Just Another Saturday Night
Prelude
The Tellarite vessel Moarvol arrived at Starbase 989 on stardate 2413.12.30 after a particularly successful mining run in the Zeta Draconis System. The haul was some very rich and particularly pure Magnesite, which is readily found in the system's asteroid belt.
The ship's crew, led by Captain Galzoth included Kaylee Parker, Tegra, Vrek Seg and Lovall. They were an experienced mining freight crew, but none of them were aware that they had inadvertently picked up an infestation of Vexarak Spoilers along with their raw ore.
The Moarvol unloaded it's infested ore in bulk holding dock number sixty-three sigma, where it was scheduled to be processed within four days. Little did the station personnel or anyone else know that four days was far too long to allow for the effective decontamination of the threat posed by the spoilers.
Rest and Relaxation
With the development of additional duties that had cropped up during the period when the crew of the USS Rosenante was supposed to be on Shore leave, Captain Salid petitioned for and received permission to extend the crew's leave time in order to allow his crew the alloted time to unwind.
Several of the crew disembarked the ship, headed for such locations as Braak's Bar, The County Cork or RJs.
Arrival of the Boudicca
The USS Boudicca a Keltoi Class starship arrived at Starbase 989 after a few months of mindless scientific surveys. The ship put in to dock and released her crew for shore leave.
Captain Alan Durand, commanding the Boudicca made arrangements with Captain Ahmed Ibn Salid of the USS Rosenante to meet. The two commanding officers, accompanied by their First Officers, Jennifer Caskie and T'Larah Sullivan met aboard the Rosenante where they participated in some friendly conversation and a delightful luncheon in the captain's mess.
There was a great deal of conversation about the engineering and design of the Rosenante, as well as the well-being of family and friends. Also discussed was the tactical capabilities of both ships.
The New Year's Eve Party
The largest single celebration of the year aboard Starbase 989 on her Promenade. A significant number of station's personnel, visitors and ship crews began to gather for the pre-drop celebration of a replica of the Manhattan Ball Drop.
Three establishments, RJs, The County Cork and Braak's Bar sponsored a more private party in the area immediately surrounding their establishments. The area was cordoned off by mobile security Force Fields borrowed from the station's security Chief Lieutenant Adraa Mosul. They were guarded by Nausicaan, Human, and Orion bodyguards.
There was a 100 credit charge to gain entry, but inside there was live music, food, drink and gambling. In addition, the location was optimal for observing the drop.
The Party began for the majority of the crew at the County Cork where Irish Ballads, jigs and drinking ensued. Members of the two starship crews mingled and shared conversation and stories throughout the evening in the gathering anticipation of the event.
The ball fell at exactly MIdnight and was greeted with a massive applause, cheering and a few stolen kisses among friends and casual acquaintances.
Where Were You When The Lights Went out?
Not long after the New Year's celebration kicked off in earnest, Crewman Martin Kosinsky, manning an engineering station in the Reactor Control room on Starbase 989 began to notice an unusual power flux in the industrial section of the station, somewhere near Deck three.
After reporting the incident to his duty chief, he was ordered to investigate the situation. Neither he nor the chief realized that the power flux was a direct result of the massive infestation of Vexarak Spoilers that had finally managed to burrow their way from their temporary confinement in the bulk storage bins of 63-Sigma.
The infestation had moved into the primary power feeds and was siphoning off Plasma energy from the conduits creating not only the power flux that he had detected but also the build up of thermal energy.
His investigation took him to Jefferies Tube Beta to a problematic EPS Distribution System Network Junction. When he discovered the access panel was hot to the touch, he removed it, releasing a mass of Spoilers. In his haste to escape them, he managed to complete the power circuit between the live conduit, channeled through the insects and his body to be completed with the wall of the access tube.
The result was a sudden and devastating power spike that created a series of cascading power failures, that plunged the entire station into darkness. The critical bus was destroyed causing the secondary systems to also fail.
With all the power systems off-line as a result of the damage, back-ups failed to initialize and it soon became evident that the power failure could turn deadly as people began to realize that the life support was no longer functioning as well.
It Was A Regular Riot!
Panic swiftly spread throughout the station. On the Promenade, where thousands of individuals had gathered for the New Year's Celebration, a sense of panic turned into catastrophe.
Panicked civilians stampeded in an attempt to reach safety. Anger flared, opportunists took their chances and the entire situation degenerated into a primitive post-apocalyptic mayhem rivaled only by the rumors of the end of days.
Hundreds were injured in the crush, property destroyed by looters and vandals and complete chaos reigned. It was the first Riot that many of the crew had ever seen.
Mixed up in this world gone mad, Starfleet personnel from both starships struggled to report to their vessel or to lend aid as they could. With communications on the station out, coordination of the relief efforts fell to the USS Boudicca and the USS Rosenante, both of which
had been affected by the sudden loss of power themselves. The two starships had transferred their power systems into standby mode and had been under station supplied power when the event took place.
With those two vessels struggling to recall personnel as well as secure their now threatened vessels, it appeared that things were rapidly getting exceptionally complicated for the two Starfleet crews.
