Session report submitted originally to Rpggeek.com
An improvised adventure while my wife and I barbecued some turkey on a sunny Sunday afternoon. This was almost completely improvised based on a mere nugget of an adventure I had planned for a larger group.
Troy (of no relation to a particular Troi from Starfleet), a half-Betazoid Starfleet scientist (honestly, not related, see another Troy here) was en route to Vega Beta Omicron Delta Poop 2 for a geological terraforming survey when her shuttle she was waylaid by an unknown vessel. Troy was knocked unconscious after her shuttle was hit by a beam weapon and she was thrown from the console.
Waking, shackled at the wrists, she looked about to see an ancient looking cargo bay on an unknown ship, dimly lit, filled with assorted containers and a transporter pad.
Not wanting to mess with the Ferengi, Troi decided to first unshackle herself if she could. She began opening cargo containers. The first contained tins of Federation field rations. She pulled the tab on one, finding it fresh, and ate it to recover her strength. Then she broke the tab off and picked the lock on her shackles with it. The next container contained assorted rods and plates commonly used for ship hull repairs, and armed herself with a duranium rod.
Next she tried the transporter controls, but finding the computer locked out with a passcode, Troy attempted to open the cargobay door to explore deeper in the ship. The door too was locked with a passcode. So Troy woke the Ferengi, cautiously, and asked him if he knew where they were. Blarg, his name was, said it looked like a Pakled ship. He demanded to be unlocked from his shackles.
Troy made a deal with the Ferengi. He crack the code on the door, she'll unlock him. Agreeing to the deal, he first checked his pockets, finding everything missing. Except, under his waistband, his secret stash of 5 strips of latinum, which raised his spirits. Watchful of the Ferengi, whose emotional state was not entirely one of cooperation, he popped the lid of the last container, containing scrap electrical equipment. Using some bits he found, he jury rigged the door, which slid open, then shut, open then shut, stuttering. When it opened, Troy put her duranium rod in the doorway to hold it open.
Briefly, the two debated their options: take over the ship, or escape.
The two armed themselves with more rods and explored the hallway, ignoring several doors and instead using a turbolift at the end of the hall. Up one level, onto the engineering deck where two Pakleds were attending to computers that monitored the warp core. Blarg crept up on one, clonking him on the head with the rod and sending him to dreamland. The other spun about, fumbling for his pocket phaser.
Troy ran up and restrained him, using a set of shackles that Blarg had saved, but not before he could shout for help. Two more Pakleds came through the door at the far end of engineering. Troy threatened to kill her prisoner if they didn't back off, so they stayed back. Blarg took a tiny pocket phaser from the prisoner's pocket.
Troy demanded to know where they were going. One of the Pakleds said they were en route to an Orion slave auction where the Troy and Blarg would be sold. Then the Pakled prisoner tried to make a run for an alarm switch to whack it with his elbow, but Blarg shot him just as he hit the button. There was a short firefight, Blarg hit one Pakled, rendering him unconscious. The second Pakled missed, and Blarg only grazed him, and he fled out the door. Then another, responding to the alarm, arrived via the turbolift, and fired at Troy. Troy made a brave charge, dodging the shots and smacking him in the wrists with her rod, disarming him. He fell back into the turbolift and the doors shut. Troy took his phaser.
Meanwhile, Blarg hacked into the computer system to transmit a Federation distress signal, for which Troy provided the frequency. He then found a map of the ship, revealing two escape pods and the layout of the rest of the ship. Deciding to run for the pods, Blarg set his phaser on overload and put it next to the warp core. 2 minutes to disaster.
They found the grazed Pakled through the doorway, which Troy stunned with her phaser. Through the next doorway they found the escape pod, which was sealed with a keypad. Up the hallway was the apparent captain who ordered two of his men to fire with primitive (but deadly) projectile weapons. Blarg dived back toward engineering, but Troy shot one, who dropped his weapon. The next round, Blarg tried the keypad but failed to open it. Troy shot the other, knocking him unconscious. The captain reached for his guard's weapon, while the two heroes fled through a door to the other side of the ship to the other pod. There they both tried the keypad, and Blarg succeeded to hack the code.
Launching into space, they looked through the window to see the warp nacelles pop and leak gasses from the reactor damage caused by the overloaded phaser. With her piloting prowess, Troy dodged a parting shot from the aft cannon of the now nearly crippled Pakled ship, which was slowly, ever slowly, turning about to pursue them.
The escape pod was old and the electronics in a really bad state of repair. Troy tried to send a distress call, but failed to wire it correctly. Blarg tried his hand at it, and failed as well. The Pakled ship began to come about and pursue, beams streaking from its cannons but just out of range. However, the initial distress call sent paid off, as a federation ship arrived, blasting holes in the Pakled ship with its phasers and locking a tractor beam on the pod.
Rescued!
