A Doomsday Like Any Other Part 1

Captain's Log, Stardate 40191.2

Since our last mission, one significant thing has changed. Lieutenant Commander Vanek was transferred to Starbase 20 and a Bajoran, Dyan Hazor has taken his place as the Chief of Engineering.

A Doomsday Machine

Due to increasing problems with piracy, the Niven was sent out to a remote area of Federation space commonly referred to as The Outback. Sure enough, we soon received a distress call from a ship about one half Earth hour away from where we were. Lieutenant Kingman plotted an intercept course, despite the trouble with communication we were having with the ship. When we arrived at the scene, we saw the cause for the signal interference: a damaged Orion trading ship was being pursued by a Doomsday Machine. We were hailed by a Captain Patrick O'Flaherty of the Pride 'o Rigel who said they were caught in the machine's tractor beam and requested help. We fired torpedoes at the machine's hull to distract it. It turned towards us just long enough to release the merchant ship, but resumed its original pursuit after a few moments. We advised O'Flaherty to change course to see if the machine was after the Pride 'o Rigel or if it just happened to be in the way. The latter was true and the Doomsday Machine continued its course. Navigation stated that the planet of Ectair was in its presumed path.

How It All Happened

While we still had O'Flaherty on the frequency, we asked him a few questions as to why the Doomsday Machine pursued him. He stated that he and his crew were salvaging in some wreckage and managed to find a conical piece of "scrap metal". In O'Flaherty's words, that awoke "the big one" and it chased after them after damaging the ship, which was apparent from visual sensors. We had our suspicions that their cargo was a small Doomsday Machine, or at the very least something related to it, so we offered to purchase it for study by the Federation. I offered him 50k, but he insists that due to the metal being used to encase the whole thing, it would be worth at least 10 times the amount. Unconvinced, I offered to send over an away team to help repair their engines and appraise the item. He agreed. Commander Link assembled a team consisting Alpha Team members who could act as engineers in case of a scuffle and some science members for appraisal. Link, Pierson, Jameson, N'gomo, Smek, and Silon beamed aboard the Pride o' Rigel.

Barter

The away team reported that the cone was indeed encased in neutronium, but some sections were missing. It was difficult to tell if it was operational, but Link thought it was an IFF transponder and felt it was imperative that we get it to Ectair quickly due to the Doomsday Machine heading in its direction. I beamed over to the merchant ship to start negotiating with O'Flaherty. Given our assistance in getting his ship operational, he came down on the asking price to 480k. After the engineering team had done all they could, we returned to our ship and made preparations to warp towards Ectair. A brief officer's meeting was held where we discussed O'Flaherty's price and it was deemed necessary in order to try to save Ectair from being destroyed. We successfully made the transaction and the supposed IFF device was beamed into our cargo hold.

O'Flaherty was headed towards Ectair as well, but because we were in a hurry, we made pleasantries by saying we would see him there later. We ran records of the ship, and surprisingly, neither O'Flahery nor the Pride 'o Rigel had a criminal record. It was owned by someone in the Orion system.

The Kirk Defense

We tried to get in contact with the Federation consulate stationed on Ectair. However, we were unable to speak to Consul Toriaki for he passed away the previous night. His assistant was the only one left of the consulate. We requested that he get in touch with Ectair's government and let them know we needed to meet as soon as we arrive for they refused to discuss anything of a sensitive nature unless it was in person.

While en route, we discussed the Kirk Defense against the Doomsday Machine. We knew that the Niven would be capable of pulling it off, but we were certain the Federation would want us to explore other options before sacrificing one of their ships in the Military Operations Command. When we arrived at Ectair, we spotted a Romulan vessel in orbit along with a private cruising ship, the Kingliner's Cosmos Royale. Immediately upon our arrival, we hailed the Romulan vessel stating that we expect no trouble as we were on a dire mission. They agreed and said they were simply trading with the planet.

As requested, we were able to have a meeting with Ectair's president, Mozinphar. We asked for permission to utilize the Cosmos Royale in the Kirk Defense. He answered that because it is owned by a private party, he does not have the authority to force cooperation, but can certainly persuade the owner, Burton King, to allow us access given the nature of the crisis. He did, however, hastily have us agree to granting he and his family transport on the Niven should the Kirk Defense fail. Burton King, while cross about the turn of events, agreed to let us use his ship, but not before securing safe passage for him and his family as well. After our meeting, we saw the Pride 'o Rigel made it to Ectair as planned.

It took us a few hours to evacuate the Cosmos Royale and three teams of engineers to set up the ship for the maneuver. When it was in place, I was aboard the Cosmos Royale to insure its mission along with Link and Jameson. After we were under way, I couldn't condemn anyone in my command to their death so I gave the order for them to beam back aboard the Niven. I kept a positive attitude and said I would see everyone in a few minutes, and if not, well, it was a pleasure serving with them.

The ship got caught in the Doomsday Machine's tractor beam as planned and as it drew it in closer, the ship began to crumble. The button to launch the auto-destruct sequence flew off when the hull cracked, but after scrambling to find and repair it, I was able to press it in time and beamed back onto my ship for safety. We watched the Cosmos Royale enter and explode within the Doomsday Machine, but to our dismay, it only succeeded in slowing its pace. The machine was still very much active and continuing its course towards Ectair. In a desperate attempt, we fired torpedoes at it and it again reduced its speed, but did not deactivate. Lieutenant Silon, who had been investigating the IFF transponder reported that the device may be able to communicate with the Doomsday Machine as a relay beacon. However, a vital piece was missing to make it operational.