From bullseye@earthlink.net Sun Jun 7 11:40:34 1998 Date: Sun, 24 May 1998 15:11:00 -0600 From: Patrick Schumacher To: "Berg, Kristine" , "Chappelle, Les" , "Denniston, Vicke" , "Denniston, Vicke 2" , "Fianges, Karen" , Gateway , "Hamilton, George" , "Jenkins, Jeffrey J." , "Lobelich, Dana" , "Reich, Alton 1" , "Reich, Alton 2" , "Schumacher, Patrick J." , "Uribe, Jeff" , "Blair, Gabrielle" , "Young, Josh" Subject: USS YAMATO: "A Day in the Life" Hi folks. Sorry it's been so long. When I actually *could* sit down at the computer, I just couldn't get the juices flowing. This rambles a bit, because it incorporates tidbits from everybody's posts for the last week--stuff that I've been meaning to get to for a while and never did. Welcome also to Gabrielle and Jeff U. (I swear we should change the name from INDIGO to JEFF FLEET. ) If you haven't already forwarded a copy of your BIOs to Alton, please send one to me and I'll get it out to everybody else. RPG: SD: 100524.1328 MD: 7.0605 Scene: Main Bridge. Alex Connor looked to the HELM, watching Lt(jg) M'Gan hunched intently over her control panel. Her tail stood nearly straight up, poised, motionless, sticking through the rear of the seat as was typical of her felinoid species when engaged in a task that required deep concentration. And attempting to perfectally match speed and trajectory of the Dalrianan cruiser they were currently passing through would qualify as such a task. M'Gan was holding quite well, thus far. The trip, though partially unsettling, was an intelligance boon. The YAMATO, phased just out of n-space to the enemy heavy cruiser, drifted effortlessly through the other vessel, seeming to occupy exactally the same space at the same time. From a visual perspective, it was somewhat madening; to see, float towards and then pass trough bulkheads, equipment and machinery that appeared to be as solid as your own reality-and to have your own reality laying on top of the unsuspecting Dalriada below. The YAMATO was keeping a smooth, even keel, matching course with the other ship, if going just a bit faster. Alex stood, hands clasped behind his back, observing as they were able to look into the interior of the Dalriadan ship. People moved past, wearing green colored uniforms, others had tunics of a deeper blue. Others had a combination of white an read. Connor wasn't familiar with the insignia of the Royal Dalriadan Navy, but the red and white's appeared to be officers. Blue could have been security or support services and the green apeared to be standard crew members. Connor averted his eyes for a moment, looking to the OPS station. D'Artgnan's monitors were scrolling past reams of data. Bregan himself wasn't watching the screens, but was taking in the visual sights as well, with only an occasional peek down to check on his systems. Alex mused for a moment about a luck break--phasing into engineering or the bridge--and reading pertinant tactical information. Shield configurations, communications frequancies, armament, crew compliments. The scans whould be picking up enough inteligence to keep the sciences and engineering staffs busiy for days. The XO turned around to the rear station to see the back of Cassandra's head as she, like M'Gan, slaved away over her station and the technical readouts. The federation ship completed it's pass when the Dalriada begain some type of power-up. They banked out and away, turning towards the nearby planet of Burrakis. CAPT Stern broke the silence of the Bridge asking the Operations Officer for a status report. > "Sir, indications from the planet show that it is heavily defended. > There is more ground troops on site then screaming women at an Elvis > Presley concert. As far as ships in the area, I'd say that they > definately were worried about protecting the system. It'd take a hell > of a lot more than us to take control here." > > Issac pondered his OPS officers words for a few moments, then looked > up as Bregan spoke yet again. > > "Of course, sir, we could always just phase back in and ask them > nicely to leave." > > Shaking his head in wonder, the YAMATO's captain still, even after the > times he had spent with D'Artgnan on PROMETHEUS, could not figure out > how he was able to stay so loose in a tight situation. The Englishman > just had a knack for breaking tension at the right time. It was > evident as more than a few bridge members continued to chuckle softly. Connor bit back a grin and joined in, proposing a possible ultimatum as he leaned in towards Issac and spoke in a soto voice: "We'd greatly appreciate if you ceased all current hostile actions and kindly turned tail and ran back to the most convienent neutral system of your choosing. Please comply immediately or we'll be forced to ask you again...maybe even say 'please.' Have a nice day." Alex didn't think he'd been loud enough for anyone else to hear but Bregan broke out in an even wider grin and even M'Gan appeared to be stifling a chuckle. Stern now turned and cast a half-incredulus/half-amused look at his First Officer. Whatever D'Artgnan had, was it contagous? > "We are still undetected sir, though I'd be reluctant to continue in > system for long, tempting fate and what not as