USS Gorkon responds to Starfleet distress signal

[StarBase 118 Staff]

MENTHAR CORRIDOR — The USS Gorkon has attempted to render aid to a stricken science vessel while en route to the Menthar Corridor, but a seemingly coordinated system of booby traps has put the rescue teams themselves in jeopardy.

Between assignments, the new crew of the USS Gorkon enjoyed leave on Starbase 118, where they attended an awards ceremony set in an idyllic holodeck simulation of an old English summer fête. Shortly afterward, Gorkon and her crew departed 118 for the Menthar Corridor, their primary theatre of operations.

En route, Gorkon received a distress call from the Oberth-class science vessel USS Tharsis, a member of Astrofori One’s standing fleet Peaceforce Five. Approaching her location, Gorkon discovered Tharsis was trapped in a gravity anomaly and not responding to hails.

Three away teams beamed over to the stricken ship: Commander Alucard Vess’ team to organize medical relief in sickbay, Commander Chen’s team to sound the ship and conduct repairs from engineering, and Captain Quinn Reynolds’ team to assess and prepare for evacuation on the bridge. Upon arrival, the away teams found Tharsis running on emergency power, ship-wide dispersion fields and small gravity anomalies, and the crew missing.

Events swiftly descended into chaos. Communications were severed, and Tharsis’ shields were raised, trapping the away teams onboard. A deliberate overload of the electro-plasma systems forced the bridge team to escape into a powerless turbolift, and from there into the Jefferies tubes, which themselves began to flood with water. It was only through the heroics of Lieutenant Ayiana Sevo that the team was able to escape being drowned.

Commander Vess’ team found sickbay damaged and in disarray. A search turned up a dead Bolian crewman, inflected with Sarpedionital gondii, a parasite known for burrowing into the skin and fusing with the nervous system, causing paranoia, irrationality and violent behavior in its hosts. Discovering Tharsis’ Chief Medical Officer in hiding, the team found out that the parasites had infected the crew as a result of his negligence. A wildfire protocol was then activated in sickbay, filling the corridors with toxic gas and forcing the team to evacuate.

Commander Chen’s team also encountered a member of Tharsis’ crew, a badly injured crewman who collapsed shortly thereafter. An unexpected warp core breach drill impelled the team to evacuate engineering before the entire area was locked down. They managed to escape through the Jefferies tubes, but had to leave the dying crewman behind in order to save themselves.

Back aboard Gorkon, the crew worked to support the away teams, but their rescue efforts were thwarted by the highly volatile situation on Tharsis.

“It’s an impossible situation,” said Lt. Commander Kael Tam, while temporarily in command on Gorkon’s bridge. “How do you rescue a crew when that the same crew is trying their hardest to hunt and kill you?”

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