Chapter I: A Ship in Peril

Returning from what was meant to be a routine checkup on the newly founded colony on Beranus-4, the crew of the Consortium space ship USS Potential finds its crew of 76 slightly diminished. An Earthquake had released noxious gases from below the planet's surface and although the Potential had been successful in saving the colony, three crewmembers were exposed to the gases. While their lives are out of immediate danger they are currently being kept in a medical coma in sickbay until the Potential can reach Starbase 279 where an antidote for the gas' effect is currently being manufactured.

Among the exposed crewmen was Captain Frederick H. Darcy, commanding officer of the USS Potential. In his absence, his newly appointed First Officer, Commander Shawna Cassano, has assumed the captain's duties. With her on the bridge are head of security Lieutenant Commander M1-K3, chief science officer Lieutenant Commander Zephyr Borealis Jr and Lieutenant junior grade Embis Mezron, a fairly recent academy graduate who has temporarily taken over piloting duties for Commander Cassano.

The USS Potential is currently en route to Starbase 279 at Warp Speed, set to arrive in four hours, when Lieutenant Mezron turns towards Commander Cassano and explains: "Commander, we are receiving a high priority distress signal from a nearby system. There is no message attached to the signal."

[quote]( 6, 5 )[quote]

Zephyr, you complete the sensor sweep just as the Potential falls out of hyperspace into a small solar system: Three planets, circling a red star. Your scan shows no results, there appears to be a lot of interference due to strong solar radiation. Nonetheless, you manage to find the source of the distress signal.

A small trade vessel, not of Space Fleet origin but definitely human in design. You can see that the engines seem to be down, a big chunk of the hull seems to be damaged and it's drifting helplessly in space.
You cannot scan for life signs or energy signals from the vessel due to the interference.

The distress call is still being transmitted automatically from the ship but there is no visible reaction to your arrival.

Mezron slowly navigates the Potential closer to the damaged ship.
There are no visible weapon systems on this ship but you all are aware that looks can be deceiving.

"The ship is in range of our close range sensors now, ma'am!", the Junior Lieutenant explains. You all know that the solar radiation should affect these sensors much less than your standard long range sensors.

Just as Mezron finishes saying this, the distress signal stops. Zephyr, you pick up a different signal now. It appears to be originating from the damaged ship and it seems to not be meant for the Potential as it is aimed out of the system. Your ship's computer appears to have difficulties processing this new signal as it gets displayed on your screen only as a huge chunk of text consisting of seemingly random configurations of only three symbols: F, 2 and V.

"The sensors pick up five life signs, one human, the others unidentified.", Lieutenant Mezron explains. "There are also no weapon systems showing up on the scans. The sensors can't determine the exact damage to the ship but I do not read the signature of an anti-matter chamber so this ship is not equipped to go to Warp speeds. And this is not a result of whatever damaged it. If the anti-matter chamber had been destroyed, nothing would be left of the ship now."

The new signal repeats itself a number of times and then stops as well. There is no response to your hails.

M1-K3 and Zephyr, you assemble a team of security officers and meet them at the transporter room. After a short period of preparations to boost the signal enough for a safe transport, the transporter chief energizes.
You materialize in a medium sized room that appears to have been the bridge of the ship. However, all computers and even the view screen have been removed, except for one small computer near the captain's chair. It appears as if someone has stripped the ship off of all valuable components.

In the middle of the room stands a male human with white skin. He’s dressed in rough cloths and he’s holding a disruptor in his hand. He lifts it and aims straight at your team.

"Drop.. your… wea… pons" His voice sounds pressed and as if he has difficulties speaking.


In the meantime, on the bridge of the USS Potential: Without so much as a warning due to the solar radiation blocking your sensors, three ships jump out of warp, surrounding the Potential. All three ships are of very different designs. Two of them appear to be private space crafts, the third one is definitely Spacefleet.

All three ships’ shields are raised and their weapons are readied.

