SD 53099.05, 1100 hours, February 6, 2376

After a flight of 5 days, the Thames approaches the Dyson Sphere. At first it appears to be a small, dark grey ball, dimly lit by the surrounding stars, but quickly expands to planet-sized, then even larger. Finally, it appears as a huge plane of grey panels with various encrustations of equipment filling the available view. It is literally larger than anything any of the crew has ever seen. A huge circular depression houses an octagonal gateway large enough to take even a Borg cube with room to spare. Zed hails the base and gets a reply.

"Roger, Thames II, Dyson Base here. Please stand by for Portal opening." The massive doors roll back to reveal a gigantic opening in the vast expanse. The shell of the Sphere is at least two kilometres thick but given the immense structure, it appears to be egg-shell thin. "Thames, you are cleared for ingress to Dyson One. Proceed at full impulse." The transmission is accompanied by a flight plan which appears on the console, providing directions and heading for Freeman's Island. The Runabout feels like a marble sailing through a basketball hoop as it enters the Sphere. Inside, the Portal is surrounded by a metropolis of grey towers surrounded by the greens, tans and blues of a planetary surface with fluffy white clouds dotting the sky. The sun glows dead ahead, about the size of Sol as seen from Earth.

"Welcome to your new home, USS Thames," intones Dyson Flight Control.

This message was deleted by the player at 20:02, Sun 18 June 2017.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 1):

Marissa kept busy during the entry,making full use of the sensors, to scope out the surface near and inside the sphere.


During the transition from the Starbase she had taken her turns at the helm, and was pleased with it's maneuverability.She had put it through it's paces a number of times wanting the experience with the controls should she find herself at helm during trouble.

As Marissa sits at the controls, she notices on the screen as she runs through the enhanced sensors an anomalous reading. A small object appears to be in orbit around the star Dyson, however a quick check of the astrometrics records reveals no recorded orbital objects.

This message was deleted by the player at 22:45, Mon 19 June 2017.

"Lieutenant Sloane take a look at this. We have something unregistered in system, orbiting the sun.
What do you think? We should check it out, don't you agree?"

In reply to Lt Marissa Swann (msg # 6):

OOC: Completely missed this no thread until today.

Sloane looks over the readings. "Any ideas?" Zed asks. "Perform a detailed scan.  I will move closer."

As Sloane starts to change course to investigate, he hails Dyson One, "USS Thames to Dyson One, we are altering course to investigate an unidentified object orbiting Dyson star."

The object appears to be a small space station in a decaying orbit around the star. There is a very faint signal coming from it, swamped by stellar interference. It shows all the earmarks of being a space suit emergency beacon. Due to stellar interference, no better info can be gleaned 'til the Thames gets within a kilometre or so.

Dyson Control replies, "Samson here, Thames. You are authorised to investigate. We are copying your sensor readings and understand it to be a small space station. Be aware that due to interference you may be out of communication and that transporters may be unreliable, according to our sensors."

The Thames approaches the station. It is a small structure about 50 metres in length. As the ship gets close enough, sensors read the station's environmental systems have been compromised, and only about half the station has any atmosphere at about half standard pressure with an oxy-nitrogen mix. One lifesign is intermittently readable but interference is such that its location is indeterminate. Transporter readings indicate that while it may be possible to beam over, there is a possibility of accidentally beaming into a bulkhead—explosively fatal— and getting a lock to beam back would be impossiuble even with transport enhancers. There does appear to be an airlock with atmo at one end, and a dimly lit window at the other end of the long side structure on the port side of the structure.

The Thames is able to manœuvre so that the aft airlock mates with the station's airlock by way of the Thames' extendable docking collar. Since the station is partly in vacuum and what atmosphere there is is thin and likely contaminated, space suits are called for. The Runabout is fully stocked, so the crew has the usual equipment.


Note that sensors do not record the furnishings. The only interior details discernable are the power plant at the aft end and the antenna array at the front with the suit transmitter. The blue areas are under pressure. The station's power is weak, coming from a single fusion battery. the airlock door is unpowered but there is a manual mechanism for emergency use. Tricorders can pick up the lifesign, but only can give an approximate direction with no range reading. Radiation levels are a little high, but not dangerous for the immediate future. To be certain hyronalin injections are available as a prophylaxis against short term exposure.

