Mission Briefing

[Cptn Elias Moore 0]

NX-05 Challenger

Mission Briefing -- April 2, 2156

 

In the year and a half since its commission, the NX-05 Challenger has never been given an assignment of such importance.

 

Enterprise, the prestigious NX-01, has always received the 'big' missions. But now Enterprise is MIA, presumably in the hands of the Klingons.

 

Although Challenger was the second NX ship to leave drydock, it wasn't the second to leave the drawing boards. Massive construction failures prevented the NX-02 Columbia from leaving drydock on schedule--a whammy that put pressure on Starfleet to accelerate one of its other NX projects.

 

The two vessels planned for launch after Columbia, Endeavour and Discovery, were also higher on Starfleet's priority list than Challenger. But it was for just that reason that they were not chosen for an early launch. The accelerated construction schedule would be risky, and Starfleet was not about to follow up the disastrous NX-02 project setback with an NX-03 project setback.

 

So, in what essentially amounted to an effort to stave off further bad publicity, Starfleet chose Challenger--the last vessel of the 'Shuttle wave,' first of their planned five-vessel NX launch groups--as the target of the accelerated construction. Three months of bedlam, interstellar crisis, unexpected support, and near-miraculous circumstance later, the construction was actually completed and Challenger launched.

 

This despite Starfleet's hopes that the accelerated construction would fail.

 

Most common question posed to Starfleet's NX Division, much to its administrators' embarrasment--'why did NX-05 leave drydock before NX-02?' Challenger served, to many, as a humiliating reminder of the NX-02 failures. Columbia was always meant to be the 'next ship,' in importance as much as in launch order; despite the success-against-all-odds of the Challenger project, and despite the extra few months of experience enjoyed by Challenger's crew, obstinate Starfleet was going to keep it that way.

 

By the time Endeavour and Discovery left drydock, Challenger was already being given fifth-rate missions. They were left to basic exploration right away; Command never intended to allow Commodore 'Bull' Moose to bring his message of peace into Romulan space. The Caitian first contact was little more than a prospect mission; the dilithium-rich asteroid belt in the Cait system was more important than a Caitian alliance, and Command knew it. In fact, many at Headquarters enjoyed a good laugh over Challenger's meet-and-greet with the 'cat-people.' Lastly, it was Admiral Gardner who birthed the Nequencia mission; no one at Command resisted his choosing Challenger to oversee the Nequencia project, and a few of the Admirals even suspected that Gardner did not see much importance in Challenger's role.

 

Meanwhile, top-priority assignments have been handed out, one after another, to Columbia, Endeavour, and Discovery.

 

Yet, with the Klingon Empire now amassing its fleet at the border, and with Enterprise MIA in Klingon space after being attacked by a Bird-of-Prey squad, it is Challenger, not Columbia, not Endeavour, not Discovery, en route to the edge of Orion space to launch a critical intelligence-gathering operation.

 

It is, perhaps, but a curious twist of fate that bestows this responsibility on Challenger's crew, for an old nemesis of theirs, the Klingon Captain M'ehl, is tied to the Enterprise disappearance. Regardless, Challenger's crew is being given a chance to prove themselves to a Starfleet Command that has been determined to sweep them under the rug. They have been given the grand stage.

 

Almost as if Challenger must remain the embarrassment even when sent into Klingon space, Starfleet has seen fit to dispatch Challenger's crew... in drag. The Klingon border is lined with warships, and Suliban cloaking technology has proven useless against them. Orion space provides both a convenient backdoor and a region ripe with the fruits of valuable intelligence. The Coalition's xenocultural experts see the Orions as the keys that will unlock this mystery, and they believe that it is the Orion slave girls, paradoxically, who call the shots in Orion society. Because they must rely on discretion, because it will help discourage molestation on the part of local authorities, and simply because they are too small to pass for Orion males, Challenger's crew will disguise themselves as Orion females.

 

Challenger is en route to the Deneva colony to meet the Orions that will escort the crew into Syndicate space... and their ultimate proving grounds.