—- First Officer’s Office, USS Luna —-

Pushing aside a glass that had formerly held raktajino Commander Olivia Carrillo settled into her desk. She’d been back aboard the USS Luna for almost a day, and yet writing the report was taking awhile, mostly because she kept putting it off. Likely by now Lieutenant Lambert had submitted his, which made her hesitation seem all the more foolish.

Commander’s Log

 

As per orders from Starfleet we were exploring the remaining planets in the solar systems nearby in the neutral zone that buffers the Federation and Cardassian territories. We were looking for more Cardassian instillations we may not be aware of, and so thought the week the USS Luna has been exploring the Pentacle system. We initially thought it was devoid of life, and have been charting planets with our sensors without needing to transport down.

 

Pentacle IV however, as it’s the fourth planet from the sun, is surrounded by mechanical storms that have been interfering with our scans. The ship had adjusted its equipment several times, and finally it was decided that a survey of the planet would best be done via a shuttle mounted with sensors. Lieutenant Pierre Lambert and I were selected, as he’s a skilled pilot and we are trying to find him a new role on the Luna given that the role of Navigation Officer does not exist in 2401 as it did where he came from in the 2200s.

 

We took the Ranger shuttle-craft down to the surface and began scanning. The refits done on the shuttle were able to map it despite the storms we weathered. However, our sensors also detected a pre-warp society. We stayed far enough away from any encampments to avoid being seen during our work, the problem however came later.

 

Nearing the end of the task Lambert reported that our batteries were draining. The makeup of the storm was affecting our electronics preventing us both from breaking orbit to return to the Luna, of even contacting them. With our energy draining Lambert landed roughly in a mountainous region. Shortly after touching down we lost all power to the shuttle’s systems and even our translation services performed by our comm badge.

 

I speak Federation Standard but Lambert is a native French speaker and I don’t speak that, but understand Spanish. We were able to mostly understand each other, and made our way towards shelter as our landing had torn a hole in the roof of the shuttle.

 

It was then that we made contact with the native population of Pentacle IV, or at least a mountain based tribe. We had lost sensors before we set down and apparently had landed near an encampment of a tribe. Details are sketchy since we had no access to translation and thus were not able to get any real in-depth information from those that we met.

 

Upon realizing that we were being watched both Lambert and I raised our hands to show we were not armed and not a threat. We were greeted by what I’d describe as a hunting party. A mix of male and female warriors about ten feet tall with Klingon-like armoured ridges down their face and on their arms. As we had not known the planet was populated we had not armed ourselves with phasers and even if we had we were not going to start a fight with a new race. 

 

Spanish, French and Federation Standard were hard enough for the two of us to navigate but communicating with just mimed hand signs with the locals was quite difficult, particularly when were bound at the arms. Lead into camp were met what we’d call a Queen, a young woman who was clearly the matriarchal leader. She was young, approximately twenty in human age, between us two we tried various different ways of communicating. None of which seemed to register for her. 

 

Instead of being amazed or impressed with seeing off world visitors she had her guards or tribes throw us into a room with a single sleeping space. As if we were a mating pair of animals that she had found, or had been found for her. 

 

Lambert and I took turns keeping guard and sleeping on the space that they’d made for us to sleep. In the morning the weather broke, and we were beamed out of the cell before guards came to check on us. Due to the Prime Directive the Ranger shuttle was retrieved by a runabout and brought back to the USS Luna, along with us. 

 

We did not find any Cardassian outposts, and have put Pentacle IV on the list of inhabited worlds to avoid to keep from violating the prime directive. Back aboard the Luna our comm badges began to work again and Lambert and I could again speak to each other. Our unintended first contact mission was… messy and not being able to communicate either with ourselves or with the inhabitants of the mountain region had complicated it.

 

We are currently confident that we left nothing behind and that there will be no long term damage to our unintended contact. A full report on the incident is being prepared for the First Contact Office as per regulations on the Prime Directive.

 

End of log.

• Commander Olivia Carrillo

Setting down the log Commander Carrillo sighed and rubbed her tired eyes. She’d slept fitfully down on the planet’s surface, and had not gotten much sleep since returning. It was hard to explain how first contact felt when you could not communicate both with the other beings or even with your own officers. Still she had given it a shot, and knew that it could have gone much worse.

Submitting the report she stood and went to her quarters.