Down the Rabbit Hole
| "Down the Rabbit Hole" USS Pacifica NCC-72545 | |
| Mission No. | PAC-21 |
| Total Posts | 137 |
| Start Date | Friday, May 19th, 2006 |
| Finish Date | Saturday, July 22nd, 2006 |
| Story | Daniel Butterworth |
| Guest Star(s) | |
| Previous Mission "Changing of the Guard" | |
| Year 2381 | |
| Next Mission "Pacification" | |
Contents
Introduction
The USS Pacifica joins the Romulan Warbird Levix in the hunt for a Rikan vessel hiding in the Romulan Neutral Zone.
Summary
The USS Pacifica received a distress call from a Federation freighter while visiting the Federation colony on Garis Kinard III. With the Pacifica busy at the colony the Pacifica's new first officer Lieutenant Commander L'Verrem sent the USS Odin piloted by Second Lieutenant Taylor Mitchell along with a small squadron of fighters to respond to the distress call. The Odin and the fighters arrived on the scene to find the freighter had been attacked and was now badly damaged and adrift. Second Lieutenant Mitchell docked the Odin with the freighter and launched an investigation into the attack with the assistance of Lieutenant JG Lindi Kafton and Ensign Tod Offman who had accompained him on the Odin. The runabout crew found only one survivor during their search of the crippled freighter, a young Star Fleet officer by the name of Kirsty Calmwood It didn't take the three officer's long to realise that the frieghter had fallen victim to an attack by the Rikan Pirates. The away team continued their work on the freighter until an explosive device was indentified by Scond Lieutenant Mitchel. The marine quickly ordered an evacuation of the freighter and the team quickly made their escape on the Odin before the freighter was destroyed in the resulting explosion. The crew of the Odin and the fighters then started to make their way back to the Pacifica but not before identifing a unknown warp trail leading into the Romulan Neutral Zone.
Meanwhile back on the Pacifica Lieutenant Commander Mark Kirkwood led an engineering team down to the surface to help the colonists head engineer Melina Cooper structurally reinforce a important construction site of the surface. Lieutenant Commander L'Verrem received a hail from the Odin and was informed of the freighters demise, L'Verrem then went on to bring Commodore Butterworth who had been taking some time off up to speed on the entire situation. Butterworth quickly called for a staff briefing and the Pacifica's senior staff assembled in the main briefing room where they were joined by Mitchell who had just returned with the Odin. The senior staff were quickly brought up to speed on what had happened to the Freighter and Commodore Butterworth made his intentions known that he intended to pursue the Rikan vessel even if it meant crossing into the neutral zone. Lieutenant Cesarian who had been looking over the sensor data collected by the Odin noted that the Rikan vessel had disappeared into the Albanar Nebula nicknamed as The Rabbit Hole which was located right in the middle of the neutral zone. Lieutenant Commander Horne suggested that they should approach the Romulans to help them in the search for the Rikan vessel by contacting Federation Ambassador Keith Kingsley who at the time was involved in high level talks with the Romulan Government and have him to relay the request directly to the Romulan government. Butterworth gave Horne the go ahead to contact the Ambassador as he got the Pacifica underway for the Neutral Zone. The briefing was adjourned and the senior staff retired for the night to get some rest before they arrived at the Neutral Zone in the morning.
Morning came and Commodore Butterworth enjoyed a rare morning breakfast with his fiancé Doctor Morgan before he left for the bridge. Butterworth arrived on the the bridge to find Lieutenant Commander L'Verrem on duty and was informed by him that they still had not received any word from the Romulans. Butterworth was slightly disappointed with the news, but ordered his XO to start making preperations for their cross into the Neutral Zone as they were going to proceed with the search for the pirate vessel. Lieutenant Commander Horne who was on duty down in the USS Pacifica's Diplomatic Wing received a call from Ambassador Kingsley about how the talks were proceeding with the Romulans. Meanwhile back on the bridge the Pacifica received a hail from the Romulan Warbird RNS Levix just as the Pacifica took up a position at the edge of the Neutral Zone. The Pacifica responded to the hail and the bridge crew was introduced to the Levix's Commanding Officer Commander Horek who had been dispatched by the Romulan Senate to assist the Pacifica in it's search for the Rikan vessel in exchange for any intelligence that the Pacifica gathered whilst preforming the search. Commodore Butterworth gratefully accepted the assistance that was being offered by the Romulans and the Pacifica then proceeded into the Neutral Zone to meet the RNS Levix at a set of coordinations inside the rabbit hole.
