Entry#7.1
Stella Apartments, San Francisco, Earth, Sol System
Nahuel didn't like paper work. No, it wasn't that he didn't like paperwork, he hated it. Endless, redundant, and oftentimes confusing waves of text were a fact of life for any officer in the 25th century Starfleet. Especially if one happens to be working in the one division that deals with vast quantities of unorganized information, Starfleet Intelligence. It wasn't just the text, it was also all the blank lines where one had to input redundant information ad nauseam. Nahuel supposed there were reasons for paperwork's existence, like keeping permanent records so that the organization remained accountable in some way unlike a certain organization that was unaccountable to the 31st degree. That understanding did nothing to dispel his emotional response to the matter. Besides, he's not sure if we wanted to stop hating paperwork. Perhaps it is a human flaw to want to continue hating something even if there was no reason to. Anyway, back to filling out forms.
Suddenly, the door chimed. I'll take any break I can get, Nahuel thought to himself.
"Come in."
Ensign Pix entered, and Nahuel noted that his face seemed troubled.
"Pix, what brings you to my home?"
Pix seemed perturbed, and seemingly not by the brewing rain cloud outside. It wasn't going to be a bad storm, Earth's weather modification system saw to that. That same system could do nothing about the situation the visitor was about to present.
"Well, uh, Lieutenant Nahuel, um... Facility 0444 has gone silent."
That didn't sound good, and the name seemed familiar. A faint, brief rumble could be heard through the walls of the apartment.
"Silent?" asked Nahuel.
"They appear to have been attacked."
"Attacked? When?"
"Several hours ago."
"Why did it take us so long to find out?"
"It seemed that whoever attacked the facility made sure to do it during one of the ion storms that regularly occur in the area. That storm dissipated three hours ago. It was then that our new asset sent to keep an eye on that facility had noticed and sent us the report."
"Who is this new asset?"
"Atalanta."
"A freelancer?"
"She volunteered to be our eyes on the facility. Besides, she has helped us in the past during the War."
"Understood. Are there any survivors?"
"We're still determining that now. Initial scans indicated that all but two of the facility's runabouts were destroyed."
And then it occurred to Nahuel. At that same moment the muffled sound of thunder was heard.
"Where is Lieutenant Commander Vinu?"
"According to this," Pix examined his PADD, "he is not longer at the facility."
Nahuel suddenly felt that there will be more to the Vestige assignment than he first thought.
"First the energy surge, and now the very facility Vinu was detained at has been attacked" Nahuel wondered aloud. The ensign wasn't done, "One more thing, is that tribble supposed to be eating your crackers?"
"Ozymandias! No!"
Entry#7.2
Surface of Vestige, System TF-2011, Celes Sector
Syn, Blathma, and even Tax stood very still as they waited for the beetle to become bored and move on. For the moment, it appeared to be scrutinizing them closely. Syn was really hoping that the saliva slowly dripping down the beetle's mandibles was only in his imagination.
Tax had replicated a phaser drill for this occasion. The drill was the next best thing to a weapon as Tax, like other Materials Prospecting exocomps, was not allowed to replicate a weapons grade phaser. The rule had something to do with workplace safety as well as the reducing the risk of some kind of uprising. In this moment though, Tax was considering overwriting that directive. Rules do not account for every situation since they are often written by individuals whose breadth of experience cannot possibly hope to cover every eventuality in life. Hence, the case for the exercising of informed, professional judgement and the need to establish principles, yet even those have limits depending on the individual in question.
At least the beetle didn't seem to be hostile. It was just sitting there, salivating away.
"I thought this planet didn't have wildlife." said Syn quietly to Blathma.
"Didn't you hear the birds yesterday?"Blathma hissed back.
Syn merely shrugged in response, and the present standoff continued amid the song of night birds. Behind them, the loose space elevator anchor rose unnoticed over the horizon as it began yet another journey across the sky.
Entry#7.3
Space Elevator Orbital Anchor, System TF-2011, Celes Sector
Things were less tense in orbit. Delia had made herself a cup of raktajino in preparation for the work ahead to convert the exceedingly long strand of cable into a transceiver array. She stood in front of one of the anchor's portholes and was absently viewing Vestige's faint auroral display. Rather than appreciating the beauty of the sight, her mind was on other matters.
Zoe and Charlemagne were already doing the necessary extravehicular work to make sure the cable was connected to some point in the interior of the anchor. Delia's task would be to redirect the internal circuitry and EPS feeds from the default transceiver to the far larger alternative. It was going to take a lot of work considering the elevator cables and the default transceiver were on opposite sides of the anchor. On top of that, the computer software would need to be reconfigured to make sense of the new arrangement. Additionally, the entire task would need to be done with the resources on hand, and that means at least one subsystem would need to be cannibalized. Delia just didn't know which one it would be. She desperately hoped that the plan works and contact with Starfleet can be established through the subspace interference field with help following soon after.
