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[USS Challenger - Bridge]

"Congratulations, Commander." Alex offered his own felicitations genuinely, though he was still distracted by his concerns about their mission parameters. While the Captain had eased the biggest worry about taking Maddison into danger, there'd be issues about that as well, primarily, who would take care of her while they were gone. Or worse yet, if they didn't make it back. Looking at Ardyn, he knew they'd have some tough decisions to make before they arrived at K-7.

"Lieutenant Cheizex." Alex motioned his colleague over. "Hi, I'm Lieutenant Wu, your department chief. Alex, if you don't mind the informalities. Sorry we haven't had a chance to sit down properly, it's been a busy few days. I was reading your personnel file over, and I understand that you've had some interest in the sciences, and that you took several electives at the academy? Any possibility one of those courses were on alien anatomy or theoretical biology?"

[Bridge | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

Aarwendil turned to look at the man that had talked with him. "Hello, Lieutenant Wu. It's nice to meet you." the young Betazoid approached the human, a friendly smile on his lips. He had heard that his department had a new chief, but hadn't seen him before. It was good to finally be able to talk with him.

"I don't mind. You can call me Aarwendil." if Alex didn't mind the use of first names, then he wasn't going to be against it. "Yes. I took some classes on alien anatomy, but I also took some involving xenozoology and xenobotanic." he said, remembering how these had been his favorite topics. "Do you need my help with something related to it?"

["Lads and Lasses. Seems the Klingons have gotten themselves into a spot of bother. They have had several ships, civilian and KDF go missin' along their coreward border. This area is virtually unknown ta Starfleet as even now, the Klingons are very tight-lipped about the region. It took decades ta learn most of this information and what we have is bloody thin. It seems some 140 years ago, durin' the time before the Khitomer Accords and the Klingons were lookin' ta expand, after bein' checked in their rimward advance by the Federation, the turned coreward. There they encountered a species out of their darkest nightmares. The Klingons named them the Kinshaya, which means 'demon possessed'."]

[Bridge - USS Challenger]

Ian watched the mass of Starbase 153 shrink as the Challenger departed for Klingon space. The ship had made the four hour deadline with all crew reporting in well ahead of the deadline. Once a safe distance from the starbase, the ship went to warp and smoothly accelerated to her maximum of warp 8.2. When the ship was steady on course, Ian called for a department heads briefing. As he was the only one with all the information of their mission, he would brief the others. Once the last person was in place, he stood and moved to the large display on the wall that currently showed the Klingon coreward border.

"Lads and Lasses. Seems the Klingons have gotten themselves into a spot of bother. They have had several ships, civilian and KDF go missin' along their coreward border. This area is virtually unknown ta Starfleet as even now, the Klingons are very tight-lipped about the region. It took decades ta learn most of this information and what we have is bloody thin. It seems some 140 years ago, durin' the time before the Khitomer Accords and the Klingons were lookin' ta expand, after bein' checked in their rimward advance by the Federation, the turned coreward. There they encountered a species out of their darkest nightmares. The Klingons named them the Kinshaya, which means 'demon possessed'."

At this point, Ian changed the image on the viewer from Klingon space to the image of a large humanoid.

"This ladies and gentlebeings is a Kinshaya. They average two meters tall or larger. They clock in at a massive 200 kilos. Accordin' ta the Klingons, they fight with a fury that is beyond words ta describe. They have these large, essentially vestigial wings, they cannae fly, they've become too heavy for that, but when spread span three meters. They have two ocular like organs for eyes, large and pupiless. Their nose is a wee thing and their mouth is little more than a flap, but has three rows of teeth. And if that isna nightmare enough, they have a sort of visual organ in the back of their head. It seems ta be primitive and only senses movement."

Changing the viewer again, the image was of a ship, but of a design no one had seen before.

"This is a Kinshaya globe ship. For some unknown reason, all of their ships are spheres with external warp nacelles mounted port and starboard. Despite their odd appearance, the Klingon report them ta be very maneuverable and pack a staggerin' punch. The first time the Klingons fought them, they only just managed ta stop them. Because that time was when we were enemies, they kept the entire encounter and war a secret. It took the work of many years for Starfleet Intelligence ta piece together that the Kinshaya even existed.

"Now that we are allies, the Klingons have shared what little they ken, but it's nae much. As mentioned, the Kinshaya fight with unmitigated fury, so, not unlike the Earth-Romulan war, no prisoners were ever taken and ships were usually lost with all hands. The image of the Kinshaya was a body found in the wreckage of one of their ships post battle. Even though it had been floatin' in hard vacuum for several hours, when it warmed up, it turned out ta nae be dead and it killed nine Klingons before they could kill it. I hope that gives you an idea of what we potentially face should the raidin' escalate beyond that."

Ian sat down at this point.

"We are part of a twelve ship taskforce. All older ships, I won't say Starfleet considers expendable, but that's the situation. There will be three Steamrunners, two Cheyennes, two New Orleans, three Norways, one Akira, and us. Starfleet's reasonin' for sendin' us, is after Frontier Day, it makes more sense ta keep the newer, faster ships closer ta the core planets as they can deploy more efficiently than keepin' them on the border on patrol. Regardless of the why we were selected, we have a job ta do. Our Klingon allies have asked for our help and per the Khitomer Accords, we are bound ta assist. What are your questions?"

