Tiberius' Conclusion

 After some delays due to various real life stuff, the crew of the USS Tiberius finally met this past Saturday to conclude our story. When we last left the crew, they had just finished helping Assessor Tredik repair the control center on the Candidate III planet when 2 Romulan shuttles flew overhead. 

On the bridge of the Tiberius, Commander MacKenzie was notified of the impending shuttle arrival and the trouble it means for the away team. Back planet-side, the crew grab some artifacts and made for the Tiberius, dodging debris that was falling from the sky. However, the Romulans were waiting for an ambush, and a fierce fire-fight ensued! Security Officer Hawk fell in combat twice, but the steady hand of Dr. Jerrynn was able to help revive him. Lt. Commander Foxwell also suffered an injury during the fight but was patched up by Dr. Jerrynn as well. In total, 9 Romulans advanced on the away team, but all 9 were defeated in the end! 

While the away team fought off the Romulans, the Tiberius received the final log entry from the USS Venture. In it, the Captain detailed the bravery of his senior staff as they refused to abandon their posts after the Captain ordered "abandon ship". It was their final sacrifice that allowed the Mogami and the Tiberius to have enough time to complete their missions. 

With the Romulans dispatched on the surface, Commander MacKenzie fired upon the 2 Romulan shuttles to ensure they wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. 

As the away team returned to the shuttle, a flash of light occurred, with many wondrous eddies appearing everywhere. Then, Ash Tamalia appeared to each of them and asked for the crew's help to return the displaced Tilikaal back to their bodies. She reached out her hand to each one, ship included. 

The decision was made to accept her help. With a smile on her face, Ash pulled the entire ship into the unknown. 

Fade to black. 

This concludes my crew's run through of the (TNG) Living Campaign! We had a blast doing it! But it was a bitter sweet ending as we all say goodbye to our characters. Maybe, one day in the future, they will return. 

But for now, we are drawing up new characters and await our new orders! Tune in later this fall as the crew of the yet-to-be-named ship seeks out new life and new civilizations, and boldly goes where no one has gone before!

I thank you for reading our adventures! Feel free to reach out to me for any questions you may have if you are running the Living Campaign. And stay tuned for the next chapter of my group!

Live long and prosper!

Assessor's Gambit

As we left the crew of the Tiberius, Captain Ral was found in a bunker on the Xaldi homeworld. After dispatching of several Xaldi guards, the crew found the Captain in a room, badly injured and barely alive. Medical teams did their best to stabilize the Captain, but they knew they needed to get him into sickbay now. 

Lt. Commander Torc threw the Captain over his shoulder and ran outside in order to transport back to the ship. The rest of the crew followed shortly thereafter. 

As the crew attempted to lead the system, an Xaldi cruiser gave chase, chasing the Tiberius into the nearby nebula. Meanwhile, medical crews, lead by Lt. Commander Jerrynn, started to work their magic on the Captain. First they had to stop his bleeding. Then they had to stabilize his head trauma before they could stabilize his neurological damage. 

While the medical team worked on the Captain, the crew on the bridge were dealing with the Xaldi cruiser. A firefight broke out, and the Tiberius quickly found themselves out numbered (and out gunned) 3 to 1. With all of the shaking and rattling of the battle, it made the medical teams job a little more difficult. However, help quickly arrived in the form of the Mupwl' and the Mogami, both of which were able to dispatch the Xaldi ships. This allowed the medical team to finish their work in stabilizing, and saving, the Captain's life. 

After informing Starfleet of what happened, the Tiberius (among the rest of the ships in the Expanse) were recalled to Narendra Station for a scientific briefing. Someone has been able to piece together everything that has been going on in the Expanse. 

Once the briefing was over, and questions were asked (and answered), Admiral Walker and Dr. Taliaferro tasked the Tiberius to investigate some mysterious sensor data coming from the Candidate 3 system. At this point, the live stream of sensor data in the room suddenly went dark. Further investigation revealed that the Romulans destroyed their probe. The crew was tasked to immediately depart for the system for additional investigation (in addition to their previous investigative tasks). 

Once in the system, scans didn't find any signs of the ship, but found interesting targets on the surface of the 3rd planet to investigate. The Mupwl', who was also tasked to help explore the system, decided to cloak and investigate the 2 other planets (both of which didn't originate from this system). 

One the surface, the away team found a good spot to beam down to and investigate. What they found matched some previous technology they found: carvings and crystal structures cut unnaturally that occasionally blinked blue. Additional scans revealed a stronger power source a few clicks away, so the team headed that way.

When they arrived at the building where the power signature was registering, they were shocked at what they saw: a group of Romulans talking to a truly alien creature. Only moments later did the alien welcome them by speaking to the away team with telepathy. He advised the group that he has no issues with them and suggests they sneak around to the other side of the building to find the answers they were seeking. 

The group obliged and made their way around to the back of the building undetected by the Romulans. Inside they found what appeared to be a huge power factory, that the building itself was the battery. They soon were discovered by the Romulans, and a firefight broke out. Having fairly easily dispatched of the Romulans, the away team went back to investigate the structure.   

They soon came across a blue glowing fog-like scene, like something was trying to materialize but was being blocked. After making some adjustments, the image appeared. It was a female alien, similar to the one they saw outside. She claimed to be of the Tilakaal and were trapped. But the rest of the message was cut off as the image disappeared. 

The alien outside soon appeared and told the crew they were no longer welcomed here or in the Expanse. And in a blink of an eye, the crew found themselves not only back on the Tiberius but that the Tiberius was also back at Narendra Station! 

After making their report to Admiral Walker, the Admiral recalled the entire fleet to the station for a council of war. But what does this mean? Join us next time as we find out more about the Tilakaal and more! Thanks for reading!

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! 

We Are the Stars

Following the events on the Klingon colony, the Tiberius was diverted from their patrol in the Shackleton Expanse in order to assist in the evacuation of some Federation scientist and artifacts from Alpha Toryui II. The Tiberius was to rendezvous with the USS Mogami, a new Calypso class vessel, and assist in the evacuation. 

Once the Tiberius arrived into the system, standard scans were performed. The results were a little concerning as they discovered the red giant star was just hours away from going Supernova (hence the reason for the evacuation). However, as noted by the science team on the surface, this star was far too young to be going supernova. The Tiberius' sensors, upon scans of the star, found an anomalous sensor hole deep inside the the star. The crew also discovered some debris, consisting of metals normally found on starships, orbiting off-center from the star. 

Captain Ral ordered his senior staff to a conference room meeting and invited Captain Fortok (of the Mogami) and Lt. Thompson (of the science team on the planet surface) to join in to discuss the plans. Captain Fortok thought it would take about 18 hours to get the personal and artifacts off planet. However, according the Tiberius' calculations, they only had about 11 hours until the star went supernova. Lt. Thompson was being fairly adamant that he was staying until all artifacts were recovered.

