Saturday 27 March 2021 – 1800hrs ~ 2100hrs GMT
Commander Kenneth Mikhael – Executive Officer
Lieutenant Commander Ezekiel “Zeke” Pride – Flight Controller
Lieutenant Akar Shran – Chief of Security
Lieutenant Elli-Navine – Chief Engineer
Lieutenant Alexander Artopolis – Chief Medical Officer
Today saw the USS Potemkin had set off from Starbase 4 on their patrol tour of the Federation, before reaching towards the delta quadrant. Just four weeks into their mission they received a distress signal on an old subspace band using 244-year-old coding. Upon returning to normal space the intrepid crew find themselves confronted by a massive wormhole with a very unusual gravity field. Deciding that solving the mystery was worth the risk an away team take a type 11 down to the equally strange M-Class planet.
From orbit Commander Kenneth Mikhael and his crew detect a kilometre long six-year-old debris field of a Romulan ship centuries old, close by sits a damaged pre-federation shuttlepod. A ship that read as just a few years old and yet was so far out of time. An away team would beam down and investigate, the strangeness of situation piping their interests even further.
Vulcanic dust made the descent through the thick atmosphere dicey, but the best pilot in the fleet, Lieutenant Commander Ezekiel “Zeke” Pride made it look like a gentle walk in the park. Expertly bringing the big shuttle around in an ever shrinking spiral and touching down gently next to the aging NX era shuttlepod.
Chief Medical Officer Alexander Artopolis braving stepped out of the ‘Ikoria’ on to the desolate world to begin his scans. He found the only other life form on the planet aside the away team, a human they would come to know as Lieutenant Kearney, an officer aboard the NX-05, the Earthship Atlantis. The Brave young doctor quickly deduced that Kearney was suffering from prolonged exposure to a natural drug and using the impressive technology at hand he was able to identify and sample the source of the drug, a small nearby river.
Meanwhile, in high orbit the aboard the old excelsior class Potemkin, alarms sounded from every station on the bridge, the wormhole had doubled in size, as did the gravity field. Even the powerful and advanced Impulse engines were not enough to stop the vessel from being pulled from orbit and towards the wormhole. In that moment, a ship was detected, even older than the Potemkin. Commander Mikhael ordered the return of the away team, bringing the now sedated Lieutenant Kearney with them.
The crew quickly discover that the detected vessel is the Earth Ship Atlantic, NX-05. A ship listed as missing in action, presumed destroyed during the Romulan War. The wormhole doubles in size again, and again. With little choice it was decided a slingshot manoeuvre would be the best means to capture the Atlantis with modified tractor beams. The preparations made and the course laid. The button was pushed. Nothing goes to plan though, and the main computer aborted the attempt as at that very moment the Wormhole increased in size again, they would have been as stuck as the Atlantis.
The Chief Engineer, Lieutenant Elli-Navine showed just how easy it was to break through mid-22nd century encryption and linked the Potemkin and the Atlanis’ transporters. It did not take long for them to beam aboard and find trouble. True to their training and ideals Commander Mikhael choice diplomacy over weapons fire, making contact with Commander Caitlin Mallory. A strong officer who was more than a little cagey our intrepid crew did learn that there was an alien disguised as a human and according to Commander Mallory, said alien was responsible for their current situation. Commander Mikhael’s empathic gifts they were able to identify who the alien was.
Lieutenant Elli-Navine made a beeline for the engine room for the Earthship Atlantis to try and assess the situation. Striding like she owned the place she started assessing the ships systems, and what she discovered was, well it was not good that’s for sure. Most of the primary systems were offline, while others were hardly working. The biggest surprise was that the matter anti-matter reaction… AKA Warp core, had been modified into a missile.
Meanwhile, on at the transporter room the Commander Kenneth Mikhael was using his newly patented ‘mental detector’ to clear each of the surviving Atlantis Crew for transport, making sure none of them were the alien that had been causing such a problem. At least that’s the situation that the Atlantis XO have painted for our intrepid crew. Chief Medical Officer Lieutenant Alexander Artopolis was checking and sorting the wounded for transport, making sure their medical staff back aboard the USS Potemkin were forewarned of any possible complications.
Back in the engine room, Lieutenant Elli-Navine is approached by a nervous looking ensign in sciences blue. The young women draws the suspicious chief out the way and confides in her that she is the alien that the crew is looking for. Moreover, the alien says that the gravity well is being generated by a malfunctioning, experimental gravity drive aboard her ship. But the bombs keep dropping, the wormhole, while also an accident links two universes together and the alien stood before Elli-Navine wearing a cute, yet scared human suit is from another universe!
But being the best officer, she could Lieutenant Elli-Navine takes all this within her stride and calls for her fellow officers to try and fix the problem. Ensign Lou Mendola, the alien says that she is trying to modify the warp core of the Atlantis into an interphasic explosive powerful enough to destroy her ship and close the wormhole. The problem being that the core will not survive the powerful gravity long enough to get close.
Putting heads together the crew come up with a solution, they would expand the shields of the Potemkin around the poor Atlantis and using remote piloting Lieutenant Commander Ezekiel “Zeke” Pride would take the ship to within explosive range of the alien ship. There was no other choice, the ships torpedoes, while powerful wouldn’t do the job; plus, it would take too long to modify them. So, with everyone beamed away from the Atlantis Zeke daftly pilots the old ship towards the centre of the ever-expanding gravity well. Long seconds seemed to stretch into hours, but mere seconds later the ship is buffered like a ship on the ocean. The gravity well dissipates in an instant and the unstable wormhole stabilizes. Commander Kenneth Mikhael orders scans, the wormhole is stable but slowly shrinking, as though someone, or something was slowly dialling down the power so it would close carefully.
Lou expresses the desire to go home, yet her ship was destroyed. Someone suggests giving Lou a shuttlepod, they could surely spare a type-15 shuttlepod. The Captain considered it; it would be cruel to keep her here when there was a way to return her. Plus, a good faith gesture might one day lead to a proper first contact. It was decided, fair wells were short, and she fly off in the small craft.
Sensors penetrated through the wormhole for a moment as the shuttle crossed the event horizon, another ship was on the far end waiting.