DISCLAIMER: Star Trek and all related characters are the property of Paramount Pictures, Inc. and CBS-Paramount Television. No copyright infringement is intended. This work of fiction is for entertainment purposes only and no money has changed hands. The original characters and events are the sole property of the author and may not be used without permission.
STAR TREK:
MISSING MAN
By Darrin Colbourne
Pike sent word to the other ships in the CSAR fleet that they would begin their search in the Woden star system, Independence's fifth Area of Responsibility and her last reported position. Hornet was the first starship to arrive, followed soon after by Enterprise and Kitty Hawk. The three ships rendezvoused in orbit around Woden's largest planetary body, a gas giant just a bit larger than Jupiter. When the three ships were in range of each other Pike set up a radio conference with the other two captains. Their images were sharing the main viewer as he spoke to them. "We're facing two possibilities: Either Independence never made it out of this system after her last report, or something happened to her in Menos Corva. That gives us two star systems to sift through. I want to run the whole thing from Enterprise's Flag Plot, so I'll need you two to transfer over here so we can work out an overall strategy."
"Not a problem," said Captain Soledad Ortiz of the Hornet.
"You got it," said Captain James Crawford of the Kitty Hawk.
"Also," Pike said, "I plan to use my senior officers as fleet staff, but I had to leave my Science Officer back in the Ceres system, so I'll need to borrow one of yours."
"Now that will be a problem for me, Chris," Ortiz said. "My Science Officer is laid up. He got a little overzealous investigating a rock formation at our last stop and ended up with a broken leg."
"I understand. How about yours, Jim?"
"Oh, you can absolutely borrow her, Chris!" Crawford said. "In fact, we can even trade if you want!"
Pike raised an eyebrow. "That's okay. Mine is just about broken in. I'll just need her for the search."
"Trouble in paradise, Jim?" Ortiz said with a smile.
"Not so much 'trouble.' It's just…you'll see when you meet her."
"Bring her over." Pike said. "I'll expect your transports at the airlock in" - he checked his watch - "fifteen minutes?"
"We'll be there." Ortiz said. Crawford nodded in agreement.
Fifteen minutes later, transports from Hornet and Kitty Hawk carrying Ortiz and Crawford were holding outside Enterprise's outer airlock doors. They had to be let in one at a time so that Enterprise could keep one of her own transports at Alert-Five status. Crawford's came in last. When the Flight Deck repressurized he stepped out of the ship accompanied by a bright-looking brunette Lieutenant Commander in Work Blue. As they crossed onto the Hangar Deck a voice called out over Intercraft, "Kitty Hawk, Arriving."
The Lieutenant Commander smiled and said, "Do they really do that wherever you go?"
Crawford nodded. "The tradition is an arriving or departing Unit Commander or Head of State is announced that way when he crosses the threshold."
The Lieutenant Commander turned to look back at the Hangar Deck entrance as deck crew went to tow their transport in. She smiled and whispered, "I think I like that."
Crawford had to walk the length of the hangar before he found Pike and Ortiz by the turbolifts. He reached out to shake Pike's hand and said with a smile, "This deck's starting to get crowded, Chris."
Pike nodded and smiled back as they shook. "I know. I'm keeping the rest of my smallcraft at Plus-Fifteen and I'm keeping a Damage Control team ready to go at all times."
"Good idea." Crawford indicated his officer. "Captain Pike, Captain Ortiz, allow me to introduce my Science Officer, Commander Janice Lester."
Commander Lester put on a big grin and shook each captain's hand in turn. "Captain Ortiz, Captain Pike, it's a pleasure to meet you both."
Ortiz smiled back. "It's a pleasure to meet you, too," she said.
"Welcome aboard, Commander." Pike said. "I'd like to know what your specialty is."
"Oh," Lester said, looking a little sheepish, "it's Archeology."
"Archeology?"
"Actually, it's exo-Archeology. I was in charge of a dig in the Canias Region on Andoria before I was chosen for the Project…but I'm sure I can be very helpful to you in the search."
Pike smiled. "I'm sure you can. Let's get up to Flag Plot." He led the group into the lift and said, "All Command Deck."
As the lift started to move, Ortiz said, "We've been hailing Indy since we arrived on station. No luck."