After their conversation, it was decided that First Officer MacKenzie and Second Officer Torc would go to the planet and get an assessment from planet-side. Meanwhile, Lt. Commanders Foxwell (Eng.) and Wegen (Sci) were going to stay on the ship to do more research on the star. They created an advanced sensor probed and launched it into the sun to try to get more data on the star, but the results were negative. 

Meanwhile, the Tiberius' CMO Jerrynn started getting reports of headaches from about a dozen or so crew members (including himself). A quick observation noted that all of these patients had either telepathic or emphathic abilities and were all also reported hear whispers. The good doctor was able to administer some medication to everyone (including himself) to help with the symptoms, but all were declared fit for duty. 

With the sensor probe having failed, the idea was presented to link together the sensors of the Tiberius and Mogami to try to get a better look at the sensor shadow in the star. Once again, this didn't appear to have any success. While that was going on, Lt. Commander Foxwell, with the assistance of Lt. Commander Wegen, went to work adjusting the sensor emitters on the outside of the Tiberius in order to more efficiently transport the artifacts to the surface. 

On the surface, Doctor Jerrynn joined MacKenzie and Torc to see if the effects of the whispering were made better or worse by being on the planet (since there were no empaths/telepaths on the planet). The Doctor concluded the planet wasn't causing any changes, though he did note that the whispering was steadily growing louder. Also on the surface, MacKenzie and Torc were able to convince Lt. Thompson and the rest of the science teams to depart, assuring them they would be able to recover most (but not all) of the artifacts. 

As the Mogami departed, being as they were all filled up with artifacts and scientists, it was up the Tiberius to take the last couple of transports and artifacts before setting off themselves. As the last of the shuttles and artifacts arrived on the ship, the ship was rocked by a large gravimetric shock wave from the star (these have been becoming more frequent and more violent through this whole time), placing the ship in Red Alert and disabling the warp drive. Lt. Commander Foxwell was able to determine that the warp coils in the nacelles were out of aligned and that he needed hours to repair, hours in which the Tiberius didn't have. He was, however, able to produce some short-lived warp bubbles to allow the Tiberius to 'skip' out of the system in short bursts, ensuring the safety of the entire crew.

Just as the star was finally going supernova, Doctor Jerrynn (and the rest of the empaths/telepaths) suddenly were overwhelmed by the pain and sounds of the whispers (which were now more or less screams). At the moment the star went supernova, the voices finally became clear and said "Tilikaal...help us...please" and then went silent. Suddenly, with a bright flash, the star and the three planets suddenly vanished, and the Tiberius was left in relative safety (which allowed Foxwell to affect repairs on the warp coils). Also, the artifacts onboard the Tiberius at the moment of supernova, suddenly all glowed blue, with sensors and tricorders detecting tears and fractures in sub-space before they quickly healed themselves. 

Now that the Tiberius is out of harms way from the star, many questions need answering. Who or what is Tilakaal? These artifacts, is there any relationship to the artifacts of previous missions? And who or what has the capability to move entire planetary systems through sub-space and time? Not to mention the previous unanswered questions: Who is the XO and what happened to the Romulan ship Commander Sigmund discovered? 

Check back next time as the crew of the Tiberius tries to answer these questions and more! 

Doomed to Repeat the Past

After a short hiatus, the Tiberius was back in action. We started on Narendra station where the ship was continuing to be repaired. Admiral Walker called a meeting with the senior staff of the Tiberius, the station, and the other Federation ships and Klingon ships at the station to introduce everyone to General Borak, the new head of the Klingons on the station (as well as Admiral Walkers XO). Admiral Walker then met with the senior staff of the Tiberius to inform them that their shore leave would be extended by 2 weeks so the ship can be equipped with some quantum torpedoes.

Following shore leave, the Tiberius was tasked to head back into the Shackleton Expanse on an ordinary patrol. Shortly after the trip began, the crew was ordered to divert course and to rendezvous with an unregistered Federation ship, the USS Cass where they would be given new orders.

Once the Cass met up with the Tiberius, Commander Natalie Sigmund of Starfleet Medical met with the crew to give them a briefing about a plague spreading out of control on a Klingon colony world. Commander Sigmund said the initial reports suggest the long since dead Augment Virus may be back. The crew was tasked with investigating this virus to come up with an antidote. To that end, Commander Sigmund presented a datacore from the USS Enterprise NX-01 to help in their research. However, the crew would have to first figure out how to operate the device and interface it with the ship.

While the crew was figuring out how to operate and interface the device, reports continued to flood the ship of the rising death toll. Three away teams beamed down to the surface, including one team consisting of XO MacKenzie, Chief of Security Torc and Doctor Jerrynn (along with unnamed security officers). Upon beaming onto the planet, Lt. Commader Torc was immediately attacked by an infected Klingon who was trying to bite and scratch through their hazmat suits. Quickly thereafter, another infected Klingon attempted to do the same to Lt. Commander MacKenzie. Luckily, both Torc and MacKenzie were able to repel the Klingons and stun them without their suits being compromised. The group decided to transport the stunned, infected Klingons to the ship in order to use them as samples for researching a cure.

Meanwhile, onboard the Tiberius, Lt. Commander Foxwell (Eng) and Lt. Commander Wegen (Sci...who also happened to be Denobulan), were hard at work studying the device. After some time, they were able to get the device to work and interfaced with the computer via the holodeck. Once connected and the rest of the team was back onboard the ship, the team quickly learned that the antidote that Doctor Phlox created was indeed kept on this device. Any hopes of quickly creating and disseminating a cure were cut short when the computer informed them that the antidote would result in a 100% chance of death and the antidote, Phlox-1, was non-viable. The virus, it turns out, has mutated.

The situation on the planet was getting worse. Desperate to avoid getting infected, three cargo shuttles attempted to leave the planet but were turned back by Lt. Colonel Morok and his blockade in space. The cure was urgently needed as estimates as high as 20% of the population were now infected. But the odd thing was: it wasn't just the Klingons that were infected but other humanoids as well.

Back on the Tiberius, Wegen, Jerrynn and Foxwell started researching the virus thanks to their guests being held in isolation in the brig. The initial tests proved their initial suspicions: this was an altered form of the Augment Virus but they still didn't know who or how it was augmented.

The situation in space was beginning to deteriorate. Some the Klingon ships in orbit began bombarding the planet. In an effort to help Morok get his ships under control, MacKenzie and Torc beamed over to Morak's vessel to provide assistance, which initially seemed to work as tensions started to calm.

Meanwhile, knowing that the virus was spreading unchecked and the infected rate was rising quickly, approaching 60-70% of the population, Jerrynn, Wegen and Foxwell continued to research and study the virus. As it turned out, Jerrynn (who is half Andorian and half Vulcan) started to notice something oddly familiar about the virus (or more specifically how it was changed). He thought the RNA strands within the virus had a Vulcan signature to it, but he wasn't totally convinced. More research was needed. However, before the research continued, Commander Sigmund took out a Starfleet Intelligence badge and said all of this research is now classified at the highest levels.

