USS Truckee bridge

The USS Truckee had matched speed with the three, slowly tumbling asteroids that drifted around the K’tarak nebula. The ship had made it through the nebula without incident, detecting nothing of interest on their way in. Captain Beardsly scratched his chin thoughtfully as he glared at the asteroid on the viewscreen, silently willing it to reveal its secrets.

“Report, Ops.”

Lieutenant Commander William Bishop cleared his throat. “Ah, well sir, initial sensor sweep is showing nothing of interest. I’m running a deeper analysis at the moment, just waiting for the data to collate so I can offer any conclusions… Oh, yes hmm. Ok. Hmm.”

Marcus waited patiently. He didn’t need to prompt the older science officer. He knew Bishop was in the middle of forming his conclusions, and would offer them up as soon as he was sure.

“Alright sir. First, definite confirmation that these asteroids were positioned artificially. Geological analysis of the surface shows unnatural degradation of the regolith, matching that which might be seen after long-term use of strong tractor beams.” Bishop reported, as he silently made a note to start writing a paper on this subject.

“Second, I don’t believe this asteroid is solid, despite the visual indications. The way it tumbles… It doesn’t spin as an asteroid of uniform-volume should.”

Commander Aldiib interrupted at this point. “Mr. Bishop – since the asteroids were positioned here by an unknown power, couldn’t they simply have initiated this unusual spin you’ve noticed?” Marcus lifted a finger and titled his head towards the officer at Ops. If Marcus knew William Bishop like he thought he did, the man would have more to support his claim.

Marcus Beardsly’s instincts about his science officer proved correct. William Bishop nodded at his XO’s question, and continued without taking his eyes off his console. “Yes commander, they could have. I would not have mentioned it were it an isolated observation, however there is another feature of interest on this asteroid. I’m picking up a faintly fluctuating magnetic signature here…” As he spoke, a section of the asteroid on the viewscreen suddenly lit up with some green cross-hatching. “…uh, yes, there… I believe this is a poorly masked power signature for a holographic system.”

Peldun Aldiib stood then, and walked over to the Ops stations. Peldun placed a hand on William Bishop’s shoulder, gave it a single pat, and said “good work.” Then he moved about the bridge, checking in with the other officers on watch at the time. Marcus watched this with silent appreciation. He was pleased to see the XO making an effort to build a rapport with the crew, even if it took a misstep to get the ball rolling.

“Captain, I believe tactical has pinpointed an emitter here.” The viewscreen changed again, highlighting a small point on the asteroid in red. “I suggest a low power phaser burst.” Commander Aldiib stood next to tactical as he made his announcement, and directed the ensign next to him to prepare to execute the order if given.

Marcus made eye-contact with his XO and nodded. “Do it. Let’s see what’s inside.”

A red burst of energy arced out from the Truckee’s dorsal phaser array and struck the asteroid’s surface. The result was instantaneous. What had previously appeared to be an ordinary crater flickered out of existence, replaced by a gaping cavern. Sensors started urgently reporting new readings, and William Bishop called out his report.

“That holographic camouflage must have also been blocking sensor scans. We are now picking up evidence of internal, manmade structures. No power readings, everything seems offline, but there are definitely habitable structures and various machinery present inside the asteroid. It’s a base alright, sir.

Marcus stood and straightened his shirt, pleased with this development. “Excellent. Commander Aldiib, lead an away team. It would seem no one is home, but let’s err on the side of caution. See if they left any breadcrumbs for us to follow.”

Asteroid base

Commander Aldiib and Lieutenant Rakes materialized inside a dark corridor, flanked by three personnel from security. All five of them wore environmental suits, as the lifeless station was currently making zero effort to keep anything alive. Switching on their shoulder-mounted flashlights, the away team peered into the dark.

“Lieutenant Rakes, see if you can get enough power back to bring the computer online. Take two security. I’m going to find the command hub, if it exists.”

“Roger that commander.” Rakes replied. Gesturing to her escorts, she followed the path her tricorder laid out for her as she started searching for the base reactor.

Peldun watched as the young engineer and the two security personnel disappeared down the corridor. He then consulted his own tricorder, updating itself with a growing map as Rakes’ team explored. Peldun set out in the opposite direction, phaser drawn and leveled ahead of him.

He’d just stumbled across what looked like a central command post, when some emergency lighting kicked on. It bathed the room in enough light to show Peldun that this would probably give him the access he needed. His comm badge chirped.

“Rakes to Commander Aldiib. Power is coming up now. Batteries are providing some light and should be bringing up the station’s core computer. From what I can tell, they’re only strong enough to power up the reactor – they aren’t meant for sustained use. Nominally, they’d kickstart the reactor and then get recharged before the next shutdown. Should I bring everything online?”

Peldun considered his choices. If it were up to him, he’d probably boobytrap the base. At the very least, he’d blow it up. But, given what he knew of Captain Beardsly, neither of those were likely to happen. Sighing, he tapped his badge.

