-
Going forward, links to content from Twitter (now X) will no longer be embedded. Pre-existing links should not be affected.
To Boldly Go... (a Starfleet quest)
- Thread starter OneirosTheWriter
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
-
- Tags
- 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?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That's crazy talk!
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Most likely this wouldn't get a summary but a log entry, whereas Courageous' "catalogued another 23 systems. Found one SR 15(35) mine in xx/yy" would be another summary only.
Boo! I prefer JesseJ's and NHO's method. It's a decent compromise between current Captain's Logs and you're dry "results only" solution.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
... writing fail on my part? I tried to say "something like a first contact would get a full blown log entry as in Captain's Logs, whereas 'found another SR mine' wouldn't."
Himmelhand
Giant Sinkhole 2020
- Location
- Midwestern US
Hey Command! Got blown up again, this time by interdimensional killbots. Probably nothing to worry about, but you may want to start rounding up a task force just in case. Only died a little bit but I'll get better. Love, Courageous.
- Location
- Ohio
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Now I'm just picturing the Courageous discovering both the Borg and the Dominion at the exact same time somehow.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The Borg happily assimilating the Dominion?Now I'm just picturing the Courageous discovering both the Borg and the Dominion at the exact same time somehow.
UbeOne
Daydreaming CPU
- Location
- Philippines
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Enerael
We Shall Wake to Sanity
You know how it goes.We'll assimilate the Borg afterwards.
"You shall be befriended. Resistance is futile."
Perhaps a science megaproject to hack a bunch of Borg out of the collective with a virus to allow them some individuality and the freedom to not assimilate everything?
Followed by ships full of the most fearsome of foes: FDS diplomats.
Omake - Ranger Up, Part 2 - Shadows
Shadows
Sacred Priestess of the Benevolent Dice Gods
- Location
- USS Civilian, DDG-214
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Ranger Up, Part 2
"Piyra!"
The highly-energetic exclamation was approximately all the warning Piyra had before she received a hundred and thirty kilogram gingerheaded missile to the sternum. Even the tall and sturdily built Ranger couldn't stand up to tacklehug-power of that magnitude, and the two of them promptly fell over.
"Hi, Oran." Piyra wheezed, pressed flat against the floor with three quarters of her own body weight basically lying on her chest. "Nice to see you too."
The ginger did a neat bounce off of her, which turned into a triple backflip before she hit the ground - which, were she any other species, and at a sporting event, would have gotten her full marks for technique and landing. "You missed us and ya know it."
"You, yes. Being constantly used as a landing pad, not so much…" Piyra trailed off, smirking at Oran's sudden pout.
"You should try being me sometime." Rin said, appearing behind her, arm looped around her almost reflexively. Oran leaned into him, and Piyra shivered at the thought.
"I will have to decline." she said, and peered around. "Where's Jun?"
"He's helping our mechanic get settled in right now. We, ah, well… we've got a bit of a ride-along with us." Oran said, gesturing vaguely towards the docking clamp for the Jopar, their Ranger Response Vessel - which, in reality, was very little more than a very large set of nacelles attached to an appropriate warp core, with enough space for a couple of Ranger teams and some crew to help keep it flying. It was, appropriately, one of the fastest ships in space, though completely lacking in external armament.
"A… ride along?" Piyra asked quizzically.
"Better to see them for yourself, I think." Rin piped up, and moved to the airlock. "Come on - I'll show you. We need to get underway within the hour anyway. You have everything you need?"
The Amazonian Ranger hefted her baggage. "Everything I could think of needing, yes."
"If you missed anything, we've probably got it." he said, and lead the way inside. They stopped at Piyra's cabin and dropped off her gear, then made their way to the engineering section to go meet this mysterious mechanic of Jun's.
They found Jun in one of the cargo bays after asking the warp core attendants if and where they'd seen him last. The blond Ranger was standing in front of a huge cargo crate, talking animatedly to…
"Sweet Mother of Ro- who is that?" Piyra blurted, blinking as her eyes traveled up… and up… and up, until finally she met their mechanic's eyes. She was tall, but she was also used to looking down on most people. Their mechanic was a full head taller than her, skin black as space, hair as darkly blue as midnight, with large and intelligent red eyes.
Who also, coincidentally, had curves for days.
The mechanic heard her, of course, and turned to look at her with an expression that spoke volumes about how much she was trying not to be amused. Jun started, having not noticed them walk in, and spun to face them.
"Oh, hi guys! This is, um," he started, and turned back to her. "What should we call you?"
"Bellana. I am known as Bellana, to my friends." she said, voice rather shockingly light in pitch for someone of her size, and bowed. "Battle Sister of the Order of the Siegemakers." she said, then blinked. "I beg your forgiveness, however, for I realized I have mislead you: I am War Plate Bellana Nykaea, Thirteenth Of The Name. My name-casting was only recent…"
"That's alright… War Plate?!" Piyra said, almost bug-eyed. She looked at Jun, who was grinning goofily. Her eyes narrowed, and she pointed a finger like a loaded torpedo tube. "You. Spill!"
"Well-l-l, I was asking around for anyone who wanted to volunteer for our little excursion, and a friend of mine said he didn't want to come, but he could hook us up with a blessing from one of the Honiani Orders. I figured, hey, that's better than nothing, and we could use all the good luck we can get, right? So I say sure, and today Bellana arrived to give her blessing… then she says 'Oh, and do you have enough space in your cargo hold for a War Plate?'. Then… well…" he said, and gestured at the cargo container. "This showed up about thirty minutes later."
"I believe you are embarked upon a noble venture, and have informed my Order Master of my intent to undertake this journey with you, to lend the voice of the Siegemakers to the defense of Chrystovia. Order Master Antynius would like nothing more than to send forth the full Company; I am the one he can spare. His only directive was to acquit myself well, and to return myself to the Order with my honor intact and further entries to record into Bellana's histories." Bellana said.
"Right." Jun said, nodding vigorously. "So!" he said, slapping his hands together and rubbing them. "Who's ready to get this show on the road? Provisions are loaded, we're bringing enough small arms to outfit a regiment, and now we've got not only our close-combat expert, we've got a friggin' War Plate along for the ride!"
"Yeah, let's go!" Oran said. "No sleep til Chrystovia!"
"That sounds like an astonishingly bad idea, Oran, even for you." Rin said, alarmed. "It's a two month trip!"
"Pff! Sleep is for the weak! Just you watch!" she sneered jokingly, then bounced out of the cargo hold.
"You know, I'd be more worried if I didn't know she'd be out like a light the second we get to cruising speed. Something about the ship's humming makes her drowsy after about six or eight hours." Piyra said, though a part of her felt like she was tempting some jokester god's wrath.
"Let's hope. I don't even want to imagine what she'd be like after a week without sleep, much less two months…" Rin mused with a shudder.
"Is there a protein synthesizer onboard? I require… a rather large number of calories to maintain my metabolism's requirements." Bellana inquired.
"Right this way!" Jun exclaimed, and lead her out of the cargo hold. "Probably going to need to whistle up another ton or two of substrate, now that you're here… crap."
Piyra watched them leave, slowly shaking her head the entire time.
"What on Vail have I gotten myself into?"
Last edited:
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Leslie:
"I don't even joke about Yan-Ro density anymore, not after the tangle I had overseeing the refits of ship gym equipment for 'em. No, I said, you can't use depleted uranium barbells! They're flammable! That accident aboard Sappho back in '06 when some overmuscled Vulcan's weights caught fire and burned down the gym was the only warning we need, and you can be damn sure I never okayed that in the first place."
"Harumph."
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Adjustable gravity plates just don't have the same feel however ...
NHO
Dumb is a state of existence
- Location
- ᓚᘏᗢ
What's why fun dumbbells are made from duranium laced with neutronium for great density.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Leslie:
"That's the trouble with having really reliable artificial gravity. Hard to adjust something with that many hardwired, highly redundant, resilient systems."
"Everybody does it anyway, because nobody wants to deal with unplanned gravity hiccups. I mean, even ancient Klingons made pretty foolproof gravity plates, and ancient Klingons were fool enough that even the Vulcans made jokes about them."
Leslie:Stable neutronium under standard gravity. For weights.
"I know, I know, buddy."
[backpat]
"Here, have some of this Laio beer. To help you forget."
NHO
Dumb is a state of existence
- Location
- ᓚᘏᗢ
Well, yeah, Neutronium is beyond Federation Science at this point. You just need to find Iconian dumbbells.
Or you can spend hilarious amount of resources to chip some neutronium from hulked remain of Planet Killer, because damn thing got neutronium armor.