In space, the situation was turning bad. In fact, it appeared that all-out war was ready to break out at any time. Morok & MacKenzie seemed to be losing control of four Klingon ships, while two others were reporting computer malfunctions. As the ships appeared to be positioning themselves over major cities and weapon systems were powering up, MacKenzie and Morok made one last plea for patience and to not fire on the planet. That is when word came in from the Tiberius that Doctor Jerrynn et al finally broke the code of the virus and that a cure could now be created and distributed. The virus, it turned out, was not Vulcan but Romulan in design. Once again, Commander Sigmund, at this finding, stepped in and said all this information is now classified Top Secret and no one besides senior staff on the Tiberius was to know of the Romulan involvement. Shortly after, Commander Sigmund received a communication and departed the ship.

However, news of a possible cure only made things worst it seemed. Civilians on the surface stole a cargo transport ship (from the company working on manufacturing the cure) and were shot down by the Klingons in orbit. However, Morok and MacKenzie were able to persuade them to stand down as the cure was being made. Slowly, as the cure was being administered, the rioting and chaos settled down and the Tiberius was able to depart the system. Admiral Walker and General Borak gave the crew their many thanks from Starfleet and the Klingon High Council for their great work.

The next day, following some much needed rest, the Tiberius received a hail from Commander Sigmund who didn't say a word but simply showed a Romulan Warbird powered up but adrift.

Tune in next time to the adventure of the USS Tiberius.

Trouble at Narendra Station

After recent events, the Tiberius was ordered back to Narendra station for some much needed repairs and for the crew to take some much deserved R&R. On their way back, Admiral Walker gave some words of praise to the crew for their work in recent days and told them the station was at their disposal. He also informed the crew of the memorial services on the station in wake of the latest news from the Dominion Wars.

After that, the crew set about doing some prep work for departure. Lt. Commander Foxwell (Eng) assembled his team and made a list of things needing repaired. XO MacKenzie and Captain Ral (GM) discussed crew performance. In addition to the promotion of Dr. Jerrynn to Lt. Commander, MacKenzie also requested Ens Faraggut (NPC) be promoted to Lt Junior Grade. MacKenzie also inquired about taking the Command test, which Captain Ral said he would put in a request. MacKenzie then offered Captain Ral the chance to get together and have a drink at the station, which the Captain accepted.

The trip to the station, though longer than normal due to speed restrictions, was uneventful. Once at the station, the crew set about for some R&R, but not before the memorial service. Once the service was over, Captain Ral and Lt. Commander MacKenzie invited the crew out for a drink, which they accepted.

Lt. Commander Torc, being Klingon, invited the crew to the Klingon part of the station for some blood wine. Things were going well until a friend from the past, Captain Akul, broke up their party to accuse the Federation of stealing his Bat'leth. After a few words were exchanged, it turned out other equipment has been stolen as well. Captain Ral excused himself in order to confirm this with Admiral Walker. Akul tasked the party to investigate his missing Bat'leth and find who was responsible.

This lead the team into a search of the missing gear. In addition to the bat'leth, a random assortment of items were reported missing: medical supplies, firearms, parts for ships, etc. The crew first began their investigation by searching Captain Akul's quarters. However, this turned up no clues.

Meanwhile, part of the crew went to the cargo bay to speak to Lt. T'Kot (Quartermaster) in the cargo bay where the gear went missing. T'Kot insisted he doesn't know how things went missing, only noting that he was awaiting parts to repair the transporter that had been busted for the past couple of weeks. While talking with the party, Doctor Jerrynn noticed an unusual twitch occurring on T'Kot's face. When asked about, T'Kot got a little defense, well as defensive as a Vulcan can get. Scans by science officer Wegen were inconclusive, though he figured something was off on the scan. Dr. Jerrynn relieved T'Kot of duty and ordered him to sickbay for a full physical, which he complied.

While T'Kot was being escorted to sickbay, the crew did a very thorough scan of the cargo bay and found something quite unusual. An ancient piece of technology, one resembling the technology recently discovered on previous missions, was found attached to the transporter. This device seemed to mask and erase any evidence of transporter activity from that pad, including masking its activities from the station log as well.

Back in sickbay, just as the scans on T'Kot were nearly finished, he seemed to suddenly melt into a puddle and escape sickbay. T'Kot, it turns out, was in fact a Changling! The crew immediately notified the station ops, who put the station on red alert.

The crew, with assistance by the station, was able to track the Changling to an empty science lab near the actual T'Kot's quarters. Once security measures were in place, a scan of hurtful energy beams was swept across the lab, finding the Changling in the corner disguised as a common house plant.

With the Changling captured, he was transferred into a bucket and taken to a secured prison cell. After several hours, the Changling finally emerged from the bucket and was interrogated. The crew found out this Changling was working for the XO and was stealing parts for the pirates in the XOs employ. This was about as much information as they cagey Changling was willing to give up.

The plot thickens with the XO. Who are they? Where are they located? And other than sewing discord between allies, what is their purpose? Join us as the crew of the Tiberius continues their investigation into these and other questions!

Signals Part 2

The crew of the Tiberius, after debriefing with the leader of the settlement Ero, received a distress signal from the Susquehanna. The signal originated about 1 light year deeper inside the nebula, which has caused the distress signal to become garbled.

With warp speeds not advisable in the nebula, the crew set off at full impulse toward the signal, knowing the Romulans are still out there but unaware of the dangers located inside the nebula. A game of cat-and-mouse ensued as both the Tiberius and the Romulan Warbird Veritex search for the Susquehanna. Shortly after launching, the Tiberius, unfortunately, ran into a pocket of metrionic gas, causing some further complications on their journey. After encountering, and dodging, some debris, the Tiberius was able to find the Susquehanna first.

As the crew scrambled to lock a tractor beam onto the Susquehanna, the Veritex arrived and immediately hailed the Tiberius. After not answering their demands, a fire-fight broke just after the Susquehanna was rescued. Luck was on the side of the Tiberius, and they were able to chase the Veritex away after a few rounds of fire were exchanged.

Meanwhile, Dr. Jerryann raced to the shuttle bay with his team of doctors to treat the crew of the Susquehanna. Thankfully, the Tiberius arrived in time to save the remaining 2 crew members, who were on the verge of being unconscious and looked malnourished. Dr. Jerryann and his team were able to stabilize the crew members without many problems.

Meanwhile, Chief Science Officer Wegen and Chief Engerineeer Foxwell scanned the shuttle to determine what had happened to the Susquehanna. They were able to determine that the Susquehanna was blasted by the same blue energy bolt that dropped their (and the Romulan) shuttles on Seku VI. They were also able to determine that this bolt of energy was what caused the transporter accident that killed the other 2 crewmembers.

