Ha! That's why the entry to Pava's mind is guarded by a sign that reads: Abandon hope, all ye who enterHmm...an El-Aurian-Betazed combo. Pava had better change the combination locks on his mind, and fast.
TFV - Regions of the Dark
- Thread starter BrotherBenny
- Start date
Chapter 3
Shuttlecraft Augustus
Vulcan system
Stardate 54774.3
Commander Emma Bartel craned her neck for the first look at the prototype starship she had helped design years earlier. The Xu Fu had been designed around an unusual propulsion system that used silane, a silicon-based fossil fuel, as a fuel source. It was theorized by the Enterprise’s sociology team that the Korr were a silicon-based lifeform unlike anything ever seen before and their propulsion drive had been both a blessing and a curse to their people. Their planet had been strip-mined of all silicon deposits as had their asteroid field and other planetary bodies in the system but in the years since that discovery, no other evidence of their advanced technology had been found anywhere near their homeworld.
As the Augustus passed the curve of T’Khut, Vulcan’s sister planet, the Charis Shipyards came into view. The shipyard was small by Starfleet standards; capable of handling only twenty or so vessels at any one time, but it was the primary shipbuilding facility for the special projects division of the Advanced Starship Design Bureau. Nestled in the caring embrace of one of the dry dock facilities, the USS Xu Fu was still being repaired from the initial test run of the new propulsion system. Thirty eight people had been killed when the ship emerged from the subspace slipstream corridor and was torn asunder by the incredible forces, all of them engineers.
Bartel, along with her former Enterprise shipmates Nara and Robinson, had been pouring over the telemetry for days and they had, just that morning, come up with a reason that Starfleet’s propulsion specialists had missed. Nara had taken their findings to Captain Montgomery Scott, the head of Starfleet’s Corps of Engineers, to get his voice before she took them to ASDB.
‘Don’t bother, lassie,’ Scott told her. ‘The Bureau doesna care what happens once the design’s been approved. They pass the headaches onto me and I pass them onto the engineers. Now you know what’s wrong, you and your engineers get to fix it before you launch.’
Nara had been disappointed but heartened at the same time as it meant that she could hand off picking the senior staff while she got her hands dirty. As the executive officer, Bartel got to find the remaining people Nara wanted to fill out the roster which had delayed her getting to see the ship until now. The Xu Fu was cylindrical in shape with a flattened ventral hull to enable landing on planetary surfaces and its most striking feature, in Bartel’s opinion, was the fully retractable nacelles. The nacelles emerged from the secondary hull in the standard warp field geometric configuration but would retract when the ship engaged the subspace slipstream.
‘So what happened?’ Lieutenant Elyce Erom asked as she piloted the shuttle toward the dry dock facility.
‘What none of us considered,’ Bartel answered as she automatically switched into lecture mode, ‘was that the energy buildup from the wake in the slipstream emerged ahead of the ship when an exit aperture was opened. The energy build-up from a slipstream corridor large enough to hold the Xu Fu is huge and lasts for approximately one point seven seconds. The ship has to emerge into normal space at least two seconds after the aperture is opened.’
‘Isn’t the speed within the corridor constant?’ Erom asked.
‘Yes, it is. We need to be able to open an aperture from a greater distance than was used in the test run, and I have no idea how to do that. We can’t divert more power to the deflector dish because it would destabilize the corridor and tear us apart.’
‘What if we reconfigured a probe or torpedo to act as a deflector dish and send out the pulse to open the aperture?’ Lieutenant Commander Anastasia Baransky asked. ‘It can be configured to send the pulse out far enough ahead of the ship that the energies will have dissipated by the time the ship reaches the aperture.’
Bartel turned her head to look at the chief science officer with a grin on her face. ‘That’s a great idea, Ana. Sometimes we engineering folk miss the forest while looking at the trees.’
‘There she is,’ Erom said as the shuttle came into full view of the Xu Fu.
Bartel’s first glimpse of the ship was marred by the fact that the starboard side was exposed to space. Dozens of EVA-suited figures welded hull sections together while others were reconnecting the starboard nacelle to the strut and more still were visible inside making repairs.
‘Whose idea was it to run the test?’ she asked with an eye toward tossing them out of an airlock.
‘Captain th’Daran,’ Baransky answered with a smirk, knowing the two had issues with each other.
Bartel whirled on her friend. ‘That bastard banged up my ship? I’m going to rip his antennae from his head and make him eat them.’
‘Although that might make you feel better,’ a deep baritone voice said from the rear of the shuttle, ‘I doubt very much the assault of a superior officer will go unchallenged, even for such a mission as this.’
Bartel spared a glance toward the diminutive Naseiri and wondered, not for the first time, how such a deep voice came from such a small man. ‘Ambassador, I have no intention of actually assaulting that moronic Andorian, but surely you can understand that giving vent to one’s frustration is healthy.’
‘Provided it is done in private,’ he replied.
Naseir Prime was a high gravity world and although its people were short in stature they made up for it with their personalities, which were generally loud and gregarious. Thid’rem Yarg was unlike any Naseiri she knew. His simple attire and outwardly passive demeanor caused many to underestimate his diplomatic skills, which they later learned to regret.
‘Quite so, I apologize for my behavior,’ Bartel acceded.
‘It is of no consequence,’ Yarg replied. ‘The vessel is being repaired and although the lives of the engineers can never be regained, their memories will live on in the hearts and minds of their families; and you have made sure that their deaths were not in vain. Much has been learned since, correct?’
‘It has,’ Bartel replied.
‘Augustus to Xu Fu, request permission to dock,’ Erom said to the beta shift flight control officer, Hussein Abadi.
‘Permission granted, Augustus,’ Abadi replied. ‘Commander Bartel, Captain Nara would like to see you as soon as you board.’
Bartel sighed, ‘no rest for the wicked,’ she muttered before adding, ‘Hussein, beam me to the bridge will you?’
‘Unfortunately, that’s not possible at this time. The main computer has crashed and we’re routing all communications through Charis Control.’
Bartel sighed again, ‘all right, I’ll be there as soon as I can, Augustus out.’
‘Do we have a saboteur on board?’ Baransky asked. ‘First it was the library, then the holographic systems, and now the main computer.’
‘I think at this point it is something we have to consider,’ Bartel conceded. ‘I want you to head to engineering and try to help Robinson figure out what’s going on. Elyce, escort the ambassador to his quarters and then join me on the bridge.’
‘Yes ma’am,’ Erom replied as the shuttle touched down in the main shuttlebay.
Shuttlecraft Augustus
Vulcan system
Stardate 54774.3
Commander Emma Bartel craned her neck for the first look at the prototype starship she had helped design years earlier. The Xu Fu had been designed around an unusual propulsion system that used silane, a silicon-based fossil fuel, as a fuel source. It was theorized by the Enterprise’s sociology team that the Korr were a silicon-based lifeform unlike anything ever seen before and their propulsion drive had been both a blessing and a curse to their people. Their planet had been strip-mined of all silicon deposits as had their asteroid field and other planetary bodies in the system but in the years since that discovery, no other evidence of their advanced technology had been found anywhere near their homeworld.
As the Augustus passed the curve of T’Khut, Vulcan’s sister planet, the Charis Shipyards came into view. The shipyard was small by Starfleet standards; capable of handling only twenty or so vessels at any one time, but it was the primary shipbuilding facility for the special projects division of the Advanced Starship Design Bureau. Nestled in the caring embrace of one of the dry dock facilities, the USS Xu Fu was still being repaired from the initial test run of the new propulsion system. Thirty eight people had been killed when the ship emerged from the subspace slipstream corridor and was torn asunder by the incredible forces, all of them engineers.
