Star Trek: Odyssey | Adventure Log

Freedom of the Mind

Stardate 50659.3

The Odyssey’s travel toward the rendezvous point is uneventful, at least for most of the ship. Commodore Tchang is grappling with a lot of personal feelings about the responsibility on her shoulders, and her self-medication via non-synthesized alcohol has taken its toll. Her band-aid solution of holodeck therapy is interrupted one morning when the EMH materializes instead of her holo-therapist. Almost smugly, the holographic doctor informs the Commodore that they’re facing her problem now, together, or she is relieved of duty. An emotional conversation between the two ensues, centering on the burden of command and Tchang’s need to rise to the occasion, for the sake of her symbiont and its next host. Initially angry, the Commodore recognizes the need for logic in her situation and reluctantly agrees to a private (but fairly draconian) set of measures to keep her honest. Additionally, the EMH insists she form relationships amongst the fleet, lest her mental health continue to decline. Taking to the regimen with the best of her willpower, the Commodore begins having regular breakfasts with Commander Sebastian and Commander Annira. Additionally, meditation has given her access to fragmented memories of a Tchang symbiont host from another timeline – Derzer, a soldier from a war-torn alternate Trill.

The fleet begins to coalesce again, reporting in with their doings. The Klingons arrive, escorting the Alanel with the ves’Targ and their pilfered Hirogen warship. The only missing ship is the Marce, the survey ship and Eudana’s former home. Utilizing sensor settings to find Sikarian warp signatures, Annira detects the Marce more than twenty light years behind, and the power signature suggests the ship is damaged.

It is elected that the ves’Targ will travel to the Marce and deliver whatever aid is possible. Plogh is issued command of Selveth and Lt. Hobbs as technical staff to affect repairs, and the newly-repaired John Stewart is placed in the ves’Targ’s shuttle bay. They warp to the sensor signature, and find an asteroid field surrounding an enormous mineral anomaly – with the Marce’s power signature within. Approaching, and asteroid suddenly changes course and strikes the ves’Targ. Redoubling their efforts on sensors, Selveth detects a unique mineral, kironide, that is in trace amounts throughout the field. They collect some and analyze it, determining it to catalyze telekinetic power when Selveth’s exposure allows her to temporarily develop telekinesis. With this new information, they reconfigure the ves’Targ’s primitive sensors to filter out the kironide. The interference filtered out, they now see a tremendous cozmozoan lifeform generating the mineral – it’s trapped in a net of energized plasma, assembled by a series of ancient mines. Recognizing that they may not be able to solve the problem via science or arms, Plogh and Selveth reluctantly agree that Starfleet’s approach of diplomacy may be the way. Avoiding more asteroids flung telekinetically, the ves’Targ approaches the Marce slowly.

They launch Selveth and Hobbs in the shuttle to survey the Marce’s damage. The engineer is able to determine that the survey ship was attempting to disable one of the mines and veered into the plasma stream, seriously damaging the ship’s engines and power systems. While Selveth works in the shuttle to determine a means of communicating with the lifeform, Hobbs beams aboard the Marce and finds the survivors living in the emergency shelters in the center of the ship. A young sensors officer is the highest-ranking survivor, and only a few hundred of the 549 souls aboard are accounted for. Surveying the damage, Hobbs determines that the Marce is inoperable without more time and hands than they can spare before the asteroids batter it apart. He does learn that the Sikarian survivors have their muscular systems infused with kironide, making them telekinetic. Working together, the survivors push the Marce away from the cosmozoan. The ves’Targ clears a path, V’rok and Heklara destroying as many of the asteroids as they can.

As they get a fair distance away, the ves’Targ detects phaser fire from the shuttle. One of the mines deactivates and cascades its failure across the net, freeing the creature. The serpentine creature moves away from the fleet vessels on a course directly opposite them, and Selveth reports she made contact and freed the creature on its word. Understandably, Plogh is not impressed with the Romulan’s handling of the potentially dangerous creature, but contacts the fleet and offloads the Marce survivors to the new Hirogen ship. The colony ship tows the hulk of the Marce while the fleet engineers inspect it, determining whether or not it is salvageable. And the fleet is forced to say goodbye to three hundred of its own, testing the Commodore’s resolve early.

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NOV/2023

Ghuy'Cha'

Stardate 50590.1

The ves’Targ is traveling to the fleet rendezvous point when they receive a distress call from the Alanel, a fleet ship. The Klingons change course to investigate the distress call, with sensors officer Lt. Korgi detecting weapons fire. Plogh orders the stealth circuitry engaged, and they proceed to the Alanel’s aid. When they arrive, the Sikarian vessel is valiantly facing off against two unknown warships. They disable the Alanel and grab it with tractor beams, warping away. The ves’Targ gives chase, disabling one of the two with a surprise photon torpedo, knocking it out of warp. The Klingons follow the the last ship to the remains of a tremendous space battle, where the crew prepares for battle via a meal and bloodwine before sneaking their way toward the unknown ship.

