I have spent the past decade - my entire career - serving aboard Deep Space 13. It has been more than my assignment. It’s been my home, as much as anywhere else ever has. That alone leaves me feeling bittersweet as I record this, my first Captain’s Log.
I have just had my first real look at my new command, the Titan-class USS Reyga. I’m incredibly humbled to have been entrusted with this brand new vessel, and I look forward to writing the first chapter of its legacy. Of course, as much as I imagine inheriting a ship and crew from a previous commander brings challenges, so too does starting from the ground up. My day-one crew complement is only 105, out of 350. The rest will be arriving over the next two weeks, and a number of key positions will be vacant until they do.
One position that is thankfully not vacant is that of my first officer and science officer, Commander Sedai. Part of me feels guilty for stealing her away from Captain Varley. After all, she was already a DS13 fixture by the time I arrived all those years ago. It’s going to be a little strange, having her under my command in this context. It was different on the station. I didn’t often have to give orders to the head of counseling, so I never quite felt the awkwardness that I expected from suddenly outranking someone who had been something of a mentor to me. I have to admit though, I’m feeling it now. She’s been nothing but gracious, though, and those feelings have been pretty handily outweighed by the relief it’s been to have her help going through personnel files and sorting out the crew roster. Plus, there’s no one I’d rather have backing me up on the bridge.
The other senior staff position I’ve managed to fill promptly is that of Chief Medical Officer. Another one I poached from the station, Lieutenant Castillo. I don’t know him personally, yet, but he’s served as CMO aboard a smaller vessel in the past and he comes highly recommended. I’m looking forward to meeting once we’re settled aboard.
On to operational business. We’ll spend about a week in dock taking on supplies and equipment, and the week after that on basic maneuvers in local space. We should have the rest of the crew aboard by then, and be ready to head out on our first assignment.
That should about cover it for now.
Holycrapthisishappening
I was glad to hear that our last shipment of bulk supplies and equipment was safely stowed aboard this afternoon. I’ve started to get a little antsy, just waiting around. Anyway, in addition to handling some crew check-ins on the bridge, Commander Sedai will be overseeing some last minute calibration of the mission pod sensor arrays during delta shift tonight. I have to say, I’m looking forward to seeing the new transpectral sensors in action. Reyga’s supposed to be able to get clean scans inside areas where regular sensors would only show soup. If you believe the specs, anyway.
Well, we had a little hiccup during the sensor calibration. Apparently a maintenance hatch between the primary hull and the mission pod was left unsealed during the ship’s construction. When we ramped up power for the calibration this caused the main computer to conclude that we didn’t have a pod attached, and safety protocols shut off all connections.
Obviously not a great start for the ship, but I’m proud of the way the crew handled it. Commander Sedai and Ensign Sadaann, the new Operations Officer, quickly diagnosed the problem from the bridge and devised a solution. Lieutenant Ralts took a shuttle out and coordinated with Ensign Ban to get the hatch sealed up properly. With that done, everything powered right back up and seems to be functioning to spec.
Two potted plants will be listed as casualties, but I’ve been assured they’ll both make a full recovery.
I’m going to order an extra day of systems diagnostics, just to make sure we don’t have any other surprises waiting for us.
Also, New Aberdeen Fleet Yards won’t be getting a christmas card this year.
(( Event • Transcript ))
We’re finally ready to get out there. The last of the crew boarded earlier today, and at the start of gamma shift, we set off on our first voyage. Our shakedown flight plan is little more than a sightseeing tour of V774 Tau, but it feels good to be underway.
Since things are going smoothly so far, I’m hosting a meet & greet in the officers’ mess. I’ve asked the senior staff to attend, duties permitting, and I hope to get a chance to meet some of the rest of the crew in a less formal setting. There’s more to getting to know a crew than chatting over replicated food though, so I’ve also booked Holodeck 2 and loaded up a training program for whenever the social scene slows down.
It’ll give the crew a chance to get used to working together, and --hopefully, give Katriel and I a bit of extra insight.
Well … the drill didn’t go exactly as planned.
We got barely five minutes in before an altercation between Lieutenant Sono and Ensign Ban brought it all to a stop. I feel a little guilty over it, but Commander Sedai and I were monitoring the exercise, so we had a bird’s eye view of the whole thing. It sounds like the Ensign tried to use his telepathy to communicate, and the Lieutenant was displeased. When I called to check on her, she omitted the details and simply said that she wasn’t feeling well. I can certainly understand a desire for privacy, so for now I’m choosing to trust that if there’s something I need to be aware of, she’ll talk to me.
