MIDNIGHT SUN: Prologue

"Deep Space Nine Control, this is the freighter Jolan True requestingpermission for transport through the wormhole." [Jolan True,] came the response, [this is DS9 Control. Hold your position while we clear you.] Captain Elysane Kahza leaned back in her chair at the helm of the smallspace craft and streched. Hopefully, this wasn't going to take to long. "Wow!" said the young Bajoran seated beside her. "Our first trip to theGamma Quadrant. I can hardly wait!" Elysane rolled her eyes and held back the comment that had immediately jumped into her mind. "It's hardly my first trip there, Chaz. I was born there, remember?" "Oh yeah! What's it like?" She tossed back her long mane of thick, black hair over the back of the chair's headrest. "Not much different from here, I'm afraid. We'll have to keep an eye out for the Jem'Hadar, though." "Jem'Hadar?" he said with a slightly mocking tone. "Come on, we can take'em easy!" She slowly shook her head and berated herself for the millionth time forever taking him on as her First Mate. What had she been thinking? "You want me to do anything while we wait?" he asked excitedly. "I don't know...why don't you go play with a fusion reactor or something." "Check on the Impulse system? Aye, aye, Captain!" He gave her a saluteand bolted for the Engineering section. "No wonder that idiot got kicked out of Starfleet," she mumbled to herself as she shook her head quietly. She remembered thinking that he waskind of cute in and innocent sort of way when she'd first met him on Bajor,a few months back. She'd seduced him and. after a brief night of passion(Oh, how brief it was), had intended to depart without another word, just asshe always did. But, as she was stepping out the door and saw thatteary-eyed look he'd given her, she couldn't help but feel overwhelmed withguilt, so she'd taken him on as her First Mate. Biggest mistake she'd evermade. "I must be getting soft," she murmured aloud, shaking her head again. As a First Mate, Galen Chaz was utterly worthless. [Jolan True,] came a voice through the comm, snapping Elysane out of herthoughts. [You are cleared for transport through the wormhole. May theProphets guide your journey.] "Acknowledged," she said, and added "Yah, whatever," as she switched offthe comm. She leaned forward, and let her dark red hands caress the Flight Controlsin an almost obscene manner. "Here we go," she said as she engaged the Impulse drive and made for the wormhole. She just hoped that this old freighter was what that Romulan merchant had said it would be. The sensors indicated a sudden increase in neutrino activity just as thewormhole exploded open in front of small freighter. She had always beenawed by that shight, and it still had the same effect on her even after allthese years. Such incredible power in so small an area, it was simply incredible. If she could only talk to these 'Prophets' and get them to sell her this kind of technology; she'd be on the gravy train for life. Ah, well.A girl's got to have dreams. The cockpit was flooded with blue-white light as the Jolan True enteredthe wormhole and began its journey to the Gamma Quadrant. Turning her seatto her left, she looked at the nav computer. If memory served, the TelerisCluster possessed planets which were rich in Promethean Quartz Crystals. Ifshe could land a full shipment of those babies, she'd have nothing to worryabout for at least a year, maybe two. With that in mind, she made thenecessary adjustments to the navcomp to take them to the stellar cluster. A red light blinked on the Flight Control panel as the panel chimed,indicating that the ship's internal com had been activated. Grumbling, sheslapped the panel. "What is it, Chaz?" [Just reporting in that impulse propulsion in hunky-dory, Captain!] camethe staticky reply. "That's nice, Chaz," she said, her voice filled with annoyance. "You stay there and...er...keep an eye on things." [Sure thing, Captain!] She slapped the intercom panel again before Chaz could say anything more.'I really have to fire him,' she thought to herself as she made the finaladjustments to their course. Light breifly exploded into the cockpit as the Jolan True exited subspaceand soared back into sublight. Elysane quickly checked the sensors and wasrelieved to see that there were no ships in the vicinity, Jem'Hadar or otherwise. Before she had shifted her operations to the Alpha Quadrant,she'd had more encounters with the Jem'Hadar then she'd care to remember, andshe had no desire to repeat the experience. She tapped the intercom panel once again. "Chaz, we're out of the wormhole. RUn a quick diagnostic on the warp core and get up here; I don'twant to hang around in on place for too long." [Okey-doke, Captain!] She rolled her eyes and deactivated the comm. Moving her hands over theFlight Controls, she proceeded to link the warp