The Missing, Part 2 [✱20]

Posted on Thu Jul 2nd, 2026 @ 12:27pm by Petty Officer 1st Class Ayol & Lieutenant Commander Intharia T'Zor & Lieutenant Rune Thul & Ensign Jara'kani & Master Chief Petty Officer Gaz & SubLieutenant Attania Viren & Lieutenant Commander Frak & Warrant Officer Theodoros 'Adonis' Sklavos & Cadet Senior Grade Peyet
Edited on on Thu Jul 2nd, 2026 @ 12:41pm

2,165 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: UnderMind [4]
Location: Shitau Colony Central Square
Timeline: 1520 - MD04

PREVIOUSLY:

"Palamas to away team. Approaching the Faraday. Wait, something's wrong. Away team, Faraday is down. I repeat, Faraday is down. I'm seeing a pillar of smoke and - I - kind of cloud - flying insects! - evasive - mayday, mayday!" Palamas' voice began to break up as though the signal was interrupted, until his frenzied shouting ended the transmission.

NOW:

As Palamas' transmission died, something caught all of their attention. From the north, something seemed to be spreading across the sky in the high atmosphere, well above the descending runabouts. In every direction it spread, like a blue-green plasma fire burning across the sky.

"Commander, suggest we attempt recovery as first priority. There could still be survivors." Gaz kept his terror to himself, but he knew his daughter Mindo was serving as tactical operator for Palamas. He tried not to think about it.

"Agreed." T'Zor said. "Let's get moving. Mr Thul, I'll be taking the Folsom, please take command of the Lipitah. I think we'd be best to use active camouflage when we're within 100 kilometres of the Faraday's location."

"Aye, Commander," Rune accepted the role. "Should we come at the Faraday from different directions, who knows what else these creatures are capable of or capacity to perceive then us?"

"Yes. When we're within 150km we should split up and approach from opposite angles." T'Zor agreed. "T'Zor to DS13. We've just received a distress call from Captain Palamas, he reported damage to the Faraday. We're also seeing some kind of atmospheric effect we don't recognise. Can you provide any insight?" Intharia asked as she tapped her combadge.

"We received it too, Commander. We're just coming up on visual range of the Faraday's last location, but whatever this atmospheric phenomenon is it's interfering with our sensors, we've got visual only. Just a moment." Came the voice of Commander Frak.

"Commander, we can see the Faraday, it looks to have taken heavy damage to the port nacelle, it's currently upside down. No sign of the crew on scopes. We're also seeing what looks like.. the remains of a Valkyrie fighter. High-speed impact from the wreckage dispersal. We're trying to get a better picture. We'll keep you updated as soon as we know anything."

From their position in Shitau, the surface teams could faintly see something distant and shimmering rising up from the surface, a glowing pulse of energy that seemed to be going up into orbit.

The light could be seen impacting against a sudden glow of shields from DS13, an explosion that seemed to buffet the station. Frak's voice returned, accompanied by frenzied shouting, and the sound of Rovak giving orders in the background. "DS13 to away team, we've been hit with some sort of plasma artillery. Scopes are showing some kind of giant bug on the surface that's releasing it. And there are more." Frak's transmission went quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry away team, they're firing again, our shields can't handle much more of that, we're going to have to move out of position. The Captain says to -"

More of the shimmering bolts rose up from the distance, but rather than going all the way to the distant and barely visible station, they burst in the upper atmosphere, further intensifying the strange effect in the sky. It seemed to crackle and shimmer now with an electrical effect that spread across the sky from the areas where the plasma bolts exploded.

"Oh, for shit's sake." Gaz grumbled, an expression he'd learned from Flynn. "Let's save the science lesson for later, huh? Maybe get moving and contemplate weirdness while in motion?"

Viren was shocked by the sight, and the apparent assault on the station. She nodded at the Chief's suggestion, she'd save her thoughts on atmospheric plasma disruption for when they were asked for.

"The Chief is right, we've got to keep moving. Those survivors need our help. Grab all the data you can, but keep your minds on the mission." T'Zor instructed the group, before moving closer to Thul and speaking only to him.