They find the Alanel being guarded by two of these unknown ships while the third docks in order to board it. They learn, however, that despite these ships having room for quite a few souls aboard, all three are carrying perhaps eighteen total. So, Plogh orders Heklara to surreptitiously approach from the other side, letting a boarding team aboard from that side. Plogh gathers his weapons officer, V’rok, Korgi, and the ship’s cook, Boktar. The four Klingons wrench open the alien airlock, get aboard, and seal it behind them while the ves’Targ launches. The boarding party, singing battle songs at the top of their lungs, move through the corridors of this new vessel, scanning for booby traps. The interior is covered with nets carrying trophies on display, but the first true danger they find is a huge, blue-armored alien with a tremendous tetryon rifle. V’rok and Korgi square off with the alien hunter, stabbing it with d’k’tahg and attempting to behead it with a bat’leth. But it stumbles backward, recovers, and fires its rifle, disintegrating Korgi on the spot.

Plogh steps forward and beheads the alien to avenge his sensors officer and the Klingons try to fight the aliens while they form a strategy. Boktar holds off three with his kitchen knives while Plogh and V’rok use the explosion from one of the aliens’ weapons as a distraction, splitting off into service crawlways. They take over Engineering, sealing it off, and beam Boktar to safety before venting the ship’s atmosphere. The hunters’ suits are all hardened against vacuum, and they are recovered by the other two ships as they wheel to fire on Plogh’s commandeered warship. The ves’Targ swoops in to draw fire and in the chaos he commands V’rok to extend the shields around the still-docked Alanel. They warp away with the Sikarian ship safely in tow.

Funerary Rites are performed for Korgi, V’rok is to tell the first tale of this battle in honor of his service in it, and the Sikarians are once again indebted to the Klingons for their assistance. Naderen, the Alanel’s captain, happily offers assistance in getting the hunters’ warship back to fighting shape. As the trio of ships head for the rendezvous point again, Plogh and his crew read up on these new aliens, the Hirogen.

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SEP/2023

A Hell of a Luau

Stardate 50581.6

First Officer’s Log, Stardate 50581.6. We’ve been quietly advancing to the fleet rendezvous point, still several days away. No Borg pursuit after the initial break from the hub means we’ve been careful, but yellow alert has been retired for the moment. However, it means for the first time in a long time, we’ve been alone for a full week, with more ahead. Given this bubble of relative peace, I’ve been trying to catch up on administrative tasks that have been waiting. Others have been participating in the storied Starfleet tradition of long warp activities. Annira has prepared a new group holoprogram, and several other senior officers have started up hobby practice throughout the ship. It’s like a small slice of home, which is buoying morale.

The same can’t be said for our… passengers.

The T’l are furious at being confined, but there is little to do about their situation. The crew tries to work at personal projects and group activity, with the Commodore in particular making efforts to be more present amongst the crew at social events. Adams develops a proposal for tracing his wife’s whereabouts around aiding the engineers working on repairing Domino’s former shuttle. Others are participating in Annira’s (with Skrillix’s help) group holoprogram: Paxau resort, a Talaxian beachfront looking out over miles of coastal waterfalls. Federation hydroscoots were added to allow for jetting through the falls in a variety of directions. Talaxians and Mylean holo-characters wander through as tourists, staff, and ‘intriguing characters’, as Skrillix put it. Annira rolls her eyes at any questions on the matter.

The week culminates in a luau thrown by the Commodore, who puts up a version of Trill roasted protein – at least, what passes for it from the stores. But the effort is matched by the rest of the senior staff, who all contribute dishes from their particular homes. As the celebration wears on, Adams notices that Commander Sebastian is being a little more introverted than usual. And a few of the engineering team are more gregarious. A quick, surreptitious scan with his ocular implant confirms verteron buildups on all those acting strangely – the T’l have somehow sprung their containment fields, and have begun possessing members of the crew like PB did when they first met.

The crew acts quickly. Adams contacts Petra and asks her to mask their thoughts from the T’l for now – something Petra’s had to do in the past and is able to do handily. Knowing telepaths are immune to the T’l’s possession thanks to PB, Adams locks the computer’s access to only the Commodore, Adams, and Petra in tandem. A T’l-containment field is placed around the warp core to protect from the T’l simply obliterating the ship. And finally, the crew assembles in Sickbay to prepare their hunt. The EMH provides neural inhibitors that suppress telepathy (and T’l possession), and Chief Hegrom relocates to Sickbay to help via site-to-site transport. Petra and Adams begin sweeping the ship, and the Commodore is summoned to the bridge by Sebastian.

