24150407 Plot log: CO Cmdr Alistar McKeon

Posted on Tue Apr 7th, 2015 @ 7:53am by Captain Alistar McKeon

772 words; about a 4 minute read

Alistar was actually sitting on the bridge instead of in his ready room reading reports for once. Valenar was off training Silvisi to replace her as XO and since there wasn't much else to do Alistar had decided to sit bridge watch for a while. In honesty, he missed it. Being CO was definitely exciting in its own way but the burden of command sometimes took the fun out of everyday life in Starfleet. But that was one of the privileges of command, the ability to walk out onto the bridge and kick whoever was sitting in his command chair out and take over.

"Sir, we're arriving at the Basik system," the helmsman reported.

"Drop us out of warp, slow to two thirds impulse," Alistar ordered. "Ops start a system wide scan. Helm, lay in a course to the third planet but take us within three hundred thousand kilometers of the other planets en route."

"Aye sir," the helmsman said as he entered the calculations. The Endeavour maneuvered through the system at a speed that gave the sensors time to complete their scan but was fast enough to complete the route quickly. After forty three minutes, the ops officer finally spoke.

"Sir, judging from the sensor readings, the third planet has a dispersal cloud of exhaust fumes and a debris cloud that has trace elements of the hull alloy that meet the specifications for the survey ship. The cloud isn't large enough to be the entire ship. Judging by the size of the debris and the design of the survey ship, I'd say something hit one of the solar panel stabilizer fins."

"That model had two fins which also housed the primary maneuvering thrusters," Alistar said as he walked over to the console. "Any idea what might have hit it?"

"None, but there is an asteroid belt half a light year away. It's possible that the Basik star's gravity field pulls asteroids into the system from time to time and the survey ship didn't detect it until it was too late," the ops officer answered.

"Odd that they wouldn't detect something that posed a danger to their ship," Alistar muttered. Turning to the helm, he nodded. "Put us in a high orbit of Basik III," he ordered.

"Sir, sensors are detecting gravitational shifts in the third planets core. It's possible that the planet is becoming unstable," the helmsman said. His worried tone drew a nod from Alistar. Q class planets were rare planets that only lasted from a few years to a few decades before their lifespan ended in a violent breaking apart of the entire planet. Most of what Starfleet knew about Q class planets had been theorized ever since the Genesis planet had destabilized. Given that the Genesis Project had been discontinued following the fallout from the Genesis Project Incident, Alistar could understand why the Science Council would want to survey one of the rare Q class planets before it broke apart.

"Do we have readout on the planet?" Alistar asked as he headed back to his command chair.

"Atmosphere is nitrogen and oxygen, some carbon dioxide, no major harmful elements so the air is breathable, no life signs as of yet. The gravitation instability is making it hard to get an accurate reading from this distance."

"Sir, a shuttlecraft might be able to get closer without too much trouble," the helmsman suggested.

"Agreed," Alistar said. "Have the type 10 shuttle prepped for launch. It's the best suited for this kind of mission. Who is the best pilot on board?"

"Probably Petty officer Killian or myself," the chief helmsman answered.

"Have Killian take the conn, you take the shuttle mission," Alistar said. "Try to locate either the survey ship or any survivors, and then report back to the Endeavour."

"Aye sir," the senior helmsman said as he stood and headed to the shuttle bay.

Alistar sat back in his seat and activated the command console so he could keep tabs on everything. It took ten minutes to prep the shuttle and launch, and then it was a slow process of surveying the ground. After four hours Alistar was ready to call a break when the shuttle pilot spotted the crashed wreck of the survey ship in a deep valley. After conducting a detailed scan of the valley, the pilot aimed the shuttle back towards the Endeavour. Alistar nodded at the verbal report before he tapped his commbadge and called for a senior officer briefing several minutes after the shuttle docked. This was definitely something he wanted to start with a firm game plan in place.

Cmdr Alistar McKeon
CO, USS Endeavour

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