Illuminar Compile 27 Dates: December 4th, 2020 - December 19th, 2020 Mission: Decompression, Day 6 - 7 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Mission: Decompression Day: 6 Stardate 2445:10:02 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< (USS Illuminar, Main Engineering - Engineering Officer, Ensign Scott Matrix - 1121) (USS Illuminar, Deck 5 Primary Computer Core - acting Chief Engineering Officer, Lt(jg) Vex'ahlia Jordaan - 1130) (USS Illuminar, Deck 5 Primary Computer Core - SPC Luma'lenai - 1132) (USS Illuminar, Deck 5 Primary Computer Core – ACOps Lieutenant (jg) Dieter Gregory -1133) (USS Illuminar, Main Engineering - Engineer Ens (jg) Tycho Alantar - 1134) (USS Illuminar, Deck 5 Primary Computer Core - aCEO, Lt(jg) Vex'ahlia Jordaan - 1142) (USS Illuminar, Deck 5 Primary Computer Core - ACOps, Lt(jg) Dieter Gregory - 1144) (USS Illuminar - Deck 14 -Main Engineering- CO- Captain Sekal - 1500) (USS Illuminar, Main Engineering - aCEO, Lieutenant(jg) Vex'ahlia Jordaan - 1502) (USS Illuminar - Deck 6 - Crew Quarters - EngO Ens(jg) Tycho Alantar - 1530) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Mission: Decompression Day: 7 Stardate 2445:10:03 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< (USS Illuminar, Security Office - Sec Ens. Penny McTaggard - 10:18 ) (USS Protector – Deck 1 – Captain’s Ready Room – Commander Jason Nesmith - 1100) (USS Illuminar - Corridor outside - Sec Ens. Penny McTaggard - 11:35) (USS Illuminar, 2O's Office - 2O, Commander Carson Peters - 11:36) (USS Hamilton, Captains Ready Room - Commodore Sherri Willet - 1345) (USS Illuminar, Deck 14, Armoury - Assistant Chief of Security Keung Lee, Security Officer Ensign T’Mur, Security Officer PO1 Stephen Hammons, Security Officer PO3 Hercules Devers, Trainer Jalen O’Riley - 1500) (USS Sisko -- Bridge -- Captain Louise Winn -- 1507) (USS Illuminar, Deck 4, Holodeck 2 - Assistant Chief of Security Keung Lee, Security Officer Ensign T’Mur, Security Officer Stephen Hammons, Security Officer Hercules Devers, Trainer Jalen O’Riley - 1530) (USS Illuminar, Deck 4, Holodeck 2 - Assistant Chief of Security Keung Lee, Security Officer Ensign T’Mur, Security Officer Stephen Hammons, Security Officer Hercules Devers, Trainer Jalen O’Riley - 1550) (USS Illuminar, Deck 14, Armoury - Assistant Chief of Security Keung Lee, Security Officer Ensign T’Mur, Security Officer Stephen Hammons, Security Officer Hercules Devers, Trainer Jalen O’Riley, PO3 Carol Lannis - 1615) (USS Protector – Deck 1 – Briefing Room – Commander Jason Nesmith – 2000) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Mission: Decompression Day: 8 Stardate 2445:10:04 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< (P.V. Bohemian – Cockpit – Ops NCO- CPO Charles Tamblyn -0530) (USS Illuminar, COps Office – ACOps Lieutenant (jg) Dieter Gregory – 0805) (U.S.S. Illuminar – COps Office – Ops NCO- CPO Charles Tamblyn -0807) (USS Illuminar- Deck 4- Transporter Room 1- Vice-Admiral Saleke - 0830) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Bridge- Vice-Admiral Saleke - 0840) (U.S.S. Illuminar – Conference Room – Ops NCO- CPO Charles Tamblyn -0851) (USS Illuminar - Deck 1 - Briefing Room - ACSRD Ensign Stennin - 0857) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- CO, Captain Sekal and Federation Ambassador Dr. Riven Mias- 0900) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- FSXO/Flight ops/Conn- Lieutenant (jg) Tempest Grey Wolf- 0901) (USS Protector – Deck 1 – Ready Room – Commander Jason Nesmith – 0902) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- 2O, Commander Carson Peters & aCEO, Lieutenant Vex'ahlia Jordaan - 0905) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- Assistant Chief of Security, Ens Keung Lee - 0906) (USS Illuminar – Deck 1 – Conference Room – ACOps Lieutenant (jg) Dieter Gregory and Pilot Ensign (sg) Vic ‘Raid’ Montero - 0910) (USS Illuminar – Deck 1 – Conference Room – Federation Ambassador- Dr. Riven Mias- 0913) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- SO, Ensign T'Mur- 0915) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- Federation Ambassador- Dr. Riven Mias- 0916) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- SO, Ensign T'Mur- 0917) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- Federation Ambassador- Dr Riven Mias- 0919) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- aCSO, Ens Keung Lee - 0920) (USS Illuminar - Conference Room - ACOUNS ACMO LT JG Ariel Trei - 09.25) (USS Illuminar - Deck 1 - Briefing Room - Federation Ambassador- Dr. Riven Mias- 0926) (USS Illuminar Deck 1 - Briefing Room - ACOps Lieutenant (jg) Dieter Gregory - 0930) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- SO, Ensign T'Mur- 0931) (USS Illuminar – Deck 1 – Conference room – ACOps Lieutenant (jg) Dieter Gregory - 0933) (USS Illuminar – Deck 1 – Conference Room – Federation Ambassador- Dr Riven Mias - 0935) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- SO, Ensign T'Mur- 0936) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Ready Room- CO, Captain Sekal - 1330) (U.S.S. Illuminar – Ready Room – Ops NCO- CPO Charles Tamblyn -1333) (U.S.S. Illuminar – Ready Room – CO- Captain Sekal-1335) (U.S.S. Illuminar – Ready Room – Ops NCO- CPO Charles Tamblyn -1337) (U.S.S. Illuminar – Ready Room – CO- Captain Sekal -1339) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Ready Room- CO, Captain Sekal - 1400) (USS Illuminar- Deck 14 - Security Center- SecO - PO1 Steven Hammons-1401) (USS Illuminar – Briefing Room – Deck 1 – ACOps Lieutenant (jg) Dieter Gregory - 1403) (USS Illuminar- Deck 3- Personal Quarters- ACSO- Lt (jg) Jaton Alyl- 1920) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Mission: Decompression Day: 9 Stardate 2445:10:05 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< (Mars Base- Red Sands Tavern- ACOps - Lieutenant (jg) Dieter Gregory and Ferengi Fight Promoter Lar- 1830) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< DAY 6 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< (USS Illuminar, Main Engineering - Engineering Officer, Ensign Scott Matrix - 1121) Scott was running behind, but just made it into engineering to hear the CEO start her brief. "Ah, Ensign Matrix. Just in time." Vex shouted across the room. "Ready to go? Ensigns Transitor & Alantar, our new recruits will be assisting and I've asked Lieutenant Gregory to come along to participate if required." Matrix scanned the room briefly, “Absolutely.” "Once we're done, it'll probably be worth your while getting to know the newbies. It'll be nice to have some people that can take some of the weight off these shoulders." “I will be happy to show everyone around and get to know them. Nice to meet you all.” Scott replied. Scott moved with the group to deck 5 and waited for the CEO to give her instructions. (USS Illuminar, Deck 5 Primary Computer Core - Engineering Officer, Ensign Scott Matrix - 1126) "Ensign Matrix if you'll take the primary console. You know what you're looking for, any overloads, stresses on the PCC you need to begin siphoning off power. Ensign Transitor & Alantar you both finished the tasks set?" “Understood…we’ll keep a close eye on everything.” Replied Matrix. "Good. We're about to use the transfer device," she moved towards the large triangular metallic object which was attached to the Primary Computer Core. "This is the second version of a device I designed to provide Luma with a way of transferring too and from the PCC. The first time we did this it was a seperate device plugged in to the USS Mystiques core. During the Illuminars design & construction phase it became obvious that Captain Sekal wanted Luma as a crew member so the design was incorporated into the PCC. This makes the transfer significantly safer. As senior members of Engineering and Operations, I have made the designs for this device open to you, if you can find any way to make this operation safer going forward or any ideas on how to better the design, please let me know." ~Interesting.~ thought Scott. ~This should be good.~ (Reply none) (Posted by Steve) (USS Illuminar, Deck 5 Primary Computer Core - acting Chief Engineering Officer, Lt(jg) Vex'ahlia Jordaan - 1130) Slowly lifting the necklace over her head she stood in the middle of the room focusing on it for a moment. ::Ready?:: she asked Luma. She could feel the tenseness within the room, everyone could feel how stressful this situation was. (Reply Luma) "Lieutenant Gregory, could you?" she nodded to the tri-pod set of arms which were being held stationary by the computer core wall console. "If you could have the computer open to 23 degrees and hold firm." (Reply Gregory) Unlinking the chain from the gem which was large enough that it required both hands. Once Dieter had manuevered the arms into the correct position, she placed the crystal fragment so it was held in place by each arm. "Ensigns, begin monitoring transfer. SPOTS if you can feed the sensor data directly into the Illuminars computer that'd be ideal." ~Though no idea if you can~ she thought to herself, before the knelt down and began focusing all of her energy on Luma, ready to aid her wherever she could. (Reply Luma, Dieter, Transitor, Alanatar) (Posted by Jono Bradley - Vex'ahlia Jordaan) (USS Illuminar, Deck 5 Primary Computer Core - SPC Luma'lenai - 1132) Luma did not enjoy the transfer from crystalline form to computer or back again. It was stressful and although Luma did not confide this in her Vex, one day Luma was frightened that she would be lost in the subspace matrixes that the crystalline fragment was connected to. The chance of being lost skyrocketed during the transfer process. Vex asked Luma if she was ready to return to the Illuminar and be grounded in the skin once again. ::Luma is ready. My Vex is ready to be alone again with our Carson?:: Luma claimed Carson as hers because he belonged to Vex and the bond between the Lenai and her bondmate was indescribable to those from the outside. Tighter than that of an imzadi, tighter than twin or mating, it was needed to be so tight to anchor the Lenai in the present. The time-hopping capability could cause Luma to lose herself without a temporal anchor. As the crystal was placed in the transfer device and Vex concentrated, aiding Luma in the transfer back to the gel packs, the power spiked across the bio neural gelpack system as Luma began the process of reintegration, spreading her consciousness in such a way that she was evenly spread across the ship. At 25% integration Luma was able to relax and the tight bond with Vex relaxed. The power spikes began to calm, although the main EPS pathway from interface to computer was red-lined through the entire process. What seemed like forever was in fact only about a quarter of an hour. The warmth and glow of the crystal in the transfer device began to fade and the sense of vibrancy to the crystal disappeared. Another minute passed and an audible crack was heard as the Anelurian Crystal fragment shattered into four pieces. ::Our Sekal is going to be very cross that Luma broke his crystal. :: Luma sounded contrite and a bit sad. ::Luma did not mean too.:: The Lenai's voice when spoken over the computer speakers was rich and warm, completely unlike the antiseptic voice of a normal computer. =^= This one is called Luma and she is of the Lenai. The small ones not the Dieter will introduce themselves to Luma. Luma knows the Dieter well since he helps to fix issues with the skin. The nameless small ones are now assistants to My Vex and keep the skin able to run.=^= The Lenai's very friendly voice hardened into what one might recognize as ptsd. =^= If the nameless small ones attempt to circumvent Luma's access to the skin's power, especially the ability to go, Luma will put that small one into the time out until the Vice Admiral Saleke may come.=^= The Lenai gave ger warning once, but the taste of fear was bitter in the air, even for the non-telepaths. Having a telepathic alien eons old living in the ship could cause misunderstandings. Luma quieted for a moment as she focused on her reintegration, the ship seeming to come alive deck by deck, compartment by compartment. (Reply engineering, dieter) (Posted by Mel) (USS Illuminar, Deck 5 Primary Computer Core – ACOps Lieutenant (jg) Dieter Gregory -1132) Gregory watched as Lieutenant Jordaan took the necklace off. Nodding to some remote-controlled arms, she spoke “Lieutenant Gregory, could you? If you could have the computer open to 23 degrees and hold firm.” “Acknowledged,” he said. Typing some controls into the terminal, he watched as the arms moved into position. Jordaan placed the crystal into the arms. "Ensigns, begin monitoring transfer. SPOTS if you can feed the sensor data directly into the Illuminars computer that'd be ideal." SPOTS spoke “I am able to interface with any Federation system.” “Interface established,” the dog said, as his ears started to move back and forth. Gregory typed some commands into his station. He pulled up the sensor readings that SPOTs was sending to the system. “Noting alpha waves at 13 hertz. Delta at 5 hertz. Also noting vibrational energy at frequency of 850 kilohertz. “ Gregory kept making notes as the frequencies changed, and the amplitudes showed sporadic peaks. “Uh, Lieutenant, there is a frequency spike at 750 hertz. Its climbing and showing a phase modulation of increasing to sin theta. It’s increasing with a phase shift of -90.” Gregory said. “Second spike at 600 hertz.” A loud crack was heard, and the crystal fragmented into four pieces. Out of the computer speakers came a voice. =^= This one is called Luma and she is of the Lenai. The small ones not the Dieter will introduce themselves to Luma. Luma knows the Dieter well since he helps to fix issues with the skin. The nameless small ones are now assistants to My Vex and keep the skin able to run.=^= The Lenai's very friendly voice hardened into what one might recognize as ptsd. =^= If the nameless small ones attempt to circumvent Luma's access to the skin's power, especially the ability to go, Luma will put that small one into the time out until the Vice Admiral Saleke may come.=^= “Well, that seemed to be successful,” Gregory said. “We got good data Lieutenant. Do you want me to analyze it?” (Reply Jordaan, Luma, others) (Posted by Tim) (USS Illuminar, Main Engineering - Engineer Ens (jg) Tycho Alantar - 1134) Tycho was at full alert as soon as the process started, taking cues from Matrix and carefully watching his control at each step. Even with the best, sometimes it took some work to get there, and he made minute adjustments to his own speed of action when he could tell a spike was because of him being slow or fast. As he found the sweet spot, he saw a few of the EPS spikes settle, but there were others still happening and Tycho did what he could to help control the transfer, making bypass after bypass to new power shunts if one looked in danger of a full fry up. Tycho felt a bead of sweat crawl down the back of his neck, what seemed like forever was in fact only about a quarter of an hour. The warmth and glow of the crystal in the transfer device began to fade and the sense of vibrancy to the crystal disappeared. Another minute passed and an audible crack was heard as the Anelurian Crystal fragment shattered into four pieces. His body moved on instinct, rolling the shoulder to guard against anything flying his direction, but his eyes scanned things immediately after. He frowned deeply, but the process had ended almost immediately after Luma was fully in the ship, and the crystal directly after that. He made a last check of his readouts and set the console to compile and analyse everything he'd done and cross-reference the others' consoles. Hopefully a pattern could be found that would help solve the mystery of the Quartered Crystal. He leaned down and picked up one piece of the crystal as a rich and warm voice sounded, with some peculiar linguistics. Tycho was used to listening to garbled language and catching the meaning. Growing up on a space station close to several Federation borders had some uses after all. =^= This one is called Luma and she is of the Lenai. The small ones not the Dieter will introduce themselves to Luma. Luma knows the Dieter well since he helps to fix issues with the skin. The nameless small ones are now assistants to My Vex and keep the skin able to run.=^= The Lenai's very friendly voice hardened into what one might recognize as ptsd. =^= If the nameless small ones attempt to circumvent Luma's access to the skin's power, especially the ability to go, Luma will put that small one into the time out until the Vice Admiral Saleke may come.=^= The Lenai gave her warning once, but the taste of fear was bitter in the air, even for the non-telepaths. Tycho could feel it in his spine and it raised his hackles for a second, but he cracked his neck to shrug it off and stood, getting caught up in a nebulous sense of fear wouldn't help, just like sparring. Bringing the piece to the console he set up a scan as he spoke, "Hello Luma, I am Tycho Alantar. As you say, I am here to help keep your - skin - in good shape," Tycho smiled, it made sense, and he'd probably enjoy exploring her description of the feeling, but that was for a less concerning time, so he continued, "I hope you will be happy to hear that I spent a good amount of time fixing and caring for many ships at the Shipyards on Mars, so I hope I can do the same with you." Tycho paused in his dialogue, waiting for an answer. Until told otherwise though, he wasn't going to push small talk. There were more pressing things at hand. Getting a scan started on the piece of crystal, he went back to his original station just as the compile flashed complete. He keyed up any anomalous readings and started scanning through them, the look on his face plain enough showing his engineering brain turning over. (Reply Luma, any) Examining his readouts again, Tycho set aside his own earlier issues, clearing out known human error, since the computer wasn't pointing to anything specifically done by anyone, ::yet.:: (Reply Any here) (Posted by Lorenz) (USS Illuminar, Deck 5 Primary Computer Core - aCEO, Lt(jg) Vex'ahlia Jordaan - 1142) Standing next to the crystal, her eyes shut Vex barely noticed the others talking between themselves during the process. It was why they were here, there was noway she could be apart of this process with Luma and keep an eye on and keep ahead of the changes that needed making on a consistent basis. Her job was to keep Luma anchored to this point, a singular point in time and space in which she could rely on whilst transferring from the crystal via the machine and into the Computer Core. It required an enourmous amount of focus. The transition from seeing nothing, to seeing through the ships sensors as Luma made the slow progression into the systems was disorientating, but that switch allowed Vex to relax a little. They were mostly there. "Uh, Lieutenant, there is a frequency spike at 750 hertz." Dieters voice sounded concerned, " Its climbing and showing a phase modulation of increasing to sin theta. It’s increasing with a phase shift of -90.” Gregory said. Vex was about to ask Luma to slow her progress when, “Second spike at 600 hertz.” Dieter said and there was a loud crack. It resounded and bounced around her brain for what seemed like an eternity. She felt sick and felt her knees give way. The feeling of lonliness was overwhelming, there was no sound, no light and no way of moving. ~Help~ she thought trying to find Luma. She couldn't and panic overtook her. ~Luma..?~ There was still nothing and then suddenly she felt a throbbing pain in the back of her neck before it all went black. (USS Illuminar, Deck 5 Primary Computer Core - aCEO, Lt(jg) Vex'ahlia Jordaan - 1147) Eyes opening up and light flooded open, ::Luma?:: her first thought found it's mark. She could feel that she and Luma were connected once more as instantly felt the concern from Luma wave over her and found herself looking at her lifesigns through the ships sensors. She was lying on the floor and it took a second to realise there were people gathered around her, "I'm OK." she declared loud enough for them to hear over the babble of chatter. "::What happened?::" she asked both to the room and to Luma. (Reply all present) (Posted by Jono Bradley) (USS Illuminar, Deck 5 Primary Computer Core - ACOps, Lt(jg) Dieter Gregory - 1144) Gregory tapped his comm badge, “Medical to Primary Computer Core. Medical Emergency.” (Reply Medical) “SPOTS, keep monitoring,” he said as he moved to Jordann’s side. (USS Illuminar, Deck 5 Primary Computer Core - ACOps, Lt(jg) Dieter Gregory - 1148 “What .. Happened?” Lieutenant Jordaan asks. “Are you ok, Lieutenant?” (Reply Jordaan) “Near as I can tell, there was some frequency feedback within the system that set off a resonant harmonic in the 600 hertz range. “Clearly, we’ll have to analyze all the data, see if we can pinpoint what caused the harmonic frequency. SPOTS was uploading data and we’ll see what everyone has on their sensors. Let’s get you to medical and your engineers can analyze the data. I’ll make sure they have the necessary computer resources. We may want to get one of the geologists involved too. (Reply Jordaan, others) (Posted by Tim) (USS Illuminar - Deck 14 -Main Engineering- CO- Captain Sekal - 1500) With Luma successfully reintegrated and ships power completely restored Sekal had gathered the Engineering and Operations crew together to familiarize them with the new systems aboard the ship. Being a radical departure from the older dilithium crystal drive he was taking no chances on miscommunication or confusion impinging on a successful operation. He looked about the group for a moment to insure he had their attention before beginning. "You are all very well versed in your craft however the purpose of this meeting is to inform you of changes to this ships systems from what most of you are familiar with. On the surface the new crystal drive is fundamentally unchanged as it uses the matter/anti-matter fuel supply however the tri-methyl selenide crystal has some notable differences, primarily a much finer crystalline latticework which insures a more efficient reaction within the intermixed chamber. The inefficiency of the dilithium crystal drive has been reduced by eighty percent leading to a more efficient use of the fuel supply and a resultant lowering of the low energy plasma emitted by the older system. On the older system deuterium was introduced in greater amounts than anti-deuterium to insure all of the anti-deuterium atoms were involved in the reaction. Within the new drive however the intermixed ratio has been reduced from 1.8 to 1 to 1.193 to 1. With the same volume of fuel then the high energy plasma used to power the warp coils has been significantly increased and low energy plasma reduced as noted. Also the engines use swirl technology, smaller crystals situated around the intermix chamber rather one one large central crystal which had already been in use on the Intrepid/Belleraphon design due to its greater efficiency. This has caused a number of changes in the power flow within the EPS conduits. Ships systems had always been run by low energy plasma and assisted by auxiliary power from the impulse engines only when needed due to unforseen draws upon the system but the ship now routinely uses auxiliary power to supplement the available energy supply. Additionally energy to power the phasers and tractor beams now uses high energy plasma drawn from the warp core like the deflector shields. This necessitated the introduction of sturdier power buffers, shunts and transformer circuitry." He looked about the group. "Are there any questions on anything I've covered so far?" (Reply: Any, room for more) "Returning to the subject. Due to the Anelurian crystals being tied to subspace much like the dilithium crystal is theorized to tie to null space the warp bubble created by the warp coil has an enhanced effect allowing for a reduced need of high energy plasma. When running at high warp speeds the draw upon the engines is routinely at 30%, far below the normal ratio of 90% and above on earlier systems. This enhanced effect also has been proven to open a subspace tunnel at speeds approaching warp 10 which is navigable at speeds allowed by Transwarp and Quantum Slipstream drive technology without the additional and cumbersome monitoring equipment. It should be noted that running at maximum warp during the duration test overloaded the upgraded series of flux capacitor used for that test so a hardier one was designed and introduced while we were at Bajor. This newer design proved sufficient to allow us to make the return trip to Mars with a reduced travel time of 83.3%. Familiarizing yourself with the upgraded components and altered power flow will allow you to be more efficient in monitoring and servicing the equipment. Are there any final questions?" (Reply: Any, room for more) He nodded as the meeting came to an end and handed out padds to those assembled. "These contain all of the information I have just covered in more exacting detai as well as a full schematic of power flow within the shipl. If you have any additional questions or concerns that Lieutenant Jordaan is unable to answer you may bring them to me. I do not anticipate this as she is well versed in the new drive. Thank you for your attention. Dismissed." Having concluded the presentation he allowed them to return to their duties and took a moment to survey the ongoing operations before leaving. (Reply: Any) (Posted by Charles G) (USS Illuminar, Main Engineering - aCEO, Lieutenant(jg) Vex'ahlia Jordaan - 1502) The Captain had asked for a meeting with the senior engineers and operations staff on the ship. They'd all gathered in Main Engineering, as Vex had a fairly good idea on what the Captain wanted to talk to them all about. Having said 'hello' to everyone present they were now waiting patiently for Captain Sekal to begin- "You are all very well versed in your craft however the purpose of this meeting is to inform you of changes to this ships systems from what most of you are familiar with. On the surface the new crystal drive is fundamentally unchanged as it uses the matter/anti-matter fuel supply however the tri-methyl selenide crystal has some notable differences, primarily a much finer crystalline latticework which insures a more efficient reaction within the intermixed chamber. The inefficiency of the dilithium crystal drive has been reduced by eighty percent leading to a more efficient use of the fuel supply and a resultant lowering of the low energy plasma emitted by the older system. On the older system deuterium was introduced in greater amounts than anti-deuterium to insure all of the anti-deuterium atoms were involved in the reaction. Within the new drive however the intermixed ratio has been reduced from 1.8 to 1 to 1.193 to 1. With the same volume of fuel then the high energy plasma used to power the warp coils has been significantly increased and low energy plasma reduced as noted. Also the engines use swirl technology, smaller crystals situated around the intermix chamber rather one one large central crystal which had already been in use on the Intrepid/Belleraphon design due to its greater efficiency. This has caused a number of changes in the power flow within the EPS conduits. Ships systems had always been run by low energy plasma and assisted by auxiliary power from the impulse engines only when needed due to unforseen draws upon the system but the ship now routinely uses auxiliary power to supplement the available energy supply. Additionally energy to power the phasers and tractor beams now uses high energy plasma drawn from the warp core like the deflector shields. This necessitated the introduction of sturdier power buffers, shunts and transformer circuitry." He looked about the group. "Are there any questions on anything I've covered so far?" Vex looked around at the group, ready to help the Captain answer any questions that came up from the group. (Reply any) "Returning to the subject. Due to the Anelurian crystals being tied to subspace much like the dilithium crystal is theorized to tie to null space the warp bubble created by the warp coil has an enhanced effect allowing for a reduced need of high energy plasma. When running at high warp speeds the draw upon the engines is routinely at 30%, far below the normal ratio of 90% and above on earlier systems. This enhanced effect also has been proven to open a subspace tunnel at speeds approaching warp 10 which is navigable at speeds allowed by Transwarp and Quantum Slipstream drive technology without the additional and cumbersome monitoring equipment. It should be noted