Welcome Aboard (Part 2)

Posted on Wed May 27th, 2026 @ 3:57am by I-402 & Commander Katrina Chance & Lieutenant Commander Andrew Star & Lieutenant Commander Lahki Bakshi Dr & Lieutenant Akira Kogami & Ensign Toran Vos

1,706 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Ghost Starship
Location: USS Hindenburg
Timeline: After 'Welcome Aboard (Part 1)'

Previously, on Star Trek: Missouri:

"Most Galaxy ships were sent on a 7-year very very deep space exploration with families, it wasn't unheard of for Captains to create holidays to keep morale up... Even after the Battle of Wolf 359, when they removed families, all those ships in very very deep space kept their family crews... No nearby Starbase with commercial transports." Andrew stated. Though the meaning of 'Index' made him what holiday they were celebrating.

And now, the continuation:

"Think we should send it back to the Missouri for further analysis?" Akira suggested.

"Judging by the manner in which this was torn..." I-402 noted, picking up what appeared to be a dropped children's toy from the floor. "It would be best to presume that some sort of struggle happened in this sector. Perhaps, then, the same protocols towards preserving a crime scene should be applied?"

With her suggestion, I-402 proceeded to drop the toy back onto the floor.

"Hate to break it to you, but this entire ship is probably a crime scene," Akira argued, shooting I-402 a dirty look. "by your logic, we should be should be dropping everything and beaming back to the Missouri."

"Allow me to rephrase, then:" I-402 replied. "I doubt that the remnants of this banner alone will offer any valuable insight into what might have happened. If one torn piece of fabric is enough for you Federation types to warrant disturbing a crime scene, then by all means; send it back to the Missouri for further examination."

Katrina pondered the banner for a moment in silence as she stepped out into the corridor, her helmet flashlight intersecting with the others as she did so. It was one piece of a larger puzzle. But she was attempting to solve it completely blinded, not knowing what the final piece would be. Anything could have been noteworthy, but this one piece, didn't necessarily suggest struggle to her. "We will leave this here, for now," she said, pulling out her tricorder and running a quick scan of the banner. "We will however send initial scans back to the Missouri. If Captain Cook wants to have these items retrieved, then we will do so."

"I will start having my team run biologics," Lahki said over the Comms.

Toran brought the standard Galaxy Class floorplan up on his tricorder, taking a moment to orientate the map to their location. "Where to first, Commander?" he asked as he looked to Katrina, keen to keep moving rather than linger in the dark. "I can plot us a route through the Jefferies Tubes."

"Jefferies Tubes may be our best bet." I-402 noted. "Without power, the turbolifts are very likely offline."

Katrina considered the away team's next move for a few moments. They could go to the bridge- or at least, that would be the smart call if the ship had any power, which it currently did not. They could head to the computer core to retrieve the ship's logs more directly, though again that would require power. The only place it seemed they could head to for any achievable results was engineering. If there was to be any progress made, for now, it would likely be there. Otherwise, they would literally be poking around in the dark to try and get a picture of what had happened here. "This ship needs power," Katrina finally said. "There's only one place where we can get it from. If we manage to restore it, we can split up from there. If not?" She paused. Then she added, "We'll face that if we have to." As the XO spoke, another thought occurred to her. Technically, the shuttlecrafts were independently powered. It was possible that they could be operational. But at the moment, she couldn't think of any use for them or any material they could maintain. As such, she kept that thought to herself. "We're better off sticking together until we know what we're dealing with."

Lahki nodded once. That made sense. She followed the others, waiting for her Comms to buzz. They wouldn't be able to for awhile; being this far away on a derelict usually meant that comms didn't work. Oh, well, she tried.

Andrew was down with that plan. It was always a dream of his to walk about a galaxy starship, even if it was a ghost ship. Digging his elbow into Toran, he whispered to him. "This is so exciting! I've always wanted to walk the decks of a Galaxy starship... And a ghostship at that! It must be Christmas."

Toran's lips twitched with amusement at Andrew's excitement. It even helped to ease his own tension as he looked his way...not an easy or natural task in the confining suit. "Let's hope it doesn't come with actual ghosts then..." he teased before tracking a route to Engineering. "We can follow this corridor for a while to cut down on tube time."

"Want to know a cool fact?" Andrew asked rhetorically, beaming with joy. "Galaxy Classes have two Chief Engineers! Once for the saucer and one for the battledrive! The Enterprise D had Lt Cmdr MacDougal and Lt Cmdr Argyle as Chief Engineers when it launched!"

