I was in a runabout on route to Starbase 364 (Narendra Station) heading to a rendezvous with the USS Cessna to take up my new position as their chief Engineer with Lt. Commander Rondon who had been appointed Starbase 364's Chief Scientific officer, and two Ensigns, Armstrong and Grey, when we received an automated distress signal from Xerxes IV. Xerxes IV was listed as uninhabited except for a federation science outpost there so we diverted to investigate. We dropped from warp near a Blue/Green planet and detected unusual readings from the planets troposphere. The planet was experiencing an Ion storm which was going to make any investigation problematic.

I took the runabout down into the ion storm trying to get below it as quickly as possible but main power on the runabout was knocked out and I had to land on emergency power several km from the outpost. The atmosphere was breathable and the planet had flora and fauna. When we went outside, four Neanderthal types came running towards us from the undergrowth. They were wearing tattered federation uniforms and one was waving a phaser as a club. We quickly stunned them then Rondon scanned them. They were human but their bodies were de-evolving. I evaluated the state of the runabout and found several burned out parts. There were not enough spare parts on board to repair the damage, so we were going to have to walk to the outpost in the search for spare parts as well as to further investigate the distress signal and find out if there were any personnel left who had not started de-evolving.

It was difficult terrain between the runabout and the outpost. We had to cross a ravine and avoid toxic plants on route. At one point Rondon panicked when the effects of the Ion storm made him think we were about to be attacked, and I had to repair his tricorder which was broken when he dropped it.

We finally arrived at the outpost. Or tricorders showed two lifeforms in the storage area of the outpost. There was damage on outside of the outpost from phaser fire. The outpost had been vandalised inside and the communication devices were smashed. The storeroom was locked and I took some time bypassing it. Inside was a woman called Dr Heidi Shipp holding a man called Dr Jaspar Conrad. Conrad's appearance was changing as we watched.

Rondon calmed Shipp, who we discovered was in charge of science team. There had been 13 staff in total and they had been examining the unique flora and fauna of the planet for useful properties. The Ion storm had caused people to start de-evolving, some quicker than others. They had made a breakthrough just before Ion storm and were close to a possible cure for Irimodic syndrome. Dr Jaspar Conrad was her lover, had been beaten by the others and was now transforming. She would not leave before finishing her research and finding the cure.

I went looking for a Linear ionic phase controller, replacement parts for primary neutrino gradient grid and a new isometric tachyon dampening generator which I needed to repair the runabout. Rondon went with Armstrong to continue the research in the lab. He found their samples were ruined and had to go outside to find new samples. Six of the staff who were now Neanderthals came back to the outpost and were stunned. Rondon found the samples he needed and stunned the last neanderthal on his way back. Rondon then worked on a cure while I returned to the runabout with Armstrong to start repairs. The Ion storm was increasing so immediately the runabout was fixed we flew back to the base. Rondon had succeeded and Heidi administered cures to everyone as we departed.

We finally arrived at Starbase 364 where we were ordered to meet with Captain Decker in his ready room. The USS Cessna's first mission was to head into unpopulated space looking for the USS Alkubierre which had been testing a new warp engine which could safely exceed warp 5, and had disappeared 3 days ago in the remote Elicona sector.

Long range scans have finally located the USS Alkubierre. Its impulse and warp drives were offline, localised subspace interference prevented the sensors scanning the inside of the ship and also blocked the transporters. I was assigned as part of an away team to go to the Alkubierre and to assess the situation, determine what happened to crew, and if possible recover the ship. We also had to ensure Starfleet technology did not fall into enemy hands.

On approach to the Alkubierre we could see no external damage and there were two shuttles in the shuttle bay. The shuttle bay doors opened automtically as we approached. As we exited our shuttle I heard a beep from the console. The control room door was stuck half open and when I examined the console I found the auxiliary controls were locked out and routed to main engineering but someone had bypassed the lockout to open the shuttle bay doors from the bridge. AS I looked the console flashed up the message "Meet me in stellar cartography". The exit door from the shuttle bay was shut and would not open without power. The manual release broke when I tried it, so we had to force the door open. We found seven dead star fleet crew in the corridor. They had been killed by Romulan disruptor weapons less than a week ago and had died in a fighting withdrawal towards the shuttle bay.

Further down the corridor we found the bodies of Capt Kelly, 1st officer Dandrik, security chief T'Lau. As we were examining the bodies, four Romulans appear at end of corridor, a Centurion and three Ulans. In the firefight two of the Romulans were stunned before the Centurian ordered a retreat As they turned I was able to stun the Centurion and Hur'krel stunned the last Ulan. We took to the Jeffries tubes to get to deck 5 and stellar cartography. There we found a young Starfleet ensign, Engineer Lasel.

He told us the Alkuberrie had been disabled when they engaged the warp drive, and the failure caused the subspace disruption. They had drifted until a Romulan warbird arrived. Ten Romulans had boarded the Alkuberrie before the Warbird was called away. He knew of a Jeffries tube above main engineering so we headed towards it. I stunned two Romulans near the Jeffries tube before entering it. We found four Romulans in main engineering including a Sub commander. Three were quickly stunned but the Sub commander seemed to be unaffected by our phasors. It took several shots on kill before she dropped. A small creature crawled from her mouth and Hur'krel stunned it then put it in a sample jar for future analysis.

