Stardate: 58457.8 17th Jun 2381 1320 hrs UTC

Location: Starfleet's Reykjavík Experimental Shipyards, Faxaflói Bay, Earth.

Today, the Norway-class USS Östergötland NCC-72227 is being launched, officiated by Admiral Kathryn Janeway. Aboard are Capt Greg Ellison, Conn Officer Cmrd Morpheus Drake and Ops Officer Lt Cmdr Tosk the Studious. The Östergötland, which is a test-bed for a new Submersible Caterpillar Drive, has to pick up the rest of her crew at Station Alpha, New Atlantis Project.

En route to the Mid-Atlantic, Cmdr Drake plunges the ship into the sea and activates her cat drive to avoid a hurricane. They surface and dock beside Station Alpha at water level at the rocky edge of one of the New Atlantis islands.

As the new crew begin to file in from the station, Ensign Lucas Garcia at the bridge engineering station reports that the ship quartermaster Chief Duc Tran has counted 61 torpedoes transferred aboard the ship. That's one more than requested.

They also find that the port cat drive FOD forcefield has been damaged upon resurfacing. Capt Ellison orders Lt Cmdr Tosk to investigate & calls the new Vulcan Caterpillar Drive Engineer Lt Sevok to the bridge.

Cmdr Drake spots the name of the new XO: Cmdr Sally Ellison. He alerts Capt Ellison who is surprised that his fully tera'ngan half-sister has been assigned to the Östergötland. The captain is half-tera'ngan, half Deltan.

Lt. Sevok arrives & is briefed of the FOD shield damage. She makes her way to Tosk in Cat Drive Engineering Bay where Tosk has identified that the damage was caused by microwave. With Sevok's expertise on the cat drive, they find that it came from a maser weapon made by either the tlhIngan or the romuluSngan, and the exact location from where it was fired.

Meanwhile, Cmrd Drake notes that the XO should have reported for duty by now & the ship's sensor locates Sally Ellison in her quarters. Capt Ellison overrides the XO's door lock to find signs of a struggle. Her combadge is on the floor. Capt Ellison instructs Drake to seal the ship.

Tosk & a security team take the Type-9 shuttle Vänern to the rocky promontory on the island 5 km from Station Alpha. They know that something was fired from here, but there is no sign of anyone. Cloaked Romulans? mused Ellison on comms.

Drake finds a transport beam scan records from the XO's room to the rear torpedo bay. Ellison orders Chief Tran to meet Drake there. Tran tells him there are now only 60 torpedoes, when counted by hand, not 61. Drake is certain something was shot out of the aft torpedo tube very recently. How was this done without alerting security? Why would anyone want to kidnap the new XO?

While Capt Ellison requests for SAR & engineering aid from Station Alpha, Tosk coordinates a search from the Vänern in the sky with the Cetacean security squad, dolphins ensigns led by an orca lieutenant, that fan out from the Östergötland into the Atlantic Ocean to look for whoever, whatever that abducted Cmdr Sally Ellison.

Stardate: 58457.85 17th Jun 2381 1340 hrs UTC.

Location: Station Alpha, New Atlantis Project, Atlantic Ocean. 

USS Östergötland NCC-72227, with Capt Greg Ellison tries to determine if it was the new XO (and his sister) Cmdr Sally Ellison who was shot out of the aft torpedo tube by unknown agents.

Lt Cmdr Tosk on the shuttle Vänern scans the ocean for the torpedo/lifepod presumably with Sally inside. With the help the Cetacean security team, he detects a sinking tritanium tube 5 km away, 80 metres below. 

Cmdr Morpheus Drake & Chief Duc Tran sweep the torpedo bay and find a tampered panel. They determine from records that the saboteur is Andorian engineer Specialist Talas zh'Azollarh. Drake & Security Chief Lt Libby dos Santos intercept & apprehend her successfully. Ellison orders her to be held in the brig.

The tube is transported to Cargo Bay One. Transporter Chief Zree Tepelo finds it empty but for an oxygen mask & an intravenous drip of tranquiliser. 

Aboard the Vänern, Tosk detects a submarine wake pattern allowing him to extrapolate ship shape, mass & vector. This unknown ship will surface 50 km northeast. Knowing this, Capt Ellison orders the ship to take off & follow the shuttle. After Tosk beams to the bridge, a cloaked ship bursts out of the sea into the air. Ellison immediately pegs it as Romulan.

At the brig, Specialist Talas is broken by Lt dos Santos interrogation & commits suicide by pill. Drake is unable to stop it.

Tosk is able to scan through the Romulan cloak. Ellison orders Drake & a security to beam aboard the Romulan bridge. Drake's team surprises the Romulans thanks to Tosk's scans & scares them enough for them to stand down, come to all stop & drop the cloak.

Tosk detects a non-Romulan biosignature & transports them to Sickbay. Chief Medical Officer Dr. Saladin Chau visually confirms the unconscious human to be Sally Ellison.

As the Prometheus-class USS Hephaestus and Intrepid-class USS Al–Muqaddasi arrive to escort them to a secure orbital drydock, the Romulan crew are transported to the brig. Breaking the ship's databanks, Capt Ellison finds that the Romulan ship was sent from Pedrocal VII across the Neutral Zone and is unaware of the identity of their precious cargo. As they ascend, Tosk transports the cetacean security team back aboard the ship.

Then, a worried Dr. Chau calls them all. In Sickbay, he tells them that deeper scans reveal Sally Ellison to be a disguised Romulan!

Stardate: 58465.8 20th Jun 2381 1200 hrs UTC.

It has been three days since the USS Östergötland NCC-72227 was sent to the Paulson Nebula to investigate an anomalous signal detected by the SS Extropia. Before that, Admiral Kathryn Janeway ordered Capt Greg Ellison to stand down from the investigation of his sister Cmdr Sally Ellison, who was replaced by a surgically-altered Romulan agent. Then, she sent the Östergötland on this mission.

En route to the Paulson Nebula, Ellison meets with the ship's counselor, the dolphin Temrak. After the tense session, Temrak is satisfied that Ellison will be able to work without being emotionally compromised.

Hours later, they arrive at the nebula. The sensors detect are intermittent electrical discharges in the cloud. Cmdr. Morpheus Drake pilots the ship to where the Extropia previously detected the signal but sensor range is limited by the cloud.

Lt Cmdr Tosk the Studious scans the cloud & finds the region of the nebula is swamped by high-energy exotic particles. Tosk's initial scans reveals a method to bypass the particles' interference. Drake takes the ship closer, but a lightning bolt hits the ship several times, disabling the bridge's MSD & Engineering stations.

Further scans gives Tosk the information his needs. He sets the ship's shield frequency modulation, protecting her from further lightning strikes. Then, Lt. Leopold Hill and his science team are ordered by Capt Ellis to take the shuttle Hjälmaren, staying out here while the Östergötland dove in to investigate.

Flying in, Tosk detects the anomalous reading 17,000 klicks away. Ellison orders a probe launch. The probe detects a huge organic object in the cloud, excreting exotic particles. It seems alive. When Drake remotely manoeuvres the probe to land on it, it hurls a magma missile. Drake evades it skilfully.

On the surface of the 1.2km long object, the probe tells them that it detects silicon-based cellular structure & a circulatory system under its tough skin.

Suddenly the object moves towards the Östergötland at incredible speeds. Ellison orders Drake to back off. He reverses their direction, but the object accelerates and chases after the starship. As Ellison tells the Hjälmaren to hold position outside the cloud, the thing grabs the Östergötland with a tractor beam.

The main viewscreen shows that the thing is pulling them towards it. Then, four magma missiles are launched by it and streak towards the Östergötland.

As Drake raises shields, Ellison says, "What the...!" 

Stardate: 58465.9 

In the Paulson Nebula, USS Östergötland NCC-72227 is immobilised by a tractor beam from a 1.2 km-long space creature. It fires magma missiles at them.

On Capt Greg Ellison's orders, Tactical Officer Lt Libby dos Santos' phaser shot disrupts the tractor beam, allowing them to break free. Scanning the creature, Ops Officer Lt Cmdr Tosk the Studious finds that its tractor beam works on a higher dimension allowing to grab ships through their shields.

Part Deltan, Ellison uses his empathic abilities on the creature & finds that it's confused & in great pain. It connects with Ellison telepathically, who convinces it to stand down. Meanwhile, Conn Officer Cmdr Morpheus Drake easily evades the magma missile salvo.

Before going in closer to investigate the creature, Capt Ellison orders Science Officer Lt Leopold Hill aboard shuttle Hjälmaren at the nebula's border to maintain their position, collect data & keep watch.

Using his Deltan abilities, Ellison tells the creature they will try to help it. Drake manoeuvres the ship closer. Trained in xenobiology, Tosk - using the ship's sensors - discovers pain synapses & pinpoints the source: three puncture wounds in the skin, each five metres in size. A closer scan reveals three small creatures burrowing tunnels in the space creature's flesh -- one in each puncture wounds.

Ellison orders CMO Dr. Saladin Chau to lower the creature's pain, with Tosk's help. The shields' altered modulation makes contact its skin, causing a resonance cascade which then disables its pain receptors. Its pain gone, the gravimetric turbulence ceases, allowing Drake to pilot the ship in peace.

