LOG 006 – PILGRIM'S PROGRESS

Captain's Log, Stardate 57568.3.

The Melbourne has rendezvoused with the USS Oakland to transfer our passengers and take on supplies. This far out from Federation space, it is always nice to see familiar faces.

• Teaser
• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three

TEASER

Capt. Amina Ramsey and Lt. Ottessa Warren from the USS Oakland are aboard the Melbourne, checking in before the resupply is complete and the Oakland departs. Lt. Warren is taking advantage of the quick visit to catch up a little with Lt. Cmdr. Mera Tir as the pair had been in Initiates training on Trill years earlier, though Warren had washed out and was not selected for Joining like Mera. Before Capt. Ramsey takes her leave, Capt. Mitchell gifts her with a bottle of Scotch. Over in the Hydroponics Bay, Lizig is looking for fresh ingredients for a dinner he is preparing for the senior officers. He gets some help from Lt. Loto Stuart, who is there tending the small garden he maintains in Hydroponics. Loto confides in Lizig that he has started a project to create a custom whiskey for the Melbourne themed around their mission.

PART ONE

Lizig's dinner for the senior officers consists of a mix of dishes from many of their homeworlds; a starter of Trill Grakizh salad is followed by a main course of a Bajoran Hasperat souffle and ending with a dessert of Catian fruit salad in a Deltan caramel sauce (Rule of Acquisition #33 - "It never hurts to suck up to the boss."). The meal is still the talk of the bridge the next day, leading to some jealousy from the junior officers until Capt. Mitchell announces that he has asked Lizig to rotate through preparing fresh cooked meals for the rest of the crew, starting with them.

The jovial atmosphere on the bridge is punctured when long-range sensors detect a warp signature from a star system that all previous scans had indicated was completely uninhabited. The Melbourne enters the system and confirms that there are no signs of life on any of the worlds there, let alone an intelligent civilization, even on the barely habitable Class H planet that orbits second from the star. With no candidates in the system, Capt. Mitchell orders a comprehensive long-range sensor sweep to try and find the source of the warp signal. Lt. Stuart's scans eventually pick up the likely culprit, a vessel several light years out from the star traveling at Warp 4 on a heading of 265 mark 4. Based on the sensor silhouette, the vessel appears to be an Antares-type, a class of Federation cargo ship common over a hundred years earlier.

The Melbourne lays in a pursuit case at Warp 6, and with no detectable identification beacon from the vessel Capt. Mitchell orders Yellow Alert. When the Melbourne gets within half a light year from their target the mystery vessel changes course and accelerates before dropping out of warp in another star system and disappearing from sensors. Entering the star system, Lt. Stuart starts scanning for the missing vessel, finding no immediate trace. Lt. Cmdr. Tir however notices there is a pattern in the scans and notes that reminds her of techniques she's heard of groups like the Maquis and the Bajoran Resistance using to evade detection. Based on the scans, she thinks the ship they are hunting is hiding in the system's cometary halo.

Capt. Mitchell has Lt. Cmdr. Ahn'Kress open a channel and he broadcasts a message identifying himself and the Melbourne and indicating they know where the ship is hiding and they do not mean any harm. The ship emerges from its hiding place and responds to the hail, with a Bajoran man appearing on the screen. He identifies himself as Torom Vahr, and immediately takes note of Cmdr. Partav on the Melbourne's bridge, asking if that is a Cardassian sitting next to Capt. Mitchell. Cmdr. Partav informs him that he is half-Bajoran and then switches to speaking in Bajoran, reiterating that the Melbourne simply wishes to provide some assistance. While Partav is talking, Capt. Mitchell has Lt. Cmdr. Tir quietly perform a security scan on the vessel, noting they have phaser banks as well as a pair of Peregrine-class attack fighters, pointing again to a Maquis or Bajoran Resistance link. The latter seems more likely, as the scan also indicates that all thirty life signs on the vessel are Bajoran.

Capt. Mitchell steps back into the conversation, inviting Torom and his crew to come over to the Melbourne for some food and refreshment. After some discussion, including Torom conversing with someone who is not visible on the screen, they agree to beam over to the Melbourne to meet before ending the call. Capt. Mitchell immediately contacts Lizig to ask him to prepare a meal and then tells Ahn'Kress to get a repair team ready, anticipating being able to convince the Bajorans to allow the Melbourne to help them perform some repairs.

