Duration (Real time): 23 July 2003 - 15 January 2004
Duration (Game time): 2391.03.05 - 2391.03.06
Location: USS Solstice/Tollaxana
Synopsis
It began with an archeological mission... The science officers were pleased, of course. Which was to be expected: now they would finally be able to get to work, and do what they always wanted to do: to research! But the brave crew of the USS Solstice found something they didn't expect... When the Captain suddenly started acting in an a-typical way, the crew rushed to find answers as to what happened... Only to find out what they had least expected: they weren't alone on this, what appeared to be, abandoned planet...
The entire senior staff has left the station two weeks ago on the USS Solstice. The Solstice has been sent to the planet Tollaxana in the Tollaxa system, where they will be surveying the entire planet before a team of Federation archaeologists will arrive to study the lost Tollaxan civilisation.
En route to the planet the Solstice was hailed by a shuttle, carrying some new crew members: ACSO Ensign Jeff Jalando, ACSO Ensign Marcus Brannagh, ACEO Ensign Philip Kerris and ACMO Ensign Jessica Truesdale.
Stardate 2391.03.06
Summary by Rob Versteegt
Only two hours after the Solstice had started her mission of mapping the planet Tollaxana, something had been detected among the ruins of what had been one of the larger cities of the planet. Something on the planet was emitting a faint energy signal. Most likely it would be something visitors of the planet had left behind, because none of the earlier missions to the planet had detected anything similar, and the location of the signal had been close to the location of an earlier mission. An away team - Capt Janssens, Lt Ryaanax, Ens Jalando and Ens Ja'al - was sent to the planet to investigate what the signal was.
At first the signal had disappeared but not much later it was detected again. The source of the signal was a strange platform in the middle of a large building. While scanning the platform, Capt Janssens discovered what the platform was used for by accidentally activating the device, transporting him to another platform in a city 260 kilometres away.
A second away team (Cmdr Essar, Ens Murdock and Ens Brannagh) is now on their way to that platform, and hopefully one or both away teams will be able to determine how these platforms work.
On the Solstice Dr Vok was having a musical 'crisis' in sickbay resulting in a complete shutdown of the entire deck, and Couns Mishbano is trying to help Crewman Krewmann who is seeing Pink Bunnies everywhere. A medical team has been sent to assist Lt. Mishbano... and she's going to need it. And maybe, so is the Captain, who was transported 260 kilometers, by an alien transporter, to an area which he didn't recognise. Luckily, the Captain had contacted the Solstice, and beamed back to the location he was before. While studying a wall, the Captain, lt. Ryaanax, and Ens. Ja'al found out it was actually some kind of map. They discovered a symbol on the wall, which indicated the city, in which they were. The symbol looked like an 'H', so the away team named this city "city 'H'".
While trying to figure out some more about this city, Ensign Kerris, who had previously helped Dr.Vok on the Solstice with his musical crisis in sickbay, beamed down, to assist the away team. Ensign Jalando requested Ensign Kerris' help, in figuring out how the alien transporter worked. Together, the 2 ensigns discovered the transporter was running on emergency power only.
Another away team had been beamed down to the planet surface, a few kilometers away from the place the Captain had first been transported to by the alien transporter. As Commander Essar, Ensign Murdock, Ensign Brannagh and a security detail tried to make their way to the alien transportersite, on of the security crewman, crewman Robertson, accidentally activated some sort of defence mechanism, which detonated a grenade. Crewman Robertson was seriously injured, and had to be beamed back to the Solstice, where Dr. Vok, together with Ensign Braff, performed surgery on him.
Since he had been transported back, the Captain started seeing things others didn't, like a man, who called himself "Elkor". Elkor told the Captain he (the captain) didn't want to go, and that he had to find the capital city. Somehow, just after Elkor had said this, the Captain informed Ja'al that he didn't want to leave. Ensign Ja'al contacted the Solstice, and asked for an immediate transport, to sickbay. When they arrived in sickbay, the captain started to calm down. Doctor Vok didn't find anything unusual, except for some high brainactivity.
On the Solstice, crewman Krewmann, who had been seeing pink bunnies, was put in the brig. However, he tricked Ensign Worrell, a security officer, to lower the force field, thereby knocking the brig officer unconscious.