Last edited:
Captain's Log - 2324.Q1.M3
Jenny
anonymous user
- Location
- maryland
- Pronouns
- She/Her
"So. Commander. Gonna be leaving me this year?" Iliae Rurliss asked her science officer, teasingly, sitting next to her in the grass near their tent. Formally, she and T'Kel were conducting a biosurvey of OQL-201 III; in practice, it was a chance for the two officers to relax. There wasn't really any pressing need for an extensive survey of the plant life here - and it was only plant life, OQL-201 III being apparently fairly young as planets go - but it was an excuse to take a break from the pressures of command and get outside for a little while.
"I have no plans to do so," T'Kel said, her voice as even as ever, her attention fixed on the tea she was preparing.
"Ah, come on!" Rurliss exclaimed. "How many Keplers commissioning, this year and next? Don't tell me you wouldn't want a posting on one!"
"Very well. I will instead tell you that I find that I have been best able to put my talents to use while under your command." T'Kel looked almost smug.
"Well!" Rurliss beamed. "That's quite kind of you to say so, though considering how hands-off I've been with you... you want your own ship? Or perhaps your own science outpost?"
T'Kel sipped at her tea, then said, "Neither suits my talents."
"Alright, what do you want?"
"To run your science department, Captain. Here, and... Enterprise." The vulcan had a hint of a smile on her face at the thought of it.
"Enterprise!" Rurliss laughed at the idea. Her? The flagship? "Now, that's one hell of a leap of logic, to think I have a shot at Enterprise."
"Why not? Enterprise's captain is married. Humans tend to find long-distance relationships difficult; given the option, it would be logical for Captain Zhang to take the opportunity to seek out a posting closer to her wife when her five year mission concludes. And so there would be an opening for us," T'Kel noted.
"Hah. What makes you so sure that I would take that opening? Or bring you along?"
"Again, logic. You requested me for Emancipation, then for Voshov. And I recall a certain promise made about Enterprise, when we were roommates at the Academy."
"I was drunk!" Rurliss laughed. She leaned back, taking in the night sky. It was beautifully alien, with unfamiliar constellations, and only one artificial object in motion - Voshov herself. The Amarki captain scanned the night sky, peering for her ship.
Wait.
That was odd.
She blinked... and something was still missing.
"So... is it just me or did a star just disappear?" Rurliss pointed to the odd patch of black where a star had been moments ago.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23591, USS Enterprise, Captain Jennifer Zhang
(Ambassador, EC-Tailward)
Fresh from the ratification of the Star Kin, Enterprise is reentering deep space coreward of the Harmony of Horizon.
I plan to skirt the space between the Harmony and newly minted Breen Confederacy, following on, and hopefully passing beyond, the space explored by Courageous.
We're starting with a survey of THY-521, there's a, thick, visually close asteroid belt in that system that looks interesting.
Personal Log, Jennifer Zhang
(Human, Female)
I really really want to meet some Dreamers while we're out here. There's a part of me that's jealous that while I was fighting the Vulcan Imperial Technocracy in the burned out ruins of an alternate Sol, Zara was dreaming and playing with the nice space whales.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23591.7, USS Fluffy-Puffy - Captain Blaorgh blasch Fop
(Centaur-B, Rethelia)
We are responding to a dam failure on the Qloathi world of Qornalvo, where Incorruptible is already present supporting a diplomatic conference in the planetary capital that is now under threat from flooding. The dam failure reportedly is the result of seismic activity... but shouldn't they have accounted for the possibility when designing the damn thing?
No matter. We'll sort it out when we get to Qornalvo.
-
Bridge Archives, Stardate 23592, USS Enterprise
(Ambassador, THY-521)
[Cmdr. Deva] "I'm serious though, Lieutenant Cindre, you should set up a club. I'm not my brother, the fashion icon, but I'd love to see your work in person. And I'm certain there are lot of other people on Enterprise who'd be into analogue clothing design."
[Lt-Cmdr Tiirid] "I knew a Seyek officer back on Rethelia who said that he enjoyed the challenge of designing for multiple body types. He said that "It made him reassess what clothing really meant.""
[Cmdr Deva] "As I understand it, the reason it's taking so long to design another general service uniform for Starfleet is because we've had so many new species joining lately that they have to restart from scratch with each new member."
[Lt. Cindre] "I thought that was a joke?"
[Cmdr Deva] "On my father's stars, I'm being completely honest. Imagine trying to design a common aesthetic across every Federation species. Imagine trying to design a dress uniform for a Dreamer!"
[Lt-Cmdr Tiirid] "I imagine that would mostly involve a lot of paint, sir."
[Cmdr Deva] "Spoil- SET CONDITION YELLOW ACROSS THE SHIP!"
[Lt Cindre] "Aye Sir! Setting Condition Yellow."
[Lt-Cmdr Tiirid] "Bringing Shields online Sir! Alerting the ready teams."
[Cmdr Deva] "Engineering, this is the XO. What's happening to the power?"
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23592.1, USS Fluffy-Puffy
(Centaur-B, Rethelia)
With help from Incorruptible, we managed to divert the surging reservoir before it could reach the planetary capital of Qornalvo. Still plenty of homes lost, but this could have gone a lot worse without our help.
[Gain +10 pp]
-
Internal Communications Archive, Stardate 23592.3, Captain Jennifer Zhang
(Ambassador, THY-521)
[Cpt Zhang] "Zhang to Bridge, give me a status report."
[Cmdr Deva] "Captain! We're still tracking the issues but we're receiving reports of malfunctions from across the ship."
[Cpt Zhang] "I'll add one of my own: I'm trapped in my quarters with no shipboard lighting. I can't use anything that's not independent of Enterprise."
[Cmdr Deva] "Yes ma'am. We've been up here narrowing the problem down by coordinating our people to conduct room by room searches for the problem. Best as we can tell the issue is in our control links. Nothing can talk to each other along our hard links. It's isolated blackbox tech, wireless communications, or nothing. Life support seems to failing in some sections as well. It's starting to get awfully cold up here on the bridge ma'am."
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23592.5, USS Voshov - Captain Iliae Rurliss
(Excelsior-A, EC)
We have a situation. A star, and the space surrounding it, is gone.
We have sent out six long-range probes to investigate HD 209458, 6.2 light years away from our current location. None got there - they were destroyed at shorter and shorter distances from us. Telemetry from the probes are confusing, apparently, but the leading hypothesis is very bad.
According to Lt. Saadi, based on the telemetry we received, we may be dealing with a 'false vacuum collapse'. Essentially, the idea would be that the universe is actually not at the most stable minimum energy state, and that if a region of 'true vacuum' that is at a lower, more stable energy state emerged, then the bubble of 'true vacuum' would expand at the speed of light, destroying everything in its path. Technically, the universe itself wouldn't end, just change. But all life in it would be extinguished.
There are multiple problems with this theory, however.
First, this isn't supposed to happen. According to modern cosmological models, the universe should be at the most stable minimum - or at the least, the energy required to overcome the barrier between the local minimum and any potential lower minimum is too high a barrier to surmount. In this universe. Lt. Saadi's working hypothesis is that the false vacuum collapse occurred in another universe that was connected to our own via a dimensional rift of some sort.
Second, the effect seems to be propagating faster than light. It seems to have somehow ejected photons from the star consumed by the bubble at a speed faster than light travels normally, well ahead of it, and presuming that the probes are being destroyed by the edge of the bubble, the effect itself is propagating faster than light, and accelerating. The probes did report unusual tachyon emissions just before their destruction; perhaps this is related?
-
Bridge Archives, Stardate 23592.75, USS Enterprise
(Ambassador, THY-521)
[Cmdr Deva] "I'm so happy to be warm again that I'm not even going to ask how you were able to make fire from a uniform jacket and a phaser catalyzation chamber by touch alone."
[Lt Cindre] "Everyone should know how to set things on fire, Sir."
[Lt-Cmdr Neroth] "Neroth to Bridge. I believe that I have located the problem"
[Cmdr Deva] "Good work! Go ahead"
[Lt-Cmdr Neroth] "The issue is not in our control links themselves. Some sort of organism has infected Enterprise's main computer core. Put in simple terms: Enterprise's neurons are being blocked. Her processing capabilities are being blocked."
[Cmdr Deva] "Right, I bet you're thinking the same thing that I am: airgap that old deutronic type one, run engineers down to the hangar and use the shuttle transporters to distribute the colony support comms gear to critical stations for integration, and then process everything with the old Mark I until we can figure out how to purge the fours."
-
Personal Log, Stardate 23593.2, Crewman Timothy Daniels - USS Voshov
(Human, male)
It's the only way.
