FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

File #1

"Alex, you've really annoyed them this time..."

Captain Alexander Greyfell stared into the ominous black liquid of his coffee cup, not wanting to look up at his First Officer, across the ready room table.

A Worker Bee flew past the window as he shot a rather contorted frown at his First Officer, his long, equine features, becoming even more narrow as he was unsure how to react at first. For a Veridian, raised on Earth after the destruction of his home colony by the Fen Domar, he had grown accustomed to the human tradition of "soft-pedaling" the truth

Clearly his First Officer had never heard of this human parlance.

"Well..." he said, his tone flat, offsetting the rather natural higher and softer pitch of his voice. "Please... feel free to speak freely" he chortled sarcastically as he took a long sip of the calming black Earth beverage that he did so enjoy.

His First Officer though, Commander Shon Tempest prefered a much more formal arrangement, even in the presence of his long term friend and commanding officer. He believed more in the strict discipline of Starfleet ideals. His very contrast with Captain Greyfell had made them a very reliable team for many years.

He had a knack for cutting to the truth which Greyfell had always admired.

Commander Tempest himself, was a blue lycanthrope with glowing green eyes. His race had always been a mystery to the Federation but it had been suggested that they were capable of some kind of reincarnation into different forms after death, taking on many different personalities and personas.

Captain Greyfell had always secretly wrestled with this concept of Tempest's expanded life cycle. It could be impossible to understand and it was unknown how many lives Tempest had experienced. Unlike his Trill Chief Medical Officer, Doctor Kylan Tao, Commander Tempest could be changed into a completely different person, not a combination of different personalities.

A person could go mad justs thinking about it.

"I did what I thought was correct at the time Shon." replied Captain Greyfell, shooting his gaze at the rather sloppy piloting of the small yellow Worker Bee outside the window, one of the many that was currently working on the repairs that the Warrior had sustained during a confrontation with the Romulan Star Empire.

The U.S.S. Warrior, a Sovereign Class advanced cruiser had only been assigned to the Triangle Sector, a region of space that intersected the major powers of the United Federation of Planets, Klingon Empire and Romulan Star Empire, for a just a few months and had already made a sizable impact.

Just a week before, there had been an explosion at the main base of the 12th Expeditionary Fleet, which had been caused by the Romulan Star Empire as a way to lure the Warrior into the Romulan Neutral Zone and capture the vessel.

The Romulans had been interested in a new version of the "Unity Class" sensor array, a smaller, shipboard version of the original technology that had been created in the 2380's. The sensor array had the capability to detect all ships, even cloaked vessels in a large radius around the vessel deploying it.

This had undoubtedly worried the Romulan Star Empire, who had slowly been in decline since the destruction of their homeword, Romulus in 2387. The Romulans had feared that Starfleet would begin to equip all their vessels with this technology and had hatched an elaborate scheme to bring the Warrior into Romulan space so they could capture it and devise a countermeasure for it.

This plan had only failed when the disabled Warrior had been rescued by a large Federation fleet deployed from Starbase 248.

However Captain Alexander Greyfell had ignored his original orders when the explosion occurred to chase down the Romulan vessel responsible for the explosion that had claimed the lives of many cadets at the Academy annex on the surface of the colony.

Now he was going to pay the price for that mistake...

"I doubt that Command is going to see it that way" replied Tempest, his bright green eyes focusing intently on Captain Greyfell, making him feel like he was already in front of a board of inquiry.

Captain Greyfell, leaned back in his chair, taking a moment to look at his pictures of the ancient Earth sailing vessels that had also beared the name, Warrior. He had seen the original H.M.S. Warrior in Portsmouth Habour, England, when he had been a boy and it had captured his imagination. Humanity was not his culture but he had been raised on Earth, with Human values and he had integrated them so deeply into his personality that he considered himself Human, despite some major biological differences.

"Oh I see..." replied Greyfell, giving a frown to his First Officer. "I didn't know you'd been promoted to Admiral in my absence?"

Tempest pressed his paw-like hand to his forehead. His commanding officer rarely took himself seriously. He understood the magnitude and he failed to see how any of this was remotely funny at all.

"Captain!" he exclaimed, raising his voice to show his irritation with Greyfell's flippant attitude. "I just don't want to see you put your career at risk."

Captain Greyfell leaned back in his chair, raising a hand as if to swish away Tempest's nagging comments. He failed to see what good worrying about it would do now. What was done, was done. He understood that his actions may have called his command into question however, the Warrior had achieved many successful missions in the past and even the great commanding officers of Starfleet, Jean-Luc Picard and Benjamin Sisko had made significant mistakes during their careers.

Sometimes, a captain's instinct needed to supercede the orders of Starfleet, as the great Captain Jean-Luc Picard had said;

"Starfleet doesn't want officers that blindly follow orders..."

He had hoped that over the years together, he had instilled that message into his First Officer, but Tempest was just as bound to Starfleet principles now, as he had been almost ten years previous, serving under Captain Diamond Frostmane, the first Veridian captain in Starfleet.

"Shon..." replied Greyfell, in the same caring and calm tone that he always used to show that he understood his concerns. Sometimes, he knew Greyfell just a little too well. Greyfell was bold, brash and considered somewhat of a maverick by Starfleet standards but every now and again, he surprised Shon with his compassion, understanding and competence.

"I understand that you are concerned for my future" he said, his large green eyes giving way to a smile as he reached across and touched the paw of his friend. "But I have to face the consequences of my actions... worrying about them won't achieve anything but stress and..."

"Bridge to Captain Greyfell..."

Greyfell's attempts to explain to his friend were cut short by a voice coming over the communications system. He tapped his combadge on his breast and leaned back into the chair to respond.

"Greyfell here..."

"Captain... Starbase 248 want to use their own engineers to refit the Electro-Plasma conduits on Deck fourteen! My teams can..."

"Mr Muraco..." replied Captain Greyfell, giving a long, protracted sigh and taking another sip of his coffee. "I told you... we need to work with Southern Cross Engineers if we want to get to Warrior deployed within the week..."

"I know that Sir... But they are pulling out all the reconfigured ones to lay new transkinetic transducers... I only recalibrated them a month again and it took weeks to find the right frequency!"

"Muraco..." Greyfell, putting his face in his palms as he failed to understand why his Chief Engineer was so resistant to working with outside engineers. He always complained any time the Warriorneeded minor repair work or non-essential refits.

Counselor Mewsin had always remarked that he probably felt like if he was not in complete control of the Engineering Systems of the Warrior, he would probably be replaced. Captain Greyfell found it almost amusing that such a large, hulking presence like Muraco could be so fundamentally insecure. He had offered Muraco counselling but the big purple creature had refused to even consider the idea.

"Muraco... have Mr Darkwood contact Starbase Command and inform them about your "modifications". Let's see if they can work around them first..."

"But Captain... I...."

"Greyfell out..." replied Alexander, tapping his combadge to cut communications with his Chief Engineer. The Warrior has suffered extensive damage from the Romulan Warbirds that had surrounded the ship and disabled her with easy. If it had not been for the swift arrival of the U.S.S. Agamemnon and her support fleet, the ship would have most likely have been on its way back to Romulus now.

The doorbell chimed, stopping both officers conversing the same way that the ill-timed comm single had.

"Come in..." replied Captain Greyfell, getting up to replenish his cup of coffee. Doctor Tao told him that he drunk too much of the stuff, an old Earth beverage he had grown to enjoy but he swore it was pretty much the only thing that made it through the day.

A purple feathered avian-like species walked into the room, encased in the familiar mustard yellow of Starfleet Operations and Starfleet Security.

"Captain, the Admiral's shuttle has landed in Shuttlebay One. Shall I escort him to the Conference Lounge?" reported a rather curt Avian who had been only just recently assigned to the Warrior as Chief of Security.

Commander Tempest shot Greyfell a look that was as sharp as a knife, and Greyfell felt every second of it. All eyes would be on him during this inquiry. However this was Captain Greyfell's territory and he was going to use every meter of his ship to his advantage... while he had her.

"Not yet..." smirked Greyfell, replicating himself another cup of coffee.

File #2

"You have violated my standing orders!"

Greyfell had heard this far too many times as he sat across the conference room, looking over the human Fleet Admiral that sat across from him.

"Admiral..." replied Greyfell, with a calmness to his voice that permeated the room. "I would like to remind you that had we not done so, the Romulan who planted the explosive device would be safely back in Romulan space."

Fleet Admiral Jonathan Hartman was not convinced as his older hands clenched the beverage that Greyfell had replicated for him when he arrived. He was a man, in his forties, with no visible hair on his head and a small, slowly greying beard covering the lower portion of his face. He wore the white flag uniform afforded to the officers that had achieved sufficient standing in the Fleet.

Starfleet Command had handpicked Admiral Hartman to take overall command of the 12th Expeditionary Fleet, a small task force of starships which were assigned to Starbase 248 on the Federation side of the Triangle Sector.

The Triangle Sector, a name which sounded mysterious yet also sparked curiosity, was a region of space intersecting the three major powers of the Beta Quadrant, the United Federation of Planets, the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Star Empire. This area of space was established via a treaty between the three major powers due to an increased number of archeological sites in this particular region.

So far... no one empire had chosen to invade the Triangle for its own gain.

"Had you followed my orders...!" called Admiral Hartman in a sharp tone. "We could have petitioned the Romulan Government to release the terrorist to us. Your aggressive charge across the Neutral Zone has already made that an impossibility!"

"But sir... with all due respect, the Romulan Government has never cooperated with Starfleet in the past... even less so after the Hobus Supernova..."

The Hobus Supernova occurred in 2387 and had acted as a catalyst for the years of moral decay with the Romulan state. The supernova had wiped out Romulus, the homeworld of the Romulan Star Empire however the aftermath proved to be just as devastating.

After years of oppression, a little known Romulan subclass, the Remans had rose up against their oppressors and threw the Romulan Imperial Navy into disarray with the Romulan state dividing into two opposing powers, both seeking control over former Romulan space, the Romulan Star Empire and the Imperial Romulan State.

Due to the chaos on their borders, the Romulan Star Empire cut off its diplomatic ties with the other major Beta Quadrant powers and quietly retreated into their own space. It had been many years since they have been seen since.

"You don't know that, Alex!" replied Admiral Hartman, still seeking some kind of diplomatic remedy. The Romulans had been insulted that the Warrior had charged into the Neutral Zone after them, even if they had laid a careful trap for the ship. Greyfell's actions had given the Romulans all the cards as well as played directly into their hands.

Hartman was reminded of what Captain Jean-Luc Picard had famously said about the Romulans.

It was always a game of chess with them...

"By doing this... you have played right into the hands of the Romulans."

"But sir... I don't th--"

"That is exactly my point..." interrupted Hartman. "You don't think! And now your actions will have far reaching consequences for the Federation."

"I doubt the Romulan state is in any condition to start a war with the Federation."

"That is not the point. Starfleet is attempting to establish diplomatic relations with the Romulan Star Empire and your actions may have derailed that."

Greyfell took a moment to think about what he had done. Yes. He had left the relief ships around Starbase 248 in order to follow the Romulan Warbird, in full defiance of Admiral Hartman's orders. He was not so sure...

Maybe Admiral Hartman was correct and he had irreparably damaged relations with the Romulan Star Empire. However there was one potential benefit, the saboteur and his ship, had been captured in the ensuing battle.

"Maybe so..." Greyfell replied, his equine head rising from looking down at the table. He had felt all this time that he was a schoolchild again, being bought before the headmaster. Something about it made him feel incredibly uneasy and filled him with shame. "But we also managed to capture a Warbird and bring the saboteur back for questioning?"

Admiral Hartman let out a short, embittered sigh. "Subcommander Teraal has already been released from custody and is on his way back to Rator III." Greyfell let out a grunt of annoyance. How could Starfleet allow somebody that caused the deaths of so many people and the destruction of the Starbase 248 Academy Annex go free?

"What?" replied Greyfell, trying to hide his obvious contempt for this decision, albeit not very well. "But Admiral..."

"In exchange for overlooking this incident..." replied Admiral Hartman, talking over Greyfell. "The Romulan Star Empire demanded the return of their captured ship and crew."

Why?

Why had Starfleet allowed this? They had allowed an obviously dangerous criminal with Federation blood on his hands walk free... for what? To save face with the Romulan Star Empire, who had planned this attack in order to get their hands on the Warrior in the first place?

