Always On My Mind

Posted on Mon Oct 9th, 2023 @ 10:52am by Lieutenant Commander Rin & Lieutenant N'vok Holv

Mission: Season 6: Episode 3: Far From Home
Location: Science
Timeline: MD3 2100 hours
1039 words - 2.1 OF Standard Post Measure

As the shuttle came in to dock with Elysium, the alien device found on the derelict station had gone quiet and dim. No more kaleidoscope of lights, no more sense of the thing gazing deep into her soul. There was a certain sense of emptiness left in its wake, although it was slowly diminishing as her sense of reality returned to normal. Life was now as it had been yesterday, no better, no worse.

She did wish it would speak again, though. Maybe eventually it would.

She tapped her badge. "Rin to Science. I have an unknown artifact to beam in. Can you please prep an iso lab?"

"Hello, Lieutenant Rin, this is N'vok, we were prepared for such an occasion," he replied. "Iso lab Four is prepared, so when you are ready."

An unknown artifact, he thought, that should be interesting.

A moment later, the Intel Chief materialized inside the room with a object about 3 feet on a side, vaguely round, with a fringe of long thin metal plates radiating out from a central core. It seemed inert. Nothing moved or glowed or even gave off an obvious power signature.

"Are you comfortable being in there with the artifact?" the Vulcan asked. "Or do you wish to leave it and come out of the iso lab?"

"I've already been exposed. So has the rest of the away team. Went through decontamination, of course. Haven't detected any indication of danger, although our studies were, of course, preliminary. It shut down shortly before we returned to Elysium," Rin reported.

N'vok nodded as he keyed in a sequence of scans. "Can you place the artifact on the stand?? He said picking up a datapad. "Where was it found? Was it the only item recovered?"

Rin gently set the device down. "We found it on board a derelict space station. Various materials were stripped from the station to help in repairs for Elysium, but nothing out of the ordinary. My team took nothing else out."

"Not a culture we have encountered before?" asked N'vok as the scans began. "Was It placed unusually? An item of cultural significance perhaps?"

Rin paused for a long moment trying to figure out if she was missing some part of the question. "Nothing indicated a culture we have previously encountered. We are in another galaxy. It would be *quite* notable if we found anything familiar."

His second question, however, did intrigue her. "There was very little context to its placement. My first impression was storage, but the room could have simply been stripped of other artifacts, either by those abandoning the station or scavengers who came later. I have no idea why this would have been left behind."

"Intriguing," says N'vok watching the results of the scan. "Except for the environmental radiation you would expect it seems clean. There may be a dormant power source within but its construction makes it difficult to read."

"Speaking of which, there are no novel elements detected by the alloy is not a combination of elements I, or the science database, has encountered before."

Rin nodded. "It previously emitted... something. Something important, I think. Tricorder couldn't identify it. You will be careful with it, yes?"

She couldn't bear the thought of it being damaged. She had almost locked it up in Intel, but then there would be questions, suspicions, suggestions that it might be dangerous, and she was confident it was not.

"A possibly unique alien artifact, yes, we will be careful with it Lieutenant Rin," said N'vok. "Can you tell me more of this emission?"

"Nothing scientific," Rin replied. "It was just... marvelous,. It was like...watching the birth of a star or feeling the beat of the universe, or....I'm not good with metaphor. That's the closest I can come."

"You do not have to be," said N'vok. "Was it purely a mental sensation or was it physiological as well?" he asked, typing notes on his datapad.

"I'm...not sure." Rin frowned. Surely, it was a simple question, yet she had no answer. No answer about what she personally experienced. Why was it so hard? She remembered everything, every sensation, but why couldn't she put it to words?

"I apologize," she continued. "This is unlike me."

"No need, Lieutenant," said N'vok. "A unique experience is, by definition, difficult to explain." He looked at her. "Are you ready to leave the artifact? I will route the monitoring data to you if you wish so that you can keep an eye on it."

Not ready to leave the artifact? Rin thought. Of course she was ready to leave it. It was just a thing, right now, anyway. No reason at all to linger. Unless, of course, it would turn on again. Then it would be a different story. Still, a very odd question, she thought. And she did appreciate the offer of data. Then again, she practically collected data as a hobby.

"Thank you. And yes, I'm fine," she replied.

The door opened in the chamber. "Please step out." He paused, obviously thinking about how to approach something. "Lieutenant, I could not help but notice your implants . . . is it possible that they recorded some information that might be of use in our understanding of the artifact?"

"Most of my sensory implants were removed a long time ago," Rin explained as she emerged. "And anything I do detect I should be aware of." She paused, gaze unfixating from N'vok for a couple seconds before refocusing. "I am not aware of anything, and diagnostics are not detecting anything intrusive or malfunctioning...although, I confess, the diagnostic systems themselves have been breaking down over time."

"That is unfortunate," N'vok says, "but worth checking. I will let you know if we discover anything new about the artifact. But for now, we will just keep it under observation."

"Thank you," Rin replied. And, with nothing more to discuss, she excused herself to tend to other matters, even though the artifact continued to linger in her mind. She wished she better understood it and what it wanted, and it bugged her she couldn't accomplish that on her own. So, for the moment, having it in the hands of Science was the best place for it.