Captain's Log: Baptism of Blood and Fire
Posted on Wednesday, 1 July 2020 - 2:39pm by Captain Barret Stillwater
Captain’s Log
Stardate: 71372.06050228314
Commander Barret Stillwater recording:
I wish that I could make this report with a more optimistic tone, but as my husband would tactically make note of were he here in the Ready Room with me right now, I am not known for my cheerful disposition nor sugar-coating of events and details. I believe in making evident raw wounds and showing off my scars, and I do not sprinkle things with a sweeter substance when delivering news, no matter how grim or terrible it may be. The USS Standing Bear responded to the distress call of the SS Scarlet Tanager. Upon investigation aboard the Tanager, led by myself and accompanied by my First Officer Lieutenant Commander Soral, and some of my best personnel, we discovered nothing short of a small massacre aboard. Members of the crew were mutilated and killed. Two members of the crew have been confirmed missing after obtaining the ship’s manifest; two Federation scientist who also had their adolescent child aboard with them. He remains aboard the USS Standing Bear under the care of my ship’s medical personnel. He was relatively physically unharmed, though the psychological torment in which he must be enduring right now is unsettling.
We were operating under the suspicion that the Scarlet Tanager was attacked by the same vessel we came into the corridors and trade routes to look for; the alleged phantom, though I much prefer to refer to it as a trickster. There was nothing unworldly about it, a heavily modified D’Kora class Marauder formerly belonging to the Ferengi Alliance, refitted with some weapons from the Breen and a hodgepodge of technology like an abstract expressionist’s mosaic work. What we have uncovered is something much more sinister and complex: Admiral Raitchaak’s hypothesis about the Orion Syndicate being behind all of it? Prejudice as it was, he was not entirely wrong. There are elements of the Syndicate’s hand at play out here, but this is far more than the simple puppeteering of the Syndicate. It would appear to be an even larger network of criminal activity, and the D’Kora class Marauder was not responsible for the attack on the Scarlet Tanager.
After reviewing the sensor data and the logs of the crew aboard, it would appear as though another vessel was responsible. It is still undetermined who is responsible, but the savagery seen aboard the Scarlet Tanager was more sadistic and violent than that I have witnessed even from the nastiest of Cardassians. It was a baptism of blood and of fire. It reminded me of the carnage left behind from the Jem’Hadar during the war, but that would seem improbable. The alpha quadrant Dominion facilities were all terminated and destroyed, and travel to and from the gamma quadrant is intimately screened and closely monitored.
A sting operation aboard the Risian luxury cruiser, the SS Heart of Nuvia led to a pursuit chase of the D’Kora class Marauder and a very brief encounter with two Breen battlecruisers. We were able to recover our Ship’s Psychologist unharmed as well as apprehend two Ferengi, one of which was the commander of the D’Kora class Marauder. We are arriving at Starbase 118 to undergo immediate repairs and turn over the Ferengi to Starbase security pending prison transport. Additionally, I have granted the crew nearly several days of shore leave aboard the station or wherever they can arrange a transport to ferry them. In the meantime, I am staying behind on the station to take on new crew and oversee some personnel changes that have unexpected come about. I have plans to meet with the station commander soon, but some last-minute paperwork to catch up on before then.
END CAPTAIN’S LOG
Authors Note:
Stardate Calculator used for log
