Game was 8/2/12 and got very heated at times, including people yelling. Despite the very heavy nature of the game, things went mostly well and the drive home Josh D. and Siobhan clearly indicated they enjoyed it.
[TBA]
"Ship's log, USS Solstice, registry NCC-72409. Stardate 48916.11, first officer Saval recording. It has been three days since we departed Starbase 212 with our transporters replaced; our latest shakedown cruise revealed no further malfunctions and two hours ago Captain Melva Deline yielded to science officer Jace Fortis's request to explore the region of "shrouded space" we discovered on our last shakedown cruise.
Unfortunately, that mission has come under threat. Six light years from the shrouded space we were knocked out of warp by some disturbance in subspace. While engineering focuses on making the minor repairs required, Lt. Fortis discovered the probable cause: a region of shattered space nearby, similar to the phenomena that yielded us Ensign Jennifer Kras. With the disruption of subspace preventing us from forming a stable warp shell and thus trapping us at sub-light speeds, Captain Deline elected to lead an investigative team on the Thunderbird. Lt. Daphne Hatfield was assigned as primary pilot, Lt. Alberic Selense as secondary pilot and tactical, Lt. Fortis as primary science officer and Petty Officer Rebecca Montrose as secondary science officer.
Petty Officer Owen Parsons has taken conn, Ensign Thal'tirian sh'Voras science, Lt. Virgil Thon tactical, and I have ordered Ensign Jennifer Kras to the bridge as well. We have detected no other ships in the area, but the anomaly is wreaking havoc with our sensors and communications equipment. Ensign Thal'tirian predicts we will lose communication with the Thunderbird shortly. End log entry."
The Thunderbird flies towards the anomaly; it resembles a whirlpool in space that spits out exotic radiation, particle fountains, and colors that don't exist on the normal spectrum. Mel oversees her crew while Alberic adjusts the shields to block the radiation. Rebecca and Jace analyze the data the sensors are returning, and Daphne focuses on flying. Jace and Rebecca conclude that this anomaly does share some characteristics of shattered space where they encountered the Romulan warbird and Jen Kras, there are many differences as well that lead them to realize this anomaly is either naturally-occurring or the result of a serious accident.
Jace compares his scans with the readings from the Mirror Universe trip and tries to access the data from the Nexus, but the radiation is blocking an uplink to the Solstice. His recollections of the Nexus lead him to conclude the anomaly is temporal in nature, but he can't be sure without those scans. Rebecca says this might be the result of some devastating space battle somewhere else, possibly in another reality or time, that broke through local space. She likens it to someone breaking down a wall; Mel asks, "Is there a wall left?" The two science officers gesture vaguely out at the whirlpool of radiation in reply.
A static-laced transmission from Saval on the Solstice warns the Thunderbird of another vessel approaching, but they can't get any more than that. Mel orders Daphne to turn around, but as she does so there is a massive disruption, and the Thunderbird gets hit! Main power and emergency power cut out as the shuttle tumbles into the anomaly, and part of the conn breaks off and hits Daphne in the chest. They are swallowed by the anomaly and each of them remains suspended alone, in an empty white void. Jace freaks out and the others find it deeply unsettling, but a second later normal reality reasserts itself and they land heavily on the deck of the Thunderbird as emergency power kicks back in.
Mel immediately orders a damage report, but she is cut off when Rebecca shrieks a warning and points to their port window. Much to everyone's horror, they spot a massive Borg cube! The cube, clearly a tactical variant, is firing on the Solstice, which has taken damage. Alberic immediately runs a shield modulation program based on his bank account numbers. Daphne moves the wounded Thunderbird towards the Solstice. Mel tries to raise her ship, but the communications equipment isn't working properly.
Alberic jiggles the remaining emergency power and Jace cuts back on the sensors to help. With that, Alberic fires all five micro-torpedoes at the Borg cube's weapon emitters and manages to knock out two of them. Daphne barrels forward, and there is a heart-stopping moment when the shuttlebay doors don't open, but then they grind open at the last second! Daphne barrels into the shuttlebay, trusting the automatic protection grids will slow their inertia, but those don't activate and the shuttle slams into the wall with metal-crunching force! Daphne managed to spin the shuttle slightly, but the damage to the port nacelle is catastrophic.
The ship's sensors are offline, and no one seems to be around, so the crew has no idea if there's even air out in the shuttlebay. Alberic tries to transport them to the bridge, but the transporters are offline. Jace grabs a tricorder and determines there is a thin atmosphere out in the shuttlebay, so they offload quickly. The gravity in the shuttlebay is 0.8G, so there's a definite spring to their steps. They realize something is wrong, as the shuttlebay looks wrecked, but they chalk it up to battle-damage. Alberic offloads the three Type-III compression rifles for himself, Daphne, and Mel, while Rebecca and Jace get Type-II phasers.
