NCC-92002 USS ATHENE
SD 8.0807 to 8.1214
"DreamTime"
Senior Staff
Cmdr Galen Savage CO
LtCmdr Brandon Delaney XO/FO
Lt(jg) Demetrius Simms CSO/2O
Lt(jg) Tressa T'Sora CEO
Ens T'Kal FCO
Ens Janara KvinCSCiO
Ens Roger Fitzpatrick CMO
Ens Joanne Carters CNS
Ens Daryl FargoOPS
Civ Nial Rogal Barkeep
References
Summary
The crew of the Athene has completed a successful first contact situation as well as solving the mystery of the distress calls. On approach, it was found that the planet was a type Q system, made up mostly of water although it had different atmospheres. One atmosphere above the surface, one below with areas of life below the water surface. It was also found that there were a number of multiple structures below the surface of the water.
During the approach to the planet the Athene was probed from an unknown source. The probed was powerful enough to knock the ship about causing a plasma leak in engineering placing the ship under emergency power. One crew member was killed in the accident. Dr. Fitzpatrick found, when trying to save the crew member, that the probe had not only scanned all of the ship and its inhabitants but it had also scanned each and every cell looking in particular at each persons DNA sequence.
Further investigation of the planet revealed that it housed 27 million species all arranged in a grid formation with no interaction between the species. An away team consisting of LtCmdr Delaney, Lt(jg) Simms, Lt(jg)T'Sora, Ens T'Kal, Ens Kvin and Ens Carters was despatched to investigate the various life forms on the planet. Once on the planet, the away team viewed some of the inhabitants including, to their surprise, an exact replica of the birdge of the Athene. Included on the bridge were replicas of the senior staff seemingly to be in statis. Scanns showed that each of the clones would be exactly the same as the original person including the areas of personality, thoughts, actions and previous experiences. The away team, intending to contact the Athene and report on their situation, walked back into the tunnels connecting the various species, only to find that the tunnels had changed and tricorders, phasers and communicators no longer worked.
Meanwhile, on the ship, Cmdr Savage heard, from the 'away team' (which had returned to the ship)a report that outlined what they had seem on the planet below. Cmdr Savage, satisfied about what he had heard from the 'away team' dispatched the Athene to the second moon around the planet where the origin of the distress signal was located. The moon was found to be aritifical and the distress signal an outmative one. A probe was launched towards the moon but before any readings could be sent back to the Athene, a ship (half the size and mass of the Athene) was launched from the moon and proceeded to attack the Athene. Cmdr Savage found, while ordering his crew to go to red alert and return fire, that the senior officers were actually the clones from the planet below.
The Cmdr was then removed from command by 'LtCmdr Delaney' and placed under arrest. The ship was then hailed by a being by the name of Tallon and the crew was ordered to cut off life support to all areas except for the bridge and engineering. In protesting about the way the ship was being invaded, Cmdr Savage was knocked unconscious and placed into the brig (where Dr Fitzpatrick was situated).
At the same time, on the planet, the real away team woke up in 'sickbay', a day later then they had gone down to the planet. Dr Anathema informed the crew that they had been affected by halucogenic gasses in the caverns. Ens. Kvin, noticing peculiar behaviour in 'Cmdr Savage' ran a number of scans and found that the only life forms in 'sickbay' were the ones of the away team. She also found that everything around them was a holographic projection but was unable to find the placement of the holoemitters. Once the away team members were proclaimed fit they were ordered back to the 'bridge' where they stumbled across the data signals of the original USS Athene. It was decided to send a low level message through to the Athene. Whilst sending the message, the crew of the away team came in contact with Trejav who explained that he was from a race called the 'Tarethi' who lived on a planet called Ko'tarj, 4.732317 light years from SB Omega. Through questionin Trejav, it was found that Tallon was a committed criminal, imprisioned on the planet to die. It was apparent that Tallon has aligned himself with other criminals and conducted a plot to capture a ship and return to Ko'tarj.
The crew, including Trejav returned to Trejav's ship to fly back to the Athene. Once near the Athene, which had shields down but weapons powered up, Ens T'sorra and Ens T'Kal beamed directly to engineering and flooded the whole ship with radiation thus imobolising Tallon who was then sent to the brig.
