Game was 1/21/21; sadly, we didn't have a Jeremy. We ended game early to avoid getting too far ahead..

As the Varich hurdles through transwarp, chief science officer Lieutenant Commander Fal Marik prioritizes his migraine but does send a text message to Nurse Akorim Fala, "Is Luca alright?" He then reaches for the nearest medkit for an analgesic. Unfortunately, chief of operations Lieutenant K'tral's emotional control finally cracks and she grabs the medkit first and inadvertently shatters the case as she pops it open. Fal asks carefully, "Lieutenant K'tral?" K'tral hisses back, "Yes?" Fal replies, "Is everything alright?" K'tral retorts contemptuously, "Everything is indeed alright, yes."

Suddenly realizing that his service with executive officer Lieutenant Commander Saval has trained him to be wary of female Vulcans, Fal knows K'tral isn't telling the full truth, but says, "I'm glad to hear it." He then reaches for the medkit and the analgesic but K'tral steps back. Fal manages to get the analgesic but then splits it in half and offers one half of it to K'tral. K'tral snarls angrily, "That is not protocol!" and she grabs him by the shirt and pulls him down to her eye level! Suddenly, Terjan Tyr - currently "operating" the junior counselor Ensign Jessa Tyr - appears and inserts himself in the middle as he says playfully, "Whoa, little lady. You're cute when you're angry, wanna go for a drink later?" K'tral is so startled that she releases Fal and steps back.

Terjan smirks and then turns to commanding officer Commander Melva Deline and starts flirting with her! Mel immediately realizes what's going on and snaps, "Sit down or I will shoot you in the face!" Terjan's smirk grows, but he is now definitely aroused. He parks himself in Jessa's chair and acting executive officer Commander Christopher Hall deadpans, "You must be Terjan." At flight control, Wabai exchange officer Lieutenant Merek'miir mutters to herself, "I hate this ship." Next to her, the alternate counterpart of their flight control officer, Ensign Phillip Dade - Lieutenant Phillip Dade II - starts cackling.

Down in main engineering, chief engineer Lieutenant Ssleestak is running to and fro, chanting to himself, "Fix it, fix it, fix it!" Luckily, he manages to stabilize the warp core singlehandedly and then he hails the bridge. He calls out to Mel, "Captain! I cannae hold it much longer!" in his best Scotty impression. On the other side of main engineering, his second, Lieutenant (junior grade) Jericho MacDougal - who is Scottish - turns and glares at him. His time-displaced son Malachi snickers as Ssleestak innocently replies, "Sorry, was that racist?"

The Varich is suddenly wrenched from transwarp, but luckily most of the crew remains at their stations thanks to crash webbing. Ssleestak stumbles but manages to brace himself and prevent any injuries. The Varich is now spinning rapidly as she plunges into the atmosphere of a tropical ocean world! Phillip II laughs and jokes, "What's the matter everyone? It's not like this is the first time we've crashed this ship!" Mel retorts, "Yes, it is!"

Phillip II cackles again but then suddenly gets very serious as he calls out, "Trust me, then. Also, I don't have the time to learn any names. Ops girl, I need you to balance the power between the shields and the thrusters, now!" K'tral glowers at Phillip II before she reclaims her station and complies. Phillip II continues, "Science boy, find us a landing zone!" Fal eyes Mel, who gives him a subtle nod, so he immediately complies. He scans the island chain they're plunging towards and finds there is a large city under the water nestled against one of the islands. Unfortunately, that island is the largest and has a long beach that could be used as a landing zone. He tags that and then a series of rocky atolls that are just big enough to land safely with a skilled pilot.

Fal offers both landing zones to Phillip II, who glances at them and mutters, "With that other ship behind us, I think the beach is our best bet. Shooting boy! I need you to activate the shields and perform the Gupta Maneuver!" Lieutenant (junior grade) Virgil Thon looks at him confused, and then Phillip II grunts, "Right, the Gupta Maneuver hasn't been invented yet. Okay, I need you to extend the shields and then manipulate their harmonics, so they flatten out like a kite! We can then use that to reduce drag and help us glide into a safer landing. Once that's done, snag that other ship in a tractor beam!" Virgil nods and does his best to comply, and Phillip II hails main engineering and calls out, "Engine person! I need you to gently goose power into the shields! Gently!" Ssleestak replies, "OK," and proceeds to feather power very carefully to the shields.

As Phillip II is leveling out their flight, Virgil activates the tractor beam to snag the Valiant and help break their momentum. The two ships combined do slow down a bit while down in engineering Ssleestak uses structural integrity fields to reinforce the outer hull. On the bridge Terjan calls out, "So, do you crash a lot?" Phillip II retorts, "Not now! Let me focus on crashing!" He adds, "On that note, brace for impact!" Mel has just enough time to transmit a warning throughout the ship before the Varich and the Valiant slam down hard onto the beach!

As they slide forward, metal screaming around them, Mel, Christopher, and senior counselor Lieutenant Armina Jasra remain silently composed in the command well while Terjan doubles over and gasps, "No Tyr, you stay on the inside!" The impact and the crash webbing are enough to leave deep bruises on Jessa's torso, but the worst off is definitely Ssleestak, as down in engineering he is flung from his feet and slams muzzle-first into the warp core! Fal holds on in his chair while Phillip II calmly whistles as the two ships continue to hurtle forward!

Mel stares ahead in horror as the curve the island is rapidly approaching, meaning that if they don't stop the Varich and the Valiant will shoot out into the water and land on the underwater city! However, both ships bleed off enough momentum so that the Varich comes to a halt with approximately half of her saucer section sticking out over the water, and the Valiant stops behind her in the furrow of vitrified sand the Varich plowed! As the poor ship settles with pops and groans, Mel glances at her station and winces as she realizes decks seven and eight are now in the ground, and the entire beach behind both ships is now glass!