controls to the navcomp; thecourse was fairly simple, and the navcomp shouldn't have any kind of trouble with it. She would be able to sit back and relax during the entire eighthour trip, just as long as she kept an eye on the core. She still hadn't quite gotten the knack for the artificial quantum singularity power sourcewith the Jolan True utilized, but, besides that, the systems on the freighterwere all pretty familiar. SHe was abruptly brought out of her thoughts as Chaz rushed into thecockpit and jumped into the chair beside her. "Warp Core checks out, Captain!" he huffed. "All right. We're ready to go." "Hoo boy!" She turned to him. "Sure Chaz," she said sarcastically, "'Hoo boy'." Turning back to the Flight console, she engaged the Warp Engines. Thestars outside the canopy erupted into a thousand streaks of light as theJolan True exploded into warp, headed for the Teleris Cluster. "Well," Elysane said as she got up from her chair, "I'm going to catcha nap. Keep an eye on the engines, Chaz, and call me if anything out of theordinary happens. Anything at all. Understand?" "Aye, aye, Captain." She sighed as she departed the cockpit for the acceleration bunks. Maybe she was out of her mind for leaving that idiot in charge of her starship, but she hadn't slept for at least twenty-four hours. If she didn't get some sleep soon, she was going to be as useless as he was. Stripping off her clothes, she settled into her bunk and was asleep before her head hit the pillow.
Captain Elysane Kahza was awakened rather rudely as she impacted withthe hard, metallic floor of the freighter. "OW!" she yelled as her head followed her body and bashed into the coldsurface. Dazed, she scambled up to her feet and stumbled out of the meagerliving area of the Jolan True and into the cockpit. As the bulkhead to the cockpit opened, Chaz turned to her. "Captian, Idon't-" The words died in his throat as he gazed upon her nudity. "You don't what? I thought I told you to keep an eye on those engines!What the hell happened?!?" "Captain!" he stuttered. Realizing that she hadn't put on any clothes before departing the bunkroom, she decided to ignore the fact and jumped into her chair. The starlight of real space glittered off her deep red skin. "Get over it, Chaz!For Kren's sake, it's not like you haven't seen it before! Now, Report!" Embaressed, her turned away from her and focussed on the controls. "Warp drive was fine, but then we suddenly dropped back into to sublight." "Why?!?" "I'm trying to find out...Aha!" "What is it?" "The navigational computer cut out the warp drive rather suddenly forsome reason." "I'd noticed," she muttered as she rubbed the bump on her head. Whatshe wanted to know was why. "He we are," Chaz continued. "The Navigational Array detected a spatialdistortion in our flight path. It cut out the warp drive to avoid collision." 'Serves me right for getting a cheap navcomp," she thought to herself.More advanced nav systems would have simply altered the flight path, thethe Jolan True's system wasn't sophisticated enough to do that. "Are we still moving?" she asked. "Yes," Chaz answered, "on Impulse." Elysae's fingers danced along the console in front of her as she beganas sensor scan of this 'distortion'. She wanted to know what the hell exactlyhad dropped out of warp so abruptly. "Wait a second," she muttered, more to herself then to Chaz. "That's nodistortion...it's a starship!" "Huh?" was Chaz's graceful reaction. "Look," she said, grabbing him by the collar and forcing his face to theconsole. "See?" "But...but that's impossible! Sensor logs show that it was a distortion!" "Well, it ain't a distortion now." She tossed him back into his chair."I'm taking us in for a closer look. It doesn;t seem to be moving, but I can't get a decent scan; we're too far away." Her fingers played along thecontrols as she increased the freighter's speed. "Chaz, keep up that scan.As soon as you see anything useful, let me know." "Aye-" "And don't 'Aye, Capatin' me! This isn't a Starfleet ship you know!" "Yes, Captain," he said dejectedly as he continued the scan. Sighing inwardly, Elysane disengaged the navcomp from the warp controlsand engaged the warp drive manually. This kind of piloting took an immenseamount of concentration as there were hundreds of small adjustments to bemade, and she had to keep the warp fields integral without computer assistance. The sweat began to bead on her brow as she fought to keep theJolan True moving at faster then light speeds. "I've got something!" Chaz yelled excitedly. "Even intensive scans can'tpenetrate the hull, but I've got an external reading." Dropping the Jolan True back into sublight, Elysane turned to him andasked to see it. Chaz played with the controls, and an external schematic ofthe myserious vessel replaced the view of the stars on the port section ofthe canopy. Elysane