With the Lieutenant headed for sickbay and Doctor Castillo departing to tend to her, we were left a little shorthanded for the exercise. Between that and some, uh, hesitation on the part of the other group, I chose to end early rather than try to force things back on track. In the end, I guess the point of the drill was to get people working together, so I’m glad this happened in a controlled environment, rather than in the middle of an actual crisis.
(( Event • Transcript ))
Reyga is currently en route to the area of the Valdore Nebula. We’ve been ordered to provide support for Operation Free Haven. We’ve joined the USS October and a trio of Republic warbirds, and will be investigating some Tri’vokil outposts that have dropped out of contact.
We’ve arrived at the first location, a mining station. It’s a mess. Somebody did a real number on this place. Far as we can tell, no tactical value, but somebody blew it to hell anyway. One of the Romulan Commanders thinks it’s a trap, a mass casualty situation to set up a secondary attack on responders.
October is heading up relief efforts while Reyga and the warbirds maintain a perimeter. Ensign Ban is leading an away team to assist on the station.
There’s been an explosion aboard the mining station. Apparently Ensign Ban detected the device just in time, and got his away team away from it. He was injured in the blast, himself, but thankfully it sounds like he’s going to make a full recovery.
Meanwhile, we tracked the ships responsible for the attack into the nebula. Republic forces in the area will pursue, and they’re also taking over the relief efforts here. We’re heading back to DS13 once they arrive.
(( Event ))
Reyga is in orbit of Takiri II, an M-class world near the Azedi border. This one’s been on the survey list for a few years, but its proximity to the Confederacy made it a low priority. With the risk of hostilities lower these days, we’re here conducting a standard planetary survey.
Everything’s been very mundane so far, with a variety of plants and animals life, but nothing having evolved near sentience. We have, however, picked up a very faint power reading. Nothing about it screams danger, so we’re sending an away team to investigate.
Crewman Tresha suffered an accidental injury on the surface, and has been beamed back aboard along with Doctor Castillo. Thankfully, it sounds like the Crewman should make a full recovery.
The away team is safely back aboard. Apparently they discovered the ruins of a small Azedi settlement, Frith castaways, possibly. The settlement was destroyed and there was evidence of phaser fire - likely Terrans, given the circumstances.
Should be an interesting report.
With our survey complete, we’re breaking orbit now, bound for our scheduled visit to Risa.
(( Event • Transcript • AAR ))
We’ve just made our scheduled rendezvous with USS Midway, RRW Virin and a convoy we’ve been assigned to escort out to Starbase 718. We’ve got four freighters hauling kemocite and a prisoner transport.
It’s the transport that worries me. This was a last-minute addition to the convoy. Midway’s CO wasn’t able to provide any information on who they’re transporting, their origin, or their destination beyond SB718. Worse still, they’re reporting some kind of sensor echo following them.
We’re totally gonna get shot at.
We’ve managed to establish that we’re being followed by four cloaked ships, Romulan in origin - but definitely not Republic, and now they’re closing rapidly on the convoy. A scan of the prisoner transport shows no Romulans aboard, so we still don’t know exactly what these mystery pursuers are after.
We’ve dropped out of warp and gone to yellow alert. Captain Vel’s opened a channel and is attempting to warn them off, but an attack seems more and more probable by the minute.
The four cloaked ships were, indeed, Romulan warbirds. Presumably Star Empire, but I don’t have confirmation of that just yet. The combat encounter was brief, but intense. One warbird was destroyed, another disabled - Midway’s sending teams over to secure it now - and the other two retreated. Reyga, Midway, and the convoy ships sustained minimal or no damage, but Virin wasn’t so lucky. Extremely unlucky, even. What looked like a potshot caused a massive secondary explosion and she took heavy damage and casualties. We’ve got medical teams over there helping out.
Ensign Ban was a standout performer today at the tactical station. Solid performance and creative thinking.
Reyga is back at DS13 preparing for our longest-range survey mission yet.
…
Just kidding. Our mission is a follow-up planetary survey of V774 Tau III - right here in DS13’s home system. This is something of a passion project for Ensign Yog’Sholegh, and I’m glad to see the young officer taking the initiative so soon.
The planet’s atmospheric conditions present a unique challenge on multiple fronts, but I’m certain the crew is up to the task.
We’ve been tasked with supporting a second contact mission to the Alessia. Ambassador Perim and her staff, who we’ve been transporting for the trip, will be visiting the planet surface to start things off. Afterwards, they’ll be returning to Reyga, where we’ll host formal negotiations.
