Luck and Disaster - Part 6

Posted on Sun Aug 3rd, 2025 @ 9:30am by Captain Daegan Baas & Lieutenant M'Tala "Hobbes" Clan Hrasi & Lieutenant JG Aziz Yilmaz & Commander Jerome Hunt Jr. & Lieutenant Liam O'Riley & Lieutenant Zane D'Sai & Lieutenant Niami Troga
Edited on on Sun Aug 3rd, 2025 @ 4:23pm

2,165 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Sole Survivor
Location: Orbital construction station
Timeline: MD 18 - 1400

[Meanwhile in orbit...]

As the team materialized Wallace's boots locked onto the floor they had been beamed into one of the area with life support but he drew his tricorder, scanning the area. There was air but fouled by time and the decomp of the remains in the section.

Moving to a sealed door he peered into the space. "Commander." Waving him over. "There's no breach that I can detect but the area is decompressed."

Jerome looked around the room. The station was still up and running on emergency power. In all honesty, he wondered how long it had done so. "Regardless of life support we keep these helmets on. Let's see what we can find regarding remains of personnel and information."

Garath looked about the area and moved forward scanning the door before him. Pulling on a latch in the frame the door opened revealing a larger area, and more bodies.

Johannsen moved from one to the other scanning each of them.

Meanwhile Lieutenant Sovak was scanning the power output and was not liking what he was seeing "Commander Hunt, it would appear by my readings, the station is slowly losing power" he stated in his usual Vulcan manner.

Thorton was really glad they had suits on, seeing the bodies that were inside, he shuddered. Just because they were security didn't mean they were immune to seeing a horrific sight such as this.

Finishing up his scans of the bodies in the area he returned to the Commander's position. "These people died of various causes. All of these people were starving, no doubt they had run out of supplies and without any hope of getting any thing from the surface... Well some succumbed to the starvation the others took their own lives."

As Johannsen finished a voice sounded over the teams comms channel. "Commander I believe I found the stations control center."

Thorton looked over towards Gareth, "Looks like we're being summoned yes?" coming over the com of the EV suit.

Looking at the bodies, Hunt sighed to himself. "Makes you wonder why they didn't have access to a ship to go anywhere else. These people do have technology available to travel to other worlds." Making his way over to Sovak, he looked at the panel. "How much power does this place have left?"

Checking his tri-corder "At the present rate of power loss Commander, and given the mass of the station, logically one can extrapolate in thirty days the station's orbit will start to decay" Sovak replied giving only the facts

"Is there anyway we can keep the station in orbit?" Jerome questioned. "There is far more that we can learn by setting things right up here."

Thinking for a few moments "Given the age of the equipment here trying to find a way to re-power the main systems is illogical" then Sovak paused "However we could install a high efficiency solar panel Commander since being in space their sun is always in the same location; that could be attached to the backup system that is now in use."

[USS Valkyrie]

Having not heard from either of the away teams he started by hailing the team aboard the station. "Baas to away team, Commander Hunt, what have found?"

"Captain...No survivors on the station," the Commander reported. "Cause of death was either suicide or starvation. The station has about thirty days before falling out of orbit. I'm wondering if it would be in the best interest in preventing that from taking place."

"We'll wait to make that call until we hear from the ground team. Continue your search of the station and ship. If they were building another ship like Aseek's there may be other embryo pods possibly that archive that's so important to him."

It never occurred to the Commander to check out the dock ship embryo pods. These people starved or killed themselves. What were the odds that they actually tried to preserve life on an unfinished ship. "We'll check it out. Alright everyone, lets continue our search of the station and the docked ship as well."

Garath nodded. "Roger that sir." There several container secured to the wall and he scanned several before her began opening them.

Moving passed the curious security guard Johannsen moved ahead to the next compartment. The module seemed to be a medical or lab area. He had seen the pods that they had recovered earlier and there were several alcoves for embryo pods but they were empty. Several containers of coolant led him to believe they would have been due to receive those pods had things gone differently on the surface.

Pods, they need to go find pods. Hopefully they will find something for the sole survivor of this race. He was quick to follow after Johannsen, his teeth grinding as he went. The man was moving too swiftly for his liking. "Sir we've not checked this out thoroughly." even though there was no indication of life. He felt that it wasn't good for the officer to head in there.

Turning back, "Because there's nothing up here to worry about. The creatures our survivor described couldn't have made it up here. According to him the transformation was rapid so there was no way for an infected person to have made it past any of his peoples prelaunch processes, let alone the trip up or the docking process. If you were looking for action you probably should have swapped with someone on the ground team." Reaching out he patted the security member on the shoulder as he resumed his search of the section.

"That doesn't mean we shouldn't keep our guard up," Hunt responded. "The transformation might be quick, but there could be someone that has more of an immunity to it which could lead to a much slower transformation." Taking a peek into the empty pods, the Commander sighed. It would be a shame for this civilization to have come to an end like this. But on another note, this could have been the makings of next evolution to this world.