The crewman, still in a straight jacket, escaped from the brig, but fell down, unconscious, in a corridor, not far from the brig. He was later found by Ensign Worrell.
In Engineering, Ensign Bill Janssens called Lt.cmdr Holmes and Ensign Delari down, to let them see that the planet was somehow draining energy from the ship. With the prospect of energy drain, Lt.Cmdr Holmes decided to shut down the transporters for a while. So Commander Essar ordered the away teams to be transported up to the Solstice. There, he and Jalando, who has had a vision, walked to sickbay, to find out how the captain was doing. When they arrived in sickbay, counsellor Mishbano came in. She was ordered by Lt.Cmdr Holmes to have a look at the captain. Everything seemed to be okay... she couldn't find anything wrong with Janssens.
Dr. Vok examined captain Janssens and Ensign Jalando. He concluded the visions both officers have had, don't have anything to do with each other. After that, ACOUNS Arta, a new addition to the crew, held a counseling session with Mr. Jalando.
Meanwhile, with power to deck 3 restored, Ensign Ja'al was busy deciphering the Tollaxanans language. He made some progress with it, but he still wasn't there. Then, when Jalando, after he was declared 'fit to work', came in, and recreated the Tollaxanan landscape in the holodeck, Mr. Ja'al figured out a way to translate the images on the map. He used the holodeck to recreate the Tollaxanan landscape as it would have been about 6000 years ago. The two officers now used the map on this landscape, and thereby, found the capital city!
Captain Janssens and commander Essar both paid a visit to the holodeck, after spending some time on the bridge with CEO Holmes, listening to status reports. When the 2 command officers walked into the holodeck, they found Ja'al and Jalando already had found the capital city. Now, the CO and FO planned the next away mission... They would both come along, as would ensigns Ja'al, Jalando, and Dr. Vok. They would go via shuttlecraft, so that the power drain from the planet wouldn't interfere with the transporters.
As for the escaped prisoner/madman... he's still on the loose. Ensign Worrell was send to retrieve him, but so far, he didn't have any success. He searched every room on the deck, including sickbay, where he smashed up the place. Dr. Vok gave him a tricorder that could pick up the materials the straightjacket the prisoner was wearing. With any luck, the security officer will find this guy in no-time.
Another addition to the crew just arrived. Ensign Ryhlix will be the new AOPS officer for the Pandora crew, and Ensign Ayette Tingle will be the new Head Nurse. After scanning the planet again, the away team, consisting of Captain Janssens, Commander Essar, Ensigns Ja'al, Jalando, Murdock, and Russet, went down to the planet. The away team went down in a shuttlecraft, because transporting would be too great a risk. (there was still some sort of power drain) On the surface, the away team found a cave, with an elevator, which was apparently out of power.
At that moment, the captain started to see Elkor, the entity only the captain could see, again. He told the captain they could power up the elevator. The science ensigns figured out that the elevator and the other equipment on the surface could use the Solstice's sensors as a power supply. That's why the Solstice experienced that power drain. The Captain ordered the Solstice to scan the elevator site, and within a few moments, the elevator was reloaded.
Meanwhile, on the Solstice, XGO Underhill, the new xenologist arrived. He started helping Dr. Vok to clean up sickbay, when another ACMO walked in: ACMO Truesdale. The 3 of them were now going to awake Mr. Robertson, in order to try and cure him of his amnesia...
On the planet Tollaxana, the away team, consisting of Captain Janssens, Commander Essar, Ensigns Ja'al, Jalando, Murdock and Russet, and some security crewmen, went down the cave, using the Tollaxan's elevator. After a ride of about 10 minutes, the party arrived at where they should...
Some lights suddenly went on, and revealed... some 1500 stasis pods. All filled with Tollaxans. The team decided that they wouldn't open those pods, until they knew exactly how, and why these Tollaxans were here in stasis. But not all went as planned. Suddenly, the first stasis pod in the row started to open... revealing an elder Tollaxan. Captain Janssens saw that this Tollaxan was having trouble breathing. So, after some quick thinking, he contacted the Solstice, and let the Tollaxan being beamed to sickbay. After that, the Captain himself beamed back to the Solstice... to see how the Tollaxan was doing... and maybe to get some information of course...
