Chapter Text
Kosan of Vulcan, Captain, United Federation of Planets Starfleet, Personal Log.
I have been assigned to command Starfleet Station Sector Nine General.
Transport is being provided by the Archer Class USS Challenger, which has been reconfigured for science operations and assigned to Sector Nine General as our operations craft.
General’s mission is twofold. To explore the twenty-lightyear cube of Starfleet and Klingon space centered on the K-700-b black hole which the station orbits, and study the black hole in detail.
Being on the border between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, the station is, under the Khitomer accords, a joint operation. As such I am in fact joint captain with a representative of clan Urvok, the Klingon Clan responsible for that area of space.
Captain B’Karra has a sterling reputation, though is also considered somewhat of what the humans call a ‘hardass’. I am curious to see what that amounts to in a Klingon. Her file says she is dedicated to the scientific mission of S9G, and her political indicators on social media and public perception can best be described as Scientifically Focused. She would likely be a member of the Enlightenment Party were she Starfleet, as she avows much of that party’s ethos in her public communications. I like her attitude.
The station has been continuously inhabited for over a century, and while old, her design remains quite robust, based on the Human and Vulcan designs of a habitation cylinder, with additional components to allow her to function as a General Purpose station. The old Klingon research facility is deep in orbit of the K-700-b accretion disc, and is a target of some interest to the scientists.
The original, as I understand it, actually was operated by the klingons, though the old station was abandoned decades before the Federation annexed that part of space.
As for the mission, K-700-b is small for a black hole. This, paradoxically, means the fall-off spacetime topography is drastically steep, requiring significant energies to hold the gravitational force of the black hole at bay to allow research to be conducted. The Kirk has been modified dramatically, with additional hardware bulking out the warp nacelles, a third nacell on the dorsal frame, and a rare dual warp core to allow her to approach the black hole safely, as the last Black Hole survey ship has been recalled for her maintenance cycle.
There are a population of Suliban, the StarCounters, nearby. They actually travel between several dozen star systems and account for a third of Sector Nine General’s trade and commerce, as well as providing invaluable observation and stellar cartography data.
Clan Urvok has a long-standing dislike of the Suliban in general, but I understand B’Karra is held in high regard by the StarCounter people.
On the Klingon side, there are the Xarantine people. Ostensibly a client nation to the Klingons, there are indications that they are pushing for more independence, and may push for Federation membership if they can’t get the Klingons to ease up.
It’s not a powder keg the way Deep Space Nine is, but its bound to have its challenges.
I’m just happy I don’t have to lead the place alone. The Stellar cartography team there is notorious, but nothing compared to the K-700 research teams from the Federation and the Klingons. I hear they have regular bar brawls over their findings, yet they routinely give their superiors on both the Klingon and Federation side headaches.
This is going to be fascinating to see.
End Log.