//------------------------------//
// Chapter Thirty Two- Cestus III 
// Story: STAR TREK: EQUESTRIA 
// by Alicorne 
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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO



CESTUS-III


We entered the Sigma Pegasus system from below the plane of the ecliptic at a thirty-degree angle decelerating from Time Warp Five to Warp One point two at the heliopause, (The point at which the Solar Wind from the local star is overwhelmed by that of its neighbors, a convenient waypoint used while navigating in-system.) with all sensors up and running. The Cestus Probe had down a quick survey of the system during its flyby but it was more concerned with avoiding collisions while it scanned for habitable worlds than it was with collecting abstract knowledge. In the ten hours it took us to make the transit into the inner system we charted a dwarf planet, a dozen comets, two asteroid belts, and seventeen assorted moons to add to the Probe’s tally of eleven worlds and twenty moons. Sigma Pegasus-IV was an L-class planet similar to Mares or Equestris… though a lot smaller than my Home Sod… and suitable for colonization using domes and careful terraforming techniques. (The terraforming of Mares turned it from a sere desert into a nearly waterlogged mudflat by over-zealously bombing the place with ice asteroids after the Eugenics Wars. The atmosphere thickened so quickly that the previously frozen groundwater thawed nearly all at once, threatening to inundate a few of the domes in the lower-lying areas! The Hellas Sea and the Great Mariner Valley Lake System are a source of both pride and embarrassment to those early terraformers.)
Our target was Sigma Pegasus Two, labeled Cestus-III by the Cestus Corporation that claimed it. We watched it swell into view as the Ship dropped back into normal space and slowed into Standard Orbit some eighteen thousand miles above it in synchronous orbit. It was quite an inviting place for all that it was named for a business concern! 
Its mass was point nine that of Earth with a surface gravity of one point zero-seven gees. The atmosphere broke down as containing seventy-six percent nitrogen, twenty-two percent oxygen, and just enough inert gases to give the sky a faint greenish tinge to its otherwise Terran Blue. Underneath the ice-white clouds the seas covered fifty-five percent of the land clad in pale green vegetation under Sigma Pegasus’ whiter sun. In the thriving ecology below an impressive variety of life-forms swarmed in every environmental niche. The average planetary temperature was forty-seven degrees, the icecaps at the poles were minimal, volcanism was contained to just a few active areas along the equally few plate boundaries and at thirty-three degrees north latitude on the second-largest continent lay the remains of the Cestus Probe claim marker where it had fallen from orbit, not far from a riverbank on the fringes of a forest lapped at by a broad plain. …It wasn’t alone on the surface of Cestus-III!
Nearby sat a small vessel of a little more than one thousand tons displacement, a squat looking thing taller at the stern and tapering somewhat toward the blunt bow.  From our high viewing angle we could see that the hull was colored medium-brown with a few yellow markings along the sides that didn’t correspond to anything in our linguistic databases. Our sensors showed that there was power available on the vessel. The neutrino emissions indicated either a fusion power source or possibly even an antimatter pile ticking over in standby mode. The lack of an extensive fuel reservoir, coupled with the possibility of antimatter being present, pointed to the fact that it was in fact a starship as opposed to a space vessel. It was hard to scan through the hull… it was well shielded… but there seemed to be something comparable to warp coils in a mid-line mount through the core of the vessel.
We'd managed in the meantime to restore short-range communications, though the Aura still defeated our long-range efforts.There had been no answers to our repeated hails and detailed scanning on our part indicated that there were three sets of indeterminate life readings onboard that neither moved nor reacted to us the whole time we were in orbit. There was also evidence of damage to what we assumed was the Engineering section of the ship. Blast marks and charring were visible though the hull remained intact.  
In the end it was decided that I would head up a Landing Party to evaluate the situation. Given that the ship was damaged and the lifeforms onboard seemed unresponsive we probably would be performing a rescue operation. To that end I included Sunny into the party along with Stimbolt and Dazzle. It was going to be old Home week!
