Star Trek Reimagined.

Discussion in 'Fan Fiction' started by Charles Markov, Jan 7, 2019.

  1. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    Captains log, Stardate 309083.6

    Enterprise is part of a search party tasked with investigating the disappearance of a Tellarite freighter. Thus far no sign of the vessel has been detected. However we have not yet given up on hope of finding the ship. Or at least some of her lifeboats.

    I must say that I am pleasantly surprised at the crew we took on at starbase ten. Lieutenant Commander Chekov has proven a capable sensor operator and generally competent officer, much as his record said he would be.

    I would also like to praise lieutenant Commander Rajan, our only Laconian officer, for his work with commander Scott repairing our systems. Most of the worst hiccups in our systems have been repaired through their diligent efforts.

    Rajan and Chekov have even proven exemplary working together. Yesterday the two of them had the idea to boost our sensor performance by routing some input through the precision targeting arrays on the lower primary hull. Tests have showed that at least a five percent boost can be achieved in this way and I am curious to see if anything similar has been done aboard any other vessel in the fleet when we make it back to starbase six.

    Currently Enterprise has entered the Alpha-Romeo-39G system. This desolate system with only a single red dwarf star and three gas giants lay along the projected course of the freighter and would likely prove to be a safe place for the ship if she was looking for a place to stop for repairs. We will begin sensor sweeps as soon as we have cleared one of the planets in the system.



    “Ready to begin sir,” Sulu said calmly. By this point a complete sensor sweep was a routine operation on the ship. All where by this point capable of performing the sweep while sound asleep.

    And like the past three systems they had visited it did not look promising. Lacking even a proper name Alpha-Romeo-39G possessed little of interest to even deuterium collectors. Since the system had been surveyed a hundred and twenty years prior there were less than three recorded instances of the system being visited. Meaning there were no settlements in the system, no ships. Nothing the slow the sensors down.

    In total eighteen systems had been scanned by both Enterprise and the frigates, meaning that it was increasingly likely that the freighter was not to be found. The most likely explanation was that her reactor had failed, either stranding the ship in deep space where it would never be found. Or going critical and spreading bits of the ship in a rapidly expanding cloud. Either way it was unlikely the vessel would ever be located.

    Suddenly Chekov straightened in his chair and announced, “Captain I think I have something on my scanners!” He sent the sensor data to Kirks own monitor.

    It was indeed something. The second gas giant in the system had a plume of excited gas shooting out of its northern polar region. It was not much, but it was the first lead they had that was worth following. “Take us in mister Sulu,” Kirk ordered.

    “right away sir,” Sulu said from beside Chekov. A moment later, “Course laid in for half impulse. ETA is around an hour.”

    “Very good.” Kirk said. He would have preferred to go there quicker. At full impulse, half of light speed, they would reach the gas giant in just over twenty minutes. But the system was cluttered with asteroids and dust, and Enterprises deflectors could not protect the ship at the speed she would be achieving. Objects would have just to much force behind them.



    An hour later found Enterprise hovering above what looked very much like an entry point of a vessel into the gas giants upper layers, where exhaust gases from an impulse engine had disturbed the gas around it.

    The sensors reported nothing, however the atmosphere grew to dense for effective scans below sixteen kilometres. Kirk ordered the ship in to look for the vessel that had made the disturbance. Given the state of the gas any ship which had caused it would have had to have done so at least a week prior. Meaning the ship was likely either the freighter they were looking for, or long gone.

    “Got something sir,” Sulu reported as Enterprise reached eighteen kilometres. “Sensors show a metal object roughly one hundred ninety metres, by seventy metres, by twenty. Consistent with the freighter sir.” Sulu added before sending the sensor data to Kirk and Spock for their review.

    “That’s not all the sensors show,” Spock said a moment later.

    “What do you mean?” Kirk had just pulled up the data himself and did not see anything out of the ordinary.

    “I am detecting faint traces of radioactive gases consistent with low power disruptor fire.”

    “My scans show it to,” Chekov said. Spock looked up from his board and sent him a data packet. The young Russian looked it over for a moment and nodded, “I can confirm that sir.”

    “What can you confirm?” Kirk was out of the loop and not liking it.

    “If that is the missing Tellarite freighter, which I suspect it is, there are no lifesigns, and the weapons fire is consistent with Orion manufactured weapons.” Spock said calmly.



    Spock had been correct on both accounts. They had indeed found the Tellarite freighter. Or rather what was left of it. Its hull was mangled, chewed by disruptor fire almost in two. Her reactor and cargo were gone. As was her crew.

    The shuttles that had gone over, transporters being inoperable due to the gas, had reported signs of a boarding action within the ship. Corridors scorched with weapons fire, breached rooms and broken bodies. Both Orion and Tellarite. One individual, tentatively identified as the ship captain, was propped against the outer bridge bulkhead with a short sword pierced through his chest. A pile of dead Orions lying around him. It was not a pretty sight.

    Kirk had taken Enterprise back out of the planet and beamed a message over subspace saying the freighter had been found and her location. In the middle of a routine sensor sweep Spock had then reported an ion trail consistent with a small fast vessel. Obviously the Orion fleeing the scene of its latest victim, a cargo hold full of fresh captives and booty.

    Enterprise had followed this trail, it was rather obvious. Perhaps the pirate had been damaged in its fight with the freighter? It led to the outskirts of the system where Spock had been able to pick up a faint warp signature. Less than six hours old he had said.

    Kirk had ordered Enterprise to follow the trail, beaming another message to the starbase and frigates which explained what they were doing and promised further reports as the situation developed. At high warp, with frequent stops to reacquire the warp signature of their quarry, they set off in pursuit of the pirate.
     
  2. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    I was running in circles yesterday so did not have time to post the update. Instead of just posting it today I will wait until Friday to post the next update to the episode, Wednesday will see the next crew member get a biography. I think Uhura is next.
     
  3. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    Nyota Uhura Lieutenant.



    Born: 2430 Mandinka city,Niani Colony, Mali Sector.

    Parents: Saura and Qauli Uhura.

    Siblings: None.

    Attended School: 2449-2452, City of Mandinka College with degrees in Linguistics and Xenolinguistics.

    Enlisted Starfleet Academy: 2452-2454.

    Graduated Starfleet Academy: 2454 with honours in Linguistics, Martian Arts and Subspace Comms.

    Assigned UES Farragut as second Lieutenant: 2454-2556

    Assigned Starfleet Academy as Instructor: 2456-2458

    Assigned UES Fanrong with promotion to Lieutenant: 2458-2460

    Assigned UES Enterprise as Chief Communications Officer: 2460.



    Biography.

    Born on the isolated colony world of Niani Nyota Uhura was the only child of Saoura and Qauli Uhura, her father Saoura being killed when Nyota was just four years old in a minind accident. Leaving her mother to raise her alone.

    Nyota showed an early love of languages and cultures, often reading about both Alien and Human cultures while in school rather than study the required material, regardless she got steadily decent grades and upon graduation attended the City of Mandinka College, graduating with a masters in linguistics, with a second masters held also in Xenolinguistics. After graduation, at the suggestion of her mother, Nyota enrolled in the Starfleet Academy Entrance Exams, or SAEE. Passing and being assigned to the Academies San Francisco campus. Taking courses on Xenolinguistics and subspace Comms systems.

    Due to the Starfleets pressing need for officers in all positions Uhura was assigned early to the UES Farragut and promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in 2454, assigned to the vessels communications section rather than the xenolinguistics lab as she wanted.

    Uhura performed well aboard Farragut, aiding the xenolinguistics department to decode the ancient M’klenteth A language encountered by Farragut in the Omega II star system in 2456. For this she was awarded the badge of meritorious service and promoted to Lieutenant upon the completion of her duties aboard Farragut.

    Uhura next served as an instructor at Starfleet Academy San Francisco for two years. Teaching courses in Linguistics, encryption and Comms systems while also attending university for a second period of time while teaching at the academy.

    Following repeated requests for reassignment to a starship Uhura was finally reassigned to the UES Fanrong in 2458, serving aboard the battlecruiser for two and a half years until she was reassigned to the UES Enterprise in 2460, serving as chief Communications officer.
     
  4. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    I remembered to post this time! Now if only I can do the same on Friday.
     
  5. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    Captains log, Stardate 309084.15

    Enterprise has followed the Orion pirate to the Valkru system. A well known haven for smugglers, terrorists, pirates and slavers lying in the outskirts of Orion settled space.

    If my suspicion is correct then the survivors of the Tellarite freighter have been brought to the slave markets of the world, the largest in in the region. There they will be sold as laborers, servants and playthings to the highest bidder.

    We have notified Starfleet. However any response they send it likely to take at least a week to reach us. Meaning we are on our own as regards our next course of action.

    “Can we say for certain which vessel we followed into the system?” Kirk asked. Enterprise was sitting some half lightyear out from the edge of the Valkru system to avoid detection. The system claimed independence and thus the presence of a federation flagged warship if discovered would not go over particularly well.

    Kirk looked around at his senior officers. Assembled together in the conference room to decide the what the ship would do next. They had just all sat down, being forced to wait for Scotty to disentangle himself from a climate regulator repair on J deck before they could begin.

    “We cannot be certain due to the large amount of traffic in the system captain.” Spock answered. He had brought a pad in with him and was periodically looking down at it during the conference.

    “But we do know that the vessel arrived in this system,” Kirk asked knowing the answer. Feeding into his real question he continued, “if the vessel we followed in were to leave the system could we identify it for certain?”

    Again Spock answered, “it is likely that the orion ship took damage. If that is the case and the damage is repaired then we may have some difficulty in identifying the vessel.”

    “And even if we do catch the pirate when it leaves the system we likely wont recover the crew of the freighter it mauled!” McCoy said pent up hours of frustration spilling out.

    Kirk had been thinking the same thing, and had even devised what he hoped was a solid plan that would hopefully allow them to get the Tellarite crew back.

    In the past if it could be proven clearly that federation citizens were being held captive in a slave market they would more often than not be handed over without a fuss. Occasionally however the operators of the market would deny the evidence, forcing federation authorities to outright buy the prisoners instead.

    Neither of these options went over particularly well with those in the conference room. Spock pointed out that while those tactics had worked in the past the slave markets had been growing in recent years. Giving those who owned them a degree of ability to refuse to deal with the federation. Or if things got to bad calling on the Klingons for assistance with Starfleet.

    Spock also mentioned that the orions don’t typically accept Earth currency, viewing it as worthless. Sulu and the rest of the ships officers seemed to be in agreement. And Kirk could not argue the point. It had been a long shot anyway even if all had thought it worth it.

    Kirk then revealed his second plan. He did not want to call it a backup plan, but effectively that what it was. This got a substantially better response from the ships officers, to varying degrees.

    Kirk would lead a landing party to the slave market in a modified shuttle and there attempt to confirm the location of the captured Tellarites. Once this had been done Enterprise would be contacted and enter the system shooting down any fleeing vessels as she did so, going to lengths to ensure that any vessel with potential slaves aboard would be destroyed outright.

    Once in orbit the ship would deploy further security teams to the planets surface and capture the slave market itself. Once this had bee accomplished the ship would await reinforcement from Starfleet and effectively hold the planet hostage.

    “Excuse me sir,” Chekov said being the first to speak since Kirk had finished. “I don’t mean to appear unhappy with your plan, but would not the independence of the system preclude us from attacking it in such a manner as you described?”

    “Not necessarily lieutenant commander,” Spock said looking up from his pad. “If federation citizens lives are at stake, or freedom in this case, then any federation flagged vessel must immediately render any assistance that it can to those people. And slavery is also against strict federation laws as you are no doubt aware.”

    Kirk nodded, he had been about to say the same thing. “Are you willing to carry out my plan mister Spock?” Kirk asked knowing that Spock saying something was technically possible and willingly doing it were two different things.

    However he had nothing to worry about as Spock agreed after a moment. The others followed quickly after. Taking the first officers que and agreeing to go along with the plan. All that was left then was a letter to Starfleet explaining their planned course of action and a request for reinforcements.



    “Captain Kirk this is captain Freiderick Frakes, UES Emden. What have you got planned?”

    Kirk tried his best to look innocent of anything the captain of Emden may know, “What do you mean?” He asked.

    “Don’t try to be coy Kirk,” Frakes said with a wiggle of his finger. Admonishing the much younger man. “Us and the Valdez intercepted your little message to Starfleet. We want in.”

    “Valdez?” Kirk asked wondering where the other frigate was.

    “She came in the other side of the system,” Frakes answered before Kirk could finish his question. “She is waiting for you to make your move before swinging in at the Orions back.”

    “Why?” Kirk asked somewhat stunned by the offer. Not that wasn’t the right word, the forced help. Not that it wasn’t welcome. “Why potentially risk your career over this?” Kirk asked.

    “Why are you?” Frakes countered. He sighed and leaned back into his chair. “If you must know I retire in six months, wife is sick, and I figure whats the worst they can do to me until then?”

    “And Valdez?”

    Frakes smiled an evil smile. “Well her captain, young hotshot named Daniele Somua-Kurt, is the step daughter of admiral Harris, I believe you two have met?” Frakes smile broadened. “Well she and her dad aren’t exactly in the best place relationship wise. She feels like sticking it to him and doing something good all at once.”

    “Thank you,” was all Kirk could say. And he meant it. What the captains and crews of Emden and Valdez were doing could be construed as illegal if someone had a big enough bee in their bonnet about it. The fact that two ships, who’s captains Kirk did not know, would volunteer to join him on such a mission was amazing.

    Frakes had more to day. “I may have one other motive captain.”

    “Oh?” Kirk asked trying his impression of Spock’s eyebrow.

    “Yes captain I do.” Frakes smile was back. “Cant let you top that little stunt you pulled in the Larsan Union without help. That just wouldn’t be in good form!” And with that he signed off.
     
  6. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    “Captain once more I feel I must object to your decision to personally lead the landing party. Due to this missions high level of danger it would not be advisable for an officer of your value to risk yourself.”

    As always Spock had a point. The mission would be dangerous and were Kirk to be killed it would not be all that bad a thing in the long run, except for Kirk himself. However were he to be captured in the course of the mission then what he knew about Starfleet security and shipboard operations would likely make him a major target for the Klingons, Kzinti, Mirak, Tholians, Tzenkethi, Mirrelians, Ariaor, Gorn and even the Romulans.

    However Kirk had to lead the mission. Not out of a personal sense of adventure or anything of that nature. But simply because he could not send his people into a potentially deadly situation and then sit back and let them die.

    It was something that Starfleet orders did not go into specifics about either. Only mentioning that the captain should not endanger himself, unless they believed the circumstances warranted it. And he usually felt warranted when leading a landing party. And until the orders changed Spock was just going to have to live with it.

    “We are not in any danger mister Spock. We are just going down for a quick peek, we will contact you if things go haywire.” Kirk said trying to calm his first officer. He doubted it worked, Spock simply raised and eyebrow and stepped back from the shuttlecraft entrance.

    Kirk still couldn’t quite believe what Scotty and his technicians had done to the big type H shuttlecraft, one of two the Enterprise carried. Clever use of paint and some additions to is hull had transformed the vehicle into a civilian shuttle that, in appearance anyway, looked like a souped up yacht.

    A similarly souped up warp sled completed the disguise and the result was a craft that in civilian hands would be able to make short distance trips at a speed of warp factor five. While also being small enough that it could escape customs inspection in most systems. The perfect vehicle to carry federation citizens to a slave market to purchase slave girls.

    Kirk stood by the entrance and watched his team enter into the vehicle. Chekov and sergeant Younge, ships security, Sulu and Rajan. All dressed as civilians of somewhat shady appearance. The sort of people that would be expected at a slave auction.

