Across the known galaxy, people are disappearing. Rooms they walked into suddenly empty, beds not slept in, trips unfinished. Sometimes, they vanish before people’s very eyes, active and talking one moment, then gone in a blink. Sometimes, whole starships and their crews have disappeared. No pattern. No explanation.

Starfleet’s investigations have found little. It took days before the most thorough sensor sweep of a missing Federation councilmember’s office found a clue: micro-fluctuations in quantum resonance, decaying fast. But this explained nothing.

Until there was instead an unexpected appearance: a visit to the office of Fleet Admiral Ramar by former Starfleet lieutenant Wesley Crusher, now a powerful interdimensional being – a ‘Traveler.’ The lives of those missing are not the only thing at stake. The entire multiverse is in danger.

The cause remains unclear. What is known is that a wave of subspace-temporal radiation emanated from near the Klingon-Federation border. On its own, it was harmless, but in the vicinity was Starbase 80 – and the interdimensional rift there stabilised in 2382 by the USS Cerritos. The portal has acted as a lens, focusing and amplifying the disruption – and causing these people to go missing. As of now, Starfleet has not identified the cause of this wave.

The missing people are nowhere in the known universe, but somewhere else entirely. These individuals, referred to by Crusher as ‘the Displaced,’ have been plucked from their dimension and scattered across other quantum realities and their timelines. Crusher has furnished the Fourth Fleet with a list of the Displaced, the quantum frequency of the reality in which they are lost, and whatever information on their location he’s gleaned.

Crusher also comes with a warning. The displacement has disturbed the Loom, trans-dimensional entities drawn to paradoxes in time and reality. Whether scavengers feasting on the broken or some natural means of the multiverse’s regulation, the Loom will hunt down the Displaced. They do not kill who they find, but erase them from existence, all memories and records lost as if they had never lived. And, Crusher warns, should the Displaced remain lost for too long, the disruption will become too much for the Loom to bear. At that point, they will erase that reality.

Without finding the Displaced, the Loom will destroy every reality they touch. Including the prime universe.

Starfleet has been approached for three reasons, Crusher explains. The first is that there is no organisation in the multiverse he knows or trusts better to correct this calamity. The second is that the prime reality is the origin point of the displacement, and most individuals have vanished from or to this dimension.

The third is that the Starfleet of the prime universe can help, can travel between realities without unreliable technological aid. The portal at Starbase 80 has been stable since the initial incident, and it allows any Starfleet ship to venture to another reality. Armed with Crusher’s list of the Displaced and how to find them, the journey should scientifically be hardly any more difficult than navigating travel at warp.

Of course, that answers the question of getting to another reality. It does not account for navigating this alternate dimension, finding the Displaced, and bringing them home – before the Loom can destroy them or the entire timeline. Furthermore, Crusher warns that some displacements have not been a one-way trip. Some of the Displaced may have been ‘swapped’ for their doppelgangers, who now find themselves in the prime universe. They, too, must be found and brought home.

The disruption has produced a secondary phenomenon designated by Starfleet Science as ‘quantum ripples.’ Across realities, the thinning boundaries between dimensions have caused individuals to briefly experience other dimensions: to perceive visions and experience memories from lives they have not lived. Most ripples are fleeting and disorienting, while some may be overwhelming, intense, and prolonged. Crusher warns that the Loom may also be drawn to these disturbances.

These are challenges the Fourth Fleet must face for themselves.

Starfleet has issued the following orders:

– To venture through the interdimensional portal at Starbase 80, to find the Displaced and bring them back to the prime reality;

– To cause as little disruption as possible to the reality and timeline itself;

– To evade the Loom, but prevent them from destroying individuals or realities;

– To locate Displaced individuals in the prime reality, and return them to their own dimension.

THE CAMPAIGN

The campaign of Crossroads is a series of independent stories contributing to the greater narrative of the 2026 Fleet Action. Members will write the stories of their ships and crews investigating and responding, and the Intelligence Office will respond to these and advance the campaign’s events.

Any member is welcome to participate in Crossroads. If you have a primary command, you can write the story of your starship and crew venturing through the portal at Starbase 80 or scouring the galaxy to find individuals displaced between realities, and return them home. You can start a Mission on BFMS under this fleet-wide Mission. If you want to write with another member, you can do so! Your ships or characters can work together on missions. BFMS supports this.

