Dr. Adonidas comes out and says, "Lt Clare is up and around. He's still a bit fatigued, so take it easy on him guys, eh?"

Jon comes out wearing a heavy bathrobe and thick felt slippers. He looks a bit drawn with dark circles beneath his eyes. His Klingon disguise has been removed, so his red hair and freckles  are plainly visible. Tony gets up and pulls out a chair for Jon. "Thanks, Sawbones! We'll look after 'im." he says to her and sits next to Talja.

Adonidas glares at Tony, but there is a playful gleam in her eye. "Laying it on a bit thick, Lieutenant—who are you trying to impress, Lt Groën or Lt Xelox?"

Tony grins at her saucily and turns to Xelox. "So, Bill, whose territory are ya from? My old man's Boss Gazzo on the Lower East Side Territory. They call me Fast Tony on account of I'm a wheel man. This's Jon Clare—got hisself stuck by some Klingon muscle; that's Zed Sloane, the bossman on the Thames; and this lovely lady is Talja Groën my, ah, girlfriend." He and Talja blush in unison, obviously new in their relationship. Talja is a petite, muscular woman with fair skin and short dark hair, which makes the sudden rush of blood to her cheeks that much more noticeable.

[OOC: Edited slightly to correct mistakes...]
This message was last edited by the player at 23:19, Tue 08 Jan 2019.

In reply to Lt (jg) 'Fast Tony' Gazzo (msg # 1):

Jon looks at Tony, struggling a bit to focus his eyes. He's not surprised by Tony's announcement, but it's the first time he's heard it straight from the horse's mouth. He decided to poke a little fun.

"That's my fault," Jon says to Bill jokingly. "Tony almost killed himself at my surfing party, and Talja went all Florence Nightingale on him. The result had been adorable."

Jon manages to focus his eyes on Bill. "Welcome to the team, by the way! I don't think we've been formally introduced. Lt. Jon Clare. I'm also relatively new to the sphere. Came looking for some adventure, and it seems to be paid off more than I anticipated. What brings you here?"

"Guten Tag, Herr Xelox. Jon, I'm not Florence Nightingale—we just met her, so there!" She sticks her tongue out at him and turns back to Billy. She speaks with a slight Bavarian accent. She orders a small weisswurst on a bun with sweet mustard and a glass of chilled Weissbier. "I'm sorry, Lt Xelox, we've not eaten in hours and have had only Klingon food for a few days. Have you eaten?"

Tony orders Spaghetti Bolognese with a glass of Chianti and says to Billy, "Want some? I use a replicator pattern based on my Pop's special sauce. He used to spend all day making it before we went to th' mattresses back home." The aroma of the Bolognese sauce is tantalising. Jon finds that even though he's just devoured the meal Adonidas gave him, he's still feels ravenous.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:44, Tue 08 Jan 2019.

In reply to Lt (jg) Talja Groen (msg # 3):

“Lt. Xerox, welcome to Dyson Base.  I’m Lt. Zedrick Sloane, my friends call me Zed. “ Zed says as he orders a Philly Steak sandwich. “After eating Klingon food I need something normal. Grab something to eat and join us. Tell us what brings you here Billy, and not just this is where I got posted BS.” As he grabs his food and takes a seat with the others.

[OOC: Jay is obviously not yet ready to post yet, so we'll continue on and if he wishes to continue this conversation we'll deal with it in a sidebar thread.]

The discussion goes on for a couple of hours during which it is revealed that Lt Xelox's nickname is "Fast Billy" due to the speed of his right jab. He's a boxer, trained by his grandfather, an old-time "Mustache Pete". Billy developed an interest in history and sociology, and this became his specialty. He went to Starfleet Academy and graduated as a science officer specialising in sociology, with a security secondary.

After the conversation, Jon finds himself falling asleep in his chair and his arm is throbbing. Lt Avalon, the new Security Chief tells them they'll be joining Ambassador Worf's security detail after they get some sleep.

In the morning, the swelling has gone down on Jon's forearm and Dr. Adonidas gives him a hypospray with an analgesic should the pain return. "Don't be surprised if your arm goes a bit numb when you use the hypo—it won't affect your use of the arm and has no sedative side-effects," she tells him.

The team is quickly brought up on the situation in BortaS City—there is still sporadic rioting and a few fires, none of which have gotten out of hand. They are all issued security armour, phaser rifles and hardened tricorders. Cdrs K'Pok and Vaughn are still recovering, but Lt Swann is freshly returned from her TDY assignment. She is armed with her beloved TR-116 sniper rifle which has been outfitted with a heads-up tricorder unit.

Returning to the station-keeping position over veng BortaS in the Thames, they beam down, again leaving Sonam manning the runabout. Worf is waiting for them in one of the Klingon battlecruiser's old briefing rooms. Klaang is also there, but Dr. KeH'lef is nowhere to be seen.
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:38, Sat 02 Feb 2019.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 5):

[OOC Question: We are not in Klingon disguise anymore, are we? We are now official armed Starfleet personnel?]

In reply to Lt (jg) Jonathan Clare (msg # 6):

After reviewing the briefing info and suiting up Zed indicates to Lt. Avalon, “We are ready to head out and join the ambassador’s team.”

Turning to Jon he asks “Lt. how is the arm, ready for some action.”

Correct.

In reply to Lt Zedrick Sloane (msg # 7):

"My arm's almost as good as new, sir" Jon says brightly, and flexes his arm in demonstration. The slight wincing expression he makes as he does this belies his optimism. Jon is glad he has the analgesic hypospray with him, though he has a private bet with himself not to use it unless really really necessary.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 14:44, Mon 21 Jan 2019.

In reply to Lt (jg) Jonathan Clare (msg # 9):

“So we are good to go.  Let’s head out and meet up with the Ambassador’s detail” As he turns and heads to the transporter room.

The team boards the Thames and proceed to veng BortaS. M'Rel has assigned Lt P'Reen of the Runabout St. Lawrence to act as copilot to keep the Thames at station-keeping.  Arriving over the city, she contacts Lt Nivran and requests permission for the away team to beam down.

Nivran replies, "Ambassador Worf is awaiting your arrival. He is most impatient."

Zed, Jon, Billy, Marissa, Talja and Tony check their equipment and P'Reen says, "Energising... now!" The runabout fades away in a shower of sparkling energy...

...and the transporter room of the BortaS shimmers into existence around them.  The Ambassador is personally manning the control console, flanked by Argent and Nivran. The transporter room is a dimly lit chamber, larger than a standard Federation starship facility, with the hexagonal transporter pads arrayed on a similarly hexagonal platform. A slightly bitter smell of ozone laced with stale lubricants tinges the air. Worf says, "Clear the stage," and once the pads are clear, LCdr M'Rel appears along with Lts (jg) Seth Tal and Leiliri. Worf steps up to the transporter stage and approaches M'Rel.

"Good morning Commander," he greets the Caitian CAG. Turning to Zed and the Thames crew, he says, "Lt Sloane, I understand your mission was... somewhat eventful. Lt Swann, we've not met, but I hear you have some military experience. Lt Clare, the captain informs me you were wounded. I take it you're fit for duty?"

He motions the team to accompany him. Argent and Nivran fall into the loose formation as he leads the through a door into a spacious briefing room. There is a tension in the air aboard the crippled Klingon battlecruiser as they find Emissary Klaang and Dr. Keh'lef sitting at a large triangular table emblazoned with the Imperial trefoil, talking to Captain Klong, Commander Kresh and Dahar Master Qolor. Klong looks at M'Rel and his crew with palpable displeasure and says, "So, Caitngan [Caitian] , have you come to gloat over your theft of our spoils of war?"

[OOC: Sorry for the delay—it's been a bit of a rough week.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:54, Sun 27 Jan 2019.

Worf sighs and informs Klong, "HoD Klong, you've been informed that your spoils of war—so called—stolen by HoD Qor'tath from the Romulans during his raid on Romulus was in reality the Tokath, a pre-diaspora Vulcan psionic weapon, stolen by Romulan rebels from the Vulcan military and taken with them when they fled Vulcan. The High Council under Chancellor Martok and approved by Emperor Kahless cha'DIch [Kahless II] approved it return to Vulcan in return for which the Federation and Vulcan governments paid a substantial reparation fee; a portion of which has been set aside for the crew of the IKS BortaS. As current captain of the ship, the amount of forty thousand DarSeqs [the darsek is the main unit of Klingon currency] has been apportioned to you."

"Bah! Money! What about my honour?" snaps Klong angrily.

"What honour?" Worf asks. "You did not capture the Tokath from the Romulans. You should count yourself lucky that you are not being discommended for allowing a mere Caitngan Lieutenant to take it from under your nose." M'Rel's right ear twitches but he keeps a straight face at Worf's casual description of him.

Klong scowls even more and mutters, "If you were not under diplomatic immunity..."

Worf manages not to laugh in Klong's face, but Klaang admonishes him, "Have a care, Klong. Did you hear how General Martok came to be chancellor? Worf defeated Gowron in single combat and killed him but refused the chancellorship for himself; choosing instead to pass it to Martok, the head of his adopted House. Worf is also the one who returned Kahless to his throne, so he has proven not only his prowess at arms but his wisdom and influence in the Empire!"

"Enough!" says Worf, brooking no further argument. "We have weightier matters to discuss."

In reply to Ambassador Worf (msg # 12):

[OOC: Those were the good old days.]

“Ambassador Worf, my team is fit and eager to serve you.  What do you need use to do.”  Sloane asks as he carefully checks his team over.

He then checks LCdr M’Rel over after all Worf’s references about him to better understand what M’Rel is about.

Zed is not familiar with Caitians enough to decypher M'Rel's expression but Argent recognises an insouciant grin. Re grins to himself as well, but Klong is also unable to notice the grin. However, he scowls and sits with his shoulders hunched. Fury radiates from him but he obviously decides that discretion may well be the better part of valour. This of course simply reinforces Zed's original suspicions about the Klingon captain.

Worf snorts and sits at the head of the table. "We have managed to determine the probable faction within the city which is behind the unrest. They attacked another faction—Empire of the House of Durgath, a fundamentalist religious sect devoted to returning to Qo'noS in order to restore the worship of the Old Gods."

The DaHar Master smiles and says, "I am familiar with the Empire of the House of Durgath. they share in my worship of K'nash'akar who they call by his outer name, Durgath. They are somewhat zealous but are not a threat to reunification. They merely wish to retain their identity as Klingons without becoming Burchak [Ridge-headed ones]." Worf, Klaang and Keh'lef bristle at the somewhat derogatory term.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 21:51, Tue 29 Jan 2019.

[Note: I've updated the image for the Security armour you're all wearing. Of course there are adjustments for individual species variations.]



This message was last edited by the GM at 16:18, Wed 20 Feb 2019.

In reply to Ambassador Worf (msg # 14):

"Looks like you were right in your assessment of the Durgath, Talja!" says Jon as an aside to Talja and Tony.

In a louder voice Jon asks "Why would the resistance faction attack the House of Durgath? I mean I know they are trying to creating unrest, but you'd think that the House of Durgath would be more of an asset to them un-opposed."

Worf replies, "Thanks to Lts Sloane and Xelox, we've determined that they may be being manipulated by the Romulans, the captain has informed me. They've put the entire Dyson Sphere mission on high alert. This is not the first interference we've discovered by the Romulans. Last year, just before the Kapecki attack, a Romulan deep-cover agent was exposed masquerading as a Vulcan officer named T'Zill. Her Theta class Runabout was destroyed as she attempted to flee." He calls up a personnel file on the wall screen .


"The spy is deceased, but we must assume the Romulan mission is ongoing and connected. T'Zill was killed attempting to recapture the Tokath, lending credence to such a connection."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:35, Sun 03 Feb 2019.

