101277.5
CAPT A.H. Nimitz
LOCATION Melus system, Alpha-7190 Sector, Alpha Quadrant
MISSION Investigate probe gone silent.
OUTCOME Probe found, and was quietly destroyed to prevent study by Prewarp civilization.
KEY PERSONNEL
- CAPT T. Drowvani-Nimitz
- CAPT A. Nimitz
- CAPT H. Sh’ow
- CAPT Tyrstoc
NARRATIVE During the Investigation of POI 3 seven years prior, a Starfleet Task force observed a genophage virus being released upon the prewarp planet of Melus, which had just entered its spaceflight era. As the Task Force departed the system, a probe was left in orbit of their planet to continue observation and monitoring the progression of the geophage that was released by the Sacred Band organization.
The probe in question suddenly went offline on Stardate 101277.7 without any prior warning or damage indication. The Defender, Heimdall, and Scharnhorst were dispatched to the Melus system. Due to the Prime Directive zone of a space flight era civilization, the Defender would proceed into the actual system alone.
Upon arrival in near orbit of Melus, the task force was able to observe the probe had been captured by an orbital station that had been created and built by the Meli civilization. While a solution was crafted, the team also began to collect broadcast information from the planet below to learn more about the progression of their civilization in the last seven years.
The Defender would emit a low level EMP pulse to try and mimic a local solar flare to cause the station to lose power in the grappler it held the probe, and then a self destruct command was sent to the probe once it was safely clear of the Meli station. The Defender would linger for a short time afterwards to monitor the broadcasting from the Meli station to watch for susceptions of sabotage. The Defender then departed the system.
RECOMMENDATION While the Meli station only had the probe for a few short days, it seems unlikely that they had much of a chance to study it in-depth. That being said, the Meli civilization is in the middle of a cold war between two major nation states quite similar to the later half of the Earth 20th century. This officer believes Starfleet should make a return mission soon with an observation team to conduct a more close study of the Meli civilization and to learn what contamination was imparted from the probe and the prior mission seven years before.
RECOGNITION All officers involved conducted the mission with their best professional abilities.