Suddenly Lt Hill warns them of a ship uncloaking nearby. Ellison orders them to immediately return to the Östergötland. 

With Tosk using sensors to lock on to the burrowing animals, Engineering Officer Ensign Lucas Garcia beams all 3 creatures out into space. They resemble 6-armed starfish with segmented limbs & a huge central maw. They squirm & undulate in space in an alien fashion.

Now that the creature's pain is gone, it is grateful. Then Hill reports that the decloaked ship is a Romulan Valdore-type warbird. Before anything could be done, a disruptor beam destroys the Hjälmaren killing Hill & his crew. Ellison is struck by grief.

The Valdore commander contacts them asking them to surrender the "weapon creature". The space beast senses Ellison's grief and reacts. It emits a pressurised gravimetric wave that rips the Valdore apart & flings Östergötland towards an asteroid cluster, which Drake is able to safely avoid by braking hard.

The creature thanks the Östergötland crew via the ship's comms and disappears into space without revealing more about itself. Meanwhile the crew pick up the Hjälmaren debris (Tosk claims that the shuttle crew died with honour like a Tosk), store the extracted burrowing creatures in crates which are then nestled safely between the nacelles, then they warp away...

Stardate: 58542.09; 18th July 2381 0945 hrs

Assigned to investigate the distress call of the SS Takoyaki NAR-7789 a Federation merchant starship, the USS Östergötland NCC-72227 warps to the uninhabited ocean planet of Trychnos, 2 lys from Cor Caroli. The Takoyaki reported a collision in orbit causing them to plunge into the seawater below. 

Upon arrival,  Lt. Cmdr. Tosk the Studious detects the Takoyaki's emergency buoy in stable orbit & downloads information that shows the merchant ship crashing into something invisible & tearing off her port nacelle. They confirm crash coordinates & find that exotectonics are causing high currents in the seas & the seawater has extremely high salinity.

Cmdr. Morpheus Drake dives the Östergötland into the ocean while Capt. Greg Ellison calls Ensign Kithrup, a dolphin SAR specialist (also a David Brin fan). Tosk also finds that the Takoyaki is on the sea bed 80 km to the east, under 200m of water, but too far for a life sign scan. Sensors detect two gargantuan alien whales approaching. Drake tries to evade twice & twice they alter course to intercept. He increases the submersible caterpillar drive to max speed & after 30 seconds, loses the whales.

The Takoyaki is resting on a geologically unstable seabed, with ground cracks that release lots of bubbles into the sea. Tosk detects 62 or the 78 crew alive but trapped. Her bridge & cargo bay (with 20 kilotonnes of osmium) are flooded. The captain is dead.

Chief Duc Tran transports five Takoyaki survivors to sickbay. As soon as Dr. Chau clears them, survivor Yeoman Bates warns Ellison not to transport any more. Resting precariously over a subterranean cave, she might be swallowed by it if her balance shifts & the cracks open up further.

Also, Aquatic Engineer Lt. Sevok notes that freshwater is rising up from the cracks with the bubbles. 

With Sevok's help for mass balance calculations, Tosk snags the Takoyaki with a tractor beam to keep her balanced. Tosk & Chief Tran figure out the optimal transport sequence for osmium & survivors. When done, the seabed crumbles beneath. A huge upsurge of freshwater hits the Östergötland. Not adapted for low salinity, she is pulled into the hole because of lack of buoyancy. Tosk quickly vents plasma, causing a steam explosion underneath while Ellison adjusts the shield to take the force of the blast. This allows Drake to fly the ship out of the hole into safe waters.

Mission completed, the Östergötland leave Trychnos & head to Cor Caroli to drop off the survivors. However, Takoyaki First Officer T'lath mentions they have yet to identify the object they had collided with in orbit. This is a mystery for the Östergötland to solve...

Stardate: 58550.35; 21st July 2381 1020 hrs

Under yellow alert, Östergötland returns to Trychnos from Starbase Gondolin at Cor Caroli without Cmdr Morpheus Drake who is infected with an Andorian Death Fever (harmless to humans, thankfully). In the meantime, river dolphin Cetacean Ensign Kremzeek from Delta shift is ordered to take his place at the Conn station, from a tank that rises up from the Cetacean Deck 2 below.

Earlier on Starbase Gondolin, Captain Greg Ellison debriefed Andorian First Mate T'lath of the Takoyaki who confirmed that something invisible collided with them in orbit. Scan records of the ship itself reveal debris fragment of material made in the Gamma Quadrant. A detailed orbital scan reveals where the collision occurred & where the other object crashed into the ocean.

Capt Ellison ordered two Type 9 shuttles down to investigate.

Aboard the Vänern are pilot Lt JG Chanthira Chaiyasit & Trill Science Officer En. Kusahr Les. From orbit, Lt. Cmdr Tosk detects some sort of oil slick at the splashdown site & the Vänern fly lower. As Chaiyasit hovers the calm seawater, Les takes a water sample. She spots something peculiar: something colossal was approaching underwater.

She warns Chaiyasit, who closes the aft hatch and pulls up. Suddenly, an alien whale jumps into the air in an attempt to eat them. Lt. Chaiyasit is skilled enough to evade, then fly under & away from the alien cetacean.

The seawater scans indicate life support coolant fluid & cryogenic sleep fluid used by the Drai in the Gamma Quadrant. Drai are known as Tosk hunters.

The Östergötland's Cetacean science team attempts to communicate with the alien whales, but reports that they are unsuccessful. Ellison orders the Östergötland to dive and thinks Drake should name the creatures.

The Vänern scans for incoming whales while the Mälaren fly CAP at a higher altitude, looking for airborne threats.

Submerged, they later receive an SOS from Vulcan pilot Lt. J.G. Velek & Security Officer Sp Randall Loomis. The Mälaren has been destroyed by three Orion Lightning-Class blockade runners.

Frustrated by the loss of a second shuttlecraft, Ellison calls for battle stations.

Going to red alert, USS Östergötland faces off the three Orion Lightning-class blockade runners in the blue skies of the ocean world Trychnos.

One Lightning dives towards them from 10 km while the other two peel off elsewhere. Ops Officer Lt. Cmdr. Tosk the Studious easily finds the Orion ships' shield frequency. On Ellison's orders, Lt. Libby dos Santos fires a phaser beam that lures one of the two other ships to bank towards them on an attack course. The dolphin helmsman Ensign Kremzeek flies the ship higher, between the two ships bearing down on them. Ellison orders dos Santos to fire at the second Lightning, which misses.

Kremzeek turns north and pursues the lone third ship. Tosk has a back-up plan when dos Santos missed. He scans the third Lightning and discovers that it is headed for the Trychnos alien whale pod. He informs the Cetacean pilot, who increases the ship's speed and tries to close the gap fast.

One of the pursuing Orion ships fires but, thanks to Kremzeek's sleek piloting, misses.

Ellison orders dos Santos and Kremzeek to fire aft phasers at the Lightnings behind them. With Tosk assisting on fire control, dos Santos's beam strikes her communication module, disabling the ship. It drops away and spirals to the ocean below.

Kremzeek, who foregoes evasive manoeuvres, fires another phaser beam that also pierces the second ship's shields. The starboard warp nacelle shears off and the beam also ignites the impulse engines. The second Lightning explodes.

The Östergötland catches up with the third Lightning. It was about to fire a harpoon at the alien whales. These are Orion illegal whalers! With Kremzeek flying them nose-to-nose and Tosk intimidating them with multiple targeting sensor pings, Capt Ellison successfully intimidates the Orions to stand down and surrender.

They beam the Lightning's command crew to the Östergötland brig & send injured ones to sickbay for treatment. Soon, after rescuing the first Lightning's crew who splashed down elsewhere, the Östergötland heads back to Starbase Gondolin at Cor Caroli, with the captured ship in tow.

En route, Tosk discovers a more accurate data of the SS Takoyaki collision aboard the Orion vessel. Also, somehow the Lightning has a Romulan cloaking device installed.

Meanwhile, Medical Officer Dr. Pachakutiq Ingersoll summons Capt Ellison to sickbay. One of the badly injured Orion ship crew member is a Vulcanoid. Before losing consciousness, he'd told the Dr. Ingersoll that he knows the captain here is Greg Ellison and what has happened to his sister.

Capt Ellison intends to pick up Lt. Cmdr. Morpheus Drake and Dr. Saladin Chau from Cor Caroli and return to Trychnos to learn more...

The Östergötland is en route back from the ocean world Trychnos to Gondolin Station at Cor Caroli III, a Helios class habitat, with a captured damaged Orion Lightning-type starship in tow.

En route, Lt. Cmdr. Tosk the Studios contacts Starbase Deep Space Nine in the Bajoran system. He requests wormhole traffic data because of the Gamma Quadrant tech found on Trychnos. Ellison is contacted by Starbase Gondolin CO Lt Cmdr Ola Piotrowski who requests a meeting. Tosk also suggests a memorial service for Lt JG Velek and Sp Randall Loomis who perished with the shuttle Mälaren.

Upon arrival at Cor Caroli, Cetacean Ensign Kremzeek docks the ship with Starbase Gondolin. They all note the Sovereign-class, Challenger-class & Sydney-class starships holding station nearby.

