USS HORIZON NCC-825002
SD 14.0908 to 15.0306
"Joye Nova"
Senior Staff
CO: Lieutenant-Commander James Burke
aFO: Lieutenant Bordaq
FCO/2O: Lieutenant-Commander Jarek Malaar
OPS: Lieutenant Blaze Starsinger
CSciO: Lieutenant JG Melody Cuen
CEO: Ensign Rendash Kuaar
CMO: Ensign Electra Threin
CSO: Ensign Kor
SOCO: Lieutenant JG Arkanis
SOXO: Lieutenant JG Nathan Cady
Orders
To: LtCommander James T. Burke, CO, USS Horizon
From: Fleet Admiral Erin M. O'Connor, Fleet CO, Cocoon Fleet
SD: 14.0819
Captain,
Joye, one star in the binary star system Jerjoye (whose main star is Jer) on the border between the Gaia sector and the Renreal sector, is about to go nova. There are five planets in the system of varying compositions. You are to do a thorough mapping of this system and its planets, observe the nova, and record any effects it has on the system's dynamics.
Good luck,
Admiral Erin M. O'Connor
Cocoon Fleet Commanding Officer
Summary
(written by Don Ratliff, compiled from situation reports by Ruud Visser)
With the previous mission complete, the HORIZON spends a couple of days at Starbase OMEGA. Traditionally, the crew also spends one night at the Mystery Bar. Captain Burke and Ensign Kor have a talk about the Mystery Bar to make sure no officers get caught in the raid. Later that day, Burke receives new orders from the Fleet CO. The Horizon is to map a binary star system in the Gaia sector and to observe the nova of one of the stars. Instead of going to the Mystery Bar, Lt<jg> Melody Cuen has dinner with Cmdr. Jared Ireland from the Dakota. Captain Burke is reluctant about going to the Mystery Bar, but his wife persuades him to go anyway.
Kor buys a barrel of bloodwine and takes it to the party in the Mystery Bar. Most of the crew joins him there for a great night. Cady isn't too happy to see Lt<jg> D'Art Storm, with whom he's been rather close up to lately, hang out with an old friend.
The next morning, while most of the crew is suffering from various degrees of hangover, professor Chosky from the Shoemaker-Levy Institute of Cosmology comes aboard. He'll join the crew on their study of the Joye nova. Lt. Blaze Starsinger gets a call from his mother, who tells him his father has fallen ill again. Blaze decides he should be at home right now, and leaves the ship. Storm, who moved from security to the OPS department just this morning, takes over as Chief of Operations. When he accidentally takes away some of the SpecOps resources, Cady has an excuse to let out some of the anger over last night. Thanks to the SpecOps team, the Mystery Bar hasn't ended in a raid for the first time in months.
Amy DeSantos is pregnant with Lt. Bordaq's child, but both this couldn't have happened if it wasn't for an ulterior force.
With all between-missions stuff taken care of, the Horizon sets sail for the Jerjoye system for the new mission.
Kate Burke, the captain's wife, gets injured in what seems like an engineering accident. Unknown to her, however, PO 1st Class Mitchell was responsible - and this was only a test for his further plans. At the staff briefing the captain suggests the crew take a look at Jerjoye II while they still can, as this planet seems to be the system's most interesting.
Professor Chosky continues to prepare his probes, waving off any assistance from the crew because he says they wouldn't understand it anyway. He continues his condescending attitude throughout the staff meeting, annoying the entire senior crew.
Storm joins Cady on the holodeck, replacing the young officer's holographic opponent. He convinces Cady that his night together with Lyte meant nothing, and they make up for their earlier argument.
Cady is surprised by Storm's kiss, as he never really believed Storm would be interested in him. They agree to have dinner together when they get off duty. Professor Chosky runs a simulation for the smaller of his two probes and the results are looking good. He sends out his assistant to get a spare warp core to run some further tests.
