Chapter Text

Chapter 1: Gilese 3707

“Captain’s Log, Stardate 1941.3. We are approaching the Gilese 3707 star system after several weeks of travel at low warp from Starbase 12. Our mission is simple: to enter orbit around the lone Class M planet in the system, ascertain whether intelligent life is present, and conduct a full planetary survey.”

Lena Luthor, captain of the USS Da Vinci, toggled off the computer on her ready room desk, straightened her uniform, and walked out onto the bridge. The gentle hiss of the automatic doors was practically deafening compared to the silence on the bridge; her crew was oddly quiet compared to past ships she’d served on. Perhaps it was the odd amalgamation of people; she had more non-humans in this crew, and their social norms hadn’t quite settled in yet.

“Commander Rojas, anything to report?”

Andrea Rojas, almost a full commander, smiled at her captain. They’d spent a year together at Starfleet Academy, Andrea joining the service in Lena’s final year. Lena had taken the young cadet under her wing and now, years later, they served together as much as Starfleet would permit. The younger brunette stood up out of the captain’s chair, straightened her uniform jacket, and smiled.

“Nothing new, Captain. We’re probably a few hours away still from Gilese 3707. I believe we’ll be close enough fairly soon that Lieutenant Dox will be able to start the first stellar cartography work.” Rojas stepped away from the captain’s chair on the tiny, cramped bridge.

Unlike the larger ships in the fleet, Da Vinci was an old NX-class vessel, one of the earliest Starfleet ships that were warp-capable. A generation prior, it had been cutting edge, but the new Constellation-class ships made it obsolete for primary missions. It was, however, perfectly capable for scientific exploration. Old or not, it was Lena’s first command and she was proud of it and her crew.

“So, what do we know so far?” she asked Rojas as she took a sip of tea from the tumbler she’d carried from her ready room.

Rojas shook her head, tapping on the electronic PADD in her hands. “Gilese 3707’s a red dwarf star. Frankly, I’d be surprised if we found anything at all on the planet. It’s barely in the habitable zone from what stellar cartography says.”

“Indeed, Captain,” Querl Dox, a green-skinned Coluan and the ship’s science officer spoke up. “We are starting to receive telemetry from Gilese’s planetary object, which I shall henceforth refer to as Gilese 1. The surface appears to be mostly ice and rock.” He looked through the scope at his station, his forehead wrinkling.

“I know that look, Lieutenant Dox. What is it?” Lena asked, wandering over to the science station.

“It’s most peculiar, Captain. Gilese 1 is emitting an unusual type of radiation.” He pointed down at his viewer, Lena peering into it. “You will notice the unusually strong bands of epsilon radiation spiking from it, enough that it’s visible this far away.”

Lena rubbed her forehead. “What would be causing something like that? Epsilon radiation is fairly rare, if I remember correctly.”

Dox nodded. “Quite rare. The only time we’ve seen it be this prominent is around the Klingon homeworld’s moon, Praxis. They’ve been mining it so heavily over the last 50 years that radioactive elements in its core are emitting epsilon radiation. It generally does not occur naturally.”

“So… the Gilese planet might be populated and mining it?”

The green Coluan nodded. “That is a strong possibility. However, they may not be technologically sophisticated enough to realize the damage they are doing to the planet. Epsilon radiation might not even be detectable at their level of technological advancement. That is, of course, assuming anyone is even alive there.”

Lena took another sip of tea. “Because epsilon radiation is hazardous.” Dox nodded in acknowledgment. “All right. Chief Ardeen, calibrate our shields to make sure we’re protected and let’s get a closer look, shall we?”

The tall and muscular security chief, Imra Ardeen, nodded and keyed in the appropriate shield frequencies on her console, the myriad blinking lights all turning green. “Shield harmonics set, Captain.”

“Very well,” Lena smiled, “Ensign Tessmacher, bring us into standard orbit around Gilese 1 please.”

The Da Vinci assumed geosynchronous orbit above the planet, a barren and hostile-looking world. From what the crew could see, small settlements appears on the surface in what appeared to be giant hexagonal crystalline structures, refracting the dull red glow of the nearby star.

