Part Two: The City Without Light

[James Carter]

[Athena-B - Captains Quarters]

The Athena had been at warp for weeks. Carter had slowly settled back into the groove of day-to-day ship life. He and his family sat quietly and ate breakfast together as a comm call came through for him. Admiral. We are approaching T'Sari Prime. The female voice spoke.

James smiled at Tess as he stood to prepare to leave. "Duty calls. I better get to the bridge."

Tess quickly stood with him and grabbed his arm. "Please be safe."

James turned back and quickly kissed her. "Never. No fun in being safe." He smile and offered a wink. "But I'll come back to you. I always do." He turned back towards the door and left for the bridge.

[Bridge]

As Carter arrived on the bridge the viewscreen revealed they had already exited warp. The vibrant green of the planet's atmosphere filled the viewscreen. "Ah, I'm late. Sorry about that. The planet is beautiful isn't it?" He asked as he took his seat in the command chair. "Have we hailed the T'Sari ambassador yet?"

[Nira Said]

[Athena-B - Captains Quarters]

The Athena had been at warp for weeks. Carter had slowly settled back into the groove of day-to-day ship life. He and his family sat quietly and ate breakfast together as a comm call came through for him. Admiral. We are approaching T'Sari Prime. The female voice spoke.

James smiled at Tess as he stood to prepare to leave. "Duty calls. I better get to the bridge."

Tess quickly stood with him and grabbed his arm. "Please be safe."

James turned back and quickly kissed her. "Never. No fun in being safe." He smile and offered a wink. "But I'll come back to you. I always do." He turned back towards the door and left for the bridge.

[Bridge]

As Carter arrived on the bridge the viewscreen revealed they had already exited warp. The vibrant green of the planet's atmosphere filled the viewscreen. "Ah, I'm late. Sorry about that. The planet is beautiful isn't it?" He asked as he took his seat in the command chair. "Have we hailed the T'Sari ambassador yet?"

[Lieutenant Commander Nira Said | First Officer's Quarters >- Bridge | Deck Two >- Deck One | USS Athena NCC-31415-B]

Nira still cringed whenever she thought of the time it took to get to T'Sari Prime. She remembered the distance traveled on the Athena-A. She wished that the Athena-B had been outfitted with a slipstream drive like Discovery hand, then they would be there in a few hours. On the other hand, the slipstream was relatively new and it's not in every starship in the fleet. Certainly not on the Challenger, but it was a reflection of how accustomed to slipstream Nira had.

Waking up with Savar sharing a bed felt a little strange in these quarters. Given it was the exact same saucer as the Athena, Nira couldn't look around without seeing indications that the Brightons used to live here. The most notable sign was the smell. There was a faint whiff of their pet bird around.

Nira didn't mind using these quarters; she had advanced from the cramped space she used to live in when she served on the Athena. In fact, after so much time living in bigger quarters, her old quarters on the Athena felt like something as big as a transporter room.

Notifying to her Imzadi, Savar, that she was heading for the Bridge, she once again felt immersively nostalgic walking the old halls. It was the same old Athena she knew in the saucer. The rest of the ship was a different story altogether. It felt somewhat wider, and there was more sense of being a tactical vessel, exactly as Discovery had been, so she appreciated it.

What she also appreciated that, despite the weeks getting to T'Sari prime, she had time to get to know the new(ish) Athena and, when off-duty, hung around with two different redheaded Ruths at two different times: One Ruth, one with spots, enjoying their time together like they were two sisters and Nira was an older sister, often talking about boys; the other without spots, had a bit of a thicker accent, and oftentimes reminisced about their time together on the Athena.

She also had time to get to know the other Athena veterans; Ruth Sigurdsdottir was the only one from the Athena crew she had joined, apart from Admiral Carter, that she knew. The quartermaster was in interesting case a civilian crewmember, and Savar Dorran struck her as...interesting. Ah well, she preferred her Savar; the Vulcan was hotter than he was.

She had been on the Bridge almost half an hour when she was informed: T'Sari Prime is close.