[Engineering | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

Rather than joining the others in the space station, Aarwendil decided to remain in the ship. He had finished his experiments with the soil, achieving interesting results with it. Later, he would ponder if that was worth being published as an article. Perhaps the information that he found could be useful for agriculture.
Since he remained on the ship, the Betazoid decided to help the engineers. They were needing some extra hands and it would be no problem for him to help in any way that he could. Even if he worked in Operations, Aarwendil still knew how to operate around this department.

He had finished his task and was going when the message of the Captain. The fact that they barely had free time didn't come out as a great surprise to him. Something always happened when they had shore leave or a break.

Now they were on route to Klingon space. Aarwendil excused himself from engineering and went to the bridge, where he could help with the approaching problem.

[Engineering | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

The Betazoid arrived right on time to hear Captain Galloway's speech.  They were going to help the Klingons with Kinshaya, an apparently hostile species. Once the captain finished talking, Aarwendil approached him. "Captain, Lieutenant Jg. Cheizex presenting to duty. Is there any way that I can help on the bridge?"

[Mess Hall | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

With the situation in the Mess Hall finished, Aarwendil went back to do his work. Since he had returned to the ship, the young Betazoid had been doing some experiments with samples of soil from different planets of the Federation, with the purpose of discovering mineral and nutrient richness for the use in agriculture.

Replicators were very good at producing food, but some people still appreciated fresh vegetables and cooking. Besides being an interesting way of helping these planets, since they would know what to do to improve their agriculture.

His visit in the Mess Hall was a simple break to catch something to eat. Aarwendil didn't stay around too long, not wanting to leave his work unattended for too long. After eating, the Betazoid rushed back to the laboratory.

[Deck Four | Mess Hall | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

While he walked through the familiar corridors, Aarwendil thought that it was good to be back to the Challenger. He had to leave for a time, but soon returned. The Betazoid couldn't stay away from his duties any longer. Honestly, even if that was offered to him a long time away from the Star Fleet, the young man would never accept.

Working in the Starfleet was as much a part of his life as his telepathy. Being separated from it would be like missing something very important.

At that moment, Aarwendil was walking toward the Mess Hall. This was the best place where he could catch up with the rest of the crew. He arrived right on time to see the end of a commotion. The Betazoid wasn't sure about what had happened, but Ensign Zalos seemed to be hurt.

He could only wonder what had happened here.

[Fleet Applications - Join Here!]

Starfleet Rank: Lieutenant Jg
Name: Aarwendil Cheizex
Department assigned: Ops
SIMM Assigned: USS Challenger
Photo:Link
I had to stay absent from the Forum for a time, so this the request for a new ID card of my character.

[USS-Challenger/Bridge]

Aarwendil couldn't avoid thinking about everything that had happened during the last mission. It had been the first time that he had a nearly death experience, but at least everything ended well. The doomsday machine was destroyed, the Tal Shiar were stopped, he received a promotion and even Nekab's mother and their people were safe. The Romulan even decided to remain working in the Challenger.

However, he would never want to put his feet back on Andgarr. This planet was nice and all, but he had enough bad experiences there that made him want a long distance between himself and that place.

With everything back to normal, Aarwendil went back to work. He hoped that there wasn't going to be any nearly death experiences, but he wasn't going to bet about it.

[Commander Nira Said |  Control Center? >- Bridge | Doomsday Weapon]

Even Aarwendil's try didn't work. Nira could see nothing was working around these lumps.

"We're going to have to go somewhere else, and fast," she said, and then added as an afterthought, "as fast as this machine's gravity lets us."

And they backtracked (with lurching) to the ladder and climbed up. If it was bad enough to lurch less than half a kilometer on the same weight as a post-feast attendee, it was even worse climbing a ladder with that same level of gravity. Nira made a mental note to utilize her exercises and her dancing to put more emphasis on her legs, for the sake of walking strength. At the top, what they saw certainly indicated a better hope.

"Well, I'll be damned," breathed Nira in relief. "Why didn't we go up this ladder first? It would've saved some time."

Rather than lumps and holograms, this room certainly looked more like a bridge if anything. It made Nira wonder once again if there was AI of sorts operating the system...

"Okay, everybody, let's get to work," Nira ordered. "Hopefully, the consoles will make it easier to work with. Aarwendil, again, look for communications. I'm going to look for how this machine operates, to coin the offensive weaponry slang, its 'teeth.'"

Each of the team had what to do to work with the systems, even Nira. She tried to look for the weapon systems in the previous room, a former Sec/Tac chief as she was, and like the away team, she couldn't find it. She did intend to hand over the systems to Aarwendil or Neva or Tora or Jamil to disable it once she did find it, of course, but it stood to reason that the damn thing was too dangerous.

[Inside Doomsday Machine - Angdarr Systerm]

Although unlike any technology the away team had ever seen, like the universal translator picked up on basic constants to establish communication, there were enough points of commonality that after roughly half an hour of study, it was possible to isolate the Machine's critical systems. The consoles for Environmental, Engineering, Power Generation, Maneuver, Navigation, Weapons, and Communication were identified.

However, a problem every member of the away team, including Nira at the Weapons console, which she had mostly figured out, was the controls were locked out and under automated command by the Machine's computer. They had made progress, but until they could override or shut down the Machines automated control, they could not operate any of the systems they identified. Everything depended on them locating and figuring out how to deal with the Machine's autonomous control.