“Just the batteries for now. We’ll let them drain and annoy anyone who comes looking for this base later. See if you can rig up some sort of subspace beacon to let us know if anyone returns here. Good work Lieutenant.”

“Roger that sir.” The comm line closed after Rakes’ reply.

Peldun brushed the dust off a terminal as it flickered to life. He studied the readout for a moment, then, realizing it was locked, got to work. A few lines of code he learned from his younger days made quick work of the security lockout, and he was in. Peldun studied the console.

“Commander Aldiib to Truckee. I have access to the station’s records. The station logged every ship that has entered and left, and the only one for the past 6 months has been the Keldon-class vessel we defeated. Additionally, I can see a rough inventory of the goods stored here. It is not enough to account for all the activity of these pirates, so they must’ve been selling it elsewhere. I will download all records, and perhaps the personal logs might give us a clue as to where.”

Captain Beardsly’s voice responded. “Good work commander. Get some transponders on any remaining goods, and we’ll try to return them to their rightful owners when all is said and done. Transmit those logs first, if you don’t mind. Maybe we can have a destination ready to go by the time Chief L’rake beams everything back.”

“Yes captain. Aldiib out.” Peldun began downloading the station logs to his tricorder, then set it to transmit when complete. He then turned to his security escort and beckoned for him to follow. “To the cargo hold we go.”

“For the fourth time, ma’am, please stop swinging your phaser around. We’re watching the doors, and tricorders still show no life signs.” The security officer pleaded with Lieutenant Rakes.

“I swear I hear someone approaching! You don’t hear that?” Kim Rakes demanded, but put an apologetic tone in her voice. Her nerves were on edge. It seemed like every time she started to focus on her task of hiding and connecting a small, long-range transmitter, she’d been interrupted by the sound of approaching footsteps.

“There’s nobody here but us, ma’am. We’re keeping an eye out anyway. Don’t worry, we’ve got your back.”

Rakes nodded, then bumped her facemask as she absent-mindedly tried to wipe the sweat from her brow. Cursing under her breath, she lifted the spanner again and got back to work. She’d hid the transponder in a stuffing tube, slightly downstream of the battery. Whenever someone returned to the station, and tried to recharge the batteries, her transponder would steal a fraction of the energy and transmit a pulse to the Truckee. The pirates – or whoever returned – should never know it was there.

As Kim closed the panel, she heard the sounds again. She forced herself to remain on task, but this time the faint scraping on the deck was accompanied by an exclamation from the security team.

“What the – shit, look out!”

A green glow lit the room as disrupter pulses streaked into the dusty engineering bay. Rakes threw herself behind a bulkhead, yelping. Turning her head to peak around the corner, her eyes widened in fear. A nightmarish, mechanical construct was firing on her team. One security guard was already down, screaming. The other crouched behind some small scaffolding, returning fire with his phaser.

“Rakes to Commander Aldiib, we’re under attack! Looks like the pirates built themselves a droid to defend the place while they were away! Requesting backup!”

To the second security guard’s credit, he landed several shots with his phaser. They weren’t entirely ineffectual either, as pieces blew off the machine, but it continued it’s relentless march towards them. Then the second guard was down. He lay motionless, half his helmet having been atomized by the disruptor.

Rakes tried to lift her phaser, but her arm wouldn’t respond. Kim was terrified. Who the fuck uses robots these days?! She tried again, and this time she got her phaser at the ready. She listened as the heavy footsteps grew closer. Closer. Kim steeled herself to turn and fire, knowing she was unlikely to be faster than the machine.

Then she heard the familiar sound of phaser fire again. She risked another look. A steady, continuous red beam was searing through the void of the room, and burning through the deadly defender. It turned it’s two disruptors towards the source of the beam, but it was slow. Before the disruptors could be aimed at the target, the phaser beam emerged out the backside of the machine, and it crumpled to the ground in a flurry of sparks.

Commander Aldiib stepped out from around the corridor entrance. “Lieutenant Rakes, are you in there?”

“I’m here sir. I… I don’t think the other two made it.” Rakes couldn’t keep herself from shaking as she said it. Not only had she not fired a single shot, but she’d allowed the two enlisted men with her to die. The guilt wasted no time boring down on her mind.

“No, petty officer Norak is still moving. Away team to Truckee, medical emergency. Beam Norak directly to sickbay. We had a firefight, but the situation is now resolved. Standby.”

Peldun moved to stand over the machine that had assaulted his chief engineer. It lay motionless now, all lights extinguished from its frame. He could see it had been haphazardly constructed – likely pieced together from multiple machines. They should investigate.

“Lieutenant. Bring the machine back to the Truckee. Take it apart. Find out if any of this was Federation technology. We need to know where it came from.”

Rakes nodded slowly, still in shock. “Yes sir. I’ll… I’ll get right on it. My team can have it apart and catalogued in… soon.” Kim didn’t know if she was up for that quite yet. She was going to need some help.