"I'll take Cadet Peyet for my helm. Choose the rest of your team from who we have, I will take those that remain."

Rune listed off at least one from each department as best to leave the same for T'Zor. That said, they both still had their own expertise to offer their teams as well. Cage, Tranklim, Jara'kani, Xa and Ayol.

They quickly boarded the Lipitah and launched. "Let's go best speed, Mister Cage," Rune instructed, he sat in one of the side stations while his runabout crew had taken stations best suited to their skills.

"Aye sir, launch in five." Cage confirmed, and exactly on cue on the vessel gently rose, beginning its upward trajectory away from Shitau. Tranklim and Sul both ran diagnostics on the sensors, ensuring they were as ready as they could be.

Intharia and her runabout crew quickly got inside, and the vessel powered up and took off. She activated a comms channel to the Lipitah. "Let's keep channels open for now. Cadet Peyet, what's our ETA?" T'Zor asked the Angelian woman at the helm.

"We can be there in five if we want to risk getting a bit closer to the atmospheric effect. Otherwise twelve at low-atmo safe speeds." Peyet suggested.

"Get us close enough to whatever it is to get good readings. At the first sign of disruption or hazard though, pull it back to safety even at the cost of speed." T'Zor said.

"Mr Thul, I'm going to risk proximity to the plasma wave in the upper atmosphere to get better readings and make better speed safely. You've got twenty seconds to accept our telemetry if you intend to join us." T'Zor said when Peyet indicated it was time to press the red button of speed.

If the wave did any damage to them, the Lipitah would be the only ship who could complete the mission and they had to, he told her as much. "Commander T'Zor, I think it best only one of us test that theory. If the plasma knocks your runabout out, we'd have to rescue both you and the Faraday crew. Good luck, but I don't recommend you risk too much too quickly, we need both runabouts." Rune countered with what logic he thought best considering the situation.

"We'll be far enough away from it to keep intact. Don't start planning our rescue just yet. Sir." Cadet Peyet said confidently, before remembering that the male she was correcting was her superior officer.

He turned to his helm. "Let's get a little higher Mister Cage, hopefully shave seconds off," Rune ordered, "Jara'kani, re-route whatever you can to engines, except phasers, shields and of course life-support."

"Taking us up, sir." Cage responded, bringing the vessel higher.

"It's risky, sir, but alright. Routing power to engines." Jara responded from her station.

"Let's go Cadet, best possible speed, but make sure we're in no danger from the plasma." T'Zor told her helm officer.

"Best speed, yes ma'am." Peyet responded, jamming the speed toggle to its highest setting as the shuttle raced ahead, keeping a consistent, if not proximity to the region sensors identified as the danger zone in proximity to the plasma field.

About a minute later, Ensign Sul noticed something on sensors. "Commander, something approaching rapidly from aft. It's a Valkyrie!" The science officer confirmed a moment later.

"Adonis to Folsom, it's good to see you. I was starting to worry we were the only Starfleet life left on this dirtball. We received a distress call from Captain Palamas, can you confirm?" Warrant Officer Sklavos' voice came over the comm, sounding cheerier than was perhaps appropriate.

"Warrant Officer, it's good to hear your voice. As far as we can tell, Captain Palamas' fighter went down near the Faraday, we're on our way there now to try and assist any survivors." T'Zor explained.

"Damnit. Sounds like we need help. Well, I know it's a risk, but these Valkyries are built tough. I'm going to take her up through this plasma crap and see what happens." Sklavos said confidently.

"Negative Warrant Officer. Remain on this side of the storm. We have no idea what kind of effect that will have on your fighter." T'Zor instructed firmly.

"Sorry ma'am, you're breaking up." Sklavos said with a chuckle. "You'll have to repeat what you just said when I get back." With that, his Valkyrie turned sharply upwards, moving directly towards the edge of the atmosphere. As it passed through the plasma barrier, every light on the vessel went dead. Inertia carried it for a few seconds longer, before gravity took hold, and it fell backwards through the atmosphere, dropping like a stone back through the plasma storm, down towards the ground.

