S01 E08: USS Intrigue: No Fire from the Titans

 

S01 E08: USS Intrigue: No Fire from the Titans

 

(This adventure was inspired by the Ancient Civilizations Mission Brief entitled “Fire from the Titans”.)

 

First Officer’s Log. Stardate 45136.2. Commander Nyri Elatrai of the USS Intrigue reporting. We found the planet that was identified as the source of the energy readings that we detected two days ago. Strangely, Starfleet records show its population to be at a pre-industrial level, not at a level that could cause this type of energy reading. Starfleet cartography has named the planet Lambda Torea III on our star charts. We’re investigating the source of the energy readings, with orders to avoid contact with the indigenous population.

            The away team beamed down to an area that had ancient ruins. There were buildings that had vines and moss growing all over them, and walls and roofs that had been worn by centuries of degradation by natural elements. Chief Science Officer Gailard Hughes looked at his tricorder and pointed at the tallest building and said that it was the source of the energy readings. They all walked toward the building. Civilian anthropologist Kalta Neved, a Barzan, said the ruins appeared equivalent to earth around the late 20th century. It was far too advanced to have been built by the current inhabitants of this planet.

            When they got to the building entrance, they saw that the door had been forced open. Not only that, but someone had entered the building recently. There were natives in a city only a few kilometers away. They must have already discovered this lost city. The natives were pre-industrial. Commander Elatrai shuddered to think what the locals would do with the advanced technology they may have found here. Cadet Camsol, the fourth and final person on the away team, was just happy to have been selected for this mission. He was on his first deep space assignment as part of his Starfleet Academy training. He said the ruins were very much like what was currently on his home planet Teeselia. His planet was considered less advanced, as its people were new to space travel and to the Federation. Camsol was one of the brightest of his people and the first of them to make it into the Academy.

            They walked inside building. All of them had tricorders that drew them to a large display of bright blinking crystals attached to the far wall of the building. The crystals were connected to a large computer system behind the wall. The crystals themselves seemed to be status indicators. Lt. Hughes said the computer system seems to have been powered on for the last several months.

Kalta noticed a seven-pointed star painted on one of the walls. The star had little circles around each point. Cadet Camsol said the star reminded him of a starburst symbol that represented one of the animals from his home planet. Lt. Hughes commented that everything seemed to remind Camsol of something from home.

“But it really does look like it,” Camsol said happily.

“He’s just looking for a piece of home. It’s natural for someone on their first deep space mission,” Kalta said.

Hughes said, “But it’s annoying when you go on as many away missions with him as I have.”

“Come on, Hughes,” the commanding officer said. “I’m sure you were just as enthusiastic on your first deep space mission.”

Hughes was still annoyed, but kept quiet.

Elatrai went to a corner of the room and saw small devices plugged into the wall. It looked like a charging station. She walked through a doorway to another room. It had large machines with chords attached to them at one end, and the other end plugged to the wall. She opened a door and found another room. It appeared to be a storage room. It was filled with shelves of boxes and other objects. Then she saw what appeared to be a skeleton in a corner of the room. She scanned it. It had traces of carbon, magnesium, and other elements. It had been there for at least seven hundred years. She called the Intrigue and had them beam up the bones for study.

Kalta said, “These buildings and computers must be from an alien civilization that lived here hundreds for years ago. They could have died out. Or they could have left on their own spaceships. Although, there are no signs that any ships were here.”

Hughes told Elatrai there were people approaching fast. It was native humanoids riding atop some type of six-legged animals. Elatrai knew she had to keep her team from being discovered, lest she break the Prime Directive. But it was too late. The aliens had already dismounted the animals and walked into the building. She saw that they were fair-skinned humanoids with an unfamiliar pattern of facial ridges on their foreheads and cheekbones.

The leader asked the away team who they were and why they were in the sacred temple. Commander Elatrai introduced herself by name, not rank, and said they were travelers from a far off land and that they did not know they were in a holy temple. The alien leader said his name was Cistal. He offered to take them to the city where they could rest and have a meal. Elatrai was interested in what they knew about the ruins, so she agreed to go with them.

