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Congrats to you both! Red really does suit you both!

[How did you first discover Star Trek?]

How did you first discover Star Trek?
Visiting family and randomly skipping through TV, found DS9, good hooked.

What is your favourite Star Trek series?
Voyager, the newer Tech but the charm of being cut off from any help.

What is your favourite Star Trek movie?
First Contact, the emotions... also it has Borg!

Who is your favourite Star Trek character and why?
The Doctor, as a character he has flaws, which makes his own journey to be more than just "a tool like this Hypospray" all the more better.

If you were magically transported to the Star Trek universe, what is the first thing you would do?
Learn to fly a shuttle and then go out there and actually take a look at the Universe with my own eyes, so many wonders to behold...

What is your favourite 'other' franchise?
Not sure if there is one single other but Star Wars, Doctor Who, Horizon and a few other share the spot.

How did you first get into text roleplay?
Friends invited me to a round of a Pen and Paper in School... the rest is history.

What is your favourite Shadow Fleet memory?
Having the opportunity to narrate a full on mental breakdown of a character, never really got the opportunity before and found it really funny having Ramort run into the Borg on his very first mission.

Congrats to Challenger and Solaere!

The Image in the Post is broken for me sadly, but here are some suggestions:

The Atlas
The Gryphon
The Antioch
The Nara

Even if, of course, nothing can hope to beat Shippy McShipface 

[Lt. Emily Hayes]
[USS Discovery | Deck 10 | Science Lab 2]

As the doors to the Lab opened, many voices greeted her. Nearly a dozen Scientists in Cyan Uniforms were running all over the Lab, connecting equipment and calibrating sensors. The entire Team was up and working as hard as they could. Not wanting to stay behind she grabbed a Computing Unit and started to attach it to one of the reaction control chambers.

----

[Ensign Vinod Rajagopalan]
[USS Discovery | Deck 10 | Science Lab 1]

Lab 1 was empty, everyone was up and about over the strange metal.
He was just happy to finally have some time for his plants. With everyone gone, he could finally get started on a new test series on his brand-new Andorian Polar Cacti. He also enjoyed the Silence. His only compatriot today, the slight humming of the ODN and Plasma Conduits in the Walls. A regular beeping from the primary console, notifying him the primary stack of Lab Computers had been rerouted to assist with the Experiment ongoing.

Just the right atmosphere to set up his new plantlings.

Sounds interesting, if possible would join in.

[Erewhon | City Centre]

Having received his orders to split of into groups he turned away from the Holoprojection that had greeted him on the Planet, his mind focusing on the mission.

He hadn't noticed his Combadge had gone, to great his focus on his Tricorder. If their technology really was able to draw from their logs, protocols and maybe even his personal logs, it made sense why the inferred he would want to keep his Tricorder above everything else. It only heightened his suspicion thought that the device might have somehow been tempered with in the Transport Process.

Focusing on the most urgent next steps to take, he turned to the Lieutenant and Commander that had been made part of his team.

"Commander, Lieutenant, may I suggest we try to search for a library of sorts in this town first. We could use its information to determine how accurate this simulation is to earth history and maybe even find information about this place in particular."

[Lt. Emily Hayes]
[USS Discovery | Deck 10 | Turbolift -> Science Lab 2]

Metals and chemical analysis weren't really her forte.

People, Societies and their History though, that was more like it.
Spending long hours carefully excavating long forgotten traces of cultures long gone or working out the intricate details of a new people, vibrant with the myriad shades of life brought forth by intelligent people creating a life for themselves.

Finding these was what she had joined the Fleet for. But Science duties wasn't always about the great mysteries inherent in the studies of Alien Civilisations, sometimes the cosmos provided for their own mysteries.

She wasn't as gripped by the material mystery of how to recreate such structures but even she had to admit its potential.

In any way, it was well worth it to sacrifice a few hours of sleep for and get to the Lab a bit earlier.

