Following a Lead

Posted on Sun Mar 16th, 2025 @ 10:43pm by Captain Shran dh'Klar

Mission: Genetic Purity
Location: USS Washington

It had been 8 days since they had dropped off the cadets back on Earth after the training cruise. Cadet del Rio had officially graduated from StarFleet Medical and had joined Dr. Howard's medical staff and officially come aboard with a dozen other new crewmembers. The Washington had been mostly quiet for the last week as they moved at Warp 5, following up on an old mission that was tied into this project that Inara had been preoccupied with since the time the cadets had come aboard.

Shran sat on the bridge, Deanna the only other senior officer currently on duty. He was looking at some routine scanner readings when Deanna got his attention as they were entering an unexplored star system. "Captain, I'm detecting something orbiting the 4th planet of this system,"

"Any idea what it is? I assume you are talking about a moon" Shran replied.

"Signal is clearing up as we move closer. Readings aren't clear due to heavy concentrations of radioactive material in the local asteroid belt" Deanna replied.

"What sort of dangers are we looking at?" Shran asked.

"Mostly uranium and thorium, but nothing so severe that our shields won't protect us. I'm reading beryllium-10 as well, which would be caused from the local star sending out high quantities of cosmic rays to create it" Deanna replied.

"Can we push through the area quickly?" Shran questioned.

"That would be the best option if we are going to investigate. I would suggest we push through the asteroid belt at full impulse, putting auxiliary power into shields and the deflector. While we pass through, we can use the phasers to help eliminate problems" Deanna stated emphatically.

"Very well. Shields up, sound red alert. Tie in the auxiliary power to shields and the deflector" the Andorian ordered. "Helm, full impulse. Get us through as quickly as possible." He looked back at tactical, "Ready phasers, target any asteroid that looks like it might impact the shields or worse, us. And load a full spread of photon torpedoes and prepare to fire at the large nearby large asteroid at bearing 028.44. Set torpedo yield to maximum and fire when ready."

The torpedoes quickly streaked from the Washington and slammed into the target, a brilliant explosion lighting things up momentarily. "Report" Shran quickly yelled.

"Asteroid 70% destroyed, remaining remnants dispersing into the field, mostly detecting high quantities of nickel, chromium, iron, and beryllium" Deanna replied. "Not detecting anything else that would be of note."

"We'll be out of the asteroid belt in 20 seconds" L'Rissa stated from the helm.

"I'm starting to get clear readings" Deanna stated. "Detecting titanium and multiple polymers not seen since the mid-21st century on Earth. Detecting what appears to be an old DY-100 sleeper ship in high orbit of the planet."

"Is it operational?" Shran questioned.

"It is dead in space. But I believe two more are on the planet, if Inara is to be believed" Deanna responded.

"Very well. Take us to transporter range of the derelict ship. We'll start our investigation there. And get Inara up here. Looks like to some degree her little hunch or lead or whatever has paid off. I want every sensor array we have scanning every last square millimeter of this system. This is giving me Botany Bay vibes" Shran ordered.

The Andorian sat back in his chair and looked at the image of the ship before him, hanging in orbit over the plant. He had a distinct feeling things were about to get very interesting.