Thread by @ICE_Trance

You are a Lukari captain aboard a non-warp-capable shuttle. Your starship has been destroyed in a spatial anomaly. You...
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You are in a 2-seat sublight shuttle. Nevertheless, the crew is your responsibility. You perform a spherical search pattern for several hours, but find no escape pods or any debris.
On long-range sensors you see an L-class planet, only a day away at full impulse.
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Space is big. Mind-bogglingly so. You may think it’s a long way down to the chemist’s...
You zigzag towards the planet, calling to the void. As you catch up on Cardassian poetry and ponder the elegance of the repetitive epic, you notice the stars are unfamiliar.
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The charts confirm your worries: somehow you have ended up in an uncharted area of space, too far away from any known location to identify.
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You park in a high orbit, finally giving your engines and orbital mechanics a rest. It’s been four days since your ship was destroyed, yet you found no traces of it or the crew on your long-winded way here. Wherever you are, you’re on your own.
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You are a Lukari aboard a shuttle, orbiting a brightly coloured L-class planet. While the surface appears to be scattered with vegetation, your scans show no carbon-based life. Instead you find high concentrations of copper phyllosilicates.
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The mineral formations are oddly regular, despite looking quite fragile. They follow a hexagonal pattern which spans vast distances, larger than any city on Lukari. Understanding the origin and purpose of this network would require a closer look.
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You take the shuttle into the atmosphere and gently guide it towards a safe spot. Guiding is, after all, the only thing you can do as the harsh winds send you into a downwards spiral, performing several ground-scraping loop-de-loops before plummeting into a hole.
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The interior is quite shaken up and the fire suppression system is on fire, but the integrity field has kept the hull in near pristine condition. As you check this, the ground below collapses and traps you inside a cave. Your console lights up with a distress call.
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You are in the 25th century. You have never intentionally started a fire in your entire life, let alone put one out. How the suppression system does it so seamlessly is genuinely pure magic to you, and now you’re faced with the daunting task of figuring it out.
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Trapped inside a cave with a console trying to get your attention, you decide to raise a forcefield around the fire and mark it as SEP in the computer. You shift your attention towards the primary task.
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You head towards the source of the signal. As you delve deeper into the perfectly symmetrical cave system, it grows in amplitude but also diffuses all around you. You feel like you're running in circles.
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With the reverb overwhelming your computer, you stop tracking it and continue your flight on a straight path. You reach a hollowed-out section, several kilometres in diameter. Your console goes silent. In the distance, you see a glimmer of light.
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The light flickers as you approach it. It seems to be reflected from a familiar-looking metal object, mostly buried in the ground. The source of the light is likely to be one of the many tunnels above.
The signal has resumed, originating where you came from.
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You are the captain of the now destroyed L.S.S. Coelho. You land your shuttle next to the object, this time not having to worry about wind-induced litholanding. Walking up to it, you see the end of a Lukari word engraved on its smooth surface. It’s an escape pod.
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Tricorder shows one life sign inside the pod, too faint for the transporter to lock on to. No badge found. There should be a door on the other side, about two metres underground. It’s fairly spacious inside, but it could still be dangerous to cut the hull open.
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You take your piezo-polaron pistols and blast the shit out of the hull. Structural integrity must be off. You finish at a lower setting and clear the debris. Fortunately it‘s empty, except for the rock filling half the space. Still one life sign on the tricorder.
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A tricorder scan shows the rock is composed of the same copper phyllosilicates found on the planet’s surface. The life reading is unclear, but appears to be concentrated on the far side of the pod.
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‘Can you hear me? Is anyone there? Hello?’ You sigh, reconsidering your stupidity. ‘I’m just talking to a rock, amn’t I?’
It shivers in response.
‘You’re right...’
You straighten up, watching the rock tremble.
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‘Oh, excuse my callousness. Greetings, I am Captain Uukaave of the Lukari. We are thrilled by this opportunity to meet and exchange information. I’m sure our people will have a bright future together.’
The rock keeps trembling.
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‘I have been exploring your network for the past few hours, it is most intriguing.’ You look around. ‘My... ship, I lost it to an anomaly. I don’t know how I got here. Apologies if I disturbed you in any way.’
You can sense the rock getting calmer in its trembling.
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‘Do you drink?’ You select a random option on the replicator and a bottle materializes. The rock trills quizzically.
‘Oh well it’s, um...’ You turn the bottle, smell it, then look down its neck. ‘It’s green.’
As you down it, you feel a reassuring mind meld forming.
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‘Pentheor... pleased to meet—severed? The pod? But how did you get—it appeared around... But what—oh thank Kal Dano they are fine! Where—just one? I know we’re similar. Less blue? Spots!’
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You pour another glass for each and free your mind, hoping the thoughts will clarify.
‘Where is—Rock’s offensive? You are one, within—The one with spots, soon she should—Millennia? Naturally... Evil—home... far. lost. alone. not—gone?’