Once all was secured, the crew headed back to Seku VI to warn the settlement about the Romulan threat in the area. Ero thanked the crew for the warning and said they would contact Starfleet should they want or need further assistance.

The Tiberius was then ordered back to Narendra station to make some much needed repairs to the ship (top speed has been limited to Warp 6 and the runabout needs repairs). The crew was also offered to use the time at Narendra station for some much needed R&R. However, before getting there, Admiral Walker broke the news to Dr. Jerryann that, effective once he arrives at Narendra Station, he will be promoted from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander for his outstanding work onboard the Tiberius.

What will await the crew of the Tiberius once at the station? Will it be a time of fun and relaxation? Or will something cut into their R&R? Tune in next time for the continuing adventures of the USS Tiberius!

Signals Part 1

The crew was tasked to investigate a strange alien signal and the missing runabout, the Susquehanna. After traversing the Nebula and after performing their initial scans of the planet, Seku VI, the players were able to locate the source of the alien signal, as well as the comm-badges of 2 Starfleet Officiers.

As the players were about to make their way to the surface, the runabout was attacked by a Romulan shuttle. After a brief fire-fight, both ships were hit with a burst of energy that emanated from the planet. Both ships lost power and crashed to the planet.

Thankfully, the Atilla was being steered by Ens. Farragut, a top-notch pilot, and he was able to safely crash land the shuttle with out causing injuries to the crew.

Once planet-side, the crew found the comm badges and the crew members who belonged to them. Unfortunately, the 2 crew members appeared to have died in a terrible transporter accident.

Knowing that the Romulans crashed nearby, the away team decided to search for them. However, the Romulans had the same idea and a fight broke out on the planet. However, the away team made fairly quick work of the Romulans, and after a brief questioning session (which yielded nothing of interest), the crew set off to investigate the signal.

The crew set out for their several hour walk toward the source of the signal. However, the walk was not without peril. First, a sandstorm suddenly sprung up on the team, forcing them to shelter for a bit. Only the security and engineer took a little damage from the storm. Once the storm passed, they pressed on. About an hour or two later, they came upon a ravine that needed to be crossed. With a little team work and a lending hand by XO MacKenzie, the team managed to cross the ravine safely, only losing the Doctors medical tri-corder in the process.

As they approached the signal, the away team came across a settlement in a valley. As they were surveying the situation, a rifle blast hit the rocks in front of the away team, and they were soon surrounded by 3 snipers. The away team was told to toss down their phasers and put their hands up. The team complied and was lead into the settlement and to the sniper's boss, Ero Drallen.

Ero took the team to his office where a conversation was had. Ero explained what his miners had found in the caverns below the town and asked the away team for their help. Since the team was trapped on the planet, they agreed to help as best they could.

The team was lead into the caverns below the settlement to a chamber. This chamber contained an obelisk and some computer consoles. Inspection of these devices proved nearly inconclusive, though they were determined to be quite old. In fact, the age nearly matched the age of the technology from the Rl'lowo Shal.

Chief Engineer Foxwell was able to detect an off switch of sorts for the device, and after some discussion, turned the device off. For a moment, the obelisk appeared to be powered down. However, tricorder readings suggested a surge of power was building below them, leading the team to infer that a self-destruction sequence had been activated!

Left with the decision to flee or try to stop the explosion, the team decided to stay and try to deactivate the self-destruction sequence. With only a few minutes to work with, the team was able to quickly shut down the device before it could explode!

Once back on the surface, Ero and the Away team were able to beam up to the Tiberius, now that the signal and device were shut down. Onboard, Ero and Captain Ral negotiated a peaceful agreement for the time being until an actual diplomat from Starfleet could arrive.

The crew still has the missing Susquehanna to find, but has a new lead. Tune in next time as the Tiberius races to find the Susquehanna.

Tug of War

The crew of the Tiberius, after encountering pirates, Ferengi, and an organization only known as the XO, was tasked with a scientific exploration of a pair of M-Class planets that orbit the same star. Among other things that made these 2 planets unusual is the fact that both planets are in the final stages of a planet-wide extinction event. In orbit of the planets, which has been cleared away of asteroid debris, was a derelict space station and other space debris.The crew was given the task to collect data from these planets to learn what happened.

The crew first came into a stable orbit in between both planets and made some initial scans of the planets and the space station. Then, they decided to beam over to the derelict space station and investigate it. Onboard the station, the crew found the station completely without power and no artificial gravity. The space station was fully intact but did not show any signs of a crew or its things. The only thing the crew was able to salvage were a few discs that the crew presumes store data. They also discovered that this space station was hundreds of thousands of years old. They grabbed the discs and headed back to the Tiberius.

The crew then beamed down to the smaller of the two planets, which they eventually learned was named the Rl’lowo Shal. The planet was nearly fully dead. Just a few planets and fish were remaining alive. Buildings and cities were showing signs of being in ruined. The technology that they came across seemed to match the technology of the space station, leading the crew to draw the conclusion that the space station probably came from this planet.

The crew then proceeded to the other, larger planet in this system. This planet had a smaller population and only sparse technology. However, the technology matched that of the technology from the smaller planet, lending the crew to assume the technology was shared. This planet, the crew discovered, was called Five Turns and the inhabitants called themselves Us.

The crew also discovered that both world were covered in multiple asteroid craters, many of which were larger than the dinosaur killing impact on Earth from millions of years ago.

It was at this point the away team was recalled to the Tiberius as the ship was recalled in order to help search for a Federation runabout that had gone missing.

As the ship attempted to break orbit, 2 powerful tractor beams locked onto the ship. Both beams emanated from the planets: one from each. The ship was trap! As the crew scrambled to figure out what happened and to assess the damage, the ship took some significant damage. Shields were dropped along with taking a breach to both the sensors and the engines. The crew struggled to keep the ship together as the structural integrity fields was starting to fail. As engineering teams enacted repairs all over the ship, and medical teams tended to the wounded, the crew devised a plan to send a beam out through the deflector dish to negate the tractor beams. This plan worked and the ship, albeit beaten up pretty bad (the ship's top speed is now just warp 6), they were able to move away from the beams.

Just as they were starting to leave, more alarm bells started to go off as a Romulan Warbird decloaked off the port side of the ship. The commander of the Warbird claimed the Tiberius was in Romulan space (they claimed this system as theirs). A verbal confrontation occurred, but as the Tiberius was already leaving, they just agreed to leave and let the Admirals deal with this.

However, just as the Tiberius was finally starting to leave, they were hailed by the Warbird once again as the tractor beams locked onto the Warbird. The Commander claimed the Federation did this. Another verbal confrontation occurred, but eventually ended when the Tiberius agreed to transmit the same wave frequency that freed them from the tractor beams to the Warbird. Skeptical, but not seeing many other options, the Commander reluctantly took the data and was able to free themselves. Both ships went on their way without further interactions.

