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| - It had been a long evening, but worth it. The senior staff were all gathered round a table in the vacant mess hall, which was quite dimly lit, as final systems checks were underway. The past 90 minutes had been spent chatting to each other, getting to know people they didn't know, swapping stories, telling them how wonderful it was to serve on a ship like this. It had certainly been the morale boost the captain had wanted. As the evening began to fade away, Mantree held up his hands and stopped proceedings. "Now, I know it's not customary to start ships business in an unofficial meeting, but this may need to stay unofficial." Mantree adjusted himself, so he could get a better view of all present. Sitting at the head of a rectangular table helped, and he looked round at his senior staff's half-eager, half-nervous faces. "I was contacted this afternoon by President Lorel, who had orders for our first mission. Suffice it to say, he gave me two words to work with, and I'm not sure what meaning they have. They were 'Anaura' and '31'." A low mumbling was heard as those present tried to figure out what the words meant. Included in them was Dr Mushisaki, the new Japanese chief medical officer. Mantree thought he could see puzzlement, then a look that could only be described as stunned. "I'm going to guess that 31 has something to do with Anaura," she said. "I'm just not sure what. But if Anaura is what I think it is..." Parker piped up. "The biggest planetary desert there is – only no-one can seem to remember where." The captain pushed his back against his chair. "How do you mean? I've never heard of any deserts called Anaura." "It's no wonder. It's not exactly a typical desert. It covers the entire surface of a planet... although the legend says otherwise." "Legend?" Brox leaned forward and placed his hands on the table. "This wouldn’t be the legend involving a supposedly 'hidden' planet, would it?" Parker nodded. "The same." Mantree was already confused. "What has this legend got to do with '31'?" Brox continued Parker's story. "I don't believe it has anything to do with the number 31. But the legend of Anaura tells of a hidden planet, which broke free of its orbit around 3000 years ago, becoming a rogue planetoid. No-one knows why it stayed as a desert as other planets have turned to icy worlds. They've become uninhabitable. The legend says that Anaura is somewhere in the Alpha Quadrant, I'm not sure where." Another voice entered the conversation, that of comm officer Nick O'Connell. "I'm going to bet that the planetoid is in Tholian space." Lhaihtrha turned to look at the young man. "Why do you think that?" "Because 'Anaura' is a Tholian word. It means 'place of darkness'. Unfortunately, I haven't studied Tholian language too in-depth to tell you whether that means literally or metaphorically or both. Although I can tell you that Tholian language is incredibly complex." Mantree leaned forward in his chair. "And what about '31'?" Again, there was uncertainty. It didn’t seem to mean anything until... "There are 31 astral eddies in Sector 1604," said K'Jan, the Klingon conn officer. "They're so compressed together that if there was anything between them, it'd be almost impossible to retrieve." O'Connell thought about it. "But what has that got to do with Anaura?" "Perhaps it's the location of a secret base or something, where there are co-ordinates to the planetoid." It was Mushisaki. She had been taking in the information, trying to make heads or tails of it. "Doubtful," said Lhaihtrha. "The gravimetric distortions would tear apart any ship approaching them. Although this ship might stand a chance..." "Even so," said Parker. "Isn't it worth a try?" "I may be able to help us avoid such an encounter." Brox looked round the table at his crewmates. "Unless I'm mistaken, there was an area of Starfleet Intelligence known as Section 31?" "What would Section 31 have to do with any of this? They haven't been in operation for over 25 years! Wiped out, weren't they?" "Officially, they never existed in the first place. People knew about them since their establishment in the 22nd century, but under orders from the previous president, they were hunted down, forced to undergo memory extraction, and then either killed or allowed to live normal lives, with no memory of their time with Section 31." Mushisaki's face was one of shock and horror. "Isn't that a bit ruthless? Especially for the president?" Mantree sighed. "He did it to 'protect the future of the Federation'. Whatever future that was, he wasn't living in it." K'Jan spoke next. "Did anyone survive?" "That's the tough question - no-one knows. Section 31 had been so secretive about their members. The reason for the memory extraction was simply because they didn't keep any records of any operation they participated in. They deemed it too valuable." Mantree stood up, pulling down the front of his shirt, and started walking round the table. "Having said that, Starfleet Intelligence believes that some of the agent's memories were retained by the operatives, so Intelligence doesn't have as much as they'd like to have had." "But what's all this got to do with Anaura?" Parker asked. Mantree stopped behind Lhaihtrha's seat, placing a hand on it for support, before shaking his head. "I haven't the faintest idea. President Lorel informed me that our specific orders will be given shortly after launch at 0800 hours tomorrow morning." "We're getting orders from the president?" "At the moment he has more information on this than anyone else in Starfleet, and apparently he's the only one who knows about our specific mission." Mantree went back to his seat, but leaned over the headrest on it. "I don’t know about you but I could use some sleep. I want you all up and alert in the morning, we're due to have a staff meeting at 0900 hours. I assume I'll have the mission orders by then." The rest of the senior staff stood up, some stretching and yawning as they made their way out of the mess hall and to the busy corridors beyond the double doors. Apart from Mantree, only Brox remained. "Captain, why all this secrecy? Why not just give us our orders and let us be?" Mantree walked to the window, looking round at the shipyards, all no doubt closing down for the night, bar this one. Brox had a very good point. Mantree realised he hadn't asked Lorel why everything was so secretive. It had never even occurred to him. There was only one thing he could say. "Only time will tell." The commander looked at him, and then gestured. Come, I need your help at the controls. Not stopping for a moment, he staggered over to the blown-out navigation console. Nothing he could do there. The commander pointed to another console to his left. "This one," he said, rather frantically. "I need you to signal the Pioneer, tell them we need assistance."
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