In Engineering I found the Injector ports were out of alignment so needed to prime the antimatter injectors before it was possible to safely restart the warp core. The engine design problems meant it was not safe to go to warp but with everything fixed the subspace interference cleared and we were able to re-establish communications with the Cessna. The parasite turned out to be the same species that tried infiltrating Starfleet command on star date 41755. The Cessna used a tractor beam to tow the Alkuberrie back to outpost 117.

I was called to the ready room with the other senior officers by Captain Decker. Engineer Lasel had been debriefed. He had hid when the Romulans boarded the Alkuberrie and reported that the warbird Decius was called away leaving the Romulan boarding party behind after receiving a signal from the Klingon armoured space station Kortar which had been partly abandoned and was populated by outcasts of Klingon society. The Klingons had given permission for the Cessna, as the nearest federation star ship, to go and investigate what was happening at the space station. Our orders were to protect starfleet from infiltration and to protect federation citizens. The return of the Neural parasite had rattled starfleet command who believed the Romulans were compromised.

It took a week at warp 8 to reach the space station. On the way, Mala, a Betazoid science officer read the mind of the parasite captured on the Alkuberrie. She sensed hostility at being captured and thought the creature was narcissistic. It had a superiority complex and thought of other species as inferior. It was unfamiliar with Betazoids but said its species had adapted to Human, Romulan and Klingon physiologies and would take them over and through them control the Alpha quadrant. A transmission from the space station was also intercepted. It was of a Klingon who shouted 'we are not ourselves' before venting the atmosphere of the station.

The station was scanned but no lifeforms were detected, and no vessels were docked or in range of the Cessna's sensors, though an escape pod was detected in a nearby asteroid field with faint life signs from a single Klingon aboard. The Klingon life signs showed it had an armoured exoskeleton. The infirmary on the station was the only section with an atmosphere. The asteroid field was rich in Kelbonite, a refractory mineral which would interfere with transporter signals and make them dangerous to use. I remodulated the tractor beam to counter the effects of the Kelbonite then the Cessna was maneuvered into the asteroid belt and the tractor beam was engaged. The escape pod was brought out of the asteroid belt, and the Klingon was transported to med bay as pod started to break up.

The Klingon was unconscious and died almost immediately. He had severe injuries, with an exoskeleton growing over his body. It was determined the injuries were self inflicted, likely caused by him cutting a parasite out of himself. His body was in a De-evolved state and Neural parasite DNA was detected as having been artificially introduced into the Klingon genome and had caused the changes. The experiment had been done within the last six months but had clearly failed.

I was assigned to a boarding party and we all put on EVA suits then beamed to the command level of the space station. The logs showed a Telourite trader from the Cordolan system had docked. Security footage showed two Klingons entering the freighter and a Romulan was briefly seen when they left an hour later. The infirmary was locked down a day later. We accessed the logs of the station Commander.

We managed to get visuals of the Infirmary. It was cramped and dimly lit. Several mutilated bodies and four dead parasites, larger than the previous one could be seen. We restored life support to the station then went to the infirmary. Like the Klingon on the escape pod, the mutilations of the Klingons in the infirmary were self inflicted. Hur'krel beamed the body of one of the parasites back to the Cessna for study. In the medical log we found an encoded audio message recorded by the station surgeon To'par which had never been transmitted. Natala decrypted the message with the help of Mala and the Cessna computers.

We beamed back to the Cessna where I modified the sensors and scanned, finding the signature of the Telourite freighter. It had headed for the 6th moon of Cordolan IV, a gas giant. Records showed there had been a Klingon outpost there mining for diomagnetic ore until it was abandoned 70 years ago.

It took three days at warp 8 to reach the Cordolan system. A sensor scan showed the system contained 12 bodies [scan results]. The outpost antimatter reactor was active, there was artificially amplified interference, and there were multiple lifeforms, 1 Klingon with odd readings, 10 Romulan, a Trill and other unidentified lifeforms. There was a correlation with the parasites but different.

We took a shuttle to the surface due to the amplified interference from the diomagnetic ore interfering with the transporters. The hanger doors were shut so we had to land outside and use EVA suits. The manual override of the hanger doors worked and there was a forcefield behind the doors keeping in the atmosphere. Inside the hanger bay we found the Telourite freighter. Hur'krel scanned the freighter and set off security alarm which we quickly disabled. Scans further into the outpost showed some unknown technology attached to the antimatter reactor. Two Romulans suddenly burst into the hanger bay and opened fire. They were resistant to our phasors but we were able to stun them after several hits.

We then made our way to the power room. The control device attached to reactor in Romulan. The device was booby trapped but we were able to bypass it and remove the device which quickly reduced the interference from the diomagnetic ore. We found a dead Klingon near the turbo lift and four more in a nearby room. Mwedical scans showed they had been subjected to experiments with the intent of changing their DNA to cause their bodies to evolve into a new form though they had failed and turned to them into proto Klingons. The process was more advanced than that used on the Kortar space station, as Trill genetic material had been added to try to make the Klingons more vulnerable to parasitic infections.

