As this is a recap page, major spoilers follow.
"Relics" is a Foundry mission for Star Trek Online written by Kirkfat. It was featured in the STO blog's "Spotlight on the Foundry"
feature on October 19, 2012, and was also the winner of Foundry Challenge #4. It is playable by Federation captains of any level.
Starfleet Intelligence receives word of an increased Klingon presence on the strategically unimportant world Minkara V in the Otha System in the Eta Eridani block. The player is dispatched to investigate and fights off a few Klingon ships, but your ship takes damage and has to hide from their reinforcements in a nearby nebula while Damage Control sees to repairs.
Inside the nebula you discover a derelict ship belonging to a long-extinct race, and inside the ship is a Human Popsicle kidnapped from Earth in 1537. You thaw him out and, after convincing him you and your ship's counselor Shree aren't demons or agents of the Inquisition, learn that he is a Lithuanian mathematician and scientist named Johann Rymut. You explain where and when he is and hand him off to Shree for his long recovery.
You return to Minkara V and paste the Klingons' reinforcements, then discover they're doing some sort of archaeological dig on the planet surface. You beam down and blast your way to what turns out to be a sister artifact to the Guardian of Forever, the Guardian of Balance. It states there is a disturbance in the timeline and that the only way to correct it is to send Johann Rymut back to 1537.
Tropes:
- Alien Abduction/Ancient Astronauts: The Ugcinian ship visited Earth in 1537 and froze Johann.
- Aliens Made Them Do It: Between you and ship's counselor Dr. Shree, a few weeks or so before "Relics". Apparently you got possessed by incorporeal aliens or something to that effect and seduced her. We never do hear the whole story, and you don't remember any of it (and can optionally wish you did).
- Ascended Glitch: For some bizarre reason your away team always falls through the floor when you beam over to the Ugcinian ship. Kirkfat turned this into a story element, saying you beamed over solo.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Copernicus apparently got the idea of a sun-centric solar system from the Federation, by way of Johann Rymut being sent back to his home time.
- Brick Joke: During the mission briefing you lament that you miss the days when exploration was the main job of Starfleet, as opposed to fighting multiple wars simultaneously. As you beam over to the Ugcinian ship, you remark that it feels good to be an explorer.
- Continuity Nod: Your science officer briefly mentions the Department of Temporal Investigations, in the context of a visit from them being preferable to whatever cataclysm would result from not sending Johann back to his home time period.
- Damage Control: Your ship receives a few parting shots during the first firefight with the Klingons and, according to your chief engineer, would be a sitting duck if reinforcements showed up. Much of the next section of the mission uses the damage control efforts as a Closed Circle.
- Expy: The Guardian of Balance, for the Guardian of Forever. In this case it's an Enforced Trope thanks to
legal issues: The Guardian of Forever is owned by a different copyright holder than the rest of the franchise and Cryptic had to get special permission to use it in the official storyline. Foundry authors aren't allowed. - For Want Of A Nail: Discussed. According to the Guardian of Balance, not sending Johann back to 1537 leads to a Bad Future where "the machines" (inferred by your captain to be the Borg) rule unopposed.
- Get a Room!: Dr. Daniels' response to catching you and Shree flirting."My patient isn't standing by for nobody. Quit with your hanky-panky. The whole crew knows about you two. Get a room."
- Human Popsicle: Johann when you find him aboard the Ugcinian derelict.
- I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder:Dr. Daniels: I'm a doctor, not a therapist. (She explains how being a Fish out of Temporal Water could drive Johann insane.)
- Jerkass: Dr. Daniels, of the cranky old lady variety.
- Lampshade Hanging: Shree hangs one on the Guardian of Balance's claim that sending Johann back to the past restored the timeline, noting that the event that would've altered it in the first place hadn't happened yet. The Guardian basically says the Federation's understanding of time isn't good enough to make sense of it yet.
- Language Barrier: The Ugcinians attempted to contact the Vulcans, also a warp-capable race, but they couldn't make themselves understood before their homeworld was obliterated by their sun Cassiopeia A going supernova, wiping out the species.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: Option given for you to hang a lampshade on it when you insist on beaming over to the Ugcinian ship in an EV suit by yourself over your science officer's objections."I lead every away team. It is only logical."
- Noodle Incident: The aforementioned Aliens Made Them Do It between you and Shree is talked about a little, mostly in the context of how it makes working together very awkward, but never fully explained.
- Shout-Out:
- Acting Ensign Paulo is an obvious reference to Wesley Crusher's status in most of TNG, though she only gets about four lines.
- When interviewing Johann he asks if you're agents of the Inquisition. Cue one of the dialogue options being the obligatory Monty Python's Flying Circus reference.
- Space Clouds: You hide in one while Damage Control sees to your phaser power couplings and navigational deflector.
- Stable Time Loop: Aliens kidnap Johann and freeze him for 900-odd years. Federation thaws him out and teaches him a little bit about the past, including that Earth revolves around the sun. Guardian of Balance sends him back to his own time and tells Copernicus about it. Copernicus publishes the theory but lies about where he got it.
- Starfish Aliens: The Ugcinians were apparently biologically similar to the Tholians, a non-humanoid species from a Class Y, or "demon", planet. They physically couldn't send themselves into space (they didn't have the tech to simulate their own extreme atmosphere) so their ships were unmanned.
