In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 23):

"Sure, man."  And I help them as I can with duplicating my armor.  Although I'm not sure I'm not just giving it to the Borg in a round about way.

The armor is the only reason they've not thrown you out an airlock so......

So you tell them that you need a blacksmithing forge and iron with which to work. Commander Tucker says that the forge should be relatively easy to Jerry-rig. The iron might be a bit more problematic. Then someone points out that the bed frames are made from iron. So they bring you bed frames from unused rooms.

Once you're all set up, you begin blacksmithing. The HUD on your helmet indicates a minute power drain every time your hammer strikes the metal. Eventually someone notices the strange language and calls in Ensign Hoshi Sato. She's the ship's communications officer and has a superhuman ability with languages. She manages to translate most of it. You find out the armor has a few more features you were not aware of. For one thing, the helmet would have let you breathe in deep space. So, thrown out an airlock...... not good.

But as you're blacksmithing, it's almost like the gauntlet is guiding your hammer. It's almost like the armor is doing the work and taking you along for the ride.

They're heading back to earth so that they can have the scientists there examine it. But you work. You're given a crew quarters under guard. You're not allowed to roam the ship freely. You're always accompanied by someone. Usually a MACO or Starfleet security guard.

But after a week, you've completed a duplicate helmet, breastplate, boots, gauntlet etc. You charge them in the sickbay imaging chamber. Lieutenant Reed tries on the gauntlet you've made. It conforms in size to fit his arm perfectly. After some instructions from Hoshi about the language, he proceeds to accidentally blast a hole in the sickbay wall with the gauntlet weapon.

He's in awe and amazement. He says "Yeah, I definitely want one of these."

Then he gets a reprimand from Archer.

But after just over a week, you've made one complete suit and are starting on a second gauntlet. Archer asks if you can make it left-handed so they have a model for both. In the Giants time, nobody was left-handed, but in this time, about 10% of the population is. You're also getting requests to make personal armor pieces for different people. Lieutenant Reed of course offers you a substantial sum of Starfleet credits, good anywhere on earth if you make him a gauntlet. Hoshi Sato has tried on the helmet you made, and has found that with some finagling can make it translate any written language into the Giant language. Makes translating the Giant language much easier. But all of the armor you made has counters and displays in the Giant language and there doesn't seem to be any way you can change that.

Crewman Redshirt was tasked with testing the boots. He immediately slams the heels together and is propelled into the ceiling at over 100 MPH. It's going to take maintenance a few days to clean up the mess.

Captain Archer comments "The Redshirts. That family cannot survive past their 30s......"

So, you're back to earth. The armor you made is going to be given to Starfleet Intelligence (Oxymoron if I ever heard one.) You are free to stay on earth or to stay onboard Enterprise.

(Doing Therapy)
This message was last edited by the player at 15:47, Wed 28 Nov 2018.

I shake my head at the way these people act.  And I avoid talking to them as much as possible.

I'll go to Earth, and look for accomodations.  After that, I need to look for some sort of ship, even if its not warp capable.  Worst case scenario, I'll build a hull myself.

So are you making armor for anyone? I mean, if you're going to earth you might need those Starfleet credits.



You are going to be given accommodations at Starfleet Academy. That's where your armor is being shipped to. The best scientific minds on the planet are there. Plenty of Vulcans. They are of course going to keep tabs on you. Good luck running away.

The dorm is like a small apartment. You've got a room to yourself, but you can request to have a roommate if you desire. Most of them do. It's unisex. Boys and girls living on the same floor but not in the same room. The dorm overseer is a tough old broad nicknamed "Admiral" Janeway. She's not officially in Starfleet but she don't take no nothing off of nobody.

The cafeteria where you will eat most of your meals is run by an affable black man named Benjamin Sisko. His food is considered by many to be superior to most of the restaurants in the area. And he's just working with the scraps he's given.

You're free to roam the campus, although you get the feeling sometimes if you turn real quick you'll see a Starfleet security guard always tailing you. These guys are really good though so you're never quite sure of it.

Unfortunately there are no ships available for you. You could maybe sign on as a crewman on a freight hauler but commanding one is not in the cards. Also, there's nowhere to blacksmith. But you are of course welcome and encouraged to visit the science lab where they're testing your armor. See if you can give them any advice or suggestions.

