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File #16

Muraco pulled his Captain from the pod on the wall, while finding what looked like the manual release. However his brain was hurting. He was told that his former commanding officer had been dead and the Warrior had been here nine years?

Had all that been some kind of elaborate lie like he had originally feared?

His strong arms placed his Captain's equine body on the grated metal floor. He was not sure even if this was his Captain. How could very well just be some sort of elaborate clone of some description?

Yusa scanned him with the tricorder that he had rushed back to the console to get.

"He still alive..." he said, with some dogged persistence and a sigh of relief, equally as confused as Muraco was. "I am not reading any damage to him or variations in his genetic structure." he closed his tricorder after making his forgone conclusion. "This is Captain Greyfell..." he reaffirmed immediately.

"But how?" asked Muraco, looking over to Yusa with a confused glint in his eyes. He was unmistakably happy to see his commanding officer and friend again but the nature of this meeting had completely eluded him.

Captain Greyfell continued to stir in his slumber, beginning to regain consciousness, removed from the environment of whatever kind of pod he had been sleeping in.

"As far as I can tell... this pod does not seem to be a cloning device. Infact... I cannot even discern its function." concluded Yusa, looking down at the Captain laying on the cold metal floor. "I simply just don't know..." he said finally, being brave enough to admit that the answer had eluded him as well.

Captain Greyfell open his eyes, his equine features on his face tensing as the first thing he saw was two members of his crew looking at him with confused and peculiar expressions.

"Muraco..." he said weakly... trying to sit up too fast and regretting it almost immediately. "W-Wha?"

"Don't try to move Captain..." reminded Yusa, whose previous experience as a medical officer had always proved useful. "You've been through some intense trauma."

Despite his notably argumentative and authoritative personality, Captain Greyfell saw the wisdom in Yusa's words and lay back on the floor, feeling absolutely terrible, as if he had gone ten rounds with a Nausicaan.

Muraco was still notably confused. The last he was aware, the Captain had been severely injured in an attack by the Romulans which had caused the Warrior to descend into the atmosphere of a gas giant and yet, here he was... without a scratch on him. Muraco was instantly somewhat suspicious, experience had taught him that nothing appeared to be what it seemed.

Feeling it was better to allow the Captain to rest, Yusa climbed to his feet and walked back over to the console on the center of the room. Continual scans of the interface had made it easier for the computer to translate some of the glyphs and iconography on the console, although he had never heard of the species called the "Iccobar" before.

"Finally..." he chirped after a few seconds, causing Muraco, who was hesitant to leave his commanding officer's side, looked up at him. "I'm into the file directory... whoa..."

Muraco looked up wondering what other terrible revelations he would have to endure. "What..?" he asked, looking over at Yusa.

"Well if this is correct, there is a massive geothermal power plant right under our feet. It seems this species, whoever they are, are capable of collecting massive amounts of geothermal energy?"

"But why?" asked Muraco, allowing himself a moment's respite from the confusion in order to allow his engineering skills to come into play. "We've seen nothing that would require that level of energy, there is no reason to gather that much power..."

Yusa's eyes widened as the truth consumed him from the various diagrams projected onto the large three dimensional holographic display in front of him.

"Most of the power is being diverted to some huge generator far beneath the surface of the planet..." he said, looking behind him at Muraco who was still pondering why such huge amounts of energy would need to be harvested in the first place, Captain Greyfell, slipping back into unconsciousness on his large thigh.

"Muraco... you are not going to believe this..." Yusa manipulated the console to produce an image of the entire planet. "Its a massive holoprojector..."

"What..." thought Muraco, who after a few seconds suddenly had an epiphany. "Of course!". He had felt something was wrong ever since he arrived here, the world seemed a little too perfectly suited to live on, the weather had been ideal all the time he had been here, a beautiful serene day...

For eternity...

"So everything was a lie..." replied Muraco.

Yusa nodded, looking over the file headings as fast as his tricorder could translate them. "There are computer files for every member of the Warrior crew... damn... they are all holograms!"

"Not holograms..." replied a strange, eerie voice coming from all around them. It was notably human sounding but there was a considerable echoing and distortion which caused both Muraco and Yusa to jump, both looking around for the strange disembodied voice that entered the room and then left again with no trace.

Both of the officers looked around, but they could both see nothing that could indicate a presence other then themselves and the recently discovered Captain Greyfell.

"Who are you?" tried Yusa, calling out to the air after a few seconds.

"I am... Iaidon" replied the disembodied voice which neither officer could see. "I am the guardian... the protector of this place... Are you T'kon?"

Both officers remained silent, still looking for the place that this voice embodied.

"Are you T'kon?" replied the voice again, with the accuracy and tone that suggested that it was not actually a living being, more something akin to artificial intelligence.

"N-No..." replied Captain Greyfell, using the center console to prop himself up, despite the persistence of both Yusa and Muraco to get him to lay back down.

"Captain... you really should..."

Captain Greyfell looked at Yusa with his large, caring but experience eyes, letting him know that he was well enough to stand and open a dialogue with this creature. Yusa got the distinct impression that the Captain somehow knew what "T'kon" actually was.

"Captain..?" asked Muraco, helping to hold his tired commanding officer up which his large and strong arms. Captain Greyfell was considerably smaller and weaker then him but years of surface had caused Muraco to hold a deep respect for his Captain's sharp mind and deep knowledge, as well as his fiery temper.