glanced at it as she continued to pilot the freighter onImpulse. The ship was about one hundred and eighty metres long in total. Twolong mandibles extended in front of the vessel for half of its length, anda stabilizing fin and two wings, angled downwards, protruded from the ship,indicating that it was capable of atmospheric flight. Not including the wings, the ship was about twenty-six or so metres wide, and about sixteenmetres in height. The sleek design of the vessel hinted that it was designedprimarily for speed and maneuverability; it had probably been some kind of customs ship, or perhaps a pirate vessel. "Anything yet?" she asked Chaz impatiently. "No. Even at close range, our sensors can't penetrate the hull. Itjust seems to distort our sensor emissions. I'm reading a power source, though." "What kind?" she asked as she cursed the old freighter's primative sensors inwardly. "I'm not sure, the signature is distorted. It looks something like ours." "A quantum singularity?" "I think so. We're close enough for a visual." "Lemme see it." With a few control adjustments from Chaz, the schematic was replaced witha view of the vessel. It looked like the previous impression, except that itwas matte black in colour, so it was difficult to make out against the background of deep space. The colour, added with the stealth capability, wasleading her to believe more and more that it had been a pirate ship of somekind. It was the quantum singularity thing that was throwing her for a loop.What pirtate could ever scounge up the resource for a singularity powersource? She turned away from the screen ad back to Chaz. "When will we be intransporter range?" "About five minutes...you're not going over there, are you?" "Damn right, I am. That baby might be deserted, and if it is, it's mine." "You can't just take a derelect vessel!" "There's an old Ferengi saying, Chaz; 'Finders' Keepers''." "Actually, I think that's from-" "Shut up! I'm going to grab an environment suit. Let me know when we're in range." She stood up and departed the cockpit for the storage lockers.
The green glow of the transporter illuminated the interior of the darkened vessel as Elysane materialized inside of it. As she'd feared, theartificial gravity as well as life support was offline. She was glad thatthe magnetic boots which her environment suit was supplied with were active;floating about in zero gravity always made her queasy. Clicking on the light on her sensor wristband, she took a look around.'The kid finally did something right,' she thought to herself as she saw what looked to be the Engineering section. She had asked Chaz to drop her near thepower source they had detected, and he had done just that. She could hear the faint hum of the warp core even through the minimal atmosphere and herenvironmental suit. "I'm here, Chaz," she repoarted. "Are you getting the readings from thesensorband?" [Affirmative, Captain. That sensor refraction effect seems to be limitedto the exterior hull. You're definately in Engineering; the power readings tell us that.] "Thanks for the update, Mister Perception," she said sarcastically. Sheactivated the screen on her sensorband so she could see what Chaz was pickingup. Of course, what he was seeing was linked to the Jolan True's computer, so he could probably filter more garbage out then she could. Ah, well. Witha few adjustments, she commenced scanning the vessel. The power source, which was indeed an artifical quantum singularity, wasactive, as it couldn't be shut down. However, all other systems were eitherpowered down or offline. The readings indicated that no one had been in thevessel for sometime, and this puzzled her slightly. There didn't seem to havebeen any kind of damage, so the vessel hadn't been abondoned in a battle, andthere certainly weren't any bodies in the immediate vicinity. Why had theship been deserted? Picking her way through the cramped Engineering section, she discoveredthe environmental controls and activated them. A sharp hiss echoed throughoutthe ship as dormant air filters pumped atmosphere back into the vessel, andshe fought to keep her arms from dropping as the gravity suddenly kicked in.The panel indicated that the ship would be fully repressurized in a fewminutes, so she decided to check the usage logs while she waited. 