[snip]

Stone pulled up the information on Ardan V on his viewscreen. Ardan V was listed as a paradise planet in a conflict zone. The lush world was mostly ocean except for a couple of small continents and extensive island chains. The average climate was mild and the equatorial region was a tropical paradise marred intermittently by summer storms. It was an ideal colonization candidate, but every attempt to colonize was quickly abandoned and several lay in ruins at various locations across the planet. Every past attempt to set up shop on the planet - even scavengers looking for salvage - found themselves packing up and leaving. Nearby interstellar government in the area had given up on claiming it for a variety of reasons. The mining colony that had recently been set up was fairly new, only having been there for six months but there were a number of colonists from a variety of Federation races.

Ardan V was far from any major galactic power. The small interstellar governments in the area around Ardan V are in constant conflict. Pirates and other criminals tended to take advantage of the political instability to operate freely in the area and a fledgling colony on Ardan V would be a tempting target, the Commodore thought to himself. He noted on reading the summary that those aware of the colonies existence considered Ardan V to be “cursed” and “unlucky” or even a “haunted” place. He snorted to himself in derision as he reached over to his comms again.

=^=Commodore Stone to Captain Glen. If you could make your way to my office, Captain, we have finally cleared up the distress call and I would like to apprise you of the situation.=^=

=/\= Acknowledged Commodore! I’ll be right there. =/\=

Captain Glen left the Merrimack and took a crossover bridge to the station. He couldn’t remember actually visiting Commodore Stone’s office in person before, so this was quite a novel experience, and he had to find it’s location of the station map and take a lift up to the cone section. As we walked around the picture windows of the corridors of the cone, he had a fantastic view of the Merrimack from above, where he could see repairs and scars that possibly no one else would notice.

After the short walk, he arrived at the Office of Commodore Stone and pressed the door chime.

“Enter, Captain” The Commodore’s voice was deep and resonant and the doors whooshed open as he hit a switch on his desk. “Have a seat, John.” The Commodore said as the Captain entered.

He rose, coffee cup in hand and moved over to a side board in the port side of his office where a tray sat with a coffee urn, cups, and cream and sugar vessels. As he refilled his own cup he looked enquiringly at Captain Glen.

“Coffee?”

“Yes please!” John replied. “Are they freshly ground coffee beans? Smells like it!”

“Of course,” The Commodore said with a wry smile. “I have it brought out from Earth.”

“No sugar or cream for me,” John added, otherwise he thought he’d soon be needing a corset like Captain Ward.

The Commodore finished pouring the two cups, cream in his, then returned to his desk. He placed one cup opposite Glen before retaking his own seat and setting his cup near his elbow.

“My apologies regarding the Unity mission,” Glen said, “I don’t like leaving unfinished business but something very strange is going down there, but I’d like to be kept in the loop if and when you discover what that might be.”

“Not your fault, John. But if something was big enough to clear out that settlement then bigger guns and an more thorough investigation are in order. I didn’t want to risk you and your crew. I will certainly keep you informed if I can.” Pausing for a moment the older man picked up his coffee and took an appreciative sip before setting it down and swivelling his viewscreen for Captain Glen to see what was on it.

Glen watched the video intently.

The view was a spatial one of the Hromi Cluster and after tapping a key it zoomed in until a gorgeous planet, mostly made up of water, with a large chain of islands and a few main landmasses. All congregated toward the equator, rainforests covered all the available land with mountains darting their way through the middle of them.

“Meet Ardan V.” The Commodore said. “It is a mining colony world, and many people have tried to settle it with varying degrees of luck. Unfortunately they all pulled out. That includes the Romulans, Klingons, as well as several pirate gangs. I don’t know what is going on down there but I highly doubt it is ‘cursed’ or ‘unlucky’ as the rumours say. There is currently a Federation colony down there made up of various races. At 0800 yesterday morning a distress call came from them, as I said in the message I sent to you yesterday, it was garbled and defragmented. My Ensign finally cleaned it up this morning.”

“So, we’re not likely to meet any Klingons on this mission,” Glen replied. “You know how I feel about them… And the Romulans pulled out of a base there too. Interesting that! … anyway…” Glen waited for the recorded message to play.

“Not as far as we know, my sense is that is something more internal.” The Commordore said.

Hitting another command the audio filled the office as he played it for Captain Glen.

=^= ....Ardan V…colony. We....Federation help....missing…sabotaged equipment. We repeat....we need help=^=

“That was pretty much all we could get out of it. I want you to head over there and see what the problem is, give assistance if you can. ” The Commodore muted the audio, picked up his coffee and sat back in his chair as he sipped it as he looked over at the Captain.

“Okay! Not much to go on really… but it certainly isn’t the same threat as the last mission. There was no sabotaged equipment there. And this is Federation space, a Federation colony, and a distress call… I have a few questions,” Glen said as drank his own coffee.

“By all means, ” The Commodore sipped his coffee while he waited for the questions.

“Any idea what they are mining there? If everyone has had a go at it already, is it Dilithium?”

“According to the application for colonization, “Dilithium-Niobium-Oxide”, a rare and highly sought-after element that enhances the performance of starship warp cores, or so it says. I am assuming as it is still listed as being on planet that the other colonists didn’t have a chance to mine it out. There are records of loads of it being shipped off planet.”

“And I do have a Romulan contact… If we wanted to explore why they left? A Commander. We were on friendly terms…”

“By all means, Captain. You are free to use whatever you have at your disposal to solve this.”

“It was some time ago now, and I believe she gets married… sorry, I mean she got married to a high level diplomat, but I can try. Our relations with the Romulan Star Empire have got a little more cold now, even hostile, but I can only try.”

“Is there a name of someone in charge that we should contact when we arrive?”

“A man by the name of Platus is listed as the Advisor for the colony and the miners so I am assuming it is him. He is also listed in all the applications.” The Commodore said as he sat forward and checked his viewscreen. “The colony is listed to be about 50 people, the majority human but there are some other races sprinkled in there as well.”

“Is Platus human, do you know? Was he a miner first, or doesn’t it say?” Glen queried.

“Any other questions?”

“No, I don’t… actually, could you tell me who your coffee supplier is?” Glen asked.

• Glen, CO