that running at maximum warp during the duration test overloaded the upgraded series of flux capacitor used for that test so a hardier one was designed and introduced while we were at Bajor. This newer design proved sufficient to allow us to make the return trip to Mars with a reduced travel time of 83.3%. Familiarizing yourself with the upgraded components and altered power flow will allow you to be more efficient in monitoring and servicing the equipment. Are there any final questions?" (Reply any) "Nothing from me, Captain. Thank-you for your presentation." (Reply any) Sekal nodded as the meeting came to an end and handed out padds to those assembled. "These contain all of the information I have just covered in more exacting detail as well as a full schematic of power flow within the shipl. If you have any additional questions or concerns that Lieutenant Jordaan is unable to answer you may bring them to me. I do not anticipate this as she is well versed in the new drive. Thank you for your attention. Dismissed." Vex was the first to stand up to help signify with the other officers that it was time to leave. She didn't take one of the padds, she already had the information. (Reply any/none) (Posted by Jono Bradley - Vex'ahlia Jordaan) (USS Illuminar - Deck 6 - Crew Quarters - EngO Ens(jg) Tycho Alantar - 1530) Tycho was given a chunk of time to prepare for the cadets before their arrival on the ship. They would transfer over later that day, so he had found out where his stuff had been sent and took himself off to get some things squared away. It was a crew pod normally shared by 5 junior officers, this time it was his and the cadets' he was charged with.He took one of the 3 bottom bunks and set up the upper bunk as the enclosure for his pet rats. He had rigged some shield generators to hold the soil his rats enjoyed digging through. The set up also monitored the tunnels he couldn't see and kept a monitor on their health. as well as alerting him to issues like feeding and recycling wastes. It usually didn't get away from him, but he expected the next while to be busy, and the extra alerts would ensure his little friends weren't missed in the kerfuffle. Once the enclosure was secure he beamed in the dirt, plants and branches that gave the soil structure. Then he added the bug colonies that made a naturalist enclosure work, small creatures that ate mold and turned waste products into soil. He still had to do some cleaning, but the bugs did a good job of making that a much smaller job. He checked tiny bug shields he had in a couple spots that gave the crawlies safety from hunting rats, theses were the spots his colonies were established, and the shields were tuned to allow the cleaners to pass, but the rats got a deterrent and so the rats avoided the little shield umbrellas in the corners of the enclosure. Nodding to himself, Tycho finally went to the carry case his rats were held in. He knelt down and greeted his rats, "Hey guys, time to come out!" There was a resounding amount of pitter patter from inside. Opening the cage, he whistled and several balls of fluff fell out in a flurry, each one trying to be the first to greet dad and climb up his arm. He laughed and stood up with a rat on each shoulder, and another scrabbling up his tunic. Another was lining himself up on the edge of the cage, having climbed up to the top. Tycho backed up and called the rat, who leapt over, catching Tycho's arm that he'd held out. After playing with them for a short time he slipped them into the opening he opened into the field, letting them have the time they needed to get started on new tunnels. After that, his things were easily stowed away. Aside from the closet at the end of each bunk, the bay above the one single bed, instead of another bunk, was a bank of lockers. one for each bed in the unit so Tycho keyed the two closest to his section to his code and stored his prized possessions. The rest he would allow the Cadets to have their input over. if they complained about what he'd done so far, they could stuff it, because he was the Ensign and had already been on the receiving end of Shipboard work study placement. It also didn't serve to be shy in Klingon culture, his mok'bara training had taught him that self-sure attitude, though he was entirely human in his implementation of it from day to day. A delicate balance between that Klingonese brave self-assurance and human curiosity, novelty and friendly adaptation usually served him very well. Add in the traditional respect and deference in many of Earth martial arts, and some folks found Tycho to be almost naive, though it wasn't naivete so much as a lack of attendance to inconsequential things. Satisfied with the room, Tycho sat down and reviewed the cadet profiles. (Reply none needed) (Posted by Lorenz) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< DAY 7 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< (USS Illuminar, Security Office - Sec Ens. Penny McTaggard - 10:18 ) ‘Where sits our sulky, sullen dame, Gathering her brows like gathering storm, Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.‘ :- Robert Burns Penny was angry. She did not mind being the butt of someone’s joke.When you were a newbie you expected that. But when it threatened her career. Then it became something else. Keep herself calm she walked into security. Everyone was busy. When asked why she was not on guard duty. Mc Taggard replied she was on special duty for Commander Carson. This gave her room to manoeuvre. The next thing she sat down and thought. About recent events. ~ I had arrived late. So sat at back. Who looked around when I came in. That nosey besom Lt. Jane Rosen . But She always does that. Hang on though she covered her mouth. When she spoke to someone next to her.....who looked around briefly. Then got up. Where did they go? I assumed to grab some coffee.....the call came after that. Lt. Summers that was their name.~ Penny got up and asked the computer for the location of Lt. Rosen. (USS Illuminar, Gym, Deck 5 - Sec Ens. Penny McTaggard - 10:19 ) Rosen lifted the 20kg weights above her head. Then slowly lowered them to the floor. Before lifting them again above her head. When Penny walked in and Rosen looked around. One of the weights nearly caught her ear. “ Ya need to be careful when lifting those wee things” Penny said “ Tis nay good to be a nosey besom.” Rosen just snorted and returned to lifting them.Ignoring Penny as she stood there with her arms folded. “So tell me? Whose idea was it? Yours or your friend Summers?” Penny asked “ Go away Ensign. I do not have any notions of what your talking about.” Rosen sneered continuing to lifting her weights. “ Commander Carson wants to know. I am under orders to find out. Who tricked me into missing the meeting.” Penny said her temper slowly rising. “ Really.” Rosen snorted. “ Prove it” There where no witnesses to what happened next. But twenty minutes later two things happened. One Lt. Rosen reported to Sickbay after losing part of her scalp. In a weight lifting accident. She claimed it was her own fault. For not concentrating on what she was doing. The second Lt. Summers came into Security very pale. As if he had been through a frightening experience. The kind where your life flashes before your eyes. He confessed fully that he and Lt. Rosen had played a trick Ensign Mc Taggard. That caused her to miss the meeting. (Reply , None ) ( Posted by:- Norman 🐨) (USS Protector – Deck 1 – Captain’s Ready Room – Commander Jason Nesmith - 1100) “Come,” Commander Nesmith “Sir, You have an incoming transmission from Star Fleet,” his executive officer said. “Well then Ivanova, let’s hear what Star Fleet has to say.” Nesmith turned the desk viewer around so both of them could see the screen. “Commander Nesmith, you are hereby ordered to return to Mars Station by Stardate 2445.10.10. The Protector will be participating in a war game simulation against Captain Sekal and the USS Illuminar. You will form part of the OpFor. Upon reaching Mars Station, you will receive further instructions and final mission briefing. I am transmitting the parameters of the war game and additional information.” “Nesmith acknowledges,” he said. “See you soon. Protector out.” Ivanovna raised an eyebrow. “Wargames Sir?” “The Illuminar Class, it’s a new breed of ship more for exploration, but with some teeth.” “I’m familiar with the class, Sir. Just surprised Star Fleet would have a war game this soon after launching. That’s part of the Engineering Trials.” “And right you are, Commander. That may be to our advantage.” Nesmith stood up and walked onto the bridge. “Ms. T’hrace. Change course. We’re going to Mars Station. Warp six.” “Aye Sir,” the Vulcan replied. “Course plotted. On your command.” “Engage.” Nesmith sat down in his chair. “Lieutenant Tracy, open a shipwide channel.” The operations officer tapped on his console. “Channel open, Sir.” “All hands. This is your Captain. We have changed course to Mars Station to participate in a war game. What we know at this time is that one of our foes will be the USS Illuminar. This will test our skills, our strategy, our cunning. It will test how well this crew works together. I know you will all do your very best. Department heads to the briefing room in one hour.” The energy on the ship seemed to jump up several notches. The thoughts of a war game, testing the skills the crew had been honing, was exciting. (USS Protector – Deck 1 – Briefing Room – Commander Jason Nesmith - 1202) The door opened and Nesmith entered the briefing room. The assembled officers stood up as he moved to the head of the table. “Take your seats,” he said. “In this war game, we will be operating at maximum shields, with phasers at ¼ power. Photon torpedoes are not allowed. The computers will be synchronized to a master system that will assess damage, including identifying crew who are injured or killed due to damage the ship receives.” Looking around the table, “Our opponent is Captain Sekal. He’s an engineer, helped design the Illuminar. He also has a first-rate tactical mind. He’ll know what he can get out of that ship and will use every advantage against us. Commander Ivanova, I want you to research the results of the Illuminar engineering tests. Find out everything you can from those reports.” He turned to his right, “Commander Wiggins, go study Captain Sekal. Find out what makes him tick. Get in that Vulcan mind of his and prepare to anticipate his moves. I want to be three steps ahead of him when we join the battle.” He next looked at his Klingon security officer. “Lieutenant Cobb, I want you to prepare your department to both repel any boarders. Have fast action teams on all decks with critical systems. You also need a team to be ready to board the Illuminar when we take her shields down. Get the schematics of the Illuminar, identify where you want to beam in and drill the routes into your men.” “Commander Robson, I want you to see about squeaking as many extra joules out of the engines as possible. I want those shields at 110% by the time we arrive at Mars Station.” “Lieutenant Tracy, I want you to work with Lieutenant Watne. Get the scanners tuned up. See what you can do about the internal scanners as well. In the unfortunate event they beam a boarding party, I want to know where they are and be able to contain them with internal force fields.” “Dr. Pierce and Lieutenant Chiana. Medical will have to be ready to treat causalities. We’ll learn more at the final briefing, but be prepared for anything, up to a mass casualty event.” “By the time we arrive at Mars Station, I want us ready for anything. Train the crew hard, but let’s make sure they get rest as well, so that they are at optimal performance when the time comes. Questions.” He looked around the table, watching each one of his staff begin to chew of what he’d said. “We’ll meet again at 2000 hours to share what we’ve learned. Dismissed.” (Reply, none, unless you want to join the Opposing Force as an NPC.) (Posted by Tim) (USS Illuminar - Corridor outside - Sec Ens. Penny McTaggard - 11:35 ) It was surprising how rumours started on the Illuminar. Someone had told the others in security. Penny had set the wee one on Lieutenant Rosen. That was why she had lost part of her scalp. Then later it was seen attached to Lt. Summers hand. This was of course silly. But with no witnesses to see what had happened in the Gym. Penny could not be either blamed or prove her innocence. She hoped Carson would be fare with her. Standing by the door chime Penny pressed it. Waiting for the Commander to let her in. (Reply , Carson ) ( Posted by:- Norman 🐨) (USS Illuminar, 2O's Office - 2O, Commander Carson Peters - 11:36) The computer beeped and let him know that Ensign McTaggard was once again outside of his office, Carson sighed as he looked up and pressed a button to open the door. "Come in Ensign." he called and waited patiently as Penny walked in and situated herself in a seat. They sat in silence for around a minute as Carson looked her over, she looked inpatient, frustrated, angry and nervous. Narrowing his eyes he asked, "Situation resolved Ensign?" (Reply Penny) "I've seen the report from Ensign Keung's office, to say that I am displeased with the situation would be an understatement." (Reply Penny iyw) Carson took a deep breath, I'll be speaking with the Mars Security Commander and will be sure that the people involved will be investigated. We cannot, simply cannot have this happening on Mars or here on the ship." (Reply Penny iyw) He took another few seconds, "Anyway. I called you here this morning to discuss you progression here on the ship. I received notification from Starfleet that they require that you now do a portion of time within the Science department," he paused again to monitor her facial expressions, "Any issues with this?" (Reply Penny) (Posted by Jono Bradley) (USS Hamilton, Captains Ready Room - Commodore Sherri Willet - 1345) "I'm not throwing away this shot." she said as she stood up whilst banging her fist on the table. "We will have Illuminar outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered and you can bet your asses outplanned." walking away from the table, she stood and stared out of the window. The Hamilton had dropped out of Warp at the edge of Sol System only a few moments prior. "Did the Admiral suggest why we were picked for this War Game, Sir?" She sighed. Her First Officer was always so analytical in his way of thinking, "Is it not obvious? Illuminar clearly has some new technology that the Admiral wants to either try out or boast about. This War Game is not a moment. Its' the movement. If Illuminar is victorious as is suggested you can be sure that we start seeing upgrades across the entire fleet." "So by winning we'd be losing out on the new tech?" Ensign Phillips piped up with a question. It wasn't unusual and she'd expected the Ensign to have had more to say than he had up till now. "Look around, look around, at how lucky we are it be in Starfleet right now." The commodore said as she span. "New technologies are happening in Starfleet and we just happen to against the newest ship in the fleet! A failure doesn't necessarily mean that these new technologies won't be shared, but it does prove that perhaps that technology and advancement is not always better than being prepared and experience." she glared at the staff around the table. She waited in the silence as noone responded. "Look," she began, "The world turned upside down. The universe is spinning and they don't know how to change the direction. Admiral Saleke and his son think they're onto something with this Aneulean Crystal tech break-through. It's up to us to take this shot and see if it's worthy. We will have two other ships alongside Hamilton, the USS Protector and it's Captain, Jason Nesmith and we'll be joined by a Captain we've worked with previously Captain Louise Winn. I expect that over the next few hours.." she stopped talking as the door to the ready room opened and Lieutenant Commander Jeff-erson swanned into the room smiling. He stopped dead when he saw the seriousness of the meeting, "What'd I miss?" he asked with a more sterner look as he took a seat. "Couldn't turn up on time, Mr. Erson?" she asked critically. Clearing his throat before answering, "Apologies Commodore, I was on the Bridge when the news came through about the War Games so I decided to help the Lieutenant draft a declaration, Then I said, 'I gotta go, I gotta be in the Captains Ready Room.' Now the work to win begins! So what'd I miss?" he repeated the last line in a sing-song voice. There was a pause whilst a few around the table laughed off his non-chalance. "...over the next few hours I expect that Mr. Erson will lead up an exploratory committe not only on our opponent Captain Sekal but the ships that will be joining us in this fight. I want to know every weakness, exploit and strength before we meet with them. Understood?" The assembled officers nodded and began standing up, having worked under the Commodore for so long that they understood this to be a dismissal. (Reply none, any) (Posted by Jono Bradley) (USS Illuminar, Deck 14, Armoury - Assistant Chief of Security Keung Lee, Security Officer Ensign T’Mur, Security Officer PO1 Stephen Hammons, Security Officer PO3 Hercules Devers, Trainer Jalen O’Riley - 1500) Keung was impressed with the efficiency of Armoury Officer, PO 3 Carol Lannis and her assistants in getting the Battle suits as she nicknamed it ready for roll out. A communique had been sent to Hercules Devers, Stephen Hammons and T’Mur to report to the Armoury for training in the new armour suits.. Upon arrival , Keung greeted them wearing what looked like a white bodysuit with thin metal strips all over the body. They stared at Keung with curiosity. T'Mur nodded to the ASC, “Ensign Lee.” Devers looked at the Chief, “New security fashion, Chief?” Hammons walked into the armory whistling. This had been a day to remember. He'd never had the opportunity before to tweak a Vulcan's nose and had enjoyed it immensely. ~I wonder if the CO would be a good straight man? Nah! Probably pushing my luck too far on that one. He has the authority to send me on a space walk without a suit.~ He was happy to see that the crates for the suits had been opened. ~Which one is mine? That's all I want to know!~ “I’m wearing the first part of the body armour...an exoskeleton bodysuit. it's an insulating sensor suit.” explained Keung. He gestured over to the cabinet which contained the bodysuits hanging on the pegs. “First thing. Strip Get changed into those suits.. It is a bit tight to get into it but it designed to mould around your body. “Is there one with extra wide shoulders,” Devers asked. “This looks a bit too tight,” he said as he struggled getting into the suit. "Right here are two." Hammons piped up. "I've got wide shoulders and I'm anxious to get them into one of those suits." T’Mur reached out and picked a suit of the rack. Swiftly she disrobed and began to work the body suit over her now nude form. When she finally had it all in place she looked around at the other’s eyes watching her. She was a little uncomfortable in the exoskeleton suit. It was extremely tight and rode up in places she’d rather it didn’t. In true Vulcan fashion she was not particularly self conscious of the tightness or the way it left very little to the imagination, but it did rise into very personal spaces that she had been able to put out of her mind most of the time. ~This is not the time Hammons, you've had plenty of fun at her expense today. Besides you are a happily married man.~ Steven turned and shucked out of his uniform quickly then began putting on the bodysuit. The shoulders were a good fit, his problem lay lower down as his crotch was getting a little cramped. He started walking a bit gingerly then sped up as the material stretched to fit him with a little less zeal. Once things had settled better he could breathe more easily and the pressure had eased. He let out an explosive breath. "That's better. I may want to have children someday." “Very good.” Keung as he looked at the team. “I want to introduce you to the Tactical Environment System Suit Mark 2 or TES or as PO Lannis likes to call it a battle suit” One of the strong room's doors slid open to reveal the appearance of the 10 black armoured suits each on its own stand had been brought out by the automatic trolley. It occurred to Keung, he should have provided some rousing music to mark the appearance of the suits. Hammons let out a loud whistle. "I'm betting they have the new smell still on them. I love that aroma. Do we get a Christmas tree freshener to hang in the helmet?" “Great, looks like Star Fleet has been reading old Earth science fiction. What are we? Knights of the round table?” Devers quipped. T’Mur gave Devers a wry look. She was well versed with old Earth literature and she could see the connection with the Arthurian legend. “Indeed,” she replied dryly, “perhaps we should kneel before the king? But that would mean that Ensign Lee would have to die by the end of our mission.” "Or be deposed. We could lock him in the brig." Steven interposed with a grin. “What you see here," said Keung Lee, touching one of the suits “is a body-sized chassis of light armour and equipment”. He looked at the Security officers Infront of him who were wearing exoskeleton bodysuits. “Your bodysuit sensors are linked to the devices once you wear the suit fabric. "Used to measure our vital signs no doubt. A handy gadget." Steven had already picked his out. While the suits were all of uniform make it stood to reason they would be form fitting to an extent, adjusting the fit to align as closely with the internal sensors of the bodysuit as possible. T’Mur looked at the others. She shrugged and walked around the “battle suit.” The design was fascinating, both complex and simple. She reached out and gently touched the suit. It felt oddly warm. She turned to look at Lee with a quizzical eyebrow. “It is designed to be an all-terrain, all-weather suit…at least that is what I was informed.” Continued Keung. "The suit's fabric is made of a new alloy, which is flexible and automatically moulds to the body. The material is also coated with a refractive coating that automatically blends with the ambient lighting. and is impervious to phaser-fire at low settings. The suit includes a complete life-support system which can run independently for eight hours before recharging, and the recycle unit replenishes itself naturally over 24 hours inside a breathable atmosphere. The suit provides full protection from gases, vacuum and hard radiation. The fully integrated helmet has inbuilt 360-degree multi-spectrum HUD visor. There is a powerful light fitting above the helmet. You can also operate the helmet in voice command mode. It has a built-in wideband communications. A control device is installed into the left sleeve of the suit which is linked to your voice commands. The right sleeve is fixed with a phaser firing device. There are camouflage holo emitters located around the suit. Anyone looking at you will see the image projected by the emitters, and in a pinch, can be modified to project a force field around the area concealed by the hologram – although, given the rate of energy drain. I wouldn't advise using this except in the gravest emergencies.” "Since it only has an eight hour charge the caution makes a lot of sense." Hammons was leaning against the suit of his choice, why he had picked that particular one he couldn't have said since they all looked pretty much the same. Keung picked up a large utility belt. “Around the waist fits this multifunctional utility belt which can contain…all sorts of goodies.” Smiled Keung. “However this suit was not built for flight nor can you skydive in an atmosphere otherwise you drop like a stone and you would make a nasty mess on the ground.. You can pretend to be Ironman or even Superman but I wouldn’t want to be facing phasers at high settings!!” Keung paused for a second as he made reference to a 20th century cinematic and superheroes that was popular in his time now immortalised in a popular museum on Earth. Certainly recognised by humans. "No super hero stunts, check but I like the utility belt. Any Batarangs in it?" “Definitely old Earth fiction,” Devers said. "Those comic books are still around but I won't make enough in my lifetime to buy one unless I open a latinum mine." Hammons interjected. “I don’t understand ,” T’Mur interjected, “why would someone pretend to be a man of iron?” Hammons looked at her. "Because he's not only a superhero but super cool. Gold and red armor, flies and shoots repulsor beams out of his palms and best of all his day job is as a rich playboy. Every man's dream vocation." “Next time you are Earth Ms. T’Mur, we can go to the museum devoted to 20th century fiction, something called Superheros. Persons with amazing abilities that tried to save the day. Others were aliens, or what 20th century Earth thought were aliens, with extraordinary powers. All told, a literary plot device about the battle of good and evil.” “Intriguing,” T’Mur admitted. “So people who were from different planets, or had “amazing abilities were considered heroic characters. I would be interested in looking at that.” "Not all of them. There were some nasties which is why the heroes were counted on to save the day. And Earth was almost always the battle ground. So about using the suits?" Steven looked at Keung. "I've already named mine by the way. The Dark Knight. DC not Marvel but you can't have everything and Bats is also cool." O’Riley coughed loudly, as much as he enjoyed a good conversation, they only had a set amount of time for these training exercises and he didn’t want to get behind. “Okay down to business.” Said Keung, looking serious, “We are going to find ourselves in a difficult hostile environment and we will have to use our skills to deal with it. Our task is to..er..simply..to rescue four Federation scientists who have crashed landed on a planet and are held captive by Gorn. However we will have to work as a team to deal with obstacles on our way to rescuing the captives and we have two hours to complete the whole scenario. ‘We’ you may well ask. “Who is we’ Well I am joining you as an ordinary team bod and will take direction from the head poncho” T’Mur had seen people wearing ponchos during a rainstorm at the academy. She did not realize they had them only for heads, or that they could give directions. Were ponchos alive? She had never thought of that. "Crash the castle, save the scientists and stroll away with them. Sounds too easy if you ask me. I'll bet you have other surprises up your sleeve but one obstacle at a time." Steven was anxious to get to the good part, playing out his Dark Knight persona. A slight chuckle came from O’Riley as he moved around the group activating several of the suits. Keung turned to T’Mur. “Ensign T’Mur. It’s your lucky day. You're off the subs bench and you're gonna take the penalty! You are the team leader. Nothing like putting a newbie into the deep end.” “Indeed,” T’Mur held her surprise in check, “I appreciate your confidence, Ensign Lee. I did not realize that there was a deeper end of your scenario. However, I will endeavor to live up to your expectations. However I did not realize I was on a bench, nor that a leadership position was a penalty.” Steven snickered, she really was the PERFECT straight man. “As for weapons. Apart from the phaser device on your suit..you can have one additional weapon” said Keung who pointed to the weapons cabinet. “Crewman Harris will sign you out the weapon of your choice including the following A small axe, survivor knife and four grenades each” “Then perhaps our first course of action should be to gear up,” T’Mur stated, taking command. “Then draw your weapons from the quartermaster.” T'Mur went over to the battle suits and selected the one that seemed closest to her size. The tight undersuit was useful in the exoskeleton to slide on. There was a slight hum as the sensors on the body suit synched with the sensors in the body armour. She then started to move around the room, testing the maneuverability of the suit, twisting and stretching. Hammons slid the Dark Knight out and it settled to the deck with barely a thump. The suit then opened enough for him to slide in. Once he was in it closed around him and fitted itself to his form. He had been right, the fresh smell was exhilarating. "They ought to make an interface in the back to put a fusion core into. It would help with the power shortage." He then began singing barely above a whisper. "Crawl out through the fallout baby when they drop that bomb. Crawl out through the fallout with the greatest