"Admiral. We are approaching T'Sari Prime," Nira called from the comm. The ship had just dropped out of warp when Admiral Carter had arrived and made his question.

"Not yet, sir," she said. "We barely got here, after all. Open hailing frequency," she said, giving the order.

[James Carter]

[Bridge]

James nodded slightly as he leaned forward in his chair. Ambassador Tal this is Admiral James Carter of the USS Athena. It's good to see you again.

The red-skinned man appeared on the screen and bowed slightly. Admiral? Last I saw you you were a Captain. It's good to see you as well.

How are things holding up out here? It's been a couple of years since I've visited T'Sari Prime. Carter asked casually.

The T'Sari ambassador glanced at the ground for a moment before shaking his head. Not good. An abandoned farm outside of Karras seems to have been claimed and a probe we sent out revealed a large pylon has been erected there. We can't send anyone close in the event that it's a device that can interfere with our biomechanics. We would like to request a survey team from the Federation.

Did the probe reveal any lifeforms near the pylon? Carter asked flatly.

The T'Sari shook his head before speaking again. No. The pylon seems to be fully unmanned by the T'Kori.

James shrugged lightly before speaking again. Right then. I'll send a team to the surface shortly. Carter keyed off the comms and spoke to the bridge crew. "Right then, Ms. Said, Mr. Galloway, I want you two to accompany Ms. Weir down to the surface using Shuttle Zeus. Ms. Said, grab a couple of security crewmen for the away party."

As the Admiral finished his sentence he grabbed the pad from the side of his chair and looked over a briefing. Mr. Dorran. I need a systems report. I need to know how my ship is holding up after her first voyage.

[Nira Said]

[Bridge]

James nodded slightly as he leaned forward in his chair. Ambassador Tal this is Admiral James Carter of the USS Athena. It's good to see you again.

The red-skinned man appeared on the screen and bowed slightly. Admiral? Last I saw you you were a Captain. It's good to see you as well.

How are things holding up out here? It's been a couple of years since I've visited T'Sari Prime. Carter asked casually.

The T'Sari ambassador glanced at the ground for a moment before shaking his head. Not good. An abandoned farm outside of Karras seems to have been claimed and a probe we sent out revealed a large pylon has been erected there. We can't send anyone close in the event that it's a device that can interfere with our biomechanics. We would like to request a survey team from the Federation.

Did the probe reveal any lifeforms near the pylon? Carter asked flatly.

The T'Sari shook his head before speaking again. No. The pylon seems to be fully unmanned by the T'Kori.

James shrugged lightly before speaking again. Right then. I'll send a team to the surface shortly. Carter keyed off the comms and spoke to the bridge crew. "Right then, Ms. Said, Mr. Galloway, I want you two to accompany Ms. Weir down to the surface using Shuttle Zeus. Ms. Said, grab a couple of security crewmen for the away party."

As the Admiral finished his sentence he grabbed the pad from the side of his chair and looked over a briefing. Mr. Dorran. I need a systems report. I need to know how my ship is holding up after her first voyage.

[Lieutenant Commander Nira Said | Bridge | Deck One | USS Athena NCC-31415-B]

Nira looked up to see Ambassador Tal. She instantly reflected that the only T'Sari she met was the captain of a vessel they had encountered, and a woman at that. Of course, it was also the first time they met the T'Kori.

At the Admiral's order, Nira nodded in acknowledgement. She looked at the security roster and recognized some more people; some of her co-workers in the Security Department.

She then looked at Captain Galloway. Well...away mission protocols certainly extended when an Admiral was in charge of the ship. Captain and First Officer leading the away team...though in Nira's case, she was also doubling as Security Chief.

Tapping her comm badge, Nira called, "Petty Officer Perry, Mister Jefferson, report to Transporter Room One. Arm yourselves with phaser rifles, there's a good chance things will get ugly."

She took a good long look at T'Sari Prime before she went into the turbolift. She had to admit, she had never been to the T'Sari homeworld. Far as it was, it looked beautiful.

[Ian Galloway]

[Bridge]

James nodded slightly as he leaned forward in his chair. Ambassador Tal this is Admiral James Carter of the USS Athena. It's good to see you again.

