Cepheus: Star Trek Voyager - Episode 1: Phage

I'm playing a solo session of Cepheus Engine: Alpha Quadrant, the Star Trek rulebook for Cepheus. We're playing as the crew of the USS Voyager. Session zero is here.

Introduction

Here we go, I'm trying out this crazy idea for real now. I'm not starting with the pilot episode Caretaker as it's not a very strong story in my opinion, plus a lot of the crew get killed by random "bangers" going off all over the bridge, paving the way for characters like Torres and Chakotay to become regular cast members, and I wouldn't want to end up with the original officers surviving and keeping their jobs.

For oracles I'll use whichever ones seem good at the time. For yes/no questions including yes but, no but I'll use the one from Scarlet Heroes.

I'm starting with season 1 episode 5, Phage, a pretty good one that introduces the Vidiians who are quite an original enemy.

The Adventure

It's stardate 48532.4, which this converter insists is 24 November 1970. We're off to a great start! Neelix has told Captain Janeway the coordinates of a rogue planetoid that contains dilithium, which they need to power the warp drive. It's raw, so Lieutenant Torres is planning to build a dilithium refinery using the auxilary impulse reactor.

Janeway goes to the mess hall for breakfast to find that Neelix has turned her private dining room into a ship's galley, and is cooking breakfast for the crew. Chakotay hails her from the bridge; they're approaching the rogue planetoid. She takes the turbolift there with Neelix.

Torres is on the bridge, scanning the planetoid. The scan reveals it's a class M with an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere similar to Earth which should make things easier. She also finds it has a large network of underground tunnels.

I'm not going to make them do skill checks when they do everyday tasks like scanning a planetoid with no time constraints or anything, they're Starfleet officers so they're used to this sort of thing.

The Captain orders Commander Chakotay to take an away team down and find the dilithium, and Torres to make sure the refinery is working soon. Torres replies that it'll be ready in three days. Chakotay brings Ensign Kim, and Neelix convinces him to take him too.

They beam down directly into the cave network close to several large deposits of dilithium. The team splits up and starts scanning the rock walls with their tricorders. As Neelix wanders off down a tunnel, Chakotay and Kim scan around all over the place but they can't find the source of the dilithium.

Neelix finds a large empty cavern that reads as having a huge amount of it, but there's no sign of any deposits in the rock. He informs Chakotay over the commlink.

Does Chakotay get fed up and order them back to the ship, or does he think there could be real dilithium here? (50/50)

He orders them back.

Chakotay is fed up with this. He tells them it's been a waste of time and they should go back to Voyager. However Neelix detects a bioelectrical energy signature coming from inside a wall of the cavern (no skill check for this since if he didn't detect it they'd leave and the episode would be over).

Chakotay, angry, orders Neelix to come back to him and Kim.

Does Neelix obey the order? (Unlikely)

No.

He says he'll be just a minute, and keeps inspecting the cavern walls. Hearing something move behind him he spins around and discovers the wall behind him has somehow disappeared, revealing a long corridor clad in metal and lit by ceiling lamps.

Unknown to him, someone is creeping up behind him. Does he hear the unknown assailant? (Unlikely)

No.

He keeps looking around, then turns to see a hideous looking alien pointing a small device at him.

Hideous Looking Alien

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 7

Endurance: 1 (-2)

Intelligence: 6

Education: 7

Skills

Marksmanship: Modern-1, Medicine-3

I reduced all his characteristics by 2 due to the phage, which we'll learn about later.

The HLA has got the drop on Neelix so he gets an automatic 12 for his initiative roll, which beats Neelix's roll. He's at close range, which makes his attacks average difficulty for his weapon type.

The HLA aims (minor action) giving him +1 DM on his next attack, then fires his device (significant action). He needs to get an 8 to hit.

8 +1 Marksmanship: Modern, +1 aiming = 10. Hit!

A bolt of electricity arcs out of the Hideous Looking Alien's device and hits Neelix in the chest. He screams and falls to the ground, stunned. His endurance is reduced to 0, leaving him knocked out (in Alpha Quadrant, phasers have different effects depending on their settings. The HLA's weapon was set to 2, which will stun a human for 15 minutes).

Chakotay and Kim have heard the scream and come running. Neelix is actually suffocating for reasons we'll discover soon. He'll take 1D6 damage per round until his dexterity and strength are reduced to zero, when he'll die.

