Daniel Schirra
Captain
Registered: Apr 8, 2013 21:02:47 GMT
Posts: 468
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Post by Daniel Schirra on Mar 31, 2014 18:48:48 GMT
"You know this Asadan ?" Schirra said, somewhat surprised at their familiarity.
As Karka explained who the woman was, Dan realized he too had seen her talking to the Engineer just before all hell broke loose. He listened as the woman told them why they were being held captive, and wasn't over pleased at the options. Alyana stood quietly watching the group, allowing Karka to take the lead in proceedings for the time being.
"Just 'how' do you expect us to comply ?" Daniel asked, stepping forward, and not missing the fact that several Klingon disruptor's suddenly swung in his direction, "Because the Federation will obviously have issues with your little plan of action. The second the Excalibur fails to report we're safe, they will send the closest vessel's to our aid."
"Oh I think not ... Commander. You 'WILL' inform the Federation that all is well, and that the inauguration is proceeding as planned, in fact, you will relay a message from our former President, Gelan. He will thank your President for sending the Excalibur, and for allowing your crew to attend the ceremony. He will also tell your President that he is looking forward to visiting Earth ..." she said, tapping a screen fixed to the wall close by. The group watched in consternation as Gelan made his speech, before she de-activated the monitor and turned back to the group, "So you see, no-one will be coming to your aid, Commodore." she finished, looking directly at Ryat.
< tag : Alyana >
"You will comply Commodore." Helutia said, an edge to her voice that didn't allow for misunderstanding, "Now, if you would follow me, I think it is time you contacted you vessel and apprised them of our new-found alliance."
No-one moved.
"Do not try my patience too much Federation. I can easily do this without you, as you have witnessed, and if I should choose to go that route, you, and your Officers will be of no further use !" Alyana held the woman's stare for a full minute, before she finally broke. She walked past Helutia and down the corridor. After a few seconds the others followed ..........
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Alyana Ryat
Commodore
Registered: Sept 5, 2007 16:34:56 GMT
Posts: 347
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Post by Alyana Ryat on Apr 6, 2014 21:24:18 GMT
They had been herded through the tunnels. That in itself made Aly edgy. It meant that there was some active intelligence behind this. It was an unnerving thought. She knew she and her people had to out think the person or people behind this.
Of course all those thought processes were derailed abruptly when they were confronted by Helutia and her allies. Aly stayed silent once again aware that she could be over looked in favour of Dan and Karka.
She wasnβt at all surprised that that Karka recognised the woman, she had thought that she recognised her too but Karka had managed to put the name to the face quicker than she had. Dan was managing to engage with her, Aly doubted that this was the most tricky conversation that he had had. Although, it seemed that that wasnβt going all that well.
"Just 'how' do you expect us to comply ?" Daniel asked, stepping forward, and not missing the fact that several Klingon disruptor's suddenly swung in his direction, "Because the Federation will obviously have issues with your little plan of action. The second the Excalibur fails to report we're safe, they will send the closest vessel's to our aid."
"Oh I think not ... Commander. You 'WILL' inform the Federation that all is well, and that the inauguration is proceeding as planned, in fact, you will relay a message from our former President, Gelan. He will thank your President for sending the Excalibur, and for allowing your crew to attend the ceremony. He will also tell your President that he is looking forward to visiting Earth ..." she said, tapping a screen fixed to the wall close by. The group watched in consternation as Gelan made his speech, before she de-activated the monitor and turned back to the group, "So you see, no-one will be coming to your aid, Commodore." she finished, looking directly at Ryat.
Aly met the womanβs gaze squarely. βIt does seem that you have put a lot of thought into thisβ Alyβs brain was racing if she was let near a comm system she was certain that she could get a message through to Ephrem. βHowever, if Commander Shirra is the one to communicate with the Federation or with the Excalibur then they will ask where I am. As the Commanding Officer it really should be me making any communications you need.β She held her hands up and did her best to look harmless and inofficence.
It seemed that Helutia bought the act since she guestured with her weapon for Aly to go ahead of her while the rest of the group surrounded the landing party. They were marched onwards but eventually came to a control room. Aly was shoved towards a console while the others were surrounded in the centre of the room. One of the Klingons was jamming a disruptor under Danβs chin. Helutia was still covering Aly.
βOne word out of place and we start killing them.β Aly swallowed visibly, it was a much better threat than simply saying they were going to kill her. Aly put both her hands on the console leaning forward. She couldnβt make a move in this position but then she wasnβt planning to. She twisted slightly and started twitching a finger against another circuit that would cause interference when pressed. Morse code was very outdated but she knew that Ephrem would recognize her message βWe have been taken prison, I am under duress. Second message to come.β She took her time reciting the message that Helutia had decided on. The longer the better for giving them a chance to lock on to the next signal.
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Daniel Schirra
Captain
Registered: Apr 8, 2013 21:02:47 GMT
Posts: 468
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Post by Daniel Schirra on Apr 8, 2014 21:01:55 GMT
He wasn't surprised when the Commodore agreed to follow the woman's instructions ... They moved further down the corridor and entered a room. Communications equipment was set against one wall, an elaborate set-up Dan thought, for such a basic planet.
He stood in silence as Alyana was pushed roughly towards the console and had to use her hands to prevent herself from falling face first into the plexi-glass. Helutia reached forward and entered a string of commands, then turned to Ryat:
"One word out of place, and we start killing them !" she said, as the Klingon stood beside her pushed his disruptor into her side. Dan was about to react when the business end of another weapon was thrust under his chin roughly. Helutia stood back, but not out of hearing range, as Alyana remained in position. Dan watched her closely, trying to work out how to disarm his captor should the Commodore suddenly have a change of heart. It was then he noticed the little finger of her right hand. At first he thought it was nerves, understandable in the circumstances, but then he realized it was something more ..... Morse ! .....
The taps would be inaudible at this end as Alyana turned an innocent system check circuit in and out of use. but on the Excalibur, as long as anyone was listening, it would come out as a series of long and short clicks, almost like static, of innocent atmospheric interference should the communication be monitored, which Dan fully expected it would ...
=^= We have been taken prisoner .. I am under duress .. Second message to come =^= the series of click's spelled out.
Schirra wasn't sure if Captain Santos would realize she was trying to send a covert message, but given his extensive background, it was plausible that he would. The only problem Dan could see was the Excalibur dare not attempt to reply. The second Helutia suspected anything untoward, she would order the Klingon's to open fire. He hoped Ephram would be able to inform them he had their message in some other way.
