Epilogue

"A blue whale?"

"No."

"A giant squid?"

"No."

"A Portuguese man-o'-war?"

"Nope."

"...A blob fish?"

"No, and that's your twenty questions up, Commander, sorry."

Jess McQueen exclaimed and threw up her arms in exasperation. "I give up!" said Starbase 1's Chief Science Officer. "What was it?"

"It was a sea star," said Lt. Donovan, sitting across from McQueen in the cramped shuttlepod. "The giant starfish."

"Gah! Of course!" said McQueen. The two women shared the 'pod with its pilot, Ensign Taggart, who McQueen now turned to. "Care to take a turn, Ensign?"

Taggart chuckled. "I know better than to compete with two xenobiologists in animal guessing games, sir."

"Marine xenobiologist, in my case," said Donovan, with exaggerated haughtiness. "Anyway, we're keeping it Earth-based. For now."

It was Donovan's speciality that had brought them here today, hanging over the Ryūjin Sea, as McQueen had dubbed it. She had taken pride in naming Berengaria VII's geographical features after various mythological dragons, as homage to the planet's natives. In her opinion, it was a massive improvement over the bland alphanumeric designations given by the initial Vulcan survey team.

McQueen's party had dropped a probe into the ocean to examine marine life as well as chart the waters. The probe had now been swimming along the bottom of the sea for several hours without incident, hence resorting to games to keep themselves amused.

"You'd think seeing all these new fish would keep you occupied," Taggart said, pointing to the monitor displaying the probe's telemetry.

"They're not all fish," said Donovan, "but they sure are pretty. Not as much variety as there usually is in marine life though."

"Well, the Draco said that the ancient aliens who visited the planet millennia ago changed the environment," said McQueen. "And that there used to be a lot more wildlife. We found evidence at the pole which tied in with that."

McQueen often found herself wondering about those ancient visitors. Who were they? Where had they come from? Why did they come here?

Taggart's console started beeping, bringing back her concentration.

"The probe's detected something… big," said Taggart.

McQueen and Donovan stood alongside his chair. "A lifeform?" Donovan asked hopefully.

"I don't think so," he replied. "Getting imagery now…"

On the monitor, a grainy picture started to resolve. The signal was weak due to the probe's depth, but they could make out a large, boxy object on the sea bed. Its straight lines and worn, metallic texture marked it as artificial in origin. The readouts indicated it was around 50 meters long.

"It looks like a ship," said Taggart. There were engine-like protrusions on the object's sides which confirmed this theory, as well as a 'nose' protruding from the front.

"Could this be related to the ancient visitors?" McQueen asked in awe.

"I don't think so," said Donovan. "Look at the coral growth." She pointed out the rocky substance growing on the ship's exterior. "There's a lot, but not millennia worth."

Taggart consulted another display. "The probe's quantum dating apparatus indicate that it's less than a hundred years old. And it doesn't match any design in our database. This belongs to someone else."

McQueen went back to staring at the image on the monitor. More unknown aliens that came to Berengaria long before Humans or Vulcans. More mystery.

"How did they get all the way to the bottom of the ocean?" Donovan asked.

"I don't know," said McQueen. "But there's only one way to find out…"