YES - Close to the Edge: Star Beagle Adventures episodes 12 - 19

[Robert Bruce Scott]

The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 18: And You And I Part III – The Preacher and the Teacher
Scene 5: In the Sight


All complete in the sight of seeds of life with you ...

18.5
In the Sight​

“We have to rescue her!”


2nd Lieutenant Susan Gard had been desperately trying to establish communication with the inert holy lander destroyer only a few yards away from her voluntarily inert interceptor. They had resolutely ignored her hails and were doing their best to pretend to be nothing more than a field of debris, the supposed scant remains of a fabricated warp core breach. Gard had finally resorted to knocking on their front door.


Literally.


The young Star Fleet fighter pilot had exited her craft with a spanner, the largest, heaviest tool she had in her light interceptor, and banged on the destroyer's sensor array until a holy lander, surprisingly needing no Extra Vehicular Activity suit beyond an atmosphere tank and a mask that covered the creature’s face, emerged from a nearby airlock and ushered her into the craft.

The holy lander grasped the handle on the back of Gard’s EVA suit with one hand, while using its other two hands to seal the airlock. And Gard took the opportunity to use the quick release on her EVA suit, kicked herself free and raced to the fighting ship’s bridge, leaving the oddly ant-like alien struggling with the airlock and an empty EVA suit. Gard had, like all the pilots and security personnel in the task force, carefully studied the analysis of the wrecked holy lander destroyer that Captain Howard’s expedition had investigated months earlier on the south side of Mount Torlochtor, which included a detailed layout of the ship as well as instructions on how to activate the doors.


The holy lander from whom she had escaped started singing almost immediately. Gard’s only clue that the creature was attempting to use low frequencies to override her conscious volition was a silent notice from her communicator. The default setting for the communicator immediately counteracted those frequencies with frequencies of its own. Gard almost instinctively removed the pin from her uniform and pinned it to the inside of her undergarment.

Which left the befuddled ship commander arguing with an indignant, passionate Star Fleet officer much smaller than him, but whom he could not control. This was quite unsettling to the creature, causing his three antennae to vibrate uncontrollably. He was having difficulty responding. Only two of his three eyes had eyelids – these were starting to blink uncontrollably.

“According to the rules of honor, as a wounded enemy left on the field of honorable combat, your pilot can only be rescued by your forces at risk of honor damage to ship and crew…”

“No they do not!!!” Gard interrupted. “Captain sh’Zhiathis was hit by an honor shot intended to represent your weapons at full power. According to YOUR rules of honor, she has been vaporized and is therefore not recoverable by honor combatants.”

“Even if that is so, we have removed our ships from the field of honor and cannot move from this position,” the ship commander retorted.

“You can move under a white flag. Your queen has already recognized and honored the white flag signal for one of our vessels as a non-combatant on a rescue mission.” Gard thrust a tricorder into the commander’s middle hand. “That is the signal. Broadcast it and move this ship in to save the life of Captain sh’Zhiathis, or by all that you consider holy I will have this farce of a battle nullified as of this moment for your failure to follow your own rules of honorable combat!”


“I am following…”


“NO YOU ARE NOT!!!” The young Star Fleet pilot emphasized her words with an outraged and very accusatory index finger. “Every second sh’Zhiathis is out there, she presents a requirement to render aid to our ships, who may then be attacked on a mission of mercy that is caused entirely by your refusal to mount a rescue! If one of our ships is damaged on the field of honor because of your negligence, I will make it my life’s mission to have you identified as the violator of your own rules of honor! I don’t know what your queen will do to you, but I can guarantee that you do not want to make an implacable enemy of the Federation and draw us in to actual combat without the protection of your... rules of honor.” Gard spat these last words out with evident contempt.

“Even if we get to her ship, we don’t know how to…” the alien commander started, only to be interrupted by a creature he was now thoroughly frightened by. The combination of her evident rage, clear fighting ability and, more importantly, the fact that the efforts of now five singers to control her were failing to have any impact on her behavior, was causing the superstitious creature to wonder just what variety of minuscule, enraged, brown-eyed god might have gotten onto his bridge.