We met in Transporter Room One to draw our equipment. The replicator there issued us rusty-brown jackets to wear over our uniforms, we were going to be outside after all! Sunny brushed an imaginary bit of lint of hers and quite frankly preened, pleased with how it looked on her. My anatomy played me false again, the shoulders and sleeves were loose enough but I couldn’t get the damn thing to close over my mammalian assets! Oh, well, it would have to do.
Sunny carried a Medical tricorder as well as a Starfleet medical bag slung over her shoulders. I contented myself with a Sciences tricorder. Stimbolt carried a Sciences tricorder as well as more in-depth and specialized scanning and analysis gear, presumably for dealing with whatever we found on the Alien ship. He was by far and away the most encumbered of any of us and I made a note to relieve him of some of that before we transported…right after I finished with my own jacket!
He politely turned his back and chatted with the Transporter Tech, a Neighsian buck in a red jumpsuit named Robo-Tech, as far as I could make out from his Cutie-Patch, while Sunny fussed with the front of my jacket trying to tug it together enough to fasten. The best we could manage was to close the bottom part, making the whole thing into an impromptu bustier. I vetoed the whole project in disgust and let it hang open. The temperature on the surface was sixty-four degrees. I might be a little chilly but I wouldn’t freeze at least.
I was toying with the idea of re-replicating the thing when Dazzle came in from the Armory with our weaponry. She brought a phased-balefire pistol for each of us (Mine being larger to accommodate my bigger hoof!) and had a phased-balefire rifle slung over her shoulder for herself!
“Good bloody grief!” Sunny blinked at her. “Sure n’ I thought this was t’ be a rescue operation!”
“Glad to hear that!” Dazzle said cheerfully. “I still want one!”
Sunny refused to carry a weapon so Dazzle just stuck in onto the jacket she drew without batting an eye. She turned to me, affronted.
“Are we goin’ t’ attend a skirmish is it then? Why do we no just blast th’ place from orbit then strain th’ remains t’ find out what we need t’ know n’ have done wi’ it?” She grumped.
“Quiet, Sunny!” I made one last, futile attempt at the jacket and gave up! “An ounce of caution is worth a pound of regret and all that. We’re dealing with an unknown race here and there’s no telling how they’ll react to our arrival. Besides, we may end up having to burn our way into that ship if Stimbolt can’t bypass their locks!” I drew myself up and gathered the Landing Party together with my eyes.
“This is the situation! The Cestus Survey Marker came out of orbit and has impacted at the site below. We don’t know if it malfunctioned or was knocked down. There is an alien vessel parked near it on the surface that, for whatever reason, is refusing or not receiving our hails. If they have sensors they must have detected our arrival. They haven’t seen fit to tell us one way or the other. There are low-level life readings coming from the vessel that may indicate injured or incapacitated crew. That’s where you come in, Sunny. Maybe they examined the Survey Marker and came down with the Pony Pox or something. If they’re sick or hurt you can fix them up and we’ll get some answers as to what happened. Failing that we can at least pull their flight recorder or logs for examination up here. That’s where you come in, Stimbolt.” The Young Buck nodded, thumbs hooked through the straps of his equipment.
“Dazzle is going along to provide support if things get out of hoof or we run into hostile native fauna. Our sensors don’t show anything larger than a raccoon within a mile and a half radius at the landing site but that’s no reason to let our guard down. My tricorder…” I tapped the device hanging down from my neck. “Is loaded with a translation matrix in case the Aliens are in a mood to talk and are reasonable, rational beings. Ponicidal maniacs don’t build starships as a rule, Klingons excepted!” I gave forth a tight smile before continuing. “Our weapons are to be set on standard stun setting. Do not fire unless attacked or I give the word. Is that understood?” 
Dazzle unshipped her rifle and adjusted the intensity of her weapon. Stimbolt and I twisted the force setting rings on our squat, cylindrical pistols to the proper setting and we all engaged the safeties as Sunny sniffed at all the Military Protocol.
“Are we done a-playin’ soldier yet?” She scoffed. “As ye pointed out there may be folk in need o’ me help!”
Dazzle slung her rifle in front of her at ready. “Who’s playing, Doc?” She changed the setting on the pistol Sunny refused to carry pointedly and stuck it inside her jacket with a grim grin. “They made it this long, they’ll keep for another few minutes!”
