Deep Space 2 – Admiral Arthur’s Office
Admiral Arthur leaned back in his chair, eyes fixed on the cryptic symbol floating above his desk hologram: a tri-spiral insignia, unmistakably pre-Federation.
He had found it inside a sealed file buried in Deep Space 2’s ancient archive core—a file marked:
“CLASSIFIED LEVEL PRIME – AUTHORIZED BY FIRST HORIZON COMMAND.”
The First Horizon.
Humanity’s earliest deep-space effort.
Long before warp corridors, before first contact with Vulcans… even before Earth joined the founding worlds to form the Federation.
Records from that age were fragmentary at best. Lost after the Archive Wars. Or so everyone believed.
But this file—this impossible sealed file—carried coordinates.
Coordinates leading directly to…
Sector XR-12.
Location of the Rings.
Arthur rubbed his temples.
“These structures… they’re not alien to us,” he murmured. “They’re part of our own early exploration era. But why were the records erased?”
His office door chimed.
“Enter.”
Commander Elan T’Sari, DS2’s chief archivist, stepped inside with a PADD clasped tightly. “Admiral, I believe you should see this immediately.”
She placed the PADD on his desk and activated the display.
Arthur’s breath caught.
The document showed early human starships—primitive by 25th-century standards—approaching the same Rings the Oregon now faced. The records suggested the Rings had once been dormant transit gates, used briefly during the First Horizon’s expansion.
But there was more.
The last page displayed a warning message, decades older than the Federation itself:
“The Rings are not merely gateways. They remember.”
Arthur stood abruptly.
“Get me a direct channel to the Oregon. Priority one.”