In reply to Ambassador Worf (msg # 17):

Zed asks of no one in particular. “Do we know of any connection between any of the Klingon houses here and the Romulan,  either now or pre-BorTaS crash here on the Dyson sphere? It might help  us determine which houses were open to talking with a Romulan spy and then give us a starting point of whom the rebels might be

Emissary Klaang scowls. "Almost certainly not. The BortaS was lost before the Empire's short dalliance with the Star Empire. The recent alliance between the House of Duras happened before veng BortaS was rediscovered. No, if the Romulans have any formal connection with any of the BortaSngan it is most recent and independent of any Romulan sympathisers within the Empire," he says in Klingonaase.

Worf agrees, "It would seem reasonable to assume that the Romulan presence in the Sphere and their subsequent interest in—indeed their very knowledge of the BortaS began with the establishment of the Dyson Sphere Exploration Mission. From what Starfleet Intelligence has be able to ascertain, T'Zill's assignment to the Sphere came as a complete but welcome surprise to the Romulans and they were unaware of the BortaS until the crew of the Lena recovered the tor Fal. T'Zill realised what it was and alerted the Tal Shiar to the survival of the ship which had made the historic raid on Romulus. Only then did they begin their full-fledged infiltration of the Sphere and veng BortaS in the wake of the Kapecki attack." Ktong snorts sharply but holds his tongue at the mention of M'Rel's recovery of the tor Fal.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:31, Fri 08 Feb 2019.

In reply to Klingon Emissary Klaang (msg # 19):

"With all due respect, sirs" says Jon, "it sounds like we are looking for a needle in a haystack! Unless one of the prisoners we took earlier has given us enough information to give us a starting point. I recall one of them used at least a few words of Romulan."

Talja points out, "She got away—beamed up, probably to a cloaked ship."

Tony agrees. "Yeah, part of Samson's red alert is to search for cloaked ships. If only there was a way to detect cloaked ships..."

Worf says, "There is. It's not usually practical, but if a sufficient number of ships disperse and establish a tachyon detection grid at various positions around the interior of the Sphere, it should allow the ships to detect any cloaked ships inside the Dyson Sphere. Refer to USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D ship's logs, Stardates 44995.3 to 45020.4. Lt Merawdyr beam up to the Seine and relay that information to Commander Talbot for hand delivery to Captain Samson. Do not relay the message by subspace transmission under any circumstances to avoid Romulan interception. Meanwhile, she should redouble her efforts to interrogate the prisoners."

HoD Ktong bolts to his feet and pounds the table, his face flushed and flecks of saliva flying from his mouth. "Your prisoners are BortaSngan! By rights, it falls to me to interrogate them. We have maintained the agoniser booths in working order."

Emissary Klaang retorts, "Mind your place epetai-zana [A title of extreme nobility, used to denote that one is vastly overestimating his status] Ktong! This is above your status. Worf is the adopted son of the Chancellor and personal friend of the Emperor Kah'ess cha'DIch. He is also the Federation Ambassador to the Empire. His words have more authority than yours!

In reply to Lt (jg) Talja Groen (msg # 21):

[OOC: If I look back at the previous thread(msg #96), it indicates the Romulan words were spoken by a male. Is that an error?]

[OOC: Oopsie. Brain fart of my part. No, you're right. I guess Talja's wrong, then. Sorry 'bout 'dat. Go ahead and correct her. As a reward for catching me in a major mistake, Jon seems to have a new Advantage—Excellent Memory (+1), a lesser version of Eidetic Memory. Handy for remembering long strings of numbers, combinations, commands, et cetera.]

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 23):

“Is there anything we can aid with? Relaying the message regarding the scan to the other ships, helping with the scan itself or with prisoner interrogations.” Zed asks Ambassador Worf.

“I’m just concerned the longer we wait the more likely the other shoe will drop.” He says to no one in particular.

In reply to Lt Zedrick Sloane (msg # 24):

"Talja's wrong, sirs," says Jon. "Sorry Talja, the female did beam away, but the voice we heard speaking Romulan was definitely male! That means whoever it was must be one of our prisoners, specifically one of the 2 who was in the room where we found Cdr Vaughn. We'd be able to identify him if we could hear them both speak."

"However," Jon add with a wry grin, "I'm told what he said was a nasty Romulan insult. So he may be nothing more than a creatively sarcastic Klingon. Nonetheless, he will have some vital information."

Worf says, "Negative, Lt Sloane! We do not want this going over the communications net. However, You may take Lts Clare and Xelox to assist in the interrogation&mdashClare because he can identify the voice and Xelox because he's a sociologist with knowledge of Klingon culture and because he speaks Romulan. Lt Xelox, I assume you've been completely briefed on the BortaS stiuation. Take the Thames and do a Warp jump directly to Dyson Station. Lt Merawdyr, change of orders: ask LCdr Talbot to transfer to the Thames where Lt Sloane will give him my orders. Lt Sloane, instruct LCdr Talbot to allow Lts Xelox and Clare to observe the interrogation in order to pick everything they say over."

In reply to Ambassador Worf (msg # 26):

Jon had never been part of an interrogation before. He stops short of rubbing his hands in anticipation, but only because his arm is hurting terribly.

"We might as well all go," says Jons, gesturing to include Tony and Talja. "We were all there. Seeing the Klingons may jog some memories."

In reply to Lt (jg) Jonathan Clare (msg # 27):

“Right Ambassador.” Sloane replies.

Turning to his team he says, “Prepare for immediate beam up o the Thames and we will jump to Dyson Station.”    As he gets in position to beam up.

Once everyone is in position he signals the Thames to beam them up.

Sonam beams Zed, Jon, Talja, Tony and Billy up to the Thames, while Argent beams up to the Seine—Worf retains Argent, Nivran and Swann for his security detail. Sonam requests permission to return to the Seine as well, and beams over. The two runabouts synchronise their flight plans and do a light-speed hop to Dyson Station, where the prisoners are awaiting their interrogation.

Arriving, the runabouts take up station-keeping and the Thames crew beams over, Talbot joins them in the transporter room on deck 02, from whence they take the turbolift down to deck 7. Entering the large briefing room, they are confronted by the three Klingon prisoners, wearing gold jumpsuits with their hands in restraint cuffs and guarded by four security personnel. Zed and Jon recognise Lt Avalon, the new head of security, and his 2/iC, Lt(jg) Lance. Cdr K'Pok is also there still in his BortaSngan disguise but wearing the uniform of a full commander from the BortaS, complete with bat'leth and disruptor pistol. He moves stiffly, obviously fresh out of sickbay after having his sucking chest wound repaired. Jon notes with some amount of schadenfreude the bruises on the face of the Klingon who'd knifed him the night before. All three Klingons sit stonily, scowling at K'Pok.



This message was last edited by the GM at 07:09, Wed 20 Feb 2019.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 29):

With the initial intent of someone maybe recognizing which prisoner said the Romulan phrase, Sloane, says firmly to the three prisoners, trying for a combination of authority and distant in his question. “Who are you?”  Just expecting a name, house, maybe a rank, and hopefully an insult from each of them in return.

And if one of them answer for all Zed will quickly cut in with “If I wanted you to answer for all I would have told you to, I want to know that each of you Klingon pigs understand me.” I want to get them eager so it is more likely the same tune they used when they said the insult.

The tallest Klingon stands up and snarls in a low, dangerous voice, "By what right do you hold us, Urtalanda [a Klingon insult meaning roughly big man from Earth]?" He sounds like the one you heard uttering the Romulan insult. He is about 1.9m tall and a full 100kg. He had a face only a mother could love, with acne pockmarks, a broken nose, a huge diagonal scar from below his right eye to the left corner of his mouth,  greasy Fu Manchu moustache and receding hairline. His shoulders strain the yellow fabric of his jumpsuit.

At Zed's followup, he snaps, "I am Styx, and I am the one who will feast on your liver, Urtalanda!"

Talbot places a hand on Zed's shoulder and mutters, "Steady on, Lieutenant." while K'Pok steps up to Styx and backhands him across the face.

"You will sit and hold your tongue, you piece of gozhe [shit]!" he snaps.

Moments later, there is a chime at the door. One of the security men opens the door and a medical lieutenant guides a hover chair into the room. Jon recognises the doctor from the sickbay last night. Cdr Vaughn is seated in the hover chair, a large dressing on her head. She is dressed in BortaSngan uniform like K'Pok, a disruptor held across her thighs. K'Pok says to the prisoners, "You recognise the woman you shot last night. You will be disappointed to learn that she is alive and well. Who is the member of your dissident cell who escaped last night, and how does she have access to a transporter?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:12, Tue 05 Mar 2019.

The medical officer has a very concerned look on his face.
He does not seem to be very happy about Cdr Vaughn being in the hover chair.  Anybody that can read his
looks can tell he is following orders in helping Cdr Vaughn into the room to talk to the prisoners but it is clearly he is not totally comfortable with them.
He nods to Lt (jg) Jonathan Clare in recognition and takes few moments to look and see Jon is doing well after his time in the medical bay.
Then he settles back to watching Cdr Vaughn.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:58, Tue 05 Mar 2019.

"It seems the rumours of my death were greatly exaggerated, K'Pok. I seem to keep coming back like a bad darsek [a unit of Klingon currency]..." says Vaughn in a rusty voice.

"Indeed, Jo'vinn," replies K'Pok. "They made the mistake of shooting you in the head, the kuveletas." He turns back to Styx. "So, you tokhe straav [willing slavemdash; a deadly Klingonaase insult] of the RomuluSngan, you were about to spill your guts as to where your female comrade went.

"Never!" yells Styx. "I'll see you in Kragyr [The lair of Fek'lhr, guardian of Gre'thor] first!"

Vaughn grins coldly and raises the disruptor. "After you," she rasps.

"Hold, Jo'vinn," calls K'Pok mildly, "No disintegrations. Focus it to a fine beam and start at his toes. Work your way up very... slowly." He grins just as coldly as Vaughn.

Nathan senses that K'Pok is bluffing. He is, after all, a Commander in Starfleet Intelligence. Nathan senses nothing from Vaughn—"Jo'vinn"—in the hover chair, but that's to be expected. He still feels uncomfortable with the subterfuge, but realises that it's all part of Starfleet Intelligence's modus operandi. He notes that some of the crew of the Thames seem somewhat confused at the presence of Cdr Vaughn.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:07, Wed 06 Mar 2019.

In reply to Cdr. Samantha Vaughn (msg # 34):

“I always enjoy this.” Zed comments with a huge grin.   As he glances at the other prisoners, “Take your time, I especially enjoy watching the reactions of the next prisoner to be interrogated.”

He especially is trying to see which one might be the most likely one to talk.

Billy picks the Klingon on the end of the line. "Hey, dere. What's yer name? Where do you see yourself winding up after all this is said and done?  Where is this going for you?"

Lt. Nathan Pierce wait careful to make sure his charge does not over stretch herself.
If any of the other catches his eye they see him mouth the word "Klingons" and shakes his head.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:05, Mon 18 Mar 2019.

The Klingon on the end glares up at Billy. Jon notes that this is the bastard who'd stabbed him.

The Klingon snarls, "I am Krax, son of Kloog." Krax is a weasel-faced hood of below normal height, with a large belly and wiry arms. "I see myself making your mother my tokhe straav, [willing slave] little human. I'll make her shriek in passion!" He leers evilly, sticking out his tongue and wiggling it lewdly.

K'Pok turns to look at Billy confronting Krax, his face unreadable.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 38):

Jon laughs at the absurdity.

"You?" he scoffs at Krax, "you couldn't milk a tame targ! Even a cowardly poisoned dagger is ineffective in your hands. Do you fail at everything as thoroughly as you failed to kill me?"