Greyfell wanted to shout, he wanted to scream inside and single handed fight the entire Romulan Star Empire in order to see justice done for the hundreds of people that lost their lives.

Everything his crew... his family had suffered through... Everything he had suffered through at the hands of the Romulan forces that boarded the Warrior in an attempt to seize the ship...

All of that...

Had been for nothing...

File #3

The inner workings of Starbase 248 had always been a thing of wonder. The station resembled a giant "mushroom", with a huge north section that was capable of housing many different starships, with ships constantly coming and going.

The Ournal Class had always been a mainstay of Starfleet, based on the original design of Earth Spacedock and then extended to become the prominent symbol of the Federation's protection and influence.

The interior of the station, took on a resemblance of a traditional city, with lights covering all four internal walls and a distinctive blue hue inside the station. Tiny shuttlecraft wizzed about inside the colossus, servicing the many different ships that were docked there. Many different vessels of various classes sat silently inside, creating a sense of awe and wonder for any of the stations thousands of inhabitants if they looked through a window and into the dock.

The Federation had perfected this design over time, learning the lessons from constructing the colossal Earth Spacedock in orbit of their own planet. The design was incredibly intricate, with multiple redundancies to support the population numbering in the thousands. There were commercial, residential and educational districts within this massive station which provided a platform and home base for the entire 12th Expeditionary Fleet.

One of the slightly larger ships docked there was the U.S.S. Warrior, a Sovereign Class starship, which was slowly being serviced by many tiny yellow worker bees around it and tiny people in spacesuits, which could not even be seen from the windows of the massive starbase.

"Do you have any idea what the Captain wanted?" asked Doctor Kylen Tao, as he walked down the corridor of the Warrior, ignoring a bunch of Ensigns in the corner who were trying to bring a newly installed plasma conduit online.

Beside him walked a female, she had soft pale skin and would have been mistake as a human, except for the feline ears and tail which differentiated her from that species. Her lips trembled a bit as she considered how to respond to the Chief Medical Officer.

She shook her head, her long black hair fluttering about beside her. Kylen had once remarked how she looked like a character in an ancient twentieth century Earth media, called Morticia, in a movie known as "The Addams Family". Despite being a skilled Doctor, he also enjoyed researching the entertainment and culture of other worlds, including Earth.

However she had not been impressed when he had shown her the comparison and had thrown water over him.

"I don't know..." replied the female as they continued to a dead end in the corridor. Kylen reaching out to press a button and call the turbolift.

Kylen felt slightly frustrated by this response. After all, Captain Greyfell had assured everyone on the ship would have a significant amount of shore-leave to recover from the Romulan incident which the entire crew had been through. Kylen himself, had spent about a week treating the minor injuries of the crew and Captain Greyfell's own hand, which had been severed during the rescue attempt to retrieve him from the Romulan captors.

"Well..." Kylen sighed, getting into the turbolift when it arrived, with the female getting in with him after he had stepped inside. "I was planning a trip to Trill..." he paused for a second and then called out to the computer. "Bridge..."

The turbolift whirled to life and both people felt it shudder slightly as the clamps released and the turbolift began its ascent through the ship towards Deck One.

"I thought you didn't get on with your parents..." replied the female after a few seconds in silence. Kylen turned round to face her in a bit of shock, that seemed like an oddly personal thing to say.

"When did I ever say that?" replied Tao, his voice rising a little in annoyance.

The female smirked and crossed her arms, forming a bridge underneath her considerably large breasts, which garnered her with far more male attention then what was deemed acceptable by Starfleet regulations. "You didn't have to..." she chuckled.

"Damn telepaths..." remarked the Doctor. "Don't you have anyone better to psychoanalyse Mewsin?"

Counselor Mewsin could not help herself. "Empathic... Doctor..." she corrected him.

"Then you can probably tell that I'm rather pissed off..." quipped Doctor Tao, with a biting sting which would have wounded anyone.

"But you never talk about your parents... what did they..?"

"Mewsin..." interrupted Kylen in a calm voice. "Unless you want to disable the stabilisers on your next turbolift journey... shut up..."

"Alright..." replied Mewsin with a slight chuckle.

"Oh and..." chimed Doctor Tao, turning to look at the Counselor beside him. "Stay... out of my head..."

The counselor could not help but smile, she had always known that the Tao line of Trill symbiotes were particularly grumpy. She had spent many years alongside Kylen's predecessor, Jorian Tao, on the U.S.S. Republic and she had repeatedly teased him as well, especially after he remarked that;

"Psychology was not a real science".

She enjoyed teasing him and they had cultivated an unusual friendship ever since. He had once expected her to move a biobed with her mind until she reminded him that the ability to look into other people's emotions, did not include being able to move things with her mind. She after all... was not a witch.

The turbolift came to a halt and both officers stepped out onto the bridge, which only had a few relief staff and engineers on it, making adjustments to various systems, including several odd look modifications to the Captain's chair.

"What are they doing?" asked Mewsin, as they strode past a few feet to the entrance to the Observation Lounge, at the back of the bridge.

The bridge itself was reminiscent of most Starfleet designs, almost like a classical Roman amphitheatre with various levels that descended down to the large viewscreen station. Various stations were on different levels for many of the different ship functions with a number of pillars, embedded with lights holding up the room.

"Probably lowering the Captain's chair..." replied Kylen, trying to keep a straight face. "Alex is kind of short after all..."

"I'm surprised they didn't add a salt lick as well..." retorted Mewsin.

The entered the Observation Lounge and were surprised to find that all the senior officers of the Warrior were already there, with Captain Greyfell at the head of the table.

"Doctor... Counselor..." remarked Greyfell, bearly looking up at them from the pad that his equine fingers held in his hand. "Have a seat..."

There was a couple of seconds of murmurings while Doctor Tao and Counselor Mewsin sat down at the regular positions and the rest of the senior staff talked amongst themselves until Captain Greyfell got up to address them.

"First off... I have been reprimanded by Fleet Admiral John Hartman..." announced Captain Greyfell, to the surprise of nobody in the room, the nine people continuing to stare at him and allow him to continue.

"I am sorry to pull you all off leave... but the Warrior has been given an assignment..."

"Captain..." asked a hulking purple mass sat at the far corner of the huge table. His species looked so powerful that he could easily tear a Klingon apart, resembling a Earth lycan with considerably larger muscle mass, to the point where he bearly was able to fit in his seat.

"Yes Muraco?" responded Captain Greyfell. He had always preferred using the first names of his crew and forming a bond with them. Starfleet regulation was usually against this but Greyfell had established a reputation in Starfleet for being somewhat of a maverick with protocol.

"Well... the Warrior needs about two weeks for complete repairs..."

"I'm aware of that..." replied Greyfell, cutting him off astutely. "However unfortunately, this cannot wait... The Warrior must be ready to launch in twelve hours... I expect you to do the best you can."

Muraco looked as if he had swallowed a lemon. Unlike most Starfleet engineers... he did not exaggerate his repair times. He would have jury rig and bypass a lot of damaged systems in order to make the ship spaceworthy in time for launch.

"What's so important then?" asked Commander Tempest, who had been quietly sipping on a glass of water since this briefing had begun.

Captain Greyfell walked over to the replicator and retrieved a mug of black coffee just before he stood there to address his crew. "12th Fleet Command has gone over our sensor readings of our last mission and they had discovered that the Warrior recorded a Federation beacon transmission from inside the Romulan Neutral Zone."

There was a small murmur from various different crew members.

"Why didn't the computer alert us?" asked Lieutenant Commander Yusa Kakariko, the Chief Science Officer.

"It probably did..." replied Muraco, speaking before Captain Greyfell, who had always been happy to promote free discussion amongst his senior officers. Something that most Starfleet commanding officers would scold him for. "Half the major systems were down when the Romulans attacked us..."

"Precisely" replied Captain Greyfell.

"So what did this transmission contain?" asked Lieutenant Commander Nova Storm, Chief Tactical Officer.

"12th Fleet cryptologists have been able to decode the signal, its an old pre-Federation type transmission, used when subspace communications were in their infancy. 12th Fleet Command has verified that this signal is a distress call from the Atlantis NX-05."

There was a hushed silence in the room.

"The Atlantis went missing at the end of the Earth-Romulan War" replied Shon Tempest finally. "This could be a big find..."

"I'll bet..." replied Yusa. "It's one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of the 22nd Century!". His eyes were brimming with the excitement of scientific discoveries.

"Along with the disappearance of the NX-02, Columbia" remarked Commander Tempest.

"So Starfleet want to cut my shore leave short so that we can chase an obsolete rust-bucket?" sighed Doctor Tao. He realised that he may need to save his trip back to Trill for another time, not that he was particularly looking forward to the Zhian'tara anyway.

He could afford to put it off for another month...

File #4

Space was silent...

TheEranus system was a perfect example of this, a rather benign and unremarkable system inside the Neutral Zone, an area of space that intersected both Federation and Romulan territory.

Originally, the Neutral Zone was established by treaty in 2160, following the humiliating defeat of the Romulans in the Battle of Cheron, at the apex of the Earth-Romulan War. A large area of neutral space was declared and entry into it by either power constituted as an act of war.

There had, of course, been some exceptions over the hundreds of years the Neutral Zone had been established by both sides but the border had helped bring a long era of peace between the two powers.

With the destruction of Romulus in 2387, the crippled Romulan Star Empire had become engulfed in internal conflict and therefore Romulan security along the border had not been what it was in the past and maintaining the border had become much less of a priority.

The Eranus system was almost completely desolate, the first two planets in the system were nothing more then balls of rock and the third remained a heavily dense Class-J gas giant which again, was fairly unremarkable, if not for its alluring purple and blue clouds of methane which could only be described as breathtaking.

On the far edge of the system, the U.S.S. Warrior dropped out of warp, cutting silently through the dark like a sleek silver knife.

Onboard, the entire crew was on edge. Entry into the Neutral Zone in this manner, could still be interpreted as an act of aggression from the Romulans and nobody aboard wanted a repeat of their recent experience with the Star Empire. It felt as if they were sneaking through a graveyard at midnight....

With any luck, they could escape Romulan encounters all together...

"Captain..." replied Lieutenant Commander Kakriko, looking down at the science station while everyone on the bridge was concerning themselves with the possible presence of Romulans in this system.

There could be a cloaked Warbird on top of them right now... or ten for that matter...

"The signal is emanating from the third planet in this system..." replied Yusa, he felt his hand tremble slightly as her worked the control panel. The ship was at Yellow Alert, prepared for anything they might encounter but that always made him nervous. Even for a highly advanced lifeform such as him... he could still die.

"Awesome Yusa..." replied Captain Greyfell in his usual, more casual tone. Especially more casual then what his First Officer would have liked who was sat in the chair next to him, checking over the crew evaluation reports he had completed with Counselor Mewsin, just before they had arrived back at Starbase 248.

Commander Tempest piped up as he performed his profession flawlessly. "Helm, adjust course two one nine five... mark eight one two..."

"Aye sir" replied Lieutenant Commander Nova Storm, who was now serving as Chief of Operations and now the Warrior's principle helmsman. This had come as a surprise to him as he had not be keen on the idea at first but the promotion had granted him certain benefits and acknowledged his seniority on the ship in a way that he had dreamed about since he joined Starfleet.

The new Chief Tactical Officer had recently transferred from the U.S.S. Starfalcon, within 12th Expeditionary Fleet. It was a young officer of a species that nobody on the Warrior had ever encountered before, Lieutenant Strato Reyner.

"No signs of any Romulan ships in the sector..." hissed Strato, his claws easily navigating the glossy control panel at the back of the bridge.

"That could change in a hurry..." muttered Captain Greyfell under his breath. The existence of the Romulan Cloaking Device that could render a Romulan Warbird almost completely invisible to sensors filled him with concern.

The Romulans were masters of deception.

Greyfell looked over to Counselor Mewsin as he sat in the center chair of the bridge. She shook her head to him, indicating that she could not sense anything nearby, a skill that may not locate a Warbird but may serve as an early warning system should one arrive.

The Romulans could be anywhere in the system... waiting...

File #5

"Sensors confirm, it's definitely a Federation signal..."