“Captain, there are definitely signs of life on the surface. I can make out what appear to be cities of some kind, either carved into or made from giant crystals, as well as low-orbit spacecraft and life signs,” the science officer explained as he scanned the surface. “We are out of their range of detection.”

“So, no signs of being warp-capable?” Lena wondered aloud. This world wasn’t too far from being able to reach for the stars, but Starfleet General Order 1 - prohibiting contact with pre-warp civilizations - meant she could do little more than take some photos and then fly away.

“None presently, Captain. The planet appears to have been through multiple calamities, and what’s left on the surface now are just a few major cities, not much else. In fact, it would appear most of the cities on the surface are abandoned; only a handful have life signs. Also curious, the epsilon radiation signature appears to be getting significantly stronger.”

Lena stood up from her chair and walked towards the wall-size window in the front of the room, resting her hand on the navigation console. “Because we’re this much closer than we were a little while ago?”

The Coluan shook his head. “No, Captain. The radiation itself is increasing logarithmically. This is most unusual.”

Chief Ardeen looked up with alarm. “Captain, sensors show some kind of missile launch on the surface, headed straight for us!”

“Red alert, Chief. Can you tell what kind of missile it is? I’m thinking a civilization without warp probably can’t field any serious threat to us?” Lena looked to both her first officer and science officer for answers.

Dox stared intently into his scanner. “You are… correct, Captain. The projectile appears to almost be a single-person shuttle of some kind with basic solid fuel propulsion. One life sign aboard, no discernible weapons. Not warp capable. But Captain, radiation levels from the planet are off the charts, and I am now detecting substantial seismic activity on the planet itself. Our shields may not hold if the intensity continues to increase.”

Rojas joined Lena at the front of the bridge. “Something’s not right here, Captain. Let’s give ourselves a little space?”

Lena nodded. “Ensign Tessmacher, break orbit and move us away from the planet, one quarter impulse.”

The Da Vinci moved out of orbit just in time as the planet below fractured and exploded into rock and dust, a massive shockwave spreading out across the system. For her part, Lena struggled to stay on her feet as the explosion buffeted the small vessel; had they not had their shields up, the Da Vinci might have been lost entirely. Her first officer wasn’t so lucky; Rojas lay unconscious on the floor, a gash on her temple bleeding profusely.

“Doctor Danvers to the bridge!” Lena shouted, holding her first officer’s head and assessing for injury.

Chief Medical Officer Alex Danvers burst out of the turbo lift doors, medkit and scanner in hand as she took one look at the situation and knew what happened. “Captain, I’ve got her,” she reassured, carefully easing Rojas out of Lena’s arms and beginning to treat the fallen officer.

“What the hell was that, Brainy?” Lena asked as she clambered back into her seat, using Dox’s nickname among the crew. Coluans were not shy about reminding everyone their species tended to have significantly above average intellects, on par with Vulcans. “I’ve never-” she started before looking out the window, her mouth agape. The planet they’d been orbiting was reducing to a swirling cloud of rubble in space, no trace of the civilization they’d only had a few moments to observe. Flecks of bright green crystals glowed near the center of the debris field, but anyone who had been living on the planet was gone.

Dox cleared his throat. “It would appear that something caused the planet to… well, everyone can clearly see what happened,” he gestured at the viewscreen.

“What would cause something like that?”

“It is unclear, Captain, but my scans of the debris indicates that the planetary core somehow was irradiated to the point where it reached fissile mass and then simply… detonated.” Dox shook his head. Surely a civilization that had the sophistication to mine the core of their planet would also know the dire consequences of doing so, but that appeared not to be the case here.

“Captain!” Ardeen looked up from her console. “That rocket we saw, it’s some kind of shuttlecraft and it’s about 10,000 kilometers from here. Scans show life support is failing. What should we do?”

“Are we out of danger?” Lena asked, watching as Dox nodded his head. With his affirmation, Lena pushed the intercom on the arm of her chair. “Very well. Ensign Tessmacher, lay in an intercept course. Luthor to Engineering!”