The red-skinned man appeared on the screen and bowed slightly. Admiral? Last I saw you you were a Captain. It's good to see you as well.

How are things holding up out here? It's been a couple of years since I've visited T'Sari Prime. Carter asked casually.

The T'Sari ambassador glanced at the ground for a moment before shaking his head. Not good. An abandoned farm outside of Karras seems to have been claimed and a probe we sent out revealed a large pylon has been erected there. We can't send anyone close in the event that it's a device that can interfere with our biomechanics. We would like to request a survey team from the Federation.

Did the probe reveal any lifeforms near the pylon? Carter asked flatly.

The T'Sari shook his head before speaking again. No. The pylon seems to be fully unmanned by the T'Kori.

James shrugged lightly before speaking again. Right then. I'll send a team to the surface shortly. Carter keyed off the comms and spoke to the bridge crew. "Right then, Ms. Said, Mr. Galloway, I want you two to accompany Ms. Weir down to the surface using Shuttle Zeus. Ms. Said, grab a couple of security crewmen for the away party."

As the Admiral finished his sentence he grabbed the pad from the side of his chair and looked over a briefing. Mr. Dorran. I need a systems report. I need to know how my ship is holding up after her first voyage.

[Bridge --> Shuttlebay - USS Athena]

Ian was inordinately pleased to be able to be part of an away team again and to have the chance to fly a shuttle on top of it. He stood and replied with a crisp.

"Aye Sir!"

And all but bounded to the turbolift. On arriving in the shuttlebay, he headed directly for the Zeus and began doing pre-flight. As he always kept himself current on his flight rating, he quickly had the shuttle ready for departure.

As he waited, he hummed 'Donald where's your trousers' absently to pass the time until the rest of the away team arrived.

[Savar Dorran]

[USS Athena-B - Main Engineering]

Engineering hummed with activity as the duty shift rotated. They were a few minutes out from their operations area, and a fresh shift would make sure engineering was on the ball for anything ahead. For his part, Savar was an hour out from waking and breakfast so he was about as fresh as he was going to get. That said, a few weeks ago he had ended up ordered to bed by medical and was all the better for it. Thankfully not much of note had come up since then, but he still felt a little out of the loop. Perhaps he was just imagining it.

But then again, it could be the unusual arrangement of the Athena-B's main engineering that had him feeling a little off centre. The warp core ran horizontally, along the spine of the secondary hull, and therefore dominated every part of engineering. A wide, raised hexagonal platform ran around the intermix chamber, containing various consoles for managing the reactor and drive array. On the port and starboard sides the platform was flush with the bulkheads, and had large Master Systems Display [MSD] and Damage Control Consoles [DCC] attatched to the wall.

Savar was on the starboard side, with his back to the DCC. He was pouring over a console displaying the last couple of weeks worth of data on the dilithium matrix. For the most part it seemed even the relatively delicate dilithium matrix was holding up better than their warp naecelles. The deck plate vibrated slightly as some feet approached. Savar glanced up and saw Ensign Thare Zh'rothal, a young Andorian, with a PADD in her hand and some tools on her hip. She rubbed the back of the PADD against a cleaner part of her arm and proffered it to Savar.

"Just finished compiling my team's report on the secondary plasma ejection manifold Chief." She said, stretching her shoulders.

"Ah excellent thank you Ensign!" Savar took the PADD and glanced at the information "All nominal, excellent... And 12 manufacturing micro-fractures sealed!" He gave her a smile "Very thorough work Ensign, I hope the crewmen didn't resent having to clean the exhaust ducts as well?"

Thare gave him a puzzled look "Clean the ducts? Sir I don't-" She paused and looked at the state of her uniform "Very funny commander..."

Savar chuckled "Look I promise you won't have to crawl through anything covered in carbon scoring or expired lubricant fooor... well at least the next week?" She looked suitably unenthused "Alright, two weeks and no crewman to wrangle?"

She laughed and shook her head "I'll take the first offer, two weeks with no company on maintainance sounds worse than carving out a new ice tunnel back home."