The Tiberius left the system and began the search for the missing runabout, the Susquehanna, to discover what had happened to it. Come back in 2 weeks to see if the Tiberius was able to locate the Susquehanna. 

Convoy Conclusion

Following the attack on the convoy, the crew had many things to accomplish. First thing was to help their friend, Captain Akul, mend his ship and crew. Dr. Jerrynn and his team was able to mend most of the crew of the Mupw'l. However, one crew member appeared to have hit his head, which needed more serious medical attention. After some convincing, Captain Akul agreed to allow the crew member to be released into the crews hands for further treatments.

Meanwhile, Lt. Cmdr Foxwell and team set to work on making repairs onboard the Mupw'l. The ship sustained some damage, most serious of which affected the ship's warp drive. Foxwell and team were able to make the best of the situation, repairing the warp drive enough to allow the ship to reach warp 7, though more extensive repairs will be required in dry dock. Other more minor repairs, including to some EPS conduits and to the tactical display, were made and the crew was sent back to the Tiberius with gratitude from Captain Akul.

Once all senior staff were back on the Tiberius, the crew quickly set up a class 9 probe and sent it after the stolen cargo freighter. The Tiberius then set off with the Mupw'l to deliver the remain cargo ships to Array 3-5. However, they weren't traveling alone as the crew picked up a few guest, namely the Ferengi Captain named Solec, the captain of one of the Pirate Freighters.

After some interrogation of Captain Solec, the crew discovered the Ferengi were under orders from the group called the X.O. The Solec was only willing to provide some information, such as the XO wants to weaken the partnership between the Klingons and Federation and that the XO can't be contacted (they contact you). Solec said his partner, another Ferengi (the other freighter captain) named Leck, may have some more answers if they find him and the stolen cargo transporter.

At this point, the crew decided to contact Captain Akul to tell them that the Tiberius was going after the stolen cargo ship and that the Mupw'l was to stay behind to escort the rest of the cargo ships to Array 3-5. Captain Akul wasn't exactly thrilled to 'be left out of seeking glory' but ultimately was persuaded to continue on with the mission.

The Tiberius, based on data obtained from their probe, was able to track the stolen cargo ship to a Class-H planet. Captain Ral ordered the ship to Yellow Alert as they dropped out of warp, and a good thing he did so as another squadron of fighters attempted to attack the Tiberius. The Tiberius made quick work of the squadron and set its focus onto the stolen cargo ship.

As expected, the crew found Captain Leck (Ferengi) attempting to steal the cargo and kidnap the crew as the cargo ship was in a decaying orbit around the planet. Leck, once he was persuaded to surrender, gave the crew the time and place for where the XO was going to meet them with the stolen goods. The crew of the Tiberius decided to attempt to catch the XO using this information, but the XO never showed up. After waiting several hours, Captain Ral recalled the team to regroup.

The Tiberius then returned the rest of the cargo to Array 3-5 and set course back to Narendra station to figured out their next course of action. But who are the XO and what do they want?

Tune in next time as the Tiberius seeks more answers inside the Shackleton Expanse!

Tiberius and Crew Stats

This is a work in progress, but here are some stats about the USS Tiberius and her crew:

USS Tiberius
NCC-74662
Service Date: 2368
Space frame: Nova Class
Mission Profile: Multirole Explore

Systems:
Engines 9
Computers 10
Weapons 8
Structure 8
Sensors 10
Communications 10

Departments:
Command 2
Security 2
Science 4
Conn 2
Engineering 3
Medicine 2

Talents:
Advanced Sensor Suites
Improved Hull Integrity
Rugged Design

Scale 3
Resistance 4
Power 9
Crew Support 3

Launch Bay:
1 Waverider Shuttlecraft
1 Type 8 Shuttlecraft
1 Type 9 Shuttlecraft

Weapons:
Tractor Beam (strength 2) 2 CD
Phaser Array (Medium range, versatile 2, area or spread) 5 CD
Photon Torpedoes (Long range, high yield) 5 CD

Crew:
Captain Malko Ral (Joined Trill) (GM)
XO Commander Robyn MacKenzie (Human), Temporarily on assignment
Temporary XO Commander Kasan Goddard (Human)
Chief of Security/Tactical Commander Torc (Klingon)
Chief Engineer Lt. Commander Darwin Foxwell (Human)
Chief Medical Officer Lt. JG Jerrynn (Andorian/Vulcan)
Chief Science Officer Lt. Norv Shittull (Tellarite)
Helmsman Ensign Farragult (Human NPC)

A Convoy of a problem...

The USS Tiberius enjoyed a couple of weeks of R&R at Narendra Station. While most of the crew spent the time catching up on personal activities, the science and engineering crews spent much of the time upgrading the sensors on board the Tiberius and IKS Mupwl' (but let's be honest: a happy engineer or scientist is one who is working). Our Doctor spent much of his time off in the holodeck, working on his combat training. However, he also spent some time in therapy as he was struggling to come to terms with the loss of Commander Johanssen (from our last mission...sorry forgot to type up the recap for that). That was the first lost for our Doctor under his watch, and he was taking it badly.

Once R&R was over, the Tiberius brought on a temporary new XO in time to start their next mission. This mission seemed to be pretty straight forward: Team up with the IKS Mupwl' to escort some cargo ships to the joint station Array 3-5 located deep within the Shackleton Expanse.

Once underway, however, problems quickly sprung up on the Tiberius. While performing some routine scans, the Tiberius encountered some electromagnetic eddies, knocking out some EPS conduits on backup systems and reducing the overall ships power. Repairs could not be made while in space, but the Engineering team determined that, other than having a little reduced power, the ship should be able to complete their mission.

Shortly thereafter, alarm bells rang out as an explosion rocked the Mupwl'. Before the Tiberius could figure out what was going on, the Mupwl' dropped out of warp. Captain Ral on the Tiberius ordered the convoy to drop out of warp to assess the situation. As soon as the Tiberius dropped out of warp, they encountered another eddie, this time taking out some shield emitters.

With the convoy now out of warp speed, Captain Akul of the Mupwl' requested assistance from the Tiberius to help with repairs and to tend to the injured, a task the Tiberius was also needing to undertake. Captain Ral (Tiberius) agreed to send an engineering team, a medical team, and some security to assist the Mupwl'.

The away teams boarded 2 shuttlecrafts and set out for the Mupwl'. The first shuttle, armed with medical and security teams, arrived on the Mupwl' and began to assess the situation. Before the second shuttle, which was filled with the engineering team and equipment, could reach the Mupwl', 2 pirate freighters and about a dozen single-seat fighters suddenly appeared. A massive firefight has broken out!

Luck was on the side of the Tiberius and Mupwl' as they ultimately came out victorious in the battle. However, the numbers were not on their side, and 3 of the fighters and 1 of the freighters were able to hijack one of the cargo ships and made a run for it.