"And we've come up negative with our preliminary scans," Crawford said.
"Same for us on both counts." Pike said. "I can understand if she's having communications problems, and we have ways of dealing with that, but we should have been able to pick up her transponder if she were anywhere in orbit in the system."
"Maybe it crashed somewhere." Lester blurted out. The three captains turned to shoot her a look. The harshest one came from Crawford. "Or maybe not," she whispered.
Pike let out a breath. "That's one of the possibilities we have to consider, Commander, but if that were the case the survivors would still be able to pick up our hails on their field radios."
It seemed impossible, but Crawford's look turned even more harsh at that. The message was clear: Don't say what you're thinking! Lester fought the urge to say that Pike's statement would only be true if there were survivors.
When he saw that she got the message, Crawford said, "It's just as likely that they made it to Menos Corva safely and the communications screw-up happened there. We're here to eliminate possibilities, Commander, not to jump to conclusions."
"Yes, Sir," a chastened Commander Lester said. Pike looked at her, then exchanged looks with Crawford, raising an eyebrow at his colleague. Crawford raised both of his right back - a mini-shrug - then they both turned to the door as the lift came to a stop.
Flag Plot was a small combat direction center forward of the Control Room. It was only used when Enterprise served as flagship of a task force, usually by an admiral and his staff. The room was dominated by a large holographic plotting table in the center and by two massive monitors each on the forward and aft bulkheads. The monitors could repeat any information gathered by Enterprise's sensors and all the data could be collated into one whole picture by the plotting table.
Commanders McDonald, Adams and Silas were already in the room waiting for the captains. The monitors were displaying the latest chart, sensor and tactical data from Control. Pike handled the introductions for his officers, then went to the plotting table and turned it on. "Let's get started," Pike said as everyone gathered around. A second later a holographic representation of the Woden system appeared above the table. "Okay, the system has six major planets and one minor one, plus a cosmic debris field surrounding the whole thing starting from the orbit of the outermost planet and extending out to about half a light-year. Our areas of responsibility will be the Inner Planets, Outer Planets and Debris Field. Soledad, you're the best with long-range scanning so you'll take the Debris Field. It's possible something happened out there while Indy was heading out of the system."
"Sounds like a plan," Ortiz said.
"Jim, you take the Outer Planets. That gives you the two gas giants and Woden's 'Pluto.' You know what to do."
Crawford nodded. "Check all the little moons and rings for any signs of a mishap and pay close attention to the giants' atmospheres."
"That's right. Number One, that leaves us with the Inner Planets, including Woden Four, the planet on Indy's survey list. We'll use our Cavaliers to cover the space and minor bodies in between. Commander Silas, you'll coordinate that with the other CAGs."
"Yes, Sir," Silas said.
"Commander Lester, I'll need you when we get to Woden Four. Another possibility is that they tripped some kind of nasty surprise there that didn't go off until they were ready to leave. If that's the case, I'm going to need you to lead a shore party down to the surface and check out whatever it is Indy's team might have found there."
"Aye, Sir." Lester said crisply, then, after a moment's thought, "Permission to speak freely, Sir?"
Pike crossed his arms. "Granted."
"Will I be allowed to use my own people?"
"I don't need you to do a complete survey. I just need you to take a look from orbit first and then head down if we see anything out-of-the-ordinary. Besides, I've got a whole ship full of people you can borrow if need be."
"I appreciate all that, Sir, but as I told you I'm just an archeologist, so unless what the other Science Team ran into was really old and dusty I may not be able to properly analyze what I find. If I could have a few of my officers with me…or one! Just one! Lieutenant West would be perfect."
Pike regarded her for a moment, then glanced at Crawford, who offered a slight nod. Pike turned back to Lester. "Very Well. We'll have Lieutenant West brought aboard before we get started."
Lester grinned. "Thank you, Captain! You won't regret it!"
"I'm sure I won't. All right…when we reach our assigned areas we'll start with the outermost search targets and work sunward. Ortiz, that means you'll have the longest patrol time, but don't try to rush it. We'll stay here as long as we need to, and we'll do the same in Menos Corva. Hopefully the most we'll have to do is tell Indy to turn her radio back on. Commander Adams has some information for us on that."