"Sklavos! Warrant Officer Skalvos, respond!" T'Zor gave them a moment to respond, but nothing came over the comm. "Lock on a tractor beam." She instructed.

"Belay that!" Came Ensign Sul's voice almost immediately.

"Ensign?" T'Zor turned, expecting clarification.

"The plasma field seems to have destablised the alloys in the fighter's hull. A tractor beam might pull it apart. We'll be lucky if it doesn't come apart on its own from velocity." Sul said.

"Try and beam them out!" T'Zor ordered as the Valkyrie dropped in full view.

"Working on it!" Gaz said as he began to manipulate the transporter controls. "Damnit, that plasma crap is clinging to it. Follow them down, keep us within 200 meters." Gaz instructed as he tried to cut through the interference. "How long have we got?"

"Five minutes to impact." Sul responded.

"Alright, alright. Agh." Gaz grunted with frustration as the system continued to reject his attempts. After a full minute passed, he banged his hands against the edge of the console. "We need to do something to depolarize the fighter's hull, we won't get a transporter beam through until it's clear." Gaz turned to Commander T'Zor.

Intharia thought for a moment. Then a moment longer. She knew time was wasting. "Configure the deflector to emit a polaron pulse. It's our best chance to displace any residual charge from the plasma phenomenon."

"I... yeah, I can do it. But it'll take a minute. And unshielded exposure to polaron energy has a significant risk of causing cellular abnormalities." Sul cautioned.

"Better than the risk of impact at terminal velocity. Do it, ASAFP, Mr Sul." T'Zor said.

About a minute and a half later, Sul's frantic tapping at the screen finished. "Deflector reconfigured. Emitting pulse." Sul announced as the deflector cast a purple pulse wave forward, surrounding and passing through the falling Valkyrie.

"That's the best we've got, Chief. You've got 90 seconds." T'Zor told Gaz.

"Alright, beaming now." Gaz said. There was a hum of transporters, but then a sputter as they failed. "Damnit. Adjusting manually." Another thirty seconds passed as Gaz manually overwrote safety settings and created workaround subroutines for the strange interference of the remaining residual plasma. "Beaming now!" Gaz said again, and while it glowed in what looked like success, it once again failed. Gaz swore loudly in Tellarite.

The ground was coming at them fast.

"30 seconds!" Ensign Sul announced.

"Forget the safety protocols! Just beam around where they should be sitting." SubLieutenant Viren suggested, having held her tongue this long, knowing Starfleet protocol was quite against such a move.

Gaz did the last thing he could think of; what the Romulan suggested. Irresponsible, dangerous even, as he dropped the entire safety protocol regime and made a manual grab for the area surrounding the two seats. "Beaming now!" He said, and the transporter hummed once more.

As the runabout pulled up suddenly, the fighter exploded against the ground below, shattering apart with greater ferocity than expected, given the decayed metallurgy.

Peyet and Cage both had the same instinctive, visceral reaction at the sight of a crashing ship from their respective helms.

"I got... one of them." Gaz said, slumping with disappointment, as the transporter finalised and Officer Sklavos' operator appeared in the transporter alcove. "We didn't get Adonis." Gaz said, using the pilot's callsign.

"And we're not getting any more." Jara'kani reported grimly from her station. "The fighter is in pieces, sir. No life signs anywhere." Her voice came to the Folsom across the comm from the Lipitah, which had obviously caught up in the time they spent trying to catch the falling bird.

"You did a good job in bad circumstances Chief. Someone get back there and make sure the operator gets all the help they need from the EMH." T'Zor instructed, and Sul obliged. I guess fighter jockeys are the same in every universe. She thought quietly to herself.

"Get us back into the safest high orbit we can manage, then burn hard until we're in range of the Faraday. We're already behind schedule." T'Zor leaned back in her seat, sending a revised flight plan to the Lipitah.

"Be there in ten, ma'am." Peyet said as she rerouted the vessel to their previous course.

RSS Feed