A tense moment where the possessed Sebastian and the duty officers on the bridge inquire as to the computer lockout. Tchang bluffs, leaning hard on her personal friendship with Sebastian to sell the idea that the lockout is intended as a control measure against her and her recent, quiet troubles with alcohol. Sebastian buys it and she leaves, having Chief Hegrom beam Sebastian to the brig as she reaches sickbay. Adams is then summoned to the bridge because of the series of suspicious events, and when he arrives the pretense is over. The three duty officers, led by Barnett, all pull phasers on the security chief and demand he undo the lockout. Pretending to acquiesce, Adams gets into a better position before tackling and throwing Barnett into another ensign, and using Barnett’s phaser to stun the third. Clearing the room solo, he seals off the bridge and assists the EMH in dispersing neural inhibitors throughout the ship.

The T’l’s attempt at a coup resolved for now, and only a dozen officers affected, Tchang has a serious conversation with the beings in their cargo bay about the future. Eqar, the loudest spokesbeing for the T’l, led the incursion and insist upon leaving. Many of the T’l agree to this, but eighteen (who were not involved) ask to stay on with the Odyssey, content with their containment field. PB vouches for these few.

The T’l who choose exile leave Cargo Bay 2 via the external hatch, and move to a nearby binary pulsar to create a new Hollow for themselves. Shaken by the end of the luau, the crew warps away quickly, intent on returning to the fleet.

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SEP/2023

Emptying the Hollow, Part 2

Stardate 50555.8

The conference to discuss the T’l is interrupted by a new emergency. A Borg probe pierces through the gravitational eddies of the Hollow, and is beginning a search pattern. Adams and Hobbs join the ves’Targ to dispatch it, bringing along some syrillium previously used to power the Odyssey. Once close (and using the raider’s stealth circuitry), Adams and Hobbs beam aboard the probe to locate a place for their makeshift bomb. Adams struggles with memories of his time as Borg, and Hobbs is startled by a working drone and drops his phaser – but despite this, they’re able to place the syrillium explosive and beam back to the ves’Targ. As the probe explodes, Adams collapses. Plogh checks him out on the raider, confirms he is stable, and they return hastily to the Odyssey.

There, while the EMH examines Adams’ cybernetics under Plogh’s watchful eye, Adams hazily remembers. He has memories of his vacation – the frontier colony that was assimilated by the Borg. And after some time, he realizes the memories he’s seeing are his wife’s. Still assimilated by the Borg, he tries hard to learn her coordinates from the memories he sees from here before awakening and learning strange news. A Borg distress beacon activated dormant programming in Adams’ ocular implant. Somehow, he has limited, read-only access to the Collective’s will. It doesn’t seem to be dangerous, so for now, it is a unique advantage.

The crew finally convenes to discuss the news that the T’l are responsible for countless deaths in the effort to create their Hollow. Opinions vary, but the ultimate result is that the T’l’s actions are past, and they can only be judged on future acts. For now, circumstances have made strange bedfellows and their shared peril is more important than judgement now. The preparations are completed, and after a few days of waiting, the T’l gather and fly into their new home in the Odyssey’s Cargo Bay 2. Privately, PB offers the crew their assistance in temporarily increasing the fleet’s speed in a pinch.

Prepared now for the trip out of the Hollow and deeper into Borg space, the fleet organizes to slip past the Borg transit hub near the far end of the Hollow. The fleet passes through mostly without issue, but the Odyssey’s much stronger warp signature draws two Borg spheres from the transit hub. Drawing on Adams’ earlier plan with the probe, the Commodore and Ensign Barnett fake a power failure to slow and let the Borg catch up. Meanwhile Adams works with Chief Hegrom to use the cargo transporters to beam the remainder of the syrillium ore (along with an overloading phaser or two) split between the two spheres. The monumental task is competently handled by the Tellarite chief and the spheres explode mightily.

The Odyssey splits off to draw off potential pursuit, and after a long warp the ship turns toward the rendezvous with the fleet. On the way, Adams talks to the Commodore about his vision when unconscious, along with the coordinates he learned from them. Tchang confirms the station that his wife is at is only a few months away on their journey. It’s not a significant detour, so with time to plan, Adams starts poring over all the data he can find about the road ahead.

Alone for the moment, the Odyssey moves past the most recent Borg threat. They’re safe for now, but that won’t last long.

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SEP/2023

Emptying the Hollow, pt. 1

Stardate 50493

Three weeks of preparations for crossing Borg space have been completed in the Hollow. Shuttle missions are sent to collect useful resources from wrecks near the boundary of the safe zone. The Odyssey’s power systems are reverted to their previous fuel sources, now that they’ve been slowly traveling through the dense pockets of energetic particles that are scattered throughout the area. Engineering is also able to expand the ship’s sensors via adapting alien sensors. Security preps both ship and personal weapons for facing the Borg. And Selveth leads the science division in creating a way to bring the T’l with them, trying to invent a subspace suspension field that does not also place T’l into stasis of some kind or another.