Adams took over then. "One of the glitches we had when the Connies were first overhauled was in the High-Gain Subspace transceivers. It's possible that every now and again the antennae will confuse the energy released during a transition to Warp for a subspace signal. The problem is that energy is exponentially greater than that of even the most powerful subspace signal and it's random, so the comm drivers can't cope. When this happens they go into 'reset' mode. There have been a few software and hardware upgrades since then, but since the comms essentially use the same medium as the engines the contractor has never been able to completely eliminate the problem, so it can still crop up if the engineers don't stay on top of it. It's possible that Indy is in Menos Corva just trying to get her comms back on line."
"Captain," McDonald said, "perhaps we should send a Cavalier or two ahead to Menos Corva to try to establish short-range communication, if that's the case."
"That's a good idea, Number One," Pike said, "but we'll send the alert Workhorse and the Damage Control team. I don't want to divide our resources too much and take a chance of missing something in either system. I guess that about does it. Any other questions?"
Lester raised her hand. When Pike acknowledged her, she asked, "Sir, how do you think I should equip my Away team? We've gotten used to the Basic Patrol loadout on Kitty Hawk, but if you think we should go to the Long-Range Recon loadout because of the nature of the mission, we've also trained to do that, though not as much as I'd like…"
Pike stopped her with a raised hand. "We'll decide that when we get to the planet, Commander. Any other questions?" No one had any. "Very Well. Let's get started. Number One, we just need a minute."
"Aye, Sir," McDonald said, then she turned to the others. "Let's get to work, everyone." Adams, Silas and Lester started out of the room, then McDonald turned to follow.
Just before she was out of the room, Crawford said to Lester, "I'll send West over as soon as I get back to Hawk."
"Thank you, Sir!" Lester said with another grin.
The captains waited a second or two after the door closed, then Ortiz and Pike turned to Crawford. "Wow," Pike said, "I can't see why you'd want to get rid of her."
"Yeah," Ortiz said with a smile, "that's a nice set of lips she's got to reach Chris's and your rear ends from so far away."
Pike chuckled and Crawford lowered his head and shook it before he responded. "I've told her and told her that I'm not running a popularity contest and as long as she shows me the proper respect we'll get along fine."
"Well, you may have to re-define 'proper respect' for her."
"I've done that three times!"
"Well, for all her eagerness at least she is respectful," Pike said, "and courteous and apparently willing to learn the ropes as a Starfleet Officer…which is why I can't figure out why you'd want to trade her for Montoya. Lester's like the Anti-Montoya. I should think you'd be happy with that."
Crawford grimaced as he recalled his brief encounter with Montoya at the briefing months ago. "Maybe, but at least with Montoya I'd know what I was getting."
"That's what I thought. Believe me, you wouldn't."
"Fair enough, but there's something about Lester that bothers me. I can't quite put my finger on it."
Pike got serious. "Is that going to be a problem as far as doing her job goes?"
"No, she's competent and capable. There's just something odd about her. Maybe I'm imagining it."
"You probably are," Ortiz said. "We've all had to make some adjustments on this cruise. Maybe you're feeling out of whack because of that and projecting that onto Lester."
"Maybe," Pike said, "but we can deal with that later. Right now, we've got a ship to find."
Crawford nodded and put his hand on Pike's shoulder. "We haven't forgotten, Chris. Gabe Kono is our friend, too. If he's lost out here, who's more likely to find him than us?"
"That's probably why the Old Man sent us out here first," Ortiz said. "He knows we won't rest until we bring Gabe home."
Pike smiled at both of them. "Just making sure we're on the same page," he said. "Let's get to work."
As the three of them filed out of Flag Plot, their thoughts turned to Gabriel Kono, captain of the Independence, a seasoned officer who had befriended them all after they received their commands and welcomed them into what all Connie commanders thought of as an exclusive club. None of them wanted to think he might be gone forever. They all hoped - expected - that his ship was out of contact for the most benign of reasons.
Later, on the Hangar Deck, Commander Lester waited patiently for the access doors to open. This time the transport from Kitty Hawk would remain aboard just long enough to offload its lone passenger, Lieutenant Joseph West, a tall, wiry, dark-skinned young man with tired-looking eyes that concealed what was actually a vibrant personality. He and Lester smiled at each other as he crossed the threshold and Lester met him halfway. "Hi, Joe!" Lester said. "Welcome aboard the Enterprise."
