Jackford Kolk/Mission Summaries: Difference between revisions

** Temporarily under the command of Captain [[Morgan, Robert|Morgan]], the ''[[USS Ronin|Ronin]]'' is assigned to a shakedown cruise to a protostar 45 lightyears from [[Earth]] that is projected to begin stellar fusion within the next three weeks. Some of the crew, most notably the First Officer, Cmdr. [[Walker, Benjamin J.|Walker]], struggle to accept the new Captain's assignment but manage to keep it from adversely affecting the mission. During the approach to the system, the ''[[USS Ronin|Ronin]]''’s crew discover that the ''[[USS Calippus]]'', observing the stellar ignition on the far side of the protoplanetary disk, is in danger of being destroyed by a projected solar flare from the unstable proto-star; with most forms of communication down due to the massive amounts of interference in the system, Lt. [[Kolk, Jackford|Kolk]] sends a flight of fighters to relay the warning to the other ship. At the same time, a civilian vessel arrives, carrying a religious sect bent on worshiping the newly-formed star despite the danger. The vessel promptly issues a distress call as her engines mysteriously go offline and her warp core threatens to breach. LtCmdr. [[Thelev, Jhen|Thelev]] captains a runabout to investigate and soon realizes that the religious ship has been attacked by an invisible assailant. Meanwhile, a fighter on approach to the ship’s shuttlebay impacts with an invisible object. A short while afterward, a Romulan shuttle de-cloaks inside the bay, and the crew enters negotiations with the shuttle's occupants, who turn out to be the Commander of the Romulan warbird that attacked the religious transport and a Tal-Shiar agent who claims to be Cmdr. [[Walker, Benjamin J.|Walker]]'s fiancee. As talks progress, the new Hammerhead fighters perform extremely well and successfully warn the ''[[USS Calippus]]'' in time to avert disaster. Back on the ship, the Romulan Commander takes a tour and discusses the situation with Capt. [[Morgan, Robert|Morgan]] and then returns to his ship. Shortly afterwards their Chief Engineer (one of the defectors) causes a serious drive malfunction which brings them out of cloak and their crew abandons ship. Rather than allow the crippled ship to be captured and analyzed by Starfleet, the senior officers send it into the sun to scuttle it, but secretly turn it around under cloak at the last minute. The hull is scorched, but the cloaking device is recovered by the ''[[USS Ronin|Ronin]]'' crew, allowing the balance of power between the Empire and the Federation to remain intact  and ensuring that no more cloaked shuttles drop into Federation shuttle-bays unannounced.

* Stardates 238509.15 to 238510.24

** In response to Captain [[Mar, Idril|Mar]]'s dire need for a cure to the disease caused by [[Kolk, Jackford (alternate)|Evil Kolk]], the crew enters the [[Ithassa Region]] in search of the ''[[USS Achilles]]'', a rogue Starfleet ship manned and controlled solely by an AI named [[Thetis|THETIS]], or Tess. She had been presumed destroyed years ago, but numerous sightings by [[Gorn]], [[FTU]], and other species suggested otherwise. The crew plans, once they have found the ''[[USS Achilles|Achilles]]'', to use her inside knowledge of the [[Ithassa Region|region]] to help them track down [[Kolk, Jackford (alternate)|Evil Kolk]] and pump him for any information that might lead to a cure for Captain [[Mar, Idril|Mar]]. After the mission briefing, Lt. Kolk talks with LtCmdr. [[Maria, Cara|Maria]] in her quaters about his overwhelmingly dark thoughts about his alternate. The [[Betazoid]]/[[Human]] hybrid helps him to see past the evil that his other self has done and glimpse the possiblity of redemption. The two officers also deepen their bond as surrogate sibblings. Next LtCmdrs. [[Brice, Ethan|Brice]], [[Thelev, Jhen|Thelev]], [[Wilde, Danny|Wilde]], and Lt. Kolk meet privately to discuss, off the record, what's to be done with [[Kolk, Jackford (alternate)|Evil Jack]]. LtCmdr. [[Thelev, Jhen|Thelev]] almost immediately suggests hiring someone to kill the villain, and for a time it seems the group is entertaining the idea. Once he works through his shock at what his best friend is suggesting, Lt. Kolk speaks up and refuses to participate in any such plan, citing their duty as Starfleet Officers to uphold the law and as enlightened individuals to maintain a higher standard than that of someone like [[Kolk, Jackford (alternate)|Evil Jack]]. With the issue settled and the group agreeing to hunt, capture, and prosecute the man but not to use lethal force, they disband and meet with their respective teams. Soon enough a course to the [[Igloo Cluster]] is settled on and the ship is underway. On the edge of the cluster, they encounter a group of [[Grendellai]] who ambush them. instead of using their full force and defeating the scavengers easily, Cmdr. [[Walker, Benjamin J.|Walker]] decides to play wounded to lure Tess out of hiding. The ''[[USS Ronin|Ronin]]'' dives between two [[Grendellai]] ships, scraping the [[Ronin Flight Operations Center|Flight Operations]] pod and picking up a pair of boarding parties. This causes Tess to soar to the "rescue" and reveal herself. She disables half the attacking ships in a matter of seconds, and offers to "help" with the boarding parties. When [[Walker, Benjamin J.|Walker]] lowers the shields, she beams the Grendellai into space, shocking the ''[[USS Ronin|Ronin's]]'' crew and convincing the remaining [[Grendellai]] ships to withdraw. An away team beams over to negotiate with Tess regarding the larger mission, but before much progress is made, LtCmdr. [[Brice, Ethan|Brice]] uses a failsafe only he knew about and disconnects Tess from the rest of the ship. Cmdr. [[Walker, Benjamin J.|Walker]] convinces him to undo what he'd done, and Tess instantly beams him to the aft end of the ''[[USS Ronin|Ronin's]]'' port nacelle. Tess agrees to follow the ''[[USS Ronin|Ronin]]'' back to [[Deep Space 17|DS17]] at least, and the away team beams back, disgruntled but none the worse for wear.