Argent runs sensors the best he can, specifically trying to get gravimetric readings, trying to locate the source of the signal, and recording visual sensor readings (images). He also tries to determine if the station is in a solar-synchronous orbit, or what it's orbital time is. He wonders how it got in here and how long it's been here.

He looks over the station and the images to try and determine who might have made the station.

He's also looking for signs of damage... some indication of what might have caused the station's current condition.

"We'll need to take oxygen with us, a portable power source, and we might be able to boost tricorders to read what's on the opposite side of a wall or door," he announces to the others.

Did their course take them past the lit viewport? Could they see in?

Standard procedure is to do a circuit of the station to get a good look, so yes, Argent was able to capture some imagery of the interior behind the window. The lighting was obviously on low power—dim and reddish—but with the sensors available to him, Argent is able to get a good look at the room. It appears to be some sort of observation deck with a chair like the one Ashe used in the movie Alien to track the landing party, with what appears to be two computer banks flanking a pressure door. Sensors indicate that the station has no gravity and the temperature inside is about 50 kiloPascals (about 1 half of Earth standard) at -5°C. Environmental suits would seem to be required, and a portable power source is standard equipment. Since the hull seems to have been holed, oxygen other than an emergency supply for the survivor would be of little use.

Based on its orbital decay, it will be destroyed in about a month, and would have been at a stable orbital distance some six months ago. There is evidence of some form of disruptor weapons damage with the readings indicating it was sustained at that time. The signal is definitely a suit emergency beacon of unknown origin, but the computer is able to translate it. It only gives the most basic of info. The material from which the station is constructed is the same tritanium-ceramic composite the Gamma tower used in its structure.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:58, Fri 23 June 2017.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 10):

Marissa went over the scan data to be certain nothing was missed, before she turned to Sloane.

"Lieutenant, I have military training and likely I should lead the group into the derelict.
The uncertainty of the life sign worries me because it could mean we are dealing with a Kapecki, and perhaps even one of those corrupted by the Finori."

She stood and moved back into the crew area, her voice could still be heard."Given their resistance to Phaser Stun, I believe we need to be prepared for such a possibility"

The sound of a locker door opening and then closing preceded the hybrid Klingon's return to the bridge. "Which is why I will be carrying this."

Marissa holds a TR-116 Rifle in her hands. "I can at least disable a Kapecki with this, and no Sir, I won't be shooting first, and asking questions later, unlike what my Klingon forbears might have chosen to do" A feral grin completed the comment.

"My recommendation is that you and I accompanied by Lt Argent should prepare for possible radiation, suit up; leaving Lt Nivran here to watch the ship. Sir, Shi is skilled in a number of specialties which make hir an excellent choice to leave alone."

Nivran acquiesces to being left behind, but hir tail twitches in disappointment. Floating through the docking tube leads to an airlock door. Although closed and unpowered, there is an emergency manual entry device—essentially what looks like a hand exerciser. repated squeezing of the grips pumps the door open, revealing a very small airlock. It takes a full minute to open the door, and another minute to repeat the cation with the inner door. Since the interior is at half pressure, there is a brief puff of wind as the two airlocks equalise pressure, and again when the inner door is opened. Once all three are in the station, the inner door can be closed, leaving the two airlocks connected.

Once past the airlock, the three crew of the Thames find themselves in a mid-sized room with rows of folding seats attached to stanchions, obviously a staging area. There is a potted plant in the corner, frozen and probably dead from the sub-zero temperature. There is little else in the room save for a toppled stack of what appear to be hard-copy magazines. The light is dim and reddish in hue.

Tricorder scans indicate the next room is in near vacuum with only trace atmosphere. Opening the doors will cause the atmosphere to equalise once more, resulting in the pressure going down to 20 kiloPascals, about 1/5 Earth-normal pressure. The next room is half-again as large and completely empty, with double doors ahead and to the left. This room also has dim lighting, obviously emergency lighting.

Marissa opened the door and proceeded the others in, her weapon at the ready.
"Argent if you would keep an active search on with your tricorder. Remember that the Kapecki do show up with some life signs.

Sir, if you would activate the door each time that would allow me to cover the room?

Any further orders, before we move on Lt?"

