Encounter at Xerxes IV

Personal log, Commander Soral: Stardate 73034.2

This is my first entry as engineering commander for the USS Chiron, and I anticipate future entries to include higher levels of detail, as I am new to recording a mission’s relevant activities. I will endeavor here to include as much detail as would be relevant to a crew member, Starfleet officer, or other interested third parties including those of any species yet to be discovered as I anticipate my participation in our 5 year mission will reveal new friends, and foes alike.

This is also a record of my first encounter with my crew members. Overall they perform their duties as assigned adequately and after our encounters on this mission I have grown to trust them with delicate life or death situations.

I write this while we are enroute to the USS Chiron having just completed our first mission, which was unassigned, but required my crew and I to take immediate action to attempt an investigation as to the source of the distress signal emitting from a beacon located on the Class M planet Xerxes IV.

We departed for the Chiron in a standard runabout, the USS Archeron. After an unnecessary high speed maneuver by Master Chief and pilot ch’Hezney, who I believe to have been simply “showing off” we received a distress signal from the beacon. I immediately jumped into the ops position to ascertain the authenticity of the source emitting the signal, and to triangulate it’s position. After investigating the distance and time to the planet, I suggested to Commander and Executive Officer Troka we continue on our current trajectory to retrieve the Chiron first, then return to the area where the signal was last emitting from. This would give us the advantage of a heavier class ship and give us greater weapon capabilities. To my dismay and frankly to my disbelief he illogically chose to continue with our current retinue and runabout on what was surely to be a rescue mission.

I set about researching the planet and system to learn more about what we may encounter using the Starfleet database computers. To my dismay I was unable to locate anything of real value. (note: I do believe the Vulcan databases to be far superior as they do not include information pertaining to heresay, conjecture and feelings)

Upon our arrival to the system I scanned for spacial anomalies and it was revealed the planet, and system was in the throes of an ion storm due to the decaying of the only sun in the system. The planet was being showered with the ion storm and our ship was nearly destroyed when we lost all power due to a cascading failure of EPS conduits.

I will point out that had we been in the Chiron this wouldn’t have been an issue, but humans do love adventure and I suspect this was part of the decision to continue to the planet post haste.

I had faith our crew and their training would see us through, and I suppose I let my human emotions prevail when I was filled with excitement and relief upon our relatively safe landing on the planet. I anticipated feeling more emotion and joy should I locate lost artifacts or discover ancient relics dating to a time before Starfleet had arrived.

We landed in an area some distance from the only known structure on the planet, whereby we also believed the signal to be emanating from. My first business was to organize a repair of our ship using whatever salvage materials were available. Unfortunately, all of our backup EPS parts and anything that could substitute was also destroyed beyond use either in our crash landing or due to the massive amounts of ionic radiation pummeling our external nacelles. We would have to try and locate a solution for our damaged energy systems in the structure.

As we exited the ship it quickly became apparent that we should wear environmental suits. I had considered suggesting this as a precaution, but lately I have been considering that as a Vulcan I may appear to my crewmates as being too much of a know it all, and since I value teamwork above nearly everything else I would like to present a friendlier, perhaps more human facade.

A few of us wandered outside the ship and were attacked by what appeared to be Starfleet officers in the process of de-evolving. I was not personally attacked or involved in the scuffle but Lt V’Rona managed to scan the creatures and found the root cause of their animosity. The ion storm, or something on this planet was causing them to return to a form of being that existed long before their respective host’s birth.

It became apparent that XO Troka had somehow been infected with perhaps the same disorder that had affected the state of our attackers. I considered the possibilities that more creatures within the local fauna and flora would be attacking us and it gave me pause as we approached the base.

Along the path we noticed the footprints of what could only be described as a very large quadrupedal lifeform, employing large claws on each of its feet. Likely it was also in the process of devolution and I considered our situation to be evermore dangerous and an impediment to our survival.

The base was in massive disrepair and was missing its rover. There was a tower located near the entrance that appeared to be capable of repelling animals. Probably it was used to repel the owner of the large footprints we had discovered.

I attempted to repair the tower but was only partially successful in that the circumference projected by the improvised device was not a significant distance that would cover our return path to the runabout. I felt embarrassed but prevented myself from showing it to maintain my Vulcan exterior.

We discovered that Dr Shipp and her companion Jasper were desperate for a solution. She also noted there were many spare EPS conduits available for our use and  Chief ch’Hezney and I handily found enough to replace the damaged conduits on the roundabout.

It was decided that Rands and Rolland would explore and look for plants that may improve the odds that Lt V’rona would find a cure. Upon their return, Lt V’rona had discovered that we could engineer a type of coverage beam that would reverse engineer the devolution of a creature within range of said beam. Myself and Ensign Rands then moved to an area above the base to present the beam with the greatest amount of coverage.

Unfortunately I was not able to perform the necessary operations to place the improvised beaming device and it quickly became apparent we had little to no time left before the incoming ion storm would overtake the base and destroy any progress we had made towards a successful rescue.

Fortunate for our crew and rescue operation, Ensign Rands was successful “just in the nick of time” as humans say in placing the beam and activating it, such that we were protected by it upon our return to the roundabout. I do believe he should be commended and recognized for his efforts as they provided us a means to successfully complete the mission.

Upon our return to the runabout myself and Chief ch’Hezney set about immediately repairing the ship when the others were attacked by what appeared to be a giant Earthlike flying fish. Unfortunately Lt V’rona would suffer massive wounds but she did make it inside where the rest of us could tend to her.

We departed the surface and system without further complications and I returned to my station at ops to monitor power systems and run scans but I do not expect we should encounter anything like our encounter at Xerxes IV.

I have decided I will return to my training to improve my odds of successfully improvising devices and repairs when my team depends on it.