Lt. Maniersi: Flight Officer's Log, Stardate 40451.6
Lt. Maniersi: Flight Officer's Log ..... Joran Maniersi ..... Star Trek: The Triangle Missions
Despite being included in most senior officer meetings and having a place on the bridge, I'm still surprised by how many hard decisions have to be made. Captain Koyanagi had made a commitment to meet some new friends back on Baldur IV; friends that very much needed our help. Unfortunately, a crisis came up on the Federation border colony of Pluuh 2, and we were the closest ship available. Given that we were looking at an entire Federation colony being obliterated by an unexpectedly expanding sun, not responding wasn't an option. It was definitely odd, though. Pluuh 2's sun isn't old enough to be expanding into a red giant, and no previous anomalies have been detected. Given the colony's proximity to the Cardassian border, there's already grumbles being heard of plots and conspiracies. Given the unexpected appearance of a Cardassian spy on Deep Space Research 3, I wouldn't be surprised. The local McCallister Nebula would provide an excellent staging ground for hostile actions, what with half of it being in Cardassian space already.
Supplemental: Very curious! We hadn't been on course for long when we encountered a weak-gravity interferon emitter. Definitely a rare spacial anomaly, and one that wasn't on any Starfleet charts. I barely even noticed it before we had to come out of warp to avoid permanent damage to the ship. As it was, we still needed to take a day for Lt. Cmdr. Dyan to repair damage done to the dilythium crystals. It gave me some time to make more detailed scans of the anomaly and to double-check our course for any other surprises. I can't have such incidents appearing on my record.
Continuing Log: We've finally made it to the Pluuh system, but we're experiencing odd computer malfunctions. Most of the higher command functions are now offline, leaving us without sensors, defenses or communications. Acting on my intuition, I received permission from Captain Koyanagi to attempt to launch a shuttle and use its systems as an alert and scout craft. When I arrived in the shuttle bay I found a crewman struck unconscious and Mr. Garibaldi holed up in a shuttle with a length of pipe. The crewman apparently wasn't in his right mind and attacked Garibaldi! I scanned him and detected an alien lifeform! The computer problems on the Niven are starting to take on a new and troubling dimension.
After launching I began communicating via low-band icon transmission since subspace systems were still offline on the Niven. Old radio transmissions simply aren't secure enough. And now that I detected a Cardassian cruiser exiting the McCallister Nebula, I have even more reason to be cautious. I contacted the commanding Gul and used my natural diplomacy to convince them to follow neutral zone stipulations. Amazing that such a thing is even necessary! As I flew towards Pluuh 2, I updated the colony administrator, Fo Axom, to our situation and discovered that the colony's orbital defense platforms had been deactivated in preparation of the move to Pluuh 7. I requested their reactivation and asked that all Federation personnell be vigilant. While maneuvering around some debris, I detected a very odd transimission from Pluuh 2; an intense, focused tachyon burst. A definite mystery to go on top of all the others we've encountered so far on this mission.