The T’l’s representative Eqar has been checking in daily on progress, which has been slow. Selveth and many of the Romulan scientists have committed to the work, but they are inventing new subspace field theory to make this happen, and after three weeks of work, it is clear this is a process that may be harder to manage than initially thought.

PB is determined to assist, aiding the science team as a Guinea pig in order to attune fields to their energy signature. One morning, a test goes particularly awry – the subspace field attenuator overloads and discharges a massive amount of energy, injuring Selveth, Vulmos, and Kemman. Parker and Petra handle triage on-scene, and after emergency care, the three are deemed serious but stable.

The Commodore calls the available officers together. With all the folks read into the scientific exploration in sickbay, the team is hard-pressed to come up with a solution to their dilemma of fulfilling their end of the bargain to the T’l – until Dash reluctantly brings up previously quietly-held expertise in the sciences. He steps in, borrowing Parker as a lab tech, and with some unconventional applications of subspace tech, after a few days, Dash is able to find the missing piece to Selveth’s work and assemble a functional prototype of a field designed for the T’l to use to live aboard in Cargo Bay 2. They make prep to set up the cargo bay to take on their passengers.

Petra has been monitoring the crew and their visitors, offering support to Commander Adams and also to PB. Adams indicates that he will seek her out for help – as soon as this crisis is past. PB, however, confesses concern. After this time observing the Starfleet and Sikarian people, PB isn’t confident that the T’l are a people that they would work with – if they knew the story. Petra convinces the entity to open up, and learns that the Hollow isn’t naturally occurring. Instead, a few hundred years prior, the T’l used their ability to manipulate subspace to kill the stars of a number of inhabited systems, exterminating untold lives to create this astrophysical anomaly.

The commodore gets that information from Petra, along with reports from the shuttle salvage teams that the T’l killed the ships they visited, and the fleet is left with a troubling possibility – the lives they are working on saving may have ended far more in the past. And the fleet may not be anything more than tools to the bulk of the T’l.

Tchang calls a meeting to discuss the fleet’s next move…

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AUG/2023

Echoes and Light, Part 2

Stardate 50460

The veS’Targ retreats back to the fleet, issuing a warning that several Borg ships are due to cross paths with the fleet on its current course. With the new information, the fleet alters course – and one Borg cube leaves the pack, heading their way.

Now under active pursuit, the crew drops into crisis mode. Dash and the engineering group finish the programming for early-warning scout probes, nicknamed whiskers, and launches them. Additionally, the engineering staff had begun the process of placing some of the myriad alien sensors on the ship’s sensor platforms. While the senior staff organizes a plan to evade the Borg, Petra works with the non-corporeal energy being Adams had found and offered refuge to. The entity (responding to Peebee after suggestion from Petra) explains that a nearby cluster of quantum singularities is a sanctuary for its people, the T’l. With an option to at least get clear of the Borg for the short term, the crew enacts a plan.

Approaching a singularity while the Borg are still pacing them, the Commodore takes the helm for a dangerous maneuver – the ship drops out of warp and ejects the salvaged shuttle equipped with explosives to scatter debris. Dash attempts to activate the explosives but they fail – so the backup plan is activated. Adams fires a torpedo at the salvage, detonating it and scattering the debris across the face of the singularity. And while the explosion takes off, the Odyssey warps away again, giving the impression to their pursuers that they just exploded in the accretion disc of the anomaly.

Safe for the moment, the fleet regroups inside the ‘Hollow’, as Peebee had taken to calling it. Soon after, the crew is attacked on the bridge by another of Peebee’s kind. After damaging several consoles, Peebee is beamed directly to the bridge, and the crew learns more about the situation.

The T’l’s Hollow has become the last bastion for them. They cannot travel fast enough to escape Borg space, and the implacable cybernetics have been absorbing the T’l into their ships, seemingly assimilating them. Initially, the defender is uninterested in the fleet’s plight, but as the two groups discuss their common plight, a plan is formed. The Hollow spans a few hundred light years. This gives the fleet a breather for a time in Borg space as they travel it – and at the far end, the Odyssey will have set up space aboard to ferry the last hundred or so T’l away from the Hollow, hopefully to find somewhere new to exist in peace.

Peebee is identified as the reason the Borg found the T’l, and its people are uninterested in welcoming the exile back – the situation is too tense to fully unpack this revelation, but discovering their passenger may be the reason its people are in peril leaves the crew uncertain how to proceed with Peebee for now.

The fleet has some precious time, but they remain hidden in the territory of an implacable enemy, and now are responsible for a hundred more souls besides. As they prepare to ferry the T’l, the Borg outside continue to consume life nearby.