Bartel, along with her former Enterprise shipmates Nara and Robinson, had been pouring over the telemetry for days and they had, just that morning, come up with a reason that Starfleet’s propulsion specialists had missed. Nara had taken their findings to Captain Montgomery Scott, the head of Starfleet’s Corps of Engineers, to get his voice before she took them to ASDB.
‘Don’t bother, lassie,’ Scott told her. ‘The Bureau doesna care what happens once the design’s been approved. They pass the headaches onto me and I pass them onto the engineers. Now you know what’s wrong, you and your engineers get to fix it before you launch.’
Nara had been disappointed but heartened at the same time as it meant that she could hand off picking the senior staff while she got her hands dirty. As the executive officer, Bartel got to find the remaining people Nara wanted to fill out the roster which had delayed her getting to see the ship until now. The Xu Fu was cylindrical in shape with a flattened ventral hull to enable landing on planetary surfaces and its most striking feature, in Bartel’s opinion, was the fully retractable nacelles. The nacelles emerged from the secondary hull in the standard warp field geometric configuration but would retract when the ship engaged the subspace slipstream.
‘So what happened?’ Lieutenant Elyce Erom asked as she piloted the shuttle toward the dry dock facility.
‘What none of us considered,’ Bartel answered as she automatically switched into lecture mode, ‘was that the energy buildup from the wake in the slipstream emerged ahead of the ship when an exit aperture was opened. The energy build-up from a slipstream corridor large enough to hold the Xu Fu is huge and lasts for approximately one point seven seconds. The ship has to emerge into normal space at least two seconds after the aperture is opened.’
‘Isn’t the speed within the corridor constant?’ Erom asked.
‘Yes, it is. We need to be able to open an aperture from a greater distance than was used in the test run, and I have no idea how to do that. We can’t divert more power to the deflector dish because it would destabilize the corridor and tear us apart.’
‘What if we reconfigured a probe or torpedo to act as a deflector dish and send out the pulse to open the aperture?’ Lieutenant Commander Anastasia Baransky asked. ‘It can be configured to send the pulse out far enough ahead of the ship that the energies will have dissipated by the time the ship reaches the aperture.’
Bartel turned her head to look at the chief science officer with a grin on her face. ‘That’s a great idea, Ana. Sometimes we engineering folk miss the forest while looking at the trees.’
‘There she is,’ Erom said as the shuttle came into full view of the Xu Fu.
Bartel’s first glimpse of the ship was marred by the fact that the starboard side was exposed to space. Dozens of EVA-suited figures welded hull sections together while others were reconnecting the starboard nacelle to the strut and more still were visible inside making repairs.
‘Whose idea was it to run the test?’ she asked with an eye toward tossing them out of an airlock.
‘Captain th’Daran,’ Baransky answered with a smirk, knowing the two had issues with each other.
Bartel whirled on her friend. ‘That bastard banged up my ship? I’m going to rip his antennae from his head and make him eat them.’
‘Although that might make you feel better,’ a deep baritone voice said from the rear of the shuttle, ‘I doubt very much the assault of a superior officer will go unchallenged, even for such a mission as this.’
Bartel spared a glance toward the diminutive Naseiri and wondered, not for the first time, how such a deep voice came from such a small man. ‘Ambassador, I have no intention of actually assaulting that moronic Andorian, but surely you can understand that giving vent to one’s frustration is healthy.’
‘Provided it is done in private,’ he replied.
Naseir Prime was a high gravity world and although its people were short in stature they made up for it with their personalities, which were generally loud and gregarious. Thid’rem Yarg was unlike any Naseiri she knew. His simple attire and outwardly passive demeanor caused many to underestimate his diplomatic skills, which they later learned to regret.
‘Quite so, I apologize for my behavior,’ Bartel acceded.
‘It is of no consequence,’ Yarg replied. ‘The vessel is being repaired and although the lives of the engineers can never be regained, their memories will live on in the hearts and minds of their families; and you have made sure that their deaths were not in vain. Much has been learned since, correct?’
‘It has,’ Bartel replied.
‘Augustus to Xu Fu, request permission to dock,’ Erom said to the beta shift flight control officer, Hussein Abadi.
‘Permission granted, Augustus,’ Abadi replied. ‘Commander Bartel, Captain Nara would like to see you as soon as you board.’
Bartel sighed, ‘no rest for the wicked,’ she muttered before adding, ‘Hussein, beam me to the bridge will you?’
‘Unfortunately, that’s not possible at this time. The main computer has crashed and we’re routing all communications through Charis Control.’
Bartel sighed again, ‘all right, I’ll be there as soon as I can, Augustus out.’
‘Do we have a saboteur on board?’ Baransky asked. ‘First it was the library, then the holographic systems, and now the main computer.’
‘I think at this point it is something we have to consider,’ Bartel conceded. ‘I want you to head to engineering and try to help Robinson figure out what’s going on. Elyce, escort the ambassador to his quarters and then join me on the bridge.’
‘Yes ma’am,’ Erom replied as the shuttle touched down in the main shuttlebay.
Fantastic that they're closing in on solving the propulsion problem, but it sounds as though Xu Fu has ever more technical issues to worry about before their launch. Hopefully this is simply a case of rushing a ship design through production rather than an active attempt by other parties to sabotage the ship.
Great stuff!
Great stuff!
One worries about how quick the crew are being thrown together and as to the ability of the ship to function. It adds worrying layers to the story and yet we know the real threat will come in the guise of the refugee crisis from afar. What happens then? Xu Zu has technical issues, odd - I mean - some eccentric and untested senior crew, and possible internal threats. It all adds up to a bad mix - but a great story mix.
Chapter 4
USS Xu Fu
Charis Shipyards
Stardate 54774.3
Captain Nara Q’Rel stood at the window in her ready room and stared past the stars to a distant place in her mind. She saw her captain’s death in vivid detail and watched the light of life fade from his eyes. The explosion took away her mentor, destroyed the reputation of a starship’s crew, damaged the image of Starfleet and the Federation, and changed Nara’s view on the universe forever. Those eleven seconds were the worst of her life and she had no intention of reliving them, but her decision weighed heavily on her mind. The chime of the door pulled her from her reverie.
‘Come,’ she called out and the door opened to reveal Commander Bartel.
‘Captain, you wanted to see me?’
‘Commander, what can you tell me about Rash Ufiri?’
‘Do you want my personal or professional opinion of the man?’
Nara smiled, ‘give me both.’
‘Professionally, he’s a top notch tactician. He prefers to make up maneuvers on the fly, creating them to suit the situation instead of relying on tried and tested ones that the enemy knows and can react to or predict. He drills his people hard and trains them in multiple disciplines.’
‘What do you mean by multiple disciplines?’
‘He trains them to speak different languages and not to rely too heavily on the universal translator, to use multiple forms of both hand-to-hand and close combat techniques, and cross trains them in engineering, navigation, and so on.’
‘I see,’ she said and made a few notes on her padd. ‘What about your personal opinion of him?’
‘He’s a jackass,’ Bartel replied. ‘I served with him on the Beijing and I can tell you that he has an ego the size of a Dyson Sphere. He thinks he’s the best tactical officer in the fleet and lets you know about it at every opportunity. Please tell me you’re not thinking of assigning him to the Xu Fu?’
‘Do you know of Fwee Sendi?’
‘I’ve never heard of him before,’ Bartel answered. ‘Who is he?’
‘He’s the first Querian in Starfleet,’ Nara told her. ‘Querius became a protectorate three years ago after a Starfleet ship discovered an entire continent rich in crystallized dilithium, enough to power all of our ships for a decade. Sendi was apparently a Captain in the Querian Imperial Guard and he agreed to participate in an exchange program with Starfleet. This will be his first assignment.’
‘What position will he hold?’ Bartel asked.
‘I am considering him for a security chief.’
