DENALI STATION — Double jeopardy for the Denali crew as incidents on the ring and aboard the USS Juneau split the crew and put them all at risk.
After crash landing their shuttle aboard a powerless USS Juneau, the away team continued to search for the ship’s crew and a way to restore power before the remaining oxygen was depleted. As the temperature aboard began to plummet, Lieutenant Commander Falt led a small team to Engineering to set up a command post, sending Lieutenant Commander Kendrick, Lieutenant Drex, and Ensign Harford on a mission to locate the missing crew.
With no gravity or lights, Falt, Marine Warrant Officer Kingsley, and Lieutenant Sanchez—the only Juneau crewmember they’d encountered—connected a portable power generator to the computer core to learn more about the ship’s condition. Instead, they discovered a cryptic message left by Sanchez herself, which she had no memory of recording. Upon hearing the message, Sanchez became increasingly erratic and ultimately had to be stunned by Lieutenant Commander Falt when she refused an order to step away from the computer core. Once she fell unconscious, an alien creature in the form of a glowing blue worm emerged from her body and lunged at Falt, who managed to subdue it in time.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Commander Kendrick, Lieutenant Drex, and Ensign Harford reached cargo bay three, where they discovered a glowing crate. As the trio neared, they were suddenly pulled into an alternate reality of their own nightmares. Fortunately, they quickly broke free and found themselves still in the cargo bay while another creature escaped from Drex’s body and hid in the crate.
Without communications, Falt’s team was unaware of this encounter and left engineering to warn the other team. En route through the Jeffries tube, a now-recovered Sanchez discovered a large group of blue worms, forcing the team to flee. Fortunately, they exited the tubes into cargo bay three and regrouped with Kendrick and the others.
After a quick update, Commander Falt ordered Kendrick, Drex, and Kingsley to modify a torpedo to generate an EM pulse in hopes of stunning and chasing away the creatures. Meanwhile, he, Sanchez, and Harford headed to the science labs to look for a suspected second crate. They found it quickly, and when they did, an inexplicable force urged Sanchez to reach inside, where she discovered a glowing golden object that she believed to be the reason the creatures were aboard.
Running out of time, the crew rushed to the torpedo bay and placed the object, along with a second one that Drex quickly retrieved from the initial crate, into the hull of the torpedo Kingsley and Kendrick had been modifying. As the torpedo left the ship, power returned to the vessel, and Doctor Harford was finally able to help the unconscious crew of the USS Juneau.
Light years away, and unaware of the events occurring aboard the Juneau, the remainder of the Denali crew continued to explore the newly discovered city, with both teams moving slowly through the abandoned buildings.
After encountering some unpleasant wildlife, Lieutenant Kettick’s team was forced to the rooftops, where a sharktopus cut off their escape route to the shuttle and forced them to improvise a zip line to escape, just as the ferocious sharktopus attacked and devoured the runabout. After their escape, they found themselves in a room containing technology that appeared very similar to the ancient transportation system the crew had discovered previously.
Elsewhere, Commodore Oddas’ team continued to follow their tricorders toward the source of the energy signal that had brought the crew to the city in the first place. They also encountered unfriendly creatures, and with their phasers proving ineffective, they were forced to take refuge in a small room. Fortunately, the room contained another transportation portal, and Commodore Oddas was able to get it working just as they were about to be overrun. Stepping in blind, the team suddenly found themselves teleported into the same room as Kettick and the others.
With no flying transport to get them home and no long-range communications, they quickly realized reconfiguring the ancient transport system was the only way they’d be able to get home. With the creatures now hammering at the door, the team worked together to make the changes and were able to escape.
With all crew members now safely back at Denali Station, the crew is looking forward to some well-earned shore leave.
Written by Tomas Falt
