First Look
Posted on Sat Jul 4th, 2026 @ 8:36pm by Ensign Jorren Vale & Lieutenant JG Melody Piper
2,089 words; about a 10 minute read
Mission:
Mission 1: Through the Janus Gate
Location: Science Lab One, USS Resolute
Timeline: MD001 - 0932 hours
Jorren Vale had received the Janus Core briefing packet twenty-six minutes ago.
He’d spent the first five making tea. The next twenty-one had gone to reading through the data and pulling up what little context they had.
The Janus Core hovered above the central lab table as a simple holographic model, rotating at a steady pace. Clean lines, no obvious damage, nothing immediately alarming. That didn’t mean much.
Jorren stood at the console, one hand resting against it as he moved between the projection and the initial analysis scrolling beside it. The briefing had covered the basics: unknown object, Pakled involvement, potential scientific value, possible risk. Enough for command. Not enough for answers.
Composition unknown. Energy behaviour incomplete. Function unconfirmed. Pakled understanding questionable.
That last point was doing a lot of work.
He pulled up a summary of Pakled salvage incidents. The pattern was familiar—acquired technology, limited understanding, unpredictable outcomes. Sometimes harmless. Sometimes not.
Jorren took a sip of tea, grimaced slightly, and set it aside.
“Right,” he said under his breath. “So we’re starting from scratch.”
It wasn’t a crisis. Not yet. This was the early stage—the part where they sorted through what they didn’t know and started building something usable. He opened a note for Lieutenant Piper and kept it concise.
Initial review suggests the Janus Core should not be assessed based on Pakled handling alone. Recommend direct scans, Engineering liaison, and historical cross-reference before forming any functional conclusions.
He paused, then added:
Also recommend we avoid the phrase “probably harmless.”
The lab doors opened behind him.
Jorren straightened and turned from the console as the hologram continued its steady rotation.
“Lieutenant Piper,” he said, easy but professional. “I’ve started the first-pass review. The short version is that the Pakleds may not know what they have.”
He glanced back at the projection.
“Unfortunately, neither do we. Not yet.”
The lingering scent of tea had caught her attention when she first stepped into Science. The second thing was the Janus Object.
Walking closer to regard that image she pondered it, before she answered.
"That is the trouble with a race which likes to cobble together different parts to their ship. Each configuration can change." she looked at Jorren.
"You know one thing I have found interesting is, they are able to do these things without blowing themselves up. Unless its happened a few times that we don't know of. Still though, to me, it indicates that either they are more intelligent than what they are given credit for, or they have someone who is capable of doing such."
A brief smile, before Melody went on. "But that is neither here nor there. It is the device itself that they managed to get hold of it."
Musing over the device Melody started thinking as to what had been said, this was supposedly a dominion device, then her mind hopped to what they knew of the dominion, then about the way the Borg traveled. Her mind even went to the Bajoran wormhole.
Bajoran wormhole that had chronitron particles, along with graviton particles.
Jorren’s mouth twitched at that, not quite a smile but close enough to count.
“I wouldn’t lose sleep if the Dominion managed to blow themselves up a few times during development,” he said, glancing back to the rotating model. “Purely from a scientific safety standpoint, of course.”
He gave the console a light tap, bringing the Pakled incident summary down to one side and enlarging the Janus Core model again. The cleaner the image looked, the less he trusted it. Too many unknowns had a habit of looking well-behaved when they were trapped inside a hologram.
“But yes,” he went on, more seriously. “That’s the part that bothers me. Pakled improvisation is one thing. Pakled access is another. Either they stumbled onto something they don’t understand, which is bad enough, or someone decided they were useful hands to put around it.”
Jorren folded his arms loosely, studying the object as it turned in the air between them.
“And if this really does trace back to Dominion work, I wouldn’t count on anyone involved being clueless. The Pakleds might not get the Core, but whoever built it probably did. Or at least thought they did, which might be worse.”
He glanced to Piper, leaving the thought there rather than dressing it up too neatly.
“First question might not be what it does,” he said. “It might be how the Pakleds managed to get their hands on it in the first place.”
"And just how would we get access to that information unless we can somehow gain record of their travels and where they might have gotten it. A scan maybe for possible um... signatures of some sort." Melody mused.
Jorren gave a small nod, conceding the point without looking away from the display.
“That was more a complaint directed at the universe than a practical line of enquiry,” he said. “Unless the Pakleds decide to be unusually helpful, their travel history is going to be difficult to untangle.”
He tapped the console, bringing up a narrow column of scan data beside the rotating model.
“If the Core has been active, even partially, it may have left a residual signature. Some sort of subspace wake, radiation bleed, chroniton trace, anything distinctive enough to follow. The problem is age. If it has been moved between ships, stored badly, exposed to different power systems…” He tilted his head slightly. “That trail gets muddy quickly.”
Another touch shifted the display. Symbols appeared across one side of the Janus Core’s holographic casing, enhanced from the briefing scans and sharpened by the computer into readable bands.
“There is something else, though.”
Jorren enlarged the first cluster of markings.
“This part is Dominion. Not surprising, given what we were told. It looks like technical labelling rather than decorative script. Alignment markers, containment references, possibly activation sequence warnings.”