With most of the fighters disabled, and the remaining pirate freighter also disabled, what will the crew do? The action will continue in 2 weeks!

Time and Time Again

The crew of the Tiberius were conducting some routine scans of a K-class planet with a new sensor. This sensor was based on chroniton particles and was able to get a detailed account of the history of the planet and what likely caused it's demise.

After a successful first attempt, our Chief Engineer performed a quick diagnostic on the sensor to make sure everything performed as it should. Other than a few chroniton particles near the sensor, everything seemed to perform as expected. So Captain Ral ordered additional scans of the planet, a process that would take a few days to complete.

A couple of days later, the crew started experiencing what can only be described as deju-vu. In sickback, our Chief Medical Officer healed a crewman's hand. Shortly after the crewman left sickbay, he walked in again and asked for his same hand to be healed. Meanwhile, in the science lab, our Chief Science Officer spotted a comet off the starboard side of the ship. Then he spotted it again, and again, again. Each time, the comet was moving on the exact same path at the exact same speed, something that should be impossible. And lastly, our Chief Engineer, while in Engineering, was handed the daily duty roster from a crewman, only to be handed it again just moments later.

Captain Ral gathered the senior officers together to hear the reports and start working on a plan to fix whatever is apparently going wrong onboard the Tiberius. However, before they could get anywhere, the ship suddenly explodes.

Then the loop started over again. Slowly, the characters realized they were stuck in a time-loop. The Chief Engineer was the first to realize this, followed (in the next loop) by our Science Officer. One of the loops, the Chief Engineer tried to shut down the sensor, causing the ship to explode once again. The Science and Engineer officers were then able to convince the Captain and the rest of the senior officers that the entire ship was stuck in a time loop.

The plan to stop the loops was dangerous. With time not on their side, the Chief Engineer and Chief Science Officers made their way carefully to engineering and carefully to a panel where they were finally able to disable the sensor. However, an excessive of chroniton particles had built up in the warp core and was still threatening to blow the ship up. It was decided that the warp core had to be ejected in order to save the ship.

Now the Tiberius is limping back to Narendra Station to obtain a new warp core and to await their next orders.

Helping a friend

After a bit of a hiatus (and some player changes), the Tiberius was finally back in action! The session started with the crew in the the mess hall attending a light reception to welcome onboard the new crew. As the Alpha Shift was mingling about, one thing caught the crew by surprise: sitting in with the band and playing some old-Earth jazz was none other than Captain Ral!

A couple of days later, the Tiberius was taking some readings of a Delta Indi star, a blue star that is expected to go Nova in a few months. That's when a call for help came in.

Admiral Walker informed the crew that the USS Venture has stopped reporting in to Narendra Station. The Admiral wasn't sure whether it's just the anomalies in the Expanse or if there is a problem, but seeing as the Tiberius is the nearest ship, we were ordered to investigate.

Once we arrived at the last known coordinates of the Venture, the Tiberius was shocked to find no ship, or thankfully debris. The Chief Engineer made some quick adjustments to the ships sensors, and the Tiberius quickly and thoroughly scanned the area looking for signs of what happened to the Venture. Scans revealed a faint ion trail leading out of this system and into the nearby star system.

With little else to go on, the Tiberius followed the trail into the Avalon system where they found the Venture. However, the ship was running at full impulse toward an M-class planet that was under the protection of the Prime Directive. Scans of the Venture revealed no damage, all crew was accounted for but unconscious, and force-fields were erected all over the ship. Using the advanced sensors onboard the Tiberius, the crew also detected something out of place with the environment on the Venture.

The crew, releasing they probably couldn't transport over to the Venture, decided to board a shuttle and park in the main shuttlebay. As a precaution, the crew took and wore EV suits. Once outside the shuttle, the crew released there was some kind of airborne virus on the ship.

Once the crews dropped the force fields in the shuttlebay, they proceeded through the Jeffries tubes to main engineering to try to regain control of the ship. Once in engineering, Chief Engineer Foxwell realized something was wrong with the computer systems as the systems were saying everything was in order (but clearly they were not). Upon inspection of the main computer core (which was smoking), the crew determined a virus (with similar properties to the airborne one) has infected the bio-neural gel packs, the likely cause for the computer malfunctions.

Determining that a cure was needed, the crew split up, with some remaining in Engineering/Computer Core and the rest going to the sickbay. The crew at sickbay discovered the Ventures CMO's logs with some insightful information about the virus. With this data, the Tiberius' CMO Lt. Jerrynn was able to construct an anti-virus. Meanwhile, the engineering team was able to re-route communications (which were down on the Venture) through the shuttlecraft.

Meanwhile, the Engineering team, taking some drastic measures to stop the ship from colliding with the planet, physically removed the plasma injectors to the impulse engine. This was a delicate process, but Chief Engineer Foxwell managed to get the engine stopped so the Tiberius could gently nudge the Venture with the tractor beams to buy more time (almost another full day) before the Venture collided with the planet.

With communications working again, Dr. Jerrynn and team were able to transmit the anti-virus data back to the Tiberius, who was able to synthesize the anti-virus. Once the anti-virus was delivered to the Venture, the crew administered the anti-virus to a fallen crew member, which seemed to revive them. With more anti-virus created, the crew of the Tiberius was able to revive the crew and spread the anti-virus to the computer system. The crew was also able to program the transporters with the virus so the transporters could screen them out.

With the Venture stopped and the crew revived, the Tiberius remained nearby as the Venture continued repairs on the ship.

Join us next time on the continuing voyages of the USS Tiberius.

Into the Expanse (Conclusion)

Having sent the Civilian Federation scientist back to the Tiberius, the away team decided to investigate the source of the problems on Orgun III. Scans revealed a power source 5 km below ground coming from a cavern a few clicks north of the city.

The crew arrived at the caverns and headed in. The journey was not easy as the cavern was narrow and winding at times and filled with hazards. While traveling deeper into the caverns, the team came across a room seemingly filled with some kind of fog. Tricorder scans revealed this cavern was filled with a poisonous gas, but the team was able to carefully traverse the ledge of this room and safely avoided the poisonous gas.

The team continued along for a few more minutes until they found another room that the team found was shooting hot steam. After a few moments and some calculations, the crew was mostly able to traverse the room, dodging the steaming hot steam. However, Lt. Cmdr MacKenzie, while traversing the room, slipped a bit and was hit by one of these jets of steam. However, MacKenzie only suffered a few scrapes and cuts and was able to continue.