[Lt. Jg. James Ramort]
[USS Discovery | Deck 10 | Science Lab 2]

It was 8am exactly and the Lab was beginning to be more crowded than normal. Shift Change from Gamma to Alpha had already been taken care of half an hour ago but there were multiple heads from Beta around too. Today's experiment would need as many hands to help out with as possible after all.

The entire Department had been excited to get started on this for many days now. Multiple had traded shifts and assignments for the opportunity to work on it.

It all started when Discoveries Scanners picked up a strange asteroid flying through the interstellar medium. It confused their sensors and reported unknown material configurations. They had decided to petition the captain to pull it into an unused Cargo Bay and he eventually agreed.

Closer Inspections had revealed it to be composed of various metals forming strange but complex three-dimensional matrixes, catching the scanners energy beams and dispersing them through its structure, therein preventing any feedback from it.

If they could adapt these formations in other materials they might be able to boost passive shielding and cloaking abilities in all ships and probes using them. The potential was astonishing and if realised all their names would go down in History.

That is, if they could manage to replicate it.

Welcome onboard!

[[Station above Verallias II]]

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[...]
He turned in the co-pilot seat to address the team. "This is a First Contact mission.  Our purpose is to represent the Federation and Starfleet to the best of our ability while learning what we can about the Erewhon people, who have invited us to rest and relax in their state-of-the-art-facility.  We will be discreetly assessing their level of technology, social development and potential threat.  Any questions?"

[USS Discovery | Shuttlebay]
Shaking his head in denying the Commanders questions the checked his Tricorder once again, just to make sure. Making a full analysis of their tech would be difficult without drawing any unwanted attention, especially given their heightened level of technology.

As the Shuttle prepared to take off he took out his Tricorder once more and entered some additional routines. It should perform an active scan of the surrounding area every minute as well as when he activated his combadge, as more discrete way of triggering it should he get into trouble, as well as changing the encryption algorithm of the so collected data to a higher compression and higher degree of fractalization. He also deleted the standard decryption keys and replaced them with his own.
Even if they would question his tricorder now, he hoped they at least would not be able to discern its purpose as quickly now.

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Station above Verallias II]
Once landed, Rayek led the Away Team out of the shuttle and into a large hall with several unmanned booths located between them and what appeared to be some manner of quantum-transport platform.

With a slight chin-nod towards Ramort and then towards the alien platform, Rayek gestured for the man to take discreet scans of the tech.  Meanwhile, he looked around for any sign of a greeter.

[Station above Verallias II | Shuttlebay]

He would have nearly missed the Commanders slight signal for his fascination of the room. It showcased none of the expected flourishes of a high tech civilisation, as one would guess it to display. But this sleek design was also a hint at its sophistication. New Tech usually started out being quite bulky and hard to maintain, making easy access to its parts a necessary consideration in interior design, he saw none of this on the transporters he now went nearer to.
Their platforms emanated no particular radiation he could detect with a careful glance at his devices, instead they seemed to suck surrounding radiation into themselves. A phenomena that warranted closer inspection.

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell

No sooner had he started to look about than the same holographic woman from the ship appeared here on the station.

"Welcome Commander tr'Lhoell and welcome to your Away Team.  You stand on the Gateway to Erewhon, where your fantasy becomes reality. In acknowledgement of your society's lack of monetary system, we are waiving the usual entrance fee.  Please head straight on through to the teleporter which will bring you down to the planet."

The hologram gestured for Rayek and the others with him to walk past the entrance booths and over towards the teleporter pad.

[Station above Verallias II | Shuttlebay]

Having to follow the others to the entrance he noted an interesting observation for his eventual report though. This station seemed so used to various cultures visiting that it adapted its behaviour on the fly. Also the existence of a fee to begin with made it obvious the society that fashioned the stations programming still very much relied on systems of monetary exchange as prevalent mean of resource distribution.
Most civilisation abandoned this stepstone of civilisation at some point, some in phases, some altogether, but a group on the level of technical sophistication this station protruded should have waived compensations for mere recreational ventures many a decade if not century ago.

