USS Athena: “Scylla and Charybdis”

On a search-and-rescue mission to locate the USS Avalon, the crew find a solar system filled with hazards, and enemies that hunt both the Athena and her target. But what really happened to the Avalon? And will the same fate befall her would-be rescuers?

Arriving in the Titania system, a proto-star cluster filled with nebulae and anomalies, the USS Athena begins to search for the Avalon, which is testing advanced long-range sensor equipment. Amid the search, they are shadowed by the newly arrived Romulan warbird Teth, which appears to be hunting for the Avalon too…

After a number of red herrings, Athena finds the Avalon first. She is devoid of power and life signs.

Starting to repower the ship up, the crew are aware of a strange subspace ‘bubble’ surrounding a portion of the ship; a mystery that they cannot investigate yet because of the approach of the Romulans.

As they begin to recover the sensitive sensor equipment, the Romulans strike – attempting to board the Avalon and prevent the Athena from rescuing her away teams. However, remotely accessing the Avalon’s systems, Captain Kane is able to coordinate both ships’ firepower to overwhelm the Teth and drive it off. As their boarding parties are trapped, the Romulans opt to destroy the Avalon as their last act of defiance.

Desperately seeking to recover the crew, Captain Kane orders emergency transports – but discovered within the confinement beams they also uncover the source of the strange bubble: a group of missing Avalon crew that had been knocked out of phase.

With the Avalon lost but the data secured, the ship is able to return home before any more interlopers look to pick the bones…