Suddenly, the woman pulled Ryat away from the console, Daniel tensed, ready to move to the right to avoid the weapon's fire while turning the man away and slamming a fist into his Axillary nerve cluster beneath his arm, causing him to drop the weapon instantly, but Helutia just added another part to her message and pushed Alyana back to comply ..........
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Karka Psonoir
Commander
Registered: Apr 9, 2013 19:55:13 GMT
Posts: 422
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Post by Karka Psonoir on Apr 11, 2014 18:43:42 GMT
They were led into the control room with its communications array and various other consoles set into one wall. The Klingons and two Klingon-Deltan hybrids closed in a circle around the landing party, leaving out Ryat who beelined from the group to the comm array, under Helutia's watchful gaze. Psonoir was momentarily disconcerted, to see the extent of change in the defeated Vice-Presidential candidate Helutia.
* * *
On the way to the control room he'd been permitted to walk beside her, or rather just behind, for a while, under the Klingons' pernicious glare who held their disruptors centimetres from his back. Karka tried to give the impression of complete disregard for the weapons, but Helutia noticed his discomfort.
"Mr Psonoir, if you're edging closer in the hope of dissuading me from this course of action..."
Psonoir coughed, managing a smile that came to him with surprising ease. "Oh no, I'm fully aware you believe you are who you say you are." She cast him an odd glance, confused by his statement. "You're a statesman and Gelan's political opponent of course. An engineer from a Federation starship won't make much difference, in spite of our earlier meetings..." Karka finished, vestiges of a smile on his lips.
Helutia nearly laughed. "You believe there could've been something between us? Between you and Virna? She never existed, Mr Psonoir. At least, not as you knew her."
Karka paused, contemplating the implication in that statement, that Helutia had the real Virna - whom she implied he'd never met - killed and had replaced her so she could attend the Excalibur welcoming party. He shook it off. He'd never much liked her anyway, especially after the much earlier run-in with the Klingons and the ensuing fight.
"I spared you," he commented, the nudge of a disruptor in his back pushing him along as he began to lag in the procession. "When you led me to those two Klingons..." She looked at him questioningly. Karka continued, "Once I'd subdued you all and beamed the Klingons up to the Excalibur, I spared you and brought you to a surface infirmary."
"Your worst mistake on this mission, no doubt?" she said cruelly. Karka shrugged - Hybrudea was not short of prospective consorts, he'd find another soon enough - if he did escape here - but still he couldn't suppress the pang of sadness that spread through his gut. There had been a connection, no matter how distant in hindsight; a shared nonchalance, a sort of chemistry.
* * *
Back to the present, Psonoir was confused by the Commodore's constant clicking of the circuit breaker. He could hardly have missed it; his acute senses had detected her sudden - although it'd meant to be surreptitious - movement to activate the switch. What she was doing though, he couldn't fathom.
He looked around, seeing Prescott who regarded him warily - a shared apprehension of what was about to transpire. One wrong move from their commander and they would likely all be dead. 'Likely', because Karka's self-assumed insight told him Helutia might not be being wholly truthful. He glanced over his shoulder. Suddenly nose to nose with a hybrid that held a disruptor inches from his temple. "Not so close please," he murmured, aware of his peril but also willing to play games with this type of being that was the object of Lirwa's fascination. A sample of hybrid blood remained on the ship, under the trustworthy Unwin's protection.
Karka managed to catch Schirra's eye, and made a small signal with his hand, barely perceptible even to their captors, but useful because Psonoir knew Commander Schirra would be trained to notice such things. Karka made a whirlpool motion with his hand, suggesting that Alyana's signal - whenever it might come - should be to attempt to lock on and beam them all up to the ship. Jamming equipment was all too likely in use, preventing beam-out, but if they could find a work around... Psonoir thought of his engineers, hoping they were devising a solution, and that they'd be able to advise Captain Santos...
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Daniel Schirra
Captain
Registered: Apr 8, 2013 21:02:47 GMT
Posts: 468
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Post by Daniel Schirra on Apr 15, 2014 20:34:55 GMT
Daniel stood in silence as the Commodore recited verbatim what she had been told. he could see she was tapping out the Morse code continually in the hope that someone aboard the Excalibur would recognize the pattern. Most Senior Staff had come across Samuel Morse's communication system.
He looked around the room, noticing the Chief Engineer inching forward, but Helutia had seen him and was almost laughing at the mediocre attempt. Psonoir stood back a couple of step's a phaser resting on his left shoulder. He was making a discrete signal, Dan realized he was suggesting they may be transported out of here, but they needed to ensure the Excalibur had a good chance of succeeding. He looked at Prescott until the man realized he was being looked at, then, using his eye's only, he looked at the floor. Prescott looked puzzled as Schirra repeated the motion raising his eyebrows as if to emphasize his suggestion. Dan casually looked around at their captors, wondering if things were about to get extremely out of hand !
Suddenly, Prescott clutched his chest and groaned, several disruptor's swung in his direction as he leaned forward sweating profusely. Karka tried to reach him, but was held back instantly.
"The Lieutenant is medically trained, let him take a look. That man was injured in the last tunnel collapse, he needs assistance or he could die from his injuries !" Daniel said urgently, but Helutia just looked at the scene with something approaching amusement.
"Then he is of no use to either you or I ...." the woman said, "Kill him, now !" she ordered.
Prescott dropped to the floor as Psonoir pushed forward trying to put himself between the fallen Prescott and the disruptor's about to remove him from existence, but he was hit on the side of the head and dropped to one knee. Helutia had turned to pull Alyana away from the communications console ... Dan moved ...
He took a handful of Helutia's hair, spinning her away from Ryat, then threw his left arm around her neck, his other arm passed under her arm and interlocked with left, then lifted the woman off her feet as he leaned back against the wall of the room, effectively cutting off her air supply, in a classic 'shime-waza' or lateral vascular neck restraint.
"STOP ... NOW ... OR SHE DIES !" he shouted. Every weapon rotated through an arc to converge on his forehead, he didn't blink, just put a little more pressure on the right arm and effectively cutting off both air flow, and importantly, blood flow to the brain. Helutia's eyes were already rolling up as she began the final stage of suffocation, "Drop the weapon's and face the back wall." he said, glancing at Karka and the now miraculously recovered Prescott. They knew they needed to act, and quickly, before their former captor's called Schirra's bluff and re-raised their weapon's.
"If you kill her, you die too. I find this somewhat unrealistic of Human's." one of their captor's said, eyeing Helutia with concern. Prescott slammed a fist into the talker's solar-plexus and he stopped chatting, Prescott caught the dropped disruptor in mid-air and pointed it toward their hosts, but he need not have rushed as several weapon's hit the floor simultaneously. Dan's arm was getting tired and he lowered his captive to the ground while retaining the hold.