At the same time, on the ship, Dr Fitzpatrick and Cmdr Savage, through a process call 'Field of Dreaming', unintentionally swapped minds thus CDR Savage's mind was in Dr Fitzpatrick's body and visa vera. The Athene, with Tallon in command, was approached by another ship captained by a being by the name of Trejav. Trejav tried, unsuccessfully, a number of times to hail the Athene but the hail was being ignored by Tallon. The ship then disappeared from view and was then subsequently found on a nearby moon.
Meanwhile, in the brig, Dr Fitzpatrick and Cmdr Savage had managed to escape and returned to sickbay where they came up with a plan to increase the temperature of the ship to -3.4 °F so that the crew would be kept in stasis thus preventing death. In the process of doing this 21 other Dr Fitzpatricks were created in various places around the ship although the minds of CDR Savage and Dr Fitzpatrick were returned to their own bodies. Meanwhile the real away team had managed to make positive contact with Trevaj who xplained the entire situation, and that Tallon was his son and a criminal. USing Trevaj's ship, the away team tries to board the ATHENE, while Trevaj engages the ATHENE in battle. TAllon begins to take the ship into the planets atmosphere.
On the Athene, Cmdr Savage is injected with a fever inducing medicine to raise his body temperature enough to withstand the intense cold, plus an sweat inhibitor so that the body would not try to cool itself too quickly. THis allows the CO to gain access to a EV suit with which he proceeds to go outside to rescue a crewmember supposedly lost there. Said crewman, the barkeep, had since then return to the ship but before doing so had set his phaser on overload and had fastened it along with his communicator to the bridges overhead viewport. It was rigged so that anyone attempting to contact him, would set off the delayed time mechanism on the overload.
The CO undergoing major fever induced hallucinations tries to contact the barkeep, thus setting off the overload. He is caught by the edge of the blast that takes out the bridges overhead viewport but is eventually retrieved by the soon to be OPS officer. Meanwhile the CMO has hit upon a plan with the remaining living crew in the shuttlebay and he and his duplicates take over essential parts of the ship.
The real away team take the opportunity the exploding bridge dome presents, and board the ATHENE, immediately engaging the clones. Dr. Fitzpatrick managed to get to the bridge of the Athene and gets in a battle with Tallon. Both fall into the turboshaft. Delaney and Simms are able to set up a forcefield over the hole that threatens to suck everyone into space, while the ship is flooded with massive amounts of concentrated light that the Tarethi appear to be highly sensitive to. The CEO turns off the gravity in the turboshafts, thus saving the CMO and TAllons lives.
Once the bridge was again controlled by the correct crew, Cmdr Savage introduced a new member of the team, Ens Fargo (who had found and aided the CO back to the bridge), and then collapsed unconscious with suspected internal injuries and was taken to sickbay.
Trejav invited the crew to return to his home planet so that repairs could be made to the Athene as well as investiage a possibillity for his people to join the Federation. The Athene's presence was also requested by the elders of the planet at the trial and subsequent sentencing of Tallon.
Once on the planet, the members of the elders offered the services of their scientist to help with the repairs on the Athene and Ens Carters and Dr Fitzpatrick were given access to the archives of the planet thus enabling them to determine whether the planet would be a suitable candidate for Federation entry. Whilst investigating their customs and histroy Dr Fitzpatrick was found to be starting a revolution, attempting to violate the Prime Directive, and so was sent back to the ship, placed in the brig to awaiting a court martial. Over time, the remaining duplicates of the CMO dissappear.
The CMO attempts to break out of brig, and it is concluded that his central nervous system needs to be temporarily discontinued from his brain. THis procedure has a negative effect on the CO, for unknown reasons. As the CMO is returned to normal, he too falls into an unexplained coma not unlike the one the CO had recently fallen into. THere are no explanations as both men had been completely healed of all injuries.
After emergency repairs on the Athene were finished and Ens Carters finished her evaluation of the planet and species, the Athene completed this mission and started on the return journey back to SB Omega. As the ship heads homeunder the temporary command of the XO, the CO and CMO begin to mutate into creatures encountered on a previous mission. The acting CMO, Dr. Anathema, discovers that their DNA is being rewritten, and all attempts to stop it had failed.
Meanwhile the CO and CMO have made contact between their spirits on a subconsious level, also labeled Dreamtime. In Dreamtime, both men are once more healed by the leader of the Alien species encountered in a previous mission (See Close Encounters of the Strangest Kind) at the same time as Dr. Anathema manages to find and inject them with samples of old, original DNA. Both men slowly return to their normal state.
Just before docking at Omega CMR Savage briefly regained consciousness.
Written mostly by Narelle Best, with a few addendums by Tatya