2d48 -> 46
While the buzz surrounding Arcturus made a splash in the media and caught the eye of local Federation administrators, the following geological survey was somewhat underwhelming. The UFS Apollo, a Bubo-class corvette, spent the better part of a week running around the Arcturus Belt and extracting core samples for research, but the samples all suggested that the asteroids were generally unremarkable and wouldn't contribute much to Starfleet's industrial capacities or exploit a particularly uncommon resource. While some of the athletes have speculated about forming a joint project to explore and continue their newfound appreciation for mining, it will be a private endeavor, as Starfleet has decided to focus their resources elsewhere. At the very least, we got the opportunity to film a wonderful recruitment video by giving the athletes a hands-on tour of a Starfleet vessel.
2d48 -> 64 + 15 = 79
Starfleet is no stranger to the unfamiliar, curious, and even downright bizarre; our motto is to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no-one has gone before. However, sometimes, those strange new worlds seek us out, barge in through the back door, and start loudly complaining about our neighbors' choice of pastime.
It appears that the casino was hijacked by a group of extra-dimensional beings known as the Ascetians who have incredibly strong feelings about the recreational bending of luck, believing that the act of defying the odds should be left to extreme situations only and punishing those they believe to be abusing probability. Apparently, they opened a temporal anomaly beneath the casino and reversed the flow of time for the staff and patrons in order to leave them below the legally acceptable age to gamble and ordered Captain Kirk to arrest all present on account of their criminal activity. When he refused, they de-aged the entire crew of the Enterprise and began transmitting a message on all open channels for someone else to come along and put an end to the child gambling ring they had created.
Figuring out how to rewire the Enterprise's deflector dish to invert the polarity of the temporal anomaly and bring everyone back to their proper ages was exceedingly difficult, given that all those responsible for the necessary modifications had the bodies and minds of twelve-year-olds. Thankfully, the Enterprise's computers were unaffected and the crew – now equipped with the learning capabilities of children – were able to re-teach themselves the basics of deflector dish programming over the course of several days while the Captain and First Officer distracted the Ascetians with a combination of excessive arguments and risky physical stunts that caused the higher beings to experience some form of fourth-dimensional migraine. Between the stress of enduring intentionally annoying children and a begrudging respect for the effort involved in de-aging themselves, the Ascetians let the casino be once the anomaly was closed, but warned that future indulgences in the land of chance would be the doom of all the civilizations in the Alpha Quadrant.
2d48 -> 53 + 25 = 78
A Ferengi captain riding into Federation space aboard a heavily modified Klingon cruiser drew significant concern and the Peafowl was immediately dispatched to resolve the issue. Thankfully, the solution was reached before we figured out just how operable the old battlecruiser was; the Ferengi seemed far less belligerent once confronted with Starfleet's flagship. While the colonists have the basic territorial claim to the mine and promised to send Starfleet a premium cut of whatever they extracted, the deceased magnate had accumulated considerable debt to this DaiMon's clients during his explorations of international commerce and the Federation's economy didn't easily accommodate post-death divestments of those assets. Captain Th'achaalrit was able to bring all parties to the table and divide up the resources extracted from the mine between the claimants, with a modest dividend for Starfleet and a stern warning for the Ferengi, who have now returned to their old space.
The case has left some lingering concerns, however; the Ferengi Alliance, up to this point, hasn't been a particularly militarized power, relying on their neutrality, positioning, and dealings with lesser systems to maintain their independence without compromising the sovereignty of their constituent nations. If the Ferengi have access to the Klingon's dregs, the Alliance could become a regional power with force behind their financial exploitation – a formula that tends to spell woe for those on the other end of the capitalist system. It also implies that the Klingons have entered the business of arms dealing – the destabilizing influence of which might be impossible to overstate. When the Romulans are tearing each other apart and the regional powers of the Alpha Quadrant squabble over territorial claims and exacting vengeance for their lost assets, Klingon weaponry flooding the quadrant could bind the lesser powers to the Empire and foment violence across the Quadrant.
2d48 -> 87
This mission has turned out to be a curious case for Starfleet, as the after-action report has been heavily redacted by Starfleet Intelligence with selective briefings on classified material only given to a handful of Admirals. What information has been made generally available is that a Starfleet destroyer conducting training exercises near the border was able to cross into the Neutral Zone and make contact with the Romulan team – a creche of scientists conducting research on extremophile life-forms whose pre-war observation post had just suffered a power core malfunction. Due to the planet's atmosphere, transporters were nonfunctional and the Starfleet vessel had to land* and conduct the evacuation of the outpost manually. The scientists were brought to a starbase for debriefing and temporary relocation to a Federation colony until the war dies down and they can return to Romulus.
*Curiously, the Starfleet ship was only identified as a "destroyer;" however, the Peregrine-class wasn't designed for atmospheric operations, much less punching through a lethally radioactive atmosphere, landing on a planetary surface, and conducting an evacuation – a detail that was likely overlooked by S.I. when redacting classified material.
2d48 -> 51 + 10 = 61
Sometimes, the best news is no news; the repairs to K-C250 were routine and uneventful, with the local crew handling the repairs once the Ukraina had delivered the replacement parts and stood by in low-power to make sure no Cardassians ambushed the station. Once repairs were completed and the station was back online, the Ukraina went out for a routine border patrol before heading back home.
