The Scrimshaw Star

Posted on Thu Mar 2nd, 2023 @ 6:57am by Captain William Maddox & Commander Ayanja Tusalo & Lieutenant Commander Javiylah MacArthur & Lieutenant Commander Aarix Teral & Lieutenant Commander TaijanSuda ch'Thulhu & Lieutenant Jayla Kij MD & Lieutenant JG Fox Jasper

2,107 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: World Wide Web
Location: USS Daedalus, Conference Room
Timeline: Day 3

"I once sailed a patrol through Sigma Draconis during the Dominion War. One of the significant early defeats we suffered, it was a massive shipbuilding infrastructure that had been in operation for hundreds of years. Lagrange points are choked with construction debris and cast-off hulls, all of it naturally collecting in these weird little gravitational null zones. Made hiding from the Jem'hadar easy enough, just power down and float with the garbage."

Maddox finished his story and leaned across the table to poke a finger into the dirty yellow bauble of the holographic star, banded around every angle of its surface in glowing orbital tracks marking the larger debris elements of the Dyson swarm. One of those tracks glowed a steady Federation blue, a gem on it blinking on and off signifying the location of the Icarus log beacon.

"Everyone here seen the sensor logs from the probe fly by?" Maddox enquired. He gestured to the model floating above the glossy black surface of the table. "I think we can safely say we're looking at an artificial structure. Or at least an artificial arrangement. The science department pegged at least a dozen different hull materials from wrecks comparable in size to the Daedalus. Not a one matches anything in book."

He waited a second.

"I mean its tragic, yes, but still its an amazing find and only on our third day here," Maddox said before looking at his XO. "I'm not getting the feeling not everyone is as thrilled as I am about this. Mystery, convenience, and scientific discovery: Starfleet holy trinity right there."

“Sorry,” replied Jayla. “If it’s not medicine, I don’t really understand it. What I understand is amazing, yes, and tragic. But… I’ll let someone else comment. Any maybe explain it to me a bit better,” she added with an apologetic grin.

"It's certainly a discovery Captain, but an ominous one." Aya said grimly, she'd never much fancied graveyards, not exactly a thing she grew up with on Betazed. "A Federation signature in the middle of all... that. Science is sure it's not the Icarus, but that just leaves us open to even more questions. I thought we were the first mission sent out this way by Starfleet."

"That is true, but Starfleet has sent exploration missions core-ward in the past. Mostly in the early 2230's. They mapped out a lot of the outer core systems, it was that survey data we used to help calculate the jumps into the Reef Stars. Most of those missions ended with a safe return, but I think I can pull up the records on the ones that went missing," Maddox thought aloud. "Also the science team picked up heavy dilithium deposits in the swarm. Not only in unrefined crystal form, but in the enriched states used in warp drives. Looks like we have options here to gather up a few spares for the road."

"Considering the Science Section is still working on our harmonic resonance issue it might be worth the risk of scavenging the crystals we find." Sure they could depend on the Daedalus' own crystal reconstitution facilities, but those took time and resources that may not always be readily available. "Wouldn't hurt to give the SAR Team some real world experience, they've been training for months." Aya glanced at Javi, part of her thinking back to their conversation before leaving. She had to put that aside for now this was the job and her team was the right one for it.

"A couple of additional Engineering personnel along or the ride of course."

Silently captivated by his own internal musings, Fox had paid about quarter-attention to the conversation taking place. His main emotional focus was still following that Icarus log beacon on its blue orbital path about the ugly yellow star. If it wasn't - and everyone confirmed the same message - the Icarus' demise, then why was it here? Had they left it here on purpose, by some sort of strange design, or was this... He failed to see another reason right now, circling the thought pattern endlessly along with said blinking object.

Captain Maddox brought the pilot out of that infinite loop with his calm and rational reasoning. This tidy, confusing mess had a useful purpose - spares. And that of course meant...

"I'll go run the pre-flight checks on the DSRV," Fox noted, avoiding asking for permission by the simple means of utilising enthusiasm. "Be good to have a look around this orbital junkyard-parking lot."

"Then we have a plan. The DSRV will transport SAR-1 to the trio of wrecks we've identified as being proximate to the log beacon signal. An engineering team will tag along with them for the collection of dilithium," Maddox said. He turned to look at MacArthur. "You'll have command both as Away Team Lead and SAR-1 Lead. This should be as simple as walking into a cave and walking out again with a pretty rock, but landing party 101 applies: expect trouble."

"Understood, Captain," Javi nodded, the idea of preparing for the worst and hoping for the best came to mind. The eager Lieutenant Fox received a quiet look that dared him to move from his chair before she turned her attention back to the briefing at hand.

He'd been about to suggest that this sounded like a lot of people to be taking into an unknown situation, but Fox caught the look from MacArthur and decided not to die on that particular hill just yet. Captain's orders were unlikely to be rescinded at this point, and he had enough to be focused on already. He nodded his understanding and sat back down, but maintained a deeply concerned frown through the rest of the conversation.

"Mister ch'Thulhu given your expertise I think you can handle away team security. First Contact protocols apply so stun settings unless overt threat to life," Maddox instructed. "We'll keep the Daedalus in transporter range, but all that refined metal and latent radiation might make a lock harder to maintain. Retreat or reinforcements might not be as rapid as we might like."

