A/N: I was asked about the "Event" that took the Kongo out of action. I will get to that as a flashback at some point.
Kiko led the Mattuba up to the very outside of the landing bay and reduced speed to absolute minimum thrusters. If she was about to run into a forcefield, she preferred that she do it slowly. She counted down as they approached. At 1 meter, she braced subconsciously. She noted that her crewmates did the same. Suddenly there was a lurch downward. She looked at her instrument panel and cursed to herself.
"Dammit, gravity lip. Rookie mistake on my part. I was too worried about the force field."
"Gravity Lip?" asked Samantha.
Andrew Smith answered, "when you go from space inside a ship with artificial gravity, it comes on quickly. Our gravity systems, and apparently theirs, are unidirectional for short distances, usually 'up'. That avoids us from sweeping up any stray debris that may be coming by. Usually experienced pilots compensate," he gave Kiko a mischievous look "but in this case it happened late."
"Fine," she replied, "next time you land on the alien landing bay." She turned back to her viewer.
"Will, where do you think we should land?"
The Security Officer surveilled the scene and tried to think of strategic advantages. They had no idea where are an attack might come from or what it would look like.
"How about there next to those cargo containers near the wall. Can you fit? It would provide us some cover."
Kiko nodded and nudged the shuttle into place. They landed gently with Kiko given Andrew a smug look when there was virtually no jar. She checked atmosphere and confirmed what the scanners had revealed; the air was virtually identical to Earth. No other obvious pathogens were shown either.
"Okay, we don't what's out here. Phasers but set to stun. Gravelson and Smith, take tricorders. Newman, lead the way."
They opened the door and the stepped out. They knew the landing bay was big but being on the deck and looking around drove home just how large it was. Andrew Smith made note that they hanger seemed to be designed to support multiple landings from small ships and had equipment in place to move them. Tracing some of the routes and tracks, he noted that they ended at at re-enforced doors along the outside wall of the bay. He would have to check those out later.
"Hey look here," yelled Ensign Gravelson. She was pointing at what appeared to be a small ship, somewhat larger than their shuttlecrafts but similar in shape. Crewman Smith went over and inspected the outside.
"Looks like its in for maintenance," he said noting an open exterior panel. "Maybe that's why it's here. I don't see any others and this bay was designed to hold a lot more vehicles than this."
"Do you think they abandoned ship?" asked Kiko.
"I don't know," answered Newman. "Why leave the lights on?"
"True," answered Kiko. "Let's see if we can get into the main section of the ship."
"You know, this ship is obviously built for war. Says something about the people that manned her," mused Crewman Smith.
"Lots of peace has been kept by warships," quipped the Security guard.
"Lots of wars too," answered Smith. "But your point is taken. We won't make any assumptions."
As Smith examined the bay further, it seemed to designed to support routine landings but there was a whole apparatus that seemed to support quick landings, refueling and moving whatever ships they were to one side. His eyes followed the path and he saw a series of circular hatches along the one side of the bay.
"Let's look over here," he said, starting on his way without asking. Kiko cursed to herself but followed along. The Security guard and young linguist followed in suite.
The Bay had a track system which seemed intended to move some sort of small vessel to some sort of round entrance which were closed with large metallic doors. Smith walked over and looked at them and noticed that there was a smaller door next to it. He tried it and was able to open it. He walked inside and found himself in a small control room of some sort. There was a window which overlooked the beginning of a tube that led to the exterior hatch. Lieutenant Rodriguez entered along with Gravelson and Newman.
"This looks like a launch tube. If my bearings are right, the end of it should be the exterior of the ship." Andrew was beginning to look over the controls and trying to make sense of them. Lieutenant Rodriguez walked up to him.
"Andrew," she said, "We don't have time for this. We need to get into the main part of the ship and see if there is anything there is anybody home. Come on, maybe we can check this out later."
The Crewman reluctantly nodded his head and walked back into the main landing bay. They surveyed the scene and towards the middle of the bay saw what they believed to be a turbolift of some sort. The walked over to it entered. The saw a couple of buttons written in the same eerily earthlike language.
"Well?" asked Kiko to the young ensign.
Samantha gulped and said, "this one seems to say 'ascend'" she volunteered.