‘I thought you were considering Ufiri for security chief?’
‘I’m splitting the role,’ Nara told her. ‘It seems to be all the rage.’
‘Ufiri won’t like being a tactical officer, he’d much prefer to be security chief, I can assure you. If you’re seriously considering him as a candidate, I would recommend Ufiri as tactical officer and chief of security, and give Sendi the deputy chief of security position.’
Nara made a few more notes on her padd. ‘Consider it done. Who do we have left?’
‘Our counselor,’ Bartel replied. ‘I thought you and Robinson were working on the Korr engine?’
‘We are,’ Nara replied. ‘Baransky has been helping us run simulations. You didn’t tell me she had engineering experience.’
Bartel replied with a smirk, ‘you never asked.’
‘Baransky’s idea, good though it was, won’t work. If we launch anything from the torpedo tube, the small amount of energy will still cause a destabilization in the slipstream corridor.’
‘Let’s go old-school,’ Bartel suggested.
‘Old-school in what way?’ Nara asked.
‘We can use a winch,’ the executive officer answered. ‘Spool out a carbon neutronium cable with the aperture emitter at the end, and it can be winched in afterward.’
‘I’ll have Robinson and Baransky run simulations,’ Nara said. ‘In the meantime, you and I have another issue to deal with.’
‘What now?’ Bartel asked.
‘Admiral Brandies commandeered a team at Starfleet Tactical to work on a secret project for this endeavor and the results are now en route to be delivered to us shortly.’
‘What did they build?’
‘Officially, they are single-pilot tactical escorts,’ Nara answered disdainfully. ‘Unofficially, they’re fighters, and we’re taking a full squadron on board.’
‘How many is a full squadron?’
‘Twelve,’ Nara said, ‘and they’ll be stored on deck sixteen in a specially-designed hangar bay.’
‘So the engineers now have something else to retrofit,’ Bartel muttered. ‘How is this hangar bay designed?’
‘The fighters will be stored on deck sixteen and can either be raised on platforms to exit through the auxiliary shuttlebay on deck fifteen, or they can be lowered to deck seventeen and dropped like mines out of a bomb-bay door.’
Bartel calculated the space requirements in her head. ‘So we’ll lose cargo bays twelve and fourteen and the auxiliary aeroponics bay?’
‘I wasn’t happy either, but I’ve given the engineers their orders. This is going to delay our launch by at least a week.’
‘When does the task force depart?’ Bartel asked.
‘I’m not sure, but sometime within the two or three days.’
‘What did Admiral Brandies think about that?’
‘She ordered me not to rush the launch, but if the Korr engine is working, we are to use it to catch up to the fleet.’
‘Everyone else is going to be in stasis, right?’
‘Except us, because someone needs to make sure that nothing intercepts the fleet and destroys it en route.’
‘We get all the easy jobs.’
‘Bridge to Captain Nara,’ Erom said from the helm.
‘Go ahead, Lieutenant,’ Nara replied.
‘Captain, three freighters have arrived and are requesting permission to make a transfer.’
‘Grant them permission, we’ll be there shortly.’
‘Aye sir, Erom out.’
‘Are we getting pilots too?’ Bartel asked as they made their way to their bridge.
‘Yes, something I need to let the lieutenant know about.’
Bartel nodded, ‘probably a good idea.’
Lieutenant Erom was seated in the captain’s chair and stood as she entered the bridge from the ready room. ‘Captain, the freighters are transferring the vessels now.’
‘Join us, Lieutenant, there’s something I need to tell you about these vessels.’
‘Yes ma’am,’ Erom replied and joined them at the turbolift as Abadi took over the bridge.
‘Deck fifteen,’ Nara ordered and as the turbolift began to descend she turned to Erom. ‘Lieutenant, I’m about to give you a lot more responsibility, and I hope you’ll be able to manage it. Starfleet Tactical has given us twelve tactical escorts to use over the course of the mission and you will be responsible for them as chief flight operations officer. The pilots have already been assigned and the lead pilot will report to you on a daily basis.’
Erom said nothing as she digested the news that her responsibilities had increased from being in operational control of the helm officers and all shuttlebay operations, to also being responsible for twelve more pilots and their vessels, which she was shortly going to take a look at.
‘I’m up for the challenge, Captain.’
‘I hope so,’ Nara said and the turbolift doors opened to deck sixteen.
There was a single corridor that ran the length of deck fifteen with three corridors running the width of the deck. Decks sixteen and seventeen were laid out in a similar way. The three women walked down about a hundred and fifty meters and entered the auxiliary shuttlebay where the fighters would be stored until the hangar deck one deck below could be built.
‘Wow,’ Erom said when she saw the fighters.
They were small, single-seat vessels that bristled with weaponry and each one had a single impulse engine and warp nacelle at the rear. The fighters had stubby wings which would allow them to operate safely within a planet’s atmosphere and they looked like graceful machines.
‘Wow indeed,’ Bartel agreed.
‘They’re not what I expected,’ Nara said.
Erom pulled herself up to her full height and looked to the captain, ‘where are the pilots?’
‘Right here,’ an Andorian woman said and Erom looked up.
And up.
And up.
USS Xu Fu
Charis Shipyards
Stardate 54774.3
Captain Nara Q’Rel stood at the window in her ready room and stared past the stars to a distant place in her mind. She saw her captain’s death in vivid detail and watched the light of life fade from his eyes. The explosion took away her mentor, destroyed the reputation of a starship’s crew, damaged the image of Starfleet and the Federation, and changed Nara’s view on the universe forever. Those eleven seconds were the worst of her life and she had no intention of reliving them, but her decision weighed heavily on her mind. The chime of the door pulled her from her reverie.
‘Come,’ she called out and the door opened to reveal Commander Bartel.
‘Captain, you wanted to see me?’
‘Commander, what can you tell me about Rash Ufiri?’
‘Do you want my personal or professional opinion of the man?’
Nara smiled, ‘give me both.’
‘Professionally, he’s a top notch tactician. He prefers to make up maneuvers on the fly, creating them to suit the situation instead of relying on tried and tested ones that the enemy knows and can react to or predict. He drills his people hard and trains them in multiple disciplines.’
‘What do you mean by multiple disciplines?’
‘He trains them to speak different languages and not to rely too heavily on the universal translator, to use multiple forms of both hand-to-hand and close combat techniques, and cross trains them in engineering, navigation, and so on.’
‘I see,’ she said and made a few notes on her padd. ‘What about your personal opinion of him?’
‘He’s a jackass,’ Bartel replied. ‘I served with him on the Beijing and I can tell you that he has an ego the size of a Dyson Sphere. He thinks he’s the best tactical officer in the fleet and lets you know about it at every opportunity. Please tell me you’re not thinking of assigning him to the Xu Fu?’
‘Do you know of Fwee Sendi?’
‘I’ve never heard of him before,’ Bartel answered. ‘Who is he?’
‘He’s the first Querian in Starfleet,’ Nara told her. ‘Querius became a protectorate three years ago after a Starfleet ship discovered an entire continent rich in crystallized dilithium, enough to power all of our ships for a decade. Sendi was apparently a Captain in the Querian Imperial Guard and he agreed to participate in an exchange program with Starfleet. This will be his first assignment.’
‘What position will he hold?’ Bartel asked.
‘I am considering him for a security chief.’
‘I thought you were considering Ufiri for security chief?’
‘I’m splitting the role,’ Nara told her. ‘It seems to be all the rage.’
‘Ufiri won’t like being a tactical officer, he’d much prefer to be security chief, I can assure you. If you’re seriously considering him as a candidate, I would recommend Ufiri as tactical officer and chief of security, and give Sendi the deputy chief of security position.’
Nara made a few more notes on her padd. ‘Consider it done. Who do we have left?’