Suda snapped out of his macabre reverie and looked at the captain. "I can handle the cakewalk so long as nobody does anything stupid."

A look traded from Fox to Suda, but no words followed it. He'd pick up with Suda after the briefing.

"Chief," Maddox said looking at Aarix. "You want in on the SAR-1 mission, or would you rather go exploring some of the more alien wrecks on offer? Could be some interesting native design choices for the region that might make our warp core more sturdy?"

Aarix, who was silently sitting to the side as he listened to the conversation, mulled the question over for a moment. "I think understanding the inner workings of the alien wrecks will be valuable. I can task Richards with identifying quality crystals. As the resident warp core specialist, she'll know what to look for." Surely Maddox would have expected that answer from the engineer. It was without doubt that Aarix liked to tinker, but the change to explore foreign shipwrecks for the purpose of strengthening their own ship was practically irresistible.

"Dr Kij, I assume you'll be going with SAR-1 to over see any medical emergencies they might run into That Log Beacon didn't get inside one of those wrecks by itself, we might have a survivor holed up inside," Maddox asked. He didn't need to mention any survivors might not be Starfleet personnel, but from one of the numerous wrecks in orbit of the star.

“Of course,” agreed Jayla simply with her trademark grin. Though she didn’t like to think of people stuck there for much longer than a week, she had to admit it was a possibility.

"Now, anything we've missed here? At low warp we have a day of travel to get to our destination, which seems sensible given we're running on the backup crystal whilst Science and Engineering working on a million-piece dilithium crystal jigsaw puzzle. Did they start in the corners? I hear that's the best way to handle these things," Maddox chuckled.

"So far I haven't heard any theories behind this orbital boneyard," Suda said gruffly. "Looks like a goddamn war zone."

"Could be a tide pool, or we might just have stumbled upon a local interstellar civilisation's scrap yard. Nature makes patterns that can appear very artificial at times, but sometimes the simplest answers are best," Maddox mused.

Suda scoffed. "Natural causes, foul play, dead is dead. All I want is to know what did it so we aren't next."

Read my mind. thought Fox, but he didn't interrupt. He'd have plenty of time sitting on the DSRV waiting for them to all come back from the 'fetch and carry' mission, plenty of time to run scans close in and perhaps explore a little.

"Consider that a tertiary goal for after we get the dilithium and the log beacon," Maddox said with a nod. "Answers, necessary supplies. But if we can figure out the how and why of this place I'll be a happier man."

“I second that,” replied Jayla with a sage nod. Or would that be third, since ch’Thulhu said it first? She decided it didn’t matter. “I don’t suppose autopsies would be terribly helpful. Still, if we could find a way to get a couple bodies back to the ship, it certainly wouldn’t hurt.”

"Bodies?" Suda threw Jayla a confusing look. "I just meant the wreckages. If we got bodies on site, that changes everything. And we won't know it until we get there."

"We will be prepared for any situation, including remains recovery," Javi responded, trying to head off any disagreements before they started.

Suda looked at Javi. "How are we supposed to be prepared, Commander, if we don't know what's dropping ships?"

Aya's eyes quickly shot Suda's way, the Andorian's tone making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. They'd all been Security and well aware that there were no absolutes in their profession. It also wasn't exactly easy for her to let the shot taken at Javi go. Taking a breath she was appreciative that the Captain, responded on all their behalf's.

"The probe scans didn't detect any active warp cores, subspace signals, or plasma trails that would suggest a heavy degree of traffic. That being said the solar winds from that Brown Dwarf are strong enough to erase those traces in short order, so the Daedalus will be on overwatch. She's not a fighting ship, but she's got teeth enough to throw above her weight. Worst case we'll come in and get you ourselves," Maddox said with a nod. "This is our first step towards finding the Icarus and our missing crew. It will not be a step we stumble on."

"If for some we can't get the DSRV back out," Fox said, voice clear and without emotional resonance that might imply his thoughts on the conversation so far. This was logic talking now, pure logic. "Bringing the Daedalus in after us could risk the entire ship." A thought occurred and he shrugged - nothing to lose at this point - and spoke further. "What if the beacon was a test the Icarus used to try and track motion? They're not stuck here, but we might be if we're not careful. Sir."

"A fair point," Maddox said. "I feel we have a working plan to get results. Can I leave you all to assemble the materials needed and prepare your teams? Mister Fox keep us on course for the Brown Dwarf and keep us below warp three. We're doing this one like Archer crossing the Delphic Expanse."

"On course and below warp three, aye aye Captain," confirmed Fox with a respectful tone. "Here's to not replicating the situations he faced too closely though," he added with a wry smile. Archer's voyages had greatly intrigued him at the Academy and he'd studied the scary but informative tales in his downtime between required courses.

"If Security won't actually secure the AO before techs and engineers get on scene, then let's get this shit show on the road," Suda grunted.

"If there are no other questions..." This time the pointed look from Aya wasn't hidden from those in the room. "Initial status reports from all sections ready in an hour, those joining SAR-One have requisition and support requests for other departments in before the end of shift." They didn't have a lot of time and she didn't want to waste it jabbering.

 

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