"A Brief Chronicle"

[Guest Vulcan3324]

"A Brief Chronicle"

Lieutenant j.g. T'Parek

Mission Report

January 17, 2156

 

TO: Captain Elias Moore, NX-05 Challenger

FROM: Lieutenant j.g. T'Parek, NX-05 Challenger

Subject: Report of Nequencia Colony Mission

 

Memo- Gave background and kept everything neutral, just presented the facts. 'Embellish' as much as you desire, Captain. -T'Parek

 

After the mission regarding the Omega molecule came to an end, Challenger returned to the Nequencia colony site to investigate a mysterious illness that had afflicted several workers there. After the vessel arrived in the system, Doctor Jasmine McCellan temporarily lifted the planet's quarantine in order to study the ailment.

 

While the medical staff aboard Challenger researched the strange outbreak, two field teams took shuttlepods down to begin in-depth investigations of the infection and of a 'shaft'; a presumably artificial chamber recently excavated at the colony site. The science team investigating the illness eventually determined that the disease was caused by a mutated bacteriophage in the water supply that had become an airborne pathogen.

 

Shortly before this period of time, the Pegasus, NX-07, arrived in the Nequencia system. Among their passengers was Admiral James Gardner, who was personally overseeing the project. He was transferred to Challenger, where he was formally greeted in the ship's launch bay by Lieutenant j.g. T'Parek, Chief Communications Officer. Admiral Gardner then proceeded to inspect Main Engineering before being escorted to his guest quarters.

 

With no warning, a rift, centered at the colony site, began to open on the planet's surface. Valuable supplies and equipment tumbled into the widening chasm as the crew attempted to determine its origins. The two away teams lost contact with each other, causing a bit of alarm on the surface. Even more concerning was the large energy weapon that had emerged from the rift, believed to be aimed at the ship.

 

Meanwhile, crewmen on the surface experienced an even stranger phenomenon of their own when Lieutenants Grey and McCellan were visited by a mysterious apparition of sorts, clad in odd, spectral attire and speaking an alien tongue.

 

Challenger worked with the Defiant to evacuate the Nequencian colony workers from the colony, and the fleet withdrew to a safe location. Admiral Gardner was transferred to the Defiant for his own safety.

 

While another landing party, led by Lieutenant j.g. T'Parek, gathered in the transporter room to beam down, the alien weapon fired. Astonishingly enough, it targeted not the Challenger, but a cloaked Romulan vessel which had apparently been monitoring the colony's development. Considering the proximity of the Starfleet ship to the Romulan debris and the fact that the offensive weapon is situated within the colony site, this little incident could have certain repercussions...

 

T'Parek's team landed, rappelling down the 'shaft' to the missing officers' last known position, while Lieutenant Grey's team worked on a way to deactivate the recharging weapon. It turned out that their missing crewmen had been trapped in a chamber filled with operational weapons focused on them, which led to the use of extreme caution in their retrieval. Commander Cole had already been stunned by a concussive energy bolt, but was in a stabile, if hallucinatory, condition.

 

It was at this point that Admiral Gardner chose to leave the Defiant's protection and personally take a shuttlepod down to the Nequencian colony site. Without a security escort, he assumed command of the away team and ordered that the Challenger personnel on the planet cease any efforts that would possibly damage the weapon. The admiral declared the weapon, created eons ago by a civilization known as the L'Traisa, to be part of the new colony's defense systems.

 

As Giovanni, Grey, Connor, and Xiang located the central control room and worked on a translation of the L'Traisan language to disable the weaponry, they also located a holographic generator, which appeared to have created the 'apparition' seen earlier by Grey and McCellan.

 

For his own safety, Gardner was soon escorted to the Challenger via shuttlepod, where he again stated his intent to keep the weaponry operational, despite the possible risks posed by such antiquated, foreign technology.

 

The current government of L'Traisa forwarded their data on the weapon to the ship, where it was studied for any possible weaknesses as Challenger returned to Nequencia to continue work.

Challenger had been in orbit for a short time before a vessel of unknown origin dropped out of warp and began to transmit a computer code to the weapon complex, powering it up again. The ship claimed to hail from the "Bo-Fang", another archaic people who had been in conflict against the creators of the weapon and shaft.

 

As it currently stands, Challenger is in danger from the recharging energy weapon, and we have a limited window of opportunity in which to take control or to disable the weapon...

 

END REPORT