How far away are Chakotay and Kim? (1D4)

Chakotay: 3 rounds/18 seconds

Kim: 2 rounds/12 seconds

Kim arrives on the scene and finds Neelix spasming on the ground (he's taken 4 damage to his dexterity, it's now 5), with the Hideous Looking Alien nowhere to be seen. Kim hails Voyager: "Medical emergency! Beam us directly to sickbay!"

The transporter chief isn't a regular character on the show like Chief O'Brien from The Next Generation so let's randomly roll one up now.

Transporter Chief Aimee Mathis

Strength: 10 (+1)

Dexterity: 12 (+2)

Endurance: 10 (+1)

Intelligence: 8

Education: 4 (-1) 

Skills

Transporter-2, Computer-1, Electronics-1 (She probably won't need any others).

Chief Mathis reacts quickly and locks onto the three officers.

Chief Mathis makes a check (8 is a success):

11 +2 Dexterity +2 Transporter = 15. Success!

The three are beamed into sickbay where they meet the Doctor who immediately scans Neelix with a tricorder. Neelix takes 5 wounds to his Dexterity and 1 to his Strength as he suffocates more.

The Doctor makes a check
8 +0 Difficulty +3 Small Equipment +1 Dexterity = 12. Success!

The scan reveals Neelix's lungs have disappeared from his body. "Get the blood gas infuser!" The Doctor shouts at Chakotay, and tells him where to find it. Neelix takes 2 more wounds to his Strength. If he suffers another 2 wounds he's dead.

The doctor uses a hypospray to sedate Neelix, who is still thrashing around on the bed. He goes into a coma, and Chakotay hands the Doctor the infuser device. The Doctor puts it on Neelix's head just in time for it to deliver oxygen from the room into his bloodstream and save his life.

With Neelix stabilised, the Doctor explains that his lungs have been somehow removed, presumably using transporter technology. Kim and Chakotay are speechless. Chakotay calls Captain Janeway down from the bridge and the Doctor calls on Lieutenant Paris for assistance. They explain the situation to them, and Kes comes running to sickbay to check on Neelix.

Ensign Kim takes a look at Neelix's tricorder and finds it revealed a class three organism hidden somewhere in the caves: a humanoid. The Doctor tells the Captain that the blood gas infuser will only keep him alive for another 47 minutes since it can't supply enough oxygen to support him. The only way to save his life will be to find his lungs and perform surgery, since his Talaxian anatomy is so different to any Federation species. The Doctor begins to research other options.

Janeway puts Chakotay in command of the ship while she beams down to the planetoid with an away team consisting of Kim, Tuvok and a security officer.

This security officer is Crewman Alonzo Barron (a randomly generated name). I'm going to roll up his characteristics and then give him 1D4 skill points in three appropriate skills for his role.

Strength: 5 (-1)

Dexterity: 8

Endurance: 6 

Intelligence: 7

Education: 8

Skills

Marksmanship: Modern-2, Combat: Unarmed-3, Small Equipment-4

Kim takes them to where they found Neelix, and they find that his tricorder detected a lifesign two metres into a solid rock wall. Janeway's tricorder reports it's 15 metres thick however.

Janeway makes a check

9 -2 Difficulty +1 Int = 8. Success!

Janeway starts touching the rockface, wondering if there's anything odd about it, and finds that part of the wall feels warm. Kim scans it and finds it's 2 degrees warmer than the surrounding rock. Tuvok remarks that there's no natural reason for that.

"Let's make a little heat of our own." Janeway says, and they step back as she fires her phaser at the wall. It's a wall, no reason to make a combat roll against it.

As the beam hits it, the rock dissolves in a glitchy mess, revealing a corridor behind it lit with hanging ceiling lights. "It was a highly sophisticated forcefield." Tuvok says.

Back on Voyager, Neelix's blood toxicity level is rising and time is running out. Kes offers to donate a lung, but it wouldn't work because of the Talaxian physiology. The Doctor will have to come up with a brilliant idea. He watches Paris replicate a tool in the medical replicator, and thinks.

The Doctor makes a check

5 -2 Difficulty +1 Int +3 Bionics = 7. Failure!

The Doctor wonders if he could somehow modify the design schematic for an artificial human lung to fit Neelix's body, and then replicate them and surgically implant them. He sits down at his console and starts experimenting, using Neelix's last medical scan as a guide. Time is running out however.

Down on the planetoid, the away team explores a network of corridors deep beneath the surface. Tuvok uses his tricorder to scan for dilithium, which reveals a large amount on the other side of a closed door. They open the door and emerge into a large room filled with fluid-filled tanks containing internal organs. The tanks are being kept at optimal temperature by a dilithium matrix, which is the source of the dilithium in the scans. Tuvok scans some of the organs and finds that one is a Kazon liver. The others must be from aliens they haven't yet encountered.

