[snip]

Cara replied to the shuttle, “The quality of the video feeds and the lack of other evidence means that MABEL 2.0 can’t determine a meaningful answer to the question. In other words, we just don’t know if the the two ships and their occupants are the same, or not. No one has ever seen either of them.”

The Bridge began receiving telemetry from the underwater probes and a security report from the landing party in the village.

=/\= Bridge here. Kahuna speaking. Please bring the rescued miner, Michael Duck, to the Bridge. The teams are sending back odd reports from the planet surface, and I need him to answer some questions. I’m not sure the planet is safe for him to return. =/\=

Kahuna contacted Captain Glen.

=/\= Bridge here. Kahuna speaking. Captain, we’ve been following your movements and monitoring the comms from your lapel pins. You should also be aware that the meteorite appears to be some kind of unmanned spacecraft. We have no records that match a spacecraft of this type; it isn’t metallic, but Guy Fleegman and Miriam Cross think it looks like something they saw once before. Probes sent by the shuttle were downed and it just powered up and scanned the shuttle. Lt. Mullins is getting the shuttlecraft out of there. I’m getting Michael Duck back up here to see if he knows anymore, but I believe he was uncooperative earlier. I don’t think it is safe to send him home any longer. =/\=

=/\= Glen here. I agree with you. I think I know the ship they mean. It was never determined where it came from or who they were, but it was dangerous and well armed. Mullins is correct to pull out. Tell him to return to the Merrimack. We have found this village to be abandoned. I just want to dig around a little more, but if this is the same planet-wide, then we don’t have the manpower to deal with this, whatever this is. I had a suspicion right from the off, that this wasn’t something a single ship could deal with. Glen out. =/\=

Michael Duck joined them on the Bridge with Faith Hopkins. Kahuna described to him what the landing party and shuttle had found, but he knew nothing to explain it.

“Lt. Gagnon,” Kahuna told the Communication Officer, “Please, make to Commodore Stone at Starbase Deep Space K-5. Inform him of the current situation here and ask that he advise us.”

Stella had been told to get to the bridge by one of the passing crew as she had waited outside the office of the captain. So far, she had thus far nearly fallen three times in her hurry to get to the bridge. As she came off the lift on to the bridge, she did just that. Falling sideways and sliding in a most unladylike fashion. As she rose up her face was a deep crimson in color and anyone near to her could tell that her fall wasn’t the only thing unladylike in that moment. Her speech could have peeled the paint off the ship.

She dusted away at her uniform furiously and tried to catch her breath.” Hi y’all, I was told I was needed up here? I was getting ready to ..” ” here she left off and asked the man at the helm as she got a stern look on her face and sat at the comm station. She then turned to Kahuna and asked him.” Well, what is it tall dark and handsome? I hope you got something for me to do.”

“There is no problem with Communications is there, Lieutenant Gagnon?” Kahuna asked her.

At the Starbase the comm from the Merrimack came in the Command Ops center, an Ensign Michaels picked up and responded, took their request and it was a few minutes until Commodore Stone came on the comm.

|o|Stone here, Merrimack, what can we do for you?|o|

=/\= Lt. Kahuna here, Sir. a mission status report: I’m sending you video feeds from what we thought was a meteorite that fell into the ocean but turns out to be a unidentified spacecraft. The spacecraft contained only drones but was powering up weapons and scanning the shuttlecraft, so the shuttle left. Some of the crew thought it bore a resemblance to a craft that appeared out of subspace and attacked the Merrimack a few years ago, but the computer has insufficient evidence to confirm such a link. Captain Glen is still on the planet surface but it appears that villages and towns have been deserted, all about the same time as this craft arrived. That’s the same time that all the Comms went down. We rescued a belter who was left abandoned with his brother while they were out mining at that time. His brother died unfortunately, but he has heard nothing from anyone else since… Sir, our best analysis is that this is some kind of incursion by a first contact race. We think it is likely that the whole colony is now compromised, and that the Merrimack doesn’t have the manpower for conducting an armed conflict or even for breaking a siege. Captain Glen wants to try to locate a lone life-sign we have located in the hopes of learning more. =/\=

• Kahuna, Weapons