The Ace of Spades Campaign - Alien Base part 03

The RSC 8996-aug Star System
Two days after departing from Fabergé, The Ace of Spades dropped out of hyperspace at the RSC (Revised Stellar Catalogue) 8996-aug star system. The flight had passed without any problems.

The majority of the thirteen all-female crew were on the bridge. Only Judith, Kyran and Rebecca were absent. Judith was relaxing in the sick bay with her pet daggertooth cat, Fizz, as company; Kyran was working in the engine room and Rebecca was sleeping in her quarters. On the bridge, Storm Galloway was piloting the ship with Kimberley alongside her as her co-pilot. Lynda and Sharuna were monitoring the sensors, whilst Celeste and Jeanette were manning the weapons stations. Observing the goings on were Danica, Katja, Julia and Gwendoline. Arrival at any new star system was always a time of excitement and expectation.

 "Lynda, Sharuna, sensor scans, please," Kimberley requested. "Tell me what we have here."

Lynda was the first to reply. "We have an unremarkable F2 star with six planets. The outer two are Jovian worlds, quite uninhabitable. The four inner planets are more interesting. The innermost has a mean temperature of 1,200 degrees Celsius with many molten metal rivers. The next planet is also lifeless and resembles Venus in the Sol system. The third and fourth planets compose a binary and both are violently volcanic. The smaller of the two is an airless planet that resembles Sol's Mars before it was terraformed. The other planet is an entirely different kettle of fish and is most interesting."

"Lynda's right" Sharuna confirmed. "I've just pulled up its data. It is about 14,000 km in diameter and about 45,000 in circumference. Its density, and thus its gravity, is low. Density is 0.84 Earth's mass, and its gravity is 0.93. The atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide and nitrogen, with about 2% oxygen. The atmospheric pressure is about one half normal, giving an effective oxygen concentration of less than 1%. Another 5% is composed of various oxides of nitrogen. Of course, the atmosphere is laced with silica in the form of dust. It is certainly not breathable."

"Okay, that planet looks like our best bet to investigate," Kimberley decided. "Storm, I want you to pilot The Jack of Spades on a reconnaissance mission. Take Danica, Jeanette, Judith, Lynda and Rebecca with you."
"Don't forget Smiley," Lynda reminded her captain.
"Indeed," Kimberley acknowledged with a friendly smile. "Let's not forget Smiley."
Aerial Reconnaissance
The Jack of Spades was the ship's shuttle with a crew and passenger capacity of 10 but could fit 14 at a pinch. On the bridge, Storm deftly piloted the craft planet-side into the hostile atmosphere. Over half of the planet was covered in dust seas. The dust had a density of about half that of water; the quicksand that lurked in the deepest parts of the dust (quicksea - a mixture of smooth sand particles and water) had a density of about one and a half times that of water. To travel on it or under it would require some form of aquatic vehicle, which the crew did not possess. Fortunately, they could fly over these dust seas.
The mountains of the planet were quite rugged, despite the enthusiasm of the eroding winds. This was due to the volcanic lava flows constantly rebuilding the escarpments. The rest of the planet was made up of arid plains, which could be crossed easily on foot or by ground vehicle.

Before departing, Kimberley had Lynda and Sharuna scan the planet for any possible traces of the DSX Timothy. There were no distress beacons or radio transmissions but there were four sources of radioactivity that were detected. One was located in a mountain range near the equator. The other three ran in a line running south east, about 3,000km to the west of the mountains. The northern most one of these was on a plain and the other two were in or under a dust sea. It was decided to check out the one in the mountains first.
As Storm flew the shuttle over the mountainous region, Lynda announced, "This is a bust. It's just a natural outcrop of radioactive material, mostly thorium and uranium 235/238 in a 5%-15%-28% combination, with ordinary rock making up the balance."

"Fair enough," Storm replied. "One down, three to go. Let's check out that one on the plains."
As Storm flew west towards the source of radioactivity, they noticed an unusual geographical feature - a diagonal slash near the western edge of the mountain range that ran for about 1,000km. On the west side of this fault line, the terrain was two kilometres higher than the east side, making it virtually impassable unless you had flight capability. No sooner had they flew over this fault line than a nearby volcano erupted. A vast plume of smoke engulfed the shuttle and the small craft was severely buffeted. It took all of Storm's skill as a pilot to keep the shuttle stable and on course.
"Dear God, that was too close for comfort," Storm said with relief, when they flew into clearer skies.
"I'm glad you were piloting, Storm," Jeanette, who could also pilot the ship, remarked.
"Thank you, Starfleet Academy," Storm added with a grin.

Eventually, they reached the second source of radioactivity and Lynda made a startling discovery.
"Whoa!" she said excitedly as she viewed her sensor display. "This is no natural occurrence. This is from an atomic reactor, most likely a ship's or a small settlement's."
"Could that be from the DSX Timothy?" Storm wondered.
"Unlikely," Lynda replied. "It's too small for a ship of their size. One thing is for certain, it has to be alien in origin. Nothing on this planet could have made it."

Storm opened the communications channel to the crew quarters where Judith, Rebecca and Smiley were resting.
"Strap in, ladies," she commanded. "We're going down to land. We have a possible sighting."
"Affirmative, Storm," Judith replied for both of them.