Spire II

Kalynda nodded toward the nearby spire as her PADD chimed in response to the data received from the stow-away engineer as she headed directly for this next towering obelisk. She wanted to see if this tower had any additional secrets to reveal before addressing the XO once again.

The terrain was challenging to traverse compared to their first landing site, but it was also more visually appealing with a wide-range of mountainous features surrounding them. Nevertheless, they also had to keep sight of their footing as they navigated their way among the crags and crevasses along their pathway.

With huge ridges stretching toward celestial heights encompassing their landing site, it became even more difficult for the away team to effectively see where they were going as they progressed. Kalynda stopped for a moment and slightly increased the sensitivity of her visor's night-vision control and then activated several lighted features on her helmet and environmental suit. Just those subtle adjustments improved her visual acuity markedly. Several other team members followed suit and did the same.

Eventually approaching the second spire, the team once again fanned out around its base and began capturing images and making notations of their findings. Kalynda found the section with the symbolic markings on it and started documenting them as well. She then brought her view up to the higher regions of the towering obelisk and followed this toward its apogee.

Gazing there for several moments with a celestial view in the background, the familiarity she had lurking in the back of her mind about these markings suddenly flashed to the forefront of her thoughts in a moment of clarity.

"That it!" the Andorian science officer yelled into her helmets communication system.

As her fellow team members began to gather around her in curiosity she turned and addressed the first officer.

"Commander Riker... I knew that there was something familiar about the arrangement of these patterns, even though the symbols themselves were not yet discernible!"

Kalynda tied to catch her breath for a moment before continuing as she attempeted to regroup her thoughts.

Riker placed his hand on the Andorian's shoulder.

"Slow down.  Breathe.  What is it?"

"As we were approaching this  planetoid, our astrophysicist Lieutenant Muller was mapping out the stars, nebula, galaxies and such as viewed from this region. Prior to departure, I stopped into Astrometrics where she presented to me a holographic representation of these phenomenon that she had cataloged thus far. I remember briefly observing this display before we left, noting the different arrangements of patterns and such from what I had known back on Andoria."

She then gazed back upward as she continued.

"However, it didn't dawn on me until I looked up from this position here that the arrangemnt of symbols on these spires are basically a symboled representation of the celestial sky from this perspective."

The Andorian then pointed down to the markings on the spire.

"If you follow the pattern of celestial objects on this panel, they represent the objects that most standout when viewing compared to the other objects in sky... similar to the constellations and asterisms established in ancient times on Earth. Most noteable are these five objects here"

Kalynda gesturered the pattern connecting these symbols together.

"It would appear that whoever built these spires encoded them with this celestail reference... perhaps to allow easy access into these panels."

She then brought her attention back to the first officer.

"I believe that using this constellation-like pattern, we can now access this spire."

Looking at the symbols on the spire Riker kicked himself mentally for not seeing the pattern himself.

"Star charts.  Of course" Riker thought to himself.

Following the pattern Riker began to see the button progression.  The confusing nature of this spire still made cause for worry however.

"How certain are we that this will work we are still a long way from home if something goes wrong"

Kalynda hesitated for a moment before responding.

"I am not absolutely certain Commander. However, nothing we have seen so far indicates any level a malevolency."

Nodding in agreement Riker pointed down towards the spire.

"Do it."

She then reached over and engaged the series of codes by pushing hard with her hands onto the sequence of symbols embedded on the rock-like protrusions. Nothing happened. She tried it again but noted the same results. She then remembered that the pattern repeated only about a meter away on the panel.

After discussing  this with Andrews who stood beside her over a similar set of patterns about an arm's length distance away, they decided that they would attempt several other similar approaches. Upon her nod, he engaged the same pattern on his set of markings. Nothing occurred. Then they decided to synchronize their implementation.

Kalynda noted "On three... one... two... three..."

As they simultaneously pushed in the sequence of markers, a large panel suddenly began to grind open; leaving a slanted doorway and a stair-like series of rocks descending down into the spire now accessible.

Kalynda looked up at Riker with a sense of accomplishment, but also a bit nervously.

"I would imagine that this is our invitation to enter." 

"I would beg to differ," then said Elliago through his comlink. "What you did was picking up the lock."