They head out into the corridor and note several other oddities: missing panels, crude repairs, and the like. The crew then are approached by a woman in a modified Starfleet uniform; this woman looks like she has the body of an erotica star and her Trill spots' and modified Type-III phaser rifle pointing at them' does little to detract from her beauty. She demands to know who they are, and Mel demands her to lower her weapon and let her get to her bridge! The Trill cocks her head and asks, "Mel?" Mel snarls an affirmative and repeats her demand, while Jace raises his hands. The Trill coldly tells Mel she is not in command and they'll have to go to sickbay first. She introduces herself as Lt. Jeyna Thon, which causes Mel and Alberic to hesitate and Alberic croaks, "Virgil?"
Jeyna nods and they all lower their weapons. Jeyna says they all died, or that's what everyone assumed, fifteen years ago! The Federation has collapsed due to a massive Borg invasion, and only a handful of Starfleet ships remain. Mel asks who is in command, and is stunned when Jenya replies, "Captain Jennifer Kras." There are some confused and disbelieving comments, but Jenya hotly tells them all Jen completed the Accelerated Officer's Training program in the wake of the Dominion War and has commanded the Solstice for five years after Saval was assimilated.
That sobers the time-lost crew, and they follow Jenya to sickbay. They note the decrepit state of the ship and the wall of pictures of lost family members. Jace works on theories and bets the anomaly is still present, hidden in a fold of subspace. He tries his old sub-vocalization routines and is startled when a woman appears behind him musing, "I thought I'd purged all of those." The woman is wearing a command-red uniform but has no rank pips; she appears human with pale skin and dark hair. Jenya introduces her as Sola, who apparently is the Solstice! The holographic AI greets them as they reach sickbay, but then frowns and blinks out.
Sickbay is mass-pandemonium, with critically injured crew all over the place: some people Mel recognizes but they are older now, and some faces she's never seen before. To everyone's relief, She-Who-Swims is still here, although there is a bit of gray in her hair-fringe. She is startled to see them but scans them as she also reattaches a severed leg. Jenya tells the doctor that as soon as she's free, the identities of the five time-lost crewmembers must be confirmed. The Arcadian nods and runs a few scans in between other procedures. Left with nothing to do, Alberic asks if there's anything he can help repair, so someone hands him a broken padd.
Jace spouts theorems regarding the vibrational differences in different points in time and how it is possible to return to 2371 to Alberic, but his terminology is so dense no one can follow it. Sola's voice comes over the comms and warns sickbay that a major radiation leak has killed the entire engineering crew, and then muses that the captain just dove into engineering anyway. She-Who-Swims starts setting up a radiation-treatment center but confirms that the five crewmembers are the genuine article. Mel hugs the Arcadian, and She-Who-Swims greets Daphne, who grunts in reply.
As she works, She-Who-Swims fills them in a bit more. They're in 2386, and the Borg launched a massive invasion in 2381. Almost all the local governments are assimilated, and Earth is now Unimatrix Three. The last holdouts are the Tholians, and she reveals two Tholian cruisers appeared at the anomaly in 2371, which was what Saval was trying to warn them about! The Tholian cruisers opened fire on the anomaly, sealing it before fleeing: although they could have easily destroyed the Solstice if they wished. With their identities tentatively established, Jace asks to access the Solstice's sensor array to run scans; Jenya reluctantly agrees. As they leave sickbay, they see a figure in a patched Starfleet environmental suit running towards them, carrying a badly-charred hunk of green meat: Cidhela.
The five crewmembers get out of the way and follow Jenya to the turbolift. Alberic gently asks her how long she's had the Thon symbiont; Jenya glares but says it's been about seven years. She laments how her exotic acting career was derailed when Virgil saved the passenger liner she was traveling on after it was attacked by a Romulan warbird, and how Virgil was killed. Being the only other Trill onboard and with the Thon symbiont unable to go into stasis, Jenya let societal pressure overwhelm her and let the human doctor join them. Although she gained a lot of new skills from the joining, she also inherited Virgil's dedication to Starfleet, and clearly resents that. She grouses that one of Thon's favored memories is the toast in Boston.
Jace wonders why the Q haven't gotten involved; Jenya replies that they have tried to ask the Q but gotten no answer. All "higher" forms of life, the Q, the Organians, etc, seem to have abandoned the galaxy in the wake of the Borg. They reach the bridge, and find it a shattered, barely functioning mess. First officer Erik Gray, now sporting a goatee, stares at them, but Simon sits at operations and Armina in the command pit, which reassures them a bit. Lt. Felch pilots the vessel, and a dimly familiar Cardassian woman sits at science. Jenya introduces her as Gurka, and Alberic and Mel remember the twelve-year-old girl who let heavily armed Starfleet officers into her grandfather's home a few months ago.