    Rajan shot Kirk a look as he boarded somewhere between resignation and indignance. He had been strongly against Kirks plan, at least his involvement. But with proficiency in several different forms of hand-to-hand combat and ranged weapons he was a rare commodity aboard a starship. Kirk did not fully understand why, and Rajan had not explained it. Kirk briefly wondered if he would try something once planetside. But quickly dismissed the notion.

    Granted he did not know the Laconian well. But with a twenty yearlong record in Starfleet and before that a lengthy career in the Laconian Royal Navy he was a man who could follow orders. And his orders were to be as unnoticed as possible.

    Kirk boarded last and sat down in the co-pilots seat beside Sulu. Kirk wondered where Scotty had found mahogany to line the interior of the shuttle. But he had found it somewhere on the ship. And done a decent job of installing it to. Much the same could be said for the extra plush seats which were much comfier than those that came standard with the shuttle.

    “Ready on your mark sir,” Sulu said bringing Kirk out of his marvelling at the ships interior. Kirk glanced at the instruments, which all showed cleared for launch.

    “Go for it,” Kirk said seconds before the craft began to rapidly accelerate out of and away from Enterprise. Kirk doubted he had even finished the word it before Sulu had slammed the shuttle out of Enterprises shuttlebay.

    “Standard approach sir?” Sulu asked pulling up the screens used to plot a course.

    “No,” Kirk answered shaking his head. “We cant give them any reason to suspect we are anything other than civilians looking for slavegirls. If we fly in like a Starfleet shuttle they will know. And the game will be up.”

    “Gotchya sir, fast and loose it is,” Sulu said suddenly grinning ear to ear. Kirk was not sure what fast and loose meant. But he was certain he would not like it.



    Kirk had been right in assuming he would not like fast and loose flying. Whipping the shuttle around at dizzying speeds with near constant course correction the shuttlecraft in Sulu’s hands had felt more like a roller coaster than a form of transportation.

    What passed for law enforcement in the Valkru system seemed to agree with Kirk that the shuttlecraft was on a collision course with something and so stopped it some five AU from Valkru itself.

    “What gives?” Sulu had asked with a annoyed clip to his voice over the comm before Kirk had a chance to raise the cutter which had intercepted their shuttlecraft. “We are trying to get a rush here, why are you blowing it?” Sulu asked a moment later before whoever was on the other end could say anything.

    “Shuttle this is the Valkru naval cutter Einfreincia what brings you to our system?” A gruff sounding voice asked over the comms.

    “Those green babes. We want to buy a few!” Sulu exclaimed. Behind him Rajan shifted in his seat.

    “The slave trade is not present in Valkru space, whatever you may have heard.” The voice said. A pause followed. “We do however offer refuelling and rest facilities for spacecraft of all descriptions. Perhaps you would like to make use of these facilities before you return to where you came from?” The voice asked. Kirk had wondered idly what would happen if he were to openly say he had come to buy slaves. But he never would have asked it. Apparently nothing all that serious happened.

    Sargeant Younge, apparently catching on to Sulu’s ruse then spoke up, “Yeah that what we want. Some…rest.” With special emphasis on the e in the word rest.

    They were given permission to land soon after and made a jerky landing some hours later in one of the worlds many small craft hangars. This one, located just outside the city of Buroorum`da goosha, was positively cavernous. Large enough with the landing pads removed to fit a large cruiser.

    Supporting the cutter captains warning that there were no slave markets on the world the smiling attendants that met Kirk, Sulu, Younge and Rajan all wore large metal collars around their necks, wrists and ankles. Kirk was sure that had nothing to do with slavery in the slightest.

    As it was by this time quite late by their clocks the four of them found a hotel and got four separate rooms of some luxury. Room service was called and they sat down to develop a plan for the morning.

    Kirk would take Younge and try the northern parts of the city while Sulu and Rajan would try for the southern sections. The city being perched along a narrow stretch of land with an ocean on one side and sheer cliffs on the other there was no east or west to the city. Simply north and south.

    With a plan formulated and dinner in their bellies the four went to bed. A two hour watch at the door of Kirks room and music blaring as a further safety precaution.



    “I always liked classical Orion architecture,” Sulu said as he and Rajan sauntered down a major side street which ran parallel to the others in the city. “Very pretty,”

    Rajan could understand why Sulu would say that. Laid out essentially in a cake pattern which each level above smaller than that below it the opalescent buildings in this part of the city were definitely attractive to the eye.

    “The city dates from your Earths first century. By your old calendar.” Rajan said eying the buildings. One in particular, to determine if they were fake or not. Likely he decided. But there was no use in telling Sulu that.

    Sulu whistled. That was old. Very old. “On earth there are few buildings that old,” he remarked trying to name a few in his head. He got as far as the colosseum in Rome before he ran out of buildings, and he was pretty sure the Colosseum was built later.

    Changing the subject he asked, “you know much about Orions?”

    Rajan smiled, “a little,” he said clearly not wanting to delve terribly deeply into the matter. Sulu kept trying.

    “Its such an old culture, spaceflight for fifteen hundred years and a written history that goes back twelve thousand. It’s a shame they have never recovered from the Joffre cataclysms.”

    The two continued in silence for some time after that before Rajan asked, “what makes the captain think there is a market in this area?”

    “Captain Kirk looked over every bit of intel he could find on the system and this part of the city seemed to see the most ground vehicle traffic when the city was observed from orbit by the Pelagic six years ago.

    Rajan shook his head. “Its not here, Orion slave markets tend to be much more obvious than this. I don’t care what the official stance on slavery is on the governments part slavery is a major business here. Wherever the market is it will be a lot more obvious than this.” Rajan looked around and grabbed Sulu, “you see that line of people?” Sulu nodded.

    “See their collars?” Squinting Sulu again nodded. Rajan began walking towards the group, most of whom looked to be under twenty years old in Sulu’s eyes.

    “Slaves every last one of them,” Rajan said just before reaching earshot of the group. He walked towards the massive Orion male guarding the group, whip in hand. He said a few words to him in a language Sulu could not follow, nor even identify. The Orion answered back and shook Rajan’s hand before shouting something at his slaves which made them pick up their pace and continue on.

    “What did you ask?” Sulu asked after he was certain they were out of earshot of anyone on the street.

    “I told him those were fine purchases and asked him if there were many more like them. I then asked him where I could buy them, and he pointed me in the right direction,” he said in a tone that conveyed his total distaste for everything about where he was and what he was doing.

    “Where is the market then?” Sulu asked looking around as if expecting one to suddenly appear.

    “Its in the northern part of the city. Where the captain is searching, The guard said it was hard to miss,” Rajan said glowering at the slavemasters back.



    The slave market was indeed hard to miss. A massive edifice to what a truly depraved mind could do if given the budget and a society of corrupted morals. The multi-story building even from the outside managed to convey both a sense of the misery its inhabitants must feel, as well as the sense of the glee in which throngs of beings from many different races rushed in to buy beings for their own pleasure. The whole thing made Kirk ever so slightly queasy.

    “Never seen one of these before. Heard about them though,” Younge said eying the building and those entering it from their rooftop café where they had stopped to have lunch.

    “I will tell the others,” Kirk said as a waitress came up food in hand. Kirk reeled as he caught a whiff of her hormones and eyes swimming paid the check. Younge appeared even worse effected.

    Momentarily Kirk forgot what he was doing and merely smiled up at the woman. “Something wrong,” she asked sweetly.

    With effort Kirk managed to bring himself back to ground and he shook his head. “I’m fine,” he managed to stammer out. The waitress smiled again and walked off.

    “Well that was new,” Younge said watching the woman walk away lewdly. With effort Kirk brought him back. “I had always heard their pheromones were strong. But Jesus!” He exclaimed.

    Kirk agreed. That had been a powerful experience, no wonder Orion women were so desired across the galaxy. Taking a few deep breaths he remembered what he had intended to do before their waitress arrived. This was not the time to get distracted by pretty girls.



    “I don’t like it one bit,” Rajan said as he and the other members of the landing party stood at the entrance to the market. “I will do it, but only because you outrank me!” He practically spat. Kirk frowned.

    The Laconian had been vocal in his unhappiness about the mission from the start, not out of any desire to undermine his captain or refusal to put himself in danger Kirk felt. But whatever the reason this was not the time, or the place to go against Kirks wishes. And Rajan was getting very close to that point.

    “With that out of the way genteelmen,” Kirk said motioning the others forward. “I believe there are federation citizens in need of rescue.”

    Even Rajan did not argue with that and soon the four found themselves shuffled along a seemingly never ending hallway of private showing rooms, bidding rooms and grooming rooms for newly acquired possessions to be made up as their masters saw fit.

    Kirk did most of the talking, insisting with anyone that he met that they wanted to see the holding cells and get a firsthand peek at the girls. Saying that he wanted to see what he bought up close before he bid on one. Behind him the others seconded his demands, playing their parts well.

    Relenting to the pressure a guard finally allowed them into the horrors that were the holding cells where slaves were kept before auction. Fear, terror, hunger, and a dozen other feelings hung on the air, alongside a fair number of smells belonging to bodily functions.

    “Follow me closely, you don’t want to get to close,” the guard said once they had all made it into the area. He walked on an conversationally remarked, “this is where we keep the run of the mill slaves. Workers mostly. Though some are destined to be gladiators in the games elsewhere on the planet.” He motioned to a group of almost skeletal Klingons huddled in a corner of a stench filled cell.

    “We keep most of them on a limited diet, makes them more tame and easier to handle than if they had full meals in their bellies.”

    “What do you do with the bodies?” Rajan asked his voice betraying nothing but a cold disinterest in what he was seeing. Certainly not the strong emotions that must be boiling below the surface. Kirk hoped those did not get out. He also wondered if insisting that Rajan come along was such a good idea after all.

    But the guard did not catch on to anything out of the ordinary. “We usually just toss them. No sense letting corpses get the others sick,” he said shrugging.

    “Do you treat sick ones? Or do you dispose of them as well?” Rajan may as well have been talking about old EPS conduits back aboard Enterprise for all the concern that was in his voice. Even Kirk had to look at him in stunned disbelief at the callous way he spoke.

    “Usually we toss them yep. No sense spending money to cure something so easily replaced. We plan for such losses.”

    Kirk was certain the guard had gone to far. Rajan’s eyes suddenly lit up with the fire of hate. Hate and anger at its most pure. Kirk braced himself. But nothing happened. With a shake the Laconian got himself under control and walked on as if nothing had happened. Kirk breathed a silent sigh of relief. Deciding it would be a long while before he took the man on another away mission.

    Rajan did not speak again until they reached another door. “Where does this lead to?” He asked the others being to shaken to speak.

    The guard, a big hulking Orion seemed to suddenly grow bigger still. “Heaven,” he said before swinging the doors open.

    Kirk suddenly went weak at the knees and nearly collapsed to the floor. The same feeling as the waitress at the café, but a hundred times more powerful suddenly gripped him. Dimly he heard the guard say something about not getting carried away. Remembering that they could touch the merchandise. But nothing else. This before he mentioned that a perk of his job was getting to do that something else as much as he liked anytime he wasn’t working.

    Kirk could not much recall what happened next. He remembered smiling teeth and green skin everywhere. Little in the way of clothing and an almost carnal lust swelling up from deep within him. He could barely speak and move and had vague notions that Sulu and Younge were in similar shape.

    He did however have a very strong memory of Rajan during all this, in a room swimming in pheromones desire flooding his fellow officers. And yet there he was standing seemingly unaffected by the flood of chemicals around him. Casting the room a gaze of anger and revulsion. Kirk had a clear mental picture of Rajan speaking to one of the women and handing her something, something small and metallic.

    Kirk then remembered vaguely that someone had decided they were getting to excited. To the point of spoiling the merchandise. He remembered being carried out of the room and laid onto a large plush couch and left in the dark for some time.
     
  7. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    Currently the United Federation of Planets has thirty seven member governments, administering an area of roughly seven thousand star systems, though only two hundred and seventy three systems currently hold the status of Federation member worlds. Many member states administer only a single star system and its surrounding space, though others, like Vulcan, Andor and the United Earth, administer sprawling colonial empires comprising dozens, if not hundreds of systems. However as each member state with few exceptions possesses only a single seat on the Federation Assembly it allows even minor governments to have a voice that will be heard.

    Current Federation members as of 2460 are as follows:

    Vulcan Assembly

    Andorian Empire

    United Earth and Colonies

    Tellar Systems Republic

    Denobulan Planetary Republic

    Zak Dorn Confederacy

    Zubian Alliance

    Caitian systems Union

    Altarian Kingdom

    Saurian Electorate

    Yailarien Peoples Council

    Kair’lvilin

    Assembled Bolian States

    Riggelian Systems Union

    Deltan Collective

    Republic of Axanar

    Laconian Crowned Republic

    Mek’torian empire

    Nikolei Democratic Systems Assembly

    Rauriuss Union

    Klep Foi Kingdom

    Hauny ru Confederacy

    Order of Xin’Shaysa

    Klep Dorn Planetary Republic

    Star Kingdom of Pioria

    Order of Cio’Val

    Rionapluran

    Val’da Eridu Planetary Union

    Acurite Union

    Shasite Republic

    Atairian Combine

    Wyoi

    Star Kingdom of Switili

    Ammonite Kingom

    Hurrian Colonial Authority

    Kushite Stellar Republic



    It is important to note that there are apparent discrepancies between systems recognized as belonging to member governments according to the Federation and its member governments. The UE for instance claims over two thousand colonies for itself in its censi, while the Federation lists only seventy systems belonging to the UE. This is due to Federation law making a distinction between a Colonial System and a Member system.

    In essence a basic definition of the two terms states that a Colonial System has not yet attained a sufficient population and economy to support itself and begin to trade with the outside galaxy while a member system possesses sufficient local economy and population to not only support itself, but also contribute to its parent government.

    Federation law states that for a Colonial system to migrate into the status of a Member system the population must surpass ten million beings, with average birth rates sufficient to at least keep the population stable without aid from the homeworld. The system must also have some heavy industries and orbital infrastructure.

    If a system meets these criteria it can then apply for status as a Federation member world, counting towards the total number of planets and systems administered by different member governments. Status as a Federation Member world affords any planets in the system major economic advantages. Notably lower import and export taxes to other member worlds and access to Federation supplied grants. If the world suffers any major disasters then it can also call on the aid of not just its parent state, but the whole of the Federation.

    Qualifying as a member world is not an automatic process once the planet reaches a population of ten million. Rather it can take up to several standard years to complete once applied for. The Federation Assembly must form a Committee that will send a team to the world and survey it to ensure it passes all necessary criteria. Then a lengthy debate often ensues. Ultimately though there has never been a system that has been rejected from attaining membership status.
     
  8. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    So I think I may start writing a quick breakdown of each member government of the UFP. Nothing to crazy, but just a quick explanation of the races history, strength and general characteristics. I can then go through and make a more detailed breakdown later on.
    Once I finish with Federation member races I will go on to write similar breakdowns of non federation members, both friendly and not so friendly.
     
  9. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    Kirk came to with a massive headache and groaned as he sat up. Feeling as if he were going to vomit. “Well that was interesting,” Kirk finally managed after his head stopped swimming.

    He looked around the room disorientated and feeling out of place. Full of plush couches, pillows, tapestries, rugs and blankets the room was clearly meant for pleasure rather then recuperation. A pair of lumps buried under masses of blankets began to stir at the sound of his voice.

    “I radioed the ship,” a voice said from an unseen place. Kirk looked around but did not see its owner, though it sounded familiar through the fog of his mind.

    “Did you?” Kirk asked being unwilling to ask who it was.

    Stepping out of a sideroom Kirk had not seen in his initial sweep of the room Rajan came into view wearing a tight jumpsuit instead of the drab civilian clothing he had initially had on.