If this effect is allowed to propagate further, it will destroy the universe. The only way to stop it is to prevent it from ever happening. And there's only one way we can do that.
I shouldn't, but I have to tell them.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23593.5, USS Enterprise, Captain Jennifer Zhang
(Ambassador, EC-Tailward)
Enterprise came closer to destruction than I like considering.
During our survey of the THY-521 asteroid belt, Enterprise was infected by some sort of parasitic energy based organism that was attracted to the heavy activity of Enterprise's computer cores.
Commander M'hrana has made a connection with Courageous' logs of their time with the Dreamer physician Doc, and she thinks that the parasite that infected Enterprise is a life form that evolved to feed off the electromagnetic impulses of Dreamer brains. While a minor infection in Dreamer terms, when exposed to Enterprise's brain, the parasites effects were far more malignant.
Fortunately, once Enterprise's condition was stabilized through the use of our back up computer core, the crew was swiftly able to purge the infection from the main core and Enterprise is once again fully operational and we've installed protocols that should prevent a repeat of the infection if Enterprise is exposed again.
Personal Log, Jennifer Zhang
(Human, Female)
If the parasites hadn't ignored the comparatively slow running, and calculation poor Mk-I back-up core in favour of the far tastier Mark-IVs…
Well, I don't like to think about what would have happened. I'm proud of my crew, we survived a very trying experience with no injuries.
[+15 rp, +1 Crew Rating, Enterprise now blooded]
-
Audio Log, Briefing Room, Stardate 23593.7, USS Voshov
(Excelsior-A, EC)
[Cpt. Iliae Rurliss]: So, your plan is to travel back in time, head to the epicenter before the collapse starts, and then do... something to prevent a dimensional rift from forming. I don't like it.
[Cmdr. T'Kel, Science Officer]: With respect, this is not a question about like and dislike -
[Rurliss]: I'm aware. Do you really have a plan for stopping the vacuum collapse at the source?
[Lt. Omar Saadi, Astrophysics]: We have some strong ideas. They need some sim work, but I'm confident that we'll have something solid by the time we reach the epicenter.
[Rurliss]: Again, 'something'. And assuming we succeed, can we get back from ... when was it, 2318? Or will there be two Voshovs, at least until either some sort of paradox happens or the Ashalla Pact blows us up?
[T'Kel]: Crewman Daniels assures me that it is possible for us to return. And even if not, it will not matter - if we fail to prevent the vacuum collapse, it will destroy the universe -
[Rurliss]: I'm aware, Commander. Do you even know why the dimensional rift formed?
[pause]
[Rurliss]: That's what I thought. How can you prevent what you don't understand? Find me another solution. A way to stop it now.
[slight pause]
[T'Kel]: Yes, ma'am.
[All except T'Kel and Rurliss leave]
[Rurliss]: Commander. You're upset.
[T'Kel]: My emotions are irrelevant. However...
[Rurliss]: However?
[T'Kel]: With respect... so are you.
[Rurliss]: Facing the end of everything, can you blame me? I don't blame you.
[T'Kel]: You misunderstand me. You are rejecting my department's plan, based on, what, your gut? That is what upsets me.
[Rurliss]: Your 'plan' is guesswork. I mean, even I can poke holes in it. That's a bad sign. I get that time is limited -
[T'Kel]: Yes, time is limited. The longer we waste trying to develop some alternative, the shorter the window we have to implement any solution. If you intend for my department's plan to serve as a backup, I do not believe that will be possible. At least we will not live long to regret it.
[Rurliss]: Do your duty, Commander.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23594.5, USS Renewal, Captain Andracius Faus
(Renaissance, CBZ)
With the worthy assistance of the Captain and crew of USS Torch, we have triangulated the rippling electromagnetic transmissions that have been echoing along the far edges of the Cardassian Border Zone.
With Torch providing their most effective overwatch against Cardassian interlopers, Renewal is even now racing to the origin point of our ethereal disturbances to investigate with great curiosity.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23595.7, USS Voshov
(Excelsior-A, EC)
We cut it close, and didn't leave ourselves enough time for simulations. But the Science Department pulled it off, as I knew they would.
The simple, inaccurate explanation of what we did is that we created a subspace 'firebreak' around the expanding bubble. Because the vacuum collapse was propagating faster than light, it necessarily was propagating via subspace; by destroying subspace ahead of the bubble, we blocked further expansion.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23596, USS Renewal, Captain Andracius Faus
(Renaissance, CBZ)
Aha! Yet another group of bowed but unbroken Bajorans fresh from the dusty remnants of B'hala!
Kale Lopan, the most worthy Bajoran Vedek leading this newest batch of refugees, has regaled me with tales of ever more terrible Cardassian oppression of himself and his Prophet worshipping co-religionists.
I have it under good authority that the Cardassian puppet Kai has been killed by zealous members of his own order and the Cardassian retribution has been wetly exemplary in its bloody handedness.
Entire provinces have seen their holy men and women replaced or removed by the blackguards of the Obsidian Order in twilight raids.
The Cardassian apparatus squatting atop Bajor has been deluged in a tide of red-knived Prophetite fanatics.
-
Personal Log, Stardate 23597.5, Commander T'Kel - USS Voshov
(Vulcan, female)
I went to the Captain's quarters this evening to apologize. She was right: simulations show that if we had attempted to travel through time, the chroniton radiation we would have brought along with us would have weakened space-time sufficiently that whatever we could have done would not have prevented the rift from forming; in fact, it might have exacerbated the problem, depending on what the cause of the rift formation was. And even without that, I had allowed my emotions to cloud my judgment. Rurliss was definitely right about that.
She told me I had nothing to apologize for, under the circumstances, and apologized herself for making me think she didn't trust the Science department. Unnecessary, but appreciated.
[Gain 17 rp]
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23598.5, USS Renewal, Captain Andracius Faus
(Renaissance, CBZ)
While a great eruption of bloody Bajoran spirit has overtaken many of Vedek Kale's fundamentalist fellows and their most devoted flocks; Kale and his own flock have refused to participate in the bloodletting and, fearing torchwielding Prophetite Zealot and red handed Obsidian Agents alike, have fled to the light and safety of Federation space.
It has taken some work, but negotiation on the behalf of Starfleet and the wider Federation, we've reached an agreement to bring Vedek Kale's group into the fold of the wider Bajoran exodus, and his group will be resettling into the Velo camps.
I have been led to understand that the deeply pacifist mores of Kale and his followers will be welcome in the fields and valleys of Velo colony.
[+5 PP, +10 on [Suspicious of Outsiders] tag on Bajoran Diaspora (now 70/300)]
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23599, USS Ambassador, Captain Zolani Volanen
(Ambassador, Spin-Coreward of the Dylaarian Federation)
Ambassador is performing observations on the rapidly industrializing prewarp natives of WQS-439, or as it is known by the majority of the natives: "Milwarth."
We've slipping into a stationary orbit on the far side of Milwarth's moon in order to minimize our chance of detection by the developing astronomical techniques of the Milwarthi pre-atomic era.
Milwarth itself is a mineral rich world with indications that the planet has sizable reserves of dilithium. The Milwarthi have a sizable geological inheritance in their future when they eventually develop warp travel.
Personal Log, Zolani Volanen
(Orion, Female)
Possibly overzealous precautions aside; my observations show that the milwarthi generally seem to be advancing on schedule along Talisa's stages of development, and they've also given me a great deal of data that looks to back up part of John Gill's Laws of Convergent Development -something that probably aggravates me far more than it should.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23599.5, USS Atuin - Captain Hassan Aharani
(Excelsior-A, EC)
We've detected a buzz of Gorn activity in the a-913 system, part of their new expansion zone. Our records show activity consistent with a colonial development team being sent to the area, along with Science Frigate Rethis and a Third Rate. We've received a private communique from the Gorn Collegium of Science asking for assistance. We will be briefed on arrival.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23600, USS Reformation, Captain Brian Kisawa
(Renaissance, Rigel)
While conducting a follow up survey of the Psi-14000 system, we've discovered an easily accessible vein of duranium alloy components that Reformation will be able to excavate for shipment to Starbase 10.
[Gained +10br]
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23601, USS Atuin - Captain Hassan Aharani
(Excelsior-A, EC)
The a-913 system contains two very interesting things. One is an advanced megastructure, fully operational, and constructing an unknown fleet. The other is a powerful temporal field, suspending the entire system in a different time period. We don't exactly know when the time on the other end is, but initial estimates based on chroniton emissions place it anywhere from 100,000-1,000,000 years in the past. This is not an exact science.