"He's referring to the T'kon Empire..." replied Captain Greyfell, looking over at Yusa, brushing his long forest green hair out of his long equine face. "Classical galactic history is a field of study that I really enjoy. The T'kon Empire was a massive empire that existed almost six hundred thousand years ago, containing millions of planets. This thing wants to know if we are part of that Empire."

Yusa nodded, choosing to trust in the familiar presence of his Captain. He had never really had much of a love for history anyway.

"No..." replied Greyfell, mustering up the courage to speak louder and announce to what he could only assume was a strange computer. "The T'Kon Empire fell, thousands of years ago..."

There was a rather long silence in the room before the voice continued to speak.

"Confirmed... You are not T'Kon. Releasing security measures..."

The console that Yusa was standing near suddenly sprang to life with new information, causing the holographic display in the middle to illuminate.

"Captain?" asked Yusa as Captain Greyfell slumped back down onto the floor, with the aid of Muraco to recover.

"According to this data, this entire planet is a gigantic generator for particle synthesis, a much more highly advanced form of matter/energy conversion then our conventional holography." Yusa was amazed by the details of the data he was analysing.

"This planet is not a Gas Giant at all, but was once an M-Class world populated by a race called the Iccobar. The illusion of a Gas Giant is a form of camouflage, to disguise the planet from being discovered... It appears that when the Warrior fell into the atmosphere, this artificial intelligence scanned our ship and our computers and constructed all these constructs, perfect replicas of the Warrior crew for some unknown reason..."

"The function was to create servitors for the creators..." replied the alien computer, in reply to Yusa's question.

"Who are the creators?" asked Muraco.

"The Iconians..." replied the computer almost instantly.

There was a silence as that name provoked fear and dread in everyone in the room. The Federation had been involved with a large scale war with the Iconians in 2410, something that everyone in the room knew. The Iconians had laid waste to many Federation worlds and were only stopped at Earth.

The Iconians had existed as a vast, technologically advanced empire almost two hundred thousand years ago, they had become known as "Demons of Air and Darkness" due to their extremely advanced portal technology which allowed instant travel from one planet to another without the use of starships.

The Iconians had once been a peaceful species, enacting a policy of not sharing their technology with space faring civilizations that were not ready for such huge technological leaps forward. This caused other races to enact a brutal war which caused the destruction of the Iconian homeworld and forced the Iconians to retreat.

This act of barbarism turned the Iconians into a brutal race as they turned their society towards war and reclaiming their lost Empire, culminating with the war between the major Alpha Quadrant powers and their "servitor races" which they had enslaved. It was only after such a brutal campaign that the Iconians were finally made to see the error of their ways and sue for peace with the Federation.

"The Iconians" replied Yusa... "This must have been the planet that the Iconians retreated to after their homeworld was destroyed. It's a perfect hiding place... a planet that disguises itself as a gas giant!"

"Correct..." replied the alien voice almost immediately at Yusa's rumination. "This planet was once called "Iccobar", the creators moved the primitive people of this world to a new "Iccobar" and used this planet to hide and continue advancing their technology."

"But why here?" replied Muraco, looking over the Captain who was resting comfortably in the corner of the room.

"Proximity to Iconia" boomed the computer with deadly accuracy. "This planet also contains a great amount of natural geothermal energy, ideal for construction of gateways."

Yusa nodded in agreement. "That makes sense..." as he looked over the console. "We know from the Gateway discovered on New Romulus that the Iconians use geothermal energy to power their Gateways."

"But why did the computer ask if we were T'kon?" replied Muraco, still with many questions. "According to the Captain, the T'kon died out long before the Iconian Empire was formed?"

"Incorrect" replied the computer with a tone that if Muraco did not know better, he would consider to be sarcastic and mocking him. "The T'Kon Empire continued to exist after their homeworld supernova. The T'kon Empire envied the creators and formed the Alliance to procure Iconian Technology. T'kon and Iconian share a common biological ancestry."

"They are the same race!?" remarked Greyfell, who roused himself long enough to sleep, his strength returning. "That solves a lot of questions we have about both."

"Captain, I'm glad you are ok." smiled Muraco, he had not had much of a reason to celebrate these last few days but the revelations he had seen in this room made he feel much less paranoid.

"Thanks Muraco..." nodded Greyfell as he rose to his feet.

"Captain..." replied Yusa with the same joyful grin. "I believe I can access the Particle Synthesis Matrix from here, according to this console, the Warrior is still in the atmosphere..."

Everyone in the room was relieved to hear that. The ship itself had not crashed on the mountainside as Muraco and Yusa had seen, but had instead been an elaborate projection, along with everyone on the surface.

"What about the Atlantis?" replied Muraco, knowing that he had seen the crews of both ships at Warrior's Rest.

"The vessel was unable to escape the gravity created by the Particle Synthesis Generator and was crushed before descending to the surface..." replied the computer with cold precision. "The ship was scanned and copied before all biological lifeforms ceased existence."

This revelation was more devastating to Muraco than he expected. He had hoped that all the crew of the Atlantis had survived through some miracle and that the Warrior could take them back to Starfleet.

But at least they would have a heroes burial... He would make sure of it.