Captains log stardate 258291.1 we have been given a slaver stasis box by the federation science council. The stasis box is empty but they believe that we can use it to find another stasis box. These stasis boxes are rare and the technology that they may contain inside them could be potentially dangerous so we are proceeding with caution.
LOCATION: BRIDGE
Various officers had been keeping an eye on the empty stasis box. Ensign Cygnus was just about to start watching it for any sign of activity when they realized that someone had drawn a face on the box. Lt Roberta held up a pen and started moving towards the box before drawing a mustache on the face before leaving. Cygnus walked over to the captain and she stood up and looked at the face that had been scribbled all over the front of the stasis box and sighed.
Captain Makenna: *sigh* I get that we're all bored but this is the only way to detect another stasis box w...
Lt Roberta interrupts
Lt Roberta: his name is George.
The captain facepalms before continuing to speak.
Captain Makenna: fine! "George" the stasis box is the only way to find another stasis box. And this isn't a pet rock this is an artifact. Why do I bother with this crew sometimes.
T'ruki raises an eyebrow and says nothing. Captain Makenna stares at the face on the stasis box and sighs. There's no way to remove the silly face and mustache that is now on the stasis box called George. Suddenly the box starts glowing and the captain stops looking at the silly face on that is on it. She turns towards the navigator and asks a question.
Captain Makenna: ensign what's the nearest system to us?
The ensign responds.
Ensign T'lora: Niven III captain.
The captain then gives the order to activate the spore drive!
Captain Makenna: all hands black alert I repeat all hands black alert!
End teaser
S3 E5 "the box"
Loosely based upon concepts by LARRY NIVEN
also a prequel to "the slaver weapon" an adaptation of "the soft weapon" by LARRY NIVEN
Personal log/CMDR MONICA WILSON
What is the nature of existence? Whenever I look at the stasis box I wonder this for some reason. Were the slavers masters of all intelligent life in the alpha and beta quadrants because they took over civilizations by force? Some even suggest that their reach extended throughout the entire galaxy. How did they reach the gamma and delta quadrants? Perhaps this is all lost to time. My other headmates are quiet now. However I feel a passive urge to ask the captain about this. Not sure if this urge is my own however.
Personal log/ENSIGN CYGNUS
The whole George thing is quite funny. One of our littles is laughing every time that silly face is seen. If this particular stasis box goes on display we feel like people are going to agree. We also hear other things. SUCH AS SOMEONE SCREAMING ABOUT CHOCOLATE! Whoever is screaming about chocolate is being really annoying right now... ugh.
The USS Discovery blazes through the mycelial network on it's way to Niven III. The urge that Monica mentioned in her log grows stronger and stronger and soon she can't keep the questions in any longer so she starts asking them.
Commander Monica: uh captain? So who discovered the first stasis box?
The captain responds.
Captain Makenna: someone named Larry I think. He discovered the first one by accident on an expedition to the Arctic in 1991. It contained a flying belt that was used to create the artificial gravity fields used on the DY-100 class sleeper ships.
Suddenly a beeping noise is heard indicating that the discovery is about to drop out of the mycelial network. A few moments later the starship drops out in orbit of one of the planets in the system. Cygnus notices that the box has started glowing more intensely. They then tell the captain about this.
Ensign Cygnus: captain the glow has intensified! We think this means that we're in the right spot.
The captain nods her head and then asks the science officer to preform a scan on the planet.
Captain Makenna: Lt can you preform a full sensor sweep of that planet?
The Lt presses a few buttons on her console and then looks into the scope.
Lt Roberta: sensors are reading an oxygen hydrogen atmos... hold on. That's not right. Recalibrating sensors. Blast something on the surface is causing a lot of interference. Hold on a second. Got it. Sensors are reading a oxygen nitrogen atmosphere. Well there's a class-M environment down there but I'm seriously having problems. It might not even be safe to beam down. We should take a shuttlecraft.