We've detected the Third Rate and the Rethis on the other side of the temporal anomaly. They appear to be held by tractor beams by the megastructure. We've been privately contracted by the sector flag aboard a Second Rate. Despite having similar scientific capacity as our own, they have requested we conduct the survey because, quote, 'Events of this most curious nature are more within your purview; certainly the brilliant minds of Starfleet have puzzled over situations like these more often than our own.' I think the Admiral is also afraid -- the Rethis has one of the most potent science packages in the known galaxy, and it has been unable to escape.
I will cross over, remain undetected, and attempt contact if the situation warrants.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23601.5, USS Ambassador, Captain Zolani Volanen
(Ambassador, Spin-Coreward of the Dylaarian Federation)
There's something a little more out of the ordinary in the Milwarthi settlement patterns, particularly in the southern continent that's seen a massive wave of recolonization in the last three hundred years. Expansive tracts of high quality farmland and immediately subsurface fossil fuel deposits that should be easy for their prospectors to find have gone completely undeveloped, even as cities and roadways spring up all around them. Initially my hypothesis was that these were fallow regions, being preserved for religious, aesthetic, or environmental reasons -the sort of thing Janswai Isa built a hundred year career on studying, but our observations aren't bearing that out.
For instance, all milwarthi societies that have competed for territory on the continent have avoided the same fallow regions, many of these despite having their last cultural and linguistic divergences in the the early neolithic period. Furthermore, our more detailed scans have shown multiple abandoned construction attempts by several of those societies in the fallow regions over the course of recent centuries. All these sites were abandoned at different times, by different people, but there are no signs of any natural disasters or battles to have triggered the emigrations. Our next thought was some sort of isolated disease or other hazardous organism, but the fallow areas are non-contiguous and have nothing to do with each other environmentally.
I think these people warrant further study. What we've observed doesn't conform to any known paradigm for a species at their development level. Excepting Yularis's theories, obviously, but Yularis was an Imperial apologist hack at best.
Either the milwarthi are going in a very novel direction culturally, or there's something external preventing them from living in those places.
-
Science Officer's Log, Stardate 23602.8, USS Atuin - Lieutenant T'Wilit
(Excelsior-A, EC)
I hypothesize the Gorn were the victims of a device intended to allow a species to escape into the future. Long-range sensors have detected a fleet enroute to our location. Even at this range, I can tell they are ready for combat
Curiously, the vessels holding the Gorn do not appear to be more advanced than our own, despite the impressive design and temporal work that is this megastructure. My working theory is that they did not construct the megastructure, and it is even older than we initially believed. I suspect they simply had more advanced temporal technology.
Our passage into this system is a curious one. While the system in our time was encased in a temporal bubble, in this timeline there does not appear to be any access to the future. In short, as far as the inhabitants of this time are concerned, the Rethis appeared out of nowhere. This also means that we do not yet have a way back home.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23603, USS Ambassador, Captain Zolani Volanen
(Ambassador, Spin-Coreward of the Dylaarian Federation)
We've been hailed by a representative of the Akley Consortium. They detected our scans of their subterranean mining facilities, and have asked us if we are here to contest their rights to Milwarth. When I informed the Akley representatives that we consider the milwarthi to "own the rights" to their own planet, the akley said that the natives have made no attempts to stake such a claim.
According to the akley, they have been mining dilithium on this planet for centuries, and recently increased the scale of their operations several times over due to milwarthi industrialization. They wish to extract as much of the planet's dilithium supply as possible now, before the natives' technology makes detection too difficult to avoid and confrontation becomes inevitable. When asked about the conspicuous absence of milwarthi near their mining sites, the akley claim to have employed "indirect measures" to minimize the chance of a "misunderstanding that could cost precious milwarthi lives."
The command crew and I will be discussing how to proceed here.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23603.2, USS Atuin - Captain Hassan Aharani
(Excelsior-A, EC)
Our engineers have created a device that will allow us to open a passage to the future, and we have devised a plan to free the trapped Gorn ships without too much issue. Most of the fleet in this system has begun skirmishing with the attacking force, and unaware of our presence, is unconcerned with guarding the Gorn. By some luck of the dice, they haven't taken any Gorn from the ships, meaning we do not need to conduct a rescue.
However, I am torn. T'Wilit thinks that they may have that ability to finally traverse to our time in a few hours, rather than the current one-way transit. Our method of escape will also close off their ability to escape through the time bubble at all, if we so choose.
We do not know these people. We are attempting to decode and translate their transmissions, but have been unsuccessful thus far. Contacting them, even if we could understand them, could cause them to trap us as well and leave us stranded. For all we know, this is the last stand of a military force bent on galactic destruction. Or perhaps it is a band of desperate refugees.
Whatever the case, I will have to make my decision shortly. The battle will soon be decided, either to preserve liberty, or commit genocide.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23603.6, USS Ambassador, Captain Zolani Volanen
(Ambassador, Spin-Coreward of the Dylaarian Federation)
We informed the akley miners that there are other sources of dilithium nearby that would not require them to rob a pre-spaceflight species of its future. They replied that they will be exploiting these other sources after Milwarth, as those other sites will still be there after the milwarthi have forced them to abandon their world. I told them that the Federation is likely to claim the other sites in the near future, but will probably be willing to yield some of them now if the akley leave the Milwarthi homeworld immediately.
I explained the Prime Directive to them, when they asked why we would be willing to offer them such an exchange. I believe now that this might have been a mistake.
Just hours afterward, images of the Ambassador appeared in milwarthi news media, along with carefully doctored transcripts of my exchanges with the akley that reveal everything we've told them about the Federation without betraying the presence of the miners.
The akley hailed us again. The way they see it, they have responded to our attempts at applying "coercive pressure" to them in kind. Any further perceived attempts at threatening or bullying them will be punished by increasing the scale of the Prime Directive breach.
And now we've just detected two ships inbound from further core-spinward.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23604, USS Atuin - Captain Hassan Aharani
(Excelsior-A, EC)
I do not know if I have been a hero or a monster. All I can report is what I have done. I decided that, in the absence of information, we had to rescue those who we knew to be innocent. So we freed the Gorn ships and created our passage to the future.
The Gorn are grateful for the rescue. From their perspective, we are heroes, and the fate of the two fleets does not concern them. But I remain troubled, myself.
I request that you forward these logs, and our attached logs of transmissions from the fleets, to the Federation Council. While the portal to the past is closed for now, it is possible for Starfleet to reopen it, at the moment we left. If Starfleet Command or the Council requests it, we are prepared to return and conduct further investigation.
[Gain 15 rp]
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23604.1, USS Ambassador, Captain Zolani Volanen
(Ambassador, Spin-Coreward of the Dylaarian Federation)
That was a tense standoff. I have a number of Academy instructors and my loose understanding of T'Pel's theories of xenopsychological interaction to thank for it ending as well as it did.
We didn't raise shields. We also avoided talking about the situation on Milwarth at all. I just provided them with factual data about the size, industrial strength, and rate of expansion of the United Federation of Planets, and politely asked for similar information about the Akley Consortium. An hour later, they informed us that they will be abandoning Milwarth before the end of this local year, thanked us for our generous offer, and told us that they will be willing to make additional policy changes within reason in order to facilitate good relations with the Federation. The milwarthi have lost much of their planet's readily accessible dilithium, but fortunately not all. Maybe not even most.
I seem to have chosen the right approach; Counselor Olei believes that they're actually impressed with us. Soft pressure seems to be at the root of the akley social dynamic. What happened when they revealed us to the milwarthi seems to have been their idea of opening an equitable dialogue where both sides have something to pressure the other with without having to consider violence; something that they earnestly abhor.
They are a people of...strange...morals. But they seem to abide to them very strictly.
We've been told to expect a diplomatic envoy from them shortly.
[New race encountered (Akley Consortium): starting relations 50/100]
-
Captain's Log, USS Thirishar, Stardate 23608 - Captain Kith th'Risroth
(Excelsior-A, Cardassian-Seyek Border Zone)
With the commencement of the Ashalla Pact's aggression against the Chrystovians, independent haulers are a much more frequent sight in this area, handling trade and supply routes normally handled by the state operated ships. This presents a variety of complications, of course. While it is good to have state entities at bay, these tramp operators are their own set of problems. Mostly Goshawnar civilians, but leavened with a few Konen, unscrupulous Ashidi, far afield Yrillians, even Dylaarians and a few we don't recognize, and they hold little respect for mandated routes.
Together with the Suurok, we are sweeping back and forth across the sector, picking up and warning any ship trying injudicious short-cuts. At the same time, we're in constant touch with the various shipping concerns and guilds, trying to find out who the risk factors are, and get some cooperation.