Alberic greets her in Cardassian and learns she remembers him and Mel, but not the others until she puts everything in context. Jace wants to play with the sensors, but Erik tells him the science sensor palette was destroyed a while ago. Gurka is willing to let Jace try anyway, so he shoots over and starts playing. He discovers the sensors are in a bad way but does his best with Gurka's help. Alberic asks about Ensign Ora and discovers she's alive and well and serves on gamma shift. They wonder about the Tholian involvement, but Alberic greets Erik and Simon warmly. Both men are wary but return the greeting.
Captain Kras's voice echoes over the comm and states that Cidhela is dead. Simon is now the chief engineer, until he dies, or she finds someone better. Simon accepts his new "promotion" with no reaction at all, and Erik tells him he can leave ops and try to salvage what he can in main engineering. Simon departs, and Alberic volunteers to man ops. Erik reluctantly agrees, and Alberic finds ops more durable with redundant circuit breakers, but a little less flexibility. Daphne offers to pilot the ship, but Erik refuses and says Felch is an excellent pilot and Daphne is lacking training on the new systems. Daphne challenges Felch to a pilot's duel at dawn, and the Bolian accepts the challenge.
Mel stands off to the side and laments her very short tenure as captain of the Solstice. They then realize that Armina has said nothing, but simply watched them intently. Alberic greets her hesitantly, as he and Mel realize there's something very, very wrong with their counselor, and Mel realizes Armina has lost her moral center. Alberic hesitantly gives her permission to scan his mind and confirm his identity, but Armina then rips open all five of their minds at once! Alberic's innate resistance protects him from the worst of it, while Mel manages to keep her sanity intact. Armina finds the part of Jace's mind that broke during the Harbinger attack and reconnects it, but Daphne and Rebecca collapse under the mental assault. Armina fiddles with Daphne's brain as well, connecting a few things to amplify her telepathy, and empowering Daphne to eject the mad Betazoid from her mind!
Rebecca collapses, bleeding, as Erik orders Armina off the bridge. Armina complies, and Alberic turns on Erik. Erik apologizes for Armina's actions but refuses to take action against the mad counselor until he's had a chance to speak with the captain and take care of it their way. Alberic screams that he's still a disgrace to the uniform and shouldn't wear it, Erik howls back that this is his ship and things are very different here. He ejects all five time-lost officers from the bridge immediately, and they go, fuming.
The five officers head down to the shuttlebay, incensed at the actions of their future-crewmates. Jace realizes a sufficient explosion will reopen the anomaly, but the trick is the correct application and size of the explosion' torpedoes won't do, but a starship exploding might. They decide to repair the Thunderbird and get the hell off this twisted version of their ship. They jog, fearing that the scavengers of the Solstice may already be dismantling their shuttle for spare parts. They arrive at the shuttlebay only to find it sealed, and they're unable to override it.
Jace asks for Sola, who appears behind him. She tells them that the shuttlebay is sealed because of the radiation; the shuttle is still emitting exotic particles that are multiplying, not diminishing. There are only a few EVA suits that are workable, and one is already being decontaminated after the captain's mad dash into main engineering. Sola reveals that there is one crewperson aboard capable of withstanding the radiation, and she's currently inside the shuttlebay now - P8 Blue. The Nasat comes over and scuttles out of the shuttlebay. She greets her lost crewmates warmly, and Jace returns the greeting in Nasat.
P8 Blue admits she's been ordered to salvage what she can from the Thunderbird but is under unofficial orders to assist the five of them in any way she can. The others look confused, but Mel guesses correctly the orders came from Captain Kras. P8 Blue nods and explains the captain has set course for the hidden Starfleet base within the Andorian Nebula - Sanctuary. There she'll meet with Admiral Jean-Luc Picard and the council: the captains of the remaining Starfleet vessels. The remaining Starfleet vessels are as follows: Solstice, Enterprise-E, Stargazer-A, Ausdis, Varich-A, and Voyager, and Captains Kras, Worf, Marena Stadi, Thraka Yemen, Shay'taal, and Tom Paris do their best with what little resources they have remaining.
P8 Blue reveals one of the reasons the Federation fell to the Borg: Bjornson. Thorir Atli Bjornson sacrificed himself to the Borg to prevent the assimilated of his fiancée - Jen Kras! Now Artaus of Borg, Bjornson led the subjugation and assimilation of all local space. A Borg armada swarmed the Alpha and Beta quadrants with 7,000 vessels, and the defending fleet of four hundred vessels was destroyed in less than thirty seconds. Mel swears; she was planning on trying to find Bjornson next. P8 Blue tearfully recalls the assimilation of New P'Jem and Starbase 212 falling from the sky to the planet below in the Borg onslaught.
