Telearis V was a desolate world; a barren wasteland; its gray-green sky littered with hundreds of asteroids. Small patches of fog crawled over the distant mountain ranges and draped the valley below in a grayish haze. It had no natural resources, it had no strategic value, and it was too far off the normal space lanes to provide any use as a colony. The Federation, the Tholians, and the Tzenkathi had left the planet alone. Quite frankly, no one wanted it. Yet.

Doctor Marcus Riley and his team had been set up on Telerais V for nearly a month. Nothing significant had turned up.

Riley sat in his tent frowning. He was renown for his hunches, and something had told him that Telerais V held another fascinating secret. So far he was wrong.

Riley's Andorian assistant rushed into the tent. "Marcus!" he paused to catch his breath, "Team Two has discovered something at the Beta site!"

Riley stood up and grabbed his journal. "What is it Ekoon?" He started out the tent, with Ekoon following.

"We're not quite sure what it is yet," Ekoon confessed. "All we know is that it is enormous and shows signs of advanced technology."

Dr. Riley and Ekoon boarded the nearby recon shuttle. "Rodis--get us to the Beta site!"

The pilot nodded affirmatively and as soon as the Doctor and his assistant were secure, the shuttle was off. The Beta dig site was only a few kilometers from the primary site, so it wasn't long before the shuttle arrived at its destination. Riley and Ekoon climbed out and rushed over to the dig area.

"We stumbled upon it by accident, Doctor," began the team leader, Paul Frazier, "We've uncovered a portion of it--none of our equipment can penetrate the structure--heck, if we weren't seeing it with our own eyes, we'd have no clue it was there."

Frazier led Riley and Ekoon down further into the dig site, stopping in front of an obsidian-colored wall. Riley and Ekoon were awe-struck. "Have you found a way inside?"

Frazier nodded. "We found a door at the other part of the dig site--there's tech behind it, but we were able to force it open." He paused as he gestured to the Doctor. "We decided to wait for you before entering."

Riley stood before the darkened opening, a few lights could be perceived dimly blinking in the distance. "Ekoon, Frazier, Holmes, you're with me." He stepped through the doorway into the mysterious structure and switched on his hand-held light. Not much detail was revealed.

Ekoon ran his hand over one of the walls in the corridor. "I've never seen a substance like this. Any clues Marcus?"

Dr. Riley shook his head as he curiously took in the sights around him. "It's not familiar off hand--I think it too early to begin speculating."

The foursome continued down the darkened corridor until they arrived at a chamber. It was fairly large--a good fifty meters length and width, another 5 meters tall. The lights here were ever so dim as to make out some kind of equipment or furniture. The archeologists spread out across the chamber.

Riley moved down the center of the chamber, eventually coming to some kind of equipment which appeared to still be marginally operational. The interface was definitely of a technology Riley had ever seen, but there were similarities to other technological interfaces he'd come across. Cautiously, he tapped a few commands in.

The console made a pinging noise and a more detailed sampling of the alien language appeared on the screen. Meanwhile, the others had finished their scouting and had come to see what Riley was up to.

Riley pulled out his tricorder and held it up to the console. He called up his translation program and immediately set it to work on the alien script. Riley set the tricorder on the alien equipment and turned around to the others.

"This appears to be the only functional piece of equipment," Ekoon reported.

Holmes glanced at the alien writing on the console behind Riley. "Is it just me, or does that writing vaguely resemble that of what was found on Setlak II?"

Riley gave the script another look. "It...does," he announced.

"Setlak II?" Frazier frowned.

"Other side of the Federation," Ekoon responded, "On a planet that was believed to be home to a solely proto-Gorn society, some rather bizarre artifacts were found."

"Yes," added Riley reminiscently, "It was obviously technological in nature, whereas the rest of the artifacts found on the planet showed no signs of technology. The artifacts were also dated different and had an equally puzzling composition."

"Something of a mystery, then?" asked Frazier.

Holmes nodded. "The only working theory is that there was another civilization on the planet, probably as result of a crashed starship."

Riley turned back around to the tricorder. He checked on the progress and frowned. "There's not enough text here for the tricorder to analyze. Divert Teams 1 and 3 here and get them started on finding more of the writing."

It was a few hours later that the Doctor and his primary team once again stood in the alien structure's large chamber. By now, the archeological team had installed flood lights, revealing most of the equipment away from the walls to be mostly destroyed.

"Here's the last of the data collected, Doctor," informed one of the assistants, handing Riley an isolinear chip.

Riley smiled appreciatively and took the chip. He reactivated his translation program, and set it down on the alien console, which still bore the same message as it had earlier, as far as he, Holmes, Ekoon, or Frazier could tell. They didn't have to wait long.

The tricorder beeped shrilly, signaling it had succeeded in translating the message on the alien computer. Riley picked up the tricorder and glanced over the translated message. "Command Access Net damaged. Transmutation settings unaffected. Quantum-Propulsion Drive off-line."