THE STORY

This campaign is about people going missing in the multiverse. It is a chance to tell stories about alternate realities, made famous in Star Trek by locations such as the ‘Mirror Universe’ – though Crossroads is not about that specific reality. The default storyline for this campaign is about a Starfleet ship venturing in search of a missing person through the portal at Starbase 80, and into the alternate dimension where they have been lost.

Other dimensions can be whatever you choose or imagine, though here are some guidelines to bear in mind:

– You shouldn’t set stories in the Mirror Universe – but you could visit an alternate reality very similar (just as how the universe of the Confederation in PIC season 2 is like the Mirror Universe, but different)

– Your stories can be set not just in another reality, but another time in that reality – an alternate past, an alternate future. Time travel is not going to the past or future of the prime universe, though it could look as identical to our past as you choose. Or as different!

– Relevant to that, we’re asking people not to tell stories about an alternate World War II. Much as it’s great to depict Nazis getting punched in the face, it’s also very easy to depict historical atrocities insensitively. Likewise, think hard about similar such points in history, and contact the Intelligence Office if you’re not sure. Trek has leaned towards high adventure in its time travel; your Crossroads story should do the same.

– Your characters could show up to, say, an alternate Ancient Rome – and still meet their doppelgangers, even if they’re all conveniently human now. It’s an alternate reality after all!

– Alternate realities must not be other intellectual properties. This is not the time to write a crossover with Star Wars.

Travel to these other dimensions happens via the interdimensional portal at Starbase 80, as depicted in the series finale of Lower Decks. With the information from Wesley Crusher, captains are armed with the quantum frequency of the reality they’re headed to. Starbase 80 can calibrate the portal to the desired destination, and ships merely need to pass through. Note that Wesley Crusher has sought out and explained the situation to FAdm Ramar, who passes on this information to Fourth Fleet captains through the chain of command. Wesley is not showing up to brief your crews, and will not feature in your stories.

Wesley may have provided more information about that reality, or where to find the Displaced individual – but it’s possible he didn’t know. You can decide how much or how little your crew knows leading into the hunt.

THE DISPLACED

Displaced individuals your crew seeks out can be almost anyone:

– One of your main characters or another crewmember;

– The family member or loved one of one of your characters;

– One of your commands – the whole ship and crew, if you like;

– A Task Force asset (consult with your TF staff for permission);

– An important individual, like a major scientist or politician;

– A complete ‘unknown’ civilian.

They must not be:

– Someone else’s character/command, without that member’s permission;

– A canon or fleet canon character, including ‘the Federation President’ or ‘the head of the Talarian Republic’ etc;

– An NPC Starfleet admiral.

How to depict that displacement is up to you. This could be the Displaced arriving in a reality where this dimension’s version of them is ‘already’ present. Or perhaps they have taken their doppelganger’s place, woken up in a different reality and a different life. Their doppelganger may have swapped realities, and now be stranded in the prime. You could write your story focusing not on the rescue mission, but the adventures of the Displaced, trying to survive an alternate dimension until they are saved.

Starfleet have encouraged captains to cause as little disruption to these realities as possible. While edicts like the temporal prime directive do not apply, it is deemed safest for crews to not identify themselves as inter-dimensional travellers unless absolutely necessary. The expectation is for characters to try to be incognito in another reality – but that attempt can fail, up to and including causing chaos in, for example, another reality’s history (perhaps causing the ‘branching point’ for that reality?).

You may, if you wish, write your mission not about venturing to another reality, but hunting down the Displaced in the prime reality. This could range from the lost and confused, to capable – even malevolent! – individuals threatening to cause mayhem closer to home. Those Displaced can simply be, upon apprehension/recovery, ‘delivered’ to Starbase 80; they’ll get them home.

OTHER CHALLENGES

All stories, whether set in the prime or another reality, may depict characters experiencing ‘ripples,’ the secondary consequence of the space between dimensions thinning. This might manifest as visions, memories, hearing voices, recalling conversations never held, vivid dreams, or, at the most extreme end, living brief moments as if fully in another reality before snapping ‘back.’ This can be used to explore characters’ other lives in alternate realities without fully immersing them in those lives – or a story could be about people struggling with the ripples, or the Loom being drawn to them.

