AAR: The Once and Future Kings

Sam · March 22, 2020, 12:00am

SUBMITTED:
Stardate 96221.3

FILED BY:
CPT G. Valencia

SECURITY:
Level 2 - Confidential

LOCATION: L-89-11831

MISSION: Investigate the appearence of a rogue planet.

OUTCOME: Planet belonged to a speices called the Karro, who were moving the planet to a more sutible location due to an extinction level event in their original system.

KEY PERSONNEL:

CAPT A. Derenzis
CAPT A. Tanaka
CAPT A. Timoreev
CAPT Z. Sel
CMDR T. Akaela
CMDR P. Aubrey
LCDR E. Kermit
LCDR Z. Tiahl
LT V. Castillo
LT K'Nia
LT (JG) T. Shinwa

CPT G. Valencia

NARRATIVE: Upon arrival to the surface of the planet, we were briefed by Captain Tanaka, who was already investigating the planet. This officer, along with Captain Timoreev were to investigate a nearby tower that was acting as an atmosphere generator. The power to this tower, and other towers and structures across the planet were all decreasing. In order to try to boost the power and keep the atmosphere from collapsing, we tried to gain entrance to the tower, but this was locked behind a door with automated sentries. After some work, Captain Timoreev and I managed to deactivate these senteries and enter the tower, within which was a garden of sorts. From here, we were able to determine that the planet was powered by geothermal energy from the planet's core, and due to the planet's core dying, it was causing power losses throughout the planet.

Captain Timoreev managed to negotiate access to the control room with the planet's computer system and upon arrival, we learnt that the planet was preparing to warp towards the Sol system. We were able to convince the planet to not warp to Sol and, after downloading the relevant data, we withdrew from the planet in order to analyse the data.

After the data was analysed by the Captains, we set off for the heart of the underground Kerro city. Our expedition led us to the end of a corridor, where we detected a Magnetic Ferro-Liquid Metal creature trying to form; a Sentinel. Attempts at talking to the Sentinel failed and the creature attacked - this officer was able to trap it on the other side of the door, although the creature quickly penetrated the door in an attempt to get to us. Lieutenant Shinwa was able to construct a magnetic pulse to repulse the creature due to the ineffectiveness of our phasers, and this allowed for Captain Timoreev to talk to the Sentinel and gain us passage to the main control room.

The main control room had a large pod in the middle, from which a voice of a seven-year-old child was emitting, by the name of Arthur. Whilst the party conversed with Arthur, this officer and Lieutenant Shinwa followed the pod's connections to a main computer frame. We learnt that "Arthur" was no more than a small mass of biological material and the machine was using "Arthur's" thoughts and memories to communicate with the group, adding any information they obtained to a datafile, and more importantly, using the "child's" memories of a story about "King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table" to plot a course for Avalon - Earth.

This officer suggested that we should shut down the system and disconnect the pod, but was overruled in favour of trying to save the life of "Arthur", despite both this officer's and Lieutenant Shinwa's statements that "Arthur" was already dead. Commander Casillo was called from the Brahe and the pod was beamed to the Brahe. The officers then departed the planet.

RECOMMENDATION: This officer would like to bring to light the abhorrent actions taken by the senior officers when inside the Kerro city, and would recommend a full investigation take place on their actions. These officers are:

They displayed a great deal of unprofessionalism within the city, including a complete distrust of both myself and Lieutenant Shinwa, going so far as to assign Lieutenant Commander Tiahl to babysit the pair of us as we were trying to work. The Commander herself also displayed a complete distrust and lack of respect for us, going so far as to call this officer "unreliable".

The Captains completely disregarded our assessments of the situation regarding the brain matter of "Arthur". The Captains wanted to find a way to save "Arthur's" life, a goal which was to be expected. However, ascertaining the status of "Arthur" was the Lieutenant and I's first action, and we were both of the opinion that Arthur was dead, and the machine was just violating the memories of the boy in order to achieve their ends. However, we were repeatedly told to "find a way to save him,", completely disregarding the travesty that was happening. Captain Derenzis herself analysed the pod compartment and reached the same conclusion as us, however, she did nothing to prevent the other officers calling down a medical team to analyse the situation and beam the pod aboard.

