Personal Log - Fred McCellan

[Fred McCellan]

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Stardate 170809 (Ancient Karaoki)

Personal Log of Commander Fred McCellan


We received orders to investigate why a science team was no longer in contact with HQ. The team was was conducting a cultural "duck blind" observation (no contact) of the "people" on the planet Xalapa. It had only been a week without contact, but the situation was deemed worth looking in to. Most likely it was just some sort of communications failure.

Captain Randt ordered the Veracruz to head out for Xalapa at warp 6. The last report from the Xalapa team indicated they had found a strange alien artifact in the middle of nowhere. We don't know if this is relevant or not to their "disappearance".

In due time we arrived at Xalapa and went into standard orbit. Commander Brit was asked by our XO (Captain Aryela) to assemble an away team to ascertain what had happened to the science team. We didn't have much time before sunset so we only had time for an initial survey.

The away team was assembled and dispatched to the surface via transporter beam. The team (myself included) arrived at the duck blind but none of the science team members were there.

The duck blind was a nicely furnished room hidden from the locals in a large rock outcropping. It had a nice one-way view of the outside world. The science team's equipment, computer consoles, etc., was all intact and looked to be fully functional. There were no signs of any kind of struggle. Scans of the area outside the blind showed no signs of the science team.

Lt-Cmdr Mantis accessed the various computer stations and downloaded the data for analysis. After completing our initial investigation of the actual duck blind, we scanned the surrounding area again, and not seeing any locals on our scanners, we all went outside to look around. We found some interesting rock type structures nearby with various types of inscriptions. In addition, one of the structures appeared to have some faint power readings coming from it. At this point there was still no sign of the science team and it was getting dark so we wrapped up our investigation for the day.


Commander Fred McCellan
Chief of Operations
USS Veracruz

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[Fred McCellan]

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Stardate 170816 (Garden of Mystery)

Personal Log of Commander Fred McCellan


It is now daylight and Captain Randt ordered a full search party be sent to the surface of Xalapa to try to locate the Federation's missing science team.

We beamed down to the surface and Captain Randt organized the away team into two search teams. Major Asbrink, Dr. McKay and Lt Cmdr Mantis were assigned to me. Everyone else was assigned to Captain Randt's team. His team consisted of Lt-Cmdr Jameson, Ensign Tonwen Su, Lt Guardian, and Lt Macpherson.

The two teams spread out and started investigating the area and the various small rock structures that dotted the landscape. We were all given instructions to avoid any contact with the local people.

It wasn't long before my team found a device that looked suspiciously like the "Guardian of Forever" that was encountered by Captain Kirk many years ago. We decided to not temp fate by asking it a question and moved on.

Captain Randt's team found a species of large flowers that sprayed a rather powerful hallucinogenic drug into the air. We were all warned about it but not before Ensign Su had received a good dose of the drug and started showing signs of being affected.

Captain Randt's team also found a small pyramid-like structure. It had a flat top and had some sort of mast/beacon structure in its center, reaching up perhaps 15-20 meters. Once word got out about the structure, most of the away team members assembled there.

Initial investigation seemed to show the structure had some type of hidden room under it. At one point a slab door on top of the structure slid open and Doc McKay descended down a staircase into the structure. The door then closed leaving the Doc stranded inside.

Doc McKay, now in the dark, found a warm body and blood on the floor and started giving medical attention to one of the scientists. There were multiple bodies and a pool of blood near each one.

Up top, it took us awhile but the team eventually learned how to reliably open the door. Part of the team then descended to give aid and to analyze a an alien computer type console and equipment inside the structure.

Doc McKay and other team members then carried the wounded scientists out of the "pyramid" and to safety. The Veracruz was contacted and the wounded were beamed up to the ship for treatment.

All this time Ensign Su had been increasingly showing signs of being affected by the hallucinogenic drug and eventually she required some emergency treatment to keep her breathing. She was also beamed to sickbay for treatment.

Once the scientists were revived they of course wanted to know about the others in their group and who had rescued them. Apparently the scientists had been wounded and trapped in the pyramid for about two days.

Captain Randt tasked Lt Guardian and Lt Macpherson to continue investigating the pyramid and area around it until we were able to return the scientists to their posts. All other away team members returned to the Veracruz.


