Summary of Events Stardate 0109.20

Summary of Events
Stardate 0109.20

TNG Era:

The USS Exeter, carrying Federation Ambassador Endara Khan and escorted by a Kazon-Ogla Predator Class Warship arrived in the Oblissa system, the first of Voyager's charted waypoints. Several Talaxian commercial ships made polite inquiries as well as offers of trade that the Exeter declined. Captain Reggie Farrell's report noted the assistance rendered by Talaxians according to the Voyager's logs, but she also took into account the mutual antipathy between the Talaxians and the Kazon in choosing to decline trade and assistance from the Talaxians. No other ships were encountered during the journey, and Ambassador Khan was able to spend most of her time in consultation with First Maje Jabin. She reports a good understanding and working relationship.

The USS Guadalcanal reports it is less than a day away from Oshionian Six. Long range scans show no ships detected on its course, although Captain Murphy notes that they would not detect a cloaked vessel at that range.

Starbase Lighthouse, monitoring the artificial wormhole in the Durandal system, has detected no passage of unauthorized ships through the wormhole. Admiral Nogulich reports a dramatic decrease in private and commercial traffic.

No further communications have been received from the Archanis sector following the apparent destruction of the Woden Class freighter SS Antares. The Heavy Cruiser USS Arizona has been dispatched to  investigate.

The IKV Sword of Kahless has been ordered to investigate the disappearance of the IKS LIng'taH, as well as the IKS dIng'patlh

TOS Era:

The USS Xerxes encountered a privateer vessel in the Klingon Beta Lankal system. The vessel made no attempt to communicate with the Xerxes, but opened fire with beam/energy weapons immediately. The Xerxes defeated the privateer, but was then attacked by two Klingon G'K'oon Class frigates.

Command College

"What Are Your Orders, Captain?"

"Detected?" Resolution

Upon entering the binary Mempa system, sensors on the USS Xerxes detected a defense platform emerging from the radiation zone between the two stars. Another lightning-fast decision is thrust upon Captain Lionidas. He cannot know that the defense platform didn't detect their arrival and automatically report them. It's sensors may have been obscured by the radiation, but they can't afford to stay long enough to scan the platform. They can either:

A: Destroy the platform immediately. If they destroy it, the Klingons will know someone has been there. Whether or not the Klingons will know who destroyed it will remain a mystery. The other choice is to:

B: Quickly jump back into warp and hope that the platform didn't detect them. If the platform detected them, they can expect pursuit. If it didn't, they might get away clean.

Captain Lionidas decided that the risk presented by destroying the platform was greater. Quickly warping out of the system presented the only possibility of leaving the system completely undetected. While intense solar radiation made it impossible to scan the platform, no transmissions were detected while the Xerxes was in system. If the platform did detect the Xerxes and report it, pursuit would result quickly.

"Happenstance"

The next system standing between Captain Lionidas and the USS Xerxes, Beta Lankal has no defense platform, but it also has no convenient solar radiation shadow. What it does have is a large number of private and pseudo-private craft using the system to conduct unofficial, and according to Klingon leadership, unsanctioned activity. One such vessel, a privateer roughly equivalent to a Klingon G'K'oon Class frigate, immediately attacks the Xerxes with phaser-type beam weapons. The Xerxes, with its superior weaponry and shields easily defeats the privateer, but not before an indecipherable signal is transmitted. This time Captain Lionidas knows that his passage has been reported. He doesn't doubt that the privateer alerted Klingon forces to the presence of a Federation starship, and he has no qualms about leaving escape pods adrift. However, just before he can warp out of the system, two G'K'oon Class frigates appear from two different directions. Realizing that help could not have shown up that quickly, Captain Lionidas nonetheless has a serious fight on his hands this time, and his choice is a simple tactical challenge. The Xerxes has been fitted with an experimental plasma torpedo launcher that has just one drawback. The weapon draws so much energy in a single overwhelming attack that the Xerxes will be nearly helpless for several minutes before it can launch another. So while it may be preferable to:

A: lead one enemy away from the other in order to take on one ship at a time, this strategy leaves the other ship free to outflank the Xerxes or escape to bring in reinforcements. The other alternative:

B: engaging both ships simultaneously keeps both ships occupied, but risks the Xerxes being overwhelmed by superior forces.

(Moderator's Note: There are no predetermined right or wrong answers. The most popular solution will give the players who chose it a "Command College Point". Ten of those equal an experience point.)