The Warrior silently slipped into orbit of the third planet of the Eranus system, the blue clouds of frozen methane swirling beneath them, similar to Neptune within the Sol system and just as awe inspiring.

"Can you confirm if its authentic?" asked Commander Tempest, prudent as always. He never trusted anything that looked too good to be true and this certainly qualified.

A lost Starfleet ship? On the edge of Romulan space?

He remembered the old human expression, one he had learnt from his travels long before the Federation had even existed.

"Fool me once... shame on you..."

"Confirmed..." replied Nova, looking over the communication logs, his beak twitching slightly from the sense of trepidation of being this close to the border. "I've run the code through an alphanumeric sequencer, there is no way that this could be faked..."

"Still..." replied Tempest, turning to his commanding officer. "I wouldn't put it past the Romulans."

His relationship with Captain Alexander Greyfell had always been a positive one, better than the relationship he had with Greyfell's predecessor. Alexander was more willing to listen to him and they had developed a friendship which had only grown deeper and more expressive over time, both men trusted each other but were also aware of each other's faults, which only served to make them a better collaboration.

"I agree Shon..." replied Greyfell, noting the concern in the green eyes of his officer. Greyfell had always felt that Starfleet principles got in the way of forming a proper bond with his crew. At the academy, he was reminded to keep a professional detachment from his crew however this had been something he was almost incapable of when he had been promoted.

Although Starfleet Academy had preached those rules. He had looked through the examples of the greatest ships and commanding officers in Starfleet and found that the reality was very different. Over time, it was only natural that he would develop a feeling of family with his officers.

It was something that Commander Tempest had told him, Captain Frostmane had never done. He had been less willing to trust others then Greyfell was and that had led to his downfall.

Greyfell was determined that would not happen to him. He would not die the same way that Frostmane did, on the bridge of this ship.

Alone...

"Yusa..." called Greyfell, causing the young officer to raise his head. To be honest, Greyfell was unsure how old Yusa was. He had never encountered his species before, Yusa had joined the U.S.S. Republic under Captain Frostmane when the Republic had visited his world years ago. He had no formal academy training but had proven himself multiple times, prompting Captain Frostmane to assign him with a provisional rank and position which had transferred to the Warrior when Greyfell had assumed command of remnants of the Victorious's crew.

Yusa had told him once, that his species was thousands of years old. Although Greyfell could never tell if he was being sincere or not considering Yusa never spoke about his heritage or his people.

"What do we know about the Atlantis?" Greyfell asked, running his hands through once brilliant green, now slightly dulling and greying mane.

"Atlantis..." he responded, reading off the console in front of him. The full marvel of Federation engineering on full display as the computer could retrieve almost any piece of information from the database, no matter how obscure.

"NX-05, the fifth NX Class starship to be developed by Starfleet and launched in February, 2156. Commanded by Captain Richard Weiss. The Atlantis was deployed extensively during the Earth-Romulan War." he summerised the vast information contained within the computer. "Atlantis was believed to have been destroyed on June 20th, 2156, over Tau Ceti IV during a Romulan invasion of that sector, although no wreckage was ever found. Some of the crew managed to escape but fifteen crew members, including Captain Weiss were unaccounted for..."

"Tau Ceti?" replied Counselor Mewsin, sitting at the left side of Captain Greyfell. "That is a long way from here..."

Commander Tempest pondered this mystery somewhat before speaking. "Clearly... something has displaced the vessel..."

"Can you locate the Atlantis on sensors?" asked Captain Greyfell, eager to keep the speculation to a minimum until they discovered what they were dealing with.

"Negative..." replied Yusa, looking over the latest information from the sensors. "I can however triangulate the signal to within five thousands kilometers though..."

"Better than nothing..." remarked Captain Greyfell, looking to the viewscreen. "Put it on screen..."

A swirling mass of blue cloud filled the viewscreen as the entire bridge crew strained to see what exactly was immersed within it. Was it possible that the Atlantis was buried down deep within it? How could the ship survive more than two hundred years without being crushed?

It seemed almost impossible.

"The signal is coming from down there?" exclaimed Muraco, who had been listening to the conversation intently while directing the limited repair teams. He had not had time to complete the repairs to the Warrior following their last mission before the ship had been called out on this new assignment and had been kept very busy, trying to make sure the ship operated at some kind of efficiency level.

"Apparently..." replied Tempest. "Captain... perhaps a probe could make..."

"Captain!" interrupted Strato, who had remained silent since the exchange had started. "I'm picking up a localised subspace distortion!"

Both Captain Greyfell and Commander Tempest shot to their feet. "On screen..." commanded Tempest but he already knew what was coming. Putting your hand in the candy jar always came with the consequences of that.

The bridge was silent as a familiar green mass rippled into view, a vast avian design which although known to the Federation still inspired awe and dread today. Greyfell knew what was coming, he had accepted the risks of this mission and was now faced with an enemy that had almost defeated the great Captain Jean-Luc Picard on many occasions...

And he was no Picard...

His ship, was now standing toe-to-toe with a Romulan D'Deridex Warbird and they had violated the Neutral Zone again...

The Romulans had every opportunity to interpret this act as an act of war on behalf of the Federation. They had every right to attack and destroy the Warrior.

"Shit..."

File #6

Commander Tempest slowly tried to edge himself off the floor of the bridge, his vision blurred as the ship was in utter chaos. He could hear the echoes of voices shouting and the sounds of explosions around him but nothing seemed to come into focus for a few seconds.

He stared beside him as he tried to command his body to pull himself up from the floor, his blurry vision coming slightly better into focus. Sparks and fires surrounded him as he tried to make sense of what was happening, the momentary disorientation from the explosion that had occured behind him passing.

The first site he saw was one that he wished he was dreaming of...

Captain Greyfell was laying on the floor, his deep red blood slowly trickling from several wounds to his body as he lay there unconscious with Counselor Mewsin knelt down behind him, her face illuminated from the various fires that had started on the bridge.

He remembered the Romulan ship decloaking and Captain Greyfell ordering communication between the two vessels, hoping to resolve the situation peacefully.

It was a good move. Worthy of Jean-Luc Picard himself.

But unlike Picard's encounters, the Romulans were not interested in talking and immediately opened fire on the Warrior. The D'Deridex's disruptors ripping into the ship's hull armor and causing massive damage to the vessel internally. The initial attack blasting both himself and Captain Greyfell off their feet and wreaking havoc on the bridge itself.

"R...Report!" shouted Commander Tempest as he rose to his feet, knowing that he had to take command. Captain Greyfell was not in any state to issue orders to his confused and bewildered crew.

He wasn't sure if he wanted to know how badly the ship had been damaged.

"Shields and weapons are offline!" replied Lieutenant Strato in a panic, as the ship continued to shake continually from repeated weapon impacts. "Ablative armor is buckling... we can't keep taking a pounding like this!"

"The patches I did to the main EPS System have ruptured..." replied Muraco, who was frantically trying to direct repair teams to critically damaged areas of the ship. "I didn't expect to take us into combat... Main power is offline!"

It was just as Tempest had feared... the Warrior was a sitting duck to the Romulans.

"Warp and Impulse drive are offline!" shouted Nova from the front of the bridge, narrowly trying to dodge the incoming explosions that peppered the console beside him. "Even the maneuvering thrusters are out..."

Tempest looked to the viewscreen, to the image of the hulking green Romulan Warbird repeatedly firing plasma disruptors at the Warrior. It seemed there would be no negotiation, they were intent on destroying this vessel.

At in their current situation. Tempest knew that fighting back would be pointless.

"Concentrate on the engines..." he called to Muraco, who gave a quick nod.

"Commander!" replied Strato in protest. "We need weapons..."

"Weapons arn't going to do a damn thing!" replied Tempest in a curt and abrupt tone that would have been considered rude in any other situation. "Now follow my orders and polarise the ablative plating, that should help absorb some of the impacts."

Strato, although fairly inexperienced, knew enough about Starfleet protocol to follow his orders, immediately running an electrical current of negative frequency through the Warrior's ablative armor in order to somewhat distablise the magnetic field that held together the Romulan's destructive disruptors and thus lessen the damage caused.

A few seconds passed by, which seemed like an eternity. However Tempest was convinced, his time was not here...

Not now. His perceptions of time told him that he was not yet going to meet his doom.

"Commander!" shouted Nova, still clinging to his console for dear life as the Warrior began to spin widely, without internal dampeners, causing the crew to grab hold of whatever they could as their stomachs went up to their throats. "Altitude controls have failed, we are being pulled down into the planet's atmosphere..."

That was it!

"Angle to a descent vector!" called Shon, convinced that he had a plan to save the ship and her crew. This command caused Counselor Mewsin and Lieutenant Kakariko to look at the Commander like he had suddenly gone mad.

"Commander!" called out Yusa, clutching his station as they angled downward. "The pressure is more than we..."

"I know" cut off Tempest again. "I'm hoping the Romulans know that as well!"

The Warrior would survive a lot longer down there then it would in direct conflict with a Warbird. Maybe it would only be hours before the ship was crushed by the atmospheric pressure but they could be the hours that save the ship herself.

"Muraco... vent all drive plasma from the nacelles..." he called out. He knew this was a desperate move, one that Captain Greyfell would almost call uncharacteristic of him but the ship had to come first.

Yusa looked puzzled as he again raised his voice to protest. "But the drive plasma with ignite with the methane in the atmosphere!"

"I know..."

"Yeah..." said Strato, realising Tempest's plan almost immediately. "You want it to look as if we have been destroyed... that's a very old trick Commander."

"Well I guess you can't teach an old dog, new tricks" remarked Nova from the helm, letting out a brief smile as he attempted to keep control of the ship's descent through the gas clouds.

The Warrior began to pick up more and more speed as it fell into the gas clouds of the planet, the green bolts of Romulan disruptor following the ship as it feel. After it immersed into the purple and blue gas of the planet, the ship began to emit long trails of wispy green smoke from itself nacelles as it continued further and further down into the atmosphere... leaving behind a large explosion behind it that could be seen from orbit.

"Pressure is getting too intense!" remarked Yusa as they fell into the atmosphere. "The hull is starting to buckle!"

"Steady as she goes!" cried out Commander Tempest. "Mr Nova, restart the RCS Thrusters in drift mode!"

"I'm trying sir!" remarked Nova, who was frantically tapping the control console. "The RCS injectors won't initialise..."

Tempest thought for a moment. They were out of options, the Warrior would spiral out of control and be crushed by the intense atmosphere of some random gas giant. Would this be how his story ended? Would this be the end of his current life and the end of every life on the ship?

Had he led the crew to their deaths?

He looked down at his Commanding Officer and friend, feeling a pang of guilt in his heart alongside a much more profound and illusive feeling. The captain was laying there, Mewsin trying desperately to stop the bleeding with an emergency medkit while the Warrior spiralled to its doom.

The sound of metal scraping and groaning as the fell deeper and deeper into this tomb seemed to lament him and then just...

Silence...

Tempest looked around to the equally confused crew, consoles flickering and sparking around him but other then that, there was total silence.

"What now?" he asked himself.

Yusa tried to rise to his feet as he examined the flickering console inside him, having bearly enough power to make an accurate reading. "Commander... We appear to be caught in a thermal layer... it's slowed our descent."

Everyone on the bridge were astounded by their incredible and almost unbelievable good fortune. They were still alive but still doomed aboard a broken ship, spiralling to a certain doom.

Was a long death preferable to a quick one?

"Bridge!" shouted a voice on the internal communications system, all muffled and distorted because of the damage. "Sickbay here... What the hell is going on!?"

File #7

The Warrior had been helplessly trapped within the thermal layer of methane for almost three hours and Chief Muraco was still no closer to solving the problem. The captain had been taken to sickbay with a severe head wound and Commander Tempest had chosen to be perfectly honest with the crew regarding his condition.

"Doctor Tao informs me that there is a good chance that the captain may not survive..."

These words provoked a feeling of shock in the rest of the crew, which lamented the halls of the ship, even while Doctor Tao worked feverishly in sickbay to perform a cranial decompression on Captain Greyfell without the medical simplicity that he had become accustomed to.

Doctor Tao had not performed a manual operation in a triage situation for years, not since he had been a Starfleet Medical student. He needed time and silence as he had loudly protested before starting the operation.

Commander Tempest had agreed with him so all the other patients were moved to an emergency triage facility in the Mess Hall. Leaving the ship's chief and most senior surgeon alone with both a single nurse and a patient.