The away team each rode with the aliens on the backs of their animals. As they were riding, Cistal said their people were called the Ashari. They had discovered the “temple” and believed it was a gift from their God of Fate. The temple had been endowed with “magical items.” One item was something they called “swords of light”, which sounded to the away team a lot like phasers. The Ashari said they were short swords that cast deadly light beams. The Ashari had used the gifts in this holy temple to conquer other lands. And their king intended to conquer many more. Sounds like the Prime Directive has already been broken here, thought Elatrai. These people have discovered relics from a more advanced civilization and have been greatly affected by them.

 

Meanwhile, aboard the USS Intrigue, Dr. Norjelan was studying the bones that Elatrai had discovered. And Ensign V’Sek at ops had been watching the away team from his station on the bridge. He told Captain Sekoba that the team had been discovered by some natives and were traveling with them toward a populated city.  The captain acknowledged. It was not good news. The away team had hoped to avoid the natives and had therefore not disguised themselves to appear as the same species as the natives. Then V’Sek reported that the energy they had detected before was a catalytic thermal beam coming from the planet. I was one hundred kilometers in the other direction from where the away team was headed. It was very similar to the energy detected in the building the away team and searched. None of the civilizations on the planet had the technology to create such energy.

Then the captain received a hail from security officer Lt. Rita Smeets that some of the crew quarters on deck five reported small, snow-like particles floating in the air. Scans showed that they were harmonic nano-particles. Smeets did not know the source of the particles, but they did not seem to be harmful. Captain Sekoba ordered chief engineer Lt. Meredith Bravo and science officer Ensign J’Datek to find the source of the particles and to find a way to rid the ship of them.

 

They reached the large city of the Ashari. Cistal led the away team inside a building and then to a room with a small table. He asked them to sit at the table and he would have someone bring some food. Kalta noticed a wall that was decorated with the same star she had seen at the temple.

Cistal asked Kalta about the piece of metal on her face. She told him it was a religious ornament that her people wore. She could not tell him that as a Barzan, she needed it to help her breathe in an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere. Cistal asked if he could hold the ornament. Kalta could breathe for a few minutes without the apparatus, so she removed it and handed it to Cistal. He held it and looked curiously at it. His primitive mind could not comprehend its real purpose. He tried to put it around his head the way Kalta had worn it. She had been careful to switch it off before she handed it to him. He removed it from his head and handed it back to her. She thanked him and put it back in place on her head.

Cistal told Kalta that his late wife had worn a similar-looking piece of neck jewelry. It had been silver with round silver beads. She had died of “coughing-blood” disease. Kalta said she was very sorry for his loss. Cistal said it was very sad that she had died before they had children. A knight and his family were a blessed thing in his land. He asked Kalta about her land. She said families were also important and that death of family members was always tragic and remembered with remorse and reverence.

Then Cistal turned to Cadet Camsol and said, “And you. You are from a different land than your friends.” With Camsol’s grey skin and pointed, hairless head, he must have been the one that looked the strangest to the Ashari. Hughes was human, Elatrai was Betazoid, and Kalta was Barzan; each a different species, but Camsol, as a typical Teeselian, stood out like a berdolian reptile in a room full of korkorem mammals.

Camsol hesitated for a moment, then said, “I was affected by…magic. It was punishment for…losing my family.”

“Your gods must be the cruelest,” Cistal said softly.

“That is why I travel with my friends. They provide spiritual support.”

Lt. Hughes and Commander Elatrai were impressed with Camsol’s quick thinking.

“When I go to daily penance,” said Cistal, “I will ask the gods to bless you in your journey.”

Kalta remembered that Cistal had mentioned a king. She asked if Cistal was happy with his king.

“Ah, King Promor,” Cistal said. “A very worthy successor to his father. I am honored to serve under him as Primary Knight and defend his land. He has kept us strong and his people happy and prosperous. That is why the gods gave him the gifts to so quickly conquer other lands.”