Johannsen nodded with a bit of a shrug. Given that they knew absolutely nothing about the contagion, other than the horror story a..a..Aseek had told them anything was possible. "Understood sir. Error on the side of caution regardless, Got it."

He continued his search of the area and found workstation area with a body floating near by. Scanning the remains...he confirmed his suspicion, given the syringe nearby; suicide by lethal injection. Moving to the workstation he saw, what appeared to be several antiquated external storage devices. One still in the console. "Commander, I have what looks to be several external storage devices."

Opening his tricorder he was able to translate the controls thank to the earlier work done when they had first started on this merry go round.

It wasn't long before the others had joined him. "The most recent file was a visual recording. Shall I play it?"

Looking to Johannsen "That would seem like the logical course of action" Sovak commented as only a Vulcan would meaning no disrespect.

"Agreed. Commander? Should we open a channel back to the ship?"

"Go ahead and play the recording first," the first officer instructed. "Need to have a little more detail to get back to the Captain with."

Activating the monitor on the bulkhead it came to life, displaying the living incarnation of the corpse nearby.

"I don't know if there is anyone or anything out there, but if anyone sees this...if you value your lives do not go down to the surface. Our world has been overrun by...by something not of this world. We are all that's left and eventually we, well the few of us left, will be gone to.

"It's been several days since we ran out of supplies. Some tried to hold out. Others put on their suits and pushed off the station...floating home. Once our construction sites were over run that means no more modules for the ship we were building and no more supplies for us. When the last, inevitable transmission came in that the launch complex was all that was left...and that they weren't going to last much longer...well that was that.

"We managed to activated the power plant on the ship we were building and rerouted the power to the station. Hopefully it will keep the station in orbit long enough for someone find this." Holding up a key card and putting it in chest pocket of his jumpsuit. "This will get you into the construction area an the ship. Two compartments in you will find the shielded high value storage vault. In that vault are two large case of new crystal storage disks.

"Everything we were, is on those disks. Inside one of the cases is a smaller container with everything we know about the Defiled...which isn't much but we think we've learned where they came from. One thing is for certain is that they are unstoppable. They destroy everything...men, women, children, animals, everything."

Putting a needle in his arm he injected himself. "If you have means. Destroy the surface right down to the last microbe...it's the only way to be sure."

Garath was at the back of the group as the screen when black and he turned to the corpse of the man they had been listening to and recovered the access card. "I have the card Commander."

Commander Hunt looked towards Garath. "Let's get to those disks. Get the Captain back on the comm. Seriously have a bad feeling about our team on the surface."

Looking to the Ops chief, he handed off the card. "Sir, If you want to open things up I will check the areas as we go."

The directions were clear enough and Zane found the the cases without two much trouble. He could have taken just the stuff on the defiled but that seemed wrong. Every word would have meaning. This was something he understood from his own world and the late night diatribes of the old men. Every artifact had meaning, everything needed to be saved. He gestured to Garath to help as he took one end of a case. "These are heavier than they look," he said. "Help me get these out of here."

"Yes sir." Garath took hold of one of the cases, and was surprised by the weight, but he managed easy enough. Together they headed back to the rest of the team.


[USS Valkyrie]

Aziz looked of the console as the surface team continued. He had already had to reinforce the signal to maintain both the transporter lock and communications. Whatever the facility had been built into was interfering. "Captain we a losing the awayteam."

Staying in his seat, "Boost the signal."

"I have. The material in either the surface or building materials is creating interference."

Turning in his seat Hobbs jumped in. "Captain, I can take a shuttle into the upper atmosphere and act as a relay."

"Do it."

As Hobbs disappeared into the lift Aziz reported. "Sir, Commander Hunt's team is hailing."

With a gesture the channel was opened. "Got good news Commander?"


[Orbital station]

"Got a clear idea on what took place here and will bring somethings back to the ship," Jerome answered. "But we just heard a very cryptic message that was left behind. This all took place a very long time ago. But I am seriously concerned about the away team down on the surface. What's their current status?"

=^= Seems like your concerns are well founded. We just lost communications and the transporter lock on the surface team. Wrap up and return with whatever you and return with whatever you found. =^=

The Commander looked back at the rest of the team. He could only hope that the away team didn't share the fate of these people. "Captain, one other thing. This station will be falling out of orbit soon. Perhaps we can work to rectify that issue before returning back to the Valkyrie?"

=^= If we need to we can use a tractor beam to pull it to a higher orbit. If not we will just let fate take it's course. =^=

"That should work. Give us about three minutes and will be ready to transport back with some useful items."

=^= Understood. Transport when ready. Valkyrie out. =^=

Thornton was worried for his friends on the planet he hope that they would come back.

Garath and Lt. D'Sai returned a short time later and Garath set his case down waiting for any further instruction or the call to take them back.

As the team gathered around, Hunt's concerns was now focused on the away team down on the surface that possibly now in need of rescuing. Hopefully with all the information they obtained on the station, maybe they could come with a cure or a way of eradicating these defiled.

=^=Hunt to Valkyrie, bring us home=^=



TBC...

 

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