We were performing a shakedown of the Luna when we were ordered to proceed to Janus 6 and contact Wilson Vanderberg there. There were reports of a virus there, and some of the Hora had turned violent. The Captain ordered us to max warp, but vibrations as the Luna was taken towards warp 9.975 indicated we still had teething problems so we dropped back to warp 7 and I ran diagnostics. The doctor came to engineering with a Tholian disruptor rifle and wanted to know if it could be replicated. It used Thoron energy and had a very high energy output though it was quite delicate. I succeeded in replicating one while waiting for the diagnostics to complete. The diagnostics reported the warp core plasma temperature was far above optimum and needed to be flushed to cool the core. The captain ordered me to do so without dropping from warp and the procedure was successful.

Six ships were in orbit of Janus 6. Three federation, two independent, and one automated. Five hailed Luna, and wanted to know what was going on. They could not contact surface, and Pergium production had stopped. Sensors showed 157 lifeforms in the mines and power fluctuations from the reactor. Interference was affecting communications but we succeeded in cleaning up the interference and were able to talk with the administrator Wilson Vanderberg. He just wanted us to fix everything and was unhelpful. He said about half of the miners were suffering from a virus and some of the Horta had started being hostile, attacking and targeting specific equipment.

Away teams were sent to the surface in environmental suits. I lead an engineering team to look at repairing any malfunctioning equipment and Therok lead a medical team to investigate the virus. Shortly after we arrived there was an unauthorised entry into the vehicle shed and two vehicles were taken. K'Tiri lead a chase after the vehicles which appeared to be heading towards the Chamber of Ages, the Hora's most sacred place.

Therok determined the virus was silicon based and the victims were suffering from Mendraik Nuclearosis, an incurable condition which eventually resulted in the victims organs melting. A search of the ships library revealed the virus had been encountered previously but had now been genetically engineered to be resistant to Thoron radiation and become more deadly.

Suddenly the automated ship in orbit deployed 3 armed satellites, targeting the Luna and settlement. The Luna opened fire on one of the satellites, but it was virtually unaffected. They quickly destroyed all the freighters in orbit and overloaded the Luna's shields, forcing her to retreat. The satellites were being powered remotely from Janus 6's moon. The Luna took repeated hits from the satellites, suffering major damage, before firing a full spread of quantum torpedoes at the power station moon, obliterating it. The satellites immediately lost lower and became inactive.

Vokaya got in front of the vehicles and stoped them by boring a hole in front of them which they fell into, though he got shot in the process. Another Horta burst from the rock and looked to attack until K'Tiri called that we were friends and to stop. It was in great pain and appeared to be infected by something as it was covered in something silver.

K'Tiri arranged for the infected Horta to be transported to Therok in sickbay, but one of the miners drew a phasor on Therok and told him to stop and step away from the transporter. Therok dived for cover as he fired, and returned fire, stunning him but damaging the transporter in the process. His blood was green and a scan showed he was a surgically altered Cardassian. I was called to repair the transporter so the Horta could be beamed to sickbay.

The Cardassian was called Glina Sol of the Obsidian order. The Cardassians intended to disrupt the Pergium production as part of their expansionist policy in conjunction with the Dominion. He boasted that in stage 1 they intended to disrupt as much federation infrastructure as possible before attacking.

Vokaya then rushed off to chamber of ages, and K'Tiri followed. He found the mother Horta in the chamber with Vokaya. Both had the silver coating indicating they were infected and the mother Horta was near death. There was also a container in the chamber with a silicate substance inside.

The container was the source of the infection and Therok was able to produce a cure. I beamed back up to the Luna where I found it to have suffered catastrophic damage. I had to advise the captain that he would need to call a salvage ship to tow the Luna back to a dry dock for repairs.