Short-Sell on the Longshore

[KejalBuris]

It is a fact that vessels are lost in space. Some of these ships destroy themselves in the gravity well of a sun, some are just taken as 'space junk', and some simply drift in interstellar space, never quite making it to a sun's gravity to become a fancy asteroid.

A Federation cargo frigate, the SS Longshore, is recorded by Starfleet as lost with all hands in 2278. There are two reasons this vessel is important. First is her cargo, a full load of extremely high-purity dilithium crystals was going to be part of the Strategic Reserve kept on Mars. Without that, the Transwarp program was set back, leaving the Great Experiment waiting in drydock until a desperate chase to catch the stolen USS Enterprise. Second was the fact that reports placed the Longshore directly in an area that would later become known as an Orion "shipping" lane - one that was shut down as soon as the Federation could reallocate resources after Khitomer.

However, the Longshore was never found.

Until now. A Ferengi trader approaches a ship in deep space - even by subspace, it would be three days before the Admiralty would get the transmission, then who knows how long for a response. The Captain has to take authority and act quickly, and the crew must find, defend, and bring home the Longshore, for the safety of the Federation - the Ferengi has hinted that he has other clientele. While his comments are not straightforward, it's obvious that he feels he's in a very strong bargaining position.

When the Federation agrees to the deal, they are brought to the Longshore with most of its cargo still intact (turns out the Orion Syndicate saw it as a reserve as well)- and the Orions from whom the Ferengi stole the vessel!