Captain's Log/Mission Brief

[STSF LoAmi 0]

Captain's Log, Stardate 50806.18. It's been almost a week since we left Axrekrav. Between the events recorded on Arcadia itself, the reports from the away team, and the transmissions we've received from the surface, and a bit of conjecture, we're beginning to get a clearer picture of the Axrekravians' motives in bringing us to their planet. Indeed, the initial Federation reports were correct. The planet crept out of a nasty civil war 50 years ago, and was united under the totalitarian rule of General Li Dyse. At some point during that half century, the planet developed warp travel and happened upon the closest system to their own, MKor DSamim. There, they found the chewana root. At this point, it is still unclear how they found the root under the deep oceans, because even now, obtaining it and transporting it stretches their technological abilities. Whatever happened, they discovered its properties and how to differentiate between the active and inactive forms of the root, enabling them to choose more carefully how much to transport back to their planet. From the start, they seemed to have limited its use internally on the planet, possibly indicating that they knew its potential power. The government began trading quietly with the Romulans and the Ferengi, using the root as their currency, and possibly concealing its source from the more technologically advanced societies. Their society had a natural bond with the Ferengi, because of their shared cultural inclinations toward thinking about all problems from an economic perspective. With the root supply, they were able to cement their hold on power, building a massive and rapidly progressing military apparatus and a surveillance-based society to control the population. While there was discontentment among the Axrekravians, its public expression was curtailed, limited to underground cells which were constantly under the watchful eye of the General's men. Their intense loyalty to his personality cult helped bring together a society that would naturally split into disparate states, tribes and cultures. Keeping the chewana root away from the general population proved an impossible task, and an internal black market developed for the chewana-derived cigarettes and cigars that were being used to buy foreign technology. The government took advantage of that as well, looking the other way when favored individuals in high positions, such as the guards. They also realized that the root could be used to control the dissidents and petty criminals they put away into labor camps. In turn, the labor camps kept the average Axrekravian away from menial labors and added to the fear of opposing the government.

 

When they figured out that the root, in combination with another chemical, could be used to enhance the power of suggestion, they hatched a plot to expand their influence and their technological know-how by inviting all of the spacefaring powers to trade negotiations. Perhaps they knew that their root supply was running low, and they were trying to get a final cut-rate deal out of the aliens. When our away team fired on their ship, they took it as an opportunity to use Arcadia's advanced technological platform to obtain more root. The plan all along had been to incapacitate the alien crews, make them susceptible to suggestion and addict them to the root. They would now have an even greater opportunity.

 

On the planet, with military equipment running low, and insufficient root supplies to buy more, the government could no longer maintain control of their population by sheer force. Some indications are that the rebellion may have started in the name of our away team, who the opposition viewed as "Freedom Fighters" for having attacked a government vessel. This has serious Prime Directive implications for what our presence has done here in their societal development.

 

The Axrekravian government fell under the rebellion and all the root that we had in our stores has been destroyed by Lt Daena's enzyme. According to her projections, there will not be a large supply of active root on MKor DSamim for years, neutralizing the threat for now.

 

The Federation Council is now debating whether to open relations with the new government the rebels established on Axrekrav. Our departmental reports will doubtless impact their decision. To my great surprise, the Federation is leaving the actions of our away team as an internal matter on this ship.

 

Arcadia is now en route to Nevuluz III, a planet that has had limited, but friendly relations with the Federation since first contact 47 years ago. A small civilian archaeological team sent by the Federation Archaeological Society has been digging on the planet and claims to have made a great find toward proving a maverick professor's theory that this sector of space was once controlled by an ancient spacefaring empire. Arcadia will be providing scientific backup and equipment to help them in their increasingly complex excavations.