Iconian Gateways: Prelude

Posted on Sun Jan 28th, 2018 @ 1:16pm by Captain Enalia Telvan & Aewia Larani & Commander Mal Xustos & Lieutenant Commander T'Pral Jordan & Lieutenant Vaemyn & Akira Zhuri

Mission: When Iconians Deserve to Die
Location: Not far from the prisons
Timeline: After Amnesiacs Anonymous

After getting the five crewmembers back from the memory lab and to the rest of the crew between the two prison camps, Enalia made it a priority to get everyone back to the Hera. Thus, she revisited the scans she took of what she thought might be an Iconian gateway system not far from them. It had the same readings she'd memorized a few days ago from scans in the database and she was eager to see if it was a way back or not.

As for the lab they were sent here to destroy...

It was an Iconian Dyson sphere.

There was literally no way for them to destroy it.

They'd have to find a way to kill the Master until he died from it and stayed dead.

After about an hour of rest and recovery, Enalia was fairly sure the crew was all accounted for, Daytona was going to be ok, and the five that were in the memory lab weren't going to go crazy. They had a few medkits between them so Daytona was going to be ok and they were even able to coax the replication systems in the prison camp structures into creating an IV-like system so he was getting lost fluids back.

There was still no word from the Emergency Command Hologram that was left in charge of the ship, so she had no idea if it had stayed online long enough to restore power or even rescue the various pets aboard the Hera. It was troubling, but there was also a chance that there was a communications dampening field in place preventing contact.

And then there were the biologists. They had found a species of purple squirrel here that breathed fire. They wanted to capture a few and take them back to the Hera. Study them. See what makes them tick. At any other time, she'd be all for it. It seemed nothing could kill the curiosity of a true explorer. She had to smile at that. Maybe after all this is over, they could go back to exploring.

But now wasn't the time. Now was the time for action and break time was over. She had to assemble a team now that she knew everyone was ok. Vaemyn would be valuable. As would Akira. Mal would have to stay here again and keep things under control. T'Pral is invaluable if they run into anything. She hesitated a moment, but Aewia knew how to read Iconian as well. Besides, whatever that memory lab did to her, she seemed to have well more than her old memories back and it may come in handy. A small and light group was all she needed.

Nodding, Enalia tapped her comm badge and sent out the message. "Mal, T'Pral, Vaemyn, Akira, and Aewia, please meet me at the command rock immediately." The command rock was a large white rock that stuck up out of the ground about thirty meters and was easy enough to see from anywhere in the lightly forested area that they had gathered. They agreed upon it being a gathering point for command decisions and briefings of a sort.

T'Pral arrived a moment later. "Captain," she greeted as she approached the rock.

A few moments later, Vaemyn arrived, his eyes glued to his tricorder. The little device had been scanning non-stop, connected in a basic network with all of the other tricorders held by other officers, and he had been devouring the sensor data ever since like a starving man.

Mal arrived and addressed Enalia.

"The crew are squared away for the time being," he said. "Enalia, if we're going to kill this bastard, we're going to have to go and get the weapons Hephaestus gave us. That's the only way we can kill him. That means we have to get to the Hera."

Akira was hesitant to leave Daytona with the medics, but she could not leave a call from Enalia unanswered, so she finally left her boyfriend to join the others by the Command rock. As she arrived, she heard Mal talking about going back to the Hera to get the weapons, but that left a huge question in the air.

"Uh, excuse me, sir," Akira said politely as she approached. "H-how are we to get back to the Hera?" she asked. "I only got in because I lack a physical form and was able to transmit myself directly into a Herald probe, and I don't even know how to get out of this body to transmit myself back, which I know was a risky thing to do, but I was able to find all of you, so it was worth it. But still, how do we get back?" she continued to ramble nervously.

"The same way we got here," Enalia replied with a grin, holding up her tricorder as Aewia joined them as well with a nod. "Lieutenant Vaemyn, I assume you're seeing the same readings I'm seeing. Do you recognize them as possibly being an Iconian gateway network as well? One that might be able to do mass teleportations like the system that took the crew off the Hera?"

“I think I agree with you, Captain,” Vaemyn answered, still peering at his tricorder. “These readings are definitely consistent with gateway technology. I’d say they’re coming from a location about two kilometers that way,” he finished jabbing a thumb back over his shoulder before folding up his tricorder. “I should point out that it could also be a ten-kilometer wide starship transporter, an interdimensional portal or just a giant lavatorary. The Iconians were very fond of shoving their gateway tech in every part of their society. We won’t know for certain until we get there.”

"The Herald lab gave me quite a bit of information, and maps of the Sphere, I can sift through some of it to see if I can find anything useful, but there is a lot of data so it may take some time," Akira offered.

"Understandable. For now just try correlating our scan data to the map data you have then. As for what it is, I'll take an Iconian trash bin if it can get us back to the Hera." Handing her tricorder off to Akira so she could do just that, Enalia continued. "Commander T'Pral, as you have the only working phaser we have and have the combat skills of a Valkyrie, you'll be our security detail. Aewia, your knowledge may be invaluable."

"Mal, I'm sorry but I need you to stay here and hnngg..." A sudden sharp pain from her symbiont pouch interrupted Enalia as she was giving orders and a cold sweat formed on her forehead. Leaning against the large white rock, she gently rubbed the symbiont, trying to help ease the pain as it quickly faded.

Mal was at Enalia's side instantly.

"Enalia!" he said sharply. "What happened?"

"I don't think my symbiont likes something," Enalia replied, still in a cold sweat, but looking a little better at least. "Probably some bacteria or pollen in the air trying to kill me. Joined Trill are notorious for being susceptible to such things. If anyone has a medical tricorder handy..."

"Someone fetch Doctor Yale immediately!" Mal shouted. "Enalia, stay put. I'll take Commander Jordan and a team to the gateway and back to the ship. Once there, we'll see if we can get the transporters working and beam all non-mission specific personnel back to the ship, along with you and Daytona. We'll come back with the sword and spear of the Caberi, given to us by Hephaestus. Clio gets one and T'Pral the other."

"Agreed," Enalia nodded. She was in no position to argue with her XO over this. "Just promise me that..."

Suddenly, all senior officer comm badges crackled to life, but just barely. The line was heavy with static, but through it could be heard the voice of the Emergency Command Hologram. "USS Hera to command team. Do you read? Please come...zzzt... This is the Emerzzzt... omanzzt.... ologram..."

Tapping her comm badge, Enalia pulled out her tricorder and started tapping at the controls to try and boost her own signal. "Hera, this is Telvan. We read you. Report."

After a few seconds, a reply came back. "Have restored partial powerzzt... Engines still offlinezzt... Unable to lock on to youzzzt..."

Enalia could have sighed with relief if she wasn't in so much pain right now. "Keep working on main power. We're working on a way to get to you. Copy."

It took a few more seconds again, but the reply came. "Copy. Working onnzzzzzzt...... can't get near... reactor... Will prepare for arrivazzzt....... Over...."

Enalia glanced up at Mal and grinned, pale faced and cold sweat still on her forehead. "Go get my ship, Commander. I'll be here waiting." Tucking her tricorder away, she stood up straight, performed a straightening tug on her uniform shirt, and walked as dignified as she could towards the medical area of the encampment. She only made it about 10 meters before being intercepted by a worried looking medical crewman.

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