As a part of it, we're heading to an independent waystation run by a sect of Ashidi isolationists; real rebel against society types. Two of the major players in Goshawnar shipping will be there, and we hope to gain some formal lines of communication.
-
Captain's Log, USS Gale, Stardate 23609 - Captain Imran Malik
(Centaur-B, LBZ)
We have been preparing groundwork for the arrival of the Miracht Agrad with a bevy of Federation diplomats, in anticipation of a summit at Gesseria. The local noble house, House Bene, is the least well known and understood of the Houses Major, and the most closely aligned with the Romulans. This could represent a major opportunity to bridge divides ... or at the least, find out what the Tal Shiar and Naval Intelligence are up to on Gesseria. More likely the latter, to be honest.
-
Captain's Log, USS Suurok, Stardate 23610
(Centaur-B, Cardassian-Seyek Border Zone)
We came across a rumor while at the Ashidi Starbase, one conveyed to my XO by a Bajoran exile who has been on a long tour of these skies. The Imelak may be focused on their imperialist war, but their eyes are not entirely turned aside from this space. Specially engineered cosmozoa have been seeded by one of the shipping concerns that would give the Imelak a sensing network across every major route well beyond their base sensor range. They pointed us in the direction of a suspected agent, an Ashidi bought and paid for by the Imelak. By signals tracking and a daring theft of data, we narrowed it down to two Goshawnar lines. I have just learned that the Thirishar is to meet with them both.
I have sent work to Captain th'Risroth.
-
Captain's Log, USS Gale, Stardate 23610.5
(Centaur-B, LBZ)
So, that went places.
The discussions regarding security for the delegations were what even a Tellarite would call a rousing good throwdown of a debate. I'm sure the good Majordomo was simply operating out of concern for us, and not an interest in building in weak points for our pointy eared friends. But no never mind that part - once the discussions were concluded, one of the minor vassal houses of the Bene, known as the Teg, decided that they could not entrust their liege, the Duchess Jerzai Adarr, to these security arrangements. To stand surety, they wanted things handled in the appropriate way for such treaties - a marriage contract. Myself to marry their Princess.
[Sigh]
For the love of...
-
Captain's Log, USS Thirishar, Stardate 23611
(Excelsior-A, Cardassian-Seyek Border Zone)
Both of the Goshawnar shipping magnates denied they had any such plan cooked up. Their ships, unfortunately, betrayed no sign of any such organic material. But a steady stream of details that came from the Suurok gave us one clue after another that let us begin to ensnare the true culprit. Bajh Nashood, a Goshawnar marked by bright green plumage with golden mottling, was eventually caught out in one lie too many. His line of ships was barred from Federation space, and shortly after the Ashidi followed suit.
[Imelak plot foiled, +10pp, +10 on Ashidi [Cardassian Threat] tag (now 259/300)]
-
Captain's Log, USS Miracht Agrad, Stardate 23613
(Excelsior-A, LBZ)
The summit has been a great success, though the presence of Captain Malik was sorely missed throughout the proceedings. However, he had to agree to stay in the Ducal compound on Gesseria by himself as a hostage of Federation good behaviour.
Personally, I thought that was a somewhat excessive length to go just to avoid an arranged marriage.
[Gain +5pp, +10 relations with Licori (now 81/100)]
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23616, USS Sarek - Captain Jeanette Devereaux
(Excelsior-A, EC)
It's been a quiet quarter for Sarek - we spent most of the quarter transiting the Federation, moving towards the rimward frontier.
Towards the end of the quarter, we stopped to conduct stellar surveys on the outskirts of Risan space. In the larger asteroid belt of the XK-1029 system, we found significant quantities of duranium - not substantial enough to be worth the effort of setting up a mine here, but useful all the same.
[Gain +17 br]
"I have no plans to do so," T'Kel said, her voice as even as ever, her attention fixed on the tea she was preparing.
"Ah, come on!" Rurliss exclaimed. "How many Keplers commissioning, this year and next? Don't tell me you wouldn't want a posting on one!"
"Very well. I will instead tell you that I find that I have been best able to put my talents to use while under your command." T'Kel looked almost smug.
"Well!" Rurliss beamed. "That's quite kind of you to say so, though considering how hands-off I've been with you... you want your own ship? Or perhaps your own science outpost?"
T'Kel sipped at her tea, then said, "Neither suits my talents."
"Alright, what do you want?"
"To run your science department, Captain. Here, and... Enterprise." The vulcan had a hint of a smile on her face at the thought of it.
"Enterprise!" Rurliss laughed at the idea. Her? The flagship? "Now, that's one hell of a leap of logic, to think I have a shot at Enterprise."
"Why not? Enterprise's captain is married. Humans tend to find long-distance relationships difficult; given the option, it would be logical for Captain Zhang to take the opportunity to seek out a posting closer to her wife when her five year mission concludes. And so there would be an opening for us," T'Kel noted.
"Hah. What makes you so sure that I would take that opening? Or bring you along?"
"Again, logic. You requested me for Emancipation, then for Voshov. And I recall a certain promise made about Enterprise, when we were roommates at the Academy."
"I was drunk!" Rurliss laughed. She leaned back, taking in the night sky. It was beautifully alien, with unfamiliar constellations, and only one artificial object in motion - Voshov herself. The Amarki captain scanned the night sky, peering for her ship.
Wait.
That was odd.
She blinked... and something was still missing.
"So... is it just me or did a star just disappear?" Rurliss pointed to the odd patch of black where a star had been moments ago.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23591, USS Enterprise, Captain Jennifer Zhang
(Ambassador, EC-Tailward)
Fresh from the ratification of the Star Kin, Enterprise is reentering deep space coreward of the Harmony of Horizon.
I plan to skirt the space between the Harmony and newly minted Breen Confederacy, following on, and hopefully passing beyond, the space explored by Courageous.
We're starting with a survey of THY-521, there's a, thick, visually close asteroid belt in that system that looks interesting.
Personal Log, Jennifer Zhang
(Human, Female)
I really really want to meet some Dreamers while we're out here. There's a part of me that's jealous that while I was fighting the Vulcan Imperial Technocracy in the burned out ruins of an alternate Sol, Zara was dreaming and playing with the nice space whales.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23591.7, USS Fluffy-Puffy - Captain Blaorgh blasch Fop
(Centaur-B, Rethelia)
We are responding to a dam failure on the Qloathi world of Qornalvo, where Incorruptible is already present supporting a diplomatic conference in the planetary capital that is now under threat from flooding. The dam failure reportedly is the result of seismic activity... but shouldn't they have accounted for the possibility when designing the damn thing?
No matter. We'll sort it out when we get to Qornalvo.
-
Bridge Archives, Stardate 23592, USS Enterprise
(Ambassador, THY-521)
[Cmdr. Deva] "I'm serious though, Lieutenant Cindre, you should set up a club. I'm not my brother, the fashion icon, but I'd love to see your work in person. And I'm certain there are lot of other people on Enterprise who'd be into analogue clothing design."
[Lt-Cmdr Tiirid] "I knew a Seyek officer back on Rethelia who said that he enjoyed the challenge of designing for multiple body types. He said that "It made him reassess what clothing really meant.""
[Cmdr Deva] "As I understand it, the reason it's taking so long to design another general service uniform for Starfleet is because we've had so many new species joining lately that they have to restart from scratch with each new member."
[Lt. Cindre] "I thought that was a joke?"
[Cmdr Deva] "On my father's stars, I'm being completely honest. Imagine trying to design a common aesthetic across every Federation species. Imagine trying to design a dress uniform for a Dreamer!"
[Lt-Cmdr Tiirid] "I imagine that would mostly involve a lot of paint, sir."
[Cmdr Deva] "Spoil- SET CONDITION YELLOW ACROSS THE SHIP!"
[Lt Cindre] "Aye Sir! Setting Condition Yellow."
[Lt-Cmdr Tiirid] "Bringing Shields online Sir! Alerting the ready teams."
[Cmdr Deva] "Engineering, this is the XO. What's happening to the power?"
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23592.1, USS Fluffy-Puffy
(Centaur-B, Rethelia)
With help from Incorruptible, we managed to divert the surging reservoir before it could reach the planetary capital of Qornalvo. Still plenty of homes lost, but this could have gone a lot worse without our help.
[Gain +10 pp]
-
Internal Communications Archive, Stardate 23592.3, Captain Jennifer Zhang
(Ambassador, THY-521)
[Cpt Zhang] "Zhang to Bridge, give me a status report."
[Cmdr Deva] "Captain! We're still tracking the issues but we're receiving reports of malfunctions from across the ship."