This officer deems these actions to be morally and ethically unjust. It was not enough for these Captains to let the boy rest in peace; instead they, like the machine, continued, and still continue to, prolong the child's suffering by simulating the biological remains of the child in order to sate their own twisted sense of morality. This officer strongly recommends that we allow the child to rest in peace by turning off the machines that are stimulating his biological matter. Furthermore, this officer strongly recommends that these officers be investigated for their actions and be instructed on how to command, instead of ordering officers around like their playthings, and disregarding any information that contradicts what they want to hear.

OOC: This is Brie's AAR for the event "The Once and Future Kings" Part 1 and 2. Event logs available on request.

Timoreev_ · March 22, 2020, 12:00am

SUBMITTED:
Stardate 96222.1

FILED BY:
CAPT. Andrej A. Timoreev, U.S.S. Attar

SECURITY:
Level 2 - Confidential

ADDENDUM: This is my personal comment regarding what happened during this mission, as officer who was present during the whole time there and who agreed on the decisions taken down there.
While, as I already openly said while we were debating about what to do concerning the young Arthur, I may understand the concerns and reasons of both Capt. Valencia and Lt. Shinwa, I finally agreed with Capt. Derenzis and Capt. Sel on the course of action to take, namely to take Arthur out of the Karro homeworld and to work toward a possible solution for his condition.
I wish to underline that me, and particularly the other two commanding officers, the abovementioned Capt. Derenzis and Capt. Sel, did not take the decision lightly, nor did we opt for it just on the wake of our impulses and desires. Capt. Sel even ordered Cmdr. Castillo, CMO of the Brahe, to give us a full medical assessment of the situation; only after receiving that, we agreed on taking Arthur out of his pod and to transfer him on the Brahe.
It is undeniable that Arthur's situation could be considered, under more than one aspect, very similar to death. However, due to the very peculiarity of such a situation, we decided to keep considering him a living being, with all due rights every living being enjoy. We still do not know whether it will be possible for Arthur to be 'restored' to a proper life or not, but as I said during our debate, as a Starfleet officer I swore an oath to protect life, no matter how it would present itself in front of me, and I believe I acted accordingly to such an oath, as Capt. Derenzis and Capt. Sel did.
In any case, I take full responsibility for what happened, should this Command decide to pursue an investigation on the matter.

RECOMMENDATION: Due to the critical situation of Arthur, assistance from both Starfleet Medical and Starfleet Corps of Engineers is to be considered a priority. While we work toward fully assessing and further understanding Arthur's situation, we should make all efforts to find any possible relative still alive, who could then take legal care of Arthur and, eventually, decide of his future as provided by Federation law.

On another note, I suggest to pursue further investigation on the new destination of the Karro. While it was clear that they considered an invasion of Earth as a possible way to find a new homeworld, at the end they opted for another choice, a planet called Jenerapto Aptimul Prime. More research is needed in order to assess any possible threat to Federation space or citizens.

//signed//

Captain Andrej A. Timoreev,
Commanding Officer, U.S.S. Attar
38th Fleet

Master_Dex · March 23, 2020, 12:00am

SUBMITTED:
Stardate 96224

FILED BY:
LTJG Shinwa Tsurugi, U.S.S. Endeavour

SECURITY:
Level 2 - Confidential

ADDENDUM: Following onto Captain Valencia's report seemed prudent as there are a few extra details worth noting regarding the case of Arthur and his status. Rather than recount events again I'll simply stick to details.

Firstly it is important to note what we are calling Arthur is the remains of a young boy in a containment pod. These remains amount to essentially incomplete sections of a human brain from a younger than 10 year old human boy. Within the pod this brain matter was wired into the AI computer system running the rogue planet which was stimulating it to retrieve memory data. The computer would use an algorithm to feed in emotional and historical data to enable the avatar of Arthur, represented as if the mythological character of King Arthur, to speak to us. At first it was unclear if Arthur was actually living and reacting to us, but my investigation did prove with data, that the planetary AI was in control of a large part of it and essentially using Arthur's memory data from the salvaged brain matter to construct an interactive interface.

At a certain point I was trying to disable the setting that would have the planet jump near Earth which was on standby. I found from the computer's systems I had to say a certain code phrase (which was rather like play acting) and this allowed me to cancel that setting, alleviating one major concern while others were focused on Arthur. It was then I learned I had been given full authority over the computer which was until then running autonomously. The result of this is that when the system acting as Arthur needed to alter inputs for emotion and database information it no longer did this on it's own but directly requested it of me. This means I had the capability to fully control Arthur's emotional responses and depth of knowledge. This implies more than the remains of Arthur are no more than simply a set of restored memory files if this much external stimuli was required.