As starship & station security coordinate beaming off the Orion prisoners, a Bajoran Colonel from DS9 contacts Tosk, reporting there has been no unauthorised wormhole activation recently & sends him wormhole sensor data from the Dominion War's end until the present. It would take some time for the data to be downloaded via subspace.

Captain Greg Ellison & Tosk visit their radiation-damaged Vulcanoid prisoner in sickbay. Dr Pachacutiq Ingersoll informs them their prisoner is actually a Romulan with belly full of hlai'vnau. Tosk determines that his torso was irradiated & badly damaged by a reactor leak. Ingersoll wakes him up with a hypospray. In pain, he claims to know of Ellison & his sister Cmdr. Sally Ellison. He wakes, in pain and confused, and somewhat panicked. He claims that he was against "using Ellison", then was kicked out of their faction. What Romulan faction is this?

And more intriguing, the Romulan seems afraid of Ellison.

Coughing green blood, he falls unconscious & Ingersoll transports him to the station for DNA reconstruction treatment.

In his ready room, Ellison sends an encrypted sitrep to Admiral Janeway. 

Tosk, En Caiomhin Cavanaugh, SCS Abu Hajar and Sp Dekon Preja beam to the Lightning’s bridge. DOTs are repairing the damages. From the operational logs, they discover the ship is from a whaling fleet of 5 Lightnings. They hunt Trychnos whales & their ships have been randomly colliding with invisible objects in Trychnos orbit for the last 2 months. Like the SS Takoyaki a few days ago.

Ellison then beams over to help crack the security logs & finds the Romulan's file. “Chief Qaenlahr” joined the crew only 32 days ago on the Orion world Throvan II. Qaenlahr brought with him a stolen cloaking device & installed it into this Lightning. The Orion captain thought to sneak up & destroy any meddling Starfleet ships.

Suddenly, Chief of Security Lt Libby dos Santos at the Östergötland bridge informs Ellison that the Piotrowski meeting is due & transports the captain to the station command office. Piotrowski has been ordered to give him 3 new XO candidates: Cmdr Calvine Montoya, Lt Cmdr Anne Leewenhoek & Lt Cmdr Gitisha Malik. Although the ship has not been cleared for quantum torpedo use, using his persuasive skills Ellison requisitions 40 for the Östergötland from Piotrowski.

Donning a radiation suit, Tosk inspects the cloaking device in Engineering & finds a serial number and a booby trap. Removing it would detonate & destroy the ship, so he stands down & orders the security team to transport everything from Qaenlahr’s quarters back to the ship for investigation.

Back at his Ops console on the Östergötland bridge, Tosk receives a message from the station that their shuttles will be replaced by new ones, modified for underwater operations. Also, the DS9 log data has been fully downloaded.

Stardate: 58563.9 July 26 2381.

With Chief Flight Operations Officer Cmdr. Morpheus Drake (recovered from a bout of Andorian death fever) & Chief Medical Officer Dr. Saladin Chau back aboard, it is time for the USS Östergötland to return to ocean world Trychnos to investigate the crash site of the unknown object in orbit that collided with the SS Takoyaki.

Drake organises a memorial for Lt. Velek & Sp. Randall Loomis who were killed by the Orion whalers aboard the shuttle Mälaren in orbit around Trychnos. Later, Capt Greg Ellison receives a message from Admiral Kathryn Janeway who will look into Qaenlahr, the Romulan crew of the Orion whaler, and his involvement with and knowledge of the Ellisons.

With Cetacean Ops upgrades and brand new aquashuttles, Ellison field-promotes Drake to acting Executive Officer. Ensign Kithrup is promoted to Alpha shift Conn officer in his new Conn tank station. With Lt. Cmdr. Ola Piotrowski's permission they depart the Helios-class Starbase Gondolin around Cor Caroli III.

Upon arrival off Trychnos, Drake believes there are more than one cloaked orbiting object. They go to Yellow Alert. Using data from the captured Orion Lightning, Ops Officer Lt. Cmdr. Tosk the Studious is able to plot exact object collision locations with the Orions months earlier. The nearest collision occurred in orbit at the south polar region.

En route, Östergötland experiences a violent collision. Ellison falls & is knocked out. Drake becomes acting Captain & calls a med team to the bridge. Tosk scans & detects an invisible meteor falling into the Trychnos atmosphere. Under Kithrup's piloting, they chase after it. Then with Tosk's sensor scans as aid, Drake grabs it with a tractor beam from the captain's chair controls. Kithrup maintains altitude at 20 km, then is ordered to ascend to low orbit.

The tractor's graviton beam, interacting with the object's structure, allows them to scan it: a tritanium-like cylinder 20 m length. Then, Landing Signal Officer Petty Officer 1st Class Isaac Brosch pulls it into Shuttle Bay 2. Drake & Tosk rush there. Tosk, familiar with the tech, disables the cloaking module turning it visible. Inside are five dormant Tosks in cyrogenic suspension! The cloak is NOT Romulan in origin, but a Gamma Quadrant design.

But before they could do anything, five Orion Lightning whaling ships drop out of warp at a distance. Going to Red Alert, Drake orders the ship to hide at the far side of Trychnos & suggests they adapt the Tosk sleeping cylinder's cloak to be invisible.

Grimly, Tosk tells Kithrup, "Better to die than live as a captive."

Stardate: 58564.7 July 26 2381.

Upon the arrival of 5 modified Orion Lightning-type blockade runners, the USS Östergötland quickly moves to the far side of the ocean world Trychnos, out of sensor reach.

Captain Greg Ellison orders Commander Morpheus Drake to launch a probe to monitor the Orions' activity. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Commander Tosk & Petty Officer 1st Class Isaac Brosch further study and investigate the cryo cylinder filled with 6 Tosks sleeping in cryo suspension. With Chief Brosch's help, Tosk successfully removes its cloaking device. Then they both rush to the shield control room. 

The probe shows two of the five Orion ships are holding at low orbit while the remaining three have begun diving into the atmosphere, heading for a pod of Trychnos whales. Ellison calls Lt. Ola Piotrowski at nearby Starbase Gondolin via subspace for backup. The station commander dispatches a patrol fleet as the Trychnos is in Federation space & the Orions are there illegally. 

Tosk & Brosch try to install the cloaking device aboard the Östergötland. There is concern of explosion by activating untested alien device. Ultimately, it is installed but not activated. Tosk then returns to the bridge Ops Station.

Drake warns that the Orion surface-bound trio are now shooting harpoons at whales. Ellison orders Drake to take over from Ensign Kithrup on Conn & descend towards the ocean. Tosk reminds them that submerged travel would take longer. They perform a head on attack.

The two Orion ships in orbit spot their approach & dive in to intercept. Ellison hails them & attempts to intimidate them into stand down & leave, broadcasting vids of their last battle with the three Orion ships there. He feels the Orion captain's distress. But the Orion captain boldly declares that they will not yield & will destroy them. Östergötland's new quantum torpedoes - loaded at Starbase Gondolin a few days earlier - destroy the lead Orion ship.

Ellison presents a brand new ultimatum & the remaining four Lightnings warp away in distress.

Using the energy signature registered by Tosk in the shuttle bay, they begin scanning the planet's low orbit -- and detect 120 cloaked and functioning cryo cylinders in orbit around Trychnos.

The Prometheus-class USS Vikrant, Ambassador-class USS Funafuti & Challenger-class USS Chenem-Waset arrive from Starbase Gondolin, ultimately detecting 235 cloaked cylinders altogether. This meant there are 1400 Tosks sleeping in cryo in Trychnos orbit.

The Vikrant begins to systematically beam aboard the cylinders and decloaking them.

When their task is completed, the Chenem-Waset stays back to support Östergötland at Trychnos, the Funafuti warps back to Sector 001 to report to Starfleet Command, while Tosk returns with the Vikrant to Starbase Gondolin to help oversee the revival of the Tosks. 

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Saladin Chau accompanies him as the good doctor has developed a sudden case of thalassophobia because of the many crises and conflicts at Trychnos.

The Östergötland needs a new CMO...

Stardate: 58564.7 July 26 2381.

Lt. Cmdr Tosk and Dr. Saladin Chau transfer from the USS Östergötland to the Prometheus-class USS Vikrant to help revive over 1400 sleeping Tosks.

They are replaced respectively by Lt. Galinha, the new Tamarian Chief of Operations, and Dr. Patrick Troughton, the second doctor to serve aboard the Östergötland after Dr. Chau.

The Challenger-class USS Chenem-Waset is orbiting the planet Trychnos. Still looking for whatever deposited the Tosk cryocyinders in orbit, Capt. Greg Ellison orders a planetary scan from the troposphere. Cetacean oceanologist Lt. J.G. Tlilissak's scans detect the location of chemical compounds similar to those near the crashed cylinder where they recovered the first six sleeping Tosks. Also, Tlilissak informs him that the Trychnos ocean is mildly toxic to them.

Then, Cmdr Morpheus Drake still at the Conn station brings the Östergötland down to lower atmosphere & launches a probe into the sea. Drake controls the probe as it traverses the jagged undersea terrain. Galinha oversees a team of cetaceans in EV wetsuits (led by xenobiologist Ensign Aukassik) to reconnoitre the ocean floor. The probe's readings helps Dr. Troughton at the bridge Science Station to scan a fragment of a starship buried under 5 metres of coral growth.