‘Our counselor,’ Bartel replied. ‘I thought you and Robinson were working on the Korr engine?’
‘We are,’ Nara replied. ‘Baransky has been helping us run simulations. You didn’t tell me she had engineering experience.’
Bartel replied with a smirk, ‘you never asked.’
‘Baransky’s idea, good though it was, won’t work. If we launch anything from the torpedo tube, the small amount of energy will still cause a destabilization in the slipstream corridor.’
‘Let’s go old-school,’ Bartel suggested.
‘Old-school in what way?’ Nara asked.
‘We can use a winch,’ the executive officer answered. ‘Spool out a carbon neutronium cable with the aperture emitter at the end, and it can be winched in afterward.’
‘I’ll have Robinson and Baransky run simulations,’ Nara said. ‘In the meantime, you and I have another issue to deal with.’
‘What now?’ Bartel asked.
‘Admiral Brandies commandeered a team at Starfleet Tactical to work on a secret project for this endeavor and the results are now en route to be delivered to us shortly.’
‘What did they build?’
‘Officially, they are single-pilot tactical escorts,’ Nara answered disdainfully. ‘Unofficially, they’re fighters, and we’re taking a full squadron on board.’
‘How many is a full squadron?’
‘Twelve,’ Nara said, ‘and they’ll be stored on deck sixteen in a specially-designed hangar bay.’
‘So the engineers now have something else to retrofit,’ Bartel muttered. ‘How is this hangar bay designed?’
‘The fighters will be stored on deck sixteen and can either be raised on platforms to exit through the auxiliary shuttlebay on deck fifteen, or they can be lowered to deck seventeen and dropped like mines out of a bomb-bay door.’
Bartel calculated the space requirements in her head. ‘So we’ll lose cargo bays twelve and fourteen and the auxiliary aeroponics bay?’
‘I wasn’t happy either, but I’ve given the engineers their orders. This is going to delay our launch by at least a week.’
‘When does the task force depart?’ Bartel asked.
‘I’m not sure, but sometime within the two or three days.’
‘What did Admiral Brandies think about that?’
‘She ordered me not to rush the launch, but if the Korr engine is working, we are to use it to catch up to the fleet.’
‘Everyone else is going to be in stasis, right?’
‘Except us, because someone needs to make sure that nothing intercepts the fleet and destroys it en route.’
‘We get all the easy jobs.’
‘Bridge to Captain Nara,’ Erom said from the helm.
‘Go ahead, Lieutenant,’ Nara replied.
‘Captain, three freighters have arrived and are requesting permission to make a transfer.’
‘Grant them permission, we’ll be there shortly.’
‘Aye sir, Erom out.’
‘Are we getting pilots too?’ Bartel asked as they made their way to their bridge.
‘Yes, something I need to let the lieutenant know about.’
Bartel nodded, ‘probably a good idea.’
Lieutenant Erom was seated in the captain’s chair and stood as she entered the bridge from the ready room. ‘Captain, the freighters are transferring the vessels now.’
‘Join us, Lieutenant, there’s something I need to tell you about these vessels.’
‘Yes ma’am,’ Erom replied and joined them at the turbolift as Abadi took over the bridge.
‘Deck fifteen,’ Nara ordered and as the turbolift began to descend she turned to Erom. ‘Lieutenant, I’m about to give you a lot more responsibility, and I hope you’ll be able to manage it. Starfleet Tactical has given us twelve tactical escorts to use over the course of the mission and you will be responsible for them as chief flight operations officer. The pilots have already been assigned and the lead pilot will report to you on a daily basis.’
Erom said nothing as she digested the news that her responsibilities had increased from being in operational control of the helm officers and all shuttlebay operations, to also being responsible for twelve more pilots and their vessels, which she was shortly going to take a look at.
‘I’m up for the challenge, Captain.’
‘I hope so,’ Nara said and the turbolift doors opened to deck sixteen.
There was a single corridor that ran the length of deck fifteen with three corridors running the width of the deck. Decks sixteen and seventeen were laid out in a similar way. The three women walked down about a hundred and fifty meters and entered the auxiliary shuttlebay where the fighters would be stored until the hangar deck one deck below could be built.
‘Wow,’ Erom said when she saw the fighters.
They were small, single-seat vessels that bristled with weaponry and each one had a single impulse engine and warp nacelle at the rear. The fighters had stubby wings which would allow them to operate safely within a planet’s atmosphere and they looked like graceful machines.
‘Wow indeed,’ Bartel agreed.
‘They’re not what I expected,’ Nara said.
Erom pulled herself up to her full height and looked to the captain, ‘where are the pilots?’
‘Right here,’ an Andorian woman said and Erom looked up.
And up.
And up.
Great story so far. I like what I see here. I am curious, however, as to the name of the ship, Xu Fu. Where did you get that from?
Xu Fu was an ancient Chinese explorer.
Chapter 5
USS Xu Fu
Charis Shipyards
Stardate 54774.4
‘I am Lieutenant Tanistana zh’Chare,’ the tall Andorian woman said. ‘I am the commander of Archangel Squadron.’
‘Lieutenant zh’Chare, I am Lieutenant Elyce Erom, chief of flight operations. I will be reviewing your service records over the next few hours and will then devise a training regimen tailored to the mission we are about to undertake. I’m sure your pilots are the best in the fleet but that doesn’t mean there is no room for improvement, am I correct?’
‘Yes sir,’ zh’Chare responded coolly.
‘You will report to me at zero seven thirty daily where I will give you your training schedule for the day, which will take place in the holodeck or in the classroom. You will train alongside the ship’s regular security forces and Marine Corps personnel in their classroom training.’
‘Classroom training?’ zh’Chare asked, confused.
‘The Xu Fu’s security chief wants all of the people under his nominal command to be familiar with practical applications in the fields of engineering, emergency medicine, linguistics, navigation, and so on. While you are technically under my command as pilots, you are security personnel and as such be reporting to him for daily classes. Is that understood?’
Zh’Chare looked at the captain and first officer for guidance and then asked, ‘permission to speak freely, Lieutenant?’
‘Granted,’ Erom replied.
‘What is the likelihood that my pilots are going to need anything like that?’
Erom smiled, ‘you might crash land on a planet and need to repair your vessel, send out a distress call in the right direction, assist any people injured in the crash, speak with the natives, need I go on?’
‘No sir.’
‘Excellent, I will see you at zero seven thirty tomorrow morning in my office.’
‘Aye sir,’ zh’Chare replied and walked off, toward her waiting pilots.
‘Nicely handled, Lieutenant,’ Nara said with a smile. ‘Were you going to tell the security chief about that?’
Erom looked at the captain and asked, ‘didn’t he already request that the pilots be included in the training?’
Nara furrowed her brow, ‘how did you know about that? You knew about the pilots already, didn’t you?’
‘No ma’am, I did not. I did know that Lieutenant Ufiri had requested that some “additional personnel” should be included in the training and when you told me about the pilots I figured it was the logical conclusion.’
‘She’s after your job,’ Bartel said.
‘Not for a few years yet,’ Erom countered with a smile of her own.
‘Commander, is everyone aboard?’ Nara asked as she walked back out into the corridor and toward the turbolift.
‘Except our counselor,’ Bartel said after consulting her padd. ‘According to the latest report, he’s been delayed en route from Tellar by a force eight ion storm. He won’t be here for another week.’
Nara sighed, ‘we’ll have to catch him up later. How are the repairs coming?’
‘The repairs to the outer hull are complete and the nacelles are in place. All engineering teams are now working around the clock to make the repairs to the crew quarters, science labs and other areas damaged or destroyed in the accident,’ Bartel answered as they reached the turbolift.
