Origin: Prologue Ch. 02

Leiutenant Commander Granger's eyes were glued to his instrumentation as the transfer team sealed the flask of grayish green proto-matter into the test reactor. Their initial air patrol had turned up no hostile contacts, and it appeared as if the local cluster was devoid of almost all civilisation. What it had turned up however was a rogue planetoid, a phenomena so rare that the Captain had immediately sent a science team to it's surface.

Granger erected the strongest shielding he could within the test chamber as a safeguard, and double checked safety protocols and the stringest test measures he had devised. The planetoid had been mostly a barren uninhabitable rock, which wasn't all that unusual as far as rogue planetoids go, what it did posess was a deposit of a material that no imperial scientist had ever dreamed possible. A naturally occuring multi-molecular resin that appeared to amplify energy. It didn't even matter what type of energy it was, as the unfortunate scientist who stepped into a small amount of the resin discovered as he was propelled away from the surface with such violent acceleration that he was now in the med bay undergoing surgery.

Granger was sure that they were as ready as they ever could be, and picked up the handset to contact Captain Soren to receive final go ahead to conduct the test.Darnel was striding down the decking towards CIC when the overhead announced. "CO contact Science Lab". Darnel reached the next comm handset and after removing it from the recepticle selected the relay for CIC.

"CIC, connect me to Science Lab." Darnel waited as the call was transferred through and when Cmdr Granger answered "Science Lab." Darnel said calmly."I trust everything is ready.....then proceed Mr Granger and good luck." Darnel returned the handset to the recepticle and then continued on her way towards CIC. If this test of Granger's worked, then there was a good chance that they might be able to find a way home that didn't require stasis pods or journey's of ridiculous lengths of time.

So engrossed in the status reports that she was reading that the explosion threw her to the decking and after a moment of disorientation she picked her self up and ran the remaining distance to CIC. When she arrived there, her XO was over by the Damage Control board and the mass of alarms and displays indicated that the science lab was the source of the explosion.

Colonel Denning immediately half turned his body so as to make eye contact with his superior but still maintain an eye on the DC board and forcefully stated "The damage is limited to the sections around the science lab, but there was a energy spike that got through. By the size of it, it could have ignited the number 2 fusion reactor if Denning hadn't taken the appropriate precautions. But the bigger problem is that the explosion buckled one of the lateral struts."

Captain Soren stood at the center console and stared hard at Denning before she all but shouted, "All right that's it, I want long-range recon patrols out looking for a place to set down and repair. Also include a report on any strategic minerals within this forsaken sector." Darnel all but threw the status report folder at the centre console in disgust, they would all be useless now. "If Granger survived I want both him and Deras in my quarters, NOW, to report on what their lunacy has done to my ship." At this, Captain Darnel Soren stalked out of the CIC in a fit of fury towards her quarters. The current watch would not benefit from her presence until she cooled down and that was what she intended to do.

Leiutenant Tarmac plyed the controls of his fighter and banked high left as he navigated this Asteroid field. His instrumentation and the dinaas (Directional intermittent navigational and Astrometrical Sensors) were working overtime to plot a course through this dense asteroid field. The collision alarm sounded from the dinaas console as two of the bigger asteroid's collided and sizeable debris was flung his way. With a maneuver that started with a left high to right low roll he gunned one piece of the debris down and accelerated through the hole that created.

Tarmac hoped that this system that he was scoutinging for a suitable place to set down, was worth all this effort. Hopefully somewhere there was a moon with minimal atmosphere, and a relatively soft and level surface capable of holding the Kovari, or failing that some kind of habitable planet where they could offload the crew if it came to that.

Having finally cleared the inner asteroid belt he was within a standard solar system's inner life zone and he activated the automated planetary survey palate that they had installed into his fighter. As Tarmac swept through the inner system his jaw dropped as he dropped into orbit around a blue-green world, it was if it was made to order. It's single sateillite was rich with structural minerals and the planet itself was as close to a standard imperial planet as possible without terraforming. And not only were no advanced civilisations present, it didn't appear as if any form of sentient creature had yet evolved. This planet had definite potential, but Tarmac wasn't one to be hasty, and continued his reconnaisance all the way to within minimal safe distance of the solar body and orbited it once to ensure solar stability and on the otherside he left orbit and retraced his course back to the Kovari.

