The Solar Ray Pt 2
Posted on Sat Oct 26th, 2024 @ 5:04pm by Commander Jason Elliot & Commander Zera Tirado & Lieutenant Commander Jorel Torin II & Lieutenant Commander Johanna Lyngstad & Lieutenant Xander Oroyo
1,833 words; about a 9 minute read
Mission:
Upon Stranger Stars
Location: Various
Timeline: Continuing
On:
"Columbia we have a problem." Jason said as he looked at the readings on his tricorder.
"What is it?" Zera asked simply as she looked down at her own tricorder.
"I have low level emissions with tachyons similar too...." Jason felt the blood drain from his face "A gateway."
"What kind of gateway? Usually, aren't tachyon emissions related to time travel?" Jorel asked, curious himself and taking out his own tricorder.
Johanna confirmed what Jason had sensed with his tricorder. "Gateway. That would confirm why the cargo hold is sealed up so well. There must be something in there that the crew did not want to get out."
Jason fished around in his bag again pulling out a hardcover notebook with an older intelligence logo embossed on the cover, he flipped through several pages then set his tricorder down next to a sketch in the book, "It matches one of the gates found during the Dominion war." showing the group "We need to get into that cargo bay as soon as possible before the wrong people get a hold of it."
"Wait...you're not telling me...that thing is a gateway that the Iconians used? The one that Captain Picard originally found in the Romulan Neutral Zone, are you?" Jorel asked, hoping he wasn't hearing what he was hearing.
Jason smiled coyly, "That one was one of two officially found, unofficially there have been six more found, two were very damaged and unusable, one was found intact but again unusable, the other three were fully functional and are safely stored in a place that only a handful of people know about." he paused picking up the tricorder "This will be number seven and if its' functional it might mean we'll need to secure it until it can be transported to a secure facility."
"First it's too dangerous to go in there; now we have to go in there." Johanna did not know a lot about Dominion War gateways; her specialties were in other areas.
Jason looked to the doctor, "Initially yes, it was too high risk with the poor state that the ships life support systems are in, but with the fact that this is technology that Intelligence had deemed too dangerous to allow into the hands of anyone who might use the tech in a malicious manner, since the discovery of the original gate on Iconia in the neutral zone several decades ago and those subsequent events that took place during the Dominion war as well as the Wellington incident we're obligated to take whatever measures necessary to prevent the technology from falling into the wrong hands." Jason paused realizing he almost went on a rant he continued "I'd like to get a chance to study the device myself, but we need to follow orders and destroy the device if we can't recover it, Commander I'll do this myself but the more people helping the faster things can happen, plus if we recover it it's a free trip back to earth to transfer it to the Daystrom institute." hoping that the idea of a trip back to earth might provide some motivation.
"I'm down for helping out! I just need to know what I'm doing, so that I don't accidentally blow something up or get us sucked out into unknown space or something," Jorel replied, stepping beside Jason so that he could lead the way and let him know what Jorel needed to do.
"Ok I am with you. But how can we safely get into the cargo area without endangering ourselves?"
Jason paused, "I'll have to get Annika to beam over a few things," he paused "Let's assume that there is likely something on the other side and a simple hand phaser won't stop, plus we might need some fireworks for the big finale."
Tapping his comm-badge "Wiseman beam over my field pack and case one A."
Seconds later a bulky field backpack and a pair of rifles appeared on the deck a few steps away, Jason smiled wickedly "Security isn't going to be too happy that I have these," he paused holding up one of the rifles to Jorel, "The Scimitar rifle, developed a few years ago when Starfleet thought the borg were going to be a bigger problem." he lifted te pack slinging it on his back, "Dual barrel weapon modernized type three phaser with three fire types, and the lower weapon is a cartridge feed shotgun, with five shots in each box, unfortunately all I was able to acquire were magnesium incendiary rounds, which means don't shoot unless you want to set something on fire."
Jason looked to the rest of the away team, "Regardless of what has come through the gate we're going to blow it up, we can't let anybody get this technology and we can't let what may have crept though get loose, anyone not comfortable with this can beam back."
Jorel shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I think there's a saying back on Earth. Only Nixon could go to China. Kinda fits us right now. Only we can save this stuff at the moment, so why not give ourselves an upper hand?"