Down in main engineering, Ssleestak slowly peels himself off the warp core, noting idly the cheerful blinking lights left behind by the Malacari. He stumbles to the ground and immediately starts examining the damage. He identifies several hull breaches, plasma fires from ruptured EPS conduits, and the faint smell of ginger over the stench of hot metal, glass, and burning components. On the bridge, K'tral is the first to realize the ginger smell is this planet's atmosphere as it leaks into the ship through the various hull breaches. She reports, "Captain, hull integrity breached, atmosphere coming in." Christopher immediately pulls out his tricorder and scans the native air before declaring with relief, "It's breathable. Relatively standard Class-M atmosphere, with just a smidge more oxygen and less carbon dioxide than Earth." He adds, "Damage control is working on the fires first."

Mel nods and orders, "First priority is finding and saving the wounded. Energy priority is sickbay and then the warp core." K'tral asks, "Can we lift off?" Phillip II shakes his head and replies, "Our thrusters are completely shot. We still have impulse, but I don't recommend that, especially this close to a city! The shockwaves of a violent liftoff would travel through the water and cause untold damage." Mel agrees while Fal scans the nearby area with the crippled sensors. He finds the underwater city sports more than two million life signs, so he informs Mel and adds, "The Valiant is okay. She is damaged, but nowhere near as bad as we are." He relays all the scans he has collected to engineering while Virgil reports, "Captain, we're getting a hail from the natives! Audio-only."

Mel orders, "Pipe it through." Virgil complies and then they hear an unfamiliar voice ask, "Are you alright up there?" Mel replies, "Yes, thank you. I'm Captain Deline of the Federation starship Varich, and we mean you absolutely no harm. Unfortunately, there was an accident, which is why we crashed on your planet." The voice replies, "I am Sector Prime Voorsh. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with a Federation, what is your mission?" Mel quickly explains that her ship is a science vessel and very briefly sketches the United Federation of Planets. She admits, "I do believe the Federation is probably far from here, but somehow our translators are picking up your language without an issue." Voorsh replies, "I don't know what language you speak; to me you're simply speaking Dominionese."

Everyone on the bridge goes deathly silent until Mel asks carefully, "The Dominion? Is this a Dominion world?" Voorsh replies, "Oh yes, it is, and the guardians are on their way to help." Mel inquires, "The guardians?" Voorsh replies, "Yes, the guardians. That's what we call them anyway. They call themselves the Jem'Hadar." Mel says carefully, "We don't necessarily need to involve the guardians in this, I'd hate to complicate matters for you." Voorsh replies cheerfully, "Oh don't worry about that. After all, one has to follow protocol!" Mel reluctantly agrees with that, and informs Voorsh, "Very well then, I must attend to the needs of my ship, so I will speak to you soon." Voorsh agrees readily, and immediately signs off.

Mel quietly informs the bridge crew, "Get ready to rumble, guys. We're in the Gamma Quadrant." Terjan pipes up, "What do I need to blow up?" Christopher interrupts, "Captain, sickbay reports twenty casualties so far, but thankfully no fatalities. Most of the wounded are on decks seven or eight, and it's going to take a while to reach them. Swims has already set up an emergency sickbay in the gymnasium on deck four." Ssleestak hails the bridge and says, "Captain, the ship is crashed and is buried in fresh glass. However, the warp core is stable."

Mel retorts, "Thanks, I hadn't noticed." She freely credits Phillip II for their survival and asks if they could seal off decks seven and eight and still be spaceworthy, preferably before the Jem'Hadar arrive.¹⁾ Phillip II frowns as he looks at his station and replies, "Theoretically, yes. However, we've got multiple breaches all over the outer hull, so we'd have to evacuate the crew into the inner corridors on the ship first. We'd have to goose her out with the impulse engines, which like I said, I'm not too keen on this close to a city."

Mel nods in agreement and then opens a ship-wide channel. She declares, "This is the captain speaking. As you may have noticed, we're not in good shape right now. To make matters worse, we have crash-landed on a Dominion planet and there are Jem'Hadar incoming. Do what you can to repair what you can, take care of each other, and defend each other. We made it through impact, now we must deal with what's next! Bridge out."

She terminates the channel and then orders, "Virgil, time to pass out the phasers." Virgil nods and gets up to head to a weapons locker just as chief of security Lieutenant Shan'taar th'Vorish regains consciousness and staggers to his feet. Mel notes that Phillip I is still unconscious, so she tells Shan'taar, "Get yourself to sickbay now. And bring Phillip. The original Phillip." Shan'taar nods dumbly and heads over to grab Phillip I. Philip II bends down to assist and they hoist Phillip I up and start heading for the turbolift.

Fal calls out, "Captain! A Jem'Hadar attack fighter has arrived and is hovering above us!" Mel grabs an extra Type-2 phaser and hands it to Terjan, warning him, "I will shoot you if you become a problem." Terjan retorts, "Don't worry, I'm good at breaking things. Is there something you need me to blow up?" Mel frowns as she seriously considers the offer and then says, "Actually, yes. Can you break the ship out of this vitrified glass?" Terjan grins and replies, "On it!" He heads to the second science station to start plotting where to place the explosives.

There is a sudden thunk right above them as Jem'Hadar soldiers land on their hull and spread out. Mel orders, "Virgil, you're with me. K'tral, I need your hate-laser eyes as well. We're going out there." Christopher immediately protests, but Mel tells him, "I need you here. I need someone I could trust at my back, who can protect the crew. That is an order." Christopher clicks his jaw shut and gives her a terse nod.