Our Word is Our Bond

[Solluk]

Basic Premise: The USS Yourship is dispatched to carry a Federation representative to meet with a Sheliak Corporate representatives to settle an ownership dispute over a Rogue Planet rich in dilithium deposits.  The resolution of this dispute is essential, because Sheliak Corporate contracts and agreements are strung together in such a way that a breach of any contract could invalidate the Treaty of Armens between the Sheliak and the Federation, possibly leading to war.

Unfortunately, on the way to the meeting, Yourship is attacked by a heavily armed Nausicaan mercenary ship.  Yourship is damaged in the encounter, and the Federation representative is severely injured.  Yourship can not be late, or the dispute resolution will fail.  Plus, Yourship's XO must now fill in as a replacement representative.  Finally, the Security Chief must figure out the parties behind the mercenary attack to discover who is trying to scuttle the talks, and arrest them.

More Detailed Background: 100 years ago, the Federation signed a century-long lease with the Sheliak Corporate for mining rights to a dilithium-rich rogue planet near the Federation border.  (Info - A 'rogue planet' is a planet that is not contained within a solar system, but is rather moving freely through space beyond the orbit of a high gravity body.)

Now, as the lease is coming to a close, the rogue planet in question is crossing into Federation space.  The Federation has long anticipated this transition of location and their resultant ownership, as they had signed the lease initially with the foreknowledge that it would just fill the time before the rogue planet crossed over.

However, the wording of the lease between the Federation and the Sheliak could be interpreted to mean that the Sheliak will retain ownership of the planet even after it crosses into Federation space.  The dispute over the ownership of this planet must be settled amicably to preserve the Treaty of Armens, to which all contracts and agreements between the Federation and the Sheliak Corporate are tied.  The Vulgatti, a neutral party, are ready to mediate talks as arbitrators.  But if the Feds fail to live up to their responsibilities, including arriving at the talks on time, the Vulgatti are likely to award ownership of the planet to the Sheliak or even possibly rule the Federation in breach of the Treaty of Armens.

Starting Point: The USS Yourship is dispatched to carry a Federation representative to meet with a Sheliak Corporate representatives.

End Goal: Yourship's XO successfully resolves the dispute and Yourship's Security Chief arrests the Ferengi provocateurs behind the attempted scuttling of the talks.

Story points that must be passed?:

I) The USS Yourship is dispatched to carry a Federation representative to meet with Sheliak Corporate representatives.

II) On the way, Yourship is attacked by a heavily armed Nausicaan mercenary ship.  Though Yourship prevails and captures some of the Nausicaans, Yourship is damaged and the Federation representative is badly injured (to a degree that his injuries can not be quickly resolved.)

III) Engineering teams must work with Ops to resolve the damage and adjust resource management so that Yourship can proceed to the negotiations on time.

IV) Science personnel must try to penetrate the Nausicaan computer systems to get information that the Security Chief can use to uncover the figures behind the attack.

V) The Security Chief must use all information available, along with an interrogation of the surviving Nausicaans, to uncover the figures behind the attack.

VI) The XO must fill in for the Fed representative, possibly with coaching from the ship's Counselor if any.

VII) The Security Chief finally unravels the source of the plot- a group of Ferengis with a base on a desolate moon in a system near the Sheliak/Federation border hired the mercenaries because they knew that a failure to resolve this issue would invalidate all Federation/Sheliak contracts, allowing them to swoop in and negotiate new contracts to benefit the Ferengi Alliance and win power and influence with the Grand Nagus.

VIII) While the XO successfully concludes negotiations with the Sheliak, the Security Chief leads a shuttle/runabout raid on the nearby Ferengi base, arresting those responsible for hiring the mercenaries.

Departments: (To make sure everyone has something to do.)

- Flight: Thrilling combat flight against the Nausicaan mercenary ship, and later piloting an assault shuttle/runabout to carry Security personnel to raid the Ferengi moon base.

- Engineering: Must repair the ship and get it moving in time to make it to the negotiations.

- Operations: Must allocate resources and manage damage control teams in such a way as to get the ship where it is going in time for the negotiations.

- Security and tactical: Thrilling space combat against the Nausicaan ship, plus the Security Chief must unravel the plot, plus a final Security raid on the Ferengi base which will capture those responsible for hiring mercenaries to attack Yourship.

- Medical: In addition to the usual casualties, Medical teams must treat the critically injured Federation representative, and then manage his or her recovery (and emphasize that the recovery would be harmed if the rep was pushed into the negotiations in their weakened state.)

- Science: Science teams will help recover information from the damaged Nausicaan computers that the Security Chief can use in their investigation and interrogation of the Nausicaan prisoners.

Bonus - XO: Will fill in for the Federation rep in the negotiations, bringing them to a successful conclusion.

Bonus - Counselor: Can help the XO prep for the negotiations by helping him to get into the mind of the Sheliak and understand what they want and what they find important.

Note:  This mission was designed with the Ferengi in mind, but any ruthless business-minded entity could be used in place of the Ferengi if you don't like the Ferengi as the final villains of this piece.