Then he highlighted a second set of symbols, thinner and older-looking, arranged with an elegance that did not sit comfortably beside the Dominion markings.
“This is the problem. The computer recognises enough to know it has a comparative file, but every time I ask for the source language, it throws back a restricted-access notice.” His brow furrowed. “The restriction is on our side. Starfleet has flagged the source data.”
He glanced over to Piper.
“Which means either someone in Starfleet got very cautious about an extinct language, or this device has a second history that hasn’t been shared with the science team.”
The shifting of the hologram of the device, Melody gazed at it for a few moments, almost as if she were communing with it, asking unspoken questions.
Drawing in a breath through her nose, Melody looked over towards Jorren.
"Just something about this is saying to me what you had mentioned, and what the computer has said. I believe that the answer is both are possible. Very possible indeed."
Just something about this was causing Melody's skin to prickle up. Something was feeling off about it.
Jorren watched her for a moment, then looked back at the hologram.
“Both possible gives us room to be worried,” he said. “It does not give us much to work with.”
There was no bite in it. If anything, his tone stayed carefully neutral, the sort of neutral junior officers used when they were trying not to sound as though they were pushing their new department head. Still, he shifted the display again and brought the unknown markings into sharper relief beside the Dominion script.
“If this is setting something off for you, Lieutenant, I’d rather not ignore it. But I need something I can chase.” He nodded toward the older symbols. “Have you seen anything like this before? The structure, the language pattern, even the way it’s arranged on the casing?”
He let the question sit there for a second, then added, “Because the computer knows enough to refuse me politely, which usually means the answer is sitting somewhere behind a clearance wall. And you’ve got access to doors I don’t.” There was a faint, almost apologetic tilt to his head. “If there’s anything in your briefings, your files—anything that even brushes up against this—I think we should be using it.”
Jorren folded his arms loosely, eyes on the slow-turning model.
“Dominion engineering I can at least follow. Their design language is unpleasant, but it’s not shy. This other layer feels older. Cleaner. Almost like the Dominion built around something rather than from scratch.”
He glanced back to her.
“So what does it look like to you?”
Melody had a sudden chill go up her spine, there had been something in her studies, something she had come across. Also there was the interest she had where the Bajoran Wormhole was concerned.
A frown appeared, and she called out. "Computer, give us the races who have been recorded as to being able to traverse the expanse of space in a short amount of time.
The computer began to read off, the Borg, using their transwarp drive, "Show me their language symbols."
The image didn't match, she went on, the computer continued on. It mentioned the Vaadwaur,the Nacene's which were also known as the Caretakers. she stopped it there.
"Computer, narrow it to what races are known to use devices to travel across space. and show me their language symbols."
Species 116 was mentioned, Melody mused on it, they had created the quantum slipstream drive.
She continued on.
One by one they were shown, "Compare these symbols to ancient races." Several more were shown and Melody dismissed them all except for one, another chill came over her.
Melody double checked, then shook her head. The nagging sensation she had proved to be right.
She turned towards Jorren, and said one word. "Iconian."
Jorren went very still.
For a second, he did not look at the hologram. He looked at Melody, as if weighing whether he had heard her correctly.
“Iconian,” he repeated.
The word sounded too large for the room.
He turned back to the display and watched the symbols rotate past the Dominion markings. Suddenly, the Starfleet restriction made more sense. Not comforting sense, but the sort of sense that arrived carrying a very large warning label.
“I’ve heard the name,” he said after a moment. “Mostly in the way junior officers hear things they are not officially meant to know. Ruins. Gateways. Ancient technology far beyond current security protocols.”
He stepped back to the console and tried the comparison again. The same restriction flashed up, neat and unhelpful.
“Right. That explains why the computer keeps slapping my hand.”
Jorren folded his arms, his expression tightening into something more thoughtful than alarmed. He was not dismissing it. If anything, the quiet in him sharpened.
“If you’re right, then the Dominion layer may not be the origin point. It could be an adaptation. A control system built around something older, or an attempt to force old principles into Dominion engineering.”
His eyes stayed on the Core.
“And if the Dominion were trying to reverse-engineer Iconian transit technology, then the name Janus Core stops sounding clever and starts sounding like someone trying to be poetic about a loaded weapon.”
He exhaled slowly.
“Engineering and Ops are going to need to know about this.”
He glanced back to Melody.
“How sure are you?”
Another look towards the symbols, Melody was very certain, and intake of her breath, and a resigned but confident expression was there.
"I am very sure about this. It is Iconian."
Jorren nodded once, the movement small but definite.
“Iconian,” he said again, quieter this time, as though the second use of the word made it more real.
He turned back to the console and added it to the working notes, keeping the entry brief. There was no point dressing it up. Dominion markings. Iconian symbols. Pakled possession. Each part was bad enough on its own; together, they had the unpleasant shape of a problem that had been waiting patiently for someone to notice it.
The Janus Core continued its slow rotation above the table.
“Well,” Jorren said after a moment, “that makes the day more interesting.”
His tone was dry, but his eyes stayed on the symbols.
“I’ll keep pulling what I can from the scans, Lieutenant. Carefully.”
Lieutenant Melody Piper
Chief Science Officer
USS Resolute
Ensign Jorren Vale
Science Officer
USS Resolute
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