The cavern was vast, echoing with every footstep the away team made as they descended deeper into its depths. After successfully landing the Laodamia and beaming into the cavern from the Bellerophon’s aeroshuttle, the away team was maintaining good pace. Bioluminescent moss cast eerie green shadows across the jagged walls, resembling ancient runes written by nature itself. Though a Class L world, it still pulsed with faint signs of life—moss, fungi, and even trace atmospheric anomalies.

The air was cool, damp, and heavy with the scent of minerals and decay. Phaser rifles and tricorders hummed softly in the silence, interrupted only by the crunch of boots against rock.

Jirani led the way with unwavering determination, her tricorder in hand. The green glow reflected faintly off her EVA helmet, and her Bajoran earring caught the light like a beacon of hope in the gloom. She guided the team deeper into a more breathable area of the cavern. The lower they descended, the more hospitable the environment became. It wouldn’t be long before they could remove their helmets.

Behind her was Kurath, grunting with each step; his Klingon frame seemed too large for the narrow corridors they were now approaching. His demeanour remained formal and soldier-like, a testament to his years of training and experience. Everyone could hear his marching steps as he continued to survey for dangers.

Besides him, Doctor Corben kept pace, humming to herself and occasionally pausing to peer at fungal growths with exaggerated curiosity. Counsellor Hilgan trailed behind them, frequently glancing over his shoulder, his hand never straying far from his phaser holster. The younger Trill appeared more apprehensive than the others as they rushed through the interconnecting underground system. He had expressed his discomfort about joining the away team after Jirani had assembled them an hour ago; however, when the first officer had stated it was either this or the Bellerophon would operate without any power, the counsellor had taken a deep breath and accepted his orders like any good officer would. Hilgan still didn’t understand what he could contribute to the mission. Nevertheless, he wouldn’t refuse orders. 

“We’re closing in on the deuterium source,” Jirani announced, pausing to study the narrowing tunnel ahead. Her tricorder chirped. “Fifty meters.”

“Finally,” Kurath growled, his voice bouncing off the cavern walls. “Caves. Darkness. Silence. This is no place for a Klingon warrior.”

“Lieutenant Kurath, you’re a Starfleet officer,” Hilgan started with a nervous chuckle, adjusting the strap on his gear. “You get to explore dark caves; it’s a Starfleet tradition. Adventure awaits, remember?”

“Bah,” Kurath muttered. “I’d prefer a glorious battlefield to a damp rock any day. This reeks of old gagh left out in the sun to rot.”

Corben grinned, clearly enjoying herself. “Oh, come on, Kurath. This is fun! It’s not every day we get to dig through the past of an uninhabited planet instead of dealing with bruised egos and paper cuts in sickbay.”

The team rounded a bend and entered a massive chamber. Crystals glittered along the walls, their surfaces catching the ambient light and refracting it into soft patterns on the ceiling. Beneath them was a thick patch of exposed rock laced with pale grey veins that pulsed faintly as they moved between the gaps in the rock.

Jirani knelt and confirmed the readings. “That’s it. Liquid deuterium. Let’s mark the coordinates for extraction.”

As Hilgan moved to plant the transporter enhancers, his tricorder beeped rapidly, flashing with an alert.

“Commander,” he called out, stepping toward the far wall. “There’s a subspace resonance nearby. Just beyond that wall. It’s weak, but it’s there.”

Corben held out her tricorder. “What could it be?”

“I’m no engineer, but this looks like a warp core output?” Hilgan shared from his tricorder.

Jirani immediately compared their scans to her own as she approached the wall. Its density wasn’t as thick as the others, and it appeared to have been formed several hundred years ago by fallen rock. “I’m detecting an artificial environment beyond this wall.”

“I’m also detecting what appears to be breathable air contained beyond it,” Corben added. “We could blast our way through to see what’s there.”

“Hold up,” Jirani said, eyeing the wall. “If subspace resonance and environmental containment exist beyond here, then we don’t want to trigger anything unstable.”

Kurath ran his tricorder slowly across the wall. “The structure’s sound. I suggest we aim low and use a controlled burst.”

“Okay, let’s activate the transporter enhancers, beam back the deuterium, and then we’ll go in,” Jirani ordered her team. She knew her mission was to find the much-needed source of energy for the Bellerophon. Jirani would not let their discovery stop her from achieving that.

Moments later, after successfully transporting enough of the deuterium back to the Laodamia, all four officers raised their rifles and aimed them at the wall. Jirani gave the order to fire, bolts of bright energy left their weapon, and the cave wall evaporated instantly.

Stepping forward, Kurath took point, rifle still up close to his face as he checked the area before them. 

Somewhat surprised by what they found, Jirani tapped her combadge. “Jirani to Bellerophon. Captain, we’ve found the deuterium. But there’s something else down here with us. It’s an artificial structure. Possibly a base. We need additional personnel to investigate.”

