To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)
- Thread starter OneirosTheWriter
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- star trek exploration fully automated luxury gay space communism top level canon (canon) #hashtagcontent all-encompassing space amoeba cardassian boy bands cardassian magical girls darkest bureaucracy debate makes the qm cackle like palpatine hoh is an empire quest it has to be foreign infiltrators more ships ship happens singers delenda est starfleet this is not an empire quest ur waifu is collective?
pbluekan
Somethin's Fucky ...
- Location
- Trumpistan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Theunderbolt
"Prepare for trouble..."
- Location
- USoA
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Nervos Belli
Don't think this means you've won!
- Location
- Murica
Sorry boss. I'll just ignore him next time.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Well then, let me bounce the question back to you:
Suppose you were trying to design a scientifically plausible ecosystem in which active predation by large land animals was minimized. Not necessarily zero, but minimized, with any large land animals that do exhibit predatory behavior being relatively less aggressive (i.e. scavengers who will occasionally opportunistically finish off a crippled prey animal).
What would you do to make this happen?
Theunderbolt
"Prepare for trouble..."
- Location
- USoA
Don't you need a predator species to keep the herbivores from overtaking the land by over population?
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Not necessarily. There can be other factors that have similar effects, at least in principle. Infectious diseases, transmissible parasites, and so on.
- Location
- Tulsa Oklahoma
Sorry, I merely wish for the prime directive to be ironclad, otherwise what is the point of its existence if nobody respects it? I was also considering a loophole to add to the prime directive so that "in cases where events would result in the complete cessation of life on a world in a way that is outside of the control of the lifeforms upon said planet, then the prime directive is no longer applicable." I call it the Ark exemption, named for the mythical Noah's Ark.
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
I imagine the Prime Directive would be attempted-to-be-adhered to in that event, where we would try to resolve events leading to annihilation in a manner with the least influence on the culture.
Like a mega-asteroid would have us discretely tractor the asteroid into an orbit that doesn't have it collide with the planet.
Like a mega-asteroid would have us discretely tractor the asteroid into an orbit that doesn't have it collide with the planet.
Night
Widow Null
- Location
- Hoff
Very few things are ironclad. There are always edge cases and bizarre circumstances.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Yes. And the big drawback of "ironclad rules" with extremely harsh penalties for violation is that you don't have the flexibility to respond intelligently when one of those edge cases appears.
Thus, the Qin Dynasty's rules about soldiers being late to their posts were probably drawn up by someone a lot like ThoughtMaster, who presumably said something a lot like "I just want the rules to be ironclad to make sure no one thinks they can get away with being late to their duty assignment. Why even bother having a rule saying soldiers are supposed to show up on time, if nobody respects it?"
So he wrote a rule saying that showing up late to your duty assignment was punishable by death.
And presumably, he didn't consider that sooner or later, someone is going to be delayed for a reason that isn't their fault. And if you establish a custom of unfailingly, inflexibly executing people for things that aren't their fault, they'll start rebelling rather than submitting to your authority.
Or they'll start conspiring to conceal their own mistakes, which in the long run is MUCH worse than any specific 'crime' they might commit. Think about the Soviet factory system where the penalty for your factory not meeting quota could be "the factory manager gets shot for sabotage." Guess what happened? Every time anything went wrong with the factory, or every time a bureaucrat accidentally assigned an impossible quota, the factory managers started lying about their output or cheating to inflate their output. They had to, in self-defense... but as a result, no one had accurate information about the state of the Soviet economy. You can't know what's going on if your subordinates are terrified of the consequences of telling you.
Which would be worse for Starfleet in the long run, violating the Prime Directive over a single world? Or having our captains get into the habit of routinely doctoring their captain's logs and other relevant records to make themselves look like the innocent parties whenever anything questionable happens, for fear of the consequences to their shipmates if they get in trouble? Probably the latter.
In a sane system with more flexibility and fewer ultra-harsh legalistic penalties, this kind of thing happens a lot less... precisely because while people respect and usually obey the law, they do not fear and avoid the law. They can trust that the system will be sane and merciful if they do something illegal without intending to do harm.
[Because seriously, what other purpose is served by the "if a ship violates the Prime Directive we treat the crew as mutineers and the ship as a pirate ship?"]
I mean... you do perceive this basic fact, right? That there are ways to enforce laws and policies that involve flexibility and discretion? And that ultra-harsh, ultra-inflexible punishments are often NOT the best way to ensure that a policy is enforced?
Yes, or no, do you understand that, @ThoughtMaster ?
Thus, the Qin Dynasty's rules about soldiers being late to their posts were probably drawn up by someone a lot like ThoughtMaster, who presumably said something a lot like "I just want the rules to be ironclad to make sure no one thinks they can get away with being late to their duty assignment. Why even bother having a rule saying soldiers are supposed to show up on time, if nobody respects it?"
So he wrote a rule saying that showing up late to your duty assignment was punishable by death.
And presumably, he didn't consider that sooner or later, someone is going to be delayed for a reason that isn't their fault. And if you establish a custom of unfailingly, inflexibly executing people for things that aren't their fault, they'll start rebelling rather than submitting to your authority.
Or they'll start conspiring to conceal their own mistakes, which in the long run is MUCH worse than any specific 'crime' they might commit. Think about the Soviet factory system where the penalty for your factory not meeting quota could be "the factory manager gets shot for sabotage." Guess what happened? Every time anything went wrong with the factory, or every time a bureaucrat accidentally assigned an impossible quota, the factory managers started lying about their output or cheating to inflate their output. They had to, in self-defense... but as a result, no one had accurate information about the state of the Soviet economy. You can't know what's going on if your subordinates are terrified of the consequences of telling you.
Which would be worse for Starfleet in the long run, violating the Prime Directive over a single world? Or having our captains get into the habit of routinely doctoring their captain's logs and other relevant records to make themselves look like the innocent parties whenever anything questionable happens, for fear of the consequences to their shipmates if they get in trouble? Probably the latter.
In a sane system with more flexibility and fewer ultra-harsh legalistic penalties, this kind of thing happens a lot less... precisely because while people respect and usually obey the law, they do not fear and avoid the law. They can trust that the system will be sane and merciful if they do something illegal without intending to do harm.
Because there is a HUGE gap between "nobody respects it" and "we try to enforce it through ultra-harsh legalistic principles in hopes that officers will betray and imprison/murder their own captains if said captains decide to even risk violating the Prime Directive."
[Because seriously, what other purpose is served by the "if a ship violates the Prime Directive we treat the crew as mutineers and the ship as a pirate ship?"]
I mean... you do perceive this basic fact, right? That there are ways to enforce laws and policies that involve flexibility and discretion? And that ultra-harsh, ultra-inflexible punishments are often NOT the best way to ensure that a policy is enforced?
Yes, or no, do you understand that, @ThoughtMaster ?
Again with the Boolean "on/off" logic. Would it not make more sense to say "The Prime Directive applies, but the goal is to preserve life on the planet in the fashion most consistent with the Prime Directive?" I mean, you could easily blow up an asteroid threatening to wipe out all life on a planet with a Bronze Age civilization, without the Bronze Agers ever knowing about it. Boom, the Prime Directive is upheld, at least in the "no contact and no interference in local culture" sense.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Hard and fast rules certainly appeal to me, but that sort of thing is best in a system with a small, clearly defined set of possibilities that can be evaluated in advance. Going out to explore the great unknown is essentially the antithesis of that, so flexibility is paramount.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
It's like, if the Prime Directive wasn't being taken seriously, then in most of the "Very Special Prime Directive Episodes" we see, the cast would just be all like "ahahaha, no," and completely ignore it.