‘Deck one,’ Nara ordered. ‘How long before we’re spaceworthy?’
Bartel consulted the padd, ‘six days as a conservative estimate.’
‘Can we get any more teams assigned?’
‘No, and even if we could, they’d be in the way. Most of the work that needs to be done is the retrofitting for the fighters and the special crew quarters.’
Nara nodded and tapped her combadge, ‘All senior officers, report to the situation room. I repeat, all senior officers, report to the situation room.’
‘What’s going on?’ Bartel asked.
‘There are a few updates that you need to be aware of,’ Nara answered. ‘From now until launch, there will be mission briefings every twelve hours.’
The turbolift doors opened to an empty bridge and Nara entered first, only to find that it was not so empty after all. A Vulcan of advanced years stood from the command chair and turned toward her. He wore the robes of an Adept from Mount Seleya and his face was eerily familiar.
‘Captain,’ he said in a gravelly voice she recognized from years of serving with her late mentor.
‘Adept Senar, what brings you here?’ she asked in a meek tone.
‘I have recently concluded an extended meditative session and learned of my son’s death. I understand that you were with him in his final moments?’
‘Yes sir, I was. He tried to mind meld with me, presumably so that I could bear his katra back home, but he was too badly injured. I regret that I could not save him.’
Senar shook his head. ‘That you attempted to do so speaks volumes. I understand that you will shortly be going on an extended mission into deep space.’
Nara frowned, wondering at how he had come by that information but deemed it irrelevant. Senar was an accomplished diplomat, a former adviser to several presidents, and a former Starfleet officer. ‘I am, though I cannot go into details.’
‘No need, Captain, I have been apprised of the relevant details. I have resigned my position as an Adept and re-enlisted in Starfleet. I would like to request assignment on board your vessel.’
Nara was stunned and took several seconds to process the comment. She turned to Bartel and said, ‘inform Admiral Brandies that we have a last minute replacement as counselor.’
Bartel nodded mutely and pushed Erom toward the situation room.
‘Thank you, Captain. I will endeavor to see that your crew’s mental health is exceptional.’
‘Thank you, Senar.’
‘Captain, my son spoke extremely highly of you and I am gratified to be able to serve with you.’
‘Sir, your son was a good friend and mentor and I would be grateful if you would consent to do the same.’
‘Of course,’ the Vulcan replied and lifted his hand in a salute. ‘Live long and prosper.’
‘Peace and long life.’
USS Xu Fu
Charis Shipyards
Stardate 54774.4
‘I am Lieutenant Tanistana zh’Chare,’ the tall Andorian woman said. ‘I am the commander of Archangel Squadron.’
‘Lieutenant zh’Chare, I am Lieutenant Elyce Erom, chief of flight operations. I will be reviewing your service records over the next few hours and will then devise a training regimen tailored to the mission we are about to undertake. I’m sure your pilots are the best in the fleet but that doesn’t mean there is no room for improvement, am I correct?’
‘Yes sir,’ zh’Chare responded coolly.
‘You will report to me at zero seven thirty daily where I will give you your training schedule for the day, which will take place in the holodeck or in the classroom. You will train alongside the ship’s regular security forces and Marine Corps personnel in their classroom training.’
‘Classroom training?’ zh’Chare asked, confused.
‘The Xu Fu’s security chief wants all of the people under his nominal command to be familiar with practical applications in the fields of engineering, emergency medicine, linguistics, navigation, and so on. While you are technically under my command as pilots, you are security personnel and as such be reporting to him for daily classes. Is that understood?’
Zh’Chare looked at the captain and first officer for guidance and then asked, ‘permission to speak freely, Lieutenant?’
‘Granted,’ Erom replied.
‘What is the likelihood that my pilots are going to need anything like that?’
Erom smiled, ‘you might crash land on a planet and need to repair your vessel, send out a distress call in the right direction, assist any people injured in the crash, speak with the natives, need I go on?’
‘No sir.’
‘Excellent, I will see you at zero seven thirty tomorrow morning in my office.’
‘Aye sir,’ zh’Chare replied and walked off, toward her waiting pilots.
‘Nicely handled, Lieutenant,’ Nara said with a smile. ‘Were you going to tell the security chief about that?’
Erom looked at the captain and asked, ‘didn’t he already request that the pilots be included in the training?’
Nara furrowed her brow, ‘how did you know about that? You knew about the pilots already, didn’t you?’
‘No ma’am, I did not. I did know that Lieutenant Ufiri had requested that some “additional personnel” should be included in the training and when you told me about the pilots I figured it was the logical conclusion.’
‘She’s after your job,’ Bartel said.
‘Not for a few years yet,’ Erom countered with a smile of her own.
‘Commander, is everyone aboard?’ Nara asked as she walked back out into the corridor and toward the turbolift.
‘Except our counselor,’ Bartel said after consulting her padd. ‘According to the latest report, he’s been delayed en route from Tellar by a force eight ion storm. He won’t be here for another week.’
Nara sighed, ‘we’ll have to catch him up later. How are the repairs coming?’
‘The repairs to the outer hull are complete and the nacelles are in place. All engineering teams are now working around the clock to make the repairs to the crew quarters, science labs and other areas damaged or destroyed in the accident,’ Bartel answered as they reached the turbolift.
‘Deck one,’ Nara ordered. ‘How long before we’re spaceworthy?’
Bartel consulted the padd, ‘six days as a conservative estimate.’
‘Can we get any more teams assigned?’
‘No, and even if we could, they’d be in the way. Most of the work that needs to be done is the retrofitting for the fighters and the special crew quarters.’
Nara nodded and tapped her combadge, ‘All senior officers, report to the situation room. I repeat, all senior officers, report to the situation room.’
‘What’s going on?’ Bartel asked.
‘There are a few updates that you need to be aware of,’ Nara answered. ‘From now until launch, there will be mission briefings every twelve hours.’
The turbolift doors opened to an empty bridge and Nara entered first, only to find that it was not so empty after all. A Vulcan of advanced years stood from the command chair and turned toward her. He wore the robes of an Adept from Mount Seleya and his face was eerily familiar.
‘Captain,’ he said in a gravelly voice she recognized from years of serving with her late mentor.
‘Adept Senar, what brings you here?’ she asked in a meek tone.
‘I have recently concluded an extended meditative session and learned of my son’s death. I understand that you were with him in his final moments?’
‘Yes sir, I was. He tried to mind meld with me, presumably so that I could bear his katra back home, but he was too badly injured. I regret that I could not save him.’
Senar shook his head. ‘That you attempted to do so speaks volumes. I understand that you will shortly be going on an extended mission into deep space.’
Nara frowned, wondering at how he had come by that information but deemed it irrelevant. Senar was an accomplished diplomat, a former adviser to several presidents, and a former Starfleet officer. ‘I am, though I cannot go into details.’
‘No need, Captain, I have been apprised of the relevant details. I have resigned my position as an Adept and re-enlisted in Starfleet. I would like to request assignment on board your vessel.’
Nara was stunned and took several seconds to process the comment. She turned to Bartel and said, ‘inform Admiral Brandies that we have a last minute replacement as counselor.’
Bartel nodded mutely and pushed Erom toward the situation room.
‘Thank you, Captain. I will endeavor to see that your crew’s mental health is exceptional.’
‘Thank you, Senar.’
‘Captain, my son spoke extremely highly of you and I am gratified to be able to serve with you.’
‘Sir, your son was a good friend and mentor and I would be grateful if you would consent to do the same.’
‘Of course,’ the Vulcan replied and lifted his hand in a salute. ‘Live long and prosper.’
‘Peace and long life.’
Xu Fu’s crew is really hustling to get ready for launch, and the unexpected arrival of Senar in the middle of all that proves a welcome surprise for Nara. That relationship could be fraught with pitfalls, however, if Nara mistakes the father for the son and tries to lean to heavily on him for advice.
