A Fine and Private Place

Spaceworthiness and Maiden Voyage

After launch the USS Rosenante was assigned to conduct space worthiness trials to determine if the vessel was ready to undertake normal service duties. The ship tested her warp and impulse engines as well as her Spiral Geometry Drive.

In addition sensor and weapons tests were conducted on the Starfleet firing and maneuvers range located in the Alpha Onias System. All systems including the new Tactical Interactive Holographic System was certified operational and ready for deployment.

She returned to Starbase Geneva where she was prepared to get underway for her first official Maiden Voyage. Her first mission was to be a survey mission, in which she was to survey planets for the recolonization of the survivors from the Colony of Ivor Prime. The original settlement being destroyed by Borg.

The Rosenante departed for her official maiden Voyage on Stardate 2408.01.15. The Ceremony was officiated by Admiral Hesper Linden. The Rosenante took on the administrator of the colony and set off for the Optima System in hopes of finding a planet suitable for the colonists.

The Distress Signal

On stardate 2408.01.21 the Rosenante received a disturbing distress signal from the Federation freighter the Sky of Tomorrow.

The Third Officer, Olen Rhinehardt altered course and alerted the captain and crew to the situation. The Sky of Tomorrow's signal was traced to the orbit of Davros III, A Federation Mining Colony. The Rosenante arrived at the scene only three hours later.

The Starhawk

The SS Starhawk, a private vessel commanded by Ensign Chance Raschen newly assigned from the USS Dennison was ordered to meet with the USS Rosenante in order to join her crew. Because the Rosenante sent a report to Starfleet Command indicating the intercepted distress call, Raschen was able to arrive in the system before the Rosenante.

As a result, He found himself immediately under attack by an Opthidian starship named the Shungar, whose identity and purpose in the Federation system were unknown at the time. The starship was accompanied by similar vessels and after a fight was forced to retreat after Raschen managed to destroy one of the vessels and drive off the others. However the fight was not one-sided.

The damage dealt to the Starhawk was rather extensive, and the small vessel was slowly being sucked into the atmosphere of a Gas Giant. fortunately the Rosenante arrived in time to save Raschen although the ship was lost.

The Sky Of Tomorrow

The Sky of Tomorrow was a Rigelean Freighter, originally carrying a cargo of Duranium ore that it had acquired at the Davros III colony. When the ship failed to respond to hails, Captain Rivers, ordered an away team to board the ship and ascertain the condition of the ship and its crew.

The scene on the freighter was grisly. There were signs of massive decompression and blood and gore everywhere. There were no significant bodies found but there were ample indications of a violent conflict on board. There were phaser burns on bulkheads as well as the obvious blood signified that the crew may have met a violent end.

The away team also discovered that the Escape Pods had been sabotaged without being used. It was also apparent that the freighter's drive system was similarly wrecked and that repairs would take some time to affect.

One of the members of the away team encountered and animated severed hand which seemed determined to attack her. The hand was isolated in a sample container and beamed back to the Rosenante for extensive study. As soon as that clue was recovered the away team returned to the ship.

Out of Touch, Out of Time

While Studies of the strangely animate hand were underway, attempts to raise the Davros III colony were only met by silence. Sensor sweeps of the planet's surface did not reveal any of the colony's 3500 inhabitants. There were also indications that the mines themselves were shut down.

With so many people missing and with dawn coming soon, plans were made to prepare to send a scouting party down to the planet's surface.

Discoveries

Meanwhile, Doctor Jennifer Caskie was able to make some headway on the causes of the animation of the hand. It seemed that some sort of highly modified or evolved form of Borg Nanoprobes were present in the flesh of the hand. These probes seemed to be able to electrically stimulate the nerve endings allowing motor control of the severed limb's muscles.

A search of individuals living on the colony identified Doctor Rebbecca Lawson, an expert on Borg Nanoprobes. It was discovered that her daughter Emma was terminally ill with a rare cellular disease. This put a strong and immediate suspicion on Doctor Lawson as the source of the nanoprobe outbreak.

One thing, however, was puzzling. If the colonists had been Assimilated why were there no signs of Borg Activity, as there had been on the New Providence Colony and Ivor Prime?

