Captain's Log, Stardate 57499.3.
The Melbourne is approaching 191 Aquilae, a Class G star with a planetary system that long range scans indicate includes a potentially Class-M planet within its habitable zone. With the likelihood of a busy time ahead for the crew, I have strongly encouraged the senior officers to take advantage of the Captain's Table tonight.
In Captain Mitchell's quarters, where a fully-stocked bar has been installed along with a small stage and some seating, the bridge crew have gathered together. The Captain's Table has become a semi-regular event, where the Captain prepares drinks for his senior staff and encourages them to show off any artistic talents. This evening's event sees Cmdr. Partav sharing the Bajoran poetry of Akorem Laan, a Caitian viola performance from Lt. Cmdr. Ahn'Kress, and a finale song by Capt. Mitchell himself on an acoustic guitar.
Science Officer's Log, supplemental. 191 Aquilae IV is proving to be a mystery. We can tell that the air is breathable, and that there is surface water, but the atmosphere is full of particulate matter of an unknown type that is having a scattering effect on most of our scans. The best we have been able to manage is a rough topographical map of about 80% of the surface, but this has revealed the presence of large artificial structures, likely cities of some kind. Unfortunately, if we want to get any more information we're going to have to go down and take a look for ourselves.
A probe is launched into the atmosphere of the planet to try and get a clearer picture of what lies under the particulate clouds and reveals what appear to be large cities in a state of extensive disrepair and no sign of current life. With the atmospheric particles making transporting risky, Cmdr. Partav takes an Away Team down in the shuttlecraft Bolton. Joining the Away Team are Chief of Security Tir, doubling as the shuttle pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Ahn'Kress and Lt. Stuart for Engineering and Science support, Lt. JG Tradis as Medical, and Security Ens. Williams.
As the shuttle comes through the atmosphere Lt. Stuart begins scanning the unidentified particles, but his efforts are cut short when the particles react with something in the shuttle's nacelles, causing one to shut down. The shuttle spirals out of control, but Lt. Cmdr. Tir is able to pull it into a crash landing with the assistance of Cmdr. Partav. The Away Team emerge from the landing unscathed, but the shuttle is crippled and the particles are preventing them from contacting the Melbourne. Lt. Cmdr. Ahn'Kress things she might be able to get the shuttle working again, if they can find the right materials. The shuttle crashed outside the largest of the ruined cities, so Partav has the Away Team head there in the hopes of being able to salvage what they need.
As the team makes their way through the outskirts of the ruined city, Lt. JG Tradis analyzes the particles with her tricorder to see if it presents any kind of health risk. The results point to long term exposure being dangerous, but the Away Team is safe for the time being. Partav and Tir are on guard, and note that much of the damage to the city seems to have been the result of energy weapons or perhaps missiles, indicating a major conflict occurred. More worrying is the lack of any remains, even if enough time had passed for them to decay there should be evidence but they cannot spot any.
On a hunch, Lt. Stuart compares the interference caused by the particles in the atmosphere to the interference caused by the "webbing" of the silicon spider creatures the Melbourne had encountered on the derelict Ferengi vessel they encountered when first arriving in this region of space. Surprisingly he finds there is a correlation. There is no sign of any of the webbing here, but Stuart and Tradis find that the particles in the air could potentially be an end product of the material the webs were made of reacting with elements in the planet's soil or atmosphere. Perhaps these particles are even a form of decay product if the webbing breaks down over time.
Based on this connection, Ahn'Kress is able to take what they already know about getting around the interference the webbing had caused to modify their communicators to hopefully break through this interference as well. The effort is successful, and Cmdr. Partav contacts the Melbourne. Once he had briefed Capt. Mitchell, he recommends they modify the ship's sensors in a similar fashion, and that they retrieve the damaged shuttle. He will take the Away Team further into the city to see if they can find any clues as to what had happened. Mitchell has the shuttle beamed up using one of the cargo transporters, but is surprised when the Cargo Bay reports that someone or something has stolen the shuttle's nacelles.
