Near Miss
Posted on Thu Mar 20th, 2025 by Lieutenant Commander Freya Preston & Lieutenant Commander Samuel Bancroft & Ensign Dexter Elliott & Ensign Valencia Roma
1,072 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
M01 - The Hooke
Location: Ruins, Terra Nova
Timeline: Present
Freya was still trying to shut down the artifact when it made a soft whine before powering down, "Oh?" She stood all the way up just as the door slid open behind her. Freya turned and looked at the open door, "It appears to have shut itself off," She added. Freya crossed her arms, "We might be able to get to Ensign Elliott and Lieutenant Bancroft now and check on them."
"Agreed," Emma replied.
Valencia also nodded in agreement and followed the Commander and scientist out of the chamber. She managed one last look at the faded glyphs that surrounded them prior to leaving. She followed the wiring until they came to the end of the ruins where a chamber had only recently opened. When Valencia walked in she realized almost immediately that there weren't any glyphs and the room was completely different.
Sam had been trying to figure out how to open the door when it opened on its own. He turned and saw Commander Preston, Ensign Roma, and Ms. Logan standing in the room. "Nice timing," He told them, "The generator in here turned on at about the same time as the door sealed shut. We were trying to figure out how to open it."
Freya nodded, "We were in the chamber with the artifact when it activated itself. The door to the chamber sealed itself shut as well. This power source and the artifact must be related somehow," She replied. "I'm glad you two are both okay," Freya added as well.
"Same for you sir," Dexter said from next to the generator. "So did someone touch the artifact or something?" He asked the three of them. "I'm just trying to understand what made it activate in the first place."
"I brushed it with my hand when I was trying to see how it had been moved," Valencia admitted, "It's as if it's activated simply by touch, but there's no way to turn it back off again. We also found evidence that an entire culture was destroyed before the people from United Earth arrived her."
"Based on this power source," Sam began to say, "I think someone was here before that even, there's no way this was put here by the same culture that left the glyphs." He then indicated where the end of the wiring was, "Also, this wiring hasn't been in the temple nearly as long as the temple itself. It may have been placed by the Novan colony when they first arrived."
"We have no record of that," Emma replied. "Though, that doesn't mean anything because very few records survived the asteroid striking the planet." She admitted.
=/\="Hooke to away team please respond."=/\=
Freya's communicator suddenly sprang to life on her chest and she pressed it. "Go ahead?" She replied while also detecting a sense of urgency in the officer's voice on the other end.
=/\="We're not sure what is going on down there, but we lost the ability to communicate with you and lost all ability to scan the ruins. At the same time as we detected a massive power spike one of the asteroids began a collision course with the northern continent of the planet."=/\=
Freya looked at the others and frowned, "The artifact activated at that time, I know I'm speculating but the two events are probably related. In fact I would almost bet on them being related in some way." She looked around the room and waited to see if anyone had anything to add.
"If the wiring was left by the people from United Earth could they have accidentally activated the device as well?" Emma asked out loud. She shrugged, "And we found evidence that another culture worshiped the artifact so perhaps they suffered the same fate. We should take a core sample of the area to see if there are multiple asteroid strikes."
"Agreed," Valencia added.
Freya nodded, "I'm assuming the asteroid has been disabled or destroyed?" She asked the officer on the other end of the communicator.
=/\="That is correct sir. We're now investigating the area where the asteroid originated to see if we can find any answers. Please stay put until we've returned to orbit. Hooke out."=/\=
Freya raised her brow when the officer on the other end ended the communication. "I don't want to theorize too much, but perhaps this was a self defense mechanism. Though, I'm not entirely convinced because it seems deliberately designed to cause massive damage to the planet."
Sam shrugged, "Maybe it's one of those, destroy it so nobody else can get it, sorts of things?"
Valencia nodded, "Or, it was accidental and history just kept repeating itself. It almost repeated itself again, only this time someone was around to protect the planet from destruction." She didn't like to think about how they almost had yet another serious incident happen. "Do you have the equipment to gather a core sample?" Valencia asked Emma.
Emma nodded, "We have something capable of doing that, I'll have to contact the science ministry and have them send it over here. There would be materials in the core sample indicating whether or not it's been struck by an asteroid multiple times. We would just have to cross reference timelines." She started to leave, "I'll go see to it now," She grinned and left.
Dexter watched as the woman walked out of the room he then spoke up, "Do you honestly believe the original inhabitants activated that device by mistake? They did accuse United Earth of dropping a nuclear bomb on the planet years after it had happened."
Freya shrugged, "There's no reason to speculate on that part," She told him confidently. "Besides, a lot has changed in the last several hundred years since then. They could have simply been trying to restore the power generator in this room and didn't understand the technology."
Sam patted the young Ensign on the shoulder, "I would also add that the artifact activated the power source. They couldn't have known it would have dangerous consequences. There's also no indication that the survivors even knew about the power source or the artifact in the first place."
"Agreed," Valencia added.
Freya grinned, "Let's go help Emma. I'm certain the crew on the ship will find the answers that we need to unravel this mystery that we seem to have stumbled upon."
Emma Logan
Written by: Freya Preston
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