At roughly 1630 hours this afternoon, the Enterprise picked up a distress call from the USS Yamato, roughly 2 billion kilometers from our patrol coordinates. They had sent their call over two hours earlier. We responded immediately, arriving in only a few seconds via a quick warp jump.
Upon arrival, the Yamato’s commanding officer, Captain Donald Varley, reported major malfunctions throughout his ship, many of which seemed highly improbable. He also claimed to have discovered the legendary long-lost home world of the Ancient Iconians – inside the Romulan Neutral Zone. According to Captain Varley, earlier today, he had taken the Yamato into the Neutral Zone (something he shouldn’t have done), and confirmed the existence of Iconia. Shortly after entering orbit of the lifeless planet, however, an automated probe was launched from the surface. It attempted to communicate with the Yamato, and downloaded some sort of virus into the ship’s computer systems. That virus was the likely cause of their escalating ship malfunctions.
Within ten minutes of our arrival, while Captain Varley was still explaining his actions, our Beta Shift bridge crew reported a sudden power build-up in the Yamato’s stardrive section. Within seconds, the entire ship disintegrated in a series of explosions that rippled through the hull. A subsequent scan of the Yamato’s debris field showed no survivors. All 1,231 crew, civilians, children – everyone aboard – dead. I’ve seen the incident footage. It was horrific to say the least.
Later efforts to determine the cause of the Yamato’s destruction, suggest that it was most likely a rare anti-matter explosion within their warp core. The explosion caused a massive power overload to surge through the Yamato, destroying it section by section. There was no time for anyone to escape. Such a destruction shouldn’t have happened, though. There are multiple safety protocols in place to protect that very thing from occurring aboard any Starfleet ship. Somehow, the Iconian probe likely caused the Yamato’s malfunctions, which resulted in a series of disabled systems allowing the rare power overload, which, in turn, defied all odds, and destroyed the ship.
Unfortunately, the Enterprise is now experiencing similar ship malfunctions as well. It would appear that we have obtained part of the probe virus from the Yamato, when we transferred routine files upon rendezvous. The Enterprise may be on a similar path toward cascade malfunction.
Despite all this, Captain Picard has ordered the Enterprise to enter the Neutral Zone -- we appear to be heading toward the reported coordinates of Iconia, apparently to resume the Yamato’s mission. We’re due to arrive in half an hour.
Since this is such a disturbing, dangerous, and rapidly evolving turn of events, I am going to be doing something different tonight. I will be live-posting the upcoming events – right here, on our Facebook page – starting with our arrival at Iconia. I have a bad feeling about this, and if we are following a similar path as the Yamato, I want to make sure there is a public record of those events – in case we, too, are lost.
We may be in for a long night.
Stick around. Pray for us, and let’s hope the Enterprise isn’t spiraling toward destruction, just like the Yamato earlier this afternoon.
-Lieutenant Sam Archer
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October 28, 2364 -- (Original Devron Timeline)