The Hologram also fascinated him, he had not detected any noticeable change in energy distribution or spikes of energy hinting at emitters being activated. It had to be created by projection systems outside of his range or even being isomorphic in nature.
Erewhon didn't ring a bell for him. He could have sworn he had taken a decent enough look at the star charts before taking up his last shift on the bridge in this sector, but he couldn't remember it being listed anywhere. His classes in sociology also didn't mention any Warp Capable Civilisation on thusly named planet, certainly none more advanced than their own tech. So it had to be the name of the station or a word not caught by their translators. An idiomic anomaly great enough to exceed the translations capabilities.

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[Erewhon Station]

The holographic woman smiled towards Malik as he asked questions.    "Our other guests are already enjoying the facility and immersing themselves in their fantasies.  They've been here several days already.  As to what you can expect... well that all depends on what you desire from it.  Erewhon was modeled to appear as a small urban city - such as those from Earth in the early 21st century.  To keep with this theme, guests are given holographic identities to fit with the era. We ask that you do not remove the wristband that contains the holo-emitter for your identity.  Once in the city, you are free to explore and do whatever takes your imagination."  She explained as she motioned for Rayek and the others to step onto the platform.

Rayek frowned slightly at the mention of the wristband holo-emitter.  "Are these holo-emitters truly necessary?" he balked.

The woman looked to the Romulan with a patient smile.  "Yes, it is a requirement of the site.  The wristbands serve several of functions.  It is the means of payment for service, health monitoring, but mainly it identifies you as a guest, and allows our facility to ensure you are enjoying yourselves."  The hologram motioned once more for Rayek to be the first up on the platform.  "You have nothing to worry about. The wristbands will be added during transport."

Rayek glanced around to the gathered officers.  Malik, seemed unimpressed.  Dem and Lek both seemed unhappy to be called on to do this.  The only one somewhat eager was Hansen and that wasn't necessarily a good thing since she seemed to speak to him like he was incompetent and didn't know the first thing about security, much less his job as a First Officer.  The Romulan's expression remained neutral as he tamped down on his usual acerbic commentary and was rewarded when Lieutenant Lachlyn spoke up in response to Hansen.

[...]
Erewhon - Transporter site
Rayek rematerialized in what appeared to be a bustling city center.  On the transport pad around him were several individuals, some he recognized - likely because the Erewhon computer had used a human facial design similar to what his teammates had looked like previously, though some had opted for an appearance completely different.

While Rayek didn't have easy means to see himself, his attire had changed to a dark casual outfit in place of his usual Starfleet uniform.

As he looked over the area, trying to take in his surroundings, an exotic looking woman in an ethnic floral skirt and rather revealing bikini top appeared in front of Malik with a flower lei necklace and drink in hand, which she presented to him after placing the lei around his neck.  "Aloha! Welcome to Erewhon, Malik.  My name is Candy and I'm your holographic server during your stay with us.  I'm here to make all your fantasies come true. Call on me any time day or night."

Rayek watched this exchange in surprise.  Not ever having been to Risa, Rayek didn't recognize the similar style of greeting.  He wondered, why Malik got this special treatment?

A moment later several other Polynesian-looking women and men appeared with more lei's and mai-tai's and approached those in the group that seemed to like the greeting Malik got.  One dark-haired beauty, who reminded Rayek of his own wife, placed a flower lei over his head and offered him the rum based drink.  "Aloha to you as well Commander. You can call me T'Sana.  I'll be your personal holographic server.  If you have any questions or requests for information, do not hesitate to call for me.  I am at your service. What would you like to do first?"

Rayek knew the answer he should give was 'meet with the manager of the facility' but instead he answered, "Tour your facility. Would you be my guide?"

To which T'Sana smiled and nodded in agreement.  "It would be my pleasure to tour you around."