He turned towards Riker.

"Granted, this might have been made for just that purpose; testing our ability to solve the opening puzzle in order to estimate our reactions and level of knowledge and understanding.But let me remind you of something, Commander; when someone is usually doing such... testing, it is not often for the benefit of the lab rat. "

The Deltan looked down at the darkness opened at their feet.

"And this rat for one is not all that keen in flaunting his so-called intelligence to whoever or whatever left this thing here. Like I care what they think of me or my species..."

He turned again towards Riker.

"If we proceed further, now let's start to be cautious."

Walking over to the entry way Riker reached into his supply pouch and pulled out a light stick.  Activating it Riker waved it in the darkness.

"Lets see whats down there shall we."

Dropping the light stick, it fell what appeared to be only six or seven feet before coming to rest on the dirt of a descending path.  Looking down with disappointment Riker sighed.

"Well that was anti-climactic."

Looking around at the away team Riker gestured towards the opening.

"I am taking point.  Science and Engineering behind me and security fan out among the group.  Full tricorder scans in every direction if anything is unusual, strange or bad I want to know before it happens."

Tapping at the dirty path with his foot Riker felt the solid base of the path and gestured to the group to follow him.  

Behind everyone else, Elliago Nasaro-Myth lifted his eyes and hands to the dark sky.

"How did superstitious Humans said it? Ah yes; Forgive them, Lord, for they don't know what they're doing..."

Astrophysicist Anita Muller just rolled her eyes thinking to herself "Are you going for the melodrama award Doc?"

The first members of the away team cautiously descended down the darkened chiseled pathway of the spire. Tricorders were being fanned out in all directions by the science team while phasers were brandished by security. Kalynda then notice something which triggered on the spectral analysis indicator of her tricorder as she exited the last step onto the floor.

"Commander, once we stepped down here, my tricorder registered something occurring in the ultraviolet bandwidth."

The Andorian then reached up and adjusted the frequency bandwidth in her visor to receive ultraviolet wavelengths when suddenly the room switched from darkness into an unexpected type of  illumination.

"Amazing" she muttered as she gazed at all of the surrounding alien technology that now popped into a glowing view.

"Worrying," muttered the Deltan looking around calmly but worriedly.

Kalynda engaged her com again as she addressed the away team members surrounding her within the spire.

"Switch your visor to 245 nm; into the ultraviolet region of the spectrum."

"Wow" blurted out Ryan Phillips. "These panels and controls appear to be infused with fluorescent types of materials... in the short-wave band, like some rare minerals found on Earth."

Switching his visor over Riker was taken back by the illumination.  The minerals and metals themselves were glowing.  Hearing the blurt out Riker responded.

"Cut the chatter Phillips keep on focus."

"Geez" muttered Phillips basically to himself "I was only doing my job."

"Yes, but we're playing witn someone else's toys," the doctor reminded them again. "No time to be distracted."

As the illumination set in Riker continued to scan in front of the away team.  Addressing the whole team he inquired.

"Since I doubt our visors are common place among ancient species is there a chance that whatever built this structure sees in ultraviolet light.  Or is at least sensitive to it."

Thinking back for a moment Riker recalled.

"I used to use ultraviolet and infrared light displays to navigate mantis shrimp through mazes back when I was in the academy.  Is there a chance it is something like that?"

Kalynda nodded as Riker spoke and then responded to his inquiry.

"I was thinking along the same lines Commander. As commonly known, bees found on Earth are able to see beyond the visible spectrum; specifically into the ultraviolet band.  The flower Black-eyed Susans for example have petals that appear yellow to humans, but UV markings give them a bull's eye-like design that attracts bees. Reindeer rely on ultraviolet light to spot lichens that they eat. They can also easily spot the UV-absorbent urine of predators among the UV-reflective snow. If I recall correctly, butterflies though are thought to have the widest visual range of any animal on Earth. They can use ultraviolet markings to find healthier mates while ultraviolet patterns also help certain species of butterflies appear similar to predators, while differentiating themselves to potential mates. Even scorpions for some reason glow under ultraviolet light."

"Just like you, Lieutenant," pointed out Elliago. "Photoreceptors in Andorian antennae see up to the ultraviolet spectrum. Hence how you alone could find this... switch." 

