I had not long taken up the position as Chief medical officer on the USS Hathaway. We were on a particularly tedious mission studying ion storms when we received a message from Starfleet.
To: Captain Dean Noonan, commanding NCC 2593, USS Hathaway
From: Admiral Edward Jellicoe, commanding Starbase 173, Sector 23
You are ordered to abort present mission studying increase in local ion storms and proceed to rendezvous with task force consisting of ships enumerated below, located at phi Trianguli. After rendezvous, you are to proceed directly to sector defined by a 75 parsec diameter around 52 Trianguli, and patrol along outer edge of sector between iota Sculptoris and beta Pavonis, taking all due measures commensurate with security of surrounding spaces.
For the duration of this mission, you are granted "unusual breadth of discretion" as delineated in Starfleet Charter Article 14, Section 31.
Task force consists of NCC-62100 USS T'Kumbra, CPT Solok commanding, and NCC-65420 USS Phoenix, CPT James Boanerges commanding
P.S. The Vulcans have also asked us to look into several disappearances of ships in the area-ships that have a "statistically high" percentage of Vulcans aboard, to see if it has anything to do with the multiple ion storms in the area as of late. That's partly why the T'Kumbra is with you. Maybe we can solve the mystery with a little human ingenuity and some Vulcan logic. Get it done.
(signed)
ADM Edward Jellicoe, SFC Starbase 173, Sector 23
We began the patrol, and soon after activity was detected inside the neutral zone. A Romulan Ship was being pursued by an old Romulan D7. The D7 destroyed the ship then proceeded into federation space and the Hathaway moved to intercept. The D7 responded to our hails and her captain introduced herself as Cmdr Alathia of the Raptor. She wanted to discuss terms and was willing to board the Hathaway unescorted. She said she had been censored by the Romulan command as being politically unsavoury, something about a grudge from a theft 100 years ago. She also warned the Romulans had been taking Vulcans. A program called Starseed, where a suns corona was seeded to cause ion storms, was being used to generate the storms being used as cover to steal Vulcan ships. The Romulans were trying to incorporate Vulcan telepathic abilities in Romulans at a research station at Laraties II. Alathia was proposing to go there and destroy the facility, and wanted help.
Stoltz performed a mind meld and verified Alathia was telling the truth and was concerned at the research at Laraties II. Corvus investigated the Starseed project info she provided and determined it could be used to mask us. The Captain decided to assist Alathia, and the Hathaway's hull was made to look like it had taken damage to give a deception that she had been captured by the Romulans.
The USS T'Kumbra was reported missing, lost in an ion storm. Stotz determined from residual warp trails that their position had intersected with another ship, their engines shut off then they were taken towards the neutral zone. The Raptor took the Hathaway in tow to look like it had been captured and we headed towards Laraties II. The Romulan Warbird Tomal came to escort us but a fake signal was used to convince them they had received a command to return to Romulus.
As we approached Laraties II the Romulan research station and the T'Kumbra were detected and a number of objectives for an away mission were designated. Find Captain Solok of the T'Kumbra, free the T'Kumbra crew, find and destroy any genetic samples taken by the Romulans and destroy any research data, Recover the USS T'Kumbra and restart the T'Kumbra's engines so she could leave under her own power.
The research station was scanned, and the location of a Vulcan on their own was determined, presumably Captain Solok. Other Vulcans were detected in a group but in area where the use of transporters would be disrupted by the station construction. I surgically altered myself and Reban to look like Romulans, then we beamed to the research station with Stotz and Alathia to locate the T'Kumbra crew. Meanwhile Corvus took an engineering team and beamed over to the T'Kumbra to prepare her for recovery. The section of the station holding the Vulcans was made of neutronium which was preventing them from being beamed out. We entered the area and found the station commander who was subdued by Reban while Stotz disabled the Romulan mind dampener device being used to subdue the prisoners.
The force field holding the Vulcan prisoners was lowered and I checked them over. They appeared to be suffering from nothing serious. Cmdr Sobek, 1st officer of the T'Kumbra said the Captain Solok had been separated from them but they could interrogate the Romulan commander to locate him. During the interrogation, the Commander grabbed a phaser and killed himself but Sobek said they had determined the captain was 2 decks above.
With the T'Kumbra crew beamed back aboard, Corvus beamed to us on the research station and downloaded the Romulan computer core before wiping it. We then located the medical samples and destroyed them. While we were doing this, several Romulans appeared and had to be stunned.
We located Captain Solok. He was in a trance but Reban was able to communicate with him telepathically. I was unable to contact the Hathaway to beam him to sick bay so beamed him to the T'Kumbra instead. The T'Kumbra scanned the Hathaway and detected weapons fire. Corvus remotely locked out the Hathaways command codes and we beamed to the Hathaway with some ofmthe T'Kumbra security personnel. There was no one in the armoury, and the bridge was secure, but Captain Noolan reported Romulans beamed over from the Raptor and were trying to take engineering and comms were down. The Romulans were being lead by the Romulan 1st officer, Alathia's son.
We beamed to engineering and Corvus turned off gravity outside engineering where the Romulans were. The Romulans were trying to set a charge which exploded when the gravity was disabled, crippling them, and the 1st officer was the only survivor. Alathia spoke with him. He said he did it for honour then died before she could kill him for the betrayal.
The T'Kumbra was ready so all the ships headed back towards federation space. Three Romulan warbirds were detected on an intercept course. Starseed was used to summon ion storms which disabled two of the warbirds, and the USS Phoenix met us at border, causing the last Romulan vessel to return to Romulan space.