“Let’s hope they’ll be grateful at least!” Stimbolt put in. “I’m eager to compare notes with their Engineers. No telling what they know compared to us!”
Sunny gave Dazzle a sour look. “Aye, well, I’m stayin’ close t’ you then while th’ Miltary types do all their struttin’ n’ posin’!” She hitched her tricorder up higher on her shoulder and made it a point to stand next to the hapless Engineer. “Dinna want t’ be seen as bein’ part o’ th’ ‘hostile’ crowd, ye ken!” She took the opportunity to stick her tongue out at me.
I gave her a pained look and took a pair of dark sunglasses out of my pocket and put them on against the brighter light of Pegasus Epsilon. “Check you communicators and leave them on ‘standby’ so the ship can beam us you back in case of an emergency.”
Everypony removed the palm-sized, clear plastic devices with their embedded circuitry and verified their status.
“OK, if we’re all ready…?” I indicated the transport pads with a hoof.
“As ready as I’ll ever be t’ be gettin’ meself squirted through a sub-a-bloody-tomic keyhole by yon devilish contraption, grand bit o’ Engineerin’ that it is!” Sunny rolled her eye skeptically at the transported, ignoring the hurt looks on both the faces of Stimbolt and Robo-Tech.
“Get on the platform, already!” I aimed a kick at her bottom that made her skip ahead of the rest of us. “Sheesh! What side of the bed did you get up on this morning?”
“Th’ only side left wi’ ye in there!” She retorted as Dazzle and Stimbolt chuckled and smirked respectively. “Th’ prospect o’ bein’ sprayed all over th’ bloody Universe by this thing’s enough t’ put anypony in a mood!”
“Your objections are duly noted.” I said as I took my position and adjusted my glasses. “Next time we’ll kick you out the Hanger and you can practice sub-orbital sky diving!”
Sunny looked me up and down with a glare! “Humph! Right proper Termanatrix ye make! ‘Hasta-la-bloody-vista’, forsooth!” Just another one of her cryptic old-movie references that made me shake my head while the others looked at her quizzically.
“Remind me to lecture you on quantum entanglement when we get back!”
“I’ll put it right on top o’ me bloody to-do list!” Sunny  muttered as she carefully centered herself on her pad as Dazzle snickered.
“Hay, Robo!” She called out. “I’ll give you five credits if you leave her behind!”
“Maybe you should take a pill, Doctor.” Stimbolt said gently.
I was not inclined to be so gentle. “Make it a suppository! Chief….”
“I’ll gi’ ye a suppository, ye great…!” Sunny began to snap, her wings spreading dangerously close to Stimbolt and myself.
“Energize!” I cut her off with a mirror-black glare!
There are some Ponies who shut their eyes during transport. Sunny certainly did, screwing hers shut almost frantically as the whistling, warbling hum of the transporter built up. Realistically, though, it makes no difference. As we froze into immobility…it’s impossible to move during the process…the transporter room dissolved away into dancing, golden motes to gradually be replaced by the dappled shade at the edge of the trees we materialized under. A cool breeze teased my mane and the breath I’d begun to take on the Ship continued where it left off, mixing cool, herb-scented air with the filtered and reprocessed atmosphere of the Hermes. I turned and adjusted the glasses I wore, turning away from the sun peeking under the canopy of leaves.
“…Lump!” Sunny finished, popping her eyes open to gawk at the scenery. She patted her chest and re-settled her wings in a huff. “Bloody thing! One o’ these times I swear I’ll come out the other end a bloody buck!” She took a sniff of the air and shaded her eyes to look at the sunlit meadow before us and remarked. “Nice enough place, innit? Almost worth th’ trip!”
As I fished out my communicator Dazzle and Stimbolt got their tricorders going. I turned to verify their status before reporting. Dazzle had her rifle on one hip, her tricorder held close to it. No doubt so that she could bring the thing to bear on whatever the tricorder picked up. Her eyes constantly flicked between it and the copse of trees that lay between us and the Alien vessel as she scanned it. (Little Rock, though a firm believer in the advantages of technology, is a great proponent of the virtues of the Mark One eyeball and passes that concept  along to his Ponies!)
Stimbolt stood erect and held his before him, turning to do a circular sweep of the area, his eyes never leaving the display.