You receive a communication from the Spacefleet ship – no visuals, only a female voice speaking: "Consortium space ship, deactivate weapon systems and drop your shields. Allow us to board your ship or be destroyed"

M1, right after you finish speaking, the man shoots his disruptor at you. He misses due to his hands shaking but the next time, you might not be quite as lucky. The man's face is contorted, as if he is in pain. "Drop... Weapons!", he repeats. He staggers towards you, his shaking finger still on the trigger of his weapon.

Cass, you hear the shot over the communicator. Nobody seems to have been hit but your away team is in danger - and you won't be able to beam them out without dropping your shields. One of the private looking ships moves closer to the broken down ship that your away team is on.
You also receive another hail from the Consortium ship. This time, they request video communication as well.

The view screen lights up showing the bridge of a Consortium ship, smaller than the Potential's and matching the outer appearance of the ship in front of you. In the Captains chair, you see an alien woman wearing Spacefleet uniform with the markings of a Captain on her collar: "Commander of the Spacefleet scout ship Potential, this is Captain Ery-An of the USS Sigma. You are interfering with an important Consortium mission. Lower your shields immediately and allow my people to board your ship."
Cass, you notice that the chair next to her where the First Officer would sit is empty. You also notice that Captain Ery-An's uniform collar is slightly damp from sweat.

You charge forward but before you can reach the man, he fires again, hitting your shoulder and burning a hole into it. If you were human, this hit could very well have killed you but fortunately, you are more resistant to disruptor fire than your crewmates. You grab the man by his throat and he, shocked that you are not dead, drops the weapon to the ground. "It... too late... for you..." he manages to say with audible difficulty. His eyes seem barely focused on you as if he is only half aware of what's going on

Zephyr, you investigate the terminal and immediately come to the realization that it is not Consortium technology. The symbols on the screen, the interface keys, it resembles nothing you've seen before. You notice one thing however: Anywhere on the screen, the interface, anywhere on the computer, any bit of text is made up of different combinations of the same three symbols.
Without the help of your ship computer you will not be able to analyze this computer further, however, you are confident that with a bit of work and the help of the universal translator, you will be able to get the information out of this [You can save your successes for when you have access to the Potential's computer again]. Suddenly, the ship starts shaking, almost as if it had hit some object.

Cass, the Captain looks at you with unchanged expression. "We are on important business and do no have time to trade for particle filtration nubs.", she exclaims, completely evading protocol for the use of this phrase. "Drop your shields right now, Commander, that is an order. If you refuse, I will be forced to open fire."
Suddenly, Lieutenant Mezron turns around to face you. "Commander, one of the ships has locked a transporter beam onto the damaged ship that has the away team on it."

Ensign Carter, who took M1's place at ops starts working on his console. He takes longer than M1 would but after a moment, he responds: "They are all equipped with phasers, the Sigma has photon torpedo bays but I do not register any photon torpedoes on board. I cannot tell if that is because of the radiation or not. All three ships weaponry is inferior to ours but combined, they might pose a threat to us.

After cutting the communication, the view screen changes back to show the situation outside. The trade ship is still attached to the derelict ship by transporter beam and is in fact pulling it closer to itself. You notice that there are mechanical clamps at the bottom of the trade ship. It appears as if they are trying to attach themselves to the derelict ship.

Carter speaks up again: "Captain, I mean Commander, the Sigma is locking their phasers on us. They're going to open fire!"

The bridge gets shaken as your shields get hit by a phasers beam.
"Shields at 80%", explains Lt. Mezron.
Ensign Carter says: "Phasers locked on tractor beam, Commander. Ready to fire!"

Away team, the ship you're on gets shaken. You recognize its movement as being caused by a tractor beam.

You watch the phaser shoot out and hit the trade ship right where the tractor beam starts and the energy stops abruptly, freeing the derelict ship right before it can get clawed by the trade ships clamps. However, by focusing too much on the shooting, you neglected your defense against the other two ships. Very quickly, you get hit by two phaser beams from both sides.
"Shields at 40% and dropping.", Lt. Mezron exclaims. You can hear a hint of panic in her voice. It is rare that a scout ship like the Potential gets into open fire fights and she hasn't been on this ship for long, yet.