While submerging the ship, Drake looks out for the whales & spots one swimming at high speed towards them. He parks the ship above the coral growth, but at first try Galinha is unable to tractor the fragment into their moon pool (caused by a Complication).

Drake descends lower & Troughton scans the corals. Galinha studies the coral structure data, allowing him to tear the fragment from the corals. Drake climbs into the sky to evade the oncoming whale just before it arrives where they had been.

Chief Engineer Lt. Latha Reon and Galinha study the fragment, but a tricorder scan triggers a chain reaction causing it to lose molecular integrity. Before it completely turns to dust, Galinha beams it into the transport buffer to keep it in stasis. The tricorder's initial readings show that it is approximately 200 years old.

Meanwhile, using previous whale song data recorded by, Troughton is able to complete a translation matrix for the universal translator. With Vulcan Linguist Ensign T'miu's help, they are able to allow Ellison to speak to the nearest whale, named Oouiix. Oouiix informs them the whale they need to talk to is the elderly whale Paauuk. The old whale lives 7 km deep and was alive 200 years ago. Oouiix is over 100 metres in length, larger than the largest Terran blue whale. Lt Galinha offers an observation: "Lo'ak and Payakan on Pandora."

After some time talking to the whales, the Östergötland dives deeper than ever towards the trench where Paauuk lives. In the dark, upon turning off their interior and exterior lights, they spot a multi-tentacled, bio-luminescent kraken-like creature. It is approximately the same size as the Östergötland.

Then, the kraken attacks.

Stardate: 58564.7 July 26 2381.

Looking for the elder Trychnos whale Old Paauuk, the Östergötland crew is attacked by a giant kraken-like squid creature in a dark undersea trench at a depth of 7 kilometres. Capt. Greg Ellison orders Cmdr. Morpheus Drake to evade the squid.

Meanwhile, Operations Officer Lt. Galinha adjusts the shield bubble to ease the squid away. But it succeeds in grabbing the starship with its tentacles and the interaction begins to deplete her shields. But before their hull is damaged, Galinha channels EPS to the nav deflector. The energy discharge propels the creature backwards 600 metres, illuminating the terrain. Unfazed, it tries again, tentacles reaching out for them, but with a boost of the Östergötland's Submersible Caterpillar Drive, Drake is able to accelerate faster. The creature attempts to pursue through the undersea trench, but soon ceases.

Ellison orders the new Chief Medical Officer Dr. Patrick Troughton & xenologist Ensign Aukassik to study the squid's bio-luminescent patterns. Perhaps they could communicate with it later.

Then, the proximity alarm blares.

A 400m-long silhouette approaches rapidly. It is Old Paauuk, old & cranky.

He almost rams into them, but using a universal translator developed earlier by Dr. Troughton and linguist Ensign T'miu earlier is able to communicate with him. When asked about the ship that brought the Tosk cryocylinders to Trychnos, Paauuk says it came many clicks ago. The Tosk went to two places that is one place. The first "place" is a set of new whale sounds. Troughton and Aukassik work to devise a better translation matrix, deciphering numbers that ultimately display a two-dimesional star map from Trychnos' point-of-view.

"What's the second place?"

Paauuk brings them to a flat plain that slowly begins to descend even deeper. Structural integrity warnings begin to blare. The pressure at this depth is starting to affect the Östergötland's hull.

He brings them to something extraordinary: a glowing blue hole on the seafloor, big enough for the Östergötland to pass through. This was where the Tosk ship had gone.

Drake launches and pilots a probe into the orifice, but it implodes due to the critical pressure. Its data feed shows a high emanation of neutrino particles. Galinha sends Lt. Tosk's DS9 wormhole sensor logs for Troughton to sift through. Troughton discovers pulses of verteron radiation, like the Bajoran wormhole. Is there a stable wormhole in there?

Ellison graciously thanks Old Paauuk, who awaits like a giant monolith in the dark water.

Before proceeding, Galinha pings a subspace comm relay within subspace range & transmits their logs just in case. Then under Ellison's order, Drake makes a run for the portal with full power to the caterpillar drive. Using power systems knowledge, Galinha boosted the structural integrity field throughout the ship. Alarm flashes: STRUCTURAL FAILURE IMMINENT.

But they make it through in a flash of light.

The starship exits the wormhole in unfamiliar shallow waters. The structural failure alarm ceases immediately. They surface in a lake surrounded by huge boulders. There is a sun above them, but the surface curves upwards to all directions in the distance.

The Östergötland appears to be within a Dyson sphere...

Stardate: 58564.74 July 26 2381.

After travelling through the stable wormhole discovered 7km under the oceans of the planet Trychnos, Captain Greg Ellison and the Östergötland crew find themselves in a lake on the inner surface of a Dyson sphere. They surface & discover from the databanks that this is the Jenolan Sphere where the USS Enterprise discovered the crashed USS Jenolan 12 years ago. As it was then, the sun's radiation is still deadly.

They submerge into the lake once again for shelter from radiation and to study the wormhole, which is nestled in a rocky alcove about 70 metres beneath the surface. Summoned to the bridge, beluga whale Chief Science Officer Lt. John Hippocampus launches a class-8 probe into the wormhole. They lose contact with it. With assists from Chief Medical Officer Dr. Patrick Troughton and Chief Engineer Lt. Latha Reon, they try again to create a link of probes, but still lose contact.

Chief Ops Officer Lt. Galinha suggests programming a probe to go back to Trychnos and return. Capt. Ellison adds that the probe should go back & forth to ensure two-way continuity. When launched, the probe confirms they can indeed return to Trychnos if they wanted to.

Immediately upon retrieving the probe, a pressurised wave of water threatens to slam them into a rock wall, but from the Conn Station, Cmdr. Morpheus Drake is able to prevent a collision. Sensors show warm H20 flowing from one of the underwater tunnels. Hippocampus believes it is seismic activity but there is no sign of it. 

Deep scans show processed metals down the tunnel. Could the Tosk ship be down there? Another probe is sent and discovers a large undersea cavern with schools of armoured eyeless fish. There is a break in the cave wall and a metal pipe is pumping gallons of hot water into the chamber.

Ellison orders Drake to remote pilot the probe into the conduit. Despite the pressure, the probe finds itself in an even larger undersea cave. Columns of crystals grow out of the ground, emitting unknown form of radiation that heats up the water to 90 degrees C. Openings in the cave walls appear to convey the warm water elsewhere into the Dyson Sphere.

Intrigued by the crystals, Ellison orders Drake to use the probe as a transporter relay and grab one of the fist-sized crystal fragments on the ground. Meanwhile, Engineer Ensign Lucas Garcia stands by in the transporter room. Ellison, Hippocampus & Galinha join him there. Galinha suggests transporting the water as well as the fragment into the container. Garcia activates the security shield around the transporter pad.

From the bridge, Drake skillfully transports the crystal into the container. Hippocampus -- using his gravsled tricorder interface -- detects the water temperature quickly dropping, but the crystal fragment is beginning to glow brighter by the second. The cetacean suggests transporting it back from whence it came from. Ellison agrees. Drake tries to do so but contact with the probe is lost.

The fragment explodes. The security shield protects the crew. But it blasts a hole in the ceiling and vaporises the outer hull, disrupting the ship's shields. Water floods the wreckage of the transporter pad, suspended there as if magically by the pad's security force field. Garcia tells them the force field power is being drained by the water somehow.

If it fails, the entire Östergötland will be flooded...

Stardate: 58564.75 July 26 2381.

The heavily modified Norway class NCC-72227 USS Östergötland is 70 metres under the surface of a lake. The lake is on the inner surface of the massive Jenolan Dyson sphere, eight light seconds in radius. The top hull over Transporter Room 1 on Deck 1 is breached by the bright light burst from the fist-sized crystal on the transporter pad. The hole lets the lake water flood into the compartment, but is held within the transporter pad emergency forcefield. But, its energy is quickly being drained somehow.

From the bridge, Executive Officer Cmdr. Morpheus Drake advises them to evacuate the room. They all do, and then the forcefield fails, the invasive water splashing on Capt. Greg Ellison just before the doors closes, activating its own forcefield. 

The half-Deltan Ellison makes telepathic contact with an entity. It calls itself "Us" and refuse to acknowledge them as anything other than "Östergötland". Because it looks as if Ellison is in pain, Dr Troughton rushes forward to help. Tamarian Operations Officer Lt Galinha orders Transporter Room 2 to lock onto the Captain & Doctor and transport them to sickbay.

Drake tells them he will surface the ship. Galinha sprints to Engineering to help increase the power. Engineer Ensign Lucas Garcia & Science Officer Lt. J.G. John Hippocampus, on his grav sled, sees that the door to Transporter Room 1 is being smashed from within. He realises that it's the water doing this. 

In Sickbay, Dr. Patrick Troughton detects that Ellison's brainwaves is way above the red line and his blood pressure is spiking. Unable to break the captain out of his trance, the doctor quickly synthesizes a compound cocktail to help stabilise him.

Meanwhile, Transporter Room 1 door explodes into the hallway in a great burst of water. Secondary emergency force fields trap it in the 2-meter section before of the shattered door, but Garcia and Hippocampus are now separated by it. Is the crystal causing this?