To take Pen Pals as an example... Picard is, on the whole, a very humane man. Can you seriously tell me for even a moment that he would remotely consider not saving a planet from a natural disaster under normal circumstances? I wouldn't believe it for a moment myself. Not unless there was some countervailing principle that he took very, very seriously.
No one, or at least no one who's part of the Starfleet mainstream, is laughing or sneering at the Prime Directive. They may be breaking it, but on the whole they're breaking it in situations where it isn't their fault, or where that's obviously the right thing to do. In which case those are exactly the situations in which they shouldn't be punished.
To take Pen Pals as an example... Picard is, on the whole, a very humane man. Can you seriously tell me for even a moment that he would remotely consider not saving a planet from a natural disaster under normal circumstances? I wouldn't believe it for a moment myself. Not unless there was some countervailing principle that he took very, very seriously.
No one, or at least no one who's part of the Starfleet mainstream, is laughing or sneering at the Prime Directive. They may be breaking it, but on the whole they're breaking it in situations where it isn't their fault, or where that's obviously the right thing to do. In which case those are exactly the situations in which they shouldn't be punished.
Forgothrax
Not Going Gently
- Pronouns
- He/Him
As a registered nurse, one of the major currents in the hospital business has been for institutions to create a "just culture." In a just culture, we don't punish people for mistakes, or harm that may be caused in an honest attempt to do the right thing unless someone is judged to behave recklessly. Punishing people for those things just incentives them to not get caught, or creates other perverse incentives.
al103
Grumpy Russian Bear (SV edition)
- Location
- Russia, Krasnoyarsk
*Sigh*
That one was mostly opposite. Non-political shooting factory management started exactly because of cover-ups. And they reappered only after practice was stopped.
Also just plain honest failing quotes and reporting that met mostly with demotion. (Like in "Great Officer Purge" (TM) majority got either demotion or expulsion and not arrest or execution... despite things like unit not knowing how to shoot because they got their rifles exactly twice in the years demanded much, much more of the latter.)
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SakSak
Unbound
- Location
- The Cold Wastes of the North
The thing about the prime directive, as it has seemed to me, is that it is kind of a rule of compassion.
To put this in short....
A technologically inferior civilization is always at a risk from a technologically superior civilization. This applies to cultural facets as well - intelligent beings are complex, and in seeking to import superior technology/having superior technology imported to you, other ideas are inevitably going to cross over as well. Ideas about government, religion, families etc. Some 'cultural contamination' is impossible to avoid completely with any kind of interaction. This is not inherently bad however, but it does happen and predicting the end results is difficult in the extreme.
The point of the prime directive in part is, that once a species has achieved Warp capability, them meeting with aliens is inevitable. Technologically they might be just as vulnerable as an advanced pre-warp civilization (consider a warp 1 civ with primitive nukes and lasers against the current Federation for examples), but once they have FTL, you can't exactly keep them away from exploring without shooting down their vessels now can you?
So, contact is allowed, because contact is inevitable and you might as well try to get a head start on presenting the Federation in a good light an giving them basic information on the dangers and wonders of the galaxy.
However, with pre-warp civilizations you can remain effectively unseen by simply avoiding their solar system and they have no real way of getting from there to out here to meet you.
Does this mean they cannot be culturally extremely mature? Of course not, they might have all achieved enlightenment or something. But given the power disparity inherent, any such contact should be made with extremely careful consideration, any intervention should be a well-prepared, well-analyzed concentrated effort if it is to be done at all. Otherwise, you are liable to do harm just as you do good, as these are complex situations and we are talking about influences the futures of an entire species; the situation is of sufficient gravity that nothing short of your absolute best should do. Half-assing it should from the get go be rejected as completely irresponsible.
Unfortunately, starship captains - especially Explorer Corp - are functioning with limited resources at a distance from support. The situations they run into often require swift resolutions: a plaque, a meteor, an invading spaceborn fleet will not wait for you best and brightest xeno-sociologists back at home to investigate and debate for years and decades and formulate an ethically correct plan that is as undamaging as possible.
No matter how wise or well trained your officer corp, these sort of complex interventions should, ideally, be done after thousands of experts from multiple fields have weighted in, and a vessel does not have those experts on hand. No matter how well you train your ship captains, these are events where they must represent Federation interests and ethics both, and yet they are from the start up essentially unqualified by nature of being starship captains flying far away from home. Singular people cannot be expected to have the foresight and wisdom necessary to realistically evaluate the long-term consequences of their intervention, no matter how well intentioned - no single captain or even vessel contains the necessary expertise to make these sort of interventions reliably.
And yet, you want your vessels to be commanded by people that believe in mercy and compassion. People whose conscience screams for them to act when they about to witness a primitive species about to be wiped out in a preventable tragedy.
So, some interventions are going to occur, and they really cannot be stopped since Big Brother can't be at their shoulders 24/7. Moreover, you'd like to believe that the people you keep giving command of potent starships are intelligent and you can make sure these issues are discussed during their training in the academy.
Thus when one of these people you trust do choose to intervene in the life of a pre-Warp civilization? The least you can do is trust they did so with a reason and with consideration both towards the Federation laws & policy as well as their own consciences.
Thus, the prime directive: Thou shalt not mess with Pre-Warp cultures (because Warp cultures meeting you is inevitable) as your intervention will affect their entire future and such decisions cannot really be made properly by singular minds in a hurry; They deserve the best the Federation can give, and honestly you with your single ship and crew are not really capable of giving them that. So don't. Please, for the sake of the people you'd try to save, really don't because something you didn't foresee will inevitably go wrong sooner or later. But if you ignore this and go for it, give due consideration to the fact that you will have to explain yourself to a board of inquiry.
Or, basically, "Do Not. If you break this rule, have a really good justification for it. And if the justification really is good, then you might get off the hook"
To put this in short....
A technologically inferior civilization is always at a risk from a technologically superior civilization. This applies to cultural facets as well - intelligent beings are complex, and in seeking to import superior technology/having superior technology imported to you, other ideas are inevitably going to cross over as well. Ideas about government, religion, families etc. Some 'cultural contamination' is impossible to avoid completely with any kind of interaction. This is not inherently bad however, but it does happen and predicting the end results is difficult in the extreme.
The point of the prime directive in part is, that once a species has achieved Warp capability, them meeting with aliens is inevitable. Technologically they might be just as vulnerable as an advanced pre-warp civilization (consider a warp 1 civ with primitive nukes and lasers against the current Federation for examples), but once they have FTL, you can't exactly keep them away from exploring without shooting down their vessels now can you?
So, contact is allowed, because contact is inevitable and you might as well try to get a head start on presenting the Federation in a good light an giving them basic information on the dangers and wonders of the galaxy.
However, with pre-warp civilizations you can remain effectively unseen by simply avoiding their solar system and they have no real way of getting from there to out here to meet you.
Does this mean they cannot be culturally extremely mature? Of course not, they might have all achieved enlightenment or something. But given the power disparity inherent, any such contact should be made with extremely careful consideration, any intervention should be a well-prepared, well-analyzed concentrated effort if it is to be done at all. Otherwise, you are liable to do harm just as you do good, as these are complex situations and we are talking about influences the futures of an entire species; the situation is of sufficient gravity that nothing short of your absolute best should do. Half-assing it should from the get go be rejected as completely irresponsible.