Meanwhile, a being residing inside the Joye star knows the time is close... but the being doesn't know what is to come.
Alexi, professor Chosky's assistant, goes to engineering to get a warp core so the professor can carry on with his tests. Much to his surprise, Ensign Rendash Kuaar actually gets Alexi a spare core.
The Horizon enters the Jerjoye system and Cuen discovers ancient artificial satellites orbiting the fourth planet, which is M class.
The being living inside the Joye star continues to learn. He knows his home is elsewhere and can 'hear' whispers of his kin. He is also aware of the Horizon, though only like in a dream.
Ensign Stan the Man, the new counselor, arrives. He is a hologram, originally designed for Hermes CEO N'Borga Vandenbergh to help him cope with the death of the real Stan the Man. N'Borga has since built a portable holoemitter (PHE), a 20x10x5 cm³ box weighing 15 kgs, enabling him to exist outside the ship. Captain Burke welcomes him aboard and briefs him on the Horizon's mission.
Meanwhile, Professor Chosky finds evidence Joye is in fact a Douwd's birthplace, like he was expecting all along. The rest of the crew remains unaware.
Ensign The Man introduces himself to Captain Burke. He then goes to the Ship's Edge to meet HoloCyridian, the bartender, who is also a hologram.
The sensors pick up a broadcast from a large satellite, Pri-Sat, orbiting Jerjoye IV. The broadcast contains an audio recording from someone aboard the satellite, but at this distance the crew cannot say if the speaker is still alive. An investigation starts.
Bordaq prepares an away team to investigate Pri-Sat. Dr. Electra Threin gathers what she thinks she'll need, although she'd like to take much more with her than she can carry. Valarn Taya, the security department's young and eager beta shift lead, accompanies Ensign Kor. Ensign The Man and Ensign Kuaar will also come along.
On the bridge, D'Art Storm tries his best to improve the sensor output and accuracy. It doesn't help that professor Chosky seems to want all the ship's sensor arrays for himself.
Meanwhile on SB Sapphire, HQ for Emerald Fleet, Admiral Tergin has settled into a happy life together with his partner Or'Nonya. They both miss the Horizon, making it that much more enjoyable to receive some news from their old friends every now and then.
The 'grandfather' of the soon-to-be-born Douwd comes to take the infant's spirit for an important lesson. They go to Rana IV, where the Douwd known as the human Kevin Uxbridge is living in exile for the crime he committed: killing the entire race of the Husnock. His story since serves as a lesson for all young Douwd.
The away teams arrives aboard the Pri-Sat and begins their investigation.
The Horizon's new chief science officer, Ensign Abi Seldon from Alpha Centauri, arrives aboard. She reports to captain Burke and joins Storm and astCSciO Cuen to help boost the sensor gains. Operations officer Dag Nabbit suggests they tie their sensors into the satellites orbiting the planet. Their plan succeeds... but they can't enjoy it for long. A feedback wave overloads the systems, taking the sensors down.
Meanwhile, the away team continue their investigation of the Pri-Sat. Kuaar taps into the satellite's systems and discovers five faint life signs in a sealed room. Just as Bordaq gives the order to check this out, the satellite comes to life with what seems to be an anti-intruder program. The team members suddenly find themselves trapped. To make matters worse, a robot drops from the ceiling and starts attacking them. While evading the weapon's fire, Dr. Threin gets something from her medical bag to blind the attacker. The Man notices that, although communications to the Horizon are cut, the subspace link to his PHE is still intact. They might be able to use it to get a message back to the ship.
After being unable to get a diagnostic on the sensors, Seldon and Cuen go down to deflector control to check up on the sensor array. There seems to be no physical damage, which only adds to the mystery.
Elsewhere in the Cocoon, Bill Patton, former CMO of the Horizon and now CMO/2O on the Yorktown, records a message for Cuen. He's got big news to tell: he's going to be a father.
