The Continuing Story of Deep Space 2: Page 16
The major took the last turn, trusters switching to this new incredible warp propulsion. Warp 5 as the general orders allowed. There was no telling what to expect, but the major was alone. No communications with the station. Only he was able to tell the others of his findings. These sensors were great. Now up to the unknown. The edge of DS2 sensor range. Continue scanning for anything what could indicate a danger. That was the first priority. The rest could wait, unless something extraordinary came up. Automatics were installed and used.
"Computer, I need something to eat."
"Please specify request."
"Yeah, that was stupid of me, wasn't it. I would like a one person portion of pizza, with all necessary suplemental nutritions."
It tasted a lot better than those emergency rations, but it wasn't exactly a pizza either. Those damn replicators. Maybe it was indeed usefull to specify all ingredients. Still with his mouth full, major Jan, went to the living part of the runabout. It was not the usual comfortable runabout living section, but more a spartan room with a few chairs and a table. Two terminals logged in into the Beta's computer were visual from all sides in the room. Beta ... They should create some other names for the runabouts. Something like Explorer or Investigator. Jan had to talk about that with the commander when he got back. Now he allowed himself to rest for one hour. This mission would be a non-sleep mission for about two or three days. As usual the sphere of sensor range of DS2 had to be divided into parts. First part was mission one. There were six parts, six missions, of three or four days each. It was more of a charting or mapping mission. Have alook in the direction of the Delta Quadrant. See what's out there. Probably nothing yet. Not even a star system close enough to investigate.
"Scanning indicate a star system, bearing 240. A red dwarf system with six planets."
"Computer, is there any M-class planet in the system ?"
The major jumped on his feet and sat down at the helm in just a moment. As he looked at the displays the data came in. The second planet was an M-class planet indeed. But as the star system was out of the DS2 sensor range, the major had to take the Beta out of DS2 sensor range to have a look. He started the moving code pattern.
It was the commander himself who noticed the Beta's moving pattern. M-class - go. That was all. Repeated five times. A moment later the runabout was out of sensor range. That moment commander Arthur only could think that the major had to know what he was doing. He didn't entirely agree, but if Jan needed more information and he could only gather the data by getting closer, he couldn't really object. He couldn't object anyway. After a day's work, communications were still off line. Although there didn't seem to be something wrong with the system, as ensign Luke already had explained ten times. Everything should work.
Once out of DS2 sensor range, the runabout speeded strait on to the new uncharted system. As the major came closer it was obvious there was no life on the second planet. At least no advanced life forms. No satelites in orbit, no complicated infrastructure. Only some plant life widely spread out over the planet. Closer, more data, closer, more data. No change. No respons to hails. That was to be expected. Finally in orbit. Sub surface scans, one kilometer, two kilometers, ten kilometers below surface. No, this planet was dead. Maybe a wrong expression. This planet could be a nice place to spend easy and undisturbed vacations...
Waite a minute ! This planet had some strange craters. Not likely caused by meteors. Electrical storms were more likely. The major decieded to beam down the planet's surface. He had to see this with his own eyes. He already could imagine the commander's face when the runabout logs showed that he had visited this planet. He had seen that face before...
Now he was standing on the surface, one hundred meters away from one of the huge craters. The tricorder, linked to the runabout's computer, gathered the data as it should, but then without any warning ... magnetic resonance traces ... They were here ! He should have known. The place, the time, the pattern ... Not long ago ! They ... Holy ... The major had to get out of there ! The last thing he needed was a bunch of wild Borg on his neck.