of aplomb…." “It is not completely uncomfortable,” T'Mur said. She then grabbed a helmet and put it over her head. She wished almost immediately that she had tied up her long hair beforehand. She would have to live with it hanging out the back. With a tap, the HUD came on, and she looked at the others. The display immediately gave the position and distance of each member of the team. It also began to read out metabolic rates, heart rate and breathing. “You will all be gratified to know that the HUD tells me that you are all still alive.” Steven settled his helmet and it automatically sealed to the suit with the whisper of pressurization. "Thanks, good to hear. If my vital signs drop off I'll probably be the last one to know." The HUD activated with the vital signs of the others in green. A readout to the right gave atmospheric pressure, oxygen content, atmosphere gas mixture and fortunately the one that showed 'Rad' was zeroed out. ~I'm betting that is for radiation. Red vital signs and rads are bad. ~ "All hale and hearty, the zombie apocalypse will have to wait for another day." T’Mur was well aware of the human notion of reanimated corpses attacking the living in search of some unknown quality. Andrea used to say it was brains, but T’Mur had surmised that if the dead did “come back to life” they would most likely be looking for either life force, or katra: a soul. That made the most logical sense. Still, to her knowledge, there has never been a true source of this fantasy. She thought about making a comment but thought best not to as she was the commander of this mission. Keung selected aTR-116 rifle and helped himself to the axe, the knife and grenades, a combination of flash bangs, smoke and explosives. These he attached to the holders on his utility belt. Devers looked at the items, slowly adding them to his ‘utility belt’. He placed his baton in easy reach while securing the other items in their spot. Moving away from the others, he tried to get a feel for the axe, testing the balance. T’Mur was next. She looked at the ax, not seeing the defensive uses of such a weapon. In zero gravity it would have very little effect, but on a planetary mission it could be useful to break into things. What she did appreciate were the grenades. She wondered if she could pass on the ax to get more grenades, but decided that they were given the parameters of the mission equipment already, and she did not want to disturb Ensign Lee’s mission design. Hammons hopped to the quartermaster or rather thumped. Bladed weapons were already available in the survival knife and axe and you could use those to fabricate more intricate ones if you chose. In addition the suit came pre-packaged with an energy weapon. For his choice he selected a simple staff made of an extremely strong alloy that was retractable. He immediately pressed the stud that shortened it to six inches. The grenades went into the utility belt. The knife and axe into sheaths at his waist but the shortened staff wasn't a perfect fit. He finally found a spot on the belt he could slide it into which then closed around it. He tested removing it and returning it several times to assure himself he wouldn't lose it. Having stepped back from the group, O’Riley began taking notes on which weapons the group had selected to go alongside their phaser and suit. An interesting selection of choices to be sure. “Now I am going to hand over the rest of the briefing to your Weapons instructor O’Riley. “Ho righty here, Starfleet.” O’Riley, once a marine with the 5th Marine corps out of Earth, was a large, well muscled and chiseled man. However his voice came across, very soft and unassuming however loud he tried to make it. “This is a pretty straightforward exercise, you’ve no doubt been through these scenarios before. The difficulty here is getting a grip on the suits and learning the best way of using them. Anyone here operated a remote drone vehicle before?” "For remote surveillance a couple of times." Hammons said. "Can I assume we have the capability of operating one from the HUD?" “HEH, You would if we had them activated. Controlling a RDV whilst controlling the suit is a higher level of certification than I’m putting you through today. The HUD you’re using to control the multiple sensors and weapons that come alongside the suit is similar to the ones you may have used when operating an RDV.” “So it is much like the neural interface with a fighter,” T’Mur stated. “If you think it, it will happen?” “Got it in one. Anymore questions?” O’Riley grinned at them all. (Reply: None) (Posted by John Tsang (Keung Lee) Al Muir (T'Mur) Tim Bushnell (Devers) Jono Bradley (O'Reily) And Charles G (Steven Hammons) (USS Sisko -- Bridge -- Captain Louise Winn -- 1507) Captain Louise Winn sat in her seat of the USS Sisko. They were approaching earth. Her crew and she had spent the last couple of years patrolling BadLands. Several ships had entered the badlands to research the phenomena. Every approach back to Earth was ceremonial to her. Being back was not something Sisko does often. This time would be different. “Captain, you have an incoming message from Earth.” communications officer, Lt. Leal, informed her. “I will take it in my ready room.” Louise stood and glided to the small room on the side of the bridge. She looked at her comm screen and had the computer open the communications. “Ahhh Louise, you are looking more beautiful than ever. You have new orders.” Looking at the separate message. “Are You kidding me? No. Absolutely not. I will not do this to my crew. We have been away from home for two years.” “Your crew is professional. They will wait a few more days. We need you. You are the best. And it is an order.” He told her. “Now just one minute, Admiral Winn.” Winn started. “No worries, I will be waiting for you, Love..” He stared at his wife and ended the transmission. Louise marched into the Bridge, “Senior Officers, let's huddle” It was easy since they were all on the bridge. “We have been volun-told that we will be participating in wargames. Looking like our return to Earth will have to wait.” Lt. Leal spoke up “Looks like we will have an advantage. Our little Defiant-class ship can outmaneuver anything Starfleet has to offer. It also doesn’t hurt to have a cloak.” “I like the way you think, Lieutenant,” Louise commented. “Everyone get with your departments. They need to be prepared.” (Played by Kris) (USS Illuminar, Deck 4, Holodeck 2 - Assistant Chief of Security Keung Lee, Security Officer Ensign T’Mur, Security Officer Stephen Hammons, Security Officer Hercules Devers, Trainer Jalen O’Riley - 1530) The team went into the holosuite, a large room with a grid of yellow squares located around the room. “Computer.” Said Keung “Activate Keung AES Environment 1. Instructor O Riley will be present in the scenario as an observer. Computer, please monitor the team at all times. Begin.” =^=Monitoring online.=^= the computer responded in a silky female voice. "That wasn't Luma unless she has a split personality. Keep this one on the down low, she might get jealous." Hammons was moving around in the suit as he got the feel of it. There was no doubt a strength assist but nothing that approached a BDU. He had never worn one but had heard stories from old timers who had and to a man they loved the suits. =^=Prepare yourselves, situation is initialising, Ensign T’Mur you have the lead.=^= O’Riley said through the comm. unit. He stood outside of the holosuite, standing at the monitoring station. He activated the simulation on Keung’s order of ‘Begin.’” “Acknowledged,” T’Mur replied. With a thought her weapons came on-line with hum. The holodeck was instantly transformed into a semi-dark landscape of a forest. The trees seemed, a thousand feet tall: verdant, primeval, silent. Their gnarly trunks, draped with a lush, shaggy carpet of green-brown vines over knotted bark, rose as erect as temple pillars, some of them as thin as a limb, and others as thick as houses. The rain was torrential making the ground wet, muddy and slippery. There were a number of lightning strikes. “Initiate enemy 1” said Keung O’Riley smiled. He’d worked with several “chiefs” in his time as trainers, there were ones who liked to stay in control and those who’d prefer to hand over complete control of the session to the trainer. Keung seemed like the control type. He gave it an extra second to remind the Ensign that he had zero control inside the simulation and then tapped a few buttons to initiate the first enemy. Within the forest several armed Gorns appeared as shadowy figures. =^=HO HEY. Here we go folks. Time to play. 5 minutes and counting.=^= O’Riley said through the comm. Hammons slipped behind cover while awaiting orders. He was seeing some prompts on his HUD. The Gorn were outlined in red and as known enemies of the Federation he made the assumption it was indicating an enemy species. There was going to be a number of things about the suits to learn and he knew they were all keyed to the HUD so he used a marine trick the old timers had told him about, tonguing a flashing symbol on the visor. Telemetry immediately appeared showing distance to the targets. The suit also began scanning their weapons and read a disruptor type pistol for three and a rifle for the other. These weapons showed up with a flashing outline. "Three with disruptor pistols, one with a rifle." He muttered into the comm. "No readings of photon grenades which they are known to carry. More life forms beyond, inconclusive scan at present. Tactical threat level 5." T’Mur frowned, “Silence,” she whispered harshly. Then with a thought through her helmet she sent the text message to all of the team. ::We are on radio silence.:: She did not feel it necessary to say any more. Devers waited for T’Mur’s orders, sizing up the approaching force. Keung who was at the rear of the group unsafed his rifle waiting for orders from T’Mur. The Shadowy Gorn could now be seen moving through the forest towards them. Suddenly two Gorn appeared. Keung stood fascinated by their appearance as he had never seen them live before. He read about them in the species database which was why he had requested their inclusion in the incident program. They were reptilian species green with rubbery skin and two metres tall. But something else rustled in the undergrowth and two Velociraptors bounded into the area with long chains held by another two Gorn! Their owners let go of the chains allowing the various animals to be free. Around the necks of the Velociraptor was a sort of collar device. Keung could just identify that one of the Gorn was holding some sort of device..a remote control? The Velcoriaptors snarled and started moving slowly towards the group. Watching intently as the group began preparing themselves for the initial attack by the Gorn raiding party, would Ensign T’Mur step up to the leadership challenge? Would Ensign Lee be unable to release control and take over? Would one of the Petty Officers dive in and which one of them would take a hit first? All intriguing questions that O’Riley had on his mind, but at the fore of it all was monitoring the signals from the suits. He could see the HUD of each “player.” This helped him see whether they were using the suits as efficiently as possible and if not, whether they got better at doing so throughout the day. The problem with the Gorn, T’Mur had surmised, was that they were often underestimated. As they were of Reptilian descent it was often assumed that they did not have the intelligence to launch an effective and well thought out attack. That was the secret of their success. Not only were they an intelligent species, who had developed a form of interstellar travel that rivalled warp drive, but they were also excellent hunters who were capable of developing elaborate traps. So the Vulcan was quick to take action. She needed to see what she could discover of their plan. Devers mutters under his breath, “You did it. You crazy son of a bitch, you did it.” O’Riley sniggered in the outer room. His favourite film was Jurassic Park and he was happy to see one of the players quote the film once they saw the ancient Dinosaur-style creatures. T’Mur shook her head and gave Devers a quick look. She had asked for silence. If he could not follow her orders she would have to do something about that. She continued to watch as the bipedal dinosaur like creatures moved through the forest. They had a large snout with sizable nostrils so undoubtedly had a keen sense of smell. They would not have much time to continue hiding. The staff and bladed weapons wouldn't do much good against a raptor and their position had been made. Hammons was all business from the time the simulation had started. He pulled a grenade from the utility belt. The enemy was currently at sixty meters, far enough away their group would not be affected by more than a shower of dust and guts. Keung unstrapped his TR-116 rifle which was hanging from his back, unsafe the weapon and held it against his helmet. “Target display” His hub displayed a cross target “Neat” thought Keung and experimented by moving the rifle from left to right, the cross target followed in his Hud to where he was pointing the rifle. The scope on the rifle beamed out a visible red dot laser and rested on the head of the nearest Raptor.. His finger on the trigger ready for the order from T’Mur. Devers activated the HUD, and had it display the position of friendlies. Moving to the left and parallel to Hammons, he crouched low. They would need some major firepower to take out those Gorn and the lizards. Too much noise and they risked the Hostages. While he might take a Gorn out in hand to baton combat, those Raptors were not going to play by Marquess of Queensberry rules. So they were going to have to risk a bit of noise. Radio silence was impacting the effectiveness of the team, he’d have to mention that in the after action report. Not having hand signals worked out or even knowing if everyone was on the same page. He pulled a grenade and made sure his baton was at hand. And waited. As she looked at the group she could sense their anxiety, and impatience. She also knew human behavior. They would want to follow the divide and conquer route. But they would underestimate the strength of their enemies, and the speed of those creatures they seemed to control… Control? Hmmm…. An theory began to develop. They would have to work in pairs, and it was a dangerous thought, but it was a good chance to reduce the numbers of the enemies. She looked down at her wrist and noted that there was an access to a keypad. She began to type in a message to the group. “We need to target the collars of those creatures,” she sent. “If they can no longer control the beasts they may well turn on their masters.” She looked to see if the others understood. She pointed to Devers, who was closest to her. They would work together. Then she indicated that Keung and Hammons work together. They were going to have to move quickly for this to work, but it does require them to ignore the first pair of Gorn for a moment. Those larger creatures were the priority at this moment. With a circle motion of her hand and a point she ordered them to move. Keung started to slowly move with his rifle against his shoulder, the red dot shone from his targeting scope lighting up the collar of one of the raptors. He was aware that Hammons was beside him. From what he knew of these creatures, they were fast. T’Mur moved to the left expecting Devers to follow, She was trying to get around the opening that the Gorn were bringing their pets to. Then one of the creatures stopped. It lifted its snout to the sky and sniffed the air. It let out a cry and pulled on it’s chain. The Gorn holding the chain took a grip of the controller. It must have been made of a sturdy material. T’Mur motion for Devers to attack the Gorn while she went after the control collar on the creature. Devers nodded, his Baton out and ready. Centering himself, he waited till the Gorn was looking the other way, and rushed in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml4wAnvfM4M The Gorn turned back just in time to see Devers land a solid blow with the baton to the creatures midsection. He followed that up with a jumping push kick to the Gorn’s chin. This caused the creature to fall backwards, dropping the control box in the process. The Gorn layed on the ground, flailing away from the control box. Devers pressed his advantage, stepping up and delivering another devastating blow to the side of the creature's head. The raptor started to pull harder on the chain, straining to break free. With Devers in motion T’Mur stepped out from her position and rolled under the belly of the raptor. She pulled a grenade off her belt and launched it at the collar around its neck. She had been told they were flash/bang grenades so she did not expect it to damage the animal, but to disrupt the collar. The result was a little more impressive than she had anticipated. Not only did the collar fizzle and crackle, it exploded off the creature. The chain dropped and the beast reared its head in rage turning its gaze on T’Mur. Devers heard the explosion of a grenade. Turing to see the results, he caught the end of the collar. Free from the control box, it had endless targets and it was looking at T’Mur. Devers started shouting at it. “Hey, you. Ugly. Come over here!” The creature whipped it’s head to look at Devers, then back to T’Mur. With a smooth motion, Devers threw the axe at the creature, hitting it on the side. This insult annoyed the Raptor, who turned its attention to Devers, ready to pounce. The distraction was all T’Mur needed. She drew her knife and dove back under the raptor. She drove the knife into the belly of the beast, feeling the warm blood pour over her hand. As she withdrew her knife hand she thrust the other hand inside the raptor, with two more of the grenades. Then she threw herself back. Razor sharp teeth snapped at her face as she backed up until the rumbling explosions, muffled from inside the raptor sounded. Its thorax expanded. It reared up to strike out in anger. And Devers ended up with a face full of Raptor guts as the grenades did their work. Hammons pushed his way through the undergrowth on his side and began working his way around to flank the raptor. In this instance he knew his partner had a long distance weapon but the raptors moved their head and neck about lowered as they walked so that the obvious interface link on the collar was hidden. He needed to get close, get the beasts attention and make it stationary. He had a sudden idea and spotted a tree that was narrow enough to climb up and with an overhang to get him above their approach. He shinnied up the tree and took his position on the overhanging limb as thick as his suited arm in time to pull out the staff and extend it then dropped onto the back of the nearest raptor. It jerked up short with a clicking, deep throated cry as it raised its head and turned its neck to try to snatch him from its back. He whipped the staff around its neck and grabbed it with his other hand then reared back. The raptors teeth came up short as its neck was pulled back completely exposing the collar for a shot. ~Just don't hit me chief and we're good. I don't know what one of those bullets will do to this suit.~ “Will you stop tickling the Raptor.” said Keung as he attempted to aim for a better shot at the raptor but there was too much movement and he risked hitting Hammons if the creature turned. Then as Hammond pulled back the head of the creature, he had a clear view of the exposed neck and most importantly of all, the collar. It's now or never, thought Keung as he quickly set to single shot as the laser red spot rested on the collar and he slowly pulled the trigger. He felt the recoil of the rifle as it fired and at the same time, set the rifle to rapid fire before pulling the trigger again. The first bullet struck the collar of the raptor blowing a bloody hole in the neck and most of the lower jaw. Blood and gore splattered over Hammon’s head. The rest of high velocity bullets impacted upon the chest area creating a melon size hole shattering the internal organs, blood and gore flew from the body. The wounded animal with Hammons still hanging on fell to the ground and Hammons quickly rolled away as Keung approached and fired a series of rapid shots at close range which ripped apart the body of skin, bones, and gore. Much of it covered Keung and Hammons. “Oorah” yelled Keung “Back of the net!” He quickly glanced at Hammons “I hate to see your laundry bill” "It's on StarFleet." Hammons quipped as he finished the roll then came to his feet and darted into the trees as he activated the holographic field which made him appear one with the foliage then began pushing his way through to flank the Gorn. His staff was retracted and in his belt. The suits were easier to move around in than he had expected, the sensors attached to the body were reading the nerve impulses to his muscles and transmitting them to the suit. The killing of the raptors had an effect on the Gorn who appeared in full view of the team, armed with lowered phaser rifles had stopped. staring at the devastated bodies. and hesitated. Maybe, they got discouraged and perhaps they are going to surrender, thought Keung. The Gorn collectively opened their mouths and roared. Keung couldn’t hear anything in his enclosed helmet but obviously could see their sharp teeth, then in one motion began to raised their weapons “Seems like they get upset over the loss of their pets.” smirked Keung, as he raised his rifle. T’Mur and Devers were on the other side of the clearing when they began their… battle cry? The Vulcan watched as they raised their weapons. She saw Keung raise his rifle. This was supposed to be a test of the battle suit. She saw what the rifle had done to the raptor. She wanted to know how they would fare with the weapons on their suits. =^= Attention team. Battle suit weapons only.=^= O’Riley nodded and took note, he appreciated the Vulcans orders. They were here to be certified on the suits, not the rifles. With that she powered up the phasers in her suit and raised her arm. With a single thought the phaser fired at 70% strength at the first Gorn. He staggered slightly but stayed on his feet, but clearly not a solid footing. Keung shrugged, put the safety on his rifle, raised his arm and directed his phaser at the first Gorn, thinking of max power and vaporised the Gorn! 12 Gorn now surrounded the team, snarling and making threatening gestures. Keung adapted a boxing stance with this left hand holding the elbow of his phaser arm which was outstretched. The position held his phaser arm steady as he mentally put the settings to kill. He wondered if he should initiate the camouflage holo emitters. Would T’Mur remember about that feature of the battlesuit? . He was actually sweating despite the cooling flow system inside his helmet.. Hammons stepped out of the dense treeline behind the original Gorn and opened fire taking two of them down in quick succession before the third turned toward him. That one took his next blast to the face and gave a screaming hiss before falling. The fourth had its sights on him before he could fire so he threw himself to the side which launched him a good ten feet! The Gorn missed with its shot but was tracking around to put him in its sights again as he swung his arm around. ~This one is going to be too close.~ His forcefield activated just as it fired. T’Mur was occupied with her own assailants but noted the Gorn taking aim at Hammons. She bumped the power level of her phasers up to 80% and fired. The Gorn arched it’s back as it fired and fell to the ground. The blast went over Hammons head and exploded into a tree. She returned her attention to her own conflict and ducked under a blade strike from one of her assailants. She came up behind the slower moving reptiloid and locked her arm under his and around the back of its incredibly thick neck, applying as much pressure as she could. Then she struck a vicious sidekick to what should have been its knee. There was a cry of pain as it dropped to that knee. She whirled around, released the arm and stepped behind the Gorn, her arms around its head. Using all of her strength she pushed and pulled until there was a loud snap. The Gorn dropped like a rock, just as its partner struck a blow to T’Mur’s back sending her sprawling to the ground. As the Gorn fell and its disruptor blast went astray Hammons turned in the direction of the others to see T'Mur take out one of her attackers hand to hand which was an impressive feat but she took a blow from another Gorn that sent her to the ground. That cleared her from his line of fire so he set his fisted right hand in its direction and targeted it as he let loose with a full power blast. The Gorn was outlined for an instant in a halo of blue light before vanishing. T’Mur brought herself back to her feet knowing that she would have a bruise on her back in the morning. Her mind processed what had happened and noted that full powered phasers would totally disrupt a Gorns molecular cohesion. She turned her attention to the others to see how they were faring. Devers activated the holo emitters on his suit, and moved carefully to outside the ring of Gorn. While the rest of the team faced them from the front, Devers had wide open shots from the rear. He was impressed how quickly Hammons and Lee were dispatching the foe. Crouching down, he aimed his phaser hand at a Gorn and fired. He was rewarded with the creature going down. A second Gorn was dropped equally efficiently before a third came rushing towards his location. Moving to his right, he waited for the Gorn to get close. Keung stayed where he was and activated holo emitters on his suit. Still with his phaser arm outstretched, he turned in a 360 degree circle firing directly at the Gorn surrounding the group, making sure that he didn’t hit T’Mur, Devers and Hammons. Three Gorn ran towards Keung’s position who thought that the Gorn were going to using that space to their tactical advantage of getting behind the officers. Instead, the Gorn were hit at point blank range and fell to the ground. T’Mur scanned the area to find it clear of all other Gorn, “Stand down,” she ordered, “the area is secure.” Upon watching the fight finishing, O’Riley stepped forward and tapped the intercom button, “HEH. Some solid work there. Everyone OK, any issues to report?” “The equipment functions within acceptable parameters,” T’Mur reported. “We may have to discuss protocol and compliance to orders later. Otherwise the team performed quite well.” Hammons shrugged as he walked up. "I like the suits, easier to move around in than expected and they are just as easy to control. No complaints from me so far but its early yet. We still have a group of scientists pining away in a tower and awaiting rescue." “Well that was enjoyable to watch,” O’Riley said with a grin. “You’re not finished yet though team.” and he tapped a few buttons and the scene around the adventurers changed dramatically. (Reply: None) (Posted by John Tsang (Keung Lee) Al Muir (T'Mur) Tim Bushnell (Devers) Jono Bradley (O'Reily) And Charles G (Steven Hammons) (USS Illuminar, Deck 14, Armoury - Assistant Chief of Security Keung Lee, Security Officer Ensign T’Mur, Security Officer Stephen Hammons, Security Officer Hercules Devers, Trainer Jalen O’Riley - 1550) The program changed to find the team on the edge of the forest. They are hidden by the trees and they could see a wide fast flowing river. A wooden bridge spans over the river to the other side to a large rocky outcrop. On the bank is the remains of a Federation shuttle with about six Gorn mingling around the wreckage. Two of the Gorn make their way over to the bridge and stand guard. Beyond the rocky outcrop is a small camp consisting of four single storey buildings which is protected by a perimeter fence. One of the buildings is a communication centre identified by antenna and satellite dish and the four prisoners are held in one of the buildings. There are four towers with installed laser batteries. Your primary mission is to rescue the prisoners and bring them back to the extraction point which is right here. There is a secondary mission and that is to destroy the communication centre. "HEH,” O’Riley said. “There are extra resources out there, feel free to use anything you come across.” T’Mur raised an eyebrow. “Indeed.” Then she looked the scenario over from their location. “It appears that our best path to the captives is across that bridge. Getting across that undetected, and disabling the two guards would be our first priority. Then deriving which of the buildings hold those captives.” She