You arrive at Nonnara. As you drop out of light speed, the protection of your Shroud technology vanishes, just as sensor readings reveal that the Federation leadership has miscalculated the danger. An ambush awaits you. Crafty, fox-eared Vulpeculan officers have co-opted the Nonnid transceiver equipment to transmit a deception – a false SOS. Immediately, your ship, the Nox, is trapped in a Reticulum energy field generated by the enemy ship, holding it in place. Reverse thrusters have no effect. You and your crew are trapped. In the chaos, your Chief Engineer, Ventra, suddenly alights on a deceptively simple solution. From what she says, it involves ejecting a probe. The crew is mystified as to how this can help. However, you have already caught on to her reasoning and order the crew to implement her suggestion immediately.
With some fast work, her team outfits the probe with enough fuel for a brief burst forward at a massive multiple of light speed. Now deployed into space, its little engines are straining against the net, trying to move the craft forward. The Reticulum starts to glow blue, shimmering with intensity as it generates an equally massive resistance to hold the probe in place. You turn to the pilot, shouting, “All power to our engines now! Get us moving–there isn’t enough energy in the web to hold us AND the probe at once!”
“We’re at maximum speeds, Captain,” Ventra shouts. “Any more acceleration means pushing the engines past design limits.”
You see no alternative. “Do it anyway!” you say.
As the tension heightens, the probe explodes in a startling display of fireworks. In the same instant, your helmsman breaks the Nox free from the energetic web.
Yet—your problems are not over.
Apparently, pushing engines past safety limits had consequences. Alerted by faint beeps from the Ops station, your crew notice radiation readings aboard your ship are spiking, seemingly generated by the Nox’s overheated engines themselves. There has been a breach of containment. The Vulpeculans are ahead of you once again: neither you nor Ventra foresaw that breaking free from the Reticulum would instantly energize the radioactive Element 130 — the secret sauce in your anti-gravity drive — above the reactor’s safety limits. Radiation has seeped out, rapidly flooding both of your vessel’s decks. If readings grow any higher, you and the crew will have to abandon ship, leaving the empty Nox in the hands of waiting Vulpeculans. As captain, you quickly analyze the situation. [Select 1 of the following choices]