Toran's eyebrows lifted with surprise at the words. It was news to him. He'd have thought it could have caused all kinds of problems, but then, he was no commander. "Think you could share the top spot?"

A little giggle erupted. "Nope," Andrew replied. "It'd feel like I was married! Having to make sure they were happy with me taking tools or engineers. Your turn, could you handle sharing a security response team?"

Toran glanced to where the marine captain was walking in the gloom not too far away. He sort of already was. "Sure," he finally replied before a soft chuckle escaped. "So long as everyone's on the same page."

"Say, anybody want to speculate on what was in those crates back in the cargo hold?" An ensign from Security suggested as the away team made their way down the corridor.

"I hope not bodies," Lahki sighed. This wouldn't be the first time she'd seen bodies in crates, but she hoped it would be the last the last time it had happened. She had been around the Fleet for a long time, and she'd seen some things.

As the Ensign was going on, I-402 was carefully monitoring the structural integrity of the deck on which they walked. She had noticed that the integrity of the deck plates was decreasing significantly, leading to a weak spot in the floor.

"Ensign, watch your step!" I-402 advised. "I'm noticing the structural integrity of the deck plates has significantly degraded where-!"

I-402 couldn't finish her sentence before the floor beneath the Ensign suddenly gave way, and he began to fall through the floor to the deck below.

"SHIT!" Akira exclaimed as she dove forward and grabbed the Ensign's arm, nearly tumbling through the hole herself, if not for the equally-quick thinking of Toran who dove forward to grab onto her legs, swearing loudly on strained breath.

As Akira and the Ensign dangled from the new hole in the ceiling on the deck below, both Akira and Toran were in a position to notice a peculiar sight:

Looking back at the Starfleet officers was a little girl, no older than ten, standing calmly on the deck below and watching the chaos unfolding above her.

Toran could do nothing but stare at the girl, his blood turning cold at the eerie sight that raised the hackles on the back of his neck. He was torn back to the crisis at hand as he felt Akira swing in his grip. "I've got you!" he shouted the assurance as he managed to brace a foot, a groan escaping as he started to haul them up.

"See? This is why you don't wander around a derelict without Engineering checking for structural failures!" Akira grumbled as her phaser rifle slipped off her shoulders and clattered to the deck below. "Shit, now I'm going to need to get myself another phaser..."

Lahki immediately bent down, holding a tricorder.

"Are you hurt?" She asked Akira and the Ensign. She scanned both men. "I can't sense anything," she noted. If they were hurt, it wasn't enough for either her telepathy or her tricorder to pick up.

"Neither can I..." Toran murmured numbly where he was half laid out on the deck, breathing hard as he recovered. But he was talking about the girl, realising that was what had made his hackles rise. The Betazoid security officer had seen her, plain as day, but he hadn't *sensed* her. "You saw her too, right?" he asked Akira with a mixture of confusion and unease. "Right?"

"Saw who?" The Ensign asked, looking back through the whole through which he had fallen, only to see that the corridor below was empty.

"I'm sorry, who exactly are we talking about?" Akira asked as she got up and dusted herself off. "I was kind of focused on preventing Ensign dumbass here from rolling his ankles..."

"Perhaps that was the anomaly that the Missouri's sensors briefly detected?" I-402 surmised.

"No, it was a girl," Toran insisted, shaking his head emphatically, his frown deepening with it. "A young girl, maybe human, on the lower deck....right there!" he pointed towards the hole.

Lahki helped Toran sit up. She looked at the other Betazoid. "If you're not sensing anyone, and no one else saw her....are you certain it wasn't just a shadow or something?" Lahki quickly scanned him with her tricorder-and her telepathy. Nothing was broken, only a few minor scrapes. And he was telling the truth, as far as she could tell. Some Betazoids could block each other, but she could read Toran pretty well.

To be continued...

Posting by

Commander Katrina Chance
Executive Officer
USS Missouri

Lieutenant Akira Kogami
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
Second Officer
USS Missouri

Lieutenant Commabder Andrew Star
Chief Engineer
USS Missouri

Lieutenant Commander Lahki Bakshi
Chief Medical Officer
USS Missouri

Ensign Toran Vos
Security Officer
USS Missouri

I-402
AI Interface
USS Missouri

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