About March 30^th, 2378

Stardate 55242

First Officer’s log, Stardate 55242.3

            As per the agreement that the ambassadors made with the Lauss, we are patrolling the sector of space the Lauss home planet is in.  I never expected something so menial, really: patrolling space around a species that has renounced space travel.  Even though we’ve only been here a day, it’s been over a week since we left the Starbase.  I guess I’m just used to a lot of action and a lot of tension before the action.  There is none of that here…just peacefulness.  I guess I should be thankful…

An alarm on Lieutenant Commander Vendar Perkins’s console caused Commander Chris Harriman to perk his head up.  He twisted his body and neck to look back at her as she worked to investigate.

“Vendar, please tell me that’s something exciting,” he said.  “Something like a Romulan Scout ship or a Jem Hadar cruiser.”

She grinned a little, never taking her eyes off of her console.  “Sorry to disappoint you, but it’s just a comet that entered the sector.”

He felt his hopeful face turn into a disappointed one.  “What class of comet is it, in particular?”

“Class ten.  Frozen Nitrium attached to dilithium.”

His eyes went wide when he heard that report.  He turned around and looked at the streaking starfield on the view screen.  “Well, that might be worth a look.  We may be able to replicate and regenerate dilithium…but a fresh source is often helpful.”

“Maybe you should consult Captain K’Taul first,” Lieutenant Commander Tom Halkrat suggested from the science station.  “You know he doesn’t like people giving ‘his’ orders.”

Chris rolled his eyes.  For a moment, he just about ordered the helmsman to change course…but he knew Tom was right.  K’Taul was a by-the-book bastard who didn’t give him any freedom.  It was interesting serving with a Klingon…but it’s an experience he wished he didn’t have to have.

Another sensor alarm sounded from Vendar’s console, bringing Chris’s head around with hope.

“Report.”

She was frowning now, seeming to only stare at the readings.  Her mouth hung open as she looked up to Chris.  “We…just received a subspace message that states…and I quote, ‘we are under distress.’”

Chris once again felt his face change, this time to a quizzical look.  “Well, then…I’d say that’s a distress signal if I’ve ever heard one.”

She shrugged in response.  “I’d say so.”

He smiled and stood up from the chair, anxious to do something other than sit on his rear end all day.

“Yellow alert, Captain to the bridge,” he ordered.  “Helm, set a course to track the source of that signal, maximum warp.”

“Aye, sir,” the helmsman responded.  “It seems to becoming from a planet outside of our patrol sector, ten light years from our current position.”

Captain K’Taul quickly moved onto the bridge from his ready room, moving next to Chris and staring down at the helm.

“Report, Commander,” he said, his voice seemingly gruffer than usual.

“We just received a text distress call,” Chris said, turning around and moving to the First Officer’s chair.  As he turned around and sat down, he added, “We’ve altered course to intercept.  It appears to be from a planet ten light years away.”

K’Taul nodded his head and moved back to the command chair.  “Commander, I again must ask that you refrain from giving such orders.”

Dammit, here we go again, he thought to himself.  “Sorry, sir, but it was a distress signal.  An extra minute waiting for you to enter the bridge and give the order could be a crucial minute.”

K’Taul looked at him hard, his eyes narrowing as he visibly grinded his teeth.  However, Chris knew that he was right…and so did K’Taul.  His eyes reverted back to a calm state as he nodded.  “Very well.”

K’Taul one, Harriman one!  The score is tied!

With that, the bridge took on an empty, quiet mood.  There was little work, little motion, nothing really to be done until they arrived.  K’Taul was looking at his console, as was Chris.  Lieutenant James Trikal, who had just taken the other helmsman’s place, worked the helm, ensuring that the warp field remained stable.  Vendar and Tom were discussing something very quietly at the back of the bridge, as if afraid to break the silence.  As far as Chris could tell from overhearing a few words, they were still discussing the comet and whether or not it was feasible to mine its Dilithium.

Finally, enough time and distance had passed.

“We’re approaching the source of the distress signal,” James said.

“Drop out of warp,” K’Taul responded, quickly following Chris out of his chair and to the helm.

With that order, the streaking stars become pinpricks of white light.  Ahead was a rather unusual planet.  It looked like a gas giant…but when he read James’s console, he saw that it was about the size of an M-class planet…just it was not M-class.

“The planet appears to be Class-Y,” Vendar reported, never having even been asked.  “Although there are very low levels of thermionic radiation.  Temperatures across the planet vary greatly, but all are hotter than anything we could even dream of handling.”

“This close to a star, I’m not surprised one bit,” James added.

“Where’s the source of the distress signal?” K’Taul asked, never taking his eyes off of the planet.