"That's the spirit, now go and get a shower and some sleep." He gave her a firm pat on the shoulder as he dismissed the driven young Andorian. She would make a fine engineer some day, she could just as easily have logged the microfracturesand left them for the next crew. He imagined teams under her command would either follow her into an open core breach or curse her name as they were 'scrubbing plasma conduits'. As he leaned on the railing to read her brief report properly, his commbadge chirped to life.

[Bridge]
As the Admiral finished his sentence he grabbed the pad from the side of his chair and looked over a briefing. Mr. Dorran. I need a systems report. I need to know how my ship is holding up after her first voyage.

The Athena is holding pretty firm, Admiral. Mission critical systems are within parameters.

Savar crossed the platform, over the deuterium injection manifold and perused the MSD as he gave his report;

Impulse and thrusters all green, EPS network green, computer cores 1 and 2 synced, field generators stable, warp core is green, but the drive array is at about 85%.

Savar typed a couple commands and fired a brief report up to the Captain's console.

Those warp-drive modifications I ran by you seem to be functioning mostly as expected, but as such we should probably stick to warp 6 and below unless we're really in a hurry. Now that we're in the mission area that is.

Savar rubbed the back of his neck; the journey here, mostly at warp 8, had taxed the naecelles.

I'll be honest with you sir the warp coils need at least a level 3 diagnostic as soon as reasonable, they're just too compact for the Yeager type hull.

[James Carter]

[USS Athena-B - Main Engineering]

Engineering hummed with activity as the duty shift rotated. They were a few minutes out from their operations area, and a fresh shift would make sure engineering was on the ball for anything ahead. For his part, Savar was an hour out from waking and breakfast so he was about as fresh as he was going to get. That said, a few weeks ago he had ended up ordered to bed by medical and was all the better for it. Thankfully not much of note had come up since then, but he still felt a little out of the loop. Perhaps he was just imagining it.

But then again, it could be the unusual arrangement of the Athena-B's main engineering that had him feeling a little off centre. The warp core ran horizontally, along the spine of the secondary hull, and therefore dominated every part of engineering. A wide, raised hexagonal platform ran around the intermix chamber, containing various consoles for managing the reactor and drive array. On the port and starboard sides the platform was flush with the bulkheads, and had large Master Systems Display [MSD] and Damage Control Consoles [DCC] attatched to the wall.

Savar was on the starboard side, with his back to the DCC. He was pouring over a console displaying the last couple of weeks worth of data on the dilithium matrix. For the most part it seemed even the relatively delicate dilithium matrix was holding up better than their warp naecelles. The deck plate vibrated slightly as some feet approached. Savar glanced up and saw Ensign Thare Zh'rothal, a young Andorian, with a PADD in her hand and some tools on her hip. She rubbed the back of the PADD against a cleaner part of her arm and proffered it to Savar.

"Just finished compiling my team's report on the secondary plasma ejection manifold Chief." She said, stretching her shoulders.

"Ah excellent thank you Ensign!" Savar took the PADD and glanced at the information "All nominal, excellent... And 12 manufacturing micro-fractures sealed!" He gave her a smile "Very thorough work Ensign, I hope the crewmen didn't resent having to clean the exhaust ducts as well?"

Thare gave him a puzzled look "Clean the ducts? Sir I don't-" She paused and looked at the state of her uniform "Very funny commander..."

Savar chuckled "Look I promise you won't have to crawl through anything covered in carbon scoring or expired lubricant fooor... well at least the next week?" She looked suitably unenthused "Alright, two weeks and no crewman to wrangle?"

She laughed and shook her head "I'll take the first offer, two weeks with no company on maintainance sounds worse than carving out a new ice tunnel back home."

"That's the spirit, now go and get a shower and some sleep." He gave her a firm pat on the shoulder as he dismissed the driven young Andorian. She would make a fine engineer some day, she could just as easily have logged the microfracturesand left them for the next crew. He imagined teams under her command would either follow her into an open core breach or curse her name as they were 'scrubbing plasma conduits'. As he leaned on the railing to read her brief report properly, his commbadge chirped to life.

The Athena is holding pretty firm, Admiral. Mission critical systems are within parameters.

