09-21-2026, 10:33 PM
The voice emerging through the bridge speakers was broken almost beyond usefulness, pieces of a stranger's message reaching Artemis through bursts of static.
Hallowette leaned a little closer to her console as her fingers worked across the communications controls, trying to clean the signal while the computer recorded everything that survived. Drought came through clearly enough. So did Nalim. Then there was a crash, another, deeper voice somewhere farther from whatever transmitter they were using, and the woman's sudden protest before the channel disappeared altogether.
Hally had already begun working on the trace Mara requested, following the carrier back through the communication system until the computer resolved its origin and highlighted a familiar contact on her display. Her eyes lingered there for the briefest moment. 285-U-2 II. The same apparently Class-M world Aeryn had identified only minutes earlier, when it had been little more than a distant possibility for Hallowette to populate with imagined oceans, clouds and mountains.
Someone lived there. Someone had a name for it, and the first thing they had ever said to Artemis was that they needed help.
"Transmission originated from Orbital body Two," Hallowette reported, bringing the result onto the appropriate displays. "285-U-2 II." Her voice faltered as she considered the appropriateness of her next statement. "Nalim."
"Helm, full impulse. Take us to 285-U-2 II." ordered Mara.
"Aye, Commander. Full impulse." she answered without hesitation.
Her hands were already moving, bringing the navigation solution across her display and checking their projected course against the system's known elements before feeding the correction into the helm. Artemis swung toward the inner system beneath her hands, acceleration building as the stars shifted almost imperceptibly across the viewscreen. "Course laid in. Making best speed for Nalim."
Mara's next orders spread quickly across the bridge and beyond it, with Science turning its attention toward the planet while preparations for relief began elsewhere aboard ship. Hallowette caught only pieces of the conversation with medical; her own attention had returned to Communications, where the carrier that delivered the original message remained stubbornly silent. Mara wanted them to keep hailing until someone answered, and Hally reopened the frequency, transmitting along the same narrow band the original message had used.
"Nalim, this is the Federation starship Artemis. We received your transmission and are responding to your request for aid. We are en route to your planet now. Please respond." her normally gentle, accented voice more authoritative and serious as she addressed the desperate voices beyond.
Hally released the transmitter and listened, watching the display while several seconds passed without an answer. She then checked the frequency again before setting the computer to repeat the hail at regular intervals, then widened her monitoring to the surrounding bands in case whoever had contacted them attempted to answer elsewhere in the spectrum. There were too many possibilities to attach much meaning to the silence yet. The interference might have been atmospheric, the planetary transmitter might have failed, or whoever sent the message might simply have moved away from it. The crash and second voice remained harder to account for, but until they knew more, it was simply another piece of an increasingly complicated puzzle.
"No response yet Sir," Hallowette reported as another unanswered hail went out toward Nalim. "I have the hail repeating on their original frequency, and I'm monitoring adjacent bands in case they answer somewhere else." She turned slightly in her chair, teal eyes falling on the center chair, "If they answer, we won't miss it."
She turned back to her console, her gaze returning briefly to the planet on her display as she settled back into the overlapping work of monitoring their course and Communications. Only a few minutes earlier she had wondered whether any thinking being had ever stood beneath its sky, and now, with Artemis making best speed toward it, that question at least had been answered.
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Hallowette leaned a little closer to her console as her fingers worked across the communications controls, trying to clean the signal while the computer recorded everything that survived. Drought came through clearly enough. So did Nalim. Then there was a crash, another, deeper voice somewhere farther from whatever transmitter they were using, and the woman's sudden protest before the channel disappeared altogether.
Hally had already begun working on the trace Mara requested, following the carrier back through the communication system until the computer resolved its origin and highlighted a familiar contact on her display. Her eyes lingered there for the briefest moment. 285-U-2 II. The same apparently Class-M world Aeryn had identified only minutes earlier, when it had been little more than a distant possibility for Hallowette to populate with imagined oceans, clouds and mountains.
Someone lived there. Someone had a name for it, and the first thing they had ever said to Artemis was that they needed help.
"Transmission originated from Orbital body Two," Hallowette reported, bringing the result onto the appropriate displays. "285-U-2 II." Her voice faltered as she considered the appropriateness of her next statement. "Nalim."
"Helm, full impulse. Take us to 285-U-2 II." ordered Mara.
"Aye, Commander. Full impulse." she answered without hesitation.
Her hands were already moving, bringing the navigation solution across her display and checking their projected course against the system's known elements before feeding the correction into the helm. Artemis swung toward the inner system beneath her hands, acceleration building as the stars shifted almost imperceptibly across the viewscreen. "Course laid in. Making best speed for Nalim."
Mara's next orders spread quickly across the bridge and beyond it, with Science turning its attention toward the planet while preparations for relief began elsewhere aboard ship. Hallowette caught only pieces of the conversation with medical; her own attention had returned to Communications, where the carrier that delivered the original message remained stubbornly silent. Mara wanted them to keep hailing until someone answered, and Hally reopened the frequency, transmitting along the same narrow band the original message had used.
"Nalim, this is the Federation starship Artemis. We received your transmission and are responding to your request for aid. We are en route to your planet now. Please respond." her normally gentle, accented voice more authoritative and serious as she addressed the desperate voices beyond.
Hally released the transmitter and listened, watching the display while several seconds passed without an answer. She then checked the frequency again before setting the computer to repeat the hail at regular intervals, then widened her monitoring to the surrounding bands in case whoever had contacted them attempted to answer elsewhere in the spectrum. There were too many possibilities to attach much meaning to the silence yet. The interference might have been atmospheric, the planetary transmitter might have failed, or whoever sent the message might simply have moved away from it. The crash and second voice remained harder to account for, but until they knew more, it was simply another piece of an increasingly complicated puzzle.
"No response yet Sir," Hallowette reported as another unanswered hail went out toward Nalim. "I have the hail repeating on their original frequency, and I'm monitoring adjacent bands in case they answer somewhere else." She turned slightly in her chair, teal eyes falling on the center chair, "If they answer, we won't miss it."
She turned back to her console, her gaze returning briefly to the planet on her display as she settled back into the overlapping work of monitoring their course and Communications. Only a few minutes earlier she had wondered whether any thinking being had ever stood beneath its sky, and now, with Artemis making best speed toward it, that question at least had been answered.
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