Origin & Purpose

Posted on Sat Dec 27th, 2025 @ 5:44pm by Ensign Garabed "Garo" Hakobyan & Petty Officer 2nd Class Zal Rixi & Commander Maxun Spello & Lieutenant Commander Xalanth & Lieutenant Commander Daynah Ral & Ensign Kash th'Kaasniik

1,655 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Elegy For the Unseen
Location: Engineering Lab, Deck 31
Timeline: Prior to arriving at Barisa Prime

The stasis field cast a thin blue halo around the wafer, holding it mid-air above the workstation like some holy relic nobody would confess to being afraid of. Garo sat at the nearest console, shoulders hunched, his voice low and thoughtful like he was reading a cheesy bedtime story no sane youngster would want to hear.

"Unknown allow composition," he said, tapping a line of text that appeared on the console's display. "Does not match anything on our periodic tables. Or any tables. Even ones Federation borrowed from other people." He scratched the back of his neck. "Electronics inside. Some kind of data structure. Screen, maybe. If I had to bet, I'd say... data PADD made by very good engineers."

Across the bench, Rixi was elbow-deep in an open toolkit, chewing on her lower lip. "And bad manners--leaving their junk laying around our ship."

Kash stood on the far side of the floating wafer, palms braced against the table. "If the Captain and XO don't know what this is, it's bad news. Something like this shouldn't have been able to get on board. Our security should be better than this."

Garo looked up from his workstation, squinting his eyes. "Where did Xalanth go?"

Without looking up from her tricorder, Rixi sighed. "He's having security teams deep-scanning all of the cargo bays. He's rattled that an alien object could make its way on the ship."

Suddenly, the doors leading out of the small lab whooshed open, and the Astrea's executive officer entered with Lieutenant Commander Ral. "So, what have you found out?" He asked to the room.

Daynah had fallen into step with the XO a while ago as she was ordered to accompany the Commander. This object and anything having to do with it was exceptionally interesting to Daynah and Ral both. For the moment she stood with her hands behind her back and awaited the report.

The door slid open as the ship's lizard stepped through, having just got the report from the engineering techs. Inside his head string of words that didn't translate in Dragonian, Vulcan and Betazoid were bursting through his head. Breathing in and out to control himself, he straightened himself before turning to the two. "Anything to report on what this is?" He said to Garo and Rixi.

Garo squinted at his console as if wishing for the words to rearrange themselves into something more reasonable. Turning to Ral, Spello, and Xalanth, he shook his head in disappointment. "It is an unknown alloy composition. Not matching Federation charts. Not matching anyone's charts. But we're pretty certain it is a data container--similar to our PADDs."

Rixi made a frustrated noise in her throat. "Whoever made this is far ahead of current Federation technology," she muttered. She pointed to her console's screen which showed a read-out of a deep scan. "But we did find something interesting--there is subspace residue on the object from when we were in the Expanse."

Maxun looked closer at the scan readings. "Can you determine the origin of the device, from its subspace signatures?" He asked both Rixi and Garo aloud as he continued to read.

"Origin?" Garo echoed, shaking his head. "Commander, this thing does not have an origin the way our machines do. Look here--" He circled a region of the model with two fingers. "See these conduction pathways, yes? They route charge through something that is neither metal nor plasma nor anything we can name."

Rixi nodded, eyes wide. "It behaves like a superfluid."

"Until you look at it directly," Garo said, agreeing. "Then pretends to be ceramic. Very stubborn. Like my uncle after two glasses of Artsakh."

Rixi looked over to Xalanth. "Did your search turn up anything?"

"Yes, we found something. The AWOL suspect must have had some talent with the computer, as they seem to have hacked into the main computer and put in a patch so it would not set off the security systems. Security has been down in this area for hours. I have some of the computer guys fixing the computer and seeing if they can ID when it was installed."

Garo leaned closer to the console, then reached beneath it and pulled free a narrow diagnostic wand no else had touched yet. It looked completely unimpressive due to it being as thin as a pen, matte black, with a single crystalline eye at the tip. But he handled it with his usual quiet respect.

"This," he said mildly, "is a phase-resonant mineral interrogator. Starfleet gave it a long name because it does one rude thing very well."

