Doctor Sunny had beamed down to the planet’s surface along with Lieutenant Beriev and a pair of security guards; at roughly the same moment as the Lieutenant-Commander and her team had arrived.  This second group had chosen a spot to the rear of the main warehouse, well out of sight of Kilcannon.

It didn’t take them long to locate a door into the building, and whilst the security kept a careful watch, Beriev set about overriding the locking mechanism.  The panel next to the door gave a reassuring little bleep, before a red light changed to green and the metal bars holding the door closed, clicked back into their recesses.  The Saurian science officer pulled gently on the handle of the door and pulled it slowly towards himself.  The room inside was vast and only dimly lit.

One of the two security men insisted on going first, to check it was safe; signalling the rest to follow, only moments later.  Beriev found a light switch; such was the apparent low level of technology in some aspects of the facility.  A number of lights slowly flickered to life, illuminating the warehouse incrementally.

Now they could get a much better look at what was being stored inside the building.  Which at present; didn’t seen much.  The most notable objects were roughly sixty shipping crates; each was around 3 metres long with hexagon shaped ends.  On closer inspection of the crates and their labels, along with a quick look inside a few of them; it was revealed they were all full of Pergium.

“I am of the opinion these crates have not been here since the Borg attack.” Lieutenant Beriev closing and locking the last of those they had opened.

“I would have to agree with you.” Sunny replied.  “This is all very interesting, but not the kind of evidence I am in search of.”

“Shall we move on?” The Saurian waved a hand towards another door.  The doctor nodded, and the four individuals moved as one.

This door was not locked, but once more the same security officer took the lead on entering the room.  This part of the warehouse was much smaller; less than a fifth of the size of the room they’d just been in, the height of the ceiling was only half that of the main storage area.  Two large refrigeration units sat on one side; both had coolant pipes running from them and passing through the wall on the far side, just below roof height.

Doctor Sunny approached one of them, taking a look at the control panel that seemed to be monitoring the unit.  The reading on the screen indicated that the temperature within the refrigerator was currently minus 230 degrees Celsius; that figure wasn’t all that far from absolute zero.  Puzzled as to why something would need to be stored at such a low temperature; the doctor set about seeing what information this device was willing to divulge.

Lucky the system didn’t appear to be password protected, so locating and calling up an inventory of content didn’t take long.   The names of 17 individuals, scrolled up on the screen; all were listed as deceased on the same day, the day that the Borg attacked this planet.  Sunny felt a cold shiver run down his spin.  The container looked big enough to contain possibly 40 people, but it was unclear from the information, if it had ever been full.  The second unit yielded 22 names.

He explained his finding to the Saurian science officer, though it was difficult to judge his reaction from the Lieutenant’s face, Sunny assumed he was as shocked as he was.

If nothing else, this was proof that the Hana Corporation was storing the bodies of their dead employees’ and not burying them or transporting them back home, as they had stated on several occasions.   It didn’t prove they were conducting experiments on them.

Other than what appeared to be an emergency fire exit, that was probably alarmed; there appeared to be no other way out, other than to retrace their steps.  Heading back through the main part of the warehouse and exiting via the same door they had entered it.  Once everyone was out, Beriev set about relocking the door; in the hope no one would notice they’d been sneaking around.  It was at this point that the alarm inexplicably sounded.  Such was the intensity of the sound, that the Saurian was almost bent double with pain as his hands clasped over his ears.  His three human companions were finding the volume almost as distressing.

“That noise could wake the dead!” One of the guards yelled.

Doctor Sunny looked across at him, very much hoping that wouldn’t be the case.

**********

“You three did come alone?” Kilcannon shouted over the loud din.   The Lieutenant-Commander nodded and gave her reassurance that that was the case; but the Maintenance Technician didn’t seem all that convinced.  He turned away snatching something from his desk and spun back around in one swift movement.  Lieutenant Grav was alert and swifter; firing his phaser almost from the hip, he stunned the man, who dropped the weapon he’d just grabbed and slumped forward.

