Stardate 87722.91

You may recall, intrepid reader, that we had just entered an asteroid field to refit the Determination with some well earned experimental equipment. Well, things just never seem to go quite as you'd expect do they. We had actually managed to get things all patched up, when Reggie picks up a blip several clicks away.

Turns out it's a base or outpost or something. There aren't any life signs, but there is some radiation of a type none of us are familiar with. Some brief discussion over what to call it, Reggionic Radiation, Dwighten Beams, Anthi Charges, but the silliness is put to an end. We're here to explore, not bicker over naming rights. Etako Emission was what we decided in the end. As a group. Without having to pull rank. And ignoring what may have been said about how some people got to their rank in the first place.


We beamed down, though part of me was worried about the crew carrying guns at the present time. Wow, the aliens that had created this base must have been claustrophobic or something.

Some of the base was high tech holograms and other equipment we couldn't quite work out. Some of it seemed to be just storage.

High tech alien looking storage, but still boxes. We interfaced with the still working computer system to try work out more about the place. It appeared as though even with their obviously superior technology centuries ahead of our own that the species died out due to a lack of understanding about basic human emotions, like love. It may seem odd, but it happens a lot more than you'd think. Why, I can name just two Starfleet captains who encountered aliens races time and time again that encountered exactly this phenomenon.

Standard procedure is to report back to a starbase every once in a while, so we beamed up, saddened, yet feeling superior in our own special way. 

As we arrived we were almost immediately given a new mission. We had to report to Memory Alpha, the computer world where all the repository of Starfleet knowledge is kept. It would be quite a trip, but we figured we were up for it. Unfortunately it is near Romulan space.


Don't get me wrong, the Determination is a great little ship, but the Romulan warbirds that we picked up on sensors are great BIG ships. We ducked around a radiating blue star and hid, well, explored the far side of a large oceanic planet for a while.

Once the coast was clear... and we'd finished, you know, exploring and stuff. We headed on our way, arriving at Memory Alpha soon enough.

Beaming down we assisted in uploading our recent data and findings and let the computer see if it could come up with anything linking events together.

Turns out that some previously thought to be unharmful glitches in a Federation listening post may be linked to both Klingon activity, Gorn activity and that pesky shapeshifter.


We warped off to investigate. Hidden in a fairly dense asteroid field, one of our listening posts had been showing faulty signals for a while, but the heavy metallic concentrations of the larger asteroids were thought to be the reason why. When we got closer to it we noticed huge Gorn battlecruisers. Hugging the Determination closely to the big asteroids for cover, we managed to get right up to the post. We had to take out a couple of smaller frigates that jumped us, but we managed to avoid the larger ships.

We beamed over to see what was happening on the outpost. Wouldn't you know it. Klingons were there. A Ferengi had been selling them the codes to get the station to broadcast a piggyback signal. Anthi managed to take out one of their Swordmasters and took his dual disruptor pistols as a reward. The Ferengi turned out to be a Federation spy, we'd completely spoiled his operation. He suspected that the Klingons were actually working for a shapeshifter. Gareil is his name. I'm calling him Garry. He hates it.

Well we found the control room and reconfigured the heuristonic inhibexhibitator. No sooner had we done that than more Klingons beamed down! Anthi rolled to the side, dual disruptors blazing and the leader of the Klingons half dissolved then reformed - as the shapeshifter!

Demasked, I said. "No way, it wasn't the grumpy Klingon overseer at all, it was actually the shapeshifter all along!" He screamed at us, and the bewildered Klingons that "he would have got away with it too, if it wasn't for us pesky kids." Sure they grow to be old, but those sorts of ageist comments don't fly with the Federation. He emergency transported up and we and the Klingons beamed up to our ships too.


He had one of the big shapeshifter ships and this time there was no Federation fleet nearby. Fortunately some quick talking on my part got the Klingons to not blow us up, but to help us take out the shapeshifter that had been playing them for fools. (I had to explain that when I said fool, I meant the archaic meaning that more stood for bravery and honour than that other meaning.)

After the battle debris had cleared the Klingon officer in charge kindly didn't blow us up, we had earned some honour and he appreciated our courage in battle. Awww. I made sure that Anthi and her recently looted guns were not in viewscreen range.

Well we hadn't forgotten about the Gorn in all this. We tracked down their rapidly retreating ships to a mining and research facility. Amazing place, it's in the ruins of a fractured planet. The whole time you're there you feel like this half a planet is going to fall on your head.

Sure enough, some researchers had found in one of the fractured planet hunks that there had been Gorn living here for millenia, and on all the nearby worlds in the sector. The Gorn were trying to take the evidence and use it to prove that they were the rightful owners of the land.


We showed them what for.

They had set fire to the research lab to destroy evidence that they had been there. Now I'm not complaining, it made our job easier. Just not sure why they didn't torpedo the place from their ships.


Seeing that we meant business, the leader managed to send off a signal before we killed them all and blew up their ships. Wow. We *do* come in peace sometimes, honest!


Reggie had tracked the signal, so we warped to a nearby jungle planet.

Surprised to not see any asteroids or rings around the world, we knew that something fishy must have been going on. Beaming down to the planet we found a heavily shielded building, with three laser generators keeping the shield intact, we had to take them out one by one.

I asked Anthi why we didn't just target them from space and blow them up from there. She said it was because of interference from the atmosphere and that it might cause too much collateral damage and could injure nearby people. She would have explained more, but ran off, pistols blazing, to take out a Gorn patrol. I'm beginning to suspect that she may have anger issues.


Well, we took out the shields, put det pack charges in the main bunker, uploaded all the data they had stolen, blew up the place, then beamed up to the ship and warped away. That'll teach them for researching their covered up history! After all, if they were the rightful owners, they'd be the ones in charge, not us, right?


Our dilithium crystals had taken a bit of a battering in some of the combat we'd had, so we warped off to a nearby dilithium mining facility to recharge the ship and take some shore leave on the base itself. It has a bar and a holodeck, sure it isn't Risa, but it'll do for a while.

Sparky... out.