I'm not back at my post as High Justiciar for one day and I get a call from the emperor asking me to look into an issue for our Federation allies. It seems a remote research station has gone dark and thy need someone to check it out. So the Phantasm is assigned to the case due to its "Sensitive" nature. In other words, they need someone who can keep a secret. I take Synthea, and a couple of engineers just in case the station has any power or life support issues. Even though when we arrive our scanners say everything is operational and life support is nominal. In fact, the only thing out of the ordinary is that there's nobody on board... not one soul where there should be hundreds. I bring Synthea and a couple of engineers to investigate I also have a security team on standby along with a science team, better safe than sorry. As we explore I have Synthea check the database to find out what kind of research they're doing here while I check the station's logs. "Master?" (I hate when Synthea calls me that but I'm done arguing about it.) "What is it?" "I have examined the totality of the research projects for the station." The totality? That's a lot for a station of this size. "Really, in a station this size? How could you possibly be finished already?" My question isn't without merit, the station could run hundreds or even thousands of small studies and experiments but Synthea's answer only leaves me with more questions. "It seems the entire station was dedicated to only three classes of study. Magnetic fields, Frequency modulators, and directed energy transmission." Immediately my brain explodes with the only possibility of what those three things have in common... "What?! You mean to say they're researching dimensional shifting?" Syhtea looks at me with some concern and nods in confirmation. The primary concern here is that one shouldn't ever experiment with multi-dimensional technology as the consequences could be dire. On at least one world I personally know of, the idiots siphoned off their world's entire atmosphere and made the planet a ghost world. A second accounting of another planet was infested with demons and now requires round-the-clock surveillance to keep the damned things from escaping off-world... of course, the native inhabitants were completely wiped out. Now I'm on a station that missing its crew... Seems like they put this place in the middle of nowhere in anticipation of such a screw-up. The Phantasm is equipped with multi-dimensional drives but that's GSE tech and we only use it when taking jobs from them because they provide sold, safe coordinates... You can't just go stumbling around. "Okay, everyone... Keep your eyes and scanners peeled for SN threats and set your scanners accordingly. We're looking for anything that cloaks or turns invisible as well as any extradimensional portals." We're gonna need more boots on the ground. This is shaping up to be a bad day. |