Nodding affirmatively to the Deltan's comment, Kalynda then turned and scanned around the glittering room as she reflected on these ideas further.

Kalynda  then scanned around the glittering room as she reflected on these ideas further.

"Perhaps the beings that constructed these spires have a broader range of visual acuity then us."

The Andorian then stopped for a moment.

"Everyone... switch off all light sources and the UV frequency in your visors" she recommended.

As the last source of light was eliminated, the room remained illuminated.

"These materials also have some level of phosphorescence, which as we can see allow them to glow for a at least a brief time after a light source is turned off." 

There were a wide-range of colors illuminated throughout the area they stood in. Bright orange, sulfur yellow, sky blue, brilliant magenta, and lime green, among a myriad of other hues that seemed to glow hypnotically from the variety of panels and equipment surrounding  them.  

Kalynda then added "I need to take a few minutes to adapt to this dazzling display of color before I can focus on actually trying to figure out what we have found down here."

As the away team carefully wandered among the alien consoles and panels, the illumination eventually started to wane. One-by-one they reactivated their UV features in their visors.

Kalynda came to a panel that had a UV holographic image of the spire itself. There were different colors illuminated around individual features.

"Commander, apparently this spire serves several different functions."

She pointed to the specific features among the glowing display as she spoke.

"This one appears to serve as some sort of physical deflector, perhaps as protection against meteors and such. This one indicates that it is some sort of energy deflector, perhaps the one that is blocking our scans and such."

She then analyzed additional features displayed in the holographic projection and then scanned the nearby consoles.

"Look Commander, the color on the display apparently matches the glowing colored controls on this panel. Perhaps this is just a schematic to enable or disable specific features of this spire."

After circumspectly correlating the schematic with the panels features, Kalynda addressed Riker again.

"Sir, this azure-colored control switch should deactivate the scanning inhibitors surrounding this spire. This magenta one should release the energy field preventing communication with the ship and possibly transporters. I would recommend starting with these two so that we could at least begin full-sensor scans of this area and possibly contact the ship"  

Nodding slowly Riker responded

"We have already come this far no point in not trying everything."

At this, Elliago could only shrug in resignation.

So much for the Prime Directive, he mused somberly.

Anita Muller sighed and managed to refrain once again from responding to another negative comment from the Deltan.  

Raising his phaser pistol and pointing it at the control panel Riker continued

"First sign of trouble with this plan and we are out of here.  Do it."

As discussed, the azure-colored control was to be engaged first. As soon as it was triggered, the holographic display emanating that corresponding color suddenly disappeared. Simultaneously, the variety of tricorders held by away team members  immediately began registering data previously blocked.

"Whoa... this is rather interesting" the planetary geologist Ryan Phillips noted, as he began scanning around the area.  He continued to sweep his tricorder around the area and then ascended back up the primitive stairway to the outside of the spire while focused solely on the readings he was obtaining.

Several moments later, he returned with a wide grin across his face and approached Commander Riker.

"Sir, this seemingly uninteresting rock of a planetoid out here in the middle of nowhere is geologically active! Not only that, this planetoid appears to have a rocky core which is surrounded by an icy mantle. The core is apparently composed of nickel-iron, olivine, basalt, and a collection of other substances; both common and rare.

Then referring to his another display on his PADD, Phillips continued his report.

"From my initial scans, I've also detected a complex mixtures of metals, and carbon and silicon compounds. And as I mentioned, there seems to also be  a significant amount of a water/ice layer far beneath the surface."

"An icy mantel fascinating." Riker thought to himself.

Switching to another set of displays and data, the geologist continued.

"I have also detected common metallic elements including iron, nickel, and cobalt in rather large quantities for this planetoid's size. There are also traces of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and methane existing  in varying quantities as well, yet sufficient enough to warrant extraction and utilization if needed."

Advancing his notes on the PADD, he then pointed to its next display.

"As I was walking beyond the spire I was also detecting rare Earth metals such as ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum, plus huge quantities of dilithium scattered beneath the surface throughout this planetoid, as you can see here."

Looking up from his scanner he noted "This little enigamitic planetoid is a hidden treasure trove of valuable resources!"

