I am currently in hiding from Lieutenant Roh. Whilst he’s a great medic he’s also quite the rules man, keeps insisting I have to rest to have the grafts heal. I’m sure they’d heal faster if they weren’t so damned itchy.
Anyway, continuing from my previous log entry we defeated the beast which almost ended me. Whether it was the Prophets or Roh who spared me from death I do not know, but we pushed on. Shrelia (self-appointed Empress of the incarcerated Andorians) was kind enough to allow us access to the tunnels where the excavations had been occurring.
There appeared to be friction between the Captain and the Chief of Security around the handling and operation of the flamethrower, likely provoked by events earlier in the mission. The best way to break the stalemate was for me to shoulder the weapon again - which was a test of my focus through pain. Those things are heavy and my injury was not happy.
Once into the dig site we were met with a curious conundrum. There was indeed an Iconian Pedestal just down the short hall from where we had previously encountered the powerful shield wall, along with a portal and two Andorian snow beasts. It’s not at all how clear how they managed to enter that chamber but they appeared peaceful and didn’t bother us at all.
The Pedestal had been cut with a phenomenal precision such that the console that should have rested atop it had been entirely removed.
There was nothing to investigate so we ventured through the portal.
It was clear as we stepped through that we were no longer on the planet surface, but we had stepped into a vessel in orbit, seemingly standard Starfleet design but old. The portal disappeared and as we started to explore the ship I was shot at.
Thankfully the flamethrower sublimated the auto-turret that had targeted me. A blow from that thing and I don’t think I’d have been on my feet. I probably should thank Roh at some point, once he stops being so damned bossy.
As we rounded the next corner the self-destruct klaxon sounded, the computer wouldn’t respond to voice command and then the Captain set off running and thankfully avoided being vaporised by another laser turret.
That’s when we met Ezeria Zh’shiahlek. Not content with experimenting on living beings she was now experimenting with Iconian technology and we were seconds from obliteration. Thankfully the Chief’s biological background enabled him to interface with the computer system without being perceived as a threat and the self-destruct was cancelled.
With Ezeria Zh’shiahlek now in our custody and also with the Iconian gateway in our control we were able to drop the interference field and re-establish communications with the ship, unfortunately at that moment so did an Andorian defence force.
Andoria has elected to forfeit it’s Federation membership and go it alone. They at least were diplomatic enough to allow us to leave rather than shoot us from their skies.
However, before we departed (under the guise of gathering our shuttle) we were able to extract all of the Andorian prisoners who had been experimented upon, Ezeria Zh’shiahlek and the Iconian Gateway. I don’t know if the Admiral is expecting us to from this on her desk, but that should keep her occupied for a while, at least.
I’m sure the influx of personnel (criminal or otherwise) will be a point of discussion once we’re back with the Admiral, however we could not leave those people to that fate. Criminal or not they had already suffered so much at the hands of Zh’shiahlek and potentially other players. The parallel of the situation with the ‘prison colonies’ in the history of Bajor was not lost on me and I doubt it was lost on Roh either.
Unfortunately we were unable to get Lieutenant Commander Gh'Zellon’s family off world before we had to depart, but with discretion being the greater part of valour we had to leave, and I only hope we can find a way to get them out.
<coughing/hacking>
Computer, end log::
“Maybe Roh was right, I should rest”