B’Hala, Bajor – Bajoran authorities and Vedek Assembly request Starfleet’s aid in search and rescue efforts after researchers and their search party are declared missing.
While the USS Ronin remains docked with Deep Space Nine to continue and finalize the remaining repairs, and testing to see if the ship is space worthy again, the crew descended to Bajor in their various support craft and established a base camp on the outskirts of B’Hala.
The sacred city and perhaps oldest archaeological site on the entire planet has been the site of a several decades long investigation and study into the Bajoran people’s history. Roughly a week ago, a group of researchers tasked with exploring and cataloguing a newly excavated section of the buried city went missing. After their absence was noted a search party was sent into the same underground section only for contact to be lost with them as well. With the fate of two teams now unknown, the Bajoran government reached out to Starfleet for assistance in locating and rescuing, or recovering their missing people.
Under strict orders to leave as minute of an impact on the delicate and ancient city as possible during their rescue operation, Captain Karrod Niac reportedly challenged his senior officers with the non-replicated pizza of their choice to the first team that is able to locate the missing researchers and those that went after them.
A basecamp was quickly established under the guidance of the ship’s First Officer, Commander Toryn Raga, before he joined the Captain on one of three teams that led the search. Each taking separate routes with Lieutenant Commanders Alieth and Kirsty Carpenter heading the other two teams. Each team reportedly all ended up underground via different access points, the potential most unnerving for some, involved a vertical descent down a massive subterranean shaft.
Communication with the search teams was difficult to maintain, so each team focused on their respective search areas. Carpenter’s team allegedly found what they thought to be an Orb of the Prophets, but it turned out to be some sort of technological apparatus and apparently guarded by unknown Bajorans wielding archaic weapons.
After their descent down what is suspected to be an intentionally created shaft, Capt Niac’s team found themselves in an ancient privy with only some minor defacing of the city. Before contact was lost with his team, it is believed that there was some sort of collapse that resulted in the Captain being injured.
Cmdr Alieth’s team, having taken the most direct route following in the researchers footsteps, quite literally, barely managed to evade the collapse of a passage and found some remains of what appeared to be one of the missing researchers. While garbed in more modern garb, the body and belongings seemed to show signs of considerable age. The scientifically minded search team managed to open an ancient door, and ventured into a deeper section of the subterranean city amidst one or more waterfalls.
As of this writing contact has been lost with all three search teams, likely due to their depth beneath the surface and the entire senior staff, leaving Lieutenant Vailani Zoyara in charge of the basecamp until their return.
Written by: Toryn Raga