scanned the area with no results. “Clearly they have dampening devices in place that keep us from predetermining which building to focus our attention on. Suggestions?” A good leader always listened to those they commanded. “Note the change in time also,” O’Riley said. “The sun is leaving the sky.” he hinted as the simulation gradually got dimmer and darker than it had been when the team were fighting Gorn. He also tapped a button and all of the suits would now be showing less power than they had previously, he kept quiet on why but he knew the Starfleet officers would figure out that their walk through the forest to get to this point would have taken some power. Hammons frowned as his suit showed a sudden drop in energy reserves. It made sense in the context of the scenario but would make managing their remaining power a priority. Anything they could do to save on power would work toward their eventual success. "We should wait until it's fully dark. The Gorn will slow down as the temperature drops, not that they're fast to begin with and their eyesight isn't any better than ours. But we can use low light optics and sensors to navigate. The darkness will help to hide our movements." Hammons was squatted on his haunches as he surveyed the site. It was a good suggestion. With their diminished power supply use of the holo-emitters was not recommended unless absolutely necessary. It may become absolutely necessary later. However, even in the dark, getting across that bridge undetected was going to be a challenge. The fact that the bridge was made of wood might mean that their footsteps could still be heard. “Agreed,” T’Mur said. “We will need to step lightly across that bridge. I suggest I go with Ensign Lee first. We are the lightest and least likely to draw attention to the sentries. Once across you will follow,” she indicated to Hammons and Devers. “Absolutely no weapons firing. Melee weapons only. We cannot afford to be detected. It means hand to hand combat with Gorn, but I believe the suits will give us sufficiently increased strength.” Keung listened with interest to T’Mur’s strategies as he instinctively patted his winkler combat axe and 7” knife attached to his utility belt. He wondered how he and T’Mur being the lightest are less likely to attract the sentries as they walk across the bridge. Using the holo-emitters would reduce the power levels badly needed especially as power would be needed for later on. Lightning suddenly streaked across the sky. Drops of rain began to sprash on Keung’s helmet hub. At that moment, there was a heavy downpour of torrential rain. Hammons nodded inside his helmet. The arrangement made sense. If the sentries detected them he would have to forego use of the staff as the knife or axe would make for quieter work. At least on this side of the bridge, once they got across it would most likely be a free-for-all. "Agreed." The rain was unexpected and might cause a footing problem, but as for crossing the bridge it should not affect her plan. She sat with her back against a tree and closed her eyes as she tried to visualize what to do after getting over the bridge. She took a moment to ponder upon her assessment after this training will go. Then realizing that didn’t matter she noted that darkness had fallen. She turned on the night-vision on her HUD display and headed to the bridge, motioning Lee to come along. In the night-vision the water looked completely black, devoid of all light. It spanned over twenty meters. Fortunately it was completely dark and the sentries will not be able to see them until they are upon them already. Treading softly, what little sound they made was muffled by the rain. They were more than two-thirds across the bridge when a sudden flash of lightning struck, lighting up the bridge. T’Mur could see one of the Gorn reach for what looked like a communicator device. Without waiting she launched herself across the rest of the bridge hitting the Gorn with all of her weight. The down side to her strategy was that being one of the lightest of the group meant that her impact on her prey was less than as effective as she would have liked. The Gorn shrugged her off and lifted the communicator. She drew her knife, took a moment to aim and threw it. It went through the Gorn’s hand causing it to drop the communicator. But now she was weaponless, in the face of a much stronger opponent, trying not to draw attention from the encampment. As the wind picked up and the rain continued to lash, O’Riley couldn’t help but shiver. The sort of weather the team was experiencing was outside of what he’d call comfortable. He was impressed with the quickness of movement that T’Mur had shown, she’d stopped an almost immediate “call for backup” from the Gorn guard by tackling him, however the element of surprise had now disappeared and he wondered what her next move would be. Checking his read-out he noticed that they were coming up on the time that the patrol drones would make a sweep of the Bridge, they’d either need to be all over it within the next 30 seconds and hidden or think fast on their feet to dispose of the flying unmanned vehicles. Whilst T’Mur was occupied with bringing the Gorn down, Keung turned to the second Gorn and instantly drew his knife. Keung ducked, just as the Gorn lunged forward, grabbing him by the throat. He caught the Gorn's wrist. The Gorn snap-kicked Keung in the knee, and even through the battlesuit, he felt his feet drop out from under him. As he tumbled, the Gorn kneed him again in the jaw, knocking his head back. Keung landed hard, and instantly rolled aside, just as the Gorn ows blade crashed against the ground, missing him by mere centimeters. Keung quickly grabbed his own blade and parried its blow. Rolled over, stood up catching the Gorn’s wrist and pulled back and threw the alien onto its back. Keung, in one move, drove his blade through the Gorn’s left eye and into its brain. As the Gorn turned on T’Mur she lashed out at its knee, as she had done before. But this time she was laying on the wet ground and not on solid footing. Instead of the desired drop she was looking for, the ground gave and pushed the Vulcan away from her assailant. She rolled backwards and found her feet again. The Gorn reached out, with speed that belied its slow demeanor. Fortunately the lithe Vulcan was more than a match and easily ducked under the reach, came behind the Gorn. This time her strike to the back of the leg was more effective. She reached down and pulled the knife out of the Gorn’s hand, causing another shriek. With an upward thrust she drove the knife through the soft under jaw flesh, and into its head. The Gorn paused for a three count, then toppled to the ground like a tree. T’Mur looked over to see that Lee had just as deftly dispatched his target. Looking over the bridge she noted that the others were crossing to join them. Hammons was cursing under his breath at missing the scrap ahead as he made his way over the bridge as lightly as he could and with as much quickness as he could muster. As they neared the far edge of it the HUD began flashing a warning of incoming unmanned fliers. He took the last step off and hot-footed it to cover as they neared the bridge. The readout showed UAV's nearly a meter in diameter and although they wouldn't be heavily armed it was possible two of the protrusions on the leading edge could be anti-personnel disruptors. If so they had made it over with not a moment to spare. They might have detected some movement initially as they stopped near this side of the bridge and tracked back and forth for a tense moment, their weapon arrays showing their line of sight. Hammons had ducked behind a large rock that should shield him from visual, infrared and energy scans… as long as they didn't come too close. He dropped power levels to minimal in an attempt to avoid attracting attention and stayed very still. The suit itself would minimize any heat signature from his body. With luck whoever was controlling the UAV's would chalk it up to a glitch or sensor anomaly and move on. Devers was used to being the first in, but the strategy was sound, so here he was tail end charlie. He missed the fight, but was impressed watching T’Mur and Lee dispatch the two Gorn that were guarding the shuttle. He crouched by the bridge as Hammons made his way across, his eyes sweeping the skyline for movement. His HUD indicated incoming. Moving to reduce his profile, he activated the holo emitters to help camouflage into the background. And he waited. T’Mur had noticed the reaction of the team before she noted the sensor reading on her HUD. Without a thought she dropped to the ground and pulled the dead Gorn over her. They had no idea if a Gorn sensor would pick up any energy signatures off their suits, but if it was just a cursory sweep it would only read the cold, dead flesh. There was a buzz as the drones flew overhead. She could almost feel the sensor sweep on her skin, but knew that it was just her imagination. Then there was a buzz as the drones moved off. T’Mur rolled the dead Gorn off her and stood up, carefully scanning the area. The only movement noted outside of the perimeter of the fence were the four remaining Gorns at the crash site of the Federation ship. There were still no readings from inside the fence. Clearly the Gorn dampening field was fully functional. There was no real way to tell how many were in there, or which of the four buildings were holding the prisoners. She moved slowly over to the bridge and nodded to Hammons and Lee. “We will need to be able to get through that fence eventually, but our next priority would be to neutralize the four Gorn at the crash site. They may have a key to our entry, and we need to assure that they did not get any confidential information off that wreckage." Hammons was game. The optics showed the Gorn had split up with two poking around inside while the rest were scanning the exterior. There really wasn't room for all four of them to be searching the interior anyway. As big and slow as they are they were sure to get in each other's way. "I'd suggest taking the two outside quietly then we can crash the other's party. I'll take the one on the left." T’Mur nodded, then she turned to Lee. “Ensign Lee, you’re with Hammons.” She turned to Devers, “You’re with me Mr. Devers.” Devers nodded in acknowledgement, his baton in one hand, ready for action. They split up into their teams and went round the area in two different directions. As they made their way to through the trees and underbrush something reached up and grabbed at T’Mur’s right foot bringing her tumbling to the ground. She powered her wrist phaser and turned her sensor to what had grabbed her. To her surprise she had simply tripped over something. At first it appeared to be a long stick, but then she noted the glint of metal. She reached for it. It was a long, thin cylinder with sharp points at both ends. Some might call it a spear. ~This might come in handy,~ she thought and picked it up as she stood up, remembering that weapons might be laying around. They continued on their path and she watched as the other arrived near the sight on her HUD. The two Gorn that had gone inside were still not in view of them. The ones on the outside seemed to have taken some interest in the hull and were studying it with a scanner. They were engrossed in their study. T’Mur almost felt guilty about interrupting their investigation, wondering how she would feel if someone attacked her while studying an alien craft. Hammons circled around and found some cover while monitoring their activity. The two Gorn were on the same side of the craft but moving apart slowly. His target finally made its way around to the aft from the starboard and he gave it a moment before removing the combat knife from its sheath and moving closer. The night wasn't completely black as a moon was peeking over the horizon small and pale so there was still a great need for caution. He saw it stop and raise something to its mouth and make a series of growling hisses. There was a reply back initiating a back and forth that was very short. ~Probably a check in.~ After a moment his quarry resumed its scans and he came in behind it, his left hand caught it around the top of the head and jerked back as his right hand snaked around and buried the blade in its thick neck. The Gorn made a gurgling noise as he twisted the knife and ripped open its neck and collapsed to the ground like a sack of flesh. He caught the body and lowered it down before withdrawing the knife and wiping the blade off on its tunic. That accomplished he moved to the corner to check on progress on the starboard side. Keung watched as Hammons buried his knife into the back of the Gorn who had collapsed on the ground. The incident attracted the attention of the other Gorn who moved towards Keung with its arms outstretched. Keung figured it was going to clasp him in a possible wrestling hold. He took a deep breath as he grabbed his axe from his utility belt and gripped the shaft with both handsome forward. He deliberately ran into the Gorn and with much strength as he could muster, swung the blade of the axe across the neck of the Gorn. The force of the blade embedded deep into the thick skin of the Gorn and at the same time, Keung kicked hard at the leg of the Gorn. With Keung holding onto the handle of the embedded axe, both fell to the ground. Keung let go and rolled clear as he quickly took his combat knife off his belt in the same movement. He then plunged the blade into the chest of the Gorn and twisted the blade 360 degrees, before pulling it out with blood sprouting out of its chest. He then retrieved the axe from the neck of the dead Gorn. Breathing hard, he could feel the adrenaline flowing through him. T’Mur and Devers made their way to the ship’s wreckage, to the most likely entry point that two Gorns inside used. Hammons met them as they approached the entry joined by Keung who hooked back his blood stained knife and axe upon his belt. Off in the near distance there was a loud sound, as if the sound barrier had been broken. T’Mur knew that could only mean that time was of the essence and they needed to get to hostages before it was too late. Suddenly the Gorn from inside the craft came out of the hole she was standing next to. Without thinking she reacted and drove the tip of the spear up under the first Gorn’s jaw and through its skull. The second Gorn reacted equally as violently, striking out and knocking T’Mur back several meters. Hammons flashed past her and with his head lowered he drove his shoulder into the Gorn's midsection. The Gorn was lifted up and driven back several feet to strike the wall with a thunderous thud. The Gorn was temporarily shaken up which gave Steven all the time he needed to finish the creature off. Its head lolled limply when he had finished and walked away. With the ship cleared T’Mur turned to the group. “We need to set the self-destruct on this ship.” “That’s an excellent idea.” said Keung as he glanced at the shuttlecraft “If I may suggest, we can use that to our advantage as a diversionary tactic as a way of clearing the compound. Set a long delay. We can hide somewhere near the compound and the shuttle craft self-destruct. Hopefully that will attract the attention of the Gorns who leave to investigate and we can proceed with rescuing the prisoners with less hassle. At the same time, do a bit of mayhem to their communication array or...we can use the cover of the explosion to escape across the bridge to our extraction point...Mind you whatever happens we will be in a hell of a fight with those bad boys!!” Oh, did I mention we have less than 40 minutes to complete what we have to do?” "The clock is ticking in other words. So good of you to let us know." Hammons wasn't amused. “I would think that the diversion for the latter would be best,” T’Mur suggested. She slipped into the ship and made her way to the drive controls. Within several minutes she had set the injectors to fail within 37 minutes and that would cause a catastrophic core failure to occur and the whip would explode with an … alarming rapport. She exited the ship and looked at the team. “Let’s go.” T’Mur led the group towards the compound. When they arrived they were met by the security fence that hummed softly, but indicated the power running through it. From a sligh distance she tossed a small rock at the force field, which deftly vaporized. She frowned, knowing that time was of the essence, but there was no way of getting through that fence in a hurry. Then she noted the emitters of the force field were not completely encased. That meant the fence could be breached. All she needed was something to disrupt the energy flow. Her mind went through the problem quickly, then she looked down at the control panel at her wrist. She knelt beside the fence and removed the cover of the device. Carefully she reached for the wires, but the gloves made it impossible. With a sigh she took out her knife and made a cut through the suit at her right wrist. She peeled off the glove and then tried again. She managed to detach the wires she was looking for. Then with a deft move she attached the wires to the energy relay on the post of the fencing. Wincing whilst watching T’Mur cut into the battlesuit, O’Riley made a note but decided not to interfere. He was interested to see what she was going to try and do. Pausing she turned to the others. “Any sign of the Gorn?” Steven checked his HUD. "Eight life signs clustered in three buildings. They appear to be intent on staying dry." Keung stood by the security fence, looking inside the compound. As far as he could work out, there was no sign of any Gorns. The rain had probably driven them inside the comfort of the buildings. The communication building was easily identifiable with the antennas and satellite dish on the roof. They were easily within the range of their weapons but the priority was to find the prisoners. Which building held them. He activated his inbuilt tricorder in his helmet. The display of his result appeared in his Hub visor. “Scans indicate there are human lifesigns in that building next to the communication building. I’m reading two non humans as well. Probably their guards” reported Keung. He had seen TMur had thrown a rock at the fence which was vaporized..which demonstrated that there was a force field. Did the force field only just covered the fence or did it extend the whole compound?. T’Mur nodded, “Good. When I deactivate the fence we will have to move swiftly. I am uncertain how long we will have before the Gorn realize that the perimeter has been breached. I would calculate that we would have 2.8 minutes to complete the rescue of the captives. Get ready.” “What’s the plan when the perimeter is down.” asked Keung turning to T’Mur T’Mur sighed, “Our primary function is to rescue the science team. I noted that now we are closer the scattering field is less effective. They should be in that building,” She indicated the building three meters to the left of the communication relay. “To use a human vernacular, go in and get them, would be how I believe you would say it.” She looked for understanding. “Get them and get them out. Once you have all gotten out of the building our priority is the safety of the team. We will head straight for the rendez-vous point. If we have a chance to take out that relay, we will take it, but that is secondary. We must not jeopardize the safety of the science team.” She took a deep breath and repeated, Get ready.” Steven extended the staff, perhaps it would come in handy after all. Without waiting for further questions she tapped a control on her wrist pad and a small section of the fencing stopped humming and went down. She didn’t realize that she was holding her breath waiting for an alarm that did not come. “Let’s move,” T’Mur ordered. As she reached down to remove the wires a sudden burst of energy fed back along the wiring and exploded on her controls. It threw her to ground, but the lack of readouts from her HUD made it clear, her suit was now dead. “Go,” she ordered.”Don’t wait for me. Go.” ~Interesting~ O’Riley pointed the readings out to Lannis and asked her to take a look at the information the computer had on the suit overload. Keung took his rifle and handed it to T’Mur. “In that case, take the rear and cover us” He looked at Devers and Hammons “let’s rock and roll. Hammons nodded, they could pick her up on the way back. T’Mur took the rifle and rolled onto her knee, bringing the weapon to bear. Devers was already moving, keeping close to the ground, looking for signs of tripwires and such. Reaching a rock he paused, motioning for the others to come forward. They were about 50 meters from what looked to be an unguarded side entrance. The Gorn must be relying on the field to protect it. Once Keung and Hammons reached him, he was off again, low to the ground as before. As he approached the door, he saw a laser trip wire covering the door. Raising his hand, fist closed, he started to examine the extent of the coverage. A moment later, he typed on the message - ‘Tripwire … proceed with caution.’ Stepping over the laser beam, Devers examined the door. Standard issue style door. Taking out a crowbar he jammed the flat end into the seam in the middle of the door. He took a few breaths and started to push the bar as hard as he could. Keung took out a couple of flash bangs from his utility belt as he leaned against the wall next to the door watching Devers opening the door with his crowbar. As soon as the door is open, he would throw in the flash bangs. He threw one of the flash bangs to Hammons. Hammons shrugged as he caught the grenade, he had four in his utility belt he hadn't used. The door started to give way as Devers strained against the force opposing him. Mind over matter as the door moved slowly in its tracks. Keung with his free hand indicated to Hammon to count down together their fingers “5..4..3..2..1” The door came open enough that they could now toss their pineapples. "Go!" He stepped forward and flung the activated flash bang inside the door. Keung saw the door open and threw the flash bang inside There was a loud "Crump!" From inside along with a muted flash of light through the portal. Hammons brought up the staff and jumped through. Two Gorn were stationed within and had come upon the invasion to their sorrow. The light had caused extreme pain to their multifaceted eyes and they were giving off keening shrieks. The staff spun in his hand, was grabbed solidly then came up against the skull of one of the guards which fell pole-axed to the floor. For a while at least he would be out of their way and wake up with only a headache. Keung grabbed his axe in both hands, quickly followed Hammons inside and brought the axe above his head, rushed the other Gorn who had its hands covering his eyes and swung the axe into the face of the Gorn. The blade embedded into the face, whilst at the same time Keung pushed back the Gorn against the back wall. Devers entered the hall last, after bracing the door in time to see Hammons and Keung make short work of the stunned Gorn. Hammons stayed only long enough to make sure Lee had his enemy down before he pushed forward. The HUD showed human life forms twenty meters ahead and through a door to the left. He didn't bother knocking but used the suit to burst through. The scientists were in a lab area beyond and huddled together when he stepped through the pieces of the door. "Who are you?" An older woman with a bit of pride left stepped forward. "Federation StarFleet Security team ma'am come to take you and the others home. We don't have time for lengthy explanations. Please move out of the room. I have friends in the hall who will lead you out and I'll cover your rear." The group seemed rather excited and did as he asked. Keung put one foot on the stomach of the Gorn that he axed and with a grunt pulled out the axe. Blood and gore splashed over the front of his battle suit as he motioned to the scientists to follow him out. Keung ran out of the building, quickly glancing back to see the scientists running after him. He pointed to where T’Mur was positioned and waved them forward. T’Mur thought it odd that there had been no movement. The timer in her head marked the passing of the first minute. She shook her head, and realized that she could make her wait time more useful. She made her way to the communication center, and pulled her remaining grenades off the belt. She tossed them onto the roof of the building. However, she would not be able to remotely activate them. She would need one of the others, but they should only need one grenade. She returned to her point of entry and brought the rifle back up. She watched as the group appeared out of the building and headed their way. Her internal clock counting down. 3...2...1… Suddenly a claxon sounded off alerting the compound to the breach in the fencing, just as the first of the scientists arrived. “Keep moving,” she told the scientists. “Head for the trees.” Keung led the group of scientists towards the bridge “Keep moving.” Devers ran on the left side, making sure the scientists stayed in a line following Lee. He kept his eyes out for any Gorn that might be coming towards them. As the team approached she called out, “I need one grenade at that roof.” She pointed to the communications array. “It should be all we need to blow the whole array.” With that she turned to run after the scientists. She easily caught up with them and began to lead them to the rendez-vous point. Hammons being in the rear pulled a grenade from his trusty utility belt, activated it and tossed it lightly upon the building T'Mur had pointed to then made tracks after the others. Behind him there was a loud explosion. It had very little effect on him due to distance except to nudge him gently forward. Linking back up with the others didn't take long. Now all that was left was to get them to the LZ for the exfil and they were home free. As they ran T’Mur noted one more obstacle. The bridge across the river. A team of Gorn had begun to congregate at the bridge. T’Mur was certain that there were more on their way. She stopped at the edge of the trees. And turned to the group. “Is it possible to tie all of the holo-emitters together and create a camouflage field large enough that would make us all unseen to the Gorn?” "Those of us with working suits should be able to overlap the fields as long as we stay in formation." Hammons said as he walked up. "Judging from how low our batteries currently are we have maybe enough juice to get us to the treeline. Lee, myself and Devers in whatever order running first, center and last. And we don't have a lot of time to discuss it before the Gorn can cut us off from our escape route so decide quickly." T’Mur nodded, “It will have to be enough. Do it.” She could sense the shimmer of the field tingle on her skin. “Stay together, and stay silent,” she ordered the scientists. Hammons activated his holo and set up in the "6" spot, he would be the last one off the bridge. Keung who was at the front of the group, pointed to the bridge and waved them across indicating that they should close up. Then he activated his holo. Keung breathed slowly as he led the group past the unsuspecting Gorns across the bridge..it was a surreal experience. To his surprise and delight, the holo emitters actually worked but for how long he wasn’t too sure as they carefully walked across the bridge. It was only about five minutes but it felt longer and he could feel the tension that at any moment someone in the party could make a mistake which would alert the Gorns! On his hud, he was aware that the power indicators were getting low. They had the advantage of the darkness that by the time the holo emitters gave out, they would be off the bridge before the Gorns realised something was wrong. Just as he stepped off the bridge, the indicators went to zero and the group were visible. “Run into the woods now.” They ran successfully into the cover of the woods! O’Riley tapped a button on the console in front of him and began moving to the door which would bring him to the group. The scene around them faded from view and the group was now back inside of the Holodeck. “Well done. Now, let's get you out of those suits.” he eyed the one T’Mur was wearing a little concerned by the damage. (Reply: None) (Posted by John Tsang (Keung Lee) Al Muir (T'Mur) Tim Bushnell (Devers) Jono Bradley (O'Riley) And Charles G (Steven Hammons) (USS Illuminar, Deck 14, Armoury - Assistant Chief of Security Keung Lee, Security Officer Ensign T’Mur, Security Officer Stephen Hammons, Security Officer Hercules Devers, Trainer Jalen O’Riley, PO3 Carol Lannis - 1615) Armoury