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AUG/2023

Echoes and Light, Part 1

Stardate 50456.7

While engineers pore over the wreckage of the salvaged alien shuttle, the computer records are downloaded for Commander Adams to review. Having heard of a psychic impression of the Borg associated with the shuttle, Adams takes personal interest in what the shuttle saw, and discovers that the shuttle had been chased by Borg ships – smaller ones than the cube that attacked the Federation at Wolf 359, only a little larger than a runabout – and tried to escape via the subspace distortions near the planet it crashed on. Adams, confident they are now either on the edge of or within Borg space, immediately meets with Tchang and Sebastian, who are preparing Sikarian officer candidates for their assignments throughout the fleet.

The meeting sets a plan in motion – a meeting with the council of captains is arranged, though the trio meet privately with Goull ahead of time. The captain of the Miton is often a contrarian, and in this situation the Starfleet commanders believe it best to head off dissension. Commander Adams reveals to the Sikarian captain that his scars come from significant personal experience with the Borg, and that he knows what he is talking about when they bring their plan of action to the council. Reluctantly, Goull agrees to cooperate.

With the morale-building ceremony of Class 100’s graduation looming, the council opts to share information, but use the new threat as a means of preparing emergency fleet procedures with the new officers – something that had been ad-hoc until now. Additionally, the Odyssey’s scientists come up with two potential options for increasing the fleet’s sensor range to keep one step ahead of Borg scouts. Using the warp capable probes in the ventral pod as sensor platforms that move with the fleet, and using some of the alien technology collected during their trip to attempt to adapt it to the ship’s already-impressive sensors. Regardless, with the fleet’s stealth its only true protection, the Commodore orders both plans investigated.

The ceremony arrives aboard the Posel, and Commander Sebastian provides a speech to the new Sikarian fleet officers. As the event turns into a party, Commodore Tchang takes aside the senior staff and passes out official promotions for Sebastian, Annira, Petra, and Dash, recognizing their efforts keeping the fleet afloat for the last two years. During this, Commander Adams watches a mote of light cross through the bulkhead and pass into Eudana. The former Sikarian leader was there supporting a protege who was joining the Marce’s crew. After confirming what he saw via sensor scan from the Odyssey, Adams informs the Commodore, who confronts Eudana. The mote, seemingly controlling Eudana and recognizing they had been spotted, departs the Sikarian and races away. Tchang takes Eudana to the Odyssey’s sickbay, while Sebastian continues to occupy the party-goers. That leaves Adams to track the seemingly intelligent mote of light. Finally cornering it within a Sikarian, they’re able to talk briefly and Adams convinces the being to leave his current host. Separate from a host, the being (made of verteron particles) is slowly dissipating. After working out a means of communication via the being’s telepathy and with the Commodore’s permission, Adams escorts the being aboard the Odyssey, and learns more about it. It was part of a community of its kind that had been attacked and absorbed by the Borg, not far away. This one, possibly the last of its kind, is running from them and came here to hide.

Adams and Selveth determine there isn’t a good method available at the moment to preserve the being outside a host, but there is time before the mote is in mortal peril. Selveth vows to find a method to preserve it, Petra is suggested as an interpreter for the being as a fellow telepath, and Adams returns to the bridge as the ves’Targ, the fleet’s forward scout, returns with news – the Borg are ahead, and heading this way.

To be continued…

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JUL/2023

Night Academy Class 100 Commencement Address

by Cmdr. Sebastian

Rear Admiral James T Kirk “A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”

Dear graduates, On behalf of Starfleet, I congratulate you on completing your training at the Treaty’s Night Academy. Your hard work and dedication to duty has set you on the path to being a valuable member of our fleet. Through your diligent study and training, you have gained essential skills and knowledge that are crucial to the survival of the Fleet in times of crisis. You may face impossible odds, but never loose hope .As you step into your roles as Treaty Fleet officers, remember that the true measure of success is not the achievements you can boast of, but rather the lives you can save and the difference you can make through your dedication to duty. Your service to the fleet is invaluable, and I am confident that you will serve with skill and integrity as we face new challenges and opportunities. I wish you well as you embark on your journey to as the new leaders of the fleet. You now carry the mantle of leadership and others will be looking to your resolve and command and a reminder. I leave you with the words of Rear Admiral Spock
“Do not let the need to be right overtake the duty to be generous.”

Thank you for your hard work and dedication to duty. Congratulations!

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JUL/2023

Winter's Tears

Stardate 50411.3

A course correction is required to avoid an area of subspace distortions, and with it, the fleet flies within sensor range of a system with a Class-M planet – one that Annira indicates has dilithium signatures, and also traces of an element called myrasium, a biological compound the Sikarians use in their life support systems. With both elements critical to the fleet, the Odyssey separates from the fleet and moves in to observe, discovering a pre-warp civilization below mining the dilithium to use as a power source, and using myrasium as medicine.

