Shattering Diplomacy

"Shattering Diplomacy" USS Pacifica NCC-72545
Mission No.	PAC-12
Total Posts	200
Start Date	Saturday, November 29th, 2003
Finish Date	Sunday, May 2nd, 2004
Story	Daniel Butterworth
Guest Star(s)

Previous Mission "Departure"

Year 2379-2380

Next Mission "Excursions"

Introduction

The Pacifica is dispatched to the Archerian System to render medical aid and to investigate a number of unexplained crippling Earthquakes.

Summary

the pacifica received orders from starfleet command to respond to a distress call from the archerians who were in the process of negotiating membership into the federation at the time and were suffering from almost two weeks of u8e28098unexplainedu8e28099 earthquakes doctor connie morgan and lt james harris were assigned to uncover any information about the archerians whilst the pacifica dropped off the marines on another planet for training simulations before changing course for archerian iv the doctor and harris discovered that the archerians were a breakaway colony who had distanced themselves from all major powers within the quadrant after abandoning the federation almost a century beforehand however for some reason they had changed their minds and were now considering federation membership once again records showed that the federation officials who inspected archerian iv found it to be perfect for expansion which is why it was chosen for colonising to begin with it was also discovered that the recent disturbances had stopped the process of terra-forming archerian v the next planet in the system which was also to be used for colony expansion the pacificau8e28099s first foothold into this mystery was the romulans who had apparently invaded the archerian system during the dominion war as it was ignored by all of the other powers however the romulans were recorded to only have stayed for four days before a federation ship came to the archerianu8e28099s aid during their short u8e28098invasionu8e28099 they were recorded to have attacked several labs all focused on scientific engineering before they left they had set up an outpost which had been abandoned ever since this was to be the pacificau8e28099s first port of call whilst on the way to the troubled planet the crew looked deeper into their records to find out about the planetu8e28099s culture they discovered that archerian iv was inhabited long before the colonies were set up with minor hostilities between the humans and the green-skinned archerians breaking out for a short time before they learned to co-exist whilst the connie morgan doctor and lt james harris harris continued their work on the cultural investigation of the archerians ensign owen banks continued to run over the scans of the planet along with the records supplied by the archerians about the latest earthquakes there was no way of avoiding the truthu8e280a6 the earthquakes were not naturalu8e280a6 upon arriving at archerian iv commodore daniel butterworth ordered lt james harris harris to assemble an away team for an inspection of the romulan outpost which james harris harris had suggested making their first priority whilst harris assembled his team the daniel butterworth commodore responded to the distress call and was hailed by governor thorlack a native archerian leader it did not take long for the governor to invite the commodore down to the planetu8e28099s surface where he could best review the situation whilst also discuss the reapplication for federation membership whilst lt james harris harris lt jg marcus cesarian and lverrem lu8e28099verrem and ensigns banks and richard alexander beamed down to the romulan outpost to begin their work the daniel butterworth commodore doctor connie morgan morgan counsellor vanessa baron and lt akaris venn all beamed down to the surface to meet with the governor in the capitol city james harris harrisu8e28099s team found out that the romulans had collected detailed information on each earthquake and with ensign richard alexander alexanderu8e28099s help at decrypting the romulanu8e28099s computer data they also discovered that the romulans had strategically placed themselves outside of the quakeu8e28099s range quite suspiciously however records showed that towards the end of their invasion quite a severe earthquake hit the outpost it didnu8e28099t add up u8e28093 the romulans may not have been responsible whilst conversing with lt francine hart who was still aboard the pacifica lt james harris harris voiced his disbelief that it was the romulanu8e28099s doing lt francine hart hart revealed that all of the quakes that had hit the outpost occurred after the romulans had left and it seemed that whoever was responsible was trying to hide whatever evidence the outpost held it seemed the person responsible was still as determined as another quake struck the outpost with the away team still inside fortunately the outpost seemed designed to survive such quakes and nobody was harmed upon arriving on the surface the daniel butterworth commodoreu8e28099s away team was greeted by governor thorlack and the archerianu8e28099s chief scientists rou8e28099chor and tiu8e28099kin treated well by the gracious archerians the team were invited to join them for a meal but before the invitation could be accepted lt akaris venn venn was called back to the pacifica on personal business the daniel butterworth commodore then received a call from lt james harris harrisu8e28099s team had finally proved the romulanu8e28099s innocence however they had also uncovered another mystery u8e28093 there was one lab amongst those that were damaged that was not hit by an earthquake this isolated lab was in fact attacked by the romulans and was the reason original the distress call went out to the federation it seemed that the romulans were investigating these unexplained quakes whilst they were on the planet and got very close to uncovering the truth now whoever was responsible wanted to cover up whatever the romulans had found by destroying their outpost constrained by diplomatic strings the daniel butterworth commodore could not allow the away team to investigate this other lab until he had received permission from the governor and outpost away team returned to the ship after a few hours of getting to know the archerian committee the daniel butterworth commodore was shocked to receive word from commander buzz polaris back on the pacificau8e280a6 a quake was about to strike the capitol even with a prepared evacuation of the daniel butterworth commodoreu8e28099s away team they were still caught off guard and the quake rocked the city the daniel butterworth commodore was knocked unconscious during the quake by falling debris and once the quake had subsided the connie morgan doctor and the vanessa baron counsellor rushed to his aid requesting a direct beam up to sickbay however when commander buzz polaris polaris gave the order to beam them up the bridge crew were equally as shocked when a report came back u8e28093 the away team had disappeared scanning the surface lt jamesharris harris detected an energy spike in his readings u8e28093 it appeared that the isolated lab gave out some strange signals during the quake which had now ceased determined to get the commodore