Whether or not you go to the lab, after a week or two, you will overhear a senior engineering student talking to his girlfriend.

"They're developing this new ablative hull armor for ships. One of the academy instructors was saying that energy weapons like phase cannons and Vulcan disruptors actually make it stronger. It's really top secret stuff. I shouldn't even be telling you about it."

They don't see you.

(Doing Therapy)

In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 27):

I'll make the armor for the credits.  Once I get to Earth, I see about trying to rent a disused warehouse.  And I need metal from a junkyard.

And although its a tad annoying, I can't really blame Starfleet for keeping an eye on me.  So, I don't try to hide anything.  I aim to build a warship because these morons don't know what they are doing.

GE 19

You could do that, but it's going to take a while. There's paperwork and red tape and all kinds of problems. Six months if you're lucky.

On the positive side, you're not going to spend any of the credits on anything just to live.



After about a month or so, you are called into the science lab. They want to unveil their new starship design for you.

It's a single person fighter. Top speed warp 5.2. The hull has the capability to change shape to adapt to whatever environment they're in. Long and pointy for atmospheric conditions, short and round for whatever reason. They've managed to install an amped up version of your chest blaster as the primary weapon. The pilot sits at a console and wears a helmet like the one you've made and the ship is more or less thought controlled. They've found a way to tap into the human mind. The ship reacts to human thought. They're calling it a Trimaxian Droneship. (Bonus points if you can tell me where that came from.)

The metal absorbs light energy like a sponge. So taking phaser fire only recharges the power systems.

One of the engineers asks "What do you think?"



Does Tadeusz know how to build a warp reactor? Does he have any idea how difficult and dangerous antimatter is? Because if not, I'd say he's the one who doesn't know what he's doing.......

I'm going to work on that issue in my classes.

I look at their design.

"I think this is an excellent sentry ship to post in each of the star systems near Earth.  Give it longer term duration such as a better air converter unit, and a game suite to keep the pilot sentryman from going mad with boredom, and you could block the major passages to Earth.  After that, you need to build a Deep Space Mod, call it V. 2 for hanging out in interstellar space a few lightyears from nowwhere in a sphere around Earth's System.  Once you get that, then build another layer.  Once you have the whole 20 lightyear sphere around Earth wired for ...." I almost say 'sound' but these folk won't understand that idiom.  "senses, then you can think about building bases and going back to the original design to serve as Quick Reaction Fighter Forces to hold off the Cubes until the heavy ships arrive.  Need some planetary cannons as well at that point...."

"You cannot just rely on stumbling on to them.  And you do not want to let them even get within a couple lightyears of Earth.  Now, I have not been read in on how efffective any deep space sensors are, but I suspect even if you have them they can be spoofed."

"Meanwhile guys, good work.  I'm going to be going back to building a heavy armored ship to chase down and board and capture the Borg cubes."

They listen to your suggestions and promise to take them under advisement.

When you say that though, the chief engineer's eyes perk up.

"Sir, you are most correct. That is exactly what we need. The Trimaxian Droneship is not intended for long-term deployment. It's a short-range, short term attack vessel the size of a shuttle pod. What we need now is..... An aircraft carrier."

They want to know your thoughts on that.

(Doing Therapy)

Two Posts



What classes? You're not taking any classes. You're just living in the dorm. If you want to enroll in Starfleet Academy, you're going to have to wait until the beginning of the semester like every other student.

(Doing Therapy)
This message was last edited by the player at 11:39, Fri 14 Dec 2018.

Three Posts

The engine in the Trimaxian Droneship is a smaller, slightly improved version of the one which powers Enterprise. The metal's power just powers the onboard instruments and displays. As you know, the metal can make its own displays. It's also the only kind of power source that the chest blaster or any of the other instruments will accept. It seems they can only make short-range fighters from this metal, because once the metal loses it's charge, the ship is dead in the water, regardless of the fuel in the engine.

So far that's the best they've managed to do with it. Short-range, short-term attack fighters. But it should show the Borg a thing or two.....

You've heard rumors that Enterprise is planning to return to upgrade their shuttlepods with the attack fighters.