Officer PO3 Carol Lannis watched two of her assistants amazed at the state of the battlesuits which were wet and mudcased. It was when they came to help the security officers out of their suits, the assistants stepped back in horror and gagging.To say they smelled was an understatement. Hammons trudged in and immediately began shucking himself out of his suit. This had been a tiring training exercise and he wasn't in the mood for cracking jokes. All he wanted at this point was to get out and get clean. He left the Dark Knight suit there and headed straight for a sonic shower. “What did you expect?” laughed Keung “After being enclosed for two hours literally in a container.” He rubbed over his sweaty hair.and looked at the others who were also laughing except for T’Mur who simply raised her eyebrow! Contrary to popular belief Vulcan’s did possess a sense of humor. It was well hidden and might be considered … dry. Coming from a sect of Vulcan society that embraced other cultures to conduct their business, T’Mur often employed that dry wit. “I believe that your suit might have a more prevalent odor than the others,” she said to Lee. “Oh, yeah thanks” Keung sniffed. He definitely needed a shower. Those bodysuits couldn’t be used again! thought Carol. Too unhygienic. The bodysuits had to be replicated everytime someone wanted to use the battlesuits. She signed aware of the time needed to clean up the Battlesuits! Thirty minutes later after a sonic shower, the officers were back in their uniforms and setting down round the table listening to trainer Jalen O'Riley and PO 3 Carol Lannis debriefing the session O’Riley looked to Carol who was holding the data they had been going through whilst waiting for the Adventuring party to return from the post-battle showers. Carol Lannis was standing by one of the Battlesuits which was on its stand. “My Initial evaluation showed that the Battlesuits are 90% effective but there are flaws which might limit their use in the field. Power drain is the main problem especially as the phasers are linked to the system. So if you fire on full settings, it will slowly drain the power cells. This goes for the camouflage holo emitters too if you use it too long. The user is protected by the battlesuit from being hit by phaser blasts and to an extent impact by ballistic weapons. I think it obvious to say that the Battle suit is a tool which can be used to maximum effort depending on the skills and experience of the user.” T’Mur made a face and replied, “It is my calculation that 90% might be a bit of an overestimate considering that 20% of the suits were completely demobilized. However the suits do work admirably, as you stated, that depends on the user.” “Either way, HEH,” O’Riley said, “You’re techs will have the ability to look into the issues and see if they can improve upon them now that you’re all certified in using the suits.” He passed out padds, which noted their own certification that had been added to their records and the suit manual information. “Yes, even those of you which mangled the suits get a pass.” he grumbled slightly and then looked to Keung. “Thank you.” said Keung “Finally I want to say that the Battlesuits are not going to be a regular security feature. They will only be deployed in potential hostile environments and not in normal routine security operations. The last thing we want to do is to give the impression that Starfleet are arse kicking headbutting neanderthals as opposed to being a peaceful outfit. "We certainly wouldn't want people to get the idea we are big, bad and good at our jobs." Hammons cracked. "Lord only knows how that would negatively affect our reputation." “Neither” continued Keung “are they going to be used for unauthorise..er..fun use. Petty Officer Lannis will be keeping them under lock and key. She’s not going to issue them to you however hard you try to butter her up.” "No problem. If I want a powered suit in the holodeck I'll fire up the Fallout program. They are power hungry too but at least fusion cores are easy to find." Hammons felt a bit better after the shower and break along with a steaming mug of Kona coffee. Keung stood up “Okay. That’s it. Your inboxes will have a feedback evaluation form so I would like you to complete them and return them to me. You're dismissed. Perhaps you like to join me in the holodeck where armoury assistant McDonald has designed a pub crawl program to celebrate today.” T’Mur tilted her head. “A pub… crawl? What is a pub crawl? And why is it crawling?” "Maybe just a pint." Steven stood to his feet. "Or two." “HEH. Now that’s what I wanted to hear!” O’Riley cheered, much happier now that the simulation had been a success and the ship had some certified officers. (Reply none) (Posted by John Tsang (Keung Lee) Al Muir (T'Mur) Tim Bushnell (Devers) Jono Bradley (O'Riley) And Charles G (Steven Hammons) (USS Protector – Deck 1 – Briefing Room – Commander Jason Nesmith – 2000) It was time for the first of many staff meetings before the wargames would commence. Jason hated to lose, and the Protector was designed to win fights, it was not a science vessel like the USS Illuminar. What did it have under the hood to have Star Fleet set a 3 on 1 scenario. He had got additional clarification about the War Game Rules. He’d be able to use his fighters, but if they got hit, they were out. So he’d have to have a good plan. He also learned the OpFor was going to be led by Commodore Sherri Willet. He didn’t know her, so he’d have Ivanova do a workup on her. Now that he knew the fighters were in play, his squadron of 10 would be an ace in the hole. The Steward had laid out a good spread for the meeting. Each department had a lot of work to do before the start of the wargames. It would be good for the crew to work hard. His department heads started to filter in, their game faces on already. He motioned to the food and drink while he sat down. When everyone had something and was at the table, he stood up. “We are 7 days from Mars. That is the amount of time we have to come up with a plan or three, identify the critical moments and prepare responses so that when we are in battle, we will react, and not over analyze. General Dwight Eisenhower, the general who lead the Allied forces to victory in the 20th century second world war, once said “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning indispensable.” “Ivanova will be posting training simulation scheduled for each shift by first watch tomorrow. We will regroup each day at this time to review the progress on the drills, new ideas that emerged during them and adjust our planning accordingly. Questions? One more thing. There are no bad ideas, except for those that are not spoken. We will be informal in here and I expect a lively debate. That way we will come to the best plan, which will, not survive contact with the enemy.” He looked around the table, looking each of his crew in the eye. They were ready for the hard work. Patrolling can get very boring, even for a trained crew. “Now, let’s begin,” he said sitting down. “Susan, tell us about the Illuminar. What should we be expecting?” The woman entered a command on the keyboard in front of here and an image of the USS Illuminar appeared hovering over the table. “The USS Illuminar, first in its class, is an upgrade of the Belleraphon class star ship. What makes this ship notable, other than its commanding officer helped design it, is that it’s only on duty for a couple of months and was recalled back for retrofit.” “Enhanced warp core, built on the new Anelurian Crystal technology meaning it’ll put out more power for longer. That’ll help on their shielding. The Illuminar’s phasers have also been upgraded. We only have the power output and the testing. They look nasty. We’ll have to find a way to modulate the shield output. Other than that, for the purposes of the war game, we don’t have to worry about photon torpedoes and the Illuminar doesn’t have any fighters.” “Thanks Susan,” Nesmith said. “Wiggins, what does our opposing commander look like?” A young man stood up, “Captain Sekal, a Vulcan with extensive credentials in engineering and physics. He was very involved in the design and construction of the Illuminar, so he will know the system inside and out. That is his advantage. His father, Admiral Saleke, is a brilliant tactician and strategist. There is no good record of Captain Sekal’s military prowess. He went through command training so that establishes the baseline of his training. For the sake of this encounter, we must assume he is at least as good as his father. I am currently reviewing the Admiral’s records and military decisions as the basis of my workup. I hope to have some preliminary scenarios to test in the simulations.” “Great, I want you and Ivanova to run the Illuminar in simulations. Assume everything is 25% more than the current specifications.” “So how do we use our fighters to our advantage. Jimmy, that’ll be your task. I’m thinking a variant of the Boor attack.” The Lieutenant nodded, “Depends on what Wiggins thinks will be the Illuminar’s attack patterns. If Captain Sekal follows standard Star Fleet doctrine, the Rubinstein Countergambit will provide us an advantage, especially since he cannot put up a fighter screen.” “Very good. Test it out with Wiggins and Ivanova.” “Commander Robson, You have three days to tune the warp core. You heard what Ivanova said. With the Illuminar having the new Anelurian Crystal based system, we’ll have to try to get every joule out of that system. Make sure you have someone assigned to the Shield generators. That is going to be the key, and our tandem generators give us an advantage. “ “Aye Sir. The phased harmonic system is running at full capacity, and you are right, should give us an advantage. “ Ivanova spoke up, “The Illuminar takes its shield power from the Warp Core. This is an adaptive shield using oscillating subspace graviton fields. If we can match and reverse the oscillation, we might be able to penetrate the shield.” Lieutenant Cobb, the Klingon security officer spoke up. “Is it possible to use that trick to beam a strike force through the shield? I would like to have three teams of 5, one in each transporter room. When we have the opportunity, we will beam each strike force to a different location on the Illuminar, so that we can try to divide their resources. There is a ladder that goes from deck 3 to the bridge. I want to send one team into that latter and take the bridge by surprise, while a second draws attention using turbolifts.” “Excellent,” Nesmith “Some good first plans. Go back to your departments and refine these plans. We’ll revisit our progress tomorrow, same time. The Captain stood up, “Keep up the good work.” (Reply none) (Posted by Tim) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< DAY 8 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< (P.V. Bohemian – Cockpit – Ops NCO- CPO Charles Tamblyn -0530) As a Bounty Hunter and Private Investigator, Charles had learned just how decadently hypocritical “intelligent” beings could be. And he was never more acutely aware of the duplicity and hypocrisy as he was when he looked in a mirror. Claiming that he is a protector of the innocent from those that would do evil in the galaxy, when in fact he was a destroyer. He had come to terms with the notion that he has never been, nor will ever be a hero; but rather a monster that devours those that would prey upon the weak. He was currently returning to Earth from collecting a bounty on Nimbus III. Oddly, he didn’t feel really guilty about any of the galaxy’s scum that he kills. But he was just as aware that those he killed was a loved one of some innocents that may or may not have had any idea of the kind of person the deceased truly was. =^= Civilian Runabout, Bohemian, this is Mars Port Authority. By order of Starfleet, you are being rerouted to Mars for immediate docking. Please acknowledge. =^= Shaking his head in wonder, he replied “Mars, this is the Bohemian. I acknowledge receipt of message. Break. Am disinclined to acquiesce until I receive explanation as to reasoning of my being redirected. Also, be aware that I have a fugitive onboard.” =^= Standby, Bohemian. =^= ‘This should be good. When the powers making the calls don’t know what to say, it has to be good.’ He thought, but aloud simply stated, “Standing By” After a few minutes, the communication changed from audio only to include visual and a face familiar to Charles appeared on the screen. It was a pale, round face with large suspicious blue eyes and red hair. Enough of his body showed that one could see the rank insignia of a Master Chief Petty Officer. “Well-well; if it isn’t the NCOIC of Starfleet’s Personnel Resources Command. What can I do for you Ipock?” =^= Chuck, I wish I had time for chit-chat so let me get right to it. We received a personnel request asking for a single individual that possesses a specific skillset. There are currently nine that match the desired criteria, but only two that can be at Mars by 0800 this morning. The other individual is currently eight and a half months pregnant.” Charles knew that he must have been the second or Ipock would not be contacting him. So putting up his hands in mock surrender and snickering, “Okay, okay, you got me. Shoot me my orders and give me the 20-second rundown.” No sooner had Tamblyn finished speaking, a tone sounded on his console indicating the receipt of a data packet with his orders. =^= now Chuck, I don’t want you to fret about anything. I already have a hanger arranged for your ship and transport lined up for your passengers to Earth. You will report to the Illuminar. You do not need to report to the Captain; reporting in to the ACops is just as good. Some kid named Gregory; I think. You are going to be taking part in wargames of sorts. The only odd thing in this for you, that I see, is that you will be assigned to an Ensign’s billet. =^= As far as Charles was concerned, as long as he had a place to sleep, he didn’t care, but he wasn’t a big fan of the “fresh out of the academy” drama and rumor mills. “I will report in directly as soon as I land. I will hold you PERSONNALLY responsible for my ship.” Tamblyn finished with an aggressive undertone. In the visual feed, Charles could see Ipock rub his chin as he remembered the last time, he was held personally responsible for the Bohemian and something happened to her. =^= Not a problem; report in and then get cleaned-up and in uniform. Report time is 0800. =^= and then the feed cut out. The bounty hunter looked at himself in the reflection off one of the monitors. Hair mostly neatly groomed, a little stubble on his face wearing a blue long sleeve t-shirt under short sleeved tan coveralls with black boots and his dual shoulder holster that he inherited from Chance Raschen when the ex-privateer passed away. “Hell, at this rate; they should be glad I’m sober and have clothes on. Not to mention not having my clothes covered in blood.” He said to no one as he altered course to Mars. (U.S.S. Illuminar – COps Office – Ops NCO- CPO Charles Tamblyn -0800) Wearing the very same thing he had on when he spoke to Master Chief Ipock, Charles was being escorted through the passageways of the Illuminar. He had his hands in his pockets as if he didn’t have a care in the world and strange smirk on his face as if snicker about some private joke. As they reached the door to the office belonging to the Chief of Operations, Charles pressed the button for the chime. After a moment, the door opened, the bounty hunter stepped in and the door closed behind him. Stepping up to the desk, he put his hands behind his back and stood at the position of “at-ease” until the man behind the desk spoke. Tamblyn was a little surprised, though he didn’t show it, this junior grade Lieutenant looked like he had some rough miles under his belt. (Reply Gregory) “Reservist, Chief Petty Officer Charles Raschen reporting as directed by Starfleet Personnel Resources Command, sir.” (Reply Gregory) (Reply Gregory) (Posted by Charles R.) (USS Illuminar, COps Office – ACOps Lieutenant (jg) Dieter Gregory – 0805) Gregory was reviewing information on the department complement. They were short staffed, but what else is new in Star Fleet. Operations wasn’t as glorious as some of the other job codes and required a certain talent. The door chime sounded, and when the door opened, Gregory saw a figure walk in and assume the ‘at ease’ position. Blue t-shirt, tank overalls and shoulder holster. He looked at his PADD and noticed a notation about a new officer. “Yes?” he asked “Reservist, Chief Petty Officer Charles Tamblyn reporting as directed by Starfleet Personnel Resources Command, sir.” Gregory stood up and walked around the desk to the small replicator. “Care for a drink Mr. Tamblyn?” he asked. (Reply Tamblyn) As the drinks materialized, he handed one to Tamblyn and took the other. “One cannot have a proper conversation without a cuppa. Have a seat and let’s see what Star Fleet’s intentions are.” Gregory pulled up the personnel files, “You have quite a resume Chief Tamblyn. Quite the career. I look forward to working with you and learning from your experience. Since we don’t have a Chief of Operations, that experience will be quite useful to the ship and me personally. “ “Quarters have been assigned to you in the officers deck. There is a mission briefing at 0900 that I would like you to attend with me. Best if we regroup after that meeting to review what the mission parameters are and help me setup a watch rotation.” (reply Tamblyn) (Posted by Tim) (U.S.S. Illuminar – COps Office – Ops NCO- CPO Charles Tamblyn -0807) “Reservist, Chief Petty Officer Charles Raschen reporting as directed by Starfleet Personnel Resources Command, sir.” Gregory stood up and walked around the desk to the small replicator. “Care for a drink, Mr. Tamblyn?” he asked. Charles wasn’t sure what the Lieutenant had in mind, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t bourbon like he could have gone for. “I could go for a Southern Sweet Tea, sir. Thank you.” As the drinks materialized, he handed one to Tamblyn and took the other. “One cannot have a proper conversation without a cuppa. Have a seat and let’s see what Star Fleet’s intentions are.” Tamblyn sat down as indicated and drank his tea as the LT spoke, “You have quite a resume Chief Tamblyn. Quite the career. I look forward to working with you and learning from your experience. Since we don’t have a Chief of Operations, that experience will be quite useful to the ship and me personally.” “Quarters have been assigned to you in the officer's deck. There is a mission briefing at 0900 that I would like you to attend with me. Best if we regroup after that meeting to review the mission parameters and help me set up a watch rotation.” To Charles, that last bit sounded every bit a dismissal if he ever heard one, “Thank you for the drink, sir. I will see you at the meeting, I’ll even have a uniform on.” He said as he moved toward the door. As the door opened, he turned back to the officer, “Sir, if I may; Starfleet’s intentions are simple. I am here to do a job that will help ensure this crew can succeed in completing any mission they are given.” (Reply Gregory iyw) After the conversation was concluded, the bounty hunter went to his quarters, got cleaned up, put on a uniform, and walked out of his quarters a Starfleet Chief Petty Officer and headed off to the briefing. (Reply Gregory iyw) (Posted by Charles R.) (USS Illuminar- Deck 4- Transporter Room 1- Vice-Admiral Saleke - 0830) The Vulcan who materialized on the transporter pad was wearing the bars of a Star Fleet flag officer having received them fifteen months ago after a long run as a command officer. He had begun his career thirty seven years ago aboard the USS Nimitz. Two years later he had served aboard the USS Mystique as its First Officer. It was aboard that ship he had first encountered the crystalline entity known as Luma'Lenai aboard a derelict generation ship. One year later he had transferred to the USS Hades to take the experimental Prometheus Class vessel out on its maiden voyage. That ship had since had a long and storied history within the Fleet, Saleke however had not. Sent on a suicide mission commanding the Norway class vessel USS Norwhal to prepare the route for the 52nd battle fleet's invasion of Federation space to overthrow the dictator Admiral Doenitz after the coup that began the civil war his ship had been destroyed after fulfilling its objectives. His ship had gone down with all hands and his escape pod had been the only one to survive the encounter. His crew had always been of paramount importance and he had failed them. Crash landing upon a nearly barren planetoid he had managed to eke out a meager existence, barely surviving until found by the Bajoran free trade ship Mesipal. A convalescence of months followed before he was given another command, the USS Furious, another Prometheus Class vessel. The Furious had been his final Star Fleet command. Saleke had been plagued by his inability to wrest Luma from Star Fleet Intelligence and the politics of the fleet had been changing, growing ever more stifling. During that time period he had undergone Pon Farr and returned to Vulcan to take a wife. Their son was born in the year 2417. In 2419 after starbase Geneva was destroyed he left the Furious and resigned his commission. Not long afterward the 52nd fleet was no more having been disbanded. For six years afterward he had worked on Vulcan in the labs researching the very crystal that now lay at the heart of the warp engines powering the ship he was currently standing on. It had not been he who had made that breakthrough but the person who had come to greet himself, Dr Riven Mias and Doctor Michaella Kirien Mias along with an honor guard. For the next nineteen years after being recruited by the fledgling Vulcan Defense Fleet he had painstakingly charted the expanse of space where the Anelurian Crystals could be found interspersed with more time in the labs. Sixteen months ago he had been promoted to Commodore. Then the sacking of the corrupt Star Fleet admiralty had occurred and he had been approached about a new position within Star Fleet, the one he now held. He had accepted the post to oversee Research and Development only after obtaining that which he had once striven so mightily for, the oversight of Luma'Lenai whom the Intelligence division of Star Fleet had once separated from him. He had been her mind bondmate for a time before the Mystique had been mothballed and he had been refused permission to take her with him. Now she as well was at the heart of the ship on which he stood and anyone who wished to get to her first had to come through him. They would not find it an enviable task. Overseeing the construction of this ship and the inclusion of its advanced technology in concert with its Captain, his son he had presided over the birth of the most advanced ship in Star Fleets arsenal. That man now stood before him. The pattern of the IDIC had brought the two of them together here at this time when Star Fleet was struggling to begin its rise once more to prominence. The USS Hades which Saleke had once commanded had been refit with the new crystal drive and he had already selected his command ship. They were one and the same. There was no need of a Dreadnought as the USS Hades was now far more powerful than it had once been and even for a Vulcan it could be called home for the times it would be used. He looked evenly at the man he had fathered twenty eight years ago. He held up his right hand with fingers spread in ritual formality. "Live long and prosper Captain Sekal. Permission to come aboard?" "Peace and long life Admiral Saleke. Permission is granted." The Captain returned the gesture. Sekal then greeted Dr Mias and his wife in the same fashion. (Reply: Michaella) Riven was not an ambassador for nothing. He returned the salute. "Peace and long life to you as well Captain Sekal. It is a pleasure to see your ship for the first time." Sekal inclined his head in acknowledgement. Saleke stepped down off the transporter pad. "The ambassadors luggage has already been brought aboard?" The CO nodded. "It is in the VIP quarters selected for them and they may retire there after the briefing." Saleke gave a short nod. "I would like to see your Ready Room." "This way please." Sekal turned and they began moving out. (Reply: Any) (Posted by Charles G) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Bridge- Vice-Admiral Saleke - 0840) He stepped out upon the bridge following Sekal and looked about. The nerve center of the starship was pristine and due to its recent manufacture fairly gleamed the colors of platinum and cobalt blue. Accent lighting of pale blue from low power emergency lighting was not in evidence. It was an anthill of activity as expected. While visual inspections of a transient nature were not reliable the officer corps that manned it was a model of efficiency. This pleased the command nature that had been built up over a lifetime and which had continued on the VSRS Sinya, his survey/science vessel within the Vulcan Defense Fleet. Every movement, every nuance of those present was noted and catalogued as though he himself was in command. It was ingrained forever in his psyche. No doubt part of Sekal's rapid rise through the ranks was because of the mentor he had been exposed to through his lifetime. And that mentorship was still ongoing. He had stopped near to the center of the bridge, immediately being immersed in the operation for a moment as he studied it before continuing. The control panels being worked on were outwardly of a standard nature but could be quickly converted to holographic like the Tactical Holographic Interface System on a Prometheus Class vessel so while it appeared low tech to the eye appearances could be deceiving. This Vulcan was not fooled since oversight of its construction had been under his purview. He knew almost as much about its potential as its officer corps and more than any except Sekal and Vex'ahlia Jordaan having once been mind bondmate to Luma'Lenai. Luma was a wildcard thrown into the equation of the upcoming war game which simulations could not predict. Sekal had stopped and been waiting, once he began moving the group followed suit. (Reply: Any) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Ready Room Vice-Admiral Saleke - 0845) They stepped into the CO office and he looked about, the furnishings were as expected. He walked to the sideboard and his gaze ran over the plaque that denoted the Illuminar as first ship of her class. There were three other items on the sideboard he noted, one a hand phaser of the pistol grip style of which he was familiar, a chunk of the cerulean blue crystal lying on its side and another rotating in the air several centimeters above the display disc. The disc and crystal he had presented to his son before he left for Mars. They had been in his possession together for thirty three years. The chunk of crystal lying alone was not symmetrical, a large facet had been removed from one face giving it a lopsided appearance. He was aware that the two men with him had moved together and were conversing behind him. "Have you brought the disc you informed me of earlier Doctor?" "Absolutely." Saleke turned his head to see Riven palm something from a pocket of his deep blue robe and pass it to Sekal who then moved forward. Saleke stepped to the side to give him room. Sekal picked up the piece of faceted crystal and set another display disk on the sideboard. In size it was roughly equal to that of a hockey puck. The outside was painted cobalt blue and had three sunburst designs painted on it. The face of it was platinum in color. Sekal pressed the center activating it then hung the crystal in the air above it where it slowly began to rotate. The face which had been most recently sheared away glinted the most brightly as it turned. There were now two complimentary pieces on display. Sekal then removed the one from above the other display piece, deactivated and picked up the disc. He then presented them to his father. "You gave these to me to return them to StarFleet and I did. You are also now returned to the fleet and they belong with you. Saleke hesitated for a moment before reaching out with his right hand. He looked over the display disc with a critical eye. The same size as the other it was painted black around its circumference. A white horse, gaunt and skeletal with a blue eye was lacquered on the side. Following it outlined in white was a black horse, its head raised proudly and the eye was red. The face of it was the hue of copper. "And I looked and behold a pale horse and the name of him that sat upon it