Commander Fred McCellan
Chief of Operations
USS Veracruz

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[Fred McCellan]

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Stardate 170830 (Devil's Snare)

Personal Log of Commander Fred McCellan


Today's shift started well enough but soon multiple strange things started happening around the ship. First, our phasers fired without reason and that was followed by the unauthorized launch of one of our torpedoes. Then our comm systems started experiencing interference and high noise levels made them nearly useless.

An override code was sent to the rogue torpedo to blow it up but it did not respond to the code. We were, however, able to guide it to an asteroid so that it didn't blow up anything important.

The next thing we know Commander Syntron received a warning at his console stating there were multiple micro-fractures in four of six transporter room's gel packs. Not good, since the innards of gel packs are quite toxic. Several crew went to investigate and contain the threat.

Strange noises were heard by several crew members. The noises seemed to come from inside the walls near the transporter room and at one point a wall panel blew out. In addition, something was draining the power out of the room, causing the magnetic forcefields on the gel packs to degrade and thus threaten the ship's safety.

All kinds of wierd things started happening around the ship. Replicators misbehaved, odd sounds (squeaks, rustling, etc.) were heard, an EPS relay overloaded in the Captain's ready room, the ship suddenly jerked, and various minor failures started occurring.

Then without warning, some sort of plant life popped out of one of the ODN circuit relay doors in the transporter room. Internal sensor sweeps were of course started to look for anything smalled than a humanoid but nothing showed up on standard scans. Ensign Su, however, used some of her science talents to ferret out a tentative map of whatever it was. More strange things started happening around the ship including an uncalled for red alert, music playing on the bridge, and other oddities.

Fortunately, Commander Syntron and his team (who were now at the scene) managed to jump out of the transporter room, seal off the area, and place some emergency bulkheads to temporarily contain the vine-like plant.

Next, Ensign Su and Commander Jameson forced their way back into the transporter room to deal with the plant. Upon entry, Ensign Su ended up being attacked and covered by the plant while Commander Jameson kept firing at it. Both crew struggled and battled with the plant. They were soon aided by Lt Macpherson and her knife.

When it was realized the plant was getting energy from the lights and power sources nearby, Major Asbrink started shutting everything down in an attempt to weaken the plant. At one point part of the plant was linked to something flammable and a fire broke out in an EPS conduit. Commander Moonprince managed to put out the resulting fire with an extinguisher.

The struggle and battle continued between our crew and the plant until we realized we might be able to bait the plant with some "scrumptious" high energy gel packs. We used one of our shuttle's transporter system to beam our entire supply of ten gel packs out into space. The plant made a mad dash for the bait punching a hole in our starboard hull on the way out. Needless to say we immediately backed the ship away from the plant and managed to make our escape.


Commander Fred McCellan
Chief of Operations
USS Veracruz

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[Fred McCellan]

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Stardate 170906

Personal Log of Commander Fred Smithers

We (The USS Hood) received a message from Starfleet command assigning us to sector 312 to assist colonists who were being harassed by space pirates. At least three convoys in the sector had been attacked in the past two days and the pirate attackers had been using very sophisticated weaponry.

Upon receipt of this communication from HQ, Captain Dodge immediately had our helm set out for the affected sector. All of the USS Hood's weapons systems were in top notch shape and ready to do battle if necessary.

As soon as we arrived in the sector, we spotted a ship on our sensors and it was moving in our direction. The ship looked like some sort of unknown civilian class vessel. It was determined to be about 4 generations or about 40 years old.

Captain Dodge had our comm officer hail the ship. They acknowledged our hail and surprisingly they ordered us to surrender. Captain Dodge of course refused to comply, especially since we didn't even know who was making that outrageous demand.

The captain of the pirate ship then demanded that we beam over our supply of photon torpedoes or be destroyed.

It sounded rather amusing but who knows what kind of weapons that pirate ship might be hiding under its old hull. Captain Dodge took us to red alert, thus bringing our shields and weapons on-line and ready for action.

Captain Dodge considered honoring their request (for our photon torpedoes) by launching a live photon torpedo at them. Unfortunately they fired first and scored a direct hit to our shields, knocking their effectiveness down a notch or two. The blast we received was way stronger than expected from a ship of that age. Alex Randt (helm) immediately took evasive action and Captain Dodge gave the command to fire our phasers and take out their weapons.