In response, West's smile disappeared and he got very close, then he started scanning Lester's face with his eyes.
"What are you doing?" Lester asked as she recoiled slightly.
West's smile returned as he took a step back. "I just wanted to see how much browner your nose has gotten since you've had three captains to suck up to," he said.
"Oh, hush," she said as he chuckled, then she turned and started toward the lift.
West fell in step right beside her. "I'm sorry, Janice, but I call 'em as I see 'em."
"Well, it's time to get your vision checked because I don't 'suck up' to anybody! The captain deserves a certain level of respect, that's all."
"Respect, yes, not sloppy fangirl adoration."
That stopped Lester in her tracks. "It is not sloppy fangirl adoration!"
West looked her in the eye. "Then what is it? You've been like this ever since we left Earth, and personally I find it a little sickening."
"Is it so wrong to want to get along with the Captain?"
"No it's not wrong, it's just not natural. I've known you for a long time, Janice, so as your friend I can honestly say that it takes work to get along with you, because normally you don't go out of your way to get along with other people. What makes Crawford and the other captains different from the rest of the universe?"
Lester's body tensed up then, and for a moment West thought her response would shake the roof. Instead, she crossed her arms and answered in a conspiratorial whisper. "You really want to know? Okay, fine. What makes the captains different is that right now they're in the best position to help me get what I want."
"Which would be…?" West prompted.
Lester was silent for a moment, then she looked around quickly before she answered in the same conspiratorial tone. "I want to be a starship captain."
West threw his head back and laughed. He continued to laugh until he could compose himself enough to look at her. The way she was glaring at him melted the smile from his face. "Oh my God," he said, "you're serious."
"Of course I'm serious!" Lester hissed. "Thanks so much for being supportive, by the way!"
"Janice, I'm sorry! I just couldn't picture you as a starship captain!"
"Are you saying I couldn't handle the job?"
"I don't even know why you'd want it! Do you really want to spend the rest of your life marching around one of these tubs like a good tin soldier?"
Lester shook her head. "I don't want to be a Starfleet captain, Joe!"
"You lost me."
"Look, in five years the Space Probe Agency's ships are going to start getting delivered, right?" West nodded. "Well, they're going to need somebody to command them, aren't they? Who do you think they're going to consider first?"
West raised an eyebrow. "You?"
"Not just me! Every Science Officer in this fleet! By the time the ships are built we'll be the ones with the most practical experience, and the one with the most experience of the twelve of us is going to get the first ship. I intend for that person to be me!"
"And I still don't see why."
Lester grinned. "Because the power and respect that go along with being a starship captain are astonishing! I want that for myself! I want to be known as the fleet's first great Explorer commander! When I cross the threshold onto another ship, I want someone to announce 'Galaxy, Arriving' and have people look at me in awe!"
West held up a hand. "Wait…why 'Galaxy, Arriving'?"
Lester shrugged. "They announce commanders by their ships."
"That part I get. What makes you think your ship will be named Galaxy?"
"It's one of the names Dr. Narain is considering for the class."
"Yes, one of, just like you're one of twelve Science Officers that, under your theory, will be considered to run the first ship. What makes you so sure you'll be picked?"
"I have just as much of a chance as any of the others."
"Janice…you weren't even one of the first choices for the Project! You were an alternate! The only reason you're here right now is because Cosmo Ertegan backed out!"
"Which just means I've been put in a position to benefit from his short-sightedness."
"So, Cosmo objecting on pacifist grounds afforded you the perfect opportunity to suck up to Starfleet's best and brightest?"
Lester shook her head. "You still don't get it. For as long as we're on these ships we're Starfleet officers, right? Well, in Starfleet there's a mentor-apprentice relationship among senior and junior officers, and every officer, in one way or another, is an apprentice to the captain. I'm just trying to be the best apprentice I can be."
"Okay, but how does that help you?"
"A favorable recommendation from Captain Crawford on my behalf couldn't hurt. He'd do that for a regular Operations officer."
"But how do you know Dr. Narain or whoever makes the final decision will listen to his opinion?"