Beaming Down

First Officer Lieutenant Commander Ahmed Ibn Salid led an away team to the colony in order to search for survivors and clues. Armed with the information on Doctor Lawson's expertise and the fact that she had recently retired to the colony, Ahmed decided to begin his search at her residence.

The streets of the colony were deserted and the walk to the Lawson residence was uneventful. A search of the property turned up a lab hidden behind a holographic barrier. It also revealed a pair of parallel underground tunnels that seemed to travel for some distance before intersecting with the duranium mines.

Further investigation revealed strong indications that some lab equipment was missing and ha=d been transferred into the tunnels. With this information in mind, and now with damning evidence that Doctro Lawson may have been guilty of unleashing some sort of Borg Virus, Ahmed called for a second away team to join him.

When the second team, led by Lieutenant Jono Janeway arrived, each team moved into a different access tunnel with orders to search for survivors.

On the Planet

Unbeknownst to the away team, while they were exploring the tunnels looking for any sign of the colonists, the Shungar had managed to deliver three Opthidian trackers to the planet's surface in search of the Matron Nanoviral Pool which controlled the infected miners. One of the trackers was disinfected by his colleagues when his Sterilization field was breached the other two made it into the mines, where one was overcome by infected miners.

In the Tunnels

In the tunnels things dragged on for hours with no real prospect of locating any of the colonists. Eventually however, Salid's team heard weapons fire and chose to investigate. They encountered Sharott Nachook one of the Opthidian Trackers. He was in conflict with several miners.

With the report of an alien attack on the Starhawk still fresh in his mind, Ahmed ordered the conflict to stop, only to be attacked by the miners rather than the alien as originally expected.

The conflict resulted in the death of one of the away team members. The Opthidian was injured, and once communication was established, the reason for the Opthidian's presence was revealed.

Nachook explained that he and his allies had been sent here to hunt down a dangerous nanite colony known as the Matron Nanoviral Pool, which was derived from Borg Nanoprobes.

The Pool was responsible for killing the colonists and reanimating their corpses for it's use. It was viewed as a disease, which had to be stopped at all costs. The Opthidian explained that his homeworld was sterilized after billions of his people had been so infected.

He also admitted that his ship had attacked the Starhawk, in an attempt to preserve some sort of quarantine to prevent the virus from spreading. However, when they starhawk proved too formidable, they were forced to send trackers to the surface to attempt to eradicate the pool directly.

To achieve that, Nachook carried a powerful biological weapon in a special sack in his body. When his injuries reached a certain point a biological process began which would break down the sac and releasing the virus into the biosphere, destroying all life on the planet and rendering it life-less for 200 standard years.

It was also explained that the Opthidians had tracked a Ferengi ship to the planet, after they had stolen the pool before it could be destroyed. It was presumed that the pool was sold to doctor Lawson, who somehow managed to infect the colonists. The ferengi ship had been destroyed by the Shungar.

Shortly after that explanation, the dead Rosenante crewman who had been infected arose and attacked the away team. He proved hard to stop and Ahmed was forced to disintegrate him.

Elsewhere, Lieutenante Janeway's team had also fallen under attack. The two away teams rallied and along with the injured Opthidian managed to fight their way out of the mines.

Once clear of the mines, the away team and their guest was beamed into decontamination on the Rosenante.

The Final Solution

After a discussion with Medical Officer Jennifer Caskie it was determined that the biological agent, codenamed Kismet by Caskie, could be extracted and the Opthidian could be saved.

After discussing the situation with captain Rivers, the order was given and Caskie performed the operations.

Afterward, the agent was deployed into a specialized torpedo casing and fired into the planet's atmosphere, resulting in the complete destruction of every living thing on the planet. The agent dissolved all flesh and planet matter as it spread and would remain virulent for 200 standard years.

Once the threat of the colony was neutralized and the pool destroyed, the animated hand was beamed over to the Sky of Tomorrow and the ship destroyed by the Rosenante.

Later a series of Quarantine beacons were deployed to warn away all would be visitors.

Nachook survived his mission and was returned to his ship. The Opthidians and the Federation departed on good terms.