PROLOGUE

      BRAVE NEW WORLD

                      LOTUS FLEET JOINT EPISODE

                                                       PROLOGUE

It was a rather mundane asteroid field lost between star systems, the kind of stellar debris that either randomly coalesced from mutual gravitational attraction or slowly spread apart from the remnants of some stellar body's destruction long ago.

That was part of the matter interesting the researchers of the USS Asimov, a Nova class science vessel assigned by the Federation Science Council to the region. The few hundred meters of triangular saucer section at the prow and the upward pair of  nacelles at the stern closely attached to the small squat tubular engineering section had flashed out of warp several days ago. She was now just completing it's initial astrometric survey of the asteroid cluster and her main deflector dish now parted the micrometeorites swarming between the larger floating rocks in the direction of the largest of them all.

It had been designated Sarabande by Starfleet Intelligence; one of those inappropriate names designed to throw off any interest and knowledge into what was really lying there.

"Axial orbit established at thirty thousand kilometers from the surface, Captain," the helmsman reported, looking at the large asteroid, almost a planetoid by sheer size alone, that loomed on their viewing screen.

"Thank you, helmsman," mechanically reported the woman in the central chair behind him. "Sensor scan please."

"Initial report from the USS Phoenix confirmed, M'am," the man at the science station answered without lifting his eyes from his monitor. "Weak but constant interference field of some kind. Sensors are unable to penetrate the surface of the asteroid but there is definitely a sizeable quantity of alloy on the surface, consistent with the pattern of some sort of structure; configuration does not match any known cultural database."

"What about that energy field?" worried the commanding officer.

"Beats me what it is," the woman at the engineering station grumbled as he fingers ran over her console. "I don't know how but it's not only interfering with our sensors but it is also exerting some minute draining effect on our antimatter core and our impulse reactor. Our thrusters are also strained by the effect."

"Did the Phoenix report mention this?" the captain asked with definite annoyance in her voice.

"Negative, Captain," the Vulcan standing at her right answered without even looking at the PADD in his hand.

"Sloppy work," grumbled the woman in the command chair.

"Captain," then said the Vulcan, "the Phoenix made this discovery while on her shakedown cruise; these readings were interpreted at the time as possible technical deficiencies from their brand new engines."

"The Phoenix is under the command of a Vulcan, is she not?"

"Affirmative; Captain Syntron, formerly Executive Officer of the USS Artemis."

The woman in the chair snorted.

"A commanding officer promoted out of fortuitous circumstances from apprentiship under an Andorian captain himself risen too quickly to command...And of course, he's a Vulcan; hence why you come up to his defense..."

Her First Officer offered her a raised eyebrow.

"Captain Syntron has earned his command through distinctive action and meritorious conduct in several critical missions. To suggest that I would need to... defend him... and moreover on the sole basis of our common origin..."

The captain waved a hand in dismissal.

"Nevermind. We however have a well-proven research ship and an experienced scientific crew... and we are here to make a thorough survey and research of this unknown site they have unearthed, under orders not only of the Federation Science Council but of Starfleet Security as well. So... what about this draining field?"

"I can't answer you right now, Captain," the chief science officer reported after a moment. "All measuring instruments report... negative. It's like there is nothing there. Yet, the dispersal pattern and effect are consistent with what we define as an energy field... except that it is registering as... negative."

"A... negative energy field? That makes no sense!"

"I agree, Captain... maybe it's because it is so weak that even our instruments cannot really register it..."

"This ship has state of the art scanners!" protested the engineering woman. "Have you tried boosting the signal?"

"We are already at one-hundred fifty percent of normal parameters. Still registers negative."

"It might be weak but it's definitely there... and affecting all our power systems except our batterie reserves," added the chief engineer.

"Communications are also down, M'am" the Bajoran Ops officer stated. " I tried sending out a relay buoy but, once it goes outside the field, we loose contact with it."

"So we're on our own... and we need to get closer if we are to do what we came for," the captain concluded. "Is our first survey team ready to beam down?"

"Captain, I do not recommend a beam down," said the science chief. "There is a definite danger of the transporter's annular confinement bream being distorted by the field's effect. What we would transport might not materialize whole and in proper order."

"Didn't the Phoenix leave pattern enhancers down there?"

"Negative, Captain," answered the Vulcan at her side. " They followed standard procedure and did not leave anything behind on a site not yet claimed officially by the Federation at the time. It is logical to assume that the draining effect of the field would have eventually deactivated them anyway."

The captain tapped her combadge.

"Survey team; report to shuttlebay for landing operation on the main site coordinates. Away team will join you shortly."

She then turned to the Vulcan.

"While they do our work down there, try to see if you can deactivate whatever is powering that draining field."

"Captain, if I may; this could be interpreted as interference into another species..."

Again, the captain's hand cut him off with a dismissal wave.

"Tell that to Starfleet next time we report. If they didn't bother with that during or following the Phoenix' initial mission, why should we bother any more with it ourselves?"

"Captain Ross; compounding a possibly wrong decision in one of our own is hardly ethical... or prudent."

"Disobeying order is worse, Commander Seekal; and our orders are to investigate this discovery. Let the brass debate the prudence, the ethics and the righteousness of those orders; our job is to carry them out. See to it, Exec."

With a nod, the Vulcan left the bridge with the chief science officer and chief engineer, their assistants smoothly taking their stations as the senior offiers exited through the turbolift.

For a good while, all remained quiet on the bridge of the Asimov. Since orbital survey was next to impossible except with passive, unpowered means, there was not all that much they could do and it was all done in some eerie, almost foreboding silence. It would take time for the shuttle to land and deploy a relay for both transport and communication. But here, the typically Vulcan thoroughness of the USS Phoenix' report had provided clear and precise instructions as to how to proceed. And so, the Bajoran woman at ops finally announced that they were in contact with the landing party.

"Report, Exec."

"Captain, we are receiving you loud and clear. We are before the main access originally opened by the Phoenix' own away team. Request permission to proceed."

The woman in the central seat sighed. Vulcans and their obsession with details and procedures...

"Go," she simply said.

"We will report at fifteen minutes interval of our progress. We are opening the main access. Ensign Chadoo and Ensign Shirakawa remain in the shuttlecraft to keep all relays active and continue scannings and records on the surface. Now entering within the structure."

And that is how everything started on this side of the horizon.