Krax looks at Jon confusedly. "I've never met you, let alone tried to kill you, Fek'lhr take your soul!" he spits. "Come here and I'll rip you limb from limb, you Regulan blood worm!"

Tony mutters loudly enough to be heard, "Shows what this dunbass knows... Worms don't have limbs."

K'Pok raises a hand. "Calmly, gentlemen. These mewling cowards are not worth raising your blood pressure..." He grasps the third Klingon by the throat and raises him to his feet. "Are you?"

LCdr Talbot glances at Jon, Zed and Billy. "Lieutenants, remember—we're Starfleet. We don't act this way. K'Pok, on the other hand, is a Klingon and he's free to act under the traditions of Klingon Law. The Prime Directive doesn't allow us to interfere..." He grins evilly.

K'Pok tosses the Klingon in his grip back into the chair. "Khest'n [damned] right! If I want to slow-roast your liver and force-feed it to, the Federation wont give a Khest!" He takes out a metre-long metalic baton. "Which one of you wants a taste of my oynaq [pain-stick]?" He squeezes a grip on it and the end lights up red with a sharp zapping sound.

Everyone in the room recognises the pain-stick as a Klingon implement used in various Klingon rites of manhood. It's normally non-lethal but is capable inducing intense pain in the subject.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:12, Thu 21 Mar 2019.

In reply to Cdr. K'Pok (msg # 40):

Jon had forgotten they are no longer in Klingon disguise. Krax's words make him blush embarrassedly, in a very non-warrior like manner, as he realizes his mistake.

"I'm lucky they don't turn that thing on me!" he says quietly to Tony, when he sees the pain-stick.

"So... What is your connection to the RomuluSngan? We know you're in league with them. Styx spoke Romulaase, and Krax had noroxazine, a RomluSngan poison on his dagger. We found female RomuluSngan DNA in your little torture chamber, and your female companion was beamed out using a RomuluSngan transporter. It seems she's a woman we know under the name T'Zill who'd been posing as a Starfleet officer." K'Pok's questions are asked in a deceptively mild tone of voice, with a mocking smile.

"Furthermore, it would seem that Krax, here didn't completely trust your RomuluSngan masters. He added a poison of his own to the knife which induced a fast-acting necrotising fasciitis. Luckily, that was what tipped us off to the fact that our agent had been poisoned, allowing us to detect the noroxazine in his bloodstream. So it seems you're not even as smart as the RomuluSngan!" he concludes with a full belly laugh, as Krax blushes a deep crimson. Styx and their fellow prisoner glare at Krax.

[OOC Edited to bold the dialogue.]
This message was last edited by the player at 23:12, Thu 21 Mar 2019.

Lt. Nathan was going to step in and say something but decide to let Cdr. K'Pok.
The Cdr seem got under there skin and Lt. Nathan let him play out his hand.
Only adding his thought if needed.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:06, Thu 21 Mar 2019.

Jo'vinn rasps, "La' [Commander] K'Pok, let me kill one of them—you've got three of them after all. I promise I'll start at the toes and make it sssss-looow. The Terrans have a saying—pour encourager les autres—surely that will encourage the others. She strokes the emitter array as one would a lover's cheek.

Everybody except Nathan can see the utterly chilling grin on her lips. He can however imagine it from the tone of her voice. The prisoners all turn a shade or two paler but struggle to maintain their stoicism.

K'Pok sighs, "If you insist La' Jo'vinn." He steps over to the third prisoner. "You!" he snaps. "You appear to be in charge, straav. Which of your fellow straave serves as the example? As Betan-Ka [a fictional Klingon detective equivalent to Earth's Sherlock Holmes] would say, 'We have too many suspects and too little time!' It would be best if you did not prove his fifth rule of investigation: 'Everyone lies.'" He waits a beat. "No? You won't choose? Perhaps you volunteer. At least you will die with honour and perhaps gain a place in the Black Fleet in Sto-vo-kor!"

He turns to face the hover chair. "Jo'vinn? If you will..." he trails the sentence off menacingly.

K'Pok turns to the Starfleet officers. "Does the Federation have any specific questions for these pieces of gozhe [shit] before I get to work on them? Perhaps...

He's cut off by a flickering of the lights and a sudden discontinuity in the station's artificial gravity. The tannoy announces, "Red Alert! Red Alert! All hands to their assigned battle stations!"

The momentary power fluctuation causes Jo'vinn to vanish, to be replaced by the EMH in the hover chair. Styx tosses throws his restraint cuffs—which appear to have been deactivated by the power surge from the fluctuation—at Lt Avalon, striking him in the head. As Avalon staggers under the blow, Styx backhands him with a clenched fist, dropping the security chief to the deck. Lt Lance is on Stxy like a lamprey, her arm around his throat.

Krax dives for the hover chair and passes through Dr. Nightingale knocking the chair into Nathan, who loses his balance. Krax then turns to the surrounding officers and launches himself at Jon.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 14:51, Sun 31 Mar 2019.

In reply to Cdr. K'Pok (msg # 45):

Jon sees Krax coming at him and decides to go on the offensive. He meets Krax with a hard kick to the midsection.

Jon's foot hits Krax in the middle of the torso, stopping him in his tracks. The kick to his solar plexus causes him to struggle to breathe, his face turning a reddish purple and his eyes bulging. He drops to his knees at Jon's feet and the remaining two security guards grab him by the arms and force him back into his seat.

EMH Nightingale stands up from the hover chair and assists Nathan up. Even though she was insubstantial when Krax collided with her, her hand feels firm and warm to the touch as she pulls Nathan to his feet.

Styx and Lance are still locked in hand-to hand grappling when Talbot steps up and lands a swift jab to Styx's nose, sending blood splattering. He follows this up with a sweeping cross that rocks Styx in Lance's grasp. Together, they wrestle Styx's hands behind his back and Avalon retrieves the restraints and refastens them around his wrists.

Meanwhile, the third prisoner remains seated, K'Pok pressing the pain stick into his throat. "Go ahead... give me an excuse to use it, Ha'DIbaH [animal]!" The prisoner remains still, not daring to move an inch.

The tannoy continues, "Red Alert! Red Alert! All hands to their assigned battle stations!"

Krax is looking at Nightingale in disbelief, giving her what Billy and Tony would call "the stink-eye".

Lt Nathan tries to dodge but get hit by the chair.  He goes down.
I knew this was bad idea.  He says more to himself than to anybody else.
He takes the hand of the EMH Nightingale.
Thanks. he says.
He turns to Krax.
Cdr Vaughn would been here in person but our chief medical officer had other ideas and overruled her.
Lt Nathan moves small hand held object in his left hand.  It clearly sedative injection.
He moves it in almost like wild west gunslinger way.
You can however be sure she can hear all that going on.  Even if she does feel little groggy at moment.  She did not totally pass out even when they hit her with two shots to stop her coming here.

Krax ignores what Nathan says, still staring at Nightingale, his expression slowly turning to one of abject terror. "Jheen—she must be a jheen!" he mutters to himself over and over. His face goes waxy white. Nathan can feel waves of existential terror rolling off Krax, religious in its intensity.

Styx, sitting next to Krax, spits blood on the floor. He looks at Krax and snarls, "Shut up, you khest'n fool! She's no jheen, she just a Human woman. It's some sort of trick."

"B-but she was a Klingon. I passed right through her and she turned into a human! I tell you, she's a jheen!" stammers Krax.

Avalon, a dark bruise forming across half his face, slaps his commbadge. "Avalon to Security! I need a sitrep. What's going on?" His voice is slightly slurred from a swollen lip. All four security personnel have their phasers at the ready.

> K'Pok turns to the Starfleet officers. "Does the Federation have
> any specific questions for these pieces of gozhe [shit] before
> I get to work on them? Perhaps...

> He's cut off by a flickering of the lights and a sudden
> discontinuity in the station's artificial gravity. The
> tannoy announces, "Red Alert! Red Alert! All hands to
> their assigned battle stations!"

Billy takes out his phaser. (OOC - I will work harder on paying attention in the future!)


> The momentary power fluctuation causes Jo'vinn to vanish, to be
> replaced by the EMH in the hover chair.

[Fight scene snipped]

> The tannoy continues, "Red Alert! Red Alert! All hands to their
> assigned battle stations!"

[More snipped]

> Avalon, a dark bruise forming across half his face, slaps his
> commbadge. "Avalon to Security! I need a sitrep. What's going
> on?" His voice is slightly slurred from a swollen lip. All four
> security personnel have their phasers at the ready.

Billy stuns Krax, Styx and the third prisoner.  Then he says to the Security Personnel "Secure dese guys, please."

OOC - where is Billy's battle station? If something external to the ship has caused a red alert, they need to get on the stick and take of it.

Avalon turns to Billy and snaps, "Stand down, Mr. Xelox! Why the hell did you stun the prisoners? The situation had been resolved and the Klingons were back in restraints!"

As he does so, Security replies over the communications system, "We'd just activated the tachyon scan when the station came under fire! We've no confirmation on the source, but it seems pretty obvious that it's Romulans. Shields are up and we're scrambling all craft!"

At this point Zed, Jon, Talja, Tony, Billy and Nathan hear their commbadges chirp, "Report to the USS Thames. This is not a drill. Battle stations, Lieutenants!"

An instant later Nathan's commbadge chirps a second time and Dr. Adonidas's voice says, "Lt Pierce, you are to report to the Thames as Psionics Officer. Take your medkit as well. Good luck, Nathan."

Avalon says, "Lieutenants, you have your orders. Xelox, get out of my sight—we'll discuss this later!"

As the crew exits the briefing room, Tony nudges Billy. "I think the Security Chief is pissed at you, paisan. He thinks you're just a trigger-happy goombah. Me? I like your style."

Arriving at the transporter room, they are beamed over to the Thames in station-keeping a couple hundred metres from the station.

[OOC: Billy's station is in the cockpit at the Sciences station. Nathan's station is also in the cockpit, at one of the Ops stations. Tony disappears into Engineering while Talja takes the seat next to Zed as copilot.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:45, Sun 14 Apr 2019.

The computer receives a data package including the latest update from the tachyon detection grid confirming the presence of a cloaked vessel in the vicinity of Dyson Station. Talja enters the data into the system, calling up a 3D grid of the area, centred on the station. On the screen, the station sits in a a reddish haze representing the tachyon background. The haze has swirls and voids showing where possible cloaking fields may be.

She calls out to Zed, "Possible contact 351-mark-10, range 100 klicks." The image on the screen zooms in on a void in the haze. She runs a series of multi-spectral filters.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 22:02, Mon 15 Apr 2019.

In reply to Lt (jg) Talja Groen (msg # 52):

Jon, in an effort to make himself useful, settles into the Engineering station in the cockpit, configuring the console so he can monitor and observe, and is readily available in case Zed requires something specific. He runs a sensor scan on the coordinates that Talja announced.

Lt Nathan puts away his sedative injection and taps his com badge.
Lt Nathen to Dr. Adonidas.  Message received and understood.  Will report to USS Thames as directed.  And Dr Adonidas good luck as well.

Lt Nathen follows the others Lieutenants.

Just after Tony makes his comment to Lt Xelox Nathan adds in.
I would agree with you.  At the moment Lt Xelox would be the last person the Security Chief would want on any detail he is in charge off.

When they get to the ship Nathen let the others settle down and seeing one station left he sits at it.  Taps a  few buttons to get the station ready.

He looks up, a little questioning look on his face.  Tapps a second button before speaking.
Lt Zedrick Sloane.  I take it you are commander of this vessel.  That this is not another USS Ebro* assignment for me?

The looks on Nathans face shows clearly that he does not expect anybody to know what he is talking about but he has quite a story to tell about USS Ebro.


