Captain's log

Posted on Saturday September 17th, 2016 @ 2:19pm by Captain Dimitriy (Dima) Miller
Edited on on Wednesday February 15th, 2017 @ 7:42pm

Mission: Episode Two: Northern Crown in Winter
Location: Lambda Coronae Borealis system
Timeline: Stardate 93942.12

Our first deep space encounter was supposed to be of a scientific nature.
Starfleet's Science division requested that the Cychreides would make a detour through the Lambda Coronae Borealis system to gather some spectrometric and seismic readings.
The system is somewhat of the beaten track but it seemed that several cosmological events were unexpectedly taking effect there and Starfleet wanted to assess the preliminary data before dispatching a dedicated expedition.
According to the information collected by long range sensors, one of the stars in this binary system was cooling and in turn was changing the one planet orbiting in from class E to class F.

Approaching the system, I've instructed crewman Ellfor to do the job, assisted by Mr. Visone and Lieutenant Essex. It was decided with Commander Zus that the crewman will be trained as a science bridge officer and it would be an appropriate first job for our newly made Second Officer.
Our initial scans of the planet showed an anomaly in the Seismic readings - high frequency tremors at the boundary of the Molten-Solidifying areas, so I've decided to drop out of warp and perform a more detailed scan of the surface. Starfleet Science would appreciate it.
As we entered the planet's orbit, our geothermal scans on the surface of the molten area showed a strange pattern in the vapor emissions, as if they have a certain frequency.
Crewman Ellfor analysis showed it is some kind of an inter-terrestrial communications and therefore the planet is inhabited. That is part of the reason we've decided to train her as a bridge officer, as she is invaluable during first contact with alien species and civilizations.

Realizing that these unknown species are dying and on the verge of extinction due to the cooling of their molten habitat, I've decided to scan the star for the reason of this change. This information would be used by the Science division to do what they could under the Prime Directive.
But scans of the star's core showed a device that is interfering with its nuclear fusion process and thus cooling it.
While retrieving it we came under fire from three Ferengi marauders that were hidden in the star's corona.
After disabling them we've found out that they were trying to create a source of ore mining on the planet, but needed it to cool and turn solid first.

We are waiting for a dispatch of Starfleet and Ferengi ships from Ferenginar to take the culprits of our hands. I am certain that now the system would attract many exobiologists and scientific expeditions, so the fate of these newly discovered life-forms should be safe.

I consider it a first and fitting step in our new mission.