Captain's Log: Supplemental
Posted on 10 Jun 2024 @ 2:37pm by Captain Bane Plase
615 words; about a 3 minute read
Mission: Enigma Variations
ON:
Captain's Log: Supplemental
Shortly after leaving Deep Space 9 and enroute for a routine scanning mission, the Cygnus picked up a distress signal of unknown origins. The signal did not include video or audio information, only an automated distress call noting a ship in distress and the location it was coming from.
I ordered an intercept course and engaged at maximum warp. When we arrived, we found an Orion Freighter heavily damaged, missing its aft starboard section completely. The ship was adrift, with minimal power, and no answer to our hails. With the first sensor analysis, it appeared the damage came from an internal explosion rather than damage from an external source. We also determined there were no other ships in the immediate area.
The Chief Operations Officer recommended we send over automated sensor drones in advance of the Away Team, which I agreed. Sensing little danger to the Away Team, the Executive Officer led an away team over to the vessel, rendering aid to the survivors of the ship. We were only able to recover six of the seventy-four crewmembers aboard the vessel. All six are in sickbay at this time with our medical staff. None of them are conscious, so we were unable to determine from them what happened.
During our investigation of the freighter, we determined the freighter is of Orion origin, but the ship has been hobbled together from various races' technologies, and ripped off technologies. The best we can figure, the captain of this freighter pilfered the technology from battlegrounds of the Dominion War, and possibly some purchased items on various black markets. We also discovered, much to our extreme surprise and horror, a sizable container of isolinium was discovered in a secret hold. With the considerable damage to the freighter, it has been recommended we bring the material aboard the Cygnus for safe keeping and stored in our cargo bay under heavy guard and security measures. The discovery of the isolinium is extremely troubling. In its current form, if it were scattered among space, it would make the area unnavigable for an estimated one hundred thousand years. That means no warp, no sub light, not even on thrusters. Weaponized, it would eliminate all life on a planet in a matter of hours, leaving all infrastructure and all technology ripe for the taking. In effect, a potent weapon for invasion.
With the discovery of the isolinium, a new direction for the ship has come about. The Away Team is working hard to get the Freighter stable one for warp travel. Our Engineering Team has come up with an ingenious idea and implemented a complete replacement of the EPS power system in a matter of hours, something that would take weeks in spacedock with specialized equipment and specially trained personnel. Although the power drain was considerable to the Cygnus, the operation and Engineering miracle were a success. While this change will not affect the speed in which we are able to travel back to Deep Space Nine with the Freighter in tow via tractor beam, it will shore up the structural integrity of the freighter greatly, reducing the risk to the Cygnus. We are currently working on getting into the computer systems, and hopefully our medical team can get one or more of the survivors out of coma to find out the nature of their mission, where they came from, where they are going, and most importantly, to whom their suppliers and purchasers are.
Only time will tell how much good we can do here, and how much damage we can prevent.
End Supplemental.
OFF
Bane Plase, Captain
USS Cygnus, Commanding
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