Delia's mind was already working on figuring out just what kind of Frankenstein's monster she was going to command if everything worked out like they were supposed to. A mobile space elevator anchor towing along what was probably going to be the largest slap-dash transceiver assembly in Starfleet. In other words, not an anchor anymore. It'll need a fitting name, Delia thought as she took another sip her hot beverage. Of course, the name won't mean anything if the plan didn't work.
Speaking of the plan, did Starfleet notice what was happening? It seemed likely. The blue flash and interference field had to have been detected by somebody. If that was the case, then perhaps help is already on the way. Delia, however, was not going to put all her eggs in that basket. It was entirely possible that Starfleet had not noticed a thing. Delia took another sip of raktajino as she watched Vestige's moon descend under the planet's horizon as the anchor completed yet another orbit.
Entry#7.4
Runabout Auditor, Celes Sector
A lone runabout was speeding through the void between star systems. The auditor was one of the Danube workhorses, but it was sufficient for Vinu's purposes. Familiarity with the vessel's systems had allowed Vinu to reconfigure the engines so that the warp trail would be scattered. Additionally, the ship was running on only the bare necessities. The lower energy signature should make it difficult for anyone to track him. He was well aware that if the project used Raven's Eye that he would be discovered. It seemed, however, that the project felt no need to use it just yet. They knew Vinu was heading for Vestige and undoubtedly have laid a trap for him there. Besides, the Raven's Eye had a flaw: the scanning beam was so powerful that anyone in the sector would notice that they were being actively scanned, and that would include any Starfleet asset in the area. Needless to say, the project never used it at anything near full power.
Luckily for Vinu, what he was doing now did not require such a powerful device. All he needed was a specially modulated receiver. He had finally built one built using what was available in the runabout. Now all it needed was some adjusting in order to acquire the desired frequency.
"Check frequency one four eight six."
"Working... no match found."
"Check frequency one seven zero one."
"Working... no match found."
Vinu had accounted for many variables across all his simulations of the detonation of the Enkindler Device, and that included the range of subspace frequencies Vestige would transmit on. That was his secret, he knew there was more to the planet than dead plant and animal matter. It was home to a massive organism that spanned Vestige's entire globe. While its size was impressive, it wasn't the thing that caught Vinu's interest. What had caught his interest was that the sprawling web of organic matter was capable of interacting with subspace.
Vinu first noticed this strange property when a root sample reacted unexpectedly to the active transmission of one of his routine subspace reports to Starfleet. When the project offered him a way to bring the planet back to life he had accepted the offer. Vinu did not, however, trust his unexpected yet surprisingly well equipped benefactors. He had only meant to use their aid to further his curiosity, and would have severed ties once his curiosity was satisfied. The project would have their Gaia world, and Starfleet would have no choice but to look elsewhere for resources to mine. Unfortunately, his was apprehended by Starfleet Security before his plans could be completed. Now, he was a rogue element.
"Check frequency two zero zero zero."
"Working... anomaly found."
Vinu focused all of his attention to the monitor.
"Begin analysis."
After a minute of two of performing analytics on the anomalous reading on this subspace frequency he was certain he found what he was looking for. The heartbeat of the world he helped restore. However, it was exhibiting characteristics that he had not anticipated. Sometimes, one's subconscious instincts held more insight than one's conscious logical mind. Only one Vulcan understood that very well, and Vinu was pleased that he was just beginning to understand too.
Entry#7.5
Odin Base
The mood in the control room had cooled at the unexpected data that the drones were now transmitting. It was as if everyone had forgotten about the incoming Starfleet vessel. The monitor on the far side of the darkened room displayed time-lapse data of Vestige's magnetic field. The field was reorienting itself rapidly, and it appeared to be aligning itself to the planet's moon. It was also increasing in strength. This was not a mere magnetic pole reversal.
"Sir, are you seeing this?"
Said Neva standing to Adrar's right.
"I am" replied Adrar.
"What does it mean?"
"I think we are in for a surprise."
"So is the Starfleet vessel." Neva pointed to the incoming sensor data from Hugin, "Strider has slowed down which gives Hugin more time to prepare. No doubt they now have detected the interference field and are trying to understand weather it is dangerous before entering the system."
"What's the revised ETA?"
"Five minutes."
"Hm. I wonder which will happen first..." Adrar said amusingly.
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