At the end of the caverns, the team found an unusual metallic door, which opened when they approached it. This appeared to be an elevator that took the team deeper underground where they discovered a room filled with ancient computers (yet somehow still more advanced than what the team knew). The crew was able to study the machine and figure out a way to make some temporary repairs of the machine. Chief Engineer Foxwell estimated the repairs would hold for approximately 8 month, buying the Lormeans some vital time to evacuate. However, prior to fixing the machine, a powerful earthquake knocked some boulders onto the Doctor, though Lt. Cmdrs MacKenzie and Torc were able to quickly free the doctor from under the rubble.

Once out of the caverns, the away team and the scientists assembled in the conference room with Captain Ral to decide what to do next. After a rousing discussion, the crew was tasked to go back to the surface and make sure all of the scientists equipment is either removed or destroyed to prevent further contamination of the planet (per the Prime Directive). The team met with the Chief Minister once again, who continued to urge the team to help them. Reluctantly, and with Captain Ral's approval (but not Starfleet), a few items were 'not found' in the recovery.

The Tiberius is heading back to Narendra Station to transport the scientist to the base and to await their next mission.

Into the Expanse

After exchanging crew members at Starbase 117, the Tiberius was given their new orders. The Tiberius has been tasked to explore the Shackleton expanse to help Starfleet unlock its mysteries.

Starfleet was notified of a missing civilian ship, the S.S. Tesla, which went missing 6 weeks ago. The ship contained 6 Federation (though non-starfleet) scientists. The Tiberius picked up its trail and discovered the ship crashed on Orgun III, a planet with a pre-warp civilization protected under general order 1: the Prime Directive.

Scans from orbit discovered the crash site of the Tesla. An away team was assembled to investigate the crash site and to return the missing scientists. However, some electromagnetic interference coming from the planet temporarily disabled the ships sensors. Not wanting to take the risk of transportation, the away team took a shuttle craft to the surface. Although the ride was quite bumpy, the crew managed to set the shuttle down safely.

Investigation of the wreckage revealed that the crew took most of the sensitive equipment from the Tesla. Before any further investigation of the ship could occur, local shuttles appeared filled with Lormeans appeared. They promised the crew they could take them to their scientists.

The crew was taken into the heart of the Lormean capital city where they were keeping the Federation scientists. The scientist, along with the leader of the government, informed the away team of problems on the planet. Several months ago, unusual tremors and electromagnetic pulses started becoming problematic. The scientist agreed to help the Lormean's to try to solve the problem as well as to help with the evacuation procedures despite the breaking of the Prime Directive (which the scientists, as civilians, are not beholden to).

At this point, the away team needed to decided what to do: help the Lormeans in violation of the Prime Direction, or to at least try to mitigate the contamination of the scientists. The away team decided the scientists should return to the Tiberius while the away team agreed to investigate the power sources coming from under the city to see if they have anything to do with the tremors.

Will the team find the source of the tremors and power fluctuations? Will the Prime Directive be upheld? Find out in 2 weeks!

Iconian Troubles

The Tiberius, having completed their mission on Moana III, was heading to Starbase 117 to deliver the Bluegill's Mother creature and the infected Romulans. Captain Ral informs the staff that there will be some personnel changes as well. First Officer Kingston has been promoted to Captain and will take over the reigns of the USS Kentucky. Ral escorted Kingston over to the Kentucky and left Lt. MacKenzie in charge of the Tiberius, a possible prelude to promotion.

Things started off relatively smooth for the crew. Lt. Vos & Ens Zaim started working in the science lab to study the crystal orb recovered from Moana III. While studying the orb, Ens Zaim, after touching the orb, developed a sudden migraine. A quick stop in sickbay didn't reveal anything too significant. A quick hypo-spray and Zaim went back to work.

This time, a larger crew assembled in the lab, including security, as the incident with Zaim concerned MacKenzie. However, before any additional work could be done, the team was recalled to the bridge to answer the hail of a Tellarite freighter, the Mork, who was in distress.

The Tiberius, only 2 hours away, was able to assist the Mork, who was having some engine troubles which was causing a slow radiation leak on the ship. A small away team, lead by Lt. Foxwell, beamed over to the Mork to begin repairs.

Shortly after the beam over, communications between the Tiberius and Mork were disrupted. Shields also went up but were not able to come down. Lt. Vos was also missing. Lt. MacKenzie (and others) started to suspect the ship was being infected by some sort of virus, perhaps from the Iconian Orb.

Meanwhile, on the Mork, the away team was able to make the needed repairs to the ship, while the Doctor treated the crew members for radiation sickness. However, the soon realized they were stuck on the Tiberius.

Back on the Tiberius, things were going from bad to worst. An unauthorized launch of a shuttle craft was detected. However, tractor beams were also taken offline. The crew tried to take another shuttle craft to chase after the previous one, no doubt controlled by Lt. Vos, but they were unable to leave the hanger.

MacKenzie ordered Zaim to go help search for Vos or what happened with him, but when he started to leave the bridge, he was quickly overtaken with pain and collapsed on the bridge. The medical team ascertained that the orb's previous effect had been amplified and was causing the problems. The medical team was able to devise a way to stop the orb from affecting Zaim (and the others) and was able to heal Zaim and prevent any long-term affects.

Meanwhile, a distress buoy was dispatched by the Tiberius in an effort to make the Mork aware of their situation. It seemed to work as the Mork, who was parked in parallel to the Tiberius, turned the ship to face them.

Meanwhile, a Lt Junior Grade discovered the orb was attached to the warp engines and was likely the cause of all the ships problems. Some quick thinking by the engineering team allowed them to find a solution they thought would, at the very least, give the Tiberius a window of opportunity to drop shields and return the away team, which had the ship's Chief Engineer onboard, to the Tiberius. It worked, and the away team was back just seconds before the shields went back up.

With Lt. Foxwell back, the engineering team was in better shape to deal with all of the problems. They were able to disconnect the orb from the computers and restore all the affected systems to their normal operational status. The Kentucky, having been hailed by the Mork, was racing back to the Tiberius to lend a hand, but things were relatively back in order by the time the Tiberius returned.

Captain Ral, while upset with the actions of Lt. Vos, was pleased with how MacKenzie and the entire crew reacted. This gave Captain Ral more confidence in wanting to pick Lt. MacKenzie to become his new First Officer.

The Tiberius is back enroute to Starbase 117 where an engineering crew will give the ship a once over to make sure no residual affects from the orb are found. While at Starbase 117, Captain Ral will continue his discussions with Starfleet about giving out some much deserved promotions to the crew.

Resolution on Moana III

The crew started the session in the briefing room with Captain Ral, XO Kingston & Security Chief Azonan. The Captain gave praise to the away team for their efforts so far and said, due to security concerns of the ship, that it may be best that this team beam down to the surface and let the Senior Staff stay on board the Tiberius to protect her.

The away team beamed down to an area near where the runabout and lifesigns were coming from. Very quickly were they in a shooting match for with 5 Romulans. However, combat didn't last too long as the numbers were on the away teams side, and the Romulans were quickly neutralized. Then the away team proceeded to approach the human, one Ensign LaSalle, who quickly pointed a phaser at the away team and questioned who they were. Once satisfied with their answers, he quickly told his story of how he ended up on Moana III before being beamed on board the Tiberius.