Unfortunately, starship captains - especially Explorer Corp - are functioning with limited resources at a distance from support. The situations they run into often require swift resolutions: a plaque, a meteor, an invading spaceborn fleet will not wait for you best and brightest xeno-sociologists back at home to investigate and debate for years and decades and formulate an ethically correct plan that is as undamaging as possible.
No matter how wise or well trained your officer corp, these sort of complex interventions should, ideally, be done after thousands of experts from multiple fields have weighted in, and a vessel does not have those experts on hand. No matter how well you train your ship captains, these are events where they must represent Federation interests and ethics both, and yet they are from the start up essentially unqualified by nature of being starship captains flying far away from home. Singular people cannot be expected to have the foresight and wisdom necessary to realistically evaluate the long-term consequences of their intervention, no matter how well intentioned - no single captain or even vessel contains the necessary expertise to make these sort of interventions reliably.
And yet, you want your vessels to be commanded by people that believe in mercy and compassion. People whose conscience screams for them to act when they about to witness a primitive species about to be wiped out in a preventable tragedy.
So, some interventions are going to occur, and they really cannot be stopped since Big Brother can't be at their shoulders 24/7. Moreover, you'd like to believe that the people you keep giving command of potent starships are intelligent and you can make sure these issues are discussed during their training in the academy.
Thus when one of these people you trust do choose to intervene in the life of a pre-Warp civilization? The least you can do is trust they did so with a reason and with consideration both towards the Federation laws & policy as well as their own consciences.
Thus, the prime directive: Thou shalt not mess with Pre-Warp cultures (because Warp cultures meeting you is inevitable) as your intervention will affect their entire future and such decisions cannot really be made properly by singular minds in a hurry; They deserve the best the Federation can give, and honestly you with your single ship and crew are not really capable of giving them that. So don't. Please, for the sake of the people you'd try to save, really don't because something you didn't foresee will inevitably go wrong sooner or later. But if you ignore this and go for it, give due consideration to the fact that you will have to explain yourself to a board of inquiry.
Or, basically, "Do Not. If you break this rule, have a really good justification for it. And if the justification really is good, then you might get off the hook"
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- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Cynically, while it is possible that all factory managers suddenly became very very honest the moment that the Chekists/NKVD/KGB/whoever started responding to sufficiently large failures and coverups with 'BLAM,' and promptly resumed any past dishonesty when the prospect of 'BLAM' was off the table...
I'm not very confident that's the way to bet.
While I will admit that I may have rhetorically overemphasized the probability of failures or mistakes being punished by death rather than demotion and probable subsequent blackballing from positions of authority, to be perfectly honest, @al103 , I think you get my point. In either case, the Soviet factory system's problems with systematic falsification and misrepresentation of data were not (realistically) caused by failure to punish factory managers hard enough... And "the worst that could happen" for them might not include getting shot, but the possibility of being shot was hardly unprecedented in the overall Soviet system for someone who screwed up in the wrong way.
Making executions more likely would not have fixed this in an effective way.
When you purge (that is to say, kick out of the Party and/or the army) enough thousands of officers, and shoot only a minority of them including all the most famous ones, the cumulative effect is still a pretty solid terrorization of the remainder.
I'm honestly not trying to exaggerate any of the bloodiness of any period of Soviet history, but the level of purges and executions that did happen was still high enough to stand out as an example of "if punishing your managers and intelligentsia very harshly for failure solved the problem of failure, then this country would have less failures."
al103
Grumpy Russian Bear (SV edition)
- Location
- Russia, Krasnoyarsk
In fact they were. After revolution there was a whole bunch of people who were untouchable by the law - "I'm hero of Revolution" and all that. They could do anything they want as long as they pretended to be doing things properly. Stalin fought that with different degrees of success. After '53 it returned in a different way - when you advanced enough in hierarchy you became untouchable to law again as long as you pretended to be doing things properly. So as long as all was fine on paper law enforcement could do jack and shit about real situation. Andropov tried to fight that again and suffered "sudden health failure" to be replaced with placeholder then somebody everybody in power thought that he was safe.
Captain's Log - 2319.Q4.M3
Jenny
anonymous user
- Location
- maryland
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Captain's Log, Stardate 26990, USS Emancipation, Captain Iliae Rurliss
We are responding to what my comm officer believes to be either a garbled distress signal or some kind of coded message from near the stellar object CFBDS0059. It's a brown dwarf - a failed star, too small and too cold. One doesn't like to call anything worthless, but, well, it's pretty much worthless. What a ship could be doing there, I'm not sure.
But I intend to find out. And if there's people to rescue, we will be ready.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 26991.8, USS Exeter
We are carrying the Orion Union's new ambassador to Amarkia. She is a touch controversial, actually. Started out her political career as a Syndicate operative, and though she defected relatively early, there's still some who hold it against her. We've received a number of protests, not to mention several messages challenging her to a duel. The Ambassador is considering accepting at least one, as a show of respect.
Personally, I'd advise against it. But then again, I've always felt duels are dumb and immature.
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Captain's Log, USS Cheron, Stardate 26992 - Captain Alryth th'Gannoth
We've been paid another visit by the Honiani, and they're not any happier with us. It would appear that the disgraced battle monk Jov has been diagnosed with "sudden fever," a particularly tenacious and debilitating virus, known for its long incubation period and abrupt outbreaks. It is also indigenous to Second Risa. I don't think I need to spell out the implications. Neither did the Honiani captain, who's demanding an accounting from Starfleet for our poor health and medical screening on top of the previously noted misconduct of our officer.
This situation somewhat defies my belief. Federation medical technology is quite probably the best in the known galaxy, and the monitoring aboard Starfleet vessels is quite thorough. However, the timeline of the infection does support their accusation. I will need to placate the honiani until we can get a message back from Starfleet Academy, where I am told that former ensign Delala is now employed as a file clerk.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 26993, USS Sojourner, Captain Jeanette Devereaux
The dreadnoughts are splitting up again, and so are we. Thirishar, Kumari and Bull will continue to shadow Orion Ascendant, while Justice is busy meeting the Gorn. So we will join Gale in shadowing the new dreadnought and foiling whatever mission she's off on.
Of course, if she's anything like her big sister, she'll be able to sprint faster than us, and we don't have the benefit of a tracking program. That just makes things interesting.
The hunt is on.
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Captain's Log, USS Cheron, Stardate 26994.9
I've read the medical report from Earth. Delala tested positive for the virus. However, the report noted that she remains completely healthy and asymptomatic. For her to have contracted the virus before assignment to the Cheron – where I already have every faith in Dr. Li's ability to catch such an infection – this would need to be the longest case of Sudden Fever incubation known to medicine, and an uncharacteristically spectacular failure on the part of my CMO.
I have requested some additional information from the Honiani, which they grudgingly shared. I have told them that we are still waiting to hear back from Starfleet, but they're losing patience.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 26995.1, USS Exeter
We have a ... situation. An unexpected 'escort.'
A group of aggrieved amarki seem to have hijacked a freighter. They're demanding that we hand over the Ambassador - that she needs to be punished for her work with the Syndicate.
I have no intention of complying.
That said, they have hostages aboard. For now, we continue on towards Amarkia, while I try to figure out a solution.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 26996, USS Emancipation
We weren't ready.
When we entered the system, we detected a damaged ship of unknown origin, made out of some material that confused our sensors; the only thing we were really able to establish about the ship is that it has an unusually dense core. We were unable to establish if any life signs were aboard, but the ship appeared to be moving erratically, so we moved to respond ... and didn't detect the telltale distortion of an incoming subspace inversion wave until it was too late. The impact pushed the damaged ship onto a collision course with the brown dwarf.