“Southern hemisphere,” she responded.  “I’ve just scanned that area…it appears there’s a very large complex there that goes deep beneath the ground.  I can only scan the top four floors…and it appears to have an oxygen/argon atmosphere inside.  The top two floors have been breached by the planet’s atmosphere…but I think we can beam an away team down to the third floor.”

“Life signs?”

She shook her head negatively.  “None that I can detect…but as far as I can tell, the complex extends at least ten more floors down.  I just can’t get detailed scans of those floors.”

K’Taul nodded and started moving back to the command chair.  “Commander Harriman, lead an away team down to find out what happened and to see if there are any survivors.”

Chris took one last look at the readings on James’s helm, then started walking towards the turbolift in the back.  “Have doctor Trieal and a nurse meet me in the transporter room.  Ada, Vendar, you’re with me.”

Both nodded and moved to join him in the turbolift.  With in moments, they were on their way down.

Commander Kara Trieal quickly pulled out her medical tricorder and opened it up.  As her vision became accustomed to the dark surroundings, she didn’t even bother to look at anything but her tricorder.

“I’m not detecting any life signs so far,” she said.  She looked up at Chris.  “But because of the breech up above, they probably went further down.”

Vendar was moving around with her tricorder open, shaking her head.  “I can’t scan beyond the floor below us.  As far as I can tell, there’s either a dampening field below the fourth floor…or the floors are made out of some sort of material meant to block scans.  Either way, I’d say it’s intentional.”

Kara finally took the time to get hear bearings…and she was rather surprised to see what she saw.  They were in some sort of central corridor access, a four-way intersection.  The corridors were very dark with light panels flickering on and off sporadically.  What concerned her was the fact that there was obvious weapons damage all over the place.

“What ever happened here,” Chris said, tentatively touching an obviously hot part of the wall, “it happened recently.”

“Plasma decay suggests four hours ago,” Vendar replied.

Chris sighed and shook his head.  “Well…I’d have to say that we should stay in a group for now, at least until we’ve established that who ever attacked this place is gone.  Let’s try to find a working elevator or set of stairs, something to get us to the lower levels.”

As Kara and her nurse, Lieutenant Lisa Ogawa, waved their tricorders around, they followed the rest of the group.  It wasn’t long before her tricorder detected something odd…

“Commander!” Lisa stated in alarm.

“I see it,” she said, catching everyone’s attention.  The group immediately came to a stop, not more than fifteen meters from where they had beamed down.  She moved close to the wall and took out her tricorder’s wand.  After waving it over the area, she nodded in agreement with herself.

“I’m detecting some sort of biomemetic material on this wall,” she reported, analyzing the readings.  “I’d say it’s either some alien’s blood or just some sort of material from his skin.”

“Knowing what its bio signature is, can you isolate any life signs?” Chris asked, moving to examine the slimy wall himself.

She shook her head negatively, narrowing her eyes as she used her tricorder to scan all four top levels.  “No.  The top two floors don’t seem to have much, but there are definite traces.  This floor and the one below us are all…covered in the material.  If there are any aliens that create this, they’ll be able to blend in perfectly with it all.”

Chris closed his eyes and emitted a frustrated sigh.  “Wonderful.”  He opened his eyes and started moving again.  “Just what we need.  Ready your phasers.”

Kara complied immediately, fear starting to build up in her.  Holding her tricorder in her left hand, she pulled out her phaser, set it to high stun, and followed along.  She almost wished she had a pulse rifle like Chris, Ada, and Vendar had.  Those at least had flashlights on them.  She had to point her entire arm in the direction she wanted to look, which would mean a second or two to take aim at anything suddenly coming at her…

After a while, they finally found the stairs and slowly started to descend.  They became surprised when the stairs ended at the fifth floor.

They all crowded around the door, Vendar trying to scan past it.

She nodded her head in affirmation.  “It’s a dampening field, all right…but I don’t see how it still can be powered.”  She shut her tricorder and placed it in her pouch.  “It seems like it was originally intended to dampen both scanners and weapons fire…but its been modified to allow weapons fire.”  She leaned back against the door, her brow furrowed in concentration.  “If we can find the source of the dampening field, we could recalibrate our tricorders to its frequency, giving us the ability to scan.”

Chris shrugged his shoulders and looked around the dimly lit stair well.  “Well…I’d say we should go on.  Hold on a moment.”

He moved away from the door and up the stairs a few steps, moving a distance from the field just to be sure.  After a tap of the comm. badge, he said, “Harriman to Dragon.”

“Go ahead, Commander,” K’Taul responded.

“Commander Perkins has established that it is a dampening field blocking our scans.  She says that if we can find the field emitter, we can establish its frequency and tune our scanners to match.  We plan on going in to find the generator, no doubt on one of the bottom floors.”

“Understood.  You’ll be out of contact and we won’t be able to transport you once you go in, so be sure to be cautious.”