Star Trek: Emergency Deep
S01 E08 “With A Fine-Toothed Comb”
S01E08 With a Fine-Toothed Comb title card
- Stardate: 58552.74, 22nd July 2381 (0720 hours UTC)
- Location: Gondolin Station, Cor Caroli III.
The Norway-class USS Östergötland NCC-72227 is en route back from the ocean world Trychnos to Gondolin Station at Cor Caroli III, a Helios class habitat, with a captured damaged Orion Lightning-type starship in tow.
En route, Operations Officer Lieutenant Commander Tosk the Studious requests wormhole traffic data from Starbase Deep Space 9 because of the Gamma Quadrant tech found on Trychnos. Captain Greg Ellison is contacted by Gondolin Station’s commanding officer Lieutenant Commander Ola Piotrowski who requests a meeting with the Captain. Tosk also suggests a memorial service for Lieutenant JG Velek and Specialist Randall Loomis who perished with the shuttle Mälaren.
Rest and Repairs
Upon arrival at Cor Caroli a day later, Cetacean Ensign Kremzeek docks the ship at Gondolin Station. They all note the Sovereign-class, Challenger-class & Sydney-class starships holding station nearby.
Gondolin Station
As starship & station security coordinate beaming off the Orion prisoners, a Bajoran Colonel from DS9 contacts Tosk, reporting there has been no unauthorised wormhole activation recently & sends him wormhole sensor data. The data covers everything from the Dominion War’s end until now. However the data is extensive and would take a couple of days to transmit and receive by subspace.
Later, Ellison & Tosk visit their radiation-damaged Vulcanoid prisoner in sickbay. Dr Pachacutiq Ingersoll tells them he is a Romulan with belly full of hlai’vnau, a Romulan food. Tosk determines that his torso was irradiated & badly damaged by a reactor leak, probably in the engineering section of the Orion vessel. Ingersoll wakes him up with a hypospray. In pain, he claims to know of Ellison & his sister Sally. He says he voiced out against activating the Ellisons. For his disagreement, he was drummed out of the Romulan navy. The strangest thing is that he seems to be afraid of Ellison!
Coughing green blood, he falls unconscious & Ingersoll transports him to Gondolin Station infirmary for extensive DNA reconstruction treatment. Returning to his ready room, Ellison sends an encrypted sitrep to Admiral Kathryn Janeway who launched the Östergötland on stardate 58457.8.
Investigations and Inspection
A short while later, Tosk assembles an armed security team consisting of Ensign Caiomhin Cavanaugh, Senior Chief Specialist Abu Hajar the Klingon QuchHa’ and Specialist 1st Class Dekon Preja. They beam to the Lightning’s bridge to search for more clues in the ship’s data banks. The machines known as DOTs are repairing the damages and recording visual evidence. From the operational logs, Tosk discovers the ship is from a whaling fleet of 5 Lightning-type blockade runners. Each has been refitted to hunt Trychnos whales. However, according to their logs, their whaling Lightnings have been randomly colliding with invisible objects in Trychnos orbit for the last 2 months.
Exactly like what happened to the SS Takoyaki recently.
When Tosk reports this to Ellison, the Östergötland captain beams over to help Tosk. Ellison sifts though the encrypted data banks & finds the Romulan’s file. He was the only Romulan in the crew.
A docked Östergötland
The records show that “Chief Qaenlahr” joined the crew only 32 days ago on the Orion world Throvan II. Qaenlahr brought with him a stolen cloaking device & installed it into this Lightning. The Orion captain thought that with the cloaking device, he could sneak up & destroy any meddling Starfleet ships. Especially when he encroaches upon Federation territory.
Suddenly, security Chief of Security Lieutenant Libby dos Santos on the Östergötland bridge informs Ellison that the Piotrowski meet is due & transports the captain to the station command office.
Equipment and Ensnarement
Piotrowski has been ordered to give him three new Executive Officer candidates: Commander Calvine Montoya, Lieutenant Commander Anne Leewenhoek & Lieutenant Commander Gitisha Malik. As such, the ship has been operating without an XO since her launch on Earth. Ellison promises to consider the candidates and informs her of his decision before they depart Gondolin. Piotrowski agrees.
Them Ellison requests something out of the ordinary from Piotrowski: a cache of quantum torpedoes to complement their photon torpedoes. Although the Östergötland has not been cleared for quantum torpedo use, Ellison succeeds in getting forty quantum torpedoes from Gondolin Station. Ellison’s oratory and persuasive talents are legendary. Piotrowski agrees to transport them to the Östergötland over the next day.
Meanwhile, back on the captured Lightning, Tosk is determined to see the Romulan cloaking device. Donning a radiation suit, Tosk beams to her radiation-contaminated engineering section. Tosk easily finds the cloak, installed in an alcove near the warp core. There is a serial number… and a deadly booby trap. Removing it would detonate & destroy the ship, so he stands down & orders the security team to transport everything from Qaenlahr’s quarters back to the ship for investigation. How does Qaenlahr know Greg Ellison? Why does he know Greg Ellison?
A cloaking device
Back at his Ops console on the Östergötland bridge, Tosk receives a message from the station that their shuttles will be replaced by new ones. They are the Type-8W shuttles Mokuhonu and Mokuaia, and Type-9W shuttles Kalanipuao Rock and Kuakamoku Rock. Starfleet Engineering has modified them for underwater operations.
And, much to Tosk’s glee, the DS9 sensor log data is now fully downloaded.
