An artifact had been discovered, an artifact of Andromedan origin which could be as old as 1500 years. The Head Scientist, a tall well groomed man named Andrew Teller, walked around the 2 metre tall Silver cylinder now residing in Laboratory 1. His eyes caressed every gleaming inch of the structure, taking in the intricate markings and strange hyroglyphs with a deep fascination. His mind was surging with ideas, with the adrenaline of excitement that made him want to leap up and attempt to touch the ceiling. He wanted to scan it, touch it, analyse it, hypothesise over it, write papers on it. He wanted to learn about every facet, every intimate detail of this device and it's purpose. Why was it here? What did it do? How did it come to be here? With shaking hands he pulled a PADD off a small workbench and stepped closer to the cylinder.
An abandoned Ops centre came to life with alerts and information, attempting to inform a crew that should have been manning the many glowing consoles of the arrival of a Federation Akira class starship in the station's vicinity. Its name was Hastings.
Teller was so absorbed in his translations, mind awhirl with ancient Andromedan texts and contemporary comparisons, that he did not hear the dull thud of several lifeless bodies landing on the deck plating. He was so distracted that the first notion he had of something being amiss was a harsh, toneless male voice speaking no more than four paces from his back.
"I'll have one of these to go."
Teller cracked his chin against the smooth canister suface as he gave a start at the new voice. He began to laugh as he turned around to face the visitor, "Very funny, but as you well know this is..." His voice tailed off as his eyes fell upon the man standing before him.
A Vulcan, hair and eyes as dark as the vaccum of space, regarded the Scientist with condenscending hostility. His tall, well formed frame cast an intimidating shadow over the much smaller Civilian. No words were spoken, a deathly silence falling over the room as dreadful realisation struck Teller with a hammer blow.
"Why are you taking this? Who are you?" He stammered, attempting vainly to reassert himself. He was the Head of the Science Team here dammit!
The Vulcan silently stepped forward, a move which caused Teller to take an involuntary step back and away from the Canister. Something warm and smooth glided across Teller's throat, followed by something warm and wet splashing against the front of his clothing. He looked down and saw to his horror it was his own blood, eyes widened as he tried to draw in air and was rewarded with nothing more than a desperate gurgle. His legs gave way, sending him crashing to the deck as the life flowed out of the gaping wound in his neck like a river flows to the Ocean. The Vulcan stepped disdainfully over his body, "Nice to finally meet you." He spoke into his reflection on the cylinder, "I've been looking forward to this aquaintance."
"Bremmler Station?" Wood enquired, his vocal tone suggesting he was as intriuged as he was confused. The station had no real significance strategically nor was it the known site of anything of military value.
"We recieved a Distress call a few moments ago from there sir." Lieutenant Commander Tusami, the Andorian Security Chief, stated.
"It mentioned us by name." Beast added tonelessly, which belied the fact that such an occurance was highly unusual.
"Why would Bremmler station call for help...but only from us?" Lieutenant Hunt mused, rubbing his stubbly chin with his thick calloused fingers.
"Why indeed." Wood added, "Number One. Set a course for Bremmler Station, Maximum Warp. Have us on Yellow Alert for arrival."
Wood did not move as his Senior staff stood and filed out of the ship's conference lounge. His eyes wandered thier surroundings, exploring the cabinet containing minatures of Starfleet's most famous Starship classes. He lingered there for a moment, looking for some kind of inspiration that the thin, curved room could not offer. Even staring out of the long, rounded windows offered no aid. Something about this distress signal did not sit right, his gut feeling told him he should ignore the message and report the anomolous message to Earth. He weighed up the potential probelsm that would cause, most likely leading to his being directed to Bremmler Station anyway.
"Computer, open a channel with Starfleet Headquarters..."
The vast, sculpted silhouette of a Galaxy Class starship slowed from Warp before the burning glare of the systems Sun, swooping effortlessly towards the darkened exterior of Bremmler station. Within the Redemption's bridge, which was lit in a calming ice blue light when not at Red Alert, Commander Beast ordered the ship to a Full Stop. He regarded thier destination for a moment on the viewscreen, his pitch black eyes unmoving as they studied the now-lifeless Station, "Inform the Admiral we have arrived at Bremmler station."
Tusami nodded and made the appropriate com-call, summoning the Admiral from his Ready Room.
"Bremmler Station is a Science post," Wood stated as he emerged from the grey doors, holding a PADD as he made his way to the centre of the circular Bridge module, "It's used for conducting studies on Ancient weapons artifacts discovered in this region of space."
Beast waved a limb towards the station, "It appears we are too late to aid them sir."
"I'm picking up one lifesign. It's constant but surrounded by distortion, like there is some kind of large power source nearby." Tusami added to Beast's gloomy report.
"That's odd. So these invaders did thier business, left one person alive by the Power Core and simply switched off the lights before leaving?" Wood noted, his gut instincts screaming at him to leave now. He pushed them aside and instructed Beast to assemble an away team. Right now gathering some information about this strange incident was preferable to running away.
As his Andromedan First Officer left to assemble the away team Wood sat himself in the Captain's chair, running his left hand through his hair. What artifact could have been on that station that was worth stealing, let alone killing all but one of it's occupants for. These tactics almost looked familiar, uncomfortably familiar. It stirred up memories that he would rather keep buried. Wood sighed as he allowed himself to look back upon those times, searching for some insight into this situation before him in the hope of getting ahead of whatever game was being played with them here.
