Darkened Stars - Chapter 34

Darkened Stars - Chapter 34

Stardate 29493.3 - June 29, 2352 - 13:08:49

Space was big, space was very big, space was also empty enough that not much tended to happen when you were traveling through it. Something that was both a profound relief to Rain, and a tiny bit of a disappointment given that the Asari still kind of wanted to go through at least one typical Star Trek type adventure in her life.

Or at least she had till a moment ago when one had decided to present itself.

“A distress signal?” Rain repeated as she looked over to Strelka.

“It looks like it’s coming from the Pree system.” The half-Klingon added in.

T’Lyn looked up from the padd she was working on. “I assume I do not need to warn you that the recommended course of action in such situations is to ignore the signal?”

Rain felt her eyeridge twitch, as that had been exactly what she had been planning to do up until the moment the Vulcan had suggested it. Now however she couldn’t help but shake the feeling that it would be a bad idea.

She looked over to the helm. “Our current course has us passing within ten light hours of the Pree system, right Salora?” 

“Yes.” The half-Cardassian confirmed as she glanced back at Rain.

Drumming her fingers on the arm of her chair, Rain considered the logic of the issue. Without T'Lyn's comment she would have been absolutely sure it was schmuck bait for a trap of some kind. But you baited traps with things you knew your prey would want to go after, not things that would just be walked passed.

“Why is that the recommended course of action?” She asked as she turned back to T'Lyn.

The Vulcan quirked an eyebrow at her. “The policy was established by the Terrain Empire nearly two hundred years ago, and since then has resulted in a statistically significant downturn in ships lost to unknown phenomenon.”

That bit of information all but made the choice for her, as while Rain could easily see why statistics would support that idea given the various things Federation starships had encountered in the Prime universe. She also could also see how that could lead to nobody but the Empire encountering various valuable lost technologies.

“Adjust our course to take us to the Pree system.” She ordered with a grin as a momentary thrill of excitement went through her. “I wanna see what's there.”

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Stardate 29501.1 - July 2, 2352 - 09:39:44

Pree IV, the source of the distress signal, turned out to be a class O planet, which was a fancy way of saying a world who's surface was at least 80% water.

“It looks like the signal is being sent from the ruins of an old Terran Empire deuterium refinery on one of the archipelagos.” T'Lyn offered as she studied the sensor readouts.

“Still no response to our hails?” Rain asked Strelka.

The half-Klingon shook her head. “Not a word.”

“There may not be anyone down there to reply.” T'Lyn said. “The sensors aren't picking up any signs of complex life.”

“Terran facilities were usually shielded against life signs scans.” Rain informed T'Lyn, memories of the years the Asari had dealt with friend computer coming to the fore of her mind.

“What about signs of ships?” She inquired as she glanced over to the very blue world now being displayed on the viewscreen.

“Still no detectable ion trails or power signatures.” T'Lyn admitted.

That didn't mean there wasn't as there were a number of ways to hide such things from sensors, but at this point the whole thing would be an extraordinarily large amount of effort for very little potential payoff given the limited travel through this area of space.

“I still do not see why you are so set on taking this risk.” T'Lyn muttered, alternating looks between Rain and the sensor station.

“There's potential looting to be done.” Rain said as she pointed a finger at the viewscreen. “Our armory's practically thread bare outside of melee weapons. And Terran's made some of the best personnel weapons in the quadrant.”

And she'd be damned if she'd pass up a potential chance to find a replacement for her still missed assault phaser.

“You cannot truly believe there is anything of value down there?” T'Lyn put forward skeptically.

“It's an O class planet.” Rain deadpanned, moderately surprised the Vulcan had missed the obvious value that came alongside that. “At a minimum that means we can restock our perishables and get the crew something to eat other than resequenced protein.”

Which she was pretty sure everyone on the ship, except maybe T'Lyn, was getting more than a little sick of at this point. And at the end of the day, a happy crew was a crew less likely to rise up in mutiny against her. Not that they would be likely to succeed with the precautions she had taken, but it was the point of the matter.