Captain Makenna responds
Captain Makenna: agreed. That's the safest option. I'll accompany the landing party this time. I feel the need to be down there to find out more.
The captain then stands up and walks out into the turbolift followed by her first officer,Ensign Cygnus,Lt Anna and ensign V'tora. The turbolift doors then close.
LOCATION: HANGAR DECK
The doors to the hangar deck open and the landing party walks into the hangar deck and they walk towards the shuttlecraft trebek. captain Makenna walks around the shuttlecraft before opening the doors and walking in she then takes a look around and fiddles with the controls and opens and closes the blast shutters a few times before sitting down. The rest of the away team walks in. Cygnus tries to sit down but then finds out the seat they wanted is occupied by someone else. Weird as they are only the second person to enter the shuttlecraft. They then turn around and find Kennie sitting down with a very relaxed look on her face. Cygnus decides to look for another seat and sits down in an unoccupied seat. The rest of the landing party members then walk in and sit down. Lt Anna decided to sit down next to Kennie who was technically not supposed to even be there in the first place. Kennie then realizes that her friend is there and excitedly bounces up and down in her seat. Anna then responds to this.
Lt Anna: it's nice to see you too. Anyway I don't care that you are technically not assigned to this one but it's really good to see you again.
Ensign V'tora then starts the shuttlecraft up before waiting for the hangar deck to depressurize. The hangar deck then depressurizes and the hangar doors open and the ensign pilots the shuttlecraft out before closing the blast shutters which had been left open.
LOCATION: PLANET SURFACE.
The shuttlecraft lands on the surface of the planet near some ancient ruins. The shuttlecraft doors open and the landing party walks out. Captain Makenna gasps when she notices that the shuttlecraft landed extremely close to some ancient ruins.
Captain Makenna: *GASP* oh my. I can't believe this! Everyone come out quick!
The rest of the landing party as well as the one person that wasn't supposed to be there step out of the shuttlecraft and stare at the ruins. Cygnus notices that the glow of the stasis box had intensified even further. They then walked up to the ruins and the glow intensified even further. Everyone else noticed this and ran over to the ruins which were remarkably intact. Cygnus then notices an entryway and tries to open the doors but the doors won't budge.
Ensign Cygnus: well. That didn't work.
Suddenly Lt Anna pulls out a phaser! Cygnus steps backwards before the lieutenant fires the phaser at the door. The door heats up before being completely vaporized. A wave of awful smelling air then hits the landing party and Cygnus starts shuddering and then walks back before asking to stay behind.
Ensign Cygnus: this is bringing back some really bad memories for us so we should should stay back.
Captain Makenna responds.
Captain Makenna: that sounds fine. I understand. The rest of us will go on ahead.
Cygnus then hands captain Makenna the stasis box and then the rest of the away team walks in the ruins. Cygnus then walks away before trying to calm down.
LOCATION: SLAVER RUINS
The interior of the slaver ruins is full of dust and the walls and ceiling are a distinct green color. There are inactive computer terminals on some of the walls that haven't been touched in more than one million years. Oddly enough the stasis box is on table in the center of the room. Captain Makenna walks towards the table and cuts the top of the box off with her phaser and opens the box. The stasis box contains a slaver dataslate that resembles a 22nd century starfleet PADD and a disruptor bomb with the pin pulled. The bomb immediately starts beeping. Captain Makenna reacts immediately and tries to defuse the bomb but it continues counting down! Captain Makenna drops the bomb, grabs the slaver PADD and tells everyone to get to cover.
Captain Makenna: EVERYONE GET TO COVER NOW!
Everyone immediately gets to cover and the bomb explodes and ends up destroying half of the ruins.
LOCATION: OUTSIDE THE SLAVER RUINS
The entryway managed to survive the explosion. However Cygnus had wound up experiencing a massive disassociative episode due to the explosion and they've already shattered state due to the ruins reminding them of their past. Suddenly a duck like creature waddles over the the ensign and starts cleaning it's feathers for a second before plopping itself down next to the ensign and nesting in their lap and falling asleep. The ensign notices the duck and startles.