"I don't, but I know she will listen to Admiral Jellico and he sure as hell will listen to the captains."
West nodded. "Now, I see the method to your madness."
"That's right," Lester said with a grin, "and if you're real nice to me I may just make you my Executive Officer." With that she started for the lift again.
"You'll forgive me if I don't hold my breath," West deadpanned as he followed. Lester just rolled her eyes and kept going, so he continued: "So, what do you intend to do besides being 'the best apprentice you can be'?"
"Well, for starters I'm going to find the Independence."
"I think there are a few people around here that want to do that."
"True, but they're all following standard Starfleet procedures. You're going to help me brainstorm and come up with ideas they won't think of."
"What's the working theory so far?"
Lester huffed. "Enterprise's ChEng has some cockamamie idea about the high-gain antennae thinking a Warp jump is a signal and shutting down."
"That's not cockamamie, Janice. A Warp event sends a signal through subspace the way a transmitter does. It's how other ships can track a ship entering or leaving Warp."
Lester turned to him when they reached the lift. "And something like that would play such hell with a starship's communications?"
West smirked. "It's the military. Everything's made by the lowest bidder and even the newest software has glitches."
Lester smiled. "See? That's why I keep you around." With that she called the lift.
Later, Enterprise pulled into orbit around Woden Four and conducted a flyby orbit. Pike was in Flag Plot monitoring all the ships in the CSAR force. McDonald had the center seat in Control, while Lester had taken over the Science station. At first she'd been hesitant to mess with Montoya's settings, but ultimately decided that setting the station up her way would help expedite things. Montoya could always reset them when she got back. "This planet is mostly land," Lester reported, "and mostly desert. What vegetation there is clustered around the few seas that are visible. I can understand why Independence spent so little time in this system. This is the only planet that might support the type of civilization we're looking for." She turned to face McDonald. "If there were ever people here they abandoned the place long ago."
McDonald nodded. "Possibly, but they must have left some trace of themselves behind."
Lester turned back to her console. "Right," she said without much conviction. That was just the type of thinking that had people wasting their time looking for traces of civilization on Mars for a century. Just because a planet might have supported civilized life at one point didn't automatically mean that it ever…
Wait a second… "Sensors, give me control of Probe 2!" Lester called out.
The Sensor Officer gave McDonald a quick glance. She nodded sharply in response and he complied with Lester's order. When she saw she had control Lester sent the probe into a lower orbit and used the optical system to home in on a patch of land near one of the oceans. At first glance it had just seemed like a large, rocky beach, but on closer inspection… "You may have been right, XO!" Lester said with a grin. "There are structures down there! Too small to notice on a cursory flyby, but definitely artificial!"
"Are they worth sending a shore party to investigate?" McDonald asked.
Lester turned to her. "Oh, yes! Definitely! I'd love to see what's down there!"
"Do you think Indy's Science Officer might have had a similar reaction?"
"I'm sure of it! None of us would let an opportunity like this pass us by."
McDonald offered a small smile. "Very well," She touched a contact on the command chair. "Control to Plot."
Pike's voice sounded in Control. "Plot here."
"Captain, Commander Lester has found something on Four that she feels is worth looking into."
"Very good, Number One. Get her whatever she needs and send her down."
"Aye, Sir. Control out." McDonald closed the circuit and turned to Lester. "Well, what do you need?"
Lester stood and got serious. "First, since I don't have any of my research technicians with me I'd like to borrow a couple of engineer's mates, preferably ones familiar with how our tri-corders work."
"I can get you the engineers, of course, but I can't promise they'll be able to work the tri-corders. Up to now our Science Officer hasn't done much about training regular Starfleet personnel to use technology unique to the science mission."
"Of course she hasn't," Lester muttered. "Well, they're not that hard to operate. Joe and I can show them on the way down. I'd also like to take a squad of Landers with us."
McDonald's eyebrow went up. "Would you?"
"If that's possible. I would just feel safer having them along."
"Of course. How do you want them equipped?"
"Basic Loadout. Field Jackets and caps, flak vests, Childress pistols…"
"I know what a Basic Loadout is, Commander."
"Yes, Sir, sorry. Joe and I and the engineers will be similarly equipped."
"Anything else?"