He adjusted a dial with his thumbnail and held the wand just inside the stasis field's edge. The crystal at its tip brightened , cycling through various subtle colours. The wafer seemed to respond--not by moving, but answering.

Garo's brow furrowed.

"Oh," he said. "That is... interesting."

Rixi straightened, abandoning her toolkit. "Interesting how?"

"Everyone--" he motioned impatiently for Spello, Xalanth, Ral, and Kash to lean in.

Maxun leaned in and watched the reaction. Though he was well-learned from his long life, he was out of his area of expertise here.

Daynah joined the makeshift huddle. There was definitely a lot to cover, and comparing notes for a starting point was perhaps the best course of action.

"See here." He expanded the readout, layers of spectral data appearing. "Trace inclusions. Not impurities. This alloy is seeded with minerals that should not exist in the same reality."

He tapped one line. "This is isochronite. We have seen it once--near collapsed subspace corridors. It does not age the same way that regular matter ages."

Rixi shoved a finger toward another line. "Gravinex crystal. That grows only under sustained torsional shear, usually inside artificial wormholes."

Garo hesitated, then pointed to a third line, adding quietly, "And this--this one has no known name. Closest match appears to be..." He glanced over to another screen, pulling up more information. "... something the Vulcans theorized over a hundred years ago." He shrugged.

Maxun spoke up. "Care to spell this all out for those of us who are not scientists? How dangerous is this....thing? Is the ship in danger with it being aboard?"

Scratching his jaw, Garo shrugged. "Not really, Commander."

Rixi punched him in the bicep. "A little conviction in that response would go a long way, Garo."

Feigning indignation, the Armenian technician rubbed his arm and turned to Maxun. "Isochronite and gravinex crystal aren't any more dangerous than what the stellar sciences labs already have."

"The point is," Rixi said, tapping a data PADD against her other hand. "If they brought this aboard during our Expanse transit, and if they had time to tamper with internal security, then they may have left more than one souvenir." She opened a drawer and fished-out a tricorder, already recalculating. "I can recalibrate internal sensors to look for similar mineral signatures--anything that resonates the same way. If it's here, it'll hum back."

"Which brings us to the question of why they would go through such an effort and then flee the ship," Xalanth added as he clicked his tongue against the side of his mouth as he thought.

Before anyone could say anything else, Maxun's combadge beeped. He reached up and tapped it as he spoke. "Spello here."

A feminine voice replied, =/\=Commander, this is Chief Davenport, Sir. We just received an encoded message from Starfleet Command, labeled your eyes only, Sir.=/\=

"Understood, Chief. I'll take it in my office. Spello out." He then double-tapped his combadge, closing the channel. He then looked at the ship's Chief of Security. "Mister Xalanth, continue your investigation, and inform the Captain and myself immediately if you turn up any more of these... devices, or anything else pertaining to why they are on the ship."

"Of course, sir. You'll be the first to know," the red lizard said with a nod.

Maxun nodded, then turned and left the lab, his mind already starting to focus on what the waiting message has to say to him.

Garo found himself looking up at the Dragonian security chief. "So we go ahead with the sensors recalibration and see what other treasures are hiding on board?"

"Go ahead. I'll have security on standby to respond. If we find any more, i want them secured ASAP." The lizard said already tapping his combadge. It was going to be a long day.

Rixi looked to Kash and then Garo with her eyebrows raised in mock-authority. "No rest for the wicked, gentlemen. Let's get to work."

"Hey," Garo said, closing up his toolkit, "I am ranking officer in this trio--it's I who gets to say these things."

"Really? I always thought Rixi was the boss." Kash gave Garo a flippant shrug as he brushed past him. "She has more of that leadership aura."

"Akh, tesnem kez, Rixi--doo misht es mtatsum, vor doo es hramanateruh." ("Oh, I see you, Rixi--you always think you're the boss.")

---

Commander Maxun Spello
First Officer
USS Astrea


Lt. Commander Daynah Ral
Chief Operations Officer
USS Astrea

Lt. Commander Xalanth
Chief Security Officer
USS Astrea


Ensign Kash th'Kaasniik
Operations Officer
USS Astrea


Ensign Garabed "Garo" Hakobyan
Transporter Specialist
USS Astrea


Petty Officer 2nd Class Zal Rixi
Engineering Technician
USS Astrea

 

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