Lieutenant Commander Horne arrived on the bridge as the Pacifica entered the Neutral Zone and provided the Commodore with a quick summary on how Ambassador Kingsley's talks had went with the Romulans. Butterworth then brought the Chief Diplomatic Officer up to speed on their opening communications with the Levix and L'Verrem suggested to Butterworth that they should offer to exchange crewmembers with the Levix to serve as liasons in the hope to build a small bridge of trust with their Romulan counterparts. Butterworth agreed with his XO's idea and suggested it to Commander Horek after the Pacifica met the Levix at the rendezvous coordinates. Commander Horek agreed with Butterworth's proposal and it was decided to exchange to two officer's each for the duration of the search. Butterworth sent Lieutenant Commander's L'Verrem and Horne across to the Levix in exchange for Sub Commander Tomal Remla and Centurion Petroliv. The two ships quickly made the exchange and got underway with the search using a search pattern that had been suggested by the Romulans.
L'Verrem and Horne quickly settled in aboard the Levix as Counselor Vanessa Baron showed the two Romulan Officers around the Pacifica, both ships seperated as they continued to search the Albanar Nebula for several hours before the Pacifica finally stumbled across the Rikan vessel. Much to the surprise of the bridge the Rikan vessel was badly damaged and had been completely abandoned after striking one of their own mines that they had scattered throughout the nebula. Seizing the opportunity to gather some much needed and vital intelligence on the Rikan Pirates Commodore Butterworth gave Lieutenant Akaris Venn to go ahead to led a team across to the Rikan vessel in an attempt to establish an uplink with the crippled pirate ship ship's computer. While Lieutenant Venn lead his team across to the Rikan Ship Lieutenant Cesarian took the USS Yellowstone out in an attempt to find the ejected escape pods. The Lieutenant was unable to locate any of the pods but instead had a close encounter with a large Rikan vessel that was attempting to leave the nebula. The Levix which was already suffering from damage due to a Rikan mine encountered the large Rikan vessel but was unable to stop it from leaving the nebula and the Levix received more damage in the process.
While the Romulans conducted repairs Lieutenant Venn and his team returned to the Pacifica after establishing the uplink with the Pirate's computer, allowing the Pacifica to download the information from the Rikan databanks. The Pacifica met back up with the Levix after downloading the information from the Rikan vessel and retransmitted all of the data to the Levix. As the liason officers returned to their respective ships Commodore Butterworth passed along his personal thanks and the appreciation of the Federation Council along to Commander Horek for his assistance in the search. The two ships parted company and the Pacifica returned to Federation space.
Other Characters
- Commander Horek - NPC
- Sub Commander Tomal Remla - NPC
- Centurion Tovor Rela - NPC
- Lieutenant Verin Kern - NPC
- Centurion Petroliv - NPC
- Centurion Llaiir - NPC
- Ambassador Keith Kingsley - NPC
- Lieutenant JG Lindi Kafton - NPC
- Ensign Tod Offman - NPC
- Petty Officer Nikola Haider - NPC
- Melina Cooper - NPC
- Ensign Kirsty Calmwood - NPC
- Crewman Lori Mullen - NPC
Noted Ship & Starbase Appearances
Memorable Moments
Out of Character Information
- This was the Pacifica's second encounter with the Romulan Star Empire, it's first encounter with the Romulans occurred back in 2377 during the Pacifica's visit to Starbase 565.
- This mission marked the first appearence of Petty Officer Nikola Haider an NPC character created for the Intelligence Department.