When the Bajorans beam over their party consists of Torom Vahr, two women named Otho Tika and Kota Aira, and two other men named Esa Andaru and Ratha Lon. Ratha Lon is the most interesting as he is older than the others and is dressed in the trappings of a Ranjen, a member of the Bajoran clergy ranking just below a Vedek and to whom the others seem to defer. Capt. Mitchell welcomes them aboard the Melbourne, but the Ranjen seems to be more interested in Cmdr. Partav, who is also present in the transporter room. The Ranjen echoes Torom's earlier surprise at seeing a Cardassian, but then says he sees the truth and proceeds to read Partav's pagh. Afterwards the Ranjen says that while he may outwardly appear Cardassian, Partav's pagh is Bajoran.

The visitors are given a chance to clean up before being taken to one of the conference rooms that had been modified as a dining area when the ship was carrying a Federation ambassador. Capt. Mitchell, Cmdr. Partav, and Lt. Cmdr. Tir join the Bajorans there and the dinner prepared by Lizig is served. Capt. Mitchell uses his Deltan empathic abilities to get a read on the Bajorans, noting how the others seem to venerate the Ranjen. The Bajorans reveal that they have been traveling for a decade, having left Bajor a little over a year after the Cardassian withdrawal and the discovery of the wormhole. They claim to be on a pilgrimage to the Celestial Temple, but have chosen to go the long way, traveling to the Gamma Quadrant end of the wormhole rather than traverse it from the Alpha Quadrant side at Deep Space Nine. When questioned about the reasons why, the Ranjen indicates it is an act of faith and understands that most of them will not live long enough to see the end.

Cmdr. Partav proceeds to fill the Bajorans in on what has happened on Bajor since their absence. He puts special focus on the events that factor heavily on the Bajoran faith, noting the rise and fall of Kai Winn, the return of the Pah-wraiths, and the sacrifice of the Emissary (Starfleet Captain Benjamin Sisko) to defeat the wraiths. Partav is especially curious to see their reactions to the news, suspicious that they may be a radical sect or perhaps even secretly Pah-wraith worshippers. From what he can tell however, backed up by Capt. Mitchell's empathic readings, is that these are devoted worshippers of the Prophets; the Ranjen noting his pleasure that Bajor has weathered such trials and emerged stronger.

The conversation turns to the Bajorans and their ship. Capt. Mitchell notes that their scans indicated that the Bajoran's warp core and power reactors are starting to leak radiation and he can have engineering teams from the Melbourne sent over to help with repairs. The Bajorans seem reluctant, though it is not clear why. Capt. Mitchell argues that it is likely that in its current condition the ship will not make it anywhere near the Gamma Quadrant, and that they have no intention of stopping the pilgrim's from continuing on their journey, they just want to help. The Ranjen seems convinced, and notes that Esa Andaru is their engineer and can provide some details on their needs. After dinner is done, the Ranjen thanks Capt. Mitchell and the others for their hospitality and the offer of assistance before declining a suggestion that they stay aboard a little longer, indicating that they need to beam back to their ship and prepare for the Melbourne's engineering team.

While they await word from the Bajorans to beam over, Partav checks with Ahn'Kress. In addition to the engineers that she has selected, the First Officer decides he'd also like Lt. Cmdr. Tir along for security and Lt. Stuart, who has some familiarity working with older life support equipment thanks to his personal history. Ahn'Kress' team consists of a pair of engine and power systems specialists, Ens. Shryra Theless, an Andorian, and Ens. Eric Chandler, a human. When they receive the signal from the Bajoran ship the six beam over, where they are met by Esa Andaru and Kota Aira who then escort them to the ship's engineering deck.

Lt. Cmdr. Ahn'Kress and the engineers make their initial assessment of the condition of the ship's power and propulsion systems before proceeding to start repairs and upgrades alongside Lt. Stuart. Not needed for any of the work at hand, Lt. Cmdr. Tir takes the opportunity to talk with the Bajorans, attempting to get more information on their pilgrimage and the reasons for it. Cmdr. Partav contents himself with merely observing, choosing to take advantage of the Bajoran crew's hesitancy around him due to his Cardassian features. Between how the Bajorans watch the repair team and how they are responding to Lt. Cmdr. Tir's questions, Partav becomes convinced that they are hiding something. Meanwhile, unknown to the Away Team, a hidden figure is observing them closely from the shadows.