OOC:
* Subject to GM happy for me use this name as reference to another shuttle craft Lt Nathan has used before.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:52, Tue 16 Apr 2019.

Once Billy logs into his console, a message flagged for his attention comes up with a list of mission parametres, including monitoring several subspace bands for Romulan communications. Tuning into the most highly probable bands, he hears little more than the background radiation to be expected in what would normally be interplanetary space—hisses and pops punctuating the stellar emissions of the Dyson star.

Jon calls up the area indicated by Talja. The specific coordinates seem to be a pure void with no matter or energy signatures. A few dozen metres away from the void, however, there is what looks for all the world like a swirl in the red haze. The faintest hint of a chroniton reading flickers on the monitor, briefly enough that Jon isn't certain he actually saw it. Probably an interaction between the tachyon grid and the higher-than-natural levels of "interplanetary" hydrogen and dust within the Sphere. These levels are so much higher than normal interplanetary levels—almost as high as found just above the Lunar surface in the Sol system—that the runabouts in the Sphere have a special subroutine in their main sensor systems to compensate. As both a planetary climatologist and an astronomer, Jon finds the phenomenon fascinating. Between the stellar emissions and the leakage of the artificial environment held onto the interior surface of the Sphere, it almost seems to be a micro-trace atmosphere filling the space inside the megastructure. Cross-referencing the vector plot the Station took from the incoming disruptor fire with the location of the void in the tachyon readings, they do seem to be on the right heading, though.

For his part, Zed is puzzled by Nathan's reference to a "USS Ebro assignment". He's not familiar with the Ebro and hasn't had a chance to even glance at Lt Pierce's service history.
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 22:32, Sat 20 Apr 2019.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 55):

"I think I detected some chroniton readings at the location of Talja's contact," reports Jon. "Not positive, however. But look at the eddies in the micro-atmosphere inside the sphere. I am betting that's our target, leaving a wake!"

---------------------

The BortaS, part 2

> Avalon turns to Billy and snaps, "Stand down, Mr. Xelox! Why the
> hell did you stun the prisoners? The situation had been resolved
> and the Klingons were back in restraints!"

Billy: "Sir.  The restraints weren't successful the first time and I felt we needed to focus on the Red Alert."

> As he does so, Security replies over the communications system,
> "We'd just activated the tachyon scan when the station came under
>  fire! We've no confirmation on the source, but it seems pretty
> obvious that it's Romulans. Shields are up and we're scrambling all craft!"

> At this point Zed, Jon, Talja, Tony, Billy and Nathan hear
>  their commbadges chirp, "Report to the USS Thames. This
> is not a drill. Battle stations, Lieutenants!"

> An instant later Nathan's commbadge chirps a second time and
> Dr. Adonidas's voice says, "Lt Pierce, you are to report to the
> Thames as Psionics Officer. Take your medkit as well. Good luck, Nathan."

> Avalon says, "Lieutenants, you have your orders. Xelox, get
> out of my sight—we'll discuss this later!"

Billy runs for the USS Thames


> As the crew exits the briefing room, Tony nudges Billy.
> "I think the Security Chief is pissed at you, paisan. He
> thinks you're just a trigger-happy goombah. Me? I like
> your style."

Billy: "I'm just glad it didn't get down to calling anyone's bluff. Tryin' to out Klingon the Klingons doesn't seem like a winning combination."

> Arriving at the transporter room, they are beamed over to
> the Thames in station-keeping a couple hundred metres from the station.

> [OOC: Billy's station is in the cockpit at the Sciences station.
> Nathan's station is also in the cockpit, at one of the Ops
> stations. Tony disappears into Engineering while Talja takes the
> seat next to Zed as copilot.]

Billy gets into his station and calls up the sensors panel.  Start scanning for threats.


> Jon, in an effort to make himself useful, settles into the Engineering
> station in the cockpit, configuring the console so he can monitor and
>  observe, and is readily available in case Zed requires something
> specific. He runs a sensor scan on the coordinates that Talja announced.


> Lt Nathan puts away his sedative injection and taps his com
> badge. Lt Nathen to Dr. Adonidas.  Message received and
> understood.  Will report to USS Thames as directed.  And Dr
>  Adonidas good luck as well.

> Lt Nathen follows the others Lieutenants.

> Just after Tony makes his comment to Lt Xelox Nathan adds in.
> I would agree with you.  At the moment Lt Xelox would be the
> last person the Security Chief would want on any detail he
> is in charge off.

Billy shrugs "That I am aware of, the stun setting has no long term medical effects. If psychologically torturing prisoners is standard operating proceedure around here, I may not be in the right place anyways. "

> When they get to the ship Nathen let the others settle down and
> seeing one station left he sits at it.  Taps a  few buttons to get
> the station ready.



> Once Billy logs into his console, a message flagged for his
> attention comes up with a list of mission parametres, including
> monitoring several subspace bands for Romulan communications.
> Tuning into the most highly probable bands, he hears little more
> than the background radiation to be expected in what would normally
> be interplanetary space—hisses and pops punctuating the stellar
> emissions of the Dyson star.

Billy: Run them through a pattern recognition filter.  Are they real hisses and pops or are they transmissions disguised as hisses and pops?

> Jon calls up the area indicated by Talja.

OOC: So the area around the Dyson sphere is dusty and has a lot of gas in it, but Jon is seeing area where there is no such dust or gas, is that correct?

[OOC: Lt Xelox asked, "So the area around the Dyson sphere is dusty and has a lot of gas in it, but Jon is seeing area where there is no such dust or gas, is that correct?"

Yes, that's correct. To quote NASA.gov's website, "At sea level on Earth, we breathe in an atmosphere where each cubic centimeter contains 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules; by comparison the lunar atmosphere has less than 1,000,000 molecules in the same volume. That still sounds like a lot, but it is what we consider to be a very good vacuum on Earth. In fact, the density of the atmosphere at the moon's surface is comparable to the density of the outermost fringes of Earth's atmosphere where the International Space Station orbits." This is equivalent to the micro-atmosphere within the Sphere. Conversely, "The space between the planets is far from empty. It contains: electromagnetic radiation (photons); hot plasma (electrons, protons and other ions) a.k.a. the solar wind; cosmic rays; microscopic dust particles; and magnetic fields (primarily the Sun's)... The temperature of the interplanetary medium is about 100,000°K. Its density is about 5 particles/cm³ near the Earth and decreases by an inverse square law farther from the Sun. However, the density is highly variable, it can be as much as 100 particles/cm³," according to nineplanets.org.]

As Billy runs his filter on the background "noise", including both conventional and subspace sensor readings, he concludes that the vast majority are indeed natural, though in addition to the natural ones, there is side-band leakage from both the various Starfleet communications and sensors and the various technological societies on the inner surface. At this time, he does not detect anything to indicate Romulan activity, though he does note an utter lack of any such readings from the void indicated by Talja's scans. This in itself is an anomaly, as even in a complete vacuum he should be able to detect quantum fluctuations. [OOC: To quote from the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, "This is, of course, impossible." A quantum fluctuation is the temporary appearance of energetic particles out of empty space, as allowed by the uncertainty principle.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:17, Tue 23 Apr 2019.

With nothing better to do and no clear orders from anybody Lt. Nathan set about scanning for life forms in the anomaly.  This being his area of expertise.

OOC:
My second favorite bit from HHG. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF_GO5Pnpk0
(my first being from So long that for fish and may not be appropriate to post here).
As for life forms:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWBmaKk32fE
This message was last edited by the player at 18:48, Tue 23 Apr 2019.

 Nathan focuses the Thames's sensors on the void as well. As he has no specialisation in Sensors he falls back on his basic skill in Shipboard Systems. He gets what is essentially a null reading, but at Jon's report, he too is able to detect a faint chroniton reading.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:02, Tue 23 Apr 2019.

Lt Nathen looks up at the rest of the crew.
I think you will find the creatures that attack us are in the void.
Just take it as a doctor's natural instinct reading all the signs on the screen and joining all the dots.
What or who they are i cannot tell but are problems will be found in the void.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 58):

>  At this time, he does not detect anything to indicate Romulan activity,
> though he does note an utter lack of any such readings from the void
>  indicated by Talja's scans. This in itself is an anomaly, as even in
> a complete vacuum he should be able to detect quantum fluctuations.

Billy highlights the void and says "Skipper, dat void dere is emptier than empty.  Dere's not even normal space stuff happening in dere. Seems a little hinky."

Nathan's Empathic senses are detecting stronger feelings of menace than ever.

Talja suddenly reacts to Billy's warning and reports, "Contact confirmed! Ship uncloaking 351-mark-10, range 100—recommend..."—her recommendation is interrupted as a Romulan Charon class runabout ripples into existence and fires a disruptor volley. Green disruptor beams coruscate off the Thames's shields as the runabout shudders.

Tony yells over the comms, "Shields down! Minor hull breach in the lower module!"

Zed kills the alarms as he instinctively goes into a violent evasive manœuvre.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:36, Fri 26 Apr 2019.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 63):

-----------------
> Talja suddenly reacts to Billy's warning and reports, "Contact
> confirmed! Ship uncloaking 351-mark-10, range 100—recommend..."
> —her recommendation is interrupted as a Romulan Charon class
> runabout ripples into existence and fires a disruptor volley.
> Green disruptor beams coruscate off the Thames's shields as
> the runabout shudders.

> Tony yells over the comms, "Shields down! Minor hull breach in the lower module!"

> Zed kills the alarms as he instinctively goes into a violent
> evasive manœuvre.

Billy holds on to his seat and does his best to keep the Thames' sensors focused on the Romulan ship.  Keeping a sense of awareness of their location and actions is important.

Does the Dyson sphere have a north?  How do they navigate inside it?

In any case,  Billy calls out the Roms position and direction of movement as they go. Speak slowly and clearly.

Technically, not as such. In addition to the electromagnetic field of the central star (which does have a magnetic north pole), Starfleet has installed a series of GPS satellites transmitting on the subspace bands. There are 20 portals equally spaced around the Sphere in an icosahedral pattern designated North (N1-10) and South (S1-10) over each one of the satellites is positioned. The new Dyson Station is positioned over portal N1. The GPS signals are tied into all ships' and shuttles' navigational systems. http://www.coldnorth.com/owen/...ic-legacy/sphere.htm

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 65):

[OOC: sorry for the absence, lot going on in real life.  For those I will will be seeing on Sunday I’ll update then.  Plus I think I have read back far enough to get back up to speed.]

Turning to however is at tactical “Target, their deflector shield generator, we need to take out their ability to recloak.“

“Evasive procedures Delta 4, need to keep the ship steady and coordinate with tactical.“ he adds.

[OOC: if I remember correctly I’m likely at flight control so the second statement was intended to help however is targeting,]

There's currently nobody at Tactical, but Billy has a Scpecialisation in Shipboard System (Tactical) 2 (3), so it falls to him. It's only two steps to the Tactical station.

Here's the deckplans so everyone can get oriented. Zed and Talja are at the controls in the front of the Cockpit with Jon and Billy flanking them. Tactical is the central console in the Cockpit, and Tony is in Engineering. Nobody is in the lower section, now in vacuum.


Zed swings the ship to zenith so it's directly above the Romulan ship, pointing straight down at them. Billy has a clear shot. Phasers and Microtorpedoes are hot and ready to fire. Shields are regenerating and at 10%.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:59, Mon 29 Apr 2019.

The computer displays a readout based on Intelligence estimates of the Romulan runabout. Main deflector is at the extreme fore section, immediately ahead of the cockpit. Specifications are similar to those of a Danube class runabout. Target coordinates are 000-mark-000, range 50m—effectively a point-blank shot.

Billy scrambles to the tactical station and gets it running.


