Chapter Text
Preliminary Mission Report
Subject: Extraction of Federation Personnel from Sirpae 3.
Stardate: 5315.7
Lieutenant Sulu, Navigator, USS Enterprise Reporting.
I am filing this informal report at the request of Engineer Scott, who is currently in command of the Enterprise. It is his hope that something that I saw or heard may help with the situation unfolding on Sirpae 3. At the present time, I’m the only one who participated in the mission to the planet who is able to file a report of any kind. Of the five Enterprise crewmembers who beamed down to Sirpae 3 yesterday, three of us are in Sickbay, one is dead and one is missing.
Lieutenant Jonathan Holmes, anthropologist, died on Sirpae 3 in the performance of his duty. First Officer Spock and Ensign Janet Wen, security, are currently in Sickbay, unconscious and suffering from the effects of some sort of poison that Dr. McCoy and the labs are trying to identify. I am recovering from a phaser burn. The captain is missing.
A little background information might be helpful to try to make sense of all of this. When I reread that last paragraph, even I get confused, and I was there on the planet, as it all played out.
To try to begin at the beginning, eleven days ago the Enterprise was ordered to Sirpae 3. According to Starfleet, the Sirpaens were less than two weeks away from celebrating the beginning of their year 3333, the start of what they call the Quadrannium, the fourth millennium by their calendar. The Sirpaens, who use a counting system based on the number 11, attach great significance to this event. There are all sorts of legends surrounding the beginning of the fourth millennium, though it had been widely believed by sociologists in the Federation that most of them had long been relegated to myth.
However, as the Quadrannium drew closer, certain fundamentalist religious leaders began to try to revive the old myths, including, most ominously for the Federation, a prophecy that Sirpae 3 would be destroyed in a conflagration if outworlders witnessed the beginning of 3333. Mind you, Sirpae 3 is a sophisticated and technologically advanced planet that has been a Federation member for nearly 100 years. But, suddenly, this worldly culture took a turn towards superstition and decided to call for the expulsion of all outworlders.
The Federation charter requires that its member worlds be in total accord with the presence of the Federation. Bowing to the wishes of the fundamentalists, and propelled by several really vicious acts of terrorism directed at the Federation Embassy, the government of Sirpae 3 made it very clear that the Federation was no longer welcome on their planet. They formally declared their intention to resign from the Federation and plans were made to remove all outworlders from Sirpae 3. A fleet of ships was dispatched to remove the Federation Embassy and all its personnel.
Of course, things are never as simple as they seem, particularly when diplomats are involved. With two weeks to go before the beginning of the Quadrannium, several dozen non-Sirpaens refused to leave. Some of them were married to natives and some just didn’t want to miss what promised to be the biggest party in the planet’s history.
The Enterprise was ordered to Sirpae 3 to "assist and oversee the final extraction of all Federation persons on the planet, using whatever means are necessary." I remember thinking, when that order came in on the bridge, that it was amazing how the Enterprise always seemed to draw the most difficult assignments. Sometimes it feels as if we attract trouble. Maybe, since our captain has been so good at solving problems, Starfleet finds a way for us to be in the middle of things. Who knows? The fact is, the Enterprise sees more than her share of action and usually, she does pretty well.
Shortly after the Enterprise’s orders came in from Starfleet Captain Kirk called for a briefing. Lieutenant Holmes, from Anthropology, began with a complete rundown of the events that led up to our assignment. Apparently, he had spent some time on Sirpae 3 as part of his doctoral work, and was very familiar with the legends and prophecies surrounding 3333. He seemed surprised that the Sirpaens were actually going to resign from the Federation. He suggested that this might be a temporary form of cultural madness that would blow over when the Quadrannium came and went. However, the Federation “experts” were not inclined to take any chances.
The captain discussed strategies for locating and extracting the remaining Federation people. I could tell that he was pretty unhappy about this assignment, since it looked like it was going to be impossible not to make someone mad. The Sirpaens didn’t want any one left on their planet and the non-Sirpaens didn’t want to leave. That left us in the middle, as usual. Our orders were to try to contact everyone who was to be evacuated, and if they couldn’t be persuaded, to involuntarily beamed them up. As we discussed that part of our assignment, I saw the look that Captain Kirk gave to Mr. Spock. Neither of them liked to use the power of the Enterprise to force people against their will. But, Starfleet gave them no choice.
The Federation Ambassador, who was still on the planet, furnished a list of names and possible locations. The captain requested that Mr. Spock begin a scan protocol to locate the Federation people as quickly as possible, because the Enterprise would have less than two days in orbit to complete this assignment. Captain Kirk doesn’t like to leave anything to chance and he made sure that we were prepared to undertake our assignment, however unpleasant he might find it.
The Enterprise assumed a standard orbit around the planet right on schedule and the captain contacted the Sirpaien government. I was on the bridge and I couldn’t help noticing that the Prime Minister didn’t make eye contact with Captain Kirk once during their entire conversation. He informed the captain that one of the extremist groups, led by a woman named Oribol, had hunted down the remaining 47 Federation people on the planet, including Ambassador Cloyes. Oribol’s religious cult was known to be one of the most ruthless on the planet. The captain was informed that some of the offworlders were already dead and the rest were in imminent danger of being executed. The Prime Minister was unable or unwilling to intervene and urged the captain to try to contact Oribol directly to negotiate for the captives’ release.
I remember the captain’s reaction. He’s really something to watch in a crisis. He straightened his shoulders as he sat in his command chair. That’s something he does when he’s really frustrated. Only those of us who know Captain Kirk could see him struggle to keep his anger at the Prime Minister under control. He turned to Mr. Spock, and in that way he has of making the best of a bad situation, commented with an ironic smile, that the extremists had done half of his job for him. At least now they knew where all the Federation people were.
Uhura performed her usual wizardry and within minutes had established communications between Captain Kirk and Oribol. The captain was very polite, very controlled. He tried to convince her that if she would just release the hostages, they’d both get what they wanted. The captain can be very persuasive, but this woman had the look of a fanatic. She finally agreed to consider the release of her hostages, but she insisted on meeting with Captain Kirk in person. This seemed pretty strange, since that meant that there would be more offworlders on the planet. However, Oribol was adamant. The captain ordered Holmes, Wen, Spock, and me to accompany him and we beamed down to the coordinates furnished to us.
Dr. McCoy just came in. He needs to check my dressing, so I’ll try to finish this as soon as he’s done.