Away team, the ship gets shaken again, harder and more abruptly than before. A few pipes burst in the wall of the bridge and release hot steam into the room. The brittle ship is still holding but you are unsure how much more it can take before the hull breaches.

RC, you are working on maintaining the shields in the engineering section when right next to you, a console explodes and Ensign Charles Davis, a long-time Spacefleet member who has been on the Potential since before you who is always reliable but has no aspirations to rise in rank, gets abruptly thrown backwards. He's alive and not severely injured. The shields are holding so far but another hit like this and there won't be any guarantees.

Dr. Zlam, it was supposed to be your day off after your intense work on saving the colony on Beranus-4 but the sudden ship to ship combat that broke out with almost no warning forced you to stop whatever you were doing in your free time and to return to work early. As you arrive at sickbay, you find your colleagues busy with some minor injuries. So far, nothing serious has occured but you know that it is just a matter of time in these situations. There are a lot of ways people can hurt themselves on a spaceship under fire.

Laser Feeling - This is an ambush, set up to capture a Consortium ship. Captain Ery-An is not acting under her own free will.

All consoles down here are fully customizable and there are some redundancies in place just for a situation like this. Any important actions Davis was performing at his station can be rerouted to other stations. The bigger problem is his injury.
"Permission to go to Sickbay?", he asks. Although the injury does not appear particularly dangerous, his hands are burned and he seems to be in pain. You need all the help you can get down here and you know that if you ordered him to stay and help, he would.
Your quick scan of the ship's internal sensors tells you that there's a coolant leak that is rapidly draining power from the shields. You could either close an airlock to stop the coolant from leaking into other parts of the ship and doing more damage but that would put a heavy burden on the shields. Or you could send one of your people down there to try and fix it. If they succeed, that would restore a whole lot of energy to the shields and give you a much better chance in this fight - However, if the shields receive another heavy hit while they are near the leak, there is a serious chance they could die.

Malbo arrives in sickbay, very quickly scrubbing down and applying his medical outfit, which consists of a thicker germproof suit, gloves, his medical scanner, a surgical bag with a variety of medical tools, and a neck unit that keeps his skin at the required moisture levels for a Nemurlian under stress, as he has no sweat glands to cool off.


"Not good" he says and he walks urgently through sickbay, checking the status on every cryo pod and medical tank as he passes through. He immediately exits the far end of the sick bay, and begins walking towards the bridge, stopping to check any crew that are injured in the hallways.

"No free time. Bad for stress levels of crew." he notes to himself. "High Stress. Many Mistakes." He says matter-of-factly to nobody in particular.


He taps the badge on his uniform. "Bridge. Zlam. What happened?" he says, taking on a more serious tone, but definitely not an authoritative one.

Laser Feeling - You have heard of increasing attacks by space pirates in this quadrant. A number of ships has been destroyed or stolen here in the past months. Rumors say the pirates are gathering under a "Pirate Queen" but the events in this star system tell you that that is not all. These pirates must be working with an alien species so far unknown to the Consortium.

Malbo enters the bridge after a short march through the halls and corridors, tending to anybody who was injured from the fire.

He steps through the doors without asking permission to step on the bridge. Not out of defiance, but out of urgency, and begins passing his medical scanner over each and every crew member, talking mostly to himself as he reads the data.

He eventually reaches an injured crewman, and stops, placing his scanner o the console and pulling some medicated patches designed to alleviate impact pains and minor injuries.

"Minor fractures in left rib. Tetramorphine 200 milligram patch. Good for pain. Suggests rest, possibly X-ray." he says aloud, yet still seemingly to himself. As he finishes applying the patch to Ensign Davis, he looks up and around himself, taking a moment to examine his surroundings and realizing he had entered the bridge. He turns to the acting captain and asks "Commander, permission to enter bridge?".

Ah sorry, i thought that was who took over for M1-K3 at the security console. Ill rename the person to something that would fit general crew.

Moira rolls her eyes. Never a good sign when the cap'n doesn't reply.

She sees Davis's hands and replies rudely, trying to cover up that his injury actually startled her.

Well, yeh sure as the violet sun aren't any use to me here! Git!

