Life, at what cost: A Star Trek RPG game session

 I finally ran a session of the Modiphius Star Trek Adventures RPG. A short little intro adventure that was inspired by the Intro-adventure in the Starships & Spacemen Rules by Goblinoid Games.

The crew of the USS RAKOTA (a Pioneer Class Ship) have been dispatched to locate, and if needed render aid to the USS ESSEX (a Deadelus class science vessel) that has gone silent while on a standard system survey mission.

Intro: Star Trek theme music plays as we see Captain Jack Roark sit in his command chair and begin a Log entry - and the USS Rakota flies through space.

Cpt. Roark

The crew are busy at their stations and everyone seems a bit tense.

"Captain's Log, stardate 2020.10.8 - The Rakota has been dispatched to the Zeta Herculis system to locate the USS Essex. They are forty-eight hours past due for standard check-in procedures with Starbase Six. My hope is that this is nothing more than an unfortunate technical difficulty, however out here on the frontier nothing is ever that simple."

The Rakota drops out of warp at the edge of the system and begins long range scans. While Captain Roark and First Officer Rodrigo go over what little info they have on the system itself.

The crew is able to determine that the outer most planetoid Zeta VII is giving off severe magnetic interference that makes scanning difficult, however the Essex had already registered this fact and gave information on how to compensate for this. Using this technique they are able to get a good reading and discover no trace of the Essex itself within the star system!

Emile Rodrigo

Emile Rodrigo, First Officer turns to the Captain: "From the last updates the Essex should have been about to start a Class II survey of Zeta IV - a proto-earth planet."

Captain Roark points at the screen. "Zeta IV preliminary data shows an atmosphere not capable of sustaining human life. Zeta V however shows M class but locked in a severe glacial state. If they had to crash-land or abandon ship that seems the most likely candidate." Moving back to his command chair the Captain flicks a button and speaks to the crew over an open intercom.

"All systems Yellow Alert, as of now we are considering this a rescue mission. We have been unable to contact or detect the USS Essex and will assume she and her crew are in dire need of our help. Captain out."

The Rakota then did a complete orbit and deep scan of the planet Zeta V. Upon completion they found no trace of the Essex or her crew there. The ship then turned its attention to Zeta IV, the last known location of the missing ship and this time they found something!

There in a decaying orbit with all but the barest of life-support functioning, the Essex was minutes away from burning up in the atmosphere! The question of using a tractor beam was quickly brought up by the Captain, while scans for life-signs were run and attempts to communicate directly with the Essex were also attempted.

Lt. Rogers, Engineer

"There is no response to hails." said Lt. Sanders.

"I'm getting no life-signs on board either." commented Emile.

At the Engineering console, Lt. Rogers calculated the data he was receiving from scans of the Essex. "At this stage our tractor beam and the gravitational stress would just tear the ship apart. We need to at least get her impulse engines going and we stand a better chance of saving her Sir!"

"Okay then, Rogers your with me. Emile you have the Conn get Dr. T'prel to meet us in transporter room one. We're going to save that ship." Captain Roark and Lt. Rogers enter the turbo-lift.

In the transporter room we see the Captain Roark, Engineer Rogers and a pair of technicians as they prepare to step up on the transporter platform. The doors open and the ship's Vulcan Doctor enters.

"Captain, our scans have shown no life signs aboard the Essex. I find it unlikely the entire crew is deceased as there are no adverse conditions apparent." 

"Exactly T'Prel, something is off over there and I want to know what." Roark looks over the away team and turns to the transporter operator. "Put us in the engineering room of the Essex, Energize!"

"Aye Sir, coordinates set. Energizing!"

[ COMMERCIAL BREAK ]

The away team materializes in the engine room of the Essex. Rogers and his men get to work immediately. Roark looks about and notices that everything seems in place and there is no damage or sign of a boarding action. The Doctor has unslung her tricorder and finishes a scan, her eyebrow cocked she turns to the Captain.

"As I suspected, we are the only five life-signs registering. Although the life-support systems are below general safety standards we will not be adversely affected."

"Any biological anomalies?" asks Roark.

T'Prel, Doctor

"None that our scans are aware of. If there is something unique to the Zeta Herculis system itself we may as yet be unaware of it, however I calculate we are 99.9901% safe for now aboard the Essex." 

Smiling at the Vulcan Doctor, Captain Roark turns to see how Rogers and the men are doing. " I like those odds Doctor. Rogers, how are we doing?"

"The ship has been shut down-systematically. I can get us impulse power but you need to get to the Conn to get us out of this decaying orbit." replied Rogers as he moved about the engine room from console to console.