The Captain scans for lifeforms with her tricorder and finds that there was a lifeform in the room less than 10 minutes ago. "Captain!" The security officer calls out, having found a door.

"Open it." Janeway replies. The door opens into a rocky tunnel, and Janeway's tricorder reports a lifesign 20 metres ahead. These are simple everyday tricorder scans, so there's no reason to do a skill roll for them.

They move quickly down the tunnel and into a dark cave with large natural rock pillars. The Hideous Looking Alien is in this cave... The away team all score higher initiative than him however. I'll ask the oracle to see if there's a pillar or a rock near each character that they'll be able to spend a minor action getting behind and using as cover (but I won't list it all here).

Kim sees the alien creeping around a pillar and shoots at him, phaser set to stun.

Kim:

Natural 2: Kim shoots too quickly, the beam hitting the rock behind the alien.

Janeway:

6 -2 Medium Range -1 Low Light +3 Marksmanship: Modern = 6. Miss!

Janeway turns around at the sound of the phaser and fires at the alien, also missing.

Tuvok:

7 -2 Medium Range -1 Low Light +1 Dex +5 Marksmanship: Modern = 10. Hit!

Tuvok fires, hitting the alien square in the chest. He cries out in shock and drops the small weapon he was holding, then turns and runs back around the pillar. The away team chase after him.

Who is closest to the alien?

Tuvok

Tuvok and the alien make an opposed Dex check.

Tuvok:

8 +1 = 9

Hideous Looking Alien:

5

Tuvok catches up with the alien and tackles him, then puts his hand on the man's shoulder and attempts a Vulcan nerve pinch.

4 +1 Dex +4 Combat: Unarmed = 9. Hit!

The nerve pinch works on the alien, his body spasms for a second and then goes limp, falling into Tuvok's arms.

The rest of the away team catch up, Janeway holding the alien's weapon. "Janeway to Voyager," She says over the commlink, "Get a security team to the transporter room, five to beam up." Chief Mathis beams all of them back to the ship.

As soon as they arrive, Janeway orders the alien to be taken to the brig. She and Tuvok go there to interrogate the alien, who looks like he's suffering from some kind of horrifying disease. His skin is falling off and he appears to have bits of mismatched skin and body parts grafted onto his own: some of it furry, some scaly and some smooth.

Janeway introduces herself, and the alien says his name is Dereth, of the Vidiian Sodality. Janeway thinks the universal translator makes him sound a bit like Margaret Thatcher, an old Earth politician from before the Eugenics Wars.

He explains that his society has been ravaged for two thousand years by an incurable disease called the phage, so they kidnap people from other worlds and harvest their organs in order to replace their own.

Janeway demands the return of Neelix's lungs, but he says he's already implanted them into his colleague Motura. "And where is this Motura?" Janeway asks. However at that moment Chakotay speaks over the comm.

"Chakotay to the Captain. There's a ship taking off from the planetoid, shall we follow it?"

"Yes, get after it!" Janeway shouts. Turning back to Dereth, she warns him, "You wait right there, I'm not finished with you yet."

On the bridge, Chakotay orders Tom Paris to chase the Vidiian ship.

Paris makes a check.

10 +0 Difficulty, +1 Dex +3 Vehicle: Starship = 14. Success!

Paris deftly maneuvers Voyager into position behind the Vidiian ship, however it is picking up speed.

Janeway and Tuvok emerge from the turbolift, and Chakotay shouts "Tuvok, fire on their engines!". He dashes over to his tactical station and powers up the phasers.

The Vidiian ship will definitely be weaker than Voyager since the Vidiians have put all their resources into organ harvesting rather than starship building. Let's say it's got 1D6 less strength and endurance than Voyager's 9 and 11:

Vidiian Ship

Strength: 5

Endurance: 10

Weapons: 1 phaser

Tuvok uses a minor action to target the ship's engine and a significant action to fire from the two phaser strips that have a line of sight to the ship ahead. I've just noticed I didn't give him any skill in starship combat! There are no rules for aiming at ship systems, so I'll make it a difficult check which gives a -2 penalty, but since he's using an aim action that will give him +1.

7 -2 Difficulty, +1 Dex +1 Aim = 7. Miss!

8 -2 Difficulty, +1 Dex +1 Aim = 8. Hit!

One beam hits the enemy ship, doing 1 (1D6) points of damage to its strength. The shields take a minor hit but recover quickly.

