A probe flies past a hyper gas giant, under power it remains stationary relative to the giant world, easily 10 times the size of Jupiter. Two streaming lines of traffic dive in and out of the planet’s turbulent atmosphere, massive twenty-kilometer long bulbus tanker ships in lines hundreds of thousands of miles, outgoing traffic disappearing into hyperspace on the edge of the Jovian system.

Watching a few moments longer the probe accelerates away from its vantage point, briefly joining the line of outgoing traffic before it jumps into hyperspace. With a spurt of extreme acceleration the black beetle-like probe leaves the enormous planet behind it and enters into the swelling blue realm of space saturated ‘above’ normal space.

The probe returned to normal space at 1.1 AU from the Sol-like star at the center of the system and was plunged into the midst of thousands of ships and millions of drones as they swam around a massive net which wrapped the star. Millions of years later, Humans will name such a construct a Dyson net, after the scientist who theorized the existence of these mega engineering projects. The net consisted of millions of platforms connected by billions of strands and providing billions of square kilometers of living space, all at the perfect distance from the star. It would be decades before it would be liveable, but it was almost finished.

 

Three million years later

 

For millions of years it was thought that this star was a Red Dwarf, a common class of star and with no detectable planet was considered to be low priority. Captain James Newmen, the Captain of the Nova Class Aurora, trying to save time on his mission, took a shortcut past the system and they were yanked in by the unexpected gravity of the Dyson net. The net has hidden the true nature of the G class star and the massive gravity of the net.

The USS Aurora falls into normal space with a subspace thump, their return to normal space was unexpected. Their port warp nacelle exploded moments later, and they were dragged down into the gravity well of a massive object. The crew had enough time to push a distress call before they entered into the atmosphere of one of the Earth sized platforms. With great skill, and just enough power the impeccable pilot brought the Aurora into a mostly controlled landing. The landing gear crumpled as she slid through the tall grass of a green meadow, coming to a stop several kilometers from touchdown.

Smoke drifted up from the remains of the port engine, the lowest two decks had compressed into a thick slab of twist metals. The animals that had fled from the crash started to return; human sized bipedal creatures, covered in downy feathers, approached out of curiosity. Any human child would have recognised these creatures and dinosaurs, specifically Utahraptors. Chirps and barks were exchanged among the pack of 30 or so animals. Tails used for balancing and agility stuck out straight behind powerful bodies. Four fingers tipped with sharp claws rested close to their bodies. Their toes end in equally sharp claws, and one large, curved claw on the outside of each foot. The pack approached the Aurora in a loose inverted V formation but stopped short a few dozen meters from the hull.

In the distance other animals kept their distance, each of these creatures were quadrupeds, long thick necks, massive bodies, and long tails and four thick legs.

A dozen light years away Captain Toron Pax sat on the bridge reviewing the repairs and refits the Wabi Sabi had undergone through the Borg incident. They had gotten lucky with that one and the clean up was being handled by the Borg Task Force, a flotilla of six ships led by the Venture. The USS Wabi Sabi had broken orbit a few days before and was heading towards their next patrol zone, this time it was towards the beta quadrant length of the border, Romulan and Breen ships had been sighted taking short cuts across UFP space and this needed to stop. The Wabi Sabi would be the Devil’s Brew when they arrived; the two ships together would present a formidable deterrent to trespassers.

Things are starting to get into a routine, and new-to-the-crew members are fitting in and finding their feet aboard the small but versatile ship. Carter had spent way too long into the gamma ship in her chair, she had made it clear to the shift chief she wasn’t here but she should really leave him to it. Sighing, maybe a little too loud she was frustrated with her research so she bid good night to the gamma shift and turned in for the night.

On the Bridge, near the middle of the gamma shift, about 3am the distress call from the Aurora was received.

As the closest ship, the Wabi Sabi sets an intercept course knowing they are limited in this kind of operation. Carter gets a message from fleet command, the USS Dennison, an Odyssey Class ship, would arrive 4 days after the Wabi Sabi does, they would do the bulk of the work but the crew of the Aurora might not have that long. The shift commander notified the captain and executive officer of the situation and then set a course.

For millions of years it was thought that this star was a Red Dwarf, a common class of star and with no detectable planet was considered to be low priority. Captain James Newmen, the Captain of the Nova Class Aurora, trying to save time on his mission, took a shortcut past the system and they were yanked in by the unexpected gravity of the Dyson net. The net has hidden the true nature of the G class star and the massive gravity of the net.

The USS Aurora falls into normal space with a subspace thump, their return to normal space was unexpected. Their port warp nacelle exploded moments later, and they were dragged down into the gravity well of a massive object. The crew had enough time to push a distress call before they entered into the atmosphere of one of the Earth sized platforms. With great skill, and just enough power the impeccable pilot brought the Aurora into a mostly controlled landing. The landing gear crumpled as she slid through the tall grass of a green meadow, coming to a stop several kilometers from touchdown.

Smoke drifted up from the remains of the port engine, the lowest two decks had compressed into a thick slab of twist metals. The animals that had fled from the crash started to return; human sized bipedal creatures, covered in downy feathers, approached out of curiosity. Any human child would have recognised these creatures and dinosaurs, specifically Utahraptors. Chirps and barks were exchanged among the pack of 30 or so animals. Tails used for balancing and agility stuck out straight behind powerful bodies. Four fingers tipped with sharp claws rested close to their bodies. Their toes end in equally sharp claws, and one large, curved claw on the outside of each foot. The pack approached the Aurora in a loose inverted V formation but stopped short a few dozen meters from the hull.

In the distance other animals kept their distance, each of these creatures were quadrupeds, long thick necks, massive bodies, and long tails and four thick legs.

The Wabi Sabi was speeding towards the last known location of the Aurora when they too suffered a rapid deceleration from warp. The sensors registered a massive and unexpected gravity increase, they had found an object of massive proportions which had collapsed their warp field. Thanks to their very talented pilot and the advanced warp drive they returned to ‘normal’ space with very little damage and they righted themselves at once.

Running a sensor sweep of the stellar construct that wrapped the local star they were astonished to discover a Dyson net. A collection of planet sized platforms strung together by kilometer thick cables which orbited around the star in the center in a lazy spin. 

Further probing showed that each platform has roughly the same surface area as Earth and each of the hundred million platforms had a different biosphere, as far as they could tell. After all there were millions upon millions of them.

Finding the missing Aurora wasn’t difficult though, as it was the only advanced set of technologies anywhere in the otherwise empty star system. All the platforms, while populated, had at best improvised tools. Bringing the Sabi into a high parking position above the crash site a shuttle mission is prepared while contact is attempted.