Kiko smiled and said "so up we go".
The reached the top of the lift and entered a large corridor.
Kiko thought for a moment, "let's assume the bridge is in the front of the craft. I remember seeing some observation windows that may have been for that purpose. The other area we probably want to check out is engineering since this is a 'rescue mission'". The other members of her team looked at her comically. "Well it is," she said. "Just ask the Captain."
Newman said, "I don't really like the idea of splitting up but we do have limited time. Groups of two?"
Kiko nodded, "Samantha you are with me. Andy you and Will try to find Engineering. As big as the engines looked to be, shouldn't be too hard. 15 minute check-ins with communicators. "
Kiko and Samantha began walking down the corridor. The ship was mammoth, even by constitution class standards. Kiko used here tricorder to map the ship as the went but in general the were able to follow a direction towards the front of the ship. Moving through the ship started to give Lieutenant Rodriquez a better sense of who ship and crew were. They moved into a section that appeared to be geared towards the crew.
"Hey look, this must be their mess hall," said Gravelson looking into a large room with a number of tables.
They entered the room and noticed an area that appeared to be for food preparation. The walked behind the counter and noted that there were several containers that appeared to store dry goods. In the rear was another metal door which upon touch was much cooler than the rest. They opened the door and looked inside to find what appeared to be frozen meat and vegetable products. The closed the door and went back out into the main room.
"Food stores, power, life support but not a person to be seen. Something happened here quickly," Kiko stretched her neck and looked around again. "Have you ever been on a non-human ship? Vulcan, Tellarite, other?" She asked.
Samantha was somewhat confused by the question, "No ma'am," she answered.
"I have. There is always a sense that things are off. As dominate as humanoids are in the galaxy, we have all had millions of years of evolution on different worlds. The temperature is off, humidity wrong or just how things are put together seem off. You know what I feel on this ship?" She asked rhetorically to the linguist.
"No," said Samantha plainly.
"That I am on a Human ship. No matter how unknown the lay-out, there is no sense that an alien race built her." Kiko sighed. "Let's keep going."
They continued towards what the believed to be the bridge and came across what appeared to be crew quarters. The peaked into the cramped spaces. "Not much space for such a large ship," commented Gravelson.
"Well the old NX class starships were pretty cramped as well. It does seem to support the idea that this is more of a warship than anything else." Kiko updated her tricorder with this location. "We'll check it out on the way back.
"Hey look at this!" Exclaimed Ensign Gravelson. The both took a look and saw some type of tram which could hold multiple people. "If I am reading this right, I think this took people back to the landing bay. "
"Hmm, more evidence that they were set up to deploy to a fight quickly. Let's see what the bridge looks like."
They continued to move and started entering a section with quarters that were more spacious and provided much more privacy than was seen before. They finally came across a handful of rooms that were obviously designed for single users.
Kiko smiled, "Officers' quarters I assume. Good to know there are some constants in the universe."
"Look up here," said Samantha. Up ahead was a large room with an official looking metal door. "This has to be it."
They opened the door and walked in. The room was large with a sunken section housing multiple workstations. Kiko could not readily identify the purpose of the consoles. Towards the rear was a station which was raised and overlooked the other sections. There actually was not place to sit but there were what seemed to be communication consoles. The was quite different than the Kongo where the Captain was in the center, there was no attempt to elevate the captain's position in such a way.
Kiko opened her communicator, "Rodriguez to Smith."
"Go ahead," he answered.
"We have found the bridge. What's your status?"
"I think we are in Engineering. It is massive. There doesn't seem to be a central point of control and everything is distributed. Still nothing that looks like a Warp Drive, "he added.
"No signs of the crew?" she asked.
"Not a one."
Okay keep me posted."
Kiko looked around and noted a plaque on the wall.
"Samantha what does this say?" She asked.
Gravelson looked at it for a while, "Odd, the plaque has the name of the ship but the designation seems unusual. At first I thought it was a Battleship or Cruiser but that can't be right. The best translation is 'Battlestar.' This seems to be the Battlestar Olympia."
"Okay," said Kiko. "Now we know whose taking care of us. Let's treat her right. We are almost due to call the Captain. Let's look around. We are almost due to call the captain."