Opting to infiltrate them to learn more about how to potentially acquire the needed materials, an away team is assembled. Lt. Commander Sebastian opts to lead the team, along with the newly-appointed Chief Engineer Dash Ker’Ashh, Lt. Hobbs, and the freshly promoted counselor, Petra. The away team undergoes some minor cosmetic adjustments to blend in with the locals, and beams down. Once there, they learn that the people, called the Ch’Ghel, have been getting sick of late after witnessing ‘the Skyfire’ over the mines. The team investigates the mine and discovers the wreckage of a small alien ship, whose crashing has exposed internal workings that are irradiating the dilithium deposits. Worse, locals have been back to the mine since, and have taken portions of the ship’s reactor shielding, mistaking it for precious metals.

The mission suddenly becomes two-fold. Resource recovery, and quietly removing this existential threat from the Ch’ghel’s lives. After calling in tools from the ship, Dash and Hobbs work quickly to secure the wreckage, and beam it aboard the Odyssey ahead of sunrise. While they’re salvaging the wreckage, Sebastian and Petra return to town, and speak to an apothecary who’s been sold the reactor casing. Working together as competing buyers, the pair of officers convince the apothecary to part with the casing, removing the immediate threat to the community. Petra returns later and charms the apothecary into providing enough of the myrasium she had in her stores to boost the Sikarians’ life support for a while.

All that was left was the dilithium. Sebastian proposes decontaminating it, and taking no more than 25% of the vein’s haul, and both Dash and Petra have concerns – the primary one being that they don’t want the Ch’ghel hampered by the literal theft of their resources. Unable to negotiate in good faith due to the Prime Directive, Dash instead dedicates himself to an exhaustive sensor scan of the planet, seeking dilithium out of the peoples’ reach to potentially take. Petra joins him, the pair of previously junior officers managing to locate and retrieve a much smaller, but basically inaccessibly cache of dilithium ore on the planet’s ocean floor. Meanwhile, engineers beam down in the night to quietly decontaminate the dilithium the Ch’ghel have been mining, preventing further harm.

As the Odyssey rejoins the fleet with a haul that should keep them all in space for least another year, Sebastian and the Commodore meet and discuss the mission, and how the new officers stepped up and not only served the fleet, but also Starfleet ideals. With this, and a Night Academy graduation coming up, the Commodore decides it’s high time members of the ship have been promoted commensurate to their level of competency, and proposes a large fleet event to do so.

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JUL/2023

Recognition of Commodore Tchang

XO Logs

As Thalaya Tchang’s executive officer, it is my honor to recognize her exceptional skill and dedication to duty. Thalaya has led the Odyssey with a balance of authority and empathy, maintaining order while respecting the individuality of each crewmember. She has guided us through countless challenges, always with a patient and compassionate leadership style. Thalaya’s strong sense of duty and responsibility has defined the Odyssey’s mission and her commitment to Starfleet’s values remains unwavering, even in the Delta Quadrant.

Under the Starfleet Regulations, Section 49.01, Subsection 3.03.18. A board of 3 Captains from allied ships are empowered to promote an officer on their command up one rank during an emergency or while a commanding officer is isolated from Starfleet Command due to extraordinary circumstances. Under the power of the Emergency Treaty for the Security of the Delta Quadrant, I propose that Thalaya Tchang has repeatedly demonstrated exceptional command skills, and is due for a promotion, will another Captain present second my motion, and another Captain present affirm the motion?

Emergency Treaty for the Security of the Delta Quadrant

United Federation of Planets, Starfleet
And
The Sikarian Canon

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JUL/2023

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Jul 25, 2023

Ship of Theseus

Stardate 50359.7

After a few months of quiet travel, the fleet ratifies an official accord, a treaty between the Sikarians and the Starfleet, Klingon, and Romulan crews. As a surprise part of that ceremony, Commander Sebastian moves to utilize an obscure Starfleet regulation to promote Captain Tchang to Commodore, representing her seniority amongst the captains of the fleet. The new Commodore gives a brief speech, then returns to duty.

The fleet winds up in range of a new planetary polity named the Rilnar. After a little time watching their subspace broadcasts, the crew learns they have a strong affinity for medical technology and have developed a cellular regeneration process that could repair all manner of serious injury. The Odyssey goes in with the Alanel to learn more of the Rilnar firsthand, and perhaps trade and have shore leave. All of this is established, along with and invitation for Commodore Tchang, Commander Sebastian, and Lt. Annira to attend a luncheon with First Speaker Gennal.

At the luncheon he speaks of their journey, learned via the Odyssey sharing it’s logs, and offers the three senior officers an opportunity to have their scars and injuries, like Annira’s leg and Sebastian’s spine, repaired. He leaves them to ponder the offering, and the officers seek out information. Tchang involves Selveth to examine the procedure, who seems it safe. Sebastian goes and finds a bar, talking to the laypeople of Rilnar. He learns that the cellular regeneration tech is used well now, but social pressure to remove scars and disabilities is moving the Rilnar to a dark place.