Ensign Cygnus: waaaaa! Great. Why are we always an animal magnet? Especially when we're a mess like this?
The duck creature then suddenly woke up and climbed up the ensign before sitting on their head and softly cooing. Ensign Cygnus then started feeling better and tries to pick the duck up to get it off of their head. The duck wouldn't budge. Then someone else fronted and they also tried to remove the duck but the duck stayed put. The ensign sighed and then immediately started experiencing something strange.
Ensign Cygnus: *sigh. Why is this duck creature even doing this. Why are memories suddenly resurfacing and suddenly vanishing? Why is our headspace calmer than it was before? Is this duck doing something? What...is...happening? Why...how...what...we see...a city? The rest of our headmates are there with us. Is this real?
Ensign Cygnus then stands up and looks around. What had been a planet covered in ruins of slaver origin was now a utopian city bustling with activity. Suddenly a large monolith rose from the ground. The rest of the ensign's headmates including the one that was in the front the most often stared at the monolith before touching it. The ensign then stepped forward without realizing it and before they knew it they were also touching the monolith. The monolith then started glowing before shattering into several pieces. Cygnus's body absorbed one before the rest of the headmates did as well. The body then shimmered slightly before what appeared to be a necklace of sorts appeared on it. The duck then suddenly transformed a glowing orb of energy before speaking. The voice of the duck echoed through the city
Duck: welcome. Welcome to the outer realm. A place that few know about.
Cygnus responds
Ensign Cygnus: what is going on here?! Is this place in our imagination or is it real?
The duck responds to this.
Duck: what is the nature of reality in the first place? For all we know reality could be an illusion.
Cygnus facepalmed. The duck was basically speaking in riddles. This was going absolutely nowhere. The ensign then tried asking another question.
Ensign Cygnus: what are we even doing here? We should be back on the planet waiting for the landing party to return from those ruins! We couldn't enter them ourselves because of the horrible memories.
The duck responded.
Duck: what are you doing here exactly? I don't know.
Cygnus snapped back at the duck.
Ensign Cygnus: stop referring to us as "you"! We hate that!
The duck sighed. This really wasn't going anywhere. The duck then responded.
Duck: fine. I'll return you to your own realm. Just one thing. This necklace will allow you to enter your own inner world. I know this sounds absurd but if you want to do so just use this necklace. Oh I was referring to the body and not the soul.
Cygnus groans.
Ensign Cygnus *groan* for an all seeing duck you really don't get it. You're saying that if we use this absurd thing than we can physically enter our own headspace?! That's completely impossible.
The city and everything in it starts to vanish. Cygnus tries to get the orb to clarify what it meant but it was too late. They were back in front of the entryway with a duck on their head. The duck then hopped off and waddled away. The ensign then noticed that the necklace hadn't vanished. Cygnus then decided to inform the rest of the landing party as to what happened and tried reaching for her communicator but then noticed that the duck had waddled away with it. Cygnus started to panic. The only way to inform the rest of the landing party was to enter the ruins.
Ensign Cygnus: do we really have to do this? We started disassociating the last time we even looked at it. What are we to do? The necklace? Does it really work? It's not like we have much of a choice.
Ensign Cygnus then got up and turned to face the entryway. They then touched the charm dangling from the necklace and started walking. They noticed something strange. They weren't in the real world any longer.
Meanwhile...
LOCATION: SLAVER RUINS.
Ensign V'Tora had been trying to get the slaver PADD to work for several minutes without much success. The frustrated ensign then smacked the PADD on the table and then it powered on. The slaver script on the screen was indecipherable but the images on the screen could be understood. The images appeared to be that of a slaver warship. Ensign V'Tora then handed the PADD over to Kennie who started to use it as a fidget. Ensign V'Tora tried to get Kennie to stop but...
Ensign V'Tora: stop fidgeting with that! You could trigger something!