Sloane has not given the order to fire, only to set the target

The Charon class ripples, turns transparent and disappears.

"Gottverdammt [Goddamnit]"! snaps Talja. "Detecting impulse plasma residue! It's moving! Ach du freakin' lieber himmel [Oh, for the freakin' love of heaven]!"

Billy is also tracking the drive plasma. He has one last chance to nail the Rommies on wide-angle, but only if he reacts immediately.
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:48, Fri 03 May 2019.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 70):

“Lieutenant fire at that ship before we lose it.” Sloane orders, as he trying to match the shuttles plasma trail.

[OOC: Since Billy was waiting for the order to fire, to keep the flow going I'm going to assume he does so. Not to step on your toes, Billy, but everyone's waiting...]

Billy immediately presses the fire icon on the tactical console and the Thames's full complement of phasers cut loose. The Atlantic class carries two standard type VI phasers and two type V pulse phasers in retractable mounts. The beams and pulses slash through the Romulan runabout's shields, causing the shield generators to overload and the cloak to fail. Tracers of green lightning flicker over the ship's hull and it begins a dive for the Sphere's surface, trailing drive plasma. As it passes through the upper reaches of the internat atmosphere it reacts with the fields retaining the atmosphere, causing them to polarise and cast the area below into night mode. The blazing drive plasma shows up as a fiery green comet plunging down towards the heavily built up city section below.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 14:50, Wed 08 May 2019.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 72):

Jon's eyes widen when he notices the heavily built-up area towards which the Romulan ship is plunging.

"Holy crap! They're crashing!" he exclaims, and he points the sensors at the estimated impact site and scans for life signs.

Do we have a tractor beam pull them up and out of there.  Or at least away.

Lt Nathan checks his consult to see if this is something he can do.

In reply to Lt. Nathan Pierce MD (msg # 74):

Realizing someone else is trying to stop the ship Zed jumps to the transport controls and tries to lock onto life signs in the Romulan ship and beams them to the runabout.   He will hold them in the pattern buffer until he is sure they have been disarmed.

He knows they need the spies alive to get to the root of the infiltration.

Jon's scans reveal a large number (thousands) of small creatures (about 25 kilos) in and around buildings at the projected crash site. The drive plasma streaming from the Charon suddenly begins to sputter and fade out, as if it is no longer being generated. All power, including life support, is out.

Nathan is sitting at a mission ops console. It does not have a tractor beam icon, the tractor beam being controlled from Talja's main ops console, Zed's flight control console and Billy's tactical console. He does, however have access to the transporter systems. He can mentally detect six persons aboard the Romulan vessel—the transporter's scanners agree and report a transport lock is positive. The biggest problem is that the Atlantic class only has two two-place transporter pads. One is in the cockpit, right next to Nathan's station, while the other is in the depressurised lower module.

While Nathan is calculating the procedure, the transporter activates and pulls the Romulans out of their crashing ship. Readings indicate they're being retained in the pattern buffer while Talja engages the weapons deactivation routine.

Talja turns to Zed and suggests, "Recommend we stash them in the aft lounge. Engaging door lock now!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:50, Thu 09 May 2019.

Lt Nathen adds.
I would recommend a sedative as well.  There are six of them and they not going to sit down on the sofa and drink tea together while they wait for us to talk to them.
If we pull them in one at a time and sedate them it be safest way of dealing with them.

Talja calls out, "Impact! The Romulan ship has crashed. It's burning and has knocked down a couple of the towers."

As she says this, Nathan feels a sudden psychic blow. He feels a wave of terror from below and pain from several dozen minds. The minds are sapient, but childlike and are on the verge of panic. Tony steps forward from engineering, passing through the forward lounge. He's just in time to hear Nathan suggest a sedative and replies, "Wouldn't just stunning them be easier? Safer than approaching them with a hypo. 'Course, if this was a full-sized starship we could just flood the space with anesthezine gas." As Nathan reels, clutching his head, Tony looks alarmed and asks, "Hey Nate, you okay? you look like someone just whacked you with a baseball bat!"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:51, Thu 09 May 2019.

Shoot it.  What dice should I roll?

No problemo

Billy calls up a science panel on the tactical station, and uses that to scan the impact site.

Whats going on and is there anything they can do to help the natives?

OOC i assume that since the control panels are basically large tablets, you can call up different panels at different stations, and flip between them as needed.

I also assume that each specialized panel handles its intended specialty better than others, but in this case, Billy is trying to fill two functions at once, o I figure that justifies flipping back and forther between a tactical screen and a Sciences screen.

Lt Nathan does his best to compose himself.
Lowing his hands slowly and holding on to the consult in front of him.
He breathes heavy.  He breathes deep.  Trying to gain control.
The universe is one.  All life starts, grows and must die.
I am part of the universe part of the one.
I will see feel start, grow and die.  I will feel their joy, their sorrow, their happiness and their pain.
I will feel their death but i will live on for now.
I will be whole and one with the universe as I was before they died.

My job is to help them in their pain
Help them feel joy again.

Doing his best to find his inner peace so he can use that peace to help creature below.
He tries first to control himself then use that control to help creature below deal with their pain and fears.  Try to stop them panicking.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:34, Thu 09 May 2019.

[OOC: Pretty much. There are software limitations, but you're essentially right. You can't call up a full science panel, but the tactical panel incorporates high-resolution sensors and analysis software.]

Two skyscrapers have been collapsed. There are several thousand creatures fleeing the area, while a few hundred are clustering around the crash site, apparently trying to rescue trapped and wounded comrades. There is no evidence that the beings are using any technology in this effort. Sociologically, Billy's guess is that the creatures are primitives who have simply moved into the abandoned city, or native who have lost their ability to use technology.

Nathan's efforts to calm himself are successful. Though still shaken, he is able to sense that while the natives are fearful they are working together to help their fellows. He can sense several beings taking control of the situation and organising the crowds, sort of like primitive first responders.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 83):

Billy puts the scan of the area on the main screen so the C/O can see it.

In reply to Lt (jg) William 'Fast Billy' Xelox (msg # 84):

“Lt.. Groen, be sure to remove all their weapons before materialize them.  Xelox,  Pierce anything we can do right now to minimize the situation on the surface.  If not the prisoners need to be our priority and Dyson base can send someone to help.“ Sloan replies as he scan the display to see if there is something they can do quickly to stabilize any of the buildings.

The scans reveal a crash site some hundred metres long culminating in an area of wreckage 30 metres in diametre. At the leading edge of the zone is the shattered hull of the Romulan Charon class runabout engulfed in flames. A cloud of noxious fumes towers into the sky. several buildings are in ruins, including the remains of two high-rise buildings. clustered on the image are hundreds of tiny icons indicating the locations of the local inhabitants. Colour coding indicates deceased, wounded and unharmed individuals. Many are fleeing the area, but there are also clumps of onlookers as others work to free the wounded from the rubble. A few hundred metres away is a park-like area large enough to land the Thames.

Meanwhile on the Thames itself, Tony has broken out a Type 3A compression phaser rifle in order to stun the Romulans once they've been materialised. Talja says to Zed, "Three of the Romulans appear to be wounded. Weapons are isolated. I'll dematerialise them one at a time, wounded last. Tony, you can stun them as they appear. Dr. Pierce, please prepare for triage." The Romulan weapons sparkle into existence on the transporter pad.

Tony opens the aft lounge and steps in. "Phaser on heavy stun setting. Ready to proceed," he reports. As each prisoner materialises, he hits them with a phaser beam and they drop to the deck. The last three are suffering from plasma burns and one has a severely broken leg. Two are unconscious, one of whom is the centurion with the shattered leg.

The conscious one, an optio (petty officer) holds up his hands palms up and says in Romulan, "I claim prisoner of war status under the Treaty of Algeron. My name is Rokon, rank: optio, Romulan Star Navy Space Fleet. Under the terms of the treaty, I request medical treatment."

Tony keys the door open. "OK, Doc, they're all yours," indicating the wounded trio. He then sets about restraining the three stunned prisoners.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:02, Sun 12 May 2019.

Zed looks over all of them to see if he can identify the one they dealt with, and if not who appears to be the ranking officer in the group.

“Doc are any of the injuries life threatening, can any of us assist with our first aid.” he asks.

As a note, if any of the stunned Romulans is the one he is looking for he directs Tony to keep an eye on that one and asks Tony and the doc to check for a suicide capsule and remove it.

In reply to Lt Zedrick Sloane (msg # 87):

While the prisoners are being taken care of, Jon remains at his station and scans the destruction below. He is looking for life signs that are in urgent and precarious situations that can't wait for help to arrive from elsewhere. Perhaps, he says to himself, the Thame's transporters can be used to help.

[OOC: I presume that somebody has contacted Dyson Base about what has happened]

Lt Nathan moves forward.
I am Lt Nathen.  Medical officer of this ship.  He addresses the Romulan.
I am going to look over your two unconscious Romulan crew members first.  As they are more likely to have fatal wounds being unconscious.  As soon as I know they are stable I shall attend to your wounds Optio Rokon.  I hope you understand.

Lt Nathan does his best to look over the two unconscious Romulans and stabilize them before returning to Optio Rokon and dealing with his swounds.

Rokon relaxes and says, "My thanks. Please help them."

The centurion's right leg has a compound fracture. Slitting the trouser leg, Nathan discovers that a shard of bone has penetrated the skin and is oozing olive green blood. Nathan is relieved, as this indicates there is no severed artery. He applies a spray dressing and immobilises the leg. Tricorder readings indicate a heart rate of 300 (60 beats above normal) and a blood pressure of 60/35 (80/40 is normal) with a body temperature of 29.6°C (32.78°C is normal), indicating shock. He has minor plasma burns on his face and hands, showing a close encounter with an exploding console. A splinter of plastic is stuck in his left shoulder, but the wound is minor. Nathan leaves it in place for now, packing is with the spray dressing. The other is a female subcommander, bleeding from a scalp wound and also suffering plasma burns to the face. Something about the burns looks awry—closer inspection and a deeper scan reveals that she's had extensive reconstructive surgery in the past several months. Her vital signs are similar to the centurion's.

Meanwhile, Tony keeps his phaser on Optio Rokon. As Nathan moves to inspect him, his plasma burns appear to be minor, though he is suffering from the effects of smoke inhalation. Nathan secures a breathing mask to feed him a higher percentage of O₂ than normal.

Back in the cockpit, Billy's Jon's and Talja's scans all reveal that some of the natives, whose life-signs superficially resemble those of the Finorii, are carrying some of the wounded to the nearby park-like area while other seem to be organising an impromptu bucket brigade in a vain attempt to put out the flames. This is a futile task, as sensors reveal the inferno to be a plasma fire, impervious to such measures.

The communications panel lights up. "Cdr M'Rel to Thames. What is your status? We've noted the Romulan crash—do you require assistance?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:03, Sun 19 May 2019.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 90):

Tapping the console Zed replies “Cdr M’Rel, Lt. Sloane here, we have beamed out the Romulan’s and have them disarmed and captive. Our doctor is treating the injured Romulans and we are waiting to interrogate them. We are also assessing the situation on the surface.”

Turning to Jon, “What is the status on the surface, relay any info to Dyson Base so they can provide support. “

"M'Rel to Sloane. Do you require assistance with your prisoners? We can beam them over and convey them to Dyson Station for processing by Cdr Talbot's intel team. Things look pretty hairy on the surface. There appear to be a large number of indigenous people at the crash site. They'll probably need your assistance. Lt Leiliri has some medical training and is standing by to beam over if needed."
This message was lightly edited by the player at 17:31, Mon 20 May 2019.

Lt Nathan works out if beaning prisoner over to another ship would be safe.
If it is he suggest they do so as he only one person and there are three badly injured Romulans.  Also prisoner are harder to deal with than normal people and the crew of runner round it limited in number.