"In other words; this is all an artificial construct," realized the Deltan doctor with no surprise at all in his tone.

"No Doctor... not at all" countered geologist Ryan Phillips. "The composition of this planetoid itself appears to be indigenous. Only the spires thus far are of artificial construction from indigenous materials."

Nodding in agreement and this find Riker looked around and then commented.

"Do you think we could take any samples?  Without disturbing anything major I mean?"

"Why not? said the Deltan with a crooked smile aimed at Riker. We're already breaking and entering; why not steal as well?"

Anita Muller turned and gave the Deltan doctor a look of growing discontent, but again held her tongue.

The geologist ignored the comment completely.

With an exuberant smile, Ryan Phillips responded.

"Absolutely Sir! I will be very careful in my selection of samples."

Kalynda then chimed in "Which may be why those that existed here chose to conceal this from off worlders."

The Andorian then turned to Phillips and inquired.

"Did you detect any biological readings... besides those of our away team?"

With a puzzeled expression sprung across his face, Phillips stated matter-of-factly.

"I'm the geologist here Lieutenant... not the Biologist."

Through her visor, the eyes of the astrophysicist Anita Muller nearly rolled to the back of her head.

"Hey Einstein... we don't have a Biologist currently here with us... in case you hadn't noticed. But we are scientists and we do have the capacity to adjust our tricorders to scan for biological readings."

Commander Riker chuckled to himself slightly.  Einstein the famous 20th century earth scientist was what his father called him as a child when he would do or say something stupid.

With that established, the astrophisicist began adjusting her tricorder as she stormed up the stairway.

Meanwhile, Kalynda continued to explore the room. She then came upon another large display. As she passed her gloved hand over it, another set of holographic images suddenly manifested into view.

Kalynda then engaged her communication switch.

"Commander Riker... you may want to have a look at this." 

Turning his attention towards Kalynda Riker walked past the arguing scientists and approached her.  Looking over her shoulder as if to see what she was looking at Riker inquired.

"Talk to me, what have you got?"

Illuminated now before the away team members was a vast holographic sphere with symbols indicating of all the active spires apparently dispersed in a symmetrical grid-like pattern surrounding the planetoid. In addition, highlighted in a different color configuration, were several other visible closely connected cave-like structures that appeared to be artificially embedded within the surface.

Kalynda turned to Commander Riker as she pointed to the main illuminated image on the sphere; a voluminous hexagonal prism-shaped subterranean area.

"Commander, this definitely looks like a region worthy of exploration. Perhaps we could substitute this locale in lieu of the next one we had intended to travel to."

Using her science PADD, Kalynda quickly ran some calculations based on the sphere's grid system.

Looking up from her PADD, the Andorian scientist then informed Riker rather excitedly "It will only take approximately forty-five minutes to travel there in the Wildfire... that is estimated from our time of liftoff, Sir."  

Looking over the map Riker saw the interest in the recommended site.  Turning towards the away team Riker spoke up loudly.

"Wrap up your scans and last minute checks.  We are heading back to the wildfire in five minutes."

The excitement was evident as the assembled team hurriedly finished up their final scans in preparation for departure.

Kalynda posed another inquiry to Riker.

"Shall we deactivate the magenta control before we leave to see if this disengages the energy field preventing communication with the ship?"

"And thus alert the owners of this... facility of our presence?"

Elliago's question was not just a jest; he had been deeply concerned with this whole endeavor from the start. It wasn't fear at all; it was his years of experience as a xenologist  and as a Starfleet officer that screamed  "this is wrong-wrong-WRONG!" to him. They were flaunting every rule of Starfleet and plain common sense for the sake of curiosity; something bad was bound to happen. 

But again, he was ignored.

The only thing worse than Humans or Andorians in front of something strange is Humans AND Andorians in front of a strange thing, he thought with a sigh.

Ryan Phillips had a rather puzzled expression on his face in response to the doctors latest comment.

Thinking for a moment Riker nodded.

"While we should avoid alerting anyone to what we are doing here it is in the best interest of safety that we establish communication with the ship.  If anything goes wrong down here I would feel a lot better if we could talk to the ship."

