"You will obey me."
As laid out in a brief, first scene between Captain Mason and President Taylor, the
Helia has followed Doctor Rogan's advice and is back on the road, dropping subspace calling cards for Denara Clarke's Halkonian contingent that is somewhere out in the cosmos. However, the increasingly routine procedure of preparing and deploying these beacons took an unusual turn for one of the senior staff.
Craig McClintock was suddenly haunted by his experience on Rajusca in the worst possible way. Taunted by a image of Vega that appeared before him, it was implied that not all of the nano-virus had been eradicated from his system. Laying dormant before reactivating, After something of a... breaking in period... Vega was able to bend McClintock to her will - which was perhaps unexpected. Having the Chief Engineer of her adversaries' starship put her in a powerful position, but it was not one used to bring harm to the ship or it's crew. Instead, she used McClintock to hijack the flight control and put the ship on a new course. McClintock collapsed before the Helia reached its destination, leaving him in (an also absent :P) Rogan's care in Sickbay.
"There's something familiar about this place..."
Unexpectedly arriving at an asteroid field, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, the crew regained helm control and assessed their surroundings. Before long, Jemma Etis realized that something was amiss. Their sensors were missing something directly ahead of them - jumping over an area of space as through it wasn't there. Something large had been (quite poorly) hidden - and it was something they wouldn't otherwise have noticed unless directed here intentionally. With sensors continuously recalibrated, the ship closed in on the hidden objects position and the truth was revealed. It was a space station. An oddly familiar looking space station. One which conformed to Pioneer's
original Starfleet-only specifications. Trimmed down, with all civilian amenities removed - such as the Promenade, diplomatic wards and extensive guest quarters.
"Who wants to see what's behind door number two?"
Shielded all but for the expansive hanger bay, it appeared that the welcome mat had already been laid out. Unable to use their transporters, however, Menden arranged an away team to board the foreign (and seemingly abandoned) facility by means of shuttlecraft. On their boarding the station, questions of it's origin and purpose were immediately raised. Within the hanger bay, both an Illuminati fighter from 2384 and a Romulan shuttlecraft were docked. Layton was able to access extremely basic information on the base - including a name. Research and Development Station:
Midas.
Exploring the base, one team covered and remained within Operations while Layton split to play spot-the-difference in Engineering. Menden's attempt to access the main computer with his own command code was met with an Intruder Alert which may or may not have had a part to play in their eventual departure. Joining forces on both sides of the station, however, Etis and Layton were able to begin the process of locating the station's heavily encrypted (and redacted) log files. It was then that small pieces of a very large jigsaw began to be revealed. Piecing together one of the logs, Etis discovered that a piece of the wreckage from the Starship Athena (destroyed in 2385 (http://www.last-outpost.net/forum/index.php/topic,5407.0.html)) aswell as a recovered item which was aboard. Supposedly transferred to the science laboratory upon its arrival, Etis and Costello made their way down to investigate while Layton continued their work and made a few discoveries of his own.
"It can't be... can it?"
Continuing to peruse the logs, Layton's attempts to reveal their secrets shone a light on a few recurring words and phrases. Among them, references to '
The Project,' '
Convergence' and the year
2393. His relaying of this new information coincided with another discovery in the science lab. The debris from the Athena remained on board, but the supposed recovered item was nowhere to be seen, until an image file dating back a number of years was seemingly left highlighted for Etis to find. This was an image of the science lab, bustling with life and containing some familiar and unfamiliar faces. Among them, the man that Mason knows as 'The Truth' and Maria Vega. Another figure lurks in the shadow of the open doorway while an older man has his back turned to the camera, but towards a suspended object.
On closer inspection, Etis recognized what the object was - an Accobi Control Bracelet, presumably the one Munro used to escape the Athena's destruction over five years prior. It's ultimate fate had been left unknown, with the only other bracelet having been stolen by Denara Clarke at the end of the fourth season. Powerful technology, ultimately capable of interfacing with ancient weaponry and defenses within and surrounding Accobar, seemingly in the hands of shadowed conspirators at the heart of something deep and dark which goes back decades... and they were on their way.
"We've got a lot of company, Commander!"
As an unknown contact jumped in range of the station, Menden found himself contained and alone in Operations until a new arrival revealed himself. 'The Truth' appeared to Menden, warning him that they should never have come to this place and that it was imperative that they left - taking nothing that they had found with them. Revealing that he had already made Mason's acquaintance, he insisted that Menden should not argue on the matter as further ships were closing in on their position - a fact that the Helia was able to confirm in good time.
Choosing to comply, Menden ordered the away team back to the shuttlecraft and had all the data that they collected destroyed before fleeing the facility. Once the shuttle was recovered, the Helia jumped away before The Truth's associates arrived....
On Pioneer, Vega communicated with an unknown male contact. He warned her that it wasn't too late to rejoin the group and that leniency would be showed. She was also warned that Mason's crew had located Midas - and it was suggested that 'they' knew that Vega was responsible. She ignored their warnings and instead presented an addition to her attire. From out of a secure case came the missing Accobi Control Bracelet which she slowly lowered on to her wrist.
"Every hive needs a Queen..."
Though not the most exciting of episodes, and definitely more geared towards long-term members, this is what the Vega arc has aways been about. It has been a conduit. It has been a way to introduce the wider Accobar conspiracy to newer members which drip-feeding answers and connecting the dots for the old timers. Things are going to ramp up from hereon in and what has been a very cold war between Vega and world outside Accobar is about to heat up. Then there are the questions that this episode raised. What is the project? What is convergence? What is going to happen in 2393? How did the bracelet get from being in the secret custody of Amber Munro to a secret, seemingly Starfleet facility in the Beta Quadrant? What group connects The Truth and Maria Vega and why do both seem to be going out of their way to help Mason and her crew in the most unlikely of circumstances?
This game is far from over.