“Get me close and I will rescue her!” 2nd Lt. Gard’s chocolate brown eyes smoldered. “NOW!!”

18.5​

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 18: And You And I Part III – The Preacher and the Teacher
Scene 6: All Expression Laid


Coming quickly to terms of all expression laid ...

18.6
All Expression Laid​

One of the holy lander destroyers hit the U.S.S. Beagle directly amidships and a great gaping hole appeared in the antique vulcan ship…


The U.S.S. Mako was embroiled in its own complicated dance. For a large ship, much larger than the holy lander destroyers, the Intrepid class ship was remarkably nimble, able to dart about and evade the holy lander destroyers while maintaining much higher rates of fire.

The value of the phaser strips had immediately become evident, allowing the Mako, even in the midst of wild maneuvers, to keep a steady bead on each target until both the Mako’s sensors and the holy lander sensors registered a kill. It had taken only two kills for the holy lander crews and the Star Fleet crews to verify and synchronize their readings. The difference between those readings had started as a 0.4 second difference. Without any negotiations, both crews compromised, the holy landers reducing the time to register a kill by 0.2 seconds.

Commodore Yui Song was not holding photon torpedoes in reserve. Like the phasers, the yield of the torpedoes had been reduced to 1.34% of their normal yield.


The Mako’s bridge crew – along with the rest of the crew – was as absorbed by their own fight as they would have been if all the ships had been firing weapons at full power. None of the control panels or EPS conduits were actually exploding, but some went dark and the crew in proximity announced their injury. Medical staff raced throughout the ship, intent on providing first aid and lifesaving procedures to people who were not actually injured.

This included the Command Information Center, from which two crew members had already been removed by medical staff and four stations had gone dark. That did not distract Commodore Yui Song from noticing what happened to the U.S.S. Beagle. She caught her breath and gasped in alarm as an enormous, gaping hole appeared in the middle of the ship. Next to her, the Beagle’s captain, Ronald Howard, XIV, giggled merrily.

The weakened particle beam passed harmlessly through the hole in the Beagle while the ancient vulcan ship unleashed a withering volley of entirely harmless light. And torpedoes whose explosions would barely affect their adversaries’ navigational screens, much less battle shields.

And the holy lander destroyers could not hit the antique vulcan cruiser. Every shot would pass harmlessly through some impossible, gaping hole. While the Mako was far more maneuverable than the holy lander destroyers, it was nothing compared to the unbelievably nimble Beagle.

Because the holy lander destroyer guns were fixed, the Mako was able to minimize contact with any of the beams from these particle weapons. Which was critical because both ships were being swarmed.

A few of the holy lander destroyers re-tasked from attacking the Mako to instead target the Beagle. In one brilliant moment, holy lander destroyers on opposite sides of the Beagle hit each other as their beams passed harmlessly through impossible holes in the Beagle.


In the Mako’s CIC, Captain Skip Howard whispered to his commanding officer, “Sakura is cheating. And it’s brilliant!”

“I had no idea the Beagle could do that!” Yui responded.

“It can’t,” Howard observed. “That’s not the Beagle.”

Dawning astonishment and understanding widened Yui Song’s eyes. “That’s a hologram???”

“Yes. And Sakura is doing what we would normally do in battle, but the holo-transporter does not have sufficient power for active phasers and photon torpedoes.” Skip Howard chuckled again.

“Then how is she shooting those destroyers? Their kill rate is better than ours!”

Howard tapped the small workstation in front of him with a highly polished, black fingernail. “The DTG in holotransporter mode does not have sufficient power for weapons at full power. But Sakura doesn’t need to give them full power. She can simulate weapons at 1.34% yield. And that’s cheating.”

“That is extremely dangerous!" Yui Song wasn’t shouting. She was whispering intently, almost hissing. "The holy landers could take that as desecration of their field of honor!”

“They won’t,” Howard rejoined. “We would destroy the Beagle before allowing…”


“I am hit.” Lieutenant Commander Senek calmly announced.


