A Fine and Private Place

The USS Rosenante passed her space worthiness trials without a glitch and was assigned their very first mission, to survey planets for recolonization of the survivors of the Colony of Ivor Prime. The Rosenante took on the administrator of the colony and set off for the Optima System in hopes of finding a planet suitable for the colonists. The Rosenante departed for her official maiden Voyage on Stardate 2408.01.15. The Ceremony was officiated by Admiral Hesper Linden.

On stardate 2408.01.21 the Rosenante received a disturbing distress signal from the Federation freighter the "Sky of Tomorrow."

The Third Officer, Olen Rhinehardt altered course and alerted the captain and crew to the situation. The Sky of Tomorrow's signal was traced to the orbit of Davros III, A Federation Mining Colony.

Read the The Distress Call Post

The Rosenante arrived at the scene only three hours later. Attempts to hail the freighter were not successful. An away team was beamed aboard and to their horor uncovered signs of a violent and bloody conflict. They also encountered an animated dismembered hand. This hand was quarantined and studied upon the return of the away team to the Rosenante, where it was discovered that the hand was infested with a nanite colony derived from Borg nano probes.

Ahmed led an away team down to the planet's surface to search for survivors, when he returned to the Rosenante without three of his security team, Ahmed offered this summary to the Captain:

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Ahmed followed the Captain into the ready room. As always the Captain was incredibly calm, ~But then again,~ Ahmed reminded himself, ~she hadn't just been chased by an indeterminable number of corpses animated by Borg nanites… Or something like that~

"Sit down, Ahmed," she said, and headed for the replicator. Without asking, she ordered two cups of Ahmed's special Turkish coffee and a plate of pastries. She sat them down on the table between them and said. "You can talk as you eat," she ordered, sliding the plate a little closer to him. "I can tell by your face it's not good news, so let's hear it. What did you find down there?"

"It's hard to be clear, so bear with me." Ahmed said as he added a little goat's milk to his coffee and took a sip. "When we arrived in the town square, everything was quiet. It was just like one of those wild west ghost towns that you read about in the history books. All it was missing was the tumble weed."

"We located the residence of doctor Lawson and there we found what appeared to the remains of a lab. It was very obvious that some of the equipment had been moved elsewhere. From that lab there were two almost parallel tunnels leading downward toward the mine. As you know that was when I ordered Lieutenant Janeway, chief fuller and a second security team down to the planet. The idea was that the two teams could each explore one of the tunnels and possibly locate any survivors or clues faster."

He picked up one of the pastries and took a bite. The orange marmalade was exceptionally good and Ahmed then realized how hungry he really was. He took a sip of his coffee to wash it down.

"We searched for several hours without any sign at all of the miners. For a while there, I was even beginning to wonder if all 1500 of them had somehow managed to leave the planet. We came to a junction and heard what I could only describe as weapons fire. I ordered the team down the tunnel to the source as quickly as possible which opened into a cavern."

"When we arrived, there was an… individual there, a member of the Opthidian species, who was defending himself from some of the miners. It was apparent that he had killed at least ten or twelve of them already. We announced ourselves and ordered the fighting to stop, but instead of being attacked by the visitor as I had originally expected to be, it was the miner's that attacked us."

"Heavy stun doesn't have much affect on them. Even the kill setting isn't very effective. We lost Abernathy in that fight. He was infected by some sort of black ooze, which we were later informed was a nanite colony."

"The Opthidian's name is Sharott Nachook and he explained a great deal to us concerning what was happening on that colony."

Ahmed ate some more of his pastry and drank a little more of his coffee.

"His people encountered the Borg roughly 500 standard years ago. Apparently their physiology doesn't allow them to be assimilated by Borg Technology. They fought a war and in the end the Borg left them alone. The Opthidian scientists had dissected several Borg drones during the war and had discovered a way to modify the Borg nanoprobes for their own medical uses. This continued for some time until eventually, the Borg Nanoprobes developed some sort of colony-like hive mind and became self-aware. They began to dominate living members of the Opthidian species against their will and when the realization struck, the Opthidian government tried to destroy the nanites."