Savar crossed the platform, over the deuterium injection manifold and perused the MSD as he gave his report;

Impulse and thrusters all green, EPS network green, computer cores 1 and 2 synced, field generators stable, warp core is green, but the drive array is at about 85%.

Savar typed a couple commands and fired a brief report up to the Captain's console.

Those warp-drive modifications I ran by you seem to be functioning mostly as expected, but as such we should probably stick to warp 6 and below unless we're really in a hurry. Now that we're in the mission area that is.

Savar rubbed the back of his neck; the journey here, mostly at warp 8, had taxed the naecelles.

I'll be honest with you sir the warp coils need at least a level 3 diagnostic as soon as reasonable, they're just too compact for the Yeager type hull.

[Bridge]

Carter sat quietly a moment now that his officers had exited the bridge. Acknowledged Mr. Dorran. We should have a moment. The T'Kori normally don't operate on multiple theaters at once. If that pylon really is them they'll be too singularly focused on that. We should have some time idle here on the ship, go ahead and get the diagnostic done.

[Captain Ashley Weir - Quarters]

Ashley really thought she'd gotten away from the insanity of the frontlines when she took her promotion to captain and started being much closer to home. But then she'd gotten the call she never expected to get, a request to join some top secret mission back on the front of T'Sari space. She was requested specifically for her time as the XO of the USS Liberty which served in Carter's task force. She never particularly liked the man's tactics, finding them too risky for her own taste. But she did respect him. He had the tendency to never put people in danger without being there himself. She was never quite sure if he was just a thrill seaker, or that committed to his plans and tactics.

The sonic shower softly hummed around her and as she got ready for her shift as her badge chirped softly in the background. It was the admiral. Of course he decided to provide orders while she was in the shower. Ms. Weir. Please report to shuttle Zeus for immediate departure to the surface of T'Sari Prime. There it was, that constant refusal to address anyone by rank. He claimed it was because he viewed everyone as equals and that he did it so everyone felt like their input carried equal weight, but she'd experienced first hand that when he needed to dress you down you were no longer Mr., Ms., or Mx. but instead he'd emphasize your rank to make a point. She sighed as she got dressed knowing how hectic what was to come might be.

[Shuttlebay One]

"This old thing?" She thought to herself. The Athena was brand new and yet the shuttle was one from the original Athena. She found herself surprised at how much was reused just to save resources. She entered the shuttle and began a pre-flight checklist since she was the first to arrive. Now she just had to wait.

[Nira Said]

[Bridge]

Carter sat quietly a moment now that his officers had exited the bridge. Acknowledged Mr. Dorran. We should have a moment. The T'Kori normally don't operate on multiple theaters at once. If that pylon really is them they'll be too singularly focused on that. We should have some time idle here on the ship, go ahead and get the diagnostic done.

[Captain Ashley Weir - Quarters]

Ashley really thought she'd gotten away from the insanity of the frontlines when she took her promotion to captain and started being much closer to home. But then she'd gotten the call she never expected to get, a request to join some top secret mission back on the front of T'Sari space. She was requested specifically for her time as the XO of the USS Liberty which served in Carter's task force. She never particularly liked the man's tactics, finding them too risky for her own taste. But she did respect him. He had the tendency to never put people in danger without being there himself. She was never quite sure if he was just a thrill seaker, or that committed to his plans and tactics.

The sonic shower softly hummed around her and as she got ready for her shift as her badge chirped softly in the background. It was the admiral. Of course he decided to provide orders while she was in the shower. Ms. Weir. Please report to shuttle Zeus for immediate departure to the surface of T'Sari Prime. There it was, that constant refusal to address anyone by rank. He claimed it was because he viewed everyone as equals and that he did it so everyone felt like their input carried equal weight, but she'd experienced first hand that when he needed to dress you down you were no longer Mr., Ms., or Mx. but instead he'd emphasize your rank to make a point. She sighed as she got dressed knowing how hectic what was to come might be.