Suddenly something extended out of the PADD and showed a hologram of a slaver war fleet. The hologram then shifted to show several ships over a planet. Slaver script flashed next to the ships and a holographic representation of the war fleet moved into position. More slaver text flashed next to the warships and the hologram shifted to show a battle plan. After that the hologram turned red and shifted again. It showed 3D figures pressing buttons on a console. One of the figures then flipped open a protective casing before pressing a button. A timer then started on the holographic screen in front of the figure before the hologram shifted into what appeared to be a warning symbol with slaver text below it. While the text wasn't able to be understood by the landing party they were able to get enough context from the visuals alone. Lt Anna then spoke up.
Lt Anna: could this be a slaver battle plan as well as a contingency plan? It looked like the figure in the last sequence was setting this place to self destruct.
Captain Makenna responds
Captain Makenna: I couldn't think of a better interpretation so let's go with that. That being said the bomb that was in the stasis box had it's pin pulled so if anyone opened the box then...
Ensign V'Tora finished the captain's sentence.
Ensign V'Tora: this was a trap set during a war fought at least one million years ago. Even if the plans were discovered then the discovery would be meaningless because of the bomb. The other figures must have been wiping the computers. We found the second contingency plan. If the self destruct failed then this would be used as a last resort.
Captain Makenna responds
Captain Makenna: but. Why didn't the contingency go into effect and what happened to both fleets? I guess both sides wiped each other out.
Suddenly Lt Anna heard a noise and ensign Cygnus reappeared next to her wearing a necklace that they hadn't been seen wearing before. They then spoke up.
Ensign Cygnus: you all wouldn't believe what we just experienced.
The ensign then looked around and started shivering violently before clutching the necklace charm again and vanishing for a few seconds and then letting go of it and reappearing. They then spoke.
Ensign Cygnus: let's get out of here.
Captain Makenna responds
Captain Makenna: agreed. We got what we came for now let's get out of here.
Captain Makenna grabbed the slaver PADD and put down the empty stasis box next to the opened one and the entire landing party walked back to the shuttlecraft.
Captains log stardate 55021.1 I've informed starfleet about everything. They think it's best to put several guidelines in place for who should handle the stasis boxes. As of right now only certain specialists are allowed to handle them due to the possible dangers that they might contain. I doubt that the bomb was the most dangerous slaver weapon. Rumor has it that the slavers had weapons that could devastate the alpha and beta quadrants. As for the ensign. I have no idea where that weird necklace came from. We've tried to analyze it and failed. My first officer reports that upon touching it she was transported to her own inner world where she came face to face with a few of her alters. Alters that appeared to her as formless blobs. I have decided to let Cygnus keep the mysterious artifact but I had them under a complete medical checkup as they claim that they were transported to another realm by a duck like creature. There is some evidence to support this as they claimed that the duck stole their communicator after bringing them back and they were missing their communicator.
LOCATION: SICKBAY.
Doctor culber had been preforming a full medical evaluation on the ensign for 5 hours before he gave up. He could find absolutely nothing wrong with them both mentally and physically. The doctor had no choice but to trust the ensign even though due to someone else being in the front at the time the ensign's memory of the event was spotty at best. The doctor then sighed.
Doctor culber: *sigh* am I really that superstitious? I mean magic ducks? Really?! It sounds unbelievable but crazier things have happened.
The ensign responds
Ensign Cygnus: the nature of reality is truly unknown to us.
Doctor culber then walked over to the ensign before scanning them with a medical tricorder just to make sure that he hadn't missed anything. The doctor then responded.
Doctor culber: now what is that even supposed to mean? You do realize that I'm not a philosopher. If you mean that reality is a simulation then I seriously don't know what to say.
Ensign Cygnus then stood up before walking to the doors. Before the ensign exited sickbay they responded to the doctor.
Ensign Cygnus: you're overthinking it doctor. We just said that the true nature of reality isn't known. Now excuse us. We have to get going.
The ensign then walked out of sickbay and left a very confused doctor culber alone in sickbay.
End