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Star Trek Enterprise: Here we stand

Chapter 11:

Where sleeping dogs lay.

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Things had been unsettlingly quiet abord the ship for the past few weeks, the last action Horatio had seen was a raider that had attempted to ambush them after they had found stumbled upon a freighter, they were in the process of reaving. It had coincided with Malcolm's birthday, an event that Horatio had planned for, he had made sure to keep some tinned pineapples for a treat for the man. As well as a model of the HMS Victory, that would keep him busy for a few weeks.

The captain throwing the man a party had been an unexpected but welcome surprise, he even saw Malcolm get misty-eyed which was a treat in and of itself. He had also seen him grow closer to Hoshi over the past few months and hoped that the two would become more than friends.

Horatio found himself staring out of the mess hall windows as stars streaked by in the warp effect. He drew his thoughts from wishful remembrances and onto the tedium of the past few days. He had finished the majority of the crew's weapons recertifications with only Hoshi left.

She was in no way a combat officer and probably wouldn't ever be. But that wasn't her profession so he couldn't hold her to the standard of a fully trained security officer, but he had assigned her the best man for the job. He had felt confident that Malcolm could coach the woman to a relatively good score, at least that was his hope.

For a moment he permitted himself a moment of stillness before he allowed himself to wonder where he was within the timeline. As he pondered what would come next the ship dropped out of warp the window was suddenly filled with the dull stool brown of a Gas Giant. Horatio couldn't help but sigh, it was about that time, wasn't it? he mumbled to himself finishing his now lukewarm tea in one swig he grabbed the pad he had brought with him and the swagger stick and made his way to the bridge.

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There was an air of excitement on the bridge as they approached the now identified class, nine Gas Giant. Horatio sat at his station expecting, he knew what was about to happen and wanted to be prepared. He had tuned out the conversation on the bridge until Hoshi played the "siren calls" that had made him jump.

He began to run a more in-depth scan of the Gas Giant when the ship's Science station began to bleep in rapid succession.

"I'm detecting an anomalous power signature in the lower atmosphere." Horatio locked on to that signal and ran the particulars through the ship's archive.

"I'm identifying the ship now." He said that drew Archer to his station. "I'm attempting to compensate for the interference, now." It took a few moments for the ship's computer to fully identify the signature. "it's Klingon." He said the air of curiosity is now broken by a rise in tension. "it's too large to be scout or destroyer maybe a cruiser or it could be a freighter." He brought the image onto the main screen "I'm taking the probe in deeper." He says as the screen filled with brown and pink gas slowly began to give way before the probe. As the screen began to clear the image became more pronounced but still little more than a silhouette "it looks to be a D5" he said as the probe grew closer, he recognised the large tanks under it "definitely a D5 battlecruiser but it looks like it has been refitted recently."

The captain took a breath before he turned from the screen to Horatio who was very confused, this was not the ship he was expecting to see here. But before he could ponder if his arrival had affected the timeline Archer spoke.

"Are you sure?"

"Aye sir, around seventy-five percent sure." He replied wiggling his right hand slightly to illustrate his point on his percentage.

"What are they doing here?" he mumbled to himself, scratching his chin before turning to T'Pol and the science station. "Life signs?" he asked, she looked at the scanner again. for a moment there was a building tension as she looked through the scope at the data before turning back to face Archer.

"There are life signs detected, but the scans are being affected by the gravitational eddies and interference from the particulates in the gas."

"So, they could need our help?" he asked, the man's saving people thing was starting to show.

"Indeterminate at this time Captain." She responded, "they could require aid, but they would never accept it, it would be dishonourable to them." she said simply, Archer nodded before he turned to face Horatio.

"What do you think Commander?" he asked Horatio mentally sighed before he gave his assessment, he knew that the captain would ignore anything but a recommendation to go. Horatio cleared his throat before he answered

"I agree with T'Pols assessment." the captain deflated slightly before Horatio continued "with the caveat that if they were not in some distress, they would have destroyed the probe." He held up one finger on his right hand and tapped the index finger on his left hand showing that this was just one part of his argument

"Do you believe we should aid them," he asked, he looked genuinely curious about the prospect. Horatio then held out a second finger and tapped it before he answered.

