Physicians assistant Ch'chik - Patrick
Engineering technician Adam Peterson (human) - Robert
Security officer ROB-0-T (android) - Derek
Security officer Sarda (Vulcan) - DarkNightDetective
Security officer Iker Zin (Changling) - Beardedninja

I was assigned my first posting on the USS Vesta which I boarded at Starbase 364 with some other new ensigns. I had hardly been aboard an hour when the Vesta left the starbase on an urgent mission. I was assigned to the Gamma shift which worked during the ships night cycle.

After some training and orientation sessions, I was assigned to scrubbing the Bussard collectors on Deck 19. A team from Alpha shift lead by Mia Johnson, a human, came to challenge us to a game of 'Neutral zone'. The other members of the Alpha shift team were an Denoblian called Zinette, an Andorian called Verosan, a Betazoid called Lemestra Dulas, and a human called Elijah Rodrejez. Our team lead Peterson accepted the challenge and we met them in holodeck 7. This activity did not make much sense to me as it served no obvious purpose. There were accusations of cheating and arguments and the members of Alpha shift left. Suddenly the holodeck shut down and everything went dark. The ship rocked violently as main power failed, and auxiliary systems shut down automatically.

I manually forced the door open with Iker. The ship was on red alert and something was pulling the ship to starboard. We heard sounds of wild animals. Creatures that looked like canines but were wearing ragged starfleet uniforms attacked us from the darkness and Peterson stunned them all with a well aimed wide beam shot. They had the name tags of the Alpha shift team. Whatever had just happened, had not just disabled the ship, it also had somehow affected the crew. However my team appeared to be unaffected.

We followed the sounds of another animal roaring. The Vesta was exhibiting strange environmental issues. Steam came from Chief Valaris suite. When the door was opened it was like a sauna inside. The bath was overflowing and had a submerged aquatic creature inside wearing a uniform with Valeris's name. The roaring got closer, and we heard sounds of a creature tearing through the deck plates from above. Whgen it broke through we realised it was the Chief medical officer Kar'Tak who had turned into some form of primitive Klingon creature. Phasors on stun had little effect. It damaged an EPN conduit which exploded and caught fire.

Peterson started working on the fire suppression system, extinguishing the fire. Iker turned into a phasor II which I set to intense and used to stun the Kar'Tak creature. We then climbed in the Jeffries tubes towards engineering on deck 11. The creature regained conscious quickly and had to be stunned again when it tried to attack Ch'chik. Sarda heard sounds above us and when he scanned with his tricorder, detected an arachnid lifeform above.

We reached deck 13 where we heard a faint cry for help. There were other chittering noises that Ch'chik interpreted as food and larder and shouted back that we were not food. There were many cobwebs in the corridor which Sarda burned away with his phasor. The arachnoid appeared out of the darkness and it was wearing Security Chief Lawrences uniform. It seemed very interested in Ch'chik until Peterson shot and stunned it.

The Kar'Tak creature climbed back up the Jeffries tube again and I stunned it again as it reached the top, causing it to fall, but the ship shook again as I fired, causing me to drop the Iker phaser down the tube as well.

In the security office there was a cocoon with cries for help coming from the inside. Peterson cut into the cocoon and found Security officer Grey inside, though he had transformed part way into some form of furry mammal. Ch'chik mixed something which he hoped would smell bad enough to prevent the Kar'Tak creature from following us, and it was thrown down the Jeffries tube to cover him. It appeared to work as the creature did not follow us after that.

We climbed to deck 11. There was scattered fruit and slime trails everywhere, and shapes swinging across the ceiling. A gastropod wearing Chief engineer Quig's uniform appeared. He somehow communicated with Iker telepathically that he wanted help as he had turned into a slug. I climbed up to a view port, through which I could see a quantum filament which the Vesta was being pulled towards.

Peterson initiated the sequence to restart the warp core but the computer reported the starboard plasma vent was blocked. Peterson went to clear it while Sarda worked to reroute conn to engineering. Peterson found the vent was blocked by tribbles so he beamed them to cargo bay 1, then I took us to warp 1 to escape the filament. My internal database record of tribbles indicated that they were a very dangerous species, able to destroy whole ecosystems. Beaming them to another part of the ship did not appear logical but Peterson must have had knowledge about cargo bay 1 that I am not aware of concerning its ability to contain such creatures.

We then started climbing up to the computer core on deck 9. Iker had gone to deck 8 where he heard voices saying things like "we have found things to make us strong". The door to the computer room had been hastily cut by a Breen disruptor at full power. Inside he found two humanoids, one with a primitive bow and arrow, and one with a Breen disruptor pistol. The one with the pistol fired at Iker but missed, and Iker disabled him.

I climbed up quickly to deck 9 when I heard weapons fire and found another two of the humanoids scavenging part of the computer core, so I quickly stunned them. One of them had a belt buckle which started beeping then projected a holographic image of a female humanoid on the bridge which claimed to have rights to the Vesta. She then issued a command and a force field appeared around us. It was only level 4 so I recommended we all fire our phasors to overload it, but Peterson went to a console which was inside the forcefield and was able to deactivate it. The humanoids were a species called Pakleds, who have a reputation for obtaining new technology through theft.

I then headed up towards the bridge with Ch'chik while Peterson and Stada stayed to start repairing the computer core. Peterson restored power to the turbo lifts so we did not have to climb all the way in the Jeffreys tubes, however they must have suffered damage as the turbo lift went off in a different direction then stopped. I tried to force open an emergency hatch, but was hit by a power discharge and had to trigger automated repair protocols while Ch'chik used a phasor to cut open the hatch.

Iker reached the bridge where most of the crew were unconscious. The female Pakled was there with two others. He convinced her that he could repair the ship for her and talked her into providing the device she was using to access the ships computer systems.

Finally I reached the bridge with Ch'chik. Sensors showed a Romulan ship was heading towards us. Iker shapeshifted into a Romulan then hailed the ship. He claimed to have commandeered the ship from the federation though they did not believe him and asked for identification. Iker made some up which they quickly determined to be false. He then revealed is true form as a changeling and said we had medical problems. They offered to beam over to help and Iker agreed.

I went to investigate what was making noise in the captains ready room and found the Captain who had turned into some sort of neanderthal. He attacked me so I knocked him out and locked him back in his ready room for his own safety.

Iker got internal sensors back online. The crews life forms were all in a state of genetic flux. Ch'chik went to sickbay to try to find out what had happened to the crew, and started screaming over the comm that the crew had been affected by a virus, and that having left the Bussard collectors we had now been exposed. Chief science officer Vokaya appeared in sickbay as some magma creature causing fires and Ch'chik ordered the activation of the fire suppression systems which immobilised him.

Iker went to the transporter room to meet the Romulan Commander Modox and the other Romulans he had allowed to beam on board, then took them to the bridge where he handed over the Pakled device which gave control of the ships systems. Commander Modox then ordered all weapons to be locked onto the Pakled ship. Peterson persuaded them not to fire and they locked a tractor beam onto the ship instead.

Some of the Romulans had gone to sickbay where they helped Ch'chik produce a cure for the virus based on the Pakled immunity to it. It was dispersed throughout the ship as a gas which cured the crew who slowly returned to normal. Admiral Wilson was released from his ready room and Commander Modox relinquished command of the Vesta back to him. There were some side effects to the cure and Admiral Wilson was exhibiting some Pakled characteristics for a while afterwards.

Admiral Wilson gave us commendations for our actions then assigned us the duty of clearing the tribble infestation which Peterson had caused as the creatures had started escaping from cargo bay 1.