Reyas’ voice crackled through the comm, tinged with tension. “We’re still mid-landing. Everyone’s tied up stabilising systems. I’ll beam down two cadets from the Astra to assist. Stand by.”

Moment later, as they stood at the threshold between the cave and the abandoned base, a shimmer of blue light soon resolved into two young figures: Midshipman Florrick and Cadet Duncan, both standing in their EVA suits at attention and wide-eyed at their new surroundings.

“Gentlemen,” Jirani greeted with a curt nod. “You’re with us. We’ve discovered what appears to be an underground base. Stay alert and keep your heads.”

“Yes, Commander!” Florrick and Duncan replied in unison, stepping into formation with their youthful eagerness.

Corben grinned at them. “Don’t worry, boys. You can hide behind the grumpy Klingon if anything jumps out at us.”

“Hrmph,” Kurath rumbled, though a hint of amusement flickered behind his eyes.

The team proceeded down a newly revealed corridor, rough-hewn and lined with metallic plating. Strange carvings and faded control panels suggested the technology was abandoned long ago. Barely any of it appeared to function as it flickered on and off. More off than on.  

Duncan was the first one to speak up as he joined the others with their scanning. “Quantum scans indicate that most of this base is over nine-hundred years old.”

“I’m detecting tritonium in these wall supports,” Florrick added, pointing to the artificial pillars pushing up against the rock face. “This place was built to stand the test of time.”

“The active power relays seem to be supported by a nearby reactor. It is drawing power from the planet’s geothermal core,” Corben shared, studying her tricorder with a creased brow.

“Why would anyone want to live underground on a developing planet?” Hilgan asked anyone as he looked around the room they were, shining his wrist torch at several items that had fallen and smashed on the floor. 

Jirani continued to study their surroundings with a mixture of worry and intrigue. “Normally, they want to hide from something or someone.”

They stopped at a rusted blast door covered in corrosion.

Duncan stepped forward, inspecting the control panel. “Looks like an old access system. I think I can bypass the lock.”

“Be cautious,” Jirani warned, scanning the wall. “That door could be unstable or booby-trapped. Don’t force it.”

Duncan activated the mechanism with skilled movements and precise rewiring. The door creaked as it opened, and after a few powerful pushes from some of them, it unveiled a spacious underground hangar.

“Whoa,” Florrick whispered, his eyes wide. “Jackpot, Jordan!”

Rows of alien fighters, their surfaces dull with dust and time, stood in rigid formation. Their designs were angular and appeared menacing, with curved wings and faded emblems. The air inside was cold and still, like the breath of history itself.

“The air is breathable,” Corben announced. “We can remove our helmets.”

As the away team took off their helmets, they continued to study the room in front of them. In silence, hundreds of tall, oblong stasis pods sat beside the many small crafts.

“Are those stasis pods?” Hilgan asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

Corben moved quickly, but her tricorder was already out. She scanned the nearest pod and frowned deeply. “They’re offline. It looks like the power relays in here have been damaged over time. There are no life signs.”

Florrick took a step back, face pale. “They’re all dead?”

Duncan swallowed hard. “There must be hundreds of them. Left behind like, like they didn’t matter.”

Hilgan’s voice was barely a whisper. “Or they were meant to wake up at a certain point but didn’t.”

“Who are they, Sarella?” Jirani asked, keeping her phaser rifle close to her. She didn’t like the surroundings they found themselves in and was eager to step away the moment the doctor gave her the answer they needed to know. 

Corben’s face turned somber as her tricorder processed the readings. Corben’s tricorder beeped again. She hesitated, her voice low. “I don’t believe it. These remains—they’re Vaadwaur.”

Silence fell. Jirani’s eyes narrowed. “The Vaadwaur? Here?

Kurath turned around to look at the others. “This must have been one of their outposts. Maybe even a fallback colony, similar to the one Voyager encountered a couple of decades ago.”

“But they’ve been gone for centuries,” Hilgan murmured, shaken. “And I thought the height of the Vaadwaur power was located in the Gradin Belt?”

“We know from their brief encounter with Voyager that they did make it all the way to Talax. Perhaps this was the remains of one of their deep space colonies,” Jirani replied, her tone steady. “We need to document this site fully. Sarella, keep scanning the pods. Krizon, begin mapping the layout and structural integrity. Cadets, assist me in accessing these fighter schematics. Kurath—”

“Guard duty,” the Klingon said with a grunt. He turned, phaser at the ready. “Finally. Something simple.”

“Just keep an eye out. The last thing we need is someone waking up,” Jirani remarked before leading the two cadets with her towards a nearby console. As she walked over, she called up to the Bellerophon, and the moment she told the captain about their findings, Reyas said she would automatically be calling the Odyssey. This discovery could derail the commodore’s plans to get them home as soon as possible.