One critical factor that was working against the away team that they didn't even know existed, was the one hour clock Tal had given Galloway to allow the Romulans access to the Machine, an hour that was now down by half with the clock relentlessly still ticking.

[Mjolnir|Planet Killer]

Aarwendil sighed after Nira failed to make contact. "œI'm sorry." he apologized for his failure. It only made their situation more dire. They will need to find another way of contacting the Challenger, perhaps there would be other ways that the Ensign could help with it. Unfortunately, it would need to be done elsewhere.

The Commander led the group through what the young Betazoid considered the most arduous walk that he ever did. Not only the gravity made it difficult, but the ladder was very dangerous. At least this nearly mortal adventure ended up bringing them to a promising place. If someone had asked his opinion about the room, Aarwendil would say that he was nearly sure that they arrived at a bridge.

"œYes, ma'am." the Ensign answered Nira, while rushing toward the panels and machines, trying to find something that could help them. After some time doing it, Aarwendil thought that he could have found something. "œCommander, can you look at it? I think that this station has a communication system."

[Ensign Neva Cordon|Mjolnir|Planet Killer]

Neva put her rebreather on, but the facemask got shoved up to sit on her forehead. She'd absently put on both an Engineer yellow sweater and phaser, her attention focused on the probe's readouts. Her mouth moved silently, mind whirling with ideas and suppositions.

Turning to Aarwendil, she smiled. "Ok, I think we can safely move this. It seems dormant enough for now." She looked around  the hold. "What's the status on the hovercart?"

[Commander Nira Said |  Hangar Bay >- Control Center | Doomsday Weapon]

Clad in a sweater, Nira stepped out. The moment she did, however, she suddenly felt heavy. Not in the sense that she had to drag her feet with every step, as expected in stepping in a stellar body in a mass as big as Uranus, but in the sense that it felt like stepping up from a table after eating a whole feast...or rather, a month's worth of feasts; Nira  remembered lurching from eating a feast was after having a month's worth of nightly feasts after Ramadan when she was thirteen, and she lurched when she walked for a week afterwards, the fattest she had felt before she had to work on a strict exercise regime and have her own fast, but without the feasts of the night.

It wasn't a heavy walk all the same, but it was more of the walk of somebody with...not necessarily fat, not necessarily obese, but walking still had a lurch in it, and the whole team was forced to lurch as they walked, but at least they lurched at a typical walking pace rather than a slow, heavy lurch.

As for the probe, it was still to heavy to carry, even in a hovercart, and when Nira noticed the hallways, how narrow they were and the turns not making a cart compatible, they had to abandon the cart back on the Mjolnir, along with the probe. It had stopped working, and it occurred to Nira it was more the access means, like a key to a doorway.

After lurching their way through the hallways, the team found the two doorways. Seeing the left side with the ladder, Nira muttered, "Good Allah, I don't think we can climb this, not with the weight of feasts on us in this gravity. And imagine if we even tried to bring the probe with us."

So they stepped into the right door. Nira was amazed by what she saw. Given the displays, and Nira recognized the shape of the Challenger and the Romulan ships, but she recognized them in passing and she swept her eyes around.

"Good Allah, this has to be the control center of the Machine!" said Nira. "Its brain, if it's automated. And the displays of the proximity around it, it must be its eyes..."

Then she got a better look back at the Challenger and realized the Romulans were in attack formation. She gasped. And then she glared at them. The threatening words and declaration of war on "the last remnant of the Federation," those of the Federation not taken or eliminated by the Borg, rang back to Nira: The Triumvirate Praetors glaring at them, her evil Romulan "twin" Nirreen gloatingly passing the words on.

"You dogs weren't really with the Free State, are you?" Nira snarled quietly as she stared. "You chose the right moment to attack, spring a trap. And you seven may not be the only ones. The Praetorians may very well be attacking the border planets by now. Well...you're not getting control of this."

She looked back at the away team and said, "Okay, everybody, let's see if we can do something about this Machine. Aarwendil, find a way to establish communications from here. Neva, Jamil, Tora, check out the power systems, find a way to disarm the Machine, shut down its weaponry."

[Mjolnir|Planet Killer]

"œI agree. The chances of an explosion are low."  Aarwendil said to Neva, while looking at the information given by the probe. The Ensign immediately moved to read the information regarding the hovercart. "œI'm not sure if it'll be able to carry the probe. It's too heavy for the vehicle." they would need to find another way to move it, or this mission could end in another failure.

And there wasn't time for another plan.

If the situation wasn't enough, the Romulans had returned to pester them. He thought that the Praetorians would have stayed away watching the weapon cause the destruction, like what a typical villain would do. However, they preferred to be sure that it was going to work. Aarwendil could only think that they were stupid enough to risk part of their fleet being destroyed in the process.

"œOn it, ma'am." he said to Nira, rushing to find a way that he could make the communication work. It would be the first time that he used this type of system, but he would give it a try. Obviously, it took longer than he wanted to establish communications. "œSee if you can do that now."

[Commander Nira Said | Bridge | Deck One | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

Nira smiled warmly, sisterly. And the mention of Nekab did make her realize about the Unification Movement. In all the excitement, there was no realization about them...

"I'll see if I can have Commander Catalan inquire about where she is," said Nira. She was about to ask Commander Catalan when he called out something with the device...
Nira heard the signal being sent between the probe and the Machine going. When Captain Galloway mentioned it, she craned her ear to hear.

