Captain Niro stood near the main sickbay console, arms folded across his chest, jaw tense. The usually composed Deltan captain was visibly unsettled. Monitors beeped in a steady rhythm, casting pale light over the four biobeds occupied by the unconscious cadets.

Beside Niro were his senior officers who had returned with the cadets, all of whom wore sombre expressions. The ship’s EMH, who had recently been repaired after sustaining damage during the Vaadwaur crisis, was silently assisting Stellan, moving between beds, scanning each cadet and updating their records with swift efficiency expected of the hologram. Stellan was playing a delicate balancing act of working in tandem with the photonic doctor. Though the EMH had more knowledge than he did, Stellan was the senior officer in charge of sickbay. 

“How are they?” Niro finally asked, breaking the uneasy silence with a voice low but commanding. He was concerned with what Stellan was going to report, so he took in a deep breath and held it. 

Stellan glanced up from his tricorder, his brow furrowed with concern. “They’re stable for now, sir. We’ve induced all four into medically-controlled comas to prevent further damage to their higher brain functions. Whatever’s affecting them is not natural, from what I can tell. We’re still picking up a consistent neurogenic field.” Stellan sighed, adjusting the settings on the monitor above Alfie’s bed. “If we hadn’t gotten them back to the ship when we did, the results could have been far worse. As it stands, they’re safe, but only just.”

Niro stepped closer to the biobeds, his gaze moving from one unconscious cadet to the next. “Could it affect the other cadets?”

Stellan shook his head before answering, “From what I can tell, the ship’s shields are containing whatever’s responsible. The neurogenic signature doesn’t appear to be strong enough to penetrate them. The rest of the crew is safe as long as they remain aboard.”

Lee took a step forward, activating his own tricorder and holding it between himself and Niro. “Before we left the surface, I managed to conduct a quick passive scan. There’s a faint energy reading coming from where we were exploring.” He adjusted the display so the others could see the wave pattern. “The signal is erratic, pulsing in low-frequency bursts. It’s weak, but Kit is right; it’s definitely artificial in origin. I’d bet anything it’s responsible for what happened to them.”

“Some ancient power?” Parker queried, leaning forward to examine the data. 

Lee shrugged. “Possibly.”

“Whatever it is, it’s powerful,” Askew added, arms crossed tightly. “And very selective. It’s targeting only the younger members of our crew. I feel we may have a repeat of Frontier Day if we’re not careful”

Niro’s frown deepened. He looked again at the cadets, his gaze lingering on Jordan and Alfie. “We can’t sit back and wait for this to get worse.” He turned to Lee. “Eden, assemble a team and go back to where all of this started. I want answers. Take all the equipment you need. We find out what’s causing this, and we stop it before we lose anyone else.”

Lee nodded sharply, his determination palpable. “I’ll take Sam, Jaceon, and Blaine with me. We’ll start where we left the camp and expand our search from there.”

Niro nodded with that idea. He knew his team could do this without blinking. He trusted them explicitly. 

Straight away, Lee tapped his combadge on his chest. “Lee to Merez.”

“Go ahead, Eden,” Merez answered.

“Blaine, report to the shuttlebay immediately. We’re heading to the surface in five minutes, and I can use your eyes on this.”

“Understood, sir,” came the prompt reply from their chief science officer. 

The team moved into action immediately, heading for the exit within seconds.

Once they were going, Niro turned to Parker. “Counsellor, I need you to speak with the other cadets. Keep them calm. Let them know we’re doing everything we can. And check on William. With his brother in this condition, he’s going to need support.”

“I’ll handle it,” Parker assured him, her voice steady but sympathetic. “I’ll make sure they understand this isn’t permanent. And I’ll keep William close.”

As she turned to leave, Niro looked back at Stellan, who was now cross-referencing biosigns with their EMH. “Kit, anything else you need from me?”

Stellan straightened, glancing from his tricorder to the captain. “Just time, sir. But there’s something else, sir. If we attempt to leave this moon before identifying and disabling the source of this neurogenic field, we could cause irreparable neurological damage to the cadets.” He gestured toward the unconscious figures. “The field has imprinted itself on them. Whatever it’s doing, it’s holding on. And hard. We don’t want to imagine what will happen if that tether is violently broken.”

Niro took in the gravity of Stellan’s words, his features hardening. “Then we find it. We shut it down. We owe them that much.” He took a long breath and exhaled slowly. “I’ll be in my quarters. Time to report to Commodore McCallister. It’s a conversation I’ve been dreading since this started.”

Stellan gave a slight nod, wishing his captain ‘good luck’ in having that call with Alfie’s father before turning back to his scans.

Niro turned on his heels and exited the sickbay, his weight seeming to grow heavier with every step as he tried to rehearse in his mind how he was going to tell James about Alfie and the others. 

“Still picking up residual neurogenic energy,” Merez said, adjusting the resolution of his tricorder. “It’s stronger than it was near the clearing.”