The destruction of the Warrior's power grid had only complicated the operation further, meaning that the doctor was unable to rely on the surgical technology of the twenty fourth century. Now he truly felt the test of what it meant to be a doctor.

Literally holding the captain's life in his hands.

All the rest of the crew could do was sit and wait, trying to help each other with various repairs that the Warrior needed.

The ship was dying, just like her Captain. Would they share the same fate?

Chief Muraco had been through almost every power relay on the ship. Engineering was almost a complete mess, with scattered conduits and charred bits of bulkheads laying all amongst the floor. He sat in the middle of huge room, which was usually bustling with fellow engineers, the soothing, gentle hum of the warp core behind him.

"Hey Muraco... I've replaced that anodyne relays on deck..." Yusa entered the room, crawling through the access port to the jefferies tube at the far side of main engineering. He immediately noticed Muraco, who was slumped on the floor, a huge hulking mass, clutching a piece of damage conduit. It was clear to him that something was not right with the usually chirpy Chief Engineer.

"What's the matter?" he asked, wading through the mess on the floor of damage conduits and debris. The room was dark, even the warp core was not emitting the same brilliant ray of light that it usually would on a Sovereign Class starship, the pride of the fleet.

Muraco did not answer at first. What was the point? How exactly was he about to explain this? He just stared down, clutching the broken piece of conduit as if it had been the love of his life. His emotions, although half obscured by darkness were covered all over his face.

"Its... my fault..." he said quietly.

Yusa seemed puzzled for a moment. He had just spent the last hour rattling through the bowels of the ship and quite honestly, he was not sure how he could react to this. Emotional moments were not something he was graced to understand or much that he knew what to do with. He felt more embarrassed than anything else. He could only muster up an obvious and somewhat emotionally detached response. "What is?"

All of a sudden, Muraco catapulted the damaged conduit across the floor as it skidded to a halt on the far side of the room. "All this" he said, returning down from his outburst of frustration. "Because of me, we might all die... hell... the captain may already be dead... I dunno..."

"I fail to see how any of this is directly related to you..." replied Yusa coldly, again unsure what to say but he was sure that this was not exactly a way to calm him down. Surely this was a job better suited to Counselor Mewsin then himself.

Muraco picked himself up off the floor, his body towering over Yusa. One arm was all that was needed to crush the science officer if he wanted to. "Don't you see!?" he exclaimed, giving Yusa a solemn glare that seemed to emphasise his inner turmoil. "If I had rerouted the compromised power systems properly... I could... I could have..."

"Please... don't cry"

Yusa grimaced at the thought of a huge creature like Muraco breaking down in tears in front of him. How exactly was he supposed to deal with that himself? Despite what most of the crew believed, he did have feelings and he was feeling exactly the same way. Maybe he could have done his job better or anticipated the Romulans in the system.

The sound of footsteps echoed through the room as Muraco walked to one of the walls, trying to hold back his tears, not wanting to show that weakness to the rest of the crew. His fist smacked into the wall pillar which caused it to vibrate and somehow, the outburst caused him to feel just a tiny bit better.

Had his overconfidence in his own ability caused this disaster?

It was then that he felt a paw on his back, soothing him as he continued to wallow in his own sorrow, shocking him. Yusa had never offered any sort of comfort before. Why now? They were not exactly friends, he had never really spent time with him outside of working on the bridge, so why was he choosing to comfort him.

"Listen..." said Yusa, holding his paw to Muraco's well defined back. "Yes, you could have done something differently. Everyone can say that about every decision they make but none of us are capable of knowing the future. We just have to do our best each time... You need to hold it together, the crew are counting on you to get the ship fixed."

It was not an immediate remedy for how Muraco was feeling but it did help. He thought about it, his mind going back to his time on the Republic. He had grown so much since then, learning to accept his role while under the control of Victorious and it was at that time that he had decided he was never going to let anyone harm his crew... his family again.

The crew had been through so much through the years, been in worse situations than this and still survived. All he could do is hope for the best and do the job that so many people had relied on and trusted him for.

"Thank you, Yusa..." he replied, looking back at him, grinning through his sharp teeth.

"You can thank me by helping me calibrate these relays..." Yusa gave a short smile before allowing himself to return to his usual collected state. He knew what Muraco was going through and he knew how constantly living in the past could be very destructive in the now.

A mistake that had cost the lives of his own people.

His people had been a powerful, highly advanced civilisation from the distant Talon star system. They had chosen to keep to their own world, fearing their technological secrets would be coveted by other spacefaring civilisations.

Ironically, it was their own arrogance that had destroyed them and turned their people in refugees as their experiments with the Omega Particle caused an explosion that had destroyed their entire world.

On that day, Yusa had lost his home, his family and everyone he ever cared about but he was also lucky enough to be one of the only of his race aboard interstellar merchant vessels when it happened. In that way, he was saved.

The legacy of his people, lived on, inside him.

File #8

The Warrior was still trapped within the thermal layer of Eranus III. However that was unlikely to last forever. The layer itself had helped to slow the descent of the ship into an abyss of pressure but eventually the lifeline would be cut and the ship with spiral down to crushing death.

Lieutenant Commander Yusa Kakriko, with his insatiable knowledge for science, had predicted that the ship was not actually stopped at all in its descent but instead, was falling at a reduced speed through the dense cloud.

He estimated that the crew of the Warrior had only two hours before the ship passed through the thermal barrier and descended into certain damnation.

The prospect was a chilling notion which had forced the crew to redouble their efforts in restoring power to the Warrior's crippled engines so they could at least hold their altitude and avoid certain death.

Commander Shon Tempest felt surprisingly helpless as he directed efforts to repair the dying ship. He had made a noble effort in trying to direct the crew and keeping morale as high as he could but in the back of his mind, he could feel something different...

...almost as if he was an imposter and he did not belong in this position. That was Captain Greyfell's job.

There had been no word from sickbay for over an hour and Tempest did not want to risk calling down, to an angry doctor who he knew felt the pressure of saving Captain Greyfell's life. However the tension was growing with each passing second and although every second was precious, time itself appeared to stand still despite the dire situation.

As Tempest sat on the bridge, he could not help but wonder silently, what would his next life be? Would he remember his commitment to the Federation, abandoning his own people's vaunted neutrality for a more active and direct approach? He liked this time, he liked this place.

He did not want to go yet...

"Commander" a voice cut through his somber thoughts like a precise arrow. He looked up, to see the ship's helmsman standing over him. His uniform was covered in grease and dirt as well as the dust that had been caused from the mountain debris all over the bridge.

"Yes?" replied Command Tempest, looking into the eyes of the young officer. He wondered for a split second, what would it be like for a being that only existed for finite moment in time? Was it even more terrifying to know that everything you are could be snuffed out of existence so easily?

"Chief Muraco has bypassed all the damaged injectors..." replied Nova as he stood in front of the seated Tempest. The only sound on the bridge was the gentle footsteps of the crew working around him, tired and demoralised and the ominous sound of the creaking doom from the ship groaning in pain as the pressure collected on it's hull. "We should be ready to reinitialise the RCS control unit..."

"Very good" replied Tempest. Finally there was a reason for a little optimism. "Would that allow us to get back into orbit?"

"No sir... The planet is far more dense than we expected, we'd need impulse engines to get back into orbit but it would allow us to main our current altitude."

Tempest sighed. "Well I suppose it's better than nothing..." he replied, trying not to sound disheartened. "When can we bring the thrusters online?"

"We will attempt a restart now, we have partial auxiliary power already rerouted to the working injectors."

"Very well..." nodded Tempest. He looked over to another ensign that was standing at the communications console. "Get me shipwide..." he ordered.

There was a notable whistle sound made to indicate that everyone on the Warrior could hear Command Tempest. He stood up and prepared himself mentally to make the speech. He had seen Captain Greyfell do it in dire circumstances like this and the crew were looking to him to be a leader.

"Attention crew of the Warrior..." he started, letting himself run somewhat on instinct and natural feeling as he spoke. "This is Commander Tempest, as you are all aware, Captain Greyfell is critically injured in Sickbay and therefore command has fallen to me. I know that some of you are scared... tired and hungry. But I also know that everyone on this ship is a professional. You have all earned your place aboard this ship and you are simply the finest crew in the fleet. We will be attempting to activate the emergency thrusters shortly in order to cease our descent. This will be a considerable strain on the ship, so be prepared for wide scale breaches and secure all essential systems, hopefully this will allow us to maintain our current altitude."

"Good luck to us all... Tempest out..."

He slumped down in his chair, looking at the slightly smiling faces of his bridge crew. That was how he knew that he had done a good job.

"Mr Nova..." he said, looking over his helmsman who was sat at the front console. "Let's do it..."

The ship began to shake, fighting off the intense gravity of the planet itself. The bridge rumbled and shook as the debris laid all over the floor began to jump about. The entire ship was at crisis point, if this did not succeed that the entire crew would be out of options. The hull of the Warrior moaned and creaked continually, culminating in a crescendo of fatigue that continued to raise itself in volume as if the ship itself was crying out in pain.

"Hull breach... Main Engineering, deck sixteen!" shouted Strato, who was manning the tactical station.

Tempest shot him an intense glare. "Emergency forcefields?" he commanded but Strato shook his head.

"Non-responsive sir..."

The entire ship felt as if it was coming apart, consoles sparked with the last flicker on power inside them, debris fell from the ceiling as the musical symphony of creaking metal came and falling debris came to an apex and then...

Nothing as the thrusters blared to life, restoring balance to the ship itself.

Tempest breathed a sigh of relief with everyone else on the bridge. At least the thrusters would be able to counteract the gravitational pull of the gas giant they were trapped in... but only for the moment.

Still, they had bought themselves some time. The most precious resource they had available to themselves at the moment. The Warrior had performed her function admirably and Tempest allowed himself to smile, for a moment. As Captain Greyfell had told her...

"This old girl would not let them down..."

Starfleet had considered phasing out the Sovereign Class project after the disappearance of the Enterprise-E and the desire for newer ships that integrated Quantum Slipstream. But Greyfell knew that the Sovereign Class would not fail them, the Warrior would not fail them.

"Damage report?" he asked, looking to Strato who accessed his console with precision, despite his tired and stressed state, illustrated by his hair being all over the place.

"We are in good shape Commander..." replied Strato with professionalism. "Minor microfractures along the ships hull and hull breaches contained on Decks fourteen, fifteen and sixteen."

At least that was good news.

"I want repair teams to seal those microfractures before they become breaches..." ordered Tempest, getting up to walk off the bridge before his was stopped dead in his track.

"Sir..." replied Strato, the tone of his voice changing completely and making Tempest close his eyes, awaiting this news. He was not sure he wanted to hear it. "Two crewmembers were in Main Engineering when it breached sir..."

What!? Shon immediately turned around and walked up to Strato's console. "Who?" he asked, already dreading the answer.

"Lieutenant Commanders Muraco and Yusa Kakriko" replied Strato with solemn precision. The atmosphere on the bridge changed to one of shock as most of the crew could not help to let out a gasp. Tempest closed his eyes in failure. He had known both of them... no... he had failed both of them.

But there were still duties to perform and he would not let what happened to them befall the rest of the ship.

He nodded silently as he felt the entire eyes of the bridge crew upon him. "We'll mourn them later..." he said, trying not to show any emotion but to be a symbol of strength for the crew to rally behind.

"Sickbay to Bridge..." a tired and stressed Doctor Tao came over the communication system.

"Go ahead doctor..." replied Commander Tempest, already feeling as if he had been punched deep in the gut.

"Shon... I'm sorry... The captain is dead"

File #9

Muraco awoke in an unfamiliar place. He sat bolt upright, his eyes trying to adjust to low light levels of the room around him.

"Where am I?" he thought to himself, trying to quiet his racing heart.

There was a cool breeze coming from somewhere in the room as he seemed to be inside some makeshift metal box that he had never seen before.

Getting out of bed, he could feel the coldness of the metal floor but also the occasional piece of something rather like the bristles of a brush along his feet. He looked down to see grass, slightly brown grass poking through the fatigued parts of the metal floor. The entire room seemed to be haphazardly cobbled together from random metal fragments.

An interesting smell beguiled his senses... it smelt familiar, almost as if he was back to being a child again. Wait...

