A house built on sand...

Posted on Sat Mar 5th, 2016 @ 2:19am by N'alae t’K’manatran

1,422 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Celebrate Culture
Location: Tiberius IV
Timeline: Back-post (shortly after the the events of 'Mirrors of the Past’)

[ON]

N’alae stood near the viewport of the Mourning Wake’s commander’s office. Her office. Her arms were crossed as she looked down at the red planet below, a PADD hung casually in one hand. As far a she could tell, a full third of the surface was currently obscured by sandstorms. Great swirling masses slowly made their across the sun-blasted deserts. Her eye’s were drawn to the storms she could not see nearest the horizon, where the sun’s light had yet to touch. Lightning etched their paths in mad violent flashes. It was mildly hypnotic.

Pulling her eyes away, she glanced back at her desk. Half a dozen PADDs lay strewn across its surface, containing documents pertaining to the planet below. Khiy’s sources had been thorough, but there hadn’t really been all that much to find.

Tiberius IV was a medium-sized desert planet with two moons, and of little or no strategic importance. If not for the reported mineral deposits she doubted anyone would have bothered with it at all, especially considering the planet’s weather. It had a 18 hour rotation with a 9 hour day/night cycle. At the latitude they were interested in, the temperatures could range from 43°C in the day to -57° C at night.

In the end all that Khiy’s sources had turned up were a few surveys from thirty years ago, a mining permit now long expired, an OreCo survey team mission request and subsequent file for loss of said survey team, and several Starfleet mission reports - some of which were probably classified. She supposed they had Raven to thank for the later. Also of note was a purchase log for the planet itself by a woman named Morticia, who N’aele knew to be Raven Adams.

They had been in orbit for almost an hour now with little to do but wait. It was just their luck that they had arrived while what could be the storm of the century on most planets, was raging across the area that they had come to investigate. Judging from the landscape even from this distance, N’alae very much doubted that this was the largest the storms could get. Unfortunately, due to the unique composition of the sand blowing through that storm, the sensors were all but useless. In addition, the high winds and frequent lightning made even the thought of taking a shuttle down absurd.

N’alae uncrossed her arms and brought the PADD she was holding back up to look at. It was a report now nearly thirty years old, containing data from the initial geological survey. ’...high concentrations of silicon content, dilithium, decalithium, bensotronium, kelbonite…’ She skimmed a bit. No wonder the sensors could not penetrate that mess. If there was that much kelbonite in the rock they would need pattern enhancers just to use the transporters.

A familiar presence touched the edge of her awareness and she paused for a moment to focus on it: Khiy was heading her way.

N’alae scrolled down the report and continued reading, ’Although still unobserved, there is undoubtedly some type of chemical reaction deep within the bedrock, possibly at the planet’s core, which is generating the oxygen and argon present in the atmosphere. These gasses are being expelled through the porous volcanic bedrock and diffusing into the sands above, resulting in its relative low-density…’ That was interesting, and very dangerous. Objects had been reported to sink through the sand to rest on the bedrock below.

“You certainly know how to pick them.” N’alae said to Khiy just as the doors to her office slid open.

Khiy smiled as he entered the office “You know, that’s kind of unnerving.” He took a number of steps forward and stood beside the Wake’s Commander. His eyes surveyed the tumultuous surface of their newest venture and his expression changed to settle somewhere between a smile and a frown.

“You’ll get used it it.” She teased. She would never of made such an obvious display of her ‘ability’ if anyone else had been around. But there was something freeing about being able to be honest about it at least some of the time.

Looking at his face, N’alae stood back from the viewport. “It’s actually a reasonable purchase. So long as we can find the mining facility that’s supposed to be down there.” She glared at the center of the storm.

He nodded once. “Unfortunately, even at this point a reasonable purchase costs an unreasonable amount. We aren’t exactly talking about spare change that I find in my wallet. If there isn’t a functioning facility down there I’m not sure how much more money TGT can afford to waste on this venture.”

N’alae walked back to her desk and picked up a different PADD. “If even half of what these initial survey reports say are true, you could conceivably make back your investment in dilithium alone.”

“True.” He shrugged and then shook his head. “Still, this is a huge gamble. After the purchase of that dry dock I am at the very limit of what I can put into this. If this planet doesn’t pan out I don’t have anyplace to park the dock, let alone supply it.” He sighed. “And without the dock, we can’t make the modifications needed for the Morning’s Wake. I’m way out on a limb here.”

“I’m sure there’s someone who would buy it off you. Even the scrap would turn a tidy sum. Then you could come back to smuggling. Good partners are hard to find.” She tried to joke, but it felt hollow. She didn’t really mean it and her smile was only half-hearted.

He gave N’alae a look, he was sure she knew that wasn’t an option for him anymore. It was all or nothing at this point. He wasn’t sure which he had invested more, his money or his mind.

N’alae let the smile drop and looked over the data on the PADD again. Joking aside, if one looked beyond the obvious dangers, the place had remarkable potential. It was a gamble, and the odds were stacked. If this fell through she had nowhere else to go except back to hauling near-worthless junk on back routes while trying to avoid the Empire. That was not how she wanted to spend the rest of her life.

Khiy suddenly realized how she could have taken the dismissive glance. He waited another heartbeat before taking his hand and resting it on her shoulder reassuringly. “I could do a lot worse than ride shotgun with you again.” He offered a genuine smile.

N’alae returned it, gratefully. She did know that he would not go back, and she wasn't really sure she wanted him to - or that she wanted to either.

His gaze fell on the stack of PADDs littered on her desk and decided that a shift in mood would be a good idea. “Anything useful in there about what we are getting into?”

“Maybe.” N’alae sighed, allowing her frustration to show through. She had been hoping for a more complete data file on the planet, but it just didn’t exist. “The mining permit is the most promising, but the coordinates listed for the facility are impossible to verify while that is going on.” She gestured with her chin towards the viewport, and the sandstorm below. “Even if the coordinates are accurate, it might be too much to hope that the deflectors are still functioning after thirty years. It could be buried under a sand dune a quarter kilometer high.”

“So much for cautious optimism.” He joked.

“I’m always cautious.” She returned with a small smile and went back to the viewport to look at the planet again. “Optimism comes later.”

They stood in silence for a few moments, introspective thoughts swirling with the sands below. After some time Khiy cleared his throat, dispersing their thoughts and forcing them back to their current reality. The sand didn’t look quite so compelling as it had a second before, instead it filled them with a sense of apprehension, knowing just what this venture could cost them if it failed.

OFF

Khiy Tal’ehrihn
CEOTGT

N’alae t’Kamanatran
TGT, Commander of the Morning's Wake

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