After the Captain had beamed away, the rest of the away team went on, to search for some answers in the cave. But all they found was more mysteries. The 2 science officers found a few murals, displaying an alien race... and one of those murals seemed to be very important: several of those lights were pointed at it. It also seemed to be slandered... it had some sort of paint all over it.
On the Solstice, Doctors Truesdale and Vok, and XGO Underhill had taken crewman Robertson, who had lost his memory, out on a tour through the ship. When they came back to sickbay, they found an alien lying on a biobed: the elderly Tollaxan. He seemed to be having trouble breathing. So Doctors Truesdale and Underhill went to work, and successfully made the Tollaxan breath better. Captain Janssens came to look up on the Tollaxan, who called himself Zertok Li-En. Zertok told the Captain that there were about 10.000 Tollaxans, still in stasis, back on the planet. Luckily, they wouldn't need any medical help, when they would awaken.
The little sickbay was getting even more crowded, when the new Head Nurse Ensign Tingle, reported for duty. At this time, Captain Janssens and Mr. Li-En went to the messhall... Mr. Li-En seemed to be hungry...
The away team, meanwhile, decided it would be better to return to the Solstice. No other Tollaxans were waking up, and all the information that could be collected, was collected. So after another ride with the elevator, and some walking, the away team arrived at the shuttlecraft, in which they went back to the Solstice. When they finally arrived there, ensign Jalando went to study their findings, and Commander Essar and Ensign Ja'al walked to the messhall, where they would find Mr. Li-En.
But Commander Essar was called away, because of a priority one message from starfleet. And when Ja'al finally arrived in the messhall, and started speaking with Li-En, Captain Janssens was called away by commander Essar. Apparently, the two had something important to talk about. Which didn't disturb Ja'al... Mr. Li-En had a lot to tell. Apparently, the Tollaxans had encountered an alien race, the Naimlessians, who at first, acted friendly: sharing technologies, etc. But when their true intentions were made clear, the Tollaxans were powerless to stop them. The Naimlessians wanted a very valuable mineral from Tollaxana, so they started a war... When that war was finally over, the Naimlessians retreated, and poisoned the Tollaxan's atmosphere... forcing the Tollaxans to go into stasis.
Meanwhile, in the Captain's ready room, Commander Essar told Captain Janssens that he would leave soon: his new ship, the USS Atlantis, was waiting for him. Knowing that he would loose his First Officer sooner then was planned, Captain Janssens told Essar he could take the transwarpshuttle, so that the Atlantis wouldn't depart without it's captain...
Again, back in sickbay, while Dr. Vok was talking with Mr. Holmes about the Captain and the Tollaxans, Mr. Robertson escaped sickbay, and ran towards the messhall... luckily, he was found by Dr. Truesdale and she was able to bring Mr. Robertson back to sickbay. Doctor Vok called Mr. Murdock, who was going to talk to Robertson, in private. This was done because both Vok and Truesdale thought this could restore some of Robertson's memory.
While those 2 were talking to each other, Truesdale, Vok, Tingle and Underhill decided to try and learn everything they could about Elkor. It was still unclear for them, who this Elkor was, and why only the Captain could see him. The answer was given to them by Ja'al, who had talked to the Tollaxan Li-En. Ja'al told the 2 Doctors, the Head nurse and the XGO that Elkor was actually a computer program, which was transmitted on the same frequency as the Captain's brainfrequency. That's why only the captain could see him. This also meant that if either the Tollaxans stopped transmitting on that frequency, or if the Captain would be far enough away from the planet, this Elkor wouldn't be bothering him anymore.
Captain Janssens had talked to starfleet about the situation the Tollaxans were in now. He knew the Solstice wasn't able to carry 10.000 or more passengers... or even making sure they are all in good health. So Starfleet agreed to send ships, to assist the Solstice, and the Tollaxans.
About a week later, most of the Tollaxans were now out of stasis, despite the Bauglirium, a rare mineral, which absorbed most of the solar energy. The starfleet ships had helped the Tollaxans with their awakening, and with their adjustment to their planet...
The Solstice had now left Tollaxana. Their work was done... After saying farewell, the Solstice went to warp, back to Pandora station...