I flipped the communicator open. “Landing Party to Transporter Room. Transport confirmed. Patch me through to the Bridge, please.”
“Acknowledged, Commander. One moment.” Robo-Tech’s voice came back at once. There was a pause while my call got routed, then Caper came online. 
“Da, Commander.”
“We’re down and performing initial scans of the area. Any sign that we’ve been noticed?”
There was a pause wherein I could imagine Caper looking over at Melody who ponied my station then, “Nyet. Everything is same. Can you see Survey Marker from where you are at?”
My eyes flicked to the meadow. I squinted against the glare. “Negative. The trees are blocking our view of the impact site. We’ll have to circle around them to bring it into view. We’ll be moving out in just a minute or two.”
“Hokay.” Caper grunted. “Be careful, Commander. Is nice, peaceful First Contact Mission, da? Introduce selves, shake hooves, kiss babies, offer assistance. Federation wants to be everypony’s buddy-buddy,  after all! Do not make Valiant Captain to have to do lots of bothersome datawork!” …I could just imagine him waggling a finger. “ Am having plenty fun enough already, da?”
I rolled my eyes at the communicator. “We’ll be the very souls of decorum! Landing Party, out.” I flipped the antenna/cover down, ending the call, and looked over to Dazzle.
“What have you got, Chief?” I opened my tricorder and set it to record.
“I’m showing lots of lifeforms in the trees.” She waved the muzzle of the rifle at the stand of trees between us and the ship. “Hoof sized and smaller. High metabolic rate. It’s my guess that they’re birds or bats, maybe.” She shrugged. “I’m showing lifeforms on the ground and the tree trunks. Nothing bigger than a gopher. Thousands of what appear to be insects, including a huge concentration low down in the trees at the far end. I’m thinking it’s a hive of some sort.” She pointed with the rifle again. “Pretty much the same thing for a quarter-mile around us. Wildlife and nothing else, Commander.”
I nodded. “How about you, Stimbolt?”
“I’m reading generated power onboard the ship, Commander, but no heavy power usage. Drives appear to be on standby, no indications of energy stored in weapons systems and no active scanning, either.” He paused for a moment, working his nose. “I’m showing a few parts per billion of…of…” He raised a finger in apology and turned his head to sneeze twice. Pshoo! Pshoo!
“…Sorry about that, Commander!” He sniffed quickly before continuing. “ There’s something in that smell that’s been tickling my nose since we got here. As I was saying, there’s a few parts per billion of plasma residue in the area. Just what you’d expect from an antimatter core running at low power le….achoo!” He jerked his head away to cover his mouth this time, sneezing two more times. 
Sunny was on him in an instant, breaking out her tricorder and waving the pickup over the young buck. “Just sit still a wee bit n’ let me have a bit o’ a look at ye, Laddie.” She scrutinized her readout for a few moments then, “There’s a wee inflammation in yer sinuses to be sure. D’ye have any trouble a-swallowin’? Vision all right? Open up n’ give us a peek then!”
Stimbolt shook his head, nodded, and opened his mouth obediently while Sunny fished a depressor out of her kit and peered down his throat. She turned the Engineer’s head so the sun shone into his mouth while I took a cautious sniff of the air. There was a scent to it, faint though it was. It was reminiscent of the evergreen smell that surrounded Alicorne Keep back on Earth, but more earthy and faintly floral.
“Dazzle, you ok?”
“I’m fine, Starry. Just smells like the Wide Open Spaces to me!” She gazed around speculatively as Sunny felt the glands in Stimbolt’s neck.
“Sure n’ it seems t’ be just a wee touch of allergies!” Sunny declared as she rummaged in her bag. “Are ye prone to them back Home, Stimbolt-me-lad?”
Freed from her grip, the buck let loose with a truly impressive nasal explosion before answering! “Excuse me! I was born under Capernicus Dome on the Moon.” He paused to sniff, embarrassed. “But I do get it bad when I visit my Grandparents in Mane. Especially in the Fall. They said it was Nagweed or something like that.” Sunny passed him a bandage and he blew his nose.
