Remnant
Summary: While exploring an uncharted sector of space the Enterprise comes across the remains of a long ago destroyed world.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"Captain's Log Stardate 4532.6. The Enterprise continues its survey of the Torian Sector. We are the first Federation ship to explore this section of the galaxy. So far it has been very routine with no signs of any civilisations at any level of development. However, we still have many weeks left before our survey is complete and there remains a good chance of finding a life-supporting world."
Captain James T. Kirk sits in his chair, drinking his coffee, a routine he has long had, basically ever since he was promoted to Captain. This mission had been extremely routine so far and he can't quite decide whether that is a complaint or not.
Jim reads over the latest reports his Yeoman hands him. Again, very routine. His revere is broken by the voice of his communication officer.
"Captain, I'm picking up a signal," Lieutenant Nyota Uhura reports.
Jim turns in his chair to look in her direction. "What sort of signal, Lt?"
"One moment. It's very weak. I'm trying to enhance it," she reports as she alters the settings on the receiver to do just that. The signal then echoes around the bridge. "It's a repeating pattern on a loop. The same series of modulated frequencies. It sounds like a distress call but it's too weak and garbled to translate."
Jim turns to his science officer. "Spock, can you pinpoint the signal's origin?"
"Triangulating now, Captain," the half-Vulcan Commander answers. "It is a planetary system 4.6 light years away."
"Feed the coordinates to the Helm please," Jim requests. "Mr Sulu, engage at Warp 7," he instructs his Helmsman.
"Aye, sir," Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu replies obediently.
Jim settles back down in his chair as he feels the ship accelerate. It's always a strangely comforting sensation but still they were a good 16 hours away, even at Warp 7.
16 hours later…
The Enterprise was nearing the system now. As they got nearer the signal got stronger and Uhura had been able to finally translate the message and yes, it was a simple distress call though Uhura had commented that the language was quite complex. Took her some time to decipher and update the universal translator to deal with it but languages are one of Uhura's skills. She probably translated it far faster than most people could. All attempts at communication, however, had failed.
"Analysis of the system, Mr Spock," Jim requests.
"A system with 4 planets. The star is a Red Giant, class B. I would calculate it is in the last phase of its life from the energy output. Perhaps no more than 10 million years."
"We're entering the system, Keptain," Ensign Pavel Chekov reports from the Navigator's position.
"Slow to impulse power," Jim orders.
"Aye, Captain," Sulu responds.
"The signal, Spock?"
"It's coming from the inner solar system. Within the star's habitable zone."
Time passes as the Enterprise glides through the system.
"Entering visual range," Spock announces.
"On screen," Jim orders.
The image pops up of a mass of rubble.
Jim peers curious. It's...odd. Too close together to be an asteroid belt. "Analysis Mr Spock?"
"The mass of the debris indicates a planet sized body that has broken up. I'm reading complex alloys and parts of structures floating in the debris. There is no question that this was once an inhabited world with quite a sophisticated and advanced culture."
"How long ago?" Jim asks.
"From the distribution of the debris I would estimate that the planet broke up 260 years ago."
"Any idea of the cause?"
"Not at this time."
"If the planet broke up then what is transmitting the distress call?" Chekov wonders aloud.
"A pertinent question, Ensign," Jim recognises.
"Captain, I've got an exact fix on the source," Uhura reports.
"Put it up on the viewscreen."
The image of the location pops up. Nothing obvious at first.
"Magnify."
The image zooms in and…
"There!" Sulu points. "That silver object. You see it?"
"Yes," Jim confirms. It is an arrow shaped silver object with a bulbous rear end. "Spock, analysis?"
"It is 2 meters in length. The material is a complex alloy of tritanium with a few unknown elements. The power readings are extremely low. I would say that its power source is all but exhausted."
"Is it some sort of ship's buoy?" Sulu puts forward as a suggestion.
"Maybe it's a time capsule of some sort to preserve something of their civilisation?" Chekov tries.
"Possibly," Jim supposes. Whatever it is it is possibly the only remnant of this lost civilisation. Perhaps it can give them a clue as to who these people were. "Is there any danger in bringing it aboard?" he asks.
"None that I can discern Captain," Spock reports.
"Feed the co-ordinates to the transporter room and have them beam it into the shuttle bay," Jim orders before he taps on the comms on his chair. "Mr Scott!"
"Scott, here," the Enterprise's Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott, responds.
"Meet us down in the shuttle bay and bring your analysis kit."
"Aye, Captain."
"Mr Sulu you have the Conn. Mr Spock you're with me," Jim relays his orders as he and Spock head for the turbolift.
By the time Jim and Spock reach the shuttle bay Scotty is already there with another of the engineering crew, Crewman Sato, scanning the object which now rests on the deck.
"So what have you got Scotty?" Jim asks.
"I'm not entirely sure yet, Captain," Scotty says with a slightly puzzled yet at the same time intrigued look.
"Sir, I'm picking up subspace magnetic field coils," Sato speaks up.
Scotty moves over next to the female engineer and scans what she is scanning. "Capable of generating subspace fields, aye," he reflects.