"To be frank sir with the rate that the ship is sinking we would have maybe an hour to get that ship out of this predicament which would be cutting it very fine." He said T'Pol nodded behind the captain "alternatively that ship could net Star Fleet and the Vulcan High Command some invaluable intelligence that can't be ignored I think it would be worth the risk to aid them." the captain nodded looking relived before Horatio continued "but if we can't then we can still get some valuable intelligence."

"Put a team together," he said pointing between Horatio and T'Pol, "the faster we get a team there the more likely we can render aid." He said turning to look at the silhouette. "Make sure that you have some extra security just in case things turn violent."

"Aye, sir." Said Horatio, who had already put together a mental team list that balance doubt security and engineering, Dragomirov was a given, he then thought about Vladimirovich in Engineering or Peters from Xeno-Biology if there was something wrong with the Klingons down there.

"Yes, Captain." Said T'Pol, he turned made his way to his ready room leaving the particulars to the two senior officers. As Horatio made his way into the Turbo lift, he noticed that Hoshi was making her way to the captain's ready room as the door sealed, she had already made her way through the threshold of the door.

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Horatio wasn't happy he had wanted to take a much larger security team, but Captain Archer felt that the Klingons may be offended if he took an entire platoon with him. So, he had been ordered to take three-plus himself and T'Pol had taken only Reed and Hoshi, so he had to sacrifice one of his security members for an engineer. Something that he had not wanted to do as that would leave him even more flat-footed if the Klingons became hostile.

His solution was to grab a fully trained military engineer there was only one on the ship and he was not a happy man.

"I don't like this sir." He said in his deep Irish brogue, He was a short broad man with brightly red curled hair.

"Your Objection is noted Mr Carey, now get your suit on," Horatio answered the man who grumbled about finishing a ship in a bottle that had consumed most of his off-hours. Horatio held the hard fibre-weave torso plate of his EVA suit and checked over the connections and double-checked the seals.

The MACO designed EVA suits were far less comfortable than the Star Fleet counterparts, but its armoured sections were made from a type of fibre-weave made to discharge most electrical pulses, heat and impacts like the polarised hull plating on the ship. The system while nowhere near perfect was useful and upped survivability in zero-G combat by fifteen percent on its Star Fleet brother but it was cumbersome and restrictive.

For weapons, the loadout for the mission was the ever-reliable phase pistol and the MACO issued plasma rifle. He had selected the plasma rifle as it was better in unknown environments than the Star Fleet issued laser rifle, it also had an auto-fire mode that would be useful in defending themselves from a bunch of surly Klingons. He had also issued out several stun grenades as a fall-back option as well as stun batons for a CQC option.

As mission commander as soon as everyone was in their suit's he rechecked everyone's equipment both deals and backup systems he also tested the battery packs for the weaponry. He wanted no mistakes and no issues.

"Listen up." Horatio said over the squad communications "mission parameters are as follows, One, we are to ascertain the damage to the ship and render aid, Two, we are to help any crew onboard should they need it." The squad nodded as he finished, "be advised gentlemen the Klingons are not a species that like to be disrespected or talked down to despite their Barbarian aesthetic they are a large space-faring empire that equal the Vulcans in weapons and defence technology."

"So, no laughing at the furs, right?" Said, Mr Carey

"Correct," confirmed Horatio. "In simple terms, we will go over there ascertain the issue and try to fix it, simple, no heroics." He said his eyes raked over the assembled men who all acknowledged with a sharp and clipped.

"Yes sir."

-(-)-

Malcolm has a cold. It was as if the whole universe was gleeful at the prospect of seeing the Englishman suffer. I had given him specific instructions to not remove his helmet while we're over there, we don't know what a human disease like the cold could mutate into inside a Klingon and I for one would not be amused if he inadvertently created some kind of super phage.

The journey over to the ship had been less than pleasant as the second shuttle they were going to use was partially disassembled by the engineering team and the spare couldn't be moved in to replace it as the same engineering team had yet to finish the maintenance on the crane arm.

So, six fully EVA suited crewmembers were squeezed into the shuttle like sardines in a can. The shuttle glided gracefully through the particles and gas clouds like a bird in the sky. As they passed through the last cloud the imposing ship came into clear sight.