Turning towards the engine room door Captain Roark motions for T'Prel to follow him. "Alright Rogers, the Doctor and I will head to the Bridge. I want you three to seal yourselves in here and stay in touch, communicators only."

 As the Captain and the Doctor made their way along the deserted halls of the ship, emergency

lighting would flicker from red back to standard. 

"Look at Rogers illuminating our path." Roark thought to himself as he kept an eye peeled for the turbolift. "Our ride should be just up here T'Prel... Doctor?" Roark realized suddenly that the vulcan physician was about fifteen feet behind him looking into a jeffries alcove. The Captain drew his phaser and cautiously retraced his steps back towards his crewmate. "T'Prel, what is it?" he whispered urgently.  As he approached T'Prel he noticed that she was standing stock-still, as if she was frozen in mid-stride. Her gaze was locked in the direction of the red lit alcove. Reaching out he touched her shoulder and queried, "Doctor, are you alright?"

T'Prel snapped back into motion at Roark's physical contact. "Captain, I thought... no I felt...something." Roark was surprised to see the look of uncertainty flash across the vulcan's face before it was quickly masked with a stoic look. 

"Scan again for life-forms, I have a feeling we're not alone on this ship." He turned and scanned the length of the hall, phaser at the ready and motioned her again to follow him towards their original destination.

As the turbolift doors closed behind them T'Prel snapped her tricorder shut, "As I noted before. There are only five life-forms actively registering aboard this ship."

"We'll see about that. Bridge!" The soft hum filled the lift as the pair began their ascent to the command section of the ship. "Doctor, you were frozen in sort of a paralytic state until I touched you. What did you see, or say you felt?" Roark looked at his chief medical officer.

Her brow furrowed slightly, "I have no recollection of being frozen, as you say. As we were heading along the corridor I had the sensation of someone being in the alcove. I glanced in that direction and saw nothing then you asked me what was happening. There was no time loss from my point of view."

"Hmm, some type of phased time-displasia? Something we should keep an eye on. Maybe this is symptomatic of whatever happened to the Essex crew." Roark holstered his phaser and drew his communicator. The gold lid opened as he flicked his wrist and the lift doors swished opened revealing a dimly lit bridge. "Rogers, we're on the bridge. What do have for me?"

Essex Bridge

The lighting flickered and the bridge came to life as power surged back through the circuits, Roark pointed the Doctor towards the Science station, "Find out what they were up to last, and start a data transfer to the Rakota. I'm going to review the Captain's logs." As the Doctor started the transfer Roark pulled out the last data tape and slipped it into the reader on the command chair. A flick of another switch and he was able to bring up a transcript of the dictated log on the main view screen, and he quickly scanned this. The Engineer's voice chirped from the communicator, "Captain, you should have helm control momentarily."

"Good work Rogers." Roark palmed the communicator and swiveled the command chair towards T'Prel. The last entries are referring to anomalies with Zeta IV and a few crew members having Blank-out spells." 

The Doctor leaned in closer reading data from the station screens. "It seems that the preliminary Bolian data on Zeta IV was not matching up with the survey data the Essex was getting. The planet below is not a Proto-earth, but a severely radiated wasteland. Captain it would appear that Zeta Herculi IV suffered a cataclysmic scale atomic bombardment over two thousand years ago." 

Roark moved over and scanned the data being transferred to the Rakota. "Why would someone have changed this information.." The captain pondered, "Is there anything here about the crew issues?"

T'Prel flicked a switch. "No, we would need to go to Medical for any hard information on that subject."

[ For a mili-second Roark thought he saw, or felt something..]

The communicator beeped urgently in his hand! "Captain, captain do you copy? Impulse is restored try the helm now sir!" Rogers sounded a bit frustrated. Roark sat in the single chair at the conn station, it had been awhile since he had logged some flight time and would need to correct that. He quickly plotted a course and engaged the drive. The Essex shuddered against the pull of the planet below and began to slowly climb out of the decaying orbit. The comm station of the Essex lit up and the voice of Lt. Sanders could be heard. "Essex this is the Rakota do you copy?"

T'Prel shifted comms to the science station and responded. "Rakota, this is Doctor T'Prel we hear you."

The voice of the First Officer then came over the link - "Jack, just a few thousand kilometers more and we can aid you with the tractor beam."

A few minutes later the Essex was settling into a safe orbit paralleled with the Rakota. "Emile, I want a thorough review of all the data we sent you on Zeta IV and start a life-form scan of the planet as well I have a hunch our missing people are down there somewhere." The captain looked at T'Prel, "Doctor, I think it's time we visited medical."

The pair entered the turbo lift leaving the bridge.