Captain Soren sat behind her desk and glared with all the disdain she could muster at the two officer's before her. Occassionally she would spare them as she glanced down to read the updated status reports in the folder on her desk. Both men stood ramrod straight before her desk with eyes fixed towards the bulkheads. Eventually she pushed the folder aside and pursed her lips before saying, "For the moment, let's put aside how furious I am with both of you. I have been reading your reports and estimates for the last hour and now that you both have had time and personell to inspect and assess our damage, I want a no-nonsense overview of all irreperable damage suffered regardless of saboutage or incompetence." At the word incompetence Granger tried to speak but was immediately silenced by the Captain's hard and glass eyed stare.

Commander Deras, the Chief Engineer gulped and with a quick glance at the Captain reported, "Sir, the saboutage has been mostly confined to the Cryogenic stasis and the power conversion systems. The Cryo neural storage systems were programed to fail the instant the conciousness stored within it was downloaded back into the body. As you know, the storage system is built utilising a constructed element allowing for storage of information at the sub-atomic level. We don't have the equipment to be able to refine, or process the base charges necessary to construct this element.Our replacement stocks were discovered to be missing and subsequent searches have determined that either it was jettisoned, destroyed or never delivered before launch. The officer the logs indicate responsible for this equipment was found dead in his cryo-stasis pod."

Deras paused for a moment and said, "There is no sugar coating this, the magnetron that regulates the Matter-Anti-Matter reaction and by-products for the main reactor was deliberately fused after we went into stasis. Diagnostics have failed to determine how this was accomplished, but either it was programmed to fuse or more likely a sleeper agent was placed aboard. If it was the cryo-maintainance officer then he was most probably caught in his own trap when he went back into cryo."

"Magnetron's are a incredibly sensitive piece of technology, and any misalignment would be catastrophic. I can't even begin to guess at the time it would take to design, build and calibrate a new one from scratch. Years possibly, and during that time; main weapons and shields would be either offline or operating at the barest power possible. The good news is that whoever did effect the saboutage intended for the fuel storage system to simulate a containment breach and dump all our deuterium into space. But whoever did the job botched the timing as main-power failed before the fuel dump."

"Our final piece of saboutage, the communication's array. I'm sorry to say Captain, but the comms grid wasn't saboutaged, I have no idea why you are unable to contact Fleet command."

After he finished this, Deras shifted a little, grimaced and ploughed ahead with stoic determination as his eyes focused solely on the bulkhead. "In regards to the experiment, the science lab and several surrounding compartments were utterly destroyed, we've sealed off that section and deactived the power grid to that area, the energy spike from the experiment has also crippled the number 2 reactor, without significant work it will only be able to put out a fifth of the power it used to, and with all the other issues I don't think it's likely that my team will be able to repair that section anytime soon."

Deras fell silent and Soren switched her gaze over to Granger. "Now, would you care to explain why your failure has cost me a fully operational reactor a Science Lab, and a great deal of lives?"

Just as he was about to speak the intercom on the wall sounded and Darnel picked up the reciever and spoke. "CO's quarters go....." she listened for a time then said. "Excellent, have him land immediately and have the data transferred to the Spatial Analysis lab. I want a complete report as soon as possible, deploy a sensor sattellite if necessary." She then replaced the reciever in the recepticle and motioned for Denning to continue speaking.

