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File #10

Muraco had not had an easy day. Doctor Kylen Tao had come over to his home and given him a complete examination, much to the concern of his clearly devoted wife. Doctor Tao's frown lines had indicated that quite a bit of time had passed since his last few memories on the Warrior.

Infact they had been living on the surface of this world for almost nine years now.

Doctor Tao was completely at a loss to explain how Muraco could never even remember the last nine years but as he conducted his examination of the former Chief Engineer, he recounted the ultimate fate of the Warrior and its crew.

He told Muraco that Eranus III, was not actually a gas giant at all but an extinct alien civilisation had created a massive generator using some form of particle synthesis the disguise their world from outside intruders, in a similar way to how the once thought to be mythical planet Aldea had cloaked itself from outsiders until its discovery by the Enterprise-D in 2364.

For some reason the aliens that lived on Eranus III had gone extinct and Muraco had been investigating some ancient technology on the planet's surface when his memory problems had begun, prompting Kayleigh to suggest that maybe some radiation from the area he was investigation had affected him.

Muraco found this all incredibly hard to believe and many different alternative scenarios had passed through his mind while they were talking. Maybe this was a Romulan trap? Maybe an alternate dimension? Maybe I'm just crazy and this is a delusion?

Any and all of these possible explanations could have been true but Muraco had chosen to keep them to himself for now and listen to the rest of Doctor Tao's and his "wife's" story.

Kayleigh explained that she was once Commander Kayleigh Osbourn of the Atlantis. The Atlantis had been pursuing a Romulan Warbird through this system, during the Earth-Romulan War. Captain Weiss had ignored the calls of Starfleet to return, much in the same way that Captain Greyfell had ignored the calls of Starbase 248 and chased a Romulan vessel into their space almost two hundred years later.

Muraco found this strangely ironic. He imagined that Captain Greyfell and Captain Weiss would have probably enjoyed each others company.

The Atlantis had also lost propulsion during the ambush from the Romulan vessels and were forced into the atmosphere of Eranus III. When they expected to be crushed by the resulting pressure, they passed into a clean atmosphere and were stunned to crash on the surface of this world.

Doctor Tao then said that the Warrior had not been able to escape the gravity of the planet either and had also crashed on the surface as well. They had discovered the survivors of the old NX Class ship on the surface and built this settlement out of scavenged parts of both ships in order to survive.

"But..." asked Muraco, still confused by these turn of events. "The Atlantis crashed on this planet over two hundred years ago. How are they not... dead?" Trying to spare Kayleigh's feelings who was sat opposite him, worrying for his mental wellbeing.

"We don't know..." replied Doctor Tao with an honest shrug. "We still don't understand everything about the alien civilisation that was here before us. That's why Shon put you and Yusa in charge of researching what happened to this world."

Muraco was comforted to hear the names that he understood so well. He had honestly been a little frightened when he had woken up in this unfamiliar place but seeing his crew here was somewhat comforting.

"Shon?" he asked, clutching the cup of tea that his wife had made for him. "Does Shon run this settlement?"

Doctor Tao ran his medical tricorder scanner over Muraco's head one more time just to conclude his scans and then shut it with a click and nodded. "Overall, there were five hundred forty three who survived the crash of both ships."

Something inside Muraco snapped... How was this possible and why could he not remember any of it. "I... I d-don't believe it..." he said in a panic, his thoughts racing. He thought of his ship, his home, his family... was it really all gone. Was he doomed to live out the rest of his days on one planet, trapped here?

"We could have used the shuttles to get off this planet by now!" he shouted... making both his wife and Doctor Tao jump, the Doctor running his hands through his greying hair. "I don't believe you!"

"Muraco... try to calm down..." replied Doctor Tao, trying to quell the rampaging beast, who could have easily have snapped him into two if he so desired.

"No!" exclaimed Muraco, his anxiety building to dangerous levels. "I don't believe you!"

He needed to escape... He wanted so desperately for this all to be a dream. He wanted to go back to his life on the Warrior. His job had given him the purpose he needed, without it, what was he supposed to do?

His wife reached out to touch him in a soothing manner, causing Muraco to slap her hand away with the back of his huge purple arm as he shot out of his chair and headed to the only escape that he knew, the door.

"Muraco!" shouted his wife after him as he slammed open the door, rushing out into the cool but pleasant breeze of a light summer's day.

The air was humid, pleasant even as he rushed out the house and into the street of the settlement. There were small settlement buildings all along the makeshift "road" all equally as small and compact as his own.

He did not know which direction to go in but panic embraced him and he ran, his huge footsteps thundering down the street and many different people opened their doors slightly to see what was going on.

He did not believe them. It was a Romulan trick... or was he dead? Was this the afterlife?

A cliff at the bottom of the street stopped him in his traps as he looked out at the landscape of this world.

He dropped to his knees in grief when he saw it.

On the horizon from the cliff edge was the unmistakable, broken hull of a Sovereign Class starship. All twisted and mangled from its descent. The nacelles had separated from the pylons and lay strewn across the landscape of the plain in front of him, half of ship imbedded into a rock face that had stopped its eventual skidding across the land.

There were holes in the saucer section which had probably flown off when the ship had plummeted through the atmosphere and some of the wreckage had been taken as parts to build homes on this cliff edge, overlooking the destruction of the ship that everyone had called home.

"No..." mutter Muraco, tears flowing down his muzzle as he looked down at the ground. He did not want to see the corpse of the Warrior again, once a proud lady, now broken and lifeless. She would never see stars again.

He did not want to see it but he was forced to look up at her again.

It was all true!