While the mission sounds straightforward on paper, there’s a little more going on than meets the eye. First of all, Alessia is located within the Crossroads Nebula, so we’re dealing with all sorts of interference. Transporters, communications, sensors, are all going to be spotty at best. Beyond that, this second contact is more of a damage control mission than anything else. Our first contact was a bit of a disaster, with a Starfleet crew leaving the Alessians horribly offended by their lack of … pets.
Thankfully, we’re more prepared this time.
Reyga’s been in orbit of Alessia for just over 16 hours now, and we’re preparing to receive the Ambassador and the Alessian delegation. One of the diplomatic aides has just informed me of a last minute development - the Alessian delegates are bringing their pets up with them, and they’d like to leave them in the care of our crew while we sit down in the conference room.
I don’t love the surprise, but I’m confident that the crew can handle pet-sitting for a couple hours. How hard can it be?
We’ve completed our meeting with the Alessians and are preparing to depart the system. All things considered, I think it went very well. We’ve certainly smoothed things over from first contact, and we’re parting on friendly terms. The Ambassador certainly seems pleased with the outcome, and I’m happy to report that the delegates’ pets seemed quite well taken care of.
Even the cat Lieutenant Sono was caring for, despite her wearing a hazmat mask for some reason.
Some things, I’m learning, the Captain simply doesn’t need to know.
(( Event • Transcripts: Main, Sphinx, Hummingbird • AAR ))
Reyga has arrived in the Stukrid System to assist a Federation anthropological team studying a near-warp civilization. We’re to track down and rendezvous with a comet, and extract surface and core samples for study. Hopefully we’ll find that it contains materials matching something found by the anthro team, otherwise we’ll have quite a mystery on our hands.
Myself and most of the bridge crew have been … incapacitated in one way or another by some strange affliction. Lieutenant Sono was the first to seem ill, falling asleep at the controls. I was next, apparently fainting on the bridge. In sickbay I discovered that the Lieutenant was barely breathing. Despite an ongoing series of apparently random fainting spells, I feel completely fine. Most of the bridge crew arrived shortly later. Ensign Aenki was … literally on fire, constantly contained by the ship’s fire suppression system. Thankfully, his species is able to, uh, survive that sort of thing. Ensign Ban is turning green and tasting the air. Whatever that means. Ensign Sadaann seems terrified of his own shadow, nervous to the point of excess perspiration. Commander Kuvak is, uh, … I’m actually not certain. Acting, perhaps? And Katriel’s hearing piano music.
Needless to say, the mission will have to wait. I find myself wondering if Capta–
…
Though the mission had to be abandoned, for now, Doctor Castillo has managed to synthesize a treatment for our strange ailment. Almost everyone affected has been treated and is already recovering. Myself included. The only exception is Lieutenant Kholoi, who was apparently ‘patient zero’, spreading a viral infection around the ship while conducting her maintenance duties. She remains in critical condition and isolation while the Doctor and his staff work to develop a cure for her more advanced case.
Where and how the Lieutenant contracted the virus remain a mystery, but one we will investigate fully. With any luck, she’ll be able to tell us more once she regains consciousness.
(( Event • Transcript • AAR ))
We made a “quick” detour back to DS13 this past week, in part to continue the investigation into Lieutenant Kholoi’s mysterious illness. I’m pleased to report that the Lieutenant is in stable condition, out of the medically induced coma. Physically, I’m told that she requires relatively little ongoing treatment, though the uh, more outlandish personality symptoms that we all experienced may still be affecting her. Further, she remains quite contagious, so she’s had to be kept in isolation.
The investigation on the station produced one potentially viable lead - the Lieutenant came in contact with an apparently unique “Oubbard Figurine”, very shortly prior to falling ill. She sold the item to an antique shop, which resold it to some Tellarite entrepreneur off-station. It’s … admittedly not much to go on, but it’s all we’ve got for now.
While we wait for more info on that front, Reyga is en route back to the Stukrid System to continue assisting the anthropological team studying the native first contact candidates.
Reyga has changed course to intercept a civilian transport vessel claiming to be trapped in a known radiation belt. The distress call was … let’s say, less than convincing, and the whole situation smells of a trap. We’re obligated to check it out, regardless, but we’re going to do so at Yellow Alert.
We were right, the distress call was a trap. An an ill-advised one, at that. There was no civilian ship, that we could detect, only a Ferengi privateer. It generated some sort of subspace fold in the middle of the radiation belt. Something obviously went wrong. The subspace fold expanded and produced radiation spikes that penetrated both ships. The Ferengi were destroyed immediately. We were … lucky, I suppose, either in where the spikes impacted, or maybe simply that Reyga’s safeties are more robust.