we are. What should we > do?", Bregan said swiveling around and regarding Issac. Stern's gaze had gone from Connor to Bregan. Now, Issac did not answer himself, but looked to the Lieutenant Commander at his right. Alex straightened, thin wry grin still on one side of his mouth. He cast a half-look back at the rest of the bridge crew, sensing the mood. It was quite apparant what everyones intentions were, and what their orders were as well. Alex again folded his arms behind his back, regarding Bregan. "What we do," he replied, "is cause as much damage as we can before leaving." MD: 7.1310 They had chosen a supply ship, one of the mid-range freighters in the area. Both Issac and Alex would have preferred to have begun operations on something a little smaller and easier, however the Dalriada did not seem to allow the smaller transports to fly off on their own. This was as small and as solitary as they could find. It would have to do. It did quite well, vaporizing into a giant fireball as the YAMATO cruised past, re-cloaking on the far side. Swift. Efficiant. Deadly. It was an age-old and proven tactic of war: cripple your opponent's supply lines. Nearly every major conflict for the last three centuries had been won the same way: precision damage where it was most benificial, instead of wide-spread indiscriminate chaos. "Cloak re-engaged, Captain." came the reply to his order. "Long range scans." Alex ordered. "Any change or response from the Dalriada?" It took a few moments before the answer came. Alex exhaled a breath he didn't realize he was holding. "Negative. No change. We appear to remain undetected." > Lisa Mara looked down at the arm rest she had been gripping. A tear showed > in the tough material. For a brief moment she closed her eyes as a flash of > pain seared through her head. She bit the inside of lip, and looked up > again. "Permission to leave the Bridge Captain." > > "Granted, why don't you take a quick break Dr?" > > "I would like to Sir, but Captain's do not have the monopoly on being > pigheaded. I have to check those scanner results. I do not like the > combination of exploding Ships & new technology on the crew of my Ship." > She left the Bridge. The turbo lift doors closed on the words, "her Ship??" Alex watched the turbolift doors close behind her. Concern apparent on his face. Lisa had stated she needed to speak with him urgently. She wasn't the type to be cryptic, or to inturrupt in the middle of such urgent matters. Something was wrong. He just didn't know what. There was a faint must scent in the air after her passing. He could place the smell from somewhere before in Lisa's room. Couldn't put the finger on it. It had been much softer, much harder to notice before. Now it lingered in her chair behind her. Alex tried to think Lisa's name, tried to connect to her mind. There was no response. Scene: Captain's Ready Room MD: 7.1520 > "Time of the year?" > > "Shaytonians go through a yearly cycle. Each year they must cleanse their > systems of emotions. Unfortunately, space travel can muck up their cycle. > Lisa's has been fine for a few years, but it must have been shook up again. > She needs 24 hours locked in a room with some poor bugger." His eyes > strayed to Alex. "She can go into a trance until we are out of trouble but > she won't. When its her shift, she will dope herself up to the eyeballs and > be there. Just don't distract her from her work. Rest of the time, leave > her be." > > "Is that your medical opinion Dr?" came the slight sarcasm in Alex's voice. > > "That's bloody good advice, Sir." Connor looked to Stern. To the captain's credit, he seemed to be recovering quite nicely from his recent fright at Lisa's talons. "I don't like the implications." Alex began, casting a look at Jules for emphasis. "In our current situation we can't afford to be operating with a zombie CMO who has herself medicated to a point near utter uselessness." "She'll still give 'er a go." MacDonald protested. "I goddamn know the strength of her spirit!" Alex replied curtly. "What I'm more concerned with is her physical well-being. What kind of danger this means for her." "Isn't that supposed to be *my* responsibility, Commander?" the aCMO asked, bordering on sarcasm. "Yes, it is." Alex replied. "But don't forget that the well-being of a crew member is my responsibility as well." "As is it mine." Issac interrupted, cuting through the tension building in exchanges between the other two men. "Espicially when it concerns a member of my Senior Staff." The Captain regarded Alex grimly. "No one is any more concerned as am I, but," Issac hesitated, "given our current circumstances I cannot let the concerns of a single crew member outweigh my--*our*--responsibilities to the rest of the crew." The correction had been focused directaly at Connor. the First Officer absorbed the statement. "Usually, sir, I'm have no choice but to agree with that sort of logic. This time, however, I have a reluctance to just push Lisa aside until it's convienent for us." Alex turned for the door. "I'm going to find out if there's anything else that can be done. Maybe determine some alternateves." he remarked as he turned. Stern halted him on his way out the