Sebastian and Annira work out an arrangement for two thousand of the fleet’s most injured to receive treatment, paid via matter conversion of raw materials to building materials for the Rilnar. And of the three free offers, the Commodore and Annira agree to the process. The Commodore’s symbiont, damaged from all the warping of time behind them, was restored to physical fitness. Annira’s neural pathways were healed fully from the trianic energy attack, and her lost left leg was restored. But she struggled with adapting to her renewed body, especially after growing accustomed to her prosthetic she had programmed herself.

With only a minor hiccup when other Rilnar saw the Klingons and Starfleet on shore leave with scars and injuries abounding, the fleet refugees who warranted the most care were treated by the Rilnar over ten days. The Odyssey also took on medical supplies for the journey. Before they leave, First Speaker Gennal visits Sebastian in his quarters to ask him why he refused their gift.

Sebastian provides the speaker with a heartfelt speech underlining the need for bodily autonomy as a right, and how their society borders on turning their miracle into eugenics or worse. He asks Gennal for a different gift – to hold a place for those in their world who do not want to conform. Cowed, the Speaker agrees, and leaves to let Sebastian ponder the stars.

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JUL/2023

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Jul 01, 2023

Broken Time

Stardate 50030.3

The Odyssey crew gathers in the brig, learning all they can from Annorax. The reason? Kalen’s been leaving the details of their trials in a temporally shielded probe, and discovers suddenly that there are hundreds of file fragments – along with one of Kalen, shouting instructions. They’ve been stuck in a time loop for a while now, endlessly dying trying to stop the weapon-ship. Worse, they learn from the captured ship captain that the weapon is heading for the fleet to obliterate them. The Odyssey leaps to warp, racing to help their allies.

The team of Selveth, Kalen, Domino, and Vulmos study all the information gathered. Between Annorax’s knowledge, the blueprints, the file fragments, and disabling the safety limits of simulations, they assemble a plan of attack. It’s incredibly risky, but despite the odds, Captain Chang orders it to be set in motion.

When they arrive, they see the weapon-ship menacing the fleet. The ves’Targ, its open hail featuring the ship’s bridge crew singing a Klingon Opera, attacks the Krenim weapon immediately, drawing its attention. Their remaining allies screen the fleet while the Odyssey itself careens at the weapon, ready to enact its plan. Fire pierces the shields, damaging the saucer and the the ship’s star drive section, as well as one of the warp nacelles. But Domino keeps her course and Kalen keeps the engines running long enough for Commander Adams to fire a series of modified torpedoes. His salvo pierces their shields, damaging the temporal core enough to render it vulnerable. With another precisely aimed torpedo, Adams destroys the ship’s core.

The plan now falls to Domino and Kalen. Both pilot and engineer volunteered, briefed on the fact that protecting the crew from the temporal changes requires them to do this without shielding to prevent a paradox. Exposed to the coronal implosion, Domino pilots the Odyssey directly into a space-time breach formed by the implosion.

The bridge freezes save for Domino and Kalen. Domino’s mentor (long thought dead) steps out, now a being known as a Traveler. He explains that he’s been trying to lead Domino here to solve this problem, and the pair’s solution needs only a cosmic nudge from him to succeed. He offers to solve it, and return things to some semblance of normal, in exchange for them accompanying him beyond this reality. Domino agrees without hesitation, and after consideration, Kalen does as well.

The Traveler unpauses the rest of the bridge so that they may say goodbye. After the explanation and confirmation that both are interested in the offer, the Captain affirms that it was an honor to serve with them, and the trio of Travelers leave.

They pass through the breach and everything is calm again. Sebastian has returned, the Tiro is in the bay, the colony ship has even avoided the catastrophic damage from the jump to this sector. However, occupying the time loop means that nine months have passed outside of it.

Light two members of the family, those remaining on the Odyssey set a fresh course home, the fleet following behind.

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APR/2023

Passata Sotto

Stardate 49471

The Odyssey licks its wounds after the skirmish with the weapon ship, and Captain Tchang is becoming increasingly focused on dealing with this Krenim superweapon as it continues taking lives around them.

Selveth visits the captain privately – she isn’t the confidant that Sebastian was, but she is a scientist, and thinks she can merge a shuttle’s shields with the temporal stasis field that protects the weapon-ship. The captain asks for volunteers for a rescue mission for Annira, and the first two to step up are Selveth and Kalen. The team decided, Adams is placed in command of the ship and they begin preparations.

The second Type-9 shuttle onboard, the Volga, is modified. The shield systems are tuned to the weapon ship’s, the chroniton warheads from the troop transport are moved into its torpedo launchers, and the captain has Kalen set a remote self-destruct for the shuttle – just in case. Kalen rigs up life support belts with temporal shielding, and the group departs from the Odyssey.

