Probing for Answers (Part 2)

Posted on Thu Feb 20th, 2025 @ 11:09pm by Commander Zhaan D'Sai & Captain Rylan Gray & Lieutenant Tyler Malbrooke & Lieutenant Daegan Baas & Lieutenant Juliette Barnes & Lieutenant Patrick Ryan M.D. & Lieutenant Ayryn Trynn M.D. & Lieutenant Stormy Knight

2,570 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: A Silence of Friends
Location: Guran System, Guran III
Timeline: MD003 - 1430

One of the newer drones launched from the factory complex, with a ball drone attached, in a direct line from the planet to the ship orbiting above. Heavily shielded, unreadable by the Thunderbird's sensors, the drone connected to the ship's hull before anyone on board was aware it was even there. While on the planet's surface, Striel posed a question while the away team looked for answers, both in the factory and in the surrounding buildings.

[Undisclosed Location]

"Explain," Striel stated. "Intruder, what can you do?" And while Daegan thought about his answer, the displays updated to show a ball drone now firmly attached to the Thunderbird's hull while the larger drone hovered protectively above, with a shielded bubble.

Daegan "You have probes now in orbit. Have them scan the stars and you can compare those scans to any data you have in memory." He just hoped this Striel had something to compare with.

"Data can be extracted from the enemy vessel in orbit," Striel said. "Making contact."

"We are not your enemy! If you allow me to contact the ship I can get you a copy of our starcharts and the scans of the planets surface and you will see that what I have been telling you is the truth. Without conflict."

There was along a silence before Striel answered. "Opening communication channel. Be warned intruder. I am more than capable of responding to any threat posed by yourself or your ship."

[In the Factory]

While the factory itself was automated, care had been taken to make the structure accessible to humanoids as well and as the team moved farther into the facility, a office, empty through the bank of windows overlooking the factory floor, could be seen.

Stormy slowed as she took everything in. "It's so clean. And empty." And yet, it still felt like it was waiting for something.

"It is possible that we are early. I mean that all of this was built under automated orders with the intention that the people would be coming to occupy it. The people have simply not arrived yet." Tyler postulated as he looked around. There was an eerie feeling here thought. As if everyone had disappeared all at once.

"Possible," Stormy mused. "The factory here uses symbols, so it's harder to translate, but I can't help wondering if the factory adapted beyond the former inhabitants. I mean, it's been here for centuries, perhaps milennia. Has it been asleep all this time, or was there a period of growth first?" She shook her head. "Tyler, can you make sense of the infrastructure? I'm going to have another look at one of the consoles."

"Reading indicate there were some sort of lifesigns here. I'm legit not sure what happened. But someone built this. I'm not sure how long they stayed or anything of course, nor if they built this for themselves or someone else." Doc said looking at his tricorder.

“More disturbingly, where did they go and why did they leave?” Julie muttered, still gathering as many scans as she could.

[Nearby]

Outside of the building, Zhaan consulted her tricorder and lead the counselor toward a large, nearby structure. Single story, with wide double doors. "No lights, no movement," Zhaan said quietly, "but from the maps at least this is set up to receive regular visitors. And it has that feel," she added with a light shudder accompanied by a cheeky grin, "of a hospital, you know? If it is, we'll get Knight and Ryan over here as soon as we can."

“And absolutely nothing creepy about an abandoned hospital,” Trynn mused quietly as they walked. The XO was right, this particular building didn’t seem to be powered like many of the others. Yet it also lacked any kind of markings to distinguish it from the buildings nearby. Then again she was pushing perhaps very ‘human’ expectations on a hospital being clearly identified as such which tended to tower over the buildings around it. “Single story though... If it is a hospital, I wonder where they put the gift shop.”

"That could be interesting," Zhaan said. "What exactly would they have in a gift shop? And if its clothes, would they have it in our size?"

“Any self respecting gift shop should have t-shirts, chocolate, caffeine and cuddly toys. Not necessarily in that order,” Trynn confided. “As for fitting us, that would probably depend on what the people looked like, maybe they have an extra limb or two. Or small bodies and giant heads.”