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You fill another glass and drink from the bottle.
‘...feed on minerals. We travel in groups, but your cage trapped us.’
‘...not from this galaxy, are you? Long since we had visitors, how lovely to see someone so alien!’
You see a figure entering the pod.
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You lift your head off the floor and try to clear your throat. ‘Greets, I’m... mwhh... wh-what can I do you for?’
‘With all due respect, Captain, why are you drinking my Aldebaran whiskey?’ You recognize this as the voice of your science officer, Caoilfhionn Afhm.
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‘Commander! How lovely to see you again! Here, a toast! To another successful first contact. Oh but how rude of me, these are the Penthor. Pentheor, this is—’
‘We’ve met.’ she says, trying to stop you from flailing your arms across the floor and preparing a hypo.
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‘You have! ...since when d’you do peletaphy? And what’re’ye doing with that thing?’
‘I’m giving you some inaprovaline to counteract the effects of alcohol. Tell me, have you ever met a Betazoid? Did you have to be intoxicated for telepathy to work?’
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‘Is that why the asmassabdor gave us champagne when we entered the Federvation? I should’ve known there was something sketchy about that kolrak.’
She chuckles. ‘You know these drinks don’t go well with you. Better stick to the standard menu. Alright, hold still.’
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‘Why can it make this anyway?’
‘You don’t tell Starfleet about my tweaks, and I’ll keep hush about your little adventure. Deal?’
‘Doubt that’ll come up. The marble mentioned another galaxy.’
‘We’re still here, you know.’
‘Excuse my captain, they’re quite boozy.’
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You struggle to stand up, covering your grunt by pretending you meant to say your commander’s name. ‘Afhm, transfer all data to my shuttle.’ You gesture at the Pentheor to scoot over so you can start emptying the supply container.
‘So what’s the plan, Captain?’
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‘I want to take a better look at the surface.’
The Pentheor quickly consume what rock’s in the way.
‘Impressive.’
‘Perhaps we could help? Always wanted to know what lies in the beyond.’
‘You’ve never seen your sky?’ Caoilfhionn asks.
‘Few can make it that far out.’
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‘It seems you can travel fairly quickly, what’s stopping you from heading up?’
‘Up?’
‘You know...’ You look above.
‘Oh, but how deceiving your eyes must be. The network is vast and leds many false ways. Even if we knew where to go, we can only carve so much.’
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‘Carve? Would you like a trail of pebbles to the shuttle?’
‘We can follow your ringer, it is only a week away.’
‘For a few metres?’
‘For you it may be just a few, but for us it is billions of molecules away.’
‘Right. We’ll just use the transporter. Commander,’
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You start updating the cargo logs on your PADD and enter the tiny transporter at the back of your shuttle.
‘Captain.’
Your view jolts up as your body stiffens. ‘Chief.’ you say baffled. ‘How did... Right, of course you were here.’
‘Is everything alright Captain?’
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You hesitate for a bit. ‘Yes. Yes, we... lost the Coelho and its crew, we might be in another galaxy, and we established first contact with some kind of bacteria. Transport our guests to these coordinates.’
‘I-I-I... I was asking about y-your balance, b-b-wh...’
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‘Chief...’ You rest your elbow on his shoulder and gesticulate aimlessly. ‘Vril, you always said you wanted to serve on an exploratory vessel, right? Well here we are, the first to wander into a whole new world, and we already encountered intelligent lifeforms!’
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‘So come on, let’s not leave them waiting.’
‘I... Aye Captain.’ He beams the Pentheor over to the main room.
‘Hey Kav, why are you tracking your own distress signal?’ you hear Caoilfhionn shouting. ‘And what’s with that forcefield?’
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‘Carry on, Chief.’ You pass the melted console while disabling the signal.
‘Who were you talking to?’ Afhm asks. ‘Chief! Didn’t see you coming.’
‘I’ve been here all week. You said to wait in case anyone needed emergency beamout.’
‘Oh that’s right! Carry on, Qott.’
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‘Either of you know what happened after the Borg attacked?’
‘The Cooperative sphere?’ Qott asks surprised.
‘I've been thinking about it,‘ Afhm replies, ‘but I'm still not sure why they’d turn hostile. A glitch in their system, I assume, or a virus of some kind.’
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‘Maybe the Voth are trying to stop us from catching up to their tech?’ Qott suggests.
‘I don’t think they could get us all the way here,’ you reply.
‘Unless...’ Afhm enters some numbers into a PADD. ‘If we could replicate warping away together with the Borg...’
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‘If only we still had the Coelho,’ you say.
‘There should be a backup of all scan logs on this shuttle.’ Qott offers.
‘Oh you beautiful bastard.’ Afhm rushes to a console. ‘Chief, how soon can I have a simulation from this data?’
‘Two hours, maybe?’
‘Get on it.’
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You are Lieutenant Toval, a Cardassian Starfleet officer in command of the LSS Coelho, a short-range science vessel. The ship is badly damaged, running on minimal power with a skeleton crew. You’ve been drifting through deep space for weeks.

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A small unidentified vessel has dropped out of warp and is approaching on an impact course at high speed, not responding to hails. This is your first encounter since the accident, and possibly your only chance of survival.

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Despite Chief Engineer Amber’s protests, you route what’s left of your engines through the RCS thrusters and push them beyond their limit. Still, the other vessel adjusts its course faster than you can.
The warning microcharges in the ops console go off.

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‘Damn these Starfleet systems,’ Ensign Cajaaro mutters. ‘I’m detecting a high energy buildup within their vessel, ma’am.’
‘They’re firing some sort of wide superheated methane beam.’ SubLt. Kihal takes over tactical. ‘No damage. It appears to be very short range.’