Testing Grounds

Testing Grounds is the first arc of Voyager Done Right. It covers the initial events that sends the USS Voyager into the Delta quadrant, and their first contact with a race there. It spanned two full play sessions.

## Session 1

In the year 2371, veteran Starfleet Captain Ulysses Quinn (Nathaniel Keefer) officially takes command of the Intrepid class USS Voyager, his second starship command posting. After touring the vessel, he has a meeting with his senior staff in the conference room. Though Quinn has hand-picked them from their service records, he has only met one of them thus far. We are introduced to the following crew members:

Commander Edison Gil (Richard Jellison), the Executive officer, who served as Quinn's helmsman on his previous command and views the captain as a surrogate father.

Lt. Commander Serif (Christopher Keefer), the Chief of Operations, a Vulcan whose past in Starfleet is highly classified.

Lt. Commander Mirin Oka (Jordan Wood), the Chief Engineer, a strong-willed Bajoran who had previously worked in R&D.

Lieutenant Leon Locke (Kirk Dawson), the Chief Tactical officer, a veteran of battle whose service record includes Wolf 359.

Lieutenant J.G. Wallace Drake (Thomas Hyde), the Chief Flight officer, a former civilian pilot who lost his arm in an accident.

Commander Siri Ah'leqkzsa, the Chief medical officer, an Andorian who previously worked with infectious disease units across the Federation.

After pleasantries and introductions are exchanged, Quinn reveals that as Voyager's very first assignment, it will be testing an experimental warp core module. The senior staff assemble on the bridge and Drake takes Voyager out of docking for its maiden voyage. As soon as it can, the ship goes to warp and within minutes, disaster strikes. The ship is whipped across space and most of the systems go offline. As soon as he gets his bearings, Quinn asks for a status report and discovers, as systems come back online, that the ship has somehow ended up in the Delta quadrant, 70,000 light years from the furthest known point in space. At maximum warp it would take seventy years to return to the edge of known space. As he calls for status reports from other sections of the ship, he learns that though there have been no casualties, the module has disintegrated and taken the warp coils with it. The ship has no warp capabilities. With no way to replicate the materials, a replacement must be found. Fortunately, there are two nearby planets within impulse distance that have warp-capabilities. Voyager makes contact with one of them and meet the Arrexians, a feline race who are at a state of war with the other planet nearby. Quinn, with no other options sets up a meeting with a representative and orders Gil down to the planet with an away team to negotiate.

## Session 2

Commander Gil assembles an away team consisting of Serif, Locke, and Drake, who decide to take a shuttle craft down, as the planet's defenses make transporting difficult. Lt. J. G. Joaquin Phillips (Nathaniel Keefer), shuttle bay operator, clears them for departure and Drake pilots the craft to land in the capital city of the planet. They soon meet the Arrexians, who introduce their planet as Annexor Prime and explain their conflict with the Blexians who inhabit the nearby inhabited world. At no time do the Arrexians describe the other species and talk about them only in disgust. While Gil negotiates the materials they need, Locke spots a fully stocked armoury and gets the idea that war is brewing. The Arrexian delegate agrees to help if they sabotage the Blexian's defenses. That way the Arrexians can invade and destroy them.

The away team returns to the ship and Quinn and the others agree that dooming one species to save themselves is not the Federation way. Quinn decides to contact the Blexians. He discovers they are also a feline race, of almost exactly the same physical build, with only minor aesthetic differences. They refer to themselves as Arrexians and calls the other feline species the Blexians. Now understanding that this is a civil war, Voyager gets in between the two antagonistic fleets, and activates a device rigged by Serif that disables both of their planet's defenses. Quinn convinces them to give diplomacy one more try, as they are brethren, and receives the parts Voyager needs for repairs. Mirin and his team get the new warp coils installed and the ship begins its long voyage back to the Alpha quadrant.