[Commander Nira Said | Bridge | Deck One | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

When Ian finally placed where he heard the signal before, Nira was taken aback. IFF?

"IFF? I never heard of it! I had assumed the Machine was transmitting Morse Code, but..."

But when Ian mentioned about that the Machine was trying to acknowledge the probe, Nira grinned. "Holy Allah, you may be right, Captain!" she said. "And it would be more than just a means of telling the Machine not to fire; that probe sounds like it's the means to control the machine! A perfect way to defend ourselves against future powerful hostiles like the Borg and the Dominion! And it could prove advantageous if Unimatrices and cubes are assembled by the Borg if the core worlds of the Federation have fallen. It's just as well that stupid dog O'Flaherty hasn't realized that."

At her orders, Nira nodded. "Aye, sir. Mister Espada, Ensign Cheizex, with me."

She tapped her comm badge as she left with Aarwendil and Hector and said, "Ensigns Cordon, Zalos and Avant, report to the Mjolnir in the shuttlebay."

[Bridge/ Deck One/ USS Challenger]

The young Betazoid smiled. "œThank you, Commander. I'll tell Nekab about it later."  he hoped that the Romulan mother and the other members of the Unification Movement would have left Andgarr already. Aarwendil wondered if one of the reasons why the doomsday machine was sent to the planet was because of their presence. Of course, it would depend if the Tal Shiar was the one behind it.

While he waited for an answer about the Romulans' whereabouts, Aarwendil remained working at his station, only stopping when Nira called for him. He was still reluctant to go with her after the events with the yanmarr, but he needed to fulfill his duty. Due to that, the Ensign left his seat and walked toward the Commander.

[Commander Nira Said | Bridge | Deck One | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

"Good Allah, I hope the scavengers attacking Sickbay aren't including the ones I brought up," said Nira. Any one of those scavengers in particular, if they were involved, then it would mean it's her fault.

She sighed at Captain Galloway's next words. "I suppose so...if only the center seat could see what was going on...but yes, it's best to put trust in..."

She looked up at Ops and saw Aarwendil there, feeling just as bad as she was about their efforts against the Machine. She stood and approached him.

"I understand how you feel, Aarwendil," she said comfortingly. "If anything, I have been feeling worse about it; I wasn't sure what more we could do..."

She then looked around at the science row...and she noticed Savar was gone. She realized he must be heading down with Lieutenant Randall...

[Bridge/ Deck One/ USS Challenger]

Aarwendil yelped when he heard Commander Said's voice next to him, the woman could be so stealthy when she wanted. Or perhaps it was because the young Betazoid was still ashamed of what had happened between them in Andgarr. While he wasn't afraid of talking to her anymore, the Ensign couldn't avoid thinking how he acted improperly. However, with a doomsday machine coming, the effect of the yanmarr pollen was the least of what he should think about at the moment.

"œI only hope that we can evacuate the maximum number of people possible." if they couldn't find another way of stopping the machine, this was the only thing that they could do. Then he remembered something. "œCommander, is there a way that we can find if Nekab's mother is out of Andgarr? He didn't show it, but I felt that he was concerned with her. She was among the Unificationists, but I don't know if they already left."

[USS-Challenger/ Operations]

After the events on the surface and the failure of their efforts, Aarwendil went back to his work. He felt dejected for not being able to help more. Their efforts on the surface ended up not stopping the doomsday machine, which continued to travel full speed toward Andgarr. Now he only could hope that the rest of the crew would find another way to help.

He was also concerned with Nekab. The Romulan could be stoic like a Vulcan, but the young Betazoid had felt some emotions coming from him since they returned from the surface. It was most frustration and concern. Probably because his mother could still be down here and he wasn't able to contact her.

Aarwendil decided to check him later. Nekab was in his room when the marauders invaded the sickbay, making it impossible for him to go there. He was at the cetacean labs at the moment. Something about marine mammals from Earth being good listeners.

[Commander Nira Said | Shuttle Cutty Sark | Warbird Necropolis | Andgarr Prime]

Nira watched in amazement at Espada's flying and Zhuk's shooting. They were so high up the canopy that there were so much more branches and more limbs of the huge trees; any higher up, and they'd break free from the canopy and would see it like a green sea, as Nira figured. And the shooting was good enough for the Scorpion to break off.

Now that it was gone, the shuttle was able to close in on the signature Tora found. Once again, it was a descent from great heights to feeling like reaching the bottom of a huge well...or rather, a very deep crater. Only this time, they were coming down deeper until they reached the ground. It was slightly dark, maybe a bit of murkiness, but the details can be made out well enough.

The wreck was certainly more than two and a half centuries old, maybe two and three-quarter centuries old. In point of fact, the hulk was a Battlehawk, the biggest of Romulan battleships ever to be face during the Human-Romulan War that led to the formation of the Federation. It rested at an angle in a way that it looked to tilt. One of its nacelles was missing, and it side missing the nacelle was the side more on the ground. Part of the Battlehawk was covered in foliage, almost like a model ship buried under leaves, and its rear was set against the roots of the huge tree, and after two hundred and seventy or eighty or so years, the roots were growing around and on top of it, absorbing the ship over time; Nira remembered hearing stories of ancient metal wedges placed amidst a tree, forgotten, only to be found a few decades later to have been partially absorbed into the tree, eventually leading to splitting the tree, but it was more rather the case of something being buried by a tree over time.