Choose A or B, or a third course of action, and write a brief explanation


Captain's Log

(From last week)

"Whatever it is, contact in six seconds."

(Again, I rolled for a random planetary mission. It handed me an interesting challenge. Below are the planetary classification and random planetary mission I got. Then you'll see my creative solution)

Class I Gas Supergiant
Age: 2-10 billion years
Diameter: 140,000-10 million km
Location: Cold Zone
Surface: Tenuous, comprised of gaseous hydrogen and hydrogen compounds; radiates heat
Atmosphere: Zones vary in temperature, pressure and composition; water vapor may be present
Life forms: Unknown
Example: Q'tahL

10) You encounter an incredibly advanced civilization (optionally, there might be a primitive society existing side by side with them).

(TOS era)

USS Star League, NCC 2101. Commodore Stewart recording. What began as a simple planetary survey of a gas supergiant in the Epsilon Aenar system has turned into a unique rescue operation. The survey ship USS Maine was mapping the Epsilon Aenar system when an impulse manifold blew, dropping the ship into a perilous orbit around the gaseous seventh planet in the system. The survey ship was still relatively safe until a chance meteor passed by and struck the damaged ship. From that point, the immense gravitational pull began to draw the ship down. A distress signal was received by a nearby Starfleet Monitor Station and retransmitted to Starbase 16. The Star League was docked at Starbase 16, receiving crew transfers and computer upgrades, and left immediately for Epsilon Aenar.

Upon arrival, we located the Maine's flight recorder spinning in an unstable orbit, as well as debris indicating that the ship had been slowly pulled apart by the tremendous gravitational forces exerted by the Class I gas supergiant. After beaming the recorder aboard, we scanned its exterior, which showed signs of actually coming up through the atmosphere. Intensive scans of the planet's thick atmosphere revealed a wake left behind the recorder as a chemical rocket blasted it upward, confirming the scans. Furthermore, the flight recorder seemed to indicate that a large part of the ship, including the bridge and engineering survived to penetrate the outer atmosphere and gaseous hydrogen surface. The voice of Captain Holden can be heard clearly as the ship passed through the surface, stating "Whatever it is, contact in six seconds." Sensor scans from the Maine at that point were sketchy, but seemed to read a large energy source in their path. At this point the Maine's propulsion systems were inoperative. It was in a slow-motion freefall. At that point, the flight recorder was ejected. Since that happened, almost twenty-four hours ago, there have been no matter/antimatter explosions beneath the surface of the planet, leading me to believe that the Maine still may be intact down there. I see no choice but to attempt a rescue. Fortunately, the Star League is a Mark X Federation Class Dreadnought. This is the kind of mission that this ship was built for.

Captain's Log, Supplemental Entry: Captain of Engineering Brahms transferred surplus warp power into forward shields and the structural integrity field to bring us through the atmosphere of Epsilon Aenar VII. At two kilometers above the surface, our sensors detected an energetic plasma field in place below the surface. Gas supergiants can be strange things, but an energetic plasma field does not naturally occur within the body of one. There was no doubt that the field is what Captain Holden was talking about when he said "Whatever it is, contact in six seconds." We pushed the Star League through the gaseous surface, and at three kilometers below the surfacd, found the saucer and engineering hull of the Maine intact, and contained within a second field. Scans showed 36 lifeforms on board out of a crew complement of 87. We were unable to communicate through the plasma field, but we did detect a life force existing in the plasma field. It wouldn't be the first energy-beings ever discovered, but as far as I know, it's the first found living inside a gas giant. Within seconds, the field enveloping the Maine had grown to surround us as well, and we found ourselves being pulled back through the atmosphere and into space. Moments later, the plasma field had plunged back into the soupy planet without communicating with us.

We are obviously happy that there were survivors from the Maine, and it is always a bonus to meet an intriguing new lifeform. But I will admit to being humbled. These energetic plasma lifeforms were quite capable of rescuing the Maine without our help, and in fact they picked up the massive Star League and pushed it into orbit without apparent difficulty. It is disquieting to discover that what we call a dreadnought doesn't impress every creature that it encounters.



For Next Week:

(Expand the following into a log entry of at least 100 words. Members post answers to the yahoogroup or the 'comment' feature on the blogsite. Lurkers feel free to leave comments on the blogsite)

"There are only five of them left."


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