"Now there's an interesting idea," Zhaan said as they walked forward. She opened one of the doors and entered the main building which did in fact have the feel of a medical facility. "Go get Lieutenants Knight and Ryan, would you? The three of you can work on figuring out what happened to the Gurani."

“Just promise not to go exploring around here alone, or touch any buttons,” Ayryn warned, “I don’t want to me making that call to the Captain when he asks where you are or what happened to you.”

Splitting up made her uneasy, yet so did the air inside the building. As if it was stale, or had been circulating in a loop for an eternity. Her nose wrinkled in distaste, wishing she had inherited less of her father’s sense of smell.

Zhaan laughed as she mimed tucking her hands into her pockets. "Go," she said. "I'll be fine."

“Don’t buy all the good things at the gift shop either,” Trynn added as she headed towards the door which would take her back out onto the ancient streets.

"Now that," Zhaan said, "is going a bit far. I cannot resist clothing." She shrugged, a slight lift of one shoulder, "but I do promise not to spend too much. How's that?"

“Fair enough,” Ayryn conceded as she offered a small wave before pushing open the door and disappearing from view. Stepping out onto the street she was still unsure if separating was wise, and so she decided to not waste time. Keeping an eye on everything around her she quickly began retracing their steps to get back to the rest of the away team.

[Bridge]

The ship had gone to red alert once the drone, connected to the hull, had been identified. "What's it doing," Rylan said, "and let's see if we can get a scan of the device."

The relief officer covering for his boss was still kicking himself....he should have raised the shield when those things approached. "I can't get a scan of the interior but it's attached itself near the antimatter storage, if it's a mine of some kind, we're done."

Ensign Thompkins had barely had time to get acclimated to the Thunderbird when he was ordered to the Bridge to take the Operations station. "I am attempting to recalibrate the lateral sensor array. I am going to configure for a high energy scan and see if we can get a reading of the interior."

Daegan let out a relieved huff. "It won't be needed, I promise." Using the channel provided, "Baas to Captain Gray...Are you receiving?"

"Gray here," Rylan answered at once. "This is an unfamiliar frequency you're transmitting over, Lieutenant. Are you alright?"

"I'm confined, but unharmed. The entity running the city has established this channel to allow me to prove we are not a threat. I believe it has been offline for some time and it's missing data about its citizenry, and the amount of time time that has passed. Please transmit the archeological scans of the planet and regional star charts for comparison to its own scans and archival information. Federation charter might help as well."

"Understood," Rylan said. "We'll get that information together. Can you tell me more about this entity?"

"Yes sir, I believe it's an Artificial Intelligence of some kind. It refers to itself by they name of Striel. As I am sure Striel has been monitoring this I should at least make some introductions. Striel. Allow me to introduce Captain Gray, my commanding officer."

"Striel," Rylan said as he rose smoothly to his feet. "I am Captain Rylan Gray, in command of the USS Thunderbird, and I am speaking to you on behalf the United Federation of Planets. We have no desire to harm you or anything on this world; quite the contrary, we seek to learn about your world and what happened here. My officer tells me that you require data and we are willing to provide what you need. Are you prepared to receive."

"Begin transmitting," Striel said. The displays changed again, a flashing message appearing over the drone attached to the ship's hull. "I am ready to receive."

Rylan turned toward the Operations officer. "Begin transmitting everything we have on this world along with the diplomatic packet we send in first contact situations. Make sure that the feed is monitored."

"Yes Captain. Transmitting now." Thompkins replied as her hands danced over her console. Truth was she was rather enjoying herself in this new role as a bridge officer.

"Receiving ..." Once the connection was made, Striel pulled data, more really than what was offered, until finally, the data pull ended and there was silence for a few moments while data streams were updated, both in front of Daegan and in a command center where no one stood the watch. Drones began moving through the city, with purpose, as additional data began to filter in about Guran III.

[In the Factory]

Reaching the factory, Ayryn was careful to avoid touching anything that may make the situation worse as she tracked down the others. “Doctor, Lieutenant Knight? Commander D’Sai and I came across what could possible be a medical centre of sorts. She asked me to bring you both back with me so we can check it out,” she explained as she reached the others.