Beaming patients is almost always safe. Nothing in the condition of the Romulans seems to contraindicate beaming them over.

M'Rel contacts Nathan directly, "Dr. Pierce, the Lena can take the three stunned prisoners off your hands. Aquaal Leiliri is a Haliian, a psionic species. She may not be a fully qualified doctor but she has nearly completed her MD studies at Starfleet Academy and is a qualified field medic. She is currently awaiting her transfer back to the Academy to complete her studies, which were interrupted by the Dominion War, so we're also able to take the three wounded Romulans once they've been stabilised and transport them to Dr. Adonidas. This will free you up to deal with any wounds suffered by the inhabitants of the city. Would you like Lt Leiliri to assist you?"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:06, Mon 20 May 2019.

Lt Nathan make sure the three wounded Romulans are stable before having them beaned away.
He answers M'Rel.
If you can take the prisoners, then that would be great.  It would give me time to deal with the problems the inhabitants have.  I will send Dr. Adonidas what I done in quick report.  So Dr. Adonidas can carry on the treatment and check I have not make any mistakes.
I would also be very happy to have Lt Leiliri help.  A good doctor knows even when you leave the Medical Academy you never complete your studies.  That however junior another medival officer is you can always use another pair of hand and learn something new.  Please inform Lt Leiliri that I am Betazoid with reasonable psionic abilities.   Tell her I happy to link minds if is she likes.  But be purely on platonic bases.  I already have two wives.  Such links between species sometime can have a cultural misunderstanding I have learn.  I do not wish to make that mistake again.

Clearly another great story of Lt Nathan's past.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:04, Mon 20 May 2019.

In reply to Lt Zedrick Sloane (msg # 91):

Jon responds to Zed's query about the conditions on the surface: "Sir, the indigenous people on the surface appear to be taking care of their wounded. There are so many wounded, however, that I am sure they could use some help. And they are going to definitely going to need technological assistance to put out that plasma fire."

Jon scans to see if he can find the source that is feeding plasma fuel to the fire. If he can localize it, perhaps he can figure out a way of cutting the source off from the fire.

The source of the plasma fire is the EPS system and warp nacelles of the crashed ship itself. The Thames has extinguishers specifically designed to fight plasma fires, but M'Rel is having Leiliri bring a couple from the Lena as well, just to make certain.

Leiliri beams directly to the aft section to assist Nathan with the wounded, while the extinguishers materialise on the transporter pad beside the Romulans' weapons.

"Good day, Doctor," Leiliri reports. "I'm Aquaal Leiliri. How can I assist?" She is a slim brown woman of average height, with the obligatory alien forehead. The has a fist-sized crystal in addition to her medkit. "This is my canar. It's a psionic focusing device—a sort of resonant amplifier," she says, indicating the crystal.


This message was last edited by the GM at 15:13, Tue 21 May 2019.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 98):

Can the extinguishers be used remotely, or does somebody have to be on the spot?

Also, have Jon's scans shown anything about the stability of the warp core of the crashed ship? Is it still intact?

The extinguishers are hand-held units designed to be used while wearing an environment suit for protection.

Romulan ships use a forced quantum singularity to produce power to their warp drives. Readings indicate that the safety backups on the fields containing the singularity are still functioning. The likelihood of their failing is less than 24.6% within the next 52 hours, and a stasis field would be able to stabilise the situation by that deadline.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 100):

“Lts Gazzo, Clare, Groen, Xelox,  you are with me.  Grab those extinguishers and a stasis’s field generator and we will beam to the surface.   Doctor once you have transferred the patience’s assembly a medical team to provide assistance on the surface.” Sloane says.

The Thames lands in the open field where the natives are evacuating their injured. The natives move away from the runabout as it lands. Climbing down to the lower module in order to use the lower access doors, the crew notices that all the bedding from the bunks on the level as well as several items of unsecured equipment are piled by the portside airlock, pushed there by the escaping atmosphere when the hull around the airlock was breached during the Romulan attack. Since by their very nature due to their training Starfleet personnel tend to be neat and tidy, only a few items had not been stowed, this is restricted to a few PADDs, a single tricorder and a handful of small items like styluses. The starboard airlock is intact and unblocked. All environment suits are in their stowed locations. Donning the suits, the crew move to the airlock. As someone with tactical training, Billy is wary of exiting the airlock one at a time. Tony suggests that maybe transporting all at once might be a solution.

Meanwhile, on the upper level, Nathan and Leiliri are in the finishing stages of prepping the wounded Romulans for transport. Moving to the forward Transporter, Leiliri informs Nathan, "Doctor, I'm ready to energise."

Lt Nathen welcomes Lt Aquaal Leiliri aboard.
Welcome Lt Leiliri thank for coming across and helping me.  We have to unconscious Romulans and third one that aware.  All are badly burned.


Lt Nathen work with Leiliri.

Once ready.
Lt Leiliri please send the Romulan on to where they need to go.
Then we both needed to help with the wounds of the local natives.  I would be most grateful if you stay and help with this as well.

Leiliri comms back, "Very well. Energising." With that, the three wounded Romulans dematerialise in a shimmer of sparkling light.

Seconds later, M'Rel acknowledges receipt of the Romulan crew and notes he's departing for Dyson Station.

Talja does a scan with her suit's wrist-mounted tricorder. "Zed, there are a large number of natives gathering around the Thames!"

Tony asks, "Billy, you're the sociologist. Ya think they're hostile or friendly?"

Talja moves to a console and enables the exterior pickups. The native chatter in a series of high-pitched chirps, which the universal translator renders as speech, "What is it?" "I think it's a building." "A building that flies?" "Like the other one?" "This one is not on fire." "It didn't crush us like the other one did." "Are there people inside?"... and so on.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:03, Sat 25 May 2019.

Talja taps another icon on the console, activating the external video. An image appears on the screen over the console, showing several dozen small, lizard-like beings dressed simply in rough garments, many holding long, pointed spears. They roughly resemble Finorii, but are varying shades of green and are somewhat shorter.


This message was last edited by the player at 20:05, Sat 25 May 2019.

In reply to Lt (jg) Talja Groen (msg # 106):

Jon looks at the images on the screen.

"They have wings! Have we noticed any of them flying?" he asks.

[OOC: The lower image is for comparison to the Finorii only. The natives are only the smaller green ones.]

Talja says, "I think not. The wings are to small for flight in this gravity. They must be vestigial."

Tony asks Zed, "So boss-man, we gonna step outta the door or beam out? Those spears may be kinda primitive, but I'll bet they work OK."

In reply to Lt (jg) Talja Groen (msg # 108):

Wow, this is an interesting problem.  But we're already borked in Prime Directive terms.  Billy will arrange a universal translator with a loud speaker

"Lieutenant Sloane, we have a universal translator lock. We can talk to 'em.  I propose sending me out first, I'll explain why we're here and what we mean t' do. Dat way, if they get spear happy, you only have to rescue me and not the whole party.  Once I tell 'em what we're here to do, if they agree, we can go put out da fire.  Is day okay?"

In reply to Lt (jg) William 'Fast Billy' Xelox (msg # 109):

“Billy, you are with me. Clare, Groen stay in the ship until you know it’s safe.   Crickets only, keep all tech concealed.  This is a first contact.” Zed says.

He grabs his cricket concealing it under his jacket and his tricoder in a pouch.  Then quickly replicas a throwing knife with a similar look to the natives weapons and clips it to his belt.  And steps up to the door waiting for Billy to signal that he is ready.  Once Billy is ready he taps on the door to open and carefully steps out accessing the situation and trying to determine who is in charge.

Zed and Billy step into the airlock, Talja, Tony and Jon remaining in the main area of the module. As the outer door opens, there is a collective gasp from the natives immediately outside. They withdraw a step, several of them lowering their spears into a defensive posture. One native steps forward and chirps, "My name is Chiree. I am chief of this flock. Who are you and what do you want with us? Did you bring down the fire from the sky?"

He (if it is a he—there seems to be very little sexual dimorphism in these natives) holds a metre-and-a-quarter long staff in his right hand. He is dressed in a blue cloth garment with a brown leather pouch on his left hip and a golden torc around his neck. His skin is a light green with tiny scale-like pin-feathers over all the exposed areas on his body and he has large compound eyes like those of an insect. When his mouth opens to speak, he exposed many tiny, very sharp-looking teeth and a pointed tongue. Each hand has three fingers and an opposable thumb with sharp claws. At a metre in height, he is dwarfed by the two Starfleet officers.

Having sent the Romulans on their way, Nathan and Leiliri climb down to the lower module. They note Jon, Tony and Talja standing by the airlock wearing EVA suits and holding a number of helmets. The extinguishers sit on the deck next to them, awaiting use. A monitor screen shows Zed and Billy conversing with a horde of small lime-green aliens wearing homespun clothing and holding spears in a non-threatening manner. Zed appears to be negotiating with one of the aliens. Beyond the group the two Starfleet officers are dealing with can be seen a makeshift triage area, and in the built-up area is a conflagration of green plasma fire where the crashed Charon class runabout sits burning among the rubble. The "sky" is dark from the disruption to the polarising field at the upper levels of the atmosphere, so the green flames cast the whole scene in an eerie flickering light like something out of a holodeck horror programme.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:54, Thu 30 May 2019.

As the crew watch Zed and Billy negotiate with Chiree, Leiliri says to Nathan, "Doctor, do you sense that? The leader of the natives seems to have an inherent trust in our officers, apparently born of familiarity." Nathan senses the same thing. The thoughts and emotions he senses are a whirl of hope tinged with fear.

Indeed, this is borne out when Chiree says in his chirping voice, "Can you help us, as we have helped your brother? Though his sorely wounded and his mind is damaged, he yet lives."

Tony says, "Ya hear that? Seems they've got some poor goomba who's hurt! Wonder who he is? None of our guys are missing."

Chiree continues, "We have hidden him from the elder brothers who wish to do him harm, lo these many eights of eights of days."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:38, Thu 30 May 2019.

Billy stays quite and lets Sloane work.

In reply to Lt (jg) William 'Fast Billy' Xelox (msg # 114):

While Sloane is negotiating with Chiree, Billy notes that the natives are treating the two of them almost with awe. They seem to be pleading for approval when they mention the wounded brother and he notes a distinct unease—even a tinge of fear and dread when they speak of the elder brothers. Even though the translator renders both words as brother they use a distinctly different word for the elder brothers.

Meanwhile, aboard the Thames, Nathan senses the same feeling of dread when they mention the elder brothers.

Tony, on the other hand, is oblivious to this and is champing at the bit. "C'mon, c'mon! 'Nuff o' this gabbin'—we gonna put out the plasma fire or what?" he mutters to nobody in particular. He picks up one of the extinguishers and double-checks it once again.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:05, Fri 31 May 2019.

Billy Mentally notes the term "Elder Brother" in this context for his after-action report later.

In reply to Lt (jg) William 'Fast Billy' Xelox (msg # 116):

“I’m Zedrick Sloane and the leader of this team. We saw the building crash here and were wondering if you need our assistance.” Zed replies. “This is Billy Xelox”

OOC: I believe they called the Romulan ship a building so I will use the same word in return.

Chiree replies, "Please. We desperately need your assistance. We cannot douse the green fire that burns all. It even burns the rock of the buildings we live in and lo, the very ground we walk on! It has killed many and harmed many more. Their burns are too dire for our healers and we have insufficient herbs with which to make poultices. I fear that even you who inhabit flying buildings may not be able to quench the green fire's hunger but any assistance you grant us will be very welcome." He reaches up and grabs the sleeves of Zed's and Billy's EVA suits and tries to pull them toward the burning Romulan ship. Nathan feels a palpable optimism radiating from Chiree and hope from the other chirpers.

