MV Silver Cormorant

The MV Silver Cormorant was an Antares-class civilian merchant freighter that became famous after completing a treacherous, twenty-five-year interstellar journey home under conventional warp after being stranded in The Verge by an unstable wormhole.

History

The MV Silver Cormorant was constructed sometime in the late 23rd century at Luna Shipyards, and purchased by the Hyperlight Logistics corporation.

During a delivery run in 2352, Captain Garrett Roland was in command when he made the decision to divert course in order to avoid a large electromagnetic storm that he feared could damage the ship's systems. While passing through the then-uncharted Khartanis system as part of this detour, the aperture of a previously-undiscovered wormhole opened up and engulfed the ship, sending it roughly 13,000 light years away to the edge of the galaxy. The wormhole's terminus shifted position shortly upon depositing the Silver Cormorant at the other end, leaving it stranded.

Wracked with guilt and consumed by pondering the various hypotheticals of how such a fate could have been avoided, Captain Roland became totally risk-averse and ordered a beeline course plotted back home at maximum warp, which he refused to deviate from. Any ideas put forward by the crew for exploring other avenues of getting home were summarily dismissed as being “too risky.”

After two months of uninterrupted travel at constant warp, the stress being placed on the ship's engines was threatening to burn them out permanently. Captain Roland, however, refused to stop to perform maintenance – arguing that since they had no idea where they were and didn't know whether the area was hostile or not, stopping would constitute an unacceptable risk – nor would he listen when the crew tried to explain that burning out the warp drive would leave the ship permanently stranded, possibly in interstellar space where they would run out of life support long before ever reaching a planet. The resulting mutiny, led by first officer Iain Daggett, resulted in Roland's death as well as extensive damage to the ship's navigation system after the captain barricaded himself inside the bridge and tried to permanently lock-in their present course and speed.

Upon assuming command, Daggett's time as captain was not without incident. Whereas Roland had been overly cautious, the surviving crew tend to agree that Daggett was too cavalier – wasting time and precious resources on long-shot gambles to try and shorten their travel time. This came to a head in 2368 when Daggett and the ship's chief engineer, Steven Atwell, were both crushed to death in a cave-in while trying to extract hydrogen from water ice on a rogue comet.

Ultimately, only five of the Silver Cormorant's original crew of twelve survived the journey, led home by machinist's mate Lauren Kimball and her son Jason, who had been born while en route.