Enter the unknown

Posted on Fri Aug 22nd, 2025 @ 12:21am by Captain Mira Rodale Lance & Commander Kevin Lance & Lieutenant Commander Awal Kronnelti & Lieutenant Tracey Walker Jr & Lieutenant Betaras K'ner

1,751 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Hide and seek
Location: Planet surface
Timeline: Present

On:

{Planet surface}

Cautiously, Mira approached the landing pad. So far, no human life signs had been found. There was a few thousand people here. No attack, no damage. It was really unnerving.

Mira placed her gloved hand on the console ID padd to activate it. Mira then entered her command code. There was a series of beeps then a computer voice said “please enter hand scan or retina scan.”

“Negative. Medic quarantine procedures are in effect.” Mira stated calmly.

“Prepare for full body scan.” The computer stated.

The scan started at her head and worked its way down stopping at her abdomen. Her symbiont wasn’t on her normal medical scans. The ship had the record but it wasn’t common knowledge.

“Joined Trill. Confirmed Identity. Welcome home Captain Rodale how may I be of service?”

Mira relaxed. “Please state the amount of crewmembers in the colony.”

“unable to locate crewmembers.”

Mira raised an eyebrow. “Raise the protective dome over the hanger. Allow star fleet personnel entrance and exit.”

“Affirmative.”

Walking towards the door, it swished open. “Check and verify personnel and equipment.”

Mira walked into the Side room. Food was left half eaten on the table. She activated lights as she continued to scan for lifeforms. “The hanger looks full, so they didn’t leave by transport. Once this building is secure we will take the underground tram to the main base.”

K’ner stood looking outward, feeling the tendrils on her cuff twitch. Could just be some local predator, but something didn’t sit right. She watched until the team had passed inside and she followed, subtly leaving one of her tiny remote monitors just outside.

She looked around the hanger, noting the number and types to compare against the facility records. She scanned as they moved along, checking out each area and finding a continuing trend of recent occupation along with a rapid exit. Curious also was the continuing lack of evidence of what had happened.

“Captain, does the facility have video monitoring during normal activity or only during certain conditions? We could roll the records back and see what last tripped the sensors?”

Mira nodded she had been thinking that as well “we would have to be in the command center to access it. But the common areas should be monitored it would give us an idea was to what happened. “

K’ner kept her eyes looking all around, then up, then around for drains and guts in the floor. After a glance at her scans she looked over at the Captain and Kronnelti. “Power cells seem fine on the vehicles, but if they didn’t bug out, then they should be sheltered somewhere inside yes?”

Awal responds: yes they should be sheltered inside, so maybe they took the tram to the main base and if not they randomly disappeared?

“If I had to guess I think they would hold up in the lower levels of the base. It’s the most secure. Once we get over there we check command then we will start at the bottom and work our way up.” Mira nodded “we stay together until we know more.” She so didn’t want her people just going missing.

Trace glanced at his tricorder, puzzled. All the equipment seemed to be in working order, which wasn’t typically the case when a distress call was issued. He sighed. Well, when the next steps are unclear, it was best to start at the top. “I’ll see if I can find the source of the distress signal, which console it was issued from. That should at least tell us something.”

He glanced at his tricorder. “Should be this way,” He said, walking off.

“if there isn’t one then it came from main communication center.” She looked around with a frown.

=/\= USS Chuck Norris , we have made it to hanger. No Incidents but also no other colony members. Equipment and vehicles all seem to be accounted for. Taking the underground tram to the main colony.=/\= She knew that Kevin would be hearing that update as well.

“Ok people let’s head out to the tram.”

Seeing it she gave a sigh it was Basically a long tunnel with two tracks. Counting heads to make sure they were all together Mira took a seat. There was two buttons a red and green one. “Ready?” hearing everyone’s affirmatives she pressed the green button. The speed had been far faster then she expected.

{Roanoke}

looking up at the sign she shook her head “they really did name it Roanoke” She said in disbelief “seems their leader Captain Walter Raleigh thought third times a charm?”

“Wasn’t that the name of the leader of the first colony on earth?” Someone asked.

“I believe Montgomery had reported that. Earth history is a subject I am not very versed in. “ Mira told them then stopped walking as other voices came over her headset.

~ I can’t believe you just called me immature! You’re the one that started all of this!~

Mira turned around to see who in their group was arguing.

K’ner asked “is something wrong Captain?”