Still, the warp core and fusion reactors shut down, leaving us dead in the water with only partial emergency power. The vast majority of the ship is heavily irradiated, leaving only a small section of Deck 6 as a safe shelter area. We’ve transferred as many command functions as possible to a console down here and the entire crew’s currently crowding into just a few rooms.
Recorded after a ‘good’ night’s sleep in the sickbay of USS Tyee. Reyga’s been untangled from the subspace fold and is under tow back to DS13. I’m not certain yet the extent of the actual damage, but at the very least we need a thorough inspection and radiation sweep before we reboard and attempt to power back up.
I’m told we had two fatalities. Lieutenant Sh’talis and Crewman Pittman. It should be … some small comfort that they simply had the misfortune of being too close to the spikes at time of impact, rather than the result of any … failures or … delays, on our …
…
Anyway.
Ahm. We lost emergency power pretty soon after my last log, and artificial gravity not long after that. We knew a rescue ship was on the way, but we didn’t know if we’d be able to last that long, so I decided to attempt both ideas the crew had come up with for helping ourselves, in the meantime. Commander Kuvak had the idea to use a radiation pulse on the spikes, directly, to try to force them to retract. That involved walking right up to one of them, with a makeshift device, and receiving a likely-lethal dose of radiation. He volunteered for the job anyway. I ordered Ensign Sadaann to go with him. The other idea was reaching the cargo bay airlock and trying to reach the shuttle bay via EVA. This one, I tried myself. I ordered Ensign Ban to come with me, on the idea that he could use his visor to guide as around the worst of the radiation. We got about half way there before Tyee arrived and beamed us aboard.
I feel pretty stupid for sending three officers on suicide missions that weren’t necessary. But I suppose I’d have felt a lot stupider if the rescue had been farther away and the whole crew died waiting for it.
Kuvak’s mission, at least, produced data that helped Tyee pull Reyga free, so that’s worth something, at least.
(( Event • Transcript • AAR ))
After completing repairs and decontamination, Reyga has once again departed DS13. Our mission this time has us setting course for a Maart-Mart distribution center, in search of the eponymous CEO, Maart.
We believe Maart to be in possession of a “space cow statue”, or Oubbard Figurine, which may be the source of an infection that spread through the crew in November. In addition to preventing others from being infected, medical believes that the only way to create a cure for Lieutenant Kholoi, who has remained in isolation since her infection, is through examination of the statue.
As Maart did not reply to our initial inquiries and locating him proved to be exceedingly difficult, we left tracking him down in the hands of DS13 Intelligence. We’ve taken aboard Lieutenant Commander t’Veras with the latest lead, and she’ll be joining us until the conclusion of the mission.
…
I didn’t think I’d ever see Aurelia in a Starfleet uniform. The last time I saw her, she was commanding a Republic Warbird. Which was already weird. I think, in my head, we’ll always be junior officers plotting reprimand-worthy nonsense at the bar.
We’ve arrived at the distribution center. There’s surprisingly little traffic here, for such a large hub - just two docked freighters. The station’s in a low power state and not responding to hails.
We’re preparing an away team to beam over and investigate, in full protective gear per Doctor Castillo’s recommendation.
The entire staff of the distribution hub was infected with Kholoi’s disease, uhm, name pending. The away team managed to shut down the hub’s automated systems, which were creating a hazardous situation, began triage of the sick, and located the Oubbard statue.
Additional medical and security teams were beamed over to handle the situation. All 50 documented workers are accounted for, plus four executives - including Maart - who were apparently visiting. Like Reyga’s crew, the infected that were still conscious were engaged in extreme exaggerations of their respective mental states at the moment of original infection. Those that were exposed sooner had already fallen unconscious. Most have already begun to recover after initial treatment. Even most of those in the later stages are showing improvement. Two of the executives, and Maart himself, were by far the most serious cases. They’ve been beamed to Reyga’s sickbay, in isolation, and remain in critical condition.
A Federation hospital ship is en route to take over the medical situation here, and a Maart-Mart representative is on the way to take command of the station. I will note here, that I’ll be ordering the facility to remain shut down until it’s undergone a safety inspection. The away team downloaded the facility’s logs and one point of note is that a number of freighters did dock and depart in the time between Maart’s arrival and ours. It’s possible that their crews became infected, so we’ll be attempting to contact them and investigating any who don’t respond.
As for the statue that started all of this, it’s been moved to a sealed container in a science lab for further analysis.
(( Event • Transcript • AAR))
I received a letter of reprimand, today. It is not the first in my file, but it is certainly the one I am most proud of. I’ve replicated a framed copy, which looks just lovely hanging behind the desk in my quarters.