(Doing Therapy)

Four Posts

OOC) Tell me how many posts you saw.

The Trimaxian Droneship isn't just thought controlled. It's got a pair of gauntlets for the pilot to wear. It responds to movements of fingers.

Pilot training is extensive. It's not the kind of thing any average shuttlepod jockey can pick up. Vulcans of course have limited telepathic abilities so they can control it much easier.

You're practiced at wearing the gauntlet and the helmet, would you like to try the simulator?

The stamping machine that makes this looks like all they did was put the armor you made onto a robot body. It's a bipedal robot, humanoid in shape, but not appearance. But it makes the metal.

(Doing Therapy)
This message was last edited by the player at 09:19, Mon 17 Dec 2018.

Four posts.

"Maybe a space carrier sir, but first we have to find them.  We need sentries.  And then a wall.  And then hunters.  In that order.  Finding and destroying one cube wh ile others slip around you and devastate Earth is not a sound plan."

I will see if there is a library I can learn from.

They promise to take your suggestions under advisement.



As far as learning in the library, what specifically are you trying to learn? Subjects like history and literature you can comprehend just fine. However, once you start looking at math and science, it seems your high school diploma would be equivalent to a sixth grade elementary school student here. You are something of a low-grade halfwit in those areas. It's beyond your comprehension.

OOC) Nothing personal there. But I mean, you don't really think you could currently comprehend the math to calculating a stable warp field, or to plot a safe trajectory across millions and millions of miles of open space, do you?

(Doing Therapy)

I go to seventh grade math then.

And no offense, its a reasonable point.

So you do that. After a few hours of barely comprehensible reading, a small group of girls about 13 or 14 years old notice what you're reading and sit down with you. Apparently they think you are a teacher at the academy and they start asking you for help. When it becomes clear that you don't know what you're talking about, they ask if they can help you. Do you let them?

One day, the campus is buzzing. Enterprise has returned to earth with news of the Borg incursion. The Borg are advancing much more quickly than anticipated. Archer wants to see you about the armor tech. Find out if there's anything more you can tell them.

You can rejoin the Enterprise crew if you so desire.

(Doing Therapy)

In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 38):

I'll accept their help.  I'll offer any available advice about the armor.  I'll refuse to go anywhere with those freaks from the Enterprise.

The girls are typical teenagers. Half the time they're talking about boys or the new band that just formed on campus. But you learn. They agree to meet you here every day at this time.

What they're currently working on with the armor is a way to deploy it around a standard starship hull. (See the last episode of Voyager to see what I'm talking about.) The armor absorbs scans so scanning the ship would be much more difficult.

Archer accepts that you don't want to help. He's wearing a gauntlet by this time. You've in fact seen a number of high-ups wearing pieces of the armor. Security guys mostly. It's still restricted tech.

You have put in a requisition for a warehouse to work in. You were told six months due to red tape. The red tape is finally cut. You're given access to an abandoned warehouse full of out of date components. You could probably build a warp 2 engine out of what's in here. It costs nearly all of your Starfleet credits.

(Doing Therapy)

I'm amused at how the nature of people does not change over the centuries.

Archer accepts that?  Good.  Cause he wasn't going to get it.

Start working.

One of the girls seems to take a special shine to you. Her name is Carly Rae. She's 14. It gets rather annoying, until you find out she was just buttering you up in the hope that you would buy her and her friends some synthehol for a party she's going to. You just about break her heart when you refuse.



They don't need you for the armor any longer. Why would he need your help?



On what? You can build the hull yourself, but as far as assembling the engine, you're still a low grade halfwit. It's gonna take you 10 years of school at the academy to even have a chance at that. And you gotta get the dilithium and the antimatter. Unless you can get somebody else to put it together. Good thing you're at a school with hundreds of people studying to do just that.....

(Doing Therapy)
This message was last edited by the player at 09:34, Sat 29 Dec 2018.

In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 42):

I laugh to myself remembering two very cute girls in a CVS store ages ago in another universe...And then I look at her coldly.

"Carly, you don't have enough problems to need beer." And I walk away leaving her behind forever.

