Post #314: The Delta Quadrant Dawn

Posted on Sat May 30th, 2026 @ 10:29pm by Major Charlotte Thrace & Ensign Hannah Thrace & Sergeant Major Okan & Staff Sergeant Amy Bell & T'Kes

1,018 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: A New Beginning
Location: Ocampa/Obsidian Station
Timeline: current

It had been a long, long time since Charlotte had been mountain climbing for real, which was to say not on a holodeck and without the safeguards, but here she was a few days into climbing the tallest mountain she'd ever been near. She wasn't on her own either, Okan was right there next to her as she climbed. They'd split the Genesis device components between them, Okan had the container on his back and Charlotte had the chemical components, a fairly solid safety precaution, but was there any such thing as a safety precaution for this device when they were hauling it up a mountain?
"Think we'll hit the top today?" Okan asked as he checked his altitude count
"We've been here practically a week so we should." Charlotte said as she grabbed her next handhold and pulled herself up "I wonder if this is even going to be here afterwards."
"Well if Hannah's explanations are correct and they usually are." Okan said "It's entirely possible that the wave will sweep the mountain away." he smiled "What are you hoping for?"
"I'll take a nice temperate ocean, with a nice isolated beach, somewhere you can..." Charlotte said
"Build a house?" Okan said "Does a certain someone know you're thinking about putting down roots?"
"Eyes on the prize Okan." Charlotte said

It took another hour and a half of climbing before Okan hauled himself onto the summit of the mountain, turning around he grabbed Charlotte's wrist when her hand came over the top and pulled her up. Charlotte took a moment to have some fluids while Okan fixed the device casing into place. Then Charlotte went over, opening her backpack as she went, she took out the small sealed box that had the two component vials in it. "So yellow goes in yellow." she said inserting the first vial "And blue goes in blue." she inserted the second vial.
"Amy." Okan said hitting his combadge "Bring the shuttle in to pick us up."
"Storm's starting to bite isn't it?" Charlotte said looking around
"She's not going to be too long." Okan said
"Hope not." Charlotte said, she had her thumb on a scanner that was on the device, it took a few seconds but the device flashed a green light that turned to a solid red
"Armed." a voice came from the device as a bright light from a shuttle came through the storm.
"Doors open, cables hanging get up here." Amy's voice came over the com.
"Don't need to tell us twice." Okan said as he and Charlotte grabbed the cables and were winched up aboard.

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

On Obsidian, there was a buzz unlike anything that those aboard had felt in a long time, certainly not since leaving the Alpha Quadrant, they'd been down, they'd been out but then the word had gone round - a debt owed initially by the Caretaker but picked up by Janeway and Voyager was going to be repaid, the Ocampa were going to have their time in the sunlight, those that had fled the Alpha Quadrant would have a home outside the walls of the starbase. They needed this, everyone in a senior position aboard knew it. Occasions such as this though called for some pomp and ceremony and that was T'Kes's department, she stood on the Ops platform as the news that the device was armed came in, then it was just about waiting until the shuttle was at safe distance. Then with a nod from the Captain T'Kes took a breath and addressed the intercom.

"In 2161 five species - Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, Tellarites and Denobulans came together and founded the United Federation of Planets, they were drawn together through a shared desire to deepen positive relations between each other, where others have looked only at themselves the Federation has always stood for unity, for peace, for everything that makes us who we are. We may not have hundreds of Federation Councillors out here voting on everything, we may not have the fleet of vessels and the light may be a little dimmer than we thought but it still stands, that we are here is the proof of that and we refuse to allow what happened in the Alpha Quadrant to influence how we behave now. We are who we have always been and today we recommit ourselves to that which has guided the Federation since it began. We came to the Delta Quadrant with a dark cloud hanging over us, now we walk out of that cloud and into the dawn. Children will have the chance to play beneath a sun again, I'm sure there are plenty aboard looking forward to a touch of shore leave, and most importantly the Ocampa get to reclaim their homeworld, a world that we will have helped give them and that spirit of discovery is the United Federation of Planets." T'Kes said she half smiled "I've never been one for speeches and I'm not the reason everyone's excited, so without further delay. Ensign Thrace... let's have the dawn."

"Thought you'd never ask." Hannah said with a smile "Detonation in ten seconds." she hit the button "Nine...eight...seven...six...five... four...three...two...one...zero."

On zero there was a very visible explosion of such wonder and beauty that you could actually see the waves spreading out from ground zero and washing over the red planet that very quickly wasn't red anymore, there were greens and blues instead. On the ops platform breaths were held, eyes were trained on Hannah "80% water and ice, 20% land on the surface, we've got plant life, wild life..." Hannah said her arm up above her head a fist forming in triumph as she read off the readings "There's a nice tropical thunderstorm forming over the main landmass... ladies and gentlemen we have a habitable, terraformed M class planet."

*********

Major Charlotte Thrace
Marine CO
Starbase Obsidian

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

Sgt Major Okan
1st Sgt
Starbase Obsidian

Staff Sgt Amy Bell
Marine
Starbase Obsidian

T'Kes
President - United Federation of Planets
Starbase Obsidian

 

RSS Feed