Seeing no other options if not wanting to cause uncomfortable questions he followed the rest of the Team onto the platform.

[Erewhon | City Centre]

The transporter indeed had given him a wristband, a sleek metal band completely black and very light around his wrist. Before his eyes it seemed to change form, becoming somewhat smaller as though as adapting to his human physique. It also transformed its surface to a more reflective silver colour with pattern of interlocked sections on its surface, becoming far more difficult to distinguish from a more common piece of jewellery.
Looking down his body it seemed his uniform had been taken from him, instead being replaced by a loose summer shirt and appropriated trousers. The only hint at his uniform being embroidered bands of cyan fabric at the cuffs of his shirt.
At least his Tricorder was still present but given the ease with which the Aliens had changed his clothing and materialised the wristband around his arm it was a good guess they could have interfered with its internal workings as well.

As the men and women materialised around them and began handing out their lei`s one of them approached him as well. A woman looking to be human and around his age. She was carrying a lei made from blue and white orchids and various iridescent small seashells and extending it towards his head, obviously in an attempt to place it over his head.

"Welcome to Erewhon!"

Congratulations to everyone, lots of very deserved rewards. To a new and exciting semester.

[[USS Discovery - Deck One - Bridge]]

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[USS Discovery - Deck One - Bridge]  (arrival at Verallias II)

From his seated position, Rayek looked over towards the Junior Lieutenant Ramort as the Science officer reported out the scan finding.

Another scan-shielded area? The Romulan frowned until Ramort asked for permission to intensify his scan, much like how he had done during previous mission; then his frown turned into satisfied smirk.

"Thank you Mr. Ramort, I believe that is an excellent plan. Make it so."

[...]

[USS Discover | Deck 1 | Bridge | Science Station 1]

"Yes Sir, increasing Scanning intensity and broadening search area."

Doing as reported he increased power output to all active sensors and allocated additional computer resources.
But no matter which algorithm he applied or how many terabytes per second of high resolution data from the thousands of sensors placed all along Discoveries Hull he parsed through the computer all results came back empty. Or rather they returned just the cosmic noises consistent with what they would have gotten, had they pointed their sensors into the cold openness of space. Nearly as if the entire planet had been covered in one giant mirror, casting back the image of the Universe at them.

"I am sorry Sir but whatever is shielding this planet is beyond our technology. I can't penetrate it or get any readings for that matter. If we can't get some readings from it I won't be able to pierce through it."

Commander Rayek tr'Lhoell
[USS Discovery - Deck One - Bridge]  (arrival at Verallias II)

Rayek nodded brusquely at the Captain's order to prepare an Away Team.  "Aye, Captain."
[...]
He looked around the bridge. "Mr. Grippen, please pass off your duties to Mr. Graham.  This being a recreational space, I think you may be better able to assess it.  Mr. Ramort, you'll come along, perhaps there will be opportunity to study that shielding, and Lieutenant Tanner I will want you and two other Sec/Tac personnel to watch our backs."

[...]

[USS Discover | Deck 1 | Bridge | Science Station 1]

A feeling of excitement was growing in Ramort, he hadn't been part of a Away Team for some time now and the thought of setting boots on a new planet excited him.

Also, this planet held the promise of highly advanced tech. After multiple Borg incidents in the past decades Federation sensors had gotten quite sensitive as a matter of survival. So for whatever it was that shielded this planet to repel his attempts so thoroughly it had to be quite impressive in its level of advancement.

Thinking about who would take the station while he was gone, he turned to the Ensign next to him:

"Ensign, please take the Station while I am gone! I am sure you are more than up to it."

Thus leaving his seat and heading to the Turbolift.

---
[USS Discovery | Turbolift]

The slight humming of the Turbolift was a known rhythm by now. Each ship had a slightly different sound, and Discoveries was becoming his calming melody more and more. It was quite a strange experience after all he had gone through here, but the ship was also the very vessel carrying him to more and more interesting places in the universe. Like this planet now.

