Behind The Curtain Of Stars

Posted on Sat Dec 31st, 2022 @ 10:05pm by Captain William Maddox & Lieutenant T'Lyn & Commander Ayanja Tusalo & Lieutenant Commander Javiylah MacArthur & Lieutenant Commander Aarix Teral & Lieutenant Commander TaijanSuda ch'Thulhu & Lieutenant Jayla Kij MD & Lieutenant JG Fox Jasper & Lieutenant JG Stanislav Finch

2,749 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: World Wide Web
Location: Within The Reef Stars
Timeline: Day 1

For the crew of the USS Daedalus, the transition from one place to another was shockingly anti-climactic. The thickening red light occluded the view out of any of the Chariot class's viewports, and then slowly the light waned and faded. There was no bright burst of exotic matter, nor the sea-saw gut retching of breaking the fundamental laws of nature to put to desperate places together.

Like a San Fran Port hustler playing three-card monte, the Daedalus went through a distraction in reality and came out somewhere else. Somewhere oddly...beautiful.

Instead of the black vastness of space beyond the viewport, the stars of the Milky Way washed out by the bright duo of Alpha Tuncanne and SB13's work lights, the Reef Stars were a vast riot of colours competing for attention. Packed in around the Galactic Core, the Reef Stars portrayed a varied tone of white and silver light, picked out here and there by the brighter stars of the choir. Reds and oranges of interstellar gas clouds added highlights and flourishes.

Maddox stood up from his chair, and stepped down from the command dias to stand over Fox's shoulder.

"It really is full of stars," he said to himself or others it was hard to tell. Maddox broke from his reverie after a moment. "Everyone, welcome to the Reef Stars. You can now fit every single person who has seen this sight into the main auditorium at Starfleet Academy. In our profession, that is a very unique club to be a member of. But that exclusivity comes at a price, we are now on our own. The Federation is only a hundred light years away from us, but due to the gravity eddies and shoals surrounding the Galactic Core, they'd take a year to get here. That might mean Commander MacArthur you'll need a roster of scavengers and foragers if we take longer than we planned to find the Icarus."

"Certain skillsets are present aboard, Sir," Javi responded, keeping her phrasing diplomatic. She wasn't surprised by the idea given where they now were nor was it something that hadn't somewhat been considered prior to launch.

Damn straight they were, thought Fox, and those were a fun crowd to drink with.

"Everyone else, let's get to the work. Commander Tusalo, find the closest Type-L brown dwarf. The Icarus mission profile was to find one nearest their entry point and use it as a starting line. Given our focus on a landing where they did, it's a good bet we'll find a log beacon there to begin the hunt. Mr Fox can aid you as he'll be getting us there," Maddox said, turning back to face the bridge. "Mr Suda, full tactical scan of the area. The distress call didn't mention hostile entities but let's err on the side of caution."

"Not all hazards are hostile ones," Suda gruffly muttered. There could be spatial anomalies, dangerous debris that reacted against neutrino emissions and other engine byproducts, even cosmozoans for all they knew. Science would be compiling all potential threats from said list and even more besides, but it was Suda's job to check the local environment against them.

"Agreed. But I've yet to meet an ion storm that didn't at least identify as mildly belligerent. And the Reef Stars are twisted ocean of gravity waves and shoals, who knows what we'll run into out here," Maddox retorted.

"Aye sir." Aya said, as she shook herself free of the awe she felt. The colors and views on the screen were magnificent. Truly this kind of first look made all the risk worth it. "Mr. Fox, tie navigational sensors into stellar cartography. Let's start mapping out courses to the various brown dwarfs in the area."

Gravity waves and shoals - all the good fun stuff and here he was with a very expensive, state of the art, all-singing, fancy-dancing ship to steer. Good times.

Fox looked away from the viewscreen, up and over his console and straight at Commander Tusalo. She looked younger than her record stated, serious expression on a handsome face and her those black Betazoid eyes had shown wonder at the exciting, majestic nightmare before them. The pilot raised an eyebrow, then considered his words carefully, aware of the occasion and all those listening right now. "I don't need to, Commander," Fox pointed out, politely. "Automated navcomp's been updating since we left dock. Local scans have sucked up all the data already," he pointed to the screen on his console. "She's populated our quickest route." He offered up a friendly, enthusiastic grin. "And the most scenic one." A pause before he added. "Not much in it, timewise. Your choice, Commander."

----------------

"As for you two..." Maddox said, looking at Kij and Aarix. "I have a special project for you two when we find our target star."

Aarix admittedly was a little disappointed that there was nothing spectacular about the transit, and he looked at the dazzling sight for a moment before going back to his readings. He wasn't a scientist. Yeah, the sight was breathtaking, but these readings from engineering were worth celebrating. Everything worked together almost harmonically, the incoming data almost making its own symphony of beeps and sine waves.

