| SUBMITTED: Stardate 94145 | FILED BY: ENS L. Aruyo | SECURITY: Level 2 - Confidential |
LOCATION: POI 3, Alpha 7190 Sector
MISSION: Find and rescue Captain Bishop
OUTCOME: Pre-Warp civilisation discovered. The Sacred Band bases found and neutralised but could not stop an infertility chemical from being dispersed over the planet.
KEY PERSONNEL:
CAPT Christina Boris (USS Zenobia)
CAPT Alistair Nimitz (USS Akagi)
CAPT Leila Omar (USS Lexington)
CAPT Keelah Se'Lai
CMDR Beylara Ailes (USS William Ockham)
CMDR Chance Wilson (USS Fearless)
CMDR Thalszhyl'ia Zh’Zhavis
LT Joshua Hart
ENS Aruyo Lara
NARRATIVE:
Before warping into the system, we decided that due to the events of the past three encounters with The Sacred Band, we would take precautions again. Once again, we prepared our deflectors to emit anti-proton bursts to reveal any hidden ships, and instead of one warp point, we would warp in from three different locations; the Attar would warp in with the Akagi on Point Alpha, the Lexington would warp in with the William Ockham on Point Beta, and the Fearless would warp in with the Zenobia at Point Gamma.
The system contained the Class M planet, as suspected, and a singular moon. Upon arrival, we could detect no hidden ships, but the Attar did detect a pre-warp vessel, much like an old Earth space shuttle, orbiting the moon. Upon examination and interception of the communications, it was clear that the shuttle was experiencing a catastrophic engine failure; communications between the planet and the shuttle indicated that the shuttle crew were not able to fix the problem and eventually sent all the data they could back to the planet, trying to fix the problem themselves as the shuttle went out of the communications range of the planet. We also learnt from the communications, that the planet was suffering from severe overpopulation, and that the space shuttle was a desperate attempt to be able to reach new worlds to save themselves.
Meanwhile, scans on the planet confirmed the overpopulation but also revealed the presence of thirty to forty Sacred Band bases scattered all over the planet. We were unsure of whether the local population had discovered these bases since they appeared not to be hidden at all albeit located in remote environments, for example, deep underwater or placed on the top of a mountain. Scans from the William Ockham revealed that these bases all had some sort of device in them and that these devices seemed to contain some sort of strange chemical.
Unsure of what this device was and what impact it would have, the commanding officers debated as to how best to act, given that they were bound to the Prime Directive. Continuing to monitor communications on the planet, Commander Zhyl'ia and I found encrypted communications stating that one nation on the planet had indeed discovered a "chemical" and were willing to use it, though we were unsure whether this was the same chemical in the Sacred Band bases or another, nor did we know what "use it" entailed. The commanding officer's hand was played, however, as the bases began to power up at the same time we discovered someone listening in to our own communications.
Commander Zhyl'ia informed us that the bases would soon begin to phase once they were activated, and Commander Alies told us that the trigger mechanism for the chemicals was linked to the phasing, and that if the bases should phase, the chemical would be released. With this in mind, an away team was assembled to beam down to the base and stop the phasing.
The actions of the away team will be posted in an addendum to this report, but a quick summary of the actions of the team are as follows: the team beamed down and stopped the phasing of the base, but were unable to prevent the chemical from being released.
The chemical quickly spread all around the planet in a matter of seconds, given the strategic placement of the bases to maximise dispersal. Analysis of the chemical compound (attached) showed that it was a form of population control, designed to render parts of the population infertile. With all crew members accounted for, it was decided that we would leave a probe in order to monitor the development of this civilisation, and then head back off to DS13.
RECOMMENDATION: Whilst there were no casualties this time, the actions of the Sacred Band continue to confuse us. There was no sign of Captain Bishop and with this POI investigated, we are out of leads as to his whereabouts. I also recommend that we continue to monitor the development of this civilisation so we can see to what extent the infertility chemical has affected them.
//ATTACHMENT// chemical_analysis.dat
OOC: This is the AAR report for the Investigation of POI 3 for Sam's SAR. If I have misspelt anyone's names, got ranks incorrect, misrepresented or omitted actions, please let me know and I'll edit the report!