“We would have to land the ship in that case.” T’Lyn said, frowning slightly at Rain. “That would leave us extraordinarily vulnerable given the generally forward facing nature of our weapon systems.”

“T’Lyn.” Strelka interjected in an overly calm growl that made Rain shiver slightly in remembrance of the various thinly veiled threats T’ahan had made over the years. “If you keep us from the chance to get something other than assembled protein to eat, know that only Kahless himself could keep you safe from my reprisal.”

T’Lyn seemed to consider that for a moment before giving a cautious nod of agreement. “I suppose I did not consider the effect on crew morale such an opportunity might present. So I withdraw my objections.”

“Then Salora.” Rain began as she turned to their helmswoman with a smirk on her face. “Take us to Pree Four.”

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Stardate 29501.7 - July 2, 2352 - 14:55:58

For safety’s sake Rain had Salora set the ship down on a beach at the opposite end of the small island the Terran facility had been situated on. Probably over-cautiousness on the Asari’s part given sensors hadn’t shown any still active weaponry, but when it came to Terran technology she was firmly of the opinion that it was better safe than sorry.

In general the crew had been more than a little excited at the chance to get off the ship, the only exceptions seeming to be Jack and Citrine, who Rain was pretty sure at this point were either both just introverts or having some sort of overly dramatic romance.

Unfortunately the distance between where they’d set the ship down did mean there had been a good eight kilometer walk to reach the facility, but given Rain too had spent the past month functionally stuck on a small starship, she really wasn't going to complain.

“Tropical islands suck.” Keiko groused as she trudged along behind Rain, the human assassin the only one the Asari had really trusted to come along with her in this given anti-personnel defenses that might still be active.

“You are such a city girl.” Rain said, trying desperately not to laugh since she knew Keiko would try and prove otherwise if she did. “This really isn’t that bad, no insects, and the only animal life that’s not ocean bound seems to be those frogmonkey things we saw earlier.”

Which, given the way the Progenitors had set things in motion, would likely evolve into a humanoid of some kind given another couple million years.

“Anyways.” She continued, pushing aside another one of the large fern like vines that seemed to be this world's favored type of plant life with one hand while she looked down at the tricorder in her other hand. “The tricorder says the Terran refinery should be right through–

The feeling of a hand on Rain’s shoulder stopped her, and she turned a confused look back to Keiko.

“Window.” The Japanese woman offered, pointing forward to the gloom filled opening Rain had just been about to step through.

“What do you mean window?” Rain asked in confusion, following Keiko’s finger with her gaze yet failing to see whatever it was the woman was talking about.

Rolling her eyes, Keiko reached forward to the area Rain had just been about to walk and rapped her hand on something that made a sort of metallic noise.

“Window.” She repeated simply.

“Fucking infra-red slanted sun.” Rain groused as the likely reason hit her for why she couldn’t see the transparent aluminum window in the overgrown gloom.

One of the bonuses of turning into an Asari was that her vision had taken her from needing glasses, to something significantly better than 20/20, with the bonus of being able to see into the ultraviolet end of the spectrum. Regrettably however that had come with the small downside of her low light vision kind of sucking under light that favored the infra-red end of the spectrum like Pree’s sun did.

Sighing, Rain shook her head before motioning to Keiko. “You better lead from–

Something slammed into Rain from above, most of the energy getting absorbed by her barrier before a pair of naked thighs hooked themselves around her neck, the sudden shock of the sight enough to unbalance the Asari and send both her and her new passenger tumbling to the ground.

“Who are you!?” A lightly accented female voice demanded as Rain felt a sharp bit of metal dig into her throat.

“I could ask the same of you.” Rain retorted as she held up a hand to forestall Keiko from overreacting.

“You could.” The woman agreed as she leaned into Rain’s vision, leaving the Asari to blink in surprise at the combination of short blond hair and Bajoran nose ridge that present itself. “But I’m the one who has you at knife point.”

Several feelings connected themselves in Rain’s mind at that moment, and the Asari rapidly began flushing purple in pure mortification as a single abiding question overrode everything else in her mind.

“Why are you naked!?”

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Author’s Notes: Bwahahahaha!