The Strider Incident Part 1

Captain's Log, Stardate 40350.7

Casualties

It's with a heavy heart that I write this log stating that the Niven suffered great casualties during the fight over Valtor II. We have lost 72 brave men, including Lance Corporal Fleetwood and 142 personnel were injured. Lieutenant Commander Hazor was among them with severe burns to his arm when a computer panel exploded on him.

Sergeant Major Pierson reported that Prime Team Alpha, along with the help of Captain Krahl's warriors, was able to secure the installation on the surface of Valtor II. They have, however, been specifically denied entrance into certain areas. Two members of Prime Team, Sergeant Brillet and Corporal Gral, were critically injured and the shuttles were damaged.

Lieutenant Junior Grade Maniersi suggested that he take the captain's yacht down to the surface to evacuate the injured to sick bay as soon as possible along with a small complement of engineers to help repair the shuttles. The yacht was a bit of a sore subject, given its recent hijacking, but I knew I could trust Maniersi to bring it back without incident.

Treachery

When Maniersi returned, he brought along Corporal Smithers and he asked to speak to me. We met in the ready room and came with a report from Pierson. Because both Fleetwood and Brillet were down, Pierson entrusted him with the information that they did not find anything of Iconian nature on the base, but the Klingons were definitely hiding something. Master Sergeant Syvek was convinced that even Krahl's men did not know what they were hiding, but were under orders to keep us out of certain areas. It can easily be assumed that the area was contaminated with the Orion Blood Fever as the Klingons became, nearly immediately, very sick and our crew were experiencing severe allergic reactions. The base was littered with several Klingon corpses and, strangely, a Cardassian body as well. There was evidence that this facility was a research lab involved in the study of genetic manipulation.

I gave orders to Maniersi to first escort Smithers to sick bay to get something to help with the histamine reactions, bring along enough for our crew remaining on the surface, to stop by the Drovna to pick up medical supplies for the Klingons, and to deliver them to the surface along with Nurse Bretchkova to assist with the distribution and to find out what he can about the station.

After subduing K'vort Chang's forces' counter attack, Maniersi was able to drop off Smithers and Bretchkova along with the medical supplies to an area on the roof to rendezvous with Pierson so that they could find another route into the areas guarded by Khral's men.

Bretchkova returned with a report that he was able to get access to most of the areas. The outbreak of Orion Blood Fever seems to have been accidental and not a weaponized version we feared, however it can be thought that an inside agent of Chang's men purposefully set this to happen. The research being conducted there was some sort of genetic or chemical engineering to increase the efficiency of attack troops and was sanctioned by Gowran. The facility has existed for 10 years, and the current project was going on for at least 6 months and the planet was quarantined for the past 90 days. The most troubling news was that the research was a joint effort between the Klingons and Cardassians. The Cardassian found on the premises was thought to have been a volunteer test subject.

Dismissed

A communique from Khral came in and he said that though securing control of the base was contested, it was looking to be in his favor. The Drovna was rendered incapacitated and if their engineers could not repair it, they would destroy it. Though I offered our help with repairs, he thanked us and said that our assistance was no longer needed. In asking about Chang and Rovek he stated that Chang was likely to have escaped and there was no sign of a Romualn anywhere. In private, I alerted him to the unusual behavior of Chang's crew given the suicide death despite the warrior honor code Klingons were known to have.

With all our of crew back on the ship, we set course for Starbase 27 for much needed repairs and crew transfer. The journey took 10 days.