will be able to resist us."

"To us questions and understanding are not irrelevant. If you won't answer those right now perhaps you'll answer these. Why are the Borg acting strange? Who are you speaking for? You indicated we were brought here as required. What are we required for?"

"Your limited understanding is insufficient. Your questions are irrelevant. Lower your shields and deactivate your weapons or you will be destroyed. You will comply."

Rhodes held his finger over one button on the tactical console. A single tap would initiate a programmed tactical sequence that would bring all weapons to bear on all targets. This information was linked to the helm providing a suggested path to take, to optimize Galileo's weapon's fire. Yet, he would do nothing without the Commander's order.

S'Ranna looked at the attack pattern forwarded to her console and made a minor adjustment to Rhodes's suggestion, but she was finding it difficult to concentrate on her navigational work, given the image of the XO who just days ago had been kidding her about her flying now infested with Borg technology, his skin metallic grey, floating above her on the viewscreen. She wiggled her ears in agitation.

The verbal exchange between Legatus and the Federation ship's XO had turned unproductive, to say the least. No knowledge or answers could be gained from continuing to misunderstand each other, and so a rather opaque collection of luminous swirls began to manifest directly in front of the bridge's command station, shimmering and expanding as a holographic projection materialized itself into a distinguishable form.

In front of the bridge crew suddenly stood a tall and skinny bi-pedal humanoid whose skin was ghostly white with no distinguishable hair on its body. The forehead was very prominent and smooth as was the rest of its bald head, save the elaborate lavender-gold crown decoration which adorned the top of its cranium. A strange form-fitting blue and gray material covered its body from the neck down, and the curves of its hips and the mounds on its chest seemed to signify it was of the female gender. A set of large and black beady eyes blinked several times and briefly scanned the room, taking note of the technology and personnel which were currently present. Then, it spoke. In a surprisingly soft and punctuated female voice, nonetheless.

"Silence, Legatus. I will speak." it said without looking at the drone, then addressed Galileo's CO and XO with an emotionless expression. "Your ship was brought here with our permission. You have twice violated our territory. Why?"

Rhodes saw the hologram form behind him. He spun in his chair at Tactical. Placing his hand on he phaser, he hesitated. He was not sure if this was a hologram or had it transported aboard. The image was so detailed and realistic. The technology to do this is fantastic. He thought.

Amynta watched it with a frown, taking a breath as she looked down. She felt like just blowing it up. Damn it all, just blow it up. Creepy aliens. She could do without that. In fact, she could do with a nice torpedo.

Jac looked on the alien with interest, part of him suspiciously calculating how long it would take him to find a deadly vulnerability in the skinny torso (strength, increased range of attacks, weakness, the structure looks weak, but there would be more strength than on first observation), while another part of him catalogued the appearance of the crown on her head. The alien was likely a leader, but how high up?

Dea stood there doing her best not to let her mouth drop open at what they were witnessing. So far Blake had remained silent, Mialin hoped the acting CO would speak up sooner rather than later. "Your territory? Would you mind telling us who you are first? This system doesn't show up on any of our maps. Violated your territory twice, can you be more specific as to when. Our mission is a peaceful one. At least that's how it started out." It was clear she was referring to their encounter with the Borg.

The figure stepped forward and closer to Dea in order to inspect the Trill woman. Her head craned around the bridge to attempt to gauge the intentions of the crew, and a series of what appeared to be various mechanical implants could be seen running from the base of her skull down beneath her strange garments. The technology did not look Borg...instead, it appeared far less crude and much more advanced.

"We are the people of Le'kt, from the second moon of the yellow star. This nebula is ours by claim. As well as the planets within it." she responded in the same soft and deliberate voice. "One of your ships entered the cloud a week ago. And now your ship also entered. Why?"

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

Unnamed Alien Woman
Le'kt Leader
NPC'd by Lirha Saalm

Legatus Of Borg
Borg Representative
Borg Collective
NPC'd by John Holliday

LT Dea Mialin
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign S'Ranna T'Srrr'Kharh
Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Allyndra illm Warraquim
CMO
USS Gallileo

Lieutenant Theron Rhodes
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
USS Gallileo

Lt. Commander Scarlet Blake
Chief Counsellor/2XO (Acting CO)
USS Galileo

Lt. Jr. Grade Asahi Kita
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Im'er Mor'an
Operations Officer
USS Galileo

Junior Grade Lieutenant Norvi Stace
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Natalie Chevalier
Ecologist
USS Galileo

Keval Grayson PO 1st class
Operations
USS Galileo
NPC'd by Jared Nicholas

Ensign Jacrux
Anthropologist
USS Galileo

Lt. Amynta Markos
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo

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