PART TWO

Wanting to make sure there is time to find more information about the Bajoran pilgrims, Cmdr. Partav makes sure the repair team are working slowly, against exaggerated repair times. As part of his efforts to learn more, Partav has some Bajoran spring wine sent over and he takes it to have a conversation with Torom Vahr. The discussion covers Bajoran philosophy and religion as Partav attempts to get a better understanding of the Pilgrims' motives. It becomes clear that Torom and the others defer to the Ranjen and are fanatically devoted to him and his belief in the Prophets and in their pilgrimage.

In the freighter's engineering section, Ahn'kress and the repair team have made substantial progress on the repair and refurbishment of the reactor, power and propulsion systems but, per Cmdr. Partav's orders, conceal the extent of their work. Lt. Cmdr. Tir tries to engage the Bajoran engineer, Andoru, in conversation, probing for more information. She comes close to arousing suspicion with the nature of her questions, but manages to deflect by getting Andoru back on the ultimate goal of the pilgrimage. He responds simple that it is their deliverance, providing no more details and ending the conversation.

On board the Melbourne they receive a transmission from Deep Space 9, the Bajoran government's response to their inquiry into the identities of the crew of the freighter. The data confirms that the Bajorans seem to be who they claim to be, but the additional details are enlightening. During the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor, the Ranjen Ratha Lon was the spiritual leader for the Toravahr Resistance Cell. This cell had a reputation as one of the most fanatical, engaging in acts like suicide bombings against Cardassian targets. After the end of the Occupation, Ratha Lon continued his devotion to his interpretation of the will of the Prophets. After the discovery of the Bajoran Wormhole he believed it meant the true deliverance of the Bajoran people and campaigned for the entire populace to be transported inside to join the Prophets in the Celestial Temple. He gained a few followers, mostly from among the former members of his resistance cell, and the Vedek Assembly began to consider him a threat, branding his claims as heresy and preparing to have him Attainted (the equivalent of excommunication in the Bajoran faith).

Official Bajoran records claim that Ratha Lon and his followers were killed during the Circle incident when the "Alliance for Global Unity" under Minister Jara Essa led a failed coup attempt against the Bajoran Provisional Government, and before the ascension of Winn Adami as Kai. The building where the group were meeting, a monastery that also served as a shelter for war orphans, was vaporized in an explosion, presumably killing them and everyone else. The explosion was believed to be due to weapons from part of the failed coup. It is now apparent that the explosion was simply a cover to allow the Bajorans to fake their deaths and take the freighter, likely one acquired by the resistance cell during the Occupation, to implement the plan to enter the Celestial Temple.

Capt. Mitchell orders Lt. Steck at the Science Station to perform a more detailed scan of the freighter. This scan reveals a half-dozen Cardassian life signs clustered in a shielded section of the vessel below its main engineering decks. Steck further points out to the Captain that based on the images of the Ranjen and his key followers sent from DS9 none of them appear to have aged in the decade since they fled Bajor. Capt. Mitchell sends the information in an encoded transmission to Cmdr. Partav on the freighter, who immediately rejoins the rest of the away team in engineering and uses a PADD to inform Lt. Cmdr. Tir of the situation and requests her tactical assessment. She notes that based on the latest scans the majority of the Bajorans were located in the forward passenger compartment. The Antares-type freighters were modular, capable of operating as fully automated cargo haulers, so the passenger section was capable of separation. If they could eject that then the odds would be more in their favor of taking control of the ship if necessary.

Cmdr. Partav decides that this is the best option and orders Lt. Cmdr. Ahn'Kress to find a way to separate the forward section. She says that it cannot be done from where they are in engineering, but that the controls should be near the attachment point, which is close to where the ship's navigational deflector is located. Since the freighter has been retrofitted with a Klingon deflector, Ahn'Kress says she can trick the deflector into reporting an emergency requiring their immediate attention. Partav gives the go-ahead, saying that when it happens he and Lt. Cmdr. Tir can stay in engineering and deal with any Bajorans there while Ahn'Kress, Lt. Stuart and the two engineers will head forward to the deflector control and attempt to reach the systems to separate the forward passenger section.