"The Vidiian ship is powering up its warp drive." Ensign Kim reports from the operations console.

Let's give the Vidiian ship's engineer 1D4 Warp Drive skill: 3. He's going to try and feed enough power to their drive while they're taking hits to their shields and performing evasive maneuvers.

Vidiian engineer makes a check.

Natural 2: Not enough power is available to divert to the warp drive this round.

The Vidiians fire their one phaser at Voyager.

7 +3 Starship Weapons = 10. Hit!

Voyager takes a massive 10 damage to her strength and 1 to her endurance. The shields are completely drained by the powerful phaser and it penetrates the hull. I've rolled randomly on which internal system will take the 1 point of damage and it says "Passengers".

A crewman working on one of the lower decks is walking past a wall panel which explodes in a shower of sparks. He receives minor burns but dives to the floor and escapes the worst of it.

Voyager fires back at the ship. This time Tuvok aims but not at the engine, attempting to reduce their shields first.

6 +1 Dex +1 Aim = 8. Hit!

7 +1 Dex +1 Aim = 9. Hit!

The phasers take down the ship's shields and do 3 extra points of damage to its endurance. The hit location is the ship's cockpit, so the pilot takes 3 wounds. That means I have to roll up the Vidiian pilot now!

Vidiian Pilot

Strength: 4 (-1)

Dexterity: 7

Endurance: 7, now reduced to 3

Intelligence: 4 (-1) 

Education: 7

Skills

Vehicle: Starship-4, Warp Drive-1

"They're trying to power up their warp drive again Captain." Ensign Kim says.

Vidiian engineer makes a check.

5 +3 Warp Drive = 8. Success!

The Vidiian pilot tries to engage the warp drive as fast as he can.

Vidiian pilot makes a check.

10 +1 Warp Drive = 11. Success!

"They're going to warp!" Kim is panicking now. The enemy ship zooms off and stretches out to infinite length, then disappears in a twinkling light.

"Mr. Paris, get after them, maximum warp." Janeway says. "Mr. Kim, track the Vidiian ship's warp signature, let's get on their trail."

Paris and Kim do so, without checks since they're no longer in combat. The ship jumps to warp and they begin following the Vidiians who are already way ahead of them. Janeway still has the Vidiian weapon so she takes it to Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torrres in engineering.

Torres makes a check.

8 +1 Int +2 Small Equipment = 11. Success!

Torres spends some time taking the device apart, then reports back to the Captain. "This is more than a weapon. It's also a very sophisticated medical scanner and surgical instrument. You fire this at someone, you learn everything about their anatomy."

Before she can reply, Janeway's combadge pipes up, relaying the Doctor's voice. "Sickbay to the Captain. Please report to sickbay as soon as possible."

Janeway travels to sickbay in the turbolift, where she notices a sheet has been placed over Neelix on the bed. "I'm very sorry Captain," The Doctor says, coming out of his office. "I tried everything I could think of, but there was no way to deliver enough oxygen to Mr. Neelix's bloodstream without lungs. He passed away a few minutes ago.

Janeway is deflated. They have the Vidiian prisoner but he's of no use now Neelix has died. "Inform Kes of this please Doctor, and give her some time alone in sickbay. Then I'll announce the bad news later." Janeway says. "I know you did all you could under the circumstances." She calls Tuvok and orders him to meet her in the brig.

"My crewman has died because of the act of sheer cruelty you inflicted on him!" Janeway shouts at Dereth when she enters the brig.

"You have my sympathies Captain, but I have seen thousands of my people die in my lifetime. We do what we must to survive." He says.

Janeway makes a check.

6 +1 Int +3 Diplomacy = 10. Success!

"If you ever want to see your people again, you'd better tell me where that ship is headed." She demands.

"There's an asteroid we use as a waystation on our harvesting trips." Dereth says. "I can give you the coordinates."

Janeway and Tuvok return to the bridge. Ensign Kim uses the long range sensors to confirm there is an asteroid-sized object at those coordinates, and Lieutenant Paris tries to work out a route that will let them leapfrog over the Vidiian ship and arrive there first.

Paris makes a check.

9 +1 Int +3 Astrogation = 13. Success!

"Laying in a course now, Captain." He says, as he discovers a pocket of unstable space that will give them a boost in speed if they hit it at a certain angle while at warp.

"Janeway to Engineering, how are repairs coming along?" The Captain says into her combadge.

Torres makes a check.

8 +1 Int +3 Engineering = 12. Success!

"Shields are at full capacity and my team has repaired some structural damage on deck seven." Torres replies.