The engineer turned his head toward Maddox when he spoke, realizing that he was talking to him and the doctor next to him. Wait, when did the doctor get here? He was so entranced by the readings that he hadn’t noticed her arrive. "A special project? Care to elaborate, Captain?"

Somehow managing to tear her eyes from the viewscreen, Jayla merely nodded in agreement. She, too, wondered what the special project was, but mostly because if involved an engineer and a doctor.

"Join me in Cargo Bay 4 after we've laid in our course, and all will become revealed," Maddox said.

"All alone for the moment but I recommend we get shields up," Suda said. "There's too little of nothin' at all around here for my taste. Space ain't supposed to be clean. Debris levels are lower than standard, like even comets and shit know not to be here."

"Could be an effect of the gravity tides in this area. I'd not be surprised if we find a higher degree of rocky rogue planets out here. All of that dust and debris probably ends up in Lagrange points, which then form into planetary formation zones. Micro...nebulas..." Maddox said, teasing the word out from his lips. "Not liking that name one bit. But it's a working title for a working theory."

"A more thorough and detailed astronomic analysis would be required before putting forth any theories, speculative or otherwise, as to the nature of the more vacuous nature of this spatial volume."

The voice of Science Officer T'Lyn was as dry and cutting as any summer breeze on her home of Vulcan. Turning in her seat, the young Vulcan lieutenant in science blue regarded Suda.

"But perhaps the Andorian is correct, and the cometary debris usually seen in such locations has been warded away by fear of predation. I of course would be willing to acquiesce to their more thorough and in-depth knowledge of all things made of frozen rock and ice," T'lyn suggested.

"Perhaps the Vulcan should get her smartass on sensors and find out why this region is weird," Suda barked. "And unless there is a shortage on shield power, then I stand by my recommendation."

"I was unaware that the training of Security and Tactical officers did not cover the basic automation of data collection," T'lyn mused idly. "Passive sensors are in data collection mode, with the more active sensors locked down until Security has determined the safety of announcing ourselves to the local stellar vicinity."

"I already fuckin' said we're all alone out here--too alone, in fact." Suda's face took on a mulberry purple shade. "What the hell else do you need to do active scans, Vulcan? A goddamn invitation?"

"Okay," Maddox said with a chop of his hand and a strained smile, looking at the two officers. "Security keeps a looks out for anything worrying, and Science can find us things to gawk at and then worry about. Fox, Tusalo, find us a place to go and get us there. Doc, Chief, Cargo bay four. MacArthur...between all of us you have the rump of things. You get to keep everything stapled together."

Jayla immediately proceeded to the turbo lift. “Friendly, isn’t he?” she asked Aarix in an aside, nodding towards Suda.

Aarix followed the doctor toward the lift. Even if he weren't told to go to cargo bay four, it was about time for him to retreat back to engineering anyways. "Heh, sure," Aarix responded to Jayla, quietly enough that she was likely the only one to hear it.

"Understood, Sir," Javi replied, wondering just how, yet again, she was responsible for everything onboard. The black cat sitting on her shoulder, however, made a low disgruntled noise that was the direct opposite of her own professional tone. She stopped any further commentary by gently, but firmly, keeping its jaws closed with her fingers.

The turbolift doors opened to reveal Lieutenant Stanislav Finch stepping onto the bridge without asking permission.

"BOOM!" Through turbolift doors came Finch shuffling his feet to the left and then the right with his hands at waist level.

"Ooh, baby, baby! Baby, baby! Ooh, baby, baby! Push it real good!" It wasn't the worst Dougie performance ever, but its novelty wore out long before Finch made it to the middle of the bridge. "Daddy Finch is here to the rescue. What's poppin', everybody? Find anyone to make first contact with yet?" He grinned straight at Maddox. "I happily..." He flitted his lips over his teeth. "...volunteer, but only for an 8 or better."

"Have anymore of my cameras made their way to your office, Mr. Finch?" Jayla asked with a smug grin. Without waiting for a response, she stepped onto the turbo lift.

"No, just your shower," Finch retorted with a sarcastic tone and a scrunched nose.

--------------------

Ignoring the commotion caused by Finch's arrival Aya instead studied the readouts before her. The two courses were their first and only clues so far, but it all seemed too simple.

Fox looked to Tusalo, waiting for the confirmation now she'd had chance to consider their available options.

"T'lyn, Inoue? What have the passive sensors picked up anything along the inital courses provided. I'd like to get us moving as soon as possible, but not on some course picked at random." Aya knew that even without active sensor announcing their presence there was no way anyone with half decent sensors could have missed the energy influx from the downjump.