A fierce battle ensued as we and the other ship jockeyed for position in order to get a good shot at the opposing vessel. The Hood took another hit. This time the hit took out power to deck 6 and deck 12 suffered a hull breach. During the battle, Engineering scrambled to re-route power and to work on critical repairs. I sent my bridge security officer Ensign Jason Krem to sickbay because his arm was wounded during the attack. Gary Todd, our science officer was also sent to sickbay to be treated for burns. Crew casualties were reported on decks 4-8.

We kept firing phasers and volleys of photon torpedoes. All the while our inertial dampeners were given a good work out while our helm vigorously maneuvered the Hood to avoid hits from the pirate ship. At last a final volley of torpedoes slowed the pirate ship and they began moving away. At that point Captain Dodge ordered us to hold fire and move back a bit, but he kept our shields up.

Captain Dodge asked if we had warp available and Lt Cmdr Joplin stated we had warp 5. Captain Dodge then ordered us to head for the nearby Mayborn Colony and to hail them. We weren't underway very long when we started losing speed. At nearly the same time, a slightly overweight balding man answered our hail and appeared on our view-screen. He stated: "Kirk old boy! You're here to save me again. Wait a minute, you aren't Kirk! Who the devil are you?". It was none other than Harry Mudd, a person of notoriety that Starfleet (Captain Kirk) had the misfortune to run into on several earlier occasions.

Captain Dodge introduced himself to Mr. Mudd who wanted to know what we had done with Kirk. At this point Captain Dodge consulted the ship's computer and received a verbal briefing on Mudd. The computer stated: "Mudd, Harcourt Fenton. Current location, Android planet. Imprisoned there by Captain James Kirk under supervision of 500 Stella Androids. Last communication stardate 2304.2." Harry Mudd, overhearing the computer briefing, stated it wasn't entirely accurate and that he should beam aboard the Hood to explain. Captain Dodge stated to Mudd that he was a dangerous man and that he should be thrown in the brig but the Captain conceded and agreed to a meeting with Mudd.

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Commander Fred Smithers
Chief of Security
USS Hood

AKA:
Commander Fred McCellan
Chief of Operations
USS Veracruz

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[Fred McCellan]

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Stardate 170913 (Deep Mudd Part 2)
Location: Mayborn colony and vicinity

Personal Log of Commander Fred Smithers


As mentioned in my last report, we arrived at the Mayborn colony and found the infamous Harcourt Fendton Mudd there. He had apparently been involved in selling weapons. Captain Dodge was inclined to throw him in the brig but agreed to a meeting with him aboard the Veracruz.

Mr. Mudd, arrived for the meeting and per Captain Dodge's request, I escorted him to the briefing room where the meeting took place.

Mr. Mudd gave us a sob story about being deposited on a planet and subjected to cruel and unusual punishment by 500 android replicas of his nagging, lecturing, and bickering wife Stella. Mr. Mudd had made a deal with a few of the androids to end their immortal existence (which they didn't like) in exchange for them leading Mr. Mudd to a cache of weapons and scientific equipment that their creators had left behind. Eventually a group of pirates visited the planet and Mr. Mudd bribed them to remove him from the planet. His stay with the pirates was short-lived, however. The pirates dumped him and Mr. Mudd ended up at Mayborn colony.

Our recent battle with the pirates and their illegal weapons did not make Captain Dodge very happy. We interrogated Mr. Mudd to find out as much information as we could about the pirates in order to help us fight them more effectively. After a bit of effort, we eventually we were able to pry a set of weapons codes from Mr. Mudd and none too soon. The pirate ship that had previously attacked us appeared on sensors and it was headed our way for another round of battle. When it arrived, it told us to surrender or risk destruction.

A battle ensued with both of us jockeying for position and taking shots at each other. The codes given to us by Mudd didn't seem to have any effect until Lt Cyrillian suggested we try entering the codes backwards. At that point the pirate vessel stopped firing and then began firing with far less powerful (i.e., normal) weapons systems. The codes also weakened their shields. The pirate vessel suddenly exploded after we fired a last barrage at it. Even so, we sustained battle damage on decks 4, 5, and 9 and our shields were down to 40%.

After the battle was over and things settled down, Captain Dodge had the helm set course for station K7 where we will "eject" our guest Mr. Mudd.

