Solar Investigations

Posted on Sat Apr 19th, 2025 @ 3:46pm by Captain Taiga Aisaka & Ensign Mikko Ishigami & Lieutenant Talia Johnson & Lieutenant Takina Inoue & Captain Elizabeth F. "Liz" Beurling & Lieutenant JG Dana Monroe & Lieutenant JG Connor Carey

1,309 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Andromeda
Location: USS Tokyo Bridge

Now that the Away Team were well on their way, the Tokyo banked away from surface of the Dyson Sphere and headed slowly towards the star in the center. The sun did look strange, it was mainly black with only small spots of light randomly shining through, looked almost as if it was covered by something.

"Keep us at a slow speed. I want to be careful," Taiga ordered towards the helm.

Ensign Miko Ishigami looked back and nodded. "Aye Captain, keeping her nice and slow."

"Are we close enough to get a detailed scan of the star?" Taiga asked.

“Yes Captain” Dana nodded as she traced her fingers over the Ops console. “The Star is registering as a normal Type G Star, according to my readouts what’s making it appear so dark is what appears to be a dense cluster of ships. At least that’s what the readouts are suggesting.”

Lieutenant Inoue, who had been appointed to fill in for Chisato, tilted her head to one side. "A reserve fleet, perhaps?" she postulated, though it was far too early to say anything definitively until they got closer... if they could get closer.

"Have they detected us?" Taiga asked.

Dana shook her head. “There's no sign of any movement Captain, so if they have they obviously either don't care, or they don’t consider us a threat.”

"Hold position here," Taiga ordered. An idea sparked in her eyes and suddenly she seemed more motivated. "I don't want to alert them to our presence. So, let's send in a scout."

“Captain, they may already have picked up our presence and are just ignoring it” Dana responded. “Sending in a scout may put the crew aboard at risk.”

"She has a point, Captain," Lieutenant Inoue agreed. "Even if those ships aren't occupied, we have no way of knowing if they've got some sort of automated defense mechanism that'll shoot a scout craft clean out of the sky."

"How about instead of a scout craft, we send in a probe?" Liz suggested as an alternative. "The destruction of an unmanned piece of kit would be less costly than that of a crewed auxiliary craft."

"Can we apply stealth technology to a probe?" Taiga asked. "I was thinking of sending in one of our Starfighters. They can evade better than a probe."

Lieutenant Inoue carefully pondered the question. It was clear that she wasn't used to making big decisions such as these, having previously relied on either Chisato or Lieutenant Chihc to back her up.

"Well, I'm certainly no expert in that field but were we to go down that route, but I'd think that any fighters we send out there are going to need to be fitted out with some kind of heat shield that would allow the craft to withstand temperatures of... let's see, it's a Class G Star, so... I'd reckon somewhere in the ballpark of five, six thousand degrees kelvin?" she suggested.

"We need to find out more information on those ships." Taiga stated. "But I am not going to risk taking the entire Tokyo in. This ship is our only way home, so I need options not theories."

"Class IV probe... its got sensor cloaking tech... but if someone looks out the window they will see it."

"Prepare a class IV probe." Taiga ordered. "Have it set to stealthily pass and scan those ships, we need to know what they are." She was eager to discover what sort of ships they were and if they could be used to get them back home.

Lieutenant Inoue stood up. "Lieutenant Monroe I will head down to Engineering to get the probe set up," she offered, before turning to Dana. "Lieutenant l, if you'll lead the way?"

Dana nodded, stepping aside to let her replacement take over at Ops. “Right this way Lieutenant.”

Lieutenant Inoue nodded and, likewise stepping aside to allow her replacement take over at the Intel station, proceeded to follow Dana into the Turbolift.

---

[Engineering]

A class IV probe had been transported to Engineering, it's case had been opened ready for modifications. Lieutenant Reynolds had been looking after Engineering since the Tokyos relaunch. He was already working on the prove modifications.

"So what do you reckon, Lieutenant?" Lieutenant Inoue inquired. "Even with the heat shielding, about how close do you figure we can get to that thing?"

Reynolds scratched his temple. "I think we can get pretty close," he stepped back and studied the insides of the probe for a brief moment. "These probes are pretty advanced. We usually use them to scout anything from enemy ships to early space faring civilizations. But we won't know if it'll work until it gets closer."

“With the correct modifications it should work perfectly” Dana offered. “What knowledge I still possess from my time as a Borg comes in useful from time to time, I should be able to enhance the scanners on the probe to give us a much better reading.”

"Be my guest," Reynolds said holding his arms out like he was presenting the probe. "I'm no expert in Borg tech, frankly I find it all a little... freaky and intrusive... no offense." He said as he looked at Dana.

“I can… understand that” Dana nodded. “It took me a long time to get used to not being a part of the collective anymore. They could have left me to die, but they didn’t. If I can repay that kindness then I will.”

"Well." Reynolds said. "I've done everything I can here, I'll leave it on your capable hands." He turned away from the prove to attend elsewhere in Engineering.

"Bridge to Engineering, is that probe ready yet?" Taiga's voice emanate from their comm badges.

Dana tapped her comm badge. “Almost Captain, I’m making the final adjustments to the sensor capabilities now.” It didn’t take long before she was ready. “Probe is ready Captain.”

=A=Shouldn't take us more than 10 minutes to get this thing loaded, Captain,=A= Lieutenant Inoue estimated. =A=We'll be back up there shortly.=A=

[Bridge]

With the probe now loaded into one if the Tokyo's torpedo tubes, they were finally ready to get a closer look at the ship's around the sun. Taiga changed the viewscreen to show the readings from the probe in real time. "Mister Carey, launch the probe."

"Aye Captain." He replied as he launched the probe. Looking at the screen showed the probe travel in front of the ship.

Connor waited, this was part of the job that he hated, the waiting. However that was soon disrupted, "Captain, we are receiving a message, unsure the origination."

"A message? From whom?" Taiga asked.

"Its a written message, not video, or audio... however..." He checked once again to determine the authenticity. The Security code was legit. "Best I show you on screen." He tapped a few buttons.

Within seconds the screen went blank with a text that replaced the view. "Iconian infiltration imminent, offer no resistance, Tokyo's survival depends on it. Recall shuttle, any hostile action puts the entire milky way galaxy at risk. Commander Thomas Johnson, Authorization Johnson Alpha Bravo 9915486"

"Wait a moment..." Taiga said as she read the message. It only appeared for a few seconds allowing them to read it before it disappeared. "Verify that code. Start scanning for Iconian..." However she was cut off suddenly as the Tokyo shook.

The viewscreen now showed a strange ship, it looked like a spider but parts of it weren't attached. It loomed over the Tokyo and had the Federation Starship trapped in some sort of tractor beam. The lights and consoles began to flicker and fail as the Tokyo's power was being drained away...

To be continued...

 

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