“Schott here, Captain. What the heck are you guys doing up there? It’s like a disco party with wrenches down here,” Chief Engineer Winslow Schott shouted amidst a cacophony of machinery sounds.

“Sorry about that, Winn. Get our new tractor beam warmed up; we have to do a little rescue. Luthor out.” She nodded to Tessmacher to bring the ship around and capture the errant shuttlecraft. Tractor beams were a late addition to the NX Class starships; Lena was lucky to have one outfitted on her ship at all. Most of the older NX ships still had grappling hooks.

“Any radiological or biological warnings on that shuttle, Brainy?”

“None that I can tell, Captain. The inhabitant is alive but scans are showing they are likely unconscious. No non-ambient radiation, no signs of viral or bacterial infestation.”

Lena stood up. “All right, let’s see what we’re dealing with. Ardeen, Dox, you’re with me. Once Doc Danvers has Andrea patched up, tell her to meet us in the shuttle bay.”

With the grace of a hawk, the Da Vinci swooped over the drifting shuttle and bright blue tractor beams guided it into the shuttle bay of the ship, easing it down onto the deck. Ardeen stood by with a phase rifle in hand as Doctor Danvers rushed in with a fresh medkit.

Lena stared at the small craft they’d rescued - oblong, almost resembling a silver fish of sorts, she’d not seen anything like it in their travels. The front of it appeared to be a window of some kind, but the cold of space had frosted it over, making it impossible to see inside. “What kind of shuttle is this, anyway? There’s hardly any room in it!”

“It would appear perhaps the occupant was meant to travel in some sort of stasis or medical coma, rather than be conscious for whatever flight it was intended to take,” Brainy murmured as he waved his tricorder’s scanners over the pod. “The life form inside is definitely under some kind of sedation and is not conscious.”

Danvers concurred with the Coluan. “This is very much like old cryogenic chambers used after the Eugenics Wars, Captain. Compared to us, it’s fairly primitive. Let’s get it out of there and into Sick Bay, I guess? I’m not detecting any known pathogens or… well, any bacteria or viral forms at all, actually. That’s odd.” The scientist and physician tilted her head as her medical tricorder softly beeped. Every complex life form she’d ever encountered had some kind of symbiotic life within it.

Dox located what appeared to be a control panel on the outside of the pod and surmised based on the glyphs on it a logical sequence to open the door. Chief Ardeen took aim at the shuttle with her rifle; with a gentle hiss, the lid of the pod swung upwards, revealing an unconscious woman dressed in white robes, some sort of glyph imprinted on the chest.

“I think it’s safe to put down the phaser, Imra,” Lena chuckled lightly. “This woman’s clearly very unconscious and isn’t a threat to anyone. Let’s get her to Sick Bay like Doc Danvers said, shall we?” She reached in and grabbed one side of the woman while Alex grabbed the other, then hoisted her out of the pod.

Half an hour later, the Da Vinci had broken orbit and began its long journey back to Earth. They’d secured as many samples of the debris as possible along with the alien life form and her pod; Starfleet Xenobiology had requested they return to Earth immediately so they could investigate more closely, while Starfleet Command wanted to know how a planet just… exploded by itself.

“Danvers to the Bridge,” the intercom chirped.

“Go ahead, Doctor,” Lena called out, laying down a report she’d been reading on the armrest of her chair.

“Captain, you’ll probably want to come down to Sickbay. The alien we recovered is beginning to wake up.”

Author’s Notes

You have Blue to thank for this fic. It’s dated roughly concurrent with Strange New Worlds, which puts it about 10 years before Star Trek TOS. The first 12 chapters are written, so I’ll be rolling them out roughly weekly.

Fun fact: Gilese 3707, LHS 2520 in the international star catalog, is in fact a real Class M star, and it’s the red dwarf that Neil DeGrasse Tyson identified as a candidate star for the location of Krypton, 27 light-years from Earth in the constellation Corvus.

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