"Understood Sir" replied the Andorian scientist.

Kalynda's gloved hand then carefully actuated the deep mauve-colored switch and watched as the corresponding holograph immediately dematerialize around the remaining illuminated icon of the spire on the sphere.

The Andorian the looked back up to Commander Riker.

"It would seemed to have worked."

With a slight pump of his fist Riker glanced around quickly.

"Good.  Hail the Phoenix."

Kalynda then engaged communication to the ship.

"USS Phoenix... This is Lieutenant Hunter. Are you receiving this signal?" 

Nothing but a little static was returned.

After additional unsuccessful attempts were made by both Kalynda and Riker, she suggested that they try this again from outside of the spire.

The commander concurred and they ascended out of the spire and traveled to the most open area of the landing spot.

Despite several more attempts, nothing seemed to be getting through to the ship.

Kalynda headed back toward Riker who was only a few dozen meters away. As they began walking toward the shuttle together she suddenly stopped for a moment.

"What I'm thinking now Commander is that these energy fields from the spires are configured to overlap, in case one becomes faulty. If this is so, maybe we could try hailing the Phoenix from the shuttle once we gain a bit of altitude. We might find a spot where the field is weaker and be able to penetrate it with a boosted signal from the shuttle's more powerful commincation system. If not, then we may need to disenge another spire nearby to create enough of a gap in the field's coverage to establish communication."

After contemplating her thoughts for a moment, Riker turned to face the Andorian as he responded. 

"While I am not one to overturn the apple cart any more than we have to at this point we must establish communication.  If you think that will work, than that is what course of action we will take.  One of our top priorities now is establishing communication." 

With that decided, the scientist and XO continued back toward the shuttle.

Within eleven minutes the entire away team was back aboard the Wildfire and the hatch was sealed. Everyone immediately removed their helmets and secured themselves for liftoff. The helm team of Alder and Traynor were busily discussing their departure procedures from their precarious location among the close cliffs and rock faces near both the shuttle and the towering spire.

Moments later helmsman James Traynor addressed the away team.

"Okay boys and girls... we have a relatively tight squeeze here to extrapolate the shuttle from... so no sudden movements until we have cleared these obstacles."

Traynor then turned around and carefully engaged the thrusters to ascend from their almost enclosed locale. The crew were treated to very close-up views of the elongated spire and the surrounding cliffs as helm skillfully maneauvered the shuttle clear of all of these nearby obstacles and asscended up into the thin atmosphere of the planetoid. 

Kalynda then disengeged her harness and approached a communication terminal.

"Lieutenant Hunter to the USS Phoenix. Are you receiving this signal?"

Aboard the USS Phoenix in orbit around the planetoid, Ensign Adalia Valerous detected a small singal eminating from the planetoid.

She immediately turned to the Vulcan commanding sitting stoically in the center seat.

"Captain, I am getting a very feint signal of some sort from the planetoid."

With a slightly raised brow, Syntron stood up and approached the operations console.

"Hone in on that signal... and see if you can isolate its frequency and boost that signal."

After several adjustments, a static-filled message began to immerge through the airways of the bridge.

".....ten... Hunt... .. t. ...S Ph....ix. .... y ....eiving ....is ...nal?"

Valerous turned briefly to the Vulcan.

"I believe that this is science chief Hunter, Sir."

"Helm bring the ship toward proximity of that signal. Valerous, increase that signal between us and send them a response once we are nearer to its location." the Captain commanded.

Moments later, helm responded.

"We are now directly overhead of that signal.

"Wildfire" Adalia Valerous began. "This is the Phoenix. Part of your message was received. Can you acknowledge?"

On the shuttle, Kalynda turned to Riker as she opened communications.

"Sir, I have the Phoenix!" 

Leaning forward heavily Riker perked up slightly.

"Good.  Activate the commlink and update them on our location and activities."

Pausing slightly Riker leaned back.

"Oh and see if they have found anything else that might be useful to us down here."

Nodding affirmatively after being directed by Commander Riker, Kalynda reactivated her comlink.