Just as someone came with the food, one of the Ashari knights entered the room to tell Cistal the Fallen Sun had started its period of renewal. Elatrai interrupted to ask what was happening. Cistal said when the Fallen Sun, one of their gifts from the gods, starts its period of renewal, it shines so bright that the Ashari can see it in the sky. The Ashari knew the approximate time it would start, but never the exact time. He took the away team outside the building so they could see. Elatrai saw a beam of red light about two hundred kilometers away. She knew it had to be the catalytic thermal beam that the Intrigue sensors had picked up. Cistal said he had to take his army of knights to the Fallen Sun to guard it, now that it was visible.

Cistal gathered his knights. Some rode on their melreches (six-legged, horse-like animals). Others drove single-person vehicles on wheels. The vehicles seemed to be electrically powered; more “gifts from the gods”, no doubt. Elatrai was surprised when Cistal asked the away team if they wanted to come with them. Cistal said the Ashari were proud to show off their god-given gifts.

 

            Lt. Bravo and Ensign J’Datek had been studying the white harmonic nano-particles particles for two hours. They had spread to twelve decks now. The phenomenon had started covering the decks like the snow on Boreth, though not nearly as cold. The particles had started to clog up some of the ship’s systems, including the replicators. Bravo and J’Datek figured out that the red catalytic thermal beam from the planet was the source of the particles. Ship’s sensors had also detected that the away team was close to the source of the beam now. The ship was under orders not to hail the away team at this time, to keep the natives from seeing their communications technology. Bravo hoped the away team would find a way to shut off the beam, while she was still looking for another solution. The captain had ordered force fields around the remaining decks to keep the particles from spreading. They had already started affecting consoles and sensors.

 

            They reached the building that housed the Fallen Sun. Cistal said the building was another ancient temple from the gods. Kalta noticed that on the wall of the building was the same seven-pointed star that she had seen in the abandoned building where they had found the other advanced technology.

            Kalta suddenly fell to her knees and started coughing. The commander stooped down to help her. Lt. Hughes used his tricorder to scan Kalta and the area. He said there were particles in the air that were affecting Kalta’s breathing apparatus. Elatrai called the Intrigue and asked that Kalta be beamed to sickbay. From the Intrigue, Ensign V'Sek told her the ship was having its own problems, but to stand by. The ship had been flooded with harmonic nano-particles and the particles had gotten into the transporter system. There was, however, one transporter room on deck fifteen that had not been affected. The away team moved Kalta to an area where the locals couldn’t see her. Then Elatrai had the ship beam her up.

Lt. Hughes told the commander that the harmonic nano-particles were also in the air on the planet, and that was what had affected Kalta. Her Barzan physiology and breathing tool must have been susceptible to the particles, which meant Dr. Norjelan would have to make special accommodations for her if the ship was infested with the same particles. Human, Betazoid, and Teeselian physiology seemed to be okay, so the remaining members of the away team stayed on the planet.

            V’Sek told Elatrai that Bravo and J’Datek had discovered that the catalytic thermal beam coming from the planet was the cause of the harmonic nano-particles on the ship. The beam had coalesced with the ship’s air filtration system and reconfigured the molecules into the white particles. The beam caused harmonic nano-particles on the planet as well, but the particles mixed with the atmosphere and the molecules stayed in the gaseous state, instead of creating the white particles as seen on Intrigue. V’Sek also asked if they had found the exact source of the thermal beam. If they could shut it off, that would be a tremendous help to the ship. Elatrai acknowledged.

            They went back into the building. They told Cistal that Kalta was safe for now. He did not know where she was. He simply said, “I will pray to the God of Life for her good health.”

Elatrai said they were now ready to see the Fallen Sun. Cistal led them to a room. They were standing three meters away from the source of the red beam and were told it was not permitted to get any closer. They could see a black box and a beam of light coming from the box.