First Officer's Log, supplemental. The Away Team have doubled back to the crash site to investigate the apparent theft of the shuttlecraft's nacelles. Lt. Stuart was forced to beam back to the Melbourne when the atmospheric contaminants started damaging his implants, and now Capt. Mitchell wants to take the ship out of orbit to do a more thorough check of the inner system. The ship will still be only a few minutes out, so the Away Team will be safe enough and it is imperative that, if there are survivors of whatever happened here, we locate them and see what answers they can provide.
At the crash site, there are wheel tracks and footprints, and examining the area also shows that whoever had cut the nacelles from the shuttlecraft used a plasma torch or similar tool. From the tracks, Ahn'Kress is able to see that the thieves were definitely bipedal and wearing boots, and that the wheels of the vehicle were mismatched, implying something salvaged or cobbled together. As the team starts following the tracks, Lt. JG Tradis hopes that it is not Pakled, though Cmdr. Partav points out that they are pretty far from typical Pakled territory. Partav also notes that as he understands it silicon life typically evolves on Class F worlds, not Class M, so it is likely that the spiders are not native to this planet, an observation that impresses Tradis.
On the Melbourne, Capt. Mitchell gets Ens. Haral at Tactical to scan for any vessels that might be hiding in sensor shadows, in case whoever attacked the planet is still around. The scans come up negative, so Lt. JG Reydon takes the ship out to the planet's moons, where scans show that the smaller moon had been the site of a mining operation and the larger moon had hosted multiple bases. The mining facility and the bases had all been destroyed, and based on the energy decay it must have happened within the last 50 years. Expanding the scans, the Melbourne detects a larger debris trail occupying the same orbit as the planet, so the ship sets course for the far side of the star to investigate.
As the Away Team follows the vehicle tracks into the ruins of an industrial area in the city, where Ahn'Kress is able to detect a magnetic signature that might be coming from an active power source of some kind. As they get closer to the signal, Lt. Cmdr. Tir spots some movement and is able to warn the team as a shot is fired in their direction. The attack appeared to be a warning shot, so while the rest of the team take cover, Cmdr. Partav steps out with empty hands and tries to talk with the shooter. The attacker is not speaking any known language, so Partav tries to keep them talking to give the Universal Translator enough information to start processing it.
Once the Universal Translator has a handle on the new language, a second voice calls out to the shooter telling them to stand down. A furred humanoid with pointed ears and wearing a damaged space suit steps out and introduces himself as Barjorad Pentajonofflin, captain of the trade ship Karakoral. The shooter also emerges and is of the same species as Barjorad, though a little stockier and more well-armed, carrying a magnetic rifle slung over one shoulder, a holstered pistol, and a bandolier of grenades. Barjorad introduces the gunman as his ";attack dog", Nagamontor Taldocrepanal. He invites the Away Team to get out of the open and to somewhere a little safer so they can talk more.
Inside a partially destroyed warehouse space the team sees a badly damaged space transport, with much of its equipment spread around in a makeshift camp. The shuttlecraft's nacelles are here, being worked on by a female member of the same species as the other two, who Barjorad introduces as Lajanada Frelakaffalin, his engineer. When Lajanda notices the Away Team she sheepishly tries to hide the nacelles by standing in front of them until she realizes how futile it is and steps aside. Nagamontor asks Tradis if she has any food, and she hands out some of the field ration bars she had brought from the shuttlecraft. Tradis then does some medical scans of the three, with permission, while everyone sits down for the trio to tell their story.
Barjorad explains that they are not natives of this world, but come from a nearby world called Xersia. This planet is, or was, the homeworld of the Karishi, who were the dominant power in the region. The Karishi had developed a means of faster-than-light (FTL) travel and established four colony worlds as well as making contact with Xersia and another inhabited world. While they did not share their FTL technology, they did establish a trade network at the core of which was technology called the Catapult. The Catapult was a large orbital facility that could project a vessel up to FTL speeds, but that necessitated there to be a Catapult facility at the other end to decelerate the vessel. Catapults were built at the Karishi homeworld, the four Karishi colony worlds, Xersia and the other world, Dargura. The Catapults were each only able to launch vessels at a specific target world, necessitating that a vessel travel from one world to the next in sequence. This rough circle of seven worlds was called the Karishi Circuit, but usually informally referred to as The Loop.