Now, we're struggling to restore main power and get our engines back online before we, too, collide with the not-star. And I can't do a damn thing to help, stuck in my ready room.
Serves me right for calling it worthless.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 26996.1, USS Exeter
Well, that was dumb of me.
I challenged the lead hijacker to a duel. We were in another heated argument over comms, I got sick of his attempts to claim the moral high ground, and it might actually get the amarki to stand down. If nothing else, it gets me onto his ship.
Still. This is stupid. I'm not exactly a skilled duelist, and even if I do somehow win, I only have his word that he won't simply take me hostage as well.
Unless ...
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Captain's Log, Stardate 26997.2, USS Salnas, Captain Sorek
I have received orders to transport a delegation of Federation councillors and other high level politicians from the Orion Union to Qloathi space for a high level economic summit.
My command will be arriving at the Orion Union world of Duaba shortly to bring aboard the Orion delegates for transport to Qloath.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 26997.6, USS Exeter
That worked. I still can't believe that worked.
Well, actually, I can.
A freighter doesn't have the best sensor suite as it is, and especially not an undermanned example crewed by a bunch of hijackers. They agreed to let me come over by shuttle - that way, they couldn't just beam off the Ambassador from my ship, and I couldn't beam off their crew the moment they dropped shields. On their scanners, they saw me and my second.
We proceeded to the bridge of the hijacked ship, where I'd suggested to actually have the duel itself. I fought defensively - not seeking to win, not taking the opportunities I was able to find, but instead seeking to delay. To distract. He steadily ground down my defenses, pushed my sword aside, forced me to ground...
And then the stun grenades went off.
Dirty little cheat that I am, I'd snuck an assault team on the shuttle.
[+5 pp]
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27000.2, USS Emancipation
CFBDS0059's not worthless any more. And not because it marks my gravesite, thank Mag-Ukka.
And thank Lieutenant (j.g.) Delorme down in the aft torpedo bay. She managed to siphon off enough energy from hand phasers and tricorders to get a torpedo launcher working, launched a torpedo, and used its detonation to push us onto a safer orbit, giving us time to restore main power.
Meanwhile, we've been getting a front-row seat to something extraordinary. From what T'Kel thinks, the alien ship must've been carrying some kind of singularity, perhaps as a power source. It had been under some sort of control, but the subspace inversion wave ended that. By the time the ship collided with CFBDS0059, it had mostly been consumed by the singularity. It started to try to consume the body, but the huge output of radiation given off by this led to resistance to the inflow of further material. The density and temperature of CFBDS0059 are increasing as a result, accelerated rapidly by the subspace inversion wave.
In short, we are witnessing a star being born - not through the traditional manner, but artificially, 'seeded' by a black hole.
[+15 rp]
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Captain's Log, USS Cheron, Stardate 27001.3
The Honiani vessel has returned home, after offering a sincere apology on behalf of their government. It turns out that Brother Jov had contracted the virus several weeks before ever encountering the Cheron, by way of a yan-ros ranger who had recently returned from a training mission on Second Risa. According to the ranger in question, this had only been the latest of numerous dalliances with the "celibate" monk over the past three years.
I like to think that this revelation will help restore some of the credibility that the last incident cost us with the Honiani. Their captain even admitted that perhaps they ought to look into our preventative medical techniques as well.
[Gain +10 pp, prevent further relations loss with Honiani]
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27003, USS Courageous, Captain Sabek.
After detecting an unusually strong photonic signature from the Theya Oliek system Courageous is diverting from our gaseous anomalies survey to begin an in depth analysis of the otherwise normal looking system.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27006.4, USS Salnas, Captain Sorek
I have set general quarters throughout Salnas as at 15:55 Hours Starfleet Underway Time Lieutenant Commander T'Pel detected three Andalusian class Hishmeri frigates emerging from under emissions control directly across our course.
I immediately ordered a course change to return to Orion space at Warp Factor 12.5 and the broadcast of a wide band distress frequency.
At 16:05 Hours Starfleet Underway Time a formation of four Thoroughbred class Hishmeri frigates were detected moving into Salnas's new course at high warp.
I have ordered another course change towards the Mar Oscura nebula to evade my command's pursuers at Warp Factor 13.5.
I intend to lose Salnas' pursuers in the sensor dampening effects, and damaging anomalies, of the dark matter nebula much as I did in our prior engagement with the Hishmeri.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27006.42, USS Courageous, Captain Sabek.
Courageous is trapped in the middle of the Theya Oliek system by a series of hard light formations of unknown origin.
While the ship has avoided damage, it is currently at risk to the rapidly shifting nature of long strings of hard light that are in some cases up to 3.6 AUs in length.
I have ordered a careful retreat to the edge of the phenomenon to avoid damage to my ship and crew.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27006.5, USS Sojourner
We're keeping pace for now. I'm not sure Gale's going to be able to keep up much more than a day, though, and certainly not if our quarry decides to start sprinting.
She's heading towards Cardassian space. If she can get past our patrols and negotiate an alliance with the Cardassians... Well. I'm no legal expert, but I'm pretty sure the Council would see that as a violation of Celos. We could be looking at a general war, and even if not, the situation would get a lot more dangerous if Hayant has Cardassia funding her. A guaranteed safe haven, Obsidian Order agents working on her behalf and feeding her intelligence ... things could get ugly.
We have to act, and soon. A direct fight is ... possible, but we'll be outmatched, especially if she has a drone screen. If we have to, I'll do my best to force an engagement.
... No, that won't work. She'll sprint away, and the odds will be even worse if and when I catch up. We'll need to get creative.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 27006.8375, USS Salnas, Captain Sorek
At 02:30 Hours Starfleet Underway Time, while on approach to the Mar Oscura Nebula Lieutenant-Commander T'Pel detected two Hishmeri frigates inside the edge of the nebula: One Andalusian, and one Thoroughbred.
As combat with the two vessels in the nebula's edge would result in my command being overwhelmed by the pursuing Hishmeri frigates, I ordered all power to be diverted to Salnas's tractor beam and shielding systems. Then, targeting the Thoroughbred class vessel, Salnas locked the Hishmeri frigate in a maximum power tractor beam.
I intend to use the bulk of the Hishmeri vessel to clear our path through to a stable region of the Mar Oscura Nebula where my command will wait out our Hishmeri attackers until Federation reinforcements relieve us.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 27007.2, USS Vigour
Long-range sensors at Rigel's Corryood Array have detected a burst of anomalous readings from a previously unremarkable system at the edge of their scanning capability. So we've volunteered to investigate.
Science tells me the results are more than anomalous, and has noted the planetary bodies appear to be heavily irradiated. We're approaching with caution. As my Executive Officer remarked, "An event of a magnitude sufficient to cause such levels of radiation consistently across a solar system is one that is troubling when the safety of our vessel is concerned."
Indeed. What's the worse case scenario?
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 27007.475, USS Salnas, Captain Sorek
At 3:10 Hours Starfleet Underway Time I was obliged to recover the crew and passengers of the Hishmeri vessel in the gip of Salnas's tractor beam, as the Thoroughbred class frigate had received crippling damage from our high speed run through the damaging anomalies of the Mar Oscura Nebula.
The crew of the Hishmeri ship Sunblessed Stalker were revealed to be three hundred members of the 7th Great Sept and retainers of Majestic Glittering Hunter, along with two liaison officers from the Orion Imperial Navy.