Commander Fred Smithers
Chief of Security
USS Hood

AKA:
Commander Fred McCellan
Chief of Operations
USS Veracruz

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[Fred McCellan]

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Stardate 170920 (History Precedes Us)
Personal Log of Commander Fred McCellan

Today's shift was relatively straight forward. The USS Veracruz was assigned a simple scientific mission to begin mapping out a new sector. We headed out to the designated area on a course of 212 mark 16 at warp 5.

We arrived in the area and then worked on and finished grid section #37. Captain Randt then gave orders to take us the nearby unexplored Toriga system for a detailed scan.

We arrived at the system and performed some preliminary scans. The system had three planets. Toriga I was an uninhabitable Class H planet with a toxic atmosphere. Toriga III was a Class J gas giant with a mass of about five Jupiter masses. Toriga II was a borderline class "M-ish" planet that was somewhere between a Class L and a Class M.

Captain Randt had us procede to and take up orbit around the most promising planet, Toriga II. Scans of the planet showed it had a mass is 1.1 Earth masses, a radius 1.05x Earth's and a gravity of roughly 1 g. The average global temperature was about 40 C, which was pretty warm. Equatorial temperatures were even higher and were running up to about 60 C. Scans for lifesigns on the surface were indeterminate.

Science scans showed heavy Kelbonite deposits on the surface which was going to make transporter operations difficult if not impossible. Topaline was also found which is known to interfere with the operation of sensor pallets. To top it off, the planet was also generating something similar to a Nervala-class distortion field which is known to interfere with both transporter and shuttle operations.

To complete planetary survey, we needed to get down to the surface for an up close look. This meant we had to "fortify" a shuttle before we could go down to do our survey. Chief Cyrillian was given guidance by the science department about the required shuttle mods and she set her engineering team to work.

Meanwhile, Ensign Su identified some type of repeating signal coming from the surface. The signal was eventually identified to be a very old Federation signal that was using a frequency used back in the year 2150. The strangest part was that the signal was designated to the USS Franklin, a ship that was long lost and a ship that should not have even been able to make it out to the Toriga system.

Shuttle preparations are nearly complete and we should be able to go down to the surface shortly.

Commander Fred McCellan
Chief of Operations
USS Veracruz

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[Fred McCellan]

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Stardate 170925 (USS Franklin, I Presume?)

Personal Log of Commander Fred McCellan

Today, the reinforced San Pedro was finally ready and the away team left the Veracruz to go down to the surface of Toriga II to check out the old style Federation signal that we had picked up. As mentioned in my previous report, the conditions on the planet and its atmosphere were not good, so I didn't exactly envy the away team members (especially myself since I was one of them). As expected, we had quite a bumpy trip down to the surface that was reminiscent of an amusement park thrill ride.

On the way down we were preparing to use our EVA equipment to deal with the planet's atmosphere and heat. It turns out the Federation signal was coming from a large cave where the air was actually breathable and the temperature was hot (40°C) but tolerable. We landed the San Pedro a few hundred meters from the cave entrance and then we all transported into the cave to start our exploration. Comms between our equipment (in the cave) and the Veracruz was not very good but it was possible.

It wasn't long before we found a door inside the cave and with a little work managed to open it. Amazingly once through the door, we were inside an very old style Federation spaceship complete with hallways, living quarters, a conference room, bridge, etc. The ship was identified as being the USS Franklin, NX-326. Truly amazing, a buried Federation starship on a planet located in a part of the galaxy where it should not have been able to get to.

The ship still had minimal power flowing through its "veins". We started "breaking in" to the various ship's systems to download logs and to research what had happened to the ship and its crew. We found more than 10 years worth of logs.

We also found the bodies of most of the crew. The cause of death was typically oxygen deprivation, radiation, concussion, and other things related to the hull breaches we had found. From the looks of the ship, however, there were some survivors. The lack of skeletons on the bridge and other indicators verified that some crew did survive. Overall, the ship appeared to be in relatively good condition.

From the logs we eventually found out the Franklin had been in combat with an unknown ship and had tried to do an emergency warp jump. We could not find out exactly what happened after that jump but the only thing that makes sense is that they accidentally created some type of unstable worm hole with their malfunctioning-functioning warp drive and passed through it to this region of space. The hull breaches we found had apparently happened when the ship "landed" on the planet.

After our initial exploration and assessment was done Captain Randt asked the away team to make a report on what it would take to get the USS Franklin space-worthy.

