NEAR BETAZED — After being pulled into a wormhole, the crew of the USS Astraeus finds itself near Betazed just as it is attacked by a Romulan Task Force
Following their encounter with a Romulan Warbird on the other side of a wormhole, the crew of the USS Astraeus, NCC-70652, made a tactical retreat to one of three nearby moons to hide and begin repairs. While they were working, the Science Department began analyzing their situation and determined very early on that Hobus supernova of 2387 had not occurred and the star was still in place, as were the several star systems that had been destroyed by the explosion. Among these was the Romulan system, where it appears the Romulan Star Empire is still fully in power.
As the crew worked, they witnessed a truly horrific event when a vessel of Romulan design but unknown configuration suddenly appeared and fired a thalaron radiation pulse at a major population centre, killing ten thousand and leaving several hundred thousand more casualties. Shocked by these turns of events, the crew managed to get their warp engines restored just in time to escape the dragnet of the Romulans which had begun a search to find them.
The crew made their way to the Arachnid Nebula, and while they traveled, received a response from Starfleet Command to their priority message. The Commodore on the other end of the transmission identified herself as Cmdre.Levinson of Starfleet Intelligence. The Commodore was clearly doubtful of the claims posited by Capt. Mei’konda Delano and First Officer Cmdr. Serala, but did provide some intelligence information to the crew to help them better ascertain their situation. “The risk seems minimal to me,” Delano told the Commodore. “If we are, in fact, attempting to fool you, you’re only giving us information that we already have. If we’re on our side, you’re giving us something we can use to keep ourselves safe behind enemy lines.”
According to the data provided, the Romulan Empire had begun a war with the Federation and had managed to win on all fronts, even carving out pieces of the Cardassian Union and the Klingon Empire. Things appear to be grim for what remains of the Federation. However, Delano and his staff devised a plan to help Starfleet get several ships behind the front lines of the war by investigating and possibly attacking what was reported to be a fuel depot for the Romulans. En route, however, the crew detected a freighter that appeared to be in distress and have moved in to investigate. Delano left his half-Romulan First Officer in charge while he led the away team, citing that the First Officer’s heritage could prove problematic given the current climate of the region, a logic the First Officer was forced to concede.
As always, we are following this story and will bring you more developments as we learn them
Written by Serala
