Posts: 61

The starship Ulysses is traveling at warp factor 7.5 to rendezvous with the Federation starship Zheng He in the BD+18 1563 Isonzo star system. Some months ago, the Federation Science Council's survey vessel Konstanin Tsiolkovsky detected ruins on the third moon of the fourth planet.
With it's last refit completed a few scant weeks ago at the Proxima Shipyards around Proxima Centauri Colony, the Ulysses stops at Starbase 15 near Denobula Triax for resupply and refuel. We begin the mission underway, heading toward the Isonzo star system, passing the B'Saar system and Relay 1161.
It will take the Ulysses twenty-eight days to arrive at Isonzo- enough time for the new crew members to get acquainted and begin finding a rhythm with one another.

Posts: 44

Federation starships Ulysses and Zheng He, after nearly a month at warp, arrive at the distant wilderness star system of BD+18 1563 Isonzo. Around the fourth planet in the system- a medium gas giant- is a large Class P moon with a number of city-like ruins in glaciated surface and subterrranean complexes. Ulysses and Zheng He beam down their initial survey teams and set up camp, determined to uncover the secret of the mysterious extinct species known as Yxtoxi.
Meanwhile, the Zheng He detects something metallic in the corona of the Isonzo star and moves in to investigate. The output of BD+18 1563 Isonzo is erratic and interferes with ship's transponders and the Zheng He fails to check in after an hour.

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With systems stabilized and the Ulysses able to get underway, the immediate threat of Boyajian's Star diminishes. Warp drive is still offline and the ship is functioning on auxiliary power: the crew begins to contend with the fact that they are stranded far from home, currently unable to send a long-range signal back to the Federation. They must find a planet they can land on to affect necessary repairs.
Boyajian's Star's danger still looms large: once thought to house an "alien megastructure" in the 21st century, the truth is far more complex. Boyajian's Star had an ancient civilization, but now: it is a "planet killer." The star is tearing apart it's worlds with it's erratic solar plasma ejecta, and stellar winds make its planetary neighborhood turbulent.
Ulysses lands on the only semi-habitable planet remaining: a cold world with a diminished atmosphere and intense seismic activity. Short-range sensors detect more ruins several kilometers away.

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With warp drive restored and long-range sensors and communications online, Ulysses gets a better idea of iocal space. The dim, sparsely-starred night sky beyond Boyajian's Star's heliopause opens up in all directions: it is an expanse of near-black. The crew of the Ulysses names it's first galactic megastructure in this frontier: Boyajian's Desert. Estimations of its size stretch beyond long-range sensors and it appears Boyajian's Star is somewhere near the middle of the vast expanse.
Resources within the Star Desert increasingly paint a bleak, ancient picture: there is no dilithium, water is sparse and much of the free-hydrogen has been depleted. Ripples in subspace suggest a massive star must have gone supernova billions of years ago- there may be a black hole somewhere in the region. But tthe Ulysses discovers that the Night is not empty: sentient beings live within this expanse.

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Ulysses is engaging in trade with a Kiliti vessel crossing the Desert. As the vessels conclude business and prepare to retract their moors, both ships are scanned by a large object. Consoles on Ulysses begin rapidly cycling through data; most flicker while a few overload- the ship's automated defense against intrusion sound yellow alert. The object, which appears to be a 400-meter-long carbon body, begins shutting down Ulysses' systems! It is a race against time to save some resources to keep life support functioning.
The Kiliti vessel is unaffected, but Ulysses has lost all but battery power and minimal computer function. It will take several hours to flush the Ulysses' computers of what appears to be a cascade virus.
Why was the ship attacked? Why are the Kiliti unaffected? The Ulysses mounts an investigation on the carbon body- a Von Neumann Probe of some kind. Meanwhile, the virus has reconfigured our subspace relay subroutines and is sending out some kind of a pulse signal. The increasingly irate (afraid?) Kiliti wish to retract their moorings but with power offline and four personnel trapped in the gang tubes, Ulysses is unable to do so.

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As exhaustion over being shorthanded takes it's toll, Ulysses' command staff decide to power down the ship and give everyone solid sleep time. Only a skeleton crew mans each shift. In the Mess Hall, alcohol is temporarily off-rationing and the crew spends time together. An ion disturbance clouds communications and sensors nearby but is creating "space sounds-" something once known as "Siren Calls" by the pioneers of the early UESPA. A game of oneupmanship develops as the crew take turns telling spooky tales and ghost stories.
The XO breaks up the party and sends the crew to bed. Kiam takes the night shift with a couple of officers on the Bridge. All is silent until something hits the viewscreen. The navigational sensors didn't detect it in time and the viewscreen begins to slowly crack- the feel of the breeze signals there's a fracture. But the question is... what hit us? Humanity's role in the local space is about to fall into question and beyond harmless ghost stories, it seems Boyajian's Desert has some real demons.

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Ulysses has it's first glimpse on long-range sensors of space beyond Boyajian's Desert. But those moments of Zen are shattered by a heavily distorted distress signal. The signal is traced to a nearby subspace and temporal anomaly. When Ulysses moves in to investigate the distortions increase over 1600%: there is a black hole in the vicinity. An alien vessel is trapped near the singularity's event horizon. Though it's hard to tell by the temporal distortion, the ship will be irretrievable in eight hours. Further still, this ship- some kind of barge- appears to have been fired upon. Its engines and much of its life support have failed.
Ulysses' crew must brave the quantum and temporal distress of being so near a hyper-gravitational body, risking the hallucinations and radiation exposure, to help rescue the alien crew.

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Rescued from the singularity, the twenty-three survivors are a diverse group of aliens with a story to tell. Labeled as "The Scum" on a nearby world that was once cosmopolitan and welcoming, their home had a severe regime shift toward a xenophobic policy. At first, they were rounded up and imprisoned, and eventually expelled. Persecution followed these, "Trans-Sentients," into space where paramilitary and "death squad" groups have ventured out to eliminate them.
The Scum practice unfettered experimentation with their mental, emotional, and biological potential. Their culture is unregulated, collective, and anarchistic. They combine elements of technology, controlled chemistry, and latent psychic talent to break down the walls of inhibition, perception, and privacy. The Scum invite the crew of the Ulysses to try their mind and emotion-expanding practices. These "Ecstatics" are respectful of Starfleet's regimen, but they do not deny curious individuals.
The Scum were heading toward a conclave they understand to be safe and secure- they request the Ulysses help them. In return, they will trade what they know about local stellar cartography. Though their presence is disruptive to routine, the Scum aren't trying to cause troubles. But, a group of paramilitary ships move to intercept the Ulysses.