Looking around, Nira saw the huge trunk of an ohn'garr tree laying on the side like a log huge enough to bear semblance to the body of an old Constitution class...assuming Consitutions were made to be built as big as Galaxy-classes.

Remembering the secret Andgarr weapon of tractor emitters hidden on the tree trunks, Nira looked around. "Hey, look at that," she said, pointing. It was just at the top side of the trunk, a rusted piece of machinery, also partially absorbed into the tree.

"There's a reason for the wreckage and the junkyard," Nira said, addressing Taja and Tora and anybody who didn't see what the Andgarr did to the Praetorian Triumvirate earlier. "A long time ago, two hundred and seventy or eighty or so years ago, the Andgarr thwarted a conquest by the Romulans. There was a battle among the treetops, ships engaging each other among the trees. The climax was when the fleet was brought down by the trees. It was done using tractor emitters; the Andgarr cut partially into the trees, the emitters caught the ships, the ships tried to break free, and the result let to the trunks breaking free from their force. Some ships were crushed or flattened, others damaged.

"Looks like this ship may have gotten its nacelle sheared off and the trunk dragged it the rest of the way down," said Nira. "It wouldn't be surprising; if the ship didn't get crushed, it would've gotten dragged down by the trunk to the forest floor below, pulled by the weight of the trunk. If there was total sunlight, I'm sure we'll probably see indications of impact craters or indications of damage.

"Okay, here's the plan now that we found it," said Nira, giving instructions. "Mister Espada, take the Cutty Sark back to Challenger, just in case of any more scavengers; it's too exposed out here and I don't want any more surprise scavengers. The rest of us will proceed inside and head for the ship's Main Engineering. Aarwendil, Neva, Tora, you'll be our guides, your tricorders ought to point the way. Doctor Grippen, Nekab, medical support, particularly in the event of potential radiation leakage. Zhuk, you handled okay back up there against the Scorpion, but if you or the doctor feel you're not in any good shape to come with us, you can head back to Challenger with Espada, and Kyan can change places with you if you wish. And on the subject of the Challenger..."

She then tapped her comm badge.  "Said to Challenger. We found a warp core in the wreck of a Romulan ship with an active signature. We'll be heading inside the ship it's in. Please inform Davenport and Tharn to send a team from each of their departments and beam them to my comm badge signal. Phasers distributed to both away teams and weapons heavy with Security, I want to make sure we discourage any more potential hostiles or be able to respond to an engagement better if we get surprised."

[Commander Nira Said | Battlehawk Wreck | Warbird Necropolis | Andgarr Prime]

Nira had to admit, she was surprised at the news of the delay. A rescue in progress and Security and Engineering would be delayed, Nira wondered what sort of ship got into that huge trouble. But given Lieutenant Booker's tone, there was no time.

"Understood, Booker," she said. "Hopefully it'll be finished by the time we're ready to get power up."

As she followed Tora, and especially Aarwendil and Neva, questions were flooding Nira's head, and this time, they could not be restrained. At first, she mulled over the possibility that she'd have to inquire of the Anax for help if Challenger was still to busy...or the Unification Movement, if they can be found again...then mulling over that they would have to carve into the ohn'garr tree to get the wreck out once they powered it up....

The beginnings of being fully distracted were catching on and was surprised when she stepped and crushed something with a brittle crunch. She looked down and flinched in surprise at the sight of having stepped into the rib cage of a Romulan skeleton...realizing that, she looked around and realized...

"Hey. We're in their bridge...well, control center," she said.

Looking around, Nira could see a circular design, with an apparatus in the center surrounded by half a dozen or so seats with elaborate visual displays extending from the ceiling to seating arrangements below. All the seats were occupied by skeletons, dead husks. A dozen more skeletons littered the bridge, and all had their heads uncovered. And they were all Romulan.

"I'm guessing they were all killed by the landing," said Nira, noticing how the Romulan skeletons were laying around in various positions, supine, prone, or on their sides. "And a hard landing it was indeed...dropped like a rock, given the tree was taking the ship down with it...can you verify that, Taja, before we move on?"

Nira then looked at the central apparatus. She instantly remembered files of Romulan control ships for drones, particularly in the accounts of Malcolm Reed and Charles "Trip" Tucker when they explored a Romulan drone ship, and their investigations indicated the drone being powered by means of telepathic remote control known as "telepresence." She had been reading up on it, especially more so, after encountering the ship so elaborately using holographic displays to impersonate the Discovery, down to its multi-vector assault mode, when the Tal Shiar almost sabotaged the formation of the Romulan Free State, using a ship similar to the drone Tucker and Reed infiltrated so long ago. She looked at the apparatuses. One or two looked to have been severed; at least one seated skeleton was decapitated. Looking at the severed visual display off to the side, Nira pulled it off and it showed the skull of a Reman, indicative of the sharp teeth and batlike vampiric structure of the skull.

"So that's how the Romulans controlled their drone ships back in the day," said Nira. "They'd been working on telepresence, and they even had a good source of manpower: Remans. Chances are, a Battlehawk is a control ship as well as a flagship. It's easy to imagine it led a squadron of six or so smaller ships. Taking one down in battle would not be easy..."