The beluga whale science officer has an idea. Lower the shield, let the water in to the bulkhead door behind him, activate the uniform rebreather then swim into the room, grab the crystal and discard it outside the ship. 

At the same time, Ellison interacts with "Us". Swayed by his diplomacy skills, Us confirms that he has seen a Tosk and guides him towards a blue glowing tunnel -- which he sees in him mind. Then, the doctor injects his new drug cocktail into Ellison's neck.

Hippocampus implements his plan, the water sloshing all over him filling up the corridor. He hears the water, who calls him "Östergötland" telepathically. The water pulls him into the Transporter Room. He grabs with his beak the inert-looking crystal on the wreckage of the transporter pad. A second later, he is extravehicular.

Drake is having trouble surfacing the ship, but with Galinha's assist from Engineering the Östergötland breaks free of the sapient water's grasp. The klaxons blare, indicating that Hippocampus is overboard.

Suddenly, the Us-Ellison connection is broken, and he admonishes the doctor for administering the drug during a First Contact situation then orders Lt. Chanthiri Chaiyasit to retrieve the science officer with the aquashuttle Mokuaia.

At the same time, outside the ship Hippocampus drops the crystal in the warm waters. Soon after Chayasit sidles up alongside the beluga whale, then after a thumbs up they both return to the hangar bay moon pool. As the Mokuaia parks, the beluga leaps onto the hangar deck, activating his grav sled. He turns, peers down and sees the exact same crystal he dropped right under him. He panics for a second. How?

He scans the crystal and finds no radiation, microbes or anything dangerous on it.

Ellison calls for a briefing while DOT-7Ms repair the hull damage. He relays the information he got from Us while Hippocampus shows them the crystal that followed him back. No idea how it moved. Ellison orders Troughton to bring it to sickbay to run a more detailed scan.

The senior staff agree they should follow the advice given by Us. Suddenly, the crystal is in the replicator alcove. Troughton holds it and rushes to sickbay where he and Dr Pachakutiq Ingersoll study the crystal on Biobed 1.

With repairs completed, Drake pilots the ship through the tunnel following the course etched in Ellison's mind and they travel for some time. Then a cluster of huge milky-white crystal columns criss-cross the passage ahead, blocking them.

Back in Sickbay, a nurse tells Troughton that the LCARS UI on Biobed 2 is broken. Then Troughton distracts Ingersoll. Suddenly, the crystal has vanished from Biobed 1. What is this disappearing-reappearing crystal?

When Ellison contacts Sickbay for a status report, Troughton reports that it has vanished. Lt Libby dos Santos at the Bridge Tactical Station points under Hippocampus: the crystal is now back under the beluga. Ellison orders the beluga to mind the crystal. When he looks again, Hippocampus finds it is now safe in his wetsuit pouch.

New plan: Drake will leads an Away Team with Galinha & Dr Troughton in aquashuttle Kuakamoku Rock, with Hippocampus extravehicular in the water. The Away Team launches and they thread the needle carefully. The science officer finds the water here much cooler for Cetaceans than the lake where they emerged from Trychnos. With everyone's coordinated help, Drake safely pilots through the sharp-edged quartz columns.

On the other side, they find one of their probes waiting and command it to pace them as they travel deeper. Using jury-rigged pattern enhancers aboard the shuttle, the Östergötland stands by to transport the crew back if there is a problem.

It is then they find an ancient crashed ship wedged between tunnel walls, with clusters of bio-luminescent coral growing on it. At first, Ellison orders the shuttle to approach first. Sure enough they detect a single Tosk vital signs, but very faint. It seems to be enclosed in some organic pod. Hippocampus then swims on point and hails it with his cetacean song. There is a response:

One of the glowing coral pieces detach, transform into some sort of calcified life-form with arm, standing upright, and then lurches at great speed towards the undefended beluga. Its huge, milky white craws raised for a kill...

Note: The first time the group played STA: Emergency Deep face-to-face, sans Drake's  and Hippocampus' players.

Stardate: 58564.8 July 26 2381.

The Norway class NCC-72227 USS Östergötland awaits as the aquashuttle Kuakamoku Rock Away Team approaches derelict the Tosk ship. When Science Officer Lt. J.G. John Hippocampus hails the Tosk life form he is attacked by a creature that detached from the coral growth on the ship. 

Chief Zree Tepelo transports Hippocampus into the Cetacean Ops transporter pad. Then Capt Greg Ellison orders Tepelo to beam the coral probe to the brig. It appears to be feral, lashing out at the containment forcefield. 

Then with Tamarian Ops Officer Lt. Galinha boosting the shuttle's sensors, Tepelo beams the Tosk life form all the way from its position in the derelict ship to the Östergötland sickbay along with Cheif Medical Officer Dr. Patrick Troughton to treat it. 

Meanwhile more coral detach & rush to attack the shuttle. Executive Officer Cmdr. Morpheus Drake, piloting the aquashuttle, makes a beeline at full speed -- through the underwater crystal forest -- back towards their ship. 

Expressing great agony, the Tosk possesses coral growths all over his body & Troughton is not able to separate the reptilian physique from the coral. Furthermore, the sickbay scanners inform them that the Tosk and the coral's DNAs are intertwined. 

Pursued by coral probes firing ballistic projectiles at them, Galinha boosts the shuttle's engines allowing Drake to accelerate ahead of them through the crystal tunnel. 

Ellison & Hippocampus rush to sickbay where the half-Deltan empath Captain Greg Ellison uses the beluga whale Science Officer's pet rock to telepathically connect with the Tosk. Troughton believes he is afflicted by a Cartalian fever variant. 

On the bridge, Galinha reports intense microwave emission from the wreckage which is damaging the Östergötland shields. He modifies the navigation deflector to emit a high energy particle beam that repels the radiation, which is heating up the solids around them.

With the doctor's antiviral meds, the Tosk calms down & connects with Ellison. The Tosk is integrated into the Dyson Sphere ecology, regulating its system. It seems that the Tosk has to be reinstalled into his creche or else a microwave-based thermal runaway will destroy the entire region within the shell of the Dyson Sphere.

Also Ellison has a vision of a Parliament-class starship in space destroyed by a Romulan warbird that drops out of warp. Where did this vision come from?

After fixing up the Tosk, the crew bade him farewell and beam him back to his creche. The microwave radiation drops and he thanks them by using his Dyson Sphere imbued power to beam the entire Östergötland and crew to an empty dark space.

There is no water. The Östergötland is now floating in vacuum. The only thing lit is a 150m diameter closed hatch on a black metal surface. They decipher the hatch's query signal, send a reply signal & the hatch opens.

Beyond the hatch is the familiar view of a star-studded space. They have exited the Dyson Sphere!

They detect a nearby starship. It is the Parliament-class USS Vancouver -- assigned to recalibrate the Sphere -- is dumbfounded at their appearance. The scene reminds Ellison of his clairvoyant vision! He hails Captain Nguyen & persuades her to sound red alert & tells Drake to lock quantum torpedoes on empty space.

A D'deridex warbird drops out of warp nearby as per in his vision. Aided by Ellison's intel and Galinha's technical skills, Drake's quantum torpedo volley collapses the warbird's shields & damages its hull. Ellison hails it, threatens destruction. Intimidated by the threat, the warbird turns tail and flees without a word. 

Nguyen thanks them for the unexpected assist. Troughton offers them tea. They transfer information learnt from their Sphere exploration to the Vancouver. When all the data has been transferred, Captain Ellison orders Drake to set a course back to Starbase Gondolin for a debriefing... which is 5 days away at maximum warp.

Stardate: 58592.5 (5th August 5 2381, 2045 hrs local time)

The Norway class NCC-72227 USS Östergötland is recalled to Reykjavik Station on Earth for a full maintenance & repairs while the command crew is summoned to Tycho City on Luna for a commendation by Admiral Kathryn Janeway.

The Danube-class Runabout USS Rajang, piloted by Ensigns Burke and Latour, is dispatched to retrieve them as the Östergötland sails by the moon towards Earth. Tycho City is a huge dome city beside Lake Armstrong. After landing, a trio of LTs escort them to Starfleet Command Tycho City Auditorium where Admiral Janeway awards Science Officer Lt. J.G. John Hippocampus the Starfleet Decoration of Gallantry, CMO Dr. Patrick Troughton the Starfleet Surgeon Decoration & Captain Greg Ellison the Starfleet Medal of Honor. (Thanks, Command Division Sourcebook.) Meanwhile Lt. Galinha is promoted to Lieutenant Commander.

Drake however is not awarded anything for unknown reasons and applauds with the audience. Why? It is yet unknown, but he did have an encrypted private communique from Starfleet before their arrival.

After the event, Galinha requests Romulan ale from the waiters. He likes the synthehol, never tasting the real thing before and orders a keg. Both him and Hippocampus take the keg out of the building, looking for the way to Lake Armstrong for some skinny-dipping. Drake sighs and follows them from afar.

Troughton meets an old friend Dr Bash Horzan, a xenobotanist who invites him to the adjacent Aldrin Research Faciliity to see a puzzling specimen.

Ellison meets Admiral Janeway privately who tells him that Starfleet Intelligence will soon have some definite news of his abducted sister Cmdr. Sally Ellison. This news disturbs him.

Meanwhile the skinny-dipping party decides to cut a straight path to the lake via Tycho City Zoo.

