Lieutenant JG Ghee'looth Xiron-Ice Station Zebra
Colgin
((Shuttlecraft Freyja, Approaching Ginan Colony, Unaligned Space))
It had been a day and a half since the arrival of the message from her old friends had stirred her and Is’Kah to action. She had tried to go back to sleep but found it difficult. So instead, Ghee’looth had packed a usual light travel bag, made the request for use of a shuttle from the Gamma Shift deck ops, and had the computer file a flight plan. By the time Alpha Shift was taking over everything was set.
The concept of morning on a starship was an artifice but the same was true for much of Ghee’looth’s home world. Despite this she found traveling at first light very appealing. She wondered if it had been a genetic founder effect of her ancestors leaving the subterrain old world of Andoria for the light of the surface new world. Briefly she wondered if there was a correlation between surface Andorian and being explorers as compared to her old-world countrymen.
Thankfully the over thirty-hour flight was uneventful and she was able to catch up on her sleep. Though the warp capable shuttles were rated for interstellar flight she did not like the idea of taking such a small craft for so long in a region of space that lacked any support. Between Valkyrie’s shuttle bay and Ginan Colony was a literal void of interstellar nothing both in terms of stellar objects and civilization.
On its face the Ginan Colony made sense as an Andorian venture, an expansive underground habitat on a large ice-covered moon invoked every stereotype of Andorian society. That is where the logic ended. At fifty light years outside of the Federation’s southern frontier, it was a further eight hundred light years from Andoria proper. It had been over a century since the Andorian Empire had founded a colony outside the limits of the Federation’s treaty space and none this distant. The Federation database described the colony as a potential recrystaling station for Federation and allied merchant traffic into the galactic south, but there had only been two warp capable worlds even remotely on this side of the expanse and neither had open relations with the Federation.
The pilot’s console chirped alerting Xiron that they were approaching the moon. Looking over the sensor scopes her antennae curled in confusion. There were two Andorian Imperial Guard starship’s in orbit over the moon, a Miranda and Ambassador-class both Starfleet surplus. Then directly above the colony’s surface facilities in geosynchronous orbit was a Klingon Vor’cha-class cruiser.
Xiron: What are the Klingons doing here?
Is’Kah: Response
Xiron: =/\= Ginan Approach, this is the Starfleet shuttle Freyja. We request permission to land. =/\=
Ginan Approach: =/\= Starfleet shuttle, this is an Andorian Imperial Guard facility, please transmit your access codes. =/\=
Xiron:: Looking to her partner:: Access codes?
Is’Kah: Response
Not knowing what else to do Ghee touched the console and transmitted Her and Is’Kah’s Starfleet identity codes along with a repeat of the shuttle’s Starfleet registration.
Xiron: =/\= Ginan Approach, we are Lieutenant’s Ghee’looth and Is’Kah Xiron of Starfleet again requesting permission to land=/\=.
A moment passed.
Is’Kah: Optional response.
Ginan Approach: =/\= Starfleet shuttle, you are cleared for the North landing pad. And let me be the first to welcome two Sentinels of the Light on to our facility. =/\=
Xiron looked a bit peeved at having an Andorian clan battle honor invoked in getting permission to land a Federation craft at a Federation facility.
Xiron: What’s going on here? Why is the Imperial Guard running a merchant facility? And why is there a Klingon vessel in orbit?
Is’Kah: Response
Xiron: Rassahl and Arohr have a lot of explaining to do once we touchdown.
Ghee’looth felt the irony in that statement since she had just flown lightyears across near empty space with her expecting partner to explain her own situation to them.
Is’Kah: Response
The shuttle descended down to a black and white icy surface nearly unbroken by geological features. Large kilometer long fissures in the ice surrounded by large flood lights and igloo shaped prefabricated buildings marked the colony's surface facility.
Meters away a tracker beam grabbed the shuttle and guided it down into the ice fissure. The gap in the ice formed steep canyon like walls to either side where the only light that would ever enter was that artificial light brought by humanoids. Gently they descended hundreds of meters down into cold black that made the void of space feel hospitable. The shuttle passed a forcefield holding in breathable atmosphere at the bottom of the crevasse and was deposited on the north landing pad.
Three figures in environment suits with Klingon markings trod through the ice toward the landing pad. They ran scanning devices over the shuttle before one made an approved hand gesture. A second tracker beam picked up the shuttle and moved it to an insulated bay carved into the side of the crevasse.
Xiron: Are we still buying that this is only a refueling center for merchant trade?
Is’Kah: Response
(TAG/TBC)
Lieutenant JG Ghee’looth Xiron
Acting Chief Engineer
USS Valkyrie
D240010GX2