Starfleet Intelligence sent Derek James to Nerendra Station as an intelligence Envoy. Nerendra Station, a joint klingon-federation starbase/outpost in the frontier of ‘galactic East’. His mission: to assist Hebert and Draixx in unraveling several mysteries: -unexplained thefts and piracy -goods stolen from Kling and Fed ships discovered on each other’s ships -increase in chatter of increased criminal/pirate activity in the area James made progress building up existing intelligence contacts, and had success cooling off tensions by acting in good faith to expose a third party behind the thefts, neither Federation or Klingon.
The USS Avandar arrived with large amounts of supplies for this frontier base, located in a spoke of Federation space extending into unclaimed space between Romulan, Klingon and Orion borders. Another middle-ranked Klingon officer working on Nerendra Station turns out to have high level contacts: Kiran’O, who took a liking to Zavvaa and is the scion of a powerful Klingon House. After they arrived, Nerendra Station’s commanding officer Admiral Hebert introduced Captain Simcoe to a very upset Klingon First Officer. ‘First’ Draixx seemed belligerant at first, when he invited the captain to walk he station’s galleria at ‘ten bells’.
The walk turned into a public attestation of trust in Simcoe by Draixx, as they took in the murals of the station’s creation: Orion, independents, Klingon and Federation all working together to create this distant outpost. Shortly after their walk together, the Avandar was sent to retrieve an intelligence asset Derek James had learned of, Haray Minna, and who was ‘coming in’ to help his investigations. They found and retrieved her from Trader’s Moon, after another group attempted to capture her. Draixx was found murdered upon Avandar’s return to Nerendra, seemingly by someone he trusted as he was stabbed in the back. The scene was then quickly wiped of evidence, Draixx’s personal data deleted.
The only obvious evidence was a selection of images of people critical to the founding of Nerendra Station: 2 Federation admirals: Jackson Trig died during Nerendra’s construction in an ‘accident’ and Mayfleur Daniels died 4 years ao on his adoptive home on an Orion Moon of ‘heart complications’. 2 little-known humans, the original designers and zero-g construction experts Rainsworth and Hartwell, also died, apparently of unrelated accidents. And Filis, the unofficial and much-loved ‘Chancellor’ of Nerendra Station, who moved there to supervise the construction and switched sides to stay on afterwards, as an unofficial problem solver for the independent residents who built the station and made homes as workers after the fact. A round of violence and anonymous graffiti inciting violence appeared around the station, quelled by quick thinking of a Draixx-appointed watch officer, Tassok.
Avandar’s crew investigated Draixx’s private quarters, the scene of his murder, and detected a DNA trail that was a partial familial match for Draixx, hidden in the spikes on a klingon ‘philosopher’s wrestling table’. Avandar’s crew also searched and discovered a data storage device hidden in plain sight on a piece of wall art in Draixx’s quarters. The data is encrypted. After a brief interlude experiencing life as Tellarites, the Avandar’s away-team headed back to Trader’s Moon to find Jarin Bambridge and return him to Nerendra for questioning. Further investigations revealed the DNA sample in Draixx’s room bore hallmarks of work done by a Section-31-related wetworks lab (busted by the Federation’s recent efforts to destroy S31), and the sole high-tech Orion organization capable of this level of work: Azantine Health Resort, which worked exlusively with oligarch-level rich clients. 3 other examples of Azantine’s work matched the alterations to the DNA in Draixx’s quartes: all of them related to miraculous genetic repairs in ill clients. Draix was the paternal genetic match for the sample found in his quarters and the mother was… Orion? That’s not a DNA pairing that should work.
Simcoe pressed Hebert for information, as she and Draixx were close. She revealed Draixx’s lover was a construction worker who switched sides to become a union leader keeping criminal elements out, with the help of Draixx’s Klingon contacts. Bokin is believed to have had Draixx’s lover, the construction worker turned union leader, assassinated. Admiral Hebert recuses herself from the investigation for being too close to Nerendra and to Draixx, appointing Captain Simcoe Special Prosecutor. Simcoe ordered Haray Minna moved to a brig on the Avandar.
The images found at Draixx’s murder scene mirror the wall murals surrounding the Galleria, and that Draixx so proudly told Captain Simcoe about on their ‘ten bells’ walk. Draixx was fiercely proud and protective of the people of Nerendra, loved by Klingon frontline solders… and despised by the Klingon leadership for being too honest, not political. The new crew member, Nilla, tells Zavvaa she has a mom in Azghari’s court, who used to be Orion Syndicate and now doing ‘grey/borderline’ work for the Orion Federated States…not legal, not illegal, but a rough customer with one foot on either side of the law (and holds diplomatic immunity). She is invited on the next mission to Trader’s Moon.
Zavvaa’s records searches from Nerendra Station’s construction time have gaps. There’s limited information on a union boss who emerged with aliases of Sifil and Sifalia-the union leader Draixx protected. But that was a woman. Some overlap exists with ‘Chancellor’ Filis. Are they related? In cahoots for an unknown goal? All traces of both were lost before the station was completely up and running. During the Away Team’s mission to Trader’s Moon, Zavvaa expands the access to the moon’s sensors and cams from their last mission to allow them to plan their route and watch out for bad guys: and she finds that cameras are being knocked out in a line from the far side of the facility directly towards Bambridge’s assumed location.