'Hmmm..this is strange,' she thought as the log displayed itself on thesmall monitor. According to the readout, the computer has disengaged theLife Support systems after the internal sensors had registered no life forms aboards for...ONE YEAR! "Kren's Resurrection!" she muttered aloud as she continued to backtrack through the record. Indeed, the last adjustment madeprior to that had been a year and a half previous, and the computer had cutlife support over four years ago to conserve power. [What was that?] "Don't worry about it. Are environmental systems up yet?" [Yep. The air should be breathable, Captain.] Relieved, she took of her helmet and shook out her long hair. She hated the confinement of environmental suits, but she'd had little choice. Immediately, she was hit by a wave of stale air, and she started coughing wildly. [Captain? You okay?] came Chaz's worried voice through the comm in herhelmet. Still coughinh, she activated the comm on her sensorband. "I'm hackfine, Chaz. Just stale cough air." Once she'd recovered and adjusted to the atmosphere, she figured she'dstart by powering up all ship's systems. Starting with the Computer, she wasquickly annoyed to discover that it contained no voice interface; everything would have to be done manually or via direct interface. She powered up thelighting systems and telled as she was blinded by the sudden light. Once her eyes had adjusted, she found a remote accress pad and powered up the remaining systems. "I'm gonna take a look around." [Okey-doke, Captain!] Elysane pulled up a schematic of the vessel on the datapad while continueing to scan with the sensorband. The Bridge was located two decks down, in the forward section, so she decided to start there. While she walked along the corridor, she was disconcerted to discover no trace of the ship'sprevious crew. Not even DNA traces. It was like they'd never existed. Sure,the deactivation of Life Support would have removed most of the DNA residue,but everything? It was damned strange. She halted when she came to a door. Glancing at the schematic, shenoted that this was where the lift should be, but, when she opened the door,there was nothing there. "Fantastic," she muttered as she peered down theshaft. It was circular and just over three feet wide, with rungs down bothsides. When her head was in the shaft, she noticed her hair start to flailabout wildly. "Son of a bitch!" [What?] "No turbolifts. The grav net is suspended in the access shafts to makegoing up and down easier. Flaming brilliant!" Even Elysane could respect agood piece of Engineering when she saw it. Why, the power conservation alonewould be tremendous. "I'm heading down to the Bridge, Chaz," she told him."Keep me posted." She descended until she reached the fifth and final deck of the vessel,and opened the hatch. As she re-adjusted to the gravity, she stepped out intowhat looked to be a cargo bay. It was of fair size, but seemed to be mostlyempty, with the exception of a partially opened container that sat in themiddle of the bay. Well, she would have more time for an extensive search ofthe ship later. She deaprted the bay, heading for the forward section of theship. She walked along a short corridor, and entered into what she guessed wasa briefing room. Quickly passing through it, she entered the Bridge. Theauxilliary lights were active, bathing the control room in a reddish glow.The first thing that struck Elysane was the one hundred and eighty degreesemi-circular window which ran along the front side of the circular Bridge,giving it an open view of the stars. There were two stations placed at the front of the Bridge, near the window, and a chair positioned directly behindand between these two stations. The back wall curved to meet the forward one,and it was covered with various panels and cpntrol consoles, the majority ofwhich seemed to focused on Engineering functions. 'Yep, this is a transportif I ever saw one.' She walk to the centre of the Bridge and seated herself in the centralchair, which she guessed was the Captain's position. As soon as she sat down,a semi-circular panel swung out from behind the chair and slid in front ofher with a hiss, halting with a gap of six or so inches from the far arm of the chair. Elysane was alarmed at first, thinking that this was some kind ofrestraining device, but she quickly realized that it was in fact a commandconsole of some sort. If her guess was right, this panel could probably override all other functions on the ship. Putting the datapad down on the console, she attempted to access it.However, she paused a few moments later when it asked for a command passcode. "Damn," she muttered. "Chaz, if I link the sensorband with a console,would the True's computer be able to break a passcode?" [It should be able to, but it might take awhile.] "Allright. I'll tell you when." SHe reached into the small satchel byher side and pulled out a small optical wire, plugging it into her wristbandonce it was free. She picked up the other end and begand to search for aninput jack on the console. After a few minutes, she finally found it, andjacked the sensorband into the command console. "Okay, Chaz. Tell the computer to do it's thing." [Sure thing, Captain!] The band began to hum, and she removed it from her wrist, informing Chazthat she was going to see what she could find out about the ship from thelogs. After all, she had some time to kill...