Commander Fred McCellan
Chief of Operations
USS Veracruz

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[Fred McCellan]

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Stardate 171011 (Franklin My Dear)

Personal Log of Commander Fred McCellan

The crew effected some basic repairs on the USS Franklin that had ended up on Toriga II so many years ago. Then, using the Franklin's thrusters and impulse drives, and with assistance from the Veracruz's tractor beam system, we managed to get the USS Franklin safely into orbit. It wasn't quite as simple as it sounds, but we were successful in the end.

The Franklin was made ready to be driven back to Pinastri under her own power but the Veracruz will be flying a parallel course to make sure she arrives safely.

Commander Fred McCellan
Chief of Operations
USS Veracruz

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[Fred McCellan]

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Stardate 171025 (Parking is Such Sweet Sorrow)

Personal Log of Commander Fred McCellan

With the USS Franklin now deemed fit enough to fly back to Pinastri, Lt-Commander Mantis was selected to be the helm for the trip. Being the Chief of Ops, I took the helm position for the Veracruz to accompany the Franklin.

The Franklin's drive systems were gradually brought on-line and tested, and then we set out for the Peedy Thor space staion at Pinastri. While enroute we encountered an unidentified vessel approaching so Captain Randt had me position the Veracruz bet\ween the Franklin and the vessel.

Scans of the unknown vessel indicated it was a freighter that was armed with three Mark IV phaser banks, a photon torpedo launcher, and what appeared to be a mining laser. We hailed the vessel and exchanged the usual pleasantries with the freighter's captain, Captain Toathan Adu.

Some arguments then ensued between Captain Randt and Adu over the salvage rights for the "abandoned" USS Franklin. Captain Randt, then acted as Commodore and member of the UFS Joint Chief of Operation and made it clear that the Franklin had never been abandoned and that it was still on the UFS active list for recovery, albeit it had been missing for a long time. This resulted in an admission by Adu that UFS did still have a claim on the Franklin. At this point Adu said he would draw up a deed to the Franklin for us. Captain Randt agreed that Adu could do whatever paperwork he needed to do to appease his superiors.

Captain Adu then dropped a "bombshell" and demanded we pay a parking fee of 12 slips of latinum for each day the Franklin had been on the planet. This was rather a large sum since it had been there for a couple of centuries. Captain Randt pointed out to Adu that the Franklin had never been impounded, there were no posted parking rates, and there were no parking slips on the ship, and hence no parking fees were due. A box of donut holes was beamed over to the freighter as a token of our appreciation.

Commander Fred McCellan
Chief of Operations
USS Veracruz

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[Fred McCellan]

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Stardate 171206

Personal Log of Commander Fred McCellan

At the start of our shift the Veracruz was at rest with full impulse power available. Warp drive was on-line but a few diagnostics needed to be run before we activated it and set off for our next destination.

While doing some internal scans, Lt Macpherson discovered and reported that she had found a tricobalt device that was apparently jammed into torpedo tube number 3. This was obviously of grave concern since these kind of devices could be quite explosive in nature if armed. When Captain Randt was informed of the device, he immediately took the Veracruz to yellow alert and had emergency forcefields activated around the area where the device was located. He also had our warp core taken off line as a precaution.

Captain Randt of course wanted to know how such a device had gotten aboard the Veracruz and even more importantly got everyone working on a way to disable it. If the device were to explode, there wouldn't be much left of the Veracruz.

Eventually it was surmised that the tricobalt device could only have been snuck on board the Veracruz during our recent encounter and problems in a nearby nebula. Most likely someone had used a modulated cargo transporter to beam the device aboard while masking it as a normal photon torpedo. Later, when the masked torpedo was loaded into the torpedo tube, it got stuck.

The crew worked diligently and eventually was able to disarm the tricobalt device. The device was then beamed to cargo bay one for examination.The warp core and drives were then gradually brought back on-line and made ready for use.

Commander Fred McCellan
Chief of Operations
USS Veracruz

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[Fred McCellan]

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Stardate 171213

Personal Log of Commander Fred McCellan

Examination and analysis of the tricobalt device that we found jammed in our torpedo tube indicates that it is a mash-up of various technologies including Klingon, Romulan, Talaxian, Hirogen, and Borg. Also, we recently acquired some intel indicating the existence of a group that has been seeking out Borg equipment and technology. Putting together all the facts seems to indicate that many or all of the members of this group may be composed of former Borg. We have concluded that there is a good chance that this group was responsible for placing the tricobalt device on the Veracruz.