"Captain, after landing here, we discovered an elongated spire... approximately a kilometer away, emanating straight-up from the surface. Since examining this first spire, we discovered that there are apparently a series of these spires spread throughout the surface of this planetoid. They are not a natural phenomenon, but from what we have ascertained, they were built into the surface with indigenous material and apparently serve to deflect sensor penetrations while also strategically concealing the actual composition of the surface and interior of this planetoid. From our most recent exploration, we uncovered a holographic sphere that indicated that these spires are geometrically placed at intervals throughout this small planet... apparently to disguise what actually exists here. According to geologist Phillips, these spires appear to be thousands of years old and use energy from the planetoid's interior as their power source."

Looking down at her PADD for a moment, she transferred a series of files into the com system.

"I'm transferring the acquired data over to the Phoenix from our initial geological surveys. This includes the list of minerals and resources found thus far that are contained within this planetoid."

Moments later, Valerous indicated to the Captain that the files had been received.

"The files were received Lieutenant. Have there been any signs of life on this planetoid thus far?" the captain inquired.

Kalynda turned back toward Anita Muller who conducted the biological scans. She shook her head to confirm the answer.

"No signs of life present yet Captain, other than the existence of these ancient erected spires that we found. However, we have only been to two sites so far, and we are currently headed to an apparent subterranean area that may provide additional insight."

"What about establishing stable communication between the Phoenix and the shuttle? the captain inquired.

"Sir, we had to leave the surface and enter a region of the atmosphere in which the energy field was deactivated. However, we have speculated that in order to establish and maintain ground-to-ship communication, we would need to temporarily disable several overlapping spire energy fields."

Syntron listen carefully as all of this information was revealed. After a moment of processing, he responded.

"Commander Riker, once you arrive near the subterranean region and the security team has established that the area is secure, send your security team with the shuttle to temporarily disable surrounding spires in nearby locations until we can establish a stable line of communication between the shuttle crew and the Phoenix. Eventually, your team should then continue with this process until we are able to  unlock transporter options and abilities as well."

Adjusting the sights on his phaser pistol for a longer shot Riker responded.

"Understood sir.  Once we get the next spire disabled we will leapfrog to the other locations and open up an area for communications and transporter locks.  Once communication is established we will update you frequently on our mission progress." 

"Acknowledged Commander. Continue to proceed cautiously. Syntron out."

As the Wildfire shuttle made its way through the thin atmosphere toward their third landing site, the two teams continued planning out their objectives. The security team lead by Josh Vincent studied a digital map created by information gathered from the holographic sphere to determine the sequence of spire deactivations that were to occur once the security of their upcoming landing site was confirmed. Kalynda Hunter had provided Josh with the coding sequence for unlocking the exterior panels along with the controls to deactivate the energy fields around each spire. 

The other team of Anita Muller, Ryan Phillips, Kalynda Hunter, Doctor Elliago Nasaro-Myth and Sean Anders were all reviewing the infomation they gathered during their visit to the first two spires.

"What do you think we'll find in this mysterious underground lair?" geologist Phillips blurted out among the momentary silence within the cabin as the shuttle journeyed on course.

"Underground lair? Have you been delving into your antiquated comic collection again Ensign?" Anita Muller inquired rather acerbically.

Helmsman Traynor heard this little wisecrack from far beyond his seat at the front of the shuttle and tried unsuccessfully not to laugh; which irked Ryan perhaps even more than the initial jibe.

"Well... whatever you want to call this cavern... chamber... place we are traveling to..."

"Not certain Ensign" Kalynda Hunter interrupted, "Which is why we are heading there. I would hypothesize that perhaps other alien technology of some sort may be present there."

"Great; more crimes to add to our record," grumbled Elliago.

He stood up at attention and looked at the first officer with a frown on his handsome face.

"Commander, I wish to state for the record that I beleive what we are doing here is unethical and against regulations, not the least of which would be the Prime Directive. I am a xenologist, Sir; I know there are lifeforms that even consider looking at them or talking to them an affront; the V'Ger entity interpreted mere scans as an attack back in the 23rd century... As we speak, we might be desecrating a worship site or disturbing some delicate engineering arrangement or foraging in someone else's supply depot... The point is, this is not some natural mineral vein or mere pre-organic matter deposit to get samples from; all of this belongs to someone else and is not for us to prodd or play around with. You are in command and I will follow your orders of course; but I would strongly recommend you abort this operation and report back to the captain and he to Starfleet Command. Else your next order might doom us all or curse us all... or both... and not just in the eyes of others... Commander Riker Sir."