"Is it…?"
"Aye, lass. I think it might be."
"Mr Scott?" Jim queries.
"I think it's a ship. I'm picking up all the components necessary to generate a warp field."
"A warp engine...this small?" the Captain says in surprise.
"Everything is miniaturized but aye, it is a warp engine. Magnificent piece of engineering. With your permission sir I would love to take it apart and study it."
"One thing at a time, Scotty," Jim cautions before they dismantle it.
"It's damaged," Sato notes, running her hand over the visibly damaged section of the ship. "Rubble from the planet?" she proposes.
"Aye, seems logical lass," Scotty agrees.
Meanwhile Spock too is conducting scans only more on the interior than Mr Scott is. His eyebrow arches in interest.
Jim spots it. "Something interesting Spock?"
"Possibly Captain. When trying to scan the interior I was getting a null reading."
"That's impossible," Scotty dismisses the notion. "You cannae get a null reading. There must be something there."
"I agree, Mr Scott."
"You have a theory," Jim states. It was not a question.
"A null reading would be consistent with a stasis field that is preserving the contents in a state that renders it a non-event mass with a quantum probability of zero."
"I don't get it," Sato admits.
Spock does explain. "Just as shielding can filter out dangerous forms of radiation I believe this stasis field is filtering out time. Therefore while the contents still exist, they exist outside the normal flow of time, outside of our space-time continuum, leaving them perfectly preserved at the moment the field was activated."
"Well they won't be preserved for much longer. I doubt the power source has more than a day left to it," Scotty calculates from the readings he's getting.
"Then I suggest ladies and gentlemen you find a way to open it before that happens," Jim advises them.
"There is no sign of external physical controls. We'll either need to cut in and access the onboard system directly or devise a remote interface of some sort," Scotty reckons.
Jim can tell this may take awhile. "Whatever takes it Mr Scott. Bring in any help you need," he authorises it.
"Aye Captain," he replies before turning to Sato. "Come on lass, we're going to need to get a few things," he tells her as he works out in his head what it'll take.
Several hours later there is an entire engineering team trying to decipher the secrets of this small craft...plus Uhura who was needed to try and figure out some of the nuances of the language that the universal translator isn't quite picking up on.
Scotty looks over the lines of programming code. It was impressive. Highly complex yet incredibly efficient all at the same. They had established an interface with the onboard systems of the ship. Now they just needed to input the right command to get the ship to open up before the power source gave out. If they ran out of time then they would have no option but to just crudely cut it apart to get inside and no-one wanted to do that unless they had no choice.
Uhura's brow furrows as she writes what she thinks will be the right command protocol. "This should do it," she announces as he finishes writing it.
"You sure?" Scotty asks her.
"100%, no," she confesses. "But I do not think I can write it any other way."
Good enough for Scotty. "Ok, activating interface protocols, inputting command and..."
Nothing.
And nothing.
And...the ship begins to hum.
"Uhura?" Scotty asks, slightly worried.
Uhura reads the output. "It's working," she says. "Command has been accepted. Stasis field is deactivating. Uh...it's accessing something from the onboard databanks," she says, perplexed.
"What?"
"Not sure. We've been concentrating on the command operation system and not the onboard databanks so..."
The ship then flashes a bright white light, making everyone see spots. By the time they clear what they find is a translucent image of a humanoid male appearing to be standing on the deck. In fact he looks human. He has dark hair and is dressed in elaborate robes with a symbol resembling an S on his chest. He then begins to speak.
"Greetings my son. My name is Jor-El. I am your father. You are no doubt wondering why we did this. Why we sent you away to live amongst strangers on a strange world. It was not by choice. Shortly before your birth I discovered that the core of our planet, Krypton, had become unstable and the instability would grow in a chain reaction that would tear the planet apart from the inside out. Despite my evidence of this fact the Ruling Council refused to heed my warnings. They believed that I had miscalculated and that the instability was only temporary and would subside. The more I spoke out the more they censored me. Accused me of being a disruptive element. Even of planning sedition. I was placed under house arrest. It was then I realised that our species was doomed. That there was nothing I could do to save it from its own arrogance. That there was only one thing I could save. You. In secret I built this ship that would carry you to your new home but this vessel is more than merely a life-pod. It is a repository. Within its databanks I placed all the collected knowledge of Krypton so that our legacy will survive beyond the end of our civilisation. If there is one thing I hope it teaches it is not to repeat our mistakes."
Then joining the man is a tall statuesque woman with fiery red hair.
"If you are seeing this image then you have fulfilled your mother, Lara, and I's greatest hope. You have survived. It is the only gift left we could give you."
The woman clearly has tears in her eyes as she speaks. "Please know what we did we did out of love. We never abandoned you. We never wished to send you away and we will never leave you. Not even in the face of our deaths. Our spirit lives on inside you. Be safe, my little Kal-El," she practically sobs the last part before the two figures vanish.
"Tell me we were recording that," Uhura begs.
"Aye," Scotty confirms. They were.