P8 Blue recovers and explains they can help her by overseeing her work in the shuttlebay control room, which is sealed against radiation. The hope is to get the Thunderbird space-worthy again for the return trip through the anomaly. P8 Blue examines Jace's theories and agrees from an engineering standpoint the theory is sound, but the practical resources are lacking. Jace now believes a controlled attack pattern of torpedoes at the precise spot of the anomaly may cause it to open, possibly for "the first time" which started this mad trip in the first place. He believes one hundred torpedoes should do it, but the Solstice carries only five, and between the remaining Starfleet vessels perhaps thirty-five to forty remain all told.
Alberic asks if Data survived, but P8 Blue replies Data was destroyed during Shinzon's coup before the Borg attack. Daphne jokes that since all outcomes are possible in an infinite multiverse, obviously there's some timeline where they're successful. Sola and Rebecca check Jace's math as the others assist P8 Blue in the control room. Alberic asks about the Dai'Loq, but P8 Blue explains the species died to a woman defending their home world - an actual Dyson Sphere. The Borg assimilated Dai'Loq nanotechnology, ironically the forerunner of Borg technology, and become exponentially stronger as a result.
Sola frowns and vanishes. Working together, the officers realize the port nacelle is almost completely useless and will have to be replaced. P8 Blue tells them that the Thunderbird III is in cold storage, stripped down for parts. Mel leads the others in bringing over the spare parts on anti-grav pallets. They work for a while, until Sola reappears and somberly informs them that Armina is dead - at Erik's hands, and by Jen's orders.
They absorb that news for a second before Jace - still grappling with his reawakened conscience - asks Sola if she can ask Captain Kras for some of Bjornson's data. Sola reveals that she's talking with the captain simultaneously, and Jace enviously asks if he can bring her home. The others rib him about having a girlfriend, but he protests he only wants a best friend. Through Sola, Captain Kras tells the crew that her fiancé's files are sealed away from Sola's grasp, but she releases some of the information. Sola shudders in ecstasy, and the time-lost officers wonder who exactly created Sola. She admits her personality was initially created by Bjornson, Jen, Simon, and Cidhela working together.
Sola shudders again and there are some jokes about "defragging" taking on a whole new meaning. Sola retorts that in 2371 there was an informal pool amongst the junior officers about when Mel would finally get laid. The AI enviously accesses data on advanced quantum slipstream drive, transwarp, and a phased cloaking device. Alberic wonders about the ACB jacketing for phasers, but Sola replies that's standard in 2386 and makes allusions that at some point prior to his assimilation, Bjornson surrendered the Saber back to Starfleet. She also refers to Bjornson at one point as "Fleet Admiral," so the time-lost officers assume he returned to Starfleet as well.
Captain Kras approaches them in the flesh, and they greet the current CO of the Solstice. Jen examines Jace's data and reveals the Borg are currently scouting the area of the anomaly, clearly looking for the gateway back to 2371. She alludes that the Borg would be perfectly willing to change the timeline, and indeed have already made one attempt. Captain Kras explains they are about two hours from Sanctuary, and once there they will be given a chance to speak with the Council and Admiral Picard. She adds that Picard no longer commands the Enterprise because of his crippled body; when Artaus of Borg invaded the Federation, he reactivated all dormant Borg technology, which ravaged Picard. She also quietly tells them that the now-assimilated Saval commands the tactical cube that drove the Solstice away from the anomaly.
Alberic's political mind kicks in and he asks about the Council and which way each of them would likely vote. Jen replies that she favors trying to get the Thunderbird back to 2371 on one condition: they agree to deliver messages from her to her past self and to Bjornson. Alberic admits that Bjornson is still in the Maquis in 2371 but he's confident his cousin can get the message to him. Satisfied, Jen says that Captain Shay'taal would likely support her, thanks to innate Andorian aggression. Captain Worf would likely do the same for much the same reason' Klingons and Andorians have many similarities, after all' while Captain Thraka would also likely support them as she commands Bjornson's former ship and would sacrifice anything to restore her commanding officer.
However, Jen believes Captains Stadi and Paris would likely resist the idea, as both have spouses' and in Paris's case, children' aboard their respective ships and tend to favor the status quo rather than risk their loved ones. She also admits she has no idea how the admiral would vote; he is a wild card. They all talk calmly for a bit, until Jen admits her trepidation about changing the past and Daphne snidely retorts, "You should see a counselor." Jen's prior friendliness vanishes, and she walks away.