"The nanites adapted again in a very grotesque manner. They began killing their hosts and maintaining the bodies after death until they were no longer viable. The Opthidian homeworld had to be biologically sterilized to prevent them from spreading. From what I can gather eventually the Opthidians captured the original colony which they refer to as the matriarch and imprisoned it pending it's destruction."

"Now here's where the details get a bit sketchy." Ahmed said then took another sip of his coffee.

"At some point in the recent past, the Ferengi somehow managed to steal this imprisoned nanite colony and transport it here, where it is believed they sold it to Doctor Lawson. The good doctor is an expert on Borg nanotechnology and was living here with her young daughter, who was very ill with an incurable ailment according to Doctor Caskie"

"We can surmise that Lawson conducted some experiments, maybe even infecting her daughter either with the knowledge that these nanites were self-aware or in ignorance. Regardless of what she knew, that seems the most logical means that this infection was spread. From there, the nanites took over members of the community exponentially until every member was a member of the colony."

"Mister Nachook's people tracked the Ferengi here. They claim to have destroyed the Ferengi ship and admit to attacking Mister Raschen's ship in an attempt to maintain some semblance of quarantine. It seems that after their losses in the battle, they withdrew, possibly to conduct repairs when we arrived in the system."

"They had dropped Nachook and perhaps a couple of others on the planet with the mission to find and destroy the nanite breeding pool, where apparently the matriarch lives. Mister Nachook claims that destroying her will result in the demise of all her immediate offspring as they are dependant on her for their cognitive abilities."

"Just shortly after all this data was given by Nachook, Jono shows up with what is left of Beta team. He was injured and we gathered that they were surrounded and attacked by a large mass of infected miners. They lost Milano during their escape."

"Nachook advised Caskie at that time that he carries some sort of viral weapon in his body that will wipe out the entire biosphere of the planet and make it uninhabitable for roughly 200 standard years. He is confident that the weapon will kill all the nanites present by depriving them of biological hosts and will kill anyone that should set foot there as well and prevent the nanites from managing to get off world."

Ahmed finished his coffee and sat it on the table. "The catch is that Nachook was injured and some sort of biological process has started that will result in his death and the release of the virus in an uncertain amount of time. Doctor Caskie is confident that she can extract the virus, saving Nachook and that the virus can them be delivered to the planet via modified Photon torpedo, where it will destroy the biosphere and end the threat of it spreading from this planet."

"We had to fight our way out of those tunnels. We lost Hezan there. I vaporized him myself."

Ahmed looked into River's eyes, before continuing. "I've seen a lot of terrible things Captain, but I can not describe to you the sheer terror and fear that these things inspire. I am not a blood thirsty person, but these things need to be eradicated with all due prejudice."

"That said it was my assessment, after my experience on the planet, that these nanites should be treated like a biological outbreak and should be eradicated before they place millions or even billions more at risk. I have ordered Caskie to proceed with her plan after she assured me that she could prevent it from spreading across the ship should there be a mishap. I believe that we have no recourse and that we should treat these nanites as we would Borg. There is no hope of negotiation and that any encounter will result in the supplantation of one species over the other at the complete eradication of the prior."

"To carry through with this, I furthermore, recommend that we transport the nanite-filled hand back to the Sky of Tomorrow and that we undertake steps to destroy it and the freighter as well."

---

Captain Rivers agreed with Salid's assessment and ordered the plan carried out. At 2045 hours the orders were given to deploy the viral torpedo and the planet of Davros III was sterilized. The freighter was destroyed shortly thereafter and Mister Nachook was returned to his ship.

The Rosenante seeded five quarantine probes around the planet before departing to complete their original mission.

On Stardate: 2408.01.25 Captain Rivers was ordered to Starbase Geneva to give evidence for a war crimes tribunal. She was advised that she would not be returning to the command of the Rosenante and Commander Salid was promoted to the rank of Captain and given command of the USS Rosenante.