He had to remember to grab a Tricorder before leaving the ship. Gathering all data possible was after all his reason for being on the mission and he didn't want to fall short of the expectation placed into him.

[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge | Science Station 1]

The Sensor test was going along smoothly. With the added assistance from Rajagopalan. Ramort was able to quickly finish all necessary checks on the Sensor Sub-Grid. All components in fact reported operation within expected parameters. Some miniscule variations in the upper Gamma Bands could be found but those the computer should be more than capable to compensate for.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]

Some time later...

Helm pulled the ship out of warp on his command, and they appeared within visual range of the planet in question.  There was evidence of past and recent warp travel, which only added to the questions, since there were no signs of subspace comms or even anything resembling exploration within and out of the system.  But the energy readings were hard to ignore; a very powerful reading in geosynchronous orbit of the planet.  The planet itself looked beautiful; like a larger Bajor or Earth.  Again though, it was devoid of communication satellites, waypoint stations, structures on its nearby moons, and the planet itself seemed to be completely uninhabited.

There was one thing, though.  The source of the signal.  It was something.  A large orbital docking station.

"Scan the planet directly." he ordered, standing up.  "This is only adding more questions."

[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge | Science Station 1]

Approaching the Planet Ramort engaged a wide sensor sweep of the Region to find the origins of the Energy Anomaly. Pretty soon it became evident it wasn't merely a trapped Subspace Phenomena but instead based in a very real source. A lone Docking Station orbiting the planet. When he tried to readout the Planets biomarkers or to that effect any other distinguishing factors about the planet all readouts came back with a flat "0". It was like the planet had been coated in a smooth but completely absorbent membrane simply eating the sensors careful rays.

"There seems to be a Docking station in Orbit around the Planet Sir. It features none of the expected local net of Satellites or other minor orbital installations. The planet on the other hand is resisting any effort to scan it. In fact it reflects all attempts to learn more about it. Permission to intensify efforts to pierce and analyse it apparent shielding?"

[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge | Science Station 1]

Strange Energy Readings were Science's Bread and Butter. Ghosts of the Mysteries of the Universe leaving behind traces imprinted on reality for a fledging moment, to be discovered, analysed and followed to their source, to be hopefully understood and catalogued for all those beings that followed Starfleet out here to know about and be made a small piece of the great myriade of all things known by the Federation Databases.

All internal poetics aside, actually finding out what was going on out there would keep the entire Science Department busy for the next couple of hours, probably. There was always the chance that these signatures would turn into a much larger phenomenon but following the statistics it most likely was the trace remains of a subspace phenomenon that got caught in the Binary Systems complex and intersecting gravitational fields and collecting gaseous particles from the interstellar medium and exciting them when entering or exiting subspace, causing these energy readings.

Anyway they would need to make sure, after all there was always that statistical probably case where it was something else entirely.

[USS Discovery - Deck 1 - Main Bridge]"

"Helm, adjust course for the second planet in the system. Mr. Ramort, run a level 4 diagnostic on all sensors; lets make sure we aren't chasing ghosts."

[USS Discovery | Deck 1 | Bridge | Science Station 1]

"Acknowledged Captain, running Diagnostic routines!"

A large part of this process would be handled by the Computer, but manual input was still needed to supervise and cross-check that what the computer test images returned actually made sense and conformed to the expected outputs. Drawing from experience, the task could be done more efficiently and quickly if performed in tandem and also expecting that after having finished the diagnostic they would have to run analysis of the Energy readings too, Ramort judged if wise to call up another one of the junior Science Officers to the Bridge to assist him with the task, to finish it as timely as possible for the Captains satisfaction.

"Ensign Rajagopalan, please report to the Bridge to assist with Sensor Diagnostic." 

While he waited for the Ensign to arrive, he started giving the Computer the necessary orders to disengage the output buffers from the sensors and parse the test patters through the sensor grid.