Blinking several times, Commander Hunsen couldn’t believe his luck. A level of exhaustion washed over him as he finally completed the task at hand. Wanting to give himself a pat on the back, the chief engineer waved his tricorder in the air. “I did it.” He cried to his teammates.

Covered in dust, mud and pure dirt, like everyone else, Commander Reyas heard her colleague’s announcement from where she was kneeling. Between her and Lieutenant Abbej, they were currently cataloguing the computer storage devices they were retrieving before they were sent up to Odyssey. Pleased to hear the news, she got up and wiped the filth off from her hands by rubbing them down the front of her uniform. “Do you mean it Tremt?” She checked.

Nodding profusely, the Betazoid showed her the scan that indicated that he did in fact disrupt the power supply to the particle synthesiser that was preventing them from gaining access to what they had dubbed, the forbidden Tkon chamber. “We’ve got a small window before the power relays reconfigure themselves to bypass the work I did, but it should be enough time to get in, set up a transporter enhancers and beam the entire contents of the chamber up to Odyssey.”

Almost wanting to kiss the man for his brilliant ingenuity and technical skills, Reyas instead opted for a close embrace and a well done. Abbej ran over instead and gave him a kiss on the cheek and a cuddle too. 

“Right, let’s do it then.” Reyas instructed her subordinates as they finally achieved their goal. 

“Odyssey to away team.” came the voice of Lieutenant Commander Jen over the intercom. “The transporter is waiting for your next beam up, is everything okay down there?”

Tapping his badge, Hunsen did the honours. “Standby Lukiz, we’re just about to enter the forbidden chamber.”

It took a second for it to sink in with the Trill ops manager, but he quickly spoke up. “That’s great news. I’ll inform the captain. Jen out.”

Abbej pushed the Tkon symbol and automatically the chamber’s entrance appeared. Giving it almost six seconds to clear, both Hunsen and Reyas were relieved when the door didn’t reappear. Stepping forward and picking up the transporter enhancer, Hunsen made his way in with Reyas by his side. 

The chamber itself was tall and all around the huge curved wall were numerous slots with the talismans in. Each one had the Tkon Empire emblem on them. Working quickly, Hunsen set up the transporter enhancer while Reyas scanned the room, trying to document everything that was in it. 

“How we doing Tremt?” She asked as she took the last scan and then closed her tricorder down. 

Twisting the enhancer central panel a full one-hundred-eighty degrees, the engineer activated the device. “We’re in luck.” He tapped his combadge. “Hunsen to Odyssey, pattern enhancer is set. We’re transmitting the coordinates to you now. Lock onto the devices and energise.”

“Away team this is Captain McCallister, well done. Targets obtained. Now get yourselves out of there and return to the ship. We’ve got a lot of data to sort out.” McCallister ordered over their combadges.

Pleased with their result, Reyas smiled proudly at Hunsen as they left the chamber. “Aye sir, we’ll be heading back to the Telemachus shortly. Does Doctor Slyvexs need any more information on those tags of hers?”

“Negative, the doctor says that the control panel that Hazard Team Beta liberated has aided her in understanding the tags further. She should have some more answers soon.” McCallister answered.   

“Alrighty then, we’ll be home soon. Reyas out.” She tapped her combadge and closed the channel. “I dunno about you guys, but I could do with a stiff drink right about now.”

“Aldebaran whiskey, right?” Hunsen said, smirking at their small victory with the Tkon artefacts. 

“Now that sounds like a party!” Abbej added as she approached them. “Shall I get the teams to start to tidy up and beam our gear back to the ship?”

“Please do, Abbej,” Reyas said, still smiling, “please do.”

Invicta (NCC-80000/36)

Flying a Delta-class runabout in a large body of water was challenging, even for a trained and highly experienced pilot like T’Rani. Manipulating the controls of the runabout required her to pay extra attention to the readings, instead of relying on the automatic work carried out by the computer. She was worried that if she took the ship down too quickly the pressure may overload the shields or the thrusters. However she had been successful in attempts and they were now confronted with the underwater lost city that the captain had found earlier that day. 

Behind her at the tactical station was Lenjir while Lieutenant Tierra was working in the aft compartment, adjusting the ship’s transporter systems. Deciding to bring the assistant chief engineer was T’Rani’s suggestion. She had worked with the Deltan female on many occasions before and was impressed with technical expertise, it rivalled that of Commander Hunsen. 

On the way down, neither Lenjir or her spoke a word to one another. Being former Academy classmates and sharing similar career paths, they had grown accustomed to one another. Lenjir enjoyed the calmness that T’Rani brought while she was satisfied with his quiet presence during an away mission. 

“That is an impressive structure.” Lenjir said as they came almost face to face with the obelisk. 

“Indeed it is.” She answered back, sounding not too interested in studying the object. The captain was eager to learn more about it. 