At this close of a distance, they could make out various scratches and pits in the armour from past engagements as well as large sections of armour where the distinct green, grey paint was peeling off completely. There weren't any hull markings on the hull that held any information like the Humans ships where the name and identity number were emblazoned on the hull along with each ship's Hull Classification Number. Such things were a holdover from the wet navy days that the Star Fleet had yet to change.

"we're one hundred meters out." Said T'Pol she looked up from the piloting instruments for a moment before looking back down again.

They circled the ship looking for an access point near an important station like the bridge and thanks to the keen eyes of their linguist they managed to find one.

"Is that a hatch on the port side?" she asked indicating with a single nod of her head as she leant forward.

"I see it," Malcolm responded shifting in his seat slightly, Horatio smiled slightly as he picked up on the man's excitement even if his face gave away nothing.

"Fifty meters." T'Pol updated her eyes never leaving the instruments he head tilting ever so slightly in the direction of Malcolm. "Forty." Horatio and his squad got to their feet grabbing and holding the straps that dangled from the roof. "Thirty." Seconds later she reported "ten, turning to engage hatch mags" then almost immediately there was a slight impact as the shuttle's rear hatch clamped onto the Klingon ship. "Engaging docking interface." She intoned before there was another metallic "clunk" sound.

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The Mark 3 shuttle that they had used was a security upgrade of the standard Star Fleet shuttle. Its most distinct feature was the extended rear that housed an airlock large enough for two people at a time in full EVA gear.

This had the drawback of moving the engines of the shuttle from a central rear, a position that allowed for maximum thrust in a single direction only to the ability to switch thrust types for fast manoeuvring but there was a drawback to this manoeuvrability. The Security Shuttle situated the engines where the stub wings are on the standard star fleet shuttle to a port and starboard just in front of the main hatch.

This destroyed the ability of the shuttle to enter the atmosphere which is why they hadn't been able to use it as much as the more common Mark 2 shuttle.

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Horatio waited his eyes scanning for any movement which was much harder than he thought as there was a thick haze of some moist liquid that filled the air. The wall was pitted and stained with long streaks of amber rust, and they had similar moisture running down the pitted metal. He was very happy that he wasn't stupid enough to remove his helmet.

He was kneeling his weapon in his hand but not pointing at anything in a ready position. There was a tap on his shoulder, it was Dragomirov, using hand signals he indicated to the airlock, he turned just as T'Pol entered through the airlock her scanner in her hand.

"Nitrogen-Oxygen atmosphere." She reported the light hum and bright purple glow of the device reflecting off her helmet. "Carbon-Dioxide levels are high but not enough to be toxic."

"Helmets stay on," Horatio said as he got to his feet. "We don't know what happened here and until we know for definite, we are not going to risk contamination." The team all nodded as they made their way deeper into the ship the moist fog enveloping them like a blanket as they did so.

As they approached the next bulkhead door Horatio pointed at a collection of sharp hieroglyphs above the interface of the door.

"Deck two, red sector." He said as the team stopped by the door.

"How many Klingons are on the ship do you think?" asked Hoshi as the door opened and they entered the next corridor.

"Three hundred and fifty according to reports from Vulcan High Command database, though if this ship was being used for a military issue you can expect to add eighty more warriors on board."

"I'm reading three bio signs ahead." Reported T'Pol "they are very weak."

The closer they got to the life signs it became more apparent that there was something seriously wrong with the ship. There were power fluctuations that affected the ambient light making it difficult to adjust to the low lighting of the ship, there were also issues with micro fluctuations in the gravity that made walking slightly more annoying.

These issues together gave the impression that the power grid had issues as well Horatio added that to the potential list of things to fix on this tub. The team came upon the last set of doors in the red section corridor that they had entered.

The doors were the heaviest he had seen thus far on the ship, they were thick and heavy, the large framework around them housing the doors was evident of the weight of them. as they accessed the locking mechanism the doors opened the first set opened diagonally the metal was as thick as Horatio's entire hand and had locking teeth the two halves of the door met in the middle. The next set was almost identical opening in a mirror to the other doors.