“Who is arguing?” Mira asked at the confused look on everyone’s faces. Mira frowned then heard

~ but mama I want to play in the snow!~

Mira cursed because that had been a child’s voice “you didn’t hear anything?” Mira asked

K’ner raised her arm PADD to activate a connection to Mira’s EV Suit and raised an eyebrow “there was a communication picked up. Your communication system is set on a slightly different frequency setting than ours.” K’ner added making Mira feel far better.

Mira gave a little laugh “ok well at least I am not….” She stopped talking as the second tram headed back to the landing hanger. “I hope that’s on auto.” Mira murmured as she turned around to walk out of the tram station and entered the main colony.

There were a few EV Suits just laying around on the floor she stepped over them to activate the comm system “This is Captain Rodale of the USS Chuck Norris. Please report in.”

Nothing. But then she saw movement…. Turning her head to get a better view. It was a human only it was see through. The person just disappeared or more like phased out completely. That was very unsettling. She activated the monitoring control and played the last report.

“Sir, this storm is going to be bad I suggest we take cover in the lower levels of the building. “ A man stated

“I don’t think it will protect us from the particular particles It is emitting. We might be in trouble. “

“I’ll send a distress call…”

Then turned off.

“Oh well that wasn’t very helpful. We will need to go over the rest of them." Mira frowned

Geneva seemed to think otherwise “I’ll need the report on that storm.”

K'ner was working the perimeter of the command center, checking stations and watching the outer ring. "Most of these stations were still logged in, or timed out. Whatever happened, they didn't adhere to standard security protocols."

{Aboard the shuttlecraft Sabine}

Kevin crouched beside the starboard systems panel, his PADD in hand, eyes narrowed at the uneven traces scrolling across its display. The logs painted a peculiar picture—spikes in the power grid, momentary brownouts, and a hard crash in the middle of final approach. Yet here the shuttle sat, power distribution perfectly normal, as if the last ten minutes of the flight had been a hallucination.

“Computer,” Kevin said, tone even. “Replay power allocation logs for the final approach to the base’s shuttle pad.”

The computer answered without hesitation, “At time index zero-six-three-four mark twenty-two, shield output increased by twenty-eight percent. At mark thirty-one, shield output increased by fifty-four percent. At mark thirty-nine, shield output exceeded one hundred and eighty percent of design nominal. At mark forty-one, power systems destabilized. Engines reduced thrust to compensate. Emergency restart of power distribution initiated at mark forty-three.”

Kevin tapped the PADD against his palm, considering. “All right. Why did the shields increase output?”

“Insufficient data to determine.”

“Were they commanded to increase?”

“Negative.”

“External factors?”

“Insufficient data to determine.”

He sat back on his heels, exhaling. The computer was happy to supply facts, even minute by minute, but it wasn’t tying them together. The pattern was obvious enough: the shields had demanded more and more energy as the shuttle plunged through the storm, starving the engines until the whole grid collapsed. But why the system had gone so far beyond design limits—that was the question.

Kevin rose, brushing his hands together, and tapped his comm badge. “Commander Lance to Chuck Norris.”

The channel opened with the clipped voice of the ship’s second officer. “Montgomery here. We tracked your approach—looked rough. Report status.”

“The Sabine is secure,” Kevin said, “Engines and life support are stable. But I’ve found anomalies in the shield. During descent, it drew power far above design tolerances—up to one hundred and eighty percent. That’s what caused the loss of thrust.”

There was a pause, just long enough for Kevin to imagine Montgomery scowling at the report. Then: “Can you confirm cause?”

“Not yet. The computer can lay out the logs, but it can’t explain why the shield system behaved that way. It wasn’t commanded, and nothing in the records points to a failure cascade.” Kevin glanced at the viewport, where the storm appears to be abating. “I’m not satisfied taking her back up blind. I’ll lift off, cycle the shields under controlled conditions, and see if I can reproduce the fault before attempting another landing on the station’s pad.”

Montgomery’s reply was crisp. “Understood. If the systems falter again, abort immediately—we’d rather bring you home late than not at all.”

“Copy that,” Kevin said. “Beginning test flight shortly. Lance out.”

He returned to the helm and settled into the pilot’s chair. The Sabine thrummed beneath him, ready to take to the storm again. If the shields were going to misbehave, better to find out now—when he was expecting it.

OFF:

Lt Betaras K’ner
Hazard Team Combat Medic TL-B / CMO
USS Chuck Norris

&

Captain Mira Rodale Lance
CO USS Chuck

&

Commander Kevin Lance
Executive Officer
USS Chuck Norris

&

Lieutenant Commander Awal Kronnelti
Chief of security and tac
USS Chuck Norris

 

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