Exciting Discoveries

Posted on Wed Mar 21st, 2012 @ 11:58pm by Commander Acle Walex & Captain Vorn Krace & Commander Jordan Gunning & Lieutenant Commander Zim Drex & Lieutenant Commander Sara Archer & Lieutenant JG Emily Hamson

Mission: Heart of an Explorer
Location: USS Iapetus - Bridge
Timeline: MD40 1306hrs

It didn't take the crew long to arrive at the location of the warp signature they had detected. As the Iapetus dropped out of warp, the much more advanced science ship dwarfed the small vehicle, which was only about the size of the old inter-orbital shuttles Earth used during its early explorations of the solar system; perhaps even more like the Phoenix than any probability expert would like to admit, though it lacked the distinctive nacelle designs that the human - and thereafter, Federation - designs favored.

"Sensors?" Krace asked, having risen from his chair to stand in the centre of the bridge as they dropped out of warp.

"Main power is down, weapons and shields are down as well. Emergency power has been activated. Environmental control is stable." Laura reported as she scanned the vessels.

"Sensors detect a lifesign, Captain." The Tactical Officer stated. The sensor display did, indeed, suggest a lifeform huddled in the cockpit of the shuttle. "Its vitals are very weak."

"Transport them directly to sickbay," the captain ordered, the decision coming to him instantly. As the security officer went to work, Krace tapped his combadge to alert the medical staff that they would have an incoming patient, before turning towards Counselor Lynn. "Counselor, if you could head down to sickbay please, I'm certain that if the individual is conscious, they'll be very confused."

Gunning called up the transport relay onto his console and the familiar scaled lines appeared on his display. He ran his hand up and down it at a steady pace, keeping one eye on the progress display and targeting scanners. "Transport complete, Captain."

Turning his attention back to the technology in front of them, Krace directed his next question to the chief engineer. "Commander; is the ship safe to bring aboard?" The ship must have stopped for some reason; whether it was simply out of fuel or whether its engines had suffered some kind of problem, the captain didn't want to have any harmful radiation being leaked into his ship.

The chief engineer turned away from a cross-section of the derelict vessel. "These readings show no risk of explosion or radiation exposure, sir. It should be safe. I'll have to reduce power to the tractor beam, though, so we don't shear the secondary hull too much."

Krace nodded. "Tractor it into the shuttlebay then, Mister Drex, then I want you and Lieutenant Hamson to get teams together to start studying it; see what you can tell us. Commanders," his next orders were to Walex and Archer. "See if you can figure out where the ship came from, originally. Try to back-track it's course." He smiled widely. "I have a feeling that we might be about to make our first First Contact of the Delta Quadrant."

Drex stood up and grabbed an engineering kit from the bridge locker. "Aye sir." He waited by the turbolift doors for the science officer. "I hope they like good jokes." He added, grinning at the Captain.

"Not likely." Emily replied and followed him to the turbolift.

The Bolian tapped his communicator. "Drex to Lieutenant Johanson. Meet me in the shuttlebay in ten minutes."

"Acknowledged." She replied.

"Hamson to science department. Have a three man science team report to the shuttle bay." she ordered once she pressed her comm badge.

"Aye Lieutenant." someone replied.

Emily felt slightly nervous, as a Borg drone she had spent many years in the Delta quadrant assimilating many species. She wondered if she would recognize the ships technology and the species that had been transported onto the ship, would they recognize her as a Borg drone? She didn't know.

Acle had sat quietly for the proceedings, choosing to reflect quietly. He frowned slightly and turned to the console in front of him, attempting to work out a vector that the ship could have come from. If the ship had traveled in a relatively straight course, there were very few celestial bodies that it could have come from. Acle marked two as probable, as the others were simply too vast a distance away for a warp one ship to reach, realistically. The XO turned to speak softly to the captain, relaying the information that he had found to the intelligence officer as well.

"Captain, going off of what one can expect a warp one capable vessel of doing, I believe it is three planets, or at least, likely planets that the ship came from, assuming a straight-flight path. One of those planets was actually visited by a long-range probe, which identified the planet as a barren rock, superheated by the sun that it orbits. The other two, however, remained beyond even our long-range probes. I believe it to have come from a straight flight path because this ship is reminiscent of a test flight gone wrong. The crew, or single pilot, would not have wanted to deviate from a simple flight path in that case. I know I wouldn't have wanted to. " Acle said before looking up to the intelligence chief to see if she concurred.

Sara studied her display carefully before looking up. "I agree, Captain. If this was a maiden test flight, it would most likely be in a straight line. Of course, something may have went wrong during the flight and the pilot had to make a course correction. We won't know for sure until we can study the ship's flight logs."

"Very well," Krace responded, as he stood from his chair. "Plot a course to the first and make ready to engage at warp four as soon as the craft is safely aboard. I'm going to go and see to our guest," he smiled then, thinking of the chance of being the first to introduce the Federation to a new species. "You have the bridge, Number One."

------------------------
Captain Vorn Krace
Commanding Officer

Commander Acle Walex
First Officer

Commander Jordan Gunning
Chief of Security

Lt. Commander Sara Archer
Chief Intelligence Officer

Lt. Commander Zim Drex
Chief Engineer

Lieutenant JG Emily Hamson
Chief Science Officer
USS Iapetus