    “You were passed out eleven hours captain, I changed.” He explained sitting down across from Kirk.

    “What did you tell the ship?” Kirk asked his mind beginning to clear. Thought and memory were becoming much easier.

    Rajan took a deep breath. “I got commander Spock and told him that we had located the Tellarite freighter crew. I even spoke with them after you were hauled away.” Kirk wondered how he had been able to do so, but then remembered the cold almost emotionless man he had been during their tour and so did not ask.

    But then Kirk did remember something, “we never saw the Tellarites.” He said interjecting. “We looked but we went through the cells to quickly.”

    “You were not truly looking,” Rajan said smiling cruelly. “I don’t think you were prepared for what you saw. You saw only the suffering, the pain and the depravity but you did not look past it to the people actually in the cells.” He sighed, when he next spoke it was without the fire he had before. “I saw them during our tour, but I went back later with the guard and managed to speak with them for a moment. They are the Tellarites.”

    “Are they up for sale?” Kirk asked. It had been a vague plan of his that perhaps they could simply outbid all competitors when they went up for auction, rather than the more messy plan B.

    Rajan shook his head, “they are, but separately. We would have to be at fifty different auctions at once. And we don’t have time to bring in that many off Enterprise before they go up.”

    He paced the room nervously, like a caged animal. As he walked Kirk noted a slightly jerky motion in his right side. Not just his leg, but the entirety of his side seemed ever so out of sync with the rest of his body. Kirk wondered why he had never noticed that before, but then chastised himself for not focusing.

    “We have to act fast as well, the first of the crew are being sold off in a little under four hours and once they are sold it will be impossible for us to find them all.” A knock on the door caused Rajan to suddenly glide over to the far side of the room, out of the line of sight for whoever came in.

    “Come in,” Kirk said deciding that there was no point in refusing them entry. If they wanted in they would get in, and if not then they would go away.

    Rajan had nothing to fear. A small shrivelled old Minoan woman shuffled in with a big tray of food, breakfast. With compliments from the auction house owners. Smiling Rajan paid the woman and saw her to the door. Either oblivious of, or overlooking the looks of horror she gave him right up until the door closed.

    Picking up where he left off without missing a beat Rajan continued, “virtually the only way this will work is the main plan decided on in the conference room. Spock agreed and warned us to get away from the city as quickly as we could and be at least a hundred kilometres away to get beyond any jamming they may attempt.”

    That got Kirk fully awake. The first thing the local authorities would do when a federation flagged warship entered the system did would be to round up all federation citizens and attempt to use them. Or at least prevent them from contacting the vessel. And Kirk did not want to be anywhere near the city when that happened. “Lets wake the others and get going.”

    “I suggest we charter a sailing ship for a tour of the ocean, we will be quite a distance away and far beyond any other beings,” Rajan said tossing a pamphlet Kirks way. It was written in a script he was unfamiliar with, but boasted a number of pictures of sailing ships and clear tropical waters.

    “Good idea,” Kirk said moving to wake Sulu.



    “Have we been detected?” Spock asked exactly ten minutes since he last did so. Chekov had been keeping count of both the number of times he had asked, twenty three, and the regularity of when he asked, ten minutes on the nose.

    “It does not appear so sir,” he said supressing a groan. In the Academy he had always heard Vulcans were punctual. Well now he had an up close and personal lesson in why that was.

    Spock nodded. Enterprise was three AU away from Valkru itself and headed towards the planet at a rate one quarter the speed of light. Using a gap in the sensor network of the system to slip in so far unnoticed.

    “And the location of that patrol cutter?” Spock asked hands forming a little triangle under his chin.

    “Still on the other side of the planet sir,” Chekov said glancing down at his instruments.

    “Interesting,” Spock remarked as Chekov sent him the sensor data. It was his suspicion that the blindspot in the sensor coverage of the system was deliberate. A way for the planetary government to claim it had no involvement in the illegal activities going on. Whether or not the ruse would work if a major power should become involved was a different matter however and Spock suspected that if the Klingons or Kzinti became interested in the Valku system the blind spot would gain them nothing.

    “And the Emden and Valdez? Are the frigates holding position?” Spock asked this time turning to Uhura at the communications station.

    “Still signalling all sections ready,” came the prompt reply. The lieutenant had been in nearly constant coded communication with both frigates over a discreet channel since Kirk had left the ship.

    Spock nodded and checked the detailed map of the system projected onto the main viewer. At their current speed, just slow enough that their energy signature did not show up on anyones scopes, they would be in range of the planet in a little under a half hour. Well within weapons range, though transporters were a bit of a different story.

    Expect more questions mister Chekov, Spock thought as he settled back in his chair to wait another ten or fifteen minutes before launching his attack. He wanted to be certain that no ships got away.



    “This isn’t so bad,” Sulu said into the quiet that had erupted after the four man landing party had reached open waters in their little seven metre sail boat.

    Kirk did not look up from his communicator. He was searching all available frequencies for any sign either that Enterprise had been sighted by the Orions, or that Enterprise was attempting to contact him. He groaned. He really did not like being out of the loop like that, Rajan was technically within his rights to contact the ship without his captains approval. But very few officers ever did so for fear of reprisals at a later date. The fact that the Laconian had done so showed that he had a clear understanding of regulation and guts. Were Kirk in his place he doubted he would have done the same thing.

    Finding that no one said anything, either in agreement or otherwise Sulu went back to studying a chart of the waters around them. Behind him Rajan worked on the vessels only sail. What would on a earth ship be called a lateen sail, meaning a large triangular piece of fabric which was arranged running from the bowsprit of the vessel to the ships single mast. Kirk did not know if the man knew anything of sailing, but was willing to allow him to make an attempt. Younge busily threw up at the stern of the craft. His vomit attracting a sizeable school of fish from around the area.

    “How much longer?” Kirk asked unable to see the chrono at the tiller from his seat amidships. Younge wiped his face and reached for the chrono queasily.

    “Anytime it looks like,” he answered tossing the device Kirks way. The heaving of the boat nearly caused the chrono to fall into the sea, but Kirk grabbed it at the last second and looked for himself.



    “Mister Chekov unless I miss my guess we are in or nearly in a position where we will be spotted by passive sensors on the patrol ships in orbit of the planet.” Spock was almost conversational. Speaking almost casually, as if he had bumped into Chekov in one of the ships corridors.

    “You are correct sir,” Chekov said nervously. Despite his excellent test scores and extensive training he had never actually fired weapons in anger. In the moment he found it was not something he was really looking forward to. The thought that he could be killing men and women very shortly appealed to him very little.

    Suddenly master operator technician Tucket at the sensor station jumped. “We were just pinged by active sensors sir! Looks like they located us!” He reported from his feet. With a look from Spock he realized his mistake and took his seat sheepishly.

    Spock looked over the sudden jump in the high end EM spectrum that had gotten Tucket worked up. It was indeed an active scan of the ship. Its likely point of origin put it as one of the patrol ships, likely the one suddenly moving into an approach vector.

    With their approach discovered there was only one thing left for Spock to do, he hoped it did not result in bloodshed. “Raise hailing frequencies please lieutenant Uhura, system wide broadcast on all standard bands.”

    After a moment Uhura reported all frequencies open and Spock stood up, signalling as he did for the audio pickups located around the bridge to be turned on. “Valkru system authority this is the United Earth Ship Enterprise of the United Federation of Planets.”

    He let that sink in for a moment, though if the sensor technician on the picket ship was any good he would have already identified their sensor pickup as a Constitution class heavy cruiser, the classes sensor profile being anything but unrecognizable.

    “We have confirmed that there are Federation citizens in your slave markets, victims of an Orion pirate attack on their freighter. We demand the release of these citizens and that you order your warships to stand down.”

    Again he let his words sink in, although he could see that all nine of the patrol ships in orbit were converging on Enterprise and charging weapons and raising shields.

    “Failure to comply with my demands will result in the destruction of your orbital assets and seizure of the slave market by force. Please repond.” Spock signalled Uhura to end the transmission with a cutting motion and sat back down. “Lets see if they answer,” he said.

    By way of an answer the lead patrol ship fired a photon torpedo at Enterprise. It struck the ship square across her bow. Spock had the foresight to raise the ships shields as soon as sighted however and so the torpedo spent its fiery destruction uselessly against an invisible wall of energy. Doing nothing more to Enterprise than tossing her about somewhat.

    “Orders sir?” Chekov shouted as alarms blared. Having announce the incoming torpedo he was well braced for the impact. Even so he had been shook around hard and needed a moment to readjust himself.

    “We are done with words mister Chekov,” Spock said with steel in his voice. “I want every one of those ships destroyed or disabled and I don’t particularly care which.”

    “May I take that as an order to fire sir?” Chekov asked adrenaline and excitement surging through him. He was already targeting the lead ship, the one that had fired with the ships three dorsal phaser banks.

    “You may fire when ready,” Spock said sardonically for the record. A thin smile tugged at the corners of his mouth that only Uhura saw.



    The lead patrol ship saw that it was being targeted and swung into an evasive climb upwards. The six other patrol ships similarly scattered and attempted to encircle the much larger Starfleet cruiser. Armed with only a pair of channelled plasma cannon and a rotary photon torpedo launcher and equipped with only a low level shield they were no match on their own against a ship of Enterprises power.

    The cruisers phasers, six beams in all fired from three of her banks, struck the lead patrol ship dead amidships. Her shields held back the massive energy strike, but overloaded and slagged themselves in a burst of energy. The ship reeled and was easily destroyed by a second volley from Enterprises number seven bank.

    A volley of plasma fired from three of the Orion ships tore at Enterprises deflector uselessly. Her shields easily shrugging off the assault even as her ventral banks opened up. Disabling the second ship and leaving the third open to a photon torpedo burst which evaporated in a cloud of radioactive dust.

    The four survivors attempted to overwhelm Enterprises weaker aft shields with a concentrated launch of torpedoes aimed just above Enterprises shuttlebay where the nacelle pylons connected to the service hull.

    Spock swung the ship into a wide arcing turn and avoided all but one of the torpedoes which wasted itself against the shield, leaving it at a weakened sixty percent until the generators could recharge but otherwise intact. His turn brought the ship bow on to the four survivors. With all of her six forward facing banks having clear angles to fire, as well as her three forward launchers.

    Once again attempting to scatter and hit the ship from multiple angles a volley of eight photon torpedoes found two of the Orion ships and their combined power destroyed them both. The surviving two ships threw in the towel and attempted to flee. Firing their impulse drives for all they were worth in an attempt to get as far away from Enterprise as they could.

    Like a shark going after a minnow Enterprise gained on the nearest ship and obliterated her with a volley of phasers. By this time the tubes were reloaded and a burst of two torpedoes found the final surviving patrol ship. Tearing her in part after her shields collapsed. An instant later the fusion bottles for the impulse drive ruptured and the ship was consumed in a cloud of gas the same as its other squadron mates.



    “Final patrol ship destroyed sir,” Chekov reported scanning his sensors to see if any other threats were in range. None were at the moment. Most of the ships in the system were fleeing as fast as they could. Away from Enterprise.

    “Very good mister Chekov.” It had never really been much of a question of the outcome of the battle. Even combined the seven patrol ships possessed not even half of Enterprises firepower. But Chekov had handled his job beautifully. Putting shot after shot onto target with deadly accuracy.

    “Any report from the assault teams?” Spock asked turning to face Uhura.

    “Nothing yet sir, but they may still be descending and unable to communicate.” Uhura`s hands flew across her board as she received around a hundred different hails from the planet and ships in orbit. Sifting through she found a few of importance.

    “I have a message from the planets government. They demand that we cease our assault and explain why the federation is attacking an independent nation.”

    “Don’t respond, unless they hail us to surrender I do not wish to speak with the planetary authorities.” Spocks attention was drawn to Chekov’s board which had suddenly erupted in a series of alerts. “What is it lieutenant commander?” He asked suddenly beside the tactical officer.

    “It looks like a couple of the ships in orbit have swung around towards us,” Chekov said sending a sensor reading to Spocks station. “I would guess they are covering the escape for the twenty odd freighters which just broke orbit and are tearing out to the gravity well,” he added a moment later sending Spock another readout as he did so.

    Another smile tugged at Spock’s lips. The fleeing freighters were headed along a course that would bring them squarely into the waiting arms of the Emden and Valdez, Spock previously having guessed that route as the most likely for fleeing slavers.

    And there was no doubt that those ships were slave ships. A legitimate freighter would likely not be running away so panicked. Especially after Spock had announced over all frequencies that Enterprise was coming to free slaves. In fact many freighters had not even broke orbit of the planet yet. Choosing to stay out of Enterprises attention if possible.

    “Let them go mister Chekov,” Spock said confident that the two frigates would have no trouble dealing with the unarmed freighters.

    “Out of the frying pan and into the fire commander?” Chekov asked.

    “Something like that lieutenant commander,” Spock said sitting at the conn once again. “Besides,” he said. “We will have other things to worry about soon enough.
     
  10. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    “Looks like the attack has started,” Sulu said as another sonic boom rocked the boat, the result of a pair of suborbital fighters attempting to reach the battle some miles above. In the distance alarms blared as citizens were cautioned to seek shelter.

    Kirk could not sit down. It was his ship up there fighting. And here he was on the planets surface sitting in a boat bobbing slowly up and down on the waves. He felt absolutely useless.

    But this had been his plan and he had known going into it that he would not be there when the shooting started. Well he didn’t like it then, and he certainly did not like it now. But he had the choice of either sending a landing party into a potentially deadly situation and commanding his ship in battle. Or leading the landing party and trusting his first officer and crew to deal with the problem.

    And then the communicator suddenly came to life. “Captain Kirk?” Came a static filled voice.

    “I’m here! We are all here!” Kirk shouted relieved to have something to do finally.

    “Sir this is leftennant Paulsen sir, what is your location?” The static cleared and the woman on the other end cleared her throat. “So far its not to wild up here, we should be able to grab you without to much difficulty.”

    “We are in the bay on a boat, a sail boat.” Kirk said feeling suddenly silly at their position. “Thought it might be a good idea to get as far away from the city as possible before the shooting started,” he added justifying his circumstances.

    “Sounds nice!” Paulsen said dryly. A moment later she added, “we have a lock on your position. Should be there in under five minutes.”

    “Copy that,” Kirk said into the audio pickup on the communicator. A moment later Paulsen was signed off and Kirk picked up the faint sound of a sonic boom.

    “Have they began their assault yet?” Sulu asked.

    Kirk shrugged. “The plan was for the shuttles to deploy the rangers around the slave market and then dispatch one to pick us up. I don’t know if that is the plan they went with ultimately, but that’s what was supposed to happen.”



    If the first battle with seven patrol ships have been uneven the brief battle against a dozen small pirate vessels could be called a turkey shoot. Lacking the structural reinforcement of the proper warship the converted transports Enterprise faced next were taken out easily enough with phaser fire alone.

    “Shields holding at twenty percent sir,” Scotty reported over the comms. The last surviving raider had been to close to the ship when her matter/antimatter reactor went critical. Enterprise had shuddered and shook and her lights had briefly dimmed. But otherwise she seemed to have weathered the storm surprisingly well.

    “Thank you Commander Scott, keep me informed of any further developments.” Spock signed off with the engine room and turned to Chekov. “Have you found any orbital defense platforms?” He asked.

    “Only three of an outdated model sir,” Chekov answered sending readouts of the three small satellites to Spock’s console.

    Spock looked over the data quickly. Massing only three hundred tons the small stations resembled cylinders of roughly fifty metres long and twenty wide. A gauss cannon fixed to the top and bottom with a pair of lasers mounted in the centre of the station. It appeared that they lacked shielding. Little more than target practice by this point.

