The Nebula That Never Gives Up Her Dead (Part 1)

Posted on Fri Aug 18th, 2023 @ 11:57am by Commander Chisato Nishikigi & Captain Taiga Aisaka & Lieutenant Chrirhc Chihc
Edited on on Sun Mar 31st, 2024 @ 9:53pm

1,399 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Starship Graveyard
Location: USS Tokyo (NCC-91101)
Timeline: Approximately 3 hours after "New Orders"

"I mean, frankly, I don't blame Major Shimada for being outraged:" Chrirhc remarked as the two Intelligence Officers exited the turbolift. "Starfleet only searched for the Redemption for about four weeks before they declared the vessel lost with all hands. Meanwhile, there is currently an ongoing search two years in the making for the... Misery, or whatever it is..."

" I think you mean Missouri?" Chisato corrected.

"Right, that." Chrirhc said. "And all for what? Because this... Kagami Izumi person commanded her for five years? For all the families of the Redemption, this search for the... Missouri, has got to be a slap in the face. In my honest opinion, Hisako Reizei was ten times the captain this Aika Tenku person will ever be, and yet Tenku has gotten over twenty-six times the search efforts!"

"I mean, don't get me wrong, Captain Tenku wasn't a slouch, either," Chisato commented as the two of them drew up to Captain Aisaka's office. "Our recent colonization of the Heartfalia system wouldn't have been possible if it weren't for the efforts of Captain Tenku and her crew to try and resolve a territorial dispute with the Star Empire. But that being said, it would seem like a lot of the lesser ships in our fleet tend to fall through the cracks. I mean, heck, did you know there was a Myogi that was lost in action prior to doing all this research?"

"That could be said for all the California class ships that have been lost over the class' service life." Chrirhc argued as Chisato reached up and rang the buzzer. "The California class really is Starfleet's unsung workhorse, with rich stories that nobody cares about reading. Well, except for the hardcore nerds like us."

Chisato grinned at that.

"Come in," Taiga's voice called simply.

The doors to Taiga's office snapped open and Chisato and Chrirhc stepped inside.

"Captain," she greeted, setting the long-overdue report down on Taiga's desk. "Apologies if it took us a little while in getting this report out to you; Lieutenant Chihc and I decided we'd kill two birds with one stone and do a bit of digging in regards to Starfleet's previous expeditions into the Karlax Nebula."

Taiga simply nodded. "So, what gave you got?" She asked.

"A lot, as it turns out," Chisato grinned as she furnished a second report and set it down on Taiga's desk. "Based on our findings, the earliest known instance of a vessel disappearing in and around the Karlax Nebula was during the Vulcan H'Atoria expedition of 2159. According to the Vulcan Archives, a Suurok-Class science vessel, the Oning, failed to report back to expeditionary command after a routine survey that was being conducted about 300,000 miles from the edge of the Nebula. A search effort was briefly carried out, but due to the Earth-Romulan War being on at the time, they had to call off the search after just two months, due to increased Romulan attacks in the region making the Vulcans' presence in the sector increasingly dangerous. It was speculated for the longest of times that the Oning had been captured, or even destroyed by the Romulans; it wasn't until the signing of the Treaty of Algeron in 2311 that several Romulan documents dating back to the Earth-Romulan War were declassified, at which point it was revealed that the Romulans didn't even know the Oning existed. The new, pervading theory is that the Oning may have strayed off course and wandered into the Nebula. What happened after that... is up for debate."

"So an old Vulcan ship might still be wandering around lost. That's if the crew survived," Taiga said taking a note on a PADD she had picked up. "Any other ships we should know about?"

"Well, our findings indicate that Starfleet's interest in exploring the Karlax Nebula has been something of an on/off affair for the past two-and-a-half centuries," Chrirhc spoke up. "Their expeditions to date have always resulted in a ship getting lost, leading Starfleet to cordon off the Nebula as a 'navigational hazard' for a few decades until curiosity gets the better of them and they wind up launching another expedition, and the cycle repeats itself. I'm sure you've already heard about the situation regarding the Redemption at length, so we'll save her for a later point in this discussion. But as you can likely guess, she's far from the first Starfleet ship whose loss has been attributed to the Karlax Nebula. According to reports, that honor goes to the USS Endeavour; NX-Class cruiser, hull number NX-05. We've included a full incident report, but to give you the Reader's Digest: the Endeavour was the flagship selected for Starfleet's original H'Atoria Expedition in 2163, which was set to pick up where the Vulcans left off four years prior. specificly, it was chosen to head an expedition into the Karlax Nebula alongside the Daedalus-Class USS Om El Donia, which had to turn back at the last minute due to engine troubles. As you can probably guess, the Endeavour failed to radio in at the scheduled time, and in spite of an extensive six-month search that saw the Enterprise, of all ships, being brought in, the Endeavour was declared lost with all hands in early 2164."

"Those were very different times back then. Many of those crews were new to space, as were most of Starfleet," Taiga said. "Plus, we didn't have anywhere near the tech we have today."

"But this wasn't an inexperienced crew, mind you," Chisato added. "Captain Todd Wardel had practically been serving aboard the Endeavour since it's launch in 2156. He was a veteran of the Earth-Romulan War, and was one of the first Captains to engage- and successfully destroy- a Romulan ship at the onset of the conflict. He was certainly no slouch of a commanding officer, which made it all the more mysterious that the Endeavour just up and vanished under his watch."

"So a very highly regarded Captain." Taiga replied. "Seens this nebula has claimed more than we expected."

"After the Endeavour, Starfleet classified the Karlax Nebula as a "navigational hazard" and posted a bulletin advising all Starfleet vessels to steer clear," Chisato went on. "Amazingly, this ruling went unchallenged for nearly 105 years, when Admiral Emerik Torongo expressed interest in finally charting the nebula. He submitted a request to Starfleet command in March of 2268, and received full approval to conduct an expedition in June of that year. The ship that was eventually selected for this undertaking was perhaps the most famous Starfleet vessel- if not the most famous vessel, period- to have been lost to the nebula:

She leafed through the report until she found the page she was looking for and set it down in front of the Captain.

"USS Sazanka; Constitution-Class Heavy Cruiser, hull number NCC-1718. She was launched in around 2266 with all the latest bells and whistles, including state-of-the-art navigational equipment, making her an ideal fit for this sort of expedition. Commanding her was Captain Miyari Nemoto, herself an upstanding CO with 25 years of experience under her belt, with at least 10 of those being in the field of command. So, again, we have a ship-of-the-line, and a rockstar crew to boot."

She folder her arms. "Wanna take a wild guess what happened to the Sazanka?"

"Let me guess, disappeared like everything else?" Taiga replied.

"Bingo," Chisato replied. "Contact with the Sazanka was last established on August 14, 2266; when she failed to radio back the following week, search teams were almost immediately scrambled, as losing a ship-of-the-line this close to Klingon and Romulan space could have some dangerous repercussions. But in spite of an extensive two-year search, there was virtually no trace of the Sazanka and its crew; no distress signal, no debris field- nothing. It's said that the search for the Sazanka caused Admiral Torongo so much stress that he developed facial paralysis. He eventually resigned in disgrace in 2271."

"All over one starship..." Taiga pondered. "Well, Starfleet's constitution class did have a reputation for being the best, but also being lost. I mean they lost three or four over the course of three years," Taiga sighed. "Why does it sound like Starfleet are sending us into a death-trap?"

"Sure looks to be the case," Chisato admitted. "You can't deny, every single time that Starfleet's attempted to chart this nebula specifically, they end up losing a ship. Question is, why?"

To Be Continued...

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