"You !" Dan said, to one of the Hybrid's who seemed most worried about the sudden change of status, "You will drop and shielding surrounding this facility, and open a chan ...." he stopped speaking as Helutia became a dead-weight in his arm's. For a few seconds he wondered if he had taken the hold too far and cut off her oxygen for too long. But he wasn't going to be taking any chances ... Given she had just watched Prescott fake illness, she could well be doing likewise in order to regain control of the situation, and one thing was certain, they would 'ALL' be dead the second she did ! ..........
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Karka Psonoir
Commander
Registered: Apr 9, 2013 19:55:13 GMT
Posts: 422
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Post by Karka Psonoir on Apr 18, 2014 7:17:14 GMT
Karka dived forward - an instinctive reaction - to protect the feigning Prescott from the disruptors, but even his usually lightning reactions couldn't beat the Hybrids for speed. He was struck a blow in the temple with the butt of a disruptor, grunted and collapsed to his right side.
He was only just about getting his bearings, the haze of impending unconsciousness reluctantly dissipating, when the tables had turned. Holding a palm to his temple, he shook off the dizziness as he heard Schirra shouting "STOP ... NOW ... OR SHE DIES !" Suddenly everything resolved for him: Schirra bracing himself against the wall, grasping Helutia tightly around the neck, suffocating her. Every disruptor in the room was pointed at his head.
Weapons clattered to the floor as Prescott subdued a Klingon; their former captors forced to turn backs to them, close to the wall with arms in the air. Prescott and the other security officer held weapons on them.
Karka was more concerned with Helutia's wellbeing. She'd slumped to the floor once Schirra released her, unmoving, perhaps unbreathing. The engineer approached cautiously, borrowing Prescott's medical tricorder that'd slipped from his grasp during the preposterous injury facade.
A few beeps from the bulky device confirmed what Karka had already suspected. "She's still alive, sir," he said to Schirra, who stood glaring down at the defeated vice-presidential candidate, breathing heavily. "Unconscious though. She's no immediate threat."
They maintained their distance from her. "You're sure?"
"Absolutely," Karka said, a curious tone of relief in his voice, although he quickly clammed up on that emotion. He never would've thought he'd become so involved in the minutiae of this timeframe that he'd develop a real emotional attachment to someone, regardless of whether that person was actually a fiction. Weren't all people, seen in the eyes of others, fictional to some extent?
A commotion from the other side of the room slammed him back to the present. He turned to see a Hybrid stepping over the body of one of the security officers, the Klingons following him/her. They were collecting their disruptors scattered on the floor, the remaining security officer shooting down as many as he could, retreating as he fired although the room provided little in the way of cover.
Soon they were faced with another stand-off, Schirra and Psonoir immediately halting the Klingons' progress by pointing phasers at Helutia's prone body. Prescott, the remaining redshirt, sighed in relief as a Hybrid had been bearing down on him. Commodore Ryat was now being held by one of the Klingons, on her knees with a disruptor pressed to the nape of her neck.
Karka blinked, realisation coming to him that his communicator was chirping. Eyes from both sides darted about, wondering what they should do; it was ludicrous. Karka coughed, drawing his communicator and looking around at all present, =/\=Psonoir here.=/\=
=/\=Lieutenant, this is Excalibur. Is Commodore Ryat present?"=/\=
=/\=She's... preoccupied.=/\= The Klingon holding Ryat grinned toothily. =/\=Excalibur, you're aware of the situation here?=/\= Karka was fast growing the impression that this was a ruse on Excalibur's part, but how had they managed to get through?
=/\=What situation, Lieutenant? We received President Gelan's broadcast announcing his resignation and the handing over of power to the other party. And we remind you that Admiral Vazquez has ordered the Excalibur leave the Asadan system immediately. Apparently we are no longer needed here.=/\=
Karka took a moment to think, glancing at Schirra who seemed to be itching for the communicator. The Excalibur couldn't acknowledge that they'd received whatever coded message the Commodore had sent, even if they did know the full extent of what'd happened in the last few minutes. Anti-governmental forces could be closing on their position at this very moment, and they would beyond doubt be well situated in the world capital to seize control of the government.
=/\=We'll comply when it's expedient to do so, Excalibur,=/\= Karka handed the communicator to Schirra. "A thing I can't quite understand..." he said. It took a while for the Hybrid to realise Karka was speaking to him/her. "Why do the Klingons want this world, besides the fact it's on our frontier?"
One of the Klingons, clearly the scientist amongst them answered, "The combination of Klingon and Deltan DNA requires very specific conditions, for stabilisation of the new genome and for its cultivation. This world happens to provide just such conditions, particularly here on the northern continent. The Asadans provide the world and growing conditions; we provide our support and give them status as a protectorate of the Empire. Your preferred candidate Gelan, a fierce opponent of genetic engineering, upset this arrangement by getting himself into office in that farce of an election."
"You mean in that free election," Prescott said.
The Klingon scientist turned his disruptor on Prescott. "It was never meant to be this way. Your highly-strung Federation with its irrelevant moral values shouldn't have got involved. You've muddied your already laughable reputation and made yourselves look foolish."
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Alyana Ryat
Commodore
Registered: Sept 5, 2007 16:34:56 GMT
Posts: 347
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Post by Alyana Ryat on Apr 21, 2014 14:39:47 GMT
Aly was sure that her message had got through, all she could do now was wait and maybe contemplate increasing her body weight so people would be less inclined to drag her around. She was certain that Dan had picked up on what she was doing and likely Karka had as well.
She had to admit that she was taken in by Prescottβs acting for the first few seconds. Dan and Karka had been swifter off the mark. Dan clearly knew what he was doing with that hold. Maybe they wouldnβt need the Excal to get out of this after all.
Aly reached for one of the dropped distrupters only to find herself shoved to her knees by a group of Klingons arriving behind her. She just hadnβt been quick enough. She would not allow herself to be used against her crew like this.
Karkaβs communicator chirped, he coughed, drawing it and looking around at all present, =/\=Psonoir here.=/\=
=/\=Lieutenant, this is Excalibur. Is Commodore Ryat present?"=/\=
=/\=She's... preoccupied.=/\= The distruptor jerked in the back of her neck at that. Actually the Klingon was starting to wrap is arm around her throat jamming the weapon under her jaw and forcing her head back. =/\=Excalibur, you're aware of the situation here?=/\=
=/\=What situation, Lieutenant? We received President Gelan's broadcast announcing his resignation and the handing over of power to the other party. And we remind you that Admiral Vazquez has ordered the Excalibur leave the Asadan system immediately. Apparently we are no longer needed here.=/\=
=/\=We'll comply when it's expedient to do so, Excalibur,=/\= Karka handed the communicator to Schirra. "A thing I can't quite understand..." he said. It took a while for the Hybrid to realise Karka was speaking to him/her. "Why do the Klingons want this world, besides the fact it's on our frontier?"