Since the tricobalt device was masked and disguised to be a torpedo, Captain Randt ordered all torpedoes in our inventory be inspected.

Almost as if on cue, after coming to our conclusions about the tricobalt device, we received a hail on a subspace comm band. The hail was from a person that identified them self as "three of fifteen", an obvious Borg type of designation. He rambled on rather crazily and claimed to be the leader of the "true way of the collective". It was quite clear his group was responsible for the tricobalt device since he freely stated:

"The holy tricobalt device that should have purified your ship and exorcised you back to the hellfire....has it not done its holy duty."

Upon hearing that, Captain Randt gestured to me to trace the subspace transmission.

Three of fifteen continued some incessant ranting while Captain Randt attempted to get "Three" to agree to cease his attacks on Federation starships. Reasoning had no effect on Three at all. The last thing Three said before Captain Randt closed the comm channel was:

"and as for you demon....you are hereby sentenced on this day for crimes against cybernetic kind....to be DELETED. Resistance is futile."

Well, it was obvious that Three was intent on harm and could not be persuaded otherwise. By this time I had the coordinates where Three's comm signal was coming from and Captain Randt had me send them to the helm. The captain has us immediately set course for those coordinates at warp speed.

Captain Randt asked all department heads to do level one diagnostics on their equipment and systems while en-route to the coordinates and to send him the results by 0800. He also scheduled a battle drill to be held after all diagnostics were completed. He wanted us to be thoroughly prepared when we arrived at Three's location.

Commander Fred McCellan
Chief of Operations
USS Veracruz

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[Fred McCellan]

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Stardate 171220

Personal Log of Commander Fred McCellan

We arrived at the coordinates where Three of Fifteen's subspace transmission had originated. The coordinates turned out to be a Class-Y planet (a so-called demon class planet). We we went into standard orbit and began a series of scans. We confirmed the planet was indeed the source of the subspace signal.

Being a Class Y, the planet was toxic, very hot, and spewing thermionic radiation. Scans showed a trace of life signs and technology (some photonic in nature) and a lot of junk (for lack of a better word). There was also various metal detritus (waste, rubble, debri, etc.) on the surface. It appeared to have originated from a variety of warp capable species. The radiation levels in standard orbit were high enough to be of concern for long term exposure, so Captain Randt had us increase our distance to the planet to be just inside transporter range. Further scans showed some sort pockets or biodomes on the surface that were capable of supporting human life.

Shortly after our scans were completed, we received a hail from the planet. It was a docking bot and it cordially welcomed us to Beta Omega 1, the free Borg planet. Captain Randt ordered me to trace the signal and told the bot he wanted to speak to the individual in charge. After a brief exchange, he found out that the person in charge was Three of Fifteen. The docking bot told us a diplomatic welcome would be prepared and closed the comm channel. At about the same time, Lt Macpherson announced that tactical sensors had picked up several hundred tricobalt signatures on the planet. Receiving these pieces of information, Captain Randt ordered us to yellow alert with raised shields.

After some analysis, we determined which of the habitable "biodomes" on the planet was likely the control and command center. Captain Randt selected an away team and we all beamed down fully armed.

Once we were on the surface, the area appeared to be a small rural area with a few dilapidated houses and buildings. The area seemed to have been taken right out of some sort of novel or holodeck program. People were seen running around, hiding, and boarding up windows and doors. Captain Randt had us fan out and start exploring.

After a short while, Captain Randt saw a person standing by a fence and asked who he was. The person introduced himself as Three of Fifteen. Captain Randt asked why Three's group had attacked the Veracruz. He stated their original intention had originally been to scavenge but then (apparently out of fear) had decided to attack as a defensive preemptive strike. Captain Randt made it clear that the Federation was inherently peaceful but would not tolerate any kind of attack. Randt also made it clear that Three and his people need not fear as long as they ceased their attacks. He told Three that the only reason we (the Federation) were on his planet was to put an end to the violence. Randt also told Three that any further attacks or attempts to assimilate anyone would result in multiple starships arriving at Three's planet.

All-in-all, it looks like Captain Randt and Three came to an understanding and agreement. Hopefully Three will live up to his end of the agreement and we won't have any more problems with his people.