They’re able to follow the weapon ship’s ion trail, and Kalen is able to mask their warp signature in order for them to fall into the ship’s warp wake and follow along. As they maneuver to get into the field though, the ship abruptly drops out of warp to change course, and the turbulence causes the Volga to veer more than a thousand kilometers away from the weapon – who spots them and starts hauling them in via tractor beam.

While the shuttle is tractored in, Kalen acts quickly, utilizing the shuttle’s transporters to relocate them aboard the ship, near Annira. Once freed, the operations manager also frees an older Krenim man named Annorax, who claims to be the designer of the weapon. For the moment, the ship isn’t aware of their presence on the ship, having towed an empty shuttle into their launch bay.

Kalen proposes breaking the group into three, and all heading for the temporal core. There, whoever reaches the core can use their tricorder as a targeting beacon in order to beam one of the shuttle’s chroniton torpedoes to the core, hopefully disabling it. Selveth and Annira head for the computer systems, in an attempt to provide overwatch. Kalen and Annorax make for the core, with the captain taking another route solo.

Kalen makes good use of Annorax’s knowledge of the ship, managing to stay largely hidden. He’s also able to make a backdoor in their security systems with minor assistance from Annira. The Romulan and his Krenim ally arrive at the core, and after a few scans, Kalen places his tricorder for maximum effect before heading back. On the way back, as though fate were displeased with his success, Kalen runs into a group of Krenim security. But quick thinking (and an excellent shot at a wall power tap) disables the group and Kalen calls to the away team to evacuate.

The captain, meanwhile, has gotten involved in a firefight. She found Obrist, the commander of the ship, and the two exchange fire while he calls for backup. The jig up, the Captain finally manages to stun Obrist and hauls him along with her to the launch bay, where they all pile into the Volga and blast off as they trigger the torpedo transport.

The shuttle gets clear of the weapon and the Captain sets up an attack run on the temporal core just as two Krenim warships drop out of warp, protecting the weapon. She attempts to threaten Obrist to make the Krenim withdraw, but discovers the Krenim Imperium isn’t aware of the movements of the Weapon ship – whatever the weapon’s mission, it acts independent of the Imperium. The second torpedo is fired to distract the warships as the Volga retreats. The weapon still survives, but Annira is now safe – and they have the weapon’s designer aboard.

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MAR/2023

Riposte

Stardate 49458

The Captain’s using the Holodeck, having an unproductive session with a holographic therapist, when Annira calls from the bridge – their probe reports the weapon is moving. It destroys the probe and sets course their direction.

The fleet is rearmed, and the Odyssey leads the strongest ships to a neighboring polity, the Nihydron. On the way they see the weapon-ship on long-range sensors, and contact the other half of the fleet, scattering them and setting a rendezvous in a few weeks’ time. The anchorage is vaporized by the weapon ship, which gives chase to the Odyssey’s portion of the fleet.

After dodging Krenim patrols at the edge of Nihydron space. An unexpected skirmish with a Krenim warship in a nebula shows the crew their temporal shielding isn’t completely effective against their chroniton torpedoes, and one of the appropriated Zahl cruisers, captained by Carela Tann, peels off to fight them, disappearing into a nebula. She doesn’t rejoin the fleet, and they’re forced to move on without one of the cruisers.

The rest of the detachment meets Admiral Traken of the Nihydron. He and his eighteen destroyers have been holding off the Krenim for months, and they’re willing to assist in bringing down the weapon-ship. The coalition realizes that the weapon ship is tracking the Odyssey, and use it to spring a trap on the weapon.

It shows up, five times as long as the Odyssey, and hails. Its commander, Obrist, declares them an anomaly, and quickly reveals his intent to remove them from time. Before doing so, he somehow transports Selveth and Annira off the bridge, and then fires its temporal weapon. Interceding, Kalen overcharges the ship’s shields, which prevents almost all of the damage. The weapon’s beam strikes the remaining Zahl cruiser and it disappears. The Nihydron attack, as well as the ves’Targ, though few of their weapons seem to impact the weapon-ship’s temporal shielding. Having planned ahead, Kalen and Parker have modified five torpedoes with the same chroniton module of the Krenim’s weapons, taken from the troop transport they appropriated. Working in tandem with the on duty Conn officer Ensign Casse, Parker concentrates torpedo fire on the weapon-ship’s temporal core. The fight is serious, with heavy losses for the Nihydron, but the temporal core is temporarily disabled, and Kalen is able to transport Selveth off of it, but is forced to leave Annira behind. The weapon-ship seriously damages the Odyssey’s port nacelle, disabling warp drive, and then escapes. When the chaos quiets, a damaged Odyssey, the ves’Targ, and four Nihydron ships remain.

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MAR/2023

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Mar 12, 2023