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TO SEEK OUT NEW LIFE
Stardates
240006.03 - 240009.03
Synopsis
The Astraeus receives a communication from Starfleet Command and Starfleet Science to head into the Jenatris Cloud. The USS Aldrin has lost contact with Research Outpost 99 (aka the Lighthouse) and the Astraeus is charged with investigating. What they discover gives new meaning to the main mission of Starfleet.
LOCATIONS
The Lighthouse is a standard Regula I-type station. It was built in 2397 adjacent to Outpost Gamma after the USS Aldrin and USS Tolkien were able to study the Chon shielding systems on the supply depot enough to extend them wider. With the help of the slightly unstable Chon AI on board that calls itself Omni.
The Chon station’s specialized ‘Cloud Shield’ as the researchers have called it, now reaches out to a range of twenty kilometers and it’s within this boundary that Outpost 99 was built. It has a crew complement of 120, 20 support staff and 100 researchers and scientists from multiple fields. XenoArchaeology, Physics, Astrophysics, Metallurgy, Engineering, Computer Science, Structural Engineering, Anthropology, Artificial Intelligence, Genetics, XenoBiology, History, Linguistics, Sociology, Xenology, Nanotechnology, Astronomy, Chemistry, Botany and Xenopsychology. Starfleet Corps of Engineers even has a small contingent on board to help study and repair the stations. Their involvement has helped improve maintenance and performance on Deep Space 26 over the last two years as a result.
The Lighthouse has two Argonaut class runabouts, one of which has recently undergone a modification to include Reskari.
Outpost Ceti is a Chon zoo/wildlife preserve, possibly also used for research/study of the various species contained within. The Menagerie as it’s designation will be discovered, housed at one time, tens of thousands of species from across the Chon Empire. Not just the Expanse. Including insects, arachnids, aquatic and avian species as well as at least one space born species. Sadly, nearly every single species housed within has long since perished. Save for maybe a handful, including one space borne entity native to the Jenatris Cloud, but now extinct (previously near extinction during the Chon’s presence here.)
NOTABLE CHARACTERS
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Crew
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Commander Serala, First Officer
Lieutenant Commander Toryn Raga, Chief of Security/Tactical
Lieutenant Commander Esa Kiax, Chief Operations Officer
MSNPCs
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Omni, a slightly unstable Chon AI
Dr. Rafael DeSantos, Lighthouse CO/Lead Scientist
Warden, Menagerie/Chon Warden
Serena-Marie Wallace, Aldrin CO
MISSION SUMMARY
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Act One
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Summary
Mei’konda receives a priority one communication from Starfleet Science, with Starfleet Command coded approval to head to the Lighthouse within the Jenatris Cloud. Once there, they are to speak with the lead researcher in charge of the Lighthouse’s entire project. They learn the limited information the Aldrin transmitted before they lost communication. (See the section for Outpost Ceti above.)
The Astraeus sets off in search of the Aldrin and her missing crew. After a few hours of searching the Cloud for any trace, they discover a faint eddy/impulse trail in the Cloud that leads them to the Aldrin. They find the ship adrift and running on minimal power, but showing multiple life signs; though with barely functional life support for the crew complement.
A pair of away teams are beamed over or sent via shuttle/runabout to the ship while the Astraeus runs scans for the station and looks for the Aldrin. Logs determine that the power disruptions from an attack interrupted a critical experiment in one of their chemical labs that’s filled the entire ship with a gas similar to anesthezine gas, which prohibited them from enacting repairs to the ship for days. The warp core was stable and the EPS systems needed major repairs. The shields are low as well which is dangerous/deadly within Jenatris, some crew experienced the Jenatris delirium while aboard, resulting in violent incidents which resulted in the death of some of the Aldrin’s crew, as well as the ejection of her warp core.
They also learn that to protect the Aldrin’s crew, they were beamed to a nearby Chon station (outpost Ceti). There is a moment of confusion as the away team attempts to determine how the ship ended up so distant to any stations. Further recovery of the logs show that the Aldrin’s Captain managed to pilot the ship far enough away from the station to protect it from destruction before succumbing to the damage, while the second away team discovers the small skeleton crew that accomplished the feat.
Act Two
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Summary
The Aldrin is abandoned in the nebula for the time being, to be recovered later when the lives of her crew are not in possible danger. The Captain asks for Mei’konda’s help in recovering the rest of the crew, fearing the worst after losing communications with them. Agreeing, Mei’konda sets course for the Menagerie, using information recovered from the Aldrin’s computers.
The Astraeus arrives at the Menagerie and discovers that the station does seem to have numerous biomes within it or at least was set up to have hundreds of contained biodomes. Their initial scans don’t detect the Aldrin’s crew, but they do locate the signature of pattern enhancers set up within one part of the shielded section of the station. An away team is sent over to investigate.
Shortly after which the Warden appears/attacks the Astraeus, which causes significant disruption to its power systems, specifically to the EPS systems on board and forces them to retreat out of range. The away team encounters similar attacks from drones and seemingly automated defenses within the station. It’s easily noted that the attacks seemed to be non-lethal in nature and meant to stun, or restrain rather than kill. Doctor De’Vere is captured and the away team is now faced with the added challenge of finding the doctor, operating under the assumption that she has been carried to the same location the Aldrin’s crew has been taken.
While the Astraeus undertakes its own repairs, the away team on the Menagerie discovers the Aldrin’s crew trapped within several habitat enclosures without any equipment. They learn that some of the crew had been taken by drones after being sedated. They don’t know where they are. Those taken were brought to the Chon equivalent of a veterinarian’s lab, and are restrained and sedated while various drones study them, assess their health, physiology, etc.
The Warden attempts to keep the Astraeus’ away team away from the heavily shielded section of the station as the Cloud Shield fails in places while they're there. Signs of exposure to the Jenatris Cloud are visible through most of the station, including most of the wildlife enclosures. Thousands of species of long dead flora and fauna can be found. The away team discovers that within the most intact section of the station is a habitat for the sole space borne species within the facility. The use of the station's defenses against the Aldrin and Astraeus have caused power fluctuations and parts of the Cloud Shield’s emitters in that section to mostly be damaged or destroyed, putting the lone space-borne infant, that had been in stasis, at risk.
Act Three
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Summary
The away team discovers, possibly with Warden’s help, that the infant is a native of the Jenatris Cloud and can survive easily within the dangerous mix of anomalies, gas clouds and debris, but not until it reaches a mature state. The Warden states that it has no knowledge of how the infant will thrive with no parent to care for it, and it is up to the Astraeus’ crew to find a way to mimic Jenatris Cloud conditions, as well as act as a surrogate parent, until the infant has grown enough to survive on its own. If done correctly, it could be heart warming to have the infant thank us in its own way before disappearing to locations unknown.
The species is capable of Asexual reproduction in the absence of a mating partner.
Astraeus manages to complete repairs on herself as well as the Aldrin, who did suffer some minor casualties, enough to revive the crew. They’re able to tow the Nova class and return to the Menagerie to retrieve the away team and work to save the infant, as well as any of the other surviving species still on board the failing outpost.
NOTABLE SIMS
MISSION REPORTS
Crew of USS Aldrin rescued; USS Astraeus agrees to foster space baby
AFTER-ACTION REPORTS
ADDITIONAL NOTES