Granger, finally allowed to speak turned his head and looked the Captain full in the eyes, "Captain, there was no failure, my team and I had anticipated every possible outcome. We erected Kinetic Barriers and forcefields and took offline several power junctions and isolated the reactor. According to SOP for these sorts of tests, we went way beyond what is called for to satisfy due dilligance. What happened Captain, was something our science has never encountered before. This substance when subjected to directed energy sources such as kinetic when one of my scientists stepped on it exhibits a amazing ability to redirect and amplify that energy. But what no-one thought possible was that when subjected to non-specific energy such as the miniscule 0.1 Peu (Plasma Energy Unit) test current the energy was not redirected, it was absorbed, amplified and transmitted to it's neighbouring molecular partners indescriminitely where the same process occurred again."

"This resulted in a series of escalating, unstable and ultimately uncontrollable power spikes. We tried to compensate by applying the largest energy sync and strongest plasma regulator possible to store and regulate the outgoing energy, but the resin built to a critical mass and exploded. The Energy was being generated too fast to be removed. As much as this substance has the potential to revolutionize our way of generating energy, it's uncontrollable by any means I'm familiar with, or could hope to develop in my lifetime."

Captain Soren mulled over what she had heard before standing up and coming out from behind her desk to lean on the front edge of it. "At ease, perhaps I was too harsh. But you lost half your division, blew up a lab and damaged key equipment during what you assured me was a safe test. I agree that this substance is too dangerous to risk developing in our present condition, and yet it's too strategic a resource for us to discard altogether. Shelve it for the time being. Thank you gentlemen, now if you'll show yourselves out I have a decision to make."

Both Deras and Granger briskly saluted, quickly about faced and marched out of her quarters, too relieved to be out of the Captain's line of fire to realise that the fate of the entire crew was being decided.

Darnel stood up and went over to a locker and retrieved a bottle of the 100 year old Andellian firewine she had been given by Admiral Nagoya after she had been promoted to Captain. She opened it and poured a glass and then downed it in one go before almost collapsing with glass in hand into the lounge.

What it came down to for her was the blasted communications grid, if only it had been saboutaged instead of no one answering. Never mind the incidental damage from the test, or the untold number of years drifting through space to end up here. She could have even probably dealt with the saboutage given sufficient time and resources, but if no one used the communications grid then that was a problem. The Imperial communications grid was the Empire's greatest technological marvel, a system that allowed for real-time instantaneous communication anywhere in the universe. There would be no need to upgrade or replace it, it was the pinnacle of communications technology. If there was no response then there was a very limited number of conclusions.

One being that the frequency was no longer in use as a military channel, that does happened over time, codes and frequencies are changed. But the Imperial listening stations would have been able to spot a distress call on any channel of the network almost immediately. Two, the language of the Empire had changed sufficently to render their calls unintelligable, Soren discarded that option as soon as it presented itself to her mind. They still would have replied. Three, somehow there was interference between herself and the grid. If so, then that would be the first time interference had ever occluded a transmission. Which brought her to the final option, the grid was no longer in use.....because the Empire had fallen, and some time ago if the communications network no longer functioned at all.

A soft blinking light intruded on her thoughts, and with a silent sigh she put the cup down as she picked up a display. The data that the recon flights had collected on this planet told her that this planet was uninhabited. No Insectoid, reptillian or other sentient life of any kind lived in this sector,, and as far as she was concerned that was all that mattered. And any other data was irrelevant. The planet was habitable for human life and that would be the end of it. Darnel looked up with a smile on her face, it appeared that her decision had already been made, all the while without her having to make it. Darnel then turned and picked up the handset and after being put through to the CIC she told her XO, "I want the crew assembled within one hour" With that she replaced the handset and finished sipping her wine while the preparations were made for her address.

Tarmac exited and closed the hatch, and breathed a sigh of relief that this debrief was over when the address horn sounded. He stopped and listened to the XO's voice direct all crew not currently engaged in critical repairs to report to the number 3 cargo-bay in one hour. That cargo-bay was nicknamed the forum as nothing was stored there, and as such made an excellent meeting place. With nothing to do but get some rack time Tarmac decided to arrive early and see whether he could locate some seating for whatever was going to happen.

Nearly an hour later, and the forum was beginning to fill up, as Tarmac watched on from his seated vantage point. One of the medical staff, a Leiutenant Iliya walked up and after curling up in Tarmac's lap asked him, "You were out flying re-con today with the other pilots weren't you Dalma, did you find anything?"

