Aboard Pioneer

As Pioneer journeys along the edge of Federation space, skirting close to the border with the Romulan Free State, they receive an urgent message from Fleet Command. Republic sources operating inside Free State territory have discovered that a Federation survey ship heading towards the Talvath Cluster has found itself significantly on the wrong side of the border and at the mercy of the Tal Shiar. There it was engaged by a Romulan Warbird, T’Varen, on the grounds of trespassing into controlled territory. 

Whilst attempting to arrest USS Sparrow for the transgression, both vessels have been damaged and are effecting repairs. Whilst the Republic assets cannot directly assist, they have passed a message to Starfleet in the hopes that the vessel can be rescued before the Tal Shiar are able to arrest them formally. Fleet Command has instructed Pioneer to establish the truth and return Sparrow to Federation space as diplomatically as possible.

Whilst the away team discuss their options, several questions weigh heavily on their thoughts;

• Did Sparrow intentionally cross the border?
• How did a Nova–Class Scout disable a Romulan warbird?
• What could the Tal-Shiar hope to gain by arresting the crew and claiming a ship almost 40 years old?
• Why have Starfleet assets not picked up on any distress call? Was one ever sent?

Arrival at the Border

Several hours later, Pioneer arrives at the Free State border and stops short of crossing into Free State territory. The border is monitored by several advanced and well-armed sensor buoys at regular intervals at the edge of a large asteroid field. Within them, they detect the drifting and depowered form of Sparrow near a large asteroid, alongside the looming form of a D’Deirdex-class cruiser. The pair are too far into Free State territory for Pioneer to reasonably be able to move in, retrieve the vessel and withdraw without engaging the warbird and remains outside of transporter range without extensive modifications.

The crew debates several options, including masking their presence from the border stations, attempting to stealth their way closer to Sparrow using the asteroids as cover and brazenly crossing the border. During their considerations, Zereth and Katsu identify that the damage to the warbird appears mostly surface, whilst Sparrow appears to be completely depowered with signs of major hull damage.

Their sensor scans illicit a response from the warbird and Commander Mheven contacts Pioneer, reciting a familiar rhetoric, that Starfleet has crossed the border to spy on the Free State. She warns them not to also cross the border and Sparrow and all its crew are now under arrest. Shaw skillfully manages to convince Mheven to allow a small team from Pioneer to take a shuttle over to the disabled vessel to provide humanitarian aid and to investigate what has occurred. After some tense negotiations, Mheven agrees that the team can shuttle to a rendezvous point where a Romulan team will transfer them the final leg onto Sparrow. Shaw notes that something is amiss with Mheven during their interaction, but can’t put his finger on it.

The team departs on a shuttle, with Pioneer remaining on the Federation side of the border, are met by a Romulan boarding party and are transported to Sparrow. After uncomfortable introductions, the team split into three groups to begin their investigations.

1. Shaw will go with the leader of the Romulan party to the bridge to assess the mission logs,
2. Katsu and Lee will head to sickbay to assist with the wounded,
3. Zereth and Lucas will head to the computer core to attempt to restart the ship’s systems.

Shaw & O’Shan – The Bridge

Shaw joins the Romulan leader O’Shan on the bridge of Sparrow where they meet Lieutenant Commander Alison Lewis, previously the ship’s second officer and now ranking officer after the deaths of the ship’s captain and XO during the attack. O’Shan displays some regret for the number of casualties sustained by Sparrow but maintains the party line that T’Varen used reasonable force to disable the intruding vessel. She drops hints that there is a sensitive Free State location nearby, and the Romulans believe Sparrow to actually be a spy ship due to it’s extensive sensor suites. Shaw and Lewis attempt to dissuade her of this notion, but to no avail.

Lewis reports that during a routine check of the navigation systems during warp travel, the helm officer noticed a disparity between their reported and actual locations. When they tried to adjust their course and return to Federation space, T’Varen decloaked and engaged them. She suggests they were being tracked. O’Shan does not refute this, offering instead that they were monitoring the ship’s movements along the border as is reasonable from a security standpoint.

When Shaw asks to see the navigational data, Lewis reports that the computer core is currently completely locked out on the captain’s last orders, and she activates a nearby console embalzoned with the words ‘Romulan Protocol Activated’.

Lucas & Zereth – Computer Core

Lucas and Zereth journey to Sparrow’s computer core, located near main engineering, with their Romulan escort, Lakia. There, they find three exhausted-looking junior science officers working desperately at a bank of isolinear chips, attempting to bypass the security lockout. The junior officers are initially panicked by the presence of the Romulan Centurion, but Lucas quickly defuses the situation with his signature charm.

Zereth is eager to gain access to the ship’s systems, but when they attempt to use their neural interface, they find all the ship’s systems save life support locked out by the Romulan Protocol. Despite their extensive knowledge of computational infrastructure, Zereth is unable to bypass the lockout and turns to Lucas for assistance.

Lucas attempts to jury-rig a practical re-routing, moving isolinear pathways to make the ship’s core believe certain systems are exempt from the lockout. Whilst he initially appears to be successful, large parts of the main systems remain secured, though he is able to engage some secondary command systems available from engineering. Unfortunately, during the attack, that section was exposed to space, along with much of the engineering staff.

During their discussions, it becomes clear that the Sparrow crew are woefully underskilled to repair the ship. Almost all the engineering staff were lost during the attack, leaving the rest of the crew, most of whom are scientists for the ship’s upcoming survey mission and only hold basic knowledge of the ship’s systems, to attempt to get the ship underway.

The teams share this information, and the question of why the Romulans haven’t simply towed the ship away remains on everyone’s lips. Lucas and Zereth proceed to engineering to assess their options.

Katsu & Lee – Sickbay

During the attack, Sparrow suffered substantial casualties, necessitating the conversion of the ship’s single cargo bay into a makeshift morgue. When Katsu and Lee arrive, they find two crew members undertaking their duties, laying their colleagues to rest in makeshift coffins fashioned from cargo containers. The pair seem confused by the presence of their Romulan escort Kessik, but both are completely detached and Katsu notes they may be overwhelmed to the point of dissociation. They direct them to the nearby sickbay and the ship’s Tellerite CMO, Doctor Mustrang.

The small Sickbay is filled with injured patients, with wounds ranging from small impact injuries to large plasma burns, and several patients are on life support. Mustrang is quick to accept the officer’s aid as she only has a few emergency medics to lend a hand, and adds that the attack came quickly, and completely overwhelmed them. Those who were lost during the decompressions remain isolated outside the ship as they lack the ability to transport them aboard. Kessik seems shocked by the number of injured crewmembers and the extend of suffering, and both Katsu and Lee chastise her when she attempts to reiterate her commander’s belief that the Romualns have done nothing wrong. The centurion barely seems to believe her own statement, and when she shakily suggests that she needs permission from her superiors before Katsu and Lee can render significant aid, both women tell her to politely ‘shove it’.

As the away team begin their efforts to delve further into the truth of the encounter and the mysterious and unofficial ‘Romulan Protocol’, they are filled with more questions than answers. What they haven’t noticed is that there is another figure attempting to break the protocol with very different desires.