A new dawn looms

Posted on Tue Dec 22nd, 2020 @ 7:19pm by Captain Elijah Michaels

715 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Into the Unknown
Location: Ready Room, USS Ontario

For any ship that had been on the fringes of civilisation for 9 months or more a Starbase was a haven. Countless Ships of varying size and statute would dock and depart in the traffic lanes of Starbase Unity.

But amongst the newest designs docked up was an old workhorse, Ambassador Class. USS Ontario fresh from a 9 month unremarkable charting expedition to a difficult to pronounce region was docked up taking on supplies and crew. A vast majority of her Senior Staff had been reassigned to newer more glamorous postings. But her her Commanding Officer remained steadfast at his post.

"Captain you have an incoming message from Admiral Baxter." Came a call over the ready room comm.

Elijah sat at his desk going over the reports from what little remarkable things took place during their expedition and for once he was pleased to receive a call from the brass. "Thank you Ensign patch her through."

The terminal lit up with the Starfleet insignia as Baxter appeared on screen. "Good Morning to you Captain nice to see you and Ontario back."

"Thank you Admiral time flies when you are charting stellar phenomena and cataloguing the mineral fragments of dead planets." A note of sarcasm in the voice of Elijah as he responded to her simple courtesy,

Baxter responded with a low hum and a frown. "Quite, now let me ask you a question Captain, what do you know of Dreadex?"

Elijah cocked his brow. "Dreadex? It's an uncharted region well beyond the borders of Federation space if anything it is more closer to old Romulan Space than our own."

"Very good Elijah, Dreadex is split into three zones on star charts labelled as Dreadex Major, Minor and Dreadex Ultima. Now these three zones all form one large sector." Baxter commented.

"It's also classified as a low priority on the expedition listings Admiral, barely even makes the first page," Elijah responded he had been in the unknown regions for a long time he knew how it worked and how it went.

"Yes that was the case for many years, last probes we sent out were 80 years ago and no Starship has visited their in 50 years."

"Until now?" Elijah asked her, he knew where this conversation was going and where it was leading to. ]

"Astute observation Elijah, whilst it is seen as a low priority sector for Starfleet they still get traffic from other powers like the Ferengi and Orions and part of the reason it has suddenly peaked our interest is because of this," the terminal flashed to a yellow glowing material. "Cordanium."

"Cordanium? I've never heard of it before."

"Cordaniun is extremely rare the last known discovery was in 2289 by the USS Santiago, it works in both a liquid and solid state as both an efficient power source and building material." Baxter paused momentarily. "Dreadex has an abundance of it and it seems that it has sparked an interest from all manner of species they are flocking to the area in their droves."

"Sounds almost like the Gold rush of the late 19th century on earth and the deposits of gold unearthed by the miners and seekers of the era." Elijah replied to her. "I'm assuming that it is a two pronged mission? Explore the area and also look into the cordanium?"

"Precislely Captain we want the Ontario to go and take a look at it up close and if it worth looking into we can send in our science ships and do a proper survey."

"When do you want me to leave?" The Captain asked her as he sat back in his chair and closed his hands together.

"When you have finished your personnel and supplies transfers you are to leave at the best possible speed for Dreadex Ultima. Keep us posted."

And with that the comm went dead as all the information was sent to his terminal to look at properly at a later date. It was an interesting assignment to say the least and it would only be a matter of time before things were either worthwhile or a wate of everybodies time.

Looking out of the window into the docking zone of the Starbase a small smirk spread across his face. "Well well, Elijah it seems a new Dawn looms for us all."

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