She takes a moment to compose herself. She hates the thought of sacrificing a team member, but if the alternative is losing the entire crew?
She leaps onto a table. Well, hops. Her husky frame results in a startling "THWUMP."

Oi! Leak in tha coolant line in sobsection 5! We need someone brave ta go plug it up, or we'll lose tha entire ship!

She gins widely with her go-to mix of motherly pride and pure insanity.

An' I can personally guarantee yeh that you'll either get a week a' leave and a bottle o' yer choice, or I'll personally recommend yeh for the Void Medal 'a Honor. Ye'll be a hero either way!

A posthumous award. She was hoping in the chaos nobody would remember that.

Laser Feeling - The breach is nothing quite out of the ordinary. It's slightly dangerous to do the repairs manually while the ship is running but unless the ship gets hit very hard while you're working on it, you don't expect any further complications.

The Potential's phasers hit the Sigma directly, draining their shields a lot, but not completely. Almost at the same time, the Potential gets hit by two phaser beams, dropping its shields to 40% and causing a leak in the coolant. Ensign Davis gets blasted by his exploding console and sent to sickbay by RC. Dr Zlam arrives at the bridge and starts treating injured crewmen there.

Cass gives the order to retreat out of the system. Lt. Mezron sets a course and you enter Warp 3.

Moira, since the combat is over, it should be safe to fix the leak now.

Away team, you lose contact to the Potential [Cass, did you explain the situation to them beforehand?]

Away team, you receive a message from Commander Cassano, explaining the situation and ordering you to submit to capture if necessary. Then, your connection breaks and you are alone on the ship: M1, Zephyr, two human security officers, Ensign Debra Myers and Lt. Eric Felt, and the pale man. You also remember that according to your scanners, there were supposed to be five more life forms on board the ship but you haven't seen them yet.

M1, you're still holding the pale man. He has stopped resisting for now but he is not talking to you either. The ship is still steadily vibrating as it is being moved by the transporter beam.

I mean, we could have just an honor code system that we wont peek until after we reunite and can see what all happens.

Marbo looks outside the window as the Potential begins to back away and enter warp.

He turns to stare at the commander and says "Quarantine? No. Preservation. Understandable. Unnavoidable. Upsetting nonetheless."

He continues to check the various crew members before putting his scanner in its holster, and looking out at the stars, quietly thinking to himself.

Marbo moves to the seat, still holding the autoinjector in his hand.

"Apologies. Marbo forgets. Humans Stigmatize medicine.

He looks up from the autoinjector towards the commander.

"Regardless. Crew still faithful. Strong leadership. Hard calls. All would perish otherwise. Marbo believes."

He returns his gaze to the autoinjector, then looks back up at the commander inquisitively, holding it out towards her.

"Stress levels high. May cause high blood pressure. Migraines. Fainting. Recommend you administer injection to forearm soon. Fainting in front of crew no better for inspiring hope."

MArbo pauses again, staring off into space for a moment before snapping back to it. He looks unnerved, almost anxious.

"Nothing significant. Marbo worries. Away crew stranded. Alone. Marbo terrified of loneliness."

He applies the autoinjector to the commanders arm and pulls the trigger. A quick pinch followed by a rush of endorphins as the stress seems to melt away fills her up.


"Serum lasts 2 hours. Can readminister tomorrow. Wish to talk?"

Zephyr, you lead the Lieutenant down the corridor, following the life signs picked up by the tricorder. They are weak and although your tricorder can't identify the species, you are almost certain the lifeforms are dying.

The ship is small, made even smaller by the large number of rooms that are blocked off due to hull breaches, so it doesnt take long for you to reach the life signs. They are located behind a small door that is labelled "Cargo Bay C".

You open the door carefully, inspecting the room from the door to determine danger when you see the lifeforms: A group of large creatures, not quite Earth cows but very close to them in appearance. They are completely white, their skin appearing translucent in some places, and they are lying on the floor of the cargo bay, seemingly sick and in pain. When one of them spots you, it let's out a drawn out, deep sound unlike any animal you've ever heard.