She brushed her uniform and then looked at Tora, Aarwendil and Neva. "Sorry for the delay, but it's an interesting discovery. Pity we'll have to shove this down the gullet of that incoming monster. Let's keep moving."

A while after leaving the control center, Nira had an even bigger realization: Since this was a ship predating the Earth-Romulan War by a decade or potentially more, the power source of its warp core wouldn't be a singularity, nor a matter/antimatter, power source. If she remembered the details, Romulans cores back then were powered by fusion. That made her concerned as to whether it would generate something powerful enough to take down the Doomsday Weapon, even at its power levels. Again, possibilties flooded her mind: They could get the power up, power the core, but what if they could ramp up the power somehow? Include a few deuterium tanks to pack a bigger punch? Nira was no engineer, but she knew weapons, and the power level of weapons; she had even looked up how a starship's engineering systems packed in power compared to torpedoes, and that had her wondering...but then, the thought came to her, since she ordered particularly to search for ships powered by singularity drives, how did Tora find this ship? And would it be more worth looking at one of the more recently downed ships to...?

If it hadn't been for Nekab's warning shout, Nira, in her distracted thinking, would've walked right into the ambush and would not have realized it until it was too late. The warning shout definitely roused her.

"Cover!" she shouted as the rain of deflector bolts lit up the hallway.

Nira berated herself as she got her rifle ready. Why did it not occur to her that there would be scavengers here already? And this was especially the situation where she needed more security officers. Well, no backing down now...

[Batttlehawk wreck/ Warbird Necropolis/ Andgarr Prime]

In the end they survived the attack of the Scorpion-class and reached the wreck, this time there wasn't any scanverge in sight. While the Cutty Sark returned to the Challenger, Aarwendil followed Commander Said and the others inside was probably the largest Romulan ship that he ever saw.

Not that he had seen many Romulans ships before.

"œI had heard stories about the Battlehawks." Nekab said, while they walked through the decaying halls. "œThey were the most powerful ships during the Earth-Romulan War, being capable of destroying many enemy ships." the doctor looked around. He was still with his stoic demeanor, but the Betazoid was sure that he was impressed in being able to see this piece of story. "œOne of my ancestors was captain in one of them."

The Ensign was going to ask Nekab more about it when the doctor turned to look at the Commander. He did the same, still feeling a bit embarrassed, when he heard the Romulan shout for her to be careful. A group of scavengers was preparing to fire at them. Aarwendil pulled Nekab by his wrist and found some cover, before firing at them with his phaser.

It was obvious that they were going to be here too.

[Commander Nira Said | Shuttle Cutty Sark | Warbird Necropolis | Andgarr Prime]

Nira was impressed by Zhuk's prowress, but it did get him shot up a little. She got two or three of the scumbags and got a graze on the shoulder, but she felt the heat of the disruptor; a few more inches down and the beam would've sliced her arm off at the joint.

Aboard, she nodded at Taja's treating Zhuk and, as the shuttle took off, was surprised at Neva's calculating a return course to Challenger.

"Belay that, Ensign," she said. "We still have work to do. However, I downright hesitate to set down on the planet again, what with these scavengers and salvagers. Maintain an airborne position, Mister Espada. Put us among the trees, we'll look suspicious if we just hang around up here. Cheizex, Zalos, man the sensors, scan for any readings of Romulan warp cores, based on what the databanks can tell of Romulan singularity drives...generally how Romulans power their warp cores," she added. "One of them has to be intact and easy to be powered up."

She then opened a channel to Challenger. "Cutty Sark to Challenger. This is Commander Said. We made it to the planet, but we ran afoul of a bunch of criminal salvagers. We're maintaining airborne vectors and we'll scan for Romulan warp cores. I may need to call in for an additional security detail with a second team of engineers once we find it, just in case we do run into more scavengers once we find the core."

Tora sighed and turned to look down at her console. Here was better than being shot at and kidnapped by scavengers, at any rate. Once again, no thanks to being made into less than she was now.

Her fingers swept over the controls. Romulan drives were ever so easy to pinpoint. The tiny singularities that powered their warp cores were detectable from large distances away always - soon enough there was a blip on her sensors, small at first but steadily growing larger as the shuttle travelled forward. "Commander. Sensors indicate a Romulan singularity core straight ahead of us. Two hundred klicks." She reported, glancing up from the console for just a moment to look at the First Officer. "And-"

Tora never finished her sentence. Frantic beeping sounded from her console; she glanced sideways at it. What she saw made her stomach churn. "We are being followed." She announced. "By... a small craft of some sort. And it is armed."

[Commander Nira Said | Shuttle Cutty Sark | Warbird Necropolis | Andgarr Prime]

Nira momentarily forgot about the graze on her shoulder. She took off her outer uniform, down to a tank top, and allowed Taja to treat it while she looked over at Hector. She raised her eyebrows with interest at his words. "It could....and," she added with a smile, "in any event, it was required to take the ship into its gullet. An explosion did take the other one down, but an implosion..."

She was grinning even wider now. "Holy Allah, I can imagine the possibilities. Not even its neutronium shell could handle a self-consuming singularity...a black hole that would consume it..." She stopped herself from laughing and added, "Well, considering the technology back then, comparing it to the technology now...despite its neutronium, whatever we can throw into it, even at partial power, would potentially do a lot more damage to the thing..."Nira beamed in delighted interest at Tora, only for the other shoe to drop when she mentioned a follower... "Allah forbid, it better not be who I think it is," Nira muttered with a scowl.