Argent is of course aware of what Kapecki "life" signs look like. They strongly resemble Human readings. The life readings he's getting through the interference more resemble Sosal's Saurian readings. They appear to be coming from the starboard section of the station, while the broadcast is coming from the forward section. This would seem to indicate that the suit beacon has been detached and probably linked to the station's communications array. From where the away team is standing, the way to both locations is through the doors to their left. There is a lot of stellar interference, but a comms check indicate they can still communicate with Nivran on the Thames, though even with the communicators transport locator circuitry, shi cannot get a transporter lock on them.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 14):

Irregardless of any concerns from his XO Sloane is joining the away team. Prior to leaving he ensures they have hyronalin shots avaiable for them in case their stay is longer than expected.  Also making sure they have extra in case they find any survivors on the station that need immediate attention.  Plus making sure everyone has tricoder, phaser except Swann who looks covered.

"This is a recovery mission first. Try to find and treat any survivors, then try to find out what happened. Remember our ship is right here so no need to over extend." Sloane commands.

"This is also an unknown structure, so we need to identify where it came from.  Assuming Kapecki might be involved might be jumping the gun.  But should still be prepared in case they are."

Only Nivran has been detailed to remain behind. Swann has volunteered to take point and Argent is handling the tricorder scans. This leaves Zed free to command the away team in any way he deems fit—including being with the away team on the station.

Everyone on the Away Team is well equipped with an environmental suit which incorporates gravity boots and a built-in tricorder, a phaser II and possibly a phaser III depending on preference (Swann has a curious weapon which looks halfway between a phaser rifle and an old-fashioned assault rifle), and a first aid kit. Argent also carries a portable power supply and an extra oxygen canister.


[OOC: Is the away team heading straight ahead or to the left toward the beacon and the survivor?]

Argent has noticed that the construction of the station and what furniture they've seen so far is indeed consistent with the Gamma Station, so it is quite possible that the away may encounter a Kapecki. However, the life-sign indicates something similar to a Saurian, so it's probably not a Kapecki.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:44, Mon 26 June 2017.

This message was deleted by the player at 21:50, Mon 26 June 2017.

Marissa points to the door on the left, indicating that Sloane should open it, while she covers the opening with her rifle

As Swann covers him and Argent scans, Zed begins pumping the handle. The small amount of air in the room puffs out as the door opens leaving the away team in hard vacuum. Obviously, there is a hull breach in the immediate area.

When Zed has the door open, the away team can see in the dim light what appears to be a life-support facility. Pumps flank the single door to the left of the image and a large bank of what appear to be atmosphere tanks are to the left of the half-open double door at the bottom. A crumpled space suit with the helmet attached lies on the floor to the extreme right of the image next to the tanks.


This message was last edited by the GM at 18:40, Thu 29 June 2017.

As the away team moves into the life support room, Argent examines the empty suit. It is fitted for a humanoid about 1.6 metres tall. The centre of the chest of the suit has a hole about 400mm in diametre in it, burned by acid of some sort. Scans reveal it to be an organic molecular acid. In the back of the interior is an amount of freeze-dried crusty white organic material which looks like dried cottage cheese. As Marissa stands guard she notices that many of the oxygen tanks have shiny marks on the valves where a tool has been hastily or clumsily used. A length of gas transfer tubing is attached to one of the tanks and a wrench lies on the deck beside it. A quick scan with her suit tricorder reveals that about 3/4 of the tanks are mostly empty. Zed notices that the wall beside the empty suit has several lines of graffiti scratched into the surface, the exposed tritanium ceramic glinting in his suit light.

From the Thames, Jon Clare requests a situation report through heavy static.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:41, Thu 29 June 2017.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 20):

"Sloane here.  Making slow progress.  Signal is breaking up. Try to boost if possible. We are just in process of investigating the first room and a body we found in it." Sloane replies to the Thames.

"Lt. Argent, what species is the body and any idea where the source of this acid is?  Also what is the risk to our suits from this acid?"

While he waits for the answer he takes a closer look at the graffiti trying to determine what it says or represents.

OOC: sorry for brief absences. Work stupid busy. 

Argent is able to determine that the occupant of the suit has been pulled from the suit, but skin traces indicate a reptilian micro-scaled dermis. The white crust's origin is unknown, but the reptilian skin debris is consistent with a lifeform similar to Saurians. The acid is fluoroantimonic acid—definitely capable of affecting the Starfleet suits and contact with the acid will result in a lethal puncture at minimum. Aside from the acid damage, the chest of the suit has been torn apart and there are traces of polarised silicon and protein-polysaccharides in the damaged areas, indicating the source of the acid may be a lifeform.