Suddenly, the ship shakes violently and a loud screech vibrates through the entire ship. This is not just a tractor beam - The ship made physical contact with something.
There are a few seconds of silence, then a mechanical voice sounds through all hallways in the derelict ship: "Consortium officers, your ship has abandoned you. You are outmanned and outgunned. You will be taken into custody. If you surrender, you will not be killed."

Breathing a deep sigh as she relaxes for the first time since Captain Darcy became incapacitated, Cass leans back and again waves Marbo to sit down. "Don't worry too much about the away team. Between Mike and Zephyr, I have faith in their ability to stay alive while giving those bastards a run for their money."

"Capable. Yes. But threat unknown. Three ships. Ambush. Why?"

Marbo continues talking without actually directing it anywhere, sort of just out for anybody to respond to.

"Also. Marbo holds up his medical scanner, showing the commander the suit sensor data of M1-K3. Captured right before warp. Injury. Rotator cuff. Could be serious.

Marbo holsters his scanner again, and begins to fidget with the auto injector, which is now empty.

"Marbo does not wish to concern you. Marbo should be quiet."

Moira spins the chair the rest of the way around and sees a slightly startled Lt. Mezron.

Ah. Permission ta enter tha bridge?

Dying! ROFL

Marbo ponders on the thought for a moment before chiming up.

"Ransom? Pirate Fleet? Perhaps... Check database. Missing Consortium vessels? How many. Location of Disappearance?

Marbos look of worry gets significantly worse as he thinks of a fleet of pirates with consortium vessels.

"Not known for ransoms. Execution more likely.
Marbo says as he takes a minute to think.

"Idea!" He shouts excitedly, standing up and speaking in Nemurlian extremely quickly whilst waving the empty autoinjector about, gesturing at it and moving it about the air.

Moira jumps up and shouts into her comm as she begins work on the translator (which I assume is around?)

Commander! Yer alive! Whatever yeh did to mah ship, she’s fine now, yer welcome. Stressful day I’d imagine! Remind me to bring yeh some Carlenian Whiskey. Aged 15 cycles, finished in Carlenian Wolf husks. Lovely peaty flavor. Which is impressive, since Carlenia is an ice planet, and not known for peat bogs.

Nodding, Cass begins, "I think tha--"

She is interrupted by Moira on the comm.
Cass and Marbo both wince - it's so loud.

"Yeah, sorry about the damage, Moira. Great job as always at bringing her back to good as new. As for the whiskey, I can't stress this enough - I'm in. I can't wait to find out what ice peat tastes like. Also, if you're looking for me, I'm in the captain's ready room. Cassano out."

Returning her attention to Marbo, Cass tried again. "I think the gas is a great idea, Doc. The obvious issues are access and dissemination, but first things first. Get started on making the gas, and let me know if you need additional resources. As soon as I hear back from Spacefleet, I intend to get our crewmen back."

"One man. Outside maintenance ports of their ship. Shouldnt even set off sensors. Can be pumped from aerosol canisters. Co2 pressure. Should work. Marbo ppulls out a datapad and begins typing furiously, and wanders off without saying another word towards the medbay.

Anybody he passes hears him mumbling about ratios and possible dispersal systems.

As he gets to the medbay doors he stops and pings the coms to engineering.
"Engineering. Zlam. Need machine. Sending schematics."

Marbo sends a rudimentary drawing of a gas dispersal system to engineering, covered in notes that are nearly indecipherable.

Moira knocks on the door.

Commander? What did yeh just sent to mah folks? They cannae read it.

"Engineering. Zlam. Addendum to last request. Need Plasma torch."

Moira lets out a hearty laugh.

And ye’ll have it, Doctor! Oi, Commander, where’s Zephyr and Mike?

Moira nods and somewhat too aggressively clasps Cassano’s shoulder.

Aye. I see what’cher doin’ there, Commander. Didn’t reply so my men in the engine room didn’t panic. Wise move. Well!

She pulls out a flask from her right shoulder strap.

Ta not findin’ our our friends and coworkers are brutally murdered by hostiles!

She takes a swig and passes it to the Commander.

Yeh’re far more fun than Darcy, Lass.

