Mission Summary: Lantaru Sector

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USS CHALLENGER (03/08/09 Summary): On Toward Elasia

 

BACKGROUND: Challenger has concluded its mission at the Obi VI colony, transitioning quarantine and medical duty to other specialized starships. After a brief funeral service for Lieutenant Doug T, the ship left the system for the Epsilon 7 communication station, where they'll be picking up an unnamed ambassador. After a six-day journey, the ship will continue on to the Elasian homeworld, where the government is considering closer ties with the Federation - after two decades of trade partnership with the Klingon Empire.

 

MISSION BRIEFING: The extra length of the trip is to avoid a navigational anomaly in the Lantaru Sector, which the ship will be skirting. The captain has instructed the senior staff to study up on Elasia and its recent history. A senior staff briefing has been called in the aft conference room to facilitate this study.

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USS CHALLENGER (03/15/09 Summary): Mission Interrupted

 

LAST WEEK: Challenger was headed to the Epsilon 7 communications station to pick up an unnamed ambassador, then planned to proceed to the Elasian homeworld for diplomatic negotiations. On its way, the ship received a distress call from the deuterium freighter SS Alexa, which claimed it saw a Klingon D7-cruiser entering cloak near its position. Challenger changed course toward the Lantaru Sector to intercept the freighter.

 

BACKGROUND: Epsilon 7 is a communications relay station skirting the edge of the Lantaru Sector, a six-year-wide navigational anomaly. No subspace fields can be generated inside the Sector, so ships don't travel through it.

 

MISSION BRIEFING: Challenger is closing on the freighter's position and is using its specialized scanners to see if it can detect evidence of a cloaked ship in the area.

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USS CHALLENGER (03/22/09 Summary): Edging into Slow Motion

 

BACKGROUND: Challenger interrupted its scheduled mission (to pick up an ambassador on the Epsilon 7 station) to investigate reports of a cloaked ship near the Lantaru Sector. The reports were met with skepticism, since that sector is known to contain an anomaly which prevents the use of subspace fields across a six-light-year area - warp speed, FTL scans, and subspace communications are not possible within.

 

LAST WEEK: Surprising, the advanced Challenger sensors detected a ripple which stood out against the "subspace darkness" of the Lantaru Sector. A follow-up probe closed on the ripple and confirmed it was a Klingon D7-cruiser, which was now decloaked and heading into the anomaly. The probe was damaged when its warp field collapsed as it crossed the anomaly edge.

 

MISSION BRIEFING: Captain Seiben has ordered the ship to the edge of the anomaly and may order pursuit inside. If so, speeds will be limited to sublight inside the anomaly and the Klingon ship has a fifteen-minute lead. Scans into the anomaly are limited to light speed, providing a significant data lag. The D7-cruiser, while still uncloaked, is starting to fade from sensors.

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USS CHALLENGER (03/29/09 Summary): Mistaken Identity

 

LAST WEEK: Challenger entered an anomaly in the Lantaru Sector -- a region of "subspace death" -- in pursuit of a D7 cruiser that was seen going inside. Although the Klingon-made ship had a thirty light-minute lead, Challenger detected an energy flare-up in the direction of the D7 cruiser. Pushing the impulse engines beyond spec, the ship experienced relativistic time dilation as it tried to close the distance to its quarry. Upon approach, it became clear the D7 had ejected one of its own impulse engines, which had overloaded and exploded. To the surprise of the bridge crew, the D7 hailed Challenger and revealed it was manned by Romulans, not by Klingons. The Romulan commander issued a claim of navigational error and system problems, leaving Captain Seiben to consider his response.

 

BACKGROUND: Lantaru Anomaly

Located in the Lantaru Sector, the anomaly is described as a subspace rupture where warp speed, FTL scans, and subspace communications are impossible. Although this phenomena and its effect appeared only thirty years ago, it is believed to be natural in origin. Although the region is well charted, several Challenger officers have noted no significant scientific surveys have been conducted. The interior of the anomaly contains the Lantaru system, an unremarkable white dwarf with several rocky, class-D planetoids.

 

BACKGROUND: Romulan-Klingon Exchange

The Klingon and Romulan Empires were known to have conducted a technology exchange during the late 2360's. This is evidenced by the Romulan use of Klingon D7-cruisers in 2268, in an attempt to capture the USS Enterprise during a Neutral Zone incursion (TOS: "The Enterprise Incident"). Such D7's were equipped with cloaks and had their undersides painted with birdlike designs. It is also speculated the Klingons obtained cloaking technology and Romulan designs like the B'Rel and K'Vort-class birds of prey. This technological "alliance" has ended by the Challenger time period, possibly continuing as late as 2292 - around the time of Romulan complicity in the assassination of Chancellor Gorkon.

 

MISSION BRIEFING: Challenger is alongside the Romulan D7-cruiser, in communication with its commander, and must decide what to do about the unexpected and unexplained incursion.

 

(Attached photo: A Romulan D7, with painted underside, as seen in the remastered Enterprise Incident episode. Credit: Memory Alpha)