A group of crew from the two ships found themselves embroiled in a struggle for survival against a terrified mob outside The County Cork. Led by Lieutenant Detron Trei, a group of security officers attempted to disperse the riotous crowd threatening the civilians seeking shelter inside the Irish Pub. This same crowd had already thrashed the Ferengi establishment Braak's Bar and was already set on the destruction of other stores and shops in the area. Even the discharge of a Phaser failed to dissuade them from their looting and destruction.
Chaos Anyone?
With the Complete station in absolute disarray, the crews of both the USS Rosenante and the USS Boudicca struggled to contain the situation sufficiently to allow the successful relief of victims of the rioting.
Progress, however was hindered by members of both ship's crew, trapped on the starbase by the rioting, to be able to return to their ships quickly.
Both captains Salid and Durand found themselves giving orders to convert the starbase umbilicus to accept power from the two starships in order to at least partially power some of the more critical aspects of the starbase's failing systems.
Commander Jennifer Caskie, Lieutenant Detron Trei and Ensigns Mike Rosenbauer and Eva Saint Jean made their way to the Starbase sickbay, where they linked up with the Starbase CMO Doctor Gena Harvey. Their short staff and lack of power proved a difficulty which was compounded by a distinct lack of communication, which was not rectified until the launch of a Communications Relay Satellite by the USS Rosenante's Thomas Jackson.
Meanwhile Lieutenant Eian O'Neill and Ensign Jessica Signos the ASEC/ATAC for the USS Boudicca managed to make their way the Starbase's Main Engineering reactors.
Along the way, O'Neill was infested by a swarm of Vexarak Spoilers which wrapped themselves around his Brain Stem. Once there, a small riot broke out when a group of looters and rioters attacked the reactor. During that time, Signos was shot with a dart, containing the poison Tetrodotoxin normally found in Terran Pufferfish (of the genus Takifugu, Lagocephalus, or Sphoeroides) or the Porcupinefish (of the genus Diodon).
Despite these problems they managed to maintain control until the Reactor control area could be secured by a damage control team sent by the USS Boudicca and commanded by Ensign Henry Jacobs. Later Jacobs was joined by Tyrone Cooper and a mixed command of personnel assigned to Starbase 989.
Both Signos and O'Neill managed to get to sickbay and were later transferred to the Rosenante for treatment.
While all of this was underway, Lieutenant Kimiko Ichijo and a medical team encountered a barricade along their path to the Starbase Sickbay, where they were headed to aid in medical relief.
Caskie dispatched her limited security team consisting of Mike Rosenbauer, Eva Saint Jean and Detron Trei to aid the medical team by attacking the barricade from behind.
Meanwhile Doctor Basil Candle and his medical relief team found themselves under constant observation by station inhabitants and under threat of attack. Their route into the station was blocked more than once my malfunctioning doors, barricades and looting mobs.
Back at the ships, Ensign Anton Gesar and Lieutenant Steven Matrix worked furiously to maximize the power output of the two starships as well as diagnose the extent of the damage done to the station.
Is there a Doctor in the House?
Aboard the USS Rosenante, Doctor Emily Post managed to extract the Vexarak Spoilers from Eian O'Neill's brain through the creative use of isolinear tags and a transporter. Each time that she attempted to remove the creatures through surgical means they had threatened Eian's life.
Another success story was that Jessica Signos had finally been purged of the deadly toxin that had threatened to claim her life. The two officers were released back to duty.
The specimens of the parasitic spoilers was ordered sent to the Science lab, where Ensign Narvak, a member of the Rosenante's science crew was ordered to try to identify the creatures and to find a way to kill or remove them from a living host without causing the host injury.
The SS Tranquility
A piece of good news arrived in the form of the SS Tranquility a privately owned and operated starship commanded by Chance Raschen. Raschen recently recovered from his battle with the Irlixians had been ordered to convey critical equipment to both the USS Boudicca and the USS Rosenante.
Eureka!
With both the USS Boudicca and the USS Rosenante pumping power through the umbilicus connection back into Starbase 989, things were rapidly improving.
In the Starbase's Engineering section engineering teams including Steve Matrix, Tyrone Cooper and Henry Jacobs managed to isolate the infestation through the use of Force Fields. This allowed the engineers to begin focusing on the restoration of the most critical areas of the station's damaged power distribution system.
Meanwhile back on the Rosenante, Ensign Narvak developed a technique to destroy the Vexarak Spoilers using Wilson Particles to cause the creatures to explode.
Anton Gesar and Henry Jacobs, members of the Boudicca engineering crew were assigned to develop a means to deploy the Wilson Particles through the station.
In direct opposition to the solution was Ensign Maddox the acting ACSO on the USS Rosenante. Captain Salid gave him two hours to develop an alternate means of dealing with the infestation.
Meanwhile, no word was heard from Doctor Sam Lopez, who disappeared shortly after the events crippled the starbase.
As security teams enforced order on the starbase, the combined Rosenante and Boudicca crews prepared to end the threat once and for all.
