'Federation Day' Discussion Thread

[Grizz]

It all got a bit black and white for this week's Martin Thompson penned installment of Star Trek: Asteroid Field. The first half of the mid-season finale saw Jemma's father outed as a former Starfleet Intelligence officer and the revelation that her mother was being held at a secretive Romulan outpost on a moon in the Yddris system.

A clandestine operation followed Henry Etis, Costello, Mason, Rogan & Riker as they infiltrated the outpost (fitted with completely outdated night-vision gear) and quietly distrated and took down the few guards they encountered along the way. The lack of defenses for the facility proved suspicious, and Mason was repeatedly reminded that her distrust of the situation may be well-justified. The Captain was more concerned with the information that Henry had spotted details concerning an operation involving Pioneer upon his initial escape from the compound - choosing to replace Commander Menden on the away mission - but was there another reason?

Mason kept her distance during the briefing aboard the Hera - and it was far from the first mention of Henry Etis' past actions. In the second season, it was implied that she had hidden information relating to Jemma's father, which she obtained during Walter Peirce's stay aboard Pioneer. In the third season, Jemma met Peirce at the Red Dawn compound, and he was close to telling her what Mason had covered up. Finally, at the end of the fourth season, Amber Munro told Mason that somebody would have to address the Henry Etis situation, sooner rather than later - suggesting that Mason passed on whatever she learned. Jemma was far from accomodating of her father keeping secrets from her - how would she react upon learning that Mason had long since been hiding this from her?

With Jemma's mother (Selar) recovered from the compound, the away team learnt that the Romulans were in the process of wiping information from the computer core. On their return to the Hera, the crew set course back to Pioneer at maximum speed - concerned that they were already too late to prevent whatever had been planned for their station. Sure enough, their fears were confirmed upon arriving at Accobar.

Through means yet to be explained, disgraced Romulan Ambassador Taval had stormed Pioneer and taken the crew's friends and family hostage on board - actively threatening Sullivan's sister in Operations. Henry and Taval exchanged pleasantries, with the former explaining that it isn't Pioneer that Taval wants, questioning the whereabouts of Jemma's tricorder which she left behind aboard Devlin Mark's ship earlier in the season.

Taval has long since tried to reclaim Accobar for the Romulan Star Empire - with schemes dating back to attempting to derail the Taylor Peace Agreement in the first season of Asteroid Field - but now he seemingly has another objective in mind. Or has it always been one of his goals? You'll just have to come back next week for the mid-season finale to find out - there are a number of surprises to come!

Thank you to Martin for putting this two-part story together and coordinating the roleplay as we went along - it has certainly been a long time coming  Thanks for attending and cooperating with the map & character changes -  now do the clever thing: rate and discuss, above and below!

[Martin Thompson]

I hope you all enjoyed this episode because there is more where that came from next week!

I would really like to hear your feedback about this episode. There was a lot of stuff that needed to be told and at times it felt as if I was the only one speaking (which was probably true). Did you like this kind of more hands-off story-telling episode or would you rather see more action and be left to your own devices? Well if the latter is the case, don't worry, because next week we will need the entire crew on board the Hera in order to do what needs to be done.