Posted by Gamemaster GM Kate (GMT) in Main Sim Tour of the Science Instillation
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.

Dagen liked window seats and split his time with looking out and looking ahead. The design of the ship was slick. It was more like a souped up civilian model than the mass produced functional fleet shuttles. On the surface it seemed to the Trill that the ostentatious nature of the king was rubbing off. And that it could have other uses too beyond looks. Sure it could evade detection if it had the countermeasures in it but with their cloak they really didn’t need it to look good. “Nice design. Sporty,” he said to Reia; she too was a sleek unit but had a lot that was not shown. Dagen had the sense that the shuttle could be called Reia with all the hidden bits.

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 world was bizarre to him. What did they do to it? If they had all those defense platforms in orbit then had they strip mined their world leaving limited areas to live? Were they all as .. sparkly .. as the city they left? He nudged Reia and gestured to the map displays and made a ‘three’ gesture with his fingers and mouthed ‘only three cities?’ Perhaps they only had what navigationally mattered on display and there were other smaller cities about, though, as he looked outside he wondered if that was just being optimistic. He wanted to know the general history of their world now to try to synch up what he was seeing with what they knew. “Did you get any historical information of these folks?” If that was it he had to wonder what ‘culture’ the chief scientist was saying they were trying to steal.

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

He scratched at his chin as he noted the countdown. Glancing out the window he tried to find the moon. Failing in that he looked back at the display. What was that and why was that even a factor on a shuttle? He then had this wild thought of them doing their cloaking test by making their moon disappear. THAT would be a feat!
- Dagen