Barjorad and the other two are the survivors of a crew of seven that operated the Karakoral as it plied the Loop, trading between the different worlds. Sometime between four and five years ago they were inbound to the Karishi homeworld when they realized that the Catapult was not functioning properly. With no Catapult to slow them down, Lajanada was forced to jury rig something to drop them to sub-light speeds. The Karakoral was still traveling at dangerous speeds as it entered the system, so their pilot did a dangerous slingshot around the star to bleed off velocity. They aimed for the Karishi homeworld, but when they hit the atmosphere they encountered the same dangerous reaction with the mysterious particles as the shuttlecraft and similarly crashed near the City. Their pilot and first officer died in the crash, with another crew member later dying from injuries and a fourth one dying in an accident a few months later. The remaining three have spent the last few years trying to salvage enough parts to get the Karakoral space worthy, luckily having been hauling a cargo of foodstuffs that they have survived on along with a complex filtration system to produce potable water. Partav promises to help the three, offering to transport them back to Xersia and even agreeing to tow the damaged Karakoral along.
In orbit, the Melbourne has reached the far side of the star and found a massive debris field. Most of the debris appears to belong to a single, extremely large object, with wrecks of smaller craft also found. There is no indication any of the wrecks belong to the mysterious attackers, and several wrecks share components with the vessel the Ferengi had discovered, making it almost certain that it originated here. Cmdr. Partav contacts the Melbourne and briefs Capt. Mitchell on everything the Away Team has learned, information which points to the debris field being the remains of the system's Catapult facility. Mitchell agrees with Partav's decision to offer aid to the survivors of the Karakoral and directs Rayden to bring the Melbourne back to the planet.
While the Melbourne is en route, the Away Team help the survivors load all their equipment and possessions back aboard the Karakoral and get the ship as ready as possible to be taken up. Among the items being loaded are several pieces of salvaged technology that the Xersians had been using to repair their ship. Partav identifies some of the technology as being computers, and while the survivors had been taking circuitry from them the data storage systems appear to still be intact. Partav notes this and asks if it would be alright if the Melbourne could attempt to retrieve any surviving data, to which Barjorad agrees. The work is finished as the Melbourne reaches orbit again and the Away Team plus the three survivors are beamed up to the ship where Capt. Mitchell is waiting in the transporter room to greet them.
Once the three visitors have gotten over the shock of being transported, and have had a chance to clean up and have something to eat, Capt. Mitchell has them brought to a conference room at the front of the ship on deck 9, where they will have a clear view of proceedings. On the bridge, Partav orders shields raised and for Lt. JG Reydon to bring the Melbourne down into the planet's atmosphere. Reydon makes something of a show of it to give the observers on deck nine a good view, then hold position as Lt. Cmdr. Ahn'Kress reinforces the ship's tractor beam and locks onto the Karakoral. The trade vessel is slowly lifted off the ground and when Ahn'Kress confirms they have a good grip, Reydon slowly brings the Melbourne back up to orbit with the Karakoral in tow.
As the freighter is being tractored to a secure towing position behind the Melbourne, and Partav has ordered the salvaged computers beamed over for analysis, Capt. Mitchell brings Barjorad, Lajanada and Nagamontor to Astrometrics, where they are able to point out the six other systems in the Loop and indicate which one is their home of Xersia. Captain Mitchell then orders the Melbourne to set course for Xersia, a journey of just under two days at Warp 6. The Captain also takes the opportunity to talk to the three about the Federation and hopes they can establish permanent relations with the other worlds of the Loop.