The Loom are one of the villains from Prodigy season 2: interdimensional beings drawn to temporal paradoxes – and, for our purposes, dimensional disruption – and seek to ‘rectify’ the incursions through destroying them. Those they touch are erased, not merely physically, but taking with them all memory or record of their existence. The Loom are also willing and able to destroy those they perceive as in their way. The more time goes by and the longer the Displaced are in the wrong reality, the more destructive the Loom will become. Without returning everyone to their home dimension, the Loom will pose a greater and greater threat to the multiverse itself.

A MULTIVERSAL THREAT

Note that, although the multiverse is in danger and scattered individuals from the prime universe have gone missing, for most people, life is normal. They have no knowledge of this dimension-threatening catastrophe; there is merely, maybe, an uptick in missing person reports. This is one of those stories where Starfleet may save the fabric of reality itself – and nobody will know.

Crossroads is a campaign intended to tell stories about alternate dimensions (and time travel) in the Trek tradition. Alternate dimensions tales in Trek are dominated by the Mirror Universe (ENT: In a Mirror, Darkly; TOS: Mirror, Mirror; DIS: Vaulting Ambition; DS9: Crossover), and while members shouldn’t write about that universe, storytelling cues can be taken from such episodes. You can also write ‘practically the same but not actually the same’ alternate universes; think how PIC: Penance depicted the Confederation, very much like the Mirror Universe, but different in a way which supported that story.

Some stories about alternate realities are stranger, ranging from the quirky (Lower Decks: Dos Cerritos) to darker (VOY: Deadlock) to strange (TNG: Parallels). Realities and timelines can be near-identical to the prime, different only in time or minor details (TNG: Time Squared; DS9: Visionary) or be similar, but have deviated more clearly (Star Trek 2009).

Time travel is often used in Trek for stories of high adventure (TNG: Time’s Arrow; VOY: Future’s End) – but not always (DS9: Past Tense). It can also be used for quieter tales about a character’s past or possible future (TNG: Tapestry; TNG: All Good Things; ENT: Twilight; DS9: Children of Time).

In short, this campaign can be used for sweeping adventure into an alternate dimension or history or future, or more intimate stories of a character wrestling with their past or the roads not taken. The way is up to you.

CAMPAIGN TABLE

Like past Fleet Actions Labyrinth and Nightfall, Crossroads will include a Campaign Table. This is a mechanism which presents a selection of tables, sometimes branching, offering different story prompts, developments, and details. Members are invited to roll on those tables – or, if you prefer, simply choose an option! – to sketch out a framework and starting point for your story.

In Crossroads, the Campaign Table can help you develop ideas for the premise of your story, such as who’s gone missing, and the nature of the dimension your crew must venture into. It will also offer ideas for twists and complications, so that when you’re writing the mission, you can still turn to the Campaign Table for a little more spice!

ASSET BRIEFINGS

Fleet Actions The Lost Fleet and We Are the Borg introduced ‘mission briefings:’ full mission premises and even arcs for members to claim. These were effective for both Fleet Actions to help maintain consistency in a warzone (The Lost Fleet) or a mystery/horror tone (We Are the Borg). Crossroads includes its own evolution of these prompts: Asset Briefings.

The Intel Office has written mission briefings linked to specific Task Force assets. These detail an asset in peril – often, but not always, having been Displaced – information on the pertinent alternate reality, and some story prompts to get you started. Crucially, these are starting points, not complete stories; the wider reality, the unfolding events, and the resolution are entirely yours to define.

A few days after this BFMS launch, a form will go live listing available Asset Briefings. Members can claim the briefing for an asset in their own Task Force on a ‘first come, first served’ basis.

There are only a small number of these per Task Force. Unlike in past Fleet Actions, they are not intended as the primary storytelling vehicle for the campaign, but as curated, ready-made concepts for those who want a strong initial premise or a specific kind of story. If you’re looking to explore your own ideas – whether about a particular alternate reality, a Displaced character, or a unique tone – the Campaign Tables remain your primary tool and starting point.

If an asset has a briefing assigned, it should be considered reserved for that story. However, any asset without a briefing remains available for members to request and use in their own missions.

IMPORTANT LINKS:

– Crossroads Campaign Table and Additional Tables (including guidance on how to use them)

– Asset Missions

– Starbase 80 wiki article

– Loom wiki article