A discussion of cost benefit analysis during the Imperial Officers' interrogation led to Lieutenant-Commander Arthur being informed that our distress call had been jammed without our detection by a device loaned to the Hishmeri Majestic as part of a newly signed alliance between his Sept and the Empress Hayant.
As I have determined the likelihood of reinforcements is minimal, at 17:59 Hours Starfleet Underway Time I ordered Salnas to make a course change to bring my command out of the Nebula.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 27007.9, USS Sojourner
They're faster, they're tougher, but they're not smarter. There are many fields in which the Orion Empire held a lead over even modern Starfleet. Subspace research clearly is not one of them.
Properly calibrated, a brace of photon torpedoes detonated in the right weak spots in subspace can cause a subspace rupture, dropping the warp field of any ship that passes through the rupture.
The tricky bit was, how do we get the dreadnought to cooperate and pass through the rupture?
We set a trap. Gale split off, presenting an easy target of opportunity. The Orions took the bait, which gave me time to slip around with my ship. Gale led the dreadnought near the Osar Nebula, where I was waiting to spring the trap. They never saw it coming.
The rupture confused the dreadnought, and the Nebula's gases partially blinded her - exacerbated by the pulses of exotic rads we emitted at her just after we dropped out of warp. In the window of opportunity we had, we were able to do serious damage to her sensors.
She's running back towards Orion Ascendant. Not surprising, really - she can't hope to get through our patrols and into Cardassian space if she can't see the patrols.
[Eternal Empire mission prevented]
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 27008.01, USS Salnas, Captain Sorek
Salnas exited the Mar Oscura dark matter nebula at 04:30 Hours Starfleet Underway time.
As we exited the Nebula; Salnas detected four Hishmeri frigates moving into position to intercept my command: two Andalusians, and two Thoroughbreds.
We were able to use a calculated trajectory release of the remaining 47% of the Sunblessed Stalker's mass to disable the lead Andalusian frigate, while a precisely targeted all weapons systems activation was able to rapidly disable the warp nacelles of other Andalusian class frigate.
With the faster Hishmeri ships disabled I ordered Salnas to make a high speed sprint at Warp Factor 14.43 towards the Quolothi fleet base located at Arqeniou.
As of 6:50 Hours Starfleet Underway Time Lieutenant-Commander T'Pel has determined that my command will be able to reach Arqeniou without our Hishmeri pursuers being able to enter weapons range of Salnas.
Upon arrival I intend to inform Starfleet Command that a faction of the Hishmeri Septs have pledged service to the Empress Hayant and that my command has two captured Orion Imperial Navy officers aboard.
[15 pp]
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 27009, USS Vigour
It was a gamma ray burst. Moving faster than light. And it's heading straight for Welleck.
So we are a little busy.
The best my engineer can give me right now is that if we ride the gamma ray burst, we might be able to divert it around Welleck. Survival of the Vigour in that case is less than 0.0001%.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 27009.1, USS Courageous, Captain Sabek
The hard light formations have abruptly dissolved. We are cautiously approaching the centre of the system where the otherwise normal G-series star is closely orbited by some sort of crystalline formation.
-
Captain's Log, USS Valiant, Stardate 27009.5 – Captain Zesh sh'Rannax
We are patrolling along the spinward border of Indorian space to ensure no attempts are made by the Ashalla Pact to take advantage of the ongoing situation. Naturally, I have all sensors burning hot, and we're spreading sensor-equipped shuttlecraft out to the edge of realtime communications range to widen our net. They're not getting through unless they've stolen our sensors again.
So far, there's no sign of anything out of the ordinary. Just the usual trio of Jalduns and lone Takaaki Researcher along the Cardassian border.
Personal Log, Captain Zesh sh'Rannax
This is ridiculous. I'm not traumatized. I'm not phobic. I'm the only captain in the fleet who's actually met that orion bitch queen face to face. My ship should be leading the hunt, not off guarding the flank because they think I can't get over a couple of weeks in an ostentatiously decorated brig.
-
Science Officer's Log, Stardate 27010, USS Vigour - Lieutenant Aqil Georgiou
The fact this GRB is moving faster than light is not the most interesting feature. Here's what I don't get -- where's all this gamma coming from? The strength says 'close and recent' but if that was true, there is no way we, or the ISC for that matter, would have missed it. So where's the nova that made this? The star in the origin system might produce one, but not for another… billion or so years.
Hypothesis: this GRB is actually from the future!
I need to -- first, quantum dating to confirm. Second, I need to gain access to some mineralogical records. Third...
Third I need to convince the captain we have to fly back to the system of origin. Away from the people in danger, and towards what should be supernova remnants.
-
Captain's Log, USS Valiant, Stardate 27011
There's been a problem. We're drifting off course, more sharply than we can compensate for with the maneuvering thrusters, and our warp engines won't engage. Sensors are giving us subspace activity, weird subspace activity. Trying to move the ship at all is like trying to swim up a waterfall. Worse, our course is taking us through the inner corona of the nearest star; we have forty-three hours until contact.
We can't discount the possibility that this is a new Cardassian weapon. Perhaps courtesy of the Imelak whose space is believed to be not far from here. I have declared red alert.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27012, USS Courageous, Captain Sabek
It was a near run thing, as we approached the star Courageous was nearly damaged by the reappearance of the hard light phenomenon.
However, quick thinking on the part of my crew led to Courageous taking up position behind the system's innermost planet from which we were able to begin a close study of this anomaly.
This appears to be a natural phenomenon in which the unusual crystalline formations of the inner system interact with the Photonic output of the star to create brief, and incredibly large, but very unstable Photonic hard light formations of a similar sort to those produced under controlled conditions in Gaeni "Holodecks"
As occurrences of this phenomenon are, with some study, easy to predict it is likely that Starfleet will choose build a permanent research station in the Theya Oliek System.
[Gain RP colony option: Theya Oliek]
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 27013, USS Vigour
Let me tell you a tale as old as time, story as old as rhyme, etc. I might not have much longer to.
Eight hundred thirty-one million years from now, the class W star known to us as Freddy-419 will undergo a core collapse and become a supernova, releasing two jets of gamma radiation from its two poles. One of these strikes an otherwise unremarkable rogue planetoid -- only really remarkable for its eccentric orbit. Under the intense radiation and pressure certain elements of the planetoid fuse and transmute into exotic materials, creating a natural, self-sustaining temporal reactor. It'd be incredible to study, except for the fact that it broke up a few microseconds after it was created. This created a temporal wormhole, through which the gamma ray burst picked up chronitons and emerged into the past -- our present -- at significant warp factor velocities.
Lieutenant Georgiou tracked down the location of the planetoid. A large rift was opened up just above its dorsal pole. We are currently being drawn in, the intense energies emitted affecting our warp drives and the gravitation beyond pulling us to our doom.
Our deflector modification failed. We will detonate the warp core with a stockpile of belerium-21 and hope that will reverse the rift.
Goodbye.
-
Captain's Log, USS Valiant, Stardate 27013.5
The science teams have done their jobs. We've determined that this is a natural phenomenon, a temporary outgrowth of the subspace anomalies that the Explorer Corps mapped out further rimward of here, and made a number of plans based on the findings. Plan B, also known as "Plan Eye of the Storm," seems to have worked for us.
With the right warp field modulations, we were able to excite the subspace eddy and accelerate our movement to near lightspeed just as we were entering the star. Our shields were taxed to the maximum, but at those speeds we spent less than a second inside the stellar furnace, and we came out the other side with 21% shield integrity and only minor damage to the outer hull.