“Right! I’ll hae ye kitted up in just a few ticks, never ye fret now!” She fitted an ampoule onto a hypospray and dialed a dosage. “Ye just need a few cc’s o’ a broad-base antihistamine t’ set ye aright again. Let me give ye a ‘pill’! I promise it’ll no  hurt… too much!” She took Stimbolt’s hoof and, rather than pressuring the shot through his jacket, applied the hypo to the inside of his wrist where the blood vessels lay close to the skin with a whsst!
The young buck yelped and sneezed at the same time! “Ow-choo!”
“Oh dinna be such a colt!” My Love chided, uncorking her instruments and replacing them in her bag. “Ye werena so timid when ye did yer Mountain Lion impression on yon Klingons!”
“The Klingons were a lot less terrifying, I guess!” Dazzle chortled!
Sunny eyed her darkly, toying with her hypo. “Seems t’ be an element o’ roupiness in yer laugh, Lassie…”
“Not me, Doc! My voice was never better!” She struck a pose and broke out into song, tipping Sunny a wink! “I’ll take you home again, Canterleene! Across the waters wide and foaming….!”
Sunny went fishing around in her bag. “Right! Daft as a Denebian Dodo! I prescribe a Medically Induced Coma, got just th’ thing right here…”
“All right, all right! Focus, Ponies!” I shook my head. “This is a Landing Party, not a Birthday Party! Dazzle, if you don’t straighten up I’ll authorize that coma! Sunny, are you feeling anything?” She dimpled and simply pointed up to her horn which was probably glowing,  though I couldn’t make it out through the glasses. “Right! Stimbolt, how are you doing?”
The Engineer blew his nose noisily and thoroughly into the bandage one last time and straightened back up. He sniffed experimentally. “Much better now! Thanks, Doc!” He offered the bandage back to Sunny who screwed her face up and made a shooing motion at him. He stuck it in his back pocket.
“Ok!” I said. I pointed to the near end of the copse. “The Marker is out there, forty yards in front of the Alien ship. We’re going this way…” I pointed toward the far end of the stand of trees. “Precisely because of that. The ship will be our first objective and we’ll approach it from behind. I’m not going to chance approaching a potential hostile from the direction of its Main Guns!” I consulted my tricorder. “It’ll only be a couple hundred yards. Dazzle, keep your eyes and scanners peeled for anything coming our way. Sunny can try to get some scans of the lifeforms onboard the ship. Stimbolt, give me some of your overburden, you’re loaded down like the White Knight! See what information you can gather about the ship in the meantime.” I relieved him of some of his instrumentation. “I’ll collect some recordings of the local environment as we go. I’ll take the point, Dazzle can bring up the rear just off to the side. Sunny and Stimbolt behind me at ten feet. Formation ‘L’, Ponies, just like in Basic! Let’s move out!”
Sunny stood absurdly straight up at attention, her left arm shooting out at a right angle, her open palm snapping into position smartly alongside her head with her thumb pointing at her collarbone.
“Sah! Yes, Sah! By th’ right hoof…march! Hup, toop, threep, four!” She turned in place with a neat hop (Jiggling quite nicely, I might add!) and proceeded to high-step, the perfect parody of a parade-ground cadet!
Caper would have put her in her place with a growl and a thickly-accented comment. Me, I gave her a boot to her rump as she tromped by that made her squawk and deploy her wings to keep her balance! Dazzle laughed and poor Stimbolt looked alarmed.
“That’s it, Sunny! Fly right or I will personally smear choice bits of you with honey and stake you out next to that hive! In the words of an unremembered Sergeant before the walls of Trot, I will restate my previous comment…’This ain’t a Party, see?’! Now get in your spot or I will have you beamed back up to the Ship with no safety protocols in place after the rest of us get our jobs done. Am I Making Myself Clear, Medical Officer?”
Shock, sudden anger, and embarrassment flitted across her face within a second. Her blazing eyes held mine for just an instant before dropping down to the alien grass tickling her knees. She remained silent.
I had it in mind to say something gentle to her just then… but I didn’t want to look like I was playing favorites, not even for Sunny...not in my Command! The Mare in my head shook hers, reminding me that I was going to pay for this behind closed doors later before strolling off to check her Damage Control Boards. I told her to have faith in Sunny.