"Is somebody cooking!?" his confused thoughts raced in his head as he tried to get a bearing on his surroundings. He had been in Main Engineering of the Warrior, working with Yusa to maintain a successful power injection into the thrusters. He remembered some kind of explosion as the hull of the vessel had fractured under the strain and then...

Nothing...

The dim lamp, which resembled the emergency equipment from the Warrior only managed to illuminate part of the dimly lit room but it was enough so that he could hear the door.

Crash!

A sound made him almost immediately jump as it cut through the air from behind the room. The sound was metallic, almost as if somebody had thrown a hyperspanner into a metal bucket. From behind the makeshift door, he could hear the sound of someone or something scurrying about.

His paw reached out for the handle of door and for a second, he considering not opening it. His stomach rumbled with hunger in sequence to the thick smell of cooking... meat! He suddenly remembered what the smell was.

It was bacon or something very similar to bacon.

There was nowhere else in the room to go. He had no choice... He had to open the door.

"Well Good Morning..." said a female voice as he opened the door, the sunlight through the shacks window suddenly hit him straight in the face, causing his vision to go blurry as his eyes adjusted.

After a few seconds of adjustment, Muraco looked around in a dazed bewilderment. He was inside some kind of makeshift shack, with the same cobbled together metal pieces for the walls except this room was a lot larger and had small windows on one side.

There was a small human female who was holding what looked to be a frying pan over a small stove on one end of the room. She had dropped another pan in the sink which was embedded in a series of worktops that lined the back wall.

The female smiled at him and he stared at her blankly. She had long, orange hair, pulled back into a functional ponytail and fair skin that was most common to woman of that skin type, slight freckles over her cheeks. She wore a jumpsuit of some kind, which was zipped down and wrapped into a bow around her waist, with a black undershirt.

"Come on... breakfast isn't gonna eat itself..." she said, in a thick accent, most commonly attributed to the southern part of the United States on Earth.

Muraco looked over to a small breakfast bar which was protruding out from the series of worktops, with a plate of what looked like... bacon sandwiches?

"That's my favourite!" thought Muraco as he continued to stand in the doorway, not sure what was happening here.

"What's the matter now?" the woman rolling her eyes. "Lemme guess... bacon is overdone" she said, mimicking his voice.

Muraco was not sure how to react. One moment he was on the Warrior and the next he was not sure where the hell he was? This was all very confusing to him. "W-Wh... I mean, who are you?" he asked.

The woman looked at him with surprise and then a bit of concern in her deep cerulean eyes. "Are you ok?" she asked, rushing over to be nearer to him. "It's me... Kayleigh, you're wife."

The air went silent as Muraco could not process this information. He started to feel a certain panic as nothing in his mind made sense. He had never even met this woman before and she was claiming to be is wife. She reached up, standing on her tiptoes and touched his forehead slightly before he could do anything to stop her.

"You seem clammy..." she said, as Muraco looked down at her with confusion. "I'm gonna send Doctor Tao..."

Doctor Tao... This seemed to add to Muraco's continual feeling of confusion. How could Doctor Tao be here as well, he was on the Warrior, trapped in a gas giant. How could he also be here, where ever Muraco might be.

Before Muraco could ask any other questions, the woman turned to rush out of the door on the far side of the shack and into the intense sunlight outside, leaving Muraco all alone in this unfamiliar place.

As he walked around the room, the shack was sparsely decorated, possibly due to the lack of space but he got the distinct impression that this place, despite how unfamiliar it was had at some point been his home. There were many objects in the room that seemed to be directly from his quarters on the Warrior.

A holophoto-frame lay on one of the units which depicted him and the woman he had just met smiling at some kind of mountain range. She was wearing a distinctive brilliant white dress and Muraco was wearing the traditional tribal marriage regalia of his people.,,

"How is this possible!?" his thoughts almost making him lose his composure as he tried to regain it. He could not remember any of this. He had no idea where he was or what he was doing.

He looked to the corner of the shack, a collection of laundry was collecting them before it was about to be obviously washed. On the top of the pile was an outdated Starfleet jumpsuit. Muraco recognised it immediately from those Federation History documentaries that Captain Greyfell was always trying to get him to watch.

He reached out and slowly picked it up, rotating it to bring the patch on the side of the arm into view, dropping it immediately when he saw what was written on it.

NX-05... Atlantis...

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!

File #11

After some time to think Muraco returned back to his home, originally not being able to find it after being unfamiliar with the environment of the settlement. He had so much going through his mind and his inability to remember the last nine years continued to plague him. If it was true... then he had missed out on a whole chunk of his life.

Kayleigh greeted him warmly as he finally returned home and contacted Doctor Tao over communicator to let him know that he was safe. He still felt suspicious as he continued to doubt the words of his own "wife" and continued almost with desperation to find any inconsistencies in his story that could not be explained.

He wanted it all to be a lie... an elaborate Romulan cover up.

If it was a cover up, then it was the most realistic one he had ever encountered in his life. He had learnt not to take face situations at face value during his time on the Warrior. During one mission, his shuttle had been caught in some kind of disturbance on the way back from a survey and an alien lifeform of incredible power had tried to convince him that he was dead. It was all an elaborate lie but the experience had stuck with him during his time on the starship.

It was a reminder... a warning.

He had not had an easy night sleep. His wife had tried to treat everything as if it was normal and although Muraco still felt anything but normal, he appreciate her effort. Kayleigh had spent the evening explaining in intimate detail how they had met, fallen in love, got married and created this home together. She had said that Muraco had helped to construct most of the buildings in the settlement, with the help of some of the surviving engineers of the Warrior and the Atlantis.

However, even after such a convincing story, when he wife had rolled over to hold him during her slumber during the night, he had froze.

He still had doubts.

He still wanted to hold onto his conspiracy.

The next day, he had chosen to meet Administrator Shon Tempest. He had walked through the streets of the settlement, being awkwardly greeted by every former crew member that he recognised and even some that he did not.

But he still smiled, and waved and pretended that he remembered this reality.

"Muraco..." smiled Shon as he got up from behind his desk in the makeshift Town Hall. It was a large room, made out of scavenged parts, just the same as the rest of the colony, metal slap-dashed together all over the place. However this place had a more ordered feel to it. Muraco could recognise a bureaucrats office from a mile away.

Shon rushed up from behind his desk to greet his old friend, taking his hand in his paw and shaking it with glee. Muraco could not help but glare at his older face, the grey streaks coming through his brown hair and his once brilliant blue fur starting to dull under his civilian clothing.

He had also known Shon to dress smartly when off duty, even on the Warrior, he preferred to wear more classic suits, like Earth males wore, even with a little red dickie-bow tie under his muzzle.

"Where have I seen that desk before?" thought Muraco.

"They told me that whatever happened out there, caused you amnesia..?" asked Shon, his eyes glinting in the sunlight coming through from the large, makeshift window behind his desk. Muraco could not help but notice how much more cheerful he seemed, the Commander Tempest that he had known always was the last one to be dancing at a party and he seemed to have an attitude more fitting to Captain Greyfell then the stern first officer that he had known Tempest to be.

"Eh... yeah..." replied Muraco, scratching the underside of his chin with his massive paw, unsure of how to react. "Kinda..."

"Yusa came back in the same condition..." replied Shon, looking to him with concern. "I'm sorry... I really should not have sent you to the ruins without analysing the risk first. That was extremely careless of me."

"Yusa" thought Muraco, his eyes momentarily widening. Maybe Yusa would know more about what had happened? Maybe he had also been affected by whatever had happened to Muraco as well.

"Is... Yusa alright?" asked Muraco.

"Yes... luckily our recovery team found you both quickly." replied Shon, heading back to his desk and sitting down, looking over some of the PADD's that lay neatly ordered on his desk.

Muraco scoffed a little, at least some things never changed. This Tempest was just as neat and ordered as the one he had known on the Warrior. They had interacted many times as part of the crew but he had never got to know the man personally, Tempest was the last person to attend social functions onboard.

"Can I speak to him?" Muraco asked, wondering where exactly he was.

"Of course, he's at his house... resting after his ordeal."

"Where... is his house?" asked Muraco honestly.

Administrator Tempest stopped for a moment and looked over at Muraco, his expression was a mixture of surprise and compassion. He clearly had a lot of sympathy for what Muraco was going to as he raised his paw to tap a few buttons on the pad on his desk.

"Wait... how do you have power?" asked Muraco without thinking. It had been something that was bugging him since he arrived. He had seen many different technological devices still being used like Doctor Tao's tricorder and lights inside his own home but he had not seen any evidence of a power generator.

Shon stopped his paw from making the final input, hovering over it before responding calmly. "We salvaged one of the Impulse Fusion Reactors... You helped us design it. We connected it to the whole of Warrior's Rest."

That answer actually made a great deal of sense to Muraco, he had worked with the Warrior's engines are was familiar with the amount of power that just one of the Impulse Fusion Reactors could generate. It would have been enough to easily power the entire settlement.

Warrior's Rest... the name of settlement was both illuminating and somewhat morbid.

Shon continued to press the buttons built into the desk. "Mewsin, can you come in here a moment?"

The door behind Muraco opened, who was still standing up, waiting for somebody to phaser him, or to notice some vital inconsistency in the story and be stopped. Muraco turned to see Mewsin walking into the room, her hair in a more "business" arrangement then Muraco had ever seen before, her sleek but formal outfit clinging to her voluptuous curves.

"Yes Administrator..?" she asked, giving Muraco a brief smile.

"Can you take Mr Muraco here, down to Yusa's residence?" asked Shon.

"Of course..." replied Mewsin, ushering Muraco towards the door.

Muraco felt slightly unwanted and a bit of tension, especially between Tempest and Mewsin. He wondered what kind of history, if any, existed there between the two. The way that they spoke to each other was the kind of way that you would greet somebody that you did not like at a formal dinner, with a handshake in one hand...

And a knife behind your back...

Muraco walked out with Mewsin, she walked ahead, her heels creating a distinctive sound on the solid stone floor. They followed the entrance hall out into the broad light of day.

"That was Captain Greyfell's desk!" thought Muraco suddenly, finally recognising the desk in the office of Administrator Tempest. "It was in the Ready Room of the Warrior!"

"Don't tell me that you are getting cold feet Muraco..." said Mewsin with a hushed tone as they walked through the street. "If you wanted to speak with me, you might have come up with a better way then asking the Administrator for me to take you to a place you already know."

He had no idea what she was talking about. What exactly did she mean or was she unaware of his current condition. He felt it was best to say nothing and continue walking with her down the street.

"Everything is in place..." continued Mewsin after a few seconds, checking the street was clear, the harsh daylight making both of them feel warm in it's radiant glow. "Batov and Ramsey are in position for tonight... that leaves you to disable the reactor."

Muraco was not sure what was going on, why was the former counselor asking of him. Why did he need to disable the reactor that supplied power to the city.

She suddenly turned to face him in the empty street and pulled him into a deep and unflinching passionate kiss. Muraco was taken back by this almost completely, he was caught off guard and did not know if he should blush, or rip her head off, especially considering that he was supposed to be married.

He had never even desired the counselor on the Warrior like this before. He even preferred the company of the other men on the Warrior.

After a few seconds they parted and she looked at him with eyes that blazed hot with burning embers of passion. "Don't look so scared..." Mewsin smiled, her glasses slipping down from her eyes as she pushed them back up with a finger. "After tonight... we are getting off this planet and finally going home. Tempest has been scare mongering for too long."

Muraco was not sure what to do. He had already been accosted by one woman that he was unfamiliar with and now, his former colleague and counselor, was suggesting that they were also involved.

He must have been a right asshole before he lost his memory.

They continued to walk, approaching a small residence at the top of the street. "I need to know that you are committed..." said Mewsin, looking at him with the most accusatory glance he had ever seen come out of her eyes before. "The Atlantis people... they've corrupted Shon's mind... pacified him into giving up hope of leaving this place. We've been here for nine years and I'm sick of it... I'm not telling you what to do but we need control if we are ever going to get access to the shuttles and..."

"Alright..." replied Muraco. He figured it was best to play along, it was clear that Mewsin was not privy to the information of what happened to him and due to the nature of the conversation, it was best that they kept it that way. "I'm in..." he said.