    “Any orbital craft from the planet?” Spock asked a moment later.

    Chekov nodded. “Aye sir a few, though they seem to have taken up defensive posture over the major cities. Likely wanting to prevent anything we might launch from reaching the planets surface.”

    Spock nodded. A prudent decision on the part of the planets military forces. But useless. Shuttles loaded with rangers had been sent in well ahead of Enterprise and had already landed around the slave markets of the planet. At least the three that the landing party had identified.

    Spock now frowned. In all the excitement of the last hour he had forgotten that the ships captain and three other crew were on the surface. “Any word yet from the captain? Or shuttlecraft?” He asked feeling stupid for not asking earlier.

    “Leftennant Paulsen reports that the landing party was safely picked up and that they have been brought to the slave market in the planets capital. Oh! And Emden and Valdez report the seizure of all of the slave ships which attempted to flee the system. One tried to put up a fight and its engines were crippled, though life support remains functional. Searches of all ships have begun.”

    Spock nodded. “It would appear than that our work is done. Please stand the ship down from red to yellow alert and release general quarters,” Spock folded his hands together in his lap. From what he had seen things had gone very well. A better example of orbital assault could not be found outside of textbooks. The only thing left as far as he was concerned was dealing with the planets airborne forces to allow the liberation of the slaves on the planets surface.



    Whatever Spock may have thought the mission had not gone off completely without problems, at least on the surface of Valkru anyway. The guards in the slave market, in a bid to save themselves, had barricaded themselves in and threatened to start shooting slaves if the Starfleet teams tried anything.

    This impasse had lasted all of an hour though as suddenly the complex was rocket by a series of small explosions and weapons fire could be heard. Worried that the slaves were being killed enmasse Kirk had ordered the doors stormed. Only to find the slaves had escaped and begun killing the guards while their backs were turned. The explosions had been the result of the markets power generators suddenly failing, shutting down the restraints and doors to the cells and allowing the slaves to escape.

    Few slaves were killed before the guards had been ripped limb from limb. Most of the casualties were flesh wounds, many of the guards having forgotten to turn their weapons from stun to kill.

    Kirk managed to raise Enterprise shortly after that and got a report that all space and airborne assets of the planetary government had been either destroyed or disabled. The government had agreed to cooperate and shut down their dampening fields around the city. Allowing transporters to begin removing the slaves.



    Captains log stardate 309097.4

    Enterprise has, alongside UES Emden and UES Valdez, completed its business in the Valkru system. In total over seventy thousand slaves belonging to many races were liberated from the planet and over six thousand slavers were arrested. The capture of sixty former slaveships has allowed us to bring all this number, both captive and master, with us as we return to Federation space.

    We received a hail from the Andorian Cruiser HIMS Shah’klint yesterday. The vessel had been dispatched by Starfleet command following their receiving our last communication. The ship has taken position escorting the transports. And its medical facilities have gone a long way towards caring for the worst of those held in bondage on Valkru. Doctor McCoy has been working around the clock alongside his medical staff to care for the many suffering bodies we rescued. Through the efforts of our own medical departments, and in conjunction with those of UES Emden, Valdez and HIMS Shah’Klint many have been treated. All seem to be in a celebratory mood. Enterprise has even thrown a feast for those former slaves fit enough to partake.

    As for myself I am in a much more somber mood. Seeing the depths beings are capable of sinking into to make money, and the total lack of remorse exhibited by many of the former slave masters has left me questioning a great many things.

    I find myself wondering what makes a being capable of that level of disregard for others. Upbringing? Culture? Or could it be that we are all capable of that level of cruelty? These are questions I do not truly want answered.

    In compliance with Federation law we have begun formal legal proceedings to determine the fate of those discovered in possession of the slaves. Many have defended themselves merely by stating that the Valkru system is independent and so Federation laws regarding slavery have no hold over them. However We have cited the Khimbash Convention of 2396 between the UFP, Klingon Empire, Kzinti, Minoan leagues. Alongside others.

    It is my hope that our rulings will be upheld when we turn these men and women over to Federation authorities when we reach starbase seven tomorrow.

    Kirk sighed as he signed off. More out of frustration than exhaustion. One of the prisoners, the former mayor of Buroorum`da goosha, a woman named Veiilis had asked to meet with him one final time. During her hearing the woman had threatened Kirk and the other members of the board judging her. Kirk expected much the same thing from her this time around. Right on cue an alert signed on his computer and Kirk considered for a moment claiming to be busy, but that would get him nowhere. Veiilis would simply try to get another meeting.

    “Final warning captain Kirk,” the middle aged Orion females voice cooed. Despite her threats she had never once yelled or even so much as raised her voice. Delivering her threats almost as a matter of fact than out of any particular malice.

    “Once the charges against me are dropped, as they will be, you will have made yourself powerful enemies in the crime syndicates. Enemies which will be more… understanding if you were to drop the charges. At least for myself and some close associates.”

    “That will never happen,” Kirk said trying his best to match the woman’s cold tone. “You are an animal, life imprisonment would be a blessing for you. Far better than you deserve,” he said almost spitting out the last part of his sentence despite his best efforts to remain calm.

    “Oh come captain,” the woman smiled showing sharpened teeth. “There are many, even in your vaunted Federation and United Earth that have purchased slave girls. And the syndicates keep records of them all. It will not be to much effort at all to find something we can use on any judge that hears my case.”

    Her smile broadened, Kirk was glad that they were speaking over the computer and not face to face. Her pheromones must be firing at full throttle. She had nearly managed to incapacitate a team of rangers when being transferred to the brig. Nearly escaping before she was caught.

    Kirk threw out all pretences of control and screamed at her, “you will face the full charges we have levelled against you in a federation court. Just consider yourself lucky we did not hand you over to the Klingons. Or better yet the Kzinti! There execution techniques I understand are quite brutal.”

    Veiilis blanched, just for a moment before regaining composure. Kirk was just happy to have scored a blow. “Do you really think they wont find out that we rescued some of their people from your market?” He asked.

    Veiilis shrugged, “we have dirt on many Klingon and Kzinti. It would be just the same as dealing with a federation judge.” She said confidently.

    “We will see!” Kirk spat before signing off and deciding he would never speak with her again.



    At the same time as Kirk was severing his connection with Veiilis Rajan was interrogating a number of former guards. Men tasked with dealing with uncooperative slaves. Thus far they had been just as unrepentive as any other Orion. And like Veiilis had even gone so far as to make threats. Rajan had decided he was done for the day.

    “I will take them to their cells,” he said dismissing Younge who had been assigned to the captured transport alongside Rajan and a handful of others from Enterprise.

    “You sure?” Younge asked. It was standard protocol for at least two, preferably three men to accompany prisoners during a transfer.

    “Yeah your tired, I can see it in your eyes.” Rajan was not at all forcing Younge. It didn’t really seem all that out of the ordinary for him. And really there had been a few times over the last few days where just one person escorted prisoners. And Younge was tired. Very tired.

    “If you want to then go ahead,” He said shrugging. He collected his things and went out the door towards what passed for crew quarters on the ship.

    “See you in the morning!” Rajan called just before the door closed.

    “Want to make a deal do you?” One of the former guards, a male named Verok asked smirking. “I knew at least one of you would come around.” He had been smirking like that all day.

    He never saw the hand coming, wiping the smirk from his face and breaking his jaw in a single fluid motion. Rajan smiled right back, pointing his phaser to one of the others who moved towards him. “I had something different in mind actually.

    At phaser point Rajan marched the four guards along. Passing through the airlock which separated the main body of the ship from the cargo hold sections which were attached. As the hatch swung open on the other side row upon row of small cells greeted them. Each inhabited by between four and eight former slaves.

    Just a few weeks prior those same cells would have likely carried double, or even triple the amount of people in them. Those inside glared out at the guards, anger and rage flashing.

    “Ahh good to see the merchandise is still intact!” One of the guards named Boomsh said slapping his hands together. He screamed as a phaser blast set on a very high setting tore through his left leg, sending him crashing to the floor.

    He turned in fear to face Rajan who was backing off slowly, weapon still trained. “Why?” He croaked out confusion and pain mixing in his voice.

    Rajan did not answer. Instead he closed one of the mesh doors, shutting himself off from the guards. He then began to work some of the controls. “These cells here are occupied by the ones you and your friends tortured the most. Those that survived anyway.” He remarked almost casually as he pecked away at a keyboard.

    “They are healthy now. Strong enough to kill an ox, an earth animal of some size and power. More than capable of killing the four of you.” He smiled a wicked smile. Appearing all the world like a demon.

    “You cant do this!” One of the unhurt guards stammered as the doors to the cells suddenly clicked. “Federation law on killing prisoners is quite strict!”
    “Indeed it is,” Rajan said a moment before the cell doors swung wide open. “But there is no punishment if an accident occurs,” he added before running away to tell the other members of the crew the horrible thing that had just happened.



    Kirk was furious. He paced angrily back and forth in front of Rajan. “An accident?” He asked the question needing no answer. “Four prisoners killed and you have nothing more to say other than an accident?”

    Rajan shrugged. “What more is there to say?” He asked. “I filled out an accident report and contained the situation as soon as I could. There is nothing else to say sir.”

    Kirk fumed. But there was really nothing else that he could do here. Without proof all he had was a suspicion that the massacre that had happened during Rajan’s watch, on a ship Kirk had placed under the Laconians command with strict orders to look after the former guards was deliberate. And even if he had proof that what had happened was not an accident Kirk was not even all that certain he wanted to do anything about it.

    “Get to your quarters,” he finally spat. “Someone else will take over the transport until a formal investigation can be launched.”

    Rajan did not argue, standing from the seat he offered a salute and walked out. Leaving Kirk alone to fume. Or almost alone. Seconds after the engineers mate had left there was a chime at his door.

    “Who is it?” Kirk asked pacing the room.

    “Leonard, open up.” Bones, the ships chief medical officer said through the microphone on the other side.

    Kirk did so begrudgingly. He really did not feel like talking to anyone. He was to full of emotion. Anger at what he knew one of his crew did, and also hate towards the people that he had likely killed and the others just like them still alive.

    “Whats up?” Bones asked immediately sensing that something was off.

    Kirk explained what had happened, giving both the official version that Starfleet would likely accept. And his own thoughts on what likely actually occurred. McCoy listened in silence until he was certain Kirk finished before asking, “and how does that make you feel?”

    “What are you a shrink?” Kirk asked again pacing the room. Something he had done a lot of over the past few days and would likely work a hole into the carpet if he did not stop before long. McCoy just shrugged.

    “I saw all the video of the market,” McCoy said with a shiver. “I saw the victims. Half starved, beaten, bloodied, their dignity destroyed and lives devastated. And I saw the smug look on the bastards that did it as they came aboard the ship. Saw how they could not have cared less. As if the fact that a Starfleet heavy cruiser and pair of frigates busting in and capturing thousands of their people and arresting them was some minor inconvenience. And I have seen the way many of them think they will be freed by the federation, as if we did something wrong.”

    Kirk nodded. “I know what you saw, I saw all the same things.”

    “That’s my point Jim,” McCoy said leaning back into his seat. A seat he had taken without an invitation. “You saw all that, and its not something I think any of us were prepared for. But seeing that for sure put me in the mood to do some killing of those that did it!”

    “What your point doctor?” Kirk said sensing where this was going.

    “My point is that it seems that your not so much upset at lieutenant-commander Rajan for doing what he officially didn’t do but likely did. Rather I think your pissed off at yourself for secretly in some little part of yourself wishing that it had been you that had done it.”

    Visions of Veiili danced in Kirks head as he pictured the lanky Orion woman being jettisoned out an airlock with his own thumb over the switch. Yes he would have liked to do it. And that feeling terrified him. For it meant that he was willing to treat life every bit as callously as the Orion slavers.

    But Kirk was not going to tell McCoy that. He could not. “Your wrong,” he said before attempting to change the subject. “How are the intensive care patients going?” He asked.

    McCoy was glad for the change of topic as well. Truth was he felt just as secretly bad as Kirk about the way he wanted to kill all of the former slavemasters. And so the conversation turned to those in the worst shape from the slave pens. And there to what would happen to the slaves once they reached a federation port. And likely what punishment awaited the slavemasters.

    McCoy would eventually leave and abandon Kirk with his own thoughts. Kirk was to angsty to eat and so went to bed for what was likely going to be a rough night of little sleep.
     
  11. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    Denobulan Planetary Republic

    [SIZE=6]History[/SIZE]
    Denobulans as a people used to inhabit the majority of their worlds land area, rather than the relatively small continent of Russelia they live in today. Their population and culture in turn used to be a lot more diverse and spread out, with many different languages and cultures developing in the planets varied climates.

    Their planet lacked any large quantity of radiactive isotopes necessary for atomic weapons and power. Thus Denobulans progressed fairly seamlessly from the technology of fossil fuels onwards to fission over several centuries.

    The lack of nuclear weapons did not by any means suggest a lack of war on Denobula however. On the contrary numerous and destructive conflicts were waged by the worlds early nations. Each war growing in deathtoll and loss of property as technological development progressed. Rather than create nuclear weapons to destroy one another with the planets scarce isotopes Denobulans instead became masters of genetic manipulation.

    Warfare on Denobula soon came to make heavy use of biological weapons, plagues, poisons and gases becoming commonplace. Manipulation of the planets animals also took place as designers sought to create animals that would destroy the ecosystems of opposing states. Weapons such as these saw very common usage in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries (Earth Standard Calendar) and resulted in billions of deaths.

    The body count was not the only thing on the world that piled up as soon the delicate ecosystems and immune systems of the planet and its lifeforms began to collapse. Plagues made to be unleashed in times of war ravaged populations in peacetime while insects intended for limited usage ran rampant and destroyed the crops of food the disease ridden population of the world relied on to support itself.

    The main population centres of the world were abandoned and the small remaining number of Denobulans came to settle on the sparsely inhabited and largely unaffected continent of Nurmenci, renamed to its current Russelia. Here, in desperation, Denobula rebuilt and turned their genetic knowledge towards rebuilding their race. Eliminating bad genes and creating immunities to the diseases released upon the world. Genes controlling anger and aggression were gradually weeded out in the general populace to promote closer cooperation and cohesion in the close confines of the worlds increasingly populated cities.

    This new spat of gene therapy, combined with inbreeding and rampant overflow of population caused another disaster in the nineteenth century as food reserves dropped and people once again starved. Fortunately the Vulcans discovered the world during a survey expedition and as Denobulans had achieved spaceflight and begun colonizing their system, first contact was initiated.

    Vulcan aided Denobula considerably and helped the planet to fully recover from its wars, though Russelia remained the only place habitable on the world due to the damage elsewhere. Denobula in turn taxed the trade routes passing near its system and made use of resources such as food produced by other worlds. Notably grain from Tellar which fed its population.

    Denobula became a close ally and friend of the Vulcans and during the twenty second and twenty third centuries as tensions flared between Vulcan and Andor Denobula built up a modest navy to both defend itself and support their ally in the event of war. Denobulan doctors also contributed heavily in Vulcans efforts to rebuild Earth following first contact there.

    The Romulan war left Denobula relatively untouched, though its economy suffered as Tellar was devastated and trade through its space ceased save Vulcan humanitarian and relief efforts, which were untaxed. Post war Denobula’s economy recovered and grew considerably and they were active in rebuilding efforts throughout the Coalition of Planets post war.

    Denobula advocated early on for the formation of the UFP and was largely responsible for convincing Vulcan to participate. As one of the Federations oldest members Denobula has gradually drifted away from their previously close relationship with Vulcan, choosing instead to often act as a neutral voice in the occasionally highly charged political discussions of the Federation Council and Assembly. They supported Federation participation in the United Earths four year war with the Klingon empire and were responsible for bringing the issue to a vote in 2443.