With the immediate crisis handled, we can experiment freely with further warp field modulations until we find the state that will allow us to leave the eddy. Lieutenant Commander th'Varket is confident he'll have us free within the day, and we can get back to our patrol having learned quite some useful ins and outs of subspace physics.
This ship has survived monsters, cosmic explosions, and ancient tyrants returned from beyond the grave. Its not going to die to a simple subspace anomaly.
[Gain +10 RP, Valiant gains +1 Crew Rating]
Personal Log, Captain Zesh sh'Rannax
I still think we should be off feeding Hayant some gourmet antimatter with Task Force Burgundy, but I guess that was exciting enough in the meantime.
-
Science Officer's Log, Stardate 27014, USS Vigour - Lieutenant Aqil Georgiou
I heard the Captain got a little grim in his entry. I bear some of the guilt, because I was the one who told him that we were doomed.
Temporal calculations are complex. There are many factors to keep track of. Translating it to an engineering solution, where the elegant dance of numbers is translated to crude matter makes it even more difficult. It is fortunate I realized that the device we used to generate the anti-temporal signal was in fact, transposed, requiring a planar adjustment.
More clearly: we adjusted the hardware so it was transmitting away from the anomaly. We managed to reverse the effect of the rift. Then it was up to Helm to avoid the GRB rushing back towards us.
The rift has not been entirely closed -- the materials creating it are trapped in a semi-stable temporal loop in the future. However, benefit: we have set up a series of stabilizing beacons. With more powerful generators, they can force some of the rare, transmuted materials out of the future and into the past. This will eventually close the rift entirely. A very symmetrical solution.
This does have the strange effect of causing material to disappear from the planetoid in our present when we harvest material from the future.
[+15rp, New SR Colony option - Freddy-419]
We are responding to what my comm officer believes to be either a garbled distress signal or some kind of coded message from near the stellar object CFBDS0059. It's a brown dwarf - a failed star, too small and too cold. One doesn't like to call anything worthless, but, well, it's pretty much worthless. What a ship could be doing there, I'm not sure.
But I intend to find out. And if there's people to rescue, we will be ready.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 26991.8, USS Exeter
We are carrying the Orion Union's new ambassador to Amarkia. She is a touch controversial, actually. Started out her political career as a Syndicate operative, and though she defected relatively early, there's still some who hold it against her. We've received a number of protests, not to mention several messages challenging her to a duel. The Ambassador is considering accepting at least one, as a show of respect.
Personally, I'd advise against it. But then again, I've always felt duels are dumb and immature.
-
Captain's Log, USS Cheron, Stardate 26992 - Captain Alryth th'Gannoth
We've been paid another visit by the Honiani, and they're not any happier with us. It would appear that the disgraced battle monk Jov has been diagnosed with "sudden fever," a particularly tenacious and debilitating virus, known for its long incubation period and abrupt outbreaks. It is also indigenous to Second Risa. I don't think I need to spell out the implications. Neither did the Honiani captain, who's demanding an accounting from Starfleet for our poor health and medical screening on top of the previously noted misconduct of our officer.
This situation somewhat defies my belief. Federation medical technology is quite probably the best in the known galaxy, and the monitoring aboard Starfleet vessels is quite thorough. However, the timeline of the infection does support their accusation. I will need to placate the honiani until we can get a message back from Starfleet Academy, where I am told that former ensign Delala is now employed as a file clerk.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 26993, USS Sojourner, Captain Jeanette Devereaux
The dreadnoughts are splitting up again, and so are we. Thirishar, Kumari and Bull will continue to shadow Orion Ascendant, while Justice is busy meeting the Gorn. So we will join Gale in shadowing the new dreadnought and foiling whatever mission she's off on.
Of course, if she's anything like her big sister, she'll be able to sprint faster than us, and we don't have the benefit of a tracking program. That just makes things interesting.
The hunt is on.
-
Captain's Log, USS Cheron, Stardate 26994.9
I've read the medical report from Earth. Delala tested positive for the virus. However, the report noted that she remains completely healthy and asymptomatic. For her to have contracted the virus before assignment to the Cheron – where I already have every faith in Dr. Li's ability to catch such an infection – this would need to be the longest case of Sudden Fever incubation known to medicine, and an uncharacteristically spectacular failure on the part of my CMO.
I have requested some additional information from the Honiani, which they grudgingly shared. I have told them that we are still waiting to hear back from Starfleet, but they're losing patience.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 26995.1, USS Exeter
We have a ... situation. An unexpected 'escort.'
A group of aggrieved amarki seem to have hijacked a freighter. They're demanding that we hand over the Ambassador - that she needs to be punished for her work with the Syndicate.
I have no intention of complying.
That said, they have hostages aboard. For now, we continue on towards Amarkia, while I try to figure out a solution.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 26996, USS Emancipation
We weren't ready.
When we entered the system, we detected a damaged ship of unknown origin, made out of some material that confused our sensors; the only thing we were really able to establish about the ship is that it has an unusually dense core. We were unable to establish if any life signs were aboard, but the ship appeared to be moving erratically, so we moved to respond ... and didn't detect the telltale distortion of an incoming subspace inversion wave until it was too late. The impact pushed the damaged ship onto a collision course with the brown dwarf.
Now, we're struggling to restore main power and get our engines back online before we, too, collide with the not-star. And I can't do a damn thing to help, stuck in my ready room.
Serves me right for calling it worthless.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 26996.1, USS Exeter
Well, that was dumb of me.
I challenged the lead hijacker to a duel. We were in another heated argument over comms, I got sick of his attempts to claim the moral high ground, and it might actually get the amarki to stand down. If nothing else, it gets me onto his ship.
Still. This is stupid. I'm not exactly a skilled duelist, and even if I do somehow win, I only have his word that he won't simply take me hostage as well.
Unless ...
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Captain's Log, Stardate 26997.2, USS Salnas, Captain Sorek
I have received orders to transport a delegation of Federation councillors and other high level politicians from the Orion Union to Qloathi space for a high level economic summit.
My command will be arriving at the Orion Union world of Duaba shortly to bring aboard the Orion delegates for transport to Qloath.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 26997.6, USS Exeter
That worked. I still can't believe that worked.
Well, actually, I can.
A freighter doesn't have the best sensor suite as it is, and especially not an undermanned example crewed by a bunch of hijackers. They agreed to let me come over by shuttle - that way, they couldn't just beam off the Ambassador from my ship, and I couldn't beam off their crew the moment they dropped shields. On their scanners, they saw me and my second.
We proceeded to the bridge of the hijacked ship, where I'd suggested to actually have the duel itself. I fought defensively - not seeking to win, not taking the opportunities I was able to find, but instead seeking to delay. To distract. He steadily ground down my defenses, pushed my sword aside, forced me to ground...
And then the stun grenades went off.
Dirty little cheat that I am, I'd snuck an assault team on the shuttle.
[+5 pp]
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27000.2, USS Emancipation
CFBDS0059's not worthless any more. And not because it marks my gravesite, thank Mag-Ukka.
And thank Lieutenant (j.g.) Delorme down in the aft torpedo bay. She managed to siphon off enough energy from hand phasers and tricorders to get a torpedo launcher working, launched a torpedo, and used its detonation to push us onto a safer orbit, giving us time to restore main power.
Meanwhile, we've been getting a front-row seat to something extraordinary. From what T'Kel thinks, the alien ship must've been carrying some kind of singularity, perhaps as a power source. It had been under some sort of control, but the subspace inversion wave ended that. By the time the ship collided with CFBDS0059, it had mostly been consumed by the singularity. It started to try to consume the body, but the huge output of radiation given off by this led to resistance to the inflow of further material. The density and temperature of CFBDS0059 are increasing as a result, accelerated rapidly by the subspace inversion wave.
