Nova One was a small independent starship designed and operated by Nick Locarno during the early 2380s.
History[]
Throughout 2381, the ship was, from the perspective of Starfleet, responsible for the destruction of several non-Federation ships, including the Klingon Bird-of-Prey IKS Che'Ta', a Romulan starship, an Orion ship, a Ferengi starship, a Bynar ship, several Cardassian ships. This was so believed due to the existence of debris at the location of each encounter.
The Betazed government's intelligence agency, the BIA, was the first to acquire grainy footage of the ship, which they later shared with Captain Carol Freeman of the USS Cerritos. (LD: "Empathological Fallacies")
Meanwhile, the attacks later affected Ferengi trade routes, prompting Grand Nagus Rom to initiate membership into the Federation. (LD: "Parth Ferengi's Heart Place")
Later the same year, one of AGIMUS' murder drones acquired footage of the capture of the Bynar ship. The footage was later acquired by Lieutenants Brad Boimler and D'Vana Tendi and shared with Starfleet after AGIMUS had a change of heart in his actions. The footage revealed that the Bynar's ship wasn't destroyed, but towed away. At the same time, the Cerritos was sent into Bynar space to investigate the loss of the Bynar ship. Badgey exploited the incident and the Cerritos' resulting presence to get revenge on Sam Rutherford. (LD: "A Few Badgeys More")
After this Starfleet Intelligence learned that the ship was not only targeting non-Federation ships, but turning to ex-Starfleet personnel, prompting Starfleet to locate and recover a number these such former officers, with the Cerritos tasked with recovering Locarno from New Axton. On New Axton, Locarno's hangar facility was eventually discovered, with clear evidence of his direct involvement in the investigation: schematics of the mysterious ship.
Simultaneously, an away team of Cerritos lower deckers – Lieutenants Boimler, Tendi, T'Lyn, and Beckett Mariner – were sent to Sherbal V to repair a weather satellite. Captain Freeman, unaware that the stolen ships' command crews were being marooned on the planet, had arranged this mission to keep an increasingly reckless Lieutenant Mariner out of harm's way; she was not aware that she was in fact sending Mariner into the lion's den. After they had discovered that the satellite had been tampered with, they departed, and were immediately attacked by the IKS Che'Ta'.
Fortuitously, they beamed to the planet's surface, where they discovered several crews from the ships that were attacked by the mysterious ship that Starfleet was investigating. On the planet's surface, Mariner was able to unite the captured crews against their attacker, but was promptly beamed aboard the mysterious ship, where she later discovered its pilot, former Nova Squadron leader, Nick Locarno. (LD: "The Inner Fight")
Aboard Nova One, Mariner was taken to the Detrion system where she was introduced to Nova Fleet. She further accompanied Locarno to the ship's bridge, where she was unwillingly involved in his plot. From the bridge, Locarno announced Nova Fleet's existence to the Alpha Quadrant, and eventually invited her to speak, expecting her to incite Starfleet lower deckers to rebel. She instead spoke out against him, confiscated the stolen black market Genesis Device that Locarno had in his possession, and escaped Nova One by commandeering the USS Passaro.
Nova One soon after joined the pursuit of Mariner's stolen ship and went into a level 7 ion storm to retrieve the confiscated Genesis Device. After inflicting damage to Mariner's ship, Locarno boarded it and unsuccessfully attempted to disarm the device that Mariner had activated. Seconds later, the device detonated and drew in all the surrounding matter, including the Nova One, to recombine it into the newly formed planet, Locarno. (LD: "Old Friends, New Planets")