Story:Star Trek: Archer/Pilot/Teaser

Stardate: 54789.3 (June 4th 2378) Federation Starship USS Archer On route to Planet Xillia IV along the Romulan Neutral Zone

The Archer is flying at warp nine point Six on course to the Romulan Neutral Zone.

On the Bridge the crew are at their stations when Ensign Wu looks at her console and turns to Captain Martin.

"Approaching the Romulan Neutral Zone Captain," Ensign Wu announced as she makes her report.

Captain Martin looks at her.

"Take us out of warp and proceed at one half impulse speed," Captain Martin says as she then turns to a man at the ops console. "Ensign Mason any response to our hails?"

Ensign Mason looks at the ops console and reports, "Negative, ma'am. No response all we're getting is the distress beacon from the starbase," Ensign Mason reports as he turns to face the Captain.

Captain Martin grunted, rubbing absently at her lower face. It had been nearly two hours since they first received the frantic calls for help from the mining outpost on Xilia IV. The transmission had been garbled and disjointed but the underlying message was clear. The outpost was under attack as she turned to Lieutenant Mitchell at the Tactical console above the chairs.

"Mr. Mitchell red alert have weapons at the ready and shields to full power, we don't wanna take any chances that someone might get the drop on us," Captain Martin says as she looks at the viewer.

“Already on it, Skipper,” replied Lieutenant Mitchell. The tall, dark-haired Human man brought the Archer’s tactical systems on-line with cool professionalism. “Torpedoes loaded and armed. Targeting computer on stand-by."

“Very well. Flight, what’s our ETA?”

“Twelve minutes, Captain.”

The San Diego woman captain grimaced. Not fast enough the attackers could be gone in twelve minutes. “Howard, what can you tell me about the planet and the mining outpost?,” Captain Martin asked a young Operations officer sitting at the Ops console.

He inputs several commands into the console and gives his report on the planet and the Outpost.

“Xilia IV is marginally Class-M and currently experiencing a planetary Ice Age. Scans from the first survey vessels indicate that a space-faring civilization lived here as recently as four hundred years ago, but they apparently moved on when the climate changed. The planet is rich in dilithium and chromium, thus the mining operation. It’s run by a Rigelian consortium and there are fifty-six people working the Xilia operation.”

“Do they have any defensive capabilities? Shields? Weapons?”

The young Ensign shook his head. “No, sir. Xilia IV is pretty much off the regular space lanes. There haven’t been any problems with pirates out this way so the company didn’t install defenses.”

Captain Martin taps her leg with her fingers thinking.

“Howard, replay the original distress message before that automated beacon kicked in, please.”

“Aye, Skipper. It’s audio only.”

Kelly nods nodded. “Let’s hear it.”

There was a momentary squeal of static before a man’s voice spoke. The fear and confusion was evident, even with the poor signal quality. “… is the Xilia IV mining colony. We are under attack by…,” heavy static drowned out the frantic man’s next few words. “Please! Any ship in the vicinity… this is the Xilia IV mining colony… We have many causalities… Please hurry! It may come back at…”

The recording ended abruptly, cutting off the rest of the man’s message.

“’It’? Not ‘They’?,” the Captain remarked.

“Perhaps he was referring to a ship or some kind of craft?,” suggested H'mpec.

The crew thinks about it real quick.

"Any sign of whatever attacked the outpost?"

Ensign Mason shook his head.

"No, Captain not picking up anything not even a warp trail just weapons signature I'll need time to study the signature before I can make a report," Ensign Mason says as he looks at his console and then at Captain Martin.

Then Lieutenant Mitchell looks at his console.

"Captain I can give you a visual of the outpost if you want to see it I've been able to cut through the radiation interference the planet's atmosphere is giving out," Lieutenant Mitchell says as he looks at the console then at Captain Martin.

“On screen, Howard.”

The starscape wavered and rugged with snow-covered terrain appearing on the main viewscreen. Centered in the image were the remains of three geodesic domes that connected to a central power core. Two of the domes were utterly destroyed. The third done was damaged with the snow and ice blasted away to reveal ugly black scars. Tendrils of thick, black smoke poured from an opening in the last dome and the remains of the sensor and communications arrays were scattered about. Whatever had hit the mining station had done so with a devastating effect.

“Any life-signs?,” Captain Martin asked, quietly.

Mason winced slightly. “It’s difficult to tell, Captain. There’s considerable background radiation that’s hampering our scans.”

“It’s also possible that the miners took refuge below the surface in the mines,” H'mpec suggested.

“Let’s hope so. Any signs of whoever attacked them?”

“No, sir. There are no other vessels in the system and no lifeform or energy readings on the planet’s surface.”

“Could be a cloaked ship,” the XO pointed out.

“Yes, but to what end?,” asked Kelly. “We’re a long way from Klingon or Romulan space. Besides, what would either of them gain from attacking a small mining operation?”

“I didn’t say they were Klingon or Romulan,” H'mpec countered her. “Someone else could have cloaking technology. The Maquis reportedly have a few Class-Four devices. As to motive… maybe someone down there owes the Orion Syndicate some latinum. Or perhaps a Borg cube dropped out of transwarp for a little target practice.”

“You’re just full of happy thoughts, H'mpec for a Klingon,” Kelly noted, dryly with an ounce of Southern charm in her response. “Ensign Wu, bring us into geo-stationary orbit over the mining complex. Ensign Mason, you and James continue your scans and keep hailing the miners. Maybe someone down there will pick up and answer.”