(( Relevant ))
Reyga’s mission this week is a routine charting update in the Kassae Sector. While we are certainly capable of carrying out the important task of deploying survey buoys in the Federation interior, I can’t help but feel that perhaps this dull work is my fault.
Only a Vulcan’s petty revenge could account for deploying a state of the art science and reconnaissance vessel past no less than four local ships capable of accomplishing the mission.
Ah, well. It never hurts to let the crew brush up on the mundane side of things.
Stellar survey ongoing.
Commander Sedai caught an officer playing Angry Warbirds on his bridge console, today. I must commend her for her diligence. Perhaps calling the officer in question out in front of the crew was not the most tactful way to handle the situation, but it was certainly effective.
…
Yes, it was me.
Time is an artificial construct, created only to allow us to quantify the depths of our boredom and despair. I have transcended this construct and become one with the stellar survey buoy fleet. My probes extend throughout the sector, meticulously cataloging the position and characteristics of every known star. Though I know none have changed since this was last done two years ago, I touch each one anyway, for my life would be truly meaningless without the routine of charting updates.
Theeeeee sun is a mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnaaaace; where…
{Log continues indistinctly for two minutes, then abruptly ends immediately following the sound of a door chime.}
We’ve temporarily suspended the charting mission to investigate some strange readings, which the XO and Ensign Sadaann believe to be a faint distress call.
The signal is intermittent, possibly Romulan in origin, and moving slowly towards us.
The source of the distress call turned out to be a T’liss class warbird, the Sienov, operated by mercenaries. The ship was badly damaged, but staunchly refused to allow us to assist them. They did, however, transport a Star Empire officer aboard, apparently a defector, that they had been hired to deliver to someone in the Republic.
Despite the … legally questionable status of the Sienov, I decided that trying to arrest them on behalf of the Republic was too great a risk, given the condition of their ship. After escorting them out of Federation space, we forwarded their transponder ID and last known position to Republic Command, let them deal with it.
As to the Imperial defector, one Sublieutenant Delum, I decided to proceed to the Republic Officer who had orchestrated the unorthodox defection.
We’ve rendezvoused with Centurion Bolarus, RRF, sitting in a Kestrel runabout in the Virinat System. After explaining the situation, how we’d come to receive the defector from the Sienov, the Centurion offered to pay us for our services, apparently whatever he had agreed to pay the mercenaries.
Perhaps against my better judgment, I released Delum into Centurion Bolarus’ custody. To my surprise, they departed back in the direction of New Romulus. A database query doesn’t list Bolarus as MIA or AWOL, so I feel safe in assuming they arrived there safely.
Finding a lone officer in a runabout several systems away from their reported assignment was suspicious enough, but the offer of payment makes me absolutely certain that this whole thing was unsanctioned. My money (not that I accepted the payment, of course) would be on some kind of Romeo and Juliet situation. The mercenaries did call the defector a “lovebird” at one point.
Whatever the case, I wish them well, and am thoroughly glad not to have had to dig any deeper into it.
(( Event • Transcripts: Main, Brig, Ready Room • AAR))
Somehow, Ensign Sadaann’s replicator started spewing … something. It’s stopped now, and Commander Sedai’s investigating. Apparently the Ensign was spotted running away from the thing, and – he wasn’t even the one who made the initial report. Can’t wait to hear this one.
There’s a minor hiccup in that there’s some question as to whether the mass that came out of the replicator might be some kind of lifeform. I’m inclined to think the crew is jumping the gun. The number of things that would have to go wrong for a replicator to produce something alive is staggering.
Note to self: stay off Deck 6 for a while. I don’t know if that smell is ever going to come out.
Apparently, our replicator abomination is, in fact, some kind of lifeform. This is, as far as I’m aware, a unique occurrence in the history of Federation replicator tech. I do not think this is what the recruiting posters had in mind when they promised the search for new life, but I suppose a discovery is a discovery.
I’ve ordered a detour back to the Celes Sector to meet with Dr. Serindra Xadd, who had previously published about a theoretical lifeform called a “Haphazoid” and is probably the closest thing that exists to an expert.
Separately, I can’t help but have some concerns about Ensign Sadaann, after all this. He’s always seemed … uneasy, nervous. Not entirely unexpected in a young officer, but I’d hoped he would grow out of it as he got used to his position. Aside from this … absurdity, he’s been a perfectly competent bridge officer, awkwardness aside, so it’s not exactly a proficiency or disciplinary issue. Still, I’m starting to suspect he may need more than time to make progress.
(( Event • Transcripts: Main, Sadaann’s Quarters • AAR))