On Partav's signal, Ahn'Kress triggers the navigational deflector, causing alarms to sound in engineering. Acting quickly, Partav dispatches the repair team to deal with it, playing up the emergency nature. One of the Bajorans is sent with them, leaving three in engineering for Partav and Tir to deal with, including the ship's engineer Esa Andoru. The plan initially seems to be working, but when the repair team reaches the forward section they find an armed team of Bajorans waiting, informing them that the Ranjen had foreseen their actions. Moments later the freighter jumps to warp speed to try and escape from the USS Melbourne.

On board the Melbourne, the freighter's sudden departure has caught them by surprise, but Capt. Mitchell immediately orders Lt. JG Reydon to pursue the fleeing vessel. Before the >Melbourne can get going, however, it is rocked by an explosion and the power goes out. The initial reports indicate an explosion in the power nacelle pylon that has apparently crippled the internal power grid. The crew can only watch helplessly as the freighter disappears from sensors with the away team still on board.

PART THREE

After security sweeps the area for more explosives, the engineering team under Chief Engineer Elise Tarka enter the section of the port nacelle pylon. The initial examination of the damage does not identify the root cause, but the effect is clear. The explosion happened in the primary EPS conduit, causing a feedback surge that in turn knocked out the entire power distribution grid, leaving the ship on emergency power only. After reporting in to the Captain, Chief Engineer Tarka and her team start the work to bypass the damage and get main power back online, a job that will take several hours.

On the bridge, Lt. Steck searches for a possible external cause for the explosion and the scans come up negative, indicating possible sabotage. Capt. Mitchell sends Lt. JG Reydon down to assist security in searching for the source of the sabotage where he joins security Ens. Garrett. The source of the sabotage is traced to an access panel in a corridor near the diplomatic dining room in the port pylon, the same where the Bajorans had been hosted the day before. With the Bajorans having been scanned for weapons and other dangerous items when they were beamed aboard, the investigation focuses on how a sabotage device could be brought to the ship. Close examination of security scans and footage shows that when they left, several of the Bajorans were wearing fewer pieces of jewelry and other accessories and ornaments than when they'd arrived, pointing to a device smuggled aboard in pieces disguised as innocuous items and assembled quickly in secret before being planted in they key area close to the EPS conduit.

With the ultimate source of the sabotage revealed, the engineering teams are able to verify there are no more similar devices. This allows repair efforts to speed up, and within two hours of the initial explosion Chief Engineer Tarka has managed to restore partial warp power, enough for the >Melbourne to head off in pursuit of the freighter.

On board the freighter, the engineering team of Lt. Cmdr. Ahn'Kress, Lt. Stuart, and Ensigns Theless and Chandler, are disarmed and taken under guard to a cargo lift. A chime from Ahn'Kress' communicator indicates someone trying to contact her, but the Bajoran guards tell her not to respond. Once inside the cargo lift to take the prisoners are being taken to a lower deck, Ahn'Kress notes that the older ship uses manual controls. She is able to use her tail to pull an emergency stop lever, causing the four Bajorans escorting them to momentarily stumble. Using the opening, Ahn'Kress pounces on one of them and Lt. Stuart is able to adjust his holographic arm to be a bludgeon and attacks a second. Another Bajoran, Rabe, stuns Ens. Chandler, but is then attacked by Ens. Theless. Ahn'Kress is then able to take out the final Bajoran after dodging a phaser shot from them.

In engineering, the ship going to warp was the first indication to Partav and Lt. Cmdr. Tir that something was wrong. The next indication was Andoru firing on Partav. The initial shot misses, leading to a firefight between the two Starfleet officers and the three Bajoran militants. With her phaser on wide beam, Tir is able to stun two of the three and, after a brief exchange of fire, Partav is able to stun Andoru. They quickly turn to hampering the Bajorans, knowing the Melbourne will be coming after them. Mera is able to trigger some security protocols to lock down the ship's bridge, trapping anyone there until they can override the system. She and Partav then turn to the warp engines and manage to mess with the matter/antimatter flow enough to cause an imbalance and trigger an emergency shutdown, dropping the freighter from warp.

Partav attempts to contact Lt. Cmdr. Ahn'Kress but receives no reply, so he and Tir start planning their next move. Before they can proceed, however, tricorder scans show another two Bajorans approaching engineering from below, originating from the same direction as the location where the Melbourne's scans had shown a half-dozen Cardassian life signs. Partav and Tir set up an ambush and are able to stun these two as well and then secure all five militants so they won't be able to interfere when the stun wears off. With engineering now secure, Partav dispatches Tir to find the repair team. For their part, once the now-free repair team have secured their captors, Ahn'Kress is able to contact Partav. He orders them to rendezvous with Tir and resume the original plan to separate the forward passenger compartment, where the majority of the remaining Bajorans were.

