Alarm Bells

[KejalBuris]

A research outpost on the frontier has sent out a distress signal. It appears that a derelict starship is approaching them at something in-between impulse and warp, with a cochrane-field "shell" that stops time-dilation, but does not push the ship into subspace - it's already proven its deadly capacity against an asteroid that it shattered with no harm to itself. At times, the ship appears to "ripple", phasing in and out of reality. Unfortunately, with no on-station starship to defend itself, the research crew find themselves helpless against this new threat.

When the crew reach this ship, they find that it is in fact a Starfleet vessel; the Daedalus-Class USS Icthyon. The ship was safely decommissioned at the inception of the Constitution-Class, but disappeared from its docking location at a colony's space exploration museum nearly 30 years after the fact. A short search followed, but it was considered lost.

There's only one problem: it had no warp core when stolen. There is no way that this vessel could be generating a field beyond 5 millicochranes naturally, let alone enough to keep it on the border of subspace. The crew have to slow down the ship and retrieve it, not just for historical purposes, but to continue the investigation.

The ship appears to have been given a slight overhaul inside, just enough to upgrade the shields and SIF to their maximum points. However, the Icthyon's warp core has been replaced by an artificial singularity. Upon inspection by a physicist, it will become clear that it is actually a transwarp singularity, existing in both realspace and subspace simultaneously.

However, other than charging the nacelles and generating the oscillating field, it cannot actually drive the ship. Therefore, the ship must have been propelled by an outside force.

The question remains: Why?

[Williams]

Interesting. Any thoughts on who'd be responsible?

[KejalBuris]

I was thinking maybe the Tholians, or the Breen. The ship was stolen by the Romulans and kept as a war prize by them - in commemoration of the Earth/Romulan war.

The other option opened by the quantum singularity, of course, is that it comes from a mirror universe, perhaps even The Mirror Universe. They stole it years ago to replace theirs (or jump-start their tech), and, well, it got into the wrong hands. Or worse, they honestly think they're giving it back, despite the fact that they're giving it back in the most destructive way possible.