    [SIZE=6]Government[/SIZE]
    Denobula itself functions as a top down centrist republic with most powers of government vested in the body of the Denobulan chamber of deputies, which itself is split into four main political parties. The chamber is itself divided into several councils tasked with oversight of a specific aspect of the government, such as the War Council, Treasury Council, Education Council and others.

    Members of the Chamber are elected by a popular vote, with each of the seven hundred councillors and deputies corresponding to a specific area of the planet Denobula, the home system and its colonies Vie’r and Stureor.

    Deputies in the Chamber are responsible for either participating in a council, or acting as a direct representative of the region they represent, each region typically sending two representatives. In turn each region with representation is based on population rather than specific area or racial group. Such things being almost non-existent in current Denobulan society.

    Each region in turn elects several people to the offices of local government, they are responsible for working with the Chamber to carry out its rulings and decisions, as well as bringing any issues to the attention of the Chamber for revue by the appropriate council.

    [SIZE=6]Stellar Geography[/SIZE]
    The DPR possesses just three star systems, Denobula prime, a single primary system with a single class M world, unsurprisingly named Denobula, two rocky inner planets and a trio of gas giants in the outer system. Each world in the system is named after mythical kings of the earliest Denobulan state Chiarar.

    Aside from Denobula prime, known as Jur’ror (mother) in the main Denobulan Dialect, the DPR holds the two systems of Vie’r and Stureor. Neither system possesses any habitable planets, Vie’r being a binary star system with two gas giants and an asteroid belt orbiting close to the pair of stars, Stureor on the other hand possesses five planets, two gas giants orbiting very close to the system primary and three large rocky worlds rich in ores.

    The Denobulan Planetary Republic thus lacks any large populations outside of its home system, while by most standards the planet Denobula itself is fairly lightly developed. The DPR is thus one of the smaller Federation members, if one of its founding states.



    System index

    Jur’ror (Denobula Prime)

    Population: 23 billion as of 2450 census

    Economy as percentage of government whole: 92%



    Vie’r

    Population: 2 million as of 2450 census

    Economy as percentage of government whole: 4%



    Stureor

    Population: 3 million as of 2450 census

    Economy as percentage of government whole: 4%

    [SIZE=6]Economy[/SIZE]
    Denobula derives its revenue chiefly on a galactic scale from the taxation of the trade routes that run through its space. Namely the routes connecting Vulcan and Tellarite systems. As well as the Tellar to Sol trade routes. These taxes, though limited by Federation law, are significant due to the quantity of shipping moving through and form roughly seventy percent of the GDP of the nation, allowing the DPR to support population wide healthcare, housing and schooling programs.

    Secondary to this taxation of trade routes is the extensive medical sector of the economy and the sale of exotic animals from Denobula’s lethal ecosystems. The animal trade making up a mere two percent of the republics economy is decidedly of lesser importance than the other fields however.

    Denobulan medical expertise, and the large number of excellent medical centres and universities on Denobula have allowed doctors to specialise in a wide variety of alien biologies and develop new and effective methods of treating a huge number of diseases. Often times the DPR sends medical professionals to emergencies and disasters rather than commit material aid.

    [SIZE=6]Military[/SIZE]
    The DPR relies heavily on the Vulcan Assembly for its protection, this going back to the treaty of Biel’jek of 2113. Thus major combat units are unnecessary for the small DPR System Defense Forces or SDF. Vulcan possesses a naval station orbiting in Lagrange point one of Denobula itself and typically stations at least a cruiser squadron and a few frigates to assist the DSDF in law enforcement and anti-piracy patrols in its space.

    [SIZE=6]Culture and Biology[/SIZE]
    Due to heavy genetic alterations, past inbreeding and careful manipulation of genes many Denobulans share a surprisingly similar appearance. Typically standing between one point six and one point seven centimetres tall both males and females feature prominent coloration on their bodies, specifically around their faces. They are bipedal and have two arms ending with four fingers and an opposable thumb, they breath a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen and have an immune system roughly similar to humans, though more tolerant of viruses than those of most humans by necessity.

    In terms of culture Denobula mostly lacks the diverse range of peoples, languages and societies typical of many other regions. The races close proximity to one another in such a relatively small area for so long has led to current Denobulan society to more or less blend together many elements from past societies.

    Denobulans are family centred in their daily lives, though who counts as family to a Denobulan is fairly open. With closely knit groups being rather rare, instead the race choosing to form extensive webs of marriages with each individual sharing three or four spouses with others. Terms for how one is related to you can become very confusing for outsiders. Due to their integrated society and odd culture and lifestyle most Denobulans rarely leave their home system, meaning Denobula never established a ring of complicated colonies for itself as most other races. They also rarely participate in galactic trade directly, choosing to play a limited, though still crucial role in their galactic neighbourhood.
     
  12. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    So if this is well received it may become the new Wednesday special, I will go through each member state of the UFP in a similar fashion, occasionally writing up about other races like the Klingons. If you liked this or have anything you think I missed please let me know and I will include it with the next one.
     
  13. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    No episode this week, sorry but you will have to wait until next month when I may or may not have something up my sleeve.
     
  14. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    Altarian Kingdom

    [SIZE=6]History[/SIZE]
    Altiar is an old world. Inhabited since ancient times by the Orions the world was likely settled by sublight sleeper ships in the second millennium BCE (Old Earth date) and quickly developing a culture unique from the rest of Orion space. As Vulcan and Orion civilization spread in the first millennium Altiar became a battleground between the various states that existed in the period. Its location being as strategically important then as it is now.

    During the collapse of galactic civilization with the Vulcan schisms and Orion plagues Altiar was forgotten. Developing in isolation until its rediscovery and contact by Vulcan. They supported the rise of the sun kings to power and respected the new kingdoms claims over the surrounding systems of Jerish and Opiess.

    First contact with humanity occurred in the twenty third century with both governments quickly opening trade with one another. Altiar became a distant and strange place to humanity, with voyages to and from lasting several years, giving rise to the boomers. Altiar was Earths introduction to Orion culture and history and a location visited by the UESPA just before the outbreak of the Romulan wars.

    Altiar joined the Federation in 2387 and since then has become a stable and important member. Playing an active role in the Assembly, currently the kingdom is attempting to leverage its position as a Federation member with its Orion neighbours to dominate the region. It claims to wish to stabilize the region, something desperately wanted by both the UE and Vulcan.

    [SIZE=6]Government[/SIZE]
    Altiar exists as a centralised constitutional monarchy with most powers of the government invested in the position of the sun kings. Though most actual decisions are made by the golden council, technically an advisory body to the king that holds most actual power in the state.

    The golden council is formed of two distinct elements, the lords chamber and the citizens council, the latter being a relatively recent addition to the government representing the common non noble citizens of the kingdom while the lords chamber is comprised of members of the semi-feudal nobility which control the various landmasses and planets of the kingdom.

    The king is also the head of the nations military and religion, the worship of the sun god Ashtornep, the roles not being mutually exclusive as the Altarian navy acts in theory as the arm through which the king accomplishes Ashtornep’s goals. The cult of Ashtornep itself places the king in a semi-divine status and all citizens are expected to direct part of their worship to him.

    Within the Federation Altiar typically sides with the UE, its largest trading partner and supplier of the bulk of its imports. It often however does not go so far as to be called a ghost UE council seat however. Choosing to speak for itself in issues it considers important enough, they also oppose UE expansion and the issue has strained the two governments relationship as of late.

    [SIZE=6]Stellar Geography[/SIZE]
    Altiar possesses some twelve inhabited planets and moons spread throughout seven star systems, though Morb, Klethor, Zeir and Pethor possess populations well below ten million and do not enjoy Federation Member World status, that place being reserved for Ashtor, Jerish and Opeiss only.

    The kingdom lies at the outer edge of Orion inhabited space, bordering Vulcan and UE territory in addition to other Orion nations. As a result the kingdom acts as a focal point of the trade routes which pass through Orion, Human and Vulcan space in the region.

    Ashtor

    Population: 23 billion as of 2437 census

    Economy as percentage of kingdom whole: 35%

    Jerish

    Population: 14 billion as of 2411 census

    Economy as percentage of Kingdom whole: 20%

    Opeiss

    Population: 8 billion as of 2458 census

    Economy as percentage of kingdom whole: 15%

    Morb

    Population: 4 million estimated

    Economy as percentage of Kingdom whole: 7%

    Klethor

    Population: 5 million estimated

    Economy as percentage of kingdom whole: 12%

    Zeir

    Population: 2 million estimated

    Economy as percentage of Kingdom whole: 9%

    Pethor

    Population: 7 million as of 2400 census

    Economy as percentage of Kingdom whole: 9%

    [SIZE=6]Economy[/SIZE]
    Altiar derives much of its economy through the taxation of the trade routes which pass through its territory. In past centuries the wealth resulting from taxes was sufficient to allow the kingdom to be a major power.

    Currently however, due to the bulk of trade passing through its ports, Altiar has been forced to diversify its economy. Namely in the fields of tourism and manufacturing. Altarian products such as traditional blankets and furniture being highly sought after in Andor and the UE.

    [SIZE=6]Military[/SIZE]
    Altiar possesses only a modest navy presently, though this had not always been the case. Currently the Altiaran navy stands at a force of six cruisers and eighteen frigates. A force just large enough to defend its territory, though some joint operations with the UE Starfleet and Andorian Imperial Guard have been made since the end of the four years war, in which the kingdom played no combative role, sending instead material aide.

    The navy is comprised of a mixture of ships, though all are reasonably modern. Altiar possesses no native shipbuilding industry capable of constructing modern warships. Forcing the kingdom to outsource its orders to foreign yards. Namely the UE which has built over seventy percent of the current navy.

    [SIZE=6]Culture and Biology[/SIZE]
    As an Orion culture Altarians all share a generally patriarchal society with several castes of society. However, unlike many other similar cultures women are not held in virtual slavery, possessing basic rights and access to the same education as males, and their class system is not rigid, with individuals capable of moving up and down the castes throughout their lives.

    Altarians share the same love of art and music as all Orion cultures, with their architecture especially being noted for its beauty and complexity. The nation has diverse cultures and languages, though all within the kingdom are unified in their worship of Ashtornep, the central sun of the Altiar system, though different sects do exist.

    As an Orion people Altarians are on average roughly similar to humans and Vulcans in height, males being somewhat bulkier in build than their counterparts in other races. Altarian females are generally petite with fair green skin and hair ranging from dark black to red. They are omnivorous in their diet and generally consume large quantities of fruits and vegetables. Life expectancy for an Altarian ranges from one hundred to one hundred and ten years for males, with high mortality rates for females giving birth typical of Orions dropping female life expectancy to sixty years.
     
  15. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    “Easy there Trip!” Captain Johnathan Archer, UESPA, said as the small pod he and Chief Operations Officer Charles Tucker the third, Trip to his friends, were sat in lurched again.

    “I said it when we left the station that if you wanted a smooth no hiccups ride that you should have ridden in with a professional pilot,” Trip said with no apology. “We’ll get there soon enough!”

    “Will we be in a single piece still by then is my question,” Archer said dryly. Trip nudged him with one elbow and used his free hand to deliberately jiggle the controls. The pod shook in response. Nocking the bill of Archer cap into the transparent aluminium viewport at the front of the tiny pod.

    Any retort or reprimand became stuck in Archers throat as they finally hove into sight of there destination. Suddenly his face was right up against the viewport.

    ‘Quite the sight isn’t it?” Trip asked smiling ear to ear with pride. Archer wasnt paying the slightest bit of attention to him.

    At a little under two hundred and twenty five metres long and one hundred and twenty wide the E-class long range explorer Enterprise was somewhat small by even the standards of typical Earth ships. She was barely larger than the Iroquois class patrol cruisers of the United Earth Stellar Navy. Despite of this the ship was vastly more capable.

    Her odd hull form spoke of some of this. A large flattened disk served as the vessels main hull. With a pair of long nacelles housing powerful warp coils were suspended from the hull by pylons which came out of the saucer like primary hulls aft.

    She was unusual to say the least. Well unusual compared to most ships with the exception of the handful of testbeds and proof of concept vehicles which had come before her. One of them, the Beagle, a training ship and demonstrator, was parked in a nearby orbit to Enterprise and looked positively tiny. Like a minnow beside a whale.

    Archer, if possible, felt even smaller in his tiny pod. Trip slowed the vehicle down with a burst of thrusters and brought them along the ship. Flying around the graceful lines of Enterprise and giving her captain a good view of his ship.

    “Don’t scratch the pain!” Archer shouted as Trip got a little to close around the ships forward missile tubes. The tiny pod smacked the larger vessel with a resounding metallic clang and Trip wore a stunned expression so ridiculous that Archer could not help but laugh.

    Impromptu tour over the pod docked in the ships hangar, a large cavity sat between the warp nacelle pylons large enough to house the ships compliment of four shuttles, two tenders and a pair of cargo shuttles.

    In what seemed like forever, but was actually a few minutes the pod autodocked with the ship and with a hiss a secure pressure seal was established by the docking ring.

    “After you,” Trip said motioning to the waiting ladder just outside the pod.

    Archer gracefully disentangled himself from the web of safety and crash harnesses of the pods passenger seat, graceful meaning he looked much like a fish caught in a net, and climbed up the ladder and onto the ship proper.

    “Captain sir,” Helmsman Travis Mayweather said as Archer emerged from the docking ring.

    “Hello Travis how are you?” Archer asked shaking the mans hand. He knew he was smiling much wider than usual. He likely looked like a complete idiot. He did not care.

    “Pretty good, I think I finally have the helm arranged the way that I want it,” Travis said. The two men stood there for a few moment awkwardly. “Sorry to hear about your dad,” Mayweather finally said his voice becoming much more sympathetic.

    Archer coughed. His father, Henry Archer, had been largely responsible for the Enterprise and the revolution it represented. Travis, and most of the ships crew had worked with him extensively. His death to a rare degenerative brain disorder so close to the launch of his dream had been a blow to everyone.

    “Thanks,” Archer said automatically. It had been four days. Four days since he had rushed into the hospital to see the lifeless body of his father being removed from his bed, minutes late in saying goodbye.

    He had been sick most of his life. Sheerans disorder as it was known was rare, and totally preventable provided it was caught early. Fortunately Archer had been treated shortly after birth, the doctors knowing to look as his father was then suffering the early stages of the disease. But for those in whom the disorder was not caught in its early stages it was a long, slow and inevitable process.

    Archer would never get the memory of the last time he had seen his father, the quivering and convulsing form that had cared for him all his life, been his friend and mentor throughout his life. And he had seen the look of shame in his fathers eyes as he saw his son standing in shock at seeing him.

    Thinking about it he nearly teared up right there. The knowledge that the last thing his father had seen of his son was shock and fear would forever haunt him Archer knew. But this was not the time to dwell on it and so he pushed such thoughts from his mind.

    “Are we ready to get underway?” He asked changing subjects. Mayweather sensed the hidden meaning and nodded.

    “For the most part, we still are waiting to take on ambassador Fel and her staff, ambassador Soval and his staff are already aboard and are expecting to meet with you at your convenience. And they did stress that.” Almost as an afterthought Mayweather handed Archer a full report on the ships readiness, schedule and estimated time of departure.

    It looked good, very good. The ship had taken aboard all her stores and fuel, reactors were being brought on line, warp nacelles warmed up and all ships systems tested, so far with no faults. It was shaping up to be a pretty good day if not for the Vulcan presence aboard and sudden change of plans for the ship.