"No, Sir. That should be enough to start with."
"Very Well. Get the equipment you need signed out and get to the Hangar Deck. Your shore party should be waiting for you by the time you get there."
Lester grinned. "Yes, Sir! Thank you, Sir!" With that she left the Control Room.
When she was gone, Adams left the Engineering Watch station and approached the center chair and leaned close to McDonald's ear. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"That we should steal her and her entire department and stick Kitty Hawk with Montoya and her group?" McDonald said.
"Hey, even Captain Crawford thought that would be a good idea. You were here when he said it."
"It's tempting…but you have to take into consideration that Admiral Jellico made the appointments he made for a reason. I shudder to think what he might do if we started switching people 'round without his input."
"What could he do? He's all the way back on Earth."
"Well, for one thing he could send bigger and faster ships out to deal with us."
Adams thought about that for a minute. "You think he'd do that?"
"Without losing a moment of sleep," McDonald said.
Adams sighed. "Oh, well. Just a thought."
The Workhorse carrying Lester's shore party touched down on a stretch of sand in the midst of a few small ruins. Lester was the first out of the craft when the rear door opened. She looked around as the others disembarked. From what she could tell the ruins were actually the tops of much taller structures, though whether they were broken off or just buried she wouldn't know until they explored further. Eroded and covered with sand as they were it was hard to tell what they were from orbit, but now that she could see the area for herself she knew immediately what it was: a coastal city, long abandoned and devastated by the ravages of time and the elements. She stopped looking around when her eyes locked on a massive statue half-buried in the sand further down the beach. By the time she turned back to the Workhorse the entire party was ashore. "Joe, you and I are going to take a look at that statue," she said. She turned to the Lander squad leader. "Sgt. Rhys, I want you to divide your men into two teams. Assign one of the engineers to each team and conduct a building-to-building search. The engineers know what to look for. Lieutenant West and I will join you as soon as we're done looking at that statue, but as long as we're separated let's maintain regular radio contact, okay?"
Sgt. Rhys nodded. "Yes, Sir! Okay, everybody! You heard the lady! Listen up! Jonas, you take Stavros, Doohan and…"
Lester waited a minute as Rhys formed his teams, smiled and turned to head for the statue. West, as usual, fell in step beside her. "Now I'm beginning to see the 'why'," he said. "You like ordering people around, don't you?"
Lester grinned. "Well, can you blame me? Highly-trained and often well-armed people do what I tell them to do mainly without question. That's about the coolest thing I could ever experience in life."
"Maybe, but much as with Christmas presents, 'tis much better to give orders than to receive them. It's not like you're immune from having to do other peoples' bidding yourself."
"True, but if I'm a captain all the people qualified to give me orders will often be light-years away and will be more inclined to give me more leeway because of that fact."
"Everything's pie-in-the-sky with you isn't it?" West said. It made her chuckle. "Okay, let's look at it this way: what do you do if you don't get picked?"
"Well, so I don't get the first ship built. The plan is to build twenty of them. I'll just get one of those."
"No, I mean what if you don't get picked at all? What if they don't end up building twenty ships and they stop before they get to the one earmarked for you, or what if you screw up so badly Narain and Jellico don't even want to consider you?"
"Well, I simply refuse to screw up that badly…!"
"Sure. Just refuse. That guarantees it will never happen!"
Lester ignored the sarcasm. "As for the other thing, well…" - she glanced back at the ruins - "maybe I'll just join Starfleet for real. Sure, it's not really the kind of life I'd want to lead, but at least I'd have a shot at my own command."
"With an equal chance of being shot at a lot in the event of a war."
"Oh…hush!" She decided to end the conversation right there instead of acknowledging that West might be right. West simply complied. He was used to her being abrupt with him.
It took them just over five minutes to reach the statue. It stood - haphazardly - at about thirty feet tall from the unburied part of the base to the top of the head. "He's humanoid," Lester said, stating the obvious. The being depicted had all the characteristics of a primate, with a few glaring differences from the body types the officers were used to. "There are just two nostrils where his nose should be…and the statue's only got one arm, but it looks like it was supposed to have four of them!"
West was using his tri-corder to scan it. "The thing's made out of standard metal. Scanner says it's copper."