One of the Klingons, clearly the scientist amongst them answered, "The combination of Klingon and Deltan DNA requires very specific conditions, for stabilisation of the new genome and for its cultivation. This world happens to provide just such conditions, particularly here on the northern continent. The Asadans provide the world and growing conditions; we provide our support and give them status as a protectorate of the Empire. Your preferred candidate Gelan, a fierce opponent of genetic engineering, upset this arrangement by getting himself into office in that farce of an election."
"You mean in that free election," Prescott said.
The Klingon scientist turned his disruptor on Prescott. "It was never meant to be this way. Your highly-strung Federation with its irrelevant moral values shouldn't have got involved. You've muddied your already laughable reputation and made yourselves look foolish."
It was clear from the comments the Klingons were making behind her back that Prescott was amusing them and the Klingons had taken their attention from Aly. It was interesting what you could pick up when people thought you werenβt able to listen in.
Physical confrontation was not her favourite thing but there were times when it was necessary. She caught the arm around her throat with two hands tucked her head and bent forward. The Klingon, caught of balance and apparently not expecting any resistance flipped over her hunched form and when headfirst into the deck. Aly collected the distruptor she had been reaching for earlier and the one that had recently been jammed under her chin and got slowly to her feet warily pointing the weapon at the rest of the group she moved back to stand near Dan but not too near.
That move could have gone horribly wrong if he had landed on her she would, at best been hurt, if he had pressed the trigger she would have been dead. Aly suppressed a shiver as she checked the weaponβs settings. She knew that all attention was now on her. Time to take advantage.
βAnd you and this pile of targdungβ she guestured with the distruptor in her left hand at the Klingon she had stunned. βare not at all making the House of Bβreor look foolish by acting through deceit and following the orders of an outsider. Not to mention him underestimating an opponentβ Aly spat in Klingon. If they werenβt aware that she had been listening in to their personal comments then they were now but the point was to make them think. Klingons were not stupid although plenty of Starfleet officers had been under that impression. It was just difficult to get them to stop and change direction. If she continued to be lucky then the Klingon she had flipped would be more embarrassed than angry.
For the benefit of her crew Aly switched back to Federation standard. βThis lot are part of an auxillary branch of one of the smaller Imperial Houses and this appears to mostly their own idea. Given whatβs happened I canβt imagine their superiors will be too impressed.β
One of the Klingons started to laugh. Aly hoped that this was a move towards resolution and not an escalation of hostilities.
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Karka Psonoir
Commander
Registered: Apr 9, 2013 19:55:13 GMT
Posts: 422
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Post by Karka Psonoir on Apr 24, 2014 1:39:28 GMT
Karka evaluated the situation, attempting to skip generations ahead along the temporal partitions that separated his consciousness from this spacetime district from his tentative home amonst the spindly hulk archives that circled the Hybrudean homeworld. If he could survey the future - draw that net in that encompassed so much - so many possible divergences, events - he could narrow it to witness what might happen in the following few minutes. But despite his reach, and his experience in such matters, the near future remained curiously vague.
Briefly he contemplated what could be causing such a blockage - certainly no technology from this era - but he was rushed to the present as the Commodore flung the Klingon captor over her shoulder and rising pointed a disruptor at the remaining Klingons and Hybrids.
βThis lot are part of an auxillary branch of one of the smaller Imperial Houses and this appears to mostly their own idea. Given whatβs happened I canβt imagine their superiors will be too impressed," the Commodore let them know.
Karka rose an eyebrow. He knew the Klingon language also, but felt it wasn't right to divulge the fact at this moment, for fear of repercussions later if things turned out for the worse.
He and Schirra continued holding their phasers on Helutia, thus so far maintaining the stalemate. The Klingon scientist spoke again, amongst laughter from his warrior brethren, "Superiors?!" he spat at Ryat, "One can't be considered a superior if they lack the courage, the backbone to carry through what must be done for the benefit of the Empire. There's more at stake here than you know, humans..." the scientist swept his arms about the room and the control consoles, "Your interference has disturbed a classified mission that could've ultimately served both our factions. The superiors you speak of are from the High Council; they know nothing of what's happening here, you're right in that regard, but we're from no minor house. We're from the intelligence unit. Much like your Commander Schirra is from yours. Much like your Lieutenant Karka is, although from a very, different organisation..."
Karka was motionless. No.
His fellow officers glanced at him momentarily before returning weapons to the Klingons and the unconscious Helutia. "Engineering Corps..." he said quietly, shrugging, "Many of our R&D projects were top secret." His head spun, lost in a morass of conflicting memories - both real (his life on Hybrudea) and false (his installed memories of life on Earth and service on the Yorktown) - for several incomprehensible moments he wasn't able to tell which was which. The Evokes pronged his mind, making him lightheaded but giving him back his senses. Helutia must've told the Klingons what she knew about him: about his clandestine mission into the past instigated by Lirwa.
It made him wonder. When had Lirwa arrived here? Before him, surely... But when had he travelled back to the past?
Unless he'd been ultra-secretive, in that 600 years-distant future that seemed so close Karka could reach and caress it, Lirwa couldn't have travelled to the past before his laying of these plans with Karka. He must've have done so after Karka's departure, but, arrived in the past in a period before Karka's arrival! That cunning devil. That was how he'd instigated Gelan's election ahead of time. Nothing to do with Schirra's historically unrecorded taking up of the XO position, nor Karka's very arrival in the past. It was all Lirwa's doing, and unfortunately, it'd been to his expense.
The Klingon scientist went on, "The High Council rejected our proposal to genetically engineer Klingon-Deltan soldiers. We went on all the same. Do what you will Starfleet, if your superiors ever get this information. For we have quite the stand off here, don't we?"
"You still need her," Karka said abruptly, pointing his phaser at Helutia. "Without her, your attempt to bring this wold into the Empire will fail. She's the chosen successor, the one the Asadan people believe will lead them into the next era. With her as the figurehead gone, you won't maintain control over the planet and will be forced to withdraw. It seems all I have to do is press this trigger..." Karka said nonchalantly... albeit gripping the trigger loosely, shocked at himself as he begged silently for a different solution.
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Daniel Schirra
Captain
Registered: Apr 8, 2013 21:02:47 GMT
Posts: 468
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Post by Daniel Schirra on Apr 24, 2014 19:58:48 GMT
Daniel was stood over the prone Helutia, his arm steady as the proverbial rock as he watched the exchange between the Klingon's and the Commodore. He knew deep down that he would have to fire the phaser should things begin to spiral out of control, though he was still hopeful that the Excalibur would come to their aid, rescue, whichever seemed the more appropriate.