door. "XO," Issac called while still sitting behind his desk. "while I can sympathize with Dr. Mara's predictament, I am in a combat zone. I cannot afford to be without a single crew member, much less two, for any amout of time. If the doctor and her 'poor bugger' can delay this, it *will* have to wait." Alex nodded solemnly, reluctantly. "I understand, Captain. I'll try to fashion some suitable alternative that will be acceptable, if I can." As Connor turned for the second time, Jules called out "I wouldn't go to close to the door if I were you." Alex stopped and looked over his shoulder. "No kidding." As the Ready Room doors closed behind the departing officer, Stern looked at the current acting Medical Chief. "You say that like he is Lisa's chosen parcipiant." "He is." the Aussie replied evenly. Stern half-choked on his sip of coffee. He hadn't realized that. "Commander Connor knew that, and has enough knowledge about Shaytonian physiology to know that Lisa's in danger. However--damn their respective senses of duty--he is just as reluctant to neglect his duties, just as she is, for *any* length of time." "And what happens if the doctor cannot perform this 'emotional clensing?'" Stern asked. "Her emotions will remain off balance, shes'll emit rough emotion to those around her, her poison ducts will continue to pool until overflow, and--in the most extremes of prolonged conditions--neural degredation, paralysis of extremities and even death." "How long before she reaches that point?" "A while. Not sure exactally, Captain. Three, maybe four weeks." Scene: Lisa's quarters. Connor arrived outside Lisa's door to see two security guards posted on either side, a red light blinking on the panel indicating a security lock. Alex looked at each of the security guards, they both looked agitated, as if affected by the proximity to the raging emotional fountain on the other side of the doors. Ensign Gladden was present, a look on her face well hidden that explained how much she'd rather be on the other side of the doors right now. "You aren't telepathic, are you?" Alex asked her. "No, Commander." she replied, a slight gleam of jealousy in her eyes. "Well, Yeoman Kaq'qa, here, *is.*" Connor replied, thumbing a gesture at the other goldshirt. If Tami was a bit flustered, the vulcan was downright aggitated, having 'absorbed' the random emotions being flung out from the doctor within her room. "Take her to sickbay, and issue orders for all crewmembers with a psi factor above 2 to avoid any section of the ship Dr. Mara is currently in." Ensign Gladden nodded, moving to comply. She took hold of Kaq'qa, surrendering her phaser to the XO, and began to move her away. Kaq'qa held her head, another hand running down the front of her uniform. Her breath was ragged as they moved down the hallway. "Whole ship'll need a cold shower if this keeps up." Alex muttered, taking a seat near the door. He knew that making contact with Lisa in her current state whould be somewhat short of cruel, if not taunting. But there wasn't much that he could do about it right now. He didn't like what he would have to do, but he needed information. /Lisa./ No response. /Lisa!/ he tried again. He wasn't telepathic, wasn't even measurable on any of the charts. But Mara had tought him to focus his thoughts, to communicate with her. Basically, it amounted to her reading his thoughts and projecting a response into Alex's mind, but it was effective. If Alex concentrated enough, he could focus on her mind on nearly any point on the ship. Here, even ten feet away, it was almost impossible to sense her. /LISA!/ It was like fishing. Throw out a line and wait for the fish to come snag it. Slowly, he sensed something. Blackness, a jumble of thoughts--all sudden and overlapping--with a single consciousness burried somewhere deep behind them. /Lisa./ /Who calls?/ a hesitation, then realization. Eagar realization. /Alex!/ /I'm here. How do you feel?/ /Hungry. Very...hungry. Hungry..for you./ /We...*I* can't. Notrightnowanyway. Sorry to temp you like this./ Connor could sense her drawing nearer now. Somehow sensing her internal fight not to try and open the door. He could feel her moving, as if she was now right against the door on the other side. He mind was still not clear, Alex could feel the storm within her. /Can you answer questions?/ /Don't want to talk. Want you here./ /It's nice to be wanted. But sorry. Does it have to be me? Can someone else fill in as a substitute? If not, does it have to be a full cleansing, can we go for a few hours at a time--maybe several off duty shifts? How long can you hold back if it comes to that?/ A pause. /What was the first question?