Captain's Log; Castles in the Sky

In Star Fleet history, there have always been certain ships that never manage to have what's known as a "Routine Mission." The best known examples are the Enterprises, but there have been others that suffer from the peculiar curse that every mission, no matter how dull or routine it ought to be, will end in some sort of unfortunate adventure or moral dilemma.

I fear that the Aperture may be one of those ships that suffer from the 7 year curse.

At least it's useful to Star Fleet.

Today, while on a routine mapping mission, we heard a medical distress signal. We followed up on that distress signal, and found a colony floating inside of a gas giant. There was a ship outside of the colony, apparently running a blockade and ignoring the distress signal entirely.

Needless to say, I ordered Dr. Z with an away team to gather more information and act as she felt appropriate. She did so, and I am appending her log for the events that occurred on the surface.

While her away team was dealing with the locals on the colony, the USS Aperture came into contact with the blockade ship.

The ship was run by an alien whose species I am unfamiliar with. I believe, based on how events played out, that this individual is part of some larger organization.

When we first approached, he (I believe it was a he) contacted us and made thinly veiled threats that we should leave. Rather than do so, we found a spot between several moon where we could beam the away team to the surface without detection. We then pulled away to a distance that I would have been out of range of Star Fleet sensors.

Lesson Learned: whatever kind of ship this is, they have excellent sensors.

Having discovered us, however, the ship contacted us, warned us off again, made some reference our being the creatures that came through the worm whole, and then... they sat. For a long time.

They were communicating with someone. It is my belief that the captain of that vessel intended to attack us but was, perhaps, waiting for orders. Which was good for us, as we had promised to pick Dr. Z back up in 72 hours.

We must have been the source of some confusion in the ship's superiors. It took hours for them to work out what to do with us. We spent that time trying to scan the enemy ship, and having only spotty luck.

When the other ship got their orders, it must have been to shoot us down. They tried.

Lesson Learned: That class of ship is definitely a war ship, and can outgun the USS Aperture in a straight fight.

Luckily, we didn't try to fight them in a straight fight. I ordered our ship not to return fire unless absolutely necessary, since I still had not heard from Dr. Z and had no desire to enter the Federation into a war without adequate information. Instead, we were forced to work our way back into the solar system and pick up Dr. Z early, after which we left the system as quickly as we could.

Whoever the other ship belonged to, they are remarkable war machines, and I can only hope that, whatever power commands them, that we can reach a peaceful accord with them before we have to see them in battle.