NAZGUL #6: Wish Upon the Moon

Posted on Wed Oct 30th, 2024 @ 5:32pm by Lieutenant JG Ainkara "Kara"

Mission: NAZGUL: {CD&MISSION} Return to Basics
Location: Unre star system
Timeline: Current

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Lieutenant JG Ainkara had been zooming through the Unre star system for several hours now. She had passed several gas giants, all of whom had a number of moons each and found no lead to her anomaly. Continuing on, heading for a brown dwarf in the system that was also the third planet in the system, her sensors lit up. Not at the brown dwarf since it was the atypical model by definition, but at the singular moon orbiting it. According to her sensors it was Class-M. Angling her Delta Flyer, Kara began to approach the moon, her sensors adjusted to short range, high intensity. The sensors showed that the moon orbited the brown dwarf in the opposite direction of the mother planet's spin, and in so doing, the moon remained in the light of the sun at all times even while orbiting. Not unheard of, but a semi-rare occurrence according to astrophysics. Fascinating, she thought.

Approaching the moon and guiding her ship into a low orbit over the surface of the moon, Kara began her surface scans. Lush forests with plenty of fresh water sources like lakes and rivers, with tall mountain regions as well as open plains and lowlands that could prove to be a boon for agriculture. As interesting as all that was it was not why she was here. The sensor logs would store that data for later use by Starfleet Command and the Federation Council. But, for now, Kara moved on in her scans. One key factor that kept popping up was the amount of kelbonite within the planetary crust. Kelbonite was a refractory mineral capable of deflecting or interfering with certain types of scans and energy beams, including the transporter. It could be found naturally within caverns and tunnels on many planets, and this moon had it in abundance. It would make surface scans of the world challenging but not impossible. Kara continued to let her ship move along on auto-pilot, sensors doing their duty while she sat back and ate an orange she had already peeled and had ready, with the wedges pre-separated.

Kara slowly chewed her wedges as her eyes remained on the monitors, occasionally looking up to glance out the viewport to keep them from getting bedazzled by a lengthy gaze at one particular thing. The Delta continued on its course and crossed over a small sea and towards another small continent that was covered in high mountains, lakes, waterfalls and rivers, and appeared to be a catalyst for tectonic activity. Like the Pacific fault line on Earth that ran north from the continental United States and its west coast, all the way to Alaska. Sensors showed fresh granite peaks, ledges and cliffs that had been thrust up by tectonic movement and earthquakes. According to the chronological data from the initial scans this tectonic event had happened less than fifty years ago. ~This could be why the anomaly was not detected sooner~ Kara thought to herself.

Shutting down the auto-pilot, Kara activated the stick and grasped it once it came up in her lap. Turning sharply she then nosed down into the atmosphere as she activated the deflectors as a heat shield. Leveling off over the surface at one-quarter impulse power, Kara zipped through the skies as she passed over mountains and valleys, adjusting her scanners as she went. With each valley she would slow her speed and drop into them as she tried to give the sensors a 360 degree view of all tunnels, caves, and crevices they could detect in passing. Ascending and leveling off, she then would head to the next at just under supersonic speed, using the thrust of her engines but not going to any impulse speed itself. That was far too fast for atmosphere maneuvers and was meant for space. Repulsors and thrusters were the means of travel for planetary excursions, she had to remember.

As Kara brought the Delta up out of a valley, her gaze scanning the horizon for another to drop into, her eyes spotted something of interest. Ten kilometers to the southeast she could see a massive waterfall, hundreds of meters high, being fed by a massive river that would match the Amazon river basin in size and amount of water present. Turning that way Kara could see that the waterfall was at the opposite end of an expansive valley from her own position. Driving forward, the mountains clearing under her ship, she saw that this valley was a massive lake that the waterfall fed into, with rivers and streams leaving the valley through various smaller passes and vales. Even from the air she could see that the lake was crystal clear and in many sections she could see all the way to the bottom as if flying over the sea in the Bahamas. The scans showed it was a fresh water lake with no impurities, those being naturally filtered out by the rocky cliffs and stones the water passed through to become this large body of water which could be considered a small sea. "It's beautiful." She said to herself. Hearing her own voice caused Kara to grin to herself. ~Great~ she thought ~now I am talking to myself~ That thought caused her to feel a bit of humor, realizing she was becoming more like those around her than she had thought. It was not in her character, before Starfleet, to talk to herself out loud. Curious.

Coming back to the moment, Kara dropped her altitude to skim over the top of the surface of the water as she headed straight for the waterfall. Looking ahead she could see the massive amount of water, like a spillway from a dam, crashing down into a massive pool of churning water below. Sensors showed there was a cavernous space just behind the curtain of water and a granite shelf large enough for her Delta to land on and be free of the falling torrent. The scanners began to bleep lightly and she brought the Delta to all stop and hovered so she could look at the data. There it was. The anomaly. The positronic signal coming from within the cavern behind the waterfall, several hundred meters into a tunnel. The scans were intermittent due to the kelbonite deposits but they were accurate enough to have discovered the source of the anomaly. Somewhere in that natural tunnel system there was a positronic signal. Kara knew she would have to land and explore on foot to find any definitive answers or evidence. Nothing for it, Kara got her craft moving again, albeit at a much slower speed, approaching the waterfall. Reinforcing the deflectors around the entire craft and shunting more power to the repulsors, Kara steered towards the waterfall.

Ever so slowly Kara piloted her ship towards the waterfall, sliding the Delta sideways to come in from a right side angle so as not to try and fight the full weight of the torrent of water by going through the center. With her power allocation she began to break through the curtain of water, the ship at first beginning to shudder and tilt towards the center of the falls as the water came down upon it. However, the repulsors compensated and kept the craft on an even plane as it passed through the waterfall. It was nearly pitch black within as the cockpit faced forward, the ambient daylight behind her, so Kara activated the headlights and running lights to illuminate the area directly around the Delta. Seeing quite an open space for her ship, with enough room for several, Kara got passed the waterfall and landed pretty much dead center of this massive, natural antechamber. Going through post flight she shut down the power to the engines and all flight systems. Putting the Delta in lockdown she then got to her feet and went into the back to prepare her gear for spelunking.

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