[ COMMERCIAL BREAK ]

The Captain and Doctor entered the sickbay, and T'Prel went straight to the medical computer. "There

should be all the information we need here." She said. "It seems there started to be reports of Blank-outs a couple of hours after they entered orbit."

"But they never beamed down, meaning something from the planet itself began affecting the crew?" Roark pondered aloud.

"Interesting hypothesis Captain, however I need to review the notes further before I can confirm anything." T'Prel began to scan the information for more clues. 

"While you do that, I'm going to have a look around. I have a suspicion we aren't alone." Captain Roark went to look around the rest of Sickbay.

Stepping into the recovery ward he found only empty beds, the sensation of being watched was overwhelming and he reached his phaser....

"Beep, beep.." the communicator at his side chirped!  "Roark here." he intoned as he spun on his heel to return to the exam room.

"Captain, Rodrigo here. We are getting readings that the transporter is being activated. What's going on!"

A cold sensation ran down the Captain's spine when he realized T'Prel was no longer in the Sickbay! "Emile, I need a reading on who is in that transporter room now!" Roark turned and ran out of the medical room heading for the teleporter. 

"Jack, it's a Vulcan life sign only! What is.." 

"Damn!! I'll call you right back!" A quick flick of his wrist and Roark contacted Rogers.

"Rogers here, Captain where have you been?" queried the Engineer.

"Never mind that, all of you meet me in the transporter room! Someone or something has our Doctor!"

Arriving in the transporter room the Captain and his men discovered that T'Prel had beamed to a location deep below the planets surface. Sensors were unable to penetrate the area where the Doctor had gone and Roark figured he had little time to waste. A pair of security guards were quickly sent over from the Rakota to accompany him in his rescue effort.

 The ships pulled back to a safe orbital distance, and prepared to transport any and all survivors from the planet at the moment Captain Roark called in. He hoped his intuition was right and that not only would he locate the missing Doctor, but the crew of the Essex as well in whatever destination he and his landing party were about to enter on the desolate world below.

[ COMMERCIAL BREAK ]

The hum of the transporter faded and was replaced by eerie silence. Wherever they were it had been fashioned by and for humanoids. There was air to breathe and the temperature was comfortable. This reinforced his hunch that the crew of the Essex and Doctor T'Prel were most likely alive!

A quick attempt to contact the Rakota revealed that whatever was preventing scans of this area was also blocking communication. "Set your phasers to stun, and follow me." Commanded the Captian as he ascended the stairs before him. There was only one way to go so the three men delved deeper into the bunker.

Within moments the trio entered a large chamber with half a dozen rectangular raised platforms, upon one rested the inert form of T'Prel! Roark approached cautiously and could see the vulcan seemed to be in state of calm rest. He reached out and touched her shoulder, "Doctor, are you awake?"

Sitting up and instantly alert, the vulcan took in her surroundings quickly. "Captain, we are no longer in the sick bay aboard the Essex," she stated flatly. "I was looking at the viewer and a motion made me look up and now I am here. Extremely odd?"

"A Blank-out no doubt, I think it might be visually stimulated. But by what I'm not sure." motioning her towards a door that exited the chamber the party started to move in that direction.

"A likely hypothesis Captain, determining the trigger would help us avoid any further inconvenience. Perhaps a robot or drone of some kind, as we have registered no other life-forms as of yet." 

That seemed likely to Roark and made sense. He had those sensations of being watched as if there was ... The doorway slid open silently before them and in the now open portal stood a large humanoid form topping some seven feet in height at least! On instinct Roark turned his head away and shut his eyes.

Humanoid (robot)

There was the sensation of a brilliant flash of light or energy. Roark opened his eyes and found that T'Prel and both security men were paralyzed!

"Stay back, we're not here to harm you. We just want our people back." said Roark sternly brandishing his phaser.

The large figure lunged forward grabbing at the Captain! Deftly ducking under his attackers arm Roark moved to the side away from his frozen crew. "I wish to speak with whoever is in charge, do not force me to use this!"

Again, the large humanoid moved towards the Captain and he could tell that it was only trying to subdue him. Rather than antagonize the situation Roark played a hunch and attached his phaser to his belt and allowed himself to be restrained. Which, to his surprise was done quite gently. The Captain was lifted off his feet and carried out of the room and back the way the humanoid had come from. 

 Roark was set down in front of large fluid filled tube. Inside he could see a brain with many wires and other connections floating within. A sort of buzzing robotic toned voice suddenly spoke from the tube itself. "I AM THE ONE IN CHARGE."

"Hello, I am Captain Roark of the Federation Starship Rakota. I would like to request you return my people as well as those you took from the other ship." 