and the others back buzz polaris polaris ordered james harris harris francine hart hart and lverrem lu8e28099verrem to return to the planet and find the daniel butterworth commodore by investigating this strange lab before they left however they received a disturbing message from the archerians the thorlack governor was dead the doctor and the counsellor found themselves imprisoned in a small cell with no visible door and the commodore unconscious on the floor it seemed that somebody had rerouted their emergency transport and trapped them unable to contact the pacifica all they could do is wait as the three lieutenants scoured the damaged city for their crewmates they soon realised it was a fruitless exercise wherever the away team were they were not in the city any longer and so with few options left they moved on to the lab sadly the second away team was to suffer the same fate as the first and it was not long before they two had been captured and imprisoned in the same cell as the others whilst the commander tried in vain to contact the archerians banks and lt cmdr mark kirkwood soon discovered that there were less than 15 minutes before a powerful quake hit the isolated lab u8e28093 where the away team were last reported to be unknown to the pacificau8e28099s crew both away teams were still there trying various attempts of escape when minister rou8e28099chor demanded the return of the apparently dead governor the commander realised that foul play was afoot and against the bridge officeru8e28099s suggestion assembled his own rescue team in order to get the others back before the quake hit whilst lt venn and the commander searched the trapped away teams were staging their own escape attempt as lt hart managed to squeeze through the cramped service hatch that had been hidden within the cell searching for an escape route that would allow her to return to the ship and inform them of the true culprits lt hart stumbled across another cell containing the fit and active governor thorlack he told her that it was rou8e28099chor who was responsible for capturing them all the two separated as thorlack tried to reach the surface to contact the pacifica whilst hart looked for a way to free the others back up on the ship lt kirkwood had finally worked out how to disable the dampening field around the lab that was preventing transporters and communications from reaching the prisoners with banksu8e28099s help the dampening field was dropped and the trapped away team members were retrieved with the commodore rushed to sickbay the other returned to the bridge tired but determined to solve this mystery lt hart explained that governor thorlack was a victim as well and the rou8e28099chor was part of a radical group of archerians who were against federation membership seconds later reports came in that the lab was destroyed and everyone in it was killed sadly it seemed the only person who remained within the lab was the governor who was truly dead this time it was upon hearing this that the crew finally made sense of the jumbled up clues whoever was responsible for the quakes was trying to set the federation up by making it seem as though the governor was having underhand dealings with the pacifica crew but were all killed due to a freak quake the bridge crew carefully planned their next steps analysing what they knew about rou8e28099chor and the archerians it seemed that rou8e28099chor had miraculously escaped all of the quakes even the one that struck the capitol that had injured the commodore and u8e28098apparentlyu8e28099 killed the governor the first time around it seemed that tiu8e28099kin rou8e28099choru8e28099s co-worker was also killed in this quake leaving rou8e28099chor in the perfect position to take the governoru8e28099s seat it wasnu8e28099t long before the crew realised that rou8e28099chor had only called the federation in to help because he was afraid that the romulans would stop him before he had a chance to act this determined radical needed time to instigate his plan if he was to destroy all of the scientific efforts to improve their technology before the federation came to survey them for membership by having the federation remove the romulan threat and then u8e28098testingu8e28099 the quake technology on the labs rou8e28099choru8e28099s faction were prepared for their next step - moving the quake technology to archerian v where they intended to prevent any terra-forming attempts it seemed that rou8e28099chor and the few extremists that followed him were against the human colonists expanding and bringing more strangers into their native system realising that the archerian natives could not be fully trusted the commander contacted a representative of the human colonists damon brown and requested his help in this matter after convincing him that the pacifica was not responsible for the governoru8e28099s death the commander and lt harris persuaded damon brown to help them prevent any more disasters as the science and engineering crews began working on locating and preparing to dismantle any other labs on both archerian iv and v the commander ordered the ship to take up a position between the two planets in case any archerian ships began to make the final supply run to the labs on archerian v it wasnu8e28099t long before a ship was detected commanded by rou8e28099chor himself not wanting to attack rou8e28099chor directly the pacifica crew tried to reason with the radical and only encouraged him to repel them more more archerian vessels then appeared and demanded that the pacifica allow them to capture rou8e28099chor who was to answer for criminal charges u8e28093 it seemed that damon brownu8e28099s words to the native and colonists of archerian iv had paid off frightened by this show of force rou8e28099choru8e28099s vessel began to flee but was destroyed before going to warp however the pacifica succeeded in beaming the rou8e28099choru8e28099s crew on board and moved them all to the brig with the radicals captured and returned to the makeshift government back on archerian iv the pacifica thanked damon brown for his helped and returned him to the surface the bridge crew discussed the possible future of these two cohabiting races the humans and the archerians and their chances of joining the federation in the near future the commander assured them all that they would not be forgotten and that starfleet had issued a diplomatic party to help settle the problems on both planets however the federation could not interfere u8e28093 these problems needed to be sorted out by archerian peoples the commodore recovered from his injuries and returned to active dutyu8e280a6 with a lot to catch up on special

Other Characters

• Lieutenant Commander Vanessa Baron - Ship's Counselor - USS Pacifica - NPC
• Governor Thorlack - Archerian Governor - NPC
• Deputy Governor Ac'rin - Archerian Deputy Governor - NPC
• Science Minister Ro'chor - Arcerian Minister for Science - NPC
• Damon Brown - Archerian Human Representative - NPC
• Captain Gor'kin - Archerian Starship Commander - NPC
• Ti'kin - Archerian Scientist - NPC
• Perim - Governor Thorlack's Wife - NPC

Noted Ship & Starbase Appearances

• Deep Space 12

Out of Character Information

None.