"Finally!" she exclaimed when the sensorband started beeping, indicatingthat the code had finally been broken. Two hours of reviewing old sensor andusuage logs was enough to drive anyone to distraction, and she still hadn't found anything useful. It seemed that the Captain and crew logs could only be accessed vis passcodes or the command console. Hopefully, she'd be able to find some answers now. [I've got your passcode, Captain. It's Steele-Beta-Epsilon-Kai-Omega-Three.] She shook her head as she entered the code into the console. She'dthought that only the Military, like Starfleet and the Cardassians, were paranoid enough to use complicated codes like that. She shrugged to herself,and was relieved when the console indicated that she had access. Quicklyscrolling through the commands available, she accessed the ship's logs. "This is strange..." she muttered as she read the text records. [What is it, Captain?] "Well, it seems like everything was fine just before the crew disappeared. It looks like the Captain used to be some guy named ArlenSteele, and the only thing he mentions-" [Arlen Steele?] "Yah. The only thing he mentions is that they took on some kinda really expensive cargo, and that they were being paid a bundle for it. The navlogs show that their destination was DS9, and then they were headed for Federation space. Maybe they got double-crossed or someth-" [You mean THE Arlen Steele?] "What's with the fixation, Chaz? Who the hell is Arlen Steele?" Shewas becoming annoyed at him, yet again, and it was showing though in hervoice. "Am I supposed to know the name or something?" [He was one of the Maquis's best Captains when they first got startedabout forty years ago. The story says that he had some big falling out withthe Maquis so he left for the Gamma Quadrant with one of their ships twentyyears back.] "Well, he was here about five years ago." [Then this must be the ship he stole.] "Stole?" she asked, raising an eyebrow even though Chaz couldn't see it. [Yep. Stole. He took the best transport before he left for parts unknown. No one ever heard from him since, and he was presumed dead.] "I'd say that's a pretty accurate presumption," she said, thinking aloud.She paused for a moment. "Chaz, just how do you know all of this?" [The story is almost legendary amoung the spacers on Bajor. I've heard about Arlen Steele ever since I was a child; the tragic story about theStarfleet Captain who struck a devestating blow against the Cardassians andthen betrayed the people he fought for.] "Yah, yah. Very tragic." SHe paused for a moment again. "Did you say, Starfleet?" [Yep, he was a Starfleet Captain before joining the Maquis. Or so thestory goes, anyway.] She breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing she needed was Starfleet breathing down her neck about this ship. Taking a quick glance around, shesaid "Well, whoever he was, he sure ain't here now. Chaz, do you realizewhat kind of find a vessel like this is? This is the big time!" [Captain, surely you can't be thinking of taking this ship! What aboutthe Teleris Cluster?] "To hell with the Teleris Cluster! We're talking some major latinum ifwe can get this puppy going." [But, Captain, we can't desecrate the graves of those who died on thatship. We must leave their spirits in peace!] "Cut the spiritual crap, Chaz. In any event, we don't even know if thecrew died here. There's no bodies or anything." [But-] "No buts, Chaz. This baby's mine now." She glanced around again, looking for a dedication plaque of some kind. If the former Captain of thisship, they probably had one. Ah, there it is. "The Midnight Sun," she said,saying the vessel's name aloud. "I like that." [Captain, I can't be a party to-] "Fine, Chaz," she interrupted. "You stay on the True and I'll fly MYship back to DS9. When we get to the wormhole, we'll tow her through." [I-] "Just do it, Chaz," she said in a menacing voice. With that he finallyshut up, and, using the command console to control the ship's functions, she warmed up the warp field coils, awaking them from their long dormant state,and prepared the Midnight Sun for interstellar travel.