            Lt. Hughes did a scan. He said the source of the light was a mechanical device. It had a weak dampening field that prevented deep scans from a distance. But now that he was closer, his tricorder showed the light emission contained chlorophyl and some carbon dioxide particles. Cistal had said that the red beam brought trees to life. It must have been used as a crop enhancer by its original creators, Hughes thought. This was one thing the advanced civilization had that was much more advanced than 20^th century earth. Hughes said the Intrigue’s deflector dish could be set to emit a tri-fold invariance field on the planet that would shut down the beam. Cistal objected. It was a holy object and could not be “shut down”. They would close the box after it finished its cycle of regenerating the trees. This regeneration produced the crops that fed their people, and was a seasonal ritual. His people had been starving before this Fallen Sun was discovered. A blight had killed their crops, and the soil had been rendered unable to produce more. The Fallen Sun was a gift from the God of Life.

This current regeneration by the Fallen Sun would take another three hours, according to Cistal. Elatrai knew that was about the same amount of time before the ship would be completely covered with the particles. She hoped Intrigue would find their own solution in time. She did not want to interfere with the Ashari ritual that they so depended on.

Cistal said he was one of the few people the gods would allow to touch the magic box that controlled the Fallen Sun. Elatrai saw that he was referring to the computer controls next to the stone. She scanned the controls and saw that they were touch sensitive. Cistal touched it and increased the intensity of the beam. Elatrai touched it and nothing happened. So it only reacted to Cistal’s touch. He said his brother was the only other person he knew of that could control it. His family was from a long line of knights that defended the Ashari. It was how the gods had honored them.

Elatrai, as a scientist, knew there must be another explanation. Somehow it reacted to his DNA and that of his family. She had scanned Cistal and the other Ashari. There was nothing notable that distinguished him from the others. She asked Cistal if there was anything else he could do that the others couldn’t. He said there was nothing else.

Then Elatrai got a call from her ship. The Ashari had heard her communicator beep. They just thought it must be some magical gizmo of her people. Elatrai excused herself and went to be alone to answer the hail. It was Dr. Norjelan.

“I wouldn’t call you unless it was important. Kalta told me one of the Ashari held her breathing device,” Norjelan said. Commander Elatrai told her that one of the Ashari had been curious about the device. The doctor said she studied the molecular structure of the DNA that the Ashari had left on the device. He had breathed into it briefly. The respiratory particles and DNA from his fingers were a match for some of the much older particles they had found in the skeleton from the abandoned building. It meant that Cistal and the rest of the Ashari were descendants of the race that had built and abandoned the ruins. Elatrai understood. So there was an advanced civilization that had fallen, perhaps stricken by war, famine, disease. It had happened so often in history. Like a circle of life for cultures. So a more primitive civilization had risen from the ashes and forgotten their roots. And when the primitive people found their ancestors’ city, they had taken it for gifts from the gods.

Elatrai asked how Kalta was doing. The doctor said her condition was stable. She had put Kalta in a containment field so she could breathe the type of atmosphere she needed. That would be sufficient until the replicators could be cleared of the white particles. Then they would replicate a new breather for her.

She closed the communique with Norjelan. She had to decide what to do next. The Prime Directive hadn’t technically been broken before the Intrigue arrived. These people had discovered their ancestors’ technology, not that of an alien race. But then, Starfleet had broken the Prime Directive by letting themselves be discovered. The damage had already been done. She had to decide her next move.

 

Ensing J’Datek, a Klingon scientist, reached down to the deck of the lab and picked up a handful of the white substance. It had now spread to the whole ship, despite the force fields that had been erected to contain them. It was cool to the touch, but not cold like snow. Still, it had fallen from the “sky” and landed on every surface on the ship, as if they were in the midst of an indoor snow flurry. “Too bad we can’t make snowballs,” Lt. Bravo said. “Snowballs?” J’Datek asked.

“Something we do on earth when it snows,” Bravo said. “We pack the snow in a ball with our hands. Then we throw it at someone. It’s fun!”