In short, we are witnessing a star being born - not through the traditional manner, but artificially, 'seeded' by a black hole.
[+15 rp]
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Captain's Log, USS Cheron, Stardate 27001.3
The Honiani vessel has returned home, after offering a sincere apology on behalf of their government. It turns out that Brother Jov had contracted the virus several weeks before ever encountering the Cheron, by way of a yan-ros ranger who had recently returned from a training mission on Second Risa. According to the ranger in question, this had only been the latest of numerous dalliances with the "celibate" monk over the past three years.
I like to think that this revelation will help restore some of the credibility that the last incident cost us with the Honiani. Their captain even admitted that perhaps they ought to look into our preventative medical techniques as well.
[Gain +10 pp, prevent further relations loss with Honiani]
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27003, USS Courageous, Captain Sabek.
After detecting an unusually strong photonic signature from the Theya Oliek system Courageous is diverting from our gaseous anomalies survey to begin an in depth analysis of the otherwise normal looking system.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27006.4, USS Salnas, Captain Sorek
I have set general quarters throughout Salnas as at 15:55 Hours Starfleet Underway Time Lieutenant Commander T'Pel detected three Andalusian class Hishmeri frigates emerging from under emissions control directly across our course.
I immediately ordered a course change to return to Orion space at Warp Factor 12.5 and the broadcast of a wide band distress frequency.
At 16:05 Hours Starfleet Underway Time a formation of four Thoroughbred class Hishmeri frigates were detected moving into Salnas's new course at high warp.
I have ordered another course change towards the Mar Oscura nebula to evade my command's pursuers at Warp Factor 13.5.
I intend to lose Salnas' pursuers in the sensor dampening effects, and damaging anomalies, of the dark matter nebula much as I did in our prior engagement with the Hishmeri.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27006.42, USS Courageous, Captain Sabek.
Courageous is trapped in the middle of the Theya Oliek system by a series of hard light formations of unknown origin.
While the ship has avoided damage, it is currently at risk to the rapidly shifting nature of long strings of hard light that are in some cases up to 3.6 AUs in length.
I have ordered a careful retreat to the edge of the phenomenon to avoid damage to my ship and crew.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27006.5, USS Sojourner
We're keeping pace for now. I'm not sure Gale's going to be able to keep up much more than a day, though, and certainly not if our quarry decides to start sprinting.
She's heading towards Cardassian space. If she can get past our patrols and negotiate an alliance with the Cardassians... Well. I'm no legal expert, but I'm pretty sure the Council would see that as a violation of Celos. We could be looking at a general war, and even if not, the situation would get a lot more dangerous if Hayant has Cardassia funding her. A guaranteed safe haven, Obsidian Order agents working on her behalf and feeding her intelligence ... things could get ugly.
We have to act, and soon. A direct fight is ... possible, but we'll be outmatched, especially if she has a drone screen. If we have to, I'll do my best to force an engagement.
... No, that won't work. She'll sprint away, and the odds will be even worse if and when I catch up. We'll need to get creative.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27006.8375, USS Salnas, Captain Sorek
At 02:30 Hours Starfleet Underway Time, while on approach to the Mar Oscura Nebula Lieutenant-Commander T'Pel detected two Hishmeri frigates inside the edge of the nebula: One Andalusian, and one Thoroughbred.
As combat with the two vessels in the nebula's edge would result in my command being overwhelmed by the pursuing Hishmeri frigates, I ordered all power to be diverted to Salnas's tractor beam and shielding systems. Then, targeting the Thoroughbred class vessel, Salnas locked the Hishmeri frigate in a maximum power tractor beam.
I intend to use the bulk of the Hishmeri vessel to clear our path through to a stable region of the Mar Oscura Nebula where my command will wait out our Hishmeri attackers until Federation reinforcements relieve us.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27007.2, USS Vigour
Long-range sensors at Rigel's Corryood Array have detected a burst of anomalous readings from a previously unremarkable system at the edge of their scanning capability. So we've volunteered to investigate.
Science tells me the results are more than anomalous, and has noted the planetary bodies appear to be heavily irradiated. We're approaching with caution. As my Executive Officer remarked, "An event of a magnitude sufficient to cause such levels of radiation consistently across a solar system is one that is troubling when the safety of our vessel is concerned."
Indeed. What's the worse case scenario?
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27007.475, USS Salnas, Captain Sorek
At 3:10 Hours Starfleet Underway Time I was obliged to recover the crew and passengers of the Hishmeri vessel in the gip of Salnas's tractor beam, as the Thoroughbred class frigate had received crippling damage from our high speed run through the damaging anomalies of the Mar Oscura Nebula.
The crew of the Hishmeri ship Sunblessed Stalker were revealed to be three hundred members of the 7th Great Sept and retainers of Majestic Glittering Hunter, along with two liaison officers from the Orion Imperial Navy.
A discussion of cost benefit analysis during the Imperial Officers' interrogation led to Lieutenant-Commander Arthur being informed that our distress call had been jammed without our detection by a device loaned to the Hishmeri Majestic as part of a newly signed alliance between his Sept and the Empress Hayant.
As I have determined the likelihood of reinforcements is minimal, at 17:59 Hours Starfleet Underway Time I ordered Salnas to make a course change to bring my command out of the Nebula.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 27007.9, USS Sojourner
They're faster, they're tougher, but they're not smarter. There are many fields in which the Orion Empire held a lead over even modern Starfleet. Subspace research clearly is not one of them.
Properly calibrated, a brace of photon torpedoes detonated in the right weak spots in subspace can cause a subspace rupture, dropping the warp field of any ship that passes through the rupture.
The tricky bit was, how do we get the dreadnought to cooperate and pass through the rupture?
We set a trap. Gale split off, presenting an easy target of opportunity. The Orions took the bait, which gave me time to slip around with my ship. Gale led the dreadnought near the Osar Nebula, where I was waiting to spring the trap. They never saw it coming.
The rupture confused the dreadnought, and the Nebula's gases partially blinded her - exacerbated by the pulses of exotic rads we emitted at her just after we dropped out of warp. In the window of opportunity we had, we were able to do serious damage to her sensors.
She's running back towards Orion Ascendant. Not surprising, really - she can't hope to get through our patrols and into Cardassian space if she can't see the patrols.
[Eternal Empire mission prevented]
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27008.01, USS Salnas, Captain Sorek
Salnas exited the Mar Oscura dark matter nebula at 04:30 Hours Starfleet Underway time.
As we exited the Nebula; Salnas detected four Hishmeri frigates moving into position to intercept my command: two Andalusians, and two Thoroughbreds.
We were able to use a calculated trajectory release of the remaining 47% of the Sunblessed Stalker's mass to disable the lead Andalusian frigate, while a precisely targeted all weapons systems activation was able to rapidly disable the warp nacelles of other Andalusian class frigate.
With the faster Hishmeri ships disabled I ordered Salnas to make a high speed sprint at Warp Factor 14.43 towards the Quolothi fleet base located at Arqeniou.
As of 6:50 Hours Starfleet Underway Time Lieutenant-Commander T'Pel has determined that my command will be able to reach Arqeniou without our Hishmeri pursuers being able to enter weapons range of Salnas.
Upon arrival I intend to inform Starfleet Command that a faction of the Hishmeri Septs have pledged service to the Empress Hayant and that my command has two captured Orion Imperial Navy officers aboard.