Forty-six hours later, right on schedule, the Melbourne drops out of warp in the Xersia system. Almost immediately the long-range sensors confirm what some aboard had feared; the system's Catapult facility has also been destroyed, and there are no life readings coming from Xersia...
Captain's Log, Stardate 57505.7. The USS Melbourne remains in orbit around the planet Xersia. All evidence so far points to the planet having suffered the same fate as the Karishi homeworld. While we continue to gather data here, I have ordered long-range probes sent to the remaining systems in the Loop to assess the conditions of those worlds. I feel for the three Xersians we rescued, who are having to come to terms with the possibility of being the very last of their species. I hope the preliminary report from the analysis of the salvaged computers from the Karishi homeworld will help shed some more light on what happened.
The senior officers assemble in the main conference room where Lt. Serin briefs them on what the Records team has pieced together from the data recovered from the computers salvaged by the crew of the Karakoral. The first reports of the spiders appear approximately 25 years ago, starting as a spike in disappearances of visitors to one of the world's largest forest nature preserves. By the time authorities discovered the existence of the spiders themselves and attempted to deal with the infestation, it had spread through much of the forest. Efforts to identify a source eventually found a recent meteor crater, though the investigating team could not locate the meteor itself. This led authorities to speculate that the creatures came from off-world.
By this point the spiders controlled large areas of the forest, enough that the web strands covered hundreds of square kilometers and in the regions of highest concentration were even visible from low orbit. Soon the spiders began appearing in cities near the forest borders. In addition to disappearances and deaths, a handful of victims survived but the spider's toxin appeared to be having a mutagenic effect. Authorities quarantined the affected cities, though few believed this would stop the spiders from spreading. There were a few calls for "sterilization", effectively saying the infested cities should be utterly destroyed along with the people living there, but there was much opposition.
The final pieces of information paint a very chaotic picture of the planet's last days. Details are sparse, as whatever happened appeared to occur over a very short period of time. The best efforts at reconstructing the events indicate that an unidentified vessel or vessels appeared in the system with no warning. The Catapult facility on the far side of the star was seemingly targeted first, and its destruction disrupted what remained of the system's space defense capabilities. The facilities on the two moons were next, destroyed so quickly they could provide no information on their attackers. Ground-based telescopic observations paint a picture of several irregular-shaped craft and possibly a larger mothership, though the latter remained far enough out that no meaningful data could be gathered about it. The smaller craft then attacked the planet itself, targeting major population centers. These attacks destroyed or disabled the planetary communications and information infrastructure, and they mark the last point at which there was recoverable data from the salvaged computer systems.
Given that the crew of the Karakoral spent over four years marooned on the planet, the time of their crash landing would have been approximately 20 years after the attack on and destruction of Risholm. During the four years they saw no sign of the spiders, and no indication of any other survivors. Orbital observations by the Melbourne also showed no indication of the presence of the webbing, despite reports that previously they would have been visible from space. This seems to match with Lt. Stuart's theories that the particulate matter contaminating the atmosphere as well as the soil and water appears to be made up of the remnants of the webbing, decayed or transformed by some natural or artificial means and enough to spread across the entire planet in the two decades since the attack.
As the information is presented, the senior officers interject with questions and theories. Commander Partav wonders if perhaps the attackers were attempting to eradicate the spider infestation. A species familiar with them, possibly having suffered a devastating infestation themselves, might be motivated to annihilate any further infestations they find even if it means wiping out an entire planet to do so. Following the briefing the senior officers return to the Bridge and continue their investigation of the Xersian system.
With the new information in mind, Lt. Cmdr. Ahn'Kress continues to scan the destroyed world of Xersia, comparing the results to what was observed at Risholm. Along with these results, the long-range probes sent to the other worlds of the Rishi Circuit begin to return data. It becomes immediately clear that the worst case scenario has been confirmed and that every world in the Loop has been similarly destroyed. In each system, like here at Xersia, the Catapult facility has been destroyed and all life on the planet wiped out, with the same contaminating particulate toxin permeating the air, land and water.
