From voyager@massmed.org Fri Jun 19 12:31:55 1998 Date: Sun, 17 May 1998 20:31:59 -0600 From: "Michael A. Natale, MD" To: Dante Expeditionary Force List Serve Subject: [DANTEXF] SB ALIGHIERI: The Dogs of War [The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set] [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set] [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly] DANTE Expeditionary Force Official E-mail BEGIN TRANSMISSION Location: SB ALIGHIERI, DS-230 Stardate: 100518.0450 GMT FMD: 3.1135 Scene: ALIGHIERI's Ops Tao had just watched Yssar leave the bridge when a green light began flashing on the console in front of him. He tapped the panel and responded to the hail he was receiving. "This is LCDR Windstar in Ops. Report." A grey-haired man appeared on the viewscreen. [CPO O'Breen here, sir. The YORKTOWN has just requested permission to dock. We've instructed her to proceed to docking pylon four." "Understood, Mr. O'Breen. Ops out." Tao then tapped his commbadge and said, "Ops to CDR Greyclaw." After a few moments Yssar's voice answered, [Greyclaw here. I just left Ops, Commander. What could have happened since then?] Tao smiled inwardly as he imagined the look on Yssar's face at the intrusion. "You wanted to be informed the minute the YORKTOWN docked at ALIGHIERI. She has just been given permission to dock at pylon four, sir." [Thank you, Commander. Please direct Captain Katz to my ready room if he arrives on ALIGHIERI before I return. I'll be there shortly.] ****************************** FMD: 3.1150 Scene: Ops ****************************** Tao was busy coordinating things with Ariana Basek when the turbolift doors opened and Captain Katz of the YORKTOWN stepped out onto ALIGHIERI's command center. Yssar had arrived in Ops only five minutes earlier and Katz was already moving over to speak with him. After some time talking, Yssar turned to Tao and said, "Commander Windstar, you have command. I'll be in my ready room with Captain Katz." Tao acknowledged his commander and watched the two men retreat into Greyclaw's private office. Tao tapped his badge and said, "Ops to LT(jg) Roebuck." [Roebuck here.] came the reply. "Merlin, the YORKTOWN has docked at pylon four. I suspect her ENG will be contacting you within the hour for assistance in repairs. She needs to be ready for departure in twenty-four hours. Also see if you can enlist her ENG to assist in developing a way to strap the missile-probes to our fighters." There was a brief silence before Merlin answered. [You're asking me to do the impossible, sir. But I'll do the best I can. Roebuck out.] Tao wondered if all engineers were taught to make such statements to thier superiors. It seemed like every ENG he knew complained they were being asked to do the impossible but never-the-less delivered when needed. He had no doubt the same would happen here. *************************** FMD: 3.1600 Scene: Science Labs *************************** Tao, Ryan, Amy and Merlin hunched over a viewscreen watching a simulated battle taking place between Starfleet and the Dalriadan Navy. They had been watching the same simulation for over an hour now. When this one ended, they all rubbed their necks and looked from one to another. Tao finally broke the silence. "Can we do anything to improve the EM pulse generators on the missiles?" Ryan shook his head no. "We've been running simulations all day, Tao. This is the best we can do in the time allowed. We don't know enough about the Dalriadans shields to improve the odds. Maybe once we learn the mechanics behind their gravitic shields, we can make improvements. Until then we are going on theory. No matter how many times we run the sims, its always the same. The missiles have a fifty percent chance of breaching the Dalriadan shields. When they do, they cause considerable damage to the ships from the resulting detonation of the anicium and yurium, making one or two missiles enough to permanently disable a ship. When they don't penetrate the shields, the explosion still causes some damage, but we can't predict how functional their ships would be. Estimates are that at least six to eight hits are needed to disable a ship if shields are not penetrated." Tao looked to the others, but they simply confirmed what Ryan had said. "Alright people, begin work on mass producing the missiles. We still need to find a way to strap them to the fighters. We're running out of time. I'll keep CDR Greyclaw updated. Good work." Tao turned and left, headed back to Ops to check on the repairs to YORKTOWN and the progress at the front. As he made his way to the turbolift, he also said a silent prayer to anyone who was listening to help them through this peril. NRPG: All: We were supposed to be to FMD 6 by the end of the weekend, but I'm still awaiting word as to whether the EM pulse on the missiles will be allowed, as well as the mirrors around Dante for the laser star. Anyway, the missiles should not have a better than fifty percent chance to penetrate the shields of the Dalriadan ships, but the missiles can still be effective. Let's get moving. We can still be to FMD 6 by Tuesday or Wednesday. Timeline: FMD: 3.1135 YORKTOWN arrives at ALIGHIERI Mike N FMD: 3.1150 Katz and Greyclaw talk Mike N FMD: 3.1600 Work begins on missile-probes Mike N Respectfully submitted, LCDR Tao Windstar (aka Michael Natale) XO, SB ALIGHIERI, DS-230 voyager@massmed.org This message sent by an official member of the Dante Expeditionary Force Are you also posting your messages to the newsgroup?!!! END TRANSMISSION