<snip>

They were in the nebula for approximately 10 mins and the Science station began to beep.

GM Budgie

“Oh good, I love a beep,” Brad murmured.

Lt. Commander Dev Siobhan quietly stepped onto the bridge and took her station at Science 1. She tapped the console, answering the alert at her station.

Lt. Commander Dev ○●●
Chief Science Officer
U.S.S. Ogawa

Answering the alert brought up some background results, a very small, very brief anomaly had been detected. As soon as it began, it was over.

“Commander, I briefly detected a small anomaly, but it has already dissipated. Localized but irregular.” She paused, parsing the filtered readouts.

“Cause unknown, but I’m not reading any residual ionization or gravimetric distortion. It could have been a subspace eddy, but there is no way to be certain.”

“Work with security. I want to make sure we’re not missing anything,” Dira said.

The XO turned and looked her. “Commander, as soon as you can get a clear result, scan everything you can on that ship. We need to know what we are dealing with before we send anyone over there.”

Cmdr. Royal Sinclair, XO

“Aye, Sir,” Commander Dev replied, at the same time initiating scans.

Lt. Commander Dev ○●●
Chief Science Officer
U.S.S. Ogawa

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

The Ogawa moved closer and closer to the unknown ship- after a few minutes it was well within scanning range.

A scan of the plague ship would confirm that 349 people were aboard- this number dropped by two while Dev read the results. It was a medium-to large vessel with very limited combat capabilities. It was more of a transport ship rather than a combat cruiser. The ship was like nothing Dev had ever seen before. It was a technological marvel. It seemed like the ship was partially “alive” combing organic material throughout. Another important note, the scans showed that the ship had multi phasic shielding and seemed completely unaffected by the nebula.

GM Budgie

“Commander, we have 349 life signs aboard the vessel—”

She stopped. Blinked once.

“…Correction. 347.”

Brad winced.

Dira knew that they weight of deaths would hang over the crew the more they got involved and it was important to acknowledge the situation. “Shit,” she said, loud enough to be heard. She took a dee breath and blew it out.

There was a beat of silence. Then she continued, her tone tightening.

“It’s a transport-class ship. Lightly armored, no significant weapons array. But… the hull is interlaced with organic structures—symbiotic, maybe even partially sentient. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s not just advanced—it’s different. Built on principles we haven’t fully mapped.”

Brad’s ears perked up at that nugget.

She adjusted the field, eyes narrowing.

“Multiphasic shielding. It’s holding steady in the nebula—completely unaffected by the interference. They’re operating in an environment that would disrupt one of our own vessels, and doing so effortlessly.”

Her jaw tightened, just slightly.

“This wasn’t built for war, but it wasn’t built by amateurs either. And those lost life signs…” She glanced toward the XO. “If this plague is as advanced as the ship, we’re going to need more than standard protocols.”

She tapped the console again, initiating a deeper analysis.

“I’ll keep digging.”

Lt. Commander Dev ○●●
Chief Science Officer
U.S.S. Ogawa

“I want to know if the virus or whatever it is is impacting the organic parts of the ship,” Brad chimed in. That could be a possible vector to find a treatment.

Myqian also was thinking something similar. “It’s a good question we can ask.”

He also tapped his commbadge. =/\=Walker to triage deck. Current patient count is 347.=/\=

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff

=/\=Kane here. Triage is built out for 200 beds. We are setting up secondary sickbay for additional quarantine beds, but that will drop us from 100 beds to 65. We may need to use the 60 beds in counseling if there are any more.=/\=

Lt. Cmdr. Kane, AMO

Dira nodded as her teams chatted and she turned to Walker. “Dr. Grayson has the space in psychiatry. We don’t have any serious long-term patients just now given we were at base for repairs. She and her team can double as medics as well. So put them to good use.”

Captain Myqian, CO

Brad nodded. =/\=Use whatever space you need. Draft in the psychiatry staff to help as needed as well. They should have at least enough medical training to be nurses,=/\= he replied to Kane.

In addition to the basics of the nebula, scans would also show something rather odd. The nebula was 2 ly at its longest and the inner 1 ly was the most dense and turbulent. The nebula seemed on the surface to be a standard planetary nebula with evidence to suggest that there had been a second stellar remnant there, but there was no second remnant in the system. Additionally, there was hydrogen and helium present, but no carbon, oxygen and nitrogen as one would expect. The metallicity seemed oddly low as well for a nebula of this type and size. The nova remnant present is also too new to have created the nebula itself, so the question is, where is the original remnant?

~Mischief Maker

Cmdr. Dr. Brad Walker
Chief of Staff