Just dinnae panic. If yeh wouldn’t do it yer self, yeh can’t ask yer men ta.

She straps the flask back in.

Like I said. Peaty. Well, ah’m off to give the good doctor a plasma torch!

She salutes and heads for the sick bay, via the engineering corridor. Hopefully Davis is doing all right, too.

"Dramamine. 400 milligrams. Diluted cyanide, 400 mg, with counteracters to prevent death. Tetrahydracannabidiol, extracted from terran plant "cannabis", 1500mg. Friendlies require respiratory protection before contact. Dioxyethalate steroid should reduce side effects instantaneously if administered by Injection. Crew should carry autoinjectors in case of seal failure."

Moira walks in to see Marbo bent over a fumehood chamber mixing into a pressurized cylinder, while at the same time dictating to the interns the other requirements of the task.
Its the most anybody has ever seen him talk out loud, but he seems absent from the world around him. As soon as moira reaches the fume hood he extends one of his four arms without looking up.
"Thank you. Now please step back. Morbos work is dangerous."

The gas begins to react violently but morbo adds a suppressor chemical to stabilize them, before they can explode and vent into the ships air system

Zephyr, you scan the creatures with your tricorder. The information it displays immediately doesnt tell you too much. They are very similar to cows in genetic structure but there are some key differences. For example, these animals lay eggs to reproduce and while they can eat grass, their digestive system is better equipped for processing fruit. They also most likely live underground on their homeworld as their lack of melanin or pigmentation would make exposure to solar radiation very dangerous to them.
The creatures do not have any open wounds and due to their unknown biology, the tricorder can't pinpoint their disease. Maybe if you had access to a real computer with this data, you could figure it out

In the time between chapter I and chapter II, Cass has received the information she had asked Lt. Mezron for. This sector of space has always had some pirate activity in it but it really started picking up four months ago. Since then, about three dozen privately owned spaceships have been reported stolen or missing in this area.
Even more shocking, in the same time frame, there have been three incidents involving small Consortium ships in this sector. Ten weeks ago, the USS Verdun, which matches the description of the ship you had assumed was the USS Sigma, was attacked by pirates. The ship’s warp core got damaged and the crew had been forced to evacuate the ship. They did not get pursued but when Spacefleet returned later, they did not find a wreckage.
Three weeks later, the actual USS Sigma, a similar but not identical model to the Verdun, was destroyed very close to your location. According to the reports, the entire crew, including Captain Ery-An, were killed.
Another week later, a small fleet of pirate ships attacked a convoy of trade ships led by the USS Antarctica, a Solar Class starship, much larger and better armed than even the Potential, which is well-known for being especially well armed for its size. The Antarctica succeeded in beating back the attack but one pirate ship had managed to attach itself to a convoy ship that was carrying almost a dozen Void Crystals and took it with it into Warp.

Lt. Mezron was unable to find any hint as to the location of the pirates’ hideout or the identity of the rumored Pirate Queen.

The monitor next to you lights up and shows the Captain's personell file. She had a successful career, joining Spacefleet Academy a bit later than most cadets but catching up quickly and graduating with almost perfect grades. She joined the crew of the USS Sigma right out of academy where she quickly rose through the ranks, finally taking over captain's duties on the Sigma after the death of the previous captain. Although this is not standard protocol, Spacefleet allowed it because of her crew's noted respect for her.
The file finishes with a note of her death in active duty - a casualty of the USS Sigma's destruction.

Looking at the photo attached to the personell file, you definitely recognize her face from your encounter before, so it is the same woman - with one key difference: The woman you had talked to during the battle had completely white skin while this photo showed the captain's skin as a pale red.

Edit: Spelling

"Commander. Zlam. Gas complete. Small problem. Only enough for 2 of the ships." Marbo states over the communicator.

He heads towards the decontamination room, and begins scrubbing down, afterwards he goes to his office, opens the locker there, and begins to don his space suit.

Once he is fully dressed in the custom space suit, and has One of the tanks of the gas strapped to his back across his shoulders, he picks up the second tank using his lower arms and heads to the bridge.