There was a burst of stale moist air that came out in a cloud of the moistness that fogged their visors for a moment before the automated clearing built into them dissipated the moistness with a static crackle of energy. Horatio was immensely thankful that he hadn't had to experience that without the helmet Klingons didn't bathe while on a mission and the smell of several hundred wet sweaty Klingons was not something that appealed to him.

The layout was typical of Klingon ships of the period. The captain sat at the front of the Bridge surrounded by heavy support pillars with the crew stations behind him and on either side. The Helm was the left rear station next to the operations station, on the captain's left was the Weapons station and on the right was the sensor station. All of the stations bar the captains were standing stations an uncomfortable thing for most humans, but Klingons were known for their uncomfortable and harsh environments to push their warrior spirit.

But the most striking thing about the Bridge was that the crew was still at their stations slumped over on their consoles and unconscious. Almost moving without thought their training kicked in assessing the state of the crew and moving them into recovery positions that were in keeping with there their physiology.

Horatio took position behind the Ops station and began to bring up ships status reports. It took a few minutes for the computer to work.

"We have a few issues here to fix." He said as he looked to his team. "Issues one, main power has been damaged; the auxiliary power is not kicking incorrectly and it's too deliberate for it to be an accident so we're looking at sabotage." There was tense nodding amongst the team they didn't know the full intricacies of the game of thrones that made up the Empire, but they had an inkling of them. "Issue two, the main drive has been damaged we can patch it, but it is a yard job I'd say three months to rip it out and effect repairs."

"Is that all?" asked T'Pol

"No, take a look at this." His fingers danced over the console and brought up a distinctive sharp-looking hieroglyph.

"What are we looking at?"

"This glyph is a Klingon House emblem specifically for the House of Mogh." He said T'Pol recognised the significance of the name, but Horatio decided to elaborate for the rest. "They are one of the Noble Houses of the Empire and are on the High Council they can draw their linage back to one of the three Dahar masters that taught and fought with Kahless the Unforgettable."

"who's Kahless the Unforgettable?"

"Not important right now, the House of Mogh is the more level-headed of the grate houses preferring caution to overzealous action, while they are still aggressive as most Klingons, they just have better control, this has made them powerful allies and enemies."

"You think this was a political assassination?"

"I believe that this was indeed an attempted assassination." He repeated back "I believe there may be a Kut'luch onboard."

"Kut'luch?"

"a Klingon Assassin and worshiper of Molor who was Kahless's mortal enemy." He said bringing up an image on the screen "this is how they are identified" he showed the strange jagged toothed blade "this is a Kut'luch blade it will be on his or her person."

"You think they're on the ship?" asked an astonished Reed. "But wouldn't they die as well?"

"Yes Mal, I think a Cult of assassins obsessed with the Klingon Anti-Christ and death would be insane enough to kill themselves as long as their target died as well."

"Wonderful."

"First things first we secure the engine room we fix the power systems, then the engine, Hoshi I need you and Malcolm to stay here and monitor the stations to give us updates while we're working."

"On what sir?"

"Crew movements from the internal sensors station, and updates from the ops station for damage control, ok?"

"Yes sir."

"Let's get to it."

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Horatio ordered Reed and Hoshi to stay on the bridge to give them a tactical overlay of the ship just in case one of the Klingons woke up and attacked thinking them pirates of scavengers. As they passed through the Boom, they stumbled upon Klingons that had collapsed some had done so while attending others and one or two had been overcome by whatever is affecting them.

The main power systems are a part of the engineering section something even the Klingons understood was protecting the officers and their ships showed this. The Engineering section was secure and sealable the Empire's ship writes had made a conscious choice, not only to protect the officers but ensure that if there was ever an uprising the officers on the command head of the ship could seal the boom and take full control of the ship.

The Russian Empire had a similar system just in case the sailors ever turned on the Imperial Officers, an outcome that had come to pass as the boom neck had been sealed tight. Thankfully it could be opened from the command side of the boom but that meant that they needed to keep one of the security officers at the door to open and close it.

