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.