0302. When Science and Fantasy Mix

After the extensive repairs, needed from the last mission, were completed, Starfleet Command deemed the PROPHECY fit to embark on another mission. The Federation’s only trans-dimensional ship was sent to find and bring back an inter-dimensional probe that went missing. Why, Starfleet sent us on a simple and quite tedious expedition like this, was not exactly clear, until later on in the mission. Our only lead on the probe’s whereabouts was its last known position. With the dimension coordinates known, we jumped to that particular dimension.

We set course for the planet, where the probe was last found to have been in orbit, before vanishing. After having reached the planet, we encountered a space faring vessel, resembling that of an old fashioned bubble-like horse-drawn carriage, except it was not drawn by horses. The other craft hailed the PROPEHCY and we were greeted by four individuals, who introduced themselves to be Valuyon of the Elves, Olum- a master in the school of magic, Halia of the Tenth Sisterhood and a dwarf, Jimjim. Valuyon, Halia and Jimjim belonged to the ‘Council of Unity’. Valuyon was also the council Chairperson and ILUMNA was the name of the planet we arrived at.

At the request of Valuyon and his fellow Ilumnans to talk further, we decided to send an away team comprising of Lt. Xana Bonviva- ExO, Lt. Mad’hron Zanders- Cns, Lt. JG Katlina Potter- Sec/Tac, Ensign Jesse Turner- DCL and Ensign AJ O’Malley to the other ship. In the meantime, Lt. Jeffrey Gorman- CMO and Ensign Avar Dacil- aCns were assigned to create a profile of the Ilumnans in general, while Lt. JG Raycii Jones- CEO and Ensign Griffin O’Neil- aCSciO were to work on locating the probe.

During the meeting on the ‘Carriage’, the away team found out that the Ilumnans were having trouble with an unknown and dangerous enemy known as the ‘Evil Ones’. The Council members, feeling the ‘Carriage’ unsafe for further discussion, invited the away team down to the planet to attend one of their meetings. The team discovered that the Ilumnans were pre-warp and believed that the Federation was just another guild. So, the Prime Directive came in effect here and the away team had to keep with that pretence.

After the away team beamed down to the planet, they headed to a village, where the council held their meetings. Upon arrival at their destination, the team found the architectural structures and lifestyle of the Ilumnans resembled that of the medieval Earth.

During the ‘Council of Unity’ meeting, the away team discovered the council had members who were elf, humans, dwarfs and a tiny winged creature, known as a fairy. After the meeting, the away team went to search for a place to stay for the night, and eventually found an inn. The away team discovered from the locals that the ‘Evil Ones’ were believed to have abducted several Ilumnans, who encountered them.

Meanwhile, back on the PROPHECY, Jones and O’Neil detected energy spikes originating from the planet. Jones and Dacil were sent down to the planet to further investigate those spikes. However, as soon as they arrived at the planet, the spikes rose so high that they managed to hit the PROPHECY, thereby cutting off communications with the away teams, as well as causing some damage to the ship. We later found out that the energy spikes formed into a large firebird, which was also responsible for preventing us from communicating with our officers down on the planet. The firebird then attacked the ship, resulting in further damages and many injured crewmembers. We fired phasers at the firebird, thereby destroying it. However, the firebird managed to reform itself and prepared for its next attack, when all of a sudden, it disappeared back into the planet, for reasons unknown. Communications with the away teams were re-established.

As the events on the ship were taking place, the first away team was dealing with their own set of problems. The energy spikes had also caused a tremor, which they later found out from the inn’s barmaid to be a sky quake, believed to be caused by some wizards’ spells in an attempt to ward off the ‘Evil Ones’. O’Malley volunteered to work on extracting more information from the barmaid, which he eventually managed to get. The barmaid told him about a ‘shooting star’, deduced to be the probe, of having crashed into the town of Tanallisburg.

