New Mission: "Histories Mysteries"

[davidramsey]

David sat in the command chair and stared out the view screen at a crumbling wreck of a planet. Its northern hemisphere was covered in what appeared to be one continuous block of ice while the southern hemisphere was dominated chiefly by vulcanic hell. It was hard to believe that this forsaken piece of intergalatic real estate had once nearly broken a treaty and unleashed war upon the galaxy.

"Genesis," he whispered to himself, "I am surprised it still exists."

He had always assumed that it had imploded or was otherwise no longer in existance. His history teacher had never actually answered that question. It was one of the few lectures that the old professor never quite finished. More than a hundred years before the Hope was even designed, this planet was the greatest wonder in the galaxy and now it was little more than a curiosity.

Less than a week earlier David had quickly briefed the crew on their rather strange orders. Apparently, a research vessel, the USS Harbinger had been dispatched to the surrounding system to research strange occurances on a nearby colony. Unfortunately, Star Fleet command had then promptly lost contact with both the researchers and the colonists. Needless to say, Command were curious and therefore, the Hope, being the nearest to the system was called into action.

"Lieutenant Kuragh," he said frankly, "Be sure to keep us at a safe distance. Commander Merit, intensive scans would be greatly appreciated."

With that he turned to his first officer.

"What do you think, Major?" he asked frankly then a bit quieter he muttered, "This place gives me the creeps and yes, that's the scientific term."

The other man flashed him a look, but David shrugged it off and turned his attention back to the view screen.

[Deleted]

Shris stood casually at his post on the bridge staring out of the Window at the planet benath them. There seemed no trace of the ship they had been sent to find. No Ion trail, no ID no nothing. But then if the ship had entered hyperspace it wouldnt have left a trace. He scanned briefly for debris but there was so much that he couldnt distinguish rock from metal.

A small alert on his screen brought him to full readiness.

"I have a number of small fighters on approach" he rpeorted, "They seem to be on an assault vector."

"Where did they come from" Jo asked incredously

"I dont know" Shris frowned, "They seem short range and so there must be a carrier or capital ship nearby. Shall I raise deflectors and arm the turbolasers Sir? At least until we know their intent?"

[davidramsey]

David squinted at the screen as the fighters came up on the viewer. They seemed a bit ... familiar? Even still, it was always better to be safe than sorry.

"Shields up! Open a channel to the lead fighter," he said plainly, once he was sure that the channel had in fact been opened he continued, "This is Captain David Ramsey of the USS Hope, who am I addressing?"

The opposition signal was rather weak, but the image of a human fighter pilot did manage to come through the thick static.

"This is Lieutenant Commander Damon Fost of the USS Harbinger's blue squadron," the man replied in what seemed like a very strange voice, "We have been in search of our ship. We scrabbled to investigate a strange occurance on the outer reaches of the system and returned to find our ship gone."

David was somewhat shocked, he had not been aware that the Harbinger had carried fighters, but in some ways it was a possibility.

"We'd be happy to have you aboard Commander, we shall prepare shuttle bay two for you and your squad," David said, then he turned to his security chief, "Have security report to shuttle bay two to meet our guests."

The chief nodded gruffly and stomped from the bridge tapping his combadge and sending out orders. David turned his attention back to his bridge crew.

"Continue scans and try to track the trails of those fighters. Perhaps we can follow them back to their point of origin, which hopefully will lead us to the Harbinger's last known position. Those fighters are rather old, there is a chance they did not have the same ability and so, when the ship was missing, they were unable to track it."

He'd said too much, he was sure of it, but he didn't particularly care. Thinking out loud was not a crime on your own bridge was it?

He turned to the Major, when suddenly ...

=^= Shuttle bay two to Bridge=^=

David screwed up his eyebrows and looked up at the ceiling toward the voice.

=^= Go ahead. =^=

=^= Captain, you'd better get down here, sir. =^=

David flashed Wong a look and then got to his feet.

"Major you have the CONN," he said and made his way to the turbolift.

_______________________________________________

A few moments later, he arrived in shuttle bay two where he found his security personnel standing over seven children almost swallowed by fighter pilot jumpsuits. Their seven fighters were clustered about the bay and he looked around incredulously. One little boy marched forward and saluted.

David stopped short and stared at the grim little man.

