[snip]

It is almost a month and a half later since their last mission. The Merrimack in that time was given some simple patrol missions near and around DS K-5, in addition to lending some extra man power on, in or around the Station. But as 2335 hours in the late night comes up. The bridge of the Merrimack for those on the night shift lights up with a pinging sound hail by DS K-5 Station Commander, Commodore Stone.

GM CockRoach

Max was sitting on the bridge being the acting captain for the night shift. He did this from time to time to hopefully learn more about command. He heard the hail and said to the current office at comms, “Ensign Schwartz, Please open the hailing request.” Once Ensign Schwartz nodded at Max, he said, “Lt Mullins, USS Merrimack, here, How can we help you Commodore Stone?” Max was very curious on why someone would be hailing the Merrimack at such a late hour. It was probably something very imporant. This was the first time Max had received a hail while being the acting captain on a night shift. He wanted to do the correct thing the first time it happened. He knew this would be part of the job and it had taken a few rotations on the Merrimack as the night captain before it occurred. He wanted to prove to everyone, mostly himself, he was worthy of one day being a Captain.

Lt. Mullins Chief Engineer

=/\= Good evening Lt Mullins, apologies for disrupting your shift. But a matter was passed onto me from Admiral Baker from Federation Colonial Outreach. As you may or not know the colonial outreach division of the Federation and Starfleet oversees and tracks independent colonies that settle outside the Federation borders and usually what little to no contact with the Federation there after. Still in their interest of safety and in the hope that at some point they may decide to reunite with us the division keeps its eyes and ears to the ground when stuff crops up. =/\= Stone explained.

Taking a sip of coffee or tea from a cup, Stone continued. =/\= About 82 years ago one such group went far beyond our then borders. Numbering nearly 15,000 some men women and children, all human they settled on a plant that they later called, Unity I. The system has since been labeled as Unity. Over the years they’ve only done the most bare minimal of trade. Family members at the time they left, or since, that refused to cut ties with the Federation and Starfleet were disowned, as were their descendants later on. Occasionally some of their own people leave the colony and either fall in with independent merchant groups or in much rare cases join the Federation and Starfleet. As a result these people sometimes are in contact with Unity. But over the past 6 months more and more reports have come in that these people have had no contact from Unity. As a result they finally reached out to Colonial Outreach to ask that a Starfleet ship be sent to check up on the colony and render assistance if needed, and if not then at least find out why they’ve gone silent for so long.=/\= He said, pausing again to sip his cup.

=/\= We’re sending you what we know of Unity over the past 10 years, any other older information we find unlikely to be of any real use. I’m also readying some spare cargo on the station here, for the use of medical and food and such resupply, just in case you need it or want to use it as a gift or peace offering etc. Please have some NE’s in your transporter rooms stand by for receiving in the next 20 or so minutes. Please wake Captain Glen and inform him of these events, I will be gathering some other information of the region we have for a full formal briefing with him and his staff by 0100 hours this morning, expect a further call then. Otherwise do you have any questions? =/\= He asked.

GM CockRoach