The away team then proceeded to the Ruins and were able to successful decipher some control panels that were Iconian. Once they made their way to the structure itself, they were able to break through the security panel and gained access to the facility.

Once at the bottom of a turbolift, the crew discovered another Romulan, who was quickly neutralized but joined by 2 more. These 2 were also quickly subdued.

Once the team was done dealing with the Romulan threat, Lt. Vos explored what appeared to be a library of sorts. He found and examined a triangle-shaped orb, which nearly caused him some pain. He surmised that this was some sort library and these were data crystals.

Meanwhile, Lt. Foxwell discovered what appeared to be a power room. While studying at one of the consoles, he appears to have tripped a setting. A countdown was discovered followed by flickering of lights and what appeared to be power drain coming from the room.

The next room ahead was where the entire team headed next. Inside, they discovered the Iconian gateway, which is now powered on, a Romulan commander and 8 Uhlans. The crew quickly realized the situation and dealt with the commander immediately, neutralizing her before the rest of the Romulans knew what was going on. The commander pleaded with the away team to have mercy as they were the last of their species.

The away team was able to shut down the gateway and secure all of the Romulans and march them to the surface, all without making a decision on what to do. Upon reaching the surface, they immediately instructed the Captain to beam down to the surface to do the negotiations. The Captain agreed to take the Romulans on board the ship as prisoners and to allow Starfleet Command to decide their fate.

But for now, the threat from these parasites appears to have been neutralized. The team has returned to the ship and is setting course for the nearest starbase to turn over the prisoners and to await their next mission.

The plot thickens

The crew began back onboard the Tiberius after investigating the outpost on Cordolan IV. They decided they first wanted to study the neural parasite more closely seeing how they had a Romulan with a parasite onboard the ship. Lt. Velesa and her crew did some meticulous work and was able to device a way to remove the parasite from the Romulan for further studies.

However, before any more information could be learned, red alert sounded and the crew was called back to the bridge. A Romulan Warbird, the Decius, had returned and was believing the story about the parasites infiltration of the Romulan Star Empire. The Decius came bearing knowledge of the location of the Iconian Gateway, which they transferred to the Tiberius. Soon as the message was received, the Decius blew up! Scans concluded that sabotage was the culprit.

Before the Tiberius could act on the coordinates they had just received, systems all across the ship suddenly went dark. Before sensors went down, they detected another Warbird on an intercept course, with an ETA of 12 hours. The crew had that much time to restore power to the ship or they would be dead in the water.

The crew sprang into action and determined that a virus was beamed onto the ship from the Decius along with the coordinates. The engineer team was able to locate the files, erase them, and reboot the computer system prior to the warbird from arriving.

However, the warbird, the L'Cata, was only minutes later in arriving and demanded the Tiberius and her crew be turned over to the Romulan Star Empire for destroying the Decius. After some tense negotiation, the Commander was beamed over to the Tiberius for further discussions. It was at this time that evidence that the Tiberius was talking the truth was presented, and the Commander agreed to help with Tiberius in ridding the Empire of the parasites. Convinced that the parasites were a threat, the L'Cata's Commander left the area to consult with her superiors.

The Tiberius then made her way to the Moana system, the supposed location of the Iconian Gateway. Once in orbit around the third planet, another warbird, the Axia, decloaked and immediately fired on the Tiberius, just barely missing her. The Tiberius responded in kind, landing to hard hits onto the Axia, causing a breach to her structure and sensors. Before the Axia could fire off another blast, the L'Cata arrived and fired on the Axia, damaging her significantly enough to cause the Axia to retreat.

Captain Ral ordered an away to to investigate the human life sign (and Starfleet runabout) on the surface and to locate and destroy the gateway.

Will the crew succeed in stopping the Iconian Gateway from being activated? Or will the parasites overtake the crew? Find out in 2 weeks for the conclusion!

We Are Not Ourselves

The Tiberius journeyed to the Cordolan system to investigate the whereabouts of the Tellarite freighter that was seen on the security camera's onboard Kortar Station. Initial scans revealed a mining outpost on one of the moons surrounding Cordolan IV. Upon reaching orbit around Cordolan IV, further scans revealed diamagnetic interference coming from the 6th moon of this system, which would make arriving on the surface more difficult. The crew sprung into action and, after some debate, decided their best course of action would be to use the transporters to reach the ground level of the mining facility.

Once inside the mining facility, the away team used their tricorders and were able to detect some life signs on the lower levels, but due to the interference could not determine what the life signs were. Upon further investigation of the ground level, they found a device connected to the main reactor, which was the cause for the interference. The away team was able to quickly and quietly disconnect the device and eliminate the interference they were encountering.

The away team then proceeded to the lower levels of the facility to further investigate the life signs. The arrived at the infirmary and found multiple dead Klingons and neural parasites. Scans revealed these bodies had only died a few hours ago. Scans also revealed that both the Klingons and the parasites were genetically modified.

As the away team continue to investigate the lower levels, they ran into 2 Romulans. The away team quickly neutralized one of the Romulans, but the other was not so easy to take down. But, with numbers on their side, it was just a matter of time before the away team neutralized the second Romulan. The away team then proceeded to interrogate one of the Romulans, who was quite confused as to what was going on. He did, however, make a deal with the away team that he would provide the senior staff onboard the Tiberius with whatever information he could in exchange for safe passage back to his Romulan ship. This was agreed to and the Romulan was transported to the Tiberius.

As the away team continue to dive deeper into the caverns below the surface, they came across a Trill by the name of Tal Duron. At first, Duron appeared quite hostile toward the away team, but eventually was able to be coerced into telling the away team how he was under the control of the Romulans and was beginning to think that he may have made a mistake in taking up this work. Duron told the away team of the prisoners ahead and of the guards. Duron also informed the away team of the parasites ultimate plan: to activate an Iconian Gateway.

Fortunately for the away team, they were quite prepared for what was waiting for them in the next chamber. Prior to beam down, their experience with past beings that were infected by the parasite made them grab some stronger weapons, including some grenades. Sure enough, one grenade proved to be too much for the 4 guarding the prisoners, and they were quickly neutralized. The away team, having brought pattern enhancers with them, were able to transport the guards (as prisoners) back to the Tiberius for further interrogation, though not before being interrogated on the surface. However, they were not able to obtain any useful information from the infected Romulan or Klingon, leaving the team wondering about the Gateway. The prisoners were then freed and escorted back to the Tiberius, where Captain Ral, after giving them a stern talking to, promised to return them to their ship, which they found hidden on the far side of the mining facility.

The away team then beamed back onto the Tiberius and are hoping to get some answers from their prisoners as to the whereabouts of the Iconian Gateway.