Meet the Neighbors

With mysteries and questions building within the Shackleton Expanse, the Tiberius set off to try to answer some of these questions:

• Are there any connections between all of these artifacts and technology they've encountered? 
• Who or what is Tilakall?
• What roll does the Romulans play in all of this? 
• And, probably most importantly, who are the XO?

After having a staff meeting to discuss these questions and how to resolve them, the Tiberius, following some intel, sought out the XO. This would take the crew deeper into the Shackleton Expanse than any Federation ship has gone. But first, the ship had to navigate a tricky patch of space, known as the Passage, that is filled with unstable gases and electromagnetic eddies. The ship, with some precision flying by Lt. Faragutt, managed to make it's way through the Passage with a cloaked escort in toe (the Mupwl'). 

On the other side of the Passage, the crew set about normal operations on the ship when suddenly the ship went into Red Alert. As the crew investigated they realized that Captain Ral was no longer onboard the ship! Sensors were jammed for approximately 3 seconds at the time of the Captain's disappearance, and only trace elements of what the crew suspected were a transporter signal were discovered onboard the ship. Outside of the ship, sensors noted a faint energy trail leading into a nearby nebula. 

As the Tiberius approached the nebula, 2 drone ships emerged and attacked. One of the drone ships, but the other was disabled. The crew was able to establish a remote link with the computer on the drone ship and transferred some data onto the Tiberius. This data provided what the crew interpreted as coordinates to a star system on the other side of the nebula. 

As they set off after the other drone ship, they were greeted by the ship. After some negotiations, the Tiberius agreed to follow the ship to the homeworld of the Xaldi in order to retrieve the captain. However, in order to get the captain back, someone would have to face the Xaldi champion (and win) in hand-to-hand combat! Lt. Commander Torc agreed, and the 2 meet inside a great arena. 

Torc ended up being victorious, but the Xaldi seemed hesitate to turn over the captain. The Xaldi started fighting amongst themselves, allowing the crew to escape to rescue the captain. The Captain was located in an underground bunker very near to the arena. However, the bunker was filled with Xaldi, and the crew had to fight their way to find and retrieve their captain.

The crew was able to make their way through the bunker and to the captain, but his life-signs were failing fast. Besides the obvious broken bones, the captain appeared to be suffering from head trauma, neurological issues, and massive bleeding. While alive, the captain needed to be transfered to the ship so the Doctor can try to save him (and the symbiont's) life. 

Will the Doctor and his team be able to save Captain Ral's life? Will the Tiberius be able to flee the Xaldi? Find out next time on the continuing missions of the USS Tiberius!