First leg – System HX-124A
She could not remember feeling so excited in a very long time. She was in a ship traveling at an unbelievable speed to an unknown destination. And it kept getting better!
„Capt. I think we can safely speed it up a bit." Sunblast addressed the Captain.
„Take us up to 4.5 Ms. 9. Gently, if you please."
„My pleasure." Joe could not hide her grin as she pushed the throttle slowly forward.
„Reaching Warp 4.1." She announced. Beside from a slowly mounting tension, nothing noticeably changed.
„4.2." Joe continued pushing the throttle."
„4.3, 4.4." The tension was mounting, as a slight vibration started to build in the deck.
„Holding at Warp 4.5." Joe announced. She felt exhilarated! Only one other human Spaceship had ever traveled that fast before, and only for a short amount of time.
„All looking good so far, looks like a slight misalignment in the inertial dampeners." Sunblast announced. „I'd recommend we stay at that speed and see how she is doing. With your permission, Captain, I'd like to have a look at the engine."
The Captain nodded, dismissing him.
Joe barely noticed Sunblast leaving she was so focused on monitoring the sensors analyzing the ships movement at this incredible speed.
After a while the vibration ceased. The ship was completely still and relatively silent.
„Seems like he fixed that alignment." The Captain muttered.
Joe kept my attention focused on the sensors. They looked clear so far until their destination which would now be 6 hours off. As she did not have anything else to do she settled in for some time of quite attentive observation.
„Time to target?" The Captain asked.
„6 hours." Joe replied crisply.
„Very good. Stand down, Ms. 9." By the look on her face she did not miss me being slightly confused. „We don't yet know what we'll find at this star system, i want you rested and ready.
„Yes, Mam." Joe replied and keyed for a replacement. After quickly updating the Rating that served as a stand-by helmsmen she left for her quarters asking herself how to use this unexpected downtime. Just as she arrived at her quarters she realized that this decision has been made for her as she spotted Sarah leaning against the door.
"You planned to stay there and wait for me?" Joe called to her.
Her smile managed to brighten the corridor!
"Joe." She practically flew into Joes arms. "Finally. So good to see you! How are you? What are you doing here?" She started rambling questions. Joe managed to calm her down and gently maneuvered Sarah into her quarters where they settled down to talk a bit. Turns out Sarah was selected as one of the exobiologits for this mission. That explained what she was all excited about in her last messages. Sarah was not much surprised to see her here, and to be honest, neither was Joe to see her. They were both pretty good in their fields of study and eager to venture out into space. Time vanished without noticing as Joe was called to the bridge way too soon.
She said her goodbyes to Sarah and made her way to the bridge while Sarah made off to her lab in the science module. As Joe arrived she checked the time, it felt too soon for arrival and it was, they where still two hours short. Joe shot a questioning look to the Captain as she took her station.
"Report, Ms. 9" The Captain ordered.
"We're stable at Warp 4.5, 2 hours till we reach the first star system." Joe replied reading her controls.
"Dr. Schmitz wants to fine-tune the long range sensors, so please drop us out of Warp and lets have a look."
"Aye." Joe carefully pulled back the throttle, easing the ship to lower Warp and finally managed to drop it back to sublight with only a slight tremor. She quickly checked her controls. "We are secured from Warp."
"Short range sensors are clear, Ready for long range sensor scan."
The rating at OPS chimed in.
"Good. Commence long range scan." The Captain ordered.
With the ship safely at sublight Joe checked her console for the status while OPS was conducting a long-range scan of the target system. Everything looked fine so far, not necessarily expected by a brand-new ship that has spent quite some time at very high speed.
"Long-range scan complete, Captain." Lt. Smyke from OPS added. "Sensors show the target system is 6 light years away. Comprised of a Class 6 Star with 8 planetary bodies. There is no planet in the habitable zone. Two Gas giants." he continued.
"Thank you." The Captain added. Pushing a control on her console she opened a channel. "Dr. Schmitz. Our Sensors show very much what we expected, any news on your side?"
"Ah, yes. Captain. We are currently analyzing the data. I would like to continue to the system for a thorough analysis. At the very least we could use the data to fine-tune our Sensors."
"All right, Dr." The Captain switched the channel. "Engineering, how are we doing? Are we clear to go back to Warp?"
"This is Sunblast, all looking good so far. I'd like to run a quick diagnostic, Captain. Shouldn't be more than 10 Minutes." Closing the channel the Captain seemed to relax.
"All right, you heard them. Hold our position and continue long-range scans. Lets see if anything else is out here." The captain ordered and Smyke went to work. Joe kept checking her own controls and just stood by.
After a couple of Minutes the all-clear was given by Sunblast and Joe sent them on their way again, this time accelerating smoothly up to Warp 4.5. As it was only 2 hours to go Joe decided to stay at the helm till the arrival.
Busying herself with the data of the next target-system and an occasionall glance at her controls time passed uneventful. Before Joe even noticed a gently beeping alerted her to the final approach.
"Arriving on target." Joe announced, the mood on the bridge shifted to slight anxiety.
"Drop out to sublight." The Captain commanded.
"Dropping to sublight." Joe pulled back the throttle and the low sound of the engines faded to almost nothing. "Secure from Warp." Joe announced and busied herself with the controls. "Position confirmed, just as indented."
"Good work, Ms. 9." The Captain turned to Smyke. "Perform a scan, coordinate with the good Dr."
Smyke nodded and became busy. After a while it turned out that a more detailed scan revealed a large amount of information that was stored for later studying. But as there were no surprises it was quickly becoming very clear that this was just a very quick stop.