Dazzle broke the uncomfortable silence by laughing again.
“Doc, meet Corporal Punishment! You don’t want to meet Major Catastrophe or General Disaster, trust me!”
“Um…” Stimbolt put in hesitantly. “I’m sure the Doctor wasn’t meaning any disrespect, Ma’am. Medical Department just operates differently…”
“I’m not asking for excuses… from anypony.” I said with just enough emphasis to shut him up. I relented just a little. “Look, I’m not putting anything down on anypony’s Permanent Record for Pony’s sake! But I don’t want anypony in my command getting hurt or worse because they aren’t taking the Mission seriously.” I gave Sunny a meaningful look over the top of my dark glasses. 
“Sunny. I brought you with us because you are a highly-trained and competent Officer no matter what Department you serve in. Am I right or wrong?”
“Aye, yer right… momentary lapses into bein’ a wee bit of an Ass, aside.” She  said meekly, rolled her eyes away in embarrassment.  Her gaze snapped back to mine with a cautiously playful twinkle.“Sorry about that, Chief!”
“Don’t worry about it, ‘Eighty-Six’! Just Get Smart and stay smart!” My mouth twitched in the barest flicker of a grin, not caring that neither Stimbolt or Dazzle would catch the reference to Sunny’s hoary collection of ancient entertainment vids. My heart swelled as I caught the laughter in her eyes. I sent an I-told-you-so to the Mare in my Head who only rolled her eyes. I rolled my own to Stimbolt.
“…And if you keep calling me ‘Ma’am’ I’ll introduce you to Corporal Punishment! I think we’ve served together long enough to be on a first-name basis on a Landing Party, ok?”
“Ok, um… Starry!” The Middie struggled with the term and broke out in a nervous grin.
“Careful, Starry! You’re going to tarnish all his brand-new training!” Dazzle put in, scanning the area with her tricorder again with her gun at the ready.
“Like the Captain….” I began.
“The ‘Valiant Captain!” Dazzle corrected.
“Ahem! Like our ‘Valiant Captain’, in Deep Space I prefer to regard the Regs as guidelines rather than hard-and-fast rules. There’s no reason we can’t be polite and reasonable as long as we get our jobs done efficiently. I like to think that we’re all mature enough that we don’t have to insist on imposing an artificial hierarchy over every aspect of our behavior!”
“Och! ‘Polite, reasonable’, n’ ‘mature’, is it?” Sunny rubbed her rump. “Permission t’ say ‘ouch’…Ma’am?”
“Oh, get a move on or I’ll show you a real ‘ouch’, you weenie!” I moved out in front of her, not quite stepping on her hooves.
“Don’t ye repress me! Come see th’ violence inherent in th’ system!” Sunny slid into another of her obscure quotations. …I suppose she was old enough that she just didn’t care what anypony thought about her!
Stimbolt moved into position near her. “I’ve just got one question. ‘Eighty-six’ what?” He asked plaintively. “Inches?”
“…Around the hips, maybe!” Dazzle put in from the side, happy to lob in comments at a distance.
“Yuk it up, do!” Sunny said loftily. “Next time ye lose a body part I’ll put it on yer…”
“Move out, Ponies! Formation ‘ L’!” I called out using just enough volume to let them know Corporal Punishment was still listening!
We never saw the hive itself, though we all could hear it well enough. A deep, busy buzz came from somewhere in the trees off to our left. A constant stream of  shiny copper and metallic blue insects the size of the end of Sunny’s thumb wended their way in a wavering line from the meadow into the shaded darkness beneath the leaves. I passed closest to it, thirty-five yards distant according to my tricorder. One of the little whosits swerved off his course to orbit me a few times. Maybe he thought my bright blue uniform was a flower. Sunny told me stories about bumblebees on Earth and how touchy they could be at times so I didn’t make any sudden moves, contenting myself with waving my arm slowly to discourage the little pest from coming in for a closer look. It was a clumsy flier, Tyllae could flit loops around it, adjusting its course in swinging arcs with about a two-foot turn radius to make pass after pass at me. I was beginning to get nervous that the little monster would get past my guard and under my open jacket or, even worse, down my open collar. I have an admittedly thick hide but it wasn’t that thick in there! 
