Pandora Found

Posted on Thu Oct 30th, 2025 @ 1:19pm by Captain Nycolas Temple

Mission: Outside the Box
Location: MSS Qaraq

ON:

The road to the neutral zone wasn’t easy for the Pandora’s crew onboard the M.S.S Qaraq. The expedition to the Ferd had been fraught with conflict, as a battle over territory and supplies ended with both sides hastily evacuating the craft with whatever they could hold onto.

They managed to find something important, however, when PO Raven hastily grabbed a PADD she found onboard the craft. Captain Temple had used the Ferd to store his investigation data while he had been in the region chasing the anomaly. Lt Commander Eunidas managed to decode the data and use this to guide the Qaraq to their next destination. They were no longer looking for a very specific needle in an infinitely large haystack.

It took a further two weeks for their ship to reach the Krakau system, as they were forced to hide or take detours in order to avoid any further conflicts. There were plenty of close calls, as pirates and opportunists would have loved to have taken the Qaraq and her crew. But these were Starfleet officers, and they were skilled enough to avoid detection. Lieutenant Keith ensured the ship was not found, keeping the Qaraq hidden for the rest of their journey.

The crew searched the system and found an important clue; the unique mix of particles that could only belong to the Pandora. Unfortunately, they also found the anomaly - the gravitational vortex that had been causing havoc across the galaxy, which Captain Temple had been chasing when he disappeared.

The Qaraq was almost destroyed in their first encounter with the anomaly, and it took some skilled piloting from Lieutenant Milkovich to avoid the same fate as Temple. However, once the anomaly had appeared, the crew picked up further readings from inside that confirmed what they had only suspected:

The Pandora was inside.

The ship had been hidden away in a pocket universe by the mysterious Protector, which had been stabilised through a beacon in our regular space. But due to unknown interference, the beacon was destroyed and the inter-dimensional fold that once safely hid the Pandora became unstable and started spiralling through the galaxy, leaving a path of gravitational chaos.

Nyx had been on the verge of this discovery when he too, was seemingly consumed by its overwhelming pull.

After regrouping, Mindo and the Engineering team came up with a solution: they managed to synthesise the Pandora’s unique particle trail to create an artificial “beacon”. When the anomaly next appeared, they used the synthesised particles to stabilise the bubble universe and halt its gravitational destruction. The plan worked and the anomaly was stopped.

As the crew celebrated, something unexpected happened. A hail was being broadcast from inside the bubble, a call from within the darkness. However, when the crew accepted the communication, there was no message to be heard. Again, the hail began to beam out from the bubble with an empty message inside. It was Counsellor Kaleri who reached out with her telepathic abilities and found the solution. There was someone on the other side sending the hail because they were looking for a response - to guide the ship back home.

The Qaraq responded and sent back their coordinates, giving the Pandora the navigation to return into normal space. Slowly, metre by metre, the Pandora began to glide out of the bubble and out of its hiding place.

As soon as the Pandora was back, they were hailed once more, but this time there was a voice on the other end. Captain Temple was at the helm of the Pandora. He had barely survived his passage into the bubble universe thanks to his jump suit and had been picked up by the ship’s emergency sensors. He had been revived and nursed back to health by the EMH. He worked to keep the ship safe while the bubble was a maelstrom of chaos, sending out signals in the hopes of finding a response and a way out.

The Qaraq docked with the Pandora and the reunion was something special. The crew had succeeded in their mission to not only find the Pandora but Captain Temple as well. Mindo worked to repair the damage to the ship while they worked their way back to Federation space. Awaiting them in friendly territory was Admiral Milne and a fleet of ships - who welcomed back the Pandora with open arms. Milne had cleared the crew, revealing their actions were all part of her sanctioned mission to stop the anomaly.

There were still questions to be answered, of course. Why had the Pandora been secretly transferred away from Luna Space Dock? Who was the Protector and how did he create the bubble universe? Who interfered and removed the beacon, setting off the anomaly? These questions would one day have answers but on this day, there was one clear certainty - The Pandora was home.