The Darwin Engine, Ep. 2
Freshly refitted and under new command, the USS Sally Ride left spacedock to patrol the border it had so recently crossed. Noting a strange energy field emanating from an unsettled M-class world, the ship investigated, discovering a crashed KDF vessel. Reluctantly, Captain Orenn contacted the stranded survivors and offered assistance.
[attachment=1167]2012-11-10_00014.jpg[/attachment]
The Sally Ride away team beamed down to the surface of the unsettled planet, where they met with two survivors of the KDF ship crash: Iall Yuvun, an Orion; and K'oleron, a half-Klingon, half-Trill. Or, at least, the Starfleet officers assumed they were survivors of the crash.
In fact, almost as soon as the transporter sheen dissipated, the KDF officers admitted that they hadn't been on the ship when it crashed: they had been on the surface as part of an away team. The mysterious energy field, which had drawn them to the planet just like the Sally Ride, had allowed them to transport down, but blocked their attempts to leave. The captain of the KDF ship fired on an ancient technological monolith that seemed to be the source of the interference. The monolith retaliated, destroying the vessel immediately with a devastating attack. No one aboard survived the crash.
In effect, this meant that the Sally Ride's away team was trapped on the surface. Instead of the KDF taking them hostage as they had worried, it appeared that the planet itself posed the real threat. The KDF had brought them to the surface to coerce their cooperation in finding a way off the planet.
Since the energy field was actively blocking transporter signals and had destroyed ships before, Captain Orenn and First Officer Seven decided that calling a shuttle was too risky until they had investigated its source. The KDF officers led them where they wanted to go: to a monolithic tower, surrounded by shining energy nodes. Scans indicated that the structures continued deep below ground, entwining and merging into a larger device, perhaps powered by geothermal energy.
Here, Seven noticed something odd: though he could detect the downed KDF ship nearby, he couldn't pick up any of the radioactivity or pollutants that would indicate a proximate crash. Investigation of the crash site itself revealed that radiation was somehow being absorbed, and spilled chemicals were spontaneously breaking down into non-toxic compounds. The Starfleet engineers also noted that the energy field was particularly active in the area.
Back at the monolith, a bit of bickering between the mutually suspicious KDF and Federation officers made Orenn think of something. He realized that there were elements of ancient Romulan, Vulcan, or even pre-schism design apparent in the monolith's architecture. When he touched the device and attempted to communicate with it, the local energy field became a datastream, reporting an unfathomable amount of data: detailed bioscans and ecological data for millenia of the planet's history.
Eventually, the crew managed to activate an interface. The monolith explained in curt terms that it was an evolutionary monitoring device, that it sought to defend its accrued knowledge... and that it had no intention whatsoever of allowing any of its visitors to leave when it could instead add them and generations of their descendants to its planetful of observable specimens.
How will the crew overcome this seemingly omnipotent machine? Tune in next week!
_________________
OOC notes:
What a fantastic turnout! It was great to see so many new faces joining the crew, and I hope you'll join us again at the same time next week. We will again be meeting on the surface of Defera, west of the city in the area pictured above. Be thinking of ideas how to overcome the ancient device. You can even discuss them amongst yourselves by doing your own scenes in small groups, or making in-character posts here.
We're still a bit short of KDF characters, so please join in! You might think it would get old, taunting Starfleet dweebs as they try to reason with inanimate objects. It doesn't.
[attachment=1167]2012-11-10_00014.jpg[/attachment]
The Sally Ride away team beamed down to the surface of the unsettled planet, where they met with two survivors of the KDF ship crash: Iall Yuvun, an Orion; and K'oleron, a half-Klingon, half-Trill. Or, at least, the Starfleet officers assumed they were survivors of the crash.
In fact, almost as soon as the transporter sheen dissipated, the KDF officers admitted that they hadn't been on the ship when it crashed: they had been on the surface as part of an away team. The mysterious energy field, which had drawn them to the planet just like the Sally Ride, had allowed them to transport down, but blocked their attempts to leave. The captain of the KDF ship fired on an ancient technological monolith that seemed to be the source of the interference. The monolith retaliated, destroying the vessel immediately with a devastating attack. No one aboard survived the crash.
In effect, this meant that the Sally Ride's away team was trapped on the surface. Instead of the KDF taking them hostage as they had worried, it appeared that the planet itself posed the real threat. The KDF had brought them to the surface to coerce their cooperation in finding a way off the planet.
Since the energy field was actively blocking transporter signals and had destroyed ships before, Captain Orenn and First Officer Seven decided that calling a shuttle was too risky until they had investigated its source. The KDF officers led them where they wanted to go: to a monolithic tower, surrounded by shining energy nodes. Scans indicated that the structures continued deep below ground, entwining and merging into a larger device, perhaps powered by geothermal energy.
Here, Seven noticed something odd: though he could detect the downed KDF ship nearby, he couldn't pick up any of the radioactivity or pollutants that would indicate a proximate crash. Investigation of the crash site itself revealed that radiation was somehow being absorbed, and spilled chemicals were spontaneously breaking down into non-toxic compounds. The Starfleet engineers also noted that the energy field was particularly active in the area.
Back at the monolith, a bit of bickering between the mutually suspicious KDF and Federation officers made Orenn think of something. He realized that there were elements of ancient Romulan, Vulcan, or even pre-schism design apparent in the monolith's architecture. When he touched the device and attempted to communicate with it, the local energy field became a datastream, reporting an unfathomable amount of data: detailed bioscans and ecological data for millenia of the planet's history.
Eventually, the crew managed to activate an interface. The monolith explained in curt terms that it was an evolutionary monitoring device, that it sought to defend its accrued knowledge... and that it had no intention whatsoever of allowing any of its visitors to leave when it could instead add them and generations of their descendants to its planetful of observable specimens.
How will the crew overcome this seemingly omnipotent machine? Tune in next week!
_________________
OOC notes:
What a fantastic turnout! It was great to see so many new faces joining the crew, and I hope you'll join us again at the same time next week. We will again be meeting on the surface of Defera, west of the city in the area pictured above. Be thinking of ideas how to overcome the ancient device. You can even discuss them amongst yourselves by doing your own scenes in small groups, or making in-character posts here.
We're still a bit short of KDF characters, so please join in! You might think it would get old, taunting Starfleet dweebs as they try to reason with inanimate objects. It doesn't.
