Opening the Door

Intro

Captains log, stardate 58847.3. It has been eight months since we have seen the Federation: our home. Eight months since we left on a journey to replace her. Each of us has volunteered for this mission for their own reasons, be they of adventure, discovery or escape. As we journey deeper into a vast unseen universe, is it strange that my discovery is of that which lives within me?

The shortcomings of this missions planning have developed into more than just a nuisance. The composition and maintenance of this fleet has already proven to be substandard, and soon the conflict resolution procedures between Federation and non-Federation personnel may prove insufficient.

It all begs the question, does someone at Starfleet want this mission to fail?

Chief Medical Officer's log, Stardate 58847.3

It's been over 8 months since we departed San Francisco, Earth and we are currently 680 light years outside of commonly patrolled Federation space. Now, our journey begins. There have only been sporadic cases of minor injuries and ailments thus far and I hope the crew continues to remain in good health.

When we arrived in an unknown system, Lieutenant Commander Thelor Athrun took the USS Hubble to one of the clusters that indicated a possible source of raw materials. Meanwhile, the USS Intrepid had approached a different cluster that contained an M-class planet. It looked to be a good candidate for colonization. However, when Captain Roland Alexander tried to establish contact, an alien race, presumably xenophobic, made hostile moves toward us. He had managed to convince them to come on board our ship to discuss things, so I was instructed to find out everything I could to make the environment accommodating.

Information listed in the life signs scans of the planet lead me to believe that the race has a higher intake of carbon dioxide compared to humanoids and their climate is warmer and very, very dry. Their equatorial region had a humidity of 0. I instructed facilities to set up Conference Room B with a slightly higher temperature and to increase airflow to mimic the environment. Utilizing force fields, we were able to establish a pathway leading from the transporter bay with similar conditions.

Our guests were six aliens called the Melorak. They did not seem to have a telepathic link, but were taking turns answering questions in a set order as a collective mind. They stated their claim of the area was 10 lightyears in all directions from the central star. This star was slowly dying, but Lieutenant Commander Thelor mentioned that a being he rescued was able to reignite it and reverse the process of aging. When Captain Alexander mentioned this to the Melorak, they called Melos, the scientist responsible, a heretic and seemed alarmed that his experiment was successful. I read their emotions as being perturbed, but they were not overly hostile. We made arrangements with the Hubble to meet up.

When we brought in the Hubble, I treated Melos for a minor concussion and gave him some mild pain killers to assist in his discomfort. He seemed rather nonchalant about everything, even to the fact that the Melorak were extremely upset with him. Evidently, the Melorak had informed the inhabitants of the planets near the dying star to quickly finish mining and an evacuation procedure would be followed to bring them to safety. Given that the star was no longer in danger of dying, the Melorak believed it had made them look foolish. They demanded to see Melos' ship.

I was rather nervous about what the Melorak would do to Melos' ship, given that the controls to the probe he set in place to reverse the aging of the star were on the ship. On the way to the hangar, I telepathically sent a message of my concerns of sabotage to Captain Alexander. He brilliantly advised the Melorak to not touch the ship due to the fact that we had an agreement with Melos to repair it and any disturbance could cause further damage. Unfortunately, Melos was not concerned and did not protest. A few moments later, an alarm went off and Melos ran toward the ship shouting, "what are you doing??!" Captain Alexander ordered an emergency beam out of the Melorak to the transporter room and stormed off to meet them. I chased after him.

When we arrived at the transporter room, two of the Melorak were separated from the other four and were looking very sullen. The captain asked them some questions and under the guise that he was taking notes on a PADD, sent me a message on mine asking to see what their emotions were. I was able to read that though they felt like they did the right thing, they were sad about the consequences. Captain Alexander seemed a bit appalled that they were acting like children.

In the end, we hatched a plan to launch the Hubble close to the probe to disable it. Given our part in preventing the sun from dying rapidly, we were given access to pass through Melorak space in return. Though we could not claim the area as a colony, we were at least able to continue on our mission. I can only imagine what other encounters we will have along the way.