Elsewhere, Ellison leaves the Starfleet building & decides to do some soul searching via hovercab.

On Level 3 at the Aldrin Research Facility, Dr. Horzan shows a plant-like creature contained in a vertical transparent aluminum cylinder. He claims it moves like an animal when but is now inert. Troughton tries to poke it with a stylus through an open hatch, but then vines start to lash out, hold the hatch open, tries to grab him. He evades, calls security, and the creature, pushing against the building structure collapses down into the floor. A tritanium tube 2m long falls from the ceiling above: an EMP device, armed by the fall.

Thankfully, Troughton is able to disarm it before it sets off. Security goes after the plant creature.

At the zoo, Hippocampus and Galinha (and the keg) bypasses a security forcefield leading to the dangerous animals exhibits which are closed for maintenance, but for one. An enclosure with a cute, white, fluffy creature. The exhibit is only marked DANGEROUS ORGANISM on the forcefield cage.

Soon, they reach the empty aquatic exhibits overlooking the expansive Lake Armstrong.

"Look out behind you!" Drake yells from the shadows, phaser drawn. On the pier, a number of the so-called dangerous, white, fluffy creatures are flopping energetically on the deck towards them.

Stardate: 58592.6 August 5 2381.

The USS Östergötland is undergoing maintenance at Reyjakvik Station on Earth while the command crew is invited to Tycho City on the moon to be decorated at an awards ceremony. After the event, upon talking to his mentor and advisor Admiral Kathryn Janeway, Östergötland's Capt. Greg Ellison heads off in a hovercab for some soul searching.

Meanwhile, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Patrick Troughton is at the Aldrin Research Facility beside the Starfleet Administration Building. His old friend the xenobotanist Dr Bash Horvan shows him a plant creature dubbed the "cephaloflower". But while poking it with a stick, the creature breaks through the transparent aluminum cage, its vines lashing out, striking load bearing structures of the building.  The building shakes, and the creature drops through the crumbling hole in the floor.

After disarming the EMP device that fell from the Weapons lab in Level 4, Troughton loses his balance and falls on top of the creature in Level 2. He is injured, but he quickly leaps to safety before the creature falls even further, past Level 1 and onto the Concourse.

Elsewhere in Tycho City at the edge of Lake Armstrong, Commander Morpheus Drake, appearing out of the shadows, warns Lt Cmdr Galinha & Lt. J.G. Hippocampus of the white creatures flopping towards them on the pier on Tycho City Zoo. Galinha throws the Romulan ale keg at them, using it to slip by. The trio of creatures bite with sharp fangs & suck the ale out of the keg. Drake calls City Security. Zoo Security arrives, telling them that these were mutated Romulan ale sucking noopsies, not the dangerous bone sucking moopsies which are still safe in their enclosures.

Then they hear via comms about the trouble at Aldrin Facility. They rush for the building, with Drake & Galinha using Hippocampus's grav sled as a bobsled. Hippocampus asks, Wait. Can't we just beam there?

Of course they could. They forgot.

After a combadge call, the trio materialise in the Transporter Room in the Starfleet Admin Building. They all bobsled across the road to the Aldrin Facility. They see the cephaloflower digging savagely on the concourse. It was growing bigger.

Starfleet security converges, then defers to Cmdr. Drake, the highest ranking officer there. Using a security PADD, Drake raises a shield bubble around the cephaloflower, lowering the stresses on the building.

While viewing the facility logs, Hippocampus discovers the creature went berserk exactly when a polaric reactor was activated in the Radiology Lab in Sublevel 1. The creature appears to be drawn to this reactor!

A quick call to the lab supervisor Dr Jurgens confirms that no one is left in the Radiology Lab. Hippocampus & Galinha then bobsled down to  the basement and burst into the lab. They see the active polaric reactor humming ominously.

The ceiling is cracking & would collapse soon. They find the reactor control panel. While Hippocampus calls Dr Jurgens for the shut down procedure, Galinha uses his insight to figure out the complex controls. After several heartbeats, the Tamarian Ops Officer succeeds in shutting down the reactor.

The creature stands down and begins to shrink to a small and easier to handle size. City security & Aldrin personnel take over the disaster zone. Meanwhile Dr Horvan heals Troughton's injuries. As they leave Aldrin, Capt Ellison arrives via hovercab, just in time to regroup with his crew.

They are greeted by Admiral Janeway, approaching from the Starfleet Administration Building. She sincerely hopes they get some rest before going out to the final frontier again in a week's time... 

Stardate: 58592.6 August 13 2381.

After a week's shore leave, the fully repaired Östergötland orbits Earth, near Earth Spacedock. Admiral Kathryn Janeway contacts Captain Greg Ellison from her office and informs them that they are to investigate a Kite Runner-class Merchant Marine ship NAR-23017 SS Yongbi Eeocheonga at Mandos III 20 light years away. Apparently the ship's XO Édouard O'Neil is a surgically altered Romulan agent. As promised, Starfleet Intelligence has uncovered the plot of a Tal Shiar splinter group Ullho Lonveni led by Enriov Veresik. They plan to replace Starfleet personnel using surgically altered agents.

The Östergötland crew is to detain the Lonveni agent and learn more about their plot and the location of the missing Cmdr. Sally Ellison.

En route, Captain Ellison calls for a senior officers' meeting (with Chief Engineer Lt. Latha Reon & Security Chief Lt. Libby dos Santos). Ellison gets Ops Officer Lt. Cmdr. Galinha to connect their combadges via a secret comm channel. The badges are also set to transmit a secure emergency transmission burst in case they need to signal each other covertly. With a Romulan splinter group like the Ullho Lonveni, you would never know when it would be needed.

The plan: Drop out of warp at Mandos III, scan the Eeocheonga, convince the ship they have undetectable plasma leaks, offer engineering help, Security teams also beam in with Engineering and detain O'Neil.

Checking the crew list, Drake informs them that there are 12 new crew members since the Trychnos mission. Ellison orders him to detailed background & ID checks in case they are infiltrators. After that Chief Medical Officer Dr. Patrick Troughton is ordered to secretly do detailed medical scans based on the two infiltrators they caught during their first mission.

In the meantime, Lt. Latha modifies all shuttlecraft so they could be remotely controlled by covertly injecting new subroutines into their flight computers locally. Galinha taps into transporter data and downloads transport logs to a secure memory on his Ops Station.

After his check, Dr. Troughton confirms medically with detailed scans that all the new crew who joined them at Starbase Gondolin and Reykjavik are not Romulans.

Three hours later, they drop out of warp in the Mandos system. They spot the Eeocheonga orbiting Mandos III and hail them. Captain Jennifer Lee replies. Executive Officer Cmdr. Morpheus Drake tells them that Östergötland's brand new, enhanced, experimental, high-resolution sensors detected multiple trace plasma leaks on the merchant ship, and offers them help. Lee agrees, but Ellison empathically notes her uneasiness and annoyance. Then the Östergötland come alongside the Eeocheonga. 

Drake, dos Santos and the Engineering and Security teams converge in Transporter Room 1. Meanwhile, Ellison continues the conversation. The Eeocheonga is there to transport processed ores and machine parts to the Námo colony. Galinha detects no anomalous signals from the planet.

When Capt Lee kept asking Ellison when the Engineering team would be beaming over, he has a bad feeling and orders the Transporter Room to abort. 

Suddenly the Eeocheonga bolts, impulse engines flaring away from Mandos III. Galinha deftly grabs it with tractor beam a kilometre away. Then a phaser beam lances back at them, but misses. Ellison takes control of Östergötland's tactical systems and looses a phaser shot, which overpowers the Eeocheonga's shields, destroys her engines and rips out her communication gear from her hull in a plume of gas and debris.

The Eeocheonga disabled, Drake & Troughton beam with a security team to her bridge. Lee, the helmsman and another officer takes cover and a firefight occurs. Drake is able to stun Lee. Troughton convinces the helmsman to stand down.

Lee is transported to the brig. There, dos Santos and Ellison intimidates her into admitting that all every Eeocheonga crew member is a surgically-altered Romulan agent! But where is O'Neil? Lee laughs, he is working to destroy both their ships now.

From the bridge, Galinha's scans detects a tricobalt explosive partially masked by the unstable emission from the damaged warp core. A single life form is running towards it. With Hippocampus' help Galinha quickly beams the runner to sickbay before they reach the tricobalt device. Already prepared for action, Dr. Troughton hyposprays the runner with a tranquiliser when First Officer O'Neil materialises in front of him, dropping him unconscious. 

Upon disabling the tricobalt bomb, Latha discovers a hidden computer core which reveals location of people the Lonveni abducted. Would Sally Ellison be here?

Stardate: 58615.8. August 14th, 2381.

The USS Östergötland NCC-72227 orbits Mandos III with the captured SS Yongbi Eocheonga, her Ullho Lonveni Romulan infiltrator crew detained in the brig.

They need info, so Lt. J.G. John Hippocampus & Ensign Lucas Garcia beam to the Eocheonga to do a full computer systems check. Meanwhile, Dr Troughton formulates a truth serum that would work with Romulan physiology, using their Vulcan Linguist Ensign T'niu as a baseline.