Additionally, the concept of having a Vulcan counselor strikes me as being problematic. Granted, Vulcans still have emotions, though they’re tightly controlled, and I’ll be interested to see how well someone with that level of detachment can empathize with and counsel other, far more emotional humanoids.
I love your crew’s interactions and the sense of urgency that permeates the ship on the eve of their departure. Well done.
Additionally, the concept of having a Vulcan counselor strikes me as being problematic. Granted, Vulcans still have emotions, though they’re tightly controlled, and I’ll be interested to see how well someone with that level of detachment can empathize with and counsel other, far more emotional humanoids.
I love your crew’s interactions and the sense of urgency that permeates the ship on the eve of their departure. Well done.
I'm going to be less specieist here and say that you don't have to be able to show emotions to be a good counselor. In fact a clinical and detached view on somebody else's emotional problems might be an advantage. Sure it might not work out for everyone but I can see it work. There's definitely going to be less touchy-feely sobbing on this ship than there was on the Enterprise-D, that's for sure.
Perhaps this counselor would have subordinate (junior) counselors. Personally, I'd sooner keep my problems in, or see someone else such as a chaplain, if my only option was to have to see someone that I thought would have no sympathy from what I was going through.
That said, assuming this counselor develops a positive personal reputation, I could change my mind. But I would need to know that reputation first.
That said, assuming this counselor develops a positive personal reputation, I could change my mind. But I would need to know that reputation first.
Chapter 6
USS Xu Fu
Charis Shipyards
Stardate 54774.6 (October 10, 2377)
Ambassador Thid’rem Yarg stood on the bridge of the prototype vessel and considered the new information presented moments ago. The Task Force Vanguard fleet would be departing from Starbase Bastion in a little over two days and the Xu Fu would not be ready to leave for at least another five, even with every spare body working around the clock. The Naseiri Emperor had already been in contact with him and warned him under penalty of death not to tell the Federation about their people’s abilities, and while Yarg would never disobey the Emperor, he disagreed about the humans’ reaction to the news were it known.
He could see several possible futures but as each hour passed, the number of positive futures diminished exponentially. He felt sure that by the time they launched, only three futures would remain likely, and they were all unpleasant to varying degrees. Three centuries of involvement in alien affairs had taught him how and when to interfere to get the best futures. The Korr engine worked, that much he knew, and in every future but one it failed at a critical moment. In the one future where it didn’t fail, the ship was destroyed with all hands, and he could not let that happen. He felt certain that this crew would go on to do great things in the coming years.
‘Ambassador,’ Lieutenant Reya, his Starfleet liaison, called out to him.
‘Yes, Lieutenant?’ he responded to the summons.
‘There’s a priority message for you from Starbase Bastion,’ she told him. ‘It’s on a diplomatic channel.’
‘I’ll take it in my quarters, thank you,’ he replied and on the short turbolift ride to deck three where his quarters were located, he wondered what was wanted with him by the enigmatic Starfleet officers that had requested his presence on board this particular vessel.
‘How are you getting on with the lighter gravity?’ Admiral Brandies asked.
‘I have a spring in my step,’ Yarg responded in the pre-arranged code.
‘I assume that the captain has informed you of the launch date?’
‘She also mentioned the attacks on the Nyberrite Alliance worlds, the seed ships, and a number of other seemingly unrelated incidents.’
‘What is your opinion on those incidents?’ Brandies asked.
‘I think you were right,’ Yarg said enigmatically. ‘I read the report from Starfleet Tactical forwarded by the Nyberrite Alliance. The mythology from these nomadic groups is too similar to be mere happenstance. There must be some grain of truth to it, but finding that truth is likely to be extremely difficult unless one or more of these groups is willing to talk to us.’
‘That will be up to you, Ambassador,’ Brandies told him. ‘I would suggest informing Captain Nara when the time is right since she doesn’t strike me as the type of person who likes being kept in the dark. For now, this aspect of the mission will stay classified under Project Arrowhead.’
‘Understood, Admiral, I won’t reveal any more than is necessary.’
‘What I need you to do is keep that in mind when you interact with any alien species out there. They might be able to provide some details of what started the Great Exodus and we need all of the information we can get.’
‘Do you have diplomatic officers or ambassadors on all ships in the fleet?’
‘As many as I could,’ Brandies admitted. ‘But they haven’t all been read in to this aspect of the mission.’
‘I see,’ Yarg said.
‘I’ll be in touch, Brandies out.’
Yarg stared at the blank screen for several minutes and wondered, not for the first time that day, if he was doing the right thing by keeping everything from everyone. He was practiced at it but he didn’t like doing it, not when so much was on the line. The task force was being sent to a specific sector and from there they would shed the warp sleds, proceed at maximum warp to their destination and intercept dozens of alien vessels to try and get them to settle on a Federation world or go elsewhere in the galaxy.
He stood up, tugged on his ambassadorial tunic, and stretched before he exited his quarters. Although he wouldn’t be needed until the ship encountered one of those alien races, he wanted to be in engineering to assist them. On Naseir, everyone assisted everybody else, even if it was just handing them tools so they didn’t need to crawl out from under whatever vehicle or console they were working on.
Yarg arrived in engineering to see Commander Bronwen Gail “BG” Robinson standing at the upper railing of the three-deck area. She was watching forty people make repairs to various systems or run maintenance checks. She turned to face him and her face scrunched up.
‘Ambassador, what are you doing here? This is a secure area.’
‘I’m only here to help, Commander,’ he replied. ‘My father was a mechanic at the Naseir City Spaceport when I was child and I assisted him with repairs to vessels from dozens of worlds.’
‘I’ll take all of the help I can get,’ she said as he hoped she would. ‘Come with me and we’ll find you something to fix.’
‘Thank you, I don’t like sitting idle when there’s so much work to be done,’ he added as they took the turbolift to the lower engineering deck.
‘How are you with a welding torch?’ Robinson asked as she led him toward a Jeffries tube.
‘Very experienced,’ he told her. ‘I built my own atmospheric hopper as a teenager.’
Her eyes widened in surprise. ‘All right then, I’ll have someone bring a torch to you. Ten meters into that Jeffries tube is a housing that needs to be welded shut. It might not be something major, but it needs to be done and it’s a low priority with everything else on my list.’
‘Commander, give me a list of what you want done and have a security officer trail me if you want to be on the safe side, but let me be helpful.’
She clamped a hand on his shoulder, ‘thank you, Ambassador, I appreciate that.’
USS Xu Fu
Charis Shipyards
Stardate 54774.6 (October 10, 2377)
Ambassador Thid’rem Yarg stood on the bridge of the prototype vessel and considered the new information presented moments ago. The Task Force Vanguard fleet would be departing from Starbase Bastion in a little over two days and the Xu Fu would not be ready to leave for at least another five, even with every spare body working around the clock. The Naseiri Emperor had already been in contact with him and warned him under penalty of death not to tell the Federation about their people’s abilities, and while Yarg would never disobey the Emperor, he disagreed about the humans’ reaction to the news were it known.
He could see several possible futures but as each hour passed, the number of positive futures diminished exponentially. He felt sure that by the time they launched, only three futures would remain likely, and they were all unpleasant to varying degrees. Three centuries of involvement in alien affairs had taught him how and when to interfere to get the best futures. The Korr engine worked, that much he knew, and in every future but one it failed at a critical moment. In the one future where it didn’t fail, the ship was destroyed with all hands, and he could not let that happen. He felt certain that this crew would go on to do great things in the coming years.
‘Ambassador,’ Lieutenant Reya, his Starfleet liaison, called out to him.
‘Yes, Lieutenant?’ he responded to the summons.
