When the Guns Fall Silent (A Star Trek quest)

Rolls: [4, 3, 8]

Nana releases the patients under observation, and that does help with getting people to positions, but the fact of the matter is that the ship is still under quarantine.

- marine 3, under observation
- marine 4, infected, larval state; step 0; chemical markers decreasing. (1 roll to being cured.) [no progress]
- science crewman, infected, ill; step 0; chemical markers decreasing. (1 roll to being cured.)

The plans help a bit, but you get the impression that finding Kenni is the only thing that will arrest the declining morale issues.

The quarantine beacon is updated, but right now, the probes are revealing something mildly disturbing to you. Somehow, an entire space station has been phased, and you detect a shielded installation down below. It also begins to pick up a Starfleet Badge signature, hidden in in a ravine.

Delarnious advocates getting ready for combat. Dalirath thinks she can calibrate the transporter to find Kenni, assuming he hasn't gotten too infected.

[ ] Calibrate the transporters (may have biohazard issues, will require you to lower shields.)
[ ] Do not calibrate the transporters. Instead, start deep scanning the planet.

Meanwhile, the CAP alters their patrol a bit, and you finally detect something - a comm signal from the station heading north and west. You think about attempting to communicate with them, but Janeway advocates against it - just get Kenni and run. Something that uses biohazards like this is unlikely to be friendly, after all.

[ ] Ready for combat. (??? difficulty.)
[ ] Attempt diplomacy (Extremely difficult.)

Minovsky and Dalirath are discussing ways to secure the ship against, say, hostile parasite beam in, or lack of containment in Sickbay.

Pick 2:
[ ] Re-inforcement forcefields (Medium Science, Easy Eng, mild power drain)
[ ] Hostile Parasite Phase Field (Hard Science, Medium Eng, less power drain)
[ ] Phased Phasers (No penalty to damage, Medium Science, Medium Eng)

Do you do anything else?
[ ] Write In Plan

Status:
All but 2 on-ship staff cured
Kenni status ???

So: I admit I'm running out of ideas, and what I think I need to do is take a week's vacation once we finish this episode and come up with an arc. But on that note..



Rolls: [10, 9]

At this point, no one is infected on ship, and the ship (aside from the sickbay deck) goes down to Biohazard Two. This does help a bit, and, you can feel the relief from various ships crew.

(Morale now +0 due to no infected on board.)

Science is busy with activity, as they set up and test experiments as they can manage.

[Various Rolls; 13/16s science 14/12s engineering]

It takes science... some time to come up with a field that makes your ship hostile to parasites. And, they note, forces anything on that pahse to fall into main phase or just die.

You note that with some apprehension, and enable it. They also come up with a new phaser emitter array tha allows you to phase your phasers - and means that rotating frequencies and quantum resonances are much easier. Going forward, Wentian seems giddy about the ability to more tune phasers to the enemy.

Nadeshiko, for her part, is not as encouraged, but she admits that's because she wants to do testing.

This is all sidetracked by Minovsky suddenly reporting that Kenni's life-sign is visible on surface. He's beamed immediately to Isolation Ward Three, the ship goes to Biohazard Three, and Dr. Nana begins treating him. It appears he's been oscillating between Steps 1 and 2 for this entire time, and something about his biology is fighting off the parasite's effects.

(Morale rises to +1 with the recovery of Kenni.)

You are as ready as possible for combat, but..

You could hang around and wait for a ship.. but really, Janeway advises, you should just leave.

Delarnious feels you should stay, to teach these aliens they cannot do this without consequence, but Nadeshiko offers tempered advice. She agrees, but points out that the station alone is the match of the ship, and short of rigging long-range torpedos, and with no knowledge if there are hidden stationary defenses, or hidden ships, you might get into a fight you cannot survive.

Janeway, for her part, thinks you should avoid combat with unknown species who may not be aware of what they're doing, which prompts pushback from Minovsky and Dalirath about the complexity of the phasing mechanism requiring deliberate engineering.


[ ] Do you leave?
[ ] Do you stay?

Regardless, you also shoot out a quarantine beacon.

You leave the system soon after, and just in time, as a squadron of ships - all tiny, and Nadeshiko is very sure she could have taken them individually, but is not entirely sure about them working as a swarm - warp in.

They are fast - but not as fast as your maximum, and you soon outrun them. There's some changes in course by Talonis to shake them off, but you find yourself able to report to Nechayev soon after. After she listens to your report, she's silent a bit, and then nods.

"You're going to rendezvous with a task force then. We need to investigate this and make First Contact.. and teach them that this is a mistake, if they choose to be hostile. I'll send coordinates, and it'll be a few weeks before I can get a force out there, so I'd recommend continuing surveying."

You nod, and she cuts out after assuring you that she'd have done the same. Something's off out here, and that's normal for the frontier. But it's good to know you have backup.

Especially if you're going into a system likely to be fortifying itself. With that thought, you continue on to the next few systems while you wait for word from Command. You also hear that Personnel would REALLY like you to detach Wentian to the SCE - where, you admit, if she had good oversight, she'd be good there, and you're guaranteed to keep your current ACEO. Janeway's posting to a CO billet of her own is coming up soon, and you think she deserves it. Personnel is letting it be up to you if you want to promote an officer to XO or request one. If you promote an officer you may need to request a replacement, although every department has someone that could, to a lesser or greater extent, replace them.

Even Nadeshiko, as much as she's a tactical prodigy, has someone she thinks could fill her role pretty good. You probably shouldn't promote Dr. Nana though - you're almost certain she'd reject it.

Downtime:
- You have 5 points to spend on your crew. For this turn, this is a flat +1 to an stat. You cannot go above +3 with these points.

- You can spend 10 points across all of your officers. Remember you are likely to lose Wentian, Janeway, and Dalirath soon. You cannot go above +5 on any character at this moment, and for this turn,it's a flat +1 to a stat.

- You can spend 2 points on yourself.

- You can also spend 4 actions. These actions can be just downtime activities, adding a +1 to a stat on the ship for the next mission (1 action per), or working on doctrine for a guaranteed success next mission (1 action per, state the doctrine, please give an explanation.)

This turn ends on Friday. Please have a personnel plan by then too, thanks!