First, Chief of Security Lt. Libby dos Santos asks the 32 detainees pointed questions, discovering that "Crewman Byron" is the subcommander in charge of this Lonveni cell, not "Captain Lee". Then, Troughton also refines the interrogation to confirm Byron's role. Security then isolates Byron from his crew & Troughton administers his petweeathian truth drug.

Capt. Greg Ellison then applies his persuasion skills, Romulan knowledge & Deltan empathy to break Byron down. Byron tells him that their base in at Pedrocal V across the Romulan Neutral Zone & their UFP port is on Throvan II where Chief Qaenlahr joined the Orion whaling ship the Östergötlan  fought at Trychnos.

Then Executive Officer Cmdr. Morpheus Drake interrogates Byron with offer of Romulan ale. The drugged & inebriated Romulan tells them the coordinates of the Pedrocal system.

Hippocampus' team beam back, reporting that they have detailed scans of Pedrocal V. The entire system is located in a cloud of ionised particles. Sensors & beaming will be limited. The Pedrocal primary is a white dwarf. Also, there are 50 Federation prisoners there & Cmdr.Sally Ellison, the captain's sister, is among them.

Soon after transmitting their intel, Admiral Kathryn Janeway contacts them, assigning them a mission to sneak into the Neutral Zone to investigate Pedrocal and if possible rescue the prisoners. En route, they will rendezvous with the USS Sienkiewicz NCC-88034 at the Romulan border to transfer their prisoners.

At warp, Ellison orders Operations Officer Lt. Cmdr. Galinha, aided by Ensign Garcia, to adapt one of the Tosk cylinder cloaking devices for Östergötland use. Dr Troughton preps a procedure to surgically alter them into Romulans.

After successfully testing their new cloak by stalking the Sienkiewicz, they decloak, make contact with her Cardassian Acting Captain Kodar Tamat. Captain Tamat beams the Lonveni agents onto his own brig before resuming their voyage back to Sector 001. Lt. Cmdr. Galinha figures that the Tosk cloak is a game changer, performing better than the Romulan cloak they scavenged from the Orion whaler on Trychnos.

After that, the Östergötland warps into the Romulan Neutral Zone to accomplish their rescue mission...

Stardate: 58620.2. August 16th, 2381.

The USS Östergötland, with her newly installed Tosk cloak, heads into Romulan Star Empire territory towards Pedrocal V where the Tal Shiar breakaway group Ullho Lonveni is holding the Federation captives they had replaced with surgically altered agents, like Captain Greg Ellison's sister Cmdr. Sally Ellison. En route, Ellison holds a meeting to plan for their arrival at Pedrocal.

A quick scan of the new cloak reveals an organic algorithm which filters more emissions, making it more effective than a Romulan cloak.

Meanwhile, the ship crosses the Romulan Neutral Zone.

10 hours later, they are hailed via subspace. Tamarian Ops Officer Lt. Cmdr. Galinha confirms it is a tight-beam signal from Romulus. It is Commander Donatra of the Romulan Fleet who tells them they are free to act against the Lonveni as the Empire has disavowed the group. The Empire is still reeling from Praetor Shinzon's rebellious act in 2379. She has been briefed by Admiral Kathryn Janeway on the Lonveni situation.

8 hours after, they arrive at Pedrocal. The system's primary is a white dwarf star. In the 5th orbit is a planetoid covered by a thick ionization field. Implementing their plan, Science Officer Lt. J.G. John Hippocampus & Chief Medical Officer Dr. Patrick Troughton scan the field to learn its secret. Drake takes over from Ensign Kremzeek at the Conn station & skims the cloud skilfully allowing Galinha to grab cloud molecules using the Bussard ramscoops.

Suddenly, a Valdore-type warbird appears out of the cloud. Drake quickly veers away to avoid collision. Thankfully, the Romulan starship does not detect them and jumps to warp.

A final scan - which shows ice particles in the cloud - allows them to penetrate the cloud's jamming. They detect an ice planetoid 60 km across with a habitat built into its crust. Ellison knows enough about Romulans to know that they might have secret entrances to the Lonveni base.

Drake makes an arc around the planetoid allowing Hippocampus to detect 4 secret entrance structures, and more important: a cave network under the ice. They need to enter to map it. Perhaps it will lead them to the Lonveni base, the Federation captives and the captain's sister...

Stardate: 48623.56. August 17th, 2381. 0522 hrs.

The cloaked Norway-class USS Östergötland plans to infiltrate the Ullho Lonveni base on the ice planetoid Pedrocal V surrounded by ice fragments and a thick ionisation cloud. The Ullho Lonveni is a disavowed arm of the Tal Shiar that specialises in infiltration. Capt. Greg Ellison holds a conference with the senior staff, several ideas are considered then one is implemented.

Lt. Cmdr. Galinha & Ensign Lucas Garcia use the industrial replicator to create artificial ice around a probe to mask its approach. The probe is sent into the largest fissure of Pedrocal to scan its interior tunnel network. The probe senses a Romulan energy signature 20 kilometres ahead but it notices a tripwire sensor module and holds its position.

Meanwhile, Dr. Patrick Troughton has skillfully replicated organic matter on the shuttle so sensor scans would indicate Romulans aboard. Capt Ellison, Lt. J.G. John Hippocampus (and Sparky the pet rock) and four security officers will play prisoners. The Type-9 aquashuttle Kalanipuao Rock is also dressed to look like it was fired upon by Starfleet phasers. Also, they replicate an EMP grenade and hide it aboard on Hippocampus' gravsled pouches.

They drop away from the Östergötland cloak and fake a shuttle theft with a cetacean prisoner.

With Ellison's Romulan language skills telling the Romulans that "Capt Ellison is on their tail", the Lonveni base allow their approach. They head for one of the four camouflaged base ingress and crash into the shuttle hangar bay.

Everyone but Hippocampus are unconscious, so the Lonveni cannot question them. Centurions call the medics who bring them to the "medical experimentation bay". Hippocampus, who is faking being asleep, thinks, "Uh oh."

Executive Officer Cmdr. Morpheus Drake, Troughton & Galinha receive the vid stream from Hippocampus' gravsled holocam and decide to create a distraction in space. Drake drops the cloak surprising the Romulans. (Capt Ellison IS after all on the fleeing shuttle's tail!) The Doc and Lt. Latha Reon modify the life support systems to create an illusion of multiple exotic lifeforms in every living space on the ship. (This Starfleet ship has extreme biologic anomalies!) And Galinha, with Lt. Libby dos Santos' help, is able to jam their communications.

This attracts most Romulans - Centurions or otherwise - on the base to deal with the Östergötland. One Centurion is left to guard the unconscious Away Team who are strapped into strange biomedical pods. Hippocampus stealthily use his circular saw waldo to free himself. Ellison and the security team are regaining consciousness when Hippocampus tries to attack the Centurion and fails -- his gravsled moves too slow. The Romulan draws his disruptor...

Stardate: 48623.57. August 17th, 2381.

On the ice planetoid Pedrocal V deep in Romulan space, the Östergötland’s Away Team is strapped to biomedical pods in the medical experimentation bay of the Ullho Lonveni base. Freed Lt. J.G. Hippocampus faces off with a Centurion guard. Capt Ellison telepathically gets Sparky the sentient rock to smash down & knock out the Centurion. Hippocampus sets off the EMP device, neutralising the room electronics, then frees Captain Greg Ellison and the Security team (consisting of Specialist Ramzi Al-Maghrebi, Specialist Raymond Lavelle, Specialist Izzat Adesanya and Specialist Hwangbo Jiyun) from the pods. Then he finds out where their uniform & gear are.

In the space around Pedrocal V, Cmdr. Morpheus Drake -- flying the ship by to distract the base -- orders the ship to cloak after he gets the all-clear signal from the Captain. But then a crackling yellow energy beam from the base's ingress structure hits the ship as it cloaks, affecting Decks 3 & 4. Dr Troughton is unable to determine what just happened. The crew are evacuated from Deck 3, but they lose feed from Deck 4, a Cetacean Ops deck.

Specialist Al-Maghrebi and Lt Hippocampus stun another Centurion at a computer terminal in a room adjacent to the experimentation bay. The terminal is found to be useless as it was affected by the EMP grenade. Ellison sends Sparky to scout the base and soon it mentally displays to him a prison block with prisoners within. Ellison orders Hippocampus on his gravsled to lead the way there.

On the Östergötland, they are able to determine that an alien life form has been beamed aboard via the yellow beam and Lt. Libby dos Santos is able to contain it to the two decks. It is a mass of fast-growing muscles that is physically straining everything in its path trying to find a way out of the watery corridors. It is feeding on the noranium disulfide that Dr. Patrick Troughton replicated & is spread all over the ship to create the illusion of the weird megafauna earlier.

Apparently this caught the Romulans' fancy!

They are able to restore sensor feed to Deck 4, allowing Galinha to safely beam out two trapped bottle-nose dolphins to Deck 7. Before the creature could fill the corridors & consume the remaining two dolphins, under Ellison's remote orders, Transporter Chief Zree Tepelo and Lt. dos Santos use all the transporter gear on board (even the cargo bay transporter) in series to beam the creature out to space where it drifts harmlessly into the surrounding ion cloud.

The Away Team, using Sparky's mental coordinates, breach the prison block through an ice tunnel. They lob flashbangs to disorient two Centurions guarding it before Al-Maghrebi & Adesanya rush in and stun them with their type-2 phasers. They find a lot of Federation prisoners there. To beam them out with viridium patches, Ellison orders Drake to create a new distraction.

