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» LCARS » Newspaper: The Federation Tribune » Newspaper Archives » 2006 » February 2006 » USS Atlantis Status Report, January 2006, by Ben Versteegt.
 | USS Atlantis Status Report, January 2006, by Ben Versteegt. |  |
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Stardate:
- 2392.04.25
- 2392.04.26
Locations of the (crew of the) USS Atlantis:
- While he was first trapped inside some subspace prison, Captain Torn subsequently found himself on Pandora Station, in the Pandora System in the Alpha Quadrant.
- The rest of the crew found themselves in and later outside of a subspace distortion nebula near a star system with a Class A blue star, apparently inside Dominion space, in the Gamma Quadrant.
Summary:
- 2392.04.25/26
The unstable compromise between the Atlantis and the Vorta continued to last. Jem'Hadar were brought on board to make sure the crew wasn't spying on the Dominion nebula they were in, while the Vorta continued to talk to Lieutenant Andersson, who was posing as Captain in Torn's absence. This gave Commander Velden and the rest of the crew the time they needed to think of an escape plan, just in case the current compromise failed for some reason.
Hiding inside the nebula, repairs were coming along slowly, and the Jem'Hadar, as well as Volnaran (the Vorta) grew more impatient with each passing hour. Finally, a device hidden inside Volnaran's pocket began to count down to something -- a "firing exercise", as the Vorta called it. He demanded that the Atlantis left the nebula at once, despite the ship's unfinished repairs, and despite the fact that the starship would be no match for the dozens of subspace rifts, which were still waiting outside of the nebula for the Atlantis to appear.
This time, no compromise could be made: Volnaran and the Jem'Hadar beamed back to their ships, after which three of the five Dominion vessels towed the Atlantis towards the edge of the nebula. Apparently, the Dominion didn't want the Atlantis and its crew to be in the nebula when the mysterious countdown ended.
Going outside of the nebula meant certain death, because the subspace rifts would launch their torpedoes again and finish what they started when they attacked the Atlantis earlier. Staying inside the nebula, however, meant fighting five Jem'Hadar vessels. In its damaged state, the Atlantis would barely be able to take on one hostile ship, let alone five. Still, it was deemed that fighting the Dominion was preferable to fighting the subspace rifts...
...So the Atlantis fired the first shot. Taking out the Dominion's tractor beams, the crew hoped to elude the Jem'Hadar long enough to escape in the sensor-masking clouds of the nebula. Lieutenant Rofellian even brought an experimental, future Romulan device on line, which made the ship temporarily invisible on enemy sensors.
The Jem'Hadar, unfortunately, didn't need sensors to hit their target. This left the Atlantis in quite a bad shape, as the Dominion forced the ship closer and closer to the edge of the nebula. Ultimately, the Atlantis raced out of the nebula, planning to turn around immediately and fly back in, but the subspace rifts were too fast: they fired large amounts of torpedoes at the ship. None of those, however, hit the Atlantis; instead, they were aimed at the Dominion ships, which quickly made a run for it.
The Atlantis was subsequently briefly surrounded by the subspace rifts, but only for a short time: they disappeared again when they had delivered Captains Sarin and Kane to the Bridge of the starship.
A few moments later, Volnaran's countdown ended. A strange blue light lit up the nebula from within, but the exact source was unknown. It was clear that the Dominion were doing something inside that nebula, but it was far from clear what exactly that something was. Unfortunately, the Atlantis was in no shape to investigate, and Captain Sarin, now in command of the Atlantis, reluctantly ordered the ship to return to Pandora Station.
Meanwhile, Captain Torn was released from the subspace nightmare as well, only he ended up on Pandora Station. When Sarin on the Atlantis contacted Pandora Station via subspace, things quickly became clear. Now, the ghastly truth is known not only to the COs, but also to the crews of the dutystations in the Frontier Fleet: the COs and Admirals had been held captive, because the transwarp they had been using had been killing the subspace aliens.
While elsewhere in the fleet, work quickly began on a way to modify the transwarp engines so they won't have harmful effects to the subspace aliens, the Atlantis limped home at warp two. Its crew, tired and battered by recent experiences, leaves the nebula behind with mixed feelings: on the one hand, they are glad they have survived, but on the other, they know that they were unable to learn of the Dominion's secrets in that nebula.
Secrets that, in a worst case scenario, could have very alarming repercussions...
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