First Officer's Log

[Cptn Elias Moore 0]

"We managed to rescue all of the kidnapped officers and Denevan colonists from their Orion captives, but it wasn't as smooth a pickup as I was anticipating...

 

"The Orion fighters were simply a support group for a much larger, more well-equipped mother ship that was able to rain a staggering amount of weapons fire on us anytime we got within range. The ship's apparent commander was a gold-skinned humanoid that, according to the archives, has never been encountered by Earth or her allies. Of course, given how little we know of the Orions, speculation can run fairly rampant about this mystery commander's identity.

 

"When we orchestrated a plan to give the captives a chance to escape, the mother ship launched a pod which began bombarding us with graviton waves, like a counterfeit black hole. With no other recourse, and with Challenger being yanked around and ripped apart, we risked using the transporters to retrieve the captives. Medical has reported that they made it back with all of their parts in tact... but side effects of a matter-energy-transport-gone-wrong could lay dormant either for a period of time or until the subject interacts with certain energy signatures. The doctors both here and on Deneva are going to need to monitor the former captives closely for signs of particle divergence, phase regression, or other unforeseeable consequences...

 

"We managed to retrieve our people just in the nick of time, as the 'black hole' was converted into an opening that the mother ship slipped through, vanishing from all sensors. This strange rift closed before we could consider following. Our scientists have speculated that it was a 'wormhole'--some theory about tunnels through folded space adopted during the 20th century, pretty advanced stuff. Given the destructive forces that the rift unleashed beforehand, I shudder to think what kind of havoc our gold-skinned friend could unleash if he so desired.

 

"We made a stop at Deneva to check on the asteroid and drop off the kidnapped colonists. The scientists concluded beyond any doubt that the asteroid will swing safely around the planet and make its way out of the Denevan system and that none of its scattered fragments will cause any serious damage. An investigation into the asteroid's departure from its natural orbit will have to be left to others, possibly the colonists themselves. We now have to continue heading back to Earth for the launch of the NX-02...