While Sam is doing her best to keep a lid on things, I've realised that there is an opportunity here to have the League Senate and their independant Explorer corps to win a major diplomatic and economic victory.
I've used my contacts with the Star-Kin to request that they send the SKS Chapel of Faith along with an ambassador to Felis space to propose a formal joint exploration treaty for the space between their borders that would coincidentally involve the Honiani and the Federation providing long term to the Felis explorer corps for the use of their ships.
Seems to be a missing word. "long term xxxx to the Felis explorer"
Also, Honiani assist for the win.
Captain's Log, Stardate 28053.5, USS Enterprise, Captain Jennifer Zhang
(Ambassador, EC-Felis Space)
Someone. Told. The. Harmony. Again. I've checked my own ship's communication logs, and it wasn't anyone on my ship. Swiftpad swears that it wasn't any of her crew, and Captain Bertorus Galorus of Chapel of Faith is just as certain that it wasn't one of his people. It's almost certain that someone in the League Senate's Committee of Exploration Expenditures leaked to their corporate masters who then tipped off the Harmony.
No matter. If Intendant nas Azhlee wants to try to convince the League Senate not to take the deal, I will simply have to put together a better sales pitch than her.
I feel kind of sorry for Zhang. I'm sure these constant diplomatic intrigue games weren't what she thought she was signing up for when she took command of the Enterprise. Luckily this was the last quarter. I hope they send her on some nice, long, exploration mission to the blank spaces on the map next year.
The bolians are being treated for radiation sickness, and other injuries sustained in the attack. They caught no sight of their assailants; only long-ranged torpedoes raining from the void. Our own science officers have done better, once the ship was stabilized and they were given a chance to inspect her wounds. Plasma torpedoes of this blast pattern were pioneered by the Romulans a century past, but in our own times are used by few besides the Breen. Why they might have struck this vessel, so far from their jealously-haunted space, I am at a loss to explain. Perhaps this was the work of renegades or pirates, though one wonders why pirates would have failed to pursue a cargo ship after crippling her.
Our mission is successful, but its closure...disconcerting.
Random attack on a Bolian ship using plasma torpedoes and we have no idea who carried it out. Too many mysteries in this part of space.
Captain's Log, Stardate 28056.7, USS Courageous, Captain Zara ka'Athnon
(Excelsior-A, EC- Trailing)
After brief detour to avoid Breen space we've popped into the Neath Nebula that lies between the Breen and Romulan borders. There's a lot to explore here and I can't wait to get started!
We're going to start by using polaron bursts to sound out the edges of th-
What's that? New warp signatures inbound? Time to meet some new friends!
To be continued next month, but warp signatures plural sounds like she's stumbled across somewhere important and not just another ship.
While I'd wondered if I was laying it on a bit think, it seems that Swiftpad's advice was entirely correct: the egos of the Senate's politicians enjoy a good stroking. That and the opportunity to show up the Parliament of Corporations is what made the Harmony leaning Senate Committee finally decide to accept our offer in the end.
[+15 on Felis [Harmony Influence] tag, now 62/100]
That should be 62/300 now that all the Harmony tags got upgraded. Hope we see the ISC coming in this quarter!
Captain's Log, Stardate 28060.0, USS Eclipse, Captain Spera Haran
(Miranda-A, Rethelia)
We've stumbled into something really fascinating! Eclipse was conducting a routine survey of RUR-300 when we found unexpected concentrations of metal - which turned out to be a crashed ship. We identified the wreck as the Moligow, a shuttle reported lost about sixty years back. Unfortunately, the shuttle's two crew both apparently perished in the crash ... but their unreported third crewmember is still alive. Well, technically, intact?
See, what we found is a robot! It strongly resembles a Qloathi child, on the outside. On the inside, though, from our scans, it's got a computer for a brain and a duranium chassis. When we activated it, it seemed confused to find itself on a ship of aliens and its companions missing, but was quite pleasant to talk with.
Personal Log, Stardate 28061.8, USS Eclipse, Commander Skye Tallisker
(Miranda-A, Rethelia)
What a cute little robot!
I thought robots were supposed to be emotionless, concerned only about their missions; this one doesn't seem to have a mission, other than to learn. And it wants to learn about everything! It still hasn't come up with a name of its own, not that it hasn't heard all manner of suggestions from the crew.
At dinner tonight, it was asking us about what we ate, how it tasted, why we ate what we ate, why certain people were eating together... and that led to it asking what love is, which is simply adorable. The robot wants to learn to love!
I almost feel bad that we're going to have to let it go.
Personal Log, Stardate 28062.7, USS Eclipse, Ensign Assash
(Miranda-A, Rethelia)
That little robot we picked up was a monster.