".... but we are from no minor house. We are from the Intelligence unit. Much like your Commander Schirra is from yours. Much like your Lieutenant Karka is, although from a very, different organisation ..."
Dan looked at the Klingon, thinking for a second he had misunderstood the comment, but everyone else seemed to be looking at the Engineer as if awaiting an explanation. Karka shrugged it off, making a comment about his 'covert' work. Everyone seemed satisfied with this and re-focused their attention on the Klingon Scientist. Dan kept his gaze on Psonoir for a few more second's wondering if he saw something the other's hadn't.
".... With her, as the figurehead gone, you won't maintain control over the planet and will be forced to withdraw. It seems all I have to do is press this trigger ....." Karka was saying nonchalantly.
The scene was somewhat bizarre in Danial's opinion. The federation were holding the one person the Klingon's desperately needed for their plans to succeed, the one woman that, once in power, would open all the avenue's the Klingon's needed. Not only to hold control of this world, but to prove to the High Council that their research was successful, and their hybrid's were a reality. 'Hell, they could even attempt a coup' he thought, trying hard not to contemplate a Klingon Hybrid High Council ... The Klingon's, their weapon's trained on the Federation Officers, seemed to be unconcerned at the Human's comments, and everyone was about to see just how insignificant their assumptions were ...
"Then I feel it only right that I relieve you of that option." the Scientist said as one of the Hybrid's adjusted his aim and fired into the chest Helutia. She vanished from sight instantly, as every weapon was raised. Should anyone fire it was highly likely no-one would survive the fire-fight, "Now ... It would seem that your only bargaining chip has been removed from the table, no ?"
Schirra's mind was swimming ... Had they been so stupid as to misread every single piece of information so thoroughly wrongly ! ... Had the Klingon's played the Fereration all along, knowing they had little use for the woman now dead ... because it was almost as if the Klingon's had had no use for Helutia from the start, otherwise why would they be so willing to kill her on a whim. They were missing something, but they had no time to ponder on what that could be as the Scientist smiled, much like a game-show host who knew a contestant had actually won something but was allowing him or her to rue giving the wrong answer to a seemingly vital question.
"Without the Presidential Candidate, your plan has failed." Karka said simply.
"Oh ..... I think not." the Klingon Scientist said, a wry smile forming as he waved to one of the Hybrid's, who left the room. A moment later he returned, but not alone. For there, standing before them, and somehow very much alive, was Helutia .... "So you see, you never 'really' had any hold over us Federation. You think we have not spent much time on our plans, and would not have taken every contingency into consideration ?"
"She is a clone !" Daniel said, realization dawning on everyone suddenly ..........
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Daniel Schirra
Captain
Registered: Apr 8, 2013 21:02:47 GMT
Posts: 468
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Post by Daniel Schirra on Apr 27, 2014 20:46:29 GMT
Aboard the Excalibur:
"I really hate them sometimes." Santos said, referring to the Klingon's ... He had been in the lounge for an hour when one of Psonoir's Engineering team burst in. He informed the Captain that they may have found a way to retrieve the away team from the caverns. Santos stood, almost dragging the Engineer with him as he rushed to the Bridge ...
"Can we block all communication's to and from the planet ?" he asked.
"yes Sir." the Comms Officer confirmed.
"Can we get a lock on our personnel ?"
"We have a confirmed lock on all our team, and a single Asadian female. She seems to be being held in a small room thirty five meters from the Commodore and her team." the Transporter Chief informed him.
"OK ... Transport all non-Klingon life-signs. Transport the Asadian female directly to Sick-bay ... Have Security there ready." ........
On the Surface:
"She is a clone !" Schirra said, realizing what the Klingon's have been up to. he looked at Karka, who seemed both confused and disappointed. Commodore Ryat was glaring at the Klingon Scientist as if she had been slapped across the face. Dan could see now that the Klingon's had planned well for their conquest of the planet. Hiding in plain sight, using the cloned Helutia, He wondered how long they had had the clone in position, weeks, months, years ... Just how long had they been planning this coup !
He looked at the disruptor at his feet, wondering if he could reach it before vanishing from existence. he had nothing to loose really, if he died, then it was clear the Excalibur crew would be dead before they could leave. The Klingon's couldn't allow their game to be reveled prematurely. The Klingon Hybrid's came further into the room and forced the Federation Officer's against the far wall. Dan wondered what was coming .... he didn't have long to find out:
"I am afraid you cannot be allowed to leave this planet." the Scientist said, trying to sound disappointed, "Alas, you're vessel will be boarded and taken back to the Klingon Home-world as a sign of our overwhelming success. Commodore Ryat, I regret your demise, we could have had many a battle against each other." he finished before turning to leave the room. Dan watched the Klingon disruptor's as they raised. He dove forward, crashing into the closest hybrid and wrestling the weapon from him, the Klingon Officer closest to him slammed the butt of his weapon into his temple and his vision blared. even as he fell to the floor he could feel the tell-tale grip of a transporter beam cocooning him .......
Aboard the Excalibur:
"Welcome back." Santos said, signalling for two crewmen to assist Schirra, "We're in trouble ... We have got you out and blocked communication's from or to the surface. The Klingon vessel close to us is about to open fire. I strongly suggest we withdraw for the time being."
Psonoir ran from the transporter room, saying he needed to do something quickly, Commodore Ryat and the other's were heading back to the Bridge when Santos informed her they had beamed an Asadian from the cave system. He took them to sick-bay. Daniel was recovering fast, and could walk unaided by the time they reached the Med Center. To say they were surprised was somewhat of an understatement, for there, say on a Bio-bed receiving treatment for minor cuts and bruises, was.
Helutia ! ..........
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Karka Psonoir
Commander
Registered: Apr 9, 2013 19:55:13 GMT
Posts: 422
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Post by Karka Psonoir on May 1, 2014 23:56:58 GMT
Psonoir delivered firm logic to the Klingon scientist. Here they had been, weapons to Helutia's body, thinking they held the most important bargaining chip, when the Klingons had simply vapourised the President-in-waiting. Karka couldn't contemplate that the Excalibur officers had miscalculated this. Everything pointed to the conclusion that the Klingons needed Helutia alive in order to progress their virtual takeover of Asad.
The only conclusion he could draw, which he also vocalised, was that the Klingons had made a stupid mistake. That was until he saw a living and fully healthy Helutia round the corner into the room, placing herself behind a bank of Klingon and Hybrid disruptors.