‘There’s a priority message for you from Starbase Bastion,’ she told him. ‘It’s on a diplomatic channel.’
‘I’ll take it in my quarters, thank you,’ he replied and on the short turbolift ride to deck three where his quarters were located, he wondered what was wanted with him by the enigmatic Starfleet officers that had requested his presence on board this particular vessel.
‘How are you getting on with the lighter gravity?’ Admiral Brandies asked.
‘I have a spring in my step,’ Yarg responded in the pre-arranged code.
‘I assume that the captain has informed you of the launch date?’
‘She also mentioned the attacks on the Nyberrite Alliance worlds, the seed ships, and a number of other seemingly unrelated incidents.’
‘What is your opinion on those incidents?’ Brandies asked.
‘I think you were right,’ Yarg said enigmatically. ‘I read the report from Starfleet Tactical forwarded by the Nyberrite Alliance. The mythology from these nomadic groups is too similar to be mere happenstance. There must be some grain of truth to it, but finding that truth is likely to be extremely difficult unless one or more of these groups is willing to talk to us.’
‘That will be up to you, Ambassador,’ Brandies told him. ‘I would suggest informing Captain Nara when the time is right since she doesn’t strike me as the type of person who likes being kept in the dark. For now, this aspect of the mission will stay classified under Project Arrowhead.’
‘Understood, Admiral, I won’t reveal any more than is necessary.’
‘What I need you to do is keep that in mind when you interact with any alien species out there. They might be able to provide some details of what started the Great Exodus and we need all of the information we can get.’
‘Do you have diplomatic officers or ambassadors on all ships in the fleet?’
‘As many as I could,’ Brandies admitted. ‘But they haven’t all been read in to this aspect of the mission.’
‘I see,’ Yarg said.
‘I’ll be in touch, Brandies out.’
Yarg stared at the blank screen for several minutes and wondered, not for the first time that day, if he was doing the right thing by keeping everything from everyone. He was practiced at it but he didn’t like doing it, not when so much was on the line. The task force was being sent to a specific sector and from there they would shed the warp sleds, proceed at maximum warp to their destination and intercept dozens of alien vessels to try and get them to settle on a Federation world or go elsewhere in the galaxy.
He stood up, tugged on his ambassadorial tunic, and stretched before he exited his quarters. Although he wouldn’t be needed until the ship encountered one of those alien races, he wanted to be in engineering to assist them. On Naseir, everyone assisted everybody else, even if it was just handing them tools so they didn’t need to crawl out from under whatever vehicle or console they were working on.
Yarg arrived in engineering to see Commander Bronwen Gail “BG” Robinson standing at the upper railing of the three-deck area. She was watching forty people make repairs to various systems or run maintenance checks. She turned to face him and her face scrunched up.
‘Ambassador, what are you doing here? This is a secure area.’
‘I’m only here to help, Commander,’ he replied. ‘My father was a mechanic at the Naseir City Spaceport when I was child and I assisted him with repairs to vessels from dozens of worlds.’
‘I’ll take all of the help I can get,’ she said as he hoped she would. ‘Come with me and we’ll find you something to fix.’
‘Thank you, I don’t like sitting idle when there’s so much work to be done,’ he added as they took the turbolift to the lower engineering deck.
‘How are you with a welding torch?’ Robinson asked as she led him toward a Jeffries tube.
‘Very experienced,’ he told her. ‘I built my own atmospheric hopper as a teenager.’
Her eyes widened in surprise. ‘All right then, I’ll have someone bring a torch to you. Ten meters into that Jeffries tube is a housing that needs to be welded shut. It might not be something major, but it needs to be done and it’s a low priority with everything else on my list.’
‘Commander, give me a list of what you want done and have a security officer trail me if you want to be on the safe side, but let me be helpful.’
She clamped a hand on his shoulder, ‘thank you, Ambassador, I appreciate that.’
Ambassador Yarg may indeed be keeping secrets, but it appears he’s doing so at Admiral Brandies’ behest. The revelation that there’s a super-secret mission buried within the secret mission is unwelcome news, as it hints at something especially foreboding. I’m fascinated at the suggestion of Yarg’s precognitive abilities, and I find his willingness to assist in any way commendable… unless he’s pursuing engineering access for sabotage purposes.
Chapter 7
USS Xu Fu
Charis Shipyards
Stardate 54777.1 (October 11, 2377)
‘Ambassador Yarg is a hard worker,’ Robinson told Nara and Bartel as they ate in the captain’s quarters. ‘I had a security officer on him at all times since he was in and out of sensitive areas, but he dealt with the majority of the minor items on my list in a day and a half, freeing up the engineers to get the majority of the urgent repairs done.’
‘Where do we stand?’ Nara asked.
‘The only thing left is the retrofit for the fighters on decks fifteen through seventeen,’ Robinson reported. ‘All other repairs are complete.’
Bartel chewed thoughtfully on a celery stick and added, ‘we still have the problem of the aperture emitter.’
Robinson nodded in agreement, ‘the neutronium cable idea was a good one but it won’t work. There is just too much energy in the slipstream corridor. The cable would be torn to shreds.’
‘We’re stuck here until we think of an answer,’ Nara said, ‘and the task force leaves in less than a day. We need to come up with something.’
‘Have you considered asking Captain Sandhurst?’ Bartel asked.
Nara laughed, ‘are you kidding? The man’s a menace and I personally think the only reason he’s in the task force is so Command won’t have to deal with him for five years. Honestly, the stunts that man has pulled make Kirk seem like a boy scout in comparison. Besides, he’s trying to get the Europa’s engines working in time for the fleet’s arrival at the rendezvous coordinates.’
‘What about a lightning rod?’ Robinson asked.
‘Would you mind elaborating on that?’ Nara asked in return.
‘We could build a lightning rod out of the secondary deflector dish. That would attract the stray energy strikes we’ll pick up in flight and stop those hitting the ship, and it return, we can harness that and use it as an emitter.’
‘How long would it have to be for us to make a safe exit?’
‘Too long to be safe for the ship,’ Bartel did the numbers in her head. ‘It would need to be over five hundred meters long.’
‘I see only one option, then,’ Robinson said. ‘We use a shuttle. The shuttle goes ahead of us into the corridor and stays five hundred meters ahead. When we need to exit, the shuttle opens the aperture.’
‘It would be destroyed and I don’t want to lose a shuttle every time we go into subspace.’
Bartel clicked her fingers, ‘the hangar bay.’
‘Emma, what are you talking about?’
‘We can drop a probe like a mine out of the hangar bay on deck seventeen. According to the simulations we’ve been running, the energy in the subspace corridor has a wake trailing behind us and a kind of forward wash ahead of us. If we drop the probe right, it will be carried ahead of us and we can open an aperture that way.’
‘Go and run some simulations on that and I’ll inform Admiral Brandies that we won’t be leaving too far off schedule,’ Nara replied.
‘Yes ma’am,’ Bartel and Robinson said in unison and rose from the table.
Nara recycled the dishes and was about send a prearranged signal that would route itself to Starbase Bastion when her door chimed.
‘Come.’
‘Lieutenant Commander Senar reporting for duty,’ the elderly Vulcan said, standing as straight as he could.
‘Senar, when it’s just the two of us there is no need to stand on ceremony. I’m sure you dislike it as much as I do.’
He nodded and sat in the seat Nara gestured him to. ‘Thank you, Q’Rel. I was hoping I would be able to ask you a few questions about my son.’
‘Of course, anything.’
‘Did he speak of me?’
Nara cracked a small smile. ‘He spoke of you all the time, though I know that he wanted to be closer to you.’
‘I would have liked to be closer to him, and perhaps by serving on board this ship, with those who knew him, I will be.’