I put up a note on the local equivalent of a bulletin board stating that I have a project I'm working on, and I'm looking for help.  I'm completely open as to what my plans are.  I point out what I think are th eflaws in the current defense system and how my set up will fix things.  Then I ask for helpers, preferably big guys who know t heir stuff, and can handle a heavy battle axe, sledge, or iron rod.

OOC) Yeah, I know how much you just love Carly Rae so you're gonna run into her on a lot of worlds. :)



As you're walking away, she starts waving her hands around and chanting in a strange language. Then she gives you the evil eye and says "The curse of the white girl from town is on you now!!!!!" Then she walks away in a huff.



You can do that. It's kind of like a Craigslist.com kind of website that can be seen by anyone searching.



And what are those plans?



What are the flaws? How will your plan fix things?



A couple of Nausicaans show up. When they find out you don't even have the ship together, you have to convince them not to cut you limb from limb. But you manage that.

Some engineering students show up. They ask if this is worth school credit. When you tell them it's not, they walk away in a huff.

And Magehammer shows up. Yeah, your old buddy the verser. He's gotten amazingly proficient at blocking his scriff sense, so you did not feel him coming. He recognizes you from the two times you've met him. He's happy to see you, tries to give you a man hug. Then he says "You trying to put together a warp drive? Yeah, those are always fun. I can help you."

Or he'll take off and you'll never see him again in this universe. Depends on whether or not you want his help. But so far, he's the only one willing to help you put it together.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:03, Tue 01 Jan 2019.

In reply to JohnA1nut (msg # 44):

Plans: Build a heavy armored ship, use it to board and capture Borg ships, with an armored boarding crew.

Problems: Random running around warp drive ships that leave huge holes in their coverage, and lack the power to seriously deal with the intruders if they are 'lucky' enough to run into them leaves all of Earth and its allies vulnerable.

I bite my lip, and then I nod.

"Sure, Magehammer, I do need help with a warp drive.  These idiots are going to get themselves assimilated by the Borg if I don't do something."

Sounds like a plan. Implementing it might be difficult. But we'll get there.



It's just the fledgling Starfleet. They're not completely organized yet.



"No shame in needing help."



At this he kind of laughs. "That's just funny. I could destroy the entire Borg collective right now. But what fun would that be? More fun to watch the indigs deal with it. One little tip though. If you're ever face to face with a drone, and you don't have any weapons, just start tearing out wires. One of them connects to the central processing unit and will shut that guy down. You just gotta get lucky and find the right wire."

A pause.

"I would assume you want to actually put this thing together with your hands, yes? I mean, I could magic it together, but you'd learn nothing from that."

So he only uses magic to fix worn out parts. You're now working with the equivalent of brand new parts right off the assembly line, instead of old, worn out parts. He determines that there's enough parts in here to build at least three, maybe four warp engines.

So you sit down with him. It's a lot of "insert tab A into slot B" kind of work. But you make progress. He lets you do most of the work, except where it requires a more experienced hand.

1@2 assemble warp engine from spare parts.

OOC) You commented once that I made his Order/Chaos magic too simple from what is in the books. I figured after a while, linking Order and Chaos would become second nature. Like knitting a sweater. He'd go beyond the original expectations/intentions of the creator of that magic and do things that the original author never imagined.

(Doing Therapy)

I can feel my mind stretching as I struggle to learn.  And my body too as I have to figure out how to hook these huge elements together.  But its a good type of pain.

As it starts to work, I find myself grinning occasionally before diving back into the hard work.

OOC: Good point.

Magehammer of course has been studying your armor tech. He wants you to build him a suit of armor so that he can help you build the ship's hull.

"Isis iron huh? Now that's something I've never heard of."

But you work on the engines. You finally hear a report of an engagement between the Borg and a Trimaxian Droneship. Enterprise ran into a cube and sent the two shuttles. It was a success. The cube was destroyed with minimal damage to the Droneships.

A couple more engineering students show up asking if this is for school credit. You tell them no. As they're leaving, Magehammer reaches up to the elbow into a four inch pouch on his toolbelt and pulls out a couple of five pound gold bricks.

"How about this instead of school credit?"

So now you've got a couple of engineering students to help you assemble the engine.

Work is progressing. Shouldn't be more than another couple weeks before this bird is ready to fly.

(Doing Therapy)