They were forced to the wall, the standoff seemingly all over. Lives over, Karka contemplated, the white-panelled walls of the control room pressing to his face. Disruptors charged; Karka waited for the moment, then there was a crash to his left as Schirra bundled an opponent to the floor. A few bewildering seconds later, the now familiar gold beams and wisps of a transporter beam out whipped about them, removing them from this hellish abode of near-death to the Excalibur waiting gracefully in orbit.
* * *
Karka decided it best not to use the standard transporters to beam the necessary equipment from the Asadan homeworld's northern facility. He took off at a near sprint from the transporter room he'd been beamed into and reached one of the cargo bays, dismissing the two maintenance tech NCOs there. He manned the main console, accessing the sensor grid that had its focus on the facility and searched for the signs that only he would know how to search for: the DNA constructs of the Hybrids, the reagents used in the reactions to smooth out any cellular-level rejections between the Klingon and Deltan genomes. Gaining possession of these, along with the vial of pure Klingon-Deltan blood he already had would be all Lirwa needed, and more, and would also stall the Klingons' plans to synthesise a whole army - if such a horrifying prospect was realisable - of these Hybrids on this planet.
He beamed the respective components onto the cargo transporter, rapidly collecting them before the maintenance techs returned. He nodded at them and left the bay in a hurry carting his precious cargo. This was as much for the people of this timeframe as it was for Lirwa. In fact, he thought, Lirwa may see this as a simple incidental extra, an almost inconsequential detail to Karka's mission here. To the people of the contemporary period, it could well be very important in halting Klingon encroachment into Federation territory. Karka almost found himself caring more for the interests of the Federation, for his fellow crewmembers.
* * *
"But why send you to the welcoming dinner, at the administrative headquarters?" Karka asked, standing near clone-Helutia's biobed.
"My 'real' counterpart sent her clone out of fear for her own safety. With me disguised as an intelligence agent, I could play the key role of setting the explosive device's detonator. Even though in the event, I managed to leave the room before the explosive detonated, the original Helutia had considered it too high a risk to attend herself."
"You set the detonator?" Karka asked, regarding Helutia - or as he'd originally known her, Virna, and this was the very article - warily. Virna, he thought, pleased at this turn of events. She whom he'd engaged and formed a bond with at that welcoming party, was not in fact the original power-driven Helutia that'd been killed by the Klingons, but was the clone who remained alive.
"I could either have cooperated with them - the defeated Asadan party and the Klingons - or signed my own death warrant. Helutia's... clone," Virna said the word bitterly, "Has not been cooperative as Helutia herself hoped." She smiled slightly at Psonoir, rubbing at her recently mended arm where strikes from disruptor butts had left wide, gash-wounds.
Karka surveyed the sickbay. He knew the answer to his next question, but he asked it anyway, out of curiosity, out of a desire to know more of the mindset of people from this species and this century. "How much of Helutia is in you?" he asked quickly. "Genetically: all of her, of course. But, at what time were you cloned?"
"Six months ago. I knew little of her... we only spoke a few times..." Virna gasped, suddenly wracked with pain. The CMO came over, administering a sedative once he realised that her discomfort couldn't be alleviated by a simple painkiller.
Karka nodded at the CMO, eyes lingering on Helutia's clone who clearly knew little of the original militant Helutia's personality - the nurtured aspects of the original that would be wholly absent from the clone's experience - and departed sickbay. Now with the original Helutia dead, her clone would disappear amongst the populace, to hide from the Asadan people. He wished it would not quite be so. She didn't fully belong to this world. She was a recreation of an immoral statesman, not Asadan in an original sense. She might go wherever she liked. Unless she truly wanted to be a figurehead for the governent, as long as it wasn't at Asad's expense or the Klingons' gain.
<Tag All>
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Daniel Schirra
Captain
Registered: Apr 8, 2013 21:02:47 GMT
Posts: 468
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Post by Daniel Schirra on May 6, 2014 17:10:32 GMT
"How much of Helutia is in you?" Karka asked quickly. "Genetically: all of her, of course. But, at what time were you cloned ?"
"Six months ago. I knew little of her ... We only spoke a few times." Virna gasped, suddenly wracked with pain. The CMO came over, administering a sedative once he realized that her discomfort couldn't be alleviated by a simple painkiller.
Daniel was watching the exchange with something approaching confusion ... Cloning was almost unheard of, with only two maybe three races capable of 'manufacturing' an identical being down to the molecular level, for one to have an almost complete set of memory engrams was nothing short of miraculous in his opinion. He listened closely to the conversation along with Commodore Ryat, who seemed as confused as he. But something made him look at the clone:
"Just how many of you 'ARE' there ?" he asked, making everyone turn in his direction for a few seconds before returning their attention to Helutia or Virna. The woman sat in silence for what seemed an eon, before looking Danial in the eye and answering:
"There are ...... Six, in total."
To say the information stunned all those present was somewhat of an understatement !
"SIX !" Karka said.
"So, one died, one was killed in the explosion, no, that's wrong, hold on. No, the 'original' Helutia is dead right ?" Dan asked, receiving no confirmation of his statement from the clone, "So there are, three more of you out there, waiting for what, you're chance, because frankly, I think that proverbial boat has long since sailed."
"No. You are incorrect. Of the three, only one was capable of cognitive thought, the other two were, defective and were subsequently destroyed."
Daniel turned away. The thought that someone had made duplicates of a living being, then discarded the failures in favor of the ones that worked, sickened him. But it wasn't for him to judge. It did occur to him that Star Fleet Intelligence could find out a lot from this clone, the location of the facility where they 'matured' for one. He was about to bring the subject up when Virna doubled over in pain yet again, this time she vomited as spasm's wracked through her body. Doctor Wundt dropped to his knees scanning the woman quickly then slapped his Comm badge:
=^= Computer .. Emergency transport .. Two direct to Sick-bay ! =^=
The Doctor and his patient vanished from sight ..........
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Karka Psonoir
Commander
Registered: Apr 9, 2013 19:55:13 GMT
Posts: 422
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Post by Karka Psonoir on May 6, 2014 21:56:31 GMT
Karka quickly followed Virna and the CMO to sickbay, taking the more conventional route via corridors and lifts to the medical centre. Virna was already splayed on a biobed, writhing in agony, the vital signs above her bed fluctuating wildly.
"Will she be alright?" he asked the nearby Wundt, feeling foolish for doing so. What'd happened to his intelligence, logical reasoning? Of course this was far too early for a prognosis, given the relative unfamiliarity Starfleet had with Asadan physiology. But... attraction could do strange things, things that Karka had experience before but never quite in this environment and most significantly in this timeframe.