Elysane strode down the Promenade of DS9, taking in the wide variety ofbeings and cultures there. She and Chaz had taken the Midnight Sun throughthe wormhole vis tractor-beam, and had docked the corvette manually. Chazwas still running down the post-flight check on the Jolan True as Elysanewandered along the Promenade, and she wondered how she was going to breakthe news to him that she was selling the True and, more importantly, that hewas fired. She turned a corner and found what she was looking for, namely Nog's Bar.She'd met the Ferengi who owned and operated the establishment a few yearsback, just after he'd bought the bar from his uncle. While he was a slipperylittle guy, as most Ferengi were, he had the contacts that Elysane needed toditch the Jolan True and crew her new ship. As she entered the establishment she noticed, to her amusement that mostof the patrons scambled to get out of her way. Admittedly she was reasonablytall at six foot two, and somewhat intimidating to look at, given her golden'cat' eyes, she imagined that is was probably the reputation of her race, theJ'Roc that preceded her. Many had compared the J'Roc to the Klingons, as they possessed a similar genetic makeup, but culturally, the two were lightyears apart. She wandered up to the bar, waving to the Ferengi proprieter as she did so. "'lo Nog," she started. "Been a long time." "Kahza," he responded with a nod as he finished serving a drink to a large alien and maneuvered himself in front of her. "Listen, Nog. I won't beat around the Nebula. I need a favour." "What kind of favour?" he asked suspiciously. "I need to sell the Jolan True and crew a new ship I aquired." "Sell that old Romulan frieghter? That's not going to be easy. I warnedyou when you were thinking about buying it..." "I remember quite clearly, Nog, and I'm very aware of the premium you charge, so there's no need to feign on my account." "Always on the ball, eh Kahza?" the Ferengi said, giving Elysane a toothygrin. "I guess I can get that old rust bucket sold for you. What type of ship have you 'acquired'?" "What does that matter?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "It matters quite a bit. In order for me to put the word out for you,I'll need to know exactly what kind of vessel you need a crew for." "Fair enough," she said. "It's a Boryhas class corvette. She crews about fifty-two, not including myself." "What about that whelp you call a First Mate?" "How do you know about that?!?" "Word gets around." "I won't be needing him anymore," she said with an element of disgust inher voice. For a vessel like the Midnight Sun, she was going to need a competant First Mate, not Chaz. Nog nodded, pondering what she had told him. "A Boryhas class corvetteyou say? Never heard of it." "It's called the Midnight Sun." Nog's face dropeed as she said the name, and he quickly slapped his handagainst her mouth to prevent her from saying anything further. Taking a quick glance around to ensure that they hadn't attracted any undue attention,he whispered to her to come to the back. Once there, he let her speak again. "What they hell did you do that for!" she yelled, her mouth stillsmarting a little from the impact. "Why, I have a mind to-" "You found the Midnight Sun?!?" he whispered, cutting her off from hertirade. "Never mind, I don't want to know how. Just be careful not to saythat name to loudly around here." "Why?" "That ship's a legend in these parts. Scored some major victories against the Cardassians until some Starfleet Captain stole it and vacated tothe Gamma Quadrant. The Maquis looked for that ship for ten years before finally giving up." "That's a very nice story, Nog," she said, putting her hands on her hips."Now, are you going to help me or not." "This is pretty sensitive. I don't know..." "I'll pay you double your normal premium, and I'll throw in some personalitems I found on the ship. How's that?" She watched with satisfaction ashis eyes glazed over with the thought of profit. Inwardly, she gave her thanks to Kren that the Midnight Sun had had a few containers full of latinumin it's hold when she'd found it. It was the only way she was ever going tobe able to cover this. "It's settled, then," she said before he could give a verbal response."Have any prospective crew contact me directly. I'll pay you half now, and half before I leave the station." "Half?" he asked incredulously. "Half. I need to make sure that you don't waste my time." The Ferengi gave a look of surprise. "Kahza, I'm shocked. After all this time, you still don't trust me?" "No," she said, and she turned and walked out. As she stepped back into the bar, she found a two person table and seatedherself, ordering an ale from a passing barmaid. Bringing up her wrist, sheactivated the comm on her sensorband. "Chaz, you there?" [Yes, Elysane.] Elysane? That was the first time he'd used her first name. Before ithad always been 'Miss Kahza' or 'Captain Kahza', which had then been shortenedto 'Captain'. But never Elysane. Shrugging, she continued. "Chaz, I havesomething to tell you..." [I was about to contact you. I wanted to tell you that I've been hiredto another ship. Isn't that great? Good luck! I'll see you around thegalaxy. Chaz out.] "WHAT?!?" she yelled after this had finally sunk in, garnering her the attention of the patrons around her. How could that little bastard quitbefore she had the chance to fire him! How could he do this to her? Afterall they'd been through together? "Fine," she muttered aloud as the barmaid brought her her ale. She tossed her a slip of latinum and took a drink of the ale. "Have a nice lifeyou son of a bitch." Draining the rest of her ale, she ordered another, and awaited thearrival of her first applicant.
Jason Kee
eclipse@ionsys.com