“I’m running deep scans to determine the best course for us to remove it from the ocean floor.” Lenjir announced. 

Loading up the sensor readings herself and tying them into the ones being transmitted by the probe that had been sent down earlier, T’Rani was curious to see what the ocean bed was like. Unsurprisingly, what Lieutenant Oron had summarised in his presentation to the captain and other senior staff was apparent here. The ocean bed appeared almost flawless in its make-up. However T’Rani then reminded herself that in fact this city had originally not been part of the ocean floor when it was created. Looking out she wondered just how many people may have died when the floods from the polar ice caps melting hit the city. She even postulated that they may have actually evacuated. Perhaps to the underground settlement that Commander Reyas was excavating at the moment. 

“The design of this city is almost symmetrical in a circular shape.” She stated from what she was looking at. She then widened her view of the scans to a more aerial view. “Correction, they are not.” She looked over her shoulder at Lenjir. “Cline, have you seen this?”

The Tiburon had been busy reviewing a way to remove the obelisk from the ground so they could use the transporters; he appeared frustrated by her distraction and then composed himself. “My apologies T’Rani, it would appear we may have to dig it out. You were talking about the design of the city?”

“Look.” She said as she pointed at the primary monitor that sat in line with her head to the right of her. 

Lenji unbuckled himself and made his way over to her. There before him the aerial view of the city showed the buildings layed out in a particular pattern. “That’s the-” he paused as T’Rani loaded up the historical database and overlaid the image she retrieved above the city scan. “The Tkon emblem.”

“If we needed any more confirmation that the Tkon were on this planet, or influenced its inhabitants then here is further evidence.” T’Rani announced.

The doors from the aft compartment slid open as Tierra ducked through. “Okay, the transporters are online and ready for our little transporter suspension attempt.” She shared and noticed her two superiors glaring at the screen. “Have you both seen something else?” 

“Take a look.” Lenjir gestured as he resumed his seat at tactical. “I’m loading the photonic missiles.”

Seeing what they saw motivated Tierra to complete her task. She took her place at the engineering console. “I’m triangulating the pattern lock with the probe.”

“I’m increasing the power to the shields.” T’Rani announced and then she saw as Lenjir fired the missiles at the base of the obelisk, within a few seconds after the shockwave pushed against them gently, Tierra activated the transporter and the entire object was beamed inside their pattern buffer. Tapping away at the helm she soon turned them around and went straight back up with their prize. 

USS Odyssey (NCC-80000)

Being technical was never one of Doctor Slyvexs’ fortes, however she always tried her best to learn anything she came across that was engineering based and she was always told she showed great intuition. Commander Hunsen had always told her that medicine and engineering were similar to one another when it came to them having to solve a problem and find a quick way to fix it before the patient died. Hopefully today her patient wouldn’t die. 

Her patient in this case was the control panel that the Hazard Team had acquired for her. It’s discovery had made her investigation a lot easier. Confirming that the signals from the genetic tags were being processed by it was one breakthrough, now she wanted her next one. 

Working with her still was Lieutenant Treiskreedfrek, alongside him was Assistant Chief Operations Officer, Lieutenant Decter Jines. Hailing from the planet Rutia IV, a troublesome non-aligned planet that had a long standing trading agreement with the Federation, the man that Slyvexs had before her was not the same man she had met for his physical over fourteen years ago. For someone who had fled his homeworld due to its continued problems, he had impressed a Starfleet captain that took pity on him and encouraged him to join the academy. Captain McCallister had taught him while at the academy and insisted on bringing him along when he took command of the Triton and subsequently the Odyssey. Now no longer naive, he was more sure of himself and was someone she knew that would go far. 

“So anything yet lieutenant?” She asked the deputy ops manager. “Any clues?”

Looking at his tricorder, Jines put his finger up in a motion for them to give him a moment. His thick black hair with a dash of silver in the fringe bounced as he did that. “I think I’ve got something. It looks like a recording is being act-”

He didn’t get a chance before an alien voice spoke up. “Alien computer interface detected. Security precautions activated.” It said, “Please terminate your operations with this terminal, failure to do so will result in its self-destruction.”

Slyvexs ordered Jines to put his tricorder away. 

The control panel then beeped in acknowledgement. “Thank you for your compliance.” It then activated an emitter on the side and a holographic representation of a tall humanoid that had no distinguishable features. They were just plain looking, wearing a long black robe. “Hello.” It said, “How may I help you?”

Both lieutenants looked at Slyvexs to take the lead, so she did. “Hello, who are you?”

“I am the farmer for the people to ensure they survive.”

“How do you ensure they survive?” Slyvexs asked.

“By growing my crops of course.” 

Slyvexs tapped her combadge and asked for the captain to visit her at once. She had just wondered if she had made first contact with a possible witness to this world.