Commodore Yui Song had been looking at Captain Howard. She saw a momentary look of horror and heartsickness on the face of her subordinate. Howard covered it quickly, but she had not seen that expression when other crew members had been identified by the Mako’s computer as battle victims. For a brief moment, all the life went out of the young captain’s eyes. Then the momentary flash of hopelessness was followed by a flash of rage before Howard regained control of himself. The emotions played across his face at tremendous speed, less than a second, almost so fast that Commodore Yui wasn’t at first certain of what she had seen. But Howard had also briefly overcorrected, his expressive features becoming almost a vulcan mask of calm before returning to normal, cementing the moment in Yui’s mind.

She filed it away for later. Even with the Beagle’s miracles, the Mako was rapidly coming to the end of its ability to withstand the imaginary damage it was taking.


The U.S.S. Arizona, despite its upgrades, had originally been constructed as a small freighter by the technologically backward oeast in the Oulheadry and was too sluggish to avoid the first shot - it had been the first ship to go down in the battle. The U.S.S. Bluebird and the U.S.S. Puppy together had managed to take out one holy lander destroyer, only to both fall prey to a second.

Captain Rhonda Carter had managed to take out nine of the holy landers before the tough, nimble, but relatively weak tactical launch was pasted by the main cannon of another holy lander destroyer. Despite its enhanced shielding, this small part of the U.S.S. Escort, the only part of her ship that could now fly, could not withstand a single hit. Her tactical launch now drifted, inert, along with well over half of the holy lander fleet.


And the simulation of the U.S.S. Beagle suddenly vanished. The actual ship emerged from the field of artificial asteroids that had been constructed from the planet’s orbital debris, two holy lander destroyers in hot pursuit. Both destroyers were quickly incapacitated by utterly harmless beams of light and harmlessly exploding photon torpedoes coming from Fortress Escort.

“They figured it out,” Howard observed, then, quietly: “Damn.” The Beagle had attempted to flee the system, but the holy lander destroyers were too quick and virtually disabled the vulcan-built warp drive. There were now only six destroyers left active on the field of honor, but the Mako, already registering crippling damage, had no chance against them.


They were now just fighting to the bitter end. Theoretically.


“How close is Captain Phlox?” Captain Howard asked.

“Not close enough,” Yui responded.


On the bridge of the U.S.S. Mako, Commander Jason Bates gave the order that had long been planned for this moment in the battle:


"Take us in to Fortress Escort."

18.6​

 

[BountyTrek]

The most intense game of laser tag ever played. Love it.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 18: And You And I Part III – The Preacher and the Teacher
Scene 7: A Moment Regained


A moment regained and regarded both the same ...

18.7
A Moment Regained​

“How soon?”

“Not soon enough.”


Captain Phillip Phlox was in the engine room. At the moment this was the most important part of the gargantuan and recently refurbished Galaxy class U.S.S. Citadel. More important than the bridge at this point. Which was why both the ship’s newly assigned captain and its long-serving first officer were in engineering.

Along with a nervous looking and sounding chief engineer and an even more dicy looking and sounding engine. Both engine and its yridian engineer were showing dangerous signs of redlining. Dangerously.

Of course, to humans, yridians looked nervous and kind of seedy under the best of circumstances. Commander Leklek Lek had graduated with high honors from Star Fleet Academy and overcome tremendous suspicion and prejudice. He was one of only 6 yridians serving in Star Fleet and had earned the respect of his entire department. At this moment, even in his spotless engineering uniform, he looked pitiful.

Captain Phlox, as a hybrid human and denobulan, had encountered a surprising amount of prejudice himself, from species who were generally thought of as tolerant toward hybrids. He knew that he had to be looking at one of the most dedicated engineers in the fleet. Leklek Lek had to be at least 10% better than anyone else just to be standing here wearing three solid pips on his collar.


“Commander Lek, what would happen if you open that engine all the way? Can we make warp 9.999?”

The yiridian engineer managed to look even more miserable “For about 2 hours, maybe, under the best of conditions. Then it would overheat and explode. In its current state, no more than 20 minutes, if that. I can’t even guarantee we can keep it moving at its current velocity and still get there with enough of an engine to provide shields, much less weapons.”

