Commanding Officers Personal Log:

I had almost forgotten about the Stargazer Incident that happened early last year. Not like we haven’t had a million disasters happen in the last 12 months, personal ones included. Anyway, a splinter faction of the Borg had come through a stable transwarp conduit and helped fend off an energy wave. Though if memory serves me right, it wasn’t the borg who opened the conduit, but something else entirely, and Starfleet had cordoned it off for evaluation.

Turns out that Transwarp conduit was stable and led to the entrance of the Shackleton Expanse, a segment of space in the beta quadrant beyond the Romulan and Klingon boarders that had remained unexplored up until now. There was a spatial anomaly within the expanse that limited travel to nearly a crawl and greatly hampered expedition efforts from all interested parties, until now.

Following the Blackout incident, Starfleet detected that very anomaly to have dissipated. And after months of probing, have deemed it safe for travel and exploration, though not everyone agrees. It feels as though Starfleet is rushing in, as both the Romulans and Klingons have discovered the truth about the expanse, and Starfleet wants to capitalize on the region before the other two attempt expansion efforts.

And its for that very reason the Fox is parked over an Pre-warp planet, on the complete opposite side of the galactic quarter from the Thormar Expanse. Starfleet feels this world may be hiding something, and has asked us to investigate. And to be honest, at a glance, I don’t think their wrong.

[USS Fox, Mess Hall]

“Brynar is the fourth planet from the star, on the surface it’s a Class M planet with a nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere. Its landscape is a sundry of hills, dense forests, and wetlands, surrounded by stormy coasts. At least the primary continents that’s home to more than 83% of the planet’s population.” Archie reported in a monotone.

“So what, it’s a supercontinent, like Pangea?” Yeager asked. All heads turned to the pilot, amazed he knew what Pangea was. “What?! Picture books have a lot of information in them too!” he joked.

Michael, Romen, and Trixie hid their laughter as Archie shook his head. “This world appears to be in the beginning stages of continental drift. However, the mixture of extreme cold air from the poles, mixing with the heat from the equatorial region that causes most of the humidity, also causes constant extreme weather events over the oceans, so there has been little to no traversal between the main continent and the other 4 drifting landmasses.” Archie continued.

“Almost a epitomize of the expanse itself.” Doc commented.

“What do we know of the people?” Michael asked, moving the meeting along.

Trixie stood, “Scans indicate, a fully pre-warp, iron age civilization. We have taken several images of settlements, people, and structures throughout the planet, and cross referenced it with the computer. It appears they are comparable to earths early Nordic and Scandinavian people.”

“Vikings.” Romen interjected.

“Yes. There are three major and five minor factions that populate the main continent, all surrounding this valley, which is protected by mountains on all sides, dead center of the landmass.” She finished.

“And that’s the one place our scans can’t penetrate…” Michael added, looking at the geographical map on the display screen. “How can Iron Aged Vikings…block our scans?”

“If we had to guess, I would say it could be remnants of an ancient civilization. There is a particular elemental compound within the mountains themselves that are reflected in various ruins scattered across the world that do not conform with Brynarian culture.” Archie added.

“Is there a possibility they could be pulling a Ba’ku and playing indigenous?” Doc asked, walking away from a replicator and placing a plate of small sandwiches down in front of Michael. Michael nodded in thanks, and reached for a sandwich before stopping, realizing he didn’t order these, and looked back at the Medical Hologram. “You skipped breakfast.” The doctor said matter of factly.

Michael glared at the damn watch-dog doctor for a moment, as he raised a sandwich to his mouth and turned to re-focus on the meeting. Trying to avoid the encounter, Archie cleared his throat and resumed. “No, the Ba’ku were peaceful and were able to give up their more advanced lifestyles to live naturally. The Brynarians, while not at the level of Klingons, are still war-like. Any civilization like that would openly capitalize on the use of advanced technology to secure their position.”

“And what do we know so far about these energy readings?” Michael asked, already polishing off one sandwich and moving on to the second.
“The few readings we have detected, indicate piezoelectric shockwaves, that flow through the mysterious geological structures found in these external ruins. We are not sure how they are originating, but they all appear to be converging on a central location…” Archie explicated.

“The one place we cant scan…” Michael finished. Archie nodded in agreement.

Wiping his face with a napkin, and placing it on the now empty plate, Michael stood up and approached the view screen. “That means, if we are going to find out more about this, we are going to have to put boots on the ground.” He confirmed

“Which is going to be more difficult, since we can’t just beam down with equipment.” Trixie stated flatly.

“No, were going to need a lot more information before we head down and try to blend in with locals.” The Commander confessed.

“We can set up a duck blind. Camouflage drones using our mobile emitters to collect samples and do close monitoring.” Romen suggested.

“That’s going to require at least a fusion reactor to set up.” Trixie snapped.

“We don’t need an outpost, if were not the ones going down first. Something the size of a cargo container that can hold equipment and samples for the drones to operate out of. Disguise them as local wildlife so they don’t draw too much attention.” Michael interjected.

“Alright then. Trixie, start work on the mission pod. Doctor, Romen work with me on objective lists. Mr. Yeager begin preparation on remote drones. Dismissed.” Archie ordered. Everyone but he and Michael departed the Mess Hall to begin their work.

Archie approached his commanding officer, “I’m surprised you did not object to me not assigning as task to you, sir.” The Holographic XO expressed.

“Wise man once told me, delegation is part of command, and if I do it all myself, Ill burn out before the mission is truly underway.” Michael mused, still looking at the mission briefing screen.

Archie smiled, “I wouldn’t say ‘told’…more ‘like beat into you repeatedly’. But glad you’re coming around sir. Ill notify you once all stations are ready for the next phase.”

As Archie departed the Mess Hall, Michael turned to the replicator, pulling a cup of tea from the receptacle. “He’s going to be super pissed when I tell him I’m going on this away mission.” He said to himself with a devilish grin.

[To be Continued]