The booms bulkhead door was heavily reenforced to resist not only small arms fire but the heavy clubbing fists of angry Klingon warriors. The doors access panel had an elaborate camera system that would allow a Klingon officer to see if the crew had been subdued or not, but it worked just as well as a way to see if there was anyone awake.

"Drag, you have the door watch the monitor and tell me if there are any surprises." The Russian nodded as the heavy hydraulics whirred open with angry metallic screeches of protesting metal.

There' hand scanners immediately began to alert them of the increase in radiation luckily it was in the yellow for humans for Klingons with their much tougher constitution it was at the top end of the green.

-(-)-

There were no bodies at the door something that Horatio had been expecting, it looked like they had just dropped as they were at their stations. Others looked like they were having some medical treatment when both they and the medical officer had collapsed.

"This is so creepy." Said Mr Carey as they passed some unconscious Klingons. "I've seen Horror films that started like this."

"Horror films are tame compared to what's out there Mr Carey." Replied Horatio as he stepped over another sleeper.

"that's just perfect." He muttered to himself sarcastically "you're all sunshine and rainbows, sir."

"I'm British Mr Carey we don't believe in sunshine."

"Got that right sir," Malcolm said over the commlink, which made Horatio smile.

It was not easy to just walk past people in need, but Horatio had to prioritise the ship before the crew. Horatio had a plan; he would shunt the power of the engine into the shields which would by the ship more time so they could fix the main power systems.

Like many species Klingon engines were powered by an anti-matter reactor which could be used to run the ships power systems for a time, the anti-matter reactor was much more powerful than the fission reactors the Klingons use so they would have to create a step-down system so that they don't blow the whole system.

Thankfully the Klingons who engineered the ship were not idiots and just as NASA did for Apollo-13 they had run as many scenarios as possible when constructing the ship. The bad news was that as they went through the ship's computer, they realised that those contingency plans hadn't been tested in the specific scenario they were in, and worst of all, the ships power systems hadn't been tested for it since the ship had been launched almost half a century ago.

It also didn't help that the Klingons hadn't cleaned the ship is probably just as long as several of the needed connection points had been heavily corroded forcing them to use their phasers to remove the corrosion just so that it could be done. That alone had eaten up almost a full hour but once they were done, they could truly begin.

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Their next stop had been the main reactor room one deck up and one section over. As they made their way there were more and more signs of conflict, several of the warriors had drawn their daggers one had a Mek'leth that was stained with the highly oxygenated blood of the Klingons.

There were dead warriors with disrupter burns and evidence of a run and gun battle that had included several warriors.

As they closed on the reactor room there were sounds of an angry Klingon before the silence was broken by the fast tapping of keys and the mechanical voice of the computer.

"Access denied" came the deep male voice of the Klingon Computer in its native tongue, this was met by a roar that sounded more bear than a man than a moment later came the dull meaty thud of a fist impacting metal.

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Taking on a Klingon in hand-to-hand combat was not something you should relish as a human a Klingon is about twice as strong and tough as a human and their combat training was as ubiquitous to them as breathing for us. But that same martial pride was not just their strength but also their weakness they relied too strongly on their hand-to-hand combat skills and strength.

As silently as he could manage Horatio made his way to the doors, a body with disrupter burns lay prone between the doors stopping them from closing and given the extent of the burns he was quite clearly dead.

He waited for another punch before breaching the door, he tossed the flash-bang grenade on low power mode into the room waiting for the flash. Then, he turned into the room from cover the large Klingon was clutching a disruptor with one hand and clutching at his eyes with the other and stumbling around the room firing wildly waving his blade was sitting on the main console of the room out of reach as he stumbled about.

Horatio fired three times his weapon set on heavy stun, or as heavy as the simple weapon would allow, the amber lances of energy hit the assassin first on the shoulder turning him slightly at the impact, another hit mid gut almost doubling him over and the last hit the Klingon in the throat it brought the assassin to his knees and finally lying prone on the ground unconscious, face down posterior in the air.

He moved as quickly as he could in the suit to disarm the assassin and managed to restrain the Klingon's limbs using the zip tie like implements that the security suits had packed as standard equipment.

Unsure of whether they would keep the Klingon restrained, as they are on average twice as strong as humans, he kept his phaser trained on the unconscious assassin as he made his way into the room followed by his small team.