Lester was still taking in details of the sculpture. "That weapon in the arm looks like a battle axe. I wonder if the missing arms had weapons in them, too?" She took out her own tri-corder. "There are more traces of copper all over the area, but none big enough to be one of the other arms." She sounded disappointed.
"There's some writing on this side." West said.
Lester went around the statue to join him. She examined the lettering carefully. "Pictographs."
"You mean like hieroglyphics?"
"No, older, like cuneiform."
"What do you suppose it says?"
Lester used her tri-corder to record the images on video and tried to interpret the glyphs as she went, then she had a sudden insight. She stepped back a bit and looked at the position of the statue in relation to the ruins. When she thought she had an answer she turned off her tri-corder and huffed. "Y'know what it says, Joe? It says 'I am Ozymandius, King of Kings! Look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair!'"
West looked at her, then at the writing. "How could you possibly have figured that out so quickly?"
Lester smiled and shook her head. "It's an old poem, Joe."
West looked at her. "An old Earth poem?"
"Actually, it's the punch line to an old Earth poem. We're probably standing over what was once a main approach road to the city before the sea claimed it. Lefty here is probably one of their greatest kings or a god or something. His job was to give newcomers a hint of the awe and majesty they were about to experience."
West backed up to where she was standing and looked at the statue the way she was. "I think I get it," he said.
She glanced at him, then looked at the statue again. "In all likelihood this hunk of copper will be the only thing about this place we'll find worth investigating. It's been ages since anything intelligent walked this world. Commander Mizuki probably figured the same thing when Independence came here…"
"Which is why they were in such a hurry to leave."
"Right, and the bad news is we're wasting our time in this system. We know they got here and did their survey, so unless the ship blew up as they were going to Warp it's doubtful that we'll find any trace of it in this system."
"Janice…it could have blown up as it went to Warp. The whole point of telling the crew to 'prepare for Space Warp' is that it's a real possibility with a finicky Warp engine."
"All right, fine, but do you really think that happened here? I think our captains are being overly thorough. If there's been any difficulty it happened in Menos Corva. We should tell…"
Her thought was interrupted by her radio. "Pike to Lester."
She took out the radio and activated it. "Lester here. Go ahead."
"Commander, collect your shore party and get back up here on the double. We're heading on to Menos Corva!"
Lester grinned. "Yes, Sir! We'll be right up! Lester out!" She used the radio to point at West. "See, Joe? I keep telling you: Never Doubt Me!" With that she started back for the city at a run. West took a minute to wonder about his friend's mental state before following.
"All ships will jump on my mark!" Pike called out. He was back in the center seat in Control. Hornet and Kitty Hawk were on their way to rendezvous with Enterprise in an area above Woden's ecliptic plane. All three starships were recovering their smallcraft as they maneuvered.
Lester found out the ship was at Departure Stations when she got onto the Hangar Deck, so she'd left her gear with West and rushed to the Control room only to find a Petty Officer in Gold sitting at the Science station. She approached the center chair. "Sir, did you want me to…"
"Go ahead and take your station, Commander," Pike said. "I still need you."
"Yes, Sir," she said. She went over and relieved the Petty Officer, then did her best to get the workstation ready for transit. The captain looked pissed.
She couldn't know that he was mainly mad at himself. All that time wasted! Pike thought for the hundredth time.
It hadn't seemed like a waste at first. He had gone by-the-book as far as the search was concerned. He had a ship gone missing during a warp transit, two systems to search and only three starships and their attendant craft to search with. Under the circumstances it only made sense to concentrate on one system at a time, and there hadn't been any indication that either system should have been given priority…until Enterprise lost contact with Hauler Two.
The transport carrying the Damage Control team had warped to Menos Corva without incident and tried to contact Independence using short-range comms. When they didn't receive a response Hauler Two's pilot transmitted his intention to transit further in-system and see if he could locate Indy near the planets she was supposed to investigate. Pike had sent his approval and requested periodic updates on Hauler Two's progress, then thought little of it. He didn't expect the Workhorse to search the entire system, given her limited sensors, so unless the starship was exactly where the pilot expected it to be Pike assumed the first progress report would be "No Joy" followed by an intention to continue hails. The last thing he expected was for Hauler Two to miss the first two check-in times.