Lt. Cmdr. Galinha helps dos Santos to calculate the spread of photon torpedoes. When Drake orders to fire, they each strike the four unknown structures around Pedrocal V. With the Romulans confused by the sudden attack, the Östergötland drops her shields.

While Hwangbo & Lavelle reports a squad of eight Centurions approaching, the others use their viridium patches to beam out the prisoners. Aboard the Östergötland, Dr Troughton scans and confirms the arriving prisoners ensuring they are human and not at all compromised by Romulan bio-engineering.

Meanwhile, Hippocampus searches the Romulan computer terminal for the location of Cmdr. Sally Ellison & the others and learn that besides one D'deridex-class and one Valdore-type warbirds, no human (prisoner nor otherwise) has left or been transferred off the base. (One Valdore was the one they almost ran into while cloaked earlier.) Which means she is still on the base.

Elsewhere, the wayward Sparky relays the vision & location of a Lanora-class scout ship docked at a hangar bay. Ellison immediately informs Drake of the hangar bay and orders him to set a course into one of the planetoid's entry points and rendezvous with him there.

With four more prisoners left to beam out, the prison lights & terminal suddenly go out. Hippocampus' terminal shuts off. Trapped in the prison block, will the Away Team be destroyed by the attacking Ullho Lonveni Centurions?

Stardate: 48623.58

The USS Östergötland -- under Executive Officer Cmdr. Morpheus Drake's command with Lt. Cmdr. Galinha at Ops and Dolphin Ensign Kremzeek at Conn -- speeds towards the Pedrocal V hangar bay while Dr. Patrick Troughton satisfactorily completes scanning all the rescued abductees from the prison block. None were Romulan infiltrators. Four more abductees are still remain on the planetoid, and still no sign of Cmdr. Sally Ellison.

Meanwhile the Away Team's Security Team have planted the grenades in the antechamber where a Romulan assault squad is approaching. The entire section has no power. Ellison and the beluga whale Lt. J.G. John Hippocampus swiftly slap on more viridian patches onto the remaining four abductees who are all beamed to sickbay immediately.

In sickbay, Dr. Patrick Troughton detects one of the rescued women is a Romulan in disguise, so a prepared Master Chief Specialist Abu Hajar  quickly moves in with a hypospray from behind, dropping the infiltrator.

With Drake's direction, Ensign Lucas Garcia at the Science Station scans the Romulan base and determines that the reactor is north of the biomedical bay that they were held earlier. Galinha forms a second Away Team - equipped with Type-3 phaser rifles - to beam there to get intel on the reactor. Chief Petty Officer Zree Tepelo in Transporter Room 1 beams them to the biomedical experimentation bay. Garcia takes over on Ops.

An energy fluctuation makes it hard for them to beam the first Away Team to the base's command centre. However, the Bajoran Chief Engineer Lt. Latha Reon succeeds from the bridge Engineering Station. Ellison's party materialises in the Romulan command centre, as the grenades go off in the anteroom, rocking the entire base violently.

The team deploy their tricorders, but are unable to detect Sally Ellison in the command centre. Where could she be?

Enriov Veresik, the Ullho Lonveni leader, is waiting for them, armed, in a command chair. Ellison uses every bit of skill to persuade the Enriov to stand down. Veresik drops his disruptor, weeping and mumbling like a madman about their plans to replace Starfleet leadership. Suddenly, two other identical Veresiks show up, more determined and belligerent than the first one.

As the Östergötland flies towards the Romulan hangar Lt dos Santos on Tactical warns Drake that they are being target locked. Drake orders Kremzeek to perform evasive action. A deadly disruptor beam misses them.

Galinha's team picks up a number of human life-forms in the enclosed biobeds. They find two more prisoners alive but unconscious, but another is dead. Unable to figure out the stasis pod technology, Galinha requests a medical team to extract them while he advances north with a security team towards the reactor. He spots a Centurion guarding it, then three well-aimed stun beams knock him out.

Another security officer calls Galinha. She finds another biobed... with apparently a Captain Ellison copy strapped into it.

Back at the command centre, Ellison senses that the two Veresiks are serious, murderous, and slightly insane, believing they CAN eventually take over Starfleet. He orders a lethal attack. Specialists Lavelle & Hwangbo fire to kill. One Veresik copy go down, but the other is only slightly wounded and returns fire at Ellison, missing him. Al-Maghrebi and Adesanya's combined phaser fire vaporises the remaining Veresik.

Ellison senses his sister's emotions nearby, so he telepathically asks Sparky the rock about it. The sentient rock smashes down onto a hatch on the floor. A button push and an unconscious Sally Ellison is raised out of the turboshaft in a vertical biobed. Ellison orders the Östergötland to beam all of them -- including the surviving Veresik and his sister -- to Transporter Room 1.

With Galinha's intel and visual feed from the Romulan biomedical bay, Drake orders Dr Troughton to Transporter Room 1 to scan Ellison. There is a misunderstanding. Even though the medical tricorder registers Ellison as fully human, he draws his phaser on the doctor...

Stardate: 48623.59

The USS Östergötland rushes into the Pedrocal V ice tunnel triggering a collision alert with the hangar bay platform ahead. There is a Romulan Lanora-class scout ship on the platform. Executive Officer Cmdr. Morpheus Drake takes over the Conn from Ensign Kremzeek and skilfully avoids a collision. They hold position, waiting for orders.

In Transporter Room 1, Capt. Greg Ellison checks up on his sister unconscious in the vertical medical gurney. He gets Dr. Patrick Troughton - his medical tricorder still up - to treat her. The Doctor finds she is weak and malnourished, but there are no bit errors in her DNA. She is the real Cmdr. Sally Ellison. He also informs the returning Away Team that they are all medically sound.

Troughton orders Orion Transporter Chief Petty Officer Zree Tepelo to beam him and Cmdr Ellison to sickbay while Capt Ellison and beluga whale Science Officer Lt. J.G. John Hippocampus rush to the bridge.

In the reactor room, Tamarian Ops Officer Lt. Cmdr. Galinha - leading the second Away Team - studies the energy transformer unit before him and determines that power is being supplied by an artificial singularity built into the base. Meanwhile there are three other human abductees unconscious in the Romulan medical experimentation biobeds.

Ellison orders Troughton to beam back to the Romulan biomedical bay to learn how to safely beam the abductees to the ship. With Galinha's assistance, the Doctor is able to determine how to transport them safely out of the biobeds. With Security ready in sickbay, Tepelo beam them all into secure biobeds, including the Greg Ellison clone they found earlier.

In the meantime, Galinha devises a remote mechanism which allows him to shut down the reactor module with his tricorder.

Then an explosion rocks the base. Artificial gravity cuts out. Engineer Ensign Lucas Garcia on Ops reports that a thermal explosion nearby has blanketed the area with ionised particles that has now disrupted their transporter lock. The explosion has also created a wave of melted ice that is quickly expanding and bursting into the Romulan base.

Cheief Tepelo reports he is unable to get a transport lock on the members of the second Away Team, so Galinha slaps on the remaining viridian patches on the two security officers nearby allowing them to be safely beamed back to the Östergötland.

Under Ellison's orders Hippocampus attempts to connect with a networked terminal in the disintegrating base from the Science Station. He latches on to a secure remote Romulan workstation, cracks the encryption and begins downloading from their databanks.

Then icy water bursts through the doors south of the biomedical bay, engulfing Troughton and his two security escorts. They all activate SCUBA mode on their Starfleet uniforms and successfully swim with the rough current into the reactor room. Galinha goes into SCUBA mode to help his crewmates while the reactor room is flooding.

Chief Tepelo is then successful in grabbing the Away Team (and the one stunned Centurion) back to the ship. Galinha triggers the remote shutdown.

Ellison, back in centre seat, is informed by Drake that they are holding a clone of him in a secure biobed in sickbay. Understanding why Troughton was scanning him personally earlier and relieved of the results, Ellison suggests they get out of there first before looking into the clone.

The ice cave is coming apart around the Östergötland, and some Romulan survivors are rushing into the Lanora-class scout ship on the platform. Drake is able to evade all the dangerous fragments, then reverse the ship out of Pedrocal V, while the scout ship follows them out.

A plume of water explodes out of the planetoid's tunnels and cracks - immediately transforming into ice - as Hippocampus completes his download. The Östergötland - under Security Chief Lt. Libby dos Santos grabs the scout with a tractor beam, transports her Romulan crew aboard into the brig. Drake then pilots the ship out and away of the Pedrocal V ionisation cloud.

Galinha activates the Tosk cloaking device allowing them safe passage out of Romulan territory. The ship finally safe, Ellison orders Drake to go to warp with the scout ship on tow. Later, Ellison calls everyone for a meeting and tells them he will take shore leave after this mission. After the meeting, he tries to mentally link with Sparky to assign him one last task.

CODA: In the Östergötland sickbay, the clone Capt Ellison is in a biobed in a secure room, restricted by a forcefield. His eyes open. He smiles diabolically.

Suddenly Sparky appears out of nowhere and lands on his chest, knocking the wind out of him, keeping his "eye" on the clone...

END OF SEASON ONE