[Shuttlebay One]

"This old thing?" She thought to herself. The Athena was brand new and yet the shuttle was one from the original Athena. She found herself surprised at how much was reused just to save resources. She entered the shuttle and began a pre-flight checklist since she was the first to arrive. Now she just had to wait.

[Lieutenant Commander Nira Said | Shuttle Zeus | Shuttlebay One | USS Athena NCC-31415-B]

Nira arrived at Shuttle Zeus with Ian and saw they weren't alone. It was one of the officers who served with Admiral Carter...Ashley Weir, she remembered. This woman was certainly somebody to the admiral in the past...and she noticed the pips...another Captain, she was?

But then, she focused around the shuttle...she recognized one of the shuttles from the old Athena at once. Was it possible that this was a shuttle she rode in her early days?

"Captain Weir?" she asked. "Lieutenant Commander Said, attached First Officer. Pleased to join you. And I'm sure you met Captain Galloway."

She wondered who she was as she looked at her. But she decided to set it aside, they were needed at the planet below.

She looked at Ian and added, "Anybody we know going to fly us down, Captain Galloway, or are you going to do the honors?"

[Ian Galloway]

[Lieutenant Commander Nira Said | Shuttle Zeus | Shuttlebay One | USS Athena NCC-31415-B]

Nira arrived at Shuttle Zeus with Ian and saw they weren't alone. It was one of the officers who served with Admiral Carter...Ashley Weir, she remembered. This woman was certainly somebody to the admiral in the past...and she noticed the pips...another Captain, she was?

But then, she focused around the shuttle...she recognized one of the shuttles from the old Athena at once. Was it possible that this was a shuttle she rode in her early days?

"Captain Weir?" she asked. "Lieutenant Commander Said, attached First Officer. Pleased to join you. And I'm sure you met Captain Galloway."

She wondered who she was as she looked at her. But she decided to set it aside, they were needed at the planet below.

She looked at Ian and added, "Anybody we know going to fly us down, Captain Galloway, or are you going to do the honors?"

[Shuttlebay - USS Athena-B]

Ian smiled at Nira with the lop-sided smile that only pilots could pull off and said.

"As if anyone else would fly me anywhere. I promise no barrel rolls or split-esses. Unless of course you happen ta need me ta pilot a Tomahawk."

[James Carter]

[Shuttlebay - USS Athena-B]

Ian smiled at Nira with the lop-sided smile that only pilots could pull off and said.

"As if anyone else would fly me anywhere. I promise no barrel rolls or split-esses. Unless of course you happen ta need me ta pilot a Tomahawk."

[Shuttlebay - Ashley Weir]

Ashley chuckled softly to herself. "How disappointing." She replied ryely. "Creative flying is always a good way to get the blood pumping before an away mission." She winked as she gestured to the shuttle. "She's all yours. I've done all the pre-flight checks and we're ready to get underway."

Slowly Williams turned back to Said. "I've not met you, but I make it my business to read up on everyone I'm working with. You worked with Carter on the last Athena right? What's your read in him?" She asked as she took her seat getting ready for takeoff.

[Bridge - James Carter]

James sat in his chair and tapped the side softly over and over. The sooner the mission was complete, the sooner he could return to earth for much needed time away. He needed that after the year he'd had.

[Nira Said]

[Shuttlebay - Ashley Weir]

Ashley chuckled softly to herself. "How disappointing." She replied ryely. "Creative flying is always a good way to get the blood pumping before an away mission." She winked as she gestured to the shuttle. "She's all yours. I've done all the pre-flight checks and we're ready to get underway."

Slowly Williams turned back to Said. "I've not met you, but I make it my business to read up on everyone I'm working with. You worked with Carter on the last Athena right? What's your read in him?" She asked as she took her seat getting ready for takeoff.

[Lieutenant Commander Nira Said | Shuttle Zeus | Shuttlebay One | USS Athena NCC-31415-B]

"I have," said Nira. "He struck me as a strict but good officer. And exceptionally-good looking, too," she added with a slight blush and shrugged apologetically. "Still, one of the best officers I served with. I've seen many things under him, helped him stop an insurrectionist group, the Liberation. Meeting the T'Sari in First Contact was especially unique as well."