Having satisfied this (rather stringent) requirement, we disembarked at Starbase Earth for some much appreciated R&R. Also, I had finally accumulated enough mission hours to apply for promotion to Commander.
Not only did this mean more pay, but also the ability to promote my juniors up a grade as well. Although the rank entitled me to captain one of the more recent science vessels, Starfleet Accounting denied my application for a new ship. Fortunately the time travel trip to the past had resulted in an unexpected windfall.
A bank statement listing: "For services to the U.S.S. Enterprise" had a small cash allocation next to it. Many, MANY years ago. With interest I now had enough capital to co-opt a vessel. Of course, I'm going to treat this one with more than the customary amount of care. You know you lose half of the initial value of a ship in the first hundred stardates.
The U.S.S. Endurance. The shielded bubble allows for a great number of experiments and particle physics applications. It also helps the ship go faster and pick up chicks (according to the salesman).
The bridge is far more spacious than any of the previous ships. Anthi likes being able to sit down as First Officer, rather than stand all the time (like Dwight and the others).
Our first mission was to investigate the disappearance of a ship that had been due to arrive in starbase several days previously. A transmission had been picked up with a message for assistance and that's where we came in.
Our scanners are far more powerful than most other ships of this or lower class and we put them to good use.
On the planet below we found life signs, and a beacon that Garry locked on to to transport the away team down.
Good work Garry. We appeared in a force field, with some Hirogen Hunters on the outside of it.
They had laid the cunning trap in order to test their warriors against Starfleet's best. Unfortunately we responded instead. Incensed and enraged at having their plans foiled, they prepared to incinerate us.
Dwight managed to rig their force-field generators to work for us instead of against us, plugging in his tricorder and expanding the field to take in the Hunters who were in charge. Finding themselves inside the shield bubble, they had no choice but to fight. Anthi and Tommy proved to be equal to Starfleet's best in the "kill the Hunters" division.
The best part of the story is that we found the crew of the missing ship alive and well. Rescuing them alerted us to a new threat, however.
The crew had discovered a planet that had been entirely enclosed within a massive shield. Detecting Romulan energy signatures from within, they had requested a science vessel for further scans and then run before being detected. It was sheer bad luck that had caused them to then be captured by the Hunters.
Well we had a science vessel with good scanners, so off we headed to the mysterious shielded planet. Reggie managed to disable a small section of the shielding so that we could slip inside.
We confirmed the Romulan energy signatures, and headed towards the planet to find out more. There was a localised disturbance on the planet surface that we couldn't quite figure out. Of course, the only thing to do was beam down to investigate.
A secret Romulan facility! We had to battle our way through the enemy to get to the entrance to the base. Surely they must be up to no good here.
Sure enough, inside their base we found many strange devices, and more importantly a Federation prisoner held captive!
Although we were confused at the sheer size of the cage, and were puzzled as to why the guy hadn't just exited through the holes in the lattice, we rescued him anyway. Apparently he'd been transfixed by the massive red lava lamp style power coupling next to his cell. Which led us to ask why he hadn't sabotaged the device, since it was easily in arm's reach.
Well, some people are do-ers and some aren't I guess. He had little information for me, but did say that he had overheard the Romulan Sub-commander T'pik talking about a rendezvous with a Ferengi trader.
We beamed out and found a D'deridex cruiser between us and freedom.
At last, I was in a ship that could avenge all our previous encounters with the Romulans. The end result of our combat, with three forward firing banks of plasma weapons and a rear firing photon torpedo launcher...
I made sure I'd purchased the premium plasma-torpedo resistant paint on the Endurance. Some people say it's a waste of credits. I say it made for one ex-D'deridex.
We met up with the Ferengi trader ship.
On board a strange half-vulcan told us an intriguing story. The Romulans had recently purchased a half dozen tribbles. He had one spare of the same breed that he'd sold. We purchased it and took it back to the ship for analysis.
Reggie determined that as well as the normal tribble reproduction rates, this particular breed seemed well suited to genetic manipulation. Just what were the Romulans up to?
The only other information that we had was the course setting the Ferengi had recorded when the Romulan ship had departed. We plotted the same course and Reggie calculated possible destinations.
Halfway to one place, Garry detected an anomaly. We dropped out of warp to find...
A malfunctioning Borg sphere and some Romulan science vessels. We destroyed the Romulans, scanned the sphere and then destroyed it to. On the long range scanners, we detected energy readings.
It wasn't long before we found ourselves in orbit around a Romulan Base. What do you get when you cross a Romulan, a tribble and a Borg? Not a good combination, though Tommy says he has a joke that starts in the exact same way.
Sure enough, beaming down to the base we found Borg technology being added to Romulan computer systems. Anthi located a tribble with an adorable, yet scary, cybernetic fuzzy antenna.
I confronted the Romulan commander, who resisted my interrogation. Eventually I resorted to "blandifying" his transporter system in an effort to get him to talk. Hey, you stick with what you know.
The conversation was, unfortunately, recorded.
"Romulan commander T'pik - how do you explain this!" (showing him the Borg enhanced tribble).
"I refuse to talk to a lowly commander in Starfleet - our plans are our own."
"We have ways of making you talk. Do you value your... transporter effects?"
"Excuse me?"
"Your sparkly, green, whirling transporter effects. What would you do to stop them from becoming plain and boring. Because that is what *I* can make happen if you don't talk now!"
"Do your worst!"
So I did.
"There, no more colour, now if you're not careful I'll remove the sparkles as well."
"You wouldn't dare! How do I know you're not bluffing?"
"I'm not bluffing, here, check it out."
Then he beamed away.
Man, those Romulans are just *too* clever.
Well, now we're waiting for Starfleet to work out how best to proceed. It's clear that this technology cannot fall into the wrong hands.
Sparky... out.
Captain's log: supplemental - At least T'pik will be forever haunted by his colourless transporter beam. So I figure it's Romulans: 1, Me: 1. Rematch - to be continued.
Anthi says that since they blew up one of my previous ships, they should probably be up one point. But then I reminded her that we'd infiltrated their secret lab. But then she reminded me that it had been an Undine plot and that we'd actually destroyed harmless medical research. I threatened to take away her tribble. I figure Anthi and I are about even too.
Except I outrank her.
First Officer's additional entry - For now.
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