Further examination reveals that a few drops of the acid have eaten half-way through the decking and revealed the interior surface of the hull structure.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 22):

"Pulled from the suit, hmmn?" Marissa takes a quick look but keeps her attention and her rifle pointed to cover the other two exits from the room.

"Argent, is the chemical remaining similar in any way to the insectoid lifeform that you encountered at Gamma base. And is there sufficient trace amounts to be able to determine which  exit the creature took the Saurian through.

Lt Sloane I strongly urge you to reset your Phaser to kill. Anything capable of doing this is no friend of ours and the interference from the sun could diminish the effects of your phaser to begin with.'

The hybrid Lt sets her rifle to full auto, and prepares for the worst.

In reply to Lt Marissa Swann (msg # 23):

"You are all assuming we are encountering a species we are familiar with.  I must remind all of you this may be a first contact, we can't go in with the intent to kill.  Lt. Swann you may keep your weapon on kill since you are covering us, but everyone else should be on heavy stun.   The federation is not a shot first ask the body questions afterwards." Sloane reminds everyone

This message was deleted by the player at 21:42, Sat 01 July 2017.

"Aye aye Lt. "

Marissa answered promptly, turning back to cover the exits, but her thoughts were not in agreement

  I hope he is right, but anything that does what we see here, is more likely to eat you than speak to you. He is going to need to talk faster than my trigger finger

Argent's readings indicate that the white crusty residue is the remains of flesh dissolved by the acid, which has burned halfway through the back of the suit and punctured the oxygen cell. There is no indication of the direction whatever secreted the acid went, probably indicating it has some measure of control over its secretions. The traces in the suit do not seem to be from the insectoid, though detailed readings were not possible through the stasis booth. The readings do suggest that the occupant of the space suit was partially dissolved and then sucked out. Argent does notice however that the scratchings on the wall are in the Finori script, which the tricorder can now translate. The messages speak of ‘the ghost’ and ‘the voice on the radio’, but mostly just repeat ‘it’s coming’ over and over again.


Visually scanning the doorways, Marissa notes that the single door to her right (left side of the image, towards the aft of the station) is securely closed while the double door ahead has one side open. The central room is therefore also in hard vacuum and the dim lights in that room are flickering, making noticing any motion harder. Peering into the central chamber, she can see it is comparable to a bridge, with consoles in all four corners and a command station in the centre. There is a set of double doors in each wall. The one in the aft wall is closed, the one in the forward wall toward the beacon transmitter is completely open with a computer bank visible inside, and the one dead ahead is partly open. The room beyond is dark, the only light available being the flickering in the command room.

Marissa'a eyes narrowed, her focus was primarily on movement. Putting a finger up to her lips and using standard starfleet small unit handsigns(Anyone trained for an away team should know them )she signaled that there were 3 doors. The one on the right: Closed.
The one on the left:Open. and the one straight away: Partly open just like this one was.

She signalled Argent to put his tricorder on silent mode and keep it in his non weapon hand, so he could hold his Phaser in the other.

She intended to move in to the right and cover, while she suggested that Sloane do the same on the left.( So that each of them had a clear view of the door nearest the other as well as the one where the beacon was coming from. )

 Argent was to stay in this door and watch his tricorder for movement

"On me" she whispered and moved in.

Just waiting on Zed and Argent for feedback. Tricorders indicate the beacon is through the open double doors towards the forward end of the station. There appears to be no movement in the area, but the skin is still crawling on the back of Marissa's neck anyway.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:43, Sun 02 July 2017.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 29):

Sloane acknowledges back with hand gestures he will follow and take the left side.  He preps his phaser, ready to quickly change the setting if the need arises.  He waits for Swann to single she is proceeding.

[OOC: So, what's the plan? Go for the suit beacon or for the survivor? Note that with the suit beacon removed, the survivor will have no communications. Taking the beacon unit to the survivor, it will likely be possible to communicate with him/her.]

This message was deleted by the player at 23:25, Sun 02 July 2017.

I have looked over the previous posts
I can see where the beacon is, but I don't see where we know the location of the survivor relative to where we are?