J’Datek said, “There is no snow on Q’onos. The only Klingon planet with snow is Boreth. It is a revered planet, so there is no ‘fun’ there.”

“And who said Klingons are always the life of the party.”

J’Datek just growled.

Captain Sekoba entered the lab. The white particles on the deck were about ten centimeters deep. J’Datek noticed the captain leaving white footprints in the “snow.” The captain said, “Have you made any progress?”

Bravo turned back to her computer screen and said, "we believe that if we flood the ship with harmless sefiran gas, it will stop the molecular reconfiguration that is causing the particles. The problem is that ship’s controls are not working at peak efficiency due to the white particle contamination. We are working on a way to clear the contaminate from the systems needed to generate the sefiran gas.”

Sekoba said, “how are you working to clear the contaminate?”

“Ensign Indam has taken apart the necessary engineering sections. He and others are clearing the contaminate with a particle remover. They should be finished in another forty-five minutes. Then we can produce the gas in sufficient quantities in fifteen minutes. Then it will take thirty minutes to flood the entire ship. After that it’s just a matter of cleaning up. Dr. Norjelan said the gas should also clear up the problem with Kalta Neved.”

“Excellent work,” said the captain. “Carry on.”

“It’s kind of nice,” said Bravo.

“Explain,” Sekoba said.

“I miss the snow from home. It’s kind of nice to see it again. Even if we can’t make snowballs.”

The Vulcan had heard of snowballs from her time at Starfleet Academy, though she had never seen them. It didn’t snow in San Francisco or on Vulcan. Nostalgia wasn’t logical to her Vulcan sensibilities, but she did understand that humans had a need for it. It could soothe them at times when they needed it.

“You could always make them on the holodeck,” the Vulcan captain replied.

“Yeah. But it’s not the same, knowing it’s fake.”

Then suddenly, something soft hit the side of Bravo’s head. “Hey, what the…!?” she exclaimed.

J’Datek smiled. “I took some of the white particles and fused them with particle glue. Nice snowball, huh?”

Bravo picked up the ball. It didn’t crumble on impact like real snow. She would have thrown it back at the Klingon if the captain weren’t standing there. Instead, she just said, “Klingons!” and smiled.

Captain Sekoba nodded and left the room.

 

Because the Ashari did not seem bloodthirsty or cruel, Elatrai decided it was best to leave them and the rest of the planet to their normal development. The Intrigue’s scans had picked up other patches of undiscovered tech on this planet that may later be discovered by other civilizations and reset the balance of power again. It all seemed to be a part of the planet’s natural evolution. V’Sek had let her know that the Intrigue had found a solution to their white particle problem, but with the delicate equipment of the transporters still needing to be cleared, it would still be another hour before the away team could be beamed up.

She told Cistal they would have to go back to their land in an hour, never to return. He invited them back to the Ashari city one last time. She accepted.

 

They all sat on the floor at a round table. There was a roaring fire in the fireplace. Cistal handed a painted stone to Elatrai. “Will this suffice?” he asked her. The painting on the stone was the same as the seven-pointed star they had seen on the buildings. In addition, it had a blue and yellow flower, encircled by a red sun. “It’s beautiful,” she said. “Yes.” The flower was the symbol the Ashari used for their culture. The star had been added after the temple had been discovered. One of Elatriai’s hobbies was collecting symbols from the different planets she visited. When she had asked Cistal, he had been happy to provide it.

Then Cistal and the other nights at the round table did the gesture of friendship and asked Elatrai, Hughes, and Camsol to do the same. They crossed their arms over their chest, right over left. “We know there are many things in the world we do not understand. The gods only show us what they wish us to see. They lead us down the path we must follow. Today, they have brought these strangers to us. May the gods bless our mysterious new friends,” said Cistal, “and grant them a safe journey home.”

 

-by the Honorable Kavura

Thank you for reading my Star Trek Adventures: Captain’s Log mission report. Captain’s Log is a solo role-playing game by Modiphius Entertainment.