[Commander Nira Said | Shuttle Cutty Sark | Warbird Necropolis | Andgarr Prime]

Nira nodded in appreciation at Taja's words, and then looked over Tora's shoulder.

"Shit!" she snapped. "It's not the scavengers!"

If that Scorpion was powering weapons, then it was certainly obvious that it wasn't from the Free State. She didn't care who it was, scumbag or Praetorian, in that fighter. The hostilities were made certain of. Where it came from may be obvious: Could've been in one of the recently downed ships, but whether it was scumbag or Praetorian, again, it didn't matter.

"Espada, Cordon, keep at the projected course to the signature Ensign Zalos found, but initiate evasive manuvers!" Nira ordered. "Mister Mrekrerhas, if you're able to, man the weapons and fire at will."

[Shuttle Cutty Sark/ Warbird Necropolis/ Andgarr Prime]

Aarwendil went to work in the scan, searching for the Romulan warp cores. However, Ensign Zalos found them first. Not only that, but she also identified that there was another ship chasing them. The young Betazoid thought that it was the scavengers trying to pursue them. However, the revelation that it was a Scorpion-class chasing them changed his mind. Such a type of shuttle wasn't used by simply criminals.

"œMa'am." Nekab said, while approaching Commander Said. He was so silent since their retreat that the Betazoid forgot about his presence. "œA Scorpion-class has a peculiarity that can help us." the Romulan was close to the scanners, watching the signal of the enemy shuttle in deep thought. "œTheir weapons have a delay of how many times they can fire before needing to recharge. It's usually seven consecutive shots. Being fast enough to evade them, you can attack while recharging. It's a time limit of 60 seconds."

Nekab said with so much certainty that gave the impression, at least for Aarwendil that he had saw one of the ships closer than a simple doctor would be. He wondered how the Romulan knew it.

[[Angdarr Landing Site]]

[Angdarr Landing Site]

Taja listened to the briefings with interest and thoroughly enjoyed the slightly hair-raising descent through the planet's atmosphere. The forest canopy of Angdarr was beautiful despite the dangers that lurked beneath. Once disembarked, the Risan stayed with the group and further admired the trees and other foliage, reminiscing about her paradise home but it was to be short lived.

Taja watched as Nira 'negotiated' with the scavengers. They looked like they hadn't bathed in a month and smelled like it to, she tried not to let her disgust show at their words and appearance. Perhaps it was her being amped up on that damned 'Go-Juice', or perhaps she was just exceedingly stupid, but Taja stepped forward with both hands raised in the air. She had no place doing this, but was to hyped to do anything about it.

"Hold on there just a minute. There's no need for hostilities." She unleashed her full Risan charm, the same charm that made Starfleet shore-leave personnel weak at the knees. Putting on her best smile, she continued. "I never imagined we'd meet such a handsome and beautiful group of pirates. Perhaps we can come to a deal, we have with us inoculation against the insect's spores. I'm sure you to have suffered the effects. If that doesn't interest you, I'm more than happy to take care of any medical needs you may have...any nasty cuts or half-healed broken bones. What do you say, you fabulous hunk of Orion masculinity?" She winked at the Orion male, terrified on the inside and expecting to be blasted into oblivion at any second.

[Commander Nira Said | Shuttle Cutty Sark | Main Shuttlebay | Deck Nineteen | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

Nira was certain Taja's charm - that relaxing affect from Taja's eyes - was going to work on the green scumbags. But not this time. Did it maybe require eye contact from whom Taja is staring at to work? Nira thought briefly before the leader made his retort. His right hand Orion said, "If you want the gold-hair, I get the dark-hairs, specifically I get the Cardassian. Lord Hirim will want the other dark haired females."

"You green perverts," snarled Nira. "You're not taking our shuttle to take apart! And you won't be taking slaves!" And then, she primed her rifle. The right hand stepped forward, his eyes aflame with lustful desire, and Nira shot him in the foot. And thus the fighting retreat started.

"Back to the shuttle, everybody! Fighting retreat!" called Nira, then looked at Zhuk. "Lieutenant! Covering fire! Everybody else, take your shots as best as you can."

And they moved back to the shuttle, Nira and Zhuk covering the team as they proceeded inside, taking one side of the door. As people scrambled in, Lieutenant Espada looked around in surprise.

[Shuttle Cutty Sark/ Romulan Landing Pad/ Warbird Necropolis/ Andgarr Prime]

Aarwendil watched speechless while Taja tried to flirt with the Orion. The Betazoid couldn't deny that she was attractive and that the Risians had a natural relaxing effect around them, but unless she had strong pheromones and empathic powers, he doubted that her plan to calm him down would work. Due to that, it was with little surprise that he saw the Scavengers already planning to take them as slaves.

Well, at least planning to leave the females as slaves. Aarwendil was pretty sure that the males would end up dead.

Luckily, Commander Said took a more practical idea and ordered a retreat, while firing at them. Aarwendil helped, using his phasers to target a Nausicaan's leg. He saw Nekab rushing with the group, using the cover to enter the shuttle. The Ensign immediately did the same.

[Would]

Neva smiled brightly when she heard Aarwendil. Turning to face him after hitting a couple controls, she nodded. "Yeah, I'm good. I got back to shift just today." With a sigh, she looked at him more directly and then went on telepathically.
'I think I could use some help shutting out others. Its been hard to pick up again...' The fleeting image of maniacally angry eyes and pain shoot past before Neva shut it down. 'Would you help?'