[Cpt Zhang] "I'll add one of my own: I'm trapped in my quarters with no shipboard lighting. I can't use anything that's not independent of Enterprise."
[Cmdr Deva] "Yes ma'am. We've been up here narrowing the problem down by coordinating our people to conduct room by room searches for the problem. Best as we can tell the issue is in our control links. Nothing can talk to each other along our hard links. It's isolated blackbox tech, wireless communications, or nothing. Life support seems to failing in some sections as well. It's starting to get awfully cold up here on the bridge ma'am."
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23592.5, USS Voshov - Captain Iliae Rurliss
(Excelsior-A, EC)
We have a situation. A star, and the space surrounding it, is gone.
We have sent out six long-range probes to investigate HD 209458, 6.2 light years away from our current location. None got there - they were destroyed at shorter and shorter distances from us. Telemetry from the probes are confusing, apparently, but the leading hypothesis is very bad.
According to Lt. Saadi, based on the telemetry we received, we may be dealing with a 'false vacuum collapse'. Essentially, the idea would be that the universe is actually not at the most stable minimum energy state, and that if a region of 'true vacuum' that is at a lower, more stable energy state emerged, then the bubble of 'true vacuum' would expand at the speed of light, destroying everything in its path. Technically, the universe itself wouldn't end, just change. But all life in it would be extinguished.
There are multiple problems with this theory, however.
First, this isn't supposed to happen. According to modern cosmological models, the universe should be at the most stable minimum - or at the least, the energy required to overcome the barrier between the local minimum and any potential lower minimum is too high a barrier to surmount. In this universe. Lt. Saadi's working hypothesis is that the false vacuum collapse occurred in another universe that was connected to our own via a dimensional rift of some sort.
Second, the effect seems to be propagating faster than light. It seems to have somehow ejected photons from the star consumed by the bubble at a speed faster than light travels normally, well ahead of it, and presuming that the probes are being destroyed by the edge of the bubble, the effect itself is propagating faster than light, and accelerating. The probes did report unusual tachyon emissions just before their destruction; perhaps this is related?
-
Bridge Archives, Stardate 23592.75, USS Enterprise
(Ambassador, THY-521)
[Cmdr Deva] "I'm so happy to be warm again that I'm not even going to ask how you were able to make fire from a uniform jacket and a phaser catalyzation chamber by touch alone."
[Lt Cindre] "Everyone should know how to set things on fire, Sir."
[Lt-Cmdr Neroth] "Neroth to Bridge. I believe that I have located the problem"
[Cmdr Deva] "Good work! Go ahead"
[Lt-Cmdr Neroth] "The issue is not in our control links themselves. Some sort of organism has infected Enterprise's main computer core. Put in simple terms: Enterprise's neurons are being blocked. Her processing capabilities are being blocked."
[Cmdr Deva] "Right, I bet you're thinking the same thing that I am: airgap that old deutronic type one, run engineers down to the hangar and use the shuttle transporters to distribute the colony support comms gear to critical stations for integration, and then process everything with the old Mark I until we can figure out how to purge the fours."
-
Personal Log, Stardate 23593.2, Crewman Timothy Daniels - USS Voshov
(Human, male)
It's the only way.
If this effect is allowed to propagate further, it will destroy the universe. The only way to stop it is to prevent it from ever happening. And there's only one way we can do that.
I shouldn't, but I have to tell them.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23593.5, USS Enterprise, Captain Jennifer Zhang
(Ambassador, EC-Tailward)
Enterprise came closer to destruction than I like considering.
During our survey of the THY-521 asteroid belt, Enterprise was infected by some sort of parasitic energy based organism that was attracted to the heavy activity of Enterprise's computer cores.
Commander M'hrana has made a connection with Courageous' logs of their time with the Dreamer physician Doc, and she thinks that the parasite that infected Enterprise is a life form that evolved to feed off the electromagnetic impulses of Dreamer brains. While a minor infection in Dreamer terms, when exposed to Enterprise's brain, the parasites effects were far more malignant.
Fortunately, once Enterprise's condition was stabilized through the use of our back up computer core, the crew was swiftly able to purge the infection from the main core and Enterprise is once again fully operational and we've installed protocols that should prevent a repeat of the infection if Enterprise is exposed again.
Personal Log, Jennifer Zhang
(Human, Female)
If the parasites hadn't ignored the comparatively slow running, and calculation poor Mk-I back-up core in favour of the far tastier Mark-IVs…
Well, I don't like to think about what would have happened. I'm proud of my crew, we survived a very trying experience with no injuries.
[+15 rp, +1 Crew Rating, Enterprise now blooded]
-
Audio Log, Briefing Room, Stardate 23593.7, USS Voshov
(Excelsior-A, EC)
[Cpt. Iliae Rurliss]: So, your plan is to travel back in time, head to the epicenter before the collapse starts, and then do... something to prevent a dimensional rift from forming. I don't like it.
[Cmdr. T'Kel, Science Officer]: With respect, this is not a question about like and dislike -
[Rurliss]: I'm aware. Do you really have a plan for stopping the vacuum collapse at the source?
[Lt. Omar Saadi, Astrophysics]: We have some strong ideas. They need some sim work, but I'm confident that we'll have something solid by the time we reach the epicenter.
[Rurliss]: Again, 'something'. And assuming we succeed, can we get back from ... when was it, 2318? Or will there be two Voshovs, at least until either some sort of paradox happens or the Ashalla Pact blows us up?
[T'Kel]: Crewman Daniels assures me that it is possible for us to return. And even if not, it will not matter - if we fail to prevent the vacuum collapse, it will destroy the universe -
[Rurliss]: I'm aware, Commander. Do you even know why the dimensional rift formed?
[pause]
[Rurliss]: That's what I thought. How can you prevent what you don't understand? Find me another solution. A way to stop it now.
[slight pause]
[T'Kel]: Yes, ma'am.
[All except T'Kel and Rurliss leave]
[Rurliss]: Commander. You're upset.
[T'Kel]: My emotions are irrelevant. However...
[Rurliss]: However?
[T'Kel]: With respect... so are you.
[Rurliss]: Facing the end of everything, can you blame me? I don't blame you.
[T'Kel]: You misunderstand me. You are rejecting my department's plan, based on, what, your gut? That is what upsets me.
[Rurliss]: Your 'plan' is guesswork. I mean, even I can poke holes in it. That's a bad sign. I get that time is limited -
[T'Kel]: Yes, time is limited. The longer we waste trying to develop some alternative, the shorter the window we have to implement any solution. If you intend for my department's plan to serve as a backup, I do not believe that will be possible. At least we will not live long to regret it.
[Rurliss]: Do your duty, Commander.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23594.5, USS Renewal, Captain Andracius Faus
(Renaissance, CBZ)
With the worthy assistance of the Captain and crew of USS Torch, we have triangulated the rippling electromagnetic transmissions that have been echoing along the far edges of the Cardassian Border Zone.
With Torch providing their most effective overwatch against Cardassian interlopers, Renewal is even now racing to the origin point of our ethereal disturbances to investigate with great curiosity.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23595.7, USS Voshov
(Excelsior-A, EC)
We cut it close, and didn't leave ourselves enough time for simulations. But the Science Department pulled it off, as I knew they would.
The simple, inaccurate explanation of what we did is that we created a subspace 'firebreak' around the expanding bubble. Because the vacuum collapse was propagating faster than light, it necessarily was propagating via subspace; by destroying subspace ahead of the bubble, we blocked further expansion.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23596, USS Renewal, Captain Andracius Faus
(Renaissance, CBZ)
Aha! Yet another group of bowed but unbroken Bajorans fresh from the dusty remnants of B'hala!
Kale Lopan, the most worthy Bajoran Vedek leading this newest batch of refugees, has regaled me with tales of ever more terrible Cardassian oppression of himself and his Prophet worshipping co-religionists.
I have it under good authority that the Cardassian puppet Kai has been killed by zealous members of his own order and the Cardassian retribution has been wetly exemplary in its bloody handedness.
Entire provinces have seen their holy men and women replaced or removed by the blackguards of the Obsidian Order in twilight raids.
The Cardassian apparatus squatting atop Bajor has been deluged in a tide of red-knived Prophetite fanatics.
-
Personal Log, Stardate 23597.5, Commander T'Kel - USS Voshov
(Vulcan, female)
I went to the Captain's quarters this evening to apologize. She was right: simulations show that if we had attempted to travel through time, the chroniton radiation we would have brought along with us would have weakened space-time sufficiently that whatever we could have done would not have prevented the rift from forming; in fact, it might have exacerbated the problem, depending on what the cause of the rift formation was. And even without that, I had allowed my emotions to cloud my judgment. Rurliss was definitely right about that.