He then lost his professional mien and became all Deltan doctor again. But he was still not smiling.

"And don't give me the "risk is our business" Kirk speech, Commander. Taking a risk for a proper cause, that I understand and accept readily; doing so to violate another species property and territory is not proper cause to risk our necks and our own conscience. It makes us no better than ancient Earth Conquistadores who caused the fall of the Mayan civilisation or the colonialists who enslaved the African continent. I hope we can prove that we learned from those mistakes and that now we are better than that."

Anita Muller could not restrain herself any longer and jumped out of her seat and spoke up.

"Hey Herbert, I am getting tired of being labeled a criminal, a thief, unethical and all of the other negative connotations that you keep slinging on us in your ongoing little holier-than-thou speeches! Thus far we have not damaged anything nor stolen anything. That is unless you actually consider scanning the area and gathering a few microscopic samples of rocks and soil to be criminal activity. If this is the case, then you might as well go back and condemn virtually every away team that ever visited a new location since the dawn of the Federation!"

She was trying to contain her reaction, but nevertheless, she just couldn't take any more absurd comparisons.

"Conquistadores? Really? We haven't even detected a single lifeform here and you want to also cast us in the role of enslavers and exterminators as well. Well... we are not committing these atrocities that you keep implying... so get off of your high horse!"

The Deltan looked at her and shook his head.

"Are you really that dense, lady? So sorry but you are not listening. We're not talking about a geological formation or an astronomical phenomena here! We're talking about something that was obviously built by some form of sentience! Yes, scanning could be deemed criminal! Didn't I mention the V'Ger incident? A space station that just scanned it was destroyed because it interpreted it as an attack! Do you know how the Gorns reacted when the Federation decided to build an outpost on Cestus III? How the Metakans reacted to Kirk when he bypassed their warning buoy? Or the First Federation when he destroyed their own buoy? On your own planet, there were times when it was deemed that taking someone's photograph was akin to taking their souls! And who's to say that by opening that entrance we did not damage it , at least in the eyes of the legitimate owner? It does not matter what we think; what matters is whoever that left that thing there will think of us and what we did. How would you react if, while we were inside that spire, an alien lifeform had come into our shuttle, activated our instruments and, I don't know, decided to take her out for a spin?"

Elliago shook his head again. he could not beleive that he was not only stuck on a flying tin can but with blundering amateurs that had no clue of what they were doing, not even a basic understanding of Starfleet regulations. He sighed and tried one more time to show patience. But that was stretching pretty thin pretty fast now.

"I was born on a Galaxy class starship, you know. My mother was captain and my father chief engineer. I was on the Starbase when Romulans invaded it a few years ago, then on the USS Sapienta when it went into Romulan territory, after that on the USS Spectre when it found the derelict of the assimilated USS Tempest that started the last Borg War and on the USS Artemis when she discovered the Azimuth Horizon anomaly while coming to the rescue of the USS Jeanne Mance. I've already seen and been part of more away teams than obvioulsy you have ever been yourself in your entire life. So let me tell you this, my dear; away teams that forgot basic Starfleet regulations, scientific caution and plain common sense as we did back there too often came back to regret it... if they even came back at all. So yes, there were too many away teams that were condemned, not by me, but by Starfleet, for blundering like we are doing right now!"

He could already see how she was about to react and so he pointed a finger straight at her, his face dead serious.

"And what about simple good manners? Since you don't seem to understand, I'll spell it out for you in simple terms: That thing belongs to someone; it's not ours to play with!"

Then, his anger spent, he crossed his arms and looked once more at Commander Riker.

"I have made my formal protest and my recommendation. Subject closed. It's all on your head... and on your conscience now, Commander Riker Sir. "

Pounding his fist on the console in front of him Riker had had enough.

"Enough!  As for your protest if it was not so mind numbingly arrogant I would log it, but for the time being I am going to think about how to word it so history does not remember you as such."

Before the doctor could respond Riker put pointed his finger straight at him.