"Keep your weapon trained on this one at all times Mr Carey." He ordered as he accessed the computers the interface was slow, but he managed to bring up the needed systems with one hand. "Ok, this looks relatively straightforward." Horatio placed his phaser on the console next to the assassins' blade then tapped his comm quickly "Horatio to T'Pol and all away team members we have caught the assassin. I have also found one of the issues with the emergency power is also the software I have repaired it by running the Klingon debug system."

"Understood, we have also had to restrain a Klingon Female crewmember she ambushed Lt Reed." Horatio was surprised but took it in stride.

"Is he alright?"

"he's concussed but okay." The response was from Hoshi "I've put him in the shuttle Dr Flox is prepared for when we get back.

"Ok, I'm having the assassin taken to the Klingon Brig my remaining crew will get to auxiliary power control and get things squared away there."

"Understood, be aware the window is closing we have 45 minutes." He nodded to himself, as T'Pol finished before he tapped closed the open com and opened a secure one to Dragomirov.

"Drag I'm going to need you."

"On the way boss."

-(-)-

Fixing auxiliary power systems had been less difficult than Horatio had anticipated the initial damage had been focused and the crew had been in the process of fixing it so finishing that was easy once the reactor had been activated the ships' computer switched automatically. Main power however was another story that would take too much time to fix in the Gas Giants atmosphere. So, taking the initiative he moved on to the next issue getting the impulse drive online.

The impulse drive was perhaps the most standard piece of equipment in the AQ almost all were identical or held such limited variance that you could tell what species had built it but that was it. The Klingon drive was no different but the radiation that the device gave off was three times higher than any Horatio had ever seen like an old petroleum car that cut off its catalytic converter and put a straight pipe there.

The issue was the fusion manifold it was a part that had several backups it took five minutes to reroute the manifold to a working one which left them very little time to pull out of the atmosphere of the Gas Giant. With the majority of the heavy lifting done Horatio made his way to the main command bridge with his team where he was met by the Dragomirov on his way back from depositing the assassin in the brig.

"Prisoner is secure, had to stun the bugger three times the restraints didn't hold." He said his helmet was dented slightly and the visor had a crack that had been repaired with liquid plastic that had solidified sealing the breach.

"Are you ok?" he asked in concern

"Aye sir, the jujitsu and judo training helped."

"Good, let's get Mr Carey the hell out of this garbage scow."

-(-)-

On the main bridge Ensign Sato had returned began to get the ship out of the Gas Giant but she was a heavy beast, so the going was very slow. she knew that even when they got themselves out of the immediate danger the real aid would begin as Dr Flox would have to determine what the medical reason is for seemingly healthy Klingons to be made comatose in such a way that they couldn't fix it themselves.

She was not looking forward to a ship of angry Klingons being recovered nor being in weapons range, but the ship would allow them a great deal of information on the Klingons and how their technology would compare tactically against the earth. But most of all she was looking forward to spending a few hours in the decontamination chamber getting all of the much and grime of this ship off his skin.

Even though she was still sealed in her E.V.A suit he could feel the moist grime on his skin, and it made her shudder in disgust.

"Sub Commander," she called the Vulcan, as he swivelled to face her in his chair, she raised a sculpted imperious brow before she glided over to him with a grace that belied her current suited condition. "I have the impulse engines spooling up now to get us out of the Gas Giant I have contacted Captain Archer and he has Dr Flox prepared to assist as soon as we're clear;"

"Good work Ensign," she replied causing her to blush slightly, the Vulcan glided around the bridge monitoring the stations for anything that could cause issues, as she got to the environmental controls the main doors whooshed open, she turned to see Lt Commander Horatio and his team.

"Warp engines are trashed but we got the impulse drive operational, the emergency power systems are holding fine in the green and the repairs to the mains are finished and you can begin the changeover at any time."

"good" T'Pol said as she looked over the rest of the stations.

"I have also disconnected the weapons systems just in case but left them able to reconnect easily by us should we need them."

"Very well." She nodded before going over to the navigation station "then I believe that it's time to leave." She said entering the commands for the ship to begin its accent out of the Gas Giants atmosphere.