Commander Fred McCellan
Chief of Operations
USS Veracruz

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[Fred McCellan]

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Stardate 180103

Personal Log of Commander Fred McCellan

I was off duty for this shift but I read the reports of the other ops crew that were on duty. I will therefore summarize their reports here.

The USS Veracruz was out exploring an area of space that had previously only been visited by probes. Scans showed a nearby unexplored system with a single star, three planets, and a very large asteroid field. Two of the planets were gas giants and the third was a Class M. It was deemed worthwhile to investigate the system. The Veracruz headed out for the Class M planet with the intention of taking up a high orbit around the planet . Before getting to the planet, the Veracruz was suddenly fired upon by one of the asteroids.

Needless to say, Captain Randt immediately took the ship to red alert with shields raised. The Veracruz retreated to a safe distance from the asteroid field until more information could obtained.

Scans showed no life-signs in the asteroid field but some automated systems were detected and on-line. Scans eventually located about 100 turret systems hidden in the asteroid field. Most of the turret systems were in portions of the asteroid field that were nearest to the Class-M planet's orbit.

The Veracruz launched a probe to learn more about the asteroid field's defensive techniques and capabilities. The probe got about halfway from the Veracruz to the asteroid field when it was fired on and destroyed. Before the probe exploded, there was a slight glitch that allowed an ongoing planetary analysis scan to break through planetary interference. The scan picked up no life signs on the planet but there were remnants of buildings. It appeared there had been some sort of internal struggle on the planet that had caused its destruction.

The only thing left of the civilization was an automated turret defense system. In short order Lt-Cmdr Jameson was able to hack into the system. With one command, Jameson had all the turrets turn on themselves and in a short time all were disabled save for one.

Commander Fred McCellan
Chief of Operations
USS Veracruz

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[Fred McCellan]

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Stardate 180110

Personal Log of Commander Fred McCellan

The Veracruz managed to remotely de-activate the last remaining turret in the asteroid field. With that task accomplished, it was now safe to approach the Class M planet. We approached the planet and went into orbit. Scans showed no life signs. There was minimal residual radioactive decay from nuclear explosions that had happened in the past.

Doc McKay gave the go ahead for an away team to visit the planet, but due to mild radioactivity, the away team was instructed to stay on the surface for no more than two hours.

The away team beamed down to the surface with the intention of finding out why and by whom Veracruz had been attacked.

Upon arrival we (the away team) found destruction, rubble, bodies, skeletons, and low level radiation pretty much everywhere. Scans showed no life signs but it was also clear that initially there had been some survivors of the conflict. Scans indicated the planetary destruction had occurred about 50-75 years ago. The were signs of technology pretty much everywhere. It was approximately equivalent to the technology found on 20th century Earth.

Interestingly enough, a car similar to Captain Randt's holodeck roadster was found among the rubble and you could that the Captain was at least partially interested in it due to his hobby of fixing such things up.

Fleet Captain Mistwallow entered a building near the landing zone and found a low tech computer terminal that still had remnants of power going to it and started work on accessing and decrypting its data. He succeeded in this task and uploaded the data to an isolated core on the Veracruz.

While investigating, Fleet Captain Mistwallow, Commander Jameson, and Lt Macpherson came across and were exposed to a nuclear device (most likely some kind of dirty bomb). They were beamed back to sickbay on the ship to be checked for radiation exposure. Until they were thoroughly checked, no one was allowed to get too close to them.

During the away mission Lt-Cmdr Cyrillian started feeling ill, became weak, and then went down on all fours. She was beamed directly to sickbay on the Veracruz for treatment.

While investigating with her tricorder, Ensign Tonwen Su located what appeared to be an unexploded warhead that was still active. It was located in a building and she went in to investigate but had to retreat because the building was too unstable.

About this time Captain Aryela approached Captain Randt and recommended that the away team depart immediately. We were all told to report back to the beam in point and then we were all beamed back to the ship. Captain Randt ordered the destruction of the active nuclear device on the surface with a shot from the Veracruz's phasers. He then had us leave orbit and exit the system. I don't know exactly why we had to leave so suddenly but we had apparently all been exposed to something. All away team crew were instructed to report to sickbay for a brief check-up.

Commander Fred McCellan
Chief of Operations
USS Veracruz

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