A First Look at Pellana
Posted on Tue May 5th, 2026 @ 9:07am by Commodore Samantha York & Commander Joren Tal & Lieutenant Crisanto Venchi & Lieutenant Aenar Torek & Lieutenant Bela Swain & Lieutenant JG Vincent Shaw
1,400 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Lost Horizons
Location: Pellana System
Sam spent some of her time since receiving their new orders looking up information about the Pellana system. It wasn't that she didn't trust her crew. She did. But she still had some contacts in the archaeology community that might have information others did not. Unfortunately, she learned nothing. Nothing about ancient inhabitants and nothing about any current interest in settling the system. It was listed on star charts, but was far down the list of systems to explore.
It made her even more curious as to why a merchant ship passed through and why no one else had noticed anything.
She made sure she was on the bridge to see the system and the first scans as they dropped out of warp.
"Dropping out of Warp, Captain" announced Lieutenant Crisanto Venchi.
Sam nodded to the pilot, then waited for her chief science officer's report.
At the Science station, Aenar quietly looked up from his terminal as the warp field collapsed around them, yanking the Calypso out of subspace. He always marveled at the transition, and spent a few seconds enjoying it before booting up the sensor systems to run complementary scans to the ones Tactical would conduct.
The helmsman had working on equations, calculations to narrow and limit the area to search for the merchant ship. "Do we know anything on the significance of this system? Something that would bring the transport through this route?" asked Crisanto.
"There really shouldn't be." Joren answered. "No nebula to avoid, no practical reason to be here that I can tell." He looked down at the small viewscreen attached to his seat. "Not even a good holiday spot. Science, any initial trace of our missing vessel? Any residual warp signature?"
Bela gave a quick glance towards Aenar and then back at the screen. There was not likely to be violence here, so she simply stared ahead, wondering what might be out here for her to do. Whatever it was, she had to be ready for the crew.
As he looked over his terminal, Aenar began to decipher the signals the sensors were returning. An entirely unremarkable system from first glance. 'There's no debris detected, Commander. Residual traces of a warp signature, but it's too degraded at this point to indicate whether it was an entry or exit.' He shook his head, frustratedly, 'otherwise the system is ... quiet.'
"Not surprising." Joren said. "Keep at it, see if there's any hidden traces to uncover. Commodore, what are your orders?"
"I agree," Sam said, turning from the sensor data. "I want a detailed scan of each planet in the system. Then we'll take a closer look at anything of interest. See if you can identify which planet or planets that trail passed by. If nothing else, I want to find out if there are any ruins here." Sam hoped this wouldn't be a fruitless journey, but the possibility was always there.
Out there, were missing ships, where could they be at? Vincent looked towards the planets that needed to be scanned.
"Proceeding with scans, Commodore." Vincent responded, setting the parameters of what was needed, even looking for possible traces that a ship had come this way.
'Setting up the planetary scans,' Aenar replied brightly, easing his hands over the terminal in front of him, programming the parameters he wanted. As well as the detailed rundown of each planet, he programmed in a cycle to identify signs of previous industrialisation and planetary ruins. 'Should have preliminary results momentarily Commodore.'
Sam nodded. "Good. Let's hope we can find those ruins--and possibly the ship." But she thought it more likely the ship had run afoul of something elsewhere.
Vincent glanced over towards Aenar, glad the science officer was on the ball, finding the degrading warp signature. This made the operations officer rather happy. Still though, as he watched the information coming in, what will they find? Would there be survivors?
"We'll check every planet going in, then have a second look at anything that looks interesting," Sam said. "We'll have a second look at the fourth planet."
'Let's tag 'em and bag 'em,' Aenar replied chirpily as he flashed a grin at Vincent. 'Sweeping the planets as we go,' he said, setting up a suite of standard scans to wash over the system's planets. Aenar then programed another, more stringent set of scans for the fourth planet for their return swing.
Sam turned slowly and looked at Aenar. What happened to her head of science? That sounded nothing like him. Then she glanced at the counselor and decided she didn't want to know--as long as it didn't affect their performance on duty. "Excellent."
Bela noticed the Commodore's look at her. She then looked at Aenar and back at the Commodore, gave Sam a small shrug and a slightly raised eyebrow for a second and finished with a secret smile and then looked back at the viewscreen.
No. She definitely did NOT want to know what was going on between Bela and Aenar. Sam nodded and turned back to the viewscreen.
Joren focused on the summary that was flooding onto his side panel. "Nothing. Commodore, we might need to split our efforts. I suggest having a team further investigate the fourth planet while the Calypso looks for further clues out here." Joren furrowed his brow. "I will say something feels off about the readings for the fourth planet, although I cannot quite say *what*." Nothing more frustrating than a gut feeling that isn't quite backed by facts, but Joren had learned to listen to those feelings as well.
"Yes." Sam watched the readings as well. "I agree. As the person with the most experience with ancient ruins, I would like to lead the team to check them out. I'd like you to take charge of the Calypso and see if you can find out anything about the other planets."
Joren looked over from his side panel, and was visibly considering for a good moment. He knew Sam was by far the best choice for archaeological investigations. But she was also the captain of the ship, and one of his duties as first officer was to second guess the captain if the situation demanded it.
"Are you sure, Commodore?"
Sam nodded. "I am the most qualified person on the ship and you are perfectly competent to continue the planetary exploration." She paused before adding. "If the ruins are important, I should be there. If they aren't, then nothing will be lost by my going."
Overhearing the command conversation, Aenar secretly hoped that he would be assigned the planetary mission. There was something freeing in research for research's sake only. Still, I'll go wherever they think I'm needed, he thought to himself. Everything seemed much brighter than a few weeks ago, he decided.
"I'm thinking science, Marines, medical," Sam said to Joren. "We're only to do a preliminary look to see if it's worth sending a research team, so I don't expect it to take more than a day, maybe two."
Joren sighed. This was a discussion he knew he'd lost before he started it. "Of course, Commodore. Just be careful."
"Of course. I'm always careful." And she was. But that didn't keep you from finding trouble. Trouble liked to jump out and bite you when you weren't looking.
Aenar felt no small sense of satisfaction he'd be allowed to go to the surface. Though his passion was for biology, ancient ruins, barely explored was definitely high on the list of reasons why he became a Starfleet Science Officer. It beat gaseous anomalies by a country mile.
"I'll keep tabs on those who are going down, I'll be the eye in the sky, or rather eye in space." Vincent giving a smile. "Just have fun but not too much fun?" glancing towards Aenar. Then towards the Commodore.
"Good enough," Sam said, checking the readings from the planet. It had been a long time since she'd been part of an away team and she was looking forward to it.
A post by
Commodore Samantha York
Commander
USS Calypso
Lieutenant Bela Swain
Chief Counselor
USS Calypso
Lieutenant Crisanto Venchi
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Calypso
Lieutenant Aenar Torek
Chief Science Officer
USS Calypso
Commander Joren Tal
Executive Officer
USS Calypso
Lieutenant JG Vincent Shaw
Chief Operations Officer
USS Calypso
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