Nara raised an eyebrow in an impressively Vulcan fashion. ‘That’s not a very Kolinahr attitude. Why are you aboard, Senar?’
Senar sighed, ‘I have not attained Kolinahr. It has escaped me for many decades and the other Adepts cannot understand why. My son’s death has forced me to realize that Kolinahr is not an attainable goal. I have therefore decided that perhaps being in space once again will provide the peace I seek.’
‘You honestly believe that a life in Starfleet will bring you peace?’
‘I have been in Starfleet before,’ Senar countered. ‘I found it a rewarding experience. I hope that it will be so again.’
Nara nodded, but she believed he was holding something back and would reveal it in his own time. ‘Since you’re here, what do you think of the mission?’
‘I believe that Admiral Brandies and Glover are holding something back,’ Senar answered.
‘Of course they are, they’d never tell us everything. It goes against the grain of being Starfleet brass. How else would they laud their superiority over us?’
‘That is an illogical attitude.’
‘Perhaps, but it is also quite true. When have you ever known an admiral to be completely honest?’
‘I have known only one,’ Senar answered. ‘Admiral McCoy was honest to a fault. It is said that he was promoted because it was easier to deal with him as an equal than force him to be compliant with them as an inferior.’
Nara smiled, remembering the time that McCoy had visited the Enterprise. ‘Admiral McCoy is inferior to no one.’
‘Quite so,’ Senar agreed.
‘I want to know what you think of the mission itself,’ Nara said.
‘I think that the mission is far more dangerous than they have let on,’ he responded. ‘You are likely to face greater challenges than they believe. The Delta Quadrant is home to the Borg and a number of other races that Starfleet has never before encountered. How deep into the Delta Quadrant are we going?’
‘As deep as we need to go,’ Nara answered. ‘We may need to go as far as Borg territory.’
‘That is not a pleasant prospect.’
‘No, it’s not, but we go where we’re ordered and you never know, we might even find a way to defeat them when they attack again.’
‘You live in eternal hope,’ Senar said.
USS Xu Fu
Charis Shipyards
Stardate 54777.1 (October 11, 2377)
‘Ambassador Yarg is a hard worker,’ Robinson told Nara and Bartel as they ate in the captain’s quarters. ‘I had a security officer on him at all times since he was in and out of sensitive areas, but he dealt with the majority of the minor items on my list in a day and a half, freeing up the engineers to get the majority of the urgent repairs done.’
‘Where do we stand?’ Nara asked.
‘The only thing left is the retrofit for the fighters on decks fifteen through seventeen,’ Robinson reported. ‘All other repairs are complete.’
Bartel chewed thoughtfully on a celery stick and added, ‘we still have the problem of the aperture emitter.’
Robinson nodded in agreement, ‘the neutronium cable idea was a good one but it won’t work. There is just too much energy in the slipstream corridor. The cable would be torn to shreds.’
‘We’re stuck here until we think of an answer,’ Nara said, ‘and the task force leaves in less than a day. We need to come up with something.’
‘Have you considered asking Captain Sandhurst?’ Bartel asked.
Nara laughed, ‘are you kidding? The man’s a menace and I personally think the only reason he’s in the task force is so Command won’t have to deal with him for five years. Honestly, the stunts that man has pulled make Kirk seem like a boy scout in comparison. Besides, he’s trying to get the Europa’s engines working in time for the fleet’s arrival at the rendezvous coordinates.’
‘What about a lightning rod?’ Robinson asked.
‘Would you mind elaborating on that?’ Nara asked in return.
‘We could build a lightning rod out of the secondary deflector dish. That would attract the stray energy strikes we’ll pick up in flight and stop those hitting the ship, and it return, we can harness that and use it as an emitter.’
‘How long would it have to be for us to make a safe exit?’
‘Too long to be safe for the ship,’ Bartel did the numbers in her head. ‘It would need to be over five hundred meters long.’
‘I see only one option, then,’ Robinson said. ‘We use a shuttle. The shuttle goes ahead of us into the corridor and stays five hundred meters ahead. When we need to exit, the shuttle opens the aperture.’
‘It would be destroyed and I don’t want to lose a shuttle every time we go into subspace.’
Bartel clicked her fingers, ‘the hangar bay.’
‘Emma, what are you talking about?’
‘We can drop a probe like a mine out of the hangar bay on deck seventeen. According to the simulations we’ve been running, the energy in the subspace corridor has a wake trailing behind us and a kind of forward wash ahead of us. If we drop the probe right, it will be carried ahead of us and we can open an aperture that way.’
‘Go and run some simulations on that and I’ll inform Admiral Brandies that we won’t be leaving too far off schedule,’ Nara replied.
‘Yes ma’am,’ Bartel and Robinson said in unison and rose from the table.
Nara recycled the dishes and was about send a prearranged signal that would route itself to Starbase Bastion when her door chimed.
‘Come.’
‘Lieutenant Commander Senar reporting for duty,’ the elderly Vulcan said, standing as straight as he could.
‘Senar, when it’s just the two of us there is no need to stand on ceremony. I’m sure you dislike it as much as I do.’
He nodded and sat in the seat Nara gestured him to. ‘Thank you, Q’Rel. I was hoping I would be able to ask you a few questions about my son.’
‘Of course, anything.’
‘Did he speak of me?’
Nara cracked a small smile. ‘He spoke of you all the time, though I know that he wanted to be closer to you.’
‘I would have liked to be closer to him, and perhaps by serving on board this ship, with those who knew him, I will be.’
Nara raised an eyebrow in an impressively Vulcan fashion. ‘That’s not a very Kolinahr attitude. Why are you aboard, Senar?’
Senar sighed, ‘I have not attained Kolinahr. It has escaped me for many decades and the other Adepts cannot understand why. My son’s death has forced me to realize that Kolinahr is not an attainable goal. I have therefore decided that perhaps being in space once again will provide the peace I seek.’
‘You honestly believe that a life in Starfleet will bring you peace?’
‘I have been in Starfleet before,’ Senar countered. ‘I found it a rewarding experience. I hope that it will be so again.’
Nara nodded, but she believed he was holding something back and would reveal it in his own time. ‘Since you’re here, what do you think of the mission?’
‘I believe that Admiral Brandies and Glover are holding something back,’ Senar answered.
‘Of course they are, they’d never tell us everything. It goes against the grain of being Starfleet brass. How else would they laud their superiority over us?’
‘That is an illogical attitude.’
‘Perhaps, but it is also quite true. When have you ever known an admiral to be completely honest?’
‘I have known only one,’ Senar answered. ‘Admiral McCoy was honest to a fault. It is said that he was promoted because it was easier to deal with him as an equal than force him to be compliant with them as an inferior.’
Nara smiled, remembering the time that McCoy had visited the Enterprise. ‘Admiral McCoy is inferior to no one.’
‘Quite so,’ Senar agreed.
‘I want to know what you think of the mission itself,’ Nara said.
‘I think that the mission is far more dangerous than they have let on,’ he responded. ‘You are likely to face greater challenges than they believe. The Delta Quadrant is home to the Borg and a number of other races that Starfleet has never before encountered. How deep into the Delta Quadrant are we going?’
‘As deep as we need to go,’ Nara answered. ‘We may need to go as far as Borg territory.’
‘That is not a pleasant prospect.’
‘No, it’s not, but we go where we’re ordered and you never know, we might even find a way to defeat them when they attack again.’
‘You live in eternal hope,’ Senar said.
Great character moments here as ‘The Coven’ brainstorm a way to safely utilize the ship’s experimental drive. It’s a sad admission from Senar that he is unable to attain Kolinahr, but perhaps returning to Starfleet will help connect him posthumously with his son and bring him some measure of peace.
Good stuff, BrotherBenny!
Good stuff, BrotherBenny!
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