The Captain makes the announcement of Neelix's death to the rest of the crew. Tom Paris turns around in his seat and says "At least we won't have to eat any more of his terulian stew."

"Another word out of you and I'll have you confined to quarters Mr. Paris, do I make myself clear?" Janeway says, sternly.

"Yes Ma'am." He replies.

A while later they arrive at the asteroid. Scanning it, they can see it has a large hole in it which leads to a wide tunnel, wide enough for a starship to fly into. They take up a position on the far side of the asteroid, hoping its mass will mask their energy signature from Vidiian sensors.

Soon enough the Vidiians drop out of warp. Have they repaired their ship too?

Vidiian engineer makes a check.

8 +3 Engineering = 11. Success!

Tuvok scans the ship. "It appears the Vidiians have fully repaired their ship, Captain."

"Hail them." Janeway says, and Kim opens a channel. "This is Captain Janeway of the Federation starship Voyager. Your friend Dereth stole the lungs of one of my crew. That man has now died, which makes Dereth a murderer. What do you have to say for yourselves?"

How do they respond? (1D6)

1-2: Enter the asteroid

3-4: Respond to the hail

5-6: Attack

3.

A Vidiian appears on the viewscreen, looking similar to Dereth, his body ravaged by the phage. "I am Motura, of the Vidiian Sodality. This is the only way we have to fight the phage. It adapts, it resists all attempts to destroy it. We try to extract organs from the dead, but sometimes, when the need is immediate, more aggressive actions are required."

"My crewman is dead while you breathe air through his lungs!" Janeway snaps at him. Motura explains that the Vidiians were once known for their great culture and artistic achievements, and he himself is a sculptor of note on his planet. They couldn't let their entire culture and history be erased by the phage, so they do what they must to survive.

"If the consequence of this act is a death sentence... So be it. At least it will put an end to my suffering." Motura says.

Janeway is torn between a desire for revenge and her Federation moral code. She paces around the bridge.

Janeway makes a check.

6 +1 Int +4 Law: Federation = 11. Success!

"I don't have the freedom to kill Dereth in revenge for taking my crewman's life. My culture finds that to be a reprehensible and entirely unacceptable act. If we were closer to home I would lock him up and turn him over to my authorities for trial, but I don't even have that ability here! And I am not prepared to carry him forever in our brig.

"So I see no other alternative..." She looks at the floor, then back to the viewscreen, "But to let Dereth go. But take a message to your people. If I ever encounter your kind again I will do whatever is necessary to protect my people from this... harvesting of yours."

She arranges for Dereth to be beamed over to the Vidiian ship, which then slinks off into the asteroid. Janeway slumps into her chair.

"You made the only logical choice, Captain." Tuvok says, though it is no comfort. They resume their seventy year journey back to the Alpha Quadrant, leaving the wretched Vidiians in their asteroid.

My Thoughts

Very fun! I highly recommend doing this with one of your own favourite shows. If you use a system like Cepheus, Traveller, GURPS or maybe something much simpler like a Powered by the Apocalypse style game, you could adapt it to fit any setting really.

In the original show, Tom Paris using the replicator gave the Doctor the idea of projecting a pair of holographic lungs inside Neelix, allowing him to breathe as long as he was lying on the bed in sickbay and not moving at all. I'm not sure why this was easier than replicating a real pair that he could use permanently, but I guess the writers thought it was a cooler, more sci-fi idea.

Also, Dereth escapes from the away team in the cave by putting up another rock-like forcefield and makes it onto the Vidiian ship, which they chase to the asteroid. They fly inside and it's lined with hundreds of mirrors at odd angles, showing them hundreds of reflections of Voyager and the Vidiian ship, and they have to figure out which is the real one. When I rewatched it recently I thought this was the dumbest defence mechanism ever - why would they build the thing in the first place? Wouldn't it make more sense to just fly away at maximum warp rather than trap themselves in a dead end? I'm glad we didn't have to recreate it here.

In the end they capture Dereth and Motura together and confront them in the brig, but Janeway is faced with the moral dilemma of murdering Motura to save Neelix's life, a much better dilemma than the one we ended up with - give in to revenge or let them go. She spares their lives in the episode too, and in return they offer to biochemically alter one of Kes's lungs and implant it in Neelix's chest so he can survive outside sickbay, which is a much more satisfying ending.

And by the way, Dereth does have the exact same accent as Margaret Thatcher.

I'd like to play through more episodes of Voyager this way, but I'll have to alter the stories to exclude Neelix now. It'll probably be an occasional series on the blog.