"There are two possible candidate stars within the 10 light-year volume of space denoted in the Icarus's mission plan," T'lyn commented. "One of them is a long-phase binary pair orbiting an unstable flare star. The other appears to be a minor star system at the edge of the search volume."

Avoiding drawing any more attention Finch's entrance and stageshow with a calm professional attention to his own duty, Fox had been checking the navcomp's results a third time just to stop himself yelling at the frustrating nerd. "There's actually three candidates," the pilot noted, looking up to the Vulcan officer. "Look closer to the centre of the marked area, sensors show fluctuations, but I've seen this before... She's definitely a viable option." In his opinion, anyway.

"The statistical likelihood of the stellar object being our target is negligible, and so was not mentioned. Though," T'lyn said with a glance towards Suda, and then back to Fox. "I would be remiss if I did not take into account your knowledge and expertise. Though I would perhaps question your use of anthropomorphizing a stellar mass as 'female'."

"Always include the longshot," Fox noted with a grin. "They've got me outta a bind more'n once." He shrugged lightly then and looked from the screen to T'lyn to ask his question with friendly humour wrapped about it. "Ah, okay, I guess it just feels more familiar that way. You think the star's more of a guy?"

Suda scoffed at the proboscis measuring contest between them. "You do realize nobody else gives a shit about your binary gender debate, right? Words are just words. Leave them at that."

"I could do with hearing a little more about stars and naughty bits," Finch mumbled with his pinky pressed to his mouth.

The pilot shot Suda an amused look, then rolled his eyes as Finch had to throw in his own inappropriate comment. It was tempting to weigh in, but Fox was focused on being the consumate professional right now. Which direction they took right now and at each decision point would directly affect their chances of finding the Icarus, and that thought sobered him more swiftly than any need for immediate sarcasm. He could push back at Suda later.

"Fox, what's the relation of that third contact to the other two, Ha-Captain Hawkins was a fan of long shots too." I hope that you haven't lost that adventurous streak in you. It was a long shot in itself, it had been years since she'd last seen the man, but at his core, Aya was sure Hawk wasn't one to simply take the easy path.

"Might be what got his ass lost out here," Suda muttered under his breath.

"Humans do have a predisposition towards 'gut feelings," T'lyn said, relishing in the irony of that statement coming from her lips. "With that in mind, the 3rd lesser option is en route to both primary search targets. It would not significantly delay us to either target to investigate this one first."

"As the lieutenant says, Commander," Fox replied to Tusalo's direct question. "Delay is minor to head in this direction first." He wondered if Jasper Senior had favoured long shots like Captain Hawkins - Hawk as Dekker had always refered to him as - apparently did. Had they argued about it, or had they both agreed on the direction? Hopefully one day he'd be able to ask him. "Can't say for sure if it's the right one, but needed to make sure you had all the data before you made your decision," he told the Commander. Then, serious and straightfaced, Fox continued. "But for the record, it's not a longshot in my view. This one might be dimmer from our current perspective, but it's closer to the centre of the search area. And not only that, but all my sensors show the object keeps shifting brightness levels... yet... not in the way that would imply orbiting bodies of its own."

Finch interjected without hesitation. "Well, let's see." He held a finger to his cheek and rolled his eyes as if trying to remember something. "What did the last transmission of the Icarus say? Oh, now I remember! Something about strange readings, weird phenomena, and a destructive force of nature that caught them like a sitting duck. Maybe we should think twice before blindly gallivanting off the same direction they did."

"If you're going to be a sniveling little piss-flap the whole mission, then you can get off right here," Suda cut in. "I'll sign off on discharging the escape pod myself."

"Commander? I would invest Lt Fox's suggestion with the full backing of the Science Department. It is the most efficient use of our resources," T'lyn commented.

"Lieutenant Fox," Aya finally said taking one more look toward the viewscreen. Hunches and gut feelings weren't just for humans, Science and logic is good but sometimes experience and personal knowledge had to be trusted. "Set course for our long shot. Lieutenant T'lyn, launch a Class-3 probe ahead of us and toward our other two objectives as well. Make sure to utilize your stealthiest of stealth probes to do so. Let's avoid anyone knowing where we're headed."

"Aye sir, setting course," replied Fox enthusiastically as he set to swiftly doing just that. "Locked in," he confirmed as he guided the Daedalus in their chosen direction. He cast a look over to the cocky Intel guy and made a note to have a private chat with Finch at some point soon. To Suda, the pilot gifted a grateful nod for the timely intervention and then Fox's focus returned to their forward path along with all its fun challenging obstacles.

And so it begins.

 

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