At that, Tony slings the extinguisher on his back and taps the door control. As the door slides open he steps out and says, "Never fear, Fast Tony's here! Alright, buddy, where's th' fire!"

Talja says to Jon, "Go ahead, we'll catch up with you." Turning to Nathan and Leiliri she continues, "I don't think you need to suit up. We'll take care of the fire while you see to your patients. Trauma packs are in that cabinet there." She indicates a large cabinet marked with a caduceus, the ubiquitous Starfleet label for medical equipment. Opening the cabinet door, Nathan and Leiliri find two large backpacks emblazoned with the symbol and well as several smaller field medkits.


This message was last edited by the GM at 01:43, Sun 02 June 2019.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 118):

Jon slings his extinguisher and jogs out after Tony.

"Very funny, Tony!" Jon says. "Perhaps that Romulan Ship engulfed in green flames is a clue to where the fire is!"

[OOC: Is the ship completely in flames, or is there an obvious source of the fire?]

Lt Nathan turns to the others.
I think our little friends have been visited by tall creatures in flying building before.
I think they use to such creature being able to do things they cannot.
They do not call it magic so I think we find as long as we do not over do things.

He grabs the med pack.
Lt Leiliri.  Grab pack and follow me.  We have work to do.

Nathan leave door and head towards the little creature that talking to others.
I am Nathen Pierce.  I am healer in my people tribe.
I have come to try help you with burns your people have from green fire.
Would you show me the people that need my help please.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 118):

Billy Follows Fast Tony to help fight the fire.

Tony quips back at Jon, "Nah, ya think?" He tosses Billy's helmet to him and passes him an extinguisher. "Let's show'em how we do a fire drill back on Iotia, Billy!" The extinguisher has straps which allow it to be worn on the back and a wand to direct the dampening foam.

Between Tony, Billy, Jon and Talja, all four extinguishers are put to work on the blaze. Even with the faceplates of their EVA suits polarised to maximum, the glare from the plasma fire is dazzling. Even though the suits are insulated against extremes of temperature, sweat pours from their bodies as they sweep the wreck with the thick viscous foam. Here and there, they must pick their footing carefully due to shattered pieces of rubble and the charred and liquified remains of the chirpers who'd been too close when the ship crashed.

Meanwhile, Zed is busy on the comms requesting a stasis unit to secure the singularity once the plasma fire is put out. "We've got a Mk. I stasis unit being loaded right away. We'll have it to you in about fifteen minutes," reports Commander Alexander, the XO of Dyson Station. Zed had met him at the reception when the Station had arrived in the Sphere—Damn, was it almost a week ago?—a tall bearded fellow with a pony tail and a bit of a paunch who preferred to be called Dave. "We're also summoning the USS Bras d'Or from its mapping mission on the outer surface to help with the defenses. Just a heads-up since you're only a couple dozen klicks from the portal..."

Chiree says gratefully to Nathan, "I give thanks to you, Nathanpierce! These are the most gravely injured. Even our sage healers can do little for such burns as these, save for making them as comfortable as possible." With the overlay of thoughts from the chief of the flock, Nathan can deduce that the translator is using its default mode to translate the chirper's speech in formal terms. Confronting Nathan and Leiliri are several chirpers with grave burns over large areas of their bodies. In many cases, Nathan can see that the patients will not survive and the best that can be done is palliative care. He wishes that the Deltan Doctor Dovan were here with the projective empathy skills to put them at ease. However, Dovan is on the Station... For his part, Nathan must conform to Starfleet Medical Guidelines regarding triage—treat those who have the best chances of survival first and steel himself against the suffering of those he cannot save and those who are less gravely injured. Glancing at Leiliri, he can see (and feel psionically) that she is under the same stress. Her knuckles are white with strain as she grips her canar to better link with her patients' minds. Sometimes, being psionic is as much a curse as it is a blessing.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:07, Fri 07 June 2019.

Chiree leads Nathan and Aquaal to a cluster of wounded chirpers around whom are several unwounded ones. One chirper in particular lies on the grass with severe burns to one side of its body. The right side of its face is a mass of suppurating tissue and much of the compound eye is damaged. Its right arm is charred to the bone and its right wing is gone. Another chirper sits with it, caressing the unburned side of its face and chirping soothingly, telling it to hold on, that its activator is here. Chiree says in a desperate voice, this is my egg-donor, Churuu and the wounded one is my bearer, Chirrip. Can you help untranslatable?

Nathan is unfamiliar with the terms activator, egg-donor and bearer, but a quick scan with his tricorder shows that they appear to be three distinct sexes. The closest he's ever encountered to a trisexual species are the Andorians, who have two "male" sexes and two "female" sexes. (The Andorian species is unique in that it is composed of four sexes, known in Andorian as chans, thaans, zhens and shens. Chans and thaans are roughly comparable in reproductive function and appearance to the male sex, while zhens and shens are roughly comparable to the female sex.) Nathan is able to feel Chiree's and Churuu's deep love for Chirrip overlaid by a deep terror that she(?) may die of her wounds. Nathan has treated plasma burns before and is certain that Chirrip will almost certainly lose the use of her arm and likely most of the sight in the damaged compound eye. He has treated species with compound eyes before, notably Kaferians, and knows that there is an amazing amount of redundancy in this sort of organ. The facial burns are treatable with a protoplaser to seal and partially regenerate the wounds. If Dyson Station can arrange to give him access to a medical replicator, it is just possible that Dr. Toby Russell's genetronic replication process can create enough muscle tissue to save the arm.
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:48, Thu 06 June 2019.

Meanwhile, Jon, Billy, Tony and Talja make their way to the crash site through the rubble from shattered buildings. The sickly green flames seem to be eagerly devouring everything it their path, the synthetic stone of the buildings melting and running like lava, the bright orange of the molten minerals contrasting balefully with the emerald flames.

"Gottverdammt!" mutters Talja. "It is a scene out of Dante's Inferno Heironymus Bosch couldn't depict it more accurately!"

Deploying their extinguisher wands, the quartet direct the foam toward the base of the flames. Suddenly, something in the wreckage explodes sending a spume of vapourised alloy over the group. The computers monitoring conditions within the suits announce "Caution. The outside layers of the suit material have been exposed to extreme thermal conditions. Suit integrity remains intact. Life support is nominal. Exercise caution." The extinguishing foam damps down the flames wherever it makes contact, but it still takes nearly a standard hour to put out the conflagration. By then, a Danube class runabout has arrived, hovering on antigrav over the field and beaming down several large items of equipment. Among them are the stasis unit and framework, the medical replicator and severl pallets of supplies including inflatable structures to construct a Mobile Surgical Unit, tanks of breathing gasses and so on. Also included are spare extinguisher units and two Damage Control Officers who hurry to assist with the fire fighting duties.

At long last, the fire is out, leaving a charred, partially melted hulk. The singularity generator's shields have managed to resist the conflagration and the Damage Control team hurriedly erect the framework around the unit and mount the stasis unit. The junior member of the team presses an icon on the control panel and suddenly the stasis field engages, forming a perfectly reflective surface around it with the generator module clinging to one side. Tricorder readings confirm that its telltale graviton and chroniton emissions are no longer detectable. A Type 6 shuttlecraft sets down with a medical team to assist Nathan and Aquaal.

Billy Grins "Talk about havin' a hot time in da old town tonight."

Get to work dousing the fires
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:25, Wed 12 May 2021.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 124):

By the time the fire is out, Jon is sweating like a pig. As he walks back towards the park, where the Thames is, he takes off the helmet of his suit. Desperate to cool down and clean off a little, he looks around for a pond or a lake or something where he can splash some water on his face.

"Man, that was intense!" he says to the others. "I could use a refreshing swim right now!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:26, Wed 12 May 2021.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 124):

> A Type 6 shuttlecraft sets down with a medical team to assist Nathan and Aquaal.

Billy: "Let's hear it for back up!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:26, Wed 12 May 2021.

Lt Nathan turn to the little creature.
I will do my best to save your egg-donor.  The damage she taken is great but we will try to save her.
He uses his mind to calm the little creature down and help him do his best to save as much of her as he can.

Nathan puts all of his skills and efforts into doing his best to save the little creatures mate.  His years as diplomat had tort him that sometime one person was more valuable the others.  It may not sit well with the caring Betazoid but this was fact of the universe.
The little creature that had been spokes person was key to relations between the federation and these little creature.  If the creature understood Nathan had done his best for it;s mate then relationship would go well.  If not this could spell trouble for future.

Again Lt. Nathan uses his poem to motivate himself and to keep the depression and anger that the loss of life can curse a caring empathy to become over-welled with.

The universe is one.  All life starts, grows and must die.
I am part of the universe part of the one.
I will see feel the start, the grow and when things dies.  I will feel their joy, their sorrow, their happiness and their pain.
I will feel their death but i will live on for now.
I will be whole and one with the universe as I was before they died.

My job is to help them in their pain
Help them feel joy again.

If she open Nathan will teach Aquaal Leiliri his poem and it's calming effect it can have.
In doing this he gain additional strength.  For underling point of poem is to remind you that by helping other you gain and you have value.  If you help other to help you expanding your effect.
If you help other cope with pain they able heal and keep on healing.

Chiree looks at Nathan and says, "Many pardons, but the injured one is my beloved bearer, Chirrip. This worthy one," he motions to the other chirper soothing the injured Chirrip, "is our egg-donor, Churuu."

Churuu looks up at Nathan. "I humbly beseech you to ply your learned arts. You big ones all look so different from one another, and most of your mind-voices are silent, so it is understandable for you to mix us up." The universal translator is clearly processing more of the chirpers' language and is slowly becoming less formal. Nathan can feel an almost palpable wave of hope, trust and immense gratitude coming from both Chiree and Churuu. Chirrip is now unconscious from the pain and the sedatives that Nathan is administering.

Aquaal accepts the poem and replies telepathically, <That is beautiful. Is it traditional, or is it your own composition?>

Lt Dovan, the Deltan Doctor, arrives on the shuttle about an hour later manipulating an antigrav unit with the medical replicator. "Doctor Pierce, Lt Leiliri, this PADD has Dr. Russel's research. I must caution you that Starfleet Medical is still evaluating the results of their testing, but Cdr Worf is a demonstration of the soundness of the technique. They've given you permission for the duration of this emergency to use her techniques, so long as your patients are made aware that it is still an experimental process; and you will be required to make a full clinical report." He hands over the device. "Now, I've got a full trauma team with me. Where would you like us to start?"

Leiliri begins to brief the trauma team on what they've deduced about the creatures the Thames crew has begun thinking of as chirpers. "They are a sapient species with the mentation level of a bright ten-year-old humanoid, hexapedal with two locomotor limbs, two manipulatory arms and a pair of semifunctional wings used mostly to slow a fall into a gliding descent. They are bilaterally symmetrical and similar evolutionarily speaking to avian theropod dinosaurs with short scaly feathers and an homeothermic physiology and a trisexual reproductive process composed to an activator (inseminator), an egg-donor and a bearer who receives the spermatozoon and ovum and lays a leathery egg. They are iteroparous, bearing few young who mature slowly. The have compound eyes like those of the insectoid Kaferians. They are apparently closely related to the Finorii, of whom they are terrified." She lets out a deep breath after this long speech. "They have a high psionic potential but are currently limited to low-level receptive empathy. Socially, they have a collective tribal structure called a flock, the chief of which is Chiree, one of the mates of Chirrip, our first patient—who needs the medical replicator." Nathan is quite pleased with Aquaal and considers that when she completes her degree she'll make a fine doctor.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:34, Wed 12 June 2019.