Lieutenant-Commander Alara picked up the disrupter style hand weapon off the floor; whilst crewman Niroc pushed the man and his chair aside.  The engineers’ fingers danced across the controls and keyboard interface in a bid to at least silence the ear splitting alarm.  Success came on the forth attempted, and near piece was restored; only the display on the screen in front of him indicated they weren’t out of the woods yet.

[Emergency Failsafe Protocol Initiated]

[To Cancel: Command Code Override Required]

The countdown underneath that had just gone below 7 minutes looked rather ominous.  “I think we are in a heap load of trouble!” Niroc stated, tapping on the screen.

“Can you stop it?” Alara questioned.

The engineer was taping away at the controls once more, desperately trying to see what he could do; but shook his head in response.

Lieutenant-Commander Alara tapped her comm-badge. “Alara to Beriev, is everyone ok.  What happened?”

“Apart from a headache, I believe we are all fine.” The Saurian voice came back. “My apologies, for inadvertently triggering the security alarm.”

“Well to be on the safe side we’d better get back to the ship.” She informed him. “Alara to da Vinci; requesting immediate beam out.”

The OX’s call was met by only silence.  Two further attempts only yelled the same result.  The time was now almost down to 4 minutes.

**********

On the bridge of the USS da Vinci, tension was beginning to rise.  The nearest of the Satellites; designated as Anvil 1, by its beacon; was powering up again.

“Red Alert, Shields up.” The Commander called out. “And get the away teams.”

“Unable to raise them Commander.” The reply came back. “All communication channels are being blocked.”

“Status on that satellite?” She asked the Tactical Officer.

“Shields are at 100%, all weapons systems online and powering up.” The woman seated there answered. “The satellite is re-orientating to aim at the planet’s surface. Its target would appear to be the mining facility.”

Anacostia-Bolling contemplated her options and the dangers facing the six members of her crew, down on the planet’s surface. “Target the satellites weapons.  Open fire.”

She watched on the view screen; as two beams of intense energy lanced out from the ship and struck Anvil 1’s shields, causing them to glow at the point of impact. However it continued turning, unhindered.  The forward phaser bank and ventral array fired again, hitting the same sections of the shielding.  But the Commander had given instructions to the helm to alter the ships angle and position relative to the satellite; meaning moments later they could bring all three arrays on to the target.

The additional fire power available; now made a greater impact on the satellites shields.  Sensing the Saber-class vessel was currently the greater threat, it began rotating back towards the da Vinci.  “That’s it come to mommy.” Mary said softly.  However that would mean in the next few minutes, the defence satellite would start firing on them.

“Targets shields at 86%.”  The Tactical Officer called out.

Anacostia-Bolling was frustrated; they’d hardly made a dent in it such was the shear strength of the thing.  More phaser fire pounded into Anvil 1’s shields, closely followed by a pair of Photon Torpedoes; launched one after the other.  That seemed to make a bigger difference, but it was still not nearly enough.  Yet every second that satellite was focused on the bought another moment for the away team; and she knew the Transporter Chief was doing everything in his power to bring them back.  “Helm, prepare to take evasive action.”

The USS da Vinci began to swing round in an arc, keeping its weapons pointed at the satellite, whilst trying to avoid its own returning fire.

“I’ve got an incoming message from the Hana Corporation.”  The Communications Officer called out. “Asking why we’re attacking one of their facilities.”

“Tell them their satellite is attempting to kill some of my crew!” The Commander Exclaimed.

There was a clear exchange of words between the Communications Officer and whoever was on the other end.  When he turned to face the Captain, the young man had a look of disbelief on his face. “They regret any damage or loss of life caused by their automated systems; but cannot be held responsible for our actions in violating the facilities security.”

Time was up; and despite their best efforts to crew of the da Vinci had failed to turn the satellites weaponry completely away from the planet.  When the countdown reached zero, Anvil One let loose with everything it had.

Anacostia-Bolling, didn’t need to see the damage being inflicted on the planet below to understand the total devastation taking place.  She ordered the ship to stop firing, and hold position once more; then made her way to her Ready Room.  This was a dark day indeed.