"As for your addressing of me doc... I am a Commander, your executive officer and in charge of this away mission.  You will not  tell me what is on my head or my conscience ever again. Understood?.  We are going to continue on our mission as explorers.  Explorers not conquerors or slavers or evil masterminds or anything else you seem to think us primitives are.  We are going to continue to deactivate these spires and establish communications with the ship.  If you have a problem with that than the second we get transporters back up you can beam back to the ship and I can ask the captain to beam down someone who is more interested in doing their job than reminding everyone here why he is better than us."

His hand steadied instead of shaking with the anger he was feeling right now Riker continued.

"Also if you insult any member of my team and this crew in front of me again I will take every one of those comments personally and I will see that you are reprimanded accordingly.  If I may quote an expression common among us simple minded barbarians doctor... can it"

Turning to address the whole team Riker raised his voice slightly.

"Now if we want to continue this conversation we will do so as professionals anyone who has a problem with that has just given up their right to speak"

Anita broke into a moment of laughter as the CMO concluded before her expression transformed into an expression of absolute seriousness.

"Apparently Doctor, I am not the only one not listening... and I am far from dense" she noted with a look of irritation at being insulted once again by this Deltan.

"You seem to be under a misconception that because of your status, upbringing, and experience that these factors give you the right to repeatedly insult every member of this team in your own self-righteous manner and then announce with supposed authority 'subject closed' when you are finished. Then you have the audacity to point a finger at me and lecture about good manners? I don't see you demonstrating these basic good manners as you continue to put down your own teammates when you verbalize your opinions Mister!"

Anita looked closely at the stern-faced Deltan as she continued.

"We are not the maladroit amateurs you continually condemn us to be, and the expounding of these events in Starfleet's history are certainly not new to me, nor likely anyone else within our circle down here. We have all been through the Academy and have studied the details and circumstances of all of these case histories and far more, and we most likely have varying degrees of away mission experience. But you jumble all of these events together and proselytize in a Chicken Little-like manner that every step we make is full of stupidity, doom and looming consequence."

She took a few deep breaths and looked around at the planetoid through a window from above for a moment before concluding.

"We are here to explore and learn about this unique planetoid just as we are out here exploring our region of the universe.  That is what we are attempting to do. But since we arrived here you have repeatedly pushed for us to leave and then expound castigations and forewarnings when we don't immediately follow your lead. It was obvious during our briefing on the Phoenix that you did not even want to take the shuttle down here, but unfortunately, it seems rather clear that you do not want to be here as part of this investigation either. Regardless, the least you could do while we are here is to desist from continuing with the condescending insults attached to your emphatic opinions."

"It sure hasn't shown so far," retorted the Deltan. "Exploring the universe does not mean to trample in someone else's backyard and fiddle with what is theirs."

Elliago looked at her and sighed.

"I truly hope that you are right, lady; really I do... for all our sakes. And if not, I truly hope I am not the first one to fall from your stated... unalienable gods-given right to do as you please for whatever excuse you fancy; because then, I might not be there to patch you up again when your turn comes."

His anger now turned to annoyance Riker again addressed the CMO.

"Oh and if it matters doc there are eleven different primary regulations, including the prime directive, that involve dealing with sentient life forms.  There are four that involve dealing with archeological finds and there are none, as in zero, that state that we must assume everything in the universe is a test, trap or plan to kill us.  If we wanted to think like that no species would have ever left their own continent or ever reached for the stars."

Sighing slightly, Riker continued.

"And as for the Kirk like speech you don't want to hear, there is a reason history remembers James Kirk the way it does.  None of us would be sitting here right now if he had taken as closed minded an approach to the rules as you do.  You want to lambast people like him and other great heroes of our past, personally I think you could learn a thing or two from them."

Turning his head to the porthole, the CMO of the Phoenix sighed one more time. For the sake of the service, he had to accept that it was out of his hands now and into those who commanded. But he certainly was through this pointless discussion with people who took the first excuse to disregard their own rules when it best suited them.

And he started to think that he might in fact be through with all of it.

((Those regulation numbers came from the Starfleet section of my Star Trek guidebook.  I am sure there are thousands, but they only listed a few dozen that were mentioned or relevant to the shows))