"Um, Commander Scott. Lieutenant Uhura," one of the engineering crew speak up. "You better come see this."
The two senior officer walk over to the ship, whose bulbous part has now opened and there swaddled in a red blanket, lying asleep, is a baby.
Uhura bends down, tricorder in hand. "He's alive," she can confirm. "How long was that ship afloat do we think?"
"Over 2 and half centuries," Scotty answers.
"Call Sickbay. Get Dr McCoy down here on the double," Uhura orders.
"Yes Ma'am!" a crewman snaps to it.
"So who gets to tell the Captain?" Uhura wonders.
"Be safe, my little Kal-El."
Kirk and Spock had been called down and were now watching back the recording.
"After the message shut off that was when we noticed that the ship had opened up and found the infant inside," Uhura finishes her report.
"Where's the child now?" Jim asks.
"Sickbay. Dr McCoy wanted to give him a full medical examination."
Jim nods along. "What do you make of it Spock?"
"Fascinating, Captain," Spock remarks. "I would theorise that the ship was suppose to take the child to an inhabited world but was damaged by the disintegrating planet and left stranded here, amongst the rubble. Additionally, if the ship does indeed contain the collected knowledge of these Kryptonians that is a discovery of historical importance."
Jim couldn't argue that last part.
"If we want to make sure it is safe then we'll to do something about the power situation," Scotty raises. "I dinnae think it has more than a few hours at most left."
"You think the data could be lost?" Jim surmises.
"I cannae be certain but I also know we dinnae have the time to make certain before the power runs out."
"We must do everything we can to preserve this knowledge, Captain," Spock asserts.
"Can we hook up a power module to it?" Jim queries.
Scotty thinks hard. "We should be able to. When hooking up the interface we got a basic understanding of the power systems. If Mr Spock will assist we should have enough time to do it."
"Ok, Spock you assist Mr Scott. Meanwhile I'll go check in on our new guest."
Jim enters Sickbay to the sight of Nurse Chapel rocking the infant in her arms as Bones performs scans. The boy was awake and Jim noticed he possessed some remarkable, unusual shade of blue, eyes. "I come at a bad time?"
"Jim!" the gravelly Doctor greets his friend. "This child is amazing!" he says in true scientific wonderment.
"In what way?" Jim asks, amused or bemused at his friend's expression. He's not sure which.
"Come see what I've found so far," he beckons the Captain over to the monitor as he brings up his initial results.
"Looks remarkably human," Jim remarks at the image of the child.
"Only on the outside," Bones assures him. "Well ok and maybe a little on the inside too," he corrects himself. "He's certainly humanoid and shares the traits most humanoids do. Two arms and legs, fingers and toes, heart, lungs, what I think is a liver, digestive system, all roughly in the same location as a human."
"What are those?" Jim asks, pointing at several organs on the internal scan he's never seen before, even if his knowledge on biology is pretty basic.
"Not a clue," Bones admits. "I've never seen anything like them in any other species. I'll need to do further, more detailed scans. Maybe a biopsy. Anyway I have done an initial DNA scan and just look at the results," he says as he brings up the twisted double helix. "His DNA has far more chromosomes than a human. I haven't actually got a full count yet but I can say I have never seen a species this densely encoded. It'll take years to decipher it all."
"So the child is fine, even after being in this stasis for over 200 years?" Jim asks about.
"That boy is as healthy as a horse. I'm not even sure if he can get sick. Then again I don't know he can't. I haven't studied his immune response yet but my guess would be it'll be pretty robust. In fact the boy in general is. He has an unusually dense molecular structure. Would make him far stronger than a human. Might even give Spock a run for his money when he grows up."
"You'd pay to see that, right?"
"My Hippocratic Oath prevents me from saying," Bones replies with a little smirk.
Jim rolls his eyes. "I need to send a report to Starfleet. If you can provide me with your findings so far," he requests.
"Of course, of course," Bones accepts the inevitable duty of paperwork.
Jim turns to exit Sickbay, eyeing the boy on the way out. A starship is no place for a baby. His only question is when?
Not immediately. They were still surveying the remains of the world he now knows was once called Krypton by its inhabitants but what he means is do they finish the survey of this sector first or head back to starbase now? He guesses it'll be up to his superiors. He'll ask. It's all he can do.
Jim heads back to his quarters and for his safe, in which he keeps his most important personal belongings...including one of the rare pictures he has of his own son; David. He and the boy's mother; Carol...well lets just say there was no happy ever after. He has his duties. She has her career and she was quite insistent on David being in her world.
He doesn't often look at the picture. It's...painful and one thing he can never show to his crew is his pain.
Therefore burying his pain back deep down he puts the picture away and starts to work on that report.
One thing is certain though. Even if it didn't pan out the way they must have intended the boy's parents saved him when all around him was destroyed. A testament to their courage and if it was possible to tell them he would tell them they no longer have to worry about their son. Within the Federation he'll have a good life.
What sort of life?
As with everything only time will tell...
The End.
Author's Note: I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. Suppose should just make clear this is set during that first 5 year mission. Thanks to everyone who has previously written reviews.