“Damn it!” Phlox cursed quietly. “If we were there right now, we could clean their chronometers. I thought this upgraded Galaxy class carried the most powerful warp engine ever seen in the Alpha Quadrant.”

“Three of them,” observed Commander Alicia Wyr, a tall, slender young woman of Scandinavian descent with a short shock of snow-white hair, snow-white eyebrows, pink eyes and extremely pale skin.


Phlox whirled on his albino first officer. “Three of them?”


“All star fleet ships carry two back up warp engines. One fully assembled and enough pieces to construct another…”

Phlox started rapidly snapping the fingers of both hands. He turned on the miserable looking yiridian, stepping toward him and towering over him. “How long would it take you to prepare the 2nd engine to replace this one?”

“It’s set up ready to replace now,” Commander Lek replied. “We would have to jettison the primary engine first, then jettison the backup engine from its current mount, and draw it back up through the primary hatch into the active mount.”

“How long from stop to go for the entire procedure?” Phlox asked. He shoved his hands into his pants pockets to avoid snapping his fingers.

Lek looked like he wanted to be anywhere else. The nervous, jerky movements, native to his species, made him look, to human eyes, extremely shifty. For yiridians, this movement simply indicated excitement or agitation. “Um… 10 minutes to eject, draw back up and install and another 10 for diagnostics…”

“Do we have to run full diagnostics? Can you save me any time on that?” Phlox asked.

The terrified chief engineer was wringing his hands. “If we don’t want to explode… I suppose the primary diagnostics could be done in 2 minutes and we could do the rest in transit…”


“As of this moment, Commander Lek, you are flying this ship.” Phlox took a half step back and landed a large hand on the chief engineer’s shoulders, then gestured to the complaining, overheating engine. “Run this engine into the ground and be a little conservative about when to jettison it. We’re going to have to get some distance from it before it blows…”

“There is a small, emergency nacelle attached to the engine,” Lek interjected. “The moment it is ejected, the nacelle will activate and take the engine away from us at warp.”

“Why didn’t I know any of this stuff?” Phlox asked. “I’ve been aboard more than 40 days and it’s like I just stepped on board.”

“You have been getting to know the crew, sir,” Commander Wyr observed.

“Evidently, I should have spent more time getting to know the technology. I’m 100 years out of date. In my day ships were helpless if they jettisoned their warp core.” Phlox took another step back, aware that his considerable height was making the already nervous yiridian chief engineer even more nervous. He fought the instinct to ball his fists. “Mr. Lek. Run this engine until it’s ready to blow. Don’t ask permission. Don’t wait for any orders. The moment you think that engine is about to go, jettison it and send it on its way.”

“And once the 2nd engine is installed?” Lek asked.

Phlox’s voice and expression were both hard. “Redline it. Give me everything it has and start building the third engine. We may be a little late to the party, but we’re going to get there. And when we do, we’re going to clean their chronometers.”

Phlox’s resolve was infectious. Commander Leklek Lek seemed calmer and more resolved than was usual for a yiridian. His voice carried the sound of a man re-energized: “Aye Captain!” He turned and started barking orders at his engineers.


Captain Phlox turned to see his albino first officer on her knees, her hands raised above her head.

“Commander?”

Commander Alicia Wyr performed a full genuflection, then came back up to her knees, hands raised, head slowly shaking, her voice rich and low: “I am not worthy…”

Phlox burst into laughter, laughing so hard that tears came out of his eyes. He stepped forward and reached down a hand to his first officer. “On your feet, Commander Wyr,” he said, still laughing. “We’ve got work to do.”

She took his hand with both of hers and let him pull her to her feet.


“Aye, Captain!”


“Take me to this 2nd engine,” Phlox replied. He gestured toward the corridor outside. “After you.”

The half-denobulan captain, still chuckling quietly, followed his albino first officer out of engineering.

18.7​

 

[Will The Serious]

I hope captain Phlox knows about the 1.34% yield rule. Otherwise, "Oops, sorry, I didn't realize. I thought it was odd that none of the damage registered on sensors."

-Will