Neva looked away, some redness coloring her cheeks. With a cough, she spoke once more. "You should probably get strapped in, Aarwendil. Once the Commander gets in, we're off."

[Shuttlebay/Cutty Sark]

Aarwendil didn't need to use his telepathy to know that Neva wasn't well. She looked tired, even if she had said that had returned to her shift today. When she contacted him telepathically, the young Betazoid briefly saw a terrible image coming from her mind. He wondered what it was.  "˜Of course! I know some exercises that can help. After this mission we can meet in the holodeck. We can work on it here.' he said telepathically to her. Since they were still alone in the shuttle, the two could talk with each other this way without offending non-telepaths.

Taking her advice, he sat in one of the seats and strapped himself. Now they needed to wait for the others.

[Deck 8, Sickbay]

Taja quickled wished she'd went to sleep when the commander's call came in, now who knew when she'd next see her bed. The Risan quickly downed the remainder of her 'Go-Juice' and went to prepare her medical kit. "Looks like we'll have the pleasure of each other's company for a little while longer!" she said with a smile to Aarwendil and Nekab.

[Deck 19, Shuttlebay]

Upon arriving in the shuttlebay, Taja entered the waiting craft and found a seat placing the medical kit across her lap. Turning to the Romulan, she asked "So, Mr Nekab. What do I need to know about these spores, since we're going back there. Anything we need to administer to the away team to protect them?"

[Commander Nira Said | Shuttle Cutty Sark | Main Shuttlebay | Deck Nineteen | USS Challenger NCC-40117-A]

The team assembled inside. Nira nodded cordially to them all as they came in. Taja and Nekab came in last, and thank Allah, they had the materials.

Zhuk started off, and when he passed the briefing to Nira, she proceeded. "Right, so we're heading particularly to what the Andgarr refer to as the 'Warbird Necropolis.' The object of the away mission is to find a warp core among the ships below. We will be scanning for active warp cores, whether or not they had been rebuilt by the Romulans. Now we'll see what we can find among the junk below. It'll be up to our Ensigns in particular to find the warp cores. We'll start at the landing site, find anything in proximity to our tricorders. Worse comes to worse, we use the Cutty Sark's sensors.

"Now, we have two extra Medical hands to innoculate us against any Yanmarr pollen, just in case," she added. She turned to Nekab and asked, "I trust you have the materials to innoculate us against the pollen?"
[Commander Nira Said | Shuttle Cutty Sark | Romulan Landing Pad | Warbird Necropolis | Andgarr Prime]

Nira stood between Neva and Hector and watched with awe as they dove into the huge canopy. It was well worth seeing again, but now they had to save it. Save it from the monster of Kirk's day.

Upon landing, she smiled at Hector's jokey reply. "Good flying with you. Keep the engine running, we may need to get going once we find the core, we don't want to go it on foot." She looked over at Taja and Tora Zalos and said, "Well, you'd be surprised by the huge trees, especially if you saw them coming in."

Indeed, it's easy enough to be. Nira had to admit, she was so busy looking up at the huge trees above that she was taken by surprise by typical represenatives of the galaxy's wretched hive of scum and villainy. There was certainly plenty of green; they mostly consisted of Orions and Nausicaans.

Nira was at the front with Zhuk, both with their rifles at the ready. The way they indicated interest in the shuttle.

"Let me guess: Scavengers," said Nira. "Well, you're not taking our shuttle, we need it."

A few of the Nausicaans sniggered. The spokesmen, a tall Orion, merely curled his lips at them. "Well. Regardless, we can have your shuttle, and we could even take some slaves. The warlords would pay a fortune especially for beauties like you females."

Nira curled her lips back. "Screw you, you green bastards," she snarled. "Besides, there are some new ships that had their recent flights tragically cut off..."

"...we know," sneered another Orion at his side, and she certainly had the look of an Animal Woman; she would've looked like a barbarian princess if it wasn't for the metal armor pads and the green skin. "All of them made from the husks around you. And there's still enough to go around."

Well. This was going to get tricky. Nira was suddenly regretting stepping out. She knew there was a reason to go for a shuttle. First they had to get out of this.

[USS-Challenger/ Shuttlebay - Cutty Sark]

Nekab and Taja were the last to arrive, due to the Romulan wanting to be well prepared for what they could see on the surface. "œThere is a vaccine capable of nullifying the effects of the pollen." he said to the Risian, while showing her the metallic suitcase that he was carrying. "œI have samples here to be used in the case of contamination."

When they arrived at the shuttle, Commander Said was already here. "œYes, ma'am. We have enough vaccines. The yanmarr will not jeopardize the mission." he reassured the female Betazoid, before finding a seat for himself. While he maintained his stoic face, Nekab couldn't avoid thinking of his mother in Andgarr and wondered if she had already left the planet.

He took a deep breath, allowing these feelings of doubt and fear dissipate.

[Shuttle Cutty Sark/ Romulan Landing Pad/ Warbird Necropolis/ Andgarr Prime]

While the shuttle descended through the canopy, Aarwendil had a deja vu. However, this time he didn't have the same awe from early on. He was concerned with the fact that the yanmarr could still be out here. What calmed him down was the fact that Nekab was carruing the vaccines.