Mewsin's eyes went from accusatory, back to compassion in the blink of an eye. "Good... and if you even think about backing out... I'll kill you myself." she chanted with a deadly earnestness that made Muraco quiver internally.

"This is our one chance..." she said. "You better not screw it up..."

File #12

There was a loud knock at Yusa's door.

"What now..?" thought Yusa as he went to investigate. He had already spent a day completely lost in confusion about what he was doing in this new world and the constant distractions were not making this any easier for him.

He reached out, his hands slowly clasping for the metal door. Should he open it? He could easily tell whoever it was to go away while he figured this out in his head. "Nine years..?". None of this made any sense to him at all.

He steeled himself against whatever was waiting for him on the other side of the door. He was not going to figure anything out if he remained stuck in what looked like his home. The eyes of a familiar presence met him as the door slowly creaked open, with a rusty whine.

"Muraco..." Yusa was surprised to see him. His experience had involved waking up to find Doctor Tao hovering over him with a hypospray. He had been told the same version of events but he did not want to believe it either.

It seemed somewhat preposterous to him. To lose nine years of his life like that.

Muraco looked equally as confused. To be honest, all he wanted was to know that he was not alone, that he had not been the only person to wake up in an unfamiliar purgatory, unsure of what to do next.

"What's going on?" he asked Yusa as he walked inside the house.

"I don't know..." replied Yusa bluntly, unsure of what else he could say that would comfort him. "We were on the Warrior... there was some kind of explosion and I woke up here. They tell me that I cannot remember the last nine years."

"They told me the same thing... I even have a wife!" interjected Muraco, sitting down at the small table at the far corner of the house. The roof was much smaller than his home and was difficult to navigate in, probably due to his increased body mass.

Yusa looked at him in a confused manner. "... a wife?" he asked, his hands going to his fur under his face. "I always assumed that you..." he stopped, choosing his words carefully, the last thing he wanted to do was offend his only ally here. The only person who had as strange experience as what he was experiencing right now. "Liked men..."

"Stupid!" thought Yusa and for a moment he wanted to crawl into a hole with his terrible choice of words. It was an extremely silly thing to say but Muraco himself did not seem to notice or even seem that bothered by the assumption. Both of them had never really had a high degree of interaction outside work on the Warrior. They had never really needed to communicate, Yusa was the type of person that would have rather spend most of his time alone in his quarters, then socialising with the crew in the ship's lounge.

"I do..." replied Muraco with candidness. "Which is why I felt it was rather strange for me to have a wife. Could this all be some kind of trick?"

Yusa put his embarrassment aside and pondered the question as he walked to his own sink and poured some crisp, clean water into two glasses on the side. It was clear from the slightly disorganised state of the place that Yusa lived alone here, if he had lived her for many years.

"I don't know..." remuniated Yusa, being careful not to trip over objects scattered over the floor of his home while bringing Muraco the glass of water. "If it is a trick, it's one of the most elaborate ones that I've seen..."

Muraco took the glass of water. He had spent so long worrying about his predicament that he had completely forgotten how thirsty he had become in the warm summer sun. He poured it into his muzzle, gulping it down with considerable force.

"What did they tell you?" Muraco asked after he placed the empty glass back down on the table.

Yusa went on to explain, pretty much everything that Muraco had already been told. The both of them were conducting some sort of research at some alien ruins on this world when both of them had been rendered unconscious by some kind of field that had wiped out their memories of the last nine years.

When he had finished, Muraco only had one question on his mind. "Do you believe them?" he asked.

Yusa put the glass down, looking at him squarely in the eyes. "Not for a second..." he said. "There is too much wrong here... I cannot put my finger on it."

"Neither can I..." exclaimed Muraco, excited that finally understood the niggling feeling he had been having in the back of his head since he arrived here. "We need to find what exactly is going on here."

"Our priority has to be finding a way back to the Warrior" responded Yusa, who was more than happy to go along with Muraco's plan. It served him better than sitting here an accepting the reality that was presented to him.

"So... you don't know then?" said Muraco, his tone shifting into almost a depressing beat.

"Know what?"

"I saw the Warrior. It's a complete wreck, just over the ridge from here. It does seem like the ship did indeed crash on this planet."

Yusa looked disappointed at Muraco for a moment and indeed he had expected better of him then this. "Don't believe everything you see... it could very easily be fake..."

There was a small cool summer breeze coming in from the window that helped break up the humidity in the room itself while Muraco considered this. Perhaps Yusa was right and nothing seemed to be the way it appeared. Maybe this could explain the continuous "wrong" feeling that had been so elusive to pin down in the back of his mind.

"So what should we do?" asked Muraco, after a few seconds that felt like an eternity of thoughts within his own mind.

Yusa, ever the scientist took a moment to lay out all the information he was aware of. He wanted to compare Muraco and his own experiences and form a hypothesis. Muraco explained how he had been approached by Counselor Mewsin... well this world's Counselor Mewsin in order to lead some kind of rebellion against Administrator Tempest.

Mewsin blamed Tempest for the crew not attempting to leave this planet, despite having access to the shuttlecraft and became convinced that somehow, the crew of the Atlantis was manipulating him in order to keep the crew here.

"I do find it odd how the various members of the Warrior crew have all apparently aged. Even you and I..." theorised Yusa as he continued to talk, closing the window to make sure that there were no ears listening to their conversation. "...while the crew of the Atlantis. Who should all be long dead since now, have not."

Muraco nodded in agreement. Indeed, that was strange and it may have been one of the causes for why he felt so weird about this place. He had obviously noticed it on a subconscious level and his brain had been trying to tell him for quite some time.

Yusa continued, his voice cutting through Muraco's thoughts like a knife. Maybe this was just what he wanted to hear? "The only consistent viable that we have..." Yusa continued to speak as the professional scientist that he had been on the Warrior. Muraco had become convinced...

This was his Yusa. The one that he had served with for so many years.

"... is that we were both investigating these ruins. Perhaps if we returned, we could uncover some more answers?"

"Get off me!"

Somebody shouted in the street causing Yusa and Muraco to snap out of their thoughts for a moment, Yusa rushing to the window to see what all the commotion was about. He looked to Muraco who rose up from the slightly small chair, being careful not to bang his head on the ceiling and rushed to the door without saying a word.

Muraco quickly followed him into the harsh light of day. His gaze was met with the sight of two officers, still dressed in Starfleet security uniforms, one from the NX era and the other from the Warrior leading out a woman into the street forcibly.

Yusa and Muraco instantly recognised the security officer in the modern Starfleet uniform, both of them caught dumbfounded by seeing the familiar face.

"Strato!" called out Yusa, rushing over to him to see what the scuffle was about, the human protesting loudly as she was dragged out of the house by the NX era security officer who had easily restrained her. Yusa instantly recognising the patch on his arm, a distinctive shark that had been extinct for over two hundred years...

"MACO or Military Assault Command Operations..."

MACO had been a United Earth organisation that had existed during the 2150's, prior to the establishment of the United Federation of Planets. They had been a common sight on many Starfleet vessels of that era, including theEnterprise NX-01. Following the establishment of the Federation, MACO had been disbanded and absorbed into Starfleet with their reputation as an efficient military force becoming a historical footnote.

"Mr Yusa... Mr Muraco..." nodded Strato as watched this woman struggle furiously with her captors, proclaiming her innocence as she was dragged from her home. "I suggest you stand back for your own safety."

"What is going on here?" demanded Muraco, distressed to see a human female treated in this manner. The concept of fair and honest treatment was not lost of him and the brutality of this arrest made him wonder just what kind of justice system existed in Warrior's Rest.

"This woman and her husband are responsible for crimes against the state..." replied Strato with a cold emphasis to his voice. He had changed much from the young officer that Muraco and Yusa had first met on the Warrior.

"Bullshit!" screamed the woman as she was being forced down the street, and forcibly bundled into a waiting shuttle.

Muraco was surprised, this was the first time he had seen a shuttlecraft since he arrived here. Were they all used in this kind of manner? "We must be allowed to leave!"

"Stop it... you are hurting her!" commanded Yusa.

"Administrator Tempest had decreed that it is too dangerous for anyone to attempt to leave the planet." replied Strato coldly. Yusa could tell from his expression, one that he had seen so many times before that he certainly enjoyed having so much control here. "The last rebel shuttle that tried it was crushed as soon as it attempted to leave the atmosphere. Therefore this woman is being taken into custody for her own protection."

"They're lying!" screamed the woman as the interior of the Type 9 Shuttlecraft closed in around her.

The shuttle rear hatch slammed shut behind her as the shuttle prepared to fly, its nacelles blazing to life in a whirl of blue and red.

"We cannot afford to lose good shuttles because of crazy escape attempts..." Strato turned to his two former crew members. Finally it had hit home to Muraco why access to the shuttles was so restricted and why the Warrior crew had not continued to try to escape over the last nine years.

They had not been permitted to leave.

File #13

The shuttle was cramped as both Yusa and Muraco flew over the landscape, the lush green rolling hills coming into view out of the shuttle's windows. The sun was rapidly setting on this planet, creating a red aura in the sky that reminded Yusa very much of the days on his homeworld.

The Shuttlecraft Pythagoras was a Type-11 Shuttlecraft, specifically designed for the Sovereign Class starship, integrating the latest of Starfleet's technological advances into one package. The shuttle was designed from the lessons learned in the older Type 6 and Class 2 Shuttlecraft, being sleeker and more ergonomically designed for both as the mission profile for the shuttles expanded.

The Shuttlecraft soared through the air, nimbly shifting from left to right while Muraco piloted it. He had taken so many lessons on flying these small ships that he had become highly accustomed to the controls of this surprisingly nimble, although bulky craft.

While Muraco flew the ship in silence, trying to process the jarring events of the last few days, Yusa was busy taking the opportunity to scan the surface of the planet below, looking for any inconsistencies that could indicate what was actually happening on this world.

Both had been forced to steal the shuttle from the makeshift hanger behind the Administration Building. Muraco found it fortunate that the shuttle's security system still recognised his command code which he had consistently used aboard the Warrior. As Chief Engineer, it had been his responsibility to keep the Shuttlecraft in a serviceable condition.

Muraco wondered how long it would take for Warrior's Rest security to locate them or come after them with another shuttle? So far, they have escaped pretty much without a hitch but something about this just made him feel uneasy. Almost like it was too easy?

The low hum of the Shuttlecraft's engines were surprisingly calming as the vessel slowly cut through the skies of this unknown planet, flying over the distinctive ruins of the Warrior, laying shattered and broken on the hillside, surrounded by grassy plains.

Yusa had simply been unprepared for this sight and it had hit him as hard as it had Muraco. The site of his former ship, laying broken and lifeless, in several pieces along the hillside felt so real that it had him questioning his assumption about this being some kind of alternate reality. It was soul crushing and yet extremely beautiful at the same time.

A fitting end to a nobel ship...

Yusa's ruminations were cut short by a beeping of sensors in the cabin which instantly grabbed his attention.

"We've got company..." he said, almost immediately from looking at the sensors that showed two other unknown craft entering the detection range of the Pythagoras.

"How many?" asked Muraco, expecting this.

"Two..." replied Yusa. "They look like one Class 2 and an old NX Shuttlepod. The computer is reading the Class 2 as the Epicurus."

Muraco let out a sigh. "Yeah... that's one of ours alright..." he said. "Damn. That's one of my favorite shuttles."

"Shuttlecraft Pythagoras" called a voice over the communications system. Both Yusa and Muraco recognised it immediately. It seemed that Strato himself was coming after them. "Power down your engines and return to Warrior's Rest immediately..."

"How long until they are in weapons range?" asked Muraco, looking over to Strato.

"Eh... give it five minutes..." replied Yusa, not being sure what to do in the situation. He would obviously would like to avoid the situation where Muraco and him were shot out of the sky. "Can we outrun them?"

"We are almost at the ruins..." replied Muraco, his large purple arms skillfully waving over the control panel of the Shuttlecraft. "Considering that we have to land, probably not..."

The Pythagoras increased its engine output as it shot through the sky, the ruins of the Warrior falling further and further behind, the engines blaring with a deep red hue. As the shuttle shot forward with the immense burst of speed, Muraco's huge frame sunk further and further back into the chair.

"We are coming up on the landing zone" replied Yusa, his sharp eyes, contrasting over his dark skin, looking over the controls in front of him. "Are we going to attempt a landing!?" he asked, looking over at Muraco to check that he had not gone insane in the few seconds of intense speed.