All this time, while we thought it was just curious, it was gathering intelligence about the crew. This evening, the robot struck. It was fast, precise, and exceedingly efficient; within five minutes of starting its rampage through the mess, it had injured or killed almost everyone in the room, then proceeded to stalk the ship, prioritizing leadership targets. Captain Haran only lost an eye, but Commander Tallisker is among the many dead.
We managed to destroy it ... in sickbay. Utterly vaporized the vile little beast. Nurse Sstoon has had to take charge there, as our CMO is among the casualties.
[-1 O, -5 pp]
That was a disturbing series of logs. The Eclipse basically found a terminator, and nearly their entire command staff got taken out. I remind everybody that -1O comes out of a pool of only 1O in the first place for a Miranda. The pp loss is just the cherry of humiliation on top.
Captain Ishiliuanatha, for her part, has showered praise on us for both our bravery and our even handed dealing with an innocent creature. The Shanpurr are thankful for our assistance and now plan to spend a few months studying this creature up close.
I wish Captain Ishiliuanatha all the best.
[+5 Rp, +10 Shanpurr Relations, now 75/100]
One push from affiliation... it's going to be really tempting.
Captain's Log, Stardate 28069.6, USS Fluffy-Puffy
(Centaur-B, Apinae)
I regret to report that our sensor modifications came too late, and our proposed deflector remodulation did not allow either us or the Apiata ships to penetrate far enough until the spike in plasma storms ended naturally, just 2.5 hours ago. The Ziriatrid lost shields a day ago. Only half of the crew managed to survive the radiation bombardment, and most are in critical condition.
Perhaps if the storms had abated just a day faster, or our engineers just slightly more...well, perhaps there is nothing that could have been done. We will do our bests to help with treatment of the survivors as we and the Apiata fleet tow the ship back to Alrizzine for repairs.
[Apiata forager crippled, -10 pp]
This sucked, but sometimes you fail. At least it's not the result of anything sinister.
Captain's Log, Stardate 28070.1, USS Zh'Mai
(Renaissance, Romulan Neutral Zone)
Working together Zh'mai and Rhea's Helm were able to detect a cloaked shuttle trying to leave the Athos system on low power.
While Rhea's Helm made the final intercept, it was our sensor suit that detected the trail left by the shuttle as they passed through a loose dust cloud.
Commander T'lek informs us that the shuttle was crewed by the remnant of the Tal Shiar hardliner strike team that attempted to assassinate Admirals ka'Sharren and Wenlai.
With Rhea's Helm bringing the renegades home to Romulus to face trial and sentencing, Zh'mai has been ordered to return to our own patrols on our side of the Zone.
[-1 Threat Level]
Nice to see those jerks got caught.
Captain's Log, Stardate 28070.4, USS Whale, Captain Toressa Lalen
(Renaissance, Rethelia)
The Whale is a Centaur-B, not a Renaissance. (This error gets repeated through the following log entries.)
Captain's Log, Stardate 28078.3, USS Challorn - Captain Hazag Daz-Hara
(Constellation-A, Andor)
The procedure was successful, and the results...I am having difficulty containing my excitement.
The entire lower atmosphere of Josephine VI is made up of a tangle of continent-sized organisms! These bioforms are capable of manipulating subspace in order to change their relative mass to a greater degree than any Federation starship, and appear to feed by converting the gas giant's gravimetric pressure into usable energy. The entire outer biosphere evolved by feeding on their particulate waste products that rose through the storm layer.
The Andorians are preparing to bring a full flotilla of science and construction vessels to this planet. I will be following their findings with great interest over the coming years.
[Gain +10 rp]
Sounds like the Andorians got a research colony out of this, even if we didn't.
The natives now speak, not only of the Flickering Mesa being destroyed by a divine storm and flood from the heavens, but also of "Angels cloaked in red and wreathed in light" pulling all the faithful from deadly floods and feeding and clothing them in their hour of need. And I fear that I personally, as an authority figure, now seem be designated a god by iron age natives despite my best efforts to dissuade them.
I may lose my command, and my career may crater now, and I desperately hope that Whale's reputation isn't tainted by this incident. But, by the empty void, I'll see the idiots that approved the holomasker for field use go down harder than me.
[PD Violation, -25PP]
Harsh. I don't know what else Captain Lalen could have done, though I suppose it was her responsibility to think of something.
I'm skeptical there will really be any long term damage. This is the sort of myth that iron age cultures create anyway., no help needed. And it's not like there was cultural contamination. Lalen didn't lay down any commandments or anything, so they'll just made the religion whatever they're going to make of it.
-SJ ]
