As the Genesis officers sat in the shuttle en route to the science station installation several things might catch their attention. The first was the design of the ship taking them there. It was not like the boxy-shaped shuttles of the Federation. The lines were sleek and smooth resembling a ripple of water on a pond with the nose and tail tapering to points around the bulbous-shaped crew area. There were no outward markings, indications, or indentations on the craft minus the slim lines where the entry hatch resided and the area around the viewport. This ship resembled more of a stealthy fighter craft than a transport. It did not take too much imagination to guess the ship was designed to evade detection. The question was from whom. The obvious answer was the Gorn but sometimes the obvious wasn’t the right answer.

Inside the ship, the control panel displayed the familiar readings one would expect on a shuttle with time, distance, and vector. All of this was easily visible to anyone on the shuttle. Two other displays might pique one’s interest if noticed. The first was that there appeared to be only three points of civilization on the topographical display. One was the massive capital city they had just left. The second was a city close to the same size as the capital in the northern area of the continent. The last was a city, again the same size as the other two, but sprawled along the coast. Since the ship was pointed north, it would be safe to assume they were heading to the city not on the coast. Those headed to the science facility would also note the lack of life on the surface. The planet appeared to be essentially void of plants or animals to the naked eye. Looking out the main view screen it was miles and miles of nothing but dust and rock. From a scientific point of view, the planet surface resembled a colony world being terraformed city by city instead of a civilization that had thrived for thousands of years.

The second display was far more curious. It displayed Beltran’s moon along with what appeared to be a countdown. The clock below it, showed that whatever they were monitoring on the moon would occur in the next twelve hours.

GM Kate