We then accessed the Telourite freighter. The ships logs had been erased. We tried to recover the data but it had been wiped by an advanced Romulan worm. I disabled the freighter to ensure it could not be used by anyone trying to make a quick escape while Hur'krel powered up the comms room. The screen lit up and a voice started speaking in Romulan "Enter access code, 5, 4", so he quickly turned it off again.

We then took the turbo lift to the lower level where we found a dead Klingon in the entrance to the infirmary. The body was deformed with an exoskeleton and tusks. There were another four Klingon corpses in the infirmary. Tricorder scans showed two Romulan life signs heading towards us and that they both had parasites. Hur'krel jumped one and gave hm a sedative but it was not enough to knock the Romulan out and he tossed Hur'krel down the corridor. In the fight I managed to stunned one just as a Klingon with a full exoskeleton and tusks came running round the corner wielding a bat'leth. The second Romulan was finally killed and a parasite crawled out which I stunned. However the Klingon took several more shots before he was also stunned.

More tricorder scanning identified the life forms of a Trill, a Telourite, 3 humans and 2 Romulans in another room, though only the Romulans had parasites. Hur'krel found a cannister of tranquilising gas in the infirmary. As we approached the room, the PA system came to life and the voice of a female Romulan said "lay down your weapons and leave". Hur'krel immediately threw the gas cannister into the room, and Cuellas shot it, as we quickly donned the helmets of our EVA suits. The humans and Telourite were in cages behind force field, but the gas put the others to sleep. However the prisoners were also gassed when the Telourite insisted on being released.

The Romulan codes were eventually broken, giving access to the outpost computers. There was information on an Iconian gateway which allowed instantanious travel across lightyears. The Iconians were a race who lived 200,000 years ago and the Romulans had recently found ancient ruins on Myona III which were probably Iconian.

It took three days at warp 8 to reach Myona III. Hur'krel spent the time studying the parasite. He determined a way of removing the parasite without killing the host then performed the procedure successfully on one of the Romulans. Mala spoke telepathically to the removed parasite which also survived. It still considered itself superior and boasted their plans could not be stopped and 'the gate would soon be open'.

The Romulan was interrogated. He had been aboard the warbird Decius where he had been called away by a centurion to repair baffle plates. He remembered a feeling of something in his mouth then had no other memories before waking on the Cessna. Mala read his mind and corroborated his story. She also learned the Decius's captain had been compromised and the ships core had been sabotaged so the ship could be quickly destroyed if required.

Natala scanned the Myona system, where on Myona III she detected ruins, a star fleet runabout and debris of an alien ship. There were also life signs, one human being pursued by three Romulans. The ruins were protected by a powerful deflector field and extended deep underground. The alien ship was similar to one found where the parasites were first discovered by the Enterprise. As we contemplated our next move, a Romulan warbird suddenly decloaked and attacked. Our shields took some damage but we were able to breach the warbirds shields and damage its phasors, forcing it to cloak and retreat.

We then beamed to the surface where we found Ensign Lasel from the Alkuberre in cover and under fire from the three Romulans. We had materialised behind the three Romulans and Cuellas quickly stunned one and Natala stunned another as Mala got the Cessna to beam Lasel up. The last Romulan then used his disruptor to disintegrate himself. The two stunned Romulans were sedated and beamed up to the Cessna for Hur'krel to perform his procedure later.

Mala recognised the markings on the ruins shared similarities with Danassian which was an offshoot of the Iconian language. The markings spoke of a great conflagration and exodus, and a warning to close the portal forever. A stone path through the ruins ended at an enormous stone staircase leading up a mountain. Next to a triangular stone and metal structure with a panel containing Danassian symbols. A parasite scurred into the undergrowth, too quickly for me to stun it. Scans of the structure triggered a Glowing blue triangle to appear and a chamber beyond showed on the tricorder briefly. Mala thought further scanning would trigger a defence mechanism but worked out what needed to be keyed into the panel to disable it.

The blue triangle appeared again more brightly and stabilised revealing the chamber. When we stepped into the chamber it started descending deep into the structure. Eventually it stopped, giving us access to a corridor with a door on our right and another further down on our left. Nine infected Romulans showed our tricorders about 50 metres away next to a peculiar energy reading. We found about 25 Palm sized pyramids in the room on our right. Scanning with a tricorder revealed they were emitting energy. Natala picked one up and experienced visions of Iconians fleeing. The experience was a mental strain and gave her a headache. Mala picked one up and sensed a telepathic field round it. As Ferengi are immune to telepathy, I collected the undamaged pyramids for later study. Further Tricorder scans showed the room was controlling the deflector shield.

Mala successfully entered some codes and powered down the deflector field. The lights dimmed and we heard sounds of a machine starting, then a voice which said "Too late the gateway is active". We quickly beamed back up to the Cessna then bombarded the structure with the phasor arrays and photon torpedoes, completely destroying it. The Romulans we had on board who were infected with parasites died quickly after we did this, and we presume the parasite queen creature had been in the structure and had died in the bombardment.