[snip]

=/\= In either case, command is sending you all out on a survey mapping mission from Sol out to a range of about 9 light years on a planned course that should take about 3-4 months or so following a trail of bread crumbs we laid out with survey probes over the past 2 years. Obviously we’re looking at mapping some pockets of gaseous regions, nebulas, as well as a pair of star systems in more details. The first part should be pretty straight forward as the six marked pockets of interest are about a week or so out from Sol. The pair of systems are a bit further out though and we only got the most basic of details from our probe results. =/\= She said pushing a button on her desk, and a minute later a split screen came up showing the outlined route and information on the two target systems.

=/\= System one we have labeled UES-23, it has a single sun, and only one large planetary body, and a smattering of smaller asteroids and commentary matter. From long range scans, our astronomers believe at some point in the past there may have been two or three more planetary bodies, but a likely massive gravitational event shattered them. The remaining planetary body may be class-m but scans by probes were inconclusive. The second system is UES-24. This is a binary sun system with 2 planetary bodies. One is a large gas giant on the outer edge of the system, the other is an inner planet which though suspected is not confirmed to be possibly a class-m. A few smaller large asteroid bodies are also present. =/\= She explained.

Marceau frowned. “Outside of the subspace range? That means we will be unable to call for help unless a Vulcan patrol happens to be close by.” He sighed a long sigh. “Let’s start with UES-23.” He nodded to Laursen, “Allons-y, Helmsman.”

Helena was not thrilled about being out of comm range. It settled like soured milk in her stomach, but she was too seasoned an officer to let it show. “Aye, Sir,” Helena’s hands moved across the console, accessing the nav computer and inserting the coordinates. This was uncharted space for Star Fleet, so manual adjustments would be likely, “setting course for UES-23.” As soon as the station had cleared them for departure the thrusters came up and Laursen maneuvered out of the dock and away from orbit. The impulse engines took them out into clear space until they were safe to go to warp. Helena engaged the warp engine at 3.2, their cruising velocity.

Meanwhile .. in Engineering ..

El felt the vibration in the deck as the ship slipped from impulse to warp and she took a moment to move from the machine shop to the engineering proper. She could see the other few Alpha shift engineers there. Tyler had just moved from the status screen where he had, she figured, monitored the transition to warp. Emerson was still at the side of the warp core monitoring power flows and fuel consumption. William and Darlene were talking together. The former seaman had a tablet, likely with a maintenance list; for them it would be basic diagnostics and maintenance unless Emerson would be joining them.

“We’re off,” William said with a nod to the thrumming warp drive. El saw that his round glasses were tinted rose today. She wondered if he used it as a kind of mood ring.

“Yeah,” Darlene said. “Wouldn’t have minded a little more time with Paivi though.”

“She is growing up fast?” William said. It sounded a bit awkward to El’s ears. A lot of things were out of his experience.

“Just turned two,” Darlene said with a sigh. “And we’ll be out of comms range soon too. No messages.”

“I heard about that. What if we run into what we did last time? Or something worse?”

Darlene gave a worried nod. El, fairly unnoticed as they were passing, said, “We’re just joining the vast majority of humanity in the way they explored or set out onto the seas. For most once they were out of sight of land that was that. The vikings in their open ships crossing seas. Mariners about the Mediterranean. Explorers seeking new passages and lands. That’s what we’re doing.” She smiled. “It’s kind of dreamy.” That wasn’t so officer like but Lt Green wasn’t there to scold her.

“I wonder how they felt?” William mused.

“Probably like us,” El said, “Only maybe a little braver. They would be used to it, but we have to get used to doing things without hanging onto the shirttails of the Vulcans or others. It’s an adventure. We do what we must and we’re the ones keeping this boat afloat.” She stepped to the side. “Carry on.” She wondered if she’d get a nod from the Lt or not from that speech. Probably not. With a sigh herself she moved over to an open console and checked the status of the engines and systems as well. Right now she was the only officer on deck so needed to be up on things.

Once the Sojourner leapt to warp the passage of time fell into the usual day to day affairs, the first few days out were simple and without issues. On the mid-morning of the seventh day they reached the first pockets of gaseous regions, a small proto-nebula and to their surprise for cataloging a pair of small frozen balls of ice which at their core had a packed amount of stellar matter giving enough tiny gravitational pull and push to the other that the small 10 meter semi-round pieces of ice were circling each other. It was certainly an interesting sight to behold and quite the rare sight in the universe.

The wisps of stellar gas similarly along their same course that HQ wanted them to map were about 100 or so meters made up of four separate pockets about 300-400 meters apart each. All four were made up primarily of helium, hydrogen, with small amounts of nitrogen. They also picked up one of the long range Starfleet survey probes, not lifeless without power and showing signs of non-repairable damage due to micro asteroid strikes at some point in the last year. Given its state they could recover it if they wanted, but it was unlikely anything of use or salvage would be viable, while given some time they could fix it up from spare parts on board. The choice was the CO’s.

The proto-nebula which they arrived at a bit later on the following day was roughly about 2300km meters across and about 5000km high, it had a tightly packed band of stellar matter that probably millions of years from now could collect into a solar body and maybe a small solar system for future explorers to survey much like they were now. Only thing of more modern note nearby that scans picked up was what seemed two cargo containers a little smaller then a shuttle pod that held markings of Vulcan script. Age on them being in space was about 190 years or so. The containers showed signs of possibly having had a plasma fire once scorch their sides, scans showed they held what were probably packets of sealed tools, and such in one container, and another of what might be emergency rations. Given the faint matter of metals and such surrounding them, they could surmise that at some point about 190 years ago some Vulcan ship had a fire in the cargo bay these were kept in and the bay was opened to space to put it out, two containers probably closest to the fire and the bay doors got sucked out and were left to drift all this time.

Again they could salvage the containers if they wanted, the tools might be in good shape for engineering or science to pick through. Further, study of Vulcan emergency ration viability would equally be maybe of interest to keep science and medical busy during down time of this mission. Again though the choice was up to the CO.

Once their choices were made and the cataloging complete, the next further 3 weeks passed with them marking other similar gaseous anomalies on their way to UES-23. Nothing like the first week really was worth of note in difference, nor did they find anything worth salvaging.

Aiden sat quietly, watching out of the corner of his eye as they got farther and farther out. He typed up a quick report to send as they reached the edge of comm range, with a summary of heading, speed, and a sign off until they returned to within the network. As the Sojourner crossed out of range, he called out, “We are now out of communications range, sir. We’re on our own for now.”

With their course still set they were about 3 or so days from UES-23, so far in their travels they had picked up a pair of vulcan cargo ships, as well as an Earth cargo ship about 2 light years away from them each time. Any attempts to hail the Vulcans got no response other then an acceptance of the signal, and a return reply, but no other words, audio or text were given. If they hailed the Earth cargo ship they found it was making a run to a trade station ran by the a species known as the Denobulans, a race Starfleet had got into contact with via the Vulcans just under a year ago. The cargo ship’s captain was one Ryan Reems and his family, taking empty containers to the station to load up on plasma waste. Reems explained that he knew a guy that could refine plasma waste into small amounts of plasma to charge plasma weapons like the EM-33 pistol and its rifle variant or in similar plasma cell equipped devices. After some pleasant exchange he was soon out or range again.

OOC: Bump!

GM CockRoach