She told me I had nothing to apologize for, under the circumstances, and apologized herself for making me think she didn't trust the Science department. Unnecessary, but appreciated.
[Gain 17 rp]
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23598.5, USS Renewal, Captain Andracius Faus
(Renaissance, CBZ)
While a great eruption of bloody Bajoran spirit has overtaken many of Vedek Kale's fundamentalist fellows and their most devoted flocks; Kale and his own flock have refused to participate in the bloodletting and, fearing torchwielding Prophetite Zealot and red handed Obsidian Agents alike, have fled to the light and safety of Federation space.
It has taken some work, but negotiation on the behalf of Starfleet and the wider Federation, we've reached an agreement to bring Vedek Kale's group into the fold of the wider Bajoran exodus, and his group will be resettling into the Velo camps.
I have been led to understand that the deeply pacifist mores of Kale and his followers will be welcome in the fields and valleys of Velo colony.
[+5 PP, +10 on [Suspicious of Outsiders] tag on Bajoran Diaspora (now 70/300)]
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23599, USS Ambassador, Captain Zolani Volanen
(Ambassador, Spin-Coreward of the Dylaarian Federation)
Ambassador is performing observations on the rapidly industrializing prewarp natives of WQS-439, or as it is known by the majority of the natives: "Milwarth."
We've slipping into a stationary orbit on the far side of Milwarth's moon in order to minimize our chance of detection by the developing astronomical techniques of the Milwarthi pre-atomic era.
Milwarth itself is a mineral rich world with indications that the planet has sizable reserves of dilithium. The Milwarthi have a sizable geological inheritance in their future when they eventually develop warp travel.
Personal Log, Zolani Volanen
(Orion, Female)
Possibly overzealous precautions aside; my observations show that the milwarthi generally seem to be advancing on schedule along Talisa's stages of development, and they've also given me a great deal of data that looks to back up part of John Gill's Laws of Convergent Development -something that probably aggravates me far more than it should.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23599.5, USS Atuin - Captain Hassan Aharani
(Excelsior-A, EC)
We've detected a buzz of Gorn activity in the a-913 system, part of their new expansion zone. Our records show activity consistent with a colonial development team being sent to the area, along with Science Frigate Rethis and a Third Rate. We've received a private communique from the Gorn Collegium of Science asking for assistance. We will be briefed on arrival.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23600, USS Reformation, Captain Brian Kisawa
(Renaissance, Rigel)
While conducting a follow up survey of the Psi-14000 system, we've discovered an easily accessible vein of duranium alloy components that Reformation will be able to excavate for shipment to Starbase 10.
[Gained +10br]
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23601, USS Atuin - Captain Hassan Aharani
(Excelsior-A, EC)
The a-913 system contains two very interesting things. One is an advanced megastructure, fully operational, and constructing an unknown fleet. The other is a powerful temporal field, suspending the entire system in a different time period. We don't exactly know when the time on the other end is, but initial estimates based on chroniton emissions place it anywhere from 100,000-1,000,000 years in the past. This is not an exact science.
We've detected the Third Rate and the Rethis on the other side of the temporal anomaly. They appear to be held by tractor beams by the megastructure. We've been privately contracted by the sector flag aboard a Second Rate. Despite having similar scientific capacity as our own, they have requested we conduct the survey because, quote, 'Events of this most curious nature are more within your purview; certainly the brilliant minds of Starfleet have puzzled over situations like these more often than our own.' I think the Admiral is also afraid -- the Rethis has one of the most potent science packages in the known galaxy, and it has been unable to escape.
I will cross over, remain undetected, and attempt contact if the situation warrants.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23601.5, USS Ambassador, Captain Zolani Volanen
(Ambassador, Spin-Coreward of the Dylaarian Federation)
There's something a little more out of the ordinary in the Milwarthi settlement patterns, particularly in the southern continent that's seen a massive wave of recolonization in the last three hundred years. Expansive tracts of high quality farmland and immediately subsurface fossil fuel deposits that should be easy for their prospectors to find have gone completely undeveloped, even as cities and roadways spring up all around them. Initially my hypothesis was that these were fallow regions, being preserved for religious, aesthetic, or environmental reasons -the sort of thing Janswai Isa built a hundred year career on studying, but our observations aren't bearing that out.
For instance, all milwarthi societies that have competed for territory on the continent have avoided the same fallow regions, many of these despite having their last cultural and linguistic divergences in the the early neolithic period. Furthermore, our more detailed scans have shown multiple abandoned construction attempts by several of those societies in the fallow regions over the course of recent centuries. All these sites were abandoned at different times, by different people, but there are no signs of any natural disasters or battles to have triggered the emigrations. Our next thought was some sort of isolated disease or other hazardous organism, but the fallow areas are non-contiguous and have nothing to do with each other environmentally.
I think these people warrant further study. What we've observed doesn't conform to any known paradigm for a species at their development level. Excepting Yularis's theories, obviously, but Yularis was an Imperial apologist hack at best.
Either the milwarthi are going in a very novel direction culturally, or there's something external preventing them from living in those places.
-
Science Officer's Log, Stardate 23602.8, USS Atuin - Lieutenant T'Wilit
(Excelsior-A, EC)
I hypothesize the Gorn were the victims of a device intended to allow a species to escape into the future. Long-range sensors have detected a fleet enroute to our location. Even at this range, I can tell they are ready for combat
Curiously, the vessels holding the Gorn do not appear to be more advanced than our own, despite the impressive design and temporal work that is this megastructure. My working theory is that they did not construct the megastructure, and it is even older than we initially believed. I suspect they simply had more advanced temporal technology.
Our passage into this system is a curious one. While the system in our time was encased in a temporal bubble, in this timeline there does not appear to be any access to the future. In short, as far as the inhabitants of this time are concerned, the Rethis appeared out of nowhere. This also means that we do not yet have a way back home.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23603, USS Ambassador, Captain Zolani Volanen
(Ambassador, Spin-Coreward of the Dylaarian Federation)
We've been hailed by a representative of the Akley Consortium. They detected our scans of their subterranean mining facilities, and have asked us if we are here to contest their rights to Milwarth. When I informed the Akley representatives that we consider the milwarthi to "own the rights" to their own planet, the akley said that the natives have made no attempts to stake such a claim.
According to the akley, they have been mining dilithium on this planet for centuries, and recently increased the scale of their operations several times over due to milwarthi industrialization. They wish to extract as much of the planet's dilithium supply as possible now, before the natives' technology makes detection too difficult to avoid and confrontation becomes inevitable. When asked about the conspicuous absence of milwarthi near their mining sites, the akley claim to have employed "indirect measures" to minimize the chance of a "misunderstanding that could cost precious milwarthi lives."
The command crew and I will be discussing how to proceed here.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23603.2, USS Atuin - Captain Hassan Aharani
(Excelsior-A, EC)
Our engineers have created a device that will allow us to open a passage to the future, and we have devised a plan to free the trapped Gorn ships without too much issue. Most of the fleet in this system has begun skirmishing with the attacking force, and unaware of our presence, is unconcerned with guarding the Gorn. By some luck of the dice, they haven't taken any Gorn from the ships, meaning we do not need to conduct a rescue.
However, I am torn. T'Wilit thinks that they may have that ability to finally traverse to our time in a few hours, rather than the current one-way transit. Our method of escape will also close off their ability to escape through the time bubble at all, if we so choose.
We do not know these people. We are attempting to decode and translate their transmissions, but have been unsuccessful thus far. Contacting them, even if we could understand them, could cause them to trap us as well and leave us stranded. For all we know, this is the last stand of a military force bent on galactic destruction. Or perhaps it is a band of desperate refugees.
Whatever the case, I will have to make my decision shortly. The battle will soon be decided, either to preserve liberty, or commit genocide.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23603.6, USS Ambassador, Captain Zolani Volanen
(Ambassador, Spin-Coreward of the Dylaarian Federation)
We informed the akley miners that there are other sources of dilithium nearby that would not require them to rob a pre-spaceflight species of its future. They replied that they will be exploiting these other sources after Milwarth, as those other sites will still be there after the milwarthi have forced them to abandon their world. I told them that the Federation is likely to claim the other sites in the near future, but will probably be willing to yield some of them now if the akley leave the Milwarthi homeworld immediately.
I explained the Prime Directive to them, when they asked why we would be willing to offer them such an exchange. I believe now that this might have been a mistake.
Just hours afterward, images of the Ambassador appeared in milwarthi news media, along with carefully doctored transcripts of my exchanges with the akley that reveal everything we've told them about the Federation without betraying the presence of the miners.