Doc nodded. "I'm not sure my services would be useful here, but I can definitely check out a possible hospital."

“I’ll stay here and see if I can’t work out what these drones are actually for,” Julie commented. “Let me know if something needs fixed. Although with what we’re seeing here, I doubt it.”

Stormy hadn't quite figured out how to operate the machinery, but she was getting better at reading it. Still, she wasn't going to argue with a request from the first officer. "All right. Maybe we can find something to help us understand why they think we're the enemy."

“Great. It isn’t far from here, shall we go? I hated leaving the commander alone back there,” Trynn told them as she began heading out, “and if there is anything helpful in there then the sooner we find it the better.”

And then, as before, a broadcast was transmitted through com-badges and to the ship orbiting the planet. "Order to leave has been rescinded temporarily. Your officer is being returned to you. Request permission to talk, Captain Gray."

Striel was true to his word, just as abruptly as he had been removed, Daegan Baas was returned to the away team's location and uninterrupted communication with the ship was restored.

“What in the universe is actually happening?” Julie demanded of the air. “You okay, Lieutenant?” she asked Baas.

After rematerializing, Daegan looked to the rest of the team. "Seems our entry into the city reactivated an AI. Things got a little...dicey there for a bit but seems that providing a little information cleared things up. At least for now." Tapping his commbadge, "Baas to the Thunderbird. Captain, I have been released and am with the away team."

"Thunderbird here," the Bridge answered. "Prepare for immediate beam up."

Stormy and the doctor hadn't gone far when they heard the message and quickly returned to the others. They were just in time to hear Baas contact the ship.

Tyler had been scanning away and looking over the equipment without touching it. When he heard the message and Daegan rematerialized all at once Tyler had a theory of what went on here. It was most likely a race of people who created this and then died off through one means or another and the security AI had been left running. For the time being he kept that thought to himself as he needed more information to prove the theory. He approached Daegan. "Lieutenant is there anything you can tell us about this technology?"

Doc frowned slightly as he listened to Baas' explanation, scanning him to make sure he was ok and there wasn't an extra part or something different. "An AI security system, huh? That would explain the drones, but it also raises more questions. What exactly did you tell it to convince it to let you go?" He glanced at the rest of the team before turning his attention back to Baas. "And more importantly, does this AI still see us as a threat, or do we have a chance to actually talk to it?"

His medical expertise might not be needed as much as he first thought, but if this facility did have medical resources, it could still be useful. That, and he had a growing unease about the situation. If an AI had been running for who-knows-how-long, there was no telling how stable or reasonable it actually was.

Daegan raised his hands as the questions kept coming even as he waited on the response from the ship, but with the channel seemingly still open he replied. "Easy easy...Okay. Tyler, not much. I was transported to what may have been a command center, inside a containment field. The AI, that goes by the name Striel, is running the city." He continued glancing from one member of the away team to the other. "It would seem that Striel had been offline for quite a long. Once we activated it it considered us intruders and had even launched a set of probes against the Thunderbird. I thought that if I could prove that a great deal of time had passed that would be a start. Striel wanted information and I said we could provide it and that seems to have worked. The doors been opened and I be willing to bet Dr. Rush is chomping at the bit to speak with Striel as well."

Stormy let the others talk while she took a careful look around, scanning and not touching anything.

“I’d like to talk to Striel, too,” Julie commented idly. “This factory is amazing. It seems to be totally self-sustaining. I’d love to find out how that works.” First of all, where were the raw materials coming from? Secondly, who made the designs? And finally, how did it deal with malfunctions?

Tyler nodded at what Daegan had said. Truth was he wanted to get his hands on the AI and look it over thoroughly. This things must have been beyond amazing. "You know for an AI to run in protective mode for this long without maintenance in and of itself is a feat. But the fact that it is willing to hear us out and learn could be a step toward sentience. This could be the find of the century."

And while the away team chatted, the transporter beam claimed them and returned them all to the ship.

 

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