He walked to Virna's side while the Chief Medic wandered off to see another patient. Her eyes met with his as soon as she registered his presence, his own dark globes rising to stare at her almost simultaneously, "You said there were three others and that two were defective. What about the third one? Who is he or she a clone of? Someone in the administration?"
"The original President Gelan," she murmured, after a moment's hesitation. Her eyes were bloodshot, just visible under her drooping eyelids. She wavered from side to side on the biobed. "He died on the atmospheric craft that fired on your ship; the one destroyed by the Klingons when you tried using your tractor beam to rescue it."
"So the near-dead Gelan we found in the underground facility...?"
"A clone. Originally meant to supplant the real Gelan where he would change the government's policy in favour of the defeated side. But he rebelled and refused to cooperate - a minor defection. Then when the Klingons stupidly killed the original aboard that craft, he became useless to our... their plans. They maimed him and bound him in the room in the underground facility, bait to draw you in as you know. He hardly knew who he really was..." she shook her pained head.
"He wasn't anybody," Karka said, finding his hand gripping Virna's suddenly. "He was never what the Klingons and Helutia wanted him to be. He's his own person; has his own identity." His grey eyes bore into hers. "How would you analyse yourself? Who do you see yourself to be?"
She sighed, "The revolution's over. I have no commitment to the opposition's cause, no interest in continuing their factional war. Like Gelan... Nothing but a tool, a device to be disposed of." She shrugged and looked away, studying the grey panel on the far wall. Karka stepped back from the biobed, thoughts whirring, thoughts pertaining in several of his mind's partitions, about how he might like to take this lost, lonely outcast back to the future with him.
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Alyana Ryat
Commodore
Registered: Sept 5, 2007 16:34:56 GMT
Posts: 347
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Post by Alyana Ryat on May 7, 2014 21:20:04 GMT
Alyana sat back in her chair as the Excalibur left the Asadan system. It seemed strange that after everything they had finally seen the inauguration of the new government. It was only temporary, a complex coalition involving both Gelanβs party and the opposition but it looked like it would hold. No had liked the way the Klingons had treated people and the whole planet had felt in need of a clean up. President Helutia had been sworn in although she had made it clear that she was planning on ruling with an eye to what Gelan would have done. Somehow Aly believed that she would sick to that plan.
Even knowing that Helutia was not the original Helutia she couldnβt help but feel that things had worked out reasonably well. She was immeasurably proud of her crew, especially Karka and Dan for holding things together planetside and managing the investigation and Ephrem for providing the last minute rescue.
The stars streaked on the viewscreen and Aly could only wonder what their next mission would bring.
OOC: I am going to leave this thread open for a short while we decide what to do next. Feel free to add to it. Thank you all.
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Karka Psonoir
Commander
Registered: Apr 9, 2013 19:55:13 GMT
Posts: 422
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Post by Karka Psonoir on May 8, 2014 21:47:48 GMT
Had it all been an illusion? Had he really spoken to Virna - no, Helutia? - in that dim sickbay? Grey walls like oppressive geometric phantasms - reflections of his mind's photoneutral partitions filled with their multilayered, splayed and suspended glittering fragments that were elements of the Archive itself?
He was in engineering, surveying reports, his mind spinning like a hypercharged dynamo, spinning so quickly... Torus shaped, arcs radiating in the ultraviolet that dashed about the interior - conditions in the cores of stellar formations. For a fleeting, cold moment he felt at one with the system's star - lost in its swirling mass of atomic fusion processes - as if his neurons were those very atoms of hydrogen and helium, slowly coagulating, clotting his brain inducing some wild fever.
It took a while to stabilise the unwanted emotions and perceptual confusions in his mainframe. Loss of grip of material reality, loss of coordination, loss of understanding of how to work motor functions in this humanoid form (while Hybrudeans' origin was of a humanoid one, many of the race, Karka included, had foregone inhabiting that kind of body for nearly three subjective centuries before he took on this role). For an instant he had been the stellar object... These things were dangerous. The process of memory supplantation caused unwanted side-effects - errors in the coding that sometimes would refuse to surrender to a debug.
The Evokes, the logical substrates of his mind that contained his true memories built up from subjective experience on his spacetime-defying worldline, forcibly inserted the facts - a hard flat pressure exerted on the interior of his skull, shunting a lifetime worth of memories into his mind. It could be overbearing at times - forcing too much in too quickly, the Evokes being utterly artificial themselves - and could wreck a mind more than repair it, but Karka felt it working... Reality took hold.
Virna on the biobed. Yes, a clear memory. She was coming to the future with him, his future -
No! Clone Helutia on the surface, gathering to her all who would follow and leading her people into an age where they'd continue to have to balance Federation influence with Klingon intrusion.
It was her calling. The revolution... not so over.
Probably just as well, he thought, lowering his head slowly to the terminal screen before him, suddenly very tired. The purple vial of Hybrid blood lay beside him, rolling gently back and forth on the table. He moved suddenly, jerking to the right and standing. The blood vial flew off the table, shattering against the wall. Purple ichor inched down the grey walls of his office.
"Crap."
"Crap indeed," someone at the door to his office said. Karka looked up at the newcomer. Ensign Unwin stood with his arms folded, "Was it really that important, sir?"
"Well..." Karka began.
circa 2850...
A green pasture lay ahead reflecting the purple-azure sky, bordered in the distance by half-seen summits; pastel-shaded cuboidic villas stacked atop each other seemingly at random to the left wide plains to the right. As if the moor was so smooth and even in its lay that it acted like a mirror. Its hue mingled with that of the sky and the distant trinary star, creating an indigo-blue visage that seemed to layer itself all about Karka - some eternal alien twilight.
Alien. He thought. But this was home. He espied a loose crowd of people, sitting or meandering about in the shade of a large sycamore tree some three hundred metres away. Lirwa, obviously amongst them, seemed to recognise him before he'd come even within half that distance.
The returned Hybrudean looked down at his friend. Lirwa was perched against the base of the tree, a girl on each arm. Others of his 'clique' were dispersed around the tree, some lying outside of the shade of its cool leaves, holding their own little conferences of idleness and fanciful contemplation.
"Fancy that," Lirwa laughed, "I was wondering when you'd be showing your face, old friend. Those sad Asadans got too much for you, didn't they?"
"Hardly," Karka smiled, sitting in the grass opposite his friend, legs crossed. He shooed away the girl who'd been attending Lirwa's right shoulder and had made her way over to him. "A very fruitful journey," he held his hands up, "And I admit, despite my warnings about tampering with events inside our chronology, things worked out fine. There's just one thing though..."
