U.S.S. Dudley

NCC - 1971

4. Moons of Latinum

Stardate 44191.4

A moon is falling from orbit and threatening an un-contacted world.  Can the crew save the planet without breaking the Prime directive, made more difficult with the appearance of a Ferengi starship.

“Captain’s Log, stardate… oh you know that bit.  Following our Romulan encounter we now leave space dock, the USS Dudley has been given full security clearance to continue.  I welcome aboard new crew member assistant engineer Lt. Loki, head of astrometric sciences Lt. Astra and navigation officer Ensign Eddy. I must now hand the bridge over to my first officer as I have an important duty to perform.”

Holodeck.  Junior grade lieutenants Poppius and Qaan sand outside Starfleet Academy before the stature if Zefram Cochrane, reaching for the stars.  Commander Gann steps forward and awards promotion to full Lieutenant to Clint Poppius.  The Captain then steps forward and awards K’reela Qaan promotion to full Lieutenant and the position of Chief Engineer.

On the bridge a distress signal is received from the planet Hellenia.  The message breaks up, but Ensign T’poc confirms that there is a Federation Anthropological Survey Team on the planet.  The USS Dudley goes to Warp 8!

Arriving at Hellenia the crew discover that the planets moon is losing its orbit.  In twelve hours it will beyond saving and will hit the planet causing insurmountable damage.  The Federation Team, based on the moon, cannot be contacted so an Away Team is transported across.  Commander Jane Marcus is found trapped by falling debris, and they also find the alien engineer Rixx.  Professor Daniels is on the planet.

Back on the USS Dudley Commander Marcus explains the people, blue skinned humanoids, are a simple primitive people with a culture not unlike ancient Greece.  The worship a being they call The Goddess who walks Amongst Us.

The USS Dudley makes some scans and investigations.

-     the moon has undergone a powerful gravity blast from an unknown source.

-     Professor Daniels is found but is in the company of a group of Helens so cannot be transported.

-     The Prime Directive forbids the crew from making contact with the Helens, even if it means letting them be destroyed.

-     The crew learn The Goddess who walks Amongst Us is normally found in her temple atop the hill next to the largest city, Athens.

-     An unknown energy source is detected either under the hill or the city.  The power is slowing dying; the crew surmise it may have been holding the moon in orbit.

Commander Marcus and Lt. Vec transport back to the base to recover some holo-cloaks that will allow the crew to beam down to the planet in disguise.  A shuttle is launched to take a closer scan of the power source, remotely piloted by Lt. Poppius.

At this point a Ferengi Starship drops out of warp,  The Ferengi refuse to answer hails giving Captain Hubert no choice but to go to Yellow Alert and raise shields!

On the moon Lt. Vec and Commander Marcus retrieve the holosuits, but the base is breaking up. The shuttle cannot be launched, so they use the transporter to beam to the runabout Lt. Poppius is controlling. They then move to a safe distance.

The Ferengi starship refuse to answer hails. The group realise the Ferengi are going to interfere, so decide to wait. If the Ferengi make contact with the Helens people then the PCs can go down too without breaking the Prime Directive. The USS Dudley moves away so they can drop shields to allow the runabout to dock.

Sure enough the Ferengi transport down to the city. Their intention is to offer help... at a price of course.

An Away Team (Vex, Zeek, Poppius and Marcus) beams down to the temple where they encounter the goddess Aphrodite

The group persuade her to let them help. Aphrodite shows them her power source, and Cmdr Zeek believes the USS Dudley can renew her power source.


 

I'm a fan on the ancient Greek pantheon of gods, and have used them before in my Star Wars: Beyond the Blood Drift campaign.

The primary antagonists are the Ferengi.  I bring in another homebrew race, the Helens, who worship the goddess Aphrodite whom they refer to as 'The goddess who walks amongst us."

I based this Aphrodite on the same race as Apollo in;
TOS "Who mourns for Adonais?"

To make the Ferengi a threat Daimon Zork has an alien device giving him the power to move a small moon, which he uses to threaten the Helens so he can extort money from them to save them.  The alien device is never elaborated on.

It is a total twist on the original TOS story, where they destroy Apollo's power source, that the PCs actually help restore Aphrodite's power.