Now he was sure that the trouble was in Menos Corva and worried that gaining that knowledge might have cost him two good pilots, four good engineers and a valuable logistics asset.
"Sir, Connie Ten and Connie Fourteen are in position," the Communicator said, using the fleet call signs for Hornet and Kitty Hawk. The other starships had each taken station off one of Enterprise's "wings" and all three ships had laid in a course for the next system. "All smallcraft have been recovered and all ships are ready for Space Warp."
"Very Well," Pike said, "have all ships transit now."
"Yes, Sir. Connie One to all ships: Transit Now, Now, Now!"
The starships entered Warp as one and re-entered normal space seconds later on the outskirts of Menos Corva. The star system was a jumble of celestial design. A binary system, with one yellow sun and one red giant, it rested on the edge of the Corva nebula, a spiral of dust and gases ten light-years wide. Both stars had their own planetary systems, though all of the red giant's - MC1's - worlds had been incinerated during the star's expansion phase. The yellow sun - MC2 - was to be the subject of Independence's survey. There were two worlds in its Goldilocks Zone which appeared to be sharing the same orbit. The Space Probe Agency was very curious to know if life could flourish on either or both worlds under such conditions.
"Communicator, have all ships go to active scanning," Pike said, "then keep trying to contact Hauler Two. Sensors, report all contacts and begin STC tracking. Navigator, set course for MC2 Gemini. Number One, take us in, Ahead Slow."
The officers acknowledged and complied. Enterprise proceeded into the system at one-third Sub-Light speed, scanning at full power and maximum range and calling out to her lost spacecraft. Hornet and Kitty Hawk stayed on her wings and followed suit. Datalinks between the three starships allowed them to share their sensor information instantaneously, allowing for a more detailed overall picture.
"Reading the major bodies of the system," The Sensor Officer said, "two stars, one red, one yellow, eleven planets between them. Now reading minor bodies…"
Lester was looking at that overall picture as the Sensor Officer called out contacts. As Science Officer it was her job to point out anything that the Sensor Officer might dismiss as a normal contact. So far she hadn't seen anything worth reporting, but with so many smaller and smaller contacts appearing on her screen she felt that could change any second. She started marking the natural satellites as they appeared along the ships' flight path, waiting patiently for the sensors to start picking up objects small enough to be artificial. When those started appearing she looked even more closely and marked the objects likely to be ships or artificial satellites. Most of these objects were clustered around MC2's twin planets. That made Lester doubly curious. Were they native to the mini-system, or were they probes from somewhere else?
She was so wrapped up in the idea that she almost missed something important. "Sensors," she said, "did you say radiation sources?"
"Yes, Sir," the Sensor Officer said. "There are two very hot sources of neutron radiation in the vicinity of one of the planets. There's also some traces of neutron radiation among the derelicts in the libration point."
"I see…" Lester muttered. The derelicts and the radiation sources were part of the new set of contacts that came up as Enterprise turned toward the twins. "Captain, can we head for those radiation sources and focus on them?"
Pike checked the Sensor station repeater, then said, "Helm, come left two degrees and slow to Ahead Creep." When McDonald complied: "Something on your mind, Commander Lester?"
"It's just that…if all that stuff in orbit and the libration point is derelict, why is anything radiating?"
"Maybe not all of it's derelict."
"Okay, but why neutron radiation? Why not something that makes sense, like a radio signal? It's just, like, two orbiting hot spots. You see what I mean?"
"You have a bad feeling about them?" Pike said. She nodded. "Sensors, can we resolve the objects better?"
"Not with the EM sensor," Sensors said. "The objects are too hot. Wait one. I'll focus on one with the optical system." Everyone waited as the officer worked. Pike kept his gaze on the repeater as the image switched to an optical picture and zoomed in on a particular object.
Pike was out of the chair as soon he could see the object clearly. "Number One, rendezvous with that target right now!" His gaze turned to the main viewer as McDonald accelerated toward the twin planets. It was only a few minutes before the object was discernible on the main viewer.
"Oh my god," Lester said.
Now everyone was looking at the main viewer, watching in horror as the radioactive object enlarged as the ship got closer. It was the USS Independence, dark, charred, hanging derelict in space.
