8. Twinkle Twinkle Little War

* **Duration (Real time):** 15 September 2004 - December 2004
* **Duration (Game time):** 2391.05.01 - 2391.05.02
* **Location:** Pandora Station / USS Solstice
* **Synopsis:**

It is discovered that the Pandora Star is extremely active, due to a probe, made by the Venoghrians. They, together with the Pandora crew, try to deactivate the probe, before their enemy, the Dholari, arrive.

## Stardate 2391.05.01 - 2391.05.02

The new CO of Pandora Station arrived at may the first: one day after Captain Janssens had left with the Epimetheus. Captain Kane, the new CO, quickly got introduced to his new crew, by the way of a meeting.

The next day, Commander Jalando had some news for the Captain: the solar storms, which have been going on for the past 2 weeks, only increased, instead of diminished. Something had to be done fast, because the sensors and communications' efficiency was already degrading...

When the Solar Storm, caused by the Pandora Star, really starts interfering with the normal sensor efficiency, it is decided that the Solstice will go towards the sun, and check out what causes this abnormal long solar storm. When the Solstice, under command of Commander Jalando, finally got close enough to even run a scan, the crew discovered that some sort of asteroid is in orbit around the sun. That object didn't seem to be affected by the Solar Storm...

Puzzled, and unable to scan any further, the Solstice returned to the Station. There, a Delta Flyer was being modified with metaphasic shielding, to be able to further enter the star's corona, and thus able to learn more about this object.

However, when the Solstice returned, a small fleet of alien ships arrived near Pandora Station. Their lead ship requested permission to dock. Captain Kane granted the request, and, together with Commander Jalando and Lt. Keening, went down to the Lower Docking Bay.

When the lizard-like, greyskinned aliens came out of their ships, their leader, Rhan M'ell, explained the situation to the 3 officers. It seemed as if this race, the Venoghrians, had send out a probe, to find suitable, unpopulated planets to colonise. When this probe had detected a suitable world, (Pandora II), it send out a pulse into the star, causing a solar storm, which attracted the attention of the Venoghrians. This was only supposed to last for one week... but the probe seemed to have malfunctioned, and it had already been active for more than 2 weeks!

Apparently, the Venoghrians, who already seemed to know the Federation, had another species living on the same planet as they were. The Dholari seemed to have had certain conflicts with the Venoghrians, claiming one of the Venoghrian's probes as theirs. So there was a chance that the Dholari fleet would show up..

The shutting-down signal for the probe didn't work, unfortunately, so it was decided that the Solstice would go out again, towards the star. This time though, the modified Flyer would be with them, which would let them get close to the probe, even in the star's corona.

So... the Solstice left towards the star, and, when she arrived there, the Delta Flyer, with the Rhan, his Science officer, Commander Jalando, Ltjg Keening and Ensign Morabulu on board, exited the Solstice's shuttlebay, ready to shut down the probe. They did, of course, know that the Dholari fleet could approach Pandora Station any moment, which would make the return trip, with the probe probably, a bit more difficult...

While the USS Solstice tried to retrieve the Venoghrian Probe, the remaining crew on Pandora received a call from a Dholari agent, saying that he wants to beam over, and that whatever Rhan M'ell had told the Pandora crew, wasn't true. Puzzled by this statement, Captain Kane allowed the Dholari Agent, with the name of T'hims, to beam on board. Once the Agent had beamed over, he told Kane, Truesdale and Tek, that the Venoghrians were a ruthless race, who were going to use the probe's data to get an advantage in the war which was going on between the Dholari and the Venoghrians.

On the Solstice, in the mean time, some of the Starfleet Officers and Venoghrians boarded the modified Flyer, so that they could now enter the Star's corona, to retrieve the probe. However, when the tractorbeam to tractor the probe out, was in place, there wasn't enough power to hold up the modified shields and the tractorbeam at the same time. Commander Jalando decided to cut power to the probe, thereby destroying the probe, but saving the lives of the crew on the Flyer. Rhan M'ell however, didn't like this at all. He blamed Jalando for all the valuable data which now had been lost.

When the Solstice finally returned to Pandora, Agent T'hims and Rhan M'ell finally met... and immediately had an argument. Both blamed each other for the destruction of the probe. This argument resulted in Rhan M'ell leaving Pandora Station, while T'hims stayed here. Agent T'hims will now be brought home by Starfleet.