The Away Team races to get to Bambridge first (including Grand Theft Golf Cart!). They succeed by minutes, but their target sees them and races around back of the building where he was hiding out. They catch up to him in the hands of an enormous Klingon, and his partner… Bella, the temporarily undercover first officer of Avandar! Reunited with her crew, they take the (rendered unconscous 
Bambridge back to their ride hime (Kiran’O’s loaned klingon-runabout-equivalent the Riven Claw).
The Away Team and Bella catch each other up on recent events on Nerendra, and her mission: to work with Tanacik (‘Cik for short) to keep smuggling goods (like the ones Derek was charged with investigating initially) in the hopes of being welcomed up the chain in the command structure of whatever organization is behind was looks increasingly like a coordinated effort directed against Nerendra Station. However, when the emerge from Trader’s Moon’s market there is another craft parked to the left, and a crowd of escapees ahead of the Away Team to the right, jostling and pushing to get to their craft and flee.
The craft ahead sends armored troops into the market, likely, the Away Team surmises, to capture Bambridge. This may be the ‘higher ups’ Bella and ‘Cik hoped to infiltrate by. Rolls of the dice and the irony of the universe reveal the remaining -Green- individuals waiting for the armored troops to report back include faces known to the Away Team. These Orions are scanning the crowd, and one of two assistants to the leader starts to zero in on our Away Team, and starts to alert their boss: a very young lookalike for Bokin, the long-lost and exiled Syndicate baddie ‘Bokin’ who Zavvaa recognizes from her 9 year old self struggling to live under his rule before life (ahem) changed for her. Before assistant number one can utter whatever he’s saying, the other assistant smashes him in the head with his own tricorder: it’s Nilla’s brother, the undercover double agent ‘Sol’. The Away Team stuns the two guards watching over young-Bokin and make good their escape with him and with Sol. Bokin turns out to be a clone. Sol and Nilla bicker like siblings all the way back to the Avandar, hiding in the clouds of the nearby gas giant.
Sol confirms he’s been sent there by Orion leadership for the same reason Bella and ‘Cik were sent by Federation and Klingon leadership: to find an unknown player amassing power, generating terrorist chatter and preparing something… big. Aboard the Avandar, the crew prepares to talk to Bokin, when Draixx’s replacement, FIrst Takinga, who came straight to Avandar on his way to Nerendra, jeopardizing operational security, in order to stop anyone from talking to Bokin. Which of course leads our intrepid heroes to pull a prisoner-heist to interrogate Bokin before they get back to Nerendra. Derek tries to keep the circle of knowledge small, but when they ask Zavvaa’s cousin Captain Rekkem of the OSF Yuraeto for help piecing things together, he says he will keep the data out of official channels (regarding all Nerendra events) but has to report orally to Lady Azghar (one of the matriarchal planetary leaders of Orion worlds).
Simcoe ok’s the plan on an encrypted channel, and Derek rushes an interrogation (rushed, due to time pressure in the form of a short-duration improvised ‘coolant leak’, and a player needing to slip into a coma). Derek asks Haray Minna to help him talk to Bokin to enable him to work fast. She refuses until he reaches her and convinces her to help. In the interrogation we learn she is not in fact a Denobulan, she is Draixx’s half-Orion daughter, and Bokin is not Bokin but a clone. These explosive revelations include information on the true Bokin’s character: he was disappointed in at least one of his children, still does not acknowledge he had a daughter at all, and that the real Bokin is still alive out somewhere, and paranoid and lethal as aver.
Paranoia and lethality are demonstrated by the fact he designed the clone with a short lifespan by messing with his telomeres (caught by SImcoe and injected his own clone with a very short-acting DNA time bomb the Syndicates use to ensure the loyalty of their ‘subjects’. Bokin started to die, mid-interrogation. Derek uses starfleet protocol knowledge to quickly deliver an antidote, but it puts Bokin in a coma. Before he passed out, though, the Bokin-clone taunted Derek and Minna that ‘you’ll see the real Bokin very soon’ when he returns to Nerendra Station. Bella commanded the ship back to Avandar and Simcoe, waiting at the airlock, jumps in to confront the First of Nerendra about blocking his investigation.
During their face to face, Takinga admits the Klingon government believes Draixx died at the implicated Bambridge’s hand-a federation officer! The government obviously is using that as an excuse to block interrogation, and fears what else will come to light. As the episode nears a close, Bella’ confirms the shadow organization encircling Nerendra has been dropping off dozens of components to Nerendra station. That means dozens of supposedly independent cargo ships could have been working in concert, not just thew few we knew about before now. Last note comes from several external intelligence sources: a big, unknown-design capital ship has been caught at the edge of long-range sensors further away from Federation Space… on an extrapolated flight path matching Bokin’s vessel.
The Away Team muses about unknown ship designs. Zavvaa notes they recently faced off against a fringe organization masquerading as a research organization that wanted to work against the Federation, and before the Avandar took them down, they discovered they had capital ships at their disposal. “Could the Augments behind Sentry institute be involved?”
As you can see… my players upped the game on me. As a GM I love it when that happens, and when their agency and the rolls of the dice point me where to go.
It’s always an adventure 🙂