    Initially it had been planned for Enterprise to undergo an extensive shakedown period in the Sol system, humiliating the UESN as Enterprise set numerous new warp speed and endurance records in their own backyard. The ship would then be sent to Alpha Centari to commemorate the death of Zephrame Cochrane, the inventor of the warp drive before the ship set out on a year long mission to explore as much space as she could before heading back to Earth for refuelling and evaluation on her performance.

    Instead the ships maiden voyage had been hijacked for political reasons. The current Forum chairman and leader of the United Earth Michael Rubenetov had ordered the ship to Vulcan as a shakedown cruise instead. Her new mission to flaunt Earths achievements in propulsion by transporting a group of assorted diplomats from Earth to Vulcan and then back again.

    He had done this Archer suspected to garner favour with his political base which wanted him to be stronger in his dealings with Vulcan, while also giving the same Vulcans a chance to look at the ship for themselves and see that it really was just a simple explorer at heart, albeit an explorer faster than any UE vessel to date with enough free volume to carry a very heavy weapons loadout.

    Rubenetov did not have Archers vote when he went up for re-election. Nor did he have the love of the UESPA. He had ignored even director Forrest’s concerns over giving the ship such a high profile mission when she was not yet even fully tested, instead threatening to replace him entirely.

    Archer knew that the Vulcans had pressured the man into this, the sudden change of orders reeked of it. Director Forrest had said much the same thing, confiding that there were likely spies in the ambassadors staff who would try to get all they could from Enterprise. Something that Archer felt was entirely plausible.

    Archer finished reading the report and signed off on it. “Looks good,” he said, handing it back to Mayweather. “I think me a Trip are going to check up on the engine room if there is nothing that needs my immediate attention.” Mayweather shook his head to signify that there wasn’t. He left report in hand and both Trip and Archer headed the short distance to main engineering.

    The room was large and sat in the center of the ships primary hull. Even so it felt rather small and cramped. Much of its volume being taken up by the massive spherical reactor that dominated the room, massive was somewhat of an understatement though as it was small by the standards of shipboard fusion reactors. Nevertheless its bulk dominated the room and took up four decks worth of space.

    Trip immediately descended into the chaos that was the startup sequence. A lengthy six hour long process just going into the critical hour four mark. Archer spent a little bit of time there watching, but really he was more in the way than anything else and so left after just a little bit of time to go to the bridge proper.

    Technically the room was the command center as the word bridge had been stolen by the UESN for their ships, but nevertheless the room was called so by the ships crew out of habit.

    All snapped their heads to the lift as Archer walked in. “Captain!” Mayweather said with a smile. “What do you think with the ship all put together?”

    Archer did not answer immediately, he was to busy taking in the bridge, last time he had seen it the room was just bare walls, lighting and panelling had not even been installed yet. “Quite a sight,” he said and meant it.

    He had been heavily involved in the outfitting of the ship. Working closely with both his crew and spacedock workers until he had been forced to spend most of his time working with the UESPA board of directors to plan how the ship would be used, press conferences and training sessions with the officers earmarked to command the next three E class ships. Columbia, Discovery and Atlantis. His fathers passing had been the final thing keeping him from seeing the ship fully put together.

    “Would I be right in assuming all the consoles work properly?” He asked playing with the helm controls. Mayweather smiled.

    “When we power them up they should work just fine. But until we need to leave orbit there is really no need. He to grabbed at the controls and began idly flipping buttons.

    “My stations are fully powered up so if you would mind not playing with them,” a gruff British accented voice said from behind Archer. He turned with a false smile.

    “How are you Malcom?” He asked Lieutenant-Commander Malcom Reed, the leader of the twelve man UESN team stationed aboard Enterprise to man and operate the ships limited armament of three point defence lasers and defensive missiles. Because he belonged to the UESN he did not fully fit in with the rest of the crew, his gruff attitude and apparent scorn for those around him was not helping to change this.

    “Just fine sir,” Reed said glancing up for a moment to smile partially at Archer before getting back to whatever he was doing at that time. “Just making a few final checks before we leave. Want to make sure that everything is working fully.”

    “Keeps talking about wanting all weapons to be fully functional, almost like he thinks we will be attacked by the Vulcans or something,” Mayweather joked. Reed was not smiling.

    “I expect no such thing,” he said with a sigh. “Captain I merely want to ensure that all of the ships systems under my supervision are functioning the way the are intended to. I would hate to go on our first mission with jammed missile tubes and misaligned lasers.”

    Archer hid an internal sigh. Reed was a perfectly good, if somewhat formal and non sequitur officer. Unlike some naval personnel he had met Reed held no real malice towards the civilians he was surrounded by. Choosing to do his job and not make any enemies.

    His problem was that he was very much a no nonsense kind of person, the very image of a UESN officer. Humourless and icy he carried out his duties with impressive skill, but outside of necessary conversations Archer would not choose to have much to do with him.

    “And how are our defensive systems coming along?” Archer asked. He was not allowed to use the term weapons, Reed had explained that a warship carried weapons. UESPA vessels mounted defences. Even if the lasers Enterprise mounted were the same as those carried by the latest UESN cruiser.

    “Not to bad. Still waiting for the final batch of missiles for launcher three, and number two laser is still a little misaligned. Otherwise everything shows as just fine.” Reed looked around his station, a cluster of consoles to the right of the captains chair located in the center of the room. He produced a report of his own. “Everything is in there sir, awaiting your final signature as soon as I have the last of the missiles and the laser aligned.

    Archer had to admit that as stiff as he was Reed was never late with a report, in fact if anything his reports were a little overly complex. Leaving nothing out and attempting to answer any and all questions a person may have before they could ask them.

    This report was no different and Archer only glanced through it. “Let me know when you want it signed and I will read it through,” he said passing the document back. Reed nodded.

    Archer spoke with the rest of the bridge crew for a little while. He knew each of them quite well. Mayew, the ships second helmsman was stood off in a corner of the room, waiting to take over from Travis, One the aft operations station was a new addition to the crew, technical specialist Daniels, the engineering section located in its own little niche at the very back of the bridge was currently unmanned. That left the science stations which were currently manned by only a single person.

    “Hello captain!” Hoshi Sato, lingual prodigy and close friend of Johnathans said with a sheepish smile.

    “Hoshi how are you adjusting to life in space?” Archer had finally managed to convince her to join him aboard Enterprise a week prior, just after his fathers death. It would be good to have the planets foremost xenolinguist aboard once Enterprise got into truly uncharted space. Assuming she could handle it.

    “Not as well as you may expect,” Hoshi answered holding up a, thankfully, empty vomit bag. “Artificial gravity is a harsh mistress.”

    “It takes some getting used to,” Archer admitted smiling at the joke, she was quoting a classic movie, the two of them both being major film buffs.
     
  16. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    [LEFT][SIZE=4][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)][/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]That concluded the introductions and looking at the clock Archer realised he still had two hours before the ship got fully underway. And there was not really anything to pressing for him to do. At least not pressing enough that he could get out of the only real thing he had to do before the ship officially launched.
    [/COLOR]
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    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]“Malcom do you think you can look after things while I greet ambassador Soval?” Archer asked. Officially Enterprise held no second in command like aboard naval vessels. With a crew of just two hundred it was felt that such a position was unnecessary, just one more mouth to eat up valuable provisions and shorten the ships range to explore. This meant that when the captain was away command of the ship fell on whoever was there for him to give it to. Usually it fell on Mayweather, but he did not want to give the impression this early into the ships mission that he had favourites.
    [/COLOR]
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    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]Reed was somewhat surprised by the question, he had been given command only a few times. But he readily accepted, it did not much interfere with his duties at the moment as the ship was just parked in orbit. He went back to working on his console and generally left everyone else alone. Archer left the bridge and headed off to the ships hastily constructed guest quarters, empty science labs hastily converted to accommodation suitable for housing a few dozen members of the diplomatic corps of both Earth and Vulcan.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
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    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]“Captain I was beginning to wonder if I would have the privilege of meeting with you before we got underway.” Ambassador Soval had answered the door himself at Archers knock. Unlike some ships in the fleet Enterprise did not have buzzers to alert a person when someone was at the door.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]“What kind of host would I be if I did not check up on my guests.” Archer had dealt with enough Vulcans to be fairly proficient at their infernal politeness.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]“I am aware that you are a busy man, from what your director Forrest told me you have been rather busy as of late planetside.” There was a slight undertone of curiosity in the ambassadors voice.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]Archer smiled, as always uncomfortable with the Vulcans obvious examination of him. He wondered if the Vulcan knew what had made it necessary for him to be on Earth but decided he probably did not. “I have been, but things cleared up so that I could get aboard an hour or two ago.”
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]“Your first class specialist Travis Mayweather informed me of your arrival,” Soval said. “The two of us were discussing your fine vessel.”
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]Archer wondered if Travis had said anything specific, or if the ambassador had managed to get anything from him. He knew his helmsman had likely said only conflicting information to throw the Vulcan off.
    [/COLOR]
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    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]“I must say before we get underway captain how sorry I am that your mission and proper shakedown cruise were delayed. I assure you neither I nor my government had any part in your change of orders.” Soval looked generally apologetic, or as close as a Vulcan came.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]Archer did not believe a word the man said, but he was not here to say that. “No need to apologize, chairman Rubenetov likely just wanted to show us off to our allies.”
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]Soval kept up the lies. “A senseless decision, but one that does have the happy result that I get back to Vulcan a little earlier than if I had travelled aboard one of your warships.”
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]Archer took issue with the your warships phrase but said nothing. “I was made to understand that you wanted to speak with me?” He asked instead.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]Soval took a moment to collect his thoughts. Obviously thinking about his next words. “There are some among my staff that have significant prejudices against humans,” he said finally and with some obvious discomfort. Archer did not think he was faking it.
    [/COLOR]
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    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]“They will not be openly hostile or rude I assure you, we are not as aggressive even our racists as humans.” Archer was amazed that Soval managed to get in an insult even here.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]“They have been warned repeatedly about their illogical attidutes,” he continued. “But to no avail. I doubt they will do anything unwise, but they may speak to you unkindly and not treat your wishes and orders with the respect they are due. I wanted to make you aware of this before we got to far into our journey.”
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]Soval looked relieved to have gotten that off his chest. I made no difference to Archer, in his experience one Vulcan was as condescending and rude as the next and the knowledge that one may be deliberately rude did not phase him to terribly much if he was being honest.
    [/COLOR]
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    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]“Thanks for the warning,” he said trying his best to put in some amount of false gratitude. “I will keep this in mind.”
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]He spoke further for a moment with ambassador Soval for a few minutes. Discussing their accommodations and the speed at which they would arrive at Vulcan. Soval admitted that Vulcan had no idea of Enterprises true reachable speed. But Archer was eager to get back to the bridge and get the ship underway. The ships time of departure was drawing ever nearer. He left with a promise to speak with Soval further at dinner.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]Soval watched the human go with a mixture of feelings working through his mind. Unlike what many humans seemed to assume Vulcans did all experience emotions, but just controlled them through mental training ad discipline, not allowing their feelings and emotions to rule over them.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]The captain had clearly been less than truthful and had not found his warning to be of to useful or important. Unsurprising as intelligence had already reported the man to have a bit of a prejudice himself towards Vulcans. Like many humans he believed they had held humanity back with their centuries of oversight into Earths affairs.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]Soval snorted at the idea. Rather than hold humanity back with their two centuries of oversight and examination Vulcan had paved the way forward for Earth to become the bustling hive of activity it was today. Smoothing over the racial and religious differences that had dived the planet and repairing much of the damage inflicted by humans to their planet in their wars. If anything Vulcan had saved humanity from extinction and pulled their development far forwards.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]He closed the doors to his quarters and shook his head. He doubted the staff members he had warned the captain about would get into to much trouble. But still he wanted to make it clear early in the trip that he was not responsible for their actions.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]“Sir would you like for me to get back to my report?” A questioning voice asked behind him. Soval dismissed thoughts of the human and their two races relationship to focus on the report he had been getting before Archer interrupted.
    [/COLOR]
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    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]“Please do,” he said, sitting in the chair opposite the woman delivering the report.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]At just thirty years old T’pol was one of the youngest members of Soval’s staff. As well as one of his most helpful and important. As his scientific advisor and liaison with the UESPA she had also gradually assumed many further duties as his primary aid. Currently she had been giving a report on her observations of Enterprise and her conclusions regarding the capabilities of the ship in terms of speed, range and endurance.
    [/COLOR]
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    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]“As I recall you were just about to speak about your views on the vessels armament,” Soval said as a unnecessary reminder of her place.
    [/COLOR]
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    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]“Indeed I was.” T’pol looked down at her notes, a pile of paper on the table between their two seats. “Selvek is actually my source for the majority of the conclusions I reached, it would be better if I just allowed you to read through his official report,” she handed him a few pages and the ambassador looked over the documents. He was not a naval officer, but he knew enough to follow along with the report.
    [/COLOR]
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    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]“Selvek is thorough, if he says the ship is as lightly armed as this then I am inclined to believe him.” T’pol nodded. It was not truly up to her to offer up opinions. She merely delivered information and made a logical conclusion.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]But if she had been asked she would have said her opinions about the vessel they were aboard. In her mind, if she had been given the chance to speak, she would have said that she viewed the ship as a potential threat to Vulcans long enjoyed supremacy.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]Earth was still a small power, in terms of its military, economy and population it was still well below Vulcan. With the current situation it was unlikely that this would change at any point in the near future. But a ship with Enterprises speed had the potential to make a major difference. Allowing Earth to circumvent Vulcan fleets in war, and spread far beyond their current frontiers in peace. Unless Vulcan possessed similar ships, and in a short period of time, they stood to be outmatched by Earth in a number of years.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]In her opinion Earths development of the ship should have been observed much closer than it was. Soval was perfectly correct in his decision to keep a light approach at the time Enterprise had begun development, but in hindsight it had proven to be the wrong position.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]T’pol knew this was likely the reason he had been recalled so suddenly. It was a mere fluke that the Forum Chairman of the UE, that man Rubetenov, had decided to order Enterprise to carry Soval to Vulcan. Giving the ambassador the chance he needed to recoup his losses.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]They were not spying, not in the classic sense. More realistically they had been ordered to observe Enterprises abilities and performance and report on what they saw on arrival on Vulcan. As a part of this tours of the ship and discussion with its crew would be sought as much as possible. Those were the orders anyway, realistically conversations between Humans and Vulcans tended to be rather short and to the point. An efficient use of time, but one that seldom resulted in new information being learned.
    [/COLOR]
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    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]“Are you paying attention?” Soval asked noticing that T’pol’s mind seemed to be elsewhere. “I was asking if you would draft an initial report.”
    [/COLOR]
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    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]“Of course,” T’pol kicked herself for allowing her thoughts to drift off in that manner. She gave no external sign of this internal rebuke however and rose. “I will do so in my quarters if that suits you.”
    [/COLOR]
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    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]“It does, we will be leaving orbit shortly, it would be best if you were in your own quarters.” Soval rose and opened the door for her in a learned Human courtesy.
    [/COLOR]
    [FONT=Open Sans][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)] [/COLOR][/FONT]
    [COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]She left and began to write up a basic report on the ship. At this point they had learned little, other than the basic layout of the ship and her general capabilities. But it would serve as a useful template to be added to and altered at a later date once more had been learned of the ship. Beneath her feet the deck pulsed and vibrated, the whole experience seeming like the ship was going to tear itself apart. Such feelings would not be found on a Vulcan ship.
    [/COLOR][/SIZE][/LEFT]
     
  17. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    [LEFT][SIZE=4][COLOR=rgb(20, 20, 20)]

    Hoshi Sato knew exactly how it felt to think the ship was going to tear itself apart. She clung for dear life to her console and closed her eyes. It was all she could do not to scream as the vibrating and roar of the ships engines grew louder.