was called death and Hades followed with him." The Admiral spoke softly. "It was given to you while you commanded the Hades and it is yours again." When his father looked up Sekal handed the crystal to him. "They logically belong with you." Saleke took the crystal and after reactivating the display disc returned them to the sideboard. "I will retrieve it after the briefing." At his son's nod Riven spoke up with a smile on his face. "I don't care what you say. I have all the proof I need that at least in this family Vulcans are sentimental." Both men turned to him and Sekal spoke. "Q accused us also of being obsessive but what emotional beings see as emotion is actually logical." Riven shook his head. "What is that saying? In a pigs eye?" Both Vulcans gave him the same raised eyebrow look simultaneously. "The meeting will begin shortly, it is time to go." Sekal nodded in agreement and stepped aside for his father to proceed him. ::You don't need to say anything my love. I'm done.:: Riven turned his smile to his wife before following them out. (Reply: Michaella iyw, any) (Posted by Charles G) (U.S.S. Illuminar – Conference Room – Ops NCO- CPO Charles Tamblyn -0851) As a Bounty Hunter or as a Private Investigator, punctuality was never an issue to be concerned will; but as a senior NCO aboard a Starfleet vessel, it was another thing altogether. As a Chief Petty Officer, Tamblyn always held to the notion that if you are 15-minutes early then you are on time, if you are on time then you are late. In this instance, he felt that he was both. As he entered the conference room, he noticed that there were not very many folks there just yet. As the door closed behind him, he could not help but some of those that were already present stare in his direction. After a couple of seconds of silence, Charles threw up his hands and sang out “Heere I Cooomme to Wreck the Daaaay!!!” as he made fun of superhero cartoons of old. After one or two folks smirked and shook their heads as they went back to focusing on other things, Tamblyn took, what was to him his regular spot, a seat on a windowsill situated in a corner of the room thus leaving a chair for a commissioned officer to sit. He did hope that at this meeting he would find out about what his skillset had to do with a wargame. Or perhaps the Skipper wanted him to lead and teach the less experienced crewmembers in his unorthodox methods of doing things. As he sat, waiting for the meeting to begin, he simply sat and watched the other crewmembers of the Illuminar interact with each other. Some he did recognize and bowed his head in recognition and greeting. He noticed a few hushed whispers as glances were made in his direction, but he did not go out of his way to introduce himself. He was courteous enough to stand up, introduce himself, and shake hands with those that spoke to him; but the bounty hunter in him was kicking in and he just mainly watched the group as a whole. As the group got larger as crewmembers entered for the briefing, he did take notice that he was pretty much the only NCO there for the meeting. Tamblyn knew Sekal was not one to waste good. And unlike most other senior officers, the Vulcan was not one to pass on a good idea just because it didn’t come from him or someone he deemed worthy. (Reply: None required) (Posted by Charles R.) (USS Illuminar - Deck 1 - Briefing Room - ACSRD Ensign Stennin - 0857) Stennin walked in from the corridor, seeing the Senior staff assembled. He greeted Sekal on his way in and sat down on one of the seats. He listened attentively to the officers around him. His interest was piqued at the mention of the biochemical research, which he presumed would be his main charge. The Eridani were an intriguing species. "Ambassador, if I assume correctly, these people are unfamiliar with Starfleet technology?" (Reply Mias) "How would we ensure that our mission does not interfere with their development, and by that extension, impede upon the Prime Directive?" (Reply Mias, Sekal) (posted by Yoerik van Heugten) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- CO, Captain Sekal and Federation Ambassador Dr. Riven Mias- 0900) Coffee, tea and water had been provided for the officers in attendance, Sekal had been greeting each as they entered. The Admiral was present along with Dr. Riven Mias and his wife Michaella who was an accomplished medical professional as well. They were seated in chairs set behind his seat at the head of the table. The conversations going on were low being in the form of whispers. (Reply: Any) At the proper time the CO stood to his feet. "The Illuminar will be leaving dock in four days time. This mission briefing will introduce you to the parameters of our upcoming duties. Doctor Riven Mias is an ambassador for the Federation and some of you have already become acquainted with him. He will be introducing his diplomatic goals. It will be the task of this vessel not only to deliver him to his destination but to provide him any support required." He looked around the room. "Dr Michaella Kirien Mias will be assisting her husband but has other duties to perform as well during transit at the behest of her superiors on Betazed. I will call upon her at the proper time so that she may introduce her duties and what may be done by the officers and crew of the ship to expedite them." He had been standing easily as he introduced the Betazoid diplomatic contingent but drew himself up straighter for the last introduction. "Vice-Admiral Saleke has an announcement he will be making at the end of the briefing, a test of the officers and crew of this ship as well as its capabilities. This is an unusual circumstance as his presence attests and the test will be neither simple nor easy. It will stretch the ship and crew to their limit and beyond. I will say no more and allow him to introduce it fully." He turned his head. "Dr. Mias you have the floor." Sekal then stepped away from the chair so that the Betazoid could approach. His dazzling smile lit up the room. "Good morning fine officers of the USS Illuminar. I have met a few of you to my delight and hope to get to know the rest of you during the voyage. My wife and I will be meeting and welcoming a new race of beings to the Alpha Quadrant who have been approached before by a Federation vessel. First some history." He activated the holographic table and the depiction of an asteroid solidified above it. "Some 200 years ago an asteroid generation ship was found by the USS Enterprise and the Yonarans were settled on a Federation world. There has been none since then until recently. Just prior to Federation withdrawal to the core worlds another was discovered just beyond Bajor by the USS Holmgrim and we have had no contact with them since then. Their course however was analyzed and the planet they were attempting to reach discovered. Sadly in the intervening years it has been rendered uninhabitable due a catastrophic event. The Sharlayans long journey was due to end in disappointment. Recently however a colony world was targeted that is sparsely inhabited with over 75% of its land mass available for new colonists." He made an adjustment and a planet appeared over the holotable. It was a blue jewel hanging in space, as he continued to speak the view changed, rushing toward it and then piercing the atmosphere to make a circuit around the world. The land masses were large and in some places especially verdant around the equator though plant life including trees and plains were recognizable nearly everywhere. "Epsilon Eridani 5. A wonderful place for settlement as you can see and only five years from their calculated position. The current inhabitants have also been recently relocated there. They are willing to coexist with the Sharlayans but would like some assurances. To assuage their concerns the Illuminar will be doing a cultural survey of the Sharlayans as well as a biochemical, pathanogenic and ideological work up of the inhabitants to help put the Eridanis minds at ease." Another adjustment and the asteroid returned larger than before. "Obviously the Sharlayans will not be happy to hear their destination needs to be changed which is our primary purpose there, to set their minds at ease and bring the greetings of the Eridani to them. There are also numerous details it will be necessary to work out. I and Michaella will be handling the negotiations." He looked around the table. "Are there any questions or concerns?" (Reply: Any. Plenty of room for discussion) After addressing those things he turned and extended his hand toward Michaella. "My darling wife has something to say about what she has been asked to do here in addition. I present to you Michaella Kirien Mias, my Imzadi and dearest love." He then stepped aside so that she could address the group. (Reply: Michaella, any) (Posted by Charles G) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- FSXO/Flight ops/Conn- Lieutenant (jg) Tempest Grey Wolf- 0901) The full-blood Cherokee woman took a seat after taking a cup of coffee and settled into a chair near the center of the table. There were a number of things she noted while waiting for the briefing to begin. Foremost was the presence of the Admiral. His presence on the bridge both coming and going had been in a word ... intimidating. It hadn't been due simply to his rank either, he carried intensity, focus and presence in equal amounts. While running checks on the navigation system she had felt the prickle of gooseflesh between her shoulder blades that denoted she was being scrutinized and she had no doubt that every officer on the bridge had felt the same. Word was that the Admiral had vast experience in the command chair that carried back for decades and was a decorated veteran of the storied 52nd battle fleet who had left StarFleet to return home. While gone though he had not been idle but had made his experience available to his homeworld and had rejoined StarFleet within the last two years. She was also aware that this ship was his baby almost as much as it was Sekal's, Sienna's and Carson's. His carriage when he had come into her view had been ramrod straight and his gait fluid and lethal. Having someone of that caliber within the admiralty was both comforting and at the same time intimidating as noted. Comforting because she had no doubt that like the rest of the new faces in the admiralty Admiral Bell had gathered together an impressive lineup of experienced veterans who in a time of conflict could be counted on to be a fearsome foil to any enemy the Federation encountered. And to think this Vulcan sat on the Research and Development side of the table! The ships being developed were therefore almost guaranteed to be as prepared for a battle as they were in the performance of their other duties. He had been silent in the meeting room other than replying to the Betazoid ambassadorial contingent but had lost nothing of that command presence and intensity. The Captain's words had been short but his respect for the man seated behind him evident in his change of posture. The Betazoid Riven seemed to be a delightful man and his wife though more aloof was stunning. Due to the slowed aging process of a Betazoid female her age was difficult to determine. The general location of the asteroid generation ship caught her attention immediately and brought to mind the location of the out of place fire in the vision she had during the ceremony on Earth and she was completely certain this was what her spirit guide had been directing her attention to. If so then there was an element of danger here to her charge, the First Officer Sienna Williams-Verin. Would it be there? Before, during or after they arrived? She had no way of knowing yet. She watched and listened closely as the officers present made their presence known, waiting in case something came up that would be of interest to her to remark on. (Reply: Any) (Posted by Charles G) (USS Protector – Deck 1 – Ready Room – Commander Jason Nesmith – 0900) Nesmith sat across from his executive officer as they both reviewed the latest reports and planning for the war games. “Looks like we have a Defiant class ship to round out the opposing forces,” he said. “Yes Sir, commanded by Captain Louise Winn. Wife of Admiral Winn.” “This little opposing force is pretty potent one. Still makes me wonder what Captain Sekal has up his Vulcan sleeve. He’s got to have a trick or tricks that Star Fleet is holding it close to its chest. If we can defeat the Illuminar, they’ll learn its weaknesses, and if the Illuminar defeats three ships, they may roll out these secret developments,” Nesmith said. “X, do you play chess?” “I am Russian Sir, I have dabbled in,” Ivanova replied. “Doesn’t this situation sound ideal for Alekhine’s gun?” he asked. “I am not familiar with that Sir.” “Named after world Chess champion Alexander Alekhine, from the early part of the 20th century. The formation is one with two rooks stacked behind each other, with the queen in the rear. It’s a very potent attack formation,” Nesmith said. “I have been thinking about how to implement it with our fighters. Two flights of five as our rooks and the Protector as the queen.” “I’ll ask Lieutenant Wiggins to game it out, Sir.” “There is a lot to learn from the Grand Masters,” Nesmith said. “Especially the early Grand Masters – Capablanca, Lasker, Fisher and Kasparov, among others. A battle is much like a chess match, with an opening, a mid-game and an endgame.” “I’ll take that under advisement, Sir,” Ivanova replied. “Have you looked at the report from engineering?” Nesmith nodded, “Yes, I’ve looked over her proposal and approved. It really offers us a chance to increase shield power by 10%, but improve the overlap of our two generators, to help increase the damage the shields can take.” “We are going to start pulling senior officers into the holodeck to start running simulations. I’m adjusting the shift schedule to account for this. Once we work through the senior officers, we’ll start on the junior officers,” Ivanova said. “Excellent, who’s playing me?” “Lieutenant Wiggins will be playing you and Doolittle is running the opfor for the initial sims.” “That sounds like a pretty even matchup if you ask me. My money is on Wiggins,” Nesmith said. “Did you read his recent tactical submission? The analysis of Dominion war, with an emphasis on the second battle of Deep Space 9.” “The man has a once in a generation tactical mind. I’m surprised he’s not been taken from us by Star Fleet. He’ll be on the fast track to Admiral, if you ask me.” “Good think he’s on our side. And a good thing its Captain Sekal and not the Admiral, his father. Now that would be a tactical matchup of the decade,” Ivanova said. “Perhaps we’ll get our wish. I, for one, am not counting out Captain Sekal, he may be an engineer, but he’s had his father filling his head as well. Keep me apprised of the simulations.” (Reply none) (Posted by Tim) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- 2O, Commander Carson Peters & aCEO, Lieutenant Vex'ahlia Jordaan - 0905) "Good morning fine officers of the USS Illuminar. I have met a few of you to my delight and hope to get to know the rest of you during the voyage. My wife and I will be meeting and welcoming a new race of beings to the Alpha Quadrant who have been approached before by a Federation vessel. First some history." Carson paid strong attention to what the Ambassador said. Vex shuffled in her seat a little, she had one hand on the table and had allowed Luma to inhabit her so she would feel like she was at the meeting and more involved. Riven activated the holographic table and the depiction of an asteroid solidified above it. "Some 200 years ago an asteroid generation ship was found by the USS Enterprise and the Yonarans were settled on a Federation world. There has been none since then until recently. Just prior to Federation withdrawal to the core worlds another was discovered just beyond Bajor by the USS Holmgrim and we have had no contact with them since then. Their course however was analyzed and the planet they were attempting to reach discovered. Sadly in the intervening years it has been rendered uninhabitable due a catastrophic event. The Sharlayans long journey was due to end in disappointment. Recently however a colony world was targeted that is sparsely inhabited with over 75% of its land mass available for new colonists." "Epsilon Eridani 5. A wonderful place for settlement as you can see and only five years from their calculated position. The current inhabitants have also been recently relocated there. They are willing to coexist with the Sharlayans but would like some assurances. To assuage their concerns the Illuminar will be doing a cultural survey of the Sharlayans as well as a biochemical, pathanogenic and ideological work up of the inhabitants to help put the Eridanis minds at ease." Another adjustment and the asteroid returned larger than before. "Obviously the Sharlayans will not be happy to hear their destination needs to be changed which is our primary purpose there, to set their minds at ease and bring the greetings of the Eridani to them. There are also numerous details it will be necessary to work out. I and Michaella will be handling the negotiations." He looked around the table. "Are there any questions or concerns?" “Sir, Lieutenant Gregory, Operations. Do we know what sort of communication technology the Sharlayans are using? Or if they are amenable to visitors?” "Asteroid ships are sometimes seen as more technologically advanced than they are. While I am sure there are differing level of technical prowess I can say the Sharlayans have no subspace communications, only older style and very slow radio frequencies due to them being a prewarp though still space faring civilization that was discovered by accident when the ship was investigating out of place energy readings on the surface. As for their demeanor it was noted they were initially suspicious of the motives of the crew that found them but otherwise friendly and welcoming afterward. " Riven replied. “Follow-up to that question, would it be worth considering upgrading their population system to speed their journey up? It seems another 5 years would be in intolerable burden to a people who’d been traveling for hundreds of years?” Riven's smile grew at that question. "I'm certain they would be excited at the offer. With your Captain's permission I will broach the subject of studying that system with them to see what may be done. I'm not an engineer or scientist like some of you are and I don't have that data so I can't give a certain answer to your question." He turned his head to look at Sekal who nodded. "Excellent! Starfleet is always willing to help those in need. Is there anything else?" Carson cleared his throat, before Vex took control back briefly to say, "Do we have any data on the ships engine design from the last time a Starfleet ship visited?" (Reply any) Once Vex's query had been dealt with Carson asked, "Do we know how many Sharlayans are housed on the asteroid ship?" (Reply Riven, any) (Posted by Jono Bradley - Carson * Vex) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- Assistant Chief of Security - 0906) Keung who was sitting on the end of the middle row listening to the briefing was slowing beginning grow weary with boredom. It was quite interesting to hear that the Illuminar was going to assist the Asteroid Ship and the Sharlayans inmoving to colony on Epison Eridani 5. However not being a engineer. his concentration span about the discussion over the logistics of engineering, communications and population systems was extremely limited. So what would it have to do with the Security? His main concern was the security of the ship. He kept quiet during question time. “Ambassador, it appears that there will be security issues for both sides of your negotiations. Will you be expecting the need for a security presence at any of your talks with either the Charlatans or the Eradani?” Keung sharply turned round at the sound of ensign T’Mur who was standing at the back of the room who had asked the question. He was annoyed at such a question being asked. It was an inappropriate time to ask such a question and the briefing was not the right place to ask about security issues. As far as he was concerned, the security presence at the talks would not come from his department but from the colony’s own security people. The ship’s security department had no jurisdiction...unless the Illuminar command staff was somehow involved in the negotiations. He glared at T’Mur and waited for a reply from the floor. Mind you though, thought Keung, his team might get involved if the request came through the chain of command and then only in a limited capacity such as providing an escort and close protection for the most important individuals. Surely the principal security team would come from the colonist’s authorities. (reply any) (posted by John) (USS Illuminar – Deck 1 – Conference Room – ACOps Lieutenant (jg) Dieter Gregory and Pilot Ensign (sg) Vic ‘Raid’ Montero - 0910) Montero entered the briefing room, grabbing a cup of coffee and making his way against the back wall. Briefings like this were generally boring, as most of the time the shuttle pilot’s role was minimal. He’’d have to remember to talk to Lieutenant Grey Wolf about recommendations for simulations to learn how to pilot the ships of the line. It was probably more a focus on power control, and that they can’t turn on a dime. Sheridan came over and sat next to him. She was turning into a good co-pilot. He’d be pushing here in the simulations, getting her to take over the flying. Especially if the upcoming mission didn’t require their unique skills. Dieter made his way to the briefing room and took a position at the table. His PADD was out, and he was monitoring major systems from here. Looking around the room, he nodded to the officers he recognized. He was still learning his departments complement, and one day would need to get them together to improve shift scheduling and such. Gregory felt shorter shifts at Operations would be better for the department. Two on, two off for an 8 hour shift would give teams time to work on other projects, while not burning any one person with a full 8 hour shift. The Captain began speaking, “The Illuminar will be leaving dock in four days time. This mission briefing will introduce you to the parameters of our upcoming duties. Doctor Riven Mias is an ambassador for the Federation and some of you have already become acquainted with him. He will be introducing his diplomatic goals. It will be the task of this vessel not only to deliver him to his destination but to provide him any support required.” ~Great~ thought Montero, another diplomat. This was going to make the trip so much fun. Better he stayed in the shuttle bay to avoid Dr. Mias. Hope the Captain has read my jacket. The briefing continued as Gregory started making notes, he had a lot to do in four days, especially with all the changes to the Illuminar. He had just started feeling comfortable with the systems on the trip back to Earth. Such is the life of a Star Fleet officer. Dr. Mias began, "Good morning fine officers of the USS Illuminar. I have met a few of you to my delight and hope to get to know the rest of you during the voyage. My wife and I will be meeting and welcoming a new race of beings to the Alpha Quadrant who have been approached before by a Federation vessel. First some history." ~Not bloody likely,~ Montero thought. He still has impulse control issues when it came to diplomats. Perhaps Dr. Kroger had contacted the councilors here on the ship. He’d probably better make an appointment. The mission briefing when on. A survey mission coupled with a diplomatic mission Gregory noted. He’d have to make sure the sensor arrays were properly tuned, and check with Engineering on the status of equipment and such. The briefing finished and Dr. Mias solicited questions. “Sir, Lieutenant Gregory, Operations. Do we know what sort of communication technology the Sharlayans are using? Or if they are amenable to visitors?” (Reply Mias) “Follow-up to that question, would it be worth considering upgrading their population system to speed their journey up? It seems another 5 years would be in intolerable burden to a people who’d been traveling for hundreds of years?” (Reply Mias) “Thank you sir.” (Reply Mias, others) (Posted by Tim – Dieter Gregory and Tim – Vic Montero) (USS Illuminar – Deck 1 – Conference Room – Federation Ambassador- Dr. Riven Mias- 0913) “Sir, Lieutenant Gregory, Operations. Do we know what sort of communication technology the Sharlayans are using? Or if they are amenable to visitors?” Riven could be a very talkative sort but made an effort to tone down his nature. There was a lot that could be said but didn't need to. "Asteroid ships are sometimes seen as more technologically advanced than they are. While I am sure there are differing level of technical prowess I can say the Sharlayans have no subspace communications, only older style and very slow radio frequencies due to them being a prewarp though still space faring civilization that was discovered by accident when the ship was investigating out of place energy readings on the surface. As for their demeanor it was noted they were initially suspicious of the motives of the crew that found them but otherwise friendly and welcoming afterward. " “Follow-up to that question, would it be worth considering upgrading their propulsion system to speed their journey up? It seems another 5 years would be an intolerable burden to a people who’d been traveling for hundreds of years?” Riven's smile grew at that question. "I'm certain they would be excited at the offer. With your Captain's permission I will broach the subject of studying that system with them to see what may be done. I'm not an engineer or scientist like some of you are and I don't have that data so I can't give a certain answer to your question." He turned his head to look at Sekal who nodded. "Excellent! Starfleet is always willing to help those in need. Is there anything else?" “Thank you sir.” "Thank you for two excellent questions. Is there anyone else?" (Reply: Any) (Posted by Charles G) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- SO, Ensign T'Mur- 0915) When T’Mur had yet to actually meet the CO. She had been asked to report to duty with the second officer, which, as she thought of it, was a little unusual. It was not something that might give the typical Vulcan concern. However, she was not typical, and her sense of ostricization returned when she saw him enter the conference room. He seemed to greet everyone with logical amount of “warmth” that one would greet a friend or at least an acquaintance. She had arrived at her usual early time and was one of the first to find a place in the back of the room. Slowly more people arrived and then Captain Sekal arrived. It seemed as though he avoided greeting her. Surely he was … aware of her affliction before he allowed her on board. Yet he seemed to be treating her as all Vulcans did knowing of her situation. And there it was. She could feel a slight panic start to rise in the calmness of her mind. Was that anger? Her face warmed slightly and destructive thoughts began to formulate. T’mir had come to recognize the oncoming of the emotional tidal wave that her condition had created for her. Clearly it was time for a treatment. She could not get up and leave now, but she would have to head to sickbay as soon as she could. To be honest, she was uncertain how long she could contain the emotional out burst she felt welling up inside. Closing her eyes she began to employ the breathing techniques she had been taught to center herself. Breath in slowly, breath out even slower. She began to count the seconds, and felt the wave ebb slightly. Then she opened her eyes to see Admiral Mias enter. Sekal did not exactly gush, but it seemed almost an emotional display, to her, in their recognition of each other. That recognition lit up a second wave of fiery emotions, and she almost came out of her seat. She gripped the bottom of the chair she had selected tightly and could feel the material it was made from start reshape. ~Breath T’Mur, breath.