"THIS CANNOT HAPPEN, YOUR BIOLOGICAL MATTER IS NEEDED TO PERPETUATE US." Some bubbles floated to the top of the tube.

"I see. What do you mean by that exactly, how can our matter perpetuate you?" Roark kept an eye on the hulking figure standing just to his left. Hands loose in case he needed to draw the phaser.

More bubbles swam to the top of the tube, "YOUR DNA IS 98.8% COMPATIBLE WITH OURS. THE DETERIATION FACTOR IS NEGLIGABLE. YOU WILL PERPETUATE US."

"You want to use our matter to what, clone yourself a body to inhabit?"

"CORRECT, YOU AND YOUR PEOPLE WILL REPLENISH THE DAMAGED STOCK IN OUR BODY BANKS. WE WILL THEN BEGIN THE PROCESS OF REINTERGRATION TO PHYSICAL FORMS."

Roark took a step towards the floating brain, but stopped as the humanoid moved in. "What about him," the Captain motioned towards the hulking figure, "Why can't you inhabit that form?"

"THE ANDROID IS ONLY A TOOL, IT IS NOT TRUE LIFE. WE HAVE BEEN TRAPPED TOO LONG HERE AND THE RADIATIONS OF THE SURFACE HAVE SEEPED THROUGH OUR DEFENSES. WE MUST RESTORE OUR BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY AND LIVE AGAIN AS WE DID BEFORE THE GREAT FIRE."

"The Great Fire?" Roark remembered what the scans told them about the surface of the planet. "At some point a few thousand years ago your planet suffered a planetary bombardment that irradiated the surface, your people were driven underground to survive?"

"CORRECT, WE PLACED THOSE WHO SURVIVED INTO STASIS WITH THE INTENT OF WAITING OUT THE DEVASTATION. OUR CALCULATIONS WERE INCORRECT, OUR STRUCTURES WERE NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO OUTLAST THE RADIATION. OUT PHYSICAL FORMS WERE IRREPARIBLY DAMAGED, BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY WAS DECAYING AT A RAPID RATE."

"So you removed your brains from your dying bodies?"

"CORRECT, THOUGH MANY MORE OF US WERE LOST IN THE PROCCESS. OUR LIMITED RESOURCES WERE ABLE TO PROLONG THE STASIS OF JUST THE BRAIN MUCH LONGER AND AT A GREATER PROTECTION LEVEL. UNTIL SUCH TIME AS WE COULD FIND ANOTHER SOLUTION. ANOTHER WAY TO LIVE AGAIN...."

"My people can help you, we have broad knowledge in medical and radiation sciences. You don't need to do this."

"WE MUST LIVE AGAIN, IT HAS BEEN TOO LONG. TIME IS SHORT AND WE CANNOT LOSE THIS CHANCE. YOU AND YOUR PEOPLE WILL REPLENISH US. "

"I'll destroy this place and everyone in it before I let you do that." Roark stared intently at the Humanoid.

"YOU CANNOT DO THAT, YOU DO NOT POSSESS SUCH POWER."

"I do not personally, but my Ship does. If they do not hear from me in a few minutes, they will determine that my party and I have been eliminated. My crew will turn away from this world and deem it unsuitable leaving what little you have left to perish."

"YOUR SHIP IS OUTSIDE OF OUR ORBITAL INFLUENCE. WE CANNOT SEND A DRONE TO STOP YOUR CREW. WE MUST LIVE, WE MUST CONTINUE."

"Then let us help you!" Roark intoned, hands outstretched, "At what cost is life? To destroy us so you may live, would that be a life worth living? Knowing you willfully took that from another for yourself. And how long before you begin to sicken again from the radiation?"

"WE MUST CONTINUE, THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE."

"The alternative lies in cooperation. You've been alone for so long, your hope fading. In your desperation don't destroy this chance you've been given, let us help you."

 [ Later on the Bridge of the Rakota. ]

 

First Officer Rodrigo stands next to a seated Jack Roark. "Jack they might've really turned you into DNA soup. You took a big chance!"

"That's why we're out here Emile. To take the big chances, face the unknowable, and hopefully make a difference."

The turbo-lift doors open and the vulcan physician emerges. 

"The crew of the Essex will be staying on Zeta Herculi IV until a Federation Medical ship arrives. The remaining Zetans will survive as our remedies for the radiation levels they have can be cured." She steps down and stands alongside the captains chair.

"What about their physical forms?" asks Roark.

"Given time, their DNA banks can be de-radiated and the procedures reversed. I approximate the Zetans will be back in their bodies within a decade."

Looking at Emile, Roark smiles "I'll take that as a win Rodrigo!"

THE END