EPISODE 2 "The
Vanished" (FASA)
STARDATE 2212.27
The Essex was passing near Federation Deep Research Facility 39, a special scientific station for the development of sensitive experiments away from nearby solar systems. Regulations call for any ship passing within the area of a Federation facility to establish communication as a courtesy. A magnetic storm in the area prevented FDR 39 from detecting the Essex as it approached within long sensor range. The same magnetic anomaly prevented visual communication with FDR 39, and voice contact was faint and filled with subspace noise:
"FDR 39 acknowledging, Essex. I assume you're just passing through. No one ever stops here. If it weren't for the Old Man raising Cain with the science boys, we'd have no excitement at all! You folks get all the interesting jobs, While we just sit on our fa--"
The
communication stopped mid sentence. The channel remained open, but the voice had just
stopped mid sentence. a brief discussions amongst the crew to determine the severity of
this event, and Curp orders the ship to FDR 39 at best possible speed.
As the Essex
approached, initial scans showed nothing of consequence from the station, however, the
magnetic storm was interfering with the sensor equipment, which made internal scans of the
station unavailable. Curp arranged a landing party to investigate the station consisting
of himself, Barlok, McGillicutty Flonaise, Dr. Heronomous. Transporting over proved
to be difficult, also due to increasing interference of the magnetic storm. Communication
with the Essex began to break up as First Officer Baxter informed the landing party that
computer projections predict the storm would reach its peak in 2½ hours, permitting
transport and communication in 5 hours.
Curp and his
landing party began their investigation. FDR 39 is a station with a main central station
with four radial arms leading to laboratory facilities. The central station is manned by
Starfleet personnel. The outer arms are leased to independent laboratories. Staring in the
central section, the landing party made its way to the security officer's office where
they began to investigate ship's logs and security camera records to determine what had
happened to the entire population of the base. They also managed to retrieve video records
of the moment communication was lost with the base. In all instances, the record showed
crewmen on screen and then, suddenly, disappear. Curp decided to extend the investigation
to other parts of the base.
A disturbing noise
coming from the cafeteria led the landing party there. Upon opening the door, the landing
party discovered a large, translucent being with a large glowing "eye" gorging
on a food synthesizer, tossing aside food trays as it consumed the food. The landing
party, not knowing what to make of this visitor, stood quietly and observed, taking note
that the tricorder did not register the alien without adjustment. After a short time, the
alien noticed them standing at the door and turned towards them to attack. With phasers
set on stun, the landing party opened fire, to no effect. Just them, from the recreation
area across the hall, two more of the aliens began attacking the landing party with beams
that emitted from their single eye. Curp and his crew retreated down the corridor in hopes
to regroup and crete a plan of attack. The ensuing fire fight in the recreation area,
where, having a chance to set their phasers on disrupt, managed to force the aliens into
retreat.
Barricading
themselves in the security chief's office, Curp and the landing party continued their
investigation, wary that at any time, they may be attacked. They quickly began adjusting
the base's security equipment to detect the aliens, who, up until this point, have been
invisible to the monitors. While Barlok searched computer records to find more
information, the rest of the landing party ventured out into other parts of the base to
search for clues. During one of these searches, they discover a memo in the station
manager's office indicating a reprimand for Tachyon Micromechanics, one of the leasing
laboratories, for unsafe procedures in equipment testing. The memo shows a surprise
inspection scheduled for later in the day. The group returned to the security chief's
office, hoping to find out more about the information on the memo.
With a little
effort, the group managed to decrypt certain files at the Tachyon Micromechanics lab.
Apparently, the general area of their research is new transporter technologies,
specifically a model that transports silently (loosely based on current klingon designs)
and transports multiple subjects en masse.
The group decided
that further investigation within the Tachyon Micromechanics lab may contain more answers.
Fighting their way into the arm leading to the lab, they quickly discover the door locked.
While the party struggled to open the door, more of the alien beings blocked the corridor
to the central station. Bypassing the door locks, the landing party was trapped in
the lab. Tricorder readings indicated that the aliens were already trying to bypass the
door by way of air ducts.
The lab contained a
central transporter console that faced an unusual looking transporter pad, both of which
seemed to be inactive. On further inspection, they discover that an enormous amount of
memory space was being used by the transporter buffer. The transporter log indicated a
power increase that correlated with the time frame of the crew disappearance. McGillicutty
suggested that he could retrieve the signals from within the transporter buffer,
however, there wasn't enough power available. A quick security log investigation revealed
a damaged section from the station's main power generator, which could possibly explain
the power loss. Oddly, according to the security logs, the hull showed being blown inward,
rather than outward, as if from some kind of impact. Regardless, Curp and his crew needed
to set forth and restore power.
Forcing their way
out of the lab, Curp and party fought their way down the corridor to the airlock, where
they donned environmental suits. Their plan was to walk along the exterior of the station
to the hull breach near main engineering. While making their extra vehicular walk they
group was attacked by the amorphous beings. It became obvious that these beings do not
require a breathable atmosphere to survive, nor do they need a friction environment to
provide locomotion. The party struggled their way to the opening. McGillicutty quickly
began work on restoring the main power. During his efforts, he discovered that most of the
damage had been caused by an energy overload, possibly from the mysterious impact shown on
the security monitors. The party began fairly certain that the aliens had crated and had
entered through the hull breach and caused the power overload in the process. McGillicutty
finished his work, restoring main power to the station. The party then returned to the
airlock again by walking outside the base.
Surprisingly, the
aliens did not interfere with their return trip to the lab. Once there, the group began
retrieving the base's population stored within the transporter buffer. The lab became
increasingly cramped as it began to fill up with confused personnel. Once the Lab
Administrator, Salvatore Santini was removed, their suspicions that the overload had
caused the transporter accident had been confirmed. The problem remained as to what to do
with the remaining aliens scattered about the station.
The landing party
party conceived a plan. The experimental transporter was designed to beam up multiple
targets en masse, even going insofar as to isolate targets based on genetic code. Their
plan was to beam the aliens off the base and store them into the transporter buffer, just
as the base personnel had been, until Starfleet can decide what to do with them. The
procedure went off without a hitch. The remaining aliens were simultaneously transported
off FDR 39 and stored in the transporter buffer.
The FDR 39
personnel were released, and they quickly began work on repairing the base after the all
the damage. Station Manager Lee had Santini and his staff detained until Starfleet
completed their inquiries. Curp and the landing party remained as guests of the manager
until the magnetic storm subsided, and the Essex could retrieve them.