    “Warp factor two point four,” Mayweather reported from the helm. “Warp factor two point five, warp factor two point six…”


    He went on and on, each new point being massively faster than the last. The ship continued to accelerate and speed up and the shaking grew worse. For Sato, who had never left Earth orbit let alone travelled aboard a warp ship, it was terrifying. For the rest of the ships crew it was perfectly normal.


    The ships speed levelled off at the warp three point five mark, the normal cruising speed for UESPA and UESN ships. After a few moments at this speed the vibrating and noise began to die down as the ships engines let off the power, once at a given warp velocity it became much easier and more power efficient to maintain that speed.


    “Hold her steady Travis,” Archer ordered. It might as well have ben music to Hoshi’s ears. He looked over at her and smiled a daredevils grin. “What did you think?” He asked.


    Hoshi decided to be honest. “That was terrifying,” she admitted. She could see Trip hide a grin. Archer was a lot less careful in concealing the laugh he made. “Was I that obvious?” She asked. Trip now broke out into open laughter.


    “You sounded like you were praying in Japanese or Orion or something!” He said between bursts of giggling. Sato blushed.


    “I hadn’t realised I had been talking out loud,” she said her face a deep crimson red.


    “We understand,” Travis said doing his best to calm Hoshi.
    “Yes, we do,” Malcom seconded. Hoshi did not know the man well. But he was the last one she expected to get any sympathy from.


    “You do?” She asked somewhat stunned. Everyone else apparently shared her confusion as they stopped laughing at her and looked over at Reed.


    “Yes, I do.” Reed wondered why everyone was looking at him. He knew as a naval man he was not at all the most popular man on the ship. And he knew he could be a little cold, but did they all think him totally emotionless?


    “It was her first time going to warp,” he looked at her. “Am I correct in that assumption?” he asked. Sato nodded. “My first time at warp was just as terrifying,” he said. All looked at him.


    He decided it best to speak directly to Sato and ignore the stares of the others. “I was just out of school and was sent off to the Jupiter station, to get there I flew aboard the UES DaVinci. An old systems patrol ship. She only made warp one point eight, even so the little tin can vibrated so badly that I was convinced we were all about to die and tried my best to make for the escape pods, only to be restrained by the vessels captain, an old and grizzled Swede.”


    “Sounds like fun,” Sato said stifling a giggle. Malcom did not much care, for one the young lady was very pretty, and for another he had obviously helped her not feel quite so bad about her minor freakout.


    The vibrations had almost totally ceased to be noticeable now, she could still feel them. She had heard that the engine vibrations would never stop once the ship entered warp, and that the higher the speeds the ship travelled the worse the vibrations, though they would die down as the ships speed levelled out.


    Archer read through the reports from the engine room and field control rooms and smiled. Everything was going as smoothly as he could have wished for. This was not the first time that Enterprise had gone to warp he knew, but she had never gone this fast.


    He knew that warp factor three point five was about the fastest Earth designed vessels ever travelled, Vulcan ships were another story and could reasonably hope to reach warp factor three point eight or nine under normal cruising conditions.


    Enterprise had been designed to achieve speeds as high as warp factor four point six, although for comparably short periods. In theory with a powerful enough engine she could reach as high as warp five, but the reactor fitted aboard at the moment could not hope to produce power sufficient for such speeds. Her cruising speed was considered as around warp factor four, well in excess of even the fastest Vulcan vessels cruising speed, and she reached such speeds consuming perhaps as little as ten percent that of what a Vulcan ship would.


    Fuel was something every starship was traditionally very short on. Fusion reactors were incredibly thirsty machines, and the faster a ship wished the travel the more power was needed from the engines, equating to even more fuel.


    This was not a problem at lower warp velocities, but as a vessel approached the warp two point three threshold it began to become a problem. Vessels needed ever more fuel to reach even the relatively short distances between star systems, leading to larger fuel tanks, and larger ships to fit them, and then larger tanks in an endless cycle. The fastest Vulcan ship that Earth was aware of, the Deik’lavas class, were immense half kilometre long monsters capable of reaching warp factor two point five for brief periods. Much of their internal volume was devoted entirely to fuel.


    Not only was Enterprise faster than the Vulcan behemoth, she was also less than a tenth her displacement. And as icing on the cake with just ten percent of her hundred thousand ton displacement devoted to fuel she could travel more than six times farther than the Vulcan, a ship which devoted more than thirty percent of her displacement to fuel.


    That was why Enterprise represented such a leap forward. She could remain on patrol far longer than a traditional design of starship, allowing her the range to be the first truly long range explorer ever built. She had a range measured in years rather than weeks, and capability to travel hundreds of lightyears on a single fuelling rather than a few dozen like normal vessels. She promised to be an incredibly effective explorer and had the potential to open up an entirely new frontier to human colonists and explorers.


    That was also why the Vulcan wanted to know more about her. The ship was capable of tremendous feats of exploration with her revolutionary design. But, if armed even moderately, she represented an extremely fast and powerful ship capable of outflanking any traditional battlefleet without issue and striking deep into enemy territory. If Earth built a fleet of such warships, which the UESN seemed determined to do, then they would immediately become an extremely large threat even to the massive Vulcan space marine.


    It was a sombering thought. At the moment the UESN, the military branch of the United Earths spacefaring forces, possessed only thirty cruisers, twenty of which were only short ranged ships. This made Earth a small power, with a fleet mostly only capable of policing its frontiers and colonies and little else.


    But, with the same number of ships like Enterprise the UESN could easily send a fleet to the homesystem of any potential threat race and outflank them, or send its forces to raid and disrupt the enemies spaceborn shipping. Crippling their economy and strangling them into surrender. Granted once Vulcan designed and built their own similar vessels they would be once again the dominant power.


    But the problem they were evidently facing was how to design their own high warp ship. Archer had not seen any intelligence reports. But he had heard rumours that Vulcans attempts in this field had so far ended only in disaster, they understood the basic concept, but were having trouble developing it into a proper working design.


    Archer looked at the position board and smiled. The ship would pass Mars before to long, he had plans to beam a message to the Utopia Planetia colony as they passed. After that Jupiter lay on a direct path along Enterprise’s exit course from the system. A thought struck Archer and he made a few adjustments to the course.


    “Travis, tell me what you think about this,” he said as he handed the helmsman his math. The other man smiled as he realized what his captain had planned.


    “I like it sir,” he grinned right back and passed the sheet of paper back to Archer.


    “What is it?” Malcom asked wondering what had gotten the two so amused.


    “You will see,” Archer said wondering what his reaction would be. Frustrated Reed got back to his board. Whatever it was he could wait to see what his shipmates were on about.





    Reed did not have to wait very long. Just a few hours after their exchange and just past Mars Mayweather suddenly jammed the ships engines into high gear, they roared in response and the ship lurched forward suddenly as Jupiter neared.


    Hoshi yelped in surprise but quickly forced herself to be quiet when she saw Archer and Mayweather grinning, it had to be alright then. She dug her hands into the armsrest, digging marks that would remain in the plastic until the ship was decommissioned.


    Enterprise rapidly gained speed. Roaring towards Jupiter and quickly exceeding warp factor four and climbing all the way up to warp factor five. As she flew by Jupiter Enterprise flashed a message to the UESN’s Jupiter Station informing them that the ship had just breeched the speed record one of their ships had set the year before to much publicity. Archer took the opportunity to order an active sensor sweep of the Jovian system. Lighting up every ship present in a deliberate act that set off every alarm in the area.


    Reed reported that a trio of Vulcan ships were also present in the system as Enterprise roared past, and that they had seemed to try to lock onto the ship with their own active sensors. But they had been to slow, by the time their sensors were warmed up they were pointing several million kilometres aft of the ship.


    Travis kept up the speed until the Sol system was well behind them, leaving the UESN fleetbase and Earth in her wake. The ship slowed only as she left the Oort cloud, and then only to warp three point seven. Holding that speed until the engine room reported some overheating issues with the reactor. But Trip said it was nothing to serious, so the ship only dropped down to warp three point five.

    It was quite a display of the speeds the ship was capable of. Enterprise had travelled well over half a lightyear in just under eight hours. An impressive feat and one that T’pol was careful to record in her constantly updating report. As the ship left the Sol system behind normal life quickly began, it being quite late Archer ordered dinner to be served and the crew given a moment to decompress. [/COLOR][/SIZE][/LEFT]
     
  18. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    United Federation of Planets, History
    The Coalition of Planets.


    No discussion on the history of the UFP is complete without some basic background first, and this inevitably involves an examination of the Coalition that preceded it. This short lived organization provided the basic framework for its successor and heralded the beginning of an age of unprecedented cooperation between the races of the galaxy.

    The Coalition was formed in 2453 by Earth, Vulcan, Andor and Tellar in an effort to create a loose trade organization to help strengthen trade between the four major powers, several smaller nations, notably Denobula, also partook in the Coalition as unofficial partners. There were slight undertones in the coalition of military cooperation, the charter mentioning a provision for shared defense, though this was at first only a platitude to calm Tellar which was beginning to meet with scouting parties from the Romulan empire.



    The Romulan wars

    In 2356 the Romulan empire began a sweeping invasion of the United Earth, Andorian Empire and Tellar Systems Republic and several smaller powers. The might of the Romulan fleet swept aside most of the prewar UESN and severely weakened the Andorian and Tellarite star navies before the empire reached the end of its supply lines and began to regroup.

    Cooperation between the three main governments in the wars first half resulted in the development of numerous classes of emergency build warships and sharing of weapons technologies. Though not itself at war, and prohibited from fighting offensively, the Vulcans provided enormous amounts of raw materials and supplies to its allies, allowing them to turn their entire attention to prosecuting the war.

    Tellar was all but destroyed in the fighting against the Romulans, its fleets decimated and planets bombarded, but Earth and Andor would successfully fight the Romulans to a ceasefire, destroying much of their fleet in 2358-59. Romulus would surrender and create the neutral zone in 2360, ending the war.



    Birth of the UFP

    Following the end of the Romulan wars the members of the Coalition were devastated and required massive amounts of resources to rebuild. A meeting was held at the UE colony of Babel in 2461 to decide what was to be done. What resulted from the first Babel conference was a Vulcan pledge to provide material aide in the reconstruction efforts of its allies. In exchange Earth and Andor released some of the technologies developed fighting the Romulans to Vulcan, allowing it to modernize its own fleets in the event of a second Romulan invasion.

    The Coalition was maintained in the Babel conference, its military cooperation clause being strengthened by a formal declaration of alliance between Earth and Andor, supplanting Vulcan as Earths primary supporter. Tellar required massive help and both governments pledged their support in both reconstruction and defence.

    Vulcan felt sidelined by this development and saw a possible rise of Earth and Andor against them, with their militaries far superior from a technological, if not numerical, standpoint it was clear that the Assembly would find any potential war difficult.

    In an effort to forestall any possibility of another war the Vulcans convened a conference of their own in 2364 on their colony of Antria with the purpose of improving relations with its allies and better integrating their trade relationship.

    Vulcan diplomats outlined their position in very clear language, stating that they wanted to work with their allies much more than they were, and that the growing rift between Vulcan and the UE-Andor power bloc hould not be allowed to develop to the point of war.

    The Vulcan team submitted their plans to better cooperate via the framework of the Coalition of Planets and found, to their relief that both Earth and Andor felt similarly. Neither government wishing another war so soon after the last one.

    The Antria conference ended in 2364 and each diplomatic team left with promises to bring the Vulcan proposal to their own governments and then meet again in 2365 for another round of negotiations.

    This happened and on the UE colony of Terra Nova the Coalition members began to discuss their governments views. All agreed that closer cooperation was desirable. Though all initially laughed at the news that the UE government had thought the conference to be about forming a unified government.

    The laughter did not last long however as soon all parties began to negotiate the possibility of forming such a government. Tellar in particular supported the idea, as did the UE, though Vulcan and Andor remained sceptical of the idea.

    It would be the lesser members of the council that would eventually sway the two outliers, Denobula in particular managed to swing the Vulcan party in favour of what was by this point called the United Federation of Planets and get a basic draft of government drawn up for approval by all participating governments. The council remained in session until word was heard back.

    Approval for the Federation was overwhelming, particularly in Earth where that sort of thing had been desired for some time. In 2366 then a final draft of the Federation charter was submitted for signing by each member government of the proposed government, only Deltan Collective refusing to sign the document of the fourteen council members.

    Thus, on the first of April 2367 (OED) the United Federation of Planets convened for its first session in the city of Paris, Earth. The nominal capital city of the government due to Earths central location and generally good relations with all powers.

    History 2367-present

    Initially the UFP was treated as a continuation of the earlier Coalition of Planets, a loose trade organization. However under the six terms of the bodies first president Johnathan Archer, the organization grew to become more. Establishing bodies for the sharing of scientific data, joint diplomatic missions and humanitarian endeavours and many other fields. Military cooperation and joint exercises also became a common practice among the governments members.

    The Federation grew in the first decades of its inception, the new members being welcomed with open arms, trade between the different Federation members created an economic boom. Quadrupling the economy of the UFP by the first fifty years of its birth. This unparalleled economic growth meant that by 2412 the Federation possessed more than half the total GDP of the known galaxy.

    Things were not perfect for the new body however and this was mostly due to the UE which had began even before the Romulan wars to aggressively colonize vast tracts of space around it. Post war the now dominant Combined Starfleet which had replaced the UESN and UESPA power was ensuring that any rock with even a few human colonists was protected from any alien threat. Often at the cost of the Federations relationship with other powers.

    Vulcan and Andor came to realize that Earths aggressive expansion may potentially result in the UE getting involved in a war with a foreign power. Thus in 2426 a special clause was added to the Federation Charter which allowed Federation members to refuse to come to the aide of a fellow government in wartime if said government could be said to have engaged in aggressive action against the nation warring against it. This clause, known as the neutrality clause would be used in when the UE became embroiled in the Four years war in 2441.

    Although the Federation would later come to Earths aid in this war, helping to defeat the Klingons and drive them back to the prewar border, their early failure to fight for them led to a notable souring of the relationship that Earth had with the other members of the Federation, the neutrality clause was deleted from the Charter in 2451 and in 2456 plans were drawn up to better integrate the militaries of Federation member states.

    The burgeoning cold war between the United Earth and Klingon empire would lead to expansion and modernization of all Federation member militaries, Vulcans especially which had allowed its forces to grow obsolete in decades of inaction. There is now a rising possibility of war breaking out between the Federation and Klingon empire as tensions continue to rise year by year.
     
  19. Charles Markov

    Charles Markov Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2018
    Location:
    Lalaland
    It had been over a week, Enterprise was halfway through with her trip to Vulcan and in Archers opinion it could not be over soon enough. The Vulcans had been a constant nuisance, continually wanting a tour of different parts of the ship. Asking about her capabilities and generally doing their level best to discover her secrets.

    Ambassador Fel meanwhile, Earths replacemet ambassador to Vulcan, made the trip even more of a headache by constantly getting in the way, asking questions, demanding to speak with Archer only for her to ask him simple questions. His favourite being how to adjust the lighting in her quarters, something anyone else on the ship could have done just as easily.

    Enterprise also had a few troubles of her own. Being a new ship there was still a few problems to be worked out, some defective parts to be replaced such as malfunctioning lighting elements and haywire environmental controls, and quirks of the ship to be discovered. Perhaps the worst of these issues being when the gravity on C deck had failed without warning, Archer had phoned Trip from the shower and been nearly injured when it was turned back on. A drop of two metres onto the deck had not been fun. Fortunately no one else had been injured in the mishap and the Vulcans remained blissfully ignorant that it had even happened.