Around the same time, Bonviva, Potter and Zanders paid a visit to a wizard’s school. Unfortunately, Lt. Potter ended up becoming amnesiac during the wizard’s attempt to link her telepathically with another officer on the ship. Zanders then took Potter to a healer, who was unable to treat Kat’s amnesia, while Bonviva returned back to the inn, where she gathered Turner and O’Malley. They met up with Potter and Zanders and then began their journey to Tanallisburg. The path involved going through a mountain pass that would take several days on horseback.

During the trip, Bonviva’s team met up with Jones and Dacil, who were travelling in a caravan to Tanallisburg. The away team, now reunited, encountered dragons, trolls and a group of soldiers, who called themselves knights. When the group camped out for a short rest, one of the knights got in trouble. Bonviva, O’Malley, Zanders and Potter went to rescue him and to their great shock, they came face to face with a Species 8472 creature. The creature was about to grab the knight, when Zanders managed to distract it, thereby allowing the Ilumnan to escape. Bonviva contacted us to report their latest discovery and because of the danger posed by Species 8472 on the planet, the away team was recalled back.

The presence of Species 8472 brought forth many questions in our minds, like what was their purpose on ILUMNA, did they know of the probe, why did they abduct Ilumnans and so on. But it was safe to assume, the 8472 were the feared ‘Evil Ones’. This was also the time that Ensign O’Malley revealed to me that what we were looking for was no simple inter-dimensional probe, but a special probe sent to this dimension to gather intelligence on Species 8472.

After discussions with the crew, new away teams were dispatched to the planet, this time more prepared to deal with the 8472. Lt. Cmdr. Aspinall, Ensigns O’Neil and O’Malley were sent to Tanallisburg to search for the probe. Lt. Lawrence, Potter, Jones and Dr. Gorman beamed down to the site, where the 8472 creature was last seen. Lt. Zanders, Ensigns Turner and Dacil headed to the ‘Council of Unity’.

The situation became more complicated than ever, when Lawrence’s team encountered an 8472 creature, which took the form of an Ilumnan wizard. The creature gave an ultimatum, which was to take the probe and leave. In order to ensure the safety of the ship and crew, I decided to follow the ultimatum and recalled Lawrence’s team back. I then reassigned Potter and Jones to Aspinall’s team, while assigning Lawrence and Gorman to look out for any 8472 bioship.

While one problem was taken care of, another one crept up. When I was informed of Lt. Zander’s team having offered an invitation to one of the ‘Council of Unity’ members to come aboard the ship, I had to order them back to the ship. The team was close to breaching the Prime Directive, by nearly exposing the ship to a species not even close to our technological level. The solution to the problem was we sent the team back to the council to provide Species 8472’s limited biological and cultural information that would not break the Prime Directive. After completing their task, the team returned back to the ship.

While all this was happening, the away team at Tanallisburg detected readings of Thomicron radiation. Believing it to be a possible lead to the probe, O’Malley and Jones were beamed closer to the source, which was at the top of a mountain. When Jones and O’Malley reached their destination, they discovered the radiation did not come from the probe, but an unknown Borg device. They then returned back to the ship, to further study the device.

Lt. Bonviva and Zanders were then sent to join up with the away team on Tanallisburg to help in the search for the probe. The team encountered the same 8472 creature, who gave the ultimatum earlier and was found to be ill. Gorman was called down to the planet to treat the creature and further scanning revealed the illness to be caused by the radiation emitted by the probe.

The creature provided information about the probe having crashed into the centre of the town, which was confirmed by O’Neil’s tricorder. Aspinall, O’Neil and Potter followed up on the lead and located the probe, which unfortunately was surrounded by a crowd of Ilumnans, who were worshipping it.

It was decided that the probe could be taken only at night and therefore a plan was formulated. The plan was to replace the probe with a replicated ‘dummy’, so as to prevent the Ilumnans from noticing it missing. The plan was successful and the probe was brought to the ship. We then set course away from ILUMNA and returned back to our dimension. Further study on the Borg device was halted, and we decided to just hand it over to Starfleet Command.

(End Log)