"All right." The Captain finally announced. "Meeting in 10 Min. Lets get on with this." She got up and left, Smyke and Joe followed shortly afterwards.
When they arrived Dr. Schmitz was already in the conference room with the Captain.
"Ok. Dr. Schmitz, is there anything in this system that has peaked your curiosity?" The Captain asked the Dr. straightforward.
"Oh, it is quite fascinating." He got up, transferring some data to the screen. "As you can see this system has pretty much everything that is to be expected, but just not a single planet in the habitable zone. So for colonization, this is a write-off. Scientifically speaking there is very much to learn here."
"I'm sure there is." The Captain interrupted. "The real question is now, is there something here that would justify spending more time here investigating?" She looked him in the eyes. "Or do you have enough data to go over while we are underway to our next target?"
He paused a moment. "Honestly, no. There does not seem to be anything here that would justify a deep investigation. Which does not mean that there is not." He looked at the data scrolling on the screen. "I think we can move on, I'd like to run some more scans first. But after that we can move on."
"What scans do you need?" Smyke asked.
"We would like to have a detailed scan of the inner system, if that is possible." The Captain looked at Joe.
"I could plot a wide slingshot around the local star, that would take us close to the inner three planets and put us in a position where we can easily make the jump to Warp." Joe explained after consulting her pad with the navigation data. With a few tabs a simple course was projected on the bulkhead-screen.
"Would that work for you, Dr.?" The Captain asked.
The doctor zoomed out a bit, satisfied he nodded. "Yes, that looks good to me. The next target on your list, Ms. 9." He asked me.
"Do you want to skip it?" Joe asked him.
"No. It is fine. In fact we went over your suggested course. We agreed on it. At this point we don't have enough data to safely exclude any of theses systems." He explained.
"All right then." The Captain concluded the meeting. "Ms. 9, plot the course through the system. Coordinate with Mr. Smyke to make sure we have good sensor coverage." Smyke and Joe looked at each other and nodded.
"Thank you and dismissed." Everyone got up and left, heading back to the bridge.
"How long will it take to get through the system?" Smyke asked.
"Depends how straight we want to go, I estimate 2-3 hours, 4 tops." Joe answered.
"All right, I was not planning on getting old in this system." He grinned back.
"Don't worry, plenty more systems to visit."
"Yeah, I just hope we find something a bit more exciting."
"I don't worry about that. There should be plenty to discover."
They reached the Bridge and took their stations where Joe started to input the preliminary course data. Once finished she transferred it to OPS to Smyke for review.
"Got it, give me a moment." He worked silently for a while. "Looks good to me. We have good sensor coverage of the inner system and the star itself."
"All right." Joe answered, calling the Captain on the PA for confirmation.
"Captain, we have a course, confirmed by Mr. Smyke. We're good to go." Joe called out after she answered.
"Very good, go ahead, take us in. Full sublight."
"Aye, Captain." Joe closed the call and went to work. With the course already plotted she accelerated the ship to full speed and engaged the autopilot.
The first half of the Journey took them 1,5 hours and was completely uneventful. As they passed the star, sensor data from the area behind the star started pouring in. Joes controls did not show anything unusual, Smyke apparently did see something.
"Oh, what is that?" He exclaimed.
"What have you got?" Joe asked, her curiosity peaked.
"It looks like a live-form. In space." He said.
"That is impossible!"
"I do read something very close to live signs and some sort of organic matter, but there is no energy signature, no spaceship, nothing." He explained. "I've flagged it for the eggheads, lets see what they make of it."
It didn't take long for Dr. Schmitz, a slender young Vulcan and the Captain to arrive.
"Really? A live-form in Space?" The Captain asked.
"That's what the sensors say, Captain." Smyke explained.
"Captain, that is something that we really should investigate more closely. The scientific implications are beyond everything." Dr. Schmitz exclaimed excited.
"Indeed Captain, there have been some vague rumors about something like this that were mentioned to Vulcan scientists over time. But we could never confirm or deny them. It is very much possible that this is a live-form that is able to survive in Space." He added calmly, just as you'd expect from a Vulcan.
The Captain considered the answers for a while before addressing Joe.
"How far of course is this live-form?" She asked her.
"We should pass close enough for a closer look. About 30/40 thousand kilometers." Joe answered.
"Then maintain Course and speed for now." She looked at the scientists. "Will that be close enough for you?"
"That is hard to tell, it certainly is for a first analysis." Dr. Schmitz answered.
"Good, then continue with your analysis." "Ms. 9, time to target?"
"About 20 minutes until we are in optimal sensor range." Joe answered, having checked constantly.
"All right, continue." She turned to the two scientists. "Can you perform your scans from OPS or do you need to be in the lab? I'd like to be able to quickly react to the situation, if necessary."
"That is not a problem, we need a console to set things up, but as we mostly rely on the Sensors we should be good." Dr. Schmitz added, pointing to the vacant console.
The Captain nodded and the Scientists went to work. While they configured their station Joe kept close watch on their new friend. As they drew closer the sensor image became clearer. It was quite big, almost one kilometer long, much bigger than the Hermes. The mumbling at OPS was low but constant. But now the voices where getting louder.
"Gentlemen?" The Captain interrupted.
All three men looked dumbfounded.
"What can you tell me?" She asked.
"Not very much right now." Dr. Schmitz said. "We need to analyze this data and get a better look. I'd like to delay our departure for some time to study this."
"All right, Ms. 9, hold our current position relative to the creature." She conceded.
"Aye. Changing course." Joe slowed the ship to a crawl and changed the course to keep pace with the creature.
"Very good. Lets say we meet in 2 hours so you can present your findings." With that the Captain got up and left the Bridge.