Needing more information, Captain Mitchell decides it is time for him to have a talk with the Melbourne's long-term guest, the lone Ferengi survivor, Lizig. At the same time he requests that Cmdr. Partav and Lt. Stuart work up some models on how the webbing that they observed on the Ferengi ship might metamorphosize into the particulate toxin found on these worlds. Leaving Lt. Cmdr. Tir in charge on the Bridge, Capt. Mitchell heads to the guest quarters where Lizig has been staying, receiving a briefing from one of the ship's psychiatric team on the Ferengi's current state. Before splitting off with Lt. Stuart, Cmdr. Partav suggests to the Captain that he could use Partav's friendship with the son of the Ferengi Grand Nagus as a bargaining chip.
This leverage proves useful, as Lizig faces persecution by the Ferengi Commerce Authority for being the only survivor of the ship and, in the eyes of the more powerful families of the dead Ferengi crew, responsible for the loss of the vessel. Between that, and Mitchell providing some "liquid courage", Lizig is able to keep his wits while recalling the events around the spider infestation on the Ferengi vessel. As the cook he was one of the lowest ranking crew, so had little first-hand knowledge of the early stages. He knew they had brought on board a derelict scout ship found moving at low warp speed in a decaying subspace field, but did not see the ship itself. Given the relatively small number of crew compared to the size of the Marauder-class Ferengi ship the spiders had spread far before they were noticed. The first indication was the disappearance of a technician, and by the time the rest of the crew realized the danger it was too late. Much of the cargo and maintenance space was filled with webbing, and the spiders' numbers meant the crew was outnumbered. Most were killed, but for some reason Lizig and the other three found with him had been taken alive and webbed up in engineering. With Lizig's tale done, Capt. Mitchell thanks him and takes his leave.
Cmdr. Partav and Lt. Stuart complete their research into the decay of the webbing, and the results point to the process being a reaction to Class M biospheres. This is brought in along with the work from the Bridge, where Lt. Cmdrs. Ahn'Kress and Tir have been working on the data the probes have returned from the other destroyed Karishi Circuit worlds. Whereas the contaminant on Risholm showed a distribution pattern reflecting the webbing's origin point in the nature preserve, all the other worlds show a more even distribution pattern, as if the contaminant was spread over the entire planet within a very short period of time. The readings from the destroyed Catapult facilities in the systems also confirm that the attackers were moving from world to world at high warp speeds, traveling along the path of the Loop but at far higher speeds than any ship traveling the Circuit could match.
With the research reaching a likely end without resorting to a dedicated investigative mission, Lt. Stuart has one more avenue he wants to check. Knowing from their previous encounter that the spiders had communicated in a possible hive mind using radio transmissions, he wants to see if there are any propagating signals on those frequencies. Traveling several light years out, the Melbourne's sensors do not detect anything; however the Xersian survivors point out that the Karishi interstellar communications were limited to lightspeed, meaning any transmissions sent during the attacks 25 years earlier might be detectable in the same way Stuart had been trying. WIth the provided frequencies, the Melbourne is able to intercept some of the decades-old signals, however they shed little light on the attacks. All the crew can do is listen to calls of warning, telling the other planets in the Circuit of the danger in a desperate message to worlds that were dead before they could ever receive it.
With no more answers apparent, Capt. Mitchell sends a full report to Starfleet and then turns to the decision of what to do with the three survivors from the Karakoral. With no remaining worlds in the Loop to leave the Xersians on there is thought about repairing their ship, but to give them a chance of surviving it would mean upgrading the vessel with more advanced Federation technology, something that Cmdr. Partav reminds the Captain would be a violation of the Prime Directive. The three could remain aboard the Melbourne, but there is no space to store the Karakoral and Barjoran is not willing to abandon his ship. In the end Capt. Mitchell opts to contact Federation Ambassador Sh'Rassa, asking him to negotiate with the Na-Zek to take in the three Xersians as refugees. With the decision made, the crew take one last look at the destroyed Xersian homeworld before heading to warp to rendezvous with the Na-Zek.