Ensign Seldon and astCEO Waters perform yet more examinations of the sensors, but they can't find anything to explain their malfunction. In the end, only one option remains: going outside and checking the array from there. Storm joins Seldon and Waters on the zero-G expedition. They discover a metallic device on top of the sensor dish, interacting with the ship's computers through the sensors. As Seldon is relaying the news to captain Burke, the ship shudders and Waters falls into the dish. To make things worse, the metallic device seems to be growing.
On the bridge, Burke is all but happy with the way a routine scientific survey mission has turned into a full-blown riddle including crew members out-of-reach and an alien device growing itself into the ship.
Meanwhile on the Pri-Sat, five ice-encrusted canisters are beginning to thaw. Inside each life is being awakened.
The Man uses the subspace link to his PHE to send a Morse coded message to the Horizon. Meanwhile, Seldon and Storm continue the rescue operation of Chief Waters. Kor comes up with a plan to remove the alien device that's attached itself to the ship's deflector dish. Outside, Seldon and Storm have just reached Waters. While he is beamed to sickbay, Seldon and Storm agree that Kor's plan is the best chance to get rid of the thing. Once they're back inside, the plan is put to work.
Meanwhile, the SpecOps team manages to sneak aboard the Pri-Sat. They rescue Dr. Threin and security officer Valarn Taya, but the rest of the away team is trapped on another deck. Things take a turn for the worse when Ad'am, Di'ana and Troj'an, the three people awoken from their hibernation, decide the Horizon's crew members are hostile intruders that need to be taken care of. Ad'am goes on a hunt and catches up with the SpecOps team. He introduces himself by shooting down Cady.
Thanks to Threin's good care and her telepathic abilities over Ad'am, Cady will live. H'llstam returns with the second part of the original away team, so everyone's in the Pri-Sat's medbay now. Ad'am realizes the people he's with aren't hostile and he offers his help in getting Cady to the Horizon. There's one craft they can use, but it only has room for Threin, Cady and a pilot. Although Ad'am insists that he pilot the vessel, Bordaq doesn't want him to. H'llstam will pilot it instead, because she's already learned the workings of the Joyan computer system. When she demonstrates her knowledge of the Joyan language, she scares Ad'am into believing they're some kind of demons and he runs off. Meanwhile, Ad'am's companions Tro'jan and Di'ana ponder their next move.
Back on the ship, Seldon's plan works. The alien device is removed from the deflector dish and beamed aboard for further study.
Aboard the Pri-Sat, Cady wakes up and, to everyone's surprise, his recent injuries have all but disappeared. Threin suspects the Joyan medicines have something to do with it. What's worse, Cady's body hasn't just gotten better at healing itself, it's ageing much more faster than usual. The seconds half of the away team, consisting of Bordaq, The Man and H'llstam, returns to the Horizon, taking Ad'am along as captive. After debriefing them, captain Burke and Ensign The Man go to the brig to have a talk with Ad'am.
Seldon, Cuen and Storm start the investigation of whatever it is they just detached from the deflector dish. It seems to be alive, but dying. In the brig, Ad'am perceives the being's death screams and he knows the Holy is dying. Shortly later, Burke and The Man arrive to interrogate Ad'am.
Meanwhile on SB Sapphire, Captain Te'Last of the Me'la'k informs Admiral Tergin a high priest in the E'Pik Order died last night. Many of his followers believe the death resulted from the dying of a Holy.
Ad'am tells his story to Burke and The Man. Among other things, he is very upset about the crew allowing the 'Holy' to die. After checking with Seldon and Storm, it becomes clear this object is probably Ad'am's Holy. In an effort to safe its life, Seldon and Storm set up a miniature deflector dish to 'feed' the Holy.
Threin has managed to stop Cady's rapid aging process, but not until his body has reached a physical age of about 100 years. Cady reacts rather calmly to the news at first, but soon makes it clear he'd rather die trying to regain his youth than live the rest of his life like this.