RECOMMENDATION: I cannot determine with this information whether this means Arthur in the current state can be defined as living. These definitions are far beyond my capability. I can state my personal view that the person who was Arthur is no more than a set of memories now, and what the planet was doing can be viewed as a misuse of remains and the person that was deserves to be laid to rest. That is however only my view and I am not here to debate with Captains, only to inform them of the facts I have at hand.

The fact in the end I was in complete control of everything Arthur felt and knew is indicative to me that once removed (a process that only did not induce final death due to brain damage by a minor miracle, and indeed, Dr. Castillo's skill) from the planetary system the brain matter of his while technically active is no more than a collection of neural memory data which as far as I can gather, is no longer able to communicate in any way, and I have severe doubts there is any way it can again. My opinion is there is nothing left to save, much less return to any semblance of a normal life. This is, again of course, my opinion based on what data I learned on the mission. Command authorities will have to decide from there what they think is the best course of action.

//signed//

Lieutenant Junior Grade Shinwa Tsurugi,
Engineering Technician, U.S.S. Endeavour
38th Fleet

Aaron-Tanaka_ · April 1, 2020, 12:00am

SUBMITTED:
Stardate 96247.9

FILED BY:
CAPT. A. Tanaka, U.S.S. Singapore

SECURITY:
Level 2 - Confidential

ADDENDUM: As the commanding officer of the patrol that discovered the rogue planetoid, I have further additions to some of the discoveries regarding the technology involved, the state of the planet and its former inhabitants and certain concerns that should be raised.

The Karro have what seem to be two very distinct species that are split into a caste system, much like the relationship between the Romulans and Remans back in the days of Empire rule. From what my xeno-archaeologists can determine, the caste that rules are called the Kas-ran and the caste that serve are called the Kas-zek. All of the bodies that were found on the rogue planetoid of L-89-11831 were in fact Kas-zek, as the xeno-biologists confirmed by their clothing. The Kas-ran have all but fled to another planetoid, no doubt to terraform it to suit their needs.

The Karro AI, left alone to function after the failure of the first jump, was set to automatically entice any and all lifeforms that it would come across into activating a jump sequence that would hopefully jump it to Earth using the coordinates found in both Arthur's remains and the ship logs of the S.S. Montoya, a freighter ship that crashed on the surface of the planetoid. Having suffered a massive spike in radiation from the sun, the Karro were forced to accelerate their plans and jump the planet early. This is where things got extremely complicated and messy.

The Karro had previously wired Arthur into a mainframe, and using the confidence of a scientist posing as 'Merlin' to Arthur's imagination of himself as the titular King Arthur of the novels of T.H. White's "The Once and Future King". This Kas-zek scientist, J'Taal, was supposed to coerce Arthur into thinking of home, by thinking of it as returning to the world from Avalon. When the jump sequence was fast tracked to just a week ago, J'Taal...changed his mind.

The planetoid jump failed and the power levels on the planet began to fail without the support of a gravitational pull from the neighbouring planet of which the rogue planetoid was a moon to, causing the planetoid core to grind to a halt and cease spinning. J'taal was summarily executed...along with every Kas-zek affiliated with the project. But this was not before J'taal, in a final act of defiance, locked a sentry into protecting the chamber that housed Arthur, before dying of his injuries.

The Singapore has tried to trace the Karro people who escaped the planet, but they have covered their tracks extremely well. We have exhausted a lot of our resources chasing false warp signatures and ion trails that seemingly lead nowhere. At this point, we can only conclude that the Karro have fled to deep space.

RECOMMENDATION: It is not this officer's place to debate the ethics or moral quandry of whether Arthur can be considered living or dead, but I need to advise caution. The Karro are still out there, and they seem to treat even their own people with little to no regard for life. I would recommend the fleet be on the lookout for any more attempts at Karro incursion and invasion attempts and to advise all transports and civilian ships to avoid the L-89-11831 rogue planetoid and routes that pass near it and its neighbouring star systems for now, so as to avoid any Karro attempts to either reclaim or kidnap a new ship.

//signed//

Aaron Tanaka,
Captain, U.S.S. Singapore
38th Fleet