"No... arm the phasers" replied Muraco, skillfully using the shuttlecraft to dodge the small barrage of phaser discharges that were being fired at the Pythagoras.

Yusa gave him a sharp look and smirked. "I charged them before we even got off the ground..." His quick thinking and attention to detail had always been something that had impressed Muraco as he nodded, turning the shuttle with a high energy turn which could have easily resulted in the destruction of the shuttle.

"Fire!" chanted Muraco as Yusa pressed the command, taking a moment to lock phasers of the pursuing shuttlecraft. His faith in Yusa had rewarded him once again as the narrow beams of orange nadions fired from the Pythagoras and hit both of the incoming shuttles right on the nose, taking both by complete surprise and not even giving them time to raise their shields in defense.

However both Muraco and Yusa knew that they would return if they failed to take care of the situation now so both looked on in regret as they fired again, hitting the engines of both shuttles and causing them to spiral downward, out of the dusk and towards the ground.

"You don't think..?" replied Yusa as there was a few seconds of silence in the cockpit of the shuttlecraft. It was complete possible the both crews of the shuttles could be killed if they failed to escape before their powerless shuttles hit the ground. Yusa recoiled in active horror of what he had done, her had shot down his own people, his friends and colleagues. Even in this strange world, this was a daunting prospect.

Muraco said nothing as he gracefully manipulated the control panel with his huge claws, trying to avoid thinking about the fate of Strato and the other shuttle pilot that they had just shot down. He had already committed himself to this path when he first resigned himself to stealing the shuttlecraft from Warrior's Rest.

He knew what that entailed. He knew they would come after him and Yusa.

A few seconds passed as they approached the ruins which both of them had apparently been at just days before. A large, almost silver spire, projecting several feet above the treeline, as if a knife, protruding from the surface of the planet, it glimmered in the dying orange glow of the sun and seemed to pulse with some unknown form of energy.

The shuttle set down quietly in a small clearing in the forest, the tall trees themselves seemed to block out the waning sun as it cast a deep shadow on the landscape around them. Both Yusa and Muraco were unsure what they could possibly find here. Would it be the answers that both of them were so desperately seeking?

Somehow, Muraco never felt that it could be that easy.

As they left the shuttlecraft, taking provisions from the back of the shuttle that included a flashlight, both of them did not know what to expect. There was an obvious trepidation from both of them as they clambered through the dense forest, small shafts of the orange sunlight cutting through the trees.

They felt as if the journey here had lasted for hours as the ruins finally came into view. A small clearing the darker forest came into view as the sounds of various unknown and undocumented animal life surrounded them.

The strange alien environment was also oddly serene, there were a few small stone structures, crumbling and ancient around the gigantic spire that easily reached above the natural treeline. Yusa felt oddly calm as he approached this place, pulling his tricorder out from his Starfleet issue pack and flipping it open as both lieutenants stopped to idolise the monolithic structure now only a few feet away from them.

"It's definitely ancient..." remarked Yusa, tapping his tricorder with his long black claws. Starfleet tricorders had been designed for human hands and he found them difficult to operate but over his years in Starfleet he somehow managed. "My tricorder confirms that these ruins are thousands of years old..."

The Tricorder was a Starfleet technical marvel, a diagnostic tool that could perform thousands of complex scans and calculations at once. As Starfleet and the Federation evolved, so did the Tricorder and other tools which were regularly used, ending with the tricorder that Yusa carried, a trusty TR-890 Tricorder XV, the latest design with a larger, integrated screen capable of giving multiple different scans at once.

"Looks like it..." remarked Muraco, his purple muscles twitching slightly. Something that he could not explain made him feel incredibly uncomfortable but he just...

Flash...

Suddenly within his mind, Muraco received so many images that came to him like flashes in the warm evening air, as he looked up at the giant alien spire. He grabbed his head with his paws, feeling like somebody had let off a flashbang right next to him. His senses overloaded.

Then there were the feelings...

Memories of pain that shot through him, the image of him looking at himself, strapped down to a table, screaming in agony as many unfamiliar instruments injected beneath his purple fur and into his skin.

Were these memories..?

He could not understand but the experience had overwhelmed him, the intensity of the pain inside his head, although a distant memory circled around inside him, threatening to overwhelm his senses. He looked over at Yusa, who was experience what he could only imagine, the same thing from the expression on his face.

After a few seconds, the pain subsided and both looked at each other with confusion. "W-What was that!?" asked Muraco in a confused daze. It felt like a memory, one he had never forgotten but he could have also sworn that he had never experienced whatever this memory was showing him.

Yusa could only give him a dazed look, wondering the same thing and he lifted his tricorder back up and took another scan of the spire. "I'm reading an active neurogenic field..."

"What the hell does that mean?" asked Muraco, losing his composure slightly from the intensity of the experience that he had just had. He could feel his frustration building, Yusa always spoke in complicated scientific gobbledygook. He was not a scientist, how could he possibly understand what he was saying.

Yusa looked puzzled and turned to a frightened Muraco, Muraco was surprised to see such calmness in his eyes. Was he hiding the unspeakable dread that Muraco was feeling or was he genuinely not concerned about what had just happened to them and how they remembered a chamber of horrors for some reason?

"It means..." begun Yusa pausing a second to think about how he was going to explain it. "There is some kind of field here which caused our hallucination?"

"That felt pretty real to me!" exclaimed Muraco, suddenly feeling very insecure and somewhat exposed in the middle of a forest clearing like this. He had never given any thought before to what kind of creatures could reside on this planet and now felt considerably more alert then before.

"Hallucinations often are..." replied Yusa, not looking up from his tricorder screen. "...that is why they are so frightening. The database doesn't seem to recognise any of the iconography or seem to be able to identify the materials used in the construction. Perhaps an active scan would..."

No sooner than Yusa had activated the Deep Scan mode, the spire started to emit a loud piercing sound, causing both to cover their ears. A huge screeching sound echoed into the air, louder than anything either of them had heard in a while, after a few seconds it dissipated returning to a quiet chiming that it had done before.

"Well... that solves that..." replied Yusa, picking up his tricorder which he had dropped while covering his ears.

"Solves what?" asked Muraco, looking over to his friend after recovering himself from the ear-splitting screech.

Yusa gave a slight smile, one of the only few he had made since he had been on this strange world. Finally he had a mystery that he could actually solve. "It's a transmitter... made of benamite"

"Benamite!?" replied Muraco almost instantly. This was something that he understand well. Benamite was the illusive crystalline fuel that was used by the Federation to power the Quantum Slipstream Drive of newer starships. Quantum Slipstream Drive was a new and powerful form of propulsion which utilised a subspace corridor and could allow a starship to travel many times faster than conventional warp travel. It had first been discovered by the U.S.S. Voyager in 2374, who had later attempted to use it to travel back to the Alpha Quadrant while they were stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

Voyager had been unsuccessful and was nearly destroyed however the technology was brought back to Starfleet Engineering when Voyager returned home in 2377. The technology was later perfected on the Vesta Class starship by using a Quantum Field Focus Controller which negated the phase variance at Slipstream speeds which almost destroyed Voyager.

"Benamite is extremely rare..." replied Muraco, putting down his pack and wanting to walk up to the spire in order to get a sample. Yusa put out his hand and stopped him while he walked forward.

"Yes... but do you know what this means?" deduced Yusa, looking over at him with a look of genuine excitement. Muraco shook his head, unable to see what Yusa was getting at. "If this spire is a transceiver made of benamite, then we could possibly use it to contact Starfleet for rescue."

Muraco was suddenly filled with the possibilities of the future. Maybe he would make it off this strange world after all?

File #14

This spire was driving Muraco mad. He had spent what seemed like hours trying to hook it up to the Communications module from the Pythagoras and had no success at all. He had done this procedure of replacing a transceiver so many times that he found it impossible to believe that it was his error that was causing this.

Maybe the spire was just not capable of transmitting frequencies on the same carrier wave as subspace communications?

Muraco twisted some of the connections between the module and the spire. "Dammit!" he exclaimed loudly, unable to contain his frustration any longer. It was almost completely pitch black in the forest as night had quickly rolled in, forcing Muraco to work impractically with a flashlight.

"Problems?" chuckled Yusa, almost with amusement as he changed back into his clothes, removing his shirt and allowing Muraco to see his tend, slim frame which Muraco had never really noticed while serving aboard the Warrior together.

"Yeah..." sighed Muraco, sitting down for a second to think. "The computer cannot seem to interface with the spire. The technology might just be too different to ours..."

Yusa finished changing, the warm and humid environment of the forest had made him rather sweaty and uncomfortable, he had felt much better once he had removed his black shirt, just keeping his jacket on. He walked over to Muraco and slumped down beside him, the base of the gigantic crystal spire behind them.

He put a reassuring hand on Muraco's arm. "I'm sure you've done your best..." he said, looking to Muraco who was looking straight on, allowing his constant insecurities to get the better of him, as he always had on the Warrior. Yusa could tell that he blamed himself for everything, as he always had a noticeable pattern of self-loathing, despite being a brilliant engineer.

"Hey..." chuckled Yusa, looking to the stars through the treeline. "Do you remember when Mewsin flew the Warrior out of drydock?"

Muraco looked to him, somewhat confused as to why he was bringing this up to him now, of all times. He wondered why Yusa was chuckling about it, especially considering the amount of work that it had caused him. "I had to repair and repaint the entire lower edge of the saucer section..." he said in a somewhat annoyed tone as they sat there.

"... Yeah..." replied Yusa, who was smirking. "But it was funny... She couldn't get the ship out of drydock without scratching the paint..."

Yusa could not help it, the memory of that event and the seriousness of Captain Greyfell and Muraco just it worse. He began to laugh, which in turn caused Muraco to start giggling as well as he began to realise that in hindsight...

...It was funny.

Uproarious laughter began from both of them as they let the absurdity of that situation take them over, allowing one second of clarity and comedy to come together in a glorious symphony which made their current situation seem less dire.

Muraco appreciated that...

However, their elation was short lived as Yusa's tricorder gave a definitive beep, signalling that it had completed some sort of analysis as Yusa flipped it open with a flick of his wrist. His face changed, from a slight grin to a rather perplexed frown, his brow moving downward.

"What now?" asked Muraco, looking over to him.

"My Tricorder has finished mapping the area. I thought it may be useful, considering that we need to plan our next move. However... this is odd..." he said calmly, keeping Muraco is suspense yet again. "There seems to be some sort of underground structure, directly under this spire."

Muraco could to his feet and looked around. "I don't see a switch or lever... there is no trace of anything we can pull."

"I think we've been looking at this the wrong way..." replied Yusa, once again proving why he was still the top science officer on the Warrior. "I don't think this spire is a transceiver for sending transmissions... but receiving them?"

"Like a door lock?" replied Muraco, his tone beginning to become more confident as for once, he understood Yusa's pedantic science-bable.

Yusa nodded, his claws entering commands into the tricorder. "Now... if I can just find the right sympathetic frequency..."

The engineering problem that had previous stumped Muraco had finally been made clear by both of them working together. The spire was essentially some kind of receiver, it would have never been able to send subspace signals and that was what caused the incompatibility with the Communications Module.

"This could... take some time..." sighed Yusa, realising that he would have to go through the entire sympathetic spectrum in order to find the specific frequency to unlock this puzzle. Which could potentially take them precious hours which they simply did not have at the moment. By now, Administrator Shon Tempest would be searching for them and they had been forced to shoot down another two shuttles.

"Try 42, 71, point 5..?" replied Muraco calmly.

Yusa shrugged, it was worth a try at least although he could not see what Muraco was getting at.

Suddenly the colossal benamite crystal spire began to shake, causing noticeable vibrations in the surrounding ground, crawling backwards in order to reveal a set of steps which led down into a dark abyss below the ground.

Yusa was stunned, he had no idea how Muraco could have possibly known the right frequency...

"How did you..?" he asked in confusion as they approached the steps downward, beneath the surface of this world and looked down into the dark abyss. At least there was good chance that Administrator Tempest would not have discovered this place. The smell alone was dank and musty, like walking into an abandoned house that had been sealed up for years.