“Localised?” Lee asked without turning. They had been walking through the same area of the woodlands they had visited earlier that morning. This time, instead of appearing calm and friendly, an eerie atmosphere swept through the woodlands against the away team. There was something about it that gave Lee the creeps. What was waiting for them? What would they find?  

“Seems to be,” Merez said with a confident nod. 

Jaceon tilted his tricorder to examine a vertical column of figures. “If we boost the filters and use a low-intensity multiphasic sweep, we might get a clearer fix.”

Merez nodded in agreement with the engineer’s suggestion. “Good call.”

Together, the two officers worked in tandem, combining their tricorder signals. A soft pulse of sound emanated from the devices, and a glowing arc appeared on their display. 

Merez gestured ahead. “It looks like we follow the stream.”

The four officers walked along the water’s edge, weaving between tree trunks and exposed roots. The landscape began to change with stone outcroppings subtly emerging from the soil, their surfaces smooth and dark, unlike the native rocks scattered elsewhere.

“There,” Merez pointed. “Caves.”

Built into the rise of a small hill, the cave entrance was partially concealed by thick foliage.

Askew rolled her eyes. “Of course it’s a cave. It’s always a cave. Why is it always a cave?”

Lee smirked at his wife’s reaction before he tapped his combadge. “Lee to Astra.”

Penelope’s voice responded promptly. “Go ahead, Commander.”

Clearing his voice, Lee spoke up after suppressing his smirk at his wife’s reaction to the cave. “We’ve found the source of the neurogenic field. It’s coming from inside a cavern system. We’re about to enter.”

“Understood. I have a strong sensor lock on all four of you. You’re clear to proceed. Be careful, Commander.”

“Understood. We’ll keep an open channel.”

With that, the team activated their palm beacons and switched on the barrel-mounted lights on their phaser rifles. The cave’s entrance yawned before them. The cool, damp air was flowing from within. The darkness beyond swallowed the light.

Merez took point, tricorder in hand, guiding the group down a narrow passage. The air grew heavier as they moved deeper, the walls slick with moisture and streaked with mineral deposits. Strange crystalline formations lined the corridor, faintly pulsing with their own bioluminescence.

Jaceon paused briefly, running his fingers along one of the formations. “These crystals, I don’t think they’re native.”

“It’s definitely all been fabricated,” Merez agreed. “This place is ancient, but we’re not talking tens of thousands of years old. Maybe two thousand or so.”

“Any clues on who built it, Blaine?” Askew asked from behind. 

Merez shook his head as he looked over her shoulders. “There’s nothing here to give us a specific clue.”

After several minutes of cautious trekking, they arrived at a dead end. 

Or so it seemed.

Merez raised his tricorder and scanned the barrier before them. “There’s something behind this.”

Embedded in the rock was a smooth metallic frame. It was an artificial doorway, closed and seamless.

“This is it,” Merez confirmed. “The neurogenic field is coming from the other side.”

“Any way to open it?” Lee asked.

Merez shook his head. “No controls. No obvious mechanism. It’s sealed.”

Askew stepped forward, lifting her rifle. “Then we improvise.”

Everyone in the group agreed with her idea. Lee gave a nod to them as they all raised their weapons towards it. “On my mark.”

They took up positions and fired in a concentrated burst. The phaser beams struck the door with precision. The rock hissed, glowed, and finally shattered inward with a thunderous crash.

Dust and heat spilt outward, and beyond the debris, a vast chamber waited.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting that!” Askew said, almost sounding impressed at what awaited them on the other side. 

They stepped into a massive artificial cavern, its walls lined with smooth, alien panels. Dozens of consoles blinked to life at their presence. Screens displayed flowing symbols in a glowing blue and white script.

Lee stepped forward slowly, awed. “This is some kind of control hub. Maybe an outpost?”

Merez was already moving to the central dais, where a single console hummed steadily. Jaceon joined him, both immediately scanning the primary emitter structure in the centre of the room.

“This is the field emitter,” Jaceon said, pointing to a tall crystalline tower threaded with glowing circuitry.

“It’s broadcasting through a narrow neurogenic band,” Merez confirmed. “Low amplitude, high frequency. Tuned to younger neurological patterns. I’m detecting human brain scans being registered on it.”

“Our cadets?” Lee asked.

Merez nodded. “It would appear so.”

Askew, meanwhile, had moved toward one of the consoles. She stared at the alien script, her brows knitting together in concentration. She pulled out her tricorder and began running a translation subroutine.

Lee came up beside her. He noticed his wife was giving the script a closer look. He knew that expression across her face showed that she recognised it. “What language is it?”

Shrugging, Askew tapped at her tricorder. “I’m not entirely sure, but I’m sure I’ve seen it before. Give me a second to see if my tricorder can translate it.”

The symbols flickered once on her tricorder’s small screen, then resolved into characters that the inbuilt universal translator could interpret.

Askew stared at the text, her expression tightening. That’s not what she was expecting. She turned to her husband, eyes wide with recognition and concern. “It’s Ocampan.”

“How is that possible?” Lee asked. “We’re far from Ocampa.”

She shrugged again before turning back to look at the text before them. “I have no idea, my darling.”