[15 pp]
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27009, USS Vigour
It was a gamma ray burst. Moving faster than light. And it's heading straight for Welleck.
So we are a little busy.
The best my engineer can give me right now is that if we ride the gamma ray burst, we might be able to divert it around Welleck. Survival of the Vigour in that case is less than 0.0001%.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27009.1, USS Courageous, Captain Sabek
The hard light formations have abruptly dissolved. We are cautiously approaching the centre of the system where the otherwise normal G-series star is closely orbited by some sort of crystalline formation.
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Captain's Log, USS Valiant, Stardate 27009.5 – Captain Zesh sh'Rannax
We are patrolling along the spinward border of Indorian space to ensure no attempts are made by the Ashalla Pact to take advantage of the ongoing situation. Naturally, I have all sensors burning hot, and we're spreading sensor-equipped shuttlecraft out to the edge of realtime communications range to widen our net. They're not getting through unless they've stolen our sensors again.
So far, there's no sign of anything out of the ordinary. Just the usual trio of Jalduns and lone Takaaki Researcher along the Cardassian border.
Personal Log, Captain Zesh sh'Rannax
This is ridiculous. I'm not traumatized. I'm not phobic. I'm the only captain in the fleet who's actually met that orion bitch queen face to face. My ship should be leading the hunt, not off guarding the flank because they think I can't get over a couple of weeks in an ostentatiously decorated brig.
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Science Officer's Log, Stardate 27010, USS Vigour - Lieutenant Aqil Georgiou
The fact this GRB is moving faster than light is not the most interesting feature. Here's what I don't get -- where's all this gamma coming from? The strength says 'close and recent' but if that was true, there is no way we, or the ISC for that matter, would have missed it. So where's the nova that made this? The star in the origin system might produce one, but not for another… billion or so years.
Hypothesis: this GRB is actually from the future!
I need to -- first, quantum dating to confirm. Second, I need to gain access to some mineralogical records. Third...
Third I need to convince the captain we have to fly back to the system of origin. Away from the people in danger, and towards what should be supernova remnants.
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Captain's Log, USS Valiant, Stardate 27011
There's been a problem. We're drifting off course, more sharply than we can compensate for with the maneuvering thrusters, and our warp engines won't engage. Sensors are giving us subspace activity, weird subspace activity. Trying to move the ship at all is like trying to swim up a waterfall. Worse, our course is taking us through the inner corona of the nearest star; we have forty-three hours until contact.
We can't discount the possibility that this is a new Cardassian weapon. Perhaps courtesy of the Imelak whose space is believed to be not far from here. I have declared red alert.
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27012, USS Courageous, Captain Sabek
It was a near run thing, as we approached the star Courageous was nearly damaged by the reappearance of the hard light phenomenon.
However, quick thinking on the part of my crew led to Courageous taking up position behind the system's innermost planet from which we were able to begin a close study of this anomaly.
This appears to be a natural phenomenon in which the unusual crystalline formations of the inner system interact with the Photonic output of the star to create brief, and incredibly large, but very unstable Photonic hard light formations of a similar sort to those produced under controlled conditions in Gaeni "Holodecks"
As occurrences of this phenomenon are, with some study, easy to predict it is likely that Starfleet will choose build a permanent research station in the Theya Oliek System.
[Gain RP colony option: Theya Oliek]
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Captain's Log, Stardate 27013, USS Vigour
Let me tell you a tale as old as time, story as old as rhyme, etc. I might not have much longer to.
Eight hundred thirty-one million years from now, the class W star known to us as Freddy-419 will undergo a core collapse and become a supernova, releasing two jets of gamma radiation from its two poles. One of these strikes an otherwise unremarkable rogue planetoid -- only really remarkable for its eccentric orbit. Under the intense radiation and pressure certain elements of the planetoid fuse and transmute into exotic materials, creating a natural, self-sustaining temporal reactor. It'd be incredible to study, except for the fact that it broke up a few microseconds after it was created. This created a temporal wormhole, through which the gamma ray burst picked up chronitons and emerged into the past -- our present -- at significant warp factor velocities.
Lieutenant Georgiou tracked down the location of the planetoid. A large rift was opened up just above its dorsal pole. We are currently being drawn in, the intense energies emitted affecting our warp drives and the gravitation beyond pulling us to our doom.
Our deflector modification failed. We will detonate the warp core with a stockpile of belerium-21 and hope that will reverse the rift.
Goodbye.
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Captain's Log, USS Valiant, Stardate 27013.5
The science teams have done their jobs. We've determined that this is a natural phenomenon, a temporary outgrowth of the subspace anomalies that the Explorer Corps mapped out further rimward of here, and made a number of plans based on the findings. Plan B, also known as "Plan Eye of the Storm," seems to have worked for us.
With the right warp field modulations, we were able to excite the subspace eddy and accelerate our movement to near lightspeed just as we were entering the star. Our shields were taxed to the maximum, but at those speeds we spent less than a second inside the stellar furnace, and we came out the other side with 21% shield integrity and only minor damage to the outer hull.
With the immediate crisis handled, we can experiment freely with further warp field modulations until we find the state that will allow us to leave the eddy. Lieutenant Commander th'Varket is confident he'll have us free within the day, and we can get back to our patrol having learned quite some useful ins and outs of subspace physics.
This ship has survived monsters, cosmic explosions, and ancient tyrants returned from beyond the grave. Its not going to die to a simple subspace anomaly.
[Gain +10 RP, Valiant gains +1 Crew Rating]
Personal Log, Captain Zesh sh'Rannax
I still think we should be off feeding Hayant some gourmet antimatter with Task Force Burgundy, but I guess that was exciting enough in the meantime.
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Science Officer's Log, Stardate 27014, USS Vigour - Lieutenant Aqil Georgiou
I heard the Captain got a little grim in his entry. I bear some of the guilt, because I was the one who told him that we were doomed.
Temporal calculations are complex. There are many factors to keep track of. Translating it to an engineering solution, where the elegant dance of numbers is translated to crude matter makes it even more difficult. It is fortunate I realized that the device we used to generate the anti-temporal signal was in fact, transposed, requiring a planar adjustment.
More clearly: we adjusted the hardware so it was transmitting away from the anomaly. We managed to reverse the effect of the rift. Then it was up to Helm to avoid the GRB rushing back towards us.
The rift has not been entirely closed -- the materials creating it are trapped in a semi-stable temporal loop in the future. However, benefit: we have set up a series of stabilizing beacons. With more powerful generators, they can force some of the rare, transmuted materials out of the future and into the past. This will eventually close the rift entirely. A very symmetrical solution.
This does have the strange effect of causing material to disappear from the planetoid in our present when we harvest material from the future.
[+15rp, New SR Colony option - Freddy-419]
Cheron & Valiant logs written by @Leila Hann, Vigour logs written by @Iron Wolf, Salnas and Courageous logs written by @AKuz
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Doomed Wombat
Let's go Darling!
- Location
- Dancing on wires!
What are our current relations with the Holani?
Sorek is doing some ridiculous work. Evading nine enemy ships isn't easy, especially when even just two Andulusians could overmatch the Salnas.
Massgamer
Advance toward the Future
- Location
- The Future
According to the front page 321, though granted not sure if up to date.
Do think we should focus diplomacy efforts on them and try to make them a full member of Federation before they become too big for that to be an option.
Doomed Wombat
Let's go Darling!
- Location
- Dancing on wires!
The last snake pit says
And we lost some with them because of the overly amorous monk, but not too much I think.