Scattered Stars | Part I

Posted on Sunday, 15 August 2021 - 2:45pm by Captain Barret Stillwater & Commander Soral & Lieutenant Ryan Rose MD & Lieutenant Alex Kingsley & Lieutenant JG Adrianna Eberhardt
Edited on on Sunday, 15 August 2021 - 2:45pm

Mission: Operation: Lazarus
Location: USS Standing Bear | Deck 01 | Bridge
Timeline: MD 7

The USS Standing Bear had gone deeper and deeper into the uncharted, not knowing what was ahead of them was one issue albeit a motivating factor for exploration and it had tickled the captain’s curiosity. As much as he was adamant that he was not a scientist, he was daring, and he was an adventurer. Fortunately, his crew had someone who brought in a healthy injection of science to the mixture as well. “How ready is this first volley of probes, Lieutenant?” the captain asked as he stood from his seat and made his way over to the science station where Kingsley was manning the bridge’s science station.

With another brief glance at her console, Lieutenant Kingsley flashed him a reassuring smile, "we made some adjustments to counter a variance in the lateral sensors but the update is complete. Just another few minutes and we will have them all loaded and ready to go, Sir."

All was otherwise quiet in the bleak blackness of space, serene to the naked eye on the main view screen. There was seemingly nothing out there, nothing of interest in this region of space. In a way, it was a dead zone. There were hardly any planets nor planetoids around to be detected on long-range sensors. Captain Stillwater looked over at his Tactical Officer who when off-duty was Stillwater’s husband, but on duty, the two rarely ‘broke that barrier’ albeit it happened from time to time. “Anything?” inquired Stillwater.

The Cardassian ex-Borg simply looked up from his console, locked eyes with Stillwater, and scoffed. Then, the pale-skinned Cardassian went back to studying his console without so much as a word. He’s bored thought Stillwater. If Talarn was not smashing things or shooting things, he was often getting fidgety, and his Achilles heel was boredom. Stillwater cleared his throat and caught the Cardassian's attention. A split-second exchange of glares and gestures had sent Talarn to the turbolift. The two had their own sense of communication. Stillwater had essentially told Talarn to stretch his legs for a bit.

“Number One,” Captain Stillwater said looking at the seated Vulcan, his First Officer. “Take tactical for a bit,” suggested Barret Stillwater who wanted to make sure that the station was covered at all times. It would be like riding a bike for Soral who was a Chief Tactical Officer prior to having risen and crossed into command positions.

"Yes sir," Soral stood and hurried to the panel actually glad to be standing at the post again. He'd always loved tactical.

This was not a stat dessert, it wasn’t a void, nor was it ‘the barrens,’ and it was not null space. There were stars out there albeit few and far between. It just was that this region of space no longer supported Humanoid lifeforms like the crew of the Standing Bear or the majority of the Federation member worlds.

“Petty Officer Eberhardt,” Stillwater called out to the Chief of Intelligence across the bridge. He made especially sure to address her by her married name although Baciami nearly slipped through his lips. “Pull up any star charts from this region,” he instructed.

Adrianna didn't look up, still not used to her name change. After a moment of silence, it clicked fro her and she looked up, "Oh, sorry captain." She pulled up the star charts, albeit incomplete ones, or ones with conflicting information.

“Harley, send our current coordinates to the Intelligence station,” he said swiftly to the helmsmen.

Stillwater focused his attention on Adrianna. “Find the nearest planet, and any information you can about it,” he said as he waited for Kingsley’s probes to be ready. He was practically 99% sure the nearest planet to them would not be Minshara class. Nothing out there was M-Class from as far as the sensors were reporting.

"There's a K-class," Adrianna offered, zooming to position for ease, and a questionable L-class adjacent."

“So the tourism industry is not a good line of work to be in around here,” Kingsley observed.

Her quick humor has managed a stir from Stillwater who let out a small chuckle. "I would imagine not," he replied to Kingsley.

Ryan was in sickbay, which was more or less a given. But he had an open line to the goings-on from the bridge. From his console in sickbay, he was getting a feed from science, and was ready to relay any pertinent information.

"Depends on the L Class," Adrianna commented, "a 'private island' styled getaway. Planet to yourself for a week sounds good."

Stillwater sighed "Yeah if you want to bring air purification units with you and go into all that effort," he added. He had been forced to spend a few hours on an L class planetoid many years ago. It was not an experience he ever wanted to repeat, an L class that could just barely support humanoid life. The oxygen levels were low and the CO2 levels were problematic. He managed to endure with his environmental suit.

"Helm lay in a course to that L-class planet," ordered Stillwater. "Kinglsey, we'll launch our first volley of probes near there. That should give us some good readings of space and of the planet itself, plus any anomalies."

Lieutenant Harley cleared his throat. "Jinx," the young man said. "There's something no too far from the planet, Sir. I don't know what it is yet."

The USS Standing Bear made its way to the L-class planet, and sensors were already providing more information on what Lieutenant Harley was detecting. "On screen," ordered Stillwater. It was some sort of nebula, what type he was uncertain. "Lieutenant, if those probes are ready, launch them at will."

“Aye sir,” Alex nodded, making a few final adjustments before initiating the launch sequence. “Launch successful, Sir.”

"Good," replied the Captain, unaware of what was lurking.