~ And then following her own advice she closed her eyes and slowed her breathing. She could feel the emotional check start, and was able to relax. Her mind wen back to her graduation and duty assignment. The commandant handed her the PADD with her assignment to the Illuminar. She had allowed herself to look surprised. “ I do not understand,” T’Mur had admitted. “Apparently someone is well aware of your accomplishments here at the academy,” the commandant said, "and made a request of you for the Illuminar.” “Who? If I may ask,” T’Mur said. “You may ask,” the commandant replied, “but I am not at liberty to say. Suffice it to say that you were requested and perhaps you will find what you are looking for there.” A flash of surprise came across her face. “Sir?” “A home cadet… I mean Ensign, a place to belong.” T’Mur had let that hope sink into her katra. She had allowed herself to seek that belonging she had not had in so long. And now, it all seemed to be crashing upon the rocks of reality. Seal’s voice brought her out of her reverie and back to the present. She swallowed the emotions that she was having to control and focused on the briefing. Her attention was peaked by the mention of a test. That was something she could focus on. Then Ambassador Mias began to speak. His voice was oddly soothing. He was a Betazoid and she could feel the tendrils of his telepathic abilities, immediately shoring up her own telepathic shields. When Mias said that they were meeting a new race, but one that had been approached by the Federation before her mind began to race through the information as to who it could be. Oddly she had no recollection of the Sharlayans. However she was well aware of the Eridani system as it was the closest system to the Vulcan homeworld. Settling another colony on Epsilon Eridani 5 would definitely require some diplomacy. Mias seemed to be someone up to the task. It would also have many security issues in three dimensions. “Are there any questions or concerns?” Mais asked. The first person to speak up T’Mur had not met yet, but recognized him as Assistant Chief of Operations Dieter Gregory, asking about communications and population systems. Charlatans not having a subspace communications system would definitely be something that would have to be rectified. She was curious if this conflicted with the Prime Directive. Technically the Shaynarans had not developed warp technology, but they had developed interplanetary travel. A concern that deepened when they started to consider upgrading their propulsion. What would happen if sped up a ship the size of an asteroid? These were engineering and command questions that were not in her duty area. “Is there anyone else?,” Mias asked. T’Mur waited to hear if Lee were going to speak up and ask questions for Security. She looked over to find him in the crowd but he did not look ready to speak. Casting caution to wind she stood up. “Ambassador,” T’Mur began having recollected her Vulcan calm, “it appears that there will be security issues for both sides of your negotiations. Will you be expecting the need for a security presence at any of your talks with either the Charlatans or the Eradani?” (reply Mias) (posted by Al Muir) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- Federation Ambassador- Dr. Riven Mias- 0916) “Ambassador," Riven looked toward the young Vulcan woman in security colors. He was sensing a number emotions roiling beneath the surface though she was attempting to hide it. This caused some concern for his part over her well being. There were a couple of possibilities that came to mind, one of them extremely debilitating. Even though her mind was shielded those emotions were leaking through and to an empath like him impossible to overlook. Essentially he would have had to shut off his empathic abilities to ignore them but when in a meeting, especially diplomatic it was helpful to know the emotional state of the participants. “it appears that there will be security issues for both sides of your negotiations. Will you be expecting the need for a security presence at any of your talks with either the Sharlayans or the Eradani?” "As always I will leave those preparations or precautions to the experts." He noted. "Should a security detail be recommended I will how do thay say? Roll with it. The Eridani will not be engaging directly in talks with the Sharlayans until satisfied with the results of the survey and I am on excellent terms with them. So I don't see a need for security to be present during our talks on the ship which will be primarily updating them on how things are progressing." (Reply: T'Mur) "I am aware of how demanding many ambassadorial parties are but you will find me to be quite different. I am not a full time member of the diplomatic corps but am called out on special assignments when it is believed my abilities will prove useful. So I assure you I Iisten very carefully to the people in charge of security except under extraordinary circumstances. And I think a security presence when first meeting the Sharlayans would be prudent as I'm sure you would agree." (Reply: T'Mur, any) (Posted by Charles G) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- SO, Ensign T'Mur- 0917) T’Mur could feel the minor reach into her mind, which she assumed was the Betazoid. She had read the Ambassador’s file and was well aware of his accomplishments, but this was not the time for that. She shut door on it tightly. "As always I will leave those preparations or precautions to the experts." Mais said. "Should a security detail be recommended I will how do thay say? Roll with it.” ~I would not say it that way.~ T’Mur thought to herself, but she got the idea. "The Eridani will not be engaging directly in talks with the Sharlayans until satisfied with the results of the survey and I am on excellent terms with them. So I don't see a need for security to be present during our talks on the ship which will be primarily updating them on how things are progressing." “I understand your position Ambassador,” T’Mur conceded. But she allowed her curiosity to get the better of her. “Sir, if you would indulge? The Eridani people, I am somewhat familiar with them, having had business dealings with them in the past. Once they have negotiated they are quite solid in their position. If they have to make adjustments after you have met with the Sharlayans they may not be as… inviting," "I am aware of how demanding many ambassadorial parties are but you will find me to be quite different. I am not a full time member of the diplomatic corps but am called out on special assignments when it is believed my abilities will prove useful. So I assure you I Iisten very carefully to the people in charge of security except under extraordinary circumstances. And I think a security presence when first meeting the Sharlayans would be prudent as I'm sure you would agree." “Indeed,” she replied and sat down. Nothing else needed to be said. As she sat her eyes met those of Lee. He clearly looked unhappy, but she was not sure about what. She was certain that she would find out later. (reply Lee) (posted by Al Muir) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- Federation Ambassador- Dr Riven Mias- 0919) Riven looked to his left as Vex'ahlia Jordaan cleared her throat. "Do we have any data on the ships engine design from the last time a Starfleet ship visited?" The Betazoid gave a muted "Hmmm...", and keyed up an index on the display then selected *Propulsion: Use and Theory* The listing brought up a text file that wasn't decidedly long. (12 exhaust ports 950 meters in diameter at key points on the asteroid's surface to give omni-directional control emitting 120,000 pounds of thrust per minute of radioactive emissions. Primarily composed of Plutonium 242 and Radon 222. Scans of internal engine geometry inconclusive due to ionizing interference. Internal scans showed a heavily shielded engine core. Composition unknown. Access to study the engines closely denied by the ruling technical caste.) "That's all we have on that subject I'm afraid." The mind-healer stated. The second officer asked a followup question. "Do we know how many Sharlayans are housed on the asteroid ship?" "Approximately thirty thousand life forms scanned by the ship at first contact." Riven replied. (Reply: Any) (Posted by Charles G) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- aCSO, Ensign Keung Lee - 0920) Keung watched the exchange between T’Mur’s and Ambassador Mais "As always I will leave those preparations or precautions to the experts.Should a security detail be recommended I will how do thay say? Roll with it. he Eridani will not be engaging directly in talks with the Sharlayans until satisfied with the results of the survey and I am on excellent terms with them. So I don't see a need for security to be present during our talks on the ship which will be primarily updating them on how things are progressing." “I understand your position Ambassador. Sir, if you would indulge? The Eridani people, I am somewhat familiar with them, having had business dealings with them in the past. Once they have negotiated they are quite solid in their position. If they have to make adjustments after you have met with the Sharlayans they may not be as… inviting," "I am aware of how demanding many ambassadorial parties are but you will find me to be quite different. I am not a full time member of the diplomatic corps but am called out on special assignments when it is believed my abilities will prove useful. So I assure you I Iisten very carefully to the people in charge of security except under extraordinary circumstances. And I think a security presence when first meeting the Sharlayans would be prudent as I'm sure you would agree." “Indeed,” T’Mur sat down. Keung noticed that T’Mur had glanced in his direction. Keung discretely nodded and with his right hand, made the appearance of a slash across his throat. Basically saying to T’Mur to not to say anything else. He spotted Hercules Devers sitting next to T’Mur who was starring at him. At least Devers would know what that gesture meant and probably explain it to T’Mur. He decided that he would take no action with regarding T’Mur’s behaviour. Ambassador Mais had already indicated that there probably be some involvement of the Security team when meeting the Sharlayans for the first time. (reply anyone) (posted by John) (USS Illuminar - Conference Room - ACOUNS ACMO LT JG Ariel Trei - 09.25) After hearing all the input, she put her two cents in. "I don't have a ton of experience with negotiation but I am a strong empath and can use that set of skills to aide the negotiation. If anyone is lying, I will know. I can also use their emotional states to guide the process." She sat at the table with a cup of Earl Gray as she usually did at a meeting. The people on the asteroid intrigued her. However she was asked to help the process, she was ready to do it within reason of course not invading private thoughts and emotions . (Reply Any) (Posted by Edward) (USS Illuminar - Deck 1 - Briefing Room - Federation Ambassador- Dr. Riven Mias- 0926) "I don't have a ton of experience with negotiation but I am a strong empath and can use that set of skills to aide the negotiation. If anyone is lying, I will know. I can also use their emotional states to guide the process." Riven turned his smile to the Counselor. "Thank you for your interest. It would be good to have someone with me to help with that while my mind is focused on other things. If your department can spare you I accept the offer." "Ambassador, if I assume correctly, these people are unfamiliar with Starfleet technology?" Riven looked down the table to see another Vulcan, this one in blue and undoubtedly with Science. "That is correct. Great care was taken during first contact to ensure there was no contamination." "How would we ensure that our mission does not interfere with their development, and by that extension, impede upon the Prime Directive?" "Ah! A most excellent question!" Riven was completely unfazed by the question. "Thank you for bringing it up. This is at the heart of why the briefing was withheld for so long. There were a number of sticking points to work on due to the Prime Directive so let's count them off and answer them shall we?" He looked about the table with a serious expression. "First contact came as I noted by accident when the USS Holmgrim discovered what they thought was a rogue asteroid. During their investigation they found it was inhabited by a space faring race. They reported this to Command who let it lie for a number of years. Why has this come up recently? When it was discovered the planet they are attempting to reach is no longer habitable nor is there any suitable world nearby for them to colonize. The Sharlayans are pre-warp certainly but space faring and they need a suitable world to inhabit. This is not the first time StarFleet has encountered such a group. I've already mentioned Yonada. They were traveling to an already inhabited world and were actually off course for the one that was their destination. This was found and corrected." He nodded at Stennin. "In legal terms then this establishes precedence. Something has been done before and becomes a precedent for succeeding situations that are similar. While the Sharlayans are not going to a Federation member world they are most certainly facing a dead end. Should the Federation stand by and leave them to their own devices or assist them in finding a suitable home? The Fabrini descendants on Yonada became Federation members, it was decided the Sharlayans would be extended the same opportunity. Having decided this Command set out to find them a suitable colony world, located one and negotiated with the Eridani. From that the mission that this briefing covers has been formulated." He stood to his full 5'8" and drew in a big gulp of air. "So where does that leave us now? If the Sharlayans agree to settle with the Eridani and pass their requirements they will be exposed to Federation technology but until that point comes their exposure to such technology is to be limited to that which is deemed necessary. That turn of phrase is open to broad interpretation but anything used around them will have to be carefully considered. Contamination therefore is inevitable but will be introduced slowly and in stages as they prove capable of managing it." (Reply: Any) (Posted by Charles G) (USS Illuminar Deck 1 - Briefing Room - ACOps Lieutenant (jg) Dieter Gregory - 0930) Gregory listed with interest as the question about Prime Directive raised by one of the science officers. The ethical nature of the Prime Directive was always debated in various Ethics classes at the Academy. The Ambassador raised some good points. He would have loved to see him debate his ethics instructor, Professor Sh’ezirherh. Thinking back to those academy classes, he remembered one exchange. “What about the law of the sea?” he had asked once. “That required that the Master of a vessel was obligated to render assistance to those in distress at sea. Doesn’t Star Fleet have the same obligation to render aid?” His professor lowered her eyes at him. Her stare transfixed Gregory, as if she could see his inner most thoughts. “Mr. Gregory, who, therefore, is to be judge if a civilization is in distress? What does distress look like. At sea, yes it’s easy to see distress. And even in space, we can see distress. However, should Star Fleet interfere and change the course of a culture’s development, there can be drastic unintended consequences. Look at the case study of Ekos, of Sigma Iotia II. The impact of cultural contamination did irreparable harm. Tragic as it is, our non-interference is sacrosanct. We cannot play God by interfering with natural cultural development.” “Even if that costs the loss of over 60 civilizations and counting?” “Yes, even at that cost.” “Franklin Roosevelt, president of the United States during the 20th century once said, ‘If your neighbors house is on fire, you don’t haggle over the price of the garden hose.’ Ma’am, we know there are too many things in this universe we can’t do. Why shouldn’t we help them when we can.” “Mr. Gregory, just because we could help them, if we don’t stop to think if we should, we would be no better than those from your own history responsible for the Eugenics war. Many planets have had a similar experience. We must do better than that. And yes, evolution is a very harsh mistress. To lift a civilization up with technology that is so far removed from their understanding to seem as if magic, is not the answer.” Gregory shook his head and returned to the present, having missed much of the discussion. He noted that the Ambassador stood straight up, and continued. "So where does that leave us now? If the Sharlayans agree to settle with the Eridani and pass their requirements they will be exposed to Federation technology but until that point comes their exposure to such technology is to be limited to that which is deemed necessary. That turn of phrase is open to broad interpretation but anything used around them will have to be carefully considered. Contamination therefore is inevitable but will be introduced slowly and in stages as they prove capable of managing it." He blinked twice, noticing the giant Bajoran standing next to the Ambassador. Still wearing the same blue shirt and red bow tie. The man looked right at Gregory and spoke, “It is happening again.” Dieter tried to discretely activate his PADD, starting a scan of the area as the Giant spoke again. “It is happening again.” The results of the scan were displayed on the PADD, and clearly there was nothing there. No one extra was in the room, everyone accounted for. “Impossible,” He said outloud. (Reply anyone) (Posted by Tim) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- SO, Ensign T'Mur- 0931) T’Mur looked at the exchange regarding the Prime Directive. If there was one thing that she was sure of was as important as the Prime Directive was, and as much emphasis that was put upon, including several ethics classes based on it, Starfleet had found every way feasible to circumnavigate it. History showed time and time again the human inability to stay out of the affairs of other races, including underdeveloped worlds, to avoid uncomfortable questions or consequences. The conversation was intriguing, but inevitably pointless. They were going to do what they were going to do, and all that was left was to rationalize their actions. Then a sound caught her attention. It was the hum of a tricorder. A few seats away was the Assistant Chief of Ops, and he was scanning for something. He was being very discrete, but stilll he was scanning. He looked… how did Andrea put it… checked out. His eyes seemed unfocused, but he looked as though he were looking at something. But the word was unmistakeable. “Impossible,” he said. She was only a few seats away and she moved quickly and quietly to kneel by his side. “What is impossible, Lieutenant?” she asked. “Is everything all right?” (reply Gregory) (posted by Al Muir) (USS Illuminar – Deck 1 – Conference room – ACOps Lieutenant (jg) Dieter Gregory - 0933) “Impossible,” Gregory said looking at the incoming results of his scanning. Out of his peripheral vision, he saw one of the new crew, T’Mur he recalled the name, knelt next to his chair. “What is impossible, Lieutenant?” she asked, “Is everything all right?” Gregory was shaken out of his reverie, the giant was gone. And the scans showed nothing conclusive. He’s have to get to his station to analyze the data in more detail. Unfortunately, he didn’t have access to the scans from the time on Deep Space 9 when the giant appeared. “Sorry,” he whispered, “Everything is ok, just an experiment didn’t yield the predicted results Ensign. Thanks for asking.” (Reply T’Mur, any) (Posted by Tim) (USS Illuminar – Deck 1 – Conference Room – Federation Ambassador- Dr Riven Mias - 0935) Riven read concern, confusion and disbelief coming from the Operations officer. His tricorder scans and "Impossible" exclamation were a quandary. The female Vulcan investigated immediately and there was a whispered bypass which was over quickly. The Betazoid looked about the room at the counseling staff present wondering which one of them would be following up on the incident. As for himself... curiosity would be bringing him to Lieutenant Gregory's vicinity in the near future. That was the way of things. He wouldn't interfere in the duties of the counseling staff but perhaps he might be able to help in a different way. All the questions appeared to be at an end so he turned the floor over to his wife. (Reply: Michaella, any) (Posted by Charles G) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Conference Room- SO, Ensign T'Mur- 0936) “Sorry,” Gregory whispered, “Everything is ok, just an experiment didn’t yield the predicted results Ensign. Thanks for asking.” T’Mur raised an eyebrow and almost frowned. She was pretty certain that the human was lying to her. She had trouble with lying. She was aware that many species used lying as though it were an essential part of their survival process. But she was not used to it from allies she barely knew. It did not support trust. However, she also knew that pointing out her point of view at this moment would not be well received, by anyone. She also noted that Mias had caught the transaction, and could sense his telepathic reach. She gently ushered his thoughts towards Gregory as she had already gotten enough of his attention from her own problems. “Very well Lt. Gregory,” T’Mur deferred. “I suggest you contain your … enthusiasm. Yu are drawing attention.” She went back to her seat but continued to watch Gregory to the end of the meeting. (reply any, none) (posted by Al Muir) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Ready Room- CO, Captain Sekal - 1330) Chief Petty Officer Charles Tamblyn had boarded the ship only hours before and Sekal had been in contact with Vice-Admiral Vanyssa Winters since the mission briefing for a protracted discussion and a proposal on his part. After a wait of some hour and a half she had been back in communication with him concerning a decision by StarFleet command. He had called the CPO to his office after that communication was complete. When Tamblyn entered the Ready Room it was to see the Captain seated with a small black box on the desk before him. Sekal indicated one of the chairs and waited for him to be seated. (Reply: Tamblyn) The CO then settled back into his chair. "Mister Tamblyn you have my formal commendation for your actions on Bajor along with the rest of the crew. Your insight into the tunnels beneath the temple and your experience were instrumental in inserting our security teams inside while the crowd was pressing Bajoran security at the gates. Without your assistance the difficulty of the task would have been greatly magnified. Your knowledge of ships systems was also critical and noteworthy. You have been operating in a detached state as part of the reserves, filling in when necessary and taking care of your own interests in the off times but StarFleet is at a critical juncture of its redeployment and men of your aptitude and experience are required if we are to continue our mission. For that reason I have communicated with command and received their answer. It has been noted that you have extensive holdings on Earth but it is our understanding that you have people in place to protect those holdings while you are away therfore I have been given license to make your position permanent." He picked up the box and placed it in the center of the desk then opened it exposing a single gold pip. "As Captain of the USS Illuminar I am promoting you to the rank of Ensign (sg) as a commissioned officer with full rights and privaleges thereof due to your leadership skills and experience. As a commissioned officer you will be stationed on this ship for the term of your commission and expected to uphold the tenets of the United Federation of Planets and StarFleet." (Reply: Tamblyn) (Posted by Charles G) (U.S.S. Illuminar – Ready Room – Ops NCO- CPO Charles Tamblyn -1333) Tamblyn was surprised to be called to the Captain’s ready room. He had been onboard only a few hours; he couldn’t think of anything he could have done since the briefing that would warrant him having to be called “onto the carpet” as it were. When Tamblyn entered the Ready Room it was to see the Captain seated with a small black box on the desk before him. Sekal indicated one of the chairs and waited for him to be seated. “Thank you, Sir.” Was all he said as he sat in the pro-offered chair. The CO then settled back into his chair. "Mister Tamblyn you have my formal commendation for your actions on Bajor along with the rest of the crew. Your insight into the tunnels beneath the temple and your experience were instrumental in inserting our security teams inside while the crowd was pressing Bajoran security at the gates. Without your assistance, the difficulty of the task would have been greatly magnified. Your knowledge of ship's systems was also critical and noteworthy. You have been operating in a detached state as part of the reserves, filling in when necessary and taking care of your own interests in the off times but Starfleet is at a critical juncture of its redeployment and men of your aptitude and experience are required if we are to continue our mission. For that reason, I have communicated with command and received their answer. It has been noted that you have extensive holdings on Earth but it is our understanding that you have people in place to protect those holdings while you are away therefore I have been given a license to make your position permanent." He picked up the box and placed it in the center of the desk then opened it exposing a single gold pip. "As Captain of the USS Illuminar, I am promoting you to the rank of Ensign (sg) as a commissioned officer with full rights and privileges thereof due to your leadership skills and experience. As a commissioned officer you will be stationed on this ship for the term of your commission and expected to uphold the tenets of the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet." With a surprised look on his face and trepidation in his fingers, Tamblyn reached for the box. As he brought it to himself and focusing on the single gold pip, he uttered “I’m a warhorse.” (Reply: Sekal) “Hmm? Oh, sorry, sir. In the past, in the region on Earth where I grew up, only two kinds of officers came from the enlisted ranks. The first were called ‘Mustangs’ and the second was referred to as ‘Warhorses’. The first attended class and applied for a commission. The latter was commissioned due to actions taken on a battlefield and sponsored by a senior commissioned officer. If I understand correctly, I am being commissioned due to what I had to do with what took place on a battlefield and you sponsored my commissioning; is that correct, sir?” (Reply: Sekal) (Reply: Sekal) (Posted by Charles R.) (U.S.S. Illuminar – Ready Room – CO- Captain Sekal-1335) The Captain noted the surprised look on the face of Tamblyn as he picked up the box and examined the pip that was securely inset into a cusion inside “I’m a warhorse.” "Excuse me?" The Vulcan was familiar with over 200 idioms, euphemisms and colloquialisms but the language was rife with many thousands. Some were tied to region, some occupation or religious. And more seemed to be added at random as events became immortalised. "In what manner is an officer in StarFleet to be compared with the occupation of a Terran Equine?" “Hmm? Oh, sorry, sir. In the past, in the region on Earth where I grew up, only two kinds of officers came from the enlisted ranks. The first were called ‘Mustangs’ and the second was referred to as ‘Warhorses’. The first attended class and applied for a commission. The latter was commissioned due to actions taken on a battlefield and sponsored by a senior commissioned officer. If I understand correctly, I am being commissioned due to what I had to do with what took place on a battlefield and you sponsored my commissioning; is that correct, sir?” Sekal nodded now understanding completely. "Indeed. Your apology is not necessary and the euphemism is apropos. StarFleet Command agreed to the promotion due to your actions at Bajor and upon my commendation and insistence. In that manner then you could consider me your sponsor." (Reply: Tamblyn) "It should be noted..." Sekal continued, "...that you are not being drafted into StarFleet nor forced into a full-time commitment. While I would find such an action illogical you are not required to accept the commission and may decline." He leaned forward and interlaced his fingers upon the desk. "Before you consider taking such a step however let me reiterate what I said earlier. StarFleet and this ship have need of your services and you will have opportunities during leave time to check on your holdings and verify they are being run efficiently until such time in the future as you see fit to retire." (Reply: Tamblyn) Sekal inclined the head slightly. "I can infer then from your reply that you have accepted the commission?" (Reply: Tamblyn) (Posted by Charles G) (U.S.S. Illuminar – Ready Room – Ops NCO- CPO