The akley hailed us again. The way they see it, they have responded to our attempts at applying "coercive pressure" to them in kind. Any further perceived attempts at threatening or bullying them will be punished by increasing the scale of the Prime Directive breach.
And now we've just detected two ships inbound from further core-spinward.
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23604, USS Atuin - Captain Hassan Aharani
(Excelsior-A, EC)
I do not know if I have been a hero or a monster. All I can report is what I have done. I decided that, in the absence of information, we had to rescue those who we knew to be innocent. So we freed the Gorn ships and created our passage to the future.
The Gorn are grateful for the rescue. From their perspective, we are heroes, and the fate of the two fleets does not concern them. But I remain troubled, myself.
I request that you forward these logs, and our attached logs of transmissions from the fleets, to the Federation Council. While the portal to the past is closed for now, it is possible for Starfleet to reopen it, at the moment we left. If Starfleet Command or the Council requests it, we are prepared to return and conduct further investigation.
[Gain 15 rp]
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23604.1, USS Ambassador, Captain Zolani Volanen
(Ambassador, Spin-Coreward of the Dylaarian Federation)
That was a tense standoff. I have a number of Academy instructors and my loose understanding of T'Pel's theories of xenopsychological interaction to thank for it ending as well as it did.
We didn't raise shields. We also avoided talking about the situation on Milwarth at all. I just provided them with factual data about the size, industrial strength, and rate of expansion of the United Federation of Planets, and politely asked for similar information about the Akley Consortium. An hour later, they informed us that they will be abandoning Milwarth before the end of this local year, thanked us for our generous offer, and told us that they will be willing to make additional policy changes within reason in order to facilitate good relations with the Federation. The milwarthi have lost much of their planet's readily accessible dilithium, but fortunately not all. Maybe not even most.
I seem to have chosen the right approach; Counselor Olei believes that they're actually impressed with us. Soft pressure seems to be at the root of the akley social dynamic. What happened when they revealed us to the milwarthi seems to have been their idea of opening an equitable dialogue where both sides have something to pressure the other with without having to consider violence; something that they earnestly abhor.
They are a people of...strange...morals. But they seem to abide to them very strictly.
We've been told to expect a diplomatic envoy from them shortly.
[New race encountered (Akley Consortium): starting relations 50/100]
[Distant Stars]: 25/100
[Alien Modes of Thought]: 0/100
[Diplomatic Minefield]: 0/300
[Alien Modes of Thought]: 0/100
[Diplomatic Minefield]: 0/300
-
Captain's Log, USS Thirishar, Stardate 23608 - Captain Kith th'Risroth
(Excelsior-A, Cardassian-Seyek Border Zone)
With the commencement of the Ashalla Pact's aggression against the Chrystovians, independent haulers are a much more frequent sight in this area, handling trade and supply routes normally handled by the state operated ships. This presents a variety of complications, of course. While it is good to have state entities at bay, these tramp operators are their own set of problems. Mostly Goshawnar civilians, but leavened with a few Konen, unscrupulous Ashidi, far afield Yrillians, even Dylaarians and a few we don't recognize, and they hold little respect for mandated routes.
Together with the Suurok, we are sweeping back and forth across the sector, picking up and warning any ship trying injudicious short-cuts. At the same time, we're in constant touch with the various shipping concerns and guilds, trying to find out who the risk factors are, and get some cooperation.
As a part of it, we're heading to an independent waystation run by a sect of Ashidi isolationists; real rebel against society types. Two of the major players in Goshawnar shipping will be there, and we hope to gain some formal lines of communication.
-
Captain's Log, USS Gale, Stardate 23609 - Captain Imran Malik
(Centaur-B, LBZ)
We have been preparing groundwork for the arrival of the Miracht Agrad with a bevy of Federation diplomats, in anticipation of a summit at Gesseria. The local noble house, House Bene, is the least well known and understood of the Houses Major, and the most closely aligned with the Romulans. This could represent a major opportunity to bridge divides ... or at the least, find out what the Tal Shiar and Naval Intelligence are up to on Gesseria. More likely the latter, to be honest.
-
Captain's Log, USS Suurok, Stardate 23610
(Centaur-B, Cardassian-Seyek Border Zone)
We came across a rumor while at the Ashidi Starbase, one conveyed to my XO by a Bajoran exile who has been on a long tour of these skies. The Imelak may be focused on their imperialist war, but their eyes are not entirely turned aside from this space. Specially engineered cosmozoa have been seeded by one of the shipping concerns that would give the Imelak a sensing network across every major route well beyond their base sensor range. They pointed us in the direction of a suspected agent, an Ashidi bought and paid for by the Imelak. By signals tracking and a daring theft of data, we narrowed it down to two Goshawnar lines. I have just learned that the Thirishar is to meet with them both.
I have sent work to Captain th'Risroth.
-
Captain's Log, USS Gale, Stardate 23610.5
(Centaur-B, LBZ)
So, that went places.
The discussions regarding security for the delegations were what even a Tellarite would call a rousing good throwdown of a debate. I'm sure the good Majordomo was simply operating out of concern for us, and not an interest in building in weak points for our pointy eared friends. But no never mind that part - once the discussions were concluded, one of the minor vassal houses of the Bene, known as the Teg, decided that they could not entrust their liege, the Duchess Jerzai Adarr, to these security arrangements. To stand surety, they wanted things handled in the appropriate way for such treaties - a marriage contract. Myself to marry their Princess.
[Sigh]
For the love of...
-
Captain's Log, USS Thirishar, Stardate 23611
(Excelsior-A, Cardassian-Seyek Border Zone)
Both of the Goshawnar shipping magnates denied they had any such plan cooked up. Their ships, unfortunately, betrayed no sign of any such organic material. But a steady stream of details that came from the Suurok gave us one clue after another that let us begin to ensnare the true culprit. Bajh Nashood, a Goshawnar marked by bright green plumage with golden mottling, was eventually caught out in one lie too many. His line of ships was barred from Federation space, and shortly after the Ashidi followed suit.
[Imelak plot foiled, +10pp, +10 on Ashidi [Cardassian Threat] tag (now 259/300)]
-
Captain's Log, USS Miracht Agrad, Stardate 23613
(Excelsior-A, LBZ)
The summit has been a great success, though the presence of Captain Malik was sorely missed throughout the proceedings. However, he had to agree to stay in the Ducal compound on Gesseria by himself as a hostage of Federation good behaviour.
Personally, I thought that was a somewhat excessive length to go just to avoid an arranged marriage.
[Gain +5pp, +10 relations with Licori (now 81/100)]
-
Captain's Log, Stardate 23616, USS Sarek - Captain Jeanette Devereaux
(Excelsior-A, EC)
It's been a quiet quarter for Sarek - we spent most of the quarter transiting the Federation, moving towards the rimward frontier.
Towards the end of the quarter, we stopped to conduct stellar surveys on the outskirts of Risan space. In the larger asteroid belt of the XK-1029 system, we found significant quantities of duranium - not substantial enough to be worth the effort of setting up a mine here, but useful all the same.
[Gain +17 br]
@anon_user wrote Voshov, Fluffy-Puffy and Sarek, @OneirosTheWriter wrote Miracht Agrad/Gale and Thirishar/Suurok, @AKuz wrote Enterprise, Renewal, and Reformation and co-wrote Ambassador with @Leila Hann, and @Iron Wolf wrote Atuin
Last edited:
- Location
- Ohio
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Very nice updates. 
So we got:
PP: 10+5+5+10+5=35PP
RP: 15+17+15=47RP
BR: 10+10+17=37BR
We also got +10 on the Bajoran Suspicious of Outsiders tag, +10 on the Ashidi's Cardassian Threats tag, and +10 for the Licori along with also discovering the Akley Consortium.
So we got:
PP: 10+5+5+10+5=35PP
RP: 15+17+15=47RP
BR: 10+10+17=37BR
We also got +10 on the Bajoran Suspicious of Outsiders tag, +10 on the Ashidi's Cardassian Threats tag, and +10 for the Licori along with also discovering the Akley Consortium.
Last edited:
Nervos Belli
Don't think this means you've won!
- Location
- Murica
The Akley need to be a top priority behind the Allupii. From the location of the logs (by the Dylaarians) if the Cardassians haven't found them yet they will soon. A species that abhors violence in favor of soft power is going to be relatively defenseless against them, and their behavior here could have provided all the excuse the Cardassians needed to invade.
The Sandman
So Zetta Slowpoke
- Location
- Wherever I am, which isn't where I'm not
Looks like yet another TF to add next year, then. Assuming the Allupii TF isn't heading that way and thus able to do some diplomacy with the Akley while in transit.