"Lieutenant Commander Fost, reporting in, sir," the little boy stated as grimly as he could in that little voice.

[Deleted]

Jon had been closeted away in sickbay for most of the trip so far. It was crew evaluation time and so his time was spent doing routine examination after routine examination. It was with some delight that he was summoned by the Captain.

"Your blood pressure is a little high. But we can treat that. Nurse Omara will get you a prescription."
He turned and beckoned for the Caitian Nurse to come over and finish up with Ensign Tomati.
"I don't know how long I ll be" Jon explained as he picked up a med kit. He wasn't sure what he might encounter.

The Hope was a large vessel and had a vast crew. He could pass five or six officers in each corridor and not know any of them personnally despite his extensive examinations. He smiled at a young female ensign as she walked past, he would have to get to know her. He stepped in to the turbolift.
"Main Shuttlebay" he ordered
The lift whirred into life and shot down through the ship.
He disembarked at the correct deck and entered the bay. There he saw Ramsey and Wong stood beside a group of children.
"Where did they come from?" He asked "I thought I knew all the children on the Hope"
The lead child seemed to bristle at his comment.
"These..." Ramsey paused "...aren't children. This Commander Fost and his squadron from the Harbinger."
Jonathon began to laugh but then realised the Captain wasn't joking,
"Oh I see" he covered pulling out a Tricorder, "Perhaps we better head up to sickbay."
"In good time" Wong answered "We haven't talked to them yet."
"We could do that there or on the way. But I really think Sickbay would be best" Jonathon stressed.

[Deleted]

Before I post properly I d like things to be sorted properly, firstly we have phasers not turbolasers and secondly the Captain summoned Wong to the shuttlebay not you Jon

[davidramsey]

Ramsey considered the doctor's wishes.

"Very well, doctor," he decided, rubbing his chin in consternation, "Major, I expect you to lead up a team surveying these fighters. I am fairly certain that these ... officers did not climb into these things as toddlers. I want to know about anything extreme immediately, but I'll return in a few hours for a preliminary report."

"Aye, sir," the marine replied as he tapped his combadge, "I need an engineering team to shuttle bay two on the double."

With that, David and the doctor herded the children out of the shuttle bay toward the sickbay. A few moments later the group walked into the sickbay and the doctor began his scans. With the young Commander Fost seated on a biobed, David began his questioning.

“So, you lost contact with the Harbinger six hours ago?”

“Aye, sir.”

“And when you left your ship, had your … uhm, changes already started?”

“It’s difficult to say, sir, I can tell you I didn’t feel like a 37 year old, I can say I felt a bit feisty, almost like I was back in my twenties. As for the crew itself, I had heard of scars suddenly disappearing and the like,” the young man continued, “However, we were scrambled before anything was really officially known.”

“Why were you scrambled?”

“The Harbinger’s long range sensors detected a surge of photon energy out past the third planet of the system,” he answered dutifully, “The Harbinger’s orders were to sit on the colony so we were sent to investigate and report back. When we left, the Harbinger was in steady orbit of the second planet. When we arrived at the disturbance we found that it had been created by an uncharted photoplasmic nebula. We documented the nebula as best we could and returned to the second planet and the Harbinger was gone. Our sensors are outdated and so we weren’t readily able to locate them.”

“Why were fighters stationed on a research vessel? I mean, that does seem rather … odd, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, our fighters were scheduled to be decommissioned but Admiral Roha felt that the fighters could be applied in some research situations and had squads attached to several research vessels, like the Harbinger.”

David turned away from the young man and walked over to the doctor.

“Well, Doctor, what do you think?”

<Tag Williams>

=^= Bridge to Captain Ramsey =^=

=^= Go ahead =^=

=^= Sir, we have located the Harbinger =^=

=^= Acknowledged, Major, I am on my way up. =^=

A few moments later, David arrived on the bridge and took in the view of the lifeless Harbinger. The ship was adrift and seemed to be tumbling slowly from bow to stern with wreckless abandon.

"Life signs?"

Major Wong stood up, flashing him a grave look, "No sir, none whatsoever."

David stopped short and looked at the ship again.

"Commander Zaksh' riszehn, get a tractor beam lock and begin intensive scans," he said, "Major, assemble an away team and get over there."

"Aye, sir," Wong replied gruffly as he motioned toward different bridge officers.