Tarmac looked into Iliya's eyes and smiled as he said in a hushed voice, "Why don't we wait for the Captain? And when did I become your personal lounge?" Iliya's face was mared by a touch of frustration momentarily and then she smiled a mischevious grin as she said, "Since you had the time to find yourself a seat and didn't think to bring one for me too. Now I won't be put off, what was out there."

Tarmac sighed as if this situation was just too much of an indisposition and said, "If you must know there was a planet that looked habitable, though I certainly wouldn't want to land there." Iliya looked at him with suspicion as if he were trying to trick her and said "Why not?" but before he could answer Captain Darnel Soren and the entire Senior Staff walked in through the hatch that lead to the walkway that ringed the edge of the cargo bay and Tarmac whispered "Shush, Captain's here". At this Iliya glowered but turned and looked towards the Captain.

After a few minutes, the ship's company settled down as Captain Soren climbed the railing and followed the walkway around to a point where she could address the entire crew. She then turned and with a nod to her science officer connected in a wireless transmitter so those at work on the repairs could also hear the Captain's address. After this was done she turned and looked out over her crew.

"Crew, we've all had to endure some hard days lately, so let me some up our situation." Soren tapped a device that attached to her wrist and in the middle of the bay a large holographic display activated and showed a map of the galaxy. With a wave of her hand the map of the galaxy changed to show known Imperial Space, it then zoomed out and as it was focusing on another position a long way away from Imperial Space Darnel said, "To squash the myriad of rumours, the Kovali is currently located in the sector of space that is currently displayed on the holo-viewer." At this the crew burst out into an angry buzz of chatter, shouts and calamity until the Captain taped another button on her wrist device and her voice amplified itself above the noise. "What's more, is that investigation has revealed that we were sabotagued and have drifted throughout the stellar field for a length of time that is currently unknown." At this the crew quitened down, shocked at the implications of just how long on a straight line course it would take to drift across the Galaxy.

"This means, my brave crew, that there is a decision to be made. We either attempt to head back to Imperial space, or we find the nearest planet and colonise it." Several crew members at this began shouting, "We must head back, we have a duty to perform." At which Darnel held her hand up, calling for silence as she delivered what would be death blows to their morale. "The cryogenic storage systems are saboutaged beyond repair, main drives while functional are unable to reach beyond one quarter thrust without the Anti-Matter reactor which was disabled. And beyond all that, the communications grid has remained silent since we discovered our situation."

At this the crew was deathly quiet, some fainted one even vomited. Darnel finished her speech while they were still reeling, "No, the Empire is lost to us, we were intended to scout a site for a future colony and I intend to fulfill the last order my Emperor gave me, in spirit if not in actuality. There is a planet nearby, and while it will prove challenging I mean to establish a Imperial Colony on that world."

Darnel tapped her wrist and a large blue planet appeared were once the galactic map had been, "I will establish 3 major colonies spread out over a variety of terrains and continents to ensure our survivability. We will take 3 shuttles, the Afri, the Euri and the Ameri, a small amount of food and the minimum that we need to ensure our survival. The ship and all it's technology I will personally bury somewhere beyond the reach of the other three colonies.

At this, the crew which had once been silent, then hopeful, erupted again, almost to the point of rioting and security was forced to wage in to break up several scuffles and small angry acts of violence.

Darnel held both hands up this time and shouted them down, "And how long would it be, until the weapons ran out of charge, the medicine, the fuel and the food was all expended. NO, we will go until this new land with the bare minimum. I want this ship and it's technology preserved for our descendents, that when they find it they will have the civilisation, the technology and the widsom to use it with honour. I want the settlement groups ready to go within the week, look to your duty officers for your assignments. Dismissed." The Senior staff filed out along with the crew, while Tarmac looked up at the Captain, as the others filed out, before he too got up, dislodging a shaking Iliya as they both left to find out what would be expected of them.