Fortunately he lost interest after a bit and made his way back to the hive. Oddly enough… or not, considering the spectra of Pegasus Sigma… Dazzle and Stimbolt’s uniforms didn’t seem to hold any fascination for them. One landed on Sunny and she let it walk along her hand, being careful to clamp that sleeve shut against any unwanted excursions. It flew away on its own after a minute and we rounded the copse without further incident and came in sight of the Alien ship.
Boxy and squat and only superficially aerodynamic it reminded me of one of our own shuttlecraft writ large, with the exception of the lack of the two engine nacelles. The only viewports I could see were part of a wraparound set forward on what we assumed was their Bridge. They were polarized dark and gave us no information of what lay within. The hull was bronze-brown with faint signs of reentry scorching predominantly on the forward and bottom parts. More prominent scorch marks, these being radial in nature and about a yard across were apparent on the port aft quarter about halfway up the hull. The metal in the center of each of the twin marks was visibly slagged. We stopped twenty-three yards away while Stimbolt scanned.
“There’s a Warp Core in there.” He announced firmly and pointed to a hemispherical protrusion a quarter of the way up from the keel on the stern of the ship. “See that? That’s part of their Space Restoration Matrix. It’s a starship all right. A small one, but still a starship. Wonder where it’s out of? Can’t have but a dozen or so light-years range, unless they have phenomenal engine efficiency.”
“Can you make out the status of their engine?” I swung my tricorder to bear on the ship while Dazzle looked alert and brought her own weapon up. “I’m not showing radiation or coolant leaks aside from that trace amount of drive plasma we picked up on earlier.”
Stimbolt adjusted his tricorder. “It’s hard to get accurate readings through their hull.” He concentrated on his readouts for a bit. “I’m showing burnouts and overloads in the vicinity of the engine. Serious but not irreparable damage. They made it down ok so they should be able to get it fixed up in no time. It’s nothing they’d need to put into a spacedock for.”
“So why aren’t they out fixing it?” Dazzle wondered. “Where’s the crew?”
I gave Sunny a significant look, but she already had her Medical Tricorder out and had it sweeping the ship.
“Aye, well yon Laddie was no exaggeratin’ that ‘tis hard to scan through their hull!” She tilted her head sideways to Stimbolt. “But I’m a-gettin’ no fewer than six life-readin’s from th’ inside. Bless me if I can make out just what they are, though! I’m showin’ body temperatures o’ ninety-nine degrees wi’ only two or three heartbeats a minute! If they’re mammals r’ summat similar I’d say they were in cryonic suspension but for those high temperatures! If it were some sort o’ Arcane Medical Stasis we’d read naught at all, outside o’ th’ Aura o’ th’ spell of course. Whatever th’ case, th’ readins’ r’ steady wi’ no fluctuation. I dinna ken wha’ they are but that’s why we call them ‘alien’, innit?” She shrugged and continued. “Internal atmosphere’s similar t’ outside wi’ a twenty-one percent oxygen content. Internal air temperature ‘tis eighty-six degrees wi’ eleven percent humidity. Internal gravity is point nine-six gees. There! Now ye ken all I do. Now what?”
Dazzle frowned. “If the ship wasn’t that damaged and the internal environment wasn’t contaminated, why put the crew in stasis at all? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Where are they located, Sunny?” I nodded toward the ship.
“Up yon, behind th’ viewports.” She pointed with her horn as she fiddled with her tricorder.
“Arcane Stasis…” I mused. “Dazzle. Are you close enough to do a Magic sweep of the ship, or at least the Bridge area? Maybe we’ve found ourselves another Magic-using species!”
Dazzle nodded thoughtfully. “Well it’s worth a try! I should be able to pick up on the spell matrix of their drive at least.” She lowered her weapon to port arms as her horn lit up. She regarded the ship intently, seeing with her mind’s eye perhaps.
Stimbolt coughed quietly as she worked.
“Uh, Starry…?”
“What do you have, Stimbolt?”
He indicated the damage to the ship. “Those are balefire hits as far as I can make out… though I can’t figure how they put it out in the meantime. They were shot up by a Federation vessel!”