"Oh! Been there, done that, Karka!" Lirwa cried, as if this was some ancient inconsequential fact they were quibbling over. "Wrestled with the Asadan maniac, got the T-shirt. Didn't get close to the vial though..." there was a distant look in his eyes for a moment, before their golden pits focussed again on Karka. "As you may have guessed by now I made the journey to the past after you left; only two subjective days after, in fact. But I miscalculated. Ended up in some horrific prison on Earth in what humans called their Middle Ages. The Bastille I think it was called. Had to jump forward and ended up two months short of your arrival time." He sighed, seeming to grow bored with the story, "I found out where the Hybrids were being synthesised. Of course; on Asada. Travelled there, got into their biological research facility and suddenly found myself losing my mind. I managed to fight off a few brutes, who seemed similarly effected by whatever they were pumping into the air of that place, and found a nullpoint to jump to the nearest Archive nodal marker. And here I am."
He looked at the girls about him, casting them sour looks, suddenly disinterested, and rose to his feet and accompanied Karka to the low-lying villas on the plain to their right. "Well. Glad to know you're not dead," Karka said as they walked beneath the surreal light.
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Daniel Schirra
Captain
Registered: Apr 8, 2013 21:02:47 GMT
Posts: 468
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Post by Daniel Schirra on May 8, 2014 21:56:39 GMT
Executive Officer's Suite
Dan had been sat in silence for some time, the Excalibur was heading back to Earth where she would undergo normal service and refit, before heading out on her next assignment. He had complied his report concisely and accurately, though somewhat lacking in compassion, it wasn't something needed in reports anyway as far as he was concerned. Along with the 'official' report that the Commodore would receive and sign off, he had written his own, for the eyes of his Superior Only ...
Opening the secure channel, he entered his access code and transmitted the report. No doubt he would be asked to appear in person to explain some of the content, but again, this wasn't something that bothered him. They either took his word and explanation, or they didn't, it was in his mind, as simple as that ... He checked the chronometer on his desk and stood, he was due on the Bridge to relieve the Duty Bridge Officer, he was heading for the door but halted as the Incoming Comm chimed. Returning to the desk he sat and opened the Comm:
=^= Problem ? =^= he asked as his Superior appeared on screen.
=^= I'd like some clarification on one or two points .. For example .. Your comments re the 'subject' of your assignment and your sudden desire to remain aboard the Excalibur for an extended duration .. You were sent there to investigate certain 'irregularities' not to become a permanent part of the crew =^= the woman said.
=^= You want me to resign from Intelligence ? .. You want information on our target and I assume you want as much as possible .. So .. Allow me to remain as Exec' and we'll see what comes up .... Otherwise you're only option in my view is to act on what you have .. Which is scant at best =^=
Fifteen minutes later he closed the Comm and made his way to the Bridge. Apologizing to the young Lieutenant, who was more than happy to have had the extra time as Shift Officer, he took the Center Seat and watched the stars stream by ..........
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Karka Psonoir
Commander
Registered: Apr 9, 2013 19:55:13 GMT
Posts: 422
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Post by Karka Psonoir on May 11, 2014 10:21:03 GMT
"So..." Lirwa lazily regarded his friend, back to the wall, the aircooling system providing just the relief they'd needed from the heat of the blistering trinary star that beat on the plains outside. "Any plans to head back to the Excalibur?"
"I might give it a couple centuries," Karka smiled. "I think I'll go to the Zerata Archive..." he said airily, "They're currently in the previous century, I think." He turned to leave, walking towards the matte-grey exit beyond which lay the lush almost sublimely green meadow.
"You won't be any younger there, Karka," Lirwa warned, a devillish smile on his lips.
Karka paused and turned pertly, "No, but you forget friend, entropy increases at a lesser rate there. And by the time their chronology matches again with ours, assuming the Standing Wave oscillates within its average frequency parameter, I think I'll be approximately... ten biological years older than now. That's when I'll head back to Starfleet."
"Won't they recognise the difference? Their engineer grows ten years older over night?"
"That stuff must be clouding your brain," Karka observed. "Again you forget, I can transplant myself into a fresh body, will even be able to use the exact physical characteristics and chemistry of the human body I left behind. It will of course be, as if I never left."
Suspicion creased Lirwa's mischievous face, "You've developed a liking for these people haven't you? I told you they were interesting... We could even join them in a few years."
"I don't think they'll be ready for that, Lirwa. At least, not for a number of centuries."
"Who knows? In some alternate chronology... we might be with them already." The two friends shrugged, gazing at the plains, the trinary star, and the barely-seen hulks of the Archives lying in the mesosphere, on their slow ponderous orbits about the paradisiacal planet.
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Daniel Schirra
Captain
Registered: Apr 8, 2013 21:02:47 GMT
Posts: 468
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Post by Daniel Schirra on May 17, 2014 20:23:49 GMT
The Excalibur had taken five days to return to the Sol System ... The crew were looking forward to getting home, seeing Family, or just relaxing away from their duty assignments. Daniel had taken the Gamma Shift so he would be on the Bridge when they passed Neptune. He ordered the ship drop out of warp and make a parabolic entrance into the System. He always liked seeing the blue gas giant, for some reason it told him he was home once more.
Alyana and Karka entered the Bridge, as if sensing their proximity to Earth. Dan vacated the Command Seat allowing the Commodore to sit. They passed Jupiter then traversed the Asteroid Belt heading deeper into the System. Star Base One contacted them giving final approach instructions:
=^= Space Dock to Excalibur .. Docking assignment .. Saucer Alpha docking port zero one .. Welcome home =^=
=^= Alpha Zero One .. Thank you Dock-master .. Excalibur out =^= Alyana confirmed, "Helm, take us in please."
At almost two hundred meters longer than any other Star Ship currently commissioned, the Excalibur was a sight to behold as she glided towards her assigned docking ring. The hull was a little worse for wear, but Daniel could already see worker shuttles coming towards them. The ship would get a comprehensive overall while docked, the Warp cores would be replaced, much of the hull plating would be renewed, and countless other upgrades. The USS Typhoon was docked close by, she was going to be Excalibur's sister ship once completed, but at this point she was merely a shell. He could see people, both Star Fleet and Civilian standing at the observation windows lining the saucer. Excalibur was almost home now ...
Docking clamps extended, Karka, in constant contact with the Dock-Master was preparing to connect to power from the Space Station before shutting down internal power, as umbilical connections seated the ship slowly, very slowly allowed the Station to take her in an almost gentle caress.
"External connection's established." the Chief Engineer informed them, "I'm shutting down the cores." Daniel nodded approval and a subtle change came over the ship, she was now 'part' of the Station, a living extension of the enormous Star Base One ...
The USS Excalibur was home ..........
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