    It had not been all bad however, Archer was finding that he absolutely loved the ship. Enterprise was a masterpiece of design and every waking moment he was not being hounded by politicians or Vulcans he enjoyed himself immensely.

    He tested the ships systems extensively in the first number of days. Making a number of stops to ensure that the ships sensors worked, or that other systems would work properly. He even gave Reed the chance to test the ships “defensive systems” by stopping on the fourth day of the journey for some target practice against a passing meteorite. It took a salvo of missiles and a blast of laser fire for the half kilometre wide ball of rock and ice to explode, but it was quite the lightshow.

    The ship was continuing on its course now, all tests Archer could think of having been concluded already, and a routine was forming. Archer sat on the bridge for the first eight hours of the day, with first Travis and then Malcom taking shifts overseeing the ship. Trip spent most of his time in the engine room and elsewhere, occasionally Hoshi would have a go at commanding the ship for awhile, though she still was not comfortable with that degree of authority.

    The Vulcans had not been idle either. Over the last few days they had taken repeated tours of the ship, often with Archer leading them through the engine rooms, computer cores and weapons. In groups of just two or three at a time they asked an endless series of questions regarding the ships systems, speed and capabilities. Archer did his best to give as vague answers as he could without stooping to outright lies.

    The rest of the ships officers were far less concerned about lying and even said outright impossibilities when asked about Enterprise. Trip was perhaps the worst. On one occasion answering that Enterprise could achieve warp factor seven and hold that speed for nine years without refuelling when asked about the ships speed.

    Fortunately the Vulcans seemed unwilling to stoop to quite the level that Archer had anticipated. Never being caught or even suspected of attempting to hack into the ships computers directly. It was not something they were not entirely unfamiliar with, the Chicago scandal of a decade prior being still fresh in everyone’s mind. And Archer was certain to make sure that evidence of hacking had been looked for.

    Overall Archer was finding these Vulcans far less intrusive and difficult than they had anticipated. Even ambassador Soval was proving to be less of a nuisance than he had initially believed. He was perhaps less than a problem than ambassador Fel and her staff which was constantly in his way and asking an endless series of questions and difficulties. That did not mean he was enjoying it, but he was managing through it.



    If Archer had learned that just on the edge of Vulcan space there lay in wait a cruiser of the Deik’lavas class which had stationed itself along Enterises projected course with the intention of ambushing her he would have suddenly found any good will he had towards Vulcans evaporate.

    The ship was part of a mission organized by a reactionary element within the navy which was convinced that they needed gain as much intelligence on the E-class ships as possible. Even resorting to force to accomplish their goals.

    Captain Cho’kol and his ship the Arakas were only a part of the plan however. The anchor by which the other two parts of the planned heist were dependent upon. Prior to the ships departure there was concern raised of how unstable Vulcan scientists believed the vessels warp field to be that was passed onto the UESPA and UE government. It was ignored, but when the ship went missing it would provide a convenient reason to explain why the ship was lost.

    The third element of the plan involved planted agents in ambassador Soval’s own staff that would cripple the ships engines and attempt to hack her computers to stop the vessel from either attempting to escape, or fight back.

    The plan was necessary, at least Cho’kol and others felt it was. Earth could not be allowed to usurp Vulcan’s position as the preeminent technological power in the galaxy, they had possessed warp flight for a scant few centuries while Vulcan had possessed it for close to two millennium. Humans were also dangerous, having nearly destroyed themselves before Vulcan stepped in and stabilized the situation on Earth, delivering huge quantities of relief supplies in the process and rebuilding the planets shattered environment.

    “It will be another day before the Earth ship arrives,” Cho’kol said as an opening to the mornings officer meeting. He looked around at everyone and saw that he had their complete attention. “Before they get here I want our sensor nets fully assembled so we have the best coverage of the system possible, missing them is not an option.”

    He looked down at his board. “We also need to be certain to look for the signal from those aboard the Earth ship loyal to our cause. If they fail however I am willing to resort to the use of force.”

    Seeing his words had registered he continued with the briefing. Receiving reports and asking questions about the ships status like any captain would. Enterprise was forgotten for the moment. All in the room knew everything there was to know and did not need to be reminded of anything, they were Vulcans afterall and possessed perfect memories.



    “This conduit is the primary feedpoint for the port nacelle is it not?” Selvek asked as he and his party of three were led through the twisting corridors of Enterprises aft sections.

    “Yes I believe it is,” Travis answered. He was getting tired, he had just spent eight hours on the bridge and had been looking forward to a bit of rest, only for captain Archer to ask him as he had been about to get to the lift to give these three Vulcans a quick tour of the ship.

    “And it feeds directly into the main reactor?” Selvek asked.

    “I would have to ask Tucker, but I believe that is true,” Travis shifted in his stance and leaned against the bulkhead.

    “Would that not be a problem should there be a power bleedback?” Another Vulcan asked. “Would that not run the possibility of disabling or even destroying the vessel?”

    Travis did know the answer to this question. “Actually the reactor has shutoffs in the injectors to the conduits that will stop any plasma feedback into the reactor and shunt it off harmlessly.”

    The Vulcan that had asked the question seemed to mull over this for a moment. “But the ship would be unable to attain warp speeds then would it not? Would the conduit to be warped for further use?”

    Travis nodded. “Unfortunatlely yes,” he wondered for a moment why three Vulcans were this interested in the plasma conduits of the Enterprise.

    Apparently catching Travis’s thought the third Vulcan piped up, “Vulcan vessels have several failsafes such as this and the plasma conduits themselves are easily replaceable,” he said with an air of superiority.

    Travis was not enough of an expert on Enterprises’ technical specification to give an answer to this, but he was certain that whatever the Vulcans used it was inferior to whatever was fitted aboard his ship. Doing his best to ignore the slight against his ship he carried on with the tour. Finally he finished the tour a few hours later and went to bed.



    T’pol was waiting when Selvek and his team returned for them in the shared common room between their quarters. “Have you anything to report?” She asked as the doors cycled shut behind them.

    Selvek nodded. “Nothing of use,” Selvek said, sitting down on the couch across from T’pol he noted that she was not in the least bit surprised.

    “The humans have proven remarkably capable of keeping us in the dark about the capabilities of the ship. I must say I am impressed by that, though frustrated.” T’pol slid a notepad over to him. “Anything you noted should be written down, we need as thorough a report as possible.”

    Selvek nodded, he was well aware of the necessity to keep records of their tour of the ship. Even if they did not find any useful information, at least anything he could share with T’pol.

    He finished his report in a few minutes and handed it over to T’pol, who read through it and signed her approval of it before setting it on a pile of similar reports. She was growing frustrated at the lack of anything useful to report. Watching her Selvek had a slight pang of guilt for not being entirely truthful with her. But logically she would not be harmed by what she did not know.

    He left a short time later and went to bed. Leaving T’pol alone to think over what she had observed. She knew Selvek was not being entirely truthful with her. His body language, though well hidden, showed some guilt over something. But she had no idea just what he was not telling her. It was not like looking at the ship and trying to find out what made it work the way it did had a lot of room for secrets.

    On a whim, if Vulcans had whims, T’pol looked through Selvek’s personal file. It showed nothing terribly out of the ordinary. He had served with ambassador Soval for a few years after he had gotten out of the navy. He went to school at a prestigious university and graduated in the top tiers of his class.

    But then as she looked a little more in depth his record began to stand out a little more. For one he was well known as being somewhat prejudiced against humans. Viewing them as primitive and in need of help. He had been reprimanded repeatedly for expressing such views, even to humans.

    But the thing that raised a red flag to T’pol was Selveks service in the military. She knew from experience that most military records were freely available and easy to follow. Consisting of simple lines regarding where an individual worked and for how long, and in what capacity.

    But Selvek’s records held none of that. Rather they were very short and held gaping holes in their records, times amounting to almost a decade, where the record read only as intelligence. This meant for certain that he had been involved in secret missions, and not in a sideline capacity like analyst. Rather he had served likely as an operator or agent.

    Often those who had served in the intelligence community were never fully out, often being used for other tasks when the situation presented itself. Could he be on such a mission now?



    “You believe him to be on some form of secret mission?” Soval asked, he had listened quietly as T’pol explained her theory, but it was clear that he had his doubts.

    “Yes I do think that is a possibility.” She handed him a sheaf of papers she had printed out. “Our database says as much here,” she gestured at the second page of the report. Soval’s eyebrows raised as he looked over that.

    It was standard practice to copy all data stored in embassy computers when an ambassador left his post, granted this was never intended for use in this manner, but that being said Soval was glad that she had.

    “Keep an eye on Selvek if you would.” He ordered and set the document down. He would have to think about it and ponder what he could be doing. There was a good possibility that whatever it was it was it had the potential to end in a huge embarrassment for Vulcan if it went wrong.

    Opinion on Earth towards Vulcan had shifted a lot in the recent decade, with many coming to view Vulcan as deliberately holding Earth back to ensure its dominance. It was a view captain Archer likely shared. Whether it was true or not was not up to Soval to say.



    Two days later and the ship had continued along its course to Vulcan without incident. Archer had ordered another string of speed and endurance tests to be conducted. Bringing Enterprise up to warp factor four point seven for a full two minutes before he was forced to slow down due to structural stresses on the ships hull.

    T’pol had continued on her investigation of Selvik, so far she had found very little. But that did not mean she had come up empty. Far from it. Instead she was all but certain that Selvik had been activated by intelligence for an operation designed to properly spy out Enterprise. Though she was unable to come to a proper conclusion as to the end of the operation.

    In order to find more information T’pol had begun to backtrack on Selvek’s movements. This had begun with a very cursory glance into his quarters, but that yielded nothing. Not to be unexpected if the man had any training.

    She had next looked through every report that he had filed and begun to take similar tours of the ship, by herself as she did not want to attract any attention from the remainder of the ambassadors staff. She was however certain to keep Soval informed as to her movements and discoveries.

    Currently she had just gone on two separate tours of the vessel, the first time she had been unable to have the same man give the tour as had given one to Selvek, the ships engineer Charles Tucker giving it instead. However, just a few hours later Travis Mayweather had become available and so he had consented to give her a tour of the ship.

    She did not know what she expected to find out, the humans had been very guarded in their answers and no member one else had managed to find anything of importance, why would Selvek be any different.

    T’pol then made a leap of logic and decided that even if Selvek were as careful as he could be with his movements so as to avoid discovery with the other Vulcans he would likely not be as careful with the humans. Afterall the two seldom spoke socially, their interactions confined to tours and passing conversations.

    She thus decided to be very open about her intentions. She asked Travis directly to give her an account of Selvek’s actions, everything he and his party said and everywhere that he took them. She did not however reveal just why she wanted him to do so.

    “This was about when the three of them decided they had seen enough,” Travis said standing beside in the middle of the hallway. T’pol looked around wondering what the other had seen that he considered to be useful.

    “Here?” She asked beginning to feel almost like the helmsman was fooling her.

    “Yes, I thought it was weird to,” Travis could tell that T’pol had her doubts but wanted to make it clear he was being entirely truthful. Her honesty with him earlier had compelled him to do the same.

    He gestured to the plasma conduit and shrugged. “Asked a bunch of questions about the conduit here and then we moved on for maybe five minutes more before they said they were done.”

    The wheels in T’pol’s mind began to turn. “Where does this lead?” She asked already having a good sense of what the answer would be.

    Travis sighed as he struggled to remember what he had told the other Vulcans. “It leads to the warp nacelles from the main reactor. Its where they get the majority of their energy.”

    T’pol at once knew the major flaw in this design feature, it represented a critical weakpoint in the ships propulsion. Normally, even under battle conditions, this was not much of a problem. But then most starship designers did not take internal sabotage into consideration. “I need to speak with your captain,” she said putting a few more pieces together. She did not yet have the entire puzzle assembled, but what she knew was alarming.



    “You think that this Selvek is doing what?” Archer asked his head still spinning as he began to process the information ambassador Soval’s aide had given him. The four of them, Archer and Travis on the human side, and ambassador Soval and an aide Archer did not know, were in the tiny captains office. A small space just off the port side of the bridge.

    “Captain T’pol did not come to this conclusion in a vacuum. She has some evidence and it is enough that we decided to come to you immediately.” Soval appeared sombre, behind him the aid, Archer could not recall her name, stood like a carved stature, face lacking emotion. Travis was a study in opposites.

    “Whats on your mind Travis?” Archer asked wondering what he thought of all this, he had afterall been present for both the tour with the supposed spy and the womans conclusion that he intended sabotage.

    Travis shifted uncomfortably on his feet, not liking all the attention suddenly directed at him. “Captain,” he stuttered before seeming to call upon some inner strength. “Sir I think she is telling the truth,” he said with much more confidence in his voice. “And even if she is wrong wouldn’t it be better to be prepared and nothing to happen than to dismiss her suspicions and then have a disaster?”

    Archer could not fault him on the argument. Whats more he believed her himself. Vulcans were not well known for subterfuge of this sort. They would lie, hide information and forget to inform when it suited them. But lying that one of their own staff was plotting to cripple Enterprise for some nefarious purpose, weakening their own position substantially in the process, did not seem to be within their typical SOP.

    “What do you propose we do about this?” He asked suddenly deciding, for the moment, to trust the Vulcans. “I will have to inform my crew about this,” he said leaving no room in his tone for debate about this. “If we are to counter whatever they plan we will need help.”

    “Agreed,” Soval said after seeming on the verge of arguing for a second. But the human brought up a good point. And, it was not as if there was much chance of word getting to Selvek via the humans. Still, some precautions needed to be taken.

    “I would ask though that not every crew member is informed, I doubt your crew would tell Selvek, but they may tip him off that something is up if they become more hostile and guarded around him.”

    Again Archer had to concede that the ambassador had a point. “I will tell my officers, chief engineer and weapons specialist, and a few others as there is a need,” he said finally. Soval nodded while the female maintained her statue like non-expression. Travis gulped loudly beside her.

    “Now,” Soval’s voice was quiet, he sounded as if he were plotting a conspiracy. “The only question we must ask ourselves now if what we will do to stop your ship from being damaged or potentially destroyed.” He looked around at Travis and Archer, neither man was forthcoming with an idea.

    Finally T’pol spoke up and laid out a simple plan that required very little action on anyones part but stood the maximum chance of preventing any plot by Selvek. Its lack of action also served to avoid making him and any members of the conspiracy.

    It was sound, simple and likely effective. Archer and Soval both readily agreed and that was that. As the two Vulcans turned to leave though a last nagging thought struck Archer.

    “Ambassador,” he asked rising from his desk, “I have just one last question if you would care to answer it for me.”

    Soval wore an expression of worry for just a moment before it disappeared beneath his usual tight emotional control. “You may ask it,” he said his voice steady.

    Archer took a moment to think over the proper wording for what he wanted to say before deciding it was best just to ask. “Why,” he began, “do you think that you were not informed of this plan as Vulcans senior official aboard? Isnt it standard Vulcan procedure to do so on intelligence gathering operations?”

    “I am shocked at your detailed knowledge of my governments intelligence organizations standard procedures captain,” Soval said completely deadpan. He mulled over Archers words for a moment before he answered.

    “To be honest with you captain that is a question that has been bothering the corners of my mind since T’pol revealed her suspicions to me.” He shrugged slightly. “Perhaps I no longer enjoy the trust I once thought I did.”

    With that he left, Travis followed. Leaving a stunned Archer alone to think about what this could mean. As he saw things it could either go exceptionally well, with a major boost in the UE’s position with Vulcan. Or it could go extremely badly, there was potential perhaps, depending on how high up this possible plot went, for a major souring of relations between the two powers. And humans were not as peace-loving as they let on, there would be demands for blood if something majorly bad happened to Enterprise.