Charles Tamblyn -1337) Sekal nodded now understanding completely. "Indeed. Your apology is not necessary, and the euphemism is apropos. Starfleet Command agreed to the promotion due to your actions at Bajor and upon my commendation and insistence. In that manner then you could consider me your sponsor." “Sir, I know this is not the kind of thing you would do lightly for anyone. I am also incredibly grateful that you would hold my skills and abilities in such high regard. I just…” He finished his comment with a longing look at the pip, an almost imperceptible shack of his head, and a slight shrug of his shoulders as he gently rubbed the pip with his thumb. "It should be noted..." Sekal continued, "...that you are not being drafted into Starfleet nor forced into a full-time commitment. While I would find such an action illogical you are not required to accept the commission and may decline." He leaned forward and interlaced his fingers upon the desk. "Before you consider taking such a step however let me reiterate what I said earlier. Starfleet and this ship have need of your services and you will have opportunities during leave time to check on your holdings and verify they are being run efficiently until such time in the future as you see fit to retire." As Charles looked up at his Vulcan commander there was a noticeable shift in the human’s demeanor from one of consternation to that of determination as he spoke, “Captain, I would remain in the Reserves on Active-Duty status indefinitely.?. I will still need to keep all of my civilian licenses and certifications current.” Sekal inclined the head slightly. "I can infer then from your reply that you have accepted the commission?" Standing up, Tamblyn held the open box containing the pip out to the Captain. “Yes, Sir; I accept. Since neither of us is really one for ceremony, would you be so kind as to do the honors?” (Reply: Sekal iyw) (Reply: Sekal iyw) (Posted: Charles R.) (U.S.S. Illuminar – Ready Room – CO- Captain Sekal -1339) “Yes, Sir; I accept. Since neither of us is really one for ceremony, would you be so kind as to do the honors?” Sekal stood to his feet and moved away from the desk after retrieving the box. He stationed himself at his full height, standing several inches taller than the human. As noted at Mars by Commodore Remae the rituals and formalities were expected. He being cognizant of them had already fallen into these rituals. Having his baggage sent to the ship before boarding prior to taking the Illuminar out was only the first of them he had encountered. StarFleet had a rich history of tradition with its roots in a number of civilizations which made up the membership of the United Federation of Planets. These traditions existed for a number of reasons and he had and would adhere to them rigidly. "It is my duty and my privilege to preside over promotions of the officers and crew of this ship. Chief Petty Officer Tamblyn you are hereby promoted to full Ensign. Please step forward." (Reply: Tamblyn) Sekal removed the pip from the box while noting the stripes upon the sleeves of the officer and pinned the pip to his collar then offered his hand. It wasn't a Vulcan gesture but expected of a commanding officer. "Congratulations Ensign Tamblyn." (Reply: Tamblyn) After retrieving his hand he noted. "It is time to procure a new uniform Ensign. You are dismissed to do so." (Reply: Tamblyn) (Posted by Charles G) (USS Illuminar- Deck 1 - Ready Room- CO, Captain Sekal - 1400) There was another promotion to deal with therefore Lieutenant Jaton Alyl had been called to the Ready Room, Sekal motioned for him to take a seat. (Reply: Jaton) Sekal placed his hands together before him on the desk. "Lieutenant Alyl I spoke with the Admiral while he was aboard concerning the discussion we had before departing Mars and he is in agreement. You have been operating as the senior officer in the science department and I am making it permanent. You are now the Chief Science Officer of the USS Illmuniar beginning today. This has already been officially logged and your record updated." (Reply: Jaton) (Posted by Charles G) (USS Illuminar- Deck 14 - Security Center- SecO - PO1 Steven Hammons-1401) Hammons wasn't about to leave the ship without checking in with his superior officer. While the Captain had approved leave for the delayed honeymoon sometimes things got lost along the way or forgotten which is why he was dropping in for a reminder. He spotted Keung Lee and made his way over to him. "Sir I'm just checking in so to make sure you have me pulled off duty for the next three days. Alaya and I will be returning from our honeymoon on the morning of the eighth, zero nine hundred." (Reply: Lee) "Thank you sir. I promise to be on the ball at the late tour. It shouldn't take us too long to get unpacked and back on duty. I'll comm you when we arrive." (Reply: Lee) Steven was whistling as he scooted out the doors to security. "Beach here we come." (Reply: any) (USS Illuminar- Deck 3- Personal Quarters- SecO - PO1 Steven Hammons-1415) Hammons entered the quarters and made straight for the bags that had been packed this morning. "Are you all dolled up my dear? Hubby is home and it's time to go." (Reply: Alaya) He grabbed her up in a big hug and gave her a long kiss before letting her go then started grabbing up the three bags. "Gotta hurry. The shuttle will be lifting off from UP in forty five minutes. After waiting this long for the hotel to get the reservations right I don't want to miss our ride to Earth." (Reply: Alaya) He followed her out the door doing his dutiful duty as pack mule. "It's much faster to transport over. The transporter chief is already waiting and our ticket is punched. Let's get the heck out of Dodge." (Reply: Alaya, any) (Posted by Charles G) (USS Illuminar – Briefing Room – Deck 1 – ACOps Lieutenant (jg) Dieter Gregory - 1403) After the morning briefing, Dieter had gone back to the office to plan. After sitting down, he sent out a message to the Operations department to meet at in the Briefing Room at 1400. Next, he had ordered light refreshments for the meeting. Arriving at the room, fifteen minutes before the meeting, he made sure everything was in order. Operations was a small department, with a total of a dozen officers and crew. Mostly petty officers. Looking over the roster again, he noticed that Charles Tamblyn has accepted a field promotion. Gregory make some additional notes and waited. As the staff entered the briefing room, he invited everyone to get refreshments. “First order of business, please welcome Ensign Charles Tamblyn. He joins the department with extensive experience in operations, as well as other areas that may be of value.” (Reply Tamblyn, IFW) “OK we have a lot of things to go over. We have the system upgrades that UP has finished. This has impacted the power system. I’ve detailed everything that I have been told. I’d encourage you to take a visit to Engineering and talk to them down there. Additionally, you’ll find code in the operations station that will help convert the from the familiar to the new.” He looked around the room, “We have two events coming up, the first is the War Games that were announced to begin sometime in the next eight days. Since we don’t know all the details, I will be sending out a schedule of operational training. We’ll run simulations for different scenarios that will cover a variety of different things that could happen in a battle. “ Pausing, “After that is concluded, we will on a two pronged mission. Part of it will deal with a cultural survey of a planet that we hope to help settle the occupants of a pre-warp generational ship. The second part of the survey will be to make contact with the occupants of the generational ship and convince them to let us to assist them. We will be providing survey support in both cases, and perhaps more, depending on how the diplomatic mission goes.” “Questions?” (Reply Tamblyn, anyone interested in NPC Operations) (Posted by Tim) (USS Illuminar- Deck 3- Personal Quarters- ACSO- Lt (jg) Jaton Alyl- 1920) Since Jaton had heard of the nearly miraculous work that Dr. Riven Mias had done with other members of the crew, Jaton had been thinking over going to visit him himself. He thought to himself that he was well on the mend on his own and working with Counsellor Trei, but at the same time, what harm could it do? And now that he had come aboard the Illuminar, the issue had come to a head. As he often did, he tried to convince himself that his own problems weren’t as bad and surely there were people more in need of Mias’ help than he himself did. But on the other hand, if he hadn’t asked for help in the first place, where would he be now? Probably locked up in some Federation psych ward for life. He pondered the fate of his alternate self for a bit longer than was comfortable, and that sealed the deal for him. He got off his bed and straightened his uniform. “Computer, where is Dr. Riven Mias?” [Riven Mias is in his quarters.] Jaton nodded and walked out the door. Within a few minutes, he had found where Mias’ quarters were and steeled himself for the task ahead. He extended a shaking hand and rang the door chime. (USS Illuminar- Deck 3- VIP Quarters- ACSO- Lt (jg) Jaton Alyl- Federation Ambassador at Large, Dr. Riven Mias and Michaella Kirien-Mias- 1925) Riven was lounging on a sofa in the main living area of the VIP quarters. He had been on ships before many times as an officer and had attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander so was well used to the typical Officer's quarters. This was not one of them. He had been on ships since then in similar situations as an ambassador and found that he had trouble getting used to them. Whether it was a Galaxy class or Sovereign or a smaller ship such as the Illuminar it made no difference. It was as though he was in an apartment planetside and not on a ship. This robbed the experience of space travel of some of its quirks. Not romance, heavens no! The work of an officer aboard a ship could hardly be called romantic. The work was long and often tedious when not terrifying or tense. It was these extremes of being that opened the people aboard ships up to horrifying emotional disabilities. He had experienced shipboard life and knew it well. He still carried his rank though it was mostly honorary and seldom used however there were every now and then cultures that placed great value on rank and status. When dealing with such that rank gave him more credibility and made his job simpler. There was an expansive screen on the wall which he was watching a movie on. Officers and crew often forgot how simple things such as this could lessen the pressure of their assignment. The video was taken from a selection of entertainment he had brought with him. Many would have been obsessing over the details of the coming task at this point but not Riven, he was well aware of what was required and more than up for the job. When the chime rang he looked toward the door, his initial thought was it was one of the command crew but his searching thought verified it was most certainly not. "Come in, come in." He called as the door opened to reveal one of the officers he had met at the briefing. "Come in and take a seat, I was just watching a movie. Screen off." The monitor blanked as Jaton Alyl entered. Jaton hesitated in the entryway. “Oh, I’m terribly sorry, doctor. I didn’t mean to interrupt. I can come back later if you prefer.” "By the goddess no! Come in, take a seat and relax. I don't get many visitors and I'm most certainly not going to turn one away." Riven motioned to an easy chair. "Besides I love talking and would rather do that than watch a video I've seen before. Come in." Riven was sensing some emotional turmoil from the officer and wasn't about to let him get away. "I could pull rank on you if necessary." Then he gave a welcoming smile. “As long as you don’t consider me to be intruding.” Jaton went and sat in the char that Mias had indicated, but didn’t let himself relax. He sat up perfectly straight and properly, like his parents had always taught him to do. He was quiet for a good deal longer than he should’ve been, and was struggling to find the best way to ask for what he wanted. Riven. chuckled. "If I had thought you were intruding I would have said so. Once someone is around me long enough they figure that out pretty quickly. I say what I think and can be blunt when it's called for." He leaned back into the sofa. "Case in point. I don't have to read your mind to know you came here for something extremely important to you. I have the empathic gift that's quite as strong as my telepathic. You are conflicted about coming here so you are sitting quietly in my living room rather than talking about it. How am I doing so far?" Michaella slipped out of the bedroom and quietly moved around, getting refreshments and placing a tray of hot and cold teas and finger-foods between her bondmate and his guest before going to withdraw, "I will stay in the office unless you need me." She was lovely for an almost sixty year old Betazoid. Riven smiled adoringly at his wife. "Thank you my love. I don't know what I'd do without you." "You would starve." Her eyes smiled as she looked over at the Trill. "Dr. Michaella Kirien-Mias. I am a medical doctor if it helps." She nodded and took herself off to give them privacy. She had told the Trill about her medical skills to reassure him that she would not intrude. Jaton swallowed, trying to build up the courage to say what he had come to say. “You’re spot on, so far, doctor. It’s something that I’ve been struggling with for a while and I’m still trying to find the right words and to find whatever courage I might have to try and ask for your help. I’ve been told you have a talent for healing minds. Is that true?” Riven's smile got a bit brighter. "Young man there are some who say I was born to it. They gave me the title of son of the goddess because of it. I've used the talent both within the fleet and without and when I'm not a Federation Ambassador it's what I spend my time doing. I've traveled to far off worlds at request to bring healing to crippled minds and if you require a reference there is one aboard I could put you in touch with if that person is willing." Riven wasn't about to say who that person was as it was confidential information but he would ask them if they were willing to volunteer to do so. It would be given by her with no prodding from him. "So then I assume a mind healer is what you are looking for and you have found one." “Well maybe you would be willing to hear what I’ve been struggling with first? That way you might know better who to pass me onto, if at all.” "Absolutely. I've done time in the fleet as a Counselor as well. You have no need to worry about confidentiality. I'm bound to It just like any other medical professional. So tell me what's been bothering you." “Well, here’s the thing. I may look young, but I’m not. I was born in 2391. I know I don’t look it. But that’s because I was killed on an away mission in 2419. I don’t know exactly what happened to me, but somehow I was revived last year, after having spent the last 25 years as a corpse. But there’s evidence that I’m not the same man as the one who died on that station all those years ago. So I’ve been struggling with what my place is in the world and who I even am ever since.” Riven crossed his legs. "You say there is evidence you are not the same man but what evidence is that? It could just as easily be a dissociative disorder caused by the effects of waking up after being presumed dead. And when I say presumed I'm not questioning what you believe, just searching for a way to validate that." Riven then reached to the table and picked up a cup of delicious hot tea and a quarter of a sandwich. ::Thank you again my love.:: Jaton was starting to slowly feel more at ease with Mias, but he was still somewhat on edge. “I was joined with the Alyl symbiont in 2415. In looking at the logs of the event and accessing the records of the Symbiosis Commission, I know that Alyl survived the incident, and was transferred to a new host. I have the name of the current host and some details about her. I haven’t met her but the information was corroborated by official sources. And yet, despite that, I am still joined to Alyl myself. Scans have confirmed it, and I still feel him within my own consciousness and body.” That got Riven's immediate attention! "Your symbiont has or is a doppelganger? Oh… now that IS interesting. And records of that time would seem to be conclusive?" Riven's eyes began to sparkle at the mystery. "Pardon me while I enunciate the possibilities but this is all going to lead to the same place which I will get to momentarily. First possibility is that the records were faked and the symbiont joined with the new host is another. Before you ask the obvious question of why let me answer it." Riven took a long sip of the tea but set his sandwich down, this wasn't a time for eating. "I've met a lot of people in my time both in the Fleet and out, many of them very good people and I've also met some very unsavory types. Not just Starfleet Intelligence, security, politicians, would be dictators…. Yes I was around when the 52nd battle fleet broke through the defenses around the Mars Defense Perimeter and Earth and took down Doenitz. And I will tell you that sometimes their motivations are hard to decipher. Had something been revealed to the Alyl symbiont they wanted to cover up? Might they have wanted him to vanish as well? The death of a symbiont would have entailed a massive investigation, I know something of Trill politics you see. It would be simpler for someone in the Symbiosis Commission to have been used to bring in a doppelganger for Alyl, simpler and with far less noise than allowing an investigation to proceed. And don't think someone in the Symbiosis Commission couldn't be bought or coerced, far more noble aims than this have been corrupted. Official sources and paper trails are all too easy to manufacture." Jaton frowned. “I suppose that might be true, but then again, I was able to access the old Paladin logs thanks to Admiral Remae, and their logs corroborate the idea that the other Alyl is the true Alyl symbiont. And I trust my old crewmates.” "The next possibility is an interdimensional anomaly, a Jaton Alyl from an alternate dimension substituted for the Jaton in this prime Universe. Here is why this possibility won't work." He leaned forward meaningfully. "Q. Yes Q. I've read the report on the mission Illuminar just came from. I know what happened and how it was initiated. The Prophets disposed of an alter-universe orb that was destabilizing our reality and since the rifts have healed what has happened? Commodore Remae restored, lost ships appearing, hosts of people either here that weren't or gone who were. And once the Universe stabilized to the new normal you, Jaton Alyl are still here." Jaton shrugged. “That’s definitely possible. I just wonder then why I have memories of this universe’s Jaton, and none from this parallel universe.” "And there are still others but in the end you are forbidden to meet with the new host of what is said to be the Alyl symbiont because of Symbiosis Commission laws. Convenient isn't it? So you may never know if it is truly Alyl or not. That is now beyond your control but living is not. You are the Jaton Alyl of this prime universe, you are here now and you are alive. You are serving Starfleet as I assume you were doing when you lost your life and are once again in your preferred place." He set the empty cup down and his eyes bored into Jaton's. "So now the question. What will settle your mind? As a mind healer that is always my first question. What can I do that will give you peace?" Jaton sighed. “Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve been working with Counsellor Trei for a while now, trying to work through this trauma of losing 25 years of my life as well as the visceral memories of my death, but that has only gotten me so far. I know that nothing will ever be the same again. I have two sons who are just about my age now. I suppose I just feel like a fish on dry land. And I don’t want to be.” "Completely understandable. You have gone through a horrendous transition. You weren't around for one of the most joyous events of a person's lifetime, have a blank spot twenty five years long and by your admission apparently remember the manner of your death. Using standard psychiatric counseling treatment for such trauma could span years." The mind-healer uncrossed his legs and leaned forward. "Mind healing is not standard counseling treatment. During a mind healing session I can follow the memories of a person back to the root of their issue and relieve the trauma. If successful it would free you up to live a normal life." He peered intently at Jaton for a moment. "I say if successful because success is never guaranteed. I am perhaps the most successful mind healer of my generation yet even I have had my failures." His thoughts went back to Dr. Trommashere. Had he allowed himself to become too close to her? Is that why he had failed? In the end she had been as troubled as when he had begun her counseling. This had been his only failure and no other mind healer could claim half his accomplishments. And failure to Riven was unconscionable. His eyes returned to the Trill's face. "There are other things to consider as well, I could probe the blank spots in your memory to see if there are any clues that would lead you to an answer. Now I'm not going to pressure you into accepting my ministrations but I'd like you to consider having the procedure. There are few drawbacks to it and they are all mitigated by having a second to monitor the procedure. Counselor Hammons has already been my assistant for one of my patients and would fill the role admirably. Those possible drawbacks need to be noted however, sleeplessness, irritability or flashbacks brought to the surface by going through your memories. Think about it and if you decide to go that direction you have but to let me know." Jaton thought for a minute. “I don’t want to lose the memories of my death and resurrection, but if there’s a way to remove the pain and trauma associated with them, I’d like to try it,” he said contemplatively. To be continued. (Posted by Charles G (Riven) Spencer O'Dowd (Jaton Alyl) Melinda G (Michaella) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< DAY 9 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< (Mars Base- Red Sands Tavern- ACOps - Lieutenant (jg) Dieter Gregory and Ferengi Fight Promoter Lar- 1830) Lar had been keeping his sizeable ears open since the officers of the Illuminar had been recalled to the ship. He had gotten hung up in another business proposition and it had appeared he had lost the opportunity to tender a business deal to the hew-mon. Just in case however he had paid a few latinum strips to someone to hang around the establishment and watch in case Gregory showed up. His precaution had paid off when word was transmitted to him that the officer had appeared in his favorite hangout and at his preferred time. Lar walked into the tavern and found to his relief that there were very few standing or moving about as it allowed the shorter Ferengi to get a good look around the room. His search paid off as he spotted the hew-mon on the far side at a table all to himself. The Ferengi made for him straightway. His fashionable and overdone clothing was not in evidence nor was the flashy jewelry he sported at the events to sell himself to the betting public. This was business of another kind which called for more discreet garb though his presence here would certainly be noted. "Lieutenant Gregory." He spoke as he came to the table. "I was afraid I had missed you. I'm glad word circulated around that you had showed up here." Gregory looked up, “Hello Lar. How’s the gambling syndicate going? Did you make lots of profit on the fights the other night?” Lar smiled as he stopped on the other side. "I always make a good profit on the fights but that win by your weight lifter really charged up the fans. I've never seen so many underdogs betted on. What's the hew-mon saying? Ah yes, I made a killing." Sipping his drink, “Come join me. I’ve only got a few hours before I have to report back. Have a lot of work to do before our next mission.” "Preparing to ship out eh?" Lar pulled out a chair and sat down. Even better that I caught you when I did and since you don't have a lot of time I'd better get down to business." Gregory chuckled. “That is what I like about your people Lar, always down to business. Must go with Rule of Acquisition number seven. ‘Always keep your ears open’” "The latinum from the fights is substantial but I'm always looking out for ways to expand my business. Quark occupies a niche and is comfortable there but he looks out for other ways to pull in more latinum. Mars isn't like DS9 though, the opportunities here are around every corner and I'm diversifying my interests as fast as I can without throwing good latinum away." “Indeed, diversification is the road to profit. Quark knows how to squeeze every piece of Latium from every loophole in every contract. That cousin of his Igeba is even worse, let me tell you,” Gregory paused. “But that is a story for another day. So tell me Lars what is this opportunity you wish to discuss? What are you offering?” "What am I offering you? Let me put it this way. Technology is always popular and it pulls in huge dividends but I'm not the most technically minded Ferengi out there though I'm learning. I need a consultant. Someone who knows the ins and outs of it and you my friend fit the criteria. Look at you! You are an operations officer on StarFleet's newest prototype ship. You eat, sleep and breathe technology, schematics and power flow. You are the perfect consultant for a Ferengi like me who is needing the best advice available." “Lar, Lar, Lar… That is tempting. Very tempting. Unfortunately Star Fleet frowns on officers doing off-books consulting,” Gregory said. “When I retire, I would be happy to look you up. In fact, I can put you in touch with a few classmates of mine from MIT who might be interested in your offer.” "Did I mention it pays well? I wasn't kidding about the profit margin. It's huge and I can afford to be generous. You'll be swimming in a pond of gold pressed latinum before you know it." Lar's smile became dreamy at the thought of the OCEAN of gold pressed latinum HE would be swimming in. “I am surprised that you did not heed Rule of Acquisition 194. It's always good business to know about new customers before they walk in your door. You, of all people, would know Star Fleet regulations about outside consulting. I would have to get permission from senior officers, and it would have to be for a specific project. I am not one to turn down Latinum, but I also don’t want to end up in the brig.” Lar was shaken out of his daydream. "I'm always well prepared and I'm talking to what I had hoped to be a business associate." The Ferengi frowned then shook it off and shrugged. "I can see you aren't willing at this time to align your interests with mine. That is extremely unfortunate but like any good businessman I have other options." “There is the problem, I am afraid. You ask me to go into business in an area that is directly related to my job in Star Fleet. It is unfortunate, but that is not something I will risk, not for all the Latinum in the Grand Nagus’ vaults.” The teeth he showed in the smile this time looked more pointed and slightly threatening as he pushed back the chair and stood to his feet. "I'm sorry we couldn't come to a business arrangement though, you would have found it extremely profitable. Perhaps we can discuss it again in the future. In the meantime I very much appreciated the windfall you threw my way. Good night hew-mon." “Good night to you too Ferengi. I wish you well in your search for profit.” Lar then turned and made his way out of the tavern. He needed to make arrangements to keep his business running here so that he could leave tonight. He had connections who would see the profit in the wind and provide him with the resources he needed in exchange for a cut. The profit margin wouldn't be as large but still substantial. And if the ship was going to be here for a few more days he would just have time to get those assets in place. Gregory watched Lar walk away. Clearly something was up with that fellow. He had to know that Star Fleet would not have let him enter into an arrangement such as he proposed. Oh well, he thought, putting it out of his mind to focus on the pretty girl at the bar. (Reply: Any) (Posted by Charles G (Lar) and Tim B (Gregory)