Threin is making some progress in finding a way to restore Cady's rapid ageing, but she isn't there yet. In the meantime, she doesn't let anyone near him.
Admiral Tergin, commander of the Emerald Fleet and former captain of the Horizon, sends an urgent message to captain Burke, requesting that he doesn't let the Holy die. If the Holy does die, it will likely lead to civil war on Tammon, as well as war between the Tammon people and the Federation.
Storm and Seldon have set up a way to 'feed' the being, but the problem is to get the food inside the force field. In the end, Storm decides to bring it inside himself, using an EVA suit and a portable field generator to keep the force field intact. The feeding is a success, but before Storm can leave the force field, the being strikes at him. Immediately, it starts integrating itself into his body.
Ensign Oqqre, a Chalna recently assigned to the Horizon, is suffering from a case of aichmophobia: fear of pointy objects. He has a talk with the counsellor.
Seldon faces the difficult task of freeing Storm without killing the Holy. She comes up with a plan to use a shuttle's deflector as bait, hoping the Holy will give up Storm in favor of the shuttle. Burke has a talk with Ad'am, who tells him he should ask Di'ana. As Bordaq returns to Pri-Sat to get her, Seldon puts her plan into motion... and sees it work. Storm is beamed to sickbay, being put in a bed next to his boyfriend Cady. As much as he wants to help, Cady can only watch as Threin begins treating Storm's injuries.
Cady is very displeased to have Storm seeing him in his current condition. Dr. Threin administers the first dosage of the antidote she has been able to create now that she has access to the Joyean medical databases. As Cady drifts off into sleep, she reassures Storm that Cady didn't mean all that he said.
Knowing it's only a matter of time before Joye goes nova, Lt<jg> Melissande Awk and Lt. Yudel help Troj'an, one of the Joyeans from Pri-Sat, retrieve stored data. Meanwhile, Ensign The Man is making good progress in curing Ensign Oqqre from his aichmophobia.
Cady responds well to the first phase of his treatment, taking him back from 100+ to 60 years of age. When he wants to leave sickbay, he finds himself torn between actually leaving and staying with Storm.
Suddenly feeling tired from her action-packed first day on the Horizon, Seldon retreats to her quarters for some much needed rest. Storm convinces Cady to stay a while in sickbay, allowing them to comfort each other's suffering.
Professor Chosky's probes trap the about-to-be-born Douwd inside Joye. The Douwd realizes this, but finds another way out. In the birthing process, Joye goes nova, bringing the Horizon's mission to an unexpected end. It is also the end of Chosky's experiment, but where the Horizon's mission is a success, his experiment isn't.
Storm and Cady are awarded the Wounded Lion for the injuries they suffered in the line of duty. Ensign Abi Seldon is promoted to Lieutenant JG and is awarded the Noonien Soong Medal for her dealing with the Holy. Ensign Stan the Man is also promoted to Lieutenant JG.
Although Cady appreciates the gesture, he would easily give up the award to get back to his own age again. He has a hard time coping with everyone's more caring attitude.
Bordaq, Rendash Kuaar and Kor will be leaving the Horizon for a new assignment. Captain Burke asks Seldon if she would like to take over as FO. Seldon is overwhelmed by the offer and replies that she needs some time to think about it.
Promotions
Lieutenant-Commander James Burke: promoted to Commander
Lieutenant JG D'Artaigne Storm: promoted to second officer
Lieutenant JG Arkanis: promoted to Lieutenant
Ensign Abi Seldon: promoted to Lieutenant JG and first officer
Ensign Electra Threin: promoted to Lieutenant JG
Ensign Stan the Man: promoted to Lieutenant JG
Awards received
Wounded Lions: Lieutenant JG D'Art Storm and Lieutenant JG Nathan Cady
Noonien Soong Medal: Ensign Abi Seldon
Viper Badge: Marc Boon