Post #313: The Darkest Hour is Just Before...

Posted on Sat May 30th, 2026 @ 2:10am by Major Charlotte Thrace & Ensign Hannah Thrace

711 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: A New Beginning
Location: Hannah's Lab
Timeline: current

Hannah practically living out of her lab wasn't anything new, most of the crew knew by now that if she was working she only left the lab for the most essential of reasons. However to have the Genesis device, or a replica or whatever term they wanted to use in front of her on the worktop was something she'd never imagined, keeping it hush hush had been significantly problematic but that was secondary to keeping it secure which had been resolved by having two very skilled and exceptional marines standing guard outside the lab at all times with a very clear mandate as to who was and was not allowed inside. Hannah still marvelled at the container that Fara and McGregor had crafted, it was exact to the specifications in the files they'd found but made of much sturdier stuff but that was to be expected given it was nearly two hundred years after the fact.

"So what exactly do you want me for?" Charlotte asked stepping into the lab as Hannah returned to looking over the latest calculation of the formula. "I'm not a scientist."
"No but you know more about explosives than 99% of the station." Hannah said
"And that's a good thing?" Charlotte said
"Today it is." Hannah said "Because this thing needs a very precise detonation."
"Don't you just fire it like a torpedo?" Charlotte asked
"No." Hannah said "Use a torpedo we create a gravitational flux situation which would endanger the starbase it would be a repeat of the Mutara Nebula phenomenon."
"So?" Charlotte asked
"So we walk back a step." Hannah said bringing up a three dimensional map of Ocampa "We're not trying to create a new planet, we've already got a planet it's just not habitable in the sense of sustainability. What we want to do is change what already exists rather than bring something new into existence. Therefore we can put this on the surface and detonate it as we would any ground explosive."
"And that removes the risk to the base?" Charlotte asked
"Yes the yield is significantly less, it won't overcome the gravity." Hannah said
"So what's the required effect?" Charlotte asked
"Much the same as a volcano." Hannah said "Up and out in every direction."
"So you need height and there's one mountain on the whole planet." Charlotte said
"Yep and here's the kicker it's a big mountain, it's storm central on the planet and..." Hannah said
"Don't tell me." Charlotte said with a groan "The storms make it impossible to use transporters or shuttle as the means of getting it to the summit which is where it needs to be."
"Bingo." Hannah said
"How high is it?" Charlotte asked
"Olympus Mons size." Hannah said
"Is the device light enough that Okan could carry it on his back?" Charlotte asked
"Yes." Hannah said getting where Charlotte was going with her train of thought "And you should be able to fit the two vials into a protective container."
"Then that's what we do." Charlotte said "Me and Okan split the lock and key between us, climb the mountain, reassemble the device, get extracted and then we detonate from safe distance."

Shortly after they'd figured that much out Charlotte headed off to start getting a shuttle ready, Hannah meanwhile returned to the trickier task that was bordering on alchemy. She had one vial done the trickier part however was creating the reactant, this was where David Marcus had cheated and lost with protomatter usage, he'd then famously proclaimed 'Genesis doesn't work' but Hannah wasn't one to fail, she was the most ardent believer in trial and error methodology and unlike David she had practically two hundred more years worth of scientific discovery to draw on to get the answer. It took a few attempts but eventually she found the solution in the good old Borg Collective, reprogram the nanoprobes and use them as the vehicle to facilitate the required reaction. Taking a breath Hannah sighed there it was "This is where I'd say eureka right?" she said aloud to the now otherwise empty lab "Or something profound at least... nah never been one for words."

**************

Major Charlotte Thrace
Marine CO
Starbase Obsidian

Ensign Hannah Thrace
Alien Archaeologist and Anthropologist/Intelligence Officer
Starbase Obsidian

 

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