Jason smiled, "Speaking of China, I've got a pack full of demolition charges, before we move back to the cargo holds let's set four on the reactor, the rest we'll use on the gate." he said pulling out four box shaped devices, "If we're able to salvage the gate instead of blowing it up it'll be nice to get a trip back to earth."
Johanna looked over the demolition charges. "So we blow up the reactor if we salvage the gate? Or if we don't salvage the gate? Or we just blow it up regardless?"
Jason smiled again, "I'd rather tow this whole ship to a Daytrom lab if possible but if there's a risk of it falling into the wrong hands or worse something has gotten aboard our only option may be to blow it all up, for now let's use caution and set some charges, I won't turn off the safety unless things go sideways doc, plus" pausing to pull out an odd looking device "You'd need this to set the explosives off." holding up the device, "Flick the switch, squeeze the handle, push the plunger and thirty seconds later ka-blammmo!"
"I mean...he's right though! Wouldn't want something like this to get into the hands of the Romulans or Dominion again, like some of the other ones that the Federation found. So, lets make a plan to blow it, but make like ten more to get it out of here and back to Earth for R&D," Jorel offered up with a chuckle as he headed over to Jason to get the demolition equipment ready.
Knowing the elephant in the room was next, "Doc you get to carry the second remote, if something goes sideways you can set the charges off either before or after everyone whose capable beams back to the ship." he said holding up a second remote toward the doctor.
"Stop all of you," Zera said simply as she crossed her arms. "We're not blowing anything up." She stated simply. "Lock down this ship abd let's return to Columbia. If that is an Iconian gateway in there we need to go over all options. There's no telling what destroying it might do."
Jason looked at the XO, "I've blown one up, nothing will happen except a rather large explosion." pausing knowing he was opening up a can of worms "We're going to make an effort to recover it, but I don't want it falling into the wrong hands either so we need both options and right now the red flag directives supersede normal procedures."
"And if you blow it up on a ship this old, with no active structural integrity field you could blow us all out into space." Zera replied back. "We can tow this ship with a tractor beam if necessary until we can determine the best way to proceed. We need to find out what it's doing here and if it's responsible for what happened here.".
Jason looked very annoyed, "If we are forced to blow it up I plan on being in the transporter room aboard Columbia, where did you plan on being?"
"My orders stand." Zera said. "We take the ship under tow. Then we decide what to do there. There may be a way we can remove the gateway and take it for further study."
Jason started to become angry and without thinking "I'm glad this is my last mission with this ship."
"May I remind you Lieutenant Commander that we are Starfleet Officers. We don't just go around 'blowing stuff up' when we please. There are protocols for things like this." Zera told him sternly. "Now, let's return to the Columbia where we will deal with this the proper way."
Jason looked over and decided not to speak 'In three weeks I'll be on earth so go ahead make violate orders it won't be my court martial.' he thought to himself
Zera looked around. "Pack up any equipment we brought with us. We're returning to the Columbia." She said to them all.
Jason just scowled as he zipped up the bag, and flipped the safety on his rifle to the on position and stood waiting for the commander to speak again.
Johanna was glad that they weren't blowing anything. Commander Tirado was pretty logical. She prepared to return to Columbia.
Jorel knew better than to say anything between those two and just accepted the orders that they would all be returning back to the Columbia before making anymore decisions. He stood by and waited for them to be transported back to the Columbia.
Epilogue
Ships log Stardate: 73860.02
The Daystom institute arrived moments after we returned too Columbia to take posession of the freighter Solar Flare and take to one of their facilities for further studies, while all they would confirm is that we had found an Iconian gate they would not disclose what else they found and that the matter was now classified. This is not sitting well with me and several others in the senior staff.
In what could be called a surprise too much of the crew Captain Th'Zeles has chosen to take what he's calling an indefinate leave of absence from Starfleet, a Transport arrived about an hour ago for him to depart and presumably return too Andoria. Starfleet has ordered myself and Commander Tirado to take Columbia back to the Terran sector to begin a scheduled overhaul and refit at Jupiter Shipyards, the timeline is oddly openended on the reift which will result in several of the crew being temporarally reassigned or allowed to move on, I myself have been asked to oversee the initial phase of the refit while a new Captain is assigned.
End log entry.
END
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