Star Trek: The voyages of the USS Apollo

Chapter Twenty: The Horrifying Discovery

Ethan, T'Vrell, Voq and Alisha were gathered in Transporter Room One with a six crewmen Science Team that consisted of one woman and five men. They were preparing to transport into one of the cities on "The Diamond" in order to learn the truth about this mysterious construct. As they finished putting on their environmental suits, Ada walked into the Transporter Room and said "Wait. I'm coming with you." With his suit's visor not yet closed, Ethan asked "Why may I ask?" Ada then answered "I've heard about the Diamond and I think I might be able to help." Ethan thought for a moment and said "Alright then. I'll get you another environmental suit." Ada shook her head and said "That won't be necessary. Changelings can survive in the vacuum of space, so I'll be perfectly fine and if you feel a bit uncomfortable seeing me without an environmental suit on..." Ada then changed her shape and morphed herself to be wearing an environmental suit. Ethan rolled his eyes and said "Of course you change your shape to look like your wearing an environmental suit." Ethan then lowered his visor and said "Alright then people. Lets get onto the transporter pad and head to the closest city on the Diamond."

All eleven people then walked onto the transporter pads and Masie said "Alright Captain. Energising...now." All eleven members of the Apollo Crew were then engulfed in blue energy as their particles were transferred to the Diamond. As they rematerialized in the closest city on the Diamond they found themselves in a street that was littered with crashed vehicles and skeletons. The vehicles had no wheels like ancient Earth vehicles, instead they had pads that allowed them to hover via anti-gravity technology. The skeletons resembled Human skeletons, except they had two cranial ridges that up the right and left sides of their faces and were right next to the eyes. They also had six fingers on each hand, something that would be considered a birth defect on Earth and other planets, but for this species it was a part of their identity and who they were. The buildings were in good condition and had been left untouched by whatever or whoever had caused all of this. As for the dome above the away team, it had been shattered and huge pieces of glass had fallen down when it did, killing anyone unfortunate to be crushed by them.

As Ethan and the away team gazed in horror at what they were seeing, Voq knelt down to one of the skeletons and said "Captain. Notice how this person's hands are close to his neck, it's as if he was suffocating." Ethan noticed it too and said "Something must have happened here to cause the domes to be destroyed. Resulting in the city population dying of asphyxiation." Voq snarled and said "A clever tactic I admit. But also a dishonourable one." T'Vrell scanned the skeleton with her tricorder and said "Captain. It would appear that this man has been dead for approximately five thousand years. Meaning that the Diamond was attacked at somewhere around that time." Ethan looked around at the buildings and skeletons, wondering what they were thinking in their final moments. The day before had been just like any other day. They had gone to work as they always had, taken their children to school, laughed, complained, enjoyed what had probably been a nice day, made love. But the next day a horrible event had happened that had destroyed the dome, killing some people that the glass shards fell onto from the impact and killing most of them from asphyxiation. Ethan wondered what they had been thinking in their last moments, they had probably been thinking about what family members they would run to to spend their last moments with, or about all the things they could've done in life and about how they were about to die.

With sympathy in his heart, Ethan said "These poor people. They probably spent their last moments suffocating to death and wondering if what they could've done in life." Voq felt similar sympathy as he said "What a terrible way to die." Laren agreed and said "Yes. I would prefer to die an old woman, surrounded by my children and grandchildren as I lay on my death bed." Ethan looked ahead to see that far across the city was a large tower that had to be as tall as the famous bell tower Big Ben back at his home city of London. Ethan started walking as he said "We're going to investigate that tower over there. It must be the central administration of this city."