/ Alex sighed, Lisa wasn't trying to be funny, it was obvious by her tone of mind. It was so hard for her to even concentrate. This would be a whole hell of a lot easier if he could just walk though this door right now. The longer they waited, the longer it would be until Lisa was herself again. Alex shook his head, and begain to go back and ask questions, slower. /This is gonna be a long night./ he admonished. MD: 7.1710 > > [Bridge to CAPT Stern.] > > "Go ahead LT D'artgnan." > > [A Dalriadan cruiser has left the inner system and is heading in our > general direction. I don't think we've been detected, I suspect the > ship is either taking up a patrol in the outer system, or may be > departing.] > > "Very, well, LT. Plot an intercept course. Stern out," he looked at > Cassandra, "LT see if you can work out the timing and target location." > > "Aye, Sir," Cassandra said and she turned and left the ready room. > > After the door swished shut behind her, Alex looked at Isaac, "Captain, > this is a risky proposition." > > "I know that XO, but it also may be an opportunity. I want to be > prepared to take advantage of that opportunity." > > "I understand that, Sir, but I would still advise caution." > > "Noted XO. Believe me, I want nothing more than to return to OMEGA with > this ship in one piece." "As do I, Captain." Alex replied with a restrained look "But, destroying two transports, a destroyer and a troop shuttle is hardly going to be a serious crippling blow. Intel shows that a single Dalriada armada travels with almost ten times that many ships, and they record at least nine active armadas in this quadrant alone. "I would like more than anything than to toast as many Dalriada ships as we can before leaving, but they're already starting to sense something is amiss in this sector. So far they've doubled patrols and none of their transport ships is traveling unescorted. I'm quessing that we won't have much longer before they start setting traps, maybe pulling in a Q-ship or two." Stern nodded. "I'd considered as much. Discression may be the better part of valor. We report to OMEGA in just under five hours, we may be ordered back to Terebellum once we've provided them the Dalriada intelligance our scans have picked up so far. I only hope that INTEL will be able to decipher it and turn out somthing useful. If that is the case, then I'd certainly like to try to inflict as much mayhem as we can before we're recalled. "We'll see what we can do with Lieutenant Stephen's assessment, and continue to engage targets of opportunity when possible. Once we report in to OMEGA we'll see if there are changes to our orders." "Aye, sir." "Dismissed, XO." Connor stood to go, one thing remaining (besides Lisa). "Captain, with your permission, I'd like to speak with Morgan and Lieutenant Bal about the possibility of another weapon." "Which would be?" "Well, Captain, I was thinking. What would happen if we could launch a torpedo or even a remote piloted object--a shuttle craft or even a probe for instance--and have it suddenly phase back into normal space right into the bridge or the middle of their main reactor." Issac nodded, it would be an answer to the gravity well shielding to have a photon torpedo suddenly manifest itself inside the hull, on the bridge or in engineering. It *would* be effective, but there was one small problem: "Of course, we cannot launch shuttles, or fire either torpedoes or probes with the cloaking device engaged." "I understand that. What if we retreated to a remote location, disengaged the cloak, went outside and attached probes to the hull with magnetic clamps. Once we come back out, you could disengage the magnetics without interfereing with the cloaking device. Both level II probes and class VI torpedoes are self-contained and will accept remote operating commands." "But the torpedo would only remained cloaked so long as it's inside our shields. We'd have to fly nearly on top of the Dalriada and time the torpedo reaching it's destination with it passing through the shields. That's awful close for comfort. Do you think that it's possible?" "I have every confidence in Lt. M'Gan's ability to pilot this ship, as well as Lieutnant's Trisx and D'Artagn's abilities to operate remote missiles." Connor replied. "To be honest, the thought of being able to have a solid object suddenly apear in the heart of our matter/anti-matter core--and the resulting damage that could cause--does seem appealing. I'd like to have the ability to sneak up and to take out an entire heavy cruiser with a single shot. But I'm not sure if it's feasible." Stern mused for another few moments. "Get a feasibility assment from Wolfe and Bal. See how long it would take them to make it happen. Run some holodeck trials and see if the cloaking device will hold from the stress. One 'burp' in the shield when the torpedo goes off and the explosion will funnel right back into us and take us with them." Bring me the results." "Aye, Captain." Respectfully Submitted Pat Schumacher-aka Alex Connor First Officer Non-RPG #2: Told you it was long and winding. Karen: I left room for Lisa to do a lot of explaining. She can either tough it out or give Alex something to try and pitch to Stern. Alton: Tossed around the "phased torpedo" idea for a while, but the more I think about it, the more I think the physics would be near-impossible. Wanted to throw it out for discussion, though. Les: Still specializing in "near-impossible physics?" Josh: Wanted to add more to the Bregan/Alex exchange from Alton's post but it didn't happen. Maybe next time. Is 8.0000 communication from INDIGO going to relay news of Captain Slick's death? Jeff U/Gabrielle: Welcome again. We'll try to accomidate your coming aboard shortly.