Muraco smiled. In all honesty, he had not been sure either when he had suggested that frequency. "I saw your tricorder" he said as he shone his flashlight down into the dank, dark abyss and began stepping down the stairs. "It was the frequency of the neurogenic field that caused our thing..." using his own unique vocabulary.

This answer was a smack in the face to Yusa. His immediate response would have been that he had already thought of that and was going to try it but that would have been a straight up lie. He pondered for a second, following the newly renewed Muraco, who had seemed to imbued himself with some essence of hope for their situation.

"You're one hell of an Engineer..." he said, with genuine respect and disregarding his own ego. If anything, this experience had taught both of them why they deserved to be in Starfleet.

Why they deserved to be on the Warrior.

File #15

The underground passage seemed to continue on forever as Muraco and Yusa continued cautiously down it, with just a small flashlight to continue illuminating the way forward. Yusa's tricorder was utterly failing to navigate and map the wide twisting passages and this lead to Yusa deducing that there was possibly some kind of dampening field which was negating the use of their technological advancements.

They had been travelling for what seemed like a couple of hours, discovering one dark and dank stone passage after another. Before they had completed their descent, Muraco had reminded Yusa to re-enter the frequency they had used to open the vast passage under the crystal spire and close it.

It was his hope that the residents of Warrior's Rest would not be able to find their way in or even know where they had gone. It would provide them with relative safety...

For now...

However both of them could not stay in these passages indefinitely and as the passages seemed to continue with no end in sight, Muraco wondered if they could run out of provisions and die down here, leaving two skeletal corpses to be discovered thousands of years later when somebody else ventured down here.

It was a sobering thought and one that he continued to push to the back of his mind as he crouched down, his massive purple frame becoming more and more discomforted from the narrowness of the passages.

Yusa on the other hand had regarded these labyrinthian passages with awe, continuing to discuss with Muraco, but mainly just himself about who could have built such a complex series of tunnels and what their purpose could they be?

He had many different theories, which of course, he was more than happy to share with Muraco regardless of if he wanted to hear them or not.

After what seemed like hours of wandering aimlessly and Yusa's excessive conjecturing which contrary to Muraco's ordinary behave, he actually found somewhat soothing, reminding him that he was not experiencing this alone, they had discovered something of note.

The passage led to a huge door, made out of some alloy which Muraco was unable to immediately identify. It had a very unusual, metallic finish which seemed to appear as if rain was rippling on the surface of an ocean, with a characteristic blue hue.

"I think we've found the source of the dampening field..." retorted Yusa, in response to Muraco's casual glance back. He had come to expect Muraco's desire for an explanation with that particular expression. This experience that they had gone through together, had somehow helped them to bond considerable better then the total strangers that they had once been on the Warrior. "According to my tricorder, the field is being generated from whatever is on the other side of this door..."

Muraco put out his large purple paw. "Odd..." he thought as he continued to observe the reaction. "No reflection...". The "door" if it could be called that seemed to be almost completely liquid in appearance.

He edged his paw closer and closer towards the door until his appendage finally made contact with the door...

...passing right into it...

"Commander!" replied Yusa sharply, slapping his paw away from the door, with his darker claws. In a completely random moment in Muraco's head, he suddenly realised that the Chief Science Officer of the Warrior's appearance very closely resembled that of a goat. A non-sentient species which resided on the Federation's capital planet of Earth.

He was tempted to backhand the little goat in response to what he just did but his size would easily causing him considerable damage so he advised himself against it and remained in control of his temper.

"I was only gonna touch it!" exclaimed Muraco, pulling his hand away in shock.

Yusa continued to look unimpressed. "We don't know what this... thing is, it could have electrocuted you or poisoned you... or..."

Yusa continued to list off the ways that could have resulted in Muraco's death and Muraco found this concern to be considerably both amusing and touching on some level. His paw had passed through the material completely which lead to his assumption that this door was some kind of holographic construct and was harmless.

Only one way to test it...

Grabbing Yusa's arm while he was busy listing off the proper Starfleet Science procedures regarding investigating alien technology, Muraco pulled him easily through the rippling door, Yusa's loud and continual protests of "What are you doing!?" echoing through the passages as he was pulled through.

"What did you think you are doing!?" proclaimed Yusa on the other side of the barrier. "Do you know what that barrier could do to us? Has done to us!? I am going to put you in for disciplinary action... this is outrageous!"

Muraco found this to be a hollow threat. At the moment, he would be happy just to return to the Warrior but for all he knew, all of this was actually reality and the ship itself had long since been destroyed, keeping Muraco and Yusa in a desperate battle to understand their surroundings.

This chamber was large and was completely different from anything that either of them seen on this planet up till now.

It resembled that of some sort of control room, which consoles strewn about the room, the walls were metal and of significantly more advanced construction then both the Benamite Crystal Spire that they had discovered and the stone passages themselves.

Yusa looked around, amazed by the intricate detail of everything around him and completely so unaware of finding this down here that he immediately dropped any further complaints to Muraco about what he had just done, flipping open his tricorder and discovering to his amazement that it was working again.

From this side, with his device working, he could see that the "door" had been an intricate holographic projection, similar to the ones used by Starfleet, mainly in the Holodecks of Starships and Starbases but this one was significantly more advanced, including a localised dampening field to confuddle any attempts to try to scan it with conventional equipment.

It was obvious designed to prevent people from finding this place.

"It seems you were correct..." replied Yusa solemnly, dismissing his protest but not in any way condoning Muraco's reckless actions. "It seems to be some kind of advanced holographic matrix but it doesn't use photons... curious."

On the walls of the room were several "pod-like" structures imbedded in the walls, Muraco making a mental note that they looked like the same pods they had encountered on one of the Warrior's previous missions, involving investigating an abandoned Dominion cloning facility, left behind after the end of the Dominion War.

Was it possible that this was some kind of research or medical facility?

Yusa dusted himself off and cautiously walked to one of the alien consoles which seemed to be in full operation. He wondered how an alien species was able to power anything down here. Whatever this technology was, it was definitely not Starfleet or resembling anything he had seen in Warrior's Rest.

"It seems to be alien in origin..." he announced to Muraco, who was busy examining the pods on at the far wall of the chamber. The central console that Yusa was at was circular, with some kind of advanced holographic display in the center of the circular console.

"I don't recognise any of the language and neither does the linguistic database... the closest..." Yusa's voice began to trail off as he tapped a few buttons, which had a rather simplistic design, resembling various different primary colours, especially for an alien society as advanced as this one.

He looked over his tricorder to provide the closest match to any species which had been previously encountered by Starfleet and frowned when the computer had completed its analysis.

"Iccobar..." he muttered. "I've never heard of that species before..."

His thoughts and calculations were cut short with an excitable and loud bellow from Muraco, who was on the far side of the room.

"Yusa!"

Yusa rushed off the console to join him, leaving his tricorder sat on the top of the console. When he reached where Muraco was standing, he looked up in shock.

Inside one of the pods was somebody they both recognised, a man who they both had come to respect and trust.

"How is that possible!?" exclaimed Yusa

As far as both of them knew, he had been on the Warrior, fighting for his life which Doctor Tao had already told Muraco that he had unfortunately lost and here they were, staring at the body of the their Captain.

Captain Alexander Greyfell...

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. TheFederation 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 Iconianshad 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.

File #17

Captains Log;

Stardate: 181202.12

Lieutenant Commander Muraco, Yusa and myself have managed to establish contact with the Warrior after we disabled the Particle Synthesis Generator, which was creating a heavy gravitational field pulling the Warrior down into the atmosphere. As a result, the Warrior has returned to standard orbit and there is no sign of Romulans, meaning they think we have been destroyed.

Commander Kakriko believes that we can engage the Generator again safely from orbit as my direct concern now would be prevent this technology from being discovered by the Romulans, as it could provide further instabilities in the region.

We now know that the Atlantis was tragically destroyed and the signal that brought us here was the emergency distress beacon that had survived impacting on the planet below.

I have been notably shaken by the events of the previous few days, as has Lieutenant Commander Muraco who has asked for a leave of absence when we return to Starbase 248 in a few days.

Doctor Kylen Tao has examined the body of "another" Alexander Greyfell currently in the morgue and myself. He informs me that he can not find any differences, even at the genetic level.

Still I find myself disturbed and wondering, am I an imposter, living another man's life?

The Warrior was currently at warp back to Starbase 248 as Captain Alexander Greyfell ordered himself a cup of coffee from the replicator. He glanced over at the status reports, a small mound of PADDs on his desk but he just could not bring himself to read them.

Even though he knew this ship, knew the people on it... somehow, things felt different for him.

Counselor Mewsin had assured him that these feelings would pass and even to medical science, he was the real Alexander Greyfell but who was that other guy in the morgue? How could there be two of them?

He sighed and sipped a little coffee from his standard issue Starfleet mug. He grimaced his face up. There was something not right about this coffee, it was way too sweet for him.

"Computer..." he asked, putting the mug back in the replicator. "Has my regular coffee recipe been changed recently?"

"Negative", the computer chimed with the same standard female voice that all Federation ships had. Greyfell had always wondered who the voice of the computer had been, maybe she had been the wife of one of the original designers?

This answer brought him no comfort. He had hoped that maybe he crew was playing a prank on him as they sometimes did, he had always supported a more harmless jovial attitude onboard the Warrior.

But... it was not the coffee that had changed...

The doorbell for his ready room went and brought him back down to reality. He walked back over to his desk.

"Enter..." he barked, quickly glancing over the status reports just to make himself look busy.

He looked up and was greeted by the familiar face of his dependable First Officer. He could tell that Commander Tempest had not been remotely phased by the sudden revelation of two versions of Alexander Greyfell at all, infact Alexander could tell that he was used to these kind of oddities.

"What is it Shon?" he asked, stilling looking down at the status reports and marking them off for approvals on the repair schedule that Muraco had given him earlier.

"Captain..." replied Shon with a nod, his narrow muzzle arcing downwards as he always did before he was about to get serious. "I thought you may like to know that Commander Kakriko has finished his analysis of the Iaidon Computer we encountered on Eranus III."

"I see..." replied Alexander, putting down and pad and giving his First Officer his full attention. "And...?" he gestured to the chair in front of his desk and quickly added. "Have a seat..."

Commander Tempest sat down and looked over at his Captain, since main power had been restored he had the opportunity to finally take a shower and repairs to the ship itself were well underway. "We now know how Iaidon was able to duplicate you..."

Alexander grimaced a bit. He really was not sure if he wanted to hear this or not but this mystery had been the final piece of the puzzle and he wanted to make sure that he had it all straight in his head to prove to Starfleet that he was the same person. "Go on..." he nodded.

"It seems that he harnessed your DNA profile from the ship's computer and then used particle synthesis to create an exact version of you." Shon choose his words carefully, he wanted to avoid saying words like duplicate or copy to avoid hurting the feelings of his commanding officer. In a way, he was just glad to have him back at all.

"So... I'm a copy then? A clone..." Alexander had braced himself for the news and suspected it himself but he refused to accept it.

"Technically not a clone." replied Shon with precision and diligence. "As the Doctor has confirmed, there is no difference between you and the original Alexander Greyfell. You are an exact match."

Alexander did not feel exact. He felt as if he was a lame imitation, a copy of the original who had assumed the identity and duty of a dead man. Shon held out his arm to give Captain Greyfell a PADD that he had been holding.

"I just received this from Starbase 248."

Captain Greyfell took it and glanced over it with his eyes, Commander Tempest had by now provided a full report back to Starfleet and they communicated back their response.

"To Captain Alexander Greyfell,

As per the report provided by Commander Shon Tempest, charges of insubordination, dereliction of duty and violation of the Treaty of Algeron have been dropped on the grounds that the person who committed those crimes are now deceased.

As a result, command of the U.S.S. Warrior will remain with Alexander Greyfrel (II) until further notice. The U.S.S. Warrior is hereby ordered to report to Commander Andre Quinteros at Federation Station; Deep Space Three for assignment.

Fleet Admiral Alynna Nechayev

Starfleet Command"

"Well now..." replied Captain Greyfell, dropping the pad on the table with a sigh. "This worked out pretty well for Command. Now they can sweep the whole diplomatic incident with the Romulans under the rug and tell them that I'm dead."

"I thought so as well..." replied Shon, shaking his head with the same disapproval. "What do you know about Deep Space Three, Alex..."

"It's a crappy little station where they send troublesome starship crews off to retire..."