Billy hears Leiliri briefing the trauma team. The cursory description of what she terms as a collective tribal structure piques his interest. The fact that they are a trisexual species with little sexual dimorphism intrigues him. While Andorians are technically a four-sexed species, two of their sexes are gendered as male and two as female. He wonders how the trisexual Chirpers arrange their culture around this aspect of life. They seem to have a non-technological society, but have no apparent fear of technology so prevalent among supposedly primitive cultures. The Chirpers wear simple homespun garments, though they have little in the way of sexual dimorphism. One of the main reasons cultures wear body coverings rises from body consciousness between sexes, but this seems unlikely. Perhaps they simply wear clothing as a temperature-regulating device, or for æsthetic reasons. Some of them wear ornamental jewelry, so the second may be operative. Since the one known as Chiree is referred to as the chief of the flock they clearly have some form of hierarchical social organisation.

Billy's grandmother used to say her bump of curiosity was tingling, and Billy has never before realised just what that meant, but now he does. Chiree is apparently preoccupied at this time with the surgery on his mate as well as the treatment of the members of his flock, and Billy has developed an annoying itch at the small of his back where the lining of his environmental suit has become sodden with salty sweat, so like he feels the need to take a sonic shower aboard the Thames and get into a clean uniform. By then, perhaps Chiree will be willing to speak to Billy. Onlya few days on the Sphere and he's involved in a friendly First Contact. This is the reason he joined Starfleet and he's exited, wanting to make a good first impression with the local leader of a new species.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 130):

OOC.  been looking at these posts since my last post and having trouble stepping in.


IC

Sloane continues talking to their leader saying “Our doctors will try everything they can to help your people.”

[OOC: Backtracking to Msg #117]



Chiree replies, "Please. We desperately need your assistance. We cannot douse the green fire that burns all. It even burns the rock of the buildings we live in and lo, the very ground we walk on! It has killed many and harmed many more. Their burns are too dire for our healers and we have insufficient herbs with which to make poultices. I fear that even you who inhabit flying buildings may not be able to quench the green fire's hunger but any assistance you grant us will be very welcome." He reaches up and grabs the sleeves of Zed's and Billy's EVA suits and tries to pull them toward the burning Romulan ship. At this point, Tony, Talja and Jon hand Billy his helmet and the four hurry off to deal with the conflagration.



Chiree says, "My deepest gratitude. Many have perished and many more are gravely wounded." Nathan and Leiliri arrive.



Chiree leads Nathan and Aquaal to a cluster of wounded Chirpers around whom are several unwounded ones.

Meanwhile, Zed is busy on the comms requesting a stasis unit to secure the singularity once the plasma fire is put out. "We've got a Mk. I stasis unit being loaded right away. We'll have it to you in about fifteen minutes," reports Commander Alexander, the XO of Dyson Station. Zed had met him at the reception when the Station had arrived in the Sphere—Damn, was it almost a week ago?—a tall bearded fellow with a pony tail and a bit of a paunch who preferred to be called Dave. "We're also summoning the USS Bras d'Or from its mapping mission on the outer surface to help with the defenses. Just a heads-up since you're only a couple dozen klicks from the portal..."

[OOC: OK Zed, that's where we can pick up this flashback. It takes about an hour to put out the fire, during which time Nathan and Aquaal busy themselves treating the wounded. This leaves time for Zed to speak to some of the Chirper flock's tribal elders and coordinate with Dyson Station.]

As several of the diminutive creatures crowd around him, Zed's commbadge beeps. "Samson to Sloane. M'Rel has just arrived with the prisoners. Cdr Talbot is preparing to interrogate the healthy ones while Dr. Adonidas sees to the injured. Good job, Zed. Pass my compliments to your crew. If you have a moment though, I'd like a sitrep. Do I understand correctly that you have a First Contact situation in addition to the crashed Romulan ship? Cdr Glaucus is extremely interested. We weren't aware that the cities were inhabited..." She breaks off for a moment and resumes, "Cdr Alexander informs me that the Bras d'Or will be entering the portal presently to assist in dealing with the Romulans."

The Chirpers are intrigued by the voice coming from the trinket on Zed's torso. They are much like a group of excited children and reach up to touch the commbadge. "Is this a far-speaker? I have heard of such things, but I've never seen one before," asks one, who looks to be somewhat older than the others, with wrinkles about the eyes and with a patch of missing pin-feathers on its right shoulder. The skin is darker there, resembling a bruise. It seems to favour that arm but is otherwise healthy.

One of the other Chirpers, obviously a juvenile reaches up and grabs Zed's tricorder from its holster, cooing and chirping in surprise when it activates as the fledgling manages to flip it open. Immediately, three other juveniles cluster around, demanding to see the glowing lights as the tricorder warbles it operating tones.

Suddenly, a faint vibration can be felt underfoot and a rushing noise fills the air. Some of the Chirpers panic and run for cover as the Nova class USS Bras d'Or rises from the portal. Zed's seen starships close up before, but never has he seen one zip up from the ground only a couple thousand metres' distance. The wizened Chirper grabs his arm and says, "Never have I seen a flying building so large! It comes from the Well of Stars! Is this the dwelling of your brothers?" The little alien quivers. Zed's not quite sure if it's frightened or excited. The child with Zed's tricorder stands transfixed, its chums having fled.

Unfortunately for Jon, there are no handy swimming pools or even lakes, so he has to make do with a sonic shower. There are three sonic shower on the Thames, one on the upper deck and two on the lower module. Sonic showers not only get one clean by vibrating the sweat and dirt off, but have the added effect of hot air blowers and heat lamps. The sonic vibrations also give one an all-over massage. Thus refreshed and feeling clean, Jon dons a fresh uniform and returns outside. Tony and Talja crowd into the third shower unit—a tight fit to be sure, but they don't seem to mind. Jon prefers not to think about it as he cycles the airlock and steps out into the artificial night. The two techs who'd assisted with the firefighting efforts ask if they can use the showers, and since Billy has also finished, they're given permission to use the showers Jon and Billy have just vacated.

Outside, Nathan, Aquaal, Dovan and his trauma team are busy dealing with the wounded. Chirrip's condition has been stabilised, so Aquaal suggests to Nathan, "Perhaps we should move Chirrip into the module. We can set up a sterifield and there's a stasis chamber in case we need it. The medical replicator can run off the runabout's main power."

Once inside Churuu, who has accompanied Chirrip, is fascinated by the glowing and blinking lights everywhere. He(?) spots the pile of items over by the opposite airlock where they'd been deposited by the atmosphere leak and sidles over to sort through them. He(?) finds a tunic which had been left out and pulls it on. It hangs on him(?) like a circus tent but he(?) rolls up the sleeves and wears it like a long coat. He(?) finds a tricorder and opens it, amising him(?)self while Nathan and Aquaal work on prepping Chirrip for reconstructive surgery.

The right wing is completely burned away, so in the initial treatment they had used a dermal regenerator to seal the wound. Doing a deep scan down to the molecular level of the left are, they mirror the structure of the muscle and create new biceps and triceps muscles as well as a new humerus bone. Swiftly, they exise the damaged parts and prepare to settle the new humerus in the shoulder socket, reattaching the ligaments. Next, they attach the new muscles and tendons, rerouting new arteries, veins and nerves to mirror the other arm. Finally, they replicate several hundred square centimetres of new skin and cover the exposed muscles and seal the skin with the dermal regenerator. The operation takes the better part of four hours, after which both Nathan and Aquaal are completely exhausted. She slumps in a chair and falls asleep so fast that she doesn't even stir when Nathan pulls a blanket from the pile of items by the airlock and places it over her.

For his(?) part, Churuu is ecstatic. "Chirrip will live?" he(?) asks anxiously.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 129):
Aquaal feels a happy warm feeling from Lt Nathan at her comment of the poem.
Oh I wish I could claim the idea of the poem to myself, but I cannot.
It has both a traditional element to it and has an element of your own composition.
It origin's in the history of my race are lost in time.  It is very old.   However when you feel the pain of others as my race does becuase we have good mental link to each other, you have a problem.  If you do not learn to deal with the pain of others and find a way through it yourself then you will become burned by it.  If you do not then you drive each other mad.  It is maybe why so few species develop strong mental links.  They drive each other mad with pain, anger, fear and hatred.
So my people found that poems like this help.  Not all healers use then but a large number do.
However to strengthen the bond you have with the words usually the last four lines are chosen from a number of different versions.  You choose the one you like.
Another warm feeling comes from Lt Nathan but this time it is like being hugged and then that person running off laughing.
I am a bit of a maverick.  I tend to bend the rules a little.  Not break them.  Just bend them if I can.
I only have two lines at the end of mine and they are totally my own.
Much to the displeasure of my teacher.  She said they were to week and simple.
But it works for me.  And she has had to agree with me on that.

Lt Nathan sits down on the floor.
This was not the first and will most likely not be the last time he had been so tired.

He extend a warm positive emotion to the little creature.
It is our hope she will live.
It is also are hope that when she is fully rested she will have little damage from what happened.
Time will tell and she needs time to carry on healing but we are hopeful.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:30, Fri 14 June 2019.

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 133):

"Just ignore the sounds coming from the other shower," says Jon to the 2 techs on their way in. Jon then seeks out Zed to ask if there are any more duties for him to perform. He is getting getting his first good look at the Chirpers, and finding them quite fascinating.

One of the techs, an Ensign Traci, says to his buddy, "Young love... Ain't it cute?"

Meanwhile, Nathan and Leiliri are deep in concentration as they work on the injured Chirper in the lab area they've converted into a surgery. Jon goes to stow his EVA suit, noting that it'll need a full after-action refurbishment, much of the outer covering having been scorched and discoloured.

Jon steps out of the runabout, looking for Zed. A young Chirper runs up to him and tugs on his trouser leg, holding up a Starfleet issue tricorder, asking "What does this do? What's it called? How does it make the lights and sounds?" and so on. Three other Chirper kids are saying things like, "My turn, my turn. Me next! I haven't had a turn!" They act like every species of children Jon's ever seen. Looking up, Jon notes random flickers of light flashing across the sky as the polarising force fields begin to recover from the disruption caused by the crashing Romulan ship.

Behind Jon, the door to the Thames's airlock whispers open, revealing Tony and Talja pulling on their outer tunics over their shirts, their faces bright red. Tony yells at Jon, "Hey Clare, why didn't you warn us we had company, you son of a bitch?" Talja shushes him, saying "Liebling, it was going to come out anyway. There's no hiding from the grapevine."

In reply to Relic GM (msg # 136):

Jon stares at Tony Talja for a long moment, and then burst into laughter.

"Grapevine? Yelling it from orbit, more like it!" Jon laughs again. "And why not? You two do make a very cute couple!"

Jon turns to the Chirpers surrounding him. "Here, let me help you with that," he says as he takes the tricorder, puts into into tutorial mode [OOC: I presume all tricorders have a tutorial mode for training purposes] and hands it back. "This is a tricorder. It can answer a lot of your questions all by itself!" Jon, being the youngest child in his family, has never had any younger siblings. He is finding interacting with the Chirpers surprisingly enjoyable.

The tricorder does indeed have a tutorial mode, but your're dealing with a juvenile from a pre-literate non-technological society where the sagest adults are only as intelligent as a young humanoid teenager. Still, the tutorials are enough to allow the little Chirper to produce relatively complex patterns of light and sound. It also discovers how to activate the video screen which entertains it to no end. Seeing this, Billy comes over. He remembers an old Earth toy for children from his studies into juvenile psychology, called a Simon, which seems to be just the ticket.


He uses the Thames's replicators to produce a couple dozen of the units and distributes them to the young Chirpers to great effect. The two of you have developed a following among the juveniles.

[OOC: Continued in the thread "The Chirpers"]