While waiting for the team to accomplish this, Partav detects two more individuals approaching engineering, and this time the life signs are Cardassian. The two are revealed to be a pair of disheveled-looking teenage boys brandishing metal rods as weapons, fearfully creeping forward. They are taken back when they realize that Partav appears to be Cardassian, and even more shocked when he addresses them in Cardassian. Partav comes to realize that the boys had been war orphans, taken as children when the Ranjen and the Bajorans had left Bajor, and could barely remember how to speak their native language. He also learns how the Cardassian orphans have been used for dangerous and menial labor on the ship, and have been continuously told for the last decade that they must atone for the sins Cardassia committed against Bajor. Partav convinces them that he is not an enemy and is there to help and will keep them safe. He then sends them back to the other Cardassians, telling them to stay below.

At the connection point, the repair team sets about engaging the emergency separation controls to detach the forward passenger section while Lt. Cmdr. Tir keeps watch. As the separation process engages, an infuriated Ranjen arrives with another of the Bajoran militants. The Ranjen is screaming at the Starfleet officers, cursing them for defying the will of the Prophets and saying he will erase them. The Ranjen is carrying some kind of small object in his hands, an object that is glowing with a bright light. Assuming it was a weapon, Tir orders the Ranjen to drop the object and, when he doesn't, she opens fire. The phaser beam strikes the glow, causing an explosion of blue light that engulfs the Ranjen and the militant with him. When the glow fades the two are revealed to have somehow been transformed into babies. With the Ranjen out of the picture, Cmdr. Partav is able to convince Torom Vahr to surrender and the Away Team secures the vessel until the Melbourne is able to catch up with them.

Denouement

After the Melbourne's arrival, the militants are transferred to the ship's brig while the freighter's separated passenger compartment is recovered. The eighteen Bajorans in the compartment are discovered to be teenagers and young adults, all having been orphans at the monastery the Ranjen and his sect had used as their base. When the sect had faked their death with the destruction of the monastery and had taken all the orphans with them. These eighteen Bajorans and the six Cardassians were the survivors of that group, with three Bajoran orphans and four Cardassians having died in the decade since the sect had fled Bajor. Like the Cardassians, the Bajoran orphans had been used for much of the menial labor on the freighter, though not the more dangerous assignments that had been given to the Cardassian orphans. The orphans are taken aboard the Melbourne for medical examination and treatment, followed by extensive sessions with the Ship's Counselor and psychiatric staff to begin undoing the decade or more of indoctrination they had been subjected to under the Ranjen and his militant sect. The now infant Ranjen and the sect member who had also been reduced to a baby were also taken into care in Sick Bay.

A follow-up transmission from Deep Space Nine informs the Melbourne that Starfleet has dispatched one of its fastest ships to bring a group of representatives from the Bajoran government and the Militia to help deal with the radical sect. The transmission also includes additional information that helps answer one of the lingering mysteries of the incident. According to the information, the monastery the group had been based out of was rumored to house a powerful Bajoran relic, an Orb Fragment; in this case a fragment of the Orb of Time. It would appear that the rumors were true and that the Ranjen had taken the Fragment with them and had been using its power to keep himself and the senior leaders of the sect from aging so that they would remain alive for the entire journey to the Gamma Quadrant. The Ranjen had also been able to use the Fragment to gain visions of the near future, allowing he and the militants to predict some of the actions of the Melbourne's crew. A check of the freighter turns up no further trace of the Fragment, indicating that Lt. Cmdr. Tir's phaser shot had destroyed it, releasing the burst of tachyon energy that deaged the Ranjen and the militant sect member.

Once the situation is fully under control and it simply a matter of waiting for the arrival of the Bajoran delegation, Cmdr. Partav takes the opportunity to visit Torom Vahr in the Brig. He tells the former Resistance fighter that he believes much of what he and his fellow militants did during the Occupation was justified, that Cardassians may have deserved it for what they did to Bajor. Partav however follows this up by telling Torom that what he, the Ranjen, and the others did to the orphans was unforgivable and in many ways just as bad as what the Cardassians had done, closing with telling the militant sect member that he makes him sick before turning his back on him and leaving.